bound to obey any reasonable summons--"

"You, there, just listen to that!" put in the baker.

"And of bakers, M. Champollion, who sold bread at a price regulated by
law, with a committee of five _prohomes_ to see that they sold by just
weight."

"Eh? Eh? And I warrant the law allowed no yeast from Germany!"--This
from the widow.

"Beyond doubt, my daughter, it would have countenanced no such invention;
for the town held its charter from the Viscounts of Beziers and Albi, and
might consume only such corn and wine as were grown in the Viscounty."

"_Parbleu!_"--the baker shrugged his shoulders--"in the matter of wine we
should fare well nowadays under such a rule!"

"In these times Ambialet grew its own wine, and by the tun. Had you but
used your eyes on the way hither they might have counted old vine-stocks
by the score; they lie this way and that amid the heather on either side
of the calvary. Many of the inhabitants yet alive can remember the
phylloxera destroying them."

"Which came, moreover, from the Rouergue!" snapped Maman Vacher.

"Be silent, my daughter. Yes! these were thriving times for Ambialet
before ever the heresy infected the Albigeois, and when every year brought
the Great Pilgrimage and the Retreat. For three days before the Retreat,
while yet the inns were filling, the whole town made merry under a
president called the King of Youth--_rex juventutis_--who appointed his
own officers, levied his own fines, and was for three days a greater man
even than the Viscount of Beziers, from whom he derived his power by
charter: '_E volem e auctreiam quo lo Rei del Joven d'Ambilet puesco far
sas fastas, tener ses senescals e sos jutges e sos sirvens_ . . .' h'm,
h'm." Pere Philibert cast about to continue the quotation, but suddenly
recollected that to his hearers its old French must be as good as Greek.

"--Well, as I was saying, this King of Youth held his merrymaking once in
every year, at the time of the Great Pilgrimage. And on a certain year
there came to Ambialet among the pilgrims one Tibbald, a merchant of
Cahors, and a man (as you shall see) of unrighteous mind, in that he
snatched at privy gain under cover of his soul's benefit. This man,
having arrived at Ambialet in the dusk, had no sooner sought out an inn
than he inquired, 'Who regulated this feast?' The innkeeper directed him
to the place, where he found the King of Youth setting up a maypole by
torchlight; whom he plucked by th