be three
malefactors. Three 'roues.' Yet of those little three one was the first
Christian saint, and another was the Saviour of the world which gibbeted
him."

Denys assured him on his honour they managed things better in Burgundy.
He added, too, after profound reflection, that the horrors Gerard had
alluded to had more than once made him curse and swear with rage when
told by the good cure in his native village at Eastertide: "but they
chanced in an outlandish nation, and near a thousand years agone. Mort
de ma vie, let us hope it is not true; or at least sore exaggerated. Do
but see how all tales gather as they roll!"

Then he reflected again, and all in a moment turned red with ire. "Do
ye not blush to play with your book-craft on your unlettered friend, and
throw dust in his eyes, evening the saints with these reptiles?"

Then suddenly he recovered his good humour. "Since your heart beats for
vermin, feel for the carrion crows! they be as good vermin as these;
would ye send them to bed supperless, poor pretty poppets? Why, these
be their larder; the pangs of hunger would gnaw them dead, but for cold
cut-purse hung up here and there."

Gerard, who had for some time maintained a dead silence, informed him
the subject was closed between them, and for ever. "There are things,"
said he, "in which our hearts seem wide as the poles asunder, and eke
our heads. But I love thee dearly all the same," he added, with infinite
grace and tenderness.

Towards afternoon they heard a faint wailing noise on ahead; it grew
distincter as they proceeded. Being fast walkers they soon came up with
its cause: a score of pikemen, accompanied by several constables, were
marching along, and in advance of them was a herd of animals they were
driving. These creatures, in number rather more than a hundred, were of
various ages, only very few were downright old: the males were downcast
and silent. It was the females from whom all the outcry came. In other
words, the animals thus driven along at the law's point were men and
women.

"Good Heaven!" cried Gerard, "what a band of them! But stay, surely all
those children cannot be thieves; why, there are some in arms. What on
earth is this, Denys?"

Denys advised him to ask that "bourgeois" with the badge; "This is
Burgundy: here a civil question ever draws a civil reply."

Gerard went up to the officer, and removing his cap, a civility which
was immediately returned, said, "For our Lady's