and true grandeur; the attitude of the peasants towards the seigniors
is that of an affectionate son with his father; and the seigniors in
talking with the peasants use their rude and coarse language, and
speak only in a kind and genial way. We see mutual regard between
masters and servants." Farther south, in the Bocage, a wholly
agricultural region, and with no roads, where ladies are obliged to
travel on horseback and in ox-carts, where the seignior has no
farmers, but only twenty-five or thirty métayers who work for him on
shares, the supremacy of the great is no offense to their inferiors.
People live together harmoniously when living together from birth to
death, familiarly, and with the same interests, occupations and
pleasures; like soldiers with their officers, on campaigns and under
tents, in subordination although in companionship, familiarity never
endangering respect. "The seignior often visits them on their small
farms,[5] talks with them about their affairs, about taking care of
their cattle, sharing in the accidents and mishaps which likewise
seriously affect him. He attends their children's weddings and drinks
with the guests. On Sunday there are dances in the chateau court, and
the ladies take part in them." When he is about to hunt wolves or
boars the curate gives notice of it in the sermon; the peasants, with
their guns gaily assemble at the rendezvous, finding the seignior who
assigns them their posts, and strictly observing the directions he
gives them. Here are soldiers and a captain ready made. A little
later, and of their own accord, they will choose him for commandant in
the national guard, mayor of the commune, chief of the insurrection,
and, in 1792, the marksmen of the parish are to march under him
against " the blues" as, at this epoch against the wolves. Such are
the remnants of the good feudal spirit, like the scattered remnants of
a submerged continent. Before Louis XIV., the spectacle was similar
throughout France. "The rural nobility of former days," says the