A doleful singing came from the miserable party.

They did not look at us as we passed....
A rumble of cannon, once and again, sounded like the lazy snore of some sleeping beast.
Near the town-hall we found a company of fantastic creatures awaiting us.

They were pressed together in a dense crowd as though they were afraid of some one attacking them.

There were many old men, like the clowns in Shakespeare, dirty beyond belief in tattered garments, wide-brimmed hats, broad skirts and baggy trousers; old men with long tangled hair, bare bony breasts and slobbering chins.

Many of the women seemed strong and young; their faces were on the whole cheerful--a brazen indifference to anything and everything was their attitude.