Captain Fracasse won much applause, and indeed acted his part admirably,
being under no constraint; for he did not need to fear the criticism of
this rustic audience as he would have done that of a more cultivated and
experienced one; and, too, he felt sure that there could be nobody among
the spectators that knew him, or anything about him. The other actors
were also vigorously clapped by the toil-hardened hands of these lowly
tillers of the soil--whose applause throughout was bestowed, Bellombre
declared, judiciously and intelligently. Serafina executed her Moorish
dance with a degree of agility and voluptuous grace that would have
done honour to a professional ballet-dancer, or to a Spanish gipsy, and
literally brought down the house.
But while de Sigognac was thus employed, far from his ancient chateau,
the portraits of his ancestors that hung upon its walls were frowning
darkly at the degeneracy of this last scion of their noble race, and a
sigh, almost a groan, that issued from their faded lips, echoed dismally
through the deserted house. In the kitchen, Pierre, with Miraut and
Beelzebub on either side of him--all three looking melancholy and
forlorn--sat thinking of his absent lord, and said aloud, "Oh, where is
my poor, dear master now?" a big tear rolling down his withered cheek as
he stooped to caress his dumb companions.
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