initial commit of ebook 8819HEADmain

5 files changed, 8781 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/8819-8.txt b/8819-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..48306e0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/8819-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,8765 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of In Troubadour-Land, by S. Baring-Gould
+#2 in our series by S. Baring-Gould
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
+this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
+
+This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
+Gutenberg file.  Please do not remove it.  Do not change or edit the
+header without written permission.
+
+Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
+eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file.  Included is
+important information about your specific rights and restrictions in
+how the file may be used.  You can also find out about how to make a
+donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: In Troubadour-Land
+       A Ramble in Provence and Languedoc
+
+Author: S. Baring-Gould
+
+Release Date: September, 2005 [EBook #8819]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on August 10, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN TROUBADOR-LAND ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+[Frontispiece: Tower of St. Trophimus, Arles.]
+
+
+
+
+IN TROUBADOUR-LAND.
+
+A Ramble in
+
+Provence and Languedoc.
+
+by
+
+S. Baring-Gould, M.A.,
+
+AUTHOR OF "MEHALAU," "JOHN HERRING," "OLD COUNTRY LIFE," ETC.
+
+ILLUSTRATED BY J. E. ROGERS.
+
+
+
+
+"What is this life, if it be not mixed with some delight? And what delight
+is more pleasing than to see the fashions and manners of unknown
+places? You know I am no common gadder, nor have oft troubled you with
+travell."--_Tom of Reading_, 1600.
+
+
+1891.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+With Murray, Bædeker, Guide Joanne, and half-a-dozen others--all
+describing, and describing with exactness, the antiquities and scenery--the
+writer of a little account of Provence and Languedoc is driven to give much
+of personal incident. When he attempts to describe what objects he has
+seen, he is pulled up by finding all the information he intended to give in
+Murray or in Bædeker or Joanne. If he was in exuberant spirits at the time,
+and enjoyed himself vastly, he is unable, or unwilling, to withhold from
+his readers some of the overflow of his good spirits. That is my apology to
+the reader. If he reads my little book when his liver is out of order, or
+in winter fogs and colds--he will call me an ass, and I must bear it. If he
+is in a cheerful mood himself, then we shall agree very well together.
+
+S. BARING-GOULD.
+
+LEW TRENCHARD, DEVON,
+
+_October 28, 1890._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+INTRODUCTORY.
+
+The Tiber in Flood--Typhoid fever in Rome--Florence--A Jew
+acquaintance--Drinking in Provence--Buying _bric-à-brac_ with the Jew--the
+_carro_ on Easter Eve--Its real Origin--My Jew friend's letters--Italian
+_dolce far niente_
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE RIVIERA.
+
+No ill without a counterbalancing advantage--An industry peculiar to
+Italy--Italian honesty--Buffalo Bill at Naples--The Prince and the
+straw-coloured gloves--The Riviera--A tapestry--Nice--Its flowers--Notre
+Dame--The château--My gardener--A pension of ugly women--Horses and their
+hats--Antibes--Meeting of Honoré IV. and Napoleon--The Grimaldis--Lérins,
+an Isle of Saints--A family jar--Healed
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+FRÉJUS.
+
+The freedman of Pliny--Forum Julii--The Port of Agay--The Port
+of Fréjus--Roman castle--Aqueduct--The lantern of Augustus--The
+cathedral--Cloisters--Boy and dolphin--Story told by Pliny--The _Chains des
+Maures_--Désaugiers--Dines with the porkbutchers of Paris--Siéyès--_Sans
+phrase_--Agricola--His discoveries
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+MARSEILLES.
+
+The three islands Phoenice, Phila, Iturium--Marseilles first a Phoenician
+colony--The tariff of fees exacted by the priests of Baal--The arrival
+of the Ionians--The legend of Protis and Gyptis--Second colony of
+Ionians--The voyages of Pytheas and Euthymenes--Capture of Marseilles
+by Trebonius--Position of the Greek city--The Acropolis--Greek
+inscriptions--The lady who never "jawed" her husband--The tomb of
+the sailor-boy--Hôtel des Négociants--Ménu--Entry of the President
+of the Republic--Entry of Francis I.--The church of S. Vincent--The
+cathedral--Notre Dame de la Garde--The abbey of S. Victor--Catacombs--The
+fable of S. Lazarus
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE CRAU.
+
+The Basin of Berre--A neglected harbour--The diluvium--Formation of the
+Crau--The two Craus--Canal of Craponne--Climate of the Crau--The _bise_ and
+_mistral_--Force of the wind--Cypresses--A vision of kobolds
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+LES ALYSCAMPS.
+
+Difficulty of finding one's way about in Arles--The two inns--The
+_mistral_--The charm of Arles is in the past--A dead city--Situation
+of Arles on a nodule of limestone--The Elysian Fields--A burial-place
+for the submerged neighbourhood--The Alyscamp now in process of
+destruction--Expropriation of ancient tombs--Avenue of tombs--Old church
+of S. Honoré--S. Trophimus--S. Virgilius--Augustine, apostle of the
+English, consecrated by him--The flying Dutchman--Tomb of Ælia--Of
+Julia Tyranna--Her musical instruments--Monument of Calpurnia--Her
+probable story--Mathematical _versus_ classic studies--Tombs of
+_utriculares_--Christian sarcophagi--Probably older than the date usually
+attributed to them--A French author on the wreckage of the Elysian Fields
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+PAGAN ARLES.
+
+The Arles race a mixture of Greek and Gaulish--The colonisation
+by the Romans--The type of beauty in Arles--The amphitheatre--A
+bull-baiting--Provençal bull-baits different from Spanish bull-fights--The
+theatre--The ancient Greek stage--The destruction of the Arles
+theatre--Excavation of the orchestra--Discovery of the Venus of Arles--A
+sick girl--Palace of Constantine
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+CHRISTIAN ARLES.
+
+Sunday in France--Improved observance--The cathedral of Arles--West
+front--Interior-Tool-marks--A sermon on peace--The cloisters--Old Sacristan
+and his garden--Number of desecrated churches in Arles--Notre Dame de la
+Majeur--S. Cæsaire--The isles near Arles--Cordes--Montmajeur--A gipsy
+camp--The ruins--Tower--The chapel of S. Croix
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+LES BAUX.
+
+The chain of the Alpines--The promontory of Les Baux--The railway from
+Arles to Salon--First sight of Les Baux--The churches of S. Victor,
+S. Claude, and S. Andrew--The lords of Les Baux claimed descent from
+one of the Magi--The fair maid with golden locks--The chapel of the
+White Penitents--The _deïmo_--History of the House of Les Baux--The
+barony passes to the Grimaldi--The ladies of Les Baux and the
+troubadours--Fouquet--William de Cabestaing--The morality of the loves
+of the troubadours--The Porcelets--Story of a siege--Les Baux a place of
+refuge for the citizens of Arles--_Glanum Liviæ_--Its Roman remains--In the
+train--Jäger garments
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE CAMPAIGN OF MARIUS.
+
+The Trémaïé--Representation of C. Marius, Martha, and Julia--The Gaïé--The
+Teutons and Ambrons and Cimbri threaten Italy--C. Marius sent against
+them--His camp at S. Gabriel--The canal he cut--The barbarians cross
+the Rhone--First brush with them--They defile before him at Orgon--The
+rout of the Ambrons at Les Milles--He follows the Teutons--The plain
+of Pourrières--Position of Marius--The battle--Slaughter of the
+Teutons--Position of their camp--Monument of Marius--Venus Victrix--Annual
+commemoration
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+TRETS AND GARDANNE.
+
+The fortifications of Trets--The streets--The church--Roman
+sarcophagus--Château of Trets--Visit to a self-educated archæologist--His
+collection made on the battle-field--Dispute over a pot of burnt bones--One
+magpie--Gardanne--The church--A vielle--Trouble with it--Story of an
+executioner's sword
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+AIX.
+
+Dooll, but the mutton good--Les Bains de Sextius--Ironwork caps to
+towers--S. Jean de Malthe--Museum--Cathedral--Tapestries and tombs--The
+cloisters--View from S. Eutrope--King René of Anjou--His misfortunes--His
+cheeriness--His statue at Aix--Introduces the Muscat grape
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE CAMARGUE.
+
+Formation of the delta of the Rhone--The diluvial wash--The alluvium spread
+over this--The three stages the river pursues--The zone of erosion--The
+zone of compensation--The zone of deposit--River mouths--Estuaries and
+deltas--The formation of bars--Of lagoons--The lagoons of the Gulf
+of Lyons--The ancient position of Arles between the river and the
+lagoons--Neglect of the lagoons in the Middle Ages--They become
+morasses--Attempt at remedy--Embankments and drains--A mistake made--The
+Camargue now a desert--Les Saintes Maries--No evidence to support the
+legend--Based on a misapprehension
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+TARASCON.
+
+Position of Tarascon and Beaucaire opposite each other--Church of S.
+Martha--Crypt--Ancient paintings--Catechising--Ancient altar--The
+festival of the Tarasque--The Phoenician goddess Martha--Story
+of S. Fronto--Discussion at _déjeûner_ over the entry
+of M. Carnot into Marseilles--The change in the French
+character--Pessimism--Beaucaire--Font--Castle--Siege by Raymond VII.--Story
+of Aucassin and Nicolette
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+NIMES.
+
+The right spelling of Nimes--Derivation of name--The fountain--Throwing
+coins into springs--Collecting coins--Symbol of Agrippa--Character of
+Agrippa--What he did for Nimes--The Maison Carrée--Different idea of
+worship in the Heathen world from what prevails in Christendom--S.
+Baudille--Vespers--Activity of the Church in France--Behaviour of the
+clergy in Italy to the King and Queen--The Revolution a blessing to
+the Church in France--Church services in Italy and in France--The
+Tourmagne--Uncertainty as to its use--Cathedral of Nimes--Other
+churches--A canary lottery--Altars to the Sun--The sun-wheel--The cross of
+Constantine--Anecdote of Fléchier
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+AIGUES MORTES AND MAGUELONNE.
+
+A dead town--The Rhônes-morts--Bars--S. Louis and the Crusades--How S.
+Louis acquired Aigues Mortes--His canal--The four littoral chains and
+lagoons--The fortifications--Unique for their date--Original use of
+battlements--Deserted state of the town--Maguelonne--How reached--History
+of Maguelonne--Cathedral--The Bishops forge Saracen coins--Second
+destruction of the place--Inscription on door--Bernard de Treviis--His
+romance of Pierre de Provence--Provençal poetry not always immoral--Present
+state of Maguelonne
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+BÉZIERS AND NARBONNE.
+
+Position of Béziers--S. Nazaire--The Albigenses--Their
+tenets--Albigensian "consolation"--Crusade against them--The storming
+of Béziers--Massacre--Cathedral of Béziers--Girls' faces in the
+train--Similar faces at Narbonne, in cathedral and museum--Narbonne
+a Roman colony--All the Roman buildings destroyed--Caps of
+liberty--Christian sarcophagi--Children's toys of baked clay--Cathedral
+unfinished--Archiepiscopal palace--Unsatisfactory work of M.
+Viollet-le-Duc--In trouble with the police--Taken for a German spy--My
+sketch-book gets me off
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+CARCASSONNE.
+
+Siege of Carcassonne by the Crusaders--Capture--Perfidy of legate--Death
+of the Viscount--Continuation of the war--Churches of New Carcassonne--_La
+Cité_--A perfect Mediæval fortified town--Disappointing--Visigoth
+fortifications--Later additions--The cathedral--Tomb of Simon de Montfort
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+AVIGNON.
+
+How Avignon passed to the Popes--The court of Clement VI.--John
+XXII.--Benedict XII.--Their tombs--Petrarch and Laura--The Palace of
+the Popes--The Salle Brûlée--Cathedral--Porch--S. Agricole--Church of
+S. Pierre--The museum--View from the Rocher des doms--The Rhone--The
+bridge--Story of S. Benezet--Dancing on bridges--Villeneuve--Tomb of
+Innocent VI.--The castle at Villeneuve--Defences--Tête-du-pont of the
+bridge
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+VALENCE.
+
+A dull town--Cathedral--Jacques Cujas--His daughter--Pius VI.--His
+death--Maison des Têtes--Le Pendentif--The castle of Crussol--The dukes of
+Uzes--A dramatic company of the thirteenth century
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+VIENNE.
+
+Historic associations--Salvation Army bonnets--The fair--A quack--A
+vampire--The amphitrite--A _carousel_--Temple of Augustus and
+Livia--The Aiguille--Cathedral--Angels and musical instruments--S.
+André-le-Bas--Situation of Vienne--Foundation of the Church there--Letter
+of the Church on the martyrdoms at Lyons
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+BOURGES.
+
+The siege of Avaricum by Cæsar--The complete subjugation of Gaul--The
+statue of the Dying Gaul at Rome--Beauty of Bourges--The cathedral--Not
+completed according to design--Defect in height--Strict geometrical
+proportion in design not always satisfactory--Necessity of proportion
+for acoustics--Domestic architecture in Bourges--The house of Jacques
+Coeur--Story of his life--A rainy day--Why Bourges included in this book--A
+silver thimble--_Que de singeries faites-vous là, Madeleine?_--Adieu
+
+APPENDIX
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+FULL PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+  Tower of S. Trophimus, Arles
+  Abbey of S. Victor, Marseilles
+  Part of the North Cloister of Arles Cathedral
+  Les Baux
+  The Pont du Gard
+  Béziers from the River
+  An Entrance to Carcassonne
+  The Cathedral and the Palace of the Popes, Avignon
+
+
+GENERAL ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+  The Carro
+  A Florentine Torch Holder
+  A Horse in a Hat
+  Lérins
+  Aqueduct of Fréjus
+  Lantern of Augustus
+  Map of Massalia
+  Musical Instruments from the Tomb of Julia
+  Calpurnia's Monument
+  An Arelaise. (_From a Photograph._)
+  Part of the Amphitheatre of Arles
+  Back of a House at Arles
+  A Boat with two rudders at Arles
+  On a House at Arles
+  Samson and the Lion, from the West door of the Cathedral of Arles
+  On a House at Arles
+  South Entrance to the Cloister, Arles Cathedral
+  Church of Notre Dame de la Majeur, Arles
+  Tower of the desecrated Church of S. Croix, Arles
+  Part of the Courtyard of the Convent of S. Cæsarius, Arles
+  Church of the Penitents Gris, Arles
+  In the Cloisters, Montmajeur
+  In the Cloister at Arles
+  Les Baux
+  Range of the Alpines from Glanum Liviæ
+  Ruins S. Gabriel
+  La Trémaïé
+  Les Gaïé
+  Caius Marius (_From a bust in the Vatican._)
+  Orgon and the Durance
+  Mont Victoire and the Plain of Pourrières
+  Sketch Plan of the Battle-fields
+  Monument of Marius
+  Venus Victrix
+  Gardanne
+  The Vielle
+  Les Saintes Maries
+  Early Altar, Tarascon
+  Spire of S. Martha's Church, Tarascon
+  Iron Door to Safe in S. Martha's Church
+  King René's Castle, Tarascon
+  A bit in Tarascon
+  The Chapel of Beaucaire Castle
+  Beaucaire Castle from Tarascon.--Sunset
+  In the Public Garden, Nimes
+  The Maison Carrée, Nimes
+  Cathedral of Nimes.--Part of West Front
+  Aigues Mortes.--One of the Gates
+  Aigues Mortes.--Tower of the Bourgignons
+  Sketch Map of Aigues Mortes and its Littoral Chains
+  Original use of Battlements. (_From Viollet-le-Duc._)
+  Second stage of Battlements
+  East End of the Church of Maguelonne
+  Béziers.--Church of S. Nazaire
+  Fountain in the Cloister of S. Nazaire, Béziers
+  Types of faces, Narbonne: Modern--Sixteenth-Century Tomb in
+  Cathedral--Classic Bust in Museum
+  Freedmen's Caps, Narbonne
+  Children's Toys in the Museum, Narbonne
+  Towers on the Wall, Carcassonne
+  A Bit of Carcassonne
+  Inside the Wall, Carcassonne
+  Papal Throne in the Cathedral of Avignon
+  John XXII.
+  Benedict XII.
+  An Angle of the Papal Palace, Avignon
+  Lantern at the Cathedral, Avignon
+  Angel at West Door, Church of S. Agricole
+  A Bit of the Old Wall, Avignon
+  Part of Church of S. Didier, Avignon
+  Bridge and Chapel of S. Benezet
+  At Villeneuve
+  Castle of S. André, at Villeneuve
+  At Villeneuve
+  A Well at Villeneuve
+  Cathedral of Valence
+  Doorway in the House Dupré Latour, Valence
+  Doorway and Niche in the Maison des Têtes, Valence
+  House in Vienne
+  At Vienne
+  Hurdy-Gurdy Played by an Angel
+  Church of S. André-le-Bas.--The Tower
+  Porte de l'Ambulance, Vienne
+  A Street Corner, Bourges
+  Part of Jacques Coeur's House
+  Turret in the Hôtel Lallemand
+  Staircase in the Hôtel Lallemand
+  Sculpture over the Kitchen Entrance at Jacques Coeur's House
+  Jacques Coeur's Knocker
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+INTRODUCTORY.
+
+
+The Tiber in Flood--Typhoid fever in Rome--Florence--A Jew
+acquaintance--Drinking in Provence--Buying _bric-à-brac_ with the Jew--The
+_carro_ on Easter Eve--Its real Origin--My Jew friend's letters--Italian
+_dolce far niente_.
+
+
+Conceive yourself confronted by a pop-gun, some ten feet in diameter,
+charged with mephitic vapours and plugged with microbes of typhoid fever.
+Conceive your sensations when you were aware that the piston was being
+driven home.
+
+That was my situation in March, 1890, when I got a letter from Messrs.
+Allen asking me to go into Provence and Languedoc, and write them a book
+thereon. I dodged the microbe, and went.
+
+To make myself understood I must explain.
+
+I was in Rome. For ten days with a sirocco wind the rains had descended, as
+surely they had never come down since the windows of heaven were opened at
+the Flood. The Tiber rose thirty-two feet. Now Rome is tunnelled under the
+streets with drains or sewers that carry all the refuse of a great city
+into the Tiber. But, naturally, when the Tiber swells high above the crowns
+of the sewers, they are choked. All the foulness of the great town is held
+back under the houses and streets, and breeds gases loathsome to the nose
+and noxious to life. Not only so, but a column of water, some twenty to
+twenty-five feet in height, is acting like the piston of a pop-gun, and is
+driving all the accumulated gases charged with the germs of typhoid fever
+into every house which has communication with the sewers. There is no help
+for it, the poisonous vapours _must_ be forced out of the drains and _must_
+be forced into the houses. That is why, with a rise of the Tiber, typhoid
+fever is certain to break out in Rome.
+
+As I went over Ponte S. Angelo I was wont to look over the parapet at the
+opening of the sewer that carried off the dregs of that portion of the
+city where I was residing. One day I looked for it, and looked in vain.
+The Tiber had swelled and was overflowing its banks, and for a week or
+fortnight there could be no question, not a sewer in the vast city would
+be free to do anything else but mischief. I did not go on to the Vatican
+galleries that day. I could not have enjoyed the statues in the Braccio
+Nuovo, nor the frescoes in the Loggia. I went home, found Messrs. Allen's
+letter, packed my Gladstone bag, and bolted. I shall never learn who got
+the microbe destined for me, which I dodged.
+
+I went to Florence; at the inn where I put up--one genuinely Italian,
+Bonciani's,--I made an acquaintance, a German Jew, a picture-dealer with
+a shop in a certain capital, no matter which, editor of a _bric-à-brac_
+paper, and a right merry fellow. I introduce him to the reader because
+he afforded me some information concerning Provence. He had a branch
+establishment--never mind where, but in Provence--and he had come to
+Florence to pick up pictures and _bric-à-brac_.
+
+Our acquaintance began as follows. We sat opposite each other at table in
+the evening. A large rush-encased flask is set before each guest in a swing
+carriage, that enables him to pour out his glassful from the big-bellied
+flask without effort. Each flask is labelled variously Chianti, Asti,
+Pomino, but all the wines have a like substance and flavour, and each is
+an equally good light dinner-wine. A flask when full costs three francs
+twenty centimes; and when the guest falls back in his seat, with a smile of
+satisfaction on his face, and his heart full of good will towards all men,
+for that he has done his dinner, then the bottle is taken out, weighed, and
+the guest charged the amount of wine he has consumed. He gets a fresh flask
+at every meal.
+
+"Du lieber Himmel!" exclaimed my _vis-à-vis_. "I do b'lieve I hev drunk
+dree francs. Take up de flasche and weigh her. Tink so?"
+
+"I can believe it without weighing the bottle," I replied.
+
+"And only four sous--twenty centimes left!" exclaimed the old gentleman,
+meditatively. "But four sous is four sous. It is de price of mine
+paper"--brightening in his reflections--"I can but shell one copy more,
+and I am all right." Brightening to greater brilliancy as he turns to me:
+"Will you buy de last number of my paper? She is in my pocket. She is ver'
+interesting. Oh! ver' so. Moche information for two pence."
+
+"I shall be charmed," I said, and extended twenty centimes across the
+table.
+
+"Ach Tausend! Dass ist herrlich!" and he drew off the last drops of Pomino.
+"Now I will tell you vun ding. Hev you been in Provence?"
+
+"Provence! Why--I am on my way there, now."
+
+"Den listen to me. Ebery peoples hev different ways of doing de same ding.
+You go into a cabaret dere, and you ask for wine. De patron brings you a
+bottle, and at de same time looks at de clock and wid a bit of chalk he
+mark you down your time. You say you will drink at two pence, or dree
+pence, or four pence. You drink at dat price you have covenanted for one
+hour, you drink at same price anodder hour, and you sleep--but you pay all
+de same, wedder you drink or wedder you sleep, two pence, or dree pence, or
+four pence de hour. It is an old custom. You understand? It is de custom of
+de country--of La belle Provence."
+
+"I quite understand that it is to the interest of the taverner to make his
+customers drunk."
+
+"Drunk!" repeated my Mosaic acquaintance. "I will tell you one ding
+more, ver' characteristic of de nationalities. A Frenchman--_il boit_;
+a German--_er sauft_; and an Englishman--he gets fresh. Der you hev de
+natures of de dree peoples as in a picture. De Frenchman, he looks to de
+moment, and not beyond. _Il boit_. De German, he looks to de end. _Er
+sauft_. De Englishman, he sits down fresh and intends to get fuddled; but
+he is a hypocrite. He does not say de truth to hisself nor to nobody, he
+says, _I will get fresh_, when he means de odder ding. Big humbug. You
+understand?"
+
+One morning my Jew friend said to me: "Do you want to see de, what you call
+behind-de-scenes of Florence? Ver' well, you come wid me. I am going after
+pictures."
+
+He had a carriage at the door. I jumped in with him, and we spent the day
+in driving about the town, visiting palaces and the houses of professional
+men and tradesmen--of all who were "down on their luck," and wanted to part
+with art-treasures. Here we entered a palace, of roughed stone blocks after
+the ancient Florentine style, where a splendid porter with cocked hat, a
+silver-headed _bâton_, and gorgeous livery kept guard. Up the white marble
+stairs, into stately halls overladen with gilding, the walls crowded with
+paintings in cumbrous but resplendent frames. Prince So-and-So had got into
+financial difficulties, and wanted to part with some of his heirlooms.
+
+There we entered a mean door in a back street, ascended a dirty stair, and
+came into a suite of apartments, where a dishevelled woman in a dirty split
+dressing-gown received us and showed us into her husband's sanctum, crowded
+with rare old paintings on gold grounds. Her good man had been a collector
+of the early school of art; now he was ill, he could not attend to his
+business, he might not recover, and whilst he was ill his wife was getting
+rid of some of his treasures.
+
+There we entered the mansion of a widow, who had lost her husband recently,
+a rich merchant. The heirs were quarrelling over the spoil, and she was in
+a hurry to make what she could for herself before a valuer came to reckon
+the worth of the paintings and silver and cabinets.
+
+In that day I saw many sides of life.
+
+"But how in the world," I asked of my guide, "did you know that all these
+people were wanting to sell?"
+
+"I have my agents ebberywhere," was his reply.
+
+I thought of the _Diable boiteux_ carrying the student of Alcala over the
+city, Madrid, removing the roofs of the houses, and exposing to his view
+the stories of the lives and miseries of those within.
+
+I was at Florence on Easter Eve. A ceremony of a very peculiar character
+takes place there on that day at noon. In the morning a monstrous black
+structure on wheels, some twenty-five feet high, is brought into the square
+before the cathedral by oxen, garlanded with flowers. This erection, the
+_carro_, is also decorated with flowers, but is likewise covered with
+fireworks. A rope is then extended from the _carro_ to a pole which is set
+up in the choir of the Duomo, before the high altar. For this purpose the
+great west doors are thrown open, and the rope extends the whole length of
+the nave. Upon it, close to the pole, is perched a white dove of plaster.
+
+Crowds assemble both in the square and in the nave of the cathedral.
+Peasants from the countryside come in in bands, and before the hour of noon
+every vantage place is occupied, and the square and the streets commanding
+it are filled with a sea of heads.
+
+[Illustration: The Carro.]
+
+At half-past eleven, the archbishop, the canons, the choir, go down the
+nave in procession, and make the circuit of the Duomo, then re-enter the
+cathedral, take their places in the choir, and the mass for Easter Eve is
+begun. At the Gospel--at the stroke of twelve, a match is applied to a
+fusee, and instantly the white dove flies along the rope, pouring forth
+a tail of fire, down the nave, out at the west gates, over the heads of
+the crowd, reaches the _carro_, ignites a fusee there, turns, and, still
+propelled by its fiery tail, whizzes along the cord again, till it has
+reached its perch on the pole in the choir, when the fire goes out and it
+remains stationary. But in the meantime the match ignited by the dove has
+communicated with the squibs and crackers attached to the _carro_, and the
+whole mass of painted wood and flowers is enveloped in fire and smoke, from
+which issue sheets of flame and loud detonations. Meanwhile, mass is being
+sung composedly within the choir, as though nothing was happening without.
+The fireworks continue to explode for about a quarter of an hour, and
+then the great garlanded oxen, white, with huge horns, are reyoked to the
+_carro_, and it is drawn away.
+
+The flight of the dove for its course of about 540 feet is watched by the
+peasants with breathless attention, for they take its easy or jerky flight
+as ominous of the weather for the rest of the year and of the prospects of
+harvest. If the bird sails along without a hitch, then the summer will be
+fine, but if there be sluggishness of movement, and one halt, then another,
+the year is sure to be one of storms and late frosts and hail.
+
+Now what is the origin of this extraordinary custom--a custom that is
+childish, and yet is so curious that one would hardly wish to see it
+abolished?
+
+Several stories are told to explain it, none very satisfactory. According
+to one, a Florentine knight was in the crusading host of Godfrey de
+Bouillon, and was the first to climb the walls of Jerusalem, and plant
+thereon the banner of the Cross. He at once sent tidings of the recovery of
+the Holy Sepulchre back to his native town by a carrier pigeon, and thus
+the Florentines received the glad tidings long before it reached any other
+city in Europe. In token of their gladness at the news, they instituted the
+ceremony of the white pigeon and the _carro_ on Easter Eve.
+
+[Illustration: A Florentine torch holder.]
+
+Another story is to the effect that this Florentine entered the city of
+Jerusalem before the first crusade, broke off a large fragment of the Holy
+Sepulchre, and carried it to Florence. He was pursued by the Saracens, but
+escaped by shoeing his horse with reversed irons. Another version is that
+he resolved to bring back to Florence the sacred flame that burnt in the
+Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Accordingly he lighted thereat a torch, and
+rode back to Italy with the torch flaming. But to protect it from the wind,
+he rode with his face to the tail of his steed, screening the torch with
+his body. As he thus rode, folk who saw him shouted "Pazzi! Pazzi!"--Fool!
+Fool! and this name was assumed by his family ever after. The Pazzis
+of Florence every year paid all the expenses of the _carro_ till quite
+recently, when the Municipality assumed the charge and now defray it from
+the city chest. Clearly the origin of the custom is forgotten; nevertheless
+it is not difficult to explain the meaning of the ceremony.
+
+In the Eastern Church, and still, in many churches in the West, the lights
+are extinguished on Good Friday, and formerly this was the case with all
+fires, those of the domestic hearth as well as the lamps in church. On
+Easter Day, fresh fire was struck with flint and steel by the bishop, and
+all candles, lamps and hearths were rekindled from this new light. At the
+present day one of the most solemn scenes in the Eastern Church is this
+kindling of the Easter fire, and its communication from one to another in a
+vast congregation assembled to receive it and carry it off to their homes.
+In the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, the new fire kindled and
+blessed by the patriarch, is cast down from the height of the dome.
+
+In Florence, anciently, it was much the same. The archbishop struck the
+Easter fire, and it was then distributed among the people; but there were
+inconveniences, unseemly scuffles, accidents even, and the dove was devised
+as a means of conveying the Easter fire outside the Duomo, and kindling
+a great bonfire, whereat the people might light their torches without
+desecrating the sacred building by scrambling and fighting therein for
+the hallowed flame. At this bonfire all could obtain the fire without
+inconvenience. By degrees the bonfire lost its significance, so did
+the dove, and fables were invented to explain the custom. The bonfire,
+moreover, degenerated into an exhibition of fireworks at mid-day.
+
+One morning my Jew friend insisted on my reading a letter he had just
+received from his daughter, aged fourteen. He was proud of the daughter,
+and highly pleased with the letter.
+
+It began thus: "Cher papa--nous sommes sauvés. That picture of a Genoese
+lady you bought for 200 francs, and doubted if you would be able to get rid
+of, I sold before we left home for Provence to an American, as a genuine
+Queen Elizabeth for 1,000 francs." Then followed three closely-written
+pages of record of business transactions, all showing a balance to the
+good, all showing a profit nowhere under thirty per cent. Finally, the
+letter concluded: "Mamma's back is better. Louis and I went on Sunday
+to see a farm. A cow, a stable, an old peasantess saying her rosary, a
+daughter knitting--all real, not waxwork. Votre fille très devouée, LEAH."
+
+"That is a girl to be proud of," said my acquaintance. "And only fourteen!
+But hein! here is another letter I have received, and it is awkward." He
+told me that when he had been in London on business he had lodged in the
+house of a couple who were not on the best of terms. The husband had been a
+widower with one child, a daughter, and the stepmother could not abide the
+child. Whilst M. Cohen, my friend, was there, the quarrels had been many,
+and he had done his best to smooth matters between the parties. Then he
+had invited them over to visit the Continent and stay at his house. They
+had come, and he had again to exercise the office of mediator. "And now,"
+lamented my good-hearted friend, "nebber one week but I get a letter
+from de leddy. Here is dis, sent on to me. Read it." The letter ran as
+follows:--
+
+"Do write to me. I fear my last letter cannot have reached you, or you
+would have answered it. I am miserable. My husband is so cross about that
+little girl, because I cannot love the nasty little beast. Oh, Mr. Cohen,
+do come to London, or let me come abroad and live in your house away from
+my husband and that child. You were so sensible and so kind. I can't bear
+to be longer here in the house with my husband and the spoiled child."
+
+My friend looked disconsolately at me.
+
+"What am I to do?" he asked. "She writes ebery week, and I don't answer.
+And my wife sends on dese letters."
+
+"Do?" said I. "Send this one at once to Madame Cohen, and ask her to answer
+it for you. That London lady will never trouble you again."
+
+The following circumstance I relate, not that it has the smallest
+importance except as a characteristic sketch of Italian _dolce far niente_,
+and as a lesson to travellers. The proper study of mankind is man, and a
+little incident such as occurred to me, and which I will now relate, raises
+the curtain and shows us a feature of humanity in Italy. When I hurried
+from Rome, I sent off all my luggage by goods train to England, except such
+articles as I could compress into a Gladstone bag; a change of raiment of
+course was there. But mark the cruelty of fate. My foot slipped on a white
+marble stair, and I rent a certain garment at the knee. I at once dived
+into my Gladstone bag and produced another pair, but found with a shock
+that they also had suffered--become threadbare, and needed attention from a
+tailor. What was to be done? I had to leave Florence at noon. The discovery
+was made the night before. I rose early, breakfasted early, and hung about
+the shop door of a tailor at 8 A.M. till the door was opened, when I
+entered, stated my case, and the obliging _sartore_ promised that the
+trifling remedy should be applied and I should have my garment again in one
+hour. "In one hour!" he said, holding up his hand in solemn asseveration.
+
+Nine o'clock came; then ten, and my raiment had not returned. I flew to the
+tailor's shop and asked for my garment. "It was all right," said he, "only
+the thread being knotted. It should be sent to my inn." So I returned and
+waited. I had my lunch, paid my bill, packed my bag, looked at my watch.
+The omnibus was at the door. No garment. I ran to the tailor's. He listened
+to my tale of distress with an amiable smile on his face, then volunteered
+to come with me to my inn, and talk the matter over with the host.
+Accordingly he locked up his shop and sauntered with me to Bonciani's.
+Bonciani and he considered the circumstances at length, thrashed
+the subject thoroughly. Then, as the horses were being put into the
+omnibus--"Come," said the tailor, "I have a brother, a grocer, we will go
+to him."
+
+"But why?" asked I. "Do you see, the boxes are being put on the omnibus. I
+want my--garment."
+
+"You must come with me to my brother's," said the tailor. So to the
+grocer's went we. Vainly did I trust that the journeyman who was engaged
+on my article of apparel lodged there, and that, done or undone, I could
+recover it thence. But no--not so. The whole story was related with
+embellishments to the brother, the grocer, who listened, discussed,
+commented on, the matter.
+
+"There goes the 'bus!" I shouted, looking down the street. "Even now, if
+you will let me have the article, I can run to the station and get off; I
+have my ticket."
+
+"Subito! subito!" said the tailor.
+
+Then the grocer said that the thing in request might be sent by post.
+"But," I replied, "I am going into France, to Nice, and clothes are
+subjected to burdensome charges if carried across the frontier."
+
+"Ten minutes!" I gasped. "Almost too late."
+
+A moment later--
+
+"Appunto!"
+
+"The clock is striking. I am done for."
+
+"Appunto!" and he lighted a cigarette.
+
+So I had to travel by night, instead of by day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE RIVIERA.
+
+
+No ill without a counterbalancing advantage--An industry peculiar to
+Italy--Italian honesty--Buffalo Bill at Naples--The Prince and the
+straw-coloured gloves--The Riviera--A tapestry--Nice--Its flowers--Notre
+Dame--The château--My gardener--A pension of ugly women--Horses and their
+hats--Antibes--Meeting of Honoré IV. and Napoleon--The Grimaldis--Lérins,
+an Isle of Saints--A family jar--Healed.
+
+
+That was not all. The dawdling of the tailor not only made me lose the
+mid-day train, but delayed my arrival in Nice for twenty-four hours. I took
+the night train to Pisa, where I purposed catching the express from Rome.
+But the express came slouching along in a hands-in-the-pocket sort of way,
+and was over half-an-hour late, and would not bestir itself to pick up the
+misspent, lost moments between Pisa and Genoa, the consequence of which was
+that the train for Nice had gone on without waiting, and accordingly those
+who desired to prosecute their journey in that direction were obliged to
+loiter about in the small hours of the morning between a restaurant, half
+asleep, and a waiting-room where the electric light had gone out, till the
+hour of seven.
+
+Before leaving Italy, I may mention an industry which I found cultivated
+there, original, and I believe unique. When I procured postage stamps at
+the post-offices, I was surprised, if I took them home with me, to find
+that their adhesive power had failed. I also received indignant letters
+from correspondents in England remonstrating with me for posting my
+communications to them unstamped. This surprised me, and at Rome, where I
+had been accustomed to purchase _franco-bolli_ at the head office, I took
+them home and regummed them. But the remarkable phenomenon was, that such
+stamps as were purchased at tobacconists' shops had gum on them--only
+those acquired at the post-offices were without. I learned that the same
+peculiarity existed at Florence, and indeed elsewhere in Italy, and finally
+the explanation was vouchsafed to me. The functionary at the post-office
+passes a wet sponge over the back of the sheets of _franco-bolli_ supplied
+to him, thus removing the adhesive matter. When he sells stamps at the
+window, he hopes that those who purchase will proceed at once to apply them
+to their letters, without perceiving their deficiencies. As soon as the
+stamp becomes dry it falls off, and quite a collection of stamps of sundry
+values can thus be gathered at every clearing of the box, and the postal
+clerk reaps thence a daily harvest that goes a long way towards the eking
+out the small pittance paid him by Government. It is interesting to see the
+directions taken by human enterprise.
+
+Whilst I was in Rome, Buffalo Bill was in Naples exhibiting his troupe of
+horses and gang of Indians. The Italian papers informed the public of a
+remarkable exploit achieved by the Neapolitans. They had done Buffalo Bill
+out of two thousand francs. It had been effected in this wise. His reserved
+seats were charged five francs. Four hundred forged five-franc notes
+were passed at the door of his show by well-dressed Neapolitans, indeed,
+the _élite_ of Neapolitan society; and the trick played on him was not
+discovered till too late. Now consider what this implies. It implies that
+some hundreds of the best people, princes, counts, marquesses at Naples
+lent themselves to see Buffalo Bill's exhibition by a fraud. They wanted to
+see and be seen there, but not to pay five francs for a seat. There must
+have been combination, and that among the members of the aristocracy of
+Naples. The Italian papers did not mention this in a tone of disgust, but
+rather in one of surprise that Italians should have been able to overreach
+a Yankee. But I do not believe such a fraud would have been perpetrated at
+Rome, Florence, or Milan. It was considered quite in its place at Naples.
