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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/11298-0.txt b/11298-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..930b1f3 --- /dev/null +++ b/11298-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9555 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11298 *** + +[Illustration: A BIT OF OLD FIGEAC. _Frontispiece_.] + + + +WANDERINGS + +BY + +SOUTHERN WATERS + + +_EASTERN AQUITAINE_ + + + +BY + +EDWARD HARRISON BARKER + +AUTHOR OF 'WAYFARING IN FRANCE' + + +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS + + + + +LONDON + +RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON + +Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen + +1893 + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +THE VALLEY OF THE OUYSSE AND ROC-AMADOUR + +FROM THE ALZOU TO THE DORDOGNE + +WAYFARING UNDERGROUND + +IN THE VALLEY OF THE CÉLÉ + +IN THE ALBIGEOIS + +ACROSS THE ROUERGUE + +THE BLACK CAUSSE + +THE CAÑON OF THE TARN + +IN THE VALLEY OF THE LOT + +[Illustration: +OAK CHIMNEY-PIECE AT THE SINECHAUSSÉE (NOW HÔTEL DE VILLE) OF MARTEL.] + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +A BIT OF OLD FIGEAC--_Frontispiece_ + +OAK CHIMNEY-PIECE AT THE SINECHAUSSÉE (NOW HÔTEL DE VILLE) OF MARTEL + +THE PONT VALENTRÉ AT CAHORS + +ROC-AMADOUR + +PORCH OF THE CATHEDRAL OF ALBI + +AMBIALET + +CIGALA, THE SHOEBLACK. + +[Illustration: THE PONT VALENTRÉ AT CAHORS.] + + + + + + +WANDERINGS BY SOUTHERN WATERS + + + + +THE VALLEY OF THE OUYSSE AND ROC-AMADOUR. + + +From the Old-English town of Martel, in Guyenne, I turned southward +towards the Dordogne. For a few miles the road lay over a barren +plateau; then it skirted a desolate gorge with barely a trace of +vegetation upon its naked sides, save the desert loving box clinging +to the white stones. A little stream that flowed here led down into +the rich valley of Creysse, blessed with abundance of fruit. Here I +found the nightingales and the spring flowers that avoid the +wind-blown hills. Patches of wayside took a yellow tinge from the +cross-wort galium; others, conquered by ground-ivy or veronica, were +purple or blue. Presently the tiled roofs of the village of Creysse +were seen through the poplars and walnuts. A delightful spot for a +poetical angler is this, for the Dordogne runs close by in the shadow +of prodigious rocks and overhanging trees. What a noble and stately +river I thought it, as the old ferryman, with white cotton nightcap on +his head, punted me across! I took the greater pleasure in its breadth +and grandeur here because I had seen it an infant river in the +Auvergne mountains, and had watched its growth as it rushed between +walls of rock and forest towards the plains. + +What witchery of romance and spell-bound fancy is in the song of the +Dordogne as it breaks over its shallows under high rocky cliffs and +ruined castles! Everything that can charm the poet and the artist is +here. The grandeur of rugged nature combines with the most enticing +beauty of water and meadow, and the voices of the past echo with a +sweet sadness from cliff to cliff. It is said that several of these +castles were built to prevent the English from coming up the river, +but this may be treated as one of the many fanciful legends respecting +the British period which are repeated throughout Aquitaine. + +By cutting off a curve of the Dordogne I soon came to the river-side +village of Meyronne, and here I stopped for a meal at a very pleasant +little inn, where to my surprise I found that I had been preceded a +few days before by another Englishman, who, accompanied by a +Frenchman, had come up from Bordeaux in a boat. They must have found +it very hard work rowing against the rapids. The hostess here was +evidently a woman who treasured her household gods, but who liked also +to show them. She gave me my coffee in a china cup that looked as if +it had belonged to her great-grandmother; and in the bright little +room where she served my lunch was a large walnut buffet elaborately +and admirably carved, bearing the date 1676. + +After Meyronne my road ran for a few miles beside the broad and +curving river. The forms of the great cliffs on each side were ever +changing. Over a sky intensely blue sailed the fleecy April clouds +before the soft west wind, and whenever the sun shone out with +unveiled splendour, the rays fell with summer warmth. While the +tinkling of sheep-bells from the ledges of the rocks came down to me, +the passionate warble of nightingales, that could not wait for the +night, must have risen from the leafy valley to the ears of the +listless shepherd-boy gathering feather-grass where goats would not +dare to venture, or eating his dark bread in the sun on the edge of a +precipice. Time flowed gently like the river, and I was surprised to +find myself at Lacave so soon. This village is near the spot where the +Ouysse falls into the Dordogne. A little beyond the clustering houses, +upon the edge of a high rocky promontory overlooking the Ouysse, is +the castle of Belcastel, still retaining its feudal keep and outer +wall. In this fortress the English are said to have kept many of their +prisoners. + +I now left the Dordogne and ascended the valley of the Ouysse. This +stream is one of the most remarkable of the natural phenomena of +France. To judge from its breadth near the mouth, one would suppose +that it had flowed fifty or a hundred miles, but its entire length is +less than ten miles. It is already a river when it rises out of the +depths of the earth. The narrow valley that it waters is a gorge 500 +or 600 feet deep through the greater part of its distance. The +traveller at the bottom supposes, or is ready to suppose, that he is +in some ravine of the high mountains; in reality, it is simply a +fissure of the plateau that was once the bed of the sea. There is no +igneous, no metamorphic rock here; nothing but limestone of the +Jurassic formation. The convexities on one side of the fissure +correspond with marked regularity to the concavities on the other. + +For awhile I walked on the lush grass by the brimming river, where in +the little creeks and bays the water-ranunculus floated its small +white flowers that were to continue the race. Then I left the water +and the green ribbon that followed its margin, and, taking a +sheep-track, rose upon the arid steeps, where the thinly-scattered +aromatic southern-wood was putting forth its dusty leaves. The bare +rocks, yellow, white, and gray, towered above me; they were beneath +me; they faced me across the valley; wherever I looked they were +shutting me off from the outer world. No nightingales were singing +here, but I heard the melancholy scream of the hawk and the harsh +croak of the raven. And yet, when I looked down into the bottom of +this steep desert of stones, what soft and vernal beauty was there! +Over the grass of living green was spread the gold of cowslips, just +as if that strip of meadow, with its gently-gliding river, had been +lifted out of an English dale and dropped into the midst of the +sternest scenery of Southern France. + +As I went on I soon found that the stony wastes had their flowers too. +It would seem as if Nature had wished to console the desert by giving +to it her loveliest and most enticing blossoms. I came upon colonies +of the poet's narcissus, breathing over the rocks so sweet a fragrance +that it was as if a miracle had been wrought to draw it out of the +earth. I walked knee-deep through blooming asphodels, beautiful and +strange, but only noticed here by the wild bee. I gathered sprays of +the graceful alpine-tea, densely crowded with delicate white bloom, +and marvelled at the wanton splendour of the iris colouring the gray +and yellow stones with its gorgeous blue. + +Still following the Ouysse, I came to a spot where the valley ended in +an amphitheatre formed by steep hills more than 600 feet high, and +covered for the most part with dwarf oak. In the hollow under the dark +cliffs was a little lake or pool forty or fifty yards from shore to +shore. The water showed no sign of trouble save where it overflowed +its basin on the western side, and formed the river that I had been +keeping in sight for hours. The pool filled the Gouffre de St. +Sauveur. Until the Ouysse finds this opening in the earth it is a +subterranean river, and it must flow at a great depth, probably at the +base of the calcareous formation, inasmuch as it continues to rise +from the gulf the whole year, although from the month of August until +the autumn rains nearly every water-course in the country is marked by +a curving line of dry pebbles. The funnel-shaped hole descends +vertically to the depth of about ninety feet, but there is no means of +knowing how far it descends obliquely. The tourist may occasionally +catch sight of a shepherd boy or girl with goats or sheep upon the +bare or wooded rocks, but his feeling will be one of deep loneliness. +He will see ravens and hawks about the crags, and about the river half +covered in summer with floating pond-weed, watercress, and the broad +leaves of the yellow lily, he will notice many a water-ouzel bobbing +with white breast, water-hens gliding from bank to bank, merry bands +of divers, and the brilliant blue gleam of the passing kingfisher, +which here is allowed to fish in peace, like the otter. + +The Gouffre de St. Sauveur has its legend. It is said that when the +church of St. Sauveur, on the neighbouring hill, was in imminent +danger at the time of the Revolution, the bells were thrown into the +pool so that they should not fall into the hands of the enemy. +Imaginative people fancy that they can sometimes hear them ringing at +the bottom of the water. + +After leaving the pool--now very sombre in the shadow of the wooded +hill--I crossed a ridge separating me from the Gouffre de Cabouy, out +of which flows a tributary of the Ouysse. Thence I reached the deep +and singularly savage gorge of the Alzou, which brought me to +Roc-Amadour, when the after-light of sunset was lingering rosily upon +the naked crags. + + * * * * * + +Rocks reach far overhead, dazzlingly white where the sunbeams strike +them, and below is a green line of narrow valley. A tinkling of bells +comes from the stony sides of the gorge, where sheep are browsing the +scant herbage and young shoots of southern-wood; and from the curving +fillet of meadow, where the grass seems to grow while the eye watches +it, rises the shrill little song of the stream hurrying over its +yellow bed, which may be dry again to-morrow. This Alzou is no more to +be depended upon than a coquette. After a period of drought, a storm +that has passed away hours ago will cause it suddenly to come hissing +down over the dry stones; but the next day no trace of the flow may be +found save a few pools. Or it may grow to a torrent, even a river, +that in its wild career scoffs at banks, and spreads devastation +through the valley. + +It is April, and the nightingales, the swallows, the flowers, the +bees, and the kids, whose trembling voices are heard all about the +rocks, tell me that the spring has come. I cannot rest in my cottage +on the side of the gorge, not even on the balcony that seems to hang +in the air over the depth; the sounds from the valley, especially +those that the imagination hears, are too enticing. + +Upon a high ledge of rock to which I have climbed, not without some +unpleasant qualms, I stretch myself out upon a strip of short turf +sprinkled with the flowers of the white rock-rose and bordered with +candy-tuft, and try to drive out of mind the only disagreeable thought +I have at this moment--that of getting down to the path, where I was +safe. The worst part of climbing precipitous places is not the going +up, but the coming down. Not a human being or dwelling is in sight, so +that I can contemplate the wildness of the scene to my mind's content. +But a very hoarse voice not far above tells me that I am not alone. A +raven perched upon a jutting piece of rock, that curiously resembles +some monstrous animal, is watching me, and he looks a very crafty old +bird who could speak either French or English if he liked. Presently +he flaps heavily off to the opposite side of the gorge, and fetches +his wife. They fly over me almost within gunshot, going round and +round, expressing an opinion or sentiment with an occasional croak, +but apparently quite willing to make their dinner-hour suit my +convenience. Do they suppose that I have really taken the trouble to +climb up here to die out of the world's way and the sight of my +fellow-creatures, like that very unearthly poet whose story Shelley +has written? Do they think that they are going to make a hearty meal +upon me this evening or to-morrow morning? I remain quite still, +pleased at the thought of cheating the greedy, croaking scavengers of +Nature, and hoping that they will grow bold enough to settle at length +somewhere near me. But they are too suspicious; perhaps with their +superior sight they note the blinking of my eyes as I look upwards at +the dazzling sky, or instinct may tell them that I am not lying down +after the manner of a dying animal. Their patience is more than a +match for mine, and so I come down from my ledge and make my way back +to my cottage before the pink blush of evening has faded from the +rocks. + +When the angelus has sounded from the ancient sanctuary, and all the +forms of the valley are dim in the dusk, the silence is broken again +by a very quiet little bell, which might be called the fairies' +angelus if it did not keep ringing all through the spring and summer +nights. It is like a treble note of the piano softly touched. It +steals up from amongst the flags, hyacinths, and box-bushes of the +neglected little garden which I call mine, terraced upon the side of +the gorge just beneath the balcony. Now, from all the terraced gardens +planted with fruit-trees, comes the same sound of low, clear notes, +some a little higher than others, but all in the treble, feebly struck +by unseen musicians. How sweetly this tinkling rises from the earth, +that trembles with the bursting of seeds and the shooting of stems in +the first warm nights of spring! And to think that the musicians +should be toads--yes, toads--the most despised and the most unjustly +treated of creatures! + +This cottage is at Roc-Amadour, and before writing about the place I +cannot do better than go down to the level of the stream, and look up +at the amazing cluster of buildings clinging to the rocks on one side +of the gorge, while the old walls are whitened by the pale brilliancy +of the moon. Above the roofs of all the houses is a mass of masonry, +vast and heavy, pierced by narrow Romanesque windows--a building +uncouth and monstrous, like the surrounding crags. It stands upon a +ledge of the cliff, partly in the hollow of the rock, which, indeed, +forms its innermost wall. Higher still a great cross shows against the +sky, and near to it, upon the edge of the precipice, are the ramparts +of a mediaeval fortress, now combined with a modern building, which is +the residence of the clergy attached to the sanctuary of Notre Dame de +Roc-Amadour. + +[Illustration: ROC-AMADOUR.] + +The sanctuary--it is inside the massive pile under the beetling rock, +and over the roofs of the houses--explains why men in far-distant +times had the strange notion of gathering together and constructing +dwellings upon a spot where Nature must have offered the harshest +opposition to such a project. The chosen site was not only +precipitous, but lay in the midst of a calcareous desert, where no +stream nor spring of water could be relied upon for six months in the +year, and where the only soil that was not absolutely unproductive was +covered with dense forest infested by wolves.[*] And yet, in course of +time, there grew up upon these forbidding rocks, in the midst of this +desert, a little town that obtained a wide celebrity, and was even +fortified, as the five ruinous gateways, with towers along the line of +the single street, prove even now, notwithstanding the deplorable +recklessness with which the structures of the ancient burg have been +degraded or demolished during the last half-century. Nothing is more +certain than that the origin of Roc-Amadour, and the cause of its +development, were religious. It was called into existence by pilgrims; +it grew with the growth of pilgrimages, and if it were not for +pilgrims at the present day half the houses now occupied would be +allowed to fall into ruin. It is impossible to look at it without +wonder, either in the daylight or the moonlight. It appears to have +been wrenched out of the known order of human works--the result of +common motives--and however often Roc-Amadour may suddenly meet the +eye upon turning the gorge, the picture never fails to be surprising. +It has really the air of a holy place, which many others famed for +holiness have not. + + [*] Robert du Mont, in his supplement to Sigibert's Chronicles, + wrote, more than five hundred years ago, of Roc-Amadour: 'Est + locus in Cadurcensi pago montaneis et horribile solitudine + circumdatus.' + +The founder of the sanctuary was a hermit, whose contemplative spirit +led him to this savage and uninhabited valley, whose name, in the +early Christian ages, was _Vallis tenebrosa_, but in which Nature had +fashioned numerous caverns, more or less tempting to an anchorite. He +is called Amator--_Amator rupis_--by the Latin chroniclers--a name +that, with the spread of the Romance language, would easily have +become corrupted to Amadour by the people. According to the legend, +however, which for an uncertain number of centuries has obtained +general credence in the Quercy and the Bas-Limousin, and which in +these days is much upheld by the clergy, although a learned +Jesuit--the Père Caillau--who sifted all the annals relating to +Roc-Amadour felt compelled to treat it as a pious invention, the +hermit Amator or Amadour was no other than Zaccheus, who climbed into +the sycamore. The legend further says that he was the husband of St. +Veronica, and that, after the crucifixion, they left the Holy Land in +a vessel which eventually landed them on the western coast of Gaul, +not far from the present city of Bordeaux. They became associated with +the mission of St. Martial, the first Bishop of Limoges, and at a +later period Zaccheus, hearing of a rocky solitude in Aquitania, a +little to the south of the Dordogne, abandoned to wild beasts, +proceeded thither, and chose a cavern in the escarped side of a cliff +for his hermitage. Here, meditating upon the merits of the Mother of +Christ, he became one of her most devoted servants in that age, and +during his life he caused a small chapel to be raised to her upon the +rock near his cavern, which was consecrated by St. Martial. All this +is open to controversy, but what is undoubtedly true is that one of +the earliest sanctuaries of Europe associated with the name of Mary +was at Roc-Amadour. + +It is recorded that Roland, passing through the Quercy in the year 778 +with his uncle, Charlemagne, made a point of stopping at Roc-Amadour +for the purpose of 'offering to the most holy Virgin a gift of silver +of the same weight as his bracmar, or sword.' After his death, if +Duplex and local tradition are to be trusted, this sword was brought +to Roc-Amadour, and the curved rusty blade of crushing weight which is +now to be seen hanging to a wall is said to be a faithful copy of the +famous Durandel, which is supposed to have been stolen by the +Huguenots when they pillaged the church and burnt the remains of St. +Amadour. + +That in the twelfth century the fame of Roc-Amadour as a place of +pilgrimage was established we have very good evidence in the fact that +one of the pilgrims to the sanctuary in 1170 was Henry II. of England. +He had fallen seriously ill at Mote-Gercei, and believing that he had +been restored to health through the intercession of the Virgin, he set +out for the 'Dark Valley' in fulfilment of a vow that he had made to +her; but as this journey into the Quercy brought him very near the +territory of his enemies, the annalists tell us that he was +accompanied by a great multitude of infantry and cavalry, as though he +were marching to battle. But he injured no one, and gave abundant alms +to the poor. Thirteen years later, the King's rebellious son, Henry, +Court Mantel, pillaged the sanctuary of its treasure in order to pay +his ruffianly soldiers. This memorable sacrilege had much to do with +the insurmountable antipathy of the Quercynois for the English. + +I have before me an old and now exceedingly rare little book on +Roc-Amadour, which was written by the Jesuit Odo de Gissey, and +published at Tulle in 1666. In this, Court Mantel's exploit is spoken +of as follows: + +'Les guerres d'entre nos Rois très Chrétiens et les Anglais en ce +Royaume de France guerroyant ruinèrent en quelque façon Roc-Amadour; +mais plus que tous Henri III., Roi d'Angleterre, ingrat des grâces que +son père Henri II. y avait recues, en dépit de son père qui +affectionnait cette Eglise, son avarice le poussant, pilla cet +oratoire et enleva les plaques qui couvraient le corps de S. Amadour +et emporta ce qui était de la Trésorerie; mais Dieu qui ne laisse rien +impuni châtia le sacrilege de cet impie Prince par une mort +malheureuse. De quoi lise qui voudra Roger de Houedan, historien +Anglais en la 2 partie de ses Annales.' + +There are early records of miracles wrought at Roc-Amadour. Gauthier +de Coinsy, a monk and poet born at Amiens in 1177, has left a poem +telling how the troubadour, Pierre de Sygelard, singing the praises of +the Virgin in her chapel at Roc-Amadour to the accompaniment of his +_vielle_ (hurdy-gurdy), begged of her as a miraculous sign to let one +of her candles come down from her altar. According to the poem, the +candle came down, and stood upon the musical instrument, to the horror +and disgust of a monk who was looking on, and who saw no miracle in +the matter, but wicked enchantment. He put the candle back +indignantly, but when the minstrel sang and played it came down as +before. The movement was repeated again before the monk would believe +that the miracle was genuine. The poem, which is in the Northern +dialect, and is marked throughout by a charming _naïveté_, commences +with a eulogium of the Virgin: + + 'La douce mère du Créateur + À l'église à Rochemadour + Fait tants miracles, tants hauts faits, + C'uns moultes biax livres en est faits.' + +The huge, inartistic, but imposing block of masonry that appears from +a little distance to be clinging, after the manner of a swallow's +nest, to the precipitous face of the rock, and which is reached from +below by more than 200 steps in venerable dilapidation[*], contains +the church of St. Sauveur, the chapel of the Virgin, called the +Miraculous Chapel, and the chapel of St. Amadour, all distinct. The +last-named is a little crypt, and the Miraculous Chapel conveys the +impression of being likewise one, for it is partly under the +overleaning rock, the rugged surface of which, blackened by the smoke +of the countless tapers which have been burnt there in the course of +ages, is seen without any facing of masonry. + + [*] Since the foregoing was written the old slabs have been turned + round, and the steps been made to look quite new. + +If by looking at certain details of this composite structure one could +shut off the surroundings from the eye, the mind might feed without +any hindrance upon the ideas of old piety and the fervour of souls +who, when Europe was like a troubled and forlorn sea, sought the +quietude and safety of these rocks, lifted far above the raging surf. +But the hindrance is found on every side. The sense of artistic +fitness is wounded by incongruities of architectural style, of ideas +which meet but do not marry. The brazen altar, in the Miraculous +Chapel was well enough at the Paris Exhibition of 1889, where it could +be admired as a piece of elaborate brass work, but at Roc-Amadour it +is a direct challenge to the spirit of the spot. Then again, late +Gothic architecture has been grafted upon the early Romanesque. Those +who restored the building after it had been reduced to a ruin by the +Huguenots in 1562 set the example of bad taste. The revolutionists of +1793 having in their turn wrought their fury upon it, the work of +restoration was again undertaken during the last half-century, but the +opportunity of correcting the mistake of the previous renovators was +lost. The piece of Romanesque architecture whose character has been +best preserved is the detached chapel of St. Michael, raised like a +pigeon-house against the rock; but even this has been carefully +scraped on the outside to make it correspond as nearly as possible to +some adjacent work of recent construction. + +The ancient treasure of Roc-Amadour has been scattered or melted down, +but the image of the Virgin and Child, which according to the local +tradition was carved out of the trunk of a tree by St. Amadour +himself, is still to be seen over the altar in the Miraculous Chapel. +It is probably 800 years old, and it may be older. There is no record +to help hypothesis with regard to its antiquity, for since the +pilgrimage originated it appears to have been an object of veneration, +and the commencement of the pilgrimage is lost in the dimness of the +past. Like the statue of the Virgin at Le Puy, it is as black as +ebony, but this is the effect of age, and the smoke of incense and +candles. The antiquity of the image is, moreover, proved by the +artistic treatment. The Child is crowned and rests upon the Virgin's +knee; she does not touch him with her hands. This is in accordance +with the early Christian sentiment, which dwells upon the kingship of +the Child as distinguished from the later mediaeval feeling, which +rests without fear upon the Virgin's maternal love and makes her clasp +the Infant fondly to her breast. + +The 'miraculous bell' of Roc-Amadour has not rung since 1551, but it +may do so any day or night, for it is still suspended to the vault of +the Miraculous Chapel. It is of iron, and was beaten into shape with +the hammer--facts which, together with its form, are regarded as +certain evidence of its antiquity. The first time that it is said to +have rung by its own movement was in 1385, and three days afterwards, +according to Odo de Gissey, the phenomenon was repeated during the +celebration of the Mass. All those who were present bore testimony to +the fact upon oath before the apostolic notary. + +Very early in the Middle Ages the faith spread among mariners, and +others exposed to the dangers of the sea, that the Lady of Roc-Amadour +had great power to help them when in distress. Hugues Farsit, Canon of +Laon, wrote a treatise in 1140, 'De miraculis Beatae Virginis rupis +Amatoris,' wherein he speaks of her as the 'Star of the Sea,' and the +hymn 'Ave maris stella' is one of those most frequently sung in these +days by the pilgrims at Roc-Amadour. A statement, written and signed +by a Breton pilgrim in 1534, shows how widely this particular devotion +had then spread among those who trusted their lives to the uncertain +sea: + +'I, Louis Le Baille, merchant of the town of Pontscorf, on the river +Ellé, in the diocese of Vannes, declare with truth that, returning +from a voyage to Scotland the 13th of the month of February, 1534, at +about ten o'clock at night, we were overtaken by such a violent storm +that the waves covered the vessel, in which were twenty-six persons, +and we went to the bottom. During the voyage somebody said to me: "Let +us recommend ourselves to God and to the Virgin Mary of Roc-Amadour. +Let us put her name upon this spar and trust ourselves to the care of +this good Lady." He who gave me this good counsel and myself fastened +ourselves to the spar with a rope. The tempest carried us away, but in +so fortunate a manner that the next day we found ourselves on the +coast of Bayonne. Half dead, we landed by the grace of God and the aid +of His pitiful mother, Notre Dame de Roc-Amadour. I have come here out +of gratitude for this blessing, and have accomplished the journey in +fulfilment of my vow to her, in proof of which, I have signed here +with my hand.--Louis BAILLE.' + +Such streams of pilgrims crossed the country from various directions, +moving towards the sanctuary in the Haut-Quercy, that inns or 'halts' +were called into existence on the principal lines of route, and +lanterns were set up at night for the guidance of the wanderers. The +last halt was close to Roc-Amadour, at a spot still called the +_Hospitalet_. Here were religious, who bound up the pilgrims' bleeding +feet, and provided them with food before they descended to the burg +and completed the last part of their pilgrimage--the ascent of the +steps--upon their knees. The _sportelle_, or badge of Notre Dame de +Roc-Amadour, ensured the wearer against interference or ill-treatment +on his journey. It is acknowledged that the English respected it even +in time of war. At the Great Pardon of Roc-Amadour, in 1546, so great +was the crowd of pilgrims, who had come from all parts, that many +persons were suffocated. The innkeepers' tents gave the surrounding +country the appearance of a vast camp. Sixteen years later, when +Roc-Amadour fell into the hands of the Huguenots, and the religious +buildings were pillaged and partly destroyed, the pilgrimage received +a blow from which it never quite recovered. It ceased completely at +the Revolution, but has since been revived, and some thousand genuine +pilgrims, chiefly of the peasant class, now visit Roc-Amadour every +year. + +For nearly 300 years the history of the Quercy and Roc-Amadour was +intimately associated with that of England. Henry II. did not at first +claim the Quercy as a part of Eleanor's actual possessions in +Aquitaine; but he claimed homage from the Count of Toulouse, who was +then suzerain of the Count of Quercy. Homage being refused, Henry +invaded the county, captured Cahors, where he left Becket with a +garrison, and thence proceeded to reduce the other strongholds. +Roc-Amadour appears to have offered little if any resistance. The +Quercy was formally made over to the English in 1191 by the treaty +signed by Philip Augustus and Richard Coeur-de-Lion; but the aged +Raymond V. of Toulouse protested, and the Quercynois still more +loudly. These descendants of the Cadurci found it very difficult to +submit to English rule. Unlike the Gascons, who became thoroughly +English during those three centuries, and were so loath to change +their rulers again that they fought for the King of England to the +last, the Quercynois were never reconciled to the Plantagenets, but +were ever ready to seize an opportunity of rebelling against them. It +is well known that Richard Coeur-de-Lion lost his life at the hand of +a nobleman of the Quercy. While Guyenne was distracted by the family +quarrel of the first Plantagenets, the troubadour Bertrand de Born by +his gift of words so stirred up the patriotic and martial ardour of +the Aquitanians that a league was formed against the English, which +included Talleyrand, Count of Périgord, Guilhem (or Fortanier) de +Gourdon, a powerful lord of the Quercy, De Montfort, the Viscounts of +Turenne and Ventadour. These nobles swore upon the Gospels to remain +united and faithful to the cause of Aquitaine; but Richard, partly by +feats of war and partly by diplomacy, in which it is said the argument +of money had no inconsiderable share, broke up the league, and +Bertrand de Born, being abandoned, fell into the Plantagenet's hands. +But he was pardoned, probably because Richard was a troubadour himself +in his leisure moments, and had a fellow-feeling for all who loved the +'gai sçavoir.' Meanwhile, the Lord of Gourdon was not to be gained +over by fair words or bribes, and Richard besieged his castle, some +ruins of which may still be seen on the rock that overhangs the little +town of Gourdon in the Quercy. The fortress was taken, and Richard in +his fury caused the stern old man who defended it and two of his sons +to be put to death. But there was a third son, Bertrand de Gourdon, +who, seeking an opportunity of avenging his father and brothers, +joined the garrison of the castle of Châlus in the Limousin, which +Richard soon afterwards besieged. He aimed the bolt or the arrow which +brought Richard's stormy life to a close. Although forgiven by the +dying Coeur-de-Lion, Bertrand was flayed alive by the Brabançons who +were in the English army. He left no descendants, but his collaterals +long afterwards bore the name of Richard in memory of Bertrand's +vengeance. + +A member of a learned society at Cahors has sought to prove that +Gourdon in the Quercy is the place where the family of General Gordon +of Khartoum fame had its origin. It is true that the name of this town +in all old charts is spelt Gordon; but, inasmuch as it is a compound +of two Celtic words meaning raven's rock, it might as feasibly have +been handed down by the Gaelic Scotch as by the Cadurcians. + +The Plantagenets came to be termed 'the devil's race' by the people of +Guyenne. This may have originated in a saying attributed to Richard +himself in Aquitaine: 'It is customary in our family for the sons to +hate their father. We come from the devil, and we shall return to the +devil.' + +In 1368 the English, having again to reduce the Quercy, laid siege to +Roc-Amadour. The burghers held out only for a short time, and the +place being surrendered, Perducas d'Albret was left as governor with a +garrison of Gascons. Froissart quaintly describes this brief siege. +Shortly before the army showed itself in the narrow valley of the +Alzou, the towns of Fons and Gavache had capitulated, the inhabitants +having sworn that they would remain English ever afterwards. 'But they +lied,' observes Froissart. Arriving under the walls of Roc-Amadour, +which were raised upon the lower rocks, the English advanced at once +to the assault. 'Là eut je vous dy moult grant assaust et dur.' It +lasted a whole day, with loss on both sides; but when the evening came +the English entrenched themselves in the valley with the intention of +renewing the assault on the morrow. That night, however, the consuls +and burghers of Roc-Amadour took council of one another, and it was +unanimously agreed that the English had shown great 'force and virtue' +during the day. Then the wisest among them urged that the place could +not hold out long against such an enemy, and that if it was taken by +force they, the burghers, would be all hanged, and the town burnt +without mercy. It was, therefore, decided to surrender the town the +next day. This was accordingly done, and the burghers solemnly swore +that they would be 'good English' ever afterwards. For their penance +they undertook to send fifty mules laden with provisions to accompany +the English army on its march for fifteen days. The fact that the +burghers owned fifty mules in the fourteenth century shows how much +richer they were then, for now they can scarcely boast half as many +donkeys, although these beasts do most of the carrying, and even the +ploughing. + +It is difficult now to find a trace of the wall which defended the +burg on the side of the valley; but here, not far above the bed of the +Alzou, are some ruins of the castle where Henry II. stayed, and which +the inhabitants still associate with his name. It is improbable that +he built it; it is more reasonable to suppose that it existed before +his marriage with Eleanor in 1152. His son, 'Short Mantle,' also used +it when he came to Roc-Amadour, and behaved, as an old writer +expresses it, 'like a ferocious beast.' Some ruined Gothic archways +may still be seen from the valley, the upper stones yellow with +rampant wallflowers in the early spring. The older inhabitants speak +of the high walls, the finely-sculptured details, etc., which they +remember; and, indeed, it is not very long ago that the ancient castle +was sold for a paltry sum, to be used as building material. The only +part of the interior preserved is what was once the chapel. It is +vaulted and groined, and the old vats and casks heaped up in it show +that it was long used for wine-making, before the phylloxera destroyed +the vineyards that once covered the sides of the stony hills. A little +below this castle is a well, with an extraordinary circumference, said +to have been sunk by the English, and always called by the people 'Le +puit des Anglais.' It is 100 feet deep, and those who made it had to +work thirty feet through solid rock. + + * * * * * + +After wandering and loitering by rivers too well fed by the mountains +to dry completely up like the perfidious little Alzou, I have returned +to Roc-Amadour, my headquarters, the summer being far advanced. The +wallflowers no longer deck the old towers and gateways with their +yellow bloom, and scent the morning and evening air with their +fragrance; the countless flags upon the rocky shelves no longer flaunt +their splendid blue and purple, tempting the flower-gatherer to risk a +broken neck; the poet's narcissus and the tall asphodel alike are +gone; so are all the flowers of spring. The wild vine that clambers +over the blackthorn, the maple and the hazel, all down the valley +towards the Dordogne, shows here and there a crimson leaf; and the +little path is fringed with high marjoram, whose blossoms revel amidst +the hot stones, and seem to drink the wine of their life from the +fiery sunbeams. Upon the burning banks of broken rock--gray wastes +sprinkled with small spurges and tufts of the fragrant southernwood, +now opening its mean little flowers--multitudes of flying grasshoppers +flutter, most of them with scarlet wings, and one marvels how they can +keep themselves from being baked quite dry where every stone is hot. +The lizards, which spend most of their time in the grasshoppers' +company, appear equally capable of resisting fire. In the bed of the +Alzou a species of brassica has had time since the last flood to grow +up from the seed, and to spread its dark verdure in broad patches over +the dry sand and pebbles. The ravens are gone--to Auvergne, so it is +said, because they do not like hot weather. The hawks are less +difficult to please on the score of climate; they remain here all the +year round, piercing the air with their melancholy cries. + +I needed quiet for writing, and could not get it. Of all boons this is +the most difficult to find in France. It can be had in Paris, where it +is easy to live shut off from the world, hearing nothing save the +monotonous rumble of life in the streets; but let no one talk to me +about the blessed quietude of the country in France, unless it be that +of the bare moor or mountain or desolate seashore. In villages there +is no escape from the clatter of tongues until everybody, excepting +yourself, is asleep. The houses are so built that wherever you may +take refuge you are compelled to hear the conversation that is going +on in any part of them. In the South the necessity of listening +becomes really terrible. The men roar, and the women shriek, in their +ordinary talk. A complete stranger to such ways might easily suppose +that they were engaged in a wordy battle of alarming ferocity, when +they are merely discussing the pig's measles, or the case of a cow +that strayed into a field of lucern, and was found the next morning +like a balloon. It is hard for a person who needs to be quiet at times +to live with such people without giving the Recording Angel a great +deal of disagreeable work. + +I would not have believed that so small a place as Roc-Amadour, and +such a holy one, could have been so noisy if my own experience had not +informed me on this subject. Every morning at five the tailor who did +duty as policeman and crier came with his drum, and, stationing +himself by the town pump, which was just in front of my cottage, awoke +the echoes of the gorge with a long and furious _tambourinade_. While +the women, in answer to this signal, were coming from all directions, +carrying buckets in their hands, or copper water-pots on their heads, +he unchained the pump-handle. Now for the next two hours the strident +cries of the exasperated pump, and the screaming gabble of many +tongues, all refreshed by slumber and eager for exercise, made such a +diabolic tumult and discord as to throw even the braying of the +donkeys into the minor key. Of course, sleep under such circumstances +would have been miraculous; but, then, no one had any right to sleep +when the rocks were breaking again into flame, and the mists which +filled the gorge by night were folding up their tents. I therefore +accepted this noise as if it had been intended for my good, and the +crowd in front of the pump was always an amusing picture of human +life. It was at its best on Sunday, for then the tailor--who also did +a little shaving between whiles--had put on his fine braided official +coat, as well as his sword and best _képi_. (On very grand days he +wore his cocked hat, and was then quite irresistibly beautiful.) He +had to look after the women as well as the water. The latter was +precious, and it was necessary to protect it in the interest of the +community. Then the pump was parsimonious, and all the women being +impatient to get their allowance and go, it was needful that someone +in authority should stand by to decide questions of disputed priority, +and to nip quarrels in the bud which might otherwise lead to a fight. +Poor man! how those women worried him every morning with their +_badinage_, and how glad he was to chain up the pump-handle and turn +the key! + +But this was only the opening act of the day's comedy, or rather the +_lever de rideau_. The little square by the old gateway, whose +immediate neighbourhood lent a mediaeval charm to my cottage, was the +centre of gossip and idling. I did not think of this when I pitched my +tent, so to speak, in the shadow of the old masonry. Knowing full well +that the noise of tongues is one of the chief torments of my life, I +am always leaving it out of my calculations, and paying the same bill +for my folly over and over again. But then I know also that in +provincial France, unless you live in an abandoned ruin upon a rock, +it is well-nigh impossible to obtain the quietude which the literary +man, when he has it not, imagines to be closely allied to the peace +that passeth all understanding. The square served many purposes, +except mine. The women used it as a convenient place for steaming +their linen. This, fashioned into the shape of a huge sugar-loaf, with +a hollow centre, stood in a great open caldron upon a tripod over a +wood-fire. At night the lurid flames and the grouped figures, +illuminated by the glare, were picturesque; but in the daytime the +charm of these gatherings was chiefly conversational. Then the +children made the square their playground, or were driven into it +because it was the safest place for them, and every Sunday afternoon +the young men of Roc-Amadour met there to play at skittles. + +In quest of peace, I was driven at first into the loft of the inn, of +which the cottage was a dependency. Here the vocal music of the +inhabitants was somewhat muffled, but the opportunities for studying +natural history were rather excessive. A swarm of bees had established +themselves in a corner where they could not be dislodged, and they had +a way of crawling over the floor that kept my expectations constantly +raised. The maize grown upon the small farm having been stored here +from time immemorial, the rats had learnt from tradition and +experience to consider this loft as their Land of Goshen. When I took +up my quarters among them they were annoyed, and also puzzled. They +could not understand why I remained there so long and so quiet; but at +length they lost patience and gave up the riddle. Then their impudence +became unbounded; they helped themselves to the maize whenever they +felt disposed to do so, and stared at me with the utmost effrontery as +they sat upon their haunches nibbling; they ran races under the tiles +and held pitched battles upon the rafters. Talking one day to the +proprietor of the house about his rats and other live stock, I tried +to excite and distress him by describing the depredation that went on +day and night in the loft. But it was with a calm bordering on +satisfaction that he listened to my story. Then he told me that the +rats ate about two sacks of maize every year. + +'And you do not put it elsewhere?' 'Non pas! I leave it here for +them.' + +'For the rats?' + +'Certainly, for the rats. If I did not give them plenty of maize they +would eat a hundred francs' worth of linen in a single winter. It is +an economy to feed them.' + +And there were about a dozen string-tailed cats about the place that +never ventured into the loft. They must have been either afraid or too +lazy to attack the rats in their stronghold. A man who could accept a +plague of rodents in this philosophical spirit could not be otherwise +than mild in his dealings with all animals, including men. My old +friend liked to let every creature live and enjoy existence. He became +so fond of his pigs that it grieved him sorely to have one killed. +Much domestic diplomacy had to be used before the fatal order could be +wrung from him. He would have gone on fattening the beast for ever had +he been allowed, soothing his conscience over the waste with the vague +hope that this pig of exceptional loveliness and vigour would grow to +the size of a donkey if it were permitted to take its time. He never +worried his _métayer_ over money matters, or insisted upon seeing that +everything was equally divided. Notwithstanding, that he had been made +to smart all his life for his trustfulness and indolent good-nature, +experience had taught him nothing of this world's wisdom. No beggar, +although known to be a worthless rascal, ever asked him for a piece of +bread or a night's lodging in his barn without obtaining it. The old +man would lock his ragged guest up for the night, and before letting +him out in the morning would often carry some soup to him--stealthily, +however, so as not to be observed. As he was always ready to give, and +hated every harsh measure, it was to his wood that the unscrupulous +went in winter, when they wanted fuel. Sometimes an informer would say +to him: 'M---- So-and-so is cutting down your wood.' 'Oh, bast! _le +pauvre_. It is cold weather!' was the reply that he would be most +likely to make. His good qualities would have ruined him had not +destiny with great discernment and charity nailed him to his little +patrimony, where he was comparatively safe. + +The bees in the loft were instructive and the rats amusing, but the +fleas were neither the one nor the other--they were merely exciting. +And so it came to pass that I forsook the place, and by climbing a +little staircase cut in the rock, against which the house was built, +reached a cavern far above the roof and found at last my ideal +writing-place upon the ledge in front of it, where the mallow and the +crane's-bill crept over a patch of turf. Here the voices of the noisy +little world below were sufficiently toned down by distance. The +noisiest creatures up here were the jackdaws, which were constantly +flying in and out of the holes in the church wall that rose above me +from another and wider ledge of rock. A pair of sooty-looking +rock-swallows that had made their nest in the roof of the cavern were +much irritated by my presence, but, like the rats, they became +reconciled to it. The little martins, always trustful, never hesitated +from the first to fly into the cave and drink from the dripping water. +When the dusk came on, the bats, which had been hanging by their +winged heels all day in dusky holes and corners, fluttered out one +after another, and went zigzagging until they were lost to sight over +the old stone roofs on which the moss had blackened. + +A little before the bats came out was the time when to do aught else +but let the sight feast upon the beauty of the rocky little world +bounded by the walls of the narrow gorge would have been literally to +waste the golden moments. Then it was that the naked crags, which +caught the almost level rays of the setting sun, grew brighter and +more brilliantly coruscating, until they seemed ready to melt from the +intensity of their own heat; then this fiery golden colour would +slowly fade and wane into misty purple tones, which lingered long when +there was no more sun. Why did it linger? All the sky that I could see +was blue, and of deepening tone. But the most wonderful sight was yet +to come, when, while the valley was fast darkening, and along the +banks of the Alzou's dry channel the walnut-trees stood like dark +spectres of uncertain form, those rocks began to glow with fire again +as if a wind had risen suddenly and had fanned their dying embers, and +the luminous bloom that spread over them was not that of the earthly +rose, but of the mystical rose of heaven. What I saw was the +reflection of the after-glow, but the glow in the sky was hidden. +Sometimes, as the rocks were fading again and a star was already +glittering like steel against the dark blue, another flush arose in +the dusk, and a faint redness still rested upon the high crags, when +the owl flew forth with a shriek to hunt along the sides of the gorge. + +One morning, as I climbed to my eyrie, I was shocked to see my oblong +writing-table, which I had hoisted up there with considerable +difficulty, in an attitude that my neighbour Decros's donkey +endeavoured to strike in his most agitated moments--it was standing +upon two legs, with the others in the air. The heavy branch of a large +fig-tree that had been flourishing for many years upon the overhanging +rock far above had come down upon the very spot where I was accustomed +to sit, and thus the strange antics of the table were accounted for. +From that day the thought of other things above, such as loose rocks, +which might also have conceived an antipathy for the table, and might +not be so considerate towards me as the fig-tree, weakened my +attachment to my ideal writing-place, for the discovery of which I was +indebted to the indefatigable tongues of the women of Roc-Amadour. + +The mention of my neighbour's donkey recalls to mind an interesting +religious ceremony in which that amiable but emotional beast figured +with much distinction. Once every year all the animals at Roc-Amadour +that are worth blessing are assembled on the plain near the Hospitalet +to receive the benediction of the Church. The ceremony is called _La +bénédiction des bêtes_. The animals are chiefly goats, sheep, donkeys, +and mules. They are sprinkled with holy water, and prayers are said, +so that they may increase and multiply or prosper in any other way +that their owners may desire. As the meeting of the beasts took place +very early in the morning, I reached the scene just as it was breaking +up, and the congregation was dispersing in various directions. I met +Decros coming down the hill with his donkey, and saw by the expression +of his lantern jaws--he never laughed outright--that something had +amused him very much. + +'So you have been to the Blessing of the Beasts? said I. + +'_He_ has been,' replied the man, pointing to the ass, and not wishing +to be confounded with the _bêtes_ himself. + +The donkey stuck his long ears forward, which meant, 'Yes, I have,' +and there was a deal of humour in the expression. + +'And how did he behave?' + +'Beautifully; he sang the whole time. The men laughed, but the women +said, "Take the beast away!" "No, I won't," said" _Il chante la +bénédiction_."' + +September brought the retreat, and the great pilgrimage, which lasts +eight days. The first visitors to arrive were the beggars and small +vendors of _objets de piété_. Some came in little carts, which looked +as if they had been made at home out of grocers' boxes, and to which +dogs were harnessed. At their approach all the Roc-Amadour dogs barked +bravely, just as in the old days when the song was written of the +'beggars coming to town.' Others trudged in with their bundles upon +their backs, hobbling, hungry and thirsty, but eager for the fray. +Some in a larger way of business came in all sorts of vehicles, and a +bazaar man arrived in a caravan of his own. Then followed the crowd of +genuine pilgrims, nearly all of them peasants, humbly clad, but with +money in their pockets which they were determined not to spend +foolishly upon meat, drink, and lodging, for the good of their souls +was uppermost in their minds, and the length of their stay would +depend upon their success in making the money last. By far the greater +number were women, and the many bent backs and withered faces among +them were a pretty safe sign that they had not all come to implore the +aid of the Virgin in that special form of domestic trouble from which +so many thousands have sought relief century after century in her +sanctuary of Roc-Amadour. + +The plain white linen coif--very ugly, but delightfully +primitive--worn by a large proportion of these peasants showed that +they had crossed the Dordogne from the Bas-Limousin. Many had come all +the way on foot, taking a couple of days or more for the journey, and +a few had trudged over the hot roads and stony _causses_[*] barefoot, +just like pilgrims of the Middle Ages. + + [*] This Languedocian word, which has come to be generally used in + describing the limestone uplands, as distinguished from the + valleys and gorges of a very extensive district of Southern + France, is said to be a corruption of _calx_. + +Indeed, these people were essentially the same in all social and +mental characteristics as their predecessors of five or seven +centuries ago; their faith was the same, their daily habits were the +same, their language was the same, and their mode of dress, as far +as the women were concerned, had scarcely changed. They came down +the narrow street and under the old crumbling gateways in a +continuous stream, holding their rosaries in their hands, together +with their baskets and bundles, and praying aloud, even before they +reached the foot of the steps. Arriving there, they dropped down +upon their knees, and commenced the arduous ascent, interrupted by +two hundred genuflexions, during which they repeated an _Ave Maria_ +and a special invocation to Notre Dame de Roc-Amadour. Although the +stranger belonging to the outer world--so different in every way +from that of these simple people--with his mind coloured by +particular prejudices, habits of thought, religious or philosophical +reasoning, may feel out of sympathy with such pilgrims, he cannot +but recognise their sincerity and the serene fulness of their faith. + +Above all the pious murmuring rise the harsh voices of those who have +come to sell, and who, putting no restraint upon their eagerness to +get money, thrust their rosaries and medals almost in the pilgrims' +faces. Beggars squatting or lying against the wall on either side of +the steps exhibit the bare stump of a leg that wofully needs washing, +a withered arm, or the ravages of some incurable and gnawing disease. +Yet are they all terribly energetic, wailing forth prayers almost +incessantly, or screaming spasmodically an appeal to charity, and +adding to the dreadful din by jingling coppers in tin cups. In the +immediate precincts of the church, where the hurly-burly of piety, +traffic, and mendicity reaches its climax, are the vendors of candles +for the chapel and of food for the pilgrims, whose diet is chiefly +melon and bread. Creysse, by the Dordogne, produces melons in +abundance, which are brought to Roc-Amadour by the cartload, and sold +for two or three sous apiece. And to see these pilgrims devour the +fragrant fruit in the month of September makes one think that if Notre +Dame de Roc-Amadour were not very pitiful the consequences would be +disastrous to many. + +There was a humorous beggar on the steps who amused me much, for I +watched him more closely than he supposed. He had something the matter +with his legs--paralyzed, perhaps--but the upper part of his body was +sound enough. With one hand he shook the tin cup, but the other, which +held a short pipe, he kept steadfastly behind his back. Now and again +he turned his face to the wall, as if to drop a tear unseen, but +really to take a discreet pull at the pipe. I think he must have +swallowed the smoke. Then he would face the crowd again, and repeat +his doleful cry: + +'De la charité! de la charité! Chrétiens, n'oubliez pas le pauvre +estropié! Le bon Dieu vous bénira.' + +After all, why should not a beggar smoke? If tobacco is a blessing, +why should a man be debarred from it because his legs are paralyzed, +and he is obliged to live on charity? + +As one of the first thoughts of every genuine pilgrim to this ancient +sanctuary is to get shrived, the chaplains, who, with their Superior, +are ten in number, have something to do to listen to the story of sins +that is poured into their ears almost in a continuous stream during +the eight days of the retreat. The rush upon the confessionals begins +at five in the morning, and goes on with little intermission all day. +The penitents huddle together like sheep in a snowstorm around each +confessional, so that the foremost who is telling his sins knows that +there is another immediately behind him who, whenever he stops to +reflect, would like to give him a nudge m the back. The peasants, +whether it be that they have never cultivated the habit of whispering, +or whether their zeal be such as to chase from their minds all +considerations of worldly shame and human respect, say what they have +to say without regard to the rows of ears behind them, and what takes +place at these times is almost on a par with the public confessions of +the primitive Church. + +It is at night, however, during the retreat that the visitor to +Roc-Amadour will see the strangest sight if he gives himself the +trouble, for then the church of St. Sauveur becomes a _hospice_ where +the weary may find the sleep that refreshes and restores the +faculties after the work of the day, as sung by St. Ambrose. The +church is filled with pilgrims lying upon the chairs, upon the bare +stones that the feet of other pilgrims have worn into hollows, +sitting with their backs against the walls and piers, snoring also in +the confessionals--the most comfortable quarters. Some remain awake +most of the night praying silently or aloud. This is how the +peasantry of the Quercy and the Limousin enter into the spirit of the +September pilgrimage to Roc-Amadour. It is not because they need the +money to pay for accommodation in the inns that they use the church +by night as well as by day, but because they wish to go through their +devotional programme thoroughly. And those who go to the inns often +make one room serve for a family of three or four grown-up persons. +If there vis one person who does not belong to the family, the others +see no harm in admitting him or her; indeed, they think that as +Christians they are almost bound to do so. + +On the night following the opening of the retreat, Roc-Amadour is +illuminated, and the spectacle is one that renders the grandest +illuminations in Paris mean and vulgar by comparison. It is not in the +costliness of the display that its splendour lies; it is in what may +almost be termed the zeal with which Nature works with art towards the +same end. Without the rocks and precipices the spectacle would be +commonplace; but the site being what it is, the scene has a strange +and wonderful charm that may be called either fairylike or heavenly, +as the imagination may prefer. The artistic means employed are simple +enough--paper lanterns and little lamps of coloured glass; but what an +effect is produced when chains of fire have been stretched across the +gorge from the summits of the rocks on either side, when the long +succession of zigzags reaching up the cliff, and forming the Way of +the Cross, is also marked out with fire, when the ramparts on the +brink of the precipice are ablaze with coloured lamps, recalling some +old poetical picture of an enchanted castle, and a little to the +right, on the summit of the cliff where the Via Crucis ends at +Calvary, the great wooden cross which French pilgrims carried through +the streets of Jerusalem stands against the calm starlit sky like a +cross of blood-red flame! + +A little below the summit of the cliff, from the large cavern which +has been fashioned to represent the Holy Sepulchre, there issues a +brilliant light, together with the sound of many voices singing the +'Tantum ergo.' A faint odour of incense wanders here and there among +the shrubs, and mingles with the fragrance of flowers upon the +terraces. Presently the clergy and the pilgrims come forth, and, +forming a long procession, descend the Way of the Cross; and as the +burning tapers that they carry shine and flash amongst the foliage, +these words, familiar to every pilgrim to Roc-Amadour, sung by +hundreds of voices, may be heard afar off in the dark desolate gorge: + + 'Reine puissante, Mère d'Amour, + Sois-nous compatissante, + O Vierge d'Amadour!' + +It is now the vigil of All Souls--the 'Day of the Dead.' No more +pilgrims come to Roc-Amadour. A breeze would send the sapless +walnut-leaves whirling through the air, but there is no breeze; Nature +seems to hold her breath as she thinks of the dead whom she has +gathered to her earthy breast. At sundown the people creep out of +their houses silently and solemnly; they meet at the bottom of the +steps, and when they are joined by the clergy and choirboys, all move +slowly upward, praying for the dead and kneeling upon each step. As +their forms seen sideways show against the dusky sky, they look like +shadows from the ghostly world, and still more so when the rocks on +the other side of the gorge brighten again, as with the blood of the +pomegranate made luminous, and through the air there spreads a +beautiful solemn light that is tenderly yet deeply sad, and which adds +something unearthly, something that cannot be named, to the ascending +figures. + +As the dusk deepens to darkness the funereal _glas_ begins to moan +from St. Saviour's Church. Two bells are rung together so as to make +as nearly as possible one clash of sound. At first it is a moan, but +it soon becomes a strident cry with a continuous under-wail. At the +Hospitalet on the hill the bell of the mortuary chapel is also +tolling. It is the bell of the dead who lie there in the stony +burying-ground upon the edge of the wind-blown _causse_, calling upon +the bells of Roc-Amadour to move the living to pity for those who have +left the earth. + +As I return to my cottage the dim street is quite deserted, and the +arch of the ruined gateway, so often resounding with the voices that +come from light hearts, is now as dark and silent as a grave. For two +hours the bells continue to cry in the darkness, from the church +overhead and from the chapel by the tombs. I can neither read nor +write, but sit brooding over the fire on the hearth, piling on wood +and sending tall flames and many sparks up the chimney; for that +continuous undercry of the iron tongues, 'Pray for the dead! pray for +the dead!' fills the valley and seems to fill the world. No fireside +feeling can be kindled; it is wasting wood to throw it upon the hearth +to-night, for that doleful wail penetrates everywhere: even the demon +that lurks at the bottom of Pomoyssin must shudder as he hears it. +When at length the bells stop swinging and their vibrations die away, +a screech-owl flies close by the open gallery of the house, which we +call a balcony, and startles me with its ghostly scream. + +The day comes again, fair and hopeful. I am waiting for the old +truffle-hunter, with whom I made an appointment for this morning. +Presently I see him coming up the bed of the stream, plodding over the +yellow stones, which have been dry for four months. I recognise him by +his pig, which walks by his side. They are both truffle-hunters, and +have both an interest in the business, as will be seen. The man is +gray and old, with a sharp prominent nose, suggestive of his chief +occupation, and with a bent back--the effect, perhaps, of stooping to +pull the pig's ear in the nick of time should the beast be tempted to +snap up one of the savoury cryptogams. When it is added that he wears +a short blouse and a low, broad-brimmed felt hat, I have described the +appearance of the truffle-hunter. Now, inasmuch as the pig is about to +play the most important part in the morning's work, its portrait +should likewise be drawn. The animal is of a dirty-white colour, like +all pigs in this part of France, and is utterly devoid of grace and +elegance. It is, in fact, an extremely ugly beast, with an arched back +and a very long turned-up nose; but it is four years old, and is +accounted 'serious.' Like all other pigs used for truffle-hunting, it +is of the female sex. The animal has been carefully educated; it wears +a leather collar as a mark of distinction, and is allowed the same +liberty as a dog. + +We climb the rocky side of the gorge, which is hot work, for the south +wind is blowing, and the sun is blazing in a blue sky. The walnuts by +the line of the stream are changing colour, and the maples are already +fiery; but otherwise there are few signs of autumn. On reaching the +plateau we come at once to the truffle-ground. Here the soil is so +thin, so stony, and withal so arid, that, were it not for the scant +herbage upon which sheep and goats thrive, it would produce nothing +but stunted oak, juniper, and truffles. Even the oaks only grow in +patches where the rock is not close to the surface. The truffles are +never found except very near these trees, or, in default of them, +hazels. This is one of the mysteries of the cryptogamic kingdom, which +no one has yet been able to explain. The truffle-hunters believe that +it is the shade of the trees which produces the underground fruit, and +the opinion is based upon experience. When an oak has been cut down, +or even lopped, a spot near it that was rich in truffles year after +year is soon scoffed at by the knowing pig. + +Our work lies amongst the dwarf oaks, for there are no hazels here. At +a sign from the old man, the pig sniffs about the roots of a little +tree, then proceeds to dig with her nose, tossing up the larger stones +which lie in the way as if they were feathers. The animal has smelt a +truffle, and the man seizes her by the ear, for her manner is +suspicious. This is the first time they have been out together since +last season, and the beast has forgotten some of her education. She +manages to get a truffle into her mouth; he tugs at her ear with one +hand, and uses his stick upon her nose with the other. The brute +screams with anger, but will not open her jaws wide enough for him to +slip his stick in and hook the truffle out. The prize is swallowed, +and the old man, forgetting all decorum, and only thinking of his +loss, calls his companion a pig, which in France is always an insult. +Our truffle-hunting to-day has opened badly, although one party thinks +differently. In a few minutes, however, another truffle is found, and +this time the old man delivers a whack on the nose at the right +moment, and, seizing the fungus, hands it to me. Now he takes from his +pocket a spike of maize, and, picking off a few grains, gives them to +the pig to soothe her injured feelings, and encourage her to hunt +again. This she is quite ready to do, for a pig has no _amour propre_. +We move about in the dry open wood, keeping always near the trees, and +truffle after truffle is turned up from the reddish light soil mixed +with fragments of calcareous rock. The forgotten training soon comes +back to our invaluable auxiliary; a mere twitch of the ear is a +sufficient hint for her to retire at the right moment, and wait for +the corn that is in variably given in exchange for the cryptogam. +Indeed, before we leave the ground, the animal has got so well into +work that when she finds a truffle she does not attempt to seize it, +but points to it, and grunts for the equivalent in maize. The pig may +be a correct emblem of depravity, but its intelligence is certainly of +a superior order. + + + + +FROM THE ALZOU TO THE DORDOGNE. + + +Although the last days of May had come, the Alzou, usually dry at this +time, was running with swift, strong current through the vale of +Roc-Amadour. There had been so many thunderstorms that the channel was +not large enough for the torrent that raced madly over its yellow +pebbles. I lingered awhile in the meadow by the stream, looking at the +rock-clinging sanctuary before wandering in search of the unknown up +the narrow gorge. + +In a garden terraced upon the lower flank of the rock, the labour of +generations having combined to raise a soil there deep enough to +support a few plum, almond, and other fruit trees, a figure all in +black is hard at work transplanting young lettuces. It is that of a +teaching Brother. He is a thin grizzled man of sixty, with an +expression of melancholy benevolence in his rugged face. I have +watched him sitting upon a bench with his arm round some little +village urchin by his side, while the children from the outlying +hamlets, sprawling upon a heap of stones in the sun, ate their mid-day +meal of bread and cheese or buckwheat pancakes that their mothers had +put into their baskets before they trudged off in the early morning. I +have noticed by many signs that he is full of sympathy for the young +peasants placed in his charge. Yet with all his kindness he is +melancholy. So many years in one place, such a dull routine of duty, +such a life of abnegation without the honour that sustains and +encourages, such impossibility of being understood and appreciated by +those for whose sake he has been breaking self upon the wheel of +mortification since his youth, have made him old before the time and +fixed that look of lurking sadness in his warmly human eyes. + +There are few problems more profound than that of the courage with +which men like him continue their self-imposed penal-servitude until +they become too infirm to work and are sent to die in some refuge for +aged _frères_. They have accepted celibacy and poverty, that they may +the better devote their lives to the instruction of children. They +have no sacerdotal state or ideal, no ecclesiastical nor social +ambition to help them. They must be always humble; they must not even +be learned, for much knowledge in their case would be considered a +dangerous thing. Their minds must not rise above their work. They +guide dirty little fists in the formation of pot-hooks, and when they +have led the boys' intelligence up a few more steps of scholarship the +end is achieved. The boy goes out into the world and refreshes his +mind with new occupation; but the poor Brother remains chained to his +dreary task, which is always the same and is never done. + +And what are the wages in return for such a life? Food that many a +workman would consider insufficiently generous for his condition, a +bed to lie upon and clothes which call down upon the wearer the +sarcasms of the town-bred youth. What a land of contrast is France! + +There are three Brothers here, but this one, the eldest, is the head. +Others come and go, but he remains. Most of his spare time is given to +the garden. When the eight o'clock bell begins to swing he will leave +his lettuces and soon perch himself on the little platform behind his +shabby old desk in the dingy schoolroom, which even in the holidays +cannot get rid of its ancient redolence of boys. The school-house, now +so much like a prison, was once a mansion, and the most modern part of +it is of the period which we should call in England Tudor. A Gothic +doorway leads into a hall arched and groined, the inner wall being the +bare rock, as is the case with most of the houses at Roc-Amadour. A +gutter cut in the stone floor to carry off the drippings formed by the +condensation of the air upon the cold surface shows that these +half-rock dwellings have their drawbacks. + +I leave Roc-Amadour and take my way up the valley. Nature has now +reached all that can be attained in vernal pride and beauty here. In a +little while she will have put on the careworn look of the Southern +summer. Many a plant now in splendid bloom, animated by the spirit of +loveliness that presides over the law of reproduction, will soon be +casting its seed and bringing its brief destiny to a close. Now all is +coquetry, beauty, and ravishment. The rock-hiving bees, unconscious +instruments of a great purpose, are yellow with pollen and laden with +honey. They find more, infinitely more, nectar than they can carry +away. The days are long, and every hour is full of joy. But already +the tide is at the turn. The nightingale's rapturous song has become a +lazy twitter; the bird has done with courtship; it has a family in +immediate prospect, if not one already screaming for food, and the +musician has half lost his passion for music. It will come again next +year. How swiftly all this life and colour of spring passes away! So +much to be looked at and so little time! + +This narrow strip of meadow that winds along the bottom of the gorge +is not the single tinted green ribbon it lately was. The light of its +verdure has been dimmed by the light of flowers. The grass mounts +high, but not higher than the oxeye daisies, the blue racemes of +stachys, the mauve-coloured heads of scabious, the bladder-campions, +the yellow buttercups and goat's-beard. The oxeyes are so numberless +in one long reach of meadow that a white drapery, which every breeze +folds or unfolds, seems to have been cast as light as sea-foam upon +the illimitable forest of stems. The white butterflies that flutter +above are like flecks of foam on the wing. Elsewhere it is the blue of +the stachys and the spiked veronica that rules. Deeper in the herbage +other races of flowers shine in the fair groves of this grassy +paradise, and every blossom, however small, is a mystery, a miracle. +Here is the star of Bethlehem, wide open in the sunshine and showing +so purely white amidst the green, and yonder is the purple fringe-like +tuft of the weird muscari. Along the banks of the stream tall +lilac-purple, stock-like flowers rise proudly above the grasses. They +belong to the hesperis or dame's violet, a common wild-flower in this +valley. Upon my left is the abrupt stony slope of the gorge. Between +it and the meadow are shrubs of yellow jessamine starred with blossom. +But the stony steep that dazzles the eyes with the sun's reflected +glare has its flowers too. Nature, in her great passion for beauty, +even draws it out of the disintegrated fragments of time-worn rock, +whose banks would otherwise be as stark and dry as the desert sand. +Lightly as flakes of snow the frail blossoms of the white rock-rose +lie upon the stones. Then there are patches of candytuft running from +white into pink, crimson flowers of the little crane's-bill, and +spurges whose floral leaves are now losing their golden green and +taking a hue of fiery brown. + +An open wood, chiefly of dwarf oak, and shrubs such as the wayfaring +tree, the guelder-rose, and the fly-honeysuckle, now stretches along +the opposite side of the gorge. Here scattered groups of columbine +send forth a glow of dark blue from the shadowy places; the lily of +the valley and its graceful ever-bowing cousin, the Solomon's seal, +show their chaste and wax-like flowers amidst the cool green of their +fresh leaves; and the monkey-orchis stands above the green moss and +the creeping geraniums like a little rocket of pale purple fire just +springing from the earth towards the lingering shreds of storm-cloud +that are melting in the warm sky. + +In a few weeks what will have become of all this greenness and +beautiful colour of flowers? The torrid sun and the hot breath of +summer will have burnt up the fair garment of spring, and laid bare +the arid sternness of the South again. The nightingale still warbles +fitfully in the green bushes, but the raven, perched up yonder upon +the stark rock, croaks like a misanthrope at the quick passing away of +youth and loveliness. What sad undertones, mournful murmurs of the +deep that receives the drifted leaves, mingle with the spring's soft +flutings and all the voices that proclaim the season of joy! + +While listening and day-dreaming, I was overtaken by a man and his +donkey, both old acquaintances. Every day, except Sundays and the +great Church festivals, when the peasants of the Quercy abstain from +work, like those of Brittany, this pair were in the habit of trudging +together side by side to fetch and bring back wood from the slopes of +the gorge. The ass did all the carrying, and his master the chopping +and sawing. It was a monotonous life, but both seemed to think they +were not worse off than the majority of men and donkeys. The man was +contented with his daily soup of bread-and-water, with an onion or a +leek thrown in, and a suspicion of bacon, and the beast with such +herbage as he could find while his master was getting ready another +load of wood. The man was an old soldier, who had seen some rough +service, for he was at Sedan, and was afterwards engaged in the +ghastly business of shooting down his own countrymen in Paris. But, +with all this, he was as quiet a tempered creature as his donkey, +which he treated as a friend. The army, he told me, was the best +school for learning how to treat a beast with proper consideration. + +I asked why. + +'Because,' replied he, 'when a soldier is caught beating a horse, he +has eight days of _salle de police_.' + +Man and donkey having disappeared into a wood, my next companion was a +small blue butterfly that kept a few yards in front of me, now +stopping to look at a flower, now fluttering on again. Some insects, +as well as certain birds, appear to derive much entertainment from +watching the movements of that fantastic animal--man. + +Arcadian leafiness: rocky desolation befitting the mouth of hell. +Grass and flowers on which souls might tread in the paradise of the +Florentine poet. Stony forms, monstrous, enigmatic, reared like +symbolic tokens of defeated gods, or of the worn-out evil passions +that troubled old creation before the coming of man, and the fresh +order of spiritual and carnal bewilderment. Why should I go on and +seek further amazement, while from the lowest to the highest I can +read not one of the mystic figures of the solitude around me? What is +my relation to them, and theirs to me? Why should that beetle in the +grass, upon whose back all the colours of the prism change and glow +like supernatural fire, trouble me with the cause and motive of its +beauty? Why should yonder rock, standing like a spar of some ship +wrecked in a cataclysm of the awful past, draw me to it as though it +were the image of a grand, yet unattainable and blighted, longing of +the human soul? + +The gorge became so narrow and the rocks so high that there was a +twilight under the trees, which still dripped with the rain-drops of +last night's storm. Hesperis, columbine, and geranium contrasted their +floral colours with the deep green of the young grass. Some spots of +dark purple were on the ground where the light was most dim. They were +the petals and calyxes of that strange flower, lathraea, of the +broom-rape family. Each bloom seemed to be carried in the cup of +another flower. The plant had no leaves, for it was a thief that drew +its nutriment from the root of an honest little tree that had +struggled upward in the shade of strong and greedy rivals, and had +raised its head at length into the sunshine in spite of them. + +After some difficulty in working round and over rocks that barred, the +passage, I came to a spot where it was impossible to follow the gorge +any farther. The walls narrowed to an opening a few yards wide, where +the stream fell in a cascade of some thirty feet. I took my mid-day +meal like a forester in the midst of this beautiful desolation, and +then, having found a spot where I could escape from the gorge of the +Alzou, I climbed the steep towards the north. + +Here there was a blinding glare of sunshine reflected by the naked +stones. Goats looked down at me from the upper rocks near the line of +the blue sky. When I reached the boy who tended them, I asked him the +way to the road that I wished to strike upon the plateau. After +staring at me for some time, he screwed up his mouth, and said: '_Je +comprenais pas français, you.' You_ did not apply to me, but to +himself, for it means _I_ in the Southern dialect. + +Here was a boy unable to speak French, although all children in France +are now supposed to be educated in the official language of the +republic. Such cases are uncommon. In the Haut-Quercy, where _patois_ +is the language of everybody, even in the towns, one soon learns the +advantage of asking the young for the information that one may need. + +I found the road I wanted, and also the spot marked on the map as the +Saut de la Pucelle. It is one of those numerous _gouffres_ to be found +in the Quercy, especially in the district of the Dordogne. + +Here a stream plunges beneath the surface of the earth to join the +subterranean Ouysse, or the Dordogne. A ravine, sinking rapidly, +becomes a deep, dark, and gloomy gully, at the end of which is a wall +of rock. The stream pours down a tunnel-like passage, at the base of +the rock, with a melancholy wail. Where the sides are not too steep +they are covered with trees and shrubs. + +As I stood amidst the poisonous dog-mercury, under the hanging ivy and +the hart's-tongue ferns, watching the stream glitter on the edge of +everlasting darkness, and listening to its death-dirge, I pictured +awful shadows issuing from the infernal passage and seizing the +terror-stricken ghost of the guilty horseman, of whom I had heard from +a local legend. + +This legend, as it is commonly told, is briefly as follows: Centuries +ago a virtuous young woman was persecuted by the lord of a +neighbouring castle, who was not at all virtuous. One day, when she +was mounted upon a mule, he gave chase to her on horseback. He was +rapidly gaining upon her, and she, in agony of soul, had given herself +up for lost, when, by one of those miracles which were frequent in +those days, especially in the country of Notre Dame de Roc-Amadour, +the mule, by giving a vigorous stamp with one of his hind-legs, kicked +a yawning gulf in the earth, which he, however, lightly passed over +with his burden, while the wicked pursuer, unable to check his steed +in time, perished in the abyss. + +Another legend of the Maiden's Leap is more romantic, but less +supernatural. It is a story of the English occupation of Guyenne, and +the revolt of the Quercynois in 1368. Before the main body of the +British force that subdued Roc-Amadour as related by Froissart arrived +in the Haut-Quercy, the castle of Prangères, near Gramat, was entered +by a troop of armed men in the English service under Jéhan Péhautier, +one of those brigand captains of whom the mediaeval history and +legends of Guyenne speak only too eloquently. An orphan, Bertheline de +Castelnau, _châtelaine_ of Prangères in her own right, was in the +fortress when it was thus taken by surprise. Captivated by her beauty, +Jéhan Péhautier essayed to make Bertheline his prisoner; but she made +her escape from the castle by night, and endeavoured to reach the +sanctuary of Roc-Amadour on foot. Her flight was discovered, and +Péhautier and a party of horsemen started in pursuit. She would have +been quickly captured had she not met a mounted knight, who was no +other than her lover, Bertrand de Terride. She sprang upon his horse, +and away they both went through the oak forest which then covered the +greater part of the _causse_; but the gleam of the knight's armour in +the moonlight kept the pursuers constantly upon his track. Slowly but +surely they gained upon the fugitives. Suddenly Bertheline, who knew +the country, perceived that Bertrand was spurring his horse directly +towards the precipice now called the Saut de la Pucelle. It was too +late, however, to avoid the gulf; she had only time to murmur a brief +prayer before the horse bounded over the edge of the rock. To the +great wonder and joy of the lovers, the animal cleared the ravine, and +alighted safely on the other side. But a very different fate awaited +the pursuers. On they came, crashing through the wood, shouting +exultantly, for they believed that the prey was now almost in their +grasp, when suddenly the air was rent with cries of horror, mingled +with the sound of crashing armour, and bodies falling upon the rocks +and upon the bed of the stream. An awful silence followed. The dead +men and horses were lying in the dark water. As Péhautier felt the +solid earth leave him, he gave out his favourite oath, 'Mort de sang!' +in a frightful shriek, and the words long afterwards rang in the ears +of Bertheline and Bertrand. + +As I returned to this spot some months later in order to explore the +cavern, I may as well give an account of the adventure here. I was +accompanied by my neighbour Decros, who gave his donkey on this +occasion a half-holiday. Decros, although a native of the locality, +could not tell me how far the cavern extended, for he had never been +tempted to explore its depths himself, nor had he heard of anybody who +knew more than himself about it. A story, however, was told of a +shepherd-boy who long ago went down the opening, and was never seen +again. + +'Perhaps,' said I, 'we shall find his skeleton.' This observation +brought a peculiar expression to my companion's face, which meant that +he had no ambition whatever to share the surprise of such a discovery. +Although he had done his duty bravely in the war of 1870, he was by no +means free from the awe with which these _gouffres_ inspired the +country-people, and his soldiering had still left him a Cadurcian +Celt, with much of the superstition that he had drawn in with his +native air. One morning he found that his donkey had nearly strangled +himself over-night with the halter, and Decros could not shake off the +impression that this accident was an omen intended to convey some +message from the other world. He was ready to go with me into any +cavern; but I am sure he would have much preferred scaling dangerous +rocks in the broad sunlight, for there he would have felt at home. + +There was not too much water to offer any danger, so we stooped down +and entered the low vault after lighting candles. The roof soon rose, +and we were in a spacious cavern, the sides of which had evidently +been washed and worn away into hollows by the sea that rolled here +long before the mysterious race raised its dolmens and tumuli upon the +surrounding knolls. The passage was wide enough for us to walk on the +margin of the stream, or where the water was very shallow; but had +much rain fallen, the expedition would have been perilous, for the +descending torrent would then have been strong enough to carry a man +off his legs. + +Stalactites hung from the rocks overhead, and as we proceeded they +became more numerous, more fantastic, and more beautiful. They were +just as the dropping water had slowly fashioned them in the darkness +of ages, where day and night were the same, where nothing changed but +themselves, save the voice of the stream, which grew louder or softer +according to the play of winds and sunshine and clouds upon the upper +world. Some tapered to a fine point, others were like pendant bunches +of grapes; all were of the whiteness of loaf-sugar. No tourists +stricken with that deplorable mania for taking home souvenirs of +everything, and ready to spoil any beauty to gratify their vanity or +their acquisitiveness, had cast stones into the midst of the fairy +handicraft of the wizard water for the sake of a fragment; nor had the +village boys amused themselves here at the expense of the stalactites, +for happily they had been well trained in the horror of the +supernatural. The cavern ran for a certain distance south-west; then +the gallery turned at a sharp angle north-north-west, and continued in +this direction. We followed the stream some three or four hundred +yards, and then it entered a deep pool or lake under low rocks. We +tried a side-passage to see if it led round this obstacle, but it soon +came to an end. As I stood on the brink of the deep, black, silent +pool, I had a great longing to know what lay beyond; but I had to +content myself with imagining the unrevealed wonders of the cavern. It +would be just possible, by crouching down in a little boat, to pass +under the rock, which is probably no insuperable obstacle. The roof is +just as likely to form a high vault on one side of it as on the other. +The water is the serious obstacle; but it is safe to say, from the +character of the formation, that the deep pool does not extend very +far. A peculiarity of these underground streams of the _causses_ is +that they generally form a chain of pools. + +If a shepherd-boy really lost his life in this cavern, he must have +done so by trying to pass the pool, unless he was washed into it by a +sudden rush of water after a heavy storm. It must be confessed that +the spot is calculated to fill one with superstitious dread. The calm +of the deep water into which the stream glides makes it quite easy to +imagine, with the help of the surroundings, that there is an evil +spirit lurking in it--perhaps that of the wicked Péhautier whom the +demons dragged down here. I had another grim thought: Supposing this +water, in obedience to some pressure elsewhere, should rise suddenly +and flood the lower part of the cavern! There is no knowing what +tricks water may play in this fantastic region, where the tendency of +rivers is to flow underground, and where one gallery may be connected +with a ramification of water-courses extending over many miles of +country, and with reservoirs which empty themselves periodically by +means of natural syphons. There is a world full of marvels under the +_causses_ of the Lot, the Aveyron, and the Lozère; but although much +more will be known about it, a vast deal will remain for ever hidden +from man. + +I will now return to my wayfaring across the Causse de Gramat in the +early summer. + +I had passed through the village of Alvignac--a little watering-place +that draws all the profit it can from a ferruginous spring which rises +at Miers hard by, but otherwise uninteresting, and had left on my +right the village of Thégra, where the troubadour Hugues de St. Cyr +was born, when suddenly the landscape struck me with the sentiment of +England. For some hours I had been walking chiefly over the stony +_causse_, searching for a so-called castle that was not worth the +trouble of finding. I had seen spurge and juniper, and ribs of rock +rising everywhere above the short turf, until I grew weary of the +sameness. Now, the sun, whose ardour was already melting into the +tenderness of evening, shone upon a broad valley, where the grass +stood high in rich meadows separated from other meadows and green +cornfields by hedges, from the midst of which rose many a tall tree. +The blackbird's low, flute-like note sounded above the shrilling of the +grasshoppers. + +The little village of Padirac was entered at sundown. The small inn +where I chose my quarters for the night had a garden at the back, +where vines in new leaf were trained, over a trellis from end to end. +There were also broad beans in flower, peas on sticks, currant-bushes, +and pear-trees. It was a quiet, green spot, and as I strolled about it +in the twilight, vague recollections of other gardens chased one +another, but it would have been hard to say whether they were pleasant +or sad. My dinner or supper was of sorrel soup and part of a goose +that was killed the previous autumn, and, after being slightly salted, +was preserved in grease. + +Lean tortoiseshell cats, with staring eyes and tails like strings, +kept near at hand, and seemed ready to commit any crime for the +smallest particle of goose. String-tailed, goggle-eyed, meagre cats +that seize your dinner if you do not keep watch over it, and when +caressed promptly respond by scratching and swearing, appear to be +held in high favour throughout this district. They are expected to +live upon rats, and it is this that makes them so disagreeable, for +although they kill rats for the pleasure of the chase, they do not +like the flavour of them. On this subject there is a standing quarrel +between them and society, which insists upon their eating the animals +that they kill. In order that the cats shall have every facility for +the chase, holes are often cut in the bottom of house-doors, so that +at night they may go in and come out as the quarry moves them. Should +any food have been left about, what with the rats and the cats, not a +trace of it will be seen in the morning. This I know from experience. + +Being within a mile or so of the Puit de Padirac--that gloomy hole in +the earth which was supposed to be one of the devil's short-cuts +between this world and his own, until M. Martel proved almost +conclusively that it was not the way to the infernal city, but to a +subterranean river, and a chain of lakes that could be followed for +two miles--I set out the next morning to find it. I might have spent +hours in vain casting about, but for the help of a peasant, who +offered, quite disinterestedly, to be my guide. He was an old man, +with a very Irish face, and eyes that laughed at life. But for his +language he would have seemed a perfectly natural growth of Cork or +Kerry. + +Here may be the place to remark that the stock of the ancient Cadurci +appears to have been much less impaired here in an ethnological sense +by the mingling of races than in the country round Cahors. The +peasants, generally, have nothing distinctively Southern in their +appearance, although they speak a dialect which is in the main a Latin +one, the Celtic words that have been retained being in a very small +proportion. Gray or blue eyes are almost as frequent among them as +they are with the English, and many of the village children have hair +the colour of ripening maize. + +We left the fertile valley and rose upon the stone-scattered _causse_ +where hellebore, spurges, and juniper were the only plants not cropped +close to the earth by the flocks of sheep which thrive upon these +wastes. All the sheep are belled, but the bells they wear are like big +iron pots hanging upon their breasts. Each pot has a bone that swings +inside of it and serves as a hammer. The chief use of these bells is +to prevent the animal from leaving its best wool, that of the breast, +upon the thorns of bushes. + +We have now reached the brink of the pit, which is not bottomless, but +looks so until the eye faintly distinguishes something solid at a +depth that has been measured at 175 feet. The opening is almost +circular, with a diameter at the orifice of 116 feet. This prodigious +well, sunk in successive layers of secondary rock, looks as if it had +been regularly quarried; but men could never have had the motive for +giving themselves so much trouble. Did the rock fall in here? No +explanation is satisfactory. How it fills one with awe to look into +the depth while lying upon a slab of stone that stretches some +distance beyond the side of the pit! Bushes with twisted and fantastic +arms, growing, they or their ancestors, from time immemorial in the +clefts of the rock, reach towards the light, and the elfish +hart's-tongue fern, itself half in darkness, points down with frond +that never moves in that eternal stillness which all the winds of +heaven pass over, to a thicker darkness whence comes the everlasting +wail and groan of hidden water. + +This horrid gulf being in the open plain, with not even a foot of +rough wall round it as a protection for the unwary, I asked the old +man if people had never fallen into it. + +'Yes,' he answered, 'but only those who have been pushed by evil +spirits.' + +He meant that only self-murderers had fallen into the Puit de Padirac. +'Pushed by evil spirits.' Perhaps this is the best of all explanations +of the suicidal impulse. Strong thoughts are sometimes hidden under +the simplicity of rustic expression. He told me the story of a man +who, having gone by night to throw himself into the Puit de Padirac, +came in contact with a tough old bush during his descent which held +him up. By this time the would-be suicide disliked the feeling of +falling so much that, so far from trying to free himself from the bush +and begin again, he held on to it with all his might and shrieked for +help. But as people who are not pushed by evil spirits give the Puit +de Padirac a wide berth after sundown, the wretched man's cries were +lost in the darkness. The next morning the shepherd children, as they +led their flocks over the plain, heard a strange noise coming from the +pit, but their horror was stronger than their curiosity, and they +showed their sheep how to run. They went home and told their fathers +what they had heard, and at length some persons were bold enough to +look down the hole, from which the dismal sound the children had +noticed continued to rise. Thus the cause of the mysterious noise was +discovered, and the man was hauled up with a rope. He never allowed +the evil spirits to push him into the Puit de Padirac again. + +The people of these _causses_ have a supernatural explanation for +everything that they cannot account for by the light of reason and +observation. They have their legend with regard to the Puit de +Padirac, and it is as follows: St. Martin, before he became Bishop of +Tours, was crossing one day this stony region of the Dordogne to visit +a religious community on the banks of the Solane, whither he had been +despatched by St. Hilary. He was mounted on a mule, and was ambling +along over the desert plunged in pious contemplation, when he heard a +little noise behind, and, looking round, he was surprised to see a +gentleman close to him, who was also riding a mule. The stranger was +richly dressed, and was altogether a very distinguished-looking +person, but the excessive brilliancy of his eyes was a disfigurement. +They shone in his head like two bits of burning charcoal. 'What do you +want, cruel beast?' said St. Martin. This would scarcely have been +saintly language had he not known with whom he had to deal. The +gentleman thus impolitely addressed returned a soft answer, and forced +his company upon the saint, who wished him--at home. Presently +Lucifer, for it was he, began to 'dare' St. Martin, after the manner +of boys to-day. 'If I kick a hole in the ground I dare you to jump +over it,' was the sort of language employed by the gentleman with the +too-expressive eyes. 'Done!' said St. Martin, or something equivalent. +'Digging pits is quite in my line of business!' exclaimed the devil, +in so disagreeable a voice that the saint's mule would have bolted had +the holy rider not kept a tight rein upon her. At the same moment the +ground over which the infernal mule had just passed fell in with a +mighty rumble and crash, leaving a yawning gulf. 'Now,' said Lucifer, +'let me see you jump over that!' Whereupon, the bold St. Martin drove +his spurs into his mule and lightly leapt over the abyss. And this was +how the Puit de Padirac was made. The peasants believe that they can +still see on a stone the imprint left by the hoof of St. Martin's +mule. This adventure did not cause the saint and the devil to part +company. They rode on together as far as the valley of Medorium +(Miers). 'Now,' said St. Martin, 'you jump over that!' pointing to a +little stream that was seen to flow suddenly and miraculously out of +the earth. Before challenging the arch enemy he had, however, taken +the precaution to lay two small boughs in the form of a cross on the +brink of the water. In vain the devil spurred his mule and used the +worst language that he could think of to induce the beast to jump. The +animal would not; but, as the spurring and swearing were continued, it +at length went down on its knees before the cross. But this did not +suit the devil's turn. On the contrary, the proximity of that emblem +which St. Martin had placed unobserved on the ground made him writhe +as though he had fallen into a font. Then with the speed of a +lightning flash he returned to his own kingdom--possibly by the Puit +de Padirac. A church dedicated to the saint was afterwards built near +the scene of his triumph, and the healing spring where it comes out of +the earth is still known by the name of _Lou Fount Sen Morti_--St. +Martin's Fountain. + +Having left the pit, we went in the direction of Loubressac, to which +village my companion belonged. While still upon the _causse_ a spot +was reached where a small iron cross had been raised. The stone +pedestal bore this inscription: + + 'SOUVENIR DE HÉLÈNE BONBÈGRE, + MORTE MARTYRE EN CE LIEU EN 1844. + VIEILLE-ESCAZE ET LAVAL ONT FAIT CONSTRUIRE CETTE CROIX. + PRIEZ POUR CES DEUX BIENFAITEURS.' + +The old man knew Hélène Bonbègre when he was young, and he told me the +tragic story of her death on this spot. She was going home in the +evening, and her sweetheart the blacksmith accompanied her a part of +the distance. They then separated, and she went on alone. They had +been watched by the jealous and unsuccessful lover, whose heart was on +fire. Where the cross stands the girl was found lying, a naked corpse. +The murderer was soon captured, and most of the people in the district +went to St. Céré to see him guillotined. It was a spectacle to be +talked over for half a century. The blacksmith never forgave himself +for having left the girl to go home alone, and it was he who forged +the cross that marks the scene of the crime and sets the wayfarer +conjecturing. + +The peasant changed his ideas by filling his pipe. He smoked tobacco +that he grew in a corner of his garden for his own use, and which he +enjoyed all the more because it was _tabac de contrebande_. He gave me +some, which I likewise smoked without any qualm of conscience, and +thought it decidedly better than some tobacco of the régie. He lit his +pipe with smuggled matches. Had I been an inspector in disguise, I +should never have made matters unpleasant for him; he was such a +cheery, good-natured companion. He had brought up his family, and had +now just enough land to keep him without breaking his back over it. He +was quite satisfied with things as they were. I did not ask him if he +was a poacher, but took it for granted that he was whenever he saw a +good chance. Almost every peasant in the Haut-Quercy who has something +of the spirit of Nimrod in him is more or less a poacher. Those who +like hare and partridge can eat it in all seasons by paying for it. +Occasionally the gendarmes capture a young and over-zealous offender, +but the old men, who have followed the business all their lives, are +too wary for them. They are also too respectable to be interfered +with. + +At Loubressac I took leave of my entertaining friend, but not before +we had emptied a bottle of white wine together. It was a _vin du +pays_, this district having been less tried by the phylloxera than +others farther south and west. I was surprised to find white wine +there, the purple grape having been almost exclusively cultivated for +centuries in what is now the department of the Lot. + +In the room of the inn where I lunched there were four beds; two at +one end and two at the other. There was plenty of space left, however, +for the tables. The rafters were hidden by the heads of maize that +hung from them. The host sat down at the same table with me, and when +he had nearly finished his soup he poured wine into it, and, raising +the plate to his lips, drank off the mixture. Objectionable as this +manner of drinking wine seems to those who have not learnt to do it in +their youth, it is very general throughout Guyenne. Those who have +formed the habit would be most unhappy if they could not continue it. +_Faire chabron_ is the expression used to describe this sin against +good manners. The aubergiste was very friendly, and towards the close +of the meal he brought out a bottle of his old red wine that he had +treasured up 'behind the faggot.' + +Before reaching this village I had heard of a retired captain who +lived here in a rather dilapidated château, and who was very affable +to visitors, whom he immediately invited to look through his +telescope, which, although not a very large one, had a local +celebrity, such instruments being about as rare as blue foxes in this +part of the world. Conducted by the innkeeper, I called upon this +gentleman. The house was one of those half-castellated manors which +became scattered over France after the Renaissance, and of which the +greater number were allowed to fall into complete or partial ruin when +the territorial families who were interested in them were extinguished +or impoverished by the Revolution. They are frequently to be found in +Guyenne, but they are generally occupied by peasants either as +tenant-farmers or proprietors; two or three of the better preserved +rooms being inhabited by the family, the others being haunted by bats +and swallows and used for the storage of farm produce. It suited the +captain's humour, however, to live in his old dilapidated mansion, +scarcely less cut off from the society that matched with his position +in life than if he had exiled himself to some rock in the ocean. + +The ceremony of knocking or ringing was dispensed with for the +sufficient reason that there was neither bell nor knocker. We entered +by the open door and walked along a paved passage, which, was +evidently not held as sacred as it should have been by the roving +fowls; looked in at the great dark kitchen, where beside the Gothic +arch of the broad chimney was some ruinous clockwork mechanism for +turning the spit, which probably did turn to good purpose when +powdered wigs were worn; then ascended the stone staircase, where +there was room for four to walk abreast, but which had somewhat lost +its dignity by the balusters being used for hanging maize upon. +Presently we came to a door, which the aubergiste knocked sharply with +his knuckles. + +There was a sound of footsteps within, and then the door opened. I was +standing before a rather florid man of about fifty, with close-cropped +hair, a brush moustache, and a chin that seemed undecided on the score +of shaving. He wore a flannel shirt open at the throat, and a knitted +worsted _tricot_. This was the captain. He evidently did not like +Sunday clothes. When he settled down here, it was to live at his ease, +like a bachelor who had finished with vanities. But although no one +would have supposed from his dress that he was superior to the people +around him, his manners were those of a gentleman and an officer who +had seen the world elsewhere than at Loubressac. The simple, easy +courtesy with which he showed me his rooms, and pointed his telescope +for me, was all that is worth attaining, as regards the outward polish +of a man. This was so fixed upon him that his long association with +peasants had taken none of it away. The few rooms that he inhabited +were plainly furnished; in others were heaps of wheat, maize and +beans. Passing along a passage I noticed a little altar in a recess, +with a statue of the Virgin decked with roses and wild flowers. '_C'est +le mois de Marie_,' said the captain. He lived with a sister, and she +took care that religion was kept up in the house. + +It being the _Fête-Dieu_, preparations were being made in the village +for the procession that was to take place after vespers. Sheets were +spread along the fronts of the houses, with flowers pinned to them, +and _reposoirs_ had been raised in the open air. I did not wait for +the procession, as I expected to be in time for the one at the next +village, Autoire. I took a path that led me up to the barren _causse_, +from which the red roofs of Autoire soon became visible under an +amphitheatre of high wooded hills. + +As I approached the little village, the gleam of white sheets mingled +with the picture of old houses huddled together, some half-timber, +some with turrets and encorbelments, nearly all of them with very +high-pitched roofs and small dormer windows. The procession was soon +to start. I waited for it at the door of the crowded church, baking in +the sun with others who could not get inside, one of whom was a woman +with a moustache and beard, black and curly, such as a promising young +man might be expected to have. The number of women in Southern France +who are bearded like men shocks the feelings of the Northern wanderer, +until he grows accustomed to the sight. The curé was preaching about +the black bread, and all the other miseries of this life that had to +be accepted with thankfulness. Presently the two bells in the tower +began to dance, and the rapid ding-dong announced that the procession +was forming. First appeared the beadle, extremely gaudy in scarlet and +gold, then the cross-bearer, young men as chanters, little boys, most +strangely attired in white satin knee-breeches and short lace skirts, +scattering rose-leaves from open baskets at their sides; the curé came +bearing the monstrance and Host, followed by Sisters with little girls +in their charge; lastly was a mixed throng of parishioners. Most of +the women held rosaries, and a few of them, bent with age, carried +upon their heads the very cap that old Mother Hubbard wore, if +tradition and English artists are to be trusted. As the last of the +long procession passed out of sight between the walls of white linen, +the wind brought the words clearly back: + + 'Genitori, Genitoque + Laus et jubilatio.' + +Now I entered the little church that was quite empty, and where no +sound would have been heard if the two voices in the tower had not +continued to ring out over the dovecotes, where the white pigeons +rested and wondered, and over the broad fields where the bending +grasses and listening flowers stood in the afternoon sunshine, 'Laus +et jubilatio,' in the language of the bells. + +The church was Romanesque, probably of the twelfth century. The nave +was flanked by narrow aisles. Upon the very tall bases of the columns +were carved, together with foliage, fantastic heads of demons, or +satyrs of such expressive ugliness that they held me fascinated. Some +were bearded, others were beardless, some were grinning and showing +frightful teeth, others had thick-lipped, pouting mouths hideously +debased. A few were really _bons diables_, who seemed determined to be +gay, and to joke under the most trying circumstances; but the greater +number had morose faces, puckered by the long agony of bearing up the +church. Such variety of expression in ugliness was a triumph of art in +the far-off age, when the chisel of an unremembered man with a teeming +imagination made these heads take life from the inanimate stone. + +The road from Autoire to St. Céré soon led me into the valley of the +Bave, a beautiful trout-stream, galloping towards the Dordogne through +flowery meadows, on this last day of May, and under leaning trees, +whose imaged leaves danced upon the ripples in the green shade. As I +had no need to hurry, I loitered to pick ragged-robins upon the banks, +flowers dear to me from old associations. Very common in England, they +are comparatively rare in France. + +New pleasures await the wayfarer every hour, almost every minute, in +the day, and however long he may continue to wander over this +wonderful world of inexhaustible variety, if he will only stop to look +at everything, and so learn to feel the charm of little things. + +I met a beggar, and fell into conversation with him. He asked me for +nothing, and was surprised when I gave him two sous. He was a ragged +old man, with a canvas bag, half filled with crusts, slung upon his +side. I had already met many such beggars in this part of France. They +travel about from village to village, filling their bags with pieces +of bread that are given them, and selling afterwards what they cannot +eat as food for pigs. As they rarely receive charity in the form of +money, they do not expect it. This kind of mendicant is distinctly +rural, and belongs to old times. + +The bold front of an early Renaissance castle, with round towers at +the angles, capped with pointed roofs, drew me from the highroad. It +was the Château de Montal, in connection with which I had already +heard the story of one Rose de Montal, a young lady of some three +centuries ago, who had given her heart to a nobleman of the country, +Roger de Castelnau. By-and-by the charms of another lady caused him to +neglect the fair Rose de Montal. She remained almost constantly at a +window of one of the towers, scanning the country, and longing to +catch sight of the faithless Roger. One day he came down the valley of +the Bave, and she sang from the height of her tower a plaintive +love-song, hoping that he would stop and make some sign; but he passed +on, unmoved by the tender appeal of the noble damsel. As he +disappeared, she cried, 'Rose, plus d'espoir!' and threw herself from +the window. + +The _métayer_, now placed in charge of the castle, showed me over it. +It was a sad spectacle. The building, one of the best preserved and +most elaborately decorated works of the Renaissance in this part of +Guyenne until a few years ago, then fell into the hands of a vulgar +speculator, who detached all the carvings that could be removed +without difficulty, and sold them in Paris. The noble staircase and +all its delicate sculpture remain, but these only add to the regret +that one feels for what is no longer there. Had the Commission of +Historic Monuments placed the Château de Montal upon its list, it +would probably have escaped spoliation, although, in the case of +private property, the State has no power to prevent destruction, +however grievous the national loss. + +I entered St. Céré at sundown. This bright little town lies in the +midst of fertility. It is on the banks of the Bave, and at the foot of +a hill that rises abruptly from the plain, and is capped by two towers +of a ruined feudal stronghold, which show against the horizon far into +the Quercy, the Corrèze, and the Cantal. Some of the old streets have +quite a mediaeval air, with their half-wood houses with stories +projecting upon the floor-joists, and others of a grander origin with +turrets resting on encorbelments. I had the luck to find a good +old-fashioned inn here, and to pass the evening in very pleasant +company. + +The next morning I climbed to the top of the neighbouring hill to have +a closer view of those towers which had been my landmarks on the +previous day, passing through the little village of St. +Laurent-les-Tours, which lies immediately under the old fortress after +the manner of so many others of feudal origin. The towers are +rectangular _donjons_ of the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, one +being nearly a hundred and fifty feet high. The castle was raised upon +a table of calcareous rock; but only the towers, a portion of the +outer wall built of enormous blocks of stone, and a ruined archway +marking the spot where the drawbridge once hung, remain to tell the +tale of the past. + +That the Romans had fortified this height there is the strongest +evidence in the fact that the substructure of the rampart that once +surrounded the castle is of cubic stones laid together according to +the method so much practised by the Romans, and known as _opus +reticulatum_. Moreover, the coins, pottery, and arms found here seem +to afford conclusive proof that this remarkable hill was one of the +fortified positions of the Romans in Gaul. + +The spot has its Christian legend, which is briefly this: In the +castle that crowned the height in the time of the Visigoth kings was +born St. Espérie, daughter of a Duke of Aquitaine. Being pressed to +marry, notwithstanding the vow she had made to consecrate her life to +God, she hid herself in a neighbouring forest for three months. She +was at length discovered by her enraged brother and lover, who cut off +her head. Like St. Denis, St. Espérie picked up her head, to the +unspeakable astonishment and dismay of her persecutors. They fled from +her, but she followed them as far as a little stream that flows into +the Bave at St. Céré. Espérie is a saint much venerated in the +Haut-Quercy. The church of St. Céré is dedicated to her, and the name +given to the town is supposed to be a corruption of Espérie. + +From St. Céré I took the road to Castelnau-de-Bretenoux, returning for +some distance by the way I came. Inns being now very scarce in the +district, I decided to take my chance of lunch in a small village +called St. Jean-Lespinasse. Another saint! The map of France is still +covered with the names of saints, in spite of all the efforts of +revolutionists and pagan reformers to make the people abandon their +'Christian superstitions.' Those who in the 'ages of faith' built up +this association of saints and places could have had no conception of +the power that these names would have in binding Christianity to the +soil in the faithless or doubting ages to come. The only inn at St. +Jean-Lespinasse was kept by a blacksmith, and the room where I had my +meal was over the forge. Bread and cheese and eggs were, as I +expected, the utmost that such a hostelry could offer in the way of +food for a wayfarer's entertainment. Before leaving the village I +found the church--a curious old structure of the Transition period, +with a large open porch covered with mossy tiles, held up by rough +pillars. There were stone benches inside, on which generations of +villagers had sat and gossiped in their turn. In the interior were +columns engaged in the wall of the nave, with the capitals elaborately +and heavily foliated with pendent bunches of flowers and fruit, much +more in accordance with English than French taste. + +I crossed the Bave, and followed a road bordered with hedgerows of +quince that presently skirted sunny slopes covered with lately-planted +vines. Thunder was moaning and growling in the distance when I reached +the much-embowered village of Castelnau, upon a height immediately +under the reddish walls and towers of the immense feudal stronghold, +the fame of which went far and wide in the Middle Ages. Its name in +the Southern dialect means 'new castle,' but it dates from the +eleventh or twelfth century. Extensive additions were made in +subsequent ages, notably a wing in the Renaissance style, which was +inhabited until the middle of the present century, when all but the +walls was destroyed by fire. + +The feudal castle was built upon the plan of a triangle, with a tower +at each angle, the one at the apex being the _donjon_. The form of +this lofty keep is rectangular, and the machicolations and +embattlements which were added in the fifteenth century are in a +perfect state of preservation. Upon the platform, which I was able to +reach by means of ladders and the half-ruinous spiral staircase, +viper's bugloss spread its brilliant blue flowers over the dark +stones, and enticed the high-soaring bees. The view of the wide and +beautiful Dordogne Valley from these old battlements was not less +grand because more than one-half of the sky was of a bluish-black--a +mysterious canopy that concealed the genius of the storm, but from the +turbulent folds of which there darted every minute a dazzling line of +light. The tower on which I stood, although the highest of the three, +had never been struck by lightning, but one of the others had been +repeatedly struck, and the ruined masonry showed abundant signs of the +scorching it had undergone in this way. Lightning is capricious and +incomprehensible in its preferences. + +This castle was besieged by Henry Plantagenet in 1159, but without +success. Subsequently he made another effort, and then reduced it. His +son Henry made it his headquarters for some time after he had +revolted. In 1369 Thomas de Walkaffera the English seneschal who held +Réalville on behalf of his sovereign, was besieged there by a Lord of +Castelnau, assisted by other barons. The garrison was overcome and +massacred. Another Lord of Castelnau, John, Bishop of Cahors, convened +a meeting of the States of the Quercy in his fortress, at which a +rising against the English was decided upon. It resulted in their +temporary expulsion from the Quercy. + +Besides the towers and exterior walls, there are some chambers of the +old castle in good preservation. The chapel is still roofed, and the +altar-stone is in its place. In an elevated chamber at the lower end, +the dead were laid while awaiting burial. + +Descending to the village, I entered the parish church--a Gothic +building of the fourteenth century, containing many interesting +details. The oak stalls, each with a quaint human figure carved upon +it, are exceedingly curious. Outside the church little girls were +playing, in the charge of a Sister who had a beautiful sweet face. She +showed me the way to the next village, where I hoped to find shelter +from the gathering storm. I have a pleasant picture in the mind of +Castelnau--a bowery, ancient, mossy place, with vines climbing about +the houses or on trellises in the little steep gardens, and a golden +bloom of stonecrop upon the rough walls. + +I reached the village of Prudhomat just as the storm burst over it, +and took shelter in a small inn, which, like most of those in the +country, had its room for the public upstairs. Two women who were +there made the sign of the cross each time the lightning flashed--a +widespread custom of the French peasantry; but a couple of men who +were eating salad and bread paid no heed to the furious cannonade that +was kept up by the darkened heavens. It was four o'clock, and they +were having their _goûter_. The peasants of the Quercy do not live on +the fat of the land; but they generally have five meals a day, two +more than the middle-class French. They begin with soup at a very +early hour in the morning; then they have their dinner about ten, +which is chiefly soup; at three or four they have a _goûter_ of bread +and cheese, salad or fruit; and at six or seven they have their +supper, which is soup again. + +The old woman who sat near the window worked diligently with her +distaff laden with hemp, except when the flashing lightning made her +stop to raise her thin hand to her forehead. She was twisting the +thread from which the sheets of the country are made. They are coarse, +but they last longer than the hands that work the hemp, and descend +from mother to daughter. + +More than two hours I waited in this auberge while the rain fell in +torrents, the lightning blazed, and the thunder crashed. The whole sky +was the colour of slate. When at length a line of bright light +appeared in the western sky, I could curb my impatience no longer, +and, hoisting my pack, I was soon on the road to Carennac. + +A little beyond the village I passed a gipsy encampment ranged along +the side of the highway on a strip of waste land. There were no tents; +but there were four or five miserable little caravans, roofed over +with tattered and dirty canvas. They were tents on wheels. Some thin +and ascetic-looking old mules and wizen donkeys had been taken out of +the shafts, and were now nibbling the short wayside grass, the young +burdocks and mulleins, which, but for the rain, would have filled +their mouths with dust. Small portable stoves--alas! not the +traditional fire with three stakes set in the ground and tied at the +top, with the pot swinging therefrom--had been lighted outside the +caravans, and gipsy women were making the evening soup. Bright-eyed, +shock-headed, uncombed, unwashed, but exceedingly happy gipsy children +were tumbling over one another on the wet turf, showing so much of +their brown skin between their rags that they would have been more +comfortable and quite as decent had they been naked. A hideous old +man, merely skin and bones, sitting nose and knees together upon a +sack, did not take my curiosity in good part, but glared at me +morosely. The younger men of this interesting community were +elsewhere--perhaps mending saucepans, or reassuring ducks alarmed by +the thunderstorm. A musician of the party must have been kept in by +the bad weather, for from one of the caravans came the diabolic +screech of a wheezing concertina that had got rid of all its ideals +and dreams of distinction. + +The bright line in the west moved very slowly upwards, and the rain +continued to fall, although less drenchingly than before. The setting +sun strove with the cloud-rack and coloured the veil of vapour that +its rays could not pierce. The nightingales and thrushes in the +shrubs, and the finches amidst the later blossoms of the may, took +heart again, and the song rose from so many throats near and far that +the whole valley of the Dordogne was filled with warbling. As the +birds grew drowsy the frogs came out to spend a happy night on the +margins of the pools and the brooks, until their joyful screaming and +croaking was a universal chorus. I was by the side of the broad river +that flowed calmly through the fairest meadows. The face of the +stream, the pools in the road, the grass and the leaves, were +brightened with the orange glow of a veiled light as of some sacred +fire shining in the dusk through clouds of incense. It grew warmer and +warmer until it purpled and died away in grayness and mournful shadow. +The beauty of nature at such moments, when the colours brighten and +fade like the powers of the mind as the human day is closing, takes a +solemnity that is unearthly, and it is good to be alone with the +mystery. + +It was dark when I reached Carennac. I did not realize how wet I was +until I sat down in an auberge and tried to make myself comfortable +for the night. It is not easy, however, to be happy under such +circumstances. When the fire on the hearth was stirred up and fed with +fresh wood to cook my dinner of barbel that had just had time to die +after being pulled out of the Dordogne, I placed myself in the +chimney-corner to dry before the welcome blaze. How cheering is a +fire, even in June and in Southern France, on a rainy night, when the +sound of sighing trees comes down the chimney and the tired wayfarer's +clothes are sticking to his legs and back! How cheering, too, at such +a time is a dinner, however modest, in the light and warmth of the +fire. A humble barbel has then a more delicate flavour than a +salmon-trout cooked with consummate art for people who never know what +it is to be hungry. + +The next morning I was in the cloisters belonging to the Benedictine +priory of Carennac, of which Fénélon was the titular prior. Hither he +came for quietude, and here he wrote his 'Télémaque,' a historical +trace of which is found in a little island of the Dordogne, which is +called 'L'Ile de Calypso.' It is recorded that the mother of the great +Churchman and writer, when she feared that she would be childless, +went on a pilgrimage to Roc-Amadour, and that Fénélon was the +consequence of that act of devotion. + +The cloisters of Carennac, built from plans furnished by that fountain +of ecclesiastical art in the Middle Ages, the monastery of Cluny, +must, judging from the remnants of tracery in the arcades, and the +delicately carved bosses of the vaults, have been once a spot where +the spirit of Gothic architecture found delight. Now the spirit of +ruin dwells there, leading the bramble and the celandine to conquer, +year after year, some fresh territory upon the ancient quadrangle's +crumbling wall. Above, where the sunbeam strikes upon the wrinkled +stone, the lizard basks and the bee fresh from its hive hums as +blithely among the yellow flowers of the celandine as if the blocks +raised by men in their reaching towards Heaven were nothing more than +the rocks that cast their shadows upon the Dordogne. Upon the ground, +man, by using no rein of respect to curb the lower needs of life, has +desecrated the spot with pigsties! Some inhabitant of Carennac, into +whose hands the cloisters passed in recent times, thought that a place +which was good enough for Benedictine monks to walk in might, with a +little fresh masonry, be made fit for pigs to feed and sleep in. But +an end had come to this idyllic state of things. The cloisters of +Carennac had just been placed on the list of historic monuments. The +adjoining church had been 'classed' long before. + +This church, a small Gothic edifice of the twelfth century, has a +far-projecting porch enriched with a specimen of mediaeval carving +which is a long delight to the few archaeologists who find their way +to the almost forgotten village of Carennac. The composition, which +fills the tympan of the scarcely-pointed arch, represents Christ +surrounded by the twelve Apostles. The influence of Byzantine art is +perceptible in the treatment. Very few such masterpieces of +twelfth-century carving have been so well preserved as this. The +seated figure of Christ in the act of blessing His Apostles, the right +hand upraised, the left resting upon a clasped book, impresses the +beholder by its majesty and serenity. Very different are the figures +of the Apostles: these are men, and of a very common type too, such as +the Benedictines were accustomed to see in their own cloisters, or +among their dependents at Carennac. But how animated are the forms, +and how expressive the faces! The mouldings which serve as a border to +the composition are much more Romanesque or Byzantine than Gothic, and +the columns that support it have capitals which are purely Romanesque. +In the interior of the church is a fifteenth-century group of seven +figures, representing the scene of the Holy Sepulchre; an admirable +composition, showing to what a high degree of excellence French +sculpture had attained even at the dawn of the Renaissance. + + + + +WAYFARING UNDERGROUND. + + +Upon the stony plateau above Roc-Amadour is a cavern well known in the +district as the Gouffre de Révaillon. It had for me a peculiar +attraction on account of the gloomy grandeur of the scene at the +entrance. When I saw it for the first time I understood at once the +supernatural horror in which the peasant has learnt to hold such +places. It responds to impressions left on the mind of the 'Stygian +cave forlorn,' the entrance to Dante's 'City of Sorrow,' and that +other cave where Aeneas witnessed in cold terror the prophetic fury of +the Sibyl. + +This effect of gloom, horror and sublimity is the result of geological +conditions and the action of water, which together have produced many +similar phenomena in the region of the _causses_, but in no other +case, I believe, with such power in composing the picturesque. Imagine +an open plain which in the truly Dark Ages whereof man has had no +experience, but of whose convulsions he has learnt to read a little +from the book whose leaves are the rocks, cracked along a part of its +surface as a drying ball of clay might do, the fissure finishing +abruptly and where it is deepest in front of a mass of rock that +refused to split. This was apparently the beginning of the Gouffre de +Révaillon. Then came another submersion which greatly modified the +appearance of things. There was evidently a deluge here after the land +had dried and cracked, and it must have lasted a very long time for +the waves to have hollowed, smoothed and polished the rocks inside the +caverns and elsewhere as we now see them. Those who have observed with +a little attention a rugged coast will, without being geologists, +recognise the distinctly marine character of the greater number of +these orifices in the calcareous district of the _causses_. The +washing and smoothing action of the sea along the sides of the gorges +which cut up the surface of the country in such an astonishing manner +is not so easy to distinguish. But the reason is obvious. This +limestone rock is by its nature disintegrating wherever it is exposed +to the air and frost, and the foundations of the bastions which +support the _causses_ are being continually sapped by water which +carries away the lime in solution and deposits a part of it elsewhere +in the form of stalactite and stalagmite in the deep galleries where +subterranean rivers often run, and which probably descend to the +lowest part of the formation. Thus by the dislodgment of huge masses +of rock which have rolled down from their original positions, and the +breaking away of the surfaces of others, the most convincing traces of +the sea's action here have nearly disappeared. In the gorge of the +Alzou, however, near Roc-Amadour, about 100 feet above the channel of +the stream, there is a considerable reach of hard rock approaching +marble, the polished and undulating surface of which tells the story +of the ocean, just as the sides of the caverns in much more elevated +positions tell it. + +In the rock where the fissure ends at Révaillon is an opening like a +vast yawning mouth, the roof of which forms an almost perfect dome. +Adown this a stream trickles towards the end of summer, but plunges +madly and with a frightful roar in winter and spring. The steep sides +of the narrow ravine are densely wooded, and the light is very dim at +the bottom when the sun is not overhead. I made my first attempt to +descend the dark passage in the early summer, but there was too much +water, and I was soon obliged to retreat. One afternoon in October I +returned with a companion, and we took with us a rope and plenty of +candles. We carried the rope in view of possible difficulties in the +shape of rocks inside the cavern, for it should be borne in mind that +in _gouffres_ of this character the stream frequently descends by a +series of cascades. The weather was very sultry, and the sky towards +the west was of a slaty blue. A fierce storm was threatening, but we +paid no attention to it--a mistake which others bent on exploring +caverns where streams still flow should be warned against. There is +probably no force in nature more terrible, or which makes a man's +helplessness more miserably felt, than water suddenly rushing towards +him when he is underground. + +The sun was still shining, however, when we reached the Gouffre de +Révaillon and descended into the ravine over roots of trees coiling +upon the moss like snakes, some arching upward as if about to spring +at the throat of those who disturbed the elfish solitude. At our +coming there rose from the great rock such a multitude of jackdaws +that for some seconds they darkened the air. With harsh screams the +birds soared higher and higher above their fortress, which they had +possessed for ages in perfect security. We reached the bed of the +stream, where scattered threads of water tinkled as they fell over +huge blocks into little pools below, and then went whispering on their +way towards the darkness. At the botton of a long slant of greenish +slimy stone, patched here and there with moss, I stopped a few +minutes, feeling that I could not grasp without an effort the deep +gloom and grandeur of my surroundings. The jackdaws had all flown +away, and there was no sound now but the tinkle and gurgle of the +water. Great snails crawled upon the tufts of rank grass wet with the +autumnal dews that the sun had failed to dry, and upon the glistening +hart's-tongue ferns, and they looked just the kind of snails that +witches would collect to make a hell-broth. Dark ivy hung down from +the rocks, and under the vaulted entrance of the cavern was a clump of +elders, very sinister-looking, and giving forth when touched an evil +narcotic odour. Near these forlorn shrubs was a solitary plant of +angelica, now woebegone, its fringed leaves drooping, waiting for the +rising water to wash it into the darkness. There were willow-herbs +still in bloom, but the crane's-bill struggled with the gloom farther +than any other flowering plant, and its bright little purple lamps +shone in the very mouth of Night. Gnats there were too, spinning in +the semi-darkness, now sinking, now rising, keeping together, a merry +band of musicians, each with a small flute, piping perhaps to the +little goblins that swung on spiders' webs, and slept upon the fronds +of the ferns. + +Candles were now lighted, and we left the glimmer of day behind us. A +little beyond the great dome the roof became so low that we had to +creep along almost on hands and knees, but it presently rose again, +and to a great height. The first obstacle--the one that sent me back a +few months before--was a steep rock down which the water then fell in +such a cascade that there was no getting a foothold upon it. Now the +water scarcely covered it, and there was no difficulty in reaching the +bottom. Here, however, was a pool through which we had to wade +knee-deep. The cavern continued, and the stalagmite became interesting +by its fantastic shapes. Here was a mass like an immense sponge, even +to the colour, and there, descending from the roof down the side of +the rock, was the waved hair of an undine that had been changed into +white and glistening stone. The stalactites were less remarkable. The +sound of dropping water told us that another cascade was near. This we +left behind by climbing along the side of the gallery, clinging to the +rock, and in the same way four more obstacles of precisely the same +character were overcome. All the distance the slope was rapid, but at +intervals there was a sudden fall of from ten to fifteen feet, with a +black-looking pool at the foot of the rock, hollowed out by the action +of the tumbling torrent. The last of these falls was the worst to +cross. To this point the cavern had been already explored, but no +farther apparently, the local impression being that it ended just +beyond. It was an ugly place. The rock over which the water fell was +almost perpendicular, and the pool at the bottom was larger and deeper +than the others. Seen by the light of day, any schoolboy might have +scoffed at the difficulty of getting beyond it, but when you are +descending into the bowels of the earth, where the light of two +candles can only dissolve the darkness a few yards around you, every +form becomes fantastic and awful, and the effect of water of unknown +depth upon the imagination is peculiarly disturbing. But we made up +our minds to go on if it were possible. The passage was very narrow, +and the sides offered few salient points to which one could cling. We +moved along a very narrow ledge in a sitting posture, and then, when +we had gone as far as we could in this way, and there was nothing +beyond to sit upon, we made a spring. My companion, being the more +agile, nearly cleared the pool, but I went in with a great splash, as +I expected, and thought myself lucky in being only wetted to the +waist. The water was not very cold, the temperature of the cavern +being much higher than that of the outer air. + +We reckoned that we had by this time travelled underground about half +a mile, and as we had been descending rapidly all the way, the +distance beneath the surface must have been considerable. My theory +with regard to this stream was that it was a tributary of the +subterranean Ouysse; but the fact that the cavern ran north-west made +me change my opinion, and conclude that this water-course took an +independent line towards the Dordogne. + +A little beyond the last pool the running water suddenly vanished. We +looked around to see if it had taken any side passage; but no: it +simply disappeared into the earth, although no hole was perceptible in +its stony channel. It passed by infiltration into some lower gallery, +where the light of a candle had never shone, and is never likely to +shine. But we had not reached the end of the cavern, although the +passage became so low that we had now really to go down on all-fours +in order to proceed. We had not to keep this posture long, for again +the roof rose, although to no great height. We walked on about fifty +yards or more, and then came to the end. There was no opening anywhere +except by the way we entered. We were like flies that had crawled into +a bottle, and a very unpleasant bottle it might have proved to us. We +noticed--at first with some surprise--that, although there was not a +drop of water now in this _cul-de-sac_, our feet sank into damp sand +that had evidently been carried there by water. Sticks were also lying +about, and the walls up to the roof were covered with a muddy slime. +It was evident that this hole had been filled with water, and not very +long ago; probably the last thunderstorm accounted for the signs of +recent moisture. While we were talking about this, a strange, muffled, +moaning sound reached our ears. We looked at one another over the tops +of two candles. 'Thunder,' said my companion. In a few minutes the +same dismal moan, long drawn out, came down the cavern, which acted +like a speaking-tube between us and the outer world, and conveyed a +timely warning. Was it in time? We were not quite sure of this, for as +we issued from the _cul-de-sac_ we heard the water coming down the +rocks with a very different voice from that which it had not many +minutes before. It was clear that the storm was beginning to tell upon +the stream, and if the rain had been falling for half an hour, as I +had already seen it fall in the Quercy, we might find the work of +recrossing those pools and climbing up the cascades anything but +cheerful. Already where we had been able to walk on dry stones the +water was now up to our ankles. The first cascade to surmount was the +worst. We decided to try it on the side opposite to the one by which +we descended, for we observed a jutting and highly-polished piece of +stalagmite, which promised to help the manoeuvre. One went first, and +the other waited, holding the candle. I was in the rear. When my +companion had reached the top of the cascade, I threw him the coil of +rope--a useless encumbrance, as it happened--and in so doing put out +the candle. Before I was sure that I had a dry match upon me, I failed +to seize the humour, although I felt the novelty of the situation. +During those seconds of uncertainty, the sound of the water--really +fast increasing--seemed to become a deafening roar. However, we both +had dry matches, and were able to relight our candles; but it might +have been otherwise, wet as we were. Without light we should have been +as helpless beneath those rocks as mice in a pitcher. The first +cascade conquered, we felt much more comfortable, for the picture of +being washed into that _cul-de-sac_ had flashed upon the mind of each. + +As the next and the next cascade were passed, our spirits rose still +more; and when we saw the gray daylight in the distance, our gaiety +was quite genuine, and we no longer 'laughed yellow,' as the French +phrase it. The stream was rapidly becoming a frantic torrent, but we +were not afraid of it now. On reaching the dome, we saw the water +pouring over rocks that were dry when we entered, and the clouds +seemed to be emptying their rain in frenzy. + +An hour later the stream that was lisping so innocently as it threaded +its way amongst the stones, and dropped from rock to rock before the +storm, sent up a wild roar from the bottom of the valley, and shrieked +like a tormented fiend, as it leaped into the black mouth of the +Gouffre de Révaillon. Tons of water had probably collected there at +the bottom of the gulf. And I, in my shortsightedness, had hoped that +the cavern was two or three miles long! I had great reason to be +thankful that it ended where it did, for the excitement of adventure +would have carried us on, and we might have gone too deep into the +earth to hear the thunder. + +On emerging from the darkness, we made all the haste we could to reach +the nearest inn. The storm was still at its height; the thunder was an +almost continuous roar; and the quick lightning-flashes lit up the +streaming country. We were quite drenched on reaching a little wayside +auberge. Water was soon boiling upon the wood-fire, and having set +rheumatism at defiance with steaming glasses of grog, we left for +Roc-Amadour, where, on our arrival, we found our friends about to +start with lanterns to look for us in the Gouffre de Révaillon. + + * * * * * + +Noticing one day a low cavern in the rocks beside the Ouysse, I asked +if anyone had ever entered it, and was told that a man had done so; +that he had found a long, low gallery, which he followed for two or +three hundred yards, and then gave up the attempt to reach the end. It +was well known that the hole, being on a level with the water, was +much used by otters. The desire to explore this cavern becoming +strong, I spoke to Decros about the adventure. He was ready to go with +me; and so we started, taking with us enough candles to light a +ball-room. + +On our way over the hills from Roc-Amadour, we passed two dolmens, one +of which was in good preservation. There are several hundred of them +in the Quercy; and the peasants, who call them _pierros levados_ +(raised stones), also 'tombs of the giants' and _caïrous_, in which +last name the Celtic word _cairn_ has been almost preserved, treat +them now with indifference, although it is recorded of one of the +early bishops of Cahors that he caused a menhir to be broken to pieces +because it was an object of idolatrous worship. Those who have been to +the trouble of excavating have almost invariably found in each dolmen +a _cella_ containing human bones. In some of them flint implements +have been discovered; in others iron implements and turquoise +ornaments, showing that the tombs, although all alike, belong to +different periods. Tumuli are also numerous, but only a few menhirs +and traces of cromlechs are to be seen. + +Close to the Gouffre de Cabouy, whose outflow forms a tributary of the +Ouysse, is a cottage where a man lives whose destiny I have often +envied. When he is tired of fishing or shooting, he works in his +thriving little vineyard, which he increases every year. The river is +as much his own as if it belonged to him; he gets all he wants by +giving himself very little trouble, and has no cares. We needed this +man's boat for our expedition, and we found it drawn into a little +cove beside the ruined mill, long since abandoned. It was a somewhat +porous old punt, with small fish swimming about in the bottom; but it +was well enough for our purpose. In the warm sunshine of the October +afternoon we glided gently down the quiet stream, which is very deep, +but so clear that you can see all the water-plants which revel in it, +down to the sand and pebbles. Near the banks we passed over masses of +watercress, and what might be likened to floating fields of lilies and +pond-weed. + +It needed no little reflection and expenditure of art to insert the +prow of the boat into the mouth of the cavern. What an ugly and +uninteresting hole I then thought it! Having run the punt as far as we +could into the opening, there still remained about six feet of water +to cross before reaching the sandy mud beyond. A plank, however, that +we brought with us served as a bridge. The story of the otters was no +fable, for here were the footprints of the beasts all over the mud. We +lighted candles and looked into the hole. The ground rose and the roof +descended, so that to enter it was necessary to lie perfectly flat, +and to crawl along by a movement very like that of swimming; then the +passage became so small that there was only room for one to go at a +time. Neither of us was ambitious to go first, for there was just a +chance of an otter seizing the invader by the nose; but neither liked +to show the white feather. Each in turn went in a few yards, planted a +lighted candle in the mud, and then found some pretext for returning. +The hot air of the cavern was almost suffocating, and one felt so +helpless flattened against the earth, with the rock pressing so tight +upon the back that even to wriggle along was difficult. 'Decros is a +native,' thought I, 'and he ought to be used to this kind of work. I +will let him understand that he is expected now to do his duty.' In he +went again, and planted another candle about a yard in front of the +last one. Then he stopped and fired a shot from the revolver that we +carried in turn for the otters, and the sound of the detonation seemed +to echo in a muffled fashion from the bowels of the earth. + +'How many otters have you killed?' I shouted. + +'None,' he replied. 'I just fired to let them know that we are here.' + +I then asked him if he was going on, and I fancied that he tried to +shrug his shoulders, but found the rock in the way. His practical +reply, however, was to slowly back out. When he was able to stand up +again, he said he believed he had seen the end of the cavern, and +would like me to take another look. I now realized that if the secrets +of the fantastic realm which my fancy had pictured were to be revealed +to me, there must be no more shirking. When I flattened myself out +again upon the mud, it was with the determination to go right through +the neck of the bottle, for such the passage figuratively was. At one +moment I felt tightly wedged, unable to move forward or backward, in a +hot steamy atmosphere that was not made any pleasanter by the smoke of +the burnt powder; but, the sight of the now rising roof encouraged me +to further efforts, and presently I was able to stand upright--in +fact, I was in a cavern where a giant of the first magnitude could +have walked about with ease, but where he might have been a prisoner +for life. I was resolved, however, that Decros should not escape his +share of the adventure, so I called to him to come on, and he quickly +joined me. To my great disappointment, the cavern soon came to an end. +Where, we asked, could the otters be hiding themselves? Examining the +place more carefully, we found a passage going under the rock at the +farther extremity, but nearly filled with sand which the river had +washed up in time of flood. Here, then, was the continuation of the +cavern. The passage had been made by water, for a subterranean stream +must at one time have found an exit here into the Ouysse, and now +water was reversing the process by filling up the ancient conduit. But +for the otters that kept it open, we should probably have seen no +trace of it; and it was for this that we had wriggled our way into the +hideous hole like serpents! I left with the impression that there was +much vanity in searching for the wonders of the subterranean world. + +Having brought back the boat, we stopped at the cottage by the +vineyard and tried the juice of the grapes which three weeks before +were basking in the sun. It was now a fragrant wine of a rich purple, +with a certain flavour of the soil that made it the more agreeable. +The fisherman's wife also placed upon the table a loaf of home-made +bread, of an honest brown colour, some of the little Roc-Amadour +cheeses made from goat's milk, and a plate of walnuts. The window +looked out upon the sunny vines, whose leaves were now flaming gold or +ruddy brown; the blue river shone in the hollow below, and through the +open door there came the tinkling of bells from the rocky wastes where +the small long-tailed sheep were moving slowly homeward, nibbling the +stunted herbage as they went. + +This sound reminded us that the sun would soon drop behind the hill, +and that the Pomoyssin, to which we intended to pay a visit on our way +home, was not a spot that gained attractiveness from the shades of +night. I had heard the country-people speak of it as a peculiarly +horrible and treacherous _gouffre_, and its name, which means +'unwholesome hole,' corresponds to the local opinion of it. The +shepherd children would suffer torture from thirst rather than descend +into the gloomy hollow and dip out a drop of the dark water which is +said to draw the gazer towards it, and then into its mysterious depths +under the rock, by the spell of some wicked power. Some years ago a +woman, supposed to have been drawn there by the evil spirit, was found +drowned, and since then the spot has been avoided even more than it +was before. + +It was to this place, then, that we went when the sun was setting. The +way led up a deep little valley which was an absolute desert of +stones. A dead walnut-tree, struck apparently by lightning, with its +old and gnarled branches stretching out on one side like weird arms, +was just the object that the imagination would place in a valley +blighted by the influence of evil spirits, in proximity to a passage +communicating from their world to this one. Presently, as we drew near +some high rocks, Decros, pointing to a dark hollow in the shadow of +them said, 'There it is.' We went down into the basin to the edge of +the water that lay there, black and still, Decros showing evident +reluctance and restlessness the while, so strongly was his mind +affected by all the stories he had heard about the pool. Moreover, it +was rapidly growing dusk. In this half-light the funnel in which we +were standing certainly did look a very diabolic and sinister hole. +The fancy aiding, everything partook of the supernatural: the dark +masses of brambles hanging from the rocks, the wild vines clinging to +them with leaves like flakes of deep-glowing crimson fire, and +especially the intermittent sound of gurgling water. + +I was glad to have seen the Pomoyssin under circumstances so +favourable, but it was with relief that I left it and began to climb +the side of the gorge from this valley of dreadful shadows towards the +pure sky that reddened as the brown dusk deepened below. + + + + +IN THE VALLEY OF THE CÉLÉ. + + +It was a burning afternoon of late summer when I walked across the +stony hills which separate the valley of the Lot from that of its +tributary the Célé, between Capdenac and Figeac. I did not take the +road, but climbed the cliffs, trusting myself to chance and the torrid +_causse_. I wished that I had not done so when it was too late to act +differently. There was nothing new for me upon the bare hills, where +all vegetation was parched up except the juniper bushes and the +spurge. At length I found the road that went down with many a flourish +into the valley of the Célé, and I reached Figeac in the evening, +covered with dust, and as thirsty as a hunted stag. Here I took up my +quarters for awhile. + +Figeac is not a beautiful town from the Haussmannesque point of +view--the one that is destined to prevail in all municipal councils; +but it is full of charm to the archaeologist and the lover of the +picturesque. There are few places even in France which have undergone +so little change during the last five or six hundred years. Elsewhere, +thirteenth and fourteenth century houses are becoming rare; here they +are numerous. There are streets almost entirely composed of them. +These streets are in reality narrow crooked lanes paved with pebbles, +slanting towards the gutter in the centre. Some are only three or four +yards wide, and the walls half shut out the light of day. You look up +and see a mere strip of blue sky, but trailing plants reaching far +downward from window-sills, one above the other, light up the gloom +with many a patch of vivid green. You venture down some dim passage +and come suddenly upon a little court where an old Gothic portal with +quaint sculptures, or a Renaissance doorway with armorial bearings +carved over the lintel, bears testimony to the grandeur and wealth of +those who once lived in the now grimy, dilapidated, poverty-stricken +mansion. Pretentious dwellings of bygone days have long since been +abandoned to the humble. + +Here is a typical house in the Rue Abel, which is scarcely wide enough +for two to walk abreast. The oak door is elaborately carved with heads +and leaves, flowers and line ornament, all in strong relief. One +grimacing puckered head has a movable tongue that once lifted a latch +on being touched. Near the ground the oak has been half devoured by +the damp. This door would have been sold long ago to antiquaries or +speculators if the house since the Revolution had not become the +property of several persons all equally suspicious of one another, and +with the Cadurcian bump of obstinacy equally developed. They had no +respect for the carving, and they were eager to 'touch' the money; but +their interests in the house not being the same, they could never come +to an understanding over the door; consequently, in spite of very +tempting offers, the piece of massive oak continues to hang upon its +rusty hinges. So much the better for the student of antiquities, for, +without denying that museums are eminently useful, it is certain that +they deprive objects of a great deal of their interest and their power +of suggesting ideas by detaching them from their surroundings. +Moreover, it is not at all sure that these things, when they have been +bought up and carried away, will ever be put in a place where anybody +can see them who may have the wish to do so. And then, when a thing +has been put into a museum, it becomes such labour and painfulness to +look for it; and most of us are so lazy by nature. I will make a frank +confession. For my own part, I should scarcely look at this old door +if it were in the Cluny or any other museum; but here, in ancient +Figeac, I see it where it was many lustres ago, and the pleasure of +finding it in the midst of the sordidness and squalor that follow upon +the decay of grandeur and the evaporation of human hopes makes me feel +much that I should not feel otherwise, and calls up ideas as a +February sunbeam calls gnats out of the dead earth and sets them +spinning. + +I venture up the stone staircase, although most of the finely carved +balusters are gone, and the arch-stones have so slipped out of place +that they seem to cling together by the will of Providence rather than +by any physical law. The stairs themselves, although of fine stone +that has almost the polish of marble, are cracked as if an earthquake +had tormented them, and worn by the tread of innumerable feet into +deep hollows. I reach a landing where a long corridor stretches away +into semi-darkness. The floor is black with dirt, and so are the doors +which once opened into rooms where luxury waited upon some who were +born, and upon others (perchance the same) who died. A sound reaches +me from the far-end of the corridor that makes me feel like a coward. +It is the raving of a madman. How he seems to be contending with all +the fiends of hell! Sometimes his voice is so low, and the words crowd +one upon another so fast, that the muttering is like the prolonged +growl of a wild beast; then the mood changes, and the unseen man seems +to be addressing an invisible audience in grand sonorous sentences as +though he were a Cicero; and perhaps he may be, but as he speaks in +_patois_ his eloquence is lost upon me. What a terrible excitement is +in his voice! How it thrills and horrifies! And he is alone, quite +alone in this dismal old house with the fiends who harass him. This I +learn from a young girl whom I meet at the bottom of the staircase. +She tells me that the man is only mad at the time of the new or the +full moon (I forget which), and that his raving lasts but two or three +days. Then nobody ventures near him; but at other times he is quite +rational and harmless. He has left, however, upon me an impression +more lasting perhaps than that of the old tottering staircase that +threatens to close up every moment like a toy snake that has been +stretched out. + +Most of the old houses are entered by Gothic doorways, and the oak +doors are studded with large nail-heads. The locks and bolts are of +mediaeval workmanship. Sometimes you see an iron ring hanging to a +string that has been passed through a hole in the door. It is just +such a string as Little Red Riding-hood (an old French fable, +by-the-bye) pulled to lift the latch at the summons of the wicked +wolf. And what a variety of ancient knockers have we here! Many are +mere bars of iron hanging to a ring; but others are much more +artistic, showing heads coifed in the style of the fifteenth and +sixteenth centuries, serpents biting their own tails, and all manner +of fanciful ideas wrought into iron. In wandering about the dim old +streets, paved with cobble stones, architectural details of singular +interest strike one at every turn. Now it is the encorbelment of a +turret at the angle of a fifteenth or sixteenth century mansion that +has lost all its importance; now a dark archway with fantastic heads +grimacing from the wall; now an arcade of Gothic windows, with +graceful columns and delicate carvings--a beautiful fragment in the +midst of ruin. + +What helps much to render these dingy streets, passages, and courts of +Figeac so delightfully picturesque is the vegetation which, growing +with southern luxuriance in places seemingly least favourable to it, +clings to the ancient masonry, or brightens it by the strong contrast +of its immediate neighbourhood in some little garden or balustraded +terrace. Wherever there are a few feet of ground some rough poles +support a luxuriant vine-trellis, and grapes ripen where one might +suppose scarcely a gleam of sunshine could fall. The vine clambers +over everything, and sometimes reaches to the top of a house two +stories high. The old walls of Figeac are likewise tapestried with +pellitory and ivy-linaria, with here and there a fern pushing its +deep-green frond farther into the shadow, or an orpine sedum lifting +its head of purple flowers into the sunshine that changes it to a +flame. + +There is much in the life of this place that matches perfectly with +the surroundings. Enter by a Gothic doorway, and you will come upon a +nail-maker's forge, and see a dog turning the wheel that keeps the +bellows continually blowing. The wheel is about a foot broad, and +stands some three feet high. The dog jumps into it at a sign from his +master, and as the wheel turns the sparks from the forge fall about +the animal in showers. Each dog is expected to work five or six hours; +then, when his task is done, he is allowed to amuse himself as he +pleases, while a comrade takes his turn at the wheel. The nail-makers +discovered long ago that dog labour was cheaper than boy labour, and +not so troublesome. Nevertheless, these wheels belong to an order of +things that has nearly passed away. + +The crier or _tambourineur_, as he is generally called, because he +carries a drum, which he beats most lustily to awaken the curiosity of +the inhabitants, is making the round of the town with an ox, which is +introduced to the public as 'le boeuf ici présent.' The crier's +business is to announce to all whom it may concern that the animal is +to be killed this very evening, and that its flesh will be sold +to-morrow at 1 franc 25 centimes the kilo. It will all go at a uniform +price, for this is the local custom. Those who want the _aloyau_, or +sirloin, only have to be quick. The ox, notwithstanding that he has a +rope tied round his nose and horns, and is led by the butcher, +evidently thinks it a great distinction to be _tambouriné_; his +expression indicating that this is the proudest day of his life. Every +time the drum begins to rattle he flourishes his tail, and when each +little ceremony is over he moves on to a fresh place with a jaunty +air, as if he were aware that all this drumming and fuss were +especially intended for his entertainment. No condemned wretch ever +made his last appearance in public with a better grace. + +Another day I see this crier going round the town accompanied by a boy +every available part of whose person is decked with ribbons, and all +kinds of things ordinarily sold by drapers and haberdashers. Over each +shoulder is slung a pair of women's boots. The boy is a walking +advertisement of an exceptional sale, which a tradesman announces with +the help of the crier and his drum. + +A band of women and girls come up from the riverside, walking in +Indian file, and each with a glittering copper water-pot on her head. +What beautiful water-pots these are! They have the antique curve that +has not changed in the course of ages. They swell out at the bottom +and the top, and fall gracefully in towards the middle. As the women +quit the sunshine and enter the deep shadow of the street the shine of +their water-pots is darkened suddenly, like the sparks of burnt paper +which follow one upon another and go out. + +The sound of solemn music draws me into a church. A requiem Mass is +being chanted. In the middle of the nave, nearer the main door than +the altar, is a deal coffin with gable-shaped lid, barely covered by a +pall. A choir-boy comes out of the sacristy, carrying a pan of live +embers, which he places at the head of the coffin. Then he sprinkles +incense upon the fire, and immediately the smoke rises like a +snow-white cloud towards the vaulting; but, meeting the sunbeams on +its way, it moves up their sloping golden path, and seems to pass +through the clerestory window into the boundless blue. + +Now the procession moves towards the cemetery. It is a boy's funeral, +and four youths of about the same age as the one who lies in darkness +hold the four corners of each pall, two of which are carried in front +of the coffin. After the hearse come members of the confraternity of +Blue Penitents, one of whom carries a great wooden cross upon his +shoulder. Others carry staves with small crosses at the top, or +emblems of the trades that they follow. The dead boy's father is a +Penitent, and this is why the confraternity has come out to-day. They +now wear their _cagoules_ raised; but on Good Friday, when they go in +procession to a high spot called the Calvary, the leader walking +barefoot and carrying the cross on his shoulder in imitation of +Christ, they wear these dreadful-looking flaps over their faces. Their +appearance then is terrible enough; but what must that of the Red +Penitents, who accompanied condemned wretches to execution, have been? +In a few years there will be no Blue Penitents at Figeac. As the old +members of the confraternity die, there are no postulants to fill +their places. Already they feel, when they put on their 'sacks', that +they are masquerading, and that the eye of ridicule is upon them. This +state of mind is fatal to the conservation of all old customs. The +political spirit of the times is, moreover, opposed to these religious +processions in France. That of the _fête-Dieu_ at Figeac would have +been suppressed some years ago by the Municipal Council had it not +been for the outcry of the tradespeople. All the new dresses, new +hats, and new boots that are bought for this occasion cause money to +be spent that might otherwise be saved, and those who are interested +in the sale of such things wish the procession through the streets to +be kept up, although in heart they may be among the scoffers at +religion. + +The religious confraternities in Aquitaine date from the appearance of +the _routiers_ at the close of the twelfth century. These _routiers_ +were then chiefly Brabançons, Aragonese, and Germans. According to an +ecclesiastical author and local historian, the Abbé Debon, the lawless +bands spread such terror through the country that they stopped the +pilgrims from going to Figeac, Conques, and other places that had +obtained a reputation for holiness. A canon of Le Puy in Auvergne, +much distressed by the desertion of the sanctuary of Notre Dame de +Puy, which rivals that of Roc-Amadour in antiquity, formed the design +of instituting a confraternity to wage war against the _routiers_ and +destroy them. A 'pious fraud' was adopted. A young man, having been +dressed so as to impersonate Notre Dame du Puy, appeared to a +carpenter who was in the habit of praying every night in the +cathedral, and gave him the mission of revealing that it was the will +of the Holy Virgin that a confraternity should be formed to put down +the brigands and establish peace in the country. Hundreds of men +enrolled themselves at once. The confrères, from the fact that they +wore hoods of white linen, obtained the name of Chaperons Blancs. Upon +their breasts hung a piece of lead with this inscription: 'Agnus Dei +qui tollis peccata mundi dona nobis pacem.' The confraternity spread +into Aquitaine, and the _routiers_ were defeated in pitched battles +with great slaughter; but the _chaperons_ in course of time became +lawless fanatics, and were almost as great a nuisance to society as +those whom they had undertaken to exterminate. They were nevertheless +the ancestors in a sense of the confraternities of penitents who, at a +later period, became so general in Europe. + +The monthly fair at Figeac offers some curious pictures of rural life. +The peasants crowd in from the valleys and the surrounding _causses_. +Racial differences, or those produced by the influences of soil and +food--especially water--for a long series of generations, are very +strongly marked. There is the florid, robust, blue-eyed, sanguine +type, and there is the leaden-coloured, black-haired, lantern-jawed, +sloping-shouldered, and hollow-chested type. Then there are the +intermediates. Considered generally, these peasants of the Haut-Quercy +are not fine specimens of the human animal. They are dwarfed, and very +often deformed. Their almost exclusively vegetable diet, their +excessive toil, and the habit of drinking half-putrid rain-water from +cisterns which they very rarely clean, may possibly explain this +physical degeneration of the Cadurci. Their character is honest in the +main, but distrustful and superficially insincere by nature or the +force of circumstance. Their worst qualities are shown at a fair, +where they cheat as much as they can, and place no limit to lying. +Their canon of morality there is that everyone must look after +himself. I have been assured by a priest that they never think of +confessing the lies that they tell in bartering, because they maintain +that every man who buys ought to understand his business. I much +wondered why, at a Figeac fair, when there was a question of buying a +bullock, the animal's tail was pulled as though all his virtue were +concentrated in this appendage. I learnt that the reason of the +tugging was this: Cattle are liable to a disease that causes the tail +to drop off, but the people here have discovered a very artful trick +of fastening it on again, and it needs a vigorous pull to expose the +fraud. Among other tricks of the country is that of drenching an +ill-tempered and unmanageable horse with two _litres_ of wine before +taking him to the fair. He then becomes as quiet as a lamb. I heard +the story of a _curé_, who was thus imposed upon by one of his own +parishioners. He wanted a very quiet horse, and he found one at the +fair; but the next day, when he went near the animal, it appeared to +be possessed of the devil. All this is bad; but there is satisfaction +to the student of old manners in knowing that everything takes place +as it did centuries ago. The cattle-dealers and peasants here actually +transact their business in _pistoles_ and _écus_. A _pistole_ now +represents 10 francs, and an _écu_ 3 francs. + +The summer is glorious here, and as the climate is influenced by that +of Auvergne, it is less enervating by the Célé than in the +neighbouring valley of the Lot. There, some twenty miles farther +south, the grapes ripen two or three weeks sooner than they do upon +these hillsides. But the _vent d'autan_--the wind from the +south-east--is now blowing, and, although there is too much air, one +gasps for breath. The brilliant blue fades out of the sky, and the sun +just glimmers through layers of dun-coloured vapour. It is a sky that +makes one ill-tempered and restless by its sameness and indecision. +But the wind is a worse trial. It blows hot, as if it issued from the +infernal cavern. It sets the nerves altogether wrong, and disposes one +to commit evil deeds from mere wantonness and the feeling that some +violent reaction from this influence is what nature insists upon. It +is a wind that does not blow a steady honest gale, but goes to work in +a treacherously intermittent fashion--now lulled to a complete calm, +now springing at you like a tiger from the jungle. Then your eyes are +filled with dust, unless you close them quickly, or turn your back to +the enemy in the nick of time. The night comes, and brings other +trouble. You try to sleep with closed windows, so that you may hear +less of the racket that the wind makes outside, but it is impossible: +you stifle. You get up and open a window--perhaps two windows. The +wind rushes in, but it is like the hot breath of a panting dog. The +noise of swinging _persiennes_ that have got loose, and are banged now +against the wall, now against the window-frame, mingles with a woful +confusion of sounds within, as though a most unruly troop of ghosts +were dancing the _farandole_ all through the house. If any door has +been left open, it worries you more by its banging at intervals of a +minute than if it went on without stopping to consider. Therefore you +are compelled to rise again, and go and look for it--anything but a +cheerful expedition if you cannot find the matches. When this south +wind falls, the rain generally comes, bringing great refreshment to +the parched earth, and all the animals that live upon it. + +As I have referred to the house in which I live, I may as well say +something more with regard to it and the things which it contains. It +is not one of the ancient houses of Figeac, but it is old-fashioned +and provincial. The rooms are rather large, the floors are venerably +black, and the boarded ceilings supported by rafters have never had +their structural secrets or the grain of the timber concealed by a +layer of plaster. What you see over-head is simply the floor of the +room or the loft above. And yet this is not considered a poor-kind of +house; it is as good as most good people hereabouts live in. The +furniture is simple, but solid; it was made to last, and most of it +has long outlasted the first owners. In every room, the kitchen +excepted, there is a bed, according to the very general custom of the +country. The character of the people is distinctly utilitarian, +notwithstanding the blood of the troubadours. There is even a bed in +the _salle à manger_. A piece of furniture, however, from which my eye +takes more pleasure is one of those old clocks which reach from the +ceiling to the floor, and conceal all the mystery and solemnity of +pendulum and weights from the vulgar gaze. It has a very loud and +self-asserting tick, and a still more arrogant strike, for such an old +clock; but, then, everybody here has a voice that is much stronger +than is needed, and it is the habit to scream in ordinary +conversation. A clock, therefore, could not make itself heard by such +people as these Quercynois, unless it had a voice matching in some +sort with their own. Another piece of furniture that pleases me, +because it is of shining copper, which always throws a homely warmth +into a room, is a large basin fixed upon a stand against the wall, +with a little cistern above it, also of copper. It is intended for +washing the hands by means of a fillet of water that is set running by +turning the tap. In this dry part of the world water has to be used +sparingly, and, indeed, there is very little wasted upon the body. +Everybody who has travelled in Guyenne must be familiar with the +article of household furniture just described. Every young wife +piously provides herself with one, together with a warming-pan; for +the old domestic ideas are religiously handed down here from mother to +daughter. But I must shorten this 'journey round my room,' so little +in the manner of Le Maistre. + +Most of the furniture was once the property of a priest, and would be +still if he were alive. The good man is gone where even the voices of +the Figeacois cannot reach him; but he has left abundant traces of his +piety behind him. The walls of these rooms are almost covered by them. +I cannot help being edified, for I am unable to look upon anything +that approaches the profane. + +When I grow thoughtful over all these works of art and _objets de +piété_--engravings, lithographs, statuettes, crucifixes, crosses +worked in wool, stables of Bethlehem, little holy-water stoops, and +the faded photographs belonging to the early period of the art +(portraits, no doubt, of brothers, sisters, nephews, and nieces, all +revealing that air of rusticity in Sunday clothes which is not to be +mistaken)--I have before me the whole story of a simple life, +surrounding itself year after year with fresh emblems and tokens of +the hope that reaches beyond the grave, and the affections of nature +that become woven on this side of it, and which mingle joy and sorrow +even in the cup of a village priest. + +It is in these quiet, provincial places, where existence goes on in +the old-fashioned, humdrum way, that people take care of their +household property, and respect the sentiment that years lay up in it: +they hand it down to the next generation as they received it. Little +objects of common ornament, of religious or intellectual pleasure, +thus preserved, throw in course of time a vivid light on human +changes. + +And it is this vivid light that I am now feeling in these dim rooms. I +am aware that nearly everything here is the record of an epoch to +which I do not belong--that the world's mind has undergone a great +change even in the provinces since the influence that comes forth from +these silent traces of past thought were in harmony with it. What +interests me more than anything else here is an allegorical or +mystical map, designed, drawn, and coloured with all the patience and +much of the artistic skill of an illuminating monk of the thirteenth +century. I doubt if in any presbytery far out in the marshes or on the +mountains a priest could now be found with the motive to undertake +such a task. It belongs to the same order of ideas as the 'Pilgrim's +Progress.' In this map one sees the 'States of Charity,' the 'Province +of Fervour,' the 'Empire of Self-Contempt,' and other countries +belonging to a vast continent, of which the centre is the 'Kingdom of +the Love of God,' connected to a smaller continent--that of the +world--by a narrow neck of land called the 'Isthmus of Charity.' In +the continent of the world are shown the 'Mountain of Ingratitude,' +the 'Hills of Frivolity,' the territory of 'Ennui,' of 'Vanity,' of +'Melancholy,' and of all the evil moods and vices to which men are +liable. Separated from the mainland, and washed by the 'Torrent of +Bitterness,' are the 'Rocks of Remorse.' Among the allegorical emblems +in various parts of the chart is a very remarkable tree with blue +trunk and rose-coloured leaves called the 'Tree of Illusions.' Far +above it lies the 'Peninsula of Perfection,' and near to this, under a +mediaeval drum-tower, is the gateway of the 'City of Happiness.' + +There is a little garden at the back of the house, where flowers and +vegetables are mixed up in the way I like. The jessamine has become a +thicket. Vines ramble over the trellis and the old wall, and from the +window I see many other vines showing their lustrous leaves against +tiled roofs of every shade, from bright-red to black. In the next +garden is my friend the _aumônier_, an octogenarian priest, who is +still nearly as sprightly of body as he is of mind. He lives alone, +surrounded by books, in the collection of which he has shown the broad +judgment, and impartiality of the genuine lover of literature. There +is a delicious disorder in his den, because there is no one to +interfere with him. He is now much excited against the birds because +they will not leave his figs alone, and someone has just lent him a +blunderbuss wherewith to slay them. Perhaps he will show them the +deadly weapon, and hope that they will take the hint; but there is too +much kindness underneath his wrath for him to be capable of murdering +even a thievish sparrow. He likes to make others believe, however, +that he is desperately in earnest. His keen sense of the comic and the +grotesque in human nature makes him one of the raciest of +story-tellers; but although he does not put his tongue in traces, he +is none the less a worthy priest. There are many such as he in +France--men who are really devout, but never sanctimonious, whose +candour is a cause of constant astonishment, who are good-natured to +excess, and who are more open-hearted than many children. Their +friendship goes out readily to meet the stranger, and, speaking from +my own experience, I can say that it wears well. In the street, on the +other side of the house, six women have perched themselves in a row. +They have come out to talk and enjoy the coolness of the evening, and, +in order that their tender consciences may not prick them for being +idle, they are paring potatoes, and getting ready other vegetables for +the morrow. They all scream together in Languedocian, which, +by-the-bye, is anything but melodious here when spoken by the common +people. It becomes much less twangy and harsh a little farther South. +How these six charmers on chairs can all listen and talk at the same +time is not easy to understand. The truth is, very little listening is +done in this part of the world. The saying _On se grise en parlant_ is +quite applicable here. People often get drunk on nothing stronger than +the flow of their own words. + +All the women being now on their way to the land of dreams, and +consequently quiet for a few hours, and all the sounds of the earth +being hushed save the song of the crickets among the vine-leaves, and +in the fruit-trees of the moonlit garden, I will try to see Figeac up +the vista of the ages, and if I succeed, perhaps the reader may be +helped at the same time to gather interest in this queer old place, +whose name, having been made familiar to the English who followed +Henry II to France in the twelfth century, is perhaps a reason why +their descendants will not 'skip' at first sight these few pages of +local history. + +The early history of Figeac, or what has long passed as such, is based +upon an ingenious stratification of fraud, arising out of a very old +quarrel between the monks of Figeac and the monks of Conques, and the +determination of the former to prove at all costs that their monastery +was the more ancient of the two. This would be a matter of +indifference to me had I not been myself entrapped by the snares laid +by certain abbots of Figeac for their contemporaries and posterity, +and been obliged to throw away much that I had written, and which was +far more interesting than the truth. If I had only suspected the +fraud, I might have been tempted to keep suspicion down in order to +spare the picture of the Carlovingian age which I had elaborated; but +it is known at the École des Chartres, and the Abbé B. Massabie of +Figeac has, moreover, written a book that removes all doubt as to the +spuriousness of the charters upon which the abbots of Figeac, when +their jealousy of Conques reached its climax in the eleventh century, +based their pretensions to priority. The most important of these +charters, and the one that has sent various local historians on a +voyage into the airy realms of fiction, is attributed to Pepin le +Bref, and bears the date 755. Another is a Bull attributed to Pope +Stephanus II., also dated 755, in which is described the ceremony of +consecrating the church of St. Sauveur, attached to the abbey, which +in the first-mentioned document Pepin is said to have founded. Here it +is related that when the Pontiff approached the church strains of +mysterious music were heard issuing from the edifice, and such a cloud +stood before it that the procession waited for hours before entering. +Then, when the Pope walked up to the altar-stone, he found that it had +been miraculously consecrated, crosses being marked upon it in oil +still wet. Now, the charter attributed to Pepin contains many passages +copied verbatim from one preserved at Rodez, and signed by Pippinus, +or Pepin I., King of Aquitaine. Its date is 838, and it enriches the +monastery of Conques, already existing, with certain lands at Fiacus +(Figeac), which is thenceforward to be called New Conques; the motive +of this gift being to extend to the monks those material advantages +which a rich valley is able to afford, but which are not to be found +in a stony gorge surrounded by barren hills. There would have been +less scandal to Christianity if Pepin had put a curb on his pious +generosity, and had left the monks of Conques to contend with the +desert. The charter, moreover, sanctions the building of a monastery +at Figeac, which is to remain under the rule and governance of the +abbots of Conques. In the eleventh century, the discord between the +two monasteries had reached such a pass that popes and councils were +appealed to to settle the question of priority. In 1096 the Council of +Nîmes laid down a _modus vivendi_ without pronouncing upon the +principle. It was decreed that the abbots of Figeac should thenceforth +be independent of the abbots of Conques. + +The monks of Conques appear to have followed originally the rule of +St. Martin, and to have adopted that of St. Benedict soon after its +introduction into France. The abbey of Figeac was therefore always +Benedictine. About the year 900 the monks began to cultivate learning, +their labour having previously been devoted almost exclusively to the +soil. A certain Abbot Adhelard set them to copy manuscripts, and in +course of time Figeac possessed a valuable library, of which the +religious wars of the sixteenth century and the Revolution have left +very few traces. + +The first half of the eleventh century was full of turmoil, trouble, +and torment. The 'blood-rain' that fell all over Aquitaine, and which +made people watch in terror for what might come next, was followed by +a three years' famine, which drove men in their hunger to prey upon +one another. The inns were man-traps; solitary travellers who ventured +inside of them were killed and devoured. Those were not good wayfaring +days. A man actually offered human flesh for sale in the market of +Tournus; but he was burnt alive. During this frightful period, the +Abbot of Figeac distinguished himself by his charity, and, in order to +find work for the unemployed, built a wall round the burg; but the +monastery was much impoverished in consequence. + +Towards the close of the eleventh century four slender +obelisks--called 'needles' in the country--were set up on the hills +around Figeac apparently to mark the boundaries of the _sauveté_; for +the abbey enjoyed the right of sanctuary. Two of these needles still +exist. According to an absurd story, which has been repeated by +various writers, misled by the forgeries already mentioned, the monks, +when they came to this part of the valley of the Célé, found it an +uninhabited wilderness without a name, and somebody exclaimed, 'Fige +acus!' ('Set up needles!'), when the question of marking the boundary +was being discussed. This ingenious explanation of the word Figeac +will not bear examination. + +Every traveller in Aquitaine must have been struck by the remarkable +number of places there whose names end in _ac_. It is commonly +supposed that the termination is derived from _aqua_, and refers to +the river or stream near which the town or village was built. + +_Ac_, however, does not at all correspond to the well-known +corruptions of _aquae_ still found in the names of places in France +where the Romans constructed baths. We are on much surer ground in +assuming it to be of Celtic origin, and to have belonged in a special +manner to the dialect spoken by the Cadurci, Ruteni and other Southern +tribes. It nevertheless occurs at Carnac--that spot of Brittany where +is to be seen the most remarkable of all monuments, commonly +attributed to the Celts. The word probably meant town. It is +unreasonable to suppose that the monks found the valley of the Célé a +desert, considering how densely populated was the whole of this part +of Gaul at the time of Caesar's invasion. So inhabited was it that the +surplus population spread all over the known world, just as the +English do to-day. The popular notion with regard to the needles is +that they were intended to carry lanterns to guide the pilgrims by +night either to Figeac or to Roc-Amadour. Such lanterns were set up in +Aquitaine, and some examples may still be seen; but they are very +different in character from these obelisks, which in all probability +were used to mark the boundary of the _salvamentum_. It is true that +in the Middle Ages the right of asylum was, as a rule, confined to the +sanctuary itself or its immediate precincts; but there were +exceptions, especially in the South of France, where this sacred zone, +which in the Romance language was termed the _sauvetat_, often +extended a considerable distance beyond the walls of a monastic town. +Within these bounds persons fleeing from pursuers had the right of +asylum; but, on the other hand, there are documents to show that those +who committed crimes inside the limit were held guilty of sacrilege. + +Early in the Middle Ages the town of Figeac enjoyed the privileges of +a royal borough under the protection of the kings of France, who in +course of time came to be represented there by their _viguier_ +(vicar). The civic administration was in the hands of consuls as early +as the year 1001. They rendered justice and even passed sentence of +death. The burghers were exempt from all taxation and servitude. The +municipality had the right of coining money for the king, and the +ruined mint can still be seen. Such was the state of things down to +the time when the English appeared in the country. Henry II., having +taken Cahors in 1154, left his chancellor, Becket, there as governor. +The Figeacois, who at first looked upon Becket as an enemy, after he +was murdered at Canterbury, and when the fame of his saintliness began +to spread through France, dedicated a church to him. This edifice has +disappeared; but the part of the town where it was situated, or where, +to speak more correctly, it was afterwards rebuilt, is still called +the Quartier St. Thomas. So little were the English loved, however, as +a nation by the Quercynois, that, after St. Louis had been canonized, +they refused to observe his festival, because they found it impossible +to forgive him for having, by the treaty of Abbeville, passed them +over to England without their consent. + +Figeac was less troubled than some other towns in the Quercy by the +English, because in different treaties the kings of France managed to +keep a grip upon it as a royal borough. + +The gates of the town were, however, thrown open to the English +without a struggle about the middle of the fourteenth century, and to +punish the consuls, when they again became French, King John took away +their right to coin money; but the privilege was restored in +consideration of the ardour they had shown in freeing themselves from +the British yoke. + +The victory of the Black Prince at Poitiers, followed by the treaty of +Brétigny, made the King of England absolute master of the Quercy. The +Prince of Wales came in person to take possession of Cahors in 1364, +and despatched his seneschal, Thomas de Walkaffara, to Figeac to +receive from the inhabitants the oath of fealty. They swore obedience, +but with much soreness of soul. They afterwards got released from +their oath by the Pope, and joined a fresh league formed against the +English. After enjoying the sweets of French nationality again for a +brief period, they were made English once more by the treaty of +Troyes. But the British domination in Guyenne was now approaching its +close. The maid of Domrémy was about to change her distaff for an +oriflamme. The year 1453 saw the English power completely broken in +Aquitaine; a collapse which an old rhymer records with more relish +than inspiration: + + 'Par Charles Septième à grande peine + Furent chassés en durs détroits + Les Anglais de toute Aquitaine, + Mil quatre cent cinquante trois.' + +Figeac escaped the horrors which were spread through the South of +France by the religious wars of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; +but it was not similarly spared by those of the sixteenth century. The +Huguenots laid siege to the town in 1576, and entered it by the +treasonable help of a woman--the wife of one of the consuls. There was +the usual massacre that followed victory, whether on the side of +Protestants or Catholics, and the people became Calvinists for the +same reason that they had centuries before become English. In less +than fifty years afterwards they were all Catholics again. During this +unsettled period, however, there was great domestic dissension in the +town, owing to the circumstance that many women belonging to the old +Catholic stock had married Protestants who had come into the place. As +they could not agree with their husbands, and as many of these refused +to be converted for their sake (they may have been thankful for an +opportunity of getting rid of them), a refuge called 'L'hospice des +mal-mariées' was built for the unhappy wives. When the need for this +very singular institution no longer existed it was pulled down. + +The Church of St. Sauveur, as we see it to-day, is disappointing. It +has been so much rebuilt after different convulsions, and pulled about +when there has been less excuse, that many a church in an obscure +village gives more pleasure as a whole to the eye that seeks unity of +design and inspiration in a work of art. Nevertheless, there are +details here that no archaeologist will despise. In the nave are the +piers and Romanesque capitals of an early, but not the earliest, +church on the spot. They are certainly not later than the twelfth +century. Baptismal fonts, now used as holy-water stoups, are probably +of anterior workmanship. Cut out of solid blocks of stone, their +carving shows all the interlacing lines and exquisite finish of +detail, purely ornamental, that marks the pre-Gothic period in the +South of France, when the artistic spirit of Christianity was still +confined to the close imitation of Roman and Byzantine art. + +The Church of Notre Dame du Puy, built upon a height, as the word +_puy_ implies, is likewise interesting only in respect of details, +such as the sculptured archivolts of the portal and the +fourteenth-century rose-window. It, however, contains a very +remarkable example of sixteenth-century wood-carving in its massive +and elaborate reredos, a portion of which, having been destroyed by +fire, has been repaired with plaster, but so skilfully that it is very +difficult to perceive where the artistic fraud begins and where it +ends. + +The extraordinary interest of Figeac to the archaeologist lies, +however, in its civic and domestic architecture. This has been +preserved simply because the inhabitants have for centuries played no +part in the political history of the country, and their pursuits or +interests having remained constantly agricultural, they have been +equally cut off from the commercial movement. But every year will +diminish the charm of this dirty old town to the antiquary. It will be +observed that all the old streets are not accidentally crooked, but +that they have been carefully laid out on curved or zigzag lines, +which turn now in one direction and now in another. The motive was a +defensive one in view of street-fighting, which was often so terrible +and so prolonged in the Middle Ages. Each curve of a street formed an +obstacle to the onward rush of an enemy, and only allowed those +burghers who were actually engaged to be exposed to arrows and bolts. +The townsmen could dispute the ground inch by inch and for days, as +they did at Cahors when they were surprised by Henry of Navarre, +although firearms had then come into use. + +Wine-growing, until some eight or ten years ago, was the chief source +of revenue to the people of Figeac, as well as to those in the +neighbouring valley of the Lot. Middle-aged people here can recollect +the days when wine was so cheap that the inn-keepers did not take the +trouble to measure it out to their customers, but charged them a +uniform price of two sous for stopping and drinking as much as they +pleased. But all this has been changed by the phylloxera. From being +exceptionally prosperous, the people of the district have become poor. +Very few have now any money to lay out in replanting their vineyards. +Land has so fallen in value that it can be bought at a price that +seems scarcely credible. With £100 one might become the proprietor of +a large vineyard. Higher up the hills, where the chestnut and juniper +thrive, half the money would buy quite a considerable estate. Here and +elsewhere in France thousands of acres lie uncultivated and +unproductive, except as regards that which nature unaided renders to +man. Not all, but a very large portion, of this waste-land would well +repay cultivation if the capital needed for clearing and working it +were obtainable. That the lands suitable for wine-growing could be +rendered remunerative is absolutely certain if those who undertook the +task had the money necessary for the first outlay of planting and +could afford to wait for the return. + +The valley of the Celé between Figeac and the junction of the little +river with the Lot contains some of the most picturesque scenery to be +found in the Quercy. About ten miles below Figeac it becomes a gorge, +which until past the middle of the present century was almost cut off +from communication with neighbouring towns. All the carrying was done +on the backs of mules and donkeys; but since the road was made along +the right bank of the Célé, these animals have been used less and +less. It is no uncommon thing, however, to see now a heavily-laden +pack-mule coming up the valley to the Figeac fair. It was in their +rock-fortresses by the Celé that the English companies in Guyenne are +said to have made their final resistance. The long and sustained +efforts which were needed to dislodge them from their almost +inaccessible fastnesses will be understood by anyone who may go +wayfaring like myself along the banks of this tributary of the Lot. + +For the first two hours the walk was unexciting, for the valley was +too wide and too cultivated to give much pleasure to the eye that +looks for character in nature. At the village of Corn there was a +decided change. Here lofty honeycombed rocks rose behind the houses +that were built not very far above the stream, whose swiftness is +supposed to have been the origin of its name. Not one of the several +caverns extends far into the cliff. Their chief interest lies in the +traditions with which they are associated. In one of them the +inhabitants of the little burg are said to have assembled in the +Middle Ages to elect their consuls freely, and to escape possible +annoyance from their lord, whose castle was on the opposite hill. +Another, still called the Citadel, was that in which they took refuge +from the enemy, especially from the roving bands of armed men who made +common cause with England. In 1380 Bertrand de Bassoran, captain of an +English company, captured Corn, and using this place as his _point +d'appui_, he placed garrisons in the neighbouring burgs of Brengues, +Sauliac, and Cabrerets. He also compelled the consuls of Cajarc to +treat with him. + +After a hasty meal in a little inn where I had to be satisfied mainly +with good intentions, I called upon the schoolmaster. The poor man was +spending most of his dinner-hour on the threshold of his small +school-house amidst the rocks because some unruly or idle urchins were +'kept in.' How much pleasanter, I thought, it would have been for him +to have produced in their case a wholesome cutaneous irritation, and +set himself, as well as the young reprobates, free! But the French law +does not tolerate the corporal punishment of children nowadays, +although the exasperated pedagogue cannot always resist the temptation +of applying his ruler upon a bunch of grimy little knuckles. This +schoolmaster, although he was past the age of fifty and had grown +corpulent, was still tied fast to the village schoolroom that was much +too small to hold thirty children comfortably. By the aid of reading, +writing, and arithmetic, he had got into a little creek where he was +safe from the stormy seas of life, and he had never allowed his +ambition to draw him out into the ocean. Nevertheless, he nursed and +rocked his little vanity like the rest of mortals. He had written what +he termed a 'Monograph of Corn.' He brought out from his desk a +copybook wherein he had set it all down with the utmost attention to +upstrokes and downstrokes and punctuation. It was a pleasure to him to +find somebody to whom he could read what he had written, and he had in +me an attentive listener. + +Wandering on by the winding Célé, the charm of the little river made +me sit down upon a bank to look at the pictures that were painted on +the water by the sunshine, the clouds, and the poplars. Then, +continuing my journey, I saw on the opposite side of the stream a +cluster of houses with an ancient church in their midst, and almost +detached from this church, and yet a part of it, a tower like a +campanile capped by a wooden belfry with pointed roof and far-reaching +eaves. A bridge led across the water. I found the village to be Sainte +Eulalie d'Espagnac. Here there existed from the early Middle Ages a +celebrated convent for women of the order of St. Augustine. The +founder, Aymeric d'Hébrard, was the Bishop of a see in Spain, and he +brought thence Moorish slaves to cultivate the land with which he had +endowed his community of a hundred nuns. Down to the Revolution most +of the daughters of the nobility in the Quercy were educated here. +Little is now left of the conventual building; but the church contains +architectural details of much interest, and the tombs of those +irreconcilable enemies of the English, Bertrand de Cardaillac, Bishop +of Cahors, and the Marquis de Cardaillac--the most famous warrior of +this bellicose and illustrious family. + +Having reached the village of Brengues, I went immediately in search +of the English rock-fortress of which I had already heard. A path led +me up the steep hillside to the foot of a long line of high rocks of +yellowish limestone, so escarped and so forbidding to vegetable life +that I did not see even a wild fig-tree hanging from a crevice. A path +ran along at the base of this prodigious wall, from the top of which +stretched the arid _causse_. I had only gone a little way when I saw +before me a fortified Gothic gateway jutting out from the rock to +which it was attached, and extending across the path to where the hill +became so steep as to sufficiently protect from assault on that side +those who had a motive for defending the ledge under the high cliff. I +examined this old piece of masonry with much curiosity. + +The pointed form of the arch disposes of the hypothesis which has been +put forward without much reflection, that this legacy of the old wars +in Guyenne is part of the defences raised in the country by the +unfortunate Waifré, Duke of Aquitaine, when he was being chased from +rock to rock by his relentless enemy. Here we have work that is +evidently not anterior to the English occupation, and which in all +probability belongs to the fourteenth or the early part of the +fifteenth century. Now, as Brengues was undoubtedly one of those +places where the English companies firmly established themselves, and +to which they clung with great tenacity, there is very small risk of +error is coming to the conclusion that it was they who built this +fortified gateway. The masonry, composed of carefully-shaped stones, +and laid together with an excellent mortar that has become as durable +as the rock itself, has been wonderfully preserved. Had it been placed +in the valley it would have been pulled down long ago, and the +materials would have been used for building houses or pigsties. The +upper part of the wall is dilapidated, so that it is impossible to say +whether it was originally embattled or not. There is no staircase, but +the defenders had doubtless a suspended plank or beam on which they +stood when they wished to shoot arrows or bolts over the top of the +wall. On the side nearest the rock is a splayed opening ending +outwardly in a crosslet large enough for three or four men to use at +the same time. + +This gateway was only an outwork to defend the ledge of rock. About +two hundred yards farther is a cavern some twenty or thirty feet above +the path, and only accessible by means of a ladder. It has been walled +up, openings being left here and there for loopholes. Near the top is +a row of three windows without arches, and at the base an opening that +served for a door, and which could easily be closed up. Although the +stones were shaped for building, they were laid together without +mortar; but the wall is so thick, and so protected by its position, +that this rough fortification has remained almost unchanged from the +date of its construction. It is a much less finished piece of work +than the gateway, but there are other rock-fortresses in the district, +attributed by general consent to the English, so similar to it in +character that there is no reason for doubting that the companies +built this one also. It is probable, however, that the gateway already +mentioned, and the one that corresponded to it on the other side of +the cavern, but of which few vestiges can now be seen, were +constructed subsequently, when the science of fortification was better +understood by the _routiers_. Such a fortress could never have been +used in a military sense by a large number of men, but to a band of +brigands and cut-throats it was a stronghold of the first order. As +they doubtless laid up in their cavern a large store of the provisions +which they obtained by their continual forays in the surrounding +region, they were capable of withstanding a long siege even against an +enemy many times as numerous as themselves, for the reason that only a +few men could attack them at the same time, and the defenders had an +enormous advantage in the struggle. It is a very general belief in the +district that there was formerly a passage by which this cavern +communicated with the _causse_; no trace of it, however, has been +discovered. + +M. Delpon, author of a work published in 1831, and entitled +'Statistique du Département du Lot,' mentions these fortified caverns +of the Quercy in the following passage, which gives a vivid picture of +the kind of life that the English companies led and made others lead +in the fourteenth century: + +'They (the English) possessed in the Quercy the forts of Roc-Amadour, +Castelnau, Verdale, Vayrac, Lagarennie, Sabadel, Anglars, Frayssinet, +Boussac and Assier, and some other castles on escarped hills from +which it was difficult to expel them. They also seized upon caverns +formed by nature in the flanks of precipitous rocks, and fortified +them with walls in which all the character of English structures can +still be recognised. The garrisons that occupied these places +represented six thousand lances distributed over the Quercy, the +Rouergue, and High Auvergne. When they sallied forth, the earth, to +use an expression of one or their chiefs, Emérigot, surnamed Black +Head, trembled under their feet.