The Express.
London, England, 1868-07-24 00:00:00

WOBDSWOBTH FOB THE FBENCH.

Or the non-political journals of France, the
most widely circulated is Ls Petit Journal, five
centimes a number, and boasting a daily sale of
260,000 copies. The thin diet of " Tracers=
" Timm" answers the purposes of Messieurs the
Prefects, if it fails to satisfy the wants of the
people. Of the sort of pabulum supplied, a long
article, which appears in Tuesday's impression, is a
seasonable specimen. M. Timm seta out with en-
larging upon the wisdom of reverting occasionally
to the scenes of village life; to that naivete and
candour of soul " which makes the young girls of
" a village reeemble the lilies spoken of in Scrip-
" tore—simple, but striking emblems of grace and
" purity." Then follows a vague allusion to an
English poet, who, in obedience to the mysterious
law which forbids a French journalist ever spell-
ing a well-known proper name of English cor-
rectly, is termed " WOOD-WORTH," and who the
readers of the Petit Journal are told met with
•" the little cottage girl" (said by the poet him-
self to have lived at Conway), while on his
pedestrian tour through the French forests in the
revolutionary period. But this is skipped over
hurriedly to come to M. Tam's own experience.
Three months back it seems he was staying at a
village of the department of the Loiret.
Mere he met a girl of twenty, having
a sweet air ; a blonde with expressive eyes
" that appear to close when they have seen some-
"thing pleasant, as if delighting to preserve the
" joyous vision under those immense eyelashes."
This is the Parisian version of " the simple child"
of the poem :
Her hair was thick with many a curl -
That clustered round her head.
She had a rustic, woodland air,
And she was wildly clad.
Her eyes were fair, and very fair.
Bar beauty made me glad.

But this alone would not do for the Feta
4reurnaL Some one else was by; a youth who
confides to the visitor that he would like to seek
the band of the fair peasant in marriage, though
40 was fatherless and without, a dowry, did he
not tsar her brain was disturbed. M. Timm pro-
misee to investigate, Seizing the Brut oPPor-
*unity,. he gnostic= her. " How many of
*ow
.ER in your cottager' She stopped,
gwoooll to reflect, and having counted upon
*agar% replied, " Including myself, we are
*a." " To= hone is rather small for so
'0 way." "Oh Iws are not all under one roof.
'; There are only my mother, myself, and my four
Vttle brothers, but —" and then succeeds in
!mak prose a travesty of the replies of the
liglarasid,"—the chief departure from " WooD-
'f IIROUTE " being in the transposition of the num-
ber nine far the " seven" of the poem. In the
midst of it all, ahe treat* him to one of the songs
which " she site and sings" to the graves. It
begins :

La Paasion du &us /lama,
You ph/WI de leutandre 'r
" My Mend," says the visitor to the lover, " this'
" Child is not weak ; she has not only the use of her
" ivation—she has religion, sensibility. and heart.
", These area dot which is worth more than
" most." Evan this is not the end.

The little maid would have her will,
And raid, " Nay, we an seven,'
would be too undramatic a close for the _Petit
'coma/. A month later 31. Taixx rovisita the
Anne, and stops before the cottage. The
belle perceives him ea she is standing at her
door. " You are right," said she, "we are
" not nine in the home—now at least."