commanded an extensive view of the wasteful Double. It had a windblown,
naked appearance, like many villages near the sea, although the ocean was
still far from here. Moreover, there was a strange quietude--the stillness
of a fever-stricken spot. The men and women looked undersized and
prematurely old, and the children were pale and thin. Although the village
was on a hill, the evil influence of the marshes reached it. I was told,
however, that it had become much less unhealthy of late years. On the
highest spot was a poor and plain little church, with a paddock-like
cemetery on one side of it.

Although the hour was still early, I stopped for a meal at St. Barthelemy,
for it seemed to me that I had been fasting a day or more. Choosing the
only inn that looked promising, I sat down in a large room, where there
were two long tables and a bed in one corner. The shutters of the windows
were carefully closed to keep out the flies, and all the light that entered
came through the chinks and cracks. In the South, people prefer to eat in
semi-darkness rather than be tormented by flies. The only other person in
the house was a young woman, and she was very uncouth. She may have held
me in suspicion, for not a word would she say beyond what was rigorously
necessary; but, as she cooked much better than I had expected, I thought no
ill of her. She gave me, after an _omelette au cerfeuil_, a _fricassee_ of
chicken, with very fair wine of the district, red and white. Dessert and
coffee followed, and the charge was not much over a shilling.

As I left the village, I noticed upon a low building these words in large
letters, '_Depot de Sangsues_,' and concluded that catching leeches in the
pools about here was a local industry. On inquiring, however, I was told
that such was not the case, but that a man here had had a quantity of
leeches sent from Bordeaux to supply the district.