[*] They robbed travellers, made +citizens prisoners--especially ecclesiastics--in order to extort +exorbitant ransoms, they took from the peasants their beasts and their +crops, and forced them to work in strengthening the dens of their +spoliators with new fortifications. In fine, the Quercy was +continually devastated, and the inhabitants only tilled the earth to +satisfy the avidity of the English companies. The population could +shield themselves from their violence only by concealing themselves in +subterranean retreats, where traces of their sojourn are still +observable. The English were continually recruited by all the depraved +men of the provinces which they laid under contribution.' + + [*] The entire passage from which these words are taken is to be + found in Froissart's chronicles, and it runs as follows, the + spelling being modernized: 'Que nous étions rejouis quand nous + chevaussions à l'aventure et que nous pouvions trouver sur le + champ un riche prieur ou marchand ou des mulets de Montpellier, + de Narbonne, de Carcassone, de Limoux, de Béziers, de Toulouse, + chargés de draps, de brunelles, de pelleterie, venant de la foire + de Landit, d'épiceries venant de Bruges, de draps de soie, de + Damas ou d'Alexandrie. Les vilains nous pourvoyaient et + apportaient dans nos châteaux le blé, la farine, le pain tout + cuit, l'avoine pour les chevaux, le bon vin, les boeufs, les + brébis, les moutons tous gras, la poulaille et la volataille. + Nous étions servis, gouvernés et étoffés comme rois et princes, + et quand nous chevaussions le pays tremblait devant nous.' + +This last remark is only too well justified by the evidence which +those centuries have handed down. Indeed, to such an extent were these +companies composed of Aquitanians, that one may well ask if some of +them contained a single genuine Englishman. I have found no record in +the Quercy of the captain of a company of _routiers_ having borne an +Anglo-Saxon name. Two English captains who took Figeac by surprise (a +document relating to this event, written in Latin of the fourteenth +century, is to be found in the municipal archives) were named Bertrand +de Lebret and Bertrand de Lasale. Those who captured Martel had names +equally French. There is, of course, the hypothesis that these leaders +were Anglicised Normans, but the stronger probability is that they +were native adventurers of Aquitaine who found it to their interest to +place themselves under the protection of the King of England. + +Towards the close of the fourteenth century, all those who wished to +drive the English out of Guyenne rallied round the chiefs of the house +of Armagnac. This great family of the Rouergue, which was ultimately +absorbed by the Royal House of France and became extinct, at one time +espoused the British cause; but it contributed more than any other to +the final dispersion of the English companies in Guyenne. In 1381 the +people of the Gévaudan, the Quercy, and High Auvergne, solicited the +help of the Count of Armagnac against the companies, and he accepted +the leadership of the coalition. He convened a meeting of delegates at +Rodez, to which the English chiefs were invited, and the decision that +was then come to did not say much for the sagacity or the valour of +those who represented the majority. It was agreed that the sum of +250,000 francs--equivalent to about £200,000 to-day--should be paid to +the English on condition of their surrendering the fortresses which +they occupied. This fact goes far to prove that the companies were +virtually independent, and that although all their outrages were +ostensibly committed in the British name, they were freebooters in the +fullest sense of the word. Of the sum that was to be paid to them, the +clergy were to contribute 25,000 francs, the nobles 16,660. The +inhabitants of the Quercy agreed to pay 50,833 francs. The captains of +the companies took oath that on receiving the money they would quit +Guyenne for ever. They may have kept their oath, but their followers +were not to be induced to change their habits so easily. The +_routiers_, still going by the name of the English companies, +continued to hold the least accessible places in Guyenne, fortified in +the main by nature, until long after the British sovereigns had +abandoned their ambitious designs in France. + +In the fifteenth century so many of the inhabitants of the Quercy had +been killed or ruined by the companies that some districts were almost +depopulated. In the town of Gramat there were only seven inhabitants +left at the close of the Hundred Years' War. In order that the lands +should not remain uncultivated, the nobles enfeoffed them to strangers +from the Rouergue and other neighbouring provinces. This circumstance +is supposed to account in a large measure for the differences in +dialect which are to be observed in adjoining communes. There is no +evidence to-day, so far as I have been able to ascertain, of English +words having been introduced into the Languedocian of Guyenne. The +striking resemblance of many _patois_ words to those of the English +language bearing the same meaning--a resemblance that is helped by the +Southern pronunciation of vowels and diphthongs--must be referred to +linguistic influences far more remote and obscure than the political +fact that Guyenne was intimately connected with English history for +three hundred years. For example, that familiar animal the cat is +called in Guyenne _lou catou_ and even _lou cat_; but the word belongs +to the Romance language, and is the same all through Languedoc and +Provence. The fact that the English left no mark upon the language in +Guyenne is almost a conclusive proof that such of the Anglo-Saxon +stock as followed the Norman leaders into Aquitaine, and who remained +in the country any length of time, were not sufficiently numerous to +impose their idiom upon others. They probably did not preserve it long +themselves; but, like the English grooms who find occupation in France +today, they quickly adopted the language that was generally spoken +around them. Patient investigation might, nevertheless, show that the +English did leave some of their words, as well as their blood, in the +country. It would, indeed, be astonishing if this were not so. Even +the Greek colony at Marseilles and Aries, although far removed, must +have influenced the dialect of Guyenne; for the peasants of the Quercy +use the word _hermal_ to describe a piece of waste land bordering a +cultivated field, the origin of which expression was, doubtless, +Hermes, the god of boundaries. This is not the only Greek word that +has been corrupted, but nevertheless preserved, in the Quercy +_patois_. + +Wherever the English were long established in their fastnesses amidst +the rocks which form the rugged sides of the deep-cut gorges of the +Quercy, many of the inhabitants have clung, century after century, to +the belief that the terrible freebooters buried a prodigious amount of +treasure with the intention of returning and fetching it on the first +opportunity. So persistently was this tradition handed down at +Brengues that many years ago a cavern, the entrance of which had been +covered over with stones and earth, having been accidentally +discovered on the plateau just above the Château des Anglais, it was +eagerly explored, as well as a similar cavern close by. The excitement +was increased by the circumstance that the discovery of these openings +appeared to coincide with the indications of a local witch. It was +evident that the caverns had at one time been used by men, for they +contained masonry put together with mortar. By dint of excavating, +hidden galleries were revealed; but although a human skeleton was +discovered, no treasure was found. The explorers, however, came upon a +vast collection of bones of extinct animals, and of others which, +although they are now to be found both in the Arctic and in the +tropical regions, have not existed in a state of nature in France +during the historic period. The bones of the reindeer, for instance, +were found lying with those of the hyena and the rhinoceros, many of +them embedded in the calcareous breccia so frequently seen in the +valley of the Célé. Here was evidence of a glacial and a torrid +period, separated by an aeonic gulf; but how the remains came to be +piled one upon another in this way is a secret of the ancient earth. +There are prodigious layers of these bones lying at a great depth in +the rock, where there is no cavern to suggest that the animals entered +by it, or that they were taken there by man. The beds of phosphate +which English enterprise has turned to so good an account in this part +of France, and which are followed in the earth just like a seam of +coal or a vein of metal, are merely layers of bones. While I was at +Brengues, the skeleton of a young rhinoceros was discovered in the +phosphate mine at Cajarc. + +On the hill above the Célé, on the side opposite to that where the +Château des Anglais is to be seen, are the remains of an entrenched +camp, upon the origin of which it is almost idle to speculate. In the +same neighbourhood is a cavern situated high up in the face of a +perpendicular rock. It is inaccessible by ordinary means; but a beam +fixed at the entrance, and worn into a deep groove by a rope, shows +that it was used as a refuge. A tradition says that Waifré hid himself +there. + +I passed the night at Brengues, and was awakened in the early morning +by the jingle of bells just beneath my window, and a man's voice +repeating, 'Tè, Tè, Tè!' A couple of bullocks were being yoked, and +presently they followed the man towards the fields of tobacco and +maize by the little river, already shining in the sun. Very soon +afterwards I, too, had begun my day's work. + +In a little more than an hour I was at the next village--St. Sulpice. +Here above the houses, huddled together like sheep on the lower steep +of the right-hand hill, were the ruins of a castle, hanging to the +rock that dwarfed it even in the days of its pride. I climbed to it, +and found that it was built on terraces one above the other, formed by +the rocky shelves. A considerable portion of the strong wall at the +base of the structure remains, and on each terrace there is something +left of the feudal fortress. Ivy, with gnarled and fantastic stocks, +has so overspread the masonry in places that hardly a gray stone shows +through the dense matting of sombre leaves and hoary, wrinkled stems. +Multitudes of bats cling to the ruinous vaulting where the light is +very dim, and lurk in the hollows of the rock. A stone thrown up will +bring them fluttering down and whirling about the head of the +intruder, noiselessly as if they were the ghosts that haunt the spot, +but dare not reveal to the eye of man the human shape that they once +wore. This castle belonged, and still belongs, to the D'Hébrard +family, which was connected by marriage with the Cardaillacs and most +of the ancient aristocracy of the Quercy. + +Leaving St. Sulpice, another hour's walk down the valley brought me to +Marcillac, which, after Figeac, was the most important place on the +Célé in the Middle Ages. It is now, however, a mere village. According +to local historians, it was here that Palladius, Bishop of Bourges, +retired in the fifth century to escape from the persecution of the +Arians. Nothing, however, that has been written of its history, prior +to the ninth or tenth century, can be accepted with any confidence. +What can be safely affirmed is, that here, between the rocky cliffs +that border the Célé, arose one of the earliest of the Benedictine +abbeys in France. The ruined cloisters of the monastery have all the +severe charm of the simple Romanesque style of the early period, but +there is no means of knowing whether they date from the tenth, +eleventh, or twelfth century. There are several beautiful capitals +elaborately embellished with intersecting line ornament still +preserved, although no value whatever is placed upon them by the +inhabitants. The cloisters are used for stables, and other common farm +purposes. + +The abbey church must have fallen into complete ruin, when a portion +of it was restored and rebuilt in the fifteenth century. Then about +half the nave--the western end--was cut off, and left open to the +weather. It is roofless, and the visitor walking, now in deep shadow, +now in brilliant light, as the fragments of masonry may hide or reveal +the sun, sees the blue sky through the arches and over the tops of the +ivy-covered walls. This part of the old church shows the transition +between the Romanesque and the Gothic styles. + +It would have been a slight upon Marcillac had I left the place +without seeing the most famous of its caverns, which goes by the name +of the Grotte de Robinet. I might have looked for it in vain all day +had I not taken a guide. + +First, the _causse_ had to be reached by ascending the cliffs on the +right bank of the Célé. Then I saw before me the stony undulating +land, with the sad sentiment of which I had already grown so familiar. +An old woman, nearly doubled up with age and field labour, but who +plied her distaff as she led her black goats to browse upon the waste, +made me understand that the solitude was not altogether bereft of +human life. After walking a mile or so, we descended into a deep +hollow wooded with those dwarf oaks which, together with the juniper, +hid at one time most of the nakedness of these calcareous tracts that +stretch from gorge to gorge. One might have supposed that such a dale +would have had a spring at the bottom; but no: everywhere it was +parched, arid, and rocky. The rain that falls all around goes to swell +some deep subterranean stream that issues no one knows where. This +peculiarity of the formation explains why nearly all the _caussenards_ +have no water, either for themselves or their animals, except that +which they collect from the skies in tanks sunk in the earth. Since +the failure of the vines--which formerly flourished upon the _causses_ +wherever there was a favourable slope--the peasants have learnt to +make a mildly alcoholic liquor by gathering and fermenting the juniper +berries, which previously they had never put to any use. + +We had nearly ascended the opposite side of this wooded hollow, when +the guide, pointing through the sunlit trees to a very dark but narrow +opening in the rocks, said, 'There it is!' We had reached the cavern. +He went first, carrying aloft a wisp of burning straw, which he +renewed from time to time from the bundle that he carried under his +arm. + +The practice of burning straw, so that people may have a good flare-up +for their money, has, together with the selfish custom of throwing +stones at the stalactites, gone far to spoil all the caverns of this +region, which have been much visited. The Grotte de Robinet must have +been dazzlingly beautiful at one time, but now most of the stalagmite +and stalactite has been completely blackened by smoke. Even the rocks, +over which one has to climb, and sometimes crawl, are covered with a +sooty slime, which gives one the appearance, when daylight returns, of +having been smeared with lamp-black. I put on a blouse before +entering, and had great reason to be glad that I did so. In spite of +all the mischief that has been done to it, the Grotte de Robinet is a +very remarkable cavern, and the time spent on the somewhat arduous and +slippery task of exploring its depths is not wasted. Its length is +about half a mile, and the descent, which is almost continuous, is at +times very rapid. The passage connects a succession of vast and lofty +spaces, which are not inappropriately termed _salles_. In some of +these, the dropping water has raised from the floor of the cavern +statuesque and awful forms of colossal grandeur. Some of these have +been little changed by the smoke, but stand like white figures of +fantastic giants. While looking at them, I thought how little I should +like to be in the position of a certain _curé_ of Marcillac, who spent +three days and three nights in this weird company. He frequently +entered the cavern alone, with a scientific object, and his +familiarity with it led him to despise ordinary precautions. One day +he was far underground, with only a single candle in his possession, +and no matches. A drop of water from the roof put the candle out, and +all his efforts to return by the way he came were futile. Meanwhile, +his parishioners, hunting high and low for their _curé_, chanced to +see his _soutane_, where he had left it, hanging to a bush at the +entrance of the Grotte de Robinet, and when they rescued him, there +was very little left of his passion for studying nature underground. + +The most wonderful and the most beautiful object in the cavern is to +be seen in the vast hall, which is the last of the series. This hall +has a dome-shaped roof that rises to the height of about sixty feet, +and it is supported in the centre, with every appearance of an +architectural motive, by a single slender column that seems to have +been carved with consummate skill out of alabaster. No image that I +can think of conveys the picture of this exquisite stalagmite so +justly as that of a column formed of the blossoms of lilies, each cup +resting within another. + +Having left Marcillac, I passed under the mediaeval village of +Sauliac, built high up on a shelf of naked rock, and then reached +Cabrerets, which lies two or three miles above the junction of the +Célé and the Lot. The village is at the foot of towering limestone +cliffs, and many of the houses are built against the gray and yellow +stone. The most interesting structure, however, is the castellated one +that clings to the face of the rock far above all inhabited dwellings. +It goes by the name of the Château du Diable, and it is the most +considerable of all the rock-fortresses in the valleys of the Célé and +the Lot which are attributed to the English companies. It possesses +towers and embattlements, and it was evidently intended to defend the +defile from any force advancing from the wider valley. Here, +doubtless, many a desperate struggle occurred before the companies +were dispersed and English influence was finally overcome in these +wilds of the Quercy. At a little distance from it, the long iron of a +mediaeval arrow, having fastened its head in a cleft of the rock, +remained sticking there for centuries, and was only recently removed. +The Prefect of the Department took a fancy to it, and had not the good +judgment to leave it where it had so long been an object of curiosity. +There, resting in the place where the arm of the archer had cast it, +it told a story of the old wars, and set the imagination working; but +in a collection of local antiquities it is as dumb and almost as +worthless as any other piece of old iron. + + + + +IN THE ALBIGEOIS. + + +A long dull road or street, a statue of the navigator La Perouse, a +bandstand with a few trees about it, and plain, modern buildings +without character, some larger and more pretentious than others, but +all uninteresting. Is this Albi? No, but it is what appears to be so +to the stranger who enters the place from the railway-station. The +ugly sameness is what the improving spirit of our own times has done +to make the ancient town decent and fit to be inhabited by folk who +have seen something of the world north of Languedoc and who have +learnt to talk of _le comfortable_. The improvement is undoubted, but +so is the absolute lack of interest and charm; at least, to those who +are outside of the _persiennes_ so uniformly closed against the summer +sun. + +Albi, the veritable historic Albi, lies almost hidden upon a slope +that leads down to the Tarn. Here is the marvellous cathedral built in +the thirteenth century, after the long wars with the Albigenses; here +is the Archbishop's fortified palace, still capable of withstanding a +siege if there were no artillery; here are the old houses, one of +pre-Gothic construction with very broad Romanesque window, slender +columns and storied capitals, billet and arabesque mouldings; another +of the sixteenth century quite encrusted with carved wood; and here +are the dirty little streets like crooked lanes, where old women, who +all through the summer months, Sundays excepted, give their feet an +air-bath, may be seen sitting on the doorsteps clutching with one bony +hand the distaff and drowsily turning the spindle with the other. + +To live in one of these streets might disgust the unseasoned stranger +for ever with Southern life; but to roam through them in the early +twilight is the way to find the spirit of the past without searching. +Effort spoils the spell. Strange indeed must have been the procession +of races, parties and factions that passed along here between these +very houses, or others which stood before them. Romans, Romanised +Gauls, Visigoths, Saracens and English; the Raymonds with their +Albigenses, the Montforts with their Crusaders from the north, the +wild and sanguinary _pastoiureux_ and the lawless _routiers_, the +religious fanatics, Huguenots and Catholics of the sixteenth century, +and the revolutionists of the eighteenth. All passed on their way, and +the Tarn is no redder now for the torrents of blood that flowed into +it. + +Notwithstanding that the name Albigenses was given after the council +of Lombers to the new Manichaeans, Albi was less identified with the +great religious and political struggle of Southern Gaul in the twelfth +and thirteenth centuries than were Castres and other neighbouring +towns. If, however, it was comparatively fortunate as regards the +horrors of that ferocious war, it was severely scourged by the most +appalling epidemics of the Middle Ages. Leprosy and the pest had +terrors greater even than those of battle. The cruelty of those feudal +ages finds one of its innumerable records in the treatment of the +miserable lepers at Albi. Having taken the disease which the Crusaders +brought back from the East, they were favoured with a religious +ceremony distressingly similar to the office for the dead. A black +pall was thrown over them while they knelt at the altar steps. At the +close of the service a priest sprinkled some earth on the condemned +wretches, and then they were led to the leper-house, where each was +shut up in a cell from which he never came out alive. The black pall +and the sprinkled earth were symbols which every patient understood +but too well. + +[Illustration: PORCH OF THE CATHEDRAL OF ALBI.] + +In nothing is the stern spirit of those ages expressed more forcibly +than in the religious buildings of Languedoc. The cathedral of St. +Cecilia at Albi is the grandest of all the fortified churches of +Southern France, although in many others the defensive purpose has +made less concession to beauty. Looking at it for the first time, the +eye is wonder-struck by its originality, the nobleness of its design, +and the grandeur of its mass. The plan being that of a vast vaulted +basilica without aisles, the walls of the nave, rise sheer from the +ground to above the roof, and are pierced at intervals with lofty but +very narrow windows, the arches slightly pointed and containing simple +tracery. The buttresses which help the walls to support the vaulting +of the nave and choir are the most remarkable feature of the design, +and, together with the tower, which rises in diminishing stages to the +height of 260 feet and there ends in an embattled platform, account +for the singularly feudal and fortress-like character of the building. +The outline of the buttresses being that of a semi-ellipse, they look +like turrets carried up the entire face of the wall. The floor of the +church is many feet above the ground, and the entrance was originally +protected by a drawbridge and portcullis; but these military works +were removed in the sixteenth century, and in their place was raised, +upon a _perron_ reached by a double flight of steps, a baldachino-like +porch as airily graceful and delicately florid as the body to which it +is so lightly attached is majestically stern and scornful of ornament. +The meeting here of those two great forces, the Renaissance and +feudalism, is like that of Psyche and Mars. But in expression the +porch is Gothic, for although the arches are round-headed, they are +surmounted by an embroidery of foliated gables and soaring pinnacles. +It can scarcely be said that the style has been broken, but the +contrast in feeling is strong. + +Enter the church and observe the same contrast there. Gothic art +within the protecting walls and under the strong tower puts forth its +most delicate leaves and blossoms. Across the broad nave, nearly in +the centre, is drawn a rood-screen--a piece of stonework that has +often been compared to lace, but which gains nothing by the +comparison. The screen, together with the enclosure of the choir, with +which it is connected, is quite bewildering by the multiplicity of +arches, gables, tabernacles, pinnacles, statues, leaves, and flowers. +The tracery is flamboyant, and the work dates from the beginning of +the sixteenth century. The artificers are said to have been a company +of wandering masons from Strasburg. + +Two vast drum-shaped piers, serving to support the tower, are exposed +to view at the west end of the nave; but, for the bad effect thus +produced, compensation is offered by the very curious paintings, +supposed to be of the fifteenth century, with which the surfaces of +these piers are covered. They represent the Last Judgment and the +torments of the damned. Each of the seven capital sins has its +compartment, wherein the kind of punishment reserved for sinners under +this head is set forth in a manner as quaint as are the inscriptions +in old French beneath. The compartment, illustrating the eternal +trouble of the envious has this inscription: + + + '_La peine des envieux et envieuses_. Les envieus et envieuses sont + en ung fleuve congelé plongés jusques au nombril et par dessus les + frappe un vent moult froid et quant veulent icelluy vent éviter se + plongent dedans ladite glace.' + + +All the wall-surfaces, the vaulting included, are covered with +paintings. The effect clashes with Northern taste, but the absence of +a columnar system affords a plausible reason for relieving the +sameness of these large surfaces with colour. The Gothic style of the +North, holding in itself such decorative resources, gains nothing from +mural paintings, but always loses something of its true character when +they are added. Apart from such considerations, the wall-paintings in +the cathedral of Albi have accumulated such interest from time that no +reason would excuse their removal. + +This unique church was mainly built at the close of the thirteenth +century, together with the Archbishop's palace, with which it was +connected in a military sense by outworks. These have disappeared, but +the fortress called a palace remains, and is still occupied by the +Archbishop. It is a gloomy rectangular mass of brick, absolutely +devoid of elegance, but one of the most precious legacies of the +Middle Ages in France. It is not so vast as the papal palace at +Avignon, but its feudal and defensive character has been better +preserved, for, unlike the fortress by the Rhône, it has not been +adapted to the requirements of soldiers' barracks. At each of the +angles is a round tower, pierced with loopholes, and upon the +intervening walls are far-descending machicolations. The building is +still defended on the side of the Tarn by a wall of great height and +strength, the base of which is washed by the river in time of flood. +This rampart, with its row of semi-elliptical buttresses corresponding +to those of the church and its pepper-box tower at one end, the +fortress a little above, and the cathedral on still higher ground, but +in immediate neighbourhood, make up an assemblage of mediaeval +structures that seems as strange in this nineteenth century as some +old dream rising in the midst of day-thoughts. And the rapid Tarn, an +image of perpetual youth, rushes on as it ever did since the face of +Europe took its present form. + +As I write, other impressions come to mind of this ancient town on the +edge of the great plain of Languedoc. A little garden in the outskirts +became familiar to me by daily use, and I see it still with its almond +and pear trees, its trellised vines, the blue stars of its borage, and +the pure whiteness of its lilies. A bird seizes a noisy cicada from a +sunny leaf, and as it flies away the captive draws out one long scream +of despair. Then comes the golden evening, and its light stays long +upon the trailing vines, while the great lilies gleam whiter and their +breath floods the air with unearthly fragrance. A murmur from across +the plain is growing louder and louder as the trees lose their edges +in the dusk, for those noisy revellers of the midsummer night, the +jocund frogs, have roused themselves, and they welcome the darkness +with no less joy than the swallows some hours later will greet the +breaking dawn. + +I left Albi to ascend the valley of the Tarn in the last week of June. +I started when the sun was only a little above the plain; but the line +of white rocks towards the north, from which Albi is supposed to take +its name, had caught the rays and were already burning. The straight +road, bordered with plane-trees, on which I was walking would have had +no charm but for certain wayside flowers. There was a strange-looking +plant with large heart-shaped leaves and curved yellow blossoms ending +in a long upper lip that puzzled me much, and it was afterwards that I +found its name to be _aristolochia clematitis_. It grows abundantly on +the banks of the Tarn. Another plant that I now noticed for the first +time was a galium with crimson flowers. I soon came to the cornfields +for which the Albigeois plain is noted. Here the poppy showed its +scarlet in the midst of the stalks of wheat still green, and along the +borders were purple patches of that sun-loving campanula, Venus's +looking-glass. + +Countrywomen passed me with baskets on their heads, all going into +Albi to sell their vegetables. Those who were young wore white caps +with frills, which, when there is nothing on the head to keep them +down, rise and fall like the crest of a cockatoo; but the old women +were steadfast in their attachment to the bag-like, close-fitting cap, +crossed with bands of black velvet, and having a lace front that +covers most of the forehead. When upon this coif is placed a great +straw hat with drooping brim, we have all that remains now of an +Albigeois costume. As these women passed me, I looked into their +baskets. Some carried strawberries, some cherries, others mushrooms +(_boleti_), or broad beans. The last-named vegetable is much +cultivated throughout this region, where it is largely used for making +soup. When very young, the beans are frequently eaten raw with salt. +Almost every taste is a matter of education. + +The heat of the day had commenced when I reached the village of +Lescure. This place is of very ancient origin. Looking at it now, and +its agricultural population numbering little more than a thousand, it +is difficult to realize its importance in the Middle Ages. The castle +and the adjacent land were given in the year 1003 by King Robert to +his old preceptor, the learned Gerbert, who became known to posterity +as Pope Sylvester II. In the eleventh century, Lescure was, therefore, +a fief of the Holy See; and in the time of Simon de Montfort the +inhabitants were still vassals of the Pope. In the fourteenth century +they were frequently at war with the people of Albi, who eventually +got the upper hand. Then Sicard, the Baron of Lescure, was so +completely humiliated that he not only consented to pay eighty gold +_livres_ to the consuls of Albi, but went before them bareheaded to +ask pardon for himself and his vassals. Already the feudal system was +receiving hard blows in the South of France from the growth of the +communes and the authority vested in their consuls. What is left of +the feudal grandeur of Lescure? The castle was sold in the second year +of the Republic, and entirely demolished, with the exception of the +chapel, which is now the parish church. Of the outer fortifications +there remains a brick gateway, with Gothic arch carrying a high +machicolated tower, connected to which is a fragment of the wall. To +this old houses, half brick, half wood, still cling, like those little +wasps' nests that one sees sometimes upon the sides of the rocks. + +On entering the small fourteenth-century church, I found that it had +been decorated for a funeral. A broad band of black drapery, upon +which had been sewn at intervals Death's heads and tears, cut out of +white calico, was hung against the wall of the apse, and carried far +down each side of the nave. To me all those grinning white masks were +needless torture to the mourners; but here again we are brought to +recognise that taste is a matter of education. + +More interesting than anything else in this church is the Romanesque +holy-water stoup, with heads and crosses carved upon it, and possibly +belonging to the original chapel of the castle. The chief +archaeological treasure, however, of Lescure is a church on a little +hill above the village, and overlooking the Tarn. It is dedicated to +St. Michael, in accordance with the mediaeval custom of considering +the highest ground most appropriate to the veneration of the +archangel. It is Romanesque of the eleventh century, and belonged to a +priory of which no other trace is left. The building stands in the +midst of an abandoned cemetery; and at the time of my visit the tall +June grasses, the poppies and white campions hid every mound and +almost every wooden cross. Over the gateway, carved in the stone, is +the following quaint inscription, the spelling being similar to that +frequently used in the sixteenth century: + + 'Sur la terre autrefois nous fûmes comme vous. + Mortels pensés y bien et priés Dieu pour nous.' + +Beneath these lines are a skull and cross-bones, with a tear on each +side. + +Facing the forgotten graves, upon this spot removed from all +habitations, is the most beautiful Romanesque doorway of the +Albigeois. The round-headed arch widening outwards, its numerous +archivolts and mouldings, the slender columns of the deeply-recessed +jambs, the storied capitals with their rudely-proportioned but +expressive little figures, and the row of uncouth bracket-heads over +the crowning archivolt, represent the best art of the eleventh +century. They show that Romanesque architecture and sculpture had +already reached their perfect expression in Languedoc. The figures in +the capitals tell the story of Adam and Eve, Abraham and Isaac, and of +fiends busily engaged in tormenting mortals who must have been in +their clutches now eight hundred years. The nave has two aisles, and +massive piers with engaged columns support the transverse and lateral +arches. The columns have very large capitals, displaying human +figures, some of which are extraordinarily fantastic, and instinct +with a wild imagination still running riot in stone. How far are we +now from the minds that bred these thoughts when Southern Gaul was +struggling to develop a new Roman art by the aid of such traditions +and models as the Visigoth, the Frank, and the Arab had not destroyed +in the country, and such ideas as were brought along the Mediterranean +from Byzantium! + +Lastly, I came to the apse, that part of a Romanesque church in which +the artist seizes the purely religious ideal, or allows it to escape +him. Here was the serenity, here the quietude of the early Christian +purpose and hope. Perfect simplicity and perfect eloquence! Nothing +more is to be said, except that there were stone benches against the +wall and a piscina--details interesting to the archaeologist. Then I +walked round the little church, knee-deep in the long grave-grass, and +noted the broad pilaster-strips of the apse, the stone eaves +ornamented with billets, the bracket or corbel heads just beneath, +fantastic, enigmatic, and not two alike. + +Leaving this spot, where there was so much temptation to linger, I +began to cross a highly-cultivated plain towards the village of +Arthez, where the Tarn issues from the deep gorges which for many a +league give it all the character of a mountain-river. I thought from +the appearance of the land that everybody who lived upon it must be +prosperous and happy, but a peasant whom I met was of another way of +thinking. He said: + +'By working from three o'clock in the morning until dark, one can just +manage to earn one's bread.' + +They certainly do work exceedingly hard, these peasant-proprietors and +_métayers_, never counting their hours like the town workmen, but +wishing that the day were longer, and if they can contrive to save +anything in these days it is only by constant self-denial. A man's +labour upon his land to-day will only support him, taking the bad +years with the good, on the condition that he lives a life of +primitive simplicity. Even then the problem of existence is often a +terribly hard one to solve. In the South of France the blame is almost +everywhere laid to the destruction of the vines by the phylloxera, but +here in the plain of Albi the land is quite as suitable for corn as it +is for grape-growing, which is far from being the case elsewhere; +nevertheless, the peasants cry out with one voice against the bad +times. They have to contend with two great scourges: hail that is so +often brought by the thunder-storms in summer, and which the proximity +of the Pyrenees may account for; and the south-east wind--_le vent +d'autan_--that comes across from Africa, and scorches up the crops in +a most mysterious manner. But for this plague the yield of fruit would +be enormous. On the other hand, the region is blessed with lavish +sunshine from early spring until November, and a half-maritime +climate, explained by the neighbourhood of the ocean--not the +Mediterranean--renders long periods of drought such as occur in +Provence and Lower Languedoc rare. In the valleys the soil is +extremely fertile, and, favoured by moisture and warmth, its +productive power is extraordinary. Four crops of lucern are taken from +the same land in the course of a season. Unfortunately, these valleys +being mere gorges--cracks in the plain, with precipitous rocky +sides--the strip of land bordering the stream at the bottom is usually +very narrow. + +On reaching Arthez, the character of the country changed suddenly and +completely. Here the plain with its tertiary deposits ended, and in +its stead commenced the long series of schistous rocks wildly heaped +up and twisted out of their stratification, by which the Tarn is +hemmed in for seventy miles as the crow flies, and nearly twice that +distance if the windings of the gorge be reckoned. When the calcareous +region of the Gévaudan is reached, the schist, slate, and gneiss +disappear. On descending to the level of the river at Arthez, I saw +before me one of the grandest cascades in France--the Saut de Sabo. + +It is not so much the distance that the river falls in its rapid +succession of wild leaps towards the plain as the singularly chaotic +and savage scene of dark rocks and raging waters, together with the +length to which it is stretched out, that is so impressive. The mass +of water, the multitude of cascades, and the wild forms of the rocks, +compose a scene that would be truly sublime if one could behold it in +the midst of an unconquered solitude; but the hideous sooty buildings +of a vast iron foundry on one bank of the river are there to spoil the +charm. + +I stayed in the village of Arthez for food and rest, but not long +enough for the mid-day heat to pass. When I set forth again on my +journey, the air was like the breath of a furnace; but as the slopes +were well wooded with chestnuts, there was some shelter from the rays +of the sun. There were a few patches of vineyard, the leaves showing +the ugly stains of sulphate of copper with which they had been +splashed as a precaution against mildew, which in so many districts +has followed in the wake of the phylloxera, and hastened the +destruction of the old vines. The Albigeois has ceased to be a +wine-producing region, and, judging from present signs, it will be +long in becoming one again. + +The valley, deepening and narrowing, became a gorge, the beginning of +that long series of fissures in the metamorphic and secondary rocks +which, crossing an extensive tract of Languedoc and Guyenne, leads the +traveller up to the Cevennes Mountains, through scenery as wild and +beautiful as any that can be found in France, and perhaps in Europe. +But the difficulties of travelling by the Tarn from Arthez upwards are +great, and, indeed, quite forbidding to those who are not prepared to +endure petty hardships in their search for the picturesque. Between +Albi and St. Affrique, a distance that cannot be easily traversed on +foot in less than four days, railways are not to be thought of, and +the line of route taken by the _diligence_ leaves the Tarn far to the +north. In the valley the roads often dwindle away to mere paths or +mule-tracks, or they are so rocky that riding either upon or behind a +horse over such an uneven surface, with the prospect of being thrown +into the Tarn in the event of a slip, is unpleasant work. Those who +are unwilling to walk or unable to bear much fatigue should not +attempt to follow this river through its gorges. All the difficulties +have not yet been stated. Along the banks of the stream, and for +several miles on either side of it, there are very few villages, and +the accommodation in the auberges is about as rough as it can be. The +people generally are exceedingly uncouth, and between Arthez and +Millau, where a tourist is probably the rarest of all birds of +passage, the stranger must not expect to meet with a reception +invariably cordial. Even a Frenchman who appears for the first time in +one of their isolated villages, and who cannot speak the Languedocian +dialect, is looked upon almost as a foreigner, and is treated with +suspicion by the inhabitants. This matter of language is in itself no +slight difficulty. French is so little known that in many villages the +clergy are compelled to preach in _patois_ to make themselves +understood. + +This region I had now fairly entered. The road had gone somewhere up +the hills, and I was walking beside the river upon sand glittering +with particles of mica. This sand the Tarn leaves all along its banks. +It is one of the most uncertain and treacherous of streams. In a few +hours its water will rise with amazing rapidity and spread +consternation in a district where not a drop of rain has fallen. Warm +winds from the south and south-west, striking against the cold +mountains in the Lozère, have been condensed, and the water has flowed +down in torrents towards the plain. The river is as clear as crystal +now, and the many-coloured pebbles of its bed reflect the light, but a +thunderstorm in the higher country may change it suddenly to the +colour of red earth. + +The path led me into a steep forest, where I lost sight of the Tarn. +The soil was too rocky for the trees--oaks and chestnuts chiefly--to +grow very tall; consequently the underwood, although dense, was +chequered all through with sunshine. Heather and bracken, holly and +box, made a wilderness that spread over all the visible world, for the +opposite side of the gorge was exactly similar. Shining in the sun +amidst the flowering heather or glowing in majestic purple grandeur in +the shade of shrubs stood many a foxglove, and almost as frequently +seen was its relative _digitalis lutea_, whose flowers are much +smaller and of a pale yellow. Now and again a little rill went +whispering downward through the woods under plumes of forget-me-nots +in a deep channel that it had cut by working age after age. Reaching +at length a spot where I could look down into the bottom of the +fissure, I perceived a small stream that was certainly not the Tarn. I +had been ascending one of the lateral gorges of the valley, and had +left the river somewhere to the north. My aim was now to strike it +again in the higher country, and so I kept on my way. But the path +vanished, and the forest became so dense that I was bound to realize +that I was in difficulties. I resolved to try the bank of the stream, +and reached it after some unpleasant experience of rocks, brambles and +holly. Here, however, was a path which I followed nearly to the head +of the gorge and then climbed to the plateau. There the land was +cultivated, and the musical note of a cock turkey that hailed my +coming from afar, as he swaggered in front of his harem on the march, +led me to a spot where a man was mowing, and he told me where I should +find the Tarn, which he, like all other people in the country, +pronounced Tar. + +Evening was coming on when I had crossed this plateau, and I saw far +below me the village of Marsal on the banks of the shining Tarn. The +river here made one of those bold curves which add so much to its +beauty. The little village looked so peaceful and charming that I +decided to seek its hospitality for that night. + +There was but one inn at Marsal that undertook to lodge the stranger, +and very seldom was any claim of the sort made upon it. The peasant +family who lived in it looked to their bit of land and their two or +three cows to keep them, not to the auberge. The bottles of liquor on +the shelf were rarely taken down, except on Sundays, when villagers +might saunter in, to gossip and smoke over coffee and _eau de vie_, or +the glass of absinthe, which, since the failure of the vines in the +South of France, has become there the most convivial of all drinks, +although it makes men more quarrelsome than any other. In these poor +riverside villages, however, where a mere ribbon of land is capable of +cultivation--which, although exceedingly fertile, is constantly liable +to be flooded by the uncertain Tarn--men have so little money in their +pockets that water is their habitual drink, and when they depart from +this rule they make a little dissipation go a very long way. + +I found this single auberge closed, and all the family in an adjoining +field around a waggon already piled with hay, to which a couple of +cows were harnessed. My appearance there brought the pitchforks +suddenly to a rest. If I had been shot up from below like a +stage-devil, these people could not have stared at me with greater +amazement and a more frank expression of distrust. First in _patois_, +and then, seeing that I was at a loss, in scarcely intelligible +French, they asked me what my trade was, and what object I had in +coming to Marsal. I tried to explain that I was not a mischievous +person, that I was travelling merely to look at their beautiful rocks +and gorges, but I failed completely to bring a hospitable expression +into their faces. An old man of the party was the worst to deal with. +He put the greatest number of questions and understood the least +French, and all the while there was a most provokingly keen, +suspicious glitter in his little gray eyes. Presently he beckoned me, +and led the way, as I thought, to the inn; but such was not his +intention. He stopped at the door of the communal school, where the +schoolmaster was already waiting for me, for he had evidently been +warned of the presence of a doubtful-looking stranger, who had come to +the village on foot with a pack on his back, and who, being dressed a +trifle better than the ordinary tramp, was probably the more dangerous +for this reason. Like most of the village schoolmasters in France, +this gentleman was also secretary at the _mairie_, a function highly +stimulating to the sense of self-importance, and no wonder, +considering that the person who fills it frequently supplies the +mayor, who may scarcely be able to sign his name to official +documents, with such intelligence as he may need for his public +duties. + +This schoolmaster was affable and pleasant, but as a crowd quickly +collected to see what would happen, he was not going to let a good +opportunity slip of showing how indispensable he was to the safety of +the village. He said that personally he was quite satisfied with my +explanations, but that in his official capacity he was compelled to +ask me for my papers. These were forthcoming, and the serious official +air with which he pretended to read the English passport from +beginning to end was very pretty comedy, considering that he did not +understand a word of the language. + +Having asserted his importance, and made the desired impression, he +invited me into his house, introduced me to his young wife, who was +charmingly gracious, and who would have been pleased to see any fresh +face at Marsal--English or Hottentot. I was really indebted to the +schoolmaster, for he harangued in _patois_ the people of the inn drawn +up in line, and by seizing a word here and there, I made out that I +was a respectable Englishman travelling to improve my mind, and that +they might receive me into their house without any distrust. And they +did receive me, almost with open arms, when their doubts were removed. + +The old man slunk off, and I never saw him again; but the young couple +to whom the inn had been given up now proved to me that their only +wish was to please. They were rough people, but sound at heart and +honest, as the French peasants, when, judged in the mass, undoubtedly +are. The hostess, who, by-the-bye, gave me a soup-plate in which to +wash my hands, was greatly perplexed to know how to get up a dinner +for me, and, as she told me afterwards, she went to the schoolmaster +and held a consultation with him on the subject. An astonishing dish +of minced asparagus fried in oil was concocted in accordance with his +prescription. It was ingenious, but I preferred her dish of barbel +from the Tarn, notwithstanding the multitudinous bones which this fish +perversely carries in its body, to choke the enemy, although nothing +could be more absurd than such petty vengeance. + +The schoolmaster's wife said to me, with a suggestion of malice at the +corners of her mouth, that she was afraid I should be troubled by a +few fleas at the auberge. + +'Oh, bast!' observed her husband; 'monsieur in his travels has +doubtless already encountered a flea or two.' + +'Yes, and other _bestioles_,' said I. + +Madame's local knowledge did not deceive her, but her expression 'a +few fleas' did not at all represent the true state of affairs. And I +had forgotten the precious powder and the little pair of bellows, +without which no one should travel in Southern France. + +The morning air was fresh, and the fronds of the bracken were wet with +dew, when I left Marsal, and took my course along the margin of the +river through meadows that dwindled away into woodlands, where the +rocky sides of the gorge rose abruptly from the stream. Haymakers were +abroad, and I heard the sound of their scythes cutting through the +heavy swathes with all their flowers; but the sunshine had not yet +flashed down into the deep valley, and the grasshoppers were waiting +to hail it from their watch-towers in the green herbage and on the +purple heather. As the breeze stirred the leaves of the wood, it +brought with it the perfume of hidden honeysuckle. Golden oriels were +busy in the tops of the wild cherry trees, feeding upon the ripe +fruit, and calling out their French name, _loriot_; and when they flew +across the river, a gleam of brilliant yellow moved swiftly over the +rippled surface. For an hour or so I remained in the shade of trees, +and then the sandy path met a road where the gorge widened and +cultivation returned. Here I left the stream for awhile. + +Now came sunny banks bright with the common flowers that deck most of +the waysides of Europe. Bedstraw galium and field scabious, ox-eyes +and knapweed, bladder-campions and ragged robins, mallows and +crane's-bill--all the flowers of the English banks seemed to be there. +Where the bare rock showed itself, yellow sedum spread its gold, and +in the little clefts stood stalks of cotyledon, now turning brown. At +the base of the rocks, where there was still some moisture, were the +blue flowers of the brooklime veronica, and the brighter blue of the +forget-me-not. Having passed a village, I met the Tarn again. Here the +beauty of the rushing water, and all that was pictured upon it, +tempted me to sit down upon a bank; but I had no sooner chosen the +spot than I changed my intention. A red viper was curled up there, and +sleeping so comfortably that it really seemed unkind to wake it with a +blow across all its rings. When I thought, however, of the little +consideration it would have shown me had I sat upon it, I added it +without compunction to the number of _aspics_ I had already slain. + +My mind was taken off the contemplation of this good or evil deed by a +scene that seemed to contain as much of the picturesque as the eye +could seize and the mind dwell upon, without being bewildered and +fatigued. I had turned the bend of the wooded gorge, and, looking up +the river, saw what resembled a dyke of basalt stretching sheer across +the stream, with a ruined castle on a bare and apparently inaccessible +pinnacle, another ruin on the opposite end of the ridge, and, between +the two, a little church on the brink of a precipice. Houses were +clustered at the foot of the rocks by the blue water. + +This was Ambialet, so called from the extraordinary loop which the +Tarn forms here in consequence of the mass of schistous rock which +obstructs its direct channel. After flowing about two miles round a +high promontory, where dark crags jut above the dark woods, the stream +returns almost to the spot from which it was compelled to deviate, and +the lower water is only separated from the upper by a few yards of +rock. There are several similar phenomena in France, but there is none +so remarkable as that at Ambialet. + +Although nothing is now to be seen of its defensive works, except the +ruined castle upon the high rock, Ambialet was one of the strongest +places in the Albigeois. Now a small and poor village, it was in the +Middle Ages an important burg, with its consuls, its council of +_prud'hommes_, and its court of justice. It became a fief of the +viscounts of Beziers, and was thus drawn into the great religious +conflict of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Viscount of +Beziers having espoused the cause of Count Raymond of Toulouse. An +army of Crusaders, which had been raised to crush the Albigenses, +having Simon de Montfort at its head, appeared before Ambialet in +1209, and, although the burghers were quite capable of withstanding a +long siege, they were so much impressed by the magnitude of the force +brought against them, and also by Simon's sinister reputation, that +they surrendered the place almost immediately. But when the army was +campaigning elsewhere, these burghers, growing bold again, attacked +the garrison that had been left in the town and castle, and +distinguished themselves by one of those treacherous massacres which +were among the small incidents of that ruthless war. When Simon +reappeared in the Albigeois, the people of Ambialet, cowards again, +laid down their arms. The castle was soon afterwards the meeting-place +of De Montfort and Raymond VI.; but the interview, which it was hoped +would lead to peace, had no such result, and the war was carried on in +Languedoc and Guyenne with renewed fury. + +[Illustration: AMBIALET.] + +Ambialet was enjoying comparative freedom and self-government in an +age when many a town was still in the midnight darkness of feudal +servitude. It had its communal liberties and organization before the +eleventh century. There is a very interesting charter in existence, +dated 1136, by which Roger, Viscount of Beziers and Albi, recognises +and confirms these liberties. Although it opens in Latin, the body of +the charter is in the Romance language. It shows that the idiom of +Southern Gaul in the twelfth century was a little nearer the Latin +than that which is spoken now. The document is full of curious +information. It tells us that the inhabitants of Ambialet were liable +to be fined if they did not keep the street in front of their houses +clean. Perhaps the towns in the South of France were less foul in the +twelfth century than most of them are now. We learn, too, that the +profits in connection with the most necessary trades were fixed in the +interest of the greater number. Thus, the butchers were required to +take oath that they would reserve for their own profit no more than +the head of the animal that they killed. What sort of face would a +butcher of to-day make if he were asked to work on such terms? The +tavern-keepers had to take oath that they would buy no wine outside of +the boundaries of the viscounty of Ambialet, which shows what was +thought in the twelfth century of the practice of purchasing in the +cheapest market to the neglect of communal interests. The price of +wine, like that of bread, was fixed, and five worthies (_prohomes_) +were appointed to examine weights and measures, and to confiscate +those which were not just. The concluding part of the charter confirms +the right of the youth of Ambialet to their traditional festivals and +merry-making: 'E volem e auctreiam que lo Rei del Joven d'Ambilet +puesco far sas festas, tener sos senescals e sos jutges, e sos sirvens +e sos officials,' etc. The whole passage is worth giving in English, +because historians tell us very little about the festive manners of +the twelfth century: + +'We wish and order that the King of Youth of Ambialet shall keep his +festivals, have his seneschals, judges, servants, and officials, and +that on the day appointed for the merry-making, the King of Youth +shall demand from the most recently married man in the viscounty, and +woman who shall have taken a husband, a pail of wine and a quarter of +walnuts; and if they refuse, the king can order his officers to break +the doors of their house, and neither we nor our bailiffs shall have +the right to interfere. And any person who shall have cut ever so +little from the leaves of the elm, planted upon the place, shall be +sentenced by the King of Youth to pay a pail of wine, and the king can +enforce it as above. Moreover, we declare that on the first day of May +the youth shall have the right to set up a maypole, and any person who +shall cut a portion of it shall owe a pail of wine, and the king can +compel him to pay it, for such is our wish. We have granted this +favour to the youth because, having been a witness of their +merry-making, we have taken great pleasure and satisfaction +therefrom.' + +This custom has been continued to the present day. The youth of +Ambialet have their annual festival, and the most recently married +couple of the commune are called upon to 'pay' their pail of wine, +although the exact measure is not strictly enforced. + +The rocks at Ambialet at one time supported a multitude of dwellings, +of which there would be no trace now had they been entirely of +masonry. In addition to partial chambers made with the pick-axe, one +sees here and there a series of stairs cut out of the mica-schist. The +strength of the burg made it a place of refuge for numerous families +in the Albigeois, who had retreats upon these rocks to which they +repaired in time of danger. All that made up the grandeur and +importance of the place has passed away. Among those who now guide the +plough and scatter the grain for bread are descendants of the old +nobility of the Albigeois. + +Fascinated by the quietude and picturesque decay of this beautiful +spot by the Tarn, instead of leaving it in a few hours, as I had +intended, I remained there for days. Let no wayfarer, if he can help +it, be the slave of a programme. + +On the side of the promontory already mentioned, a rough bit of +ancient forest, steep and craggy, stretches down to the strip of +cultivated land beside the river. Here chance led me to take up my +abode in an old farm-house--a long building of one story, with dovecot +raised above the roof, and massive walls that kept the rooms cool even +in the sultry afternoons. It was half surrounded by an orchard of +plum, peach, apple, and cherry trees, and at the border of this were +three majestic stone-pines, whose vast heads were lifted so high and +seemed so full of radiance that they appeared to belong more to the +sky than to the earth. The gleam of the oriel's golden breast could be +seen amidst the branches, but the little birds that flew up there were +lost to sight in the sunny wilderness of tufted leaves. + +On the stony slope above the orchard, the stock of an old and leafless +vine, showing here and there over the purple flush of flowering +marjoram and the more scattered gold of St. John's-wort, told the +story of the perished vineyard. For centuries a rich wine had flowed +from these slopes, but at length the phylloxera spread over them like +flame, and now where the vine is dead the wild-flower blooms. A little +higher a fringe of broom, the blossom gone, the pods blackening and +shooting their seeds in the sun, marked the line of the virgin +wilderness. Then came tall heather and bracken, dwarf oak and +chestnut, box and juniper, all luxuriating about the blocks of +mica-schist, a rock that holds water and is therefore conducive to a +varied and splendid vegetation, wherever a soil can rest upon it. +Towards the summit the trees and shrubs dwindled away, and then came +the dry thyme-covered turf scenting the air. The tall thyme, the +garden species in the North, had already flowered, but the common wild +thyme of England, the _serpolet_ of the French, was beginning to +spread its purple over the stony ground. A great wooden cross stood +upon the ridge, and hard by, buffeted by the wintry winds and blazed +upon by the summer sun, was the ancient priory of Nôtre Dame de +l'Oder. + +I ring the bell. Presently a little wicket is pulled back, and a dark +eye glitters at me from the other side of the door. It belongs to a +serving brother, who, perceiving that I am not in petticoats, allows +me to enter. + +While I am waiting for the Père Etienne, a Franciscan of wide +learning, whose acquaintance had already brought me both pleasure and +profit, I sit in the cloisters watching another Father counting the +week's washing, which has just been brought in, and neatly folding up +handkerchiefs and undergarments. He has placed a board across a +wheelbarrow, and the heap of linen is upon this. Seated upon a stool, +he leisurely takes each great coarse handkerchief with blue border, +which, like the rest of the linen, has not been ironed, folds it into +four, lays it upon another board, smooths it with his large, thin +yellow hand, and so goes on with his task without saying a word or +raising his eyes. He is a gaunt, angular, sallow man of about fifty, +with hollow cheeks and long black beard. He has a melancholy air, and +does his work as though he were thinking all the while that it is a +part of the sum of labour he has to get through before reaching that +perfect state of felicity in which there is no more washing to be done +or counted. If there were only monks in the priory, this one would +have very little to do in looking after the linen; but there are many +boys who, although they are being educated with a view to the +religious life, have not yet put off such worldly things as shirts. + +Very different from the sombre-looking Franciscan, bent over the +wheelbarrow, is the Père Etienne. He is as cheerful and sprightly as +if he were now convinced that a convent is the pleasantest place on +earth to live in, and that outside of it all is vanity and vexation. +He teaches the boys Latin, Greek, English, and the physical sciences. +Although he has never been out of France and Italy, he can speak +English, and actually make himself understood. He is a botanist, and +he and I have already spent some hours together in his cell before a +table strewn with floras and plants, both dry and fresh. This time we +are joined by a young monk who has been gathering flowers on the banks +of the Tarn, and has placed them between the leaves of a great Latin +Bible. + +These meetings, and the library of the priory, with its valuable works +by local historians, strengthened the spell by which Ambialet held me. +The monks whom one occasionally meets in Languedoc are generally men +of better culture than the ordinary rural clergy, most of whom show +plainly enough by their ideas and the vigorous expressions which they +rarely hesitate to use in any company that they are sons of the soil. +As priests, situated as they are, this coarseness of manners and +circumscribed range of ideas, so far from being a disadvantage, forms +a bond of union between them and the people. A man to be deeply pitied +is he who, having a really superior and cultivated mind, is charged +with the cure of souls in some forlorn parish where nobody has the +time or the taste to read. Such a priest must either bring his ideas +down to those of the people around him, or be content to live in +absolute intellectual isolation. He may turn to the companionship of +books, it is true, but his library is very small; and if, as is +probable, his income is not more than £40 a year, he is too poor to +add to it. Such a revenue, when the bare needs of the body have been +met, does not leave much for satisfying a literary appetite. + +The priory of Nôtre Dame de l'Oder was founded in the twelfth or +thirteenth century by the Benedictines, but a church already existed +on the spot as early, it is supposed, as the eighth century. The one +now standing, and which became incorporated with the priory, probably +dates from the eleventh. If the interior is cold by the severity of +the lines scarcely broken by ornament, the artistic sense is warmed by +the beauty of the proportions and general disposition. The apse, with +its three little windows, has the perfect charm of grace and +simplicity. A structural peculiarity, to be especially noted as one of +the tentative efforts of Romanesque art, is the use of half-arches for +the vaulting of the two narrow aisles. Unfortunately, the plastering +mania, which has robbed the interior of so many French churches of +their venerable air, has not spared this one. A singularly broad +flight of steps, partly cut in the rock and covered with tiles, leads +up to the portal; but as the building has been closed to the public +since the application of the law dispersing religious communities, +these steps look as if they belonged to the Castle of Indolence, so +overgrown with grass are they and abandoned to the wandering +wild-flowers. Great mulleins have been allowed to spring up from the +gaps between the lichen-spotted tiles. + +When there was a regular community of monks here, the ancient +pilgrimage to Nôtre Dame de l'Oder was kept up, and near the top of +the _via crucis_, which forms a long succession of zigzags upon the +bare rock, a dark shrub or small tree allied to box may be seen railed +off with an image of the Virgin against it. According to the legend, a +Crusader returning from the Holy Land made a pilgrimage to the +sanctuary upon these rocks at Ambialet, and planted on the hill the +staff he had brought with him. This grew to a tree, to which the +people of the country gave the name of _oder_. In course of time it +came to be so venerated that Nôtre Dame d'Ambialet was changed to +Nôtre Dame de l'Oder. The existing tree is said to be a descendant of +the original one. + +The monks at the priory told me that nearly all the old historical +documents relating to Ambialet had been taken away by the English and +placed in the Tower of London. In various parts of the Quercy, I had +also been told exactly the same with regard to the documents connected +with the early history of the locality. There are people who still +speak of this as a proof of the intention of the English to return. +How the belief became so widespread that the English placed the +documents which they carried away in the Tower of London, I am unable +to explain. + +Memory takes me back again to the farmhouse by the Tarn. It is well +that there is plenty of space, for the household is numerous. There +are the farmer, his wife and children, an aged mother whose voice has +become a mere thread of sound, and who thinks over the past in the +chimney-corner, sometimes with a distaff in her hand; two old uncles, +a youth of all work, who has been brought up as one of the family, and +a little bright-eyed, bare-legged servant girl, whose brown feet I +still hear pattering upon the floors. One of the old men is a +white-bearded priest of eighty-five, who has spent most of his life in +Algeria, and has himself come to look like the patriarchal Arab in all +but the costume. He has no longer any sacerdotal work, but he has +other occupation. His special duty is to look after a great +flesh-coloured pig, and many a time have I seen him under the orchard +trees following close at the heels of the grunting beast while reading +his office. His old breviary, like his _soutane_, is very much the +worse for wear, the leaves having been thumbed nearly to the colour of +chocolate; but if he had a new one now, he would find it hard to +believe that it had the same virtue as the other. Notwithstanding his +years, he can do harder work than watching a pig. I have seen him +haymaking and reaping, and always the merriest of the party. Before +taking the fork or the sickle in hand, he would hitch up his +_soutane_, and reveal a pair of still active sacerdotal legs in white +linen drawers. The sight of the old man bending his back while +reaping, his white beard brushing the golden corn, was pathetic or +comic as the humour might seize the beholder. As gay as any of the +cicadas that keep the summer's jubilee in the sunny tree-tops, he +sings songs that have nothing in common with psalms, and he needs +little provocation to dance. French has become an awkward language to +him, but his tongue is nimble enough both in Languedocian and Latin. +When he hears that the evening soup is ready, he hurries the pig home, +flourishes his stick above his head in imitation of the Arabs, and +shouts in his cheeriest voice, 'Oportet manducare!' + +The other uncle's chief business is to look after a couple of cows, +and as the farm has no pasturage but the orchard, he is away with them +the greater part of the day along the banks of the Tarn. One evening I +met him by the river, and he stopped me to quote a passage from the +Georgics which he had recalled to mind. His face beamed with +satisfaction. I knew that he had not been brought up to cow-tending, +but was, nevertheless, taken aback when the unfortunate old bachelor +wished me to share the pleasure he felt in having brought to mind a +long-forgotten passage of Virgil. The surprises of real life never +cease to be startling. Speaking to me afterwards of the growing +extravagance of all classes, he said: + +'When I was young there were only two _cafés_ in Albi, and none but +the rich ever entered them. Now every man goes to his _café_. I +remember when, in middle-class families in easy circumstances, coffee +was only drunk two or three times a year, on festive occasions.' Very +different is the state of things now in France. + +The figure of the old man bending upon his stick glides away by the +dark willow-fringe of the Tarn, and I am standing alone in the solemn +splendour of the luminous dusk--the clear-obscure of the quickly +passing twilight, beside the bearded corn, whose gold is blended with +the faint rosiness that spreads through the air of the valley, and +lets free the fragrance of those flowers which keep all their +sweetness for the evening. There is still a gleam of the lost sun upon +the priory walls, and over the dark rocks and wooded hollows floats a +purple haze. The dusk gathers apace, and the poplars that rise far +above the willows along the river, their outlines shaded away into the +black forest behind them, stand motionless like phantom trees, for not +a leaf stirs; but the corn seems to grow more luminous, as if it had +drunk something of the fire as well as the colour of the sun, while +the horns of the sinking moon gleam silver-bright just over the +topmost trees, painted in sepia upon a cobalt sky. How weird, +phantasmal, enigmatic the forms of those trees now appear! Some like +hell-hags, with wild hair flying, are rushing through the air; others, +majestic, solitary, wrapped about with dark horror, are the trees of +Fate; some have their arms raised in the frenzy of a torturing +passion; others look like emblems of Care when hope and passion are +alike dead: each touches the spring of a sombre thought or a fantastic +fancy. + +On the road to Villefranche, about half a mile from Ambialet, is a +mine which has been abandoned from time immemorial, and which the +inhabitants say was worked by the English for gold. I have noticed, +however, throughout this part of France, that nearly everything that +was done in a remote age, whether good or evil, is attributed by the +people to the English, and that they not infrequently make a curious +confusion between Britons and Romans. As for the Visigoths, +Ostrogoths, and Arabs, all traditions respecting them appear to have +passed out of the popular mind. In the side of a stony hill on which +scarcely a plant grows, a narrow passage, a few feet wide, has been +quarried, and air shafts have been cut down into it through the solid +rock with prodigious labour. I followed this passage until a falling +in of the roof prevented me from going any farther. I could perceive +no trace of a metallic vein, so thoroughly had it been worked out, but +scattered over the hillside with schist, talcose slate, and fragments +of quartz, was a great deal of scoriae, showing that metal of some +kind had been excavated, and that the smelting had been done on the +spot. That the mine was worked for gold seems quite probable, inasmuch +as a lump of mineral containing a considerable quantity of the +precious metal was picked up near the entrance some years ago. Besides +the scoriae, I found upon the hillside much broken pottery, and from +the shape of several fragments it was easy to restore the form of +earthenware pots which were probably used for smelting purposes. There +is no record to show who the people were who were so busy upon these +rocks glittering with mica and talc. They may have belonged to any one +of the races who passed over the land from the time of the Romans. + +One morning, still in the month of July, I broke away from the charms +of Ambialet, and shouldering again my old knapsack--which, by +travelling hundreds of miles in all weathers, had become disgracefully +shabby, but which was a friend too well stitched together to be thrown +aside on account of ill-looks--I continued my journey up the valley of +the Tarn. I had agreed to walk with the parish priest as far as the +village of Villeneuve, and having found him at the presbytery, we +passed through the churchyard on the edge of the rock. Here there is a +remarkable cross, with the figure of Christ on one side and that of +the Virgin on the other, not carved in relief, but in that early +mediaeval style which consisted of hollowing out the stone around the +image. The cure frankly declared that, if anyone offered him a large +new cross in the place of this little one, he would be glad to make +the exchange. It is unfortunate that so many rural priests place but +little value upon religious antiquities other than images and relics +which have a legend. Their appreciation of ecclesiastical art is too +often regulated by the practical and utilitarian order of ideas. To +dazzle the eye of the peasant may, and does, become the single aim of +church ornamentation. Hence the brassy, vulgar altars, and those +coloured plaster images of modern manufacture that one sees with +regret in so many of the country churches of France. + +I soon took my last look at Ambialet, its rocks and ruins on which the +wild pinks nodded, and its stone-covered roofs overgrown with white +sedum. I was struck by the number of prickly plants on the sandy banks +of the Tarn. Those which now made the best show of bloom were the +star-thistle centaurea and _ononis repens_. The appearance of this +last was very curious, for in addition to its pink pea-blossoms it +seemed to be sprinkled over with little flowers the colour of +forget-me-nots. These, however, were not flowers at all, but small +flying beetles painted the brilliant blue of myosotis. Another plant +that showed a strong liking for these banks was the horned poppy +(_glaucium luteum_), which I had only found elsewhere near the +sea-coast. Brown stalks of broomrape were still standing, and I +lighted upon a lingering bee-ophrys, a plant which by its amazing +mimicry makes one look at it with awe as if it were something +supernatural. + +It was an invitation to lunch at a presbytery that was the reason for +my companion taking a walk of about eight miles. Passing through a +small village on the way he called for the _curé_ there, who was also +an expected guest. This priest had obtained a reputation throughout +the district for his humour, his eccentricity, and contempt for +appearances. He had passed most of his life alone, cooking his food, +making his bed, and probably mending his clothes, without the help of +any woman. Being now over eighty years of age, he had realized the +necessity of changing his ways, and a woman not much younger than +himself had succeeded in obtaining a firm footing in his paved +kitchen, which was also the dining-room and _salon_. His presbytery in +the steep and rocky village street was no better built or more +luxuriously furnished than the dwellings of his peasant parishioners. +Here we found the old white-haired man, gay and hospitable, anxious to +offer everything he had in the house to the visitor, but only able to +think of two things which might be acceptable--snuff and sausage. '_Un +peu de saucisson?_' he said to me, with a winning smile after handing +me his snuff-box. I assured him I could eat nothing then. '_Tè!_ and +so you are really English, monsieur?--_Un peu de saucisson?_' + +The _curé_ had been shut up in this village so many years, speaking +nothing but Languedocian to his parishioners, even when preaching to +them, that his French had become rather difficult to understand. I was +keenly alive to the exceptional study of human nature presented by +this fine specimen of an old rustic priest, who was not the less to be +respected because he took a great deal of snuff, hated shaving, wore +hob-nailed shoes of the roughest make, and a threadbare, soup-spotted +_soutane_ with frayed edges. He was not a bit ascetic, and although he +had lived so many years by himself, his good-humour and gaiety +continually overflowed. It may be that a housekeeper tends to sour a +priest's temper more than anything else, and this one knew it. The +sacerdotal domestic help must be fifty years old when she enters the +presbytery. Spinster or widow, she has that inherent purpose of every +woman to be, if she can, the mistress of the house in which she lives. +If she encounters no other woman in the field, against whom if she +tried conclusions she would be broken like the earthen pot in the +fable, she generally succeeds in achieving her ambition, although she +may be in name a servant. There are such phenomena as hen-pecked +priests, and those who peck them have no right whatever to do it. It +is a state of things brought about by too much submission, for the +sake of peace, to a mind determined to be uppermost while pretending +to be humble. + +When we left again for Villeneuve, we were three in number, and the +old _curé_ trudged along over the rocky or sandy paths as nimbly as +either of his companions. He pointed out to me a spot in the Tarn +where he said was a gulf the bottom of which had never been sounded. +There are many such holes in the bed of this river, which receives +much of its water from underground tributaries. + +I was looking at the mournful vine-terraces, now mostly abandoned and +grass-grown. 'Ah!' said the octogenarian, shaking his head, and for +once wearing a melancholy expression, 'the best wine of the South used +to be grown there.' Near a village a very tall pole, probably a young +poplar that had been barked, had been raised in a garden, and painted +with stripes of red, white, and blue. It was described to me as a +'tree of liberty,' and I was told that the garden in which it was +placed belonged to the mayor for the current year. Every fresh mayor +had a fresh tree. + +At the village of Villeneuve I parted from my companions, who went to +lunch with the _curé_, together with several other ecclesiastics. +These occasional meetings and junketings at one another's houses are +the chief mundane consolation of the rural priests, who are as weak as +other mortals in the presence of a savoury dish, and, when they can +afford to do so, they enter into the pleasures of hospitality with +Horatian zest. Poor as they often are, they generally know the faggot +that conceals a drop of old wine to place before the guest. The people +in the South believe that the bounty of the Creator was intended to be +made the most of, and the type of priest that one meets most +frequently there in the richer parishes thinks that the next good +thing to a clear conscience is a good table. + +I lunched at the auberge, and I had for my companion a ruby-faced +cattle-dealer of about fifty. He spent his life chiefly in a trap, +followed by an old cattle-dog of formidable build and determined +expression of mouth. This animal was now lying down near the table, so +tired and footsore from almost perpetual running that he thought it +too much trouble to get up and eat. I read in his eye that he was in +the habit of breathing every day of his life a canine curse on the +business of cattle-dealing. His master seemed a good-natured man, but +he had a fixed idea that was unfortunate for the dog. He considered +that the beast ought to be able to run from thirty-five to forty miles +a day, and that if he got sore paws it was his own fault. + +'And do you never give him a lift?' + +'Never!' roared the cattle-dealer, laughing like an ogre. + +The dog being now ten years old, I was not surprised to hear that he +sometimes tried to lose himself just before his master was starting +upon a long round. Considering his age, and all the running he had +done in return for board and lodging, I thought his diplomacy +excusable; but the cattle-dealer used strong language to express his +loathing of such depravity and ingratitude in a dog old enough to be +serious, and on which so much kindness had been lavished. + +This man had a very bad opinion of the inhabitants of that part of the +Rouergue which I was about to cross, and he strove to convince me that +it was very imprudent of me to think of travelling on foot and alone +through such a wild country. Had I told him that I carried no other +arm but my oak stick with iron spike, he would have been still more +vehement. Frenchmen like the companionship of a revolver. I do not. In +the first place, it makes me imagine there is an assassin lurking in +every thicket; secondly, I do not know where to carry it conveniently +so that it would be of use in time of need. I place confidence in my +stick, and take my chance. To tell the plain truth, I did not believe +what my table companion said about the dangerous character of the +inhabitants. The reason he gave for their exceptional wickedness was +that they were very poor, but this view was contrary to my experience +of humanity. + +While we were talking over our coffee, there was a rising uproar in +the village street. Looking out of the window, we saw two men fighting +in the midst of a crowd. + +'Ah!' exclaimed the cattle-dealer, with a sonorous chuckle, 'that +ought to give you an idea of the capacities of the inhabitants.' Then, +entering into the spirit of the battle, he shouted: 'Leave them +alone--leave them alone! It is not men who are fighting; it is the +juice of the grape!' + +Both combatants soon had enough of it, and very little damage was done +on either side. The scene was more ludicrous than tragic. After all, +it was well, perhaps, that these men had not learnt how to use their +fists, and that with them pushing, slapping, and rolling upon one +another satisfied honour. + +The hostess of this inn, while cooking the inevitable fowl for lunch, +basted it after the Languedocian fashion, of which I had taken note +elsewhere. Very different is it from what is commonly understood by +basting. A curious implement is used for the purpose. This is an iron +rod, with a piece of metal at one end twisted into the form of an +extinguisher, but with a small opening left at the pointed extremity. +The extinguisher, if it may be so termed, is made red-hot, or nearly +so, and then a piece of fat bacon is put into it, which bursts into +flame. A little stream of blazing fat passes through the small +opening, and this is made to trickle over the fowl, which is turned +upon, the spit by clockwork in front of the wood fire. The fowl or +joint thus treated tastes of burnt bacon; but the Southerners like +strong flavours, and revel in grease as well as garlic. + +Fat bacon is the basis of all cookery in Guyenne and Upper Languedoc, +where the winters are too cold for the olive to flourish, and where +butter is rarely seen. The _cuisine_ is substantial, but not refined. + +A little beyond Villeneuve I found Trébas, a pleasant river-side +village, with a ferruginous spring that has obtained for the place a +local reputation for healing. Here I left the Tarn again, and followed +its tributary, the Ranee, for the sake of change. This stream ran at +the bottom of a deep gorge, the sides of which were chiefly clothed +with woods, but here and there was a patch of yellow corn-field and +green vineyard. Reapers, men and women, were busy with their sickles, +singing, as they worked, their Languedocian songs that troubadours may +have been the first to sing; but nature was quiet with that repose +which so quickly follows the great festival of flowers. Already the +falling corn was whispering of the final feast of colour. All the +earlier flowers of the summer were now casting or ripening their seed. +I passed a little village on the opposite side of the gorge. The +houses, built of dark stone, even to the roofs, looked scarcely +different from their background of bare rock. Weedy vine-terraces +without vines told the oft-repeated story of privation and +long-lasting bitterness of heart in many a little home that once was +happy. I found the grandeur of solitude, without any suggestion of +human life, where huge rocks of gneiss and schist, having broken away +from the sides of the gorge, lay along the margins and in the channel +of the stream. Here I lingered, listening to the drowsy music of the +flowing water, and the murmuring of the bees amongst the purple +marjoram and the yellow agrimony, until the sunshine moving up the +rocks reminded me of the fleet-winged hours. + +Continuing my way up the gorge, I presently saw a village clinging to +a hill, with a massive and singular-looking church on the highest +point. It was Plaisance, and I knew now that I had left the Albigeois, +and had entered the Rouergue. Having decided to pass the night here, +and the auberge being chosen, I climbed to the top of the bluff to +have a near view of the church. It is a remarkable structure +representing two architectural periods. The apse and transept are +Romanesque, but the nave is Gothic. Over the intersection of the +transept is a cupola supported by massive piers. Engaged with these +are columns bearing elaborately carved capitals embellished with +little figures of the quaintest workmanship. In the apse are two rows +of columns with cubiform capitals carved in accordance with the florid +Romanesque taste, as it was developed in Southern France. + +Although the little cemetery on the bluff was like scores of others I +had seen in France--a bit of rough neglected field with small wooden +crosses rising above the long herbage, tangled with flowers that love +the waste places, I yielded to the charm of that old simplicity which +is ever young and beautiful. I strolled amongst the grave mounds, and +passing the sunny spot where the dead children of the village lay side +by side, under the golden flowers of St. John's-wort, reached the edge +of the rock, whose dark nakedness was hidden by reddening sedum, and +looked at the wave-like hills, their yellow cornfields, vine terraces +and woods, the gray-green roofs of the houses below, and lower still +the stream flashing along through a desert of pebbles. + +Descending to the valley, I noticed the number and beauty of the vine +trellises in the village. One, commencing at a Gothic archway, +extended from wall to wall far up a narrow lane, and here the twilight +fell an hour too soon. I wandered down to the pebbly shore of the +Rance, where bare-footed children, sent out to look after pigs and +geese, were building castles with the many-coloured stones, while +others on the rocky banks above were singing in chorus, like a +somewhat louder twittering of sedge warblers from the fringe of +willows. I wandered on until all was quiet save the water, and +returned to the inn when the fire on the hearth was sending forth a +cheerful red glow through the dusk. The soup was bubbling in the chain +pot, and a well-browned fowl was taking its final turns upon the spit. + +I dined with a commercial traveller, one who went about the country in +a queer sort of vehicle containing samples of church ornaments and +sacerdotal vestments. His business lay chiefly with the rural clergy, +and, like most people, he seemed convinced that circumstances had +pushed him into the wrong groove, and that he had remained in it too +long for him to be able to get out of it. For twenty years he had been +driving over the same roads, reappearing in the same villages and +little towns, watching the same people growing old, and spending only +three months of the year with his family in Toulouse. He declared the +life of a commercial traveller, when the novelty of it had worn down, +to be the most abominable of all lives. He was one of the most +pleasant, and certainly the most melancholy, of commercial travellers +whom I had met in my rambles. He left the impression on me that there +was more money to be made nowadays in France by travelling with +samples of _eau de vie_ and groceries than with church candlesticks +and chasubles. Nevertheless, although he had his private quarrel with +destiny, he was not at all a gloomy companion at dinner. + +A person who had not had previous experience of French country inns +would have been astonished at the order in which the dishes were laid +on the table. The first course after the soup was potatoes +(_sautées_); then came barbel from the stream, and afterwards veal and +fowl. The order is considered a matter of no importance; the main +thing aimed at in the South of France is to give the guest plenty of +dishes. If there is any fish, more often than not it makes its +appearance after the roast, and I have even seen a custard figure as +the first course. By living with the people one soon falls into their +ways, accepting things as they come, without giving a thought to the +conventional sequence. + +Among other things that one has to grow accustomed to in rural France, +especially in the South, is the presence of beds in dining-rooms and +kitchens. At first it rasps the sense of what is correct, but the very +frequency of it soon brings indifference. In the large kitchen of this +rather substantial auberge there was an alcove, a few feet from the +chimney-place, containing a neatly tucked-up bed with a crucifix and +little holy-water shell by the side. It was certainly a snug corner in +winter, and I felt sure that the stout hostess reserved it for +herself. + + + + +ACROSS THE ROUERGUE. + + +At an early hour in the morning I was wayfaring again. I had made up +my mind to reach St. Affrique in a day's walk. There were some thirty +miles of country to cross, and I had, moreover, to reckon with the +July sun, which shines very earnestly in Southern France, as though it +were bent on ripening all the fruits of the earth in a single day. By +getting up earlier than usual I was able to watch the morning opening +like a wild rose. When we feel all the charm that graces the beginning +of a summer day, we resolve in future to rise with the birds, but the +next morning's sun finds most of us sluggards again. + +I returned towards the Tarn, which I had left the day before, but with +the intention of keeping somewhat to the south of it for awhile. +However beautiful the scenery of a gorge may be, the sensation of +being at the bottom of a crevice at length becomes depressing, and the +mind, which is never satisfied with anything long, begins to wonder +what the world is like beyond the enclosing cliffs, and the desire to +climb them and to look forth under a wider range of sky grows +stronger. Such change is needed, for when there is languor within, the +impressions from without are dull. The country through which I now +passed was very beautiful with its multitude of chestnut-trees, the +pale yellow plumes of the male blossom still clinging to them and +hiding half their leaves; but here again was the sad spectacle of +abandoned, weedy, and almost leafless vineyards upon stony slopes +which had been changed into fruit-bearing terraces by the long labour +of dead generations. + +The first village I came to was Coupiac, lying in a deep hollow, from +the bottom of which rose a rugged mass of schistous rock, with houses +all about it, under the protecting shadow of a strong castle with high +round towers in good preservation. It was a mediaeval fortress, but +its mullioned windows cut in the walls of the towers and other details +showed that it had been considerably modified and adapted to changed +conditions of life at the time of the Renaissance. A troop of little +girls were going up to it, and teaching Sisters, who had changed it +into a stronghold of education, were waiting for them in the court. +Hard by upon the edge of the castle rock was a calvary. The naked +schist, ribbed and seamed, served for pavement in the steep little +streets of this picturesque old village, where most of the people went +barefoot. This is the custom of the region, and does not necessarily +imply poverty. Here the _sabotier's_ trade is a poor one, and the +cobbler's is still worse. In the Albigeois I was the neighbour of a +well-to-do farmer who up to the age of sixty had never known the +sensation of sock or stocking, nor had he ever worn a shoe of wood or +leather. + +No female beauty did I see here, nor elsewhere in the Rouergue. +Plainness of feature in men and women is the rule throughout this +extensive tract of country. But there is this to be said in favour of +the girls and younger women, that they generally have well-shaped +figures and a very erect carriage, which last is undoubtedly due to +the habit of carrying weights upon the head, especially water, which +needs to be carefully balanced. + +How the peasants stared at me as I passed along! The expression of +their faces showed that they were completely puzzled as to what manner +of person I was, and what I was doing there. Had I been taking along a +dancing-bear they would have understood my motives far better, and my +social success with them would have been undoubtedly greater. As it +was, most of them eyed me with extreme suspicion. Not having been +rendered familiar, like the peasants of many other districts, with +that harmless form of insanity which leads people to endure the +hardship of tramping for the sake of observing the ruder aspects of +human life, the lingering manners of old times, and of reading the +book of nature in solitude, they thought I must perforce be engaged +upon some sinister and wicked work. And now this reminds me of an old +man at Ambialet, whom I used to send on errands to the nearest small +town. He liked my money, but he could never satisfy his conscience +that it was not something like treason to carry letters for me, for he +had the feeling to the last that he was in the pay of the enemy. 'Ah!' +he growled one day (not to me), 'I have always heard it said that the +English regretted our beautiful rocks and rich valleys. They are +coming back! I am sure they are coming back!' I used to see him +looking at me askance with a peculiarly keen expression in his eyes, +and as his words had been repeated to me I knew of what he was +thinking. He was the first man of his condition who to my knowledge +called rocks beautiful. The peasant class abhor rocks on account of +their sterility, and because the rustic idea of a beautiful landscape +is the fertile and level plain. In searching for the picturesque and +the grandeur of nature, it is perfectly safe to go to those places +which the peasant declares to be frightful by their ugliness. + +Leaving Coupiac behind me, I turned towards the east. The road, having +been cut in the side of the cliff, exposed layers of brown +argillaceous schist, like rotten wood, and so friable that it crumbled +between the fingers; but what was more remarkable was that the layers, +scarcely thicker than slate, instead of being on their natural plane, +were turned up quite vertically. I was now ascending to the barren +uplands. Near the brow of a hill I passed a very ancient crucifix of +granite, the head, which must originally have been of the rudest +sculpture, having the features quite obliterated by time. + +A rural postman in a blouse with red collar had been trudging up the +hill behind me, and I let him overtake me so that I might fall into +conversation with him, for these men are generally more intelligent or +better informed than the peasants. I have often walked with them, and +never without obtaining either instruction or amusement. When we had +reached the highest ground, from which a splendid view was revealed of +the Rouergue country.--a crumpled map of bare hills and deep dark +gorges--the postman pointed out to me the village of Roquecésaire +(Caesar's Rock), on a hill to the south, and told me a queer story of +a battle between its inhabitants and those of an adjacent village. The +quarrel, strange to say, arose over a statue of the Virgin, which was +erected not long since upon a commanding position between the two +villages. 'Now, the Holy Virgin,' said the postman, in no tone of +mockery, 'was obliged to turn her back either to one village or the +other, and this was the cause of the fight!' When first set up, the +statue looked towards Roquecésaire, to the great satisfaction of the +inhabitants; but the people of the other village, who thought +themselves equally pious, held that they had been slighted; and the +more they looked at the back of the Virgin turned towards them the +angrier they became, and the more determined not to submit to the +indignity. At length, unable to keep down their fury any longer, they +sallied forth one day, men, women and children, with the intention of +turning the statue round. But the people of Roquecésaire were +vigilant, and, seeing the hostile crowd coming, went forth to give +them battle. The combat raged furiously for hours, and it was +watched--so said the postman--with much excitement and interest by the +_curé_ of Montclar--the village we were now approaching--who, +happening to have a telescope, was able to note the varying fortune of +war. At length the Roquecésaire people got the worst of it, and they +were driven away from the statue, which was promptly turned round. +Although many persons were badly knocked about, nobody died for the +cause. The energetic intervention of the spiritual and temporal +authorities prevented a renewal of the scandal, and it was thought +best, in the interest of peace, to allow the statue to be turned +half-way to one village and half to the other. + +The postman was a little reserved at first, not knowing to what +country I belonged, but when he was satisfied that I was not a German, +he let his tongue rattle on with the freedom which is one of the +peculiarities of his class. He confided to me that the best help to a +man who walked much was absinthe. It pulled him up the hills and sent +him whisking across the plains. + +'I eat very little,' said my black-bearded, bright-eyed fellow-tramp; +'but,' he added, 'I drink three or four glasses of absinthe a day.' + +'You will eat still less,' I said, 'if you don't soon begin to turn +off the tap.' + +Considering the hard monotony of their lives and the strain imposed +upon physical endurance by walking from twenty to twenty-five miles a +day in all weathers, the rural postmen in France are a sober body of +men. This one told me that he walked sometimes eight miles out of his +way to carry a single letter. + +Thus gossiping, we reached Montclar, on the plateau, a little to the +south of the deep gorge of the Tarn. Here we entered an auberge, where +the postman was glad to moisten his dry throat with the green-eyed +enemy. This inn was formerly one of those small châteaux--more +correctly termed _maisons fortes_, or manors--which sprang up all over +France in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The inhabited part +of the building was reached by a spiral staircase enclosed by a tower. +A balcony connected with the principal room enabled me to read an +inscription cut in a stone of the tower: 'Tristano Disclaris, 1615.' +But for this record left by the founder, his name would probably have +passed, long ago, out of the memory of men. + +I found that the chief occupation of the people in this house was that +of making Roquefort cheeses; indeed, it was impossible not to guess +what was going on from the all-pervading odour. And yet: I was still +many miles from Roquefort! However, I knew all about this matter +before. I was not twenty miles from Albi when I found that Roquefort +cheese-making was a local industry. In fact, this is the case over a +very wide region. The cheeses, having been made, are sent to Roquefort +to ripen in the cellars, which have been excavated in the rock, and +also to acquire the necessary reputation. While my lunch was being +prepared I looked into the dairy, which was very clean and creditable. +On the ground were large tubs of milk, and on tables were spread many +earthenware moulds pierced with little holes and containing the +pressed curds. + +The hostess was a buxom, good-tempered woman with rosy cheeks. She +told me that she could not give me anything better than ham and eggs. +She could not have offered me anything more acceptable after all the +greasy cooking, the steadfast veal and invariable fowl which I had so +long been compelled to accept daily with resignation. By a mysterious +revelation of art she produced the ham and eggs in a way that made me +think that she must surely be descended from one of the English +adventurers who did all manner of mischief in the Rouergue some five +or six centuries ago. Such ham and eggs in her case could only be +explained by the theory of hereditary ideas. Nevertheless, she had +become French enough to look at me with a dubious, albeit a +good-natured eye. My motive in coming there and going farther without +having any commercial object in view was more than she could fathom. +After my visit to the dairy I fancy her private notion was that I was +commissioned by the English Government to find out how Roquefort +cheese was made, with a view to competition. At length, as we talked +freely, she let the state of her mind with regard to me escape her +unawares by putting this question plump: + +'How is it the gendarmes have not stopped you?' + +'That I cannot tell you,' said I, much amused by her candour; 'but you +may be sure of this, I am not afraid of them.' + +Her husband was listening behind the door, and I observed an +expression of relief in his face when I took up my pack and departed. +If I was to be pounced upon, he preferred, for his own peace of mind +and the reputation of his house, that it should be done elsewhere. All +the village had heard of my coming, and when I reappeared outside +there was a small crowd of people waiting to have a good look at me. I +thought from these signs that I was likely to be asked to show my +papers again by some petty functionary; but no, I was allowed to pass +on without interference. Perhaps the postman had given a good account +of me, the absinthe having touched his heart. There is much diplomacy +in getting somebody on your side while travelling alone through these +unopened districts far from railways. Wandering among the peasants of +the Tarn and the Aveyron teaches one what ignorance really means, what +blindness of intellect goes with it. And yet their enlightenment by +the usual methods would be a doubtful blessing to themselves and +others. + +I was now descending to the valley, and not long after leaving the +village an attempt to escape from the winding hot road led me into one +of those wildernesses which are to me infinitely more pleasing than +the most artistic gardens, with their geometric flower-beds and their +counterfeit lakes and grottoes. The surface of the land was thrown or +washed up into dark-brown hillocks of broken argillaceous schist, +which repelled vegetation, but the hollows were wooded with mountain +oak and many shrubs. Farther down there were other hillocks, equally +bare, but formed of the blue-looking lias marl which the husbandman +detests with good reason, for its sterility is incorrigible. This +_terre bleue_, as the peasants call it, was not the only sign of a +change in the formation; fragments of calcareous stone were mixed with +the brown soil. I was leaving the dark schist and was approaching +those immense accumulations of jurassic rock, whose singular forms and +brilliant colours lend such extraordinary grandeur to the scenery of +the Upper Tarn. There was also a change in the vegetation. A large +species of broom, four or five feet high, covered with golden blossom +the size of pea-flowers, although the common broom had long passed its +blooming, now showed itself as well as roseroot sedum, neither of +which had I seen while coming over the schist. The cicadas returned +and screamed from every tree. I captured one and examined the musical +instrument--a truly marvellous bit of mechanism--that it carried in +each of its sides. It is not legs which make the noise, as is the case +with crickets and grasshoppers, but little hard membranes under the +wings are scraped together at the creature's will. The sound is not +musical, for when it is not a continuous scissor-grinding noise, it is +like the cry of a corncrake with a weak throat; but what delight there +is in it! and how it expresses that joy in the present and +recklessness of the morrow, which the fabulist has in vain contrasted +with the virtuous industry of the ant in order to point a moral for +mankind!--vainly, because the _cigale's_ short life in the sunlit +trees will ever seem to men a more ideal one than that of the +earth-burrowing ant, with its possible longevity, its peevish +parsimony, and restless anxiety for the future. I could have lain down +under a tree like a gipsy in this wild spot, and let the summer dreams +come to me from their airy castles amongst the leaves, if I had not +made up my mind to reach St. Affrique before night. There was another +reason which, although it clashes with poetry, had better be told for +the sake of truth. Insects would soon have taken all pleasure from the +siesta. Great black ants, and great red ones, little ants too, that +could have walked with comfort through the eye of a fine needle, +notwithstanding their wickedness, and intermediate species of the same +much-praised family, would have scampered over me and stung me, and +flies of bad propensities would have settled upon me. An enthusiastic +entomologist has only to lie down in the open air in this part of +France at the end of July or in August, and he will soon be able to +observe, perhaps feel, sufficient insects travelling on their legs or +on the wing to satisfy a great deal of curiosity. Often the air is all +aflutter with butterflies, many of them remarkable for their size or +the beauty of their colouring. One I have particularly noticed; not +large, but coloured with exquisite gradations of bright-yellow, +orange, and pale-green. + +I believe I added to my day's journey by my excursion across country, +but the time would have passed less pleasantly on the road. The +winding yellow line, however, appeared again, and I had to tramp upon +it. And a hot, toilsome trudge it was, through that long narrow valley +with scrubby woods reaching down to the road, but with no habitations +and no water. It was the desert. The afternoon was far advanced when +the country opened and I saw a village of coquettish appearance, for +most of the houses had been washed with red, and many of the +window-shutters were painted green. + +I was parched with thirst, for the sun had been broiling me for hours; +therefore, when I saw this village on the hillside, I hurried towards +it with the impatience of a traveller who sees the palm-trees over a +well in the sands of Africa. In a place that could give so much +attention to colour there must surely be an auberge, I thought. And I +judged rightly, for there were two little inns. I found the door of +the first one closed, and learnt that the people were out harvesting. +I walked on to the next, and found that likewise closed, and was again +informed that all the family were out in the fields. The whole village +was nearly deserted; almost everyone was busy reaping and putting up +the sheaves. I stopped beside the village pump and reflected upon my +misery. I had resigned myself to water, when a woman carrying a sickle +opened the door of one of the inns. Some friendly bird must have told +her of my thirst and weariness--perhaps the merry little quail that I +heard as I came up from the plain crying 'To-whit! To-whit!' That +blessed auberge actually contained bottled beer. And the room was so +cool that butter would not have melted in it. These southern houses +have such thick stone walls that they have the double advantage of +being warm in winter and delightfully cool in summer. I had some +difficulty in resisting the temptation to stop the night at this inn; +but I did resist it, and was again on the road to St. Affrique before +the heat of the day had passed. Another toilsome trudge, during which +I met an English threshing-machine being dragged along by bullocks, +and the familiar words upon it made me feel for awhile quite at home. +The apparition, however, gave me a shock, for the antique flail is +still the instrument commonly used for threshing in the southern +provinces of France. + +At a village called Moulin, lying in a rich and beautiful valley, I +met the Sorgues, one of the larger tributaries of the Tarn, and for +the rest of my journey I had the companionship of a charming stream. +Evening came on, and the fiery blue above me grew soft and rosy. Rosy, +too, were the cornfields, where bands of men and women, fifteen or +twenty together, were reaping gaily, for the heat of the day was gone, +the freshness of the twilight had come, and the fragrance of the +valley was loosened. I had left the last group of reapers behind, and +the silence of the dusk was broken only by the tree crickets and the +rapids of the little river, when a woman passed me on the road and +murmured '_Adicias!_' (God be with you!). '_Adicias!_ I replied, and +then I was again alone. Presently there was a jangling of bells +behind, and I was soon overtaken by three horses and a crowded +_diligence_. The sound of the bells grew fainter and fainter, and once +more I was alone with the summer night. The stars began to shine, and +the river was lost in the mystery of shadow, save where a sunken rock +made the water gleam white, and broke the peace with a cry of trouble. + +It was late when I reached St. Affrique, and I believe no tramp +arrived at his bourne that night more weary than I, for I had been +walking most of the day in the burning sun. But although I lay down +like a jaded horse, I was too feverish to sleep. To make matters +worse, there was a cock in the yard just underneath my window, and the +fiendish creature considered it his duty to crow every two or three +minutes after the stroke of midnight. How well did I then enter into +the feelings of a man I knew who, under similar provocation, got up +from his bed, and, taking a carving-knife from the kitchen, quietly +and deftly cut off the cock's head before the astonished bird had time +to protest. Having stopped the crowing and assured himself that it +would not begin again, he went back to bed and slept the sleep of the +innocent. + +I was out early the next morning, looking at the extraordinary +astronomical dials of the parish church, covering much of the surface +of the outer walls. All the straight lines, curves, and figures, and +the inscriptions in Latin, must have the effect of convincing the +majority of the inhabitants that their ignorance is hopeless. Such a +display of science must be like wizard symbolism to the common people. +The dials are exceedingly curious, and there are some really +astonishing calculations, as, for instance, a table showing the +'number of souls that have appeared before the Tribunal of God.' Near +a great sundial are these solemn words: 'Sol et luna faciunt quae +precepta sunt eis; nos autem pergrimamur a Domino.' The church itself +is one of the most fantastically ugly structures imaginable. All +possible tricks of style and taste appear to have been played upon it. +It is a jumble of heavy Gothic and Italian, and the apse is twisted +out of line with the nave, in which respect, however, it is like the +cathedral of Quimper. As I left the church a funeral procession +approached, women carrying palls by the four corners a little in front +of the coffin, according to the custom of the country when the dead +person is of their own sex. + +St. Affrique is a small town of about 7,000 inhabitants, lying in a +warm valley and surrounded by high hills, the sides of which were once +covered with luxuriant vineyards. These slopes, arid, barren, and +sun-scorched, are perfectly suited to the cultivation of the vine, the +fig, and the almond; but the elevation is still too great for the +olive. According to the authors of 'Gallia Christiana,' a saint named +Fricus, or Africus, came at the beginning of the sixth century into +the valley of the Sorgues, and was the founder of the burg. St. +Affrique was a strong place in the Middle Ages, and for this reason it +was disturbed less by the English than some other towns in the +Rouergue. After the treaty of Brétigny the consuls went to Millau and +swore fealty to the King of England, represented there by John +Chandos. + +As I toiled up the side of the valley in the direction of Millau, I +noticed the Rocher de Caylus, a large reddish and somewhat +fantastically shaped block of oolitic rock, perched on the hill above +the vineyards. Here the lower formation was schistous, the upper +calcareous. The sun was intensely hot, but there was the shade of +walnut-trees, of which I took advantage, although it is said to be +poisonous, like that of the oleander. + +When I reached the plateau there was no shade whatever, baneful or +beneficent. If there was ever any forest here all vestige of it has +disappeared. I was on the border of the Causse de Larzac, one of the +highest, most extensive, and hopelessly barren of the calcareous +deserts which separate the rivers in this part of France. Not a drop +of water, save what may have been collected in tanks for the use of +sheep, and the few human beings who eke out an existence there, is to +be found upon them. Swept by freezing winds in winter and burnt by a +torrid sun in summer, their climate is as harsh as the soil is +ungenerous. + +But although I was sun-broiled upon this _causse_, I was interested at +every step by the flowers that I found there. Dry, chaffy, or prickly +plants, corresponding in their nature to the aridity and asperity of +the land, were peculiarly at home upon the undulating stoniness. The +most beautiful flower then blooming was the catananche, which has won +its poetic French name, _Cupidon bleu_, by the brilliant colour of its +blossom. Multitudes of yellow everlastings also decked the solitude. + +On reaching the highest ground the crests of the bare Cevennes were +seen against the cloudless sky to the south. A little to the east, +beyond the valley of the Cernon, which I intended to cross, were high +hills or cliffs, treeless and sterile, with hard-cut angular sides, +terminating upwards in vertical walls of naked stone. These were the +buttresses of the Causse de Larzac. The lower sides of some of the +hills were blue with lias marl, and wherever they were steep not a +blade of grass grew. + +Having descended to the valley, I was soon climbing towards Roquefort +by the flanks of those melancholy hills which seemed to express the +hopelessness of nature after ages of effort to overcome some evil +power. And yet the tinkling of innumerable sheep-bells told that even +here men had found a way of earning their bread. I saw the flocks +moving high above me where all was wastefulness and rockiness, and +heard the voices of the shepherds. There were the Roquefort sheep +whose milk, converted into cheese of the first quality, is sent into +distant countries whose people little imagine that its constituents +are drawn from a desert where there is little else but stones. + +I came in view of the village, clinging as it seemed to the steep at +the base of a huge bastion of stark jurassic rock. Facing it was +another barren hill, and in the valley beneath were mamelons of dark +clay and stones partly conquered by the great broom and burning with +its flame of gold. When I reached the village I felt that I had earned +a rest. + +Cheese, which has been the fortune of Roquefort, has destroyed its +picturesqueness. It has brought speculators there who have raised +great ugly square buildings of dazzling whiteness, in harsh contrast +with the character and sombre tone of the old houses. Although the +place is so small that it consists of only one street and a few +alleys, the more ancient dwellings are remarkable for their height. It +is surprising to see in a village lost among the sterile hills houses +three stories high. The fact that there is only a ledge on which to +build must be the explanation. What is most curious in the place is +the cellars. Before the cheese became an important article of commerce +these were natural caverns, such as are everywhere to be found in this +calcareous formation, but now they are really cellars which have been +excavated to such a depth in the rock that they are to be seen in as +many as five stages, where long rows of cheeses are stacked one over +the other. The virtue of these cellars from the cheese-making point of +view is their dryness and their scarcely varying temperature of about +8° Centigrade summer and winter. But the demand for Roquefort cheese +has become so great that trickery now plays a part in the ripening +process. The peasants have learnt that 'time is money,' and they have +found that bread-crumbs mixed with the curd cause those green streaks +of mouldiness, which denote that the cheese is fit for the market, to +appear much more readily than was formerly the case when it was left +to do the best it could for itself with the aid of a subterranean +atmosphere. This is not exactly cheating; it is commercial enterprise, +the result of competition and other circumstances too strong for poor +human nature. In cheese-making, breadcrumbs are found to be a cheap +substitute for time, and it is said that those who have taken to +beer-brewing in this region have found that box, which here is the +commonest of shrubs, is a cheap substitute for hops. The notion that +brass pins are stuck into Roquefort cheese to make it turn green is +founded on fiction. + +Having remained at Roquefort long enough to see all that was needful, +to lunch and to be overcharged--commercial enterprise is very +infectious--I turned my back upon it and scrambled down a stony path +to the bottom of the valley where the Cernon--now a mere thread of a +stream--curled and sparkled in the middle of its wide channel, the +yellow flowers and pale-green leaves of the horned poppy basking upon +the rocky banks. Following it down to the Tarn, I came to the village +of St. Rome de Cernon, where the houses of dark-gray stone, built on a +hillside, are overtopped by the round tower of a small mediaeval +fortress which has been patched up and put to some modern use. I +thought the people very ill-favoured by nature here, but perhaps they +are not more so than others in the district. The harshness of nature +is strongly reflected in all faces. Having passed a man on the bank of +the stream washing his linen--presumably his own--with bare arms, +sinewy and hairy like a gorilla's, I was again in the open country; +but instead of following donkey-paths and sheep-tracks I was upon the +dusty highroad. Well, even a, _route nationale_, however hot and +dusty, so that it be not too straight, has its advantages, which are +felt after you have been walking an uncertain number of miles over a +very rough country, trusting to luck to lead you where you wished to +go. The feeling that you may at length step out freely and not worry +yourself with a map and compass is a kind of pleasure which, like all +others, is only so by the force of contrast and the charm of variety. +I knew that I could now tramp along this road without troubling myself +about anything, and that I should reach Millau sooner or later. It was +really very hot--ideal sunstroke weather, verging on 90° in the shade; +but I had become hardened to it, and was as dry as a smoked herring. +For miles I saw no human being and heard no sound of life except the +shrilling of grasshoppers and the more strident song of the cicadas in +the trees. By-and-by houses showed themselves, and I came to the +village of St. Georges beside the bright little Cernon, but surrounded +by wasteful, desolate hills, one of which, shaped like a cone, reared +its yellow rocky summit far towards the blue solitude of the dazzling +sky. I passed by little gardens where great hollyhocks flamed in the +afternoon sunshine, then I met the Tarn again and reached Millau, a +weary and dusty wayfarer. + +I stopped in Millau (sometimes spelt Milhau) more than a day, in order +to rest and to ramble--moderately. Although the town, with its 16,000 +inhabitants, is the most populous in the department of the Aveyron, it +is so remote from all large centres and currents of human movement +that very little French is spoken there. And this French is about on a +par with the English of the Sheffield grinders. In the better-class +families an effort now is made to keep _patois_ out-of-doors for the +sake of the children; but there is scarcely a middle-aged native to +whom it is not the mother-tongue. The common dialect is not quite the +same throughout Guyenne and Languedoc; but the local variations are +much less marked than one would expect, considering that the _langue +d'oc_ has been virtually abandoned as a literary vehicle for +centuries. The word _oc_ (yes), which was once the most convenient +sound to distinguish the dialect from that of the northern half of +France, is not easy to recognise nowadays in the conversation of the +people. The _c_ in the word is not pronounced--perhaps it never +was--and the _o_ is usually joined to _bè_, which has the same meaning +as _bien_ in the French language. Thus we have the forms _obè_, _opè_, +and _apè_ according to the district, and all equivalent to 'yes.' All +these people can understand Spanish when spoken slowly. Many can catch +your meaning when you speak to them in French, but reply in _patois_. +I had grown accustomed, although not reconciled, to this manner of +conversing with peasants; but I was surprised to find on entering a +shop at Millau that neither the man nor his wife there could reply to +me in French. + +This town lies in the bottom of a basin; some of the high hills, +especially those on the east, showing savage escarpments with towering +masses of yellow or reddish rock at the summits. The climate of the +valley is delightful in winter, but sultry and enervating in summer. +It is so protected from the winds that the mulberry flourishes there, +and countless almond-trees rise above the vines on the burning +hillsides. + +Millau presents a good deal of interest to the archaeologist. Very +noteworthy is the ancient market-place, where the first and upper +stories project far over the paving and are supported by a colonnade. +Some of the columns, with elaborately carved Romanesque capitals, date +from the twelfth century, and look ready to fall into fragments. At +one end of the square is an immense modern crucifix--a sure sign that +the civic authorities do not yet share the views of the municipal +councillors of Paris in regard to religious emblems. Protestants, +however, are numerous at Millau as well as at St. Affrique, both towns +having been important centres of Calvinism at the time of the +Revocation of the Edict of Nantes; and after the forced emigration +many of the inhabitants must have strongly sympathized with their +persecuted neighbours, the Camisards. Nevertheless, the department of +the Aveyron, taken in its entirety, is now one of the most fervently +Catholic in France. + +The church is Romanesque, with a marked Byzantine tendency. It has an +elegant apse, decorated in good taste; but the edifice having received +various patchings and decorations at the time of the Renaissance, the +uniformity of style has been spoilt. The most striking architectural +feature of the town is a high Gothic belfry of octagonal form, with a +massive square tower for its base. + +In the Middle Ages the government of this town was vested in six +consuls, who received twenty gold florins a year as salary, and also a +new robe of red and black cloth with a hood. In 1341 they furnished +forty men-at-arms for the war against the English, but the place was +given up to Chandos in 1362. The rising of 1369 delivered the burghers +again from the British power, but for twenty-two years they were +continually fighting with the English companies. + +The evening before I left Millau I strolled into the little square +where the great crucifix stands. I found it densely crowded. Three or +four hundred men were there, each wearing a blouse and carrying a +sickle with a bit of osier laid upon the sharp edge of the blade along +its whole length, and firmly tied. All these harvesters were waiting +to be hired for the following week. They belonged to a class much less +numerous in France than in England--the agricultural labourers who +have no direct interest in the soil that they help to cultivate and +the crops that they help to gather in. I have often met them on the +dusty roads, frequently walking with bare feet, carrying the +implements of their husbandry and a little bundle of clothes. It must +be very hard to ask for work from farm to farm. I can enter fully into +the attachment of the French peasant to his bit of land, which, +although it may yield him little more than his black bread, cannot be +taken from him so long as he can manage to live by the sweat of his +brow. Many of these peasant proprietors can barely keep body and soul +together; but when they lie down upon their wretched beds at night, +they feel thankful that the roof that covers them and the soil that +supports them are their own. The wind may howl about the eaves, and +the snow may drift against the wall, but they know that the one will +calm down, and that the other will melt, and that life will go on as +before--hard, back-breaking, grudging even the dark bread, but secure +and independent. Waiting to be hired by another man, almost like a +beast of burden--what a trial is here for pride! Happily for the human +race, pride, although it springs naturally in the breast of man, only +becomes luxuriant with cultivation. The poor labourer does not feel it +unless his instinctive sense of justice has been outraged. + + + + +THE BLACK CAUSSE. + + +One cannot be sure of the weather even in the South of France, where +the skies are supposed, by those who do not know them, to be +perpetually blue. The 'South of France' itself is a very deceptive +term. The climate on one side of a range of mountains or high hills +may be altogether different from that on the other. In Upper Languedoc +and Guyenne the climate is regulated by three principal factors: the +elevation of the soil, the influence of the Mediterranean, and the +influence of the Atlantic. On the northern side of the Cevennes, the +currents from the ocean, together with the altitude, do much to keep +the air moist and comparatively cool in summer; whereas on the other +side of the chain, where the Mediterranean influence--in a large +measure African--is paramount, the climate is dry and torrid during +the hot months. A liability to sudden changes goes with the advantages +of the more favoured region. This was enforced upon me at Millau. + +At seven o'clock the sky, lately of such a fiery blue, was of a most +mournful smokiness, and the rain fell in a drenching spray. It was +mountain weather, and I blamed the Cevennes for it. But I was in the +South, and at a season when bad weather is seldom in earnest, so I did +not despair of a change when the sun rose higher. It came, in fact, at +about eight o'clock, when, a breeze springing up, the clouds, after a +short struggle, were swept away. The market-women spread out upon the +pavement their tomatoes, their purple _aubergines_, their peaches, and +green almonds; the harvesters, long hesitating, went out into the +fields to reap; and I, leaving the Tarn, took my way up the valley of +the gleaming Dourbie. Millau was soon nearly hidden in its basin, but +above it, on the sides of the surrounding hills, scattered amongst the +sickly vines, or the vigorous young plants which promised in a few +years to make the stony soil flow once more with purple juice, were +the small white houses of the wine-growers. Where I could, I walked in +the shade of walnut and mulberry trees, for the heat was great, and +the rain that had fallen rose like steam in the sun-blaze from the +herbage and the golden stubble. In this low valley all corn except +maize had been gathered in, and Nature was resting, after her labour, +with the smile of maternity on her face. Nevertheless, this stillness +of the summer's fulfilment, this pause in the energy of production, is +saddening to the wayfarer, to whom the vernal splendour of the year +and the time of blossoming seem like the gifts of yesterday. The +serenity of the burnished plains now prompts him upward, where he +hopes to overtake the tarrying spring upon the cool and grassy +mountains. Although the mountains towards which I was now bearing were +the melancholy and arid Cevennes, I wished the distance less that lay +between me and their barren flanks, where the breeze would be scented +with the bloom of lavender. There were flowers along the wayside here, +but they were the same that I had been seeing for many a league, and +they reminded me too forcibly of the rapid flight of the summer days +by their haste--their unnecessary haste, as I thought--in passing from +the flower to the seed. A sprig of lithosperm stood like a little tree +laden with Dead Sea fruit, for the naked seeds clung hard and flinty +where the flowers had been. The glaucium, although still blooming, had +put forth horns nine inches long, and the wild barley, so lately +green, was now a brown fringe along the dusty road. And thus all these +familiar forms of vegetable life, which we notice in our wanderings, +but never understand, come and go, perish and rise again--so quickly, +too, that we have no time to listen to what they say; we only feel +that the song which they sing along the waysides of the world is ever +joyous and ever sad. + +In the lower part of this valley were scattered farmhouses, which +looked like small rural churches, for their high rectangular dovecots +at one end had much the air of towers with broach spires. Throughout +Guyenne one is amazed at the apparently extravagant scale on which +accommodation has been provided for pigeon-rearing. There are plenty +of pigeons in the country, but the size of their houses is usually out +of all proportion to the number of lodgers, and dovecots without +tenants are almost as frequently seen as those that are tenanted. They +are seldom of modern construction; many are centuries old. All this +points to the conclusion that people of former times laid much greater +store by pigeon-flesh than their descendants do. It may have been that +other animal food was relatively more expensive than at the present +day. + +But as I ascended the valley the breadth of cultivated land grew +narrower, and the habitations fewer. On either side the cliffs rose +higher, and the walls of Jurassic rock, above the brashy steeps, more +towering, precipitous, and fantastic. Where vegetable life could draw +sustenance from crumbling, stones stretched a veritable forest of box. +Now, in a narrow gorge, the Dourbie frolicked about the heaps of +pebbles it had thrown up in its winter fury. Strong wires, attached to +high rocks, crossed the gorge and the stream, and were made fast to +the side of the road. Bundles of newly-cut box at the lower end showed +the use to which these wires were put. Far aloft upon the heated rocks +women were cutting down the tough shrub for firewood or manure, for it +is put to both uses. It serves a very useful purpose when buried in +dense layers between the vine rows. When I looked aloft, and saw those +petticoated beings toiling in the terrible heat, I thought it a pity +that there was no society to protect women as well as horses from +being cruelly overworked. Let social reformers ponder this truth: The +more the man is encouraged to shirk work, the more the woman will have +to toil to make up for wasted time. As it is, women everywhere, except +perhaps in England, work harder than men, as far as I can speak from +observation. + +I was on my way to Vieux Montpellier--the 'Devil's City'--and already +the scenery began to take the character to be expected of it in such a +neighbourhood. It seemed as though the demon builder of the fantastic +town, sporting with man's architectural ideals before his appearance +on the earth, had hewn the red and yellow rocks above the Dourbie into +the ironic semblance of feudal towers and heaven-pointing spires. + +The highest limestone rocks in this region, those which rise from the +plateau or _causse_ and strike the imagination by the strangeness of +their forms, are dolomite; in the gorges they approach the character +of lias towards the base, and not unfrequently contain lumps of pure +silex embedded in their mass. The redness which they so often show, +and which, alternating with yellow, white, or gray, adds to the +grandeur of their rugged outlines, is due to the iron which the rock +contains. + +A young gipsy-woman, carrying a child upon her shoulders, and holding +on to a dusky little leg on each side of her neck, followed in the +wake of an old caravan drawn by a mule of resigned countenance--a +beast that seemed to have made a vow never to hurry again, and to let +the flies do their worst. She vanished upon the winding road, and +presently I saw another wayfarer seated on the bank beside the stream, +binding up a bleeding foot under the trailing traveller's joy. Before +reaching the village of La Roque-Sainte-Marguerite, I passed a genuine +rock dwelling. A natural cavern, some twenty or thirty feet above the +level of the road, had been walled up to make a house. It had its door +and windows like any other dwelling, and some convenient crevice in +the rock had probably been used for a chimney. + +Having taken an hour's rest and a light meal in the village, I +commenced the ascent towards the 'Devil's City.' A mule-path wound up +the steep side of the gorge, which had been partly reclaimed from the +desert by means of terraces where many almond-trees flourished, safe +from the north wind. Very scanty, however, was the vegetation that +grew upon this dry stony soil, burning in summer, and washed in winter +of its organic matter by the mountain rains. Tall woody spurges two +feet high or more, with tufts of dusty green leaves, managed to draw, +however, abundant moisture from the waste, as the milk that gushed +from the smallest wound attested. An everlasting pea, with very large +flowers of a deep rose-colour, also loved this arid steep. I was +wondering why I found no lavender, when I saw a gray-blue tuft above +me, and welcomed it like an old friend. The air was soon scented with +the plant, and for five days I was in the land of lavender. On nearing +the buttresses of the plateau the ground was less steep, and here I +came to pines, junipers, oaks, and the bird-cherry prunus. But the +tree which I was most pleased to find was a plum, with ripe fruit +about the size of a small greengage, but of a beautiful pale +rose-colour. + +I am now upon the _causse_ and already see the castellated outworks +of the 'Devil's City.' The city itself lies in a hollow, and I have +not yet reached it. The mule-path fortunately leads in the right +direction. On my way multitudes of very dark, almost black, +butterflies flutter up from the short turf, which is flecked with +the gold of yellow everlastings. Here and there a solitary +round-headed allium nods from the top of its long leafless stem. I +walk over the shining dark leaves and the scarlet beads of the +bearberry, and am presently roaming in the fantastic streets of the +dolomitic city. To say streets is scarcely an exaggeration, for +these jutting rocks have in places almost the regularity of the +menhirs of Carnac. But the megalithic monuments of Brittany are like +arrow-heads compared to the stones of Montpellier-le-Vieux. In +placing these and in giving them that mimicry of familiar forms at +times so startling to human eyes, Nature has been the sole engineer +and artist. There is but one theory by which the working cause of +the existing phenomena can be brought to our understanding. It is +that these honeycombed and fantastically-shaped masses of dolomite +or magnesian limestone represent the skeletons of vaster rocks whose +less resisting parts were washed away by the wearing action of the +sea. Some are formed of blocks of varying size, lying one upon +another, with a pinnacle or dome at the summit; others show no trace +of stratification, but are integral rocks which in many cases appear +to have been cut away and fashioned to the mocking likeness of some +animal form by a demon statuary. Now it is a colossal owl, now a +frightful head that may be human or devilish, now some inanimate +shape such as a prodigious wineglass which fixes the eye and excites +the fancy. A mass of rock on which can be seen half sitting, half +reclining, a monstrous stony shape with head hideously jovial, has +been named the 'Devil's Chair.' + +I saw this spot under circumstances very favourable to the full +reception of its fantastic, mysterious, and gloomy influence. It was +late enough in the afternoon for the feeling of evening and of the +coming night to be in the air, especially here, where dark pines stood +in the mimic streets and squares like cypresses in a cemetery. The +awful mournfulness of the shadowy groves was deepened by my own +solitariness, for although surrounded by frightful shapes that +caricatured humanity, mine was the only human form that moved amongst +the dumb but fiend-like rocks and the pines, which moaned and +whispered like unhappy ghosts. I was alone in the 'Devil's City,' and +perchance with the devil himself. When a hawk flew over and screamed +it was welcome, although there was nothing cheerful in its cry. There +could be no severer trial perhaps to the nerves of a superstitious +person than to take a solitary walk by moonlight through +Montpellier-le-Vieux. The sense of the weird and the horrible would +give him too many cold shudders for him to enjoy the grandeur and the +strangeness of the scene. + +The superstitious horror in which this spot has always been held by +the peasants--chiefly shepherds--of the district, together with the +fact that the rustic, uninfluenced from without, never speaks of rocks +except in terms of contempt, however extraordinary their forms may be, +must be the reason why Montpellier-le-Vieux has only been known of +late years to persons interested in such curiosities of nature. To the +geologist it is fascinating ground, as, indeed, is the whole expanse +of these _causses_ of Guyenne and Upper Languedoc, so fissured and +honeycombed--a region of gorges and caverns, of subterranean lakes and +rivers, of bottomless pits and mysterious streams. + +It is said that the dolomitic city owes its name, Montpellier-le-Vieux, +to the shepherds of Lower Languedoc, who from time immemorial have +brought their flocks in summer to pasture upon these highlands. In +their dialect they call Montpellier, which is to them what Paris is to +the peasants of the Brie, 'Lou Clapas'--literally, a heap of stones. On +seeing rocks covering several acres, and looking like the ruins of a +great city of the past, they could think of no better name for it than +'Lou Clapas Biel,' or 'old heap of stones.' This turned into French +becomes Montpellier-le-Vieux. + +The 'Devil's City' can be recommended to the botanist, who need not +fear that the flowers he will find there will wither at his touch like +those gathered for Marguerite by her guileless lover. The +ever-crumbling dolomite has formed a soil very favourable to a varied +flora. As I had, however, to reach the gorge of the Tarn before +nightfall, and it was still far off, I only took away two souvenirs of +the diabolic garden--a white scabious and a bit of rock-potentil. + +The name given to the tract of country I was now crossing--the Causse +Noir, fitly describes it, It is singularly dark and mournful, and +almost uninhabited. It is not, strictly speaking, a plateau, but a +succession of valleys and low hills like the bed of the ocean. The +barren land is thickly overgrown with box and juniper, and these +shrubs, which often attain a height of six or eight feet, sufficiently +account for the sombre tone of the landscape. Here and there savage +little, gorges run up between the dismal hills, with trees of larger +growth, such as oaks and pines, in the hollows. There is good reason +to believe that all these _causses_ were at one time more or less +covered by forests; but the reason commonly given for their +disappearance--namely, that they were burnt down during the religious +wars--is less likely to be the true one than that they gradually +perished because it was nobody's business to protect the seedlings +from sheep and goats--animals capable of changing the world into a +treeless desert, but which, fortunately, cease to be profitable when +they come down from the sterile highlands, where they thrive best, +into the rich plains and valleys. The disastrous floods which occur +with such appalling suddenness in the valleys of the Tarn and the Lot +are due in a large measure to the nudity of the _causses_ and the +Cevennes, where these mountains turn northward and cross the Lozère to +meet the Auvergne range. The French Government nurses the hope that it +will be able some day to cover much of the baldness of this extensive +region with magnificent pine-forests, and planting actually goes on in +places; but what with the nibbling flocks, and the increasing seventy +of the winters, the measure of success already obtained by such +laudable efforts is not encouraging. + +I wished to reach Peyreleau that night, but how to get there I knew +not otherwise than by persistently keeping in a north-easterly course, +and despising all natural obstacles. I was attracted by what looked +like a road running up between two hills in the right direction; but +when I came to it I found that it was the dry channel of a stream. I +nevertheless took advantage of it, as I have of many another such in +the South, although there are few watercourses whose beds can be +walked upon with comfort. I was lucky now beyond my expectations, for +it was not long before I struck a road which I was sure could lead +nowhere but to Peyreleau. It first took me through a darkly-wooded +gorge, where evening stood like a nun in a chapel. The brilliant sky +had changed to a sad gray. There was to be no gorgeous sunset, with +rosy after-glow, softening with transparent colour the harshness of +the dark box and darker juniper. No: the day that commenced sadly was +ending sadly--going to its grave in a gray habit with drawn cowl. A +great falcon passed slowly on its way under the dull sky, but no bird +nor beast uttered a sound. The Causse Noir was as silent as a crypt. + +I became very uncertain where this road over the dismal solitude was +going to lead me, for it turned about in such a way as to put me out +of my reckoning. At length I saw a deep gorge yawning below, and this +told me that I had reached the edge of the _causse_. Oh, the sublime +desolation of these heights and depths in the solemn evening! How, +mournful then is the silence of the innumerable, gray stones and +monstrous rocks which try to speak to us like creatures once eloquent +and possessing the knowledge of wondrous changes, and the key to +problems that everlastingly distress the human mind, but on which the +curse of dumbness has lain for ages! + +I thought that I must have wandered beyond the peopled world, when +suddenly I saw, far down in the bottom of the widening valley, a +village or small town at the foot of a cone-shaped hill. The little +river running near satisfied me that I was in view of Peyreleau. The +descent was tedious and long, notwithstanding the loops that I cut off +of the curling road by scrambling down the steep sides of the gorge +over the loose stones and lavender. It was still daylight when I +reached a small hotel, outside of which some tourists were smoking +cigarettes and drinking beer while waiting for dinner. Until then I +had not seen a tourist after leaving Albi. All through the Albigeois +and the Rouergue, I was looked upon as an animal of unknown species, +and possibly noxious; but here I was recognised at once as one of a +familiar tribe, of small brain development, but harmless. I had +entered a region which for several years past had drawn to it many +persons--mostly French--who had heard of the grand gorge, or cañon, of +the Tarn. + +I had been told that the right way--the one followed by all sensible +people--of seeing the gorge from Sainte-Enimie to Le Rozier was to +come down the stream in a boat; but circumstances, or my own +perversity, had led me once more to do the thing that was considered +wrong. Instead of coming down the swift stream like a fly on a leaf, +my intention was to crawl up the gorge by such goat or mule paths as +were available on the margin of the river or on the ledges of the +cliffs. Thus I should not be obliged to treat every fresh view as if +it were a bird on the wing, but could dawdle as long as I pleased over +this or that object without being a trouble to anybody. + +It was far from unpleasant, however, to spend an evening at this +water-side inn with people fresh from Paris, bringing with them the +spray of the sea that beats against the shores of high-strung life. +Nor was it unpleasant to find a little refinement in the kitchen +again, and to eat trout not saturated with the essence of garlic. + + + + +THE CAÑON OF THE TARN. + + +At an early hour next morning I was making my way up the gorge beside +the Tarn; but before leaving Peyreleau, I wandered about its steep +streets--in some places a series of steps cut in the rock--noted +Gothic doorways, and houses with interior vaulting, and climbed to the +top of a machicolated tower built over the ivy-draped wall of a ruined +castle. The place is very charming to the eye; but in this region one +soon becomes a spoilt child of the picturesque, and the mind, fatigued +by admiration, loses something of its sensibility to the impressions +of beauty and grandeur, and is capable of passing by almost unmoved +what, where Nature deals out her surprises with a calmer hand, might +engrave upon the memory images of lasting delight. This is the chief +reason, perhaps, why I hate the hurry of the sightseer who, even in +his pleasure, makes himself the bondman of time and the creature of +convention. + +It was pleasant and easy walking on the bank of the river, for as yet +the cliffs were far apart, and in the valley there were strips of +meadow and flowering buckwheat. The water, where it was not broken +into white anger by the rocky channel, was intensely green with the +reflection of poplar and alder, although of crystal clearness. I +watched the large trout swimming in the pools, and wished I had a rod, +but consoled myself with the thought that if I had brought one I +should probably have not seen a fish. Opportunities are never so ready +to show themselves as when we have not the means of seizing them. +While I was looking at the river, a boat shot into view round a bend +of the gorge and came down like an arrow over the rapids. It contained +a small party of tourists and two boatmen, who stood in. the +flat-bottomed craft with poles in their hands, with which they kept it +clear of the rocks. I understood at once the delicious excitement of +coming down the Tarn in this fashion. Bucketfuls of water are often +shipped where the stream rushes furiously between walls of rock; but +the men have become so expert with practice that the risk of being +capsized is very slight. In a few minutes the boat had vanished, and +then the gorge became wilder and sterner; but just as I thought the +sentiment of desolation perfect, a little goatherd, who had climbed +high up the rocks somewhere with his equally sure-footed companions, +began to sing, not a pastoral ditty in the Southern dialect, but the +'Marseillaise,' thus recalling with shocking incongruity impressions +of screaming barrel-organs at the fête of St. Cloud. + +The gorge narrowed and the rocks rose higher, the topmost crags being +1,000 or 1,200 feet above the water. Although everything here was on a +grander scale, all the strong peculiarities of formation which I had +remarked elsewhere in Guyenne and Languedoc, wherever the layers of +Jurassic rock have split asunder and produced gorges more or less +profound, were repeated in this cañon of the Tarn. + +Competent geologists, however, have noted a distinctive difference, +namely: that, of all the rivers running in the fissures of the +_causses_, the Tarn is the only one whose water does not penetrate to +the beds of marl beneath the lias; and this is said to partly explain +the great height and verticality of the cliffs, for when the water +reaches the marl it saps the foundations of the rocks, and these, +subsiding, send their dislocated masses rolling to the bottom of the +gorge. + +I overtook a man and two boys who were hauling and pushing a boat +up-stream. The man was wading in the water with a towing-rope over his +shoulder, and the boys were in the punt plying their boat-hooks +against the rocks and the bed of the river. They made very slow +headway on account of the strength and frequency of the rapids. In +coming down the Tarn, all that the boatman has to do is to use his +_gaffe_ so as to keep clear of the rocks; but the return-journey is by +no means so pleasant and exciting. + +I passed a little cluster of hovels built against the rock, and here a +kind woman offered me some sheep's milk, which I declined for no +better reason than because it was sheep's. + +Towards mid-day I reached the village of Les Vignes, which takes its +name from the vineyards which have long been cultivated here, where +the gorge widens somewhat, and offers opportunities to husbandry. The +great cliffs protect vegetation and human life from the mountain +climate which prevails upon the dismal Causse Méjan and the Causse de +Sauveterre, separated by the deep fissure. Until tourists came to the +Tarn, Les Vignes was quite cut off from the world, but now it is a +halting-place for the boatmen and their passengers; and a little +auberge, while retaining all its rustic charm, provides the traveller +with a good meal at a fair price. The rush of strangers during the +summer has not yet been sufficient to spoil the river-side people +between Sainte-Enimie and Peyreleau by fostering that spirit of +speculation which, when it takes hold of an inn-keeper, almost fatally +classifies him with predatory animals. + +On reaching the auberge I walked straight into the kitchen as usual. A +fowl and a leg of mutton were turning on the spit, and the hostess was +very busy with stewpans and other utensils on various parts of her +broad hearth. I soon learnt that a party of several persons had +arrived before me, and that all these preparations were for them. My +application for a meal was not met with a refusal, but it was evident +that I should have to wait until others were served, and that, they +having bespoken the best of everything in the house, my position was +not as satisfactory as could be desired. I suppose I must have looked +rather sad, for one of the party who had so swooped down upon the +little inn and all its resources suggested that I should take my meal +at their table. I should have accepted this offer with more hesitation +had I known that they had brought with them the _pièce de résistance_, +the leg of mutton, nearly as large as an English one, that was +browning upon the spit before the blazing wood. After thinking myself +unlucky, it turned out that I was in luck's way. + +I was presently seated at a long table with about a dozen others of +both sexes, all relatives or old friends. They belonged to the small +town of Severac, and had driven in two queer countrified vehicles +about fifteen miles in order to spend a happy day at Les Vignes. They +were terribly noisy, but boundlessly good-natured. Not only was I made +to share their leg of mutton, but also the champagne which they had +brought with them. The modest lunch that I had expected became a +veritable feast, and having been entangled in the convivial meshes, I +had to stay until the end of it all. The experience was worth +something as a study of provincial life and manners. These +people--husbands and wives and friends--had come out with the +determination to enjoy themselves, and their enjoyment was not merely +hearty; it was hurricane-like. There were moments when pieces of bread +and green almonds were flying across the table, and the noise of +voices was so terrific that the quiet hostess looked in at the door +with a scared expression which made me think she was wondering how +much longer the roof would be able to remain in its right place. Then, +the jokes that were exchanged over the table were as broad as the +humour of the South is broad. I felt sorry for the women, but quite +unnecessarily. Although the local colour was not refined, human nature +present was frank, hospitable, and irresistibly warm-hearted. The +vulgarity of the party was of the unselfish sort, and therefore +amusing. The enjoyment of each was the enjoyment of all; and even when +the tempest of humour was at its height, not a word was said that was +intended to be offensive. As a compliment to me, they all rose to +their feet, glasses in hand, and the hostess was again startled by a +mighty rush of sound repeating the words 'Vive l'Angleterre!' far up +and down the valley. + +Instead of going on to La Malène that afternoon, as I had intended, I +went after crayfish with one of the members of this jovial party, who +had brought with him the necessary tackle for the sport. There are +various ways of catching crayfish; but in this district the favourite +method is the following: Small wire hoops, about a foot in diameter, +are covered with netting strained nearly tight, and to this pieces of +liver or other meat are tied. A cord a few yards long, fastened to the +centre of the netting, completes the tackle. The baited snare is +thrown into the stream, not far from the bank, and generally where the +bottom is strewn with stones. No more art is needed. The crayfish, +supposing them to be in the humour to eat, soon smell the meat or +divine its presence, and, coming forth from their lairs beneath the +stones, make towards the lure with greedy alacrity. Their movements +can be generally watched, for although they are not delicate feeders, +they are as difficult as Chinamen to please in the matter of water, +and are only to be found in very clear streams. As is the case with +their congeners--the sea crayfish and the crab--greediness renders +them stupid, and, rather than leave a piece of meat which is to their +taste, they will allow themselves to be pulled with it out of the +water. It sometimes happens that the netting is covered with these +creatures in a few minutes, and that all the trouble the fisherman has +is to haul them up. But they are capricious, and, notwithstanding +their voracity, there are times when they will not leave their holes +upon any consideration. Such was their humour to-day. The cause of +their sullenness was said to be a wind that rippled the surface of the +water; but, whatever the reason, not a crayfish did we catch. + +The breeze which was supposed to have upset the temper of the +crustaceous multitude in the Tarn blew up bad weather before night. +The panic-stricken leaves upon the alders and poplars announced the +change with palsied movements and plaintive cries; the willows +whitened, and bent towards the stream; and muttered threats of the +strife-breeding spirits in nature seemed to issue from caverns half +hidden by sombre foliage. As the gorge darkened, the gusts grew +stronger, and the moaning rose at times to a shriek. Now the thunder +groaned, the lightning flashed, and the face of the river gleamed. I +returned to the inn just as the hissing rain began to fall. I was by +this time alone, for the party from Severac had left at the approach +of the storm. + +As I took my solitary evening meal in a low building cut off from the +inn, composed of a large _salle-à -manger_--the same in which the feast +was held--and a bedroom, where I was to pass the rest of the night, I +could not help contrasting the exuberant joviality of the morning with +the absolute want of it now. The place seemed much too big for me; I +had rather it had been half as large, to have got rid of half the +shadow. Instead of the tempestuous laughter, there was the thunder's +roar. There was also the lightning's flash to drive the shadows out of +the corners from time to time. It was a wild and awful night. + +I was busily building around me a vaporous rampart of tobacco-smoke, +as a barrier to gloomy suggestions from without, when the door +suddenly opened, and in walked two gendarmes--one a very +self-important-looking brigadier, with thin sharp nose and keen, +weasel-like eyes. My immediate impression was that they had come to +question me respecting my intentions--inasmuch as I was not going to +work in the same way as other tourists--and possibly to ask me for my +papers; but I was mistaken. They had merely taken shelter from the +rain, and they had not found a refuge too soon, for their appearance +was that of half-drowned rats. The brigadier called for a bottle of +beer, and while he and his younger companion were drinking it I learnt +from their conversation what business had taken them out of doors that +night. Their object was to surprise the fish-poachers at the illegal, +but very exciting and picturesque, sport of spearing by torchlight. +Now, as I had already seen these night-poachers at work on the Tarn, I +may as well describe their method here. + +I was walking one dark night on the bank of the river near Ambialet, +when a glare of lurid light suddenly shot up from the water some +distance in front of me, illuminating the willows, and even the black +woods, on each side of the gorge. I imagined myself at once in a +Canadian forest, near an Indian camp-fire. The light came gliding in +my direction, and presently I distinguished the forms of men in a +boat, all lit up by the glare. One was punting; another was holding +aloft, not a torch, but blazing brushwood--which I afterwards learnt +was broom-that he replenished from a heap in the boat; and a third was +in the stern, gazing intently at the water, and holding in his hand a +staff, which he plunged from time to time to the bottom of the stream. +I understood that this was the _pêche au flambeau_, of which I had +already heard. + +The Tarn being in summer shallow, and of crystal clearness except in +time of flood, it offers every facility for this kind of fishing. The +flat-bottomed boat glides along with the current; the fish, dazzled by +the sudden light, sink at once to the bottom, and lie there stupefied +until they are either speared or the cause of their bewilderment +passes on. The spear head used is a small trident. When the moon is +up, the fish are not to be fascinated by artificial light; +consequently the darkest nights are chosen for this kind of poaching. + +The two gendarmes, then, had been looking for poachers, and, not +liking the weather, they had been unable to resist the auberge light +that beckoned them indoors. While they were talking, in walked the +most hardened and skilful poacher of the place, whose acquaintance I +had made earlier in the day, and who made no secret to me of his +business. So far from being abashed by the presence of the gendarmes, +he gave them a genial salutation, and, sitting down beside them, +talked to them as if he had been on the pleasantest terms with them +for years. He was a man of about fifty, who boasted to me that he had +been a poacher from the age of fifteen, and had never been caught. He +was therefore an artful old fox, and one very difficult to run down. +He made the most of his opportunities in all seasons, and laughed at +those who troubled their heads about the months which were open or +closed. His coolness in the presence of the gendarmes was charming. He +actually offered to furnish the brigadier with a dish of trout at any +time on a day's notice, and argued that they had no right to seize a +net wherever found, because the meshes were not of the lawful size. +'If you doubt it,' said the brigadier, 'just show me yours.' Then he +added with a grin: 'I shall pinch you some day, _mon vieux_.' The +other did not seem to believe it, and I am inclined to think that no +one will 'pinch' him but Death. + +Of the few really attractive callings left, that of the poacher must +be given a prominent place, especially in France, where the law is not +too severe upon a man who tries to make an honest living by breaking +the law so far as it relates to fish and game. The excitement of +catching wild creatures must be greatly increased by the risk that the +hunter or fisher runs of being caught himself. A poacher is by no +means looked down upon in France. He is considered a useful member of +society, especially by hotel-keepers. I know a very respectable beadle +of a singularly pious parish who is an inveterate poacher. On +week-days he is slinking about the woods and rocks with his gun, and +has generally a hare or a partridge in his bag; but on Sundays he +wears a cocked hat, a gold-laced coat with a sword at his side, and he +brings down his staff upon the church pavement with a thundering crack +at those moments when the wool-gathering mind has to be hurried back +and fixed upon the sacredness of the ritual. He is a well-knit, agile +fellow, who knows every inch of his ground, and he has led the +gendarmes who have surprised him such dances over rocks, and placed +them in such unpleasant positions, that they have come to treat him +with the respect and consideration due to a man of his talent and +resource. The French poacher must not be judged by the same ethics as +the English poacher. Generally speaking, game is not preserved in +France. There are extensive tracts everywhere where anybody can shoot, +provided that he has satisfied the license formality and observes the +regulations with regard to the seasons. The poacher is a man who +thinks it waste of money to pay for a gun-license, and a waste of +opportunities to respect the breeding season. If he is a fisher, he +not only scoffs at the close time, but uses illegal means to achieve +his purpose, such as nets with meshes smaller than they should be, and +the three-pronged spear. In the Tarn and other French rivers the fish +have been destroyed in a woeful manner by poison and dynamite, but it +is the rock-blaster and the navvy, not the regular poacher, who is +chiefly to be blamed for this. Men who have the constant handling of +dynamite, and who move from place to place, are rapidly destroying the +life of the rivers and streams. Having noted a good pool, they return +by night and drop into it a dynamite cartridge, the explosion of which +brings every fish, big and small, to the surface. With these +destructive causes, which do not belong to the natural order of +things, should be mentioned another that does, namely, the frequency +of floods in the season when the trout are spawning. But for this +drawback, and the unfair methods of fishing, the Upper Tarn would be +one of the finest trout streams in the world. As it is, an expert +angler would find plenty of sport on the banks of the river above Le +Rozier, and as all anglers are said to be lovers of nature, he would +never be dull in the midst of such entrancing scenery as is to be +found here. + +The storm having spent its fury, the gendarmes and the poacher left, +and I was again alone. Although it was not yet ten o'clock, there was +the quietude of midnight around me. The village was asleep, and I +should have thought Nature asleep had I not heard the harsh scream of +an owl as I entered my bedroom and threw open the window. The clouds +had broken up, and the moon was shining above the great rocks at the +foot of which I knew that the owl was flying silently and searching +with glowing eyes for the happy, unsuspecting mouse or young hare +amidst the thyme and bracken. Can Nature never rest? Is there no peace +without bloodshed under the sun and moon, no respite from ravin even +when the night is hooded like a dead monk? + +I turned from the moonlit clouds, the rushing dark water, the long +white reach of pebbles, and made a little journey round my room. The +people who owned this inn may not have been very prosperous, but they +were evidently rich in faith. The walls were ornamented with rosaries +yards long--probably from Lourdes--and religious pictures. There were +also statuettes of sacred figures, a large crucifix, and close by the +bed a holy-water stoup. The inhabitants of the Lozère, like those of +the Aveyron, are not only believing, they are zealous, and in their +homes they surround themselves with the emblems of their faith. These +are the only works of art which the villagers possess--almost their +only books. + +At seven the next morning I had left Les Vignes, and was making my way +up the gorge, whose rocky walls drew closer together, became more +stupendous, fantastic, and savagely naked. All cultivation +disappeared. A rock of immense size, pointing to the sky, but leaning +towards the gorge, soon attracted my notice, as it must that of any +traveller who comes within view of it. This monolith, over 200 feet in +height, has its base about 500 feet above the stream, but it is only a +jutting fragment of the prodigious wall. It has received the name of +L'Aiguille, from its needle-like shape. Below this, and partly in the +bed of the stream, is another prodigious block of dolomite called La +Sourde, and here the channel is so obstructed by the number and size +of the rocks which have fallen into it, that the river has forced a +passage beneath them, and does not reappear until the obstacle is +passed. But although the water vanishes, its muffled groan arises from +mysterious depths. This, together with the monstrous masses of +dolomite, wrinkled, white and honeycombed, the narrowness and gloomy +depth of the gorge, the fury of the water as it descends amongst the +blocks to leap into its gulf, makes the imagination ask if something +supernatural has not happened here. But the geologist says that this +chaos of tumbled-down rocks is simply the result of a 'fault' in the +stratification, and that, the foundations having given way, the masses +of dolomite fell where they now lie. + +In the Middle Ages, however, geology was an undiscovered science, and +the human mind was compelled--perhaps with much advantage to +itself--to seek supernatural causes in order to explain the mysterious +phenomena of nature, many of which, so far as subsidiary causes are +concerned, have ceased to be mysterious. This spot--called the Pas de +Souci--has, therefore, its poetic and miraculous legend. St. Enimie, +when she established her convent near the fountain of Burlats, higher +up the Tarn, interfered with the calculations of the devil, who had +found the numerous orifices in this region communicating with the +infernal kingdom exceedingly convenient for his terrestrial +enterprises. He therefore lost no time in entering upon a tug-of-war +with the saintly interloper. But she was more than a match for him. +Her nuns, however, were of weaker flesh, and so he tried his wiles +upon them. Their devotions and good resolutions were so much troubled +by the infernal teaser of frail humanity that St. Enimie, realizing +the great danger, rose to the occasion. One day or night she caught +the devil unawares in the convent and tried to chain him up; but he +was too strong or too crafty for the innocent virgin, and made his +escape down the gorge of the Tarn, intending to reach his own fortress +by the hole down which the stream plunges at the Pas de Souci, and +which the peasant believes existed from the beginning of the world. +St. Enimie followed at his heels as closely as she could, and he led +her a wild scamper over the rocks. She hoped that St. Ilère, her +confessor, who lived in a cavern of the gorge, would stop the fiend in +his flight, but the saint was so busy praying that he did not notice +the arch-enemy as he sped on his frantic course. St. Enimie was quite +out of breath and ready to drop from exhaustion when she drew near the +Pas de Souci, a little in the rear of the tormentor of souls, and he +was just about to plunge into the gulf. The saint threw herself upon +her knees, and exclaimed: 'Help me, O ye mountains and crags! Stop +him, fall upon him!' Thereupon there was a great commotion of the +ancient rocks far above under the calm sky, and they fell, one after +the other, with a frightful crash. It was, however, the immense block, +since named La Sourde, that stopped the devil; the others he shook off +as if they had been pebbles. When La Sourde struck him it was more +than he could contend with, and it flattened him out. The Needle Rock +was just about to tumble, when La Sourde cried out: 'Hold on, my +sister! You need not trouble yourself; I have him fast!' This explains +why the Needle Rock has ever since looked so undecided. For centuries +La Sourde bore the impress of a sanguinary hand, left upon it by Satan +in his frantic efforts to get free, but some years ago it was washed +away by an exceptionally high flood. + +A little beyond this impressive and legendary spot, the gorge, +widening, displays an immense concavity on the left, nearly +semicircular. Here among the spur-like rocks which jut out from its +steep sides--much clothed, however, with vegetation--was the hermitage +of St. Ilère, and the spot where it is supposed to have been is a +place of pilgrimage. Here, too, are numerous caverns, in some of which +many implements of the Stone Age have been found, as well as the bones +of extinct animals and others which disappeared from Europe before the +historic period. To those who have the special knowledge that is +requisite, the caverns of the Causses de Sauveterre and Méjan offer +great enticement, for only a few of their secrets, covered by the +darkness of incalculable ages, have yet been brought to light. + +Again the cliffs draw closer together, and the tower-like masses on +the brink of each precipice lift their inaccessible ramparts higher +and higher in the blue air. Gray-white or ochre-stained layers and +monoliths shine like incandescent coals in the unmitigated radiance of +the sun. I pass a little group of houses in the hollow of overhanging +rocks, splashed by the shadow of the wild fig-tree's leaves. One side +of the gorge is all luminous with sunbeams, down to the lathy poplars +leaning in every direction by the edge of the torrent, their leaves +still wet with last night's rain. Another boat is being tugged +laboriously up the rapids, a mule taking the first place at the end of +the rope. The impetuous water looks strong enough to carry the beast +off his legs; but he, like the boatman, is used to the work, and has +good nerves. The path--if path it can be called, when it has lost all +trace of one--now leads over large pebbles which are not pleasant to +walk upon; but presently the way along the water-side is absolutely +closed by vertical rocks some hundred feet high. + +To enter the mad torrent in order to get beyond these terrible rocks, +forming a narrow strait, was an undertaking only to be thought of if +the case were desperate. I believed that there must be a path +somewhere running up the cliff, and after going back a little I found +one. It led me four or five hundred feet up the side of the gorge; but +on looking down the distance seemed much less, because the rocks rose +a thousand feet higher. I was gazing at the loftiest peak on the +opposite side, when two eagles suddenly appeared in the air above it; +and so long as I remained did they continue to circle over it without +any apparent movement of their wings. The eyrie upon this needle-like +point is well known; according to the popular belief, it has always +been there. + +It was in vain, however, that I searched the horizon for the vultures, +whose principal stronghold--a long ledge of rock, protected from above +by an overhanging cornice, and beyond the range of a fowling-piece +from below--is immediately over the river in this part of the gorge. +Had I left Les Vignes before daybreak, I might have seen them start +off all together, the brown vultures and their black cousins, the +arians, in quest of carrion; but now there was not one to be seen. As +the vulture has become a rare bird in France, inhabiting only a few +localities where there are very high and inaccessible rocks, and where +man is crestfallen in the presence of nature, it is to be hoped that +they will not be driven from the great gorge of the Tarn by being too +frequently shot at in the breeding season, when they are obliged to +show themselves at all hours of the day. No peasant would think of +wasting a cartridge upon them; but the sharpshooting tourist, armed +with a rifle, may be tempted to do so. He would probably fire many +bullets before he succeeded in striking a bird five or six hundred +feet above him; and even if the shot took effect, there would be very +small chance of the vulture falling where it could be picked up. The +bombardment would do them little damage; but it might, if often +repeated, prove too trying to their nerves, and, notwithstanding their +conservative principles, they might be driven at length to quit these +rocks inhabited by their ancestors for centuries. To the naturalist +this district is of fascinating interest, on account of the large +number of carnivorous birds of various species by which it is still +haunted. Besides the common brown eagle, three kinds of vulture, +several species of falcons, hawks, and owls, the raven family appears +to be fully represented, with the exception of the jackdaw, which +possibly finds itself too weak and too slow of flight to live in the +midst of such strong and ferocious air-robbers as those which have +established themselves in these grand solitudes. Among smaller birds +of different habits, the red partridge and the water-ousel are +frequently seen. The rock-partridge, or _bartavelle_, is also found, +but is rare. The four-legged fauna is not represented by the wolf or +the boar, the forests being too scanty to afford them sufficient +cover, and the largest wild quadrupeds are the badger and the fox. + +Descending the path by steps cut in the rock, I again reached the +margin of the Tarn. Gradually the gorge opened, slopes appeared, and +upon these were almond-trees and vines planted on terraces. Flowers, +too, which had little courage to bloom in the dim depths where the +cliffs seemed ready to join again, and the sunbeam vanished before it +dried the dew, now took heart under the broader sky. Great purple +snapdragons hung from clefts in the rocks, inula flashed gorgeously +yellow, white melilot raised its graceful drooping blossoms, and +hemp-agrimony made the bees sing a drowsy song of the brimming cup of +summer. + +Some vestiges of a castle appeared upon a high-jutting craggy mass, +marking the site of the Château de Montesquieu, one of the strongest +fortresses of the gorge in the Middle Ages. + +I guessed rightly by the vines and almonds that La Malène was not far +off. Soon came that sight, ever welcome to the wayfarer--the village +where he intends to seek rest and refreshment. The inn here was as +unpretentious as the one at Les Vignes; but with hare, _en civet_, a +dish of trout, and a bottle of the wine grown upon the sunny terrace +above the houses, I had as good a meal as any hungry tramp has a right +to expect. As for myself, I never expect anything so sumptuous, and in +this way I let luck have a chance of giving me now and then a pleasant +surprise. The trout in the Upper Tarn do not often reach a large size, +because by growing they become too conspicuous in such clear water; +but their flesh obtains that firmness which is the gift of mountain +streams. The wine grown upon the slopes of the gorge is a _petit vin_ +with a sparkle in it, and it comes as a delightful change to those who +have been drinking the tasteless, deep-coloured wines of the Béziers +and Narbonne region, with which the South of France has been flooded +since the new vineyards upon the plains and slopes of the +Mediterranean have been yielding torrents of juice. The fruit of no +plant is so dependent upon the soil for its flavour as that of the +vine. Chalk produces champagne, and some of the best wines of Southern +France are grown upon calcareous soils where the eye perceives nothing +but stones. The plant loves to get its roots down into the crevices of +a rock. I now drank the fragrant light wine of the Gévaudan--the +calcareous district of the Upper Tarn--with a pleasure not unmixed +with sorrow; for the phylloxera had found its way up the gorge, and +the vineyards were already sick unto death. The pest had come some +years later here than in districts nearer the plains; but it had too +surely come, and the fear of poverty was gnawing the hearts of the +poor men--many of them old--who had been bending their backs such a +number of years, and their fathers before them, upon those terraces +which had been won from the desert at the price of such long labour. + +Before continuing my journey up the gorge, I climbed to the little +church overlooking the village, and which stands in the midst of the +rough burying-ground where the dead must lie very near the solid rock. +It is a plain Romanesque building, presenting the peculiarity not +often seen of exterior steps leading to the belfry. Against an inner +wall is a tablet, which tells of certain men of Florac who 'pro Deo et +rege legitime certantes coronati sunt, die II mensis Junii, anni +1793.' They were guillotined by the Revolutionists at Florac. + +I passed the Château de la Caze, a small but well-preserved castle, +showing the transition from the feudal to the Renaissance style, and +still surrounded by its moat. It has five towers, and is a picturesque +building; but I thought it gloomy in the deep shade of the gorge and +the surrounding trees. It must be gloomier still at night when the +owls shriek and hoot. If it is not haunted, it must be because there +are so many abandoned solitary great houses in this part of France +that the ghosts have become rather spoilt and hard to please. + +What is the pale yellow flame that I see burning by the river where a +slanted beam strikes down from a crenellated bastion of ruddy rock? +Reaching the spot, I find two pale-yellow flames, one hanging from the +bank, the other trembling upon the stream. The evening primrose has +lit its lamp from the sunbeam. + +More rocks there are to climb, for the river again rushes between +upright walls. The path goes along the edge of a horrid precipice, +then descends abruptly by steps cut in the rock. + +At a very poor hamlet, clinging to the side of the gorge at a +sufficient height to be safe from the floods, I ask a woman if anybody +there sells wine. 'Yes,' she replies, 'he does,' pointing at the same +time to a tall old white-haired man, who beckons me to follow him. He +hobbles along with a stick, dragging one leg, and leads the way into +his house under a rock. It is a mere hovel, but it has a wooden floor, +and there are signs of personal dignity--what is known in England as +'respectability'--struggling with poverty. Perhaps the ancient clock, +whose worm-eaten case reaches from the floor to the ceiling, and whose +muffled but cheery tick-tack is like the voice of an old friend, +impressed me in favour of this poor home as soon as I entered. + +The crippled man, having given me his best chair, disappeared into his +cellar scooped out of the rock, and presently returned with a bottle +of wine. Then he brought out a great loaf of very dark bread, which he +placed upon the table with the wine, and a plateful of green almonds. +The French peasants observe the wholesome rule of never drinking red +wine without 'breaking a crust' at the same time. I made my new +acquaintance break a crust with me and share the contents of the +bottle. Then he talked freely of the cares that weighed upon him. He +told me that he and others who lived in the gorge had always depended +upon their wine to buy bread. + +'And are the vines in a very bad way?' 'The year after next will see +the last of them.' + +Many persons, he added, would be obliged to leave the district because +it would become impossible for them to live there. While we were +talking two or three little barefooted boys, whose clothes had been +patched over and over again, but still showed gaping places, watched +and listened in the open doorway with round-eyed attention. They were +robust children with health and happiness in their faces, in spite of +the hard times, for the mountain air fed them, and their troubles were +yet to come. They were the old man's grandchildren, and I suppose I +was looking at them more keenly than I should have had I reflected, +for he made excuses for their neglected appearance with an expression +of pain. Then, changing the subject suddenly, he said: + +'What country do you belong to?' + +'To England.' + +'Ah, c'est un riche pays!' + +I told him that it was rich and poor like other countries, and that +the people there had no vines at all to help them. 'It is a rich +country all the same,' repeated the old man, for the impression had +somehow become deeply fixed in his mind. There I see him still seated +at the rough table, and behind his broad bent back the wide fireplace +against the bare rock blackened with smoke. + +I had left this hamlet, and was on the bank of the Tarn, when I heard +the patter of bare feet upon the pebbles behind me. Turning round, I +saw the eldest of the boys who had been watching me in the doorway. He +had an idea that I should go wrong, and followed stealthily to see. He +now told me that if I continued by the water I should soon be stopped +by rocks, and I accepted his offer to show me the way up the cliff. +His recklessness in running over the sharp stones made me ask him if +they did not hurt his feet. 'Oh no!' he replied; 'they are used to +it.' It is indeed astonishing what feet are able to get used to. The +boy's joy at the few sous which I gave him was almost ecstatic. He had +hardly thanked me when he set off running homeward to show how he had +been rewarded--for his sharpness in thinking that I should lose my +way, and allowing me to do so before saying a word. + +I was by the river-side not far from Sainte-Enimie when a rather +alarming noise broke the silence and became rapidly louder. I looked +up the steep cliff, and saw to my consternation a great stone bounding +down the rocks and crashing through the vines. As I seemed to be in +the line of it I hastened on. I had only gone about ten yards when it +bounded into the air and, passing sheer over the path and bank, +plunged into the Tarn with a mighty splash. I reckoned that had I +remained where I was it would have just cleared my head. It was a +fragment of rock which, from its size, might well have been two +hundredweight. The same thing happened earlier in the day, but that +time I was not so unpleasantly near. The heavy rain of the previous +night, coming after a long period of drought, was probably the cause +of these already-loosened stones starting upon their downward career. +All these calcareous rocks are breaking up. The process of +disintegration and decomposition is slow, but it is sure. Every frost +does something to split them, and every shower of rain entering the +crevices does something to rot them; so that even they cannot last. +The Tarn is carrying them back to the sea, to be deposited again, but +somewhere else. + +I was at Sainte-Enimie before sunset, and there I found the air laden +with the scent of lavender. True, all the hills round about were +covered with a blue-gray mantle; but I had never known the plant when +undisturbed give out such an aroma before. Looking down from the +little bridge to the waterside, my wonder ceased. There in a line, +with wood-fires blazing under them, were several stills, and behind +these, upon the bank, were heaps of lavender stalks and flowers such +as I had never seen even in imagination. There were enough to fill +several bullock-waggons. The fragrance in the air, however, did not +come so much from these mounds as from the distilled essence. It was +evident that Sainte-Enimie had a considerable trade in lavender-water. + +I spent an unhappy evening, for the inn where I stopped--it called +itself a hotel--had been made uninteresting by enterprise; and a +couple of tourists from the South, with whom it was my lot to dine, +caused me unspeakable misery by talking of nothing else but of a +bridge which they had lately seen; If I should ever be near it, I +think the recollection of that evening will make me avoid it. It may +be a miracle in iron, but none the less shall I owe it an everlasting +grudge. These gentlemen from Carcassonne were typical sons of the +South in this, that the sound of their own voices acted upon their +imagination like the strongest coffee blended with the oldest cognac. +They would have been amusing, nevertheless, but for the horrible +intensity of their resolve to make me see that nightmare of a bridge. +If one had taken breath while the other spoke, or rather shouted, I +should have suffered less; but they both shouted together, and their +struggle to get the better of one another by force of lung, +gesticulation, and frenzied rolling of the eyes became a duel, whereby +the solitary witness was the only person harmed. What a relief to me +if they had gone down to the river bank and fought it out there! No +such luck, however. Had there been no listener, they, too, might have +wished the bridge in the depths of Tartarus. + +If I passed an unhappy evening at Sainte-Enimie, I spent a worse +morning. There was a change of weather in the night, and when the day +came again, it was a blear-eyed, weeping day, with that uniform gray +sky with steam-like clouds hiding half the hills which, when seen in a +mountainous region by a person bent on movement, is enough to give him +'goose flesh.' I now felt a longing to leave the Cevennes and to +return to the lower country, but there seemed no chance of escape. The +rain continued hour after hour--and such rain! It was enough to turn a +frog against water. As the people of the inn seemed incapable of +showing sympathy, I went out to look at the town under a borrowed +umbrella. It was certainly not much to look at, especially under +circumstances of such acute depression. I walked or waded through a +number of miry little streets where all manner of refuse was in a +saturated or deliquescent state--cabbage-stumps and dead rats floating +in the gutters, potato-peelings and bean-pods sticking to the +mediaeval pitching--everything slippery, nasty, and abominable. There +were old houses, as a matter of course; but who can appreciate +antiquities when his legs are wet about the knees and his boots are +squirting water? Nevertheless, I tried to notice a few things besides +the vileness underfoot. One was a rudely-carved image of the Virgin in +a niche covered by a grating. This was in such a dark little street +that it seemed as if the sun had given up all hope of ever shining +there again. I struggled through the slush to the church, built, with +the town, on the side of a hill rising from the Tarn. I found a +Romanesque edifice--old, but rough, and offering no striking feature, +save the arched recesses in the exterior surface of the wall. A little +higher upon the hill was the convent founded by St. Enimie; but the +original building disappeared centuries ago. + +On returning to the inn I passed the Fontaine de Burlats, where St. +Enimie was cured of her leprosy in the Merovingian age. It was a +change to see something that really seemed to enjoy the incessant +downpour and to enter into the spirit of it. The fountain would be +remarkable in another region by the volume of water that gushes in all +seasons like a little river out of the earth; but there are so many +such between the Dordogne and the Tarn, wherever the calcareous +formation has lent itself to the honeycombing action of water, that +this copious outflow loses thereby much of its claim to distinction. + +The legend of St. Enimie is fully set forth in a Provençal poem of the +thirteenth century by the troubadour Bertrand de Marseilles, who +received his information from his friend the Prior of the monastery at +Sainte-Enimie, which in the Middle Ages was the most important +religious house in the Gévaudan. The MS. is preserved in the library +of the Arsenal, Paris. It was at the express recommendation of St. +Ilère that Enimie sought the fountain of Burla (now Burlats), and +bathed her afflicted body in its pure waters. The passage of the poem +containing this injunction is as follows: + + 'Enimia verges de Dyeu, + Messatges fizels ti suy yeu. + Per me ti manda Dieus de pla + Que t'en anes en Gavalda,[*] + Car, lay trobaras una fon + Que redra ton cors bel e mon + Si te laves en l'aygua clara. +* * * * + A nom Burla; vay l'en lay + Non ho mudar per negun play.' + + [*] Gévaudan. + +The relics of the saint were destroyed or lost at the time of the +Revolution; but high upon the side of a neighbouring hill a chapel has +been raised to her, and it is a place of pilgrimage. + + + + +IN THE VALLEY OF THE LOT. + + +The rambler in the highlands of the North knows so well what the +wretchedness of being shut up by bad weather in a mountain inn means, +that he may have grown reconciled to it, and have learnt how to spend +a day under such circumstances pleasantly. But to me, a sun-lover, to +whom the charm of the South has been irresistible, such a trial is one +that taxes to the utmost all the powers of endurance. Hence it is +that, when I think of Sainte-Enimie, I can recall nothing but +impressions of dismal wetness. This may seem shocking to those who +have seen, under a different aspect, the little town on the Upper +Tarn, named after the Merovingian saint. Be it remembered, however, +that I was shut up hour after hour in an inn crowded with peasants in +damp blouses, shouting _patois_ at each other, and clutching great +cotton umbrellas, whose fragrance under the influence of moisture, was +not idyllic; In that abominable little auberge, that styled itself a +hotel, I decided to go no farther up the Tarn, but, as soon as the +weather would set me free, to cross the _causse_ that separated me +from the Lot, and to descend the valley of this river towards the +warmer and dryer region of the plains. + +Not until the afternoon were there any signs of improvement in the +weather; and then, as soon as the clouds grew lighter, I started +without waiting for the rain to stop. It was Sunday, and outside the +old church was a crowd of men and boys, who had come for vespers. The +women did not join them, but passed through the door as they arrived. +Throughout rural France, wherever religion keeps a firm hold on the +peasant, it is the custom of the men to gather for gossip in front of +the church some time before the service, and, just as the bell stops; +to make a rush at the doorway, and struggle through the opening like +sheep into a fold when there is a dog at their heels. While looking at +these men, I was again struck by the prevailing tendency of the +peasants of the Lozère to develop long, sharp noses--a feature that +often gives them a very weasel-like expression. + +Having passed the ruins of the monastery, whose high loopholed walls +and strong tower showed that it had once been a fortress as well as a +religious house, I was soon rising far above the valley of the Tarn. +The winding road led me up the flanks of stony hills, terraced +everywhere for almond-trees; but after two or three hours of ascent +the almonds dwindled away, and the country became an absolute desert +of brashy hills, showing little asperity of outline, but mournful and +solemn by their wastefulness and abandonment to a degree that makes +the traveller ask himself if he is really in Europe, or has been +transported by magic to the most arid steppes of Asia. But there is a +plant that thrives in this desert, that loves it so much as to give to +it a tinge of dusty blue as far as the eye can reach on every side. +Needless to say that this is the lavender. It was in all its flowering +beauty as I crossed the treeless waste, and it gave to the breath of +the desert what seemed to be the mystical fragrance of peace. + +Leaving the highway to Mende, I took a rough road on the left, which, +according to the map, led directly to Chanac by the Lot. I should +recommend no one else to take it unless he have more hours of daylight +before him than I had. Again I ran a near risk of passing the night in +the open air. The road became little better than a track; then it +crossed others, and it was a very pretty puzzle to tell which was the +one for me and which was not. It is true that I could have made +straight towards the Lot by the compass, but the descent of the +precipitous cliffs into the deep gorge, unless one knows the paths, is +only a task to be undertaken at nightfall with a light heart by those +who have had no experience of this savage district. When my perplexity +was at its worst I saw a shepherd, whose form, wrapped in the long +brown homespun cloak called a _limousine_, stood solemnly against the +evening sky. I made towards him, thinking that he would help me out of +my difficulty; but no: either he did not understand a word I said, or +did not choose to give any information. Perhaps he thought me an +escaped madman, or a dangerous tramp, with whom it was better to hold +no conversation. The sun was setting when I reached a wood of +scattered firs--a more melancholy spot at that hour than the bare +_causse_. The weather had been fine for some hours, but now a storm +that had been gathering broke. As the wind blew the rain in slanting +lines, the level sun shone through the vapour and the streaming +atmosphere. Looking above me, as I sheltered myself behind a wailing +fir, I saw that the dreary world was spanned by two glorious rainbows. +But although the scene was so wildly beautiful, the spirit of +desolation was upon me, and I felt like a homeless wanderer. I was +roaming among the firs in the dusk, when I met a shepherd boy, who put +me on a path that joined the main road to Chanac. Then began the +descent into the valley of the Lot. It was very long; the winding road +passed through a black forest of firs, and the dark night fell when I +was still far from the little town. The walk was gloomy, but in all +gloom there is something that is grand and elevating--something that +gives a sense of expansion to the soul. The cries of the unseen +night-birds, the solemn mystery of the enigmatic trees wrapped in +darkness, make us feel the supernatural that surrounds us, and is a +part of us, more than the visible movement of life in the light of the +sun. + +At length the oil-lamps of Chanac flashed brightly in the hollow +below, and not long afterwards I was sitting at a table in an upper +room of a comfortable old inn, the lower part of which was filled with +roisterers, for it was Sunday night. I dined with a Government +functionary--an inland revenue _contrôleur_, who happened to be a +Frenchman of the reserved and solemn sort that cultivates dignity. By +dint of being looked up to by others he had acquired the fixed habit +of looking up to himself. All the time that I was in his company I +felt that, had he been an angel dining with a modern Tobias, he could +scarcely have shown greater anxiety not to sit upon his wings. Moved +by the genial spirit of the grape, or not wishing, perhaps, to crush +me altogether with the weight of his official importance, his ice +began to melt a little at about the second or third course. Forgetting +discretion, he actually smiled. The meal, which had been prepared in +anticipation of his coming, was a much more splendid entertainment +than would have been got up for me had I been alone. The cook's +masterpiece was a very cunningly contrived pasty--a work of local +genius that I was quite unprepared for. Even M. le contrôleur, had he +not checked himself in time, would have beamed at this achievement; +but he would never have forgiven himself such an admission of weakness +common to mortals not in the service of the Government. Just before +the dessert a superb trout that had been drawn out of the sparkling +Lot was brought in, and it had been mercifully spared the disgrace of +being sprinkled with chopped garlic. + +While we were dining the wassailers in the great kitchen and general +room downstairs became more and more uproarious. Dancing had +commenced, and it was the _bourrée_, the delightful _bourrée_ of +Auvergne (the Upper Lot here runs not very far from the Cantal) that +was being danced. It is a measure that has no local colour unless it +is accompanied by violent stamping. The _contrôleur_ looked very +scandalized, and said it was abominable that the house should be given +up to such tumult and disorder. I observed, however, that as the +joyousness of the party downstairs increased my companion's face +became animated by an expression that was not one of genuine anger, +and as soon as he had drunk his coffee he remarked in a tone of +indifference that, as the evening had to be spent somehow, it might be +less disagreeable to see what was going on below than simply to hear +it. I soon followed him, and found that he was enjoying himself +thoroughly, although discreetly, in a quiet corner. The kitchen was +filled with young fellows in blouses, some sitting at tables drinking +and smoking, others standing; all were shouting, whistling or raising +peals of laughter that might have brought the house about their ears +had it been built by a modern contractor. In the centre of the room +the bare-armed kitchenmaid, who had left the platters, and a young +peasant in a blouse were dancing, their backs turned to each other, +moving their arms up and down like puppets in a barrel-organ, and +banging the floor with their sabots, with the full conviction that the +greater the noise the greater the fun. And this was the opinion of all +except the stout hostess, who looked on at the scene with a distressed +countenance from behind a mighty pile of dirty plates. The musicians +were spectators who whistled in a band the air of the _bourrée_, which +is enough to make the most sedate Canon who ever sat in a stall dance, +or at least to remember with charity the promptings of his +adolescence. + +When the kitchenmaid went back to her plates--to the great relief of +her mistress, who would have sternly condemned her tripping if +thoughts of business had not beset her practical mind--two young men +stood up and danced another _bourrée_. With the exception of the +scullion and household drudge there was no chance of getting a female +partner. In these villages and small towns the girls are kept out of +harm's way. They go to bed at eight or nine, and are hard at work +either in the fields or in the house, or washing by the stream, all +through the hours of daylight. The priests, wherever they have +influence--and in the South they have a great deal--set their faces +strongly against dancing by the two sexes, except under very +exceptional circumstances. They are right; they have peculiar +facilities for knowing the variety of human nature with which they +have to deal. Humanity is fundamentally the same everywhere, but what +is fundamental is modified by race and climate. Temperament, fashioned +by causes innate and local, exercises an immense influence upon +practical morality. + +And so the revel went on. As the glasses were refilled the noise grew +louder and the smoke denser. I soon had enough of it, and taking a +candle I climbed to my bedroom, leaving the _contrôleur_ in his +corner. Before going to bed I did a little sewing, having borrowed a +threaded needle from the landlady with this object in view. The +wayfarer should be ready to help himself as far as he can, and +although sewing is not, perhaps, the most manly of accomplishments, no +tourist should be incapable of sewing on a button or closing up a rent +that makes the village children laugh. + +My walk across the _causse_ separating two rivers had tired me, but I +might as well have remained downstairs for all the sleep that I +enticed. As the hours wore on the uproar, instead of subsiding, became +more terrific. These Southerners have voices of such rock-splitting +power that, when twenty or thirty of them, inspired by Bacchus, or +excited by discussion, shout together, one asks if it would be +possible for devils on the rampage to raise a more hideous tumult. The +house trembled as from a succession of thunderclaps. Midnight struck, +and the uproar was unabated. At one it had entered upon the +quarrelsome phase, and at two there was a fight. Chairs or tables were +overthrown, there was a smashing of glass, a rapid scuffling of feet, +and the screaming and howling as of a menagerie on fire. Above the +fiendish din rang out the shrill voice of the hostess, who was +evidently trying to separate the combatants, and who seemed to be +successful, for the hurricane suddenly lulled. + +This hostess was a woman of words, but the landlady of an inn near +Rodez, which I entered one summer evening, showed herself under +similar circumstances to be a woman of action. Two young men who were +sitting at a table, after a very brief difference of opinion, stared +fixedly and fiercely into each other's face, and then sprang at one +another like a couple of tom-cats. Presently the stronger took the +other up in his arms, carried him out through the door, and, having +pitched him considerately upon the manure-heap in the yard, returned +to his place with the expression of the victorious cat. But he +reckoned without his hostess. She was not tall, but her cubic capacity +took up more place in the world than that of two or three ordinary +mortals. With her great bare arms folded across her ample person she +waddled towards the triumphant young man, and there was a look in her +eye that made him wriggle uneasily upon his chair. I think he was +tempted to run away, but shame nailed him to his seat. As soon as the +pair were at close quarters, one of the folded bolster-like arms made +a sudden movement, and the back of the strong rough hand, hardened by +forty years or more of toil, covered for an instant the youth's nose +and mouth. That single movement of a female arm, the muscular +development of which a pugilist might have envied, shed more blood +than all the clawing, tugging, and butting of the male combatants had +caused to flow. 'That is to teach you,' said the strong woman, 'not to +fight in my house again!' + +But I am forgetting that I am now at Chanac. When I went down into the +kitchen at about seven o'clock, after two or three hours' sleep, the +landlady and the other women of the inn looked very tired and +sheepish. They were prepared to hear some strong criticism of the +night's proceedings, such as they would be sure to get when the +_contrôleur_ came down. + +'You seem to have had some good amusement last night, and to have kept +it up well,' said I. + +'Oh, monsieur,' exclaimed the hostess, shaking her head dolefully, +'what a night it was!' + +And she went on shaking her head, while the kitchen-maid--the one who +danced the _bourrée_, and was now listlessly rinsing glasses +innumerable--giggled behind her mistress's back. She evidently thought +that it was a good sort of night. In making up the bill I think that +the regretful aubergiste, who felt, that the reputation of her house +had received a cruel blow, and that all the mothers in the place were +reviling her for encouraging their sons in dissipation, must have left +the bed out of the reckoning, considering that she could not honestly +charge me for a night's rest which I did not get. At any rate, the +bill was ridiculously small. + +[Illustration: CIGALA, THE SHOEBLACK.] + +Now, with the help of daylight, I can see what the little town is +like. The houses--many of which have late Gothic doorways--are +clustered about the sides of an isolated hill or mamelon in the valley +of the Lot, beyond which rise the high cliffs covered with dark woods. +The town is still dominated by the tall rectangular tower that helped +to protect it in the Middle Ages, and near to this is the church, +which is both Romanesque and Gothic, and is rich in curious details. +The sanctuary is separated from the rest of the choir by the graceful +arcade of numerous little arches supported by tall and slender +columns, which is one of the most charming and characteristic features +of the Auvergnat style. The carving of the capitals exhibits in a +delightful manner the hardihood and florid fancy of this singularly +interesting development of Byzantine-Romanesque taste. Upon one of the +piers of the sanctuary are a pair of symbolical doves dipping their +beaks into the chalice that separates them, and upon another are two +grotesque and fantastic beasts facing one another with frightful jaws +wide open. + +The walk from Chanac down the valley through the rest of the +department of the Lozère I did not do fairly. The sun was so hot and +the way so tedious that I at length yielded to the temptation of the +railway that I met here, and rode some fifteen or twenty miles. It was +not until the next morning at St. Laurent d'Olt that I braced myself +up to the task of faring on foot by the river through the department +of the Aveyron. Here in the upper country the stream retains its +ancient name, the Olt, which is merely an abbreviation of Oltis, +unless it be the Celtic origin of the Latin word. It is easy to see +how in rapid speech L'Olt became changed to Lot. The _t_ is still +pronounced. + +The valley down which I now took my way from St. Laurent was broad and +green, but the high rocky cliffs which shut it off from the outer +world drew nearer as I went on. An old tramp who had a bag slung over +his back stopped me and said that he was 'dans la misère.' Doubtless +he guessed that I was not quite so deep in it as himself, and that I +might be able to spare him something. As I always look upon the tramp +with a fraternal interest, however disreputable he may appear, because +my own wayfaring has helped to teach me contempt for appearances, I +stopped to talk with the aged wanderer while hunting for some stray +sous. His matted gray beard and sunken cheeks gave him the air of a +Job of the studios; but no such luck had probably ever befallen him as +to be asked to pose for thirty sous the hour. Such a sum would be more +than he could gather in a day, even after selling the surplus of his +begged crusts. He talked to me of 'the picturesque,' which proved that +he had not grown gray and half doubled up without learning something +of the world's wisdom. I learnt from him that between the spot where +we met and St. Geniez there was only a hamlet, but that I should be +able to find a house there where I could get a meal. + +The old man went hobbling away, wondering, perhaps, when he would meet +another foreign imbecile on the tramp, and I was soon alone upon the +margin of the river's broad bed of sand, strewn with pebbles like the +seashore. The stream was still fresh from the mountains, and it had +the joyousness and bounding movements of young life. It was very +narrow now, and many plants had grown up since the spring upon its +far-shelving banks of mica-glittering sand and many-coloured pebbles; +but often its swollen waters had rolled through this smiling valley, a +raging and uncontrollable force, spreading terror and destruction. + +The cliffs drew nearer and rose higher, and then the river ran through +a gorge nearly impassable, and abandoned to all the wildness of +nature. The partial loop here formed by the Lot is hidden and defended +by a forbidding wilderness of rocks and forest, as if it were one of +the last retreats of the fluvial deities, where they can defy the +curiosity of man. The adventurous spirit prompted me to explore it, +but the lazy one said, 'Leave it.' I took the advice of the latter, +and went on by the road, which now left the river, and ascended +towards the plateau under cliffs of red sandstone. The thirsty sun had +by this time drained almost every flower-cup of its dew; but the +freshness of the morning still lingered in the hollows of the rocks, +and in the shade of the chestnut, the walnut, and elm. As the earth +warmed, it became quieter. All creatures seemed to grow drowsy, except +the sociable little quails that kept calling to one another, 'How are +you?' and the flies of wicked purpose, which become more and more +enterprising as the temperature rises. + +It was long since I had seen a human being, when I heard the +click-clack of loose _sabots_ coming nearer. Presently a couple of +young bulls showed their grim visages round a corner, and after them +came a very small girl with a very long stick. She looked about six +years old, and she had great trouble to keep her little brown feet +inside the wooden shoes, which were many sizes too large for her. How +was it that those big, and perhaps bad-tempered, animals allowed +themselves to be driven and beaten by that child, whereas they would +have turned upon a dog double her size, and done their best to toss +him over the chestnut trees? What is it that the brutes see below the +surface of the human being to inspire them with such respect and fear +of this biped, even when he or she has just crawled out of the cradle? +These bulls, by-the-bye, stopped and looked at me in a way that was +anything but respectful, and I delayed the study of the metaphysical +question until I could watch them from the rear. + +I found on the top of the hill the village or hamlet that the old +tramp had mentioned; but there was no sign of an inn--indeed, there +was no sign of anybody being alive in the place. I threaded the steep +little lanes between the houses and hovels, up to the ankles in dirty +straw that had been turned out of the animals' sheds, but saw nothing +moving except fowls. I knocked at various doors, and obtained no +response. It was clear that all the people, including the children, +were away in the fields, and had left the village to take care of +itself. Hungry and thirsty, I was resigning myself with a heavy heart +to trudge on, when I observed a column of blue smoke rise suddenly +from a chimney, and I was not long in finding the house to which it +belonged. It was a dilapidated building, very wretched now, but with +an air of bygone superiority. This was chiefly shown in the +Renaissance doorway, a rather elaborate piece of work, over which was +the date 1602. I ascended the steps with a little misgiving, for I +thought that perhaps some cantankerous person whose family had seen +better times might be living there, and that my questions as to food +and drink might meet with surly answers. I knocked, nevertheless, with +my stick upon the old door studded with nail-heads. It was opened, and +before me stood a woman who looked old, but who was probably +middle-aged; she was very poorly clad, very imperfectly washed, but on +her tired and toil-worn face there was no forbidding expression. I +told her that I was looking for an auberge, and she said that hers was +one _au besoin_. It was the only one that answered at all to the name +thereabouts. So the smoke had led me to the right place. I followed +the heiress of the dilapidated house--she was a descendant of the +original owner--through the dingy kitchen, where upon the hearth the +fire of sticks that she had just lighted was blazing cheerfully, into +a back room, where there were two beds without linen, and with nothing +but patchwork quilts over big bundles of dry maize leaves. It is thus +that many of the peasants of the Aveyron sleep. This is not a part of +France where the study of cleanliness and comfort is carried to +excess. If the floor of the room that I now entered had ever been +washed, the boards must have forgotten the scrubbing sensation a +century or more ago. The appearance of everything indicated that I was +in a fleas' paradise; but as it was by no means the first of the kind +of which I had had experience, I merely took the precaution of keeping +my feet off the ground, so as to offer as few travelling facilities as +possible to the enemy. The room, although it was dirty, was cheerful; +for the sunshine streamed in through the open window, and the view of +the green valley beneath and the woods beyond soon drove the fleas out +of mind. Upon the sill were plums laid out on wooden trays to dry in +the sun and become what English people call prunes. + +The excellent woman, who installed me before a little table on which +she laid a cloth, said that she had little to offer me; but that all +she had was at my service. She first fished out of the wood-ashes in +which it was preserved one of those dry, stringy sausages with which +everyone who knows this part of France must be familiar. Then she +brought in some white bread which a presentiment of my coming had +perhaps caused her to buy a month before, for it was green with +mildew. She thought that I should prefer this to the very dark bread +of her own making. The choice was perplexing. My meal was chiefly made +upon a dish of firm cream like that of Devonshire, with plums and +fresh cob-nuts for dessert. Then my hostess made me some coffee, a +luxury rarely used in the house; and when she had set it on the table, +I induced her to stay and talk awhile. The conversation was made +easier because, notwithstanding her poverty, she spoke French with +much more facility than most of the people in these rural districts. +She told me that her husband and children had not yet returned from +the fields, and that she was at home because she was so tired after +threshing buckwheat all yesterday in the sun. + +'In winter,' I said, 'you have an easier time?' 'Oh no! In winter we +are always working at something or another. We then make our linen +from the hemp, patch up the clothes, prepare the walnuts for pressing, +and blanch the chestnuts.[*] We have always something on hand.' + + [*] _Blanchir les châtaignes_. In Guyenne, after the first sale of + chestnuts in their natural state, the peasants prepare a large + quantity of those that remain in a special manner, which consists + of removing the first and second skins, and artificially drying + the nuts until they become quite hard. They will then keep an + indefinite period, and can be boiled for food when required. In + the winter evenings, while the women work at their distaffs, the + men frequently skin chestnuts either for drying or for food the + next day. + +But while there was any work to be done out-of-doors, there they were +busy from sunrise until dusk. Supper over, the beasts were looked +after. 