308 OKIGIN OF THE WAR OF 1S53 chap, brushed off. They clung. Even now, after the XIV • '_ lapse of years, they cling and feed.* XVI. Commis- saries sent into tho provinces. The army in the provinces closely imitated the ferocity of the army of Paris ; but it was to be apprehended that soldiery, however fierce, might deal only with the surface of discontent, and not strike deep enough into the heart of the country. They might kill people in streets and roads and fields ; they might even send their musket-balls through windows into the houses, and shoot whole batches of prisoners ; but they could not so well search out the indignant friends of law and order in their inner homes. Therefore Morny sent into the provinces men of dire repute, and armed them with terrible powers. These persons were called Commissaries. In every spot so visited the people shuddered ; for they knew by their experience of 1848 that a man thus set over them by the terrible Home Office might be a ruffian well known to the police for his crimes as well as for his services, and that from a potentate of that quality it might cost them dear to buy their safety. The church. There have been times when the all but dying spark of a nation's life has been kept alive by the priests of her faith ; and when this has happened, there has sprung up so deep a love between people and Church that the lapse of ages has not had
- Written in September 1861.
