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diff --git a/43209-8.txt b/43209-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 5f3da66..0000000 --- a/43209-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6412 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook, In the Track of R. L. Stevenson and Elsewhere -in Old France, by Sir John Alexander Hammerton - - -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: In the Track of R. L. Stevenson and Elsewhere in Old France - - -Author: Sir John Alexander Hammerton - - - -Release Date: July 13, 2013 [eBook #43209] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - - -***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE TRACK OF R. L. STEVENSON -AND ELSEWHERE IN OLD FRANCE*** - - -E-text prepared by Melissa McDaniel and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made -available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org) - - - -Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this - file which includes the original 92 illustrations. - See 43209-h.htm or 43209-h.zip: - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/43209/43209-h/43209-h.htm) - or - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/43209/43209-h.zip) - - - Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive. See - https://archive.org/details/intrackofrlsteve00hammuoft - - -Transcriber's note: - - Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). - - - - - -IN THE TRACK OF R. L. STEVENSON -AND ELSEWHERE IN OLD FRANCE - - - [Illustration: THE SCHELDT AT ANTWERP - - "We made a great stir in Antwerp Docks. In a stroke or two the canoes - were away out in the middle of the Scheldt."--R. L. S.] - - -All rights reserved - -IN THE TRACK OF R. L. STEVENSON AND ELSEWHERE IN OLD FRANCE - -by - -J. A. HAMMERTON - -Author of "Stevensoniana" - -With 92 Illustrations - - - - - - - -Bristol -J. W. Arrowsmith, 11 Quay Street - -London -Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Company Limited - -First published in 1907 - - - - -CONTENTS - - - _Page_ - - THROUGH THE CEVENNES 1 - - ALONG THE ROUTE OF "AN INLAND VOYAGE" 71 - - "THE MOST PICTURESQUE TOWN IN EUROPE" 121 - - THE COUNTRY OF THE CAMISARDS 137 - - THE WONDERLAND OF FRANCE 155 - - THE TOWN OF "TARTARIN" 173 - - "LA FÊTE DIEU" 195 - - "M'SIEU MEELIN OF DUNDAE" 207 - - ROUND ABOUT A FRENCH FAIR 219 - - THE PALACE OF THE ANGELS 237 - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - - THE SCHELDT AT ANTWERP _Frontispiece_ - - _Face Page_ - - LE MONASTIER 1 - - LE MONASTIER 4 - - CHÂTEAU NEUF, NEAR LE MONASTIER 8 - - GOUDET 8 - - CHÂTEAU BEAUFORT AT GOUDET 13 - - SPIRE OF OUR LADY OF PRADELLES 13 - - THE INN AT GOUDET 16 - - OLD BRIDGE AT LANGOGNE 20 - - THE LOIRE NEAR GOUDET 20 - - VILLAGE AND CASTLE OF LUC 24 - - LA BASTIDE 24 - - ROAD TO OUR LADY OF THE SNOWS 29 - - THE MONASTERY 29 - - OUR LADY OF THE SNOWS 33 - - MAIN STREET, LE BLEYMARD 36 - - RUINS OF THE HÔTEL DU LOT 36 - - ON THE LOZÈRE 40 - - ON THE LOZÈRE 45 - - VILLAGE OF COCURÈS 48 - - BRIDGE OVER THE TARN 48 - - WATERFALL ON THE LOZÈRE 53 - - IN THE VALLEY OF THE TARN 53 - - "CLARISSE" 56 - - THE TARN VALLEY AT LA VERNÈDE 60 - - IN THE VALLEY OF THE TARN 65 - - NEAR FLORAC 65 - - FLORAC 68 - - BOOM ON THE RUPEL 72 - - VILLEVORDE ON THE WILLEBROEK CANAL 72 - - THE ALLÉE VERTE AT LAEKEN 77 - - THE SAMBRE AT MAUBEUGE 77 - - THE GRAND CERF, MAUBEUGE 80 - - THE CHURCH AT QUARTES 84 - - THE SAMBRE FROM THE BRIDGE AT PONT 84 - - ON THE SAMBRE AT QUARTES 88 - - SCENE AT PONT-SUR-SAMBRE 88 - - THE SAMBRE CANAL AT LANDRECIES 93 - - THE FOREST OF MORMAL FROM THE SAMBRE 93 - - THE INN AT MOY 97 - - THE VILLAGE STREET, MOY 97 - - VEUVE BAZIN 100 - - THE BAZINS' INN AT LA FÈRE 100 - - THE TOWN HALL NOYON 104 - - HÔTEL DU NORD, NOYON 104 - - NOYON CATHEDRAL FROM THE EAST 109 - - NOYON CATHEDRAL: WEST FRONT 112 - - COMPIÈGNE TOWN HALL 116 - - THE OISE AT PONTOISE 120 - - GENERAL VIEW OF LE PUY 121 - - LE PUY: CATHEDRAL AND ROCHER DE CORNEILLE - FROM PLACE DU BREUIL 125 - - LACEMAKERS AT LE PUY 128 - - MARKET DAY AT LE PUY, SHOWING TYPES OF - THE AUVERNGATS 129 - - LE PUY 132 - - THE CHURCH OF ST. MICHAEL, LE PUY 136 - - HOUSE OF DU CHAYLA, AT PONT DE MONTVERT 137 - - TWO VIEWS IN THE VILLAGE OF LA CAVALERIE 141 - - LA CAVALERIE, WITHIN THE CAMISARD WALL 144 - - ST. VERNAN, IN THE VALLEY OF THE DOURBIE 145 - - THE WAY OVER THE LARZAC 148 - - MILLAU, WITH VIEW OF THE CAUSSE NOIR 152 - - ON THE CAUSSE DU LARZAC 152 - - ON THE TARN 157 - - A ROCKY DEFILE ON THE TARN 160 - - IN THE GORGE OF THE TARN 161 - - THE CHÂTEAU DE LA CAZE ON THE TARN 164 - - PEYRELAU, IN THE VALLEY OF THE JONTE 169 - - BEAUCAIRE: SHOWING CASTLE AND BRIDGE ACROSS - THE RHONE TO TARASCON 173 - - TARASCON: THE PUBLIC MARKET 176 - - THE TARASQUE 177 - - THE CASTLE OF TARASCON 177 - - TARASCON: THE MAIRIE 180 - - A WOMAN OF TARASCON 184 - - TARASCON: "THE BIT OF A SQUARE" 189 - - TARASCON: THE PROCESSION OF THE TARASQUE 193 - - PROCESSION OF LA FÊTE DIEU 196 - - A WOMAN OF SAINTE ENIMIE 205 - - THE FAMOUS DRUIDICAL REMAINS AT CARNAC 208 - - THE MERCHANTS' TABLE 213 - - WOMEN OF THE CEVENNES 220 - - GENERAL VIEW OF MONT ST. MICHEL 244 - - MONT ST. MICHEL 253 - - - - -Note - - -The travel-sketches that go to the making of this little book have -appeared, in part only, in certain literary magazines, here and in -America; but the greater part of the work is now printed for the first -time. - -Perhaps the author should anticipate a criticism that might arise from -the sequence of the first two papers. Had he gone to work on a set -plan, he would naturally have undertaken his pilgrimage along the -route of _An Inland Voyage_ before visiting the scenes of _Travels -with a Donkey_, as the one book preceded the other in order of -publication, _An Inland Voyage_, which appeared originally in 1878, -being properly Stevenson's first book. _Travels with a Donkey_ was -published in 1879. But he has preferred to give precedence to "Through -the Cevennes," as it was the first of his Stevenson travel-sketches to -be written. Moreover, these little journeys were as much, indeed more -affairs of personal pleasure than of copy-hunting, and when the author -went forth on them he had no intention of making a book about his -experiences--at least, not one deriving its chief interest from -association with the memory of R. L. S. He has been counselled, -however, to bring together these chapters and their accompanying -photographs in this form, on the plea that the interest in Stevenson's -French travels is still so considerable that any straightforward -account of later journeys over the same ground cannot fail to have -some attraction for the admirers of that great master of English -prose. - -The book is but a very little sheaf from the occasional writings of -its author on his wayfarings in old France, where in the last ten -years he has travelled many thousands of miles by road and rail -between Maubeuge and Marseilles, from Belfort to Bordeaux, and always -with undiminished interest among a people who are eminently lovable -and amid scenes of infinite variety and charm. - - - - - [Illustration: "In a little place called Le Monastier, in a pleasant - Highland valley about fifteen miles from Le Puy, I spent a month of - fine days."--R. L. S.] - - [Illustration: _The Public Well_ - - LE MONASTIER] - - - - -Through the Cevennes - - -I. - -Someone has accounted for the charm of story-telling by the suggestion -that the natural man imagines himself the hero of the tale he is -reading, and squares this action or that with what he would suspect -himself of doing in similar circumstances. The romancer who can best -beguile his reader into this conceit of mind is likely to be the most -popular. It seems to me that with books of travel this mental -make-believe must also take place if the reader is to derive the full -measure of entertainment from the narrative. With myself, at all -events, it is so, and Hazlitt may be authority of sufficient weight to -justify the thought that my own experience is not likely to be -singular. To me the chief charm in reading a book of travel is this -fanciful assumption of the rôle of the traveller; and so far does it -condition my reading, that my readiest appetite is for a story of -wayfaring in some quarter of the world where I may hope, not -unreasonably, to look upon the scenes that have first engaged my -mind's eye. Thus the adventures of a Mr. Savage Landor in Thibet, or a -Sir Henry Stanley in innermost Africa, have less attraction for me -than the narrative of a journey such as Elihu Burritt undertook in his -famous walk from London to John o' Groats, or R. L. Stevenson's -_Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes_. I will grant you that the -delicious literary style of Stevenson's book is its potent charm, but -I am persuaded that others than myself have had their pleasure in the -reading of it sensibly increased by the thought that some day they -might witness Nature's originals of the landscapes which the master -painter has depicted so deftly. It had long been a dream of mine to -track his path through that romantic region of old France; not in the -impudently emulative spirit of the throaty tenor who, hearing Mr. -Edward Lloyd sing a new song, hastens to the music-seller's, resolved -to practise it for his next "musical evening;" not, forsooth, to do -again badly what had once been done well; but to travel the ground in -the true pilgrim spirit of love for him who - - "Here passed one day, nor came again-- - A prince among the tribes of men." - -Well did I know that many of the places with which I was familiar -romantically through Stevenson's witchery of words were drab and dull -enough in reality: enough for me that here in his pilgrim way that -"blithe and rare spirit" had rested for a little while. - - -II. - -The mountainous district of France to which, somewhat loosely, -Stevenson applies the name Cevennes, lies along the western confines -of Provence, and overlaps on several departments, chief of which are -Ardèche, Lozère, Gard, and Herault. In many parts the villages and the -people have far less in common with France and the French than -Normandy and the Normans have with provincial England. Here in these -mountain fastnesses and sheltered valleys the course of life has -flowed along almost changeless for centuries, and here, too, we shall -find much that is best in the romantic history and natural grandeur of -France. Remote from Paris, and happily without the area of the "cheap -trip" organisers, it is likely to remain for ever "off the beaten -track." - -In order to visit the Cevennes proper, the beautiful town of Mende -would be the best starting-place. But since my purpose was to strike -the trail of R. L. S., after some wanderings awheel northward of -Clermont Ferrand, I approached the district from Le Puy, a town which -so excellent a judge as Mr. Joseph Pennell has voted the most -picturesque in Europe. Besides, Stevenson himself had often wandered -through its quaint, unusual streets, while preparing for his memorable -journey with immortal Modestine. "I decided on a sleeping sack," he -says; "and after repeated visits to Le Puy, and a deal of high living -for myself and my advisers, a sleeping sack was designed, constructed, -and triumphantly brought home." At that time the wanderer's "home" was -in the mountain town of Le Monastier, some fifteen miles south-east of -Le Puy, and there in the autumn of 1877 he spent "about a month of -fine days," variously occupied in completing his _New Arabian Nights_ -and _Picturesque Notes on Edinburgh_, and conducting, with no little -personal and general entertainment, the preliminaries of his projected -journey through the Cevennes. - - [Illustration: _Where R. L. S. bought Modestine_ - - "Our first interview (with Father Adam) was in the Monastier market - place."--R. L. S. - - "The bell of Monastier was just striking nine, as I descended the hill - through the common."--R. L. S. - - LE MONASTIER] - - -III. - -Together with a friend I had spent some rainy but memorable days at Le -Puy in the summer of 1903, waiting for fair weather to advance on this -little highland town, which lies secure away from railways and can -only be reached by road. A bright morning in June saw us gliding on -our wheels along the excellent _route nationale_ that carries us -thither on a long, easy gradient. The town seen at a distance is a -mere huddle of grey houses stuck on the side of a bleak, treeless -upland, and at close quarters it presents few allurements to the -traveller. But it is typical of the mountain villages of France, and -rich in the rugged, unspoilt character of its inhabitants. Stevenson -tells us that it is "notable for the making of lace, for drunkenness, -for freedom of language, and for unparalleled political dissension." -As regards the last of these features, the claim to distinction may -readily be admitted, but for the rest they apply equally to scores of -similar villages of the Cevennes. Certainly it is not notable for the -variety or comfort of its hostelries, but I shall not regret our brief -sojourn at the Hôtel de Chabrier. - -Mine host was a worthy who will always have a corner in my memory. -Like his establishment, his person was much the worse for wear. Lame -of a leg, his feet shod with the tattered fragments of slippers such -as the Scots describe with their untranslatable "bauchle," a pair of -unclean heels peeping out through his stockings, he was the living -advertisement of his frowsy inn, the ground floor of which, still -bearing the legend _Café_, had been turned into a stable for oxen and -lay open to the highway, a doubtful shelter for our bicycles. But -withal, turning a shut eye to the kitchen as we passed, the cooking -was excellent, and M. Chabrier assured us that he was renowned for -game patties, which he sent to "all parts of Europe." The frank -satisfaction with himself and his hotel he betrayed at every turn -would have rejoiced the heart of so shrewd a student of character as -R. L. S., and the chances are considerable that in that month of fine -days, six-and-twenty years before, Stevenson may have gossiped with my -friend of the greasy cap, for M. Chabrier was then, as now, making his -guests welcome and baking his inimitable patties. - -Did he know Stevenson? "_Oui, oui, oui, M'sieu!_" Stevenson was a -writer of books who had spent some time there years ago. "_Oui, oui, -parfaitement, M'sieu Stevenzong._" What a memory the man had, and how -blithely he recalled the distant past! - -"Then, of course, you must have known the noted village character -Father Adam, who sold his donkey to this Scottish traveller?" - -"_Père Adam--oui, oui, oui--ah, non, non, je ne le connais pas_," thus -shuffling when I asked for some further details. - -Mine host, who read the duty of an innkeeper to be the humouring of -his patrons, could clearly supply me with the most surprising details -of him whose footsteps I was tracing; but wishful not to lead him into -temptation, I tested his evidence early in our talk by asking how many -years had passed since he of whom we spoke had rested at Le Monastier, -and whether he had patronised the Hôtel de Chabrier. He sagely -scratched his head and racked his memory for a moment, with the result -that this Scotsman--oh, he was sure he was a Scotsman--had stayed in -that very hotel, and occupied bedroom number three, just four years -back! - -Obviously he was mistaken--not to put too fine a point upon it--and -his cheerful avowal, in discussing another subject, that he was "a -partisan of no religion," did not increase my faith in him. There were -few Protestants in Le Monastier, he told me; but as I happened to know -from my good friend the pasteur at Le Puy that the postmaster here, at -least, stood by the reformed faith, and by that token might be -supposed a man of some reading, I hoped there to find some knowledge -of Stevenson, whose works and travels were familiar to the pasteur. -Alas, "_J' n' sais pas_" was the burden of the postmaster's song. - -To wander about the evil-smelling by-ways of Le Monastier, and observe -the ancient crones busy at almost every door with their lace-making -pillows, the bent and grizzled wood-choppers at work in open spaces, -is to understand that, despite the lapse of more than a quarter of a -century, there must be still alive hundreds of the village folk among -whom Stevenson moved. But to find any who could recall him were the -most hopeless of tasks; to identify the _auberge_, in the -billiard-room of which "at the witching hour of dawn" he concluded the -purchase of the donkey and administered brandy to its disconsolate -seller, were equally impossible, and it was only left to the pilgrims -to visit the market-place where Father Adam and his donkey were first -encountered. So with the stink of the church, whose interior seemed to -enclose the common sewer of the town, still lingering in our nostrils, -we resumed our journey southward across the little river Gazeille, and -headed uphill in the direction of St. Martin de Frugères, noting as we -mounted on the other side of the valley the straggling lane down which -Modestine, loaded with that wonderful sleeping sack and the -paraphernalia of the most original of travellers, "tripped along upon -her four small hoofs with a sober daintiness of gait" to the ford -across the river, giving as yet no hint of the troubles she had in -store for "the green donkey driver." - - [Illustration: CHÂTEAU NEUF, NEAR LE MONASTIER - - A drawing of this castle by Stevenson has been published.] - - [Illustration: GOUDET - - "I came down the hill to where Goudet stands in a green end of a - valley."--R. L. S.] - - -IV. - -Along our road were several picturesque patches formed of rock and -pine, and notably the romantic ruins of Château Neuf, with the little -village clustered at their roots, which furnished subjects for -Stevenson's block and pencil. Among his efforts as a limner there has -also been published a sketch of his that gives with striking effect -the far-reaching panorama of the volcanic mountain masses ranging -westward from Le Monastier, a scene of wild and austere aspect. A -little beyond Château Neuf we were wheeling on the same road where he -urged with sinking heart the unwilling ass, and while still within -sight of his starting-place, showing now like a scar on the far -hillside, we passed by the filthy village of St. Victor, the -neighbourhood where the greenness of the donkey driver was diminished -by the advice of a peasant, who advocated thrashing and the use of the -magic word "Proot." - -The road grew wilder as we advanced towards St. Martin de Frugères, to -which village the sentimental traveller came upon a Sabbath, and wrote -of the "home feeling" the scene at the church brought over him--a -sentiment difficult to appreciate as we wandered the filth-sodden -streets and inspected the ugly little church, whitewashed within and -stuffed with cheap symbols of a religion that is anathema to -descendants of the Covenanters. The silvery Loire far below in the -valley to our right, we sat at our ease astride our wiry steeds and -sped cheerfully down the winding road to Goudet, feeling that if our -mode of progress was less romantic than Stevenson's, it had -compensations, for there was nothing that tempted us to tarry on our -way. - -"Goudet stands in a green end of a valley, with Château Beaufort -opposite upon a rocky steep, and the stream, as clear as crystal, -lying in a deep pool between them." The scene was indeed one of -singular beauty, the fertile fields and shaggy woods being in pleasant -contrast to the barren country through which we had been moving. While -still a mile away from the place, we foregathered with two peasants -trudging uphill to St. Martin. I was glad to talk with them, as I -desired to know which of the inns was the oldest. There were three, I -was told, and the Café Rivet boasted the greatest age, the others -being of recent birth, and none were good, my informant added, -supposing that we intended to lodge for the night. - -To the inn of M. Rivet we repaired, this being the only _auberge_ that -Goudet possessed at the time of Stevenson's visit. We found it one of -the usual small plastered buildings, destitute of any quaintness, but -cleaner than most, and sporting a large wooden tobacco pipe, crudely -fashioned, by way of a sign. The old people who kept it were good -Cevennol types, the woman wearing the curious headgear of the peasant -folk, that resembles the tiny burlesque hats worn by musical clowns, -and the man in every trait of dress and feature capable of passing for -a country Scot. The couple were engagingly ignorant, and had never -heard of Scotland, so it was no surprise to learn that they knew -nothing of the famous son of that country who had once "hurried over -his midday meal" in the dining-room where we were endeavouring to -instruct Madame Rivet in the occult art of brewing tea. The Rivets had -been four years in possession of the inn at the time of Stevenson's -visit, and I should judge that the place had changed in no essential -feature, though I missed the portrait of the host's nephew, Regis -Senac, "Professor of Fencing and Champion of the Two Americas," that -had entertained R. L. S. In return for our hints on tea-making, Madame -Rivet charged us somewhat in excess of the usual tariff, and showed -herself a veritable _grippe-sous_ before giving change, by carefully -reckoning the pieces of fly-blown sugar we had used, a little -circumstance the cynic may claim as indicating a knowledge of the -spirit if not the letter of Scotland. - - -V. - -It was late in the afternoon when we continued our journey from -Goudet, intent on reaching that evening the lake of Bouchet, which -Stevenson had selected as the camping-place for the first night of his -travels. The highway to Ussel is one of the most beautiful on the -whole route, lying through a wide and deep glen, similar to many that -exist in the Scottish Highlands, but again unlike all the latter in -its numerous terraces, that bear eloquent witness to the industry of -the country-folk. Every glen in this region of France is remarkable -for this handiwork of the toilers, and the time was, before the advent -of the sporting nawbobs, when in some parts of the Scottish Highlands -similar rude stonework was common in the glens. - - [Illustration: CHÂTEAU BEAUFORT AT GOUDET] - - [Illustration: SPIRE OF OUR LADY OF PRADELLES] - -To those who have not seen this work of the poor hill-folk it is not -easy to convey a proper idea of its effect on the landscape. In these -bleak mountain regions the sheltered valleys and ravines are best -suited for growing the produce of the field, but as the soil is scant -and the ground too often takes the shape of a very attenuated V, it -is impossible to cultivate the slopes of the valley in their natural -condition; so, with infinite labour and the patience of their stolid -oxen, the Cevennols begin by building near the banks of the stream a -loose stone wall, and filling in the space between that and the upward -slope with a level bedding of earth. Thus step by step the hillside is -brought into cultivation, and the terraces will be found wherever it -is possible to rear a wall and carry up soil; indeed, they are to be -seen in many places where it would have been thought impossible to -prepare them, and out of reason to grow crops upon them. Often they -are not so large as an ordinary bedroom in area, and such a space one -may see under wheat. A hillside so terraced looks like a flight of -giant steps, and it is a unique spectacle to children of the plains to -descry, perhaps on the twentieth story, so to say, a team of oxen -ploughing one of these eerie fields. - -Along this road, where on our right the terraces climbed upward to the -naked basalt, and on the other side of the valley, now flooded with a -pale yellow sunset that picked out vividly children at play tending a -scanty herd of cattle on the hillside, our donkey driver of old had -some of his bitterest experiences with that thrawn jade Modestine. We, -fortunate in our more docile mounts, made excellent progress to -Ussel, after walking a good two miles on foot. The road beyond that -town was lively with bullock wagons, heavily freighted with timber, -and carts, mostly drawn by oxen, filled with women returning from the -market at Costaros, a little town on the highway between Le Puy and -Pradelles; bullocks and people--the former to our embarrassment--being -greatly interested in the wheel-travellers of these seldom cycled -roads. - -When we arrived at Costaros, a town that is drab and dismal beyond -words, the evening was wearing out under a leaden sky, promising the -stragglers from the market good use for their bulky umbrellas, and we -had still eight kilometres of rough country roads between us and the -lake. Stevenson, in his heart-breaking struggles with the wayward ass, -must have crossed the highway in the dark some little distance south -of Costaros to have arrived at the village of Bouchet St. Nicolas, two -miles beyond the lake; and as we urged forward in the rain, which now -fell pitilessly and turned the darkling mountains into phantom masses -smoking with mist, we could appreciate to the full the satisfaction -with which he abandoned his quest of the lake and spent his first -night snug at the inn of Bouchet. As we wheeled through the mud into -the large village of Cayres no straggler appeared in the streets, that -steamed like the back of a perspiring horse; but a carpenter at work -in a windy shed assured us that the chalet on the shore of the lake -had opened for the season, and in our dripping state we pressed -thither uphill, feeling that two miles more in the rain could not -worsen our condition. It was a weird and moving experience--the -ghostly woods on the hillside, the tuneless tinkle of bells on unseen -sheep, the hissing noise of our wheels on the moist earth--and our -delight was great when we heard the lapse of water on our left. For -nearly a mile the latter part of the road lay through a pine forest, -where the ground had scarcely suffered from the rain, but the way was -dark as in a tunnel, and glimpses of the lake between the trees showed -the water almost vivid as steel by contrast. - - -VI. - -"I had been told," says R. L. S., "that the neighbourhood of the lake -was uninhabited except by trout." He travelled in the days before the -_Syndicat d'Initiative du Velay_, which I shall ever bless for its -chalet by the Lac du Bouchet, whose lighted windows two weary pilgrims -descried that night with joy unspeakable. Our arrival was the cause of -no small commotion to the good folk who kept this two-storied wooden -hostel. We were their first visitors of the season, and it was clear -they hailed us with delight, despite the lateness of our arrival. -Candles were soon alight in the dining-room upstairs, a fire of pine -logs crackling in the open hearth, the housemaid briskly laying the -table, the mistress bustling in the kitchen, doors banging cheerily in -the dark night as the master went and came between outhouses, fetching -food and firing for which our coming had suddenly raised the need. Our -bedrooms opened off the dining-room, and were well if plainly -furnished, the floors being sanded, and we had soon made shift to -change our sodden garments as well as the limited resources of -wheelmen's baggage would allow. Above all was the ceaseless noise of -the lake, that seemed to lend a keener edge to the chilly air. - - [Illustration: THE INN AT GOUDET - - _Where Stevenson was entertained by the old man and woman who still - conduct it_] - -We could scarcely believe it was the middle of June in the sunny south -of France as we sat there shivering before the spluttering logs in a -room "suitable for bandits or noblemen in disguise." But a deep sense -of comfort was supplied by the savoury smells that issued from the -lower regions of the house. Our blessings on the head of the landlady -and the whole French nation of cooks were sincere, as we regaled -ourselves with an excellent meal of perch, omelet, mutton chops, -raisins, almonds, cheese, lemonade and coffee. Imagine yourself -arriving after nine o'clock at night at a lonely inn anywhere in -the British Isles and faring thus! Moreover, the tenants of the -chalet--the two women especially--were the most welcome of gossips, -and the elder had a gift of dry humour that must have served her well -in so wet a season. For three weeks it had rained steadily, she said, -and she feared it was nothing short of the end of the world. When we -told her that we had come from Le Monastier by way of St. Martin and -Goudet, she was highly amused, and the younger, a rosy-faced wench, -laughed heartily at the thought of anybody visiting such places. The -lake of Bouchet--ah, that was another matter! Lakes were few in -France, and this one well worth seeing. There were many lakes in -Scotland! This was news to them, and they wondered why we had come so -far to see this of Bouchet,--as we did ourselves when next morning we -surveyed a tiny sheet of water almost circular, no more than two miles -in circumference and quite featureless. It is simply the crater of an -ancient volcano, and receives its water from some underground springs, -there being no obvious source of supply. The lake, at an altitude of -4,000 feet, is higher than the surrounding country. - - -VII. - -When we awoke in the morning and made ready for our departure the room -was filled with the smoke of burning faggots, as though a censer had -been swung in it by some early-rising acolyte; and the fire was again -a welcome evidence of the landlady's thoughtfulness, for the outlook -was grey and the early morning air bit shrewdly as the tooth of -winter. Had the day promised better, we should have struck south from -the lake to Bouchet St. Nicolas, at whose inn Stevenson uncorked a -bottle of Beaujolais, inviting his host to join him in drinking it; -and the innkeeper would take little, saying, "I am an amateur of such -wine, do you see?--and I am capable of leaving you not enough." But -the way thither is no better than a bullock-track, and several miles -of similar road lie between Bouchet and the highway; so with a -lowering sky ominous of more rain, and the knowledge that for three -weeks the country had been soaking, we determined not to risk the -bullock-track, and retraced our path to Costaros, passing on the way -numerous ox wagons laden with timber. - -The whole countryside was sweet with the morning incense of the faggot -fires burning on many a cottage hearth. We overtook several young -people driving cattle out to the pasture lands, and noting that -without exception they carried umbrellas, our hopes of a good day were -not high. But by the time we had reached the Gendarmerie, that stands -at the crest of the hill on the high road out of Costaros, and were -chatting with one of the officers whom we found idling at the door, -the wind was rising and heaped masses of sombre clouds were being -driven before it across the sky, though in their passage they -disclosed no cheering hints of the blue behind. The gendarme admitted -that the rising wind might be a good sign, but he was not very -hopeful, and seemed to be more interested in meeting two travellers -from a country he had never heard of than in discussing the weather. -There are parts of France, especially Normandy and Brittany, where, to -confess oneself a Scotsman is to be assured of a heartier welcome than -would be accorded to one who came from England; but Stevenson's boast -that "the happiest lot on earth is to be born a Scotsman" counts for -little in these highlands of the south, where few of the village-folk -have ever heard of Scotland. - -The road south of Costaros even on a bright summer day must appear -bleak and cheerless, and that morning our chief desire was to move -along it as quickly as we could. Yet, as we advanced, the scene was -not without elements of beauty, and the mists that veiled the distant -mountains gradually lifting, produced a transformation entirely -pleasing, while ere long there were great and welcome rifts in the -grey above, and patches of blue sky heartened us on our way. By the -time we had reached the hamlet of La Sauvetat the sun was peeping out -fitfully, and on our right it suddenly flooded with amber light a -meadow, yellow with marigolds, where cows were pasturing, attended by -a small girl who was playing at skipping-rope. - - -VIII. - -We had again joined the track of R. L. S., where, now armed with a -goad, he drove his donkey. "The perverse little devil, since she would -not be taken with kindness, must even go with pricking." We had but to -sit in our saddles, and wheel rapidly down the long and exhilarating -descent to Pradelles, a very tumbledown village with a great shabby -square lying at an angle of almost forty-five degrees. The town -occupies a little corrie on the hillside, and the ground slopes -quickly on the west to the river Allier, beyond which the country -rises again in mighty undulations as far as the eye can reach. For all -its slanternness--perhaps, in some degree, because of that--Pradelles -is a place of interest, perched here at an altitude of 3,800 feet -above sea-level. - - [Illustration: OLD BRIDGE AT LANGOGNE - - "Just at the bridge at Langogne a lassie of some seven or eight - addressed me in the sacramental phrase, '_D'où 'st-ce-que vous - venez?_'"--R. L. S.] - - [Illustration: THE LOIRE NEAR GOUDET - - "An amiable stripling of a river, which it seems absurd to call the - Loire."--R. L. S.] - -More than any other place we saw in our journey, this old mountain -town wears an unmistakable "foreign" appearance, and one walks its -streets with the feeling that one is moving cautiously along the -sloping roof of a house. Among its tumbledown buildings it still -possesses fragments of considerable historic value, such as its -ancient hospice, and a gateway from the top of which a village heroine -killed some Huguenot heroes by throwing a stone at them while they -were leading an assault against its walls. In the church of Nôtre Dame -this episode in the history of the town is commemorated by a mural -painting in vivid colours, the stone which the devout Catholic maiden -is hurling at the devoted heads of the besiegers being large enough to -warrant the assistance of a steam crane. The interior of the church is -very quaint and unusual, and I am sorry that Stevenson did not yield -to the urging of the landlady of the inn to visit Our Lady of -Pradelles, "who performed many miracles, although she was of wood," -for his impressions of the church could not have failed to be -peculiarly piquant. The miraculous image of the virgin is a wooden -doll, dressed in lace and set on the high altar. Pilgrims come in -large numbers to its shrine every fifteenth of August; and one of the -spirited paintings on the wall depicts the rescue of the idol from a -burning of the church which, I should guess, took place about the time -of the Revolution. Evidently the rescuers of Our Lady were not -prepared to submit her to the crucial test a sister image at Le Puy -survived--"burning for thirty-six hours without being consumed." Many -and unfamiliar saints look down at us from the walls, and at the west -end there is a loft such as might be seen in some of the very old -Scottish churches, occupied at the time of our visit by a group of -women, members no doubt of some pious confraternity. - -R. L. S. has some picturesque notes on "The Beast of Gévaudan," whose -trail he first struck at Pradelles; for we were now in the wild and -uncultivated country of Gévaudan, "but recently disforested from -terror of the wolves," whose grizzly exploits in the way of eating -women and children seem to have engaged the imagination of our -traveller. If the wolves have gone, they have left in their stead a -flourishing progeny of wolf-like curs, who infest the highways and -byways in extraordinary numbers, to the embarrassment of the wheelman. - - -IX. - -From Pradelles to Langogne is a long and deep descent, and while -walking our machines down an unrideable path, a young woman on a -terrace near the road came forward to greet us, tripping unexpectedly -over the tether of a goat, and landing softly and naturally on the -ground, where after her moment's surprise she smilingly asked, "_Où -allez vous promener?_" more usually our bucolic greeting than "_D'où -'st-ce-que vous venez?_" the latter "sacramental phrase," on which -Stevenson remarks, being possibly suggested in his case by the odd -appearance of the traveller and his beast of burden. - -The bridge across the Allier at Langogne, where Stevenson met the -"lassie of some seven or eight" who demanded whence he came, is now a -crazy ruin, and a serviceable modern structure spans the river some -little distance to the west of it. Near this place he camped for the -night. He furnishes no information about his stay at Langogne, where, -I should judge, he slept at one of the inns. The town must have -altered greatly since he rested there, as it is now on the railway -line to Villefort, and a considerable trade in coal seems to be -carried on. It is also a popular summer resort, though one is at a -loss to account for its attractions to holiday makers. Its church -dates from the tenth century, and contains in a little chapel on the -right, below the level of the nave, the image of Nôtre Dame de -Tout-Pouvoir, which our landlady at the Cheval Blanc assured us was -_très vénérée_, and the housemaid who conducted us thither took -advantage of the occasion to tell her beads before the statue, keeping -a roving eye on us as we wandered about the church. - - -X. - -Stevenson's track now lay somewhat to the west of the course of the -Allier, as he made for the little village of Cheylard l'Evêque, on the -borders of the Forest of Mercoire, and in this stage of his journey he -was more than usually faithful to his ideal of travel: "For my part, I -travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The -great affair is to move; to feel the needs and hitches of our life -more nearly; to come down off this feather-bed of civilisation, and -find the globe granite underfoot and strewn with cutting flints." -There was no need for his quitting the highway, since his further -objective lay due south through the pleasant valley of the Allier. But -his diversion among the by-ways was rich in adventure, and -furnished him with material for perhaps his best chapter, "A Camp in -the Dark." He had the good fortune to lose his way after nightfall, -and to be forced to camp in a wood of pines in happy ignorance of his -whereabouts. When next morning he did reach Cheylard he was fain to -confess that "it seemed little worthy of all this searching." With a -less keen appetite for losing ourselves in a maze of muddy -bullock-tracks, we pressed forward through the fresh green valley to -Luc, and here rejoined the path of our adventurer once more. We had -the road almost to ourselves, and among the few wayfarers I recall was -a travelling knife-grinder, whom we passed near Luc engaged in the -agreeable task of preparing his dinner, the first course of which, -_potage au pain_, was simmering in a sooty pot over a fire of twigs. A -nation of gourmets, verily, when the humblest among them can thus -maintain the national art in the hedges. - - [Illustration: VILLAGE AND CASTLE OF LUC - - "Why anyone should desire to visit Luc is more than my much-inventing - spirit can suppose."