But No
Spring Shall Revive The Honour Of The Place.
Old women of the
people, little, children of the people, saunter and gambol in the
walled court or feed the ducks in the neglected moat.
Plough-
horses, mighty of limb, browse in the long stables. The dial-hand
on the clock waits for some better hour. Out on the plain, where
hot sweat trickles into men's eyes, and the spade goes in deep and
comes up slowly, perhaps the peasant may feel a movement of joy at
his heart when he thinks that these spacious chimneys are now cold,
which have so often blazed and flickered upon gay folk at supper,
while he and his hollow-eyed children watched through the night
with empty bellies and cold feet. And perhaps, as he raises his
head and sees the forest lying like a coast-line of low hills along
the sea-level of the plain, perhaps forest and chateau hold no
unsimilar place in his affections.
If the chateau was my lord's, the forest was my lord the king's;
neither of them for this poor Jacques. If he thought to eke out
his meagre way of life by some petty theft of wood for the fire, or
for a new roof-tree, he found himself face to face with a whole
department, from the Grand Master of the Woods and Waters, who was
a high-born lord, down to the common sergeant, who was a peasant
like himself, and wore stripes or a bandoleer by way of uniform.
For the first offence, by the Salic law, there was a fine of
fifteen sols; and should a man be taken more than once in fault, or
circumstances aggravate the colour of his guilt, he might be
whipped, branded, or hanged.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 156 of 262
Words from 41726 to 42023
of 70588