'Then,' she added, 'we say our prayers and go to bed.' She +volunteered no statements respecting her ancestry, but when I +questioned her concerning the house, she said that her family had been +living in it for nearly 300 years. At one time they were the principal +people in the district. It was true that they had come down in the +world, but she felt thankful for the blessings that had been given +her, and was satisfied. The family were all in good health, and that +was the main thing. Her mother was still living with her--eighty-seven +years of age, and had never been ill in her life. + +Here was a simple but eloquent story of human vicissitude and +uncertainty that was told without a word of regret or repining, and as +though it were a tale of no interest to anybody. This poor, humble +woman before me, whose back was still aching from the movement of +bending and lifting the flail hour after hour, was, by right of birth, +what we call in England a 'gentlewoman.' But she was poor, and +ignorant of all books except the one that contained her prayers. She +was not less a peasant than any of the women around her, nor did she +wish to be thought anything better. That her ancestors were gentlemen, +that, they may have borne a forgotten title (many that were borne in +France have been forgotten by the descendants), was as nothing to her. +She clung only to what, in her simple but grand philosophy, was really +to be valued--the blessings of life and health, opportunities of +labour, independence, and faith in God. + +This woman would only take the equivalent of a shilling for her wine, +her coffee, and her food; then she made me drink some of her _eau de +noix_ (spirit prepared with the juice of green walnuts), and as I left +she pressed more nuts and plums upon me. + +The old woman who had never been ill was waiting for me under a tree. +She could not speak a word of French, but she said a great deal in +_patois_, of which all that I could make out was that she was afraid +the _calour_ (heat) would hurt me if I left so early in the afternoon. +A little beyond the village I passed a party of threshers, men and +women--two rows of them facing each other like dancers; the figures +bending and straightening in unison, and all the. flails whirling +together in the air. They had spread a large cloth upon the ground, +and were thrashing out the grain upon it. + +A block of granite cropping out of the sandstone indicated a change in +the formation, and this came, for the rocks gradually passed into +gneiss and schist, frequently covered with moss and ferns, golden-rod +in bloom, and purple heather. St. Geniez by the Lot was reached long +before sundown; but although I had the time, I was not tempted to walk +any farther that day. + +The little town is picturesquely situated on the river-bank, and it +has some old houses with turrets, and other interesting details. There +is a late Gothic church that was formerly attached to an Augustinian +monastery, of which part of the cloisters remains. Inside the edifice +every flagstone covers a tomb, and in several instances masons' +hammers and other tools are carved upon them. + +It fell out that several commercial travellers and superior pedlars +came into St. Geniez on the same day as myself, but in more genteel +fashion, for they had their traps, and would not for all the world +have risked their reputation for respectability, and rendered +themselves despicable in the eyes of customers, by entering on foot. +Nevertheless, their first impression (as I afterwards learnt), when I +sat down with them to dinner at the comfortable inn, which, thanks to +their patronage, had found the courage to style itself a hotel, was +that I might be a new rival in the field. But the difficulty was to +guess the particular field that I had marked out for my own +distinction and the confusion of competitors. Was I in the grocery +line, or the oil and colour line? Was I _dans les spiritueux_ or _dans +les articles d'église_? Then they had a suspicion that I was, perhaps, +a German traveller trying to open up a fresh market for potato spirit, +or those scientific syrups which are said to change any alcohol into +'old cognac' or the most venerable Jamaica rum. This may have +accounted for the somewhat chilly reserve that fell upon my table +companions as I took my seat among them. But, as this was unpleasant +for everybody, I soon found an opportunity of dispelling the mystery +that hung over me. Then they threw off all restraint, and showed +themselves to be the jolly, rollicking, good-natured beings that these +men almost invariably are. They were much more polite to me than +Englishmen generally are to strangers, who are felt to be something +like intruders--recognising me as a guest, and insisting upon my +helping myself first to every dish that was brought on the table. It +is customary for tourists to speak of the French commercial traveller +as a very ridiculous or vulgarly offensive person. I have found these +so-called 'bagmen' to be among the most pleasant-mannered, agreeable, +and intelligent people whom I have met while roaming in provincial +France. I have been disturbed at night by their uproariousness, for +they are convivial to a fault; but in my immediate relations with them +I have always found them frank, kindly, and courteous. + +Before eight o'clock the next morning I had left St. Geniez behind me +in the light mist, and was again on the banks of the Lot. At a +waterside village called Sainte-Eulalie--a saint so much venerated by +the French in the Middle Ages that a multitude of places have been +named after her--was a church with a broad tower and low broach spire. +I was struck by the noble simplicity and elegance of the Romanesque +apse, which was much in the Auvergnat style. The village was very +picturesque, partly on account of its position by the sunny, babbling +water, and partly because of its numerous old houses, some with +projecting stories, and others with exterior staircases communicating +with an open gallery covered by the prolonged eaves of the roof. +Outside of the doors mushrooms (_boleti_) after being cut in slices, +were spread in the sun to dry. As I continued my way down the valley I +met several women and girls returning from the chestnut woods on the +hillsides carrying baskets of these _cépes_ on their heads. Although I +hoped to sleep that night at Espalion, I soon left the direct road and +struck off across country to the south-west in order to take in the +village of Bozouls, a place that some soldier whom I had met told me +was like Constantine in Algeria. I therefore left the valley of the +Lot, and proceeded to cross the hills and tablelands which separated +me from the gorge of its tributary, the Dourdou. + +In taking by-paths to reach the _causse_, I passed over hillocks of +chocolate-coloured marl mixed with broken schist and flints: here the +broom and juniper, the heather and bracken, flourished. At length I +felt the fresh breeze and drank the invigorating air of the limestone +plateau. Descending the hill beyond, on the road to Rodez, I passed a +very strange-looking spot where huge flat blocks of bare gneiss, laid +together as though giants of the Titanic age had here been trying to +pave the world, sloped with extraordinary regularity towards the +highway. And these prodigious slabs of gneiss now lay amidst schistous +marl and calcareous rock. + +Farther down in the valley was a small village of which the houses +were dwarfed by a gloomy strong hold, apparently of the fifteenth +century, whose four high and massive towers, occupying the angles of a +small quadrilateral, gave it the appearance of a vast _donjon_. At a +small inn kept by a blacksmith I was able to get a meal and the rest +that was now needed. The blacksmith's wife, a pleasant young woman; +who seemed much amused at the sight of a being from the outer and, to +her, half-fabulous world, drew part of a duck out of the grease in +which it had been preserved, and gave me this with rice for my lunch. +During the repast I was not a little worried by the questions of the +blacksmith and some other village worthies who were drinking coffee in +the small room that had to do for everybody, and who had so placed +themselves that they could watch me at their ease. Such a strange bird +as myself did not drop into their midst every day. They were not +unfriendly, but their curiosity was troublesome, and I perceived that +nothing that I might have said would have removed the impression from +their minds that I was a mysterious character. + +The country beyond this village was not unpleasant to the eye, with +its vineyards on the slopes and its green pasturage in the valleys, +but the hours went by drearily as I tramped upon the long road. I felt +solitary, and was not in the mood to be interested easily; +nevertheless, I lingered on the wayside awhile before a remarkable +relic of the past: a rectangular machicolated tower of great height +and strength rising out of a dark grove of trees. The afternoon was +drawing towards evening, when I descended suddenly into a deep and +narrow ravine where the sunshine was lost, and the twilight dwelt with +greenness and dampness. At the bottom the Dourdou ran swiftly over its +pebbly bed. After following it a little distance I found myself +between towering walls of Jurassic rock, vertical towards the summit, +capped on each side by a long row of houses. There was also a church, +likewise on the edge of the precipice. This was Bozouls--a place +scarcely known beyond a small district of the Aveyron, but one of the +most curious in France. The traveller, when he reaches the gorge, +after crossing a somewhat monotonous country, is quite unprepared for +such a startling revelation of the sentiment of human fellowship in +the midst of the savagery of nature. Why did men build houses in rows +on the brink of these frightful precipices? It appears to have been +all done for the sake of the artist and the lover of the picturesque. +And yet Bozouls grew to be a village in an age when men of work and +action only knew two kinds of enthusiasm--war and religion. Either a +castle or a religious foundation must have been the beginning of this +community. There are no remains of a fortress, but the church is very +old, and its elaborate architecture suggests that it was at one time +attached to a monastic establishment. After crossing the stream I +climbed to this church by a path that wound about the rocks, and found +it an exceedingly interesting example of the Southern Romanesque. The +portal opens into a narthex, where there is a very primitive font like +a low square trough. The nave entrance has two columns on each side +supporting archivolts, and upon the capitals of these columns are +carved figures of the quaintest Romanesque character, illustrating +Biblical subjects. The nave has an aisle on each side scarcely four +feet wide, and most of the separating columns are out of the +perpendicular. The capitals here are wrought with acanthus-leaves or +little figures. The sanctuary and apse are in the style of Auvergne, +with this peculiarity, that the capitals of the slender columns are +singularly massive, and bear only the mere outline of the +acanthus-leaf for ornament. + +The long street of the village, white and sunbaked, running within a +few yards of the precipice, was almost as deserted as the church. But +for a Sister who stood by the convent gate like a statue of Eternal +Silence, and a man who was killing a wretched calf in the middle of +the road, I might have asked myself if this fantastic Bozouls was not +some spectral village, reproducing the past in all except the living +beings who had gone down into their graves. When I recrossed the +Dourdou, the light was several tones lower than it was when I first +descended to the bottom of the ravine, and the vegetation was of a +deeper and sadder green. And the stream rushed onward with a low wail, +and a distressful cry, as of a soul passing down the Dark Valley and +not yet free from the panic of death. + +When I had reached the plateau that I had left an hour or more ago, +the sun was about to set. As I knew that the _diligence_ to Espalion +would soon pass, I preferred to wait for it rather than to walk any +farther. The south wind was blowing with such force that I lay down on +the leeside of a bush to be sheltered from it. Here I watched the sun +burning dimly in a yellow haze on the edge of the world. The wind +wailed amongst the leaves of the hawthorn-bushes, but over the brown +land, flushed with the sad yellow gleam, came the sound of +cattle-bells, softening the harshness of the solitude, and bringing +almost a smile upon the careworn face of Nature. I watched the dingy +golden light rising up the stubble of the hills. Now the sun began to +dip behind a knoll; a far-off tree stood in the line of vision, and I +could see the leaves shaking as if in frenzy against the disc of +sullen fire. Then from the edge of the western sky shot up into the +yellow haze fair colours of pink and purple that seemed to say: 'The +south wind may blow and burn the beauty of the earth, but the west +wind will come again, its light wings laden with refreshment and joy.' +The sun was gone, the shadows of night were being laid upon the dreary +land, when the wavy clouds about the brightening moon became like a +shower of rose-petals; the breeze grew softer and softer, for it was, +in the language of the peasant, the 'sun-wind,' and the nocturnal +peace began to reign over the sadness of the day's death. + +The sound of jingling bells coming rapidly nearer roused me from my +contemplative mood. The _diligence_, so called, was in sight, and a +few minutes later I took my place in the very stuffy box on wheels, +nearly filled with women and bundles. As it was only a drive of some +seven or eight miles to Espalion, the town was reached in good time +for dinner. I sat at a side-table in the large room of the inn, at the +door of which the coach stopped. The central table was already +occupied by half a dozen persons--all fat, vulgar, and noisy. They +were examples of the _petit bourgeois_ class whom one meets rather too +frequently wherever there are towns in this part of France, and with +whom the disposition to grossness is equally apparent in mind and +body. There were women in the party, but had they been absent, the +language of the men would have been no coarser. These fat and +middle-aged women, married, doubtless, and highly respectable after +their fashion, when struck by each gust of humour, such as might issue +from the mouth of a foul-minded buffoon at a fair, rolled like ships +at sea. + +I passed a troubled night at Espalion, for there were a couple of +feathered fiends just underneath the window crowing against each other +with maddening rivalry. One, an old cock, had a very hoarse crow, and +seemed to be suffering from chronic laryngitis brought on by an abuse +of his vocal powers; and the other was a young cock with a very +squeaky crow, for he was still taking lessons, and, as is the case +with many beginners, he had too much enthusiasm. + +I had had more than enough of this duo before the night was through, +and was out very early in the morning looking at the ancient town of +Espalion, which witnessed both the victory and the defeat of British +arms long ere the Maid of Domrémy came to the rescue of the golden +lilies. Its capture took place soon after the Battle of Crécy. The +lords of Espalion were the Calmont d'Olt, who played an active part in +the wars with the English. The town deserves a prominent place among +the many picturesque old burgs stamped with mediaeval character on the +banks of the Lot. One may stand upon its Gothic bridge of the +thirteenth century and dream of the past without risk of being hustled +by a crowd except on market days. This venerable bridge must have been +admirably built to have withstood all the floods which have smote it +in the course of six centuries. The great central arch is so much +higher than the others that in crossing you go up a hill and then down +one. Close by on the river-bank is the sixteenth-century Hôtel de +Ville, a castle, partly built on a rock, in the gracefully-ornamental +style of the French Renaissance, with turrets, mullioned windows, and +a loggia. + +Having crossed the river, I went in search of the chief architectural +curiosity in or near Espalion--that known as the Church of Pers, or +the Chapel of St. Hilarion. It is on the outskirts of the town, and +stands in the old cemetery. I had first to find a potter who kept the +key, and I discovered him at length in a narrow street in the midst of +his clay and the vessels of his handicraft. He gave me the great key, +and it was one that some fervent archaeologist might press +reverentially to his heart, for the smith who forged it must have died +centuries ago. Entering the cemetery, I saw, surrounded by a multitude +of closely-packed tombs and grave mounds, on which the long grass +stood with the late summer flowers, a small Romanesque building that +seemed to have sunk far into the soil, like the ancient lichen-covered +slabs from which the inscriptions had been washed away by time's +inexorable and ever-wearing sea. Perhaps the soil had risen about the +walls. + +This church of the twelfth century is built of red sandstone, the +blocks being laid together without mortar. On entering it such a +dimness falls, with such a sacred silence; the air is so heavy with +dampness and the odour of mildew, that you feel as if you were already +in the vestibule of the Halls of Death, where darkness and stillness +have never known the sound of a human voice or the blessed light of +the sun. The design of the building is that of a nave with transept +and apse. At each end of the transept is some curious cross-vaulting. +The columns have all very large capitals in proportion to the diameter +and height; some are ornamented with plain acanthus leaves, others are +carved with numerous small figures of men and animals, ideally uncouth +and typical of the fantastic medley of Christian symbolism and the +barbaric imagination that found a mystical relationship between the +monsters of its own creation and the problems of the universe. The +exterior of the church is not less interesting than the interior. The +charming Romanesque apse, with its three narrow windows, its blind +arcade, the capitals ornamented with the acanthus, the row of +fantastic modillions above carried all round the building, their +sculpture exhibiting the strangest variety of ideas--heads of men, +women, beasts, birds, and fabulous monsters; and then the venerable +portal, with its elaborate bas-relief of the Last Judgment, furnish +much matter for reflection and study. In this 'Judgment' Christ is +standing in the midst of the Apostles, and the dead are rising from +the tombs below. Fiends are pulling the wicked out of their coffins, +and others are throwing the condemned into the wide-opened jaws of a +frightful monster. Above are numerous figures separated by various +mouldings forming archivolts. The arch of the door is Gothic, but all +the other work is Romanesque. The belfry is simply a roofed wall +pierced with four arched openings for bells. + +Espalion had once its strong fortress on a neighbouring hill--the +Castle of Calmont d'Olt. It is now a ruin. I climbed to it, and found +the undertaking more tedious than I had supposed. The narrow path +winding through the vineyards was bordered with cat-mint, agrimony, +vervain, and camomile. Then it passed through a little village, where +there were old walnut-trees and mossy walls, and a small church with +these words over the door: 'C'est ici la maison de Dieu et la porte du +ciel.' After the village, the path was almost lost amidst blocks of +sandstone and the _débris_ of the fortress, where snakes basking in +the sun slid away at my approach, hissing indignantly at the intruder. +On the summit there had been in the far-off ages an outpour of basalt, +which had crystallized into columnar prisms, and upon this foundation +of ancient lava the castle was built. A good deal of wall and the +lower part of a rectangular keep remain of this fortress, which dates +from the twelfth century. The outer wall was strengthened with +semicircular bastions, the ruins of which are seen. Fennel now thrives +amongst the fallen stones, which were dumb witnesses of so much that +was human. + +Returning to the inn, I resisted the temptation held out to stop and +lunch, although the preparations in the kitchen were far advanced, and +started off on the road to Estaing. I was again following the Lot, +which here flows between high vine-clad hills. After walking a few +miles, I saw a bush over the door of a roadside cottage, and, +entering, found that the only person in charge of this very rustic inn +was a pretty girl of about seventeen. She looked a little scared at +first; but when I had sat down with the evident intention of making +myself at home, she became reconciled to the sight of me, and +consented to let me have what there was in the house to eat. This was +not much, as she took care to point out. The nearest approach to meat +there was eggs, excepting, of course, the fat bacon--quite uneatable +in the English fashion--which is the basis of all the soup made +throughout a great part of France. Having lighted a fire on the +hearth, and fried me some eggs with bits of fat bacon instead of +butter, she said she must go and call 'papa,' who was working in the +vineyard. So she left me in charge of the inn while she went to fetch +her father on the hillside. While I was alone, I looked at the sunny +view of green meadows and trees through the open door that faced the +shining river, and easily fancied that what I saw was a bit of verdant +England. In the room, too, the twittering of a pair of canaries +recalled impressions of other days; but the plague of flies was +thoroughly French, and it soon brought me back to realities. When the +girl returned with her father, she gave me some excellent goat-cheese, +and for my dessert some hazelnuts, together with a spirit distilled +from plums, similar to the _quertch_ of Alsace. + +I had not been long in the sunshine again, when I noticed a large +house in the midst of the vines not far off the road. On drawing near +I found that it was ruinous, and had been long since abandoned. It had +been a rather grand house once, and must have belonged to people of +importance in the country. There was a finely-carved scutcheon with +arms over the Gothic door, and the mullioned windows, which had lost +all their glass, had something of the pathos of gentility that, +becoming poor and old, has been abandoned to all winds and weathers. +The little courtyard was full of high weeds and shrubs, and the wild +flags that grow on the rocks had laid their green leaves together to +hide the wounds of the old walls. Swallows, sparrows, and bats were +now the tenants of this mysterious house, which must have had a +troubled history. The picture has since haunted my memory; the mind +goes back to it in a strange way, and the sentiment of it, as it was +communicated to me, I find perfectly expressed in these lines by +Alphonse Karr: + + 'De la solitaire demeure + Une ombre lourde d'heure en heure, + Se détache sur le gazon, + Et cet ombre, couchée et morte + Est la seule chose qui sorte + Tout le jour de cette maison.' + +Some distance farther I passed another deserted dwelling. It was +perched upon rocks, and was overgrown with ivy and clematis. The road +led me down beside the Lot, which now began to rush again over rocks +as the hills drew closer, and the valley became once more a gorge. On +one side were dense woods; on the other vines reached up to the sky. + +At length I saw before me a row of houses beside the river in a bright +bit of valley hemmed in by high cliffs. On the rocks behind the houses +were a church and a castle. + +This was Estaing. It is a little place full of originality, and looks +as if it had been built to set forth the dream of some old writer of +romance. The late-Gothic church is more quaint and odd than beautiful. +The architect sported with the laws of symmetry, and revelled in the +fanciful. The nave is much wider at one end than the other. The great +sundial over the door, bearing the date 1636, is scarcely less useful +now than when it was placed there. The castle is a strange pile, all +the more picturesque by its incongruity. It stands upon a mass of +schistous rock about fifty feet above the river. Most of the visible +portion of the building is late Gothic and Renaissance; but this was +grafted upon the lower walls and arches of a feudal fortress. Towers +rise from towers, mullioned windows have their lines cut in the shadow +of beetling machicolations, and higher still are dormer windows with +graceful Gothic gables. This castle is now a convent and village +school. From the court I could see the Sisters' little garden, where +flowers and melons and potherbs were curiously mixed without the +gardener's systematic art, which is so often a deadly thing to beauty; +and nasturtiums climbing the weedy walls from rough deal boxes were +basking in the steady glow of afternoon sun, which seemed to me so +intensely brilliant because I was in the dark shadow. A Sister +consented to let me go to the top of the highest tower, and she went +before me rattling her keys officially. On the way she showed me a +fine Renaissance chimney-piece with florid carvings. + +After Estaing the valley became wilder, and the river fell over rocks +in a series of cascades. Clouds came up and hid the sun; a rainy wind +made the willows hoary, and set all the poplar leaves sighing and +quivering. The vines had disappeared, and the wooded gorge became very +solemn in the fading light. There was one figure in the +landscape--that of a peasant woman bending and rolling up into bundles +the hemp that had been spread out to dry. It added the human touch of +melancholy to the sadness of the picture. More and more gloomy became +the scene. Great black precipitous rocks of schist, their hollows +filled with sombre foliage, rose in solemn grandeur far above me, and +in the bottom the plunging stream foamed and roared. The mad wind +caught up the dust from the road and whirled it onward, and then the +rain began to fall. Rockier and darker became the way, and louder the +roar of the stream. So narrow was the gorge at length that the road +ran along a ledge that had been cut in the gneiss. + +When I was still some miles from Entraygues (called by the peasants +Entrayou), I met a young gendarme. He did not ask me for my papers, +for he was a native of the district of Lourdes, and had been brought +into contact with so many English people at Pau that he detected at +once my Britannic accent, which has not been worn away by many years' +residence in France. To him the fact of my being an Englishman was a +sufficient assurance that I was respectable. He was a rakish, +devil-may-care fellow, who, after being a sub-officer in the army, had +lately been moved into the gendarmerie. His heart had been deeply +touched by an English governess whom he had met at Pau, and he spoke +to me about her with 'tears in his voice.' He talked much about +Lourdes, where he said the people were sincerely religious, and not +hypocritical. His opinion of the Aveyronnais was somewhat different, +but perhaps unjust, for as yet he could not have had much experience +of them. Having taken the precaution to tell me that he was anything +but a strict Catholic himself, he declared that he was a believer in +miracles. + +'Why?' I asked. + +'Because,' said he, 'my father saw Bernadette go up a rock on her +knees--one that no man could climb--and I myself have been a witness +of miracles at Lourdes. I have seen at least twenty people cured at +the fountain. One was a captain, who was so paralyzed that he had to +be carried to the water, and when he came away he walked as if nothing +had been the matter with him.' + +Thus talking we reached Entraygues. I allowed the gendarme to take me +to the inn of his fancy, which he praised with true Southern warmth +for its comfort and good cheer. The large kitchen as we entered was +only lighted by the flame of the wood-fire on the hearth, in front of +which a fowl and a piece of veal were turning on the same spit, moved +by clockwork that said 'click-clack, click-clack;' which was as genial +an invitation to dinner as any I had ever heard. Presently the lamp +was lighted, the table was laid, and I sat down to dinner with the +innkeeper and the gendarme from the Basses Pyrénées. The meal was of +the substantial kind, such as gives complete satisfaction to the +wayfarer at the end of his day's wandering, after putting up with +frugal fare on the road. The aubergiste brought out his best wine, and +his best cheeses made from goat's milk, and which had been kept +carefully wrapped up in vine leaves. These little cheeses, when they +have been allowed to mature in a wrapping of vine or plane leaf, are +among the best made. The landlord had studied all matters relating to +the stomach within the range of his experience. He said that hares +were not fit to eat unless they had fed chiefly on thyme, and that a +starling had no value in the kitchen until it had been feeding on +juniper berries. + +This night when I went to bed I had not the frantic crowing of cocks +to keep me awake, but the soft murmuring of the flowing river to lull +me asleep. The weather being now fair and calm after the troubled +evening, I threw the window open, so that I could feel the wafting of +the great invisible wings of the summer night, and listen to the +soothing song of the water repeating the tales that were told to it by +the rocks and the woods on its way down from the Lozère mountains. + +I was again on the banks of this beautiful river--at no place more +beautiful than at Entraygues--when the rising sun was gilding only the +topmost vines of the high western hill that shadows it. The little +town of 2,000 inhabitants is close to the spot where the Thuyère falls +into the Lot. It lies in the angle where two lovely valleys meet. The +Thuyère comes down from the Cantal mountains, and as it reaches +Entraygues it spreads out over a broad smooth bed of pebbles, its +water as clear as rock-crystal; and when the morning sun looks down +upon it over the vine-clad hills, it is like something that has been +seen in the happiest of dreams. There is a castle at Entraygues, and, +as in the case of the one at Estaing, it is now used as a convent and +school. The archaeologist will find perhaps more to interest him in +the two thirteenth-century bridges which span the Lot and the Thuyère, +both noble specimens of Gothic work. + +As I left Entraygues the bells in the church-tower were ringing--not +the monotonous ding-dong with which French people generally have had +to content themselves since the Revolutionists turned the old +bell-metal into sous, but a blithe and joyous peal of high silvery +tones that seemed to belong to the blue air, and to be the voices of +the little spirits that flutter about the morning's rosy veil. My +design was to reach the abbey of Conques before evening, but instead +of going directly towards it over the hills, I preferred to keep as +long as possible in the valley of the Lot, which is here of such +witching loveliness. As there was a road on the river-bank for many +miles, I could follow this fancy, and yet feel the comfort of walking +on good ground. Although the season was getting late, I found the +valley below Entraygues very rich in flowers. Agrimony, mint, and +marjoram, with a tall inula, and the pretty, sweet-scented white +melilot, were in great abundance along the bank. Upon the rocks, which +now bordered the road, were the deep red blossoms of the orpine sedum, +and a small crimson-flowered stock with very hoary stem. A tall +handsome plant about three feet high, with large white flowers, drew +me down a bank to where it was growing near the water. I found that it +was a very luxuriant specimen of the thorn-apple (_datura_). While I +was admiring its poisonous beauty a woman stopped on the road just +above me, and, after contemplating me in silent curiosity for a few +minutes, said to me first in _patois_ and then in French (when I +replied to her in this language): + +'It is a wicked plant, that! The beasts will not touch it, so you had +better leave it alone.' + +Although I did not think this association of ideas very complimentary +to myself, I thanked her for her good advice. I nevertheless took away +as a souvenir a flower and one of the thorny apples, seeing which the +peasant trudged on her way, saying no doubt that it was wasting time +and words to give advice to lunatics. Again the cliffs drew very close +together, and the valley was nothing more than a deep crack in the +earth's crust. On one side was unbroken forest; on the other vines +were terraced up the rocky steep to the height of seven or eight +hundred feet. Even amidst the jutting crags the adventurous vine +lifted its sunny leaves; but, alas! here, too, the phylloxera had +begun its work of desolation, and I had little doubt that these hills +laden with fruit were destined in a few years to become a waste of +stones like so many others that I had seen nearer the plains which had +once streamed with wine. The cultivated land by the river was only a +narrow strip, and the crops were chiefly maize and buckwheat. At +length the vine cultivation was only carried on at intervals. Then the +long blue line of water lay between high rocky hills covered with box +and broom, bracken and heather. A stream came tumbling down a deep +ravine over blocks of gneiss to join the Lot, and a little beyond this +was a hamlet. + +The morning was now far advanced; so, as I was passing a cottage inn, +I wavered a minute, and the result of the wavering was that I crossed +the threshold. I said to myself: 'Perhaps I may walk on for miles, and +not find another chance so good as this.' It was one of the poorest of +inns, but it was able to give me a meal of bread and cheese and eggs, +which was as much as I could expect hereabouts. There was also a light +wine of local growth--sparkling, fragrant, and deliciously cool. What +more could I want? Two motherless girls looked after this waterside +inn, and also the ferry belonging to it. The boat lay a few feet from +the door. When I was ready to leave, the younger of the two girls +ferried me to the other side of the river, and a very pretty figure +she made for an artist to sketch--the simplicity of childhood in her +face, and the strength of a woman in her bare sunburnt arms. As is the +case with so many of the peasants in this district, where the old +Gaulish stock (the _Ruteni_ and the _Cadurci_) has been much less +influenced than in the towns by the tumultuous passage of races from +the south, the east, and the north, she was fair-haired, and naturally +fair-skinned; but exposure to the sun had darkened her by many shades. + +I had been walking for some time in the department of the Cantal, but +the ferry landed me on the Aveyron side of the river. I had now +seriously to consider the shortest way to Conques, separated from me +by very rough hill country and an uncertain number of miles. I was on +a narrow path skirting the forest and the water, when I met a peasant +family dressed in their best clothes, and on their way, as I learnt, +to the village of Notre Dame, where the _fête patronale_ was being +held. The man, who seemed well pleased with himself in his new black +blouse, carried the sleeping baby, and his wife held a great coloured +umbrella over it. They were followed by a girl of about fourteen, who +wore the open-work hand-made white stockings which the young women of +these southern villages use on festive occasions as soon as they begin +to grow coquettish. I fell into conversation with these people, who +told me that, after reaching the village, I must commence the ascent +through the forest. Speaking to the man about the trout, which are +plentiful in this part of the river, he entertained me with a story of +a selfish angler who once came there, and who had a fish on his hook +as soon as he threw a fly. The people of the district--who, it seems, +know nothing about fly-fishing--watched his success with wonder and +admiration, and asked him to explain to them how he managed to catch +fish in that way; but he was surly, and refused to give them any +lessons. He had imitators, nevertheless; but after spending many hours +vainly endeavouring to hook the crafty trout, they lost patience, and +gave up the attempt. + +Two or three score of houses huddled together at the foot of a rocky +cliff, a little above the water, was Notre Dame. The village was all +in movement. The space in front of the church was crowded with peasant +figures; a bell was swinging backward and forward in the wall-belfry, +as though it was trying to turn right over; stall-keepers with cakes, +barley-sugar, and other dainties dear to the village child, to whom +the opportunity of feasting even his eyes upon such things comes very +seldom, were surrounded by eager little faces, and outstretched +sunburnt hands, each clutching the sou that offered such a bewildering +field for dissipation. In the auberge hard by was a noisy throng, of +peasants sitting and standing in a cloud of smoke. Serving-women, +hired for the occasion, gaily coifed and be-ribboned, holding bottles +and glasses elbowed their way to the men who shouted the loudest for +drink, and, catching the jest in the air, gave one as good or as bad +in exchange. The scene was one for another Teniers to paint, although +there were no costumes to give a local colour to the picturesque. Most +of the older men wore the ugly short blouse--generally black in this +part of France; but ambitious youths of eighteen or twenty showed a +preference for the cloth coat which the village tailor had tried to +cut according to the Paris fashion. + +Leaving the rustic revellers, the queer little church, with its +ancient calvary, rudely carved, and resting upon a single column, I +was soon in the shadow of the old chestnut forest that covered the +steep side of the high cliffs above the Lot. The path was very rocky +and toilsome. A young man, who was hastening down from his home on the +hills to join the merrymakers, said to me, in allusion to the +roughness of the way: 'Le bon Dieu ne passe pas souvent par ici,' +thereby expressing the sentiment of the peasant, who associates all +that is wild and rugged in nature with the devil. While still in the +forest, and not a little puzzled by its paths, I met a woman and a +youth, and asked them if the way I was taking led to Conques. '_Apé_' +(yes) was the reply. Not a word of French could I draw from them. When +the cliffs were at length scaled, and I was on the open tableland, I +found the south wind blowing there with great violence, although in +the valley there was scarcely breeze enough to ripple the river pools. +The sun was falling into the yellow haze of the west as I began to +descend towards the valley of the Dourdou. I came upon a tributary of +this stream in the bottom of a deep and solemn gorge, whose steep +sides were densely wooded except where the rock jutted out and +revealed its dark nakedness, and where higher, near the sky, showed +here and there a patch of heather-purple waste, on which the brilliant +light was softening into evening tones. But in the depth of the gorge, +where the redly-running stream was nearly hidden under the tent of +leaves, the air was already dim, and the forms of the trees were +beginning to blend with their own shadows. + +Following the stream in its course, I found the Dourdou, and then +turned down the broader valley. I was tramping wearily on my way, +which seemed endless, when, clustered on the side of another wild and +thickly wooded gorge running up amidst the hills, I saw many houses, +and a dark pile of masonry, rising far above their roofs. I knew that +this must be Conques; it showed its religious origin so plainly in the +choice of the site. This was selected not because Nature was gentle +and pitiful to man in the cleft of those savage hills, but because she +was stern and solemn, and the veil that hides the supernatural was +felt to be thinner there, where the rocks and forest seemed to the +mediaeval mind to have remained just as the Almighty hand had +fashioned them. A monastery arose in the desert, then the abbey +church, and gradually a little lay community placed itself under the +protection of the religious one. + +A long narrow street, steep and stony, leads to the church, which is +all that is left of the Benedictine abbey, excepting some massive +buttresses, ruinous arches, and a round tower grafted upon the +rock--remnants of the ancient monastery which must have been half a +fortress. The burg itself was fortified, and one of the gateways of +the old wall is still standing. The existing church dates from the +eleventh century, but various details point to the conclusion that it +was built on the site of a more ancient structure. For example, in the +entrance is a holy-water stoup, the basin having been scooped out of +the capital of a column which is supposed to have been one of the +supports of a very primitive altar. The figure of an emperor is carved +on one of the faces, and on another that of a pagan divinity. The +architecture of the church is simple and majestic, the only jarring +note being the cupola raised about the time of the Renaissance over +the intersection of the nave and transept. The barrel-vaulted nave, +crossed by plain broad fillets, is in keeping with the early +Romanesque severity of the façade. The ornament is nearly confined to +the tympan over the portal, the capitals of columns, and to the choir +with its seven absidal chapels. The choir itself is cross-vaulted, and +the sanctuary, except at its junction with the nave, is enclosed by an +arcade of narrow stilted arches, the only ornament of the capitals +being acanthus leaves; but those against the wall are elaborately +storied with little figures. A moulding of small billets is carried +round the apse. The great height of the nave vaulting, obtained by a +triforium and clerestory, is very remarkable in a Romanesque church of +such early construction. In accordance with the style of the period, +the capitals of the nave show a complete absence of uniformity, some +being carved with figures, and others with leaves or intricate line +ornament. To obtain an adequate impression of all the fantastic +imagination expressed in these capitals, and the craftsmanship brought +to bear upon the carving, it is necessary to climb to the triforium +galleries. The aisle windows are narrow and placed high in the wall. +The interest of the exterior is centred upon the bas-relief +representing the Last Judgment, which fills the entire tympan of the +arch covering the two main doorways. The composition, which contains +over a hundred figures, is singularly animated, and although the forms +are uncouthly proportioned, and the treatment of the subject in some +of the details touches what to the modern mind seems grotesque, it is +an exceedingly vivid and faithful reflection of the religious ideas of +the age that produced it. What now appears grotesque was then sublime +and awful. We smile at the barbaric imagination that placed here, at +the door of hell, the head of a vast and hideous monster of the +crocodile family, into whose gaping jaws the damned are being thrust +by a pantomime devil; but eight centuries ago Christian people had too +lively a faith in the materialistic horrors of the infernal kingdom to +perceive anything extravagant in this idea of stuffing a scaly monster +with condemned sinners. Eight centuries ago!--the peasant of the +Aveyron and of Finistère still look upon these Dantesque sculptures +with genuine awe. Those who blame the monks for giving the devil a +forked tail and a pair of horns, and otherwise exhausting their +invention in the endeavour to materialize the terrors of hell, are +strangely unphilosophic. The mass of humanity with whom the monks had +to deal had the minds of children in regard to metaphysical ideas; +only by the pictorial method could they be sufficiently impressed with +the joys or horrors of the future life. Bas-reliefs such as this must +have had a great influence on the conduct of many generations; nor has +their influence yet ceased, although, as popular education spreads, +the interest taken in these quaint sculptures by those for whom they +were especially intended, so far from being stimulated, is lessened. +Inasmuch as the mind needs deep ploughing for the new culture, and the +majority can get no more than a superficial raking, the peasant of +to-day is often a poorer man intellectually than his father +was--poorer by the loss of faith and the confusion of ideas. + +The sculptor of this Last Judgment--a Benedictine monk, doubtless, +like the architect of the church who has left this personal record, +'Bernardus me fecit,' upon a stone in a dim corner--died centuries +ago, and although his bones or their dust may be near, his name will +never be known. But how his mind lives in the figures that took life +under his hand! With what inspired longing of the soul he must have +conceived and felt the majesty of Christ sitting in judgment at the +end of time to have expressed so much that is sublime in the holy face +and figure with his poor knowledge of art! The right hand is raised to +bless the just, and the left repels the unforgiven. Grouped around the +central figure are saints and angels. Peter, holding his keys, is +followed by a crowd of the elect, headed by an old man on crutches, +and a crowned sovereign--said to be Charlemagne--carries a reliquary. +In the lower half of the tympan Satan is enthroned, his feet resting +upon a writhing and hideously grimacing figure, supposed to be that of +Judas. Immediately above, an angel and a fiend are weighing souls in a +pair of scales, and the demon is trying to cheat. In this lower +division the infernal punishments inflicted upon sinners of different +categories are set forth. The sin of Francesca and Paolo is treated +less poetically than by Dante, for here two guilty lovers are seen +hanging to the same rope. A glutton is being stuffed with flaming +viands, sent up from the devil's kitchen. All manner of torture is +being inflicted by jubilant demons upon the souls that have fallen +into their clutches. One has caught in the net that he has just thrown +a mitred abbot and two other monks. As the dead rise from their tombs +the justiciary angels bar the way of the wicked who strive to approach +the Judge. A seraphim holds the closed book of life, upon which these +words are carved: 'Hic signatur liber vitae.' On various parts of the +portal are numerous inscriptions, some of which, like the following, +are in leonine verses: + + 'Casti pacifici mites pietatis amici + Sic stant gaudentes securi nil metuentes.' + +The archaeological interest of Conques is not confined to its church. +Here, hidden from the world in this obscure little gorge, far from any +railway-station, is one of the most remarkable collections of ancient +reliquaries in France. The chief treasure is the very ancient gold +statue of St. Foy (Sancta Fides) virgin and martyr, the patron saint +of Conques. It is a seated figure nearly three feet in height, and its +appearance is thoroughly Byzantine; indeed, one may go farther, and +say that it looks much more pagan than Christian. There is nothing in +the treatment that indicates a Christian motive; while the antique +engraved gems with which it is studded, illustrating, as some of them +do, workings of the Greek and Roman mind very far removed from the +Christian idea of what is becoming in morals, make this astonishing +statue an archaeological puzzle. The explanation that these gems were +placed upon it to symbolize the victory of Christian purity over the +impurity of the ancient religions of Greece and Rome is more ingenious +than conclusive. This statue of gold (_repoussé_), with regal crown +enriched with precious stones and enamels on which may be +distinguished Jupiter, Mars, Apollo and Diana, among the more +respectable of the divinities; if it was originally intended to +represent the virgin Fides, martyred at Agen, was certainly one of the +most fantastic achievements of ecclesiastical art. But whether this +was its origin or not, the style of its workmanship is considered by +competent judges to be sufficient proof that it is at least nine +hundred years old. + +In favour of the opinion that the statue was made at Conques, there is +the fact that the cult of St. Foy at this place dates from the early +Middle Ages. The ancient seal of the abbey bears the motto: + + 'Duc nos quo resides, + Inclyta Virgo Fides.' + +Historians of the abbey state that the relics of the saint were +brought from Agen to Conques about the year 874, and that Etienne, +Bishop of Clermont, caused a basilica to be raised here in her honour +between the years 942 and 984. It was under the direction of Ololric, +Abbot of Conques, that the existing church was built between the years +1030 and 1062. Throughout the Middle Ages the relics drew large +numbers of pilgrims to the spot. In the dialect of the country they +were called _Roumious_, because the pilgrimage to Conques was one of +those which enjoyed the privilege of conferring under certain +conditions the same advantages as were to be gained by the great +pilgrimage to Rome. The pilgrims kept the 'holy vigil'--that is to +say, they passed an entire night in prayer before the relics with a +lighted taper either fixed at their side or carried in the hand. The +pilgrimage and the ancient association of St. Foy were revived in +1874. + +The darkness of night drove me to take shelter in an inn which, like +everything else here, is dedicated to St. Foy. The pilgrims' money had +not made it pretentious, nor the people who kept it dishonest +--changes which 'filthy lucre' is very apt to bring about in the +holiest places. But the pilgrims who come to Conques are, for the most +part, peasants who look well before they leap, and who so contrive +matters as never to spend more upon anything than they have set aside +for it. + +Having completed the next morning my impressions of Conques, noting +among other things the curious and richly decorated _enfeux_ in the +exterior walls of the church, I returned to the bottom of the ravine, +and having crossed the old Gothic bridge over the Dourdou, began the +ascent of the rocky chestnut forest on the other side of the valley. +Small white crosses planted at intervals amidst the broom and heather +of the open wood marked the way to St. Foy's Chapel for the guidance +of pilgrims. According to the legend, it was near this spot that, the +relics of the saint having been set down by those who had carried them +from Agen, a fountain of the purest water burst forth from the earth, +and has continued to flow ever since. I found the chapel--a modern +Gothic one, with a statue of St. Foy in Roman dress in the niche over +the door--under a high rugged rock of schist. There was no one but +myself to trouble the solitude of this quiet nook on the wild +hillside, all broken up into little gullies and ravines, where the +aged chestnuts sheltered the tender moss and fern from the eager +sunbeam, and kept the dew upon the bracken until the noonday hours. An +exquisitely delicate campanula with minute flowers bloomed with +hemp-agrimony and wood-sage along the sides of the rills that +-scarcely murmured as they slid down the clefts of the impervious +rock. + +As I went higher, the chestnuts became more scattered, and at length +the rough land was covered only by the tufted heather and broom. Here, +instead of the light whispering of leaves, was the drowsy song of +multitudinous bees. The breeze blew freshly on the plateau, and grew +stronger as the sun rose. Could it be a cemetery, that grouping of +stones that I saw upon the moorland? No; it was a cottage-garden, +surrounded by disconnected slabs of mica-schist, standing like little +menhirs. peasant family lived in the wretched dwelling, exposed to the +full force of the howling winds, and striving continually with nature +for their black bread and the vegetables that give flavour to the +watery soup. + +A young man with a _béret_ on his head overtook me. He was a Béarnais, +who had not been long in the district, and who earned his living by +certain services that he rendered at widely-scattered farms. He had to +walk a great deal in all winds and weathers; therefore he knew the +country well, and could give me useful information. I was crossing the +hills with the intention of meeting the Lot again in the great coal +basin of the Aveyron, and thus cutting off a wide bend of the river. +All went well for some time after the Béarnais left me; but at length +I became fairly bewildered by the woods and ravines, the hills and +valleys that lay before me in seemingly endless succession. Savage +rockiness, sylvan quietude, open solitudes, bare and windblown, gave +me all the sensations of nature which expand the soul; but the body +grumbled for rest and refreshment long before I had crossed this +singularly wild tract of country almost abandoned by man. I had been +wading through bracken up to my neck, or wandering almost at hazard +through chestnut-woods for an hour or two, when hope was revived by my +meeting a peasant, who told me that I was not far from the village of +Firmi. I left the great woods, and reached a district that was new in +every sense. Entering a little gorge, to me it seemed that nature had +been cursed there ages ago, and still carried the sign of the +malediction in the sooty darkness of the rocks--jagged, tormented, +baleful--that rose on either hand. Nothing grew upon them save a low +wretched turf, and this only in patches. Beyond, the metamorphic rock +gave place to red sandstone, and the ground sloped down into the +little coal basin of Firmi. What a change of scene was there! The air +was thick with smoke, the road was black with coal-dust, most of the +houses were new and grimy, nearly all the faces were smutty. There was +a confused noise of wheels going round, of invisible iron monsters +grinding their teeth, of trollies rattling along upon rails, and of +human voices. Nature had no charm; but of beauty combined with fasting +I had had enough for awhile, so my prejudices melted before the genial +ugliness of this sooty paradise, knowing as I did that prosperity goes +with such griminess, and that where there is money there are inns +offering creature comforts both to man and beast. + +Either the angel or the goblin who goes a wayfaring with me led me +this time into a heated little auberge infested by myriads of flies, +which, getting into the steam of the _soupe caix choux_ in their +anxiety to be served first, fell upon their backs in the hot mixture, +and made frantic signals to me with their legs to help them out. There +was no temptation to linger at the table when the purpose for which I +was there had been attained; so I was very soon on the tramp again, +making for the valley of the Lot. + +Leaving Décazeville a few miles to the west, I took the direction of +Cransac, being curious to see the 'Smoking Mountains' in that +district. Between the little coal basin of Firmi and the large one at +Cransac and Aubin lay a strip of toilsome hill country. I had left the +round tower of the ruined castle of Firmi below, and was following a +winding path up a steep chestnut wood, when two mounted gendarmes +passed me going down. About five minutes later I heard the sound of +horses' hoofs coming near again. 'One of the gendarmes is returning,' +was my reflection, and, looking round, I saw this was really so. The +man was trotting his horse up the wood. Being sure that he was coming +after me, I walked slower, and gave myself the most indifferent and +loitering air that I could put on. In a few minutes he reined up his +horse at my side. He was a young man, and his expression told me that +he did not much like the duty that his chief had put upon him. +Addressing me, he said: + +'Pardon, monsieur, you are a stranger in this country?' + +'Yes, I am.' + +'Will you please tell me your quality?' + +In reply I asked him if he wished to see my papers. + +'If it will not vex you,' he said. His manners were quite charming. If +he was a native of the Rouergue, the army had polished him up +wonderfully. After looking at the papers and finding them +satisfactory, he said: 'Je vous demande pardon, monsieur, mais vous +comprenez-----' + +'Oh yes, I understand perfectly, and I assure you that my feelings are +not at all hurt!' + +And so we parted on very good terms. A woman standing at a cottage +door at a little distance watched the scene with a scared and +wondering look in her face. When I was again alone, and she saw me +coming towards her, she disappeared with much agility into her +fortress and shut the door. She must have thought that, although I had +managed to escape arrest that time, I should certainly come to a bad +end. + +After reaching the top of the hill, white smoke rising continually +into the blue air led me to the _Montagnes fumantes_. Coming at length +to the spot so named, 'Surely,' I thought, 'my wayfaring has brought +me at last to the Phlegraean Fields.' All about me were rocks that had +been burnt red, black, or yellow, and on their scorched surface not a +shrub, nor a blade of grass, nor even a tuft of spurge, grew. The +subterranean fires which had burnt these upper rocks had long since +gone out; but a hot and sulphurous vapour still passed over them when +the wind blew it in their direction. Continuing down the hillside, I +heard a crackling as of stones being split by heat, and presently saw +little tongues of flame shooting up from the crevices in the soil +almost at my feet, but scarcely perceptible in the brilliant sunshine. +From these and other vents, however, came intermittent puffs, or +continuous fillets of smoke, and the air was almost overpoweringly hot +and sulphurous. To wander by night among these jets of fire must be +very stimulating to the imagination, for then the hill is lit up by +them; but I thought the spot sufficiently infernal by daylight. + +Beds of coal lying underneath this rocky hill, perhaps at a great +depth, have been burning for centuries, and the same phenomenon is +repeated elsewhere in the district. The popular legend is that the +English, when they were compelled to abandon Guyenne, set fire to +these coal-measures with the motive of doing all the mischief they +could before leaving. Such fables are handed down from generation to +generation. All the evil that happened to the region in the dim past +is placed to the account of the English. These burning hills in the +Aveyron have been turned to one good purpose. The hot air that escapes +from crevices where there is neither smoke nor fire is used for +heating little cabins which have been constructed for the treatment of +persons suffering from rheumatic disorders. There they can obtain a +natural vapour-bath that is both cheap and effectual. + +At the foot of the cliffs lay Cransac, bristling with tall chimneys +and in a cloud of dark coal-smoke that filled the valley. Here, +instead of the solemn calm of the barren uplands, the murmurous +chanting of rills and shallow rivers, and the mystical voices that +speak from the depths of the forest, I heard the fretful buzz of a +human beehive. Here was human life intensified and yet lowered in tone +by aggregation, by the strain of organized effort that suppresses +initiative and makes the value of a man merely a question of dynamics. +The number of shops, especially of drinking-shops--sordid _cafés_ and +flashy _buvettes,_ where the enterprising poisoners of the coal-miner +stood behind their zinc counters pouring out the corrosive absinthe +and the beetroot brandy--told of the prosperity of Cransac. Evidently +it was a place in which money could be earned by those prepared to +accept the conditions. The women wore better clothes than the wives of +the peasants; but low morality, instead of the sad but always +honourable stamp of ravaging toil, was impressed on many a female +face. Even the children looked as degraded by the social atmosphere as +they were blackened by the smoke and ever-falling soot. Hastening +along the road towards Aubin, I soon found that the two places, +separated according to the map by a considerable distance, had grown +together. The long road powdered with coal-dust was now a street lined +on each side with houses and hovels. Wooden shanties with sooty, +bushes of juniper hanging over the door, and the word 'Buvette' +painted beneath, competed for the miner's money at distances of twenty +or fifty yards. One had a notice such as is rarely seen in France, and +which was significant here: 'Ready money for everything sold over the +counter.' Close by was the sign of a _sage-femme_, who, under the +picture of a woman holding aloft in triumph an unreasonably fat baby, +announced that she also bled and vaccinated. Grimy children and grimy +pigs that were intended to be white or pink sprawled upon the +thresholds or wallowed in the hot dust. + +Having left the blissful coal basin, I met the Lot again near the +boundary-line of the Aveyron and entered the department named after +the river. Thence to Capdenac the valley was a curving line of +uninterrupted but ever-changing beauty. + +The season was farther advanced when I continued the journey from this +point to Cahors. + +A person who had contracted the 'morphia habit' would probably find +the most effectual cure for it by forced residence at Capdenac, +because the town does not boast the luxury of a chemist's shop. +Supposing the patient, however, to be a lady of worldly tastes, she +might die of _ennui_ in twenty-four hours. The Capdenac of which I am +speaking is not the utterly unpicturesque collection of houses that +has been formed about the well-known railway junction on the line to +Toulouse, but old romantic Capdenac, whose dilapidated ramparts, +dating from the early Middle Ages, crown the high rocky hill that +rises abruptly from the valley on the other side of the Lot, which +here separates the department named after it from, the Aveyron. The +situation of this town is one of the most remarkable. It is perched +upon a lofty table of reddish rock of the same calcareous composition +as that which prevails throughout the region of the _causses_. Its +walls are so escarped that the topmost crags in places overhang the +path that winds about their base far below. Only strategical +considerations could ever have induced men to build a town on such a +site. The Gauls set the example, and their _oppidum_ was long supposed +to have been Uxellodunum, but the controversy has been settled in +favour of the Puy d'Issolu. + +I chose the hour of eight in the morning for climbing the rock of +Capdenac. The broad winding river was brilliantly blue, like the vault +overhead, and although the vine-clad hills, which shut in the valley, +and the bare rocks, whose outlines were sharply drawn against the sky, +were luminous, the light had the pure and clear sparkle of the +morning. Reaching the hill, I took a zigzag stony path that led +through terraced vineyards. The vintage had commenced, and men, women, +and children were busy picking the purple grapes still wet with dew. + +The children only, however, showed any joy in the work, for the +bunches hung at such a distance from each other that a vine was very +quickly stripped. The _vigneron_, with his mind dwelling upon the +bygone fruitful years, when these arid steeps poured forth torrents of +wine as surely as October came round, wore an expression on his face +that was not one of thankfulness to Providence. They are a rather +surly people, moreover, the inhabitants of this district, and I do not +think at any time their hearts could have been very expansive. As I +approached a woman who had a great basket of grapes in front of her, +she hastily threw a bundle of leaves over them, casting a keenly +suspicious glance at me the while. If she meant me to understand that +the times were too bad for grapes to be given away, the movement was +unnecessary. Where now are the generous sentiments and the poetry +traditionally associated with the vintage? Not here, certainly. Men go +out into their vineyards by night armed with guns, and the depredators +whom they fear most are not dogs that have acquired a taste for +grapes. The stony path was bordered by brambles, overclimbed by +clematis, whose glistening awns were mingled with blackberries, which +not even a child troubled to pick. There was much fleabane--a plant +that deserves to be cherished in these parts, if it be really what its +name indicates, but it would have to be extensively cultivated to be a +match for the fleas. After the vineyards came the dry rock, that held, +however, sufficient moisture for the wild fig-tree, wherever it could +find a deep, crevice. + +Passing underneath the perpendicular wall of rock, and the vine-clad +ramparts above it, built on the very edge of the precipice, the +winding path led me gradually up to the town. A little in front of an +arched gateway was a ruined barbican, the inner surface of the walls +being green with ferns and moss. Four loopholes were still intact. Had +it been night I might have seen ghostly men with crossbows issuing +from the gateway, but it being broad daylight, I was met by a troop of +young pigs followed by a little hump-backed woman who addressed her +youthful swine in the language of the troubadours. + +In the narrow street beyond the arch a company of gigantic geese drew +themselves up in order of battle, and challenged me in chorus to come +on; but their courage was like that of Ancient Pistol. No other living +creature did I see until I had walked nearly half through the ancient +burg, between houses several centuries old, their stories projecting +over the rough pitching and the stunted fig-trees which grew there +unmolested. Some of these dwellings were in absolute ruin, with long +dry grasses waving on the roofless walls. Nobody seemed to think it +worth while to rebuild or repair anything. The town appeared to have +been left to itself and to time for at least two hundred years. And +yet there really were some inhabitants left. I found another gateway +and another ruined barbican, and near to these, on the verge of the +precipice, a high rectangular tower, which was the citadel and prison. +The lower part was occupied by the schoolmaster of the commune, and he +allowed me to ascend the winding staircase, which led to two horrible +dungeons, one above the other. Neither was lighted by window or +loophole, and but for the candle I should have been in utter darkness. +Great chains by which prisoners were fastened to the wall still lay +upon the ground, and as I raised them and felt their weight, I thought +of the human groans that only the darkness heard in the pitiless ages. +In another part of the building was a heavy iron collar that was +formerly attached to one of these chains. There were also several old +pikes in a corner. + +A little beyond the citadel I found the church, a small Romanesque +building without character. An eighteenth-century doorway had been +added to it, and the tympan of the pediment was quite filled up with +hanging plants. Still more suggestive of abandonment was the little +cemetery behind, which was bordered by the ramparts. It was a small +wilderness. Just inside the entrance, a life-sized figure with +outstretched arms lay against a damp wall in a bed of nettles and +hemlock. It had become detached from the cross on which it once hung, +and had been left upon the ground to be overgrown by weeds. I have +seen many a neglected rural cemetery in France, but never one that +looked so sadly abandoned as this. It was like the 'sluggard's +garden,' where 'the thorn and the thistle grow higher and higher.' +Most of the gravestones and crosses were quite hidden by dwarf elder, +artemisia, wild carrot, and other plants all tangled together. A grave +had just been dug in this wilderness and it was about to have a +tenant, for the two bells in the open tower were sounding the _glas_, +and a distant murmur of chanting was growing clearer. The priest had +gone to 'fetch the body,' and the procession was now on its way. On +the top of the earth and stones thrown up on each' side of the new +grave were a broken skull, a jawbone, several portions of leg and arm +bones, besides many smaller fragments of the human framework. I +thought the gravedigger might at least have thrown a little earth over +these remains out of consideration for the feelings of those who were +about to stand around this grave, but concluded that he probably +understood the people with whom he had to deal. Presently this +functionary--a lantern-jawed, nimble old man, with a dirty nightcap on +his head--made his appearance to take a final look at his work. After +strutting round the very shallow hole he had dug, in an airy, +self-satisfied manner, he concluded that everything was as it should +be, and retired for the priest to perform his duty. + +The great difficulty with the people of Capdenac in time of war must +have been the water supply. When their cisterns were empty, they had +the river at the bottom of the valley and a spring that flowed at +certain seasons, as it does now, at the foot of the rock on which they +had built their little town. When they were besieged, they could not +descend to the Lot to draw water; consequently they laid great store +by the stream at the base of the rock. A long zigzag flight of steps +down the side of the precipice was constructed, and it was covered by +a wall that protected those who fetched water from arrows and bolts. +Near the spring this wall was built very high and strong, and was +pierced with loopholes. It also served as an outwork. The steps and +much of the wall still exist. The spring in modern times came to be +called Caesar's Well, because the elder Champollion and others +endeavoured to prove that Capdenac was the site of Uxellodunum. The +fact, however, that the spring is dry for several months in the year, +and could never have been aught else but the drainage of the rock, is +in itself a sufficient refutation of the hypothesis; because, +according to Caesar, the fountain at Uxellodunum was so perennially +abundant that when he drew off the water by tunnelling, the Gauls +recognised in this disaster the intervention of the gods. + +Capdenac appears to have given the English a great deal of trouble, +which the natural strength of the place fully explains. It must have +been a fortress of the first order in the Middle Ages, and would be so +to-day, if the French thought it worth while to use it in a military +sense; but, happily for the inhabitants of this part of France, their +territory now lies far from the theatre of any war that is likely to +occur. A charter by Philippe le Long, dated 1320, another by King +John, and a third by Charles VII., recognise the immunity of the +people of Capdenac from all public charges on account of the +resistance which they constantly opposed to the English. The rock +must, nevertheless, have fallen into the hands of a company attached +to the British cause, for the Count of Armagnac bought the place in +1381 of a band of so-called English _routiers_. Sully lived there +after the death of Henry IV., and the house that he occupied still +exists. + +According to a local tradition, Capdenac was on the point of being +captured by the English, when it was saved from this fate by a +stratagem. The defenders were starving, and the besiegers were relying +upon famine to reduce them. In order to make the English believe that +the place was still well provisioned, a pig was given a very full meal +of all the corn that could be scraped together and then pushed over +the side of the rock in a cautious manner, so that the animal might +appear to be the victim of its own indiscretion. The pig fulfilled +expectations by splitting open when it struck the ground, and thus +revealed the corn that was in its body. When the English saw this, +they said: 'If the men of Capdenac can afford to feed their swine on +wheat, they must still have plenty for themselves.' Discouraged by +this reflection, they raised the siege. When they went away there was +not an ounce of bread left to divide amongst the garrison. + +A market was being held at Capdenac--the lower town--as I left it. +Bunches of fowls tied together by the legs were dangling from the +hands of a score or so of peasant women standing in line. The wretched +birds had ceased to complain, and even to wriggle; but although, with +their toes upward and their beaks downward, life to them could not +have looked particularly rosy, they seemed to watch with keen interest +all that was going on. Only when they had their breasts well pinched +by critical fingers did they struggle against their fate. The legs of +these fowls are frequently broken, but the peasants only think of +their own possible loss; and women are every bit as indifferent to the +sufferings of the lower animals as men. + +There was a sharp wrangle going on in the Languedocian dialect over a +coin--a Papal franc--that somebody to whom it had been offered angrily +rejected. Here I may say that one of the small troubles of my life in +this district came from accepting coins which I could not get rid of. +As a rule, the native here turns over a piece of money several times +before he satisfies himself that no objection can be brought against +it; but if, in the hurry of business, the darkness of night, or the +trustfulness inspired by a little extra worship of Bacchus, he should +happen to take a Papal, Spanish, Roumanian, or other coin that is +unpopular, he puts it on one side for the first simpleton or stranger +who may have dealings with him. Thus, without intending it, I came to +possess a very interesting numismatical collection, which I most +unconscientiously, but with little success, tried to scatter. + +I made my way down the valley of the Lot, taking the work easily, +stopping at one place long enough to digest impressions before pushing +on towards a fresh point. This valley is so strangely picturesque, so +full of the curiosities of nature and bygone art, that if I had not +been a loiterer before, I should have learnt to loiter here. + +Keeping on the Aveyron side of the river, I soon reached the village +of St. Julien d'Empare, where almost every house had somewhat of a +castellated appearance, owing to the dovecot tower which occupied one +angle and rose far above the roof. One of these houses had two rows of +dormer windows, covered by little gables with very long eaves in the +high-pitched roof, whose red tiles were well toned by time. The +tower-like pigeon-house, with extinguisher roof, stood at one end upon +projecting beams, and the pigeons kept going in and coming out of the +holes in their two-storied mansion. One sees dovecots everywhere in +this district, and most of them are two or three centuries old. Some +are attached to houses, and others are isolated on the hillsides +amongst the vines. When in the latter position, they are generally +round, and are built on such a scale that they really look like +towers. + +There were grape-gatherers in the vineyards, but they had to search +for the fruit. The wine grown upon these hills by the Lot has been +famous from the days of the Romans; but there is very little of it +left. There is, however, a consoling side to every misfortune. A man +of Figeac told me that since the vines had failed in the district the +death-rate had diminished remarkably. + +'Why?' I asked. + +'Why?' replied he, with a sad smile, 'because in the happy times +everybody drank wine at all hours of the day; but now, in these +miserable times, nearly everybody drinks water.' + +The new state of things would be still more satisfactory from a +teetotal point of view if Nature were less niggardly of water in these +parts. In some localities it has to be strictly economized, and this +is done in the case of streams by using it first for the exterior, and +afterwards for the interior needs of man. I, having still some English +prejudices, would rather run all the risks incurred by drinking wine, +than swallow any more than I am obliged of the rinsings of dirty +linen. + +Having crossed the Lot by a suspension bridge, a roadside inn enticed +me with its little terrace, where there were many hanging plants and +flowers, and a wild fig-tree that had climbed up from the rock below, +so that it could look into people's glasses and listen to their talk +in that pleasant bower. I might have lingered here too long had it not +been for the wasps, which were even a greater nuisance than the flies. + +To reach the village of Frontenac I took a little path leading through +maize-fields by the river's side. The maize was ready for the harvest, +and the long leaves had lost nearly all their greenness. The lightest +breath of air made each plant rustle like a paper scarecrow. The river +was fringed with low, triggy willows and a multitude of herbs, rich in +seeds, but poor in flowers. Among those still in bloom were the +evening primrose, soapwort, and marjoram. The river was as blue as the +heaven, and on each side rose steep hills, wooded or vine-clad, with +the yellow or reddish rock upon the ridges glowing against the hot +sky. As I was moving south-west I had the afternoon sun full in the +face. The lizards that darted across the path, raising little clouds +of dust in their hurry, found this glare quite to their taste, but it +was too much for me, and when at length I saw a leafy walnut tree I +lay down in the shade until the fiery sun began to touch the high +woods, the river, and the yellow maize-stalks with the milder tones of +evening. + +A narrow grassy lane between tall hedgerows sprinkled over with +innumerable glistening blackberries led me to Frontenac, a village +upon the rocky hillside. Here is a little church partly raised upon +the site of a Roman or Gallo-Roman temple. A broken column left +standing was included in the wall of the Romanesque apse, upon the +lower masonry of which both pagan and Christian hands have worked. The +nave has been rebuilt in modern times, but in the open space before +the entrance Roman coffins crop up above the rough paving, separated +from each other only by a few feet. There is a stone coffin lying +right across the doorway, and the _curé_, whom I drew into +conversation, confided to me, with a comical smile upon his pale dark +face, that he had raised a fragment of the lid to see if anything more +enduring than man had been left there, but that he found nothing but +very fine dust. Every bone had become powder. This priest was a +companionable man, and he must have looked upon me with a less +suspicious eye than most people hereabouts, for he invited me into his +house to take a _petit verre_ with him. But the sun was getting near +the end of his journey, and I had to fare on foot to the next village; +so I thought it better to decline the offer. + +The next village was St. Pierre-Toirac, also built upon the hillside +above the Lot. It is a larger place than Frontenac, and must have been +of considerable importance in the Middle Ages, to judge from its +fortified church, whose high gloomy walls give it the appearance of a +veritable stronghold. Some of the inhabitants say that it was built by +the English, but the architecture does not indicate that such was the +case. The interior is a beautiful example of the Romanesque style. The +capitals of the columns are fit to serve as models, so strongly +typical are the designs, and so exquisite is their workmanship. It is +probable that the walls of the church were raised, and that it was +turned into a fortress during the religious wars of the thirteenth +century between Catholics and Albigenses, which explain the existence +of so many fortified churches in Languedoc and Guyenne, as well as so +many ruins. + +I had reached this church by an old archway, whose origin was +evidently defensive, and crossing the dim and silent square, +surrounded by mediaeval houses, some half ruinous, and all more or +less adorned with pellitory, ivy-linaria, and other wall-plants which +had fixed their roots between the gaping stones. I passed through +another archway, and stopped at a terrace belonging to a ruined +château or country-house. Here I was looking at the valley of the Lot +in the warm after-glow of sunset, when an elderly gentleman came up to +me and disturbed my contemplative mood by asking me not very +courteously if I wanted to see anybody. I was somewhat taken aback to +find such an important-looking person in such a dilapidated place. I +tried, however, not to appear too much overcome, and explained that it +was only with the intention of seeing the picturesque that I had found +my way to that ruinous spot. The agreeable person who had questioned +me now let me understand that it was his spot, and informed me that +nobody was allowed to see it 'sans être presenté.' Then, looking at me +very fiercely, he said: + +'Are you an Englishman or a German?' + +'An Englishman,' I replied, whereupon his ferocious expression relaxed +considerably, but he did not become genial. + +I retired from his ruin considerably disgusted with its owner, who +contrasted badly with all Frenchmen in his social position whom I had +previously met. I asked a woman who he was, and she replied that all +she knew about him was that he was an 'espèce de noble.' Her cruelty +was unintentional. The next morning I learnt from an old Crimean +soldier, who knew I was English because he had drained many a glass +with my fellow-countrymen, that the magnates of the village had held a +consultation overnight upon the advisability of coming down upon me in +a body and asking me for my papers. Nothing came of it, which was well +for me, for I had come away without my papers. + +There was rain that night, and when morning came it had changed the +face of the world. The sun was shining again and warmly, but summer +had gone and autumn had come. Upon the rocky slopes the maples were on +fire; in the valley the large leaves of the walnut-trees mimicked the +sunshine, and by the river-side the tall poplars, as they bowed to the +water deities, cast upon the mirror of many tones the image of a +trembling golden leaf repeated beyond all power of numbering. A little +rain had been enough to produce this magical change. It had opened the +great feast of colour that brings the year to its gray, sad close. + +But the sky was brilliantly blue when I left St. Pierre-Toirac. The +next village was Laroque-Toirac. The houses were clustered near the +foot of an escarped hill, where thinly-scattered pines relieved the +glare of the naked limestone. Upon a precipitous rock dominating the +village is a castle, the lower works of which belong to the Feudal +Ages, the upper to the Renaissance epoch--a combination very frequent +in this district. The mullioned windows and the graceful balustrade, +carried along a high archway, are in strong contrast to the stern and +dark masonry of the feudal stronghold. This picturesque incongruity +reaches its climax in the lofty round tower upon which a dovecot has +been grafted, whose extinguisher-roof, with long drooping eaves, is +quite out of keeping with the machicolations which remain a little +below the line of the embattled parapet that has disappeared. The +castle is now used for the schools of the commune, and a score or so +of little boys and girls whom I met on my way up the rough path stared +at me with much astonishment. I climbed to a bastion of the outer +works, where a fig-tree, growing from the old wall, and reaching above +it, softened the horror of the precipice; for such it really was. The +masonry was a continuation of one of those walls of rock which give +such a distinctive character: to the geological formation of this +region. The village lay far below--a broken surface of tiled roofs, +sloping rapidly towards the Lot, itself a broad ribbon of many blended +colours, winding through the sunlit plain. The castle of Laroque +belonged to the Cardaillac family. In 1342 it was stormed and taken by +Bertegot Lebret, captain of a strong company of English, who had +established their headquarters at Gréalou. + +As I approached Montbrun, the next village, the rocks which hemmed in +the valley became more boldly escarped. In their lower part the beds +of lias were shown with singular regularity. Box and pines and sumach +were the chief vegetation upon the stony slopes, where the scattered +masses of dark-green foliage gave by contrast a whiter glitter to the +stones. Montbrun, like so many of the little towns and villages +hereabouts, is built upon rocks immediately below a protecting +stronghold, or, rather, what was one centuries ago. The windows of +some of the dwellings look out upon the sheer precipice. The vine +clambers over ruined houses and old walls built on to the rock, and +seemingly a part of it. Of the mediaeval castle little is left besides +the keep. The Marquis de Cadaillac, to whom it belonged, strengthened +the fortifications with the hope that the stronghold would be able to +resist any attack by the English; but it was nevertheless captured by +them. + +After leaving Montbrun I saw nothing more of civilization until I came +near a woman seated on a doorstep, and engaged in the exciting +occupation of fleaing a cat. She held the animal upon its back between +her knees, and was so engrossed by the pleasures of the chase that she +scarcely looked up to answer a question I put to her. The word _café_ +painted upon a piece of board hung over another door enticed me +inside, for it was now nearly midday, and I had been in search of the +picturesque since seven o'clock, sustained by nothing more substantial +than a bowl of black coffee and a piece of bread. This is the only +breakfast that one can expect in a rural auberge of Southern France. +If milk is wanted in the coffee it must be asked for over-night, and +even then it is very doubtful if the cow will be found in time. To ask +for butter with the bread would be looked upon as a sign of eccentric +gluttony, but to cap this request with a demand for bacon and eggs at +seven in the morning, as a man fresh from England might do with +complete unconsciousness of his depravity, would be to openly confess +one's self capable of any crime. People who travel should never be +slaves to any notions on eating and drinking, for such obstinacy +brings its own punishment. + +A stout woman with a coloured silk kerchief on her head met me with a +good-tempered face, and, after considering what she could do for me in +the way of lunch, said, as though a bright idea had suddenly struck +her: + +'I have just killed some geese; would monsieur like me to cook him +some of the blood?'. + +'Merci!' I replied. 'Please think of something else.' + +An Englishman may possibly become reconciled to snails and frogs as +food, but never, I should say, to goose's blood. In about twenty +minutes a meal was ready for me, composed of soup containing great +pieces of bread, lumps of pumpkin and haricots; minced pork that had +been boiled with the soup in a goose's neck, then a veal cutlet, +covered with a thick layer of chopped garlic. Horace says that this +herb is only fit for the stomachs of reapers, but every man who loves +garlic in France is not a reaper. Strangers to this region had better +reconcile themselves both to its perfume and its flavour without loss +of time, for of all the seasoning essences provided by nature for the +delight of mankind garlic is most esteemed here. Those who have a +horror of it would fare very badly at a _table-d'hôte_ at Cahors, for +its refined odour rises as soon as the soup is brought in, and does +not leave until after the salad. Even then the unconverted say that it +is still present. To cultivate a taste for garlic is, therefore, +essential to happiness here. + +I crossed a toll-bridge over the river just below Cajarc, and again +entered the department of the Aveyron, my object being to ascend the +valley of a tributary of the Lot, to a spot where it flows out of a +pool of unknown depth, called the Gouffre de Lantouy. The road passed +under the village of Savagnac, built upon the hillside. A Renaissance +castle with sham machicolations, little chambers. with their +projecting floors resting on brackets turrets on _culs de lampe_ and +with extinguisher roofs, and a high terrace overgrown with vines and +fig-trees left to fight their own battle, lorded it over all the other +houses, like a sunflower in an onion-bed. But the castle, although it +gives itself such aristocratic airs, is, in these days, nothing but a +farmhouse, sacks of maize being now stored in rooms where ladies once +touched the lute with white fingers, and where gentlemen may have +crumpled their frills while swearing eternal love upon their knees. +The little cemetery adjoining the château has swallowed up the great +and the lowly century after century, and the rank grass, now sprinkled +with the lingering flowers of summer, barely covers their mingled +bones. The old gravestones, left undisturbed, have sunk into the soil +nearly out of sight. Such is the ending of all that is human. + +A little beyond this village a peasant woman, whom I met picking up +walnuts from the road that was strewn with them, lifted her +wide-brimmed straw hat to me as I passed. This was indeed polite. I +now left the road, and followed a lane by the stream that flows out of +the _gouffre_. This valley is narrow enough to be called a gorge, and +the stony hills on either side presented a picture of utter barrenness +and desolation. But along the level of the stream the deep-green grass +shadowed by the hill was lighted up with the pale-purple death-torches +of the poisonous colchicum. After crossing a stubble-field, now +overgrown by the violet-coloured pimpernel, I reached the sinister +pool, fringed with the flag's sword-like leaves and shadowed by willows +and alders. I expected to find the water all in tumult; but no, it had +the dark, solemn stillness of the mountain tarn. The two streams that +poured out of it to meet a little lower down the valley hardly +murmured as they started upon their journey amidst the iris and sedge, +although the body of water was strong enough to turn a millwheel. + +There is something that troubles the imagination in the appearance of +this lonely pool for ever silently overflowing, and so deep that +nobody as yet has been able to find the bottom. On the side of the +stony hill close by are some ruined walls of a church and convent, +said to have been built by St. Mamphaise. The peasants of the district +have an extraordinary story with regard to this convent, which is +either the cause or the consequence of the superstitious awe in which +they hold the Gouffre de Lantouy. This legend is to the effect that +the conventual building was once inhabited by women who ate children, +and that a certain mother, whose baby they had kidnapped and eaten, +cursed them so heartily and to such purpose that the _gouffre_ was +formed, and their convent, or the greater part of it, was +supernaturally carried down the hill and plunged into the bottomless +water. The legend also says that those who stand by the pool on St. +John's Eve will hear the convent bell ringing. It not being St. John's +Eve when I was there I was unable to test the truth of this part of +the legend. What I did hear was a raven croaking from the ruin, and +the sound harmonized well with the air of mystery and gloom hanging +over the spot. + +There is some historic reason for believing that the convent at +Lantouy was founded by Charlemagne. Very near this spot are the +remains of some ancient fortified works, and the locality is known as +'La domaine de Waïffier.' This name is evidently the same as Waïfré. +There is reason to believe that the last of the sovereign Dukes of +Aquitaine made a stand here when pursued by his implacable enemy Pepin +le Bref. The people pronounce the word 'Waïffier' as though it +commenced with a 'G.' + +Towards evening I recrossed the Lot and entered Cajarc. Passing +through the little town, which is not in itself very interesting, I +took a path winding up the side of the hill, at the base of which lies +the burg. I wished to see a cascade that has a local reputation for +beauty. I reached the foot of a high, fantastic rock, from the ledges +of which masses of ivy hung woven together like a veritable tapestry +of nature. A small stream descended from the uppermost ridge upon a +rock covered with moss showing every hue of green, and then into a +dark pool below. The hillside above the cascade has been extensively +tunnelled for phosphate. An Englishman discovered the value of the +site, and dug a fortune out of it. There are several phosphate-mines +in this district, all more or less connected with British enterprise. +Phosphate inspires respect for Englishmen here, for it has been the +means of giving a great deal of employment and rendering petty +proprietors, who could barely get a living out of their thankless +soil, comparatively rich. The inhabitants, therefore, consider English +speculators in the light of public benefactors, and such they have +really proved, although the motive that brought them here was scarcely +a philanthropic one. Neither the French nor the British public has any +conception of the extent to which the mineral resources of France are +worked by the English. + +Cajarc, although it looks like a village to-day, was once a fortified +town of considerable importance in the Quercy. Its inhabitants offered +an obstinate resistance to the English on several occasions. In 1290 +they refused to swear fealty to the King of England until their lord, +the Bishop of Cahors, gave them the order to do so in the name of the +King of France. Subsequently in the same and the following century, +when the Ouercynois were again in arms against the English, various +attempts to take the town by surprise failed through the vigilance and +courage of the burghers. To punish them, the English, in 1368, +destroyed their bridge across the Lot, of which some remnants may +still be seen. + +After leaving Cajarc in the morning I was soon alone with Nature on +the right bank of the river. Autumn was there in a gusty mood, blowing +yellow leaves down from the hills upon the water and driving them +towards the sea over the rippled, gray surface lit up with cold, +steel-like gleams of sunshine struggling through the vapour. The +wilderness of herbs and under-shrubs along the banks was no longer +aflame with flowers. Dead thistles, whose feathered seeds had drifted +far away upon the wind to found new colonies, and a multitude of +withered spikes and racemes, told the old story of the summer's life +passing into the death or sleep of winter. Yet the river-banks were +not without flowers. A rose, very like the 'monthly rose' of English +gardens, was still blooming there, together with hawkweed, wild +reseda, and a mint with lilac-coloured blossoms which one sees on +every bit of waste ground throughout this region. + +A rock rising from the river's bank carried the ruin of an ancient +chapel. Only the apse was left. It contained one narrow deeply-splayed +Romanesque window, and a piscina where the priest washed his hands. +The altar-stone lay upon the ground where the altar must have stood, +and behind it a rough wooden cross had been piously raised to remind +the passer-by that the spot was hallowed. + +The road now ran under high red rocks or steep stony slopes, where, on +neglected terraces overgrown with weeds, the dead or dying vines +repeated the monotonous tale of the phylloxera. + +I passed through the village of Lannagol, mostly built upon rocks +overlooking the bed of its dried-up stream, and was soon again under +the desert hills, where the fiery maple flashed amid the sombre +foliage of the box. The next village or hamlet was a very curious one. +Rows of little houses, some of them mere huts, were built against the +side of the rock under the shelter of huge masses of oolite or lias +projecting like the stories of mediaeval dwellings. People climbed to +their habitations, like goats, up very steep paths winding amongst the +rocks. The overleaning walls were blackened to a great height by the +smoke from the chimneys. + +It was dusk when I crossed a bridge leading to the village of +Cénevières, where I intended to pass the night. There was a very fair +inn here, less picturesque than many of the auberges of the country, +but cleaner, perhaps, for this reason. The aubergiste was suspicious +of me at first, as he afterwards admitted, for like others he had +turned over in his mind the question, Is he a German spy? Judging from +my own experience in this part of France, I should say that a German +tourist would not spend a very happy holiday here. The sentiment of +the Parisians towards the Teuton is fraternal love compared to that of +the Southern French. These people proved themselves to be thorough +going haters in the religious wars, and the old character is still +strong in them. + +Although the Germans in 1870-71 did not show themselves in Guyenne, +the resentment of the inhabitants towards them is intense, and it is +the vivacity of this feeling that renders them so suspicious of +foreigners. I noticed, however, that as I went farther down the Lot +the people became more genial, so that the long evenings in the rural +inns generally passed very pleasantly. Dinner over, I usually took +possession of a chimney-corner, the only place where one can be really +warm on autumnal nights, and while satisfying the curiosity of the +rustic intelligence concerning the English and their ways I gathered +much information that was useful to me respecting local customs and +the caverns, castles and legends of the district where I happened to +be. By nine o'clock everybody was yawning, and if the village +blacksmith, the postman, and the bell-ringer had not left by that +time, they were in an unusually dissipated frame of mind. By ten +o'clock the great kitchen was dark, and the mice were making up a +quadrille upon the hearth, supposing no cat to be looking on. + +Early the next morning I was climbing the hill towards the Castle of +Cénevières. This building is a most picturesque jumble of the +castellated styles of the thirteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth +centuries. The oldest part of the structure--and it is very +considerable--is that of a frowning feudal fortress of great strength, +built upon a rock, which on the side of the Lot is a perpendicular +wall some 200 feet high. The inhabitants agree in saying that the +feudal walls are the work of the English, but they are probably in +error. The original castle belonged to Waïfré. It afterwards passed to +the Gourdon family, who doubtless rebuilt it upon the old foundations. +The last descendant of this family was one of the most ardent +Huguenots in the Quercy. The late Gothic superstructure, which is +still inhabited, has a very high-pitched roof, with dormer windows +covered by high gables with elaborate carvings. Very near this castle, +in the side of the cliff, is a fortified cavern, which for centuries +has gone by the name of La Grotte des Anglais. It must have been in +communication with the castle, of which it may have served as an +outwork or a place of refuge in the last extremity. I might have +passed the whole day trying to find it but for the help of a peasant, +who led the way down the rocks, hanging on to bushes of box. The +remains of a small tower, pierced with loopholes on one side of the +opening, and the other ruined masonry, leave no doubt as to the +defensive use to which this cavern was at one time put. + +Having left Cénevières, I recrossed the Lot and passed through +Saint-Martin, a village of little interest, but the point from which +it is most convenient to reach a certain cave where animals of the +prehistoric ages were obliging enough to die, so that their skeletons +might be preserved for the delight and instruction of the modern +scientific bone-hunter. This is not one of the celebrated caves in the +department, consequently the visitor with thoughts fixed on bones may +carry away a sackful if he has the patience to grub for them. If the +cavern were near Paris it would give rise to a fierce competition +between the palaeontologist and the _chiffonnier_, but placed where it +is the soil has not yet been much disturbed. I went in search of it up +a very steep, stony hill, and there had the good fortune to meet an +old woman who was coming down over the rocks with surprising +nimbleness. She knew at once what I wanted. Although she spoke French +with great difficulty, three words out of every five being _patois_, +she made me understand that her house was just in front of the cave, +and that it was not to be visited without her consent and guidance. +She therefore began to reascend the 'mountain,' as she called the +hill, making signs to me to follow. There was certainly nothing wrong +with the old woman's lungs, for it was as much as I could do to keep +pace with her, especially when she led the way up almost naked rock. +At length we reached the brow of the hill, where a cottage showed +itself in a desert of limestone, but where a little garden, by dint of +long labour, had been formed upon a natural terrace on which the sun's +rays fell warmly. + +The woman left me in the cottage while she went to find her daughter. +It was composed of one small room, in which there were two beds, an +old worm-eaten walnut buffet, an eight-day clock after the pattern of +Sir Humphrey's, a hearth covered with white wood-ashes, a large +wheel-shaped loaf of black bread in a rack, onions, grapes, garlic, +and balls of twisted hemp hanging from the beams; baskets of maize and +chestnuts, and a great copper swing-pot, only a little less imposing +than the one out of which the scullion fished the fowls for Sancho +Pança. I afterwards learned that two couples slept in the two +beds--the old pair and the young pair. + +Presently the old woman reappeared, followed by a much younger one, +carrying upon her head a copper water-pot, that glowed in the sun like +a wind-blown brand. Having set down her pot, the daughter, a rather +wild-looking person with sun-baked face and large gleaming eyes, took +an old-fashioned brass dish-lamp--a deformed and vulgar descendant of +the agate lamp held in the hand of the antique priestess--and, after +bringing the wick towards the lip, lighted it. I lit the candle I had +brought with me, and, followed by the old woman, we entered the +cavern, near the mouth of which was a fig-tree. The entrance was so +small that it was almost necessary to crawl for some distance; but it +must have been much larger at one time if the story that the younger +woman told me about the bones of a mastodon having been discovered +inside was well founded. As we proceeded, the roof rose rapidly, so +that the rocks overhead could not presently be seen by the light of +the candle and lamp. Farther in, the roof became lower, and it was +connected with the ground in places by natural columns of vast size, +formed in the course of ages by the calcareous deposit of the dropping +water. Near the end of the cavern, at about 100 yards from the +entrance, various holes dug in the yellow soil showed where the +bone-searchers had been at work. I had ample encouragement, for I had +only to stir the earth a little to find bones half turned to stone. I +selected two or three teeth with the hope that a scientific friend +would say they were a mastodon's or a mammoth's. If I had liked the +prospect of carrying a bag of bones on my back down the valley of the +Lot, I might have taken away many very large specimens. I called to +mind, however, an experience of early days which prevented me from +being again a martyr to science. I had found a quantity of bones in a +newly-dug gravel-pit, and fully believing that they belonged to some +animal that flourished before the flood, I carried them twelve miles +with infinite labour and suffering, and then learned that they were +part of the anatomy of a very modern cow. Since that adventure I have +left bones for those who understand them. + +I had ample leisure for studying the river after leaving Saint-Martin, +for I stood upon the bank waiting for a ferryman until I lost all the +patience I had brought with me. He was taking a couple of oxen +harnessed to a cart across the stream, and the strong wind that was +blowing sent the great flat boat far out of its course. + +Every day I noticed a larger fleet of floating leaves upon the water, +hurrying through the ever-curving valley, drifting over the golden +reflections of other leaves that waited for the gust to cast them too +upon the water; passing into the deep shadow of bridges whose arches +resounded with mournful murmurs, riding the white foam of the weirs, +whirling in the dark eddies beyond, gliding in the brown shade of +vine-clad hills and under the beetling brows of solemn rocks, now +mingling with the imaged dovecot with pigeons perched upon the +red-tiled roof, now with the tracery of Gothic gables or the grim +blackness of feudal walls splashed with fern and pellitory, now in a +warm glow of dying summer, and now in the melancholy gray of wintry +clouds heavy with rain. Away they went, the multitudinous +leaves--children of the poplar, the willow, the fig-tree, and vine; +some broad and clumsy like rafts or barges, others slender and +graceful like little skiffs; all stained with some brilliant colour of +autumn. + +I had reckoned upon getting a mid-day meal at a village called Crégols +on the opposite bank, but when I at length reached it I had another +trial. The only place of public entertainment was an exceedingly dirty +hovel that called itself a _café_, and the woman who kept it declared +that she had no victuals of any sort in the house. This, of course, +was not true, but it was a polite way of saying that she did not wish +to be bothered with me. The wayfarer in the little-travelled districts +of France must not expect to find in all his stopping-places a fowl +ready to be placed on the spit for him. Had I obtained a meal at +Crégols, I should have looked for some dolmens said to be in the +neighbourhood, but failure in one respect spoilt my zeal in the other. +I am afraid, moreover, that I only half appreciated the grandeur of +some prodigious walls of rock which I passed in my rapid walk to the +little town of Saint-Cirq-la-Popie. It is deplorable to think how much +the mind is influenced by internal circumstances which ought to have +nothing to do with the spirit. + +After climbing a steep wood where there were unripe medlars, I came in +sight of a small burg, lying high above the Lot in a hollow of the +hill. A fortress-like church towered far above the closely-packed +red-tiled roofs sprinkled with dormer windows, and upon a still higher +rock were the ruined walls of a castle. This was Saint-Cirq-la-Popie, +a place no less quaint than its name. I was presently seated in a +dimly-lighted back-room of an auberge, whose walls--built apparently +for eternity--dated from the Middle Ages. The hostess, who, as I +entered, was gossiping with some cronies in the dark doorway, while +she pretended to twist the wool that she carried upon the most rustic +of distaffs--a common forked stick--laid this down, and, blowing up +the embers on the hearth, proceeded to cook some eggs _sur le plat_. +This with bread, goat-cheese and walnuts, and an excellent wine of the +district--the new vintage--made my lunch. The fact that there was no +meat in the auberge reminded me that it was Friday. + +Speaking generally, the inhabitants of the Lot are practising +Catholics. The churches are well filled, and the clergy are as +comfortably off as French priests can expect to be in these days. It +is no uncommon thing for a _curé_ to keep his trap. I have several +times met priests on horseback in the Quercy, but never without +thinking that they would look better if they used side-saddles. + +The early Gothic Church of Saint-Cirq-la-Popie, to judge by its high +massive walls and round tower, was raised more with the idea of +defence than ornament. In the interior there is still the feeling of +Romanesque repose; nothing of the animation of the Pointed style--no +vine-leaf or other foliage breaks the severity of the lines. I +ascended the tower with the bell-ringer's boy. In the bell-loft, with +other lumber, was an old 'stretcher,' very much less luxurious than +the _brancard_ that is used in Paris for carrying the sick and +wounded. It was composed of two poles, with cross-pieces and a railing +down the sides. I ascertained that this piece of village carpentry was +used within the memory of people still living for carrying the dead to +the cemetery merely wrapped in their shrouds. They were buried without +coffins, not because wood was difficult to obtain, but because the +four boards had not yet come into fashion at Saint-Cirq-la-Popie. To +bury a person in such a manner even there would nowadays cause great +scandal, but sixty or seventy years ago it was considered folly to put +good wood into a grave. A homespun sheet was thought to be all that +was needed to break the harshness of the falling clay. And there are +people who call this age that gives coffins even to the poorest dead +utilitarian! + +Among other curious things I saw in this ancient out-of-the-way burg +were two mediaeval corn-measures forming part of a heap of stones in a +street corner. They had much the appearance of very primitive +holy-water stoups, such as are to be seen in some rural churches, for +they were blocks of stone rounded and hollowed out with the chisel. +Each of these measures, however, had a hole in the side near the +bottom for the corn to run through, and irons to which a little +flap-door was once affixed in front of this hole. The commune treated +these stones as rubbish until some accidental visitor offered 500 +francs for them; now it clings to them tightly, hoping, no doubt, that +the price will go up. Prowling curiosity-hunters are destined to +destroy much of the archaeological interest of these old towns. They +are doing to them what Lord Elgin did to the Parthenon. Fantastic +corbel-heads and other sculptured details disappear every year from +the Gothic houses, and find their way into private museums. + +As I was taking leave of the bellringer's boy--a lad of about +fifteen--he put his hand under his blouse and, pulling out a +snuff-box, offered me a pinch. I had met plenty of boys who chewed +tobacco--they abound along the coast of Brittany--but never one who +carried a snuff-box before. + +The castle whose ruins are to be seen on the bluff above the church +received Henry IV. as a guest after his memorable exploit at Cahors. + +A man who was laying eel-lines across the Lot consented to take me to +the other side in his boat, and there I struck the road to Cahors, +which closely borders the river all along this valley. In several +places it is tunnelled through the rock, where the buttresses of the +cliffs could not be conveniently shattered with dynamite. All this has +been the work of late years. Previously the passage between the river +and the rocks was about as bad as it could be. The English fortified +several of the caverns in the cliffs commanding the passage, to which +the name of _Le Défilé des Anglais_ was consequently given. Now the +term is applied by the country people to the caves themselves, +wherever these have been walled up for defence. + +I soon reached one of these caverns, the embattled wall being a +conspicuous object from the road below. Having fallen into ruin, it +had lately been repaired at the expense of the commune. To an +Englishman the spot could not be otherwise than strangely interesting. +I imagined my own language being spoken there five or six centuries +ago, and speculated as to whether the accent was Cockney or +Lancashire, or West of England. + +Several fig-trees grew beside the walled-up cavern, and I was picking +the ripest of the fruit when I heard a voice from the road below +calling upon me to come down. Peering through the boughs, I saw a man +seated in the smallest and most gimcrack of donkey-carts. It was +something like a grocer's box on wheels. The owner gave violent smacks +to the plank on which he was sitting, to let me understand that there +was room for another person. I did not think there could be, but I +left the figs and came down the rocks. + +'If you are going to Saint-Géry,' said the man, 'I can take you about +five kilomètres on the road.' + +'But the donkey,' I urged, 'will lie down and roll.' + +'What, the little beast! Not he! he will go along like an arrow.' + +I accepted the invitation, and away went the donkey, making himself as +much like an arrow on the wing as any ass could. My companion, who was +a handsome fellow, with a moustache that one would expect to see upon +the face of a Sicilian brigand, was a cantonnier, and as he scraped +out the ditches and mended the roads, his donkey browsed upon what he +could find along the wayside. In summer and winter they were +inseparable companions, and had come to thoroughly understand one +another. The cantonnier confided to me that he was formerly employed +in the phosphate quarries, and that he had closed his experience in +this line by working three months without wages for an Englishman +whose speculation turned out a failure. Phosphate then lost its charm +upon the proprietor of the donkey-cart, for it had caused him to 'eat +all his economies,' and he resigned himself to the wages of a +road-mender, which were small but sure. It was getting dusk when we +parted. My next companion on the road was a poor bent-backed, +shambling, idiotic youth, who was driving home two long-tailed sheep +and a lamb, and who had just enough intelligence for this work. He +kept at my side for a mile or two, flourishing a long stick over the +backs of the sheep and uttering melancholy cries. His presence was not +cheering, but I had to put up with it, for when I walked fast he ran. +He likewise left me at length to continue my way alone, and his wild +cries became fainter and fainter. Then, in the deepening dusk, two +churches, one on each side of the river, began to sound the angelus. A +gleam of yellow light lingered in the western sky between two dark +hills, but the clouds above and the river below were of the colour of +slate. Suddenly a bright blaze flashed across the dim and misty valley +from a cottage hearth where a woman had just thrown on a faggot to +boil the evening soup, and the gloom of nature was at once filled with +the sentiment of home. + +It was quite dark when I reached Saint-Géry. The narrow passage +leading to the best inn was illumined by the red glare of a forge, and +was rich in odours ancient and modern. Some twenty geese tightly +packed in a pen close to the hostelry door announced my arrival with +shrieks of derision. They said: 'It's Friday; no goose for you +to-night!' Those who suppose that geese cannot laugh have not studied +bucolic poetry from nature. The forge was attached to the inn, a very +common arrangement here, and one that enables the traveller who has +hope of sleep at daybreak--because the fleas are then thinking of rest +after labour--to enjoy the melody of the 'Harmonious Blacksmith' +without the help of Handel. + +I was not cheered by the sight of goose or turkey turning on the spit +as I entered the vast smoke-begrimed kitchen, lighted chiefly by the +flame of the fire, but the great chain-pot sent forth a perfume that +was not offensive, although the soup was _maigre_. There was also fish +that had been freshly pulled out of the Lot. The cooking left +something to be desired, but the hostess, the wife of the Harmonious +Blacksmith, had thrown her best intentions into it. A rosy light wine +grown upon the side of a neighbouring hill compensated for the lack of +culinary art. It was a rather rough inn, but I had been in many worse. +Seated in the chimney-corner after dinner, and sending the smoke of my +pipe to join the sparks of the blazing wood up the yawning gulf where +the soot hung like stalactites below the calm sky and twinkling stars, +I had a long talk with the aubergiste, who told me that he had been +taken prisoner at Sedan, and had, in consequence, spent eight months +in Germany. He considered that he had been as well treated by the +Germans as a prisoner could expect to be. He had always enough to eat, +but there was no soup, and, lacking this, he thought it impossible for +any civilized stomach to be happy. + +Rural inns have charms, especially when they are old and picturesque, +and smell of the Middle Ages; but to be kept a prisoner in one of them +by rainy weather is apt to plunge a restless wanderer into the Slough +of Despond. The chances are that the inn itself becomes at such times +a slough, so that Bunyan's expression is then applicable in a real as +well as in a figurative sense. There is a constant coming in and going +out of peasants with dripping sabots, of dogs with wet paws, and +draggle-tailed hens with miry feet; geese, and even pigs, not +unfrequently venture inside, and have a good walk round before their +presence is noticed and they are treated to quotations from Rabelais, +enforced with the broomstick. Then the rain beats in at the open door, +which nobody troubles to close. Under these circumstances, the rural +inn becomes detestable. So I found the auberge at Saint-Géry, where I +waited long hours for the weather to change, after having received a +soaking while climbing the escarped cliffs which rise so grandly on +one side of the little town. + +A fortified cavern and a ruined castle tempted me up the rocks. On my +way I passed a small Gothic house, dating apparently from the +fourteenth or fifteenth century, with pointed arched doorway and +window lights separated by slender columns with foliated capitals +carved by no clumsy rustic workman. The boy who accompanied me had the +key. As I entered I was met on the threshold by the fragrant odour of +the tobacco-plant; I perceived that the mediaeval house was used for +drying tobacco-leaves--a purpose that could never have been in the +imagination of the original owner, for those stones were laid together +long before the herb, now so precious to the French Government, was +brought to Europe. The stalks with all the leaves attached were hung +to strings stretched from wall to wall. There is much tobacco grown +hereabouts in the valley of the Lot, but it is considered too strong +for smoking purposes, and is therefore made into snuff. When the +utmost care has been used in its cultivation and drying the price paid +by the Government to the grower does not exceed half a franc the +pound. Those who enjoy the privilege of raising it consider the money +very hardly earned. + +I reached the ruined castle at the foot of the limestone buttresses +supporting the plateau above. Enough is left of the wall to show that +it must have been a strong place at one time. It is attributed by +common consent to the English. Protected on one side by the abrupt +rock, it overlooked the valley from a height that to an enemy must +have been very difficult of access. The fortified cavern is in the +escarped cliff above the castle, with which there was, perhaps, a +secret communication. The upper part of the wall is gone, but what +remains is about ten feet high and nine feet thick. Swallows build +their nests in the roof of the cavern, and the spot is noisy with the +harsh cries of countless jackdaws. These sagacious birds can doubtless +tell many stories of the English which they received from their +ancestors. + +When I returned to the auberge wet and shivering, I found no sympathy, +the thoughts of the hostess being occupied by a matter that interested +her more deeply. The badgers had eaten her maize which she needed for +fattening the geese, and her tongue was busily employed in wishing +them every misfortune, both in time and eternity. Badgers are very +numerous in the district, and they continue to increase and multiply, +while the peasants jeopardise their immortal interests by cursing them +every time they see a spike of ripening maize pulled down and half +stripped of its corn. In the daytime these animals sleep comfortably, +digesting their ill-gotten meal in the holes of the rocks, which are +so honeycombed that dogs cannot easily get at the hermits. Moreover, +it is not every dog that likes the prospect of being bitten nearly in +half, the badger being much better known than trusted by the canine +race. + +Another animal that flourishes here, in spite of the hatred in which +it is held by the inhabitants, is the fox, which likewise finds the +valley an Elysium on account of the convenient neighbourhood of the +rocks pierced with multitudinous holes. Badgers and foxes, with all +their vices, are preferable to the hyenas which used to infest this +part of France, as is proved by the bones found in the larger caverns. +The present inhabitants ought to take comfort from this reflection, +but they do not. + +While the aubergiste's wife, a little woman who carried about with her +the outline of a wine-cask, was breathing maledictions upon the +badgers, and venting her fury upon the little boy-of-all-work--who, +being used to such outbursts, ate his morning allowance of soup with +philosophic indifference--I took up my place again in the +chimney-corner, and endeavoured to dry myself on all sides by somewhat +imitating the movement of a fowl turning on the spit. + +At length the heavy pall of cloud lifted, and when the first yellow +gleam of sunshine filtering through vapour was reflected by the +puddles and streaming roofs, I walked out of Saint-Géry. When the last +houses were out of sight, solitude added to the desolate grandeur of +the scenery. It was a relief to be alone with Nature, dripping as she +was with recent tears, after the depressing influences of the inn--the +dimness, dampness, and dirt, the unreasoning anger of ignorance, the +dull routine of human beings whose chief concern was to feed +themselves and the animals which helped them to live. As an alterative +to the mind, rural life is of real value in the case of those who have +been carried round and round in the whirlpool of a great city until +they have had more than enough of the sensation; but, like other +useful medicines, rusticity is best when taken in moderate doses, and +at judicious intervals. I had stayed at Saint-Géry long enough to feel +like a fish that in jumping out of water for the sake of variety had +fallen upon the mud. + +The sun that changes the face of all things, and warms the ideas no +less than the earth, now shone out from a blue sky, spreading fire +over the ruddy tops of the chestnut woods, and flashing into the dark +caverns of the ancient crags, fringed with box, sumach and juniper. I +noticed that one of these caverns had been fortified, but my curiosity +was satisfied with the distant view. A yellow chicory, quite leafless, +was still blooming on the stony banks, and I also, found a white +scabious. Green hellebore and wild madder flourished amidst the broken +limestone. A forest of brown maize-stalks, from which the golden corn +had been gathered, followed the windings of the river, now turgid and +tumultuous, and dyed sienna-red by the washings from the hills. Every +day the increasing water as it descended the weirs made a wilder +tumult. These weirs are a great beauty to the Lot, for they generally +form an angle or the arc of a circle, and the river tumbles over the +rough blocks like a natural cascade. They are connected with a series +of locks, which render the stream navigable from the sea; but one +rarely sees a barge upon it now, the railway having completely ruined +the water traffic, and caused a most elaborate and costly piece of +engineering to be practically useless. + +The valley now widened out, and a village came into view, together +with a ruined castle upon a mamelon, that rose like a volcanic cone +from the plain. On the castle wall an immense wooden cross had been +set, showing against the sky with an effect truly grand. The village +was Vers, and the castle, which was built by the English, is called +the Château de Béars. + +At Vers I was met by an old man, who insisted upon showing me another +cave fortified by the English, after taking the precaution of telling +me that he would accept nothing for his trouble. He was long and lean +and brown, and had a 'glittering, eye' like the Ancient Mariner, but +his conversation was much more cheerful than that of the hero who shot +the albatross. He was a born actor, for he accompanied his talk with +magnificent dramatic gestures, and, after letting his voice drop +suddenly to a tragic whisper, he would raise it again to the most +gusty and blustering heights of sound. He was a strong type of the +Southerner, inasmuch as all this amazing vehemence and gesticulation +was quite uncalled for. It is remarkable, however, how much may be +done by mere action and intonation to impress the listener with the +idea that the speaker must be a person of uncommon intelligence. But +when half a dozen such talkers are engaged in discussion upon some +trivial topic, and each employs the same means to enforce his views +upon the rest (this occurs nightly in the _cafés_ at Cahors), the +Northerner is inclined to think that they are all mad. The wiry old +man explained to me, in order to account for the ease and agility with +which, notwithstanding his years and his awkward _sabots_, he stepped +from block to block in the ascent, that he had been all his life a +rock-blaster. At length we reached the cavern. The English, who used +it as a refuge, had shown much sagacity in its selection, for the +enemy that attacked them there would have been compelled to climb up +the face of the rock beneath by following zigzag ledges, while the +besieged behind their loopholed wall were raining arrows and bolts +upon them. The wall, as it exists, is twenty or thirty feet high. +There is a doorway protected by an inner wall. To reach the upper +loopholes and parapet the men mounted upon oak beams resting crosswise +between the masonry and the rock. One massive beam, crumbling and +worm-eaten, as may be supposed after the centuries that it has been +there, may still be seen serving as the lintel of a window. + +I made a rather long stay at Vers, in order to visit the site of a +Celtic town on the _causse_; but I did not start upon this journey +until the next day. The inn where I put up was much more comfortable +than some others which I had chosen for night-quarters while wandering +down the valley. To anybody fresh from London it would have seemed +primitive indeed, with its broad hearth and massive iron dogs, its +enormous fire built with logs and the roots of trees, and its cosy +chimney-corners, where the sitters' heads were from time to time +enveloped with wreathing smoke; but I had grown so accustomed to such +sights that this hostelry seemed to contain all the blessings and +commodities of an advanced state of civilization. + +The hostess was a good and sprightly cook, and I watched her +proceedings with a keen interest as I sat upon one of the seats in the +chimney. Having hitched the pot that contained the soup upon the hook +at the end of the sooty chain, she raked out embers from the centre of +the burning mass, and made separate fires with them upon the hearth. +Others she carried to a range of small charcoal fireplaces on one side +of the spacious kitchen, and very soon afterwards she had sauce-pans +and a frying-pan and a gridiron all murmuring or hissing together. +There was too much garlic in her cookery, but I had also grown used to +that. Although the phylloxera had blighted nearly all the vineyards in +this region, the landlord here was able to put upon the table some +wine, grown upon his own hillside, not unworthy of the ancient +reputation of the Cahors district for its vintage. + +After dinner I returned to the chimney-corner which was decidedly the +most comfortable place in the inn, in spite of the smoke and the close +neighbourhood of soot, and set about obtaining information from the +aubergiste and his cronies who had dropped in concerning the exact +whereabouts of a Celtic town whose ruined fortifications, I knew, were +to be found somewhere among the barren hills to the west of Vers. It +was some time before I could make these men understand what I was +really in search of, and when they understood they seemed to think I +was a little mad, until the idea struck them that I might be a dealer +in antiquities, hoping to pick up certain odds and ends that would +repay me for the trouble of walking to such a desolate and +uninteresting spot. + +At length I gathered that the site of the ancient _oppidum_ was at +Murcens, a hamlet upon a hill, half a day's walk away to the west, and +that the best way to reach it was to follow the valley of the Vers. At +about seven o'clock the next morning I started, and, having been +warned that I should find no inn where I could get a meal, I took with +me some provisions. + +It was a gray, dreary morning, and at that hour the weather could not +have been more November-like had I been upon the banks of the Severn +or the Trent, instead of being by one of the rivers of our ancient +southern province of Guyenne. + +As I turned westward up the valley of the Vers, I passed under +detached fragments of the aqueduct built by the Romans to carry water +to Cahors. By taking advantage of the rocks which hem in the narrow +valley, they saved themselves the trouble of raising arches to the +desired height to ensure the flow. The conduit is carried along upon a +ledge hewn out of the natural wall, projecting masses of rock being +cut through with the hammer and chisel. The masonry is of undressed +stone, but so firmly cemented that it is scarcely less solid than the +rock itself. + +Where an inconvenient buttress projected, a narrow passage was cut +through it for the channel, and the marks of the chisel look as fresh +as if they had been lately made. Much of this aqueduct was destroyed +in quite recent days, when the rocks were blasted to make room for the +road to Cahors. The Romans may have thought of many destructive +agencies being employed upon their work, but dynamite was certainly +not one of them. Box and hellebore, bramble and dogwood, moss and +ferns, have been striving for centuries to conceal all trace of the +conduit, and those whose foreknowledge did not lead them to look for +it might easily pass by without observing it. + +The road followed the stream, now a furious torrent that a man on +horseback could hardly ford without risk of being carried away. Two or +three weeks previously a mere thread of water wound its way amongst +the stones in the centre of the channel. It is one of the many streams +which in Guyenne gradually disappear in summer, but at the return of +winter fill the long-scorched and silent valleys with the sound of +roaring waters. On either side of the gorge rose abrupt stony hills +thinly wooded, chiefly with stunted oak, or escarped craggy cliffs +pierced with yawning caverns. There was no sunshine, but the multitude +of lingering leaves lit up all the desert hills with a quiet, solemn +flame. Here and there, amidst the pale gold of the maple or the +browner, ruddier gold of the oak, glowed darkly the deep crimson fire +of a solitary cornel. In steady, unchanging contrast with these +colours was the sombre green of the box. + +The stream descends in a series of cascades, and there is a mighty +roar of waters. For many yards I have for a companion a little wren, +that flies from twig to twig through the well-nigh naked hedge along +the wayside, now hidden behind a bramble's crimson-spotted leaf, now +mingled with a tracery of twigs and thorns. I can almost believe it to +be the same wren that kept up with me years ago in English lanes, and +since then has travelled with me so many miles in France, vanishing +for long periods, but reappearing as if by enchantment in some +roadside hedge, its eyes bright with recognition, and every movement +friendly. Whimsical little bird, or gentle spirit in disguise, we may +travel many a mile together yet. + +My thoughts were turned from the wren by a carrier's cart, which the +people of the country would term a _diligence_. It was like a great +oblong box with one end knocked out, set on wheels. The interior was a +black hole, crammed with people and bundles. When I looked for my +little feathered friend it was gone, but we shall meet again. + +Two or three miles farther up the valley, near a small village or +hamlet, I crossed a low bridge over the Vers, and by following the +road on the other side, still ascending the course of the stream, I +came to a spot where a volume of water that would soon have filled a +large reservoir flowed quietly out of a little hollow at the foot of +great rocks. It was the Fountain of Polémie which, on account of its +abundant flow in all seasons, is supposed to have been the source from +which the Romans led their aqueduct to Divona--now called Cahors. The +water of this fountain, which derives its name from Polemius, a Roman +functionary, is of limpid purity, and its constancy proves that it +rises from a great depth. The Romans must have carried the water on +arches across the valley, and probably for a considerable distance +down it, before they made use of the natural wall of rock in the +manner described, but not a trace remains of the arches, or even of +the piers. + +In order to reach the tableland of Murcens, it was necessary to cross +again the roaring torrent of the Vers, and after several vain attempts +to do so, by means of the rocks lying in its bed, I came to a bridge +which solved the difficulty. The scene was now sublimely rugged and +desolate. On each side the majestic rocks reared their ever-varying +fantastic shapes towards the sky. + +I knew, from what I had been told, that Murcens lay somewhere above +the escarped cliff on my left, and at no great distance, but the +difficulty was to reach it. I had heard of a path, but I soon gave up +the attempt to find it. As there was not a human being to be seen who +could give me any counsel, I commenced climbing the hill in the +direction that I wished to take. It was anything but straightforward +walking. The lower part of the steep was strewn with loose stones like +shingle, that slipped under the feet, so that I had to proceed in +zigzag fashion, taking advantage of every bush of juniper and box and +root of hellebore as a foothold. But the vegetation grew denser as I +ascended, and I had soon plenty of box and dwarf oak to help me. + +Before attempting to climb the upper wall of solid limestone, I sat in +the mouth of a small cavern to eat the frugal lunch I had brought with +me, and to contemplate at my leisure the wild grandeur of the valley. +I could not have chosen a better place for feeling in one sense +dwindled, in another expanded, by the majesty of the stony solitude. +Suddenly, while I gazed, the sun breaking through the clouds made +every yellow tree brighten like melting gold, and drew a voice of joy +from all the dumb and solemn rocks. + +I leave the remnants of my feast for the foxes and magpies to quarrel +over, and feel prepared to put forth a vigorous effort to reach the +_causse_. I work my way up by the clefts of the rocks, hanging on to +the tough box, and getting thoroughly asperged by the dew that has not +yet dried upon it. I have not ascended fifty feet in this manner +before I am as wet as if I had been walking in a thunderstorm. I creep +along ledges, now to the right and now to the left, and presently I am +only about twenty-five feet from the top of the rock that prevents me +from attaining my object. It is pleasanter to look up than to look +down, for, being no climber of mountain peaks, I do not enjoy the +sensation of clinging to the side of a precipice like a caterpillar to +a leaf. Now comes the real trial. The rest of the rock above me is +quite bare of vegetation. By making four or five steps upwards to the +left, then to the right, a spot can be reached where the trouble will +be over; but some of these steps need a considerable stretch of leg, +and the eye cannot measure the distance with certainty. Time is on the +wing, and the days are short. I am strongly tempted to make the essay, +but doubt holds me back. What if I, were to get half-way, and were +unable to go on or to retreat? What if I were to slip and roll down +the rocks? If I were not killed outright, who would be likely to come +to my aid in such a solitude? The ravens would have ample time to pick +my bones before those interested in my existence would know what had +happened to me. I resolve that I will not give the birds of ill omen a +chance of so rare a meal. In descending, the cold showers from the box +bushes add to my humiliation and discomfiture. + +Keeping on the side of the hill, I went farther up the valley, seeking +a place where I could with better chance of success make another +attack upon the difficulties of this rocky wall. I found what I wanted +at no great distance, the only objection to the spot being the dense +growth of shrubs laden with moisture. It was almost like wading +through a stream. At length the line of high rocks was passed, and I +was upon land that, notwithstanding its steepness and the multitude of +stones with which it was strewn, had undergone some cultivation. That +wine had not long since been grown here was evident from the numerous +stumps of vines which had been killed by the phylloxera. A few +lingering flowers of hawkweed relieved the monotony of the dreary +waste. But if, while looking before me, the scene was saddening, in +looking back there was a sublime and soul-lifting picture which the +forces of Nature had been painting unmolested for ages. I can do no +more than suggest to the imagination the combined effect of those +fantastic rocks rising from the foaming torrent to the drifting, +tinted clouds; buttresses and bastions of the ancient earth laid bare +in the mysterious night of the inconceivable past, some black and +gloomy as the walls of a feudal moat, others yellow like ochre; +others, again, sun-bleached almost to whiteness, yet streaked with +ruddy veins--all flashed here and there with burning oak and maple, or +sprinkled with the purple blood of the dogwood's dying leaves. + +Half an hour later I reached Murcens, only inhabited nowadays by a few +peasants in two or three scattered hovels, which are nevertheless +called farms. I had no difficulty in finding the wall of the Gaulish +town. It is broken down completely in places, but the almost circular +line is plainly marked. The site of the _oppidum_ is a little +tableland raised above the surrounding soil by a natural embankment. + +The circumvallation in its best preserved places is now from seven to +ten feet high. The materials used were such as Caesar mentions as +having been employed by the Gauls in the fortification of their +_oppida_, namely, timber and rough stone. I looked for some traces of +the wooden uprights, but although there is ample proof that they +existed there down to our own time, my search was vain. Many stones +measuring several feet in length were set in a perpendicular position +to give extra stability to the wall. The ancient rampart is in places +completely overgrown with juniper. Within the wall is nothing but +level field. No trace remains of any buildings that stood there in the +far-off days when the spot was the scene of all passions and vanities, +the tragedy and comedy of human life, even as we know it now. The +peasant as he ploughs or digs turns up from time to time a bit of +worked metal, such as a coin, or a ring, but the hands which held them +may or may not be mingled with the soil that supports the buckwheat +and enables the peasant to live. The Gaulish city has no history. + +I had some talk with a peasant who had been watching my movements +wonderingly. He spoke French with difficulty, but his boy--a lad of +about twelve, who had been to school--could help him over the stiles. +I got the man to speak about the ancient wall, although it was +evidently not a subject that interested him so deeply as his pigsty. +He told me that all the beams of wood had now rotted (they may have +helped to warm him on winter evenings), but that nails a foot long +were often found amongst the stones of the wall or in the soil round +about it. He had picked up several, but had taken no care of them. +When I observed that I should much like to see one, he said he thought +there was one somewhere in his house, and, calling to his wife, he +asked her in Languedocian to look for it. While she was searching he +drew my attention to a circular stone lying upon the top of his rough +garden wall. It was about a foot in diameter, and concave on one +side. 'What is it?' I asked. + +'A millstone,' he replied. + +True enough, it was one of the stones of an ancient handmill, such as +was used in remote antiquity, chiefly by women, for grinding corn. It +must have been as nearly as possible after the pattern of the first +implement invented by man for this purpose. The peasant set no value +upon it; I could have had it for a trifle--even for nothing, had I +been so minded; but whatever liking I may have for antiquities, it did +not gird me up to the task of carrying a millstone back to Vers. The +nail could not be found, so I was obliged to leave without a souvenir +of the Celtic city. Not far from this spot I found another millstone +that would have fitted the one I had left and made a complete mill. +They are doubtless still lying upon the dreary height of Murcens; but +whether they are there or in a museum, they are as dumb as any other +stones, although, had they the power to repeat some of the gossip of +the women who once bent over them, they might tell us a good deal that +Caesar left out of his Commentaries because he thought it unimportant, +but which we should much like to know. + +I did not return by the way I came, but kept upon the plateau, going +southward, then, dropping down into another valley at the bottom of +which ran a tributary of the Vers, I crossed the stream and rose upon +the opposite hill, making somewhat at random towards the village of +Cours. On my way I started numerous coveys of red partridges from +juniper and box and other low shrubs. Had I been a sportsman carrying +a gun I could have made a splendid 'bag,' but these chances generally +fall to those who cannot profit by them. I wondered, however, at the +lack of poaching enterprise in a district so near to Cahors. It is not +often that one meets even in the least populous parts of France so +many partridges in an absolutely wild state. Immense flocks of larks +were likewise feeding upon the moorland, and the beating of their +countless wings as they rose made a mighty sound when it suddenly +broke the silence of the hills. I met a small peasant girl with a face +as dark as a Moorish child's, and eyes wonderfully large and lustrous. +She was a beautiful little creature of a far Southern or Arabian type. +At Cours I talked to a woman who was a pure type of the red-haired +Celt. How strange it is that with all the intermixture of blood in the +course of many centuries the old racial characteristics return when +they are deeply ingrained in a people! + +I took shelter at Cours from a sharp storm. It was a wretched little +village upon a dreary height, and the inhabitants, to whom French was +a foreign language, stared at me as if I had been a gorilla. An +overhanging 'bush' of juniper led me to a very small inn that bore the +familiar signs of antiquity, dirt and poverty. I knocked at the old +oak door studded with nail-heads, and it presently creaked upon its +rusty hinges. It was opened by a poor woman whose manners were wofully +uncouth; but this was no fault of hers. She was honest, as such rough +people generally are. Although she must have wanted money, it did not +occur to her to extract a sou from the stranger beyond the just price. +When I had had enough of her wine and bread and cheese, and asked her +to tell me what I owed her, she carefully measured with her eye how +much wine was left in the bottle, how much bread and cheese I had +taken, and when her severe calculation was finished she replied, in a +harsh, firm voice, which meant that the reckoning being made she +intended to stand by it: 'Eleven sous.' + +When I met the valley of the Vers again the storm had passed far away; +the evening rose was in the calm heaven, and the topmost oaks along +the rocky ridge burnt like tapers upon a high altar of the vast temple +whose roof is the vaulted sky. Already the deep aisles were dim with +gathering shadows. When I reached the inn at Vers it was nearly dark, +and after my day's tramp I was very glad to exchange the outer gloom +for the brightness of the cheery fireside and the warmth of the +chimney-corner beside the redly glowing logs. + +The next day brought me to the end of my long journey down the valley +of the Lot, for I had decided to leave the country below Cahors until +some future day. I reached the city of Divona when the yellow glow of +the autumnal rainy sunset was stealing up the ancient walls. + +It is always with a certain dread that I say anything about history, +because when I am once upon such high stilts I do not know when I +shall be able to get down again. Moreover, when one is so mounted, one +has to step very judiciously, especially in a region like this, where +the roads to knowledge are so roughly paved. Nothing would be easier, +however, than to fill a book with the history of Cahors, for the +place, since the days of the Romans, has gone through such +vicissitudes, and witnessed such stirring events, that those who wish +to turn over the leaves of its past have abundant facilities for doing +so; but it will be better for me to speak rather of what I have seen +than what I have read. Nevertheless, my impressions of this old town +at the present day would be like salad without salt if no flavour of +the past were put into them. + +When, a mud-bespattered tramp, I came down the road by the winding +Lot, and saw the pale golden light rising upon the walls of churches +and towers high above me, I could not but think of some of the +terrible scenes which, in the course of 2,000 years, were witnessed by +the inhabitants of Cahors. In the fast-falling twilight I saw the +ghosts of the Vandals and Visigoths who helped to destroy the works of +the Caesars, and passed onward to the unknown; of the Franks who burnt +Cahors in the sixth century; of the Arab hordes, dabbled with blood, +who afterwards came up from the South slaying, violating, plundering; +of the English troops under Henry II. besieging and taking the town, +accompanied by the Chancellor, Thomas-à -Becket; of the Albigenses and +Catholics, who cut one another's throats for the good of their souls; +of the Huguenots and Catholics, who repeated these horrors in the +sixteenth century for the same excellent reason; but of all these +shadows, the most interesting and the most dramatic was that of Henry +IV. He was then Henry of Navarre, and the hope of the Protestants in +the South, while Cahors was one of the strongholds of Catholicism. +What a feat of war was that capture of Cahors by Henry with only 1,400 +men, after almost incessant fighting in the streets for five days and +nights! How red the paving-stones must have been on the sixth day, +when it was all over, and the surviving Navarrese, smarting from the +recollection of the tiles and stones that were hurled at them from the +roofs by women, children, and old men, had given the final draught of +blood to their vengeful swords! Never was so much courage so uselessly +squandered. After the lapse of three centuries Henry's figure is still +full of heroic life, as, with back set against a shop-window, and +sword in hand, he shouted to those who urged upon him the hopelessness +of his enterprise: 'My retreat from this town will be that of my soul +from my body!' + +If is really wonderful how certain buildings at Cahors have been +preserved to the present day through all the storms of the tempestuous +Middle Ages, the furious hurricane of religious hatred that brought +those centuries to a close, and that other one, the Revolution, which +ushered in the new epoch of liberty and well-dressed poverty. Of these +buildings, the cathedral has the right to be named first. As a whole +it cannot be called a beautiful structure, for its form is graceless; +but what a charm there is in its details! Even its incongruity has a +singular fascination. This most evident incongruity arises from the +combination that it expresses of the Gothic and Byzantine styles. The +façade is very early Gothic (about the year 1200), still full of +Romanesque feeling, but the church having been much pulled about in +the thirteenth century, it came to have a semi-Byzantine choir and two +depressed domes, quite Byzantine, over the nave. The façade, with its +squat towers, exhibits no lofty aim, but when one looks at the +tabernacle-work in the tympan of the divided portal, the capitals in +the jambs and the mouldings of the archivolts, the elegant arcade +above and the tracery of the great rose window, one feels that +although the Pointed style could not yet embody its dream of beauty by +means of the tower and spire, it was moving towards it through a maze +of glorious ideas destined to become inseparable from the spirit of +the perfect whole. Still more interesting than this façade is that of +the north portal (twelfth century). It is Gothic, but the general +treatment has much of that Byzantine-Romanesque which produced some +very remarkable buildings in Southern France. The portal is very wide +and deeply recessed, and the tympan is crowded with bas-reliefs, the +sculpture of which, rude yet expressive, is of a striking originality. +There is a broad arabesque moulding in the doorway suggesting Eastern +influence, and the closed arcade of the façade, with corbel-table +above and its row of uncouth monstrous heads, presents a highly +curious effect of struggling motives in early Gothic art. + +The nave is much below the level of the soil, and is reached by a +flight of steps from the main entrance. These steps at the Sunday +services are crowded by the poorer class of churchgoers, sitting, +kneeling, and standing, and, like the catechumens in the narthex of +the early Christian basilica, they look as if they were separated from +the rest of the faithful on account of their not being as yet +full-fledged members of the Church. It may well be that they are the +most faithful of the faithful, for stone is a hard thing to kneel +upon, and when it is used for this purpose without ostentation, it is +a pretty safe test of sincerity in religion. The grouping of the +people here would interest at once an artistic eye, the more so +because many of the women of Cahors wear upon their heads kerchiefs of +brilliant-coloured silk folded in a peculiarly graceful and +picturesque manner, resembling the Bordelaise coiffure, but yet +distinct. + +The nave of the cathedral is cold and tasteless, the whole effect +being centred upon the choir, the richness of which is quite dazzling. +The vault is a semi-dome, and the apse-like polygonal termination is +pierced with several lofty Gothic windows, so that the eye rests upon +the harmonious lines of the tracery and a subdued blaze of +many-coloured glass. Then the columns, walls and vaulting of the choir +are elaborately decorated in the Byzantine style, and, all the tones +being kept in aesthetic harmony, the result is a general effect more +beautiful than gorgeous. I observed it under most favoured +circumstances. I entered the church for the first time during the +pontifical High Mass. The vestments of the mitred bishop under his +canopy, of the officiating priest and deacons, of the canons in their +stalls, together with the white surplices and scarlet cassocks of the +many choir-boys distributed over the vast sanctuary, and the sunbeams +stained with the hues of purple, crimson, azure and green by the +windows that reached towards the sky, falling upon all these figures, +realized with a splendour more Oriental than Western a grand +conception of colour in relation to a religious ideal. + +After leaving the cathedral I changed my ideas by looking for the +Gambetta grocery. It happened to be close by. The name is still over +the door, but the shop no longer looks democratic. Its plateglass, its +fresh paint and gilding, and the specimens of ceramic art which fill +the window, give it somewhat the air of one of those London shops kept +by ladies of title. Sugar, coffee, and candles now hide themselves in +the far background, as though they were ashamed of their own +celebrity. + +Much more interesting than this shop is the old house where Gambetta +spent his childhood. His parents did not live on the premises where +they carried on their business. Therefore the odour of honey and +vinegar had not, after all, so much to do with the formation of the +clever boy's character. I found the house down a dark passage. The +rooms occupied by the Gambetta family are now those of a small +_restaurateur_ for the working class. After ascending some steps, I +entered a greasy, grimy, dimly-lighted room, the floor of which had +never felt water save what had been sprinkled upon it to lay the dust. +It had the old-fashioned hearth and fire-dogs and gaping sooty chimney, +a bare table or so for the customers, a shelf with bottles, and the +ordinary furniture and utensils of the provincial kitchen. Here I had +some white wine with the present occupier as a reason for being in a +place that must have often resounded with the infantile screams of +Léon Gambetta. I ascertained that he was not born in this house, but +that he was brought to it when about three months old, and that he +passed his childhood here. I was shown an adjoining room, darker, +dingier, less persecuted by soap, if possible, than the other. It was +here that Gambetta slept in those early years. Did he ever dream here +of a great room in a palace, draped with black and silver, of a +catafalque fit for a prince, of a coffin heaped with flowers? + +Again I changed my ideas by crossing the Lot and searching for the +Fountain of Divona, now called the Fontaine des Chartreux. The old +name is Celtic, and as it charmed the Romans they preserved it. +Following the river downward, I came to a spot where a great stream +flowed silently and mysteriously out of a cavity at the foot of lofty +rocks overgrown by herbage and low shrubs that seemed to have been +left untouched by the hand of Autumn, that burns and beautifies. The +water came out of the hill like a broad sheet of green glass, giving +scarcely any sign of movement until it reached a low weir, where it +turned to the whiteness of snow. The Romans held this beautiful +fountain in high esteem, and if they had known how to raise the water +to the level of the town on the opposite bank of the river, they need +not have taken the trouble to carry an aqueduct some twenty miles from +the valley of the Vers. Nowadays it is the Fountain of Divona that +supplies Cahors with water. + +Still following the river, I came to that famous bridge, the Pont +Valentré, which is one of the most interesting specimens of the +defensive architecture of the Middle Ages. It is probably the most +curious example of a fortified bridge in existence. In addition to its +embattled parapet, it is protected by three high slender towers, +machicolated, crenellated, and loopholed. The archway of each spans +the road over the bridge, so that an enemy who forced the portcullis +of the first, and ran the gauntlet of the hot lead from the +machicolations, would have to repeat the same performance twice before +reaching the bank on which the town is built. This bridge was raised +at the commencement of the fourteenth century. By what wonderful +chance was it preserved intact, together with its towers, after the +invention of gunpowder? The people of Cahors call it the Pont du +Diable. When a certain stone was placed in one of the towers, the +devil always pulled it out, or did so until lately. + + +THE END. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11298 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..33c0979 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #11298 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11298) diff --git a/old/11298-8.txt b/old/11298-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d87f98d --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11298-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9991 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Wanderings by southern waters, eastern +Aquitaine, by Edward Harrison Barker + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Wanderings by southern waters, eastern Aquitaine + +Author: Edward Harrison Barker + +Release Date: February 26, 2004 [eBook #11298] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WANDERINGS BY SOUTHERN WATERS, +EASTERN AQUITAINE*** + + + +Produced by Distributed Proofreaders Europe, http://dp.rastko.net +Project by Carlo Traverso +This file was produced from images generously made available by the +Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at http://gallica.bnf.fr. + + + + + +[Illustration: A BIT OF OLD FIGEAC. _Frontispiece_.] + + + +WANDERINGS + +BY + +SOUTHERN WATERS + + +_EASTERN AQUITAINE_ + + + +BY + +EDWARD HARRISON BARKER + +AUTHOR OF 'WAYFARING IN FRANCE' + + +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS + + + + +LONDON + +RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON + +Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen + +1893 + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +THE VALLEY OF THE OUYSSE AND ROC-AMADOUR + +FROM THE ALZOU TO THE DORDOGNE + +WAYFARING UNDERGROUND + +IN THE VALLEY OF THE CÉLÉ + +IN THE ALBIGEOIS + +ACROSS THE ROUERGUE + +THE BLACK CAUSSE + +THE CAÑON OF THE TARN + +IN THE VALLEY OF THE LOT + +[Illustration: +OAK CHIMNEY-PIECE AT THE SINECHAUSSÉE (NOW HÔTEL DE VILLE) OF MARTEL.] + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +A BIT OF OLD FIGEAC--_Frontispiece_ + +OAK CHIMNEY-PIECE AT THE SINECHAUSSÉE (NOW HÔTEL DE VILLE) OF MARTEL + +THE PONT VALENTRÉ AT CAHORS + +ROC-AMADOUR + +PORCH OF THE CATHEDRAL OF ALBI + +AMBIALET + +CIGALA, THE SHOEBLACK. + +[Illustration: THE PONT VALENTRÉ AT CAHORS.] + + + + + + +WANDERINGS BY SOUTHERN WATERS + + + + +THE VALLEY OF THE OUYSSE AND ROC-AMADOUR. + + +From the Old-English town of Martel, in Guyenne, I turned southward +towards the Dordogne. For a few miles the road lay over a barren +plateau; then it skirted a desolate gorge with barely a trace of +vegetation upon its naked sides, save the desert loving box clinging +to the white stones. A little stream that flowed here led down into +the rich valley of Creysse, blessed with abundance of fruit. Here I +found the nightingales and the spring flowers that avoid the +wind-blown hills. Patches of wayside took a yellow tinge from the +cross-wort galium; others, conquered by ground-ivy or veronica, were +purple or blue. Presently the tiled roofs of the village of Creysse +were seen through the poplars and walnuts. A delightful spot for a +poetical angler is this, for the Dordogne runs close by in the shadow +of prodigious rocks and overhanging trees. What a noble and stately +river I thought it, as the old ferryman, with white cotton nightcap on +his head, punted me across! I took the greater pleasure in its breadth +and grandeur here because I had seen it an infant river in the +Auvergne mountains, and had watched its growth as it rushed between +walls of rock and forest towards the plains. + +What witchery of romance and spell-bound fancy is in the song of the +Dordogne as it breaks over its shallows under high rocky cliffs and +ruined castles! Everything that can charm the poet and the artist is +here. The grandeur of rugged nature combines with the most enticing +beauty of water and meadow, and the voices of the past echo with a +sweet sadness from cliff to cliff. It is said that several of these +castles were built to prevent the English from coming up the river, +but this may be treated as one of the many fanciful legends respecting +the British period which are repeated throughout Aquitaine. + +By cutting off a curve of the Dordogne I soon came to the river-side +village of Meyronne, and here I stopped for a meal at a very pleasant +little inn, where to my surprise I found that I had been preceded a +few days before by another Englishman, who, accompanied by a +Frenchman, had come up from Bordeaux in a boat. They must have found +it very hard work rowing against the rapids. The hostess here was +evidently a woman who treasured her household gods, but who liked also +to show them. She gave me my coffee in a china cup that looked as if +it had belonged to her great-grandmother; and in the bright little +room where she served my lunch was a large walnut buffet elaborately +and admirably carved, bearing the date 1676. + +After Meyronne my road ran for a few miles beside the broad and +curving river. The forms of the great cliffs on each side were ever +changing. Over a sky intensely blue sailed the fleecy April clouds +before the soft west wind, and whenever the sun shone out with +unveiled splendour, the rays fell with summer warmth. While the +tinkling of sheep-bells from the ledges of the rocks came down to me, +the passionate warble of nightingales, that could not wait for the +night, must have risen from the leafy valley to the ears of the +listless shepherd-boy gathering feather-grass where goats would not +dare to venture, or eating his dark bread in the sun on the edge of a +precipice. Time flowed gently like the river, and I was surprised to +find myself at Lacave so soon. This village is near the spot where the +Ouysse falls into the Dordogne. A little beyond the clustering houses, +upon the edge of a high rocky promontory overlooking the Ouysse, is +the castle of Belcastel, still retaining its feudal keep and outer +wall. In this fortress the English are said to have kept many of their +prisoners. + +I now left the Dordogne and ascended the valley of the Ouysse. This +stream is one of the most remarkable of the natural phenomena of +France. To judge from its breadth near the mouth, one would suppose +that it had flowed fifty or a hundred miles, but its entire length is +less than ten miles. It is already a river when it rises out of the +depths of the earth. The narrow valley that it waters is a gorge 500 +or 600 feet deep through the greater part of its distance. The +traveller at the bottom supposes, or is ready to suppose, that he is +in some ravine of the high mountains; in reality, it is simply a +fissure of the plateau that was once the bed of the sea. There is no +igneous, no metamorphic rock here; nothing but limestone of the +Jurassic formation. The convexities on one side of the fissure +correspond with marked regularity to the concavities on the other. + +For awhile I walked on the lush grass by the brimming river, where in +the little creeks and bays the water-ranunculus floated its small +white flowers that were to continue the race. Then I left the water +and the green ribbon that followed its margin, and, taking a +sheep-track, rose upon the arid steeps, where the thinly-scattered +aromatic southern-wood was putting forth its dusty leaves. The bare +rocks, yellow, white, and gray, towered above me; they were beneath +me; they faced me across the valley; wherever I looked they were +shutting me off from the outer world. No nightingales were singing +here, but I heard the melancholy scream of the hawk and the harsh +croak of the raven. And yet, when I looked down into the bottom of +this steep desert of stones, what soft and vernal beauty was there! +Over the grass of living green was spread the gold of cowslips, just +as if that strip of meadow, with its gently-gliding river, had been +lifted out of an English dale and dropped into the midst of the +sternest scenery of Southern France. + +As I went on I soon found that the stony wastes had their flowers too. +It would seem as if Nature had wished to console the desert by giving +to it her loveliest and most enticing blossoms. I came upon colonies +of the poet's narcissus, breathing over the rocks so sweet a fragrance +that it was as if a miracle had been wrought to draw it out of the +earth. I walked knee-deep through blooming asphodels, beautiful and +strange, but only noticed here by the wild bee. I gathered sprays of +the graceful alpine-tea, densely crowded with delicate white bloom, +and marvelled at the wanton splendour of the iris colouring the gray +and yellow stones with its gorgeous blue. + +Still following the Ouysse, I came to a spot where the valley ended in +an amphitheatre formed by steep hills more than 600 feet high, and +covered for the most part with dwarf oak. In the hollow under the dark +cliffs was a little lake or pool forty or fifty yards from shore to +shore. The water showed no sign of trouble save where it overflowed +its basin on the western side, and formed the river that I had been +keeping in sight for hours. The pool filled the Gouffre de St. +Sauveur. Until the Ouysse finds this opening in the earth it is a +subterranean river, and it must flow at a great depth, probably at the +base of the calcareous formation, inasmuch as it continues to rise +from the gulf the whole year, although from the month of August until +the autumn rains nearly every water-course in the country is marked by +a curving line of dry pebbles. The funnel-shaped hole descends +vertically to the depth of about ninety feet, but there is no means of +knowing how far it descends obliquely. The tourist may occasionally +catch sight of a shepherd boy or girl with goats or sheep upon the +bare or wooded rocks, but his feeling will be one of deep loneliness. +He will see ravens and hawks about the crags, and about the river half +covered in summer with floating pond-weed, watercress, and the broad +leaves of the yellow lily, he will notice many a water-ouzel bobbing +with white breast, water-hens gliding from bank to bank, merry bands +of divers, and the brilliant blue gleam of the passing kingfisher, +which here is allowed to fish in peace, like the otter. + +The Gouffre de St. Sauveur has its legend. It is said that when the +church of St. Sauveur, on the neighbouring hill, was in imminent +danger at the time of the Revolution, the bells were thrown into the +pool so that they should not fall into the hands of the enemy. +Imaginative people fancy that they can sometimes hear them ringing at +the bottom of the water. + +After leaving the pool--now very sombre in the shadow of the wooded +hill--I crossed a ridge separating me from the Gouffre de Cabouy, out +of which flows a tributary of the Ouysse. Thence I reached the deep +and singularly savage gorge of the Alzou, which brought me to +Roc-Amadour, when the after-light of sunset was lingering rosily upon +the naked crags. + + * * * * * + +Rocks reach far overhead, dazzlingly white where the sunbeams strike +them, and below is a green line of narrow valley. A tinkling of bells +comes from the stony sides of the gorge, where sheep are browsing the +scant herbage and young shoots of southern-wood; and from the curving +fillet of meadow, where the grass seems to grow while the eye watches +it, rises the shrill little song of the stream hurrying over its +yellow bed, which may be dry again to-morrow. This Alzou is no more to +be depended upon than a coquette. After a period of drought, a storm +that has passed away hours ago will cause it suddenly to come hissing +down over the dry stones; but the next day no trace of the flow may be +found save a few pools. Or it may grow to a torrent, even a river, +that in its wild career scoffs at banks, and spreads devastation +through the valley. + +It is April, and the nightingales, the swallows, the flowers, the +bees, and the kids, whose trembling voices are heard all about the +rocks, tell me that the spring has come. I cannot rest in my cottage +on the side of the gorge, not even on the balcony that seems to hang +in the air over the depth; the sounds from the valley, especially +those that the imagination hears, are too enticing. + +Upon a high ledge of rock to which I have climbed, not without some +unpleasant qualms, I stretch myself out upon a strip of short turf +sprinkled with the flowers of the white rock-rose and bordered with +candy-tuft, and try to drive out of mind the only disagreeable thought +I have at this moment--that of getting down to the path, where I was +safe. The worst part of climbing precipitous places is not the going +up, but the coming down. Not a human being or dwelling is in sight, so +that I can contemplate the wildness of the scene to my mind's content. +But a very hoarse voice not far above tells me that I am not alone. A +raven perched upon a jutting piece of rock, that curiously resembles +some monstrous animal, is watching me, and he looks a very crafty old +bird who could speak either French or English if he liked. Presently +he flaps heavily off to the opposite side of the gorge, and fetches +his wife. They fly over me almost within gunshot, going round and +round, expressing an opinion or sentiment with an occasional croak, +but apparently quite willing to make their dinner-hour suit my +convenience. Do they suppose that I have really taken the trouble to +climb up here to die out of the world's way and the sight of my +fellow-creatures, like that very unearthly poet whose story Shelley +has written? Do they think that they are going to make a hearty meal +upon me this evening or to-morrow morning? I remain quite still, +pleased at the thought of cheating the greedy, croaking scavengers of +Nature, and hoping that they will grow bold enough to settle at length +somewhere near me. But they are too suspicious; perhaps with their +superior sight they note the blinking of my eyes as I look upwards at +the dazzling sky, or instinct may tell them that I am not lying down +after the manner of a dying animal. Their patience is more than a +match for mine, and so I come down from my ledge and make my way back +to my cottage before the pink blush of evening has faded from the +rocks. + +When the angelus has sounded from the ancient sanctuary, and all the +forms of the valley are dim in the dusk, the silence is broken again +by a very quiet little bell, which might be called the fairies' +angelus if it did not keep ringing all through the spring and summer +nights. It is like a treble note of the piano softly touched. It +steals up from amongst the flags, hyacinths, and box-bushes of the +neglected little garden which I call mine, terraced upon the side of +the gorge just beneath the balcony. Now, from all the terraced gardens +planted with fruit-trees, comes the same sound of low, clear notes, +some a little higher than others, but all in the treble, feebly struck +by unseen musicians. How sweetly this tinkling rises from the earth, +that trembles with the bursting of seeds and the shooting of stems in +the first warm nights of spring! And to think that the musicians +should be toads--yes, toads--the most despised and the most unjustly +treated of creatures! + +This cottage is at Roc-Amadour, and before writing about the place I +cannot do better than go down to the level of the stream, and look up +at the amazing cluster of buildings clinging to the rocks on one side +of the gorge, while the old walls are whitened by the pale brilliancy +of the moon. Above the roofs of all the houses is a mass of masonry, +vast and heavy, pierced by narrow Romanesque windows--a building +uncouth and monstrous, like the surrounding crags. It stands upon a +ledge of the cliff, partly in the hollow of the rock, which, indeed, +forms its innermost wall. Higher still a great cross shows against the +sky, and near to it, upon the edge of the precipice, are the ramparts +of a mediaeval fortress, now combined with a modern building, which is +the residence of the clergy attached to the sanctuary of Notre Dame de +Roc-Amadour. + +[Illustration: ROC-AMADOUR.] + +The sanctuary--it is inside the massive pile under the beetling rock, +and over the roofs of the houses--explains why men in far-distant +times had the strange notion of gathering together and constructing +dwellings upon a spot where Nature must have offered the harshest +opposition to such a project. The chosen site was not only +precipitous, but lay in the midst of a calcareous desert, where no +stream nor spring of water could be relied upon for six months in the +year, and where the only soil that was not absolutely unproductive was +covered with dense forest infested by wolves.[*] And yet, in course of +time, there grew up upon these forbidding rocks, in the midst of this +desert, a little town that obtained a wide celebrity, and was even +fortified, as the five ruinous gateways, with towers along the line of +the single street, prove even now, notwithstanding the deplorable +recklessness with which the structures of the ancient burg have been +degraded or demolished during the last half-century. Nothing is more +certain than that the origin of Roc-Amadour, and the cause of its +development, were religious. It was called into existence by pilgrims; +it grew with the growth of pilgrimages, and if it were not for +pilgrims at the present day half the houses now occupied would be +allowed to fall into ruin. It is impossible to look at it without +wonder, either in the daylight or the moonlight. It appears to have +been wrenched out of the known order of human works--the result of +common motives--and however often Roc-Amadour may suddenly meet the +eye upon turning the gorge, the picture never fails to be surprising. +It has really the air of a holy place, which many others famed for +holiness have not. + + [*] Robert du Mont, in his supplement to Sigibert's Chronicles, + wrote, more than five hundred years ago, of Roc-Amadour: 'Est + locus in Cadurcensi pago montaneis et horribile solitudine + circumdatus.' + +The founder of the sanctuary was a hermit, whose contemplative spirit +led him to this savage and uninhabited valley, whose name, in the +early Christian ages, was _Vallis tenebrosa_, but in which Nature had +fashioned numerous caverns, more or less tempting to an anchorite. He +is called Amator--_Amator rupis_--by the Latin chroniclers--a name +that, with the spread of the Romance language, would easily have +become corrupted to Amadour by the people. According to the legend, +however, which for an uncertain number of centuries has obtained +general credence in the Quercy and the Bas-Limousin, and which in +these days is much upheld by the clergy, although a learned +Jesuit--the Père Caillau--who sifted all the annals relating to +Roc-Amadour felt compelled to treat it as a pious invention, the +hermit Amator or Amadour was no other than Zaccheus, who climbed into +the sycamore. The legend further says that he was the husband of St. +Veronica, and that, after the crucifixion, they left the Holy Land in +a vessel which eventually landed them on the western coast of Gaul, +not far from the present city of Bordeaux. They became associated with +the mission of St. Martial, the first Bishop of Limoges, and at a +later period Zaccheus, hearing of a rocky solitude in Aquitania, a +little to the south of the Dordogne, abandoned to wild beasts, +proceeded thither, and chose a cavern in the escarped side of a cliff +for his hermitage. Here, meditating upon the merits of the Mother of +Christ, he became one of her most devoted servants in that age, and +during his life he caused a small chapel to be raised to her upon the +rock near his cavern, which was consecrated by St. Martial. All this +is open to controversy, but what is undoubtedly true is that one of +the earliest sanctuaries of Europe associated with the name of Mary +was at Roc-Amadour. + +It is recorded that Roland, passing through the Quercy in the year 778 +with his uncle, Charlemagne, made a point of stopping at Roc-Amadour +for the purpose of 'offering to the most holy Virgin a gift of silver +of the same weight as his bracmar, or sword.' After his death, if +Duplex and local tradition are to be trusted, this sword was brought +to Roc-Amadour, and the curved rusty blade of crushing weight which is +now to be seen hanging to a wall is said to be a faithful copy of the +famous Durandel, which is supposed to have been stolen by the +Huguenots when they pillaged the church and burnt the remains of St. +Amadour. + +That in the twelfth century the fame of Roc-Amadour as a place of +pilgrimage was established we have very good evidence in the fact that +one of the pilgrims to the sanctuary in 1170 was Henry II. of England. +He had fallen seriously ill at Mote-Gercei, and believing that he had +been restored to health through the intercession of the Virgin, he set +out for the 'Dark Valley' in fulfilment of a vow that he had made to +her; but as this journey into the Quercy brought him very near the +territory of his enemies, the annalists tell us that he was +accompanied by a great multitude of infantry and cavalry, as though he +were marching to battle. But he injured no one, and gave abundant alms +to the poor. Thirteen years later, the King's rebellious son, Henry, +Court Mantel, pillaged the sanctuary of its treasure in order to pay +his ruffianly soldiers. This memorable sacrilege had much to do with +the insurmountable antipathy of the Quercynois for the English. + +I have before me an old and now exceedingly rare little book on +Roc-Amadour, which was written by the Jesuit Odo de Gissey, and +published at Tulle in 1666. In this, Court Mantel's exploit is spoken +of as follows: + +'Les guerres d'entre nos Rois très Chrétiens et les Anglais en ce +Royaume de France guerroyant ruinèrent en quelque façon Roc-Amadour; +mais plus que tous Henri III., Roi d'Angleterre, ingrat des grâces que +son père Henri II. y avait recues, en dépit de son père qui +affectionnait cette Eglise, son avarice le poussant, pilla cet +oratoire et enleva les plaques qui couvraient le corps de S. Amadour +et emporta ce qui était de la Trésorerie; mais Dieu qui ne laisse rien +impuni châtia le sacrilege de cet impie Prince par une mort +malheureuse. De quoi lise qui voudra Roger de Houedan, historien +Anglais en la 2 partie de ses Annales.' + +There are early records of miracles wrought at Roc-Amadour. Gauthier +de Coinsy, a monk and poet born at Amiens in 1177, has left a poem +telling how the troubadour, Pierre de Sygelard, singing the praises of +the Virgin in her chapel at Roc-Amadour to the accompaniment of his +_vielle_ (hurdy-gurdy), begged of her as a miraculous sign to let one +of her candles come down from her altar. According to the poem, the +candle came down, and stood upon the musical instrument, to the horror +and disgust of a monk who was looking on, and who saw no miracle in +the matter, but wicked enchantment. He put the candle back +indignantly, but when the minstrel sang and played it came down as +before. The movement was repeated again before the monk would believe +that the miracle was genuine. The poem, which is in the Northern +dialect, and is marked throughout by a charming _naïveté_, commences +with a eulogium of the Virgin: + + 'La douce mère du Créateur + À l'église à Rochemadour + Fait tants miracles, tants hauts faits, + C'uns moultes biax livres en est faits.' + +The huge, inartistic, but imposing block of masonry that appears from +a little distance to be clinging, after the manner of a swallow's +nest, to the precipitous face of the rock, and which is reached from +below by more than 200 steps in venerable dilapidation[*], contains +the church of St. Sauveur, the chapel of the Virgin, called the +Miraculous Chapel, and the chapel of St. Amadour, all distinct. The +last-named is a little crypt, and the Miraculous Chapel conveys the +impression of being likewise one, for it is partly under the +overleaning rock, the rugged surface of which, blackened by the smoke +of the countless tapers which have been burnt there in the course of +ages, is seen without any facing of masonry. + + [*] Since the foregoing was written the old slabs have been turned + round, and the steps been made to look quite new. + +If by looking at certain details of this composite structure one could +shut off the surroundings from the eye, the mind might feed without +any hindrance upon the ideas of old piety and the fervour of souls +who, when Europe was like a troubled and forlorn sea, sought the +quietude and safety of these rocks, lifted far above the raging surf. +But the hindrance is found on every side. The sense of artistic +fitness is wounded by incongruities of architectural style, of ideas +which meet but do not marry. The brazen altar, in the Miraculous +Chapel was well enough at the Paris Exhibition of 1889, where it could +be admired as a piece of elaborate brass work, but at Roc-Amadour it +is a direct challenge to the spirit of the spot. Then again, late +Gothic architecture has been grafted upon the early Romanesque. Those +who restored the building after it had been reduced to a ruin by the +Huguenots in 1562 set the example of bad taste. The revolutionists of +1793 having in their turn wrought their fury upon it, the work of +restoration was again undertaken during the last half-century, but the +opportunity of correcting the mistake of the previous renovators was +lost. The piece of Romanesque architecture whose character has been +best preserved is the detached chapel of St. Michael, raised like a +pigeon-house against the rock; but even this has been carefully +scraped on the outside to make it correspond as nearly as possible to +some adjacent work of recent construction. + +The ancient treasure of Roc-Amadour has been scattered or melted down, +but the image of the Virgin and Child, which according to the local +tradition was carved out of the trunk of a tree by St. Amadour +himself, is still to be seen over the altar in the Miraculous Chapel. +It is probably 800 years old, and it may be older. There is no record +to help hypothesis with regard to its antiquity, for since the +pilgrimage originated it appears to have been an object of veneration, +and the commencement of the pilgrimage is lost in the dimness of the +past. Like the statue of the Virgin at Le Puy, it is as black as +ebony, but this is the effect of age, and the smoke of incense and +candles. The antiquity of the image is, moreover, proved by the +artistic treatment. The Child is crowned and rests upon the Virgin's +knee; she does not touch him with her hands. This is in accordance +with the early Christian sentiment, which dwells upon the kingship of +the Child as distinguished from the later mediaeval feeling, which +rests without fear upon the Virgin's maternal love and makes her clasp +the Infant fondly to her breast. + +The 'miraculous bell' of Roc-Amadour has not rung since 1551, but it +may do so any day or night, for it is still suspended to the vault of +the Miraculous Chapel. It is of iron, and was beaten into shape with +the hammer--facts which, together with its form, are regarded as +certain evidence of its antiquity. The first time that it is said to +have rung by its own movement was in 1385, and three days afterwards, +according to Odo de Gissey, the phenomenon was repeated during the +celebration of the Mass. All those who were present bore testimony to +the fact upon oath before the apostolic notary. + +Very early in the Middle Ages the faith spread among mariners, and +others exposed to the dangers of the sea, that the Lady of Roc-Amadour +had great power to help them when in distress. Hugues Farsit, Canon of +Laon, wrote a treatise in 1140, 'De miraculis Beatae Virginis rupis +Amatoris,' wherein he speaks of her as the 'Star of the Sea,' and the +hymn 'Ave maris stella' is one of those most frequently sung in these +days by the pilgrims at Roc-Amadour. A statement, written and signed +by a Breton pilgrim in 1534, shows how widely this particular devotion +had then spread among those who trusted their lives to the uncertain +sea: + +'I, Louis Le Baille, merchant of the town of Pontscorf, on the river +Ellé, in the diocese of Vannes, declare with truth that, returning +from a voyage to Scotland the 13th of the month of February, 1534, at +about ten o'clock at night, we were overtaken by such a violent storm +that the waves covered the vessel, in which were twenty-six persons, +and we went to the bottom. During the voyage somebody said to me: "Let +us recommend ourselves to God and to the Virgin Mary of Roc-Amadour. +Let us put her name upon this spar and trust ourselves to the care of +this good Lady." He who gave me this good counsel and myself fastened +ourselves to the spar with a rope. The tempest carried us away, but in +so fortunate a manner that the next day we found ourselves on the +coast of Bayonne. Half dead, we landed by the grace of God and the aid +of His pitiful mother, Notre Dame de Roc-Amadour. I have come here out +of gratitude for this blessing, and have accomplished the journey in +fulfilment of my vow to her, in proof of which, I have signed here +with my hand.--Louis BAILLE.' + +Such streams of pilgrims crossed the country from various directions, +moving towards the sanctuary in the Haut-Quercy, that inns or 'halts' +were called into existence on the principal lines of route, and +lanterns were set up at night for the guidance of the wanderers. The +last halt was close to Roc-Amadour, at a spot still called the +_Hospitalet_. Here were religious, who bound up the pilgrims' bleeding +feet, and provided them with food before they descended to the burg +and completed the last part of their pilgrimage--the ascent of the +steps--upon their knees. The _sportelle_, or badge of Notre Dame de +Roc-Amadour, ensured the wearer against interference or ill-treatment +on his journey. It is acknowledged that the English respected it even +in time of war. At the Great Pardon of Roc-Amadour, in 1546, so great +was the crowd of pilgrims, who had come from all parts, that many +persons were suffocated. The innkeepers' tents gave the surrounding +country the appearance of a vast camp. Sixteen years later, when +Roc-Amadour fell into the hands of the Huguenots, and the religious +buildings were pillaged and partly destroyed, the pilgrimage received +a blow from which it never quite recovered. It ceased completely at +the Revolution, but has since been revived, and some thousand genuine +pilgrims, chiefly of the peasant class, now visit Roc-Amadour every +year. + +For nearly 300 years the history of the Quercy and Roc-Amadour was +intimately associated with that of England. Henry II. did not at first +claim the Quercy as a part of Eleanor's actual possessions in +Aquitaine; but he claimed homage from the Count of Toulouse, who was +then suzerain of the Count of Quercy. Homage being refused, Henry +invaded the county, captured Cahors, where he left Becket with a +garrison, and thence proceeded to reduce the other strongholds. +Roc-Amadour appears to have offered little if any resistance. The +Quercy was formally made over to the English in 1191 by the treaty +signed by Philip Augustus and Richard Coeur-de-Lion; but the aged +Raymond V. of Toulouse protested, and the Quercynois still more +loudly. These descendants of the Cadurci found it very difficult to +submit to English rule. Unlike the Gascons, who became thoroughly +English during those three centuries, and were so loath to change +their rulers again that they fought for the King of England to the +last, the Quercynois were never reconciled to the Plantagenets, but +were ever ready to seize an opportunity of rebelling against them. It +is well known that Richard Coeur-de-Lion lost his life at the hand of +a nobleman of the Quercy. While Guyenne was distracted by the family +quarrel of the first Plantagenets, the troubadour Bertrand de Born by +his gift of words so stirred up the patriotic and martial ardour of +the Aquitanians that a league was formed against the English, which +included Talleyrand, Count of Périgord, Guilhem (or Fortanier) de +Gourdon, a powerful lord of the Quercy, De Montfort, the Viscounts of +Turenne and Ventadour. These nobles swore upon the Gospels to remain +united and faithful to the cause of Aquitaine; but Richard, partly by +feats of war and partly by diplomacy, in which it is said the argument +of money had no inconsiderable share, broke up the league, and +Bertrand de Born, being abandoned, fell into the Plantagenet's hands. +But he was pardoned, probably because Richard was a troubadour himself +in his leisure moments, and had a fellow-feeling for all who loved the +'gai sçavoir.' Meanwhile, the Lord of Gourdon was not to be gained +over by fair words or bribes, and Richard besieged his castle, some +ruins of which may still be seen on the rock that overhangs the little +town of Gourdon in the Quercy. The fortress was taken, and Richard in +his fury caused the stern old man who defended it and two of his sons +to be put to death. But there was a third son, Bertrand de Gourdon, +who, seeking an opportunity of avenging his father and brothers, +joined the garrison of the castle of Châlus in the Limousin, which +Richard soon afterwards besieged. He aimed the bolt or the arrow which +brought Richard's stormy life to a close. Although forgiven by the +dying Coeur-de-Lion, Bertrand was flayed alive by the Brabançons who +were in the English army. He left no descendants, but his collaterals +long afterwards bore the name of Richard in memory of Bertrand's +vengeance. + +A member of a learned society at Cahors has sought to prove that +Gourdon in the Quercy is the place where the family of General Gordon +of Khartoum fame had its origin. It is true that the name of this town +in all old charts is spelt Gordon; but, inasmuch as it is a compound +of two Celtic words meaning raven's rock, it might as feasibly have +been handed down by the Gaelic Scotch as by the Cadurcians. + +The Plantagenets came to be termed 'the devil's race' by the people of +Guyenne. This may have originated in a saying attributed to Richard +himself in Aquitaine: 'It is customary in our family for the sons to +hate their father. We come from the devil, and we shall return to the +devil.' + +In 1368 the English, having again to reduce the Quercy, laid siege to +Roc-Amadour. The burghers held out only for a short time, and the +place being surrendered, Perducas d'Albret was left as governor with a +garrison of Gascons. Froissart quaintly describes this brief siege. +Shortly before the army showed itself in the narrow valley of the +Alzou, the towns of Fons and Gavache had capitulated, the inhabitants +having sworn that they would remain English ever afterwards. 'But they +lied,' observes Froissart. Arriving under the walls of Roc-Amadour, +which were raised upon the lower rocks, the English advanced at once +to the assault. 'Là eut je vous dy moult grant assaust et dur.' It +lasted a whole day, with loss on both sides; but when the evening came +the English entrenched themselves in the valley with the intention of +renewing the assault on the morrow. That night, however, the consuls +and burghers of Roc-Amadour took council of one another, and it was +unanimously agreed that the English had shown great 'force and virtue' +during the day. Then the wisest among them urged that the place could +not hold out long against such an enemy, and that if it was taken by +force they, the burghers, would be all hanged, and the town burnt +without mercy. It was, therefore, decided to surrender the town the +next day. This was accordingly done, and the burghers solemnly swore +that they would be 'good English' ever afterwards. For their penance +they undertook to send fifty mules laden with provisions to accompany +the English army on its march for fifteen days. The fact that the +burghers owned fifty mules in the fourteenth century shows how much +richer they were then, for now they can scarcely boast half as many +donkeys, although these beasts do most of the carrying, and even the +ploughing. + +It is difficult now to find a trace of the wall which defended the +burg on the side of the valley; but here, not far above the bed of the +Alzou, are some ruins of the castle where Henry II. stayed, and which +the inhabitants still associate with his name. It is improbable that +he built it; it is more reasonable to suppose that it existed before +his marriage with Eleanor in 1152. His son, 'Short Mantle,' also used +it when he came to Roc-Amadour, and behaved, as an old writer +expresses it, 'like a ferocious beast.' Some ruined Gothic archways +may still be seen from the valley, the upper stones yellow with +rampant wallflowers in the early spring. The older inhabitants speak +of the high walls, the finely-sculptured details, etc., which they +remember; and, indeed, it is not very long ago that the ancient castle +was sold for a paltry sum, to be used as building material. The only +part of the interior preserved is what was once the chapel. It is +vaulted and groined, and the old vats and casks heaped up in it show +that it was long used for wine-making, before the phylloxera destroyed +the vineyards that once covered the sides of the stony hills. A little +below this castle is a well, with an extraordinary circumference, said +to have been sunk by the English, and always called by the people 'Le +puit des Anglais.' It is 100 feet deep, and those who made it had to +work thirty feet through solid rock. + + * * * * * + +After wandering and loitering by rivers too well fed by the mountains +to dry completely up like the perfidious little Alzou, I have returned +to Roc-Amadour, my headquarters, the summer being far advanced. The +wallflowers no longer deck the old towers and gateways with their +yellow bloom, and scent the morning and evening air with their +fragrance; the countless flags upon the rocky shelves no longer flaunt +their splendid blue and purple, tempting the flower-gatherer to risk a +broken neck; the poet's narcissus and the tall asphodel alike are +gone; so are all the flowers of spring. The wild vine that clambers +over the blackthorn, the maple and the hazel, all down the valley +towards the Dordogne, shows here and there a crimson leaf; and the +little path is fringed with high marjoram, whose blossoms revel amidst +the hot stones, and seem to drink the wine of their life from the +fiery sunbeams. Upon the burning banks of broken rock--gray wastes +sprinkled with small spurges and tufts of the fragrant southernwood, +now opening its mean little flowers--multitudes of flying grasshoppers +flutter, most of them with scarlet wings, and one marvels how they can +keep themselves from being baked quite dry where every stone is hot. +The lizards, which spend most of their time in the grasshoppers' +company, appear equally capable of resisting fire. In the bed of the +Alzou a species of brassica has had time since the last flood to grow +up from the seed, and to spread its dark verdure in broad patches over +the dry sand and pebbles. The ravens are gone--to Auvergne, so it is +said, because they do not like hot weather. The hawks are less +difficult to please on the score of climate; they remain here all the +year round, piercing the air with their melancholy cries. + +I needed quiet for writing, and could not get it. Of all boons this is +the most difficult to find in France. It can be had in Paris, where it +is easy to live shut off from the world, hearing nothing save the +monotonous rumble of life in the streets; but let no one talk to me +about the blessed quietude of the country in France, unless it be that +of the bare moor or mountain or desolate seashore. In villages there +is no escape from the clatter of tongues until everybody, excepting +yourself, is asleep. The houses are so built that wherever you may +take refuge you are compelled to hear the conversation that is going +on in any part of them. In the South the necessity of listening +becomes really terrible. The men roar, and the women shriek, in their +ordinary talk. A complete stranger to such ways might easily suppose +that they were engaged in a wordy battle of alarming ferocity, when +they are merely discussing the pig's measles, or the case of a cow +that strayed into a field of lucern, and was found the next morning +like a balloon. It is hard for a person who needs to be quiet at times +to live with such people without giving the Recording Angel a great +deal of disagreeable work. + +I would not have believed that so small a place as Roc-Amadour, and +such a holy one, could have been so noisy if my own experience had not +informed me on this subject. Every morning at five the tailor who did +duty as policeman and crier came with his drum, and, stationing +himself by the town pump, which was just in front of my cottage, awoke +the echoes of the gorge with a long and furious _tambourinade_. While +the women, in answer to this signal, were coming from all directions, +carrying buckets in their hands, or copper water-pots on their heads, +he unchained the pump-handle. Now for the next two hours the strident +cries of the exasperated pump, and the screaming gabble of many +tongues, all refreshed by slumber and eager for exercise, made such a +diabolic tumult and discord as to throw even the braying of the +donkeys into the minor key. Of course, sleep under such circumstances +would have been miraculous; but, then, no one had any right to sleep +when the rocks were breaking again into flame, and the mists which +filled the gorge by night were folding up their tents. I therefore +accepted this noise as if it had been intended for my good, and the +crowd in front of the pump was always an amusing picture of human +life. It was at its best on Sunday, for then the tailor--who also did +a little shaving between whiles--had put on his fine braided official +coat, as well as his sword and best _képi_. (On very grand days he +wore his cocked hat, and was then quite irresistibly beautiful.) He +had to look after the women as well as the water. The latter was +precious, and it was necessary to protect it in the interest of the +community. Then the pump was parsimonious, and all the women being +impatient to get their allowance and go, it was needful that someone +in authority should stand by to decide questions of disputed priority, +and to nip quarrels in the bud which might otherwise lead to a fight. +Poor man! how those women worried him every morning with their +_badinage_, and how glad he was to chain up the pump-handle and turn +the key! + +But this was only the opening act of the day's comedy, or rather the +_lever de rideau_. The little square by the old gateway, whose +immediate neighbourhood lent a mediaeval charm to my cottage, was the +centre of gossip and idling. I did not think of this when I pitched my +tent, so to speak, in the shadow of the old masonry. Knowing full well +that the noise of tongues is one of the chief torments of my life, I +am always leaving it out of my calculations, and paying the same bill +for my folly over and over again. But then I know also that in +provincial France, unless you live in an abandoned ruin upon a rock, +it is well-nigh impossible to obtain the quietude which the literary +man, when he has it not, imagines to be closely allied to the peace +that passeth all understanding. The square served many purposes, +except mine. The women used it as a convenient place for steaming +their linen. This, fashioned into the shape of a huge sugar-loaf, with +a hollow centre, stood in a great open caldron upon a tripod over a +wood-fire. At night the lurid flames and the grouped figures, +illuminated by the glare, were picturesque; but in the daytime the +charm of these gatherings was chiefly conversational. Then the +children made the square their playground, or were driven into it +because it was the safest place for them, and every Sunday afternoon +the young men of Roc-Amadour met there to play at skittles. + +In quest of peace, I was driven at first into the loft of the inn, of +which the cottage was a dependency. Here the vocal music of the +inhabitants was somewhat muffled, but the opportunities for studying +natural history were rather excessive. A swarm of bees had established +themselves in a corner where they could not be dislodged, and they had +a way of crawling over the floor that kept my expectations constantly +raised. The maize grown upon the small farm having been stored here +from time immemorial, the rats had learnt from tradition and +experience to consider this loft as their Land of Goshen. When I took +up my quarters among them they were annoyed, and also puzzled. They +could not understand why I remained there so long and so quiet; but at +length they lost patience and gave up the riddle. Then their impudence +became unbounded; they helped themselves to the maize whenever they +felt disposed to do so, and stared at me with the utmost effrontery as +they sat upon their haunches nibbling; they ran races under the tiles +and held pitched battles upon the rafters. Talking one day to the +proprietor of the house about his rats and other live stock, I tried +to excite and distress him by describing the depredation that went on +day and night in the loft. But it was with a calm bordering on +satisfaction that he listened to my story. Then he told me that the +rats ate about two sacks of maize every year. + +'And you do not put it elsewhere?' 'Non pas! I leave it here for +them.' + +'For the rats?' + +'Certainly, for the rats. If I did not give them plenty of maize they +would eat a hundred francs' worth of linen in a single winter. It is +an economy to feed them.' + +And there were about a dozen string-tailed cats about the place that +never ventured into the loft. They must have been either afraid or too +lazy to attack the rats in their stronghold. A man who could accept a +plague of rodents in this philosophical spirit could not be otherwise +than mild in his dealings with all animals, including men. My old +friend liked to let every creature live and enjoy existence. He became +so fond of his pigs that it grieved him sorely to have one killed. +Much domestic diplomacy had to be used before the fatal order could be +wrung from him. He would have gone on fattening the beast for ever had +he been allowed, soothing his conscience over the waste with the vague +hope that this pig of exceptional loveliness and vigour would grow to +the size of a donkey if it were permitted to take its time. He never +worried his _métayer_ over money matters, or insisted upon seeing that +everything was equally divided. Notwithstanding, that he had been made +to smart all his life for his trustfulness and indolent good-nature, +experience had taught him nothing of this world's wisdom. No beggar, +although known to be a worthless rascal, ever asked him for a piece of +bread or a night's lodging in his barn without obtaining it. The old +man would lock his ragged guest up for the night, and before letting +him out in the morning would often carry some soup to him--stealthily, +however, so as not to be observed. As he was always ready to give, and +hated every harsh measure, it was to his wood that the unscrupulous +went in winter, when they wanted fuel. Sometimes an informer would say +to him: 'M---- So-and-so is cutting down your wood.' 'Oh, bast! _le +pauvre_. It is cold weather!' was the reply that he would be most +likely to make. His good qualities would have ruined him had not +destiny with great discernment and charity nailed him to his little +patrimony, where he was comparatively safe. + +The bees in the loft were instructive and the rats amusing, but the +fleas were neither the one nor the other--they were merely exciting. +And so it came to pass that I forsook the place, and by climbing a +little staircase cut in the rock, against which the house was built, +reached a cavern far above the roof and found at last my ideal +writing-place upon the ledge in front of it, where the mallow and the +crane's-bill crept over a patch of turf. Here the voices of the noisy +little world below were sufficiently toned down by distance. The +noisiest creatures up here were the jackdaws, which were constantly +flying in and out of the holes in the church wall that rose above me +from another and wider ledge of rock. A pair of sooty-looking +rock-swallows that had made their nest in the roof of the cavern were +much irritated by my presence, but, like the rats, they became +reconciled to it. The little martins, always trustful, never hesitated +from the first to fly into the cave and drink from the dripping water. +When the dusk came on, the bats, which had been hanging by their +winged heels all day in dusky holes and corners, fluttered out one +after another, and went zigzagging until they were lost to sight over +the old stone roofs on which the moss had blackened. + +A little before the bats came out was the time when to do aught else +but let the sight feast upon the beauty of the rocky little world +bounded by the walls of the narrow gorge would have been literally to +waste the golden moments. Then it was that the naked crags, which +caught the almost level rays of the setting sun, grew brighter and +more brilliantly coruscating, until they seemed ready to melt from the +intensity of their own heat; then this fiery golden colour would +slowly fade and wane into misty purple tones, which lingered long when +there was no more sun. Why did it linger? All the sky that I could see +was blue, and of deepening tone. But the most wonderful sight was yet +to come, when, while the valley was fast darkening, and along the +banks of the Alzou's dry channel the walnut-trees stood like dark +spectres of uncertain form, those rocks began to glow with fire again +as if a wind had risen suddenly and had fanned their dying embers, and +the luminous bloom that spread over them was not that of the earthly +rose, but of the mystical rose of heaven. What I saw was the +reflection of the after-glow, but the glow in the sky was hidden. +Sometimes, as the rocks were fading again and a star was already +glittering like steel against the dark blue, another flush arose in +the dusk, and a faint redness still rested upon the high crags, when +the owl flew forth with a shriek to hunt along the sides of the gorge. + +One morning, as I climbed to my eyrie, I was shocked to see my oblong +writing-table, which I had hoisted up there with considerable +difficulty, in an attitude that my neighbour Decros's donkey +endeavoured to strike in his most agitated moments--it was standing +upon two legs, with the others in the air. The heavy branch of a large +fig-tree that had been flourishing for many years upon the overhanging +rock far above had come down upon the very spot where I was accustomed +to sit, and thus the strange antics of the table were accounted for. +From that day the thought of other things above, such as loose rocks, +which might also have conceived an antipathy for the table, and might +not be so considerate towards me as the fig-tree, weakened my +attachment to my ideal writing-place, for the discovery of which I was +indebted to the indefatigable tongues of the women of Roc-Amadour. + +The mention of my neighbour's donkey recalls to mind an interesting +religious ceremony in which that amiable but emotional beast figured +with much distinction. Once every year all the animals at Roc-Amadour +that are worth blessing are assembled on the plain near the Hospitalet +to receive the benediction of the Church. The ceremony is called _La +bénédiction des bêtes_. The animals are chiefly goats, sheep, donkeys, +and mules. They are sprinkled with holy water, and prayers are said, +so that they may increase and multiply or prosper in any other way +that their owners may desire. As the meeting of the beasts took place +very early in the morning, I reached the scene just as it was breaking +up, and the congregation was dispersing in various directions. I met +Decros coming down the hill with his donkey, and saw by the expression +of his lantern jaws--he never laughed outright--that something had +amused him very much. + +'So you have been to the Blessing of the Beasts? said I. + +'_He_ has been,' replied the man, pointing to the ass, and not wishing +to be confounded with the _bêtes_ himself. + +The donkey stuck his long ears forward, which meant, 'Yes, I have,' +and there was a deal of humour in the expression. + +'And how did he behave?' + +'Beautifully; he sang the whole time. The men laughed, but the women +said, "Take the beast away!" "No, I won't," said" _Il chante la +bénédiction_."' + +September brought the retreat, and the great pilgrimage, which lasts +eight days. The first visitors to arrive were the beggars and small +vendors of _objets de piété_. Some came in little carts, which looked +as if they had been made at home out of grocers' boxes, and to which +dogs were harnessed. At their approach all the Roc-Amadour dogs barked +bravely, just as in the old days when the song was written of the +'beggars coming to town.' Others trudged in with their bundles upon +their backs, hobbling, hungry and thirsty, but eager for the fray. +Some in a larger way of business came in all sorts of vehicles, and a +bazaar man arrived in a caravan of his own. Then followed the crowd of +genuine pilgrims, nearly all of them peasants, humbly clad, but with +money in their pockets which they were determined not to spend +foolishly upon meat, drink, and lodging, for the good of their souls +was uppermost in their minds, and the length of their stay would +depend upon their success in making the money last. By far the greater +number were women, and the many bent backs and withered faces among +them were a pretty safe sign that they had not all come to implore the +aid of the Virgin in that special form of domestic trouble from which +so many thousands have sought relief century after century in her +sanctuary of Roc-Amadour. + +The plain white linen coif--very ugly, but delightfully +primitive--worn by a large proportion of these peasants showed that +they had crossed the Dordogne from the Bas-Limousin. Many had come all +the way on foot, taking a couple of days or more for the journey, and +a few had trudged over the hot roads and stony _causses_[*] barefoot, +just like pilgrims of the Middle Ages. + + [*] This Languedocian word, which has come to be generally used in + describing the limestone uplands, as distinguished from the + valleys and gorges of a very extensive district of Southern + France, is said to be a corruption of _calx_. + +Indeed, these people were essentially the same in all social and +mental characteristics as their predecessors of five or seven +centuries ago; their faith was the same, their daily habits were the +same, their language was the same, and their mode of dress, as far +as the women were concerned, had scarcely changed. They came down +the narrow street and under the old crumbling gateways in a +continuous stream, holding their rosaries in their hands, together +with their baskets and bundles, and praying aloud, even before they +reached the foot of the steps. Arriving there, they dropped down +upon their knees, and commenced the arduous ascent, interrupted by +two hundred genuflexions, during which they repeated an _Ave Maria_ +and a special invocation to Notre Dame de Roc-Amadour. Although the +stranger belonging to the outer world--so different in every way +from that of these simple people--with his mind coloured by +particular prejudices, habits of thought, religious or philosophical +reasoning, may feel out of sympathy with such pilgrims, he cannot +but recognise their sincerity and the serene fulness of their faith. + +Above all the pious murmuring rise the harsh voices of those who have +come to sell, and who, putting no restraint upon their eagerness to +get money, thrust their rosaries and medals almost in the pilgrims' +faces. Beggars squatting or lying against the wall on either side of +the steps exhibit the bare stump of a leg that wofully needs washing, +a withered arm, or the ravages of some incurable and gnawing disease. +Yet are they all terribly energetic, wailing forth prayers almost +incessantly, or screaming spasmodically an appeal to charity, and +adding to the dreadful din by jingling coppers in tin cups. In the +immediate precincts of the church, where the hurly-burly of piety, +traffic, and mendicity reaches its climax, are the vendors of candles +for the chapel and of food for the pilgrims, whose diet is chiefly +melon and bread. Creysse, by the Dordogne, produces melons in +abundance, which are brought to Roc-Amadour by the cartload, and sold +for two or three sous apiece. And to see these pilgrims devour the +fragrant fruit in the month of September makes one think that if Notre +Dame de Roc-Amadour were not very pitiful the consequences would be +disastrous to many. + +There was a humorous beggar on the steps who amused me much, for I +watched him more closely than he supposed. He had something the matter +with his legs--paralyzed, perhaps--but the upper part of his body was +sound enough. With one hand he shook the tin cup, but the other, which +held a short pipe, he kept steadfastly behind his back. Now and again +he turned his face to the wall, as if to drop a tear unseen, but +really to take a discreet pull at the pipe. I think he must have +swallowed the smoke. Then he would face the crowd again, and repeat +his doleful cry: + +'De la charité! de la charité! Chrétiens, n'oubliez pas le pauvre +estropié! Le bon Dieu vous bénira.' + +After all, why should not a beggar smoke? If tobacco is a blessing, +why should a man be debarred from it because his legs are paralyzed, +and he is obliged to live on charity? + +As one of the first thoughts of every genuine pilgrim to this ancient +sanctuary is to get shrived, the chaplains, who, with their Superior, +are ten in number, have something to do to listen to the story of sins +that is poured into their ears almost in a continuous stream during +the eight days of the retreat. The rush upon the confessionals begins +at five in the morning, and goes on with little intermission all day. +The penitents huddle together like sheep in a snowstorm around each +confessional, so that the foremost who is telling his sins knows that +there is another immediately behind him who, whenever he stops to +reflect, would like to give him a nudge m the back. The peasants, +whether it be that they have never cultivated the habit of whispering, +or whether their zeal be such as to chase from their minds all +considerations of worldly shame and human respect, say what they have +to say without regard to the rows of ears behind them, and what takes +place at these times is almost on a par with the public confessions of +the primitive Church. + +It is at night, however, during the retreat that the visitor to +Roc-Amadour will see the strangest sight if he gives himself the +trouble, for then the church of St. Sauveur becomes a _hospice_ where +the weary may find the sleep that refreshes and restores the +faculties after the work of the day, as sung by St. Ambrose. The +church is filled with pilgrims lying upon the chairs, upon the bare +stones that the feet of other pilgrims have worn into hollows, +sitting with their backs against the walls and piers, snoring also in +the confessionals--the most comfortable quarters. Some remain awake +most of the night praying silently or aloud. This is how the +peasantry of the Quercy and the Limousin enter into the spirit of the +September pilgrimage to Roc-Amadour. It is not because they need the +money to pay for accommodation in the inns that they use the church +by night as well as by day, but because they wish to go through their +devotional programme thoroughly. And those who go to the inns often +make one room serve for a family of three or four grown-up persons. +If there vis one person who does not belong to the family, the others +see no harm in admitting him or her; indeed, they think that as +Christians they are almost bound to do so. + +On the night following the opening of the retreat, Roc-Amadour is +illuminated, and the spectacle is one that renders the grandest +illuminations in Paris mean and vulgar by comparison. It is not in the +costliness of the display that its splendour lies; it is in what may +almost be termed the zeal with which Nature works with art towards the +same end. Without the rocks and precipices the spectacle would be +commonplace; but the site being what it is, the scene has a strange +and wonderful charm that may be called either fairylike or heavenly, +as the imagination may prefer. The artistic means employed are simple +enough--paper lanterns and little lamps of coloured glass; but what an +effect is produced when chains of fire have been stretched across the +gorge from the summits of the rocks on either side, when the long +succession of zigzags reaching up the cliff, and forming the Way of +the Cross, is also marked out with fire, when the ramparts on the +brink of the precipice are ablaze with coloured lamps, recalling some +old poetical picture of an enchanted castle, and a little to the +right, on the summit of the cliff where the Via Crucis ends at +Calvary, the great wooden cross which French pilgrims carried through +the streets of Jerusalem stands against the calm starlit sky like a +cross of blood-red flame! + +A little below the summit of the cliff, from the large cavern which +has been fashioned to represent the Holy Sepulchre, there issues a +brilliant light, together with the sound of many voices singing the +'Tantum ergo.' A faint odour of incense wanders here and there among +the shrubs, and mingles with the fragrance of flowers upon the +terraces. Presently the clergy and the pilgrims come forth, and, +forming a long procession, descend the Way of the Cross; and as the +burning tapers that they carry shine and flash amongst the foliage, +these words, familiar to every pilgrim to Roc-Amadour, sung by +hundreds of voices, may be heard afar off in the dark desolate gorge: + + 'Reine puissante, Mère d'Amour, + Sois-nous compatissante, + O Vierge d'Amadour!' + +It is now the vigil of All Souls--the 'Day of the Dead.' No more +pilgrims come to Roc-Amadour. A breeze would send the sapless +walnut-leaves whirling through the air, but there is no breeze; Nature +seems to hold her breath as she thinks of the dead whom she has +gathered to her earthy breast. At sundown the people creep out of +their houses silently and solemnly; they meet at the bottom of the +steps, and when they are joined by the clergy and choirboys, all move +slowly upward, praying for the dead and kneeling upon each step. As +their forms seen sideways show against the dusky sky, they look like +shadows from the ghostly world, and still more so when the rocks on +the other side of the gorge brighten again, as with the blood of the +pomegranate made luminous, and through the air there spreads a +beautiful solemn light that is tenderly yet deeply sad, and which adds +something unearthly, something that cannot be named, to the ascending +figures. + +As the dusk deepens to darkness the funereal _glas_ begins to moan +from St. Saviour's Church. Two bells are rung together so as to make +as nearly as possible one clash of sound. At first it is a moan, but +it soon becomes a strident cry with a continuous under-wail. At the +Hospitalet on the hill the bell of the mortuary chapel is also +tolling. It is the bell of the dead who lie there in the stony +burying-ground upon the edge of the wind-blown _causse_, calling upon +the bells of Roc-Amadour to move the living to pity for those who have +left the earth. + +As I return to my cottage the dim street is quite deserted, and the +arch of the ruined gateway, so often resounding with the voices that +come from light hearts, is now as dark and silent as a grave. For two +hours the bells continue to cry in the darkness, from the church +overhead and from the chapel by the tombs. I can neither read nor +write, but sit brooding over the fire on the hearth, piling on wood +and sending tall flames and many sparks up the chimney; for that +continuous undercry of the iron tongues, 'Pray for the dead! pray for +the dead!' fills the valley and seems to fill the world. No fireside +feeling can be kindled; it is wasting wood to throw it upon the hearth +to-night, for that doleful wail penetrates everywhere: even the demon +that lurks at the bottom of Pomoyssin must shudder as he hears it. +When at length the bells stop swinging and their vibrations die away, +a screech-owl flies close by the open gallery of the house, which we +call a balcony, and startles me with its ghostly scream. + +The day comes again, fair and hopeful. I am waiting for the old +truffle-hunter, with whom I made an appointment for this morning. +Presently I see him coming up the bed of the stream, plodding over the +yellow stones, which have been dry for four months. I recognise him by +his pig, which walks by his side. They are both truffle-hunters, and +have both an interest in the business, as will be seen. The man is +gray and old, with a sharp prominent nose, suggestive of his chief +occupation, and with a bent back--the effect, perhaps, of stooping to +pull the pig's ear in the nick of time should the beast be tempted to +snap up one of the savoury cryptogams. When it is added that he wears +a short blouse and a low, broad-brimmed felt hat, I have described the +appearance of the truffle-hunter. Now, inasmuch as the pig is about to +play the most important part in the morning's work, its portrait +should likewise be drawn. The animal is of a dirty-white colour, like +all pigs in this part of France, and is utterly devoid of grace and +elegance. It is, in fact, an extremely ugly beast, with an arched back +and a very long turned-up nose; but it is four years old, and is +accounted 'serious.' Like all other pigs used for truffle-hunting, it +is of the female sex. The animal has been carefully educated; it wears +a leather collar as a mark of distinction, and is allowed the same +liberty as a dog. + +We climb the rocky side of the gorge, which is hot work, for the south +wind is blowing, and the sun is blazing in a blue sky. The walnuts by +the line of the stream are changing colour, and the maples are already +fiery; but otherwise there are few signs of autumn. On reaching the +plateau we come at once to the truffle-ground. Here the soil is so +thin, so stony, and withal so arid, that, were it not for the scant +herbage upon which sheep and goats thrive, it would produce nothing +but stunted oak, juniper, and truffles. Even the oaks only grow in +patches where the rock is not close to the surface. The truffles are +never found except very near these trees, or, in default of them, +hazels. This is one of the mysteries of the cryptogamic kingdom, which +no one has yet been able to explain. The truffle-hunters believe that +it is the shade of the trees which produces the underground fruit, and +the opinion is based upon experience. When an oak has been cut down, +or even lopped, a spot near it that was rich in truffles year after +year is soon scoffed at by the knowing pig. + +Our work lies amongst the dwarf oaks, for there are no hazels here. At +a sign from the old man, the pig sniffs about the roots of a little +tree, then proceeds to dig with her nose, tossing up the larger stones +which lie in the way as if they were feathers. The animal has smelt a +truffle, and the man seizes her by the ear, for her manner is +suspicious. This is the first time they have been out together since +last season, and the beast has forgotten some of her education. She +manages to get a truffle into her mouth; he tugs at her ear with one +hand, and uses his stick upon her nose with the other. The brute +screams with anger, but will not open her jaws wide enough for him to +slip his stick in and hook the truffle out. The prize is swallowed, +and the old man, forgetting all decorum, and only thinking of his +loss, calls his companion a pig, which in France is always an insult. +Our truffle-hunting to-day has opened badly, although one party thinks +differently. In a few minutes, however, another truffle is found, and +this time the old man delivers a whack on the nose at the right +moment, and, seizing the fungus, hands it to me. Now he takes from his +pocket a spike of maize, and, picking off a few grains, gives them to +the pig to soothe her injured feelings, and encourage her to hunt +again. This she is quite ready to do, for a pig has no _amour propre_. +We move about in the dry open wood, keeping always near the trees, and +truffle after truffle is turned up from the reddish light soil mixed +with fragments of calcareous rock. The forgotten training soon comes +back to our invaluable auxiliary; a mere twitch of the ear is a +sufficient hint for her to retire at the right moment, and wait for +the corn that is in variably given in exchange for the cryptogam. +Indeed, before we leave the ground, the animal has got so well into +work that when she finds a truffle she does not attempt to seize it, +but points to it, and grunts for the equivalent in maize. The pig may +be a correct emblem of depravity, but its intelligence is certainly of +a superior order. + + + + +FROM THE ALZOU TO THE DORDOGNE. + + +Although the last days of May had come, the Alzou, usually dry at this +time, was running with swift, strong current through the vale of +Roc-Amadour. There had been so many thunderstorms that the channel was +not large enough for the torrent that raced madly over its yellow +pebbles. I lingered awhile in the meadow by the stream, looking at the +rock-clinging sanctuary before wandering in search of the unknown up +the narrow gorge. + +In a garden terraced upon the lower flank of the rock, the labour of +generations having combined to raise a soil there deep enough to +support a few plum, almond, and other fruit trees, a figure all in +black is hard at work transplanting young lettuces. It is that of a +teaching Brother. He is a thin grizzled man of sixty, with an +expression of melancholy benevolence in his rugged face. I have +watched him sitting upon a bench with his arm round some little +village urchin by his side, while the children from the outlying +hamlets, sprawling upon a heap of stones in the sun, ate their mid-day +meal of bread and cheese or buckwheat pancakes that their mothers had +put into their baskets before they trudged off in the early morning. I +have noticed by many signs that he is full of sympathy for the young +peasants placed in his charge. Yet with all his kindness he is +melancholy. So many years in one place, such a dull routine of duty, +such a life of abnegation without the honour that sustains and +encourages, such impossibility of being understood and appreciated by +those for whose sake he has been breaking self upon the wheel of +mortification since his youth, have made him old before the time and +fixed that look of lurking sadness in his warmly human eyes. + +There are few problems more profound than that of the courage with +which men like him continue their self-imposed penal-servitude until +they become too infirm to work and are sent to die in some refuge for +aged _frères_. They have accepted celibacy and poverty, that they may +the better devote their lives to the instruction of children. They +have no sacerdotal state or ideal, no ecclesiastical nor social +ambition to help them. They must be always humble; they must not even +be learned, for much knowledge in their case would be considered a +dangerous thing. Their minds must not rise above their work. They +guide dirty little fists in the formation of pot-hooks, and when they +have led the boys' intelligence up a few more steps of scholarship the +end is achieved. The boy goes out into the world and refreshes his +mind with new occupation; but the poor Brother remains chained to his +dreary task, which is always the same and is never done. + +And what are the wages in return for such a life? Food that many a +workman would consider insufficiently generous for his condition, a +bed to lie upon and clothes which call down upon the wearer the +sarcasms of the town-bred youth. What a land of contrast is France! + +There are three Brothers here, but this one, the eldest, is the head. +Others come and go, but he remains. Most of his spare time is given to +the garden. When the eight o'clock bell begins to swing he will leave +his lettuces and soon perch himself on the little platform behind his +shabby old desk in the dingy schoolroom, which even in the holidays +cannot get rid of its ancient redolence of boys. The school-house, now +so much like a prison, was once a mansion, and the most modern part of +it is of the period which we should call in England Tudor. A Gothic +doorway leads into a hall arched and groined, the inner wall being the +bare rock, as is the case with most of the houses at Roc-Amadour. A +gutter cut in the stone floor to carry off the drippings formed by the +condensation of the air upon the cold surface shows that these +half-rock dwellings have their drawbacks. + +I leave Roc-Amadour and take my way up the valley. Nature has now +reached all that can be attained in vernal pride and beauty here. In a +little while she will have put on the careworn look of the Southern +summer. Many a plant now in splendid bloom, animated by the spirit of +loveliness that presides over the law of reproduction, will soon be +casting its seed and bringing its brief destiny to a close. Now all is +coquetry, beauty, and ravishment. The rock-hiving bees, unconscious +instruments of a great purpose, are yellow with pollen and laden with +honey. They find more, infinitely more, nectar than they can carry +away. The days are long, and every hour is full of joy. But already +the tide is at the turn. The nightingale's rapturous song has become a +lazy twitter; the bird has done with courtship; it has a family in +immediate prospect, if not one already screaming for food, and the +musician has half lost his passion for music. It will come again next +year. How swiftly all this life and colour of spring passes away! So +much to be looked at and so little time! + +This narrow strip of meadow that winds along the bottom of the gorge +is not the single tinted green ribbon it lately was. The light of its +verdure has been dimmed by the light of flowers. The grass mounts +high, but not higher than the oxeye daisies, the blue racemes of +stachys, the mauve-coloured heads of scabious, the bladder-campions, +the yellow buttercups and goat's-beard. The oxeyes are so numberless +in one long reach of meadow that a white drapery, which every breeze +folds or unfolds, seems to have been cast as light as sea-foam upon +the illimitable forest of stems. The white butterflies that flutter +above are like flecks of foam on the wing. Elsewhere it is the blue of +the stachys and the spiked veronica that rules. Deeper in the herbage +other races of flowers shine in the fair groves of this grassy +paradise, and every blossom, however small, is a mystery, a miracle. +Here is the star of Bethlehem, wide open in the sunshine and showing +so purely white amidst the green, and yonder is the purple fringe-like +tuft of the weird muscari. Along the banks of the stream tall +lilac-purple, stock-like flowers rise proudly above the grasses. They +belong to the hesperis or dame's violet, a common wild-flower in this +valley. Upon my left is the abrupt stony slope of the gorge. Between +it and the meadow are shrubs of yellow jessamine starred with blossom. +But the stony steep that dazzles the eyes with the sun's reflected +glare has its flowers too. Nature, in her great passion for beauty, +even draws it out of the disintegrated fragments of time-worn rock, +whose banks would otherwise be as stark and dry as the desert sand. +Lightly as flakes of snow the frail blossoms of the white rock-rose +lie upon the stones. Then there are patches of candytuft running from +white into pink, crimson flowers of the little crane's-bill, and +spurges whose floral leaves are now losing their golden green and +taking a hue of fiery brown. + +An open wood, chiefly of dwarf oak, and shrubs such as the wayfaring +tree, the guelder-rose, and the fly-honeysuckle, now stretches along +the opposite side of the gorge. Here scattered groups of columbine +send forth a glow of dark blue from the shadowy places; the lily of +the valley and its graceful ever-bowing cousin, the Solomon's seal, +show their chaste and wax-like flowers amidst the cool green of their +fresh leaves; and the monkey-orchis stands above the green moss and +the creeping geraniums like a little rocket of pale purple fire just +springing from the earth towards the lingering shreds of storm-cloud +that are melting in the warm sky. + +In a few weeks what will have become of all this greenness and +beautiful colour of flowers? The torrid sun and the hot breath of +summer will have burnt up the fair garment of spring, and laid bare +the arid sternness of the South again. The nightingale still warbles +fitfully in the green bushes, but the raven, perched up yonder upon +the stark rock, croaks like a misanthrope at the quick passing away of +youth and loveliness. What sad undertones, mournful murmurs of the +deep that receives the drifted leaves, mingle with the spring's soft +flutings and all the voices that proclaim the season of joy! + +While listening and day-dreaming, I was overtaken by a man and his +donkey, both old acquaintances. Every day, except Sundays and the +great Church festivals, when the peasants of the Quercy abstain from +work, like those of Brittany, this pair were in the habit of trudging +together side by side to fetch and bring back wood from the slopes of +the gorge. The ass did all the carrying, and his master the chopping +and sawing. It was a monotonous life, but both seemed to think they +were not worse off than the majority of men and donkeys. The man was +contented with his daily soup of bread-and-water, with an onion or a +leek thrown in, and a suspicion of bacon, and the beast with such +herbage as he could find while his master was getting ready another +load of wood. The man was an old soldier, who had seen some rough +service, for he was at Sedan, and was afterwards engaged in the +ghastly business of shooting down his own countrymen in Paris. But, +with all this, he was as quiet a tempered creature as his donkey, +which he treated as a friend. The army, he told me, was the best +school for learning how to treat a beast with proper consideration. + +I asked why. + +'Because,' replied he, 'when a soldier is caught beating a horse, he +has eight days of _salle de police_.' + +Man and donkey having disappeared into a wood, my next companion was a +small blue butterfly that kept a few yards in front of me, now +stopping to look at a flower, now fluttering on again. Some insects, +as well as certain birds, appear to derive much entertainment from +watching the movements of that fantastic animal--man. + +Arcadian leafiness: rocky desolation befitting the mouth of hell. +Grass and flowers on which souls might tread in the paradise of the +Florentine poet. Stony forms, monstrous, enigmatic, reared like +symbolic tokens of defeated gods, or of the worn-out evil passions +that troubled old creation before the coming of man, and the fresh +order of spiritual and carnal bewilderment. Why should I go on and +seek further amazement, while from the lowest to the highest I can +read not one of the mystic figures of the solitude around me? What is +my relation to them, and theirs to me? Why should that beetle in the +grass, upon whose back all the colours of the prism change and glow +like supernatural fire, trouble me with the cause and motive of its +beauty? Why should yonder rock, standing like a spar of some ship +wrecked in a cataclysm of the awful past, draw me to it as though it +were the image of a grand, yet unattainable and blighted, longing of +the human soul? + +The gorge became so narrow and the rocks so high that there was a +twilight under the trees, which still dripped with the rain-drops of +last night's storm. Hesperis, columbine, and geranium contrasted their +floral colours with the deep green of the young grass. Some spots of +dark purple were on the ground where the light was most dim. They were +the petals and calyxes of that strange flower, lathraea, of the +broom-rape family. Each bloom seemed to be carried in the cup of +another flower. The plant had no leaves, for it was a thief that drew +its nutriment from the root of an honest little tree that had +struggled upward in the shade of strong and greedy rivals, and had +raised its head at length into the sunshine in spite of them. + +After some difficulty in working round and over rocks that barred, the +passage, I came to a spot where it was impossible to follow the gorge +any farther. The walls narrowed to an opening a few yards wide, where +the stream fell in a cascade of some thirty feet. I took my mid-day +meal like a forester in the midst of this beautiful desolation, and +then, having found a spot where I could escape from the gorge of the +Alzou, I climbed the steep towards the north. + +Here there was a blinding glare of sunshine reflected by the naked +stones. Goats looked down at me from the upper rocks near the line of +the blue sky. When I reached the boy who tended them, I asked him the +way to the road that I wished to strike upon the plateau. After +staring at me for some time, he screwed up his mouth, and said: '_Je +comprenais pas français, you.' You_ did not apply to me, but to +himself, for it means _I_ in the Southern dialect. + +Here was a boy unable to speak French, although all children in France +are now supposed to be educated in the official language of the +republic. Such cases are uncommon. In the Haut-Quercy, where _patois_ +is the language of everybody, even in the towns, one soon learns the +advantage of asking the young for the information that one may need. + +I found the road I wanted, and also the spot marked on the map as the +Saut de la Pucelle. It is one of those numerous _gouffres_ to be found +in the Quercy, especially in the district of the Dordogne. + +Here a stream plunges beneath the surface of the earth to join the +subterranean Ouysse, or the Dordogne. A ravine, sinking rapidly, +becomes a deep, dark, and gloomy gully, at the end of which is a wall +of rock. The stream pours down a tunnel-like passage, at the base of +the rock, with a melancholy wail. Where the sides are not too steep +they are covered with trees and shrubs. + +As I stood amidst the poisonous dog-mercury, under the hanging ivy and +the hart's-tongue ferns, watching the stream glitter on the edge of +everlasting darkness, and listening to its death-dirge, I pictured +awful shadows issuing from the infernal passage and seizing the +terror-stricken ghost of the guilty horseman, of whom I had heard from +a local legend. + +This legend, as it is commonly told, is briefly as follows: Centuries +ago a virtuous young woman was persecuted by the lord of a +neighbouring castle, who was not at all virtuous. One day, when she +was mounted upon a mule, he gave chase to her on horseback. He was +rapidly gaining upon her, and she, in agony of soul, had given herself +up for lost, when, by one of those miracles which were frequent in +those days, especially in the country of Notre Dame de Roc-Amadour, +the mule, by giving a vigorous stamp with one of his hind-legs, kicked +a yawning gulf in the earth, which he, however, lightly passed over +with his burden, while the wicked pursuer, unable to check his steed +in time, perished in the abyss. + +Another legend of the Maiden's Leap is more romantic, but less +supernatural. It is a story of the English occupation of Guyenne, and +the revolt of the Quercynois in 1368. Before the main body of the +British force that subdued Roc-Amadour as related by Froissart arrived +in the Haut-Quercy, the castle of Prangères, near Gramat, was entered +by a troop of armed men in the English service under Jéhan Péhautier, +one of those brigand captains of whom the mediaeval history and +legends of Guyenne speak only too eloquently. An orphan, Bertheline de +Castelnau, _châtelaine_ of Prangères in her own right, was in the +fortress when it was thus taken by surprise. Captivated by her beauty, +Jéhan Péhautier essayed to make Bertheline his prisoner; but she made +her escape from the castle by night, and endeavoured to reach the +sanctuary of Roc-Amadour on foot. Her flight was discovered, and +Péhautier and a party of horsemen started in pursuit. She would have +been quickly captured had she not met a mounted knight, who was no +other than her lover, Bertrand de Terride. She sprang upon his horse, +and away they both went through the oak forest which then covered the +greater part of the _causse_; but the gleam of the knight's armour in +the moonlight kept the pursuers constantly upon his track. Slowly but +surely they gained upon the fugitives. Suddenly Bertheline, who knew +the country, perceived that Bertrand was spurring his horse directly +towards the precipice now called the Saut de la Pucelle. It was too +late, however, to avoid the gulf; she had only time to murmur a brief +prayer before the horse bounded over the edge of the rock. To the +great wonder and joy of the lovers, the animal cleared the ravine, and +alighted safely on the other side. But a very different fate awaited +the pursuers. On they came, crashing through the wood, shouting +exultantly, for they believed that the prey was now almost in their +grasp, when suddenly the air was rent with cries of horror, mingled +with the sound of crashing armour, and bodies falling upon the rocks +and upon the bed of the stream. An awful silence followed. The dead +men and horses were lying in the dark water. As Péhautier felt the +solid earth leave him, he gave out his favourite oath, 'Mort de sang!' +in a frightful shriek, and the words long afterwards rang in the ears +of Bertheline and Bertrand. + +As I returned to this spot some months later in order to explore the +cavern, I may as well give an account of the adventure here. I was +accompanied by my neighbour Decros, who gave his donkey on this +occasion a half-holiday. Decros, although a native of the locality, +could not tell me how far the cavern extended, for he had never been +tempted to explore its depths himself, nor had he heard of anybody who +knew more than himself about it. A story, however, was told of a +shepherd-boy who long ago went down the opening, and was never seen +again. + +'Perhaps,' said I, 'we shall find his skeleton.' This observation +brought a peculiar expression to my companion's face, which meant that +he had no ambition whatever to share the surprise of such a discovery. +Although he had done his duty bravely in the war of 1870, he was by no +means free from the awe with which these _gouffres_ inspired the +country-people, and his soldiering had still left him a Cadurcian +Celt, with much of the superstition that he had drawn in with his +native air. One morning he found that his donkey had nearly strangled +himself over-night with the halter, and Decros could not shake off the +impression that this accident was an omen intended to convey some +message from the other world. He was ready to go with me into any +cavern; but I am sure he would have much preferred scaling dangerous +rocks in the broad sunlight, for there he would have felt at home. + +There was not too much water to offer any danger, so we stooped down +and entered the low vault after lighting candles. The roof soon rose, +and we were in a spacious cavern, the sides of which had evidently +been washed and worn away into hollows by the sea that rolled here +long before the mysterious race raised its dolmens and tumuli upon the +surrounding knolls. The passage was wide enough for us to walk on the +margin of the stream, or where the water was very shallow; but had +much rain fallen, the expedition would have been perilous, for the +descending torrent would then have been strong enough to carry a man +off his legs. + +Stalactites hung from the rocks overhead, and as we proceeded they +became more numerous, more fantastic, and more beautiful. They were +just as the dropping water had slowly fashioned them in the darkness +of ages, where day and night were the same, where nothing changed but +themselves, save the voice of the stream, which grew louder or softer +according to the play of winds and sunshine and clouds upon the upper +world. Some tapered to a fine point, others were like pendant bunches +of grapes; all were of the whiteness of loaf-sugar. No tourists +stricken with that deplorable mania for taking home souvenirs of +everything, and ready to spoil any beauty to gratify their vanity or +their acquisitiveness, had cast stones into the midst of the fairy +handicraft of the wizard water for the sake of a fragment; nor had the +village boys amused themselves here at the expense of the stalactites, +for happily they had been well trained in the horror of the +supernatural. The cavern ran for a certain distance south-west; then +the gallery turned at a sharp angle north-north-west, and continued in +this direction. We followed the stream some three or four hundred +yards, and then it entered a deep pool or lake under low rocks. We +tried a side-passage to see if it led round this obstacle, but it soon +came to an end. As I stood on the brink of the deep, black, silent +pool, I had a great longing to know what lay beyond; but I had to +content myself with imagining the unrevealed wonders of the cavern. It +would be just possible, by crouching down in a little boat, to pass +under the rock, which is probably no insuperable obstacle. The roof is +just as likely to form a high vault on one side of it as on the other. +The water is the serious obstacle; but it is safe to say, from the +character of the formation, that the deep pool does not extend very +far. A peculiarity of these underground streams of the _causses_ is +that they generally form a chain of pools. + +If a shepherd-boy really lost his life in this cavern, he must have +done so by trying to pass the pool, unless he was washed into it by a +sudden rush of water after a heavy storm. It must be confessed that +the spot is calculated to fill one with superstitious dread. The calm +of the deep water into which the stream glides makes it quite easy to +imagine, with the help of the surroundings, that there is an evil +spirit lurking in it--perhaps that of the wicked Péhautier whom the +demons dragged down here. I had another grim thought: Supposing this +water, in obedience to some pressure elsewhere, should rise suddenly +and flood the lower part of the cavern! There is no knowing what +tricks water may play in this fantastic region, where the tendency of +rivers is to flow underground, and where one gallery may be connected +with a ramification of water-courses extending over many miles of +country, and with reservoirs which empty themselves periodically by +means of natural syphons. There is a world full of marvels under the +_causses_ of the Lot, the Aveyron, and the Lozère; but although much +more will be known about it, a vast deal will remain for ever hidden +from man. + +I will now return to my wayfaring across the Causse de Gramat in the +early summer. + +I had passed through the village of Alvignac--a little watering-place +that draws all the profit it can from a ferruginous spring which rises +at Miers hard by, but otherwise uninteresting, and had left on my +right the village of Thégra, where the troubadour Hugues de St. Cyr +was born, when suddenly the landscape struck me with the sentiment of +England. For some hours I had been walking chiefly over the stony +_causse_, searching for a so-called castle that was not worth the +trouble of finding. I had seen spurge and juniper, and ribs of rock +rising everywhere above the short turf, until I grew weary of the +sameness. Now, the sun, whose ardour was already melting into the +tenderness of evening, shone upon a broad valley, where the grass +stood high in rich meadows separated from other meadows and green +cornfields by hedges, from the midst of which rose many a tall tree. +The blackbird's low, flute-like note sounded above the shrilling of the +grasshoppers. + +The little village of Padirac was entered at sundown. The small inn +where I chose my quarters for the night had a garden at the back, +where vines in new leaf were trained, over a trellis from end to end. +There were also broad beans in flower, peas on sticks, currant-bushes, +and pear-trees. It was a quiet, green spot, and as I strolled about it +in the twilight, vague recollections of other gardens chased one +another, but it would have been hard to say whether they were pleasant +or sad. My dinner or supper was of sorrel soup and part of a goose +that was killed the previous autumn, and, after being slightly salted, +was preserved in grease. + +Lean tortoiseshell cats, with staring eyes and tails like strings, +kept near at hand, and seemed ready to commit any crime for the +smallest particle of goose. String-tailed, goggle-eyed, meagre cats +that seize your dinner if you do not keep watch over it, and when +caressed promptly respond by scratching and swearing, appear to be +held in high favour throughout this district. They are expected to +live upon rats, and it is this that makes them so disagreeable, for +although they kill rats for the pleasure of the chase, they do not +like the flavour of them. On this subject there is a standing quarrel +between them and society, which insists upon their eating the animals +that they kill. In order that the cats shall have every facility for +the chase, holes are often cut in the bottom of house-doors, so that +at night they may go in and come out as the quarry moves them. Should +any food have been left about, what with the rats and the cats, not a +trace of it will be seen in the morning. This I know from experience. + +Being within a mile or so of the Puit de Padirac--that gloomy hole in +the earth which was supposed to be one of the devil's short-cuts +between this world and his own, until M. Martel proved almost +conclusively that it was not the way to the infernal city, but to a +subterranean river, and a chain of lakes that could be followed for +two miles--I set out the next morning to find it. I might have spent +hours in vain casting about, but for the help of a peasant, who +offered, quite disinterestedly, to be my guide. He was an old man, +with a very Irish face, and eyes that laughed at life. But for his +language he would have seemed a perfectly natural growth of Cork or +Kerry. + +Here may be the place to remark that the stock of the ancient Cadurci +appears to have been much less impaired here in an ethnological sense +by the mingling of races than in the country round Cahors. The +peasants, generally, have nothing distinctively Southern in their +appearance, although they speak a dialect which is in the main a Latin +one, the Celtic words that have been retained being in a very small +proportion. Gray or blue eyes are almost as frequent among them as +they are with the English, and many of the village children have hair +the colour of ripening maize. + +We left the fertile valley and rose upon the stone-scattered _causse_ +where hellebore, spurges, and juniper were the only plants not cropped +close to the earth by the flocks of sheep which thrive upon these +wastes. All the sheep are belled, but the bells they wear are like big +iron pots hanging upon their breasts. Each pot has a bone that swings +inside of it and serves as a hammer. The chief use of these bells is +to prevent the animal from leaving its best wool, that of the breast, +upon the thorns of bushes. + +We have now reached the brink of the pit, which is not bottomless, but +looks so until the eye faintly distinguishes something solid at a +depth that has been measured at 175 feet. The opening is almost +circular, with a diameter at the orifice of 116 feet. This prodigious +well, sunk in successive layers of secondary rock, looks as if it had +been regularly quarried; but men could never have had the motive for +giving themselves so much trouble. Did the rock fall in here? No +explanation is satisfactory. How it fills one with awe to look into +the depth while lying upon a slab of stone that stretches some +distance beyond the side of the pit! Bushes with twisted and fantastic +arms, growing, they or their ancestors, from time immemorial in the +clefts of the rock, reach towards the light, and the elfish +hart's-tongue fern, itself half in darkness, points down with frond +that never moves in that eternal stillness which all the winds of +heaven pass over, to a thicker darkness whence comes the everlasting +wail and groan of hidden water. + +This horrid gulf being in the open plain, with not even a foot of +rough wall round it as a protection for the unwary, I asked the old +man if people had never fallen into it. + +'Yes,' he answered, 'but only those who have been pushed by evil +spirits.' + +He meant that only self-murderers had fallen into the Puit de Padirac. +'Pushed by evil spirits.' Perhaps this is the best of all explanations +of the suicidal impulse. Strong thoughts are sometimes hidden under +the simplicity of rustic expression. He told me the story of a man +who, having gone by night to throw himself into the Puit de Padirac, +came in contact with a tough old bush during his descent which held +him up. By this time the would-be suicide disliked the feeling of +falling so much that, so far from trying to free himself from the bush +and begin again, he held on to it with all his might and shrieked for +help. But as people who are not pushed by evil spirits give the Puit +de Padirac a wide berth after sundown, the wretched man's cries were +lost in the darkness. The next morning the shepherd children, as they +led their flocks over the plain, heard a strange noise coming from the +pit, but their horror was stronger than their curiosity, and they +showed their sheep how to run. They went home and told their fathers +what they had heard, and at length some persons were bold enough to +look down the hole, from which the dismal sound the children had +noticed continued to rise. Thus the cause of the mysterious noise was +discovered, and the man was hauled up with a rope. He never allowed +the evil spirits to push him into the Puit de Padirac again. + +The people of these _causses_ have a supernatural explanation for +everything that they cannot account for by the light of reason and +observation. They have their legend with regard to the Puit de +Padirac, and it is as follows: St. Martin, before he became Bishop of +Tours, was crossing one day this stony region of the Dordogne to visit +a religious community on the banks of the Solane, whither he had been +despatched by St. Hilary. He was mounted on a mule, and was ambling +along over the desert plunged in pious contemplation, when he heard a +little noise behind, and, looking round, he was surprised to see a +gentleman close to him, who was also riding a mule. The stranger was +richly dressed, and was altogether a very distinguished-looking +person, but the excessive brilliancy of his eyes was a disfigurement. +They shone in his head like two bits of burning charcoal. 