--R. L. S.] - - [Illustration: LA BASTIDE - - "At a place called La Bastide I was directed to leave the river." - --R. L. S.] - -"Why anyone should desire to visit either Luc or Cheylard is more than -my much inventing spirit can suppose." Thus our vagabond. But -journeying at a more genial season of the year, we found the -neighbourhood of Luc not devoid of beauty. The valley of the Allier is -here broken into wide and picturesque gorges, and in many ways the -scenery is reminiscent of Glen Coe, where Alan Breck and David Balfour -dodged the redcoats. But late in September it would bear a very -different aspect, and Stevenson tells us that "a more unsightly -prospect at this season of the year it would be hard to fancy. -Shelving hills rose round it on all sides, here dabbled with wood and -fields, there rising to peaks alternately naked and hairy with pines. -The colour throughout was black or ashen, and came to a point in the -ruins of the castle of Luc, which pricked up impudently from below my -feet, carrying on a pinnacle a tall white statue of Our Lady." There -is now a railway station at Luc, the line running near the road all -the way to La Bastide and as we continued southward that sunny June -day, it was only the shrill noise of the crickets and the unusual -quilt work of the diligently husbanded hillsides that told us we were -not looking on a Perthshire landscape. In a sweet corner of the valley -lies La Bastide, a drowsy little town despite its long connection with -the railway, which existed even at the time of Stevenson's visit. - -Here, he tells us, "I was directed to leave the river, and follow a -road that mounted on the left among the hills of Vivarais, the modern -Ardèche; for I was now come within a little way of my strange -destination, the Trappist monastery of Our Lady of the Snows." -Thither we shall follow his steps, more closely than usual, as the -road is too steep to admit of our cycling. For some distance the route -lies through a great forest of pines, but when the crest of the hill -is gained a far-reaching prospect greets the eye. "The sun came out as -I left the shelter of a pine wood," writes R. L. S., "and I beheld -suddenly a fine wild landscape to the south. High rocky hills, as blue -as sapphire, closed the view, and between these lay ridge upon ridge, -heathery, craggy, the sun glittering in veins of rock, the underwood -clambering in the hollows, as rude as God made them at the first. -There was not a sign of man's hand in all the prospect; and, indeed, -not a trace of his passage, save where generation after generation had -walked in twisted footpaths in and out among the beeches and up and -down upon the channelled slopes." Only when the snow comes down and -mantles these abundant hills would this description not apply. It is a -perfect picture of what we saw. Presently we noted with no small -satisfaction the white statue of the Virgin, which, standing by the -highway at a point where a side road strikes northward through the -pines, "directed the traveller to Our Lady of the Snows." He describes -the pine wood as "a young plantation," but in the intervening years -the trees have grown into a mighty forest, dark and mysterious, and -the statue of Our Lady was so overshadowed by branches rich with -cones, that it was impossible to get a satisfactory photograph of it. -"Here, then," he continues, "I struck leftward, and pursued my way, -driving my secular donkey before me, and creaking in my secular boots -and gaiters, towards the asylum of silence." On our equally secular -cycles we followed the same track, the roadway being dotted on each -side with bundles of faggots gathered by the silent monks, probably -for the use of the poor. - - -XI. - -"I have rarely approached anything with more unaffected terror than -the monastery of Our Lady of the Snows. This it is to have had a -Protestant education," says Stevenson, as he recalls the feeling -produced within him by the clanging of a bell at the monastery while -he was not yet in sight of it. No bells clanged as we descended the -road which Father Apollinaris was still in the act of making when -Stevenson encountered him. We emerged at length from the shelter of -the trees into a wide hollow of land, from which on every side the -hills rose up, and where on our right were the outer walls of the -monastery, plain plastered buildings, with little barred windows on -the ground floor and a row without bars on the second story. On our -left was a large saw-mill, where steam saws were giving shrill -advertisement of their use. Several monks were among the workers at -the mill, and a brown-coated figure was walking along the road that -opened on our left beyond the timber sheds to some large white -buildings which, as we afterwards learned, comprised the farm -belonging to the monastery. The first impression was not exactly to -touch one's feeling for romance. Trappists in the timber trade -suggests a heading for a "snippet" periodical, and if the monks were -silent, here at least were noises that smote unpleasantly on the ear. - - [Illustration: ROAD TO OUR LADY OF THE SNOWS - - Made by Father Apollinaris "with his own two hands in the space of a - year."] - - [Illustration: THE MONASTERY - - "Modestine was led away by a layman to the stables, and I and my pack - were received into Our Lady of the Snows."--R. L. S.] - -The buildings of Our Lady of the Snows are quite devoid of any -architectural beauty. They are set four-square in the hollow, and the -hills trend gently upward on every side richly clad with trees, for -the monks have reforested much of the surrounding land, which is the -property of the fraternity. The south side is occupied by a long, -two-storied building, which contains the main entrance--a plain, -whitewashed, barn-like structure--and buildings of a similar type -adjoin it east and west, while the north side of the quadrangle is -filled by the more pretentious masonry of the church, the -chapter-house, and other religious offices, though even here the -essential note of the architecture is austerity, the clock-tower being -devoid of decoration and purely utilitarian. - -When endeavouring to photograph the buildings while the sun shone, an -old man with a very red face, a very white beard and a very dirty -white blouse came along, leaning feebly on his stick. He was delighted -on being asked to become part of the picture, and begged me to wait a -moment while he fixed on his left arm his _plaque_, whereon I read in -brazen letters, "Gardien de la Propriété." This aged and infirm -defender of the monastic estates was as proud of his _plaque_ as if it -had been a medal won in war. There must be few attacks upon the -property of the monastery, which he informed me extended as far as we -could see in this windswept hollow of the hills, if our friend of the -snowy beard and ruddy face stood for its defence! We were cheered to -learn from him that there would be no difficulty in visiting the -monastery, and if we wished we might be able to pass the night there. -This we desired most heartily for various reasons, but chiefly because -it was now close on six in the evening, and days are short in these -latitudes. - - -XII. - -We were told to go round to the chief gateway, and there to summon the -Brother Porter by ringing the bell. This we did, with something of -that "quaking heart" to which Stevenson confesses in the same act, for -the clamour of a bell that one rings in a great silent building seems -fraught with news of an offence for which one stands to receive the -penalty. Nor do your spirits rise when a little shutter in the door is -opened, and a grizzly-whiskered face in a brown hood peers through -demanding your business. All was well, however. The Brother Porter -admitted us to the courtyard, and went to summon one of the novitiates -who, as Guest Father, would do us the honours of the monastery. He -was, as I should judge, a young man of five-and-twenty, who came to us -through a door on the right of the entrance that admitted to the -hospice. Wearing the white flannel habit of the monks, with a black -scapular hanging loose and bulky below the neck, he was of medium -stature, his shaven face pleasant and comely, and his dark eyes of -that unusual brilliance which Stevenson noted as "the only morbid -sign" he could detect in the appearance of the monks. Our host bowed -ceremoniously in shaking hands with us, and immediately escorted us -across the trim garden to the monastic buildings at the other side of -the quadrangle. - -During their period of novitiate, which lasts for three years, the -monks have still the liberty to talk with strangers or with the lay -brethren, but when their final vows are taken they are supposed to be -inarticulate, except in performing the religious offices of each day. -The Guest Father would in two years more be qualified for the silent -life; meanwhile, he exercised his power of speech with so much grace -that one felt truly sorry so excellent a talker should contemplate -with cheerfulness the voluntary and useless atrophy of his divine -gift. Very reverently he led us into the church, which is a plain but -elegant building with a vaulted roof, the walls being whitewashed, and -the woodwork, of which there is not too much, chastely carved. A -number of good pictures are hung on the walls, and there is a series -of statues of the saints on brackets, executed with some taste, and -entirely free from the usual tawdry colouring of similar objects in -French Catholic churches. The altar also is in welcome contrast to the -common doll-show of the ordinary church, and although the oft-repeated -references to the simplicity of the whole with which our excellent -friend pointed out the various features of the place approached almost -to affectation, one must bear ready witness to the apparent sincerity -of these poor monks in their efforts towards a simpler circumstance of -worship than the Roman Catholic Church in general practises. - - [Illustration: _Trappist Monks gathering roots for distilling_] - - [Illustration: _A Peep into the Library_ - - OUR LADY OF THE SNOWS] - -The chapter-house is in keeping with the church in point of restraint -in decoration, its beautifully panelled walls giving the apartment a -genial touch of warmth by contrast with the cold white of its groined -roof. - -The library, which occupies a spacious room on the upper story of the -north wing, is stocked with some twenty thousand volumes, chiefly in -Latin and French, but including an excellent collection of works in -Greek, religion and history being naturally the chief subjects -represented. When we remember that many of the monks are men of no -intellectual gifts and of small learning, being drawn largely from the -peasant class and the military, we may doubt if the treasures of the -library are in great request. The librarian, at least, must be a man -of bookish tastes, since the collection is arranged in perfect order. -Our guide assured us that the monastery possesses a copy of _Travels -with a Donkey_, but he did not discover it for us. - -The refectory is a large and bare chamber occupying the lower story of -the east wing. Long narrow tables of plain wood stand around the -room, and on these are laid the simple utensils of the meal. The monks -sit on a rude bench, and for the greater part of the year they take -but one meal in twenty-four hours; but during the summer months, when -one might suppose their needs to be less, they, by special indulgence, -go so far towards temporising with the flesh as to eat twice in one -day. - -R. L. S. was moved to a little disquisition on the subject of -over-eating when he contemplated the dietetic restraint of the -Trappist brethren. "Their meals are scanty, but even of these they eat -sparingly," he writes; "and though each is allowed a small carafe of -wine, many refrain from this indulgence. Without doubt, the most of -mankind grossly overeat themselves; our meals serve not only for -support, but as a hearty and natural diversion from the labour of -life. Yet, though excess may be hurtful, I should have thought this -Trappist regimen defective. And I am astonished, as I look back, at -the freshness of face and the cheerfulness of manner of all whom I -beheld. A happier nor a healthier company I should scarce suppose that -I have ever seen. As a matter of fact, on this bleak upland, and with -the incessant occupation of the monks, life is of an uncertain tenure, -and death no infrequent visitor, at Our Lady of the Snows. This, at -least, was what was told me. But if they die easily, they must live -healthily in the meantime, for they seemed all firm of flesh and high -in colour, and the only morbid sign that I could observe--an unusual -brilliancy of the eye--was one that rather served to increase the -general impression of vivacity and strength." - -On the topmost floor of the east wing we were shown the dormitory, a -long and, as I recall it, a somewhat low-roofed room, divided into -numerous little cubicles, each enclosed on three sides, and screened -from the passage by a curtain of red cloth. The couch consisted of a -single mattress laid on boards, with the scantiest supply of -bedclothes. Each of these little compartments bore in painted letters -the monastic name of its occupant, and here every night, after the -toils and vigils of the day, the brethren lay themselves down at eight -o'clock in their ordinary habit of dress, being in this respect less -fanatical than other fraternities of the same order, who sleep in -their coffins, and even in unduly ready graves. "By two in the -morning," says R. L. S., "the clapper goes upon the bell, and so on, -hour by hour, and sometimes quarter by quarter, till eight, the hour -of rest; so infinitesimally is the day divided among different -occupations. The man who keeps rabbits, for example, hurries from his -hutches to the chapel, the chapter-room, or the refectory all day -long: every hour he has an office to sing, a duty to perform; from -two, when he rises in the dark, till eight, when he returns to receive -the comfortable gift of sleep, he is upon his feet, and occupied with -manifold and changing business. I know many persons, worth several -thousands in the year, who are not so fortunate in the disposal of -their lives. Into how many houses would not the note of the monastery -bell, dividing the day into manageable portions, bring peace of mind -and healthful activity of body. We speak of hardships, but the true -hardship is to be a dull fool, and permitted to mismanage life in our -own dull and foolish manner." - - -XIII. - -On our way back to the hospice we learned with regret that Father -Apollinaris, "so good and so simple," had been dead five years, and -the right of the monastery to the title of Our Lady of the Snows was -clearly established by the information that in the winter months it is -buried for weeks on end, and our young friend of the shiny eyes -shivered as he spoke of the _neige énorme_, which he is doomed to see -every winter that he lives. - - [Illustration: MAIN STREET, LE BLEYMARD - - "From Bleymard I set out to scale a portion of the Lozère."--R. L. S.] - - [Illustration: RUINS OF THE HÔTEL DU LOT - - _On the Villefort-Mende road, at La Remise, near Le Bleymard_] - -In the hospice the apartments for the use of visitors and -_retraitants_ are situated. To the right of the gateway on the -ground level are the kitchens and storerooms, and a door opening at -the foot of the stair admits one into a small and barely furnished -room, where supper had been prepared for us. A small table covered -with American cloth, with chairs set about it to accommodate perhaps -eight or ten guests, were the chief items of furniture. There were a -few prints of a religious character hung upon the walls, and to the -right of the fireplace stood a little bookcase, containing, however, -no works of interest. The meal served to us was well cooked and -savoury, and as an excellent omelet formed its _pièce de résistance_, -with soup, potato salad, walnuts, figs and cheese included, it needed -none of the profuse apologies for poverty of fare with which it was -set before us. - -We were afterwards shown our bedroom on the floor above, a fairly -commodious room containing two iron bedsteads, with a more liberal -supply of bedclothes than we saw in the dormitory of the monks, a -small table and two chairs. A crucifix stood on the mantlepiece, and, -as in some hotels, a printed sheet of regulations was fixed on the -wall near the door. One may suppose it to have been a copy of that -which Stevenson noted, for it wound up with an admonition to occupy -one's spare time by examining one's conscience, confessing one's sins, -and making good resolutions. "To make good resolutions, indeed!" -comments R. L. S. "You might talk as fruitfully of making the hair -grow on your head." So far as we could judge, the south wing at the -time of our visit sheltered no other strangers than ourselves; nor did -it appear there were any weary, world-worn laymen living here in -retreat. At the time of Stevenson's sojourn among the monks there was -quite a little company in the hospice, an English boarder, a parish -priest, and an old soldier being some of the acquaintances he made in -the little room where we had supped. But there is a constant and -increasing number of visitors to the monastery, and immediately below -our bedroom there was a large and well-stocked apartment that gave -evidence of this. Here we found a varied supply of crucifixes and -rosaries to suit all purses, samples of the different liqueurs -distilled by the monks, and picture post cards in abundance. The -Brother Porter, a simple boorish fellow, in vain spread his bottles in -the sight of two who were not patrons of the stuff; but we reduced his -stock of post cards and his rosaries. He took the money like a post -office girl selling stamps. - - -XIV. - -When we took our places in the little gallery that extends across the -west side of the chapel to hear the monks chanting the last service -of the day, _Compline_ and _Salve Regina_, we found that there was at -least another visitor, in the person of a stout and blue-chinned -_curé_. The white-robed monks were seated in their chairs in the -choir, books upon their knees; while the organist in an elevated -position on a level with the gallery played, unseen by us, "those -majestic old Gregorian chants that, wherever you may hear them (in -Meredith's fine phrase) seem to build up cathedral walls about you." -Paraffin lamps shed a dim, uncertain light, and the rich full voices -of the singers resounded weirdly through the white-walled chapel, the -door opening now and again as some of the lay brothers entered and, -crossing themselves, bowed wearily towards the altar, moving to their -places below the gallery. After the elevation of the Host, and when -the service was almost ended, the organist came down, and we noticed -that in making his way out of the chapel he hung back a little in -passing the choir screen, that he might not meet on his way to the -door any of the brethren who were now slowly leaving. - -Of a similar service Stevenson writes: "There were none of those -circumstances which strike the Protestant as childish or as tawdry in -the public offices of Rome. A stern simplicity, heightened by the -romance of the surroundings, spoke directly to the heart. I recall -the whitewashed chapel, the hooded figures in the choir, the lights -alternately occluded and revealed the strong manly singing, the -silence that ensued, the sight of cowled heads bowed in prayer, and -then the clear trenchant beating of the bell, breaking in to show that -the last office was over, and the hour of sleep had come; and when I -remember, I am not surprised that I made my escape into the court with -somewhat whirling fancies, and stood like a man bewildered in the -windy starry night." The effect of it all on the sentimental traveller -was summed up in these fervent words: "And I blessed God that I was -free to wander, free to hope, and free to love." - -This, indeed, must be the impression all robust and unfettered minds -will receive from a visit to Our Lady of the Snows. It is true that in -their busy saw-mill which stands to the west of the monastery, and -where the timber from the hills is turned to commercial use by the -monks and their lay assistants, in their well-managed farm some -distance westward, in the surrounding fields, in their many -workshops--in these they have varied occupations, and of a manly -character, but the terrible uselessness of it all is ever present to -the mind of one coming from the stress and struggle of the zestful -world. Poor men! in their sullen way they may believe they have -chosen the better part; but, simple and devout as they may be, they -are the real cowards of life, the shirkers of the battle we are meant -to fight. - - [Illustration: _Malavieille, a mountain sheiling_] - - [Illustration: _Scene of "A Night among the Pines"_ - - "Buckled into my sack, and smoking alone in the pine woods, between - four and five thousand feet towards the stars."--R. L. S. - - ON THE LOZÈRE] - -We slept the sleep of tired men in our room upstairs, and heard none -of those hourly bells Stevenson records. Our young friend, whose -monastic name I foolishly omitted to ask, called us before eight in -the morning, and after providing a capital breakfast, bade us a -ceremonious good-bye, watching us from the door until the pine woods -enclosed us. - - -XV. - -We made a swift descent to La Bastide, and by way of Chasseradès, -where Stevenson slept in the common bedroom of the inn, reached Le -Bleymard late in the afternoon, passing through a country of bare -hills and poor villages clustered in gusty hollows or hanging like -swallows' nests on craggy slopes. The valley of the Lot, rich and -beautiful westward to Mende, possesses no elements of charm in the -neighbourhood of Bleymard, and we found that town so mean and -featureless, that we had no wish to pass the evening there. The inn we -wanted was, so a crippled girl told us, at La Remise, on the high -road, and we must have passed it. We remounted our cycles and -retraced our path across the river, a distance of perhaps three -furlongs, and lo! there stood the charred remains of the Hôtel du Lot, -where we had hoped to rest ourselves. We had passed the place without -noticing it, and the view of its gaunt and smoky walls, now that they -had acquired so personal an interest, chilled our hearts, for the need -to rest and refresh ourselves was pressing. It was after sundown, and -there lay between us and Pont de Montvert a mountain higher than Ben -Nevis. - -Opposite the unlucky Hôtel du Lot stood a small _auberge_, kept by one -Teissier. Two men were drinking absinth at a table by the doorway. One -was a thick-set fellow, wearing eyeglasses, and clothed not unlike a -foreman mechanic in England. The other was the familiar dark French -type, thin of features, eyes bright as those of a consumptive, his -beard ample and of a jet black, against which his ripe red lips showed -noticeably. He was dressed like a clerk or _commerçant_. They made us -welcome at their table, and we fell at once to discussing the -situation, from which it was evident we could not hope to cross the -Lozère that night. Some tourists had experienced a bad time traversing -the mountain the previous Sunday, and as we could not hope to do more -than reach the Baraque de Secours by nightfall, it would be madness to -attempt the descent into the valley of the Tarn after dark, the road -lying in many places along the lip of a precipice. Besides, this -wayside inn was very well managed, said the absinth drinkers; they had -lived there since being burned out across the way, a statement that -cheered us not a little, as every other feature of the place was -extremely uninviting. - -The landlady, who had shown no interest in us whatever, I found busy -at a large cooking-range in a tiny kitchen, which opened off the -common sitting-room, and served also for the living-room of the -servants and familiar loungers. She was a woman of austere -countenance, displaying like so many middle-aged Frenchwomen a -considerable moustache; but I noticed that her teeth were white. Yes, -she would be glad to supply dinner if we were to stay overnight. We -were, I confessed without enthusiasm; whereupon she specified glibly -the resources of her kitchen. We could have soup, trout, jugged hare, -chicken, fillet of beef, potatoes, pastries, cheese, and other things, -and by naming one dish and connecting it to the next with _et puis_, -an aldermanic banquet seemed about to be conjured up from the dirty -little room and its greasy stove. The common room of the inn had a -sanded floor, and was furnished with a plain deal table, round which -some country bumpkins were sitting on rush-bottomed chairs drinking -beer and spitting freely in the sand. A few cheap oleographs nailed -on the dingy walls were the only efforts at decoration. Two drab and -unattractive girls gossiping with the customers appeared to be the -staff of the hotel. - -I returned to the Frenchmen outside, and found that my companion, -anxious not to enter the place until the last moment, was playing at a -game resembling bowls with some village urchins, though understanding -not one word of their speech. But he came up in a little while to -learn the results of my inquiries within, and soon we were all engaged -in a very entertaining discussion. It appeared that the Frenchmen were -concerned in the zinc mines near Bleymard, him of the oily clothes -being chief engineer, the other business manager. I suppose they would -be the two best conditioned residents in the district, and here they -were lodging at an hotel which, apart from cooking, was below the -standard of comfort to be found in a crimp's den in the region of -Ratcliffe Highway. The Frenchman is a wonderfully adaptable creature: -give him a table to drink at, a chair to sit upon, and a bed anywhere -under a roof, and he can contrive to be happy. - - [Illustration: _The Baraque de Secours_] - - [Illustration: "The Lozère lies nearly east and west; its highest - point, this Pic de Finiels, on which I was then standing, rises - upwards of 5,600 feet above the sea."--R. L. S. - - ON THE LOZÈRE] - -M. l'Ingénieur, although he spoke no English, had seen something of -the world, and had even been to Klondyke. He could not understand why -anyone should have wandered to such a hole as this--for pleasure! -But he expected that next year's guide-books would describe Bleymard -as notable for the ruins of the Hôtel du Lot. A wag, obviously. If we -wanted to see places worth looking at, there was Nice and Nîmes, said -his friend M. Barbenoire. Together they extolled, with a rare gush of -adjectives, the beauty of these places, and promised to show us -picture postcards that would lure us into visiting them. Tourists did -come sometimes to climb the Lozère, from the top of which in clear -weather one might see the Alps. The engineer laughed merrily at this, -and said the story was as much legend as the exploits of the beast of -Gévaudan. He discussed in a very practical mind the question of -miners' wages, and thought that the Bleymard zinc workers were better -off with four francs a day than English miners with five or six -shillings. - -Sooner than we had expected dinner was declared ready, and we went -inside with no great avidity; but to our surprise we found the meal -laid in a little room at the other end of the drinking den, tolerably -clean though dingy and tasteless in its appointments. There we were -joined by the wife of M. Barbenoire and two immense dogs of unfamiliar -breed. The maid who served us was engagingly free from the usual -formalities of the table, and between the courses would sit coyly on -the knee of the engineer, munching a piece of bread; but for the -rest, ours was no Barmecide feast. The aldermanic banquet appeared in -all essentials save the serving, and we fared so well that we began to -hope our bedroom would even be comfortable. - -When, later in the evening, we took our courage in both hands and -penetrated to the upper story by way of a spiral iron staircase -through the kitchen roof and along a dark lobby of loose boards, we -were heartened not a little to find in our room two good beds, clean -and curtained. Sleep was thus assured, though the smell from the -stable through the wall was redolent of rats. It was "a wonderful -clear night of stars" when we looked out of our window before -retiring, and we went to bed determined upon an early start. The -bellowing of the oxen in the stable and the shouts of the _buveurs_ -below did not come long between us and the drowsy god. - - -XVI. - -Alas! at dawn next day we looked forth on a blank wall of mist backing -the ruins across the road. Not a hill was visible. We sought our beds -again, and by nine o'clock the outlook was only slightly improved, the -nearest hills, now resonant with sheep-bells, being in sight. The -engineer comforted us with the assurance that this was the common -weather in June, the best time of the year being from July to October, -but he thought the mists might clear before noon. Presently it began -to rain, and during the whole day there was not half an hour of clear -weather. At times the atmosphere would thin a little, only to show us -heavy clouds condensing on the higher hills. Thus prisoned in our -room, we contrived to be comfortable, and I believe that another day -would have left us wondering why we had dreaded staying at the inn, so -soon does the human mind adapt itself to circumstances. The -rain-sodden streets actually provided entertainment. We watched with -interest the coming and going of shepherds and their flocks, the -former armed with commodious umbrellas and their sheep shorn in a way -that left a lump of wool upon their backs making them comically like -little camels. Many bullock wagons loaded with shale passed by, and we -noticed that the slightest touch with the driver's wand served to -direct the team, whose heads were, to quote our hero, "fixed to the -yoke like those of caryatides below a ponderous cornice." Children -played out and in the stables and among the ruins, and an old man, -wearing the usual dress of the peasant, with pink socks showing above -his sabots, his hands thrust deep in his pockets, and a stick under -his arm, wandered aimlessly to and fro in the rain most of the day. -The stage-coach from Villefort to Mende rested for a time at the inn, -causing a flicker of excitement, and in the evening again the mine -officials were there to bear us company. - -The engineer proved himself a thorough-paced sceptic of the modern -French sort. His opinion of the country-folk was low--hypocrites, -fools, money-grubbers all! Holding up a five-franc piece, he averred -that for this they would sell mother, daughter, sister; and then -similarly elevating a bundle of paper-money, he exclaimed: "_Voilà, le -Grand Dieu._" - -"This is a Catholic countryside?" I said. - -"Yes," he replied, "but that makes no difference." - -"There is one Protestant in Bleymard," put in Barbenoire,--"myself!" - -"And he isn't up to much," added the cynic. - - [Illustration: "A cluster of black roofs, the village of Cocurès - sitting among vineyards."--R. L. S.] - - [Illustration: _Bridge over the Tarn at "Pont de Montvert of bloody - memory," and view of the Hôtel des Cevennes where Stevenson stayed._] - - -XVII. - -"We shall set out at five in the morning," I said to the landlady -before going upstairs, and the engineer signalled to us as we left the -room the outstretched fingers of his right hand twice; wherein he -proved something of a prophet, for it was nearer ten o'clock than -five before we determined to risk the mountain journey, the sky -being clear in parts and the rain clouds scudding before a high wind, -that promised a comparatively dry day. - -On the bridge across the Lot at Bleymard we were hailed by a man in -labouring clothes, who smiled broadly and said, "Me speak Engleesh." -As we had not met a single Frenchman between Orleans and this spot who -pretended to have any knowledge of our native tongue, we tarried to -have speech with this cheery-faced fellow, whose white teeth shone -through a reedy black moustache. But his lingual claims did not bear -inspection. Beyond saying that he had visited London and Liverpool, -and knew what "shake hands" meant, and that English tobacco was better -worth smoking than the French trash--a hint which I accepted by -presenting my pouch--he could not go in our island speech; and so we -had to continue our chat in French that was bad on both sides, his -accent resembling a Yorkshireman's English, and mine--let us say an -Englishman's French. He was certain we should have no more rain, as -the wind was in the north, and if it kept dry to twelve o'clock we -could depend on a good day. The weather prophet is the same in all -lands, and we had not left him half an hour when we were sheltering -from a sudden downpour. - -For some miles we had to plod upward on foot in a wild and rocky -gorge, with the merest trickle of water below. Yet every corner where -a few square feet of clover could be coaxed into life had been -cultivated by the dogged peasants, and patches were growing at heights -where one would have thought it difficult to climb without the ropes -of an Alpinist. Many of these mountain plots were miles away from any -dwelling, a fact that conveys some idea of the barren nature of the -country. - -The tiny hamlet of Malavieille, about half-way up the mountain side, -is the highest point permanently inhabited. It is a mere handful of -dark-grey houses, covered on slates and walls with a vivid yellow -fungus. Here the upland fields were densely spread with violets, -narcissi and hyacinths, and a few dun cows were browsing contentedly -on this fragrant fare, while a boy who attended them stood on his head -kicking his heels merrily in the sunshine. He came up as we passed, -staring at us stolidly; and when we asked if the snakes, of which we -had just encountered two about three feet long, were dangerous, he -answered, "_Pas bien_," and more than that we could not get him to -say, though he walked beside us for a time eyeing curiously our -bicycles. - - -XVIII. - -When we had come within sight of the Baraque de Secours, we had -reached a sort of table-land reaching east and west for some miles. -Eastward lay the pine woods where our vagabond spent one of his most -tranquil nights as described in his chapter, "A Night Among the -Pines." It was there that, awaking in the morning, he beheld the -daybreak along the mountain-tops of Vivarais--"a solemn glee possessed -my mind at this gradual and lovely coming in of day." And it was -there, too, that out of thankfulness for his night's rest he laid on -the turf as he went along pieces of money, "until I had left enough -for my night's lodging." Some of it may be there to this day, for -there is small human commerce at this altitude, a shepherd or two -being the only folk we saw until we arrived at the shelter which we -had seen for more than half an hour while we cycled arduously toward -it. - -The baraque is a plain two-storied building, with a rough stone wall -and porch enclosing a muddy yard. It stands at a height of over five -thousand feet, being thus fully five hundred feet higher than Ben -Nevis. To the west the Lozère swells upward, a great treeless waste, -to its highest point, the Pic de Finiels, 5,600 feet above sea-level; -while a splendid mass of volcanic origin uprears its craggy head some -little distance to the south-east. "The view, back upon the northern -Gévaudan," says Stevenson, writing of what he saw as he passed near -this point, "extended with every step; scarce a tree, scarce a house, -appeared upon the fields of wild hill that ran north, east, and west, -all blue and gold in the haze and sunlight of the morning." And then -in a little, when he began the descent towards the valley of the Tarn, -he says: "A step that seemed no way more decisive than many other -steps that had preceded it--and, 'like stout Cortez when with eagle -eyes he stared on the Pacific,' I took possession, in my own name, of -a new quarter of the world. For behold, instead of the gross turf -rampart I had been mounting for so long, a view into the hazy air of -heaven, and a land of intricate blue hills below my feet." As he makes -no mention of the baraque, I venture to suppose that it had not then -been built, for one so eager of new experience would not have missed -the opportunity of resting on his way at this high-set hostel. A dead -sheep--one of several we had seen on the mountain--lay on the road by -the gate, and propping our bicycles near it, we picked our way through -the mud and knocked at the door. - - [Illustration: _Waterfall on the Lozère, on Stevenson's route between - Finiels and Pont de Montvert_] - - [Illustration: _In the valley of the Tarn: Scene of Stevenson's camp - under the chestnuts on the hillside_] - -A gruff voice bade us enter. We stepped into a smoky room, with an -earthern floor, containing a rough wooden table and two rude -benches, and in a corner a small round table, a few chairs and a plain -wooden dresser. The mouth that had emitted a very gutteral "_Ongtray_" -belonged to a man of small stature but brigandish appearance, who was -seated at the smaller table eating industriously. We asked for -lemonade and biscuits, but the fellow stared at the words and spoke in -a patois that was Greek to me. But when I explained more sententiously -that we desired something to eat and drink, he disappeared up a wooden -stair, and we knew that a bottle of atrocious red wine, which we would -welcome as so much vinegar, would be forthcoming. Meanwhile, the man's -wife--a fair-haired little woman with cheeks like red apples, dressed -in the universal black of the French country-wife--came in, leading a -youngster by the hand. I repeated to her our wants, which she -immediately proceeded to meet by breaking four eggs into a pan, the -shells being dropped on the floor, and lo! an omelet was well on the -way by the time her husband in his sabots came clattering down the -stairs with the undesired wine, a few drops of which we used to colour -the clear cold water we took in our tumblers from a pipe that ran -ceaselessly into a basin set in the wall of the room that backed to -the rising land. - -There is one respect in which the Cevennols have progressed since -Stevenson went among them. He writes: "In these Hedge-inns the -traveller is expected to eat with his own knife; unless he ask, no -other will be supplied: with a glass, a whang of bread, and an iron -fork, the table is completely laid." Not so had we found it in any of -the inns we visited, all had risen to the dignity of knives and forks; -but here at this house in the wilds our table was laid precisely as -Stevenson describes, and the bread being hard, it was a temptation to -break it across the knee like a piece of wood. We had almost finished -our meal when, after some whisperings between the man and woman, the -fellow dived into his pockets and produced a great clasp knife, which -he opened and handed to us. - -While we sat and carried on a somewhat faltering conversation--for -both man and woman spoke the dialect of Languedoc and were superbly -ignorant--two men entered of the same brigandish type as the landlord, -and, speaking better French, proffered their services as guides if we -desired to scale the Pic de Finiels. This we had no desire to do, -especially when they were frank enough to state that the view from the -top was of very little interest. But they urged us to see the -magnificent view over the entire range of the Cevennes from the more -westerly peak, the Signal des Laubies. This, however, would have -taken us some two hours, and we had a long way to travel that day. We -were curious to know whether the baraque was tenanted in winter, and -one of the guides told us that during the winter the whole of the -uplands around us lay deep in snow, the roads being quite impassable. -This shelter was only open from the beginning of June to the end of -September, when its keepers retired downhill again to Malavieille. R. -L. S. crossed the mountain on the second last day in September, so -that the snows would soon be lying on his track. When we resumed our -journey again we were once or twice beguiled into thinking that we saw -some of the snows of yester year lying among the grey and lichened -rocks, but a nearer approach turned the drifts into flocks of sheep, -which the sombre background rendered snowy white by contrast. - - -XIX. - -We went forward into the country of the Camisards along a well-made -road which gangs of labourers were leisurely repairing. So good are -these mountain roads, and so diligently tended, that one is inclined -to think they are used chiefly for the transit of stones to keep them -in repair. That on which we travelled has been made since Modestine -and her driver footed it through this same valley. In less than a -mile from the baraque it begins to sweep swiftly downward. Stevenson -thus describes his descent: "A sort of track appeared and began to go -down a breakneck slope, turning like a corkscrew as it went. It led -into a valley through falling hills, stubbly with rocks like a reaped -field of corn, and floored farther down with green meadows. I followed -the track with precipitation; the steepness of the slope, the -continual agile turning of the line of descent, and the old unwearied -hope of finding something new in a new country, all conspired to lend -me wings. Yet a little lower and a stream began, collecting itself -together out of many fountains, and soon making a glad noise among the -hills. Sometimes it would cross the track in a bit of waterfall, with -a pool, in which Modestine refreshed her feet. The whole descent is -like a dream to me, so rapidly was it accomplished. I had scarcely -left the summit ere the valley closed round my path, and the sun beat -upon me, walking in a stagnant lowland atmosphere." - - [Illustration: "CLARISSE" - - _The Waitress at the Hôtel des Cevennes, from a photograph supplied by - the Pasteur at Pont de Montvert_ - - "The features, although fleshy, were of an original and accurate - design; her mouth had a curl; her nostril spoke of dainty pride." - --R. L. S.] - -If his descent was thus, how much more so ours on our whirling wheels? -We encountered numerous cattle-drovers, whose herds spread themselves -across the path and rendered our progress somewhat perilous, as -neither hedge nor stone stood between us and the abyss. There is -but little population in the valley, and that centred in two small -hamlets, though we observed a number of deserted cabins which -Stevenson also notes. The river, too, as it nears the larger Tarn was -all his magic pen had pictured; here it "foamed awhile in desperate -rapids, and there lay in pools of the most enchanting sea-green shot -with watery browns. As far as I have gone, I have never seen a river -of so changeful and delicate a hue: crystal was not more clear, the -meadows were not by half so green." - -Our road brought us at length to Pont de Montvert "of bloody memory," -which lies in a green and rocky hollow among the hills. To Stevenson -"the place, with its houses, its lanes, its glaring river-bed, wore an -indescribable air of the south." Why so, he was unable to say; as he -justly observes, it would be difficult to tell in what particulars it -differed from Monastier or Langogne or even Bleymard. One of the first -buildings that the traveller encounters is the little Protestant -temple perched on the rocky bank of the river, and perhaps it was -again the Protestant education of R. L. S. that led him to note a -higher degree of intelligence among the inhabitants than he had found -in the purely Catholic villages. For my part, with the best will to -mark the difference, I found little to choose between the Catholic and -Camisard townships, unless it were a more obvious effort after -cleanliness in some of the latter. - - -XX. - -Pont de Montvert is memorable as the place where the Covenanters of -France struck the first blow against their Romish persecutors; here -they "slew their Archbishop Sharpe." The Protestant pastor, a -fresh-faced man about sixty, with a short white beard, and wearing no -outward symbol of office, but dressed in an ordinary jacket suit and -cloth cap, we found in his home in a building by the river-side near -the bridge. Directly across the rock-strewn course was the Hôtel des -Cevennes, where Stevenson sat at the "roaring table d'hôte," and was -pleased to find three of the women passably good-looking, that being -more than an average for any town in the Highlands of France. Our -pastor--his wife and golden-haired daughter also--was more interested -in discussing Stevenson's travels than the religious condition of his -district, a subject on which my companion, pastor from "the Celtic -fringe," was athirst for information. - -To my various questions regarding the position of the Reformed Church -I received the barest answers; there was no glowing enthusiasm _chez -le pasteur_ for the Camisards who a stone's-throw from where we sat -stabbed with many superfluous thrusts the Archpriest Du Chayla, their -most brutal persecutor. But Stevenson and his donkey--ah, that was -another matter! He knew all about them to the year, the day, the hour -of their quaint and curious visit; he was himself only two years -established in his charge at the time. And Clarisse! We knew, of -course, what Stevenson had said of her? Would we care to see her -photograph? She was now married, and settled in another town with a -considerable family growing around her. One felt that after a quarter -of a century, and with a family thrown in, Stevenson would have -resolutely refused to look on the counterfeit presentment of Clarisse. -But, less scrupulous, we chose to see her portrait, and the pastor was -good enough to present me with a copy, as he possessed several which -he had procured three years before when ordering one for an Englishman -who had gone over the trail of R. L. S. The _carte_ shows the -table-maid of the hotel as still possessing some of the featural -charms so minutely and faithfully noted by our author. - -"What shall I say of Clarisse?" he writes. "She waited the table with -a heavy placable nonchalance, like a performing cow; her great grey -eyes were steeped in amorous langour; her features, although fleshy, -were of an original and accurate design; her mouth had a curl; her -nostrils spoke of dainty pride; her cheek fell into strange and -interesting lines. It was a face capable of strong emotion, and with -training it offered the promise of delicate sentiment.... Before I -left I assured Clarisse of my hearty admiration. She took it like -milk, without embarrassment or wonder, merely looking at me steadily -with her great eyes; and I own the result upon myself was some -confusion. If Clarisse could read English, I should not dare to add -that her figure was unworthy of her face. Hers was a case for stays; -but that may perhaps grow better as she gets up in years." - -When I look again at the photograph, I fear that even this hope for -her who was "left to country admirers and a country way of thought," -has not been fulfilled. - - [Illustration: THE TARN VALLEY AT LA VERNÈDE - - "It was but a humble place, called La Vernède, with less than a dozen - houses and a Protestant chapel on a knoll. There, at the inn, I - ordered breakfast."