"I will be warrant for it we shall."

The thing had little of dignity in it, and I wonder now that I
complied; but I have always shared with the King, my master, a
taste for drolleries of the kind suggested; while nothing that I
had as yet heard of this Grabot was of a nature to induce me to
spare him. Seeing that La Font was tickled with the idea, and
that the servants were a-grin, and the more eager to trick others
as they had just been tricked themselves, I was tempted to
consent.

After this, the preparations took not a minute. Philibert
covered his fool's clothes with a cloak, and their table was
drawn nearer to the fire, so as, with mine, to take up the whole
hearth. La Trape fell into an attitude behind me; and the
Breton, adopting a refinement suggested at the last moment, was
sent out to intercept Grabot before he entered, and tell him that
the inn was full, and that he had better pass on.

The knave did his business so well that Grabot, being just such a
man as the stroller had described to us, the altercation on the
threshold was of itself the most amusing thing in the world.
"Who?" we heard a loud, coarse voice exclaim. "Who d'ye say are
here, man?"

"The Mayor of Bottitort."

"MILLE DIABLES!"

"The Mayor of Bottitort and the Mayors of Gol and St. Just," the