ontingent, Germain at
the head, accompanied by his stoutest comrades, by his relations,
friends, and servants and the grave-digger,--a substantial, joyous
procession.

But, as they approached the house, they slackened their pace, took
counsel together, and became silent. The maidens, shut up in the house,
had arranged little cracks at the windows, through which they watched
them march up and form in battle-array. A fine, cold rain was falling,
and added to the interest of the occasion, while a huge fire was
crackling on the hearth inside. Marie would have liked to abridge the
inevitable tedious length of this formal siege; she did not like to see
her lover catching cold, but she had no voice in the council under the
circumstances, and, indeed, she was expected to join, ostensibly, in the
mischievous cruelty of her companions.

When the two camps were thus confronted, a discharge of fire-arms
without created great excitement among all the dogs in the neighborhood.
Those of the household rushed to the door barking vociferously, thinking
that a real attack was in progress, and the small children, whom their
mothers tried in vain to reassure, began to tremble and cry. The whole
scene was so well played that a stranger might well have been deceived
by it and have considered the advisability of preparing to defend
himself against a band of brigands.

Thereupon, the grave-digger, the bridegroom's bard and orator, took his
place in front of the door, and, in a lugubrious voice, began the
following dialogue with the hemp-beater, who was stationed at the small
round window above the same door:

THE GRAVE-DIGGER.

Alas! my good people, my dear parishioners, for the love of God open the
door.

THE HEMP-BEATER.

Who are you, pray, and why do you presume to call us your dear
parishioners? We do not know you.

THE GRAVE-DIGGER.

We are honest folk in sore distress. Be not afraid of us, my friends!
receive us hospitably. The rain freezes as it falls, our poor feet are
frozen, and we have come such a long distance that our shoes are split.

THE HEMP-BEATER.

If your shoes are split, you can look on the ground; you will surely
find osier withes to make _arcelets_ [little strips of iron in the shape
of bows, with which shoes (wooden) were mended].

THE GRAVE-DIGGER.

Osier _arcelets_ are not very strong. You are making sport of us, good
people, and you would do better to open the door to us. We can see the
gle