thicket, and their
glances, full of human intelligence, caused fear rather than pleasure to
those who met them. Their heads were covered with a dirty head-gear of
red flannel, not unlike the Phrygian cap which the Republic had lately
adopted as an emblem of liberty. Each man carried over his shoulder a
heavy stick of knotted oak, at the end of which hung a linen bag with
little in it. Some wore, over the red cap, a coarse felt hat, with a
broad brim adorned by a sort of woollen chenille of many colors which
was fastened round it. Others were clothed entirely in the coarse linen
of which the trousers and wallets of all were made, and showed nothing
that was distinctive of the new order of civilization. Their long
hair fell upon the collar of a round jacket with square pockets, which
reached to the hips only, a garment peculiar to the peasantry of western
France. Beneath this jacket, which was worn open, a waistcoat of the
same linen with large buttons was visible. Some of the company marched
in wooden shoes; others, by way of economy, carried them in their hand.
This costume, soiled by long usage, blackened with sweat and dust, and
less original than that of the other men, had the historic merit of
serving as a transition between the goatskins and the brilliant, almost
sumptuous, dress of a few individuals dispersed here and there among the
groups, where they shone like flowers. In fact, the blue linen trousers
of these last, and their red or yellow waistcoats, adorned with two
parallel rows of brass buttons and not unlike breast-plates, stood out
as vividly among the white linen and shaggy skins of their companions as
the corn-flowers and poppies in a wheat-field. Some of them wore wooden
shoes, which the peasants of Brittany make for themselves; but the
greater number had heavy hobnailed boots, and coats of coarse cloth cut
in the fashion of the old regime, the shape of which the peasants have
religiously retained even to the present day. The collars of their
shirts were held together by buttons in the shape of hearts or anchors.
The wallets of these men seemed to be better than those of their
companions, and several of them added to their marching outfit a flask,
probably full of brandy, slung round their necks by a bit of twine. A
few burgesses were to be seen in the midst of these semi-savages, as if
to show the extremes of civilization in this region. Wearing round hats,
or flapping brims or caps, high-topped boots,