“Do you mean to say that they put you in prison for doing nothing wrong?” “I know the people who do the wrong things, but I should do myself harm if I blabbed.” “You herd, then, with vagabonds and evil-doers?” “You are trying to make me peach. Do you know Judge Roquincourt?” “I know him a little. He’s rather stern, isn’t he?” “Judge Roquincourt, he is a good talker. I never heard anyone speak so well and so quickly. A body hasn’t time to understand him. A body can’t answer. There isn’t anybody who speaks one half as well.” “He kept you in solitary confinement for long months and yet you bear him no grudge. What a humble example of mercy and long-suffering.” Pied d’Alouette resumed the polishing of his knife-handle. As the work progressed, he became quieter and seemed to recover his peace of mind. Suddenly he demanded: “Do you know a man called Corbon?” “Who is he, this Corbon?” It was too difficult to explain. Pied d’Alouette waved his arm in a vague semicircle that covered a quarter of the horizon. Yet his mind was busy with the man he had just mentioned, for again he repeated: “Corbon.” “Pied d’Alouette,” said M. Bergeret, “they say you are a queer sort of vagabond and that, even when you are in absolute want, you never steal anything. Yet you live with evil-doers and you are the friend of murderers.” Pied d’Alouette answered: “There are some who think one thing and others who think another. But if I myself thought of doing wrong, I should dig a hole under a tree on Duroc Hill and bury my knife at the bottom of the hole. Then I should pound down the earth on top of it with my feet. For when people have the notion of doing wrong, it’s the knife that leads them on. It’s also pride which leads them on. As for me, I lost my pride when I was a lad, for men, women and children in my own parts all made fun of me.” “And have you never had wicked, violent thoughts?” “Sometimes, when I came upon women alone on the roads, for the fancy I had for them. But that’s all over now.” “And that fancy never comes back to you?” “Time and again it does.” “Pied d’Alouette, you love liberty and you are free. You live without toil. I call you a happy man.” “There are some happy folks. But not me.” “Where are these happy folks, then?” “At the farms.” M. Bergeret rose and slipping a ten-sou piece into Pied d’Alouette’s hand, said: “So you fancy, Pied d’Alouette, that happiness is to be found under a roof, by the chimney-corner, or on a feather-bed. I thought you had more sense.” IV