"
"And with a man too, if he is wise enough to let his wife do his
marketing, as you do, Jean! But whom have we here?" Babet set her
arms akimbo and gazed.
A number of hardy fellows came down towards the ferry to seek a
passage.
"They are honest habitans of St. Anne," replied Jean. "I know them;
they too are on the King's corvee, and travel free, every man of
them! So I must cry Vive le Roi! and pass them over to the city.
It is like a holiday when one works for nothing!"
Jean stepped nimbly into his boat, followed by the rough country
fellows, who amused themselves by joking at Jean Le Nocher's
increasing trade and the need of putting on an extra boat these
stirring times. Jean put a good face upon it, laughed, and retorted
their quips, and plying his oars, stoutly performed his part in the
King's corvee by safely landing them on the other shore.
Meantime the officer who had lately crossed the ferry rode rapidly
up the long, straight highway that led up on the side of the
mountain to a cluster of white cottages and an old church,
surmounted by a belfry whose sweet bells were ringing melodiously
in the fresh air of the morning.
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