MISTRAL, _The Poem of the Rhone_ (_Canto Second_--xviii.).
With the spirit of the country, the whole crew and company of the _Caburle_--Maître Apian's barge in Mistral's poem--seems to be imbued. Even the little maiden Anglore--in love with a water-sprite--even she has caught something of the large _abandon_ of the great stream.
Warned that the Prince--whom she believes to be the Drac--will fascinate and then desert her, she cries: "Eh! bien qu'il me fascine. Si mon destin est tel, moi, je me laisserai choir a la pipée, comme au gouffre béant tombe la feuille."
The whole poem is steeped in the movement and sunshine of the river: the charm of the life on its banks, especially in times now past; the plying of the barges up and down, laden with merchandise, the towns and ancient castles that they pass, the gay spirit of the passengers along this buoyant thoroughfare, "l'ornière du monde" as Maître Apian calls it, the owner of the "most famous equipage of the whole river"--seven barges and forty horses for towing. In the finest of them, the _Caburle_, he sets forth from the neighbourhood of Lyons to descend the river to Beaucaire for the great fair, his other barges following, with cargo and with food for the horses.
"Que sus la dougo, au retour de Prouvenço. Gaiardamen remountavon la rigo."
(Qui sur la berge, au retour de Provence, Gaillardement remontaient la convoi.)
And so the little flotilla goes on its way down the current, the _Caburle_ leading, with the image of St. Nicholas at its prow, and at the poop, placed high on the rudder, the mariner's cross, painted red and carved (one winter when the waters had been caught in the grip of the frost) by Maître Apian himself. And the instruments of the Passion: nails, lance, hammer, and all associated with it directly or indirectly, are piously represented.
"En cargo pèr la fiero de Bèu-Caire, l'a cènt batèu que vuei soun de partènço."
(With cargo for the fair of Beaucaire, there are a hundred barges starting to-day.)
And there is a friendly rivalry between them, for the first boat to arrive at the meadow of Beaucaire receives, as a welcome from the citizens, a fine sheep. Alas! as we know, the days of the fair of Beaucaire are over!