'What do you +want, cruel beast?' said St. Martin. This would scarcely have been +saintly language had he not known with whom he had to deal. The +gentleman thus impolitely addressed returned a soft answer, and forced +his company upon the saint, who wished him--at home. Presently +Lucifer, for it was he, began to 'dare' St. Martin, after the manner +of boys to-day. 'If I kick a hole in the ground I dare you to jump +over it,' was the sort of language employed by the gentleman with the +too-expressive eyes. 'Done!' said St. Martin, or something equivalent. +'Digging pits is quite in my line of business!' exclaimed the devil, +in so disagreeable a voice that the saint's mule would have bolted had +the holy rider not kept a tight rein upon her. At the same moment the +ground over which the infernal mule had just passed fell in with a +mighty rumble and crash, leaving a yawning gulf. 'Now,' said Lucifer, +'let me see you jump over that!' Whereupon, the bold St. Martin drove +his spurs into his mule and lightly leapt over the abyss. And this was +how the Puit de Padirac was made. The peasants believe that they can +still see on a stone the imprint left by the hoof of St. Martin's +mule. This adventure did not cause the saint and the devil to part +company. They rode on together as far as the valley of Medorium +(Miers). 'Now,' said St. Martin, 'you jump over that!' pointing to a +little stream that was seen to flow suddenly and miraculously out of +the earth. Before challenging the arch enemy he had, however, taken +the precaution to lay two small boughs in the form of a cross on the +brink of the water. In vain the devil spurred his mule and used the +worst language that he could think of to induce the beast to jump. The +animal would not; but, as the spurring and swearing were continued, it +at length went down on its knees before the cross. But this did not +suit the devil's turn. On the contrary, the proximity of that emblem +which St. Martin had placed unobserved on the ground made him writhe +as though he had fallen into a font. Then with the speed of a +lightning flash he returned to his own kingdom--possibly by the Puit +de Padirac. A church dedicated to the saint was afterwards built near +the scene of his triumph, and the healing spring where it comes out of +the earth is still known by the name of _Lou Fount Sen Morti_--St. +Martin's Fountain. + +Having left the pit, we went in the direction of Loubressac, to which +village my companion belonged. While still upon the _causse_ a spot +was reached where a small iron cross had been raised. The stone +pedestal bore this inscription: + + 'SOUVENIR DE HÉLÈNE BONBÈGRE, + MORTE MARTYRE EN CE LIEU EN 1844. + VIEILLE-ESCAZE ET LAVAL ONT FAIT CONSTRUIRE CETTE CROIX. + PRIEZ POUR CES DEUX BIENFAITEURS.' + +The old man knew Hélène Bonbègre when he was young, and he told me the +tragic story of her death on this spot. She was going home in the +evening, and her sweetheart the blacksmith accompanied her a part of +the distance. They then separated, and she went on alone. They had +been watched by the jealous and unsuccessful lover, whose heart was on +fire. Where the cross stands the girl was found lying, a naked corpse. +The murderer was soon captured, and most of the people in the district +went to St. Céré to see him guillotined. It was a spectacle to be +talked over for half a century. The blacksmith never forgave himself +for having left the girl to go home alone, and it was he who forged +the cross that marks the scene of the crime and sets the wayfarer +conjecturing. + +The peasant changed his ideas by filling his pipe. He smoked tobacco +that he grew in a corner of his garden for his own use, and which he +enjoyed all the more because it was _tabac de contrebande_. He gave me +some, which I likewise smoked without any qualm of conscience, and +thought it decidedly better than some tobacco of the régie. He lit his +pipe with smuggled matches. Had I been an inspector in disguise, I +should never have made matters unpleasant for him; he was such a +cheery, good-natured companion. He had brought up his family, and had +now just enough land to keep him without breaking his back over it. He +was quite satisfied with things as they were. I did not ask him if he +was a poacher, but took it for granted that he was whenever he saw a +good chance. Almost every peasant in the Haut-Quercy who has something +of the spirit of Nimrod in him is more or less a poacher. Those who +like hare and partridge can eat it in all seasons by paying for it. +Occasionally the gendarmes capture a young and over-zealous offender, +but the old men, who have followed the business all their lives, are +too wary for them. They are also too respectable to be interfered +with. + +At Loubressac I took leave of my entertaining friend, but not before +we had emptied a bottle of white wine together. It was a _vin du +pays_, this district having been less tried by the phylloxera than +others farther south and west. I was surprised to find white wine +there, the purple grape having been almost exclusively cultivated for +centuries in what is now the department of the Lot. + +In the room of the inn where I lunched there were four beds; two at +one end and two at the other. There was plenty of space left, however, +for the tables. The rafters were hidden by the heads of maize that +hung from them. The host sat down at the same table with me, and when +he had nearly finished his soup he poured wine into it, and, raising +the plate to his lips, drank off the mixture. Objectionable as this +manner of drinking wine seems to those who have not learnt to do it in +their youth, it is very general throughout Guyenne. Those who have +formed the habit would be most unhappy if they could not continue it. +_Faire chabron_ is the expression used to describe this sin against +good manners. The aubergiste was very friendly, and towards the close +of the meal he brought out a bottle of his old red wine that he had +treasured up 'behind the faggot.' + +Before reaching this village I had heard of a retired captain who +lived here in a rather dilapidated château, and who was very affable +to visitors, whom he immediately invited to look through his +telescope, which, although not a very large one, had a local +celebrity, such instruments being about as rare as blue foxes in this +part of the world. Conducted by the innkeeper, I called upon this +gentleman. The house was one of those half-castellated manors which +became scattered over France after the Renaissance, and of which the +greater number were allowed to fall into complete or partial ruin when +the territorial families who were interested in them were extinguished +or impoverished by the Revolution. They are frequently to be found in +Guyenne, but they are generally occupied by peasants either as +tenant-farmers or proprietors; two or three of the better preserved +rooms being inhabited by the family, the others being haunted by bats +and swallows and used for the storage of farm produce. It suited the +captain's humour, however, to live in his old dilapidated mansion, +scarcely less cut off from the society that matched with his position +in life than if he had exiled himself to some rock in the ocean. + +The ceremony of knocking or ringing was dispensed with for the +sufficient reason that there was neither bell nor knocker. We entered +by the open door and walked along a paved passage, which, was +evidently not held as sacred as it should have been by the roving +fowls; looked in at the great dark kitchen, where beside the Gothic +arch of the broad chimney was some ruinous clockwork mechanism for +turning the spit, which probably did turn to good purpose when +powdered wigs were worn; then ascended the stone staircase, where +there was room for four to walk abreast, but which had somewhat lost +its dignity by the balusters being used for hanging maize upon. +Presently we came to a door, which the aubergiste knocked sharply with +his knuckles. + +There was a sound of footsteps within, and then the door opened. I was +standing before a rather florid man of about fifty, with close-cropped +hair, a brush moustache, and a chin that seemed undecided on the score +of shaving. He wore a flannel shirt open at the throat, and a knitted +worsted _tricot_. This was the captain. He evidently did not like +Sunday clothes. When he settled down here, it was to live at his ease, +like a bachelor who had finished with vanities. But although no one +would have supposed from his dress that he was superior to the people +around him, his manners were those of a gentleman and an officer who +had seen the world elsewhere than at Loubressac. The simple, easy +courtesy with which he showed me his rooms, and pointed his telescope +for me, was all that is worth attaining, as regards the outward polish +of a man. This was so fixed upon him that his long association with +peasants had taken none of it away. The few rooms that he inhabited +were plainly furnished; in others were heaps of wheat, maize and +beans. Passing along a passage I noticed a little altar in a recess, +with a statue of the Virgin decked with roses and wild flowers. '_C'est +le mois de Marie_,' said the captain. He lived with a sister, and she +took care that religion was kept up in the house. + +It being the _Fête-Dieu_, preparations were being made in the village +for the procession that was to take place after vespers. Sheets were +spread along the fronts of the houses, with flowers pinned to them, +and _reposoirs_ had been raised in the open air. I did not wait for +the procession, as I expected to be in time for the one at the next +village, Autoire. I took a path that led me up to the barren _causse_, +from which the red roofs of Autoire soon became visible under an +amphitheatre of high wooded hills. + +As I approached the little village, the gleam of white sheets mingled +with the picture of old houses huddled together, some half-timber, +some with turrets and encorbelments, nearly all of them with very +high-pitched roofs and small dormer windows. The procession was soon +to start. I waited for it at the door of the crowded church, baking in +the sun with others who could not get inside, one of whom was a woman +with a moustache and beard, black and curly, such as a promising young +man might be expected to have. The number of women in Southern France +who are bearded like men shocks the feelings of the Northern wanderer, +until he grows accustomed to the sight. The curé was preaching about +the black bread, and all the other miseries of this life that had to +be accepted with thankfulness. Presently the two bells in the tower +began to dance, and the rapid ding-dong announced that the procession +was forming. First appeared the beadle, extremely gaudy in scarlet and +gold, then the cross-bearer, young men as chanters, little boys, most +strangely attired in white satin knee-breeches and short lace skirts, +scattering rose-leaves from open baskets at their sides; the curé came +bearing the monstrance and Host, followed by Sisters with little girls +in their charge; lastly was a mixed throng of parishioners. Most of +the women held rosaries, and a few of them, bent with age, carried +upon their heads the very cap that old Mother Hubbard wore, if +tradition and English artists are to be trusted. As the last of the +long procession passed out of sight between the walls of white linen, +the wind brought the words clearly back: + + 'Genitori, Genitoque + Laus et jubilatio.' + +Now I entered the little church that was quite empty, and where no +sound would have been heard if the two voices in the tower had not +continued to ring out over the dovecotes, where the white pigeons +rested and wondered, and over the broad fields where the bending +grasses and listening flowers stood in the afternoon sunshine, 'Laus +et jubilatio,' in the language of the bells. + +The church was Romanesque, probably of the twelfth century. The nave +was flanked by narrow aisles. Upon the very tall bases of the columns +were carved, together with foliage, fantastic heads of demons, or +satyrs of such expressive ugliness that they held me fascinated. Some +were bearded, others were beardless, some were grinning and showing +frightful teeth, others had thick-lipped, pouting mouths hideously +debased. A few were really _bons diables_, who seemed determined to be +gay, and to joke under the most trying circumstances; but the greater +number had morose faces, puckered by the long agony of bearing up the +church. Such variety of expression in ugliness was a triumph of art in +the far-off age, when the chisel of an unremembered man with a teeming +imagination made these heads take life from the inanimate stone. + +The road from Autoire to St. Céré soon led me into the valley of the +Bave, a beautiful trout-stream, galloping towards the Dordogne through +flowery meadows, on this last day of May, and under leaning trees, +whose imaged leaves danced upon the ripples in the green shade. As I +had no need to hurry, I loitered to pick ragged-robins upon the banks, +flowers dear to me from old associations. Very common in England, they +are comparatively rare in France. + +New pleasures await the wayfarer every hour, almost every minute, in +the day, and however long he may continue to wander over this +wonderful world of inexhaustible variety, if he will only stop to look +at everything, and so learn to feel the charm of little things. + +I met a beggar, and fell into conversation with him. He asked me for +nothing, and was surprised when I gave him two sous. He was a ragged +old man, with a canvas bag, half filled with crusts, slung upon his +side. I had already met many such beggars in this part of France. They +travel about from village to village, filling their bags with pieces +of bread that are given them, and selling afterwards what they cannot +eat as food for pigs. As they rarely receive charity in the form of +money, they do not expect it. This kind of mendicant is distinctly +rural, and belongs to old times. + +The bold front of an early Renaissance castle, with round towers at +the angles, capped with pointed roofs, drew me from the highroad. It +was the Château de Montal, in connection with which I had already +heard the story of one Rose de Montal, a young lady of some three +centuries ago, who had given her heart to a nobleman of the country, +Roger de Castelnau. By-and-by the charms of another lady caused him to +neglect the fair Rose de Montal. She remained almost constantly at a +window of one of the towers, scanning the country, and longing to +catch sight of the faithless Roger. One day he came down the valley of +the Bave, and she sang from the height of her tower a plaintive +love-song, hoping that he would stop and make some sign; but he passed +on, unmoved by the tender appeal of the noble damsel. As he +disappeared, she cried, 'Rose, plus d'espoir!' and threw herself from +the window. + +The _métayer_, now placed in charge of the castle, showed me over it. +It was a sad spectacle. The building, one of the best preserved and +most elaborately decorated works of the Renaissance in this part of +Guyenne until a few years ago, then fell into the hands of a vulgar +speculator, who detached all the carvings that could be removed +without difficulty, and sold them in Paris. The noble staircase and +all its delicate sculpture remain, but these only add to the regret +that one feels for what is no longer there. Had the Commission of +Historic Monuments placed the Château de Montal upon its list, it +would probably have escaped spoliation, although, in the case of +private property, the State has no power to prevent destruction, +however grievous the national loss. + +I entered St. Céré at sundown. This bright little town lies in the +midst of fertility. It is on the banks of the Bave, and at the foot of +a hill that rises abruptly from the plain, and is capped by two towers +of a ruined feudal stronghold, which show against the horizon far into +the Quercy, the Corrèze, and the Cantal. Some of the old streets have +quite a mediaeval air, with their half-wood houses with stories +projecting upon the floor-joists, and others of a grander origin with +turrets resting on encorbelments. I had the luck to find a good +old-fashioned inn here, and to pass the evening in very pleasant +company. + +The next morning I climbed to the top of the neighbouring hill to have +a closer view of those towers which had been my landmarks on the +previous day, passing through the little village of St. +Laurent-les-Tours, which lies immediately under the old fortress after +the manner of so many others of feudal origin. The towers are +rectangular _donjons_ of the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, one +being nearly a hundred and fifty feet high. The castle was raised upon +a table of calcareous rock; but only the towers, a portion of the +outer wall built of enormous blocks of stone, and a ruined archway +marking the spot where the drawbridge once hung, remain to tell the +tale of the past. + +That the Romans had fortified this height there is the strongest +evidence in the fact that the substructure of the rampart that once +surrounded the castle is of cubic stones laid together according to +the method so much practised by the Romans, and known as _opus +reticulatum_. Moreover, the coins, pottery, and arms found here seem +to afford conclusive proof that this remarkable hill was one of the +fortified positions of the Romans in Gaul. + +The spot has its Christian legend, which is briefly this: In the +castle that crowned the height in the time of the Visigoth kings was +born St. Espérie, daughter of a Duke of Aquitaine. Being pressed to +marry, notwithstanding the vow she had made to consecrate her life to +God, she hid herself in a neighbouring forest for three months. She +was at length discovered by her enraged brother and lover, who cut off +her head. Like St. Denis, St. Espérie picked up her head, to the +unspeakable astonishment and dismay of her persecutors. They fled from +her, but she followed them as far as a little stream that flows into +the Bave at St. Céré. Espérie is a saint much venerated in the +Haut-Quercy. The church of St. Céré is dedicated to her, and the name +given to the town is supposed to be a corruption of Espérie. + +From St. Céré I took the road to Castelnau-de-Bretenoux, returning for +some distance by the way I came. Inns being now very scarce in the +district, I decided to take my chance of lunch in a small village +called St. Jean-Lespinasse. Another saint! The map of France is still +covered with the names of saints, in spite of all the efforts of +revolutionists and pagan reformers to make the people abandon their +'Christian superstitions.' Those who in the 'ages of faith' built up +this association of saints and places could have had no conception of +the power that these names would have in binding Christianity to the +soil in the faithless or doubting ages to come. The only inn at St. +Jean-Lespinasse was kept by a blacksmith, and the room where I had my +meal was over the forge. Bread and cheese and eggs were, as I +expected, the utmost that such a hostelry could offer in the way of +food for a wayfarer's entertainment. Before leaving the village I +found the church--a curious old structure of the Transition period, +with a large open porch covered with mossy tiles, held up by rough +pillars. There were stone benches inside, on which generations of +villagers had sat and gossiped in their turn. In the interior were +columns engaged in the wall of the nave, with the capitals elaborately +and heavily foliated with pendent bunches of flowers and fruit, much +more in accordance with English than French taste. + +I crossed the Bave, and followed a road bordered with hedgerows of +quince that presently skirted sunny slopes covered with lately-planted +vines. Thunder was moaning and growling in the distance when I reached +the much-embowered village of Castelnau, upon a height immediately +under the reddish walls and towers of the immense feudal stronghold, +the fame of which went far and wide in the Middle Ages. Its name in +the Southern dialect means 'new castle,' but it dates from the +eleventh or twelfth century. Extensive additions were made in +subsequent ages, notably a wing in the Renaissance style, which was +inhabited until the middle of the present century, when all but the +walls was destroyed by fire. + +The feudal castle was built upon the plan of a triangle, with a tower +at each angle, the one at the apex being the _donjon_. The form of +this lofty keep is rectangular, and the machicolations and +embattlements which were added in the fifteenth century are in a +perfect state of preservation. Upon the platform, which I was able to +reach by means of ladders and the half-ruinous spiral staircase, +viper's bugloss spread its brilliant blue flowers over the dark +stones, and enticed the high-soaring bees. The view of the wide and +beautiful Dordogne Valley from these old battlements was not less +grand because more than one-half of the sky was of a bluish-black--a +mysterious canopy that concealed the genius of the storm, but from the +turbulent folds of which there darted every minute a dazzling line of +light. The tower on which I stood, although the highest of the three, +had never been struck by lightning, but one of the others had been +repeatedly struck, and the ruined masonry showed abundant signs of the +scorching it had undergone in this way. Lightning is capricious and +incomprehensible in its preferences. + +This castle was besieged by Henry Plantagenet in 1159, but without +success. Subsequently he made another effort, and then reduced it. His +son Henry made it his headquarters for some time after he had +revolted. In 1369 Thomas de Walkaffera the English seneschal who held +Réalville on behalf of his sovereign, was besieged there by a Lord of +Castelnau, assisted by other barons. The garrison was overcome and +massacred. Another Lord of Castelnau, John, Bishop of Cahors, convened +a meeting of the States of the Quercy in his fortress, at which a +rising against the English was decided upon. It resulted in their +temporary expulsion from the Quercy. + +Besides the towers and exterior walls, there are some chambers of the +old castle in good preservation. The chapel is still roofed, and the +altar-stone is in its place. In an elevated chamber at the lower end, +the dead were laid while awaiting burial. + +Descending to the village, I entered the parish church--a Gothic +building of the fourteenth century, containing many interesting +details. The oak stalls, each with a quaint human figure carved upon +it, are exceedingly curious. Outside the church little girls were +playing, in the charge of a Sister who had a beautiful sweet face. She +showed me the way to the next village, where I hoped to find shelter +from the gathering storm. I have a pleasant picture in the mind of +Castelnau--a bowery, ancient, mossy place, with vines climbing about +the houses or on trellises in the little steep gardens, and a golden +bloom of stonecrop upon the rough walls. + +I reached the village of Prudhomat just as the storm burst over it, +and took shelter in a small inn, which, like most of those in the +country, had its room for the public upstairs. Two women who were +there made the sign of the cross each time the lightning flashed--a +widespread custom of the French peasantry; but a couple of men who +were eating salad and bread paid no heed to the furious cannonade that +was kept up by the darkened heavens. It was four o'clock, and they +were having their _goûter_. The peasants of the Quercy do not live on +the fat of the land; but they generally have five meals a day, two +more than the middle-class French. They begin with soup at a very +early hour in the morning; then they have their dinner about ten, +which is chiefly soup; at three or four they have a _goûter_ of bread +and cheese, salad or fruit; and at six or seven they have their +supper, which is soup again. + +The old woman who sat near the window worked diligently with her +distaff laden with hemp, except when the flashing lightning made her +stop to raise her thin hand to her forehead. She was twisting the +thread from which the sheets of the country are made. They are coarse, +but they last longer than the hands that work the hemp, and descend +from mother to daughter. + +More than two hours I waited in this auberge while the rain fell in +torrents, the lightning blazed, and the thunder crashed. The whole sky +was the colour of slate. When at length a line of bright light +appeared in the western sky, I could curb my impatience no longer, +and, hoisting my pack, I was soon on the road to Carennac. + +A little beyond the village I passed a gipsy encampment ranged along +the side of the highway on a strip of waste land. There were no tents; +but there were four or five miserable little caravans, roofed over +with tattered and dirty canvas. They were tents on wheels. Some thin +and ascetic-looking old mules and wizen donkeys had been taken out of +the shafts, and were now nibbling the short wayside grass, the young +burdocks and mulleins, which, but for the rain, would have filled +their mouths with dust. Small portable stoves--alas! not the +traditional fire with three stakes set in the ground and tied at the +top, with the pot swinging therefrom--had been lighted outside the +caravans, and gipsy women were making the evening soup. Bright-eyed, +shock-headed, uncombed, unwashed, but exceedingly happy gipsy children +were tumbling over one another on the wet turf, showing so much of +their brown skin between their rags that they would have been more +comfortable and quite as decent had they been naked. A hideous old +man, merely skin and bones, sitting nose and knees together upon a +sack, did not take my curiosity in good part, but glared at me +morosely. The younger men of this interesting community were +elsewhere--perhaps mending saucepans, or reassuring ducks alarmed by +the thunderstorm. A musician of the party must have been kept in by +the bad weather, for from one of the caravans came the diabolic +screech of a wheezing concertina that had got rid of all its ideals +and dreams of distinction. + +The bright line in the west moved very slowly upwards, and the rain +continued to fall, although less drenchingly than before. The setting +sun strove with the cloud-rack and coloured the veil of vapour that +its rays could not pierce. The nightingales and thrushes in the +shrubs, and the finches amidst the later blossoms of the may, took +heart again, and the song rose from so many throats near and far that +the whole valley of the Dordogne was filled with warbling. As the +birds grew drowsy the frogs came out to spend a happy night on the +margins of the pools and the brooks, until their joyful screaming and +croaking was a universal chorus. I was by the side of the broad river +that flowed calmly through the fairest meadows. The face of the +stream, the pools in the road, the grass and the leaves, were +brightened with the orange glow of a veiled light as of some sacred +fire shining in the dusk through clouds of incense. It grew warmer and +warmer until it purpled and died away in grayness and mournful shadow. +The beauty of nature at such moments, when the colours brighten and +fade like the powers of the mind as the human day is closing, takes a +solemnity that is unearthly, and it is good to be alone with the +mystery. + +It was dark when I reached Carennac. I did not realize how wet I was +until I sat down in an auberge and tried to make myself comfortable +for the night. It is not easy, however, to be happy under such +circumstances. When the fire on the hearth was stirred up and fed with +fresh wood to cook my dinner of barbel that had just had time to die +after being pulled out of the Dordogne, I placed myself in the +chimney-corner to dry before the welcome blaze. How cheering is a +fire, even in June and in Southern France, on a rainy night, when the +sound of sighing trees comes down the chimney and the tired wayfarer's +clothes are sticking to his legs and back! How cheering, too, at such +a time is a dinner, however modest, in the light and warmth of the +fire. A humble barbel has then a more delicate flavour than a +salmon-trout cooked with consummate art for people who never know what +it is to be hungry. + +The next morning I was in the cloisters belonging to the Benedictine +priory of Carennac, of which Fénélon was the titular prior. Hither he +came for quietude, and here he wrote his 'Télémaque,' a historical +trace of which is found in a little island of the Dordogne, which is +called 'L'Ile de Calypso.' It is recorded that the mother of the great +Churchman and writer, when she feared that she would be childless, +went on a pilgrimage to Roc-Amadour, and that Fénélon was the +consequence of that act of devotion. + +The cloisters of Carennac, built from plans furnished by that fountain +of ecclesiastical art in the Middle Ages, the monastery of Cluny, +must, judging from the remnants of tracery in the arcades, and the +delicately carved bosses of the vaults, have been once a spot where +the spirit of Gothic architecture found delight. Now the spirit of +ruin dwells there, leading the bramble and the celandine to conquer, +year after year, some fresh territory upon the ancient quadrangle's +crumbling wall. Above, where the sunbeam strikes upon the wrinkled +stone, the lizard basks and the bee fresh from its hive hums as +blithely among the yellow flowers of the celandine as if the blocks +raised by men in their reaching towards Heaven were nothing more than +the rocks that cast their shadows upon the Dordogne. Upon the ground, +man, by using no rein of respect to curb the lower needs of life, has +desecrated the spot with pigsties! Some inhabitant of Carennac, into +whose hands the cloisters passed in recent times, thought that a place +which was good enough for Benedictine monks to walk in might, with a +little fresh masonry, be made fit for pigs to feed and sleep in. But +an end had come to this idyllic state of things. The cloisters of +Carennac had just been placed on the list of historic monuments. The +adjoining church had been 'classed' long before. + +This church, a small Gothic edifice of the twelfth century, has a +far-projecting porch enriched with a specimen of mediaeval carving +which is a long delight to the few archaeologists who find their way +to the almost forgotten village of Carennac. The composition, which +fills the tympan of the scarcely-pointed arch, represents Christ +surrounded by the twelve Apostles. The influence of Byzantine art is +perceptible in the treatment. Very few such masterpieces of +twelfth-century carving have been so well preserved as this. The +seated figure of Christ in the act of blessing His Apostles, the right +hand upraised, the left resting upon a clasped book, impresses the +beholder by its majesty and serenity. Very different are the figures +of the Apostles: these are men, and of a very common type too, such as +the Benedictines were accustomed to see in their own cloisters, or +among their dependents at Carennac. But how animated are the forms, +and how expressive the faces! The mouldings which serve as a border to +the composition are much more Romanesque or Byzantine than Gothic, and +the columns that support it have capitals which are purely Romanesque. +In the interior of the church is a fifteenth-century group of seven +figures, representing the scene of the Holy Sepulchre; an admirable +composition, showing to what a high degree of excellence French +sculpture had attained even at the dawn of the Renaissance. + + + + +WAYFARING UNDERGROUND. + + +Upon the stony plateau above Roc-Amadour is a cavern well known in the +district as the Gouffre de Révaillon. It had for me a peculiar +attraction on account of the gloomy grandeur of the scene at the +entrance. When I saw it for the first time I understood at once the +supernatural horror in which the peasant has learnt to hold such +places. It responds to impressions left on the mind of the 'Stygian +cave forlorn,' the entrance to Dante's 'City of Sorrow,' and that +other cave where Aeneas witnessed in cold terror the prophetic fury of +the Sibyl. + +This effect of gloom, horror and sublimity is the result of geological +conditions and the action of water, which together have produced many +similar phenomena in the region of the _causses_, but in no other +case, I believe, with such power in composing the picturesque. Imagine +an open plain which in the truly Dark Ages whereof man has had no +experience, but of whose convulsions he has learnt to read a little +from the book whose leaves are the rocks, cracked along a part of its +surface as a drying ball of clay might do, the fissure finishing +abruptly and where it is deepest in front of a mass of rock that +refused to split. This was apparently the beginning of the Gouffre de +Révaillon. Then came another submersion which greatly modified the +appearance of things. There was evidently a deluge here after the land +had dried and cracked, and it must have lasted a very long time for +the waves to have hollowed, smoothed and polished the rocks inside the +caverns and elsewhere as we now see them. Those who have observed with +a little attention a rugged coast will, without being geologists, +recognise the distinctly marine character of the greater number of +these orifices in the calcareous district of the _causses_. The +washing and smoothing action of the sea along the sides of the gorges +which cut up the surface of the country in such an astonishing manner +is not so easy to distinguish. But the reason is obvious. This +limestone rock is by its nature disintegrating wherever it is exposed +to the air and frost, and the foundations of the bastions which +support the _causses_ are being continually sapped by water which +carries away the lime in solution and deposits a part of it elsewhere +in the form of stalactite and stalagmite in the deep galleries where +subterranean rivers often run, and which probably descend to the +lowest part of the formation. Thus by the dislodgment of huge masses +of rock which have rolled down from their original positions, and the +breaking away of the surfaces of others, the most convincing traces of +the sea's action here have nearly disappeared. In the gorge of the +Alzou, however, near Roc-Amadour, about 100 feet above the channel of +the stream, there is a considerable reach of hard rock approaching +marble, the polished and undulating surface of which tells the story +of the ocean, just as the sides of the caverns in much more elevated +positions tell it. + +In the rock where the fissure ends at Révaillon is an opening like a +vast yawning mouth, the roof of which forms an almost perfect dome. +Adown this a stream trickles towards the end of summer, but plunges +madly and with a frightful roar in winter and spring. The steep sides +of the narrow ravine are densely wooded, and the light is very dim at +the bottom when the sun is not overhead. I made my first attempt to +descend the dark passage in the early summer, but there was too much +water, and I was soon obliged to retreat. One afternoon in October I +returned with a companion, and we took with us a rope and plenty of +candles. We carried the rope in view of possible difficulties in the +shape of rocks inside the cavern, for it should be borne in mind that +in _gouffres_ of this character the stream frequently descends by a +series of cascades. The weather was very sultry, and the sky towards +the west was of a slaty blue. A fierce storm was threatening, but we +paid no attention to it--a mistake which others bent on exploring +caverns where streams still flow should be warned against. There is +probably no force in nature more terrible, or which makes a man's +helplessness more miserably felt, than water suddenly rushing towards +him when he is underground. + +The sun was still shining, however, when we reached the Gouffre de +Révaillon and descended into the ravine over roots of trees coiling +upon the moss like snakes, some arching upward as if about to spring +at the throat of those who disturbed the elfish solitude. At our +coming there rose from the great rock such a multitude of jackdaws +that for some seconds they darkened the air. With harsh screams the +birds soared higher and higher above their fortress, which they had +possessed for ages in perfect security. We reached the bed of the +stream, where scattered threads of water tinkled as they fell over +huge blocks into little pools below, and then went whispering on their +way towards the darkness. At the botton of a long slant of greenish +slimy stone, patched here and there with moss, I stopped a few +minutes, feeling that I could not grasp without an effort the deep +gloom and grandeur of my surroundings. The jackdaws had all flown +away, and there was no sound now but the tinkle and gurgle of the +water. Great snails crawled upon the tufts of rank grass wet with the +autumnal dews that the sun had failed to dry, and upon the glistening +hart's-tongue ferns, and they looked just the kind of snails that +witches would collect to make a hell-broth. Dark ivy hung down from +the rocks, and under the vaulted entrance of the cavern was a clump of +elders, very sinister-looking, and giving forth when touched an evil +narcotic odour. Near these forlorn shrubs was a solitary plant of +angelica, now woebegone, its fringed leaves drooping, waiting for the +rising water to wash it into the darkness. There were willow-herbs +still in bloom, but the crane's-bill struggled with the gloom farther +than any other flowering plant, and its bright little purple lamps +shone in the very mouth of Night. Gnats there were too, spinning in +the semi-darkness, now sinking, now rising, keeping together, a merry +band of musicians, each with a small flute, piping perhaps to the +little goblins that swung on spiders' webs, and slept upon the fronds +of the ferns. + +Candles were now lighted, and we left the glimmer of day behind us. A +little beyond the great dome the roof became so low that we had to +creep along almost on hands and knees, but it presently rose again, +and to a great height. The first obstacle--the one that sent me back a +few months before--was a steep rock down which the water then fell in +such a cascade that there was no getting a foothold upon it. Now the +water scarcely covered it, and there was no difficulty in reaching the +bottom. Here, however, was a pool through which we had to wade +knee-deep. The cavern continued, and the stalagmite became interesting +by its fantastic shapes. Here was a mass like an immense sponge, even +to the colour, and there, descending from the roof down the side of +the rock, was the waved hair of an undine that had been changed into +white and glistening stone. The stalactites were less remarkable. The +sound of dropping water told us that another cascade was near. This we +left behind by climbing along the side of the gallery, clinging to the +rock, and in the same way four more obstacles of precisely the same +character were overcome. All the distance the slope was rapid, but at +intervals there was a sudden fall of from ten to fifteen feet, with a +black-looking pool at the foot of the rock, hollowed out by the action +of the tumbling torrent. The last of these falls was the worst to +cross. To this point the cavern had been already explored, but no +farther apparently, the local impression being that it ended just +beyond. It was an ugly place. The rock over which the water fell was +almost perpendicular, and the pool at the bottom was larger and deeper +than the others. Seen by the light of day, any schoolboy might have +scoffed at the difficulty of getting beyond it, but when you are +descending into the bowels of the earth, where the light of two +candles can only dissolve the darkness a few yards around you, every +form becomes fantastic and awful, and the effect of water of unknown +depth upon the imagination is peculiarly disturbing. But we made up +our minds to go on if it were possible. The passage was very narrow, +and the sides offered few salient points to which one could cling. We +moved along a very narrow ledge in a sitting posture, and then, when +we had gone as far as we could in this way, and there was nothing +beyond to sit upon, we made a spring. My companion, being the more +agile, nearly cleared the pool, but I went in with a great splash, as +I expected, and thought myself lucky in being only wetted to the +waist. The water was not very cold, the temperature of the cavern +being much higher than that of the outer air. + +We reckoned that we had by this time travelled underground about half +a mile, and as we had been descending rapidly all the way, the +distance beneath the surface must have been considerable. My theory +with regard to this stream was that it was a tributary of the +subterranean Ouysse; but the fact that the cavern ran north-west made +me change my opinion, and conclude that this water-course took an +independent line towards the Dordogne. + +A little beyond the last pool the running water suddenly vanished. We +looked around to see if it had taken any side passage; but no: it +simply disappeared into the earth, although no hole was perceptible in +its stony channel. It passed by infiltration into some lower gallery, +where the light of a candle had never shone, and is never likely to +shine. But we had not reached the end of the cavern, although the +passage became so low that we had now really to go down on all-fours +in order to proceed. We had not to keep this posture long, for again +the roof rose, although to no great height. We walked on about fifty +yards or more, and then came to the end. There was no opening anywhere +except by the way we entered. We were like flies that had crawled into +a bottle, and a very unpleasant bottle it might have proved to us. We +noticed--at first with some surprise--that, although there was not a +drop of water now in this _cul-de-sac_, our feet sank into damp sand +that had evidently been carried there by water. Sticks were also lying +about, and the walls up to the roof were covered with a muddy slime. +It was evident that this hole had been filled with water, and not very +long ago; probably the last thunderstorm accounted for the signs of +recent moisture. While we were talking about this, a strange, muffled, +moaning sound reached our ears. We looked at one another over the tops +of two candles. 'Thunder,' said my companion. In a few minutes the +same dismal moan, long drawn out, came down the cavern, which acted +like a speaking-tube between us and the outer world, and conveyed a +timely warning. Was it in time? We were not quite sure of this, for as +we issued from the _cul-de-sac_ we heard the water coming down the +rocks with a very different voice from that which it had not many +minutes before. It was clear that the storm was beginning to tell upon +the stream, and if the rain had been falling for half an hour, as I +had already seen it fall in the Quercy, we might find the work of +recrossing those pools and climbing up the cascades anything but +cheerful. Already where we had been able to walk on dry stones the +water was now up to our ankles. The first cascade to surmount was the +worst. We decided to try it on the side opposite to the one by which +we descended, for we observed a jutting and highly-polished piece of +stalagmite, which promised to help the manoeuvre. One went first, and +the other waited, holding the candle. I was in the rear. When my +companion had reached the top of the cascade, I threw him the coil of +rope--a useless encumbrance, as it happened--and in so doing put out +the candle. Before I was sure that I had a dry match upon me, I failed +to seize the humour, although I felt the novelty of the situation. +During those seconds of uncertainty, the sound of the water--really +fast increasing--seemed to become a deafening roar. However, we both +had dry matches, and were able to relight our candles; but it might +have been otherwise, wet as we were. Without light we should have been +as helpless beneath those rocks as mice in a pitcher. The first +cascade conquered, we felt much more comfortable, for the picture of +being washed into that _cul-de-sac_ had flashed upon the mind of each. + +As the next and the next cascade were passed, our spirits rose still +more; and when we saw the gray daylight in the distance, our gaiety +was quite genuine, and we no longer 'laughed yellow,' as the French +phrase it. The stream was rapidly becoming a frantic torrent, but we +were not afraid of it now. On reaching the dome, we saw the water +pouring over rocks that were dry when we entered, and the clouds +seemed to be emptying their rain in frenzy. + +An hour later the stream that was lisping so innocently as it threaded +its way amongst the stones, and dropped from rock to rock before the +storm, sent up a wild roar from the bottom of the valley, and shrieked +like a tormented fiend, as it leaped into the black mouth of the +Gouffre de Révaillon. Tons of water had probably collected there at +the bottom of the gulf. And I, in my shortsightedness, had hoped that +the cavern was two or three miles long! I had great reason to be +thankful that it ended where it did, for the excitement of adventure +would have carried us on, and we might have gone too deep into the +earth to hear the thunder. + +On emerging from the darkness, we made all the haste we could to reach +the nearest inn. The storm was still at its height; the thunder was an +almost continuous roar; and the quick lightning-flashes lit up the +streaming country. We were quite drenched on reaching a little wayside +auberge. Water was soon boiling upon the wood-fire, and having set +rheumatism at defiance with steaming glasses of grog, we left for +Roc-Amadour, where, on our arrival, we found our friends about to +start with lanterns to look for us in the Gouffre de Révaillon. + + * * * * * + +Noticing one day a low cavern in the rocks beside the Ouysse, I asked +if anyone had ever entered it, and was told that a man had done so; +that he had found a long, low gallery, which he followed for two or +three hundred yards, and then gave up the attempt to reach the end. It +was well known that the hole, being on a level with the water, was +much used by otters. The desire to explore this cavern becoming +strong, I spoke to Decros about the adventure. He was ready to go with +me; and so we started, taking with us enough candles to light a +ball-room. + +On our way over the hills from Roc-Amadour, we passed two dolmens, one +of which was in good preservation. There are several hundred of them +in the Quercy; and the peasants, who call them _pierros levados_ +(raised stones), also 'tombs of the giants' and _caïrous_, in which +last name the Celtic word _cairn_ has been almost preserved, treat +them now with indifference, although it is recorded of one of the +early bishops of Cahors that he caused a menhir to be broken to pieces +because it was an object of idolatrous worship. Those who have been to +the trouble of excavating have almost invariably found in each dolmen +a _cella_ containing human bones. In some of them flint implements +have been discovered; in others iron implements and turquoise +ornaments, showing that the tombs, although all alike, belong to +different periods. Tumuli are also numerous, but only a few menhirs +and traces of cromlechs are to be seen. + +Close to the Gouffre de Cabouy, whose outflow forms a tributary of the +Ouysse, is a cottage where a man lives whose destiny I have often +envied. When he is tired of fishing or shooting, he works in his +thriving little vineyard, which he increases every year. The river is +as much his own as if it belonged to him; he gets all he wants by +giving himself very little trouble, and has no cares. We needed this +man's boat for our expedition, and we found it drawn into a little +cove beside the ruined mill, long since abandoned. It was a somewhat +porous old punt, with small fish swimming about in the bottom; but it +was well enough for our purpose. In the warm sunshine of the October +afternoon we glided gently down the quiet stream, which is very deep, +but so clear that you can see all the water-plants which revel in it, +down to the sand and pebbles. Near the banks we passed over masses of +watercress, and what might be likened to floating fields of lilies and +pond-weed. + +It needed no little reflection and expenditure of art to insert the +prow of the boat into the mouth of the cavern. What an ugly and +uninteresting hole I then thought it! Having run the punt as far as we +could into the opening, there still remained about six feet of water +to cross before reaching the sandy mud beyond. A plank, however, that +we brought with us served as a bridge. The story of the otters was no +fable, for here were the footprints of the beasts all over the mud. We +lighted candles and looked into the hole. The ground rose and the roof +descended, so that to enter it was necessary to lie perfectly flat, +and to crawl along by a movement very like that of swimming; then the +passage became so small that there was only room for one to go at a +time. Neither of us was ambitious to go first, for there was just a +chance of an otter seizing the invader by the nose; but neither liked +to show the white feather. Each in turn went in a few yards, planted a +lighted candle in the mud, and then found some pretext for returning. +The hot air of the cavern was almost suffocating, and one felt so +helpless flattened against the earth, with the rock pressing so tight +upon the back that even to wriggle along was difficult. 'Decros is a +native,' thought I, 'and he ought to be used to this kind of work. I +will let him understand that he is expected now to do his duty.' In he +went again, and planted another candle about a yard in front of the +last one. Then he stopped and fired a shot from the revolver that we +carried in turn for the otters, and the sound of the detonation seemed +to echo in a muffled fashion from the bowels of the earth. + +'How many otters have you killed?' I shouted. + +'None,' he replied. 'I just fired to let them know that we are here.' + +I then asked him if he was going on, and I fancied that he tried to +shrug his shoulders, but found the rock in the way. His practical +reply, however, was to slowly back out. When he was able to stand up +again, he said he believed he had seen the end of the cavern, and +would like me to take another look. I now realized that if the secrets +of the fantastic realm which my fancy had pictured were to be revealed +to me, there must be no more shirking. When I flattened myself out +again upon the mud, it was with the determination to go right through +the neck of the bottle, for such the passage figuratively was. At one +moment I felt tightly wedged, unable to move forward or backward, in a +hot steamy atmosphere that was not made any pleasanter by the smoke of +the burnt powder; but, the sight of the now rising roof encouraged me +to further efforts, and presently I was able to stand upright--in +fact, I was in a cavern where a giant of the first magnitude could +have walked about with ease, but where he might have been a prisoner +for life. I was resolved, however, that Decros should not escape his +share of the adventure, so I called to him to come on, and he quickly +joined me. To my great disappointment, the cavern soon came to an end. +Where, we asked, could the otters be hiding themselves? Examining the +place more carefully, we found a passage going under the rock at the +farther extremity, but nearly filled with sand which the river had +washed up in time of flood. Here, then, was the continuation of the +cavern. The passage had been made by water, for a subterranean stream +must at one time have found an exit here into the Ouysse, and now +water was reversing the process by filling up the ancient conduit. But +for the otters that kept it open, we should probably have seen no +trace of it; and it was for this that we had wriggled our way into the +hideous hole like serpents! I left with the impression that there was +much vanity in searching for the wonders of the subterranean world. + +Having brought back the boat, we stopped at the cottage by the +vineyard and tried the juice of the grapes which three weeks before +were basking in the sun. It was now a fragrant wine of a rich purple, +with a certain flavour of the soil that made it the more agreeable. +The fisherman's wife also placed upon the table a loaf of home-made +bread, of an honest brown colour, some of the little Roc-Amadour +cheeses made from goat's milk, and a plate of walnuts. The window +looked out upon the sunny vines, whose leaves were now flaming gold or +ruddy brown; the blue river shone in the hollow below, and through the +open door there came the tinkling of bells from the rocky wastes where +the small long-tailed sheep were moving slowly homeward, nibbling the +stunted herbage as they went. + +This sound reminded us that the sun would soon drop behind the hill, +and that the Pomoyssin, to which we intended to pay a visit on our way +home, was not a spot that gained attractiveness from the shades of +night. I had heard the country-people speak of it as a peculiarly +horrible and treacherous _gouffre_, and its name, which means +'unwholesome hole,' corresponds to the local opinion of it. The +shepherd children would suffer torture from thirst rather than descend +into the gloomy hollow and dip out a drop of the dark water which is +said to draw the gazer towards it, and then into its mysterious depths +under the rock, by the spell of some wicked power. Some years ago a +woman, supposed to have been drawn there by the evil spirit, was found +drowned, and since then the spot has been avoided even more than it +was before. + +It was to this place, then, that we went when the sun was setting. The +way led up a deep little valley which was an absolute desert of +stones. A dead walnut-tree, struck apparently by lightning, with its +old and gnarled branches stretching out on one side like weird arms, +was just the object that the imagination would place in a valley +blighted by the influence of evil spirits, in proximity to a passage +communicating from their world to this one. Presently, as we drew near +some high rocks, Decros, pointing to a dark hollow in the shadow of +them said, 'There it is.' We went down into the basin to the edge of +the water that lay there, black and still, Decros showing evident +reluctance and restlessness the while, so strongly was his mind +affected by all the stories he had heard about the pool. Moreover, it +was rapidly growing dusk. In this half-light the funnel in which we +were standing certainly did look a very diabolic and sinister hole. +The fancy aiding, everything partook of the supernatural: the dark +masses of brambles hanging from the rocks, the wild vines clinging to +them with leaves like flakes of deep-glowing crimson fire, and +especially the intermittent sound of gurgling water. + +I was glad to have seen the Pomoyssin under circumstances so +favourable, but it was with relief that I left it and began to climb +the side of the gorge from this valley of dreadful shadows towards the +pure sky that reddened as the brown dusk deepened below. + + + + +IN THE VALLEY OF THE CÉLÉ. + + +It was a burning afternoon of late summer when I walked across the +stony hills which separate the valley of the Lot from that of its +tributary the Célé, between Capdenac and Figeac. I did not take the +road, but climbed the cliffs, trusting myself to chance and the torrid +_causse_. I wished that I had not done so when it was too late to act +differently. There was nothing new for me upon the bare hills, where +all vegetation was parched up except the juniper bushes and the +spurge. At length I found the road that went down with many a flourish +into the valley of the Célé, and I reached Figeac in the evening, +covered with dust, and as thirsty as a hunted stag. Here I took up my +quarters for awhile. + +Figeac is not a beautiful town from the Haussmannesque point of +view--the one that is destined to prevail in all municipal councils; +but it is full of charm to the archaeologist and the lover of the +picturesque. There are few places even in France which have undergone +so little change during the last five or six hundred years. Elsewhere, +thirteenth and fourteenth century houses are becoming rare; here they +are numerous. There are streets almost entirely composed of them. +These streets are in reality narrow crooked lanes paved with pebbles, +slanting towards the gutter in the centre. Some are only three or four +yards wide, and the walls half shut out the light of day. You look up +and see a mere strip of blue sky, but trailing plants reaching far +downward from window-sills, one above the other, light up the gloom +with many a patch of vivid green. You venture down some dim passage +and come suddenly upon a little court where an old Gothic portal with +quaint sculptures, or a Renaissance doorway with armorial bearings +carved over the lintel, bears testimony to the grandeur and wealth of +those who once lived in the now grimy, dilapidated, poverty-stricken +mansion. Pretentious dwellings of bygone days have long since been +abandoned to the humble. + +Here is a typical house in the Rue Abel, which is scarcely wide enough +for two to walk abreast. The oak door is elaborately carved with heads +and leaves, flowers and line ornament, all in strong relief. One +grimacing puckered head has a movable tongue that once lifted a latch +on being touched. Near the ground the oak has been half devoured by +the damp. This door would have been sold long ago to antiquaries or +speculators if the house since the Revolution had not become the +property of several persons all equally suspicious of one another, and +with the Cadurcian bump of obstinacy equally developed. They had no +respect for the carving, and they were eager to 'touch' the money; but +their interests in the house not being the same, they could never come +to an understanding over the door; consequently, in spite of very +tempting offers, the piece of massive oak continues to hang upon its +rusty hinges. So much the better for the student of antiquities, for, +without denying that museums are eminently useful, it is certain that +they deprive objects of a great deal of their interest and their power +of suggesting ideas by detaching them from their surroundings. +Moreover, it is not at all sure that these things, when they have been +bought up and carried away, will ever be put in a place where anybody +can see them who may have the wish to do so. And then, when a thing +has been put into a museum, it becomes such labour and painfulness to +look for it; and most of us are so lazy by nature. I will make a frank +confession. For my own part, I should scarcely look at this old door +if it were in the Cluny or any other museum; but here, in ancient +Figeac, I see it where it was many lustres ago, and the pleasure of +finding it in the midst of the sordidness and squalor that follow upon +the decay of grandeur and the evaporation of human hopes makes me feel +much that I should not feel otherwise, and calls up ideas as a +February sunbeam calls gnats out of the dead earth and sets them +spinning. + +I venture up the stone staircase, although most of the finely carved +balusters are gone, and the arch-stones have so slipped out of place +that they seem to cling together by the will of Providence rather than +by any physical law. The stairs themselves, although of fine stone +that has almost the polish of marble, are cracked as if an earthquake +had tormented them, and worn by the tread of innumerable feet into +deep hollows. I reach a landing where a long corridor stretches away +into semi-darkness. The floor is black with dirt, and so are the doors +which once opened into rooms where luxury waited upon some who were +born, and upon others (perchance the same) who died. A sound reaches +me from the far-end of the corridor that makes me feel like a coward. +It is the raving of a madman. How he seems to be contending with all +the fiends of hell! Sometimes his voice is so low, and the words crowd +one upon another so fast, that the muttering is like the prolonged +growl of a wild beast; then the mood changes, and the unseen man seems +to be addressing an invisible audience in grand sonorous sentences as +though he were a Cicero; and perhaps he may be, but as he speaks in +_patois_ his eloquence is lost upon me. What a terrible excitement is +in his voice! How it thrills and horrifies! And he is alone, quite +alone in this dismal old house with the fiends who harass him. This I +learn from a young girl whom I meet at the bottom of the staircase. +She tells me that the man is only mad at the time of the new or the +full moon (I forget which), and that his raving lasts but two or three +days. Then nobody ventures near him; but at other times he is quite +rational and harmless. He has left, however, upon me an impression +more lasting perhaps than that of the old tottering staircase that +threatens to close up every moment like a toy snake that has been +stretched out. + +Most of the old houses are entered by Gothic doorways, and the oak +doors are studded with large nail-heads. The locks and bolts are of +mediaeval workmanship. Sometimes you see an iron ring hanging to a +string that has been passed through a hole in the door. It is just +such a string as Little Red Riding-hood (an old French fable, +by-the-bye) pulled to lift the latch at the summons of the wicked +wolf. And what a variety of ancient knockers have we here! Many are +mere bars of iron hanging to a ring; but others are much more +artistic, showing heads coifed in the style of the fifteenth and +sixteenth centuries, serpents biting their own tails, and all manner +of fanciful ideas wrought into iron. In wandering about the dim old +streets, paved with cobble stones, architectural details of singular +interest strike one at every turn. Now it is the encorbelment of a +turret at the angle of a fifteenth or sixteenth century mansion that +has lost all its importance; now a dark archway with fantastic heads +grimacing from the wall; now an arcade of Gothic windows, with +graceful columns and delicate carvings--a beautiful fragment in the +midst of ruin. + +What helps much to render these dingy streets, passages, and courts of +Figeac so delightfully picturesque is the vegetation which, growing +with southern luxuriance in places seemingly least favourable to it, +clings to the ancient masonry, or brightens it by the strong contrast +of its immediate neighbourhood in some little garden or balustraded +terrace. Wherever there are a few feet of ground some rough poles +support a luxuriant vine-trellis, and grapes ripen where one might +suppose scarcely a gleam of sunshine could fall. The vine clambers +over everything, and sometimes reaches to the top of a house two +stories high. The old walls of Figeac are likewise tapestried with +pellitory and ivy-linaria, with here and there a fern pushing its +deep-green frond farther into the shadow, or an orpine sedum lifting +its head of purple flowers into the sunshine that changes it to a +flame. + +There is much in the life of this place that matches perfectly with +the surroundings. Enter by a Gothic doorway, and you will come upon a +nail-maker's forge, and see a dog turning the wheel that keeps the +bellows continually blowing. The wheel is about a foot broad, and +stands some three feet high. The dog jumps into it at a sign from his +master, and as the wheel turns the sparks from the forge fall about +the animal in showers. Each dog is expected to work five or six hours; +then, when his task is done, he is allowed to amuse himself as he +pleases, while a comrade takes his turn at the wheel. The nail-makers +discovered long ago that dog labour was cheaper than boy labour, and +not so troublesome. Nevertheless, these wheels belong to an order of +things that has nearly passed away. + +The crier or _tambourineur_, as he is generally called, because he +carries a drum, which he beats most lustily to awaken the curiosity of +the inhabitants, is making the round of the town with an ox, which is +introduced to the public as 'le boeuf ici présent.' The crier's +business is to announce to all whom it may concern that the animal is +to be killed this very evening, and that its flesh will be sold +to-morrow at 1 franc 25 centimes the kilo. It will all go at a uniform +price, for this is the local custom. Those who want the _aloyau_, or +sirloin, only have to be quick. The ox, notwithstanding that he has a +rope tied round his nose and horns, and is led by the butcher, +evidently thinks it a great distinction to be _tambouriné_; his +expression indicating that this is the proudest day of his life. Every +time the drum begins to rattle he flourishes his tail, and when each +little ceremony is over he moves on to a fresh place with a jaunty +air, as if he were aware that all this drumming and fuss were +especially intended for his entertainment. No condemned wretch ever +made his last appearance in public with a better grace. + +Another day I see this crier going round the town accompanied by a boy +every available part of whose person is decked with ribbons, and all +kinds of things ordinarily sold by drapers and haberdashers. Over each +shoulder is slung a pair of women's boots. The boy is a walking +advertisement of an exceptional sale, which a tradesman announces with +the help of the crier and his drum. + +A band of women and girls come up from the riverside, walking in +Indian file, and each with a glittering copper water-pot on her head. +What beautiful water-pots these are! They have the antique curve that +has not changed in the course of ages. They swell out at the bottom +and the top, and fall gracefully in towards the middle. As the women +quit the sunshine and enter the deep shadow of the street the shine of +their water-pots is darkened suddenly, like the sparks of burnt paper +which follow one upon another and go out. + +The sound of solemn music draws me into a church. A requiem Mass is +being chanted. In the middle of the nave, nearer the main door than +the altar, is a deal coffin with gable-shaped lid, barely covered by a +pall. A choir-boy comes out of the sacristy, carrying a pan of live +embers, which he places at the head of the coffin. Then he sprinkles +incense upon the fire, and immediately the smoke rises like a +snow-white cloud towards the vaulting; but, meeting the sunbeams on +its way, it moves up their sloping golden path, and seems to pass +through the clerestory window into the boundless blue. + +Now the procession moves towards the cemetery. It is a boy's funeral, +and four youths of about the same age as the one who lies in darkness +hold the four corners of each pall, two of which are carried in front +of the coffin. After the hearse come members of the confraternity of +Blue Penitents, one of whom carries a great wooden cross upon his +shoulder. Others carry staves with small crosses at the top, or +emblems of the trades that they follow. The dead boy's father is a +Penitent, and this is why the confraternity has come out to-day. They +now wear their _cagoules_ raised; but on Good Friday, when they go in +procession to a high spot called the Calvary, the leader walking +barefoot and carrying the cross on his shoulder in imitation of +Christ, they wear these dreadful-looking flaps over their faces. Their +appearance then is terrible enough; but what must that of the Red +Penitents, who accompanied condemned wretches to execution, have been? +In a few years there will be no Blue Penitents at Figeac. As the old +members of the confraternity die, there are no postulants to fill +their places. Already they feel, when they put on their 'sacks', that +they are masquerading, and that the eye of ridicule is upon them. This +state of mind is fatal to the conservation of all old customs. The +political spirit of the times is, moreover, opposed to these religious +processions in France. That of the _fête-Dieu_ at Figeac would have +been suppressed some years ago by the Municipal Council had it not +been for the outcry of the tradespeople. All the new dresses, new +hats, and new boots that are bought for this occasion cause money to +be spent that might otherwise be saved, and those who are interested +in the sale of such things wish the procession through the streets to +be kept up, although in heart they may be among the scoffers at +religion. + +The religious confraternities in Aquitaine date from the appearance of +the _routiers_ at the close of the twelfth century. These _routiers_ +were then chiefly Brabançons, Aragonese, and Germans. According to an +ecclesiastical author and local historian, the Abbé Debon, the lawless +bands spread such terror through the country that they stopped the +pilgrims from going to Figeac, Conques, and other places that had +obtained a reputation for holiness. A canon of Le Puy in Auvergne, +much distressed by the desertion of the sanctuary of Notre Dame de +Puy, which rivals that of Roc-Amadour in antiquity, formed the design +of instituting a confraternity to wage war against the _routiers_ and +destroy them. A 'pious fraud' was adopted. A young man, having been +dressed so as to impersonate Notre Dame du Puy, appeared to a +carpenter who was in the habit of praying every night in the +cathedral, and gave him the mission of revealing that it was the will +of the Holy Virgin that a confraternity should be formed to put down +the brigands and establish peace in the country. Hundreds of men +enrolled themselves at once. The confrères, from the fact that they +wore hoods of white linen, obtained the name of Chaperons Blancs. Upon +their breasts hung a piece of lead with this inscription: 'Agnus Dei +qui tollis peccata mundi dona nobis pacem.' The confraternity spread +into Aquitaine, and the _routiers_ were defeated in pitched battles +with great slaughter; but the _chaperons_ in course of time became +lawless fanatics, and were almost as great a nuisance to society as +those whom they had undertaken to exterminate. They were nevertheless +the ancestors in a sense of the confraternities of penitents who, at a +later period, became so general in Europe. + +The monthly fair at Figeac offers some curious pictures of rural life. +The peasants crowd in from the valleys and the surrounding _causses_. +Racial differences, or those produced by the influences of soil and +food--especially water--for a long series of generations, are very +strongly marked. There is the florid, robust, blue-eyed, sanguine +type, and there is the leaden-coloured, black-haired, lantern-jawed, +sloping-shouldered, and hollow-chested type. Then there are the +intermediates. Considered generally, these peasants of the Haut-Quercy +are not fine specimens of the human animal. They are dwarfed, and very +often deformed. Their almost exclusively vegetable diet, their +excessive toil, and the habit of drinking half-putrid rain-water from +cisterns which they very rarely clean, may possibly explain this +physical degeneration of the Cadurci. Their character is honest in the +main, but distrustful and superficially insincere by nature or the +force of circumstance. Their worst qualities are shown at a fair, +where they cheat as much as they can, and place no limit to lying. +Their canon of morality there is that everyone must look after +himself. I have been assured by a priest that they never think of +confessing the lies that they tell in bartering, because they maintain +that every man who buys ought to understand his business. I much +wondered why, at a Figeac fair, when there was a question of buying a +bullock, the animal's tail was pulled as though all his virtue were +concentrated in this appendage. I learnt that the reason of the +tugging was this: Cattle are liable to a disease that causes the tail +to drop off, but the people here have discovered a very artful trick +of fastening it on again, and it needs a vigorous pull to expose the +fraud. Among other tricks of the country is that of drenching an +ill-tempered and unmanageable horse with two _litres_ of wine before +taking him to the fair. He then becomes as quiet as a lamb. I heard +the story of a _curé_, who was thus imposed upon by one of his own +parishioners. He wanted a very quiet horse, and he found one at the +fair; but the next day, when he went near the animal, it appeared to +be possessed of the devil. All this is bad; but there is satisfaction +to the student of old manners in knowing that everything takes place +as it did centuries ago. The cattle-dealers and peasants here actually +transact their business in _pistoles_ and _écus_. A _pistole_ now +represents 10 francs, and an _écu_ 3 francs. + +The summer is glorious here, and as the climate is influenced by that +of Auvergne, it is less enervating by the Célé than in the +neighbouring valley of the Lot. There, some twenty miles farther +south, the grapes ripen two or three weeks sooner than they do upon +these hillsides. But the _vent d'autan_--the wind from the +south-east--is now blowing, and, although there is too much air, one +gasps for breath. The brilliant blue fades out of the sky, and the sun +just glimmers through layers of dun-coloured vapour. It is a sky that +makes one ill-tempered and restless by its sameness and indecision. +But the wind is a worse trial. It blows hot, as if it issued from the +infernal cavern. It sets the nerves altogether wrong, and disposes one +to commit evil deeds from mere wantonness and the feeling that some +violent reaction from this influence is what nature insists upon. It +is a wind that does not blow a steady honest gale, but goes to work in +a treacherously intermittent fashion--now lulled to a complete calm, +now springing at you like a tiger from the jungle. Then your eyes are +filled with dust, unless you close them quickly, or turn your back to +the enemy in the nick of time. The night comes, and brings other +trouble. You try to sleep with closed windows, so that you may hear +less of the racket that the wind makes outside, but it is impossible: +you stifle. You get up and open a window--perhaps two windows. The +wind rushes in, but it is like the hot breath of a panting dog. The +noise of swinging _persiennes_ that have got loose, and are banged now +against the wall, now against the window-frame, mingles with a woful +confusion of sounds within, as though a most unruly troop of ghosts +were dancing the _farandole_ all through the house. If any door has +been left open, it worries you more by its banging at intervals of a +minute than if it went on without stopping to consider. Therefore you +are compelled to rise again, and go and look for it--anything but a +cheerful expedition if you cannot find the matches. When this south +wind falls, the rain generally comes, bringing great refreshment to +the parched earth, and all the animals that live upon it. + +As I have referred to the house in which I live, I may as well say +something more with regard to it and the things which it contains. It +is not one of the ancient houses of Figeac, but it is old-fashioned +and provincial. The rooms are rather large, the floors are venerably +black, and the boarded ceilings supported by rafters have never had +their structural secrets or the grain of the timber concealed by a +layer of plaster. What you see over-head is simply the floor of the +room or the loft above. And yet this is not considered a poor-kind of +house; it is as good as most good people hereabouts live in. The +furniture is simple, but solid; it was made to last, and most of it +has long outlasted the first owners. In every room, the kitchen +excepted, there is a bed, according to the very general custom of the +country. The character of the people is distinctly utilitarian, +notwithstanding the blood of the troubadours. There is even a bed in +the _salle à manger_. A piece of furniture, however, from which my eye +takes more pleasure is one of those old clocks which reach from the +ceiling to the floor, and conceal all the mystery and solemnity of +pendulum and weights from the vulgar gaze. It has a very loud and +self-asserting tick, and a still more arrogant strike, for such an old +clock; but, then, everybody here has a voice that is much stronger +than is needed, and it is the habit to scream in ordinary +conversation. A clock, therefore, could not make itself heard by such +people as these Quercynois, unless it had a voice matching in some +sort with their own. Another piece of furniture that pleases me, +because it is of shining copper, which always throws a homely warmth +into a room, is a large basin fixed upon a stand against the wall, +with a little cistern above it, also of copper. It is intended for +washing the hands by means of a fillet of water that is set running by +turning the tap. In this dry part of the world water has to be used +sparingly, and, indeed, there is very little wasted upon the body. +Everybody who has travelled in Guyenne must be familiar with the +article of household furniture just described. Every young wife +piously provides herself with one, together with a warming-pan; for +the old domestic ideas are religiously handed down here from mother to +daughter. But I must shorten this 'journey round my room,' so little +in the manner of Le Maistre. + +Most of the furniture was once the property of a priest, and would be +still if he were alive. The good man is gone where even the voices of +the Figeacois cannot reach him; but he has left abundant traces of his +piety behind him. The walls of these rooms are almost covered by them. +I cannot help being edified, for I am unable to look upon anything +that approaches the profane. + +When I grow thoughtful over all these works of art and _objets de +piété_--engravings, lithographs, statuettes, crucifixes, crosses +worked in wool, stables of Bethlehem, little holy-water stoops, and +the faded photographs belonging to the early period of the art +(portraits, no doubt, of brothers, sisters, nephews, and nieces, all +revealing that air of rusticity in Sunday clothes which is not to be +mistaken)--I have before me the whole story of a simple life, +surrounding itself year after year with fresh emblems and tokens of +the hope that reaches beyond the grave, and the affections of nature +that become woven on this side of it, and which mingle joy and sorrow +even in the cup of a village priest. + +It is in these quiet, provincial places, where existence goes on in +the old-fashioned, humdrum way, that people take care of their +household property, and respect the sentiment that years lay up in it: +they hand it down to the next generation as they received it. Little +objects of common ornament, of religious or intellectual pleasure, +thus preserved, throw in course of time a vivid light on human +changes. + +And it is this vivid light that I am now feeling in these dim rooms. I +am aware that nearly everything here is the record of an epoch to +which I do not belong--that the world's mind has undergone a great +change even in the provinces since the influence that comes forth from +these silent traces of past thought were in harmony with it. What +interests me more than anything else here is an allegorical or +mystical map, designed, drawn, and coloured with all the patience and +much of the artistic skill of an illuminating monk of the thirteenth +century. I doubt if in any presbytery far out in the marshes or on the +mountains a priest could now be found with the motive to undertake +such a task. It belongs to the same order of ideas as the 'Pilgrim's +Progress.' In this map one sees the 'States of Charity,' the 'Province +of Fervour,' the 'Empire of Self-Contempt,' and other countries +belonging to a vast continent, of which the centre is the 'Kingdom of +the Love of God,' connected to a smaller continent--that of the +world--by a narrow neck of land called the 'Isthmus of Charity.' In +the continent of the world are shown the 'Mountain of Ingratitude,' +the 'Hills of Frivolity,' the territory of 'Ennui,' of 'Vanity,' of +'Melancholy,' and of all the evil moods and vices to which men are +liable. Separated from the mainland, and washed by the 'Torrent of +Bitterness,' are the 'Rocks of Remorse.' Among the allegorical emblems +in various parts of the chart is a very remarkable tree with blue +trunk and rose-coloured leaves called the 'Tree of Illusions.' Far +above it lies the 'Peninsula of Perfection,' and near to this, under a +mediaeval drum-tower, is the gateway of the 'City of Happiness.' + +There is a little garden at the back of the house, where flowers and +vegetables are mixed up in the way I like. The jessamine has become a +thicket. Vines ramble over the trellis and the old wall, and from the +window I see many other vines showing their lustrous leaves against +tiled roofs of every shade, from bright-red to black. In the next +garden is my friend the _aumônier_, an octogenarian priest, who is +still nearly as sprightly of body as he is of mind. He lives alone, +surrounded by books, in the collection of which he has shown the broad +judgment, and impartiality of the genuine lover of literature. There +is a delicious disorder in his den, because there is no one to +interfere with him. He is now much excited against the birds because +they will not leave his figs alone, and someone has just lent him a +blunderbuss wherewith to slay them. Perhaps he will show them the +deadly weapon, and hope that they will take the hint; but there is too +much kindness underneath his wrath for him to be capable of murdering +even a thievish sparrow. He likes to make others believe, however, +that he is desperately in earnest. His keen sense of the comic and the +grotesque in human nature makes him one of the raciest of +story-tellers; but although he does not put his tongue in traces, he +is none the less a worthy priest. There are many such as he in +France--men who are really devout, but never sanctimonious, whose +candour is a cause of constant astonishment, who are good-natured to +excess, and who are more open-hearted than many children. Their +friendship goes out readily to meet the stranger, and, speaking from +my own experience, I can say that it wears well. In the street, on the +other side of the house, six women have perched themselves in a row. +They have come out to talk and enjoy the coolness of the evening, and, +in order that their tender consciences may not prick them for being +idle, they are paring potatoes, and getting ready other vegetables for +the morrow. They all scream together in Languedocian, which, +by-the-bye, is anything but melodious here when spoken by the common +people. It becomes much less twangy and harsh a little farther South. +How these six charmers on chairs can all listen and talk at the same +time is not easy to understand. The truth is, very little listening is +done in this part of the world. The saying _On se grise en parlant_ is +quite applicable here. People often get drunk on nothing stronger than +the flow of their own words. + +All the women being now on their way to the land of dreams, and +consequently quiet for a few hours, and all the sounds of the earth +being hushed save the song of the crickets among the vine-leaves, and +in the fruit-trees of the moonlit garden, I will try to see Figeac up +the vista of the ages, and if I succeed, perhaps the reader may be +helped at the same time to gather interest in this queer old place, +whose name, having been made familiar to the English who followed +Henry II to France in the twelfth century, is perhaps a reason why +their descendants will not 'skip' at first sight these few pages of +local history. + +The early history of Figeac, or what has long passed as such, is based +upon an ingenious stratification of fraud, arising out of a very old +quarrel between the monks of Figeac and the monks of Conques, and the +determination of the former to prove at all costs that their monastery +was the more ancient of the two. This would be a matter of +indifference to me had I not been myself entrapped by the snares laid +by certain abbots of Figeac for their contemporaries and posterity, +and been obliged to throw away much that I had written, and which was +far more interesting than the truth. If I had only suspected the +fraud, I might have been tempted to keep suspicion down in order to +spare the picture of the Carlovingian age which I had elaborated; but +it is known at the École des Chartres, and the Abbé B. Massabie of +Figeac has, moreover, written a book that removes all doubt as to the +spuriousness of the charters upon which the abbots of Figeac, when +their jealousy of Conques reached its climax in the eleventh century, +based their pretensions to priority. The most important of these +charters, and the one that has sent various local historians on a +voyage into the airy realms of fiction, is attributed to Pepin le +Bref, and bears the date 755. Another is a Bull attributed to Pope +Stephanus II., also dated 755, in which is described the ceremony of +consecrating the church of St. Sauveur, attached to the abbey, which +in the first-mentioned document Pepin is said to have founded. Here it +is related that when the Pontiff approached the church strains of +mysterious music were heard issuing from the edifice, and such a cloud +stood before it that the procession waited for hours before entering. +Then, when the Pope walked up to the altar-stone, he found that it had +been miraculously consecrated, crosses being marked upon it in oil +still wet. Now, the charter attributed to Pepin contains many passages +copied verbatim from one preserved at Rodez, and signed by Pippinus, +or Pepin I., King of Aquitaine. Its date is 838, and it enriches the +monastery of Conques, already existing, with certain lands at Fiacus +(Figeac), which is thenceforward to be called New Conques; the motive +of this gift being to extend to the monks those material advantages +which a rich valley is able to afford, but which are not to be found +in a stony gorge surrounded by barren hills. There would have been +less scandal to Christianity if Pepin had put a curb on his pious +generosity, and had left the monks of Conques to contend with the +desert. The charter, moreover, sanctions the building of a monastery +at Figeac, which is to remain under the rule and governance of the +abbots of Conques. In the eleventh century, the discord between the +two monasteries had reached such a pass that popes and councils were +appealed to to settle the question of priority. In 1096 the Council of +Nîmes laid down a _modus vivendi_ without pronouncing upon the +principle. It was decreed that the abbots of Figeac should thenceforth +be independent of the abbots of Conques. + +The monks of Conques appear to have followed originally the rule of +St. Martin, and to have adopted that of St. Benedict soon after its +introduction into France. The abbey of Figeac was therefore always +Benedictine. About the year 900 the monks began to cultivate learning, +their labour having previously been devoted almost exclusively to the +soil. A certain Abbot Adhelard set them to copy manuscripts, and in +course of time Figeac possessed a valuable library, of which the +religious wars of the sixteenth century and the Revolution have left +very few traces. + +The first half of the eleventh century was full of turmoil, trouble, +and torment. The 'blood-rain' that fell all over Aquitaine, and which +made people watch in terror for what might come next, was followed by +a three years' famine, which drove men in their hunger to prey upon +one another. The inns were man-traps; solitary travellers who ventured +inside of them were killed and devoured. Those were not good wayfaring +days. A man actually offered human flesh for sale in the market of +Tournus; but he was burnt alive. During this frightful period, the +Abbot of Figeac distinguished himself by his charity, and, in order to +find work for the unemployed, built a wall round the burg; but the +monastery was much impoverished in consequence. + +Towards the close of the eleventh century four slender +obelisks--called 'needles' in the country--were set up on the hills +around Figeac apparently to mark the boundaries of the _sauveté_; for +the abbey enjoyed the right of sanctuary. Two of these needles still +exist. According to an absurd story, which has been repeated by +various writers, misled by the forgeries already mentioned, the monks, +when they came to this part of the valley of the Célé, found it an +uninhabited wilderness without a name, and somebody exclaimed, 'Fige +acus!' ('Set up needles!'), when the question of marking the boundary +was being discussed. This ingenious explanation of the word Figeac +will not bear examination. + +Every traveller in Aquitaine must have been struck by the remarkable +number of places there whose names end in _ac_. It is commonly +supposed that the termination is derived from _aqua_, and refers to +the river or stream near which the town or village was built. + +_Ac_, however, does not at all correspond to the well-known +corruptions of _aquae_ still found in the names of places in France +where the Romans constructed baths. We are on much surer ground in +assuming it to be of Celtic origin, and to have belonged in a special +manner to the dialect spoken by the Cadurci, Ruteni and other Southern +tribes. It nevertheless occurs at Carnac--that spot of Brittany where +is to be seen the most remarkable of all monuments, commonly +attributed to the Celts. The word probably meant town. It is +unreasonable to suppose that the monks found the valley of the Célé a +desert, considering how densely populated was the whole of this part +of Gaul at the time of Caesar's invasion. So inhabited was it that the +surplus population spread all over the known world, just as the +English do to-day. The popular notion with regard to the needles is +that they were intended to carry lanterns to guide the pilgrims by +night either to Figeac or to Roc-Amadour. Such lanterns were set up in +Aquitaine, and some examples may still be seen; but they are very +different in character from these obelisks, which in all probability +were used to mark the boundary of the _salvamentum_. It is true that +in the Middle Ages the right of asylum was, as a rule, confined to the +sanctuary itself or its immediate precincts; but there were +exceptions, especially in the South of France, where this sacred zone, +which in the Romance language was termed the _sauvetat_, often +extended a considerable distance beyond the walls of a monastic town. +Within these bounds persons fleeing from pursuers had the right of +asylum; but, on the other hand, there are documents to show that those +who committed crimes inside the limit were held guilty of sacrilege. + +Early in the Middle Ages the town of Figeac enjoyed the privileges of +a royal borough under the protection of the kings of France, who in +course of time came to be represented there by their _viguier_ +(vicar). The civic administration was in the hands of consuls as early +as the year 1001. They rendered justice and even passed sentence of +death. The burghers were exempt from all taxation and servitude. The +municipality had the right of coining money for the king, and the +ruined mint can still be seen. Such was the state of things down to +the time when the English appeared in the country. Henry II., having +taken Cahors in 1154, left his chancellor, Becket, there as governor. +The Figeacois, who at first looked upon Becket as an enemy, after he +was murdered at Canterbury, and when the fame of his saintliness began +to spread through France, dedicated a church to him. This edifice has +disappeared; but the part of the town where it was situated, or where, +to speak more correctly, it was afterwards rebuilt, is still called +the Quartier St. Thomas. So little were the English loved, however, as +a nation by the Quercynois, that, after St. Louis had been canonized, +they refused to observe his festival, because they found it impossible +to forgive him for having, by the treaty of Abbeville, passed them +over to England without their consent. + +Figeac was less troubled than some other towns in the Quercy by the +English, because in different treaties the kings of France managed to +keep a grip upon it as a royal borough. + +The gates of the town were, however, thrown open to the English +without a struggle about the middle of the fourteenth century, and to +punish the consuls, when they again became French, King John took away +their right to coin money; but the privilege was restored in +consideration of the ardour they had shown in freeing themselves from +the British yoke. + +The victory of the Black Prince at Poitiers, followed by the treaty of +Brétigny, made the King of England absolute master of the Quercy. The +Prince of Wales came in person to take possession of Cahors in 1364, +and despatched his seneschal, Thomas de Walkaffara, to Figeac to +receive from the inhabitants the oath of fealty. They swore obedience, +but with much soreness of soul. They afterwards got released from +their oath by the Pope, and joined a fresh league formed against the +English. After enjoying the sweets of French nationality again for a +brief period, they were made English once more by the treaty of +Troyes. But the British domination in Guyenne was now approaching its +close. The maid of Domrémy was about to change her distaff for an +oriflamme. The year 1453 saw the English power completely broken in +Aquitaine; a collapse which an old rhymer records with more relish +than inspiration: + + 'Par Charles Septième à grande peine + Furent chassés en durs détroits + Les Anglais de toute Aquitaine, + Mil quatre cent cinquante trois.' + +Figeac escaped the horrors which were spread through the South of +France by the religious wars of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; +but it was not similarly spared by those of the sixteenth century. The +Huguenots laid siege to the town in 1576, and entered it by the +treasonable help of a woman--the wife of one of the consuls. There was +the usual massacre that followed victory, whether on the side of +Protestants or Catholics, and the people became Calvinists for the +same reason that they had centuries before become English. In less +than fifty years afterwards they were all Catholics again. During this +unsettled period, however, there was great domestic dissension in the +town, owing to the circumstance that many women belonging to the old +Catholic stock had married Protestants who had come into the place. As +they could not agree with their husbands, and as many of these refused +to be converted for their sake (they may have been thankful for an +opportunity of getting rid of them), a refuge called 'L'hospice des +mal-mariées' was built for the unhappy wives. When the need for this +very singular institution no longer existed it was pulled down. + +The Church of St. Sauveur, as we see it to-day, is disappointing. It +has been so much rebuilt after different convulsions, and pulled about +when there has been less excuse, that many a church in an obscure +village gives more pleasure as a whole to the eye that seeks unity of +design and inspiration in a work of art. Nevertheless, there are +details here that no archaeologist will despise. In the nave are the +piers and Romanesque capitals of an early, but not the earliest, +church on the spot. They are certainly not later than the twelfth +century. Baptismal fonts, now used as holy-water stoups, are probably +of anterior workmanship. Cut out of solid blocks of stone, their +carving shows all the interlacing lines and exquisite finish of +detail, purely ornamental, that marks the pre-Gothic period in the +South of France, when the artistic spirit of Christianity was still +confined to the close imitation of Roman and Byzantine art. + +The Church of Notre Dame du Puy, built upon a height, as the word +_puy_ implies, is likewise interesting only in respect of details, +such as the sculptured archivolts of the portal and the +fourteenth-century rose-window. It, however, contains a very +remarkable example of sixteenth-century wood-carving in its massive +and elaborate reredos, a portion of which, having been destroyed by +fire, has been repaired with plaster, but so skilfully that it is very +difficult to perceive where the artistic fraud begins and where it +ends. + +The extraordinary interest of Figeac to the archaeologist lies, +however, in its civic and domestic architecture. This has been +preserved simply because the inhabitants have for centuries played no +part in the political history of the country, and their pursuits or +interests having remained constantly agricultural, they have been +equally cut off from the commercial movement. But every year will +diminish the charm of this dirty old town to the antiquary. It will be +observed that all the old streets are not accidentally crooked, but +that they have been carefully laid out on curved or zigzag lines, +which turn now in one direction and now in another. The motive was a +defensive one in view of street-fighting, which was often so terrible +and so prolonged in the Middle Ages. Each curve of a street formed an +obstacle to the onward rush of an enemy, and only allowed those +burghers who were actually engaged to be exposed to arrows and bolts. +The townsmen could dispute the ground inch by inch and for days, as +they did at Cahors when they were surprised by Henry of Navarre, +although firearms had then come into use. + +Wine-growing, until some eight or ten years ago, was the chief source +of revenue to the people of Figeac, as well as to those in the +neighbouring valley of the Lot. Middle-aged people here can recollect +the days when wine was so cheap that the inn-keepers did not take the +trouble to measure it out to their customers, but charged them a +uniform price of two sous for stopping and drinking as much as they +pleased. But all this has been changed by the phylloxera. From being +exceptionally prosperous, the people of the district have become poor. +Very few have now any money to lay out in replanting their vineyards. +Land has so fallen in value that it can be bought at a price that +seems scarcely credible. With £100 one might become the proprietor of +a large vineyard. Higher up the hills, where the chestnut and juniper +thrive, half the money would buy quite a considerable estate. Here and +elsewhere in France thousands of acres lie uncultivated and +unproductive, except as regards that which nature unaided renders to +man. Not all, but a very large portion, of this waste-land would well +repay cultivation if the capital needed for clearing and working it +were obtainable. That the lands suitable for wine-growing could be +rendered remunerative is absolutely certain if those who undertook the +task had the money necessary for the first outlay of planting and +could afford to wait for the return. + +The valley of the Celé between Figeac and the junction of the little +river with the Lot contains some of the most picturesque scenery to be +found in the Quercy. About ten miles below Figeac it becomes a gorge, +which until past the middle of the present century was almost cut off +from communication with neighbouring towns. All the carrying was done +on the backs of mules and donkeys; but since the road was made along +the right bank of the Célé, these animals have been used less and +less. It is no uncommon thing, however, to see now a heavily-laden +pack-mule coming up the valley to the Figeac fair. It was in their +rock-fortresses by the Celé that the English companies in Guyenne are +said to have made their final resistance. The long and sustained +efforts which were needed to dislodge them from their almost +inaccessible fastnesses will be understood by anyone who may go +wayfaring like myself along the banks of this tributary of the Lot. + +For the first two hours the walk was unexciting, for the valley was +too wide and too cultivated to give much pleasure to the eye that +looks for character in nature. At the village of Corn there was a +decided change. Here lofty honeycombed rocks rose behind the houses +that were built not very far above the stream, whose swiftness is +supposed to have been the origin of its name. Not one of the several +caverns extends far into the cliff. Their chief interest lies in the +traditions with which they are associated. In one of them the +inhabitants of the little burg are said to have assembled in the +Middle Ages to elect their consuls freely, and to escape possible +annoyance from their lord, whose castle was on the opposite hill. +Another, still called the Citadel, was that in which they took refuge +from the enemy, especially from the roving bands of armed men who made +common cause with England. In 1380 Bertrand de Bassoran, captain of an +English company, captured Corn, and using this place as his _point +d'appui_, he placed garrisons in the neighbouring burgs of Brengues, +Sauliac, and Cabrerets. He also compelled the consuls of Cajarc to +treat with him. + +After a hasty meal in a little inn where I had to be satisfied mainly +with good intentions, I called upon the schoolmaster. The poor man was +spending most of his dinner-hour on the threshold of his small +school-house amidst the rocks because some unruly or idle urchins were +'kept in.' How much pleasanter, I thought, it would have been for him +to have produced in their case a wholesome cutaneous irritation, and +set himself, as well as the young reprobates, free! But the French law +does not tolerate the corporal punishment of children nowadays, +although the exasperated pedagogue cannot always resist the temptation +of applying his ruler upon a bunch of grimy little knuckles. This +schoolmaster, although he was past the age of fifty and had grown +corpulent, was still tied fast to the village schoolroom that was much +too small to hold thirty children comfortably. By the aid of reading, +writing, and arithmetic, he had got into a little creek where he was +safe from the stormy seas of life, and he had never allowed his +ambition to draw him out into the ocean. Nevertheless, he nursed and +rocked his little vanity like the rest of mortals. He had written what +he termed a 'Monograph of Corn.' He brought out from his desk a +copybook wherein he had set it all down with the utmost attention to +upstrokes and downstrokes and punctuation. It was a pleasure to him to +find somebody to whom he could read what he had written, and he had in +me an attentive listener. + +Wandering on by the winding Célé, the charm of the little river made +me sit down upon a bank to look at the pictures that were painted on +the water by the sunshine, the clouds, and the poplars. Then, +continuing my journey, I saw on the opposite side of the stream a +cluster of houses with an ancient church in their midst, and almost +detached from this church, and yet a part of it, a tower like a +campanile capped by a wooden belfry with pointed roof and far-reaching +eaves. A bridge led across the water. I found the village to be Sainte +Eulalie d'Espagnac. Here there existed from the early Middle Ages a +celebrated convent for women of the order of St. Augustine. The +founder, Aymeric d'Hébrard, was the Bishop of a see in Spain, and he +brought thence Moorish slaves to cultivate the land with which he had +endowed his community of a hundred nuns. Down to the Revolution most +of the daughters of the nobility in the Quercy were educated here. +Little is now left of the conventual building; but the church contains +architectural details of much interest, and the tombs of those +irreconcilable enemies of the English, Bertrand de Cardaillac, Bishop +of Cahors, and the Marquis de Cardaillac--the most famous warrior of +this bellicose and illustrious family. + +Having reached the village of Brengues, I went immediately in search +of the English rock-fortress of which I had already heard. A path led +me up the steep hillside to the foot of a long line of high rocks of +yellowish limestone, so escarped and so forbidding to vegetable life +that I did not see even a wild fig-tree hanging from a crevice. A path +ran along at the base of this prodigious wall, from the top of which +stretched the arid _causse_. I had only gone a little way when I saw +before me a fortified Gothic gateway jutting out from the rock to +which it was attached, and extending across the path to where the hill +became so steep as to sufficiently protect from assault on that side +those who had a motive for defending the ledge under the high cliff. I +examined this old piece of masonry with much curiosity. + +The pointed form of the arch disposes of the hypothesis which has been +put forward without much reflection, that this legacy of the old wars +in Guyenne is part of the defences raised in the country by the +unfortunate Waifré, Duke of Aquitaine, when he was being chased from +rock to rock by his relentless enemy. Here we have work that is +evidently not anterior to the English occupation, and which in all +probability belongs to the fourteenth or the early part of the +fifteenth century. Now, as Brengues was undoubtedly one of those +places where the English companies firmly established themselves, and +to which they clung with great tenacity, there is very small risk of +error is coming to the conclusion that it was they who built this +fortified gateway. The masonry, composed of carefully-shaped stones, +and laid together with an excellent mortar that has become as durable +as the rock itself, has been wonderfully preserved. Had it been placed +in the valley it would have been pulled down long ago, and the +materials would have been used for building houses or pigsties. The +upper part of the wall is dilapidated, so that it is impossible to say +whether it was originally embattled or not. There is no staircase, but +the defenders had doubtless a suspended plank or beam on which they +stood when they wished to shoot arrows or bolts over the top of the +wall. On the side nearest the rock is a splayed opening ending +outwardly in a crosslet large enough for three or four men to use at +the same time. + +This gateway was only an outwork to defend the ledge of rock. About +two hundred yards farther is a cavern some twenty or thirty feet above +the path, and only accessible by means of a ladder. It has been walled +up, openings being left here and there for loopholes. Near the top is +a row of three windows without arches, and at the base an opening that +served for a door, and which could easily be closed up. Although the +stones were shaped for building, they were laid together without +mortar; but the wall is so thick, and so protected by its position, +that this rough fortification has remained almost unchanged from the +date of its construction. It is a much less finished piece of work +than the gateway, but there are other rock-fortresses in the district, +attributed by general consent to the English, so similar to it in +character that there is no reason for doubting that the companies +built this one also. It is probable, however, that the gateway already +mentioned, and the one that corresponded to it on the other side of +the cavern, but of which few vestiges can now be seen, were +constructed subsequently, when the science of fortification was better +understood by the _routiers_. Such a fortress could never have been +used in a military sense by a large number of men, but to a band of +brigands and cut-throats it was a stronghold of the first order. As +they doubtless laid up in their cavern a large store of the provisions +which they obtained by their continual forays in the surrounding +region, they were capable of withstanding a long siege even against an +enemy many times as numerous as themselves, for the reason that only a +few men could attack them at the same time, and the defenders had an +enormous advantage in the struggle. It is a very general belief in the +district that there was formerly a passage by which this cavern +communicated with the _causse_; no trace of it, however, has been +discovered. + +M. Delpon, author of a work published in 1831, and entitled +'Statistique du Département du Lot,' mentions these fortified caverns +of the Quercy in the following passage, which gives a vivid picture of +the kind of life that the English companies led and made others lead +in the fourteenth century: + +'They (the English) possessed in the Quercy the forts of Roc-Amadour, +Castelnau, Verdale, Vayrac, Lagarennie, Sabadel, Anglars, Frayssinet, +Boussac and Assier, and some other castles on escarped hills from +which it was difficult to expel them. They also seized upon caverns +formed by nature in the flanks of precipitous rocks, and fortified +them with walls in which all the character of English structures can +still be recognised. The garrisons that occupied these places +represented six thousand lances distributed over the Quercy, the +Rouergue, and High Auvergne. When they sallied forth, the earth, to +use an expression of one or their chiefs, Emérigot, surnamed Black +Head, trembled under their feet.[*] They robbed travellers, made +citizens prisoners--especially ecclesiastics--in order to extort +exorbitant ransoms, they took from the peasants their beasts and their +crops, and forced them to work in strengthening the dens of their +spoliators with new fortifications. In fine, the Quercy was +continually devastated, and the inhabitants only tilled the earth to +satisfy the avidity of the English companies. The population could +shield themselves from their violence only by concealing themselves in +subterranean retreats, where traces of their sojourn are still +observable. The English were continually recruited by all the depraved +men of the provinces which they laid under contribution.' + + [*] The entire passage from which these words are taken is to be + found in Froissart's chronicles, and it runs as follows, the + spelling being modernized: 'Que nous étions rejouis quand nous + chevaussions à l'aventure et que nous pouvions trouver sur le + champ un riche prieur ou marchand ou des mulets de Montpellier, + de Narbonne, de Carcassone, de Limoux, de Béziers, de Toulouse, + chargés de draps, de brunelles, de pelleterie, venant de la foire + de Landit, d'épiceries venant de Bruges, de draps de soie, de + Damas ou d'Alexandrie. Les vilains nous pourvoyaient et + apportaient dans nos châteaux le blé, la farine, le pain tout + cuit, l'avoine pour les chevaux, le bon vin, les boeufs, les + brébis, les moutons tous gras, la poulaille et la volataille. + Nous étions servis, gouvernés et étoffés comme rois et princes, + et quand nous chevaussions le pays tremblait devant nous.' + +This last remark is only too well justified by the evidence which +those centuries have handed down. Indeed, to such an extent were these +companies composed of Aquitanians, that one may well ask if some of +them contained a single genuine Englishman. I have found no record in +the Quercy of the captain of a company of _routiers_ having borne an +Anglo-Saxon name. Two English captains who took Figeac by surprise (a +document relating to this event, written in Latin of the fourteenth +century, is to be found in the municipal archives) were named Bertrand +de Lebret and Bertrand de Lasale. Those who captured Martel had names +equally French. There is, of course, the hypothesis that these leaders +were Anglicised Normans, but the stronger probability is that they +were native adventurers of Aquitaine who found it to their interest to +place themselves under the protection of the King of England. + +Towards the close of the fourteenth century, all those who wished to +drive the English out of Guyenne rallied round the chiefs of the house +of Armagnac. This great family of the Rouergue, which was ultimately +absorbed by the Royal House of France and became extinct, at one time +espoused the British cause; but it contributed more than any other to +the final dispersion of the English companies in Guyenne. In 1381 the +people of the Gévaudan, the Quercy, and High Auvergne, solicited the +help of the Count of Armagnac against the companies, and he accepted +the leadership of the coalition. He convened a meeting of delegates at +Rodez, to which the English chiefs were invited, and the decision that +was then come to did not say much for the sagacity or the valour of +those who represented the majority. It was agreed that the sum of +250,000 francs--equivalent to about £200,000 to-day--should be paid to +the English on condition of their surrendering the fortresses which +they occupied. This fact goes far to prove that the companies were +virtually independent, and that although all their outrages were +ostensibly committed in the British name, they were freebooters in the +fullest sense of the word. Of the sum that was to be paid to them, the +clergy were to contribute 25,000 francs, the nobles 16,660. The +inhabitants of the Quercy agreed to pay 50,833 francs. The captains of +the companies took oath that on receiving the money they would quit +Guyenne for ever. They may have kept their oath, but their followers +were not to be induced to change their habits so easily. The +_routiers_, still going by the name of the English companies, +continued to hold the least accessible places in Guyenne, fortified in +the main by nature, until long after the British sovereigns had +abandoned their ambitious designs in France. + +In the fifteenth century so many of the inhabitants of the Quercy had +been killed or ruined by the companies that some districts were almost +depopulated. In the town of Gramat there were only seven inhabitants +left at the close of the Hundred Years' War. In order that the lands +should not remain uncultivated, the nobles enfeoffed them to strangers +from the Rouergue and other neighbouring provinces. This circumstance +is supposed to account in a large measure for the differences in +dialect which are to be observed in adjoining communes. There is no +evidence to-day, so far as I have been able to ascertain, of English +words having been introduced into the Languedocian of Guyenne. The +striking resemblance of many _patois_ words to those of the English +language bearing the same meaning--a resemblance that is helped by the +Southern pronunciation of vowels and diphthongs--must be referred to +linguistic influences far more remote and obscure than the political +fact that Guyenne was intimately connected with English history for +three hundred years. For example, that familiar animal the cat is +called in Guyenne _lou catou_ and even _lou cat_; but the word belongs +to the Romance language, and is the same all through Languedoc and +Provence. The fact that the English left no mark upon the language in +Guyenne is almost a conclusive proof that such of the Anglo-Saxon +stock as followed the Norman leaders into Aquitaine, and who remained +in the country any length of time, were not sufficiently numerous to +impose their idiom upon others. They probably did not preserve it long +themselves; but, like the English grooms who find occupation in France +today, they quickly adopted the language that was generally spoken +around them. Patient investigation might, nevertheless, show that the +English did leave some of their words, as well as their blood, in the +country. It would, indeed, be astonishing if this were not so. Even +the Greek colony at Marseilles and Aries, although far removed, must +have influenced the dialect of Guyenne; for the peasants of the Quercy +use the word _hermal_ to describe a piece of waste land bordering a +cultivated field, the origin of which expression was, doubtless, +Hermes, the god of boundaries. This is not the only Greek word that +has been corrupted, but nevertheless preserved, in the Quercy +_patois_. + +Wherever the English were long established in their fastnesses amidst +the rocks which form the rugged sides of the deep-cut gorges of the +Quercy, many of the inhabitants have clung, century after century, to +the belief that the terrible freebooters buried a prodigious amount of +treasure with the intention of returning and fetching it on the first +opportunity. So persistently was this tradition handed down at +Brengues that many years ago a cavern, the entrance of which had been +covered over with stones and earth, having been accidentally +discovered on the plateau just above the Château des Anglais, it was +eagerly explored, as well as a similar cavern close by. The excitement +was increased by the circumstance that the discovery of these openings +appeared to coincide with the indications of a local witch. It was +evident that the caverns had at one time been used by men, for they +contained masonry put together with mortar. By dint of excavating, +hidden galleries were revealed; but although a human skeleton was +discovered, no treasure was found. The explorers, however, came upon a +vast collection of bones of extinct animals, and of others which, +although they are now to be found both in the Arctic and in the +tropical regions, have not existed in a state of nature in France +during the historic period. The bones of the reindeer, for instance, +were found lying with those of the hyena and the rhinoceros, many of +them embedded in the calcareous breccia so frequently seen in the +valley of the Célé. Here was evidence of a glacial and a torrid +period, separated by an aeonic gulf; but how the remains came to be +piled one upon another in this way is a secret of the ancient earth. +There are prodigious layers of these bones lying at a great depth in +the rock, where there is no cavern to suggest that the animals entered +by it, or that they were taken there by man. The beds of phosphate +which English enterprise has turned to so good an account in this part +of France, and which are followed in the earth just like a seam of +coal or a vein of metal, are merely layers of bones. While I was at +Brengues, the skeleton of a young rhinoceros was discovered in the +phosphate mine at Cajarc. + +On the hill above the Célé, on the side opposite to that where the +Château des Anglais is to be seen, are the remains of an entrenched +camp, upon the origin of which it is almost idle to speculate. In the +same neighbourhood is a cavern situated high up in the face of a +perpendicular rock. It is inaccessible by ordinary means; but a beam +fixed at the entrance, and worn into a deep groove by a rope, shows +that it was used as a refuge. A tradition says that Waifré hid himself +there. + +I passed the night at Brengues, and was awakened in the early morning +by the jingle of bells just beneath my window, and a man's voice +repeating, 'Tè, Tè, Tè!' A couple of bullocks were being yoked, and +presently they followed the man towards the fields of tobacco and +maize by the little river, already shining in the sun. Very soon +afterwards I, too, had begun my day's work. + +In a little more than an hour I was at the next village--St. Sulpice. +Here above the houses, huddled together like sheep on the lower steep +of the right-hand hill, were the ruins of a castle, hanging to the +rock that dwarfed it even in the days of its pride. I climbed to it, +and found that it was built on terraces one above the other, formed by +the rocky shelves. A considerable portion of the strong wall at the +base of the structure remains, and on each terrace there is something +left of the feudal fortress. Ivy, with gnarled and fantastic stocks, +has so overspread the masonry in places that hardly a gray stone shows +through the dense matting of sombre leaves and hoary, wrinkled stems. +Multitudes of bats cling to the ruinous vaulting where the light is +very dim, and lurk in the hollows of the rock. A stone thrown up will +bring them fluttering down and whirling about the head of the +intruder, noiselessly as if they were the ghosts that haunt the spot, +but dare not reveal to the eye of man the human shape that they once +wore. This castle belonged, and still belongs, to the D'Hébrard +family, which was connected by marriage with the Cardaillacs and most +of the ancient aristocracy of the Quercy. + +Leaving St. Sulpice, another hour's walk down the valley brought me to +Marcillac, which, after Figeac, was the most important place on the +Célé in the Middle Ages. It is now, however, a mere village. According +to local historians, it was here that Palladius, Bishop of Bourges, +retired in the fifth century to escape from the persecution of the +Arians. Nothing, however, that has been written of its history, prior +to the ninth or tenth century, can be accepted with any confidence. +What can be safely affirmed is, that here, between the rocky cliffs +that border the Célé, arose one of the earliest of the Benedictine +abbeys in France. The ruined cloisters of the monastery have all the +severe charm of the simple Romanesque style of the early period, but +there is no means of knowing whether they date from the tenth, +eleventh, or twelfth century. There are several beautiful capitals +elaborately embellished with intersecting line ornament still +preserved, although no value whatever is placed upon them by the +inhabitants. The cloisters are used for stables, and other common farm +purposes. + +The abbey church must have fallen into complete ruin, when a portion +of it was restored and rebuilt in the fifteenth century. Then about +half the nave--the western end--was cut off, and left open to the +weather. It is roofless, and the visitor walking, now in deep shadow, +now in brilliant light, as the fragments of masonry may hide or reveal +the sun, sees the blue sky through the arches and over the tops of the +ivy-covered walls. This part of the old church shows the transition +between the Romanesque and the Gothic styles. + +It would have been a slight upon Marcillac had I left the place +without seeing the most famous of its caverns, which goes by the name +of the Grotte de Robinet. I might have looked for it in vain all day +had I not taken a guide. + +First, the _causse_ had to be reached by ascending the cliffs on the +right bank of the Célé. Then I saw before me the stony undulating +land, with the sad sentiment of which I had already grown so familiar. +An old woman, nearly doubled up with age and field labour, but who +plied her distaff as she led her black goats to browse upon the waste, +made me understand that the solitude was not altogether bereft of +human life. After walking a mile or so, we descended into a deep +hollow wooded with those dwarf oaks which, together with the juniper, +hid at one time most of the nakedness of these calcareous tracts that +stretch from gorge to gorge. One might have supposed that such a dale +would have had a spring at the bottom; but no: everywhere it was +parched, arid, and rocky. The rain that falls all around goes to swell +some deep subterranean stream that issues no one knows where. This +peculiarity of the formation explains why nearly all the _caussenards_ +have no water, either for themselves or their animals, except that +which they collect from the skies in tanks sunk in the earth. Since +the failure of the vines--which formerly flourished upon the _causses_ +wherever there was a favourable slope--the peasants have learnt to +make a mildly alcoholic liquor by gathering and fermenting the juniper +berries, which previously they had never put to any use. + +We had nearly ascended the opposite side of this wooded hollow, when +the guide, pointing through the sunlit trees to a very dark but narrow +opening in the rocks, said, 'There it is!' We had reached the cavern. +He went first, carrying aloft a wisp of burning straw, which he +renewed from time to time from the bundle that he carried under his +arm. + +The practice of burning straw, so that people may have a good flare-up +for their money, has, together with the selfish custom of throwing +stones at the stalactites, gone far to spoil all the caverns of this +region, which have been much visited. The Grotte de Robinet must have +been dazzlingly beautiful at one time, but now most of the stalagmite +and stalactite has been completely blackened by smoke. Even the rocks, +over which one has to climb, and sometimes crawl, are covered with a +sooty slime, which gives one the appearance, when daylight returns, of +having been smeared with lamp-black. I put on a blouse before +entering, and had great reason to be glad that I did so. In spite of +all the mischief that has been done to it, the Grotte de Robinet is a +very remarkable cavern, and the time spent on the somewhat arduous and +slippery task of exploring its depths is not wasted. Its length is +about half a mile, and the descent, which is almost continuous, is at +times very rapid. The passage connects a succession of vast and lofty +spaces, which are not inappropriately termed _salles_. In some of +these, the dropping water has raised from the floor of the cavern +statuesque and awful forms of colossal grandeur. Some of these have +been little changed by the smoke, but stand like white figures of +fantastic giants. While looking at them, I thought how little I should +like to be in the position of a certain _curé_ of Marcillac, who spent +three days and three nights in this weird company. He frequently +entered the cavern alone, with a scientific object, and his +familiarity with it led him to despise ordinary precautions. One day +he was far underground, with only a single candle in his possession, +and no matches. A drop of water from the roof put the candle out, and +all his efforts to return by the way he came were futile. Meanwhile, +his parishioners, hunting high and low for their _curé_, chanced to +see his _soutane_, where he had left it, hanging to a bush at the +entrance of the Grotte de Robinet, and when they rescued him, there +was very little left of his passion for studying nature underground. + +The most wonderful and the most beautiful object in the cavern is to +be seen in the vast hall, which is the last of the series. This hall +has a dome-shaped roof that rises to the height of about sixty feet, +and it is supported in the centre, with every appearance of an +architectural motive, by a single slender column that seems to have +been carved with consummate skill out of alabaster. No image that I +can think of conveys the picture of this exquisite stalagmite so +justly as that of a column formed of the blossoms of lilies, each cup +resting within another. + +Having left Marcillac, I passed under the mediaeval village of +Sauliac, built high up on a shelf of naked rock, and then reached +Cabrerets, which lies two or three miles above the junction of the +Célé and the Lot. The village is at the foot of towering limestone +cliffs, and many of the houses are built against the gray and yellow +stone. The most interesting structure, however, is the castellated one +that clings to the face of the rock far above all inhabited dwellings. +It goes by the name of the Château du Diable, and it is the most +considerable of all the rock-fortresses in the valleys of the Célé and +the Lot which are attributed to the English companies. It possesses +towers and embattlements, and it was evidently intended to defend the +defile from any force advancing from the wider valley. Here, +doubtless, many a desperate struggle occurred before the companies +were dispersed and English influence was finally overcome in these +wilds of the Quercy. At a little distance from it, the long iron of a +mediaeval arrow, having fastened its head in a cleft of the rock, +remained sticking there for centuries, and was only recently removed. +The Prefect of the Department took a fancy to it, and had not the good +judgment to leave it where it had so long been an object of curiosity. +There, resting in the place where the arm of the archer had cast it, +it told a story of the old wars, and set the imagination working; but +in a collection of local antiquities it is as dumb and almost as +worthless as any other piece of old iron. + + + + +IN THE ALBIGEOIS. + + +A long dull road or street, a statue of the navigator La Perouse, a +bandstand with a few trees about it, and plain, modern buildings +without character, some larger and more pretentious than others, but +all uninteresting. Is this Albi? No, but it is what appears to be so +to the stranger who enters the place from the railway-station. The +ugly sameness is what the improving spirit of our own times has done +to make the ancient town decent and fit to be inhabited by folk who +have seen something of the world north of Languedoc and who have +learnt to talk of _le comfortable_. The improvement is undoubted, but +so is the absolute lack of interest and charm; at least, to those who +are outside of the _persiennes_ so uniformly closed against the summer +sun. + +Albi, the veritable historic Albi, lies almost hidden upon a slope +that leads down to the Tarn. Here is the marvellous cathedral built in +the thirteenth century, after the long wars with the Albigenses; here +is the Archbishop's fortified palace, still capable of withstanding a +siege if there were no artillery; here are the old houses, one of +pre-Gothic construction with very broad Romanesque window, slender +columns and storied capitals, billet and arabesque mouldings; another +of the sixteenth century quite encrusted with carved wood; and here +are the dirty little streets like crooked lanes, where old women, who +all through the summer months, Sundays excepted, give their feet an +air-bath, may be seen sitting on the doorsteps clutching with one bony +hand the distaff and drowsily turning the spindle with the other. + +To live in one of these streets might disgust the unseasoned stranger +for ever with Southern life; but to roam through them in the early +twilight is the way to find the spirit of the past without searching. +Effort spoils the spell. Strange indeed must have been the procession +of races, parties and factions that passed along here between these +very houses, or others which stood before them. Romans, Romanised +Gauls, Visigoths, Saracens and English; the Raymonds with their +Albigenses, the Montforts with their Crusaders from the north, the +wild and sanguinary _pastoiureux_ and the lawless _routiers_, the +religious fanatics, Huguenots and Catholics of the sixteenth century, +and the revolutionists of the eighteenth. All passed on their way, and +the Tarn is no redder now for the torrents of blood that flowed into +it. + +Notwithstanding that the name Albigenses was given after the council +of Lombers to the new Manichaeans, Albi was less identified with the +great religious and political struggle of Southern Gaul in the twelfth +and thirteenth centuries than were Castres and other neighbouring +towns. If, however, it was comparatively fortunate as regards the +horrors of that ferocious war, it was severely scourged by the most +appalling epidemics of the Middle Ages. Leprosy and the pest had +terrors greater even than those of battle. The cruelty of those feudal +ages finds one of its innumerable records in the treatment of the +miserable lepers at Albi. Having taken the disease which the Crusaders +brought back from the East, they were favoured with a religious +ceremony distressingly similar to the office for the dead. A black +pall was thrown over them while they knelt at the altar steps. At the +close of the service a priest sprinkled some earth on the condemned +wretches, and then they were led to the leper-house, where each was +shut up in a cell from which he never came out alive. The black pall +and the sprinkled earth were symbols which every patient understood +but too well. + +[Illustration: PORCH OF THE CATHEDRAL OF ALBI.] + +In nothing is the stern spirit of those ages expressed more forcibly +than in the religious buildings of Languedoc. The cathedral of St. +Cecilia at Albi is the grandest of all the fortified churches of +Southern France, although in many others the defensive purpose has +made less concession to beauty. Looking at it for the first time, the +eye is wonder-struck by its originality, the nobleness of its design, +and the grandeur of its mass. The plan being that of a vast vaulted +basilica without aisles, the walls of the nave, rise sheer from the +ground to above the roof, and are pierced at intervals with lofty but +very narrow windows, the arches slightly pointed and containing simple +tracery. The buttresses which help the walls to support the vaulting +of the nave and choir are the most remarkable feature of the design, +and, together with the tower, which rises in diminishing stages to the +height of 260 feet and there ends in an embattled platform, account +for the singularly feudal and fortress-like character of the building. +The outline of the buttresses being that of a semi-ellipse, they look +like turrets carried up the entire face of the wall. The floor of the +church is many feet above the ground, and the entrance was originally +protected by a drawbridge and portcullis; but these military works +were removed in the sixteenth century, and in their place was raised, +upon a _perron_ reached by a double flight of steps, a baldachino-like +porch as airily graceful and delicately florid as the body to which it +is so lightly attached is majestically stern and scornful of ornament. +The meeting here of those two great forces, the Renaissance and +feudalism, is like that of Psyche and Mars. But in expression the +porch is Gothic, for although the arches are round-headed, they are +surmounted by an embroidery of foliated gables and soaring pinnacles. +It can scarcely be said that the style has been broken, but the +contrast in feeling is strong. + +Enter the church and observe the same contrast there. Gothic art +within the protecting walls and under the strong tower puts forth its +most delicate leaves and blossoms. Across the broad nave, nearly in +the centre, is drawn a rood-screen--a piece of stonework that has +often been compared to lace, but which gains nothing by the +comparison. The screen, together with the enclosure of the choir, with +which it is connected, is quite bewildering by the multiplicity of +arches, gables, tabernacles, pinnacles, statues, leaves, and flowers. +The tracery is flamboyant, and the work dates from the beginning of +the sixteenth century. The artificers are said to have been a company +of wandering masons from Strasburg. + +Two vast drum-shaped piers, serving to support the tower, are exposed +to view at the west end of the nave; but, for the bad effect thus +produced, compensation is offered by the very curious paintings, +supposed to be of the fifteenth century, with which the surfaces of +these piers are covered. They represent the Last Judgment and the +torments of the damned. Each of the seven capital sins has its +compartment, wherein the kind of punishment reserved for sinners under +this head is set forth in a manner as quaint as are the inscriptions +in old French beneath. The compartment, illustrating the eternal +trouble of the envious has this inscription: + + + '_La peine des envieux et envieuses_. Les envieus et envieuses sont + en ung fleuve congelé plongés jusques au nombril et par dessus les + frappe un vent moult froid et quant veulent icelluy vent éviter se + plongent dedans ladite glace.' + + +All the wall-surfaces, the vaulting included, are covered with +paintings. The effect clashes with Northern taste, but the absence of +a columnar system affords a plausible reason for relieving the +sameness of these large surfaces with colour. The Gothic style of the +North, holding in itself such decorative resources, gains nothing from +mural paintings, but always loses something of its true character when +they are added. Apart from such considerations, the wall-paintings in +the cathedral of Albi have accumulated such interest from time that no +reason would excuse their removal. + +This unique church was mainly built at the close of the thirteenth +century, together with the Archbishop's palace, with which it was +connected in a military sense by outworks. These have disappeared, but +the fortress called a palace remains, and is still occupied by the +Archbishop. It is a gloomy rectangular mass of brick, absolutely +devoid of elegance, but one of the most precious legacies of the +Middle Ages in France. It is not so vast as the papal palace at +Avignon, but its feudal and defensive character has been better +preserved, for, unlike the fortress by the Rhône, it has not been +adapted to the requirements of soldiers' barracks. At each of the +angles is a round tower, pierced with loopholes, and upon the +intervening walls are far-descending machicolations. The building is +still defended on the side of the Tarn by a wall of great height and +strength, the base of which is washed by the river in time of flood. +This rampart, with its row of semi-elliptical buttresses corresponding +to those of the church and its pepper-box tower at one end, the +fortress a little above, and the cathedral on still higher ground, but +in immediate neighbourhood, make up an assemblage of mediaeval +structures that seems as strange in this nineteenth century as some +old dream rising in the midst of day-thoughts. And the rapid Tarn, an +image of perpetual youth, rushes on as it ever did since the face of +Europe took its present form. + +As I write, other impressions come to mind of this ancient town on the +edge of the great plain of Languedoc. A little garden in the outskirts +became familiar to me by daily use, and I see it still with its almond +and pear trees, its trellised vines, the blue stars of its borage, and +the pure whiteness of its lilies. A bird seizes a noisy cicada from a +sunny leaf, and as it flies away the captive draws out one long scream +of despair. Then comes the golden evening, and its light stays long +upon the trailing vines, while the great lilies gleam whiter and their +breath floods the air with unearthly fragrance. A murmur from across +the plain is growing louder and louder as the trees lose their edges +in the dusk, for those noisy revellers of the midsummer night, the +jocund frogs, have roused themselves, and they welcome the darkness +with no less joy than the swallows some hours later will greet the +breaking dawn. + +I left Albi to ascend the valley of the Tarn in the last week of June. +I started when the sun was only a little above the plain; but the line +of white rocks towards the north, from which Albi is supposed to take +its name, had caught the rays and were already burning. The straight +road, bordered with plane-trees, on which I was walking would have had +no charm but for certain wayside flowers. There was a strange-looking +plant with large heart-shaped leaves and curved yellow blossoms ending +in a long upper lip that puzzled me much, and it was afterwards that I +found its name to be _aristolochia clematitis_. It grows abundantly on +the banks of the Tarn. Another plant that I now noticed for the first +time was a galium with crimson flowers. I soon came to the cornfields +for which the Albigeois plain is noted. Here the poppy showed its +scarlet in the midst of the stalks of wheat still green, and along the +borders were purple patches of that sun-loving campanula, Venus's +looking-glass. + +Countrywomen passed me with baskets on their heads, all going into +Albi to sell their vegetables. Those who were young wore white caps +with frills, which, when there is nothing on the head to keep them +down, rise and fall like the crest of a cockatoo; but the old women +were steadfast in their attachment to the bag-like, close-fitting cap, +crossed with bands of black velvet, and having a lace front that +covers most of the forehead. When upon this coif is placed a great +straw hat with drooping brim, we have all that remains now of an +Albigeois costume. As these women passed me, I looked into their +baskets. Some carried strawberries, some cherries, others mushrooms +(_boleti_), or broad beans. The last-named vegetable is much +cultivated throughout this region, where it is largely used for making +soup. When very young, the beans are frequently eaten raw with salt. +Almost every taste is a matter of education. + +The heat of the day had commenced when I reached the village of +Lescure. This place is of very ancient origin. Looking at it now, and +its agricultural population numbering little more than a thousand, it +is difficult to realize its importance in the Middle Ages. The castle +and the adjacent land were given in the year 1003 by King Robert to +his old preceptor, the learned Gerbert, who became known to posterity +as Pope Sylvester II. In the eleventh century, Lescure was, therefore, +a fief of the Holy See; and in the time of Simon de Montfort the +inhabitants were still vassals of the Pope. In the fourteenth century +they were frequently at war with the people of Albi, who eventually +got the upper hand. Then Sicard, the Baron of Lescure, was so +completely humiliated that he not only consented to pay eighty gold +_livres_ to the consuls of Albi, but went before them bareheaded to +ask pardon for himself and his vassals. Already the feudal system was +receiving hard blows in the South of France from the growth of the +communes and the authority vested in their consuls. What is left of +the feudal grandeur of Lescure? The castle was sold in the second year +of the Republic, and entirely demolished, with the exception of the +chapel, which is now the parish church. Of the outer fortifications +there remains a brick gateway, with Gothic arch carrying a high +machicolated tower, connected to which is a fragment of the wall. To +this old houses, half brick, half wood, still cling, like those little +wasps' nests that one sees sometimes upon the sides of the rocks. + +On entering the small fourteenth-century church, I found that it had +been decorated for a funeral. A broad band of black drapery, upon +which had been sewn at intervals Death's heads and tears, cut out of +white calico, was hung against the wall of the apse, and carried far +down each side of the nave. To me all those grinning white masks were +needless torture to the mourners; but here again we are brought to +recognise that taste is a matter of education. + +More interesting than anything else in this church is the Romanesque +holy-water stoup, with heads and crosses carved upon it, and possibly +belonging to the original chapel of the castle. The chief +archaeological treasure, however, of Lescure is a church on a little +hill above the village, and overlooking the Tarn. It is dedicated to +St. Michael, in accordance with the mediaeval custom of considering +the highest ground most appropriate to the veneration of the +archangel. It is Romanesque of the eleventh century, and belonged to a +priory of which no other trace is left. The building stands in the +midst of an abandoned cemetery; and at the time of my visit the tall +June grasses, the poppies and white campions hid every mound and +almost every wooden cross. Over the gateway, carved in the stone, is +the following quaint inscription, the spelling being similar to that +frequently used in the sixteenth century: + + 'Sur la terre autrefois nous fûmes comme vous. + Mortels pensés y bien et priés Dieu pour nous.' + +Beneath these lines are a skull and cross-bones, with a tear on each +side. + +Facing the forgotten graves, upon this spot removed from all +habitations, is the most beautiful Romanesque doorway of the +Albigeois. The round-headed arch widening outwards, its numerous +archivolts and mouldings, the slender columns of the deeply-recessed +jambs, the storied capitals with their rudely-proportioned but +expressive little figures, and the row of uncouth bracket-heads over +the crowning archivolt, represent the best art of the eleventh +century. They show that Romanesque architecture and sculpture had +already reached their perfect expression in Languedoc. The figures in +the capitals tell the story of Adam and Eve, Abraham and Isaac, and of +fiends busily engaged in tormenting mortals who must have been in +their clutches now eight hundred years. The nave has two aisles, and +massive piers with engaged columns support the transverse and lateral +arches. The columns have very large capitals, displaying human +figures, some of which are extraordinarily fantastic, and instinct +with a wild imagination still running riot in stone. How far are we +now from the minds that bred these thoughts when Southern Gaul was +struggling to develop a new Roman art by the aid of such traditions +and models as the Visigoth, the Frank, and the Arab had not destroyed +in the country, and such ideas as were brought along the Mediterranean +from Byzantium! + +Lastly, I came to the apse, that part of a Romanesque church in which +the artist seizes the purely religious ideal, or allows it to escape +him. Here was the serenity, here the quietude of the early Christian +purpose and hope. Perfect simplicity and perfect eloquence! Nothing +more is to be said, except that there were stone benches against the +wall and a piscina--details interesting to the archaeologist. Then I +walked round the little church, knee-deep in the long grave-grass, and +noted the broad pilaster-strips of the apse, the stone eaves +ornamented with billets, the bracket or corbel heads just beneath, +fantastic, enigmatic, and not two alike. + +Leaving this spot, where there was so much temptation to linger, I +began to cross a highly-cultivated plain towards the village of +Arthez, where the Tarn issues from the deep gorges which for many a +league give it all the character of a mountain-river. I thought from +the appearance of the land that everybody who lived upon it must be +prosperous and happy, but a peasant whom I met was of another way of +thinking. He said: + +'By working from three o'clock in the morning until dark, one can just +manage to earn one's bread.' + +They certainly do work exceedingly hard, these peasant-proprietors and +_métayers_, never counting their hours like the town workmen, but +wishing that the day were longer, and if they can contrive to save +anything in these days it is only by constant self-denial. A man's +labour upon his land to-day will only support him, taking the bad +years with the good, on the condition that he lives a life of +primitive simplicity. Even then the problem of existence is often a +terribly hard one to solve. In the South of France the blame is almost +everywhere laid to the destruction of the vines by the phylloxera, but +here in the plain of Albi the land is quite as suitable for corn as it +is for grape-growing, which is far from being the case elsewhere; +nevertheless, the peasants cry out with one voice against the bad +times. They have to contend with two great scourges: hail that is so +often brought by the thunder-storms in summer, and which the proximity +of the Pyrenees may account for; and the south-east wind--_le vent +d'autan_--that comes across from Africa, and scorches up the crops in +a most mysterious manner. But for this plague the yield of fruit would +be enormous. On the other hand, the region is blessed with lavish +sunshine from early spring until November, and a half-maritime +climate, explained by the neighbourhood of the ocean--not the +Mediterranean--renders long periods of drought such as occur in +Provence and Lower Languedoc rare. In the valleys the soil is +extremely fertile, and, favoured by moisture and warmth, its +productive power is extraordinary. Four crops of lucern are taken from +the same land in the course of a season. Unfortunately, these valleys +being mere gorges--cracks in the plain, with precipitous rocky +sides--the strip of land bordering the stream at the bottom is usually +very narrow. + +On reaching Arthez, the character of the country changed suddenly and +completely. Here the plain with its tertiary deposits ended, and in +its stead commenced the long series of schistous rocks wildly heaped +up and twisted out of their stratification, by which the Tarn is +hemmed in for seventy miles as the crow flies, and nearly twice that +distance if the windings of the gorge be reckoned. When the calcareous +region of the Gévaudan is reached, the schist, slate, and gneiss +disappear. On descending to the level of the river at Arthez, I saw +before me one of the grandest cascades in France--the Saut de Sabo. + +It is not so much the distance that the river falls in its rapid +succession of wild leaps towards the plain as the singularly chaotic +and savage scene of dark rocks and raging waters, together with the +length to which it is stretched out, that is so impressive. The mass +of water, the multitude of cascades, and the wild forms of the rocks, +compose a scene that would be truly sublime if one could behold it in +the midst of an unconquered solitude; but the hideous sooty buildings +of a vast iron foundry on one bank of the river are there to spoil the +charm. + +I stayed in the village of Arthez for food and rest, but not long +enough for the mid-day heat to pass. When I set forth again on my +journey, the air was like the breath of a furnace; but as the slopes +were well wooded with chestnuts, there was some shelter from the rays +of the sun. There were a few patches of vineyard, the leaves showing +the ugly stains of sulphate of copper with which they had been +splashed as a precaution against mildew, which in so many districts +has followed in the wake of the phylloxera, and hastened the +destruction of the old vines. The Albigeois has ceased to be a +wine-producing region, and, judging from present signs, it will be +long in becoming one again. + +The valley, deepening and narrowing, became a gorge, the beginning of +that long series of fissures in the metamorphic and secondary rocks +which, crossing an extensive tract of Languedoc and Guyenne, leads the +traveller up to the Cevennes Mountains, through scenery as wild and +beautiful as any that can be found in France, and perhaps in Europe. +But the difficulties of travelling by the Tarn from Arthez upwards are +great, and, indeed, quite forbidding to those who are not prepared to +endure petty hardships in their search for the picturesque. Between +Albi and St. Affrique, a distance that cannot be easily traversed on +foot in less than four days, railways are not to be thought of, and +the line of route taken by the _diligence_ leaves the Tarn far to the +north. In the valley the roads often dwindle away to mere paths or +mule-tracks, or they are so rocky that riding either upon or behind a +horse over such an uneven surface, with the prospect of being thrown +into the Tarn in the event of a slip, is unpleasant work. Those who +are unwilling to walk or unable to bear much fatigue should not +attempt to follow this river through its gorges. All the difficulties +have not yet been stated. Along the banks of the stream, and for +several miles on either side of it, there are very few villages, and +the accommodation in the auberges is about as rough as it can be. The +people generally are exceedingly uncouth, and between Arthez and +Millau, where a tourist is probably the rarest of all birds of +passage, the stranger must not expect to meet with a reception +invariably cordial. Even a Frenchman who appears for the first time in +one of their isolated villages, and who cannot speak the Languedocian +dialect, is looked upon almost as a foreigner, and is treated with +suspicion by the inhabitants. This matter of language is in itself no +slight difficulty. French is so little known that in many villages the +clergy are compelled to preach in _patois_ to make themselves +understood. + +This region I had now fairly entered. The road had gone somewhere up +the hills, and I was walking beside the river upon sand glittering +with particles of mica. This sand the Tarn leaves all along its banks. +It is one of the most uncertain and treacherous of streams. In a few +hours its water will rise with amazing rapidity and spread +consternation in a district where not a drop of rain has fallen. Warm +winds from the south and south-west, striking against the cold +mountains in the Lozère, have been condensed, and the water has flowed +down in torrents towards the plain. The river is as clear as crystal +now, and the many-coloured pebbles of its bed reflect the light, but a +thunderstorm in the higher country may change it suddenly to the +colour of red earth. + +The path led me into a steep forest, where I lost sight of the Tarn. +The soil was too rocky for the trees--oaks and chestnuts chiefly--to +grow very tall; consequently the underwood, although dense, was +chequered all through with sunshine. Heather and bracken, holly and +box, made a wilderness that spread over all the visible world, for the +opposite side of the gorge was exactly similar. Shining in the sun +amidst the flowering heather or glowing in majestic purple grandeur in +the shade of shrubs stood many a foxglove, and almost as frequently +seen was its relative _digitalis lutea_, whose flowers are much +smaller and of a pale yellow. Now and again a little rill went +whispering downward through the woods under plumes of forget-me-nots +in a deep channel that it had cut by working age after age. Reaching +at length a spot where I could look down into the bottom of the +fissure, I perceived a small stream that was certainly not the Tarn. I +had been ascending one of the lateral gorges of the valley, and had +left the river somewhere to the north. My aim was now to strike it +again in the higher country, and so I kept on my way. But the path +vanished, and the forest became so dense that I was bound to realize +that I was in difficulties. I resolved to try the bank of the stream, +and reached it after some unpleasant experience of rocks, brambles and +holly. Here, however, was a path which I followed nearly to the head +of the gorge and then climbed to the plateau. There the land was +cultivated, and the musical note of a cock turkey that hailed my +coming from afar, as he swaggered in front of his harem on the march, +led me to a spot where a man was mowing, and he told me where I should +find the Tarn, which he, like all other people in the country, +pronounced Tar. + +Evening was coming on when I had crossed this plateau, and I saw far +below me the village of Marsal on the banks of the shining Tarn. The +river here made one of those bold curves which add so much to its +beauty. The little village looked so peaceful and charming that I +decided to seek its hospitality for that night. + +There was but one inn at Marsal that undertook to lodge the stranger, +and very seldom was any claim of the sort made upon it. The peasant +family who lived in it looked to their bit of land and their two or +three cows to keep them, not to the auberge. The bottles of liquor on +the shelf were rarely taken down, except on Sundays, when villagers +might saunter in, to gossip and smoke over coffee and _eau de vie_, or +the glass of absinthe, which, since the failure of the vines in the +South of France, has become there the most convivial of all drinks, +although it makes men more quarrelsome than any other. In these poor +riverside villages, however, where a mere ribbon of land is capable of +cultivation--which, although exceedingly fertile, is constantly liable +to be flooded by the uncertain Tarn--men have so little money in their +pockets that water is their habitual drink, and when they depart from +this rule they make a little dissipation go a very long way. + +I found this single auberge closed, and all the family in an adjoining +field around a waggon already piled with hay, to which a couple of +cows were harnessed. My appearance there brought the pitchforks +suddenly to a rest. If I had been shot up from below like a +stage-devil, these people could not have stared at me with greater +amazement and a more frank expression of distrust. First in _patois_, +and then, seeing that I was at a loss, in scarcely intelligible +French, they asked me what my trade was, and what object I had in +coming to Marsal. I tried to explain that I was not a mischievous +person, that I was travelling merely to look at their beautiful rocks +and gorges, but I failed completely to bring a hospitable expression +into their faces. An old man of the party was the worst to deal with. +He put the greatest number of questions and understood the least +French, and all the while there was a most provokingly keen, +suspicious glitter in his little gray eyes. Presently he beckoned me, +and led the way, as I thought, to the inn; but such was not his +intention. He stopped at the door of the communal school, where the +schoolmaster was already waiting for me, for he had evidently been +warned of the presence of a doubtful-looking stranger, who had come to +the village on foot with a pack on his back, and who, being dressed a +trifle better than the ordinary tramp, was probably the more dangerous +for this reason. Like most of the village schoolmasters in France, +this gentleman was also secretary at the _mairie_, a function highly +stimulating to the sense of self-importance, and no wonder, +considering that the person who fills it frequently supplies the +mayor, who may scarcely be able to sign his name to official +documents, with such intelligence as he may need for his public +duties. + +This schoolmaster was affable and pleasant, but as a crowd quickly +collected to see what would happen, he was not going to let a good +opportunity slip of showing how indispensable he was to the safety of +the village. He said that personally he was quite satisfied with my +explanations, but that in his official capacity he was compelled to +ask me for my papers. These were forthcoming, and the serious official +air with which he pretended to read the English passport from +beginning to end was very pretty comedy, considering that he did not +understand a word of the language. + +Having asserted his importance, and made the desired impression, he +invited me into his house, introduced me to his young wife, who was +charmingly gracious, and who would have been pleased to see any fresh +face at Marsal--English or Hottentot. I was really indebted to the +schoolmaster, for he harangued in _patois_ the people of the inn drawn +up in line, and by seizing a word here and there, I made out that I +was a respectable Englishman travelling to improve my mind, and that +they might receive me into their house without any distrust. And they +did receive me, almost with open arms, when their doubts were removed. + +The old man slunk off, and I never saw him again; but the young couple +to whom the inn had been given up now proved to me that their only +wish was to please. They were rough people, but sound at heart and +honest, as the French peasants, when, judged in the mass, undoubtedly +are. The hostess, who, by-the-bye, gave me a soup-plate in which to +wash my hands, was greatly perplexed to know how to get up a dinner +for me, and, as she told me afterwards, she went to the schoolmaster +and held a consultation with him on the subject. An astonishing dish +of minced asparagus fried in oil was concocted in accordance with his +prescription. It was ingenious, but I preferred her dish of barbel +from the Tarn, notwithstanding the multitudinous bones which this fish +perversely carries in its body, to choke the enemy, although nothing +could be more absurd than such petty vengeance. + +The schoolmaster's wife said to me, with a suggestion of malice at the +corners of her mouth, that she was afraid I should be troubled by a +few fleas at the auberge. + +'Oh, bast!' observed her husband; 'monsieur in his travels has +doubtless already encountered a flea or two.' + +'Yes, and other _bestioles_,' said I. + +Madame's local knowledge did not deceive her, but her expression 'a +few fleas' did not at all represent the true state of affairs. And I +had forgotten the precious powder and the little pair of bellows, +without which no one should travel in Southern France. + +The morning air was fresh, and the fronds of the bracken were wet with +dew, when I left Marsal, and took my course along the margin of the +river through meadows that dwindled away into woodlands, where the +rocky sides of the gorge rose abruptly from the stream. Haymakers were +abroad, and I heard the sound of their scythes cutting through the +heavy swathes with all their flowers; but the sunshine had not yet +flashed down into the deep valley, and the grasshoppers were waiting +to hail it from their watch-towers in the green herbage and on the +purple heather. As the breeze stirred the leaves of the wood, it +brought with it the perfume of hidden honeysuckle. Golden oriels were +busy in the tops of the wild cherry trees, feeding upon the ripe +fruit, and calling out their French name, _loriot_; and when they flew +across the river, a gleam of brilliant yellow moved swiftly over the +rippled surface. For an hour or so I remained in the shade of trees, +and then the sandy path met a road where the gorge widened and +cultivation returned. Here I left the stream for awhile. + +Now came sunny banks bright with the common flowers that deck most of +the waysides of Europe. Bedstraw galium and field scabious, ox-eyes +and knapweed, bladder-campions and ragged robins, mallows and +crane's-bill--all the flowers of the English banks seemed to be there. +Where the bare rock showed itself, yellow sedum spread its gold, and +in the little clefts stood stalks of cotyledon, now turning brown. At +the base of the rocks, where there was still some moisture, were the +blue flowers of the brooklime veronica, and the brighter blue of the +forget-me-not. Having passed a village, I met the Tarn again. Here the +beauty of the rushing water, and all that was pictured upon it, +tempted me to sit down upon a bank; but I had no sooner chosen the +spot than I changed my intention. A red viper was curled up there, and +sleeping so comfortably that it really seemed unkind to wake it with a +blow across all its rings. When I thought, however, of the little +consideration it would have shown me had I sat upon it, I added it +without compunction to the number of _aspics_ I had already slain. + +My mind was taken off the contemplation of this good or evil deed by a +scene that seemed to contain as much of the picturesque as the eye +could seize and the mind dwell upon, without being bewildered and +fatigued. I had turned the bend of the wooded gorge, and, looking up +the river, saw what resembled a dyke of basalt stretching sheer across +the stream, with a ruined castle on a bare and apparently inaccessible +pinnacle, another ruin on the opposite end of the ridge, and, between +the two, a little church on the brink of a precipice. Houses were +clustered at the foot of the rocks by the blue water. + +This was Ambialet, so called from the extraordinary loop which the +Tarn forms here in consequence of the mass of schistous rock which +obstructs its direct channel. After flowing about two miles round a +high promontory, where dark crags jut above the dark woods, the stream +returns almost to the spot from which it was compelled to deviate, and +the lower water is only separated from the upper by a few yards of +rock. There are several similar phenomena in France, but there is none +so remarkable as that at Ambialet. + +Although nothing is now to be seen of its defensive works, except the +ruined castle upon the high rock, Ambialet was one of the strongest +places in the Albigeois. Now a small and poor village, it was in the +Middle Ages an important burg, with its consuls, its council of +_prud'hommes_, and its court of justice. It became a fief of the +viscounts of Beziers, and was thus drawn into the great religious +conflict of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Viscount of +Beziers having espoused the cause of Count Raymond of Toulouse. An +army of Crusaders, which had been raised to crush the Albigenses, +having Simon de Montfort at its head, appeared before Ambialet in +1209, and, although the burghers were quite capable of withstanding a +long siege, they were so much impressed by the magnitude of the force +brought against them, and also by Simon's sinister reputation, that +they surrendered the place almost immediately. But when the army was +campaigning elsewhere, these burghers, growing bold again, attacked +the garrison that had been left in the town and castle, and +distinguished themselves by one of those treacherous massacres which +were among the small incidents of that ruthless war. When Simon +reappeared in the Albigeois, the people of Ambialet, cowards again, +laid down their arms. The castle was soon afterwards the meeting-place +of De Montfort and Raymond VI.; but the interview, which it was hoped +would lead to peace, had no such result, and the war was carried on in +Languedoc and Guyenne with renewed fury. + +[Illustration: AMBIALET.] + +Ambialet was enjoying comparative freedom and self-government in an +age when many a town was still in the midnight darkness of feudal +servitude. It had its communal liberties and organization before the +eleventh century. There is a very interesting charter in existence, +dated 1136, by which Roger, Viscount of Beziers and Albi, recognises +and confirms these liberties. Although it opens in Latin, the body of +the charter is in the Romance language. It shows that the idiom of +Southern Gaul in the twelfth century was a little nearer the Latin +than that which is spoken now. The document is full of curious +information. It tells us that the inhabitants of Ambialet were liable +to be fined if they did not keep the street in front of their houses +clean. Perhaps the towns in the South of France were less foul in the +twelfth century than most of them are now. We learn, too, that the +profits in connection with the most necessary trades were fixed in the +interest of the greater number. Thus, the butchers were required to +take oath that they would reserve for their own profit no more than +the head of the animal that they killed. What sort of face would a +butcher of to-day make if he were asked to work on such terms? The +tavern-keepers had to take oath that they would buy no wine outside of +the boundaries of the viscounty of Ambialet, which shows what was +thought in the twelfth century of the practice of purchasing in the +cheapest market to the neglect of communal interests. The price of +wine, like that of bread, was fixed, and five worthies (_prohomes_) +were appointed to examine weights and measures, and to confiscate +those which were not just. The concluding part of the charter confirms +the right of the youth of Ambialet to their traditional festivals and +merry-making: 'E volem e auctreiam que lo Rei del Joven d'Ambilet +puesco far sas festas, tener sos senescals e sos jutges, e sos sirvens +e sos officials,' etc. The whole passage is worth giving in English, +because historians tell us very little about the festive manners of +the twelfth century: + +'We wish and order that the King of Youth of Ambialet shall keep his +festivals, have his seneschals, judges, servants, and officials, and +that on the day appointed for the merry-making, the King of Youth +shall demand from the most recently married man in the viscounty, and +woman who shall have taken a husband, a pail of wine and a quarter of +walnuts; and if they refuse, the king can order his officers to break +the doors of their house, and neither we nor our bailiffs shall have +the right to interfere. And any person who shall have cut ever so +little from the leaves of the elm, planted upon the place, shall be +sentenced by the King of Youth to pay a pail of wine, and the king can +enforce it as above. Moreover, we declare that on the first day of May +the youth shall have the right to set up a maypole, and any person who +shall cut a portion of it shall owe a pail of wine, and the king can +compel him to pay it, for such is our wish. We have granted this +favour to the youth because, having been a witness of their +merry-making, we have taken great pleasure and satisfaction +therefrom.' + +This custom has been continued to the present day. The youth of +Ambialet have their annual festival, and the most recently married +couple of the commune are called upon to 'pay' their pail of wine, +although the exact measure is not strictly enforced. + +The rocks at Ambialet at one time supported a multitude of dwellings, +of which there would be no trace now had they been entirely of +masonry. In addition to partial chambers made with the pick-axe, one +sees here and there a series of stairs cut out of the mica-schist. The +strength of the burg made it a place of refuge for numerous families +in the Albigeois, who had retreats upon these rocks to which they +repaired in time of danger. All that made up the grandeur and +importance of the place has passed away. Among those who now guide the +plough and scatter the grain for bread are descendants of the old +nobility of the Albigeois. + +Fascinated by the quietude and picturesque decay of this beautiful +spot by the Tarn, instead of leaving it in a few hours, as I had +intended, I remained there for days. Let no wayfarer, if he can help +it, be the slave of a programme. + +On the side of the promontory already mentioned, a rough bit of +ancient forest, steep and craggy, stretches down to the strip of +cultivated land beside the river. Here chance led me to take up my +abode in an old farm-house--a long building of one story, with dovecot +raised above the roof, and massive walls that kept the rooms cool even +in the sultry afternoons. It was half surrounded by an orchard of +plum, peach, apple, and cherry trees, and at the border of this were +three majestic stone-pines, whose vast heads were lifted so high and +seemed so full of radiance that they appeared to belong more to the +sky than to the earth. The gleam of the oriel's golden breast could be +seen amidst the branches, but the little birds that flew up there were +lost to sight in the sunny wilderness of tufted leaves. + +On the stony slope above the orchard, the stock of an old and leafless +vine, showing here and there over the purple flush of flowering +marjoram and the more scattered gold of St. John's-wort, told the +story of the perished vineyard. For centuries a rich wine had flowed +from these slopes, but at length the phylloxera spread over them like +flame, and now where the vine is dead the wild-flower blooms. A little +higher a fringe of broom, the blossom gone, the pods blackening and +shooting their seeds in the sun, marked the line of the virgin +wilderness. Then came tall heather and bracken, dwarf oak and +chestnut, box and juniper, all luxuriating about the blocks of +mica-schist, a rock that holds water and is therefore conducive to a +varied and splendid vegetation, wherever a soil can rest upon it. +Towards the summit the trees and shrubs dwindled away, and then came +the dry thyme-covered turf scenting the air. The tall thyme, the +garden species in the North, had already flowered, but the common wild +thyme of England, the _serpolet_ of the French, was beginning to +spread its purple over the stony ground. A great wooden cross stood +upon the ridge, and hard by, buffeted by the wintry winds and blazed +upon by the summer sun, was the ancient priory of Nôtre Dame de +l'Oder. + +I ring the bell. Presently a little wicket is pulled back, and a dark +eye glitters at me from the other side of the door. It belongs to a +serving brother, who, perceiving that I am not in petticoats, allows +me to enter. + +While I am waiting for the Père Etienne, a Franciscan of wide +learning, whose acquaintance had already brought me both pleasure and +profit, I sit in the cloisters watching another Father counting the +week's washing, which has just been brought in, and neatly folding up +handkerchiefs and undergarments. He has placed a board across a +wheelbarrow, and the heap of linen is upon this. Seated upon a stool, +he leisurely takes each great coarse handkerchief with blue border, +which, like the rest of the linen, has not been ironed, folds it into +four, lays it upon another board, smooths it with his large, thin +yellow hand, and so goes on with his task without saying a word or +raising his eyes. He is a gaunt, angular, sallow man of about fifty, +with hollow cheeks and long black beard. He has a melancholy air, and +does his work as though he were thinking all the while that it is a +part of the sum of labour he has to get through before reaching that +perfect state of felicity in which there is no more washing to be done +or counted. If there were only monks in the priory, this one would +have very little to do in looking after the linen; but there are many +boys who, although they are being educated with a view to the +religious life, have not yet put off such worldly things as shirts. + +Very different from the sombre-looking Franciscan, bent over the +wheelbarrow, is the Père Etienne. He is as cheerful and sprightly as +if he were now convinced that a convent is the pleasantest place on +earth to live in, and that outside of it all is vanity and vexation. +He teaches the boys Latin, Greek, English, and the physical sciences. +Although he has never been out of France and Italy, he can speak +English, and actually make himself understood. He is a botanist, and +he and I have already spent some hours together in his cell before a +table strewn with floras and plants, both dry and fresh. This time we +are joined by a young monk who has been gathering flowers on the banks +of the Tarn, and has placed them between the leaves of a great Latin +Bible. + +These meetings, and the library of the priory, with its valuable works +by local historians, strengthened the spell by which Ambialet held me. +The monks whom one occasionally meets in Languedoc are generally men +of better culture than the ordinary rural clergy, most of whom show +plainly enough by their ideas and the vigorous expressions which they +rarely hesitate to use in any company that they are sons of the soil. +As priests, situated as they are, this coarseness of manners and +circumscribed range of ideas, so far from being a disadvantage, forms +a bond of union between them and the people. A man to be deeply pitied +is he who, having a really superior and cultivated mind, is charged +with the cure of souls in some forlorn parish where nobody has the +time or the taste to read. Such a priest must either bring his ideas +down to those of the people around him, or be content to live in +absolute intellectual isolation. He may turn to the companionship of +books, it is true, but his library is very small; and if, as is +probable, his income is not more than £40 a year, he is too poor to +add to it. Such a revenue, when the bare needs of the body have been +met, does not leave much for satisfying a literary appetite. + +The priory of Nôtre Dame de l'Oder was founded in the twelfth or +thirteenth century by the Benedictines, but a church already existed +on the spot as early, it is supposed, as the eighth century. The one +now standing, and which became incorporated with the priory, probably +dates from the eleventh. If the interior is cold by the severity of +the lines scarcely broken by ornament, the artistic sense is warmed by +the beauty of the proportions and general disposition. The apse, with +its three little windows, has the perfect charm of grace and +simplicity. A structural peculiarity, to be especially noted as one of +the tentative efforts of Romanesque art, is the use of half-arches for +the vaulting of the two narrow aisles. Unfortunately, the plastering +mania, which has robbed the interior of so many French churches of +their venerable air, has not spared this one. A singularly broad +flight of steps, partly cut in the rock and covered with tiles, leads +up to the portal; but as the building has been closed to the public +since the application of the law dispersing religious communities, +these steps look as if they belonged to the Castle of Indolence, so +overgrown with grass are they and abandoned to the wandering +wild-flowers. Great mulleins have been allowed to spring up from the +gaps between the lichen-spotted tiles. + +When there was a regular community of monks here, the ancient +pilgrimage to Nôtre Dame de l'Oder was kept up, and near the top of +the _via crucis_, which forms a long succession of zigzags upon the +bare rock, a dark shrub or small tree allied to box may be seen railed +off with an image of the Virgin against it. According to the legend, a +Crusader returning from the Holy Land made a pilgrimage to the +sanctuary upon these rocks at Ambialet, and planted on the hill the +staff he had brought with him. This grew to a tree, to which the +people of the country gave the name of _oder_. In course of time it +came to be so venerated that Nôtre Dame d'Ambialet was changed to +Nôtre Dame de l'Oder. The existing tree is said to be a descendant of +the original one. + +The monks at the priory told me that nearly all the old historical +documents relating to Ambialet had been taken away by the English and +placed in the Tower of London. In various parts of the Quercy, I had +also been told exactly the same with regard to the documents connected +with the early history of the locality. There are people who still +speak of this as a proof of the intention of the English to return. +How the belief became so widespread that the English placed the +documents which they carried away in the Tower of London, I am unable +to explain. + +Memory takes me back again to the farmhouse by the Tarn. It is well +that there is plenty of space, for the household is numerous. There +are the farmer, his wife and children, an aged mother whose voice has +become a mere thread of sound, and who thinks over the past in the +chimney-corner, sometimes with a distaff in her hand; two old uncles, +a youth of all work, who has been brought up as one of the family, and +a little bright-eyed, bare-legged servant girl, whose brown feet I +still hear pattering upon the floors. One of the old men is a +white-bearded priest of eighty-five, who has spent most of his life in +Algeria, and has himself come to look like the patriarchal Arab in all +but the costume. He has no longer any sacerdotal work, but he has +other occupation. His special duty is to look after a great +flesh-coloured pig, and many a time have I seen him under the orchard +trees following close at the heels of the grunting beast while reading +his office. His old breviary, like his _soutane_, is very much the +worse for wear, the leaves having been thumbed nearly to the colour of +chocolate; but if he had a new one now, he would find it hard to +believe that it had the same virtue as the other. Notwithstanding his +years, he can do harder work than watching a pig. I have seen him +haymaking and reaping, and always the merriest of the party. Before +taking the fork or the sickle in hand, he would hitch up his +_soutane_, and reveal a pair of still active sacerdotal legs in white +linen drawers. The sight of the old man bending his back while +reaping, his white beard brushing the golden corn, was pathetic or +comic as the humour might seize the beholder. As gay as any of the +cicadas that keep the summer's jubilee in the sunny tree-tops, he +sings songs that have nothing in common with psalms, and he needs +little provocation to dance. French has become an awkward language to +him, but his tongue is nimble enough both in Languedocian and Latin. +When he hears that the evening soup is ready, he hurries the pig home, +flourishes his stick above his head in imitation of the Arabs, and +shouts in his cheeriest voice, 'Oportet manducare!' + +The other uncle's chief business is to look after a couple of cows, +and as the farm has no pasturage but the orchard, he is away with them +the greater part of the day along the banks of the Tarn. One evening I +met him by the river, and he stopped me to quote a passage from the +Georgics which he had recalled to mind. His face beamed with +satisfaction. I knew that he had not been brought up to cow-tending, +but was, nevertheless, taken aback when the unfortunate old bachelor +wished me to share the pleasure he felt in having brought to mind a +long-forgotten passage of Virgil. The surprises of real life never +cease to be startling. Speaking to me afterwards of the growing +extravagance of all classes, he said: + +'When I was young there were only two _cafés_ in Albi, and none but +the rich ever entered them. Now every man goes to his _café_. I +remember when, in middle-class families in easy circumstances, coffee +was only drunk two or three times a year, on festive occasions.' Very +different is the state of things now in France. + +The figure of the old man bending upon his stick glides away by the +dark willow-fringe of the Tarn, and I am standing alone in the solemn +splendour of the luminous dusk--the clear-obscure of the quickly +passing twilight, beside the bearded corn, whose gold is blended with +the faint rosiness that spreads through the air of the valley, and +lets free the fragrance of those flowers which keep all their +sweetness for the evening. There is still a gleam of the lost sun upon +the priory walls, and over the dark rocks and wooded hollows floats a +purple haze. The dusk gathers apace, and the poplars that rise far +above the willows along the river, their outlines shaded away into the +black forest behind them, stand motionless like phantom trees, for not +a leaf stirs; but the corn seems to grow more luminous, as if it had +drunk something of the fire as well as the colour of the sun, while +the horns of the sinking moon gleam silver-bright just over the +topmost trees, painted in sepia upon a cobalt sky. How weird, +phantasmal, enigmatic the forms of those trees now appear! Some like +hell-hags, with wild hair flying, are rushing through the air; others, +majestic, solitary, wrapped about with dark horror, are the trees of +Fate; some have their arms raised in the frenzy of a torturing +passion; others look like emblems of Care when hope and passion are +alike dead: each touches the spring of a sombre thought or a fantastic +fancy. + +On the road to Villefranche, about half a mile from Ambialet, is a +mine which has been abandoned from time immemorial, and which the +inhabitants say was worked by the English for gold. I have noticed, +however, throughout this part of France, that nearly everything that +was done in a remote age, whether good or evil, is attributed by the +people to the English, and that they not infrequently make a curious +confusion between Britons and Romans. As for the Visigoths, +Ostrogoths, and Arabs, all traditions respecting them appear to have +passed out of the popular mind. In the side of a stony hill on which +scarcely a plant grows, a narrow passage, a few feet wide, has been +quarried, and air shafts have been cut down into it through the solid +rock with prodigious labour. I followed this passage until a falling +in of the roof prevented me from going any farther. I could perceive +no trace of a metallic vein, so thoroughly had it been worked out, but +scattered over the hillside with schist, talcose slate, and fragments +of quartz, was a great deal of scoriae, showing that metal of some +kind had been excavated, and that the smelting had been done on the +spot. That the mine was worked for gold seems quite probable, inasmuch +as a lump of mineral containing a considerable quantity of the +precious metal was picked up near the entrance some years ago. Besides +the scoriae, I found upon the hillside much broken pottery, and from +the shape of several fragments it was easy to restore the form of +earthenware pots which were probably used for smelting purposes. There +is no record to show who the people were who were so busy upon these +rocks glittering with mica and talc. They may have belonged to any one +of the races who passed over the land from the time of the Romans. + +One morning, still in the month of July, I broke away from the charms +of Ambialet, and shouldering again my old knapsack--which, by +travelling hundreds of miles in all weathers, had become disgracefully +shabby, but which was a friend too well stitched together to be thrown +aside on account of ill-looks--I continued my journey up the valley of +the Tarn. I had agreed to walk with the parish priest as far as the +village of Villeneuve, and having found him at the presbytery, we +passed through the churchyard on the edge of the rock. Here there is a +remarkable cross, with the figure of Christ on one side and that of +the Virgin on the other, not carved in relief, but in that early +mediaeval style which consisted of hollowing out the stone around the +image. The cure frankly declared that, if anyone offered him a large +new cross in the place of this little one, he would be glad to make +the exchange. It is unfortunate that so many rural priests place but +little value upon religious antiquities other than images and relics +which have a legend. Their appreciation of ecclesiastical art is too +often regulated by the practical and utilitarian order of ideas. To +dazzle the eye of the peasant may, and does, become the single aim of +church ornamentation. Hence the brassy, vulgar altars, and those +coloured plaster images of modern manufacture that one sees with +regret in so many of the country churches of France. + +I soon took my last look at Ambialet, its rocks and ruins on which the +wild pinks nodded, and its stone-covered roofs overgrown with white +sedum. I was struck by the number of prickly plants on the sandy banks +of the Tarn. Those which now made the best show of bloom were the +star-thistle centaurea and _ononis repens_. The appearance of this +last was very curious, for in addition to its pink pea-blossoms it +seemed to be sprinkled over with little flowers the colour of +forget-me-nots. These, however, were not flowers at all, but small +flying beetles painted the brilliant blue of myosotis. Another plant +that showed a strong liking for these banks was the horned poppy +(_glaucium luteum_), which I had only found elsewhere near the +sea-coast. Brown stalks of broomrape were still standing, and I +lighted upon a lingering bee-ophrys, a plant which by its amazing +mimicry makes one look at it with awe as if it were something +supernatural. + +It was an invitation to lunch at a presbytery that was the reason for +my companion taking a walk of about eight miles. Passing through a +small village on the way he called for the _curé_ there, who was also +an expected guest. This priest had obtained a reputation throughout +the district for his humour, his eccentricity, and contempt for +appearances. He had passed most of his life alone, cooking his food, +making his bed, and probably mending his clothes, without the help of +any woman. Being now over eighty years of age, he had realized the +necessity of changing his ways, and a woman not much younger than +himself had succeeded in obtaining a firm footing in his paved +kitchen, which was also the dining-room and _salon_. His presbytery in +the steep and rocky village street was no better built or more +luxuriously furnished than the dwellings of his peasant parishioners. +Here we found the old white-haired man, gay and hospitable, anxious to +offer everything he had in the house to the visitor, but only able to +think of two things which might be acceptable--snuff and sausage. '_Un +peu de saucisson?_' he said to me, with a winning smile after handing +me his snuff-box. I assured him I could eat nothing then. '_Tè!_ and +so you are really English, monsieur?--_Un peu de saucisson?_' + +The _curé_ had been shut up in this village so many years, speaking +nothing but Languedocian to his parishioners, even when preaching to +them, that his French had become rather difficult to understand. I was +keenly alive to the exceptional study of human nature presented by +this fine specimen of an old rustic priest, who was not the less to be +respected because he took a great deal of snuff, hated shaving, wore +hob-nailed shoes of the roughest make, and a threadbare, soup-spotted +_soutane_ with frayed edges. He was not a bit ascetic, and although he +had lived so many years by himself, his good-humour and gaiety +continually overflowed. It may be that a housekeeper tends to sour a +priest's temper more than anything else, and this one knew it. The +sacerdotal domestic help must be fifty years old when she enters the +presbytery. Spinster or widow, she has that inherent purpose of every +woman to be, if she can, the mistress of the house in which she lives. +If she encounters no other woman in the field, against whom if she +tried conclusions she would be broken like the earthen pot in the +fable, she generally succeeds in achieving her ambition, although she +may be in name a servant. There are such phenomena as hen-pecked +priests, and those who peck them have no right whatever to do it. It +is a state of things brought about by too much submission, for the +sake of peace, to a mind determined to be uppermost while pretending +to be humble. + +When we left again for Villeneuve, we were three in number, and the +old _curé_ trudged along over the rocky or sandy paths as nimbly as +either of his companions. He pointed out to me a spot in the Tarn +where he said was a gulf the bottom of which had never been sounded. +There are many such holes in the bed of this river, which receives +much of its water from underground tributaries. + +I was looking at the mournful vine-terraces, now mostly abandoned and +grass-grown. 