"
"But yes, it is the King's house, though his Most Christian
Majesty lives in France. The Marquis de Vaudreuil stands for the
King, and we are sentinels in the King's house. But, my faith, I'd
rather be fighting against Frederick, the Prussian boar, than
watching this mad Englishman."
"But see you, my brother, that Englishman's a devil. Else how has he
not been hanged long ago? He has vile arts to blind all, or he would
not be sitting there. It is well known that M'sieu' Doltaire, even
the King's son--his mother worked in the fields like your Nanette,
Bamboir--"
"Or your Lablanche, my friend. She has hard hands, with warts,
and red knuckles therefrom--"
"Or your Nanette, Bamboir, with nose that blisters in the summer,
as she goes swingeing flax, and swelling feet that sweat in sabots,
and chin thrust out from carrying pails upon her head--"
"Ay, like Nanette and like Lablanche, this peasant mother of M'sieu'
Doltaire, and maybe no such firm breasts like Nanette--"
"Nor such an eye as has Lablanche. Well, M'sieu' Doltaire, who
could override them all, he could not kill this barbarian. And
Gabord--you know well how they fought, and the black horse and
his rider came and carried him away.
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