how gargantua, with a big tree, broke down a castle and passed the ford of vede.

gargantua was a good son if ever there was one. the minute he read his father's letter begging him to come home, he ordered his great mare to be bridled and saddled. it was less than thirty minutes after this that he was galloping on the road along with wise old ponocrates, his faithful squire gymnaste, and the pretty little page eudemon. this certainly was not a very strong escort, but gargantua's single arm was worth an army.

the servants followed slowly with his baggage, books, and philosophical instruments.

having got as far as parillé, they were told how picrochole had taken roche-clermaud, and how his men had been robbing and pillaging everywhere, and had been frightening everybody so much that nobody was brave enough to tell on them. another piece of news gargantua heard at parillé. this was that one of picrochole's fiercest officers, captain tripet, had been sent to take possession of several points near the ford of vede.

"ho! ho! ho!" cried gargantua. "let us ride, then, as fast as we can to the ford of vede."

"no, prince," said ponocrates; "what i would advise you to do is to ride on a few miles farther, to the house of the lord of vauguyon. he is an old friend of your royal father, and can give us better counsel than we can get in this place."

"well, then, so be it," said gargantua.

the whole party galloped swiftly to vauguyon, where they were received with open gates and a steaming supper. after wine had been drunk, and the lord of vauguyon had settled down to talk, gargantua was told that all that had been said was true. picrochole's soldiers were both at roche-clermaud and the ford of vede. on hearing this, the prince would not wait to sleep, so anxious was he to rush to the help of his good old father. the lord of vauguyon tried to keep him in the castle until after a great storm, which then threatened, was over. it was of no use, gargantua would hear nothing.

"to your saddles, gentlemen!" he cried. "it is at the ford we shall hunt picrochole's mannikins!"

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gargantua hurries home.

once more mounted on his great mare he started for the ford. his lips were pressed close, and his eyes glared fiercely down from a height greater than that of the tallest trees. "his highness is very angry," ponocrates whispered to gymnaste. (for the first time he was afraid of his pupil.) "his highness is awful mad," gymnaste whispered to eudemon. on getting near the ford, what should gargantua do but tear up a fine and stately tree which he found growing by the roadside, stripping its branches and leaves till he made it a bare pole of enormous length and strength. "just what i have been looking for!" he said to himself; "this tree will serve me both as staff and lance."

all this was being done under a fearful tempest of rain. the storm had burst, as the lord of vauguyon had foreseen. ponocrates could hardly sit on his horse, for the heavy drops fell like so much lead; dainty little eudemon was quite crushed, and could only keep himself from falling by clasping his horse's neck; and all gymnaste could do to keep his spirits up and his blood warm was, every now and then, to turn somersaults on the back of his horse, stand on his head, on the tip of his thumb, and skip from side to side like a monkey. all this time gargantua, seated on his great mare, did not feel the rain any more than if it was not roaring and hissing around him, filling all the streams along the road, and making a deluge around the ford.

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gymnaste warms himself.

he was soon to see, however, that if he himself, being a giant, could stand this sudden flood, smaller men could not. the first thing he heard on going a little farther, from some people who were running to the high grounds for safety, was that the ford was all swollen, and that thousands of men had been drowned in it.

he could not understand this,—of course he could not, being a giant,—but what he did understand better was what that sly little page eudemon, who had galloped ahead to get shelter from the rain, told him. the news eudemon brought was that picrochole's men were in a castle this side of the ford, and that before his master could hope to reach it he must take the castle, or they would take him.

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the castle of roche-clermaud.

in a little while they came near the castle. the great, gloomy building seemed deserted. not a face was to be seen either from window or turret. riding alone to the front of it, gargantua shouted out at the top of his voice to those inside:—

"are you there, or are you not? if you are there, don't stay! if you are not there, i shall have all this trouble for nothing."

all the answer a bold cannoneer, who had not been seen, and who was watching behind the ramparts, gave, was, after taking aim point-blank, to fire his cannon off, the ball furiously striking gargantua on the right temple, but for all that not hurting him in the least.

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cannonading gargantua.

"what is that?" he shouted. "how, are those fellows throwing grape-seeds at us? if they are, the harvest will cost them dear," thinking that the balls were only grape-seeds.

on hearing his words—they could have been heard a mile off—those in the castle rushed pell-mell to the towers and ramparts, and fired more than nine thousand and twenty-five shots from their falcons and arquebuses, aiming each shot straight at gargantua's head, which towered high above the ramparts. the guns were well pointed, and the balls hit the giant so often that they began to bother him.

"look here, ponocrates, my friend," he called to ponocrates, who had just come up; "these flies are blinding my eyes! jump down, please, and get me the biggest branch you can find to drive them away."

all this time, he was fully convinced that the leaden balls and the big stones hurled from the artillery were so many flies.

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gargantua destroys the castle.

giants are always very hard-headed, and sometimes as simple as they are hard-headed. ponocrates, who knew better than that, told him what it was that was falling around him. then, for the first time, gargantua got really mad. he raised his big tree in proper position, and, turning the head of his mare well towards the castle, rushed furiously against the walls, tearing down all the towers and buttresses, and laying them in ruins on the ground. not one of all those in the castle, who had been laughing and making gargantua their target from the ramparts, escaped. paying no more attention to the ruins he went on to the mill-bridge, and found all the ford, swollen by the rain, covered over with corpses, and in such number that the dead bodies had actually caused the water of the mill to stop running. standing on the bank the party waited a bit, not at all liking to ride over dead men. that skipping monkey, gymnaste, was the first to cross. he loudly swore that his horse was afraid of nothing, and that at home the beast never could get his feed without first stepping over a stuffed body, always put for that purpose in his way.

this satisfied the others, who soon crossed after gymnaste, and gargantua and his great mare slowly followed, last of all.