Pagina 533 van 896

But, this was not the change on the village, and on many a

village like it. For scores of years gone by, Monseigneur had

squeezed it and wrung it, and had seldom graced it with his

presence except for the pleasures of the chase--now, found in

hunting the people; now, found in hunting the beasts, for whose

preservation Monseigneur made edifying spaces of barbarous and

barren wilderness. No. The change consisted in the appearance of

strange faces of low caste, rather than in the disappearance of

the high caste, chiselled, and otherwise beautified and

beautifying features of Monseigneur.