drooping foliage like the willow; of how they stand on upright
fluted columns like the pillars of a church; or like the olive,

from the most shattered bole can put out smooth and youthful
shoots, and begin a new life upon the ruins of the old. Thus they

partake of the nature of many different trees; and even their
prickly top-knots, seen near at hand against the sky, have a

certain palm-like air that impresses the imagination. But their
individuality, although compounded of so many elements, is but the

richer and the more original. And to look down upon a level filled
with these knolls of foliage, or to see a clan of old unconquerable

chestnuts cluster 'like herded elephants' upon the spur of a
mountain, is to rise to higher thoughts of the powers that are in

Nature.
Between Modestine's laggard humour and the beauty of the scene, we

made little progress all that afternoon; and at last finding the
sun, although still far from setting, was already beginning to

desert the narrow valley of the Tarn, I began to cast about for a
place to camp in. This was not easy to find; the terraces were too

narrow, and the ground, where it was unterraced, was usually too
steep for a man to lie upon. I should have slipped all night, and

awakened towards morning with my feet or my head in the river.
After perhaps a mile, I saw, some sixty feet above the road, a

little plateau large enough to hold my sack, and securely parapeted
by the trunk of an aged and enormouschestnut. Thither, with

infinite trouble, I goaded and kicked the reluctant Modestine, and
there I hastened to unload her. There was only room for myself

upon the plateau, and I had to go nearly as high again before I
found so much as standing-room for the ass. It was on a heap of

rolling stones, on an artificialterrace, certainly not five feet
square in all. Here I tied her to a chestnut, and having given her

corn and bread and made a pile of chestnut-leaves, of which I found
her greedy, I descended once more to my own encampment.

The position was unpleasantly exposed. One or two carts went by
upon the road; and as long as daylight lasted I concealed myself,

for all the world like a hunted Camisard, behind my fortification
of vast chestnut trunk; for I was passionately afraid of discovery

and the visit of jocular persons in the night. Moreover, I saw
that I must be early awake; for these chestnut gardens had been the

scene of industry no further gone than on the day before. The
slope was strewn with lopped branches, and here and there a great

package of leaves was propped against a trunk; for even the leaves
are serviceable, and the peasants use them in winter by way of

fodder for their animals. I picked a meal in fear and trembling,
half lying down to hide myself from the road; and I daresay I was

as much concerned as if I had been a scout from Joani's band above
upon the Lozere, or from Salomon's across the Tarn, in the old

times of psalm-singing and blood. Or, indeed, perhaps more; for
the Camisards had a remarkable confidence in God; and a tale comes

back into my memory of how the Count of Gevaudan, riding with a
party of dragoons and a notary at his saddlebow to enforce the oath

of fidelity in all the country hamlets, entered a valley in the
woods, and found Cavalier and his men at dinner, gaily seated on

the grass, and their hats crowned with box-tree garlands, while
fifteen women washed their linen in the stream. Such was a field

festival in 1703; at that date Antony Watteau would be painting
similar subjects.

This was a very different camp from that of the night before in the
cool and silent pine-woods. It was warm and even stifling in the

valley. The shrill song of frogs, like the tremolo note of a
whistle with a pea in it, rang up from the river-side before the

sun was down. In the growing dusk, faint rustlings began to run to
and fro among the fallen leaves; from time to time a faint chirping

or cheeping noise would fall upon my ear; and from time to time I
thought I could see the movement of something swift and indistinct

between the chestnuts. A profusion of large ants swarmed upon the
ground; bats whisked by, and mosquitoes droned overhead. The long

boughs with their bunches of leaves hung against the sky like
garlands; and those immediately above and around me had somewhat

the air of a trellis which should have been wrecked and half
overthrown in a gale of wind.

Sleep for a long time fled my eyelids; and just as I was beginning
to feel quiet stealing over my limbs, and settling densely on my

mind, a noise at my head startled me broad awake again, and, I will
frankly confess it, brought my heart into my mouth.

It was such a noise as a person would make scratching loudly with a
finger-nail; it came from under the knapsack which served me for a

pillow, and it was thricerepeated before I had time to sit up and
turn about. Nothing was to be seen, nothing more was to be heard,

but a few of these mysterious rustlings far and near, and the
ceaseless accompaniment of the river and the frogs. I learned next

day that the chestnut gardens are infested by rats; rustling,
chirping, and scraping were probably all due to these; but the

puzzle, for the moment, was insoluble, and I had to compose myself
for sleep, as best I could, in wondering uncertainty about my

neighbours.
I was wakened in the grey of the morning (Monday, 30th September)

by the sound of foot-steps not far off upon the stones, and opening
my eyes, I beheld a peasant going by among the chestnuts by a

footpath that I had not hitherto observed. He turned his head
neither to the right nor to the left, and disappeared in a few

strides among the foliage. Here was an escape! But it was plainly
more than time to be moving. The peasantry were abroad; scarce

less terrible to me in my nondescript position than the soldiers of
Captain Poul to an undaunted Camisard. I fed Modestine with what

haste I could; but as I was returning to my sack, I saw a man and a
boy come down the hillside in a direction crossing mine. They

unintelligibly hailed me, and I replied with inarticulate but
cheerful sounds, and hurried forward to get into my gaiters.

The pair, who seemed to be father and son, came slowly up to the
plateau, and stood close beside me for some time in silence. The

bed was open, and I saw with regret my revolver lying patently
disclosed on the blue wool. At last, after they had looked me all

over, and the silence had grown laughably embarrassing, the man
demanded in what seemed unfriendly tones:

'You have slept here?'
'Yes,' said I. 'As you see.'

'Why?' he asked.
'My faith,' I answered lightly, 'I was tired.'

He next inquired where I was going and what I had had for dinner;
and then, without the least transition, 'C'EST BIEN,' he added,

'come along.' And he and his son, without another word, turned off
to the next chestnut-tree but one, which they set to pruning. The

thing had passed of more simply than I hoped. He was a grave,
respectable man; and his unfriendly voice did not imply that he

thought he was speaking to a criminal, but merely to an inferior.
I was soon on the road, nibbling a cake of chocolate and seriously

occupied with a case of conscience. Was I to pay for my night's
lodging? I had slept ill, the bed was full of fleas in the shape

of ants, there was no water in the room, the very dawn had
neglected to call me in the morning. I might have missed a train,

had there been any in the neighbourhood to catch. Clearly, I was
dissatisfied with my entertainment; and I decided I should not pay

unless I met a beggar.
The valley looked even lovelier by morning; and soon the road

descended to the level of the river. Here, in a place where many
straight and prosperouschestnuts stood together, making an aisle

upon a swarded terrace, I made my morning toilette in the water of
the Tarn. It was marvellously clear, thrillingly cool; the soap-

suds disappeared as if by magic in the swift current, and the white
boulders gave one a model for cleanliness. To wash in one of God's

rivers in the open air seems to me a sort of cheerfulsolemnity or
semi-pagan act of worship. To dabble among dishes in a bedroom may

perhaps make clean the body; but the imagination takes no share in