that famous association known by the name of the "Bande Noire," which,
as we have already said, took its rise from a suggestion made by
Sauviat himself.

Sauviat was a fat little man with a weary face, endowed by Nature with
a look of honesty which attracted customers and facilitated the sale
of goods. His straightforward assertions, and the perfect indifference
of his tone and manner, increased this impression. In person, his
naturally ruddy complexion was hardly perceptible under the black
metallic dust which powdered his curly black hair and the seams of a
face pitted with the small-pox. His forehead was not without dignity;
in fact, it resembled the well-known brow given by all painters to
Saint Peter, the man of the people, the roughest, but withal the
shrewdest, of the apostles. His hands were those of an indefatigable
worker,--large, thick, square, and wrinkled with deep furrows. His
chest was of seemingly indestructible muscularity. He never
relinquished his peddler's costume,--thick, hobnailed shoes; blue
stockings knit by his wife and hidden by leather gaiters; bottle-green
velveteen trousers; a checked waistcoat, from which depended the brass
key of his silver watch by an iron chain which long usage had polished
till it shone like steel; a jacket with short tails, also of
velveteen, like that of the trousers; and around his neck a printed
cotton cravat much frayed by the rubbing of his beard.

On Sundays and fete-days Sauviat wore a frock-coat of maroon cloth, so
well taken care of that two new ones were all he bought in twenty
years. The living of galley-slaves would be thought sumptuous in
comparison with that of the Sauviats, who never ate meat except on the
great festivals of the Church. Before paying out the money absolutely
needed for their daily subsistence, Madame Sauviat would feel in the