'Ah!' said the octogenarian, shaking his head, and for +once wearing a melancholy expression, 'the best wine of the South used +to be grown there.' Near a village a very tall pole, probably a young +poplar that had been barked, had been raised in a garden, and painted +with stripes of red, white, and blue. It was described to me as a +'tree of liberty,' and I was told that the garden in which it was +placed belonged to the mayor for the current year. Every fresh mayor +had a fresh tree. + +At the village of Villeneuve I parted from my companions, who went to +lunch with the _curé_, together with several other ecclesiastics. +These occasional meetings and junketings at one another's houses are +the chief mundane consolation of the rural priests, who are as weak as +other mortals in the presence of a savoury dish, and, when they can +afford to do so, they enter into the pleasures of hospitality with +Horatian zest. Poor as they often are, they generally know the faggot +that conceals a drop of old wine to place before the guest. The people +in the South believe that the bounty of the Creator was intended to be +made the most of, and the type of priest that one meets most +frequently there in the richer parishes thinks that the next good +thing to a clear conscience is a good table. + +I lunched at the auberge, and I had for my companion a ruby-faced +cattle-dealer of about fifty. He spent his life chiefly in a trap, +followed by an old cattle-dog of formidable build and determined +expression of mouth. This animal was now lying down near the table, so +tired and footsore from almost perpetual running that he thought it +too much trouble to get up and eat. I read in his eye that he was in +the habit of breathing every day of his life a canine curse on the +business of cattle-dealing. His master seemed a good-natured man, but +he had a fixed idea that was unfortunate for the dog. He considered +that the beast ought to be able to run from thirty-five to forty miles +a day, and that if he got sore paws it was his own fault. + +'And do you never give him a lift?' + +'Never!' roared the cattle-dealer, laughing like an ogre. + +The dog being now ten years old, I was not surprised to hear that he +sometimes tried to lose himself just before his master was starting +upon a long round. Considering his age, and all the running he had +done in return for board and lodging, I thought his diplomacy +excusable; but the cattle-dealer used strong language to express his +loathing of such depravity and ingratitude in a dog old enough to be +serious, and on which so much kindness had been lavished. + +This man had a very bad opinion of the inhabitants of that part of the +Rouergue which I was about to cross, and he strove to convince me that +it was very imprudent of me to think of travelling on foot and alone +through such a wild country. Had I told him that I carried no other +arm but my oak stick with iron spike, he would have been still more +vehement. Frenchmen like the companionship of a revolver. I do not. In +the first place, it makes me imagine there is an assassin lurking in +every thicket; secondly, I do not know where to carry it conveniently +so that it would be of use in time of need. I place confidence in my +stick, and take my chance. To tell the plain truth, I did not believe +what my table companion said about the dangerous character of the +inhabitants. The reason he gave for their exceptional wickedness was +that they were very poor, but this view was contrary to my experience +of humanity. + +While we were talking over our coffee, there was a rising uproar in +the village street. Looking out of the window, we saw two men fighting +in the midst of a crowd. + +'Ah!' exclaimed the cattle-dealer, with a sonorous chuckle, 'that +ought to give you an idea of the capacities of the inhabitants.' Then, +entering into the spirit of the battle, he shouted: 'Leave them +alone--leave them alone! It is not men who are fighting; it is the +juice of the grape!' + +Both combatants soon had enough of it, and very little damage was done +on either side. The scene was more ludicrous than tragic. After all, +it was well, perhaps, that these men had not learnt how to use their +fists, and that with them pushing, slapping, and rolling upon one +another satisfied honour. + +The hostess of this inn, while cooking the inevitable fowl for lunch, +basted it after the Languedocian fashion, of which I had taken note +elsewhere. Very different is it from what is commonly understood by +basting. A curious implement is used for the purpose. This is an iron +rod, with a piece of metal at one end twisted into the form of an +extinguisher, but with a small opening left at the pointed extremity. +The extinguisher, if it may be so termed, is made red-hot, or nearly +so, and then a piece of fat bacon is put into it, which bursts into +flame. A little stream of blazing fat passes through the small +opening, and this is made to trickle over the fowl, which is turned +upon, the spit by clockwork in front of the wood fire. The fowl or +joint thus treated tastes of burnt bacon; but the Southerners like +strong flavours, and revel in grease as well as garlic. + +Fat bacon is the basis of all cookery in Guyenne and Upper Languedoc, +where the winters are too cold for the olive to flourish, and where +butter is rarely seen. The _cuisine_ is substantial, but not refined. + +A little beyond Villeneuve I found Trébas, a pleasant river-side +village, with a ferruginous spring that has obtained for the place a +local reputation for healing. Here I left the Tarn again, and followed +its tributary, the Ranee, for the sake of change. This stream ran at +the bottom of a deep gorge, the sides of which were chiefly clothed +with woods, but here and there was a patch of yellow corn-field and +green vineyard. Reapers, men and women, were busy with their sickles, +singing, as they worked, their Languedocian songs that troubadours may +have been the first to sing; but nature was quiet with that repose +which so quickly follows the great festival of flowers. Already the +falling corn was whispering of the final feast of colour. All the +earlier flowers of the summer were now casting or ripening their seed. +I passed a little village on the opposite side of the gorge. The +houses, built of dark stone, even to the roofs, looked scarcely +different from their background of bare rock. Weedy vine-terraces +without vines told the oft-repeated story of privation and +long-lasting bitterness of heart in many a little home that once was +happy. I found the grandeur of solitude, without any suggestion of +human life, where huge rocks of gneiss and schist, having broken away +from the sides of the gorge, lay along the margins and in the channel +of the stream. Here I lingered, listening to the drowsy music of the +flowing water, and the murmuring of the bees amongst the purple +marjoram and the yellow agrimony, until the sunshine moving up the +rocks reminded me of the fleet-winged hours. + +Continuing my way up the gorge, I presently saw a village clinging to +a hill, with a massive and singular-looking church on the highest +point. It was Plaisance, and I knew now that I had left the Albigeois, +and had entered the Rouergue. Having decided to pass the night here, +and the auberge being chosen, I climbed to the top of the bluff to +have a near view of the church. It is a remarkable structure +representing two architectural periods. The apse and transept are +Romanesque, but the nave is Gothic. Over the intersection of the +transept is a cupola supported by massive piers. Engaged with these +are columns bearing elaborately carved capitals embellished with +little figures of the quaintest workmanship. In the apse are two rows +of columns with cubiform capitals carved in accordance with the florid +Romanesque taste, as it was developed in Southern France. + +Although the little cemetery on the bluff was like scores of others I +had seen in France--a bit of rough neglected field with small wooden +crosses rising above the long herbage, tangled with flowers that love +the waste places, I yielded to the charm of that old simplicity which +is ever young and beautiful. I strolled amongst the grave mounds, and +passing the sunny spot where the dead children of the village lay side +by side, under the golden flowers of St. John's-wort, reached the edge +of the rock, whose dark nakedness was hidden by reddening sedum, and +looked at the wave-like hills, their yellow cornfields, vine terraces +and woods, the gray-green roofs of the houses below, and lower still +the stream flashing along through a desert of pebbles. + +Descending to the valley, I noticed the number and beauty of the vine +trellises in the village. One, commencing at a Gothic archway, +extended from wall to wall far up a narrow lane, and here the twilight +fell an hour too soon. I wandered down to the pebbly shore of the +Rance, where bare-footed children, sent out to look after pigs and +geese, were building castles with the many-coloured stones, while +others on the rocky banks above were singing in chorus, like a +somewhat louder twittering of sedge warblers from the fringe of +willows. I wandered on until all was quiet save the water, and +returned to the inn when the fire on the hearth was sending forth a +cheerful red glow through the dusk. The soup was bubbling in the chain +pot, and a well-browned fowl was taking its final turns upon the spit. + +I dined with a commercial traveller, one who went about the country in +a queer sort of vehicle containing samples of church ornaments and +sacerdotal vestments. His business lay chiefly with the rural clergy, +and, like most people, he seemed convinced that circumstances had +pushed him into the wrong groove, and that he had remained in it too +long for him to be able to get out of it. For twenty years he had been +driving over the same roads, reappearing in the same villages and +little towns, watching the same people growing old, and spending only +three months of the year with his family in Toulouse. He declared the +life of a commercial traveller, when the novelty of it had worn down, +to be the most abominable of all lives. He was one of the most +pleasant, and certainly the most melancholy, of commercial travellers +whom I had met in my rambles. He left the impression on me that there +was more money to be made nowadays in France by travelling with +samples of _eau de vie_ and groceries than with church candlesticks +and chasubles. Nevertheless, although he had his private quarrel with +destiny, he was not at all a gloomy companion at dinner. + +A person who had not had previous experience of French country inns +would have been astonished at the order in which the dishes were laid +on the table. The first course after the soup was potatoes +(_sautées_); then came barbel from the stream, and afterwards veal and +fowl. The order is considered a matter of no importance; the main +thing aimed at in the South of France is to give the guest plenty of +dishes. If there is any fish, more often than not it makes its +appearance after the roast, and I have even seen a custard figure as +the first course. By living with the people one soon falls into their +ways, accepting things as they come, without giving a thought to the +conventional sequence. + +Among other things that one has to grow accustomed to in rural France, +especially in the South, is the presence of beds in dining-rooms and +kitchens. At first it rasps the sense of what is correct, but the very +frequency of it soon brings indifference. In the large kitchen of this +rather substantial auberge there was an alcove, a few feet from the +chimney-place, containing a neatly tucked-up bed with a crucifix and +little holy-water shell by the side. It was certainly a snug corner in +winter, and I felt sure that the stout hostess reserved it for +herself. + + + + +ACROSS THE ROUERGUE. + + +At an early hour in the morning I was wayfaring again. I had made up +my mind to reach St. Affrique in a day's walk. There were some thirty +miles of country to cross, and I had, moreover, to reckon with the +July sun, which shines very earnestly in Southern France, as though it +were bent on ripening all the fruits of the earth in a single day. By +getting up earlier than usual I was able to watch the morning opening +like a wild rose. When we feel all the charm that graces the beginning +of a summer day, we resolve in future to rise with the birds, but the +next morning's sun finds most of us sluggards again. + +I returned towards the Tarn, which I had left the day before, but with +the intention of keeping somewhat to the south of it for awhile. +However beautiful the scenery of a gorge may be, the sensation of +being at the bottom of a crevice at length becomes depressing, and the +mind, which is never satisfied with anything long, begins to wonder +what the world is like beyond the enclosing cliffs, and the desire to +climb them and to look forth under a wider range of sky grows +stronger. Such change is needed, for when there is languor within, the +impressions from without are dull. The country through which I now +passed was very beautiful with its multitude of chestnut-trees, the +pale yellow plumes of the male blossom still clinging to them and +hiding half their leaves; but here again was the sad spectacle of +abandoned, weedy, and almost leafless vineyards upon stony slopes +which had been changed into fruit-bearing terraces by the long labour +of dead generations. + +The first village I came to was Coupiac, lying in a deep hollow, from +the bottom of which rose a rugged mass of schistous rock, with houses +all about it, under the protecting shadow of a strong castle with high +round towers in good preservation. It was a mediaeval fortress, but +its mullioned windows cut in the walls of the towers and other details +showed that it had been considerably modified and adapted to changed +conditions of life at the time of the Renaissance. A troop of little +girls were going up to it, and teaching Sisters, who had changed it +into a stronghold of education, were waiting for them in the court. +Hard by upon the edge of the castle rock was a calvary. The naked +schist, ribbed and seamed, served for pavement in the steep little +streets of this picturesque old village, where most of the people went +barefoot. This is the custom of the region, and does not necessarily +imply poverty. Here the _sabotier's_ trade is a poor one, and the +cobbler's is still worse. In the Albigeois I was the neighbour of a +well-to-do farmer who up to the age of sixty had never known the +sensation of sock or stocking, nor had he ever worn a shoe of wood or +leather. + +No female beauty did I see here, nor elsewhere in the Rouergue. +Plainness of feature in men and women is the rule throughout this +extensive tract of country. But there is this to be said in favour of +the girls and younger women, that they generally have well-shaped +figures and a very erect carriage, which last is undoubtedly due to +the habit of carrying weights upon the head, especially water, which +needs to be carefully balanced. + +How the peasants stared at me as I passed along! The expression of +their faces showed that they were completely puzzled as to what manner +of person I was, and what I was doing there. Had I been taking along a +dancing-bear they would have understood my motives far better, and my +social success with them would have been undoubtedly greater. As it +was, most of them eyed me with extreme suspicion. Not having been +rendered familiar, like the peasants of many other districts, with +that harmless form of insanity which leads people to endure the +hardship of tramping for the sake of observing the ruder aspects of +human life, the lingering manners of old times, and of reading the +book of nature in solitude, they thought I must perforce be engaged +upon some sinister and wicked work. And now this reminds me of an old +man at Ambialet, whom I used to send on errands to the nearest small +town. He liked my money, but he could never satisfy his conscience +that it was not something like treason to carry letters for me, for he +had the feeling to the last that he was in the pay of the enemy. 'Ah!' +he growled one day (not to me), 'I have always heard it said that the +English regretted our beautiful rocks and rich valleys. They are +coming back! I am sure they are coming back!' I used to see him +looking at me askance with a peculiarly keen expression in his eyes, +and as his words had been repeated to me I knew of what he was +thinking. He was the first man of his condition who to my knowledge +called rocks beautiful. The peasant class abhor rocks on account of +their sterility, and because the rustic idea of a beautiful landscape +is the fertile and level plain. In searching for the picturesque and +the grandeur of nature, it is perfectly safe to go to those places +which the peasant declares to be frightful by their ugliness. + +Leaving Coupiac behind me, I turned towards the east. The road, having +been cut in the side of the cliff, exposed layers of brown +argillaceous schist, like rotten wood, and so friable that it crumbled +between the fingers; but what was more remarkable was that the layers, +scarcely thicker than slate, instead of being on their natural plane, +were turned up quite vertically. I was now ascending to the barren +uplands. Near the brow of a hill I passed a very ancient crucifix of +granite, the head, which must originally have been of the rudest +sculpture, having the features quite obliterated by time. + +A rural postman in a blouse with red collar had been trudging up the +hill behind me, and I let him overtake me so that I might fall into +conversation with him, for these men are generally more intelligent or +better informed than the peasants. I have often walked with them, and +never without obtaining either instruction or amusement. When we had +reached the highest ground, from which a splendid view was revealed of +the Rouergue country.--a crumpled map of bare hills and deep dark +gorges--the postman pointed out to me the village of Roquecésaire +(Caesar's Rock), on a hill to the south, and told me a queer story of +a battle between its inhabitants and those of an adjacent village. The +quarrel, strange to say, arose over a statue of the Virgin, which was +erected not long since upon a commanding position between the two +villages. 'Now, the Holy Virgin,' said the postman, in no tone of +mockery, 'was obliged to turn her back either to one village or the +other, and this was the cause of the fight!' When first set up, the +statue looked towards Roquecésaire, to the great satisfaction of the +inhabitants; but the people of the other village, who thought +themselves equally pious, held that they had been slighted; and the +more they looked at the back of the Virgin turned towards them the +angrier they became, and the more determined not to submit to the +indignity. At length, unable to keep down their fury any longer, they +sallied forth one day, men, women and children, with the intention of +turning the statue round. But the people of Roquecésaire were +vigilant, and, seeing the hostile crowd coming, went forth to give +them battle. The combat raged furiously for hours, and it was +watched--so said the postman--with much excitement and interest by the +_curé_ of Montclar--the village we were now approaching--who, +happening to have a telescope, was able to note the varying fortune of +war. At length the Roquecésaire people got the worst of it, and they +were driven away from the statue, which was promptly turned round. +Although many persons were badly knocked about, nobody died for the +cause. The energetic intervention of the spiritual and temporal +authorities prevented a renewal of the scandal, and it was thought +best, in the interest of peace, to allow the statue to be turned +half-way to one village and half to the other. + +The postman was a little reserved at first, not knowing to what +country I belonged, but when he was satisfied that I was not a German, +he let his tongue rattle on with the freedom which is one of the +peculiarities of his class. He confided to me that the best help to a +man who walked much was absinthe. It pulled him up the hills and sent +him whisking across the plains. + +'I eat very little,' said my black-bearded, bright-eyed fellow-tramp; +'but,' he added, 'I drink three or four glasses of absinthe a day.' + +'You will eat still less,' I said, 'if you don't soon begin to turn +off the tap.' + +Considering the hard monotony of their lives and the strain imposed +upon physical endurance by walking from twenty to twenty-five miles a +day in all weathers, the rural postmen in France are a sober body of +men. This one told me that he walked sometimes eight miles out of his +way to carry a single letter. + +Thus gossiping, we reached Montclar, on the plateau, a little to the +south of the deep gorge of the Tarn. Here we entered an auberge, where +the postman was glad to moisten his dry throat with the green-eyed +enemy. This inn was formerly one of those small châteaux--more +correctly termed _maisons fortes_, or manors--which sprang up all over +France in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The inhabited part +of the building was reached by a spiral staircase enclosed by a tower. +A balcony connected with the principal room enabled me to read an +inscription cut in a stone of the tower: 'Tristano Disclaris, 1615.' +But for this record left by the founder, his name would probably have +passed, long ago, out of the memory of men. + +I found that the chief occupation of the people in this house was that +of making Roquefort cheeses; indeed, it was impossible not to guess +what was going on from the all-pervading odour. And yet: I was still +many miles from Roquefort! However, I knew all about this matter +before. I was not twenty miles from Albi when I found that Roquefort +cheese-making was a local industry. In fact, this is the case over a +very wide region. The cheeses, having been made, are sent to Roquefort +to ripen in the cellars, which have been excavated in the rock, and +also to acquire the necessary reputation. While my lunch was being +prepared I looked into the dairy, which was very clean and creditable. +On the ground were large tubs of milk, and on tables were spread many +earthenware moulds pierced with little holes and containing the +pressed curds. + +The hostess was a buxom, good-tempered woman with rosy cheeks. She +told me that she could not give me anything better than ham and eggs. +She could not have offered me anything more acceptable after all the +greasy cooking, the steadfast veal and invariable fowl which I had so +long been compelled to accept daily with resignation. By a mysterious +revelation of art she produced the ham and eggs in a way that made me +think that she must surely be descended from one of the English +adventurers who did all manner of mischief in the Rouergue some five +or six centuries ago. Such ham and eggs in her case could only be +explained by the theory of hereditary ideas. Nevertheless, she had +become French enough to look at me with a dubious, albeit a +good-natured eye. My motive in coming there and going farther without +having any commercial object in view was more than she could fathom. +After my visit to the dairy I fancy her private notion was that I was +commissioned by the English Government to find out how Roquefort +cheese was made, with a view to competition. At length, as we talked +freely, she let the state of her mind with regard to me escape her +unawares by putting this question plump: + +'How is it the gendarmes have not stopped you?' + +'That I cannot tell you,' said I, much amused by her candour; 'but you +may be sure of this, I am not afraid of them.' + +Her husband was listening behind the door, and I observed an +expression of relief in his face when I took up my pack and departed. +If I was to be pounced upon, he preferred, for his own peace of mind +and the reputation of his house, that it should be done elsewhere. All +the village had heard of my coming, and when I reappeared outside +there was a small crowd of people waiting to have a good look at me. I +thought from these signs that I was likely to be asked to show my +papers again by some petty functionary; but no, I was allowed to pass +on without interference. Perhaps the postman had given a good account +of me, the absinthe having touched his heart. There is much diplomacy +in getting somebody on your side while travelling alone through these +unopened districts far from railways. Wandering among the peasants of +the Tarn and the Aveyron teaches one what ignorance really means, what +blindness of intellect goes with it. And yet their enlightenment by +the usual methods would be a doubtful blessing to themselves and +others. + +I was now descending to the valley, and not long after leaving the +village an attempt to escape from the winding hot road led me into one +of those wildernesses which are to me infinitely more pleasing than +the most artistic gardens, with their geometric flower-beds and their +counterfeit lakes and grottoes. The surface of the land was thrown or +washed up into dark-brown hillocks of broken argillaceous schist, +which repelled vegetation, but the hollows were wooded with mountain +oak and many shrubs. Farther down there were other hillocks, equally +bare, but formed of the blue-looking lias marl which the husbandman +detests with good reason, for its sterility is incorrigible. This +_terre bleue_, as the peasants call it, was not the only sign of a +change in the formation; fragments of calcareous stone were mixed with +the brown soil. I was leaving the dark schist and was approaching +those immense accumulations of jurassic rock, whose singular forms and +brilliant colours lend such extraordinary grandeur to the scenery of +the Upper Tarn. There was also a change in the vegetation. A large +species of broom, four or five feet high, covered with golden blossom +the size of pea-flowers, although the common broom had long passed its +blooming, now showed itself as well as roseroot sedum, neither of +which had I seen while coming over the schist. The cicadas returned +and screamed from every tree. I captured one and examined the musical +instrument--a truly marvellous bit of mechanism--that it carried in +each of its sides. It is not legs which make the noise, as is the case +with crickets and grasshoppers, but little hard membranes under the +wings are scraped together at the creature's will. The sound is not +musical, for when it is not a continuous scissor-grinding noise, it is +like the cry of a corncrake with a weak throat; but what delight there +is in it! and how it expresses that joy in the present and +recklessness of the morrow, which the fabulist has in vain contrasted +with the virtuous industry of the ant in order to point a moral for +mankind!--vainly, because the _cigale's_ short life in the sunlit +trees will ever seem to men a more ideal one than that of the +earth-burrowing ant, with its possible longevity, its peevish +parsimony, and restless anxiety for the future. I could have lain down +under a tree like a gipsy in this wild spot, and let the summer dreams +come to me from their airy castles amongst the leaves, if I had not +made up my mind to reach St. Affrique before night. There was another +reason which, although it clashes with poetry, had better be told for +the sake of truth. Insects would soon have taken all pleasure from the +siesta. Great black ants, and great red ones, little ants too, that +could have walked with comfort through the eye of a fine needle, +notwithstanding their wickedness, and intermediate species of the same +much-praised family, would have scampered over me and stung me, and +flies of bad propensities would have settled upon me. An enthusiastic +entomologist has only to lie down in the open air in this part of +France at the end of July or in August, and he will soon be able to +observe, perhaps feel, sufficient insects travelling on their legs or +on the wing to satisfy a great deal of curiosity. Often the air is all +aflutter with butterflies, many of them remarkable for their size or +the beauty of their colouring. One I have particularly noticed; not +large, but coloured with exquisite gradations of bright-yellow, +orange, and pale-green. + +I believe I added to my day's journey by my excursion across country, +but the time would have passed less pleasantly on the road. The +winding yellow line, however, appeared again, and I had to tramp upon +it. And a hot, toilsome trudge it was, through that long narrow valley +with scrubby woods reaching down to the road, but with no habitations +and no water. It was the desert. The afternoon was far advanced when +the country opened and I saw a village of coquettish appearance, for +most of the houses had been washed with red, and many of the +window-shutters were painted green. + +I was parched with thirst, for the sun had been broiling me for hours; +therefore, when I saw this village on the hillside, I hurried towards +it with the impatience of a traveller who sees the palm-trees over a +well in the sands of Africa. In a place that could give so much +attention to colour there must surely be an auberge, I thought. And I +judged rightly, for there were two little inns. I found the door of +the first one closed, and learnt that the people were out harvesting. +I walked on to the next, and found that likewise closed, and was again +informed that all the family were out in the fields. The whole village +was nearly deserted; almost everyone was busy reaping and putting up +the sheaves. I stopped beside the village pump and reflected upon my +misery. I had resigned myself to water, when a woman carrying a sickle +opened the door of one of the inns. Some friendly bird must have told +her of my thirst and weariness--perhaps the merry little quail that I +heard as I came up from the plain crying 'To-whit! To-whit!' That +blessed auberge actually contained bottled beer. And the room was so +cool that butter would not have melted in it. These southern houses +have such thick stone walls that they have the double advantage of +being warm in winter and delightfully cool in summer. I had some +difficulty in resisting the temptation to stop the night at this inn; +but I did resist it, and was again on the road to St. Affrique before +the heat of the day had passed. Another toilsome trudge, during which +I met an English threshing-machine being dragged along by bullocks, +and the familiar words upon it made me feel for awhile quite at home. +The apparition, however, gave me a shock, for the antique flail is +still the instrument commonly used for threshing in the southern +provinces of France. + +At a village called Moulin, lying in a rich and beautiful valley, I +met the Sorgues, one of the larger tributaries of the Tarn, and for +the rest of my journey I had the companionship of a charming stream. +Evening came on, and the fiery blue above me grew soft and rosy. Rosy, +too, were the cornfields, where bands of men and women, fifteen or +twenty together, were reaping gaily, for the heat of the day was gone, +the freshness of the twilight had come, and the fragrance of the +valley was loosened. I had left the last group of reapers behind, and +the silence of the dusk was broken only by the tree crickets and the +rapids of the little river, when a woman passed me on the road and +murmured '_Adicias!_' (God be with you!). '_Adicias!_ I replied, and +then I was again alone. Presently there was a jangling of bells +behind, and I was soon overtaken by three horses and a crowded +_diligence_. The sound of the bells grew fainter and fainter, and once +more I was alone with the summer night. The stars began to shine, and +the river was lost in the mystery of shadow, save where a sunken rock +made the water gleam white, and broke the peace with a cry of trouble. + +It was late when I reached St. Affrique, and I believe no tramp +arrived at his bourne that night more weary than I, for I had been +walking most of the day in the burning sun. But although I lay down +like a jaded horse, I was too feverish to sleep. To make matters +worse, there was a cock in the yard just underneath my window, and the +fiendish creature considered it his duty to crow every two or three +minutes after the stroke of midnight. How well did I then enter into +the feelings of a man I knew who, under similar provocation, got up +from his bed, and, taking a carving-knife from the kitchen, quietly +and deftly cut off the cock's head before the astonished bird had time +to protest. Having stopped the crowing and assured himself that it +would not begin again, he went back to bed and slept the sleep of the +innocent. + +I was out early the next morning, looking at the extraordinary +astronomical dials of the parish church, covering much of the surface +of the outer walls. All the straight lines, curves, and figures, and +the inscriptions in Latin, must have the effect of convincing the +majority of the inhabitants that their ignorance is hopeless. Such a +display of science must be like wizard symbolism to the common people. +The dials are exceedingly curious, and there are some really +astonishing calculations, as, for instance, a table showing the +'number of souls that have appeared before the Tribunal of God.' Near +a great sundial are these solemn words: 'Sol et luna faciunt quae +precepta sunt eis; nos autem pergrimamur a Domino.' The church itself +is one of the most fantastically ugly structures imaginable. All +possible tricks of style and taste appear to have been played upon it. +It is a jumble of heavy Gothic and Italian, and the apse is twisted +out of line with the nave, in which respect, however, it is like the +cathedral of Quimper. As I left the church a funeral procession +approached, women carrying palls by the four corners a little in front +of the coffin, according to the custom of the country when the dead +person is of their own sex. + +St. Affrique is a small town of about 7,000 inhabitants, lying in a +warm valley and surrounded by high hills, the sides of which were once +covered with luxuriant vineyards. These slopes, arid, barren, and +sun-scorched, are perfectly suited to the cultivation of the vine, the +fig, and the almond; but the elevation is still too great for the +olive. According to the authors of 'Gallia Christiana,' a saint named +Fricus, or Africus, came at the beginning of the sixth century into +the valley of the Sorgues, and was the founder of the burg. St. +Affrique was a strong place in the Middle Ages, and for this reason it +was disturbed less by the English than some other towns in the +Rouergue. After the treaty of Brétigny the consuls went to Millau and +swore fealty to the King of England, represented there by John +Chandos. + +As I toiled up the side of the valley in the direction of Millau, I +noticed the Rocher de Caylus, a large reddish and somewhat +fantastically shaped block of oolitic rock, perched on the hill above +the vineyards. Here the lower formation was schistous, the upper +calcareous. The sun was intensely hot, but there was the shade of +walnut-trees, of which I took advantage, although it is said to be +poisonous, like that of the oleander. + +When I reached the plateau there was no shade whatever, baneful or +beneficent. If there was ever any forest here all vestige of it has +disappeared. I was on the border of the Causse de Larzac, one of the +highest, most extensive, and hopelessly barren of the calcareous +deserts which separate the rivers in this part of France. Not a drop +of water, save what may have been collected in tanks for the use of +sheep, and the few human beings who eke out an existence there, is to +be found upon them. Swept by freezing winds in winter and burnt by a +torrid sun in summer, their climate is as harsh as the soil is +ungenerous. + +But although I was sun-broiled upon this _causse_, I was interested at +every step by the flowers that I found there. Dry, chaffy, or prickly +plants, corresponding in their nature to the aridity and asperity of +the land, were peculiarly at home upon the undulating stoniness. The +most beautiful flower then blooming was the catananche, which has won +its poetic French name, _Cupidon bleu_, by the brilliant colour of its +blossom. Multitudes of yellow everlastings also decked the solitude. + +On reaching the highest ground the crests of the bare Cevennes were +seen against the cloudless sky to the south. A little to the east, +beyond the valley of the Cernon, which I intended to cross, were high +hills or cliffs, treeless and sterile, with hard-cut angular sides, +terminating upwards in vertical walls of naked stone. These were the +buttresses of the Causse de Larzac. The lower sides of some of the +hills were blue with lias marl, and wherever they were steep not a +blade of grass grew. + +Having descended to the valley, I was soon climbing towards Roquefort +by the flanks of those melancholy hills which seemed to express the +hopelessness of nature after ages of effort to overcome some evil +power. And yet the tinkling of innumerable sheep-bells told that even +here men had found a way of earning their bread. I saw the flocks +moving high above me where all was wastefulness and rockiness, and +heard the voices of the shepherds. There were the Roquefort sheep +whose milk, converted into cheese of the first quality, is sent into +distant countries whose people little imagine that its constituents +are drawn from a desert where there is little else but stones. + +I came in view of the village, clinging as it seemed to the steep at +the base of a huge bastion of stark jurassic rock. Facing it was +another barren hill, and in the valley beneath were mamelons of dark +clay and stones partly conquered by the great broom and burning with +its flame of gold. When I reached the village I felt that I had earned +a rest. + +Cheese, which has been the fortune of Roquefort, has destroyed its +picturesqueness. It has brought speculators there who have raised +great ugly square buildings of dazzling whiteness, in harsh contrast +with the character and sombre tone of the old houses. Although the +place is so small that it consists of only one street and a few +alleys, the more ancient dwellings are remarkable for their height. It +is surprising to see in a village lost among the sterile hills houses +three stories high. The fact that there is only a ledge on which to +build must be the explanation. What is most curious in the place is +the cellars. Before the cheese became an important article of commerce +these were natural caverns, such as are everywhere to be found in this +calcareous formation, but now they are really cellars which have been +excavated to such a depth in the rock that they are to be seen in as +many as five stages, where long rows of cheeses are stacked one over +the other. The virtue of these cellars from the cheese-making point of +view is their dryness and their scarcely varying temperature of about +8° Centigrade summer and winter. But the demand for Roquefort cheese +has become so great that trickery now plays a part in the ripening +process. The peasants have learnt that 'time is money,' and they have +found that bread-crumbs mixed with the curd cause those green streaks +of mouldiness, which denote that the cheese is fit for the market, to +appear much more readily than was formerly the case when it was left +to do the best it could for itself with the aid of a subterranean +atmosphere. This is not exactly cheating; it is commercial enterprise, +the result of competition and other circumstances too strong for poor +human nature. In cheese-making, breadcrumbs are found to be a cheap +substitute for time, and it is said that those who have taken to +beer-brewing in this region have found that box, which here is the +commonest of shrubs, is a cheap substitute for hops. The notion that +brass pins are stuck into Roquefort cheese to make it turn green is +founded on fiction. + +Having remained at Roquefort long enough to see all that was needful, +to lunch and to be overcharged--commercial enterprise is very +infectious--I turned my back upon it and scrambled down a stony path +to the bottom of the valley where the Cernon--now a mere thread of a +stream--curled and sparkled in the middle of its wide channel, the +yellow flowers and pale-green leaves of the horned poppy basking upon +the rocky banks. Following it down to the Tarn, I came to the village +of St. Rome de Cernon, where the houses of dark-gray stone, built on a +hillside, are overtopped by the round tower of a small mediaeval +fortress which has been patched up and put to some modern use. I +thought the people very ill-favoured by nature here, but perhaps they +are not more so than others in the district. The harshness of nature +is strongly reflected in all faces. Having passed a man on the bank of +the stream washing his linen--presumably his own--with bare arms, +sinewy and hairy like a gorilla's, I was again in the open country; +but instead of following donkey-paths and sheep-tracks I was upon the +dusty highroad. Well, even a, _route nationale_, however hot and +dusty, so that it be not too straight, has its advantages, which are +felt after you have been walking an uncertain number of miles over a +very rough country, trusting to luck to lead you where you wished to +go. The feeling that you may at length step out freely and not worry +yourself with a map and compass is a kind of pleasure which, like all +others, is only so by the force of contrast and the charm of variety. +I knew that I could now tramp along this road without troubling myself +about anything, and that I should reach Millau sooner or later. It was +really very hot--ideal sunstroke weather, verging on 90° in the shade; +but I had become hardened to it, and was as dry as a smoked herring. +For miles I saw no human being and heard no sound of life except the +shrilling of grasshoppers and the more strident song of the cicadas in +the trees. By-and-by houses showed themselves, and I came to the +village of St. Georges beside the bright little Cernon, but surrounded +by wasteful, desolate hills, one of which, shaped like a cone, reared +its yellow rocky summit far towards the blue solitude of the dazzling +sky. I passed by little gardens where great hollyhocks flamed in the +afternoon sunshine, then I met the Tarn again and reached Millau, a +weary and dusty wayfarer. + +I stopped in Millau (sometimes spelt Milhau) more than a day, in order +to rest and to ramble--moderately. Although the town, with its 16,000 +inhabitants, is the most populous in the department of the Aveyron, it +is so remote from all large centres and currents of human movement +that very little French is spoken there. And this French is about on a +par with the English of the Sheffield grinders. In the better-class +families an effort now is made to keep _patois_ out-of-doors for the +sake of the children; but there is scarcely a middle-aged native to +whom it is not the mother-tongue. The common dialect is not quite the +same throughout Guyenne and Languedoc; but the local variations are +much less marked than one would expect, considering that the _langue +d'oc_ has been virtually abandoned as a literary vehicle for +centuries. The word _oc_ (yes), which was once the most convenient +sound to distinguish the dialect from that of the northern half of +France, is not easy to recognise nowadays in the conversation of the +people. The _c_ in the word is not pronounced--perhaps it never +was--and the _o_ is usually joined to _bè_, which has the same meaning +as _bien_ in the French language. Thus we have the forms _obè_, _opè_, +and _apè_ according to the district, and all equivalent to 'yes.' All +these people can understand Spanish when spoken slowly. Many can catch +your meaning when you speak to them in French, but reply in _patois_. +I had grown accustomed, although not reconciled, to this manner of +conversing with peasants; but I was surprised to find on entering a +shop at Millau that neither the man nor his wife there could reply to +me in French. + +This town lies in the bottom of a basin; some of the high hills, +especially those on the east, showing savage escarpments with towering +masses of yellow or reddish rock at the summits. The climate of the +valley is delightful in winter, but sultry and enervating in summer. +It is so protected from the winds that the mulberry flourishes there, +and countless almond-trees rise above the vines on the burning +hillsides. + +Millau presents a good deal of interest to the archaeologist. Very +noteworthy is the ancient market-place, where the first and upper +stories project far over the paving and are supported by a colonnade. +Some of the columns, with elaborately carved Romanesque capitals, date +from the twelfth century, and look ready to fall into fragments. At +one end of the square is an immense modern crucifix--a sure sign that +the civic authorities do not yet share the views of the municipal +councillors of Paris in regard to religious emblems. Protestants, +however, are numerous at Millau as well as at St. Affrique, both towns +having been important centres of Calvinism at the time of the +Revocation of the Edict of Nantes; and after the forced emigration +many of the inhabitants must have strongly sympathized with their +persecuted neighbours, the Camisards. Nevertheless, the department of +the Aveyron, taken in its entirety, is now one of the most fervently +Catholic in France. + +The church is Romanesque, with a marked Byzantine tendency. It has an +elegant apse, decorated in good taste; but the edifice having received +various patchings and decorations at the time of the Renaissance, the +uniformity of style has been spoilt. The most striking architectural +feature of the town is a high Gothic belfry of octagonal form, with a +massive square tower for its base. + +In the Middle Ages the government of this town was vested in six +consuls, who received twenty gold florins a year as salary, and also a +new robe of red and black cloth with a hood. In 1341 they furnished +forty men-at-arms for the war against the English, but the place was +given up to Chandos in 1362. The rising of 1369 delivered the burghers +again from the British power, but for twenty-two years they were +continually fighting with the English companies. + +The evening before I left Millau I strolled into the little square +where the great crucifix stands. I found it densely crowded. Three or +four hundred men were there, each wearing a blouse and carrying a +sickle with a bit of osier laid upon the sharp edge of the blade along +its whole length, and firmly tied. All these harvesters were waiting +to be hired for the following week. They belonged to a class much less +numerous in France than in England--the agricultural labourers who +have no direct interest in the soil that they help to cultivate and +the crops that they help to gather in. I have often met them on the +dusty roads, frequently walking with bare feet, carrying the +implements of their husbandry and a little bundle of clothes. It must +be very hard to ask for work from farm to farm. I can enter fully into +the attachment of the French peasant to his bit of land, which, +although it may yield him little more than his black bread, cannot be +taken from him so long as he can manage to live by the sweat of his +brow. Many of these peasant proprietors can barely keep body and soul +together; but when they lie down upon their wretched beds at night, +they feel thankful that the roof that covers them and the soil that +supports them are their own. The wind may howl about the eaves, and +the snow may drift against the wall, but they know that the one will +calm down, and that the other will melt, and that life will go on as +before--hard, back-breaking, grudging even the dark bread, but secure +and independent. Waiting to be hired by another man, almost like a +beast of burden--what a trial is here for pride! Happily for the human +race, pride, although it springs naturally in the breast of man, only +becomes luxuriant with cultivation. The poor labourer does not feel it +unless his instinctive sense of justice has been outraged. + + + + +THE BLACK CAUSSE. + + +One cannot be sure of the weather even in the South of France, where +the skies are supposed, by those who do not know them, to be +perpetually blue. The 'South of France' itself is a very deceptive +term. The climate on one side of a range of mountains or high hills +may be altogether different from that on the other. In Upper Languedoc +and Guyenne the climate is regulated by three principal factors: the +elevation of the soil, the influence of the Mediterranean, and the +influence of the Atlantic. On the northern side of the Cevennes, the +currents from the ocean, together with the altitude, do much to keep +the air moist and comparatively cool in summer; whereas on the other +side of the chain, where the Mediterranean influence--in a large +measure African--is paramount, the climate is dry and torrid during +the hot months. A liability to sudden changes goes with the advantages +of the more favoured region. This was enforced upon me at Millau. + +At seven o'clock the sky, lately of such a fiery blue, was of a most +mournful smokiness, and the rain fell in a drenching spray. It was +mountain weather, and I blamed the Cevennes for it. But I was in the +South, and at a season when bad weather is seldom in earnest, so I did +not despair of a change when the sun rose higher. It came, in fact, at +about eight o'clock, when, a breeze springing up, the clouds, after a +short struggle, were swept away. The market-women spread out upon the +pavement their tomatoes, their purple _aubergines_, their peaches, and +green almonds; the harvesters, long hesitating, went out into the +fields to reap; and I, leaving the Tarn, took my way up the valley of +the gleaming Dourbie. Millau was soon nearly hidden in its basin, but +above it, on the sides of the surrounding hills, scattered amongst the +sickly vines, or the vigorous young plants which promised in a few +years to make the stony soil flow once more with purple juice, were +the small white houses of the wine-growers. Where I could, I walked in +the shade of walnut and mulberry trees, for the heat was great, and +the rain that had fallen rose like steam in the sun-blaze from the +herbage and the golden stubble. In this low valley all corn except +maize had been gathered in, and Nature was resting, after her labour, +with the smile of maternity on her face. Nevertheless, this stillness +of the summer's fulfilment, this pause in the energy of production, is +saddening to the wayfarer, to whom the vernal splendour of the year +and the time of blossoming seem like the gifts of yesterday. The +serenity of the burnished plains now prompts him upward, where he +hopes to overtake the tarrying spring upon the cool and grassy +mountains. Although the mountains towards which I was now bearing were +the melancholy and arid Cevennes, I wished the distance less that lay +between me and their barren flanks, where the breeze would be scented +with the bloom of lavender. There were flowers along the wayside here, +but they were the same that I had been seeing for many a league, and +they reminded me too forcibly of the rapid flight of the summer days +by their haste--their unnecessary haste, as I thought--in passing from +the flower to the seed. A sprig of lithosperm stood like a little tree +laden with Dead Sea fruit, for the naked seeds clung hard and flinty +where the flowers had been. The glaucium, although still blooming, had +put forth horns nine inches long, and the wild barley, so lately +green, was now a brown fringe along the dusty road. And thus all these +familiar forms of vegetable life, which we notice in our wanderings, +but never understand, come and go, perish and rise again--so quickly, +too, that we have no time to listen to what they say; we only feel +that the song which they sing along the waysides of the world is ever +joyous and ever sad. + +In the lower part of this valley were scattered farmhouses, which +looked like small rural churches, for their high rectangular dovecots +at one end had much the air of towers with broach spires. Throughout +Guyenne one is amazed at the apparently extravagant scale on which +accommodation has been provided for pigeon-rearing. There are plenty +of pigeons in the country, but the size of their houses is usually out +of all proportion to the number of lodgers, and dovecots without +tenants are almost as frequently seen as those that are tenanted. They +are seldom of modern construction; many are centuries old. All this +points to the conclusion that people of former times laid much greater +store by pigeon-flesh than their descendants do. It may have been that +other animal food was relatively more expensive than at the present +day. + +But as I ascended the valley the breadth of cultivated land grew +narrower, and the habitations fewer. On either side the cliffs rose +higher, and the walls of Jurassic rock, above the brashy steeps, more +towering, precipitous, and fantastic. Where vegetable life could draw +sustenance from crumbling, stones stretched a veritable forest of box. +Now, in a narrow gorge, the Dourbie frolicked about the heaps of +pebbles it had thrown up in its winter fury. Strong wires, attached to +high rocks, crossed the gorge and the stream, and were made fast to +the side of the road. Bundles of newly-cut box at the lower end showed +the use to which these wires were put. Far aloft upon the heated rocks +women were cutting down the tough shrub for firewood or manure, for it +is put to both uses. It serves a very useful purpose when buried in +dense layers between the vine rows. When I looked aloft, and saw those +petticoated beings toiling in the terrible heat, I thought it a pity +that there was no society to protect women as well as horses from +being cruelly overworked. Let social reformers ponder this truth: The +more the man is encouraged to shirk work, the more the woman will have +to toil to make up for wasted time. As it is, women everywhere, except +perhaps in England, work harder than men, as far as I can speak from +observation. + +I was on my way to Vieux Montpellier--the 'Devil's City'--and already +the scenery began to take the character to be expected of it in such a +neighbourhood. It seemed as though the demon builder of the fantastic +town, sporting with man's architectural ideals before his appearance +on the earth, had hewn the red and yellow rocks above the Dourbie into +the ironic semblance of feudal towers and heaven-pointing spires. + +The highest limestone rocks in this region, those which rise from the +plateau or _causse_ and strike the imagination by the strangeness of +their forms, are dolomite; in the gorges they approach the character +of lias towards the base, and not unfrequently contain lumps of pure +silex embedded in their mass. The redness which they so often show, +and which, alternating with yellow, white, or gray, adds to the +grandeur of their rugged outlines, is due to the iron which the rock +contains. + +A young gipsy-woman, carrying a child upon her shoulders, and holding +on to a dusky little leg on each side of her neck, followed in the +wake of an old caravan drawn by a mule of resigned countenance--a +beast that seemed to have made a vow never to hurry again, and to let +the flies do their worst. She vanished upon the winding road, and +presently I saw another wayfarer seated on the bank beside the stream, +binding up a bleeding foot under the trailing traveller's joy. Before +reaching the village of La Roque-Sainte-Marguerite, I passed a genuine +rock dwelling. A natural cavern, some twenty or thirty feet above the +level of the road, had been walled up to make a house. It had its door +and windows like any other dwelling, and some convenient crevice in +the rock had probably been used for a chimney. + +Having taken an hour's rest and a light meal in the village, I +commenced the ascent towards the 'Devil's City.' A mule-path wound up +the steep side of the gorge, which had been partly reclaimed from the +desert by means of terraces where many almond-trees flourished, safe +from the north wind. Very scanty, however, was the vegetation that +grew upon this dry stony soil, burning in summer, and washed in winter +of its organic matter by the mountain rains. Tall woody spurges two +feet high or more, with tufts of dusty green leaves, managed to draw, +however, abundant moisture from the waste, as the milk that gushed +from the smallest wound attested. An everlasting pea, with very large +flowers of a deep rose-colour, also loved this arid steep. I was +wondering why I found no lavender, when I saw a gray-blue tuft above +me, and welcomed it like an old friend. The air was soon scented with +the plant, and for five days I was in the land of lavender. On nearing +the buttresses of the plateau the ground was less steep, and here I +came to pines, junipers, oaks, and the bird-cherry prunus. But the +tree which I was most pleased to find was a plum, with ripe fruit +about the size of a small greengage, but of a beautiful pale +rose-colour. + +I am now upon the _causse_ and already see the castellated outworks +of the 'Devil's City.' The city itself lies in a hollow, and I have +not yet reached it. The mule-path fortunately leads in the right +direction. On my way multitudes of very dark, almost black, +butterflies flutter up from the short turf, which is flecked with +the gold of yellow everlastings. Here and there a solitary +round-headed allium nods from the top of its long leafless stem. I +walk over the shining dark leaves and the scarlet beads of the +bearberry, and am presently roaming in the fantastic streets of the +dolomitic city. To say streets is scarcely an exaggeration, for +these jutting rocks have in places almost the regularity of the +menhirs of Carnac. But the megalithic monuments of Brittany are like +arrow-heads compared to the stones of Montpellier-le-Vieux. In +placing these and in giving them that mimicry of familiar forms at +times so startling to human eyes, Nature has been the sole engineer +and artist. There is but one theory by which the working cause of +the existing phenomena can be brought to our understanding. It is +that these honeycombed and fantastically-shaped masses of dolomite +or magnesian limestone represent the skeletons of vaster rocks whose +less resisting parts were washed away by the wearing action of the +sea. Some are formed of blocks of varying size, lying one upon +another, with a pinnacle or dome at the summit; others show no trace +of stratification, but are integral rocks which in many cases appear +to have been cut away and fashioned to the mocking likeness of some +animal form by a demon statuary. Now it is a colossal owl, now a +frightful head that may be human or devilish, now some inanimate +shape such as a prodigious wineglass which fixes the eye and excites +the fancy. A mass of rock on which can be seen half sitting, half +reclining, a monstrous stony shape with head hideously jovial, has +been named the 'Devil's Chair.' + +I saw this spot under circumstances very favourable to the full +reception of its fantastic, mysterious, and gloomy influence. It was +late enough in the afternoon for the feeling of evening and of the +coming night to be in the air, especially here, where dark pines stood +in the mimic streets and squares like cypresses in a cemetery. The +awful mournfulness of the shadowy groves was deepened by my own +solitariness, for although surrounded by frightful shapes that +caricatured humanity, mine was the only human form that moved amongst +the dumb but fiend-like rocks and the pines, which moaned and +whispered like unhappy ghosts. I was alone in the 'Devil's City,' and +perchance with the devil himself. When a hawk flew over and screamed +it was welcome, although there was nothing cheerful in its cry. There +could be no severer trial perhaps to the nerves of a superstitious +person than to take a solitary walk by moonlight through +Montpellier-le-Vieux. The sense of the weird and the horrible would +give him too many cold shudders for him to enjoy the grandeur and the +strangeness of the scene. + +The superstitious horror in which this spot has always been held by +the peasants--chiefly shepherds--of the district, together with the +fact that the rustic, uninfluenced from without, never speaks of rocks +except in terms of contempt, however extraordinary their forms may be, +must be the reason why Montpellier-le-Vieux has only been known of +late years to persons interested in such curiosities of nature. To the +geologist it is fascinating ground, as, indeed, is the whole expanse +of these _causses_ of Guyenne and Upper Languedoc, so fissured and +honeycombed--a region of gorges and caverns, of subterranean lakes and +rivers, of bottomless pits and mysterious streams. + +It is said that the dolomitic city owes its name, Montpellier-le-Vieux, +to the shepherds of Lower Languedoc, who from time immemorial have +brought their flocks in summer to pasture upon these highlands. In +their dialect they call Montpellier, which is to them what Paris is to +the peasants of the Brie, 'Lou Clapas'--literally, a heap of stones. On +seeing rocks covering several acres, and looking like the ruins of a +great city of the past, they could think of no better name for it than +'Lou Clapas Biel,' or 'old heap of stones.' This turned into French +becomes Montpellier-le-Vieux. + +The 'Devil's City' can be recommended to the botanist, who need not +fear that the flowers he will find there will wither at his touch like +those gathered for Marguerite by her guileless lover. The +ever-crumbling dolomite has formed a soil very favourable to a varied +flora. As I had, however, to reach the gorge of the Tarn before +nightfall, and it was still far off, I only took away two souvenirs of +the diabolic garden--a white scabious and a bit of rock-potentil. + +The name given to the tract of country I was now crossing--the Causse +Noir, fitly describes it, It is singularly dark and mournful, and +almost uninhabited. It is not, strictly speaking, a plateau, but a +succession of valleys and low hills like the bed of the ocean. The +barren land is thickly overgrown with box and juniper, and these +shrubs, which often attain a height of six or eight feet, sufficiently +account for the sombre tone of the landscape. Here and there savage +little, gorges run up between the dismal hills, with trees of larger +growth, such as oaks and pines, in the hollows. There is good reason +to believe that all these _causses_ were at one time more or less +covered by forests; but the reason commonly given for their +disappearance--namely, that they were burnt down during the religious +wars--is less likely to be the true one than that they gradually +perished because it was nobody's business to protect the seedlings +from sheep and goats--animals capable of changing the world into a +treeless desert, but which, fortunately, cease to be profitable when +they come down from the sterile highlands, where they thrive best, +into the rich plains and valleys. The disastrous floods which occur +with such appalling suddenness in the valleys of the Tarn and the Lot +are due in a large measure to the nudity of the _causses_ and the +Cevennes, where these mountains turn northward and cross the Lozère to +meet the Auvergne range. The French Government nurses the hope that it +will be able some day to cover much of the baldness of this extensive +region with magnificent pine-forests, and planting actually goes on in +places; but what with the nibbling flocks, and the increasing seventy +of the winters, the measure of success already obtained by such +laudable efforts is not encouraging. + +I wished to reach Peyreleau that night, but how to get there I knew +not otherwise than by persistently keeping in a north-easterly course, +and despising all natural obstacles. I was attracted by what looked +like a road running up between two hills in the right direction; but +when I came to it I found that it was the dry channel of a stream. I +nevertheless took advantage of it, as I have of many another such in +the South, although there are few watercourses whose beds can be +walked upon with comfort. I was lucky now beyond my expectations, for +it was not long before I struck a road which I was sure could lead +nowhere but to Peyreleau. It first took me through a darkly-wooded +gorge, where evening stood like a nun in a chapel. The brilliant sky +had changed to a sad gray. There was to be no gorgeous sunset, with +rosy after-glow, softening with transparent colour the harshness of +the dark box and darker juniper. No: the day that commenced sadly was +ending sadly--going to its grave in a gray habit with drawn cowl. A +great falcon passed slowly on its way under the dull sky, but no bird +nor beast uttered a sound. The Causse Noir was as silent as a crypt. + +I became very uncertain where this road over the dismal solitude was +going to lead me, for it turned about in such a way as to put me out +of my reckoning. At length I saw a deep gorge yawning below, and this +told me that I had reached the edge of the _causse_. Oh, the sublime +desolation of these heights and depths in the solemn evening! How, +mournful then is the silence of the innumerable, gray stones and +monstrous rocks which try to speak to us like creatures once eloquent +and possessing the knowledge of wondrous changes, and the key to +problems that everlastingly distress the human mind, but on which the +curse of dumbness has lain for ages! + +I thought that I must have wandered beyond the peopled world, when +suddenly I saw, far down in the bottom of the widening valley, a +village or small town at the foot of a cone-shaped hill. The little +river running near satisfied me that I was in view of Peyreleau. The +descent was tedious and long, notwithstanding the loops that I cut off +of the curling road by scrambling down the steep sides of the gorge +over the loose stones and lavender. It was still daylight when I +reached a small hotel, outside of which some tourists were smoking +cigarettes and drinking beer while waiting for dinner. Until then I +had not seen a tourist after leaving Albi. All through the Albigeois +and the Rouergue, I was looked upon as an animal of unknown species, +and possibly noxious; but here I was recognised at once as one of a +familiar tribe, of small brain development, but harmless. I had +entered a region which for several years past had drawn to it many +persons--mostly French--who had heard of the grand gorge, or cañon, of +the Tarn. + +I had been told that the right way--the one followed by all sensible +people--of seeing the gorge from Sainte-Enimie to Le Rozier was to +come down the stream in a boat; but circumstances, or my own +perversity, had led me once more to do the thing that was considered +wrong. Instead of coming down the swift stream like a fly on a leaf, +my intention was to crawl up the gorge by such goat or mule paths as +were available on the margin of the river or on the ledges of the +cliffs. Thus I should not be obliged to treat every fresh view as if +it were a bird on the wing, but could dawdle as long as I pleased over +this or that object without being a trouble to anybody. + +It was far from unpleasant, however, to spend an evening at this +water-side inn with people fresh from Paris, bringing with them the +spray of the sea that beats against the shores of high-strung life. +Nor was it unpleasant to find a little refinement in the kitchen +again, and to eat trout not saturated with the essence of garlic. + + + + +THE CAÑON OF THE TARN. + + +At an early hour next morning I was making my way up the gorge beside +the Tarn; but before leaving Peyreleau, I wandered about its steep +streets--in some places a series of steps cut in the rock--noted +Gothic doorways, and houses with interior vaulting, and climbed to the +top of a machicolated tower built over the ivy-draped wall of a ruined +castle. The place is very charming to the eye; but in this region one +soon becomes a spoilt child of the picturesque, and the mind, fatigued +by admiration, loses something of its sensibility to the impressions +of beauty and grandeur, and is capable of passing by almost unmoved +what, where Nature deals out her surprises with a calmer hand, might +engrave upon the memory images of lasting delight. This is the chief +reason, perhaps, why I hate the hurry of the sightseer who, even in +his pleasure, makes himself the bondman of time and the creature of +convention. + +It was pleasant and easy walking on the bank of the river, for as yet +the cliffs were far apart, and in the valley there were strips of +meadow and flowering buckwheat. The water, where it was not broken +into white anger by the rocky channel, was intensely green with the +reflection of poplar and alder, although of crystal clearness. I +watched the large trout swimming in the pools, and wished I had a rod, +but consoled myself with the thought that if I had brought one I +should probably have not seen a fish. Opportunities are never so ready +to show themselves as when we have not the means of seizing them. +While I was looking at the river, a boat shot into view round a bend +of the gorge and came down like an arrow over the rapids. It contained +a small party of tourists and two boatmen, who stood in. the +flat-bottomed craft with poles in their hands, with which they kept it +clear of the rocks. I understood at once the delicious excitement of +coming down the Tarn in this fashion. Bucketfuls of water are often +shipped where the stream rushes furiously between walls of rock; but +the men have become so expert with practice that the risk of being +capsized is very slight. In a few minutes the boat had vanished, and +then the gorge became wilder and sterner; but just as I thought the +sentiment of desolation perfect, a little goatherd, who had climbed +high up the rocks somewhere with his equally sure-footed companions, +began to sing, not a pastoral ditty in the Southern dialect, but the +'Marseillaise,' thus recalling with shocking incongruity impressions +of screaming barrel-organs at the fête of St. Cloud. + +The gorge narrowed and the rocks rose higher, the topmost crags being +1,000 or 1,200 feet above the water. Although everything here was on a +grander scale, all the strong peculiarities of formation which I had +remarked elsewhere in Guyenne and Languedoc, wherever the layers of +Jurassic rock have split asunder and produced gorges more or less +profound, were repeated in this cañon of the Tarn. + +Competent geologists, however, have noted a distinctive difference, +namely: that, of all the rivers running in the fissures of the +_causses_, the Tarn is the only one whose water does not penetrate to +the beds of marl beneath the lias; and this is said to partly explain +the great height and verticality of the cliffs, for when the water +reaches the marl it saps the foundations of the rocks, and these, +subsiding, send their dislocated masses rolling to the bottom of the +gorge. + +I overtook a man and two boys who were hauling and pushing a boat +up-stream. The man was wading in the water with a towing-rope over his +shoulder, and the boys were in the punt plying their boat-hooks +against the rocks and the bed of the river. They made very slow +headway on account of the strength and frequency of the rapids. In +coming down the Tarn, all that the boatman has to do is to use his +_gaffe_ so as to keep clear of the rocks; but the return-journey is by +no means so pleasant and exciting. + +I passed a little cluster of hovels built against the rock, and here a +kind woman offered me some sheep's milk, which I declined for no +better reason than because it was sheep's. + +Towards mid-day I reached the village of Les Vignes, which takes its +name from the vineyards which have long been cultivated here, where +the gorge widens somewhat, and offers opportunities to husbandry. The +great cliffs protect vegetation and human life from the mountain +climate which prevails upon the dismal Causse Méjan and the Causse de +Sauveterre, separated by the deep fissure. Until tourists came to the +Tarn, Les Vignes was quite cut off from the world, but now it is a +halting-place for the boatmen and their passengers; and a little +auberge, while retaining all its rustic charm, provides the traveller +with a good meal at a fair price. The rush of strangers during the +summer has not yet been sufficient to spoil the river-side people +between Sainte-Enimie and Peyreleau by fostering that spirit of +speculation which, when it takes hold of an inn-keeper, almost fatally +classifies him with predatory animals. + +On reaching the auberge I walked straight into the kitchen as usual. A +fowl and a leg of mutton were turning on the spit, and the hostess was +very busy with stewpans and other utensils on various parts of her +broad hearth. I soon learnt that a party of several persons had +arrived before me, and that all these preparations were for them. My +application for a meal was not met with a refusal, but it was evident +that I should have to wait until others were served, and that, they +having bespoken the best of everything in the house, my position was +not as satisfactory as could be desired. I suppose I must have looked +rather sad, for one of the party who had so swooped down upon the +little inn and all its resources suggested that I should take my meal +at their table. I should have accepted this offer with more hesitation +had I known that they had brought with them the _pièce de résistance_, +the leg of mutton, nearly as large as an English one, that was +browning upon the spit before the blazing wood. After thinking myself +unlucky, it turned out that I was in luck's way. + +I was presently seated at a long table with about a dozen others of +both sexes, all relatives or old friends. They belonged to the small +town of Severac, and had driven in two queer countrified vehicles +about fifteen miles in order to spend a happy day at Les Vignes. They +were terribly noisy, but boundlessly good-natured. Not only was I made +to share their leg of mutton, but also the champagne which they had +brought with them. The modest lunch that I had expected became a +veritable feast, and having been entangled in the convivial meshes, I +had to stay until the end of it all. The experience was worth +something as a study of provincial life and manners. These +people--husbands and wives and friends--had come out with the +determination to enjoy themselves, and their enjoyment was not merely +hearty; it was hurricane-like. There were moments when pieces of bread +and green almonds were flying across the table, and the noise of +voices was so terrific that the quiet hostess looked in at the door +with a scared expression which made me think she was wondering how +much longer the roof would be able to remain in its right place. Then, +the jokes that were exchanged over the table were as broad as the +humour of the South is broad. I felt sorry for the women, but quite +unnecessarily. Although the local colour was not refined, human nature +present was frank, hospitable, and irresistibly warm-hearted. The +vulgarity of the party was of the unselfish sort, and therefore +amusing. The enjoyment of each was the enjoyment of all; and even when +the tempest of humour was at its height, not a word was said that was +intended to be offensive. As a compliment to me, they all rose to +their feet, glasses in hand, and the hostess was again startled by a +mighty rush of sound repeating the words 'Vive l'Angleterre!' far up +and down the valley. + +Instead of going on to La Malène that afternoon, as I had intended, I +went after crayfish with one of the members of this jovial party, who +had brought with him the necessary tackle for the sport. There are +various ways of catching crayfish; but in this district the favourite +method is the following: Small wire hoops, about a foot in diameter, +are covered with netting strained nearly tight, and to this pieces of +liver or other meat are tied. A cord a few yards long, fastened to the +centre of the netting, completes the tackle. The baited snare is +thrown into the stream, not far from the bank, and generally where the +bottom is strewn with stones. No more art is needed. The crayfish, +supposing them to be in the humour to eat, soon smell the meat or +divine its presence, and, coming forth from their lairs beneath the +stones, make towards the lure with greedy alacrity. Their movements +can be generally watched, for although they are not delicate feeders, +they are as difficult as Chinamen to please in the matter of water, +and are only to be found in very clear streams. As is the case with +their congeners--the sea crayfish and the crab--greediness renders +them stupid, and, rather than leave a piece of meat which is to their +taste, they will allow themselves to be pulled with it out of the +water. It sometimes happens that the netting is covered with these +creatures in a few minutes, and that all the trouble the fisherman has +is to haul them up. But they are capricious, and, notwithstanding +their voracity, there are times when they will not leave their holes +upon any consideration. Such was their humour to-day. The cause of +their sullenness was said to be a wind that rippled the surface of the +water; but, whatever the reason, not a crayfish did we catch. + +The breeze which was supposed to have upset the temper of the +crustaceous multitude in the Tarn blew up bad weather before night. +The panic-stricken leaves upon the alders and poplars announced the +change with palsied movements and plaintive cries; the willows +whitened, and bent towards the stream; and muttered threats of the +strife-breeding spirits in nature seemed to issue from caverns half +hidden by sombre foliage. As the gorge darkened, the gusts grew +stronger, and the moaning rose at times to a shriek. Now the thunder +groaned, the lightning flashed, and the face of the river gleamed. I +returned to the inn just as the hissing rain began to fall. I was by +this time alone, for the party from Severac had left at the approach +of the storm. + +As I took my solitary evening meal in a low building cut off from the +inn, composed of a large _salle-à-manger_--the same in which the feast +was held--and a bedroom, where I was to pass the rest of the night, I +could not help contrasting the exuberant joviality of the morning with +the absolute want of it now. The place seemed much too big for me; I +had rather it had been half as large, to have got rid of half the +shadow. Instead of the tempestuous laughter, there was the thunder's +roar. There was also the lightning's flash to drive the shadows out of +the corners from time to time. It was a wild and awful night. + +I was busily building around me a vaporous rampart of tobacco-smoke, +as a barrier to gloomy suggestions from without, when the door +suddenly opened, and in walked two gendarmes--one a very +self-important-looking brigadier, with thin sharp nose and keen, +weasel-like eyes. My immediate impression was that they had come to +question me respecting my intentions--inasmuch as I was not going to +work in the same way as other tourists--and possibly to ask me for my +papers; but I was mistaken. They had merely taken shelter from the +rain, and they had not found a refuge too soon, for their appearance +was that of half-drowned rats. The brigadier called for a bottle of +beer, and while he and his younger companion were drinking it I learnt +from their conversation what business had taken them out of doors that +night. Their object was to surprise the fish-poachers at the illegal, +but very exciting and picturesque, sport of spearing by torchlight. +Now, as I had already seen these night-poachers at work on the Tarn, I +may as well describe their method here. + +I was walking one dark night on the bank of the river near Ambialet, +when a glare of lurid light suddenly shot up from the water some +distance in front of me, illuminating the willows, and even the black +woods, on each side of the gorge. I imagined myself at once in a +Canadian forest, near an Indian camp-fire. The light came gliding in +my direction, and presently I distinguished the forms of men in a +boat, all lit up by the glare. One was punting; another was holding +aloft, not a torch, but blazing brushwood--which I afterwards learnt +was broom-that he replenished from a heap in the boat; and a third was +in the stern, gazing intently at the water, and holding in his hand a +staff, which he plunged from time to time to the bottom of the stream. +I understood that this was the _pêche au flambeau_, of which I had +already heard. + +The Tarn being in summer shallow, and of crystal clearness except in +time of flood, it offers every facility for this kind of fishing. The +flat-bottomed boat glides along with the current; the fish, dazzled by +the sudden light, sink at once to the bottom, and lie there stupefied +until they are either speared or the cause of their bewilderment +passes on. The spear head used is a small trident. When the moon is +up, the fish are not to be fascinated by artificial light; +consequently the darkest nights are chosen for this kind of poaching. + +The two gendarmes, then, had been looking for poachers, and, not +liking the weather, they had been unable to resist the auberge light +that beckoned them indoors. While they were talking, in walked the +most hardened and skilful poacher of the place, whose acquaintance I +had made earlier in the day, and who made no secret to me of his +business. So far from being abashed by the presence of the gendarmes, +he gave them a genial salutation, and, sitting down beside them, +talked to them as if he had been on the pleasantest terms with them +for years. He was a man of about fifty, who boasted to me that he had +been a poacher from the age of fifteen, and had never been caught. He +was therefore an artful old fox, and one very difficult to run down. +He made the most of his opportunities in all seasons, and laughed at +those who troubled their heads about the months which were open or +closed. His coolness in the presence of the gendarmes was charming. He +actually offered to furnish the brigadier with a dish of trout at any +time on a day's notice, and argued that they had no right to seize a +net wherever found, because the meshes were not of the lawful size. +'If you doubt it,' said the brigadier, 'just show me yours.' Then he +added with a grin: 'I shall pinch you some day, _mon vieux_.' The +other did not seem to believe it, and I am inclined to think that no +one will 'pinch' him but Death. + +Of the few really attractive callings left, that of the poacher must +be given a prominent place, especially in France, where the law is not +too severe upon a man who tries to make an honest living by breaking +the law so far as it relates to fish and game. The excitement of +catching wild creatures must be greatly increased by the risk that the +hunter or fisher runs of being caught himself. A poacher is by no +means looked down upon in France. He is considered a useful member of +society, especially by hotel-keepers. I know a very respectable beadle +of a singularly pious parish who is an inveterate poacher. On +week-days he is slinking about the woods and rocks with his gun, and +has generally a hare or a partridge in his bag; but on Sundays he +wears a cocked hat, a gold-laced coat with a sword at his side, and he +brings down his staff upon the church pavement with a thundering crack +at those moments when the wool-gathering mind has to be hurried back +and fixed upon the sacredness of the ritual. He is a well-knit, agile +fellow, who knows every inch of his ground, and he has led the +gendarmes who have surprised him such dances over rocks, and placed +them in such unpleasant positions, that they have come to treat him +with the respect and consideration due to a man of his talent and +resource. The French poacher must not be judged by the same ethics as +the English poacher. Generally speaking, game is not preserved in +France. There are extensive tracts everywhere where anybody can shoot, +provided that he has satisfied the license formality and observes the +regulations with regard to the seasons. The poacher is a man who +thinks it waste of money to pay for a gun-license, and a waste of +opportunities to respect the breeding season. If he is a fisher, he +not only scoffs at the close time, but uses illegal means to achieve +his purpose, such as nets with meshes smaller than they should be, and +the three-pronged spear. In the Tarn and other French rivers the fish +have been destroyed in a woeful manner by poison and dynamite, but it +is the rock-blaster and the navvy, not the regular poacher, who is +chiefly to be blamed for this. Men who have the constant handling of +dynamite, and who move from place to place, are rapidly destroying the +life of the rivers and streams. Having noted a good pool, they return +by night and drop into it a dynamite cartridge, the explosion of which +brings every fish, big and small, to the surface. With these +destructive causes, which do not belong to the natural order of +things, should be mentioned another that does, namely, the frequency +of floods in the season when the trout are spawning. But for this +drawback, and the unfair methods of fishing, the Upper Tarn would be +one of the finest trout streams in the world. As it is, an expert +angler would find plenty of sport on the banks of the river above Le +Rozier, and as all anglers are said to be lovers of nature, he would +never be dull in the midst of such entrancing scenery as is to be +found here. + +The storm having spent its fury, the gendarmes and the poacher left, +and I was again alone. Although it was not yet ten o'clock, there was +the quietude of midnight around me. The village was asleep, and I +should have thought Nature asleep had I not heard the harsh scream of +an owl as I entered my bedroom and threw open the window. The clouds +had broken up, and the moon was shining above the great rocks at the +foot of which I knew that the owl was flying silently and searching +with glowing eyes for the happy, unsuspecting mouse or young hare +amidst the thyme and bracken. Can Nature never rest? Is there no peace +without bloodshed under the sun and moon, no respite from ravin even +when the night is hooded like a dead monk? + +I turned from the moonlit clouds, the rushing dark water, the long +white reach of pebbles, and made a little journey round my room. The +people who owned this inn may not have been very prosperous, but they +were evidently rich in faith. The walls were ornamented with rosaries +yards long--probably from Lourdes--and religious pictures. There were +also statuettes of sacred figures, a large crucifix, and close by the +bed a holy-water stoup. The inhabitants of the Lozère, like those of +the Aveyron, are not only believing, they are zealous, and in their +homes they surround themselves with the emblems of their faith. These +are the only works of art which the villagers possess--almost their +only books. + +At seven the next morning I had left Les Vignes, and was making my way +up the gorge, whose rocky walls drew closer together, became more +stupendous, fantastic, and savagely naked. All cultivation +disappeared. A rock of immense size, pointing to the sky, but leaning +towards the gorge, soon attracted my notice, as it must that of any +traveller who comes within view of it. This monolith, over 200 feet in +height, has its base about 500 feet above the stream, but it is only a +jutting fragment of the prodigious wall. It has received the name of +L'Aiguille, from its needle-like shape. Below this, and partly in the +bed of the stream, is another prodigious block of dolomite called La +Sourde, and here the channel is so obstructed by the number and size +of the rocks which have fallen into it, that the river has forced a +passage beneath them, and does not reappear until the obstacle is +passed. But although the water vanishes, its muffled groan arises from +mysterious depths. This, together with the monstrous masses of +dolomite, wrinkled, white and honeycombed, the narrowness and gloomy +depth of the gorge, the fury of the water as it descends amongst the +blocks to leap into its gulf, makes the imagination ask if something +supernatural has not happened here. But the geologist says that this +chaos of tumbled-down rocks is simply the result of a 'fault' in the +stratification, and that, the foundations having given way, the masses +of dolomite fell where they now lie. + +In the Middle Ages, however, geology was an undiscovered science, and +the human mind was compelled--perhaps with much advantage to +itself--to seek supernatural causes in order to explain the mysterious +phenomena of nature, many of which, so far as subsidiary causes are +concerned, have ceased to be mysterious. This spot--called the Pas de +Souci--has, therefore, its poetic and miraculous legend. St. Enimie, +when she established her convent near the fountain of Burlats, higher +up the Tarn, interfered with the calculations of the devil, who had +found the numerous orifices in this region communicating with the +infernal kingdom exceedingly convenient for his terrestrial +enterprises. He therefore lost no time in entering upon a tug-of-war +with the saintly interloper. But she was more than a match for him. +Her nuns, however, were of weaker flesh, and so he tried his wiles +upon them. Their devotions and good resolutions were so much troubled +by the infernal teaser of frail humanity that St. Enimie, realizing +the great danger, rose to the occasion. One day or night she caught +the devil unawares in the convent and tried to chain him up; but he +was too strong or too crafty for the innocent virgin, and made his +escape down the gorge of the Tarn, intending to reach his own fortress +by the hole down which the stream plunges at the Pas de Souci, and +which the peasant believes existed from the beginning of the world. +St. Enimie followed at his heels as closely as she could, and he led +her a wild scamper over the rocks. She hoped that St. Ilère, her +confessor, who lived in a cavern of the gorge, would stop the fiend in +his flight, but the saint was so busy praying that he did not notice +the arch-enemy as he sped on his frantic course. St. Enimie was quite +out of breath and ready to drop from exhaustion when she drew near the +Pas de Souci, a little in the rear of the tormentor of souls, and he +was just about to plunge into the gulf. The saint threw herself upon +her knees, and exclaimed: 'Help me, O ye mountains and crags! Stop +him, fall upon him!' Thereupon there was a great commotion of the +ancient rocks far above under the calm sky, and they fell, one after +the other, with a frightful crash. It was, however, the immense block, +since named La Sourde, that stopped the devil; the others he shook off +as if they had been pebbles. When La Sourde struck him it was more +than he could contend with, and it flattened him out. The Needle Rock +was just about to tumble, when La Sourde cried out: 'Hold on, my +sister! You need not trouble yourself; I have him fast!' This explains +why the Needle Rock has ever since looked so undecided. For centuries +La Sourde bore the impress of a sanguinary hand, left upon it by Satan +in his frantic efforts to get free, but some years ago it was washed +away by an exceptionally high flood. + +A little beyond this impressive and legendary spot, the gorge, +widening, displays an immense concavity on the left, nearly +semicircular. Here among the spur-like rocks which jut out from its +steep sides--much clothed, however, with vegetation--was the hermitage +of St. Ilère, and the spot where it is supposed to have been is a +place of pilgrimage. Here, too, are numerous caverns, in some of which +many implements of the Stone Age have been found, as well as the bones +of extinct animals and others which disappeared from Europe before the +historic period. To those who have the special knowledge that is +requisite, the caverns of the Causses de Sauveterre and Méjan offer +great enticement, for only a few of their secrets, covered by the +darkness of incalculable ages, have yet been brought to light. + +Again the cliffs draw closer together, and the tower-like masses on +the brink of each precipice lift their inaccessible ramparts higher +and higher in the blue air. Gray-white or ochre-stained layers and +monoliths shine like incandescent coals in the unmitigated radiance of +the sun. I pass a little group of houses in the hollow of overhanging +rocks, splashed by the shadow of the wild fig-tree's leaves. One side +of the gorge is all luminous with sunbeams, down to the lathy poplars +leaning in every direction by the edge of the torrent, their leaves +still wet with last night's rain. Another boat is being tugged +laboriously up the rapids, a mule taking the first place at the end of +the rope. The impetuous water looks strong enough to carry the beast +off his legs; but he, like the boatman, is used to the work, and has +good nerves. The path--if path it can be called, when it has lost all +trace of one--now leads over large pebbles which are not pleasant to +walk upon; but presently the way along the water-side is absolutely +closed by vertical rocks some hundred feet high. + +To enter the mad torrent in order to get beyond these terrible rocks, +forming a narrow strait, was an undertaking only to be thought of if +the case were desperate. I believed that there must be a path +somewhere running up the cliff, and after going back a little I found +one. It led me four or five hundred feet up the side of the gorge; but +on looking down the distance seemed much less, because the rocks rose +a thousand feet higher. I was gazing at the loftiest peak on the +opposite side, when two eagles suddenly appeared in the air above it; +and so long as I remained did they continue to circle over it without +any apparent movement of their wings. The eyrie upon this needle-like +point is well known; according to the popular belief, it has always +been there. + +It was in vain, however, that I searched the horizon for the vultures, +whose principal stronghold--a long ledge of rock, protected from above +by an overhanging cornice, and beyond the range of a fowling-piece +from below--is immediately over the river in this part of the gorge. +Had I left Les Vignes before daybreak, I might have seen them start +off all together, the brown vultures and their black cousins, the +arians, in quest of carrion; but now there was not one to be seen. As +the vulture has become a rare bird in France, inhabiting only a few +localities where there are very high and inaccessible rocks, and where +man is crestfallen in the presence of nature, it is to be hoped that +they will not be driven from the great gorge of the Tarn by being too +frequently shot at in the breeding season, when they are obliged to +show themselves at all hours of the day. No peasant would think of +wasting a cartridge upon them; but the sharpshooting tourist, armed +with a rifle, may be tempted to do so. He would probably fire many +bullets before he succeeded in striking a bird five or six hundred +feet above him; and even if the shot took effect, there would be very +small chance of the vulture falling where it could be picked up. The +bombardment would do them little damage; but it might, if often +repeated, prove too trying to their nerves, and, notwithstanding their +conservative principles, they might be driven at length to quit these +rocks inhabited by their ancestors for centuries. To the naturalist +this district is of fascinating interest, on account of the large +number of carnivorous birds of various species by which it is still +haunted. Besides the common brown eagle, three kinds of vulture, +several species of falcons, hawks, and owls, the raven family appears +to be fully represented, with the exception of the jackdaw, which +possibly finds itself too weak and too slow of flight to live in the +midst of such strong and ferocious air-robbers as those which have +established themselves in these grand solitudes. Among smaller birds +of different habits, the red partridge and the water-ousel are +frequently seen. The rock-partridge, or _bartavelle_, is also found, +but is rare. The four-legged fauna is not represented by the wolf or +the boar, the forests being too scanty to afford them sufficient +cover, and the largest wild quadrupeds are the badger and the fox. + +Descending the path by steps cut in the rock, I again reached the +margin of the Tarn. Gradually the gorge opened, slopes appeared, and +upon these were almond-trees and vines planted on terraces. Flowers, +too, which had little courage to bloom in the dim depths where the +cliffs seemed ready to join again, and the sunbeam vanished before it +dried the dew, now took heart under the broader sky. Great purple +snapdragons hung from clefts in the rocks, inula flashed gorgeously +yellow, white melilot raised its graceful drooping blossoms, and +hemp-agrimony made the bees sing a drowsy song of the brimming cup of +summer. + +Some vestiges of a castle appeared upon a high-jutting craggy mass, +marking the site of the Château de Montesquieu, one of the strongest +fortresses of the gorge in the Middle Ages. + +I guessed rightly by the vines and almonds that La Malène was not far +off. Soon came that sight, ever welcome to the wayfarer--the village +where he intends to seek rest and refreshment. The inn here was as +unpretentious as the one at Les Vignes; but with hare, _en civet_, a +dish of trout, and a bottle of the wine grown upon the sunny terrace +above the houses, I had as good a meal as any hungry tramp has a right +to expect. As for myself, I never expect anything so sumptuous, and in +this way I let luck have a chance of giving me now and then a pleasant +surprise. The trout in the Upper Tarn do not often reach a large size, +because by growing they become too conspicuous in such clear water; +but their flesh obtains that firmness which is the gift of mountain +streams. The wine grown upon the slopes of the gorge is a _petit vin_ +with a sparkle in it, and it comes as a delightful change to those who +have been drinking the tasteless, deep-coloured wines of the Béziers +and Narbonne region, with which the South of France has been flooded +since the new vineyards upon the plains and slopes of the +Mediterranean have been yielding torrents of juice. The fruit of no +plant is so dependent upon the soil for its flavour as that of the +vine. Chalk produces champagne, and some of the best wines of Southern +France are grown upon calcareous soils where the eye perceives nothing +but stones. The plant loves to get its roots down into the crevices of +a rock. I now drank the fragrant light wine of the Gévaudan--the +calcareous district of the Upper Tarn--with a pleasure not unmixed +with sorrow; for the phylloxera had found its way up the gorge, and +the vineyards were already sick unto death. The pest had come some +years later here than in districts nearer the plains; but it had too +surely come, and the fear of poverty was gnawing the hearts of the +poor men--many of them old--who had been bending their backs such a +number of years, and their fathers before them, upon those terraces +which had been won from the desert at the price of such long labour. + +Before continuing my journey up the gorge, I climbed to the little +church overlooking the village, and which stands in the midst of the +rough burying-ground where the dead must lie very near the solid rock. +It is a plain Romanesque building, presenting the peculiarity not +often seen of exterior steps leading to the belfry. Against an inner +wall is a tablet, which tells of certain men of Florac who 'pro Deo et +rege legitime certantes coronati sunt, die II mensis Junii, anni +1793.' They were guillotined by the Revolutionists at Florac. + +I passed the Château de la Caze, a small but well-preserved castle, +showing the transition from the feudal to the Renaissance style, and +still surrounded by its moat. It has five towers, and is a picturesque +building; but I thought it gloomy in the deep shade of the gorge and +the surrounding trees. It must be gloomier still at night when the +owls shriek and hoot. If it is not haunted, it must be because there +are so many abandoned solitary great houses in this part of France +that the ghosts have become rather spoilt and hard to please. + +What is the pale yellow flame that I see burning by the river where a +slanted beam strikes down from a crenellated bastion of ruddy rock? +Reaching the spot, I find two pale-yellow flames, one hanging from the +bank, the other trembling upon the stream. The evening primrose has +lit its lamp from the sunbeam. + +More rocks there are to climb, for the river again rushes between +upright walls. The path goes along the edge of a horrid precipice, +then descends abruptly by steps cut in the rock. + +At a very poor hamlet, clinging to the side of the gorge at a +sufficient height to be safe from the floods, I ask a woman if anybody +there sells wine. 'Yes,' she replies, 'he does,' pointing at the same +time to a tall old white-haired man, who beckons me to follow him. He +hobbles along with a stick, dragging one leg, and leads the way into +his house under a rock. It is a mere hovel, but it has a wooden floor, +and there are signs of personal dignity--what is known in England as +'respectability'--struggling with poverty. Perhaps the ancient clock, +whose worm-eaten case reaches from the floor to the ceiling, and whose +muffled but cheery tick-tack is like the voice of an old friend, +impressed me in favour of this poor home as soon as I entered. + +The crippled man, having given me his best chair, disappeared into his +cellar scooped out of the rock, and presently returned with a bottle +of wine. Then he brought out a great loaf of very dark bread, which he +placed upon the table with the wine, and a plateful of green almonds. +The French peasants observe the wholesome rule of never drinking red +wine without 'breaking a crust' at the same time. I made my new +acquaintance break a crust with me and share the contents of the +bottle. Then he talked freely of the cares that weighed upon him. He +told me that he and others who lived in the gorge had always depended +upon their wine to buy bread. + +'And are the vines in a very bad way?' 'The year after next will see +the last of them.' + +Many persons, he added, would be obliged to leave the district because +it would become impossible for them to live there. While we were +talking two or three little barefooted boys, whose clothes had been +patched over and over again, but still showed gaping places, watched +and listened in the open doorway with round-eyed attention. They were +robust children with health and happiness in their faces, in spite of +the hard times, for the mountain air fed them, and their troubles were +yet to come. They were the old man's grandchildren, and I suppose I +was looking at them more keenly than I should have had I reflected, +for he made excuses for their neglected appearance with an expression +of pain. Then, changing the subject suddenly, he said: + +'What country do you belong to?' + +'To England.' + +'Ah, c'est un riche pays!' + +I told him that it was rich and poor like other countries, and that +the people there had no vines at all to help them. 'It is a rich +country all the same,' repeated the old man, for the impression had +somehow become deeply fixed in his mind. There I see him still seated +at the rough table, and behind his broad bent back the wide fireplace +against the bare rock blackened with smoke. + +I had left this hamlet, and was on the bank of the Tarn, when I heard +the patter of bare feet upon the pebbles behind me. Turning round, I +saw the eldest of the boys who had been watching me in the doorway. He +had an idea that I should go wrong, and followed stealthily to see. He +now told me that if I continued by the water I should soon be stopped +by rocks, and I accepted his offer to show me the way up the cliff. +His recklessness in running over the sharp stones made me ask him if +they did not hurt his feet. 'Oh no!' he replied; 'they are used to +it.' It is indeed astonishing what feet are able to get used to. The +boy's joy at the few sous which I gave him was almost ecstatic. He had +hardly thanked me when he set off running homeward to show how he had +been rewarded--for his sharpness in thinking that I should lose my +way, and allowing me to do so before saying a word. + +I was by the river-side not far from Sainte-Enimie when a rather +alarming noise broke the silence and became rapidly louder. I looked +up the steep cliff, and saw to my consternation a great stone bounding +down the rocks and crashing through the vines. As I seemed to be in +the line of it I hastened on. I had only gone about ten yards when it +bounded into the air and, passing sheer over the path and bank, +plunged into the Tarn with a mighty splash. I reckoned that had I +remained where I was it would have just cleared my head. It was a +fragment of rock which, from its size, might well have been two +hundredweight. The same thing happened earlier in the day, but that +time I was not so unpleasantly near. The heavy rain of the previous +night, coming after a long period of drought, was probably the cause +of these already-loosened stones starting upon their downward career. +All these calcareous rocks are breaking up. The process of +disintegration and decomposition is slow, but it is sure. Every frost +does something to split them, and every shower of rain entering the +crevices does something to rot them; so that even they cannot last. +The Tarn is carrying them back to the sea, to be deposited again, but +somewhere else. + +I was at Sainte-Enimie before sunset, and there I found the air laden +with the scent of lavender. True, all the hills round about were +covered with a blue-gray mantle; but I had never known the plant when +undisturbed give out such an aroma before. Looking down from the +little bridge to the waterside, my wonder ceased. There in a line, +with wood-fires blazing under them, were several stills, and behind +these, upon the bank, were heaps of lavender stalks and flowers such +as I had never seen even in imagination. There were enough to fill +several bullock-waggons. The fragrance in the air, however, did not +come so much from these mounds as from the distilled essence. It was +evident that Sainte-Enimie had a considerable trade in lavender-water. + +I spent an unhappy evening, for the inn where I stopped--it called +itself a hotel--had been made uninteresting by enterprise; and a +couple of tourists from the South, with whom it was my lot to dine, +caused me unspeakable misery by talking of nothing else but of a +bridge which they had lately seen; If I should ever be near it, I +think the recollection of that evening will make me avoid it. It may +be a miracle in iron, but none the less shall I owe it an everlasting +grudge. These gentlemen from Carcassonne were typical sons of the +South in this, that the sound of their own voices acted upon their +imagination like the strongest coffee blended with the oldest cognac. +They would have been amusing, nevertheless, but for the horrible +intensity of their resolve to make me see that nightmare of a bridge. +If one had taken breath while the other spoke, or rather shouted, I +should have suffered less; but they both shouted together, and their +struggle to get the better of one another by force of lung, +gesticulation, and frenzied rolling of the eyes became a duel, whereby +the solitary witness was the only person harmed. What a relief to me +if they had gone down to the river bank and fought it out there! No +such luck, however. Had there been no listener, they, too, might have +wished the bridge in the depths of Tartarus. + +If I passed an unhappy evening at Sainte-Enimie, I spent a worse +morning. There was a change of weather in the night, and when the day +came again, it was a blear-eyed, weeping day, with that uniform gray +sky with steam-like clouds hiding half the hills which, when seen in a +mountainous region by a person bent on movement, is enough to give him +'goose flesh.' I now felt a longing to leave the Cevennes and to +return to the lower country, but there seemed no chance of escape. The +rain continued hour after hour--and such rain! It was enough to turn a +frog against water. As the people of the inn seemed incapable of +showing sympathy, I went out to look at the town under a borrowed +umbrella. It was certainly not much to look at, especially under +circumstances of such acute depression. I walked or waded through a +number of miry little streets where all manner of refuse was in a +saturated or deliquescent state--cabbage-stumps and dead rats floating +in the gutters, potato-peelings and bean-pods sticking to the +mediaeval pitching--everything slippery, nasty, and abominable. There +were old houses, as a matter of course; but who can appreciate +antiquities when his legs are wet about the knees and his boots are +squirting water? Nevertheless, I tried to notice a few things besides +the vileness underfoot. One was a rudely-carved image of the Virgin in +a niche covered by a grating. This was in such a dark little street +that it seemed as if the sun had given up all hope of ever shining +there again. I struggled through the slush to the church, built, with +the town, on the side of a hill rising from the Tarn. I found a +Romanesque edifice--old, but rough, and offering no striking feature, +save the arched recesses in the exterior surface of the wall. A little +higher upon the hill was the convent founded by St. Enimie; but the +original building disappeared centuries ago. + +On returning to the inn I passed the Fontaine de Burlats, where St. +Enimie was cured of her leprosy in the Merovingian age. It was a +change to see something that really seemed to enjoy the incessant +downpour and to enter into the spirit of it. The fountain would be +remarkable in another region by the volume of water that gushes in all +seasons like a little river out of the earth; but there are so many +such between the Dordogne and the Tarn, wherever the calcareous +formation has lent itself to the honeycombing action of water, that +this copious outflow loses thereby much of its claim to distinction. + +The legend of St. Enimie is fully set forth in a Provençal poem of the +thirteenth century by the troubadour Bertrand de Marseilles, who +received his information from his friend the Prior of the monastery at +Sainte-Enimie, which in the Middle Ages was the most important +religious house in the Gévaudan. The MS. is preserved in the library +of the Arsenal, Paris. It was at the express recommendation of St. +Ilère that Enimie sought the fountain of Burla (now Burlats), and +bathed her afflicted body in its pure waters. The passage of the poem +containing this injunction is as follows: + + 'Enimia verges de Dyeu, + Messatges fizels ti suy yeu. + Per me ti manda Dieus de pla + Que t'en anes en Gavalda,[*] + Car, lay trobaras una fon + Que redra ton cors bel e mon + Si te laves en l'aygua clara. +* * * * + A nom Burla; vay l'en lay + Non ho mudar per negun play.' + + [*] Gévaudan. + +The relics of the saint were destroyed or lost at the time of the +Revolution; but high upon the side of a neighbouring hill a chapel has +been raised to her, and it is a place of pilgrimage. + + + + +IN THE VALLEY OF THE LOT. + + +The rambler in the highlands of the North knows so well what the +wretchedness of being shut up by bad weather in a mountain inn means, +that he may have grown reconciled to it, and have learnt how to spend +a day under such circumstances pleasantly. But to me, a sun-lover, to +whom the charm of the South has been irresistible, such a trial is one +that taxes to the utmost all the powers of endurance. Hence it is +that, when I think of Sainte-Enimie, I can recall nothing but +impressions of dismal wetness. This may seem shocking to those who +have seen, under a different aspect, the little town on the Upper +Tarn, named after the Merovingian saint. Be it remembered, however, +that I was shut up hour after hour in an inn crowded with peasants in +damp blouses, shouting _patois_ at each other, and clutching great +cotton umbrellas, whose fragrance under the influence of moisture, was +not idyllic; In that abominable little auberge, that styled itself a +hotel, I decided to go no farther up the Tarn, but, as soon as the +weather would set me free, to cross the _causse_ that separated me +from the Lot, and to descend the valley of this river towards the +warmer and dryer region of the plains. + +Not until the afternoon were there any signs of improvement in the +weather; and then, as soon as the clouds grew lighter, I started +without waiting for the rain to stop. It was Sunday, and outside the +old church was a crowd of men and boys, who had come for vespers. The +women did not join them, but passed through the door as they arrived. +Throughout rural France, wherever religion keeps a firm hold on the +peasant, it is the custom of the men to gather for gossip in front of +the church some time before the service, and, just as the bell stops; +to make a rush at the doorway, and struggle through the opening like +sheep into a fold when there is a dog at their heels. While looking at +these men, I was again struck by the prevailing tendency of the +peasants of the Lozère to develop long, sharp noses--a feature that +often gives them a very weasel-like expression. + +Having passed the ruins of the monastery, whose high loopholed walls +and strong tower showed that it had once been a fortress as well as a +religious house, I was soon rising far above the valley of the Tarn. +The winding road led me up the flanks of stony hills, terraced +everywhere for almond-trees; but after two or three hours of ascent +the almonds dwindled away, and the country became an absolute desert +of brashy hills, showing little asperity of outline, but mournful and +solemn by their wastefulness and abandonment to a degree that makes +the traveller ask himself if he is really in Europe, or has been +transported by magic to the most arid steppes of Asia. But there is a +plant that thrives in this desert, that loves it so much as to give to +it a tinge of dusty blue as far as the eye can reach on every side. +Needless to say that this is the lavender. It was in all its flowering +beauty as I crossed the treeless waste, and it gave to the breath of +the desert what seemed to be the mystical fragrance of peace. + +Leaving the highway to Mende, I took a rough road on the left, which, +according to the map, led directly to Chanac by the Lot. I should +recommend no one else to take it unless he have more hours of daylight +before him than I had. Again I ran a near risk of passing the night in +the open air. The road became little better than a track; then it +crossed others, and it was a very pretty puzzle to tell which was the +one for me and which was not. It is true that I could have made +straight towards the Lot by the compass, but the descent of the +precipitous cliffs into the deep gorge, unless one knows the paths, is +only a task to be undertaken at nightfall with a light heart by those +who have had no experience of this savage district. When my perplexity +was at its worst I saw a shepherd, whose form, wrapped in the long +brown homespun cloak called a _limousine_, stood solemnly against the +evening sky. I made towards him, thinking that he would help me out of +my difficulty; but no: either he did not understand a word I said, or +did not choose to give any information. Perhaps he thought me an +escaped madman, or a dangerous tramp, with whom it was better to hold +no conversation. The sun was setting when I reached a wood of +scattered firs--a more melancholy spot at that hour than the bare +_causse_. The weather had been fine for some hours, but now a storm +that had been gathering broke. As the wind blew the rain in slanting +lines, the level sun shone through the vapour and the streaming +atmosphere. Looking above me, as I sheltered myself behind a wailing +fir, I saw that the dreary world was spanned by two glorious rainbows. +But although the scene was so wildly beautiful, the spirit of +desolation was upon me, and I felt like a homeless wanderer. I was +roaming among the firs in the dusk, when I met a shepherd boy, who put +me on a path that joined the main road to Chanac. Then began the +descent into the valley of the Lot. It was very long; the winding road +passed through a black forest of firs, and the dark night fell when I +was still far from the little town. The walk was gloomy, but in all +gloom there is something that is grand and elevating--something that +gives a sense of expansion to the soul. The cries of the unseen +night-birds, the solemn mystery of the enigmatic trees wrapped in +darkness, make us feel the supernatural that surrounds us, and is a +part of us, more than the visible movement of life in the light of the +sun. + +At length the oil-lamps of Chanac flashed brightly in the hollow +below, and not long afterwards I was sitting at a table in an upper +room of a comfortable old inn, the lower part of which was filled with +roisterers, for it was Sunday night. I dined with a Government +functionary--an inland revenue _contrôleur_, who happened to be a +Frenchman of the reserved and solemn sort that cultivates dignity. By +dint of being looked up to by others he had acquired the fixed habit +of looking up to himself. All the time that I was in his company I +felt that, had he been an angel dining with a modern Tobias, he could +scarcely have shown greater anxiety not to sit upon his wings. Moved +by the genial spirit of the grape, or not wishing, perhaps, to crush +me altogether with the weight of his official importance, his ice +began to melt a little at about the second or third course. Forgetting +discretion, he actually smiled. The meal, which had been prepared in +anticipation of his coming, was a much more splendid entertainment +than would have been got up for me had I been alone. The cook's +masterpiece was a very cunningly contrived pasty--a work of local +genius that I was quite unprepared for. Even M. le contrôleur, had he +not checked himself in time, would have beamed at this achievement; +but he would never have forgiven himself such an admission of weakness +common to mortals not in the service of the Government. Just before +the dessert a superb trout that had been drawn out of the sparkling +Lot was brought in, and it had been mercifully spared the disgrace of +being sprinkled with chopped garlic. + +While we were dining the wassailers in the great kitchen and general +room downstairs became more and more uproarious. Dancing had +commenced, and it was the _bourrée_, the delightful _bourrée_ of +Auvergne (the Upper Lot here runs not very far from the Cantal) that +was being danced. It is a measure that has no local colour unless it +is accompanied by violent stamping. The _contrôleur_ looked very +scandalized, and said it was abominable that the house should be given +up to such tumult and disorder. I observed, however, that as the +joyousness of the party downstairs increased my companion's face +became animated by an expression that was not one of genuine anger, +and as soon as he had drunk his coffee he remarked in a tone of +indifference that, as the evening had to be spent somehow, it might be +less disagreeable to see what was going on below than simply to hear +it. I soon followed him, and found that he was enjoying himself +thoroughly, although discreetly, in a quiet corner. The kitchen was +filled with young fellows in blouses, some sitting at tables drinking +and smoking, others standing; all were shouting, whistling or raising +peals of laughter that might have brought the house about their ears +had it been built by a modern contractor. In the centre of the room +the bare-armed kitchenmaid, who had left the platters, and a young +peasant in a blouse were dancing, their backs turned to each other, +moving their arms up and down like puppets in a barrel-organ, and +banging the floor with their sabots, with the full conviction that the +greater the noise the greater the fun. And this was the opinion of all +except the stout hostess, who looked on at the scene with a distressed +countenance from behind a mighty pile of dirty plates. The musicians +were spectators who whistled in a band the air of the _bourrée_, which +is enough to make the most sedate Canon who ever sat in a stall dance, +or at least to remember with charity the promptings of his +adolescence. + +When the kitchenmaid went back to her plates--to the great relief of +her mistress, who would have sternly condemned her tripping if +thoughts of business had not beset her practical mind--two young men +stood up and danced another _bourrée_. With the exception of the +scullion and household drudge there was no chance of getting a female +partner. In these villages and small towns the girls are kept out of +harm's way. They go to bed at eight or nine, and are hard at work +either in the fields or in the house, or washing by the stream, all +through the hours of daylight. The priests, wherever they have +influence--and in the South they have a great deal--set their faces +strongly against dancing by the two sexes, except under very +exceptional circumstances. They are right; they have peculiar +facilities for knowing the variety of human nature with which they +have to deal. Humanity is fundamentally the same everywhere, but what +is fundamental is modified by race and climate. Temperament, fashioned +by causes innate and local, exercises an immense influence upon +practical morality. + +And so the revel went on. As the glasses were refilled the noise grew +louder and the smoke denser. I soon had enough of it, and taking a +candle I climbed to my bedroom, leaving the _contrôleur_ in his +corner. Before going to bed I did a little sewing, having borrowed a +threaded needle from the landlady with this object in view. The +wayfarer should be ready to help himself as far as he can, and +although sewing is not, perhaps, the most manly of accomplishments, no +tourist should be incapable of sewing on a button or closing up a rent +that makes the village children laugh. + +My walk across the _causse_ separating two rivers had tired me, but I +might as well have remained downstairs for all the sleep that I +enticed. As the hours wore on the uproar, instead of subsiding, became +more terrific. These Southerners have voices of such rock-splitting +power that, when twenty or thirty of them, inspired by Bacchus, or +excited by discussion, shout together, one asks if it would be +possible for devils on the rampage to raise a more hideous tumult. The +house trembled as from a succession of thunderclaps. Midnight struck, +and the uproar was unabated. At one it had entered upon the +quarrelsome phase, and at two there was a fight. Chairs or tables were +overthrown, there was a smashing of glass, a rapid scuffling of feet, +and the screaming and howling as of a menagerie on fire. Above the +fiendish din rang out the shrill voice of the hostess, who was +evidently trying to separate the combatants, and who seemed to be +successful, for the hurricane suddenly lulled. + +This hostess was a woman of words, but the landlady of an inn near +Rodez, which I entered one summer evening, showed herself under +similar circumstances to be a woman of action. Two young men who were +sitting at a table, after a very brief difference of opinion, stared +fixedly and fiercely into each other's face, and then sprang at one +another like a couple of tom-cats. Presently the stronger took the +other up in his arms, carried him out through the door, and, having +pitched him considerately upon the manure-heap in the yard, returned +to his place with the expression of the victorious cat. But he +reckoned without his hostess. She was not tall, but her cubic capacity +took up more place in the world than that of two or three ordinary +mortals. With her great bare arms folded across her ample person she +waddled towards the triumphant young man, and there was a look in her +eye that made him wriggle uneasily upon his chair. I think he was +tempted to run away, but shame nailed him to his seat. As soon as the +pair were at close quarters, one of the folded bolster-like arms made +a sudden movement, and the back of the strong rough hand, hardened by +forty years or more of toil, covered for an instant the youth's nose +and mouth. That single movement of a female arm, the muscular +development of which a pugilist might have envied, shed more blood +than all the clawing, tugging, and butting of the male combatants had +caused to flow. 'That is to teach you,' said the strong woman, 'not to +fight in my house again!' + +But I am forgetting that I am now at Chanac. When I went down into the +kitchen at about seven o'clock, after two or three hours' sleep, the +landlady and the other women of the inn looked very tired and +sheepish. They were prepared to hear some strong criticism of the +night's proceedings, such as they would be sure to get when the +_contrôleur_ came down. + +'You seem to have had some good amusement last night, and to have kept +it up well,' said I. + +'Oh, monsieur,' exclaimed the hostess, shaking her head dolefully, +'what a night it was!' + +And she went on shaking her head, while the kitchen-maid--the one who +danced the _bourrée_, and was now listlessly rinsing glasses +innumerable--giggled behind her mistress's back. She evidently thought +that it was a good sort of night. In making up the bill I think that +the regretful aubergiste, who felt, that the reputation of her house +had received a cruel blow, and that all the mothers in the place were +reviling her for encouraging their sons in dissipation, must have left +the bed out of the reckoning, considering that she could not honestly +charge me for a night's rest which I did not get. At any rate, the +bill was ridiculously small. + +[Illustration: CIGALA, THE SHOEBLACK.] + +Now, with the help of daylight, I can see what the little town is +like. The houses--many of which have late Gothic doorways--are +clustered about the sides of an isolated hill or mamelon in the valley +of the Lot, beyond which rise the high cliffs covered with dark woods. +The town is still dominated by the tall rectangular tower that helped +to protect it in the Middle Ages, and near to this is the church, +which is both Romanesque and Gothic, and is rich in curious details. +The sanctuary is separated from the rest of the choir by the graceful +arcade of numerous little arches supported by tall and slender +columns, which is one of the most charming and characteristic features +of the Auvergnat style. The carving of the capitals exhibits in a +delightful manner the hardihood and florid fancy of this singularly +interesting development of Byzantine-Romanesque taste. Upon one of the +piers of the sanctuary are a pair of symbolical doves dipping their +beaks into the chalice that separates them, and upon another are two +grotesque and fantastic beasts facing one another with frightful jaws +wide open. + +The walk from Chanac down the valley through the rest of the +department of the Lozère I did not do fairly. The sun was so hot and +the way so tedious that I at length yielded to the temptation of the +railway that I met here, and rode some fifteen or twenty miles. It was +not until the next morning at St. Laurent d'Olt that I braced myself +up to the task of faring on foot by the river through the department +of the Aveyron. Here in the upper country the stream retains its +ancient name, the Olt, which is merely an abbreviation of Oltis, +unless it be the Celtic origin of the Latin word. It is easy to see +how in rapid speech L'Olt became changed to Lot. The _t_ is still +pronounced. + +The valley down which I now took my way from St. Laurent was broad and +green, but the high rocky cliffs which shut it off from the outer +world drew nearer as I went on. An old tramp who had a bag slung over +his back stopped me and said that he was 'dans la misère.' Doubtless +he guessed that I was not quite so deep in it as himself, and that I +might be able to spare him something. As I always look upon the tramp +with a fraternal interest, however disreputable he may appear, because +my own wayfaring has helped to teach me contempt for appearances, I +stopped to talk with the aged wanderer while hunting for some stray +sous. His matted gray beard and sunken cheeks gave him the air of a +Job of the studios; but no such luck had probably ever befallen him as +to be asked to pose for thirty sous the hour. Such a sum would be more +than he could gather in a day, even after selling the surplus of his +begged crusts. He talked to me of 'the picturesque,' which proved that +he had not grown gray and half doubled up without learning something +of the world's wisdom. I learnt from him that between the spot where +we met and St. Geniez there was only a hamlet, but that I should be +able to find a house there where I could get a meal. + +The old man went hobbling away, wondering, perhaps, when he would meet +another foreign imbecile on the tramp, and I was soon alone upon the +margin of the river's broad bed of sand, strewn with pebbles like the +seashore. The stream was still fresh from the mountains, and it had +the joyousness and bounding movements of young life. It was very +narrow now, and many plants had grown up since the spring upon its +far-shelving banks of mica-glittering sand and many-coloured pebbles; +but often its swollen waters had rolled through this smiling valley, a +raging and uncontrollable force, spreading terror and destruction. + +The cliffs drew nearer and rose higher, and then the river ran through +a gorge nearly impassable, and abandoned to all the wildness of +nature. The partial loop here formed by the Lot is hidden and defended +by a forbidding wilderness of rocks and forest, as if it were one of +the last retreats of the fluvial deities, where they can defy the +curiosity of man. The adventurous spirit prompted me to explore it, +but the lazy one said, 'Leave it.' I took the advice of the latter, +and went on by the road, which now left the river, and ascended +towards the plateau under cliffs of red sandstone. The thirsty sun had +by this time drained almost every flower-cup of its dew; but the +freshness of the morning still lingered in the hollows of the rocks, +and in the shade of the chestnut, the walnut, and elm. As the earth +warmed, it became quieter. All creatures seemed to grow drowsy, except +the sociable little quails that kept calling to one another, 'How are +you?' and the flies of wicked purpose, which become more and more +enterprising as the temperature rises. + +It was long since I had seen a human being, when I heard the +click-clack of loose _sabots_ coming nearer. Presently a couple of +young bulls showed their grim visages round a corner, and after them +came a very small girl with a very long stick. She looked about six +years old, and she had great trouble to keep her little brown feet +inside the wooden shoes, which were many sizes too large for her. How +was it that those big, and perhaps bad-tempered, animals allowed +themselves to be driven and beaten by that child, whereas they would +have turned upon a dog double her size, and done their best to toss +him over the chestnut trees? What is it that the brutes see below the +surface of the human being to inspire them with such respect and fear +of this biped, even when he or she has just crawled out of the cradle? +These bulls, by-the-bye, stopped and looked at me in a way that was +anything but respectful, and I delayed the study of the metaphysical +question until I could watch them from the rear. + +I found on the top of the hill the village or hamlet that the old +tramp had mentioned; but there was no sign of an inn--indeed, there +was no sign of anybody being alive in the place. I threaded the steep +little lanes between the houses and hovels, up to the ankles in dirty +straw that had been turned out of the animals' sheds, but saw nothing +moving except fowls. I knocked at various doors, and obtained no +response. It was clear that all the people, including the children, +were away in the fields, and had left the village to take care of +itself. Hungry and thirsty, I was resigning myself with a heavy heart +to trudge on, when I observed a column of blue smoke rise suddenly +from a chimney, and I was not long in finding the house to which it +belonged. It was a dilapidated building, very wretched now, but with +an air of bygone superiority. This was chiefly shown in the +Renaissance doorway, a rather elaborate piece of work, over which was +the date 1602. I ascended the steps with a little misgiving, for I +thought that perhaps some cantankerous person whose family had seen +better times might be living there, and that my questions as to food +and drink might meet with surly answers. I knocked, nevertheless, with +my stick upon the old door studded with nail-heads. It was opened, and +before me stood a woman who looked old, but who was probably +middle-aged; she was very poorly clad, very imperfectly washed, but on +her tired and toil-worn face there was no forbidding expression. I +told her that I was looking for an auberge, and she said that hers was +one _au besoin_. It was the only one that answered at all to the name +thereabouts. So the smoke had led me to the right place. I followed +the heiress of the dilapidated house--she was a descendant of the +original owner--through the dingy kitchen, where upon the hearth the +fire of sticks that she had just lighted was blazing cheerfully, into +a back room, where there were two beds without linen, and with nothing +but patchwork quilts over big bundles of dry maize leaves. It is thus +that many of the peasants of the Aveyron sleep. This is not a part of +France where the study of cleanliness and comfort is carried to +excess. If the floor of the room that I now entered had ever been +washed, the boards must have forgotten the scrubbing sensation a +century or more ago. The appearance of everything indicated that I was +in a fleas' paradise; but as it was by no means the first of the kind +of which I had had experience, I merely took the precaution of keeping +my feet off the ground, so as to offer as few travelling facilities as +possible to the enemy. The room, although it was dirty, was cheerful; +for the sunshine streamed in through the open window, and the view of +the green valley beneath and the woods beyond soon drove the fleas out +of mind. Upon the sill were plums laid out on wooden trays to dry in +the sun and become what English people call prunes. + +The excellent woman, who installed me before a little table on which +she laid a cloth, said that she had little to offer me; but that all +she had was at my service. She first fished out of the wood-ashes in +which it was preserved one of those dry, stringy sausages with which +everyone who knows this part of France must be familiar. Then she +brought in some white bread which a presentiment of my coming had +perhaps caused her to buy a month before, for it was green with +mildew. She thought that I should prefer this to the very dark bread +of her own making. The choice was perplexing. My meal was chiefly made +upon a dish of firm cream like that of Devonshire, with plums and +fresh cob-nuts for dessert. Then my hostess made me some coffee, a +luxury rarely used in the house; and when she had set it on the table, +I induced her to stay and talk awhile. The conversation was made +easier because, notwithstanding her poverty, she spoke French with +much more facility than most of the people in these rural districts. +She told me that her husband and children had not yet returned from +the fields, and that she was at home because she was so tired after +threshing buckwheat all yesterday in the sun. + +'In winter,' I said, 'you have an easier time?' 'Oh no! In winter we +are always working at something or another. We then make our linen +from the hemp, patch up the clothes, prepare the walnuts for pressing, +and blanch the chestnuts.[*] We have always something on hand.' + + [*] _Blanchir les châtaignes_. In Guyenne, after the first sale of + chestnuts in their natural state, the peasants prepare a large + quantity of those that remain in a special manner, which consists + of removing the first and second skins, and artificially drying + the nuts until they become quite hard. They will then keep an + indefinite period, and can be boiled for food when required. In + the winter evenings, while the women work at their distaffs, the + men frequently skin chestnuts either for drying or for food the + next day. + +But while there was any work to be done out-of-doors, there they were +busy from sunrise until dusk. Supper over, the beasts were looked +after. 'Then,' she added, 'we say our prayers and go to bed.' She +volunteered no statements respecting her ancestry, but when I +questioned her concerning the house, she said that her family had been +living in it for nearly 300 years. At one time they were the principal +people in the district. It was true that they had come down in the +world, but she felt thankful for the blessings that had been given +her, and was satisfied. The family were all in good health, and that +was the main thing. Her mother was still living with her--eighty-seven +years of age, and had never been ill in her life. + +Here was a simple but eloquent story of human vicissitude and +uncertainty that was told without a word of regret or repining, and as +though it were a tale of no interest to anybody. This poor, humble +woman before me, whose back was still aching from the movement of +bending and lifting the flail hour after hour, was, by right of birth, +what we call in England a 'gentlewoman.' But she was poor, and +ignorant of all books except the one that contained her prayers. She +was not less a peasant than any of the women around her, nor did she +wish to be thought anything better. That her ancestors were gentlemen, +that, they may have borne a forgotten title (many that were borne in +France have been forgotten by the descendants), was as nothing to her. +She clung only to what, in her simple but grand philosophy, was really +to be valued--the blessings of life and health, opportunities of +labour, independence, and faith in God. + +This woman would only take the equivalent of a shilling for her wine, +her coffee, and her food; then she made me drink some of her _eau de +noix_ (spirit prepared with the juice of green walnuts), and as I left +she pressed more nuts and plums upon me. + +The old woman who had never been ill was waiting for me under a tree. +She could not speak a word of French, but she said a great deal in +_patois_, of which all that I could make out was that she was afraid +the _calour_ (heat) would hurt me if I left so early in the afternoon. +A little beyond the village I passed a party of threshers, men and +women--two rows of them facing each other like dancers; the figures +bending and straightening in unison, and all the. flails whirling +together in the air. They had spread a large cloth upon the ground, +and were thrashing out the grain upon it. + +A block of granite cropping out of the sandstone indicated a change in +the formation, and this came, for the rocks gradually passed into +gneiss and schist, frequently covered with moss and ferns, golden-rod +in bloom, and purple heather. St. Geniez by the Lot was reached long +before sundown; but although I had the time, I was not tempted to walk +any farther that day. + +The little town is picturesquely situated on the river-bank, and it +has some old houses with turrets, and other interesting details. There +is a late Gothic church that was formerly attached to an Augustinian +monastery, of which part of the cloisters remains. Inside the edifice +every flagstone covers a tomb, and in several instances masons' +hammers and other tools are carved upon them. + +It fell out that several commercial travellers and superior pedlars +came into St. Geniez on the same day as myself, but in more genteel +fashion, for they had their traps, and would not for all the world +have risked their reputation for respectability, and rendered +themselves despicable in the eyes of customers, by entering on foot. +Nevertheless, their first impression (as I afterwards learnt), when I +sat down with them to dinner at the comfortable inn, which, thanks to +their patronage, had found the courage to style itself a hotel, was +that I might be a new rival in the field. But the difficulty was to +guess the particular field that I had marked out for my own +distinction and the confusion of competitors. Was I in the grocery +line, or the oil and colour line? Was I _dans les spiritueux_ or _dans +les articles d'église_? Then they had a suspicion that I was, perhaps, +a German traveller trying to open up a fresh market for potato spirit, +or those scientific syrups which are said to change any alcohol into +'old cognac' or the most venerable Jamaica rum. This may have +accounted for the somewhat chilly reserve that fell upon my table +companions as I took my seat among them. But, as this was unpleasant +for everybody, I soon found an opportunity of dispelling the mystery +that hung over me. Then they threw off all restraint, and showed +themselves to be the jolly, rollicking, good-natured beings that these +men almost invariably are. They were much more polite to me than +Englishmen generally are to strangers, who are felt to be something +like intruders--recognising me as a guest, and insisting upon my +helping myself first to every dish that was brought on the table. It +is customary for tourists to speak of the French commercial traveller +as a very ridiculous or vulgarly offensive person. I have found these +so-called 'bagmen' to be among the most pleasant-mannered, agreeable, +and intelligent people whom I have met while roaming in provincial +France. I have been disturbed at night by their uproariousness, for +they are convivial to a fault; but in my immediate relations with them +I have always found them frank, kindly, and courteous. + +Before eight o'clock the next morning I had left St. Geniez behind me +in the light mist, and was again on the banks of the Lot. At a +waterside village called Sainte-Eulalie--a saint so much venerated by +the French in the Middle Ages that a multitude of places have been +named after her--was a church with a broad tower and low broach spire. +I was struck by the noble simplicity and elegance of the Romanesque +apse, which was much in the Auvergnat style. The village was very +picturesque, partly on account of its position by the sunny, babbling +water, and partly because of its numerous old houses, some with +projecting stories, and others with exterior staircases communicating +with an open gallery covered by the prolonged eaves of the roof. +Outside of the doors mushrooms (_boleti_) after being cut in slices, +were spread in the sun to dry. As I continued my way down the valley I +met several women and girls returning from the chestnut woods on the +hillsides carrying baskets of these _cépes_ on their heads. Although I +hoped to sleep that night at Espalion, I soon left the direct road and +struck off across country to the south-west in order to take in the +village of Bozouls, a place that some soldier whom I had met told me +was like Constantine in Algeria. I therefore left the valley of the +Lot, and proceeded to cross the hills and tablelands which separated +me from the gorge of its tributary, the Dourdou. + +In taking by-paths to reach the _causse_, I passed over hillocks of +chocolate-coloured marl mixed with broken schist and flints: here the +broom and juniper, the heather and bracken, flourished. At length I +felt the fresh breeze and drank the invigorating air of the limestone +plateau. Descending the hill beyond, on the road to Rodez, I passed a +very strange-looking spot where huge flat blocks of bare gneiss, laid +together as though giants of the Titanic age had here been trying to +pave the world, sloped with extraordinary regularity towards the +highway. And these prodigious slabs of gneiss now lay amidst schistous +marl and calcareous rock. + +Farther down in the valley was a small village of which the houses +were dwarfed by a gloomy strong hold, apparently of the fifteenth +century, whose four high and massive towers, occupying the angles of a +small quadrilateral, gave it the appearance of a vast _donjon_. At a +small inn kept by a blacksmith I was able to get a meal and the rest +that was now needed. The blacksmith's wife, a pleasant young woman; +who seemed much amused at the sight of a being from the outer and, to +her, half-fabulous world, drew part of a duck out of the grease in +which it had been preserved, and gave me this with rice for my lunch. +During the repast I was not a little worried by the questions of the +blacksmith and some other village worthies who were drinking coffee in +the small room that had to do for everybody, and who had so placed +themselves that they could watch me at their ease. Such a strange bird +as myself did not drop into their midst every day. They were not +unfriendly, but their curiosity was troublesome, and I perceived that +nothing that I might have said would have removed the impression from +their minds that I was a mysterious character. + +The country beyond this village was not unpleasant to the eye, with +its vineyards on the slopes and its green pasturage in the valleys, +but the hours went by drearily as I tramped upon the long road. I felt +solitary, and was not in the mood to be interested easily; +nevertheless, I lingered on the wayside awhile before a remarkable +relic of the past: a rectangular machicolated tower of great height +and strength rising out of a dark grove of trees. The afternoon was +drawing towards evening, when I descended suddenly into a deep and +narrow ravine where the sunshine was lost, and the twilight dwelt with +greenness and dampness. At the bottom the Dourdou ran swiftly over its +pebbly bed. After following it a little distance I found myself +between towering walls of Jurassic rock, vertical towards the summit, +capped on each side by a long row of houses. There was also a church, +likewise on the edge of the precipice. This was Bozouls--a place +scarcely known beyond a small district of the Aveyron, but one of the +most curious in France. The traveller, when he reaches the gorge, +after crossing a somewhat monotonous country, is quite unprepared for +such a startling revelation of the sentiment of human fellowship in +the midst of the savagery of nature. Why did men build houses in rows +on the brink of these frightful precipices? It appears to have been +all done for the sake of the artist and the lover of the picturesque. +And yet Bozouls grew to be a village in an age when men of work and +action only knew two kinds of enthusiasm--war and religion. Either a +castle or a religious foundation must have been the beginning of this +community. There are no remains of a fortress, but the church is very +old, and its elaborate architecture suggests that it was at one time +attached to a monastic establishment. After crossing the stream I +climbed to this church by a path that wound about the rocks, and found +it an exceedingly interesting example of the Southern Romanesque. The +portal opens into a narthex, where there is a very primitive font like +a low square trough. The nave entrance has two columns on each side +supporting archivolts, and upon the capitals of these columns are +carved figures of the quaintest Romanesque character, illustrating +Biblical subjects. The nave has an aisle on each side scarcely four +feet wide, and most of the separating columns are out of the +perpendicular. The capitals here are wrought with acanthus-leaves or +little figures. The sanctuary and apse are in the style of Auvergne, +with this peculiarity, that the capitals of the slender columns are +singularly massive, and bear only the mere outline of the +acanthus-leaf for ornament. + +The long street of the village, white and sunbaked, running within a +few yards of the precipice, was almost as deserted as the church. But +for a Sister who stood by the convent gate like a statue of Eternal +Silence, and a man who was killing a wretched calf in the middle of +the road, I might have asked myself if this fantastic Bozouls was not +some spectral village, reproducing the past in all except the living +beings who had gone down into their graves. When I recrossed the +Dourdou, the light was several tones lower than it was when I first +descended to the bottom of the ravine, and the vegetation was of a +deeper and sadder green. And the stream rushed onward with a low wail, +and a distressful cry, as of a soul passing down the Dark Valley and +not yet free from the panic of death. + +When I had reached the plateau that I had left an hour or more ago, +the sun was about to set. As I knew that the _diligence_ to Espalion +would soon pass, I preferred to wait for it rather than to walk any +farther. The south wind was blowing with such force that I lay down on +the leeside of a bush to be sheltered from it. Here I watched the sun +burning dimly in a yellow haze on the edge of the world. The wind +wailed amongst the leaves of the hawthorn-bushes, but over the brown +land, flushed with the sad yellow gleam, came the sound of +cattle-bells, softening the harshness of the solitude, and bringing +almost a smile upon the careworn face of Nature. I watched the dingy +golden light rising up the stubble of the hills. Now the sun began to +dip behind a knoll; a far-off tree stood in the line of vision, and I +could see the leaves shaking as if in frenzy against the disc of +sullen fire. Then from the edge of the western sky shot up into the +yellow haze fair colours of pink and purple that seemed to say: 'The +south wind may blow and burn the beauty of the earth, but the west +wind will come again, its light wings laden with refreshment and joy.' +The sun was gone, the shadows of night were being laid upon the dreary +land, when the wavy clouds about the brightening moon became like a +shower of rose-petals; the breeze grew softer and softer, for it was, +in the language of the peasant, the 'sun-wind,' and the nocturnal +peace began to reign over the sadness of the day's death. + +The sound of jingling bells coming rapidly nearer roused me from my +contemplative mood. The _diligence_, so called, was in sight, and a +few minutes later I took my place in the very stuffy box on wheels, +nearly filled with women and bundles. As it was only a drive of some +seven or eight miles to Espalion, the town was reached in good time +for dinner. I sat at a side-table in the large room of the inn, at the +door of which the coach stopped. The central table was already +occupied by half a dozen persons--all fat, vulgar, and noisy. They +were examples of the _petit bourgeois_ class whom one meets rather too +frequently wherever there are towns in this part of France, and with +whom the disposition to grossness is equally apparent in mind and +body. There were women in the party, but had they been absent, the +language of the men would have been no coarser. These fat and +middle-aged women, married, doubtless, and highly respectable after +their fashion, when struck by each gust of humour, such as might issue +from the mouth of a foul-minded buffoon at a fair, rolled like ships +at sea. + +I passed a troubled night at Espalion, for there were a couple of +feathered fiends just underneath the window crowing against each other +with maddening rivalry. One, an old cock, had a very hoarse crow, and +seemed to be suffering from chronic laryngitis brought on by an abuse +of his vocal powers; and the other was a young cock with a very +squeaky crow, for he was still taking lessons, and, as is the case +with many beginners, he had too much enthusiasm. + +I had had more than enough of this duo before the night was through, +and was out very early in the morning looking at the ancient town of +Espalion, which witnessed both the victory and the defeat of British +arms long ere the Maid of Domrémy came to the rescue of the golden +lilies. Its capture took place soon after the Battle of Crécy. The +lords of Espalion were the Calmont d'Olt, who played an active part in +the wars with the English. The town deserves a prominent place among +the many picturesque old burgs stamped with mediaeval character on the +banks of the Lot. One may stand upon its Gothic bridge of the +thirteenth century and dream of the past without risk of being hustled +by a crowd except on market days. This venerable bridge must have been +admirably built to have withstood all the floods which have smote it +in the course of six centuries. The great central arch is so much +higher than the others that in crossing you go up a hill and then down +one. Close by on the river-bank is the sixteenth-century Hôtel de +Ville, a castle, partly built on a rock, in the gracefully-ornamental +style of the French Renaissance, with turrets, mullioned windows, and +a loggia. + +Having crossed the river, I went in search of the chief architectural +curiosity in or near Espalion--that known as the Church of Pers, or +the Chapel of St. Hilarion. It is on the outskirts of the town, and +stands in the old cemetery. I had first to find a potter who kept the +key, and I discovered him at length in a narrow street in the midst of +his clay and the vessels of his handicraft. He gave me the great key, +and it was one that some fervent archaeologist might press +reverentially to his heart, for the smith who forged it must have died +centuries ago. Entering the cemetery, I saw, surrounded by a multitude +of closely-packed tombs and grave mounds, on which the long grass +stood with the late summer flowers, a small Romanesque building that +seemed to have sunk far into the soil, like the ancient lichen-covered +slabs from which the inscriptions had been washed away by time's +inexorable and ever-wearing sea. Perhaps the soil had risen about the +walls. + +This church of the twelfth century is built of red sandstone, the +blocks being laid together without mortar. On entering it such a +dimness falls, with such a sacred silence; the air is so heavy with +dampness and the odour of mildew, that you feel as if you were already +in the vestibule of the Halls of Death, where darkness and stillness +have never known the sound of a human voice or the blessed light of +the sun. The design of the building is that of a nave with transept +and apse. At each end of the transept is some curious cross-vaulting. +The columns have all very large capitals in proportion to the diameter +and height; some are ornamented with plain acanthus leaves, others are +carved with numerous small figures of men and animals, ideally uncouth +and typical of the fantastic medley of Christian symbolism and the +barbaric imagination that found a mystical relationship between the +monsters of its own creation and the problems of the universe. The +exterior of the church is not less interesting than the interior. The +charming Romanesque apse, with its three narrow windows, its blind +arcade, the capitals ornamented with the acanthus, the row of +fantastic modillions above carried all round the building, their +sculpture exhibiting the strangest variety of ideas--heads of men, +women, beasts, birds, and fabulous monsters; and then the venerable +portal, with its elaborate bas-relief of the Last Judgment, furnish +much matter for reflection and study. In this 'Judgment' Christ is +standing in the midst of the Apostles, and the dead are rising from +the tombs below. Fiends are pulling the wicked out of their coffins, +and others are throwing the condemned into the wide-opened jaws of a +frightful monster. Above are numerous figures separated by various +mouldings forming archivolts. The arch of the door is Gothic, but all +the other work is Romanesque. The belfry is simply a roofed wall +pierced with four arched openings for bells. + +Espalion had once its strong fortress on a neighbouring hill--the +Castle of Calmont d'Olt. It is now a ruin. I climbed to it, and found +the undertaking more tedious than I had supposed. The narrow path +winding through the vineyards was bordered with cat-mint, agrimony, +vervain, and camomile. Then it passed through a little village, where +there were old walnut-trees and mossy walls, and a small church with +these words over the door: 'C'est ici la maison de Dieu et la porte du +ciel.' After the village, the path was almost lost amidst blocks of +sandstone and the _débris_ of the fortress, where snakes basking in +the sun slid away at my approach, hissing indignantly at the intruder. +On the summit there had been in the far-off ages an outpour of basalt, +which had crystallized into columnar prisms, and upon this foundation +of ancient lava the castle was built. A good deal of wall and the +lower part of a rectangular keep remain of this fortress, which dates +from the twelfth century. The outer wall was strengthened with +semicircular bastions, the ruins of which are seen. Fennel now thrives +amongst the fallen stones, which were dumb witnesses of so much that +was human. + +Returning to the inn, I resisted the temptation held out to stop and +lunch, although the preparations in the kitchen were far advanced, and +started off on the road to Estaing. I was again following the Lot, +which here flows between high vine-clad hills. After walking a few +miles, I saw a bush over the door of a roadside cottage, and, +entering, found that the only person in charge of this very rustic inn +was a pretty girl of about seventeen. She looked a little scared at +first; but when I had sat down with the evident intention of making +myself at home, she became reconciled to the sight of me, and +consented to let me have what there was in the house to eat. This was +not much, as she took care to point out. The nearest approach to meat +there was eggs, excepting, of course, the fat bacon--quite uneatable +in the English fashion--which is the basis of all the soup made +throughout a great part of France. Having lighted a fire on the +hearth, and fried me some eggs with bits of fat bacon instead of +butter, she said she must go and call 'papa,' who was working in the +vineyard. So she left me in charge of the inn while she went to fetch +her father on the hillside. While I was alone, I looked at the sunny +view of green meadows and trees through the open door that faced the +shining river, and easily fancied that what I saw was a bit of verdant +England. In the room, too, the twittering of a pair of canaries +recalled impressions of other days; but the plague of flies was +thoroughly French, and it soon brought me back to realities. When the +girl returned with her father, she gave me some excellent goat-cheese, +and for my dessert some hazelnuts, together with a spirit distilled +from plums, similar to the _quertch_ of Alsace. + +I had not been long in the sunshine again, when I noticed a large +house in the midst of the vines not far off the road. On drawing near +I found that it was ruinous, and had been long since abandoned. It had +been a rather grand house once, and must have belonged to people of +importance in the country. There was a finely-carved scutcheon with +arms over the Gothic door, and the mullioned windows, which had lost +all their glass, had something of the pathos of gentility that, +becoming poor and old, has been abandoned to all winds and weathers. +The little courtyard was full of high weeds and shrubs, and the wild +flags that grow on the rocks had laid their green leaves together to +hide the wounds of the old walls. Swallows, sparrows, and bats were +now the tenants of this mysterious house, which must have had a +troubled history. The picture has since haunted my memory; the mind +goes back to it in a strange way, and the sentiment of it, as it was +communicated to me, I find perfectly expressed in these lines by +Alphonse Karr: + + 'De la solitaire demeure + Une ombre lourde d'heure en heure, + Se détache sur le gazon, + Et cet ombre, couchée et morte + Est la seule chose qui sorte + Tout le jour de cette maison.' + +Some distance farther I passed another deserted dwelling. It was +perched upon rocks, and was overgrown with ivy and clematis. The road +led me down beside the Lot, which now began to rush again over rocks +as the hills drew closer, and the valley became once more a gorge. On +one side were dense woods; on the other vines reached up to the sky. + +At length I saw before me a row of houses beside the river in a bright +bit of valley hemmed in by high cliffs. On the rocks behind the houses +were a church and a castle. + +This was Estaing. It is a little place full of originality, and looks +as if it had been built to set forth the dream of some old writer of +romance. The late-Gothic church is more quaint and odd than beautiful. +The architect sported with the laws of symmetry, and revelled in the +fanciful. The nave is much wider at one end than the other. The great +sundial over the door, bearing the date 1636, is scarcely less useful +now than when it was placed there. The castle is a strange pile, all +the more picturesque by its incongruity. It stands upon a mass of +schistous rock about fifty feet above the river. Most of the visible +portion of the building is late Gothic and Renaissance; but this was +grafted upon the lower walls and arches of a feudal fortress. Towers +rise from towers, mullioned windows have their lines cut in the shadow +of beetling machicolations, and higher still are dormer windows with +graceful Gothic gables. This castle is now a convent and village +school. From the court I could see the Sisters' little garden, where +flowers and melons and potherbs were curiously mixed without the +gardener's systematic art, which is so often a deadly thing to beauty; +and nasturtiums climbing the weedy walls from rough deal boxes were +basking in the steady glow of afternoon sun, which seemed to me so +intensely brilliant because I was in the dark shadow. A Sister +consented to let me go to the top of the highest tower, and she went +before me rattling her keys officially. On the way she showed me a +fine Renaissance chimney-piece with florid carvings. + +After Estaing the valley became wilder, and the river fell over rocks +in a series of cascades. Clouds came up and hid the sun; a rainy wind +made the willows hoary, and set all the poplar leaves sighing and +quivering. The vines had disappeared, and the wooded gorge became very +solemn in the fading light. There was one figure in the +landscape--that of a peasant woman bending and rolling up into bundles +the hemp that had been spread out to dry. It added the human touch of +melancholy to the sadness of the picture. More and more gloomy became +the scene. Great black precipitous rocks of schist, their hollows +filled with sombre foliage, rose in solemn grandeur far above me, and +in the bottom the plunging stream foamed and roared. The mad wind +caught up the dust from the road and whirled it onward, and then the +rain began to fall. Rockier and darker became the way, and louder the +roar of the stream. So narrow was the gorge at length that the road +ran along a ledge that had been cut in the gneiss. + +When I was still some miles from Entraygues (called by the peasants +Entrayou), I met a young gendarme. He did not ask me for my papers, +for he was a native of the district of Lourdes, and had been brought +into contact with so many English people at Pau that he detected at +once my Britannic accent, which has not been worn away by many years' +residence in France. To him the fact of my being an Englishman was a +sufficient assurance that I was respectable. He was a rakish, +devil-may-care fellow, who, after being a sub-officer in the army, had +lately been moved into the gendarmerie. His heart had been deeply +touched by an English governess whom he had met at Pau, and he spoke +to me about her with 'tears in his voice.' He talked much about +Lourdes, where he said the people were sincerely religious, and not +hypocritical. His opinion of the Aveyronnais was somewhat different, +but perhaps unjust, for as yet he could not have had much experience +of them. Having taken the precaution to tell me that he was anything +but a strict Catholic himself, he declared that he was a believer in +miracles. + +'Why?' I asked. + +'Because,' said he, 'my father saw Bernadette go up a rock on her +knees--one that no man could climb--and I myself have been a witness +of miracles at Lourdes. I have seen at least twenty people cured at +the fountain. One was a captain, who was so paralyzed that he had to +be carried to the water, and when he came away he walked as if nothing +had been the matter with him.' + +Thus talking we reached Entraygues. I allowed the gendarme to take me +to the inn of his fancy, which he praised with true Southern warmth +for its comfort and good cheer. The large kitchen as we entered was +only lighted by the flame of the wood-fire on the hearth, in front of +which a fowl and a piece of veal were turning on the same spit, moved +by clockwork that said 'click-clack, click-clack;' which was as genial +an invitation to dinner as any I had ever heard. Presently the lamp +was lighted, the table was laid, and I sat down to dinner with the +innkeeper and the gendarme from the Basses Pyrénées. The meal was of +the substantial kind, such as gives complete satisfaction to the +wayfarer at the end of his day's wandering, after putting up with +frugal fare on the road. The aubergiste brought out his best wine, and +his best cheeses made from goat's milk, and which had been kept +carefully wrapped up in vine leaves. These little cheeses, when they +have been allowed to mature in a wrapping of vine or plane leaf, are +among the best made. The landlord had studied all matters relating to +the stomach within the range of his experience. He said that hares +were not fit to eat unless they had fed chiefly on thyme, and that a +starling had no value in the kitchen until it had been feeding on +juniper berries. + +This night when I went to bed I had not the frantic crowing of cocks +to keep me awake, but the soft murmuring of the flowing river to lull +me asleep. The weather being now fair and calm after the troubled +evening, I threw the window open, so that I could feel the wafting of +the great invisible wings of the summer night, and listen to the +soothing song of the water repeating the tales that were told to it by +the rocks and the woods on its way down from the Lozère mountains. + +I was again on the banks of this beautiful river--at no place more +beautiful than at Entraygues--when the rising sun was gilding only the +topmost vines of the high western hill that shadows it. The little +town of 2,000 inhabitants is close to the spot where the Thuyère falls +into the Lot. It lies in the angle where two lovely valleys meet. The +Thuyère comes down from the Cantal mountains, and as it reaches +Entraygues it spreads out over a broad smooth bed of pebbles, its +water as clear as rock-crystal; and when the morning sun looks down +upon it over the vine-clad hills, it is like something that has been +seen in the happiest of dreams. There is a castle at Entraygues, and, +as in the case of the one at Estaing, it is now used as a convent and +school. The archaeologist will find perhaps more to interest him in +the two thirteenth-century bridges which span the Lot and the Thuyère, +both noble specimens of Gothic work. + +As I left Entraygues the bells in the church-tower were ringing--not +the monotonous ding-dong with which French people generally have had +to content themselves since the Revolutionists turned the old +bell-metal into sous, but a blithe and joyous peal of high silvery +tones that seemed to belong to the blue air, and to be the voices of +the little spirits that flutter about the morning's rosy veil. My +design was to reach the abbey of Conques before evening, but instead +of going directly towards it over the hills, I preferred to keep as +long as possible in the valley of the Lot, which is here of such +witching loveliness. As there was a road on the river-bank for many +miles, I could follow this fancy, and yet feel the comfort of walking +on good ground. Although the season was getting late, I found the +valley below Entraygues very rich in flowers. Agrimony, mint, and +marjoram, with a tall inula, and the pretty, sweet-scented white +melilot, were in great abundance along the bank. Upon the rocks, which +now bordered the road, were the deep red blossoms of the orpine sedum, +and a small crimson-flowered stock with very hoary stem. A tall +handsome plant about three feet high, with large white flowers, drew +me down a bank to where it was growing near the water. I found that it +was a very luxuriant specimen of the thorn-apple (_datura_). While I +was admiring its poisonous beauty a woman stopped on the road just +above me, and, after contemplating me in silent curiosity for a few +minutes, said to me first in _patois_ and then in French (when I +replied to her in this language): + +'It is a wicked plant, that! The beasts will not touch it, so you had +better leave it alone.' + +Although I did not think this association of ideas very complimentary +to myself, I thanked her for her good advice. I nevertheless took away +as a souvenir a flower and one of the thorny apples, seeing which the +peasant trudged on her way, saying no doubt that it was wasting time +and words to give advice to lunatics. Again the cliffs drew very close +together, and the valley was nothing more than a deep crack in the +earth's crust. On one side was unbroken forest; on the other vines +were terraced up the rocky steep to the height of seven or eight +hundred feet. Even amidst the jutting crags the adventurous vine +lifted its sunny leaves; but, alas! here, too, the phylloxera had +begun its work of desolation, and I had little doubt that these hills +laden with fruit were destined in a few years to become a waste of +stones like so many others that I had seen nearer the plains which had +once streamed with wine. The cultivated land by the river was only a +narrow strip, and the crops were chiefly maize and buckwheat. At +length the vine cultivation was only carried on at intervals. Then the +long blue line of water lay between high rocky hills covered with box +and broom, bracken and heather. A stream came tumbling down a deep +ravine over blocks of gneiss to join the Lot, and a little beyond this +was a hamlet. + +The morning was now far advanced; so, as I was passing a cottage inn, +I wavered a minute, and the result of the wavering was that I crossed +the threshold. I said to myself: 'Perhaps I may walk on for miles, and +not find another chance so good as this.' It was one of the poorest of +inns, but it was able to give me a meal of bread and cheese and eggs, +which was as much as I could expect hereabouts. There was also a light +wine of local growth--sparkling, fragrant, and deliciously cool. What +more could I want? Two motherless girls looked after this waterside +inn, and also the ferry belonging to it. The boat lay a few feet from +the door. When I was ready to leave, the younger of the two girls +ferried me to the other side of the river, and a very pretty figure +she made for an artist to sketch--the simplicity of childhood in her +face, and the strength of a woman in her bare sunburnt arms. As is the +case with so many of the peasants in this district, where the old +Gaulish stock (the _Ruteni_ and the _Cadurci_) has been much less +influenced than in the towns by the tumultuous passage of races from +the south, the east, and the north, she was fair-haired, and naturally +fair-skinned; but exposure to the sun had darkened her by many shades. + +I had been walking for some time in the department of the Cantal, but +the ferry landed me on the Aveyron side of the river. I had now +seriously to consider the shortest way to Conques, separated from me +by very rough hill country and an uncertain number of miles. I was on +a narrow path skirting the forest and the water, when I met a peasant +family dressed in their best clothes, and on their way, as I learnt, +to the village of Notre Dame, where the _fête patronale_ was being +held. The man, who seemed well pleased with himself in his new black +blouse, carried the sleeping baby, and his wife held a great coloured +umbrella over it. They were followed by a girl of about fourteen, who +wore the open-work hand-made white stockings which the young women of +these southern villages use on festive occasions as soon as they begin +to grow coquettish. I fell into conversation with these people, who +told me that, after reaching the village, I must commence the ascent +through the forest. Speaking to the man about the trout, which are +plentiful in this part of the river, he entertained me with a story of +a selfish angler who once came there, and who had a fish on his hook +as soon as he threw a fly. The people of the district--who, it seems, +know nothing about fly-fishing--watched his success with wonder and +admiration, and asked him to explain to them how he managed to catch +fish in that way; but he was surly, and refused to give them any +lessons. He had imitators, nevertheless; but after spending many hours +vainly endeavouring to hook the crafty trout, they lost patience, and +gave up the attempt. + +Two or three score of houses huddled together at the foot of a rocky +cliff, a little above the water, was Notre Dame. The village was all +in movement. The space in front of the church was crowded with peasant +figures; a bell was swinging backward and forward in the wall-belfry, +as though it was trying to turn right over; stall-keepers with cakes, +barley-sugar, and other dainties dear to the village child, to whom +the opportunity of feasting even his eyes upon such things comes very +seldom, were surrounded by eager little faces, and outstretched +sunburnt hands, each clutching the sou that offered such a bewildering +field for dissipation. In the auberge hard by was a noisy throng, of +peasants sitting and standing in a cloud of smoke. Serving-women, +hired for the occasion, gaily coifed and be-ribboned, holding bottles +and glasses elbowed their way to the men who shouted the loudest for +drink, and, catching the jest in the air, gave one as good or as bad +in exchange. The scene was one for another Teniers to paint, although +there were no costumes to give a local colour to the picturesque. Most +of the older men wore the ugly short blouse--generally black in this +part of France; but ambitious youths of eighteen or twenty showed a +preference for the cloth coat which the village tailor had tried to +cut according to the Paris fashion. + +Leaving the rustic revellers, the queer little church, with its +ancient calvary, rudely carved, and resting upon a single column, I +was soon in the shadow of the old chestnut forest that covered the +steep side of the high cliffs above the Lot. The path was very rocky +and toilsome. A young man, who was hastening down from his home on the +hills to join the merrymakers, said to me, in allusion to the +roughness of the way: 'Le bon Dieu ne passe pas souvent par ici,' +thereby expressing the sentiment of the peasant, who associates all +that is wild and rugged in nature with the devil. While still in the +forest, and not a little puzzled by its paths, I met a woman and a +youth, and asked them if the way I was taking led to Conques. '_Apé_' +(yes) was the reply. Not a word of French could I draw from them. When +the cliffs were at length scaled, and I was on the open tableland, I +found the south wind blowing there with great violence, although in +the valley there was scarcely breeze enough to ripple the river pools. +The sun was falling into the yellow haze of the west as I began to +descend towards the valley of the Dourdou. I came upon a tributary of +this stream in the bottom of a deep and solemn gorge, whose steep +sides were densely wooded except where the rock jutted out and +revealed its dark nakedness, and where higher, near the sky, showed +here and there a patch of heather-purple waste, on which the brilliant +light was softening into evening tones. But in the depth of the gorge, +where the redly-running stream was nearly hidden under the tent of +leaves, the air was already dim, and the forms of the trees were +beginning to blend with their own shadows. + +Following the stream in its course, I found the Dourdou, and then +turned down the broader valley. I was tramping wearily on my way, +which seemed endless, when, clustered on the side of another wild and +thickly wooded gorge running up amidst the hills, I saw many houses, +and a dark pile of masonry, rising far above their roofs. I knew that +this must be Conques; it showed its religious origin so plainly in the +choice of the site. This was selected not because Nature was gentle +and pitiful to man in the cleft of those savage hills, but because she +was stern and solemn, and the veil that hides the supernatural was +felt to be thinner there, where the rocks and forest seemed to the +mediaeval mind to have remained just as the Almighty hand had +fashioned them. A monastery arose in the desert, then the abbey +church, and gradually a little lay community placed itself under the +protection of the religious one. + +A long narrow street, steep and stony, leads to the church, which is +all that is left of the Benedictine abbey, excepting some massive +buttresses, ruinous arches, and a round tower grafted upon the +rock--remnants of the ancient monastery which must have been half a +fortress. The burg itself was fortified, and one of the gateways of +the old wall is still standing. The existing church dates from the +eleventh century, but various details point to the conclusion that it +was built on the site of a more ancient structure. For example, in the +entrance is a holy-water stoup, the basin having been scooped out of +the capital of a column which is supposed to have been one of the +supports of a very primitive altar. The figure of an emperor is carved +on one of the faces, and on another that of a pagan divinity. The +architecture of the church is simple and majestic, the only jarring +note being the cupola raised about the time of the Renaissance over +the intersection of the nave and transept. The barrel-vaulted nave, +crossed by plain broad fillets, is in keeping with the early +Romanesque severity of the façade. The ornament is nearly confined to +the tympan over the portal, the capitals of columns, and to the choir +with its seven absidal chapels. The choir itself is cross-vaulted, and +the sanctuary, except at its junction with the nave, is enclosed by an +arcade of narrow stilted arches, the only ornament of the capitals +being acanthus leaves; but those against the wall are elaborately +storied with little figures. A moulding of small billets is carried +round the apse. The great height of the nave vaulting, obtained by a +triforium and clerestory, is very remarkable in a Romanesque church of +such early construction. In accordance with the style of the period, +the capitals of the nave show a complete absence of uniformity, some +being carved with figures, and others with leaves or intricate line +ornament. To obtain an adequate impression of all the fantastic +imagination expressed in these capitals, and the craftsmanship brought +to bear upon the carving, it is necessary to climb to the triforium +galleries. The aisle windows are narrow and placed high in the wall. +The interest of the exterior is centred upon the bas-relief +representing the Last Judgment, which fills the entire tympan of the +arch covering the two main doorways. The composition, which contains +over a hundred figures, is singularly animated, and although the forms +are uncouthly proportioned, and the treatment of the subject in some +of the details touches what to the modern mind seems grotesque, it is +an exceedingly vivid and faithful reflection of the religious ideas of +the age that produced it. What now appears grotesque was then sublime +and awful. We smile at the barbaric imagination that placed here, at +the door of hell, the head of a vast and hideous monster of the +crocodile family, into whose gaping jaws the damned are being thrust +by a pantomime devil; but eight centuries ago Christian people had too +lively a faith in the materialistic horrors of the infernal kingdom to +perceive anything extravagant in this idea of stuffing a scaly monster +with condemned sinners. Eight centuries ago!--the peasant of the +Aveyron and of Finistère still look upon these Dantesque sculptures +with genuine awe. Those who blame the monks for giving the devil a +forked tail and a pair of horns, and otherwise exhausting their +invention in the endeavour to materialize the terrors of hell, are +strangely unphilosophic. The mass of humanity with whom the monks had +to deal had the minds of children in regard to metaphysical ideas; +only by the pictorial method could they be sufficiently impressed with +the joys or horrors of the future life. Bas-reliefs such as this must +have had a great influence on the conduct of many generations; nor has +their influence yet ceased, although, as popular education spreads, +the interest taken in these quaint sculptures by those for whom they +were especially intended, so far from being stimulated, is lessened. +Inasmuch as the mind needs deep ploughing for the new culture, and the +majority can get no more than a superficial raking, the peasant of +to-day is often a poorer man intellectually than his father +was--poorer by the loss of faith and the confusion of ideas. + +The sculptor of this Last Judgment--a Benedictine monk, doubtless, +like the architect of the church who has left this personal record, +'Bernardus me fecit,' upon a stone in a dim corner--died centuries +ago, and although his bones or their dust may be near, his name will +never be known. But how his mind lives in the figures that took life +under his hand! With what inspired longing of the soul he must have +conceived and felt the majesty of Christ sitting in judgment at the +end of time to have expressed so much that is sublime in the holy face +and figure with his poor knowledge of art! The right hand is raised to +bless the just, and the left repels the unforgiven. Grouped around the +central figure are saints and angels. Peter, holding his keys, is +followed by a crowd of the elect, headed by an old man on crutches, +and a crowned sovereign--said to be Charlemagne--carries a reliquary. +In the lower half of the tympan Satan is enthroned, his feet resting +upon a writhing and hideously grimacing figure, supposed to be that of +Judas. Immediately above, an angel and a fiend are weighing souls in a +pair of scales, and the demon is trying to cheat. In this lower +division the infernal punishments inflicted upon sinners of different +categories are set forth. The sin of Francesca and Paolo is treated +less poetically than by Dante, for here two guilty lovers are seen +hanging to the same rope. A glutton is being stuffed with flaming +viands, sent up from the devil's kitchen. All manner of torture is +being inflicted by jubilant demons upon the souls that have fallen +into their clutches. One has caught in the net that he has just thrown +a mitred abbot and two other monks. As the dead rise from their tombs +the justiciary angels bar the way of the wicked who strive to approach +the Judge. A seraphim holds the closed book of life, upon which these +words are carved: 'Hic signatur liber vitae.' On various parts of the +portal are numerous inscriptions, some of which, like the following, +are in leonine verses: + + 'Casti pacifici mites pietatis amici + Sic stant gaudentes securi nil metuentes.' + +The archaeological interest of Conques is not confined to its church. +Here, hidden from the world in this obscure little gorge, far from any +railway-station, is one of the most remarkable collections of ancient +reliquaries in France. The chief treasure is the very ancient gold +statue of St. Foy (Sancta Fides) virgin and martyr, the patron saint +of Conques. It is a seated figure nearly three feet in height, and its +appearance is thoroughly Byzantine; indeed, one may go farther, and +say that it looks much more pagan than Christian. There is nothing in +the treatment that indicates a Christian motive; while the antique +engraved gems with which it is studded, illustrating, as some of them +do, workings of the Greek and Roman mind very far removed from the +Christian idea of what is becoming in morals, make this astonishing +statue an archaeological puzzle. The explanation that these gems were +placed upon it to symbolize the victory of Christian purity over the +impurity of the ancient religions of Greece and Rome is more ingenious +than conclusive. This statue of gold (_repoussé_), with regal crown +enriched with precious stones and enamels on which may be +distinguished Jupiter, Mars, Apollo and Diana, among the more +respectable of the divinities; if it was originally intended to +represent the virgin Fides, martyred at Agen, was certainly one of the +most fantastic achievements of ecclesiastical art. But whether this +was its origin or not, the style of its workmanship is considered by +competent judges to be sufficient proof that it is at least nine +hundred years old. + +In favour of the opinion that the statue was made at Conques, there is +the fact that the cult of St. Foy at this place dates from the early +Middle Ages. The ancient seal of the abbey bears the motto: + + 'Duc nos quo resides, + Inclyta Virgo Fides.' + +Historians of the abbey state that the relics of the saint were +brought from Agen to Conques about the year 874, and that Etienne, +Bishop of Clermont, caused a basilica to be raised here in her honour +between the years 942 and 984. It was under the direction of Ololric, +Abbot of Conques, that the existing church was built between the years +1030 and 1062. Throughout the Middle Ages the relics drew large +numbers of pilgrims to the spot. In the dialect of the country they +were called _Roumious_, because the pilgrimage to Conques was one of +those which enjoyed the privilege of conferring under certain +conditions the same advantages as were to be gained by the great +pilgrimage to Rome. The pilgrims kept the 'holy vigil'--that is to +say, they passed an entire night in prayer before the relics with a +lighted taper either fixed at their side or carried in the hand. The +pilgrimage and the ancient association of St. Foy were revived in +1874. + +The darkness of night drove me to take shelter in an inn which, like +everything else here, is dedicated to St. Foy. The pilgrims' money had +not made it pretentious, nor the people who kept it dishonest +--changes which 'filthy lucre' is very apt to bring about in the +holiest places. But the pilgrims who come to Conques are, for the most +part, peasants who look well before they leap, and who so contrive +matters as never to spend more upon anything than they have set aside +for it. + +Having completed the next morning my impressions of Conques, noting +among other things the curious and richly decorated _enfeux_ in the +exterior walls of the church, I returned to the bottom of the ravine, +and having crossed the old Gothic bridge over the Dourdou, began the +ascent of the rocky chestnut forest on the other side of the valley. +Small white crosses planted at intervals amidst the broom and heather +of the open wood marked the way to St. Foy's Chapel for the guidance +of pilgrims. According to the legend, it was near this spot that, the +relics of the saint having been set down by those who had carried them +from Agen, a fountain of the purest water burst forth from the earth, +and has continued to flow ever since. I found the chapel--a modern +Gothic one, with a statue of St. Foy in Roman dress in the niche over +the door--under a high rugged rock of schist. There was no one but +myself to trouble the solitude of this quiet nook on the wild +hillside, all broken up into little gullies and ravines, where the +aged chestnuts sheltered the tender moss and fern from the eager +sunbeam, and kept the dew upon the bracken until the noonday hours. An +exquisitely delicate campanula with minute flowers bloomed with +hemp-agrimony and wood-sage along the sides of the rills that +-scarcely murmured as they slid down the clefts of the impervious +rock. + +As I went higher, the chestnuts became more scattered, and at length +the rough land was covered only by the tufted heather and broom. Here, +instead of the light whispering of leaves, was the drowsy song of +multitudinous bees. The breeze blew freshly on the plateau, and grew +stronger as the sun rose. Could it be a cemetery, that grouping of +stones that I saw upon the moorland? No; it was a cottage-garden, +surrounded by disconnected slabs of mica-schist, standing like little +menhirs. peasant family lived in the wretched dwelling, exposed to the +full force of the howling winds, and striving continually with nature +for their black bread and the vegetables that give flavour to the +watery soup. + +A young man with a _béret_ on his head overtook me. He was a Béarnais, +who had not been long in the district, and who earned his living by +certain services that he rendered at widely-scattered farms. He had to +walk a great deal in all winds and weathers; therefore he knew the +country well, and could give me useful information. I was crossing the +hills with the intention of meeting the Lot again in the great coal +basin of the Aveyron, and thus cutting off a wide bend of the river. +All went well for some time after the Béarnais left me; but at length +I became fairly bewildered by the woods and ravines, the hills and +valleys that lay before me in seemingly endless succession. Savage +rockiness, sylvan quietude, open solitudes, bare and windblown, gave +me all the sensations of nature which expand the soul; but the body +grumbled for rest and refreshment long before I had crossed this +singularly wild tract of country almost abandoned by man. I had been +wading through bracken up to my neck, or wandering almost at hazard +through chestnut-woods for an hour or two, when hope was revived by my +meeting a peasant, who told me that I was not far from the village of +Firmi. I left the great woods, and reached a district that was new in +every sense. Entering a little gorge, to me it seemed that nature had +been cursed there ages ago, and still carried the sign of the +malediction in the sooty darkness of the rocks--jagged, tormented, +baleful--that rose on either hand. Nothing grew upon them save a low +wretched turf, and this only in patches. Beyond, the metamorphic rock +gave place to red sandstone, and the ground sloped down into the +little coal basin of Firmi. What a change of scene was there! The air +was thick with smoke, the road was black with coal-dust, most of the +houses were new and grimy, nearly all the faces were smutty. There was +a confused noise of wheels going round, of invisible iron monsters +grinding their teeth, of trollies rattling along upon rails, and of +human voices. Nature had no charm; but of beauty combined with fasting +I had had enough for awhile, so my prejudices melted before the genial +ugliness of this sooty paradise, knowing as I did that prosperity goes +with such griminess, and that where there is money there are inns +offering creature comforts both to man and beast. + +Either the angel or the goblin who goes a wayfaring with me led me +this time into a heated little auberge infested by myriads of flies, +which, getting into the steam of the _soupe caix choux_ in their +anxiety to be served first, fell upon their backs in the hot mixture, +and made frantic signals to me with their legs to help them out. There +was no temptation to linger at the table when the purpose for which I +was there had been attained; so I was very soon on the tramp again, +making for the valley of the Lot. + +Leaving Décazeville a few miles to the west, I took the direction of +Cransac, being curious to see the 'Smoking Mountains' in that +district. Between the little coal basin of Firmi and the large one at +Cransac and Aubin lay a strip of toilsome hill country. I had left the +round tower of the ruined castle of Firmi below, and was following a +winding path up a steep chestnut wood, when two mounted gendarmes +passed me going down. About five minutes later I heard the sound of +horses' hoofs coming near again. 'One of the gendarmes is returning,' +was my reflection, and, looking round, I saw this was really so. The +man was trotting his horse up the wood. Being sure that he was coming +after me, I walked slower, and gave myself the most indifferent and +loitering air that I could put on. In a few minutes he reined up his +horse at my side. He was a young man, and his expression told me that +he did not much like the duty that his chief had put upon him. +Addressing me, he said: + +'Pardon, monsieur, you are a stranger in this country?' + +'Yes, I am.' + +'Will you please tell me your quality?' + +In reply I asked him if he wished to see my papers. + +'If it will not vex you,' he said. His manners were quite charming. If +he was a native of the Rouergue, the army had polished him up +wonderfully. After looking at the papers and finding them +satisfactory, he said: 'Je vous demande pardon, monsieur, mais vous +comprenez-----' + +'Oh yes, I understand perfectly, and I assure you that my feelings are +not at all hurt!' + +And so we parted on very good terms. A woman standing at a cottage +door at a little distance watched the scene with a scared and +wondering look in her face. When I was again alone, and she saw me +coming towards her, she disappeared with much agility into her +fortress and shut the door. She must have thought that, although I had +managed to escape arrest that time, I should certainly come to a bad +end. + +After reaching the top of the hill, white smoke rising continually +into the blue air led me to the _Montagnes fumantes_. Coming at length +to the spot so named, 'Surely,' I thought, 'my wayfaring has brought +me at last to the Phlegraean Fields.' All about me were rocks that had +been burnt red, black, or yellow, and on their scorched surface not a +shrub, nor a blade of grass, nor even a tuft of spurge, grew. The +subterranean fires which had burnt these upper rocks had long since +gone out; but a hot and sulphurous vapour still passed over them when +the wind blew it in their direction. Continuing down the hillside, I +heard a crackling as of stones being split by heat, and presently saw +little tongues of flame shooting up from the crevices in the soil +almost at my feet, but scarcely perceptible in the brilliant sunshine. +From these and other vents, however, came intermittent puffs, or +continuous fillets of smoke, and the air was almost overpoweringly hot +and sulphurous. To wander by night among these jets of fire must be +very stimulating to the imagination, for then the hill is lit up by +them; but I thought the spot sufficiently infernal by daylight. + +Beds of coal lying underneath this rocky hill, perhaps at a great +depth, have been burning for centuries, and the same phenomenon is +repeated elsewhere in the district. The popular legend is that the +English, when they were compelled to abandon Guyenne, set fire to +these coal-measures with the motive of doing all the mischief they +could before leaving. Such fables are handed down from generation to +generation. All the evil that happened to the region in the dim past +is placed to the account of the English. These burning hills in the +Aveyron have been turned to one good purpose. The hot air that escapes +from crevices where there is neither smoke nor fire is used for +heating little cabins which have been constructed for the treatment of +persons suffering from rheumatic disorders. There they can obtain a +natural vapour-bath that is both cheap and effectual. + +At the foot of the cliffs lay Cransac, bristling with tall chimneys +and in a cloud of dark coal-smoke that filled the valley. Here, +instead of the solemn calm of the barren uplands, the murmurous +chanting of rills and shallow rivers, and the mystical voices that +speak from the depths of the forest, I heard the fretful buzz of a +human beehive. Here was human life intensified and yet lowered in tone +by aggregation, by the strain of organized effort that suppresses +initiative and makes the value of a man merely a question of dynamics. +The number of shops, especially of drinking-shops--sordid _cafés_ and +flashy _buvettes,_ where the enterprising poisoners of the coal-miner +stood behind their zinc counters pouring out the corrosive absinthe +and the beetroot brandy--told of the prosperity of Cransac. Evidently +it was a place in which money could be earned by those prepared to +accept the conditions. The women wore better clothes than the wives of +the peasants; but low morality, instead of the sad but always +honourable stamp of ravaging toil, was impressed on many a female +face. Even the children looked as degraded by the social atmosphere as +they were blackened by the smoke and ever-falling soot. Hastening +along the road towards Aubin, I soon found that the two places, +separated according to the map by a considerable distance, had grown +together. The long road powdered with coal-dust was now a street lined +on each side with houses and hovels. Wooden shanties with sooty, +bushes of juniper hanging over the door, and the word 'Buvette' +painted beneath, competed for the miner's money at distances of twenty +or fifty yards. One had a notice such as is rarely seen in France, and +which was significant here: 'Ready money for everything sold over the +counter.' Close by was the sign of a _sage-femme_, who, under the +picture of a woman holding aloft in triumph an unreasonably fat baby, +announced that she also bled and vaccinated. Grimy children and grimy +pigs that were intended to be white or pink sprawled upon the +thresholds or wallowed in the hot dust. + +Having left the blissful coal basin, I met the Lot again near the +boundary-line of the Aveyron and entered the department named after +the river. Thence to Capdenac the valley was a curving line of +uninterrupted but ever-changing beauty. + +The season was farther advanced when I continued the journey from this +point to Cahors. + +A person who had contracted the 'morphia habit' would probably find +the most effectual cure for it by forced residence at Capdenac, +because the town does not boast the luxury of a chemist's shop. +Supposing the patient, however, to be a lady of worldly tastes, she +might die of _ennui_ in twenty-four hours. The Capdenac of which I am +speaking is not the utterly unpicturesque collection of houses that +has been formed about the well-known railway junction on the line to +Toulouse, but old romantic Capdenac, whose dilapidated ramparts, +dating from the early Middle Ages, crown the high rocky hill that +rises abruptly from the valley on the other side of the Lot, which +here separates the department named after it from, the Aveyron. The +situation of this town is one of the most remarkable. It is perched +upon a lofty table of reddish rock of the same calcareous composition +as that which prevails throughout the region of the _causses_. Its +walls are so escarped that the topmost crags in places overhang the +path that winds about their base far below. Only strategical +considerations could ever have induced men to build a town on such a +site. The Gauls set the example, and their _oppidum_ was long supposed +to have been Uxellodunum, but the controversy has been settled in +favour of the Puy d'Issolu. + +I chose the hour of eight in the morning for climbing the rock of +Capdenac. The broad winding river was brilliantly blue, like the vault +overhead, and although the vine-clad hills, which shut in the valley, +and the bare rocks, whose outlines were sharply drawn against the sky, +were luminous, the light had the pure and clear sparkle of the +morning. Reaching the hill, I took a zigzag stony path that led +through terraced vineyards. The vintage had commenced, and men, women, +and children were busy picking the purple grapes still wet with dew. + +The children only, however, showed any joy in the work, for the +bunches hung at such a distance from each other that a vine was very +quickly stripped. The _vigneron_, with his mind dwelling upon the +bygone fruitful years, when these arid steeps poured forth torrents of +wine as surely as October came round, wore an expression on his face +that was not one of thankfulness to Providence. They are a rather +surly people, moreover, the inhabitants of this district, and I do not +think at any time their hearts could have been very expansive. As I +approached a woman who had a great basket of grapes in front of her, +she hastily threw a bundle of leaves over them, casting a keenly +suspicious glance at me the while. If she meant me to understand that +the times were too bad for grapes to be given away, the movement was +unnecessary. Where now are the generous sentiments and the poetry +traditionally associated with the vintage? Not here, certainly. Men go +out into their vineyards by night armed with guns, and the depredators +whom they fear most are not dogs that have acquired a taste for +grapes. The stony path was bordered by brambles, overclimbed by +clematis, whose glistening awns were mingled with blackberries, which +not even a child troubled to pick. There was much fleabane--a plant +that deserves to be cherished in these parts, if it be really what its +name indicates, but it would have to be extensively cultivated to be a +match for the fleas. After the vineyards came the dry rock, that held, +however, sufficient moisture for the wild fig-tree, wherever it could +find a deep, crevice. + +Passing underneath the perpendicular wall of rock, and the vine-clad +ramparts above it, built on the very edge of the precipice, the +winding path led me gradually up to the town. A little in front of an +arched gateway was a ruined barbican, the inner surface of the walls +being green with ferns and moss. Four loopholes were still intact. Had +it been night I might have seen ghostly men with crossbows issuing +from the gateway, but it being broad daylight, I was met by a troop of +young pigs followed by a little hump-backed woman who addressed her +youthful swine in the language of the troubadours. + +In the narrow street beyond the arch a company of gigantic geese drew +themselves up in order of battle, and challenged me in chorus to come +on; but their courage was like that of Ancient Pistol. No other living +creature did I see until I had walked nearly half through the ancient +burg, between houses several centuries old, their stories projecting +over the rough pitching and the stunted fig-trees which grew there +unmolested. Some of these dwellings were in absolute ruin, with long +dry grasses waving on the roofless walls. Nobody seemed to think it +worth while to rebuild or repair anything. The town appeared to have +been left to itself and to time for at least two hundred years. And +yet there really were some inhabitants left. I found another gateway +and another ruined barbican, and near to these, on the verge of the +precipice, a high rectangular tower, which was the citadel and prison. +The lower part was occupied by the schoolmaster of the commune, and he +allowed me to ascend the winding staircase, which led to two horrible +dungeons, one above the other. Neither was lighted by window or +loophole, and but for the candle I should have been in utter darkness. +Great chains by which prisoners were fastened to the wall still lay +upon the ground, and as I raised them and felt their weight, I thought +of the human groans that only the darkness heard in the pitiless ages. +In another part of the building was a heavy iron collar that was +formerly attached to one of these chains. There were also several old +pikes in a corner. + +A little beyond the citadel I found the church, a small Romanesque +building without character. An eighteenth-century doorway had been +added to it, and the tympan of the pediment was quite filled up with +hanging plants. Still more suggestive of abandonment was the little +cemetery behind, which was bordered by the ramparts. It was a small +wilderness. Just inside the entrance, a life-sized figure with +outstretched arms lay against a damp wall in a bed of nettles and +hemlock. It had become detached from the cross on which it once hung, +and had been left upon the ground to be overgrown by weeds. I have +seen many a neglected rural cemetery in France, but never one that +looked so sadly abandoned as this. It was like the 'sluggard's +garden,' where 'the thorn and the thistle grow higher and higher.' +Most of the gravestones and crosses were quite hidden by dwarf elder, +artemisia, wild carrot, and other plants all tangled together. A grave +had just been dug in this wilderness and it was about to have a +tenant, for the two bells in the open tower were sounding the _glas_, +and a distant murmur of chanting was growing clearer. The priest had +gone to 'fetch the body,' and the procession was now on its way. On +the top of the earth and stones thrown up on each' side of the new +grave were a broken skull, a jawbone, several portions of leg and arm +bones, besides many smaller fragments of the human framework. I +thought the gravedigger might at least have thrown a little earth over +these remains out of consideration for the feelings of those who were +about to stand around this grave, but concluded that he probably +understood the people with whom he had to deal. Presently this +functionary--a lantern-jawed, nimble old man, with a dirty nightcap on +his head--made his appearance to take a final look at his work. After +strutting round the very shallow hole he had dug, in an airy, +self-satisfied manner, he concluded that everything was as it should +be, and retired for the priest to perform his duty. + +The great difficulty with the people of Capdenac in time of war must +have been the water supply. When their cisterns were empty, they had +the river at the bottom of the valley and a spring that flowed at +certain seasons, as it does now, at the foot of the rock on which they +had built their little town. When they were besieged, they could not +descend to the Lot to draw water; consequently they laid great store +by the stream at the base of the rock. A long zigzag flight of steps +down the side of the precipice was constructed, and it was covered by +a wall that protected those who fetched water from arrows and bolts. +Near the spring this wall was built very high and strong, and was +pierced with loopholes. It also served as an outwork. The steps and +much of the wall still exist. The spring in modern times came to be +called Caesar's Well, because the elder Champollion and others +endeavoured to prove that Capdenac was the site of Uxellodunum. The +fact, however, that the spring is dry for several months in the year, +and could never have been aught else but the drainage of the rock, is +in itself a sufficient refutation of the hypothesis; because, +according to Caesar, the fountain at Uxellodunum was so perennially +abundant that when he drew off the water by tunnelling, the Gauls +recognised in this disaster the intervention of the gods. + +Capdenac appears to have given the English a great deal of trouble, +which the natural strength of the place fully explains. It must have +been a fortress of the first order in the Middle Ages, and would be so +to-day, if the French thought it worth while to use it in a military +sense; but, happily for the inhabitants of this part of France, their +territory now lies far from the theatre of any war that is likely to +occur. A charter by Philippe le Long, dated 1320, another by King +John, and a third by Charles VII., recognise the immunity of the +people of Capdenac from all public charges on account of the +resistance which they constantly opposed to the English. The rock +must, nevertheless, have fallen into the hands of a company attached +to the British cause, for the Count of Armagnac bought the place in +1381 of a band of so-called English _routiers_. Sully lived there +after the death of Henry IV., and the house that he occupied still +exists. + +According to a local tradition, Capdenac was on the point of being +captured by the English, when it was saved from this fate by a +stratagem. The defenders were starving, and the besiegers were relying +upon famine to reduce them. In order to make the English believe that +the place was still well provisioned, a pig was given a very full meal +of all the corn that could be scraped together and then pushed over +the side of the rock in a cautious manner, so that the animal might +appear to be the victim of its own indiscretion. The pig fulfilled +expectations by splitting open when it struck the ground, and thus +revealed the corn that was in its body. When the English saw this, +they said: 'If the men of Capdenac can afford to feed their swine on +wheat, they must still have plenty for themselves.' Discouraged by +this reflection, they raised the siege. When they went away there was +not an ounce of bread left to divide amongst the garrison. + +A market was being held at Capdenac--the lower town--as I left it. +Bunches of fowls tied together by the legs were dangling from the +hands of a score or so of peasant women standing in line. The wretched +birds had ceased to complain, and even to wriggle; but although, with +their toes upward and their beaks downward, life to them could not +have looked particularly rosy, they seemed to watch with keen interest +all that was going on. Only when they had their breasts well pinched +by critical fingers did they struggle against their fate. The legs of +these fowls are frequently broken, but the peasants only think of +their own possible loss; and women are every bit as indifferent to the +sufferings of the lower animals as men. + +There was a sharp wrangle going on in the Languedocian dialect over a +coin--a Papal franc--that somebody to whom it had been offered angrily +rejected. Here I may say that one of the small troubles of my life in +this district came from accepting coins which I could not get rid of. +As a rule, the native here turns over a piece of money several times +before he satisfies himself that no objection can be brought against +it; but if, in the hurry of business, the darkness of night, or the +trustfulness inspired by a little extra worship of Bacchus, he should +happen to take a Papal, Spanish, Roumanian, or other coin that is +unpopular, he puts it on one side for the first simpleton or stranger +who may have dealings with him. Thus, without intending it, I came to +possess a very interesting numismatical collection, which I most +unconscientiously, but with little success, tried to scatter. + +I made my way down the valley of the Lot, taking the work easily, +stopping at one place long enough to digest impressions before pushing +on towards a fresh point. This valley is so strangely picturesque, so +full of the curiosities of nature and bygone art, that if I had not +been a loiterer before, I should have learnt to loiter here. + +Keeping on the Aveyron side of the river, I soon reached the village +of St. Julien d'Empare, where almost every house had somewhat of a +castellated appearance, owing to the dovecot tower which occupied one +angle and rose far above the roof. One of these houses had two rows of +dormer windows, covered by little gables with very long eaves in the +high-pitched roof, whose red tiles were well toned by time. The +tower-like pigeon-house, with extinguisher roof, stood at one end upon +projecting beams, and the pigeons kept going in and coming out of the +holes in their two-storied mansion. One sees dovecots everywhere in +this district, and most of them are two or three centuries old. Some +are attached to houses, and others are isolated on the hillsides +amongst the vines. When in the latter position, they are generally +round, and are built on such a scale that they really look like +towers. + +There were grape-gatherers in the vineyards, but they had to search +for the fruit. The wine grown upon these hills by the Lot has been +famous from the days of the Romans; but there is very little of it +left. There is, however, a consoling side to every misfortune. A man +of Figeac told me that since the vines had failed in the district the +death-rate had diminished remarkably. + +'Why?' I asked. + +'Why?' replied he, with a sad smile, 'because in the happy times +everybody drank wine at all hours of the day; but now, in these +miserable times, nearly everybody drinks water.' + +The new state of things would be still more satisfactory from a +teetotal point of view if Nature were less niggardly of water in these +parts. In some localities it has to be strictly economized, and this +is done in the case of streams by using it first for the exterior, and +afterwards for the interior needs of man. I, having still some English +prejudices, would rather run all the risks incurred by drinking wine, +than swallow any more than I am obliged of the rinsings of dirty +linen. + +Having crossed the Lot by a suspension bridge, a roadside inn enticed +me with its little terrace, where there were many hanging plants and +flowers, and a wild fig-tree that had climbed up from the rock below, +so that it could look into people's glasses and listen to their talk +in that pleasant bower. I might have lingered here too long had it not +been for the wasps, which were even a greater nuisance than the flies. + +To reach the village of Frontenac I took a little path leading through +maize-fields by the river's side. The maize was ready for the harvest, +and the long leaves had lost nearly all their greenness. The lightest +breath of air made each plant rustle like a paper scarecrow. The river +was fringed with low, triggy willows and a multitude of herbs, rich in +seeds, but poor in flowers. Among those still in bloom were the +evening primrose, soapwort, and marjoram. The river was as blue as the +heaven, and on each side rose steep hills, wooded or vine-clad, with +the yellow or reddish rock upon the ridges glowing against the hot +sky. As I was moving south-west I had the afternoon sun full in the +face. The lizards that darted across the path, raising little clouds +of dust in their hurry, found this glare quite to their taste, but it +was too much for me, and when at length I saw a leafy walnut tree I +lay down in the shade until the fiery sun began to touch the high +woods, the river, and the yellow maize-stalks with the milder tones of +evening. + +A narrow grassy lane between tall hedgerows sprinkled over with +innumerable glistening blackberries led me to Frontenac, a village +upon the rocky hillside. Here is a little church partly raised upon +the site of a Roman or Gallo-Roman temple. A broken column left +standing was included in the wall of the Romanesque apse, upon the +lower masonry of which both pagan and Christian hands have worked. The +nave has been rebuilt in modern times, but in the open space before +the entrance Roman coffins crop up above the rough paving, separated +from each other only by a few feet. There is a stone coffin lying +right across the doorway, and the _curé_, whom I drew into +conversation, confided to me, with a comical smile upon his pale dark +face, that he had raised a fragment of the lid to see if anything more +enduring than man had been left there, but that he found nothing but +very fine dust. Every bone had become powder. This priest was a +companionable man, and he must have looked upon me with a less +suspicious eye than most people hereabouts, for he invited me into his +house to take a _petit verre_ with him. But the sun was getting near +the end of his journey, and I had to fare on foot to the next village; +so I thought it better to decline the offer. + +The next village was St. Pierre-Toirac, also built upon the hillside +above the Lot. It is a larger place than Frontenac, and must have been +of considerable importance in the Middle Ages, to judge from its +fortified church, whose high gloomy walls give it the appearance of a +veritable stronghold. Some of the inhabitants say that it was built by +the English, but the architecture does not indicate that such was the +case. The interior is a beautiful example of the Romanesque style. The +capitals of the columns are fit to serve as models, so strongly +typical are the designs, and so exquisite is their workmanship. It is +probable that the walls of the church were raised, and that it was +turned into a fortress during the religious wars of the thirteenth +century between Catholics and Albigenses, which explain the existence +of so many fortified churches in Languedoc and Guyenne, as well as so +many ruins. + +I had reached this church by an old archway, whose origin was +evidently defensive, and crossing the dim and silent square, +surrounded by mediaeval houses, some half ruinous, and all more or +less adorned with pellitory, ivy-linaria, and other wall-plants which +had fixed their roots between the gaping stones. I passed through +another archway, and stopped at a terrace belonging to a ruined +château or country-house. Here I was looking at the valley of the Lot +in the warm after-glow of sunset, when an elderly gentleman came up to +me and disturbed my contemplative mood by asking me not very +courteously if I wanted to see anybody. I was somewhat taken aback to +find such an important-looking person in such a dilapidated place. I +tried, however, not to appear too much overcome, and explained that it +was only with the intention of seeing the picturesque that I had found +my way to that ruinous spot. The agreeable person who had questioned +me now let me understand that it was his spot, and informed me that +nobody was allowed to see it 'sans être presenté.' Then, looking at me +very fiercely, he said: + +'Are you an Englishman or a German?' + +'An Englishman,' I replied, whereupon his ferocious expression relaxed +considerably, but he did not become genial. + +I retired from his ruin considerably disgusted with its owner, who +contrasted badly with all Frenchmen in his social position whom I had +previously met. I asked a woman who he was, and she replied that all +she knew about him was that he was an 'espèce de noble.' Her cruelty +was unintentional. The next morning I learnt from an old Crimean +soldier, who knew I was English because he had drained many a glass +with my fellow-countrymen, that the magnates of the village had held a +consultation overnight upon the advisability of coming down upon me in +a body and asking me for my papers. Nothing came of it, which was well +for me, for I had come away without my papers. + +There was rain that night, and when morning came it had changed the +face of the world. The sun was shining again and warmly, but summer +had gone and autumn had come. Upon the rocky slopes the maples were on +fire; in the valley the large leaves of the walnut-trees mimicked the +sunshine, and by the river-side the tall poplars, as they bowed to the +water deities, cast upon the mirror of many tones the image of a +trembling golden leaf repeated beyond all power of numbering. A little +rain had been enough to produce this magical change. It had opened the +great feast of colour that brings the year to its gray, sad close. + +But the sky was brilliantly blue when I left St. Pierre-Toirac. The +next village was Laroque-Toirac. The houses were clustered near the +foot of an escarped hill, where thinly-scattered pines relieved the +glare of the naked limestone. Upon a precipitous rock dominating the +village is a castle, the lower works of which belong to the Feudal +Ages, the upper to the Renaissance epoch--a combination very frequent +in this district. The mullioned windows and the graceful balustrade, +carried along a high archway, are in strong contrast to the stern and +dark masonry of the feudal stronghold. This picturesque incongruity +reaches its climax in the lofty round tower upon which a dovecot has +been grafted, whose extinguisher-roof, with long drooping eaves, is +quite out of keeping with the machicolations which remain a little +below the line of the embattled parapet that has disappeared. The +castle is now used for the schools of the commune, and a score or so +of little boys and girls whom I met on my way up the rough path stared +at me with much astonishment. I climbed to a bastion of the outer +works, where a fig-tree, growing from the old wall, and reaching above +it, softened the horror of the precipice; for such it really was. The +masonry was a continuation of one of those walls of rock which give +such a distinctive character: to the geological formation of this +region. The village lay far below--a broken surface of tiled roofs, +sloping rapidly towards the Lot, itself a broad ribbon of many blended +colours, winding through the sunlit plain. The castle of Laroque +belonged to the Cardaillac family. In 1342 it was stormed and taken by +Bertegot Lebret, captain of a strong company of English, who had +established their headquarters at Gréalou. + +As I approached Montbrun, the next village, the rocks which hemmed in +the valley became more boldly escarped. In their lower part the beds +of lias were shown with singular regularity. Box and pines and sumach +were the chief vegetation upon the stony slopes, where the scattered +masses of dark-green foliage gave by contrast a whiter glitter to the +stones. Montbrun, like so many of the little towns and villages +hereabouts, is built upon rocks immediately below a protecting +stronghold, or, rather, what was one centuries ago. The windows of +some of the dwellings look out upon the sheer precipice. The vine +clambers over ruined houses and old walls built on to the rock, and +seemingly a part of it. Of the mediaeval castle little is left besides +the keep. The Marquis de Cadaillac, to whom it belonged, strengthened +the fortifications with the hope that the stronghold would be able to +resist any attack by the English; but it was nevertheless captured by +them. + +After leaving Montbrun I saw nothing more of civilization until I came +near a woman seated on a doorstep, and engaged in the exciting +occupation of fleaing a cat. She held the animal upon its back between +her knees, and was so engrossed by the pleasures of the chase that she +scarcely looked up to answer a question I put to her. The word _café_ +painted upon a piece of board hung over another door enticed me +inside, for it was now nearly midday, and I had been in search of the +picturesque since seven o'clock, sustained by nothing more substantial +than a bowl of black coffee and a piece of bread. This is the only +breakfast that one can expect in a rural auberge of Southern France. +If milk is wanted in the coffee it must be asked for over-night, and +even then it is very doubtful if the cow will be found in time. To ask +for butter with the bread would be looked upon as a sign of eccentric +gluttony, but to cap this request with a demand for bacon and eggs at +seven in the morning, as a man fresh from England might do with +complete unconsciousness of his depravity, would be to openly confess +one's self capable of any crime. People who travel should never be +slaves to any notions on eating and drinking, for such obstinacy +brings its own punishment. + +A stout woman with a coloured silk kerchief on her head met me with a +good-tempered face, and, after considering what she could do for me in +the way of lunch, said, as though a bright idea had suddenly struck +her: + +'I have just killed some geese; would monsieur like me to cook him +some of the blood?'