There was a moment’s silence, during which Benassis followed his own thoughts, careless of the keen glance by which his guest friend tried to fathom him.

“You ask how it came about, my dear sir?” the doctor resumed.  “It came about quite naturally through the working of the social law by which the need and the means of supplying it are correlated.  Herein lies the whole story.  Races who have no wants are always poor.  When I first came to live here in this township, there were about a hundred and thirty peasant families in it, and some two hundred hearths in the valley.  The local authorities were such as might be expected in the prevailing wretchedness of the population.  The mayor himself could not write, and the deputy-mayor was a small farmer, who lived beyond the limits of the Commune.  The justice of the peace was a poor devil who had nothing but his salary, and who was forced to relinquish the registration of births, marriages, and deaths to his clerk, another hapless wretch who was scarcely able to understand his duties.  The old cure had died at the age of seventy, and his curate, a quite uneducated man, had just succeeded to his position.  These people comprised all the intelligence of the district over which they ruled.

“Those who dwelt amidst these lovely natural surroundings groveled in squalor and lived upon potatoes, milk, butter, and cheese.  The only produce that brought in any money was the cheese, which most of them carried in small baskets to Grenoble or its outskirts.  The richer or the more energetic among them sowed buckwheat for home consumption; sometimes they raised a crop of barley or oats, but wheat was unknown.  The only trader in the place was the mayor, who owned a sawmill and bought up timber at a low price to sell again.  In the absence of roads, his tree trunks had to be transported during the summer season; each log was dragged along one at a time, and with no small difficulty, by means of a chain attached to a halter about his horse’s neck, and an iron hook at the farther end of the chain, which was driven into the wood.  Any one who went to Grenoble, whether on horseback or afoot, was obliged to follow a track high up on the mountain side, for the valley was quite impassable.  The pretty road between this place and the first village that you reach as you come into the canton (the way along which you must have come) was nothing but a slough at all seasons of the year.

“Political events and revolutions had never reached this inaccessible country—­it lay completely beyond the limits of social stir and change.  Napoleon’s name, and his alone, had penetrated hither; he is held in great veneration, thanks to one or two old soldiers who have returned to their native homes, and who of evenings tell marvelous tales about his adventures and his armies for the benefit of these simple folk.  Their coming back is, moreover, a puzzle that no one can explain.  Before I came here, the young men who went into the army all stayed in it for good.  This fact in itself is a sufficient revelation of the wretched condition of the country.  I need not give you a detailed description of it.