+
+A lady of my acquaintance was staying in a pension at Naples. There resided
+at the time, in the same pension, a prince--Neapolitan, be it understood.
+One day, just before she left, she brought in a packet of kid gloves she
+had purchased, among them one pair, straw-coloured. She laid them on the
+table, went out for two minutes, leaving the prince in the room with the
+gloves. On her return, the prince and the straw-coloured gloves were gone.
+She made inquiries of the landlady, who, when told that the prince had been
+in the room, laughed and said: "But of course he has them. You should never
+leave anything in the room unguarded where there is a prince." Two days
+after the departure of this lady, the straw-coloured gloves were produced
+by his highness and presented by him to a young lady whom he admired, then
+in the same pension.
+
+No evil comes without a counterbalancing good. The day I was detained in
+Florence by that tailor, and the loss of the night train at Genoa were not
+immense evils. A furious gale broke over the coast, and when at seven in
+the morning we steamed out of Genoa, the Mediterranean was sullen, the
+rain poured down, and the mountains were enveloped in vapour. But as we
+proceeded along the coast the weather improved, and before long every cloud
+was gone, the sky became blue as a gentian, and the oranges flamed in the
+sunshine as we swept between the orchards. Had I gone by the noon train
+from Florence I should have travelled this road by night, had I caught the
+3.27 A.M. train I should have seen nothing for storm and cloud. And--what
+a glorious, what an unrivalled road that is! It was like passing through a
+gallery hung with Rénaissance tapestry, all in freshness of colour. The sea
+deep blue and green like a peacock's neck, the mountains pale yellow, as
+shown in tapestry, with blue shadows; the silvery-grey olives, the glossy
+orange trees with their fruit--exactly as in tapestry. Surely the old
+weavers of those wondrous webs studied this coast and copied it in their
+looms.
+
+I have said that the sea was like a peacock's neck; but it had a brilliancy
+above even that. As I have mentioned tapestry I may say that it resembled
+a sort of tapestry that is very rare and costly, of which I have seen a
+sample in a private collection at Frankfort, and another in the Palazzo
+Bardini at Florence. It consists of the threads being drawn over plates of
+gold and silver. In the piece at Florence the effect of the sun shining
+through a tree is thus produced by gold leaf under the broidery of
+tree-leaves. Silver leaf is employed for water, with blue silk drawn in
+lines over it. So with the sea. There seemed to be silver burnished to its
+greatest polish below, over which the water was drawn as a blue lacquer.
+
+And Nice. What shall I say of that bright and laughing city--with its
+shops of flowers, its avenues of trees through which run the streets, its
+gardens, its pines and cactus and aloe walks? Only one blemish can I pick
+out in Nice, and that is a hideous modern Gothic church, Notre Dame, filled
+with detestable garish glass, so utterly faulty in design, so full of
+blemish of every sort, that the best wish one could make for the good
+people of Nice is that the next earthquake that visits the Riviera may
+shake this wretched structure to pieces, so as to give them an opportunity
+of erecting another in its place which is not a monstrosity.
+
+The Avenue de la Gare is planted with the eucalyptus, that has attained
+a considerable size. It is not a beautiful tree, its leaves are ever on
+the droop, as though the tree were unhealthy or unhappy, sulky at being
+transplanted to Europe, dissatisfied with the climate, displeased with the
+soil, discontented with its associates. It struck me as very much like a
+good number of excellent and very useful souls with whom I am acquainted,
+who never take a cheerful view of life, are always fault-finding,
+hole-picking, worry-discovering, eminently good in their place as
+febrifuges, but not calculated to brighten their neighbourhood.
+
+What a delightful walk is that on the cliff of the château! The day I was
+at Nice was the 9th of April. The crags were rich with colour, the cytisus
+waving its golden hair, the pelargonium blazing scarlet, beds of white
+stock wafting fragrance, violets scrambling over every soft bank of deep
+earth exhaling fragrance; roses, not many in flower, but their young leaves
+in masses of claret-red; wherever a ledge allowed it, there pansies of
+velvety blue and black and brown had been planted. In a hot sun I climbed
+the château cliff to where the water, conveyed to the summit, dribbled and
+dropped, or squirted and splashed, nourishing countless fronds of fern and
+beds of moss, and many a bog plant. The cedars and umbrella pines in the
+spring sun exhaled their aromatic breath, and the flowering birch rained
+down its yellow dust over one from its swaying catkins.
+
+I see I have spoken of the cytisus. I may be excused mentioning an anecdote
+that the sight of this plant provokes in my mind every spring. I had a
+gardener--a queer, cantankerous creature, who never saw a joke, even when
+he made one. "Please, sir," he said to me with a solemn face, "I've been
+rearing a lot o' young citizens for you."
+
+"Have you?" said I, with a sigh. "I fancy I'm rearing a middling lot of
+them myself."
+
+"Please, sir," said he to me on another occasion, "that there lumbago be
+terrible trying to know what to do with it."
+
+"Oh!" said I with alacrity, "nothing equals hartshorn and oil applied to
+the small of the back with a flannel. You have a wife--"
+
+"Yes, sir." He looked at me vacantly. "And yet, it's a beautiful thing."
+
+"Well--yes, when it attacks one's deadly enemy."
+
+"I've cut it down, and trimmed it out, and tied it up," said the gardener.
+He meant the _Plumbago capense!_
+
+That man never would allow that he was beaten. My eldest boy one day held
+some pansies over the fumes of ammonia, turned them green, and showed them
+as a _lusus naturæ_ to the gardener. He smiled contemptuously. "Them's the
+colour of biled cabbage," said he; "I grew them verdigris green--beds of
+'em, when I was with Squire Cross."
+
+One day he said to me: "The nurserymen call them plants big onias just to
+sell them, I call them little onias; you shall just see them I grow, them
+be the true big onias, as large as the palm of your hand."
+
+I tumbled, by hazard, at Nice into a pension, where I believe I saw at
+_table d'hôte_ a score of the ugliest women I have ever had the trial of
+sitting over against in my long career. I found out, in conversation with a
+porter at the station afterwards, that this pension was notorious for the
+ugly women who put up there, and it is a joke among the porters when they
+see one very ill-favoured arrive by the train, that she is going to be an
+inmate of the Hotel ----. The name I will not give, lest any of my fair
+readers, in that spirit of delightful perversity that characterises the
+sex, should go there and spoil the credit of the pension. I could not
+endure the _table d'hôte_ there for many days. An ugly woman is, or may be,
+restful for the eye when her face is in repose--not when she is chewing
+tough beef or munching an apple. Besides, Lent was passed.
+
+When I was in Rome there appeared in a comic paper at the beginning of Lent
+the picture of a very stout lady, who thus addressed her spouse. "Hubby,
+dear! you haven't kissed me." "Can't, love," he replies, "_fat_ is
+forbidden in Lent." Ugliness was uncongenial to me in radiantly beautiful
+Nice, and in sparkling Easter--so I packed my Gladstone bag and went
+further.
+
+The snow still lying on the crests of the Maritime Alps and the
+intermediate ranges broken into fantastic forms, the lovely range of red
+porphyry Esterel to the south, with the intensely blue sea drawing a
+thread of silver about its base, together made a picture of incomparable
+loveliness.
+
+The sun was so hot that the horses had already assumed their summer hats.
+"A good man is merciful to his beast," and the good-hearted peasants of
+the Riviera and Provence, thinking that their horses must suffer from the
+burning heat of the sun, provide, them with straw hats, very much the same
+sort of hats as girls wear, adorned also with ribbons and rosettes, but to
+suit the peculiarity of formation of the horse's head, two holes are cut in
+the hat through which the ears are drawn. The effect is comical when you
+are being driven in a carriage with a pair of horses before you wearing
+straw hats, and their ears protruding, one on each side, like the horns in
+the helmets of mediæval German knights. One lovely glimpse of the sea I got
+that I shall never forget. The blue sea was in the background gleaming;
+against it stood a belt of sombre cypresses; before the cypresses the
+silvery, smoke-grey tufts of olive, in a grove; and before the olive, in
+mid-distance, a field of roses in young claret-red foliage--a landscape of
+belts of colour right marvellous.
+
+[Illustration: A Horse in a Hat.]
+
+Then Antibes--a blue bay with castle on one horn, on the other the little
+town, its lighthouse, and a couple of bold towers.
+
+It was at Cannes that Prince Honoré IV. of Monaco encountered Napoleon in
+1815, as he was returning from Paris in his carriage to take possession of
+his principality, that had been restored to him by the Treaty of Paris in
+1814.
+
+The Grenadiers of the Imperial Guard stopped his carriage, made the prince
+descend, and conducted him before a little man with clean-cut features,
+whom he at once knew as the Emperor--returned from Elba.
+
+"Où allez-vous, Monaco?" asked Napoleon bluntly.
+
+"Sire," replied Honoré IV., "je vais à la découverte de mon royaume."
+
+The Emperor smiled.
+
+"Voilà une singulière rencontre, monsieur," said Napoleon. "Deux majestés
+sans place; mais ce n'est peut-être pas la peine de vous déranger. Avant
+huit jours je serai à Paris, et je me verrai forcé de vous renverser du
+trône, mon cousin. Revenez plutôt avec moi, je vous nommerai sous-préfet de
+Monaco, si vous y tenez beaucoup."
+
+"Merci de vos bontés, sire," replied the prince in some confusion; "mais je
+tiendrais encore plus à faire une restauration, ne dut-elle durer que trois
+jours."
+
+"Allons! faites la durer trois mois, mon cousin, je vous garderai votre
+place de chancellier, et vous viendriez me réjoindre aux Tuileries."
+
+The two monarchs separated after having shaken hands amicably. The story
+would be spoiled by translation.
+
+The Grimaldis anciently possessed much more extensive territories than at
+present. At Cagnes, near Vence, is their ancient château, now converted
+into a hospital and barrack, and they owned considerable property, manors
+and lordships near Cannes and Vence. We shall meet them again as Princes of
+Les Baux.
+
+The present reigning family are not properly Grimaldis. The last
+representative was a daughter, married to the Count of Thorigny in 1715,
+who, on the extinction of the male line in 1731, assumed the name of
+Grimaldi, and succeeded to the principality.
+
+[Illustration: Lérins.]
+
+Everywhere, for the mere delight of the eye, not from thought of any gain
+gotten out of it, is the Judas tree covered with pink flowers, standing
+among the cool grey olives. Here and there is a mulberry bursting into
+fresh, green, vivid leaf; in every garden the palms are rustling their
+leaves in the pleasant air, and are glistening in the sun. Out at sea
+lies the low, dull island of Lérins; but, though low and dull, full of
+interest, as taking the place to Provence occupied by Iona to Scotland and
+Lindisfarne to Northumberland, a cradle of Christianity, a cradle rocked
+by the waves. I cannot do better than quote Montalembert's words on this
+topic. "The sailor, the soldier, or the traveller who proceeds from the
+roadstead of Toulon to sail towards Italy and the East, passes among two
+or three islands, rocky and arid, surmounted here and there by a slender
+cluster of pines. He looks at them with indifference, and avoids them.
+However, one of these islands has been for the soul, for the mind, for the
+moral progress of humanity, a centre purer and more fertile than any famous
+isle of the Hellenic Archipelago. It is Lerins, formerly occupied by a
+city, which was already ruined in the time of Pliny, and where, at the
+commencement of the fifth century, nothing more was to be seen than a
+desert coast. In 410, a man landed and remained there; he was called
+Honoratus. Descended from a consular race, educated and eloquent, but
+devoted from his youth to great piety, he desired to be made a monk. His
+father charged his eldest brother, a gay and impetuous young man, to turn
+him from his purpose; but, on the contrary, it was he who won over his
+brother. Disciples gathered round them. The face of the isle was changed,
+the desert became a garden. Honoratus, whose fine face is described to us
+as radiant with a sweet and attractive majesty, opened here an asylum and a
+school for all such as loved Christ."
+
+From this school went forth disciples, inspired with the spirit of
+Honoratus, to rule the churches of Arles, Avignon, Lyons, Vienne, Fréjus,
+Valence, Nice, Metz, and many others. Honoratus himself, taken from his
+peaceful isle to be elevated to the metropolitan see of Arles, had for
+his successor, as Abbot of Lerins, and afterwards as Bishop of Arles, his
+pupil and kinsman S. Hilary, to whom we owe the admirable biography of his
+master. Hilary was celebrated for his graceful eloquence, his unwearied
+zeal, his tender sympathy with all forms of suffering, his ascendency over
+a crowd, and by the numerous conversions which he worked. But, indeed
+Lerins was a hive whence swarmed forth the teachers and apostles of
+Southern Gaul. Hence came the modest Vincent of Lerins, the first
+controversialist of his time, who at the head of his greatest work
+inscribed a touching testimony of his love for that poor little isle where
+he had spent so many years, and learned so much. Salvian, also, the "Master
+of Bishops," as he was called, though himself only a priest, was held to be
+the most eloquent man of his day, only second to S. Augustine. S. Eucherius
+of Lyons, S. Lupus of Troyes, who had married the sister of S. Hilary, were
+other prelates trained in this holy isle. When Troyes was threatened by
+Attila and his Huns, Lupus boldly went forth to meet him. "Who art thou?"
+asked the bishop. "I am Attila, the Scourge of God," was the reply. The
+intrepid gentleness of the bishop disarmed the ferocious invader. He left
+Troyes without injuring it, and drew back to the Rhine. And this isle
+through Lupus claims some regard from a native of Britain, for Lupus,
+trained in it, was chosen by the Council of Arles in 429 to combat the
+Pelagian heresy in Great Britain, along with S. Germanus of Auxerre.
+
+Into the same carriage with me, at Nice, got a pair--a young couple; he,
+with an amiable but weak face; she heavy featured, her only charm her eyes.
+There had been a breeze between the pair, evidently, before they took their
+places, and she was sulky. He, poor fool, endeavoured by every means to
+allay her ruffled temper, always ineffectually. He pulled out his Guide
+Joannot, and endeavoured to interest her in the places we passed, their
+history, their antiquities; in vain, she sat scowling, with pursed lips.
+He called her attention to the red porphyry cliffs of Esterel with purple
+shadows in their hollows, to the blue bays opening between their red
+horns--all to no purpose, she would not look out at the window. He produced
+a box of jujubes, and offered her one between his thumb and forefinger.
+She refused it, but thrust her fingers into the box and extracted one for
+herself. Then she leaned back in the carriage, drew her hat over her face,
+and exposed to view only a chin and a mole under it, that moved up and down
+as she sucked her jujube.
+
+Next, the feeble, amorous husband, endeavoured to get hold of her hand.
+She snatched it away vixenishly. Hectic spots formed on his cheeks, and
+perspiration stood in great drops on his brow. This was clearly the first
+ruffle he had experienced on the hymeneal sea. He got out of the carriage
+at Cannes, and hung about the buffet till the extreme moment, hoping to
+betray her into tokens of uneasiness lest he should miss the train. As it
+was, at the final moment he swung himself into another carriage. She thrust
+her hat a little on one side, protruded an eye to see what became of him,
+then covered it once more. He got in at the next station, breathless, in
+pretended agitation. He had nearly lost his place--he was all but left
+behind. Had he been so left, what would she have done? She vouchsafed
+no reply. Tired, however, of looking into the crown of her hat, she now
+removed it and placed it on her lap. The face was still sullen, with the
+jowl hanging down, the coarse lips set in defiance, and an ugly flicker
+in the eyes. Now the hectic-cheeked husband became boisterous in merry
+conversation with other travellers near him, but always with an eye
+reverting at periods to his wife, whose lips retained a contemptuous curl.
+Then he sulked in his turn, folded his arms, thrust forth his feet under
+the seat opposite, and looked gloomily into the space between them. Thereat
+she began to hum an air from "La Traviata," when suddenly the situation
+was altered. By some marvellous instinct she discovered that I had been
+observing the little play; the comedy _à deux_, and had made my comments
+thereon--not in her favour.
+
+Instantly the expression of her countenance changed. She turned to her
+husband. "Gustave!" said she, "Je souffre," and she laid her head on his
+shoulder. A flash in his face, full of surprise sliding into ecstasy. He
+could not understand this sudden change in her disposition, and I am quite
+sure she never gave him the key.
+
+I left the carriage at Fréjus, and at parting caught her eye. She laughed,
+so did I. We understood each other. Now, as it happened, at Nice, when I
+was seeking a carriage, I entered one where were a lady and an elderly
+gentleman.
+
+At the first glance I recognised a "Milord Anglais," the lady was his
+daughter. At the same moment that I said to myself, "This carriage will
+never do for me," the lady addressed me, "Monsieur! ce voitoore est
+réservée à noos doox."
+
+If I had gone to Fréjus with them, I should have missed that little episode
+of the young married couple and that would have grieved me, and the
+reconciliation would not have been brought about before Marseilles. Oh, how
+grateful I was to fate, that the lady had said, "Monsieur! ce voitoore est
+réservée à noos doox."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+FRÉJUS.
+
+
+The freedman of Pliny--Forum Julii--The Port of Agay--The Port
+of Fréjus--Roman castle--Aqueduct--The lantern of Augustus--The
+cathedral--Cloisters--Boy and dolphin--Story told by Pliny--The _Chaine des
+Maures_--Désaugiers--Dines with the porkbutchers of Paris--Siéyès--_Sans
+phrase_--Agricola--His discoveries.
+
+
+It was strange. The first person I thought of, on arriving at Fréjus, was
+not Julius Cæsar the founder of this old port--no, nor Agricola, a native
+of Fréjus, who is so associated with British history, especially with
+Scottish--no! it was Pliny's sick freedman, about whom that polished orator
+wrote in his nineteenth letter, in Book V. of his collected epistles. Pliny
+was a native of Como, he had two villas on the lake. He was a kindly,
+honourable, somewhat bumptious man--but what great talkers think small
+matter of themselves? He had a slave, a Greek, named Zosimus, of whom he
+writes to his friend Paulinus, who had an estate at Fréjus: "He is a person
+of great worth, diligent in his services, and well skilled in literature;
+but his chief talent is that of a comedian. He pronounces with great
+judgment, propriety, and gracefulness; he has a very good hand too upon
+the lyre, and performs with more skill than is necessary for one of his
+profession. To this I must add, he reads history, oratory, and poetry. He
+is endeared to me by ties of long affection, now heightened by the danger
+in which he is."
+
+Pliny had given Zosimus his liberty, but Zosimus remained attached to
+his service as freedman. Some years before, this accomplished slave had
+overstrained his voice, and begun to spit blood. Thereupon Pliny sent him
+to Egypt, where in the dry air he seemed better, and after a while Zosimus
+returned to his master, apparently completely restored. Pliny goes on, in
+his letter: "Having exerted himself again beyond his strength, there was
+a return of his former malady and a spitting of blood. For this reason, I
+intend to send him to your farm at Forum Julii (Fréjus), having often heard
+you mention the exceeding fine air there, and recommend the milk of that
+place as very salutary in disorders of this nature. I beg you will give
+directions to your people to receive him into your house, and to supply him
+with what he shall have occasion for: which will not be much; for he is so
+temperate as not only to abstain from delicacies, but even to deny himself
+the necessaries his ill health requires. I shall supply him with all that
+is needful for his journey. Farewell."
+
+Now, on reaching Fréjus on a balmy day in April, when the air was soft as
+butter-milk, and the sun was hot, not scorching, my thoughts went at once
+to poor Zosimus, with his hacking cough, his delicate complexion, come here
+to inhale the soft air and drink the warm milk. And I thought of him the
+more from certain experiences of my own relative to Como. I went to that
+city in January from England, thinking that it lay in a warm nook, and
+that there I might bask for a few weeks, when recovering from an attack of
+bronchitis, till I was able to go further south.
+
+I went into an hotel where I had stayed in summer and been comfortable;
+but--oh!--never shall I forget the horrors of that hotel in January! I was
+the sole person staying in it. There was no bedroom that had in it a stove.
+In the _salle-à-manger_ the fire was lighted for half-an-hour at nine in
+the morning, then let out and not rekindled through the day. The fountain
+in the square was frozen. An icy wind descended from the Alps. My bedroom
+was a tomb; brick-floored, stone vaulted. My bed measured two feet across,
+and the sheet and crimson _duvet_ were so nicely adjusted as exactly to fit
+the bed, when unoccupied. When I lay in the bed, that _duvet_ was balanced
+like a logan stone on the ridge of my body shivering under it, and it
+oscillated as I shivered. Then it slid gently to the floor, and left me
+with a chill and damp linen sheet over me, the thermometer being below
+zero, and I--afflicted with a cough.
+
+Next morning I fled--fled to Milan--was stabbed there by the Tramontana,
+fell ill, escaped to Genoa, and there recovered.
+
+Now, perhaps, the reader will understand how it was that naturally, and at
+once, my mind turned to poor Zosimus, as I entered Fréjus. His dust is laid
+there--I doubt not. He had wandered there--some eighteen hundred years ago,
+and, like me, had inhaled the sweet scent of the flowering beans, looked
+on the Esterel chain glowing as if red-hot in the sunshine, and had
+entertained, like me, kindly, affectionate thoughts of that somewhat
+pedantic, conceited, but eminently worthy Caius Plinius Cæcilius Secundus.
+
+Although Julius Cæsar is said to have formed the port at Forum Julii,
+and to have given the place his name, it is probable that there was a
+settlement there earlier. He, however raised it into consideration by the
+construction of the harbour. The port is there still, within its moles, and
+guarded by two castles on heights above it, but--alas for the well being of
+Fréjus, the harbour is filled with sand and soil brought down by the river
+Argens and washed in by the waves, and is now a level meadow, every portion
+belonging to a farmer cut off from another portion by a ditch, in which
+spring the rushes and croak the frogs. Augustus enlarged the port, and
+after the decisive battle of Actium (B.C. 31) sent thither the galleys
+captured from Anthony. The sea is now two miles distant.
+
+The mistake of making ports at the mouths of rivers was one constantly made
+by the Romans. The Greeks knew better--Marseilles has not been choked.
+
+Hard by, at Agay, is a perfect natural harbour. The red porphyry mountains
+rise in fantastic shapes above it, and plunge in abrupt crags into the deep
+blue water. It is a little harbour that calls out "Come and rest in me from
+every wind." Now a lighthouse has been erected at the extremity of one of
+the natural moles of rock, a coastguard establishment crowns the heights,
+two or three fishermen's cottages nestle in the lap of the bay--that is
+all.
+
+On the south of the port of Fréjus is an old castle. There must have
+existed there originally a nodule of rock, but out of this a platform has
+been formed artificially of earth gathered from the port, and this platform
+was converted in Roman times into a fort. On one side may be seen a curious
+contrivance for resisting the outward pressure of the earth heaped up
+within. The basement wall has not buttresses thrust forth, but consists of
+a series of semicircular concave depressions in its face. In Mediæval times
+a strong castle with circular towers was erected on the ancient basement,
+that also is now in ruins, the ledges where the old Roman wall ended and
+the Mediæval wall sprang at half the thickness of the former were, when I
+saw them, dense with white irises.
+
+[Illustration: Aqueduct of Fréjus.]
+
+Fréjus was supplied in Roman times with an aqueduct, the arches of which,
+broken and ruinous, still stretch across the plain, and were destined to
+convey into the town the waters of the Siagnole, from a distance of about
+fifty miles. The arcade is about forty-five feet high.
+
+Following a path that leads along the ancient mole one reaches a
+quadrangular tower of Roman masonry with a stone conical roof, which goes
+by the name of the Lantern of Augustus, and is supposed to have served
+as lighthouse at the entrance of the harbour, but the height is too
+insignificant for this purpose, it is not over thirty-five feet, and there
+is no indication of any contrivance whereby it could have been utilised for
+the purpose of a pharos. In the Torlonia Museum at Rome is a bas-relief
+representing the port of Ostia, with its pharos; that is a structure of
+several stages, each receding as it is superposed on the other, and the
+topmost sustains the ever-burning fire--quite a different sort of building
+from this tower at Fréjus.
+
+[Illustration: Lantern of Augustus.]
+
+Fréjus is a cathedral city, though numbering only 3,500 inhabitants, but it
+is an ancient see, dating from about 374, when it was an important maritime
+place. Its fortunes had gone down in the Middle Ages, and the citizens and
+prelates were never in a position to build much of a cathedral. The present
+church is of the eleventh century, both small and plain. It contains little
+of interest save a fine painting on gold ground of S. Margaret and other
+saints, brought from the ancient Monastery of Lerins. The organ gallery
+is supported on granite pillars, Classic, found among the ruins of the
+amphitheatre. The baptistery is surrounded by eight porphyry columns with
+Corinthian capitals taken from a pagan temple.
+
+The carved doors of the cathedral deserve to be seen, they are of rich
+Rénaissance work. In the north aisle of the cathedral to the west is the
+tomb of two bishops of the seventeenth century, Bartholomew and Peter de
+Camelin, kneeling; and at the east end are two alabaster monuments of
+bishops three centuries earlier. The cloisters are of the usual Provençal
+type, the arcade resting on double columns, but walls have been erected
+blocking up the spaces, and the interior yard is turned into the bishop's
+fowl-house.
+
+But--is not that sufficient? I am not writing a guide book; and I enter
+into these details here solely because the guide books pass over the
+cathedral very slightingly, and concern themselves chiefly with the Roman
+antiquities. Of these latter, besides what I have mentioned, there is the
+Porte Dorée, one arcade only of what was formerly a noble portico facing
+the harbour; also a fine amphitheatre, now traversed by a highway, not
+however as perfect as those of Nimes and Arles. Fragments also remain of
+the ancient theatre, but they are unimportant.
+
+Hard by the Hôtel de Ville is a beautiful red porphyry figure of a boy and
+a dolphin which one would have taken to have been Rénaissance work, but
+that the Rénaissance artists would hardly have taken the pains to sculpture
+such intractable material as porphyry for a petty town of the size of
+Fréjus. The group recalls that very odd story told by Pliny in one of his
+letters, which, as it may not be familiar to many of my readers, I will
+venture here to repeat. He says that the story "was related to him at table
+by a person of unsuspected veracity." At Hippo, in Africa, when the boys
+were playing in the lake that communicates with the sea, and the lads were
+contending together which could swim furthest, one boy found a dolphin play
+about him as he swam, and he ventured to climb on the back of the fish. The
+dolphin was not alarmed, but conveyed the little fellow on his back to
+the shore. The fame of this remarkable event spread through the town, and
+crowds came down to the water's edge to see the boy and ask him questions.
+Next day he went into the water again, and once more the dolphin appeared,
+played round him, and again took him on his back. This happened several
+times, and the circumstance was bruited throughout the neighbourhood, so
+that great numbers of people came in from the countryside to see the fish
+play in the water with the children, and carry them on its back. At last
+the authorities of the town, annoyed at the concourse of the curious,
+destroyed the playful dolphin, a bit of barbarity that excites Pliny's
+wrath.
+
+To the south-west of Fréjus lies the Chaine des Maures, the outline of
+which is by no means so bold as that of the porphyry Esterel, but the
+mountains rise in sweeping lines from a broad and fertile plain covered
+and silvered with olives, growing out of rich red soil, like the old red
+sandstone of Devonshire. The red sandstone rocks through which the line
+passes are ploughed with rains. On the right appears the wonderfully
+picturesque little town of La Pauline, with an extensive ruined castle, and
+the walls and towers of the town in tolerable condition. Above it rises a
+stately peak capped with the white limestone that forms the mountains about
+Toulon and Marseilles, and having all the appearance of a flake of snow.
+
+When we reach the basin between Aubaine and Camp-Major we are surrounded
+by these barren white ranges, so white that they look as if a miller had
+shaken his flour-bag over them.
+
+But I have not quite done with Fréjus yet. I fear the reader will think
+I have given him a dull chapter of antiquarian and historical detail, so
+I will here add an anecdote, to spice it, concerning a worthy of Fréjus,
+Désaugiers, one of the liveliest of French poets. He was born at Fréjus
+in 1772. One day he was invited to preside at the annual banquet of the
+pork-butchers. At dessert everyone present was expected to pronounce an
+epigram or sing a song; and when the turn came to Désaugiers, he rose,
+cleared his throat, looked around with a twinkle in his eye, and thundered
+forth "Des Cochons, des Cochons."
+
+The pork-butchers bridled up, grew red about the cheeks and temples,
+believing that an insult was intended, when Désaugiers proceeded with his
+song:--
+
+  "Décochons les traits de la satire."
+
+Siéyès was another native of Fréjus, that renegade priest, to whom is
+attributed the ferocious saying, when called on to give his vote on the
+condemnation of Louis XVI., "La mort--sans phrases." Some few years after
+the Directory sent Siéyès as ambassador to Berlin. He invited a prince of
+the blood royal of Prussia to dine at the embassy with him; but the prince
+took the invitation and scored across it his answer:--
+
+"Non--sans phrases."
+
+Napoleon as national recompense to Siéyès for the services he had rendered
+to France, and to himself personally, gave him the estate of Crosne. This
+gave rise to the epigram--
+
+  "Bonaparte à Siéyès a fait présent de Crosne,
+  Siéyès à Bonaparte a fait présent du trône."
+
+But after all, it is chiefly as the birthplace of Agricola, that true model
+of a Roman soldier of the best description, that Fréjus interests us most.
+His father, Julius Græcinus, had fallen a victim to Caligula, because he
+refused to undertake the prosecution of a man the Emperor was determined
+to destroy, and there is some reason to suspect that Agricola himself was
+sacrificed to the suspicions and envy of Domitian. Like most good and
+honourable men, he had a good mother, whose virtues Tacitus records.
+
+When Agricola was proconsul of Britain, his rule was mild, and he took
+pains to win the confidence of the provincials. He it was who drew a chain
+of forts from sea to sea between the Tyne and Solway, to protect the
+reclaimed subjects of the southern valleys from the untamed barbarians who
+roved the Cheviots and the Pentlands. He was not merely a conqueror, but an
+explorer and discoverer, in Scotland. In A.D. 83 he passed beyond the Frith
+and fought a great battle with the Caledonians near Stirling. The Roman
+entrenchments still remaining in Fife and Angus were thrown up by him.
+In 84 he fought another battle on the Grampians, and sent his fleet to
+circumnavigate Britain. The Roman vessels at all events for the first time
+entered the Pentland Frith; examined the Orkney islands, and perhaps gained
+a glimpse of the Shetlands.
+
+It was interesting to tread the soil where the childhood was passed of a
+man who left such permanent marks in Britain, and to whom we are indebted
+for our first knowledge of Scotland.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+MARSEILLES.
+
+
+The three islands Phoenice, Phila, Iturium--Marseilles first a Phoenician
+colony--The tariff of fees exacted by the priests of Baal--The arrival
+of the Ionians--The legend of Protis and Gyptis--Second colony of
+Ionians--The voyages of Pytheas and Euthymenes--Capture of Marseilles
+by Trebonius--Position of the Greek city--The Acropolis--Greek
+inscriptions--The lady who never "jawed" her husband--The tomb of the
+sailor-boy--Hôtel des Négociants--Ménu--Entry of the President of
+the Republic--Entry of Francis I.--The church of S. Vincent--The
+Cathedral--Notre Dame de la Garde--The abbey of S. Victor--Catacombs--The
+fable of S. Lazarus.
+
+
+The traveller approaching Marseilles from the sea observes three islets
+of bare limestone rock that are apparently a prolongation of that rocky
+promontory now crowned by the fortress of S. Nicolas, and that act as a
+natural breakwater against wave and storm from the S.E. They go by the
+names of Pomègue, Ratonneau, and Château d'If. But the classic geographers
+called the group the Little Stoechades, and named these islets Phoenice,
+Phila, and Iturium; and these three appellations give us in a compact form
+the story of ancient Marseilles, founded by the Phoenicians, refounded by
+the Greeks, and then made a dependency under the Roman empire.
+
+That Marseilles was a Phoenician colony before the Phoceans settled there
+is shown by the monuments that have been exhumed from the foundations of
+the modern houses, and are now collected in the museum. There are some
+curious images of Melkarth and Melita, the Hercules and Venus of these
+Asiatic traders, known also to us through the Bible as Baal and Ashtaroth.
+But most curious of all is a long Phoenician table of charges made by the
+priests of Baal for the various sacrifices and oblations offered by the
+people. This tariff of charges was found in 1845. It consists of twenty-one
+lines, and begins:--
+
+"The Temple of Baal.--This is the regulation relative to the dues legally
+established by Italis-Baal, the suffete, son of Bod-tanith, son of
+Bod-Milcarth, and by Italis-Baal.
+
+"For an entire ox, the ordinary sacrifice, the priests are to receive ten
+shekels. At the sacrifice, in addition, three hundred mishekels of flesh.
+
+"Item. For the ordinary sacrifice, of cereals and flour of wheat, also the
+hide, the entrails, and the feet of the victim. All the rest of the flesh
+goes to the master of the sacrifice."
+
+So it continues to regulate the fees for a calf, a ram, a bird; also for
+cakes, and for offerings made by lepers and by common people. The table of
+fees is extremely curious and is, I believe, unique.
+
+The Phoenician colony at Marseilles was probably in decline when, in B.C.
+599, a Greek fleet left the port of Phocæa, one of the twelve Ionian cities
+of Asia Minor, seeking new homes in the West. The colony was under the
+command of an adventurer named Protis. Attracted by the Bay of Marseilles,
+and the basin surrounded by hills that lay in its lap, the Greek colony
+disembarked.
+
+And now for a legend.
+
+The first measure taken by the new arrivals was to send a deputation to the
+King of the Segobrigæ, a Keltic race occupying what is now called Provence.
+The king was at Arles, which was his capital; his name was Nannos. By a
+happy coincidence the embassy arrived on the day upon which Nannos had
+assembled the warriors of his tribe, for his daughter, Gyptis, to choose a
+husband among them.
+
+The arrival of the young Greek, Protis, in the midst of this banquet was a
+veritable _coup-de-théâtre_; he took his place at the board. His natural
+grace, his easy and polished manners, the nobleness and elegance of his
+person and features, contrasted strangely with the savagery and coarseness
+of the Gaulish warriors.
+
+Free to choose whom she would, Gyptis rose from the table, filled a cup,
+and made the circuit of the board. Every eye was fixed on her; he was to be
+her choice to whom she offered the bowl. She did not hesitate for a moment,
+she went to the Greek stranger and extended it to him. Protis put the
+goblet to his lips, and the alliance was concluded.
+
+The example of Gyptis was followed by some of her maidens. The Gauls agreed
+to receive the Greeks, and suffer them to colonise the basin of Marseilles.
+
+But the chiefs who had been set aside by the fair Gyptis bore a grudge
+against the new-comers. The growing prosperity and rapid development of
+the new settlement aroused their jealousy, which was probably augmented by
+the defection of some of their wives and daughters. Profiting by the Feast
+of Flora in May, they presented themselves at the gates of Marseilles in
+attendance on some waggons laden with green boughs, under which were their
+arms concealed. But love, that had founded the Ionian colony, was destined
+to save it. A young Gaulish woman revealed the plot to her Hellenic lover,
+and the Greeks laid their hands on the arms that were to have been employed
+against them, turned them against the intrusive Gauls, and massacred them
+to a man.
+
+But having thus saved themselves from one danger they felt that they had
+incurred another. They had provoked the deadly animosity of the whole tribe
+of the Segobrigæ. They therefore appealed to their countrymen in Ionia to
+come to their aid. The appeal met with a ready response, a second fleet of
+colonists arrived. Marseilles was encompassed with walls on the land side,
+and thus made secure against the assaults of undisciplined barbarians.
+
+Such is the graceful legend of the origin of Marseilles. It is only so far
+historical that it gives us in poetic and romantic form the main facts,
+that the first colony settled at Marseilles without opposition, that after
+a while it got embroiled with the Gaulish tribes of the neighbourhood, and
+that a second Ionian colony came to strengthen the first. But this second
+colony arrived B.C. 542, fifty-seven years after the first, and was due to
+the taking of Phocæa by the Medes and Persians.
+
+As a Greek mercantile colony Marseilles flourished, and sent forth other
+colonies, that formed settlements along the Ligurian coast, as a Literal
+crown from Ampurias and Rhodé in Catalonia to the confines of Etruria.
+Free, rich, protected by the Roman legions, these Greek settlements
+cultivated the arts and sciences with ardour, as well as carrying on the
+trade of the Mediterranean.
+
+In the year B.C. 350 two of her most illustrious citizens, Pytheas and
+Euthymenes, explored the northern and southern Atlantic. Pytheas was
+charged to make a voyage of discovery towards the north. He coasted Spain,
+Portugal, Aquitania, Brittany, discovered Great Britain, coasted it, and
+reached Thule, which some have supposed to be Iceland, but others the
+Orkney Isles. In a second voyage he penetrated the Baltic by the Cattegat
+and Sound, and reached the mouths of the Dwina or the Vistula. On his
+return he composed two works, records of his discoveries, of which precious
+fragments have been preserved by Pliny and Strabo. Thanks to his labours,
+Marseilles was the first town whose latitude was determined with some
+precision.
+
+About the same time, Euthymenes was commissioned to make explorations in
+the opposite direction. He sailed south-west, traced the western coast of
+Africa, and penetrated the mouths of the Senegal, whence he brought back
+gold dust.
+
+Marseilles was taken, B.C. 49, by Trebonius, the lieutenant of Julius
+Cæsar. Two naval battles ruined her fleet; and, but for the clemency
+of Cæsar, the doom of the city would have been sealed. She had
+enthusiastically taken the part of Pompey, and had resisted Cæsar with
+unusual determination. But he appreciated the importance of the colony and
+the mercantile energy of her inhabitants, and he did not lay his hand in
+retribution too severely upon her.
