d sternly
refuses. The other leaves, and then the harvesters continue their
merry-making, with singing and farandoles, about a great bonfire in
honor of Saint John. "All the hills were aglow as if stars had rained in
the darkness, and the mad wind carried up the incense of the hills and
the red gleam of the fires toward the saint, hovering in the blue
twilight."

That night Mireio grieved and wept for Vincen, and, remembering what he
had told her of the three Saint Maries, rises before the dawn and flees
away. Her journey across the Crau and the island of Camargue is narrated
with numerous details and descriptions; they are never extraneous to the
action, and are a constant source of beauty and interest. The strange,
barren plain of the Crau, covered with the stones that once destroyed a
race of Giants, as the legend has it, is vividly described, as the
maiden flies across it in the ardent rays of the June sun. She stops to
pray to a saint that he send her a draught of water, and immediately she
comes upon a well. Here she meets a little Arlesian boy who tells her
"in his golden speech" of the glories of Arles. "But," says the poet,
"O soft, dark city, the child forgot to tell thy supreme wonder; O
fertile land of Arles, Heaven gives pure beauty to thy daughters, as it
gives grapes to the autumn, and perfumes to the mountains and wings to
the bird." The little fellow talks of many things and leads her to his
home. From here the fisherman ferries her over the broad Rhone, and we
accompany her over the Camargue, down to the sea. A mirage deceives her
for a time, she sees the town and church, but it soon vanishes in air,
and the maiden hurries on in the fierce heat.

Her prayer in the chapel is written in another verse form:--

"O Santi Mario
Que poudes en flour
Chanja nosti plour
Clinas leu l'auriho
De-vers ma doulour!"

O Holy Maries, who can change our tears to blossoms, incline
quickly an ear unto my grief!

Before the prayer is ended, there begins the vision of the three Maries,
descending to her from Heaven.

Meste Ramoun discovers the flight of the unhappy maiden, and with all
his family starts in pursuit. After the first outburst of grief, he
sends out a messenger.

"Let the mowers and the ploughmen leave the scythes and the ploughs! Say
to the harvesters to throw down their sickles, bid the shepherds leave
their flocks, bid them come to me!"

The boy goes out into the fie