ey-haired old man, who had
overheard his conversation with the citizen, stepped up to the poor
poet, and laying his hand on his shoulder, said:

"Junius! Thou hast said thy say at the wrong time; but the other man
said his at the right time.--consequently, he is in the right, while for
thee there remain the consolations of thine own conscience."

But while his conscience was consoling Junius to the best of its
ability,--and in a decidedly-unsatisfactory way, if the truth must be
told,--far away, amid the thunder and patter of jubilation, in the
golden dust of the all-conquering sun, gleaming with purple, darkling
with laurel athwart the undulating streams of abundant incense, with
majestic leisureliness, like an emperor marching to his empire, the
proudly-erect figure of Julius moved forward with easy grace ... and
long branches of the palm-tree bent in turn before him, as though
expressing by their quiet rising, their submissive obeisance, that
incessantly-renewed adoration which filled to overflowing the hearts of
his fellow-citizens whom he had enchanted!

April, 1878.

THE SPARROW

I had returned from the chase and was walking along one of the alleys in
the garden. My hound was running on in front of me.

Suddenly he retarded his steps and began to crawl stealthily along as
though he detected game ahead.

I glanced down the alley and beheld a young sparrow, with a yellow ring
around its beak and down on its head. It had fallen from the nest (the
wind was rocking the trees of the alley violently), and sat motionless,
impotently expanding its barely-sprouted little wings.

My hound was approaching it slowly when, suddenly wrenching itself from
a neighbouring birch, an old black-breasted sparrow fell like a stone in
front of my dog's very muzzle--and, with plumage all ruffled, contorted,
with a despairing and pitiful cry, gave a couple of hops in the
direction of the yawning jaws studded with big teeth.

It had flung itself down to save, it was shielding, its offspring ...
but the whole of its tiny body was throbbing with fear, its voice was
wild and hoarse, it was swooning, it was sacrificing itself!

What a huge monster the dog must have appeared to it! And yet it could
not have remained perched on its lofty, secure bough.... A force greater
than its own will had hurled it thence.

My Tresor stopped short, retreated.... Evidently he recognised that
force.

I hastened to call off the discomfited