There was now, happily for them, more light; it had long since ceased to snow, and the stars came out brightly.
"See," said Pierre, "the moon is rising; we shall have it quite light soon."
"Would it had risen earlier," croaked Ralph.
The dogs, their noses to the ground, went on bravely, winding in and out between quagmire and rotting herbage. Had the light been brighter, our Normans would have perceived the impressions of numerous footmarks of men on the path they were taking--the dogs were at last on the scent they had sought all day, whether for weal or for woe.
At length the path suddenly ascended a bank, and the light through the tree tops showed that they were approaching a clearing.
They ascended cautiously, and from the summit of the short ascent looked out upon an elevated tableland in the midst of the morass. Before them, encircled by a little brook, which shortly afterwards swelled the waters of the morass, stood a large rustic dwelling, overgrown with ivy; and not far distant rose many houses or huts--in fact, to their no small amazement, they beheld a village, and one, too, that no individual amongst them had ever seen or heard of before.
"'Tis the very nest of vipers we have sought all day," said Etienne.
"And have found to our undoing," lamented Ralph.
"See, there is light behind that shutter, I will creep up and look in," said Etienne; "rest you all here."
There was no glass in common use in those days, and, save when horn was employed, people--the poor at least--had to choose, even in the daytime, between darkness and warmth; for when they let in the light, they let in the weather.