Jacques Bonneval | Page 4

and much crestfallen.
The throng increased as we approached Beaucaire, and when we got into the streets there was frequently a complete stoppage. Oh, what a lively scene it was! and what a noise! Music playing, bells ringing, people talking at the top of their voices. What joyous meetings I what hearty welcomes! what various smells of fried fish, hot soups, and roast meats! Truly, the Fair of Beaucaire exceeded my liveliest imaginings, and yours will certainly never come up to it.
The fair, you have perhaps heard, is held on a wide open ground between the Rhone and the castle rock. This space was covered with streets of booths and sheds, in which all kinds of merchandise were displayed. The river was choked with heavily-freighted barges. As for the streets, they were hung from their upper windows with the richest tapestries; silks, damasks, velvets, and goldsmiths' work were displayed in the richest abundance; the most costly valuables exposed, almost at the mercy of jostling wayfarers; banners flaunting overhead, and casting fleeting shadows beneath. Languages of all nations mingled in strange medley--German, Spanish, Italian, Turkish, Arabic, Russian. Ah, it was like a dream!
My uncle Nicolas received us most heartily; and, while my father and M. Bourdinave went about their affairs, I had the pleasing charge of the women, and showing them what was to be seen. My mother, with a child in each hand, Madeleine and I, each with another child, Gabrielle and old Alice close behind us, formed such a phalanx that we made way for ourselves, or had it made for us, wherever we went, and saw everything we wanted to see. We even saw the dentist, and Alice would not be foiled this time, but almost thrust herself on his notice. He made her sit on the ground, put her head between his knees and dragged out the tooth by main force. She screamed horribly, and said, "You engaged to give no pain!" "To myself," said he, "but I could not engage for you." So there was the laugh against her. However, the tooth was out, and he generously gave it to her; so we walked away laughing.


CHAPTER II
.
THE FEAST OF ST. MAGDALEN.
We looked about us till dinner, and after dinner we looked about us again; for the women and children seemed as though they would never be sated with sightseeing; and as for me, I was never sated of going about with Madeleine. All at once she cried out in a frightened voice, "Where is Gabrielle?"
We looked about and could see neither her nor Alice; and as it was nearly the hour they call vesper, though the days were still pretty long, we were greatly alarmed at their disappearance. Little Louison, however, plucked my sleeve, and said, "I think they went in there," pointing to a church-door; so, although my father specially objected to my setting foot within a Catholic place of worship, Madeleine and I went in to look for her sister; but my mother kept the children outside. As soon as we entered we found ourselves almost in darkness, what little light there was proceeding from great wax candles; and there was a good deal of tawdry finery and trumpery all about, and a strong smell of incense. I was looking about me with curiosity and interest, mixed with a certain repulsion, when Madeleine, in an eager undertone, exclaimed, "There she is!" and pressed forward, I close following, to a little side-altar, where Gabrielle and Alice were listening, with amused wonder, to a priest, who was telling a group of people about him that what he was exhibiting to them was one of Mary Magdalen's bones; and that she and Lazarus, and Martha his sister, had put to sea in an old boat, and in process of time, after being sorely buffeted by winds and waves, had been cast ashore at Marseilles, where they preached the gospel to the natives, and converted them all.
I did not believe one word of this, nor did Madeleine, who drew her reluctant sister away; and when we got her into the open air, rebuked her for doing what their father would not approve. Gabrielle looked inclined to defend herself, and make a joke of it. However, a great bell began to clang so near us as to drown her voice; people were pushing past us into church, and we found ourselves going against the stream, and made the best of our way out of it, and back to our quarters. My father and M. Bourdinave were standing at the door, conversing with my uncle, and when they saw us they smiled, and my father said, with unwonted softness in his tone, "Well, children, are you come back? Have you enjoyed yourselves?" and looked earnestly at Madeleine, whose eyes sank under