. + +'Merci!' I replied. 'Please think of something else.' + +An Englishman may possibly become reconciled to snails and frogs as +food, but never, I should say, to goose's blood. In about twenty +minutes a meal was ready for me, composed of soup containing great +pieces of bread, lumps of pumpkin and haricots; minced pork that had +been boiled with the soup in a goose's neck, then a veal cutlet, +covered with a thick layer of chopped garlic. Horace says that this +herb is only fit for the stomachs of reapers, but every man who loves +garlic in France is not a reaper. Strangers to this region had better +reconcile themselves both to its perfume and its flavour without loss +of time, for of all the seasoning essences provided by nature for the +delight of mankind garlic is most esteemed here. Those who have a +horror of it would fare very badly at a _table-d'hôte_ at Cahors, for +its refined odour rises as soon as the soup is brought in, and does +not leave until after the salad. Even then the unconverted say that it +is still present. To cultivate a taste for garlic is, therefore, +essential to happiness here. + +I crossed a toll-bridge over the river just below Cajarc, and again +entered the department of the Aveyron, my object being to ascend the +valley of a tributary of the Lot, to a spot where it flows out of a +pool of unknown depth, called the Gouffre de Lantouy. The road passed +under the village of Savagnac, built upon the hillside. A Renaissance +castle with sham machicolations, little chambers. with their +projecting floors resting on brackets turrets on _culs de lampe_ and +with extinguisher roofs, and a high terrace overgrown with vines and +fig-trees left to fight their own battle, lorded it over all the other +houses, like a sunflower in an onion-bed. But the castle, although it +gives itself such aristocratic airs, is, in these days, nothing but a +farmhouse, sacks of maize being now stored in rooms where ladies once +touched the lute with white fingers, and where gentlemen may have +crumpled their frills while swearing eternal love upon their knees. +The little cemetery adjoining the château has swallowed up the great +and the lowly century after century, and the rank grass, now sprinkled +with the lingering flowers of summer, barely covers their mingled +bones. The old gravestones, left undisturbed, have sunk into the soil +nearly out of sight. Such is the ending of all that is human. + +A little beyond this village a peasant woman, whom I met picking up +walnuts from the road that was strewn with them, lifted her +wide-brimmed straw hat to me as I passed. This was indeed polite. I +now left the road, and followed a lane by the stream that flows out of +the _gouffre_. This valley is narrow enough to be called a gorge, and +the stony hills on either side presented a picture of utter barrenness +and desolation. But along the level of the stream the deep-green grass +shadowed by the hill was lighted up with the pale-purple death-torches +of the poisonous colchicum. After crossing a stubble-field, now +overgrown by the violet-coloured pimpernel, I reached the sinister +pool, fringed with the flag's sword-like leaves and shadowed by willows +and alders. I expected to find the water all in tumult; but no, it had +the dark, solemn stillness of the mountain tarn. The two streams that +poured out of it to meet a little lower down the valley hardly +murmured as they started upon their journey amidst the iris and sedge, +although the body of water was strong enough to turn a millwheel. + +There is something that troubles the imagination in the appearance of +this lonely pool for ever silently overflowing, and so deep that +nobody as yet has been able to find the bottom. On the side of the +stony hill close by are some ruined walls of a church and convent, +said to have been built by St. Mamphaise. The peasants of the district +have an extraordinary story with regard to this convent, which is +either the cause or the consequence of the superstitious awe in which +they hold the Gouffre de Lantouy. This legend is to the effect that +the conventual building was once inhabited by women who ate children, +and that a certain mother, whose baby they had kidnapped and eaten, +cursed them so heartily and to such purpose that the _gouffre_ was +formed, and their convent, or the greater part of it, was +supernaturally carried down the hill and plunged into the bottomless +water. The legend also says that those who stand by the pool on St. +John's Eve will hear the convent bell ringing. It not being St. John's +Eve when I was there I was unable to test the truth of this part of +the legend. What I did hear was a raven croaking from the ruin, and +the sound harmonized well with the air of mystery and gloom hanging +over the spot. + +There is some historic reason for believing that the convent at +Lantouy was founded by Charlemagne. Very near this spot are the +remains of some ancient fortified works, and the locality is known as +'La domaine de Waïffier.' This name is evidently the same as Waïfré. +There is reason to believe that the last of the sovereign Dukes of +Aquitaine made a stand here when pursued by his implacable enemy Pepin +le Bref. The people pronounce the word 'Waïffier' as though it +commenced with a 'G.' + +Towards evening I recrossed the Lot and entered Cajarc. Passing +through the little town, which is not in itself very interesting, I +took a path winding up the side of the hill, at the base of which lies +the burg. I wished to see a cascade that has a local reputation for +beauty. I reached the foot of a high, fantastic rock, from the ledges +of which masses of ivy hung woven together like a veritable tapestry +of nature. A small stream descended from the uppermost ridge upon a +rock covered with moss showing every hue of green, and then into a +dark pool below. The hillside above the cascade has been extensively +tunnelled for phosphate. An Englishman discovered the value of the +site, and dug a fortune out of it. There are several phosphate-mines +in this district, all more or less connected with British enterprise. +Phosphate inspires respect for Englishmen here, for it has been the +means of giving a great deal of employment and rendering petty +proprietors, who could barely get a living out of their thankless +soil, comparatively rich. The inhabitants, therefore, consider English +speculators in the light of public benefactors, and such they have +really proved, although the motive that brought them here was scarcely +a philanthropic one. Neither the French nor the British public has any +conception of the extent to which the mineral resources of France are +worked by the English. + +Cajarc, although it looks like a village to-day, was once a fortified +town of considerable importance in the Quercy. Its inhabitants offered +an obstinate resistance to the English on several occasions. In 1290 +they refused to swear fealty to the King of England until their lord, +the Bishop of Cahors, gave them the order to do so in the name of the +King of France. Subsequently in the same and the following century, +when the Ouercynois were again in arms against the English, various +attempts to take the town by surprise failed through the vigilance and +courage of the burghers. To punish them, the English, in 1368, +destroyed their bridge across the Lot, of which some remnants may +still be seen. + +After leaving Cajarc in the morning I was soon alone with Nature on +the right bank of the river. Autumn was there in a gusty mood, blowing +yellow leaves down from the hills upon the water and driving them +towards the sea over the rippled, gray surface lit up with cold, +steel-like gleams of sunshine struggling through the vapour. The +wilderness of herbs and under-shrubs along the banks was no longer +aflame with flowers. Dead thistles, whose feathered seeds had drifted +far away upon the wind to found new colonies, and a multitude of +withered spikes and racemes, told the old story of the summer's life +passing into the death or sleep of winter. Yet the river-banks were +not without flowers. A rose, very like the 'monthly rose' of English +gardens, was still blooming there, together with hawkweed, wild +reseda, and a mint with lilac-coloured blossoms which one sees on +every bit of waste ground throughout this region. + +A rock rising from the river's bank carried the ruin of an ancient +chapel. Only the apse was left. It contained one narrow deeply-splayed +Romanesque window, and a piscina where the priest washed his hands. +The altar-stone lay upon the ground where the altar must have stood, +and behind it a rough wooden cross had been piously raised to remind +the passer-by that the spot was hallowed. + +The road now ran under high red rocks or steep stony slopes, where, on +neglected terraces overgrown with weeds, the dead or dying vines +repeated the monotonous tale of the phylloxera. + +I passed through the village of Lannagol, mostly built upon rocks +overlooking the bed of its dried-up stream, and was soon again under +the desert hills, where the fiery maple flashed amid the sombre +foliage of the box. The next village or hamlet was a very curious one. +Rows of little houses, some of them mere huts, were built against the +side of the rock under the shelter of huge masses of oolite or lias +projecting like the stories of mediaeval dwellings. People climbed to +their habitations, like goats, up very steep paths winding amongst the +rocks. The overleaning walls were blackened to a great height by the +smoke from the chimneys. + +It was dusk when I crossed a bridge leading to the village of +Cénevières, where I intended to pass the night. There was a very fair +inn here, less picturesque than many of the auberges of the country, +but cleaner, perhaps, for this reason. The aubergiste was suspicious +of me at first, as he afterwards admitted, for like others he had +turned over in his mind the question, Is he a German spy? Judging from +my own experience in this part of France, I should say that a German +tourist would not spend a very happy holiday here. The sentiment of +the Parisians towards the Teuton is fraternal love compared to that of +the Southern French. These people proved themselves to be thorough +going haters in the religious wars, and the old character is still +strong in them. + +Although the Germans in 1870-71 did not show themselves in Guyenne, +the resentment of the inhabitants towards them is intense, and it is +the vivacity of this feeling that renders them so suspicious of +foreigners. I noticed, however, that as I went farther down the Lot +the people became more genial, so that the long evenings in the rural +inns generally passed very pleasantly. Dinner over, I usually took +possession of a chimney-corner, the only place where one can be really +warm on autumnal nights, and while satisfying the curiosity of the +rustic intelligence concerning the English and their ways I gathered +much information that was useful to me respecting local customs and +the caverns, castles and legends of the district where I happened to +be. By nine o'clock everybody was yawning, and if the village +blacksmith, the postman, and the bell-ringer had not left by that +time, they were in an unusually dissipated frame of mind. By ten +o'clock the great kitchen was dark, and the mice were making up a +quadrille upon the hearth, supposing no cat to be looking on. + +Early the next morning I was climbing the hill towards the Castle of +Cénevières. This building is a most picturesque jumble of the +castellated styles of the thirteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth +centuries. The oldest part of the structure--and it is very +considerable--is that of a frowning feudal fortress of great strength, +built upon a rock, which on the side of the Lot is a perpendicular +wall some 200 feet high. The inhabitants agree in saying that the +feudal walls are the work of the English, but they are probably in +error. The original castle belonged to Waïfré. It afterwards passed to +the Gourdon family, who doubtless rebuilt it upon the old foundations. +The last descendant of this family was one of the most ardent +Huguenots in the Quercy. The late Gothic superstructure, which is +still inhabited, has a very high-pitched roof, with dormer windows +covered by high gables with elaborate carvings. Very near this castle, +in the side of the cliff, is a fortified cavern, which for centuries +has gone by the name of La Grotte des Anglais. It must have been in +communication with the castle, of which it may have served as an +outwork or a place of refuge in the last extremity. I might have +passed the whole day trying to find it but for the help of a peasant, +who led the way down the rocks, hanging on to bushes of box. The +remains of a small tower, pierced with loopholes on one side of the +opening, and the other ruined masonry, leave no doubt as to the +defensive use to which this cavern was at one time put. + +Having left Cénevières, I recrossed the Lot and passed through +Saint-Martin, a village of little interest, but the point from which +it is most convenient to reach a certain cave where animals of the +prehistoric ages were obliging enough to die, so that their skeletons +might be preserved for the delight and instruction of the modern +scientific bone-hunter. This is not one of the celebrated caves in the +department, consequently the visitor with thoughts fixed on bones may +carry away a sackful if he has the patience to grub for them. If the +cavern were near Paris it would give rise to a fierce competition +between the palaeontologist and the _chiffonnier_, but placed where it +is the soil has not yet been much disturbed. I went in search of it up +a very steep, stony hill, and there had the good fortune to meet an +old woman who was coming down over the rocks with surprising +nimbleness. She knew at once what I wanted. Although she spoke French +with great difficulty, three words out of every five being _patois_, +she made me understand that her house was just in front of the cave, +and that it was not to be visited without her consent and guidance. +She therefore began to reascend the 'mountain,' as she called the +hill, making signs to me to follow. There was certainly nothing wrong +with the old woman's lungs, for it was as much as I could do to keep +pace with her, especially when she led the way up almost naked rock. +At length we reached the brow of the hill, where a cottage showed +itself in a desert of limestone, but where a little garden, by dint of +long labour, had been formed upon a natural terrace on which the sun's +rays fell warmly. + +The woman left me in the cottage while she went to find her daughter. +It was composed of one small room, in which there were two beds, an +old worm-eaten walnut buffet, an eight-day clock after the pattern of +Sir Humphrey's, a hearth covered with white wood-ashes, a large +wheel-shaped loaf of black bread in a rack, onions, grapes, garlic, +and balls of twisted hemp hanging from the beams; baskets of maize and +chestnuts, and a great copper swing-pot, only a little less imposing +than the one out of which the scullion fished the fowls for Sancho +Pança. I afterwards learned that two couples slept in the two +beds--the old pair and the young pair. + +Presently the old woman reappeared, followed by a much younger one, +carrying upon her head a copper water-pot, that glowed in the sun like +a wind-blown brand. Having set down her pot, the daughter, a rather +wild-looking person with sun-baked face and large gleaming eyes, took +an old-fashioned brass dish-lamp--a deformed and vulgar descendant of +the agate lamp held in the hand of the antique priestess--and, after +bringing the wick towards the lip, lighted it. I lit the candle I had +brought with me, and, followed by the old woman, we entered the +cavern, near the mouth of which was a fig-tree. The entrance was so +small that it was almost necessary to crawl for some distance; but it +must have been much larger at one time if the story that the younger +woman told me about the bones of a mastodon having been discovered +inside was well founded. As we proceeded, the roof rose rapidly, so +that the rocks overhead could not presently be seen by the light of +the candle and lamp. Farther in, the roof became lower, and it was +connected with the ground in places by natural columns of vast size, +formed in the course of ages by the calcareous deposit of the dropping +water. Near the end of the cavern, at about 100 yards from the +entrance, various holes dug in the yellow soil showed where the +bone-searchers had been at work. I had ample encouragement, for I had +only to stir the earth a little to find bones half turned to stone. I +selected two or three teeth with the hope that a scientific friend +would say they were a mastodon's or a mammoth's. If I had liked the +prospect of carrying a bag of bones on my back down the valley of the +Lot, I might have taken away many very large specimens. I called to +mind, however, an experience of early days which prevented me from +being again a martyr to science. I had found a quantity of bones in a +newly-dug gravel-pit, and fully believing that they belonged to some +animal that flourished before the flood, I carried them twelve miles +with infinite labour and suffering, and then learned that they were +part of the anatomy of a very modern cow. Since that adventure I have +left bones for those who understand them. + +I had ample leisure for studying the river after leaving Saint-Martin, +for I stood upon the bank waiting for a ferryman until I lost all the +patience I had brought with me. He was taking a couple of oxen +harnessed to a cart across the stream, and the strong wind that was +blowing sent the great flat boat far out of its course. + +Every day I noticed a larger fleet of floating leaves upon the water, +hurrying through the ever-curving valley, drifting over the golden +reflections of other leaves that waited for the gust to cast them too +upon the water; passing into the deep shadow of bridges whose arches +resounded with mournful murmurs, riding the white foam of the weirs, +whirling in the dark eddies beyond, gliding in the brown shade of +vine-clad hills and under the beetling brows of solemn rocks, now +mingling with the imaged dovecot with pigeons perched upon the +red-tiled roof, now with the tracery of Gothic gables or the grim +blackness of feudal walls splashed with fern and pellitory, now in a +warm glow of dying summer, and now in the melancholy gray of wintry +clouds heavy with rain. Away they went, the multitudinous +leaves--children of the poplar, the willow, the fig-tree, and vine; +some broad and clumsy like rafts or barges, others slender and +graceful like little skiffs; all stained with some brilliant colour of +autumn. + +I had reckoned upon getting a mid-day meal at a village called Crégols +on the opposite bank, but when I at length reached it I had another +trial. The only place of public entertainment was an exceedingly dirty +hovel that called itself a _café_, and the woman who kept it declared +that she had no victuals of any sort in the house. This, of course, +was not true, but it was a polite way of saying that she did not wish +to be bothered with me. The wayfarer in the little-travelled districts +of France must not expect to find in all his stopping-places a fowl +ready to be placed on the spit for him. Had I obtained a meal at +Crégols, I should have looked for some dolmens said to be in the +neighbourhood, but failure in one respect spoilt my zeal in the other. +I am afraid, moreover, that I only half appreciated the grandeur of +some prodigious walls of rock which I passed in my rapid walk to the +little town of Saint-Cirq-la-Popie. It is deplorable to think how much +the mind is influenced by internal circumstances which ought to have +nothing to do with the spirit. + +After climbing a steep wood where there were unripe medlars, I came in +sight of a small burg, lying high above the Lot in a hollow of the +hill. A fortress-like church towered far above the closely-packed +red-tiled roofs sprinkled with dormer windows, and upon a still higher +rock were the ruined walls of a castle. This was Saint-Cirq-la-Popie, +a place no less quaint than its name. I was presently seated in a +dimly-lighted back-room of an auberge, whose walls--built apparently +for eternity--dated from the Middle Ages. The hostess, who, as I +entered, was gossiping with some cronies in the dark doorway, while +she pretended to twist the wool that she carried upon the most rustic +of distaffs--a common forked stick--laid this down, and, blowing up +the embers on the hearth, proceeded to cook some eggs _sur le plat_. +This with bread, goat-cheese and walnuts, and an excellent wine of the +district--the new vintage--made my lunch. The fact that there was no +meat in the auberge reminded me that it was Friday. + +Speaking generally, the inhabitants of the Lot are practising +Catholics. The churches are well filled, and the clergy are as +comfortably off as French priests can expect to be in these days. It +is no uncommon thing for a _curé_ to keep his trap. I have several +times met priests on horseback in the Quercy, but never without +thinking that they would look better if they used side-saddles. + +The early Gothic Church of Saint-Cirq-la-Popie, to judge by its high +massive walls and round tower, was raised more with the idea of +defence than ornament. In the interior there is still the feeling of +Romanesque repose; nothing of the animation of the Pointed style--no +vine-leaf or other foliage breaks the severity of the lines. I +ascended the tower with the bell-ringer's boy. In the bell-loft, with +other lumber, was an old 'stretcher,' very much less luxurious than +the _brancard_ that is used in Paris for carrying the sick and +wounded. It was composed of two poles, with cross-pieces and a railing +down the sides. I ascertained that this piece of village carpentry was +used within the memory of people still living for carrying the dead to +the cemetery merely wrapped in their shrouds. They were buried without +coffins, not because wood was difficult to obtain, but because the +four boards had not yet come into fashion at Saint-Cirq-la-Popie. To +bury a person in such a manner even there would nowadays cause great +scandal, but sixty or seventy years ago it was considered folly to put +good wood into a grave. A homespun sheet was thought to be all that +was needed to break the harshness of the falling clay. And there are +people who call this age that gives coffins even to the poorest dead +utilitarian! + +Among other curious things I saw in this ancient out-of-the-way burg +were two mediaeval corn-measures forming part of a heap of stones in a +street corner. They had much the appearance of very primitive +holy-water stoups, such as are to be seen in some rural churches, for +they were blocks of stone rounded and hollowed out with the chisel. +Each of these measures, however, had a hole in the side near the +bottom for the corn to run through, and irons to which a little +flap-door was once affixed in front of this hole. The commune treated +these stones as rubbish until some accidental visitor offered 500 +francs for them; now it clings to them tightly, hoping, no doubt, that +the price will go up. Prowling curiosity-hunters are destined to +destroy much of the archaeological interest of these old towns. They +are doing to them what Lord Elgin did to the Parthenon. Fantastic +corbel-heads and other sculptured details disappear every year from +the Gothic houses, and find their way into private museums. + +As I was taking leave of the bellringer's boy--a lad of about +fifteen--he put his hand under his blouse and, pulling out a +snuff-box, offered me a pinch. I had met plenty of boys who chewed +tobacco--they abound along the coast of Brittany--but never one who +carried a snuff-box before. + +The castle whose ruins are to be seen on the bluff above the church +received Henry IV. as a guest after his memorable exploit at Cahors. + +A man who was laying eel-lines across the Lot consented to take me to +the other side in his boat, and there I struck the road to Cahors, +which closely borders the river all along this valley. In several +places it is tunnelled through the rock, where the buttresses of the +cliffs could not be conveniently shattered with dynamite. All this has +been the work of late years. Previously the passage between the river +and the rocks was about as bad as it could be. The English fortified +several of the caverns in the cliffs commanding the passage, to which +the name of _Le Défilé des Anglais_ was consequently given. Now the +term is applied by the country people to the caves themselves, +wherever these have been walled up for defence. + +I soon reached one of these caverns, the embattled wall being a +conspicuous object from the road below. Having fallen into ruin, it +had lately been repaired at the expense of the commune. To an +Englishman the spot could not be otherwise than strangely interesting. +I imagined my own language being spoken there five or six centuries +ago, and speculated as to whether the accent was Cockney or +Lancashire, or West of England. + +Several fig-trees grew beside the walled-up cavern, and I was picking +the ripest of the fruit when I heard a voice from the road below +calling upon me to come down. Peering through the boughs, I saw a man +seated in the smallest and most gimcrack of donkey-carts. It was +something like a grocer's box on wheels. The owner gave violent smacks +to the plank on which he was sitting, to let me understand that there +was room for another person. I did not think there could be, but I +left the figs and came down the rocks. + +'If you are going to Saint-Géry,' said the man, 'I can take you about +five kilomètres on the road.' + +'But the donkey,' I urged, 'will lie down and roll.' + +'What, the little beast! Not he! he will go along like an arrow.' + +I accepted the invitation, and away went the donkey, making himself as +much like an arrow on the wing as any ass could. My companion, who was +a handsome fellow, with a moustache that one would expect to see upon +the face of a Sicilian brigand, was a cantonnier, and as he scraped +out the ditches and mended the roads, his donkey browsed upon what he +could find along the wayside. In summer and winter they were +inseparable companions, and had come to thoroughly understand one +another. The cantonnier confided to me that he was formerly employed +in the phosphate quarries, and that he had closed his experience in +this line by working three months without wages for an Englishman +whose speculation turned out a failure. Phosphate then lost its charm +upon the proprietor of the donkey-cart, for it had caused him to 'eat +all his economies,' and he resigned himself to the wages of a +road-mender, which were small but sure. It was getting dusk when we +parted. My next companion on the road was a poor bent-backed, +shambling, idiotic youth, who was driving home two long-tailed sheep +and a lamb, and who had just enough intelligence for this work. He +kept at my side for a mile or two, flourishing a long stick over the +backs of the sheep and uttering melancholy cries. His presence was not +cheering, but I had to put up with it, for when I walked fast he ran. +He likewise left me at length to continue my way alone, and his wild +cries became fainter and fainter. Then, in the deepening dusk, two +churches, one on each side of the river, began to sound the angelus. A +gleam of yellow light lingered in the western sky between two dark +hills, but the clouds above and the river below were of the colour of +slate. Suddenly a bright blaze flashed across the dim and misty valley +from a cottage hearth where a woman had just thrown on a faggot to +boil the evening soup, and the gloom of nature was at once filled with +the sentiment of home. + +It was quite dark when I reached Saint-Géry. The narrow passage +leading to the best inn was illumined by the red glare of a forge, and +was rich in odours ancient and modern. Some twenty geese tightly +packed in a pen close to the hostelry door announced my arrival with +shrieks of derision. They said: 'It's Friday; no goose for you +to-night!' Those who suppose that geese cannot laugh have not studied +bucolic poetry from nature. The forge was attached to the inn, a very +common arrangement here, and one that enables the traveller who has +hope of sleep at daybreak--because the fleas are then thinking of rest +after labour--to enjoy the melody of the 'Harmonious Blacksmith' +without the help of Handel. + +I was not cheered by the sight of goose or turkey turning on the spit +as I entered the vast smoke-begrimed kitchen, lighted chiefly by the +flame of the fire, but the great chain-pot sent forth a perfume that +was not offensive, although the soup was _maigre_. There was also fish +that had been freshly pulled out of the Lot. The cooking left +something to be desired, but the hostess, the wife of the Harmonious +Blacksmith, had thrown her best intentions into it. A rosy light wine +grown upon the side of a neighbouring hill compensated for the lack of +culinary art. It was a rather rough inn, but I had been in many worse. +Seated in the chimney-corner after dinner, and sending the smoke of my +pipe to join the sparks of the blazing wood up the yawning gulf where +the soot hung like stalactites below the calm sky and twinkling stars, +I had a long talk with the aubergiste, who told me that he had been +taken prisoner at Sedan, and had, in consequence, spent eight months +in Germany. He considered that he had been as well treated by the +Germans as a prisoner could expect to be. He had always enough to eat, +but there was no soup, and, lacking this, he thought it impossible for +any civilized stomach to be happy. + +Rural inns have charms, especially when they are old and picturesque, +and smell of the Middle Ages; but to be kept a prisoner in one of them +by rainy weather is apt to plunge a restless wanderer into the Slough +of Despond. The chances are that the inn itself becomes at such times +a slough, so that Bunyan's expression is then applicable in a real as +well as in a figurative sense. There is a constant coming in and going +out of peasants with dripping sabots, of dogs with wet paws, and +draggle-tailed hens with miry feet; geese, and even pigs, not +unfrequently venture inside, and have a good walk round before their +presence is noticed and they are treated to quotations from Rabelais, +enforced with the broomstick. Then the rain beats in at the open door, +which nobody troubles to close. Under these circumstances, the rural +inn becomes detestable. So I found the auberge at Saint-Géry, where I +waited long hours for the weather to change, after having received a +soaking while climbing the escarped cliffs which rise so grandly on +one side of the little town. + +A fortified cavern and a ruined castle tempted me up the rocks. On my +way I passed a small Gothic house, dating apparently from the +fourteenth or fifteenth century, with pointed arched doorway and +window lights separated by slender columns with foliated capitals +carved by no clumsy rustic workman. The boy who accompanied me had the +key. As I entered I was met on the threshold by the fragrant odour of +the tobacco-plant; I perceived that the mediaeval house was used for +drying tobacco-leaves--a purpose that could never have been in the +imagination of the original owner, for those stones were laid together +long before the herb, now so precious to the French Government, was +brought to Europe. The stalks with all the leaves attached were hung +to strings stretched from wall to wall. There is much tobacco grown +hereabouts in the valley of the Lot, but it is considered too strong +for smoking purposes, and is therefore made into snuff. When the +utmost care has been used in its cultivation and drying the price paid +by the Government to the grower does not exceed half a franc the +pound. Those who enjoy the privilege of raising it consider the money +very hardly earned. + +I reached the ruined castle at the foot of the limestone buttresses +supporting the plateau above. Enough is left of the wall to show that +it must have been a strong place at one time. It is attributed by +common consent to the English. Protected on one side by the abrupt +rock, it overlooked the valley from a height that to an enemy must +have been very difficult of access. The fortified cavern is in the +escarped cliff above the castle, with which there was, perhaps, a +secret communication. The upper part of the wall is gone, but what +remains is about ten feet high and nine feet thick. Swallows build +their nests in the roof of the cavern, and the spot is noisy with the +harsh cries of countless jackdaws. These sagacious birds can doubtless +tell many stories of the English which they received from their +ancestors. + +When I returned to the auberge wet and shivering, I found no sympathy, +the thoughts of the hostess being occupied by a matter that interested +her more deeply. The badgers had eaten her maize which she needed for +fattening the geese, and her tongue was busily employed in wishing +them every misfortune, both in time and eternity. Badgers are very +numerous in the district, and they continue to increase and multiply, +while the peasants jeopardise their immortal interests by cursing them +every time they see a spike of ripening maize pulled down and half +stripped of its corn. In the daytime these animals sleep comfortably, +digesting their ill-gotten meal in the holes of the rocks, which are +so honeycombed that dogs cannot easily get at the hermits. Moreover, +it is not every dog that likes the prospect of being bitten nearly in +half, the badger being much better known than trusted by the canine +race. + +Another animal that flourishes here, in spite of the hatred in which +it is held by the inhabitants, is the fox, which likewise finds the +valley an Elysium on account of the convenient neighbourhood of the +rocks pierced with multitudinous holes. Badgers and foxes, with all +their vices, are preferable to the hyenas which used to infest this +part of France, as is proved by the bones found in the larger caverns. +The present inhabitants ought to take comfort from this reflection, +but they do not. + +While the aubergiste's wife, a little woman who carried about with her +the outline of a wine-cask, was breathing maledictions upon the +badgers, and venting her fury upon the little boy-of-all-work--who, +being used to such outbursts, ate his morning allowance of soup with +philosophic indifference--I took up my place again in the +chimney-corner, and endeavoured to dry myself on all sides by somewhat +imitating the movement of a fowl turning on the spit. + +At length the heavy pall of cloud lifted, and when the first yellow +gleam of sunshine filtering through vapour was reflected by the +puddles and streaming roofs, I walked out of Saint-Géry. When the last +houses were out of sight, solitude added to the desolate grandeur of +the scenery. It was a relief to be alone with Nature, dripping as she +was with recent tears, after the depressing influences of the inn--the +dimness, dampness, and dirt, the unreasoning anger of ignorance, the +dull routine of human beings whose chief concern was to feed +themselves and the animals which helped them to live. As an alterative +to the mind, rural life is of real value in the case of those who have +been carried round and round in the whirlpool of a great city until +they have had more than enough of the sensation; but, like other +useful medicines, rusticity is best when taken in moderate doses, and +at judicious intervals. I had stayed at Saint-Géry long enough to feel +like a fish that in jumping out of water for the sake of variety had +fallen upon the mud. + +The sun that changes the face of all things, and warms the ideas no +less than the earth, now shone out from a blue sky, spreading fire +over the ruddy tops of the chestnut woods, and flashing into the dark +caverns of the ancient crags, fringed with box, sumach and juniper. I +noticed that one of these caverns had been fortified, but my curiosity +was satisfied with the distant view. A yellow chicory, quite leafless, +was still blooming on the stony banks, and I also, found a white +scabious. Green hellebore and wild madder flourished amidst the broken +limestone. A forest of brown maize-stalks, from which the golden corn +had been gathered, followed the windings of the river, now turgid and +tumultuous, and dyed sienna-red by the washings from the hills. Every +day the increasing water as it descended the weirs made a wilder +tumult. These weirs are a great beauty to the Lot, for they generally +form an angle or the arc of a circle, and the river tumbles over the +rough blocks like a natural cascade. They are connected with a series +of locks, which render the stream navigable from the sea; but one +rarely sees a barge upon it now, the railway having completely ruined +the water traffic, and caused a most elaborate and costly piece of +engineering to be practically useless. + +The valley now widened out, and a village came into view, together +with a ruined castle upon a mamelon, that rose like a volcanic cone +from the plain. On the castle wall an immense wooden cross had been +set, showing against the sky with an effect truly grand. The village +was Vers, and the castle, which was built by the English, is called +the Château de Béars. + +At Vers I was met by an old man, who insisted upon showing me another +cave fortified by the English, after taking the precaution of telling +me that he would accept nothing for his trouble. He was long and lean +and brown, and had a 'glittering, eye' like the Ancient Mariner, but +his conversation was much more cheerful than that of the hero who shot +the albatross. He was a born actor, for he accompanied his talk with +magnificent dramatic gestures, and, after letting his voice drop +suddenly to a tragic whisper, he would raise it again to the most +gusty and blustering heights of sound. He was a strong type of the +Southerner, inasmuch as all this amazing vehemence and gesticulation +was quite uncalled for. It is remarkable, however, how much may be +done by mere action and intonation to impress the listener with the +idea that the speaker must be a person of uncommon intelligence. But +when half a dozen such talkers are engaged in discussion upon some +trivial topic, and each employs the same means to enforce his views +upon the rest (this occurs nightly in the _cafés_ at Cahors), the +Northerner is inclined to think that they are all mad. The wiry old +man explained to me, in order to account for the ease and agility with +which, notwithstanding his years and his awkward _sabots_, he stepped +from block to block in the ascent, that he had been all his life a +rock-blaster. At length we reached the cavern. The English, who used +it as a refuge, had shown much sagacity in its selection, for the +enemy that attacked them there would have been compelled to climb up +the face of the rock beneath by following zigzag ledges, while the +besieged behind their loopholed wall were raining arrows and bolts +upon them. The wall, as it exists, is twenty or thirty feet high. +There is a doorway protected by an inner wall. To reach the upper +loopholes and parapet the men mounted upon oak beams resting crosswise +between the masonry and the rock. One massive beam, crumbling and +worm-eaten, as may be supposed after the centuries that it has been +there, may still be seen serving as the lintel of a window. + +I made a rather long stay at Vers, in order to visit the site of a +Celtic town on the _causse_; but I did not start upon this journey +until the next day. The inn where I put up was much more comfortable +than some others which I had chosen for night-quarters while wandering +down the valley. To anybody fresh from London it would have seemed +primitive indeed, with its broad hearth and massive iron dogs, its +enormous fire built with logs and the roots of trees, and its cosy +chimney-corners, where the sitters' heads were from time to time +enveloped with wreathing smoke; but I had grown so accustomed to such +sights that this hostelry seemed to contain all the blessings and +commodities of an advanced state of civilization. + +The hostess was a good and sprightly cook, and I watched her +proceedings with a keen interest as I sat upon one of the seats in the +chimney. Having hitched the pot that contained the soup upon the hook +at the end of the sooty chain, she raked out embers from the centre of +the burning mass, and made separate fires with them upon the hearth. +Others she carried to a range of small charcoal fireplaces on one side +of the spacious kitchen, and very soon afterwards she had sauce-pans +and a frying-pan and a gridiron all murmuring or hissing together. +There was too much garlic in her cookery, but I had also grown used to +that. Although the phylloxera had blighted nearly all the vineyards in +this region, the landlord here was able to put upon the table some +wine, grown upon his own hillside, not unworthy of the ancient +reputation of the Cahors district for its vintage. + +After dinner I returned to the chimney-corner which was decidedly the +most comfortable place in the inn, in spite of the smoke and the close +neighbourhood of soot, and set about obtaining information from the +aubergiste and his cronies who had dropped in concerning the exact +whereabouts of a Celtic town whose ruined fortifications, I knew, were +to be found somewhere among the barren hills to the west of Vers. It +was some time before I could make these men understand what I was +really in search of, and when they understood they seemed to think I +was a little mad, until the idea struck them that I might be a dealer +in antiquities, hoping to pick up certain odds and ends that would +repay me for the trouble of walking to such a desolate and +uninteresting spot. + +At length I gathered that the site of the ancient _oppidum_ was at +Murcens, a hamlet upon a hill, half a day's walk away to the west, and +that the best way to reach it was to follow the valley of the Vers. At +about seven o'clock the next morning I started, and, having been +warned that I should find no inn where I could get a meal, I took with +me some provisions. + +It was a gray, dreary morning, and at that hour the weather could not +have been more November-like had I been upon the banks of the Severn +or the Trent, instead of being by one of the rivers of our ancient +southern province of Guyenne. + +As I turned westward up the valley of the Vers, I passed under +detached fragments of the aqueduct built by the Romans to carry water +to Cahors. By taking advantage of the rocks which hem in the narrow +valley, they saved themselves the trouble of raising arches to the +desired height to ensure the flow. The conduit is carried along upon a +ledge hewn out of the natural wall, projecting masses of rock being +cut through with the hammer and chisel. The masonry is of undressed +stone, but so firmly cemented that it is scarcely less solid than the +rock itself. + +Where an inconvenient buttress projected, a narrow passage was cut +through it for the channel, and the marks of the chisel look as fresh +as if they had been lately made. Much of this aqueduct was destroyed +in quite recent days, when the rocks were blasted to make room for the +road to Cahors. The Romans may have thought of many destructive +agencies being employed upon their work, but dynamite was certainly +not one of them. Box and hellebore, bramble and dogwood, moss and +ferns, have been striving for centuries to conceal all trace of the +conduit, and those whose foreknowledge did not lead them to look for +it might easily pass by without observing it. + +The road followed the stream, now a furious torrent that a man on +horseback could hardly ford without risk of being carried away. Two or +three weeks previously a mere thread of water wound its way amongst +the stones in the centre of the channel. It is one of the many streams +which in Guyenne gradually disappear in summer, but at the return of +winter fill the long-scorched and silent valleys with the sound of +roaring waters. On either side of the gorge rose abrupt stony hills +thinly wooded, chiefly with stunted oak, or escarped craggy cliffs +pierced with yawning caverns. There was no sunshine, but the multitude +of lingering leaves lit up all the desert hills with a quiet, solemn +flame. Here and there, amidst the pale gold of the maple or the +browner, ruddier gold of the oak, glowed darkly the deep crimson fire +of a solitary cornel. In steady, unchanging contrast with these +colours was the sombre green of the box. + +The stream descends in a series of cascades, and there is a mighty +roar of waters. For many yards I have for a companion a little wren, +that flies from twig to twig through the well-nigh naked hedge along +the wayside, now hidden behind a bramble's crimson-spotted leaf, now +mingled with a tracery of twigs and thorns. I can almost believe it to +be the same wren that kept up with me years ago in English lanes, and +since then has travelled with me so many miles in France, vanishing +for long periods, but reappearing as if by enchantment in some +roadside hedge, its eyes bright with recognition, and every movement +friendly. Whimsical little bird, or gentle spirit in disguise, we may +travel many a mile together yet. + +My thoughts were turned from the wren by a carrier's cart, which the +people of the country would term a _diligence_. It was like a great +oblong box with one end knocked out, set on wheels. The interior was a +black hole, crammed with people and bundles. When I looked for my +little feathered friend it was gone, but we shall meet again. + +Two or three miles farther up the valley, near a small village or +hamlet, I crossed a low bridge over the Vers, and by following the +road on the other side, still ascending the course of the stream, I +came to a spot where a volume of water that would soon have filled a +large reservoir flowed quietly out of a little hollow at the foot of +great rocks. It was the Fountain of Polémie which, on account of its +abundant flow in all seasons, is supposed to have been the source from +which the Romans led their aqueduct to Divona--now called Cahors. The +water of this fountain, which derives its name from Polemius, a Roman +functionary, is of limpid purity, and its constancy proves that it +rises from a great depth. The Romans must have carried the water on +arches across the valley, and probably for a considerable distance +down it, before they made use of the natural wall of rock in the +manner described, but not a trace remains of the arches, or even of +the piers. + +In order to reach the tableland of Murcens, it was necessary to cross +again the roaring torrent of the Vers, and after several vain attempts +to do so, by means of the rocks lying in its bed, I came to a bridge +which solved the difficulty. The scene was now sublimely rugged and +desolate. On each side the majestic rocks reared their ever-varying +fantastic shapes towards the sky. + +I knew, from what I had been told, that Murcens lay somewhere above +the escarped cliff on my left, and at no great distance, but the +difficulty was to reach it. I had heard of a path, but I soon gave up +the attempt to find it. As there was not a human being to be seen who +could give me any counsel, I commenced climbing the hill in the +direction that I wished to take. It was anything but straightforward +walking. The lower part of the steep was strewn with loose stones like +shingle, that slipped under the feet, so that I had to proceed in +zigzag fashion, taking advantage of every bush of juniper and box and +root of hellebore as a foothold. But the vegetation grew denser as I +ascended, and I had soon plenty of box and dwarf oak to help me. + +Before attempting to climb the upper wall of solid limestone, I sat in +the mouth of a small cavern to eat the frugal lunch I had brought with +me, and to contemplate at my leisure the wild grandeur of the valley. +I could not have chosen a better place for feeling in one sense +dwindled, in another expanded, by the majesty of the stony solitude. +Suddenly, while I gazed, the sun breaking through the clouds made +every yellow tree brighten like melting gold, and drew a voice of joy +from all the dumb and solemn rocks. + +I leave the remnants of my feast for the foxes and magpies to quarrel +over, and feel prepared to put forth a vigorous effort to reach the +_causse_. I work my way up by the clefts of the rocks, hanging on to +the tough box, and getting thoroughly asperged by the dew that has not +yet dried upon it. I have not ascended fifty feet in this manner +before I am as wet as if I had been walking in a thunderstorm. I creep +along ledges, now to the right and now to the left, and presently I am +only about twenty-five feet from the top of the rock that prevents me +from attaining my object. It is pleasanter to look up than to look +down, for, being no climber of mountain peaks, I do not enjoy the +sensation of clinging to the side of a precipice like a caterpillar to +a leaf. Now comes the real trial. The rest of the rock above me is +quite bare of vegetation. By making four or five steps upwards to the +left, then to the right, a spot can be reached where the trouble will +be over; but some of these steps need a considerable stretch of leg, +and the eye cannot measure the distance with certainty. Time is on the +wing, and the days are short. I am strongly tempted to make the essay, +but doubt holds me back. What if I, were to get half-way, and were +unable to go on or to retreat? What if I were to slip and roll down +the rocks? If I were not killed outright, who would be likely to come +to my aid in such a solitude? The ravens would have ample time to pick +my bones before those interested in my existence would know what had +happened to me. I resolve that I will not give the birds of ill omen a +chance of so rare a meal. In descending, the cold showers from the box +bushes add to my humiliation and discomfiture. + +Keeping on the side of the hill, I went farther up the valley, seeking +a place where I could with better chance of success make another +attack upon the difficulties of this rocky wall. I found what I wanted +at no great distance, the only objection to the spot being the dense +growth of shrubs laden with moisture. It was almost like wading +through a stream. At length the line of high rocks was passed, and I +was upon land that, notwithstanding its steepness and the multitude of +stones with which it was strewn, had undergone some cultivation. That +wine had not long since been grown here was evident from the numerous +stumps of vines which had been killed by the phylloxera. A few +lingering flowers of hawkweed relieved the monotony of the dreary +waste. But if, while looking before me, the scene was saddening, in +looking back there was a sublime and soul-lifting picture which the +forces of Nature had been painting unmolested for ages. I can do no +more than suggest to the imagination the combined effect of those +fantastic rocks rising from the foaming torrent to the drifting, +tinted clouds; buttresses and bastions of the ancient earth laid bare +in the mysterious night of the inconceivable past, some black and +gloomy as the walls of a feudal moat, others yellow like ochre; +others, again, sun-bleached almost to whiteness, yet streaked with +ruddy veins--all flashed here and there with burning oak and maple, or +sprinkled with the purple blood of the dogwood's dying leaves. + +Half an hour later I reached Murcens, only inhabited nowadays by a few +peasants in two or three scattered hovels, which are nevertheless +called farms. I had no difficulty in finding the wall of the Gaulish +town. It is broken down completely in places, but the almost circular +line is plainly marked. The site of the _oppidum_ is a little +tableland raised above the surrounding soil by a natural embankment. + +The circumvallation in its best preserved places is now from seven to +ten feet high. The materials used were such as Caesar mentions as +having been employed by the Gauls in the fortification of their +_oppida_, namely, timber and rough stone. I looked for some traces of +the wooden uprights, but although there is ample proof that they +existed there down to our own time, my search was vain. Many stones +measuring several feet in length were set in a perpendicular position +to give extra stability to the wall. The ancient rampart is in places +completely overgrown with juniper. Within the wall is nothing but +level field. No trace remains of any buildings that stood there in the +far-off days when the spot was the scene of all passions and vanities, +the tragedy and comedy of human life, even as we know it now. The +peasant as he ploughs or digs turns up from time to time a bit of +worked metal, such as a coin, or a ring, but the hands which held them +may or may not be mingled with the soil that supports the buckwheat +and enables the peasant to live. The Gaulish city has no history. + +I had some talk with a peasant who had been watching my movements +wonderingly. He spoke French with difficulty, but his boy--a lad of +about twelve, who had been to school--could help him over the stiles. +I got the man to speak about the ancient wall, although it was +evidently not a subject that interested him so deeply as his pigsty. +He told me that all the beams of wood had now rotted (they may have +helped to warm him on winter evenings), but that nails a foot long +were often found amongst the stones of the wall or in the soil round +about it. He had picked up several, but had taken no care of them. +When I observed that I should much like to see one, he said he thought +there was one somewhere in his house, and, calling to his wife, he +asked her in Languedocian to look for it. While she was searching he +drew my attention to a circular stone lying upon the top of his rough +garden wall. It was about a foot in diameter, and concave on one +side. 'What is it?' I asked. + +'A millstone,' he replied. + +True enough, it was one of the stones of an ancient handmill, such as +was used in remote antiquity, chiefly by women, for grinding corn. It +must have been as nearly as possible after the pattern of the first +implement invented by man for this purpose. The peasant set no value +upon it; I could have had it for a trifle--even for nothing, had I +been so minded; but whatever liking I may have for antiquities, it did +not gird me up to the task of carrying a millstone back to Vers. The +nail could not be found, so I was obliged to leave without a souvenir +of the Celtic city. Not far from this spot I found another millstone +that would have fitted the one I had left and made a complete mill. +They are doubtless still lying upon the dreary height of Murcens; but +whether they are there or in a museum, they are as dumb as any other +stones, although, had they the power to repeat some of the gossip of +the women who once bent over them, they might tell us a good deal that +Caesar left out of his Commentaries because he thought it unimportant, +but which we should much like to know. + +I did not return by the way I came, but kept upon the plateau, going +southward, then, dropping down into another valley at the bottom of +which ran a tributary of the Vers, I crossed the stream and rose upon +the opposite hill, making somewhat at random towards the village of +Cours. On my way I started numerous coveys of red partridges from +juniper and box and other low shrubs. Had I been a sportsman carrying +a gun I could have made a splendid 'bag,' but these chances generally +fall to those who cannot profit by them. I wondered, however, at the +lack of poaching enterprise in a district so near to Cahors. It is not +often that one meets even in the least populous parts of France so +many partridges in an absolutely wild state. Immense flocks of larks +were likewise feeding upon the moorland, and the beating of their +countless wings as they rose made a mighty sound when it suddenly +broke the silence of the hills. I met a small peasant girl with a face +as dark as a Moorish child's, and eyes wonderfully large and lustrous. +She was a beautiful little creature of a far Southern or Arabian type. +At Cours I talked to a woman who was a pure type of the red-haired +Celt. How strange it is that with all the intermixture of blood in the +course of many centuries the old racial characteristics return when +they are deeply ingrained in a people! + +I took shelter at Cours from a sharp storm. It was a wretched little +village upon a dreary height, and the inhabitants, to whom French was +a foreign language, stared at me as if I had been a gorilla. An +overhanging 'bush' of juniper led me to a very small inn that bore the +familiar signs of antiquity, dirt and poverty. I knocked at the old +oak door studded with nail-heads, and it presently creaked upon its +rusty hinges. It was opened by a poor woman whose manners were wofully +uncouth; but this was no fault of hers. She was honest, as such rough +people generally are. Although she must have wanted money, it did not +occur to her to extract a sou from the stranger beyond the just price. +When I had had enough of her wine and bread and cheese, and asked her +to tell me what I owed her, she carefully measured with her eye how +much wine was left in the bottle, how much bread and cheese I had +taken, and when her severe calculation was finished she replied, in a +harsh, firm voice, which meant that the reckoning being made she +intended to stand by it: 'Eleven sous.' + +When I met the valley of the Vers again the storm had passed far away; +the evening rose was in the calm heaven, and the topmost oaks along +the rocky ridge burnt like tapers upon a high altar of the vast temple +whose roof is the vaulted sky. Already the deep aisles were dim with +gathering shadows. When I reached the inn at Vers it was nearly dark, +and after my day's tramp I was very glad to exchange the outer gloom +for the brightness of the cheery fireside and the warmth of the +chimney-corner beside the redly glowing logs. + +The next day brought me to the end of my long journey down the valley +of the Lot, for I had decided to leave the country below Cahors until +some future day. I reached the city of Divona when the yellow glow of +the autumnal rainy sunset was stealing up the ancient walls. + +It is always with a certain dread that I say anything about history, +because when I am once upon such high stilts I do not know when I +shall be able to get down again. Moreover, when one is so mounted, one +has to step very judiciously, especially in a region like this, where +the roads to knowledge are so roughly paved. Nothing would be easier, +however, than to fill a book with the history of Cahors, for the +place, since the days of the Romans, has gone through such +vicissitudes, and witnessed such stirring events, that those who wish +to turn over the leaves of its past have abundant facilities for doing +so; but it will be better for me to speak rather of what I have seen +than what I have read. Nevertheless, my impressions of this old town +at the present day would be like salad without salt if no flavour of +the past were put into them. + +When, a mud-bespattered tramp, I came down the road by the winding +Lot, and saw the pale golden light rising upon the walls of churches +and towers high above me, I could not but think of some of the +terrible scenes which, in the course of 2,000 years, were witnessed by +the inhabitants of Cahors. In the fast-falling twilight I saw the +ghosts of the Vandals and Visigoths who helped to destroy the works of +the Caesars, and passed onward to the unknown; of the Franks who burnt +Cahors in the sixth century; of the Arab hordes, dabbled with blood, +who afterwards came up from the South slaying, violating, plundering; +of the English troops under Henry II. besieging and taking the town, +accompanied by the Chancellor, Thomas-à-Becket; of the Albigenses and +Catholics, who cut one another's throats for the good of their souls; +of the Huguenots and Catholics, who repeated these horrors in the +sixteenth century for the same excellent reason; but of all these +shadows, the most interesting and the most dramatic was that of Henry +IV. He was then Henry of Navarre, and the hope of the Protestants in +the South, while Cahors was one of the strongholds of Catholicism. +What a feat of war was that capture of Cahors by Henry with only 1,400 +men, after almost incessant fighting in the streets for five days and +nights! How red the paving-stones must have been on the sixth day, +when it was all over, and the surviving Navarrese, smarting from the +recollection of the tiles and stones that were hurled at them from the +roofs by women, children, and old men, had given the final draught of +blood to their vengeful swords! Never was so much courage so uselessly +squandered. After the lapse of three centuries Henry's figure is still +full of heroic life, as, with back set against a shop-window, and +sword in hand, he shouted to those who urged upon him the hopelessness +of his enterprise: 'My retreat from this town will be that of my soul +from my body!' + +If is really wonderful how certain buildings at Cahors have been +preserved to the present day through all the storms of the tempestuous +Middle Ages, the furious hurricane of religious hatred that brought +those centuries to a close, and that other one, the Revolution, which +ushered in the new epoch of liberty and well-dressed poverty. Of these +buildings, the cathedral has the right to be named first. As a whole +it cannot be called a beautiful structure, for its form is graceless; +but what a charm there is in its details! Even its incongruity has a +singular fascination. This most evident incongruity arises from the +combination that it expresses of the Gothic and Byzantine styles. The +façade is very early Gothic (about the year 1200), still full of +Romanesque feeling, but the church having been much pulled about in +the thirteenth century, it came to have a semi-Byzantine choir and two +depressed domes, quite Byzantine, over the nave. The façade, with its +squat towers, exhibits no lofty aim, but when one looks at the +tabernacle-work in the tympan of the divided portal, the capitals in +the jambs and the mouldings of the archivolts, the elegant arcade +above and the tracery of the great rose window, one feels that +although the Pointed style could not yet embody its dream of beauty by +means of the tower and spire, it was moving towards it through a maze +of glorious ideas destined to become inseparable from the spirit of +the perfect whole. Still more interesting than this façade is that of +the north portal (twelfth century). It is Gothic, but the general +treatment has much of that Byzantine-Romanesque which produced some +very remarkable buildings in Southern France. The portal is very wide +and deeply recessed, and the tympan is crowded with bas-reliefs, the +sculpture of which, rude yet expressive, is of a striking originality. +There is a broad arabesque moulding in the doorway suggesting Eastern +influence, and the closed arcade of the façade, with corbel-table +above and its row of uncouth monstrous heads, presents a highly +curious effect of struggling motives in early Gothic art. + +The nave is much below the level of the soil, and is reached by a +flight of steps from the main entrance. These steps at the Sunday +services are crowded by the poorer class of churchgoers, sitting, +kneeling, and standing, and, like the catechumens in the narthex of +the early Christian basilica, they look as if they were separated from +the rest of the faithful on account of their not being as yet +full-fledged members of the Church. It may well be that they are the +most faithful of the faithful, for stone is a hard thing to kneel +upon, and when it is used for this purpose without ostentation, it is +a pretty safe test of sincerity in religion. The grouping of the +people here would interest at once an artistic eye, the more so +because many of the women of Cahors wear upon their heads kerchiefs of +brilliant-coloured silk folded in a peculiarly graceful and +picturesque manner, resembling the Bordelaise coiffure, but yet +distinct. + +The nave of the cathedral is cold and tasteless, the whole effect +being centred upon the choir, the richness of which is quite dazzling. +The vault is a semi-dome, and the apse-like polygonal termination is +pierced with several lofty Gothic windows, so that the eye rests upon +the harmonious lines of the tracery and a subdued blaze of +many-coloured glass. Then the columns, walls and vaulting of the choir +are elaborately decorated in the Byzantine style, and, all the tones +being kept in aesthetic harmony, the result is a general effect more +beautiful than gorgeous. I observed it under most favoured +circumstances. I entered the church for the first time during the +pontifical High Mass. The vestments of the mitred bishop under his +canopy, of the officiating priest and deacons, of the canons in their +stalls, together with the white surplices and scarlet cassocks of the +many choir-boys distributed over the vast sanctuary, and the sunbeams +stained with the hues of purple, crimson, azure and green by the +windows that reached towards the sky, falling upon all these figures, +realized with a splendour more Oriental than Western a grand +conception of colour in relation to a religious ideal. + +After leaving the cathedral I changed my ideas by looking for the +Gambetta grocery. It happened to be close by. The name is still over +the door, but the shop no longer looks democratic. Its plateglass, its +fresh paint and gilding, and the specimens of ceramic art which fill +the window, give it somewhat the air of one of those London shops kept +by ladies of title. Sugar, coffee, and candles now hide themselves in +the far background, as though they were ashamed of their own +celebrity. + +Much more interesting than this shop is the old house where Gambetta +spent his childhood. His parents did not live on the premises where +they carried on their business. Therefore the odour of honey and +vinegar had not, after all, so much to do with the formation of the +clever boy's character. I found the house down a dark passage. The +rooms occupied by the Gambetta family are now those of a small +_restaurateur_ for the working class. After ascending some steps, I +entered a greasy, grimy, dimly-lighted room, the floor of which had +never felt water save what had been sprinkled upon it to lay the dust. +It had the old-fashioned hearth and fire-dogs and gaping sooty chimney, +a bare table or so for the customers, a shelf with bottles, and the +ordinary furniture and utensils of the provincial kitchen. Here I had +some white wine with the present occupier as a reason for being in a +place that must have often resounded with the infantile screams of +Léon Gambetta. I ascertained that he was not born in this house, but +that he was brought to it when about three months old, and that he +passed his childhood here. I was shown an adjoining room, darker, +dingier, less persecuted by soap, if possible, than the other. It was +here that Gambetta slept in those early years. Did he ever dream here +of a great room in a palace, draped with black and silver, of a +catafalque fit for a prince, of a coffin heaped with flowers? + +Again I changed my ideas by crossing the Lot and searching for the +Fountain of Divona, now called the Fontaine des Chartreux. The old +name is Celtic, and as it charmed the Romans they preserved it. +Following the river downward, I came to a spot where a great stream +flowed silently and mysteriously out of a cavity at the foot of lofty +rocks overgrown by herbage and low shrubs that seemed to have been +left untouched by the hand of Autumn, that burns and beautifies. The +water came out of the hill like a broad sheet of green glass, giving +scarcely any sign of movement until it reached a low weir, where it +turned to the whiteness of snow. The Romans held this beautiful +fountain in high esteem, and if they had known how to raise the water +to the level of the town on the opposite bank of the river, they need +not have taken the trouble to carry an aqueduct some twenty miles from +the valley of the Vers. Nowadays it is the Fountain of Divona that +supplies Cahors with water. + +Still following the river, I came to that famous bridge, the Pont +Valentré, which is one of the most interesting specimens of the +defensive architecture of the Middle Ages. It is probably the most +curious example of a fortified bridge in existence. In addition to its +embattled parapet, it is protected by three high slender towers, +machicolated, crenellated, and loopholed. The archway of each spans +the road over the bridge, so that an enemy who forced the portcullis +of the first, and ran the gauntlet of the hot lead from the +machicolations, would have to repeat the same performance twice before +reaching the bank on which the town is built. This bridge was raised +at the commencement of the fourteenth century. By what wonderful +chance was it preserved intact, together with its towers, after the +invention of gunpowder? The people of Cahors call it the Pont du +Diable. When a certain stone was placed in one of the towers, the +devil always pulled it out, or did so until lately. + + +THE END. + + + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WANDERINGS BY SOUTHERN WATERS, +EASTERN AQUITAINE*** + + +******* This file should be named 11298-8.txt or 11298-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/2/9/11298 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: +https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: +https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** diff --git a/old/11298-8.zip b/old/11298-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8770635 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11298-8.zip diff --git a/old/11298.txt b/old/11298.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9531a6d --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11298.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9996 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Wanderings by southern waters, eastern +Aquitaine, by Edward Harrison Barker + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Wanderings by southern waters, eastern Aquitaine + +Author: Edward Harrison Barker + +Release Date: February 26, 2004 [eBook #11298] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WANDERINGS BY SOUTHERN WATERS, +EASTERN AQUITAINE*** + + + +Produced by Distributed Proofreaders Europe, http://dp.rastko.net +Project by Carlo Traverso +This file was produced from images generously made available by the +Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at http://gallica.bnf.fr. + + +WARNING: this is an inferior ASCII version, in which all the accents +in the letters have been removed. We suggest that you use instead +the 8-bit version 11298-8.txt + + + + + +[Illustration: A BIT OF OLD FIGEAC. _Frontispiece_.] + + + +WANDERINGS + +BY + +SOUTHERN WATERS + + +_EASTERN AQUITAINE_ + + + +BY + +EDWARD HARRISON BARKER + +AUTHOR OF 'WAYFARING IN FRANCE' + + +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS + + + + +LONDON + +RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON + +Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen + +1893 + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +THE VALLEY OF THE OUYSSE AND ROC-AMADOUR + +FROM THE ALZOU TO THE DORDOGNE + +WAYFARING UNDERGROUND + +IN THE VALLEY OF THE CELE + +IN THE ALBIGEOIS + +ACROSS THE ROUERGUE + +THE BLACK CAUSSE + +THE CANON OF THE TARN + +IN THE VALLEY OF THE LOT + +[Illustration: +OAK CHIMNEY-PIECE AT THE SINECHAUSSEE (NOW HOTEL DE VILLE) OF MARTEL.] + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +A BIT OF OLD FIGEAC--_Frontispiece_ + +OAK CHIMNEY-PIECE AT THE SINECHAUSSEE (NOW HOTEL DE VILLE) OF MARTEL + +THE PONT VALENTRE AT CAHORS + +ROC-AMADOUR + +PORCH OF THE CATHEDRAL OF ALBI + +AMBIALET + +CIGALA, THE SHOEBLACK. + +[Illustration: THE PONT VALENTRE AT CAHORS.] + + + + + + +WANDERINGS BY SOUTHERN WATERS + + + + +THE VALLEY OF THE OUYSSE AND ROC-AMADOUR. + + +From the Old-English town of Martel, in Guyenne, I turned southward +towards the Dordogne. For a few miles the road lay over a barren +plateau; then it skirted a desolate gorge with barely a trace of +vegetation upon its naked sides, save the desert loving box clinging +to the white stones. A little stream that flowed here led down into +the rich valley of Creysse, blessed with abundance of fruit. Here I +found the nightingales and the spring flowers that avoid the +wind-blown hills. Patches of wayside took a yellow tinge from the +cross-wort galium; others, conquered by ground-ivy or veronica, were +purple or blue. Presently the tiled roofs of the village of Creysse +were seen through the poplars and walnuts. A delightful spot for a +poetical angler is this, for the Dordogne runs close by in the shadow +of prodigious rocks and overhanging trees. What a noble and stately +river I thought it, as the old ferryman, with white cotton nightcap on +his head, punted me across! I took the greater pleasure in its breadth +and grandeur here because I had seen it an infant river in the +Auvergne mountains, and had watched its growth as it rushed between +walls of rock and forest towards the plains. + +What witchery of romance and spell-bound fancy is in the song of the +Dordogne as it breaks over its shallows under high rocky cliffs and +ruined castles! Everything that can charm the poet and the artist is +here. The grandeur of rugged nature combines with the most enticing +beauty of water and meadow, and the voices of the past echo with a +sweet sadness from cliff to cliff. It is said that several of these +castles were built to prevent the English from coming up the river, +but this may be treated as one of the many fanciful legends respecting +the British period which are repeated throughout Aquitaine. + +By cutting off a curve of the Dordogne I soon came to the river-side +village of Meyronne, and here I stopped for a meal at a very pleasant +little inn, where to my surprise I found that I had been preceded a +few days before by another Englishman, who, accompanied by a +Frenchman, had come up from Bordeaux in a boat. They must have found +it very hard work rowing against the rapids. The hostess here was +evidently a woman who treasured her household gods, but who liked also +to show them. She gave me my coffee in a china cup that looked as if +it had belonged to her great-grandmother; and in the bright little +room where she served my lunch was a large walnut buffet elaborately +and admirably carved, bearing the date 1676. + +After Meyronne my road ran for a few miles beside the broad and +curving river. The forms of the great cliffs on each side were ever +changing. Over a sky intensely blue sailed the fleecy April clouds +before the soft west wind, and whenever the sun shone out with +unveiled splendour, the rays fell with summer warmth. While the +tinkling of sheep-bells from the ledges of the rocks came down to me, +the passionate warble of nightingales, that could not wait for the +night, must have risen from the leafy valley to the ears of the +listless shepherd-boy gathering feather-grass where goats would not +dare to venture, or eating his dark bread in the sun on the edge of a +precipice. Time flowed gently like the river, and I was surprised to +find myself at Lacave so soon. This village is near the spot where the +Ouysse falls into the Dordogne. A little beyond the clustering houses, +upon the edge of a high rocky promontory overlooking the Ouysse, is +the castle of Belcastel, still retaining its feudal keep and outer +wall. In this fortress the English are said to have kept many of their +prisoners. + +I now left the Dordogne and ascended the valley of the Ouysse. This +stream is one of the most remarkable of the natural phenomena of +France. To judge from its breadth near the mouth, one would suppose +that it had flowed fifty or a hundred miles, but its entire length is +less than ten miles. It is already a river when it rises out of the +depths of the earth. The narrow valley that it waters is a gorge 500 +or 600 feet deep through the greater part of its distance. The +traveller at the bottom supposes, or is ready to suppose, that he is +in some ravine of the high mountains; in reality, it is simply a +fissure of the plateau that was once the bed of the sea. There is no +igneous, no metamorphic rock here; nothing but limestone of the +Jurassic formation. The convexities on one side of the fissure +correspond with marked regularity to the concavities on the other. + +For awhile I walked on the lush grass by the brimming river, where in +the little creeks and bays the water-ranunculus floated its small +white flowers that were to continue the race. Then I left the water +and the green ribbon that followed its margin, and, taking a +sheep-track, rose upon the arid steeps, where the thinly-scattered +aromatic southern-wood was putting forth its dusty leaves. The bare +rocks, yellow, white, and gray, towered above me; they were beneath +me; they faced me across the valley; wherever I looked they were +shutting me off from the outer world. No nightingales were singing +here, but I heard the melancholy scream of the hawk and the harsh +croak of the raven. And yet, when I looked down into the bottom of +this steep desert of stones, what soft and vernal beauty was there! +Over the grass of living green was spread the gold of cowslips, just +as if that strip of meadow, with its gently-gliding river, had been +lifted out of an English dale and dropped into the midst of the +sternest scenery of Southern France. + +As I went on I soon found that the stony wastes had their flowers too. +It would seem as if Nature had wished to console the desert by giving +to it her loveliest and most enticing blossoms. I came upon colonies +of the poet's narcissus, breathing over the rocks so sweet a fragrance +that it was as if a miracle had been wrought to draw it out of the +earth. I walked knee-deep through blooming asphodels, beautiful and +strange, but only noticed here by the wild bee. I gathered sprays of +the graceful alpine-tea, densely crowded with delicate white bloom, +and marvelled at the wanton splendour of the iris colouring the gray +and yellow stones with its gorgeous blue. + +Still following the Ouysse, I came to a spot where the valley ended in +an amphitheatre formed by steep hills more than 600 feet high, and +covered for the most part with dwarf oak. In the hollow under the dark +cliffs was a little lake or pool forty or fifty yards from shore to +shore. The water showed no sign of trouble save where it overflowed +its basin on the western side, and formed the river that I had been +keeping in sight for hours. The pool filled the Gouffre de St. +Sauveur. Until the Ouysse finds this opening in the earth it is a +subterranean river, and it must flow at a great depth, probably at the +base of the calcareous formation, inasmuch as it continues to rise +from the gulf the whole year, although from the month of August until +the autumn rains nearly every water-course in the country is marked by +a curving line of dry pebbles. The funnel-shaped hole descends +vertically to the depth of about ninety feet, but there is no means of +knowing how far it descends obliquely. The tourist may occasionally +catch sight of a shepherd boy or girl with goats or sheep upon the +bare or wooded rocks, but his feeling will be one of deep loneliness. +He will see ravens and hawks about the crags, and about the river half +covered in summer with floating pond-weed, watercress, and the broad +leaves of the yellow lily, he will notice many a water-ouzel bobbing +with white breast, water-hens gliding from bank to bank, merry bands +of divers, and the brilliant blue gleam of the passing kingfisher, +which here is allowed to fish in peace, like the otter. + +The Gouffre de St. Sauveur has its legend. It is said that when the +church of St. Sauveur, on the neighbouring hill, was in imminent +danger at the time of the Revolution, the bells were thrown into the +pool so that they should not fall into the hands of the enemy. +Imaginative people fancy that they can sometimes hear them ringing at +the bottom of the water. + +After leaving the pool--now very sombre in the shadow of the wooded +hill--I crossed a ridge separating me from the Gouffre de Cabouy, out +of which flows a tributary of the Ouysse. Thence I reached the deep +and singularly savage gorge of the Alzou, which brought me to +Roc-Amadour, when the after-light of sunset was lingering rosily upon +the naked crags. + + * * * * * + +Rocks reach far overhead, dazzlingly white where the sunbeams strike +them, and below is a green line of narrow valley. A tinkling of bells +comes from the stony sides of the gorge, where sheep are browsing the +scant herbage and young shoots of southern-wood; and from the curving +fillet of meadow, where the grass seems to grow while the eye watches +it, rises the shrill little song of the stream hurrying over its +yellow bed, which may be dry again to-morrow. This Alzou is no more to +be depended upon than a coquette. After a period of drought, a storm +that has passed away hours ago will cause it suddenly to come hissing +down over the dry stones; but the next day no trace of the flow may be +found save a few pools. Or it may grow to a torrent, even a river, +that in its wild career scoffs at banks, and spreads devastation +through the valley. + +It is April, and the nightingales, the swallows, the flowers, the +bees, and the kids, whose trembling voices are heard all about the +rocks, tell me that the spring has come. I cannot rest in my cottage +on the side of the gorge, not even on the balcony that seems to hang +in the air over the depth; the sounds from the valley, especially +those that the imagination hears, are too enticing. + +Upon a high ledge of rock to which I have climbed, not without some +unpleasant qualms, I stretch myself out upon a strip of short turf +sprinkled with the flowers of the white rock-rose and bordered with +candy-tuft, and try to drive out of mind the only disagreeable thought +I have at this moment--that of getting down to the path, where I was +safe. The worst part of climbing precipitous places is not the going +up, but the coming down. Not a human being or dwelling is in sight, so +that I can contemplate the wildness of the scene to my mind's content. +But a very hoarse voice not far above tells me that I am not alone. A +raven perched upon a jutting piece of rock, that curiously resembles +some monstrous animal, is watching me, and he looks a very crafty old +bird who could speak either French or English if he liked. Presently +he flaps heavily off to the opposite side of the gorge, and fetches +his wife. They fly over me almost within gunshot, going round and +round, expressing an opinion or sentiment with an occasional croak, +but apparently quite willing to make their dinner-hour suit my +convenience. Do they suppose that I have really taken the trouble to +climb up here to die out of the world's way and the sight of my +fellow-creatures, like that very unearthly poet whose story Shelley +has written? Do they think that they are going to make a hearty meal +upon me this evening or to-morrow morning? I remain quite still, +pleased at the thought of cheating the greedy, croaking scavengers of +Nature, and hoping that they will grow bold enough to settle at length +somewhere near me. But they are too suspicious; perhaps with their +superior sight they note the blinking of my eyes as I look upwards at +the dazzling sky, or instinct may tell them that I am not lying down +after the manner of a dying animal. Their patience is more than a +match for mine, and so I come down from my ledge and make my way back +to my cottage before the pink blush of evening has faded from the +rocks. + +When the angelus has sounded from the ancient sanctuary, and all the +forms of the valley are dim in the dusk, the silence is broken again +by a very quiet little bell, which might be called the fairies' +angelus if it did not keep ringing all through the spring and summer +nights. It is like a treble note of the piano softly touched. It +steals up from amongst the flags, hyacinths, and box-bushes of the +neglected little garden which I call mine, terraced upon the side of +the gorge just beneath the balcony. Now, from all the terraced gardens +planted with fruit-trees, comes the same sound of low, clear notes, +some a little higher than others, but all in the treble, feebly struck +by unseen musicians. How sweetly this tinkling rises from the earth, +that trembles with the bursting of seeds and the shooting of stems in +the first warm nights of spring! And to think that the musicians +should be toads--yes, toads--the most despised and the most unjustly +treated of creatures! + +This cottage is at Roc-Amadour, and before writing about the place I +cannot do better than go down to the level of the stream, and look up +at the amazing cluster of buildings clinging to the rocks on one side +of the gorge, while the old walls are whitened by the pale brilliancy +of the moon. Above the roofs of all the houses is a mass of masonry, +vast and heavy, pierced by narrow Romanesque windows--a building +uncouth and monstrous, like the surrounding crags. It stands upon a +ledge of the cliff, partly in the hollow of the rock, which, indeed, +forms its innermost wall. Higher still a great cross shows against the +sky, and near to it, upon the edge of the precipice, are the ramparts +of a mediaeval fortress, now combined with a modern building, which is +the residence of the clergy attached to the sanctuary of Notre Dame de +Roc-Amadour. + +[Illustration: ROC-AMADOUR.] + +The sanctuary--it is inside the massive pile under the beetling rock, +and over the roofs of the houses--explains why men in far-distant +times had the strange notion of gathering together and constructing +dwellings upon a spot where Nature must have offered the harshest +opposition to such a project. The chosen site was not only +precipitous, but lay in the midst of a calcareous desert, where no +stream nor spring of water could be relied upon for six months in the +year, and where the only soil that was not absolutely unproductive was +covered with dense forest infested by wolves.[*] And yet, in course of +time, there grew up upon these forbidding rocks, in the midst of this +desert, a little town that obtained a wide celebrity, and was even +fortified, as the five ruinous gateways, with towers along the line of +the single street, prove even now, notwithstanding the deplorable +recklessness with which the structures of the ancient burg have been +degraded or demolished during the last half-century. Nothing is more +certain than that the origin of Roc-Amadour, and the cause of its +development, were religious. It was called into existence by pilgrims; +it grew with the growth of pilgrimages, and if it were not for +pilgrims at the present day half the houses now occupied would be +allowed to fall into ruin. It is impossible to look at it without +wonder, either in the daylight or the moonlight. It appears to have +been wrenched out of the known order of human works--the result of +common motives--and however often Roc-Amadour may suddenly meet the +eye upon turning the gorge, the picture never fails to be surprising. +It has really the air of a holy place, which many others famed for +holiness have not. + + [*] Robert du Mont, in his supplement to Sigibert's Chronicles, + wrote, more than five hundred years ago, of Roc-Amadour: 'Est + locus in Cadurcensi pago montaneis et horribile solitudine + circumdatus.' + +The founder of the sanctuary was a hermit, whose contemplative spirit +led him to this savage and uninhabited valley, whose name, in the +early Christian ages, was _Vallis tenebrosa_, but in which Nature had +fashioned numerous caverns, more or less tempting to an anchorite. He +is called Amator--_Amator rupis_--by the Latin chroniclers--a name +that, with the spread of the Romance language, would easily have +become corrupted to Amadour by the people. According to the legend, +however, which for an uncertain number of centuries has obtained +general credence in the Quercy and the Bas-Limousin, and which in +these days is much upheld by the clergy, although a learned +Jesuit--the Pere Caillau--who sifted all the annals relating to +Roc-Amadour felt compelled to treat it as a pious invention, the +hermit Amator or Amadour was no other than Zaccheus, who climbed into +the sycamore. The legend further says that he was the husband of St. +Veronica, and that, after the crucifixion, they left the Holy Land in +a vessel which eventually landed them on the western coast of Gaul, +not far from the present city of Bordeaux. They became associated with +the mission of St. Martial, the first Bishop of Limoges, and at a +later period Zaccheus, hearing of a rocky solitude in Aquitania, a +little to the south of the Dordogne, abandoned to wild beasts, +proceeded thither, and chose a cavern in the escarped side of a cliff +for his hermitage. Here, meditating upon the merits of the Mother of +Christ, he became one of her most devoted servants in that age, and +during his life he caused a small chapel to be raised to her upon the +rock near his cavern, which was consecrated by St. Martial. All this +is open to controversy, but what is undoubtedly true is that one of +the earliest sanctuaries of Europe associated with the name of Mary +was at Roc-Amadour. + +It is recorded that Roland, passing through the Quercy in the year 778 +with his uncle, Charlemagne, made a point of stopping at Roc-Amadour +for the purpose of 'offering to the most holy Virgin a gift of silver +of the same weight as his bracmar, or sword.' After his death, if +Duplex and local tradition are to be trusted, this sword was brought +to Roc-Amadour, and the curved rusty blade of crushing weight which is +now to be seen hanging to a wall is said to be a faithful copy of the +famous Durandel, which is supposed to have been stolen by the +Huguenots when they pillaged the church and burnt the remains of St. +Amadour. + +That in the twelfth century the fame of Roc-Amadour as a place of +pilgrimage was established we have very good evidence in the fact that +one of the pilgrims to the sanctuary in 1170 was Henry II. of England. +He had fallen seriously ill at Mote-Gercei, and believing that he had +been restored to health through the intercession of the Virgin, he set +out for the 'Dark Valley' in fulfilment of a vow that he had made to +her; but as this journey into the Quercy brought him very near the +territory of his enemies, the annalists tell us that he was +accompanied by a great multitude of infantry and cavalry, as though he +were marching to battle. But he injured no one, and gave abundant alms +to the poor. Thirteen years later, the King's rebellious son, Henry, +Court Mantel, pillaged the sanctuary of its treasure in order to pay +his ruffianly soldiers. This memorable sacrilege had much to do with +the insurmountable antipathy of the Quercynois for the English. + +I have before me an old and now exceedingly rare little book on +Roc-Amadour, which was written by the Jesuit Odo de Gissey, and +published at Tulle in 1666. In this, Court Mantel's exploit is spoken +of as follows: + +'Les guerres d'entre nos Rois tres Chretiens et les Anglais en ce +Royaume de France guerroyant ruinerent en quelque facon Roc-Amadour; +mais plus que tous Henri III., Roi d'Angleterre, ingrat des graces que +son pere Henri II. y avait recues, en depit de son pere qui +affectionnait cette Eglise, son avarice le poussant, pilla cet +oratoire et enleva les plaques qui couvraient le corps de S. Amadour +et emporta ce qui etait de la Tresorerie; mais Dieu qui ne laisse rien +impuni chatia le sacrilege de cet impie Prince par une mort +malheureuse. De quoi lise qui voudra Roger de Houedan, historien +Anglais en la 2 partie de ses Annales.' + +There are early records of miracles wrought at Roc-Amadour. Gauthier +de Coinsy, a monk and poet born at Amiens in 1177, has left a poem +telling how the troubadour, Pierre de Sygelard, singing the praises of +the Virgin in her chapel at Roc-Amadour to the accompaniment of his +_vielle_ (hurdy-gurdy), begged of her as a miraculous sign to let one +of her candles come down from her altar. According to the poem, the +candle came down, and stood upon the musical instrument, to the horror +and disgust of a monk who was looking on, and who saw no miracle in +the matter, but wicked enchantment. He put the candle back +indignantly, but when the minstrel sang and played it came down as +before. The movement was repeated again before the monk would believe +that the miracle was genuine. The poem, which is in the Northern +dialect, and is marked throughout by a charming _naivete_, commences +with a eulogium of the Virgin: + + 'La douce mere du Createur + A l'eglise a Rochemadour + Fait tants miracles, tants hauts faits, + C'uns moultes biax livres en est faits.' + +The huge, inartistic, but imposing block of masonry that appears from +a little distance to be clinging, after the manner of a swallow's +nest, to the precipitous face of the rock, and which is reached from +below by more than 200 steps in venerable dilapidation[*], contains +the church of St. Sauveur, the chapel of the Virgin, called the +Miraculous Chapel, and the chapel of St. Amadour, all distinct. The +last-named is a little crypt, and the Miraculous Chapel conveys the +impression of being likewise one, for it is partly under the +overleaning rock, the rugged surface of which, blackened by the smoke +of the countless tapers which have been burnt there in the course of +ages, is seen without any facing of masonry. + + [*] Since the foregoing was written the old slabs have been turned + round, and the steps been made to look quite new. + +If by looking at certain details of this composite structure one could +shut off the surroundings from the eye, the mind might feed without +any hindrance upon the ideas of old piety and the fervour of souls +who, when Europe was like a troubled and forlorn sea, sought the +quietude and safety of these rocks, lifted far above the raging surf. +But the hindrance is found on every side. The sense of artistic +fitness is wounded by incongruities of architectural style, of ideas +which meet but do not marry. The brazen altar, in the Miraculous +Chapel was well enough at the Paris Exhibition of 1889, where it could +be admired as a piece of elaborate brass work, but at Roc-Amadour it +is a direct challenge to the spirit of the spot. Then again, late +Gothic architecture has been grafted upon the early Romanesque. Those +who restored the building after it had been reduced to a ruin by the +Huguenots in 1562 set the example of bad taste. The revolutionists of +1793 having in their turn wrought their fury upon it, the work of +restoration was again undertaken during the last half-century, but the +opportunity of correcting the mistake of the previous renovators was +lost. The piece of Romanesque architecture whose character has been +best preserved is the detached chapel of St. Michael, raised like a +pigeon-house against the rock; but even this has been carefully +scraped on the outside to make it correspond as nearly as possible to +some adjacent work of recent construction. + +The ancient treasure of Roc-Amadour has been scattered or melted down, +but the image of the Virgin and Child, which according to the local +tradition was carved out of the trunk of a tree by St. Amadour +himself, is still to be seen over the altar in the Miraculous Chapel. +It is probably 800 years old, and it may be older. There is no record +to help hypothesis with regard to its antiquity, for since the +pilgrimage originated it appears to have been an object of veneration, +and the commencement of the pilgrimage is lost in the dimness of the +past. Like the statue of the Virgin at Le Puy, it is as black as +ebony, but this is the effect of age, and the smoke of incense and +candles. The antiquity of the image is, moreover, proved by the +artistic treatment. The Child is crowned and rests upon the Virgin's +knee; she does not touch him with her hands. This is in accordance +with the early Christian sentiment, which dwells upon the kingship of +the Child as distinguished from the later mediaeval feeling, which +rests without fear upon the Virgin's maternal love and makes her clasp +the Infant fondly to her breast. + +The 'miraculous bell' of Roc-Amadour has not rung since 1551, but it +may do so any day or night, for it is still suspended to the vault of +the Miraculous Chapel. It is of iron, and was beaten into shape with +the hammer--facts which, together with its form, are regarded as +certain evidence of its antiquity. The first time that it is said to +have rung by its own movement was in 1385, and three days afterwards, +according to Odo de Gissey, the phenomenon was repeated during the +celebration of the Mass. All those who were present bore testimony to +the fact upon oath before the apostolic notary. + +Very early in the Middle Ages the faith spread among mariners, and +others exposed to the dangers of the sea, that the Lady of Roc-Amadour +had great power to help them when in distress. Hugues Farsit, Canon of +Laon, wrote a treatise in 1140, 'De miraculis Beatae Virginis rupis +Amatoris,' wherein he speaks of her as the 'Star of the Sea,' and the +hymn 'Ave maris stella' is one of those most frequently sung in these +days by the pilgrims at Roc-Amadour. A statement, written and signed +by a Breton pilgrim in 1534, shows how widely this particular devotion +had then spread among those who trusted their lives to the uncertain +sea: + +'I, Louis Le Baille, merchant of the town of Pontscorf, on the river +Elle, in the diocese of Vannes, declare with truth that, returning +from a voyage to Scotland the 13th of the month of February, 1534, at +about ten o'clock at night, we were overtaken by such a violent storm +that the waves covered the vessel, in which were twenty-six persons, +and we went to the bottom. During the voyage somebody said to me: "Let +us recommend ourselves to God and to the Virgin Mary of Roc-Amadour. +Let us put her name upon this spar and trust ourselves to the care of +this good Lady." He who gave me this good counsel and myself fastened +ourselves to the spar with a rope. The tempest carried us away, but in +so fortunate a manner that the next day we found ourselves on the +coast of Bayonne. Half dead, we landed by the grace of God and the aid +of His pitiful mother, Notre Dame de Roc-Amadour. I have come here out +of gratitude for this blessing, and have accomplished the journey in +fulfilment of my vow to her, in proof of which, I have signed here +with my hand.--Louis BAILLE.' + +Such streams of pilgrims crossed the country from various directions, +moving towards the sanctuary in the Haut-Quercy, that inns or 'halts' +were called into existence on the principal lines of route, and +lanterns were set up at night for the guidance of the wanderers. The +last halt was close to Roc-Amadour, at a spot still called the +_Hospitalet_. Here were religious, who bound up the pilgrims' bleeding +feet, and provided them with food before they descended to the burg +and completed the last part of their pilgrimage--the ascent of the +steps--upon their knees. The _sportelle_, or badge of Notre Dame de +Roc-Amadour, ensured the wearer against interference or ill-treatment +on his journey. It is acknowledged that the English respected it even +in time of war. At the Great Pardon of Roc-Amadour, in 1546, so great +was the crowd of pilgrims, who had come from all parts, that many +persons were suffocated. The innkeepers' tents gave the surrounding +country the appearance of a vast camp. Sixteen years later, when +Roc-Amadour fell into the hands of the Huguenots, and the religious +buildings were pillaged and partly destroyed, the pilgrimage received +a blow from which it never quite recovered. It ceased completely at +the Revolution, but has since been revived, and some thousand genuine +pilgrims, chiefly of the peasant class, now visit Roc-Amadour every +year. + +For nearly 300 years the history of the Quercy and Roc-Amadour was +intimately associated with that of England. Henry II. did not at first +claim the Quercy as a part of Eleanor's actual possessions in +Aquitaine; but he claimed homage from the Count of Toulouse, who was +then suzerain of the Count of Quercy. Homage being refused, Henry +invaded the county, captured Cahors, where he left Becket with a +garrison, and thence proceeded to reduce the other strongholds. +Roc-Amadour appears to have offered little if any resistance. The +Quercy was formally made over to the English in 1191 by the treaty +signed by Philip Augustus and Richard Coeur-de-Lion; but the aged +Raymond V. of Toulouse protested, and the Quercynois still more +loudly. These descendants of the Cadurci found it very difficult to +submit to English rule. Unlike the Gascons, who became thoroughly +English during those three centuries, and were so loath to change +their rulers again that they fought for the King of England to the +last, the Quercynois were never reconciled to the Plantagenets, but +were ever ready to seize an opportunity of rebelling against them. It +is well known that Richard Coeur-de-Lion lost his life at the hand of +a nobleman of the Quercy. While Guyenne was distracted by the family +quarrel of the first Plantagenets, the troubadour Bertrand de Born by +his gift of words so stirred up the patriotic and martial ardour of +the Aquitanians that a league was formed against the English, which +included Talleyrand, Count of Perigord, Guilhem (or Fortanier) de +Gourdon, a powerful lord of the Quercy, De Montfort, the Viscounts of +Turenne and Ventadour. These nobles swore upon the Gospels to remain +united and faithful to the cause of Aquitaine; but Richard, partly by +feats of war and partly by diplomacy, in which it is said the argument +of money had no inconsiderable share, broke up the league, and +Bertrand de Born, being abandoned, fell into the Plantagenet's hands. +But he was pardoned, probably because Richard was a troubadour himself +in his leisure moments, and had a fellow-feeling for all who loved the +'gai scavoir.' Meanwhile, the Lord of Gourdon was not to be gained +over by fair words or bribes, and Richard besieged his castle, some +ruins of which may still be seen on the rock that overhangs the little +town of Gourdon in the Quercy. The fortress was taken, and Richard in +his fury caused the stern old man who defended it and two of his sons +to be put to death. But there was a third son, Bertrand de Gourdon, +who, seeking an opportunity of avenging his father and brothers, +joined the garrison of the castle of Chalus in the Limousin, which +Richard soon afterwards besieged. He aimed the bolt or the arrow which +brought Richard's stormy life to a close. Although forgiven by the +dying Coeur-de-Lion, Bertrand was flayed alive by the Brabancons who +were in the English army. He left no descendants, but his collaterals +long afterwards bore the name of Richard in memory of Bertrand's +vengeance. + +A member of a learned society at Cahors has sought to prove that +Gourdon in the Quercy is the place where the family of General Gordon +of Khartoum fame had its origin. It is true that the name of this town +in all old charts is spelt Gordon; but, inasmuch as it is a compound +of two Celtic words meaning raven's rock, it might as feasibly have +been handed down by the Gaelic Scotch as by the Cadurcians. + +The Plantagenets came to be termed 'the devil's race' by the people of +Guyenne. This may have originated in a saying attributed to Richard +himself in Aquitaine: 'It is customary in our family for the sons to +hate their father. We come from the devil, and we shall return to the +devil.' + +In 1368 the English, having again to reduce the Quercy, laid siege to +Roc-Amadour. The burghers held out only for a short time, and the +place being surrendered, Perducas d'Albret was left as governor with a +garrison of Gascons. Froissart quaintly describes this brief siege. +Shortly before the army showed itself in the narrow valley of the +Alzou, the towns of Fons and Gavache had capitulated, the inhabitants +having sworn that they would remain English ever afterwards. 'But they +lied,' observes Froissart. Arriving under the walls of Roc-Amadour, +which were raised upon the lower rocks, the English advanced at once +to the assault. 'La eut je vous dy moult grant assaust et dur.' It +lasted a whole day, with loss on both sides; but when the evening came +the English entrenched themselves in the valley with the intention of +renewing the assault on the morrow. That night, however, the consuls +and burghers of Roc-Amadour took council of one another, and it was +unanimously agreed that the English had shown great 'force and virtue' +during the day. Then the wisest among them urged that the place could +not hold out long against such an enemy, and that if it was taken by +force they, the burghers, would be all hanged, and the town burnt +without mercy. It was, therefore, decided to surrender the town the +next day. This was accordingly done, and the burghers solemnly swore +that they would be 'good English' ever afterwards. For their penance +they undertook to send fifty mules laden with provisions to accompany +the English army on its march for fifteen days. The fact that the +burghers owned fifty mules in the fourteenth century shows how much +richer they were then, for now they can scarcely boast half as many +donkeys, although these beasts do most of the carrying, and even the +ploughing. + +It is difficult now to find a trace of the wall which defended the +burg on the side of the valley; but here, not far above the bed of the +Alzou, are some ruins of the castle where Henry II. stayed, and which +the inhabitants still associate with his name. It is improbable that +he built it; it is more reasonable to suppose that it existed before +his marriage with Eleanor in 1152. His son, 'Short Mantle,' also used +it when he came to Roc-Amadour, and behaved, as an old writer +expresses it, 'like a ferocious beast.' Some ruined Gothic archways +may still be seen from the valley, the upper stones yellow with +rampant wallflowers in the early spring. The older inhabitants speak +of the high walls, the finely-sculptured details, etc., which they +remember; and, indeed, it is not very long ago that the ancient castle +was sold for a paltry sum, to be used as building material. The only +part of the interior preserved is what was once the chapel. It is +vaulted and groined, and the old vats and casks heaped up in it show +that it was long used for wine-making, before the phylloxera destroyed +the vineyards that once covered the sides of the stony hills. A little +below this castle is a well, with an extraordinary circumference, said +to have been sunk by the English, and always called by the people 'Le +puit des Anglais.' It is 100 feet deep, and those who made it had to +work thirty feet through solid rock. + + * * * * * + +After wandering and loitering by rivers too well fed by the mountains +to dry completely up like the perfidious little Alzou, I have returned +to Roc-Amadour, my headquarters, the summer being far advanced. The +wallflowers no longer deck the old towers and gateways with their +yellow bloom, and scent the morning and evening air with their +fragrance; the countless flags upon the rocky shelves no longer flaunt +their splendid blue and purple, tempting the flower-gatherer to risk a +broken neck; the poet's narcissus and the tall asphodel alike are +gone; so are all the flowers of spring. The wild vine that clambers +over the blackthorn, the maple and the hazel, all down the valley +towards the Dordogne, shows here and there a crimson leaf; and the +little path is fringed with high marjoram, whose blossoms revel amidst +the hot stones, and seem to drink the wine of their life from the +fiery sunbeams. Upon the burning banks of broken rock--gray wastes +sprinkled with small spurges and tufts of the fragrant southernwood, +now opening its mean little flowers--multitudes of flying grasshoppers +flutter, most of them with scarlet wings, and one marvels how they can +keep themselves from being baked quite dry where every stone is hot. +The lizards, which spend most of their time in the grasshoppers' +company, appear equally capable of resisting fire. In the bed of the +Alzou a species of brassica has had time since the last flood to grow +up from the seed, and to spread its dark verdure in broad patches over +the dry sand and pebbles. The ravens are gone--to Auvergne, so it is +said, because they do not like hot weather. The hawks are less +difficult to please on the score of climate; they remain here all the +year round, piercing the air with their melancholy cries. + +I needed quiet for writing, and could not get it. Of all boons this is +the most difficult to find in France. It can be had in Paris, where it +is easy to live shut off from the world, hearing nothing save the +monotonous rumble of life in the streets; but let no one talk to me +about the blessed quietude of the country in France, unless it be that +of the bare moor or mountain or desolate seashore. In villages there +is no escape from the clatter of tongues until everybody, excepting +yourself, is asleep. The houses are so built that wherever you may +take refuge you are compelled to hear the conversation that is going +on in any part of them. In the South the necessity of listening +becomes really terrible. The men roar, and the women shriek, in their +ordinary talk. A complete stranger to such ways might easily suppose +that they were engaged in a wordy battle of alarming ferocity, when +they are merely discussing the pig's measles, or the case of a cow +that strayed into a field of lucern, and was found the next morning +like a balloon. It is hard for a person who needs to be quiet at times +to live with such people without giving the Recording Angel a great +deal of disagreeable work. + +I would not have believed that so small a place as Roc-Amadour, and +such a holy one, could have been so noisy if my own experience had not +informed me on this subject. Every morning at five the tailor who did +duty as policeman and crier came with his drum, and, stationing +himself by the town pump, which was just in front of my cottage, awoke +the echoes of the gorge with a long and furious _tambourinade_. While +the women, in answer to this signal, were coming from all directions, +carrying buckets in their hands, or copper water-pots on their heads, +he unchained the pump-handle. Now for the next two hours the strident +cries of the exasperated pump, and the screaming gabble of many +tongues, all refreshed by slumber and eager for exercise, made such a +diabolic tumult and discord as to throw even the braying of the +donkeys into the minor key. Of course, sleep under such circumstances +would have been miraculous; but, then, no one had any right to sleep +when the rocks were breaking again into flame, and the mists which +filled the gorge by night were folding up their tents. I therefore +accepted this noise as if it had been intended for my good, and the +crowd in front of the pump was always an amusing picture of human +life. It was at its best on Sunday, for then the tailor--who also did +a little shaving between whiles--had put on his fine braided official +coat, as well as his sword and best _kepi_. (On very grand days he +wore his cocked hat, and was then quite irresistibly beautiful.) He +had to look after the women as well as the water. The latter was +precious, and it was necessary to protect it in the interest of the +community. Then the pump was parsimonious, and all the women being +impatient to get their allowance and go, it was needful that someone +in authority should stand by to decide questions of disputed priority, +and to nip quarrels in the bud which might otherwise lead to a fight. +Poor man! how those women worried him every morning with their +_badinage_, and how glad he was to chain up the pump-handle and turn +the key! + +But this was only the opening act of the day's comedy, or rather the +_lever de rideau_. The little square by the old gateway, whose +immediate neighbourhood lent a mediaeval charm to my cottage, was the +centre of gossip and idling. I did not think of this when I pitched my +tent, so to speak, in the shadow of the old masonry. Knowing full well +that the noise of tongues is one of the chief torments of my life, I +am always leaving it out of my calculations, and paying the same bill +for my folly over and over again. But then I know also that in +provincial France, unless you live in an abandoned ruin upon a rock, +it is well-nigh impossible to obtain the quietude which the literary +man, when he has it not, imagines to be closely allied to the peace +that passeth all understanding. The square served many purposes, +except mine. The women used it as a convenient place for steaming +their linen. This, fashioned into the shape of a huge sugar-loaf, with +a hollow centre, stood in a great open caldron upon a tripod over a +wood-fire. At night the lurid flames and the grouped figures, +illuminated by the glare, were picturesque; but in the daytime the +charm of these gatherings was chiefly conversational. Then the +children made the square their playground, or were driven into it +because it was the safest place for them, and every Sunday afternoon +the young men of Roc-Amadour met there to play at skittles. + +In quest of peace, I was driven at first into the loft of the inn, of +which the cottage was a dependency. Here the vocal music of the +inhabitants was somewhat muffled, but the opportunities for studying +natural history were rather excessive. A swarm of bees had established +themselves in a corner where they could not be dislodged, and they had +a way of crawling over the floor that kept my expectations constantly +raised. The maize grown upon the small farm having been stored here +from time immemorial, the rats had learnt from tradition and +experience to consider this loft as their Land of Goshen. When I took +up my quarters among them they were annoyed, and also puzzled. They +could not understand why I remained there so long and so quiet; but at +length they lost patience and gave up the riddle. Then their impudence +became unbounded; they helped themselves to the maize whenever they +felt disposed to do so, and stared at me with the utmost effrontery as +they sat upon their haunches nibbling; they ran races under the tiles +and held pitched battles upon the rafters. Talking one day to the +proprietor of the house about his rats and other live stock, I tried +to excite and distress him by describing the depredation that went on +day and night in the loft. But it was with a calm bordering on +satisfaction that he listened to my story. Then he told me that the +rats ate about two sacks of maize every year. + +'And you do not put it elsewhere?' 'Non pas! I leave it here for +them.' + +'For the rats?' + +'Certainly, for the rats. If I did not give them plenty of maize they +would eat a hundred francs' worth of linen in a single winter. It is +an economy to feed them.' + +And there were about a dozen string-tailed cats about the place that +never ventured into the loft. They must have been either afraid or too +lazy to attack the rats in their stronghold. A man who could accept a +plague of rodents in this philosophical spirit could not be otherwise +than mild in his dealings with all animals, including men. My old +friend liked to let every creature live and enjoy existence. He became +so fond of his pigs that it grieved him sorely to have one killed. +Much domestic diplomacy had to be used before the fatal order could be +wrung from him. He would have gone on fattening the beast for ever had +he been allowed, soothing his conscience over the waste with the vague +hope that this pig of exceptional loveliness and vigour would grow to +the size of a donkey if it were permitted to take its time. He never +worried his _metayer_ over money matters, or insisted upon seeing that +everything was equally divided. Notwithstanding, that he had been made +to smart all his life for his trustfulness and indolent good-nature, +experience had taught him nothing of this world's wisdom. No beggar, +although known to be a worthless rascal, ever asked him for a piece of +bread or a night's lodging in his barn without obtaining it. The old +man would lock his ragged guest up for the night, and before letting +him out in the morning would often carry some soup to him--stealthily, +however, so as not to be observed. As he was always ready to give, and +hated every harsh measure, it was to his wood that the unscrupulous +went in winter, when they wanted fuel. Sometimes an informer would say +to him: 'M---- So-and-so is cutting down your wood.' 'Oh, bast! _le +pauvre_. It is cold weather!' was the reply that he would be most +likely to make. His good qualities would have ruined him had not +destiny with great discernment and charity nailed him to his little +patrimony, where he was comparatively safe. + +The bees in the loft were instructive and the rats amusing, but the +fleas were neither the one nor the other--they were merely exciting. +And so it came to pass that I forsook the place, and by climbing a +little staircase cut in the rock, against which the house was built, +reached a cavern far above the roof and found at last my ideal +writing-place upon the ledge in front of it, where the mallow and the +crane's-bill crept over a patch of turf. Here the voices of the noisy +little world below were sufficiently toned down by distance. The +noisiest creatures up here were the jackdaws, which were constantly +flying in and out of the holes in the church wall that rose above me +from another and wider ledge of rock. A pair of sooty-looking +rock-swallows that had made their nest in the roof of the cavern were +much irritated by my presence, but, like the rats, they became +reconciled to it. The little martins, always trustful, never hesitated +from the first to fly into the cave and drink from the dripping water. +When the dusk came on, the bats, which had been hanging by their +winged heels all day in dusky holes and corners, fluttered out one +after another, and went zigzagging until they were lost to sight over +the old stone roofs on which the moss had blackened. + +A little before the bats came out was the time when to do aught else +but let the sight feast upon the beauty of the rocky little world +bounded by the walls of the narrow gorge would have been literally to +waste the golden moments. Then it was that the naked crags, which +caught the almost level rays of the setting sun, grew brighter and +more brilliantly coruscating, until they seemed ready to melt from the +intensity of their own heat; then this fiery golden colour would +slowly fade and wane into misty purple tones, which lingered long when +there was no more sun. Why did it linger? All the sky that I could see +was blue, and of deepening tone. But the most wonderful sight was yet +to come, when, while the valley was fast darkening, and along the +banks of the Alzou's dry channel the walnut-trees stood like dark +spectres of uncertain form, those rocks began to glow with fire again +as if a wind had risen suddenly and had fanned their dying embers, and +the luminous bloom that spread over them was not that of the earthly +rose, but of the mystical rose of heaven. What I saw was the +reflection of the after-glow, but the glow in the sky was hidden. +Sometimes, as the rocks were fading again and a star was already +glittering like steel against the dark blue, another flush arose in +the dusk, and a faint redness still rested upon the high crags, when +the owl flew forth with a shriek to hunt along the sides of the gorge. + +One morning, as I climbed to my eyrie, I was shocked to see my oblong +writing-table, which I had hoisted up there with considerable +difficulty, in an attitude that my neighbour Decros's donkey +endeavoured to strike in his most agitated moments--it was standing +upon two legs, with the others in the air. The heavy branch of a large +fig-tree that had been flourishing for many years upon the overhanging +rock far above had come down upon the very spot where I was accustomed +to sit, and thus the strange antics of the table were accounted for. +From that day the thought of other things above, such as loose rocks, +which might also have conceived an antipathy for the table, and might +not be so considerate towards me as the fig-tree, weakened my +attachment to my ideal writing-place, for the discovery of which I was +indebted to the indefatigable tongues of the women of Roc-Amadour. + +The mention of my neighbour's donkey recalls to mind an interesting +religious ceremony in which that amiable but emotional beast figured +with much distinction. Once every year all the animals at Roc-Amadour +that are worth blessing are assembled on the plain near the Hospitalet +to receive the benediction of the Church. The ceremony is called _La +benediction des betes_. The animals are chiefly goats, sheep, donkeys, +and mules. They are sprinkled with holy water, and prayers are said, +so that they may increase and multiply or prosper in any other way +that their owners may desire. As the meeting of the beasts took place +very early in the morning, I reached the scene just as it was breaking +up, and the congregation was dispersing in various directions. I met +Decros coming down the hill with his donkey, and saw by the expression +of his lantern jaws--he never laughed outright--that something had +amused him very much. + +'So you have been to the Blessing of the Beasts? said I. + +'_He_ has been,' replied the man, pointing to the ass, and not wishing +to be confounded with the _betes_ himself. + +The donkey stuck his long ears forward, which meant, 'Yes, I have,' +and there was a deal of humour in the expression. + +'And how did he behave?' + +'Beautifully; he sang the whole time. The men laughed, but the women +said, "Take the beast away!" "No, I won't," said" _Il chante la +benediction_."' + +September brought the retreat, and the great pilgrimage, which lasts +eight days. The first visitors to arrive were the beggars and small +vendors of _objets de piete_. Some came in little carts, which looked +as if they had been made at home out of grocers' boxes, and to which +dogs were harnessed. At their approach all the Roc-Amadour dogs barked +bravely, just as in the old days when the song was written of the +'beggars coming to town.' Others trudged in with their bundles upon +their backs, hobbling, hungry and thirsty, but eager for the fray. +Some in a larger way of business came in all sorts of vehicles, and a +bazaar man arrived in a caravan of his own. Then followed the crowd of +genuine pilgrims, nearly all of them peasants, humbly clad, but with +money in their pockets which they were determined not to spend +foolishly upon meat, drink, and lodging, for the good of their souls +was uppermost in their minds, and the length of their stay would +depend upon their success in making the money last. By far the greater +number were women, and the many bent backs and withered faces among +them were a pretty safe sign that they had not all come to implore the +aid of the Virgin in that special form of domestic trouble from which +so many thousands have sought relief century after century in her +sanctuary of Roc-Amadour. + +The plain white linen coif--very ugly, but delightfully +primitive--worn by a large proportion of these peasants showed that +they had crossed the Dordogne from the Bas-Limousin. Many had come all +the way on foot, taking a couple of days or more for the journey, and +a few had trudged over the hot roads and stony _causses_[*] barefoot, +just like pilgrims of the Middle Ages. + + [*] This Languedocian word, which has come to be generally used in + describing the limestone uplands, as distinguished from the + valleys and gorges of a very extensive district of Southern + France, is said to be a corruption of _calx_. + +Indeed, these people were essentially the same in all social and +mental characteristics as their predecessors of five or seven +centuries ago; their faith was the same, their daily habits were the +same, their language was the same, and their mode of dress, as far +as the women were concerned, had scarcely changed. They came down +the narrow street and under the old crumbling gateways in a +continuous stream, holding their rosaries in their hands, together +with their baskets and bundles, and praying aloud, even before they +reached the foot of the steps. Arriving there, they dropped down +upon their knees, and commenced the arduous ascent, interrupted by +two hundred genuflexions, during which they repeated an _Ave Maria_ +and a special invocation to Notre Dame de Roc-Amadour. Although the +stranger belonging to the outer world--so different in every way +from that of these simple people--with his mind coloured by +particular prejudices, habits of thought, religious or philosophical +reasoning, may feel out of sympathy with such pilgrims, he cannot +but recognise their sincerity and the serene fulness of their faith. + +Above all the pious murmuring rise the harsh voices of those who have +come to sell, and who, putting no restraint upon their eagerness to +get money, thrust their rosaries and medals almost in the pilgrims' +faces. Beggars squatting or lying against the wall on either side of +the steps exhibit the bare stump of a leg that wofully needs washing, +a withered arm, or the ravages of some incurable and gnawing disease. +Yet are they all terribly energetic, wailing forth prayers almost +incessantly, or screaming spasmodically an appeal to charity, and +adding to the dreadful din by jingling coppers in tin cups. In the +immediate precincts of the church, where the hurly-burly of piety, +traffic, and mendicity reaches its climax, are the vendors of candles +for the chapel and of food for the pilgrims, whose diet is chiefly +melon and bread. Creysse, by the Dordogne, produces melons in +abundance, which are brought to Roc-Amadour by the cartload, and sold +for two or three sous apiece. And to see these pilgrims devour the +fragrant fruit in the month of September makes one think that if Notre +Dame de Roc-Amadour were not very pitiful the consequences would be +disastrous to many. + +There was a humorous beggar on the steps who amused me much, for I +watched him more closely than he supposed. He had something the matter +with his legs--paralyzed, perhaps--but the upper part of his body was +sound enough. With one hand he shook the tin cup, but the other, which +held a short pipe, he kept steadfastly behind his back. Now and again +he turned his face to the wall, as if to drop a tear unseen, but +really to take a discreet pull at the pipe. I think he must have +swallowed the smoke. Then he would face the crowd again, and repeat +his doleful cry: + +'De la charite! de la charite! Chretiens, n'oubliez pas le pauvre +estropie! Le bon Dieu vous benira.' + +After all, why should not a beggar smoke? If tobacco is a blessing, +why should a man be debarred from it because his legs are paralyzed, +and he is obliged to live on charity? + +As one of the first thoughts of every genuine pilgrim to this ancient +sanctuary is to get shrived, the chaplains, who, with their Superior, +are ten in number, have something to do to listen to the story of sins +that is poured into their ears almost in a continuous stream during +the eight days of the retreat. The rush upon the confessionals begins +at five in the morning, and goes on with little intermission all day. +The penitents huddle together like sheep in a snowstorm around each +confessional, so that the foremost who is telling his sins knows that +there is another immediately behind him who, whenever he stops to +reflect, would like to give him a nudge m the back. The peasants, +whether it be that they have never cultivated the habit of whispering, +or whether their zeal be such as to chase from their minds all +considerations of worldly shame and human respect, say what they have +to say without regard to the rows of ears behind them, and what takes +place at these times is almost on a par with the public confessions of +the primitive Church. + +It is at night, however, during the retreat that the visitor to +Roc-Amadour will see the strangest sight if he gives himself the +trouble, for then the church of St. Sauveur becomes a _hospice_ where +the weary may find the sleep that refreshes and restores the +faculties after the work of the day, as sung by St. Ambrose. The +church is filled with pilgrims lying upon the chairs, upon the bare +stones that the feet of other pilgrims have worn into hollows, +sitting with their backs against the walls and piers, snoring also in +the confessionals--the most comfortable quarters. Some remain awake +most of the night praying silently or aloud. This is how the +peasantry of the Quercy and the Limousin enter into the spirit of the +September pilgrimage to Roc-Amadour. It is not because they need the +money to pay for accommodation in the inns that they use the church +by night as well as by day, but because they wish to go through their +devotional programme thoroughly. And those who go to the inns often +make one room serve for a family of three or four grown-up persons. +If there vis one person who does not belong to the family, the others +see no harm in admitting him or her; indeed, they think that as +Christians they are almost bound to do so. + +On the night following the opening of the retreat, Roc-Amadour is +illuminated, and the spectacle is one that renders the grandest +illuminations in Paris mean and vulgar by comparison. It is not in the +costliness of the display that its splendour lies; it is in what may +almost be termed the zeal with which Nature works with art towards the +same end. Without the rocks and precipices the spectacle would be +commonplace; but the site being what it is, the scene has a strange +and wonderful charm that may be called either fairylike or heavenly, +as the imagination may prefer. The artistic means employed are simple +enough--paper lanterns and little lamps of coloured glass; but what an +effect is produced when chains of fire have been stretched across the +gorge from the summits of the rocks on either side, when the long +succession of zigzags reaching up the cliff, and forming the Way of +the Cross, is also marked out with fire, when the ramparts on the +brink of the precipice are ablaze with coloured lamps, recalling some +old poetical picture of an enchanted castle, and a little to the +right, on the summit of the cliff where the Via Crucis ends at +Calvary, the great wooden cross which French pilgrims carried through +the streets of Jerusalem stands against the calm starlit sky like a +cross of blood-red flame! + +A little below the summit of the cliff, from the large cavern which +has been fashioned to represent the Holy Sepulchre, there issues a +brilliant light, together with the sound of many voices singing the +'Tantum ergo.' A faint odour of incense wanders here and there among +the shrubs, and mingles with the fragrance of flowers upon the +terraces. Presently the clergy and the pilgrims come forth, and, +forming a long procession, descend the Way of the Cross; and as the +burning tapers that they carry shine and flash amongst the foliage, +these words, familiar to every pilgrim to Roc-Amadour, sung by +hundreds of voices, may be heard afar off in the dark desolate gorge: + + 'Reine puissante, Mere d'Amour, + Sois-nous compatissante, + O Vierge d'Amadour!' + +It is now the vigil of All Souls--the 'Day of the Dead.' No more +pilgrims come to Roc-Amadour. A breeze would send the sapless +walnut-leaves whirling through the air, but there is no breeze; Nature +seems to hold her breath as she thinks of the dead whom she has +gathered to her earthy breast. At sundown the people creep out of +their houses silently and solemnly; they meet at the bottom of the +steps, and when they are joined by the clergy and choirboys, all move +slowly upward, praying for the dead and kneeling upon each step. As +their forms seen sideways show against the dusky sky, they look like +shadows from the ghostly world, and still more so when the rocks on +the other side of the gorge brighten again, as with the blood of the +pomegranate made luminous, and through the air there spreads a +beautiful solemn light that is tenderly yet deeply sad, and which adds +something unearthly, something that cannot be named, to the ascending +figures. + +As the dusk deepens to darkness the funereal _glas_ begins to moan +from St. Saviour's Church. Two bells are rung together so as to make +as nearly as possible one clash of sound. At first it is a moan, but +it soon becomes a strident cry with a continuous under-wail. At the +Hospitalet on the hill the bell of the mortuary chapel is also +tolling. It is the bell of the dead who lie there in the stony +burying-ground upon the edge of the wind-blown _causse_, calling upon +the bells of Roc-Amadour to move the living to pity for those who have +left the earth. + +As I return to my cottage the dim street is quite deserted, and the +arch of the ruined gateway, so often resounding with the voices that +come from light hearts, is now as dark and silent as a grave. For two +hours the bells continue to cry in the darkness, from the church +overhead and from the chapel by the tombs. I can neither read nor +write, but sit brooding over the fire on the hearth, piling on wood +and sending tall flames and many sparks up the chimney; for that +continuous undercry of the iron tongues, 'Pray for the dead! pray for +the dead!' fills the valley and seems to fill the world. No fireside +feeling can be kindled; it is wasting wood to throw it upon the hearth +to-night, for that doleful wail penetrates everywhere: even the demon +that lurks at the bottom of Pomoyssin must shudder as he hears it. +When at length the bells stop swinging and their vibrations die away, +a screech-owl flies close by the open gallery of the house, which we +call a balcony, and startles me with its ghostly scream. + +The day comes again, fair and hopeful. I am waiting for the old +truffle-hunter, with whom I made an appointment for this morning. +Presently I see him coming up the bed of the stream, plodding over the +yellow stones, which have been dry for four months. I recognise him by +his pig, which walks by his side. They are both truffle-hunters, and +have both an interest in the business, as will be seen. The man is +gray and old, with a sharp prominent nose, suggestive of his chief +occupation, and with a bent back--the effect, perhaps, of stooping to +pull the pig's ear in the nick of time should the beast be tempted to +snap up one of the savoury cryptogams. When it is added that he wears +a short blouse and a low, broad-brimmed felt hat, I have described the +appearance of the truffle-hunter. Now, inasmuch as the pig is about to +play the most important part in the morning's work, its portrait +should likewise be drawn. The animal is of a dirty-white colour, like +all pigs in this part of France, and is utterly devoid of grace and +elegance. It is, in fact, an extremely ugly beast, with an arched back +and a very long turned-up nose; but it is four years old, and is +accounted 'serious.' Like all other pigs used for truffle-hunting, it +is of the female sex. The animal has been carefully educated; it wears +a leather collar as a mark of distinction, and is allowed the same +liberty as a dog. + +We climb the rocky side of the gorge, which is hot work, for the south +wind is blowing, and the sun is blazing in a blue sky. The walnuts by +the line of the stream are changing colour, and the maples are already +fiery; but otherwise there are few signs of autumn. On reaching the +plateau we come at once to the truffle-ground. Here the soil is so +thin, so stony, and withal so arid, that, were it not for the scant +herbage upon which sheep and goats thrive, it would produce nothing +but stunted oak, juniper, and truffles. Even the oaks only grow in +patches where the rock is not close to the surface. The truffles are +never found except very near these trees, or, in default of them, +hazels. This is one of the mysteries of the cryptogamic kingdom, which +no one has yet been able to explain. The truffle-hunters believe that +it is the shade of the trees which produces the underground fruit, and +the opinion is based upon experience. When an oak has been cut down, +or even lopped, a spot near it that was rich in truffles year after +year is soon scoffed at by the knowing pig. + +Our work lies amongst the dwarf oaks, for there are no hazels here. At +a sign from the old man, the pig sniffs about the roots of a little +tree, then proceeds to dig with her nose, tossing up the larger stones +which lie in the way as if they were feathers. The animal has smelt a +truffle, and the man seizes her by the ear, for her manner is +suspicious. This is the first time they have been out together since +last season, and the beast has forgotten some of her education. She +manages to get a truffle into her mouth; he tugs at her ear with one +hand, and uses his stick upon her nose with the other. The brute +screams with anger, but will not open her jaws wide enough for him to +slip his stick in and hook the truffle out. The prize is swallowed, +and the old man, forgetting all decorum, and only thinking of his +loss, calls his companion a pig, which in France is always an insult. +Our truffle-hunting to-day has opened badly, although one party thinks +differently. In a few minutes, however, another truffle is found, and +this time the old man delivers a whack on the nose at the right +moment, and, seizing the fungus, hands it to me. Now he takes from his +pocket a spike of maize, and, picking off a few grains, gives them to +the pig to soothe her injured feelings, and encourage her to hunt +again. This she is quite ready to do, for a pig has no _amour propre_. +We move about in the dry open wood, keeping always near the trees, and +truffle after truffle is turned up from the reddish light soil mixed +with fragments of calcareous rock. The forgotten training soon comes +back to our invaluable auxiliary; a mere twitch of the ear is a +sufficient hint for her to retire at the right moment, and wait for +the corn that is in variably given in exchange for the cryptogam. +Indeed, before we leave the ground, the animal has got so well into +work that when she finds a truffle she does not attempt to seize it, +but points to it, and grunts for the equivalent in maize. The pig may +be a correct emblem of depravity, but its intelligence is certainly of +a superior order. + + + + +FROM THE ALZOU TO THE DORDOGNE. + + +Although the last days of May had come, the Alzou, usually dry at this +time, was running with swift, strong current through the vale of +Roc-Amadour. There had been so many thunderstorms that the channel was +not large enough for the torrent that raced madly over its yellow +pebbles. I lingered awhile in the meadow by the stream, looking at the +rock-clinging sanctuary before wandering in search of the unknown up +the narrow gorge. + +In a garden terraced upon the lower flank of the rock, the labour of +generations having combined to raise a soil there deep enough to +support a few plum, almond, and other fruit trees, a figure all in +black is hard at work transplanting young lettuces. It is that of a +teaching Brother. He is a thin grizzled man of sixty, with an +expression of melancholy benevolence in his rugged face. I have +watched him sitting upon a bench with his arm round some little +village urchin by his side, while the children from the outlying +hamlets, sprawling upon a heap of stones in the sun, ate their mid-day +meal of bread and cheese or buckwheat pancakes that their mothers had +put into their baskets before they trudged off in the early morning. I +have noticed by many signs that he is full of sympathy for the young +peasants placed in his charge. Yet with all his kindness he is +melancholy. So many years in one place, such a dull routine of duty, +such a life of abnegation without the honour that sustains and +encourages, such impossibility of being understood and appreciated by +those for whose sake he has been breaking self upon the wheel of +mortification since his youth, have made him old before the time and +fixed that look of lurking sadness in his warmly human eyes. + +There are few problems more profound than that of the courage with +which men like him continue their self-imposed penal-servitude until +they become too infirm to work and are sent to die in some refuge for +aged _freres_. They have accepted celibacy and poverty, that they may +the better devote their lives to the instruction of children. They +have no sacerdotal state or ideal, no ecclesiastical nor social +ambition to help them. They must be always humble; they must not even +be learned, for much knowledge in their case would be considered a +dangerous thing. Their minds must not rise above their work. They +guide dirty little fists in the formation of pot-hooks, and when they +have led the boys' intelligence up a few more steps of scholarship the +end is achieved. The boy goes out into the world and refreshes his +mind with new occupation; but the poor Brother remains chained to his +dreary task, which is always the same and is never done. + +And what are the wages in return for such a life? Food that many a +workman would consider insufficiently generous for his condition, a +bed to lie upon and clothes which call down upon the wearer the +sarcasms of the town-bred youth. What a land of contrast is France! + +There are three Brothers here, but this one, the eldest, is the head. +Others come and go, but he remains. Most of his spare time is given to +the garden. When the eight o'clock bell begins to swing he will leave +his lettuces and soon perch himself on the little platform behind his +shabby old desk in the dingy schoolroom, which even in the holidays +cannot get rid of its ancient redolence of boys. The school-house, now +so much like a prison, was once a mansion, and the most modern part of +it is of the period which we should call in England Tudor. A Gothic +doorway leads into a hall arched and groined, the inner wall being the +bare rock, as is the case with most of the houses at Roc-Amadour. A +gutter cut in the stone floor to carry off the drippings formed by the +condensation of the air upon the cold surface shows that these +half-rock dwellings have their drawbacks. + +I leave Roc-Amadour and take my way up the valley. Nature has now +reached all that can be attained in vernal pride and beauty here. In a +little while she will have put on the careworn look of the Southern +summer. Many a plant now in splendid bloom, animated by the spirit of +loveliness that presides over the law of reproduction, will soon be +casting its seed and bringing its brief destiny to a close. Now all is +coquetry, beauty, and ravishment. The rock-hiving bees, unconscious +instruments of a great purpose, are yellow with pollen and laden with +honey. They find more, infinitely more, nectar than they can carry +away. The days are long, and every hour is full of joy. But already +the tide is at the turn. The nightingale's rapturous song has become a +lazy twitter; the bird has done with courtship; it has a family in +immediate prospect, if not one already screaming for food, and the +musician has half lost his passion for music. It will come again next +year. How swiftly all this life and colour of spring passes away! So +much to be looked at and so little time! + +This narrow strip of meadow that winds along the bottom of the gorge +is not the single tinted green ribbon it lately was. The light of its +verdure has been dimmed by the light of flowers. The grass mounts +high, but not higher than the oxeye daisies, the blue racemes of +stachys, the mauve-coloured heads of scabious, the bladder-campions, +the yellow buttercups and goat's-beard. The oxeyes are so numberless +in one long reach of meadow that a white drapery, which every breeze +folds or unfolds, seems to have been cast as light as sea-foam upon +the illimitable forest of stems. The white butterflies that flutter +above are like flecks of foam on the wing. Elsewhere it is the blue of +the stachys and the spiked veronica that rules. Deeper in the herbage +other races of flowers shine in the fair groves of this grassy +paradise, and every blossom, however small, is a mystery, a miracle. +Here is the star of Bethlehem, wide open in the sunshine and showing +so purely white amidst the green, and yonder is the purple fringe-like +tuft of the weird muscari. Along the banks of the stream tall +lilac-purple, stock-like flowers rise proudly above the grasses. They +belong to the hesperis or dame's violet, a common wild-flower in this +valley. Upon my left is the abrupt stony slope of the gorge. Between +it and the meadow are shrubs of yellow jessamine starred with blossom. +But the stony steep that dazzles the eyes with the sun's reflected +glare has its flowers too. Nature, in her great passion for beauty, +even draws it out of the disintegrated fragments of time-worn rock, +whose banks would otherwise be as stark and dry as the desert sand. +Lightly as flakes of snow the frail blossoms of the white rock-rose +lie upon the stones. Then there are patches of candytuft running from +white into pink, crimson flowers of the little crane's-bill, and +spurges whose floral leaves are now losing their golden green and +taking a hue of fiery brown. + +An open wood, chiefly of dwarf oak, and shrubs such as the wayfaring +tree, the guelder-rose, and the fly-honeysuckle, now stretches along +the opposite side of the gorge. Here scattered groups of columbine +send forth a glow of dark blue from the shadowy places; the lily of +the valley and its graceful ever-bowing cousin, the Solomon's seal, +show their chaste and wax-like flowers amidst the cool green of their +fresh leaves; and the monkey-orchis stands above the green moss and +the creeping geraniums like a little rocket of pale purple fire just +springing from the earth towards the lingering shreds of storm-cloud +that are melting in the warm sky. + +In a few weeks what will have become of all this greenness and +beautiful colour of flowers? The torrid sun and the hot breath of +summer will have burnt up the fair garment of spring, and laid bare +the arid sternness of the South again. The nightingale still warbles +fitfully in the green bushes, but the raven, perched up yonder upon +the stark rock, croaks like a misanthrope at the quick passing away of +youth and loveliness. What sad undertones, mournful murmurs of the +deep that receives the drifted leaves, mingle with the spring's soft +flutings and all the voices that proclaim the season of joy! + +While listening and day-dreaming, I was overtaken by a man and his +donkey, both old acquaintances. Every day, except Sundays and the +great Church festivals, when the peasants of the Quercy abstain from +work, like those of Brittany, this pair were in the habit of trudging +together side by side to fetch and bring back wood from the slopes of +the gorge. The ass did all the carrying, and his master the chopping +and sawing. It was a monotonous life, but both seemed to think they +were not worse off than the majority of men and donkeys. The man was +contented with his daily soup of bread-and-water, with an onion or a +leek thrown in, and a suspicion of bacon, and the beast with such +herbage as he could find while his master was getting ready another +load of wood. The man was an old soldier, who had seen some rough +service, for he was at Sedan, and was afterwards engaged in the +ghastly business of shooting down his own countrymen in Paris. But, +with all this, he was as quiet a tempered creature as his donkey, +which he treated as a friend. The army, he told me, was the best +school for learning how to treat a beast with proper consideration. + +I asked why. + +'Because,' replied he, 'when a soldier is caught beating a horse, he +has eight days of _salle de police_.' + +Man and donkey having disappeared into a wood, my next companion was a +small blue butterfly that kept a few yards in front of me, now +stopping to look at a flower, now fluttering on again. Some insects, +as well as certain birds, appear to derive much entertainment from +watching the movements of that fantastic animal--man. + +Arcadian leafiness: rocky desolation befitting the mouth of hell. +Grass and flowers on which souls might tread in the paradise of the +Florentine poet. Stony forms, monstrous, enigmatic, reared like +symbolic tokens of defeated gods, or of the worn-out evil passions +that troubled old creation before the coming of man, and the fresh +order of spiritual and carnal bewilderment. Why should I go on and +seek further amazement, while from the lowest to the highest I can +read not one of the mystic figures of the solitude around me? What is +my relation to them, and theirs to me? Why should that beetle in the +grass, upon whose back all the colours of the prism change and glow +like supernatural fire, trouble me with the cause and motive of its +beauty? Why should yonder rock, standing like a spar of some ship +wrecked in a cataclysm of the awful past, draw me to it as though it +were the image of a grand, yet unattainable and blighted, longing of +the human soul? + +The gorge became so narrow and the rocks so high that there was a +twilight under the trees, which still dripped with the rain-drops of +last night's storm. Hesperis, columbine, and geranium contrasted their +floral colours with the deep green of the young grass. Some spots of +dark purple were on the ground where the light was most dim. They were +the petals and calyxes of that strange flower, lathraea, of the +broom-rape family. Each bloom seemed to be carried in the cup of +another flower. The plant had no leaves, for it was a thief that drew +its nutriment from the root of an honest little tree that had +struggled upward in the shade of strong and greedy rivals, and had +raised its head at length into the sunshine in spite of them. + +After some difficulty in working round and over rocks that barred, the +passage, I came to a spot where it was impossible to follow the gorge +any farther. The walls narrowed to an opening a few yards wide, where +the stream fell in a cascade of some thirty feet. I took my mid-day +meal like a forester in the midst of this beautiful desolation, and +then, having found a spot where I could escape from the gorge of the +Alzou, I climbed the steep towards the north. + +Here there was a blinding glare of sunshine reflected by the naked +stones. Goats looked down at me from the upper rocks near the line of +the blue sky. When I reached the boy who tended them, I asked him the +way to the road that I wished to strike upon the plateau. After +staring at me for some time, he screwed up his mouth, and said: '_Je +comprenais pas francais, you.' You_ did not apply to me, but to +himself, for it means _I_ in the Southern dialect. + +Here was a boy unable to speak French, although all children in France +are now supposed to be educated in the official language of the +republic. Such cases are uncommon. In the Haut-Quercy, where _patois_ +is the language of everybody, even in the towns, one soon learns the +advantage of asking the young for the information that one may need. + +I found the road I wanted, and also the spot marked on the map as the +Saut de la Pucelle. It is one of those numerous _gouffres_ to be found +in the Quercy, especially in the district of the Dordogne. + +Here a stream plunges beneath the surface of the earth to join the +subterranean Ouysse, or the Dordogne. A ravine, sinking rapidly, +becomes a deep, dark, and gloomy gully, at the end of which is a wall +of rock. The stream pours down a tunnel-like passage, at the base of +the rock, with a melancholy wail. Where the sides are not too steep +they are covered with trees and shrubs. + +As I stood amidst the poisonous dog-mercury, under the hanging ivy and +the hart's-tongue ferns, watching the stream glitter on the edge of +everlasting darkness, and listening to its death-dirge, I pictured +awful shadows issuing from the infernal passage and seizing the +terror-stricken ghost of the guilty horseman, of whom I had heard from +a local legend. + +This legend, as it is commonly told, is briefly as follows: Centuries +ago a virtuous young woman was persecuted by the lord of a +neighbouring castle, who was not at all virtuous. One day, when she +was mounted upon a mule, he gave chase to her on horseback. He was +rapidly gaining upon her, and she, in agony of soul, had given herself +up for lost, when, by one of those miracles which were frequent in +those days, especially in the country of Notre Dame de Roc-Amadour, +the mule, by giving a vigorous stamp with one of his hind-legs, kicked +a yawning gulf in the earth, which he, however, lightly passed over +with his burden, while the wicked pursuer, unable to check his steed +in time, perished in the abyss. + +Another legend of the Maiden's Leap is more romantic, but less +supernatural. It is a story of the English occupation of Guyenne, and +the revolt of the Quercynois in 1368. Before the main body of the +British force that subdued Roc-Amadour as related by Froissart arrived +in the Haut-Quercy, the castle of Prangeres, near Gramat, was entered +by a troop of armed men in the English service under Jehan Pehautier, +one of those brigand captains of whom the mediaeval history and +legends of Guyenne speak only too eloquently. An orphan, Bertheline de +Castelnau, _chatelaine_ of Prangeres in her own right, was in the +fortress when it was thus taken by surprise. Captivated by her beauty, +Jehan Pehautier essayed to make Bertheline his prisoner; but she made +her escape from the castle by night, and endeavoured to reach the +sanctuary of Roc-Amadour on foot. Her flight was discovered, and +Pehautier and a party of horsemen started in pursuit. She would have +been quickly captured had she not met a mounted knight, who was no +other than her lover, Bertrand de Terride. She sprang upon his horse, +and away they both went through the oak forest which then covered the +greater part of the _causse_; but the gleam of the knight's armour in +the moonlight kept the pursuers constantly upon his track. Slowly but +surely they gained upon the fugitives. Suddenly Bertheline, who knew +the country, perceived that Bertrand was spurring his horse directly +towards the precipice now called the Saut de la Pucelle. It was too +late, however, to avoid the gulf; she had only time to murmur a brief +prayer before the horse bounded over the edge of the rock. To the +great wonder and joy of the lovers, the animal cleared the ravine, and +alighted safely on the other side. But a very different fate awaited +the pursuers. On they came, crashing through the wood, shouting +exultantly, for they believed that the prey was now almost in their +grasp, when suddenly the air was rent with cries of horror, mingled +with the sound of crashing armour, and bodies falling upon the rocks +and upon the bed of the stream. An awful silence followed. The dead +men and horses were lying in the dark water. As Pehautier felt the +solid earth leave him, he gave out his favourite oath, 'Mort de sang!' +in a frightful shriek, and the words long afterwards rang in the ears +of Bertheline and Bertrand. + +As I returned to this spot some months later in order to explore the +cavern, I may as well give an account of the adventure here. I was +accompanied by my neighbour Decros, who gave his donkey on this +occasion a half-holiday. Decros, although a native of the locality, +could not tell me how far the cavern extended, for he had never been +tempted to explore its depths himself, nor had he heard of anybody who +knew more than himself about it. A story, however, was told of a +shepherd-boy who long ago went down the opening, and was never seen +again. + +'Perhaps,' said I, 'we shall find his skeleton.' This observation +brought a peculiar expression to my companion's face, which meant that +he had no ambition whatever to share the surprise of such a discovery. +Although he had done his duty bravely in the war of 1870, he was by no +means free from the awe with which these _gouffres_ inspired the +country-people, and his soldiering had still left him a Cadurcian +Celt, with much of the superstition that he had drawn in with his +native air. One morning he found that his donkey had nearly strangled +himself over-night with the halter, and Decros could not shake off the +impression that this accident was an omen intended to convey some +message from the other world. He was ready to go with me into any +cavern; but I am sure he would have much preferred scaling dangerous +rocks in the broad sunlight, for there he would have felt at home. + +There was not too much water to offer any danger, so we stooped down +and entered the low vault after lighting candles. The roof soon rose, +and we were in a spacious cavern, the sides of which had evidently +been washed and worn away into hollows by the sea that rolled here +long before the mysterious race raised its dolmens and tumuli upon the +surrounding knolls. The passage was wide enough for us to walk on the +margin of the stream, or where the water was very shallow; but had +much rain fallen, the expedition would have been perilous, for the +descending torrent would then have been strong enough to carry a man +off his legs. + +Stalactites hung from the rocks overhead, and as we proceeded they +became more numerous, more fantastic, and more beautiful. They were +just as the dropping water had slowly fashioned them in the darkness +of ages, where day and night were the same, where nothing changed but +themselves, save the voice of the stream, which grew louder or softer +according to the play of winds and sunshine and clouds upon the upper +world. Some tapered to a fine point, others were like pendant bunches +of grapes; all were of the whiteness of loaf-sugar. No tourists +stricken with that deplorable mania for taking home souvenirs of +everything, and ready to spoil any beauty to gratify their vanity or +their acquisitiveness, had cast stones into the midst of the fairy +handicraft of the wizard water for the sake of a fragment; nor had the +village boys amused themselves here at the expense of the stalactites, +for happily they had been well trained in the horror of the +supernatural. The cavern ran for a certain distance south-west; then +the gallery turned at a sharp angle north-north-west, and continued in +this direction. We followed the stream some three or four hundred +yards, and then it entered a deep pool or lake under low rocks. We +tried a side-passage to see if it led round this obstacle, but it soon +came to an end. As I stood on the brink of the deep, black, silent +pool, I had a great longing to know what lay beyond; but I had to +content myself with imagining the unrevealed wonders of the cavern. It +would be just possible, by crouching down in a little boat, to pass +under the rock, which is probably no insuperable obstacle. The roof is +just as likely to form a high vault on one side of it as on the other. +The water is the serious obstacle; but it is safe to say, from the +character of the formation, that the deep pool does not extend very +far. A peculiarity of these underground streams of the _causses_ is +that they generally form a chain of pools. + +If a shepherd-boy really lost his life in this cavern, he must have +done so by trying to pass the pool, unless he was washed into it by a +sudden rush of water after a heavy storm. It must be confessed that +the spot is calculated to fill one with superstitious dread. The calm +of the deep water into which the stream glides makes it quite easy to +imagine, with the help of the surroundings, that there is an evil +spirit lurking in it--perhaps that of the wicked Pehautier whom the +demons dragged down here. I had another grim thought: Supposing this +water, in obedience to some pressure elsewhere, should rise suddenly +and flood the lower part of the cavern! There is no knowing what +tricks water may play in this fantastic region, where the tendency of +rivers is to flow underground, and where one gallery may be connected +with a ramification of water-courses extending over many miles of +country, and with reservoirs which empty themselves periodically by +means of natural syphons. There is a world full of marvels under the +_causses_ of the Lot, the Aveyron, and the Lozere; but although much +more will be known about it, a vast deal will remain for ever hidden +from man. + +I will now return to my wayfaring across the Causse de Gramat in the +early summer. + +I had passed through the village of Alvignac--a little watering-place +that draws all the profit it can from a ferruginous spring which rises +at Miers hard by, but otherwise uninteresting, and had left on my +right the village of Thegra, where the troubadour Hugues de St. Cyr +was born, when suddenly the landscape struck me with the sentiment of +England. For some hours I had been walking chiefly over the stony +_causse_, searching for a so-called castle that was not worth the +trouble of finding. I had seen spurge and juniper, and ribs of rock +rising everywhere above the short turf, until I grew weary of the +sameness. Now, the sun, whose ardour was already melting into the +tenderness of evening, shone upon a broad valley, where the grass +stood high in rich meadows separated from other meadows and green +cornfields by hedges, from the midst of which rose many a tall tree. +The blackbird's low, flute-like note sounded above the shrilling of the +grasshoppers. + +The little village of Padirac was entered at sundown. The small inn +where I chose my quarters for the night had a garden at the back, +where vines in new leaf were trained, over a trellis from end to end. +There were also broad beans in flower, peas on sticks, currant-bushes, +and pear-trees. It was a quiet, green spot, and as I strolled about it +in the twilight, vague recollections of other gardens chased one +another, but it would have been hard to say whether they were pleasant +or sad. My dinner or supper was of sorrel soup and part of a goose +that was killed the previous autumn, and, after being slightly salted, +was preserved in grease. + +Lean tortoiseshell cats, with staring eyes and tails like strings, +kept near at hand, and seemed ready to commit any crime for the +smallest particle of goose. String-tailed, goggle-eyed, meagre cats +that seize your dinner if you do not keep watch over it, and when +caressed promptly respond by scratching and swearing, appear to be +held in high favour throughout this district. They are expected to +live upon rats, and it is this that makes them so disagreeable, for +although they kill rats for the pleasure of the chase, they do not +like the flavour of them. On this subject there is a standing quarrel +between them and society, which insists upon their eating the animals +that they kill. In order that the cats shall have every facility for +the chase, holes are often cut in the bottom of house-doors, so that +at night they may go in and come out as the quarry moves them. Should +any food have been left about, what with the rats and the cats, not a +trace of it will be seen in the morning. This I know from experience. + +Being within a mile or so of the Puit de Padirac--that gloomy hole in +the earth which was supposed to be one of the devil's short-cuts +between this world and his own, until M. Martel proved almost +conclusively that it was not the way to the infernal city, but to a +subterranean river, and a chain of lakes that could be followed for +two miles--I set out the next morning to find it. I might have spent +hours in vain casting about, but for the help of a peasant, who +offered, quite disinterestedly, to be my guide. He was an old man, +with a very Irish face, and eyes that laughed at life. But for his +language he would have seemed a perfectly natural growth of Cork or +Kerry. + +Here may be the place to remark that the stock of the ancient Cadurci +appears to have been much less impaired here in an ethnological sense +by the mingling of races than in the country round Cahors. The +peasants, generally, have nothing distinctively Southern in their +appearance, although they speak a dialect which is in the main a Latin +one, the Celtic words that have been retained being in a very small +proportion. Gray or blue eyes are almost as frequent among them as +they are with the English, and many of the village children have hair +the colour of ripening maize. + +We left the fertile valley and rose upon the stone-scattered _causse_ +where hellebore, spurges, and juniper were the only plants not cropped +close to the earth by the flocks of sheep which thrive upon these +wastes. All the sheep are belled, but the bells they wear are like big +iron pots hanging upon their breasts. Each pot has a bone that swings +inside of it and serves as a hammer. The chief use of these bells is +to prevent the animal from leaving its best wool, that of the breast, +upon the thorns of bushes. + +We have now reached the brink of the pit, which is not bottomless, but +looks so until the eye faintly distinguishes something solid at a +depth that has been measured at 175 feet. The opening is almost +circular, with a diameter at the orifice of 116 feet. This prodigious +well, sunk in successive layers of secondary rock, looks as if it had +been regularly quarried; but men could never have had the motive for +giving themselves so much trouble. Did the rock fall in here? No +explanation is satisfactory. How it fills one with awe to look into +the depth while lying upon a slab of stone that stretches some +distance beyond the side of the pit! Bushes with twisted and fantastic +arms, growing, they or their ancestors, from time immemorial in the +clefts of the rock, reach towards the light, and the elfish +hart's-tongue fern, itself half in darkness, points down with frond +that never moves in that eternal stillness which all the winds of +heaven pass over, to a thicker darkness whence comes the everlasting +wail and groan of hidden water. + +This horrid gulf being in the open plain, with not even a foot of +rough wall round it as a protection for the unwary, I asked the old +man if people had never fallen into it. + +'Yes,' he answered, 'but only those who have been pushed by evil +spirits.' + +He meant that only self-murderers had fallen into the Puit de Padirac. +'Pushed by evil spirits.' Perhaps this is the best of all explanations +of the suicidal impulse. Strong thoughts are sometimes hidden under +the simplicity of rustic expression. He told me the story of a man +who, having gone by night to throw himself into the Puit de Padirac, +came in contact with a tough old bush during his descent which held +him up. By this time the would-be suicide disliked the feeling of +falling so much that, so far from trying to free himself from the bush +and begin again, he held on to it with all his might and shrieked for +help. But as people who are not pushed by evil spirits give the Puit +de Padirac a wide berth after sundown, the wretched man's cries were +lost in the darkness. The next morning the shepherd children, as they +led their flocks over the plain, heard a strange noise coming from the +pit, but their horror was stronger than their curiosity, and they +showed their sheep how to run. They went home and told their fathers +what they had heard, and at length some persons were bold enough to +look down the hole, from which the dismal sound the children had +noticed continued to rise. Thus the cause of the mysterious noise was +discovered, and the man was hauled up with a rope. He never allowed +the evil spirits to push him into the Puit de Padirac again. + +The people of these _causses_ have a supernatural explanation for +everything that they cannot account for by the light of reason and +observation. They have their legend with regard to the Puit de +Padirac, and it is as follows: St. Martin, before he became Bishop of +Tours, was crossing one day this stony region of the Dordogne to visit +a religious community on the banks of the Solane, whither he had been +despatched by St. Hilary. He was mounted on a mule, and was ambling +along over the desert plunged in pious contemplation, when he heard a +little noise behind, and, looking round, he was surprised to see a +gentleman close to him, who was also riding a mule. The stranger was +richly dressed, and was altogether a very distinguished-looking +person, but the excessive brilliancy of his eyes was a disfigurement. +They shone in his head like two bits of burning charcoal. 'What do you +want, cruel beast?' said St. Martin. This would scarcely have been +saintly language had he not known with whom he had to deal. The +gentleman thus impolitely addressed returned a soft answer, and forced +his company upon the saint, who wished him--at home. Presently +Lucifer, for it was he, began to 'dare' St. Martin, after the manner +of boys to-day. 'If I kick a hole in the ground I dare you to jump +over it,' was the sort of language employed by the gentleman with the +too-expressive eyes. 'Done!' said St. Martin, or something equivalent. +'Digging pits is quite in my line of business!' exclaimed the devil, +in so disagreeable a voice that the saint's mule would have bolted had +the holy rider not kept a tight rein upon her. At the same moment the +ground over which the infernal mule had just passed fell in with a +mighty rumble and crash, leaving a yawning gulf. 'Now,' said Lucifer, +'let me see you jump over that!' Whereupon, the bold St. Martin drove +his spurs into his mule and lightly leapt over the abyss. And this was +how the Puit de Padirac was made. The peasants believe that they can +still see on a stone the imprint left by the hoof of St. Martin's +mule. This adventure did not cause the saint and the devil to part +company. They rode on together as far as the valley of Medorium +(Miers). 'Now,' said St. Martin, 'you jump over that!' pointing to a +little stream that was seen to flow suddenly and miraculously out of +the earth. Before challenging the arch enemy he had, however, taken +the precaution to lay two small boughs in the form of a cross on the +brink of the water. In vain the devil spurred his mule and used the +worst language that he could think of to induce the beast to jump. The +animal would not; but, as the spurring and swearing were continued, it +at length went down on its knees before the cross. But this did not +suit the devil's turn. On the contrary, the proximity of that emblem +which St. Martin had placed unobserved on the ground made him writhe +as though he had fallen into a font. Then with the speed of a +lightning flash he returned to his own kingdom--possibly by the Puit +de Padirac. A church dedicated to the saint was afterwards built near +the scene of his triumph, and the healing spring where it comes out of +the earth is still known by the name of _Lou Fount Sen Morti_--St. +Martin's Fountain. + +Having left the pit, we went in the direction of Loubressac, to which +village my companion belonged. While still upon the _causse_ a spot +was reached where a small iron cross had been raised. The stone +pedestal bore this inscription: + + 'SOUVENIR DE HELENE BONBEGRE, + MORTE MARTYRE EN CE LIEU EN 1844. + VIEILLE-ESCAZE ET LAVAL ONT FAIT CONSTRUIRE CETTE CROIX. + PRIEZ POUR CES DEUX BIENFAITEURS.' + +The old man knew Helene Bonbegre when he was young, and he told me the +tragic story of her death on this spot. She was going home in the +evening, and her sweetheart the blacksmith accompanied her a part of +the distance. They then separated, and she went on alone. They had +been watched by the jealous and unsuccessful lover, whose heart was on +fire. Where the cross stands the girl was found lying, a naked corpse. +The murderer was soon captured, and most of the people in the district +went to St. Cere to see him guillotined. It was a spectacle to be +talked over for half a century. The blacksmith never forgave himself +for having left the girl to go home alone, and it was he who forged +the cross that marks the scene of the crime and sets the wayfarer +conjecturing. + +The peasant changed his ideas by filling his pipe. He smoked tobacco +that he grew in a corner of his garden for his own use, and which he +enjoyed all the more because it was _tabac de contrebande_. He gave me +some, which I likewise smoked without any qualm of conscience, and +thought it decidedly better than some tobacco of the regie. He lit his +pipe with smuggled matches. Had I been an inspector in disguise, I +should never have made matters unpleasant for him; he was such a +cheery, good-natured companion. He had brought up his family, and had +now just enough land to keep him without breaking his back over it. He +was quite satisfied with things as they were. I did not ask him if he +was a poacher, but took it for granted that he was whenever he saw a +good chance. Almost every peasant in the Haut-Quercy who has something +of the spirit of Nimrod in him is more or less a poacher. Those who +like hare and partridge can eat it in all seasons by paying for it. +Occasionally the gendarmes capture a young and over-zealous offender, +but the old men, who have followed the business all their lives, are +too wary for them. They are also too respectable to be interfered +with. + +At Loubressac I took leave of my entertaining friend, but not before +we had emptied a bottle of white wine together. It was a _vin du +pays_, this district having been less tried by the phylloxera than +others farther south and west. I was surprised to find white wine +there, the purple grape having been almost exclusively cultivated for +centuries in what is now the department of the Lot. + +In the room of the inn where I lunched there were four beds; two at +one end and two at the other. There was plenty of space left, however, +for the tables. The rafters were hidden by the heads of maize that +hung from them. The host sat down at the same table with me, and when +he had nearly finished his soup he poured wine into it, and, raising +the plate to his lips, drank off the mixture. Objectionable as this +manner of drinking wine seems to those who have not learnt to do it in +their youth, it is very general throughout Guyenne. Those who have +formed the habit would be most unhappy if they could not continue it. +_Faire chabron_ is the expression used to describe this sin against +good manners. The aubergiste was very friendly, and towards the close +of the meal he brought out a bottle of his old red wine that he had +treasured up 'behind the faggot.' + +Before reaching this village I had heard of a retired captain who +lived here in a rather dilapidated chateau, and who was very affable +to visitors, whom he immediately invited to look through his +telescope, which, although not a very large one, had a local +celebrity, such instruments being about as rare as blue foxes in this +part of the world. Conducted by the innkeeper, I called upon this +gentleman. The house was one of those half-castellated manors which +became scattered over France after the Renaissance, and of which the +greater number were allowed to fall into complete or partial ruin when +the territorial families who were interested in them were extinguished +or impoverished by the Revolution. They are frequently to be found in +Guyenne, but they are generally occupied by peasants either as +tenant-farmers or proprietors; two or three of the better preserved +rooms being inhabited by the family, the others being haunted by bats +and swallows and used for the storage of farm produce. It suited the +captain's humour, however, to live in his old dilapidated mansion, +scarcely less cut off from the society that matched with his position +in life than if he had exiled himself to some rock in the ocean. + +The ceremony of knocking or ringing was dispensed with for the +sufficient reason that there was neither bell nor knocker. We entered +by the open door and walked along a paved passage, which, was +evidently not held as sacred as it should have been by the roving +fowls; looked in at the great dark kitchen, where beside the Gothic +arch of the broad chimney was some ruinous clockwork mechanism for +turning the spit, which probably did turn to good purpose when +powdered wigs were worn; then ascended the stone staircase, where +there was room for four to walk abreast, but which had somewhat lost +its dignity by the balusters being used for hanging maize upon. +Presently we came to a door, which the aubergiste knocked sharply with +his knuckles. + +There was a sound of footsteps within, and then the door opened. I was +standing before a rather florid man of about fifty, with close-cropped +hair, a brush moustache, and a chin that seemed undecided on the score +of shaving. He wore a flannel shirt open at the throat, and a knitted +worsted _tricot_. This was the captain. He evidently did not like +Sunday clothes. When he settled down here, it was to live at his ease, +like a bachelor who had finished with vanities. But although no one +would have supposed from his dress that he was superior to the people +around him, his manners were those of a gentleman and an officer who +had seen the world elsewhere than at Loubressac. The simple, easy +courtesy with which he showed me his rooms, and pointed his telescope +for me, was all that is worth attaining, as regards the outward polish +of a man. This was so fixed upon him that his long association with +peasants had taken none of it away. The few rooms that he inhabited +were plainly furnished; in others were heaps of wheat, maize and +beans. Passing along a passage I noticed a little altar in a recess, +with a statue of the Virgin decked with roses and wild flowers. '_C'est +le mois de Marie_,' said the captain. He lived with a sister, and she +took care that religion was kept up in the house. + +It being the _Fete-Dieu_, preparations were being made in the village +for the procession that was to take place after vespers. Sheets were +spread along the fronts of the houses, with flowers pinned to them, +and _reposoirs_ had been raised in the open air. I did not wait for +the procession, as I expected to be in time for the one at the next +village, Autoire. I took a path that led me up to the barren _causse_, +from which the red roofs of Autoire soon became visible under an +amphitheatre of high wooded hills. + +As I approached the little village, the gleam of white sheets mingled +with the picture of old houses huddled together, some half-timber, +some with turrets and encorbelments, nearly all of them with very +high-pitched roofs and small dormer windows. The procession was soon +to start. I waited for it at the door of the crowded church, baking in +the sun with others who could not get inside, one of whom was a woman +with a moustache and beard, black and curly, such as a promising young +man might be expected to have. The number of women in Southern France +who are bearded like men shocks the feelings of the Northern wanderer, +until he grows accustomed to the sight. The cure was preaching about +the black bread, and all the other miseries of this life that had to +be accepted with thankfulness. Presently the two bells in the tower +began to dance, and the rapid ding-dong announced that the procession +was forming. First appeared the beadle, extremely gaudy in scarlet and +gold, then the cross-bearer, young men as chanters, little boys, most +strangely attired in white satin knee-breeches and short lace skirts, +scattering rose-leaves from open baskets at their sides; the cure came +bearing the monstrance and Host, followed by Sisters with little girls +in their charge; lastly was a mixed throng of parishioners. Most of +the women held rosaries, and a few of them, bent with age, carried +upon their heads the very cap that old Mother Hubbard wore, if +tradition and English artists are to be trusted. As the last of the +long procession passed out of sight between the walls of white linen, +the wind brought the words clearly back: + + 'Genitori, Genitoque + Laus et jubilatio.' + +Now I entered the little church that was quite empty, and where no +sound would have been heard if the two voices in the tower had not +continued to ring out over the dovecotes, where the white pigeons +rested and wondered, and over the broad fields where the bending +grasses and listening flowers stood in the afternoon sunshine, 'Laus +et jubilatio,' in the language of the bells. + +The church was Romanesque, probably of the twelfth century. The nave +was flanked by narrow aisles. Upon the very tall bases of the columns +were carved, together with foliage, fantastic heads of demons, or +satyrs of such expressive ugliness that they held me fascinated. Some +were bearded, others were beardless, some were grinning and showing +frightful teeth, others had thick-lipped, pouting mouths hideously +debased. A few were really _bons diables_, who seemed determined to be +gay, and to joke under the most trying circumstances; but the greater +number had morose faces, puckered by the long agony of bearing up the +church. Such variety of expression in ugliness was a triumph of art in +the far-off age, when the chisel of an unremembered man with a teeming +imagination made these heads take life from the inanimate stone. + +The road from Autoire to St. Cere soon led me into the valley of the +Bave, a beautiful trout-stream, galloping towards the Dordogne through +flowery meadows, on this last day of May, and under leaning trees, +whose imaged leaves danced upon the ripples in the green shade. As I +had no need to hurry, I loitered to pick ragged-robins upon the banks, +flowers dear to me from old associations. Very common in England, they +are comparatively rare in France. + +New pleasures await the wayfarer every hour, almost every minute, in +the day, and however long he may continue to wander over this +wonderful world of inexhaustible variety, if he will only stop to look +at everything, and so learn to feel the charm of little things. + +I met a beggar, and fell into conversation with him. He asked me for +nothing, and was surprised when I gave him two sous. He was a ragged +old man, with a canvas bag, half filled with crusts, slung upon his +side. I had already met many such beggars in this part of France. They +travel about from village to village, filling their bags with pieces +of bread that are given them, and selling afterwards what they cannot +eat as food for pigs. As they rarely receive charity in the form of +money, they do not expect it. This kind of mendicant is distinctly +rural, and belongs to old times. + +The bold front of an early Renaissance castle, with round towers at +the angles, capped with pointed roofs, drew me from the highroad. It +was the Chateau de Montal, in connection with which I had already +heard the story of one Rose de Montal, a young lady of some three +centuries ago, who had given her heart to a nobleman of the country, +Roger de Castelnau. By-and-by the charms of another lady caused him to +neglect the fair Rose de Montal. She remained almost constantly at a +window of one of the towers, scanning the country, and longing to +catch sight of the faithless Roger. One day he came down the valley of +the Bave, and she sang from the height of her tower a plaintive +love-song, hoping that he would stop and make some sign; but he passed +on, unmoved by the tender appeal of the noble damsel. As he +disappeared, she cried, 'Rose, plus d'espoir!' and threw herself from +the window. + +The _metayer_, now placed in charge of the castle, showed me over it. +It was a sad spectacle. The building, one of the best preserved and +most elaborately decorated works of the Renaissance in this part of +Guyenne until a few years ago, then fell into the hands of a vulgar +speculator, who detached all the carvings that could be removed +without difficulty, and sold them in Paris. The noble staircase and +all its delicate sculpture remain, but these only add to the regret +that one feels for what is no longer there. Had the Commission of +Historic Monuments placed the Chateau de Montal upon its list, it +would probably have escaped spoliation, although, in the case of +private property, the State has no power to prevent destruction, +however grievous the national loss. + +I entered St. Cere at sundown. This bright little town lies in the +midst of fertility. It is on the banks of the Bave, and at the foot of +a hill that rises abruptly from the plain, and is capped by two towers +of a ruined feudal stronghold, which show against the horizon far into +the Quercy, the Correze, and the Cantal. Some of the old streets have +quite a mediaeval air, with their half-wood houses with stories +projecting upon the floor-joists, and others of a grander origin with +turrets resting on encorbelments. I had the luck to find a good +old-fashioned inn here, and to pass the evening in very pleasant +company. + +The next morning I climbed to the top of the neighbouring hill to have +a closer view of those towers which had been my landmarks on the +previous day, passing through the little village of St. +Laurent-les-Tours, which lies immediately under the old fortress after +the manner of so many others of feudal origin. The towers are +rectangular _donjons_ of the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, one +being nearly a hundred and fifty feet high. The castle was raised upon +a table of calcareous rock; but only the towers, a portion of the +outer wall built of enormous blocks of stone, and a ruined archway +marking the spot where the drawbridge once hung, remain to tell the +tale of the past. + +That the Romans had fortified this height there is the strongest +evidence in the fact that the substructure of the rampart that once +surrounded the castle is of cubic stones laid together according to +the method so much practised by the Romans, and known as _opus +reticulatum_. Moreover, the coins, pottery, and arms found here seem +to afford conclusive proof that this remarkable hill was one of the +fortified positions of the Romans in Gaul. + +The spot has its Christian legend, which is briefly this: In the +castle that crowned the height in the time of the Visigoth kings was +born St. Esperie, daughter of a Duke of Aquitaine. Being pressed to +marry, notwithstanding the vow she had made to consecrate her life to +God, she hid herself in a neighbouring forest for three months. She +was at length discovered by her enraged brother and lover, who cut off +her head. Like St. Denis, St. Esperie picked up her head, to the +unspeakable astonishment and dismay of her persecutors. They fled from +her, but she followed them as far as a little stream that flows into +the Bave at St. Cere. Esperie is a saint much venerated in the +Haut-Quercy. The church of St. Cere is dedicated to her, and the name +given to the town is supposed to be a corruption of Esperie. + +From St. Cere I took the road to Castelnau-de-Bretenoux, returning for +some distance by the way I came. Inns being now very scarce in the +district, I decided to take my chance of lunch in a small village +called St. Jean-Lespinasse. Another saint! The map of France is still +covered with the names of saints, in spite of all the efforts of +revolutionists and pagan reformers to make the people abandon their +'Christian superstitions.' Those who in the 'ages of faith' built up +this association of saints and places could have had no conception of +the power that these names would have in binding Christianity to the +soil in the faithless or doubting ages to come. The only inn at St. +Jean-Lespinasse was kept by a blacksmith, and the room where I had my +meal was over the forge. Bread and cheese and eggs were, as I +expected, the utmost that such a hostelry could offer in the way of +food for a wayfarer's entertainment. Before leaving the village I +found the church--a curious old structure of the Transition period, +with a large open porch covered with mossy tiles, held up by rough +pillars. There were stone benches inside, on which generations of +villagers had sat and gossiped in their turn. In the interior were +columns engaged in the wall of the nave, with the capitals elaborately +and heavily foliated with pendent bunches of flowers and fruit, much +more in accordance with English than French taste. + +I crossed the Bave, and followed a road bordered with hedgerows of +quince that presently skirted sunny slopes covered with lately-planted +vines. Thunder was moaning and growling in the distance when I reached +the much-embowered village of Castelnau, upon a height immediately +under the reddish walls and towers of the immense feudal stronghold, +the fame of which went far and wide in the Middle Ages. Its name in +the Southern dialect means 'new castle,' but it dates from the +eleventh or twelfth century. Extensive additions were made in +subsequent ages, notably a wing in the Renaissance style, which was +inhabited until the middle of the present century, when all but the +walls was destroyed by fire. + +The feudal castle was built upon the plan of a triangle, with a tower +at each angle, the one at the apex being the _donjon_. The form of +this lofty keep is rectangular, and the machicolations and +embattlements which were added in the fifteenth century are in a +perfect state of preservation. Upon the platform, which I was able to +reach by means of ladders and the half-ruinous spiral staircase, +viper's bugloss spread its brilliant blue flowers over the dark +stones, and enticed the high-soaring bees. The view of the wide and +beautiful Dordogne Valley from these old battlements was not less +grand because more than one-half of the sky was of a bluish-black--a +mysterious canopy that concealed the genius of the storm, but from the +turbulent folds of which there darted every minute a dazzling line of +light. The tower on which I stood, although the highest of the three, +had never been struck by lightning, but one of the others had been +repeatedly struck, and the ruined masonry showed abundant signs of the +scorching it had undergone in this way. Lightning is capricious and +incomprehensible in its preferences. + +This castle was besieged by Henry Plantagenet in 1159, but without +success. Subsequently he made another effort, and then reduced it. His +son Henry made it his headquarters for some time after he had +revolted. In 1369 Thomas de Walkaffera the English seneschal who held +Realville on behalf of his sovereign, was besieged there by a Lord of +Castelnau, assisted by other barons. The garrison was overcome and +massacred. Another Lord of Castelnau, John, Bishop of Cahors, convened +a meeting of the States of the Quercy in his fortress, at which a +rising against the English was decided upon. It resulted in their +temporary expulsion from the Quercy. + +Besides the towers and exterior walls, there are some chambers of the +old castle in good preservation. The chapel is still roofed, and the +altar-stone is in its place. In an elevated chamber at the lower end, +the dead were laid while awaiting burial. + +Descending to the village, I entered the parish church--a Gothic +building of the fourteenth century, containing many interesting +details. The oak stalls, each with a quaint human figure carved upon +it, are exceedingly curious. Outside the church little girls were +playing, in the charge of a Sister who had a beautiful sweet face. She +showed me the way to the next village, where I hoped to find shelter +from the gathering storm. I have a pleasant picture in the mind of +Castelnau--a bowery, ancient, mossy place, with vines climbing about +the houses or on trellises in the little steep gardens, and a golden +bloom of stonecrop upon the rough walls. + +I reached the village of Prudhomat just as the storm burst over it, +and took shelter in a small inn, which, like most of those in the +country, had its room for the public upstairs. Two women who were +there made the sign of the cross each time the lightning flashed--a +widespread custom of the French peasantry; but a couple of men who +were eating salad and bread paid no heed to the furious cannonade that +was kept up by the darkened heavens. It was four o'clock, and they +were having their _gouter_. The peasants of the Quercy do not live on +the fat of the land; but they generally have five meals a day, two +more than the middle-class French. They begin with soup at a very +early hour in the morning; then they have their dinner about ten, +which is chiefly soup; at three or four they have a _gouter_ of bread +and cheese, salad or fruit; and at six or seven they have their +supper, which is soup again. + +The old woman who sat near the window worked diligently with her +distaff laden with hemp, except when the flashing lightning made her +stop to raise her thin hand to her forehead. She was twisting the +thread from which the sheets of the country are made. They are coarse, +but they last longer than the hands that work the hemp, and descend +from mother to daughter. + +More than two hours I waited in this auberge while the rain fell in +torrents, the lightning blazed, and the thunder crashed. The whole sky +was the colour of slate. When at length a line of bright light +appeared in the western sky, I could curb my impatience no longer, +and, hoisting my pack, I was soon on the road to Carennac. + +A little beyond the village I passed a gipsy encampment ranged along +the side of the highway on a strip of waste land. There were no tents; +but there were four or five miserable little caravans, roofed over +with tattered and dirty canvas. They were tents on wheels. Some thin +and ascetic-looking old mules and wizen donkeys had been taken out of +the shafts, and were now nibbling the short wayside grass, the young +burdocks and mulleins, which, but for the rain, would have filled +their mouths with dust. Small portable stoves--alas! not the +traditional fire with three stakes set in the ground and tied at the +top, with the pot swinging therefrom--had been lighted outside the +caravans, and gipsy women were making the evening soup. Bright-eyed, +shock-headed, uncombed, unwashed, but exceedingly happy gipsy children +were tumbling over one another on the wet turf, showing so much of +their brown skin between their rags that they would have been more +comfortable and quite as decent had they been naked. A hideous old +man, merely skin and bones, sitting nose and knees together upon a +sack, did not take my curiosity in good part, but glared at me +morosely. The younger men of this interesting community were +elsewhere--perhaps mending saucepans, or reassuring ducks alarmed by +the thunderstorm. A musician of the party must have been kept in by +the bad weather, for from one of the caravans came the diabolic +screech of a wheezing concertina that had got rid of all its ideals +and dreams of distinction. + +The bright line in the west moved very slowly upwards, and the rain +continued to fall, although less drenchingly than before. The setting +sun strove with the cloud-rack and coloured the veil of vapour that +its rays could not pierce. The nightingales and thrushes in the +shrubs, and the finches amidst the later blossoms of the may, took +heart again, and the song rose from so many throats near and far that +the whole valley of the Dordogne was filled with warbling. As the +birds grew drowsy the frogs came out to spend a happy night on the +margins of the pools and the brooks, until their joyful screaming and +croaking was a universal chorus. I was by the side of the broad river +that flowed calmly through the fairest meadows. The face of the +stream, the pools in the road, the grass and the leaves, were +brightened with the orange glow of a veiled light as of some sacred +fire shining in the dusk through clouds of incense. It grew warmer and +warmer until it purpled and died away in grayness and mournful shadow. +The beauty of nature at such moments, when the colours brighten and +fade like the powers of the mind as the human day is closing, takes a +solemnity that is unearthly, and it is good to be alone with the +mystery. + +It was dark when I reached Carennac. I did not realize how wet I was +until I sat down in an auberge and tried to make myself comfortable +for the night. It is not easy, however, to be happy under such +circumstances. When the fire on the hearth was stirred up and fed with +fresh wood to cook my dinner of barbel that had just had time to die +after being pulled out of the Dordogne, I placed myself in the +chimney-corner to dry before the welcome blaze. How cheering is a +fire, even in June and in Southern France, on a rainy night, when the +sound of sighing trees comes down the chimney and the tired wayfarer's +clothes are sticking to his legs and back! How cheering, too, at such +a time is a dinner, however modest, in the light and warmth of the +fire. A humble barbel has then a more delicate flavour than a +salmon-trout cooked with consummate art for people who never know what +it is to be hungry. + +The next morning I was in the cloisters belonging to the Benedictine +priory of Carennac, of which Fenelon was the titular prior. Hither he +came for quietude, and here he wrote his 'Telemaque,' a historical +trace of which is found in a little island of the Dordogne, which is +called 'L'Ile de Calypso.' It is recorded that the mother of the great +Churchman and writer, when she feared that she would be childless, +went on a pilgrimage to Roc-Amadour, and that Fenelon was the +consequence of that act of devotion. + +The cloisters of Carennac, built from plans furnished by that fountain +of ecclesiastical art in the Middle Ages, the monastery of Cluny, +must, judging from the remnants of tracery in the arcades, and the +delicately carved bosses of the vaults, have been once a spot where +the spirit of Gothic architecture found delight. Now the spirit of +ruin dwells there, leading the bramble and the celandine to conquer, +year after year, some fresh territory upon the ancient quadrangle's +crumbling wall. Above, where the sunbeam strikes upon the wrinkled +stone, the lizard basks and the bee fresh from its hive hums as +blithely among the yellow flowers of the celandine as if the blocks +raised by men in their reaching towards Heaven were nothing more than +the rocks that cast their shadows upon the Dordogne. Upon the ground, +man, by using no rein of respect to curb the lower needs of life, has +desecrated the spot with pigsties! Some inhabitant of Carennac, into +whose hands the cloisters passed in recent times, thought that a place +which was good enough for Benedictine monks to walk in might, with a +little fresh masonry, be made fit for pigs to feed and sleep in. But +an end had come to this idyllic state of things. The cloisters of +Carennac had just been placed on the list of historic monuments. The +adjoining church had been 'classed' long before. + +This church, a small Gothic edifice of the twelfth century, has a +far-projecting porch enriched with a specimen of mediaeval carving +which is a long delight to the few archaeologists who find their way +to the almost forgotten village of Carennac. The composition, which +fills the tympan of the scarcely-pointed arch, represents Christ +surrounded by the twelve Apostles. The influence of Byzantine art is +perceptible in the treatment. Very few such masterpieces of +twelfth-century carving have been so well preserved as this. The +seated figure of Christ in the act of blessing His Apostles, the right +hand upraised, the left resting upon a clasped book, impresses the +beholder by its majesty and serenity. Very different are the figures +of the Apostles: these are men, and of a very common type too, such as +the Benedictines were accustomed to see in their own cloisters, or +among their dependents at Carennac. But how animated are the forms, +and how expressive the faces! The mouldings which serve as a border to +the composition are much more Romanesque or Byzantine than Gothic, and +the columns that support it have capitals which are purely Romanesque. +In the interior of the church is a fifteenth-century group of seven +figures, representing the scene of the Holy Sepulchre; an admirable +composition, showing to what a high degree of excellence French +sculpture had attained even at the dawn of the Renaissance. + + + + +WAYFARING UNDERGROUND. + + +Upon the stony plateau above Roc-Amadour is a cavern well known in the +district as the Gouffre de Revaillon. It had for me a peculiar +attraction on account of the gloomy grandeur of the scene at the +entrance. When I saw it for the first time I understood at once the +supernatural horror in which the peasant has learnt to hold such +places. It responds to impressions left on the mind of the 'Stygian +cave forlorn,' the entrance to Dante's 'City of Sorrow,' and that +other cave where Aeneas witnessed in cold terror the prophetic fury of +the Sibyl. + +This effect of gloom, horror and sublimity is the result of geological +conditions and the action of water, which together have produced many +similar phenomena in the region of the _causses_, but in no other +case, I believe, with such power in composing the picturesque. Imagine +an open plain which in the truly Dark Ages whereof man has had no +experience, but of whose convulsions he has learnt to read a little +from the book whose leaves are the rocks, cracked along a part of its +surface as a drying ball of clay might do, the fissure finishing +abruptly and where it is deepest in front of a mass of rock that +refused to split. This was apparently the beginning of the Gouffre de +Revaillon. Then came another submersion which greatly modified the +appearance of things. There was evidently a deluge here after the land +had dried and cracked, and it must have lasted a very long time for +the waves to have hollowed, smoothed and polished the rocks inside the +caverns and elsewhere as we now see them. Those who have observed with +a little attention a rugged coast will, without being geologists, +recognise the distinctly marine character of the greater number of +these orifices in the calcareous district of the _causses_. The +washing and smoothing action of the sea along the sides of the gorges +which cut up the surface of the country in such an astonishing manner +is not so easy to distinguish. But the reason is obvious. This +limestone rock is by its nature disintegrating wherever it is exposed +to the air and frost, and the foundations of the bastions which +support the _causses_ are being continually sapped by water which +carries away the lime in solution and deposits a part of it elsewhere +in the form of stalactite and stalagmite in the deep galleries where +subterranean rivers often run, and which probably descend to the +lowest part of the formation. Thus by the dislodgment of huge masses +of rock which have rolled down from their original positions, and the +breaking away of the surfaces of others, the most convincing traces of +the sea's action here have nearly disappeared. In the gorge of the +Alzou, however, near Roc-Amadour, about 100 feet above the channel of +the stream, there is a considerable reach of hard rock approaching +marble, the polished and undulating surface of which tells the story +of the ocean, just as the sides of the caverns in much more elevated +positions tell it. + +In the rock where the fissure ends at Revaillon is an opening like a +vast yawning mouth, the roof of which forms an almost perfect dome. +Adown this a stream trickles towards the end of summer, but plunges +madly and with a frightful roar in winter and spring. The steep sides +of the narrow ravine are densely wooded, and the light is very dim at +the bottom when the sun is not overhead. I made my first attempt to +descend the dark passage in the early summer, but there was too much +water, and I was soon obliged to retreat. One afternoon in October I +returned with a companion, and we took with us a rope and plenty of +candles. We carried the rope in view of possible difficulties in the +shape of rocks inside the cavern, for it should be borne in mind that +in _gouffres_ of this character the stream frequently descends by a +series of cascades. The weather was very sultry, and the sky towards +the west was of a slaty blue. A fierce storm was threatening, but we +paid no attention to it--a mistake which others bent on exploring +caverns where streams still flow should be warned against. There is +probably no force in nature more terrible, or which makes a man's +helplessness more miserably felt, than water suddenly rushing towards +him when he is underground. + +The sun was still shining, however, when we reached the Gouffre de +Revaillon and descended into the ravine over roots of trees coiling +upon the moss like snakes, some arching upward as if about to spring +at the throat of those who disturbed the elfish solitude. At our +coming there rose from the great rock such a multitude of jackdaws +that for some seconds they darkened the air. With harsh screams the +birds soared higher and higher above their fortress, which they had +possessed for ages in perfect security. We reached the bed of the +stream, where scattered threads of water tinkled as they fell over +huge blocks into little pools below, and then went whispering on their +way towards the darkness. At the botton of a long slant of greenish +slimy stone, patched here and there with moss, I stopped a few +minutes, feeling that I could not grasp without an effort the deep +gloom and grandeur of my surroundings. The jackdaws had all flown +away, and there was no sound now but the tinkle and gurgle of the +water. Great snails crawled upon the tufts of rank grass wet with the +autumnal dews that the sun had failed to dry, and upon the glistening +hart's-tongue ferns, and they looked just the kind of snails that +witches would collect to make a hell-broth. Dark ivy hung down from +the rocks, and under the vaulted entrance of the cavern was a clump of +elders, very sinister-looking, and giving forth when touched an evil +narcotic odour. Near these forlorn shrubs was a solitary plant of +angelica, now woebegone, its fringed leaves drooping, waiting for the +rising water to wash it into the darkness. There were willow-herbs +still in bloom, but the crane's-bill struggled with the gloom farther +than any other flowering plant, and its bright little purple lamps +shone in the very mouth of Night. Gnats there were too, spinning in +the semi-darkness, now sinking, now rising, keeping together, a merry +band of musicians, each with a small flute, piping perhaps to the +little goblins that swung on spiders' webs, and slept upon the fronds +of the ferns. + +Candles were now lighted, and we left the glimmer of day behind us. A +little beyond the great dome the roof became so low that we had to +creep along almost on hands and knees, but it presently rose again, +and to a great height. The first obstacle--the one that sent me back a +few months before--was a steep rock down which the water then fell in +such a cascade that there was no getting a foothold upon it. Now the +water scarcely covered it, and there was no difficulty in reaching the +bottom. Here, however, was a pool through which we had to wade +knee-deep. The cavern continued, and the stalagmite became interesting +by its fantastic shapes. Here was a mass like an immense sponge, even +to the colour, and there, descending from the roof down the side of +the rock, was the waved hair of an undine that had been changed into +white and glistening stone. The stalactites were less remarkable. The +sound of dropping water told us that another cascade was near. This we +left behind by climbing along the side of the gallery, clinging to the +rock, and in the same way four more obstacles of precisely the same +character were overcome. All the distance the slope was rapid, but at +intervals there was a sudden fall of from ten to fifteen feet, with a +black-looking pool at the foot of the rock, hollowed out by the action +of the tumbling torrent. The last of these falls was the worst to +cross. To this point the cavern had been already explored, but no +farther apparently, the local impression being that it ended just +beyond. It was an ugly place. The rock over which the water fell was +almost perpendicular, and the pool at the bottom was larger and deeper +than the others. Seen by the light of day, any schoolboy might have +scoffed at the difficulty of getting beyond it, but when you are +descending into the bowels of the earth, where the light of two +candles can only dissolve the darkness a few yards around you, every +form becomes fantastic and awful, and the effect of water of unknown +depth upon the imagination is peculiarly disturbing. But we made up +our minds to go on if it were possible. The passage was very narrow, +and the sides offered few salient points to which one could cling. We +moved along a very narrow ledge in a sitting posture, and then, when +we had gone as far as we could in this way, and there was nothing +beyond to sit upon, we made a spring. My companion, being the more +agile, nearly cleared the pool, but I went in with a great splash, as +I expected, and thought myself lucky in being only wetted to the +waist. The water was not very cold, the temperature of the cavern +being much higher than that of the outer air. + +We reckoned that we had by this time travelled underground about half +a mile, and as we had been descending rapidly all the way, the +distance beneath the surface must have been considerable. My theory +with regard to this stream was that it was a tributary of the +subterranean Ouysse; but the fact that the cavern ran north-west made +me change my opinion, and conclude that this water-course took an +independent line towards the Dordogne. + +A little beyond the last pool the running water suddenly vanished. We +looked around to see if it had taken any side passage; but no: it +simply disappeared into the earth, although no hole was perceptible in +its stony channel. It passed by infiltration into some lower gallery, +where the light of a candle had never shone, and is never likely to +shine. But we had not reached the end of the cavern, although the +passage became so low that we had now really to go down on all-fours +in order to proceed. We had not to keep this posture long, for again +the roof rose, although to no great height. We walked on about fifty +yards or more, and then came to the end. There was no opening anywhere +except by the way we entered. We were like flies that had crawled into +a bottle, and a very unpleasant bottle it might have proved to us. We +noticed--at first with some surprise--that, although there was not a +drop of water now in this _cul-de-sac_, our feet sank into damp sand +that had evidently been carried there by water. Sticks were also lying +about, and the walls up to the roof were covered with a muddy slime. +It was evident that this hole had been filled with water, and not very +long ago; probably the last thunderstorm accounted for the signs of +recent moisture. While we were talking about this, a strange, muffled, +moaning sound reached our ears. We looked at one another over the tops +of two candles. 'Thunder,' said my companion. In a few minutes the +same dismal moan, long drawn out, came down the cavern, which acted +like a speaking-tube between us and the outer world, and conveyed a +timely warning. Was it in time? We were not quite sure of this, for as +we issued from the _cul-de-sac_ we heard the water coming down the +rocks with a very different voice from that which it had not many +minutes before. It was clear that the storm was beginning to tell upon +the stream, and if the rain had been falling for half an hour, as I +had already seen it fall in the Quercy, we might find the work of +recrossing those pools and climbing up the cascades anything but +cheerful. Already where we had been able to walk on dry stones the +water was now up to our ankles. The first cascade to surmount was the +worst. We decided to try it on the side opposite to the one by which +we descended, for we observed a jutting and highly-polished piece of +stalagmite, which promised to help the manoeuvre. One went first, and +the other waited, holding the candle. I was in the rear. When my +companion had reached the top of the cascade, I threw him the coil of +rope--a useless encumbrance, as it happened--and in so doing put out +the candle. Before I was sure that I had a dry match upon me, I failed +to seize the humour, although I felt the novelty of the situation. +During those seconds of uncertainty, the sound of the water--really +fast increasing--seemed to become a deafening roar. However, we both +had dry matches, and were able to relight our candles; but it might +have been otherwise, wet as we were. Without light we should have been +as helpless beneath those rocks as mice in a pitcher. The first +cascade conquered, we felt much more comfortable, for the picture of +being washed into that _cul-de-sac_ had flashed upon the mind of each. + +As the next and the next cascade were passed, our spirits rose still +more; and when we saw the gray daylight in the distance, our gaiety +was quite genuine, and we no longer 'laughed yellow,' as the French +phrase it. The stream was rapidly becoming a frantic torrent, but we +were not afraid of it now. On reaching the dome, we saw the water +pouring over rocks that were dry when we entered, and the clouds +seemed to be emptying their rain in frenzy. + +An hour later the stream that was lisping so innocently as it threaded +its way amongst the stones, and dropped from rock to rock before the +storm, sent up a wild roar from the bottom of the valley, and shrieked +like a tormented fiend, as it leaped into the black mouth of the +Gouffre de Revaillon. Tons of water had probably collected there at +the bottom of the gulf. And I, in my shortsightedness, had hoped that +the cavern was two or three miles long! I had great reason to be +thankful that it ended where it did, for the excitement of adventure +would have carried us on, and we might have gone too deep into the +earth to hear the thunder. + +On emerging from the darkness, we made all the haste we could to reach +the nearest inn. The storm was still at its height; the thunder was an +almost continuous roar; and the quick lightning-flashes lit up the +streaming country. We were quite drenched on reaching a little wayside +auberge. Water was soon boiling upon the wood-fire, and having set +rheumatism at defiance with steaming glasses of grog, we left for +Roc-Amadour, where, on our arrival, we found our friends about to +start with lanterns to look for us in the Gouffre de Revaillon. + + * * * * * + +Noticing one day a low cavern in the rocks beside the Ouysse, I asked +if anyone had ever entered it, and was told that a man had done so; +that he had found a long, low gallery, which he followed for two or +three hundred yards, and then gave up the attempt to reach the end. It +was well known that the hole, being on a level with the water, was +much used by otters. The desire to explore this cavern becoming +strong, I spoke to Decros about the adventure. He was ready to go with +me; and so we started, taking with us enough candles to light a +ball-room. + +On our way over the hills from Roc-Amadour, we passed two dolmens, one +of which was in good preservation. There are several hundred of them +in the Quercy; and the peasants, who call them _pierros levados_ +(raised stones), also 'tombs of the giants' and _cairous_, in which +last name the Celtic word _cairn_ has been almost preserved, treat +them now with indifference, although it is recorded of one of the +early bishops of Cahors that he caused a menhir to be broken to pieces +because it was an object of idolatrous worship. Those who have been to +the trouble of excavating have almost invariably found in each dolmen +a _cella_ containing human bones. In some of them flint implements +have been discovered; in others iron implements and turquoise +ornaments, showing that the tombs, although all alike, belong to +different periods. Tumuli are also numerous, but only a few menhirs +and traces of cromlechs are to be seen. + +Close to the Gouffre de Cabouy, whose outflow forms a tributary of the +Ouysse, is a cottage where a man lives whose destiny I have often +envied. When he is tired of fishing or shooting, he works in his +thriving little vineyard, which he increases every year. The river is +as much his own as if it belonged to him; he gets all he wants by +giving himself very little trouble, and has no cares. We needed this +man's boat for our expedition, and we found it drawn into a little +cove beside the ruined mill, long since abandoned. It was a somewhat +porous old punt, with small fish swimming about in the bottom; but it +was well enough for our purpose. In the warm sunshine of the October +afternoon we glided gently down the quiet stream, which is very deep, +but so clear that you can see all the water-plants which revel in it, +down to the sand and pebbles. Near the banks we passed over masses of +watercress, and what might be likened to floating fields of lilies and +pond-weed. + +It needed no little reflection and expenditure of art to insert the +prow of the boat into the mouth of the cavern. What an ugly and +uninteresting hole I then thought it! Having run the punt as far as we +could into the opening, there still remained about six feet of water +to cross before reaching the sandy mud beyond. A plank, however, that +we brought with us served as a bridge. The story of the otters was no +fable, for here were the footprints of the beasts all over the mud. We +lighted candles and looked into the hole. The ground rose and the roof +descended, so that to enter it was necessary to lie perfectly flat, +and to crawl along by a movement very like that of swimming; then the +passage became so small that there was only room for one to go at a +time. Neither of us was ambitious to go first, for there was just a +chance of an otter seizing the invader by the nose; but neither liked +to show the white feather. Each in turn went in a few yards, planted a +lighted candle in the mud, and then found some pretext for returning. +The hot air of the cavern was almost suffocating, and one felt so +helpless flattened against the earth, with the rock pressing so tight +upon the back that even to wriggle along was difficult. 