INTRODUCTORY.


I shall never forget the walk I took one night in Vienne, after having
accomplished the examination of an unknown Druidical relic, the Pierre
labie, at La Rondelle, near Champigni. I had learned of the existence
of this cromlech only on my arrival at Champigni in the afternoon, and
I had started to visit the curiosity without calculating the time it
would take me to reach it and to return. Suffice it to say that I
discovered the venerable pile of grey stones as the sun set, and that
I expended the last lights of evening in planning and sketching. I
then turned my face homeward. My walk of about ten miles had wearied
me, coming at the end of a long day's posting, and I had lamed myself
in scrambling over some stones to the Gaulish relic.

A small hamlet was at no great distance, and I betook myself thither,
in the hopes of hiring a trap to convey me to the posthouse, but I was
disappointed. Few in the place could speak French, and the priest,
when I applied to him, assured me that he believed there was no better
conveyance in the place than a common charrue with its solid wooden
wheels; nor was a riding horse to be procured. The good man offered to
house me for the night; but I was obliged to decline, as my family
intended starting early on the following morning.

Out spake then the mayor--"Monsieur can never go back to-night across
the flats, because of the--the--" and his voice dropped; "the
loups-garoux."

"He says that he must return!" replied the priest in patois. "But who