merriment, which ordinarily makes preconcerted joy so dull an amusement.
The chosen orator of the day had exhibited his eloquence, in a sort of
prosaic monody in praise of the dead hero, and had sufficiently manifested
his loyalty, by laying the glory, not only of that sacrifice, but all that
had been reaped by so many thousands of his brave companions also, most
humbly at the foot of the throne.

Content with these demonstrations of their allegiance the inhabitants
began to retire to their dwellings as the sun settled towards those
immense regions which then lay an endless and unexplored wilderness but
which now are teeming with the fruits and enjoyments of civilized life.
The countrymen from the environs, and even from the adjoining main were
beginning to turn their faces towards their distant homes, with that
frugal care which still distinguishes the inhabitants of the country even
in the midst of their greatest abandonment to pleasures, in order that the
approaching evening might not lead them into expenditures which were not
deemed germain to the proper feelings of the occasion. In short, the
excess of the hour was past, and each individual was returning into the
sober channels of his ordinary avocations, with an earnestness and
discretion which proved he was not altogether unmindful of the time that
had been squandered in the display of a spirit that he already appeared
half disposed to consider a little supererogatory.

The sounds of the hammer, the axe, and the saw were again heard in the
place; the windows of more than one shop were half opened, as if its owner
had made a sort of compromise between his interests and his conscience;
and the masters of the only three inns in the town were to be seen
standing before their doors, regarding the retiring countrymen with eyes
that plainly betrayed they were seeking customers among a people who were
always much more ready to sell than to buy. A few noisy and thoughtless