uppliant, that I felt the
tears coming into my eyes. I came near him; he ran away, then he came
back again; and I bent down, trying to coax him to approach me with
soft words. At last, he was within reach of my hands, and I gently
caressed him with the most careful touch.

"He grew bold, rose up bit by bit, laid his paws on my shoulders, and
began to lick my face. He followed me into the house.

"This was really the first being I had passionately loved, because he
returned my affection. My attachment to this animal was certainly
exaggerated and ridiculous. It seemed to me in a confused sort of way
that we were two brothers, lost on this earth, and therefore isolated
and without defense, one as well as the other. He never again quitted
my side. He slept at the foot of my bed, ate at the table in spite of
the objections of my parents, and he followed me in my solitary walks.

"I often stopped at the side of a ditch, and sat down in the grass.
Sam immediately rushed up, fell asleep on my knees, and lifted up my
hand with the end of his snout so that I might caress him.

"One day towards the end of June, as we were on the road from
Saint-Pierre-de-Chavrol, I saw the diligence from Pavereau coming
along. Its four horses were going at a gallop with its yellow box
seat, and imperial crowned with black leather. The coachman cracked
his whip; a cloud of dust rose up under the wheels of the heavy
vehicle, then floated behind, just as a cloud would do.

"And, all of a sudden, as the vehicle came close to me, Sam, perhaps
frightened by the noise and wishing to join me, jumped in front of it.
A horse's foot knocked him down. I saw him rolling over, turning
round, falling back again on all fours, and then the entire coach
gave two big shakes, and behind it I saw something quivering in the
dust on the road. He was nearly cut in two; all his intestines were
hanging through his stomach, which had been ripped open, and fell in
spurts of blood to the ground. He tried to get up, to walk, but he
could only move his two front paws, and scratch the ground with them,
as if to make a hole. The two others were already dead. And he howled
dreadfully, mad with pain.

"He died in a few minutes. I cannot describe how much I felt and
suffered. I was confined to my own room for a month.

"Now, one night, my father, enraged at seeing me in such a state for
so little, exclaimed:

"'How then will it be when you have real griefs--if you lose your