--R. L. S.] - -The pastor came with us to point out Du Chayla's house, which stands -on the river side westward of his own, the spire of the modern -Catholic church showing above the roof. Perhaps it was only natural -that he should look upon so familiar an object without any show of -emotion, though my fellow-traveller set it down to the cold Christless -teaching of the _Eglise libérale_, to which section of the French -Reformed Church Pont de Montvert is attached. In that three-storied -house, with its underground dungeons and stout-walled garden -trending down to the river, the Archpriest carried on "the Propagation -of the Faith" by such ungentle methods as plucking out the hairs of -the beard, enclosing the hands of his Protestant prisoners upon live -coal, "to convince them," as R. L. S. quaintly observes, "that they -were deceived in their opinions." On the 24th July, 1702, led by their -"prophet" Séguier, a band of some fifty Camisards attacked the house -of the Archpriest, to which they at length set fire, and thus forced -Du Chayla and his military guard to attempt escape. The Archpriest, in -lowering himself from an upper window by means of knotted sheets, fell -and broke his leg, and there in the garden, where a woman was to-day -hanging out shabby clothes to dry, the Covenanters had their vengeance -of stabs. "'This,' they said, 'is for my father broken on the wheel. -This for my brother in the galleys. That for my mother or my sister -imprisoned in your cursed convents.' Each gave his blow and his -reason; and then all kneeled and sang psalms around the body till the -dawn." Save for a new roof, the building remains much as it was two -hundred years ago. - - -XXI. - -The road, for close on two miles out of Pont de Montvert, goes uphill -past the Catholic church--the town being now about equally divided in -the matter of religion--and then it is a long and gentle descent to -Florac. In no respect has the road changed since Stevenson wrote of -it, nor is there any likelihood that it will be altered ere the crack -of doom. "A smooth sandy ledge, it runs about half-way between the -summit of the cliffs and the river in the bottom of the valley; and I -went in and out, as I followed it, from bays of shadow into -promontories of afternoon sun. This was a pass like that of -Killiecrankie; a deep turning gully in the hills, with the Tarn making -a wonderful hoarse uproar far below, and craggy summits standing in -the sunshine far above." - -The slopes of the valley have been terraced almost to the sky-line, -not for baby-fields of wheat, but to furnish ground for chestnut -trees, that clothe the hills with rich and sombre foliage, and give -forth "a faint, sweet perfume," which tinctures the air with balsamic -breath. R. L. S. goes into raptures over these chestnuts;--"I wish I -could convey a notion of the growth of these noble trees; of how they -strike out boughs like the oak, and trail sprays of drooping foliage -like the willow; of how they stand on upright fluted columns like the -pillars of a church; or, like the olive, from the most shattered bole -can put out smooth and useful shoots, and begin a new life upon the -ruins of the old.... And to look down upon a level filled with these -knolls of foliage, or to see a clan of old, unconquerable chestnuts -clustered 'like herded elephants' upon the spur of a mountain, is to -rise to higher thoughts of the powers that are in Nature." It was on a -terrace and under one of these trees that he camped for the night, -having to scramble up some sixty feet above the place he had selected -for himself, which was as high as that from the road, before he could -find another terrace with space enough for his donkey. He was awakened -in the morning by peasants coming to prune the trees, and after going -down to the river for his morning toilet--"To wash in one of God's -rivers in the open air seems to me a sort of cheerful solemnity or -semi-pagan act of worship"--he went on his way "with a light and -peaceful heart, and sang psalms to the spiritual ear as I advanced." - -Some little way from where he had slept he foregathered with an old -man in a brown nightcap, "clear-eyed, weather-beaten, with a faint, -excited smile," who said to him after a while, "_Connaissez-vous le -Seigneur?_" The old fellow was delighted when the donkey-driver -answered, "Yes, I know Him; He is the best of acquaintances," and -together they journeyed on, discussing the spiritual condition of the -country-folk. "Thus, talking like Christian and Faithful by the way, -he and I came upon a hamlet by the Tarn. It was but a humble place, -called La Vernède, with less than a dozen houses, and a Protestant -chapel on a knoll. Here he dwelt, and here at the inn I ordered my -breakfast. The inn was kept by an agreeable young man, a stonebreaker -on the road, and his sister, a pretty and engaging girl." - -We found this little hamlet even smaller than we expected, some -half-dozen houses and a tiny place of worship, the whole lying below -the level of the main road, so that one could have thrown a stone on -their roofs, well-tilled fields and meadows stretching down to the -river. A _cantonnier_ who was busy breaking stones by the roadway -helped us to identify the place, and was proud to confess himself a -Protestant, in common with the little handful of his fellow-villagers. -The country grows richer and more fruitful as we approach Florac, -passing on our way the old castle of Miral and a picturesque church -compounded of an ancient battlemented monastery and some modern -buildings with a tall tower. - - [Illustration: IN THE VALLEY OF THE TARN - - "The road led me past the old Castle of Miral on a steep."--R. L. S.] - - [Illustration: NEAR FLORAC - - "Past a battlemented monastery long since broken up and turned into a - church and parsonage."--R. L. S.] - -The influence of a country on its people suggested to R. L. S. an -interesting comparison as he journeyed through "this landscape, -smiling although wild." "Those who took to the hills for conscience -sake in Scotland had all gloomy and bedevilled thoughts," he writes; -"for once that they received God's comfort, they would be twice -engaged with Satan; but the Camisards had only bright and supporting -visions.... With a light conscience, they pursued their life in these -rough times and circumstances. The soul of Séguier, let us not forget, -was like a garden. They knew they were on God's side, with a knowledge -that has no parallel among the Scots; for the Scots, although they -might be certain of the cause, could never rest confident of the -person." A singularly inapposite comparison. It was not in pleasant -valleys such as these, or in cosy little towns like Pont de Montvert, -that the Camisards fought out their war with "His Most Christian -Majesty Louis, King of France and Brittany," but on the bare and rocky -plateaus westward of the Cevennes, and on such mountain-tops as the -Lozère. Stevenson had never seen the Causse Méjan or the Causse du -Larzac, to the southward of the region through which he travelled, or -he would have realised that their conditions were even less likely to -foster "bright and supporting visions" in the Camisards than those of -the mountain-hunted Scots, though much better from a strategic point -of view. - - -XXII. - -Florac is a small town of white houses, cuddled between the eastern -front of the Causse Méjan and the western foothills of the Cevennes, -with the river Tarnon, joined by the Mimente to the south, running -northward on its outskirts. There are only two thousand inhabitants, -but the number and excellence of Florac's hotels are accounted for by -its being an important centre for tourists visiting the gorges of the -Tarn, which, totally unknown to the outer world at the time of -Stevenson's journey, are now admitted to possess the finest scenery in -Europe. Our French guide-book frankly stated that Florac is a place -"of few attractions," but R. L. S. makes the most of these in a -sentence or two, describing the town as possessing "an old castle, an -alley of planes, many quaint street-corners, and a live fountain -welling from the hill." The old castle is quite without interest, and -is indeed the local prison, while the alley of planes, called the -Esplanade, is a dusty open space, with many cafés lining it, and the -grey, featureless Protestant Temple at its southern end. - -"It is notable, besides," he adds, "for handsome women, and as one of -two capitals, Alais being the other, of the country of the Camisards." -I do not recall having noticed an unusual number of handsome women, -though the wife of the Free Church minister was quite the prettiest -French woman we saw in the Cevennes, and the Established Church -pastor's wife perhaps the most cultured. R. L. S. found the townsfolk -anxious to talk of the part played by Florac in the days of the -Camisards, and was delighted to see Catholic and Protestant living -together in peace and amity. But it may be that the conspicuous -absence of all windows from the lower parts of the Protestant churches -is a memorial of times when the adherents of the reformed religion -were subjected to the prying eyes and perchance the more dangerous -attentions of the Catholics without. Most of the public officials were -named to us as Protestants, and the religious differences are as -strongly marked between the two sects of the latter as between them -and their townsmen of the Roman communion. The larger and -State-supported church is Rationalistic, corresponding to our -Unitarian, and the smaller a Free Church, with a symbol of the open -Bible above its doorway. - -In what we might call the Free Manse, really an extension of the -church for the housing of the minister, a door communicating between -the place of worship and the domestic apartments, we found M. Illaire -and his wife at play with their children--homely folk, who gave us a -cordial welcome, the heartier for the fact that Mme. Illaire had -stayed for a year in that "quaint, grey-castled city, where the bells -clash of a Sunday, and the wind squalls, and the salt showers fly and -beat"--Stevenson's own romantic birth-town. She could thus speak our -native tongue, and my companion, for once in a way, needed none of my -interpreting. M. Illaire, an essential Frenchman, swarthy of features, -slight of build, voluble and gesticulative, discoursed with shining -eyes of Protestantism, but was something of a pessimist, and seemed to -think that at best a cold, bloodless Dieism would rule the -intellectual France of the future. I gathered that, as in the old days -of enmity between the Established and Free kirks of Scotland, there -was no traffic between the two Protestant churches in Florac, for Mme. -Illaire confessed that she had never seen the inside of the Temple, -which we had thoroughly inspected earlier in the afternoon, receiving -the key from the pastor's wife, whose husband unfortunately was absent -on a visit to Montpellier. - - [Illustration: FLORAC - - "On a branch of the Tarn stands Florac. It is notable as one of the - two capitals, Alais being the other, of the country of the - Camisards."--R. L. S.] - - -XXIII. - -The route of R. L. S. now lay along the valley of the Mimente, which -branches eastward a little south of Florac, and penetrates a country -very similar to that traversed between the Lozère and this point. It -was only a few miles from Florac that he spent his last night _à la -belle étoile_ in the valley of this little river, noting in one of his -finest sentences the coming of night: "A grey pearly evening shadow -filled the glen; objects at a little distance grew indistinct and -melted bafflingly into each other; and the darkness was rising -steadily like an exhalation." At Cassagnas he was in the very heart of -the Camisard country, where there is little to engage one but the -historic associations of the district. At St. Germain de Calberte, six -miles to the south-west, reached by a rough and difficult road more -suitable for the foot than the wheel, he slept at the inn, and the -next afternoon (Thursday, 3rd October) he accomplished the eight -remaining miles through the waterless valley of the Gardon to St. Jean -du Gard--"fifteen miles and a stiff hill in little beyond six hours." - -There came the parting with the companion of his travels, Modestine -finding a ready purchaser at much below prime cost. "For twelve days -we had been fast companions," he writes on his last page: "we had -travelled upwards of a hundred and twenty miles, crossed several -respectable ridges, and jogged along with our six legs by many a rocky -and many a boggy by-road. After the first day, although sometimes I -was hurt and distant in manner, I still kept my patience; and as for -her, poor soul! she had come to regard me as a god. She loved to eat -out of my hand. She was patient, elegant in form, the colour of an -ideal mouse, and inimitably small. Her faults were those of her race -and sex; her virtues were her own. Farewell! and if for ever---- -Father Adam wept when he sold her to me; after I had sold her in my -turn, I was tempted to follow his example; and being alone with the -stage driver and four or five agreeable young men, I did not hesitate -to yield to my emotion." - -We are to imagine R. L. S. thus tearfully occupied in the stage-coach -bearing him east to Alais, an important industrial town on the main -line northward through Le Puy, whither there is no call to follow him. -We have the romantic regions of the Causses and the Tarn gorges still -to explore. Our way, no longer a pilgrim's path, lies westward. - - - - -Along the Route of "An Inland Voyage" - - "Now, to be properly enjoyed, a walking tour should be gone - upon alone. If you go in company, or even in pairs, it is - no longer a walking tour in anything but name. It is - something else, and more in the nature of a picnic. A - walking tour should be gone upon alone, because freedom is - of the essence; because you should be able to stop and go - on, and follow this way or that as the freak takes you, and - because you must have your own pace, and neither tramp - alongside a champion walker, nor mince in time with a girl. - And then you must be open to all impressions, and let - yourself take colour from what you see. You should be as a - pipe for any wind to play upon." - - -I. - -Thus wrote Stevenson in one of his essays, but I doubt if he ever put -into practice this engaging theory of his. He came nearest to being -alone when he undertook his famous tour through the Cevennes; yet a -donkey, and one of so much character as his Modestine, is company of a -sort. When he made the first of his little journeys with a literary -end in view, he had a companion after his own heart in the late Sir -Walter Simpson, to whom the first of his books, _An Inland Voyage_, is -dedicated. That was, however, an enterprise of some adventure, and it -was well that the author had a companion, for had he fared forth alone -in his frail canoe, as did his great exemplar John MacGregor, in the -_Rob Roy_, it is doubtful if _An Inland Voyage_--not to say all that -came after it--had ever been written. In a letter sent from Compiègne -during the voyage, he gives a very cheerless picture of the business: -"We have had deplorable weather, quite steady ever since the start; -not one day without heavy showers, and generally much wind and cold -wind forby.... Indeed, I do not know if I would have stuck to it as I -have done if it had not been for professional purposes." I suspect -that no less potent an influence than "professional purposes" in -raising his courage to the height of the occasion, was the -companionship of "My dear Cigarette," as he addresses Sir Walter, -whose canoe had been named _Cigarette_, that of Stevenson sporting the -classic title _Arethusa_. Fortunately for the reading world, the -voyage, despite its discomforts, had happy issue in one of the most -charming books that came from the pen of the essayist, and although -hints are not lacking of the shadows through which the canoeists -passed, the sunshine of a gay and bright spirit is radiant on every -page. - - [Illustration: BOOM ON THE RUPEL - - "Boom is not a nice place."--R. L. S.] - - [Illustration: VILLEVORDE ON THE WILLEBROEK CANAL - - "The rest of the journey to Villevorde, we still spread our canvas to - the unfavouring air."--R. L. S.] - -As it had been my pleasant fortune in the summer of 1903, together -with a friend, to follow the footsteps of Stevenson in his travels -among the Cevennes, and the pilgrimage having proved plentiful of -literary interest, it seemed to me that one might find in a journey by -road along the route of "An Inland Voyage" as much of interest, and -certainly some measure of personal pleasure. Moreover, with the -disciple's daring, often greater than the master's, I desired to test -the plan of going alone. But it was more by happy chance than any -planning of mine that I betook myself, with my bicycle, to Antwerp at -precisely the same season that, eight-and-twenty years before, -Stevenson and his companion set out upon their canoe voyage by river -and canal, from that ancient port to the town of Pontoise, near the -junction of the Seine and Oise, and within hail of Paris. - -In the preface to the first edition of _An Inland Voyage_, its author -expresses the fear that he "might not only be the first to read these -pages, but the last as well," and that he "might have pioneered this -very smiling tract of country all in vain, and found not a soul to -follow in my steps." That others have been before me in my late -pilgrimage is more than probable, although I have found no trace of -them; but perhaps I have not searched with care, for I would fain -flatter myself that here, as in the Cevennes, I found a field of -interest where there had been no passing of many feet. - - -II. - -Antwerp seems a town so antique that no change of modern handiwork can -alter in any vital way its grey old features. Yet in my own -acquaintance with it, on its outward quarters at least, it has taken -on surprisingly the veneer of modern Brussels, though by the -river-side it remains much as it was when, in the later days of -August, 1876, the _Cigarette_ and the _Arethusa_, with their -adventurous occupants, were launched into the Scheldt to the no small -excitement of the loungers about the docks. There must have been some -excitement, too, in the breasts of the voyagers, but, like the true -Scots they were, we can well believe they gave no show of it. -Stevenson had never been in a canoe under sail before, and to tie his -sheet in so frail a craft in the middle of a wide and busy river -called for no contemptible degree of courage. But he tied his sheet. - -"I own I was a little struck by this circumstance myself," he writes. -"Of course, in company with the rest of my fellow-men, I had always -tied the sheet in a sailing-boat; but in so little and crank a concern -as a canoe, and with these charging squalls, I was not prepared to -find myself follow the same principle, and it inspired me with some -contemptuous views of our regard for life. It is certainly easier to -smoke with the sheet fastened; but I had never before weighed a -comfortable pipe of tobacco against an obvious risk, and gravely -elected for the comfortable pipe. It is a common-place that we cannot -answer for ourselves before we have been tried. But it is not so -common a reflection, and surely more consoling, that we usually find -ourselves a great deal braver and better than we thought." - -There is but little of interest up the river, which waters a level, -unpicturesque country to Rupelmonde, where the canoeists would bid -good-bye to the Scheldt and steer to the south-east up the Rupel, a -broad and smooth-flowing stream that joins the greater water at this -point. Against the current they would urge their tiny prows until they -arrived after a journey of a few miles at the town of Boom, whence the -canal extends to Brussels in an almost straight line: - -As I made my way that grey autumn morning through the little villages -and along the tree-lined highway, the brown leaves flickering down in -the cold wind that stirred among the branches, it pleased me to fancy -how Stevenson, had his youth fallen in the days of the bicycle, would -have enjoyed the privilege of riding on the Belgian footpath, which to -us who live in a land where no cyclist dare mount his machine except -on the highway affords a delightful sensation of lawlessness. It is -well to observe, however, that but for this right of the footpath -there would be no cyclist in all Flanders or Northern France, since -highways and by-ways there are made of the most indiscriminate -cobbles, and in the remote country places a cart on the lonely road -moves with as great a clatter as one on the stony streets of -Edinburgh. - - -III. - -I was no great way from Boom when I saw advancing a high and narrow -structure, drawn by a horse, that progressed to the weird and -irregular clangor of a heavy bell, reminding me curiously of -Stevenson's moving description of the leper bell in _The Black Arrow_. -When I came up with the horse and its burden, I found the latter to -consist of a large circular tank, set on four wheels, with a tall box -in front for the driver, above whose head a large bell was -suspended. The word "Petrol," painted on the tank, indicated its -contents. Here, surely, was something that made the days of the canoe -voyage seem remote indeed; the peddling vendor of petrol belongs -emphatically to the new century. - - [Illustration: THE ALLEE VERTE AT LAEKEN - - The head-quarters of the "Royal Sport Nautique" is hidden among the - trees on the left of the picture.] - - [Illustration: THE SAMBRE AT MAUBEUGE - - It was at this point, "on the Sambre canalised," that the canoe voyage - began in earnest.] - -"Boom is not a nice place, and is only remarkable for one thing: that -the majority of the habitants have a private opinion that they can -speak English, which is not justified by fact." I can heartily endorse -our canoeist's opinion of the town, but this linguistic pride of its -inhabitants is surely a vanity of the past. I found none--and I spoke -to several--who had any delusions as to their knowledge of English, -and, indeed, few of them had more than a smattering of French. A -pleasant fellow on a cycle, who had insisted on riding close to me -through the outlying districts of the town, which are entirely taken -up by extensive brickworks, where I noticed the labourers all went -bare-footed, I found capable of understanding a few words of broad -Scots, and when I said, "Boom, is't richt on?" or "Watter, richt on?" -he nodded brightly, and replied in Flemish, which was comically like -the Scots. - -The Hôtel de la Navigation, where the paddlers put up for the night, -and of which Stevenson gives so bad an account, I found no trace of, -nor did I tarry any length of time in Boom, since its attractions -were so meagre. The "great church with a clock, and a wooden bridge -over the river," remain the outstanding features of the town, and -viewed from the south side of the river, it makes by no means an -unpleasing picture. - - -IV. - -The canal was simply packed with barges and great ungainly scows in -the vicinity of the town, awaiting their turn to slip through the -locks into the freer water of the Rupel, and heigh! for Antwerp, or -even the coastwise towns of Holland. It was good to feel as one -proceeded along the tow-path that here, in this world of change, was a -stream of life flowing onward through the generations serene and -changeless. "Every now and then we met or overtook a long string of -boats with great green tillers; high sterns with a window on either -side of the rudder, and perhaps a jug or flowerpot in one of the -windows; a dinghy following behind; a woman busied about the day's -dinner, and a handful of children." Every day since R. L. S. paddled -in this same stretch of water the canal has presented the same picture -of life, and thirty years hence, it is safe to prophesy, the wayfarer -will find no change, as these canals remain the great highways of -Belgium and France for the transport of goods that are in no haste; -and when we come to think of it, a great proportion of the commodities -of life may be carried from place to place in no gasping hurry for -prompt delivery. - -Stevenson has many profitable reflections on the life of the -canal-folk, with which in the course of his journey he was to become -so familiar. "Of all the creatures of commercial enterprise," he -writes, "a canal barge is by far the most delightful to consider. It -may spread its sails, and then you see it sailing high above the -tree-tops and the windmill, sailing on the aqueduct, sailing through -the green corn-lands, the most picturesque of things amphibious. Or -the horse plods along at a foot-pace, as if there were no such thing -as business in the world; and the man dreaming at the tiller sees the -same spire on the horizon all day long.... There should be many -contented spirits on board, for such a life is both to travel and to -stay at home.... I am sure I would rather be a bargee than occupy any -position under heaven that required attendance at an office. There are -few callings, I should say, where a man gives up less of his liberty -in return for regular meals." But our philosopher, when he goes on to -enhance his comfortable picture of a bargee's life, is scarcely -correct in saying that "he can never be kept beating off a lee shore -a whole frosty night when the sheets are as hard as iron." For these -great clumsy craft know well the scent of the brine, and there are -times when the snug outlook on the towing-path, and the slow business -of passing through innumerable locks are changed for floundering in -heavy seas and a straining look-out for a safe harbour. Not all their -days are smooth and placid, and sometimes, we may imagine, the dainty -pots of geraniums, that look so gay against the windows as we pass, -must be removed to safer places, while the family washing, drying on -deck to-day, has to be stowed elsewhere, and the tow-haired children, -now playing around the dog-kennel on the top of the hatches, have to -be sent below when salt waves break over the squat prow of the vessel. - -The journey along the canal bank was to me a very pleasant one, and I -had hopes of being more fortunate than the canoeists in reaching -Brussels with a dry skin. They had to paddle in an almost continual -drizzle, and even made shift to lunch in a ditch, with the rain -pattering on their waterproofs. But when I got as far as Villevorde, -where gangs of men were labouring on the extensive works in connection -with the railway and the new water supply, the rain began, and I was -wet to the skin long before I had reached the royal suburb of -Laeken, where, for evidence of Belgium's industrial progress, witness -the splendid improvement on the canal at this point, soon to become a -system of docks and water-ways resembling in extent a great railway -junction. - - [Illustration: THE GRAND CERF MAUBEUGE - - Where R. L. S. and his companion stayed for some days awaiting the - arrival of the canoes by rail from Brussels.] - - -V. - -One of the most amusing episodes in "An Inland Voyage" was the -encounter of the canoeists with the young boatmen of the "Royal Sport -Nautique," who in their enthusiasm for rowing gave a warm welcome to -the strangers, and by assuming the latter to be mighty men of the -paddle, led them into the most unwarranted boasting about the sport. -"We are all employed in commerce during the day," said the Belgians, -"but in the evening, _voyez-vous, nous sommes sérieux_." An admirable -opening for a characteristic bit of Stevensonian philosophy: "For will -anyone dare to tell me that business is more entertaining than fooling -among boats?" - -Whether or not the newer generation of Brussels boatmen are as serious -as the youths of thirty years ago I cannot say. The next afternoon, -being Sunday, I came out again from Brussels to make enquiries -concerning the "Royal Sport Nautique," and found a commodious brick -building occupying the site of the boathouse wherein Stevenson had -been entertained, but no signs of nautical life about it. There was -the slip where the _Cigarette_ and the _Arethusa_ were drawn up out of -the canal, and on the roadway opposite stood this new boathouse and -clubroom, with the dates 1865--94 indicating, as the only member whom -I found on the premises explained, that the club had been founded in -the former year, and the building erected in the latter. But he was a -churlish fellow, this coxcomb in his Sunday dress, and barely answered -my questions. If I too, had paddled my own canoe, perhaps it might -have been otherwise! The day was fine, and the canal was busy with -little excursion steamers that were well patronised by holiday-makers, -and were covered almost to the water-line with flaring advertisements -of Scotch whiskies and English soaps, only one out of a dozen -advertisements being of local origin: a circumstance that would, we -may be sure, have drawn from Stevenson some pages of gay philosophy. - - -VI. - -Following the example of the original travellers, I took train from -Brussels to the French frontier town of Maubeuge, where in real -earnest their canoe voyage began. To the traveller who has wandered -the highways of France south and west of Paris, such a town as this -presents some uncommon features, and I cannot but think that R. L. S. -gives a wrong impression of it. "There was nothing to do, nothing to -see," he tells us, and his only joy seems to have been that he got -excellent meals at the "Grand Cerf," where he encountered the -dissatisfied driver of the hotel omnibus, who said to him: "Here I am. -I drive to the station. Well! Then I drive back again to the hotel. -And so on every day and all the week round. My God! is that life?" And -you remember Stevenson's comment: "Better a thousand times that he -should be a tramp, and mend pots and pans by the wayside, and sleep -under the trees, and see the dawn and the sunset every day above a new -horizon." Here spoke the lover of romance; but the facts are quite -otherwise. - -Maubeuge I found a bright little town, surrounded by mighty ramparts -with spacious gates and bridges over the fosse. It is picturesquely -situated on the river Sambre, on whose banks stand large warehouses -and manufactories, while the shops bear evidence of prosperity. Even -_l'art nouveau_ has reached out from Paris and affected the business -architecture of the town. There is a bustling market-place, a handsome -little square with a spirited monument to the sons of the -country-side who have fallen for France, a grey old church, and a -pleasure-ground with a band-stand and elaborate arrangements for -illumination on gala nights. Indeed, I can imagine life to be very -tolerable in Maubeuge, which is really the residential centre of an -immense industrial district resembling more closely than any other -part of France our own Black Country. - -Stevenson makes no mention of having visited the church, which is -interesting in one respect at least. Beneath the stucco casts of the -stations of the cross some _curé_ of an evangelical turn of mind has -ventured on a series of little homilies unusual in my experience of -French churches. Thus, under the representation of Christ falling -while bearing His cross we read: "Who is it that causes Jesus to fall -a second time? You, unhappy person, who are for ever falling in your -faults, because you lack resolution. Ask, therefore, of God that you -may henceforth become more faithful unto Him." - - [Illustration: THE CHURCH AT QUARTES - - "A miry lane led us up from Quartes with its church and bickering - windmill."--R. L. S.] - - [Illustration: THE SAMBRE FROM THE BRIDGE AT PONT - - Where "the landlady stood upon the bridge, probably lamenting she had - charged so little," when the canoeists arrived back by river from - Quartes after having been treated like pedlars at Pont.] - -Only in the most insignificant way can Maubeuge have changed since Sir -Walter Simpson was nearly arrested for drawing the fortifications, "a -feat of which he was hopelessly incapable," so that I suspect -something of misplaced sentiment in Stevenson's impressions of the -place. For my part, I should find it difficult to mention a town of -the same size in England or Scotland to compare with Maubeuge as a -place to pass one's days in. That omnibus driver with the soul of a -Raleigh may have been in some measure a creature of the romancer's -fancy. At all events, it is likely enough that he has travelled far -since 1876, as I take him to have been a man of middle age then. The -hotel omnibus with its two horses still makes its journey to and from -the station, but the driver is a stout young fellow of florid face, -who, I am sure, is perfectly contented with his lot, and enjoys his -meals. "_C'est toujours la même ici_," said Veuve Bonnaire, the -landlady of the "Grand Cerf," when I chatted with her in the bureau -after luncheon. Yet not always the same, for where was M. Bonnaire? -And I fear that our canoeists, if they could visit the hostelry again -would scarce recognise in this lady of gross body their hostess of -thirty years ago. The building itself is quite unchanged, I was -assured, and I ate my food in the same room and in just such company -as the voyagers dined--military officers all absurdly alike in sharp -features, small moustache and tuft on chin, and ungallant baldness of -head; and three or four commercial travellers, each with a tendency to -"a full habit of body." - - -VII. - -The whole establishment of the "Grand Cerf" accompanied the canoeists -to the water's edge when they were ready to take their leave. Madame -Bonnaire, however, has quite forgotten that exciting episode of her -middle life; but there, we have Stevenson's word for it, and the good -woman must accept the fame. The day was a dismal one, we are -told--wind and rain, and "a stretch of blighted country" to pass -through. I heartily wished for a speedy end to that same stretch. For -six or seven miles the road is lined with factories and dirty -cottages, while dirty electric cars rattle along, well-laden with -passengers, for here France is at work and grimy; here is the France -of which the tourist along the beaten tracks has no notion. A stout -gentleman with whom I conversed by the wayside was very proud of the -varied industries of the district. "Look you; we have glass works, -pottery works, iron foundries, engine works, copper, and many other -industries in the neighbourhood." Still, I was glad when, a mile or -two beyond Hautmont, I found myself outside this region of smoke and -growling factories and advancing into a pleasant pastoral country, the -river only a little way from the road. Stevenson's word picture of -the scene is photographic in its accuracy, but his art environs it -with that ethereal touch the old engravers could give to a landscape, -an art that has been lost to us by the vogue of cheap modern -"processes." - -"After Hautmont," he writes, "the sun came forth again and the wind -went down; and a little paddling took us beyond the ironworks and -through a delectable land. The river wound among low hills, so that -sometimes the sun was at our backs, and sometimes it stood right -ahead, and the river before us was one sheet of intolerable glory. On -either hand, meadows and orchards bordered, with a margin of sedge and -water-flowers, upon the river. The hedges were of a great height, -woven about the trunks of hedgerow elms; and the fields, as they were -often small, looked like a series of bowers along the stream. There -was never any prospect; sometimes a hill-top with its trees would look -over the nearest hedgerow, just to make a middle distance for the sky; -but that was all. The heaven was bare of clouds.... The river doubled -among the hillocks, a shining strip of mirror glass; and the dip of -the paddles set the flowers shaking along the brink." - -In this land of many waters every male creature seems to be a disciple -of Sir Isaak Walton. A prodigious number of anglers will be -encountered; I must have seen hundreds. Every day and all day they are -dotted along the canals and rivers as patient as posts, and apparently -as profitably employed. It was a continual wonder to me how they could -spare the time; and a pleasure also, for it is cheering to know that -so many fellow-creatures can afford to take life so leisurely, and -that the factory may whistle and the surburban train shriek laden to -the town without causing them to turn a hair. "They seem stupefied -with contentment," says R. L. S. in a fine passage, "and when we -induced them to exchange a few words with us about the weather, their -voices sounded quiet and far away." - - -VIII. - -At the little hamlet of Quartes, "with its church and bickering -windmill"--the latter gone these many years--the canoeists went in -search of a lodging for the night, but had to trudge with their packs -to the neighbouring village of Pont sur Sambre for accommodation. They -would have fared better at Quartes to-day, as there is now a clean -little _auberge_ hard by the bridge, kept by a jovial fellow, who told -me that his son had taken up photography, with deplorable results. "He -takes my photograph, I assure you, M'sieu, and makes me look like a -corpse in the Morgue"--and the landlord would laugh and show two rows -of dusky teeth beneath his wiry moustache--"and when I say I'm not so -awful as that, he will say that now I see myself as I really am, for, -look you, the camera must tell the truth." He laughs again, and -rising, says: "But come with me here," throwing open the door of a -private room. "Now there's a portrait I had done in Brussels, and I'm -really a decent-looking chap in that. So I say to my son, whenever he -makes a new and worse picture of me: 'There's your papa to the life, -done by a real photographer.'" - - [Illustration: ON THE SAMBRE AT QUARTES] - - [Illustration: SCENE AT PONT-SUR-SAMBRE - - "Away on the left, a gaunt tower stood in the middle of the - street."