Katherine spoke bravely:
"Sire, I love this man and would be proud to die for him. It may
chime with your pleasure to slay him; it cannot chime with your
honour to deny me. Your word is given and a king must keep his
word."
The king made an impatient gesture.
"We speak to men."
Villon caught at his words.
"I speak to a woman," he cried, and gazirig passionately at his
love, he called to her: "Katherine, my Katherine, death is a little
thing. For love is deathless and you give me a better thing than
life."
With unmoved voice, with unchanged face, Katherine persisted:
"Sire, I claim your promise."
Louis again denied her.
"We speak to men. Tristan, do your office."
At this moment the situation suddenly changed. Villon unexpectedly
wrenched himself free from the control of the two soldiers beside
him, whose hold had relaxed in their wonder at what was passing, and
sprang towards Katherine. His act instantly inspired the hearts and
hands of his sympathisers, and in a second he was caught up and
encircled by a crowd of armed and determined men, who drove back the
Scottish archers. Villon snatched a drawn sword from the hand of
Ren? de Montigny and held it high in the air while he shouted:
"No, by God's rood, the candle of my grace has not yet burnt to the
socket! People of Paris, shall I not speak to my lover before I die?"
The place was a raving bedlam of noise and menace.
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