'Decros is a +native,' thought I, 'and he ought to be used to this kind of work. I +will let him understand that he is expected now to do his duty.' In he +went again, and planted another candle about a yard in front of the +last one. Then he stopped and fired a shot from the revolver that we +carried in turn for the otters, and the sound of the detonation seemed +to echo in a muffled fashion from the bowels of the earth. + +'How many otters have you killed?' I shouted. + +'None,' he replied. 'I just fired to let them know that we are here.' + +I then asked him if he was going on, and I fancied that he tried to +shrug his shoulders, but found the rock in the way. His practical +reply, however, was to slowly back out. When he was able to stand up +again, he said he believed he had seen the end of the cavern, and +would like me to take another look. I now realized that if the secrets +of the fantastic realm which my fancy had pictured were to be revealed +to me, there must be no more shirking. When I flattened myself out +again upon the mud, it was with the determination to go right through +the neck of the bottle, for such the passage figuratively was. At one +moment I felt tightly wedged, unable to move forward or backward, in a +hot steamy atmosphere that was not made any pleasanter by the smoke of +the burnt powder; but, the sight of the now rising roof encouraged me +to further efforts, and presently I was able to stand upright--in +fact, I was in a cavern where a giant of the first magnitude could +have walked about with ease, but where he might have been a prisoner +for life. I was resolved, however, that Decros should not escape his +share of the adventure, so I called to him to come on, and he quickly +joined me. To my great disappointment, the cavern soon came to an end. +Where, we asked, could the otters be hiding themselves? Examining the +place more carefully, we found a passage going under the rock at the +farther extremity, but nearly filled with sand which the river had +washed up in time of flood. Here, then, was the continuation of the +cavern. The passage had been made by water, for a subterranean stream +must at one time have found an exit here into the Ouysse, and now +water was reversing the process by filling up the ancient conduit. But +for the otters that kept it open, we should probably have seen no +trace of it; and it was for this that we had wriggled our way into the +hideous hole like serpents! I left with the impression that there was +much vanity in searching for the wonders of the subterranean world. + +Having brought back the boat, we stopped at the cottage by the +vineyard and tried the juice of the grapes which three weeks before +were basking in the sun. It was now a fragrant wine of a rich purple, +with a certain flavour of the soil that made it the more agreeable. +The fisherman's wife also placed upon the table a loaf of home-made +bread, of an honest brown colour, some of the little Roc-Amadour +cheeses made from goat's milk, and a plate of walnuts. The window +looked out upon the sunny vines, whose leaves were now flaming gold or +ruddy brown; the blue river shone in the hollow below, and through the +open door there came the tinkling of bells from the rocky wastes where +the small long-tailed sheep were moving slowly homeward, nibbling the +stunted herbage as they went. + +This sound reminded us that the sun would soon drop behind the hill, +and that the Pomoyssin, to which we intended to pay a visit on our way +home, was not a spot that gained attractiveness from the shades of +night. I had heard the country-people speak of it as a peculiarly +horrible and treacherous _gouffre_, and its name, which means +'unwholesome hole,' corresponds to the local opinion of it. The +shepherd children would suffer torture from thirst rather than descend +into the gloomy hollow and dip out a drop of the dark water which is +said to draw the gazer towards it, and then into its mysterious depths +under the rock, by the spell of some wicked power. Some years ago a +woman, supposed to have been drawn there by the evil spirit, was found +drowned, and since then the spot has been avoided even more than it +was before. + +It was to this place, then, that we went when the sun was setting. The +way led up a deep little valley which was an absolute desert of +stones. A dead walnut-tree, struck apparently by lightning, with its +old and gnarled branches stretching out on one side like weird arms, +was just the object that the imagination would place in a valley +blighted by the influence of evil spirits, in proximity to a passage +communicating from their world to this one. Presently, as we drew near +some high rocks, Decros, pointing to a dark hollow in the shadow of +them said, 'There it is.' We went down into the basin to the edge of +the water that lay there, black and still, Decros showing evident +reluctance and restlessness the while, so strongly was his mind +affected by all the stories he had heard about the pool. Moreover, it +was rapidly growing dusk. In this half-light the funnel in which we +were standing certainly did look a very diabolic and sinister hole. +The fancy aiding, everything partook of the supernatural: the dark +masses of brambles hanging from the rocks, the wild vines clinging to +them with leaves like flakes of deep-glowing crimson fire, and +especially the intermittent sound of gurgling water. + +I was glad to have seen the Pomoyssin under circumstances so +favourable, but it was with relief that I left it and began to climb +the side of the gorge from this valley of dreadful shadows towards the +pure sky that reddened as the brown dusk deepened below. + + + + +IN THE VALLEY OF THE CELE. + + +It was a burning afternoon of late summer when I walked across the +stony hills which separate the valley of the Lot from that of its +tributary the Cele, between Capdenac and Figeac. I did not take the +road, but climbed the cliffs, trusting myself to chance and the torrid +_causse_. I wished that I had not done so when it was too late to act +differently. There was nothing new for me upon the bare hills, where +all vegetation was parched up except the juniper bushes and the +spurge. At length I found the road that went down with many a flourish +into the valley of the Cele, and I reached Figeac in the evening, +covered with dust, and as thirsty as a hunted stag. Here I took up my +quarters for awhile. + +Figeac is not a beautiful town from the Haussmannesque point of +view--the one that is destined to prevail in all municipal councils; +but it is full of charm to the archaeologist and the lover of the +picturesque. There are few places even in France which have undergone +so little change during the last five or six hundred years. Elsewhere, +thirteenth and fourteenth century houses are becoming rare; here they +are numerous. There are streets almost entirely composed of them. +These streets are in reality narrow crooked lanes paved with pebbles, +slanting towards the gutter in the centre. Some are only three or four +yards wide, and the walls half shut out the light of day. You look up +and see a mere strip of blue sky, but trailing plants reaching far +downward from window-sills, one above the other, light up the gloom +with many a patch of vivid green. You venture down some dim passage +and come suddenly upon a little court where an old Gothic portal with +quaint sculptures, or a Renaissance doorway with armorial bearings +carved over the lintel, bears testimony to the grandeur and wealth of +those who once lived in the now grimy, dilapidated, poverty-stricken +mansion. Pretentious dwellings of bygone days have long since been +abandoned to the humble. + +Here is a typical house in the Rue Abel, which is scarcely wide enough +for two to walk abreast. The oak door is elaborately carved with heads +and leaves, flowers and line ornament, all in strong relief. One +grimacing puckered head has a movable tongue that once lifted a latch +on being touched. Near the ground the oak has been half devoured by +the damp. This door would have been sold long ago to antiquaries or +speculators if the house since the Revolution had not become the +property of several persons all equally suspicious of one another, and +with the Cadurcian bump of obstinacy equally developed. They had no +respect for the carving, and they were eager to 'touch' the money; but +their interests in the house not being the same, they could never come +to an understanding over the door; consequently, in spite of very +tempting offers, the piece of massive oak continues to hang upon its +rusty hinges. So much the better for the student of antiquities, for, +without denying that museums are eminently useful, it is certain that +they deprive objects of a great deal of their interest and their power +of suggesting ideas by detaching them from their surroundings. +Moreover, it is not at all sure that these things, when they have been +bought up and carried away, will ever be put in a place where anybody +can see them who may have the wish to do so. And then, when a thing +has been put into a museum, it becomes such labour and painfulness to +look for it; and most of us are so lazy by nature. I will make a frank +confession. For my own part, I should scarcely look at this old door +if it were in the Cluny or any other museum; but here, in ancient +Figeac, I see it where it was many lustres ago, and the pleasure of +finding it in the midst of the sordidness and squalor that follow upon +the decay of grandeur and the evaporation of human hopes makes me feel +much that I should not feel otherwise, and calls up ideas as a +February sunbeam calls gnats out of the dead earth and sets them +spinning. + +I venture up the stone staircase, although most of the finely carved +balusters are gone, and the arch-stones have so slipped out of place +that they seem to cling together by the will of Providence rather than +by any physical law. The stairs themselves, although of fine stone +that has almost the polish of marble, are cracked as if an earthquake +had tormented them, and worn by the tread of innumerable feet into +deep hollows. I reach a landing where a long corridor stretches away +into semi-darkness. The floor is black with dirt, and so are the doors +which once opened into rooms where luxury waited upon some who were +born, and upon others (perchance the same) who died. A sound reaches +me from the far-end of the corridor that makes me feel like a coward. +It is the raving of a madman. How he seems to be contending with all +the fiends of hell! Sometimes his voice is so low, and the words crowd +one upon another so fast, that the muttering is like the prolonged +growl of a wild beast; then the mood changes, and the unseen man seems +to be addressing an invisible audience in grand sonorous sentences as +though he were a Cicero; and perhaps he may be, but as he speaks in +_patois_ his eloquence is lost upon me. What a terrible excitement is +in his voice! How it thrills and horrifies! And he is alone, quite +alone in this dismal old house with the fiends who harass him. This I +learn from a young girl whom I meet at the bottom of the staircase. +She tells me that the man is only mad at the time of the new or the +full moon (I forget which), and that his raving lasts but two or three +days. Then nobody ventures near him; but at other times he is quite +rational and harmless. He has left, however, upon me an impression +more lasting perhaps than that of the old tottering staircase that +threatens to close up every moment like a toy snake that has been +stretched out. + +Most of the old houses are entered by Gothic doorways, and the oak +doors are studded with large nail-heads. The locks and bolts are of +mediaeval workmanship. Sometimes you see an iron ring hanging to a +string that has been passed through a hole in the door. It is just +such a string as Little Red Riding-hood (an old French fable, +by-the-bye) pulled to lift the latch at the summons of the wicked +wolf. And what a variety of ancient knockers have we here! Many are +mere bars of iron hanging to a ring; but others are much more +artistic, showing heads coifed in the style of the fifteenth and +sixteenth centuries, serpents biting their own tails, and all manner +of fanciful ideas wrought into iron. In wandering about the dim old +streets, paved with cobble stones, architectural details of singular +interest strike one at every turn. Now it is the encorbelment of a +turret at the angle of a fifteenth or sixteenth century mansion that +has lost all its importance; now a dark archway with fantastic heads +grimacing from the wall; now an arcade of Gothic windows, with +graceful columns and delicate carvings--a beautiful fragment in the +midst of ruin. + +What helps much to render these dingy streets, passages, and courts of +Figeac so delightfully picturesque is the vegetation which, growing +with southern luxuriance in places seemingly least favourable to it, +clings to the ancient masonry, or brightens it by the strong contrast +of its immediate neighbourhood in some little garden or balustraded +terrace. Wherever there are a few feet of ground some rough poles +support a luxuriant vine-trellis, and grapes ripen where one might +suppose scarcely a gleam of sunshine could fall. The vine clambers +over everything, and sometimes reaches to the top of a house two +stories high. The old walls of Figeac are likewise tapestried with +pellitory and ivy-linaria, with here and there a fern pushing its +deep-green frond farther into the shadow, or an orpine sedum lifting +its head of purple flowers into the sunshine that changes it to a +flame. + +There is much in the life of this place that matches perfectly with +the surroundings. Enter by a Gothic doorway, and you will come upon a +nail-maker's forge, and see a dog turning the wheel that keeps the +bellows continually blowing. The wheel is about a foot broad, and +stands some three feet high. The dog jumps into it at a sign from his +master, and as the wheel turns the sparks from the forge fall about +the animal in showers. Each dog is expected to work five or six hours; +then, when his task is done, he is allowed to amuse himself as he +pleases, while a comrade takes his turn at the wheel. The nail-makers +discovered long ago that dog labour was cheaper than boy labour, and +not so troublesome. Nevertheless, these wheels belong to an order of +things that has nearly passed away. + +The crier or _tambourineur_, as he is generally called, because he +carries a drum, which he beats most lustily to awaken the curiosity of +the inhabitants, is making the round of the town with an ox, which is +introduced to the public as 'le boeuf ici present.' The crier's +business is to announce to all whom it may concern that the animal is +to be killed this very evening, and that its flesh will be sold +to-morrow at 1 franc 25 centimes the kilo. It will all go at a uniform +price, for this is the local custom. Those who want the _aloyau_, or +sirloin, only have to be quick. The ox, notwithstanding that he has a +rope tied round his nose and horns, and is led by the butcher, +evidently thinks it a great distinction to be _tambourine_; his +expression indicating that this is the proudest day of his life. Every +time the drum begins to rattle he flourishes his tail, and when each +little ceremony is over he moves on to a fresh place with a jaunty +air, as if he were aware that all this drumming and fuss were +especially intended for his entertainment. No condemned wretch ever +made his last appearance in public with a better grace. + +Another day I see this crier going round the town accompanied by a boy +every available part of whose person is decked with ribbons, and all +kinds of things ordinarily sold by drapers and haberdashers. Over each +shoulder is slung a pair of women's boots. The boy is a walking +advertisement of an exceptional sale, which a tradesman announces with +the help of the crier and his drum. + +A band of women and girls come up from the riverside, walking in +Indian file, and each with a glittering copper water-pot on her head. +What beautiful water-pots these are! They have the antique curve that +has not changed in the course of ages. They swell out at the bottom +and the top, and fall gracefully in towards the middle. As the women +quit the sunshine and enter the deep shadow of the street the shine of +their water-pots is darkened suddenly, like the sparks of burnt paper +which follow one upon another and go out. + +The sound of solemn music draws me into a church. A requiem Mass is +being chanted. In the middle of the nave, nearer the main door than +the altar, is a deal coffin with gable-shaped lid, barely covered by a +pall. A choir-boy comes out of the sacristy, carrying a pan of live +embers, which he places at the head of the coffin. Then he sprinkles +incense upon the fire, and immediately the smoke rises like a +snow-white cloud towards the vaulting; but, meeting the sunbeams on +its way, it moves up their sloping golden path, and seems to pass +through the clerestory window into the boundless blue. + +Now the procession moves towards the cemetery. It is a boy's funeral, +and four youths of about the same age as the one who lies in darkness +hold the four corners of each pall, two of which are carried in front +of the coffin. After the hearse come members of the confraternity of +Blue Penitents, one of whom carries a great wooden cross upon his +shoulder. Others carry staves with small crosses at the top, or +emblems of the trades that they follow. The dead boy's father is a +Penitent, and this is why the confraternity has come out to-day. They +now wear their _cagoules_ raised; but on Good Friday, when they go in +procession to a high spot called the Calvary, the leader walking +barefoot and carrying the cross on his shoulder in imitation of +Christ, they wear these dreadful-looking flaps over their faces. Their +appearance then is terrible enough; but what must that of the Red +Penitents, who accompanied condemned wretches to execution, have been? +In a few years there will be no Blue Penitents at Figeac. As the old +members of the confraternity die, there are no postulants to fill +their places. Already they feel, when they put on their 'sacks', that +they are masquerading, and that the eye of ridicule is upon them. This +state of mind is fatal to the conservation of all old customs. The +political spirit of the times is, moreover, opposed to these religious +processions in France. That of the _fete-Dieu_ at Figeac would have +been suppressed some years ago by the Municipal Council had it not +been for the outcry of the tradespeople. All the new dresses, new +hats, and new boots that are bought for this occasion cause money to +be spent that might otherwise be saved, and those who are interested +in the sale of such things wish the procession through the streets to +be kept up, although in heart they may be among the scoffers at +religion. + +The religious confraternities in Aquitaine date from the appearance of +the _routiers_ at the close of the twelfth century. These _routiers_ +were then chiefly Brabancons, Aragonese, and Germans. According to an +ecclesiastical author and local historian, the Abbe Debon, the lawless +bands spread such terror through the country that they stopped the +pilgrims from going to Figeac, Conques, and other places that had +obtained a reputation for holiness. A canon of Le Puy in Auvergne, +much distressed by the desertion of the sanctuary of Notre Dame de +Puy, which rivals that of Roc-Amadour in antiquity, formed the design +of instituting a confraternity to wage war against the _routiers_ and +destroy them. A 'pious fraud' was adopted. A young man, having been +dressed so as to impersonate Notre Dame du Puy, appeared to a +carpenter who was in the habit of praying every night in the +cathedral, and gave him the mission of revealing that it was the will +of the Holy Virgin that a confraternity should be formed to put down +the brigands and establish peace in the country. Hundreds of men +enrolled themselves at once. The confreres, from the fact that they +wore hoods of white linen, obtained the name of Chaperons Blancs. Upon +their breasts hung a piece of lead with this inscription: 'Agnus Dei +qui tollis peccata mundi dona nobis pacem.' The confraternity spread +into Aquitaine, and the _routiers_ were defeated in pitched battles +with great slaughter; but the _chaperons_ in course of time became +lawless fanatics, and were almost as great a nuisance to society as +those whom they had undertaken to exterminate. They were nevertheless +the ancestors in a sense of the confraternities of penitents who, at a +later period, became so general in Europe. + +The monthly fair at Figeac offers some curious pictures of rural life. +The peasants crowd in from the valleys and the surrounding _causses_. +Racial differences, or those produced by the influences of soil and +food--especially water--for a long series of generations, are very +strongly marked. There is the florid, robust, blue-eyed, sanguine +type, and there is the leaden-coloured, black-haired, lantern-jawed, +sloping-shouldered, and hollow-chested type. Then there are the +intermediates. Considered generally, these peasants of the Haut-Quercy +are not fine specimens of the human animal. They are dwarfed, and very +often deformed. Their almost exclusively vegetable diet, their +excessive toil, and the habit of drinking half-putrid rain-water from +cisterns which they very rarely clean, may possibly explain this +physical degeneration of the Cadurci. Their character is honest in the +main, but distrustful and superficially insincere by nature or the +force of circumstance. Their worst qualities are shown at a fair, +where they cheat as much as they can, and place no limit to lying. +Their canon of morality there is that everyone must look after +himself. I have been assured by a priest that they never think of +confessing the lies that they tell in bartering, because they maintain +that every man who buys ought to understand his business. I much +wondered why, at a Figeac fair, when there was a question of buying a +bullock, the animal's tail was pulled as though all his virtue were +concentrated in this appendage. I learnt that the reason of the +tugging was this: Cattle are liable to a disease that causes the tail +to drop off, but the people here have discovered a very artful trick +of fastening it on again, and it needs a vigorous pull to expose the +fraud. Among other tricks of the country is that of drenching an +ill-tempered and unmanageable horse with two _litres_ of wine before +taking him to the fair. He then becomes as quiet as a lamb. I heard +the story of a _cure_, who was thus imposed upon by one of his own +parishioners. He wanted a very quiet horse, and he found one at the +fair; but the next day, when he went near the animal, it appeared to +be possessed of the devil. All this is bad; but there is satisfaction +to the student of old manners in knowing that everything takes place +as it did centuries ago. The cattle-dealers and peasants here actually +transact their business in _pistoles_ and _ecus_. A _pistole_ now +represents 10 francs, and an _ecu_ 3 francs. + +The summer is glorious here, and as the climate is influenced by that +of Auvergne, it is less enervating by the Cele than in the +neighbouring valley of the Lot. There, some twenty miles farther +south, the grapes ripen two or three weeks sooner than they do upon +these hillsides. But the _vent d'autan_--the wind from the +south-east--is now blowing, and, although there is too much air, one +gasps for breath. The brilliant blue fades out of the sky, and the sun +just glimmers through layers of dun-coloured vapour. It is a sky that +makes one ill-tempered and restless by its sameness and indecision. +But the wind is a worse trial. It blows hot, as if it issued from the +infernal cavern. It sets the nerves altogether wrong, and disposes one +to commit evil deeds from mere wantonness and the feeling that some +violent reaction from this influence is what nature insists upon. It +is a wind that does not blow a steady honest gale, but goes to work in +a treacherously intermittent fashion--now lulled to a complete calm, +now springing at you like a tiger from the jungle. Then your eyes are +filled with dust, unless you close them quickly, or turn your back to +the enemy in the nick of time. The night comes, and brings other +trouble. You try to sleep with closed windows, so that you may hear +less of the racket that the wind makes outside, but it is impossible: +you stifle. You get up and open a window--perhaps two windows. The +wind rushes in, but it is like the hot breath of a panting dog. The +noise of swinging _persiennes_ that have got loose, and are banged now +against the wall, now against the window-frame, mingles with a woful +confusion of sounds within, as though a most unruly troop of ghosts +were dancing the _farandole_ all through the house. If any door has +been left open, it worries you more by its banging at intervals of a +minute than if it went on without stopping to consider. Therefore you +are compelled to rise again, and go and look for it--anything but a +cheerful expedition if you cannot find the matches. When this south +wind falls, the rain generally comes, bringing great refreshment to +the parched earth, and all the animals that live upon it. + +As I have referred to the house in which I live, I may as well say +something more with regard to it and the things which it contains. It +is not one of the ancient houses of Figeac, but it is old-fashioned +and provincial. The rooms are rather large, the floors are venerably +black, and the boarded ceilings supported by rafters have never had +their structural secrets or the grain of the timber concealed by a +layer of plaster. What you see over-head is simply the floor of the +room or the loft above. And yet this is not considered a poor-kind of +house; it is as good as most good people hereabouts live in. The +furniture is simple, but solid; it was made to last, and most of it +has long outlasted the first owners. In every room, the kitchen +excepted, there is a bed, according to the very general custom of the +country. The character of the people is distinctly utilitarian, +notwithstanding the blood of the troubadours. There is even a bed in +the _salle a manger_. A piece of furniture, however, from which my eye +takes more pleasure is one of those old clocks which reach from the +ceiling to the floor, and conceal all the mystery and solemnity of +pendulum and weights from the vulgar gaze. It has a very loud and +self-asserting tick, and a still more arrogant strike, for such an old +clock; but, then, everybody here has a voice that is much stronger +than is needed, and it is the habit to scream in ordinary +conversation. A clock, therefore, could not make itself heard by such +people as these Quercynois, unless it had a voice matching in some +sort with their own. Another piece of furniture that pleases me, +because it is of shining copper, which always throws a homely warmth +into a room, is a large basin fixed upon a stand against the wall, +with a little cistern above it, also of copper. It is intended for +washing the hands by means of a fillet of water that is set running by +turning the tap. In this dry part of the world water has to be used +sparingly, and, indeed, there is very little wasted upon the body. +Everybody who has travelled in Guyenne must be familiar with the +article of household furniture just described. Every young wife +piously provides herself with one, together with a warming-pan; for +the old domestic ideas are religiously handed down here from mother to +daughter. But I must shorten this 'journey round my room,' so little +in the manner of Le Maistre. + +Most of the furniture was once the property of a priest, and would be +still if he were alive. The good man is gone where even the voices of +the Figeacois cannot reach him; but he has left abundant traces of his +piety behind him. The walls of these rooms are almost covered by them. +I cannot help being edified, for I am unable to look upon anything +that approaches the profane. + +When I grow thoughtful over all these works of art and _objets de +piete_--engravings, lithographs, statuettes, crucifixes, crosses +worked in wool, stables of Bethlehem, little holy-water stoops, and +the faded photographs belonging to the early period of the art +(portraits, no doubt, of brothers, sisters, nephews, and nieces, all +revealing that air of rusticity in Sunday clothes which is not to be +mistaken)--I have before me the whole story of a simple life, +surrounding itself year after year with fresh emblems and tokens of +the hope that reaches beyond the grave, and the affections of nature +that become woven on this side of it, and which mingle joy and sorrow +even in the cup of a village priest. + +It is in these quiet, provincial places, where existence goes on in +the old-fashioned, humdrum way, that people take care of their +household property, and respect the sentiment that years lay up in it: +they hand it down to the next generation as they received it. Little +objects of common ornament, of religious or intellectual pleasure, +thus preserved, throw in course of time a vivid light on human +changes. + +And it is this vivid light that I am now feeling in these dim rooms. I +am aware that nearly everything here is the record of an epoch to +which I do not belong--that the world's mind has undergone a great +change even in the provinces since the influence that comes forth from +these silent traces of past thought were in harmony with it. What +interests me more than anything else here is an allegorical or +mystical map, designed, drawn, and coloured with all the patience and +much of the artistic skill of an illuminating monk of the thirteenth +century. I doubt if in any presbytery far out in the marshes or on the +mountains a priest could now be found with the motive to undertake +such a task. It belongs to the same order of ideas as the 'Pilgrim's +Progress.' In this map one sees the 'States of Charity,' the 'Province +of Fervour,' the 'Empire of Self-Contempt,' and other countries +belonging to a vast continent, of which the centre is the 'Kingdom of +the Love of God,' connected to a smaller continent--that of the +world--by a narrow neck of land called the 'Isthmus of Charity.' In +the continent of the world are shown the 'Mountain of Ingratitude,' +the 'Hills of Frivolity,' the territory of 'Ennui,' of 'Vanity,' of +'Melancholy,' and of all the evil moods and vices to which men are +liable. Separated from the mainland, and washed by the 'Torrent of +Bitterness,' are the 'Rocks of Remorse.' Among the allegorical emblems +in various parts of the chart is a very remarkable tree with blue +trunk and rose-coloured leaves called the 'Tree of Illusions.' Far +above it lies the 'Peninsula of Perfection,' and near to this, under a +mediaeval drum-tower, is the gateway of the 'City of Happiness.' + +There is a little garden at the back of the house, where flowers and +vegetables are mixed up in the way I like. The jessamine has become a +thicket. Vines ramble over the trellis and the old wall, and from the +window I see many other vines showing their lustrous leaves against +tiled roofs of every shade, from bright-red to black. In the next +garden is my friend the _aumonier_, an octogenarian priest, who is +still nearly as sprightly of body as he is of mind. He lives alone, +surrounded by books, in the collection of which he has shown the broad +judgment, and impartiality of the genuine lover of literature. There +is a delicious disorder in his den, because there is no one to +interfere with him. He is now much excited against the birds because +they will not leave his figs alone, and someone has just lent him a +blunderbuss wherewith to slay them. Perhaps he will show them the +deadly weapon, and hope that they will take the hint; but there is too +much kindness underneath his wrath for him to be capable of murdering +even a thievish sparrow. He likes to make others believe, however, +that he is desperately in earnest. His keen sense of the comic and the +grotesque in human nature makes him one of the raciest of +story-tellers; but although he does not put his tongue in traces, he +is none the less a worthy priest. There are many such as he in +France--men who are really devout, but never sanctimonious, whose +candour is a cause of constant astonishment, who are good-natured to +excess, and who are more open-hearted than many children. Their +friendship goes out readily to meet the stranger, and, speaking from +my own experience, I can say that it wears well. In the street, on the +other side of the house, six women have perched themselves in a row. +They have come out to talk and enjoy the coolness of the evening, and, +in order that their tender consciences may not prick them for being +idle, they are paring potatoes, and getting ready other vegetables for +the morrow. They all scream together in Languedocian, which, +by-the-bye, is anything but melodious here when spoken by the common +people. It becomes much less twangy and harsh a little farther South. +How these six charmers on chairs can all listen and talk at the same +time is not easy to understand. The truth is, very little listening is +done in this part of the world. The saying _On se grise en parlant_ is +quite applicable here. People often get drunk on nothing stronger than +the flow of their own words. + +All the women being now on their way to the land of dreams, and +consequently quiet for a few hours, and all the sounds of the earth +being hushed save the song of the crickets among the vine-leaves, and +in the fruit-trees of the moonlit garden, I will try to see Figeac up +the vista of the ages, and if I succeed, perhaps the reader may be +helped at the same time to gather interest in this queer old place, +whose name, having been made familiar to the English who followed +Henry II to France in the twelfth century, is perhaps a reason why +their descendants will not 'skip' at first sight these few pages of +local history. + +The early history of Figeac, or what has long passed as such, is based +upon an ingenious stratification of fraud, arising out of a very old +quarrel between the monks of Figeac and the monks of Conques, and the +determination of the former to prove at all costs that their monastery +was the more ancient of the two. This would be a matter of +indifference to me had I not been myself entrapped by the snares laid +by certain abbots of Figeac for their contemporaries and posterity, +and been obliged to throw away much that I had written, and which was +far more interesting than the truth. If I had only suspected the +fraud, I might have been tempted to keep suspicion down in order to +spare the picture of the Carlovingian age which I had elaborated; but +it is known at the Ecole des Chartres, and the Abbe B. Massabie of +Figeac has, moreover, written a book that removes all doubt as to the +spuriousness of the charters upon which the abbots of Figeac, when +their jealousy of Conques reached its climax in the eleventh century, +based their pretensions to priority. The most important of these +charters, and the one that has sent various local historians on a +voyage into the airy realms of fiction, is attributed to Pepin le +Bref, and bears the date 755. Another is a Bull attributed to Pope +Stephanus II., also dated 755, in which is described the ceremony of +consecrating the church of St. Sauveur, attached to the abbey, which +in the first-mentioned document Pepin is said to have founded. Here it +is related that when the Pontiff approached the church strains of +mysterious music were heard issuing from the edifice, and such a cloud +stood before it that the procession waited for hours before entering. +Then, when the Pope walked up to the altar-stone, he found that it had +been miraculously consecrated, crosses being marked upon it in oil +still wet. Now, the charter attributed to Pepin contains many passages +copied verbatim from one preserved at Rodez, and signed by Pippinus, +or Pepin I., King of Aquitaine. Its date is 838, and it enriches the +monastery of Conques, already existing, with certain lands at Fiacus +(Figeac), which is thenceforward to be called New Conques; the motive +of this gift being to extend to the monks those material advantages +which a rich valley is able to afford, but which are not to be found +in a stony gorge surrounded by barren hills. There would have been +less scandal to Christianity if Pepin had put a curb on his pious +generosity, and had left the monks of Conques to contend with the +desert. The charter, moreover, sanctions the building of a monastery +at Figeac, which is to remain under the rule and governance of the +abbots of Conques. In the eleventh century, the discord between the +two monasteries had reached such a pass that popes and councils were +appealed to to settle the question of priority. In 1096 the Council of +Nimes laid down a _modus vivendi_ without pronouncing upon the +principle. It was decreed that the abbots of Figeac should thenceforth +be independent of the abbots of Conques. + +The monks of Conques appear to have followed originally the rule of +St. Martin, and to have adopted that of St. Benedict soon after its +introduction into France. The abbey of Figeac was therefore always +Benedictine. About the year 900 the monks began to cultivate learning, +their labour having previously been devoted almost exclusively to the +soil. A certain Abbot Adhelard set them to copy manuscripts, and in +course of time Figeac possessed a valuable library, of which the +religious wars of the sixteenth century and the Revolution have left +very few traces. + +The first half of the eleventh century was full of turmoil, trouble, +and torment. The 'blood-rain' that fell all over Aquitaine, and which +made people watch in terror for what might come next, was followed by +a three years' famine, which drove men in their hunger to prey upon +one another. The inns were man-traps; solitary travellers who ventured +inside of them were killed and devoured. Those were not good wayfaring +days. A man actually offered human flesh for sale in the market of +Tournus; but he was burnt alive. During this frightful period, the +Abbot of Figeac distinguished himself by his charity, and, in order to +find work for the unemployed, built a wall round the burg; but the +monastery was much impoverished in consequence. + +Towards the close of the eleventh century four slender +obelisks--called 'needles' in the country--were set up on the hills +around Figeac apparently to mark the boundaries of the _sauvete_; for +the abbey enjoyed the right of sanctuary. Two of these needles still +exist. According to an absurd story, which has been repeated by +various writers, misled by the forgeries already mentioned, the monks, +when they came to this part of the valley of the Cele, found it an +uninhabited wilderness without a name, and somebody exclaimed, 'Fige +acus!' ('Set up needles!'), when the question of marking the boundary +was being discussed. This ingenious explanation of the word Figeac +will not bear examination. + +Every traveller in Aquitaine must have been struck by the remarkable +number of places there whose names end in _ac_. It is commonly +supposed that the termination is derived from _aqua_, and refers to +the river or stream near which the town or village was built. + +_Ac_, however, does not at all correspond to the well-known +corruptions of _aquae_ still found in the names of places in France +where the Romans constructed baths. We are on much surer ground in +assuming it to be of Celtic origin, and to have belonged in a special +manner to the dialect spoken by the Cadurci, Ruteni and other Southern +tribes. It nevertheless occurs at Carnac--that spot of Brittany where +is to be seen the most remarkable of all monuments, commonly +attributed to the Celts. The word probably meant town. It is +unreasonable to suppose that the monks found the valley of the Cele a +desert, considering how densely populated was the whole of this part +of Gaul at the time of Caesar's invasion. So inhabited was it that the +surplus population spread all over the known world, just as the +English do to-day. The popular notion with regard to the needles is +that they were intended to carry lanterns to guide the pilgrims by +night either to Figeac or to Roc-Amadour. Such lanterns were set up in +Aquitaine, and some examples may still be seen; but they are very +different in character from these obelisks, which in all probability +were used to mark the boundary of the _salvamentum_. It is true that +in the Middle Ages the right of asylum was, as a rule, confined to the +sanctuary itself or its immediate precincts; but there were +exceptions, especially in the South of France, where this sacred zone, +which in the Romance language was termed the _sauvetat_, often +extended a considerable distance beyond the walls of a monastic town. +Within these bounds persons fleeing from pursuers had the right of +asylum; but, on the other hand, there are documents to show that those +who committed crimes inside the limit were held guilty of sacrilege. + +Early in the Middle Ages the town of Figeac enjoyed the privileges of +a royal borough under the protection of the kings of France, who in +course of time came to be represented there by their _viguier_ +(vicar). The civic administration was in the hands of consuls as early +as the year 1001. They rendered justice and even passed sentence of +death. The burghers were exempt from all taxation and servitude. The +municipality had the right of coining money for the king, and the +ruined mint can still be seen. Such was the state of things down to +the time when the English appeared in the country. Henry II., having +taken Cahors in 1154, left his chancellor, Becket, there as governor. +The Figeacois, who at first looked upon Becket as an enemy, after he +was murdered at Canterbury, and when the fame of his saintliness began +to spread through France, dedicated a church to him. This edifice has +disappeared; but the part of the town where it was situated, or where, +to speak more correctly, it was afterwards rebuilt, is still called +the Quartier St. Thomas. So little were the English loved, however, as +a nation by the Quercynois, that, after St. Louis had been canonized, +they refused to observe his festival, because they found it impossible +to forgive him for having, by the treaty of Abbeville, passed them +over to England without their consent. + +Figeac was less troubled than some other towns in the Quercy by the +English, because in different treaties the kings of France managed to +keep a grip upon it as a royal borough. + +The gates of the town were, however, thrown open to the English +without a struggle about the middle of the fourteenth century, and to +punish the consuls, when they again became French, King John took away +their right to coin money; but the privilege was restored in +consideration of the ardour they had shown in freeing themselves from +the British yoke. + +The victory of the Black Prince at Poitiers, followed by the treaty of +Bretigny, made the King of England absolute master of the Quercy. The +Prince of Wales came in person to take possession of Cahors in 1364, +and despatched his seneschal, Thomas de Walkaffara, to Figeac to +receive from the inhabitants the oath of fealty. They swore obedience, +but with much soreness of soul. They afterwards got released from +their oath by the Pope, and joined a fresh league formed against the +English. After enjoying the sweets of French nationality again for a +brief period, they were made English once more by the treaty of +Troyes. But the British domination in Guyenne was now approaching its +close. The maid of Domremy was about to change her distaff for an +oriflamme. The year 1453 saw the English power completely broken in +Aquitaine; a collapse which an old rhymer records with more relish +than inspiration: + + 'Par Charles Septieme a grande peine + Furent chasses en durs detroits + Les Anglais de toute Aquitaine, + Mil quatre cent cinquante trois.' + +Figeac escaped the horrors which were spread through the South of +France by the religious wars of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; +but it was not similarly spared by those of the sixteenth century. The +Huguenots laid siege to the town in 1576, and entered it by the +treasonable help of a woman--the wife of one of the consuls. There was +the usual massacre that followed victory, whether on the side of +Protestants or Catholics, and the people became Calvinists for the +same reason that they had centuries before become English. In less +than fifty years afterwards they were all Catholics again. During this +unsettled period, however, there was great domestic dissension in the +town, owing to the circumstance that many women belonging to the old +Catholic stock had married Protestants who had come into the place. As +they could not agree with their husbands, and as many of these refused +to be converted for their sake (they may have been thankful for an +opportunity of getting rid of them), a refuge called 'L'hospice des +mal-mariees' was built for the unhappy wives. When the need for this +very singular institution no longer existed it was pulled down. + +The Church of St. Sauveur, as we see it to-day, is disappointing. It +has been so much rebuilt after different convulsions, and pulled about +when there has been less excuse, that many a church in an obscure +village gives more pleasure as a whole to the eye that seeks unity of +design and inspiration in a work of art. Nevertheless, there are +details here that no archaeologist will despise. In the nave are the +piers and Romanesque capitals of an early, but not the earliest, +church on the spot. They are certainly not later than the twelfth +century. Baptismal fonts, now used as holy-water stoups, are probably +of anterior workmanship. Cut out of solid blocks of stone, their +carving shows all the interlacing lines and exquisite finish of +detail, purely ornamental, that marks the pre-Gothic period in the +South of France, when the artistic spirit of Christianity was still +confined to the close imitation of Roman and Byzantine art. + +The Church of Notre Dame du Puy, built upon a height, as the word +_puy_ implies, is likewise interesting only in respect of details, +such as the sculptured archivolts of the portal and the +fourteenth-century rose-window. It, however, contains a very +remarkable example of sixteenth-century wood-carving in its massive +and elaborate reredos, a portion of which, having been destroyed by +fire, has been repaired with plaster, but so skilfully that it is very +difficult to perceive where the artistic fraud begins and where it +ends. + +The extraordinary interest of Figeac to the archaeologist lies, +however, in its civic and domestic architecture. This has been +preserved simply because the inhabitants have for centuries played no +part in the political history of the country, and their pursuits or +interests having remained constantly agricultural, they have been +equally cut off from the commercial movement. But every year will +diminish the charm of this dirty old town to the antiquary. It will be +observed that all the old streets are not accidentally crooked, but +that they have been carefully laid out on curved or zigzag lines, +which turn now in one direction and now in another. The motive was a +defensive one in view of street-fighting, which was often so terrible +and so prolonged in the Middle Ages. Each curve of a street formed an +obstacle to the onward rush of an enemy, and only allowed those +burghers who were actually engaged to be exposed to arrows and bolts. +The townsmen could dispute the ground inch by inch and for days, as +they did at Cahors when they were surprised by Henry of Navarre, +although firearms had then come into use. + +Wine-growing, until some eight or ten years ago, was the chief source +of revenue to the people of Figeac, as well as to those in the +neighbouring valley of the Lot. Middle-aged people here can recollect +the days when wine was so cheap that the inn-keepers did not take the +trouble to measure it out to their customers, but charged them a +uniform price of two sous for stopping and drinking as much as they +pleased. But all this has been changed by the phylloxera. From being +exceptionally prosperous, the people of the district have become poor. +Very few have now any money to lay out in replanting their vineyards. +Land has so fallen in value that it can be bought at a price that +seems scarcely credible. With £100 one might become the proprietor of +a large vineyard. Higher up the hills, where the chestnut and juniper +thrive, half the money would buy quite a considerable estate. Here and +elsewhere in France thousands of acres lie uncultivated and +unproductive, except as regards that which nature unaided renders to +man. Not all, but a very large portion, of this waste-land would well +repay cultivation if the capital needed for clearing and working it +were obtainable. That the lands suitable for wine-growing could be +rendered remunerative is absolutely certain if those who undertook the +task had the money necessary for the first outlay of planting and +could afford to wait for the return. + +The valley of the Cele between Figeac and the junction of the little +river with the Lot contains some of the most picturesque scenery to be +found in the Quercy. About ten miles below Figeac it becomes a gorge, +which until past the middle of the present century was almost cut off +from communication with neighbouring towns. All the carrying was done +on the backs of mules and donkeys; but since the road was made along +the right bank of the Cele, these animals have been used less and +less. It is no uncommon thing, however, to see now a heavily-laden +pack-mule coming up the valley to the Figeac fair. It was in their +rock-fortresses by the Cele that the English companies in Guyenne are +said to have made their final resistance. The long and sustained +efforts which were needed to dislodge them from their almost +inaccessible fastnesses will be understood by anyone who may go +wayfaring like myself along the banks of this tributary of the Lot. + +For the first two hours the walk was unexciting, for the valley was +too wide and too cultivated to give much pleasure to the eye that +looks for character in nature. At the village of Corn there was a +decided change. Here lofty honeycombed rocks rose behind the houses +that were built not very far above the stream, whose swiftness is +supposed to have been the origin of its name. Not one of the several +caverns extends far into the cliff. Their chief interest lies in the +traditions with which they are associated. In one of them the +inhabitants of the little burg are said to have assembled in the +Middle Ages to elect their consuls freely, and to escape possible +annoyance from their lord, whose castle was on the opposite hill. +Another, still called the Citadel, was that in which they took refuge +from the enemy, especially from the roving bands of armed men who made +common cause with England. In 1380 Bertrand de Bassoran, captain of an +English company, captured Corn, and using this place as his _point +d'appui_, he placed garrisons in the neighbouring burgs of Brengues, +Sauliac, and Cabrerets. He also compelled the consuls of Cajarc to +treat with him. + +After a hasty meal in a little inn where I had to be satisfied mainly +with good intentions, I called upon the schoolmaster. The poor man was +spending most of his dinner-hour on the threshold of his small +school-house amidst the rocks because some unruly or idle urchins were +'kept in.' How much pleasanter, I thought, it would have been for him +to have produced in their case a wholesome cutaneous irritation, and +set himself, as well as the young reprobates, free! But the French law +does not tolerate the corporal punishment of children nowadays, +although the exasperated pedagogue cannot always resist the temptation +of applying his ruler upon a bunch of grimy little knuckles. This +schoolmaster, although he was past the age of fifty and had grown +corpulent, was still tied fast to the village schoolroom that was much +too small to hold thirty children comfortably. By the aid of reading, +writing, and arithmetic, he had got into a little creek where he was +safe from the stormy seas of life, and he had never allowed his +ambition to draw him out into the ocean. Nevertheless, he nursed and +rocked his little vanity like the rest of mortals. He had written what +he termed a 'Monograph of Corn.' He brought out from his desk a +copybook wherein he had set it all down with the utmost attention to +upstrokes and downstrokes and punctuation. It was a pleasure to him to +find somebody to whom he could read what he had written, and he had in +me an attentive listener. + +Wandering on by the winding Cele, the charm of the little river made +me sit down upon a bank to look at the pictures that were painted on +the water by the sunshine, the clouds, and the poplars. Then, +continuing my journey, I saw on the opposite side of the stream a +cluster of houses with an ancient church in their midst, and almost +detached from this church, and yet a part of it, a tower like a +campanile capped by a wooden belfry with pointed roof and far-reaching +eaves. A bridge led across the water. I found the village to be Sainte +Eulalie d'Espagnac. Here there existed from the early Middle Ages a +celebrated convent for women of the order of St. Augustine. The +founder, Aymeric d'Hebrard, was the Bishop of a see in Spain, and he +brought thence Moorish slaves to cultivate the land with which he had +endowed his community of a hundred nuns. Down to the Revolution most +of the daughters of the nobility in the Quercy were educated here. +Little is now left of the conventual building; but the church contains +architectural details of much interest, and the tombs of those +irreconcilable enemies of the English, Bertrand de Cardaillac, Bishop +of Cahors, and the Marquis de Cardaillac--the most famous warrior of +this bellicose and illustrious family. + +Having reached the village of Brengues, I went immediately in search +of the English rock-fortress of which I had already heard. A path led +me up the steep hillside to the foot of a long line of high rocks of +yellowish limestone, so escarped and so forbidding to vegetable life +that I did not see even a wild fig-tree hanging from a crevice. A path +ran along at the base of this prodigious wall, from the top of which +stretched the arid _causse_. I had only gone a little way when I saw +before me a fortified Gothic gateway jutting out from the rock to +which it was attached, and extending across the path to where the hill +became so steep as to sufficiently protect from assault on that side +those who had a motive for defending the ledge under the high cliff. I +examined this old piece of masonry with much curiosity. + +The pointed form of the arch disposes of the hypothesis which has been +put forward without much reflection, that this legacy of the old wars +in Guyenne is part of the defences raised in the country by the +unfortunate Waifre, Duke of Aquitaine, when he was being chased from +rock to rock by his relentless enemy. Here we have work that is +evidently not anterior to the English occupation, and which in all +probability belongs to the fourteenth or the early part of the +fifteenth century. Now, as Brengues was undoubtedly one of those +places where the English companies firmly established themselves, and +to which they clung with great tenacity, there is very small risk of +error is coming to the conclusion that it was they who built this +fortified gateway. The masonry, composed of carefully-shaped stones, +and laid together with an excellent mortar that has become as durable +as the rock itself, has been wonderfully preserved. Had it been placed +in the valley it would have been pulled down long ago, and the +materials would have been used for building houses or pigsties. The +upper part of the wall is dilapidated, so that it is impossible to say +whether it was originally embattled or not. There is no staircase, but +the defenders had doubtless a suspended plank or beam on which they +stood when they wished to shoot arrows or bolts over the top of the +wall. On the side nearest the rock is a splayed opening ending +outwardly in a crosslet large enough for three or four men to use at +the same time. + +This gateway was only an outwork to defend the ledge of rock. About +two hundred yards farther is a cavern some twenty or thirty feet above +the path, and only accessible by means of a ladder. It has been walled +up, openings being left here and there for loopholes. Near the top is +a row of three windows without arches, and at the base an opening that +served for a door, and which could easily be closed up. Although the +stones were shaped for building, they were laid together without +mortar; but the wall is so thick, and so protected by its position, +that this rough fortification has remained almost unchanged from the +date of its construction. It is a much less finished piece of work +than the gateway, but there are other rock-fortresses in the district, +attributed by general consent to the English, so similar to it in +character that there is no reason for doubting that the companies +built this one also. It is probable, however, that the gateway already +mentioned, and the one that corresponded to it on the other side of +the cavern, but of which few vestiges can now be seen, were +constructed subsequently, when the science of fortification was better +understood by the _routiers_. Such a fortress could never have been +used in a military sense by a large number of men, but to a band of +brigands and cut-throats it was a stronghold of the first order. As +they doubtless laid up in their cavern a large store of the provisions +which they obtained by their continual forays in the surrounding +region, they were capable of withstanding a long siege even against an +enemy many times as numerous as themselves, for the reason that only a +few men could attack them at the same time, and the defenders had an +enormous advantage in the struggle. It is a very general belief in the +district that there was formerly a passage by which this cavern +communicated with the _causse_; no trace of it, however, has been +discovered. + +M. Delpon, author of a work published in 1831, and entitled +'Statistique du Departement du Lot,' mentions these fortified caverns +of the Quercy in the following passage, which gives a vivid picture of +the kind of life that the English companies led and made others lead +in the fourteenth century: + +'They (the English) possessed in the Quercy the forts of Roc-Amadour, +Castelnau, Verdale, Vayrac, Lagarennie, Sabadel, Anglars, Frayssinet, +Boussac and Assier, and some other castles on escarped hills from +which it was difficult to expel them. They also seized upon caverns +formed by nature in the flanks of precipitous rocks, and fortified +them with walls in which all the character of English structures can +still be recognised. The garrisons that occupied these places +represented six thousand lances distributed over the Quercy, the +Rouergue, and High Auvergne. When they sallied forth, the earth, to +use an expression of one or their chiefs, Emerigot, surnamed Black +Head, trembled under their feet.[*] They robbed travellers, made +citizens prisoners--especially ecclesiastics--in order to extort +exorbitant ransoms, they took from the peasants their beasts and their +crops, and forced them to work in strengthening the dens of their +spoliators with new fortifications. In fine, the Quercy was +continually devastated, and the inhabitants only tilled the earth to +satisfy the avidity of the English companies. The population could +shield themselves from their violence only by concealing themselves in +subterranean retreats, where traces of their sojourn are still +observable. The English were continually recruited by all the depraved +men of the provinces which they laid under contribution.' + + [*] The entire passage from which these words are taken is to be + found in Froissart's chronicles, and it runs as follows, the + spelling being modernized: 'Que nous etions rejouis quand nous + chevaussions a l'aventure et que nous pouvions trouver sur le + champ un riche prieur ou marchand ou des mulets de Montpellier, + de Narbonne, de Carcassone, de Limoux, de Beziers, de Toulouse, + charges de draps, de brunelles, de pelleterie, venant de la foire + de Landit, d'epiceries venant de Bruges, de draps de soie, de + Damas ou d'Alexandrie. Les vilains nous pourvoyaient et + apportaient dans nos chateaux le ble, la farine, le pain tout + cuit, l'avoine pour les chevaux, le bon vin, les boeufs, les + brebis, les moutons tous gras, la poulaille et la volataille. + Nous etions servis, gouvernes et etoffes comme rois et princes, + et quand nous chevaussions le pays tremblait devant nous.' + +This last remark is only too well justified by the evidence which +those centuries have handed down. Indeed, to such an extent were these +companies composed of Aquitanians, that one may well ask if some of +them contained a single genuine Englishman. I have found no record in +the Quercy of the captain of a company of _routiers_ having borne an +Anglo-Saxon name. Two English captains who took Figeac by surprise (a +document relating to this event, written in Latin of the fourteenth +century, is to be found in the municipal archives) were named Bertrand +de Lebret and Bertrand de Lasale. Those who captured Martel had names +equally French. There is, of course, the hypothesis that these leaders +were Anglicised Normans, but the stronger probability is that they +were native adventurers of Aquitaine who found it to their interest to +place themselves under the protection of the King of England. + +Towards the close of the fourteenth century, all those who wished to +drive the English out of Guyenne rallied round the chiefs of the house +of Armagnac. This great family of the Rouergue, which was ultimately +absorbed by the Royal House of France and became extinct, at one time +espoused the British cause; but it contributed more than any other to +the final dispersion of the English companies in Guyenne. In 1381 the +people of the Gevaudan, the Quercy, and High Auvergne, solicited the +help of the Count of Armagnac against the companies, and he accepted +the leadership of the coalition. He convened a meeting of delegates at +Rodez, to which the English chiefs were invited, and the decision that +was then come to did not say much for the sagacity or the valour of +those who represented the majority. It was agreed that the sum of +250,000 francs--equivalent to about £200,000 to-day--should be paid to +the English on condition of their surrendering the fortresses which +they occupied. This fact goes far to prove that the companies were +virtually independent, and that although all their outrages were +ostensibly committed in the British name, they were freebooters in the +fullest sense of the word. Of the sum that was to be paid to them, the +clergy were to contribute 25,000 francs, the nobles 16,660. The +inhabitants of the Quercy agreed to pay 50,833 francs. The captains of +the companies took oath that on receiving the money they would quit +Guyenne for ever. They may have kept their oath, but their followers +were not to be induced to change their habits so easily. The +_routiers_, still going by the name of the English companies, +continued to hold the least accessible places in Guyenne, fortified in +the main by nature, until long after the British sovereigns had +abandoned their ambitious designs in France. + +In the fifteenth century so many of the inhabitants of the Quercy had +been killed or ruined by the companies that some districts were almost +depopulated. In the town of Gramat there were only seven inhabitants +left at the close of the Hundred Years' War. In order that the lands +should not remain uncultivated, the nobles enfeoffed them to strangers +from the Rouergue and other neighbouring provinces. This circumstance +is supposed to account in a large measure for the differences in +dialect which are to be observed in adjoining communes. There is no +evidence to-day, so far as I have been able to ascertain, of English +words having been introduced into the Languedocian of Guyenne. The +striking resemblance of many _patois_ words to those of the English +language bearing the same meaning--a resemblance that is helped by the +Southern pronunciation of vowels and diphthongs--must be referred to +linguistic influences far more remote and obscure than the political +fact that Guyenne was intimately connected with English history for +three hundred years. For example, that familiar animal the cat is +called in Guyenne _lou catou_ and even _lou cat_; but the word belongs +to the Romance language, and is the same all through Languedoc and +Provence. The fact that the English left no mark upon the language in +Guyenne is almost a conclusive proof that such of the Anglo-Saxon +stock as followed the Norman leaders into Aquitaine, and who remained +in the country any length of time, were not sufficiently numerous to +impose their idiom upon others. They probably did not preserve it long +themselves; but, like the English grooms who find occupation in France +today, they quickly adopted the language that was generally spoken +around them. Patient investigation might, nevertheless, show that the +English did leave some of their words, as well as their blood, in the +country. It would, indeed, be astonishing if this were not so. Even +the Greek colony at Marseilles and Aries, although far removed, must +have influenced the dialect of Guyenne; for the peasants of the Quercy +use the word _hermal_ to describe a piece of waste land bordering a +cultivated field, the origin of which expression was, doubtless, +Hermes, the god of boundaries. This is not the only Greek word that +has been corrupted, but nevertheless preserved, in the Quercy +_patois_. + +Wherever the English were long established in their fastnesses amidst +the rocks which form the rugged sides of the deep-cut gorges of the +Quercy, many of the inhabitants have clung, century after century, to +the belief that the terrible freebooters buried a prodigious amount of +treasure with the intention of returning and fetching it on the first +opportunity. So persistently was this tradition handed down at +Brengues that many years ago a cavern, the entrance of which had been +covered over with stones and earth, having been accidentally +discovered on the plateau just above the Chateau des Anglais, it was +eagerly explored, as well as a similar cavern close by. The excitement +was increased by the circumstance that the discovery of these openings +appeared to coincide with the indications of a local witch. It was +evident that the caverns had at one time been used by men, for they +contained masonry put together with mortar. By dint of excavating, +hidden galleries were revealed; but although a human skeleton was +discovered, no treasure was found. The explorers, however, came upon a +vast collection of bones of extinct animals, and of others which, +although they are now to be found both in the Arctic and in the +tropical regions, have not existed in a state of nature in France +during the historic period. The bones of the reindeer, for instance, +were found lying with those of the hyena and the rhinoceros, many of +them embedded in the calcareous breccia so frequently seen in the +valley of the Cele. Here was evidence of a glacial and a torrid +period, separated by an aeonic gulf; but how the remains came to be +piled one upon another in this way is a secret of the ancient earth. +There are prodigious layers of these bones lying at a great depth in +the rock, where there is no cavern to suggest that the animals entered +by it, or that they were taken there by man. The beds of phosphate +which English enterprise has turned to so good an account in this part +of France, and which are followed in the earth just like a seam of +coal or a vein of metal, are merely layers of bones. While I was at +Brengues, the skeleton of a young rhinoceros was discovered in the +phosphate mine at Cajarc. + +On the hill above the Cele, on the side opposite to that where the +Chateau des Anglais is to be seen, are the remains of an entrenched +camp, upon the origin of which it is almost idle to speculate. In the +same neighbourhood is a cavern situated high up in the face of a +perpendicular rock. It is inaccessible by ordinary means; but a beam +fixed at the entrance, and worn into a deep groove by a rope, shows +that it was used as a refuge. A tradition says that Waifre hid himself +there. + +I passed the night at Brengues, and was awakened in the early morning +by the jingle of bells just beneath my window, and a man's voice +repeating, 'Te, Te, Te!' A couple of bullocks were being yoked, and +presently they followed the man towards the fields of tobacco and +maize by the little river, already shining in the sun. Very soon +afterwards I, too, had begun my day's work. + +In a little more than an hour I was at the next village--St. Sulpice. +Here above the houses, huddled together like sheep on the lower steep +of the right-hand hill, were the ruins of a castle, hanging to the +rock that dwarfed it even in the days of its pride. I climbed to it, +and found that it was built on terraces one above the other, formed by +the rocky shelves. A considerable portion of the strong wall at the +base of the structure remains, and on each terrace there is something +left of the feudal fortress. Ivy, with gnarled and fantastic stocks, +has so overspread the masonry in places that hardly a gray stone shows +through the dense matting of sombre leaves and hoary, wrinkled stems. +Multitudes of bats cling to the ruinous vaulting where the light is +very dim, and lurk in the hollows of the rock. A stone thrown up will +bring them fluttering down and whirling about the head of the +intruder, noiselessly as if they were the ghosts that haunt the spot, +but dare not reveal to the eye of man the human shape that they once +wore. This castle belonged, and still belongs, to the D'Hebrard +family, which was connected by marriage with the Cardaillacs and most +of the ancient aristocracy of the Quercy. + +Leaving St. Sulpice, another hour's walk down the valley brought me to +Marcillac, which, after Figeac, was the most important place on the +Cele in the Middle Ages. It is now, however, a mere village. According +to local historians, it was here that Palladius, Bishop of Bourges, +retired in the fifth century to escape from the persecution of the +Arians. Nothing, however, that has been written of its history, prior +to the ninth or tenth century, can be accepted with any confidence. +What can be safely affirmed is, that here, between the rocky cliffs +that border the Cele, arose one of the earliest of the Benedictine +abbeys in France. The ruined cloisters of the monastery have all the +severe charm of the simple Romanesque style of the early period, but +there is no means of knowing whether they date from the tenth, +eleventh, or twelfth century. There are several beautiful capitals +elaborately embellished with intersecting line ornament still +preserved, although no value whatever is placed upon them by the +inhabitants. The cloisters are used for stables, and other common farm +purposes. + +The abbey church must have fallen into complete ruin, when a portion +of it was restored and rebuilt in the fifteenth century. Then about +half the nave--the western end--was cut off, and left open to the +weather. It is roofless, and the visitor walking, now in deep shadow, +now in brilliant light, as the fragments of masonry may hide or reveal +the sun, sees the blue sky through the arches and over the tops of the +ivy-covered walls. This part of the old church shows the transition +between the Romanesque and the Gothic styles. + +It would have been a slight upon Marcillac had I left the place +without seeing the most famous of its caverns, which goes by the name +of the Grotte de Robinet. I might have looked for it in vain all day +had I not taken a guide. + +First, the _causse_ had to be reached by ascending the cliffs on the +right bank of the Cele. Then I saw before me the stony undulating +land, with the sad sentiment of which I had already grown so familiar. +An old woman, nearly doubled up with age and field labour, but who +plied her distaff as she led her black goats to browse upon the waste, +made me understand that the solitude was not altogether bereft of +human life. After walking a mile or so, we descended into a deep +hollow wooded with those dwarf oaks which, together with the juniper, +hid at one time most of the nakedness of these calcareous tracts that +stretch from gorge to gorge. One might have supposed that such a dale +would have had a spring at the bottom; but no: everywhere it was +parched, arid, and rocky. The rain that falls all around goes to swell +some deep subterranean stream that issues no one knows where. This +peculiarity of the formation explains why nearly all the _caussenards_ +have no water, either for themselves or their animals, except that +which they collect from the skies in tanks sunk in the earth. Since +the failure of the vines--which formerly flourished upon the _causses_ +wherever there was a favourable slope--the peasants have learnt to +make a mildly alcoholic liquor by gathering and fermenting the juniper +berries, which previously they had never put to any use. + +We had nearly ascended the opposite side of this wooded hollow, when +the guide, pointing through the sunlit trees to a very dark but narrow +opening in the rocks, said, 'There it is!' We had reached the cavern. +He went first, carrying aloft a wisp of burning straw, which he +renewed from time to time from the bundle that he carried under his +arm. + +The practice of burning straw, so that people may have a good flare-up +for their money, has, together with the selfish custom of throwing +stones at the stalactites, gone far to spoil all the caverns of this +region, which have been much visited. The Grotte de Robinet must have +been dazzlingly beautiful at one time, but now most of the stalagmite +and stalactite has been completely blackened by smoke. Even the rocks, +over which one has to climb, and sometimes crawl, are covered with a +sooty slime, which gives one the appearance, when daylight returns, of +having been smeared with lamp-black. I put on a blouse before +entering, and had great reason to be glad that I did so. In spite of +all the mischief that has been done to it, the Grotte de Robinet is a +very remarkable cavern, and the time spent on the somewhat arduous and +slippery task of exploring its depths is not wasted. Its length is +about half a mile, and the descent, which is almost continuous, is at +times very rapid. The passage connects a succession of vast and lofty +spaces, which are not inappropriately termed _salles_. In some of +these, the dropping water has raised from the floor of the cavern +statuesque and awful forms of colossal grandeur. Some of these have +been little changed by the smoke, but stand like white figures of +fantastic giants. While looking at them, I thought how little I should +like to be in the position of a certain _cure_ of Marcillac, who spent +three days and three nights in this weird company. He frequently +entered the cavern alone, with a scientific object, and his +familiarity with it led him to despise ordinary precautions. One day +he was far underground, with only a single candle in his possession, +and no matches. A drop of water from the roof put the candle out, and +all his efforts to return by the way he came were futile. Meanwhile, +his parishioners, hunting high and low for their _cure_, chanced to +see his _soutane_, where he had left it, hanging to a bush at the +entrance of the Grotte de Robinet, and when they rescued him, there +was very little left of his passion for studying nature underground. + +The most wonderful and the most beautiful object in the cavern is to +be seen in the vast hall, which is the last of the series. This hall +has a dome-shaped roof that rises to the height of about sixty feet, +and it is supported in the centre, with every appearance of an +architectural motive, by a single slender column that seems to have +been carved with consummate skill out of alabaster. No image that I +can think of conveys the picture of this exquisite stalagmite so +justly as that of a column formed of the blossoms of lilies, each cup +resting within another. + +Having left Marcillac, I passed under the mediaeval village of +Sauliac, built high up on a shelf of naked rock, and then reached +Cabrerets, which lies two or three miles above the junction of the +Cele and the Lot. The village is at the foot of towering limestone +cliffs, and many of the houses are built against the gray and yellow +stone. The most interesting structure, however, is the castellated one +that clings to the face of the rock far above all inhabited dwellings. +It goes by the name of the Chateau du Diable, and it is the most +considerable of all the rock-fortresses in the valleys of the Cele and +the Lot which are attributed to the English companies. It possesses +towers and embattlements, and it was evidently intended to defend the +defile from any force advancing from the wider valley. Here, +doubtless, many a desperate struggle occurred before the companies +were dispersed and English influence was finally overcome in these +wilds of the Quercy. At a little distance from it, the long iron of a +mediaeval arrow, having fastened its head in a cleft of the rock, +remained sticking there for centuries, and was only recently removed. +The Prefect of the Department took a fancy to it, and had not the good +judgment to leave it where it had so long been an object of curiosity. +There, resting in the place where the arm of the archer had cast it, +it told a story of the old wars, and set the imagination working; but +in a collection of local antiquities it is as dumb and almost as +worthless as any other piece of old iron. + + + + +IN THE ALBIGEOIS. + + +A long dull road or street, a statue of the navigator La Perouse, a +bandstand with a few trees about it, and plain, modern buildings +without character, some larger and more pretentious than others, but +all uninteresting. Is this Albi? No, but it is what appears to be so +to the stranger who enters the place from the railway-station. The +ugly sameness is what the improving spirit of our own times has done +to make the ancient town decent and fit to be inhabited by folk who +have seen something of the world north of Languedoc and who have +learnt to talk of _le comfortable_. The improvement is undoubted, but +so is the absolute lack of interest and charm; at least, to those who +are outside of the _persiennes_ so uniformly closed against the summer +sun. + +Albi, the veritable historic Albi, lies almost hidden upon a slope +that leads down to the Tarn. Here is the marvellous cathedral built in +the thirteenth century, after the long wars with the Albigenses; here +is the Archbishop's fortified palace, still capable of withstanding a +siege if there were no artillery; here are the old houses, one of +pre-Gothic construction with very broad Romanesque window, slender +columns and storied capitals, billet and arabesque mouldings; another +of the sixteenth century quite encrusted with carved wood; and here +are the dirty little streets like crooked lanes, where old women, who +all through the summer months, Sundays excepted, give their feet an +air-bath, may be seen sitting on the doorsteps clutching with one bony +hand the distaff and drowsily turning the spindle with the other. + +To live in one of these streets might disgust the unseasoned stranger +for ever with Southern life; but to roam through them in the early +twilight is the way to find the spirit of the past without searching. +Effort spoils the spell. Strange indeed must have been the procession +of races, parties and factions that passed along here between these +very houses, or others which stood before them. Romans, Romanised +Gauls, Visigoths, Saracens and English; the Raymonds with their +Albigenses, the Montforts with their Crusaders from the north, the +wild and sanguinary _pastoiureux_ and the lawless _routiers_, the +religious fanatics, Huguenots and Catholics of the sixteenth century, +and the revolutionists of the eighteenth. All passed on their way, and +the Tarn is no redder now for the torrents of blood that flowed into +it. + +Notwithstanding that the name Albigenses was given after the council +of Lombers to the new Manichaeans, Albi was less identified with the +great religious and political struggle of Southern Gaul in the twelfth +and thirteenth centuries than were Castres and other neighbouring +towns. If, however, it was comparatively fortunate as regards the +horrors of that ferocious war, it was severely scourged by the most +appalling epidemics of the Middle Ages. Leprosy and the pest had +terrors greater even than those of battle. The cruelty of those feudal +ages finds one of its innumerable records in the treatment of the +miserable lepers at Albi. Having taken the disease which the Crusaders +brought back from the East, they were favoured with a religious +ceremony distressingly similar to the office for the dead. A black +pall was thrown over them while they knelt at the altar steps. At the +close of the service a priest sprinkled some earth on the condemned +wretches, and then they were led to the leper-house, where each was +shut up in a cell from which he never came out alive. The black pall +and the sprinkled earth were symbols which every patient understood +but too well. + +[Illustration: PORCH OF THE CATHEDRAL OF ALBI.] + +In nothing is the stern spirit of those ages expressed more forcibly +than in the religious buildings of Languedoc. The cathedral of St. +Cecilia at Albi is the grandest of all the fortified churches of +Southern France, although in many others the defensive purpose has +made less concession to beauty. Looking at it for the first time, the +eye is wonder-struck by its originality, the nobleness of its design, +and the grandeur of its mass. The plan being that of a vast vaulted +basilica without aisles, the walls of the nave, rise sheer from the +ground to above the roof, and are pierced at intervals with lofty but +very narrow windows, the arches slightly pointed and containing simple +tracery. The buttresses which help the walls to support the vaulting +of the nave and choir are the most remarkable feature of the design, +and, together with the tower, which rises in diminishing stages to the +height of 260 feet and there ends in an embattled platform, account +for the singularly feudal and fortress-like character of the building. +The outline of the buttresses being that of a semi-ellipse, they look +like turrets carried up the entire face of the wall. The floor of the +church is many feet above the ground, and the entrance was originally +protected by a drawbridge and portcullis; but these military works +were removed in the sixteenth century, and in their place was raised, +upon a _perron_ reached by a double flight of steps, a baldachino-like +porch as airily graceful and delicately florid as the body to which it +is so lightly attached is majestically stern and scornful of ornament. +The meeting here of those two great forces, the Renaissance and +feudalism, is like that of Psyche and Mars. But in expression the +porch is Gothic, for although the arches are round-headed, they are +surmounted by an embroidery of foliated gables and soaring pinnacles. +It can scarcely be said that the style has been broken, but the +contrast in feeling is strong. + +Enter the church and observe the same contrast there. Gothic art +within the protecting walls and under the strong tower puts forth its +most delicate leaves and blossoms. Across the broad nave, nearly in +the centre, is drawn a rood-screen--a piece of stonework that has +often been compared to lace, but which gains nothing by the +comparison. The screen, together with the enclosure of the choir, with +which it is connected, is quite bewildering by the multiplicity of +arches, gables, tabernacles, pinnacles, statues, leaves, and flowers. +The tracery is flamboyant, and the work dates from the beginning of +the sixteenth century. The artificers are said to have been a company +of wandering masons from Strasburg. + +Two vast drum-shaped piers, serving to support the tower, are exposed +to view at the west end of the nave; but, for the bad effect thus +produced, compensation is offered by the very curious paintings, +supposed to be of the fifteenth century, with which the surfaces of +these piers are covered. They represent the Last Judgment and the +torments of the damned. Each of the seven capital sins has its +compartment, wherein the kind of punishment reserved for sinners under +this head is set forth in a manner as quaint as are the inscriptions +in old French beneath. The compartment, illustrating the eternal +trouble of the envious has this inscription: + + + '_La peine des envieux et envieuses_. Les envieus et envieuses sont + en ung fleuve congele plonges jusques au nombril et par dessus les + frappe un vent moult froid et quant veulent icelluy vent eviter se + plongent dedans ladite glace.' + + +All the wall-surfaces, the vaulting included, are covered with +paintings. The effect clashes with Northern taste, but the absence of +a columnar system affords a plausible reason for relieving the +sameness of these large surfaces with colour. The Gothic style of the +North, holding in itself such decorative resources, gains nothing from +mural paintings, but always loses something of its true character when +they are added. Apart from such considerations, the wall-paintings in +the cathedral of Albi have accumulated such interest from time that no +reason would excuse their removal. + +This unique church was mainly built at the close of the thirteenth +century, together with the Archbishop's palace, with which it was +connected in a military sense by outworks. These have disappeared, but +the fortress called a palace remains, and is still occupied by the +Archbishop. It is a gloomy rectangular mass of brick, absolutely +devoid of elegance, but one of the most precious legacies of the +Middle Ages in France. It is not so vast as the papal palace at +Avignon, but its feudal and defensive character has been better +preserved, for, unlike the fortress by the Rhone, it has not been +adapted to the requirements of soldiers' barracks. At each of the +angles is a round tower, pierced with loopholes, and upon the +intervening walls are far-descending machicolations. The building is +still defended on the side of the Tarn by a wall of great height and +strength, the base of which is washed by the river in time of flood. +This rampart, with its row of semi-elliptical buttresses corresponding +to those of the church and its pepper-box tower at one end, the +fortress a little above, and the cathedral on still higher ground, but +in immediate neighbourhood, make up an assemblage of mediaeval +structures that seems as strange in this nineteenth century as some +old dream rising in the midst of day-thoughts. And the rapid Tarn, an +image of perpetual youth, rushes on as it ever did since the face of +Europe took its present form. + +As I write, other impressions come to mind of this ancient town on the +edge of the great plain of Languedoc. A little garden in the outskirts +became familiar to me by daily use, and I see it still with its almond +and pear trees, its trellised vines, the blue stars of its borage, and +the pure whiteness of its lilies. A bird seizes a noisy cicada from a +sunny leaf, and as it flies away the captive draws out one long scream +of despair. Then comes the golden evening, and its light stays long +upon the trailing vines, while the great lilies gleam whiter and their +breath floods the air with unearthly fragrance. A murmur from across +the plain is growing louder and louder as the trees lose their edges +in the dusk, for those noisy revellers of the midsummer night, the +jocund frogs, have roused themselves, and they welcome the darkness +with no less joy than the swallows some hours later will greet the +breaking dawn. + +I left Albi to ascend the valley of the Tarn in the last week of June. +I started when the sun was only a little above the plain; but the line +of white rocks towards the north, from which Albi is supposed to take +its name, had caught the rays and were already burning. The straight +road, bordered with plane-trees, on which I was walking would have had +no charm but for certain wayside flowers. There was a strange-looking +plant with large heart-shaped leaves and curved yellow blossoms ending +in a long upper lip that puzzled me much, and it was afterwards that I +found its name to be _aristolochia clematitis_. It grows abundantly on +the banks of the Tarn. Another plant that I now noticed for the first +time was a galium with crimson flowers. I soon came to the cornfields +for which the Albigeois plain is noted. Here the poppy showed its +scarlet in the midst of the stalks of wheat still green, and along the +borders were purple patches of that sun-loving campanula, Venus's +looking-glass. + +Countrywomen passed me with baskets on their heads, all going into +Albi to sell their vegetables. Those who were young wore white caps +with frills, which, when there is nothing on the head to keep them +down, rise and fall like the crest of a cockatoo; but the old women +were steadfast in their attachment to the bag-like, close-fitting cap, +crossed with bands of black velvet, and having a lace front that +covers most of the forehead. When upon this coif is placed a great +straw hat with drooping brim, we have all that remains now of an +Albigeois costume. As these women passed me, I looked into their +baskets. Some carried strawberries, some cherries, others mushrooms +(_boleti_), or broad beans. The last-named vegetable is much +cultivated throughout this region, where it is largely used for making +soup. When very young, the beans are frequently eaten raw with salt. +Almost every taste is a matter of education. + +The heat of the day had commenced when I reached the village of +Lescure. This place is of very ancient origin. Looking at it now, and +its agricultural population numbering little more than a thousand, it +is difficult to realize its importance in the Middle Ages. The castle +and the adjacent land were given in the year 1003 by King Robert to +his old preceptor, the learned Gerbert, who became known to posterity +as Pope Sylvester II. In the eleventh century, Lescure was, therefore, +a fief of the Holy See; and in the time of Simon de Montfort the +inhabitants were still vassals of the Pope. In the fourteenth century +they were frequently at war with the people of Albi, who eventually +got the upper hand. Then Sicard, the Baron of Lescure, was so +completely humiliated that he not only consented to pay eighty gold +_livres_ to the consuls of Albi, but went before them bareheaded to +ask pardon for himself and his vassals. Already the feudal system was +receiving hard blows in the South of France from the growth of the +communes and the authority vested in their consuls. What is left of +the feudal grandeur of Lescure? The castle was sold in the second year +of the Republic, and entirely demolished, with the exception of the +chapel, which is now the parish church. Of the outer fortifications +there remains a brick gateway, with Gothic arch carrying a high +machicolated tower, connected to which is a fragment of the wall. To +this old houses, half brick, half wood, still cling, like those little +wasps' nests that one sees sometimes upon the sides of the rocks. + +On entering the small fourteenth-century church, I found that it had +been decorated for a funeral. A broad band of black drapery, upon +which had been sewn at intervals Death's heads and tears, cut out of +white calico, was hung against the wall of the apse, and carried far +down each side of the nave. To me all those grinning white masks were +needless torture to the mourners; but here again we are brought to +recognise that taste is a matter of education. + +More interesting than anything else in this church is the Romanesque +holy-water stoup, with heads and crosses carved upon it, and possibly +belonging to the original chapel of the castle. The chief +archaeological treasure, however, of Lescure is a church on a little +hill above the village, and overlooking the Tarn. It is dedicated to +St. Michael, in accordance with the mediaeval custom of considering +the highest ground most appropriate to the veneration of the +archangel. It is Romanesque of the eleventh century, and belonged to a +priory of which no other trace is left. The building stands in the +midst of an abandoned cemetery; and at the time of my visit the tall +June grasses, the poppies and white campions hid every mound and +almost every wooden cross. Over the gateway, carved in the stone, is +the following quaint inscription, the spelling being similar to that +frequently used in the sixteenth century: + + 'Sur la terre autrefois nous fumes comme vous. + Mortels penses y bien et pries Dieu pour nous.' + +Beneath these lines are a skull and cross-bones, with a tear on each +side. + +Facing the forgotten graves, upon this spot removed from all +habitations, is the most beautiful Romanesque doorway of the +Albigeois. The round-headed arch widening outwards, its numerous +archivolts and mouldings, the slender columns of the deeply-recessed +jambs, the storied capitals with their rudely-proportioned but +expressive little figures, and the row of uncouth bracket-heads over +the crowning archivolt, represent the best art of the eleventh +century. They show that Romanesque architecture and sculpture had +already reached their perfect expression in Languedoc. The figures in +the capitals tell the story of Adam and Eve, Abraham and Isaac, and of +fiends busily engaged in tormenting mortals who must have been in +their clutches now eight hundred years. The nave has two aisles, and +massive piers with engaged columns support the transverse and lateral +arches. The columns have very large capitals, displaying human +figures, some of which are extraordinarily fantastic, and instinct +with a wild imagination still running riot in stone. How far are we +now from the minds that bred these thoughts when Southern Gaul was +struggling to develop a new Roman art by the aid of such traditions +and models as the Visigoth, the Frank, and the Arab had not destroyed +in the country, and such ideas as were brought along the Mediterranean +from Byzantium! + +Lastly, I came to the apse, that part of a Romanesque church in which +the artist seizes the purely religious ideal, or allows it to escape +him. Here was the serenity, here the quietude of the early Christian +purpose and hope. Perfect simplicity and perfect eloquence! Nothing +more is to be said, except that there were stone benches against the +wall and a piscina--details interesting to the archaeologist. Then I +walked round the little church, knee-deep in the long grave-grass, and +noted the broad pilaster-strips of the apse, the stone eaves +ornamented with billets, the bracket or corbel heads just beneath, +fantastic, enigmatic, and not two alike. + +Leaving this spot, where there was so much temptation to linger, I +began to cross a highly-cultivated plain towards the village of +Arthez, where the Tarn issues from the deep gorges which for many a +league give it all the character of a mountain-river. I thought from +the appearance of the land that everybody who lived upon it must be +prosperous and happy, but a peasant whom I met was of another way of +thinking. He said: + +'By working from three o'clock in the morning until dark, one can just +manage to earn one's bread.' + +They certainly do work exceedingly hard, these peasant-proprietors and +_metayers_, never counting their hours like the town workmen, but +wishing that the day were longer, and if they can contrive to save +anything in these days it is only by constant self-denial. A man's +labour upon his land to-day will only support him, taking the bad +years with the good, on the condition that he lives a life of +primitive simplicity. Even then the problem of existence is often a +terribly hard one to solve. In the South of France the blame is almost +everywhere laid to the destruction of the vines by the phylloxera, but +here in the plain of Albi the land is quite as suitable for corn as it +is for grape-growing, which is far from being the case elsewhere; +nevertheless, the peasants cry out with one voice against the bad +times. They have to contend with two great scourges: hail that is so +often brought by the thunder-storms in summer, and which the proximity +of the Pyrenees may account for; and the south-east wind--_le vent +d'autan_--that comes across from Africa, and scorches up the crops in +a most mysterious manner. But for this plague the yield of fruit would +be enormous. On the other hand, the region is blessed with lavish +sunshine from early spring until November, and a half-maritime +climate, explained by the neighbourhood of the ocean--not the +Mediterranean--renders long periods of drought such as occur in +Provence and Lower Languedoc rare. In the valleys the soil is +extremely fertile, and, favoured by moisture and warmth, its +productive power is extraordinary. Four crops of lucern are taken from +the same land in the course of a season. Unfortunately, these valleys +being mere gorges--cracks in the plain, with precipitous rocky +sides--the strip of land bordering the stream at the bottom is usually +very narrow. + +On reaching Arthez, the character of the country changed suddenly and +completely. Here the plain with its tertiary deposits ended, and in +its stead commenced the long series of schistous rocks wildly heaped +up and twisted out of their stratification, by which the Tarn is +hemmed in for seventy miles as the crow flies, and nearly twice that +distance if the windings of the gorge be reckoned. When the calcareous +region of the Gevaudan is reached, the schist, slate, and gneiss +disappear. On descending to the level of the river at Arthez, I saw +before me one of the grandest cascades in France--the Saut de Sabo. + +It is not so much the distance that the river falls in its rapid +succession of wild leaps towards the plain as the singularly chaotic +and savage scene of dark rocks and raging waters, together with the +length to which it is stretched out, that is so impressive. The mass +of water, the multitude of cascades, and the wild forms of the rocks, +compose a scene that would be truly sublime if one could behold it in +the midst of an unconquered solitude; but the hideous sooty buildings +of a vast iron foundry on one bank of the river are there to spoil the +charm. + +I stayed in the village of Arthez for food and rest, but not long +enough for the mid-day heat to pass. When I set forth again on my +journey, the air was like the breath of a furnace; but as the slopes +were well wooded with chestnuts, there was some shelter from the rays +of the sun. There were a few patches of vineyard, the leaves showing +the ugly stains of sulphate of copper with which they had been +splashed as a precaution against mildew, which in so many districts +has followed in the wake of the phylloxera, and hastened the +destruction of the old vines. The Albigeois has ceased to be a +wine-producing region, and, judging from present signs, it will be +long in becoming one again. + +The valley, deepening and narrowing, became a gorge, the beginning of +that long series of fissures in the metamorphic and secondary rocks +which, crossing an extensive tract of Languedoc and Guyenne, leads the +traveller up to the Cevennes Mountains, through scenery as wild and +beautiful as any that can be found in France, and perhaps in Europe. +But the difficulties of travelling by the Tarn from Arthez upwards are +great, and, indeed, quite forbidding to those who are not prepared to +endure petty hardships in their search for the picturesque. Between +Albi and St. Affrique, a distance that cannot be easily traversed on +foot in less than four days, railways are not to be thought of, and +the line of route taken by the _diligence_ leaves the Tarn far to the +north. In the valley the roads often dwindle away to mere paths or +mule-tracks, or they are so rocky that riding either upon or behind a +horse over such an uneven surface, with the prospect of being thrown +into the Tarn in the event of a slip, is unpleasant work. Those who +are unwilling to walk or unable to bear much fatigue should not +attempt to follow this river through its gorges. All the difficulties +have not yet been stated. Along the banks of the stream, and for +several miles on either side of it, there are very few villages, and +the accommodation in the auberges is about as rough as it can be. The +people generally are exceedingly uncouth, and between Arthez and +Millau, where a tourist is probably the rarest of all birds of +passage, the stranger must not expect to meet with a reception +invariably cordial. Even a Frenchman who appears for the first time in +one of their isolated villages, and who cannot speak the Languedocian +dialect, is looked upon almost as a foreigner, and is treated with +suspicion by the inhabitants. This matter of language is in itself no +slight difficulty. French is so little known that in many villages the +clergy are compelled to preach in _patois_ to make themselves +understood. + +This region I had now fairly entered. The road had gone somewhere up +the hills, and I was walking beside the river upon sand glittering +with particles of mica. This sand the Tarn leaves all along its banks. +It is one of the most uncertain and treacherous of streams. In a few +hours its water will rise with amazing rapidity and spread +consternation in a district where not a drop of rain has fallen. Warm +winds from the south and south-west, striking against the cold +mountains in the Lozere, have been condensed, and the water has flowed +down in torrents towards the plain. The river is as clear as crystal +now, and the many-coloured pebbles of its bed reflect the light, but a +thunderstorm in the higher country may change it suddenly to the +colour of red earth. + +The path led me into a steep forest, where I lost sight of the Tarn. +The soil was too rocky for the trees--oaks and chestnuts chiefly--to +grow very tall; consequently the underwood, although dense, was +chequered all through with sunshine. Heather and bracken, holly and +box, made a wilderness that spread over all the visible world, for the +opposite side of the gorge was exactly similar. Shining in the sun +amidst the flowering heather or glowing in majestic purple grandeur in +the shade of shrubs stood many a foxglove, and almost as frequently +seen was its relative _digitalis lutea_, whose flowers are much +smaller and of a pale yellow. Now and again a little rill went +whispering downward through the woods under plumes of forget-me-nots +in a deep channel that it had cut by working age after age. Reaching +at length a spot where I could look down into the bottom of the +fissure, I perceived a small stream that was certainly not the Tarn. I +had been ascending one of the lateral gorges of the valley, and had +left the river somewhere to the north. My aim was now to strike it +again in the higher country, and so I kept on my way. But the path +vanished, and the forest became so dense that I was bound to realize +that I was in difficulties. I resolved to try the bank of the stream, +and reached it after some unpleasant experience of rocks, brambles and +holly. Here, however, was a path which I followed nearly to the head +of the gorge and then climbed to the plateau. There the land was +cultivated, and the musical note of a cock turkey that hailed my +coming from afar, as he swaggered in front of his harem on the march, +led me to a spot where a man was mowing, and he told me where I should +find the Tarn, which he, like all other people in the country, +pronounced Tar. + +Evening was coming on when I had crossed this plateau, and I saw far +below me the village of Marsal on the banks of the shining Tarn. The +river here made one of those bold curves which add so much to its +beauty. The little village looked so peaceful and charming that I +decided to seek its hospitality for that night. + +There was but one inn at Marsal that undertook to lodge the stranger, +and very seldom was any claim of the sort made upon it. The peasant +family who lived in it looked to their bit of land and their two or +three cows to keep them, not to the auberge. The bottles of liquor on +the shelf were rarely taken down, except on Sundays, when villagers +might saunter in, to gossip and smoke over coffee and _eau de vie_, or +the glass of absinthe, which, since the failure of the vines in the +South of France, has become there the most convivial of all drinks, +although it makes men more quarrelsome than any other. In these poor +riverside villages, however, where a mere ribbon of land is capable of +cultivation--which, although exceedingly fertile, is constantly liable +to be flooded by the uncertain Tarn--men have so little money in their +pockets that water is their habitual drink, and when they depart from +this rule they make a little dissipation go a very long way. + +I found this single auberge closed, and all the family in an adjoining +field around a waggon already piled with hay, to which a couple of +cows were harnessed. My appearance there brought the pitchforks +suddenly to a rest. If I had been shot up from below like a +stage-devil, these people could not have stared at me with greater +amazement and a more frank expression of distrust. First in _patois_, +and then, seeing that I was at a loss, in scarcely intelligible +French, they asked me what my trade was, and what object I had in +coming to Marsal. I tried to explain that I was not a mischievous +person, that I was travelling merely to look at their beautiful rocks +and gorges, but I failed completely to bring a hospitable expression +into their faces. An old man of the party was the worst to deal with. +He put the greatest number of questions and understood the least +French, and all the while there was a most provokingly keen, +suspicious glitter in his little gray eyes. Presently he beckoned me, +and led the way, as I thought, to the inn; but such was not his +intention. He stopped at the door of the communal school, where the +schoolmaster was already waiting for me, for he had evidently been +warned of the presence of a doubtful-looking stranger, who had come to +the village on foot with a pack on his back, and who, being dressed a +trifle better than the ordinary tramp, was probably the more dangerous +for this reason. Like most of the village schoolmasters in France, +this gentleman was also secretary at the _mairie_, a function highly +stimulating to the sense of self-importance, and no wonder, +considering that the person who fills it frequently supplies the +mayor, who may scarcely be able to sign his name to official +documents, with such intelligence as he may need for his public +duties. + +This schoolmaster was affable and pleasant, but as a crowd quickly +collected to see what would happen, he was not going to let a good +opportunity slip of showing how indispensable he was to the safety of +the village. He said that personally he was quite satisfied with my +explanations, but that in his official capacity he was compelled to +ask me for my papers. These were forthcoming, and the serious official +air with which he pretended to read the English passport from +beginning to end was very pretty comedy, considering that he did not +understand a word of the language. + +Having asserted his importance, and made the desired impression, he +invited me into his house, introduced me to his young wife, who was +charmingly gracious, and who would have been pleased to see any fresh +face at Marsal--English or Hottentot. I was really indebted to the +schoolmaster, for he harangued in _patois_ the people of the inn drawn +up in line, and by seizing a word here and there, I made out that I +was a respectable Englishman travelling to improve my mind, and that +they might receive me into their house without any distrust. And they +did receive me, almost with open arms, when their doubts were removed. + +The old man slunk off, and I never saw him again; but the young couple +to whom the inn had been given up now proved to me that their only +wish was to please. They were rough people, but sound at heart and +honest, as the French peasants, when, judged in the mass, undoubtedly +are. The hostess, who, by-the-bye, gave me a soup-plate in which to +wash my hands, was greatly perplexed to know how to get up a dinner +for me, and, as she told me afterwards, she went to the schoolmaster +and held a consultation with him on the subject. An astonishing dish +of minced asparagus fried in oil was concocted in accordance with his +prescription. It was ingenious, but I preferred her dish of barbel +from the Tarn, notwithstanding the multitudinous bones which this fish +perversely carries in its body, to choke the enemy, although nothing +could be more absurd than such petty vengeance. + +The schoolmaster's wife said to me, with a suggestion of malice at the +corners of her mouth, that she was afraid I should be troubled by a +few fleas at the auberge. + +'Oh, bast!' observed her husband; 'monsieur in his travels has +doubtless already encountered a flea or two.' + +'Yes, and other _bestioles_,' said I. + +Madame's local knowledge did not deceive her, but her expression 'a +few fleas' did not at all represent the true state of affairs. And I +had forgotten the precious powder and the little pair of bellows, +without which no one should travel in Southern France. + +The morning air was fresh, and the fronds of the bracken were wet with +dew, when I left Marsal, and took my course along the margin of the +river through meadows that dwindled away into woodlands, where the +rocky sides of the gorge rose abruptly from the stream. Haymakers were +abroad, and I heard the sound of their scythes cutting through the +heavy swathes with all their flowers; but the sunshine had not yet +flashed down into the deep valley, and the grasshoppers were waiting +to hail it from their watch-towers in the green herbage and on the +purple heather. As the breeze stirred the leaves of the wood, it +brought with it the perfume of hidden honeysuckle. Golden oriels were +busy in the tops of the wild cherry trees, feeding upon the ripe +fruit, and calling out their French name, _loriot_; and when they flew +across the river, a gleam of brilliant yellow moved swiftly over the +rippled surface. For an hour or so I remained in the shade of trees, +and then the sandy path met a road where the gorge widened and +cultivation returned. Here I left the stream for awhile. + +Now came sunny banks bright with the common flowers that deck most of +the waysides of Europe. Bedstraw galium and field scabious, ox-eyes +and knapweed, bladder-campions and ragged robins, mallows and +crane's-bill--all the flowers of the English banks seemed to be there. +Where the bare rock showed itself, yellow sedum spread its gold, and +in the little clefts stood stalks of cotyledon, now turning brown. At +the base of the rocks, where there was still some moisture, were the +blue flowers of the brooklime veronica, and the brighter blue of the +forget-me-not. Having passed a village, I met the Tarn again. Here the +beauty of the rushing water, and all that was pictured upon it, +tempted me to sit down upon a bank; but I had no sooner chosen the +spot than I changed my intention. A red viper was curled up there, and +sleeping so comfortably that it really seemed unkind to wake it with a +blow across all its rings. When I thought, however, of the little +consideration it would have shown me had I sat upon it, I added it +without compunction to the number of _aspics_ I had already slain. + +My mind was taken off the contemplation of this good or evil deed by a +scene that seemed to contain as much of the picturesque as the eye +could seize and the mind dwell upon, without being bewildered and +fatigued. I had turned the bend of the wooded gorge, and, looking up +the river, saw what resembled a dyke of basalt stretching sheer across +the stream, with a ruined castle on a bare and apparently inaccessible +pinnacle, another ruin on the opposite end of the ridge, and, between +the two, a little church on the brink of a precipice. Houses were +clustered at the foot of the rocks by the blue water. + +This was Ambialet, so called from the extraordinary loop which the +Tarn forms here in consequence of the mass of schistous rock which +obstructs its direct channel. After flowing about two miles round a +high promontory, where dark crags jut above the dark woods, the stream +returns almost to the spot from which it was compelled to deviate, and +the lower water is only separated from the upper by a few yards of +rock. There are several similar phenomena in France, but there is none +so remarkable as that at Ambialet. + +Although nothing is now to be seen of its defensive works, except the +ruined castle upon the high rock, Ambialet was one of the strongest +places in the Albigeois. Now a small and poor village, it was in the +Middle Ages an important burg, with its consuls, its council of +_prud'hommes_, and its court of justice. It became a fief of the +viscounts of Beziers, and was thus drawn into the great religious +conflict of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Viscount of +Beziers having espoused the cause of Count Raymond of Toulouse. An +army of Crusaders, which had been raised to crush the Albigenses, +having Simon de Montfort at its head, appeared before Ambialet in +1209, and, although the burghers were quite capable of withstanding a +long siege, they were so much impressed by the magnitude of the force +brought against them, and also by Simon's sinister reputation, that +they surrendered the place almost immediately. But when the army was +campaigning elsewhere, these burghers, growing bold again, attacked +the garrison that had been left in the town and castle, and +distinguished themselves by one of those treacherous massacres which +were among the small incidents of that ruthless war. When Simon +reappeared in the Albigeois, the people of Ambialet, cowards again, +laid down their arms. The castle was soon afterwards the meeting-place +of De Montfort and Raymond VI.; but the interview, which it was hoped +would lead to peace, had no such result, and the war was carried on in +Languedoc and Guyenne with renewed fury. + +[Illustration: AMBIALET.] + +Ambialet was enjoying comparative freedom and self-government in an +age when many a town was still in the midnight darkness of feudal +servitude. It had its communal liberties and organization before the +eleventh century. There is a very interesting charter in existence, +dated 1136, by which Roger, Viscount of Beziers and Albi, recognises +and confirms these liberties. Although it opens in Latin, the body of +the charter is in the Romance language. It shows that the idiom of +Southern Gaul in the twelfth century was a little nearer the Latin +than that which is spoken now. The document is full of curious +information. It tells us that the inhabitants of Ambialet were liable +to be fined if they did not keep the street in front of their houses +clean. Perhaps the towns in the South of France were less foul in the +twelfth century than most of them are now. We learn, too, that the +profits in connection with the most necessary trades were fixed in the +interest of the greater number. Thus, the butchers were required to +take oath that they would reserve for their own profit no more than +the head of the animal that they killed. What sort of face would a +butcher of to-day make if he were asked to work on such terms? The +tavern-keepers had to take oath that they would buy no wine outside of +the boundaries of the viscounty of Ambialet, which shows what was +thought in the twelfth century of the practice of purchasing in the +cheapest market to the neglect of communal interests. The price of +wine, like that of bread, was fixed, and five worthies (_prohomes_) +were appointed to examine weights and measures, and to confiscate +those which were not just. The concluding part of the charter confirms +the right of the youth of Ambialet to their traditional festivals and +merry-making: 'E volem e auctreiam que lo Rei del Joven d'Ambilet +puesco far sas festas, tener sos senescals e sos jutges, e sos sirvens +e sos officials,' etc. The whole passage is worth giving in English, +because historians tell us very little about the festive manners of +the twelfth century: + +'We wish and order that the King of Youth of Ambialet shall keep his +festivals, have his seneschals, judges, servants, and officials, and +that on the day appointed for the merry-making, the King of Youth +shall demand from the most recently married man in the viscounty, and +woman who shall have taken a husband, a pail of wine and a quarter of +walnuts; and if they refuse, the king can order his officers to break +the doors of their house, and neither we nor our bailiffs shall have +the right to interfere. And any person who shall have cut ever so +little from the leaves of the elm, planted upon the place, shall be +sentenced by the King of Youth to pay a pail of wine, and the king can +enforce it as above. Moreover, we declare that on the first day of May +the youth shall have the right to set up a maypole, and any person who +shall cut a portion of it shall owe a pail of wine, and the king can +compel him to pay it, for such is our wish. We have granted this +favour to the youth because, having been a witness of their +merry-making, we have taken great pleasure and satisfaction +therefrom.' + +This custom has been continued to the present day. The youth of +Ambialet have their annual festival, and the most recently married +couple of the commune are called upon to 'pay' their pail of wine, +although the exact measure is not strictly enforced. + +The rocks at Ambialet at one time supported a multitude of dwellings, +of which there would be no trace now had they been entirely of +masonry. In addition to partial chambers made with the pick-axe, one +sees here and there a series of stairs cut out of the mica-schist. The +strength of the burg made it a place of refuge for numerous families +in the Albigeois, who had retreats upon these rocks to which they +repaired in time of danger. All that made up the grandeur and +importance of the place has passed away. Among those who now guide the +plough and scatter the grain for bread are descendants of the old +nobility of the Albigeois. + +Fascinated by the quietude and picturesque decay of this beautiful +spot by the Tarn, instead of leaving it in a few hours, as I had +intended, I remained there for days. Let no wayfarer, if he can help +it, be the slave of a programme. + +On the side of the promontory already mentioned, a rough bit of +ancient forest, steep and craggy, stretches down to the strip of +cultivated land beside the river. Here chance led me to take up my +abode in an old farm-house--a long building of one story, with dovecot +raised above the roof, and massive walls that kept the rooms cool even +in the sultry afternoons. It was half surrounded by an orchard of +plum, peach, apple, and cherry trees, and at the border of this were +three majestic stone-pines, whose vast heads were lifted so high and +seemed so full of radiance that they appeared to belong more to the +sky than to the earth. The gleam of the oriel's golden breast could be +seen amidst the branches, but the little birds that flew up there were +lost to sight in the sunny wilderness of tufted leaves. + +On the stony slope above the orchard, the stock of an old and leafless +vine, showing here and there over the purple flush of flowering +marjoram and the more scattered gold of St. John's-wort, told the +story of the perished vineyard. For centuries a rich wine had flowed +from these slopes, but at length the phylloxera spread over them like +flame, and now where the vine is dead the wild-flower blooms. A little +higher a fringe of broom, the blossom gone, the pods blackening and +shooting their seeds in the sun, marked the line of the virgin +wilderness. Then came tall heather and bracken, dwarf oak and +chestnut, box and juniper, all luxuriating about the blocks of +mica-schist, a rock that holds water and is therefore conducive to a +varied and splendid vegetation, wherever a soil can rest upon it. +Towards the summit the trees and shrubs dwindled away, and then came +the dry thyme-covered turf scenting the air. The tall thyme, the +garden species in the North, had already flowered, but the common wild +thyme of England, the _serpolet_ of the French, was beginning to +spread its purple over the stony ground. A great wooden cross stood +upon the ridge, and hard by, buffeted by the wintry winds and blazed +upon by the summer sun, was the ancient priory of Notre Dame de +l'Oder. + +I ring the bell. Presently a little wicket is pulled back, and a dark +eye glitters at me from the other side of the door. It belongs to a +serving brother, who, perceiving that I am not in petticoats, allows +me to enter. + +While I am waiting for the Pere Etienne, a Franciscan of wide +learning, whose acquaintance had already brought me both pleasure and +profit, I sit in the cloisters watching another Father counting the +week's washing, which has just been brought in, and neatly folding up +handkerchiefs and undergarments. He has placed a board across a +wheelbarrow, and the heap of linen is upon this. Seated upon a stool, +he leisurely takes each great coarse handkerchief with blue border, +which, like the rest of the linen, has not been ironed, folds it into +four, lays it upon another board, smooths it with his large, thin +yellow hand, and so goes on with his task without saying a word or +raising his eyes. He is a gaunt, angular, sallow man of about fifty, +with hollow cheeks and long black beard. He has a melancholy air, and +does his work as though he were thinking all the while that it is a +part of the sum of labour he has to get through before reaching that +perfect state of felicity in which there is no more washing to be done +or counted. If there were only monks in the priory, this one would +have very little to do in looking after the linen; but there are many +boys who, although they are being educated with a view to the +religious life, have not yet put off such worldly things as shirts. + +Very different from the sombre-looking Franciscan, bent over the +wheelbarrow, is the Pere Etienne. He is as cheerful and sprightly as +if he were now convinced that a convent is the pleasantest place on +earth to live in, and that outside of it all is vanity and vexation. +He teaches the boys Latin, Greek, English, and the physical sciences. +Although he has never been out of France and Italy, he can speak +English, and actually make himself understood. He is a botanist, and +he and I have already spent some hours together in his cell before a +table strewn with floras and plants, both dry and fresh. This time we +are joined by a young monk who has been gathering flowers on the banks +of the Tarn, and has placed them between the leaves of a great Latin +Bible. + +These meetings, and the library of the priory, with its valuable works +by local historians, strengthened the spell by which Ambialet held me. +The monks whom one occasionally meets in Languedoc are generally men +of better culture than the ordinary rural clergy, most of whom show +plainly enough by their ideas and the vigorous expressions which they +rarely hesitate to use in any company that they are sons of the soil. +As priests, situated as they are, this coarseness of manners and +circumscribed range of ideas, so far from being a disadvantage, forms +a bond of union between them and the people. A man to be deeply pitied +is he who, having a really superior and cultivated mind, is charged +with the cure of souls in some forlorn parish where nobody has the +time or the taste to read. Such a priest must either bring his ideas +down to those of the people around him, or be content to live in +absolute intellectual isolation. He may turn to the companionship of +books, it is true, but his library is very small; and if, as is +probable, his income is not more than £40 a year, he is too poor to +add to it. Such a revenue, when the bare needs of the body have been +met, does not leave much for satisfying a literary appetite. + +The priory of Notre Dame de l'Oder was founded in the twelfth or +thirteenth century by the Benedictines, but a church already existed +on the spot as early, it is supposed, as the eighth century. The one +now standing, and which became incorporated with the priory, probably +dates from the eleventh. If the interior is cold by the severity of +the lines scarcely broken by ornament, the artistic sense is warmed by +the beauty of the proportions and general disposition. The apse, with +its three little windows, has the perfect charm of grace and +simplicity. A structural peculiarity, to be especially noted as one of +the tentative efforts of Romanesque art, is the use of half-arches for +the vaulting of the two narrow aisles. Unfortunately, the plastering +mania, which has robbed the interior of so many French churches of +their venerable air, has not spared this one. A singularly broad +flight of steps, partly cut in the rock and covered with tiles, leads +up to the portal; but as the building has been closed to the public +since the application of the law dispersing religious communities, +these steps look as if they belonged to the Castle of Indolence, so +overgrown with grass are they and abandoned to the wandering +wild-flowers. Great mulleins have been allowed to spring up from the +gaps between the lichen-spotted tiles. + +When there was a regular community of monks here, the ancient +pilgrimage to Notre Dame de l'Oder was kept up, and near the top of +the _via crucis_, which forms a long succession of zigzags upon the +bare rock, a dark shrub or small tree allied to box may be seen railed +off with an image of the Virgin against it. According to the legend, a +Crusader returning from the Holy Land made a pilgrimage to the +sanctuary upon these rocks at Ambialet, and planted on the hill the +staff he had brought with him. This grew to a tree, to which the +people of the country gave the name of _oder_. In course of time it +came to be so venerated that Notre Dame d'Ambialet was changed to +Notre Dame de l'Oder. The existing tree is said to be a descendant of +the original one. + +The monks at the priory told me that nearly all the old historical +documents relating to Ambialet had been taken away by the English and +placed in the Tower of London. In various parts of the Quercy, I had +also been told exactly the same with regard to the documents connected +with the early history of the locality. There are people who still +speak of this as a proof of the intention of the English to return. +How the belief became so widespread that the English placed the +documents which they carried away in the Tower of London, I am unable +to explain. + +Memory takes me back again to the farmhouse by the Tarn. It is well +that there is plenty of space, for the household is numerous. There +are the farmer, his wife and children, an aged mother whose voice has +become a mere thread of sound, and who thinks over the past in the +chimney-corner, sometimes with a distaff in her hand; two old uncles, +a youth of all work, who has been brought up as one of the family, and +a little bright-eyed, bare-legged servant girl, whose brown feet I +still hear pattering upon the floors. One of the old men is a +white-bearded priest of eighty-five, who has spent most of his life in +Algeria, and has himself come to look like the patriarchal Arab in all +but the costume. He has no longer any sacerdotal work, but he has +other occupation. His special duty is to look after a great +flesh-coloured pig, and many a time have I seen him under the orchard +trees following close at the heels of the grunting beast while reading +his office. His old breviary, like his _soutane_, is very much the +worse for wear, the leaves having been thumbed nearly to the colour of +chocolate; but if he had a new one now, he would find it hard to +believe that it had the same virtue as the other. Notwithstanding his +years, he can do harder work than watching a pig. I have seen him +haymaking and reaping, and always the merriest of the party. Before +taking the fork or the sickle in hand, he would hitch up his +_soutane_, and reveal a pair of still active sacerdotal legs in white +linen drawers. The sight of the old man bending his back while +reaping, his white beard brushing the golden corn, was pathetic or +comic as the humour might seize the beholder. As gay as any of the +cicadas that keep the summer's jubilee in the sunny tree-tops, he +sings songs that have nothing in common with psalms, and he needs +little provocation to dance. French has become an awkward language to +him, but his tongue is nimble enough both in Languedocian and Latin. +When he hears that the evening soup is ready, he hurries the pig home, +flourishes his stick above his head in imitation of the Arabs, and +shouts in his cheeriest voice, 'Oportet manducare!' + +The other uncle's chief business is to look after a couple of cows, +and as the farm has no pasturage but the orchard, he is away with them +the greater part of the day along the banks of the Tarn. One evening I +met him by the river, and he stopped me to quote a passage from the +Georgics which he had recalled to mind. His face beamed with +satisfaction. I knew that he had not been brought up to cow-tending, +but was, nevertheless, taken aback when the unfortunate old bachelor +wished me to share the pleasure he felt in having brought to mind a +long-forgotten passage of Virgil. The surprises of real life never +cease to be startling. Speaking to me afterwards of the growing +extravagance of all classes, he said: + +'When I was young there were only two _cafes_ in Albi, and none but +the rich ever entered them. Now every man goes to his _cafe_. I +remember when, in middle-class families in easy circumstances, coffee +was only drunk two or three times a year, on festive occasions.' Very +different is the state of things now in France. + +The figure of the old man bending upon his stick glides away by the +dark willow-fringe of the Tarn, and I am standing alone in the solemn +splendour of the luminous dusk--the clear-obscure of the quickly +passing twilight, beside the bearded corn, whose gold is blended with +the faint rosiness that spreads through the air of the valley, and +lets free the fragrance of those flowers which keep all their +sweetness for the evening. There is still a gleam of the lost sun upon +the priory walls, and over the dark rocks and wooded hollows floats a +purple haze. The dusk gathers apace, and the poplars that rise far +above the willows along the river, their outlines shaded away into the +black forest behind them, stand motionless like phantom trees, for not +a leaf stirs; but the corn seems to grow more luminous, as if it had +drunk something of the fire as well as the colour of the sun, while +the horns of the sinking moon gleam silver-bright just over the +topmost trees, painted in sepia upon a cobalt sky. How weird, +phantasmal, enigmatic the forms of those trees now appear! Some like +hell-hags, with wild hair flying, are rushing through the air; others, +majestic, solitary, wrapped about with dark horror, are the trees of +Fate; some have their arms raised in the frenzy of a torturing +passion; others look like emblems of Care when hope and passion are +alike dead: each touches the spring of a sombre thought or a fantastic +fancy. + +On the road to Villefranche, about half a mile from Ambialet, is a +mine which has been abandoned from time immemorial, and which the +inhabitants say was worked by the English for gold. I have noticed, +however, throughout this part of France, that nearly everything that +was done in a remote age, whether good or evil, is attributed by the +people to the English, and that they not infrequently make a curious +confusion between Britons and Romans. As for the Visigoths, +Ostrogoths, and Arabs, all traditions respecting them appear to have +passed out of the popular mind. In the side of a stony hill on which +scarcely a plant grows, a narrow passage, a few feet wide, has been +quarried, and air shafts have been cut down into it through the solid +rock with prodigious labour. I followed this passage until a falling +in of the roof prevented me from going any farther. I could perceive +no trace of a metallic vein, so thoroughly had it been worked out, but +scattered over the hillside with schist, talcose slate, and fragments +of quartz, was a great deal of scoriae, showing that metal of some +kind had been excavated, and that the smelting had been done on the +spot. That the mine was worked for gold seems quite probable, inasmuch +as a lump of mineral containing a considerable quantity of the +precious metal was picked up near the entrance some years ago. Besides +the scoriae, I found upon the hillside much broken pottery, and from +the shape of several fragments it was easy to restore the form of +earthenware pots which were probably used for smelting purposes. There +is no record to show who the people were who were so busy upon these +rocks glittering with mica and talc. They may have belonged to any one +of the races who passed over the land from the time of the Romans. + +One morning, still in the month of July, I broke away from the charms +of Ambialet, and shouldering again my old knapsack--which, by +travelling hundreds of miles in all weathers, had become disgracefully +shabby, but which was a friend too well stitched together to be thrown +aside on account of ill-looks--I continued my journey up the valley of +the Tarn. I had agreed to walk with the parish priest as far as the +village of Villeneuve, and having found him at the presbytery, we +passed through the churchyard on the edge of the rock. Here there is a +remarkable cross, with the figure of Christ on one side and that of +the Virgin on the other, not carved in relief, but in that early +mediaeval style which consisted of hollowing out the stone around the +image. The cure frankly declared that, if anyone offered him a large +new cross in the place of this little one, he would be glad to make +the exchange. It is unfortunate that so many rural priests place but +little value upon religious antiquities other than images and relics +which have a legend. Their appreciation of ecclesiastical art is too +often regulated by the practical and utilitarian order of ideas. To +dazzle the eye of the peasant may, and does, become the single aim of +church ornamentation. Hence the brassy, vulgar altars, and those +coloured plaster images of modern manufacture that one sees with +regret in so many of the country churches of France. + +I soon took my last look at Ambialet, its rocks and ruins on which the +wild pinks nodded, and its stone-covered roofs overgrown with white +sedum. I was struck by the number of prickly plants on the sandy banks +of the Tarn. Those which now made the best show of bloom were the +star-thistle centaurea and _ononis repens_. The appearance of this +last was very curious, for in addition to its pink pea-blossoms it +seemed to be sprinkled over with little flowers the colour of +forget-me-nots. These, however, were not flowers at all, but small +flying beetles painted the brilliant blue of myosotis. Another plant +that showed a strong liking for these banks was the horned poppy +(_glaucium luteum_), which I had only found elsewhere near the +sea-coast. Brown stalks of broomrape were still standing, and I +lighted upon a lingering bee-ophrys, a plant which by its amazing +mimicry makes one look at it with awe as if it were something +supernatural. + +It was an invitation to lunch at a presbytery that was the reason for +my companion taking a walk of about eight miles. Passing through a +small village on the way he called for the _cure_ there, who was also +an expected guest. This priest had obtained a reputation throughout +the district for his humour, his eccentricity, and contempt for +appearances. He had passed most of his life alone, cooking his food, +making his bed, and probably mending his clothes, without the help of +any woman. Being now over eighty years of age, he had realized the +necessity of changing his ways, and a woman not much younger than +himself had succeeded in obtaining a firm footing in his paved +kitchen, which was also the dining-room and _salon_. His presbytery in +the steep and rocky village street was no better built or more +luxuriously furnished than the dwellings of his peasant parishioners. +Here we found the old white-haired man, gay and hospitable, anxious to +offer everything he had in the house to the visitor, but only able to +think of two things which might be acceptable--snuff and sausage. '_Un +peu de saucisson?_' he said to me, with a winning smile after handing +me his snuff-box. I assured him I could eat nothing then. '_Te!_ and +so you are really English, monsieur?--_Un peu de saucisson?_' + +The _cure_ had been shut up in this village so many years, speaking +nothing but Languedocian to his parishioners, even when preaching to +them, that his French had become rather difficult to understand. I was +keenly alive to the exceptional study of human nature presented by +this fine specimen of an old rustic priest, who was not the less to be +respected because he took a great deal of snuff, hated shaving, wore +hob-nailed shoes of the roughest make, and a threadbare, soup-spotted +_soutane_ with frayed edges. He was not a bit ascetic, and although he +had lived so many years by himself, his good-humour and gaiety +continually overflowed. It may be that a housekeeper tends to sour a +priest's temper more than anything else, and this one knew it. The +sacerdotal domestic help must be fifty years old when she enters the +presbytery. Spinster or widow, she has that inherent purpose of every +woman to be, if she can, the mistress of the house in which she lives. +If she encounters no other woman in the field, against whom if she +tried conclusions she would be broken like the earthen pot in the +fable, she generally succeeds in achieving her ambition, although she +may be in name a servant. There are such phenomena as hen-pecked +priests, and those who peck them have no right whatever to do it. It +is a state of things brought about by too much submission, for the +sake of peace, to a mind determined to be uppermost while pretending +to be humble. + +When we left again for Villeneuve, we were three in number, and the +old _cure_ trudged along over the rocky or sandy paths as nimbly as +either of his companions. He pointed out to me a spot in the Tarn +where he said was a gulf the bottom of which had never been sounded. +There are many such holes in the bed of this river, which receives +much of its water from underground tributaries. + +I was looking at the mournful vine-terraces, now mostly abandoned and +grass-grown. 'Ah!' said the octogenarian, shaking his head, and for +once wearing a melancholy expression, 'the best wine of the South used +to be grown there.' Near a village a very tall pole, probably a young +poplar that had been barked, had been raised in a garden, and painted +with stripes of red, white, and blue. It was described to me as a +'tree of liberty,' and I was told that the garden in which it was +placed belonged to the mayor for the current year. Every fresh mayor +had a fresh tree. + +At the village of Villeneuve I parted from my companions, who went to +lunch with the _cure_, together with several other ecclesiastics. +These occasional meetings and junketings at one another's houses are +the chief mundane consolation of the rural priests, who are as weak as +other mortals in the presence of a savoury dish, and, when they can +afford to do so, they enter into the pleasures of hospitality with +Horatian zest. Poor as they often are, they generally know the faggot +that conceals a drop of old wine to place before the guest. The people +in the South believe that the bounty of the Creator was intended to be +made the most of, and the type of priest that one meets most +frequently there in the richer parishes thinks that the next good +thing to a clear conscience is a good table. + +I lunched at the auberge, and I had for my companion a ruby-faced +cattle-dealer of about fifty. He spent his life chiefly in a trap, +followed by an old cattle-dog of formidable build and determined +expression of mouth. This animal was now lying down near the table, so +tired and footsore from almost perpetual running that he thought it +too much trouble to get up and eat. I read in his eye that he was in +the habit of breathing every day of his life a canine curse on the +business of cattle-dealing. His master seemed a good-natured man, but +he had a fixed idea that was unfortunate for the dog. He considered +that the beast ought to be able to run from thirty-five to forty miles +a day, and that if he got sore paws it was his own fault. + +'And do you never give him a lift?' + +'Never!' roared the cattle-dealer, laughing like an ogre. + +The dog being now ten years old, I was not surprised to hear that he +sometimes tried to lose himself just before his master was starting +upon a long round. Considering his age, and all the running he had +done in return for board and lodging, I thought his diplomacy +excusable; but the cattle-dealer used strong language to express his +loathing of such depravity and ingratitude in a dog old enough to be +serious, and on which so much kindness had been lavished. + +This man had a very bad opinion of the inhabitants of that part of the +Rouergue which I was about to cross, and he strove to convince me that +it was very imprudent of me to think of travelling on foot and alone +through such a wild country. Had I told him that I carried no other +arm but my oak stick with iron spike, he would have been still more +vehement. Frenchmen like the companionship of a revolver. I do not. In +the first place, it makes me imagine there is an assassin lurking in +every thicket; secondly, I do not know where to carry it conveniently +so that it would be of use in time of need. I place confidence in my +stick, and take my chance. To tell the plain truth, I did not believe +what my table companion said about the dangerous character of the +inhabitants. The reason he gave for their exceptional wickedness was +that they were very poor, but this view was contrary to my experience +of humanity. + +While we were talking over our coffee, there was a rising uproar in +the village street. Looking out of the window, we saw two men fighting +in the midst of a crowd. + +'Ah!' exclaimed the cattle-dealer, with a sonorous chuckle, 'that +ought to give you an idea of the capacities of the inhabitants.' Then, +entering into the spirit of the battle, he shouted: 'Leave them +alone--leave them alone! It is not men who are fighting; it is the +juice of the grape!' + +Both combatants soon had enough of it, and very little damage was done +on either side. The scene was more ludicrous than tragic. After all, +it was well, perhaps, that these men had not learnt how to use their +fists, and that with them pushing, slapping, and rolling upon one +another satisfied honour. + +The hostess of this inn, while cooking the inevitable fowl for lunch, +basted it after the Languedocian fashion, of which I had taken note +elsewhere. Very different is it from what is commonly understood by +basting. A curious implement is used for the purpose. This is an iron +rod, with a piece of metal at one end twisted into the form of an +extinguisher, but with a small opening left at the pointed extremity. +The extinguisher, if it may be so termed, is made red-hot, or nearly +so, and then a piece of fat bacon is put into it, which bursts into +flame. A little stream of blazing fat passes through the small +opening, and this is made to trickle over the fowl, which is turned +upon, the spit by clockwork in front of the wood fire. The fowl or +joint thus treated tastes of burnt bacon; but the Southerners like +strong flavours, and revel in grease as well as garlic. + +Fat bacon is the basis of all cookery in Guyenne and Upper Languedoc, +where the winters are too cold for the olive to flourish, and where +butter is rarely seen. The _cuisine_ is substantial, but not refined. + +A little beyond Villeneuve I found Trebas, a pleasant river-side +village, with a ferruginous spring that has obtained for the place a +local reputation for healing. Here I left the Tarn again, and followed +its tributary, the Ranee, for the sake of change. This stream ran at +the bottom of a deep gorge, the sides of which were chiefly clothed +with woods, but here and there was a patch of yellow corn-field and +green vineyard. Reapers, men and women, were busy with their sickles, +singing, as they worked, their Languedocian songs that troubadours may +have been the first to sing; but nature was quiet with that repose +which so quickly follows the great festival of flowers. Already the +falling corn was whispering of the final feast of colour. All the +earlier flowers of the summer were now casting or ripening their seed. +I passed a little village on the opposite side of the gorge. The +houses, built of dark stone, even to the roofs, looked scarcely +different from their background of bare rock. Weedy vine-terraces +without vines told the oft-repeated story of privation and +long-lasting bitterness of heart in many a little home that once was +happy. I found the grandeur of solitude, without any suggestion of +human life, where huge rocks of gneiss and schist, having broken away +from the sides of the gorge, lay along the margins and in the channel +of the stream. Here I lingered, listening to the drowsy music of the +flowing water, and the murmuring of the bees amongst the purple +marjoram and the yellow agrimony, until the sunshine moving up the +rocks reminded me of the fleet-winged hours. + +Continuing my way up the gorge, I presently saw a village clinging to +a hill, with a massive and singular-looking church on the highest +point. It was Plaisance, and I knew now that I had left the Albigeois, +and had entered the Rouergue. Having decided to pass the night here, +and the auberge being chosen, I climbed to the top of the bluff to +have a near view of the church. It is a remarkable structure +representing two architectural periods. The apse and transept are +Romanesque, but the nave is Gothic. Over the intersection of the +transept is a cupola supported by massive piers. Engaged with these +are columns bearing elaborately carved capitals embellished with +little figures of the quaintest workmanship. In the apse are two rows +of columns with cubiform capitals carved in accordance with the florid +Romanesque taste, as it was developed in Southern France. + +Although the little cemetery on the bluff was like scores of others I +had seen in France--a bit of rough neglected field with small wooden +crosses rising above the long herbage, tangled with flowers that love +the waste places, I yielded to the charm of that old simplicity which +is ever young and beautiful. I strolled amongst the grave mounds, and +passing the sunny spot where the dead children of the village lay side +by side, under the golden flowers of St. John's-wort, reached the edge +of the rock, whose dark nakedness was hidden by reddening sedum, and +looked at the wave-like hills, their yellow cornfields, vine terraces +and woods, the gray-green roofs of the houses below, and lower still +the stream flashing along through a desert of pebbles. + +Descending to the valley, I noticed the number and beauty of the vine +trellises in the village. One, commencing at a Gothic archway, +extended from wall to wall far up a narrow lane, and here the twilight +fell an hour too soon. I wandered down to the pebbly shore of the +Rance, where bare-footed children, sent out to look after pigs and +geese, were building castles with the many-coloured stones, while +others on the rocky banks above were singing in chorus, like a +somewhat louder twittering of sedge warblers from the fringe of +willows. I wandered on until all was quiet save the water, and +returned to the inn when the fire on the hearth was sending forth a +cheerful red glow through the dusk. The soup was bubbling in the chain +pot, and a well-browned fowl was taking its final turns upon the spit. + +I dined with a commercial traveller, one who went about the country in +a queer sort of vehicle containing samples of church ornaments and +sacerdotal vestments. His business lay chiefly with the rural clergy, +and, like most people, he seemed convinced that circumstances had +pushed him into the wrong groove, and that he had remained in it too +long for him to be able to get out of it. For twenty years he had been +driving over the same roads, reappearing in the same villages and +little towns, watching the same people growing old, and spending only +three months of the year with his family in Toulouse. He declared the +life of a commercial traveller, when the novelty of it had worn down, +to be the most abominable of all lives. He was one of the most +pleasant, and certainly the most melancholy, of commercial travellers +whom I had met in my rambles. He left the impression on me that there +was more money to be made nowadays in France by travelling with +samples of _eau de vie_ and groceries than with church candlesticks +and chasubles. Nevertheless, although he had his private quarrel with +destiny, he was not at all a gloomy companion at dinner. + +A person who had not had previous experience of French country inns +would have been astonished at the order in which the dishes were laid +on the table. The first course after the soup was potatoes +(_sautees_); then came barbel from the stream, and afterwards veal and +fowl. The order is considered a matter of no importance; the main +thing aimed at in the South of France is to give the guest plenty of +dishes. If there is any fish, more often than not it makes its +appearance after the roast, and I have even seen a custard figure as +the first course. By living with the people one soon falls into their +ways, accepting things as they come, without giving a thought to the +conventional sequence. + +Among other things that one has to grow accustomed to in rural France, +especially in the South, is the presence of beds in dining-rooms and +kitchens. At first it rasps the sense of what is correct, but the very +frequency of it soon brings indifference. In the large kitchen of this +rather substantial auberge there was an alcove, a few feet from the +chimney-place, containing a neatly tucked-up bed with a crucifix and +little holy-water shell by the side. It was certainly a snug corner in +winter, and I felt sure that the stout hostess reserved it for +herself. + + + + +ACROSS THE ROUERGUE. + + +At an early hour in the morning I was wayfaring again. I had made up +my mind to reach St. Affrique in a day's walk. There were some thirty +miles of country to cross, and I had, moreover, to reckon with the +July sun, which shines very earnestly in Southern France, as though it +were bent on ripening all the fruits of the earth in a single day. By +getting up earlier than usual I was able to watch the morning opening +like a wild rose. When we feel all the charm that graces the beginning +of a summer day, we resolve in future to rise with the birds, but the +next morning's sun finds most of us sluggards again. + +I returned towards the Tarn, which I had left the day before, but with +the intention of keeping somewhat to the south of it for awhile. +However beautiful the scenery of a gorge may be, the sensation of +being at the bottom of a crevice at length becomes depressing, and the +mind, which is never satisfied with anything long, begins to wonder +what the world is like beyond the enclosing cliffs, and the desire to +climb them and to look forth under a wider range of sky grows +stronger. Such change is needed, for when there is languor within, the +impressions from without are dull. The country through which I now +passed was very beautiful with its multitude of chestnut-trees, the +pale yellow plumes of the male blossom still clinging to them and +hiding half their leaves; but here again was the sad spectacle of +abandoned, weedy, and almost leafless vineyards upon stony slopes +which had been changed into fruit-bearing terraces by the long labour +of dead generations. + +The first village I came to was Coupiac, lying in a deep hollow, from +the bottom of which rose a rugged mass of schistous rock, with houses +all about it, under the protecting shadow of a strong castle with high +round towers in good preservation. It was a mediaeval fortress, but +its mullioned windows cut in the walls of the towers and other details +showed that it had been considerably modified and adapted to changed +conditions of life at the time of the Renaissance. A troop of little +girls were going up to it, and teaching Sisters, who had changed it +into a stronghold of education, were waiting for them in the court. +Hard by upon the edge of the castle rock was a calvary. The naked +schist, ribbed and seamed, served for pavement in the steep little +streets of this picturesque old village, where most of the people went +barefoot. This is the custom of the region, and does not necessarily +imply poverty. Here the _sabotier's_ trade is a poor one, and the +cobbler's is still worse. In the Albigeois I was the neighbour of a +well-to-do farmer who up to the age of sixty had never known the +sensation of sock or stocking, nor had he ever worn a shoe of wood or +leather. + +No female beauty did I see here, nor elsewhere in the Rouergue. +Plainness of feature in men and women is the rule throughout this +extensive tract of country. But there is this to be said in favour of +the girls and younger women, that they generally have well-shaped +figures and a very erect carriage, which last is undoubtedly due to +the habit of carrying weights upon the head, especially water, which +needs to be carefully balanced. + +How the peasants stared at me as I passed along! The expression of +their faces showed that they were completely puzzled as to what manner +of person I was, and what I was doing there. Had I been taking along a +dancing-bear they would have understood my motives far better, and my +social success with them would have been undoubtedly greater. As it +was, most of them eyed me with extreme suspicion. Not having been +rendered familiar, like the peasants of many other districts, with +that harmless form of insanity which leads people to endure the +hardship of tramping for the sake of observing the ruder aspects of +human life, the lingering manners of old times, and of reading the +book of nature in solitude, they thought I must perforce be engaged +upon some sinister and wicked work. And now this reminds me of an old +man at Ambialet, whom I used to send on errands to the nearest small +town. He liked my money, but he could never satisfy his conscience +that it was not something like treason to carry letters for me, for he +had the feeling to the last that he was in the pay of the enemy. 'Ah!' +he growled one day (not to me), 'I have always heard it said that the +English regretted our beautiful rocks and rich valleys. They are +coming back! I am sure they are coming back!' I used to see him +looking at me askance with a peculiarly keen expression in his eyes, +and as his words had been repeated to me I knew of what he was +thinking. He was the first man of his condition who to my knowledge +called rocks beautiful. The peasant class abhor rocks on account of +their sterility, and because the rustic idea of a beautiful landscape +is the fertile and level plain. In searching for the picturesque and +the grandeur of nature, it is perfectly safe to go to those places +which the peasant declares to be frightful by their ugliness. + +Leaving Coupiac behind me, I turned towards the east. The road, having +been cut in the side of the cliff, exposed layers of brown +argillaceous schist, like rotten wood, and so friable that it crumbled +between the fingers; but what was more remarkable was that the layers, +scarcely thicker than slate, instead of being on their natural plane, +were turned up quite vertically. I was now ascending to the barren +uplands. Near the brow of a hill I passed a very ancient crucifix of +granite, the head, which must originally have been of the rudest +sculpture, having the features quite obliterated by time. + +A rural postman in a blouse with red collar had been trudging up the +hill behind me, and I let him overtake me so that I might fall into +conversation with him, for these men are generally more intelligent or +better informed than the peasants. I have often walked with them, and +never without obtaining either instruction or amusement. When we had +reached the highest ground, from which a splendid view was revealed of +the Rouergue country.--a crumpled map of bare hills and deep dark +gorges--the postman pointed out to me the village of Roquecesaire +(Caesar's Rock), on a hill to the south, and told me a queer story of +a battle between its inhabitants and those of an adjacent village. The +quarrel, strange to say, arose over a statue of the Virgin, which was +erected not long since upon a commanding position between the two +villages. 'Now, the Holy Virgin,' said the postman, in no tone of +mockery, 'was obliged to turn her back either to one village or the +other, and this was the cause of the fight!' When first set up, the +statue looked towards Roquecesaire, to the great satisfaction of the +inhabitants; but the people of the other village, who thought +themselves equally pious, held that they had been slighted; and the +more they looked at the back of the Virgin turned towards them the +angrier they became, and the more determined not to submit to the +indignity. At length, unable to keep down their fury any longer, they +sallied forth one day, men, women and children, with the intention of +turning the statue round. But the people of Roquecesaire were +vigilant, and, seeing the hostile crowd coming, went forth to give +them battle. The combat raged furiously for hours, and it was +watched--so said the postman--with much excitement and interest by the +_cure_ of Montclar--the village we were now approaching--who, +happening to have a telescope, was able to note the varying fortune of +war. At length the Roquecesaire people got the worst of it, and they +were driven away from the statue, which was promptly turned round. +Although many persons were badly knocked about, nobody died for the +cause. The energetic intervention of the spiritual and temporal +authorities prevented a renewal of the scandal, and it was thought +best, in the interest of peace, to allow the statue to be turned +half-way to one village and half to the other. + +The postman was a little reserved at first, not knowing to what +country I belonged, but when he was satisfied that I was not a German, +he let his tongue rattle on with the freedom which is one of the +peculiarities of his class. He confided to me that the best help to a +man who walked much was absinthe. It pulled him up the hills and sent +him whisking across the plains. + +'I eat very little,' said my black-bearded, bright-eyed fellow-tramp; +'but,' he added, 'I drink three or four glasses of absinthe a day.' + +'You will eat still less,' I said, 'if you don't soon begin to turn +off the tap.' + +Considering the hard monotony of their lives and the strain imposed +upon physical endurance by walking from twenty to twenty-five miles a +day in all weathers, the rural postmen in France are a sober body of +men. This one told me that he walked sometimes eight miles out of his +way to carry a single letter. + +Thus gossiping, we reached Montclar, on the plateau, a little to the +south of the deep gorge of the Tarn. Here we entered an auberge, where +the postman was glad to moisten his dry throat with the green-eyed +enemy. This inn was formerly one of those small chateaux--more +correctly termed _maisons fortes_, or manors--which sprang up all over +France in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The inhabited part +of the building was reached by a spiral staircase enclosed by a tower. +A balcony connected with the principal room enabled me to read an +inscription cut in a stone of the tower: 'Tristano Disclaris, 1615.' +But for this record left by the founder, his name would probably have +passed, long ago, out of the memory of men. + +I found that the chief occupation of the people in this house was that +of making Roquefort cheeses; indeed, it was impossible not to guess +what was going on from the all-pervading odour. And yet: I was still +many miles from Roquefort! However, I knew all about this matter +before. I was not twenty miles from Albi when I found that Roquefort +cheese-making was a local industry. In fact, this is the case over a +very wide region. The cheeses, having been made, are sent to Roquefort +to ripen in the cellars, which have been excavated in the rock, and +also to acquire the necessary reputation. While my lunch was being +prepared I looked into the dairy, which was very clean and creditable. +On the ground were large tubs of milk, and on tables were spread many +earthenware moulds pierced with little holes and containing the +pressed curds. + +The hostess was a buxom, good-tempered woman with rosy cheeks. She +told me that she could not give me anything better than ham and eggs. +She could not have offered me anything more acceptable after all the +greasy cooking, the steadfast veal and invariable fowl which I had so +long been compelled to accept daily with resignation. By a mysterious +revelation of art she produced the ham and eggs in a way that made me +think that she must surely be descended from one of the English +adventurers who did all manner of mischief in the Rouergue some five +or six centuries ago. Such ham and eggs in her case could only be +explained by the theory of hereditary ideas. Nevertheless, she had +become French enough to look at me with a dubious, albeit a +good-natured eye. My motive in coming there and going farther without +having any commercial object in view was more than she could fathom. +After my visit to the dairy I fancy her private notion was that I was +commissioned by the English Government to find out how Roquefort +cheese was made, with a view to competition. At length, as we talked +freely, she let the state of her mind with regard to me escape her +unawares by putting this question plump: + +'How is it the gendarmes have not stopped you?' + +'That I cannot tell you,' said I, much amused by her candour; 'but you +may be sure of this, I am not afraid of them.' + +Her husband was listening behind the door, and I observed an +expression of relief in his face when I took up my pack and departed. +If I was to be pounced upon, he preferred, for his own peace of mind +and the reputation of his house, that it should be done elsewhere. All +the village had heard of my coming, and when I reappeared outside +there was a small crowd of people waiting to have a good look at me. I +thought from these signs that I was likely to be asked to show my +papers again by some petty functionary; but no, I was allowed to pass +on without interference. Perhaps the postman had given a good account +of me, the absinthe having touched his heart. There is much diplomacy +in getting somebody on your side while travelling alone through these +unopened districts far from railways. Wandering among the peasants of +the Tarn and the Aveyron teaches one what ignorance really means, what +blindness of intellect goes with it. And yet their enlightenment by +the usual methods would be a doubtful blessing to themselves and +others. + +I was now descending to the valley, and not long after leaving the +village an attempt to escape from the winding hot road led me into one +of those wildernesses which are to me infinitely more pleasing than +the most artistic gardens, with their geometric flower-beds and their +counterfeit lakes and grottoes. The surface of the land was thrown or +washed up into dark-brown hillocks of broken argillaceous schist, +which repelled vegetation, but the hollows were wooded with mountain +oak and many shrubs. Farther down there were other hillocks, equally +bare, but formed of the blue-looking lias marl which the husbandman +detests with good reason, for its sterility is incorrigible. This +_terre bleue_, as the peasants call it, was not the only sign of a +change in the formation; fragments of calcareous stone were mixed with +the brown soil. I was leaving the dark schist and was approaching +those immense accumulations of jurassic rock, whose singular forms and +brilliant colours lend such extraordinary grandeur to the scenery of +the Upper Tarn. There was also a change in the vegetation. A large +species of broom, four or five feet high, covered with golden blossom +the size of pea-flowers, although the common broom had long passed its +blooming, now showed itself as well as roseroot sedum, neither of +which had I seen while coming over the schist. The cicadas returned +and screamed from every tree. I captured one and examined the musical +instrument--a truly marvellous bit of mechanism--that it carried in +each of its sides. It is not legs which make the noise, as is the case +with crickets and grasshoppers, but little hard membranes under the +wings are scraped together at the creature's will. The sound is not +musical, for when it is not a continuous scissor-grinding noise, it is +like the cry of a corncrake with a weak throat; but what delight there +is in it! and how it expresses that joy in the present and +recklessness of the morrow, which the fabulist has in vain contrasted +with the virtuous industry of the ant in order to point a moral for +mankind!--vainly, because the _cigale's_ short life in the sunlit +trees will ever seem to men a more ideal one than that of the +earth-burrowing ant, with its possible longevity, its peevish +parsimony, and restless anxiety for the future. I could have lain down +under a tree like a gipsy in this wild spot, and let the summer dreams +come to me from their airy castles amongst the leaves, if I had not +made up my mind to reach St. Affrique before night. There was another +reason which, although it clashes with poetry, had better be told for +the sake of truth. Insects would soon have taken all pleasure from the +siesta. Great black ants, and great red ones, little ants too, that +could have walked with comfort through the eye of a fine needle, +notwithstanding their wickedness, and intermediate species of the same +much-praised family, would have scampered over me and stung me, and +flies of bad propensities would have settled upon me. An enthusiastic +entomologist has only to lie down in the open air in this part of +France at the end of July or in August, and he will soon be able to +observe, perhaps feel, sufficient insects travelling on their legs or +on the wing to satisfy a great deal of curiosity. Often the air is all +aflutter with butterflies, many of them remarkable for their size or +the beauty of their colouring. One I have particularly noticed; not +large, but coloured with exquisite gradations of bright-yellow, +orange, and pale-green. + +I believe I added to my day's journey by my excursion across country, +but the time would have passed less pleasantly on the road. The +winding yellow line, however, appeared again, and I had to tramp upon +it. And a hot, toilsome trudge it was, through that long narrow valley +with scrubby woods reaching down to the road, but with no habitations +and no water. It was the desert. The afternoon was far advanced when +the country opened and I saw a village of coquettish appearance, for +most of the houses had been washed with red, and many of the +window-shutters were painted green. + +I was parched with thirst, for the sun had been broiling me for hours; +therefore, when I saw this village on the hillside, I hurried towards +it with the impatience of a traveller who sees the palm-trees over a +well in the sands of Africa. In a place that could give so much +attention to colour there must surely be an auberge, I thought. And I +judged rightly, for there were two little inns. I found the door of +the first one closed, and learnt that the people were out harvesting. +I walked on to the next, and found that likewise closed, and was again +informed that all the family were out in the fields. The whole village +was nearly deserted; almost everyone was busy reaping and putting up +the sheaves. I stopped beside the village pump and reflected upon my +misery. I had resigned myself to water, when a woman carrying a sickle +opened the door of one of the inns. Some friendly bird must have told +her of my thirst and weariness--perhaps the merry little quail that I +heard as I came up from the plain crying 'To-whit! To-whit!' That +blessed auberge actually contained bottled beer. And the room was so +cool that butter would not have melted in it. These southern houses +have such thick stone walls that they have the double advantage of +being warm in winter and delightfully cool in summer. I had some +difficulty in resisting the temptation to stop the night at this inn; +but I did resist it, and was again on the road to St. Affrique before +the heat of the day had passed. Another toilsome trudge, during which +I met an English threshing-machine being dragged along by bullocks, +and the familiar words upon it made me feel for awhile quite at home. +The apparition, however, gave me a shock, for the antique flail is +still the instrument commonly used for threshing in the southern +provinces of France. + +At a village called Moulin, lying in a rich and beautiful valley, I +met the Sorgues, one of the larger tributaries of the Tarn, and for +the rest of my journey I had the companionship of a charming stream. +Evening came on, and the fiery blue above me grew soft and rosy. Rosy, +too, were the cornfields, where bands of men and women, fifteen or +twenty together, were reaping gaily, for the heat of the day was gone, +the freshness of the twilight had come, and the fragrance of the +valley was loosened. I had left the last group of reapers behind, and +the silence of the dusk was broken only by the tree crickets and the +rapids of the little river, when a woman passed me on the road and +murmured '_Adicias!_' (God be with you!). '_Adicias!_ I replied, and +then I was again alone. Presently there was a jangling of bells +behind, and I was soon overtaken by three horses and a crowded +_diligence_. The sound of the bells grew fainter and fainter, and once +more I was alone with the summer night. The stars began to shine, and +the river was lost in the mystery of shadow, save where a sunken rock +made the water gleam white, and broke the peace with a cry of trouble. + +It was late when I reached St. Affrique, and I believe no tramp +arrived at his bourne that night more weary than I, for I had been +walking most of the day in the burning sun. But although I lay down +like a jaded horse, I was too feverish to sleep. To make matters +worse, there was a cock in the yard just underneath my window, and the +fiendish creature considered it his duty to crow every two or three +minutes after the stroke of midnight. How well did I then enter into +the feelings of a man I knew who, under similar provocation, got up +from his bed, and, taking a carving-knife from the kitchen, quietly +and deftly cut off the cock's head before the astonished bird had time +to protest. Having stopped the crowing and assured himself that it +would not begin again, he went back to bed and slept the sleep of the +innocent. + +I was out early the next morning, looking at the extraordinary +astronomical dials of the parish church, covering much of the surface +of the outer walls. All the straight lines, curves, and figures, and +the inscriptions in Latin, must have the effect of convincing the +majority of the inhabitants that their ignorance is hopeless. Such a +display of science must be like wizard symbolism to the common people. +The dials are exceedingly curious, and there are some really +astonishing calculations, as, for instance, a table showing the +'number of souls that have appeared before the Tribunal of God.' Near +a great sundial are these solemn words: 'Sol et luna faciunt quae +precepta sunt eis; nos autem pergrimamur a Domino.' The church itself +is one of the most fantastically ugly structures imaginable. All +possible tricks of style and taste appear to have been played upon it. +It is a jumble of heavy Gothic and Italian, and the apse is twisted +out of line with the nave, in which respect, however, it is like the +cathedral of Quimper. As I left the church a funeral procession +approached, women carrying palls by the four corners a little in front +of the coffin, according to the custom of the country when the dead +person is of their own sex. + +St. Affrique is a small town of about 7,000 inhabitants, lying in a +warm valley and surrounded by high hills, the sides of which were once +covered with luxuriant vineyards. These slopes, arid, barren, and +sun-scorched, are perfectly suited to the cultivation of the vine, the +fig, and the almond; but the elevation is still too great for the +olive. According to the authors of 'Gallia Christiana,' a saint named +Fricus, or Africus, came at the beginning of the sixth century into +the valley of the Sorgues, and was the founder of the burg. St. +Affrique was a strong place in the Middle Ages, and for this reason it +was disturbed less by the English than some other towns in the +Rouergue. After the treaty of Bretigny the consuls went to Millau and +swore fealty to the King of England, represented there by John +Chandos. + +As I toiled up the side of the valley in the direction of Millau, I +noticed the Rocher de Caylus, a large reddish and somewhat +fantastically shaped block of oolitic rock, perched on the hill above +the vineyards. Here the lower formation was schistous, the upper +calcareous. The sun was intensely hot, but there was the shade of +walnut-trees, of which I took advantage, although it is said to be +poisonous, like that of the oleander. + +When I reached the plateau there was no shade whatever, baneful or +beneficent. If there was ever any forest here all vestige of it has +disappeared. I was on the border of the Causse de Larzac, one of the +highest, most extensive, and hopelessly barren of the calcareous +deserts which separate the rivers in this part of France. Not a drop +of water, save what may have been collected in tanks for the use of +sheep, and the few human beings who eke out an existence there, is to +be found upon them. Swept by freezing winds in winter and burnt by a +torrid sun in summer, their climate is as harsh as the soil is +ungenerous. + +But although I was sun-broiled upon this _causse_, I was interested at +every step by the flowers that I found there. Dry, chaffy, or prickly +plants, corresponding in their nature to the aridity and asperity of +the land, were peculiarly at home upon the undulating stoniness. The +most beautiful flower then blooming was the catananche, which has won +its poetic French name, _Cupidon bleu_, by the brilliant colour of its +blossom. Multitudes of yellow everlastings also decked the solitude. + +On reaching the highest ground the crests of the bare Cevennes were +seen against the cloudless sky to the south. A little to the east, +beyond the valley of the Cernon, which I intended to cross, were high +hills or cliffs, treeless and sterile, with hard-cut angular sides, +terminating upwards in vertical walls of naked stone. These were the +buttresses of the Causse de Larzac. The lower sides of some of the +hills were blue with lias marl, and wherever they were steep not a +blade of grass grew. + +Having descended to the valley, I was soon climbing towards Roquefort +by the flanks of those melancholy hills which seemed to express the +hopelessness of nature after ages of effort to overcome some evil +power. And yet the tinkling of innumerable sheep-bells told that even +here men had found a way of earning their bread. I saw the flocks +moving high above me where all was wastefulness and rockiness, and +heard the voices of the shepherds. There were the Roquefort sheep +whose milk, converted into cheese of the first quality, is sent into +distant countries whose people little imagine that its constituents +are drawn from a desert where there is little else but stones. + +I came in view of the village, clinging as it seemed to the steep at +the base of a huge bastion of stark jurassic rock. Facing it was +another barren hill, and in the valley beneath were mamelons of dark +clay and stones partly conquered by the great broom and burning with +its flame of gold. When I reached the village I felt that I had earned +a rest. + +Cheese, which has been the fortune of Roquefort, has destroyed its +picturesqueness. It has brought speculators there who have raised +great ugly square buildings of dazzling whiteness, in harsh contrast +with the character and sombre tone of the old houses. Although the +place is so small that it consists of only one street and a few +alleys, the more ancient dwellings are remarkable for their height. It +is surprising to see in a village lost among the sterile hills houses +three stories high. The fact that there is only a ledge on which to +build must be the explanation. What is most curious in the place is +the cellars. Before the cheese became an important article of commerce +these were natural caverns, such as are everywhere to be found in this +calcareous formation, but now they are really cellars which have been +excavated to such a depth in the rock that they are to be seen in as +many as five stages, where long rows of cheeses are stacked one over +the other. The virtue of these cellars from the cheese-making point of +view is their dryness and their scarcely varying temperature of about +8o Centigrade summer and winter. But the demand for Roquefort cheese +has become so great that trickery now plays a part in the ripening +process. The peasants have learnt that 'time is money,' and they have +found that bread-crumbs mixed with the curd cause those green streaks +of mouldiness, which denote that the cheese is fit for the market, to +appear much more readily than was formerly the case when it was left +to do the best it could for itself with the aid of a subterranean +atmosphere. This is not exactly cheating; it is commercial enterprise, +the result of competition and other circumstances too strong for poor +human nature. In cheese-making, breadcrumbs are found to be a cheap +substitute for time, and it is said that those who have taken to +beer-brewing in this region have found that box, which here is the +commonest of shrubs, is a cheap substitute for hops. The notion that +brass pins are stuck into Roquefort cheese to make it turn green is +founded on fiction. + +Having remained at Roquefort long enough to see all that was needful, +to lunch and to be overcharged--commercial enterprise is very +infectious--I turned my back upon it and scrambled down a stony path +to the bottom of the valley where the Cernon--now a mere thread of a +stream--curled and sparkled in the middle of its wide channel, the +yellow flowers and pale-green leaves of the horned poppy basking upon +the rocky banks. Following it down to the Tarn, I came to the village +of St. Rome de Cernon, where the houses of dark-gray stone, built on a +hillside, are overtopped by the round tower of a small mediaeval +fortress which has been patched up and put to some modern use. I +thought the people very ill-favoured by nature here, but perhaps they +are not more so than others in the district. The harshness of nature +is strongly reflected in all faces. Having passed a man on the bank of +the stream washing his linen--presumably his own--with bare arms, +sinewy and hairy like a gorilla's, I was again in the open country; +but instead of following donkey-paths and sheep-tracks I was upon the +dusty highroad. Well, even a, _route nationale_, however hot and +dusty, so that it be not too straight, has its advantages, which are +felt after you have been walking an uncertain number of miles over a +very rough country, trusting to luck to lead you where you wished to +go. The feeling that you may at length step out freely and not worry +yourself with a map and compass is a kind of pleasure which, like all +others, is only so by the force of contrast and the charm of variety. +I knew that I could now tramp along this road without troubling myself +about anything, and that I should reach Millau sooner or later. It was +really very hot--ideal sunstroke weather, verging on 90o in the shade; +but I had become hardened to it, and was as dry as a smoked herring. +For miles I saw no human being and heard no sound of life except the +shrilling of grasshoppers and the more strident song of the cicadas in +the trees. By-and-by houses showed themselves, and I came to the +village of St. Georges beside the bright little Cernon, but surrounded +by wasteful, desolate hills, one of which, shaped like a cone, reared +its yellow rocky summit far towards the blue solitude of the dazzling +sky. I passed by little gardens where great hollyhocks flamed in the +afternoon sunshine, then I met the Tarn again and reached Millau, a +weary and dusty wayfarer. + +I stopped in Millau (sometimes spelt Milhau) more than a day, in order +to rest and to ramble--moderately. Although the town, with its 16,000 +inhabitants, is the most populous in the department of the Aveyron, it +is so remote from all large centres and currents of human movement +that very little French is spoken there. And this French is about on a +par with the English of the Sheffield grinders. In the better-class +families an effort now is made to keep _patois_ out-of-doors for the +sake of the children; but there is scarcely a middle-aged native to +whom it is not the mother-tongue. The common dialect is not quite the +same throughout Guyenne and Languedoc; but the local variations are +much less marked than one would expect, considering that the _langue +d'oc_ has been virtually abandoned as a literary vehicle for +centuries. The word _oc_ (yes), which was once the most convenient +sound to distinguish the dialect from that of the northern half of +France, is not easy to recognise nowadays in the conversation of the +people. The _c_ in the word is not pronounced--perhaps it never +was--and the _o_ is usually joined to _be_, which has the same meaning +as _bien_ in the French language. Thus we have the forms _obe_, _ope_, +and _ape_ according to the district, and all equivalent to 'yes.' All +these people can understand Spanish when spoken slowly. Many can catch +your meaning when you speak to them in French, but reply in _patois_. +I had grown accustomed, although not reconciled, to this manner of +conversing with peasants; but I was surprised to find on entering a +shop at Millau that neither the man nor his wife there could reply to +me in French. + +This town lies in the bottom of a basin; some of the high hills, +especially those on the east, showing savage escarpments with towering +masses of yellow or reddish rock at the summits. The climate of the +valley is delightful in winter, but sultry and enervating in summer. +It is so protected from the winds that the mulberry flourishes there, +and countless almond-trees rise above the vines on the burning +hillsides. + +Millau presents a good deal of interest to the archaeologist. Very +noteworthy is the ancient market-place, where the first and upper +stories project far over the paving and are supported by a colonnade. +Some of the columns, with elaborately carved Romanesque capitals, date +from the twelfth century, and look ready to fall into fragments. At +one end of the square is an immense modern crucifix--a sure sign that +the civic authorities do not yet share the views of the municipal +councillors of Paris in regard to religious emblems. Protestants, +however, are numerous at Millau as well as at St. Affrique, both towns +having been important centres of Calvinism at the time of the +Revocation of the Edict of Nantes; and after the forced emigration +many of the inhabitants must have strongly sympathized with their +persecuted neighbours, the Camisards. Nevertheless, the department of +the Aveyron, taken in its entirety, is now one of the most fervently +Catholic in France. + +The church is Romanesque, with a marked Byzantine tendency. It has an +elegant apse, decorated in good taste; but the edifice having received +various patchings and decorations at the time of the Renaissance, the +uniformity of style has been spoilt. The most striking architectural +feature of the town is a high Gothic belfry of octagonal form, with a +massive square tower for its base. + +In the Middle Ages the government of this town was vested in six +consuls, who received twenty gold florins a year as salary, and also a +new robe of red and black cloth with a hood. In 1341 they furnished +forty men-at-arms for the war against the English, but the place was +given up to Chandos in 1362. The rising of 1369 delivered the burghers +again from the British power, but for twenty-two years they were +continually fighting with the English companies. + +The evening before I left Millau I strolled into the little square +where the great crucifix stands. I found it densely crowded. Three or +four hundred men were there, each wearing a blouse and carrying a +sickle with a bit of osier laid upon the sharp edge of the blade along +its whole length, and firmly tied. All these harvesters were waiting +to be hired for the following week. They belonged to a class much less +numerous in France than in England--the agricultural labourers who +have no direct interest in the soil that they help to cultivate and +the crops that they help to gather in. I have often met them on the +dusty roads, frequently walking with bare feet, carrying the +implements of their husbandry and a little bundle of clothes. It must +be very hard to ask for work from farm to farm. I can enter fully into +the attachment of the French peasant to his bit of land, which, +although it may yield him little more than his black bread, cannot be +taken from him so long as he can manage to live by the sweat of his +brow. Many of these peasant proprietors can barely keep body and soul +together; but when they lie down upon their wretched beds at night, +they feel thankful that the roof that covers them and the soil that +supports them are their own. The wind may howl about the eaves, and +the snow may drift against the wall, but they know that the one will +calm down, and that the other will melt, and that life will go on as +before--hard, back-breaking, grudging even the dark bread, but secure +and independent. Waiting to be hired by another man, almost like a +beast of burden--what a trial is here for pride! Happily for the human +race, pride, although it springs naturally in the breast of man, only +becomes luxuriant with cultivation. The poor labourer does not feel it +unless his instinctive sense of justice has been outraged. + + + + +THE BLACK CAUSSE. + + +One cannot be sure of the weather even in the South of France, where +the skies are supposed, by those who do not know them, to be +perpetually blue. The 'South of France' itself is a very deceptive +term. The climate on one side of a range of mountains or high hills +may be altogether different from that on the other. In Upper Languedoc +and Guyenne the climate is regulated by three principal factors: the +elevation of the soil, the influence of the Mediterranean, and the +influence of the Atlantic. On the northern side of the Cevennes, the +currents from the ocean, together with the altitude, do much to keep +the air moist and comparatively cool in summer; whereas on the other +side of the chain, where the Mediterranean influence--in a large +measure African--is paramount, the climate is dry and torrid during +the hot months. A liability to sudden changes goes with the advantages +of the more favoured region. This was enforced upon me at Millau. + +At seven o'clock the sky, lately of such a fiery blue, was of a most +mournful smokiness, and the rain fell in a drenching spray. It was +mountain weather, and I blamed the Cevennes for it. But I was in the +South, and at a season when bad weather is seldom in earnest, so I did +not despair of a change when the sun rose higher. It came, in fact, at +about eight o'clock, when, a breeze springing up, the clouds, after a +short struggle, were swept away. The market-women spread out upon the +pavement their tomatoes, their purple _aubergines_, their peaches, and +green almonds; the harvesters, long hesitating, went out into the +fields to reap; and I, leaving the Tarn, took my way up the valley of +the gleaming Dourbie. Millau was soon nearly hidden in its basin, but +above it, on the sides of the surrounding hills, scattered amongst the +sickly vines, or the vigorous young plants which promised in a few +years to make the stony soil flow once more with purple juice, were +the small white houses of the wine-growers. Where I could, I walked in +the shade of walnut and mulberry trees, for the heat was great, and +the rain that had fallen rose like steam in the sun-blaze from the +herbage and the golden stubble. In this low valley all corn except +maize had been gathered in, and Nature was resting, after her labour, +with the smile of maternity on her face. Nevertheless, this stillness +of the summer's fulfilment, this pause in the energy of production, is +saddening to the wayfarer, to whom the vernal splendour of the year +and the time of blossoming seem like the gifts of yesterday. The +serenity of the burnished plains now prompts him upward, where he +hopes to overtake the tarrying spring upon the cool and grassy +mountains. Although the mountains towards which I was now bearing were +the melancholy and arid Cevennes, I wished the distance less that lay +between me and their barren flanks, where the breeze would be scented +with the bloom of lavender. There were flowers along the wayside here, +but they were the same that I had been seeing for many a league, and +they reminded me too forcibly of the rapid flight of the summer days +by their haste--their unnecessary haste, as I thought--in passing from +the flower to the seed. A sprig of lithosperm stood like a little tree +laden with Dead Sea fruit, for the naked seeds clung hard and flinty +where the flowers had been. The glaucium, although still blooming, had +put forth horns nine inches long, and the wild barley, so lately +green, was now a brown fringe along the dusty road. And thus all these +familiar forms of vegetable life, which we notice in our wanderings, +but never understand, come and go, perish and rise again--so quickly, +too, that we have no time to listen to what they say; we only feel +that the song which they sing along the waysides of the world is ever +joyous and ever sad. + +In the lower part of this valley were scattered farmhouses, which +looked like small rural churches, for their high rectangular dovecots +at one end had much the air of towers with broach spires. Throughout +Guyenne one is amazed at the apparently extravagant scale on which +accommodation has been provided for pigeon-rearing. There are plenty +of pigeons in the country, but the size of their houses is usually out +of all proportion to the number of lodgers, and dovecots without +tenants are almost as frequently seen as those that are tenanted. They +are seldom of modern construction; many are centuries old. All this +points to the conclusion that people of former times laid much greater +store by pigeon-flesh than their descendants do. It may have been that +other animal food was relatively more expensive than at the present +day. + +But as I ascended the valley the breadth of cultivated land grew +narrower, and the habitations fewer. On either side the cliffs rose +higher, and the walls of Jurassic rock, above the brashy steeps, more +towering, precipitous, and fantastic. Where vegetable life could draw +sustenance from crumbling, stones stretched a veritable forest of box. +Now, in a narrow gorge, the Dourbie frolicked about the heaps of +pebbles it had thrown up in its winter fury. Strong wires, attached to +high rocks, crossed the gorge and the stream, and were made fast to +the side of the road. Bundles of newly-cut box at the lower end showed +the use to which these wires were put. Far aloft upon the heated rocks +women were cutting down the tough shrub for firewood or manure, for it +is put to both uses. It serves a very useful purpose when buried in +dense layers between the vine rows. When I looked aloft, and saw those +petticoated beings toiling in the terrible heat, I thought it a pity +that there was no society to protect women as well as horses from +being cruelly overworked. Let social reformers ponder this truth: The +more the man is encouraged to shirk work, the more the woman will have +to toil to make up for wasted time. As it is, women everywhere, except +perhaps in England, work harder than men, as far as I can speak from +observation. + +I was on my way to Vieux Montpellier--the 'Devil's City'--and already +the scenery began to take the character to be expected of it in such a +neighbourhood. It seemed as though the demon builder of the fantastic +town, sporting with man's architectural ideals before his appearance +on the earth, had hewn the red and yellow rocks above the Dourbie into +the ironic semblance of feudal towers and heaven-pointing spires. + +The highest limestone rocks in this region, those which rise from the +plateau or _causse_ and strike the imagination by the strangeness of +their forms, are dolomite; in the gorges they approach the character +of lias towards the base, and not unfrequently contain lumps of pure +silex embedded in their mass. The redness which they so often show, +and which, alternating with yellow, white, or gray, adds to the +grandeur of their rugged outlines, is due to the iron which the rock +contains. + +A young gipsy-woman, carrying a child upon her shoulders, and holding +on to a dusky little leg on each side of her neck, followed in the +wake of an old caravan drawn by a mule of resigned countenance--a +beast that seemed to have made a vow never to hurry again, and to let +the flies do their worst. She vanished upon the winding road, and +presently I saw another wayfarer seated on the bank beside the stream, +binding up a bleeding foot under the trailing traveller's joy. Before +reaching the village of La Roque-Sainte-Marguerite, I passed a genuine +rock dwelling. A natural cavern, some twenty or thirty feet above the +level of the road, had been walled up to make a house. It had its door +and windows like any other dwelling, and some convenient crevice in +the rock had probably been used for a chimney. + +Having taken an hour's rest and a light meal in the village, I +commenced the ascent towards the 'Devil's City.' A mule-path wound up +the steep side of the gorge, which had been partly reclaimed from the +desert by means of terraces where many almond-trees flourished, safe +from the north wind. Very scanty, however, was the vegetation that +grew upon this dry stony soil, burning in summer, and washed in winter +of its organic matter by the mountain rains. Tall woody spurges two +feet high or more, with tufts of dusty green leaves, managed to draw, +however, abundant moisture from the waste, as the milk that gushed +from the smallest wound attested. An everlasting pea, with very large +flowers of a deep rose-colour, also loved this arid steep. I was +wondering why I found no lavender, when I saw a gray-blue tuft above +me, and welcomed it like an old friend. The air was soon scented with +the plant, and for five days I was in the land of lavender. On nearing +the buttresses of the plateau the ground was less steep, and here I +came to pines, junipers, oaks, and the bird-cherry prunus. But the +tree which I was most pleased to find was a plum, with ripe fruit +about the size of a small greengage, but of a beautiful pale +rose-colour. + +I am now upon the _causse_ and already see the castellated outworks +of the 'Devil's City.' The city itself lies in a hollow, and I have +not yet reached it. The mule-path fortunately leads in the right +direction. On my way multitudes of very dark, almost black, +butterflies flutter up from the short turf, which is flecked with +the gold of yellow everlastings. Here and there a solitary +round-headed allium nods from the top of its long leafless stem. I +walk over the shining dark leaves and the scarlet beads of the +bearberry, and am presently roaming in the fantastic streets of the +dolomitic city. To say streets is scarcely an exaggeration, for +these jutting rocks have in places almost the regularity of the +menhirs of Carnac. But the megalithic monuments of Brittany are like +arrow-heads compared to the stones of Montpellier-le-Vieux. In +placing these and in giving them that mimicry of familiar forms at +times so startling to human eyes, Nature has been the sole engineer +and artist. There is but one theory by which the working cause of +the existing phenomena can be brought to our understanding. It is +that these honeycombed and fantastically-shaped masses of dolomite +or magnesian limestone represent the skeletons of vaster rocks whose +less resisting parts were washed away by the wearing action of the +sea. Some are formed of blocks of varying size, lying one upon +another, with a pinnacle or dome at the summit; others show no trace +of stratification, but are integral rocks which in many cases appear +to have been cut away and fashioned to the mocking likeness of some +animal form by a demon statuary. Now it is a colossal owl, now a +frightful head that may be human or devilish, now some inanimate +shape such as a prodigious wineglass which fixes the eye and excites +the fancy. A mass of rock on which can be seen half sitting, half +reclining, a monstrous stony shape with head hideously jovial, has +been named the 'Devil's Chair.' + +I saw this spot under circumstances very favourable to the full +reception of its fantastic, mysterious, and gloomy influence. It was +late enough in the afternoon for the feeling of evening and of the +coming night to be in the air, especially here, where dark pines stood +in the mimic streets and squares like cypresses in a cemetery. The +awful mournfulness of the shadowy groves was deepened by my own +solitariness, for although surrounded by frightful shapes that +caricatured humanity, mine was the only human form that moved amongst +the dumb but fiend-like rocks and the pines, which moaned and +whispered like unhappy ghosts. I was alone in the 'Devil's City,' and +perchance with the devil himself. When a hawk flew over and screamed +it was welcome, although there was nothing cheerful in its cry. There +could be no severer trial perhaps to the nerves of a superstitious +person than to take a solitary walk by moonlight through +Montpellier-le-Vieux. The sense of the weird and the horrible would +give him too many cold shudders for him to enjoy the grandeur and the +strangeness of the scene. + +The superstitious horror in which this spot has always been held by +the peasants--chiefly shepherds--of the district, together with the +fact that the rustic, uninfluenced from without, never speaks of rocks +except in terms of contempt, however extraordinary their forms may be, +must be the reason why Montpellier-le-Vieux has only been known of +late years to persons interested in such curiosities of nature. To the +geologist it is fascinating ground, as, indeed, is the whole expanse +of these _causses_ of Guyenne and Upper Languedoc, so fissured and +honeycombed--a region of gorges and caverns, of subterranean lakes and +rivers, of bottomless pits and mysterious streams. + +It is said that the dolomitic city owes its name, Montpellier-le-Vieux, +to the shepherds of Lower Languedoc, who from time immemorial have +brought their flocks in summer to pasture upon these highlands. In +their dialect they call Montpellier, which is to them what Paris is to +the peasants of the Brie, 'Lou Clapas'--literally, a heap of stones. On +seeing rocks covering several acres, and looking like the ruins of a +great city of the past, they could think of no better name for it than +'Lou Clapas Biel,' or 'old heap of stones.' This turned into French +becomes Montpellier-le-Vieux. + +The 'Devil's City' can be recommended to the botanist, who need not +fear that the flowers he will find there will wither at his touch like +those gathered for Marguerite by her guileless lover. The +ever-crumbling dolomite has formed a soil very favourable to a varied +flora. As I had, however, to reach the gorge of the Tarn before +nightfall, and it was still far off, I only took away two souvenirs of +the diabolic garden--a white scabious and a bit of rock-potentil. + +The name given to the tract of country I was now crossing--the Causse +Noir, fitly describes it, It is singularly dark and mournful, and +almost uninhabited. It is not, strictly speaking, a plateau, but a +succession of valleys and low hills like the bed of the ocean. The +barren land is thickly overgrown with box and juniper, and these +shrubs, which often attain a height of six or eight feet, sufficiently +account for the sombre tone of the landscape. Here and there savage +little, gorges run up between the dismal hills, with trees of larger +growth, such as oaks and pines, in the hollows. There is good reason +to believe that all these _causses_ were at one time more or less +covered by forests; but the reason commonly given for their +disappearance--namely, that they were burnt down during the religious +wars--is less likely to be the true one than that they gradually +perished because it was nobody's business to protect the seedlings +from sheep and goats--animals capable of changing the world into a +treeless desert, but which, fortunately, cease to be profitable when +they come down from the sterile highlands, where they thrive best, +into the rich plains and valleys. The disastrous floods which occur +with such appalling suddenness in the valleys of the Tarn and the Lot +are due in a large measure to the nudity of the _causses_ and the +Cevennes, where these mountains turn northward and cross the Lozere to +meet the Auvergne range. The French Government nurses the hope that it +will be able some day to cover much of the baldness of this extensive +region with magnificent pine-forests, and planting actually goes on in +places; but what with the nibbling flocks, and the increasing seventy +of the winters, the measure of success already obtained by such +laudable efforts is not encouraging. + +I wished to reach Peyreleau that night, but how to get there I knew +not otherwise than by persistently keeping in a north-easterly course, +and despising all natural obstacles. I was attracted by what looked +like a road running up between two hills in the right direction; but +when I came to it I found that it was the dry channel of a stream. I +nevertheless took advantage of it, as I have of many another such in +the South, although there are few watercourses whose beds can be +walked upon with comfort. I was lucky now beyond my expectations, for +it was not long before I struck a road which I was sure could lead +nowhere but to Peyreleau. It first took me through a darkly-wooded +gorge, where evening stood like a nun in a chapel. The brilliant sky +had changed to a sad gray. There was to be no gorgeous sunset, with +rosy after-glow, softening with transparent colour the harshness of +the dark box and darker juniper. No: the day that commenced sadly was +ending sadly--going to its grave in a gray habit with drawn cowl. A +great falcon passed slowly on its way under the dull sky, but no bird +nor beast uttered a sound. The Causse Noir was as silent as a crypt. + +I became very uncertain where this road over the dismal solitude was +going to lead me, for it turned about in such a way as to put me out +of my reckoning. At length I saw a deep gorge yawning below, and this +told me that I had reached the edge of the _causse_. Oh, the sublime +desolation of these heights and depths in the solemn evening! How, +mournful then is the silence of the innumerable, gray stones and +monstrous rocks which try to speak to us like creatures once eloquent +and possessing the knowledge of wondrous changes, and the key to +problems that everlastingly distress the human mind, but on which the +curse of dumbness has lain for ages! + +I thought that I must have wandered beyond the peopled world, when +suddenly I saw, far down in the bottom of the widening valley, a +village or small town at the foot of a cone-shaped hill. The little +river running near satisfied me that I was in view of Peyreleau. The +descent was tedious and long, notwithstanding the loops that I cut off +of the curling road by scrambling down the steep sides of the gorge +over the loose stones and lavender. It was still daylight when I +reached a small hotel, outside of which some tourists were smoking +cigarettes and drinking beer while waiting for dinner. Until then I +had not seen a tourist after leaving Albi. All through the Albigeois +and the Rouergue, I was looked upon as an animal of unknown species, +and possibly noxious; but here I was recognised at once as one of a +familiar tribe, of small brain development, but harmless. I had +entered a region which for several years past had drawn to it many +persons--mostly French--who had heard of the grand gorge, or canon, of +the Tarn. + +I had been told that the right way--the one followed by all sensible +people--of seeing the gorge from Sainte-Enimie to Le Rozier was to +come down the stream in a boat; but circumstances, or my own +perversity, had led me once more to do the thing that was considered +wrong. Instead of coming down the swift stream like a fly on a leaf, +my intention was to crawl up the gorge by such goat or mule paths as +were available on the margin of the river or on the ledges of the +cliffs. Thus I should not be obliged to treat every fresh view as if +it were a bird on the wing, but could dawdle as long as I pleased over +this or that object without being a trouble to anybody. + +It was far from unpleasant, however, to spend an evening at this +water-side inn with people fresh from Paris, bringing with them the +spray of the sea that beats against the shores of high-strung life. +Nor was it unpleasant to find a little refinement in the kitchen +again, and to eat trout not saturated with the essence of garlic. + + + + +THE CANON OF THE TARN. + + +At an early hour next morning I was making my way up the gorge beside +the Tarn; but before leaving Peyreleau, I wandered about its steep +streets--in some places a series of steps cut in the rock--noted +Gothic doorways, and houses with interior vaulting, and climbed to the +top of a machicolated tower built over the ivy-draped wall of a ruined +castle. The place is very charming to the eye; but in this region one +soon becomes a spoilt child of the picturesque, and the mind, fatigued +by admiration, loses something of its sensibility to the impressions +of beauty and grandeur, and is capable of passing by almost unmoved +what, where Nature deals out her surprises with a calmer hand, might +engrave upon the memory images of lasting delight. This is the chief +reason, perhaps, why I hate the hurry of the sightseer who, even in +his pleasure, makes himself the bondman of time and the creature of +convention. + +It was pleasant and easy walking on the bank of the river, for as yet +the cliffs were far apart, and in the valley there were strips of +meadow and flowering buckwheat. The water, where it was not broken +into white anger by the rocky channel, was intensely green with the +reflection of poplar and alder, although of crystal clearness. I +watched the large trout swimming in the pools, and wished I had a rod, +but consoled myself with the thought that if I had brought one I +should probably have not seen a fish. Opportunities are never so ready +to show themselves as when we have not the means of seizing them. +While I was looking at the river, a boat shot into view round a bend +of the gorge and came down like an arrow over the rapids. It contained +a small party of tourists and two boatmen, who stood in. the +flat-bottomed craft with poles in their hands, with which they kept it +clear of the rocks. I understood at once the delicious excitement of +coming down the Tarn in this fashion. Bucketfuls of water are often +shipped where the stream rushes furiously between walls of rock; but +the men have become so expert with practice that the risk of being +capsized is very slight. In a few minutes the boat had vanished, and +then the gorge became wilder and sterner; but just as I thought the +sentiment of desolation perfect, a little goatherd, who had climbed +high up the rocks somewhere with his equally sure-footed companions, +began to sing, not a pastoral ditty in the Southern dialect, but the +'Marseillaise,' thus recalling with shocking incongruity impressions +of screaming barrel-organs at the fete of St. Cloud. + +The gorge narrowed and the rocks rose higher, the topmost crags being +1,000 or 1,200 feet above the water. Although everything here was on a +grander scale, all the strong peculiarities of formation which I had +remarked elsewhere in Guyenne and Languedoc, wherever the layers of +Jurassic rock have split asunder and produced gorges more or less +profound, were repeated in this canon of the Tarn. + +Competent geologists, however, have noted a distinctive difference, +namely: that, of all the rivers running in the fissures of the +_causses_, the Tarn is the only one whose water does not penetrate to +the beds of marl beneath the lias; and this is said to partly explain +the great height and verticality of the cliffs, for when the water +reaches the marl it saps the foundations of the rocks, and these, +subsiding, send their dislocated masses rolling to the bottom of the +gorge. + +I overtook a man and two boys who were hauling and pushing a boat +up-stream. The man was wading in the water with a towing-rope over his +shoulder, and the boys were in the punt plying their boat-hooks +against the rocks and the bed of the river. They made very slow +headway on account of the strength and frequency of the rapids. In +coming down the Tarn, all that the boatman has to do is to use his +_gaffe_ so as to keep clear of the rocks; but the return-journey is by +no means so pleasant and exciting. + +I passed a little cluster of hovels built against the rock, and here a +kind woman offered me some sheep's milk, which I declined for no +better reason than because it was sheep's. + +Towards mid-day I reached the village of Les Vignes, which takes its +name from the vineyards which have long been cultivated here, where +the gorge widens somewhat, and offers opportunities to husbandry. The +great cliffs protect vegetation and human life from the mountain +climate which prevails upon the dismal Causse Mejan and the Causse de +Sauveterre, separated by the deep fissure. Until tourists came to the +Tarn, Les Vignes was quite cut off from the world, but now it is a +halting-place for the boatmen and their passengers; and a little +auberge, while retaining all its rustic charm, provides the traveller +with a good meal at a fair price. The rush of strangers during the +summer has not yet been sufficient to spoil the river-side people +between Sainte-Enimie and Peyreleau by fostering that spirit of +speculation which, when it takes hold of an inn-keeper, almost fatally +classifies him with predatory animals. + +On reaching the auberge I walked straight into the kitchen as usual. A +fowl and a leg of mutton were turning on the spit, and the hostess was +very busy with stewpans and other utensils on various parts of her +broad hearth. I soon learnt that a party of several persons had +arrived before me, and that all these preparations were for them. My +application for a meal was not met with a refusal, but it was evident +that I should have to wait until others were served, and that, they +having bespoken the best of everything in the house, my position was +not as satisfactory as could be desired. I suppose I must have looked +rather sad, for one of the party who had so swooped down upon the +little inn and all its resources suggested that I should take my meal +at their table. I should have accepted this offer with more hesitation +had I known that they had brought with them the _piece de resistance_, +the leg of mutton, nearly as large as an English one, that was +browning upon the spit before the blazing wood. After thinking myself +unlucky, it turned out that I was in luck's way. + +I was presently seated at a long table with about a dozen others of +both sexes, all relatives or old friends. They belonged to the small +town of Severac, and had driven in two queer countrified vehicles +about fifteen miles in order to spend a happy day at Les Vignes. They +were terribly noisy, but boundlessly good-natured. Not only was I made +to share their leg of mutton, but also the champagne which they had +brought with them. The modest lunch that I had expected became a +veritable feast, and having been entangled in the convivial meshes, I +had to stay until the end of it all. The experience was worth +something as a study of provincial life and manners. These +people--husbands and wives and friends--had come out with the +determination to enjoy themselves, and their enjoyment was not merely +hearty; it was hurricane-like. There were moments when pieces of bread +and green almonds were flying across the table, and the noise of +voices was so terrific that the quiet hostess looked in at the door +with a scared expression which made me think she was wondering how +much longer the roof would be able to remain in its right place. Then, +the jokes that were exchanged over the table were as broad as the +humour of the South is broad. I felt sorry for the women, but quite +unnecessarily. Although the local colour was not refined, human nature +present was frank, hospitable, and irresistibly warm-hearted. The +vulgarity of the party was of the unselfish sort, and therefore +amusing. The enjoyment of each was the enjoyment of all; and even when +the tempest of humour was at its height, not a word was said that was +intended to be offensive. As a compliment to me, they all rose to +their feet, glasses in hand, and the hostess was again startled by a +mighty rush of sound repeating the words 'Vive l'Angleterre!' far up +and down the valley. + +Instead of going on to La Malene that afternoon, as I had intended, I +went after crayfish with one of the members of this jovial party, who +had brought with him the necessary tackle for the sport. There are +various ways of catching crayfish; but in this district the favourite +method is the following: Small wire hoops, about a foot in diameter, +are covered with netting strained nearly tight, and to this pieces of +liver or other meat are tied. A cord a few yards long, fastened to the +centre of the netting, completes the tackle. The baited snare is +thrown into the stream, not far from the bank, and generally where the +bottom is strewn with stones. No more art is needed. The crayfish, +supposing them to be in the humour to eat, soon smell the meat or +divine its presence, and, coming forth from their lairs beneath the +stones, make towards the lure with greedy alacrity. Their movements +can be generally watched, for although they are not delicate feeders, +they are as difficult as Chinamen to please in the matter of water, +and are only to be found in very clear streams. As is the case with +their congeners--the sea crayfish and the crab--greediness renders +them stupid, and, rather than leave a piece of meat which is to their +taste, they will allow themselves to be pulled with it out of the +water. It sometimes happens that the netting is covered with these +creatures in a few minutes, and that all the trouble the fisherman has +is to haul them up. But they are capricious, and, notwithstanding +their voracity, there are times when they will not leave their holes +upon any consideration. Such was their humour to-day. The cause of +their sullenness was said to be a wind that rippled the surface of the +water; but, whatever the reason, not a crayfish did we catch. + +The breeze which was supposed to have upset the temper of the +crustaceous multitude in the Tarn blew up bad weather before night. +The panic-stricken leaves upon the alders and poplars announced the +change with palsied movements and plaintive cries; the willows +whitened, and bent towards the stream; and muttered threats of the +strife-breeding spirits in nature seemed to issue from caverns half +hidden by sombre foliage. As the gorge darkened, the gusts grew +stronger, and the moaning rose at times to a shriek. Now the thunder +groaned, the lightning flashed, and the face of the river gleamed. I +returned to the inn just as the hissing rain began to fall. I was by +this time alone, for the party from Severac had left at the approach +of the storm. + +As I took my solitary evening meal in a low building cut off from the +inn, composed of a large _salle-a-manger_--the same in which the feast +was held--and a bedroom, where I was to pass the rest of the night, I +could not help contrasting the exuberant joviality of the morning with +the absolute want of it now. The place seemed much too big for me; I +had rather it had been half as large, to have got rid of half the +shadow. Instead of the tempestuous laughter, there was the thunder's +roar. There was also the lightning's flash to drive the shadows out of +the corners from time to time. It was a wild and awful night. + +I was busily building around me a vaporous rampart of tobacco-smoke, +as a barrier to gloomy suggestions from without, when the door +suddenly opened, and in walked two gendarmes--one a very +self-important-looking brigadier, with thin sharp nose and keen, +weasel-like eyes. My immediate impression was that they had come to +question me respecting my intentions--inasmuch as I was not going to +work in the same way as other tourists--and possibly to ask me for my +papers; but I was mistaken. They had merely taken shelter from the +rain, and they had not found a refuge too soon, for their appearance +was that of half-drowned rats. The brigadier called for a bottle of +beer, and while he and his younger companion were drinking it I learnt +from their conversation what business had taken them out of doors that +night. Their object was to surprise the fish-poachers at the illegal, +but very exciting and picturesque, sport of spearing by torchlight. +Now, as I had already seen these night-poachers at work on the Tarn, I +may as well describe their method here. + +I was walking one dark night on the bank of the river near Ambialet, +when a glare of lurid light suddenly shot up from the water some +distance in front of me, illuminating the willows, and even the black +woods, on each side of the gorge. I imagined myself at once in a +Canadian forest, near an Indian camp-fire. The light came gliding in +my direction, and presently I distinguished the forms of men in a +boat, all lit up by the glare. One was punting; another was holding +aloft, not a torch, but blazing brushwood--which I afterwards learnt +was broom-that he replenished from a heap in the boat; and a third was +in the stern, gazing intently at the water, and holding in his hand a +staff, which he plunged from time to time to the bottom of the stream. +I understood that this was the _peche au flambeau_, of which I had +already heard. + +The Tarn being in summer shallow, and of crystal clearness except in +time of flood, it offers every facility for this kind of fishing. The +flat-bottomed boat glides along with the current; the fish, dazzled by +the sudden light, sink at once to the bottom, and lie there stupefied +until they are either speared or the cause of their bewilderment +passes on. The spear head used is a small trident. When the moon is +up, the fish are not to be fascinated by artificial light; +consequently the darkest nights are chosen for this kind of poaching. + +The two gendarmes, then, had been looking for poachers, and, not +liking the weather, they had been unable to resist the auberge light +that beckoned them indoors. While they were talking, in walked the +most hardened and skilful poacher of the place, whose acquaintance I +had made earlier in the day, and who made no secret to me of his +business. So far from being abashed by the presence of the gendarmes, +he gave them a genial salutation, and, sitting down beside them, +talked to them as if he had been on the pleasantest terms with them +for years. He was a man of about fifty, who boasted to me that he had +been a poacher from the age of fifteen, and had never been caught. He +was therefore an artful old fox, and one very difficult to run down. +He made the most of his opportunities in all seasons, and laughed at +those who troubled their heads about the months which were open or +closed. His coolness in the presence of the gendarmes was charming. He +actually offered to furnish the brigadier with a dish of trout at any +time on a day's notice, and argued that they had no right to seize a +net wherever found, because the meshes were not of the lawful size. +'If you doubt it,' said the brigadier, 'just show me yours.' Then he +added with a grin: 'I shall pinch you some day, _mon vieux_.' The +other did not seem to believe it, and I am inclined to think that no +one will 'pinch' him but Death. + +Of the few really attractive callings left, that of the poacher must +be given a prominent place, especially in France, where the law is not +too severe upon a man who tries to make an honest living by breaking +the law so far as it relates to fish and game. The excitement of +catching wild creatures must be greatly increased by the risk that the +hunter or fisher runs of being caught himself. A poacher is by no +means looked down upon in France. He is considered a useful member of +society, especially by hotel-keepers. I know a very respectable beadle +of a singularly pious parish who is an inveterate poacher. On +week-days he is slinking about the woods and rocks with his gun, and +has generally a hare or a partridge in his bag; but on Sundays he +wears a cocked hat, a gold-laced coat with a sword at his side, and he +brings down his staff upon the church pavement with a thundering crack +at those moments when the wool-gathering mind has to be hurried back +and fixed upon the sacredness of the ritual. He is a well-knit, agile +fellow, who knows every inch of his ground, and he has led the +gendarmes who have surprised him such dances over rocks, and placed +them in such unpleasant positions, that they have come to treat him +with the respect and consideration due to a man of his talent and +resource. The French poacher must not be judged by the same ethics as +the English poacher. Generally speaking, game is not preserved in +France. There are extensive tracts everywhere where anybody can shoot, +provided that he has satisfied the license formality and observes the +regulations with regard to the seasons. The poacher is a man who +thinks it waste of money to pay for a gun-license, and a waste of +opportunities to respect the breeding season. If he is a fisher, he +not only scoffs at the close time, but uses illegal means to achieve +his purpose, such as nets with meshes smaller than they should be, and +the three-pronged spear. In the Tarn and other French rivers the fish +have been destroyed in a woeful manner by poison and dynamite, but it +is the rock-blaster and the navvy, not the regular poacher, who is +chiefly to be blamed for this. Men who have the constant handling of +dynamite, and who move from place to place, are rapidly destroying the +life of the rivers and streams. Having noted a good pool, they return +by night and drop into it a dynamite cartridge, the explosion of which +brings every fish, big and small, to the surface. With these +destructive causes, which do not belong to the natural order of +things, should be mentioned another that does, namely, the frequency +of floods in the season when the trout are spawning. But for this +drawback, and the unfair methods of fishing, the Upper Tarn would be +one of the finest trout streams in the world. As it is, an expert +angler would find plenty of sport on the banks of the river above Le +Rozier, and as all anglers are said to be lovers of nature, he would +never be dull in the midst of such entrancing scenery as is to be +found here. + +The storm having spent its fury, the gendarmes and the poacher left, +and I was again alone. Although it was not yet ten o'clock, there was +the quietude of midnight around me. The village was asleep, and I +should have thought Nature asleep had I not heard the harsh scream of +an owl as I entered my bedroom and threw open the window. The clouds +had broken up, and the moon was shining above the great rocks at the +foot of which I knew that the owl was flying silently and searching +with glowing eyes for the happy, unsuspecting mouse or young hare +amidst the thyme and bracken. Can Nature never rest? Is there no peace +without bloodshed under the sun and moon, no respite from ravin even +when the night is hooded like a dead monk? + +I turned from the moonlit clouds, the rushing dark water, the long +white reach of pebbles, and made a little journey round my room. The +people who owned this inn may not have been very prosperous, but they +were evidently rich in faith. The walls were ornamented with rosaries +yards long--probably from Lourdes--and religious pictures. There were +also statuettes of sacred figures, a large crucifix, and close by the +bed a holy-water stoup. The inhabitants of the Lozere, like those of +the Aveyron, are not only believing, they are zealous, and in their +homes they surround themselves with the emblems of their faith. These +are the only works of art which the villagers possess--almost their +only books. + +At seven the next morning I had left Les Vignes, and was making my way +up the gorge, whose rocky walls drew closer together, became more +stupendous, fantastic, and savagely naked. All cultivation +disappeared. A rock of immense size, pointing to the sky, but leaning +towards the gorge, soon attracted my notice, as it must that of any +traveller who comes within view of it. This monolith, over 200 feet in +height, has its base about 500 feet above the stream, but it is only a +jutting fragment of the prodigious wall. It has received the name of +L'Aiguille, from its needle-like shape. Below this, and partly in the +bed of the stream, is another prodigious block of dolomite called La +Sourde, and here the channel is so obstructed by the number and size +of the rocks which have fallen into it, that the river has forced a +passage beneath them, and does not reappear until the obstacle is +passed. But although the water vanishes, its muffled groan arises from +mysterious depths. This, together with the monstrous masses of +dolomite, wrinkled, white and honeycombed, the narrowness and gloomy +depth of the gorge, the fury of the water as it descends amongst the +blocks to leap into its gulf, makes the imagination ask if something +supernatural has not happened here. But the geologist says that this +chaos of tumbled-down rocks is simply the result of a 'fault' in the +stratification, and that, the foundations having given way, the masses +of dolomite fell where they now lie. + +In the Middle Ages, however, geology was an undiscovered science, and +the human mind was compelled--perhaps with much advantage to +itself--to seek supernatural causes in order to explain the mysterious +phenomena of nature, many of which, so far as subsidiary causes are +concerned, have ceased to be mysterious. This spot--called the Pas de +Souci--has, therefore, its poetic and miraculous legend. St. Enimie, +when she established her convent near the fountain of Burlats, higher +up the Tarn, interfered with the calculations of the devil, who had +found the numerous orifices in this region communicating with the +infernal kingdom exceedingly convenient for his terrestrial +enterprises. He therefore lost no time in entering upon a tug-of-war +with the saintly interloper. But she was more than a match for him. +Her nuns, however, were of weaker flesh, and so he tried his wiles +upon them. Their devotions and good resolutions were so much troubled +by the infernal teaser of frail humanity that St. Enimie, realizing +the great danger, rose to the occasion. One day or night she caught +the devil unawares in the convent and tried to chain him up; but he +was too strong or too crafty for the innocent virgin, and made his +escape down the gorge of the Tarn, intending to reach his own fortress +by the hole down which the stream plunges at the Pas de Souci, and +which the peasant believes existed from the beginning of the world. +St. Enimie followed at his heels as closely as she could, and he led +her a wild scamper over the rocks. She hoped that St. Ilere, her +confessor, who lived in a cavern of the gorge, would stop the fiend in +his flight, but the saint was so busy praying that he did not notice +the arch-enemy as he sped on his frantic course. St. Enimie was quite +out of breath and ready to drop from exhaustion when she drew near the +Pas de Souci, a little in the rear of the tormentor of souls, and he +was just about to plunge into the gulf. The saint threw herself upon +her knees, and exclaimed: 'Help me, O ye mountains and crags! Stop +him, fall upon him!' Thereupon there was a great commotion of the +ancient rocks far above under the calm sky, and they fell, one after +the other, with a frightful crash. It was, however, the immense block, +since named La Sourde, that stopped the devil; the others he shook off +as if they had been pebbles. When La Sourde struck him it was more +than he could contend with, and it flattened him out. The Needle Rock +was just about to tumble, when La Sourde cried out: 'Hold on, my +sister! You need not trouble yourself; I have him fast!' This explains +why the Needle Rock has ever since looked so undecided. For centuries +La Sourde bore the impress of a sanguinary hand, left upon it by Satan +in his frantic efforts to get free, but some years ago it was washed +away by an exceptionally high flood. + +A little beyond this impressive and legendary spot, the gorge, +widening, displays an immense concavity on the left, nearly +semicircular. Here among the spur-like rocks which jut out from its +steep sides--much clothed, however, with vegetation--was the hermitage +of St. Ilere, and the spot where it is supposed to have been is a +place of pilgrimage. Here, too, are numerous caverns, in some of which +many implements of the Stone Age have been found, as well as the bones +of extinct animals and others which disappeared from Europe before the +historic period. To those who have the special knowledge that is +requisite, the caverns of the Causses de Sauveterre and Mejan offer +great enticement, for only a few of their secrets, covered by the +darkness of incalculable ages, have yet been brought to light. + +Again the cliffs draw closer together, and the tower-like masses on +the brink of each precipice lift their inaccessible ramparts higher +and higher in the blue air. Gray-white or ochre-stained layers and +monoliths shine like incandescent coals in the unmitigated radiance of +the sun. I pass a little group of houses in the hollow of overhanging +rocks, splashed by the shadow of the wild fig-tree's leaves. One side +of the gorge is all luminous with sunbeams, down to the lathy poplars +leaning in every direction by the edge of the torrent, their leaves +still wet with last night's rain. Another boat is being tugged +laboriously up the rapids, a mule taking the first place at the end of +the rope. The impetuous water looks strong enough to carry the beast +off his legs; but he, like the boatman, is used to the work, and has +good nerves. The path--if path it can be called, when it has lost all +trace of one--now leads over large pebbles which are not pleasant to +walk upon; but presently the way along the water-side is absolutely +closed by vertical rocks some hundred feet high. + +To enter the mad torrent in order to get beyond these terrible rocks, +forming a narrow strait, was an undertaking only to be thought of if +the case were desperate. I believed that there must be a path +somewhere running up the cliff, and after going back a little I found +one. It led me four or five hundred feet up the side of the gorge; but +on looking down the distance seemed much less, because the rocks rose +a thousand feet higher. I was gazing at the loftiest peak on the +opposite side, when two eagles suddenly appeared in the air above it; +and so long as I remained did they continue to circle over it without +any apparent movement of their wings. The eyrie upon this needle-like +point is well known; according to the popular belief, it has always +been there. + +It was in vain, however, that I searched the horizon for the vultures, +whose principal stronghold--a long ledge of rock, protected from above +by an overhanging cornice, and beyond the range of a fowling-piece +from below--is immediately over the river in this part of the gorge. +Had I left Les Vignes before daybreak, I might have seen them start +off all together, the brown vultures and their black cousins, the +arians, in quest of carrion; but now there was not one to be seen. As +the vulture has become a rare bird in France, inhabiting only a few +localities where there are very high and inaccessible rocks, and where +man is crestfallen in the presence of nature, it is to be hoped that +they will not be driven from the great gorge of the Tarn by being too +frequently shot at in the breeding season, when they are obliged to +show themselves at all hours of the day. No peasant would think of +wasting a cartridge upon them; but the sharpshooting tourist, armed +with a rifle, may be tempted to do so. He would probably fire many +bullets before he succeeded in striking a bird five or six hundred +feet above him; and even if the shot took effect, there would be very +small chance of the vulture falling where it could be picked up. The +bombardment would do them little damage; but it might, if often +repeated, prove too trying to their nerves, and, notwithstanding their +conservative principles, they might be driven at length to quit these +rocks inhabited by their ancestors for centuries. To the naturalist +this district is of fascinating interest, on account of the large +number of carnivorous birds of various species by which it is still +haunted. Besides the common brown eagle, three kinds of vulture, +several species of falcons, hawks, and owls, the raven family appears +to be fully represented, with the exception of the jackdaw, which +possibly finds itself too weak and too slow of flight to live in the +midst of such strong and ferocious air-robbers as those which have +established themselves in these grand solitudes. Among smaller birds +of different habits, the red partridge and the water-ousel are +frequently seen. The rock-partridge, or _bartavelle_, is also found, +but is rare. The four-legged fauna is not represented by the wolf or +the boar, the forests being too scanty to afford them sufficient +cover, and the largest wild quadrupeds are the badger and the fox. + +Descending the path by steps cut in the rock, I again reached the +margin of the Tarn. Gradually the gorge opened, slopes appeared, and +upon these were almond-trees and vines planted on terraces. Flowers, +too, which had little courage to bloom in the dim depths where the +cliffs seemed ready to join again, and the sunbeam vanished before it +dried the dew, now took heart under the broader sky. Great purple +snapdragons hung from clefts in the rocks, inula flashed gorgeously +yellow, white melilot raised its graceful drooping blossoms, and +hemp-agrimony made the bees sing a drowsy song of the brimming cup of +summer. + +Some vestiges of a castle appeared upon a high-jutting craggy mass, +marking the site of the Chateau de Montesquieu, one of the strongest +fortresses of the gorge in the Middle Ages. + +I guessed rightly by the vines and almonds that La Malene was not far +off. Soon came that sight, ever welcome to the wayfarer--the village +where he intends to seek rest and refreshment. The inn here was as +unpretentious as the one at Les Vignes; but with hare, _en civet_, a +dish of trout, and a bottle of the wine grown upon the sunny terrace +above the houses, I had as good a meal as any hungry tramp has a right +to expect. As for myself, I never expect anything so sumptuous, and in +this way I let luck have a chance of giving me now and then a pleasant +surprise. The trout in the Upper Tarn do not often reach a large size, +because by growing they become too conspicuous in such clear water; +but their flesh obtains that firmness which is the gift of mountain +streams. The wine grown upon the slopes of the gorge is a _petit vin_ +with a sparkle in it, and it comes as a delightful change to those who +have been drinking the tasteless, deep-coloured wines of the Beziers +and Narbonne region, with which the South of France has been flooded +since the new vineyards upon the plains and slopes of the +Mediterranean have been yielding torrents of juice. The fruit of no +plant is so dependent upon the soil for its flavour as that of the +vine. Chalk produces champagne, and some of the best wines of Southern +France are grown upon calcareous soils where the eye perceives nothing +but stones. The plant loves to get its roots down into the crevices of +a rock. I now drank the fragrant light wine of the Gevaudan--the +calcareous district of the Upper Tarn--with a pleasure not unmixed +with sorrow; for the phylloxera had found its way up the gorge, and +the vineyards were already sick unto death. The pest had come some +years later here than in districts nearer the plains; but it had too +surely come, and the fear of poverty was gnawing the hearts of the +poor men--many of them old--who had been bending their backs such a +number of years, and their fathers before them, upon those terraces +which had been won from the desert at the price of such long labour. + +Before continuing my journey up the gorge, I climbed to the little +church overlooking the village, and which stands in the midst of the +rough burying-ground where the dead must lie very near the solid rock. +It is a plain Romanesque building, presenting the peculiarity not +often seen of exterior steps leading to the belfry. Against an inner +wall is a tablet, which tells of certain men of Florac who 'pro Deo et +rege legitime certantes coronati sunt, die II mensis Junii, anni +1793.' They were guillotined by the Revolutionists at Florac. + +I passed the Chateau de la Caze, a small but well-preserved castle, +showing the transition from the feudal to the Renaissance style, and +still surrounded by its moat. It has five towers, and is a picturesque +building; but I thought it gloomy in the deep shade of the gorge and +the surrounding trees. It must be gloomier still at night when the +owls shriek and hoot. If it is not haunted, it must be because there +are so many abandoned solitary great houses in this part of France +that the ghosts have become rather spoilt and hard to please. + +What is the pale yellow flame that I see burning by the river where a +slanted beam strikes down from a crenellated bastion of ruddy rock? +Reaching the spot, I find two pale-yellow flames, one hanging from the +bank, the other trembling upon the stream. The evening primrose has +lit its lamp from the sunbeam. + +More rocks there are to climb, for the river again rushes between +upright walls. The path goes along the edge of a horrid precipice, +then descends abruptly by steps cut in the rock. + +At a very poor hamlet, clinging to the side of the gorge at a +sufficient height to be safe from the floods, I ask a woman if anybody +there sells wine. 