rs at all the mayors in Provence; and
the devil himself had best be careful--shouldst thou go down that way,
as thy pass permits thee--how he trifles with a brave soldier of
France!'

"But my grandfather did not try the devil's temper," Mistral concluded.
"He was satisfied to stay in his own dear home until the Day of the
Kings was over, and then he went back to his command."

IX

The day dragged a little when we had finished in the kitchen with the
giving of Christmas portions and the last of the farm-hands, calling
back "_Boni festo!_," had gone away. For the womenkind, of course, there
was a world to do; and Mise Fougueiroun whisked us out of her dominions
with a pretty plain statement that our company was less desirable than
our room. But for the men there was only idle waiting until night should
come.

As for the Vidame--who is a fiery fume of a little old gentleman, never
happy unless in some way busily employed--this period of stagnation was
so galling that in sheer pity I mounted him upon his hobby and set him
to galloping away. 'Twas an easy matter, and the stimulant that I
administered was rather dangerously strong: for I brought up the
blackest beast in the whole herd of his abominations by asking him if
there were not some colour of reason in the belief that Marius lay not
at Vielmur but at Glanum--now Saint-Remy-de-Provence--behind the lines
of Roman wall which exist there to this day.

So far as relieving the strain of the situation was concerned, my
expedient was a complete success; but the storm that I raised was like
to have given the Vidame such an attack of bilious indigestion begotten
of anger as would have spoiled the Great Supper for him; and as for
myself, I was overwhelmed for some hours by his avalanche of words. But
the long walk that we took in the afternoon, that he might give me
convincing proof of the soundness of his archaeological theories,
fortunately set matters right again; and when we returned in the late
day to the Chateau my old friend had recovered his normal serenity of
soul.

As we passed the Mazet in our afternoon walk, we stopped to greet the
new arrivals there, come to make the family gathering complete: two more
married children, with a flock of their own little ones, and Elizo's
father and mother--a bowed little rosy-cheeked old woman and a bowed
lean old man, both well above eighty years. There was a lively passage
of friendly greetings between them all and the Vi