December Jean Francois had been unable to make a silver penny either by his song or his sleight of hand.  Christmas was drawing near, and he was starving; and this was especially bitter to him, as it was his custom (for he was not only a lover of good cheer, but a good Catholic and a strict observer of fasts and feasts) to keep the great day of Christendom fittingly.  This year he had nothing to keep it with.  Luck seemed to be against him; for three days before Christmas he met in a dark side street of the town the rich and stingy Sieur de Ranquet.  He picked the pocket of that nobleman, but owing to the extreme cold his fingers faltered, and he was discovered.  He ran like a hare and managed easily enough to outstrip the miser, and to conceal himself in a den where he was well known.  But unfortunately the matter did not end there.  The Sieur de Ranquet was influential at Court; he was implacable as well as avaricious, and his disposition positively forbade him to forgive any one who had nearly picked his pocket.  Besides which he knew that Jean had often stolen his horses.  He made a formal complaint at high quarters, and a warrant was issued against Jean, offering a large sum in silver coin to the man who should bring him, alive or dead, to justice.

Now the police were keenly anxious to make an end of Jean.  They knew he was guilty of a hundred thefts, but such was his skill that they had never been able to convict him; he had often been put in prison, but he had always been released for want of evidence.  This time no mistake was possible.  So Jean, aware of the danger, fled from the city and sought a gipsy encampment in a neighbouring forest, where he had friends.  These gipsy friends of his were robbers, outlaws, murderers and horse-stealers all of them, and hardened criminals; they called themselves gipsies, but it was merely a courtesy title.

On Christmas Eve—­it was snowing hard—­Jean was walking through the forest towards the town, ready for a desperate venture, for in the camp they were starving, and he was sick almost to death of his hunted, miserable life.  As he plunged through the snow he heard a moan, and he saw a child sitting at the roots of a tall tree crying.  He asked what was the matter.  The child—­it was a little boy about five years old—­said that it had run away from home because its nurse had beaten it, and had lost its way.

“Where do you live?” asked Jean.

“My father is the Sieur de Ranquet,” said the child.

At that moment Jean heard the shouts of his companions in the distance.

“I want to go home,” said the little boy quietly.  “You must take me home,” and he put his hand into Jean’s hand and looked up at him and smiled.

Jean thought for a moment.  The boy was richly dressed; he had a large ruby cross hanging from a golden collar worth many hundred gold pieces.  Jean knew well what would happen if his gipsy companions came across the child.  They would kill it instantly.