But there must be a longer
list, we must strike at our own enemies as well as at those of the duke,
and the council has therefore prepared a list of sixty names, which I will
read to you."
Then, taking out a roll of paper, he read a list of lords and gentlemen,
and also, to Guy's indignation, the names of several ladies of rank.
"These people," he said when he had finished, "are all obnoxious, and must
be cast into prison. They must be tried and condemned."
Even among the greater portion of those present the boldness of a proposal
that would array so many powerful families against them created a feeling
of doubt and hesitation. The bolder spirits, however, burst into loud
applause, and in this the others speedily joined, none liking to appear
more lukewarm than the rest. Then up rose Caboche, a big, burly man with a
coarse and brutal expression of face.
"I say we want no trials," he cried, striking one hand on the palm of the
other. "As to the number, it is well enough as a beginning, but I would it
were six hundred instead of sixty. I would that at one blow we could
destroy all the nobles, who live upon the people of France. It needs but a
good example to be set in Paris for all the great towns in France to
follow it. Still, paltry as the number is, it will, as I said, do as a
beginning. But there must be no mistake; if trials they must have, it must
be by good men and true, who will know what is necessary and do it; and
who will not stand upon legal tricks, but will take as evidence the fact
that is known to all, that those people are dangerous to Paris and are the
enemies of the king and the Duke of Burgundy.
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