we felt them to be ominous, and dreaded the future event enchained to them.  That the night owl should screech before the noon-day sun, that the hard-winged bat should wheel around the bed of beauty, that muttering thunder should in early spring startle the cloudless air, that sudden and exterminating blight should fall on the tree and shrub, were unaccustomed, but physical events, less horrible than the mental creations of almighty fear.  Some had sight of funeral processions, and faces all begrimed with tears, which flitted through the long avenues of the gardens, and drew aside the curtains of the sleepers at dead of night.  Some heard wailing and cries in the air; a mournful chaunt would stream through the dark atmosphere, as if spirits above sang the requiem of the human race.  What was there in all this, but that fear created other senses within our frames, making us see, hear, and feel what was not?  What was this, but the action of diseased imaginations and childish credulity?  So might it be; but what was most real, was the existence of these very fears; the staring looks of horror, the faces pale even to ghastliness, the voices struck dumb with harrowing dread, of those among us who saw and heard these things.  Of this number was Adrian, who knew the delusion, yet could not cast off the clinging terror.  Even ignorant infancy appeared with timorous shrieks and convulsions to acknowledge the presence of unseen powers.  We must go:  in change of scene, in occupation, and such security as we still hoped to find, we should discover a cure for these gathering horrors.

On mustering our company, we found them to consist of fourteen hundred souls, men, women, and children.  Until now therefore, we were undiminished in numbers, except by the desertion of those who had attached themselves to the impostor-prophet, and remained behind in Paris.  About fifty French joined us.  Our order of march was easily arranged; the ill success which had attended our division, determined Adrian to keep all in one body.  I, with an hundred men, went forward first as purveyor, taking the road of the Cote d’Or, through Auxerre, Dijon, Dole, over the Jura to Geneva.  I was to make arrangements, at every ten miles, for the accommodation of such numbers as I found the town or village would receive, leaving behind a messenger with a written order, signifying how many were to be quartered there.  The remainder of our tribe was then divided into bands of fifty each, every division containing eighteen men, and the remainder, consisting of women and children.  Each of these was headed by an officer, who carried the roll of names, by which they were each day to be mustered.  If the numbers were divided at night, in the morning those in the van waited for those in the rear.  At each of the large towns before mentioned, we were all to assemble; and a conclave of the principal officers would hold council for the general weal.  I went first, as I said; Adrian last.  His mother, with Clara and Evelyn under her protection, remained also with him.  Thus our order being determined, I departed.  My plan was to go at first no further than Fontainebleau, where in a few days I should be joined by Adrian, before I took flight again further eastward.