If you would like
to see it I will be very glad to show it to you some day."
It would be too tedious to follow our travellers step by step on their
long journey, so we will skip over a few days--which passed quietly,
without any incidents worth recording--and rejoin them as they were
drawing near to the ancient town of Poitiers. In the meantime their
receipts had not been large, and hard times had come to the wandering
comedians. The money received from the Marquis de Bruyeres had all
been spent, as well as the modest sum in de Sigognac's purse-who had
contributed all that he possessed to the common fund, in spite of the
protestations of his comrades in distress. The chariot was drawn now
by a single horse-instead of the four with which they had set off
so triumphantly from the Chateau de Bruyeres--and such a horse! a
miserable, old, broken-down hack, whose ribs were so prominent that he
looked as if he lived upon barrel-hoops instead of oats and hay; his
lack-lustre eyes, drooping head, halting gait, and panting breath
combined to make him a most pitiable object, and he plodded on at a
snail's pace, looking as if he might drop down dead on the road at any
moment. Only the three women were in the chariot--the men all walking,
so as to relieve their poor, jaded beast as much as possible.
Pages:
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177