+
+[Illustration: Ancient Massilia.]
+
+The old Greek city of Massilia occupied the promontory which is still old
+Marseilles, clustered on the Butte St. Laurent and Butte des Moulins, where
+was the Acropolis, with the temples of Apollo and Diana, and the Butte des
+Cannes. The harbour was the natural fiord, which is now the Vieux port;
+and the modern splendid street Canebière runs along the site of the old
+shipbuilding-docks of the Greeks. Here was found a few years ago an ancient
+galley with keel and ribs of cedar, and coins in her of the date of Julius
+Cæsar. She is now in the museum. To the south of the old port was a marsh;
+the rectangular canal and the Bassin du Carénage mark the position of this
+marsh, now built over--a marsh that reached to the base of the limestone
+hills that rise to the peak now occupied by Notre Dame de la Garde.
+
+The old Greek walls of Massilia ran in a sweep along where is now the
+Boulevard des Dames, Rue d'Aix, and reached the Vieux port at the Bourse.
+
+Considering the importance of the Greek city, its wealth and splendour,
+it is surprising to find nowhere in Marseilles any ruins of its ancient
+founders. But Marseilles has traversed every historic period, in the midst
+of storm; and after a voyage of three thousand years through history, she
+has been plundered of every fragment of her ancient treasures. In Rome
+the Colosseum and the tomb of Augustus were robbed of their materials for
+the construction of houses; and in Marseilles every stone of her ancient
+temples and acropolis have been appropriated for baser purposes. She has
+passed through twenty fires, and as many sieges. Taken, sacked, decimated,
+she has been rebuilt over and over again, always hurriedly, consequently
+always with material taken where nearest at hand, without respect for her
+monuments and historic recollections. The disturbed soil of Marseilles
+is not even a heap of ruins, for every stone found in the soil has been
+utilised as material for construction. Nevertheless some traces of the
+Greek founders remain in the beautiful coins of the colony, and in
+inscriptions that have been picked out of the walls or foundations of
+mediæval houses. The coins, stamped with classic beauty, are well-known to
+numismatists.
+
+We have space to notice only one or two inscriptions. One is the sign of
+Athenades, son of Dioscorides, professor of Latin grammar, probably set
+up two thousand years ago over his door; another is a notice of a young
+lad, Cleudemos, son of Dionysius, having gained a prize. A curious Greek
+inscription is found at Carpentras, a colony from Marseilles, that
+illustrates the manner in which foreign religions got mixed up with those
+that were proper to the Greeks.
+
+"Blessed be Thebe, daughter of Thelhui, laden with oblations for the God
+Osiris--she never jawed her husband--she was blameless in the eyes of
+Osiris, and receives his benediction."
+
+Truly such a wife deserved that her conduct towards her husband should be
+commemorated through ages upon ages, and we may thank good fortune that it
+has preserved to us the name of this incomparable lady.
+
+As I am on the subject of Greek inscriptions, I may quote the following
+touching one, that has been found built into the wall of a house at Aix.
+
+"On the banks, beaten by the waves, a youth appeals to thee, voyager! I,
+beloved by God, am no more subject to the domination of Death. I passed my
+life sailing on the sea, myself a sailor, like to the youthful gods, the
+Amyclæans, saviours of sailors, free from the yoke of matrimony. Here in
+my tomb, which I owe to the piety of my masters, I rest sheltered from all
+maladies, free from toil, from cares, from pains; whereas in life, all
+these woes fall on our gross envelopes of matter. The dead, on the other
+hand, are divided into two classes, of which one returns to the earth,
+whereas the other rises to join the dance with the celestial choirs; and it
+is to this latter class that I belong, having had the good fortune to range
+myself under the banners of the Divinity."
+
+Clearly this was the tomb of a young sailor-boy, a native of Aix, who had
+served in a merchant vessel of Marseilles. There is something graceful and
+pathetic in the monument.
+
+But enough of the past. Now for the present, and in considering the present
+let us attend to that which feeds and builds up that gross envelope of
+matter the young Greek sailor had laid aside.
+
+At Marseilles I put up at the Hôtel des Négociants, in the Cours Belzunce.
+Let me observe that I do not see the fun of going to hotels of the first
+class. Not only is one's expense doubled, but one is thrown among English
+and American travellers, and sees nothing whatever of the people in whose
+country one is travelling. Now, here in this commercial inn, I had for
+dinner the following dishes, which I am quite sure I should not have had in
+the Grand Hôtel de Noailles, where a dinner is six francs, whereas at my
+inn I paid just half. I must also observe that the dinners were abundant
+and excellent, but among the dishes were some that were peculiar to the
+Provençal cuisine, for instance:--
+
+Bread slices sopped in saffron, with fish, garnished with small crabs, to
+be chewed up, shell and all.
+
+Artichokes, raw, with oil and vinegar.
+
+Oranges with pepper and salt.
+
+On the table were glass jugs with tar-water, and I observed that over half
+those present drank their wine diluted with this tar-water.
+
+One day in summer I was at table-d'hôte in France when I saw a very fine
+melon on the table. Said I, in my heart of hearts, "I'll have some of you
+by-and-by!" But, to my consternation, the melon was taken round with stewed
+conger eel, and eaten with salt and pepper. I could not summon up courage
+to try the mixture, and the whole melon was consumed before the next course
+came on.
+
+I was at Marseilles when M. Carnot, the President of the Republic visited
+it, April 16th. Great efforts were made to give him a splendid reception.
+Venetian masts were set up, strings of fairy lamps were suspended between
+them, and tricolours were hung as banners to the masts, or grouped together
+in trophies. But alas! No sooner were all preparations made, than a furious
+gale broke over the coast, the venetian masts swayed in the wind and were
+upset or thrown out of the perpendicular, the little lamps jingled against
+each other and were broken, such as were not shivered were filled with
+rain, the banners were lashed with the broken wires and torn to shreds, and
+when M. Carnot arrived, in a pouring rain, it was amidst a very wreckage of
+festival preparations, and he was received by a crowd of umbrellas. Under
+such circumstances enthusiasm was damped and ejaculations of welcome
+were muffled. The President occupied an open landau, and drove along the
+boulevards without umbrella or waterproof, bowing to right and left in a
+slashing rain. A deputation of flower women presented him with a sodden
+bouquet, by the hand of a dripping little girl in white that clung to her
+as a bathing gown. The President insisted on the maid being lifted to him
+into the carriage, where he hugged and kissed her, whilst the moisture ran
+out of her garments like a squeezed sponge, and this demonstration provoked
+some damp cheers.
+
+I bought Henri Rochefort's paper next day, to see what his correspondent
+had to say about the visit. Some passages from it are too racy not to be
+quoted.
+
+"Il faisait un temps à ne pas mettre un ministre dehors, lorsque le train
+présidentiel est arrivé en gare, et le défilé à la détrempe était pitieux
+à voir dans _le gargouillement et la transsudation de ce dégorgement
+cataractal_. Sadi Carnot avait donné l'ordre de laisser son landau
+découvert, afin de recevoir les ovations enthousiastes des parapluies.
+
+"Bref, la Présidence est arrivée à la préfecture _trempée comme une soupe à
+l'oignon et fortement dessalée_."
+
+Verily there is no tongue like the French for saying nasty things in a
+nasty way.
+
+I do not know whether it is fair for one to pass an opinion on a man from
+a sight of his face overrun with rain-water, and with his nose acting like
+a shoot from a roof; but certainly the impression produced on me by M.
+Sadi Carnot was that his features were wooden, and that he was but a very
+ordinary man--intellectually. I pass this opinion with hesitation. When
+dried possibly the sparks of genius may be discovered and may flare up;
+they were all but extinguished in the downpour when I saw him.
+
+That cheerful king, Réné of Anjou and Provence, paid a visit to Marseilles
+in 1437, and made his royal entry on Sunday, December 15th. He was
+delighted with the reception accorded him, and in a gush of kindly feeling
+promised to make Marseilles his headquarters. But he forgot his promise, or
+circumstances were against his keeping it. He never revisited Marseilles.
+On January 22, 1516, Francis I. entered the town and was received by
+children carrying banners and garlands, and troupes of young girls in
+white, then followed archers, arquebusiers, the consuls, and the clergy
+bearing the relics of S. Lazarus and S. Victor. A theatre was erected at
+every street corner, on which were presented to his sight incidents from
+the life of S. Louis. The procession ended with a battle of oranges and
+lemons, in which the king gave and received a good many blows on the head
+with the golden fruit.
+
+At the head of the Allées des Capucins, a fine street planted with trees
+and with a handsome fountain in the place where the Allées de Meilhan
+unites with it, is a really fine modern Gothic church with twin west spires
+of open tracery. They are perhaps too thin, a usual fault with modern work,
+but otherwise the church is very good and stately. It is as fine within
+as without, but sorely disfigured by the coloured glass, which is garish.
+French painted glass is very bad. It is precisely the sort of stuff that
+was turned out by English glass-painters about thirty years ago, the
+colours crude and distressing to the eye--windows that our more cultured
+taste cannot now endure. But the French artists have not advanced, the
+windows put in to-day are as detestable as those they put in at the
+beginning of the revival. Unfortunately, every cathedral is crowded through
+the length and breadth of France with this abominable stuff, that is only
+tolerable in a modern tasteless church, vulgar in its architecture and
+insipid in its sculpture, but is painfully out of place in a venerable
+minster.
+
+The city of Marseilles has been lucky in securing a good architect for
+the Church of S. Vincent de Paul, but in another architectural venture
+Marseilles has been unfortunate. She was resolved to have a cathedral,
+and she gave the designing of it to a man void of taste, who has built a
+hideous erection on the quay in what he is pleased to call Byzantine style.
+I am quite sure any Byzantine architect would cheerfully have jumped into
+the Bosphorus rather than disfigure a city with such a structure as Notre
+Dame.
+
+The Germans have a saying that the higher a monkey climbs the more he
+exposes his monkeyishness; and unfortunately this architect has been
+allowed to climb very high. He was given the peak of Notre Dame de la
+Garde, that towers over Marseilles, on which to erect a church. The site is
+exceptionally good, one on which a man of ordinary genius would have done
+something, could hardly have failed to have done something, that would have
+been picturesque. But such is the perversity of this unfortunate man's
+talent that he has erected a structure on the limestone crag, of almost
+miraculous hideousness. It is also in so-called Byzantine architecture.
+There is a dish-cover which serves as a dome, and a tower which would be
+comical if it were not irritating. It resembles the handle of a renaissance
+knife or fork stuck into a sheath and standing upright with a figure at
+top. We have made a blunder at South Kensington in setting side by side
+a depressed dome--the Albert Hall, and the acute pinnacle of the Albert
+Memorial; but a road runs between them, and it is possible to shut one eye
+and see one of these two structures apart from the other. But in Notre Dame
+de la Garde the two are combined in one building, and tease the eye from
+every point in Marseilles.
+
+[Illustration: Abbey of S. Victor, Marseilles]
+
+I ascended the steep crag to the church and found it full of a devout
+congregation. The service was the "Salut," and the Host was being elevated
+to the strains of "The Last Rose of Summer," on the hautbois stop of the
+organ.
+
+The view from the platform of the church, of Marseilles, the coast, the
+blue Mediterranean and the islands is beautiful. Below Notre Dame de la
+Garde, and above the old port, stands the ancient Abbey of S. Victor;
+this abbey, of which the church alone remains, occupies a site where the
+successive generations of Massaliots buried their dead from the earliest
+pagan times, and here the first Christians formed catacombs of which
+some traces remain under the church, subterranean passages bearing some
+resemblance to those in the outskirts of Rome. The abbey itself was
+founded by Cassian, in the fourth century, over these galleries containing
+the bones of the first Christians, but his monastery was wrecked by the
+Saracens four hundred years later, and it was rebuilt in the eleventh and
+thirteenth centuries. What remains of this famous Abbey of S. Victor has
+rather the appearance of a fortress than a church; the walls and ramparts
+date from 1350, and were the work of William de Grimoard, who was prior of
+the monastery before he was elevated to be pope under the title of Urban V.
+The heavy, clumsy pile is a type of the architecture, at once military and
+ecclesiastical, that characterises most of the churches along the coast.
+
+Externally the venerable church is devoid of beauty. No attempt at
+decoration has been made. It seems a shapeless pile of towers and
+machicolated and battlemented curtains, falling into almost complete
+ruin. But on passing through the single entrance, one finds oneself in a
+well-proportioned church of nave and side aisles, a south chapel, and an
+apse. Each buttress of the apse is battlemented outside and forms a turret,
+and two strong towers are adapted internally to serve as a transept and a
+porch.
+
+Marseilles claims to have had as its first apostle Lazarus, whom Christ
+raised from the dead. The foundation of this myth is that in the fourth
+century it perhaps had a prelate of the name of Lazarus, though the
+earliest known bishop was Orestius, A.D. 314. The fact is that the
+existence of S. Lazarus at Marseilles was unsuspected till the eleventh
+century. When Cassian founded his abbey he dedicated it to S. Victor. If he
+had known anything about Lazarus, almost certainly he would have dedicated
+the church to him; he erected moreover, two other chapels, one to SS. Peter
+and Paul, the other to the Blessed Virgin and S. John the Baptist. When, in
+1010, Benedict IX. enumerates the glories of the abbey restored after the
+destruction by the Saracens, he does not make the most transient allusion
+to S. Lazarus. However, Benedict IX., in 1040, does mention the passion of
+this Lazarus raised from the dead by Christ, as one of the causes why the
+abbey was venerable. His relics were said to have been transported thence
+to Athens, to preserve them from the Saracens. We shall learn more about
+this fable when we come to the Camargue.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE CRAU.
+
+
+The Basin of Berre--A neglected harbour--The diluvium--Formation of the
+Crau--The two Craus--Canal of Craponne--Climate of the Crau--The Bise and
+Mistral--Force of the wind--Cypresses--A vision of kobolds.
+
+
+On leaving Marseilles by train for Arles, the line cuts through the
+limestone ridge of the Estaque, and the traveller passes from the basin of
+Marseilles into the much more extensive basin of Berre, surrounded by hills
+on all sides, a wide bowl like a volcanic crater, with the great inland
+salt lake of the Etang de Berre occupying its depths. This is a great
+natural harbour, seven times the size of the port of Toulon, and varying in
+depth from 28 to 32 feet; it is perfectly sheltered from every wind, and
+entire fleets might anchor there in security, not only out of reach, but
+out of sight of an enemy, for the chain of l'Estaque intervenes between it
+and the sea. It would seem as though Nature herself had designed Berre as a
+safe harbour for the merchant vessels that visit the south coast of France.
+It is almost inconceivable how this sheet of water, communicating with the
+sea by the channel of Martignes, can have been neglected; how it is that
+its still blue waters are not crowded with ships, and its smiling shores
+not studded with a chain of industrial and populous towns. "The neglect of
+this little inland sea as a port of refuge," says M. Elisée Reclus, "is an
+economic scandal. Whilst on dangerous coasts harbours are constructed
+at vast expense, here we have one that is perfect, and which has been
+neglected for fifteen centuries." But though the Romans or Greeks had a
+station here, they did not utilise the lagoon. At S. Chamas are remains of
+the masters of the ancient world, but no evidence that they had there a
+naval station.
+
+The line cuts again through the lip of the basin, and we are in the Crau.
+
+At a remote period, but, nevertheless, in one geologically modern, the
+vast floods of the diluvial age that flowed from the Alps brought down
+incredible quantities of rolled stones, the detritus of the Alps. This
+filled up a great bay now occupied by the mouths of the Rhone, and spread
+in a triangle from Avignon as the apex, to Cette in the west, and Fos in
+the east. This rubble, washed down from the Alps, forms the substratum
+of the immense plain that inclines at a very slight angle into the
+Mediterranean, and extends for a considerable distance below the sea. Not
+only did the Rhone bring down these boulders, but also the Durance, which
+enters the Rhone above Arles, and formed between the chain of Les Alpines
+and the Luberon another triangular plain of rolled stones, with the apex at
+Cavaillon and the base between Tarascon and Avignon. But the Durance did
+more. There is a break in the chain on the south, between the limestone
+Alpines and the sandstone Trévaresse; and the brimming Durance, unable to
+discharge all her water, choked with rubble, into the Rhone, burst through
+the open door or natural waste-pipe, by Salon, and carried a portion of her
+pebbles into the sea directly, without asking her sister the Rhone to help
+her. Now the two great plains formed by the delta of the Rhone, and that
+of the Durance into the Rhone, are called the great and little Craus. They
+were known to the ancients, and puzzled them not a little. Strabo says of
+the Great Crau: "Between Marseilles and the mouth of the Rhone, at about a
+hundred stadia from the sea, is a plain, circular in form, and a hundred
+stadia in diameter, to which a singular event obtained for it the name of
+the Field of Pebbles. It is, in fact, covered with pebbles, as big as the
+fist, among which grows some grass in sufficient abundance to pasture herds
+of oxen."
+
+Then we are given the legend that accounts for it. Here Hercules fought
+against the Ligurians, when the son of Jove, having exhausted his arrows,
+was supplied with artillery by a discharge of stones from the sky, showered
+on his enemies by Jupiter.
+
+This desert, a little Sahara in Europe, occupies 30,000 acres. "It is
+composed entirely of shingle," says Arthur Young, "being so uniform a mass
+of round stones, some to the size of a man's head, but of all sizes less,
+that the newly thrown up shingle of a seashore is hardly less free from
+soil; beneath these surface-stones is not so much a sand as a cemented
+rubble, with a small admixture of loam. Vegetation is rare and miserable,
+some of the absinthium and lavender so low and poor as scarcely to
+be recognised, and two or three miserable grasses, with _Centaurea
+calycitropes_ and _solstitialis_, were the principal plants I could
+find." A mineralogical examination of the rolled stones presents peculiar
+interest. In the Little Crau, the mouth of the Durance, are found
+prodigious numbers of green and crystalline rocks, granite and variolite
+brought down from the Alps of Briançon, but nine-tenths of the pebbles of
+the Great Crau are white quartz brought from the great chain of the Alps,
+together with mica-slate and calcareous stones, and only a few of the
+variolites of Mont Genèvre. One may say that the Great Crau is a complete
+mineralogical collection of all the rocks that form the chain of the Alps,
+whence flow the Rhone and its tributaries.
+
+The aspect of the Crau is infinitely desolate, but it is no longer as
+barren as it was formerly. It is in fact, undergoing gradual but sure
+transformation. This is due to a gentleman of Provence, named Adam de
+Craponne, born in 1525 at Salon, who conceived the idea of bringing some
+of the waters of the Durance through the gap where some of its overspill
+had flowed in the diluvial epoch, by a canal, into the Great Crau, so that
+it might deposit its rich alluvium over this desert of stones. He spent
+his life and his entire fortune in carrying out his scheme, and it is
+due to this that year by year the barren desert shrinks, and cultivation
+advances. There are to-day other canals, those of Les Alpines, of Langlade,
+and d'Istres, besides that of Craponne that assist in fertilising the
+waste. Wherever the water reaches, the soil is covered with trees, with
+pasture-land, with fields of corn; and in another century probably the
+sterility of the Crau will have been completely conquered.
+
+In its present condition, the Crau may be divided into two parts, that
+which is watered, and which has been converted into a garden, and that
+which is not as yet reached by the rich loamy waters of the Durance, and
+is therefore parched and desolate, overrun by herds of sheep and cattle,
+driven down in winter from the Alps, when a certain amount of herbage is
+found on the desert, which in summer is utterly dry and barren. These
+migrations date back to a remote epoch, for they are mentioned by Pliny.
+
+Previous to the construction of the canal by Craponne, who began it in
+1554, the desert reached to Arles; the whole of the plain south of the
+chain of the Alpines was either marsh lagoon, or a waste of stones, where
+now grow and luxuriate mulberries, olives, almond trees and vines. The
+canal of Craponne was carried by the originator for thirty-three miles,
+sending out branches at Salon, Eyguières, and elsewhere. In winter the
+meadows are green as those of Devon in spring, and the fields yield heavy
+crops. Indeed, the Durance acts to this region in the same way as does the
+Nile to Egypt. "The meadows I viewed," says Young, "are among the most
+extraordinary spectacles the world can afford in respect to the amazing
+contrast between the soil in its natural and in its watered state, covered
+richly and luxuriantly with clover, chicory, rib-grass, and _Avena
+elatior_."
+
+The climate of the Crau presents contrasts most extreme. In winter the
+thermometer falls and remains below zero for many nights in succession, and
+the glacial _bise_ sweeps over the face of the desert, curdling the blood;
+the flocks and herds seek shelter from this blast behind the long walls of
+dry stones, which sometimes the violence of the wind throws down upon them.
+
+During the summer the phenomenon of the mirage is almost continuous. The
+bed of air in contact with the surface of stones scorched by the blazing
+sun becomes rarified and dilated, so that the horizon appears to be fringed
+on all sides with lakes of rippling water, most deceptive and tantalising
+to the eye of the traveller.
+
+The troops of wandering bulls and wild horses, flights of rose-coloured
+flamingoes, of partridges and wild ducks give this region a pronounced
+oriental physiognomy, and however painful it may be at such a time to
+traverse this burning plain, it affords a curious picture of the Sahara in
+miniature nowhere else to be seen in Europe.
+
+The great scourge of the Crau is the north-west wind, the _bise_, the black
+boreas of the ancients, so violent as to roll over the pebbles, and to blow
+away the roofs of houses, and tear up trees by the roots. In fact, the Crau
+may be regarded as the Home of the Winds.
+
+It is easy to explain the origin of these furious gales, _bise_ and
+_mistral_. The low sandy regions at the mouth of the Rhone, denuded of all
+vegetation, and the great stony plain of the Crau, heated by the direct
+rays of the sun, rarify the air over the surface of the soil, and this
+rises, to be at once replaced by the cold air from the Alps and Cevennes;
+the air off the snow pours down with headlong violence to occupy the vacuum
+formed by the heated ascending column of air off the plain, sweeping the
+valley of the Rhone, and reaching its maximum of intensity between Avignon
+and the sea, where it meets, and is blunted in its force by the equable
+atmosphere that covers the surface of the Mediterranean.
+
+The violence of the wind is consequently due to the difference of
+temperature between the hot air of the plain and the cold air of the
+mountain.
+
+An old saying was to this effect:--
+
+  "Parlement, Mistral et Durance
+  Sont les trois fléaux de Provence."
+
+Parlement exists no longer, or rather is expanded into a National Assembly
+that is a discredit to all France, and not Provence alone; the Durance has
+become, thanks to Adam de Craponne, an agent of fertilisation and wealth.
+But the _mistral_ (_magistral_, the master-wind) remains, and still
+scourges the delta of the Rhone. In 1845 it carried away the suspension
+bridge between Beaucaire and Tarascon; the passage of the Rhone is often
+rendered impossible for days, through its violence. It has been found
+necessary to plant rows of cypress on each side of the line that crosses
+the Crau, to break the force of the wind upon the trains. Indeed,
+throughout the district, the fields will, in many places, be found walled
+up on all sides by plantations of cypresses from thirty to fifty feet high,
+as screens against this terrible blast, to protect the crops from being
+literally blown out of the ground.
+
+When I was a child of five years my father's carriage with post horses was
+crossing the Crau. It was in summer. I sat on the box with my father and
+looked at the postilions. Presently I saw a number of little figures of men
+with peaked caps running about the horses and making attempts to scramble
+up them. I said something about what I saw, whereupon my father stopped the
+carriage and put me inside with my mother. The heat of the sun on my head,
+he concluded, had produced these illusions. For some time I continued to
+see these dwarfs running among the pebbles of the Crau, jumping over tufts
+of grass, or careering along the road by the carriage side, making faces at
+me. But gradually their number decreased, and I failed finally to see any
+more.
+
+One June day in the year 1884, one of my boys, then aged eight, was picking
+gooseberries in the fruit garden at home, when, standing between the
+bushes, he saw a little man of his own height, with a brown peaked cap, a
+red jacket, and green breeches. He had black hair and whiskers and beard.
+He looked angrily at the boy and said something. The child was frightened,
+ran indoors and told his elder brother and sister. They brought him to
+me, and his elder brother repeated the story, but purposely varied the
+description of the apparition, so as to see whether the lad held to the
+same account, but the child at once corrected him, and told me his story,
+which his brother informed me agreed exactly with what in his alarm, he had
+first told. The little boy was looking white, and frightened. Again a case
+of sun on the head.
+
+Now for another. A lady whom I know very well indeed, and who never
+deviated from the truth in her life--save when she swore at the altar to
+honour and obey me--was walking one day, when a girl of thirteen, beside
+a quickset hedge; her brother was on the other side. I believe they were
+looking for birds' nests. All at once she saw a little man dressed entirely
+in green, with jacket, breeches, and high peaked hat, seated in the hedge,
+staring at her. She was paralysed with terror for a moment, then recovering
+herself, she called to her brother to come round and see the little green
+man. When he arrived the dwarf had disappeared.
+
+Now these are funny stories, and are to be explained by the fact that the
+sun was hot on the head. But it does not strike me that the explanation is
+wholly satisfactory. _Why_ should the sun on the head superinduce visions
+of kobolds? Is it because other people have suffered from a hot sun, and
+that the hot sun reproduces year after year the same phenomenon, that the
+fable of little men, pixies, gnomes, brownies, fairies, leprechauns is
+to be found everywhere? Or--is it possible that there is such a little
+creation only visible to man when he is subject to certain influences?
+
+Sir Charles Isham, of Lamport, has collected a good deal of evidence of a
+similar nature. I do not venture to express an opinion one way or another.
+I can remember still, with vividness, the impression produced on me by
+what I saw that hot day on the Crau, when but a child of five years; but I
+cannot for the life of me explain it satisfactorily to myself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+LES ALYSCAMPS.
+
+
+Difficulty of finding one's way about in Arles--The two inns--The
+_mistral_--The charm of Arles is in the past--A dead city--Situation
+of Arles on a nodule of limestone--The Elysian Fields--A burial-place
+for the submerged neighbourhood--The Alyscamp now in process of
+destruction--Expropriation of ancient tombs--Avenue of tombs--Old church
+of S. Honoré--S. Trophimus--S. Virgilius--Augustine, apostle of the
+English, consecrated by him--The Flying Dutchman--Tomb of Ælia--Of
+Julia Tyranna--Her musical instruments--Monument of Calpurnia--Her
+probable story--Mathematical _versus_ classic studies--Tombs of
+_utriculares_--Christian sarcophagi--Probably older than the date usually
+attributed to them--A French author on the wreckage of the Elysian Fields.
+
+
+I do not know a more perplexing place anywhere to find one's way in and
+out of than Arles. During a fortnight spent there I never could hit my
+inn aright once on coming from the railway station. The place is like a
+labyrinth; but one of those labyrinths that our forefathers delighted to
+construct of pleached alleys of box or lime were always to be traversed
+when you possessed the key. There is no key, no principle whatever upon
+which Arles has been built. Every public edifice seems to be dodging round
+the corner, like Chevy Slyme, hiding from some other public edifice with
+which it is on dubious terms, or not quite on social equality, and wishes
+to avoid the difficulties of an encounter.
+
+Arles streets are about the worst paved in Europe. They are floored with
+the cobble-stones rolled down by the diluvium, and torture the feet that
+walk over them and rick the ankles. There are two melancholy inns in the
+Place du Forum, and it is hard to choose between them, probably it does not
+much matter. I was given a bed-chamber in one where neither the door nor
+the window would shut, and where there were besides two locked doors that
+did not fit, and as the _mistral_ was blowing, my hours in that room were
+spent in a swirl of draughts. Moreover, an old party with bronchitis was
+in the adjoining room, also suffering from the draughts, and in despair
+of recovering his health in such a situation. I complained, and was given
+another room where the draughts were the same, but I was without my
+coughing and hawking neighbour. No wonder that I was charged half a franc
+per night for my candle. It guttered itself in no time into the tray of
+the candlestick, as it was blown upon from four distinct directions
+simultaneously.
+
+Arles--when not in a _mistral_--is charming, but the charm is in the past.
+There one must be a _laudator temporis acti_, for the present is wholly
+wretched and bad. The fact is, Arles had a glorious past, from which it has
+been falling throughout the Middle Ages till it reached a point approaching
+extinction, and it has not as yet realised that better days are shining
+before it, and that there is a future to which it may look up.
+
+So depressed did Arles become some time ago, that its only lively trade
+was in old coffins. It had a vast cemetery outside its walls, crammed with
+memorials of the dead of all ages; and as the curators of the museums
+of Paris, Marseilles, Avignon, Aix, &c., thirsted after sarcophagi, the
+mournful Arelois went to their necropolis, dug up as many as were wanted,
+and forwarded coffins to those who had made requisition for them.
+
+Arles is planted upon a nodule of limestone rock that rises out of the
+diluvium of rolled stones. In former times it was almost the sole dry spot
+to be found for miles round, and as the dead of Pagan and Christian times
+alike seem to have objected to wet beds, their bodies were transported from
+all the country round to the plateau east of Arles and there entombed. This
+plateau was called the Elysian Fields, now Alyscamp, and is so thick with
+tombs that you walk over them as you follow the road that runs along the
+plateau. You see the grass at the side dead in one place, there is a tomb
+there; you see a bit of white marble cropping up in another, that is a
+tomb. You see a great stack of stones heaped up by the side of a railway
+cutting, they are all tombs. You look at the cutting itself, and see that
+to a certain depth it is honeycombed with tombs, some cut through, some
+sticking out. In every farmyard the pigs eat out of old sarcophagi. The
+fountains squirt into them, the bacon is cured in them. The farrier dips
+his hot iron into a sarcophagus. In the churches the altars are made of
+them. The foundations of the houses are laid in them. The very air seems
+to be pervaded with the dust of the dead, and this dust lies heavy on the
+spirits and energies of the inhabitants.
+
+But what an age we live in! Utilitarian and disrespectful of the past! The
+other day a cargo of mummied cat-deities arrived at Liverpool and was sold
+for manure. At Arles, the Paris, Lyons and Mediterranean Railway Company
+has bought up the Elysian Fields to convert them into a factory for their
+engines. The company are excavating Les Alyscamp for this purpose, throwing
+about the sarcophagi, Pagan or Christian, or using them for building
+materials--and sawn in half they make decent quoins for a brickshed--and
+strewing the dust of the dead of ages under the wheels of the locomotives.
+
+One undesecrated, unrifled headland remains above the factories, on which
+is a venerable but abandoned church. The company would grub that up too,
+but the proprietor will not sell, as he believes the tradition that an
+incalculable treasure is hidden somewhere among these tombs.
+
+But the Arelois not only expropriate the tombs of their forefathers, they
+have given away or sold other things as well. On the Alyscamp is the
+venerable church of S. Honoré, half ruinous, in which, underground in the
+crypt is the ancient baptistery that had served the first Christians when
+the church was young. It was furnished with a large porphyry circular
+vessel for immersing adults. Louis XIV. saw it, coveted it for some
+water-works, and got the Arelois to give it him. Among the ruins of the
+theatre was found a Venus of Greek workmanship and of Parian marble. They
+sent it away also; it is in Paris.
+
+The old church of S. Honoré is now reached by a long avenue of poplars
+lined with Pagan Roman tombs. The nave of the church is in ruins, but the
+choir is in tolerable condition, and is the most interesting portion. It
+consists in fact of an early Romanesque basilica with three aisles ending
+in three apses. The pillars separating nave from aisles, three on each
+side, are great drums ten feet in diameter. The later, ruinous nave
+contains the reputed chapel of S. Trophimus, apostle of Arles. When the
+fourteenth century church was added, this little chapel was left standing
+within, and though now crumbling, it is comparatively watertight. It has,
+however, undergone recasing in Renaissance times, and to understand its
+structure the chapel must be entered. It is then seen to have been an open
+porch of four semicircular arches, and may possibly have been erected over
+the tomb of S. Trophimus. The only ornament about it is a moulding, which
+may give its date.
+
+S. Trophimus, reputed apostle of Aix, is now said to have been that Asiatic
+who was a companion of S. Paul mentioned in Acts xx. 4, xxi. 27-29, and 2
+Tim. iv. 12, 20. But the very early diptychs of the church of Arles mention
+S. Dionysius as the first prelate, and the cathedral was built in 625 by
+S. Virgilius, and dedicated to S. Stephen. It did not take the title of
+S. Trophimus till the twelfth century, when the relics of this saint were
+brought to it from the little chapel just described. The exact date was
+1152; the tradition of S. Trophimus having been one of the disciples of
+Christ and companion of S. Paul arose about this time. Not a trace of such
+a tradition appears in the Provençal poem composed by an eye-witness of the
+translation of the relics.
+
+There was, no doubt, a bishop of this name at Arles, and probably early,
+but the first whose name is authenticated is Martianus, who followed the
+Novatian heresy in 254. Gregory of Tours--and his testimony is confirmed by
+a MS. of the fifth century--says that S. Trophimus was sent into Gaul in
+the consulship of Decius and Gratus, i.e., 250, and that he was the first
+bishop of Arles, and Gregory of Tours is the earliest and most reliable
+authority that we have on the beginnings of the Christian church in Gaul.
+
+The church of S. Honoré was built by S. Virgilius, Archbishop of Arles A.D.
+588-618, and the baptistery dates from his time. According to the legend,
+whilst he was erecting the basilica, the people toiled ineffectually to
+move the pillars to their destined place. At last they sent word to S.
+Virgil that the truck was fast, and the pillars could neither be taken on
+nor carried back. Then Virgil hurried to the spot, and saw a little devil,
+like a negro boy, sitting under the truck, obstructing its progress. Virgil
+drove him away, whereupon the columns were easily moved. He was buried in
+this church, but I do not fancy his tomb is known. A strange story is told
+of him, how one night, as he was pacing the walls of Arles, or possibly
+walking in the Alyscamp, he saw a mysterious ship come sailing over the
+meres. In the starlight he discerned forms of sailors. The ship drew up
+near where he stood, and a voice called to him: "Reverend father, we know
+who thou art. Now we are bound for Jerusalem, and are here to ask thee to
+come on board with us." "No, thank you," answered Virgilius, "not till
+you have shown me who you are." Then he made the sign of the cross, and
+suddenly the ship resolved itself into a drift of fog that rolled away
+before the wind along the surface of the mere. This is the _second_ version
+of the world-wide-known myth of the Flying Dutchman. The earliest form
+comes to us in the legend of S. Adrian, a martyr in Asia Minor. As his
+widow Basilissa was sailing over the Black Sea with his body, to bury it at
+Byzantium, a phantom ship passed by, which also vanished when adjured in
+the sacred name.
+
+What is, to us English, of interest in connection with S. Virgil of Arles
+is, that it was he who consecrated Augustine for his mission to Kent, at
+the command of Gregory the Great. So here, probably, in this ruinous,
+silent old church, our apostle of the English knelt and received his
+commission to go and preach the Gospel to us Angles. This same Virgil also
+built the cathedral, and dedicated it to S. Stephen. But of his work there
+not a trace remains. Another bishop of Arles of some note was Regulus, who
+when preaching one day was so troubled by the noise made by the frogs, that
+he interrupted his sermon to order them to be silent, and--they obeyed.
+
+In a side chapel of the old church of S. Honoratus is a sarcophagus that
+contains the skull and bones and dust of a young girl. The coffin is of
+lead, and this perhaps accounts for the preservation. Along with it were
+found the gold ear-rings and other trinkets. On the ear-rings a cross, but
+the inscription on the tomb hardly leads one to believe the girl was a
+Christian. She was aged seventeen years, eight months, and eighteen days,
+when she died. Her name was Ælia. Here is the inscription in the lead,
+translated:--
+
+  ÆLIA, DAUGHTER OF ÆLIA.
+
+  Thou who can'st read these lines, read a sad mishap, and learn our
+      plaintive lay.
+  Many call that a sarcophagus which contains bones,
+  But this has become the home of unhallowed bees. [1]
+  Shame it should be so! Here lies a damsel of exceeding beauty.
+  There's more than grief in this: a dearly loved wife has been snatched
+      away.
+  She lived a virgin so long as Nature willed.
+  When she became a bride, the marriage vows were a joy to her parents.
+  She lived seventeen years, eight months, and eighteen days.
+  Happy the father who lived not to see such sorrow.
+  The wound rankles in the bosom of her mother, her precious jewel,
+  And her father, taken away in old age, still holds her clasped to his
+      heart.
+
+[Footnote 1: The ancients thought that bees were bred of dead bodies. See
+Virgil, Georgics. iv. 281-5.]
+
+Here is the original with conjectural restorations. Would not old Dr.
+Keates have whipped the Eton boy who wrote such barbarous Latin verses! But
+it must be remembered the Arles folk were Græeco-Gallic, and not masters of
+Latin. Some of the words are run together. It runs thus--
+
+  ÆLIA ÆLIÆ
+
+  Littera.quinosti.lege.casum.et.d(_ice querelam_.)
+  Multi.sarcophagum.dicunt.quod.con(_tinet ossa_:)
+  Set.conclusa.decens.apibus.domus.ist(_a profanis_:)
+  Onefas.indignum.jacet.hic.præclara(_puella_.)
+  Hoc.plusquam.dolor.est.rapta.est.s(_uavissima conjux_.)
+  Pervixit.virgo.vbi.jam.natura.placebat.
+  Vixit.enim.ann.xvii.et.menses viii.diesque xviii.
+  O.felice.patrem.qui.non.vidit.tale.dolorem.
