been already described in the approach
of Flora. Cornucopiae ornamented the chair of the deity, and the canopy was
adorned with the gifts of autumn. The whole was surmounted by a sheaf of
wheat. She held the sickle as her sceptre, and a tiara composed of the
bearded grain covered her brow. Reapers followed, bearing emblems of the
season of abundance, and gleaners closed the train. There was the halt,
the chant, the chorus, and the song in praise of the beneficent goddess of
autumn, as had been done by the votaries of the deity of flowers. A dance
of the reapers and gleaners followed, the threshers flourished their
flails, and the whole went their way.

After these came the grand standard of the abbaye and the vine-dressers
the real objects of the festival, succeeded. The laborers of the spring
led the advance, the men carrying their picks and spades, and the women
vessels to contain the cuttings of the vines. Then came a train bearing
baskets loaded with the fruit, in its different degrees of perfection and
of every shade of color. Youths holding staves topped with miniature
representations of the various utensils known in the culture of the grape,
such as the laborer with the tub on his back, the butt, and the vessel
that first receives the flowing juice, followed. A great number of men,
who brought forward the forge that is used to prepare the tools, closed
this part of the exhibition. The song and the dance again succeeded, when
the whole disappeared at a signal given by the approaching music of
Bacchus. As we now touch upon the most elaborate part of the
representation, we seize the interval that is necessary to bring it
forward, in order to take breath ourselves.

Chapter XV.

And thou, O wall, O sweet, O lovely wall,
That stand'st between her father's ground and mine
Thou wall, O wall, O sweet and lovely wall,
Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne.

_Midsummer Night's Dream._

"'Odds my life, but this goes off with a grace, brother Peter!" exclaimed
the Baron de Willading, as he followed the vine-dressers in their retreat,
with an amused eye--"If we have much more like it, I shall forget the
dignity of the buergerschaft, and turn mummer with the rest, though my good
for wisdom were the forfeit of the folly."

"That is better said between ourselves than performed before the vulgar
eye, honorable Melchior It would sound ill, of a truth, were these Vaudois
to boast that a noble