Through Roumanille he came to know Aubanel, Croustillat, and others.
They met at Avignon, full of youthful enthusiasm, and during this period
Mistral, encouraged by his friends, worked upon his greatest poem,
_Mirèio_. In 1854, on the 21st of May, the Félibrige was founded by the
seven poets,--Joseph Roumanille, Paul Giéra, Théodore Aubanel, Eugène
Garcin, Anselme Mathieu, Frédéric Mistral, Alphonse Tavan. In 1868,
Garcin published a violent attack upon the Félibres, accusing them, in
the strongest language, of seeking to bring about a political separation
of southern France from the rest of the country. This apostasy was a
cause of great grief to the others, and Garcin's name was stricken from
the official list of the founders of the Félibrige, and replaced by that
of Jean Brunet. Mistral, in the sixth canto of _Mirèio_, addresses in
eloquent verse his comrades in the Provençal Pléiade, and there we still
find the name of Garcin.

Tù' nfin, de quau un vènt de flamo
Ventoulo, emporto e fouito l'amo
Garcin, o fiéu ardènt dóu manescau d'Alen!

(And finally, thou whose soul is stirred and swept and whipped by a
wind of flame, Garcin, ardent son of the smith of Alleins.)

This attack upon the Félibrige was the first of the kind ever made. Many
years later, Garcin became reconciled to his former friends and in 1897
he was vice-president of the _Félibrige de Paris_.

The number seven and the task undertaken by these poets and literary
reformers remind us instantly of the Pléiade, whose work in the
sixteenth century in attempting to perfect the French language was of a
very similar character. It is certain, however, that the seven poets