--R. L. S.] - -I am sure they are a happy family at the inn at Quartes, and they -enjoy life, the score or two of barges and boats that pass their door -every day keeping them in touch with the outer world of towns. The -landlord informed me that he had several times been as far as Paris by -the rivers and canals, and that there are excursions all that -distance--nearly 200 miles by water--every summer. - - -IX. - -Pont sur Sambre is a long thin village, a mile or so from Quartes, and -different from other villages only in the possession of a strange lone -tower that stands in the middle of the wide street. Stevenson makes -note of it, and says: "What it had been in past ages I know not; -probably a hold in time of war; but nowadays it bore an illegible -dial-plate in its upper parts, and near the bottom an iron -letter-box." As I was preparing to take a photograph of this landmark, -a buxom woman came up and begged that I might photograph her. I -protested my inability to do so with any satisfaction, having no stand -for my camera. "But you have a camera; isn't that enough? And I am so -anxious for a photograph." What would you in such a case? Especially -as she said she could wait a month or more for me to send a print from -England. So the widow Cerisier poses in the foreground of my picture -of the strange tower at Pont--a tower which, she told me, has weird -underground passages leading away into regions of mystery. - -It was at a little ale-house within sight of the tower that Stevenson -and his friend passed the night, the landlady treating them as -pedlars, and they enjoying the experience. Here, too, they fell in -with a real pedlar, Monsieur Hector Gaillard of Maubeuge, who -travelled in grand style with a tilt-cart drawn by a donkey, and was -accompanied by his wife and his young son. Pedlars' fortunes seem to -have improved since those days, as I found a travelling cheap-jack at -Pont, with a very commodious wagon, which must have required two -horses to move it about, cunningly contrived to open into a veritable -bazaar, around which housewives and children clustered like bees. -Another packman was showing his wares hard by on a lorry equally -commodious, where he displayed to advantage an immense assortment of -second-hand clothes and remnants of cloth, while his wife was inducing -the thrifty women of Pont to buy. - -The Sambre at Pont looks very alluring, especially when the sun shines -and projects the green shadows of the waving willows across its -sluggish waters. Barges pass under the bridge at a snail's pace, and -away among the winding avenue of poplars and willows that marks the -river's zigzag course through the rich and restful meadow-land we see -the masts of other boats moving with consummate slowness. R. L. S. -illustrates the erratic course of the river by stating that while they -could walk from Quartes to Pont in about ten minutes, the distance by -river was six kilometres, or close on four miles. The folk at the -ale-house were amazed when their guests, after walking to Quartes next -morning, arrived by river an hour or so later as the owners of two -dainty canoes. "They began to perceive that they had entertained -angels unawares. The landlady stood upon the bridge, probably -lamenting she had charged so little; the son ran to and fro, and -called out the neighbours to enjoy the sight; and we paddled away from -quite a crowd of wrapt observers. These gentlemen pedlars indeed! Now -you see their quality too late." - - -X. - -The country between Pont and Landrecies wears many signs of quiet -prosperity; houses are numerous, orchards well-stocked, the -people--and never is the highway utterly deserted--smiling and -contented, to all appearance. The river at a point about six miles -from Landrecies skirts a part of the forest of Mormal, and our -sentimental traveller turns the occasion to profit thus: - - [Illustration: THE SAMBRE CANAL AT LANDRECIES - - As it was at the time of "An Inland Voyage."] - - [Illustration: THE FOREST OF MORMAL FROM THE SAMBRE - - "We were skirting the Forest of Mormal, a sinister name to the ear, - but a place most gratifying to sight and smell."--R. L. S.] - -"There is nothing so much alive, and yet so quiet, as a woodland; and -a pair of people, swinging past in canoes, feel very small and -bustling by comparison. And surely of all smells in the world, the -smell of many trees is the sweetest and most fortifying. The sea has a -rude, pistolling sort of odour, that takes you in the nostrils like -snuff, and carries with it a fine sentiment of open water and tall -ships; but the smell of a forest, which comes nearest to this in tonic -quality, surpasses it by many degrees in the quality of softness. -Again, the smell of the sea has little variety, but the smell of a -forest is infinitely changeful; it varies with the hour of the day, -not in strength merely, but in character; and the different sorts of -trees, as you go from one zone of the wood to another, seem to live -among different kinds of atmosphere. Usually the resin of the fir -predominates. But some woods are more coquettish in their habits; and -the breath of the forest of Mormal, as it came aboard upon us that -showery afternoon, was perfumed with nothing less delicate than -sweetbriar." - -Further on he says: "Alas! the forest of Mormal is only a little bit -of a wood, and it was but for a little way that we skirted by its -boundaries." So it may have seemed to the canoeists, who saw only a -scrap of the great forest, that thrusts southward to the river at a -place called Hachette. But it was not without some misgiving that I -found myself suddenly plunged into the woodland, and discovered that I -had six miles of it to penetrate and roads to ride which a little boy -in a cart described eloquently by stretching his arm to its limit and -then sweeping it down to the cart, and up and down half a dozen times! -The forest has indeed, as R. L. S. observes, "a sinister name to the -ear," and I felt--if I must speak the truth--a little quickening of -the pulse when I had ridden about half an hour through its lonely -rough roads, with rabbits and other wild creatures of the undergrowth -making strange rustlings among the leaves by the wayside. The sun had -been going down as I came into the forest, but the air among the trees -was chilling and wintry after the warm high-road, not a slanting ray -of sunshine penetrating the dense growth of trees. The only -pedestrians whom I met were a party of rough sportsmen, who eyed me as -a curious bird when, in answer to their questions, I said I had come -from London. I had wandered from the direct road through the forest, -it appeared, and one of the men, having a map, was able to work out a -route for me; but it was another half-hour--which seemed like half a -day--before I caught a welcome glimpse of the clear evening sky among -the lower branches, and presently emerged on the main road into -Landrecies, at a place suggestively named Bout du Monde. - - -XI. - -If there is another town so dead as Landrecies in all the department -of Le Nord, I have a great wish not to pass a night within its walls. -It is changed times there since the passage of R. L. S., although it -was _triste_ enough when "Arethusa" and "Cigarette" spent two days at -the roomy old Hôtel de la Tête d'Or. "Within the ramparts," he says, -"a few blocks of houses, a long row of barracks and a church, figure, -with what countenance they may, as the town. There seems to be no -trade; and a shopkeeper, from whom I bought a sixpenny flint-and-steel, -was so much affected that he filled my pockets with spare flints into -the bargain. The only public buildings that had any interest for us -were the hotel and the café. But we visited the church. There lies -Marshal Clarke; but as neither of us had heard of that military hero, -we bore the associations of the spot with fortitude." - -Marshal Clarke, whose tomb looks as new as though it had been set up -yesterday, was one of Napoleon's generals, and, as his epitaph reminds -us, sometime minister of war. Had he hailed from Scotland instead of -Ireland he might have been more interesting to R. L. S. - -If Landrecies was so dull thirty years ago, picture it to-day, with -its barracks almost empty, its ramparts demolished, and its less than -4,000 inhabitants in bed by nine o'clock! "It was just the place to -hear the round going by at night in the darkness, with the solid tramp -of men marching, and the startling reverberations of the drum. It -reminded you, that even this place was a point in the great warfaring -system of Europe, and might on some future day be ringed about with -cannon smoke and thunder, and make itself a name among strong towns." -Alas! the barking of a melancholy dog and the clock of the Hôtel de -Ville ringing out the lazy hours were the only sounds I heard that -night, though just before dusk a wandering camelot selling in the -street a sheet of "all the latest Paris songs" made a welcome -diversion. I sampled his stock, and found it to consist of doggerel -rhymes about the Russo-Japanese War, mingled with some amorous -ditties, and a piece of a devotional kind! "_C'est une ville morte_," -said a dumpy lady with a scorbutic face, who drank her after-dinner -coffee in the dining-room with me. "Think of Paris, and then--this!" -she sighed. I wondered what had brought her there, and doubtless she -thought I was some cycling fellow who had lost his way. - -But if the military glory of Landrecies is departed, it makes a brave -effort to recall the past with an elegant column near the site of the -north gate, whereon are recorded the sieges which Landrecies -withstood, the last being in the Franco-German War. Also erected since -Stevenson's time is a striking monument to the great Joseph François -Dupleix, whose gallant effort to found an Indian empire for France was -frustrated by Clive, and who, born in Landrecies, spent his substance -for his fatherland, only to die in poverty and neglect. - - [Illustration: THE INN AT MOY - - "Sweet was our rest in the 'Golden Sheep' at Moy."--R. L. S.] - - [Illustration: THE VILLAGE STREET, MOY - - "Moy was a pleasant little village."--R. L. S.] - -The landlord of the hotel assured me that he remembered the visit of -my heroes, even mentioning the hour of their arrival and departure. -He was a young man then; but to-day his hair is streaked with grey. -The _Juge de Paix_, who entertained the travellers, is still to the -fore: a bachelor then, he is a widower now. - -I noticed an odd feature of the hotel: its meat safe was the roof of -the passage to the courtyard. Here, hanging from hooks fixed in the -roof, were joints of beef, legs of mutton, hares, rabbits, and so -forth--an abundant display; and when the cook was in need of an item, -she came out with a long pole and reached down the piece she wanted. - - -XII. - -The canoeists left Landrecies on a rainy morning, the judge under an -umbrella seeing them off. My lot was pleasanter, for the morning was -fine and the landlord's son, a bright lad, with those babyish socks -which French boys wear, escorted me some way out of the town on his -bicycle, chatting merrily about the state of the roads, and evincing -great surprise when he heard that we would be fined for cycling on the -footpath in England. - -My route lay along the highway to Guise for a time and close to the -canal, passing through a gentle undulating country with far views of -thickly-wooded fields and little hills. The hamlets by the way were -surrounded by hop fields, the great poles with their fantastic -coverings of the vine being the most noticeable feature of the -wayside, just as R. L. S. had observed them when the hop-growers of -to-day were _bien jeune_, as the old gentleman at the play in Paris -described Stevenson himself. Etreux, where the canal journey ended, I -found a thriving and agreeable little town, the rattle of the loom -being heard from many an open door, and the thud, thud of flails in -the farm-steadings on the outskirts. At Etreux the canoes were placed -on a light country cart one morning, and the travellers walked to -Vadencourt by way of Tupigny, a village where I was served with a -make-shift lunch at a little inn, the landlady doing the cooking and -laying the table with a baby held in her left arm! Vadencourt is full -of weavers, and here close by the old bridge over the river the -_Arethusa_ and _Cigarette_ were launched in the fast-flowing water of -the River Oise. - - -XIII. - -The canoeists were now in the full swing of perhaps the most enjoyable -part of their journey. Let a canal be never so beautiful, it is still -a canal, and no adventure need be looked for there; but a river that -runs wild and free is a possible highway to the enchanted kingdom of -Romance. We have the avowal of R. L. S. that on this sedgy stream, -wriggling its devious ways by field and woodland, he had some of the -happiest moments of his life. - -"We could have shouted aloud," he says in a glowing passage. "If this -lively and beautiful river were, indeed, a thing of death's -contrivance, the old ashen rogue had famously outwitted himself with -us. I was living three to the minute. I was scoring points against him -every stroke of my paddle, every turn of the stream. I have rarely had -better profit of my life. For I think we may look upon our little -private war with death somewhat in this light. If a man knows he will -sooner or later be robbed upon a journey, he will have a bottle of the -best in every inn, and look upon all his extravagances as so much -gained upon the thieves. And above all, where, instead of simply -spending, he makes a profitable investment for some of his money, when -it will be out of risk of loss. So every bit of brisk living, and -above all when it is healthful, is just so much gained upon the -wholesale filcher, death. We shall have the less in our pockets, the -more in our stomach, when he cries, 'Stand and deliver.' A swift -stream is a favourite artifice of his, and one that brings him in a -comfortable thing per annum; but when he and I come to settle our -accounts, I shall whistle in his face for these hours upon the upper -Oise." - -Indeed, he came near to settling accounts with old Death more readily -than he could have cared; for not many miles from Vadencourt, in -attempting to shoot below the over-hanging trunk of a fallen tree, the -lively "Arethusa" was caught in its branches, while his canoe went -spinning down stream relieved of its paddler. He succeeded in -scrambling on to the tree-trunk, though he "seemed, by the weight, to -have all the water of the Oise in my trouser-pockets." But through -all, he still held to his paddle. "On my tomb, if ever I have one, I -mean to get these words inscribed: 'He clung to his paddle.'" Brave -heart, this is in truth but a humorous phrasing of the stately requiem -on the stone upon Vaea Top. - -It was a dripping "Arethusa" that got into Origny Sainte-Benoîte that -night, and but for the ready and resourceful "Cigarette" the adventure -might have ended less happily. Although Origny is a dusty little -village, as dull as any in all Picardy, the canoeists rested there a -day, and had good profit of the people they met at the inn, as -Stevenson's pages witness. The landlord was a shouting, noisy fellow, -a red Republican. "'I'm a proletarian, you see.' Indeed, we saw it -very well. God forbid that I should find him handling a gun in Paris -streets! That will not be a good moment for the general public." - - [Illustration: VEUVE BAZIN - - Hastily and unnecessarily "tidying herself" while being photographed - at her door.] - - [Illustration: THE BAZINS' INN AT LA FÈRE - - "Little did the Bazins know how much they served us."--R. L. S.] - - -XIV. - -An accident to my bicycle in the neighbourhood of Origny made it -necessary for me to go on to Moy by train, on a quaint little railway -worked chiefly by women, who act as station-mistresses, ticket-clerks, -restaurant-keepers, and guards of the level crossings. The carriages -were filled chiefly with anglers, and every little station had a gang -of them armed with a prodigious number of rods and lines, and each -carrying a pail with a brass lid. I gathered that the pails were empty -almost without exception, as sport had been extremely bad, though -numerous patient creatures with rod and line were still to be seen in -the drizzling rain along the river, which is here broken into many -backwaters, lying in flat land among scraggy pine woods and good green -meadows. One sturdy fellow who, like his companions, bore his -ill-fortune with a smiling face, averred that though he'd fished all -day and caught nothing, he had bagged fifteen _broche_ the previous -day between one o'clock and half-past two, and between three and five -he had caught an unbelievable number of trout. Anglers are the same in -all lands, I suspect. - -"Moy (pronounced Moy) was a pleasant little village, gathered round a -château in a moat," as our author records. "The air was perfumed with -hemp from neighbouring fields. At the 'Golden Sheep' we found -excellent entertainment." I asked for the "Golden Sheep," and was -directed to an establishment that was named the Hôtel de la Poste. I -passed on and asked another villager, but he sent me back, as I found -on following his instructions, to the same hotel. The postman put me -right at length by explaining that the landlord had rechristened his -house three months before in honour of the new post office across the -way, a shoddy little building where I bought stamps from a middle-aged -woman next morning. The landlady of the hotel, who might pass in every -particular, save the myopia, for the "stout, plain, short-sighted, -motherly body, with something not far short of a genius for cookery," -described by R. L. S., agreed with me that her husband had made a sad -mistake in dropping the old sign of the "Collier d'Or," "but he would -have his own way, and there you are!" If I could have got the -fellow--a fat, jolly mortal--to understand that to have the name of -his hotel in a book by R. L. S. was an honour worth living up to, -perhaps the old sign would have been fished out, regilded and placed -in its old position. But he had not been the _patron_ thirty years -ago, and he did not care a straw for anything so remote, though his -wife had a gleam of pleasure when I quoted to her Stevenson's note: -"Sweet was our rest in the 'Golden Sheep' at Moy." - -It is a progressive place, although it seems to go to bed at eight -o'clock, for there is a good supply of electric light--furnished by -water power, of course--in the hotel and other establishments; but not -a solitary street lamp to pierce the blue-black of an autumn night. I -must tell you that I was the only guest at the inn, yet a splendid -dinner was prepared for me. Soup, fish with mayonaise, fillet of beef -with mushrooms, green haricots _au beurre_, cold chicken, and a -delicious salad of white herbs with a suspicion of garlic, a sweet -omelet, pears, grapes, cheese, bread and butter, and, if I had cared, -a whole bottle of red wine. An excellent _café noir_ followed, in the -_estaminet_, where my hostess apologised for lighting only one -electric lamp "_pour l'economie, vous savez_." My bedroom was -commodious and well-appointed, and I had a good French _petit -dejeuner_ next morning. The bill? Three shillings and ninepence, I -declare! _Pour l'economie!_ Madame, I sympathise, and some day I must -return to make a visit more profitable to you. - - -XV. - -From Moy to La Fère is a very short journey even by the river, but the -canoeists had lingered till late afternoon before leaving the former -place, which "invited to repose," and it was dark when they got to La -Fère in their chronic state of dampness. "It was a fine night to be -within doors over dinner, and hear the rain upon the windows." They -had heard that the principal inn at the place was a particularly good -one, and cheery pictures of their comfortable state there arose in -their minds as they stowed their canoes and set forth into the town, -which lies chiefly eastward of the river, and is enclosed by two great -lines of fortification. But they reckoned without their hostess! The -lady of the inn mistook them for pedlars, and rushed them back into -the dismal night. "Out with you--out of the door!" she screeched. -"_Sortez! Sortez! Sortez par la porte!_" Stevenson's picture of the -incident is full of sly humour, but the feelings of the travellers -must indeed have been poignant. "We have been taken for pedlars -again," said the baronet, "Good God, what it must be to be a pedlar in -reality!" says his companion of the pen. "Timon was a philanthropist -alongside of him." He prayed that he might never be uncivil to a -pedlar. But after all, it was for the best. That cosy inn would not -have afforded the essayist such interesting matter for reflection as -he found at "la Croix de Malte," a little working-class _auberge_ at -the other end of the town, where the Porte Notre-Dame gives exit to -the straggling suburbs. - - [Illustration: THE TOWN HALL, NOYON] - - [Illustration: HÔTEL DU NORD, NOYON - - _Where the travellers stayed_ - - "The Hotel du Nord lights its secular tapers within a stone-cast of - the church."--R. L. S.] - - -XVI. - -There is no passage in the whole of _An Inland Voyage_ so moving, so -simple in its intense humanity, as that wherein its author sets down -in his own inimitable way his impressions of the humble folk who kept -this inn. Scarcely hoping that I might be so fortunate as to find -either of the Bazins alive, I asked at one of the numerous cafés -opposite the great barracks, whence crashed forth the indescribable -noise of a brass band practising for the first time together, if there -was an inn in the town kept by one Bazin. To my delight I was told -there was, and you may be sure I made haste to be there. I found the -place precisely as Stevenson pictures it, noting by the way a tiny new -Protestant chapel with the legend "Culte Evangélique" over its door, a -cheering sight to Protestant eyes in so Catholic a country as the -north of France. - -"Bazin, Restaurateur Loge à pied,"--there was the altered sign on the -cream-coloured walls of the house. In the common room of the little -inn, which was full of noisy reservists that memorable night when the -canoeists sought shelter there, I found two or three rough but -honest-looking fellows drinking, while a grey-haired woman, pleasant -and homely of appearance, sat at lunch with a young woman and a youth, -the latter wearing glasses and being in that curious condition of -downy beard which we never see in England. I stood on the sandy floor -by the little semi-circular bar, with its shining ranks of glasses, -waiting the attention of a young woman who was serving the customers -with something from an inner room, when the old lady, looking up at me -through her spectacles, asked what I wanted. "To speak with the -_patron_," I replied. "Well?" she said. "Have I the pleasure of -addressing Madame Bazin?" I asked, and on her answering with a slight -show of uneasiness, I proceeded to explain that I had come to see the -inn out of interest in a celebrated English author, who had once -stayed there and had written so charmingly about Madame and Monsieur -Bazin. In an instant the old lady and the younger folk were agitated -with pleasure, and, to my surprise, they knew all about the long-ago -visit of R. L. S. and his friend. "Perhaps he was your papa," Madame -suggested as the likeliest reason for my having come so far on a -matter so sentimental. And the good soul's eyes brimmed with tears -when she told me that her husband had been dead these three years. -Stevenson had sent them a copy of his book, and they had got the -passage touching the voyagers' stay at the inn translated by a young -friend at college, so that worthy old Bazin had not been suffered to -pass away without knowing how he and his good wife had ministered to -the heart of one of the best beloved writers of his generation. You -will remember Stevenson's beautiful reference to these worthy people. -But let me quote it, for it may be read many times with increase of -profit: - -"Bazin was a tall man, running to fat; soft spoken, with a delicate, -gentle face. We asked him to share our wine; but he excused himself, -having pledged reservists all day long. This was a very different type -of the workman-innkeeper from the bawling, disputatious fellow at -Origny. He also loved Paris, where he had worked as a decorative -painter in his youth. He had delighted in the museums in his youth, -'One sees there little miracles of work,' he said; 'that is what makes -a good workman; it kindles a spark.' We asked him how he managed in La -Fère. 'I am married,' he said, 'I have my pretty children. But, -frankly, it is no life at all. From morning to night I pledge a pack -of good enough fellows who know nothing,' ... Madame Bazin came out -after a while; she was tired with her day's work, I suppose; and she -nestled up to her husband, and laid her head upon his breast. He had -his arm about her, and kept gently patting her on the shoulder. I -think Bazin was right, and he was really married. Of how few people -can the same be said! - -"Little did the Bazins know how much they served us. We were charged -for candles, for food and drink, and for the beds we slept in. But -there was nothing in the bill for the husband's pleasant talk, nor for -the pretty spectacle of their married life. And there was yet another -item uncharged. For these people's politeness really set us up again -in our own esteem. We had a thirst for consideration; the sense of -insult was still hot in our spirits, and civil usage seemed to restore -us to our position in the world. - -"How little we pay our way in life! Although we have our purses -continually in our hand, the better part of service goes still -unrewarded. But I like to fancy that a grateful spirit gives as good -as it gets. Perhaps the Bazins knew how much I liked them? Perhaps -they also were healed of some slights by the thanks that I gave them -in my manner?" - - [Illustration: NOYON CATHEDRAL FROM THE EAST - - "We had the superb east end before our eyes all morning from the - window of our bedroom."--R. L. S.] - -Is that not a lovely monument to have? Many of us who have made a -greater clatter in the world than old Bazin will be less fortunate -than he in this respect. And you see that although he had little -affection for La Fère, he lived five-and-twenty quiet years there -after Stevenson came his way. Yet not, in one sense, quiet, as the -bugles are for ever braying, and even the street boys whistle barrack -calls instead of music-hall ditties. As Madame told me, the town -exists solely for the military, and we may be sure that it is none the -sweeter on that account. But her little inn struck me as a wholesome -and entirely innocent establishment. Those "pretty children" are men -and women now, and the young man with the nascent whiskers, whom I -took to be a clerk in the town, was a grandson of the old folk. Not a -feature of the _auberge_ has changed, except that the Maltese Cross, -having served its day, has been taken down. Stevenson--who has lighted -a little lamp of fame on this humble shrine--and Sir Walter Simpson -and old Bazin have all passed away, while children's children sit in -the old seats; truly the meanest works of man's hands are more -enduring than man himself. Madame Bazin, to my regret, made a quick -effort to throw aside her apron, and needlessly to tidy her bodice, -when I asked her to face the camera. She was caught in the act by the -instantaneous plate. Even here, you see, the apron signifies -servitude, and must not appear in pictures; yet it and the cap, which -latter I have seldom seen north of Paris, are the only redeeming -features of the country Frenchwoman's dress. The women of rural France -give one the impression of being in permanent mourning, and -consequently, when they do go into real mourning, they have to -emphasise the fact with ridiculous yards of flowing crape. Madame -Bazin had never heard of Stevenson's death, and I felt curiously -guilty of an ill deed in telling her about that grave in far Samoa. - - -XVII. - -The Oise runs through a stretch of pastoral country south of La Fère, -known as "the Golden Valley," but a strath rather than a valley in -character. It was a grey day on which I journeyed, and little that was -golden did I see. But the quaint old town of Noyon, as grey and hoar -as any in France, is rich in the gold of history; "a haunt of ancient -peace." It stands on a gentle hill, about a mile away from the river, -and is one of the cleanest of the old French towns that I have -visited, reminding me somewhat of Lichfield; in atmosphere, I imagine, -rather than in any outward resemblance, since I would be at a loss to -point to the likeness if I were asked. R. L. S. had no more agreeable -resting-place on all his voyage than at Noyon. The travellers put up -at a very prosperous-looking hostelry, the Hôtel du Nord, which stands -withdrawn a little way from the east end of the grand old -cathedral--the glory of Noyon, and one of the gems of early French -Gothic, though perhaps the least known to English tourists. - -Seldom in France do we find the cathedral so regally free of -surrounding buildings. No shabby structures lean unworthy heads -against its old grey walls, and where, on the north side, the canons' -library, with its crumbling timbers of the fifteenth century, nestles -under the wing of the church, the effect is entirely pleasing. At the -west front, too, where there is a spacious close, with well-cared-for -houses and picturesque gateways, one has a feeling of reverence which -the surroundings of French cathedrals so often fail to inspire. There -is a pleasant touch of humour in Stevenson's description of the -exterior of the beautiful apse: - -"I have seldom looked on the east end of a church with more complete -sympathy. As it flanges out in three wide terraces, and settles down -broadly on the earth, it looks like the poop of some great old -battleship. Hollow-backed buttresses carry vases which figure for the -stern lanterns. There is a roll in the ground, and the towers just -appear above the pitch of the roof, as though the good ship were -bowing lazily over an Atlantic swell. At any moment it might be a -hundred feet away from you, climbing the next billow. At any moment a -window might open, and some old admiral thrust forth a cocked hat, and -proceed to take an observation. The old admirals sail the sea no -longer ... but this, that was a church before ever they were thought -upon, is still a church, and makes as brave an appearance by the Oise. -The cathedral and the river are probably the two oldest things for -miles around and certainly they have both a grand old age." - -Inside the cathedral he found much to engage his mind, and the -somewhat perfunctory performances of certain priests jarred with the -noble serenity of the building. "I could never fathom how a man dares -to lift up his voice to preach in a cathedral. What is he to say that -will not be an anti-climax?" But, on the whole, he "was greatly -solemnised," and he goes on to say: "In the little pictorial map of -our whole Inland Voyage, which my fancy still preserves and sometimes -unrolls for the amusement of odd moments, Noyon Cathedral figures on a -most preposterous scale, and must be nearly as large as a department. -I can still see the faces of the priests as if they were at my -elbow, and hear '_Ave Maria, ora pro nobis_,' sounding through the -church. All Noyon is blotted out for me by these superior memories, -and I do not care to say more about the place. It was but a stack of -brown roofs at the best, where I believe people live very reputably in -a quiet way; but the shadow of the church falls upon it when the sun -is low, and the five bells are heard in all quarters telling that the -organ has begun. If ever I join the Church of Rome, I shall stipulate -to be Bishop of Noyon on the Oise." - - [Illustration: NOYON CATHEDRAL: WEST FRONT - - "The Sacristan took us to the top of one of the towers, and showed us - the five bells hanging in their loft."--R. L. S.] - -This pretty fancy of his need lose none of its prettiness when we know -that Noyon has not had a bishop since the Revolution, when the -cathedral became a dependency of the Bishop of Beauvais, though it had -been a bishopric so long ago as the year 531. But I am sorry R. L. S. -was evidently not aware that when at Noyon he was in the town where -John Calvin was born in 1709, his father being procurator-fiscal and -secretary of the diocese; for surely here was an opening for some real -Stevensonian _obiter scripta_? The beautiful old Town House, of Gothic -and Renaissance architecture, dates back to the end of the fifteenth -century, but all the ancient buildings of Noyon fall long centuries -short of its history in age, as King Pippin was crowned here in 752, -and his infant son Carloman was at the same time created King of -Noyon, while in 771 the town saw the coronation of Pippin's eldest -son, the mighty Charlemagne, no less. - - -XVIII. - -The last wet day of the voyagers was that on which they set out from -Noyon. "These gentlemen travel for pleasure?" asked the landlady of -the little inn at Pimprez. "It was too much. The scales fell from our -eyes. Another wet day, it was determined, and we put the boats into -the train." Happily, "the weather took the hint," and they paddled and -sailed the rest of the voyage under clear skies. At Compiègne they -"put up at a big, bustling hotel, where nobody observed our presence." -My impression of the famous town scarcely justified this, as in the -day that I lingered there I seemed to meet everybody a dozen times -over, and the company at a little café chantant in the evening was -like a gathering of old friends, so many of the faces were familiar. -Yet the town is populous, having some 17,000 inhabitants (about 2,000 -of whom are English residents), and I was prepared for busier streets -than I found. - -There can be few towns in France more agreeable to live in. It is -pleasantly situated on the river Oise, here wide and lively with -barge-traffic, and spanned by an elegant bridge. The older town lies -south of the river in a sort of amphitheatre; its streets are narrow -and tortuous, but with bright shops and cafés in the neighbourhood of -the Place de l'Hôtel de Ville, while the fashionable suburbs extend, -in splendid quiet avenues, eastward and south from the centre of the -town, by the historic palace built in Louis XV.'s reign and the Petit -Parc, which is really very large. While a great many of the English -residents have chosen the town for the same reason that my hostess at -Moy put on one electric light--_pour l'economie, vous savez_--together -with its healthy and beautiful surroundings in the great forest of -Compiègne, many more are there for the employment afforded by the -important felt hat factory of Messrs. Moore, Johnson & Co., whose -commodious works stand near the station on the north of the river. -Despite its shops, its business prosperity, its red-legged soldiers, -its visitors, Compiègne is dull enough of an evening, and the brightly -lighted but almost empty cafés leave one wondering how the business -pays. - -"My great delight in Compiègne," says inland voyager, "was the -town-hall. I doted upon the town-hall. It is a monument of Gothic -insecurity, all turreted and gargoyled, and slashed and bedizened with -half a score of architectural fancies. Some of the niches are gilt -and painted, and in a great square panel in the centre, in black -relief on a gilt ground, Louis XII. rides upon a pacing horse, with -hand on hip and head thrown back. There is royal arrogance in every -line of him; the stirruped foot projects insolently from the frame; -the eye is hard and proud; the very horse seems to be treading with -gratification over prostrate serfs, and to have the breath of the -trumpet in his nostrils. So rides for ever, on the front of the -town-hall, the good king Louis XII., the father of his people. - -"Over the king's head, in the tall centre turret, appears the dial of -a clock; and high above that, three little mechanical figures, each -one with a hammer in his hand, whose business it is to chime out the -hours and halves and quarters for the burgesses of Compiègne. The -centre figure has a gilt breast-plate; the two others wear gilt -trunk-hose; and they all three have elegant, flapping hats like -cavaliers. As the quarter approaches, they turn their heads and look -knowingly one to the other; and then, _kling_ go the three hammers on -the three little bells below. The hour follows, deep and sonorous, -from the interior of the tower; and the gilded gentlemen rest from -their labours with contentment. - -"I had a great deal of healthy pleasure from their manoeuvres, and -took care to miss as few performances as possible; and I found that -even the 'Cigarette,' while he pretended to despise my enthusiasm, was -more or less a devotee himself. There is something highly absurd in -the exposition of such toys to the outrages of winter on a housetop. -They would be more in keeping in a glass case before a Nürnberg clock. -Above all, at night, when the children are abed, and even grown people -are snoring under quilts, does it not seem impertinent to leave these -ginger-bread figures winking and tinkling to the stars and the rolling -moon? The gargoyles may, fitly enough, twist their ape-like heads; -fitly enough may the potentate bestride his charger, like a centurion -in an old German print of the _Via Dolorosa_; but the toys should be -put away in a box among some cotton, until the sun rises, and the -children are abroad again to be amused." - - [Illustration: COMPIÈGNE TOWN HALL - - "My great delight in Compiègne was the Town Hall."