In the morning he sat up and put out his hand to wake Gerard. It lighted on the young man's forehead, and found it quite wet. Denys then in his quality of nurse forbore to wake him. "It is ill to check sleep or sweat in a sick man," said he. "I know that far, though I ne'er minced ape nor gallows-bird." After waiting a good hour, he felt desperately hungry: so he turned and in self-defense went to sleep again. Poor fellow, in his hard life he had been often driven to this manœuvre. At high noon he was waked by Gerard moving, and found him sitting up with the straw smoking round him like a dunghill. Animal heat versus moisture. Gerard called him "a lazy loon." He quietly grinned. They set out, and the first thing Denys did was to give Gerard his arbalest, etc., and mount a high tree on the road. "Coast clear to the next village," said he, and on they went. On drawing near the village Denys halted and suddenly inquired of Gerard how he felt. "What! can you not see? I feel as if Rome was no further than yon hamlet." "But thy body, lad; thy skin?" "Neither hot nor cold: and yesterday t'was hot one while and cold another. But what I cannot get rid of is this tiresome leg." "Le grand malheur! Many of my comrades have found no such difficulty." "Ah! there it goes again; itches consumedly." "Unhappy youth," said Denys solemnly, "the sum of thy troubles is this: thy fever is gone, and thy wound is--healing. Sith so it is," added he indulgently, "I shall tell thee a little piece of news I had otherwise withheld." "What is't?" asked Gerard sparkling with curiosity. "THE HUE AND CRY IS OUT AFTER US: AND ON FLEET HORSES." "Oh!" CHAPTER XXIX GERARD was staggered by this sudden communication; and his colour came and went. Then he clenched his teeth with ire. For men of any spirit at all are like the wild boar; he will run from a superior force; owing perhaps to his not being an ass: but if you stick to his heels too long, and too close, and, in short, bore him, he will whirl, and come tearing at a multitude of hunters, and perhaps bore you. Gerard then set his teeth and looked battle. But the next moment his countenance fell and he said plaintively, "And my axe is in Rhine." They consulted together. Prudence bade them avoid that village: hunger said "buy food." Hunger spoke loudest. Prudence most convincingly. They settled to strike across the fields. * * * * * They halted at a haystack and borrowed two bundles of hay, and lay on them in a dry ditch out of sight, but in nettles. They sallied out in turn and came back with turnips. These they munched at intervals in their retreat until sunset. Presently they crept out shivering into the rain and darkness, and got into the road on the other side of the village.