194 THE FRENCH CONVUI.SIVES. 



" I was on the road to Vauvres, filled with the happiness of existence, of 

 breathing, of feeling a pure and warm air circulate around me, admiring like 

 a child the slighest flower tfyat bloomed, and remaining whole quarters of 

 hours to watch the picturesque wind-mills turn round with magisterial gra- 

 vity. On a sudden, precisely at the corner of that road, so ill kept, so 

 narrow, so stony, and yet so much loved, which leads to the tavern of the 

 Bon Lapin, I beheld a young girl on an ass which was running away. 

 Oh the ravishing sight ! It will be before my eyes to the end of my existence. 

 The young creature was rosy, animated, rather full grown, with a neck of 

 surpassing beauty. In her terror she had lost her straw bonnet, and she 

 cried out in a sweet voice, ' stop !' But the luckless ass continued at full 

 speed, and I allowed him to do so. I liked that aerial motion, the animated 

 fear, the danger which surrounded her a girl in the hands of chance, and 

 that chance at my controul. She cried out nobody was there but myself and 

 my dog. 



" The ass stopped suddenly the young girl fell I uttered an exclamation 

 and caught her in my arms. The ass galloped off through the fields. 

 Scarcely had I hold of her, gazing on her as on a prize that belonged to me, 

 when she raised herself with a brisk motion and set off in pursuit of her 

 palfrey, exclaiming 'Chariot! Chariot!' My dog continued running and 

 barking, and Chariot was at his utmost speed. 



" My first care was to pick up the bonnet ; it was a common straw 

 bonnet, with a faded riband, a vile blue flower, and yet there was something 

 about it which revealed a good and kind hearted disposition in its owner ; 

 she was now at a distance. 



" Houston, my dog, at length brought Chariot back to me. I mounted 

 upon the saddle with the straw bonnet on my head, and entering a little 

 wood I proceeded slowly along. 



" The young girl continued to exclaim ' Chariot ! Chariot !' She was at 

 the skirts of the wood more rosy than before, sobbing with uneasiness ; and 

 when at length she again beheld her Chariot, she sprang forward and threw 

 herself upon his neck, embraced him, and called him by a thousand dear ap- 

 pellations. ' Here you are,' Chariot, said she to him and she embraced him. 

 The animal stood quietly, while I, still posted in the same place, remained 

 unnoticed, and while seated as I was upon his back, I would have given my 

 life for one of those fresh kisses thus lavished upon Chariot. Chariot ab- 

 sorbed all her thoughts. 



" At last she raised her head, ' Ah ! there's my bonnet/ said she, with 

 delight ; then she gazed at me with her large black eyes, and observing that 

 I was seated upon Chariot, she sat down in front of me and the donkey. 

 She restored order to her hair, wiped her brow, replaced her bonnet on her 

 head, heaved a heavy sigh of fatigue, and rose as if to say to me, ' Get out of 

 that.' She seemed determined not to leave me her Chariot a moment longer. 

 I dismounted, she sprang to her saddle, and away bounded Chariot. 



" Never had I seen a girl more bewitching, more blooming, more fresh ! 

 But for me, not a word, not a look. I was all admiration, but I had not a 

 word to say to her. What could I have said ? Chariot and her hat had en- 

 grossed her whole attention. And again, I am not one of those sceptics, 

 devoid of all morality, who lay it down that there is but one way of feeling 

 an interest in a woman. I have a thousand very innocent ways. You tell 

 me of taking their hand : now I ask you, was it not happiness ineffable to have 

 seen her run, sit down, get up, to have heard her call Chariot, to have co- 

 vered my head with her straw bonnet, to have passed beneath my chin the 

 riband which had touched hers, to have been leaning over her while she 

 embraced Chariot. 



" The young girl and Chariot were ever recurring to my heart. The 

 graces of the one, lively, elegant, healthy, light ; the beauty of the other, 



