Doubtless Curtin, going to him on the chance of hearing something
of the rogue who had cheated him, had apprised the tax-collector
of the whole matter; for on seeing me in my chair of state, he
merely grinned in a vicious way, and cried to the nearest not to
let me escape. "We have lost one rogue, but we will hang the
other," he said. And while the townsfolk stood dumbfounded round
us, he slipped with a groan from his horse, and bade his two
servants seize me.
"And do you," he called to the host, "see that you help, my man!
You have harboured him, and you shall pay for it if he escapes."
With that he hopped a step nearer; and then, not dreaming of
resistance, sank with another groan--for his foot was immensely
swollen by the journey--into the chair from which I had risen.
A glance showed me that, if I would not be drawn into an unseemly
brawl, I must act; and meeting Maignan's eager eye fixed upon my
face, I nodded. In a second he seized the unsuspecting Gringuet
by the neck, snatched him up from the chair, and flung him half-
a-dozen paces away.
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