"There will be a meeting at midnight in the butchers' hall, and I cannot
take you in with me, but I will tell you what happens."
"That will do as well as if I went myself," Guy said, "though in truth I
should like well to see one of these councils."
"No one is admitted save those known to be, like myself, thoroughly
devoted to the cause."
"That I can well understand, Simon; a traitor might mar all their plans."
"Some time I may take you," Simon said, "for doubtless I could smuggle you
in; but to-night--" and he hesitated, "to-night it will be specially
important, and they have to be more particular than usual as to who are
admitted."
Guy noticed the hesitation, and replied carelessly that one occasion would
be as good as another for him, and presently lay down in his corner. He
wondered to himself what the business could be that his companion was
evidently anxious that he should hear nothing of. He might wish that he
should alone have the merit of reporting it, or it might be something that
it was deemed the Duke of Burgundy himself, the butchers' friend and ally,
would not approve of. At any rate he was determined, if possible, to find
it all out; he therefore feigned sleep. At eleven o'clock Simon got up and
went down; Guy waited for two or three minutes and then rose and followed.
As soon as he was out of the door he made direct for the hall of the
butchers' guild. He knew that Simon was not going straight there, as the
meeting was not, he said, for an hour, and that he would be stopping to
drink at some cabaret with his associates.
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