"Of course," said the brenn laughing louder, "they must also drink—and what else?"
"A thousand heads of beef."
"And, of course, the fattest—What else?"
"Five thousand sheep."
"That's right. One soon gets tired of beef only. Is that all, my boy?"
"They also demanded three hundred horses to furnish new equipages to the Roman cavalry, besides two hundred wagons of forage."
"And why not? The poor horses must be fed," continued Joel sneeringly. "But there must be some more orders. If they begin to issue orders, why stop at all?"
"The provisions were to be taken in wagons as far as Poitou and Touraine."
"And what is the wide maw that is to swallow up those bags of wheat, those muttons, those heads of beef and those barrels of hydromel?"
"Above all," added the traveler, "who is to pay for all those provisions?"