Alphonse Daudet’s Short Story, ‘The Pope’s Mule’

A lowly mule loved by the pope shows how to tolerate bad behavior, in "The Pope's Mule."Anton Starikov/Shutterstock

It’s sometimes hard to tolerate the quirks and bad behavior of those we deal with every day. Yet, tolerate we must, and the payback is always rewarding if we do.

In his short story, “The Pope’s Mule“ (1869), Alphonse Daudet (1840–1897) demonstrates what happens when a lack of kindness and consideration backfires. By following the Pope’s mule and her adventures with an unkind young man, Daudet shows that a lack of kindness brings misfortune on the offender as well as the recipient.

One of the Avignon popes of the 14th century, Pope Boniface, owns a beautiful mule, which he loves very much. She carries him everywhere—during everyday travel as well as on religious feast days and celebrations. She is not only beautiful, but she is also “as gentle as an angel, with candid eyes and two long ears.”

All of Avignon knows of this mule and the beneficent pope who rides her. The people love and treat her with special kindness, knowing the pope’s great fondness for her. One young man, Tistet Védène, is fortunate enough to be assigned as the mule’s caretaker.

However, Védène proves to be a “brazen-faced young rascal,” who mistreats the pope’s mule continually. When he brings a specially mixed wine for it each evening, he also brings five or six other youths and, instead of giving the mule the wine, they tempt it with the drink, which they take themselves. Consuming the wine, Védène and the youths grow riotous. They pull its ears and tail, climb on its back, and put their birettas on its head.

Enduring Mistreatment

Nevertheless, the mule stays calm, bearing this maltreatment with patience. Only towards Védène does it harbor any anger and, “when [it] senses that he is behind [it], [its] hooves itch.” It would love nothing more than to bestow the hardest imaginable kick upon him.

Especially when he is drunk, Védène invents the worst punishments for the mule. One day, Védène decides to make it climb the school’s bell tower, where everyone can see it. It is mortified to see everyone watching its disgrace, and terrified to see the height which it has climbed. Furthering the insult, Védène tells the pope that the mule climbed the tower by itself.

Because it cannot get down by itself, the people use “winch, ropes, and a litter” to help the pope’s mule down. The poor mule feels shame at being the town laughingstock but swears to give Védène a nice, strong kick in the morning: “Oh, my friends, what a kick! They'd see the smoke from it all the way to Pampérigouste.”

But the poor, humiliated mule must wait to bestow its justified kick upon Védène, for the next morning it discovers that he left for the court of Naples. Védène’s stay lasts for seven years. The mule calmly waits.

Through this comedic tale, Daudet shows that, though a mule’s kick is powerful, kindness is far more powerful. As Mark Twain says, “Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” Compassion reaches to the unreachable, breaks all bounds, and beautifies life.

When starting a new day, one can always share kindness with a neighbor, whether through a smile, a card, a hug, or a word. While an unkind act may be remembered for seven years, a single act of kindness will be remembered for a lifetime.

Would you like to see other kinds of arts and culture articles? Please email us your story ideas or feedback at [email protected]