"The other villages of this seigniory are as deserted as this one. You will find there, Sir, neither women, nor men, nor children, nor cattle," answered the bailiff. "There are left, as you see, only the four walls of the houses. You will, therefore, find it difficult to collect here even the smallest fraction of your six thousand florins. Jacques Bonhomme is a sly fox; he had wind of your coming and has run into the earth to escape you. But, to a sly fox a sly limehound. I know the burrow of Jacques Bonhomme. Follow me, Sir." "Where to? Whither do you lead us?" "Only one league from here.... But we shall have to descend from our horses at the outskirts of the forest. You can leave there the gross of your troop. A dozen of your archers will be enough for the job I have in mind. The risk is slight." "Why would you have me descend from horseback, and leave behind the bulk of my troop?" "It will, in the first place, be impossible for us to ride on horseback over the quagmires, jungles and bogs that we shall have to cross in order to arrive at the hiding place of Jacques Bonhomme. In the second place, the fox has a sharp ear. The noise made by a large troop would give him the alarm." "Captain," suggested the Chaplain, "suppose this scamp were but leading us into an ambuscade?" "Chaplain, never did Griffith recoil before danger," was the Captain's answer; "moreover, if this bailiff with a marten's snout should deceive us, let him be forewarned. At the first suspicion of treachery we shall promptly hack him to pieces." "That's right," returned the Chaplain. "Let's march! His skin answers for our lives." "March!" ordered Captain Griffith, and guided by the bailiff, who had been rejoined by his men, the troop left the village of Cramoisy and wended its way towards a forest, the skirt of which drew its length along the horizon. CHAPTER II. THE FOX'S BURROW.