"
"Never! The defenders you chose were riff-raff, picked up in the gutters
of Frankfort, and you actually supposed such cattle, undisciplined and
untrained, would stand up against the fearless fighters of the Barons,
swashbucklers, hardened to the use of sword and pike. What else was to
be expected? The goods were not theirs, but yours. They had received
their pay, and so speedily took themselves out of danger."
"You forget, sir, or you do not know, that several hundred of them were
cut to pieces."
"I know that, also, but the knowledge does not in the least nullify my
contention. I am merely endeavoring to show you that the heads you spoke
of a moment ago were only older, but not necessarily wiser than mine. It
would be impossible for me to devise an expedition so preposterous."
"What should we have done?"
"For one thing, you should have gone yourselves, and defended your own
bales."
The merchant showed visible signs of a slowly rising anger, and had the
young man's head contained the wisdom he appeared to claim for it, he
would have known that his remarks were entirely lacking in tact, and
that he was making no progress, but rather the reverse.
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