CONCLUSION. 299 



soon as we arrive, he abandons them, and comes curiously to place 

 himself before us, remains with us, seems to say, " You are here, 

 then ! But where have you been ? And why have you absented 

 yourself so long from home ? " 



The invasion of the robin, which we soon forgot, was not for- 

 gotten, it appears, by his timorous victim. The unfortunate nightingale 

 fluttered about ever afterwards with an air of alarm^ and nothing 

 could reassure him. 



Care was taken, however, that no one should approach him. His 

 mistress had charged herself with the necessary attentions. The 

 peculiar mixture which alone can nourish this ardent centre of life 

 (blood, hemp, and poppy), was conscientiously prepared. Blood and 

 llesh, these are the substance; hemp is the herb of intoxication; but 

 the poppy neutralizes it. The nightingale is the only creature which 

 it is necessary to feed incessantly with sleep and dreams. 



But all was in vain. Two or three days passed in a violent 

 agitation, and in abstinence tln-ough despair. I was melancholy, and 

 filled with remorse. I, a friend of freedom, had nevertheless a 

 prisoner, and a prisoner who would not be consoled ! It was not 

 without some scruples that I had formed the idea of procuring a 

 nightingale; for the mere sake of pleasure, I should never have come 

 to such a decision. I knew well that the very spectacle of such a 

 captive, deeply sensible of its captivity, was a permanent source of 

 sorrow. But how should I set him free? Of all questions, that of 

 slavery is the most difficult; the tyrant is punished by the impos- 

 sibility of finding a remedy for it. My captive, before coming into 

 my possession, had been two j^ears in a cage, and had neither wings 

 nor the impulse of industry to seek his own food; but had it been 

 otherwise, he could return no more to the free birds. In their proud 

 commonwealth, whoever has been a slave, whoever has languished 

 in a cage and not died of grief, is pitilessly condemned and put to 

 death. 



We should not easily have escaped from this dilemma, if song 

 had not come to our assistance. A soft, almost monotonous strain, 



