M. Alphonse, who understood French better than Latin, winked with an
understanding air, and looked at me as though to say, "Do you
understand that, you Parisian?"
Supper ended at last. For an hour I had not been able to eat any more. I
was tired, and could not hide my frequent yawns. Madam de Peyrehorade
saw it first, and said that it was time to retire. Then began fresh
apologies for the poor entertainment I should find. I should not be
comfortable as in Paris; in the country things are so different! I must
make allowances for the people of Roussillon. It was in vain I protested
that after a journey among the mountains a bundle of straw would seem a
delicious bed. They still begged me to pardon their poor rustic servants
if they did not behave as well as they should. At last, accompanied by
M. de Peyrehorade, I reached the room put apart for my use. The
staircase, the top steps of which were of wood, led to the centre of a
corridor, out of which opened several rooms.
"To the right," said my host, "is the set of rooms that I intend for the
future Madam Alphonse. Your room is at the end of the passage opposite.
You will understand," he added, with a look which he meant to be
sly--"you will readily understand that newly married people wish to be
by themselves. You are at one end of the house and they at the other."
We entered a very handsomely furnished room, where the first object that
caught my eye was a bed seven feet long, six broad, and such a height
that one needed a stool to get into it. My host pointed out the position
of the bell, and satisfied himself that the sugar-bowl was full, and
the smelling-bottles of eau de Cologne in their proper places on the
toilette table; then he asked me repeatedly if I had all I wanted,
wished me good-night and left me alone.
The windows were shut. Before undressing, I opened one to breathe the
cool night air, which was delicious after such a lengthy supper. In
front was Canigou Mountain, which is at all times beautiful, but
to-night it seemed the fairest in the world, lighted up as it was by a
splendid moon. I stood a few minutes to contemplate its marvellous
outline, and was just going to close my window when, lowering my gaze, I
saw the statue on a pedestal about forty yards from the house. It was
placed in a corner of the quick-set hedge which separated a little
garden from a large, perfectly level court, which, I learnt later, was
the tennis ground for the town. This ground had been M. de Peyrehorade's
property, but he had given it to the public at his son's urgent
entreaties.
From my distance away it was difficult to make out the form of the
statue; I could only judge of its height, which I guessed was about six
feet. At that moment two town larrikins passed along the tennis court,
close to the hedge, whistling the pretty Roussillon air, "Montagnes
régalades." They stopped to look at the statue, and one of them even
apostrophised her in a loud voice. He spoke the Catalanian dialect, but
I had been long enough in the province of Roussillon to be able to
understand almost all he said.
"Chi-ike, huzzy!" (the Catalanian expression was more forcible than
that). "Look here," he said, "you broke Jean Coll's leg for him! If you
belonged to me I would have broken your neck."
"Bah! what with?" asked the other. "She is made of copper, and so hard
that Stephen broke his file over it, trying to cut into it. It is copper
from before the Flood, and harder than anything I can think."
"If I had my cold chisel" (apparently he was a locksmith's apprentice)
"I would jolly soon scoop out her big white eyes; it would be like
cracking a couple of nutshells for the kernels. I would do it for a
bob."
They moved a few paces further off.
"I must just wish the idol good night," said the tallest of the
apprentices, stopping suddenly.
He stooped, and probably picked up a stone. I saw him stretch out his
arm and throw something, and immediately after I heard a resounding blow
from the bronze. At the same moment the apprentice raised his hand to
his head and yelled out in pain.
"She has thrown it back at me!" he cried.
And then the two scamps took to flight as fast as they could. The stone
had evidently rebounded from the metal, and had punished the rascal for
the outrage done to the goddess.