Although the greater number of the labourers now collected together might not have been so strictly virtuous and free from moral blame as to be justified in throwing the first stone at the trembling, fainting girl, who was the object of all their concentrated wrath, yet, on the present occasion, they unanimously spoke and acted as though her very presence was capable of contaminating them; and their delicacy and modesty alike revolted at the bare recollection of the depraved class to which she had belonged, and they shuddered to be so near one who confessed to having frequently conversed with assassins. Nothing, then, was wanting to urge on a blind and prejudiced crowd, still further instigated by the example of Madame Dubreuil.
"Take her before the mayor!" cried one.
"Ay, ay! and, if she won't walk, we'll drag her."
"And for her to have the impudence to dress herself like one of us honest girls!" said an awkward, ill-looking farm-wench.
"I'm sure," rejoined another female, with her mock-modest air, "one might have thought she would go to heaven, spite of priest or confession!"
"Why, she had the assurance even to attend mass!"
"No! Did she? Why did she not join in the communion afterwards then, I should like to know?"
"And then she must play the young lady, and hold up her head as high as our betters!"
"As though we were not good company enough for her!"
"However, every dog has his day!"