nd saucers, which glistened in the moonlight. I saw my writing desk
appear, a rare curiosity of the last century, which contained all the
letters I had ever received, all the history of my heart, an old history
from which I have suffered so much! Besides, there was inside of it a
great many cherished photographs.

Suddenly--I no longer had any fear--I threw myself on it, seized it as
one would seize a thief, as one would seize a wife about to run away; but
it pursued its irresistible course, and despite my efforts and despite my
anger, I could not even retard its pace. As I was resisting in
desperation that insuperable force, I was thrown to the ground in my
struggle with it. It then rolled me over, trailed me along the gravel,
and the rest of my furniture which followed it, began to march over me,
tramping on my legs and injuring them. When I loosed my hold, other
articles passed over my body, just as a charge of cavalry does over the
body of a dismounted soldier.

Seized at last with terror, I succeeded in dragging myself out of the
main avenue, and in concealing myself again among the shrubbery, so as
to watch the disappearance of the most cherished objects, the smallest,
the least striking, the least unknown which had once belonged to me.

I then heard, in the distance, noises which came from my apartments,
which sounded now as if the house were empty, a loud noise of shutting
of doors. They were being slammed from top to bottom of my dwelling,
even the door which I had just opened myself unconsciously, and which
had closed of itself, when the last thing had taken its departure. I
took flight also, running towards the city, and I only regained my
self-composure on reaching the boulevards, where I met belated people.
I rang the bell of a hotel where I was known. I had knocked the dust off
my clothes with my hands, and I told the porter how that I had lost my
bunch of keys, which included also that of the kitchen garden, where my
servants slept in a house standing by itself, on the other side of the
wall of the enclosure, which protected my fruits and vegetables from the
raids of marauders.

I covered myself up to the eyes in the bed which was assigned to me;
but I could not sleep, and I waited for the dawn in listening to the
throbbing of my heart. I had given orders that my servants were to be
summoned to the hotel at daybreak, and my _valet de chambre_ knocked at
my door at seven o'clock in the morning.

His c