Page:The Works of Honoré de Balzac Volume 29.djvu/35

Rh the vigorous green growth that makes it a rival of the neighboring land of Brittany, the country which bears the same name in common with it. A few cattle gave life to the scene, that was already full of dramatic interest. The birds were singing, giving to the breezes in the valley a soft low vibration of music.

If the attentive imagination will discern to the utmost the splendid effects of the lights and shadows, the misty outlines of the hills, the unexpected distant views afforded in places where there was a gap among the trees, a broad stretch of water, or the coy, swiftly-winding courses of streams; if memory fills in, so to speak, these outlines, brief as the moment that they represent: then those for whom these pictures possess a certain worth will form a dim idea of the enchanting scene that came as a surprise to the yet impressionable minds of the young officers.

They thought that these poor creatures were leaving their own country and their beloved customs in sadness, in order to die, perhaps, on foreign soil, and instinctively forgave them for a reluctance which they well understood. Then with a kindness of heart natural to soldiers, they disguised their complaisance under the appearance of a wish to study the lovely landscape from a military point of view. But Hulot, for the commandant must be called by his name, to avoid his scarcely euphonious title of chief of demi-brigade, was not the kind of soldier who is smitten with the charms of scenery at a time when danger is at hand, even if the Garden of Eden were to lie before him. He shook his head disapprovingly, and his thick black eyebrows were contracted, giving a very stern expression to his face.

"Why the devil don't they come along?" he asked for the second time, in a voice that had grown hoarse with many a hard campaign. "Is there some Holy Virgin or other in the village whose hand they want to squeeze?"

"You want to know why?" a voice replied.

The sounds seemed to come from one of the horns with which herdsmen in these dales call their cattle together.