Hem! no,« answered the Provost; »the barber only contrives mischief, which
he leaves other men to execute; and for the Scot, he keeps the door when the
deed is a-doing, which he hath not spirit or quickness sufficient to partake in
more actively - every one to his trade.«
    With infinite dexterity, and even a sort of professional delight, which
sweetened the sense of their own precarious situation, the worthy executioners
of the Provost's mandates adapted their rope and pulley for putting in force the
sentence which had been uttered against Galeotti by the captive Monarch -
seeming to rejoice that that last action was to be one so consistent with their
past life. Tristan l'Hermite58 sat eyeing their proceedings with a species of
satisfaction; while Oliver paid no attention to them whatever; and Ludovic
Lesly, if, awaked by the bustle, he looked upon them at all, considered them as
engaged in matters entirely unconnected with his own duty, and for which he was
not to be regarded as responsible in one way or other.
 

                              Chapter Twenty-Ninth

                                 Recrimination.

 Thy time is not yet out - the devil thou servest
 Has not as yet deserted thee. He aids
 The friends who drudge for him, as the blind man
 Was aided by the guide, who lent his shoulder
 O'er rough and smooth, until he reached the brink
 Of the fell precipice - then hurl'd him downward.
                                                                       Old Play.
 
When obeying the command, or rather the request of Louis, - for he was in
circumstances in which, though a Monarch, he could only request Le Glorieux to
go in search of Martius Galeotti, - the jester had no trouble in executing his
commission, betaking himself at once to the best tavern in Peronne, of which he
himself was rather more than an occasional frequenter, being a great admirer of
that species of liquor which reduced all other men's brains to a level with his
own.
    He found, or rather observed, the Astrologer in the corner of the public
drinking-room - stove, as it is called in German and Flemish, from its principal
furniture - sitting in close colloquy with a female in a singular, and something
like a Moorish or Asiatic garb, who, as Le Glorieux approached Martius, rose as
in the act to depart.
    »These,« said the stranger, »are news upon which you may rely with absolute
certainty;« and with that disappeared among the crowd of guests who sat grouped
at different tables in the apartment.
    »Cousin Philosopher,« said the jester, presenting himself, »Heaven
