He had set out armed with a pitchfork, because his fellow villagers had done so; but he could not have explained what had thus set him adrift on the high roads.

Since he had been made a prisoner he understood it still less.

He had some vague idea that he was being conveyed home.

His amazement at finding himself bound, the sight of all the people staring at him, stupefied him still more.

As he only spoke and understood the dialect of the region, he could not imagine what the gendarme wanted.