To proceed, however, with my narrative.  It is not necessary for me to describe what summer is in the Haute Bourgogne.  Our generous wines, our glorious fruits, are sufficient proof, without any assertion on my part.  The summer with us is as a perpetual fete—­at least, before the insect appeared it was so, though now anxiety about the condition of our vines may cloud our enjoyment of the glorious sunshine which ripens them hourly before our eyes.  Judge, then, of the astonishment of the world when there suddenly came upon us a darkness as in the depth of winter, falling, without warning, into the midst of the brilliant weather to which we are accustomed, and which had never failed us before in the memory of man!  It was the month of July, when, in ordinary seasons, a cloud is so rare that it is a joy to see one, merely as a variety upon the brightness.  Suddenly, in the midst of our summer delights, this darkness came.  Its first appearance took us so entirely by surprise that life seemed to stop short, and the business of the whole town was delayed by an hour or two; nobody being able to believe that at six o’clock in the morning the sun had not risen.  I do not assert that the sun did not rise; all I mean to say is that at Semur it was still dark, as in a morning of winter, and when it gradually and slowly became day many hours of the morning were already spent.  And never shall I forget the aspect of day when it came.  It was like a ghost or pale shadow of the glorious days of July with which we are usually blessed.  The barometer did not go down, nor was there any rain, but an unusual greyness wrapped earth and sky.  I heard people say in the streets, and I am aware that the same words came to my own lips:  ’If it were not full summer, I should say it was going to snow.’  We have much snow in the Haute Bourgogne, and we are well acquainted with this aspect of the skies.  Of the depressing effect which this greyness exercised upon myself personally, greyness exercised upon myself personally, I will not speak.  I have always been noted as a man of fine perceptions, and I was aware instinctively that such a state of the atmosphere must mean something more than was apparent on the surface.  But, as the danger was of an entirely unprecedented character, it is not to be wondered at that I should be completely at a loss to divine what its meaning was.  It was a blight some people said; and many were of opinion that it was caused by clouds of animalculae coming, as is described in ancient writings, to destroy the crops, and even to affect the health of the population.  The doctors scoffed at this; but they talked about malaria, which, as far as I could understand, was likely to produce exactly the same effect.  The night closed in early as the day had dawned late; the lamps were lighted before six o’clock, and daylight had only begun about ten!  Figure to yourself, a July day!  There ought to have been a moon almost at the full; but no moon was visible, no stars—­nothing