Page:The Works of Honoré de Balzac Volume 29.djvu/25

 De Balzac.

the early days of the year VIII. at the beginning of Vendémiaire, or towards the end of the month of September 1799, reckoning by the present calendar, some hundred peasants and a fair number of townspeople who had set out from Fougères in the morning to go to Mayenne, were climbing the mountain of the Pèlerine, which lies about half-way between Fougères and Ernée, a little place where travelers are wont to break their journey. The detachment, divided up into larger and smaller groups, presented as a whole such an outlandish collection of costumes, and brought together individuals belonging to such widely different neighborhoods and callings, that it may be worth while to describe their various characteristics, and in this way impart to the narrative the lifelike coloring that is so highly valued in our day, although, according to certain critics, this is a hindrance to the portrayal of sentiments.

Some of the peasants—most of them in fact—went barefoot. Their whole clothing consisted in a large goatskin, which covered them from shoulder to knee, and breeches of very coarse white cloth, woven of uneven threads, that bore witness to the neglected state of local industries. Their