Quentin cast his eye on the person whom he rode beside, and under the shadow of a slouched overspreading hat, which resembled the sombrero of a Spanish peasant, he recognised the facetious features of the same Petit Andre whose fingers, not long since, had, in concert with those of his lugubrious brother, Trois Eschelles, been so unpleasantly active about his throat .-- Impelled by aversion, not altogether unmixed with fear (for in his own country the executioner is regarded with almost superstitious horror), which his late narrow escape had not diminished, Durward instinctively moved his horse's head to the right, and pressing him at the same time with the spur, made a demi-volte, which separated him eight feet from his hateful companion.
"Ho, ho, ho, ho!" exclaimed Petit Andre, "by Our Lady of the Grave, our young soldier remembers us of old.

What! comrade, you bear no malice, I trust ?--every one wins his bread in this country.

No man need be ashamed of having come through my hands, for I will do my work with any that ever tied a living weight to a dead tree .-- And God hath given me grace to be such a merry fellow withal .-- Ha! ha! ha!--I could tell you such jests I have cracked between the foot of a ladder and the top of the gallows, that, by my halidome, I have been obliged to do my job rather hastily, for fear the fellows should die with laughing, and so shame my mystery!" As he thus spoke he edged his horse sideways to regain the interval which the Scot had left between them, saying, at the same time, "Come, Seignior Archer, let there be no unkindness betwixt us!--For my part, I always do my duty without malice, and with a light heart, and I never love a man better than when I have put my scant of wind collar about his neck, to dub him Knight of the order of Saint Patibularius [patibulum, a gibbet], as the Provost's Chaplain, the worthy Father Vaconeldiablo [possibly Baco (Bacchus) el Diablo (the Devil)], is wont to call the Patron Saint of the Provostry." "Keep back, thou wretched object!" exclaimed Quentin, as the finisher of the law again sought to approach him closer, "or I shall be tempted to teach you the distance that should be betwixt men of honour and such an outcast." "La you there, how hot you are!" said the fellow, "had you said men of honesty, there had been some savour of truth in it, but for men of honour, good lack, I have to deal with them every day, as nearly and closely as I was about to do business with you .-- But peace be with you, and keep your company to yourself.

I would have bestowed a flagon of Auvernat upon you to wash away every unkindness---but 't is like you scorn my courtesy .-- Well.

Be as churlish as you list--I never quarrel with my customers--my jerry come tumbles, my merry dancers, my little playfellows, as Jacques Butcher says to his lambs--those in fine, who, like your seigniorship, have H.E.M.