The grave-digger was singing something so old that
his adversary had forgotten it, or perhaps had never known it; but the
good dames instantly sang the victorious refrain through their noses, in
tones as shrill as those of the sea-gull; and the grave-digger, summoned
to surrender, passed to something else.
It would have been too long to wait until one side or the other won the
victory. The bride's party announced that they would show mercy on
condition that the others should offer her a gift worthy of her.
Thereupon, the song of the _livrees_ began, to an air as solemn as a
church chant.
The men outside sang in unison:
"Ouvrez la porte, ouvrez,
Marie, ma mignonne,
_J'ons_ de beaux cadeaux a vous presenter.
Helas! ma mie, laissez-nous entrer."[3]
To which the women replied from the interior, in falsetto, in doleful
tones:
"Mon pere est en chagrin, ma mere en grand' tristesse,
Et moi je suis fille de trop grand' merci
Pour ouvrir ma porte a _cette heure ici_."[4]
The men repeated the first stanza down to the fourth line, which they
modified thus:
"J'ons un beau mouchoir a vous presenter."[5]
But the women replied, in the name of the bride, in the same words as
before.
Through twenty stanzas, at least, the men enumerated all the gifts in
the _livree_, always mentioning a new article in the last verse: a
beautiful _devanteau_,--apron,--lovely ribbons, a cloth dress, lace, a
gold cross, even to _a hundred pins_ to complete the bride's modest
outfit.
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