“Poor fellow!” she murmured softly.

The waggoners, however, were getting impatient.

“Hurry up, there!” said the man kneeling amongst the turnips, in a hoarse voice.  “He’s drunk till he can hold no more, the hog!  Shove him into the gutter.”

Meantime, the man on the road had opened his eyes.  He looked at Madame Francois with a startled air, but did not move.  She herself now thought that he must indeed be drunk.

“You mustn’t stop here,” she said to him, “or you’ll get run over and killed.  Where were you going?”

“I don’t know,” replied the man in a faint voice.

Then, with an effort and an anxious expression, he added:  “I was going to Paris; I fell down, and don’t remember any more.”

Madame Francois could now see him more distinctly, and he was truly a pitiable object, with his ragged black coat and trousers, through the rents in which you could espy his scraggy limbs.  Underneath a black cloth cap, which was drawn low over his brows, as though he were afraid of being recognised, could be seen two large brown eyes, gleaming with peculiar softness in his otherwise stern and harassed countenance.  It seemed to Madame Francois that he was in far too famished a condition to have got drunk.

“And what part of Paris were you going to?” she continued.

The man did not reply immediately.  This questioning seemed to distress him.  He appeared to be thinking the matter over, but at last said hesitatingly, “Over yonder, towards the markets.”

He had now, with great difficulty, got to his feet again, and seemed anxious to resume his journey.  But Madame Francois noticed that he tottered, and clung for support to one of the shafts of her waggon.

“Are you tired?” she asked him.

“Yes, very tired,” he replied.

Then she suddenly assumed a grumpy tone, as though displeased, and, giving him a push, exclaimed:  “Look sharp, then, and climb into my cart.  You’ve made us lose a lot of time.  I’m going to the markets, and I’ll turn you out there with my vegetables.”

Then, as the man seemed inclined to refuse her offer, she pushed him up with her stout arms, and bundled him down upon the turnips and carrots.

“Come, now, don’t give us any more trouble,” she cried angrily.  “You are quite enough to provoke one, my good fellow.  Don’t I tell you that I’m going to the markets?  Sleep away up there.  I’ll wake you when we arrive.”

She herself then clambered into the cart again, and settled herself with her back against the board, grasping the reins of Balthazar, who started off drowsily, swaying his ears once more.  The other waggons followed, and the procession resumed its lazy march through the darkness, whilst the rhythmical jolting of the wheels again awoke the echoes of the sleepy house fronts, and the waggoners, wrapped in their cloaks, dozed off afresh.  The one who had called to Madame Francois growled out as he lay down:  “As if we’d nothing better to do than pick up every drunken sot we come across!  You’re a scorcher, old woman!”