Three short works - The Dance of Death, the Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitaller, a Simple Soul. by Gustave Flaubert
page 26 of 100 (26%)
page 26 of 100 (26%)
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hunting in some country since an indefinite time, through the very
fact of his existence, as everything seemed to occur with the ease one experiences in dreams. But presently an extraordinary sight made him pause. He beheld a valley shaped like a circus and filled with stags which, huddled together, were warming one another with the vapour of their breaths that mingled with the early mist. For a few minutes, he almost choked with pleasure at the prospect of so great a carnage. Then he sprang from his horse, rolled up his sleeves, and began to aim. When the first arrow whizzed through the air, the stags turned their heads simultaneously. They huddled closer, uttered plaintive cries, and a great agitation seized the whole herd. The edge of the valley was too high to admit of flight; and the animals ran around the enclosure in their efforts to escape. Julian aimed, stretched his bow and his arrows fell as fast and thick as raindrops in a shower. Maddened with terror, the stags fought and reared and climbed on top of one another; their antlers and bodies formed a moving mountain which tumbled to pieces whenever it displaced itself. Finally the last one expired. Their bodies lay stretched out on the sand with foam gushing from the nostrils and the bowels protruding. The heaving of their bellies grew less and less noticeable, and presently all was still. Night came, and behind the trees, through the branches, the sky |
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