Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 2, 2025
"Let half-a-dozen of your varlets dismount and guard these men," I said; "and do you, you rogue," I continued, addressing Gringuet, "answer me, and tell me the truth. How much does each of these knaves give you to cheat the King, and your master? Curtin first. How much does he give you?"
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. "Lie there," he cried, "you insolent rascal! Who told you to sit before your betters?"
Then, the crowd dividing and making way for him, I perceived that he had the real Gringuet with him Gringuet, who rode through the market with an air of grim majesty, with one foot in a huge slipper and eyes glaring with ill-temper.
"Tut, tut! you do not understand," he muttered. "Has not Gringuet told you?" "What?" I said, pretending to be a little deaf. "Has not " I shook my head. "Has not Gringuet told you?" he repeated, reddening with anger; and this time speaking, on compulsion, so loudly that the peasants could hear him. I answered him in the same tone. "Yes," I said roundly.
But the woman's statement, which, despite its wildness and her excitement, I saw no reason to doubt, had suggested to me a scheme of punishment more refined; and which might, at one and the same time, be of profit to the King's treasury and a lesson to Gringuet.
The roaring and blustering continuing upstairs, I stood a moment in sheer astonishment. "Is that M. Gringuet?" I said at last. The inn-keeper nodded sullenly, while his wife stared at me. "But what; is the matter with him?" I said. "The gout. But for that he would have been gone these two days to collect at Le Mesnil." "Ah!" I answered, beginning to understand.
"You have heard of me?" "From M. Gringuet?" I said very loudly. "Yes," he answered in a similar tone; for, aware that deaf persons cannot hear their own voices and are seldom able to judge how loudly they are speaking, I had led him to this. "And I suppose that you will do as he did?" "How?" I asked. "In what way?" He touched his pocket with a stealthy gesture, unseen by the people behind him.
"Now," I said, as I walked my horse slowly towards the house, while he tramped along beside me, "who is within?" "M. Gringuet," he said, with another stealthy gesture. "Ah!" I said, "I am afraid that I am no wiser." "The tax-gatherer." "Oh! And those are his horses?" He nodded. "Still, I do not see why they are in the corn?" "I have no hay." "But there is grass."
Word Of The Day
Others Looking