--R. L. S.] - - -XIX. - -There is but little interest in the remaining stages of Stevenson's -journey; not because the towns through which the canoeists now passed -are less worthy of note than any already described, but for the ample -reason that R. L. S. had, in some measure, lost his earlier delight in -the voyage. He pretends that on the broading bosom of the Oise the -canoes were now so far away from the life along the riverside, that -they had slipped out of touch with rural folk and rural ways. But this -is not strictly true, when we know that the river, as far as Pontoise, -is seldom greatly wider than the canals on which the _Arethusa_ and -the _Cigarette_ had set out with high hopes of adventure a fortnight -before. The towns are quaint and sleepy. The voyagers were nearing the -end, the river ran smooth, the sky was bright, and a packet of letters -at Compiègne had set them dreaming of home. Here was the secret; the -spell was broken; their appetite for adventure had been slaked; every -mile of easy-flowing water was taking them not away to unknown things, -but homeward to familiar ones. - -Pont Sainte Maxence, the end of their first stage below Compiègne, is -a featureless little town, the Oise making a brave show through the -centre of it, and I do not suspect its church of any stirring history. -R. L. S. found its interior "positively arctic to the eye." It was -here he noticed the withered old woman making her orisons before all -the shrines; "like a prudent capitalist with a somewhat cynical view -of the commercial prospect, she desired to place her supplications in -a great variety of heavenly securities." I passed through Creil and -Précy in the afternoon, following close to the river, which now -skirts a country of gentle hills on the east, but westward fringes a -vast level plain, with nothing but groves of poplar to break the line -of the distant horizon. - - -XX. - -In the gloaming I arrived at Pontoise, where I was told a fête was in -progress; but the only signs of hilarity were two booths for the sale -of pastries and sweet stuffs on the square in front of the station, -and one small boy investing two sous in a greasy-looking puff. The -rues of Pontoise have high-sounding names, but they are dull beyond -words, though only eighteen miles away the "great sinful streets" of -Paris are gleaming with their myriad lights. - -Pontoise in the daylight might have been different; but seen in the -dusk, I decided upon the eight o'clock train to Paris, and so ended my -pilgrimage. Nor did I feel any lowering enthusiasm at the end, for -Stevenson has nothing to tell us of the place beyond saying, "And so a -letter at Pontoise decided us, and we drew up our keels for the last -time out of that river of Oise that had faithfully piloted them, -through rain and sunshine, for so long." He has not a word for the -twelfth-century church of St. Maclou, his "brither Scot," or the tomb -of St. Gautier at Nôtre Dame de Pontoise. - - [Illustration: THE OISE AT PONTOISE - - [Illustration: GENERAL VIEW OF LE PUY] - - "At Pontoise we drew up our keels for the last time out of that river - of Oise that had faithfully piloted them through rain and sunshine so - long."--R. L. S.] - -"You may paddle all day long," he concludes; "but it is when you come -back at nightfall, and look in at the familiar room, that you find -Love or Death awaiting you beside the stove; and the most beautiful -adventures are not those we go to seek." Yet he was ever an adventurer -in search of beauty, and who shall say his quest was vain? - - - - -"The Most Picturesque Town in Europe" - - "After repeated visits to Le Puy, and a deal of high living - for myself and my advisers, a sleeping sack was designed, - constructed, and triumphantly brought home."--R. L. - STEVENSON. - - -I. - -There will, of course, be differences of opinion as to which is the -town most worthy of this description; but there is surely no better -judge than Mr. Joseph Pennell, who has seen every place of any -historic or natural attraction on the Continent, and whose taste for -the picturesque none will call in question. He is the author of the -phrase that heads this chapter, as applied to the little-known town of -Le Puy, "chief place" of the Department of Haute Loire in the south of -France. It is one of the few towns that have more than justified the -mental pictures I had formed of them before seeing the real thing. But -Le Puy is not only the most conceivably picturesque of towns; it is -deeply interesting in its character and history, no less than in its -appearance. - -With the exception of Mr. Pennell, and among a circle of people who -have travelled much in France, I have met none who have ever visited -Le Puy. A young English governess to whom I spoke at a little -Protestant temple in the town had been staying there for close upon a -year, and had not met a single English visitor; so it would appear one -has an opportunity here to write of a place that is still untrampled -by the tourist hordes that devastate fair Normandy. - -There are many and excellent reasons why few English or American -tourists make their way to this quaint and beautiful town of the -French highlands. It lies 352 miles by rail from Paris, and can only -be reached by a fatiguing journey in trains that seem to be playing at -railways, and have no serious intention of arriving anywhere. A good -idea of the roundabout railway service will be gathered from the fact -that the actual distance of the town from Paris is nearly 100 miles -less than the length of the railway journey. It can be reached by -leaving the Mediterranean line at Lyons and continuing for the best -part of a day on tiresome local trains; or via Orleans and Clermont -Ferrand, which would surely require the best part of two days. It was -by the latter route, and in easy stages, that I first arrived there -in the early evening of a grey June day four years ago. - -Between Clermont Ferrand and Le Puy the railway traverses some of the -most beautiful scenery in Europe, but nothing that one sees on the way -prepares one for the sensation of the first glimpse of this wonderful -mountain-town. The train has been steadily puffing its slow way by -green valleys and pine-clad hills, across gorges as deep as the -deepest in Switzerland, and past little red-roofed hamlets for hours, -when suddenly, as it seems, a great peak thrusts itself heavenward, -carrying on its back a mass of tiny buildings, and on the top of all -an immense statue of the Virgin. Then another seems to spring up from -the valley, holding a church upon its head, and the whole country now, -as far as eye can reach, is studded with great conical hills thrown up -in some far-off and awful boiling of earth. Curiously, the train seems -turning tail on this wonderful scene, and one by one the different -objects that had suddenly attracted our attention are lost to view, -while we pursue a circuitous route, which in a quarter of an hour -brings them all into view again, and presently we have arrived at the -station of Le Puy, by the side of the little river Dolezon, between -which and the broader Borne extends the hill whereon the town is -built. - - -II. - -The modern part of the town lies close to the railway in the level of -the valley, and as there is a population of more than 20,000 people, -the life of the streets is brisk enough to suggest a town of five -times that size in England. Along the Avenue de la Gare, the Boulevard -St. Jean, and the Rue St. Haon we go, wary of the electric trams, to -our hotel opposite the spacious Place du Breuil, where spouts a -handsome fountain to the memory of a local metal-worker who furnished -the town with its beautiful Musée Crozatier, and where the elegant -architecture of the Municipal Theatre, the Palais de Justice and the -Préfecture supply a touch of modern dignity that contrasts not -unpleasantly with the ancient and natural grandeur of the town. - - [Illustration: LE PUY: CATHEDRAL AND ROCHER DE CORNEILLE FROM PLACE DU - BREUIL] - -I have stayed in many a strange hotel, but that of the "Ambassadeurs," -whither we repaired, is perhaps the most uncommon in my experience. It -was reached from the main street through a long, dark tunnel, opening -at the end into a badly-lighted court, whence a flight of stairs gave -entrance to the hotel building, which inside was like an old and -partially-furnished barracks, with wide stone stairs and gloomy -passages eminently adapted for garrotting. But the bedroom was -commodious, and its windows gave on another market-place, where had -been the original frontage of the hotel. For all its cheerless -appearance, the "Ambassadeurs" was by no means uncomfortable, and, -needless to say, the cooking was excellent. - -There are some towns that ask of you only to wander their streets, and -others that challenge you to closer acquaintance with their sights. -Paris or Brussels, for example, pours its bright life through -boulevard and park, and you are charmed to walk about with no urgent -call to any place in particular; but who can linger in Princes Street -of Edinburgh with the grey old castle inviting him to climb up to it, -or the Calton Hill boldly advertising itself with its mock Roman -remains? Le Puy has both the charm of the quaintest kinds of street -life and the challenge of its rare and curious monuments. - -One has a restless feeling, a sense of things that "must be done," -when one catches a glimpse of the stately old cathedral standing high -on the hill, and the massive Rock of Corneille with the great figure -of Notre Dame de France on top, or the church of St. Michel pricking -up so confidently on its isolated rock. The natural curiosity of man -is such that he cannot be content until he has clambered to these and -other high places in and around Le Puy. One makes first for the -cathedral, and a bewildering labyrinth of ancient and evil-smelling -lanes has to be wandered through before the building is reached. These -little streets are all paved with cobbles of black lava, and many of -the houses are built in part of the same material. Their dirtiness is -unqualified, and yet the people seem to live long amid their squalor, -for at every other door we note women of old years busy with their -needles and pillows making the lace, which is one of the chief -industries of the town. - - -III. - -The nearer we come to the cathedral the more difficult is it to -observe its general proportions, and, indeed, it can only be seen to -advantage from one or other of the neighbouring heights. But it is a -building that, in almost any position, would still be remarkable, as -it is a striking example of Romanesque architecture. The great porch -is reached by a splendid flight of steps, sixty in number, where in -the second week of August each year pilgrims come in their thousands -to kneel and worship the Black Virgin, the chief glory of the town in -the eyes of its inhabitants. The builders of the cathedral have -striven to combine dignity and austerity, and the impression which -the outside of the building makes upon the visitor is strangely at -variance with the flummery that surrounds the worship of the Black -Virgin within. One feels that the men who back in the twelfth century -reared these massive walls and built this beautiful cloister had not -their lives dominated by a cheap and ugly wooden doll such as their -fellows of to-day bow down before. We found the sacristan a young man -of most amiable disposition; so friendly indeed that on one of our -subsequent visits, and during the office of High Mass, when he was -attending upon the celebrant, he nodded familiarly to us on -recognising us among the congregation. If the truth must be told, we -were more interested in the contents of the sacristy than in the -cathedral itself. Here were stored many rare and beautiful examples of -ancient wood-carving, picture frames, missals, altar vessels, and, -above all, a manuscript Bible of the ninth century. This -last-mentioned we were shown only on condition that we would tell no -one in the town. Then opening a great oaken cupboard, he produced -first a brass monstrance, similar to the usual receptacle for the -consecrated wafer of the Eucharist, but containing instead behind the -little glass disc a tiny morsel of white feather sewn to a bit of -cloth. - -"This," said he, "is a piece of the wing of the angel who visited Joan -of Arc." - -"Indeed," I remarked, with every evidence of surprise, "and who got -hold of the feather first?" - -"The mother of Joan," he replied, as though he were giving the name of -his tailor; and he proceeded to describe with much circumstance and -detail the wonderful things that had been done by this bit of feather. -"It is, M'sieu, an object of the greatest veneration, and has -attracted pilgrims from far parts of France. It has cured the most -terrible diseases; it has brought riches to those who were poor; it -has brought children to barren women,"--and many other wonders I have -forgotten. - - [Illustration: MARKET DAY AT LE PUY, SHOWING TYPES OF THE AUVERNGATS] - - [Illustration: LACEMAKERS AT LE PUY] - -In a very similar setting he showed us a tiny thorn. "This, M'sieu, is -a thorn from the crown that Jesus wore on the Cross," and while we -were still gazing upon the sacred relic he produced a small box sealed -with red wax and having a glass lid, behind which was preserved a good -six inches of "the true Cross." I thought of a Frenchman whom I had -met at an hotel recently--an unbelieving fellow--who said that there -was as much wood of "the true Cross" preserved in the churches of -France as would make a veritable ladder into heaven. Most wonderful of -all, the sacristan dived his hand into a sort of cotton bag, and -produced a Turkish slipper, worn and battered, but probably no more -than fifty years old. The good man handled the thing as if it had -been a cheap American shoe he was offering for sale. Then looking us -boldly in the face, he said, "_Voici, le soulier de la Sainte -Vierge_." The shoe of the holy Virgin! One did one's best to be -overcome with emotion, but I claim no success in that effort. The -ecclesiastical showman drew our attention to the pure Oriental -character of the workmanship of the sacred slipper, but I declare -frankly that it was not until the Protestant pastor of the town -mentioned the fact next day that I realised that the shoe was "a No. -9!" Among the other contents of the sacristy we noted two maces, one -of elaborate design richly ornamented in silver, and the other of -plain wood only slightly carved. We were told they were carried in -funeral processions, "the ornamental one for people of good family and -the plain one for common folk." Oh, land of liberty, equality, -fraternity! - -After exhibiting to us the costly vestments of the bishops, canons, -and other dignitaries of the church, the sacristan came with us to -point out the far-famed Black Virgin of the cathedral, which a first -inspection of the interior had failed to reveal to us. We now found it -to be a small and ugly image fixed above the high altar. It was hardly -bigger than a child's doll, and was dressed in a little coat of rich -brocade. From the middle of the idol a smaller head, presumably that -of the Holy Child, projected through the cloth, and this, like the -head of the larger figure, wore a heavy crown of bright gilt. I do not -pretend to remember one tithe of the miracles attributed to this most -venerated object by our good friend, but I know at least that he -assured me it had burned for thirty-six hours during the Revolution -without being consumed, and had thrice been thrown by sacrilegious -hands into the river Borne, only to reappear mysteriously in its place -over the altar. This story does not run on all fours with the curt -description of the image given by M. Paul Joanne in his guide to the -Cevennes--"an imitation of the old Madonna destroyed in the -Revolution." It is eminently a case in which "you pays your money and -you takes your choice." I reckoned the entertainment provided by the -sacristan cheap at a franc. - - -IV. - -Enough, perhaps, has been indicated to give some idea of the -superstitious character of the people of Le Puy. Nowhere in France -have I found so many evidences of mediæval superstition; the Black -Virgin is throned supreme in the minds of the people, and, unlike most -French communities--if we except the priest-ridden peasantry of -Brittany--the men-folk of Le Puy seem to be as devoted as their women -to the church. The black coats of the clergy swarm in street and -alley. In the town itself there are many institutions packed with -young priests, and some little way out, on the banks of the Borne, -there is a training school as large as a military barracks, with the -pale faces of black-gowned youths peeping from many windows. Almost -every conceivable type of priest is to be encountered here, from the -gaunt, ascetic enthusiast to the fat and ruby-nosed Friar Tuck. The -people of the southern highlands, like the old-fashioned folk of -Scotland, have had for generations a passion to see at least one of -their family in the priesthood, apart very often from any -consideration of fitness, moral or intellectual. Here, as I should -judge, is the reason for one's seeing so many coarse and ignorant -faces among the priests of Le Puy. - -The gigantic figure of the Virgin crowning the rock of Corneille, -behind the cathedral, is reached by a long and toilsome pathway, but -the view from the top--for the statue is hollow, and contains a -stairway inside with numerous peep-holes--is perhaps unequalled in the -whole of France. For mile upon mile the country stretches away in -great billowy masses of dark mountain and green plain, and the little -white houses with their red roofs are sprinkled everywhere around Le -Puy, suggesting a sweet and wholesome country life that is hard to -reconcile with the dark superstition of the town. This monument, -however, is of little interest--a vulgar modern affair cast from 213 -guns taken at Sebastopol. More to our taste is the quaint little -building called the Baptistry of St. John, which, standing near the -cathedral, takes us back to the fourth century, and earlier still, for -it is built on the foundation of an ancient Roman temple. You see, Le -Puy was a flourishing Roman town when our forefathers in England were -living in wattle huts. We have made some progress in England since -those far-off days, but here, though changes rude and great have taken -place, one may reasonably doubt whether there is much to choose -between the present condition of Le Puy and that vanished past. - - [Illustration: _Image of the Black Virgin in the Cathedral_] - - [Illustration: _Remains of Roman Temple, Le Puy, with a fountain to - Virgin, a Calvary, and the Mairie_ - - LE PUY] - - -V. - -Threading our way downhill among the filthy _ruelles_, we pass into -the wide and modern Boulevard Carnot, where the Sunday market is being -held and everything may be bought, from a tin-opener to a donkey, from -a rosary to a cow. A spirited statue of the great La Fayette, who was -born not far away, at the castle of Chavagnac, stands at the top of -this street, where the new Boulevard Gambetta strikes westward with -its clanging electric trams. Down near the river-side, where the -market comes to an end, we visit the old church of the Dominicans, -dedicated to St. Laurence, and in a dark and musty corner we are shown -a tomb with a recumbent figure carved upon it. Here reposes, we are -told, the dust of the greatest of the heroes of old France--none other -than that mighty warrior Du Guesclin, memories of whom the wanderer in -French by-ways meets with as often as the tourist in England comes -upon a house that sheltered Charles II. after the battle of Worcester. -There is every reason for believing that the valorous but ugly Du -Guesclin--he was an "object of aversion" to his own parents--was -buried at St. Denis, but my excellent M. Joanne assures me that this -statue is an authentic likeness of the hero; and the _Encyclopædia -Britannica_ (which in another place mentions St. Denis as the place of -burial) says that the church of St. Laurence "contains the remains of -Du Guesclin." What will you? - -The electric tram lands us at the suburb of Espaly, and from the high -road we could almost throw a stone to the massive rock, with its -castle-like walls enclosing on the top a little garden of trees. But -it is another matter to pick our way, ankle-deep in mire, to the -entrance-gate, through the hovels that surround it. Clustering to the -rock we pass are buildings from which priests and "sisters" come and -go with a surprising mingling of the sexes, and when we have climbed -to the top a dark-eyed sister shows us for half a franc a collection -of the most extraordinary Romish trash we have ever looked upon. The -chapel is free to us, and within its incense-laden interior we find -several comfortable priests poring over books or sitting with -insensate stare at the candles burning on a particularly tawdry altar. -The place is in a way unique, as the chapel is not a building at all, -but is hewn out of the volcanic rock, being thus an artificial grotto -consecrated to worship. Its rough walls are hung with votive tablets -and studded with crude stuccos of many saints, giving it the -appearance of a toy bazaar. Only recently the large bronze statue of -St. Joseph that crowned the rock of Espaly, above the grotto-chapel, -was blown down, and visitors are invited to contribute towards the -cost of replacing it. - -A little distance away is the higher and more remarkable volcanic mass -known as the Pic d'Aiguille, with a handsome and well-proportioned -church upon its summit. One has to climb a long and winding footpath -and then close on three hundred steps to reach the building, which we -found quite deserted, some village lads doing the "cake-walk" around -an angelic form with a box of donations to St. Michael, the patron -saint of the deserted sanctuary. These _gamins_ also seemed to derive -much pleasure from ringing the bell still hanging in the ancient -tower. It was a matter of speculation why the priests should continue -to use the stuffy and unwholesome grotto of St. Joseph, with this -airy, noble building lying vacant. We can only suppose that the toil -of climbing the higher rock is greater than their zeal. Near by the -base of the Pic d'Aiguille one notices a curious conjunction of old -paganism and modern mariolatry--an ancient temple of Diana flanked by -a massive crucifix on the one hand and a modern Gothic fountain and -shrine to the Virgin on the other. - - -VI. - -After all, and somewhat unwillingly, I find that I have written rather -of the religious side of this interesting town than of its -picturesqueness. But sensational as the first impression of its unique -and beautiful outlines undoubtedly is, it is not that, nor yet the -quaint and entertaining habits of the people, that comes uppermost in -the mind after some days' acquaintance with the place. One leaves Le -Puy convinced, almost at a glance, of its claim to be considered the -most picturesque town in Europe, but depressed with the abounding -evidence that its people, despite their electric trams and their fine -modern buildings, are still largely the thralls of darkest -superstition. For the difference between the religion that here passes -for Roman Catholicism and that we know by the same name in England is -greater than the difference between the latter and the most -Calvanistic Protestantism. To me, at least, Le Puy will be ever the -city of the Black Virgin. - - - - - [Illustration: THE CHURCH OF ST. MICHAEL, LE PUY] - - [Illustration: HOUSE OF DU CHAYLA, AT PONT DE MONTVERT - - "Du Chayla's house still stands, with a new roof, beside one of the - bridges of the town; and if you are curious you may see the - terrace-garden into which he dropped."--R. L. S.] - - - - -The Country of the Camisards - - "These are the Cevennes with an emphasis: the Cevennes of - the Cevennes."--R. L. STEVENSON. - - -I. - -The word Camisard in the south of France, like Covenanter in Scotland, -recalls - - "Old, unhappy, far-off things, - And battles long ago." - -Both describe people who had much in common, for the Camisards were -the Covenanters of France. The origin of the term need not detain us -more than a moment. It is variously attributed to the "Children of -God" having worn a _camise_, or linen shirt, as a sort of uniform; to -_camisade_, which means a night attack, that having been a feature of -their warfare; while some historians have derived it from _camis_, a -road runner. Enough that it stands for a race of people whose -devotion to the Reformed Faith, whose fearless stand for religious -liberty, entitles them to rank among the heroes of Protestantism. - -As one may suppose that the general reader, however well informed, is -likely to be somewhat hazy in his knowledge of the Camisards--unless, -indeed, he has had the good fortune to read one of the later, as it is -one of the best, of Mr. S. R. Crockett's romances, _Flower-o'-the-Corn_, -which gives a vivid and moving picture of the Protestant rebellion in -the Cevennes--it may be well that I set down at once a brief outline -of the events which, two centuries ago, made these highlands of the -South one of the historic regions in storied France. - -The revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685, was a transforming -episode in the history of Europe. It represented the triumphant issue -of the sinister policy of the Jesuits, who had long been scheming to -undo the work of the Huguenot wars, whereby the rights of Protestants -to hold public worship and to take part in the government of the -country had been recognised as a sort of political compromise. - -The atrocities inflicted by the Roman Catholics on their -fellow-citizens of the Protestant faith during the reign of terror, -which began in October of 1685, need not be recalled; they are among -the blackest pages in the annals of Romish tyranny. But we must know -that in the mountainous regions of the south of France, where the work -of the Reformation had been fruitful, and blessed in inverse ratio to -the poverty of the people and the barrenness of their country, these -hardy hill folk were too poor to quit their villages, and too devoted -to their religious faith to submit meekly to the new order. Like all -peoples whose lot it is to scrape a scanty living from a grudging -soil, the inhabitants of the Cevennes resemble in many ways the -Highlanders of Scotland and Wales. We find in them the same qualities -of sturdy independence, patience, endurance; the same strain of -gravity, associated with a deep fervour for the things that are -eternal. Thus isolated in their mountain fastnesses, hemmed in by the -ravening hordes of Catholicism and constituted authority, they -determined to fight for the faith they valued more than life. In this -hour of awful trial it was not surprising that, out of the frenzy of -despair, strange things were born, and an era of religious hysteria -began, simple women, poor ignorant men, children even, in great -numbers, being thought to come under the direct inspiration of God, -arising as "prophets" to urge the rude mountaineers into a holy war -with "His Most Christian Majesty, Louis, King of France and -Brittany." - -But although there had been many encounters of an irregular kind -between the Camisards and the leagued officials of Pope and King in -the closing years of the seventeenth century, it was not until that -weird figure, Spirit Séguier, who has been called the "Danton of the -Cevennes," planned the murder of the Archpriest du Chayla at the -little town of Pont de Montvert, on the 23rd of July, 1702, that the -first blow in the Protestant rebellion may be said to have been -struck. Of this tragic event R. L. Stevenson writes: - -"A persecution, unsurpassed in violence, had lasted near a score of -years, and this was the result upon the persecuted: hanging, burning, -breaking on the wheel, had been in vain; the dragoons had left their -hoof-marks over all the country side; there were men rowing in the -galleys, and women pining in the prisons of the Church; and not a -thought was changed in the heart of any upright Protestant." - -On the 12th of August, nineteen days after the murder of the -Archpriest, the right hand of Séguier was stricken from his body, and -he was burned alive at the spot where he had driven home the first -knife into the oppressor of his people. - - [Illustration: TWO VIEWS IN THE VILLAGE OF LA CAVALERIE - - Scene of Mr. Crockett's romance "Flower-o'-the-Corn."] - - -II. - -So began the war of the Camisards, for the faggots that burned the -prophet only added to the fire he lighted when he struck at Du Chayla. -Presently his place, as leader of the revolt, was taken by an old -soldier named Laporte, who gave the rising a touch of military -discipline, and soon the Camisards had many captains, all men who -believed themselves endowed with the gift of prophecy. - -The Protestants of the Cevennes, thorough in every habit of life, took -up their arms and set about the making of entrenchments and works of -defence with the determination of men prepared to fight to a finish. -It is easy for us in these peaceful days to deprecate their vengeful -deeds, but let us remember, in charity, that if they met -blood-thirstiness with the same, they were maddened by a system of -oppression so brutal as to be almost beyond our belief. Their leader, -Roland, issued a dispatch which for callous suggestion has seldom been -equalled in the annals of war: "We, Count and Lord Roland, -Generalissimo of the Protestants of France, we decree that you have to -make away with, in three days, all the priests and missionaries who -are among you, under pain of being burned alive, yourselves as well as -they." - -But the most picturesque figure among the Camisards was introduced -when Jean Cavalier, a baker's apprentice at Geneva, returned to his -native mountains, and by sheer force of a military genius to which -history offers few parallels became the chief leader of the Camisards -while still in his teens. The story of his life is romantic beyond the -invention of any novelist. Not only did he succeed over a period of -three years in defending many important parts of the Cevennes from -organised attacks, but in the course of that time he met and defeated -successively Count de Broglie and three Marshals of France--Montrevel, -Berwick, and Villars--although at one time there was a force of 60,000 -soldiers in the field against him. At Nages, a little village in the -southern Cevennes, he encountered Montrevel, and, outnumbered by five -to one, he succeeded, after a desperate conflict, in effecting a -successful retreat with more than two thirds of his thousand men. Not -even the blessings of the Pope on the royalist troops, and on the -"holy militia," raised among the Catholic population, brought the -submission of the Camisards one day nearer. Commander after commander -retired baffled, and Montrevel's policy of extermination--during which -four hundred and sixty-six villages in the Upper Cevennes were -burned, and most of the population put to the sword--left Cavalier, -still a mere lad, master of the southward mountains, threatening even -to attack the great city of Nimes. - -Marshal Villars, a renowned soldier, recognised the hopelessness of -continuing the methods of barbarism pursued by his predecessors, and -succeeded in concluding an honourable peace with Cavalier in the -summer of 1704, whereby the Camisards were granted certain important -rights affecting the liberty of conscience and of person. But Roland -and the more fanatical section of the Protestant army held out until -January of 1705, their battle-cry being, "No peace until we have our -churches," Cavalier's treaty having recognised the right to assemble -outside walled towns, but not in churches. - -It is this extraordinary baker's apprentice--who at twenty-four had -concluded a long and desperate war, in which he played a part entitling -him to be remembered with national heroes such as William Tell and Sir -William Wallace--that Mr. S. R. Crockett has made the chief figure in -his brilliant romance of the Cevennes, _Flower-o'-the-Corn_. - - -III. - -The little-known region of the Causses is "the Cevennes of the -Cevennes," but Stevenson in his travels did not visit the innermost -Cevennes, and was during most of his journey only on the outskirts of -the real country of the Camisards. The chief of these great plateaux -is the Causse de Sauveterre, which extends south-west from the town of -Mende for upwards of forty miles, and is in parts at least twenty -miles wide. It is divided from the Causse Méjan on the south by the -splendid gorges of the river Tarn, and due south of the Méjan, with -the beautiful valley of the Jonte between, lies the Causse Noir, some -twenty miles east and west, and ten from the Jonte on its north to the -no less beautiful glen on its south, where flows the river Dourbie. -Still southward, and with only this waterway dividing, extends the -splendid mass of the Causse du Larzac, some thirty miles in length, -from the neighbourhood of Millau to the ancient Roman town of Lodève, -which boasted a continuous bishopric from the year 323 to the -Revolution, and is now a bright and populous industrial centre. These -are the more notable of the Causses, and all, no doubt, formed one -mighty plateau in prehistoric times; but numerous swift flowing -rivers have through the ages worn them asunder, producing a series of -magnificent ravines that contain some of the finest scenery in France, -and on whose sides we can trace the slow and steady work of the -streams wearing down to their present courses through the limestone, -the local name for which is _cau_, whence _causse_. - - [Illustration: LA CAVALERIE, WITHIN THE CAMISARD WALL - - (_From a photograph by_ Mr. S. R. CROCKETT)] - - [Illustration: ST. VERNAN, IN THE VALLEY OF THE DOURBIE] - -To describe the character of the Camisard country, and to convey some -idea of it to English readers, is no easy matter, since there is -nothing in the British Islands, and little elsewhere in Europe, to -which it may be readily compared. Yet the effort must be made, since -the peculiar nature of the country is of first importance to the -understanding of its people and their historic resistance of all the -might of France two centuries ago. - -Conceive, then, a vast expanse of rugged and rock-strewn land, -covering it may be an area of two or three hundred square miles, and -terminating abruptly on every side in mighty ravines, or ending in -precipitous cliffs, that look down on wide and fertile valleys, frown -on smiling plains. This is what the word Causse stands for, and the -wonder is that folk should be content to live in dreary little -villages high up on these stony fields, when a thousand feet and more -in the plains and valleys below rich and fruitful soil invites the -husbandman. But so it is, and in this region of France we have the -strange circumstance of two peoples, differing in many essentials of -character, living within a day's walk of each other, and mingling but -little in the intercourse of life. As you thread your way through the -valleys of the Tarn, the Dourbie, or any of the other streams that -follow the rifts between the Causses, you realise that up there among -the clouds live people who have small commerce with their fellows in -the valleys, and in such a town as Millau, whose inhabitants must look -each day of their lives at the giant walls of the Causse Noir and the -Larzac, upreared to the immediate east of their own paved streets, -there are thousands who have never scaled these heights. - -Mr. Crockett gives us this graphic word-picture of the Larzac: - -"The surface of the Causse--once Yvette had attained to the higher -levels--spread out before her, plain as the palm of a hand, save for -those curiously characteristic rocks, which, apparently without -connection with the underlying limestone, stand out like icebergs out -of the sea, irregular, pinnacled, the debris of temples destroyed or -ever foot of man trod there--spires, gargoyles, hideous monsters, all -dejected in some unutterable catastrophe, and become more horrible in -the moonlight, or, on the other hand, modified to the divine calm of -the Bhudda himself, by some effect of illumination or trick of cloud -umbration.... - -"A wonderful land, this of the Causses, where the rain never comes to -stay. Indeed, it might as well rain on a vast dry sponge, thirty miles -across and four or five thousand feet in height. The sheep up there -never drink. They only eat the sparse tender grass when the dew is -upon it. Yet from their milk the curious cheese called Roquefort is -made, which, being kept long in cool limestone cellars--the cellules -of the stony sponge--puts on something of the flavour of the rock -plants--thyme, juniper, dwarf birch, honeysweet heath--from which it -was distilled." - - -IV. - -A country better adapted to the exigencies of defence against an -attacking army from the plains could not be imagined, for, as the -novelist says in another passage, "It seemed impossible for any living -thing to descend those frowning precipices. Even in broad daylight the -task appeared more suited to goats than to men." The roads which now -connect these great uplands with the lower country are marvels of -engineering, and you can count as many as twenty or thirty "elbows" -in the track, from the point at which it leaves the valley until it -disappears over the edge of the table-land, the entire length of it -being in view at one stroke of the eye. The task of ascending is -laborious in the extreme, and much sitting at cafés, which is the -habit of the townsfolk, does not equip them for the undertaking. Few -wayfarers are encountered, and when the summit of the Causse is gained -the signs of life are still meagre. The roads, now flat and dusty, lie -like bright ribbons on a dull and melancholy stretch of earth. Here -and there a lonely shepherd is seen tending a flock of shabby-looking -sheep, that crop the sparse herbage in fields where stones are more -plentiful than grass. - -Miss M. Betham-Edwards is one of the few writers who have visited this -little-known corner of France, and in the following passage she refers -to what is perhaps its most curious feature: - - [Illustration: THE WAY OVER THE LARZAC - - (_From a Photograph by_ Mr. S. R. CROCKETT)] - -"Another striking feature of the arid, waterless upper region is the -_aven_, or yawning chasm, subject of superstitious awe and terror -among the country people. Wherever you go you find the _aven_; in the -midst of a field--for parts of this sterile soil have been laid under -cultivation--on the side of a vertical cliff, of divers shapes and -sizes: these mysterious openings are locally known as 'Trous -d'enfer' (mouths of hell). Alike, fact and legend have increased the -popular dread. It was known that many an unfortunate sheep or goat had -fallen into some abyss, never, of course, to be heard of after. It was -said that a jealous seigneur of these regions had been seen thus to -get rid of his young wife--one tradition out of many. According to the -country-folk of Padirac, the devil, hurrying away with a captured -soul, was overtaken by St. Martin on horseback. A struggle, amid -savage scenery, ensued for possession of the soul. 