'Yes,' she replies, 'he does,' pointing at the same +time to a tall old white-haired man, who beckons me to follow him. He +hobbles along with a stick, dragging one leg, and leads the way into +his house under a rock. It is a mere hovel, but it has a wooden floor, +and there are signs of personal dignity--what is known in England as +'respectability'--struggling with poverty. Perhaps the ancient clock, +whose worm-eaten case reaches from the floor to the ceiling, and whose +muffled but cheery tick-tack is like the voice of an old friend, +impressed me in favour of this poor home as soon as I entered. + +The crippled man, having given me his best chair, disappeared into his +cellar scooped out of the rock, and presently returned with a bottle +of wine. Then he brought out a great loaf of very dark bread, which he +placed upon the table with the wine, and a plateful of green almonds. +The French peasants observe the wholesome rule of never drinking red +wine without 'breaking a crust' at the same time. I made my new +acquaintance break a crust with me and share the contents of the +bottle. Then he talked freely of the cares that weighed upon him. He +told me that he and others who lived in the gorge had always depended +upon their wine to buy bread. + +'And are the vines in a very bad way?' 'The year after next will see +the last of them.' + +Many persons, he added, would be obliged to leave the district because +it would become impossible for them to live there. While we were +talking two or three little barefooted boys, whose clothes had been +patched over and over again, but still showed gaping places, watched +and listened in the open doorway with round-eyed attention. They were +robust children with health and happiness in their faces, in spite of +the hard times, for the mountain air fed them, and their troubles were +yet to come. They were the old man's grandchildren, and I suppose I +was looking at them more keenly than I should have had I reflected, +for he made excuses for their neglected appearance with an expression +of pain. Then, changing the subject suddenly, he said: + +'What country do you belong to?' + +'To England.' + +'Ah, c'est un riche pays!' + +I told him that it was rich and poor like other countries, and that +the people there had no vines at all to help them. 'It is a rich +country all the same,' repeated the old man, for the impression had +somehow become deeply fixed in his mind. There I see him still seated +at the rough table, and behind his broad bent back the wide fireplace +against the bare rock blackened with smoke. + +I had left this hamlet, and was on the bank of the Tarn, when I heard +the patter of bare feet upon the pebbles behind me. Turning round, I +saw the eldest of the boys who had been watching me in the doorway. He +had an idea that I should go wrong, and followed stealthily to see. He +now told me that if I continued by the water I should soon be stopped +by rocks, and I accepted his offer to show me the way up the cliff. +His recklessness in running over the sharp stones made me ask him if +they did not hurt his feet. 'Oh no!' he replied; 'they are used to +it.' It is indeed astonishing what feet are able to get used to. The +boy's joy at the few sous which I gave him was almost ecstatic. He had +hardly thanked me when he set off running homeward to show how he had +been rewarded--for his sharpness in thinking that I should lose my +way, and allowing me to do so before saying a word. + +I was by the river-side not far from Sainte-Enimie when a rather +alarming noise broke the silence and became rapidly louder. I looked +up the steep cliff, and saw to my consternation a great stone bounding +down the rocks and crashing through the vines. As I seemed to be in +the line of it I hastened on. I had only gone about ten yards when it +bounded into the air and, passing sheer over the path and bank, +plunged into the Tarn with a mighty splash. I reckoned that had I +remained where I was it would have just cleared my head. It was a +fragment of rock which, from its size, might well have been two +hundredweight. The same thing happened earlier in the day, but that +time I was not so unpleasantly near. The heavy rain of the previous +night, coming after a long period of drought, was probably the cause +of these already-loosened stones starting upon their downward career. +All these calcareous rocks are breaking up. The process of +disintegration and decomposition is slow, but it is sure. Every frost +does something to split them, and every shower of rain entering the +crevices does something to rot them; so that even they cannot last. +The Tarn is carrying them back to the sea, to be deposited again, but +somewhere else. + +I was at Sainte-Enimie before sunset, and there I found the air laden +with the scent of lavender. True, all the hills round about were +covered with a blue-gray mantle; but I had never known the plant when +undisturbed give out such an aroma before. Looking down from the +little bridge to the waterside, my wonder ceased. There in a line, +with wood-fires blazing under them, were several stills, and behind +these, upon the bank, were heaps of lavender stalks and flowers such +as I had never seen even in imagination. There were enough to fill +several bullock-waggons. The fragrance in the air, however, did not +come so much from these mounds as from the distilled essence. It was +evident that Sainte-Enimie had a considerable trade in lavender-water. + +I spent an unhappy evening, for the inn where I stopped--it called +itself a hotel--had been made uninteresting by enterprise; and a +couple of tourists from the South, with whom it was my lot to dine, +caused me unspeakable misery by talking of nothing else but of a +bridge which they had lately seen; If I should ever be near it, I +think the recollection of that evening will make me avoid it. It may +be a miracle in iron, but none the less shall I owe it an everlasting +grudge. These gentlemen from Carcassonne were typical sons of the +South in this, that the sound of their own voices acted upon their +imagination like the strongest coffee blended with the oldest cognac. +They would have been amusing, nevertheless, but for the horrible +intensity of their resolve to make me see that nightmare of a bridge. +If one had taken breath while the other spoke, or rather shouted, I +should have suffered less; but they both shouted together, and their +struggle to get the better of one another by force of lung, +gesticulation, and frenzied rolling of the eyes became a duel, whereby +the solitary witness was the only person harmed. What a relief to me +if they had gone down to the river bank and fought it out there! No +such luck, however. Had there been no listener, they, too, might have +wished the bridge in the depths of Tartarus. + +If I passed an unhappy evening at Sainte-Enimie, I spent a worse +morning. There was a change of weather in the night, and when the day +came again, it was a blear-eyed, weeping day, with that uniform gray +sky with steam-like clouds hiding half the hills which, when seen in a +mountainous region by a person bent on movement, is enough to give him +'goose flesh.' I now felt a longing to leave the Cevennes and to +return to the lower country, but there seemed no chance of escape. The +rain continued hour after hour--and such rain! It was enough to turn a +frog against water. As the people of the inn seemed incapable of +showing sympathy, I went out to look at the town under a borrowed +umbrella. It was certainly not much to look at, especially under +circumstances of such acute depression. I walked or waded through a +number of miry little streets where all manner of refuse was in a +saturated or deliquescent state--cabbage-stumps and dead rats floating +in the gutters, potato-peelings and bean-pods sticking to the +mediaeval pitching--everything slippery, nasty, and abominable. There +were old houses, as a matter of course; but who can appreciate +antiquities when his legs are wet about the knees and his boots are +squirting water? Nevertheless, I tried to notice a few things besides +the vileness underfoot. One was a rudely-carved image of the Virgin in +a niche covered by a grating. This was in such a dark little street +that it seemed as if the sun had given up all hope of ever shining +there again. I struggled through the slush to the church, built, with +the town, on the side of a hill rising from the Tarn. I found a +Romanesque edifice--old, but rough, and offering no striking feature, +save the arched recesses in the exterior surface of the wall. A little +higher upon the hill was the convent founded by St. Enimie; but the +original building disappeared centuries ago. + +On returning to the inn I passed the Fontaine de Burlats, where St. +Enimie was cured of her leprosy in the Merovingian age. It was a +change to see something that really seemed to enjoy the incessant +downpour and to enter into the spirit of it. The fountain would be +remarkable in another region by the volume of water that gushes in all +seasons like a little river out of the earth; but there are so many +such between the Dordogne and the Tarn, wherever the calcareous +formation has lent itself to the honeycombing action of water, that +this copious outflow loses thereby much of its claim to distinction. + +The legend of St. Enimie is fully set forth in a Provencal poem of the +thirteenth century by the troubadour Bertrand de Marseilles, who +received his information from his friend the Prior of the monastery at +Sainte-Enimie, which in the Middle Ages was the most important +religious house in the Gevaudan. The MS. is preserved in the library +of the Arsenal, Paris. It was at the express recommendation of St. +Ilere that Enimie sought the fountain of Burla (now Burlats), and +bathed her afflicted body in its pure waters. The passage of the poem +containing this injunction is as follows: + + 'Enimia verges de Dyeu, + Messatges fizels ti suy yeu. + Per me ti manda Dieus de pla + Que t'en anes en Gavalda,[*] + Car, lay trobaras una fon + Que redra ton cors bel e mon + Si te laves en l'aygua clara. +* * * * + A nom Burla; vay l'en lay + Non ho mudar per negun play.' + + [*] Gevaudan. + +The relics of the saint were destroyed or lost at the time of the +Revolution; but high upon the side of a neighbouring hill a chapel has +been raised to her, and it is a place of pilgrimage. + + + + +IN THE VALLEY OF THE LOT. + + +The rambler in the highlands of the North knows so well what the +wretchedness of being shut up by bad weather in a mountain inn means, +that he may have grown reconciled to it, and have learnt how to spend +a day under such circumstances pleasantly. But to me, a sun-lover, to +whom the charm of the South has been irresistible, such a trial is one +that taxes to the utmost all the powers of endurance. Hence it is +that, when I think of Sainte-Enimie, I can recall nothing but +impressions of dismal wetness. This may seem shocking to those who +have seen, under a different aspect, the little town on the Upper +Tarn, named after the Merovingian saint. Be it remembered, however, +that I was shut up hour after hour in an inn crowded with peasants in +damp blouses, shouting _patois_ at each other, and clutching great +cotton umbrellas, whose fragrance under the influence of moisture, was +not idyllic; In that abominable little auberge, that styled itself a +hotel, I decided to go no farther up the Tarn, but, as soon as the +weather would set me free, to cross the _causse_ that separated me +from the Lot, and to descend the valley of this river towards the +warmer and dryer region of the plains. + +Not until the afternoon were there any signs of improvement in the +weather; and then, as soon as the clouds grew lighter, I started +without waiting for the rain to stop. It was Sunday, and outside the +old church was a crowd of men and boys, who had come for vespers. The +women did not join them, but passed through the door as they arrived. +Throughout rural France, wherever religion keeps a firm hold on the +peasant, it is the custom of the men to gather for gossip in front of +the church some time before the service, and, just as the bell stops; +to make a rush at the doorway, and struggle through the opening like +sheep into a fold when there is a dog at their heels. While looking at +these men, I was again struck by the prevailing tendency of the +peasants of the Lozere to develop long, sharp noses--a feature that +often gives them a very weasel-like expression. + +Having passed the ruins of the monastery, whose high loopholed walls +and strong tower showed that it had once been a fortress as well as a +religious house, I was soon rising far above the valley of the Tarn. +The winding road led me up the flanks of stony hills, terraced +everywhere for almond-trees; but after two or three hours of ascent +the almonds dwindled away, and the country became an absolute desert +of brashy hills, showing little asperity of outline, but mournful and +solemn by their wastefulness and abandonment to a degree that makes +the traveller ask himself if he is really in Europe, or has been +transported by magic to the most arid steppes of Asia. But there is a +plant that thrives in this desert, that loves it so much as to give to +it a tinge of dusty blue as far as the eye can reach on every side. +Needless to say that this is the lavender. It was in all its flowering +beauty as I crossed the treeless waste, and it gave to the breath of +the desert what seemed to be the mystical fragrance of peace. + +Leaving the highway to Mende, I took a rough road on the left, which, +according to the map, led directly to Chanac by the Lot. I should +recommend no one else to take it unless he have more hours of daylight +before him than I had. Again I ran a near risk of passing the night in +the open air. The road became little better than a track; then it +crossed others, and it was a very pretty puzzle to tell which was the +one for me and which was not. It is true that I could have made +straight towards the Lot by the compass, but the descent of the +precipitous cliffs into the deep gorge, unless one knows the paths, is +only a task to be undertaken at nightfall with a light heart by those +who have had no experience of this savage district. When my perplexity +was at its worst I saw a shepherd, whose form, wrapped in the long +brown homespun cloak called a _limousine_, stood solemnly against the +evening sky. I made towards him, thinking that he would help me out of +my difficulty; but no: either he did not understand a word I said, or +did not choose to give any information. Perhaps he thought me an +escaped madman, or a dangerous tramp, with whom it was better to hold +no conversation. The sun was setting when I reached a wood of +scattered firs--a more melancholy spot at that hour than the bare +_causse_. The weather had been fine for some hours, but now a storm +that had been gathering broke. As the wind blew the rain in slanting +lines, the level sun shone through the vapour and the streaming +atmosphere. Looking above me, as I sheltered myself behind a wailing +fir, I saw that the dreary world was spanned by two glorious rainbows. +But although the scene was so wildly beautiful, the spirit of +desolation was upon me, and I felt like a homeless wanderer. I was +roaming among the firs in the dusk, when I met a shepherd boy, who put +me on a path that joined the main road to Chanac. Then began the +descent into the valley of the Lot. It was very long; the winding road +passed through a black forest of firs, and the dark night fell when I +was still far from the little town. The walk was gloomy, but in all +gloom there is something that is grand and elevating--something that +gives a sense of expansion to the soul. The cries of the unseen +night-birds, the solemn mystery of the enigmatic trees wrapped in +darkness, make us feel the supernatural that surrounds us, and is a +part of us, more than the visible movement of life in the light of the +sun. + +At length the oil-lamps of Chanac flashed brightly in the hollow +below, and not long afterwards I was sitting at a table in an upper +room of a comfortable old inn, the lower part of which was filled with +roisterers, for it was Sunday night. I dined with a Government +functionary--an inland revenue _controleur_, who happened to be a +Frenchman of the reserved and solemn sort that cultivates dignity. By +dint of being looked up to by others he had acquired the fixed habit +of looking up to himself. All the time that I was in his company I +felt that, had he been an angel dining with a modern Tobias, he could +scarcely have shown greater anxiety not to sit upon his wings. Moved +by the genial spirit of the grape, or not wishing, perhaps, to crush +me altogether with the weight of his official importance, his ice +began to melt a little at about the second or third course. Forgetting +discretion, he actually smiled. The meal, which had been prepared in +anticipation of his coming, was a much more splendid entertainment +than would have been got up for me had I been alone. The cook's +masterpiece was a very cunningly contrived pasty--a work of local +genius that I was quite unprepared for. Even M. le controleur, had he +not checked himself in time, would have beamed at this achievement; +but he would never have forgiven himself such an admission of weakness +common to mortals not in the service of the Government. Just before +the dessert a superb trout that had been drawn out of the sparkling +Lot was brought in, and it had been mercifully spared the disgrace of +being sprinkled with chopped garlic. + +While we were dining the wassailers in the great kitchen and general +room downstairs became more and more uproarious. Dancing had +commenced, and it was the _bourree_, the delightful _bourree_ of +Auvergne (the Upper Lot here runs not very far from the Cantal) that +was being danced. It is a measure that has no local colour unless it +is accompanied by violent stamping. The _controleur_ looked very +scandalized, and said it was abominable that the house should be given +up to such tumult and disorder. I observed, however, that as the +joyousness of the party downstairs increased my companion's face +became animated by an expression that was not one of genuine anger, +and as soon as he had drunk his coffee he remarked in a tone of +indifference that, as the evening had to be spent somehow, it might be +less disagreeable to see what was going on below than simply to hear +it. I soon followed him, and found that he was enjoying himself +thoroughly, although discreetly, in a quiet corner. The kitchen was +filled with young fellows in blouses, some sitting at tables drinking +and smoking, others standing; all were shouting, whistling or raising +peals of laughter that might have brought the house about their ears +had it been built by a modern contractor. In the centre of the room +the bare-armed kitchenmaid, who had left the platters, and a young +peasant in a blouse were dancing, their backs turned to each other, +moving their arms up and down like puppets in a barrel-organ, and +banging the floor with their sabots, with the full conviction that the +greater the noise the greater the fun. And this was the opinion of all +except the stout hostess, who looked on at the scene with a distressed +countenance from behind a mighty pile of dirty plates. The musicians +were spectators who whistled in a band the air of the _bourree_, which +is enough to make the most sedate Canon who ever sat in a stall dance, +or at least to remember with charity the promptings of his +adolescence. + +When the kitchenmaid went back to her plates--to the great relief of +her mistress, who would have sternly condemned her tripping if +thoughts of business had not beset her practical mind--two young men +stood up and danced another _bourree_. With the exception of the +scullion and household drudge there was no chance of getting a female +partner. In these villages and small towns the girls are kept out of +harm's way. They go to bed at eight or nine, and are hard at work +either in the fields or in the house, or washing by the stream, all +through the hours of daylight. The priests, wherever they have +influence--and in the South they have a great deal--set their faces +strongly against dancing by the two sexes, except under very +exceptional circumstances. They are right; they have peculiar +facilities for knowing the variety of human nature with which they +have to deal. Humanity is fundamentally the same everywhere, but what +is fundamental is modified by race and climate. Temperament, fashioned +by causes innate and local, exercises an immense influence upon +practical morality. + +And so the revel went on. As the glasses were refilled the noise grew +louder and the smoke denser. I soon had enough of it, and taking a +candle I climbed to my bedroom, leaving the _controleur_ in his +corner. Before going to bed I did a little sewing, having borrowed a +threaded needle from the landlady with this object in view. The +wayfarer should be ready to help himself as far as he can, and +although sewing is not, perhaps, the most manly of accomplishments, no +tourist should be incapable of sewing on a button or closing up a rent +that makes the village children laugh. + +My walk across the _causse_ separating two rivers had tired me, but I +might as well have remained downstairs for all the sleep that I +enticed. As the hours wore on the uproar, instead of subsiding, became +more terrific. These Southerners have voices of such rock-splitting +power that, when twenty or thirty of them, inspired by Bacchus, or +excited by discussion, shout together, one asks if it would be +possible for devils on the rampage to raise a more hideous tumult. The +house trembled as from a succession of thunderclaps. Midnight struck, +and the uproar was unabated. At one it had entered upon the +quarrelsome phase, and at two there was a fight. Chairs or tables were +overthrown, there was a smashing of glass, a rapid scuffling of feet, +and the screaming and howling as of a menagerie on fire. Above the +fiendish din rang out the shrill voice of the hostess, who was +evidently trying to separate the combatants, and who seemed to be +successful, for the hurricane suddenly lulled. + +This hostess was a woman of words, but the landlady of an inn near +Rodez, which I entered one summer evening, showed herself under +similar circumstances to be a woman of action. Two young men who were +sitting at a table, after a very brief difference of opinion, stared +fixedly and fiercely into each other's face, and then sprang at one +another like a couple of tom-cats. Presently the stronger took the +other up in his arms, carried him out through the door, and, having +pitched him considerately upon the manure-heap in the yard, returned +to his place with the expression of the victorious cat. But he +reckoned without his hostess. She was not tall, but her cubic capacity +took up more place in the world than that of two or three ordinary +mortals. With her great bare arms folded across her ample person she +waddled towards the triumphant young man, and there was a look in her +eye that made him wriggle uneasily upon his chair. I think he was +tempted to run away, but shame nailed him to his seat. As soon as the +pair were at close quarters, one of the folded bolster-like arms made +a sudden movement, and the back of the strong rough hand, hardened by +forty years or more of toil, covered for an instant the youth's nose +and mouth. That single movement of a female arm, the muscular +development of which a pugilist might have envied, shed more blood +than all the clawing, tugging, and butting of the male combatants had +caused to flow. 'That is to teach you,' said the strong woman, 'not to +fight in my house again!' + +But I am forgetting that I am now at Chanac. When I went down into the +kitchen at about seven o'clock, after two or three hours' sleep, the +landlady and the other women of the inn looked very tired and +sheepish. They were prepared to hear some strong criticism of the +night's proceedings, such as they would be sure to get when the +_controleur_ came down. + +'You seem to have had some good amusement last night, and to have kept +it up well,' said I. + +'Oh, monsieur,' exclaimed the hostess, shaking her head dolefully, +'what a night it was!' + +And she went on shaking her head, while the kitchen-maid--the one who +danced the _bourree_, and was now listlessly rinsing glasses +innumerable--giggled behind her mistress's back. She evidently thought +that it was a good sort of night. In making up the bill I think that +the regretful aubergiste, who felt, that the reputation of her house +had received a cruel blow, and that all the mothers in the place were +reviling her for encouraging their sons in dissipation, must have left +the bed out of the reckoning, considering that she could not honestly +charge me for a night's rest which I did not get. At any rate, the +bill was ridiculously small. + +[Illustration: CIGALA, THE SHOEBLACK.] + +Now, with the help of daylight, I can see what the little town is +like. The houses--many of which have late Gothic doorways--are +clustered about the sides of an isolated hill or mamelon in the valley +of the Lot, beyond which rise the high cliffs covered with dark woods. +The town is still dominated by the tall rectangular tower that helped +to protect it in the Middle Ages, and near to this is the church, +which is both Romanesque and Gothic, and is rich in curious details. +The sanctuary is separated from the rest of the choir by the graceful +arcade of numerous little arches supported by tall and slender +columns, which is one of the most charming and characteristic features +of the Auvergnat style. The carving of the capitals exhibits in a +delightful manner the hardihood and florid fancy of this singularly +interesting development of Byzantine-Romanesque taste. Upon one of the +piers of the sanctuary are a pair of symbolical doves dipping their +beaks into the chalice that separates them, and upon another are two +grotesque and fantastic beasts facing one another with frightful jaws +wide open. + +The walk from Chanac down the valley through the rest of the +department of the Lozere I did not do fairly. The sun was so hot and +the way so tedious that I at length yielded to the temptation of the +railway that I met here, and rode some fifteen or twenty miles. It was +not until the next morning at St. Laurent d'Olt that I braced myself +up to the task of faring on foot by the river through the department +of the Aveyron. Here in the upper country the stream retains its +ancient name, the Olt, which is merely an abbreviation of Oltis, +unless it be the Celtic origin of the Latin word. It is easy to see +how in rapid speech L'Olt became changed to Lot. The _t_ is still +pronounced. + +The valley down which I now took my way from St. Laurent was broad and +green, but the high rocky cliffs which shut it off from the outer +world drew nearer as I went on. An old tramp who had a bag slung over +his back stopped me and said that he was 'dans la misere.' Doubtless +he guessed that I was not quite so deep in it as himself, and that I +might be able to spare him something. As I always look upon the tramp +with a fraternal interest, however disreputable he may appear, because +my own wayfaring has helped to teach me contempt for appearances, I +stopped to talk with the aged wanderer while hunting for some stray +sous. His matted gray beard and sunken cheeks gave him the air of a +Job of the studios; but no such luck had probably ever befallen him as +to be asked to pose for thirty sous the hour. Such a sum would be more +than he could gather in a day, even after selling the surplus of his +begged crusts. He talked to me of 'the picturesque,' which proved that +he had not grown gray and half doubled up without learning something +of the world's wisdom. I learnt from him that between the spot where +we met and St. Geniez there was only a hamlet, but that I should be +able to find a house there where I could get a meal. + +The old man went hobbling away, wondering, perhaps, when he would meet +another foreign imbecile on the tramp, and I was soon alone upon the +margin of the river's broad bed of sand, strewn with pebbles like the +seashore. The stream was still fresh from the mountains, and it had +the joyousness and bounding movements of young life. It was very +narrow now, and many plants had grown up since the spring upon its +far-shelving banks of mica-glittering sand and many-coloured pebbles; +but often its swollen waters had rolled through this smiling valley, a +raging and uncontrollable force, spreading terror and destruction. + +The cliffs drew nearer and rose higher, and then the river ran through +a gorge nearly impassable, and abandoned to all the wildness of +nature. The partial loop here formed by the Lot is hidden and defended +by a forbidding wilderness of rocks and forest, as if it were one of +the last retreats of the fluvial deities, where they can defy the +curiosity of man. The adventurous spirit prompted me to explore it, +but the lazy one said, 'Leave it.' I took the advice of the latter, +and went on by the road, which now left the river, and ascended +towards the plateau under cliffs of red sandstone. The thirsty sun had +by this time drained almost every flower-cup of its dew; but the +freshness of the morning still lingered in the hollows of the rocks, +and in the shade of the chestnut, the walnut, and elm. As the earth +warmed, it became quieter. All creatures seemed to grow drowsy, except +the sociable little quails that kept calling to one another, 'How are +you?' and the flies of wicked purpose, which become more and more +enterprising as the temperature rises. + +It was long since I had seen a human being, when I heard the +click-clack of loose _sabots_ coming nearer. Presently a couple of +young bulls showed their grim visages round a corner, and after them +came a very small girl with a very long stick. She looked about six +years old, and she had great trouble to keep her little brown feet +inside the wooden shoes, which were many sizes too large for her. How +was it that those big, and perhaps bad-tempered, animals allowed +themselves to be driven and beaten by that child, whereas they would +have turned upon a dog double her size, and done their best to toss +him over the chestnut trees? What is it that the brutes see below the +surface of the human being to inspire them with such respect and fear +of this biped, even when he or she has just crawled out of the cradle? +These bulls, by-the-bye, stopped and looked at me in a way that was +anything but respectful, and I delayed the study of the metaphysical +question until I could watch them from the rear. + +I found on the top of the hill the village or hamlet that the old +tramp had mentioned; but there was no sign of an inn--indeed, there +was no sign of anybody being alive in the place. I threaded the steep +little lanes between the houses and hovels, up to the ankles in dirty +straw that had been turned out of the animals' sheds, but saw nothing +moving except fowls. I knocked at various doors, and obtained no +response. It was clear that all the people, including the children, +were away in the fields, and had left the village to take care of +itself. Hungry and thirsty, I was resigning myself with a heavy heart +to trudge on, when I observed a column of blue smoke rise suddenly +from a chimney, and I was not long in finding the house to which it +belonged. It was a dilapidated building, very wretched now, but with +an air of bygone superiority. This was chiefly shown in the +Renaissance doorway, a rather elaborate piece of work, over which was +the date 1602. I ascended the steps with a little misgiving, for I +thought that perhaps some cantankerous person whose family had seen +better times might be living there, and that my questions as to food +and drink might meet with surly answers. I knocked, nevertheless, with +my stick upon the old door studded with nail-heads. It was opened, and +before me stood a woman who looked old, but who was probably +middle-aged; she was very poorly clad, very imperfectly washed, but on +her tired and toil-worn face there was no forbidding expression. I +told her that I was looking for an auberge, and she said that hers was +one _au besoin_. It was the only one that answered at all to the name +thereabouts. So the smoke had led me to the right place. I followed +the heiress of the dilapidated house--she was a descendant of the +original owner--through the dingy kitchen, where upon the hearth the +fire of sticks that she had just lighted was blazing cheerfully, into +a back room, where there were two beds without linen, and with nothing +but patchwork quilts over big bundles of dry maize leaves. It is thus +that many of the peasants of the Aveyron sleep. This is not a part of +France where the study of cleanliness and comfort is carried to +excess. If the floor of the room that I now entered had ever been +washed, the boards must have forgotten the scrubbing sensation a +century or more ago. The appearance of everything indicated that I was +in a fleas' paradise; but as it was by no means the first of the kind +of which I had had experience, I merely took the precaution of keeping +my feet off the ground, so as to offer as few travelling facilities as +possible to the enemy. The room, although it was dirty, was cheerful; +for the sunshine streamed in through the open window, and the view of +the green valley beneath and the woods beyond soon drove the fleas out +of mind. Upon the sill were plums laid out on wooden trays to dry in +the sun and become what English people call prunes. + +The excellent woman, who installed me before a little table on which +she laid a cloth, said that she had little to offer me; but that all +she had was at my service. She first fished out of the wood-ashes in +which it was preserved one of those dry, stringy sausages with which +everyone who knows this part of France must be familiar. Then she +brought in some white bread which a presentiment of my coming had +perhaps caused her to buy a month before, for it was green with +mildew. She thought that I should prefer this to the very dark bread +of her own making. The choice was perplexing. My meal was chiefly made +upon a dish of firm cream like that of Devonshire, with plums and +fresh cob-nuts for dessert. Then my hostess made me some coffee, a +luxury rarely used in the house; and when she had set it on the table, +I induced her to stay and talk awhile. The conversation was made +easier because, notwithstanding her poverty, she spoke French with +much more facility than most of the people in these rural districts. +She told me that her husband and children had not yet returned from +the fields, and that she was at home because she was so tired after +threshing buckwheat all yesterday in the sun. + +'In winter,' I said, 'you have an easier time?' 'Oh no! In winter we +are always working at something or another. We then make our linen +from the hemp, patch up the clothes, prepare the walnuts for pressing, +and blanch the chestnuts.[*] We have always something on hand.' + + [*] _Blanchir les chataignes_. In Guyenne, after the first sale of + chestnuts in their natural state, the peasants prepare a large + quantity of those that remain in a special manner, which consists + of removing the first and second skins, and artificially drying + the nuts until they become quite hard. They will then keep an + indefinite period, and can be boiled for food when required. In + the winter evenings, while the women work at their distaffs, the + men frequently skin chestnuts either for drying or for food the + next day. + +But while there was any work to be done out-of-doors, there they were +busy from sunrise until dusk. Supper over, the beasts were looked +after. 'Then,' she added, 'we say our prayers and go to bed.' She +volunteered no statements respecting her ancestry, but when I +questioned her concerning the house, she said that her family had been +living in it for nearly 300 years. At one time they were the principal +people in the district. It was true that they had come down in the +world, but she felt thankful for the blessings that had been given +her, and was satisfied. The family were all in good health, and that +was the main thing. Her mother was still living with her--eighty-seven +years of age, and had never been ill in her life. + +Here was a simple but eloquent story of human vicissitude and +uncertainty that was told without a word of regret or repining, and as +though it were a tale of no interest to anybody. This poor, humble +woman before me, whose back was still aching from the movement of +bending and lifting the flail hour after hour, was, by right of birth, +what we call in England a 'gentlewoman.' But she was poor, and +ignorant of all books except the one that contained her prayers. She +was not less a peasant than any of the women around her, nor did she +wish to be thought anything better. That her ancestors were gentlemen, +that, they may have borne a forgotten title (many that were borne in +France have been forgotten by the descendants), was as nothing to her. +She clung only to what, in her simple but grand philosophy, was really +to be valued--the blessings of life and health, opportunities of +labour, independence, and faith in God. + +This woman would only take the equivalent of a shilling for her wine, +her coffee, and her food; then she made me drink some of her _eau de +noix_ (spirit prepared with the juice of green walnuts), and as I left +she pressed more nuts and plums upon me. + +The old woman who had never been ill was waiting for me under a tree. +She could not speak a word of French, but she said a great deal in +_patois_, of which all that I could make out was that she was afraid +the _calour_ (heat) would hurt me if I left so early in the afternoon. +A little beyond the village I passed a party of threshers, men and +women--two rows of them facing each other like dancers; the figures +bending and straightening in unison, and all the. flails whirling +together in the air. They had spread a large cloth upon the ground, +and were thrashing out the grain upon it. + +A block of granite cropping out of the sandstone indicated a change in +the formation, and this came, for the rocks gradually passed into +gneiss and schist, frequently covered with moss and ferns, golden-rod +in bloom, and purple heather. St. Geniez by the Lot was reached long +before sundown; but although I had the time, I was not tempted to walk +any farther that day. + +The little town is picturesquely situated on the river-bank, and it +has some old houses with turrets, and other interesting details. There +is a late Gothic church that was formerly attached to an Augustinian +monastery, of which part of the cloisters remains. Inside the edifice +every flagstone covers a tomb, and in several instances masons' +hammers and other tools are carved upon them. + +It fell out that several commercial travellers and superior pedlars +came into St. Geniez on the same day as myself, but in more genteel +fashion, for they had their traps, and would not for all the world +have risked their reputation for respectability, and rendered +themselves despicable in the eyes of customers, by entering on foot. +Nevertheless, their first impression (as I afterwards learnt), when I +sat down with them to dinner at the comfortable inn, which, thanks to +their patronage, had found the courage to style itself a hotel, was +that I might be a new rival in the field. But the difficulty was to +guess the particular field that I had marked out for my own +distinction and the confusion of competitors. Was I in the grocery +line, or the oil and colour line? Was I _dans les spiritueux_ or _dans +les articles d'eglise_? Then they had a suspicion that I was, perhaps, +a German traveller trying to open up a fresh market for potato spirit, +or those scientific syrups which are said to change any alcohol into +'old cognac' or the most venerable Jamaica rum. This may have +accounted for the somewhat chilly reserve that fell upon my table +companions as I took my seat among them. But, as this was unpleasant +for everybody, I soon found an opportunity of dispelling the mystery +that hung over me. Then they threw off all restraint, and showed +themselves to be the jolly, rollicking, good-natured beings that these +men almost invariably are. They were much more polite to me than +Englishmen generally are to strangers, who are felt to be something +like intruders--recognising me as a guest, and insisting upon my +helping myself first to every dish that was brought on the table. It +is customary for tourists to speak of the French commercial traveller +as a very ridiculous or vulgarly offensive person. I have found these +so-called 'bagmen' to be among the most pleasant-mannered, agreeable, +and intelligent people whom I have met while roaming in provincial +France. I have been disturbed at night by their uproariousness, for +they are convivial to a fault; but in my immediate relations with them +I have always found them frank, kindly, and courteous. + +Before eight o'clock the next morning I had left St. Geniez behind me +in the light mist, and was again on the banks of the Lot. At a +waterside village called Sainte-Eulalie--a saint so much venerated by +the French in the Middle Ages that a multitude of places have been +named after her--was a church with a broad tower and low broach spire. +I was struck by the noble simplicity and elegance of the Romanesque +apse, which was much in the Auvergnat style. The village was very +picturesque, partly on account of its position by the sunny, babbling +water, and partly because of its numerous old houses, some with +projecting stories, and others with exterior staircases communicating +with an open gallery covered by the prolonged eaves of the roof. +Outside of the doors mushrooms (_boleti_) after being cut in slices, +were spread in the sun to dry. As I continued my way down the valley I +met several women and girls returning from the chestnut woods on the +hillsides carrying baskets of these _cepes_ on their heads. Although I +hoped to sleep that night at Espalion, I soon left the direct road and +struck off across country to the south-west in order to take in the +village of Bozouls, a place that some soldier whom I had met told me +was like Constantine in Algeria. I therefore left the valley of the +Lot, and proceeded to cross the hills and tablelands which separated +me from the gorge of its tributary, the Dourdou. + +In taking by-paths to reach the _causse_, I passed over hillocks of +chocolate-coloured marl mixed with broken schist and flints: here the +broom and juniper, the heather and bracken, flourished. At length I +felt the fresh breeze and drank the invigorating air of the limestone +plateau. Descending the hill beyond, on the road to Rodez, I passed a +very strange-looking spot where huge flat blocks of bare gneiss, laid +together as though giants of the Titanic age had here been trying to +pave the world, sloped with extraordinary regularity towards the +highway. And these prodigious slabs of gneiss now lay amidst schistous +marl and calcareous rock. + +Farther down in the valley was a small village of which the houses +were dwarfed by a gloomy strong hold, apparently of the fifteenth +century, whose four high and massive towers, occupying the angles of a +small quadrilateral, gave it the appearance of a vast _donjon_. At a +small inn kept by a blacksmith I was able to get a meal and the rest +that was now needed. The blacksmith's wife, a pleasant young woman; +who seemed much amused at the sight of a being from the outer and, to +her, half-fabulous world, drew part of a duck out of the grease in +which it had been preserved, and gave me this with rice for my lunch. +During the repast I was not a little worried by the questions of the +blacksmith and some other village worthies who were drinking coffee in +the small room that had to do for everybody, and who had so placed +themselves that they could watch me at their ease. Such a strange bird +as myself did not drop into their midst every day. They were not +unfriendly, but their curiosity was troublesome, and I perceived that +nothing that I might have said would have removed the impression from +their minds that I was a mysterious character. + +The country beyond this village was not unpleasant to the eye, with +its vineyards on the slopes and its green pasturage in the valleys, +but the hours went by drearily as I tramped upon the long road. I felt +solitary, and was not in the mood to be interested easily; +nevertheless, I lingered on the wayside awhile before a remarkable +relic of the past: a rectangular machicolated tower of great height +and strength rising out of a dark grove of trees. The afternoon was +drawing towards evening, when I descended suddenly into a deep and +narrow ravine where the sunshine was lost, and the twilight dwelt with +greenness and dampness. At the bottom the Dourdou ran swiftly over its +pebbly bed. After following it a little distance I found myself +between towering walls of Jurassic rock, vertical towards the summit, +capped on each side by a long row of houses. There was also a church, +likewise on the edge of the precipice. This was Bozouls--a place +scarcely known beyond a small district of the Aveyron, but one of the +most curious in France. The traveller, when he reaches the gorge, +after crossing a somewhat monotonous country, is quite unprepared for +such a startling revelation of the sentiment of human fellowship in +the midst of the savagery of nature. Why did men build houses in rows +on the brink of these frightful precipices? It appears to have been +all done for the sake of the artist and the lover of the picturesque. +And yet Bozouls grew to be a village in an age when men of work and +action only knew two kinds of enthusiasm--war and religion. Either a +castle or a religious foundation must have been the beginning of this +community. There are no remains of a fortress, but the church is very +old, and its elaborate architecture suggests that it was at one time +attached to a monastic establishment. After crossing the stream I +climbed to this church by a path that wound about the rocks, and found +it an exceedingly interesting example of the Southern Romanesque. The +portal opens into a narthex, where there is a very primitive font like +a low square trough. The nave entrance has two columns on each side +supporting archivolts, and upon the capitals of these columns are +carved figures of the quaintest Romanesque character, illustrating +Biblical subjects. The nave has an aisle on each side scarcely four +feet wide, and most of the separating columns are out of the +perpendicular. The capitals here are wrought with acanthus-leaves or +little figures. The sanctuary and apse are in the style of Auvergne, +with this peculiarity, that the capitals of the slender columns are +singularly massive, and bear only the mere outline of the +acanthus-leaf for ornament. + +The long street of the village, white and sunbaked, running within a +few yards of the precipice, was almost as deserted as the church. But +for a Sister who stood by the convent gate like a statue of Eternal +Silence, and a man who was killing a wretched calf in the middle of +the road, I might have asked myself if this fantastic Bozouls was not +some spectral village, reproducing the past in all except the living +beings who had gone down into their graves. When I recrossed the +Dourdou, the light was several tones lower than it was when I first +descended to the bottom of the ravine, and the vegetation was of a +deeper and sadder green. And the stream rushed onward with a low wail, +and a distressful cry, as of a soul passing down the Dark Valley and +not yet free from the panic of death. + +When I had reached the plateau that I had left an hour or more ago, +the sun was about to set. As I knew that the _diligence_ to Espalion +would soon pass, I preferred to wait for it rather than to walk any +farther. The south wind was blowing with such force that I lay down on +the leeside of a bush to be sheltered from it. Here I watched the sun +burning dimly in a yellow haze on the edge of the world. The wind +wailed amongst the leaves of the hawthorn-bushes, but over the brown +land, flushed with the sad yellow gleam, came the sound of +cattle-bells, softening the harshness of the solitude, and bringing +almost a smile upon the careworn face of Nature. I watched the dingy +golden light rising up the stubble of the hills. Now the sun began to +dip behind a knoll; a far-off tree stood in the line of vision, and I +could see the leaves shaking as if in frenzy against the disc of +sullen fire. Then from the edge of the western sky shot up into the +yellow haze fair colours of pink and purple that seemed to say: 'The +south wind may blow and burn the beauty of the earth, but the west +wind will come again, its light wings laden with refreshment and joy.' +The sun was gone, the shadows of night were being laid upon the dreary +land, when the wavy clouds about the brightening moon became like a +shower of rose-petals; the breeze grew softer and softer, for it was, +in the language of the peasant, the 'sun-wind,' and the nocturnal +peace began to reign over the sadness of the day's death. + +The sound of jingling bells coming rapidly nearer roused me from my +contemplative mood. The _diligence_, so called, was in sight, and a +few minutes later I took my place in the very stuffy box on wheels, +nearly filled with women and bundles. As it was only a drive of some +seven or eight miles to Espalion, the town was reached in good time +for dinner. I sat at a side-table in the large room of the inn, at the +door of which the coach stopped. The central table was already +occupied by half a dozen persons--all fat, vulgar, and noisy. They +were examples of the _petit bourgeois_ class whom one meets rather too +frequently wherever there are towns in this part of France, and with +whom the disposition to grossness is equally apparent in mind and +body. There were women in the party, but had they been absent, the +language of the men would have been no coarser. These fat and +middle-aged women, married, doubtless, and highly respectable after +their fashion, when struck by each gust of humour, such as might issue +from the mouth of a foul-minded buffoon at a fair, rolled like ships +at sea. + +I passed a troubled night at Espalion, for there were a couple of +feathered fiends just underneath the window crowing against each other +with maddening rivalry. One, an old cock, had a very hoarse crow, and +seemed to be suffering from chronic laryngitis brought on by an abuse +of his vocal powers; and the other was a young cock with a very +squeaky crow, for he was still taking lessons, and, as is the case +with many beginners, he had too much enthusiasm. + +I had had more than enough of this duo before the night was through, +and was out very early in the morning looking at the ancient town of +Espalion, which witnessed both the victory and the defeat of British +arms long ere the Maid of Domremy came to the rescue of the golden +lilies. Its capture took place soon after the Battle of Crecy. The +lords of Espalion were the Calmont d'Olt, who played an active part in +the wars with the English. The town deserves a prominent place among +the many picturesque old burgs stamped with mediaeval character on the +banks of the Lot. One may stand upon its Gothic bridge of the +thirteenth century and dream of the past without risk of being hustled +by a crowd except on market days. This venerable bridge must have been +admirably built to have withstood all the floods which have smote it +in the course of six centuries. The great central arch is so much +higher than the others that in crossing you go up a hill and then down +one. Close by on the river-bank is the sixteenth-century Hotel de +Ville, a castle, partly built on a rock, in the gracefully-ornamental +style of the French Renaissance, with turrets, mullioned windows, and +a loggia. + +Having crossed the river, I went in search of the chief architectural +curiosity in or near Espalion--that known as the Church of Pers, or +the Chapel of St. Hilarion. It is on the outskirts of the town, and +stands in the old cemetery. I had first to find a potter who kept the +key, and I discovered him at length in a narrow street in the midst of +his clay and the vessels of his handicraft. He gave me the great key, +and it was one that some fervent archaeologist might press +reverentially to his heart, for the smith who forged it must have died +centuries ago. Entering the cemetery, I saw, surrounded by a multitude +of closely-packed tombs and grave mounds, on which the long grass +stood with the late summer flowers, a small Romanesque building that +seemed to have sunk far into the soil, like the ancient lichen-covered +slabs from which the inscriptions had been washed away by time's +inexorable and ever-wearing sea. Perhaps the soil had risen about the +walls. + +This church of the twelfth century is built of red sandstone, the +blocks being laid together without mortar. On entering it such a +dimness falls, with such a sacred silence; the air is so heavy with +dampness and the odour of mildew, that you feel as if you were already +in the vestibule of the Halls of Death, where darkness and stillness +have never known the sound of a human voice or the blessed light of +the sun. The design of the building is that of a nave with transept +and apse. At each end of the transept is some curious cross-vaulting. +The columns have all very large capitals in proportion to the diameter +and height; some are ornamented with plain acanthus leaves, others are +carved with numerous small figures of men and animals, ideally uncouth +and typical of the fantastic medley of Christian symbolism and the +barbaric imagination that found a mystical relationship between the +monsters of its own creation and the problems of the universe. The +exterior of the church is not less interesting than the interior. The +charming Romanesque apse, with its three narrow windows, its blind +arcade, the capitals ornamented with the acanthus, the row of +fantastic modillions above carried all round the building, their +sculpture exhibiting the strangest variety of ideas--heads of men, +women, beasts, birds, and fabulous monsters; and then the venerable +portal, with its elaborate bas-relief of the Last Judgment, furnish +much matter for reflection and study. In this 'Judgment' Christ is +standing in the midst of the Apostles, and the dead are rising from +the tombs below. Fiends are pulling the wicked out of their coffins, +and others are throwing the condemned into the wide-opened jaws of a +frightful monster. Above are numerous figures separated by various +mouldings forming archivolts. The arch of the door is Gothic, but all +the other work is Romanesque. The belfry is simply a roofed wall +pierced with four arched openings for bells. + +Espalion had once its strong fortress on a neighbouring hill--the +Castle of Calmont d'Olt. It is now a ruin. I climbed to it, and found +the undertaking more tedious than I had supposed. The narrow path +winding through the vineyards was bordered with cat-mint, agrimony, +vervain, and camomile. Then it passed through a little village, where +there were old walnut-trees and mossy walls, and a small church with +these words over the door: 'C'est ici la maison de Dieu et la porte du +ciel.' After the village, the path was almost lost amidst blocks of +sandstone and the _debris_ of the fortress, where snakes basking in +the sun slid away at my approach, hissing indignantly at the intruder. +On the summit there had been in the far-off ages an outpour of basalt, +which had crystallized into columnar prisms, and upon this foundation +of ancient lava the castle was built. A good deal of wall and the +lower part of a rectangular keep remain of this fortress, which dates +from the twelfth century. The outer wall was strengthened with +semicircular bastions, the ruins of which are seen. Fennel now thrives +amongst the fallen stones, which were dumb witnesses of so much that +was human. + +Returning to the inn, I resisted the temptation held out to stop and +lunch, although the preparations in the kitchen were far advanced, and +started off on the road to Estaing. I was again following the Lot, +which here flows between high vine-clad hills. After walking a few +miles, I saw a bush over the door of a roadside cottage, and, +entering, found that the only person in charge of this very rustic inn +was a pretty girl of about seventeen. She looked a little scared at +first; but when I had sat down with the evident intention of making +myself at home, she became reconciled to the sight of me, and +consented to let me have what there was in the house to eat. This was +not much, as she took care to point out. The nearest approach to meat +there was eggs, excepting, of course, the fat bacon--quite uneatable +in the English fashion--which is the basis of all the soup made +throughout a great part of France. Having lighted a fire on the +hearth, and fried me some eggs with bits of fat bacon instead of +butter, she said she must go and call 'papa,' who was working in the +vineyard. So she left me in charge of the inn while she went to fetch +her father on the hillside. While I was alone, I looked at the sunny +view of green meadows and trees through the open door that faced the +shining river, and easily fancied that what I saw was a bit of verdant +England. In the room, too, the twittering of a pair of canaries +recalled impressions of other days; but the plague of flies was +thoroughly French, and it soon brought me back to realities. When the +girl returned with her father, she gave me some excellent goat-cheese, +and for my dessert some hazelnuts, together with a spirit distilled +from plums, similar to the _quertch_ of Alsace. + +I had not been long in the sunshine again, when I noticed a large +house in the midst of the vines not far off the road. On drawing near +I found that it was ruinous, and had been long since abandoned. It had +been a rather grand house once, and must have belonged to people of +importance in the country. There was a finely-carved scutcheon with +arms over the Gothic door, and the mullioned windows, which had lost +all their glass, had something of the pathos of gentility that, +becoming poor and old, has been abandoned to all winds and weathers. +The little courtyard was full of high weeds and shrubs, and the wild +flags that grow on the rocks had laid their green leaves together to +hide the wounds of the old walls. Swallows, sparrows, and bats were +now the tenants of this mysterious house, which must have had a +troubled history. The picture has since haunted my memory; the mind +goes back to it in a strange way, and the sentiment of it, as it was +communicated to me, I find perfectly expressed in these lines by +Alphonse Karr: + + 'De la solitaire demeure + Une ombre lourde d'heure en heure, + Se detache sur le gazon, + Et cet ombre, couchee et morte + Est la seule chose qui sorte + Tout le jour de cette maison.' + +Some distance farther I passed another deserted dwelling. It was +perched upon rocks, and was overgrown with ivy and clematis. The road +led me down beside the Lot, which now began to rush again over rocks +as the hills drew closer, and the valley became once more a gorge. On +one side were dense woods; on the other vines reached up to the sky. + +At length I saw before me a row of houses beside the river in a bright +bit of valley hemmed in by high cliffs. On the rocks behind the houses +were a church and a castle. + +This was Estaing. It is a little place full of originality, and looks +as if it had been built to set forth the dream of some old writer of +romance. The late-Gothic church is more quaint and odd than beautiful. +The architect sported with the laws of symmetry, and revelled in the +fanciful. The nave is much wider at one end than the other. The great +sundial over the door, bearing the date 1636, is scarcely less useful +now than when it was placed there. The castle is a strange pile, all +the more picturesque by its incongruity. It stands upon a mass of +schistous rock about fifty feet above the river. Most of the visible +portion of the building is late Gothic and Renaissance; but this was +grafted upon the lower walls and arches of a feudal fortress. Towers +rise from towers, mullioned windows have their lines cut in the shadow +of beetling machicolations, and higher still are dormer windows with +graceful Gothic gables. This castle is now a convent and village +school. From the court I could see the Sisters' little garden, where +flowers and melons and potherbs were curiously mixed without the +gardener's systematic art, which is so often a deadly thing to beauty; +and nasturtiums climbing the weedy walls from rough deal boxes were +basking in the steady glow of afternoon sun, which seemed to me so +intensely brilliant because I was in the dark shadow. A Sister +consented to let me go to the top of the highest tower, and she went +before me rattling her keys officially. On the way she showed me a +fine Renaissance chimney-piece with florid carvings. + +After Estaing the valley became wilder, and the river fell over rocks +in a series of cascades. Clouds came up and hid the sun; a rainy wind +made the willows hoary, and set all the poplar leaves sighing and +quivering. The vines had disappeared, and the wooded gorge became very +solemn in the fading light. There was one figure in the +landscape--that of a peasant woman bending and rolling up into bundles +the hemp that had been spread out to dry. It added the human touch of +melancholy to the sadness of the picture. More and more gloomy became +the scene. Great black precipitous rocks of schist, their hollows +filled with sombre foliage, rose in solemn grandeur far above me, and +in the bottom the plunging stream foamed and roared. The mad wind +caught up the dust from the road and whirled it onward, and then the +rain began to fall. Rockier and darker became the way, and louder the +roar of the stream. So narrow was the gorge at length that the road +ran along a ledge that had been cut in the gneiss. + +When I was still some miles from Entraygues (called by the peasants +Entrayou), I met a young gendarme. He did not ask me for my papers, +for he was a native of the district of Lourdes, and had been brought +into contact with so many English people at Pau that he detected at +once my Britannic accent, which has not been worn away by many years' +residence in France. To him the fact of my being an Englishman was a +sufficient assurance that I was respectable. He was a rakish, +devil-may-care fellow, who, after being a sub-officer in the army, had +lately been moved into the gendarmerie. His heart had been deeply +touched by an English governess whom he had met at Pau, and he spoke +to me about her with 'tears in his voice.' He talked much about +Lourdes, where he said the people were sincerely religious, and not +hypocritical. His opinion of the Aveyronnais was somewhat different, +but perhaps unjust, for as yet he could not have had much experience +of them. Having taken the precaution to tell me that he was anything +but a strict Catholic himself, he declared that he was a believer in +miracles. + +'Why?' I asked. + +'Because,' said he, 'my father saw Bernadette go up a rock on her +knees--one that no man could climb--and I myself have been a witness +of miracles at Lourdes. I have seen at least twenty people cured at +the fountain. One was a captain, who was so paralyzed that he had to +be carried to the water, and when he came away he walked as if nothing +had been the matter with him.' + +Thus talking we reached Entraygues. I allowed the gendarme to take me +to the inn of his fancy, which he praised with true Southern warmth +for its comfort and good cheer. The large kitchen as we entered was +only lighted by the flame of the wood-fire on the hearth, in front of +which a fowl and a piece of veal were turning on the same spit, moved +by clockwork that said 'click-clack, click-clack;' which was as genial +an invitation to dinner as any I had ever heard. Presently the lamp +was lighted, the table was laid, and I sat down to dinner with the +innkeeper and the gendarme from the Basses Pyrenees. The meal was of +the substantial kind, such as gives complete satisfaction to the +wayfarer at the end of his day's wandering, after putting up with +frugal fare on the road. The aubergiste brought out his best wine, and +his best cheeses made from goat's milk, and which had been kept +carefully wrapped up in vine leaves. These little cheeses, when they +have been allowed to mature in a wrapping of vine or plane leaf, are +among the best made. The landlord had studied all matters relating to +the stomach within the range of his experience. He said that hares +were not fit to eat unless they had fed chiefly on thyme, and that a +starling had no value in the kitchen until it had been feeding on +juniper berries. + +This night when I went to bed I had not the frantic crowing of cocks +to keep me awake, but the soft murmuring of the flowing river to lull +me asleep. The weather being now fair and calm after the troubled +evening, I threw the window open, so that I could feel the wafting of +the great invisible wings of the summer night, and listen to the +soothing song of the water repeating the tales that were told to it by +the rocks and the woods on its way down from the Lozere mountains. + +I was again on the banks of this beautiful river--at no place more +beautiful than at Entraygues--when the rising sun was gilding only the +topmost vines of the high western hill that shadows it. The little +town of 2,000 inhabitants is close to the spot where the Thuyere falls +into the Lot. It lies in the angle where two lovely valleys meet. The +Thuyere comes down from the Cantal mountains, and as it reaches +Entraygues it spreads out over a broad smooth bed of pebbles, its +water as clear as rock-crystal; and when the morning sun looks down +upon it over the vine-clad hills, it is like something that has been +seen in the happiest of dreams. There is a castle at Entraygues, and, +as in the case of the one at Estaing, it is now used as a convent and +school. The archaeologist will find perhaps more to interest him in +the two thirteenth-century bridges which span the Lot and the Thuyere, +both noble specimens of Gothic work. + +As I left Entraygues the bells in the church-tower were ringing--not +the monotonous ding-dong with which French people generally have had +to content themselves since the Revolutionists turned the old +bell-metal into sous, but a blithe and joyous peal of high silvery +tones that seemed to belong to the blue air, and to be the voices of +the little spirits that flutter about the morning's rosy veil. My +design was to reach the abbey of Conques before evening, but instead +of going directly towards it over the hills, I preferred to keep as +long as possible in the valley of the Lot, which is here of such +witching loveliness. As there was a road on the river-bank for many +miles, I could follow this fancy, and yet feel the comfort of walking +on good ground. Although the season was getting late, I found the +valley below Entraygues very rich in flowers. Agrimony, mint, and +marjoram, with a tall inula, and the pretty, sweet-scented white +melilot, were in great abundance along the bank. Upon the rocks, which +now bordered the road, were the deep red blossoms of the orpine sedum, +and a small crimson-flowered stock with very hoary stem. A tall +handsome plant about three feet high, with large white flowers, drew +me down a bank to where it was growing near the water. I found that it +was a very luxuriant specimen of the thorn-apple (_datura_). While I +was admiring its poisonous beauty a woman stopped on the road just +above me, and, after contemplating me in silent curiosity for a few +minutes, said to me first in _patois_ and then in French (when I +replied to her in this language): + +'It is a wicked plant, that! The beasts will not touch it, so you had +better leave it alone.' + +Although I did not think this association of ideas very complimentary +to myself, I thanked her for her good advice. I nevertheless took away +as a souvenir a flower and one of the thorny apples, seeing which the +peasant trudged on her way, saying no doubt that it was wasting time +and words to give advice to lunatics. Again the cliffs drew very close +together, and the valley was nothing more than a deep crack in the +earth's crust. On one side was unbroken forest; on the other vines +were terraced up the rocky steep to the height of seven or eight +hundred feet. Even amidst the jutting crags the adventurous vine +lifted its sunny leaves; but, alas! here, too, the phylloxera had +begun its work of desolation, and I had little doubt that these hills +laden with fruit were destined in a few years to become a waste of +stones like so many others that I had seen nearer the plains which had +once streamed with wine. The cultivated land by the river was only a +narrow strip, and the crops were chiefly maize and buckwheat. At +length the vine cultivation was only carried on at intervals. Then the +long blue line of water lay between high rocky hills covered with box +and broom, bracken and heather. A stream came tumbling down a deep +ravine over blocks of gneiss to join the Lot, and a little beyond this +was a hamlet. + +The morning was now far advanced; so, as I was passing a cottage inn, +I wavered a minute, and the result of the wavering was that I crossed +the threshold. I said to myself: 'Perhaps I may walk on for miles, and +not find another chance so good as this.' It was one of the poorest of +inns, but it was able to give me a meal of bread and cheese and eggs, +which was as much as I could expect hereabouts. There was also a light +wine of local growth--sparkling, fragrant, and deliciously cool. What +more could I want? Two motherless girls looked after this waterside +inn, and also the ferry belonging to it. The boat lay a few feet from +the door. When I was ready to leave, the younger of the two girls +ferried me to the other side of the river, and a very pretty figure +she made for an artist to sketch--the simplicity of childhood in her +face, and the strength of a woman in her bare sunburnt arms. As is the +case with so many of the peasants in this district, where the old +Gaulish stock (the _Ruteni_ and the _Cadurci_) has been much less +influenced than in the towns by the tumultuous passage of races from +the south, the east, and the north, she was fair-haired, and naturally +fair-skinned; but exposure to the sun had darkened her by many shades. + +I had been walking for some time in the department of the Cantal, but +the ferry landed me on the Aveyron side of the river. I had now +seriously to consider the shortest way to Conques, separated from me +by very rough hill country and an uncertain number of miles. I was on +a narrow path skirting the forest and the water, when I met a peasant +family dressed in their best clothes, and on their way, as I learnt, +to the village of Notre Dame, where the _fete patronale_ was being +held. The man, who seemed well pleased with himself in his new black +blouse, carried the sleeping baby, and his wife held a great coloured +umbrella over it. They were followed by a girl of about fourteen, who +wore the open-work hand-made white stockings which the young women of +these southern villages use on festive occasions as soon as they begin +to grow coquettish. I fell into conversation with these people, who +told me that, after reaching the village, I must commence the ascent +through the forest. Speaking to the man about the trout, which are +plentiful in this part of the river, he entertained me with a story of +a selfish angler who once came there, and who had a fish on his hook +as soon as he threw a fly. The people of the district--who, it seems, +know nothing about fly-fishing--watched his success with wonder and +admiration, and asked him to explain to them how he managed to catch +fish in that way; but he was surly, and refused to give them any +lessons. He had imitators, nevertheless; but after spending many hours +vainly endeavouring to hook the crafty trout, they lost patience, and +gave up the attempt. + +Two or three score of houses huddled together at the foot of a rocky +cliff, a little above the water, was Notre Dame. The village was all +in movement. The space in front of the church was crowded with peasant +figures; a bell was swinging backward and forward in the wall-belfry, +as though it was trying to turn right over; stall-keepers with cakes, +barley-sugar, and other dainties dear to the village child, to whom +the opportunity of feasting even his eyes upon such things comes very +seldom, were surrounded by eager little faces, and outstretched +sunburnt hands, each clutching the sou that offered such a bewildering +field for dissipation. In the auberge hard by was a noisy throng, of +peasants sitting and standing in a cloud of smoke. Serving-women, +hired for the occasion, gaily coifed and be-ribboned, holding bottles +and glasses elbowed their way to the men who shouted the loudest for +drink, and, catching the jest in the air, gave one as good or as bad +in exchange. The scene was one for another Teniers to paint, although +there were no costumes to give a local colour to the picturesque. Most +of the older men wore the ugly short blouse--generally black in this +part of France; but ambitious youths of eighteen or twenty showed a +preference for the cloth coat which the village tailor had tried to +cut according to the Paris fashion. + +Leaving the rustic revellers, the queer little church, with its +ancient calvary, rudely carved, and resting upon a single column, I +was soon in the shadow of the old chestnut forest that covered the +steep side of the high cliffs above the Lot. The path was very rocky +and toilsome. A young man, who was hastening down from his home on the +hills to join the merrymakers, said to me, in allusion to the +roughness of the way: 'Le bon Dieu ne passe pas souvent par ici,' +thereby expressing the sentiment of the peasant, who associates all +that is wild and rugged in nature with the devil. While still in the +forest, and not a little puzzled by its paths, I met a woman and a +youth, and asked them if the way I was taking led to Conques. '_Ape_' +(yes) was the reply. Not a word of French could I draw from them. When +the cliffs were at length scaled, and I was on the open tableland, I +found the south wind blowing there with great violence, although in +the valley there was scarcely breeze enough to ripple the river pools. +The sun was falling into the yellow haze of the west as I began to +descend towards the valley of the Dourdou. I came upon a tributary of +this stream in the bottom of a deep and solemn gorge, whose steep +sides were densely wooded except where the rock jutted out and +revealed its dark nakedness, and where higher, near the sky, showed +here and there a patch of heather-purple waste, on which the brilliant +light was softening into evening tones. But in the depth of the gorge, +where the redly-running stream was nearly hidden under the tent of +leaves, the air was already dim, and the forms of the trees were +beginning to blend with their own shadows. + +Following the stream in its course, I found the Dourdou, and then +turned down the broader valley. I was tramping wearily on my way, +which seemed endless, when, clustered on the side of another wild and +thickly wooded gorge running up amidst the hills, I saw many houses, +and a dark pile of masonry, rising far above their roofs. I knew that +this must be Conques; it showed its religious origin so plainly in the +choice of the site. This was selected not because Nature was gentle +and pitiful to man in the cleft of those savage hills, but because she +was stern and solemn, and the veil that hides the supernatural was +felt to be thinner there, where the rocks and forest seemed to the +mediaeval mind to have remained just as the Almighty hand had +fashioned them. A monastery arose in the desert, then the abbey +church, and gradually a little lay community placed itself under the +protection of the religious one. + +A long narrow street, steep and stony, leads to the church, which is +all that is left of the Benedictine abbey, excepting some massive +buttresses, ruinous arches, and a round tower grafted upon the +rock--remnants of the ancient monastery which must have been half a +fortress. The burg itself was fortified, and one of the gateways of +the old wall is still standing. The existing church dates from the +eleventh century, but various details point to the conclusion that it +was built on the site of a more ancient structure. For example, in the +entrance is a holy-water stoup, the basin having been scooped out of +the capital of a column which is supposed to have been one of the +supports of a very primitive altar. The figure of an emperor is carved +on one of the faces, and on another that of a pagan divinity. The +architecture of the church is simple and majestic, the only jarring +note being the cupola raised about the time of the Renaissance over +the intersection of the nave and transept. The barrel-vaulted nave, +crossed by plain broad fillets, is in keeping with the early +Romanesque severity of the facade. The ornament is nearly confined to +the tympan over the portal, the capitals of columns, and to the choir +with its seven absidal chapels. The choir itself is cross-vaulted, and +the sanctuary, except at its junction with the nave, is enclosed by an +arcade of narrow stilted arches, the only ornament of the capitals +being acanthus leaves; but those against the wall are elaborately +storied with little figures. A moulding of small billets is carried +round the apse. The great height of the nave vaulting, obtained by a +triforium and clerestory, is very remarkable in a Romanesque church of +such early construction. In accordance with the style of the period, +the capitals of the nave show a complete absence of uniformity, some +being carved with figures, and others with leaves or intricate line +ornament. To obtain an adequate impression of all the fantastic +imagination expressed in these capitals, and the craftsmanship brought +to bear upon the carving, it is necessary to climb to the triforium +galleries. The aisle windows are narrow and placed high in the wall. +The interest of the exterior is centred upon the bas-relief +representing the Last Judgment, which fills the entire tympan of the +arch covering the two main doorways. The composition, which contains +over a hundred figures, is singularly animated, and although the forms +are uncouthly proportioned, and the treatment of the subject in some +of the details touches what to the modern mind seems grotesque, it is +an exceedingly vivid and faithful reflection of the religious ideas of +the age that produced it. What now appears grotesque was then sublime +and awful. We smile at the barbaric imagination that placed here, at +the door of hell, the head of a vast and hideous monster of the +crocodile family, into whose gaping jaws the damned are being thrust +by a pantomime devil; but eight centuries ago Christian people had too +lively a faith in the materialistic horrors of the infernal kingdom to +perceive anything extravagant in this idea of stuffing a scaly monster +with condemned sinners. Eight centuries ago!--the peasant of the +Aveyron and of Finistere still look upon these Dantesque sculptures +with genuine awe. Those who blame the monks for giving the devil a +forked tail and a pair of horns, and otherwise exhausting their +invention in the endeavour to materialize the terrors of hell, are +strangely unphilosophic. The mass of humanity with whom the monks had +to deal had the minds of children in regard to metaphysical ideas; +only by the pictorial method could they be sufficiently impressed with +the joys or horrors of the future life. Bas-reliefs such as this must +have had a great influence on the conduct of many generations; nor has +their influence yet ceased, although, as popular education spreads, +the interest taken in these quaint sculptures by those for whom they +were especially intended, so far from being stimulated, is lessened. +Inasmuch as the mind needs deep ploughing for the new culture, and the +majority can get no more than a superficial raking, the peasant of +to-day is often a poorer man intellectually than his father +was--poorer by the loss of faith and the confusion of ideas. + +The sculptor of this Last Judgment--a Benedictine monk, doubtless, +like the architect of the church who has left this personal record, +'Bernardus me fecit,' upon a stone in a dim corner--died centuries +ago, and although his bones or their dust may be near, his name will +never be known. But how his mind lives in the figures that took life +under his hand! With what inspired longing of the soul he must have +conceived and felt the majesty of Christ sitting in judgment at the +end of time to have expressed so much that is sublime in the holy face +and figure with his poor knowledge of art! The right hand is raised to +bless the just, and the left repels the unforgiven. Grouped around the +central figure are saints and angels. Peter, holding his keys, is +followed by a crowd of the elect, headed by an old man on crutches, +and a crowned sovereign--said to be Charlemagne--carries a reliquary. +In the lower half of the tympan Satan is enthroned, his feet resting +upon a writhing and hideously grimacing figure, supposed to be that of +Judas. Immediately above, an angel and a fiend are weighing souls in a +pair of scales, and the demon is trying to cheat. In this lower +division the infernal punishments inflicted upon sinners of different +categories are set forth. The sin of Francesca and Paolo is treated +less poetically than by Dante, for here two guilty lovers are seen +hanging to the same rope. A glutton is being stuffed with flaming +viands, sent up from the devil's kitchen. All manner of torture is +being inflicted by jubilant demons upon the souls that have fallen +into their clutches. One has caught in the net that he has just thrown +a mitred abbot and two other monks. As the dead rise from their tombs +the justiciary angels bar the way of the wicked who strive to approach +the Judge. A seraphim holds the closed book of life, upon which these +words are carved: 'Hic signatur liber vitae.' On various parts of the +portal are numerous inscriptions, some of which, like the following, +are in leonine verses: + + 'Casti pacifici mites pietatis amici + Sic stant gaudentes securi nil metuentes.' + +The archaeological interest of Conques is not confined to its church. +Here, hidden from the world in this obscure little gorge, far from any +railway-station, is one of the most remarkable collections of ancient +reliquaries in France. The chief treasure is the very ancient gold +statue of St. Foy (Sancta Fides) virgin and martyr, the patron saint +of Conques. It is a seated figure nearly three feet in height, and its +appearance is thoroughly Byzantine; indeed, one may go farther, and +say that it looks much more pagan than Christian. There is nothing in +the treatment that indicates a Christian motive; while the antique +engraved gems with which it is studded, illustrating, as some of them +do, workings of the Greek and Roman mind very far removed from the +Christian idea of what is becoming in morals, make this astonishing +statue an archaeological puzzle. The explanation that these gems were +placed upon it to symbolize the victory of Christian purity over the +impurity of the ancient religions of Greece and Rome is more ingenious +than conclusive. This statue of gold (_repousse_), with regal crown +enriched with precious stones and enamels on which may be +distinguished Jupiter, Mars, Apollo and Diana, among the more +respectable of the divinities; if it was originally intended to +represent the virgin Fides, martyred at Agen, was certainly one of the +most fantastic achievements of ecclesiastical art. But whether this +was its origin or not, the style of its workmanship is considered by +competent judges to be sufficient proof that it is at least nine +hundred years old. + +In favour of the opinion that the statue was made at Conques, there is +the fact that the cult of St. Foy at this place dates from the early +Middle Ages. The ancient seal of the abbey bears the motto: + + 'Duc nos quo resides, + Inclyta Virgo Fides.' + +Historians of the abbey state that the relics of the saint were +brought from Agen to Conques about the year 874, and that Etienne, +Bishop of Clermont, caused a basilica to be raised here in her honour +between the years 942 and 984. It was under the direction of Ololric, +Abbot of Conques, that the existing church was built between the years +1030 and 1062. Throughout the Middle Ages the relics drew large +numbers of pilgrims to the spot. In the dialect of the country they +were called _Roumious_, because the pilgrimage to Conques was one of +those which enjoyed the privilege of conferring under certain +conditions the same advantages as were to be gained by the great +pilgrimage to Rome. The pilgrims kept the 'holy vigil'--that is to +say, they passed an entire night in prayer before the relics with a +lighted taper either fixed at their side or carried in the hand. The +pilgrimage and the ancient association of St. Foy were revived in +1874. + +The darkness of night drove me to take shelter in an inn which, like +everything else here, is dedicated to St. Foy. The pilgrims' money had +not made it pretentious, nor the people who kept it dishonest +--changes which 'filthy lucre' is very apt to bring about in the +holiest places. But the pilgrims who come to Conques are, for the most +part, peasants who look well before they leap, and who so contrive +matters as never to spend more upon anything than they have set aside +for it. + +Having completed the next morning my impressions of Conques, noting +among other things the curious and richly decorated _enfeux_ in the +exterior walls of the church, I returned to the bottom of the ravine, +and having crossed the old Gothic bridge over the Dourdou, began the +ascent of the rocky chestnut forest on the other side of the valley. +Small white crosses planted at intervals amidst the broom and heather +of the open wood marked the way to St. Foy's Chapel for the guidance +of pilgrims. According to the legend, it was near this spot that, the +relics of the saint having been set down by those who had carried them +from Agen, a fountain of the purest water burst forth from the earth, +and has continued to flow ever since. I found the chapel--a modern +Gothic one, with a statue of St. Foy in Roman dress in the niche over +the door--under a high rugged rock of schist. There was no one but +myself to trouble the solitude of this quiet nook on the wild +hillside, all broken up into little gullies and ravines, where the +aged chestnuts sheltered the tender moss and fern from the eager +sunbeam, and kept the dew upon the bracken until the noonday hours. An +exquisitely delicate campanula with minute flowers bloomed with +hemp-agrimony and wood-sage along the sides of the rills that +-scarcely murmured as they slid down the clefts of the impervious +rock. + +As I went higher, the chestnuts became more scattered, and at length +the rough land was covered only by the tufted heather and broom. Here, +instead of the light whispering of leaves, was the drowsy song of +multitudinous bees. The breeze blew freshly on the plateau, and grew +stronger as the sun rose. Could it be a cemetery, that grouping of +stones that I saw upon the moorland? No; it was a cottage-garden, +surrounded by disconnected slabs of mica-schist, standing like little +menhirs. peasant family lived in the wretched dwelling, exposed to the +full force of the howling winds, and striving continually with nature +for their black bread and the vegetables that give flavour to the +watery soup. + +A young man with a _beret_ on his head overtook me. He was a Bearnais, +who had not been long in the district, and who earned his living by +certain services that he rendered at widely-scattered farms. He had to +walk a great deal in all winds and weathers; therefore he knew the +country well, and could give me useful information. I was crossing the +hills with the intention of meeting the Lot again in the great coal +basin of the Aveyron, and thus cutting off a wide bend of the river. +All went well for some time after the Bearnais left me; but at length +I became fairly bewildered by the woods and ravines, the hills and +valleys that lay before me in seemingly endless succession. Savage +rockiness, sylvan quietude, open solitudes, bare and windblown, gave +me all the sensations of nature which expand the soul; but the body +grumbled for rest and refreshment long before I had crossed this +singularly wild tract of country almost abandoned by man. I had been +wading through bracken up to my neck, or wandering almost at hazard +through chestnut-woods for an hour or two, when hope was revived by my +meeting a peasant, who told me that I was not far from the village of +Firmi. I left the great woods, and reached a district that was new in +every sense. Entering a little gorge, to me it seemed that nature had +been cursed there ages ago, and still carried the sign of the +malediction in the sooty darkness of the rocks--jagged, tormented, +baleful--that rose on either hand. Nothing grew upon them save a low +wretched turf, and this only in patches. Beyond, the metamorphic rock +gave place to red sandstone, and the ground sloped down into the +little coal basin of Firmi. What a change of scene was there! The air +was thick with smoke, the road was black with coal-dust, most of the +houses were new and grimy, nearly all the faces were smutty. There was +a confused noise of wheels going round, of invisible iron monsters +grinding their teeth, of trollies rattling along upon rails, and of +human voices. Nature had no charm; but of beauty combined with fasting +I had had enough for awhile, so my prejudices melted before the genial +ugliness of this sooty paradise, knowing as I did that prosperity goes +with such griminess, and that where there is money there are inns +offering creature comforts both to man and beast. + +Either the angel or the goblin who goes a wayfaring with me led me +this time into a heated little auberge infested by myriads of flies, +which, getting into the steam of the _soupe caix choux_ in their +anxiety to be served first, fell upon their backs in the hot mixture, +and made frantic signals to me with their legs to help them out. There +was no temptation to linger at the table when the purpose for which I +was there had been attained; so I was very soon on the tramp again, +making for the valley of the Lot. + +Leaving Decazeville a few miles to the west, I took the direction of +Cransac, being curious to see the 'Smoking Mountains' in that +district. Between the little coal basin of Firmi and the large one at +Cransac and Aubin lay a strip of toilsome hill country. I had left the +round tower of the ruined castle of Firmi below, and was following a +winding path up a steep chestnut wood, when two mounted gendarmes +passed me going down. About five minutes later I heard the sound of +horses' hoofs coming near again. 'One of the gendarmes is returning,' +was my reflection, and, looking round, I saw this was really so. The +man was trotting his horse up the wood. Being sure that he was coming +after me, I walked slower, and gave myself the most indifferent and +loitering air that I could put on. In a few minutes he reined up his +horse at my side. He was a young man, and his expression told me that +he did not much like the duty that his chief had put upon him. +Addressing me, he said: + +'Pardon, monsieur, you are a stranger in this country?' + +'Yes, I am.' + +'Will you please tell me your quality?' + +In reply I asked him if he wished to see my papers. + +'If it will not vex you,' he said. His manners were quite charming. If +he was a native of the Rouergue, the army had polished him up +wonderfully. After looking at the papers and finding them +satisfactory, he said: 'Je vous demande pardon, monsieur, mais vous +comprenez-----' + +'Oh yes, I understand perfectly, and I assure you that my feelings are +not at all hurt!' + +And so we parted on very good terms. A woman standing at a cottage +door at a little distance watched the scene with a scared and +wondering look in her face. When I was again alone, and she saw me +coming towards her, she disappeared with much agility into her +fortress and shut the door. She must have thought that, although I had +managed to escape arrest that time, I should certainly come to a bad +end. + +After reaching the top of the hill, white smoke rising continually +into the blue air led me to the _Montagnes fumantes_. Coming at length +to the spot so named, 'Surely,' I thought, 'my wayfaring has brought +me at last to the Phlegraean Fields.' All about me were rocks that had +been burnt red, black, or yellow, and on their scorched surface not a +shrub, nor a blade of grass, nor even a tuft of spurge, grew. The +subterranean fires which had burnt these upper rocks had long since +gone out; but a hot and sulphurous vapour still passed over them when +the wind blew it in their direction. Continuing down the hillside, I +heard a crackling as of stones being split by heat, and presently saw +little tongues of flame shooting up from the crevices in the soil +almost at my feet, but scarcely perceptible in the brilliant sunshine. +From these and other vents, however, came intermittent puffs, or +continuous fillets of smoke, and the air was almost overpoweringly hot +and sulphurous. To wander by night among these jets of fire must be +very stimulating to the imagination, for then the hill is lit up by +them; but I thought the spot sufficiently infernal by daylight. + +Beds of coal lying underneath this rocky hill, perhaps at a great +depth, have been burning for centuries, and the same phenomenon is +repeated elsewhere in the district. The popular legend is that the +English, when they were compelled to abandon Guyenne, set fire to +these coal-measures with the motive of doing all the mischief they +could before leaving. Such fables are handed down from generation to +generation. All the evil that happened to the region in the dim past +is placed to the account of the English. These burning hills in the +Aveyron have been turned to one good purpose. The hot air that escapes +from crevices where there is neither smoke nor fire is used for +heating little cabins which have been constructed for the treatment of +persons suffering from rheumatic disorders. There they can obtain a +natural vapour-bath that is both cheap and effectual. + +At the foot of the cliffs lay Cransac, bristling with tall chimneys +and in a cloud of dark coal-smoke that filled the valley. Here, +instead of the solemn calm of the barren uplands, the murmurous +chanting of rills and shallow rivers, and the mystical voices that +speak from the depths of the forest, I heard the fretful buzz of a +human beehive. Here was human life intensified and yet lowered in tone +by aggregation, by the strain of organized effort that suppresses +initiative and makes the value of a man merely a question of dynamics. +The number of shops, especially of drinking-shops--sordid _cafes_ and +flashy _buvettes,_ where the enterprising poisoners of the coal-miner +stood behind their zinc counters pouring out the corrosive absinthe +and the beetroot brandy--told of the prosperity of Cransac. Evidently +it was a place in which money could be earned by those prepared to +accept the conditions. The women wore better clothes than the wives of +the peasants; but low morality, instead of the sad but always +honourable stamp of ravaging toil, was impressed on many a female +face. Even the children looked as degraded by the social atmosphere as +they were blackened by the smoke and ever-falling soot. Hastening +along the road towards Aubin, I soon found that the two places, +separated according to the map by a considerable distance, had grown +together. The long road powdered with coal-dust was now a street lined +on each side with houses and hovels. Wooden shanties with sooty, +bushes of juniper hanging over the door, and the word 'Buvette' +painted beneath, competed for the miner's money at distances of twenty +or fifty yards. One had a notice such as is rarely seen in France, and +which was significant here: 'Ready money for everything sold over the +counter.' Close by was the sign of a _sage-femme_, who, under the +picture of a woman holding aloft in triumph an unreasonably fat baby, +announced that she also bled and vaccinated. Grimy children and grimy +pigs that were intended to be white or pink sprawled upon the +thresholds or wallowed in the hot dust. + +Having left the blissful coal basin, I met the Lot again near the +boundary-line of the Aveyron and entered the department named after +the river. Thence to Capdenac the valley was a curving line of +uninterrupted but ever-changing beauty. + +The season was farther advanced when I continued the journey from this +point to Cahors. + +A person who had contracted the 'morphia habit' would probably find +the most effectual cure for it by forced residence at Capdenac, +because the town does not boast the luxury of a chemist's shop. +Supposing the patient, however, to be a lady of worldly tastes, she +might die of _ennui_ in twenty-four hours. The Capdenac of which I am +speaking is not the utterly unpicturesque collection of houses that +has been formed about the well-known railway junction on the line to +Toulouse, but old romantic Capdenac, whose dilapidated ramparts, +dating from the early Middle Ages, crown the high rocky hill that +rises abruptly from the valley on the other side of the Lot, which +here separates the department named after it from, the Aveyron. The +situation of this town is one of the most remarkable. It is perched +upon a lofty table of reddish rock of the same calcareous composition +as that which prevails throughout the region of the _causses_. Its +walls are so escarped that the topmost crags in places overhang the +path that winds about their base far below. Only strategical +considerations could ever have induced men to build a town on such a +site. The Gauls set the example, and their _oppidum_ was long supposed +to have been Uxellodunum, but the controversy has been settled in +favour of the Puy d'Issolu. + +I chose the hour of eight in the morning for climbing the rock of +Capdenac. The broad winding river was brilliantly blue, like the vault +overhead, and although the vine-clad hills, which shut in the valley, +and the bare rocks, whose outlines were sharply drawn against the sky, +were luminous, the light had the pure and clear sparkle of the +morning. Reaching the hill, I took a zigzag stony path that led +through terraced vineyards. The vintage had commenced, and men, women, +and children were busy picking the purple grapes still wet with dew. + +The children only, however, showed any joy in the work, for the +bunches hung at such a distance from each other that a vine was very +quickly stripped. The _vigneron_, with his mind dwelling upon the +bygone fruitful years, when these arid steeps poured forth torrents of +wine as surely as October came round, wore an expression on his face +that was not one of thankfulness to Providence. They are a rather +surly people, moreover, the inhabitants of this district, and I do not +think at any time their hearts could have been very expansive. As I +approached a woman who had a great basket of grapes in front of her, +she hastily threw a bundle of leaves over them, casting a keenly +suspicious glance at me the while. If she meant me to understand that +the times were too bad for grapes to be given away, the movement was +unnecessary. Where now are the generous sentiments and the poetry +traditionally associated with the vintage? Not here, certainly. Men go +out into their vineyards by night armed with guns, and the depredators +whom they fear most are not dogs that have acquired a taste for +grapes. The stony path was bordered by brambles, overclimbed by +clematis, whose glistening awns were mingled with blackberries, which +not even a child troubled to pick. There was much fleabane--a plant +that deserves to be cherished in these parts, if it be really what its +name indicates, but it would have to be extensively cultivated to be a +match for the fleas. After the vineyards came the dry rock, that held, +however, sufficient moisture for the wild fig-tree, wherever it could +find a deep, crevice. + +Passing underneath the perpendicular wall of rock, and the vine-clad +ramparts above it, built on the very edge of the precipice, the +winding path led me gradually up to the town. A little in front of an +arched gateway was a ruined barbican, the inner surface of the walls +being green with ferns and moss. Four loopholes were still intact. Had +it been night I might have seen ghostly men with crossbows issuing +from the gateway, but it being broad daylight, I was met by a troop of +young pigs followed by a little hump-backed woman who addressed her +youthful swine in the language of the troubadours. + +In the narrow street beyond the arch a company of gigantic geese drew +themselves up in order of battle, and challenged me in chorus to come +on; but their courage was like that of Ancient Pistol. No other living +creature did I see until I had walked nearly half through the ancient +burg, between houses several centuries old, their stories projecting +over the rough pitching and the stunted fig-trees which grew there +unmolested. Some of these dwellings were in absolute ruin, with long +dry grasses waving on the roofless walls. Nobody seemed to think it +worth while to rebuild or repair anything. The town appeared to have +been left to itself and to time for at least two hundred years. And +yet there really were some inhabitants left. I found another gateway +and another ruined barbican, and near to these, on the verge of the +precipice, a high rectangular tower, which was the citadel and prison. +The lower part was occupied by the schoolmaster of the commune, and he +allowed me to ascend the winding staircase, which led to two horrible +dungeons, one above the other. Neither was lighted by window or +loophole, and but for the candle I should have been in utter darkness. +Great chains by which prisoners were fastened to the wall still lay +upon the ground, and as I raised them and felt their weight, I thought +of the human groans that only the darkness heard in the pitiless ages. +In another part of the building was a heavy iron collar that was +formerly attached to one of these chains. There were also several old +pikes in a corner. + +A little beyond the citadel I found the church, a small Romanesque +building without character. An eighteenth-century doorway had been +added to it, and the tympan of the pediment was quite filled up with +hanging plants. Still more suggestive of abandonment was the little +cemetery behind, which was bordered by the ramparts. It was a small +wilderness. Just inside the entrance, a life-sized figure with +outstretched arms lay against a damp wall in a bed of nettles and +hemlock. It had become detached from the cross on which it once hung, +and had been left upon the ground to be overgrown by weeds. I have +seen many a neglected rural cemetery in France, but never one that +looked so sadly abandoned as this. It was like the 'sluggard's +garden,' where 'the thorn and the thistle grow higher and higher.' +Most of the gravestones and crosses were quite hidden by dwarf elder, +artemisia, wild carrot, and other plants all tangled together. A grave +had just been dug in this wilderness and it was about to have a +tenant, for the two bells in the open tower were sounding the _glas_, +and a distant murmur of chanting was growing clearer. The priest had +gone to 'fetch the body,' and the procession was now on its way. On +the top of the earth and stones thrown up on each' side of the new +grave were a broken skull, a jawbone, several portions of leg and arm +bones, besides many smaller fragments of the human framework. I +thought the gravedigger might at least have thrown a little earth over +these remains out of consideration for the feelings of those who were +about to stand around this grave, but concluded that he probably +understood the people with whom he had to deal. Presently this +functionary--a lantern-jawed, nimble old man, with a dirty nightcap on +his head--made his appearance to take a final look at his work. After +strutting round the very shallow hole he had dug, in an airy, +self-satisfied manner, he concluded that everything was as it should +be, and retired for the priest to perform his duty. + +The great difficulty with the people of Capdenac in time of war must +have been the water supply. When their cisterns were empty, they had +the river at the bottom of the valley and a spring that flowed at +certain seasons, as it does now, at the foot of the rock on which they +had built their little town. When they were besieged, they could not +descend to the Lot to draw water; consequently they laid great store +by the stream at the base of the rock. A long zigzag flight of steps +down the side of the precipice was constructed, and it was covered by +a wall that protected those who fetched water from arrows and bolts. +Near the spring this wall was built very high and strong, and was +pierced with loopholes. It also served as an outwork. The steps and +much of the wall still exist. The spring in modern times came to be +called Caesar's Well, because the elder Champollion and others +endeavoured to prove that Capdenac was the site of Uxellodunum. The +fact, however, that the spring is dry for several months in the year, +and could never have been aught else but the drainage of the rock, is +in itself a sufficient refutation of the hypothesis; because, +according to Caesar, the fountain at Uxellodunum was so perennially +abundant that when he drew off the water by tunnelling, the Gauls +recognised in this disaster the intervention of the gods. + +Capdenac appears to have given the English a great deal of trouble, +which the natural strength of the place fully explains. It must have +been a fortress of the first order in the Middle Ages, and would be so +to-day, if the French thought it worth while to use it in a military +sense; but, happily for the inhabitants of this part of France, their +territory now lies far from the theatre of any war that is likely to +occur. A charter by Philippe le Long, dated 1320, another by King +John, and a third by Charles VII., recognise the immunity of the +people of Capdenac from all public charges on account of the +resistance which they constantly opposed to the English. The rock +must, nevertheless, have fallen into the hands of a company attached +to the British cause, for the Count of Armagnac bought the place in +1381 of a band of so-called English _routiers_. Sully lived there +after the death of Henry IV., and the house that he occupied still +exists. + +According to a local tradition, Capdenac was on the point of being +captured by the English, when it was saved from this fate by a +stratagem. The defenders were starving, and the besiegers were relying +upon famine to reduce them. In order to make the English believe that +the place was still well provisioned, a pig was given a very full meal +of all the corn that could be scraped together and then pushed over +the side of the rock in a cautious manner, so that the animal might +appear to be the victim of its own indiscretion. The pig fulfilled +expectations by splitting open when it struck the ground, and thus +revealed the corn that was in its body. When the English saw this, +they said: 'If the men of Capdenac can afford to feed their swine on +wheat, they must still have plenty for themselves.' Discouraged by +this reflection, they raised the siege. When they went away there was +not an ounce of bread left to divide amongst the garrison. + +A market was being held at Capdenac--the lower town--as I left it. +Bunches of fowls tied together by the legs were dangling from the +hands of a score or so of peasant women standing in line. The wretched +birds had ceased to complain, and even to wriggle; but although, with +their toes upward and their beaks downward, life to them could not +have looked particularly rosy, they seemed to watch with keen interest +all that was going on. Only when they had their breasts well pinched +by critical fingers did they struggle against their fate. The legs of +these fowls are frequently broken, but the peasants only think of +their own possible loss; and women are every bit as indifferent to the +sufferings of the lower animals as men. + +There was a sharp wrangle going on in the Languedocian dialect over a +coin--a Papal franc--that somebody to whom it had been offered angrily +rejected. Here I may say that one of the small troubles of my life in +this district came from accepting coins which I could not get rid of. +As a rule, the native here turns over a piece of money several times +before he satisfies himself that no objection can be brought against +it; but if, in the hurry of business, the darkness of night, or the +trustfulness inspired by a little extra worship of Bacchus, he should +happen to take a Papal, Spanish, Roumanian, or other coin that is +unpopular, he puts it on one side for the first simpleton or stranger +who may have dealings with him. Thus, without intending it, I came to +possess a very interesting numismatical collection, which I most +unconscientiously, but with little success, tried to scatter. + +I made my way down the valley of the Lot, taking the work easily, +stopping at one place long enough to digest impressions before pushing +on towards a fresh point. This valley is so strangely picturesque, so +full of the curiosities of nature and bygone art, that if I had not +been a loiterer before, I should have learnt to loiter here. + +Keeping on the Aveyron side of the river, I soon reached the village +of St. Julien d'Empare, where almost every house had somewhat of a +castellated appearance, owing to the dovecot tower which occupied one +angle and rose far above the roof. One of these houses had two rows of +dormer windows, covered by little gables with very long eaves in the +high-pitched roof, whose red tiles were well toned by time. The +tower-like pigeon-house, with extinguisher roof, stood at one end upon +projecting beams, and the pigeons kept going in and coming out of the +holes in their two-storied mansion. One sees dovecots everywhere in +this district, and most of them are two or three centuries old. Some +are attached to houses, and others are isolated on the hillsides +amongst the vines. When in the latter position, they are generally +round, and are built on such a scale that they really look like +towers. + +There were grape-gatherers in the vineyards, but they had to search +for the fruit. The wine grown upon these hills by the Lot has been +famous from the days of the Romans; but there is very little of it +left. There is, however, a consoling side to every misfortune. A man +of Figeac told me that since the vines had failed in the district the +death-rate had diminished remarkably. + +'Why?' I asked. + +'Why?' replied he, with a sad smile, 'because in the happy times +everybody drank wine at all hours of the day; but now, in these +miserable times, nearly everybody drinks water.' + +The new state of things would be still more satisfactory from a +teetotal point of view if Nature were less niggardly of water in these +parts. In some localities it has to be strictly economized, and this +is done in the case of streams by using it first for the exterior, and +afterwards for the interior needs of man. I, having still some English +prejudices, would rather run all the risks incurred by drinking wine, +than swallow any more than I am obliged of the rinsings of dirty +linen. + +Having crossed the Lot by a suspension bridge, a roadside inn enticed +me with its little terrace, where there were many hanging plants and +flowers, and a wild fig-tree that had climbed up from the rock below, +so that it could look into people's glasses and listen to their talk +in that pleasant bower. I might have lingered here too long had it not +been for the wasps, which were even a greater nuisance than the flies. + +To reach the village of Frontenac I took a little path leading through +maize-fields by the river's side. The maize was ready for the harvest, +and the long leaves had lost nearly all their greenness. The lightest +breath of air made each plant rustle like a paper scarecrow. The river +was fringed with low, triggy willows and a multitude of herbs, rich in +seeds, but poor in flowers. Among those still in bloom were the +evening primrose, soapwort, and marjoram. The river was as blue as the +heaven, and on each side rose steep hills, wooded or vine-clad, with +the yellow or reddish rock upon the ridges glowing against the hot +sky. As I was moving south-west I had the afternoon sun full in the +face. The lizards that darted across the path, raising little clouds +of dust in their hurry, found this glare quite to their taste, but it +was too much for me, and when at length I saw a leafy walnut tree I +lay down in the shade until the fiery sun began to touch the high +woods, the river, and the yellow maize-stalks with the milder tones of +evening. + +A narrow grassy lane between tall hedgerows sprinkled over with +innumerable glistening blackberries led me to Frontenac, a village +upon the rocky hillside. Here is a little church partly raised upon +the site of a Roman or Gallo-Roman temple. A broken column left +standing was included in the wall of the Romanesque apse, upon the +lower masonry of which both pagan and Christian hands have worked. The +nave has been rebuilt in modern times, but in the open space before +the entrance Roman coffins crop up above the rough paving, separated +from each other only by a few feet. There is a stone coffin lying +right across the doorway, and the _cure_, whom I drew into +conversation, confided to me, with a comical smile upon his pale dark +face, that he had raised a fragment of the lid to see if anything more +enduring than man had been left there, but that he found nothing but +very fine dust. Every bone had become powder. This priest was a +companionable man, and he must have looked upon me with a less +suspicious eye than most people hereabouts, for he invited me into his +house to take a _petit verre_ with him. But the sun was getting near +the end of his journey, and I had to fare on foot to the next village; +so I thought it better to decline the offer. + +The next village was St. Pierre-Toirac, also built upon the hillside +above the Lot. It is a larger place than Frontenac, and must have been +of considerable importance in the Middle Ages, to judge from its +fortified church, whose high gloomy walls give it the appearance of a +veritable stronghold. Some of the inhabitants say that it was built by +the English, but the architecture does not indicate that such was the +case. The interior is a beautiful example of the Romanesque style. The +capitals of the columns are fit to serve as models, so strongly +typical are the designs, and so exquisite is their workmanship. It is +probable that the walls of the church were raised, and that it was +turned into a fortress during the religious wars of the thirteenth +century between Catholics and Albigenses, which explain the existence +of so many fortified churches in Languedoc and Guyenne, as well as so +many ruins. + +I had reached this church by an old archway, whose origin was +evidently defensive, and crossing the dim and silent square, +surrounded by mediaeval houses, some half ruinous, and all more or +less adorned with pellitory, ivy-linaria, and other wall-plants which +had fixed their roots between the gaping stones. I passed through +another archway, and stopped at a terrace belonging to a ruined +chateau or country-house. Here I was looking at the valley of the Lot +in the warm after-glow of sunset, when an elderly gentleman came up to +me and disturbed my contemplative mood by asking me not very +courteously if I wanted to see anybody. I was somewhat taken aback to +find such an important-looking person in such a dilapidated place. I +tried, however, not to appear too much overcome, and explained that it +was only with the intention of seeing the picturesque that I had found +my way to that ruinous spot. The agreeable person who had questioned +me now let me understand that it was his spot, and informed me that +nobody was allowed to see it 'sans etre presente.' Then, looking at me +very fiercely, he said: + +'Are you an Englishman or a German?' + +'An Englishman,' I replied, whereupon his ferocious expression relaxed +considerably, but he did not become genial. + +I retired from his ruin considerably disgusted with its owner, who +contrasted badly with all Frenchmen in his social position whom I had +previously met. I asked a woman who he was, and she replied that all +she knew about him was that he was an 'espece de noble.' Her cruelty +was unintentional. The next morning I learnt from an old Crimean +soldier, who knew I was English because he had drained many a glass +with my fellow-countrymen, that the magnates of the village had held a +consultation overnight upon the advisability of coming down upon me in +a body and asking me for my papers. Nothing came of it, which was well +for me, for I had come away without my papers. + +There was rain that night, and when morning came it had changed the +face of the world. The sun was shining again and warmly, but summer +had gone and autumn had come. Upon the rocky slopes the maples were on +fire; in the valley the large leaves of the walnut-trees mimicked the +sunshine, and by the river-side the tall poplars, as they bowed to the +water deities, cast upon the mirror of many tones the image of a +trembling golden leaf repeated beyond all power of numbering. A little +rain had been enough to produce this magical change. It had opened the +great feast of colour that brings the year to its gray, sad close. + +But the sky was brilliantly blue when I left St. Pierre-Toirac. The +next village was Laroque-Toirac. The houses were clustered near the +foot of an escarped hill, where thinly-scattered pines relieved the +glare of the naked limestone. Upon a precipitous rock dominating the +village is a castle, the lower works of which belong to the Feudal +Ages, the upper to the Renaissance epoch--a combination very frequent +in this district. The mullioned windows and the graceful balustrade, +carried along a high archway, are in strong contrast to the stern and +dark masonry of the feudal stronghold. This picturesque incongruity +reaches its climax in the lofty round tower upon which a dovecot has +been grafted, whose extinguisher-roof, with long drooping eaves, is +quite out of keeping with the machicolations which remain a little +below the line of the embattled parapet that has disappeared. The +castle is now used for the schools of the commune, and a score or so +of little boys and girls whom I met on my way up the rough path stared +at me with much astonishment. I climbed to a bastion of the outer +works, where a fig-tree, growing from the old wall, and reaching above +it, softened the horror of the precipice; for such it really was. The +masonry was a continuation of one of those walls of rock which give +such a distinctive character: to the geological formation of this +region. The village lay far below--a broken surface of tiled roofs, +sloping rapidly towards the Lot, itself a broad ribbon of many blended +colours, winding through the sunlit plain. The castle of Laroque +belonged to the Cardaillac family. In 1342 it was stormed and taken by +Bertegot Lebret, captain of a strong company of English, who had +established their headquarters at Grealou. + +As I approached Montbrun, the next village, the rocks which hemmed in +the valley became more boldly escarped. In their lower part the beds +of lias were shown with singular regularity. Box and pines and sumach +were the chief vegetation upon the stony slopes, where the scattered +masses of dark-green foliage gave by contrast a whiter glitter to the +stones. Montbrun, like so many of the little towns and villages +hereabouts, is built upon rocks immediately below a protecting +stronghold, or, rather, what was one centuries ago. The windows of +some of the dwellings look out upon the sheer precipice. The vine +clambers over ruined houses and old walls built on to the rock, and +seemingly a part of it. Of the mediaeval castle little is left besides +the keep. The Marquis de Cadaillac, to whom it belonged, strengthened +the fortifications with the hope that the stronghold would be able to +resist any attack by the English; but it was nevertheless captured by +them. + +After leaving Montbrun I saw nothing more of civilization until I came +near a woman seated on a doorstep, and engaged in the exciting +occupation of fleaing a cat. She held the animal upon its back between +her knees, and was so engrossed by the pleasures of the chase that she +scarcely looked up to answer a question I put to her. The word _cafe_ +painted upon a piece of board hung over another door enticed me +inside, for it was now nearly midday, and I had been in search of the +picturesque since seven o'clock, sustained by nothing more substantial +than a bowl of black coffee and a piece of bread. This is the only +breakfast that one can expect in a rural auberge of Southern France. +If milk is wanted in the coffee it must be asked for over-night, and +even then it is very doubtful if the cow will be found in time. To ask +for butter with the bread would be looked upon as a sign of eccentric +gluttony, but to cap this request with a demand for bacon and eggs at +seven in the morning, as a man fresh from England might do with +complete unconsciousness of his depravity, would be to openly confess +one's self capable of any crime. People who travel should never be +slaves to any notions on eating and drinking, for such obstinacy +brings its own punishment. + +A stout woman with a coloured silk kerchief on her head met me with a +good-tempered face, and, after considering what she could do for me in +the way of lunch, said, as though a bright idea had suddenly struck +her: + +'I have just killed some geese; would monsieur like me to cook him +some of the blood?'. + +'Merci!' I replied. 'Please think of something else.' + +An Englishman may possibly become reconciled to snails and frogs as +food, but never, I should say, to goose's blood. In about twenty +minutes a meal was ready for me, composed of soup containing great +pieces of bread, lumps of pumpkin and haricots; minced pork that had +been boiled with the soup in a goose's neck, then a veal cutlet, +covered with a thick layer of chopped garlic. Horace says that this +herb is only fit for the stomachs of reapers, but every man who loves +garlic in France is not a reaper. Strangers to this region had better +reconcile themselves both to its perfume and its flavour without loss +of time, for of all the seasoning essences provided by nature for the +delight of mankind garlic is most esteemed here. Those who have a +horror of it would fare very badly at a _table-d'hote_ at Cahors, for +its refined odour rises as soon as the soup is brought in, and does +not leave until after the salad. Even then the unconverted say that it +is still present. To cultivate a taste for garlic is, therefore, +essential to happiness here. + +I crossed a toll-bridge over the river just below Cajarc, and again +entered the department of the Aveyron, my object being to ascend the +valley of a tributary of the Lot, to a spot where it flows out of a +pool of unknown depth, called the Gouffre de Lantouy. The road passed +under the village of Savagnac, built upon the hillside. A Renaissance +castle with sham machicolations, little chambers. with their +projecting floors resting on brackets turrets on _culs de lampe_ and +with extinguisher roofs, and a high terrace overgrown with vines and +fig-trees left to fight their own battle, lorded it over all the other +houses, like a sunflower in an onion-bed. But the castle, although it +gives itself such aristocratic airs, is, in these days, nothing but a +farmhouse, sacks of maize being now stored in rooms where ladies once +touched the lute with white fingers, and where gentlemen may have +crumpled their frills while swearing eternal love upon their knees. +The little cemetery adjoining the chateau has swallowed up the great +and the lowly century after century, and the rank grass, now sprinkled +with the lingering flowers of summer, barely covers their mingled +bones. The old gravestones, left undisturbed, have sunk into the soil +nearly out of sight. Such is the ending of all that is human. + +A little beyond this village a peasant woman, whom I met picking up +walnuts from the road that was strewn with them, lifted her +wide-brimmed straw hat to me as I passed. This was indeed polite. I +now left the road, and followed a lane by the stream that flows out of +the _gouffre_. This valley is narrow enough to be called a gorge, and +the stony hills on either side presented a picture of utter barrenness +and desolation. But along the level of the stream the deep-green grass +shadowed by the hill was lighted up with the pale-purple death-torches +of the poisonous colchicum. After crossing a stubble-field, now +overgrown by the violet-coloured pimpernel, I reached the sinister +pool, fringed with the flag's sword-like leaves and shadowed by willows +and alders. I expected to find the water all in tumult; but no, it had +the dark, solemn stillness of the mountain tarn. The two streams that +poured out of it to meet a little lower down the valley hardly +murmured as they started upon their journey amidst the iris and sedge, +although the body of water was strong enough to turn a millwheel. + +There is something that troubles the imagination in the appearance of +this lonely pool for ever silently overflowing, and so deep that +nobody as yet has been able to find the bottom. On the side of the +stony hill close by are some ruined walls of a church and convent, +said to have been built by St. Mamphaise. The peasants of the district +have an extraordinary story with regard to this convent, which is +either the cause or the consequence of the superstitious awe in which +they hold the Gouffre de Lantouy. This legend is to the effect that +the conventual building was once inhabited by women who ate children, +and that a certain mother, whose baby they had kidnapped and eaten, +cursed them so heartily and to such purpose that the _gouffre_ was +formed, and their convent, or the greater part of it, was +supernaturally carried down the hill and plunged into the bottomless +water. The legend also says that those who stand by the pool on St. +John's Eve will hear the convent bell ringing. It not being St. John's +Eve when I was there I was unable to test the truth of this part of +the legend. What I did hear was a raven croaking from the ruin, and +the sound harmonized well with the air of mystery and gloom hanging +over the spot. + +There is some historic reason for believing that the convent at +Lantouy was founded by Charlemagne. Very near this spot are the +remains of some ancient fortified works, and the locality is known as +'La domaine de Waiffier.' This name is evidently the same as Waifre. +There is reason to believe that the last of the sovereign Dukes of +Aquitaine made a stand here when pursued by his implacable enemy Pepin +le Bref. The people pronounce the word 'Waiffier' as though it +commenced with a 'G.' + +Towards evening I recrossed the Lot and entered Cajarc. Passing +through the little town, which is not in itself very interesting, I +took a path winding up the side of the hill, at the base of which lies +the burg. I wished to see a cascade that has a local reputation for +beauty. I reached the foot of a high, fantastic rock, from the ledges +of which masses of ivy hung woven together like a veritable tapestry +of nature. A small stream descended from the uppermost ridge upon a +rock covered with moss showing every hue of green, and then into a +dark pool below. The hillside above the cascade has been extensively +tunnelled for phosphate. An Englishman discovered the value of the +site, and dug a fortune out of it. There are several phosphate-mines +in this district, all more or less connected with British enterprise. +Phosphate inspires respect for Englishmen here, for it has been the +means of giving a great deal of employment and rendering petty +proprietors, who could barely get a living out of their thankless +soil, comparatively rich. The inhabitants, therefore, consider English +speculators in the light of public benefactors, and such they have +really proved, although the motive that brought them here was scarcely +a philanthropic one. Neither the French nor the British public has any +conception of the extent to which the mineral resources of France are +worked by the English. + +Cajarc, although it looks like a village to-day, was once a fortified +town of considerable importance in the Quercy. Its inhabitants offered +an obstinate resistance to the English on several occasions. In 1290 +they refused to swear fealty to the King of England until their lord, +the Bishop of Cahors, gave them the order to do so in the name of the +King of France. Subsequently in the same and the following century, +when the Ouercynois were again in arms against the English, various +attempts to take the town by surprise failed through the vigilance and +courage of the burghers. To punish them, the English, in 1368, +destroyed their bridge across the Lot, of which some remnants may +still be seen. + +After leaving Cajarc in the morning I was soon alone with Nature on +the right bank of the river. Autumn was there in a gusty mood, blowing +yellow leaves down from the hills upon the water and driving them +towards the sea over the rippled, gray surface lit up with cold, +steel-like gleams of sunshine struggling through the vapour. The +wilderness of herbs and under-shrubs along the banks was no longer +aflame with flowers. Dead thistles, whose feathered seeds had drifted +far away upon the wind to found new colonies, and a multitude of +withered spikes and racemes, told the old story of the summer's life +passing into the death or sleep of winter. Yet the river-banks were +not without flowers. A rose, very like the 'monthly rose' of English +gardens, was still blooming there, together with hawkweed, wild +reseda, and a mint with lilac-coloured blossoms which one sees on +every bit of waste ground throughout this region. + +A rock rising from the river's bank carried the ruin of an ancient +chapel. Only the apse was left. It contained one narrow deeply-splayed +Romanesque window, and a piscina where the priest washed his hands. +The altar-stone lay upon the ground where the altar must have stood, +and behind it a rough wooden cross had been piously raised to remind +the passer-by that the spot was hallowed. + +The road now ran under high red rocks or steep stony slopes, where, on +neglected terraces overgrown with weeds, the dead or dying vines +repeated the monotonous tale of the phylloxera. + +I passed through the village of Lannagol, mostly built upon rocks +overlooking the bed of its dried-up stream, and was soon again under +the desert hills, where the fiery maple flashed amid the sombre +foliage of the box. The next village or hamlet was a very curious one. +Rows of little houses, some of them mere huts, were built against the +side of the rock under the shelter of huge masses of oolite or lias +projecting like the stories of mediaeval dwellings. People climbed to +their habitations, like goats, up very steep paths winding amongst the +rocks. The overleaning walls were blackened to a great height by the +smoke from the chimneys. + +It was dusk when I crossed a bridge leading to the village of +Cenevieres, where I intended to pass the night. There was a very fair +inn here, less picturesque than many of the auberges of the country, +but cleaner, perhaps, for this reason. The aubergiste was suspicious +of me at first, as he afterwards admitted, for like others he had +turned over in his mind the question, Is he a German spy? Judging from +my own experience in this part of France, I should say that a German +tourist would not spend a very happy holiday here. The sentiment of +the Parisians towards the Teuton is fraternal love compared to that of +the Southern French. These people proved themselves to be thorough +going haters in the religious wars, and the old character is still +strong in them. + +Although the Germans in 1870-71 did not show themselves in Guyenne, +the resentment of the inhabitants towards them is intense, and it is +the vivacity of this feeling that renders them so suspicious of +foreigners. I noticed, however, that as I went farther down the Lot +the people became more genial, so that the long evenings in the rural +inns generally passed very pleasantly. Dinner over, I usually took +possession of a chimney-corner, the only place where one can be really +warm on autumnal nights, and while satisfying the curiosity of the +rustic intelligence concerning the English and their ways I gathered +much information that was useful to me respecting local customs and +the caverns, castles and legends of the district where I happened to +be. By nine o'clock everybody was yawning, and if the village +blacksmith, the postman, and the bell-ringer had not left by that +time, they were in an unusually dissipated frame of mind. By ten +o'clock the great kitchen was dark, and the mice were making up a +quadrille upon the hearth, supposing no cat to be looking on. + +Early the next morning I was climbing the hill towards the Castle of +Cenevieres. This building is a most picturesque jumble of the +castellated styles of the thirteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth +centuries. The oldest part of the structure--and it is very +considerable--is that of a frowning feudal fortress of great strength, +built upon a rock, which on the side of the Lot is a perpendicular +wall some 200 feet high. The inhabitants agree in saying that the +feudal walls are the work of the English, but they are probably in +error. The original castle belonged to Waifre. It afterwards passed to +the Gourdon family, who doubtless rebuilt it upon the old foundations. +The last descendant of this family was one of the most ardent +Huguenots in the Quercy. The late Gothic superstructure, which is +still inhabited, has a very high-pitched roof, with dormer windows +covered by high gables with elaborate carvings. Very near this castle, +in the side of the cliff, is a fortified cavern, which for centuries +has gone by the name of La Grotte des Anglais. It must have been in +communication with the castle, of which it may have served as an +outwork or a place of refuge in the last extremity. I might have +passed the whole day trying to find it but for the help of a peasant, +who led the way down the rocks, hanging on to bushes of box. The +remains of a small tower, pierced with loopholes on one side of the +opening, and the other ruined masonry, leave no doubt as to the +defensive use to which this cavern was at one time put. + +Having left Cenevieres, I recrossed the Lot and passed through +Saint-Martin, a village of little interest, but the point from which +it is most convenient to reach a certain cave where animals of the +prehistoric ages were obliging enough to die, so that their skeletons +might be preserved for the delight and instruction of the modern +scientific bone-hunter. This is not one of the celebrated caves in the +department, consequently the visitor with thoughts fixed on bones may +carry away a sackful if he has the patience to grub for them. If the +cavern were near Paris it would give rise to a fierce competition +between the palaeontologist and the _chiffonnier_, but placed where it +is the soil has not yet been much disturbed. I went in search of it up +a very steep, stony hill, and there had the good fortune to meet an +old woman who was coming down over the rocks with surprising +nimbleness. She knew at once what I wanted. Although she spoke French +with great difficulty, three words out of every five being _patois_, +she made me understand that her house was just in front of the cave, +and that it was not to be visited without her consent and guidance. +She therefore began to reascend the 'mountain,' as she called the +hill, making signs to me to follow. There was certainly nothing wrong +with the old woman's lungs, for it was as much as I could do to keep +pace with her, especially when she led the way up almost naked rock. +At length we reached the brow of the hill, where a cottage showed +itself in a desert of limestone, but where a little garden, by dint of +long labour, had been formed upon a natural terrace on which the sun's +rays fell warmly. + +The woman left me in the cottage while she went to find her daughter. +It was composed of one small room, in which there were two beds, an +old worm-eaten walnut buffet, an eight-day clock after the pattern of +Sir Humphrey's, a hearth covered with white wood-ashes, a large +wheel-shaped loaf of black bread in a rack, onions, grapes, garlic, +and balls of twisted hemp hanging from the beams; baskets of maize and +chestnuts, and a great copper swing-pot, only a little less imposing +than the one out of which the scullion fished the fowls for Sancho +Panca. I afterwards learned that two couples slept in the two +beds--the old pair and the young pair. + +Presently the old woman reappeared, followed by a much younger one, +carrying upon her head a copper water-pot, that glowed in the sun like +a wind-blown brand. Having set down her pot, the daughter, a rather +wild-looking person with sun-baked face and large gleaming eyes, took +an old-fashioned brass dish-lamp--a deformed and vulgar descendant of +the agate lamp held in the hand of the antique priestess--and, after +bringing the wick towards the lip, lighted it. I lit the candle I had +brought with me, and, followed by the old woman, we entered the +cavern, near the mouth of which was a fig-tree. The entrance was so +small that it was almost necessary to crawl for some distance; but it +must have been much larger at one time if the story that the younger +woman told me about the bones of a mastodon having been discovered +inside was well founded. As we proceeded, the roof rose rapidly, so +that the rocks overhead could not presently be seen by the light of +the candle and lamp. Farther in, the roof became lower, and it was +connected with the ground in places by natural columns of vast size, +formed in the course of ages by the calcareous deposit of the dropping +water. Near the end of the cavern, at about 100 yards from the +entrance, various holes dug in the yellow soil showed where the +bone-searchers had been at work. I had ample encouragement, for I had +only to stir the earth a little to find bones half turned to stone. I +selected two or three teeth with the hope that a scientific friend +would say they were a mastodon's or a mammoth's. If I had liked the +prospect of carrying a bag of bones on my back down the valley of the +Lot, I might have taken away many very large specimens. I called to +mind, however, an experience of early days which prevented me from +being again a martyr to science. I had found a quantity of bones in a +newly-dug gravel-pit, and fully believing that they belonged to some +animal that flourished before the flood, I carried them twelve miles +with infinite labour and suffering, and then learned that they were +part of the anatomy of a very modern cow. Since that adventure I have +left bones for those who understand them. + +I had ample leisure for studying the river after leaving Saint-Martin, +for I stood upon the bank waiting for a ferryman until I lost all the +patience I had brought with me. He was taking a couple of oxen +harnessed to a cart across the stream, and the strong wind that was +blowing sent the great flat boat far out of its course. + +Every day I noticed a larger fleet of floating leaves upon the water, +hurrying through the ever-curving valley, drifting over the golden +reflections of other leaves that waited for the gust to cast them too +upon the water; passing into the deep shadow of bridges whose arches +resounded with mournful murmurs, riding the white foam of the weirs, +whirling in the dark eddies beyond, gliding in the brown shade of +vine-clad hills and under the beetling brows of solemn rocks, now +mingling with the imaged dovecot with pigeons perched upon the +red-tiled roof, now with the tracery of Gothic gables or the grim +blackness of feudal walls splashed with fern and pellitory, now in a +warm glow of dying summer, and now in the melancholy gray of wintry +clouds heavy with rain. Away they went, the multitudinous +leaves--children of the poplar, the willow, the fig-tree, and vine; +some broad and clumsy like rafts or barges, others slender and +graceful like little skiffs; all stained with some brilliant colour of +autumn. + +I had reckoned upon getting a mid-day meal at a village called Cregols +on the opposite bank, but when I at length reached it I had another +trial. The only place of public entertainment was an exceedingly dirty +hovel that called itself a _cafe_, and the woman who kept it declared +that she had no victuals of any sort in the house. This, of course, +was not true, but it was a polite way of saying that she did not wish +to be bothered with me. The wayfarer in the little-travelled districts +of France must not expect to find in all his stopping-places a fowl +ready to be placed on the spit for him. Had I obtained a meal at +Cregols, I should have looked for some dolmens said to be in the +neighbourhood, but failure in one respect spoilt my zeal in the other. +I am afraid, moreover, that I only half appreciated the grandeur of +some prodigious walls of rock which I passed in my rapid walk to the +little town of Saint-Cirq-la-Popie. It is deplorable to think how much +the mind is influenced by internal circumstances which ought to have +nothing to do with the spirit. + +After climbing a steep wood where there were unripe medlars, I came in +sight of a small burg, lying high above the Lot in a hollow of the +hill. A fortress-like church towered far above the closely-packed +red-tiled roofs sprinkled with dormer windows, and upon a still higher +rock were the ruined walls of a castle. This was Saint-Cirq-la-Popie, +a place no less quaint than its name. I was presently seated in a +dimly-lighted back-room of an auberge, whose walls--built apparently +for eternity--dated from the Middle Ages. The hostess, who, as I +entered, was gossiping with some cronies in the dark doorway, while +she pretended to twist the wool that she carried upon the most rustic +of distaffs--a common forked stick--laid this down, and, blowing up +the embers on the hearth, proceeded to cook some eggs _sur le plat_. +This with bread, goat-cheese and walnuts, and an excellent wine of the +district--the new vintage--made my lunch. The fact that there was no +meat in the auberge reminded me that it was Friday. + +Speaking generally, the inhabitants of the Lot are practising +Catholics. The churches are well filled, and the clergy are as +comfortably off as French priests can expect to be in these days. It +is no uncommon thing for a _cure_ to keep his trap. I have several +times met priests on horseback in the Quercy, but never without +thinking that they would look better if they used side-saddles. + +The early Gothic Church of Saint-Cirq-la-Popie, to judge by its high +massive walls and round tower, was raised more with the idea of +defence than ornament. In the interior there is still the feeling of +Romanesque repose; nothing of the animation of the Pointed style--no +vine-leaf or other foliage breaks the severity of the lines. I +ascended the tower with the bell-ringer's boy. In the bell-loft, with +other lumber, was an old 'stretcher,' very much less luxurious than +the _brancard_ that is used in Paris for carrying the sick and +wounded. It was composed of two poles, with cross-pieces and a railing +down the sides. I ascertained that this piece of village carpentry was +used within the memory of people still living for carrying the dead to +the cemetery merely wrapped in their shrouds. They were buried without +coffins, not because wood was difficult to obtain, but because the +four boards had not yet come into fashion at Saint-Cirq-la-Popie. To +bury a person in such a manner even there would nowadays cause great +scandal, but sixty or seventy years ago it was considered folly to put +good wood into a grave. A homespun sheet was thought to be all that +was needed to break the harshness of the falling clay. And there are +people who call this age that gives coffins even to the poorest dead +utilitarian! + +Among other curious things I saw in this ancient out-of-the-way burg +were two mediaeval corn-measures forming part of a heap of stones in a +street corner. They had much the appearance of very primitive +holy-water stoups, such as are to be seen in some rural churches, for +they were blocks of stone rounded and hollowed out with the chisel. +Each of these measures, however, had a hole in the side near the +bottom for the corn to run through, and irons to which a little +flap-door was once affixed in front of this hole. The commune treated +these stones as rubbish until some accidental visitor offered 500 +francs for them; now it clings to them tightly, hoping, no doubt, that +the price will go up. Prowling curiosity-hunters are destined to +destroy much of the archaeological interest of these old towns. They +are doing to them what Lord Elgin did to the Parthenon. Fantastic +corbel-heads and other sculptured details disappear every year from +the Gothic houses, and find their way into private museums. + +As I was taking leave of the bellringer's boy--a lad of about +fifteen--he put his hand under his blouse and, pulling out a +snuff-box, offered me a pinch. I had met plenty of boys who chewed +tobacco--they abound along the coast of Brittany--but never one who +carried a snuff-box before. + +The castle whose ruins are to be seen on the bluff above the church +received Henry IV. as a guest after his memorable exploit at Cahors. + +A man who was laying eel-lines across the Lot consented to take me to +the other side in his boat, and there I struck the road to Cahors, +which closely borders the river all along this valley. In several +places it is tunnelled through the rock, where the buttresses of the +cliffs could not be conveniently shattered with dynamite. All this has +been the work of late years. Previously the passage between the river +and the rocks was about as bad as it could be. The English fortified +several of the caverns in the cliffs commanding the passage, to which +the name of _Le Defile des Anglais_ was consequently given. Now the +term is applied by the country people to the caves themselves, +wherever these have been walled up for defence. + +I soon reached one of these caverns, the embattled wall being a +conspicuous object from the road below. Having fallen into ruin, it +had lately been repaired at the expense of the commune. To an +Englishman the spot could not be otherwise than strangely interesting. +I imagined my own language being spoken there five or six centuries +ago, and speculated as to whether the accent was Cockney or +Lancashire, or West of England. + +Several fig-trees grew beside the walled-up cavern, and I was picking +the ripest of the fruit when I heard a voice from the road below +calling upon me to come down. Peering through the boughs, I saw a man +seated in the smallest and most gimcrack of donkey-carts. It was +something like a grocer's box on wheels. The owner gave violent smacks +to the plank on which he was sitting, to let me understand that there +was room for another person. I did not think there could be, but I +left the figs and came down the rocks. + +'If you are going to Saint-Gery,' said the man, 'I can take you about +five kilometres on the road.' + +'But the donkey,' I urged, 'will lie down and roll.' + +'What, the little beast! Not he! he will go along like an arrow.' + +I accepted the invitation, and away went the donkey, making himself as +much like an arrow on the wing as any ass could. My companion, who was +a handsome fellow, with a moustache that one would expect to see upon +the face of a Sicilian brigand, was a cantonnier, and as he scraped +out the ditches and mended the roads, his donkey browsed upon what he +could find along the wayside. In summer and winter they were +inseparable companions, and had come to thoroughly understand one +another. The cantonnier confided to me that he was formerly employed +in the phosphate quarries, and that he had closed his experience in +this line by working three months without wages for an Englishman +whose speculation turned out a failure. Phosphate then lost its charm +upon the proprietor of the donkey-cart, for it had caused him to 'eat +all his economies,' and he resigned himself to the wages of a +road-mender, which were small but sure. It was getting dusk when we +parted. My next companion on the road was a poor bent-backed, +shambling, idiotic youth, who was driving home two long-tailed sheep +and a lamb, and who had just enough intelligence for this work. He +kept at my side for a mile or two, flourishing a long stick over the +backs of the sheep and uttering melancholy cries. His presence was not +cheering, but I had to put up with it, for when I walked fast he ran. +He likewise left me at length to continue my way alone, and his wild +cries became fainter and fainter. Then, in the deepening dusk, two +churches, one on each side of the river, began to sound the angelus. A +gleam of yellow light lingered in the western sky between two dark +hills, but the clouds above and the river below were of the colour of +slate. Suddenly a bright blaze flashed across the dim and misty valley +from a cottage hearth where a woman had just thrown on a faggot to +boil the evening soup, and the gloom of nature was at once filled with +the sentiment of home. + +It was quite dark when I reached Saint-Gery. The narrow passage +leading to the best inn was illumined by the red glare of a forge, and +was rich in odours ancient and modern. Some twenty geese tightly +packed in a pen close to the hostelry door announced my arrival with +shrieks of derision. They said: 'It's Friday; no goose for you +to-night!' Those who suppose that geese cannot laugh have not studied +bucolic poetry from nature. The forge was attached to the inn, a very +common arrangement here, and one that enables the traveller who has +hope of sleep at daybreak--because the fleas are then thinking of rest +after labour--to enjoy the melody of the 'Harmonious Blacksmith' +without the help of Handel. + +I was not cheered by the sight of goose or turkey turning on the spit +as I entered the vast smoke-begrimed kitchen, lighted chiefly by the +flame of the fire, but the great chain-pot sent forth a perfume that +was not offensive, although the soup was _maigre_. There was also fish +that had been freshly pulled out of the Lot. The cooking left +something to be desired, but the hostess, the wife of the Harmonious +Blacksmith, had thrown her best intentions into it. A rosy light wine +grown upon the side of a neighbouring hill compensated for the lack of +culinary art. It was a rather rough inn, but I had been in many worse. +Seated in the chimney-corner after dinner, and sending the smoke of my +pipe to join the sparks of the blazing wood up the yawning gulf where +the soot hung like stalactites below the calm sky and twinkling stars, +I had a long talk with the aubergiste, who told me that he had been +taken prisoner at Sedan, and had, in consequence, spent eight months +in Germany. He considered that he had been as well treated by the +Germans as a prisoner could expect to be. He had always enough to eat, +but there was no soup, and, lacking this, he thought it impossible for +any civilized stomach to be happy. + +Rural inns have charms, especially when they are old and picturesque, +and smell of the Middle Ages; but to be kept a prisoner in one of them +by rainy weather is apt to plunge a restless wanderer into the Slough +of Despond. The chances are that the inn itself becomes at such times +a slough, so that Bunyan's expression is then applicable in a real as +well as in a figurative sense. There is a constant coming in and going +out of peasants with dripping sabots, of dogs with wet paws, and +draggle-tailed hens with miry feet; geese, and even pigs, not +unfrequently venture inside, and have a good walk round before their +presence is noticed and they are treated to quotations from Rabelais, +enforced with the broomstick. Then the rain beats in at the open door, +which nobody troubles to close. Under these circumstances, the rural +inn becomes detestable. So I found the auberge at Saint-Gery, where I +waited long hours for the weather to change, after having received a +soaking while climbing the escarped cliffs which rise so grandly on +one side of the little town. + +A fortified cavern and a ruined castle tempted me up the rocks. On my +way I passed a small Gothic house, dating apparently from the +fourteenth or fifteenth century, with pointed arched doorway and +window lights separated by slender columns with foliated capitals +carved by no clumsy rustic workman. The boy who accompanied me had the +key. As I entered I was met on the threshold by the fragrant odour of +the tobacco-plant; I perceived that the mediaeval house was used for +drying tobacco-leaves--a purpose that could never have been in the +imagination of the original owner, for those stones were laid together +long before the herb, now so precious to the French Government, was +brought to Europe. The stalks with all the leaves attached were hung +to strings stretched from wall to wall. There is much tobacco grown +hereabouts in the valley of the Lot, but it is considered too strong +for smoking purposes, and is therefore made into snuff. When the +utmost care has been used in its cultivation and drying the price paid +by the Government to the grower does not exceed half a franc the +pound. Those who enjoy the privilege of raising it consider the money +very hardly earned. + +I reached the ruined castle at the foot of the limestone buttresses +supporting the plateau above. Enough is left of the wall to show that +it must have been a strong place at one time. It is attributed by +common consent to the English. Protected on one side by the abrupt +rock, it overlooked the valley from a height that to an enemy must +have been very difficult of access. The fortified cavern is in the +escarped cliff above the castle, with which there was, perhaps, a +secret communication. The upper part of the wall is gone, but what +remains is about ten feet high and nine feet thick. Swallows build +their nests in the roof of the cavern, and the spot is noisy with the +harsh cries of countless jackdaws. These sagacious birds can doubtless +tell many stories of the English which they received from their +ancestors. + +When I returned to the auberge wet and shivering, I found no sympathy, +the thoughts of the hostess being occupied by a matter that interested +her more deeply. The badgers had eaten her maize which she needed for +fattening the geese, and her tongue was busily employed in wishing +them every misfortune, both in time and eternity. Badgers are very +numerous in the district, and they continue to increase and multiply, +while the peasants jeopardise their immortal interests by cursing them +every time they see a spike of ripening maize pulled down and half +stripped of its corn. In the daytime these animals sleep comfortably, +digesting their ill-gotten meal in the holes of the rocks, which are +so honeycombed that dogs cannot easily get at the hermits. Moreover, +it is not every dog that likes the prospect of being bitten nearly in +half, the badger being much better known than trusted by the canine +race. + +Another animal that flourishes here, in spite of the hatred in which +it is held by the inhabitants, is the fox, which likewise finds the +valley an Elysium on account of the convenient neighbourhood of the +rocks pierced with multitudinous holes. Badgers and foxes, with all +their vices, are preferable to the hyenas which used to infest this +part of France, as is proved by the bones found in the larger caverns. +The present inhabitants ought to take comfort from this reflection, +but they do not. + +While the aubergiste's wife, a little woman who carried about with her +the outline of a wine-cask, was breathing maledictions upon the +badgers, and venting her fury upon the little boy-of-all-work--who, +being used to such outbursts, ate his morning allowance of soup with +philosophic indifference--I took up my place again in the +chimney-corner, and endeavoured to dry myself on all sides by somewhat +imitating the movement of a fowl turning on the spit. + +At length the heavy pall of cloud lifted, and when the first yellow +gleam of sunshine filtering through vapour was reflected by the +puddles and streaming roofs, I walked out of Saint-Gery. When the last +houses were out of sight, solitude added to the desolate grandeur of +the scenery. It was a relief to be alone with Nature, dripping as she +was with recent tears, after the depressing influences of the inn--the +dimness, dampness, and dirt, the unreasoning anger of ignorance, the +dull routine of human beings whose chief concern was to feed +themselves and the animals which helped them to live. As an alterative +to the mind, rural life is of real value in the case of those who have +been carried round and round in the whirlpool of a great city until +they have had more than enough of the sensation; but, like other +useful medicines, rusticity is best when taken in moderate doses, and +at judicious intervals. I had stayed at Saint-Gery long enough to feel +like a fish that in jumping out of water for the sake of variety had +fallen upon the mud. + +The sun that changes the face of all things, and warms the ideas no +less than the earth, now shone out from a blue sky, spreading fire +over the ruddy tops of the chestnut woods, and flashing into the dark +caverns of the ancient crags, fringed with box, sumach and juniper. I +noticed that one of these caverns had been fortified, but my curiosity +was satisfied with the distant view. A yellow chicory, quite leafless, +was still blooming on the stony banks, and I also, found a white +scabious. Green hellebore and wild madder flourished amidst the broken +limestone. A forest of brown maize-stalks, from which the golden corn +had been gathered, followed the windings of the river, now turgid and +tumultuous, and dyed sienna-red by the washings from the hills. Every +day the increasing water as it descended the weirs made a wilder +tumult. These weirs are a great beauty to the Lot, for they generally +form an angle or the arc of a circle, and the river tumbles over the +rough blocks like a natural cascade. They are connected with a series +of locks, which render the stream navigable from the sea; but one +rarely sees a barge upon it now, the railway having completely ruined +the water traffic, and caused a most elaborate and costly piece of +engineering to be practically useless. + +The valley now widened out, and a village came into view, together +with a ruined castle upon a mamelon, that rose like a volcanic cone +from the plain. On the castle wall an immense wooden cross had been +set, showing against the sky with an effect truly grand. The village +was Vers, and the castle, which was built by the English, is called +the Chateau de Bears. + +At Vers I was met by an old man, who insisted upon showing me another +cave fortified by the English, after taking the precaution of telling +me that he would accept nothing for his trouble. He was long and lean +and brown, and had a 'glittering, eye' like the Ancient Mariner, but +his conversation was much more cheerful than that of the hero who shot +the albatross. He was a born actor, for he accompanied his talk with +magnificent dramatic gestures, and, after letting his voice drop +suddenly to a tragic whisper, he would raise it again to the most +gusty and blustering heights of sound. He was a strong type of the +Southerner, inasmuch as all this amazing vehemence and gesticulation +was quite uncalled for. It is remarkable, however, how much may be +done by mere action and intonation to impress the listener with the +idea that the speaker must be a person of uncommon intelligence. But +when half a dozen such talkers are engaged in discussion upon some +trivial topic, and each employs the same means to enforce his views +upon the rest (this occurs nightly in the _cafes_ at Cahors), the +Northerner is inclined to think that they are all mad. The wiry old +man explained to me, in order to account for the ease and agility with +which, notwithstanding his years and his awkward _sabots_, he stepped +from block to block in the ascent, that he had been all his life a +rock-blaster. At length we reached the cavern. The English, who used +it as a refuge, had shown much sagacity in its selection, for the +enemy that attacked them there would have been compelled to climb up +the face of the rock beneath by following zigzag ledges, while the +besieged behind their loopholed wall were raining arrows and bolts +upon them. The wall, as it exists, is twenty or thirty feet high. +There is a doorway protected by an inner wall. To reach the upper +loopholes and parapet the men mounted upon oak beams resting crosswise +between the masonry and the rock. One massive beam, crumbling and +worm-eaten, as may be supposed after the centuries that it has been +there, may still be seen serving as the lintel of a window. + +I made a rather long stay at Vers, in order to visit the site of a +Celtic town on the _causse_; but I did not start upon this journey +until the next day. The inn where I put up was much more comfortable +than some others which I had chosen for night-quarters while wandering +down the valley. To anybody fresh from London it would have seemed +primitive indeed, with its broad hearth and massive iron dogs, its +enormous fire built with logs and the roots of trees, and its cosy +chimney-corners, where the sitters' heads were from time to time +enveloped with wreathing smoke; but I had grown so accustomed to such +sights that this hostelry seemed to contain all the blessings and +commodities of an advanced state of civilization. + +The hostess was a good and sprightly cook, and I watched her +proceedings with a keen interest as I sat upon one of the seats in the +chimney. Having hitched the pot that contained the soup upon the hook +at the end of the sooty chain, she raked out embers from the centre of +the burning mass, and made separate fires with them upon the hearth. +Others she carried to a range of small charcoal fireplaces on one side +of the spacious kitchen, and very soon afterwards she had sauce-pans +and a frying-pan and a gridiron all murmuring or hissing together. +There was too much garlic in her cookery, but I had also grown used to +that. Although the phylloxera had blighted nearly all the vineyards in +this region, the landlord here was able to put upon the table some +wine, grown upon his own hillside, not unworthy of the ancient +reputation of the Cahors district for its vintage. + +After dinner I returned to the chimney-corner which was decidedly the +most comfortable place in the inn, in spite of the smoke and the close +neighbourhood of soot, and set about obtaining information from the +aubergiste and his cronies who had dropped in concerning the exact +whereabouts of a Celtic town whose ruined fortifications, I knew, were +to be found somewhere among the barren hills to the west of Vers. It +was some time before I could make these men understand what I was +really in search of, and when they understood they seemed to think I +was a little mad, until the idea struck them that I might be a dealer +in antiquities, hoping to pick up certain odds and ends that would +repay me for the trouble of walking to such a desolate and +uninteresting spot. + +At length I gathered that the site of the ancient _oppidum_ was at +Murcens, a hamlet upon a hill, half a day's walk away to the west, and +that the best way to reach it was to follow the valley of the Vers. At +about seven o'clock the next morning I started, and, having been +warned that I should find no inn where I could get a meal, I took with +me some provisions. + +It was a gray, dreary morning, and at that hour the weather could not +have been more November-like had I been upon the banks of the Severn +or the Trent, instead of being by one of the rivers of our ancient +southern province of Guyenne. + +As I turned westward up the valley of the Vers, I passed under +detached fragments of the aqueduct built by the Romans to carry water +to Cahors. By taking advantage of the rocks which hem in the narrow +valley, they saved themselves the trouble of raising arches to the +desired height to ensure the flow. The conduit is carried along upon a +ledge hewn out of the natural wall, projecting masses of rock being +cut through with the hammer and chisel. The masonry is of undressed +stone, but so firmly cemented that it is scarcely less solid than the +rock itself. + +Where an inconvenient buttress projected, a narrow passage was cut +through it for the channel, and the marks of the chisel look as fresh +as if they had been lately made. Much of this aqueduct was destroyed +in quite recent days, when the rocks were blasted to make room for the +road to Cahors. The Romans may have thought of many destructive +agencies being employed upon their work, but dynamite was certainly +not one of them. Box and hellebore, bramble and dogwood, moss and +ferns, have been striving for centuries to conceal all trace of the +conduit, and those whose foreknowledge did not lead them to look for +it might easily pass by without observing it. + +The road followed the stream, now a furious torrent that a man on +horseback could hardly ford without risk of being carried away. Two or +three weeks previously a mere thread of water wound its way amongst +the stones in the centre of the channel. It is one of the many streams +which in Guyenne gradually disappear in summer, but at the return of +winter fill the long-scorched and silent valleys with the sound of +roaring waters. On either side of the gorge rose abrupt stony hills +thinly wooded, chiefly with stunted oak, or escarped craggy cliffs +pierced with yawning caverns. There was no sunshine, but the multitude +of lingering leaves lit up all the desert hills with a quiet, solemn +flame. Here and there, amidst the pale gold of the maple or the +browner, ruddier gold of the oak, glowed darkly the deep crimson fire +of a solitary cornel. In steady, unchanging contrast with these +colours was the sombre green of the box. + +The stream descends in a series of cascades, and there is a mighty +roar of waters. For many yards I have for a companion a little wren, +that flies from twig to twig through the well-nigh naked hedge along +the wayside, now hidden behind a bramble's crimson-spotted leaf, now +mingled with a tracery of twigs and thorns. I can almost believe it to +be the same wren that kept up with me years ago in English lanes, and +since then has travelled with me so many miles in France, vanishing +for long periods, but reappearing as if by enchantment in some +roadside hedge, its eyes bright with recognition, and every movement +friendly. Whimsical little bird, or gentle spirit in disguise, we may +travel many a mile together yet. + +My thoughts were turned from the wren by a carrier's cart, which the +people of the country would term a _diligence_. It was like a great +oblong box with one end knocked out, set on wheels. The interior was a +black hole, crammed with people and bundles. When I looked for my +little feathered friend it was gone, but we shall meet again. + +Two or three miles farther up the valley, near a small village or +hamlet, I crossed a low bridge over the Vers, and by following the +road on the other side, still ascending the course of the stream, I +came to a spot where a volume of water that would soon have filled a +large reservoir flowed quietly out of a little hollow at the foot of +great rocks. It was the Fountain of Polemie which, on account of its +abundant flow in all seasons, is supposed to have been the source from +which the Romans led their aqueduct to Divona--now called Cahors. The +water of this fountain, which derives its name from Polemius, a Roman +functionary, is of limpid purity, and its constancy proves that it +rises from a great depth. The Romans must have carried the water on +arches across the valley, and probably for a considerable distance +down it, before they made use of the natural wall of rock in the +manner described, but not a trace remains of the arches, or even of +the piers. + +In order to reach the tableland of Murcens, it was necessary to cross +again the roaring torrent of the Vers, and after several vain attempts +to do so, by means of the rocks lying in its bed, I came to a bridge +which solved the difficulty. The scene was now sublimely rugged and +desolate. On each side the majestic rocks reared their ever-varying +fantastic shapes towards the sky. + +I knew, from what I had been told, that Murcens lay somewhere above +the escarped cliff on my left, and at no great distance, but the +difficulty was to reach it. I had heard of a path, but I soon gave up +the attempt to find it. As there was not a human being to be seen who +could give me any counsel, I commenced climbing the hill in the +direction that I wished to take. It was anything but straightforward +walking. The lower part of the steep was strewn with loose stones like +shingle, that slipped under the feet, so that I had to proceed in +zigzag fashion, taking advantage of every bush of juniper and box and +root of hellebore as a foothold. But the vegetation grew denser as I +ascended, and I had soon plenty of box and dwarf oak to help me. + +Before attempting to climb the upper wall of solid limestone, I sat in +the mouth of a small cavern to eat the frugal lunch I had brought with +me, and to contemplate at my leisure the wild grandeur of the valley. +I could not have chosen a better place for feeling in one sense +dwindled, in another expanded, by the majesty of the stony solitude. +Suddenly, while I gazed, the sun breaking through the clouds made +every yellow tree brighten like melting gold, and drew a voice of joy +from all the dumb and solemn rocks. + +I leave the remnants of my feast for the foxes and magpies to quarrel +over, and feel prepared to put forth a vigorous effort to reach the +_causse_. I work my way up by the clefts of the rocks, hanging on to +the tough box, and getting thoroughly asperged by the dew that has not +yet dried upon it. I have not ascended fifty feet in this manner +before I am as wet as if I had been walking in a thunderstorm. I creep +along ledges, now to the right and now to the left, and presently I am +only about twenty-five feet from the top of the rock that prevents me +from attaining my object. It is pleasanter to look up than to look +down, for, being no climber of mountain peaks, I do not enjoy the +sensation of clinging to the side of a precipice like a caterpillar to +a leaf. Now comes the real trial. The rest of the rock above me is +quite bare of vegetation. By making four or five steps upwards to the +left, then to the right, a spot can be reached where the trouble will +be over; but some of these steps need a considerable stretch of leg, +and the eye cannot measure the distance with certainty. Time is on the +wing, and the days are short. I am strongly tempted to make the essay, +but doubt holds me back. What if I, were to get half-way, and were +unable to go on or to retreat? What if I were to slip and roll down +the rocks? If I were not killed outright, who would be likely to come +to my aid in such a solitude? The ravens would have ample time to pick +my bones before those interested in my existence would know what had +happened to me. I resolve that I will not give the birds of ill omen a +chance of so rare a meal. In descending, the cold showers from the box +bushes add to my humiliation and discomfiture. + +Keeping on the side of the hill, I went farther up the valley, seeking +a place where I could with better chance of success make another +attack upon the difficulties of this rocky wall. I found what I wanted +at no great distance, the only objection to the spot being the dense +growth of shrubs laden with moisture. It was almost like wading +through a stream. At length the line of high rocks was passed, and I +was upon land that, notwithstanding its steepness and the multitude of +stones with which it was strewn, had undergone some cultivation. That +wine had not long since been grown here was evident from the numerous +stumps of vines which had been killed by the phylloxera. A few +lingering flowers of hawkweed relieved the monotony of the dreary +waste. But if, while looking before me, the scene was saddening, in +looking back there was a sublime and soul-lifting picture which the +forces of Nature had been painting unmolested for ages. I can do no +more than suggest to the imagination the combined effect of those +fantastic rocks rising from the foaming torrent to the drifting, +tinted clouds; buttresses and bastions of the ancient earth laid bare +in the mysterious night of the inconceivable past, some black and +gloomy as the walls of a feudal moat, others yellow like ochre; +others, again, sun-bleached almost to whiteness, yet streaked with +ruddy veins--all flashed here and there with burning oak and maple, or +sprinkled with the purple blood of the dogwood's dying leaves. + +Half an hour later I reached Murcens, only inhabited nowadays by a few +peasants in two or three scattered hovels, which are nevertheless +called farms. I had no difficulty in finding the wall of the Gaulish +town. It is broken down completely in places, but the almost circular +line is plainly marked. The site of the _oppidum_ is a little +tableland raised above the surrounding soil by a natural embankment. + +The circumvallation in its best preserved places is now from seven to +ten feet high. The materials used were such as Caesar mentions as +having been employed by the Gauls in the fortification of their +_oppida_, namely, timber and rough stone. I looked for some traces of +the wooden uprights, but although there is ample proof that they +existed there down to our own time, my search was vain. Many stones +measuring several feet in length were set in a perpendicular position +to give extra stability to the wall. The ancient rampart is in places +completely overgrown with juniper. Within the wall is nothing but +level field. No trace remains of any buildings that stood there in the +far-off days when the spot was the scene of all passions and vanities, +the tragedy and comedy of human life, even as we know it now. The +peasant as he ploughs or digs turns up from time to time a bit of +worked metal, such as a coin, or a ring, but the hands which held them +may or may not be mingled with the soil that supports the buckwheat +and enables the peasant to live. The Gaulish city has no history. + +I had some talk with a peasant who had been watching my movements +wonderingly. He spoke French with difficulty, but his boy--a lad of +about twelve, who had been to school--could help him over the stiles. +I got the man to speak about the ancient wall, although it was +evidently not a subject that interested him so deeply as his pigsty. +He told me that all the beams of wood had now rotted (they may have +helped to warm him on winter evenings), but that nails a foot long +were often found amongst the stones of the wall or in the soil round +about it. He had picked up several, but had taken no care of them. +When I observed that I should much like to see one, he said he thought +there was one somewhere in his house, and, calling to his wife, he +asked her in Languedocian to look for it. While she was searching he +drew my attention to a circular stone lying upon the top of his rough +garden wall. It was about a foot in diameter, and concave on one +side. 'What is it?' I asked. + +'A millstone,' he replied. + +True enough, it was one of the stones of an ancient handmill, such as +was used in remote antiquity, chiefly by women, for grinding corn. It +must have been as nearly as possible after the pattern of the first +implement invented by man for this purpose. The peasant set no value +upon it; I could have had it for a trifle--even for nothing, had I +been so minded; but whatever liking I may have for antiquities, it did +not gird me up to the task of carrying a millstone back to Vers. The +nail could not be found, so I was obliged to leave without a souvenir +of the Celtic city. Not far from this spot I found another millstone +that would have fitted the one I had left and made a complete mill. +They are doubtless still lying upon the dreary height of Murcens; but +whether they are there or in a museum, they are as dumb as any other +stones, although, had they the power to repeat some of the gossip of +the women who once bent over them, they might tell us a good deal that +Caesar left out of his Commentaries because he thought it unimportant, +but which we should much like to know. + +I did not return by the way I came, but kept upon the plateau, going +southward, then, dropping down into another valley at the bottom of +which ran a tributary of the Vers, I crossed the stream and rose upon +the opposite hill, making somewhat at random towards the village of +Cours. On my way I started numerous coveys of red partridges from +juniper and box and other low shrubs. Had I been a sportsman carrying +a gun I could have made a splendid 'bag,' but these chances generally +fall to those who cannot profit by them. I wondered, however, at the +lack of poaching enterprise in a district so near to Cahors. It is not +often that one meets even in the least populous parts of France so +many partridges in an absolutely wild state. Immense flocks of larks +were likewise feeding upon the moorland, and the beating of their +countless wings as they rose made a mighty sound when it suddenly +broke the silence of the hills. I met a small peasant girl with a face +as dark as a Moorish child's, and eyes wonderfully large and lustrous. +She was a beautiful little creature of a far Southern or Arabian type. +At Cours I talked to a woman who was a pure type of the red-haired +Celt. How strange it is that with all the intermixture of blood in the +course of many centuries the old racial characteristics return when +they are deeply ingrained in a people! + +I took shelter at Cours from a sharp storm. It was a wretched little +village upon a dreary height, and the inhabitants, to whom French was +a foreign language, stared at me as if I had been a gorilla. An +overhanging 'bush' of juniper led me to a very small inn that bore the +familiar signs of antiquity, dirt and poverty. I knocked at the old +oak door studded with nail-heads, and it presently creaked upon its +rusty hinges. It was opened by a poor woman whose manners were wofully +uncouth; but this was no fault of hers. She was honest, as such rough +people generally are. Although she must have wanted money, it did not +occur to her to extract a sou from the stranger beyond the just price. +When I had had enough of her wine and bread and cheese, and asked her +to tell me what I owed her, she carefully measured with her eye how +much wine was left in the bottle, how much bread and cheese I had +taken, and when her severe calculation was finished she replied, in a +harsh, firm voice, which meant that the reckoning being made she +intended to stand by it: 'Eleven sous.' + +When I met the valley of the Vers again the storm had passed far away; +the evening rose was in the calm heaven, and the topmost oaks along +the rocky ridge burnt like tapers upon a high altar of the vast temple +whose roof is the vaulted sky. Already the deep aisles were dim with +gathering shadows. When I reached the inn at Vers it was nearly dark, +and after my day's tramp I was very glad to exchange the outer gloom +for the brightness of the cheery fireside and the warmth of the +chimney-corner beside the redly glowing logs. + +The next day brought me to the end of my long journey down the valley +of the Lot, for I had decided to leave the country below Cahors until +some future day. I reached the city of Divona when the yellow glow of +the autumnal rainy sunset was stealing up the ancient walls. + +It is always with a certain dread that I say anything about history, +because when I am once upon such high stilts I do not know when I +shall be able to get down again. Moreover, when one is so mounted, one +has to step very judiciously, especially in a region like this, where +the roads to knowledge are so roughly paved. Nothing would be easier, +however, than to fill a book with the history of Cahors, for the +place, since the days of the Romans, has gone through such +vicissitudes, and witnessed such stirring events, that those who wish +to turn over the leaves of its past have abundant facilities for doing +so; but it will be better for me to speak rather of what I have seen +than what I have read. Nevertheless, my impressions of this old town +at the present day would be like salad without salt if no flavour of +the past were put into them. + +When, a mud-bespattered tramp, I came down the road by the winding +Lot, and saw the pale golden light rising upon the walls of churches +and towers high above me, I could not but think of some of the +terrible scenes which, in the course of 2,000 years, were witnessed by +the inhabitants of Cahors. In the fast-falling twilight I saw the +ghosts of the Vandals and Visigoths who helped to destroy the works of +the Caesars, and passed onward to the unknown; of the Franks who burnt +Cahors in the sixth century; of the Arab hordes, dabbled with blood, +who afterwards came up from the South slaying, violating, plundering; +of the English troops under Henry II. besieging and taking the town, +accompanied by the Chancellor, Thomas-a-Becket; of the Albigenses and +Catholics, who cut one another's throats for the good of their souls; +of the Huguenots and Catholics, who repeated these horrors in the +sixteenth century for the same excellent reason; but of all these +shadows, the most interesting and the most dramatic was that of Henry +IV. He was then Henry of Navarre, and the hope of the Protestants in +the South, while Cahors was one of the strongholds of Catholicism. +What a feat of war was that capture of Cahors by Henry with only 1,400 +men, after almost incessant fighting in the streets for five days and +nights! How red the paving-stones must have been on the sixth day, +when it was all over, and the surviving Navarrese, smarting from the +recollection of the tiles and stones that were hurled at them from the +roofs by women, children, and old men, had given the final draught of +blood to their vengeful swords! Never was so much courage so uselessly +squandered. After the lapse of three centuries Henry's figure is still +full of heroic life, as, with back set against a shop-window, and +sword in hand, he shouted to those who urged upon him the hopelessness +of his enterprise: 'My retreat from this town will be that of my soul +from my body!' + +If is really wonderful how certain buildings at Cahors have been +preserved to the present day through all the storms of the tempestuous +Middle Ages, the furious hurricane of religious hatred that brought +those centuries to a close, and that other one, the Revolution, which +ushered in the new epoch of liberty and well-dressed poverty. Of these +buildings, the cathedral has the right to be named first. As a whole +it cannot be called a beautiful structure, for its form is graceless; +but what a charm there is in its details! Even its incongruity has a +singular fascination. This most evident incongruity arises from the +combination that it expresses of the Gothic and Byzantine styles. The +facade is very early Gothic (about the year 1200), still full of +Romanesque feeling, but the church having been much pulled about in +the thirteenth century, it came to have a semi-Byzantine choir and two +depressed domes, quite Byzantine, over the nave. The facade, with its +squat towers, exhibits no lofty aim, but when one looks at the +tabernacle-work in the tympan of the divided portal, the capitals in +the jambs and the mouldings of the archivolts, the elegant arcade +above and the tracery of the great rose window, one feels that +although the Pointed style could not yet embody its dream of beauty by +means of the tower and spire, it was moving towards it through a maze +of glorious ideas destined to become inseparable from the spirit of +the perfect whole. Still more interesting than this facade is that of +the north portal (twelfth century). It is Gothic, but the general +treatment has much of that Byzantine-Romanesque which produced some +very remarkable buildings in Southern France. The portal is very wide +and deeply recessed, and the tympan is crowded with bas-reliefs, the +sculpture of which, rude yet expressive, is of a striking originality. +There is a broad arabesque moulding in the doorway suggesting Eastern +influence, and the closed arcade of the facade, with corbel-table +above and its row of uncouth monstrous heads, presents a highly +curious effect of struggling motives in early Gothic art. + +The nave is much below the level of the soil, and is reached by a +flight of steps from the main entrance. These steps at the Sunday +services are crowded by the poorer class of churchgoers, sitting, +kneeling, and standing, and, like the catechumens in the narthex of +the early Christian basilica, they look as if they were separated from +the rest of the faithful on account of their not being as yet +full-fledged members of the Church. It may well be that they are the +most faithful of the faithful, for stone is a hard thing to kneel +upon, and when it is used for this purpose without ostentation, it is +a pretty safe test of sincerity in religion. The grouping of the +people here would interest at once an artistic eye, the more so +because many of the women of Cahors wear upon their heads kerchiefs of +brilliant-coloured silk folded in a peculiarly graceful and +picturesque manner, resembling the Bordelaise coiffure, but yet +distinct. + +The nave of the cathedral is cold and tasteless, the whole effect +being centred upon the choir, the richness of which is quite dazzling. +The vault is a semi-dome, and the apse-like polygonal termination is +pierced with several lofty Gothic windows, so that the eye rests upon +the harmonious lines of the tracery and a subdued blaze of +many-coloured glass. Then the columns, walls and vaulting of the choir +are elaborately decorated in the Byzantine style, and, all the tones +being kept in aesthetic harmony, the result is a general effect more +beautiful than gorgeous. I observed it under most favoured +circumstances. I entered the church for the first time during the +pontifical High Mass. The vestments of the mitred bishop under his +canopy, of the officiating priest and deacons, of the canons in their +stalls, together with the white surplices and scarlet cassocks of the +many choir-boys distributed over the vast sanctuary, and the sunbeams +stained with the hues of purple, crimson, azure and green by the +windows that reached towards the sky, falling upon all these figures, +realized with a splendour more Oriental than Western a grand +conception of colour in relation to a religious ideal. + +After leaving the cathedral I changed my ideas by looking for the +Gambetta grocery. It happened to be close by. The name is still over +the door, but the shop no longer looks democratic. Its plateglass, its +fresh paint and gilding, and the specimens of ceramic art which fill +the window, give it somewhat the air of one of those London shops kept +by ladies of title. Sugar, coffee, and candles now hide themselves in +the far background, as though they were ashamed of their own +celebrity. + +Much more interesting than this shop is the old house where Gambetta +spent his childhood. His parents did not live on the premises where +they carried on their business. Therefore the odour of honey and +vinegar had not, after all, so much to do with the formation of the +clever boy's character. I found the house down a dark passage. The +rooms occupied by the Gambetta family are now those of a small +_restaurateur_ for the working class. After ascending some steps, I +entered a greasy, grimy, dimly-lighted room, the floor of which had +never felt water save what had been sprinkled upon it to lay the dust. +It had the old-fashioned hearth and fire-dogs and gaping sooty chimney, +a bare table or so for the customers, a shelf with bottles, and the +ordinary furniture and utensils of the provincial kitchen. Here I had +some white wine with the present occupier as a reason for being in a +place that must have often resounded with the infantile screams of +Leon Gambetta. I ascertained that he was not born in this house, but +that he was brought to it when about three months old, and that he +passed his childhood here. I was shown an adjoining room, darker, +dingier, less persecuted by soap, if possible, than the other. It was +here that Gambetta slept in those early years. Did he ever dream here +of a great room in a palace, draped with black and silver, of a +catafalque fit for a prince, of a coffin heaped with flowers? + +Again I changed my ideas by crossing the Lot and searching for the +Fountain of Divona, now called the Fontaine des Chartreux. The old +name is Celtic, and as it charmed the Romans they preserved it. +Following the river downward, I came to a spot where a great stream +flowed silently and mysteriously out of a cavity at the foot of lofty +rocks overgrown by herbage and low shrubs that seemed to have been +left untouched by the hand of Autumn, that burns and beautifies. The +water came out of the hill like a broad sheet of green glass, giving +scarcely any sign of movement until it reached a low weir, where it +turned to the whiteness of snow. The Romans held this beautiful +fountain in high esteem, and if they had known how to raise the water +to the level of the town on the opposite bank of the river, they need +not have taken the trouble to carry an aqueduct some twenty miles from +the valley of the Vers. Nowadays it is the Fountain of Divona that +supplies Cahors with water. + +Still following the river, I came to that famous bridge, the Pont +Valentre, which is one of the most interesting specimens of the +defensive architecture of the Middle Ages. It is probably the most +curious example of a fortified bridge in existence. In addition to its +embattled parapet, it is protected by three high slender towers, +machicolated, crenellated, and loopholed. The archway of each spans +the road over the bridge, so that an enemy who forced the portcullis +of the first, and ran the gauntlet of the hot lead from the +machicolations, would have to repeat the same performance twice before +reaching the bank on which the town is built. This bridge was raised +at the commencement of the fourteenth century. By what wonderful +chance was it preserved intact, together with its towers, after the +invention of gunpowder? The people of Cahors call it the Pont du +Diable. When a certain stone was placed in one of the towers, the +devil always pulled it out, or did so until lately. + + +THE END. + + + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WANDERINGS BY SOUTHERN WATERS, +EASTERN AQUITAINE*** + + +******* This file should be named 11298.txt or 11298.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/2/9/11298 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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