Then I will give orders to them that they are to accompany your force tomorrow, and join the count before Niort." "Here is a large map of the country you will have to traverse.

You had best take it into the next room, and study it carefully; especially the course and direction of the rivers, and the points of crossing.

It would be shorter, perhaps, if you could have gone by boat south to Arcachon and thence made your way to Nerac; but there are wide dunes to be crossed, and pine forests to be traversed, where a stranger might well die of hunger and thirst.
The people, too, are wild and savage, and look upon strangers with great suspicion; and would probably have no compunction in cutting your throat.

Moreover, the Catholics have a flotilla at the mouth of the Gironde, and there would be difficulty and danger in passing.
"You will, of course, make all speed that you can.

I shall presently see some of the council of the town and, if they tell me that a boat can take you down the coast as far as the Seudre, some ten miles north of the mouth of the Gironde, you will avoid the difficulty of crossing the Boutonne at Saint Jean d'Angely, and the Charente at Saintes or Cognac.