ng.

For days at a time he would roam about with his dogs in the valleys of
the Cevennes. He gathered stones, mushrooms, flowers, caught birds and
snakes, hunted, sang, and fished. If something went wrong and his blood
was up, he mounted the fieriest horse in his stable and rode over the
most dangerous paths across the rocks, to Rieux. In winter, in the
early cold hours, he was seen bathing in the river; in sultry summer
nights he lay naked and feverish under the open sky. He declared then
that he saw the stars dance and the earth tremble. At vintage time he
was, without ever drinking, as if intoxicated; he organized festivals
with music and torch-light processions, and was the patron of all
the love-affairs among the workers in the vineyards. In case of
long-continued bad weather he grew pale, languid, and supersensitive,
lost sleep and appetite, and was subject to sudden fits of rage which
were the dread of his servants; on one such occasion he cut down half a
dozen of the grandest trees in the garden, which, as everybody knew, he
loved as passionately as if they were his brothers.

That with such an irregular management the income of the estate
diminished year by year, astonished no one but himself. He fell into
debt, but to speak or think about it caused him the greatest annoyance,
and his resource against it was a regular participation in various
lotteries, to whose dates of payment he always looked forward with
childish impatience.

* * * * *

When the court, in compliance with the opinion and accusation of the
people, which could not be ignored, ordered Bastide's arrest, he
already knew the forces at work against him. He was sitting under a
huge plane-tree, occupied with some wood-carving, when the constables
appeared in the yard. Charlotte Arlabosse rushed up to him and seized
his arm, but he shook her off, saying: "Let them have their way, the
abscess has been ripe a long time." Stepping forward to meet the
gendarmes with satirical pomposity, he cried: "Your servant,
gentlemen."

The occupants of La Morne were subjected to a rigorous examination.
According to Bastide's own statement, he had ridden to Rodez on the
afternoon of the nineteenth of March; at seven in the evening he was
already with his sister in the village of Gros; there he remained over
night, returned in the morning to La Morne, then upon the news of his
uncle's death, he had ridden to Rodez once more and spent about half an
hour in Fualde