+  Hoeret.et.in fixo.pectore.volnus.dionysyadi matri.
+  Et junctam.secum.geron.pater.tenet.ipse.puellam.
+
+This is an exact copy. I am not responsible for the grammatical blunders,
+they were made clearly by the sculptor of the inscription, who did not
+understand what he cut.
+
+Among the tombs extracted from the Alyscamp and now in the Museum of Arles,
+is another of a girl, and a very accomplished young lady she must have
+been; her name was Julia, and she was the daughter of Lucius Tyrannus. She
+died at the age of twenty; the inscription on her tomb records that in her
+morals and in her schooling she was a pattern to all other girls.
+
+[Illustration: Musical instruments from the tomb of Julia.]
+
+What is particularly interesting about this monument is that it gives
+illustrations of all the musical instruments she was able to play, and it
+affords us I believe, the earliest known example of the organ. [1] But what
+is even more curious is that on it is represented a guitar, very much the
+same as is now manufactured.
+
+[Footnote 1: Nero on the night when he died was going to try a water-organ,
+when the news of the revolt of Galba and the defection of the troops
+reached him. I am puzzled about this organ on the tomb of Julia Tyranna.
+Sir George Grove, in his 'Dictionary of Music,' gives an illustration of
+this same organ copied from Dom. Bedos' 'L'Art du Facteur d'Orgues,' Paris,
+1766. This represents two slaves crouched and blowing into the organ
+bellows. I could not see these figures. I made my sketch carefully, and can
+hardly suppose the figures have been chipped away since the monument was
+placed in the museum.]
+
+The instruments she could play were the organ, the guitar, the syrinx
+or panpipe, and the lyre, which she struck not with her fingers, but a
+plectrum represented beside it. Observe, between the lyre and the banjo
+her little satchel of music-books, and below the syrinx a lamb and palm.
+This is the only sign on the monument that could in the least lead to a
+supposition that Julia Tyranna was Christian. The inscription bears no
+trace of Christianity.
+
+[Illustration: Calpurnia's monument.]
+
+Another interesting monument found there is that to Calpurnia, daughter of
+Caius Marius. Probably she died from the exposure and roughness of life
+camping out, when the barbarian hordes rolled west, and all the inhabitants
+of the towns were obliged to fly before them to the hills. I shall in a
+future chapter tell the story of Caius Marius and his great victory at
+Pourrières over the Teutons, having first thrashed the Ambrons near Aix.
+Suffice it now to note that here is the tombstone of his poor little
+daughter. I must, however, state that the genuineness of this inscription
+has been called in question. It is also worthy of notice how that the
+victory of Marius and delivery from the barbarians impressed the people
+of the neighbourhood. In the museum the name of Marius occurs on other
+monuments. The name of Marius is even now a popular Christian name in
+Provence.
+
+But to return to Calpurnia. The place where the Arles inhabitants fled from
+the Teutons was the limestone range of Les Alpines, almost an island, so
+surrounded was it by lagoons and marshes.
+
+Looking at Calpurnia's monument I fell into a dream, and saw her whole
+story unfolded before me. Caius Marius was a rough-mannered man, of peasant
+origin, but he had a wife Julia, of patrician rank, and who, I have not a
+shadow of doubt, flourished her noble origin before him, and talked very
+big of her grand relations. When little missie was born: "I'll have none
+of your plebeian names, if you please, for my baby," said Julia; "you will
+please note that my family derives from the immortal gods. I shall call the
+child Calpurnia." [1] Madame Julia was a good wife, and she followed her
+rough husband everywhere. At the beginning of windy March, tidings came
+that the Teutons and Ambrons were on the move. In April all the women
+and children of Arles, Glanum, Ernaginum, and Cabelio were clustered on
+the heights of Les Alpines, in extemporised cabins or in some of the
+prehistoric habitations they found scooped out of the limestone. Down came
+the rains. A gale and driving out-pour then as to-day, when M. Carnot comes
+into Provence. The roofs of the cabins let in water, the sides of the caves
+ran down with moisture. Then the wind changed, the sun shone out hot, but
+the _mistral_ tore over the country cold and sharp as a double-edged sword.
+Poor Calpurnia could not stand it. She shivered and coughed, lost appetite
+and spirits. Next came the tidings of the battle at Les Milles, and a
+couple of days later of the extermination of the enemy at Pourrières. Now
+the refugees might in safety descend from their rocky refuges, and return
+to their homes.
+
+[Footnote 1: See Appendix A, on this monument and the question of its
+genuineness; as well as for some other inscriptions in the Arles Museum.]
+
+Then Julia went with the sick girl to Arles. Meantime Marius on the
+battlefield had received the ovation of his officers and soldiers, and the
+salutations of the delegates from the senate proclaiming him consul. But
+at the same time there appeared--I doubt not, though Plutarch does not say
+so--a slave with a note from Julia:--
+
+"I am sorry to tell you that Calpurnia is very unwell. That horrible
+_mistral_ froze her, and she has done little else than cough night and day
+since. I have given her snail broth, but it has not relieved her much, and
+she is now spitting blood. Bother these Teutons, it is all their work. I
+always told you that you made a mistake in letting them come into Provence,
+and cross the Rhone. However, you were ever pigheaded, and now it serves
+you right. You will lose Calpurnia, who is the apple of your eye. Now if
+you had listened to me, etc., etc.
+
+"Salve."
+
+But there was something further to complicate matters, and superinduce
+sickness in a delicate girl. To escape to the hills the good people of
+Arles could not follow a road, for the whole district between them and
+the range of Les Alpines was covered with one vast lagoon. They could
+not travel in boats, for the lagoon was shallow, so they went on rafts
+supported on inflated skins, about which I shall have something to say
+presently. So Calpurnia, creeping close to her mother, wrapped in her
+_pallium_, was exposed for hours on a raft at the beginning of April to the
+cold winds, and to the water oozing up between the joints of the raft.
+
+The whole story works out like an equation. I fancy--but am not sure--a
+quadratic equation, somehow thus:--
+
+  As I, in a 19th cent. hotel, and in Jäger underclothing:
+  Calpurnia, on a raft and in a pre-historic cave:: a cold in the head
+    I got: x
+
+  x X self in hotel and Jäger costume = Calpurnia on a raft and in a
+    cave X cold in the head.
+
+  x = pthysis.
+
+I think this is right. I cannot be sure; and I cannot be sure, though I was
+educated to be a mathematician by a senior wrangler.
+
+The facts were these. My dear father thought, and thought perhaps justly,
+that a classical education was but a throwing back of the current of
+the mind into the past, whereas a mathematical education directed it to
+the future, and was the sole course which would prove Pactolean. So I
+was cut down in my classical studies, and drawn out in those which were
+mathematical. Likewise I was sent the year before entering the university
+to a senior wrangler to ripen me. I then learned that what as a boy I was
+wont to call the Rule of Three was more properly termed equations, and that
+equations might be complicated to the highest limits of muddledom, and when
+so complicated were termed quadratics. After a course of equations that
+flattened out my head like the Camargue, I was thrust into what are called
+surds, a sort of wood of errors, in which one spends hours in hewing one's
+way to get at nothing of the slightest profit to man or beast; finally, I
+believe my good tutor, now a bishop, got tired of me. I was stupefied by
+surds; and I entered the university. Now, after thirty-seven years, I find
+that every ode of Horace, every chapter of Cæsar, every line of Virgil
+I learned at school lies as a sprig of lavender in the folds of my
+memory--but I cannot even set and work out a common equation, or add up a
+sum in compound addition correctly.
+
+I beg the pardon of the reader for this digression. I have made it because
+I think, should my reader be a father, this experience of mine may be of
+profit to him.
+
+To return to the monuments of the Elysian Fields. A considerable number
+have been found here, also at Nimes, S. Gabriel, and Cavaillon, which are
+the memorials of _utriculares_. [1] There were guilds of these men. They
+appointed noble Romans as their patrons, and these patrons on their
+tombstones made mention of the fact. But what were these _utriculares_?
+They were raftsmen who carried on trade over the lagoons, sustaining their
+flat vessels upon distended skins. The lagoons were so shallow that no
+vessel of deep draught could travel over them, and all the merchandise of
+central Gaul for the Mediterranean--the tin from Britain for instance--and
+all the goods of the Mediterranean for Gaul, had to be transhipped at Arles
+from the river boats, unable to cross the bar, on to these barges sustained
+on inflated skins that conveyed them to Fos, at the mouth of the lagoons,
+where they were again shipped for the sea voyage. After Marius had cut
+a canal, matters were better. Ships could come up through the lagoons
+to Arles, but none at any time of deep draught, and the raftsmen, the
+_utriculares_, carried on their trade till the Middle Ages, when the mouths
+of the lagoons became choked, and the lagoons themselves turned into
+noxious morasses. Here is one of their monuments, in the museum of Arles:--
+
+    "To the manes. To Marcus Junius Messianus, of the guild of the
+    utriculares of Arles, four times president of this corpora
+    Junia Valeria raised this monument to him, her son, who died aged
+    twenty-eight years, five months, and ten days."
+
+Here is another, found near Lyons:--
+
+    "To the manes and eternal repose of Caius Victorinus ... urix, also
+    called Quiguro, citizen of Lyons, one of the corporation of utriculares
+    there, who lived twenty-eight years,... months and five days, without
+    giving offence to anyone. His mother, Castorina, raised this to the
+    memory of her sole and very dear boy."
+
+The navigation on distended skins is now everywhere extinct except on the
+Euphrates. On some of the Nineveh sculptures may be seen men swimming
+across rivers sustained on these primitive air-vessels.
+
+[Footnote 1: See Appendix C.]
+
+In the museum at Arles are numerous sculptured Christian sarcophagi,
+with groups of the Raising of Lazarus, the Multiplication of Loaves, the
+Striking of the Rock by Moses, the Opening of the Eyes of the Blind, &c.
+These are attributed to the fourth and fifth centuries. For myself I am
+by no means satisfied that the Christian sarcophagi of rich and beautiful
+sculpture are as late as the dates generally given to them. I judge by the
+fashion of the hair worn by the ladies. Now there is a sarcophagus at Arles
+with the twelve apostles on it, six on each side of Christ, and a portrait
+of the deceased. This is set down to be a tomb of the fifth century, and
+yet the lady wears her hair in precisely the fashion, and it was a peculiar
+one, of the Faustinas, the wives of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius,
+A.D. 138-177. It must not be forgotten that the protection of the laws
+was extended to Christian sepulchres as well as Pagan till the edict of
+Valerian in A.D. 257, and although this was withdrawn by Gallienus in A.D.
+260, yet after that edict, the cemeteries, the catacombs, were never quite
+secure; before that, the Christians made no concealment of their places of
+burial, they used the richest available decorations for them, in sculpture
+and in painting. Only after A.D. 257 do the ornamentations cease, or become
+hastily sketched and rude, and the inscriptions degenerate into scrawls.
+All the finest, costliest work in the Roman catacombs belongs to the first
+two centuries and the beginning of the third. When peace returned to the
+Church, art had fallen into decay, and there were not sculptors capable of
+performing such work as had been done before. No more convincing proof of
+this can be found than the two porphyry tombs of Constantia and Helena,
+daughter and mother of Constantine, now in the Vatican.
+
+To what a depth of degeneracy sculpture fell may be judged by the lid of
+the sarcophagus of S. Hilary, Bishop of Arles, d. 449, now in the Arles
+museum. Beside the rude lettering, there are but a leaf and two birds
+on it, but they might have been scribbled by a child. It is to me
+inconceivable that some of the beautiful white marble sarcophagi both
+at Arles and at Rome, sculptured with Scriptural scenes, can belong to
+the period when art was as degraded as it certainly was in the time of
+Constantine, and I think that antiquarians have been misled in dating them.
+
+Before taking leave of the Elysian Fields, I must quote the words of a
+French author upon them:--"It has been a rich quarry only too easily
+worked, and we will not here enter on the painful story of its spoliation.
+All the museums of the south of France possess tombs stolen from the
+Alyscamp. As to the monolithic tombs, they were abandoned to any one who
+cared to have them, and for many centuries have been regarded as stones
+quarried ready for use. The city of Arles has on several occasions had
+the culpable condescension of giving up the tombs of its ancestors to the
+princes and great men of the world. Charles IX. laded several ships with
+them, which sank in the Rhone at Pont S. Esprit. The Duke of Savoy, the
+Prince of Lorraine, the Cardinal Richelieu, and a hundred others have taken
+away just what they liked, and Arles to-day has hardly more to show of
+this vast cemetery than an avenue--but a noble one--of sarcophagi and some
+fragments of fine Gothic or Romanesque chapels lost in the midst of a
+desert." [1]
+
+[Footnote 1: Lenthéric, 'La Grèce et l'Orient en Provence,' 1878.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+PAGAN ARLES.
+
+
+The Arles race a mixture of Greek and Gaulish--The colonisation
+by the Romans--The type of beauty in Arles--The amphitheatre--A
+bull-baiting--Provençal bull-baits different from Spanish bull-fights--The
+theatre--The ancient Greek stage--The destruction of the Arles
+theatre--Excavation of the orchestra--Discovery of the Venus of Arles--A
+sick girl--Palace of Constantine.
+
+
+Before describing Arles I began with the Elysian Fields, the great cemetery
+of Pagan and Christian Arles, for this seems to have affected the whole
+town, and with the dust of ages to have smothered the life out of it.
+
+Now let us look at the remains of ancient Arles. But first of all let
+me observe that the Arles race prides itself on its singular purity of
+descent. There was, unquestionably, a Gaulish settlement there. The Keltic
+name Ar-lath, the "moist habitation," tells us as much. So does the legend
+of Protis and Gyptis, already related. But it was speedily occupied by a
+large Greek contingent, and the race was formed of Greek and Gaulish blood
+united. In the year B.C. 46 a Roman colony was planted at Arles. Cæsar,
+desirous of paying off his debt of gratitude to the officers and soldiers
+who had served him in his wars, commissioned Claudius Tiberius Nero, one of
+his quæstors, father and grandfather of the emperors Tiberius, Claudius,
+and Caligula, to conduct two colonies into Southern Gaul, one was settled
+at Narbonne and the other at Arles, and this was one of the first military
+colonies planted beyond Italy.
+
+The office of this Tiberius was to portion out the land among the veteran
+soldiers, six thousand men of the Sixth Legion occupied the town and
+country round--such of it, at all events, as was not under water--and
+thenceforth the city took the name of Arelate Sextanorum. Tacitus gives
+us a picture of the proceedings on such occasions. After the tribunes and
+the centurions came a cloud of officials called _agrimensores_, surveyors,
+charged with the duty of parcelling out the soil among the new comers.
+Then followed a hierarchy of civil officers, religious, judicial,
+administrative, all under the direction of an administrator-general, who
+was entitled _curator coloniæ_. From that moment the transformation of the
+colonial town into a little Rome was a matter of time only. The new comers
+constructed a capitol, a forum, temples, triumphal arches, aqueducts,
+markets; besides these, theatres, a circus, baths. In a very few years the
+aspect of Arles was completely changed. A mercantile city of Græco-Gauls
+had become Latinised, bureaucratic, and nattered itself that it was like
+its new parent on the Tiber. It called itself _Gallula Roma, Arelas_.
+
+[Illustration: An Arelaise. (_From a Photograph_)]
+
+Consequently, we find in Arles a strong current of Roman blood mingled with
+the Greek and Gallic, and there has been practically no other admixture.
+Cut off from the country round by its marshes and lagoons, it has
+maintained its purity of blood and its characteristic stamp of face. The
+Arles women are said to be, believe themselves to be, and show to everyone
+that they believe themselves to be, the handsomest women in France. Their
+type is quite distinct from that of the inhabitants of Nimes, Marseilles,
+Aix, and even of the peasantry outside the gates of Arles. What is the more
+singular is that this peculiarity of type is not noticeable among the men.
+Among the women it is quite unmistakable. Their straight brows and noses
+are sometimes Greek, but the Roman arch appears as frequently as the
+straight nose; they have magnificent dark eyes; black hair which is curled
+up over their broad straight brows, brought forward about their faces so as
+to form a dark misty halo round the olive-complexioned features, then tied
+into a horn at the top of the head, which is bound round with black satin
+ribbon, that flows down at the back. The face is haughty, noble, somewhat
+imperious. Queens these Arelaises feel themselves to be, down to the
+fishwives in the market-place; they walk as queens, as well as the cobble
+stones will permit, and bear themselves, their black mantillas cast over
+their arms, in a queen-like manner.
+
+I had a fine opportunity of studying them, for I went to the first
+bull-fight of the season in the old Roman arena, and all Arles was there,
+male and female, down to the babies in arms. Between each _course_ all the
+spectators promenaded under the galleries and on the terrace at the top
+of the amphitheatre, the women in gala dress of white lace bodices, black
+mantle, and dark silk skirts; and a very fine sight they were; it was worth
+the forty centimes I paid for admission to see these majestic women pace
+along and sweep the little men from their path as they careered round and
+round the amphitheatre, with cold, stern faces, full of pride of ancestry
+and conscious beauty.
+
+I will quote the opinion on the Arles type of a very competent judge
+perfectly acquainted with the whole of Provence:--"It can be affirmed
+without contradiction that Greek beauty exists at Arles, and exists only
+among the women. The men are clumsy, small and vulgar, rude in form and
+rough in vocal intonation. The women, on the contrary, have preserved the
+ancestral delicacy. The face is that of a cameo, the nose is straight, the
+chin very Greek, the ear delicately modelled; the eyes, admirably shaped,
+have in them a sort of Attic grace, transmitted from their mothers, and to
+be handed on to the children.
+
+"To get an idea of this characteristic type, one must not study two or
+three subjects, but must observe the whole population _en bloc_, and
+especially compare it with the neighbouring populations. The result of such
+a comparison brings out with force the grand lines constituting in the
+Arelaise the character of a perfectly definite and distinct race." [1]
+
+[Footnote 1: Lenthéric, _op. cit._]
+
+[Illustration: Part of the Amphitheatre of Arles.]
+
+As I have already mentioned the amphitheatre, I will begin my account of
+the antiquities of Arles with that. In the Middle Ages it was turned into
+a fortified _bourg_ in the heart of fortified Arles; it contained streets
+about as broad as a man could walk up and touch walls on both sides with
+arms akimbo, a crowd of houses, and two chapels or churches. Four great
+towers were erected at the cardinal points, and the vast galleries and
+arcades were a very warren of human habitations. Constructed of huge blocks
+of limestone, laid without cement, the amphitheatre forms an ellipse, whose
+axis measures four hundred and twenty feet by three hundred and ten feet.
+It is said to be able to contain twenty-six thousand spectators, which is
+just two thousand five hundred more persons than the entire population of
+modern Arles.
+
+Externally it presents two stages of sixty arcades, between the arches are
+engaged Doric pillars in the lower storey, those above are Corinthian, but
+only about six of the capitals of these latter remain. There are, within,
+three stages of seats, those for the senators, those for the knights, and
+the upper range for the common people, now much mutilated, and turned into
+a promenade. Fortunately the accumulation of earth over which the houses
+were built within the arena was so great, that when that was cleared
+away, the marble casing of the _podium_ was disclosed in very tolerable
+perfection.
+
+When I visited the amphitheatre, Les Arènes they are called, it was to see
+a _Course aux Taureaux_. The Provençals are passionately fond of these
+bull-baits, which take place weekly through the summer, beginning at
+Easter, but it is only at Arles and Nimes that they are carried out in the
+ancient Roman amphitheatres.
+
+These _courses_ are quite distinct from the Spanish bull-fights. There is
+no brutality, no torturing of the beast with arrows and crackers, no goring
+of horses. The bull is uninjured, and, though he gets furious, clearly
+relishes the fight, and in some cases cannot be induced to abandon it. The
+old proconsular seat was draped, and occupied by the _prefet_ and madame,
+and the _sous-prefet_. The spectators went where they liked, men paid
+fourpence, women threepence for admission. The arena was enclosed within a
+screen of strong timber boards.
+
+Five wild bulls from the Camargue were advertised to be baited. One, a
+strong black fellow, Nero, was clearly a favourite--his name was announced
+in very large letters. Every bull is given a rosette of coloured ribbons,
+fastened between his horns, and the sport consists in plucking away this
+rosette, and bearing it in safety beyond the barricades. Should a rosette
+fall to the ground, it does not count. A prize is given to whoever recovers
+a rosette. The blood-red rosette of Nero entitled the snatcher of it to one
+hundred francs. Another characteristic feature of the Provençal _courses_
+is that there are no professional toreadors. Any man or boy who likes
+enters the lists against the bull. Usually there are from a dozen to a
+score and a half in the arena, all endeavouring to pluck the bunch of
+ribbons from the brow of the enraged bull.
+
+From practice, and acquaintance with the habits of bulls, the young men
+become very skilful, and fatal accidents are rare. The amateur runs up
+alongside of the bull, swings himself round in front of it, and makes his
+snatch. The bull at once goes at him, and he takes to his heels. When he is
+flying a second invariably runs across his path at right angles, and the
+bull can never resist the temptation of turning upon this second. If he
+also is hard pressed, a third crosses between him and the bull, and again
+diverts the angry beast. In one case a man's foot slipped as he was flying,
+and he fell. Then the bull was on him before another could intervene, but
+the brute rolled over the prostrate man, who got up, shook himself, and
+cleared the barricade.
+
+[Illustration: Back of a house at Arles.]
+
+One very nimble young fellow in a grey shirt had attracted general
+attention by his dexterity. He was resolved to have Nero's rosette. He
+managed to wrench it from between the bull's horns, but not completely to
+disengage it. The bull drove after him so close that it was impossible for
+another man to run between, the grey shirt reached the barrier and swung
+over, but the horns caught his nether garment and rent it, fortunately
+without really injuring the man, who, however, was not able to enter the
+arena again that day.
+
+When a _course_ has been run the doors are opened, and one or two young
+bulls are sent into the arena; they run round, and the bull who has been
+baited adjoins them, and they all run out together. Nero, however, would
+not go. He was fagged, but his blood was up. Five bulls were sent in to
+lure him away, but he was resolved to gore his man before he left. His
+rosette he had dangling on his brow, uncaptured.
+
+Then the keepers entered with a species of halbert, with half-moon shaped
+steels at the head, and one small spike in the midst. With this they caught
+the horns of Nero, and he was forced to retreat before the men, for if he
+resisted the spike entered his head and hurt him. Thus finally, by sheer
+force, he was driven, snorting, pawing the ground, and with arched tail
+from off the place of contest.
+
+The sport is good. It is not cruel. It draws out the courage, provokes
+dexterity and nimbleness, and takes the place in Provence that cricket does
+in England and golf in Scotland.
+
+The Romans loved the brutal and demoralising games of the amphitheatre.
+Wherever they went they erected these huge places for entertaining
+themselves with the spectacle of suffering. There never was an amphitheatre
+at Marseilles, for Marseilles was Greek and not Roman, and to the Greek
+such spectacles were abhorrent.
+
+At Arles there are the equally interesting remains of a theatre. The stage
+is fairly perfect, with its customary scenery of Corinthian pillars grouped
+so as to form two doors for entrance and exit between them. The pillars of
+this permanent scene are not all in place. Two are standing, and the bases
+of others remain. At the proscenium may be noticed the grooves into which
+the beams fitted for the wooden small stage that stood forward in front of
+the curtain.
+
+The ancient Greek theatre was composed, like that of our days, of a
+hemicycle for the spectators, and a rectangular portion that formed the
+place for dramatic performance. The pit was a semicircle, and was not
+fitted with seats, but constituted the orchestra. This orchestra among the
+Greeks formed an inferior stage, and, as its name implies, was reserved
+for the ballet. It was not till Roman times that specially privileged
+spectators were admitted into it, but it never had the musicians installed
+in it. These latter were placed in front of the stage, much where is our
+modern proscenium. The actors performed, as nowadays, on the boarded
+anterior portion, which was called the _pulpitum_. Finally, to facilitate
+communication between the stage and the orchestra, a pair of flights of
+steps descended laterally from the proscenium. In the centre of the pit or
+orchestra was usually placed an altar to Bacchus, around which the choirs
+executed their evolutions; and against this little altar sat the prompter,
+hidden by it, whilst some flute-players stood beside the altar, in flowing
+robes, acting as ballet masters, and giving the measure with the shrill
+notes of their pipes.
+
+The Greek tragedy, therefore, had a double action, one on the stage proper
+and the other below, and all was graceful and refined. The purest taste,
+the most elevated sentiments, were the characteristics of the Greek drama,
+and the most beautiful and stirring effects were produced by means of the
+utmost simplicity. Thus, when the Tragedy of the Persæ of Æschylus was
+being performed, the depth of the stage opened, to show in the distance the
+blue sea on which a recent victory had taken place, with the rocky isle of
+Salamis bathed in the tints of the Eastern setting sun. A thrill of the
+most lively emotion ran instantly through the whole crowd of spectators.
+But with the Romans the theatre lost its dignity, and was degraded to low
+buffoonery, indecencies the most repulsive, and to gaudy spectacles. So
+bad was the moral result produced by the theatre, that the first Christian
+bishops who were able to do so, stirred their adherents to the destruction
+of this breeding-place of moral pestilence. The MS. chronicles of the
+church of Arles have preserved the name of the man who destroyed the
+theatre. He was a deacon, Cyril; acting under a strong moral impulse,
+filled with righteous indignation at the obscenities perpetrated on the
+boards, he roused the Christian populace of Arles to attack and wreck the
+theatre and expel the actors. The mob burst in--tore the marble from the
+proscenium, smashed the statues of admirable Greek sculpture, overthrew the
+altar and ground it to powder, upset the columns, and reduced it to a state
+of ruin very little better than that in which it is at present. Heads of
+statues were knocked off, bas-reliefs broken in half, cornices, capitals,
+were thrown into the pit and choked it to the level of the stage.
+
+In 1651 the pick was set to work to clear out this orchestra, and almost
+the first stroke revealed one of the most admirable works of Greek
+sculpture that has descended to us, the Venus of Arles, an imitation or
+reproduction of the celebrated Venus of Praxiteles, now, unhappily, lost.
+This statue lay before the columns of the proscenium and had been saved
+from destruction by the ruins that had buried it. Head and body are almost
+intact, only the arms were gone.
+
+The goddess is half naked, like the Venus of Milo. The bust is slightly
+turned. Head and coiffure are of the noblest and purest execution.
+
+It was evening when I visited the theatre, a balmy spring evening, where
+shelter could be obtained from a cold wind. The pink Judas trees were in
+full flower. The syringas scented the air. The golden sunlight filled the
+theatre with light and warmth. But two persons were present, except myself.
+Seated on one of the white marble steps for the audience, was an Arles
+mother with a royal face, in the quaintly beautiful costume the women of
+all classes still affect, and she had spread her mantle over the shoulders
+of a girl of fourteen, sick, with face of the purest alabaster, and of
+features as fine as were ever traced for Venus Anadyomene, with large,
+solemn, dreamy eyes, watching a robin that was perched on the proscenium
+and was twittering.
+
+The pity, love, and sorrow of that mother's heart were not to be read in
+her calm disciplined countenance, but I could see the emotions flow in
+short wavelets from her heart, through the arm that encircled the sick
+girl, into the hand that rhythmically contracted and expanded on the sharp
+little shoulder, rocking the child in the warm sun, against her own heart,
+and with her dark eyes looking into the future, in which she would have no
+more the child at her side to sway. In that theatre!--the ebbing tide of a
+white and limpid life taking its last sunning, where the crowds had laughed
+and roared their applause at sights and songs of unspeakable foulness.
+
+[Illustration: A boat with two rudders at Arles.]
+
+In the museum may be seen some of the treasures from the theatre, a head of
+Augustus, a so-called Livia, a bust of the young Marcellus, bas-reliefs,
+dancing women, a few inscriptions, and the seal of a Roman dentist, which I
+suppose he lost there one day when watching a play, and which has recently
+been found there.
+
+It is worth the visitor's while to walk by the broad muddy Rhone, and
+observe the clumsy picturesque vessels moored there, or gliding down the
+turgid stream. So clumsy is the construction that some are provided with
+two rudders, one being found insufficient to direct the course of these
+tubs.
+
+At Arles, near the river, is a palace of Constantine the Great, now turned
+into cottages and sheds, and in a very ruinous condition, but sufficient
+of it is preserved to show what a falling off in architecture had ensued
+through the anarchy of rising and sinking emperors, and the destruction
+of the great families of the Patriciate. Employment for architects and
+sculptors was gone in times of proscription and military revolts, and
+apparently all at once the arts that had reached the utmost perfection fell
+into a condition of the most abject degradation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+CHRISTIAN ARLES.
+
+
+Sunday in France--Improved observance--The cathedral of Arles--West
+front--Interior--Tool-marks--A sermon on peace--The cloisters--Old
+Sacristan and his garden--Number of desecrated churches in Arles--Notre
+Dame de la Majeur--S. Cæsaire--The isles near Arles--Cordes--Montmajeur--A
+gipsy camp--The ruins--Tower--The chapel of S. Croix.
+
+
+I spent the first Sunday after Easter at Arles. It was a bright and joyous
+spring day. I went to the cathedral at nine o'clock and found a good
+congregation there, listening to a sermon on the obligation of observing
+the Sunday. It was dull, and I left. But I may here observe what a great
+change has taken place in France of late years relative to this observance.
+I can remember when I was a boy how that every shop was open, and business
+went on much as on other days. But the Church has made great efforts to
+obtain a due recognition of the Lord's Day, and all who consider themselves
+to be good Catholics now shut their shops, and others, who find that there
+is now very little trade going on upon Sunday, shut their shops also
+because it is of no use having them open. It is only the polemical infidels
+who continue to keep their factories in full work and their places of
+merchandise open to invite purchasers.
+
+Some few years ago I was talking with a Frenchman in Rome, a commercial
+man, about the phylloxera that was devastating the vines, and ruining the
+peasantry, and I asked him what was being done to correct the evil. "Bah!"
+said he. "Everything has been tried. Mon ami. We don't observe the Sunday.
+Voilà le vrai phylloxera."
+
+[Illustration: On a house at Arles.]
+
+Now this observation of his was only worth so much, that it showed how that
+the clergy had been going hammer and tongs at the consciences of their
+sheep, till they had impressed a conviction on them that if they neglected
+the commandment of God relative to the observance of one day in seven, He
+would chastise them till they realised that they had erred, acknowledged
+their error, and endeavoured to rectify it.
+
+The cathedral of Arles is a very interesting church indeed. Externally
+the west front is rich in the bold rude style of the twelfth century, and
+consists of a deeply-recessed semicircular arch resting on a horizontal
+sculptured frieze which forms the lintel of the door, and is continued on
+each side upon pillars that rest on the backs of lions and have apostles
+and saints standing between them. The interior of the church is very solemn
+and striking. It has been cleaned, but judiciously, without sand-papering
+away the tool-marks on the ancient stone. Has the reader never been puzzled
+to note the difference between old work and new, even when the new is a
+reproduction of the old? In the new there is an absence of something, but
+what we cannot tell. This something is very probably nothing more than the
+old tool-marks. The ancient workers left on the stone the tale of every
+stroke they dealt, and to ages on ages these marks tell us: here was a
+strong arm employed, here was dealt a vigorous blow; here Symon the hewer
+was tickled with a comical story that mason Peter told and he laughed, and
+the blow he dealt ran jagged with his laughter. These strokes were done in
+the morning, when the workers were fresh; those at even, when their arms
+were weary. But nowadays the stone is all gone over with a metal toothcomb,
+and scraped till not a tool-mark remains, and wood is glass-papered till
+every particle of sharpness and character is taken out of the work.
+
+[Illustration: Samson and the lion, from the west door of the Cathedral of
+Arles.]
+
+The aisles of the cathedral of Arles are but five feet wide, the arches are
+round, the windows Romanesque; the church is barrel-vaulted, nothing could
+be plainer, and yet somehow that old church is full of poetry and charm. I
+went to High Mass at eleven. It was all very homely, quiet and reverent.
+Another congregation was gathered; a Gregorian simple service sung, which
+the congregation knew and joined in heartily. Then up into the pulpit got
+a canon, and gave out his text, from the Gospel, S. John xx., end of verse
+nineteen. My heart stood still. Why--you shall hear.
+
+[Illustration: On a house at Arles.]
+
+Just twenty-two years ago, I was in Switzerland on Whit Sunday, and went
+to the little village church. The _curé_ gave out these same words as his
+text, and preached a very good sermon on Peace, though perhaps not very
+appropriate to the day. Peace, he said, was an excellent thing, whether (1)
+in a country; (2) in a household; (3) in the conscience. There we had the
+three heads; on these he dilated. First we had a picture of the miseries of
+war in a country, and the converse picture of prosperity in peace. Then,
+secondly, we had a description of domestic discomfort, where husband and
+wife were at loggerheads, and--naturally, a charming family piece where
+both were in unity. Then came, thirdly, the special topic of his discourse,
+peace in the conscience, and how it was to be obtained and secured.
+
+I bottled up that sermon in my memory and have preached it since, myself,
+once or twice.
+
+One day, some fifteen years ago, I was at Eichstädt in Bavaria, on a
+Saturday. The church of S. Michael there is reserved for the episcopal
+seminary; I wanted to see the interior and found it locked, but discovering
+a side door into the cloisters open, I, and my wife who was with me,
+entered. The church was empty, save that a sacristan with a feather brush
+was dusting the side altars, but to my surprise I heard a sermon being
+preached, and caught a glimpse of a priest in the pulpit haranguing and
+gesticulating to an empty church.
+
+The sacristan, who saw us enter, went into convulsions of laughter. I did
+not understand the situation, and walked slowly down the aisle looking at
+the pictures, and listening to the discourse. I was very much surprised to
+hear the subject of Peace being chopped into three portions: peace in the
+country, peace in the family, peace in the conscience. It was my old friend
+the sermon on Peace again. Presently, my wife and I, having finished with
+the pictures in the north aisle, crossed the nave of the church to look
+at those in the south aisle, when, suddenly the preacher was aware of a
+strange gentleman and lady acting as his audience. His voice faltered,
+he broke down, searched for his MS., could not find his place, fell into
+complete confusion, turned tail, and bolted down the stairs and out of the
+church. He was a recently ordained seminarist rehearsing his first sermon.
+
+Two years later I was in Brussels. A new dean had been appointed to S.
+Gudule, and was to preach his first sermon. I went there with a friend. He
+gave out his text. I pricked up my ears. Then he addressed himself to his
+subject, Peace; and showed how it naturally divided itself into three
+heads, peace in a country, peace in a household, peace in the conscience.
+It was my old friend again.
+
+[Illustration: South entrance to the Cloister, Arles Cathedral.]
+
+Now when I heard this text given out by a canon at Arles, I thought with
+a shock: Bless me! we shall have those three heads once more! But I was
+mistaken. The old man gave us a simple, crystal-pure discourse of ten
+minutes on the peace that passeth man's understanding.
+
+Now I do not mean to hint that the Swiss, the German, and the Belgian
+preachers all used literally the same discourse; but I suppose that in the
+seminaries there are supplied certain skeleton discourses for the whole
+year, and these skeletons are dressed up sometimes in homely fustian,
+sometimes in rhetorical tinsel: yet they never remain other than dressed-up
+skeletons.
+
+There is very little of colour in the cathedral of Arles--only nine great
+pieces of Flemish tapestry, green and soft pale yellow, that are suspended
+in the aisles. All the rest is of unadorned limestone blocks, unadorned
+save for the chipping marks of the old masons seven hundred years ago.
+
+On the south side of the church is a delightfully rich cloister, the arcade
+resting on double columns whose capitals are richly sculptured with sacred
+subjects, incidents from the Old and New Testament. In the cloister is a
+well, fed, I believe, originally by the old Roman aqueduct that supplied
+the town with pure water from the hills, but which was suffered in the
+Middle Ages to fall into complete ruin. This aqueduct was older than the
+amphitheatre, for it ran in a cut channel through the rock beneath it. One
+evening that I was in the cloister the aged sacristan was engaged drawing
+from this well and watering a little garden of flowers he had made in the
+sunny sheltered nook within the cloister, against the south wall.
+
+[Illustration: Part of the north cloister of Arles Cathedral.]
+
+It was a pretty little subject; the old man in his long black coat, with
+silvery hair, stooping over his anemones and tulips, tying up the white
+narcissus that a swirl of the _mistral_ had broken; with the quaint
+sculptured capitals of the pillars above, and the deep shadows between the
+pillars before him; in the junctions of the old blocks above the arcade
+were wild gillyflowers blooming, and under the tiles were swallows busy
+over their mud nests. And as the old man tied up the bruised narcissus, in
+a cracked voice he sang to himself one of the vesper psalms, and I caught
+the verse:
+
+"Hæc requies mea in sæculum sæculi: hic habitabo quoniam elegi eam."
+("This shall be my rest for ever, here will I dwell, for I have a delight
+therein.")
+
+[Illustration: Church of Notre Dame de la Majeus, Arles.]
+
+Arles was at one time a city of churches, but the hurricane of the
+Revolution swept over her, and now she has left but four. On the walls, is
+a very early Romanesque church, tottering to ruins, because the Society
+for the Promotion of Athletic Sports, to whom it has been surrendered up
+for tumbling, climbing, wrestling, are impecunious and cannot keep it
+watertight. Hard by is another church, still earlier, a temple adapted to
+Christian worship, now half swept away, half devoted to a cabaret. The
+church of the Cordeliers is turned into a school, and the octagonal tower
+rises out of the roof of the dormitory. The beautiful fourteenth-century
+church of the Dominicans is a stable for the horses of the omnibuses that
+ply between the train and the town. S. Martin is desecrated, so is S.
