aginable
garment the human frame can wear, but kept the shops and the markets,
tilled the gardens, cleaned the streets, and bought and sold cattle,
leaving the men free to enjoy the only pursuits they seemed inclined to
follow--breaking horses, mending roads, and getting drunk.

The markets seemed entirely in the hands of the women, and lively scenes
they presented to unaccustomed eyes, especially the pig-market, held
every week, in the square before Madame C.'s house. At dawn the
squealing began, and was kept up till sunset. The carts came in from all
the neighbouring hamlets, with tubs full of infant pigs, over which the
women watched with maternal care till they were safely deposited among
the rows of tubs that stood along the walk facing Anne of Bretaigne's
grey old tower, and the pleasant promenade which was once the _fosse_
about the city walls.

Here Madame would seat herself and knit briskly till a purchaser
applied, when she would drop her work, dive among the pink innocents,
and hold one up by its unhappy leg, undisturbed by its doleful cries,
while she settled its price with a blue-gowned, white-capped neighbour
as sharp-witted and shrill-tongued as herself. If the bargain was
struck, they slapped their hands together in a peculiar way, and the new
owner clapped her purchase into a meal-bag, slung it over her shoulder,
and departed with her squirming, squealing treasure as calmly as a
Boston lady with a satchel full of ribbons and gloves.

More mature pigs came to market on their own legs, and very long,
feeble legs they were, for a more unsightly beast than a Breton pig was
never seen out of a toy Noah's ark. Tall, thin, high-backed, and
sharp-nosed, these porcine victims tottered to their doom, with dismal
wailings, and not a vestige of spirit till the trials and excitement of
the day goaded them to rebellion, when their antics furnished fun for
the public. Miss Livy observed that the women could manage the pigs when
men failed entirely. The latter hustled, lugged, or lashed, unmercifully
and unsuccessfully; the former, with that fine tact which helps them to
lead nobler animals than pigs, would soothe, sympathise, coax, and
gently beguile the poor beasts, or devise ways of mitigating their
bewilderment and woe, which did honour to the sex, and triumphantly
illustrated the power of moral suasion.

One amiable lady, who had purchased two small pigs and a coop full of
fowls, attempted to carry them all on