omed by men who are doubly my brethren--by the
labour of the hands and by the labour of the head. You have moved me and
astonished me, and I have incurred to l'Athenee-Ouvier a poetical debt
which my muse can only repay with the most tender recollections."

Many pleasant letters passed between Jasmin and Mdlle. de Roaldes. The
lady entertained the liveliest gratitude to the poet, who had helped her
so nobly in her misfortunes. On the morning after her first successful
appearance at Agen, she addressed to him a letter full of praise and
thankfulness. She ended it thus: "Most amiable poet, I adore your heart,
and I do homage to your genius." In a future letter she confessed that
the rays of the sun were not less welcome than the rays of his genius,
and that her music would have been comparatively worthless but for his
poetry.

Towards the end of their joint entertainment she again wrote to him:
"You have become, my dear poet, my shower of gold, my heaven-sent manna,
while you continue your devotion to my personal interests.... As a poet,
I give you all the glory; as a friend, I owe you the affection of my
filial heart, the hopes of a better time, and the consolation of my
future days... Let it be remembered that this good deed on your part
is due to your heart and will. May it protect you during your life, and
make you blest in the life which is to come!"

While at Nimes, the two poet-artisans met--Reboul the baker and Jasmin
the barber. Reboul, who attended the music-recitation, went up to Jasmin
and cordially embraced him, amidst the enthusiastic cheers of three
thousand people. Jasmin afterwards visited Reboul at his bakery, where
they had a pleasant interview with respect to the patois of Provence and
Gascony. At the same time it must be observed that Reboul did not write
in patois, but in classical French.

Reboul had published a volume of poems which attracted the notice and
praise of Lamartine and Alexandre Dumas. Perhaps the finest poem in the
volume is entitled The Angel and Child. Reboul had lost his wife and
child; he sorrowed greatly at their death, and this poem was the result.
The idea is simple and beautiful. An angel, noticing a lovely child in
its cradle, and deeming it too pure for earth, bears its spirit away to
Heaven. The poem has been admirably translated by Longfellow.

Dumas, in 'Pictures of Travel in the South of France,' relates an
interview with the baker-poet of Nimes.

"What made you a p