So it was with Joséphine’s recital in the background that everyone came out of the little church, pleasantly surprised by the warm October weather. The sun had moved across the hill and the plane trees were bathed in that eleven o’clock sunshine that brought the village to life, like colour returning to cheeks. But when the women saw that their children were not there, they grew pale. Normally at the end of Mass, their children fell upon them eagerly. But this Sunday, there was not the slightest sign of life outside the church. Up above, Mont d’Orcières had finished hiding the sun, which glared at them like never before. That morning the sun seemed to be sitting on the summit, aiming at them like a mirror reflecting a huge bright light. They shielded their eyes to look up at it, but they were blinded by the glare and by the sudden feeling of being controlled by the mountain. Even with their hands as a shield, that morning the flaming yellow scorched their eyes. Strangely the lions were calm. It felt eerie not to hear them. All that could be heard was the piano in the distance. Fernand immediately guessed what the mothers were thinking. And once again, he defended the lion tamer, in the name of human decency. The women were quick to panic when it came to their children, and seeing the way the mountain crushed them that day, spitting the sun back at them as if it were the coin of an evil deity, they interpreted that as a warning that a sacrifice was to take place and they immediately assumed that the lions had stolen the flesh of their flesh.

In view of their irrational response, it was important to find answers quickly. Everyone, for once silent, looked to the mayor and the schoolmaster. As for Priest Magnard, the old prelate who accompanied his flock to the church door, as if gently returning skiffs to the sea, he could not conceal his horror at the sight of the empty square. He made things worse when he reminded everyone that, according to the Bible, lions were impure animals, like all quadrupeds which were not shod, and that even Noah had not welcomed them into the Ark because lions, as well as being carnivores that devoured carrion, did not mind eating men, and he spoke of several missionaries, white priests, who had ended up in the jaws of those monsters. The most savage lands had not been evangelised for fear of lions. ‘Lions are the enemies of God; they have deprived parts of the colonies of the best of all religions …’