THE BIRTH OF PICCIOLA. 59 



court, he felt calm and happy in them. Then, 

 raising his head, he saw at the grated window the 

 flycatcher, who seemed to be observing him. He 

 blushed at first as if the other had guessed his 

 thoughts, and then smiled, for he despised his 

 neighbor no longer. Had he the right to do so ? 

 Was not his spirit, also, absorbed in the study of 

 one of the lowest works of nature ? 



"Who knows," he cried to himself, "if this 

 Italian has not found as many wonders in a fly as 

 I have discovered in my plant ? " 



Entering his cell, the first thing which caught his 

 eye was this fatalistic sentence, written by himself 

 upon the wall two months before : Chance is blind 

 and is the sole author of creation. 



He took a bit of charcoal arid wrote beneath the 

 words, perhaps. 



