Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 22, 2025
Jerome said that he, for his part, could dispense with civility in such a case, when he happened to know where the truth lay. He assured Randolphe that soldiers like himself were as little pleased with the state of things as any countryman. They themselves were the sons of peasants; and many had led a cottage life, and knew how to pity it. But he must say, a soldier's life was very little better.
The lively talk that was going on round the table was soon interrupted by a loud rap upon the door, made by a heavy staff, such as the Count's followers usually carried when they went on messages. Randolphe was not fond of receiving visits from the Count's people, and he now desired Robin to go to the door, and see what was wanted.
Some of their comrades in the village had wine, they knew: but nothing was said about it; for the soldiers' pockets were empty, like those of their host. It was growing dark. Randolphe made what blaze he could by throwing light wood upon the fire.
A young girl leaving her own country for ever, to be the wife of a foreign prince whom she had never seen, and could not tell whether she should like, might well be in tears, Randolphe said. Had she cheered up yet? "Yes, indeed," said Jerome, "that she has. When she saw the fine pavilion on the frontier, she was pleased enough." The boys wanted to hear about the pavilion.
The soldiers contrived to make room for the boys to sleep, thinking it quite enough that the law obliged Randolphe to flog the ponds, and his wife and daughter to toil in the shed all night, without the addition of the two half-fed lads having to lie down on the clay floor, or not at all. So each boy had a share of the crib, and a corner of the rug.
None waved their caps more vehemently, none shouted "Long live the Dauphiness!" more vigorously, as the cavalcade set forth again, than Robin and Marc. When the last horseman vanished in the dust of the road, the attention of the crowd turned upon the favoured family of Randolphe. The poor man himself had retired overpowered, and no one could tell where he was. Charles was with Marie already.
"It was there," said Jerome, "that she was to be made a French princess of. It was a very grand sort of tent, that cost more money than I can reckon." Randolphe sighed. "There were three rooms," continued Jerome; "a large one in the middle, and a smaller one at each end.
It was Charles Bertrand, a young peasant well-known in the village, who had long been the lover of Marie Randolphe, the pretty daughter of a tenant of the Count de D . When they were first engaged, everybody who knew them was glad, and said they would be a happy couple. But their affairs did not look more cheerful as time went on.
"How can you say that," said Randolphe, "when you think of the numbers of idle people that are feeding upon those who work? I hear you, wife," he said, in answer to a warning cough from his wife within. "It is no treason to say that in this land there are swarms of idle folk, living upon the toil of us who work."
"Is this an arm that can work or fight as a Frenchman's should do, when my boy is a man?" "Things may be different when that boy is a man," said the smoker, between two whiffs of his pipe. "How? Where? When? Why? Is anything going to be done for the poor?" asked Randolphe and his family, within and without doors.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking