Page:Mistral - Mirèio. A Provençal poem.djvu/135

 CANTO VI.

THE WITCH.

HE merry birds, until the white dawn showeth Clear in the east, are silent every one. Silent the odorous Earth until she knoweth In her warm heart the coining of the Sun, As maiden in her fairest robes bedight Breathless awaits her lover and her flight.

Across La Crau three swineherds held their way From St. Chamas the wealthy, whither they Had to the market gone. Their herds were sold, And o'er their shoulders pouches full of gold Were hung, and by their hanging cloaks concealed: So, chatting idly, they attained the field

Of the late strife. Suddenly one cried, "Hush! Comrades, I hear a moaning in the bush." "'Tis but a tolling hell," the rest averred, "From Saint Martin's or from Maussano$1$ heard, Or the north wind the dwarf-oak limbs a-swaying." But, ere they spake, all were their steps delaying,