The Life of the "Weevil 



his criminal projects, Augustus the divine 

 would have remained Octavius the scoundrel. 



His minister pleases me better. He was 

 a great mover of stones, who, with his build- 

 ing-operations, his aqueducts and his roads, 

 came and civilized the rude Volscse a little. 

 Not far from my village a splendid road 

 crosses the plain, starting from the banks of 

 the Aygues, and climbs up yonder, tedious in 

 its monotonous length, to cross the Serignan 

 hills, under the protection of a mighty 

 oppidum, which, much later, became the old 

 castle, the castelas. It is a section of 

 Agrippa's Road, which joined Marseilles and 

 Vienne. The majestic ribbon, twenty centu- 

 ries old, is still frequented. We no longer 

 see the little brown foot-soldier of the Ro- 

 man legions upon it; in his stead we see the 

 peasant going to market at Orange, with his 

 flock of Sheep or his drove of unruly Porkers. 

 Of the two I prefer the peasant. 



Let us turn over our green-crusted penny. 

 "COL. NEM.,"i the reverse tells us. The 

 inscription is accompanied by a Crocodile 

 chained to a palm-tree from which hang 



1 Colony of Nimes. Nemansus was the Latin name of 

 Nimes. — Translator's Note. 



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