Herd girl too fair! And vision of Paimpont, fair as I dreamed! How fair was thy errand last night? YVETTE Monseigneur! DE VARDES In the ashes of Morbec what shouldst thou find? YVETTE We only wished to make a little light— A little light to let the neighbours know That we were hungry! DE VARDES What neighbours hast thou? YVETTE Normandy and Maine, Anjou and Poitou, The sea, the sky, and somewhat far away, The Club of the Jacobins at Paris. DE VARDES Thy father was a nobleman of France! YVETTE I never had a father, monseigneur! I had a mother, and she loved, they say, She dearly loved the fisherman Jehan! When for the dead I pray, I pray for them. DE VARDES How old art thou? YVETTE How old? Ah, let me see! [_She counts upon her fingers._ The year the hailstones fell and killed the wheat; The year the flax failed and we made no songs; The year I begged for bread; the bitter year We buried Louison who died of cold, And Jacques was hanged who shot the seigneur’s deer; The Pardon of Sainte Anne I had a gown; Came Angélique from Paris, told us how The wicked Queen was smiling, smiling there; Justine pined away, they shot Michel If, Down fell the Bastille, I learned _Ça ira_; The deputy came to the curé’s house, Beside the deep blue sea I walked with him. A day there was at Vannes, a glorious day, When music played, and every banner waved, And all the folk went mad and rang the bells! _Vive la Révolution! Vive Mirabeau! Vive Rémond Lalain!_ I wept when ‘twas o’er, Last summer was so fair! I wandered far, One day I wandered through a darksome wood— ‘Twas on the Eve of good Saint John, I know! DE VARDES Ah— YVETTE