Thou art of an
honored race, bailiff, and canst little understand most of our suffering;
but thou art a man, and shouldst know what it is to be wounded through
another, and that one who is dearer to thee than thine own flesh."
"Thy words are strong, good Marguerite," again interrupted the bailiff,
who felt an uneasiness, of which he would very gladly be rid. "Himmel! Who
can like any thing better than his own flesh? Besides, thou shouldst
remember that I am a bachelor, and bachelors are apt, naturally, to feel
more for their own flesh than for that of others. Stand aside, and let the
procession pass, that we may go to the banquet, which waits. If Jacques
Colis will none of thy girl, I hove not the power to make him. Double the
dowry, good woman, and thou shalt have a choice of husbands, in spite of
the axe and the sword that are in thy escutcheon. Let the halberdiers make
way for those honest people there who, at least, are functionaries of the
law, and are to be protected as well as ourselves."
The crowd obeyed, yielding readily to the advance of the officers, and, in
a few minutes, the useless attendants of the village nuptials, and the
train of Hymen, slunk away, sensible of the ridicule that, in a double
degree, attaches itself to folly when it fails of effecting even its own
absurdities.
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