tiers to
Montmorillon it is nine leagues, equal to sixteen of Paris, and I assure
you that I have seen but four men on the road, and, between Montmorillon
and my own house, which is four leagues, but three; and then only at a
distance, not having met one on the road. You need not be surprised at
this in such a country. . . Marriage takes place as early as with the
grand seigniors," doubtless for fear of the militia. "But the population
of the country is no greater because almost every infant dies. Mothers
having scarcely any milk, their infants eat the bread of which I spoke,
the stomach of a girl of four years being as big as that of a pregnant
woman. . . . The rye crop this year was ruined by the frost on Easter
day; flour is scarce; of the twelve metairies owned by my mother, four
of them may, perhaps, have some on hand. There has been no rain since
Easter; no hay, no pasture, no vegetables, no fruit. You see the lot of
the poor peasant. There is no manure, and there are no cattle. . . . My
mother, whose granaries used to be always full, has not a grain of wheat
in them, because, for two years past, she has fed all her metayers and
the poor."

"The peasant is assisted," says a seignior of the same province,[5142]
"protected, and rarely maltreated, but he is looked upon with disdain.
If kindly and pliable he is made subservient, but if ill-disposed he
becomes soured and irritable. . . . He is kept in misery, in an
abject state, by men who are not at all inhuman but whose prejudices,
especially among the nobles, lead them to regard him as of a different
species of being. . . . The proprietor gets all he can out of him; in
any event, looking upon him and his oxen as domestic animals, he puts
them into harness and employs them in all weathers for every kind of
journey, and for every species of carting and transport. On the other
hand, this metayer thinks of living with as little labor as possible,
converting as much ground as he can into pasturage, for the reason that
the product arising from the increase of stock costs him no labor.
The little plowing he does is for the purpose of raising low-priced
provisions suitable for his own nourishment, such as buckwheat,
radishes, etc. His enjoyment consists only of his own idleness and
sluggishness, hoping for a good chestnut year and doing nothing
voluntarily but procreate;" unable to hire farming hands he begets
children.--

The rest, ordinary laborers, have a few savings,