GARGANTUA GOES TO PARIS, AND THE BIG MARE THAT TAKES HIM THERE.
[Illustration: Initial T.]
The trip to Paris being settled, the first thing to be agreed on was a
horse large enough to carry Gargantua at his ease. There was no trouble
here; for, by good luck, it happened that there had arrived, only a
few days before, the most gigantic Mare that had ever eaten hay in the
Royal Stables. She had come all the way from Africa, a present from
Fayolles, the fourth king of Numidia. When Father Grandgousier went to
look at the Mare, he found her a marvellous animal, indeed. She was as
big as six elephants, with her hoofs split into toes. Her ears hung
downward like the great ears of the goats of Languedoc. The mare was
not alone in her split toes, because history tells us that the steed
of Julius Cæsar had the self-same toes if he hadn't the ears. But she
was alone in her tail! Oh, how mighty that tail was! It was as big as
the Pillar of Saint-Mars near Langes, and just as square. If the boys
and girls who are reading this are surprised, they will only have to
think of what they have already read of the tails of those Scythian
rams which weighed more than thirty pounds each; and of the sheep of
Syria, the tails of which were so long and so heavy that they had to be
rested on a cart to be carried in comfort. The Mare, in short, was so
extraordinary a creature that, on seeing her for the first time, Father
Grandgousier could only whistle beneath his breath.
"That's the very beast to carry my son to Paris! With her, all things
will go well. He will be a great scholar one of these days."
[Illustration: GARGANTUA'S MARE.]
The next day, after breakfast, the party started on their journey.
First, there was Gargantua on his gigantic mare, and wearing boots
which his father had just given him, made out of the skin of the red
deer; then his new teacher, Ponocrates; then his servants, among whom
was the young page, Eudemon. There never was a gayer party. In the
highest spirits, and laughing loudly, they jogged on, day after day,
until they reached a point just above the City of Orleans. At this
point, they found a great forest thirty-five leagues long and seventeen
wide, or thereabout. The forest was very fertile in some ugly insects,
known as gadflies and hornets. These flies were so large and so fierce,
and so sharp-tongued and so poisonous besides, that they were the
terror of all the poor horses and asses which had to pass through the
forest. But Gargantua's Mare was equal to both flies and hornets. She
resolved to avenge all her kindred, even though they were mere dwarfs,
which had ever suffered from gadflies and hornets, and which, if she
did not help them, would continue to suffer from them. The moment she
got well into the forest, and the gadflies began to plague her, she
first shook her tail slowly and lazily to see whether or not it was in
good working order. This did not in the least frighten the insects,
which kept on plaguing and stinging her more than ever. Then it was
that she loosed that tail of hers to the right and the left. So well
did she do this, whisking it wildly here and there, far up in the air
and low down on the ground, that she whipped down the biggest trees,
one after the other, with a crash that made the hearts of the others
tremble within their very bark, with all the ease that a mower cuts
down the grass. So well did she do her work that, since she passed
through that forest, there never has been seen in it a single tree or
a single gadfly, or a single hornet, for the whole wood on that day
became the open country, and has been open country ever since.
[Illustration: PONOCRATES.]
When Gargantua, who hadn't noticed what his Mare had been doing, saw
this, he only laughed, while he said to Ponocrates in his old-time
French:--
"_Je trouve beau-ce!_"
which, translated freely into English, would mean:--
"I find this fine."
And, from that day to this, the country above the City of Orleans, in
France, has been called _La Beauce_.