+Isidore. The earliest church in Arles is Notre Dame de la Majeur, near
+the Arènes, but it does not look its age. It was in that church that the
+Council assembled in 475 on the doctrine of Grace, when the Gallican
+prelates were by no means disposed to admit S. Augustine's predestinarian
+teaching. Outside the church in the open space are traces of walls that are
+level with the earth; and if I am not mistaken, they are the foundations
+of an early basilica, with apse to the west. The church was rebuilt in the
+Middle Ages, and made to orientate, and was thrown further east than the
+earlier church. That is my impression, but nothing can be determined
+without pick and spade.
+
+[Illustration: Tower of the desecrated church of S. Croix, Arles.]
+
+In the church of S. Antonine is a metal font, made to resemble the laver of
+Solomon, resting on the backs of oxen.
+
+[Illustration: Part of the courtyard of the convent of S. Cæsarius, Arles.]
+
+The old Grand Priory has a charming Renaissance front to the river, and
+some late rich flamboyant work in a street at the back. It is now turned
+into a gallery of indifferent pictures. The Church of S. Cæsaire is
+modernised, and has, alas! nothing of interest remaining in it, only its
+historic memories to hallow it.
+
+[Illustration: Church of the Penitents Gris, Arles.]
+
+S. Cæsarius, son of a count of Chalons, born in 470, had been educated at
+Lerins, but thence he was drawn in 501, to succeed the first fathers of
+that holy isle, Honoratus and Hilary, upon the archiepiscopal throne of
+Arles. He was engaged in erecting a great monastery for women outside
+the walls, when the Ostrogoths and the Franks met in a furious conflict
+beneath them. His monastery was reduced to a ruin. A priest, a relative of
+Cæsarius, had the meanness to let himself down the walls at night, escape
+to Theodoric the Ostrogoth king, and denounce him as engaged in secret
+communication with Clovis, king of the Franks. As soon as Arles was taken,
+Cæsarius was led under custody to Theodoric, but was speedily set at
+liberty by that great-minded prince. Another and similar charge was
+made against him later, and Cæsarius was forced to travel to Ravenna to
+exculpate himself. On his return to Arles he set to work to rebuild his
+monastery, not this time without the walls. He made his own sister,
+Cæsaria, the abbess, and she governed it for thirty years, and gathered
+about her a community of two hundred nuns. This brave Christian woman
+caused to be prepared, and ranged symmetrically round the church, stone
+coffins for herself and for each of the sisters. They sang day and night
+the praises of God in the presence of the new tombs that awaited them. When
+each sister was dead, she was placed in one of these stone coffins and
+carried off to the Elysian Fields, and most likely some of them are among
+those there strewn about or being now broken up. It was into this church
+that Cæsarius himself, feeling his end approach, had himself conveyed, that
+with feeble uplifted hands he might bestow his final blessing on that band
+of faithful women who were labouring to bring a higher ideal of womanhood
+before the Arles folk, corrupted by the vices of the decayed civilisation
+of Rome.
+
+As already said, Arles was formerly surrounded by water, river on one side,
+meres on the other. Out of the lagoons, however, rose islets of limestone
+rock; of these there are two, Cordes and Montmajeur, but there were also
+formerly a number of smaller tofts standing above the water, but not always
+rocky, forming an archipelago, and were covered with the cottages of
+fishermen and _utriculares_, and farmers who cultivated vines and olives on
+the slopes above the reach of the water. Such were Castelet, Mont d'Argent,
+Pierre-Feu, and Trébonsitte. Nowadays we can go by road to all these spots,
+formerly they could be reached only by boat or raft. The isle of Cordes is
+about five miles from Arles, it was evidently at one period fortified, and
+is believed to have formed for some time the camp of the Saracen invaders
+who scourged and swept Provence with sword and flame. In the rocks of
+Cordes is a very curious cave, called the Trou des Fées, formed exactly in
+the shape of a sword, with lateral galleries to answer to the cross-piece
+at the hilt. It was undoubtedly a prehistoric habitation, probably enlarged
+by the Saracens and used by them as a storehouse for their spoils. It is
+entered through an oval antechamber which resembles the hilt of the sword;
+and which most likely was the original prehistoric dwelling. But the
+largest of the islands was Montmajeur, that now rises abruptly from the
+plain, crowned with ruins. I walked to it in driving rain and _mistral_. As
+I approached, I saw a gipsy woman bringing water in a pail to the camp, but
+the wind literally scooped the water out of the pail as with a spoon, and
+when she reached her destination very little remained. I stopped and had a
+little chat with the gipsies. They had tried to set up their tent, but it
+had been blown down over their heads, and had been rolled along with them
+in it, as they said, like a bag of potatoes. They were now squatted in the
+lee of a wall, an old ruined wall, and were endeavouring to boil a kettle,
+but the flames were carried by the wind in horizontal flashes, and would
+not touch the bottom of the vessel. They wanted me to have a cup of coffee
+with them when I returned from seeing the ruins, and I promised to do so,
+but, on my return, I found that rain and wind had blown and soused out
+their little fire, and they had not been able to get the water to boil,
+so were drinking it lukewarm. Good-natured, merry folk, they laughed over
+their troubles as though it were a sovereign joke, and yet they were
+drenched to the skin.
+
+[Illustration: In the cloisters, Montmajeur.]
+
+Montmajeur was a great Benedictine abbey, with a glorious church founded
+in the sixth century, that was rebuilt in the eleventh and thirteenth
+centuries, over a large and interesting crypt, and with cloisters at the
+side like those of Arles, but by no means as rich. Beneath the abbey are
+the chapel and the reputed cell of S. Trophimus, who probably never lived
+there--a charming specimen of early Romanesque. Part of this chapel is
+scooped and sculptured out of the living rock. But what is one of the
+grandest portions of the abbey is the machicolated tower that commands the
+plain for miles to the sea, a noble specimen of a donjon, and in excellent
+preservation. The abbey buildings adjoining the church were erected about
+fifty years before the Revolution, when the monastery was in the plenitude
+of its wealth. They form the wreckage of a palace for princes rather than
+of an abbey for the sons of S. Benedict, who I am quite sure would have
+been one of the first, had it been possible for him to be there, to lay his
+hand to destroy it, along with the mob of Arles' republicans, as utterly
+out of accord with the spirit of his rule. Indeed, on looking up at these
+sumptuous halls and stately galleries, one cannot but feel that the time
+was past in which the monastic orders, wealthy and luxurious and idle,
+could be endured. The church is no longer in use, and is ruinous.
+
+Below the rock is a spit of land that stood anciently dry above the meres,
+and on that is a very singular old church dedicated to the Holy Cross,
+round which has been discovered a minor Alyscamp, a place of sepulture
+utilised from the earliest times. Sainte Croix is now regarded as a
+national monument, and is preserved carefully. It consists of a central
+square tower, from which project four equal semicircular apses, that to the
+west having a porch attached. It was consecrated in 1019. It is lighted
+by three little windows, only one to the east and two to the S. and
+S.E. Internally it is entirely deficient in sculpture, and was probably
+decorated with paintings. This was a funeral chapel in the midst of the
+cemetery, and was never used as a church. "The monks brought their dead
+hither," says Viollet le Duc, "processionally; the body was placed in the
+porch; the brethren remained outside. When Mass was said, the body was
+blessed, and it was conveyed through the chapel and out at the little S.
+door, to lay it in the grave. The only windows which lighted this chapel
+looked into the walled cemetery. At night, a lamp burned in the centre of
+this monument, and, in conformity with the use of the first centuries of
+the Middle Ages, these three little windows let the gleam of the lamp fall
+upon the graves. During the office for the dead a brother tolled the bell
+hung in the turret, by means of a hole reserved for the purpose in the
+centre of the dome." A similar but earlier mortuary chapel is at Planès, in
+Roussillon.
+
+[Illustration: In the cloister at Arles.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+LES BAUX.
+
+
+The chain of the Alpines--The promontory of Les Baux--The railway from
+Arles to Salon--First sight of Les Baux--The churches of S. Victor,
+S. Claude, and S. Andrew--The lords of Les Baux claimed descent from
+one of the Magi--The fair maid with golden locks--The chapel of the
+White Penitents--The _deïmo_--History of the House of Les Baux--The
+barony passes to the Grimaldi.--The ladies of Les Baux and the
+troubadours--Fouquet--William de Cabestaing--The morality of the loves
+of the troubadours--The Porcelets--Story of a siege--Les Baux a place of
+refuge for the citizens of Arles--_Glanum Liviæ_--Its Roman remains--In the
+train--Jäger garments.
+
+
+From east to west runs the chain of Les Alpines, for just twenty miles,
+separating the Durance from the plain of the Great Crau. It is of
+limestone, and rises to the height of about eight hundred or a thousand
+feet, but is remarkable from the abruptness with which it springs out of
+the plain, and the fantastic shapes assumed by its crest.
+
+This chain dies into the plain to the west at S. Gabriel, and its extreme
+limits to the east are the crags of Orgon, which rise sheer above the
+Durance, and the Mont du Defends farther to the south. To the north is the
+broad flat valley of the Durance stretching away to Tarascon, to the south
+the vast desert of the Crau reaching to the sea.
+
+About twelve miles from S. Gabriel, the chain of the Alpines thrusts forth
+an arm to the south that rises sheer from the plain some five hundred feet,
+and forms a plateau at the top encrusted with white crags, two thousand
+seven hundred feet long, by six hundred feet wide. It is detached from the
+main chain by a dip, and on every other side stands up in precipices. This
+is Les Baux, the name in Provençal signifies _cliffs_.
+
+There is a little railway from Arles to Salon, by which one travels at a
+snail's pace to the station of Paradou, whence a walk of five miles takes
+one into a crater-like valley surrounded by bald white limestone crags,
+and there, towering overhead, are the walls and towers of Les Baux, in a
+position apparently inaccessible. This valley struck me as very much like
+one of the Lunar craters, as I had seen it through the Northumberland
+telescope, just as white, ghastly and barren. In the bottom were, indeed, a
+few patches of green field and a cluster of poplars, but the sides of the
+crater were almost wholly devoid of vegetation; and the white stone where
+quarried, and it was quarried extensively, glistened like sugar, with a
+greenish white lustre. In coming from Arles I had travelled third class, in
+a compartment on top of the second and first class carriages; for on these
+little lines the carriages are of two storeys; the upper storey commands
+the best view; and in the compartment with me was an intelligent postman.
+We got into conversation about Les Baux. He told me that he had lived
+there, and had found there a considerable number of flint and bronze
+weapons. He was now stationed at Tarascon, and he invited me to pay him a
+visit, when he would show me the weapons he had found on these hills. He
+also strongly urged me not to return by the same route, but to strike
+across the chain, reach S. Remy, see the Roman remains there, catch the
+evening train, and so return to Arles by Tarascon.
+
+[Illustration: Les Baux.]
+
+And now for Les Baux, which is certainly one of the most astounding places
+I have ever seen.
+
+Let the reader conceive of a rocky plateau standing up on abrupt precipices
+above the plain, with its top not altogether level, but inclined to the
+west, and the eastern side fringed with white crags. Let him imagine a
+little town clustered on the slope to the west, clinging to the inclined
+surface to prevent itself from slipping over the edge and shooting down the
+precipice. Then let him imagine the white limestone fringe that rises to
+the east some ninety feet above the town, adapted to serve the purpose of a
+castle, natural cliffs sculptured and perforated to form window and door,
+and vault and hall, and where living rock did not avail, masonry added,
+and the whole thrown into ruin. This is what he sees looking up from the
+valley. Then let him climb the steep ascent, anciently the only way by
+which the town and castle could be approached, and his amazement will
+grow with every step he takes. After having passed under a gateway well
+defended, he will find himself in the street of a Mediæval Pompeii:
+houses--not cottages, but the mansions of nobles--all, or nearly all, in
+ruins and uninhabited, some with architectural pretensions; a church, still
+in use, dedicated to S. Vincent; another still larger, S. Claude, half
+sculptured out of the living rock, half of masonry, beautifully vaulted,
+with no glass in the windows, and the doors fallen in; a chapel of S.
+Anne, without a roof, and some trees growing out of the floor. Another
+church, the second parish church of Les Baux, S. Andrew, crumbled to its
+foundations. Further up the ascent, bedded in the ruins of the castle, a
+beautiful Gothic chapel with delicate ribbed vaulting of the thirteenth
+century, also in ruins. On one portion of the platform to the south the
+remains of a great hospital, with the recesses for the beds of the patients
+round it. A cemetery enclosed within walls; guard rooms, halls, a mighty
+dove-cot hewn out of the rock; galleries and the windows of banqueting
+halls cut in the rock; high up, unapproachable, as the masonry has been
+blown up and thrown down that formed the western side of the castle. And to
+the north, where was the only approach to the castle by the neck of land,
+a curved ridge of limestone rock was hewn into a wall of defence. Now a
+road has been engineered along this _col_, and the rock wall has been cut
+through; not only so, but it has been carried through a nobleman's mansion,
+and the sculptured fireplaces overhang the carriage road.
+
+Such, briefly, is the general aspect of Les Baux. Now we will enter into
+details. We will begin with the only parish church still in use. This
+church consists of nave and side aisles, with lateral chapels. The floor of
+the church is honeycombed with graves scooped out of the rock. In one of
+these before the high altar, a few years ago, when the slab that covered it
+was raised, the body of a man in rich garments was disclosed holding a book
+in his hand, that seemed to have escaped the ravages of time. However, on
+the first touch, it fell to dust. In another sepulchre was found the body
+of a young lady. Singularly enough, her hair, which was of a golden straw
+colour, was uninjured, though the rest of her body crumbled to dust in the
+air. The innkeeper of the little place managed to possess himself of it,
+and at once dubbed his tavern "A la Chevelure d'Or." He was wont to exhibit
+the mass of golden locks to the visitor for a consideration. Recently the
+tavern has changed hands, and the old innkeeper has carried off with him
+the golden locks. Consequently, the inn has changed its name, and is now
+the Hotel Monaco.
+
+[Illustration: Les Baux.]
+
+In front of the church is a small platform that overhangs the precipice. On
+it is the ruined chapel of the White Penitents, erected in 1659. Over the
+door may be read with difficulty the inscription in Latin, "At the name of
+Jesus every knee shall bow." Hard by is a cistern, semicircular, dug out of
+the living rock; this goes by the name of the _deïmo_--that is to say, the
+place of tithe. Into this cistern the farmers of the manor were bound to
+pour the tenth of all the wine they made, as the due of the Lord of Les
+Baux.
+
+The ruined church of S. Claude has in the bosses of the vaulting the arms
+of the Princes of Les Baux, and of other noble families who lived in the
+little town and were feudatories of the princes, as well as of some of
+the guilds which had chapels in this church. The arms of the princes
+represented a star, for these princes claimed descent from Balthazar, one
+of the Magi who came from the East to bring gifts to the infant Saviour.
+
+The tomb of Raymond des Baux, grand chamberlain of Queen Jeanne of Naples,
+at Casaluccio, bears the inscription, "To the illustrious family of the
+Baux, which is held to derive its origin from the ancient kings of Armenia,
+to whom, under the guidance of a star, the Saviour of the world manifested
+Himself."
+
+The Barony of Les Baux consisted of seventy-nine towns or bourgs, which
+formed the territory called La Baussenique. It was confiscated by Louis
+III., Duke of Anjou, and Count of Provence in 1414, after having been
+governed by one family from Pons des Baux, the first who appears in
+history, and who died in 970. The last male representative died in 1374,
+and his sister and heiress, Alice, married Conrad, Count of Freiburg, who
+died in 1414. She bequeathed the principality to her kinsman, William, Duke
+of Andria, but on account of his attachment to the opposed party, Louis
+III. seized on Les Baux. In 1642, Louis XIII. erected it into a marquisate,
+and gave it to Honoré Grimaldi, Prince of Monaco, and it remained in the
+possession of the House of Monaco till the revolution of 1789.
+
+The princes of Baux were podestas of Milan, consul-podestas of Arles, where
+they had a castle, were seneschals of Piedmont, grand justiciaries of the
+kingdom of Naples, princes of Orange, and viscounts of Marseilles. They
+bore also the titles of counts of Provence, kings of Arles and Vienne,
+princes of Achaia, counts of Cephalonia, and finally assumed that of
+emperors of Constantinople.
+
+The castle was thrice besieged, twice destroyed, and again rebuilt; it
+lasted over eleven centuries. The most complete restoration of the castle
+and of the town-walls took place in 1444 by Louis III. of Provence; but
+when it passed to the Crown of France in 1630, by order of Cardinal
+Richelieu, it was destroyed. The strength of the position was such that he
+feared it.
+
+In the old days, when the Princes and Princesses des Baux held court in
+this eagle's nest, it was a great resort of the troubadours, who came to it
+from all quarters. Fouquet, the Provençal poet, celebrated in his verses
+Adelasia, wife of Berald, Prince of Baux. He was filled with a romantic
+love for this exalted lady, and on her death, in a fit of sorrow, became
+monk of Citeaux. Afterwards he became abbot of Thoronêt, bishop of
+Marseilles, and finally archbishop of Toulouse.
+
+He was born between 1160 and 1170, and was the son of a merchant of Venice
+who had retired from business and settled at Marseilles. When Richard Coeur
+de Lion was on his way to Syria, he made some stay at Marseilles before
+going on to Genoa, where he was to embark, and there Fouquet insinuated
+himself into his good graces. He was married, but his wife was sorely
+neglected, and all his devotion was paid to the lady Adelasia des Baux.
+
+Provençal traditions diverge as to the result of his suit. According to one
+account, he could "jamais trouver merci, ni obtenir aucun bien en droit
+d'amour," from the object of his passion, and, in disgust, he turned to
+make love to Laura de S. Jorlan, sister of Berald des Baux. But the other
+account is that he made love to both ladies at once, and that Adelasia cast
+him off because she found that his fickle heart was turning to the fresher
+charms of Laura. Anyhow, he made his rejection by Adelasia the subject of
+poetical laments, and prosecuted with vigour his siege of the heart and
+virtue of his patron's sister. And then he pursued with the same ardour the
+conquest of Eudoxia, wife of William, Count of Montpellier.
+
+As already said, after the death of Adelasia, he assumed the cowl. As
+Bishop of Toulouse, he exercised the ferocity of a wolf in his dealings
+with the Albigenses. "There is no act of treachery or cruelty throughout
+the war," says Dean Milman, "in which the Bishop of Toulouse was not the
+most forward, sanguinary, and unscrupulous." The historian of his life, in
+the 'Histoire Littéraire de la France,' says of him: "After having given
+half his life to gallantry, he gave up, without restraint, the remainder of
+his life to the cause of tyranny, murder, and spoliation, and unhappily he
+profited by it.... Loving women passionately, a ferocious apostle of the
+Inquisition, he did not give up the composition of verses which bore the
+impress of his successive passions."
+
+Another troubadour, William de Cabestaing, sang the praises of Berengaria
+des Baux. Afterwards he lost his heart to Sermonda, wife of Raymond de
+Roussillon, who, not seeing the fun of this romantic spooning of his wife,
+waylaid and slew him, then plucked out his heart and had it served up at
+table in the evening. After his wife had partaken of the dish he informed
+her that what she had tasted was the heart of her admirer. She, full of
+horror, threw herself from a window of the castle and was dashed to pieces.
+This outrage was the occasion of civil war. The relatives of the lady and
+of William de Cabestaing persuaded Alphonso I., King of Aragon, to ravage
+the territories of the Count of Roussillon and to destroy his castle.
+
+Again, another troubadour, Sordel, sang the praises of Rambaude des Baux,
+but in such enigmatical fashion that his verses may be read as a satire
+upon her charms.
+
+The princely family, moreover, had among its members two troubadours,
+Berard des Baux in the twelfth century, and in the next Rambaud des Baux,
+who in 1236 distinguished himself by his songs in honour of Marie de
+Chateauvert and of the Countess of Argeuil.
+
+In 1244 the troubadours vied with each other in lauding Cecilia des Baux,
+who was called Passe-Rose, on account of her beauty. Other ladies of the
+same family sung by the poets were Clairette in 1270 and 1275 by Pierre
+d'Auvergne, and Etiennette de Ganteaume--who shone in the Court of Love in
+1332 at Romanil, and Baussette, daughter of Hugh des Baux in 1323, sung by
+Roger of Arles. So the family must have been one that in its alliances
+and daughters was distinguished by its beauty, or else paid liberally for
+flattery.
+
+Vernon Lee, in her Euphorion, passes a severe sentence on the romantic
+affection professed by the minstrels of the Middle Ages for noble ladies.
+She says it was rank adultery and nothing short. I do not think so. There
+may have been cases, there no doubt were instances of criminal passion, but
+in nine cases out of ten these troubadours sang for their bread and butter.
+They lauded the seigneurs to the skies for their _gestes_ of valour, and
+their ladies for their transcendent beauty; they laid on their colours with
+a trowel, and were paid for so doing. That some of them burnt their fingers
+in playing with fire one cannot doubt, but I hardly think that they set to
+work in their trifling with the intent of provoking blisters. The husbands
+of the much-lauded ladies were hardly likely to suffer this sort of fun to
+proceed beyond romancing. There was always a chance of a minstrel who went
+too far with his heart into the flames, getting it roasted on a spit and
+served up à la William de Cabestaing.
+
+Besides, a good many of these much-besung ladies were no young brides, but
+mature and withering matrons. A troubadour attached himself to a lady as
+he attached himself to a seigneur, and, as a client of both, fawned on
+and flattered both. I cannot refer to Petrarch, for I believe his Laura
+was not a married woman, and the Platonism of his affection is more than
+questionable. He was not an acknowledged troubadour, but an exile, whom
+the haughty family of Sade would not suffer Laura to marry. But there is
+the case of Dante and Beatrice, and of Wolfram of Eschenbach, one of the
+noblest and purest of singers, who idealised his lady Elizabeth, wife of
+the Baron of Hartenstein, and with him most undoubtedly the devotion was
+without tincture of grossness. It is precisely this unreal love, or playing
+at love-making, that is scoffed at by Cervantes in Don Quixote and the
+peerless Dulcinea del Toboso.
+
+Why, that unfortunate William de Cabestaing, whose heart was offered to his
+mistress, sang of her as cold to his suit:--
+
+  "Since Adam gathered from the tree
+  The apple, cause of all our woe,
+  Christ ne'er inspired so fair a she.
+  A graceful form, not high nor low,
+  A model of just symmetry,
+  A skin whose purity and glow
+  The rarest amethyst surpass;
+  So fair is she for whom I sigh.
+  But vain are all my sighs, alas!
+  She heeds me not, nor deigns reply."
+
+The Courts of Love held by ladies of high rank were originally courts
+in which the rules of minstrelsy were laid down, they pronounced on the
+qualifications of a candidate, they polished and cherished the Langue d'oc
+in its purity, dictated the subjects upon which the troubadours were to
+compose their lays, judged their pretensions, settled their controversies,
+recompensed their merits, and punished by disgrace or exclusion those who
+violated the laws. In the twelfth century these Courts of Ladies drew up
+Provençal grammars, in which the rules of the dialect were laid down. One
+of these is the "Donatus provincialis," another was composed by Raimond
+Vidal. But these Courts of Love went further. They laid down rules for
+love; they allowed married women to receive the homage of lovers, and even
+nicely directed all the symptoms they were to exhibit of reciprocation. But
+it is quite possible that this was all solemn fooling, and meant no harm.
+
+I wonder whether those golden locks carried off by the taverner had
+belonged to one of those queens of beauty sung by the troubadours! Probably
+so, for the church of S. Vincent was their mausoleum.
+
+One of the noble families that owed feudal duty to the Lords of Les Baux
+was that of Porcelet, and their mansion is one of the very few that is not
+deserted and ruinous in the little town. It is now occupied by some Sisters
+of Mercy who keep in it an orphanage. The Porcelets were the first nobles
+of Arles. King René of Anjou, who was fond of giving nicknames, sometimes
+flattering, sometimes the reverse to this, entitled the family Grandeur des
+Porcelets. Other of his designations were Inconstance des Baux, Déloyauté
+de Beaufort, Envie de Candole, Dissolution de Castelane, Sottise de Grasse,
+and Opiniâtreté de Sade.
+
+A story is told of one of the sieges of Les Baux which is found elsewhere.
+The garrison of the castle and the inhabitants of the town were reduced
+to great straits for food, when orders were issued that everyone should
+surrender what he had into a common fund, to be doled out in equal portions
+to all. As none complied with this order, a domiciliary visit was made to
+every house, when an old woman was found to have a pig, likewise a sack of
+barley meal. The Sieur des Baux ordered the pig to be given a feed and then
+to be thrown over the precipice. When the besiegers found that the besieged
+had a pig so well nourished they thought it was hopeless to reduce the
+place, and raised the siege.
+
+In the thirteenth century the little eagle's nest of a town numbered three
+thousand six hundred inhabitants. At the present time it cannot count four
+hundred. Every two or three years sees another house deserted, and the
+tenants migrate to the valley or plain.
+
+The houses are, like the castle, partly scooped out of the rock, and partly
+constructed. Whole chambers, kitchens, cellars are veritable caverns. There
+can be no doubt that the place has been colonised from prehistoric times,
+and that many of these caves are the dwellings of a primitive population in
+the Stone period. Vast quantities of Greek Marseilles medals and of coins
+of the Empire have been found here, as well as fragments of pottery of
+every age. A few years ago a beautiful bronze helmet of Greek shape was
+here discovered.
+
+The place has served as a refuge for the inhabitants of Arles at various
+periods. Hither they fled before the Teutons and Ambrons in B.C. 102, when
+these invaders swept across the south of Gaul on their return from Spain;
+and opposite Les Baux, on the heights of Costa Pera, may be traced the
+walled camp and cisterns, where they took refuge and remained till the
+danger was overpast. Again, in A.D. 480, when Earic, king of the Visigoths,
+took possession of Arles, the inhabitants fled to the heights of Les Baux
+and constructed dwellings for themselves there in the rock. These chambers,
+scooped out of the limestone crag, are locally called Baumes.
+
+Anciently the roofs of the castle caught the rains, and shoots conveyed the
+water into great reservoirs that remain, but since the destruction of the
+castle the inhabitants have had to pave one whole sweep of the plateau so
+as to catch the showers, and convey them away into a subterranean cistern
+where the water purifies itself for use.
+
+After the Hôtel Dieu ceased to be used as an hospital, it was converted
+into an arena for bull-fights, but as on several occasions the bulls
+escaped and fell over the precipices, the utilisation of the great hall for
+this purpose was abandoned.
+
+I had a charming walk across the hills to S. Remy, near which are the
+remains of the Roman city of Glanum Liviæ. These remains consist of a
+triumphal arch, and a lovely monument about fifty feet high, quadrangular
+at the base, adorned with well-preserved bas-reliefs representing a
+skirmish of cavalry, a combat of infantry, and a sacrifice after a battle.
+Above this basement rises a circular temple with Corinthian pillars,
+containing in the midst two statues. The triumphal arch is not in equally
+good condition. The bas-reliefs on it represent captive barbarians and
+their wives. I caught the evening train at S. Remy, and again ascended to
+the third-class compartment in the upper storey. Presently after me came
+the guard: "Would not Monsieur like to descend? There is female society
+downstairs." "But, assuredly--only I have a third-class ticket." "Ça ne
+fait rien," replied the guard, "so have the ladies below, but we never
+send them up into the attics. Come, monsieur!" Accordingly I descended to
+a carriage-load of cheery Arles damsels and matrons in the quaint and
+picturesque costume of that town, and to a little French doctor and a
+couple of good-natured Zouaves.
+
+"But--this is very remarkable," said the doctor. "Only an hour ago I saw
+a monsieur in the same hat and boots as yourself--only the face was not
+the same." "Very possibly. Are you a doctor, and do not recognise Jäger
+garments? I am not, it is true, in coat and continuations of that sanitary
+reformer, because I had to discard them. The fact is, I had a complete
+suit, but having been out in the rain in them, they shrank on me to such an
+extent that I entered the house contracted like a trussed fowl, and had to
+be cut out of the suit with a penknife."
+
+"What countryman are you?" asked the doctor.
+
+When I told him he shook his head. "You have not an English pronunciation.
+Are you German?" I also shook my head. Then he attempted some words in
+English. I was obliged to laugh: he was unintelligible. As I could not
+understand his English--"Mais, Monsieur!" said the Arles women, "you must
+be a Swiss."
+
+It was not complimentary, I must admit, to be thought to speak French with
+a German accent. It has come about thus, I suppose, that, though as a boy I
+lived in France for many years, yet of late I have been, almost annually, a
+visitor to Germany.
+
+I only mention this incident, because I got into trouble later through a
+similar misapprehension as to my nationality.
+
+[Illustration: Range of the Alpines from Glanum Liviæ.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE CAMPAIGN OF MARIUS.
+
+
+The Trémaïé--Representation of C. Marius, Martha, and Julia--The Gaïé--The
+Teutons and Ambrons and Cimbri threaten Italy--C. Marius sent against
+them--His camp at S. Gabriel--The canal he cut--The barbarians cross
+the Rhone--First brush with them--They defile before him at Orgon--The
+rout of the Ambrons at Les Milles--He follows the Teutons--The plain
+of Pourrières--Position of Marius--The battle--Slaughter of the
+Teutons--Position of their camp--Monument of Marius--Venus Victrix--Annual
+commemoration.
+
+
+[Illustration: Ruins S. Gabriel.]
+
+The two oldest and most interesting monuments of Les Baux have been
+unnoticed in the last chapter. These are the sculptured stones of Trémaïé
+and Gaïé. They are two limestone blocks fallen from the precipices above,
+lying on the flounce of rubble near the bottom of the promontory of Les
+Baux, the one on the east the other on the south. That on the east, La
+Trémaïé, consists of a block of shell-limestone about twenty-five feet
+high, in which, twelve feet from the soil, is sculptured a semicircular
+headed niche, five and a half feet high by four and a half feet wide, that
+contains a group of three personages, a bearded man on the left of the
+observer, a tall woman in the centre wearing a mitre, and on the right
+another woman. At first glance, I confess I supposed this was a bit of
+sculpture of the eleventh century, but on climbing to the roof of the
+chapel erected beneath the niche, some forty-five years ago, I was able to
+examine the group minutely, and satisfied myself that the work is of the
+Classic period.
+
+[Illustration: La Trémaïé.]
+
+What gave me the first impression that it was of later date was the use of
+the honeysuckle ornament at the crown of the arch, and at the capitals of
+the pillars supporting it, which was adopted by architects of the eleventh
+century from Classic work. But on close examination I found that, not only
+were the figures dressed in pure Classic tunics and togas, but that the
+drapery is modelled in conformity with that of the same epoch, and is quite
+distinct from the modelling by the Mediæval artists. This is specially
+noticeable where the statues have been protected by the sides from
+weathering.
+
+Moreover, below the figures is an inscription in letters, the date of which
+is unmistakable, though unfortunately it can be only partially deciphered.
+It runs:--
+
+  ........F. CALDVS
+  .....AE POSVIT. P...
+
+The three figures are life-size. The central one is very peculiar, owing
+to the mitre or diadem it wears, which, however, is utterly unlike the
+episcopal mitre of the eleventh century. Moreover, there is no doubt about
+the person wearing it being a female.
+
+Popular belief, also, does not err as to her sex; it has made a mistake
+relative to that of the man on her right, and when some forty-five years
+ago the curé of Les Baux erected the chapel under the rock, he believed
+that these figures represented the Three Marys.
+
+The man is in consular habit, the toga, _neque fusa neque restricta_, worn
+till the time of Augustus. His feet appear beneath the tunic. Unfortunately
+the face is too much weathered to present any features. Not so the tall,
+mitred central figure, whose right hand is raised, as is thought, to hold a
+staff wreathed with chaplets. Her mantle, the [Greek: himation], is clasped
+on the shoulder of her right arm. The third figure is that of a Roman
+matron.
+
+Now it has been supposed, with a great degree of probability, that these
+three figures represent C. Marius, his wife Julia, and the prophetess
+Martha, who attended him in his campaign against the Teutons and Ambrons.
+Plutarch says: "He had with him a Syrian woman named Martha, who was said
+to have the gift of prophecy. She was carried about in a litter with great
+solemnity, and the sacrifices which he offered were all by her direction.
+When she went to sacrifice she wore a purple robe, lined with the same,
+and buttoned up, and held in her hand a spear adorned with ribands and
+garlands."
+
+I confess that the staff with ribands and chaplets seen by some in this
+sculpture, were not distinguishable by myself. At the same time I was
+puzzled with certain ornaments below the raised hand of the diademed lady,
+which I could not explain. It is said that the staff is only visible when
+the morning sun strikes the weathered surface. It may be there--but I think
+that a fold of drapery has been mistaken for a staff. Yet--the wreath or
+buckle below her hand in such a case remains unaccounted for.
+
+If these three figures represent Caius Marius, Martha, and Julia, then we
+can understand the name given the group--Les Trémaïés--the three Marii;
+Caius Marius, Martha Marii, and Julia Marii, which has since been altered
+into Les Trois 'Maries, and the figures assumed to be those of Mary the
+wife of Salome, Mary Magdalen, and Martha the sister of Mary. In the belief
+that such is the case, Mass is said in the chapel on the 25th of May, and
+there is a concourse of devotees assembled from the neighbourhood around
+the little chapel and memorial stone.
+
+The second sculptured block lies about three hundred paces to the south,
+and is called Les Gaïé, i.e., _Caii imagines_. It resembles hundreds of
+similar Roman monuments to a husband and wife, found in the museums of
+Rome, Arles, Nimes, and Avignon.
+
+Here also there is a niche, four feet wide by two feet four inches high. On
+the right of the observer is a bearded man holding a roll in his left hand,
+and with his right he clasps the right hand of his wife. He is in consular
+habit; unfortunately both heads have been damaged. At some time or other a
+Vandal thought that the upper portion of the block would serve his purpose
+as a step or threshold, and drove a crowbar into the face of the stone
+between the two heads, and split off the cap, thus exposing the sculpture
+to the ash of the rain.
+
+[Illustration: Les Gaïé.]
+
+Beneath the figures is an inscription no longer legible. It is _possible_
+that this monument may represent Caius Marius and his wife Julia. A
+somewhat lively French imagination has taken the figure of the man to be
+Martha with her staff and mitre, but I examined the sculpture under a
+favourable light, and satisfied myself that this figure is that of a man.
+The face was apparently struck by the crowbar, which has broken off a film
+of the limestone, and destroyed the nose.
+
+The Caldus whose name appears on the Trémaïé is probably Caius Cælius
+Caldus, who belonged to the party of Marius, was created tribune B.C. 107,
+and who was one of the lieutenants of Marius in the war against the Cimbri,
+and signed a disgraceful treaty with the Ligurians to save the remnant of
+the army, after the death of the consul Cassius. He was named consul B.C.
+97, and some medals struck by him exist. Possibly Caldus erected this
+monument in honour of Marius, who had made the platform of Les Baux and the
+range of the Alpines the vantage ground whence he watched the march of the
+Teutons and whence he swooped down to destroy them.
+
+The great figure of Caius Marius overshadows the whole of Provence, and it
+is not possible for one who has any interest in the past not to feel its
+influence and be inspired by it. Stirred by the sight of these sculptures
+at Les Baux, I resolved to go over all the ground of his campaign, Plutarch
+in hand, and I venture to think that what I saw and discovered will not
+only interest the reader, but help to elucidate the history of that
+memorable struggle.
+
+In the year B.C. 113, there appeared to the north of the Adriatic, on the
+right bank of the Danube, a vast horde of barbarians ravaging Noricum--the
+present Austria, and threatening Italy. Two nations prevailed, the Cimbri,
+Kaempir, _i.e._, warriors, perhaps Scandinavian, and the Teutons, pure
+Germans. They had come from afar, from the Cimbric peninsula, now Jutland
+and Holstein, driven from their homes by an irruption of the sea. For a
+while they roamed over Germany. The consul Papirius Carbo was despatched in
+all haste to defend the menaced frontier of Italy. The barbarians pleaded
+to be given lands on which to settle. Carbo treacherously attacked them,
+but was defeated. However, the hordes did not yet venture to cross the
+Alps. They inundated the Swiss valleys, and as they flowed west swept along
+with them other races, amongst which was that of the Ambrons, a German
+race, whose name meets us again as Sicambrians, of which stock later was
+Chlodovig (Clovis). When Clovis was about to enter the font, S. Remigius
+thus addressed him: "Bow thy head, haughty Sicambrian; adore what thou hast
+burned; burn what thou didst adore."
+
+In the year B.C. 110 all together entered Gaul, and then, continuing their
+wanderings and ravages in central Gaul, at last reached the Rhone and
+menaced the Roman province. There, however, the fear of Rome arrested their
+progress; they applied anew for lands, but Silanus, the Governor, answered
+them haughtily, that the commonwealth had neither lands to give nor
+services to accept from barbarians. He attacked them and was defeated.
+Three consuls, L. Cassius, C. Servilius Cæpio, and Cn. Manlius, sent in
+all haste against them, successively experienced the same fate. With the
+barbarians victory bred presumption. Their chieftains met, and deliberated
+whether they should not forthwith cross into Italy and exterminate or
+enslave the Romans. Scaurus, a prisoner, was present at this deliberation.
+He laughed at the threat, and cried to his captors, "Go, but the Romans you
+will find are invincible." In a transport of fury one of the chiefs present
+ran him through with his sword. Howbeit the warning of Scaurus had its
+effect. The barbarians scoured the Roman province, but did not as yet dare
+to invade the sacred soil of the peninsula.
