It would have been too long to wait until one side or the other won the
victory. The bride's party announced that they would show mercy on
condition that the others should offer her a gift worthy of her.

Thereupon, the song of the _livrées_ began, to an air as solemn as a
church chant.

The men outside sang in unison:

"Ouvrez la porte, ouvrez,
Marie, ma mignonne,
_J'ons_ de beaux cadeaux à vous présenter.
Hélas! ma mie, laissez-nous entrer."[3]

To which the women replied from the interior, in falsetto, in doleful
tones:

"Mon père est en chagrin, ma mère en grand' tristesse,
Et moi je suis fille de trop grand' merci
Pour ouvrir ma porte à _cette heure ici_."[4]

The men repeated the first stanza down to the fourth line, which they
modified thus:

"J'ons un beau mouchoir à vous présenter."[5]

But the women replied, in the name of the bride, in the same words as
before.

Through twenty stanzas, at least, the men enumerated all the gifts in