beautiful landscape, with the corn bright in it, but not

abundant. Patches of poor rye where corn should have

been, patches of poor peas and beans, patches of most

coarse vegetable substitutes for wheat. On inanimate nature, as on

the men and women who cultivated it, a prevalent tendency

towards an appearance of vegetating unwillinglya dejected

disposition to give up, and wither away.

Monsieur the Marquis in his travelling carriage (which might

have been lighter), conducted by four post-horses and two

postilions, fagged up a steep hill. A blush on the countenance of

Monsieur the Marquis was no impeachment of his high breeding;

it was not from within; it was occasioned by an external

circumstance beyond his controlthe setting sun.

The sunset struck so brilliantly into the travelling carriage

when it gained the hill-top, that its occupant was steeped in

crimson. “It will die out,” said Monsieur the Marquis, glancing at

his hands, “directly.”

In effect, the sun was so low that it dipped at the moment.

When the heavy drag had been adjusted to the wheel, and the

carriage slid down hill, with a cinderous smell, in a cloud of dust,

the red glow departed quickly; the sun and the Marquis going

down together, there was no glow left when the drag was taken off.

But there remained a broken country, bold and open, a little

vil