Travellers have many other obstacles to encounter in these intricate paths.Thus surrounded, each field is closed by what is called in the West an /echalier/.That is a trunk or stout branch of a tree, one end of which, being pierced, is fitted to an upright post which serves as a pivot on which it turns.One end of the /echalier/ projects far enough beyond the pivot to hold a weight, and this singular rustic gate, the post of which rests in a hole made in the bank, is so easy to work that a child can handle it.Sometimes the peasants economize the stone which forms the weight by lengthening the trunk or branch beyond the pivot.This method of enclosure varies with the genius of each proprietor.Sometimes it consists of a single trunk or branch, both ends of which are embedded in the bank.In other places it looks like a gate, and is made of several slim branches placed at regular distances like the steps of a ladder lying horizontally.The form turns, like the /echalier/, on a pivot.These "hedges" and /echaliers/give the region the appearance of a huge chess-board, each field forming a square, perfectly isolated from the rest, closed like a fortress and protected by ramparts.The gate, which is very easy to defend, is a dangerous spot for assailants.The Breton peasant thinks he improves his fallow land by encouraging the growth of gorse, a shrub so well treated in these regions that it soon attains the height of a man.This delusion, worthy of a population which puts its manure on the highest spot in the courtyard, has covered the soil to a proportion of one fourth with masses of gorse, in the midst of which a thousand men might ambush.Also there is scarcely a field without a number of old apple-trees, the fruit being used for cider, which kill the vegetation wherever their branches cover the ground.Now, if the reader will reflect on the small extent of open ground within these hedges and large trees whose hungry roots impoverish the soil, he will have an idea of the cultivation and general character of the region through which Mademoiselle de Verneuil was now passing.
It is difficult to say whether the object of these enclosures is to avoid all disputes of possession, or whether the custom is a lazy one of keeping the cattle from straying, without the trouble of watching them; at any rate such formidable barriers are permanent obstacles, which make these regions impenetrable and ordinary warfare impossible.
There lies the whole secret of the Chouan war.Mademoiselle de Verneuil saw plainly the necessity the Republic was under to strangle the disaffection by means of police and by negotiation, rather than by a useless employment of military force.What could be done, in fact, with a people wise enough to despise the possession of towns, and hold to that of an open country already furnished with indestructible fortifications? Surely, nothing except negotiate; especially as the whole active strength of these deluded peasants lay in a single able and enterprising leader.She admired the genius of the minister who, sitting in his study, had been able to grasp the true way of procuring peace.She thought she understood the considerations which act on the minds of men powerful enough to take a bird's-eye view of an empire;men whose actions, criminal in the eyes of the masses, are the outcome of a vast and intelligent thought.There is in these terrible souls some mysterious blending of the force of fate and that of destiny, some prescience which suddenly elevates them above their fellows; the masses seek them for a time in their own ranks, then they raise their eyes and see these lordly souls above them.
Such reflections as these seemed to Mademoiselle de Verneuil to justify and even to ennoble her thoughts of vengeance; this travail of her soul and its expectations gave her vigor enough to bear the unusual fatigues of this strange journey.At the end of each property Galope-Chopine made the women dismount from their donkeys and climb the obstructions; then, mounting again, they made their way through the boggy paths which already felt the approach of winter.The combination of tall trees, sunken paths, and enclosed places, kept the soil in a state of humidity which wrapped the travellers in a mantle of ice.However, after much wearisome fatigue, they managed to reach the woods of Marignay by sunrise.The journey then became less difficult, and led by a broad footway through the forest.The arch formed by the branches, and the great size of the trees protected the travellers from the weather, and the many difficulties of the first half of their way did not recur.
