The Hermit of Serignan 



about, like a lost soul, for no appreciable reason ; 

 he has so often caught you rooting in the ground, 

 or, with infinite precautions, knocking down some 

 strip of wall in a sunken road, that in the end 

 he has come to look upon you with dark suspicion. 

 You are nothing to him but a gipsy, a tramp, 

 poultry-thief, a shady person, or, at the best, a mad- 

 man. Should you be carrying your botanising-case, 

 it will represent to him the poacher's ferret-cage; 

 and you would never get it out of his head that, 

 regardless of the game-laws and the rights of land- 

 lords, you are clearing the neighbouring warrens of 

 their rabbits. Take care. However thirsty you 

 may be, do not lay a finger on the nearest bunch 

 of grapes: the man with the municipal badge will 

 be there, delighted to have a case at last and so 

 to receive an explanation of your highly perplex- 

 ing behaviour. 



I have never, I can safely say, committed any 

 such misdemeanour; and yet, one day, lying on the 

 sand, absorbed in the details of a Bembex's house- 

 hold, I suddenly heard beside me: 



" In the name of the law, I arrest you! You 

 come along with me!" 



It was the keeper of Les Angles, who, after 

 vainly waiting for an opportunity to catch me at 

 fault and being daily more anxious for an answer 

 to the riddle that was worrying him, at last re- 

 solved upon the brutal expedient of a summons. 

 I had to explain things. The poor man seemed 

 anything but convinced : 



"Pooh!" he said. "Pooh! You will never 



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