rical
representation of Provence; the fair descendant of imperial ancestors is
imprisoned in a convent by her half-sister France. Formerly she
possessed a hundred fortified towns, twenty seaports; she had olives,
fruit, and grain in abundance; a great river watered her fields; a
great wind vivified the land, and the proud noblewoman could live
without her neighbor, and she sang so sweetly that all loved her, poets
and suitors thronged about her.

Now, in the convent where she is cloistered all are dressed alike, all
obey the rule of the same bell, all joy is gone. The half-sister has
broken her tambourines and taken away her vineyards, and gives out that
her sister is dead.

Then the poet breaks into an appeal to the strong to break into the
great convent, to hang the abbess, and say to the Countess, "Appear
again, O splendor! Away with grief, away! Long life to joy!"

Each stanza is followed by the refrain:--

"Ah! se me sabien entendre!
Ah! se me voulien segui!"

Ah! if they could understand me!
Ah! if they would follow me!

Mistral disdained to reply to the storm of accusations and
incriminations raised by the publication of this poem. _Lou Saumede la
Penitenci_, that appeared in 1870, set at rest all doubts concerning his
deep and sincere patriotism.

_The Psalm of Penitence_ is possibly the finest of the short poems. It
is certainly surpassed by no other in intensity of feeling, in genuine
inspiration, in nobility and beauty of expression. It is a hymn of
sorrow over the woes of France, a prayer of humility and resignation
after the disaster of 1870. The reader must accept the idea, of course,
that the defeat of the French was a visitation of Providence in
punishment for sin.

"Segnour, a la fin ta coulero
Largo si tron
Sus nosti front:
E dins la niue nosto galero
Pico d'a pro
Contro li ro."

Lord, at last thy wrath hurls its thunderbolts upon our foreheads:

And in the night our vessel strikes its prow against the rocks.

France was punished for irreligion, for closing the temples, for
abandoning the sacraments and commandments, for losing faith in all
except selfish interest and so-called progress, for contempt of the
Bible and pride in science.

The poet makes confession:--

"Segnour, sian tis enfant proudigue;
Mai nautri sian
Ti viei crestian:
Que ta Justico nous castigue,
Mai