and howl in imitation of the wolves.

"As soon as I perceived my parents, I crept furtively toward them,
under the branches, in order to surprise them, as though I had been a
veritable wolf. But suddenly seized with fear, I stopped a few paces
from them. My father, a prey to the most violent passion, cried:

"'Your mother is a fool; moreover, it is not your mother that is the
question, it is you. I tell you that I want money, and I will make you
sign this.'

"My mother responded in a firm voice:

"'I will not sign it. It is Jean's fortune, I shall guard it for him
and I will not allow you to devour it with strange women, as you have
your own heritage.'

"Then my father, full of rage, wheeled round and seized his wife by the
throat, and began to slap her full in the face with the disengaged hand.

"My mother's hat fell off, her hair became disheveled and fell down her
back: she essayed to parry the blows, but could not escape from them.
And my father, like a madman, banged and banged at her. My mother
rolled over on the ground, covering her face in both her hands. Then he
turned her over on her back in order to batter her still more, pulling
away the hands which were covering her face.

"As for me, my friend, it seemed as though the world had come to an
end, that the eternal laws had changed. I experienced the overwhelming
dread that one has in presence of things supernatural, in presence of
irreparable disaster. My boyish head whirled round and soared. I began
to cry with all my might, without knowing why, a prey to terror, to
grief, to a dreadful bewilderment. My father heard me, turned round,
and, on seeing me, made as though he would rush at me. I believed that
he wanted to kill me, and I fled like a hunted animal, running straight
in front of me through the woods.

"I ran perhaps for an hour, perhaps for two, I know not. Darkness had
set in, I tumbled over some thick herbs, exhausted, and I lay there
lost, devoured by terror, eaten up by a sorrow capable of breaking
forever the heart of a child. I became cold, I became hungry. At length
day broke. I dared neither get up, walk, return home, nor save myself,
fearing to encounter my father whom I did not wish to see again.

"I should probably have died of misery and of hunger at the foot of a
tree if the guard had not discovered me and led me away by force.

"I found my parents wearing their ordinary aspect. My mother alone
spoke to me:

"'How you have f