“It came back; and then, without any fixed plan or direction, wandered about at hazard.  The cab was seen at Saint-Pol, at Lescure, at Mont Gargan, at La Rouge-Marc and Place du Gaillardbois; in the Rue Maladrerie, Rue Dinanderie, before Saint-Romain, Saint-Vivien, Saint-Maclou, Saint-Nicaise—­in front of the Customs, at the ’Vieille Tour,’ the ‘Trois Pipes,’ and the Monumental Cemetery.  From time to time, the coachman on his box cast despairing eyes at the public-houses.  He could not understand what furious desire for locomotion urged these individuals never to wish to stop.  He tried to now and then, and at once exclamations of anger burst forth behind him.  Then he lashed his perspiring jades afresh, but indifferent to their jolting, running up against things here and there, not caring if he did, demoralised, and almost weeping with thirst, fatigue, and depression.

“And on the harbour in the midst of the drays and casks and in the streets at the corners, the good folk opened large wonder-stricken eyes at this sight, so extraordinary in the provinces, a cab with blinds drawn, and which appeared thus constantly shut more closely than a tomb, and tossing about like a vessel.

“Once, in the middle of the day, in the open country, just as the sun beat most fiercely against the old plated lanterns, a bared hand passed beneath the small blinds of yellow canvas, and threw out some scraps of paper that scattered in the wind, and farther off alighted like white butterflies on a field of red clover all in bloom.

“At about six o’clock, the carriage stopped in a back street of the Beauvoisine Quarter, and a woman got out, who walked with her veil down, and without turning her head.

“On reaching the inn, Madame Bovary was surprised not to see the diligence.  Hivert, who had waited for her fifty-three minutes, had at last started.

“Nothing, however, could prevent her setting out; she had promised to return that evening.  Moreover, Charles expected her, and in her heart she felt already that cowardly docility that is for some women at once the chastisement and atonement of adultery.”

M. Flaubert calls my attention to the fact that the Public Attorney condemned this last clause.

THE GOVERNMENT ATTORNEY: 

No, I have pointed it out.

M. SENARD: 

It is certain that if he had made a reproach it would have fallen before these words:  “at once the chastisement and atonement of adultery.”  Furthermore, that could be made a matter of reproach with as much foundation as the other quotations, for in all that you have condemned there is no point that can be seriously held.