"Does Auvray lie in that direction, then?" asked Martin, pointing toward Noyon.
"Exactly so," replied Arnauld; "it is the first village out of Noyon on the road to Paris."
"On the road to Paris!" cried Martin; "well, just see, then, how a man may get turned around in the woods! I fancied that my back was turned to Noyon, whereas I was really coming back to it; that I was going toward Paris, whereas I was really getting farther away. The cursed country is entirely strange to me, as I was just telling you. So it seems that I must travel in the direction from which you came to avoid walking into the wolfs jaws."
"You are quite right, Master! I am going to Noyon; but walk with me a few steps. We shall find at the ferry over the Oise, close by, another road which will take you to Auvray more directly."
"I am very much obliged, friend Bertrand," said Martin; "to be sure, I want to be as sparing of my steps as possible, for I am very tired and very weak, having, as I was telling you, about as little sustenance in me as I well could have. You don't happen to have anything to eat about you, friend Bertrand, do you? If you have, you will have saved me twice over,—once from the English, and again from starvation, which is quite as terrible as they."
"Alas!" was Arnauld's reply, "I haven't a crumb in my haversack! But if you care for a draught of good wine, why, my calash is quite full."
In fact, Babette had taken care to fill her unfaithful swain's calash with vin de Chypre,—a very potent wine of the period; and Arnauld up to that time had indulged very sparingly, so as to retain his rather easily upset reasoning powers amid the perils of the road.
"I think I should be more than glad of a drink!" cried Martin-Guerre, enthusiastically. "A draught of wine is sure to enliven me a bit."
"Well, then, take it and drink away, my good fellow!" said Arnauld, offering him his calash.
"Thanks! And may God requite you!" said Martin, who set to work unsuspiciously to drown his sorrows in the wine, which was as treacherous as he who offered it, and whose fumes almost immediately began to work upon his brain, which was easily affected on account of his long abstinence from food.