+
+Then the Cimbri broke off from their comrades and passed into Spain, as an
+overswollen torrent divides, and disperses its waters in all directions.
+
+After ravaging Spain, the Cimbri returned, and the re-united hordes
+resolved no longer to spare Italy. The Cimbri were to invade it by way of
+the Brenner pass and the Adige, the Teutons and Ambrons by the Maritime
+Alps.
+
+[Illustration: Caius Marius. (_From a bust in the Vatican._)]
+
+The utmost terror prevailed in Rome, and throughout Italy. There was but
+one man, it was said, who could avert the danger. It was Marius, low-born,
+but already illustrious, esteemed by the senate for his military genius
+and successes; swaying at his will the people, who saw in him one of
+themselves; beloved and feared by the army for his bravery, his rigorous
+discipline, and for his readiness to share with his soldiers all toils, and
+dangers; stern and rugged, lacking education, eloquence, and riches, but
+resolute and dexterous in the field. His father had been a farmer, and his
+hands had been hardened in youth at the plough. But as a free-born Latin he
+had been called to serve in war, and his skill and genius had advanced him,
+from step to step. He was consul in Africa at the time when summoned to
+save his country from the danger threatening it from the barbarian hordes.
+
+On reaching Provence, he found the soldiers demoralised by disaster, and
+with discipline relaxed. The barbarians had not as yet reached the Rhone,
+they were moving east slowly, and during the winter remained stationary. He
+had therefore time to organise his troops and choose his positions.
+
+[Illustration: Orgon and the Durance.]
+
+Now the old Græco-Phoenician road along the coast, that had been restored
+by the consul Cn. Domitius, and thenceforth bore his name, deserted the
+coast as it approached the mouths of the Rhone, the region of morasses,
+stony deserts, lagoons, and broad streams; kept to the heights, and reached
+Nimes, whence, still skirting lagoons, it ran along the high ground of
+limestone to Beaucaire. The Rhone was crossed to Tarascon, and thence the
+road followed the Durance up to Orgon, where it branched; one road to the
+left went to Apt, and crossed the Alps into Italy by Pont Genèvre, the
+other turned south to Aix and Marseilles. The road, afterwards called
+the Aurelian way, led from Aix up the river Are, over a low _col_ to S.
+Maximin, and reached the coast by the valley of the Argens, that flows into
+the sea at Fréjus. It was a little doubtful to Marius which course the
+barbarians would pursue. Accordingly he formed a strong camp at Ernaginum,
+now S. Gabriel, at the extreme limit of the chain of the Alpines, to the
+west.
+
+Almost certainly all the inhabitants of Arles, Tarascon, Glanum, and
+Cavaillon, all Græco-Gaulish towns, took refuge on the plateau of the
+limestone hills. The barbarians could not go south of the Alpines, because
+the whole region was desert, or was covered with lagoons. In order to
+victual his camp, Marius set his soldiers to work to convey a branch of the
+Durance [1] past Ernaginum into the lagoons below, and he cut a channel
+of communication between these lagoons, and opened a mouth into the sea
+through the Etang de Galéjon. By this means vessels from Rome or Marseilles
+could reach the walls of his camp with supplies.
+
+[Footnote 1: Plutarch says the Rhone, but he is almost certainly mistaken.
+The canal was afterwards probably that called Les Lonnes (lagunes), the
+dried-up bed of which can be distinguished in places still. The line from
+Tarascon to Arles runs beside it for a little way. See Appendix B.]
+
+In the spring of 102 B.C. the Teutons and Ambrons packed their tents and
+began to move east. The grass had grown sufficiently to feed their horses
+and oxen. Marius allowed them to traverse the Rhone without offering
+resistance; and they began their march along the road that ran at the foot
+of the precipitous Alpines.
+
+They soon appeared, "in immense numbers," says Plutarch, "with their
+hideous looks and their wild cries," drawing up their chariots, and
+planting their tents in front of the Roman camp. They showered upon Marius
+and his soldiers continual insult and defiance. The Romans, in their
+irritation, would fain have rushed out of their camp, but Marius restrained
+them. "It is no question," said he, with his simple and convincing common
+sense, "of gaining triumphs and trophies, but of averting this storm of war
+and of saving Italy."
+
+A Teuton chief came one day up to the very gates of the camp, and
+challenged him to fight. Marius had him informed that if he were weary
+of life, he could go and hang himself. As the barbarian still persisted,
+Marius sent him a gladiator.
+
+However, he made his soldiers, in regular succession, mount guard on the
+ramparts, to get them familiarised with the cries, appearance, and weapons
+of the barbarians. The most distinguished of his officers, young Sertorius,
+a man whose tragic story is, itself, a romance, and who understood and
+spoke Gallic well, penetrated in the disguise of a Gaul into the camp of
+the Ambrons, and informed Marius of what was going on there.
+
+At last, the barbarians, in their impatience, having vainly attempted to
+storm the Roman camp at Ernaginum, struck their own, and put themselves in
+motion towards the Alps.
+
+Marius followed them along the heights, out of reach, ready to rush down on
+their rear, observant of their every movement. They reached Orgon. There
+the limestone precipices rise as walls sheer above the plain, now crowned
+by a church and a couple of ruined castles. It was probably from this point
+that Marius watched the hordes defile past. For six whole days, it is said,
+their bands flowed before the Roman position. The Teutons looked up at the
+military on the cliffs and flung at them the insolent question: "Have you
+any messages for your wives in Italy? We shall soon be with them."
+
+The soldiers, still restrained by Marius, waited till all had passed, and
+then the general struck his camp, and crossing the dip at Lamanon, where
+the overspill of the Durance had once carried its rolled stones into the
+Crau, he regained the heights on the farther side of the Touloubre, at
+Pelissanne, the ancient Pisavis.
+
+Still keeping to the heights, now of red sandstone, Marius again came
+on the barbarians at Les Milles, four miles to the south of Aix. He had
+observed all their movements, and had seen that the Ambrons had detached
+themselves from the Teutons at Aix, so as to make a descent on Marseilles.
+Possibly Aix had been given up to ravage by the Teutons, and the Ambrons
+were bidden find their spoil in Marseilles. At Les Milles the red sandstone
+cliff stands above the Are, which makes here a sweep, leaving a green
+meadow in the loop. Here, from under the rocks ooze forth countless
+streams; some were, like those at Aix, hot; [1] now I will again quote
+Plutarch. "Here Marius pitched on a place for his camp, unexceptionable
+in point of strength, but affording little water; and when his soldiers
+complained of thirst, he pointed to the river that flowed by the enemy's
+camp, and told them, 'that they must thence purchase water with their
+blood.' 'Why then,' said they, 'do you not immediately lead us thither,
+before our blood is quite parched?' To which he replied, in a milder tone,
+'So I will; but first of all let us fortify our camp.'
+
+[Footnote 1: Whether so at present I am unable to state, not having been
+able to test them. All the hot springs have been reduced in temperature
+considerably since Roman times.]
+
+"The soldiers, though with some reluctance, obeyed. But the camp-followers,
+being in great want of water for themselves and their cattle, ran in crowds
+to the stream, some with pick-axes, some with hatchets, and some with
+swords and javelins, along with their pitchers; for they were resolved
+to have water, even if forced to fight for it. These were, at first,
+encountered by only a small party of the enemy; for of the main body, some,
+having bathed, were engaged at dinner, and others were still bathing, the
+country there abounding in hot wells. This gave the Romans a chance of
+cutting off a number of them, while they were indulging themselves in these
+delightful baths. Their cry brought others to their assistance, so that now
+it was no longer possible for Marius to restrain the impetuosity of his
+soldiers, who were uneasy for the fate of their servants. Besides, these
+were the Ambrons, who had defeated Manlius and Cæpio, that they saw before
+them." The contest became general. The Ambrons rushed across the river,
+yelling "Ambra! Ambra!" their war-cry, which was at once retorted on them
+by a body of auxiliaries in the Roman camp, who heard their own cry and
+name. After a furious engagement, the Romans remained victors, the little
+river Are being choked with the bodies of the barbarians.
+
+Those who retreated to their camp were pursued by the Romans. There the
+women, with loud cries, armed themselves, and made a desperate resistance,
+catching at the swords with their naked hands, and suffering themselves to
+be hacked to pieces.
+
+The night was spent by the Romans in some alarm, for though they had
+defeated their foes and penetrated to their camp, yet they had not time to
+fortify their own position; and they dreaded lest the Ambrons should make
+head during the night, call the Teutons to their assistance, and charge up
+the hill. "A cry was heard from the defeated Ambrons all through the night,
+not like the sighs and groans of men, but like the howling and bellowing of
+wild beasts."
+
+Two days after this a second and decisive battle ensued. The narrative in
+Plutarch is a little confused, and it is only by familiarity with the sites
+that the whole story becomes unfolded clearly before us. Thus, it is only
+on the spot that one sees how it was that Marius, striking from the chain
+of the Alpines, came up over against the Ambrons on the hill above Les
+Milles, and how he pursued his course thence. Plutarch, though he speaks of
+the two battles, does not distinguish the sites effectually.
+
+The Teutons, as already said, were making their way east from Aix. The road
+ran through the broad basin of the Are; to the north rise, precipitously,
+the bald white precipices of the limestone Mont Victoire, to the height
+of 3,000 feet, with not a ledge on the sides where a shrub can find root.
+Between these cliffs and the plain are, however, two low sandstone ridges,
+the higher of which forms an arc, and dives into the wall of Mont Victoire,
+about half way through the plain. On the southern side of the river are
+low hills; at the extreme north-east is a conical green hill named Pain
+de Munition, which is fortified much like the Hereford Beacon, with walls
+in concentric rings. To the south-east is the chain of Mont Aurelien, and
+there, on the Mont Olympe, is another fortified position, beneath which is
+the town of Trets, an ancient Roman settlement.
+
+[Illustration: Mont Victoire and the Plain of Pourrières.]
+
+Now the barbarians followed the road on the north side of the river Are, to
+the Roman station on it named Tegulata, the first station out of Aix, their
+numbers swelled by the discomfited Ambrons. Marius, however, being at Les
+Milles, crossed the river, and kept to the south side of it till he reached
+Trets. Then he had a fortified position in his rear, the camp of Mont
+Olympe; moreover, the barbarians were encamped on three tofts of red
+sandstone on the north side of the river, at the station Tegulata, with, at
+their back, the Roman fortified position of _Panis Annonæ_, now called Pain
+de Munition, where one may conjecture Marius had his stores and reserves.
+They were probably unaware of the trap into which they had walked. Marius,
+however, had despatched on the day before Claudius Marcellus, with three
+thousand men, up the long valley of the Infernet, to the north side of Mont
+Victoire, so as to reach and strengthen the fortress of Panis Annonæ, and
+secure his stores, and next day to descend the height and fall on the rear
+of the enemy.
+
+The slopes along which Marius marched were probably well-wooded, and he was
+unobserved by the Teutons.
+
+They had spent one whole day in pacing along the straight flat Roman road
+under Mont Victoire. As they approached the station Tegulata, a singular
+blood-red splash on the white sides of Mont Victoire emerged from behind
+the lower wooded sandstone road, a signal of warning to them that they were
+approaching a place of peril. Moreover, the sandstone deepened in colour,
+till at Tegulata the little streams that oozed from under the sandstone ran
+like blood about their feet. Of these they could not drink, therefore they
+halted at Tegulata, where they again reached the river, and where there was
+a bridge; they there encamped on the three tofts already mentioned, the
+surfaces of which are of hard, dry, yellow sandstone, superposed on beds of
+friable red sand. Here the river flowed sparkling and clear, and supplied
+them with what water they required. Everything points to this spot as
+their camp. It is one day's march from Aix. It is the first point at which
+drinkable water is reached. The sandstone tofts stand up above the plain,
+then undrained and marshy, as a dry base for their tents. Finally, the
+monument of Marius is opposite them, on the farther side of the river.
+
+[Illustration: Sketch plan of the battle fields.]
+
+In the meantime the Romans had approached from the south, from Trets,
+making a slight détour, following the tactics of Marius as before, to keep
+to the south of the horde, and with now a river between him and them.
+At Trets the ground inclines from south to north, with a broken edge of
+sandstone--invisible from the river, serving as a screen behind which
+troops could be massed unperceived. Here it was, I suspect, that Marius
+passed that spring night, the second after the defeat of the Ambrons. The
+broken edge of sandstone is not eighteen feet high. From the top the ground
+slopes down for a mile, and then ensues a gully cut in the sandstone by
+a small blood-red confluent of the Are. Another mile, or mile and a half
+beyond, is the river, and close to the river, on the farther bank, was the
+camp of the Teutons.
+
+On the morning of the 23rd March [1] the Roman cavalry were discovered by
+the Teutons drawn up on the slope.
+
+[Footnote 1: My reason for fixing the day I shall give in the sequel.]
+
+"On seeing this, unable to contain themselves," says Plutarch, "nor stay
+till the Romans were come down into the plain, they armed themselves
+hastily and advanced up the hill. Marius sent officers throughout the army,
+with orders that they should await the onslaught of the enemy. When the
+barbarians were within reach, the Romans were to hurl their javelins, then
+draw their swords, and advance, pressing the enemy back by their shields.
+For the place was so slippery that the enemy's blows could have little
+weight, nor could they preserve close order, where the declivity of the
+ground made them lose their balance." One can see exactly where this took
+place, it was where the confluent of the Are formed a natural protection to
+the position of the Romans; the hollow cut in the greasy red marl was too
+insignificant to prevent the Teutons from attempting to pass it, but was
+sufficient to break their order, and to give the Romans the first advantage
+over them.
+
+Having driven back the assailants, the Romans now crossed the natural
+moat and bore down on the Teutons. At the same moment the well-designed
+manoeuvre of Marius, in despatching Marcellus to the fort on Panis Annonæ,
+produced its result. Marcellus had descended the hill, screened by the
+trees, and had suddenly fallen on the rear of the camp of the Teutons.
+
+Thus attacked, both in front and in the rear, the barbarians were seized
+with panic. A frightful carnage ensued. No quarter was given. Women and
+children were mown down; the dogs furiously defending their masters' bodies
+were also slaughtered.
+
+[Illustration: Monument of Marius, Position of Marius, Treta.]
+
+"After the battle, Marius selected from among the arms and other spoils
+such as were elegant and entire, and likely to make the most brilliant show
+in his triumph. The rest he piled together, and offered them as a splendid
+sacrifice to the gods. The army stood around the hill crowned with laurel;
+and he himself, arrayed in a purple robe, girt after the manner of the
+Romans, held a lighted torch. He had just raised it with both hands towards
+heaven, and was about to set fire to the pyre, when some men were seen
+approaching at a gallop. Great silence and expectation followed. On their
+coming up, they leaped from their horses and saluted him with the title of
+Consul for the fifth time, and presented letters to the same purport. This
+added joy to the solemnity, which the soldiers expressed by acclamations
+and by clanking of arms; and, while the officers were presenting Marius
+with new crowns of laurel, he set fire to the pile, and finished the
+sacrifice."
+
+According to some accounts the number of Teutons slain numbered two hundred
+thousand, and that of the prisoners is stated to have been eighty thousand.
+The most moderate computation of the slain is fixed at one hundred
+thousand. In any case the carnage was great, for the battle-field, where
+all the corpses rested without burial, rotting in the sun and rain, got the
+name of _Campi Putridi_, the Fields of Putrefaction, a name still traceable
+in that of Pourrières, the neighbouring village.
+
+[Illustration: Venus Victrix.]
+
+On the site of the battle, on the south bank of the river, over against the
+camp of the enemy, where also was the pyre in which the waggons, chariots,
+arms and vesture of the invaders was consumed, a monument to Marius was
+erected, which was tolerably perfect before the French Revolution, but
+which now presents a mass of ruins. It consists of a quadrangular block
+of masonry, measuring fifteen feet on each side, within an enclosing wall
+fourteen feet distant. This quadrangular block sustained a pyramid, with
+statues at the angles, as it still figures upon the arms of the Commune
+and on some Renaissance tapestry in a neighbouring château. Here, three
+or four years ago, was found a beautiful statue in Parian marble of Venus
+Victrix, unfortunately without head and arms, but quite of the best Greek
+workmanship. The city of Avignon bought it of the proprietor of the field
+for one thousand eight hundred francs, and it is now one of the principal
+ornaments of the Avignon Museum. The statue, to my mind, proves that this
+monument was raised by Julius Cæsar; there is an indirect compliment to his
+own family in it. Venus was the ancestress of the Julian race, and Cæsar
+perhaps insinuated, if he erected the statue, that the success of Marius
+was due to the patronage of the divine ancestress and protectress of the
+Julian race, and of Julius Cæsar's aunt, the wife of Marius, quite as much
+as to the genius in war of Marius himself.
+
+We know, moreover, that the trophies erected to Marius for his Cimbric and
+Teutonic victories were overthrown by Sulla, and that they were re-erected
+by Julius Cæsar in A.D. 65.
+
+The anniversary of the battle was annually celebrated in a little temple
+dedicated to Venus Victrix on the apex of Mont Victoire, that overhangs the
+plain.
+
+When Provence became Christian the temple was converted into a chapel,
+Venus Victrix became transformed into S. Victoria; and the procession
+remained unaltered, the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages ascended
+the mountain bearing boughs of box, which they waved and shouted "Victoire!
+Victoire!" On reaching the chapel, Mass was celebrated. This took place
+annually on March 23rd till the Revolution, when the chapel was suffered to
+fall into ruin. I was on the battlefield on the day which is traditionally
+held to have been that when this decisive battle took place. A brilliant
+day. The frogs were croaking in the marshes and dykes, the tones of some
+like the cawing of young rooks. The ground was strewn with grape-hyacinth,
+and white star of Bethlehem, the rocks were covered with rosemary in pale
+grey bloom, the golden chains of the broom waving over the blood-red
+sandstone rocks.
+
+That the tradition is correct, or approximately so, I think probable, for
+towards the end of March would be the suitable time for the barbarians to
+set themselves in motion for the invasion of Italy. Sufficient grass could
+be had for their horses and cattle, and they would desire to reach the
+plains of Italy before the great summer heats.
+
+[Illustration: March of S. Victoire (23rd March). Harmonised by F. W.
+BUSSELL, Esq., M.A.]
+
+I talked a good deal to peasants working in the fields. They were all of
+one mind as to where the battle had raged--from north to south, they said,
+between Trets and Pourrières. The tradition is only worth anything in that
+it is based on the fact that along this line the greatest amount of weapons
+has been turned up by the spade, and pick, and plough. [1] A French writer,
+referred to in the footnote, says that if a little rill trickling into the
+Are be examined where it flows in, opposite the monument of Marius, the
+banks will be found at first to be full of broken Roman pottery, but if the
+course of the stream be pursued a little farther up it will be found to
+flow through beds of charcoal and molten masses of metal--clearly the site
+of the pyre raised by Marius. I accordingly searched the locality. I found
+the pottery, and picked out fragments of Samian ware; the bank is from
+three to nine feet deep in them. Farther on, I came, as M. Gilles said,
+to remains of charcoal and cinder. I was perplexed. I followed the stream
+farther up, and found that it crossed a road that was metalled for half a
+mile with cinder, and that the cinder lay on the road and on the road only.
+I instituted inquiries and ascertained that this was all brought from a
+steam mill a mile and a half off along this road. But though these remains
+of charcoal and scoria are not ancient, yet the little rill does ooze
+from the plateau on which I believe Marius raised the pyre. It is exactly
+opposite his monument, between his position and the Panis Annonæ, whence
+swept down Marcellus with his cavalry. It was the site at once of the camp
+and of the pyre. No remains could possibly be found on it of camp or pyre,
+as the sandstone is in constant disintegration, and the whole surface has
+been many times washed bare and renewed during the nineteen hundred and
+ninety-two years that have elapsed since the battle.
+
+[Footnote 1: M. Gilles, "Campagne de Marius dans la Gaule," Paris, 1870,
+thinks that Marius pursued the Teutons along the Aurelian road, and that
+the battle was fought on the north side of the river. I do not hold this.
+The monument of Marius is on the south side, and I think he would naturally
+secure a fortified camp in his rear.]
+
+The story how Marius, having destroyed the hordes of Ambrons and Teutons,
+and secured Italy on the west, returned to the Peninsula, and finding that
+the Cimbri were streaming down from the north-east, met them near Vercellæ,
+and there defeated and slaughtered them also, I leave for other pens to
+describe. That battle took place on July 30th.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I have given (_ante_, pp. 152, 153) what may interest the musical reader,
+the traditional march performed on the day of the battle of Pourrières,
+when the pilgrims ascended the mountain to return thanks for the victory of
+Marius.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+TRETS AND GARDANNE.
+
+
+The fortifications of Trets--The streets--The church--Roman
+sarcophagus--Château of Trets--Visit to a self-educated archæologist--His
+collection made on the battle-field--Dispute over a pot of burnt bones--One
+magpie--Gardanne--The church--A vielle--Trouble with it--Story of an
+executioner's sword.
+
+
+[Illustration: Trets.]
+
+Trets is an odd little place, surrounded by its ancient walls and towers,
+and with its gates--but, oh! if anyone would know what a cramped,
+unwholesome place one of these old mediæval burghs was, let him visit
+Trets. The streets are some four and some five feet across; in threading
+them you pass under a succession of archways, for every house desiring more
+space has thrust forth a couple of storeys over the street, sustained by an
+arch. The exhalations from the dirt-heaps, the foulness of every house, the
+general condition of tumble-down, compose a something to make a sanitary
+officer's hair stand on end. But it is very wonderful. Carcassonne is
+marvellous, but this is Carcassonne seen through a diminishing glass.
+
+Trets has an ancient church, but that has a tower in ruins, and it is
+a marvel to the visitor how that the rain does not enter and souse the
+interior and congregation, so dilapidated is the whole structure. In the
+basement of the tower is a white marble sculptured Roman sarcophagus; on it
+are the heads of husband and wife, supported by genii. Within the church is
+a slab bearing record of the consecration, A.D. 1051.
+
+The town has a stately château, now abandoned to the poor and cut up into
+small habitations. There is in it a grand stone staircase with ornamental
+plaster ceilings on the several landings; one represents a boar hunt, the
+other an ostrich chase.
+
+In the château lives a miner, a M. Maneil, who is an enthusiastic
+archæologist. The publican of the little inn at Trets told me of him: of
+how, when his work is over, and other labouring men come to the cabaret
+or the café, he spends his time in prowling over the battle-field of
+Pourrières, searching for antiquities, and how he hoards up his little
+savings to buy books that deal with archæological subjects.
+
+It was to see M. Maneil that I visited the château. He has a rich
+collection of objects. I counted twenty-four stone hatchets, and something
+like three hundred beads strung for necklaces, flint arrow-heads in large
+numbers, also many bronze implements, a quern, pierced shells, several
+sculptured stones found in Dolmens, and a great many Roman coins. It is the
+collection of a life, made by an enthusiast, and ought to be acquired by
+the museum of Aix. In the mairie at Trets is an urn full of calcined bones,
+in very good condition. It was found by two boys some little while ago in
+a tumulus on the side of the road to Puyloubier. The farmer whose land it
+was on, hearing of the discovery, and concluding that something precious
+had been found, brought an action against the youthful archæologists, and
+strove to recover the treasure. After a hard-fought battle he obtained his
+rights. They were forced to surrender their acquisition--a crock--and, to
+the disgust of the farmer, it contained not a coin of any sort, only bones.
+So he has left it in the mairie, in the hopes that some one will be induced
+to buy it, and so contribute a trifle towards the heavy expenses of the
+trial.
+
+[Illustration: Gardanne.]
+
+Now, as I was walking from the field of Pourrières to Trets, one solitary
+magpie appeared on my left, flew a little way, lighted, and flew on
+farther, and accompanied me thus for half the journey. "One is for sorrow."
+My mind immediately recurred to home--to wife and children. What had or
+would happen? Influenza--would that decimate the flock? or a fire--would
+that consume my books and pictures? Nothing happens but the unexpected.
+Never for one moment did I obtain a glimpse, no, not half a glimpse, into
+the trouble in store for me, which was to arise, not from the loss of
+anything, but out of an acquisition.
+
+From Trets I went on by train to Gardanne, watching the evening lights die
+upon the silver-grey precipices of Mont Victoire. At Gardanne I had to
+change, and kick my heels for two hours. Gardanne is a picturesque little
+town, built on a hill round a castle in ruins and a church very much
+restored. So restored did the church seem to be from the bottom of the hill
+that I doubted whether it would be worth a visit. Gardanne is surrounded by
+broad boulevards planted with trees. Now, no sooner has one passed inward,
+from this boulevard, than one finds a condition of affairs only a little
+less dreadful than that at Trets.
+
+Gardanne was a walled town, but all the walls have been transformed into
+the faces of houses, inns and cafés, plastered and painted and so disguised
+as not to reveal their origin till one passes behind them. Then one is
+involved in a labyrinth of narrow, dark lanes scrambling up the hill,
+running in and out among the houses, paved with cobble stones in some
+places, in others resolving themselves into flights of broken steps.
+
+On scrambling to the terrace on which the church stands on the apex of
+the hill, I saw that it was of very remarkable width, all under one low
+gable--certainly extraordinarily ugly, and newly plastered, marked out in
+sham blocks of stone, and made as hideous as the ingenuity of man could
+well achieve. However, I entered the west door, and passed into almost
+complete darkness, only relieved by the paschal candle that was burning at
+a side altar and the red lamp in the choir.
+
+As my eyes became accustomed to the gloom, I discovered to my surprise that
+I had entered a very interesting eleventh-century church, of five aisles,
+all under one roof, without clerestory. But the evening light through the
+small stained windows did not suffer me to make out any details. The east
+end of the church rises from the crag on which it is built, without any
+window in it.
+
+On leaving the top of the hill and descending into the town I met my fate
+in the form of a woman who was playing a hurdy-gurdy, and singing to its
+strains a Provençal ballad. I stopped at once, and asked her to let me
+investigate the instrument. I have a fancy for ancient musical instruments.
+A handle is turned that grates on one catgut string, and the fingers of the
+left hand, passed under the hurdy-gurdy, touch notes that stop the string
+at various lengths, and so vary the tone.
+
+[Illustration: The Vielle.]
+
+She told me the instrument was called the vielle, in fact--our old English
+viol; a very ancient instrument, which is represented as being played by
+one of the minstrels sculptured on the east front of Launceston Parish
+Church, circ. 1525. On a capital at S. Georges de Boscherville, in
+Normandy, is an eleventh-century representation of a huge hurdy-gurdy
+resting on the knees of two performers. One turns the handle, the other
+plays on the keys. Mr. Chappell at one time believed it was the old English
+_Rote_, from _rota_, a wheel, but changed his mind later, and showed that
+the rote had a hole through it, which enabled it to be played with both
+hands like a lyre or harp, and derived its name from the Anglo-Saxon
+"rott"--cheerful.
+
+This branch of archæology being one in which I was particularly interested,
+nothing would suffice me but buying the viol of the woman; and having
+acquired it, I slung it round my neck by a very dirty blue ribbon, and
+hastened to the station to catch my train to Aix.
+
+Now only did I discover what the magpie portended, for with the acquisition
+of that hurdy-gurdy my life became a burden to me. I could not pack it into
+my Gladstone bag. I could not fold it up with my rugs. I was forced to
+travel with it slung round my neck. Naturally, in a railway carriage I was
+asked to perform on the singular instrument--but I was incapable of doing
+this. Fellow travellers disbelieved in my statement. Why did I wander
+through Provence, the land of troubadours, if I were no troubadour? Surely
+I was sulky--not incapable; unwilling to oblige--not unable to do so. When
+I arrived at an hotel--especially late in the evening--I found the host
+doubtful about receiving me. He looked at my bag, then at my hurdy-gurdy,
+then scrutinised my boots; wanted to know what priced rooms I required;
+must consult madam. On the railway platform again, I found myself an
+object of attention to certain men in plain clothes, with keen searching
+eyes--and, as I shall relate in the sequel, brought one of them down on me.
+
+Vexed that I was unable to pass the tedious time in the train with a tune
+on my vielle, and entertain my fellow travellers, I began to practise on it
+in my room at night. Then the fellow inmates complained: they sent their
+compliments and desired to know whether there were wild beasts next
+door--they objected to be lodged near a menagerie.
+
+My experiences with the hurdy-gurdy recall to my memory some others I went
+through a few years ago.
+
+On one occasion I spent a winter in a city in the south of Germany, where I
+made the acquaintance of an antiquary who was very old and bedridden, and
+had no relations, no one to care for him but an old housekeeper. The man
+had belonged to the town-council, and had spent his life in collecting
+curiosities connected with the history of his town. Among his treasures
+above his bed, was the city executioner's sword, much notched. This sword
+was six feet long, with a huge handle, to be grasped with two hands, and
+with an iron ornamented knob as counterpoise at the end of the handle.
+
+How life is made up of lost opportunities! How much of the criminal history
+of the city might I not have learned, if I had paid longer visits to Herr
+Schreiber, and listened to his account of the notches in the blade, to each
+of which a ghastly history attached. But the antiquary's bedroom measured
+fifteen feet by seven, and the window was hermetically sealed; moreover,
+there was a stove in the room, and--Herr Schreiber himself, always.
+
+"Ach, mein Herr! do you see dis great piece broken out of de blade? Dat vas
+caused by a voman's neck. De executioner could not cut it drough; her neck
+vas harder dan his sword. She vas a very vicked voman; she poisoned her
+fader.--Do you see dis littel nick? Dis vas made by a great trater to the
+Kaiser and Vaterland. I vill tell you all about it."
+
+I never heard all the stories: I should have been suffocated had I stayed
+to listen; but I found, whenever I called on my friend, that my eyes
+invariably turned to the sword--it was so huge, it was so notched, and had
+such a gruesome history. Poor old Schreiber, I knew, would have to bow his
+neck before long under the scythe of Time. How he hung on in that stuffy
+room under the great sword so long was a marvel to me, and would be
+pronounced impossible by sanitary authorities in England. Nevertheless, he
+did live on for a twelvemonth after I left the town. When about to depart,
+I said to the English chaplain: "Old Schreiber can't last long; he must
+smother shortly. Keep an eye on the sword for me, there's a good fellow. He
+has left everything to the housekeeper."
+
+A twelvemonth after, as I was about to leave England for a run into
+Bohemia, I got a letter from the chaplain: "Schreiber is dead. I have the
+sword." I wired at once to him: "Send it me to my inn at Aix-la-Chapelle.
+Will pick it up on my way home."
+
+So I went on my way rejoicing, ascended the Rhine to Mainz, trained to
+Nuremberg, and passed through the gap of the Bohemian mountain-chain
+to Pilsen, and on to Prague. After six weeks in Bohemia and Silesia, I
+descended the Rhine to Aix-la-Chapelle, and arrived at my inn.
+
+"Dere is vun vunderful chest come for you," said the landlord. "Ve vas not
+very comfortable to take him in. Ve keep him, dough."
+
+And no wonder. The chest was shaped somewhat like the coffin of a very tall
+man.
+
+"Vat ish he? He have been here four veek and doe days.--Dere is no
+schmell."
+
+"I cannot take that thing--I really cannot. It is preposterous. How could
+the chaplain have put my sword into the hands of an undertaker?--Get me a
+hammer; I will knock the case to pieces."
+
+Now, there was a reason why the chest should assume the shape of a
+coffin--that was, because of the crosspiece between the handle and the
+blade. My name and address were on the lid, at the place where usually goes
+the so-called "breast-plate."
+
+The host of my inn, the waiters, the porter, the boots, all stood in
+breathless curiosity to see the box opened, and when the sword was
+exposed--"Ach!" exclaimed the host gravely, "I vas right--dere vas no
+schmell, because dere could be no schmell."
+
+I could not see the force of this reasoning, remembering Herr Schreiber's
+room, and how long the sword had been in it; and allowing that there is no
+porosity in tempered steel, still, the black velvet casing of the handle
+might have absorbed a considerable amount of Schreiberian bacteria,
+bacilli, or whatever it is that physiologists assert to be so nasty and so
+ubiquitous, and so set on finding out our weak places and hitting us there,
+as swordfish "go" at whales.
+
+I had got my sword out of its coffin, but had not considered what to do
+with it next, and I found myself in as great a difficulty as before. I
+got a porter to convey it for me to the station, and he placed it in the
+first-class waiting-room with the iron counterpoise on the floor, beside
+a divan, and leaned the tip of the blade against the wall. There it was
+allowed to remain; and I walked about, pretending that it did not belong
+to me. Presently, a well-dressed, very stately lady--she was a _Gräfin_
+(countess)--came in, stalked to the divan, and seated herself on it, very
+upright, without observing the sword. She opened a reticule and produced a
+lace-edged handkerchief, with which she proceeded to dust the velvet of her
+dress, and in so doing, with the end of her delicately-shod foot, touched
+the counterpoise. At once the sword-blade began to grate against the wall.
+She looked up suddenly, saw the huge notched executioner's sword descending
+upon her bowed neck, uttered a little scream, sprang to her feet and ran,
+fleet as a rabbit, across the waiting-room; whilst down its full length
+after her with a clang fell the weapon--followed by a burst of laughter
+from everyone in the room but the countess.
+
+After this, I took the sword up and marched on the platform with it at my
+side. This I will say for it--that, considering its size and weight, it is
+easily carried; for not only is there the crosspiece as hand-guard, but
+above this is a crescent worked in the iron, the horns extending with the
+convexity towards the point of the blade. By putting a couple of fingers
+under these horns, the sword is carried at the side, pommel downwards,
+blade up, with perfect ease, the balance is so true. Some difficulty
+attended the getting into the carriage with the sword; I had to enter
+backwards and bring my sword in after me, passengers keeping judiciously
+out of its reach till it was safely brought within.
+
+Not the Douvres-Calais that day! only that horrible little narrow boat that
+always upsets me--and I--such an heroic being, bearing the mighty mediæval
+sword, an object of wonder and questioning to sailors, _douaniers_,
+passengers alike. As it happened, I was the sole individual on board whose
+inner organs had not their sea-legs on this occasion. I lay on a bench
+upon deck, hugging my executioner's sword, and faintly calling: "A basin
+please!" Two ruffians--I can call them, nothing else--paced the deck,
+smoking, and passed me every forty seconds. If there is a thing which
+tumbles a human being of a highly-strung nervous temperament over when he
+feels squeamish, it is the occasional whiff of a cigar. Then, added to the
+occasional whiff, were occasional catches of derogatory remarks, which came
+home to me as unpleasantly as did the tobacco: "A chap with a sword like
+that should live up to it, and not grovel over a basin."--And a quotation
+from the Burial of Sir John Moore: "He lay like a warrior taking his rest."
+
+My spine, with the pitching and vibration of the vessel, felt not like
+a spinal column, but like a loose string of beads. If by swallowing the
+sword I could have acquired stamina, I should have tried it; but I did
+not think I could keep it down. At length, with a pasty face, blear-eyes,
+liver-coloured lips, a battered hat, a dripping and torn waterproof,
+reeling, holding my ticket in my teeth, the sword in one hand and my
+portmanteau in the other, looking like a dynamitard every inch, and at once
+pounced on and overhauled by the police and customs-officers, I staggered
+ashore. Having that sword was as much as proclaiming that I had infernal
+machines about me somewhere, and even my pockets were not sacred. Having
+turned out all my insides at sea, I had to turn out my exterior pockets and
+portmanteau now. It was monstrous. That was not all. I am sure a detective
+followed me to town. When I got into a hansom at Charing Cross, the sword
+would go nowhere except between my knees, with the blade shooting up
+between the reins of the driver, high above the top of the conveyance. I
+caused great amusement as I drove through the streets of London thus.
+
+The sword is at rest now, lodged on my staircase, and of one thing I am
+sure: no one is likely to run away with it. I have lost curiosities too
+tempting for specialists to keep their fingers from; but no one will carry
+away my sword. I shall go, but the sword will remain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+AIX.
+
+
+Dooll, but the mutton good--Les Bains de Sextius--Ironwork caps to
+towers--S. Jean de Malthe--Museum--Cathedral--Tapestries and tombs--The
+cloisters--View from S. Eutrope--King René of Anjou--His misfortunes--His
+cheeriness--His statue at Aix--Introduces the Muscat grape.
+
+
+I had a friend, a parson, a good fellow, who was some years ago in
+Cumberland, where he was concerned about the spiritual condition of the
+neighbouring parsons. Among these latter was one, very bucolic, with a
+heavy red face. My friend urged him to take advantage of a "retreat," that
+is a gathering of clergy for devotion and meditation, that was to take
+place in Carlisle. After some persuasion the heavy-souled parson agreed to
+go, and my dear good friend hoped that some spark of spiritual zeal might
+be thus kindled in him.
+
+When the retreat was at an end he button-holed him, and asked, "Well, how
+did you get on?"
+
+"Dooll, varry dooll!" replied the heavy soul, "I shud ha' left long ago,
+but--the mutton was good."
+
+I had gone for a couple of weeks to commercial inns, and now that I visited
+Aix I thought I would like to see another aspect of Gallic life, so I went
+to the Hôtel des Bain de Sextius, and took a plunge into the society of
+patients drinking waters and taking baths. I may say of that social phase
+in the Bain, that it was "dooll, varry dooll, but the mutton was good."
