GEORGE SAND. 559 one occasion, the sight of the cooling stream of the Indre proved an irresistible temptation to her, and she walked into the water full)- dressed — proceeding afterwards untroubled upon her twelve-mile walk, while her clothes dried upon her in the sun. Nor did her interest in the villagers ever flag, and the little peasant children who had been her playmates in youth found her a friend in their old age. Her life from middle age onward was often saddened by the troubles of her country. In her political feelings she was republican, and she was accused of being a socialist. Many of her dear friends were ardent politi- cians, and when, after the flight of Louis Philippe in 1848, a provisional government was formed with Lamartine at its head, she was irresistibly drawn to take a part in the struggle. "My heart is full and my head on fire," she wrote to a fellow-laborer. " All my physical ailments, all my per- sonal sorrows are forgotten. I live, I am strong, active ; I am not more than twenty years old." She worked hard to strengthen and uphold the new government. She wrote many fiery articles, and more than one ministerial manifesto was attributed, with good reason, to her pen. She never relaxed in her efforts until leader after leader proved unfitted for his position, and to persist was manifestly useless. Returning from Paris, where she had been staying that she might be upon the field of action, to rest quietly in her country home, she found herself regarded with horror by the peas- ants, who called her a communist. " A pack of idiots," she wrote indignantly to a friend, " who threaten to come and set fire to Nohant ! . . "When they come this way and I walk through the midst of them they take off their hats ; but when they have gone by, they summon courage to shout, ' Down with the communists ! ' "
