XVII THE OLD WOMAN 219 XVIII THE BLESSED RELICS 231 XIX THE BRANDING 247 XX THE SNARE 261 XXI HERODIAS 279 XXII IN THE NEST 291 XXIII THE PURSUIT 303 XXIV IN THE GARGATE 323 XXV THE PHANTOM 331 NOTES 345 List of Illustrations KING OF CAMARGUE PAGE RAMPAL AND THE GIPSY _Fronts._ RENAUD IN THE TOILS OF THE QUEEN 64 LIVETTE AND RENAUD 88 LIVETTE WATCHES ON THE CHURCH ROOF 216 THE GIPSY'S COUCH 312 KING OF CAMARGUE I LIVETTE AND ZINZARA A shadow suddenly darkened the narrow window. Livette, who was running hither and thither, setting the table for supper, in the lower room of the farm-house of the Château d'Avignon, gave a little shriek of terror, and looked up. The girl had an instinctive feeling that it was neither father nor grandmother, nor any of her dear ones, but some stranger, who sought amusement by thus taking her by surprise. Nor a stranger, either, for that matter,--it was hardly possible!--But how was it that the dogs did not yelp? Ah! this Camargue is frequented by bad people, especially at this season, toward the end of May, on account of the festival of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, which attracts, like a fair, such a crowd of people, thieves and gulls, and so many mischievous gipsies! The figure that was leaning on the outside of the window-sill, shutting out the light, looked to Livette like a black mass, sharply outlined against the blue sky; but by the thick, curly hair, surmounted by a tinsel crown, by the general contour of the bust, by the huge ear-rings with an amulet hanging at the ends, Livette recognized a certain gipsy woman who was universally known as the Queen, and who, for nearly two weeks, had been suddenly appearing to people at widely distant points on the island, always unexpectedly, as if she rose out of the ditches or clumps of thorn-broom or the water of the swamps, to say to the laborers, preferably the women: "Give me this or that;" for the Queen, as a general rule, would not accept what people chose to offer her, but only what she chose that they should offer her. "Give me a little oil in a bottle, Livette," said the young gipsy, darting a dark, flashing glance at the pretty girl with the fair, sun-flecked hair.