"Very good. What were you doing on the road to Légé, in the middle of the forest of Touvois at this time of night?" "I might answer that I am not obliged to give an account of my actions to you, and that the highways are open to everybody." "But you won't answer me in that way, Monsieur le baron." "Why not?" "Because, with due respect to you, it would be folly, and I believe you have too much sense to commit it." "Very good; I won't discuss the point. I was going to my farm of Banl[oe]uvre, which, as you know, is at the farther end of the forest of Touvois, in which we now are." "Well done; that's right, Monsieur le baron. Do me the honor to answer always in that way and we shall agree. Now, how is it that the Baron de la Logerie, who has so many good horses in his stables, so many fine carriages in his coach-house, should be travelling on foot with his friend, like a simple peasant,--like us, in short?" "We had a horse, but he got away in an accident we met with, and we could not catch him." "Well done again. Now, Monsieur le baron, I hope you will be kind enough to give us some news." "I?" "Yes. What is going on over there, Monsieur le baron?" "How can things over our way interest you?" asked Michel, who not being quite sure to which party the man he was addressing belonged, hesitated as to the color he ought to give to his replies. "Go on, Monsieur le baron," resumed Maître Jacques; "never mind whether what you have to say is useful to me or not. Come, bethink yourself. Whom did you meet on the way?" Michel looked at Petit-Pierre with embarrassment. Maître Jacques intercepted the look, and calling up Trigaud-Vermin, he ordered him to stand between the two prisoners, like the Wall in "Midsummer-Night's Dream." "Well," continued Michel, "we met what everybody meets at all hours and on every road for the last three days in and about Machecoul,--we met soldiers." "Did they speak to you?" "No." "No? Do you mean to say they let you pass without a word?" "We avoided them." "Bah!" said Maître Jacques, in a doubtful tone. "Travelling on our own business it did not suit us to be mixed up in affairs that were none of ours." "Who is this young man who is with you?" Petit-Pierre hastened to answer before Michel had time to do so. "I am Monsieur le baron's servant," she said. "Then, my young friend," said Maître Jacques, replying to Petit-Pierre, "allow me to tell you that you are a very bad servant. In fact, peasant as I am, I am grieved to hear a servant answering for his master, especially when no one spoke to him." Turning to Michel, he continued, "So this lad is your servant, is he? Well, he is a pretty boy." And the lord of the burrow looked at Petit-Pierre with scrutinizing attention, while one of his men threw the light of a torch full on her face to facilitate the examination.