lage at the bottom of the hill, a broad sweep and rise beyond it,

Charles Dickens ElecBook Classics

a church-tower, a windmill, a forest for the chase, and a crag with

a fortress on it used as a prison. Round upon all these darkening

objects as the night drew on, the Marquis looked, with the air of

one who was coming near home.

The village had its one poor street, with its poor brewery, poor

tannery, poor tavern, poor stable-yard for relays of post-horses,

poor fountain, all usual poor appointments. It had its poor people

too. All its people were poor, and many of them were sitting at

their doors, shredding spare onions and the like for supper, while

many were at the fountain, washing leaves, and grasses, and any

such small yieldings of the earth that could be eaten. Expressive

signs of what made them poor, were not wanting; the tax for the

state, the tax for the church, the tax for the lord, tax local and tax

general, were to be paid here and to be paid there, according to

solemn inscription in the little village, until the wonder was, that

there was any village left unswallowed.

Few children were to be seen, and no dogs. As to the men and

women, their choice on earth was stated in the prospectLife on

the lowest terms that could sustain it, down in the little village

under the mill; or captivity and Death in the dominant prison on