Suddenly—­with gleams of gold, and with a rushing chorus of insect life, and a thousand voices in the long grass on the river’s bank—­the day begins.[10] It is market-morning, and we will go a little way up the hill to watch the arrivals—­a hill, from which there is a view over town and valley; the extent and beauty of which it would be difficult to picture to the reader, in words.  Listen! for there is already a cavalcade coming down the hill; we can see it at intervals through the trees, and hear men’s voices, the laughter of women, the bleating of calves, and the crushing sound of wheels upon the road.  It is a peaceful army, though the names of its leaders (if we heard them), might stir up warlike memories—­there are Howards and Percys amongst them, but there is no clash of arms; they come of a brave lineage, their ancestors fought well under the walls of Pont Audemer; but they have laid down their arms for centuries—­their end is commerce and peace.

Let us stand aside under the lime trees, and see them pass.  But they are making a halt, their horses go straight to the water-trough, and the whole cavalcade comes to a stand; the old women in the carts (wearing starched caps a foot high) with baskets of eggs, butter, cheeses, and piles of merchandise, sit patiently until the time comes to start again; and the drivers, in blouses and wooden sabots, lounge about and smoke, or sit down to rest.  The young girls, who accompany the expedition and who will soon take their places in the market, now set to work systematically to perform their toilettes, commencing by washing their feet in a stream, and putting on the shoes and stockings which they had carried during their wet march; then more ablutions, with much fun, and laughter, and tying up of tresses, and producing from baskets of those wonderful caps which we have sketched so often—­souffles of most fantastic shape and startling dimensions.  This was the crowning work, the picture was complete:  bright, fresh, morning faces, glowing under white caps; neat grey or blue dresses with white bodices, or coloured handkerchiefs; grey stockings, shoes with buckles, and a silver cross, a rosary, or a flower.  We must not quite forget the younger men (with coats, not blouses), who plumed themselves in a rough way, and wore wonderful felt hats; nor, above all, a peep through the trees behind the group, far away down the valley, at the gables and turrets of Pont Audemer, glistening through a cloud of haze.  This is all we need describe, a word more would spoil the picture; like one of Edouard Frere’s paintings of “Cottage Life in Brittany,” the charm and pathos of the scene lie in its simplicity and harmony with Nature.

If we choose to stay until the day advances, we may see more market-people come crowding in, and white caps will crop up in the distance through the trees, till the green meadows blossom with them, and sparkle like a lawn of daisies; we may hear the ringing laughter of the girls to whom market day seems an occasion of great rejoicing, and we may be somewhat distracted with the steady droning patois of the old women; but we come to see rather than to hear, and, returning to the town for the last time, we take our station at the corner of the market-place, and make a sketch of a group of Norman maidens who are well worth coming out to see.