The Latest Intelligence from Tarascon.
PARTING from his little country seat, Sidi Tart'ri was returning alone on his mule on a fine afternoon, when the sky was blue and the zephyrs warm.His legs were kept wide apart by ample saddle-bags of esparto cloth, swelled out with cedrats and water-melons.
Lulled by the ring of his large stirrups, and rocking his body to the swing and swaying of the beast, the good fellow was thus traversing an adorable country, with his hands folded on his paunch, three-quarters gone, through heat, in a comfortable doze.All at once, on entering the town, a deafening appeal aroused him.
"Ahoy! What a monster Fate is! Anybody 'd take this for Monsieur Tartarin."On this name, and at the jolly southern accent, the Tarasconian lifted his head, and perceived, a couple of steps 'away, the honest tanned visage of Captain Barbassou, master of the Zouave, who was taking his absinthe at the door of a little coffee-house.
"Hey! Lord love you, Barbassou!" said Tartarin, pulling up his mule.
Instead of continuing the dialogue, Barbassou stared at him for a space ere he burst into a peal of such hilarity that Sidi Tart'ri sat back dumbfounded on his melons.
"What a stunning turban, my poor Monsieur Tartarin! Is it true, what they say of your having turned Turk? How is little Baya? Is she still singing 'Marco la Bella'?""Marco la Bella!" repeated the indignant Tartarin."I'll have you to know, captain, that the person you mention is an honourable Moorish lady, and one who does not know a word of French.""Baya does not know French! What lunatic asylum do you hail from, then?"The good captain broke into still heartier laughter; but, seeing the chops of poor Sidi Tart'ri fall he changed his course.
"Howsoever, may happen it is not the same lass.Let's reckon that Ihave mixed 'em up.Still, mark you, Monsieur Tartarin, you will do well, nonetheless, to distrust Algerian Moors and Montenegrin princes."Tartarin rose in the stirrups, making a wry face.
"The prince is my friend, captain."
"Come, come, don't wax wrathy.Won't you have some bitters to sweeten you? No? Haven't you anything to say to the folks at home, neither? Well, then, a pleasant journey.By the way, mate, Ihave some good French 'bacco upon me, and if you would like to carry away a few pipefuls, you have only to take some.Take it, won't you? It's your beastly Oriental 'baccoes that have befogged your brain."Upon this the captain went back to his absinthe, whilst the moody Tartarin trotted slowly on the road to his little house.Although his great soul refused to credit anything, Barbassou's insinuations had vexed him, and the familiar adjurations and home accent had awakened vague remorse.
He found nobody at home, Baya having gone out to the bath.The negress appeared sinister and the dwelling saddening.A prey to inexpressible melancholy, he went and sat down by the fountain to load a pipe with Barbassou's tobacco.It was wrapped up in a piece of the Marseilles Semaphore newspaper.On flattening it out, the name of his native place struck his eyes.
"Our Tarascon correspondent writes: --
"The city is in distress.There has been no news for several months from Tartarin the lion-slayer, who set off to hunt the great feline tribe in Africa.What can have become of our heroic fellow-countryman? Those hardly dare ask who know, as we do, how hot-headed he was, and what boldness and thirst for adventures were his.Has he, like many others, been smothered in the sands, or has he fallen under the murderous fangs of one of those monsters of the Atlas Range of which be had promised the skins to the municipality? What a dreadful state of uncertainty! It is true some Negro traders, come to Beaucaire Fair, assert having met in the middle of the deserts a European whose description agreed with his; he was proceeding towards Timbuctoo.May Heaven preserve our Tartarin!"When he read this, the son of Tarascon reddened, blanched, and shuddered.All Tarascon appeared unto him: the club, the cap-poppers, Costecalde's green arm-chair, and, hovering over all like a spread eagle, the imposing moustaches of brave Commandant Bravida.
At seeing himself here, as he was, cowardly lolling on a mat, whilst his friends believed him slaughtering wild beasts, Tartarin of Tarascon was ashamed of himself, and could have wept had he not been a hero.
Suddenly he leaped up and thundered:
"The lion, the lion! Down with him!"
And dashing into the dusty lumber-hole where mouldered the shelter-tent, the medicine-chest, the potted meats, and the gun-cases, he dragged them out into the middle of the court.
Sancho-Tartarin was no more: Quixote-Tartarin occupied the field of active life.
Only the time to inspect his armament and stores, don his harness, get into his heavy boots, scribble a couple of words to confide Baya to the prince, and slip a few bank-notes sprinkled with tears into the envelope, and then the dauntless Tarasconian rolled away in the stage-coach on the Blidah road, leaving the house to the negress, stupor-stricken before the pipe, the turban, and babooshes -- all the Moslem shell of Sidi Tart'ri which sprawled piteously under the little white trefoils of the gallery.
