Ch. 1 - An Ambuscade

Early in the year VIII., at the beginning of Vendemiaire, or, to
conform to our own calendar, towards the close of September, 1799, a
hundred or so of peasants and a large number of citizens, who had left
Fougeres in the morning on their way to Mayenne, were going up the
little mountain of La Pelerine, half-way between Fougeres and Ernee, a
small town where travellers along that road are in the habit of
resting. This company, divided into groups that were more or less
numerous, presented a collection of such fantastic costumes and a
mixture of individuals belonging to so many and diverse localities and
professions that it will be well to describe their characteristic
differences, in order to give to this history the vivid local coloring
to which so much value is attached in these days,--though some critics
do assert that it injures the representation of sentiments.

Many of the peasants, in fact the greater number, were barefooted, and
wore no other garments than a large goatskin, which covered them from
the neck to the knees, and trousers of white and very coarse linen,
the ill-woven texture of which betrayed the slovenly industrial habits
of the region. The straight locks of their long hair mingling with
those of the goatskin hid their faces, which were bent on the ground,
so completely that the garment might have been thought their own skin,
and they themselves mistaken at first sight for a species of the

animal which served them as clothing. But through this tangle of hair
their eyes were presently seen to shine like dew-drops in a thicket,
and their glances, full of human intelligence, caused fear rather than
pleasure to those who met them. Their heads were covered with a dirty
head-gear of red flannel, not unlike the Phrygian cap which the
Republic had lately adopted as an emblem of liberty. Each man carried
over his shoulder a heavy stick of knotted oak, at the end of which
hung a linen bag with little in it. Some wore, over the red cap, a
coarse felt hat, with a broad brim adorned by a sort of woollen
chenille of many colors which was fastened round it. Others were
clothed entirely in the coarse linen of which the trousers and wallets
of all were made, and showed nothing that was distinctive of the new
order of civilization. Their long hair fell upon the collar of a round
jacket with square pockets, which reached to the hips only, a garment
peculiar to the peasantry of western France. Beneath this jacket,
which was worn open, a waistcoat of the same linen with large buttons
was visible. Some of the company marched in wooden shoes; others, by
way of economy, carried them in their hand. This costume, soiled by
long usage, blackened with sweat and dust, and less original than that
of the other