We made
towards it, and discovered not only all that we had expected to
see, but a path and a guide.
The latter was as much surprised to see us as we to see her, for
when we came upon her she was sitting on the bank beside the path
weeping bitterly. On hearing us, however, she sprang up and
discovered the form of a young girl, bare-foot and bareheaded,
wearing only a short ragged frock of homespun. Nevertheless, her
face was neither stupid nor uncomely; and though, at the first
alarm, supposing us to be either robbers or hobgoblins--of which
last the people of that country are peculiarly fearful--she made
as if she would escape across the moor, she stopped as soon as
she heard my voice. I asked her gently where we were.
At first she did not understand, but the servant who had played
the guide so ill, speaking to her in the PATOIS of the country,
she answered that we were near St. Brieuc, a hamlet not far from
Bottitort, and considerably off our road. Asked how far it was
to Bottitort, she answered--between two and three leagues, and an
indifferent road.
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