In vain the trembling officials sought to clinch their arguments by stating, that not alone did the conclave consist of the chief members of the university, the senior doctors of theology, medicine, and law, the professors of the humanities, rhetoric, and philosophy, and all the various other dignitaries; but that the debate was honored by the presence of Monsieur Christophe de Thou, first president of Parliament; by that of the learned Jacques Augustin, of the same name; by one of the secretaries of state and Governor of Paris, M. Rene de Villequier; by the ambassadors of Elizabeth, Queen of England, and of Philip the Second, King of Spain, and several of their suite; by Abbe de Brantome; by M. Miron, the court physician; by Cosmo Ruggieri, the Queen Mother’s astrologer; by the renowned poets and masque writers, Maitres Ronsard, Baif, and Philippe Desportes; by the well-known advocate of Parliament, Messire Etienne Pasquier:  but also (and here came the gravamen of the objection to their admission) by the two especial favorites of his Majesty and leaders of affairs, the seigneurs of Joyeuse and D’Epernon.

It was in vain the students were informed that for the preservation of strict decorum, they had been commanded by the rector to make fast the gates.  No excuses would avail them.  The scholars were cogent reasoners, and a show of staves soon brought their opponents to a nonplus.  In this line of argument they were perfectly aware of their ability to prove a major.

“To the wall with them—­to the wall!” cried a hundred infuriated voices.  “Down with the halberdiers—­down with the gates—­down with the disputants—­down with the rector himself!—­Deny our privileges!  To the wall with old Adrien d’Amboise—­exclude the disciples of the university from their own halls!—­curry favor with the court minions!—­hold a public controversy in private!—­down with him!  We will issue a mandamus for a new election on the spot!”

Whereupon a deep groan resounded throughout the crowd.  It was succeeded by a volley of fresh execrations against the rector, and an angry demonstration of bludgeons, accompanied by a brisk shower of peas from the sarbacanes.

The officials turned pale, and calculated the chance of a broken neck in reversion, with that of a broken crown in immediate possession.  The former being at least contingent, appeared the milder alternative, and they might have been inclined to adopt it had not a further obstacle stood in their way.  The gate was barred withinside, and the vergers and bedels who had the custody of the door, though alarmed at the tumult without, positively refused to unfasten it.