'Accursed saint,' -cried Satan, 'thou wilt hardly leap my ditch'--with a tap of his heel -opening the rock before them, splitting it in two--the enormous chasm, -as he thought, making pursuit impossible. But St. Martin's steed -leaped it at a bound, the soul was rescued, and the prince of -darkness, instead of the saint, sent below." - -Many of the _avens_ have been explored by M. E. A. Martel, and his -adventures in these underground tunnels and caves have rarely been -equalled in modern exploration. - - -V. - -The scene of _Flower-o'-the-Corn_, so far as it is laid in the -Cevennes, occupies but a small part of that splendid chain of -mountains, but it is perhaps the most picturesque part. Much of the -action is centred in the little Camisard town of La Cavalerie, situate -at an altitude of nearly 2,500 feet on the lonely plateau of the -Larzac, some ten miles along the main road from Millau, a beautiful -and important cathedral town in the valley of the Tarn. To-day, as in -the past, the innkeeper is usually the man of most importance in these -mountain towns, but I have visited no _auberge_ that would compare, in -romantic situation, with that so graphically described by Mr. Crockett -under the style of "le Bon Chrétien" at La Cavalerie: - -"To those unacquainted with the plan of such southern houses, it might -have been remarkable how quickly the remembrance of the strange -entrance-hall beneath was blotted out. At the first turn of the -staircase the ammoniacal stable smell was suddenly left behind. At the -second, there, in front of the ascending guest, was a fringed mat -lying on the little landing. At the third Maurice found himself in a -wide hall, lighted from the front, with an outlook upon an inner -courtyard in which was a Judas-tree in full leaf, with seats of wicker -and rustic branches set out. Here and there in the shade stood small -round tables, pleasantly retired, all evidencing a degree of -refinement to which Maurice had been a stranger ever since he left -those inns upon the post-roads of England, which were justly held to -be the wonder of the world." - -One fears that the "good old times" have disappeared from the Causses, -as most of the inns, built, like many of the houses, in sunk positions -by the roadside, so that one enters on the top flat, sometimes by way -of a crazy wooden bridge, are sad advertisements of poverty. The -houses are often like that in which Mr. Crockett's heroine lodged in -the little Camisard town of St. Vernan, in the valley of the Dourbie, -"built out like a swallow's nest over the abyss." For it is noteworthy -that most of these highland villages cluster along the river courses, -as though the hill-folk were fain to have the sound of the glad waters -in their ears. In the valley of the Jonte I marvelled often at these -"swallows' nests." Many of the cottages have a scrap of garden, -surrounded by a wall not higher than three feet, from the base of -which the cliff sweeps down at an acute angle to the river bed, six -hundred feet below. Children play in these tiny eeries with as little -concern as youngsters in a city court. - -Not all the surface of these great table-lands lies flat and -stone-strewn; one will often come on dark forests of pines, and -sometimes the woodman has a better return for his labour than the -shepherd. But on every hand the conditions of life are primitive -beyond anything in our own land. Here, more frequently than in his -native Normandy, may we find the sullen clod depicted by Millet in the -"Man with the Hoe." "Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox," as -Markham has described him in his powerful poem. It is, indeed, -difficult to realise that among these crumbling villages and beggarly -fields we are in the heart of fair France. - - -VI. - -There is little to choose between the Catholic and Protestant -villages; all are more or less in a state of dilapidation, all have -poverty written on their walls; but to mingle with the people and -discuss affairs with them, quite apart from all questions of religion, -is a sure and ready way to discover how great is the difference -between the two classes. The one is usually a sullen and unintelligent -mortal, tied neck and crop to the stony soil on which he has been -born; the other bright, receptive of ideas, quick with life and hope, -and, if he be old, happy in the knowledge that his sons have gone -forth from this bare land equipped by the liberal training of the -Protestant schools to take dignified part in the great life of the -Republic. For you will find that even in the veritable strongholds -of a debased and superstitious Catholicism all the important officials -are Protestants. - - [Illustration: MILLAU, WITH VIEW OF THE CAUSSE NOIR] - - [Illustration: ON THE CAUSSE DU LARZAC] - -The Protestants of to-day are no unworthy descendants of the men whom -Cavalier led against the forces of civil and religious tyranny, and -though these lonely mountains shelter also many who are still willing -slaves of the yoke which the sturdy "Sons of God" endeavoured to shake -off for ever, the Camisards of two centuries ago did not fight and die -in vain; their children's children are to-day the little leaven that -may yet "leaven the whole lump." - - - - -The Wonderland of France - - -I. - -"Whatever you do, you must not miss the valley of the Tarn--the finest -scenery in Europe." Thus wrote a celebrated novelist and traveller to -me when sending some hints on my projected tour in the Cevennes, a -district which to Mr. S. R. Crockett is almost as familiar as his own -romantic Galloway. I have good reason to be grateful for his advice, -as the river Tarn is the waterway through what I shall venture to call -the Wonderland of France. A clever writer has observed that "there are -landscapes which are insane," and truly in this little-known corner of -southern France nature has performed some of her maddest, most -fantastic freaks. Here she is seen in a mood more sensational than the -weird imaginings of a Gustave Doré; there is no scenery that I have -looked upon or read about in any other part of Europe comparable with -this of the Tarn. In the old world at least it is unique, and we have -to go for comparison to the renowned cañons of the Colorado. - -Not the least curious feature of the story of the Tarn, its awesome -gorges and wondrous caverns, is the fact that less than thirty years -ago the region was "discovered" to France by M. E. A. Martel, the -celebrated grottologist, with as much éclat as it had been an island -in an unknown sea. Of course, the whole district, like every other -part of France, had long ago taken its place in history and romance; -but although many a generation of peasant folk and monkish -fraternities had lived out their lives in these southern fastnesses, -the Tarn country-side had not before been explored by one in search of -the picturesque or the wonders of Nature. Thus, in every sense of the -word, M. Martel is to be reckoned a discoverer, and the surprise is -that, despite a somewhat tiresome journey, there are so few English -tourists who find their way to this enchanted land. The journey is no -more fatiguing than that to Geneva or Lucerne, which in the summer -months swarm with English visitors, and, for all their beauties, -possess nothing to equal the natural glories of the Tarn. - - [Illustration: ON THE TARN - - "One sits as in a cockle shell on the Enchanted Sea, gliding along - magically amid scenes of unequalled splendour."] - -There are several ways of reaching this little-known corner of France, -but the best is undoubtedly by way of Mende, a fine town 434 miles -south of Paris, "chief place" of the Department of the Lozère. Mende, -although one of the cleanest and brightest of the French towns, with a -population of less than 10,000, and pleasantly situated in a wide -green valley, with low and sparsely-timbered hills billowing on every -side under a sky so blue and in atmosphere so clear that the eye seems -to acquire an unusual power of vision, would scarcely be worth the -journey for itself alone. But it is the real starting-place for the -descent of the Tarn gorges, and it possesses many excellent hotels and -an ample service of coaches for the journey across the great plateau -of the Causse de Sauveterre to Ste. Enimie, a distance of about -eighteen miles. This would be the most convenient route for the -traveller who depended upon the train and coach for his locomotion, -but those who, like the writer, make use of the bicycle, would be well -advised to make Florac their starting-point, as not the least -beautiful part of the river scenery lies between that pretty little -town and Ste. Enimie. - - -II. - -It fitted well with my plans one summer to explore a much longer reach -of the Tarn than most visitors are in the habit of following, and I -should have been sorry indeed to have missed any part of the journey. -In company with another friend of the wheel, I struck eastward from -Mende along the lovely valley of the Lot, and crossing the great -mountain range that gives its name to the Department of the Lozère we -first came upon the Tarn at Pont de Montvert, some fourteen miles -north-east of Florac, at which point R. L. Stevenson began his -acquaintance with the river. From this sleepy old town the river runs -through a deep and narrow valley, the slopes thick with mighty -chestnut trees, and the scenery in parts somewhat reminiscent of our -Scottish Highlands, and totally unlike those reaches which, in its -south-westerly course, render it unique among the rivers of Europe. -For a few miles beyond Florac the aspect of the country is somewhat -similar in kind, but on a more massive scale, the valley wider and -more pastoral; but when one has reached the little town of Ispagnac, -which sits snugly amid its fruitful orchards, the real character of -the Tarn begins to reveal itself. - -It was after sunset when we had come thus far on our journey to Ste. -Enimie, a distance of about seven miles from Florac, and never am I -likely to forget the weird and thrilling impression of our passage -from Ispagnac to Ste. Enimie, a matter of fifteen miles. The night -comes quickly in that latitude, and as we advanced along the -well-made road that follows the sinuous course of the river, at first -mounting steadily until the noise of the water is heard but faintly -far below, and then for mile upon mile gradually tending downward, the -gloaming deepened into dark, and the gorge of the river, at all times -awe-inspiring, took on in many a strange and mysterious shadow of the -night a moving touch of Dantesque grandeur. We had left behind us all -the tree-bearing slopes, and the river now ran in a great chasm of -volcanic cliffs, shooting their fantastic pinnacles a thousand feet -into the darkling sky, and presenting many an outline that might have -been mistaken for the towers and bastions of some eerie stronghold. -Not a soul was passed on all the miles of road, no sound was heard but -the varying noise of the water, nothing moved in our path except an -occasional bat, that zigzagged its noiseless flight across the road. -One sat on the saddle with a tight hold on the handle bars, and kept -as close as possible to the uprising rock, for towards the river was a -sheer drop of some 500 feet, and only a low coping stood between us -and disaster. So tortuous was the road, that, being at one time some -little distance in advance of my companion, I awaited his approach, -and could see the light of his lamp shoot out like a will-o'-the-wisp -into the middle of an abyss, and then disappear in a hollow of the -rocks, only to emerge again and flash upon an uncanny bridge across -some gaping gully. For a considerable time we gazed enraptured on -Venus, which is here seen with a radiance seldom witnessed in England, -and seemed to lie like a glittering gem on the very brow of a mighty -cliff. Presently summer lightning began to play along the riven lips -of the valley, and continued at thrilling intervals to add a touch of -dramatic intensity to a scene already sensational enough. - -The only place of habitation through which we passed was the little -village of Prades, where the lighted window of a café with noise of -merriment within, and the solemn gruntling of oxen in an open stable, -gave one a little human encouragement though the street lay void and -black. As you may suppose, it was with no small satisfaction that we -at length wheeled into Ste. Enimie at half-past nine o'clock, and -found mine host of the Hôtel de Paris delighted to welcome two belated -voyagers. - - -III. - -Ste. Enimie, which has a population of 1,000, is the chief town of its -canton, and is cosily tucked away close by the river side in a great -amphitheatre of hills and cliffs, the meeting-place of three important -highways: that by which we had come, and the road across the -Sauveterre from La Canourgue, and that across the other mighty -plateau, the Causse Méjan. The town is of great antiquity, and is said -to owe its origin to a certain princess named Enimie, daughter of -Clotaire II., who, being tainted with leprosy, was cured by some -waters at this place, and founded a monastery here at the close of the -sixth century. This religious house became one of the richest in all -Gévaudan, but was suppressed, like so many of its kind, at the time of -the great Revolution. The remains of the building are still an -interesting feature of the place, and high on the cliff above is the -hermitage of the saint, a little chapel built about the cave in which -she is supposed to have slept. The river is here crossed by a splendid -bridge, which the builders were busy improving at the time of our -visit. - - [Illustration: A ROCKY DEFILE ON THE TARN - - _Showing the mass of the Causse Méjan rising on the left_] - - [Illustration: IN THE GORGE OF THE TARN - - "The river roars between precipices, that rise sheer and stupendous - from its brink."] - -While the mistress of the hotel was preparing what we later pronounced -a most excellent meal, mine host was telling me surprising things in -the dining-room, to which one gained access through a fine -old-fashioned kitchen. With one of Taride's large scale maps before -me, whereon was shown a "national road" right through the gorges of -the Tarn to Millau, I asked for some particulars of the route, and was -smilingly informed that it did not yet exist. - -"But it is here, shown by a thick red line, on this map." - -"Quite so, m'sieu; many cyclists come here with a map like that and -think they can cycle all the way. But there is no road as yet, though -in five years or six there will be one. The only way to descend the -Tarn from here to Le Rozier is in a barque." - -Now, experience has made me doubtful of anything a hotel-keeper in a -tourist resort will tell you about boats and coaches, for you never -know to what extent he is financially interested in the matter, and he -of the Hôtel de Paris was avowedly the agent of the company to whom -belong the boats used for the descent of the river. Although his hotel -had a modern and well-appointed annexe--token of the growing -popularity of the place where hotels are rapidly increasing--in person -he resembled a brigand grown stout with easeful days, and one -naturally grew more suspicious when he protested that it would not -make the difference of a sou to him whether we went by boat or toiled -ourselves to death across the mountains. A good friend at Florac--none -other than the Free Church minister--had also assured us there was no -road beyond Ste. Enimie, but that the boat charges were not dear. "Nor -are they," said the hotel-keeper; "it is only thirty-six francs -(thirty shillings) all the way, which is very cheap." We were unable -to see eye to eye with him then, but subsequently came round to his -opinion when we knew how much labour and skill could be purchased for -this modest outlay. - - -IV. - -You must know that the Tarn and its ways are not to be measured by the -ordinary experiences of holiday travel. At seven o'clock in the -morning you wake and breakfast without loss of time, in order to set -out without delay and reach Le Rozier, thirty miles to the south, in -time for six o'clock dinner. On the beach, close by the hotel, lie a -number of flat-bottomed barques, rudely constructed affairs, exactly -similar to fishing-punts used in shallow English waters. A plank of -wood with a back to it, and covered with a loose cushion, is laid -athwart the primitive craft, and here you take your seat. It is -possible, I believe, for six passengers to be carried, but personally -I should be loath to trust myself in such a boat with more than four, -for two boatmen are necessary to each punt. The charge is for the boat -irrespective of numbers, so that we might have had two more in ours -without adding to the cost, but our bicycles helped us to square -matters. Our boatmen were rough, half-shaven fellows, and he who took -his place at the stern seemed to have been drinking unnecessarily -early in the morning. But both knew their business thoroughly, and -were alive to every current and whirlpool in the river. - -Their system of navigation is at once simple and effective, the only -possible method of using the water-way. Armed with a strong pole, they -stand, the one in front and the other behind, and allow the barque to -glide down the swift current of the river, which runs, as I should -judge, at six or eight miles an hour. Its course is broken up by -innumerable gravel beds and rocky snags, and while we seem to be on -the very instant of dashing into a seething whirlpool one of the -boatmen will, with admirable precision, jab his pole into a hidden -gravel bank and thrust the boat once more into the main current. -Beautiful was it to watch how skilfully the men made use of this -current, and that, guiding the frail craft straight into what seemed a -perilous swirl of breakers, only that they might avail themselves of a -different current resulting therefrom, and pilot us into a quiet pool -by the beach on the very lip of a thundering weir. - - [Illustration: THE CHATEAU DE LA CAZE ON THE TARN - - "One of the most beautiful and romantic pictures is supplied by the - ancient Castle of La Caze, which occupies a sheltered corner in a bend - of the river."] - -It is indeed difficult to convey any adequate idea of the sensation of -such a journey, where the water itself is at once the element and the -cause of the progress. One sits as in a cockle shell on the enchanted -sea, gliding along magically amid scenes of unequalled splendour; -but, alas! the bronzed youth at the prow and the hairy wine-bibber at -the stern are no creatures of fairyland, but the very serviceable -mortals without whose aid the wonders of the Tarn would have remained -to this day as distant as the realms of faëry. - -The panorama, which seems to pass us slowly on both sides of the -river--for the absence of mechanical propulsion gives one the illusion -of sitting still while the cliffs on each hand move past the boat--is -of ceaseless change. For a time the hills reach up, green and -carefully cultivated, to the higher basaltic cliffs, that rise -perpendicular to the edge of the plateau, a thousand feet or more -above our level, and then as they suddenly narrow, with never a -foothold for the tiniest of creatures, the river roars between -precipices that soar sheer and stupendous from its water, or in some -cases lean forward so that at a little distance both sides seem to -meet and form an arch across the stream. And the whole is rich in -colour, the prevailing grey of the rocks being varied by great masses -in which warm reds and browns occur, while every crevice is picked out -with greenery, and wherever the foot of venturesome man can scramble -there have been those bold enough to terrace patches of the slopes -where vines and even tiny crops of wheat contrive to grow. One of the -most beautiful and romantic pictures is supplied by the ancient -castle of La Caze, which occupies a sheltered corner in a bend of the -river, where above it the cliffs uprear with great hollows and -rotundities, illustrating how in the unknown ages the water has eaten -its way down from the upper level to its present bed. - -The Château de La Caze is set about by many tall and leafy trees, and -one could imagine no holiday more enjoyable than a few days passed -here, for--Oh, ye romantic and practical Frenchmen!--the castle has -been transformed into an hotel, where all the appointments and even -the costumes of the servants recall the Middle Ages in which it was -built. As we approached, one of our boatmen took up a large conch and, -blowing into it, set the gorge echoing as from a foghorn; but we had -decided not to visit the château, as it was our purpose to lunch -farther down at La Malene, and the sounding of the conch was meant -only to attract the attention of some of the servants, to whom our -boatmen shouted that we had thrown on the river-bank about a quarter -of a mile above the castle a sack of loaves for its inmates. - - -V. - -Between Ste. Enimie and La Malène there are four or five points at -which we have to change our barque, where the river leaps over -dangerous weirs, and several changes are necessary on the lower beach. -It is due to this manoeuvring and to a wait of nearly two hours at La -Malène, while the bateliers lunch and gossip boisterously at one of the -hotels--the voyageurs also being not unmindful of refreshment--that -Le Rozier is not reached until six o'clock, despite the rapid course -of the river. - -La Malène is one of the three places south of Ste. Enimie, and still -in the real cañon of the Tarn, where the river is crossed by bridges; -all splendid structures, designed to withstand the spring floods when -the current carries with it many a mighty block of ice and all sorts -of debris from the hills. The first and newest of the bridges is -passed at St. Chely, a small and dirty, but extremely picturesque, -hamlet half-way between Ste. Enimie and La Malène, where we explored a -wonderful series of ancient cave dwellings, and where, by the way, an -enterprising photographer has joined the modern to the prehistoric by -painting an advertisement of his wares on the face of the cliff -overlooking the former haunts of the Troglodites. - -La Malène is, to my thinking, one of the most beautiful points on the -route. The little town sits in the mouth of a great ravine that -reaches far into the Causse de Sauveterre, and on the opposite side -the majestic mass of the Causse Méjan climbs to well-nigh 1,800 feet -above the river, the mountain road wriggling upward from the bridge in -a series of wonderful twists and turns, "exactly like an apple paring -thrown over the shoulder of the engineer," as Mr. Crockett has said of -another highway in the farther south. It takes a man, walking at his -best, more than an hour to climb that same road, as I can testify, and -never for a moment during the ascent is the little town at the foot -out of view. This will convey some idea of the barrenness of the -mountain-side, where cattle and sheep crop a scanty herbage on fields -that slope like the roof of a house and are thickly strewn with stones -and boulders. At La Malène also there is a mediæval castle, which, -like La Caze, is the property of that great tourist agency, "La France -Pittoresque," and now serves as a hotel; but we were more interested -in the old church of Romanesque design, where we saw the common grave -of the thirty-nine villagers who were slain by the Republican troops -during the Terror, and are remembered throughout the Cevennes as "the -Martyrs of La Malène." It is striking proof of the terrible -thoroughness of that bloody regime that even to this remote and -sequestered nook the gory hand of the Terror stretched out. - - [Illustration: PEYRELAU, IN THE VALLEY OF THE JONTE] - -The French are the best of all road-makers; more than any of the -Latin peoples they have retained and fostered this gift of their Roman -forebears. The highway they are now constructing along the Tarn was -almost completed between St. Enimie and La Malène, at the time of our -passing, and a splendid road it promised to be, here running like a -gallery along the face of a cliff and there tunnelling some mighty -bluff that juts out into the cañon. But the river will always remain -the real highway, as the scenery can only be viewed to full advantage -from a seat in a barque, and the bateliers need not fear the -competition of the road that is in the making. - - -VI. - -If one were innocent enough to believe the boatmen who live by the -tourist traffic, it would be difficult to know which part of the Tarn -is the most beautiful. At St. Enimie you would be assured, in the -event of your being undecided as to the whole trip, that the stretch -between that town and La Malène was by far the best; while at La -Malène you would find the local boatmen emphatic as to the unrivalled -beauty of the cañon between that point and Les Vignes, where the third -bridge stands; and as surely when you arrived there you would be told -the Tarn was only beginning to be worth seeing from there to Le -Rozier! Naturally, it is impossible for two boatmen to take you a -voyage which, occupying twelve hours, requires more than double that -time and many times more energy, to bring the empty boats back to the -starting-places. Thus the bateliers are prejudiced in favour of their -own particular part of the journey, and the only way is to make the -entire trip; but indeed that is for all who do not cycle imperative, -as the expense of reaching a railway station from any of the places -mentioned before Le Rozier would be prohibitive, and one must continue -the journey from the last-named place to Millau by coach and train, -for which only a small charge is made. - -My own impression, if one can distinguish among scenes so differently -beautiful, is that the cañon between La Malène and Les Vignes presents -its most surprising aspect. At Les Detroits the giant walls lean -forward in a bold and menacing way, and further on, at the Cirque des -Baumes and Les Baumes Basses, we see some of Nature's most picturesque -effects, while the Pas de Soucy is a wild and thrilling part of the -journey, where the great basaltic masses are scattered about as if an -awful earthquake had but recently shaken them into their fantastic -positions. - -But really there seems to be no end to the beauty of the Tarn, and -when one has arrived at Le Rozier fresh wonders await the eye, and -scenes rivalling anything we have witnessed are still to behold, if we -will make a short detour into the valley of the Jonte, where the -ancient town of Peyreleau sits like a queen enthroned among enfolding -hills. If one can go a little farther along this tributary of the Tarn -and visit the famous grotto of Dargilan, discovered by M. Martel in -1884, a strange and beautiful underworld, before which the most -extravagant fantasies of the Arabian Nights pale into insignificance, -will be revealed. There, by the light of torches, we can wander -through gigantic caverns of stalactite greater and more awe-inspiring -than any cathedral, and journey by canoe on underground rivers, in -what--those practical Frenchmen once again!--is "the property of the -Society 'La France Pittoresque.'" - -Even that part of the Tarn between Le Rozier and Millau, no longer a -gorge, but broadening into a smiling and fruitful valley, with the -great impregnable wall of the Causse Noir frowning along its eastern -length, is full of beautiful vistas; but the wild and rugged grandeur -of the cañon has given place to scenes of pleasant pastoral life, and -we cycle along a highway fringed with cherry trees in fruit, passing -many a populous little town before we enter the leafy boulevards of -the historic and prosperous city of Millau. - - - - - [Illustration: BEAUCAIRE: SHOWING CASTLE AND BRIDGE ACROSS THE RHONE - TO TARASCON] - - - - -The Town of "Tartarin" - - -I. - -The custom observed by English authors of giving fictitious names to -places described in works of romance--as for example, Mr. Hardy's -"Casterbridge" (Dorchester) and Mr. Barrie's "Thrums" (Kirriemuir)--has -so brought their readers to accept the most faithful realism for -romance, that when they take up a French novel they are apt to think -the places mentioned therein are treated in the same way. But those -who have any acquaintance with French fiction will know that the -novelists across the Channel follow a method entirely opposed to ours. -An English reader who may have enjoyed to the full the famous trilogy -of "Tartarin" books may well be excused if he supposes that the town -of Tarascon is largely a creation of their author, Alphonse Daudet. It -is true that if he has ever travelled from Paris to Marseilles by way -of Lyons and Avignon he will have passed through Tarascon, with its -wide and open station perched high on a viaduct, and the porter -bawling in his rich, southern tongue, "Tarascon, stop five minutes. -Change for Nîmes, Montpellier, Cette." And if he has--as he cannot -fail to have--delightful memories of the incomparable Tartarin, his -feet will itch to be out and wander the dusty streets in the hope of -looking upon the scenes of the hero's happy days; to peep perchance at -his tiny white-washed villa on the Avignon Road with its green -Venetian shutters, where the little bootblacks used to play about the -door and hail the great man as his portly figure stepped forth, bound -for the Alpine Club "down town." There would certainly be small other -reasons for tarrying at this ancient town of France; it owes such -interest as it possesses chiefly to the genius of Daudet, whose -inimitable humour has vivified and touched it with immortality. - -I had been wandering a-wheel over many a league of these fair southern -roads one summer before I found myself at the ancient Roman city of -Nîmes, the rarest treasure of France, and it was a visit to Daudet's -birthplace there that suggested the idea of going on to Tarascon a -desire intensified by the ardour of a gentleman from that town whom I -met at a hotel, and who perspired with indignation as he denounced -"that Daudet" for libelling the good folk of Tarascon. "Tartarin! The -whole thing's a farce. There never was such a man!" But he asserted -that the town was well worth seeing, if I could only forget Daudet's -ribald nonsense. - -It went well with my plans for reaching the main route back to Paris -to make a little journey through the fragrant olive groves along the -high road to Remoulins in order to visit the world-famous Roman -aqueduct known as the Pont du Gard, near to which a gipsy told -Tartarin he would one day be a king, and thence by the banks of the -river Gardon to Beaucaire and Tarascon. Not often have I made a -literary pilgrimage of so pleasant or profitable a nature. - - -II. - -You must know, of course, what a rare fellow this Tartarin -was--_Coquin de bon sort_! I am not sure that I should speak of him in -the past tense; although his creator eventually gathered him to his -fathers, Tartarin was built for immortality, and at most his passing -was a translation; he is for all time the archetype of southern -character, and Tarascon is alive with him to-day. Of medium height, -stout of body, scant of hair on his head, but bushy-whiskered and -jovial-faced, you will see his like sipping absinth at any café on -the promenade of the sleepy old town, or playing a game of billiards -with the grand manner of a Napoleon figuring out a campaign. - -Tartarin, blessed with all the imagination of the generous south, was -indeed an ineffectual Bonaparte, in the body of a good-natured -provincial. "We are both of the south," he observed to his devoted -admirer Pascalon, when that faithful henchman, at a crisis in -his hero's career, pointed out the similarity between him of -Corsica and him of Tarascon. Daudet makes him, in a bright flash of -self-knowledge, describe himself as "Don Quixote in the skin of Sancho -Panza," and Mr. Henry James has in this wise elaborated the point with -his usual deftness: - -"There are two men in Tartarin, and there are two men in all of us; -only, of course, to make a fine case, M. Daudet has zigzagged the line -of their respective oddities. As he says so amusingly in _Tartarin of -Tarascon_, in his comparison of the very different promptings of these -inner voices, when the Don Quixote sounds the appeal, 'Cover yourself -with glory!' the Sancho Panza murmurs the qualification, 'Cover -yourself with flannel!' The glory is everything the imagination -regales itself with as a luxury of reputation--the _regardelle_ so -prettily described in the last pages of _Port Tarascon_; the flannel -is everything that life demands as a tribute to reality--a gage -of self-preservation. The glory reduced to a tangible texture too -often turns out to be mere prudent underclothing." - - [Illustration: TARASCON: THE PUBLIC MARKET] - - [Illustration: THE TARASQUE] - - [Illustration: THE CASTLE OF TARASCON] - -It is true that a good deal of the humour that attaches to Tartarin is -of the unconscious sort. He and his brethren of Provence stand in -relation to their fellow-countrymen much as the Irish to the English -in the matter of humour, but in that only. They are often the butt of -northern witticisms, and are said to be experts in drawing the long -bow. Tarascon in this respect no more than many a score of little -towns in the Midi; but it suited the author's purpose admirably to -locate the home of his hero there, as the place possesses many quaint -little peculiarities of its own which fitted in admirably with the -scheme of Tartarin's remarkable career. - - -III. - -Since I visited the town the Tarasconians have proved worthy of their -reputation, as a picture post card has been put in circulation bearing -a photograph of "_La Maison de Tartarin_." It shows a square and -comfortable white house, flat-roofed, with a series of loop-hole -windows that give it a murderous look. In front is a large garden, -where an old baobab stretches forth its branches and innumerable -exotics mingle their strange leaves in the beautiful disorder of the -primeval forest. So, at least, I gather from a French journal. Yet, -while pointing out the mendacity of the picture post card, the journal -in question publishes with every evidence of sincerity an equally -apocryphal account of the real Tartarin, who we are told, was a person -named originally Jean Pittalouga, a native of the south of Sardinia, -not a Frenchman at all. He was bought out of slavery by the -Brotherhood of the Trinity, and came to Tarascon to manage the -property of the fraternity in that town. As Sidi-Mouley-Abdallah was -the superior of Morocco and that country was part of Barbary, -Pittalouga became known in Tarascon, because of his romantic -experience among the Moors, first as _Sidi-Barbari_, and then as -_Barbarin_. The time came when the Trinity fraternity had to clear -out, and with them Barbarin, who now rented a neighbouring farm on the -outskirts of the town--the veritable "_Maison de Tartarin_" of the -post card. But he did not die there. He went away with the Trinity -fathers into Africa, and is believed to have been devoured entirely by -some terrible wild beast, with whom he had disputed the sovereignty of -the desert. To all of which, as Daudet remarks of the member of the -Jockey Club travelling _avec sa nièce_, "Hum! hum!" - -One may note here that the author did first write of his comic hero as -Barbarin; but as the French law affords the fullest measure of -protection to living people whose names may be introduced in works of -fiction, and as there lived in Tarascon a certain M. Barbarin, who -wrote to Daudet a letter worthy of his hero, wherein he threatened the -utmost rigour of the law unless the novelist ceased to make sport of -"what was dearer to him than life itself, the unspotted name of his -ancestors," Daudet altered the name to Tartarin, and was inclined to -think in after years, when the fame of his creation had travelled -around the globe, that his hero would never have been so popular under -his original name. It may have been a case of "apt alliteration's -artful aid"; but one may suppose that Tartarin would have been equally -popular by any other name. He embodies the extravagant, and not the -least lovable, side of French character, as truly as Uriah Heep and -Mr. Pecksniff represent English humbug and hypocrisy; he has many -points of similarity with Mr. Pickwick, but the last-mentioned can -hardly be compared with him as reality seen through the eye of kindly -caricature. - - -IV. - -Tartarin was, in a word, an epitomy of innocent vanities; -large-hearted, generous, he had the Cæsarian ambition to be the first -man in his town; he was imbued with the national hunger for "_la -Gloire_," and many were the amusing ways in which he sought to -demonstrate his prowess. To impress his townsmen, the dear old humbug -surrounded himself with all sorts of foreign curiosities. His garden -was stuffed with exotics from every clime, most notable of all the -wonderful baobab, which he grew in a flower-pot, although that is the -unmatched giant of the tree kingdom! His study was decked with the -weapons of many strange and savage people, and, like a miniature -museum, his possessions were ticketed thus: "Poisoned arrows! Do not -touch!" "Weapons loaded! Have a care!" - -His earliest exploits were as chief of the "cap-hunters," for, you -see, in those days the good folk of Tarascon were great sports, and -the whole country-side having been denuded of game, they were reduced -to the device of going forth in hunting-parties, and after a jolly -picnic they would throw up their caps in the air and shoot at them as -they fell! "The man whose hat bears the greatest number of shot -marks is hailed as champion of the chase, and in the evening, with his -riddled cap stuck on the end of his rifle, he makes a triumphal entry -into Tarascon, midst the barking of dogs and fanfares of trumpets." - - [Illustration: TARASCON: THE MAIRIE] - -Tartarin, however, determined to cover himself with glory--as well as -flannel--by making an expedition into Algeria and Morocco, there to -try his prowess on the lions of the Atlas. His ludicrous adventures on -this great enterprise--how he shot a donkey and a blind lion, and -returned to Tarascon pursued by his devoted camel--form the theme of -the first of Daudet's three charming stories. The years pass with -Tartarin lording it at Baobab House, and at the club every evening -spinning his untruthful yarns, beginning: "Picture to yourself a -certain evening in the open Sahara." Then comes the further adventures -of "Tartarin in the Alps," and I confess that when, a good many years -ago, I first clambered up a portion of Mont Blanc it was of Tartarin's -famous ascent I thought rather than of Jacques Balmat's; the fiction -was more vivid in my mind than the fact; and again at the Castle of -Chillon--I say it fairly--the comic figure of Tartarin imprisoned -there was more engaging to the imagination than that of Bonnivard; -and, by the bye, in the famous dungeon one can see scratched on the -wall the signatures of both Lord Byron and Alphonse Daudet. - -The last, and in some respects the best, of all the Tartarin -books--like Mulvaney, the mighty Tarasconian has his fame "dishpersed -most notoriously in sev'ril volumes"--is _Port Tarascon_, wherein are -detailed the mirthful misadventures of the great man, and many of his -townsmen who, under his direction, set sail to found a colony in -Polynesia, an undertaking that proved fatal to his fame, and ended -eventually in his self-exile across the river to Beaucaire, where he -died soon after; of sheer melancholy we may suppose. - - -V. - -It was into the busy little town of Beaucaire, which lies around its -ancient castle of Bellicardo, on the west bank of the broad Rhone, -glaring across at Tarascon, that I wheeled one bright day in June. -Beaucaire, for all its canal, wharves, and signs of prosperous -industry, is as tidy a town as I have seen, and the fine old castle, -ruined by Richelieu, where in the golden age of Languedoc's poesy the -troubadors sang their ballads at the Court of Love, is beautifully -situated on a little hill by the river-side, quite near to the -magnificent suspension bridge which figures so humorously in _Port -Tarascon_. The rivalry between the two towns, their mutual jealousies, -furnished Daudet with many an opportunity to poke fun at them. -"Separated by the whole breadth of the Rhone, the two cities regard -each other across the river as irreconcilable enemies. The bridge that -has been thrown between them has not brought them any nearer. This -bridge is never crossed--in the first place, because it's very -dangerous. The people of Beaucaire no more go to Tarascon than those -of Tarascon go to Beaucaire." As the gentleman I met at Nîmes would -have said, "Zut! It is not true." But that is neither here nor there. - -Tartarin, up to his forty-ninth year, had never spent a night away -from his own home. "The very limit of his travels was Beaucaire, and -yet Beaucaire is not far from Tarascon, as there is only the bridge to -cross. Unhappily that beastly bridge had been so often swept away by -the storms; it is so long, so rickety, and the Rhone so broad there -that--zounds, you understand!... Tartarin preferred to have a firm -grip of the ground." But this must have referred to the old bridge -that made way for the present magnificent structure, which crosses the -river in four spans and is 1,456 feet in length. However, it was this -suspension bridge, and no other, across which the hero's cronie -Bompard came with such bravery to witness for his friend, when -Tartarin, fallen from his high estate, was on trial at the court of -Tarascon for having been party to a gigantic swindle in the great -colonising fraud of Port Tarascon, a charge from which, as we know, he -was rightly acquitted. Bompard at the time of the trial was in hiding -at Beaucaire, where he had become conservator of the Castle and warden -of the Fair Grounds--Beaucaire's annual fair is famed all over -France--"but when I saw that Tartarin was really dragged into the dock -between the myrmidons of the law, then I could hold out no longer; I -let myself go--I crossed the bridge! I crossed it this morning in a -terrible tempest. I was obliged to go down on all fours the same way -as when I went up Mont Blanc.... When I tell you that the bridge was -swinging like a pendulum, you'll believe I had to be brave. I was, in -fact, heroic." - - -VI. - -The view from the bridge as one crosses to Tarascon is as pleasant a -picture as may be seen in any part of old France. The noble stream, -broken by sedgy inlands, sweeps on between its low banks, and rising -sheer from the water's edge on a firm rock-base, almost opposite the -picturesque mass of Bellicardo, are the massive walls of the -ancient castle of Tarascon, founded by Count Louis II. in the -fourteenth century and finished by King Réné of Anjou in the -fifteenth, and at one time tenanted by Pope Urbain II., but now, like -many another palace of kings, fallen to the condition of a common -prison. Within these grim walls Tartarin passed some of his inglorious -days, but days not lacking romance, for was not Bompard from the -opposite height signalling o' nights to him by means of mysterious -lights? - - [Illustration: A WOMAN OF TARASCON - - (_Summer costume_)] - -If one has never seen photographs of Tarascon it will be a surprise, -as it is surely a pleasure, to note how faithfully the artists who -illustrated Daudet's books have reproduced in their charming little -vignettes the chief features of the actual town. There to the south of -the bridge is the tiny quay from which we are to suppose the -_Tootoopumpum_ sailed away with the flower of Tarascon's aristocracy -on that ill-starred expedition to the South Seas. Daudet is careful to -preserve some slight respect for the truth by explaining that the -vessel was of shallow draft; but, even so, the Rhone is here not -navigable to ocean-going steamers. - -Proceeding straight into the town, we arrive in a minute or so at the -Promenade, with its long rows of plane trees, as in most French