The Return of Martin Guerre

In this chapter, Davis introduces Arnaud du Tilh, also known as Pansette, a man from Lombez, which was a diocese about “a good day’s ride” (35) from Artigat. His country, and specifically his father’s village of Sajas, was “‘rich in grains’” (35), but controlled by the seignior, who “tried to limit the inhabitants’ rights to have a tavern and a butchershop” (35-36).

Arnaud’s family “stood among the middle ranks of the peasants, with enough fields and vineyards so that when Arnaud Guilhem died and divided his property equally among his sons (the practice in Sajas and le Pin as it was in Artigat), there would be a little land for Arnaud” (36). Arnaud was a character, known throughout his village, and perhaps even further afield, as clever and full of potential: “So clever was Pansette that he began to be suspected of magic” (37). Arnaud’s reputation as a “‘dissolute,’ a youth of ‘bad life,’ ‘absorbed in every vice’” (37) led to his nickname, Pansette, which meant “the belly,” a reflection of his hedonistic lifestyle. Arnaud “was as much at odds with family and peasant property as was Martin Guerre in Artigat” (37), so after a brief career as a petty thief, he ran away and became a soldier for Henri II.