+I was a fool to go there; of course one cannot expect people with their
+livers and their spleens, and their entire internal tubular mechanism
+out of order, to be chirpy and frolicsome. There were a good many ladies
+there, pale, I could not quite make out whether from ill-health or from
+violet-powder; but I think the latter had something to do with their
+pallor, for, after drinking, when they wiped their lips, roses began to
+bloom, wherever the napkin touched. They lived up to their appearance,
+natural or applied, they were "mild-eyed, melancholy, lotus-eaters," to
+whom it was "always afternoon." The gentlemen were equally sad, still and
+forlorn. But the mutton was good. The feeding left little to be wished for.
+
+Aix lies in a green basin of hills, at a little distance from the river
+Are, clustered about the hot springs that rise at the junction of the
+porphyry and the limestone. They were certainly hotter when Aix was founded
+by Caius Sextius Calvinus, B.C. 123, to serve as a protection to the Greeks
+of Marseilles against the attacks of the Salyes. Roman colonists were
+planted there, consequently in race distinct from the Massalliotes. I
+cannot say that the Greek type lingers in Marseilles, certainly the women
+who hover about the Vieux port are as ugly as women can well be, nor have
+the natives of Aix a peculiarly Roman character of face and head. The only
+people who retain any distinguishing features of their ancestry are those
+of Arles, of whom I have already told.
+
+Aix has lost its old walls and towers within the last twenty years. It has
+good boulevards and shaded walks, and in the old parts of the town many
+charming bits. Most charming perhaps are the iron crowns to two of the
+towers, one by the Hôtel de Ville, which is conical, the other opposite
+the church of La Sainte Esprit, which is like a papal tiara. When I saw in
+Baedeker that "en face de cette église--une tour de 1494, qui a un beau
+campanile en fer," my mind turned at once to that horrible iron spire
+at Rouen, and I felt disposed to look at the pavement when approaching
+the church. However, it is not modern, and not hideous; it is quite the
+reverse, a study in fine ironwork. That the ancients could, however, do
+very villainous things, may be seen on a visit paid to the church of S.
+Jean de Malthe. It has a square east end, is an edifice of the thirteenth
+century, with a tower of the fourteenth and fifteenth. The original
+architect in the thirteenth century was a fool, and those who desired to
+complete the church a century later probably advertised for the greatest
+fool then in the profession, and secured him. Within the church is a
+monument that pretends to be the tomb of Alphonso II., Count of Provence,
+in 1209, and to be adorned not only with his statue, but also with those of
+his son Raymond Berengarius IV., and of Beatrix, Queen of Naples, the wife
+of the latter. The monument is, however, a hoax. The statues are there, but
+are modern, of the namby-pamby school, and of the original tomb possibly a
+crocket and a cusp may remain.
+
+Hard by this odious church, with its horrible modern garish windows, is
+the museum, containing some Greek inscriptions, a Christian sarcophagus or
+two, not grown on the spot, but imported from Arles, and some fragments of
+statues.
+
+The Cathedral of S. Sauveur is the great attraction in Aix, and it is,
+indeed, a very fascinating church. The west front contains a recessed
+gateway with ranges of saints in the outer member, and a legion of cherubim
+with their wings, some spread, some folded, in the inner member. The lower
+portion of the doorway was encased by a hoarding, and I could not see it.
+It is undergoing restoration. The saints' figures thereon had their heads
+knocked off at the Revolution, and these were restored in bad taste later,
+and now fresh heads--we will hope more successful--are being adjusted.
+
+Oh that we also could change our heads!
+
+The octagonal tower, which formerly had a somewhat bold appearance, has
+been successfully completed with an open traceried parapet and pinnacles.
+
+On the right hand of the church is a very interesting doorway, clearly
+Classic. Two fluted Corinthian pillars are let into the wall, and support
+an entablature. Between these a Romanesque doorway has been inserted, with
+a twisted pillar on one side, and another fluted, opposite it.
+
+The interior of the cathedral is full of surprises, The baptistery on the
+right is supported on Classic columns of grey polished granite. The S.
+aisle of the church is Romanesque of the twelfth century, and was the
+original nave of the minster. In the fourteenth or fifteenth century
+the present nave and N. aisle were added, and then the S. aisle of the
+Romanesque church was destroyed. Consequently the cloister of the twelfth
+century, which originally abutted on the S. wall of the church, now stands
+detached from it by the width of the destroyed aisle.
+
+In some chapels is soft old glowing marigold-yellow cinque-cento glass.
+The choir of the cathedral is hung with tapestries, said to be by Quentin
+Matsys, gorgeous in colour, of, however, beauteous harmony of tone. There
+are quaint old paintings on gold grounds in the nave. In the N. aisle
+lovely tombs that served as memorials of the dead, and likewise as
+altar-pieces. [1]
+
+[Footnote 1: Christ on the cross is between kneeling figures of a knight
+and a lady; S. Anne and the B. V. Mary are also represented. This reredos
+is so excellent, so beautiful, that of course it did not suit the taste for
+tawdriness that sprang up in the eighteenth century, and a vulgar reredos
+has been erected, and the altar moved before that.]
+
+The church is rich in picturesque features, not to be sketched with pencil,
+but laid in with the brush and colour.
+
+Moreover, the cloister is charming in its rich quaintness. The sculptors
+have revelled in the foliage with which they have adorned the capitals.
+Here we have twisted pillars, there they are sculptured over with scales,
+lozenges, and other ornamental fancies. In the capitals, groups of figures
+alternate with bursting fronds of ferns, unfolding vine leaves, and
+fantastic playing monsters. In the centre of the quadrangle stands an old
+column, on which is S. Mary Magdalen with her ointment-pot, and doves were
+fluttering and cooing as an old canon scattered crumbs to them about his
+feet.
+
+Aix lacks one thing greatly, a terrace above the town whence the valley
+may be seen, the towers of Aix, and the crags of Mont Victoire. But a walk
+should on no account be omitted up the heights of S. Eutrope to an old
+windmill that stands on a crest of limestone.
+
+The view thence is charming. To the right the green valley of L'Infernet,
+up which marched Marcellus on the eve of the great battle of Pourrières.
+Towering overhead, catching the evening sun on its glistening bald peaks
+is to be seen Mont Victoire. A little to the S.E. the cleft in the wooded
+hills through which the Are breaks its way, a cleft up which the Teutons
+trudged with their wives and children and the spoil of Gaul, to their
+destruction. To the south-east also a quaint chain of hills that rise above
+Gardanne, with a boss like a great snuff-box on the top, the Pillon du Roi.
+At one's feet is Aix, with its many towers, surrounded by silvery olive
+orchards, and away to the south is the red hill above Les Milles where
+Marius was encamped the night after the fight with the Ambrons.
+
+Aix is closely associated with that delightful old Mark Tapley of kings,
+René of Anjou, whose character has been hit off with such masterly fidelity
+by Sir Walter Scott in "Anne of Geierstein." René was born at Angers in
+1409, and was the second son of Duke Louis II., of the junior house of
+Anjou, and of Iolanthe, daughter of king John of Aragon. He bore the title
+of Duke of Guise till his father's death. Louis II. had been adopted by
+Joanna of Naples, as her heir, and had been crowned king of Naples at
+Avignon by Clement VII., but was never able to obtain possession of his
+inheritance. After his death, in 1417, René's eldest brother, Louis III.,
+succeeded to his titles and rights, and when he died without issue, in
+1434, Anjou, Provence, and claims to Naples, Sicily and Jerusalem devolved
+on René, who had in the meantime acquired, by the death of an uncle,
+the Duchy of Bar, and, by right of his wife, laid claim to the Duchy of
+Lorraine.
+
+When he desired to make these latter claims good, he was involved in war
+with his wife's kinsmen, and was taken prisoner and locked up at Dijon.
+Finally, the question of the right to the Duchy of Lorraine was referred to
+the decision of the Emperor Sigismund, who gave it in favour of René. His
+opponent, however, appealed to Philip of Burgundy, who summoned René to
+appear before him, and when he did not appear, ordered him to return to his
+prison, from which he had been released on parole. René at once submitted.
+Whilst he was in prison at Dijon, delegates from Naples arrived offering
+him the crown; but Duke Philip would not release him. Thereupon René
+transferred his rights provisionally to his wife, the Duchess Isabella, and
+she became regent of Naples, Sicily, Anjou, and Provence. She, however,
+soon found herself involved in war with the king of Aragon. In the meantime
+René managed to ransom himself for the sum of 400,000 gold florins (1437)
+and at once hasted to Naples. There, however, he found himself unable to
+make head against Alphonso of Aragon, and he was finally driven out, and
+obliged to return to Provence. He died at Aix on July 10, 1480.
+
+Sir Walter well says of him: "Born of royal parentage, and with high
+pretensions, René had at no period of his life been able to match his
+fortunes to his claims. Of the kingdoms to which he asserted right, nothing
+remained in his possession but the county of Provence, itself a fair and
+friendly principality, but diminished by the many claims which France had
+acquired upon portions of it by advances of money to supply the personal
+expenses of its master, and by other portions, which Burgundy, to whom René
+had been a prisoner, held in pledge for his ransom.... René was a prince of
+very moderate parts, endowed with a love of the fine arts, which he carried
+to extremity, and with a degree of good humour, which never permitted
+him to repine at fortune, but rendered its possessor happy, when a
+prince of keener feelings would have died of despair. This _insouciant_,
+light-tempered, gay and thoughtless disposition conducted René, free from
+all the passions which embitter life, to a hale and mirthful old age. Even
+domestic losses made no deep impression on the feelings of this cheerful
+old monarch. Most of his children had died young; René took it not to
+heart. His daughter Margaret's marriage with the powerful Henry of England
+was considered a connection above the fortunes of the king of Troubadours.
+But in the issue, instead of René deriving any splendour from the match,
+he was involved in the misfortunes of his daughter, and repeatedly obliged
+to impoverish himself to supply her ransom.... Among all his distresses,
+René feasted and received guests, danced, sang, composed poetry, used the
+pencil or brush with no small skill, devised and conducted festivals and
+processions, and studied to promote the mirth and good humour of his
+subjects."
+
+In the cathedral is his portrait along with that of his second wife, Jeanne
+de Laval. In the _place_ is his statue, a mediocre work, holding a bunch of
+Muscat grapes, a species he first introduced to Europe. I sought in vain at
+Aix for a photograph of the Merry Monarch taken from the authentic picture,
+and was offered one from the characterless statue, which I declined. Poor
+king René's poems have found an editor and a publisher--in four volumes
+(Paris, 1845-6, edited by Quatrebarbes), but, I fear, not many readers. No;
+it will not be through his laboured poetic compositions, nor through the
+daubs which he painted, that René will be known and will have earned the
+gratitude of posterity, but through the introduction of the Muscat grape.
+Henceforth, let my readers, whenever they enjoy their muscatels out of
+the grape-house at home, or sip Moscada Toscana in Italy, or Muscat in
+La Vallais, give a kindly thought to that much-tried but never downcast
+monarch.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE CAMARGUE.
+
+
+Formation of the delta of the Rhone--The diluvial wash--The alluvium spread
+over this--The three stages the river pursues--The zone of erosion--The
+zone of compensation--The zone of deposit--River mouths--Estuaries
+and deltas--The formation of bars--Of lagoons--The lagoons of the
+Gulf of Lyons--The ancient position of Arles between the river and
+the lagoons--Neglect of the lagoons in the Middle Ages--They become
+morasses--Attempt at remedy--Embankments and drains--A mistake made--The
+Camargue now a desert--Les Saintes Maries--No evidence to support the
+legend--Based on a misapprehension.
+
+
+As I said when speaking of the Crau, the whole delta of the Rhone, which
+extended in the diluvial epoch from Cette to Fos, consists of a vast
+sloping plain of rolled stones from the Alps. What is now a great convexity
+thrust into the Mediterranean, perpetually gaining ground on the sea, was
+at the commencement of the present geologic epoch a great bay, and the
+waves of the Mediterranean broke against the cliffs of les Monts Garrigues,
+at Lodève, the heights of Nimes and Beaucaire, against the limestone crags
+of the Alpines, and swirled against that calcareous spur that now separates
+the lagoon of Berre from the desert of la Crau.
+
+But, at an epoch which it is impossible to fix, which, however, is
+posterior to the last geologic dislocations of the soil, two formidable
+deluges swept from the Alps down the troughs of the Rhone and the Durance,
+carrying with them vast masses of stone torn from the flanks of the
+mountains. They were veritable avalanches of water, mud and rubble, that
+filled the entire bay and covered the land, wherever they poured, with
+the wreckage of the Alps. The stones were broken into a thousand pieces
+in their course, their angles rubbed down, and their surfaces polished by
+friction, and this vast bed of rubble measures near the mouth of the Rhone
+some sixty feet in depth, and extends under the blue surface of the sea to
+the distance of many miles.
+
+But, when the diluvium ceased, and the rivers Rhone and Durance assumed
+approximately their present character, a change of procedure took place.
+The volume of water rolled down was by no means so great, the inclination
+of the fall was vastly lessened, consequently the rivers were enabled to
+do what they had not been able to do in the diluvial period, chew up their
+food of stone, and reduce it to the condition of mud. This is what the two
+rivers are engaged upon now, and instead of strewing their _embouchures_
+with pebbles, they distribute over them, or would do so, if permitted, a
+film of fertilising mud.
+
+Through many ages the Rhone has rambled at its sweet will over the vast
+tract of rubble that formed its delta in the diluvial age, changing its
+course capriciously, and always, wherever it went, covering up the pebble
+bed with a deposit of fertile soil. Other streams helped in the good
+work--the Hérault, rich with red mud, the Ley, that flows past Montpellier,
+and the Vidourle from Lunel: consequently a very large portion of the
+rubble bed is covered with rich soil, that grows vines, mulberries, and
+olives. The plough and spade, however, speedily reach the boulders that
+lie but slightly buried beneath the surface. The canal of Craponne, that
+conveys the charged waters of the Durance over the Crau of Arles, is
+effecting artificially over that portion of the rubbly desert, the work
+that was done by Nature herself in past ages over the whole region from
+Cette to Aiguesmortes.
+
+Now let us examine very shortly the stages through which every
+mountain-born river runs.
+
+When young, sprung from eternal snows, gushing from under glaciers, it cuts
+its way through mountain gorges, receiving the rocks that fall from above,
+and carrying them along in its course, tearing its way round rocky spurs,
+and breaking them in its fury, and, as it travels down into the lower
+ground, it carries with it a vast mass of stone. Every tributary does the
+same. This first stage is called the _zone of erosion_.
+
+But, as the river leaves the Alps, its course becomes less rapid, and the
+fall is not so abrupt. The bed widens, and what was a boiling torrent
+becomes a rapid river. As it rolls along, it carries down with it the
+stones that it has brought from the mountains, turning them over and
+over in its course, rubbing down all rough points, and becoming itself
+discoloured with the particles it has rubbed off the pebbles. All this
+matter thus produced has a tendency to fall to the bottom and form banks of
+gravel; but the violence of the stream is constantly altering the shape and
+position of these beds, carrying the gravel farther, and throwing down in
+their place half-triturated deposits of the same character.
+
+This is called the _zone of compensation_.
+
+Any traveller who has visited the Vallais may see the Rhone at work in its
+first stage. In the second he can trace the river from below Lyons, and see
+the thousand gravel-banks formed, swept away, and reformed, at every flood,
+that mark the course of the river in its second stage.
+
+By the time the Rhone has reached Arles all its gravel has been champed up
+and reduced to impalpable mud. That blue crystalline flood that gushed from
+the Lake of Leman, unsullied by a particle of earth, is now a river of
+brown mud--thick as pea-soup, and as nutritious. The stones that would have
+killed all vegetation have been pounded into a condition so attenuated,
+that they form rich alluvial matter. The river now seeks to deposit
+all this mud. On reaching the sea, the difference in gravity between
+the meeting waters, and their variation in temperature, produces rapid
+precipitation of all the earthy matter held in suspense by the stream. This
+last stage in the river's course is called the _zone of deposit_.
+
+The inclination of the bed of the Rhone between Tarascon and Arles is four
+feet three inches in the mile; but at Arles the elevation of the bank is
+but three feet six inches above the level of the sea; and the river has
+to run sixty-two miles before it reaches salt waves. Consequently the bed
+widens, the river branches, and the rapidity of its movement diminishes
+progressively. The alluvium is deposited, banks multiply, the mouths are
+encumbered with submarine islets, locally called _theys_, which the waves
+and currents of the sea displace and remodel continuously, and render the
+entrance to the river impracticable. [1]
+
+[Footnote 1: Lenthéric: 'Les Villes Mortes du Golfe de Lyon,' Paris, 1883.]
+
+River mouths vary greatly; they are either estuaries, like those of the
+Thames, the Seine, and the S. Lawrence, or they are deltas, like those
+of the Nile, the Po, and the Rhone. Very generally in tidal seas we have
+estuaries; but in those that are tideless, as the Mediterranean and the
+Black Sea, they are deltas. Where there is a tide, the mouth of the river
+is washed out and kept open by the flux and reflux of the sea; but where
+there is no tide there is nothing to interfere with the river choking its
+mouth with its deposits. In such a case, after a while, the mass of deposit
+becomes so great as to interfere with the course of the river. The sea
+beating against this bar throws up sand and gravel upon it, and at every
+storm raises it higher. Then the river divides into two or more branches,
+and forms for itself new beds, which are destined in turn to undergo the
+same process.
+
+Now, when a river has formed its bar choking its mouth, and is then forced
+to make a fresh mouth, it leaves a lagoon behind this bar. At every flood
+its waters overflow, and are unable to escape to the sea when left behind
+the bar. Sometimes, in like manner, in a gale of wind on shore, the waves
+are carried over the bar, and there are left as a brackish pool, unable to
+return to the sea.
+
+Thus the whole of the Bay of the Gulf of Lyons is masked by a false
+coastline of old bars, behind which lie lagoons all formed in the way
+indicated. Between Rousillon and Leucate is the Etang de Salses; Narbonne
+anciently was seated in the lap of another great inland lake or lagoon. The
+vast Etang de Tau has a barrier between it and the sea on which is planted
+Cette. Lagoons behind bars extend thence the whole way to Aiguesmortes; and
+between the mouths of the Rhone, as they flow at present, is the Etang de
+Valcarès.
+
+After the river has deserted its old bed, and the lagoon has been formed
+behind the bar, or littoral cord, wave and storm working upon this long
+line of mud and sand succeed in breaking through; then, as the inclination
+of the land is but 0'm, 01 in the metre--almost nothing, the sweet and salt
+water mingle in these lakes, they never run dry, though in many cases not
+three feet deep.
+
+A look at the map of the Gulf of Lyons will show the reader that its
+special characteristic is the chain of lagoons separated from the sea by
+a narrow ribbon of sand. It may have caused perplexity in the mind of
+many that the Gulf should bear the name it does. It cannot take its name
+from the city of Lyons--the ancient Lugdunum--which is two hundred and
+twenty miles inland. It certainly cannot derive it from the wild
+beasts--lions--for there are none nearer than Africa.
+
+The fact is, that the Gulf takes its title from the Keltic word for a
+lagoon, lôn or lyn, a name that recurs in Maguelonne--the Dwelling on the
+Pool--in the Canal des Lonnes, a channel connecting the ponds and lagoons
+of the Durance and Rhone, and, indeed, in our own London (Londinium) the
+Dinas, Castle on the Lon, or pool of the Thames and the Essex marshes.
+
+Anciently, in historic times, Arles, that lies near the apex of the
+triangle formed by the branches of the Rhone, was bathed on one side by the
+river, by which she received merchandise from the north; and, on the other
+side by the _lones_, or submerged land, that extended to the sea; and after
+Marius had connected these lones with his canal, she exported and imported
+merchandise over the Mediterranean through the lagoons, as the sea could
+not be reached by the river on account of its bars.
+
+Moreover, the Greek and Roman cities along the coast are not found on the
+actual coast, on the bars, but were planted on the lagoons, which afforded
+them perfect harbourage for their merchant vessels. These lagoons, through
+which flowed salt and fresh water, were always healthy, and remained
+healthy as long as communication was maintained with the sea and the river.
+But wind and wave and alluvium working together choke these communications,
+and directly the mouth seawards of a lagoon is closed it is converted into
+a stagnating marsh that exhales malaria.
+
+During the Middle Ages no attention was paid to this fact, and those
+stations which had been perfectly wholesome in the Classic Epoch were
+rendered pestilential, and dwindled from populous cities to a cluster of
+fever-smitten peasants' hovels. In later times this desperate condition
+of affairs called for remedy. Louis XIV. sent engineers to examine and
+report on the state of this region, and works were begun which have been
+maintained and extended annually, the raising of dykes against overflow by
+the Rhone and by the sea. Drains have been cut in all directions to carry
+off the stagnant water, opening by traps into the sea. The extent of
+dyke now reaches two hundred and thirty miles. The banks of the two main
+branches of the Rhone are protected, as well as the sea-face of the
+Camargue, the triangle between them, and the annual cost to the country to
+keep them in repair is one hundred and twenty thousand francs. A flood,
+however, often breaks through the banks, and submerges a large district. On
+such occasions the additional expense is heavy.
+
+Now, what is the result of all this outlay? The engineers and scientific
+authorities of the coast-works and dykes are pretty unanimous in saying
+that a great mistake was made in the beginning by Louis XIV. The Rhone
+ought never to have been embanked. What should have been done was to keep
+open the mouths of the lagoons, to preserve them from festering.
+
+Formerly, the large island of the Camargue, occupying nearly twenty
+thousand acres, was periodically inundated by the Rhone, and when the
+waters fell, a film of the richest deposit was left behind, just as in
+Egypt the Nile overflows and fertilises its delta. At every overflow
+eighteen thousand cubic yards of alluvium was deposited over this district,
+all of which is now carried into the Mediterranean and thrown down in the
+construction of new bars; utterly wasted.
+
+In the time of the Roman domination the Camargue was a second Egypt,
+and was called "The granary of the Roman army;" and Arles was given the
+designation of "The Breasts," so flowing with plenty was it held to be.
+At the initial cost of millions of pounds, and an annual outlay of five
+thousand pounds, the Camargue has been reduced to absolute sterility.
+
+The protected lands, deprived of the sweet water which would have washed
+from them the salt that now spoils their fertility, and of the natural
+dressing that Providence sends down to them every spring and autumn, are
+now productive of only a little coarse wiry grass and thistles, and the
+dried soil is white with saline efflorescence. At the present day the
+value of land in the neighbourhood of Arles that is subject to periodic
+inundation is three times that of the land guarded by costly embankments
+against the bounties of the river.
+
+On descending the sinuous course of the lesser Rhone the hills disappear,
+the horizon is level as the sea, and all around is desert. Then the current
+of the Rhone seems to fail wholly, the waters of the river and of the
+lagoons on both sides of its bed mingle, and become confounded in one
+sheet. All nature is dead. The dull and sluggish water, streaked with lines
+of ooze, extend on all sides as far as the eye can reach. The effects of
+the mirage add bewilderment. One can hardly distinguish water from sky.
+Nothing can be more dreary than this naked surface, hushed into silence,
+where vegetation is reduced to a few tufts of rushes and tamarisks.
+
+But, suddenly, out of the marshy, submerged plain, a strange pile of
+buildings is seen cutting the horizon, half a castle, half a cathedral,
+imposing in a mass as it towers above the fragile and squalid hovels
+crouched at the feet. This building is _Les Saintes Maries_.
+
+[Illustration: Les Saintes Maries.]
+
+Probably nowhere in the world is to be seen a spot so desolate and so
+wretched. The village is planted at the extreme west angle of the Camargue.
+It can be reached by one road only, rough to travel over, and impracticable
+in winter. This road leaves Arles, or rather Trinquetailles, opposite
+Arles, traverses the marsh of the Grand Mar, follows the dyke of the river,
+and then threads its way among morasses, and over soil white with salt, and
+burning under the rays of the sun. Once in the year this route is crowded
+with pilgrims, who come to pay their devotions at the spot where it is
+supposed that the Three Marys, Mary, the mother of James, Mary Salome, and
+their servant Sara, landed. The legend is somewhat mixed. According to one
+version, those who came to Provence, flying from the persecution raised by
+the Jews, were Lazarus, Mary Magdalene, and Martha. Lazarus, as we have
+seen, has been appropriated by Marseilles as its apostle; Martha has been
+settled at Tarascon, and Mary Magdalene has been given a cell in La Sainte
+Baume. Here, at Les Saintes Maries, however, the apostolic three are
+said to be Mary, mother of James, Mary, wife of Cleopas, and Sara, their
+servant; but a concession to the other tradition is made, in that it is
+allowed that these three brought with them Lazarus and Martha.
+
+Nothing was known of all this till the time of good King René. The church
+at this point was called in the sixth century S. Maria de Ratis, S. Mary of
+the Boats, by S. Cæsarius, Bishop of Arles. William, Count of Provence, in
+his will, A.D. 992, gives it the same designation; so Raimbald, Archbishop
+of Arles in A.D. 1061, "The Church of the Ever Virgin Mother of God, Mary
+of the Boats." So also Bertrand II., Count of Provence, at the same date.
+Two bulls of popes in 1123 and 1200 speak of the church as that of S. Mary
+on the Sea. So does Gervais of Tilbury. In 1241 Raymond Berengarius, Count
+of Provence, entitles it Notre Dame de la Mer. And so it continued to be
+called in documents down to 1395. If not Our Lady of the Sea, it was S.
+Maria de la Mar, of the Mere, the Lagoon.
+
+However, in 1448, King René took it into his head that Mary and the Mere
+were distinct persons, that Mary was not, could not be, the Virgin, she
+must be one of the other Marys; so with a little putting together of heads
+and puzzlement, he and his advisers decided that the two Marys were Mary,
+the mother of James, and Mary Salome. The next thing to be done was to find
+their bodies there, but that naturally presented no difficulty. There were
+bones there--from Pagan times. Since that date a great pilgrimage has taken
+place annually to Les Saintes Maries; and the curé of Les Baux, being very
+satisfied that the Trémaïé in his parish must be the Three Marys, erected
+a chapel under the rock sculptured with the figures of Marius, Martha, and
+Julia.
+
+The Magdalen is probably a personation of the perished city of Maguelonne,
+as one of the Marys is the Mar or Mere; and Martha, there can hardly be
+a question, is the Syrian prophetess who accompanied Marius, but who in
+her place inherited the attributes and cult of Martis, the Phoenician
+goddess, venerated, doubtless, at all the settlements of these mercantile
+adventurers along the coast.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+TARASCON.
+
+
+Position of Tarascon and Beaucaire opposite each other--Church of S.
+Martha--Crypt--Ancient paintings--Catechising--Ancient altar--The
+festival of the Tarasque--The Phoenician goddess Martha--Story of S.
+Fronto--Discussion at _déjeuner_ over the entry of M. Carnot
+into Marseilles--The change in the French
+character--Pessimism--Beaucaire--Font--Castle--Siege by Raymond VII.--Story
+of Aucassin and Nicolette.
+
+
+Tarascon and Beaucaire stand frowning at each other across the Rhone, each
+with its castle; Beaucaire a grand pile on a crag, Tarascon dipping its
+feet in the water, and sulkily showing to its enemy a plain face, reserving
+all its picturesqueness for its side towards the town. This castle of
+Tarascon was one in which King René resided, as well as in that at Aix, but
+the Aix castle is gone, and that at Tarascon remains. Beaucaire belonged
+to the counts of Toulouse, whereas Tarascon, as already said, belonged to
+Provence. I do not like to venture on an explanation of the name, but the
+_Tar_ with which it begins is most probably the Keltic _Daur_, water. [1]
+But the Tarasconese will not hear of this. To them the name is taken from
+the Tarasc, a monster that devastated the whole country round, but whom S.
+Martha bridled and slew. S. Martha, as we have already seen, is the very
+prophetess who directed Caius Marius in his campaign against the Teutons
+and Ambrons, the devastating horde that has in the popular imagination been
+represented as a dragon. The body of S. Martha is supposed to lie in the
+crypt, in an early Christian marble sarcophagus, probably brought from the
+Alyscamp at Arles, representing Moses striking the rock, and the miraculous
+feeding of the multitude, the miracle of Cana, and the resurrection of
+Lazarus.
+
+[Footnote 1: _Gwask_, in Breton, is _contraction_, and at Tarascon the
+river is drawn together by the opposed points of Beaucaire and Tarascon.
+This may perhaps form the second syllable.]
+
+[Illustration: Early altar, Tarascon.]
+
+[Illustration: Spire of S. Martha's Church, Tarascon.]
+
+In this crypt is a Corinthian capital turned upside down and converted into
+a holy water stoup; also a very early and curious altar, the slab of which
+is just two feet square, and has in the midst a square hole cut, probably
+of later date, for the reception of relics; the height of the altar is
+three feet three and a-half inches, it is of a porous stone that has become
+greatly corroded with weather. It is probably the earliest Christian altar
+in France.
+
+In the crypt is a life-size representation of the entombment of S. Martha,
+with figures standing round, Christ at the head, and S. Pronto at the feet.
+
+[Illustration: Iron door to safe in S. Martha's Church.]
+
+The church of S. Martha is of the fourteenth century, with the exception of
+the south portal, which dates from 1187, and is rich in its deeply-recessed
+mouldings filled with sculpture, but has been sadly mutilated. Within the
+church is some very fine ironwork, a grille dividing the choir from the
+side aisles, and a charming iron safe let into the wall on the north side,
+of ironwork painted and gilt. There are moreover some quaint paintings; an
+ancient altarpiece representing S. Rocque, between S. John and S. Laurence,
+on a gold ground; a S. Mary Magdalen with the portrait of a canon kneeling
+at her feet; the finest painting is S. Michael, also with a canon kneeling
+below. The armour of the archangel is very rich, and heightened with gold.
+The date of these pictures is 1513. There is another of the Nativity that
+is inferior. Whilst looking round the church, I heard singing muffled and
+distant, and presently, on reaching the steps that descended to the crypt,
+found that a young priest was there catechising a class of little girls.
+After some instructions they sang a hymn, which a Sister of Mercy was
+accompanying on the harmonium. The air was taking. It puzzled me at first.
+It was familiar and yet strange, and not till the children had reached the
+last verse did I recognise a wonderfully distorted form of the mermaid's
+song in _Oberon_, all the accents being altered. In this crypt is the tomb
+of a Neapolitan knight attached to the court of king René; and in the
+floor a well the water of which rises and falls with the river. In all
+probability this crypt was originally the baptistery of the first basilica
+erected in Tarascon.
+
+[Illustration: King René's castle, Tarascon.]
+
+The castle of King René is wonderfully picturesque on the landside. It was
+begun in 1400; he is said to have instituted the festival of the Tarasque,
+that used to be conducted with great merriment annually on July 29th.
+
+A procession of mummers attended by the clergy paraded the town, escorting
+the figure of a dragon, made of canvas, and wielding a heavy beam of wood
+for a tail, to the imminent danger of the legs of all who approached. The
+dragon was conducted by a girl in white and blue, who led it by her girdle
+of blue silk, and when the dragon was especially frolicsome and unruly
+dashed holy water over it.
+
+The ceremony was attended by numerous practical jokes, and led to acts of
+violence, in consequence of which it has been suppressed.
+
+S. Martha has inherited the symbols of the Phoenician goddess of her own
+name, the ship and the dragon; there can be little doubt that the first
+Phoenician settlers in Provence introduced her worship as the patroness
+of sailors, and that this worship acquired a fresh impulse after the
+destruction of the Teutons who had overrun the land, when the prophetess
+Martha was regarded as one with the earlier goddess. When Christianity came
+in, the name of the hostess of Bethany was given to the churches erected
+where Martha the moon goddess had been venerated before, so as gradually to
+wean the heathen from their old faith. They came over into the Church, but
+brought with them their myth of the pagan goddess.
+
+[Illustration: A bit in Tarascon.]
+
+An odd legend is told of her death.
+
+On a Sunday morning, S. Fronto, bishop of Perigeux was about to say Mass,
+and whilst waiting for the congregation to assemble, fell asleep in his
+chair, when he saw Christ appear, who bade him come and assist at the
+obsequies of Martha. Instantly he found himself translated to Tarascon,
+in the church with our Lord, he at the feet and Christ at the head of the
+body, and the Saviour sang the burial office. In the meantime at Perigeux,
+the deacon wondered at the heavy sleep of the bishop, and had much ado to
+rouse him. At length Fronto opened his eyes, when the deacon whispered that
+the people were impatient with long waiting.
+
+"Do not be troubled," said Fronto, "you do not understand what I have been
+about."
+
+Now it fell out that whilst at Tarascon Fronto was engaged in burying
+Martha, he had taken off his glove and ring, and had put them into the
+hands of the sacristan. When Fronto informed the congregation at Perigeux
+what he had been about, they disbelieved. However, messengers were sent
+to Tarascon, and his glove and ring were identified. These were preserved
+as relics in the church till the Revolution. Unfortunately for the story,
+Fronto of Perigeux belongs to the fourth century, so that the lapse in
+dream was not merely a skip over half France, but also through four
+centuries.
+
+Tarascon has some picturesque bits in the town, arcades with shops
+underneath, and quaint doorways of Renaissance work; but its chief charm
+after the castle is certainly the view across the river to the heights of
+Beaucaire with its grand ruins.
+
+I lunched at an hotel where, nearly opposite me, was a gentleman who had
+been at Marseilles on the arrival of the President, and was very full of
+what he had seen. At the table were half-a-dozen beside myself, and he held
+forth to them on the spectacle. Opposite him sat a bullet-headed commercial
+traveller.
+
+"But," said the latter, "I would not have crossed the Rhone by the bridge
+of Tarascon to have seen him. What is M. Sadi-Carnot? He is naught."
+
+"No, but he represents the nation. Give us a pump as president, and we must
+garland that pump with flowers. And believe me, c'est un vilain métier cet
+de président. If he leans a little too much on this side he goes down into
+the mud, a little too much on the other he rolls in the dust. One must
+feel some respect for the man who undertakes such a thankless office. And,
+again, when a man rides in an open landau in pelting rain, when il lui
+pleut dans le nez, without an umbrella, with his hat off, saluting right
+and left, he deserves recognition."
+
+"It was not worth the cost of his entertainment. I am surprised that
+Marseilles did it."
+
+"I beg pardon. It was worth while doing it. Had the weather been fine, it
+would have brought money into the town."
+
+"What! Would any English and American travellers desert Montecarlo for a
+day to see a Sadi-Carnot?"
+
+"No, but every woman in Marseilles would have bought a new kerchief or a
+trinket to make herself smart, just because it was a fête. As it was, money
+circulated."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"One thousand and ninety-seven umbrellas were sold that day at prices
+ranging from five to fifteen francs, which on other occasions sell for two
+francs twenty-five centimes, and ten francs."
+
+I do not know whether I have been peculiarly unfortunate in lighting on
+only one class of men under the present _régime_, but whether it be in
+France, Switzerland, Belgium, or Italy, that I have come across Frenchmen
+and had a talk with them of late years, I have noticed a prevailing
+discouragement, a pessimism, that certainly was absent in former days. The
+very character of a French _table d'hôte_ is changed. Instead of Gallic
+vivacity, merriment, and general conversation, such as one was wont to
+find there, one encounters silence, reserve, and a marked absence of
+self-assertion. It is the Germans who are now boisterous and self-assertive
+at table. The French are quiet and subdued. As I have already said, I may
+be mistaken; I may have hit on exceptional cases, but it is a fact that
+those Frenchmen I have conversed with during the last two or three years
+have been oppressed with a conviction that France has lost caste among the
+nations, that her future is menaced, and they say that they see no way out
+of their present condition.
+
+As one said to me last winter in Rome: "The idea of France is an
+abstraction. We range ourselves now under parties, our devotion is no
+longer to our country but to our party. Have you ever been at a stag hunt?
+When the noble beast is down the huntsman slices it open and throws the
+heart and liver and entrails to the hounds. Then ensues a battle. Every dog
+snatches at what he desires, and envies the other the piece of offal he has
+secured. All are filled with hatred of each other, and selfish greed as to
+who can eat most and the best morsels of the fallen beast. And that is a
+picture of France. If war came upon us, we must infallibly be overthrown,
+for each general would be seeking out of the accidents of warfare to steal
+an advantage for himself or the party he favours."
+
+The town of Beaucaire, on the farther side of the Rhone, is fuller of
+picturesque points than is Tarascon. Seated at the head of the Beaucaire
+Canal, that communicates with the sea, it has that commercial prosperity
+which is lacking at Tarascon. The old church is an exact reproduction of
+that of S. Martha, but has in addition a most remarkable font, a structure
+rising in stages like a tower, and with a spire to cap it, resembling
+somewhat the sacramental tabernacles in the German churches. The Hôtel de
+Ville is a picturesque Renaissance building with bold open staircase on
+pillars. The castle of Beaucaire crowns the ridge of limestone that extends
+across the country from Nimes and is cut through by the Rhone, again
+emerging, in a low eminence, at Tarascon. This noble castle was taken by
+Simon de Montfort in the Albigensian War from the Count of Toulouse, but
+the youthful Raymond VII., though only nineteen years old, laid siege to it
+in 1216, and succeeded in recovering it. In this siege, the inhabitants of
+the town, under the young count, assailed the castle. Simon de Montfort
+collected an army and attacked Raymond in the rear. There is a very curious
+account of this siege in a Provençal poem on the Albigensian War, from
+which I will quote a few lines, only premising that in the original the
+castle is called the Capitol:--
+
+"The townsmen set up their engines against the Crusaders in the castle, and
+so battered it that castle and watch-tower were broken, beams and lead and
+stone. At Holy Easter the battering-ram was made ready, long, iron-headed,
+sharp, which so struck and cut that the wall was injured, and the stones
+began to fall out. But the besieged were not discouraged; they made a loop
+of cords attached to a wooden beam, and with that they caught the head of
+the ram and held it fast. This troubled those of Beaucaire sore; till the
+master engineer came, and he set the ram in motion once more. Then several
+of the assailants got up the rock, and began to detach portions of the wall
+with their picks. This the besieged were ware of, and they let down upon
+them sulphur and pitch and fire in sackcloth by a chain along the wall,
+and when it blazed it broke forth and was spilt over the workmen, and
+suffocated them so that not one could there continue. Then they went to
+their machines for casting stones, and they threw them with such effect
+into the castle as to break all the beams thereof."
