And again he climbed uphill for a considerable time, while the dogs, having lost his scent, were filled with disappointment, and then, he again ran downhill until he reached the road to Sauvejunte, where he saw a horse and a covered cart approaching.  In the distance, on this road, there were clouds of dust as in Blue Beard when Sister Anne is asked:  “Sister Anne, Sister Anne, do you see anything coming?” This pale dryness, how magnificent it was, and how filled it was with the bitter fragrance of mint!  It was not long before the horse stood in front of Rabbit.

It was a sorry nag and dragged a two wheeled cart and was unable to move except in a jerky sort of gallop.  Every leap made its disjointed skeleton quiver and jolted its harness and made its earth-colored mane fly in the air, shiny and greenish, like the beard of an ancient mariner.  Wearily as though they were paving-stones the animal lifted its hoofs which were swollen like tumors.  Rabbit was frightened by this great animated machine which moved with so loud a noise.  He bounded away and continued his flight over the meadows, with his nose toward the Pyrenees, his tail toward the lowlands, his right eye toward the rising sun, his left toward the village of Mesplede.

Finally he crouched down in the stubble, quite near a quail which was sleeping in the manner of chickens half-buried in the dust, and overcome by the heat was sweating off its fat through its feathers.

The morning was sparkling in the south.  The blue sky grew pale under the heat, and became pearl-gray.  A hawk in seemingly effortless flight was soaring, and describing larger and larger circles as it rose.  At a distance of several hundred yards lay the peacock-blue, shimmering surface of a river, and lazily carried onward the mirrored reflection of the alders; from their viscous leaves exuded a bitter perfume, and their intense blackness cut sharply the pale luminousness of the water.  Near the dam fish glided past in swarms.  An angelus beat against the torrid whiteness of a church-steeple with its blue wing, and Rabbit’s noonday rest began.

* * * * *

He stayed in this stubble until evening, motionless, only troubled somewhat by a cloud of mosquitoes quivering like a road in the sun.  Then at dusk he made two bounds forward softly and two more to the left and to the right.

It was the beginning of the night.  He went forward toward the river where on the spindles of the reeds hung in the moonlight a weave of silver mists.

Rabbit sat down in the midst of the blossoming grass.  He was happy that at that hour all sounds were harmonious, and that one hardly knew whether the calls were those of quails or of crystal springs.

Were all human beings dead?  There was one watching at some distance; he was making movements above the water, and noiselessly withdrawing his dripping and shimmering net.  But only the heart of the waters was troubled, Rabbit’s remained calm.