traveller in foreign towns, when he is not too hurried,
while he wonders where he had better go next. The
straight, unbroken line of the roof of the cathedral
was very noble; but I could see from this point how
much finer the effect would have been if the towers,
which had dropped almost out of sight, might have
been carried still higher. The archiepiscopal gardens
look down at one end over a sort of esplanade or
suburban avenue lying on a lower level, on which they
open, and where several detachments of soldiers
(Bourges is full of soldiers) had just been drawn up.
The civil population was also collecting, and I saw
that something was going to happen. I learned that
a private of the Chasseurs was to be "broken" for
stealing, and every one was eager to behold the cere-
mony. Sundry other detachments arrived on the
ground, besides many of the military who had come
as a matter of taste. One of them described to me
the process of degradation from the ranks, and I felt
for a moment a hideous curiosity to see it, under the
influence of which I lingered a little. But only a
little; the hateful nature of the spectacle hurried me
away, at the same time that others were hurrying for-
ward. As I turned my back upon it I reflected that
human beings are cruel brutes, though I could not
flatter myself that the ferocity of the thing was ex-
clusively French. In another country the concourse
would have been equally great, and the moral of it all
seemed to be that military penalties are as terrible as
military honors are gratifying.