Cast aside that crutch and draw; draw, man, or, sangdieu, I'll run you through as you stand!" There was a commotion below.

The landlord and a posse of his satellites--waiters, ostlers, and stableboys--rushed between them, and sought to restrain the bloodthirsty Marsac.

But he shook them off as a bull shakes off a pack of dogs, and like an angry bull, too, did he stand his ground and bellow.

In a moment his sweeping sword had cleared a circle about him.

In its lightning dartings hither and thither at random, it had stung a waiter in the calf, and when the fellow saw the blood staining his hose, he added to the general din his shrieks that he was murdered.