Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Richelieu a Tale of France in the Reign of King Louis XIII
Philip, the woodman, humming the air of Le bon roi Dagobert, advanced slowly along the road, with his brow knit in such a manner as to evince that his light song had no part in his thoughts. He was a man perhaps nearly fifty, still hale and athletic, though a life of labor had changed the once dark locks of his hair to gray. His occupation was at once denoted by his dress, which con sisted simply of a long-bodied blue coat of coarse cloth, covered over, except the arms, with what it is called in Brittany, a Peau de bicque, or goat-skin: a pair of leather breeches, cut off above the knee, with thick gaiters to de fend his legs from the thorns, completed his dress below; and a round broad-brimmed hat was brought far over his eyes, to keep them from the glare of the declining sun. His apparel was girded round him by a broad buff belt, in the left of which hung his woodman's knife; in the right he had placed the huge ax, which he had been using in his morning's occupation: and thus accoutred, Philip would have been no insignificant op ponent, had he met with any of those lawless rovers who occasionally frequented the forest.
As he approached his dwelling, he suddenly stopped, broke off his song, and turning round, listened for a mo ment attentively; but the only noise to be heard was the discordant cry of the jay in the trees round about.
Philip proceeded, but he sang no more; and opening the cottage door, he spoke without entering. Charles, demanded he, has the young gentleman returned, who passed by this morning to hunt?
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