I shall show his relics now with more pride than
sorrow. Prince Pierre dines with us to-night. He looks as if he had the
Napoleonic daring,--or rashness,--but I am sure he has not the good heart
of our Valmond Napoleon. . . ."
II
The haymakers paused and leaned upon their forks, children left the
strawberry vines and climbed upon the fences, as the coach from the
distant city dashed down the street towards the four corners, and the
welcoming hotel, with its big dormer windows and well-carved veranda. As
it whirled by, the driver shouted something at a stalwart forgeron,
standing at the doorway of his smithy, and he passed it on to a loitering
mealman and a lime-burner.
A girl came slowly over the crest of a hill. Feeling her way with a
stick, she paused now and then to draw in long breaths of sweet air from
the meadows, as if in the joy of Nature she found a balm for the
cruelties of Destiny.
Presently a puff of smoke shot out from the hillside where she stood, and
the sound of an old cannon followed. From the Seigneury, far over, came
an answering report; and Tricolors ran fluttering up on flagstaffs, at
the four corners, and in the Cure's garden.
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