He shouted out this intelligence, and it made a lull; but one horrid
fellow in a fur cap sneered, 'We know better than that, Monsieur!
Away with traitors! And those who would smuggle them away!'
'Oh! show it to them!' I cried; and then I saw a face that I had
known in the hospital, and called him by name. 'Jean Marie, my good
friend, have you your knife to cut these cords and show there is
nothing inside?'
The man's honest face lighted up. 'Hein! The good tall lady who
brought me bouillons! I warrant there is no harm in her, brothers!
She's a good Frondeuse, and has nothing to do with foreign traitors.'
He ranged himself beside Clement Darpent, offering a big knife,
wherewith in a moment the bands were cut and the mattress help up to
view, with a few clothes inside.
I made my two defenders understand that they were Mademoiselle's
garments, and when this was repeated there was a general shout:
'Vive la bonne dame! Vive Mademoiselle! Vive Monsieur! Vive la
Fronde!'
Jean Marie, who had worked in a furniture shop, would have rolled up
the bed in a trice much better than before, but M. Darpent observed
that as we were not yet out of Paris is might bring us into trouble,
and, inconvenient as it was, he advised us to keep it open till we
were beyond the gates. He asked permission to accompany me to
prevent any further annoyance, and Jean Marie, to the extreme disgust
of the servants, mounted the box, to serve as an additional guard.
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