and the boy after them, running with his bare legs for dear life. For
me, I was too amazed to run in time, so lay skulking in the thick sweet-
smelling herbs, whence I saw certain men-at-arms gallop to the crest of a
cliff hard by, and ride on with curses, for they were not of strength to
take the barmkyn.

Such was the face of France in many counties. The fields lay weedy and
untilled; the starving peasant-folk took to the highway, every man
preying on his neighbour. Woods had grown up, and broken in upon the
roads. Howbeit, though robbers harboured therein, none of them held to
ransom a wandering poor Scots scholar.

Slowly I trudged, being often delayed, and I was now nearing Poictiers,
and thought myself well on my road to Chinon, where, as I heard, the
Dauphin lay, when I came to a place where the road should have crossed a
stream--not wide, but strong, smooth, and very deep. The stream ran
through a glen; and above the road I had long noted the towers of a
castle. But as I drew closer, I saw first that the walls were black with
fire and roofless, and that carrion birds were hovering over them, some
enemy having fallen upon the place: and next, behold, the bridge was
broken, and there was neither ford nor ferry! All the ruin was fresh,
the castle still smouldering, the kites flocking and yelling above the
trees, the planks of the bridge showing that the destruction was but of
yesterday.

This matter of the broken bridge cost me little thought, for I could swim
like an otter. But there was another traveller down by the stream who
seemed more nearly concerned. When I came close to him, I found him
standing up to his waist in the water, taking soundings with a long and
heavy staff. His cordelier's frock was tucked up into his belt, his long