There is the world, then, invading with all its pomp my beloved solitude.  I curse it, Paul, with all the bitterness of my heart.  I became indebted to it, last night, it is true, for a fantastic apparition that both charmed and delighted me; but I am also indebted to it to-day for a ridiculous adventure which I am the only one not to laugh at, for I was its unlucky hero.

I was but little disposed to work this morning; I went on sketching, however, until noon, but had to give it up then; my head was heavy, I felt dull and disagreeable, I had a vague presentiment of something fatal in the air.  I returned for a moment to the mill to get rid of my traps; I quarreled, to her surprise and grief, with the miller’s wife, on the subject of I know not what cruelly indigenous mess she had served me for breakfast; I scolded the good woman’s two children because they were touching my pencils; finally, I administered a vigorous kick to the house-dog, accompanied with the celebrated formula:  “Judge whether you had done anything to me!”

Rather dissatisfied with myself, as you may imagine, after these three mean little tricks, I directed my steps toward the forest, in order to hide as much as possible from the light of the day.  I walked about for nearly an hour without being able to shake off the prophetic melancholy that oppressed me.  Perceiving at last, on the edge of one of the avenues that traverse the forest, and under the dense shade of some beech-trees, a thick bed of moss, I stretched myself upon it, together with my remorse, and it was not long before I fell into a sound sleep.  Mon Dieu! why was it not the sleep of death?

I have no idea how long I had been asleep, when I was suddenly awakened by a certain concussion of the soil in my immediate vicinity; I jumped abruptly to my feet, and I saw, within five steps of me, on the road, a young lady on horseback.  My unexpected apparition had somewhat frightened the horse, who had shied with some violence.  The fair equestrian, who had not yet noticed me, was talking to him and trying to quiet him.  She appeared to be pretty, slender, elegant.  I caught a rapid glimpse of blond hair, eyebrows of a darker shade, keen eyes, a bold expression of countenance, and a felt hat with blue feathers, set over one ear in rather too rakish a style.  For the better understanding of what is about to follow, you should know that I was attired in a tourist’s blouse stained with red ochre; besides, I must have had that haggard look and startled expression which impart to one rudely snatched from sleep a countenance at once comical and alarming.  Add to all this, my hair in utter disorder, my beard strewn with dead leaves, and you will have no difficulty in understanding the terror that suddenly overpowered the young huntress at the first glance she cast upon me; she uttered a feeble cry, and wheeling her horse around, she fled at full gallop.