He arranged the plan in his mind, and waited for the best words and expressions in which to elaborate his stanzas, so as most clearly to explain his true meaning.

Thus Franconnette cost him two years' labour.

Although he wrote of peasants in peasants' language, he took care to avoid everything gross or vulgar.

Not even the most classical poet could have displayed inborn politeness--la politesse du coeur--in a higher degree.

At the same time, while he expressed passion in many forms, it was always with delicacy, truth, and beauty.
Notwithstanding his constant philanthropic journeys, he beguiled his time with the germs of some forthcoming poem, ready to be elaborated on his return to Agen and his vineyard.
His second volume of poems was published in 1842, and in a few months it reached its third edition.