He was so absorbed in his meditation that, to arouse him, it needed the sound of a gruff voice behind him uttering these words: "That is what I call an ugly castle! It is hardly as good as our common country houses around Marseilles." The stranger turned quickly around and found himself face to face with a man wearing a gray cap and carrying his coat upon his shoulder, as workmen do in the South.

He held in his hand a knotty stick which had been recently cut.

The newcomer had a swarthy complexion, harsh features, and deep-set eyes which gave his face an ugly, false expression.
"I said an ugly castle," continued he.

"However, the cage is made for the bird." "It seems, then, that you do not like its master ?" said the traveller.
"The master!" repeated the workman, seizing hold of his stick with a threatening air, "Monsieur le Baron de Bergenheim, as they say! He is rich and a nobleman, and I am only a poor carpenter.

Well, then, if you stay here a few days, you will witness a comical ceremony; I shall make this brigand repent." "Brigand!" exclaimed the stranger, in a surprised tone.