The sergeant and his men pretended not to hear; and he, the wretch, said, laughing:
"These cows, sergeant, are as good as mine; after a long search we ended by finding two fine animals."
They had searched all the villages, visited all the stables, and it was on us that the misfortune fell. Marie-Rose, on seeing the poor beasts raised by us at the forest house, could not restrain her tears, and the grandmother, her hands clasped above her gray head, cried:
"Ah! now—now we are lost! Now this is the last stroke. My God, what have we done to deserve such misery!"
I supported her by the arm, asking her to go in, but she said:
"Frederick, let me look once more at those good creatures. Oh! poor Bellotte! Poor Blanchette! I will never see you again!"
It was a heartrending spectacle, and the people dispersed quickly, turning away their heads, for the sight of such iniquities is the most abominable thing on earth. At last, however, we were obliged to ascend to our wretched little rooms, and think over our desolation; we had to think how we should live, now that all our resources were taken away. You know, George, what a cow is worth to a peasant; with a cow in the stable one has butter, milk, cheese, all the necessaries of life; to possess a cow is to be in easy circumstances, two are almost wealth. Up to the present time we could sell the produce and make a few sous in that way; now we would have to buy everything at this time of dearth, while the enemy fattened on our poverty.
Ah! what a terrible time it was! Those who come after us will have no idea of it.
XXVIII
All that we had left were five or six hundred weight of hay and potatoes. Ykel, who sympathized with all our griefs, said to me the same day: