Page:Horrid Mysteries Volume 3.djvu/162

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156
THE HORRID MYSTERIES.

sented itself to our eyes. The oppressed and the poor generally abandon themselves to excesses whenever they can catch a moment of liberty, tranquillity, and superfluity; and the human heart, which much sooner is urged from one extreme to the other than cooled to moderation, destroys, without hesitation, a part of future pleasure, while it abandons itself to the rapid torrent of present gratification.

The young people danced, and the girls were adorned with autumnal flowers. Some branches composed charming huts, where we received refreshments spread on benches. Their whole orchestra consisted of a single fiddle, a tambourine, a fife, and a clarinet: however, the female dancers moved with so much agility and natural grace, that the eyes were indemnified for what the ears missed. We passed the dancers in a hard trot, being impatient to arrive at the inn which was on the other side of the hamlet. The curiosity of seeing us ride by, put a momentary stop tothe