But de Gex did not leave off collecting and counting them until he had worked his way back to the west parapet. There he encountered the first man he had knocked down: a bulky fellow with a patch over one eye, who spoke to him in tolerable French. "In the name of the Auld Alliance," said he (referring to an extremely spotty but æon-spanning series of diplomatic trysts between Scotland and France) "I bid you welcome to the Tower of London. Please consider it the property of France—"