"And you are the usher?" added Mademoiselle Plouernel, addressing the man of the fisc. "You also are to make a seizure against a poor family of peasants?"
"Yes, mademoiselle—"
"You shall relinquish your pursuit. How much is due you?"
"Item, three francs; item, sixty-seven francs; item, seven francs, eight sous and six deniers; item, two hundred—I can state each item with costs and accessories."
"Enough! Du Buisson, pay this man," said Bertha to her equerry, passing to him a purse which she took from her pocket.
And turning again to the usher:
"Having received the money, you shall discontinue your pursuit of these people."
"Certainly, mademoiselle, and I shall immediately notify the sergeant who is charged to exercise the military constraint that I no longer need his services, and that he can return to his quarters with his soldiers."
Judging Mademoiselle Plouernel's generous nature by these first evidences, and anxious to ingratiate himself with his master's sister by seeming also to take an interest in the peasants, the bailiff put in:
"I feel bound to inform mademoiselle, in all justice, the vassals of monseigneur are not wholly to blame in the matter of the scuffle with the soldiers of the Crown Regiment. The reason of the trouble was a joviality of the sergeant's, who wished forcibly to embrace the bride. His joviality was altogether foreign to his office."