e Sand has elsewhere explained how,
as a fact, Nohant, and other estates in the region round about, had
enjoyed some immunity from the worst abuses of the _ancien regime_.
Several of these properties, as it happened, had fallen to women or
minors--widows, elderly maiden ladies, who, and their agents, spared the
holders and cultivators of the soil the exactions which, by right or by
might, its lords were used to levy. "So the peasants," she writes, "were
accustomed not to put themselves to any inconvenience; and when came the
Revolution they were already so well relieved virtually from feudal
bonds that they took revenge on nobody." A new _seigneur_ of Nohant,
coming to take possession, and thinking to levy his utmost dues, in
cash and in kind, found his rustic tenants turn a deaf ear to his
summons. Ere he could insist the storm burst, but it brought no
convulsion, and merely confirmed an independence already existing.

_Les Maitres Sonneurs_, whilst illustrating some of the most striking
merits of George Sand, is free from the defects often laid to her
charge; and although of all her pastorals it must suffer the most when
rendered in any language but the original, it is much to be regretted
that some good translation of this work should not put it within the
reach of all English readers.

CHAPTER X.

PLAYS AND LATER NOVELS.

There are few eminent novelists that have not tried their hands at
writing for the stage; and Madame Sand had additional inducements to do
so, beyond those of ambition satiated with literary success, and tempted
by the charm of making fresh conquest of the public in a more direct and
personal fashion.

From early childhood she had shown a strong liking for the theatre. The
rare performances given by travelling acting-companies at La Chatre had
been her greatest delight when a girl. At the convent-school she had
arranged Moliere from memory for representation by herself and her
school-fellows, careful so to modify the piece as to avoid all
possibility of shocking the nuns. Thus the Sisters applauded _Le Malade
Imaginaire_ without any suspicion that the author was one whose works,
for them, were placed under a ban, and whose very name they held in
devout abhorrence. She inherited from her father a taste for acting,
which she transmitted to her children. We have seen her during her
literary novitiate in Paris, a studious observer at all theatres, from
the classic boards of the Francais d