"Vipers," said the bandit, "'Tis my trade." Diving into the coat again, he produced a metal armlet inscribed "Charmeur de Vipères." Thence followed, one by one, all his certificates of efficiency, signed by the mayors of places in the neighbourhood—Digoin, Mâcon, and Paray. Here were forty-six killed in one day; thirty-five more in the woods of Charolles; "Et il y en a encore." He did not stay long enough for us to question him concerning his methods of procedure; but, rising abruptly from the wooden bench, strode off, a great, bronzed figure, and was soon lost among the coppery tints of the Burgundian forest.
I have often wondered since, whether he worked solely by close observation, or whether he had developed that supernormal or subnormal faculty, withheld from most, but granted often to undeveloped minds, as it was to the boy in Rollinat's song:—
When Autumn has tinted the boughs and the brakes, With fixed eyes, sadly and sweetly asway, The wandering idiot who charms the snakes, Wearying never, hobbles all day.
The vipers asleep on the marge of their lakes In chorus awaken at sound of his song; And, shrilling thin hisses, they follow along— A crowd of old gossips—each path that takes The wandering idiot who charms the snakes.[113]
We saw the mysterious snake-charmer once more in Paray. He raised the wide, slouch hat, and saluted with all the dignity of a forest king.
Footnotes:
[109] Hence the original name, "Maison des Pompons."
[110] The Reference is to the alleged apparition of Christ, revealing His Bleeding Heart, to a young girl, Marguerite Marie Alacocque, in 1690, beneath a nut-tree, the site of which is now marked by the Chapelle de la Visitation. It was this vision which established in Paray the "Culte du Sacré Cœur," now common throughout France.
[111] Viollet le Duc. "Dictionnaire Raisonné" Tome vii. p. 283.
[112] Bond's "Gothic Architecture in England," p. 265.