King of Camargue

This book tells the story of Livette and her encounter with a gypsy 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. Refusing to give the gypsy the olive oil she seeks, the gypsy curses her by saying the following words: «let your kind heart be rewarded as it deserves! Misfortune, which is at work for you, will soon make itself known to you. How, may God tell you! In love, the wind that blows for you is poisoned by the swamps. The charity your God enjoins is, so they say, another form of love that brings true love good fortune. And here is my queenly gift!»