ssed a few
scattering hovels which marked the approach to a village where we were
to stop for dinner. At the foot of a little incline the horses shied
violently, and passed beyond the man's control. My driver endeavored
in vain to quiet them, and then jumped from his box and ran to their
heads. I looked out to see what the matter was, and observing a squad
of soldiers, followed by quite a concourse of villagers, I sprang to
the ground.

Down the hill they marched, some ten or fifteen fellows in a dirty half
uniform, I knew not what it was, while straggling out behind them
seemed to follow the entire population of the hamlet. The old and
gray-haired fathers, the mothers, the stalwart children and toddling
babies, all came to stand and gape. In the lead there strode a burly
ruffian, proud of his low authority, who shouted at intervals:

"So-with-the-H-u-g-u-e-n-o-t-s!"

Behind him skulked four stout varlets, bearing between them a rude
plank, on which was stretched a naked body, the limbs being not yet
stiffened in death. I hardly credited my sight. Before they came
abreast of us I inquired of the driver what it all meant. He only
shrugged his shoulders, "A dead Huguenot, I suppose," and gave his care
to the horses. Verily this was past belief.

I placed myself in the road and bade the leader of the procession
pause. He stopped, staring stupidly at my dress.

"What is here my good fellow? what crime hath he committed?"

He, like the driver, answered carelessly:

"None; she is a Huguenot."

"_She_," I echoed, and stopped the bearers who laid their ghastly
burden down, having little relish in the task. Yes, it was in very
truth a woman.

"For the sake of decency, comrade, why do you not cover her and give
her Christian burial?"

"It is the law," he replied stolidly.

"Yes, yes, it is the law," eagerly assented the people who gathered
about the corpse, not as friends, not as mourners, but as spectators of
the horrid scene. Among them, unrebuked, were many white-faced
children, half afraid and wholly curious. I looked at them all in
disgust. They went their way and came to the outskirts of the village,
where they contemptuously tossed the woman from the plank across a
ditch into the open field. In spite of my loathing I had followed.

I perceived now a feeble old woman hobble up toward the body and try
with loud wailings to make her way through the guard which surrounded
it. They shoved her bac