Then the secondary characters trooped along: the Herault, the Ley, and other streams, and they helped to heap up great bars at the river's mouth, so that the monster could not find his way to the sea without much uneasy wandering; and always as he wandered, murmuring angrily, more and more mud and stones were deposited to heighten the bars. And so with the passing of the centuries the great lagoons were formed so big and blue that the unwary traveller nearing Arles may almost mistake them for the Mediterranean. When at last the sea is found, there is another flinging down of Alpine spoils, for the difference in the weight and in the temperature of the salt and the river waters at their meeting, causes the river to drop what it carries rapidly--perhaps in joy at this final home-coming to the brightest of all seas.
Louis XIV., it appears, built miles and miles of dykes, and Adam de Craponne accomplished wonders of engineering work, and has become one of the heroes of Provençal history; but still the waters now and again come down in floods and do terrible damage. Indeed engineers are beginning to think that the system of dykes is a mistaken one, for by confining the river within narrow limits, the force is enormously concentrated and presses on the dykes, while there is always a tendency to raise the bed by the deposits.
Consequently the danger is constantly increased by the very means they have taken to avert it.
"C'est comme une grande passion. Le Rhone a toujours été audessus des forces de l'homme."
So must have thought the poor woman and her husband, guardians of the shattered bridge of St. Bénézet at Avignon, for they told us that the flood had risen to the second storey of their house. And this happened, and was bound to happen at intervals, when the ice broke up in the mountains. The Government might raise the dykes at vast expense till it was tired; the river rose too. Better let it spread quietly over the land and enrich it. But now the system was begun it could not be abandoned. Very dangerous it would seem, a big river--or a big passion! And if ever there was a big passion that river is possessed by it!
No dream too lovely, no joy too perfect to be within the scope of human destiny while the spirit is held by the incantation of those waters.