"Perhaps it sheltered under a pebble? Perhaps it made its nest on a dry branch?" What marshy woods can you think of round about here? Our province is so arid they call it Little Castile." "You're completely lost in a dense alcoholic haze. "Perhaps it has lived here ever since, hidden in the marshy woods round about," I answered with a yawn. None have come here since we were children." "What circus? The Council has forbidden itinerant entertainers to stop on municipal territory. "There hasn's been a zoo in our town since the animals were decimated by the plague in the seventeenth century." "Perhaps it's escaped from the Zoo," I said. "We ought to protest to the Town Council." "True," I said, "I hadn't thought of that. "A rhinoceros at large in town! doesn't that surprise you? It ought not to be allowed." Jean had not been at the party and when the first moment of surprise was over, he exclaimed:
That morning, moreover, I was feeling tired and my mouth was sour, as a result of the previous night's excesses we had been celebrating a friend's birthday. I absent mindedly took in the image of the rushing beast, without ascribing any very great importance to it. People emerged from their hiding places and gathered in groups which watched the rhinoceros disappear into the distance, made some comments on the incident and then dispersed. It was all over like a flash of lightning.
A housewife uttered a cry of terror, her basket dropped from her hands, the wine from a broken bottle spread over the pavement, and some pedestrians, one of them an elderly man, rushed into the shops. People in the street stepped hurriedly aside to let it pass. We were sitting outside the caf? my friend Jean and I, peacefully talking about one thing and another, when we caught sight of it on the opposite pavement, huge and powerful, panting noisily, charging straight ahead and brushing against market stalls?a rhinoceros.
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