towns, -only in Tarascon the trees seem to grow higher and leafier than -anywhere else. It opens out a short distance from the riverside, and -although it cannot be strictly called the "Walk Round" for the reason -which the author gives--that it encircles the town--it certainly -traverses a goodly portion of Tarascon, and takes in _en route_ that -"bit of a square" to which he makes so many sly allusions. - -Almost the first thing one notices after crossing the bridge is the -"Hotel of the Emperors," close by the Hospice at the opening of the -Promenade. This title is worthy of Daudet himself! Along the south -side of the Promenade stand the chief cafés and shops; as one sits by -a table at a door watching the passers-by, the scene is entirely -agreeable. Everybody seems to have walked out of Daudet's page. The -men are of two types chiefly--those of the stout and bearded figure, -such as Tartarin himself possessed, and the thin and sharp-featured -fellows of Italian caste, like Bezuquet and Costecalde, with their -bright, black eyes and fierce moustachios. Most of them, this sunny -day, are abroad in their shirt sleeves, and almost to a man they wear -the soft black felt hats such as our English curates affect. - - -VII. - -There is a musical jingle of spurs, as some baggy-trousered soldiers -pass on their way to the fine cavalry barracks which the town -possesses. There go a pair of comfortable-looking priests in their -long black gowns, their good fat fingers twined behind them; but -nowhere do we see the white habit of the friars, whose monastery of -Pampérigouste the gallant Tartarin and his crusaders defended from the -Government troops so long ago! The women-folk whom one sees about are -nearly all hatless, but they wear a dainty substitute in the shape of -a little cap of white muslin and lace, and a pelerine of the same -material over their shoulders and breast. Small, plump, swarthy, they -are true daughters of the south, and by that token better to look upon -than their sisters of the north. Here and there one may see a woman -touched with something of the Paris fashion, members of that local -aristocracy to which belonged the charming Clorinda of Pascalon's -hopeless passion. - -There is a constant toot-toot or tinkle of bells as cyclists go by, -for the wheel has come into great popularity here as elsewhere since -Tartarin made his tragic exit across the bridge. Perhaps the most -unmistakable evidences of provincialism are supplied by the -antiquated types of vehicles with their fat-faced drivers and their -unshorn horses, many of the latter being harnessed with the most -extravagant kinds of collars and saddles that project a couple of feet -or more above the level of the animals' backs. - -The whole scene is one of peaceful and happy life, and it is good to -look upon people who are in no hurry to do business and seem to take -things easily. Across the way, there, the chemist is standing at his -door, with those great glasses of coloured water, that seem to have -gone out of fashion in England, shining in his window, while he rolls -a cigarette for the white-legged postman who has stopped to give him a -letter, and chats with him in the passing. He might be Bezuquet -himself, did we not know of the misfortune that befell the latter, -when he was tatooed out of recognition by the South Sea Islanders, and -had to wear a mask when he came home! - - [Illustration: TARASCON: "THE BIT OF A SQUARE"] - -Going down a street that leads northward from the Promenade, we pass -the Mairie, a quaint old building from whose balcony floats, not the -Tarasque, but the tricolor, and by whose doorway are posted notices of -coming bull-fights, for Tarascon is still keen on its ancient sport -despite the restrictive legislation. Near by is the public market, and -the whole district swarms with dogs of every breed. We peep into -the church of St. Martha, which is no bad example of the Pointed -Gothic and occupies the site of an old Roman Temple. One of the kings -of Provence is buried here, but more interesting is the tomb of the -saint to whom the church is dedicated. - - -VIII. - -St. Martha and the Tarasque are the peculiar glories of the -Tarasconians, who, you must know, would almost strike you if you -breathed the word "Tartarin" to them, and have never forgotten Daudet -for his satires on the town. We cannot do better than go to Daudet for -the legend of St. Martha and the beast. - -"This Tarasque, in very ancient days, was nothing less than a terrible -monster, a most alarming dragon, which laid waste the country at the -mouth of the Rhone. St. Martha, who had come into Provence after the -death of our Lord, went forth and caught the beast in the deep -marshes, and binding its neck with a sky-blue ribbon, brought it into -the city captive, tamed by the innocence and piety of the saint. Ever -since then, in remembrance of the service rendered by the holy Martha, -the Tarasconians have kept a holiday, which they celebrate every ten -years by a procession through the city. This procession forms the -escort of a sort of ferocious, bloody monster, made of wood and -painted pasteboard, who is a cross between the serpent and the -crocodile, and represents, in gross and ridiculous effigy, the dragon -of ancient days. The thing is not a mere masquerade, for the Tarasque -is really held in veneration; she is a regular idol, inspiring a sort -of superstitious, affectionate fear. She is called in the country the -Old Grannie. The creature has herself stalled in a shed especially -hired for her by the town council." - -Daudet's light sketch of the Tarasque may be supplemented by a more -circumstantial account of the strange ceremony from a writer on old -customs (William S. Walsh), who informs us that "the famous Miracle -Play of 'Sainte Marthe et la Tarasque,' instituted, it was said, by -King Réné in 1400, was one of the last Provençal _coronlas_ to -disappear, as in its day it was one of the most popular. Even after -the Mystery Play was itself abandoned, a remnant of it lingered on -until the middle of the nineteenth century in the annual procession of -La Tarasque, celebrated on July 29th, not only at Tarascon, but also -at Beaucaire. The main feature was the huge figure of a dragon, made -of wood and canvas, eight feet long, three feet high, and four feet -broad in the middle. The head was small, there was no neck, the body, -which was covered with scales, was shaped like an enormous egg, and -at the nether extremity was a heavy beam of wood for a tail. Sixteen -mummers, gaily caparisoned and known as the Knights of la Tarasque -were among its attendants. Eight of the knights concealed themselves -within the body to represent those who had been devoured, and -furnished the motive power, besides lashing the tail to right and -left, at imminent risk to the legs of the spectators. The other eight -formed the escort, and were followed by drummers and fifers and a long -procession of clergy and laity. The dragon was conducted by a girl in -white and blue, the leading string being her girdle of blue silk. When -the dragon was especially unruly and frolicsome she dashed holy water -over it. A continuous rattle of torpedoes and musketry was kept up by -those who followed in the dragon's train." - -The celebration of the Tarasque has taken place several times, I -believe, since the prohibition, while the procession of St. Martha is -held annually; but as my visit did not synchronise with either, I had -to be content with securing photographs from a local photographer, who -was more inclined to discuss the weather and smoke his cigarette than -sell his wares, and left his wife--at the time of my call, in a state -of partial undress between changing her visiting costume for an indoor -dress--to do the business of hunting up prints for me. It will be -remembered by those who have read _Port Tarascon_ that Tartarin -foresaw his own downfall from the day on which, under the impression -that he was shooting at a whale, he planted a bullet in the gross -carcase of the Tarasque, which had been taken with the emigrants to -the South Seas and was swept overboard to become a waif of the waves. - - -IX. - -One of the peculiarities of Tarascon is its railway station on the -outskirts of the town. It is situated some thirty feet above the level -of the street, and you gain the platform by climbing several long -flights of stairs, up which it is no light task to carry a -heavily-burdened bicycle. During most of the day there is little -evidence of life in or around the station, and a clerk will cheerfully -devote a quarter of an hour to explain to you the absurdities of the -railway time table; but five or six times a day the place wakes up on -the arrival of a train from or to the capital, for all the trains in -France seem to have a connection, however tardy and remote, with the -octopus of Paris. Then there is much ringing of bells and blowing of -trumpets, and you almost expect to see the quaint and portly form of -Tartarin himself returning from his great adventure in the Sahara -or his ascent of Mont Blanc. But you reflect that these and many other -of his doings were much too good to be true, and take your place in -the corner of the carriage, making yourself comfortable for the long -and dreary journey to Paris. - - [Illustration: TARASCON: THE PROCESSION OF THE TARASQUE - - _The little girl leading the monster represents Saint Martha_] - -The last thing you see as the train steams away is the white stretch -of the Avignon Road lying between the railway and the river, its -little white houses and modern villas close-shuttered and growing -indistinct in the soft southern twilight. - - - - -"La Fête Dieu" - - -I. - -For centuries the 19th of June has been to the people of France a day -of high festival. No one who has happened to be travelling in Normandy -or Brittany--or indeed in almost any of the French provinces--about -this time of the year can have failed to notice the celebration of the -Fête Dieu, and many may have wondered what it was all about. It has -existed so long as one of the national customs, varying in its -observance in different parts of the country, and having passed -through many periods of change, that a few years ago he would have -been accounted a rash and uninspired prophet who would have foretold -that the Republican Government might have the temerity to lay its -embargo on this sacred institution. But, behold the day when the -secular hand of M. Combes had stretched out into the remotest parts of -fair France, and following hard upon the upsetting of monastic peace, -came the prohibition of religious processions in public. The effect of -this order was to limit the fête in many places to a mere -perambulation of the exterior of the church, and in others the -procession was confined entirely to the interior, though here and -there, it would seem, the function took place just as it did -generations before M. Combes and the anti-clericals arose into power. - -The festival is clearly of pagan origin, like so many of the -ceremonies of the Christian church; it corresponds with the Corpus -Feast in Spain, the exhibition of the holy sacrament having been -grafted on to the heathenish rights very early in the Christian era. -There seems to be evidences of the ceremony having been observed in -some form or other centuries before 673, as in that year an -ecclesiastical council, held at Braga in Spain, spoke of "the ancient -and traditional custom of solemnly carrying the Host on the -shoulders." It was Pope Urbain IV., who vainly endeavoured to stir up -a new crusade on behalf of his former diocese of Jerusalem, that -officially recognised and instituted as regular offices of the church -in 1264 the ceremonies connected with the Fête Dieu. But, despite this -papal ordinance, the festival did not become one of general observance -until, some generations later, there had grown around the purely -religious part of it a mass of painfully secular tomfoolery, which -turned the fête into a great saturnalia. In the days of that merry -monarch, King Réné, it had assumed such proportions that an entire -week was devoted to the celebration, "courts of love," tournaments, -jousts, mystery plays, and many other amusements being associated with -the solemn procession of the sacred sacrament. Flourishing more or -less, the fête continued annually, without interruption until the -great Revolution, which gave short shrift to the old taste for -processions; but under Louis XVIII. it was re-established, and the -State even furnished troops as escorts for those taking part in the -processions. Times are changed indeed when we find _Le Pèlerin_, an -illustrated weekly newspaper devoted entirely to the interests of -pilgrimages, publishing cartoons which show the police dispersing the -pious participants in the procession of the Fête Dieu, while rowdy -socialists are permitted to wave their red rags in the highway. - - [Illustration: PROCESSION OF LA FÊTE DIEU - - _Photographed at Morlaix, in Brittany_] - - -II. - -The festival, which has thus fallen upon evil times, might possibly -have gone more steadily downhill to the limbo of old customs if the -Government had left it alone, as of recent years it has not been -gaining in popularity, and, practically speaking, only women and -children have shown active interest in it under the direction of the -priests and lay officials. Throughout Normandy it was a rare thing to -see men taking part; but in Brittany, and especially at the quaint old -town of Morlaix, which is famed for its high railway bridge and its -Fête Dieu, and holds an extremely jolly kermesse, with dancing and the -selling of cheap rubbish, immediately after the holy sacrament has -been carried through the streets, a larger proportion of men were to -be seen engaging in the ceremony; while in the far south, among the -peasants of Provence and Aveyron, the men have long been as attached -to this and similar fêtes of the church as the women, taking part with -a comic gravity of demeanour absurdly out of keeping with their -usually gay and careless behaviour. Generally speaking, the Fête Dieu, -as celebrated during modern years, has been a picturesque, but brief -and inoffensive ceremonial, that did not greatly disturb anybody, and -seemed to please the women and children. In the course of time it -might have died out as a public institution, though it must always -survive, in some manner, as a religious festival; but the Government, -in its crusade against the enemies of the Republic--for such -undoubtedly are the Catholic priests--may find that it has, by its -very prohibition, reawakened interest in this ancient and decrepid -institution of the church. - -As for the familiar procession of the Fête Dieu, there is not very -much to describe: a brief notice of one may be taken as typical of -all. The first indication that the visitor would have of something -unusual toward was the strewing of the principal streets with rushes. -Almost every shopkeeper would be seen with an armful of the green -blades, laying them down to fullest advantage in the middle of the -road. This done, the next thing was to bring out long sheets of white -linen, which were tacked a little way below the windows of the first -story, and hung downward to within a foot or so of the ground, the -entire route being thus lined with a continuous stretch of white, -whereon busy hands had pinned roses and other flowers, sometimes -attempting designs such as a heart or a cross, or the monogram "I H -S." Each shopkeeper seemed to vie with his or her neighbour to produce -a more elaborate evidence of pious interest in the coming procession; -but I have noticed frequently that many performed their part in the -most perfunctory manner, only rushing up their white linen and -sticking on a flower or two when the head of the procession was -actually in sight, and whipping off the sheets as soon as it had -passed by. - - -III. - -In many parts of the town, often in the front garden of a private -house, in some outside corner of a church or in a market-place, -elaborate shrines, made of wood, covered with cloth, and decorated -with rushes and flowers, would be erected. In one small town I have -counted upwards of a dozen such erections, enclosing gaudy statues of -the saints, especially well disposed towards those who supplied the -money for the shrines. But here again I have noticed the proverbial -economy of the French nation asserting itself, the attendant at such a -gorgeous shrine lighting the numerous candles only on the approach of -the procession, and blowing them out the instant it had passed, when -also the dismantling of the shrine would begin! I recall a -particularly gorgeous shrine which I saw many years ago in the town of -Falaise. At a considerable distance the numerous candles seemed to be -burning so brilliantly, that I was not altogether surprised on going -up and examining them to find the supposed candles were actually -incandescent electric lamps. Thus the preliminary arrangements of the -populace for the coming of the procession. - -The route was, as a rule, one that had been followed for years, but -the erection of a particularly elaborate shrine by some person blessed -with pelf and piety, in a street not within the usual itinerary, would -be regarded as sufficient to justify a detour. - -I have never witnessed the procession without being refreshed by its -suggestion of old-world ease. "Build your houses as if you meant them -to last for ever," was Ruskin's advice. "Proceed as if your procession -had started at the Flood and was going on till Doomsday," would seem -to be the motto that inspires the demonstrators in the Fête Dieu. - -In the distance the sound of music is heard, and after a time at the -far end of the road the head of the procession is seen moving towards -us at a pace as much slower than a funeral as that is slower than a -horse race. First comes the beadle, or church officer attached to the -cathedral, whose blue or red uniform, with cocked hat, knee breeches, -white hose and buckled shoes, remind one of the dress of our soldiers -in the seventeenth century, a get-up very similar to that of the Swiss -Guard at the Vatican, these beadles being, indeed, generally known as -the "Swiss," though they are loutish and ignorant fellows, with as -much regard for religion as the chucker-out at a roaring London -tavern. But for all that, the Swiss makes a mighty picturesque figure -at the head of the procession, his sword hanging at his hip, and a -long mace carried in his hand as he steps out slowly and endeavours to -combine dignity with scowls at the children who follow him, the little -girls in their white muslin dresses, made for their first communion, -and the little boys in the sort of midshipman's suit universally worn -by French lads at the time of their confirmation, a white armlet being -donned on this occasion and a rosary tied around it. Following the -children, who carry banners with various religious devices, come bands -of music and different groups of men and women, who also march under -certain banners that indicate their membership of some brotherhood or -sisterhood. - - -IV. - -There are brotherhoods of the Holy Sacrament in many parts of France -whose credentials date back to the Middle Ages, and who seem to exist -solely for the purpose of being privileged to walk in religious -processions, with a ludicrous gown lavishly trimmed, and having on the -front, after the manner of a herald's tabard, a picture of Christ. The -brethren of the various "charities," which in France correspond in -some degree to our friendly societies, also wear uniforms, and, in -some parts of the country assist in the procession. In the past many -unseemly disturbances arose out of the rivalry of these brotherhoods -as to their respective privileges in the Fête Dieu, and the sacred -function was often marred by the most disgraceful scenes of rowdyism -as the rivals fought for precedence, and especially for the right of -bearing the canopy under which the Holy Sacrament is carried through -the streets. - -The approach of the Host is heralded by the acolytes in their scarlet -gowns with lace tunicles, who come singing, and precede the -white-robed members of the choir, lay brethren and priests, who are -either diligently reading from books, or mumbling unintelligently the -orisons provided for the occasion. Succeeding these come more -acolytes, swinging censers, and others who, walking backwards, bear -large baskets of rose leaves, and scatter their fragrant burdens in -handfuls on the road in front of the bishop. The latter, arrayed in -his most gorgeous vestments, advances slowly, holding aloft, with -well-assumed solemnity, to impress beholders with the awful sacredness -of his charge, the elaborate brass monstrance or cabinet which -encloses the consecrated wafer. The bishop, who thus displays before -the just and the unjust the Holy Sacrament, walks under a canopy of -richly embroidered cloth, carried on four posts by specially chosen -members of some of the brotherhoods, or perhaps by some unusually -devout laymen, whose purses have not been altogether closed when the -clerical hat has gone round. - -Previously to the approach of the dais covering the bishop and his -holy burden, the spectators in the street have been laughing and -joking with and about the demonstrators, and some of the children in -the procession have shown lamentable forgetfulness of the solemn -nature of the function by putting out their tongues at us, and turning -back to say derisively, "les Anglais!"--for this was before the days -of the _Entente_. But the moment the bishop and the Host come up, down -flop the spectators on their knees, crossing themselves, the men -removing their hats, though I confess with pleasure that many a time I -have seen groups of men showing as much reverence to the sacred wafer -as Cockney crowds do to the Lord Mayor's coachman on show day. - - [Illustration: A WOMAN OF SAINTE ENIMIE] - -The procession is now at an end so far as our particular standpoint is -concerned, and already the white sheets are disappearing all along the -road, shopkeepers turning their attention to business again. But it is -winding its way through other streets, pausing to make special -obeisance before the temporary shrines, and to rehearse prayers -cunningly adapted to the peculiar requirements of the saints to -whom the shrines are dedicated. And so after, it may be, two or three -hours perambulation, the demonstrators return to the cathedral, where -High Mass is celebrated; this over, they are free to make merry to -their heart's desire. And they do. - - - - -"M'sieu Meelin of Dundae" - - -I. - -Please do not consider it an affectation of superior knowledge if I -begin by saying it is improbable that one out of a hundred of my -readers has ever heard of Morbihan and the wonderful druidical remains -in the Commune of Carnac. To be quite frank, I had never heard of them -myself until one dusty summer day when I cycled into the little -village of Carnac away on the south coast of Brittany, and within -sight of the historic bay of Quiberon. The village of Carnac, whose -population numbers only some six hundred souls, is one of the most -interesting in Brittany, where almost every hamlet has some historic -touch to engage the attention of the visitor. It consists practically -of a little square of houses surrounding the ancient parish church, -dedicated to Saint Corneille. This saint is the patron of cattle, and -in September the town is the centre of a series of most picturesque -celebrations, the peasants journeying hither from all parts of the -surrounding country, accompanied by their cattle, horses, and even -their pigs, for the pig is as notable a feature of rural life in -Brittany as it is in Ireland. Saint Corneille, for a reason which will -be explained further on, is supposed to take a very personal interest -in the welfare of the Breton's cattle, and to see the simple peasants -on their pilgrimage to his shrine, and later in the ceremonies of -parading their beasts around the church and kneeling before his statue -on the west front of the tower, kneeling again and sometimes even -fighting for a dip in the water from his fountain, is to realise how -sincere is their belief in his powers. But this is only by the way; my -present intention is not to spend any more time in describing the -quaint ceremonies that have long made Carnac a centre of pilgrimage, -and have been the theme of many a story and poem by French writers. - - [Illustration: THE FAMOUS DRUIDICAL REMAINS AT CARNAC - - (_The second view is a continuation of the first_)] - -Leaving the little square and striking eastward along the main road, I -noticed a small, plain building, almost the last of the few straggling -houses in that direction, bearing in bold letters the legend "Musée -Miln." The name had a pleasant suggestion of my ain countree, and in a -trice I was knocking at the door, curious to know what lay behind. A -tall, well-knit, clean-shaven Breton of about forty years of age -opened and bade me welcome. He was carelessly dressed like any -village shopkeeper in his shirt sleeves, and wearing a pair of carpet -slippers; certainly presenting no aspect of the antiquary or the -scholar, although it was not long before I found that he was a man of -remarkable attainments in archæology. As far as I remember, the charge -for admission was one franc, and although at first it seemed a large -price to pay for looking at a roomful of things in glass cases, I left -with the conviction that I had made an excellent bargain. - -The museum I found to consist of an extremely valuable assortment of -relics of the Stone and Bronze Ages. Admirably arranged and catalogued -were hundreds of flint arrowheads and axes, some of the latter being -of that earliest type before man had the sense to pierce the axe-head -for the handle, but stuck the wedge-like head of the axe through a -hole in the shaft. There were also many examples of rude instruments -belonging to the Bronze Age, some Roman swords and a skeleton in a -prehistoric stone coffin. The interest of these curiosities lay not -only in their intrinsic value to the antiquary, but in the fact that -they had all been dug up from the tumuli in the Commune of Carnac. But -to me they assumed at once a far more vivid interest, when the -custodian explained that the antiquary who had discovered most of -them, and whose money had founded the museum, was "M'sieu Meelin of -Dundae." When I explained that I was a countryman of this Mr. Miln, -the curator launched into a warm description of that worthy's -abounding good qualities, and recalled with the fervour of the French -his own personal association with Mr. Miln in the work of excavation. -He pointed with pride to a very ordinary oil painting of his old -friend and master, which disclosed him as a fresh-complexioned, -white-haired gentleman of unmistakable Scottish type, and assured me -that he was "_un homme très interessant et très aimable_." I could -readily believe the eulogy, as it was a kindly old Scotch face that -looked out of the canvas at me. - - -II. - -I wonder if the memory of Mr. Miln is treasured in Dundee. The chances -are that what I have to tell of him may be news to his fellow-townsmen -of to-day. A reference to that excellent work, _Chambers's -Biographical Dictionary_, discloses the fact that he is remembered -there to the extent of exactly two lines: - -"Miln, James (1819-81), a Scotch antiquary made excavations at Carnac -in Brittany, 1872-80." - -That is all, but behind these two lines lie the long story of a -romantic life in a foreign land and a little measure of fame among an -alien people. In this respect the life of James Miln resembles -curiously the lives of so many of his fellow-countrymen, who have -wandered to the ends of the earth in the pursuit of their avocations, -and left traces of their work everywhere except in the place of their -birth. - -My knowledge of the life of this notable Scotsman and his work is -gleaned from the scholarly little brochure written by M. Zacharie le -Rouzic, the slippered custodian of the "Musée Miln." It appears that -James Miln was born at Woodhill in 1819, and while still young -travelled in India, China, and spent some years in other parts of the -far east. On his return to Scotland he threw himself with enthusiasm -into antiquarian research and scientific studies. He succeeded to the -estate of Murie in Perthshire on the death of his father, James Yeanan -Miln, of Murie and Woodhill, and later to that of Woodhill in -Forfarshire at the death of his brother, to whom that property had -descended. His particular line of study for nearly forty years of his -life would seem to have been the origin and development of portable -firearms, and for a man of such peaceful pursuits it is strange to be -told that he was especially ardent in encouraging every experiment for -the perfection of rifles. Another of his hobbies was concerned with -the improvement of the telescope; but all kinds of scientific -instruments seem to have been objects of his study and inventive -genius. In the experimental days of photography he speedily achieved -success with the camera, and made a large collection of photographs of -ancient sculptures in the east of Scotland. An accomplished linguist -and something of an artist, he illustrated with his own pencil all his -works on archæology, which M. Le Rouzic assures us was always his -favourite study. - -It was during the summer of 1873 that Miln first visited Carnac, where -he encountered his friend, Admiral Tremlett, of Tunbridge Wells, who -was interested in the wonderful neolithic remains in the -neighbourhood, and became his guide in a series of explorations. -Miln's enthusiasm was immediately aflame when he contemplated this -rich and sparsely-explored field of research awaiting the excavator. -His first idea was to purchase the ground on which some of the most -interesting remains were standing, but finding this impossible, he -approached the farmers on whose land the unbroken mounds, which -represented burial-places of prehistoric people, were situated, and -obtained leave from them to commence the work of excavation, to which -he immediately resolved to devote himself during 1875 and 1876. The -result was a series of important discoveries. Perhaps the most -important of the remains unearthed were those of a Roman villa, -consisting of eleven chambers, and surrounded by several other -buildings, among which were baths and a small temple, that were -believed to date back to the first half of the fourth century. -Numerous examples of Roman pottery, glass, jewellery, money, a bronze -statue of a bull, and many other curiosities were dug up. Within sight -of the museum, and only a few minutes' walk away, is a tumulus -surmounted by a little chapel to Saint Michael, and here in 1876 Miln -made many notable discoveries, including the remains of an -eleventh-century monastery. - - [Illustration: THE MERCHANTS' TABLE - - _One of the great dolmens near Carnac_] - - -III. - -The results of these excavations were described in a large work -written and illustrated by himself, and issued in Edinburgh and Paris. -By January of 1877 he was busily prosecuting his explorations at -Kermaric, a gunshot distant from Carnac, and the work went steadily on -with the most fruitful results in many other parts of the district -until the end of 1880, when Miln returned to Edinburgh in order to -produce another book describing his researches. Unhappily, in the -midst of his literary labour, he was seized with a brief illness, -which at the end of six days resulted in his death on Friday, 28th -January, 1881, at twelve minutes to eleven, as the faithful M. le -Rouzic records. - -James Miln was a member of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries, la -Société royale des Antiquaries du Nord, the Academy of Copenhagen, and -several learned societies in England and the Continent. "_C'est avec -une douloureuse émotion que l'on apprit, à Carnac, la nouvelle de sa -mort_," to quote again his faithful henchman. The museum with its -precious contents was secured to Carnac through the efforts of Mr. -Robert Miln, the son of the antiquary, and his friend Admiral -Tremlett, and was opened on the 22nd May, 1882, since when it has -remained a centre of great interest and importance to all antiquarian -students, and an enduring monument to "M'sieu Meelin of Dondae." - -This is a brief outline of the life of a little-known Scotsman, which -is worth recalling as an example of the quiet, unostentatious way in -which the Scot will carry on any enterprise that lies near to his -heart, with no eye to personal advertisement, but out of sheer -pleasure in the work his hand has found to do. Thus it is that one -meets with traces of our countrymen in the remote and unfrequented -corners of earth, and at the ring of an old name the mind of the -wanderer is carried back across "the waste of seas" to the land whose -sons, by some strange irony of fate, are prone to find their life-work -far from home. - - -IV. - -But my story must not end here, although we take our leave of James -Miln and his museum. It is almost impossible to describe in any -adequate way the historic value of this part of Brittany. Stonehenge, -in England, is a national monument which we zealously treasure, yet -its value, compared with the neolithic remains of Morbihan, is as a -drop in a bucket of water. In the region to the east and north of -Carnac druidical remains are as plentiful as blackberries in an autumn -hedge. The sight of what are known as "_les alignements de Carnac_" is -one never to be forgotten. Standing on the little mound by the chapel -of Saint Michael already mentioned, and looking northward across the -plain, we see an enormous range of menhirs or druidical stones -standing like an army at attention. There are no fewer than 2,813 of -these massive stones to be seen from this point, and the imagination -is busy at once striving to picture the strange rites practised here -by unknown people before the dawn of history. Dotted all over the vast -plains are dolmens and cromlechs of varying size. - -One of the largest dolmens that I visited is known as the Merchants' -Table. It stands near Locmariaquer, and consists of an enormous stone -laid flat on the top of a series of smaller stones. Originally the -supporting stones would be only slightly imbedded in the earth, but in -the ages that have passed the soil has accumulated until they are now -sunk six or eight feet deep, but still project above the ground to the -height of four or five feet. The roof-stone must weigh some hundred -tons, and one of the mysteries is how a people, whose instruments were -of the most primitive kind, could place such a mammoth block in so -elevated a position. The dolmens, of which the Merchants' Table is one -of the finest examples, were probably places of burial, and are always -approached by a smaller chamber of the same rude construction. The -interior of the one in question bears many strange carvings, that -remain an enigma even to the most erudite. - -Some authorities believe these structures may have been used as -houses; others suppose them to have been altars, so that it will be -seen their purpose has not yet been decided upon by their most learned -students. The cromlechs, which are a series of stones standing in a -circle, were most probably sanctuaries, and there is reason to believe -that it was here the Druid priests practised their unknown rites. -They are generally to be found at the end of an "alignment," and are -oriented, so that the likelihood is the worshippers stood within the -long rows of stones, which would correspond to the choir of a -cathedral, and the priests were in the cromlech looking toward the -rising of the sun. - -To return for the last time to the great army of menhirs, or single -stones, seen from St. Michael's chapel near Carnac, the legend popular -in the district is that when St. Corneille, a Pope of Rome, was being -pursued by an army of pagan soldiers, he had with him two oxen, which -carried his belongings and sometimes himself when he was fatigued. One -evening, when he had arrived near a village where he would have rested -the night, he determined to press on beyond it because he had heard a -young girl insult her mother! He saw soon afterwards that the -soldiers, who had been following him, were arranged in line of battle, -and he was between them and the sea. So he stopped, and transformed -the entire army into stones. This is at least a picturesque way for -accounting for those marvellous remains that have baffled the minds of -men to explain. - - - - -Round About a French Fair - - -I. - -The rambler in old France can seldom undertake a little journey during -the summer without coming upon some town where a fair is in progress. -At least, that has been my own experience, and in the course of wide -wanderings through the highways and by-ways of the most delightful -land in Europe I have witnessed many fairs in towns so far apart as -Morlaix and Montluçon, Orleans and Beaucaire, Rennes and Lisieux. -Nowhere does the distinctive character of a people show itself more -strongly than in its public fairs and rejoicings. Thus, if one desired -to get at a glance a glimpse into the different natures of the Briton -and the Gaul, a visit to Glasgow Fair or Nottingham's famous Goose -Fair, followed by a look round the great fair of Rennes or Orleans, -would do more for one's education in this regard than a great deal of -book learning. - -An extensive and peculiar knowledge of Scottish and English -holiday-making, which the vagrant life of journalism has enabled me to -acquire, goes far to justify in my mind, when I think of the Frenchman -and his merry-making, the charge directed against us by our friends -across the Channel--that we take our pleasures sadly. There is very -little to choose between an English and Scottish festival of the -common people, though that little of brightness and genuine high -spirits is in favour of the former. A more vulgar, tasteless, -saddening spectacle than a Scottish saturnalia it is difficult to -conceive. For ill manners, foul speech, stupid and low diversions, I -have seen nothing so lacking in all the elements of joy as an Ayrshire -country fair; it has made me blush for my countrymen. But when such a -melancholy festival has awakened memory's contrasts of sights seen in -merry France, I have been glad to believe that, speaking generally, -while a fair in Scotland or in England stirs up the less worthy -elements in the people's character, such an occasion in France, on the -contrary, calls forth some of the better traits of the people. - - [Illustration: _Familiar types_ - - _A Lacemaker at Le Monastier_ - - WOMEN OF THE CEVENNES] - -In our own time, and due in some measure to the growth of refinement -arising out of our improved education, the institution of the public -fair in this country has been steadily declining in popularity; but in -France it still flourishes. There are other reasons for this, -though the chief is--again accepting a French criticism--that we are -essentially a nation of shopkeepers. The origin of the fair was, of -course, the bringing together of people with goods to sell or barter, -and a touch of pleasure was given to the business by the association -of amusements therewith. Time was when Nottingham Goose Fair was an -event of the highest importance in the commercial life of the -district, and continued over a period of a month; but with the rise of -the shopkeeper, who has ever a jealous eye on the huckster, this, like -many another of our fairs, has been gradually curtailed, on the plea -of its interfering with regular business, until it is now limited to a -week, and is threatened with reduction to three days. In France, -however, many of the fairs still last for a month, although the most -celebrated of all, that of Beaucaire, which is almost continental in -its importance and is less a festival than a commercial institution, -is held for one week only. At Orleans one of the finest fairs in -France takes place annually in June, and continues for a whole month. -It may be taken as typical of these provincial carnivals, and in -endeavouring to give my readers some idea of its leading features, I -shall be describing to them the character of French fairs in general. - - -II. - -Most of the towns in France are peculiarly adapted for the holding of -festivals, with their wide main street and "bit of a square"; but -Orleans is especially fortunate in this respect. Although it is a town -of not more than seventy thousand inhabitants, it possesses a series of -spacious boulevards and public squares which would be thought remarkable -in an English city of three or four times that population. The chief -part of Orleans lies on the north bank of the wide and swiftly-flowing -Loire, and the boulevards, following roughly the outline of an arc, -compass the town with the river for base. The great width of these -highways--at a moderate estimate six times that of the Strand--makes -it possible for an immense number of booths and stalls to be ranged -along them without in any degree obstructing the regular road traffic. -Thus, if you arrive at the railway station during the fair month, you -will find the entire stretch of the northern thoroughfares--close on a -mile and a half as I should estimate--occupied by the show people, who -have created a boulevard within a boulevard, as the fair-ground is one -long avenue of booths, with a wide promenade between and roadways as -roomy as an English turnpike still remaining free to ordinary traffic -on the outer edges. - -If it were the first affair of its kind you had seen in France, you -would be immediately impressed by the remarkable cleanliness of the -shows and of the attendants at the numerous stalls, where every -variety of goods are on sale. What may be described as the business -part of the fair is distinct from that devoted to amusements, and the -high-class character of the stalls and their keepers is explained when -we know that the tradesmen of the town have become hucksters for the -nonce, most of these temporary structures being fitted up and -conducted by local shopkeepers. The appointments of some of them are -elaborate to a surprising degree, but never defaced by such crude and -tasteless displays as we find at English fairs. - - -III. - -To mention the varieties of business represented by these stalls would -be to enumerate every trade in the town, and a few more. Bakers and -pastrycooks are there in abundance; the stalls at which a bewildering -choice of sweetmeats is displayed are marvels of neatness, and their -name is legion. As many as five or six smartly-dressed young women -with white oversleeves will be busy at one counter supplying the -customers, who are endeavouring to increase the purchasing value of -their coppers by speculating at the roulette table kept by the -proprietor, for at such time the Frenchman introduces the gambling -element into every transaction where it can be applied. At the -miscellaneous stalls, where all sorts of fancy goods are on sale, the -"wheel of fortune" is practically the only method of exchange. Many of -the places are run on the principle of "all one price," and thrifty -housewives may be seen deliberating on the respective merits of knives -and forks, cruet-stands, butter-dishes, and scores of minor household -utensils, each to be had at the price of half a franc (fivepence). It -is clear that the women-folk regard the occasion as an opportunity for -getting unusual value for their money. Peasants may purchase an entire -suit of clothes at some of the stalls, and if they are wishful of a -crucifix or an image of the sacred heart, here they are in abundance, -with rosaries, bambinoes, and all the brightly-coloured symbols of -Catholic worship. - -But the real interest of the fair, and, of course, its most -picturesque part, lies in the great Boulevard Alexandré Martin, which -stretches eastward from the railway station. Here are congregated most -of the places of entertainment. These, no less than the temporary -shops of the tradesmen, present a striking contrast to anything one -may see at an English fair. The Frenchman's instinctive feeling for -art is everywhere noticeable, and the exterior decoration of the shows -exhibits a lightness and daintiness of touch quite unknown in the same -connection in England. The gilded horror of the ghost-show exterior, -so familiar a feature of our own fairs, has no counterpart in France, -but the booths wherein are exhibited "freaks of Nature" are curiously -similar in both countries, the crude pictures on the canvas fronts -being preposterous exaggerations of the objects to be seen within. - - -IV. - -What strikes one particularly in wandering through the fair-ground at -Orleans is that while all is different from an English festival, the -difference is one of degree and not of kind. Here, for example, are -several circuses, where performances very similar to those given by -any travelling circus in our own land are "about to commence." On the -outside platform two clowns are shouting to the crowd to walk up; the -gorgeous ring-master with his whip joins in the general advertisement; -a girl and a boy are dancing to the music of a small but noisy -orchestra. There is this difference, however, between a French circus -and an English one: the whole enterprise wears a more noticeable -appearance of success, is better housed, the place being brilliantly -lighted by electricity generated by an excellent portable plant, the -performers better dressed. But curiously enough, the finest travelling -circus I have ever seen in any land was Anderson's "Cirque Féerique," -which I came upon during a flying visit to the industrial town of -Vierzon, some hundred and twenty-five miles south of Paris. The -proprietor was a Scotsman! "Mother Goose" was the chief item of the -performance, and the coloured posters of the old lady and her goose -had been printed in England! - -Pitched close to such a circus stands a large wooden opera-house, -capable of holding from six to eight hundred people, the seats being -arranged on an inclined plane, the higher priced ones as substantial -and comfortable as the stalls of one of our provincial theatres. The -stage is commodious, and the performers as accomplished as any touring -company that visits the second-class English towns. Indeed, their -performance of "Les Cloches de Corneville" was given with a _verve_ -and a finish not seldom lacking in more ambitious opera companies one -has seen at home. Instead of an orchestra, a very clever and -good-looking young lady pianist played the accompaniments throughout -the entire performance. - -The travelling theatres, too, force comparison with the regular -playhouses in the smaller English towns, rather than with the wretched -"tuppenny" shows that represent the drama at an English fair. Like the -opera-house just described, they are fitted up substantially, and in -good taste, the charges for admission ranging from half a franc to -three or four francs. Many notable French actors have graduated from -these portable theatres, and, indeed, those who perform in them are of -a class considerably above the mummers who exhibit in our "fit-ups"; -they are the best type of "strolling-players." - -One of the most detestable features of an English fair is the -appalling noise created by mechanical organs. This is happily absent -from the French fête, and of the few contrivances of the kind which I -remember at Orleans there was only one designed solely for the sake of -noise. Perhaps the most remarkable of these orchestrions was a real -triumph of musical machinery, around which, and contained within an -immense and brilliantly lighted wooden building, whirled an endless -chain of fairy coaches, hobby horses, swan boats, and other fantastic -vehicles, eminently contrived for the purpose of producing giddiness. -This was truly the _pièce de résistance_ of the Orleans Fair, and it -would be impossible to conceive a more striking contrast than that -between this really magnificent construction and the familiar English -merry-go-round. Externally the building would have borne favourable -comparison with a "Palace of Electricity" at some of our international -exhibitions. The façade was of Byzantine style, and myriads of -beautifully-coloured electric lamps picked out the design, two huge -peacocks with outspread tails, also composed of coloured lights, being -introduced with most artistic effect on each side of the glittering -archway. Inside, the decorations were gorgeous "to the _n_th degree," -as Mr. W. E. Henley might have said, but the scheme of colours was in -perfect harmony, the whole making up a veritable feast of light that -must dazzle and fascinate the simple country-folk wherever this -wonderful merry-go-round is set up. At a moderate estimate, I should -name £10,000 as the cost of this single show, and perhaps that will -indicate the lavish way in which the French are catered for by their -travelling showmen. - -Cinematographs there were in profusion, most of them exhibiting scenes -of a kind which would speedily be suppressed on this side the Channel; -shooting galleries galore, exactly like our own; peep-shows, -marionette theatres, panoramas; a booth with a two-headed bull and -other monsters, a Breton bagpiper playing his instrument outside being -worthy of inclusion in the list; but one saw no "fat women"--possibly -because they are such common objects of French life! A large -switchback railway seemed to be very popular, and, like all the rival -attractions, its proprietors claimed for it the distinction of having -come "direct from the Paris Exhibition," where it had been awarded -first prize. The smallest side-shows, consisting of perhaps a few -distorting mirrors, had all been "exhibited at Paris," and the -two-headed bull was advertised by a huge painting showing all the -crowned heads of Europe and President Loubet examining the beast, -which, on inspection, turned out to be only a little removed from the -normal by having a head slightly broader than usual, with the -incipient formation of a third eye in its forehead, and a muzzle -remotely suggestive of two joined together. - - -V. - -A performance which I enjoyed not a little was given by a quack -doctor. An enormous carriage, resembling in outline an old -stage-coach, but decorated with much carved moulding and thickly -covered with gilt and crimson, which produced a most bizarre effect, -stood in an open space. Seated on the roof was a boy, who turned a -machine which emitted the only hideous noise to be heard at the fair. -In the open fore-part, richly cushioned, a man stood dressed in a -dazzling suit of brass armour, his glittering helmet lying in front of -him, and in his hand a small bottle of clear liquid. He was of the -southern type, swarthy, wonderfully fluent of speech. He assured a -gaping crowd that his medicine could cure any disease from toothache -to tetanus, and he invited any sufferer to step up. Immediately one -did so, the boy ground out the hideous din above, and the doctor sat -for a few noisy seconds while his patient told him his trouble! Then -the racket was stopped with a wave of the quack's hand, and he -explained for five minutes, in vivid words, the terrible nature of the -patient's disease, and invited the poor wretch to pick any bottle from -the stock in front of him. This done, he had to open his waistcoat and -shirt--for it was a severe pain in the left side from which he -suffered--and the quack in armour struck the bottom of the bottle on -his knee, thus causing the cork to pop out. He now shook the bottle -vigorously with his forefinger on the neck, and the fluid changed into -green, brown, and finally black, whereat the simpletons around -marvelled, as they were meant to do. The comic practitioner next -thrust the bottle into the open shirt-front of his patient, and shook -the contents of it against the victim's skin, pressing his hand for a -few moments on the part. Then he asked the fellow to step down as -cured, and go among the crowd "telling his experience." A dozen cases -were treated in less than half an hour--people with neuralgia, -sprained wrists and ankles--and always the same formula as to -consultation, explanation, application! A handful of liquid applied to -a man's cheek evaporated mysteriously and worked wonders. Intending -patients were told that the doctor could be consulted at the hotel -near by during certain hours each day, and many must have gone to him -there, for the fluent humbug had every appearance of driving a -prosperous practice. - - -VI. - -But the feature of this fair which, more than any other, distinguished -it sharply from anything to be seen in our country, was "The Grand -Theatre of the Walkyries and of the Passion of N. S. J. C." The -mysterious initials stand for the French of "Our Lord Jesus Christ." A -gentleman with a shaggy head of hair, dressed in a well-fitting -frock-coat, and possessed of an excellent voice, stood on the platform -outside, surrounded by oil paintings of sacred pictures and a dozen -or more performers in the costumes of Roman soldiers, apostles and -other Biblical characters. Judas was readily distinguished by his red -hair, Mary by her nunlike garb. The showman announced that the -performance was "about to commence," and urged us to walk up and -witness the most pleasing spectacle of the fair. A hand-bill -distributed among the crowd described the entertainment as a -"mimodrame biblique" of the Passion, played, sung, enterpreted and -mimicked by forty persons! "This spectacle, unique in France, will -leave in the minds of the inhabitants of this town an unforgettable -memory. It is not to be confounded with anything else you may have -seen; it is no mere series of living pictures. At each performance M. -Chaumont, the originator, will present twenty-one tableaux, three -hundred costumes will be used, and three apotheoses will be shown. The -establishment is comfortable, lighted by electricity from a plant of -thirty-horse power. It is a spectacle of the best taste, pleasing to -everyone, and families may come here with the fullest confidence. -Balloons will be distributed to the children every Thursday." So ran -the circular, which also contained the information (mendacious, I -doubt not) that the entertainment was the property of a limited -company with a capital of £20,000. - -When the signal to begin was given the place was not more than half -filled, and the audience seemed in no reverential mood. A pianist -began to play on a very metallic piano, and outside the voice of the -manager was still heard urging the crowd to "walk up" and "be in -time." The drop-curtain was rolled up, and the manager stepped inside -the building as a number of characters in the sacred drama filed on to -the stage. He explained, in a rapid torrent of words, what they were -supposed to be doing, but Judas jingled the filthy lucre so lustfully -that the pantomime was very obvious in its purport. The curtain fell -again, and the manager stepped outside to harangue the crowd while the -second tableau was being prepared; but the ringing of a bell brought -him in again, and so on through the whole series. - -It must be confessed that the performance was carried out with no -small dramatic ability, and M. Chaumont gave a wonderfully realistic -interpretation of the rôle of Christ, some of the tableaux being -strikingly conceived, as, for examples, the kiss of Judas and Christ -before Pilate, the latter character being admirably represented by a -performer who looked a veritable Roman proconsul, and washed his hands -with traditional dignity. The Crucifixion, too, was represented with -vivid reality; but the audience was disposed to laugh at the writhing -of the malefactors on their crosses, and did indeed giggle when the -soldier held up the sponge of vinegar to the dying Saviour. It was -obvious that the whole performance, although really discharged by the -actors with remarkable fidelity to tradition, and a commendable -assumption of reverence, was more amusing than impressive to the -spectators, who, though moved to laughter when St. Veronica pressed -her handkerchief to the face of Christ and, turning to the audience, -displayed the miraculous impression of His features, applauded the -more dramatic scenes liberally. What interested me personally was M. -Chaumont's idea of a miracle. Save that of St. Veronica, I have -forgotten the others enacted; they were quite unfamiliar to me, but in -the instant of each miracle a limelight was flashed for two or three -seconds from "the flies," and this was supposed to betoken the -super-natural character of the affair. - - -VII. - -Of course, such a spectacle as I have described would be quite -impossible in our country to-day, although time was in our history, -when miracle plays were a recognised feature of the church in England. -It was in no sense comparable with any of the passion plays still -performed periodically in some continental towns, and while the -incongruous surroundings of "The Grand Theatre of the Passion of -N.S.J.C." were not calculated to induce a spirit of reverence in the -spectators, it was a saddening spectacle to find an audience of -Catholic people taking so lightly the representation of scenes which, -however wrong in the light of history, should have been to them sacred -subjects of faith. - -It was characteristically French that immediately opposite the theatre -wherein this Biblical pantomime was presented stood a large exhibition -containing an enormous collection of pathological models and -curiosities. This was, without doubt, the foulest display of -unspeakable horrors to be seen in any civilised country in our time, -for under the hypocritical plea of illustrating, by wax models and -otherwise, the obstetrics of human life and the diseases of the body, -its proprietor--a woman, if you will believe me--had gathered together -a collection of incredible horrors which men and women, and even young -people, were allowed to inspect on the payment of one franc. The same -exhibition, which is probably not over-valued at £20,000, was actually -brought to London some few years ago, but the police speedily cleared -it out of our country. - -These blots, however, are the only blemishes on the Orleans Fair, and -for brightness, gaiety, and general good taste, I must conclude as I -began, by saying that a French carnival is in every sense a more -pleasing spectacle than any of our English or Scottish fairs present. - - - - -The Palace of the Angels - - -I. - -It was in Evreux, while cycling through Normandy one summer, that my -wife and I met three "new women," who were also touring the country -a-wheel. Their route was for the most part the reverse of ours, but -not so extended, and in discussing the country with them I asked how -long they had spent at Mont St. Michel. "Oh, we have not gone there," -was the reply; "we were told it wasn't interesting, and so we have -kept away from it." We were saddened to find that three English women, -especially of the "advanced type," could know so little of the -monuments of France as to accept the irresponsible opinion of some -one-eyed tourist, who in his or her idle babble had said Mont St. -Michel was not worth visiting. - -Not interesting, indeed! There is not in the whole of Normandy, in all -France, in historic England even, an example of so much interest -concentrated in so small a space. An enthusiastic Frenchman has -described it as the eighth wonder of the world. Victor Hugo has said -that Mont St. Michel is to France what the Pyramids are to Egypt. -Large and deeply interesting volumes have been written about it. It -will form a theme for writers for generations to come, and artists -will employ their pencils here so long as a vestige of the wonderful -buildings remains. - -There is a strong temptation in writing of Mont St. Michel to fall -into the style of the junior reporter, who will blandly tell you that -a thing is indescribable, and immediately proceed to describe it. One -is persuaded that this marvellous monument of the Middle Ages cannot -be adequately described in plain prose, however apt the pen, yet one -is equally desirous of making the attempt. But I shall promise my -readers on this occasion to make no effort at an elaborate -description, which, indeed, the space of a single chapter renders -impossible, and to attempt no more than a general sketch of the most -noteworthy features of the Mount. - - -II. - -To begin with, I take it for granted that the reader, if he or she has -not already visited Mont St. Michel, is at least aware that it is -situated in the bay of the same name, near the point where the coasts -of Normandy and Brittany merge, and thus some forty-three miles -south-east of Jersey. The story of Mont St. Michel, even had the hand -of man never reared upon the rock one of the most remarkable -structures the human mind has conceived, could scarcely have failed to -be interesting. During the Roman occupation of France, or Gaul as it -was then called, the great stretch of sea that lies to-day between the -Mount and Jersey was then a vast forest, through which some fourteen -miles of Roman military road were constructed. But in the third -century the invasion of the sea compelled the Romans to alter the -course of their road, and in the next century both the Mount and the -small island of Tombelaine, which lies scarcely two miles away, were -isolated at high tide. So on from century to century the sea has -gradually eaten away this part of Normandy, until now some hundred and -ninety square miles of land are entirely submerged at high tide. This -alone is sufficient to invest the Mount with a peculiar interest, for -one can stand upon it to-day and, gazing far away to sea, contemplate -the absolute mastery of Neptune, whose ravages have left of all the -great forest of Scissy nothing more than a handful of trees growing -sturdily among the rocks on the north side of the Mount. - -But it is the human interest attaching to Mont St. Michel that -outweighs everything else. The rock is steeped in religious lore, and -in the annals of war there is no place in France more historic. -Originally a monastery, it became in time an impregnable fortress as -well; the rough warrior lived side by side upon it with the studious -monk, and there the clash of battle was as regular an occurrence for -years on end as the mass and vespers. In its old age it became a -prison, one of the most dreaded in a land of terrible prisons, and -just as it had been absolutely impregnable to attack (the English -without success besieging it for eleven years in the fifteenth -century), so was it an inviolable prison, only one man ever having -been able to effect his escape, and even in his case escape would have -been impossible but for the facilities unconsciously placed in his -hands by his gaolers. - - -III. - -The first thought that comes to the visitor as he views the Mount from -the shore is, What could have induced anyone to choose so difficult a -site for the foundation of a monastery? But here legend conveniently -steps in and explains all. In the eighth century Aubert, the Bishop of -Avranches, one of the most pious in an age of piety, was in the habit -of retiring to the Mount for rest and meditation, and during one of -his visits there the Archangel Saint Michael, the Prince of the Armies -of the Lord, appeared to him and told him to build on the top of the -Mount a sanctuary in his honour. From which it will be seen that even -angels in those days were not above self-advertisement. But Aubert, -though a bishop, was "even as you and I," and when he awoke in the -morning he had some doubt as to whether he had been dreaming or had -really entertained the Archangel; so he prolonged his stay in the hope -of receiving another visit; nor was he disappointed. A few days later -Saint Michael appeared to him once more, and rather sharply repeated -his command. But even now Aubert was not convinced, and he determined -to give Saint Michael a third chance, which the Saint was nothing -loath to accept, repeating his instructions in a most peremptory -manner. He also touched the bishop's head, leaving a hole in the skull -"for a sign." We have heard of a surgical operation to introduce a -joke, but this is the only case on record where a saint has found it -necessary to perform a surgical operation for the introduction of a -command into the head of a bishop, and Aubert, like a sensible man, -concluding that one hole in his skull was sufficient, immediately set -about the building of "the Palace of the Angels." Aubert's skull is -still preserved in the Church of Saint Gervais at Avranches, and the -startling effect of Saint Michael's touch may be seen to this day! - -This is only one of the innumerable legends relating to the origin of -the Abbey. Another is worthy of mention, illustrating, as it does, the -advantages of co-operation with an angel when one is performing so -difficult a task as Aubert took up. On the top of the Mount were two -large rocks which interfered seriously with building, and could be -moved by no human efforts. Saint Michael, therefore, appeared to a -devout peasant who lived on the coast and bore the familiar name of -Bain, telling him to take his sons to the Mount and move the rocks. -Despite the Caledonian flavour of his name, Bain did not wait to have -his skull perforated by the Archangel, but went forthwith together -with eleven of his children and tried to move the rocks. They could -not stir them one hair's-breadth, however; whereupon Aubert asked Bain -if he had brought all his children, and the good man explained that -they were all there except the baby, which was with its mother. The -Bishop then instructed him to go at once and fetch the infant, "for -God often chooses the weak to confound the strong." The child was -brought, and at a touch of his little foot the rocks went tumbling -down the Mount, in proof of which one of them may be seen to this day -with a little chapel to Saint Aubert built on the top of it. - -One more of the many miracles associated with the beginning of the -great work should not be left unmentioned. Saint Aubert was naturally -much exercised as to where he should rear his sanctuary, the pinnacle -of a lonely rock being an unusual place to build on even in those -unusual days, but here again the Archangel, who had manifested so much -personal interest in the work, came to his rescue, and caused a heavy -dew to fall on the Mount, leaving a dry space on the top. Upon this -dry space was the church to be built. - -In 709 Saint Aubert had practically completed the structure, and the -church was dedicated to Saint Michael after two precious relics -(namely, a piece of a scarlet veil, which the Archangel had left on -the occasion of his famous appearance at Monte Gargano in Naples, -together with a piece of the marble on which he had stood) had been -placed in a casket on the altar. Not a vestige of the oratory built by -Saint Aubert, nor of the church erected in 963 by Richard, remains. -The oldest part of the buildings now existing represents a church -founded in 1020 by Richard, second Duke of Normandy, and constructed -under the direction of the Abbot Hildebert II. The transepts, the -greater part of the nave, and the crypts date back to this period. - - -IV. - -The whole scheme of the wonderful memorial that fascinates the eye of -the latter-day tourist owed its conception to this eleventh-century -abbot, and surely no heaven-born architect ever conceived a more -audacious plan. His project was not merely to occupy the limited space -on the summit of the Mount with his religious buildings, but to start -far down the sides of the rock, and, by utilising the Mount just as -the sculptor makes use of a skeleton frame whereon to plaster the clay -in which he models his statue, so to rear upward gigantic walls and -buttresses which at the top would carry a huge platform to hold the -superstructures, creating thus a collection of vast buildings with the -live rock thrust up in the centre for foundation. It is to the glory -of Saint Michael that for no less than five centuries this colossal -scheme of Hildebert's was carried out with absolute unity of purpose -by his successors, an achievement only possible among religious -workers. The result was that this lonely Mount gradually became -clothed with a series of most beautiful buildings, which to the eye of -the beholder seem to have grown by some natural process out of the -rock itself. - - [Illustration: GENERAL VIEW OF MONT ST. MICHEL] - -To the student of architecture it would be impossible to mention any -monument more worthy of study than this. Not only do we find within -its innumerable cloisters, crypts, and halls, specimens of the purest -Gothic that exists, but at every turn we are presented with structures -that conform to the very highest ideals of art, in being at once -useful and beautiful. There is not a single buttress, not a window, -not an arch, not a pillar, that does not discharge some duty, and the -removal of which would not weaken in some degree a part of the scheme. - - -V. - -The best way to secure an intelligible notion of the work of these -monkish builders is to walk around the Mount at low tide and study the -buildings from the outside. The feature that will most impress one in -following this course is the wonderful north side of the Mount, known -as the Merveille, which rears its massive walls sheer from the rock -face, supported along its entire length by enormous buttresses, that -spring with a fine suggestion of strength and permanency from their -rocky base. The principal buildings, apart from the church, are -contained within these massive walls. To the west we have, in three -stories, the Cellar, the Salle des Chevaliers, and above the latter -the open Cloister, the most perfect example of its kind in the world. -The eastern part begins with the Almonry, above which is the Salle des -Hôtes, and on the top of that the Refectory. - -The whole effect of the Merveille is superb, yet what is it more than -a great wall, held up by mighty buttresses, pierced in different ways -to light the chambers within and to make each suitable for its -particular office? The most perfect economy has been observed -throughout, the buttresses are terminated the moment their services -are not required, and the Refectory, which carries a light wooden -roof, is lighted by means of long narrow lancets which give to the -wall far more strength than would have been possible had it been -pierced by wide windows; still, the lighting within is perfect. In -brief, the Merveille, apart from the numerous other buildings that -went to form the monastic and military establishment, is enough to -send an architect into raptures, and might, if he knew not the dangers -of the incoming tide, which has to cover nine miles of land at the -rate of a race-horse, induce him to tarry over long in feasting his -eyes on this marvellous achievement. It is beautiful beyond -description, and yet we may be certain that its builders never -thought of mere beauty in its construction, but built purely to meet -the exigencies of the situation, and to provide the best possible -accommodation for the inhabitants of the monastery and their -dependants. As one writer has put it, "the beauty just happened." It -is only when we find builders striving after effect that we are face -to face with decadent art. - -Continuing our walk round the rock on those sands that have been the -scene of many a bitter battle, we pass under the ramparts, beginning -with the Tour du Nord at the eastern end of the Merveille. Here, -again, the beautiful union of art and Nature is observed, this -magnificent tower seeming to be but the natural growth of the shelving -rocks at its base. It is no surprise to know that through the ages -which knew not the Maxim or the 100-ton gun, the splendid -fortifications successfully resisted every attack of the envious -English, the Bretons, and the Huguenots. The modern town is huddled -picturesquely between the ramparts and the Abbey to the east and -south. - - -VI. - -Having completed the tour around the Mount, the visitor should proceed -along the ramparts, and reach the entrance to the Abbey by the -staircase known as the Grand Degré, which leads into the Barbican, and -through the massive and beautiful Châtelet into the more ancient -entrance of the Abbey, known as Belle-Chaise, where are situated the -Guard Room and the Government Room. Here the guide will take us in -hand, and march us from point to point of interest in the interior. -But it is impossible, in the space of a short chapter, to attempt a -description of this, that would follow in any detail the stipulated -round of the apartments at present shown to the public. - -Suffice it to say that you will first be taken to the Church, which is -now, and likely to be for many years, in the hands of the restorers. -Only four bays of the seven that went to the making of the great -Norman nave remain, and these have had to be much restored; but here -it is a pleasure to record that the restoration has been carried out -with perfect taste, so that the latter-day visitor has an excellent -idea of the appearance of the Abbey and its dependent buildings as -these were in the heyday of Mont St. Michel's prosperity. - -From the Church we shall enter the Cloister, already mentioned as -being the topmost of the three western stories of the Merveille. Here -was the recreation ground of the monks, and nothing could be more -exquisite than the elegant proportions of the slender pillars that -support the vaulted roofs of the double arcade. From the Cloister we -visit the Refectory, where many a strange gathering of monks has taken -place in days of old, for it is one of the interesting things in the -history of Mont St. Michel that, while in its earlier ages it was a -centre of learning and genuine religion, it became corrupt and -scandalous under the commendatory abbots, who were men neither of -morals nor religion, and who allowed all sorts of abuses within these -sacred walls. At one time, indeed, the Abbot of Mont St. Michel was -the five-year-old son of Louis the Just. In the south-west corner of -the Refectory is the pit that formerly contained a lift whereby -provisions could be hauled up from the bottom story, and the leavings -of the monks sent down to the Almonry for distribution among the poor. - -The Salle des Chevaliers, which will next be visited, is described by -a learned writer as "perhaps the finest Gothic chamber in the world," -and is believed to have been built as a great workroom for the monks, -but received its present name either from the fact that the first -investitures of the Order of St. Michael were made herein, or that it -was the lodging of the 190 knights who came to the Mount to defend it -against the English. In this beautiful apartment, lighted and -ventilated in a way that is a model to present-day builders, the monks -wrote and illuminated the manuscripts which earned for the abbey the -title of "The City of Books." Reached from this room is the Salle des -Hôtes, wherein the grand visitors were entertained by the abbot in a -style befitting their rank, as under the rule of St. Benedict it was -forbidden for laymen to enter the apartments reserved for the monks. -Like all the other buildings, however, it has served many another -purpose than that for which it was originally designed, and at one -time was actually used as a _Plomberie_ where the lead was worked for -roofing and other purposes connected with the Abbey. - -The Cellar is, in its way, as beautiful as any of the other -apartments, although nothing was attempted by its builders but to -provide a capacious storeroom for the inhabitants of the Mount, and to -secure, in its strong pillars, strength to support the buildings -rising above it. The provisions were hauled up from the sands by means -of a great wheel and a rope, the latter being carried out on a little -drawbridge to enable it to drop clear of the rocks. This arrangement, -by the way, is associated with one of the most audacious attempts to -secure the Abbey during the wars of the Huguenots. A traitor within -arranged with two Huguenot leaders that on the day of St. Michael, in -September, at eight o'clock in the evening, in the year 1591, he would -haul up their men by means of this rope, and introduce them to the -Cellar, while the monks were engaged in devotions, so placing the -Mount at their mercy. But he proved a double traitor, for after -seventy-eight men had been so hauled up, and, with one exception, -quietly killed by the soldiers of the garrison as they arrived, the -leaders below became suspicious of a trap, and asked that a monk -should be thrown down as evidence that the plot was successful. The -Governor immediately had one of the murdered Huguenots dressed in the -gown of a monk and thrown down, but the Sieur Montgomery was not -satisfied with this, and he called up that one of his men should come -out on the drawbridge and assure them below that all was well. So the -Governor sent the one man he had spared and instructed him to answer -down that the Huguenots were masters of the Abbey. He was faithful to -death, however, and called down that they were betrayed. Instead of -being immediately killed, the Governor was so impressed with his -courage, that he spared him, and the Huguenots hastily rode away. - -The Almonry is the last of the great apartments which are contained in -the Merveille, and it is from this that visitors make their exit into -the courtyard of the Abbey; but many other interesting chambers are -shown, such as the Crypte de l'Aquilon, the Charnier, the Promenoir or -ancient cloister, and the famous Crypte des Gros-Piliers, which is -also known as l'Eglise Basse, its pillars, of enormous girth, being -designed to support the heavy masonry of the Abbey above. The Cachots, -or prisons, are also an important feature of the sights described by -the guide, and many harrowing tales are told of famous prisoners who -went mad during their incarceration in these dread dungeons. But it is -a pity that this part is shown at all, as the recollection of these -hideous holes is likely to confuse many visitors' impressions of the -place. - - -VII. - -Here, then, is a very brief and a sadly-imperfect sketch of this rare -legacy which the Middle Ages have left to lucky France. It need only -be added that not one visit, nor two, is sufficient to an adequate -appreciation of the beauties of Mont St. Michel; several days, -instead of several hours, as is too often the custom of the breathless -tourist, should be spent on the Mount. There is accommodation in -plenty, for the three hotels, all kept by members of the same family -(and each at daggers drawn with the others), give splendid -entertainment at moderate rates; and practically all the houses are -annexes to one or other of these establishments, so that except during -August and September accommodation is never difficult to obtain. Nor -are the buildings of the Abbey and the Merveille the only things of -interest on the Mount to-day, for though it is a strangely-different -scene from that in the olden days of pilgrimage, it is, perhaps, as -interesting if we choose to regard as pilgrims the countless tourists -who swarm here from all the ends of the earth, and we shall find among -them even more material for study than was afforded to the monks in -ages past. Then if rain should keep us prisoner for an hour or two at -times, we need not weary sitting at our window, watching the carriages -and bicycles arriving at the entrance to the Cour de l'Avancée, where -they are immediately besieged by representatives of each of the -hotels, and probably a simple Briton, innocent of French or the ways -of this curious community, will find himself divided into three, his -luggage being captured by the representative of Poulard _aîné_, his -bicycle being taken by the tout for Poulard _jeune_, and he himself -led captive by the buxom female who canvasses for _veuve_ Poulard. - - [Illustration: _The Merveille_ - - _Interior of the Abbey_ - - MONT ST. MICHEL] - -We remember one occasion when, at a high tide, which necessitated the -use of a boat for debarking visitors, a solitary English female, of -the type so properly satirised by French caricaturists, arrived by the -diligence, and was rowed in lonely state through the entrance to the -outer court. As the boat grounded she stood up, an angular vision in -drab, with dark blue spectacles and a straw hat. In answer to the -inquiring shouts of the hotel representatives, she innocently replied -in the one word she knew, "Poulard," and there was a rush for her, in -which the elder Poulard, thanks to exceptional height and strength, -was able to dispose of his rivals, and lift this representative of -British womanhood bodily into the kitchen of his hotel. She would -probably be as much surprised as most of us are on visiting the place -for the first time, to discover that after leaving this kitchen and -ascending two stairs in the hope of arriving immediately at our -bedroom, the maid calmly opens a door, and we find ourselves in -another street, that rises step after step for one hundred yards or -so, and brings us to one of the dependencies of the hotel, where -probably we may have two or three stories to climb. You have a -feeling all the time you are on the Mount that, somehow, you are -living on the top of slates, as the houses look down upon each other, -and in many cases you can walk from the top flat out on to a street at -the back. - -In a word, Mont St. Michel is unique. A stay here is an experience -unlike any to be had elsewhere in Europe. "Not worth visiting" -forsooth! - - -PRINTING OFFICE OF THE PUBLISHER - - - - - * * * * * * - - - - -Transcriber's note: - -Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have -been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. - - - -***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE TRACK OF R. L. 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