+
+Beaucaire castle is now in ruins, but the Romanesque chapel remains in
+tolerable condition. In it Louis IX. is said to have heard Mass before
+he embarked for the crusade to Egypt. The pretty old Provençal poem of
+Aucassin and Nicolette, which has been recently translated into English by
+Mr. Andrew Lang and daintily published, has its scene laid at Beaucaire.
+Tieck gave a version of it in his "Phantasus."
+
+[Illustration: The chapel of Beaucaire Castle.]
+
+As we are on the very scene of this graceful little tale, I must give
+the essence of it. The romance, which dates from the second half of the
+thirteenth century, is in prose, mingled with scraps of rhyme, destined to
+be sung, and with their musical notation given. At the head of each scrap
+of verse comes the rubric "Now is to be sung," and the prose passages are
+headed, "Now is to be said."
+
+Aucassin was the son of the Count of Beaucaire. He was fair of face, with
+light curled hair and grey eyes. Now there was a viscount in the town who
+had bought of the Saracens a little maid, and he taught her the Christian
+faith, and had her baptised and called Nicolette.
+
+Then said the Count of Beaucaire to his son Aucassin that he should go to
+battle and win his spurs and be dubbed a knight. Aucassin replied that he
+had no wish to be a knight, unless his father would give him Nicolette "ma
+douce mie" to wife. The count is indignant. He says that his son must marry
+the daughter of a king or of a count; but Aucassin replies that were an
+empress offered him he would refuse her for Nicolette. Thereat the count
+goes to the viscount and bids him give up the little maid that he may burn
+her as a witch. The viscount hesitates, and promises he will put her out
+of reach of Aucassin. Thereupon he shuts her up in a tower, along with
+her nurse, where there is but a single window. And the count promises his
+son that he shall have his "douce mie" if he will go to fight against the
+mortal enemy of their house, the Count of Vallence. Aucassin believes his
+father; goes and captures the count. Then the father refuses to fulfil his
+promise. Aucassin in a rage releases the Count of Vallence, and the Count
+of Beaucaire imprisons his son in a tower of the castle.
+
+One moonlight night, when her nurse is asleep, Nicolette ties the
+bedclothes together and lets herself down out of the window, escapes from
+the town, and goes under the castle, where she hears Aucassin lamenting in
+his prison. She speaks to him and he replies.
+
+But (as it is ascertained that she has escaped) the guard are sent forth in
+search of her, with orders to run her through the body if found. However,
+the chief officer of the guard is a merciful man, and so, as he goes about,
+he sings a song to warn her, and she hides in the shadow of the tower till
+the watch is gone by and then flies away into the forest land. There she
+builds herself a hut. When no tidings of Nicolette are heard, the Count of
+Beaucaire lets his son forth from prison. One day, as Aucassin rides in the
+forest, he lights on the cabin of his dear Nicolette, and they resolve to
+fly together. So they take a boat on the Rhone and they are washed down
+towards the sea, captured by Saracen pirates and separated. Aucassin is
+ransomed and returns home. Nicolette stains her face, makes her escape,
+obtains a _vielle_, and travels about Provence, singing ballads. She comes
+to Beaucaire, where Aucassin is now count, his father having died, and
+sings to her hurdy-gurdy the song of her adventures. The tears run down his
+cheeks, and he promises her rich gifts if she will tell him more. Then she
+goes to the viscountess--the viscount is dead--washes off the walnut juice,
+dresses in best array, is seen and recognised by Aucassin, they are married
+with great pomp, and are happy ever after. A dear little innocent story,
+fresh and sweet with the springtime bloom of early literature, withal full
+of curious pictures of the feelings of the time relative to chivalry,
+monachism, and religion.
+
+[Illustration: Beaucaire Castle from Tarascon.--Sunset.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+NIMES.
+
+
+The right spelling of Nimes--Derivation of name--The fountain--Throwing
+coins into springs--Collecting coins--Symbol of Agrippa--Character of
+Agrippa--What he did for Nimes--The Maison Carrée--Different idea of
+worship in the Heathen world from what prevails in Christendom--S.
+Baudille--Vespers--Activity of the Church in France--Behaviour of the
+Clergy in Italy to the King and Queen--The Revolution a blessing to
+the Church in France--Church services in Italy and in France--The
+Tourmagne--Uncertainty as to its use--Cathedral of Nimes--Other
+churches--A canary lottery--Altars to the Sun--The sun-wheel--The Cross of
+Constantine--Anecdote of Fléchier.
+
+
+I pray the reader to observe how I spell the name of Nimes, with neither an
+s nor a circumflex, neither as Nismes, nor as Nîmes, for both are wrong.
+Nimes is Nemausus, and there is no s to be sounded or suppressed in the
+ancient name of the place, which comes from the Keltic _naimh_, a fountain
+or spring. And in very truth no other name could better suit it, for here
+under a limestone hill wells up the river in one large flood sufficient
+for boats to go on it at once. This great green spring, ever flowing,
+mysterious even nowadays, is the great feature of Nimes, and this fountain
+certainly awoke the veneration of the old Gauls, who believed it to be a
+direct gift of the gods. One follows up a canal between streets planted
+with trees, and looks down into the pure water like liquid green glass,
+then suddenly reaches a garden. Above rises a wooded hill, thick with
+pines, syringa, Judas tree of brilliant pink lake, laburnum with its chains
+of gold, forming an arc of flowers, and sees before one a wide enclosed
+pool, walled round, of the shape of the figure 8, heaving with cold pure
+water that flows away under the terrace and falls with a roar to the lower
+level of the canal. On one side are ruins--of a temple to the Nymphs; but
+one cannot at first look at that, the volume of water engages one--a lake
+lifting itself up by its own strength out of the earth, always, night and
+day, inexhaustible, hardly varying in volume, coming no one knows whence,
+deep and green, with no visible bottom, without a bubble, without a
+ruffle--it is indeed wonderful. I have seen the spring of the Danube at
+Donaueschingen: it is nothing to this; the fountain of Vaucluse one can
+understand--it breaks out from a cave in the mountainside, like scores of
+others; this is otherwise--a river rising with no fuss, no display, no
+noise, without even a ripple.
+
+It does not gush, it does not boil up. It is simply one glassy surface, and
+looking at it you cannot conceive that it is a river rising vertically and
+sliding away under your feet. Pliny says of the source of the Clitumnus:
+"At the foot of a little hill covered with venerable and shady trees, a
+spring issues which, gushing out in different and unequal streams, forms
+itself, after several windings, into a spacious basin, so extremely clear
+that you may see the pebbles, and the little pieces of money that are
+thrown into it, as they lie at the bottom." I have quoted this passage, not
+because the source of the Clitumnus at all resembles that of the river at
+Nimes, but because of the mention of the coins thrown in. Suetonius speaks
+of this same practice in his life of Augustus. Now this fountain at Nimes
+has yielded, and yields still, an almost inexhaustible supply of Roman and
+Gaulish and Gallo-Greek coins that have been thus thrown in as oblations to
+the nymphs in remote times; and these coins are now in the museums of
+Nimes and Paris, and in those of private collectors. The same custom still
+remains, but instead of coins, pins are now cast into springs.
+
+[Illustration: In the public gardens, Nimes.]
+
+At the entrance to the public gardens, over the iron gate is a medallion
+representing a crocodile and a palm-tree. The moment I saw it I stood still
+and stared. I knew that symbol, had known it from a boy. And this is how
+I came to know it. Living much in the south of France, and having always
+a hankering after old things, I collected coins, and I got them from the
+priests. The peasants were wont to drop old Roman coins which they found
+in their fields into the offertory bags and plates, and as these were of
+no use to the _curés_, they were very glad to give or sell them to me for
+small current sous. By this means I succeeded in making a very tolerable
+collection of Roman coins at an incredibly small cost. Now among these, one
+of the very first I got, and most curious, represented Octavius and Agrippa
+on one side, and on the reverse this identical symbol of a crocodile under
+a palm tree. Often enough did I turn that coin over and wonder what it
+meant, and highly delighted was I to discover its signification at length.
+It was symbolical of the subjugation of Egypt, and was struck in compliment
+to Agrippa. Then most assuredly Agrippa had something to do with Nimes. I
+turned to a little history of the place that I had, and to my delight found
+that he it was who is held to have been the great benefactor, indeed maker,
+of this little town.
+
+I have the greatest possible respect for Agrippa. His stern, yet noble
+face, once seen in this bust is never to be forgotten, and infinitely
+sad--sad beyond comparison in history is the story of his family.
+
+He was a man of obscure, plebeian birth, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa,
+belonging to a family, the Vipsanian, of which the gentlemen of Rome
+professed never to have heard, or not to have found it necessary to trouble
+their heads to learn anything. He was a fine soldier, a man of plain
+manners, good morals, upright, faithful, unambitious. Octavius Augustus was
+warmly attached to him, and valued his good qualities and his admirable
+military genius; and Agrippa on his side was tenderly devoted to his
+noble friend. Their characters were as unlike as their faces and as their
+manners. When Octavius became the supreme ruler of the destinies of Rome,
+he heaped honours on his friend. He made him put away his wife and marry
+his own daughter Julia. He had children by her, Caius and Lucius, who grew
+to man's estate and then died, one from a wound, the other of decline,
+and another son, an ill-conditioned boy, Agrippa Posthumus, put to death,
+probably by order of Octavius, a commission given on his own deathbed, to
+save Rome from internecine war.
+
+His daughter, Agrippina, starved herself to death, heartbroken at the
+murder of her two sons by Tiberius, and despairing at the thought that her
+other son, the crazy, debauched, cruel Caligula was alone left to represent
+her family. The other daughter of Agrippa, Julia, was infamous for her
+debaucheries, and died in banishment. The family was then represented by
+the second Agrippina, daughter of the first Agrippina, who became the
+mother of Nero--that son who was his mother's and his brother's murderer,
+and died finally by his own hand, amidst the execrations of the Roman
+world.
+
+The sad shadow that lies on the brow of Agrippa almost seems to be cast
+there by the destiny awaiting his family. Not one drop of his blood mingled
+with the sacred _ichor_ of the Julian race remains on earth. But other
+remnants of Agrippa abide. The Pantheon of Rome, and the Pont du Gard near
+Nimes, aye--and the baths he made for the washerwomen in the water he led
+into this town, that they might not sully the sacred spring that welled up
+before the temple of the Nymphs.
+
+Agrippa in his various offices and governorships accumulated great wealth,
+but he was not a grasping man, nor one who spent his wealth upon himself.
+Wherever he was, he expended his fortune on improving and embellishing the
+cities under his sway. Thus it was that for quite an inconsiderable little
+town, which the classic authors pass over without notice, he lavished very
+large sums to provide it with excellent water from two springs twenty-five
+miles distant, not that the river that rises at Nimes is impure, but that
+a certain awe felt for it withheld the natives from desecrating the sacred
+waters to common use.
+
+The Pont du Gard which carried the waters by three tiers of arches across
+the valley of the Gurdon, at a height of one hundred and eighty feet, is
+one of the most striking and perfect of the monuments left by the Romans
+in Gaul, or anywhere; and it is certainly remarkable that the two most
+complete relics of this great people that remain, should have been the work
+of Agrippa, the Pantheon and the Pont du Gard. This latter is a colossal
+work. Its length is 873 feet at top, and may well be compared to its
+advantage with the modern aqueduct that conveys water to the Prado of
+Montpellier, a more lengthy, but a feeble structure.
+
+[Illustration: The Pont du Gard.]
+
+The Roman remains in Nimes are held famous everywhere. Nowhere, least of
+all in Rome, are the relics of that great people of builders to be seen in
+such perfection. There is the amphitheatre, smaller, but more perfect even,
+than that at Arles. There is the _Maison Carrée_, a temple almost quite
+perfect, and of surpassing proportional perfection. Small this temple
+is: it consists of thirty elegant Corinthian columns, ten of which are
+disengaged, and form the portico, whereas the remainder are engaged in the
+_naos_ or sanctuary. No engraving can give an idea of its loveliness. It is
+the best example we have in Europe, of a temple that is perfectly intact.
+It is mignon, it is cheerful, it is charming. I found myself unable at any
+time to pass it without looking round over my shoulder, again and again,
+and uttering some exclamation of pleasure at the sight of it.
+
+[Illustration: The Maison Carrée, Nimes.]
+
+That temple is instructive in a way the ordinary traveller would hardly
+suspect. It is a valuable example to us of the complete and radical
+difference that existed between the Pagan and the Christian ideas of
+worship. The Pagan world had no idea of gathering a congregation together,
+any more than I may say have the old canons of Florence, or of S. Peter's,
+Rome, who shut themselves into glass boxes, of bringing all men into one
+building to unite in prayer and praise. The sanctuaries of the Pagan gods
+were quite small and dark. Worship was simply an individual matter, a
+bringing of a sacrifice to an altar. There was nothing like congregational
+worship in the Jewish temple either. The priest alone went within to offer
+the incense, whilst the people stood without. But in the Christian church
+the condition of affairs was completely reversed. The worship of God was to
+be for all the people, all together, with one heart and one voice. That is
+why the early Christians in the fourth century never adapted a temple to a
+church. A temple could not be adapted. The pillars were all outside, and
+within was a little dark box--the sanctuary--that would not hold more than
+a couple of score of persons. They could not use the temples; what they
+wanted were temples turned outside-in, the pillars within forming great
+halls in which a crowd might be gathered.
+
+I had been looking at this delightful little temple and considering this,
+and it was a Sunday. I sauntered on, this still on my mind, when I fell in
+with trains of school children, all drifting in one direction. I followed
+them, and found myself in the great new church of S. Baudille. The time
+was afternoon. The church, quite a cathedral in size, was crowded, boys'
+schools, girls' schools, men, women, of all sorts and ranks were there.
+Then I heard such a service as did the heart good to hear. It was only
+vespers--just five psalms, a hymn, and the Magnificat; nothing more.
+But the psalms were sung in alternate verses between the choir and the
+congregation, who knew every word and every note, and sang lustily from
+their hearts' depths, the plain old Gregorian tones with which many of us
+are so familiar at home. I found the words welling up in my mind: "The
+voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the
+voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God Omnipotent
+reigneth." I was glad there was no one with me as we dispersed, to speak to
+me. I could not have answered, my heart was too full. But I went back to
+the Maison Carrée, and looked again at it for long, and then realised, in
+a way I had never realised before, how that the Carpenter of Nazareth had
+transformed the whole idea of worship into something of which the world
+previously had no conception.
+
+To the ordinary English traveller the services in a foreign Roman Catholic
+church are so unintelligible that I may be excused if I say a word on
+vespers that may enable him to understand it. Usually--always on week
+days--two evening services, vespers and compline are said together, or
+rather one immediately after the other. Each consists of confession and
+absolution, a short Scriptural lesson, psalms, a canticle, a hymn and
+collects. The canticle for vespers is the Magnificat; for compline is the
+Nunc Dimittis.
+
+Now as the two services were practically united, what our Reformers did was
+to weld them together. They cut out the second confession and absolution
+and the second batch of psalms, but retained the second lesson and the
+second canticle. The English even-song is therefore simply the Latin
+vespers and compline pressed into a single service. The Reformers, by
+putting a psalm as alternative for each canticle, perhaps intended the
+English even-song to serve as either vespers (when Magnificat was sung) or
+as compline (when Nunc Dimittis was sung).
+
+When I was in Rome during the winter, I was very much astonished, one day,
+as the King of Italy passed, to see a whole school of little boys under the
+direction of three Christian Brothers, strut by with their little noses in
+the air, and without raising their hats. At the same pension with myself
+was a young Swiss Benedictine monk, who sat by me at _table d'hôte_, and
+with whom I struck up a warm friendship. I commented to him on what I had
+seen. "Oh!" he replied, "we make a point of never saluting the king. Why,"
+he continued, "only yesterday I was walking down the Corso with Cardinal
+U----, when we saw the queen's carriage approaching. I asked what was to be
+done. His eminence replied, 'Keep your hat on, don't notice her.'"
+
+I confess that my English blood boiled up, and for the first and last time
+I spoke sharply to my friend. I believe I made a certain allusion to an
+injunction of S. Paul, and told him plainly that I thought such conduct
+unbecoming in a gentleman and a Christian, and a priest.
+
+On entering France ones sees what devastation the Revolution wrought on the
+Church, and one compares the condition there with the very light and easy
+way in which she has been taken out of her temporal throne and seated on
+the ground in Italy. She has been treated there too easily, so easily that
+she pouts, and frets, and sulks; whereas in France she has been an Antæus
+who rose from the ground stronger than when cast down. In Rome, the Church
+shuffles along in her old slouching, hands-in-the-pockets, half-asleep,
+don't-care style, letting every opportunity slip away, neglected by the
+people, because she neglects them. In France, the Church is tingling with
+fresh life-blood to her fingers' ends, full of energy, activity, zeal. Why,
+there is not to be found in Rome, or Florence, or Naples, a church where a
+tolerable service is to be heard sung. In Rome one gets sick of and angry
+with the squalling of eunuchs, and longs for a scourge of small cords to
+drive them out of the temple. No one cares for the Church services in Rome.
+No attempt is made to attract the people to them. At Florence the service
+is like the bleating of a flock of sheep driven into a pen to be shorn, and
+the old canons who baa are enclosed within glass against draughts, and to
+the exclusion of all congregational worship. But in France, the people who
+have any religion in them love their services--love them and have made them
+their own, sing in them and follow them with eager interest. I remember,
+when I was a youth in France, that few men were seen in church, and the
+ladies lounged through the service. It is not so now, you see as many men
+in church as you will in England, and the women are attentive and devout.
+The Italian Church must suffer deeper humiliation, and learn to touch her
+cap to "the powers that be, ordained of God," before the people will rally
+to her and show her reverence.
+
+On the summit of the hill above the fountain and temple of the Nymphs is
+a most puzzling building, the _Tourmagne_. It is of Roman construction,
+a great tower like that of Babel, in stages, the upper stage with
+semicircular recesses that sustained the external wall, now in part fallen.
+No one can tell its purpose. It has clearly been utilised since its first
+construction by the Romans, by making it an angle tower of some other
+building, the foundations of which have been quite recently exposed. The
+tower is octagonal. It resembles the structure of the lighthouse at Ostia,
+already mentioned as in the Torlonia gallery. But why a lighthouse here? It
+is true that to the south of Nimes was lagoon and marsh, with islets and
+strips of dry land scattered about among the tracts of water, all the way
+to the sea, but one hardly supposes such a lighthouse would have been
+raised to guide the _utriculares_ on their skin-sustained rafts. Yet for
+what other purpose it can have been raised it is hard to imagine. It stands
+on very high ground, and commands a most extensive prospect. It has long
+been, and is likely to remain, a hard nut for antiquaries to break their
+teeth upon.
+
+The cathedral of Nimes has been, not so much restored as transformed
+internally, so as to void it of much interest, but it must have been
+a curious church at one time. Externally, at the west end, is a most
+wonderful frieze, a band of rich sculpture representing the story of man
+from the Creation to the drunkenness of Noah. In one chapel within is
+an old Christian sarcophagus utilised as an altar, on it our Lord is
+represented as teacher surrounded by the apostles. S. Paul is a modern
+church good in proportion, with an admirable central octagonal tower and
+spire. The only fault to be found with the church is in the details. S.
+Baudille is a pretentious Gothic church, with two asparagus shoots as
+western towers, it has a square east end, with a really marvellously ugly
+east window. The new church of S. Perpetue is beneath criticism.
+
+[Illustration: Cathedral of Nimes.--Part of west front.]
+
+There are two Roman triumphal arches at Nimes, but neither is remarkable.
+In front of one I found a man exhibiting a cage of canaries. He had a
+little table before the cage on which small cards, each numbered, were set
+out. Then he sold among the bystanders tickets with corresponding numbers.
+There were eighteen numbers, and each card sold for a sou, and the whole
+constituted a lottery for a chain and some seals that the fellow dangled
+before the eyes of the little circle of lookers-on. The lots were taken up
+after a little persuasion and chaffering. Then he opened the cage door;
+out hopped a canary that trotted up and down the little table, and finally
+picked up one of the cards. "Number nine," called the proprietor of the
+canaries. "Which monsieur is the happy possessor of card number nine?"
+A soldier stepped forward, presented his tally, and received the silver
+watch-chain. Then all those who had been unsuccessful restored their cards,
+and the same process was repeated, this time among women, for a silver
+thimble.
+
+Nimes struck me as one of the very brightest, pleasantest towns I have ever
+visited, and the one in which, if forced to live out of England, I think I
+could live most happily in. I have said not one word about the museum at
+Nimes, which is within the Maison Carrée, and yet the museum contains some
+objects deserving of attention. There are two altars with wheels carved on
+them, both small, the largest only two feet three inches high, and that
+has on it not the wheel only, but the thunderbolt. These are altars to the
+Gaulish god of the sun. The second bears an inscription "et terræ matri."
+It was dedicated doubtless to the "sun and to the earth mother," but the
+first portion of the legend is lost. In the Avignon Museum is a statue of a
+Gaulish Jupiter in military costume, with his right hand on the wheel, and
+with the eagle on his left. [1]
+
+[Footnote 1: Others at Trèves, Moulin, and Paris.]
+
+Moreover, in the Nimes museum are some bronze circular ornaments, found in
+1883 in the caves of S. Vallon in Ardèche, representing the wheel. On the
+triumphal arch of Orange are Gaulish warriors with horned helmets, and
+wheels as crests between the horns. The wheel, as symbol of the sun, was
+very general everywhere, in the east as well as the west, among the Germans
+as well as among the Gauls, but among the latter it assumed a very special
+importance, and it is due to this fact that in the French cathedrals the
+west window is a wheel window. At Basle there is a round window in the
+minster with figures climbing and falling on the spokes, and Fortune sits
+in the midst. It is a wheel of Fortune. It is the same at Beauvais, at
+Amiens, and elsewhere. At Chartres is a representation in stained glass
+of the Transfiguration; and Christ is exhibited in glory in the midst of
+an eight-spoked wheel. A curious statue at Luxeuil, now lost, represented
+a rider protecting a lady whilst his horse tramples on a prostrate foe;
+his raised hand over the woman is thrust through a six-rayed wheel. On
+the Meuse a similar peculiarity has been noticed in a fragment of a
+sculptured figure, it is a hand holding a four-spoked wheel. In the Museum
+Kircherianum at Rome are bronze six-rayed wheels, the spokes zigzagged like
+lightnings, found at Forli, others at Modena. All these were symbols of
+the sun. Now when Constantine professed to have seen his vision, which was
+in all probability a mock-sun, he thought that the rays he saw formed the
+Greek initials of Christ, and he therefore ordered these initials, _forming
+a six-rayed wheel_, to be set up on the standards of his soldiers. The only
+difference between his "Labarum" and the symbol of the Gaulish sun-god was
+that his upper spoke was looped to form the letter P. No doubt whatever,
+that his Keltic soldiers hailed the new standard as that of their national
+god, and that when they marched against Maxentius and met him at Saxa
+Rubra, eight miles from Rome, they thought that they, as Gauls, were
+marching to a second capture of the capital of the world, under the
+protection of their national god.
+
+Among men of note that have been associated with Nimes is Fléchier, born
+at Pernes in Vaucluse in 1632, who became Bishop of Nimes in 1687. He was
+the son of a tallow-chandler. From his eloquence he was much regarded as
+a preacher, but unfortunately his discourses contain very little except
+well-rounded sentences of well-chosen words. He was a favourite of Louis
+XIV., who respected his integrity and piety. One day a haughty aristocratic
+prelate about the Court had the bad taste to sneer at him for his origin.
+"Avec votre manière de penser," replied Fléchier calmly, "je crois que si
+vous étiez né ce que je suis, vous n'eussiez fait, toute votre vie--que de
+chandelles."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+AIGUES MORTES AND MAGUELONNE.
+
+
+A dead town--The Rhônes-morts--Bars--S. Louis and the Crusades--How S.
+Louis acquired Aigues Mortes--His canal--The four littoral chains and
+lagoons--The fortifications--Unique for their date--Original use of
+battlements--Deserted state of the town--Maguelonne--How reached--History
+of Maguelonne--Cathedral--The Bishops forge Saracen coins--Second
+destruction of the place--Inscription on door--Bernard de Treviis--His
+Romance of Pierre de Provence--Provençal poetry not always immoral--Present
+state of Maguelonne.
+
+
+Aigues Mortes is a dead town, and differs from Maguelonne, to be presently
+described, in this, that it is a dead _town_, whereas Maguelonne is only
+the ghost of a dead town. It is a great curiosity, for it is a dead
+mediæval town surrounded by its walls, and dominated by its keep. But first
+about its name, which signifies Dead Waters. If the reader will remember
+what has been already said about the structure of the delta of the Rhone,
+he will recall the fact that the river is constantly engaged in changing
+its mouths. When it has formed for itself a new mouth, it deserts its
+former course, which it leaves as a stagnating canal. This occasions the
+delta to be striped with what are locally termed Rhônes-morts, whereas a
+flowing branch is called a Rhône-vif.
+
+[Illustration: Aigues Mortes.--One of the gates.]
+
+Moreover the stagnant masses of water left by floods are called Aigues
+Mortes--Dead Waters; and it is precisely on such that the little fortified
+town I am now writing about, stands. I know of no point on the littoral
+of the Rhone that offers so excellent an opportunity of observing the
+processes of that river than at Aigues Mortes. The river has, indeed, long
+ago deserted the branch that once discharged itself here, and it has left
+four lines behind it, making successive stages of advance, four bars, with
+their several backwaters, now converted into ponds or meres. The Canal of
+Beaucaire now passes by Aigues Mortes, and reaches the Mediterranean nearly
+three miles below the town.
+
+It was from Aigues Mortes that S. Louis sailed on his Crusades in 1248 and
+1270; and it has a little puzzled many people to account for his having
+chosen such a wretched place as this for the assembly of his Crusaders and
+for embarkation. But he could not help himself.
+
+[Illustration: Aigues Mortes.--Tower of the Bourgignons.]
+
+As soon as Louis had, in 1244, made his vow to assume the cross, his first
+care was to obtain on the shores of the Mediterranean a territory and a
+port sufficient for the concentration of the troops that were to from
+his expedition. But he encountered great difficulty. The king was not
+_suzerain_ over the southern provinces of France, and possessed as his own
+not a single town on the coast. The port of Narbonne was choked with sand,
+and belonged to the viscounts of that town. The port of Maguelonne was
+under the sovereignty of the bishop. The lagoons and their openings into
+the sea of Montpellier were under the King of Aragon. The ports of Agde and
+S. Gilles were subject to the counts of Toulouse, and independent Provence
+was not to be attached to the crown till three centuries later. The marshy
+district of Aigues Mortes was alone available; it was under the abbey of
+Psalmodi, planted amidst the swamps on a little sandy elevation. Louis IX.
+entered into negotiations with the abbot, and in exchange for certain royal
+domains near Sommière, he was enabled to acquire the town of Aigues Mortes
+and all the zone of lagoons between it and the sea.
+
+At that time there existed but a single fortification--the tower of
+Matafera--erected about five centuries before as a place of refuge from the
+Saracens. S. Louis restored this tower, or rather rebuilt it, in the form
+in which it remains to this day. Then he constructed a quay, and scooped
+out a canal through the lagoons to the sea. This is the old canal, now full
+of sand, and up this vessels were able to proceed through two lagoons to
+the tower of Matafera, which acquired later the name of Tour de Constance.
+But the old canal had an ephemeral existence; every inundation of the
+lagoons of the Rhone altered their depths, and disturbed the canal. A
+century or two later another canal was cut between the old one and that
+now in use, that also was destined in time to be choked up; but the old
+discharging and lading place of the vessels can still be distinguished
+by the heaps of ballast thrown out, consisting of stones from Genoa and
+Corsica. It is quite a mistake to suppose that Aigues Mortes was on the
+sea in the thirteenth century. The Crusaders embarked in the canal cut
+by S. Louis, and sailed through the lagoons before they reached the open
+Mediterranean.
+
+The most ancient maps show us Aigues Mortes bathed by one of those branches
+of the Rhone, now deserted, which go by the name of Rhônes-morts. At a time
+before history--at all events the history of Gaul begins, the Rhone had its
+principal mouth in the great Etang de Maugio; but it choked up its mouth
+there, and advanced eastward in several stages, leaving in its rear, as
+the river thus shifted its quarters, a series of dwindling and then dead
+channels.
+
+[Illustration: Sketch map of Mortes and its littoral chains.]
+
+What is now the Petit Rhône, reaching the sea at Les Saintes Maries, was
+then the main stream, which has long ago turned away, and now discharges
+its greatest body of water into the Mediterranean at Saint Louis. It has
+left behind it, not only the dead or stagnant Rhones, its neglected beds,
+but also, as already noticed, its old bars, and these are very distinctly
+marked at Aigues Mortes. The first chain gives us the primitive beach,
+which began at the lagoon of Maugio, traversed the entire Camargue, and can
+be traced to Fos. It is formed of an almost uninterrupted succession of
+sandhills crowned with a tolerably rich vegetation; on it grow the white
+poplar, the aleppo and the umbrella pines. To the south of this lay the
+prehistoric sea; the ground is horizontal, and although subjected to
+culture shows sufficient evidence that it was at one time sea-bed, covered
+with more recent alluvium. Here is the great lagoon of Loyran, which,
+before many years are passed, will be completely drained, and its bed
+turned up by the plough.
+
+Still advancing seaward, we reach a second littoral chain, not so
+distinctly marked as the first, but nevertheless distinguishable by its low
+line of sandy dunes, on which a scanty growth of tamarisks and coarse grass
+is sustained. Then we come to a succession of lagoons, once united into
+one, and after them the third bar, presenting exactly the same features--a
+low range of sand and pebbles, and beyond it once more lagoons, cut off
+from the waves of the Mediterranean by a fourth and last chain, the most
+recent, that belongs to the historic epoch.
+
+But that is not all: the wash of the sea, its current settling west, and
+carrying with it the mud of the Rhone is gradually, but surely building up
+a fifth bar or bank, which will in time close the gulf from the point of
+Espignette to the bathing-place of Palavas, when the Gulf of Aigues Mortes
+will be converted into a second Etang de Berre.
+
+[Illustration: Map of THE COAST OF PROVENCE & LANGUENDOC showing Old
+Lagoons & Deserted River Mouths]
+
+Aigues Mortes is surrounded by its mediæval fortifications just as they
+were left by Philip the Bold, son of S. Louis. The plan of the town is
+almost quadrilateral, it has six gates and fifteen towers. Only one angle
+of the parallelogram is cut off, where stands the stately circular tower
+of Constance. The streets are laid out in the most precise manner, cutting
+each other at right angles; there are four churches, of which the principal
+is Notre Dame des Sablons. The others were all formerly attached to
+monasteries or convents.
+
+[Illustration: Original use of battlements.--(_From Viollet-le-Duc._)]
+
+The plan of the fortification is precisely that adopted by the Crusaders
+wherever they built defences, in Syria, in Cyprus, in Palestine. The walls
+are crenellated, usually without machicolations, pierced with long slots,
+and with square holes through which beams were thrust, supporting wooden
+balconies which commanded the bases of the walls, and enabled the besieged
+to protect themselves against the efforts made by the assailants to sap the
+bases of the ramparts, or to escalade the walls. Towers, round and square
+at intervals, strengthened the walls, and formed points of vantage and of
+assembly for the besieged. Precisely similar fortifications were raised
+about the same period at Tortosa, Antioch, Ascalon, Cæsarea, &c.; but
+all these have been destroyed, only Aigues Mortes remains, an unique and
+perfect example of the systematic fortification adopted by the Crusaders
+everywhere.
+
+The reader, probably, has not given a thought to the original purpose of
+a battlement, so common on towers and churches and castles. I therefore
+venture to show what it was originally. It was a wall broken through
+with doorways into the wooden gallery that overhung, and through which
+the assailants could be kept from approaching too near to the base of
+the walls. But, after a time, these wooden galleries were found to be
+inconvenient. Means were taken by the besiegers to set them on fire.
+Consequently they were abandoned, and their places were taken by projecting
+galleries of stone, supported, not on wooden beams, but on stone corbels,
+and it is this second stage in fortification which is called machicolation.
+The battlements were retained, but were no longer roofed over. Consequently
+it is possible to tell approximately the epoch of a Mediæval fortification,
+by a look at the battlements, whether they stand back flush with the walls,
+and have the beam-holes, or whether they stand forward, bracketed out from
+the walls.
+
+[Illustration: Second stage of battlements.]
+
+Aigues Mortes is a dead town. About a third of the area within the walls is
+devoted to gardens, or is waste. The population, which in the thirteenth
+century numbered 15,000 souls, has shrunk to a little over 3,000, a number
+at which it remains stationary. It does a little sleepy trade in salt, and
+sees the barges for Beaucaire pass its walls, and perhaps supplies the
+boatmen with wine and bread. The neighbourhood is desolate. The soil is so
+full of salt that it is impatient of tillage, and produces only such
+herbs as love the sea border. But its lagoons are alive with wild fowl,
+rose-coloured flamingoes, white gulls, and green metallic-throated ducks.
+
+And now for Maguelonne. I said that Aigues Mortes was a dead town, but
+Maguelonne was the ghost of one. The best way to reach this latter very
+singular spot is to take the train from Montpellier to Villeneuve de
+Maguelonne, and walk thence to the border of the Etang. There one is pretty
+sure to find fishermen--they catch little else than eels--who will row one
+across to the narrow strip of land that intervenes between the lagoon and
+the sea. The littoral chain here is not of sand and gravel only, for a mass
+of volcanic tufa rises to the surface, and originally formed an islet in
+the sea, then, when the process began of forming a littoral belt with a
+lagoon behind it, the sands clung to this islet and spread out from it to
+left and right.
+
+On this volcanic islet stood first a Greek and then a Roman city, but of
+its history nothing is known till the sixth century, when it was attacked
+from the sea by Wamba, King of the Visigoths. It had been an episcopal city
+for a century before. After the Visigoths came the Saracens, who gave the
+place their name, and the harbour of Maguelonne was called Port Sarasin.
+In 737, Charles Martel, in order to clear the pirates completely out of
+their stronghold, destroyed the city to its last foundation, with the sole
+exception of the old church of S. Peter. The bishop took up his abode on
+the mainland at Villeneuve, and the seat of the bishopric was moved to
+Castelnau near Montpellier. For three centuries the islet was abandoned
+and left a heap of ruins. But it was restored in the eleventh century. The
+walls were again set up, and flanked with towers, and a causeway consisting
+of a chain of wooden bridges was carried across the lagoon to Villeneuve.
+The entrance to the port was closed lest it should invite Saracen pirates,
+and another opened under the walls of the town which could be rendered
+impassable by a chain at the first sign of danger. The newly-built town
+speedily showed vigour, became populous, and the harbour was filled with
+the merchandise of the Mediterranean. Two popes visited the city, Gelasius
+II. in 1118, and Alexander III. in 1162. In addition to the Cathedral of
+S. Peter, other churches were raised, dedicated to S. Augustine and S.
+Pancras. A castle with keep was erected.
+
+For several centuries Maguelonne was a sort of ecclesiastical republic, in
+which the bishop exercised the office of president. It became very rich and
+luxurious. The bishop, not too scrupulous, forged imitation Saracen coins,
+and was called to order for doing this by Clement IV. in 1266. It seemed
+to the sovereign pontiff a scandal, not that the bishop should forge the
+coins, but that he should forge them with the name of Mahomet on them as
+"Prophet of God." In 1331 statutes for the monastery on Maguelonne were
+drawn up, which proved that the discipline kept therein left much to be
+desired; and a monastic treatise on cooking that came thence shows that the
+monks and canons were consummate epicures.
+
+Maguelonne was ruined first by Charles Martel. It was again, and finally
+ruined, by Louis XIII. The castle, the walls, the towers, the monastic
+buildings--everything was levelled to the dust, with the sole exception of
+the cathedral church. The stones of the dismantled buildings encumbered the
+ground till 1708, when they were all carried off for the construction of
+the new canal which runs along the coast through the chain of lagoons from
+Cette to Aigues Mortes.
+
+"A church and its archives," says the historian of Maguelonne, "that is all
+that the revolution of fate has respected of one of the principal monastic
+centres in the south. A church in which service is no longer said, and
+archives that are incomplete. Even the very cemetery of Maguelonne has
+vanished, as though Death had feared to encounter himself in this desert,
+where naught remained save the skeleton of a cathedral. Yet what dust is
+here! Phoenician, Greek, Celtic, Roman, Christian, Mahomedan, French: A few
+tombs escaped the observation of the stone collectors of 1708, and even
+fewer inscriptions, excepting such as are found within the church, that
+is all! What a realization is this of the sentence on all things human,
+_Pulvis es_." [1]
+
+[Footnote 1: Germain: "Maguelonne et ses Évêques," 1859.]
+
+[Illustration: East end of the Church of Maguelonne.]
+
+The islet of Maguelonne is but one knot in the long thread of _cordon
+littoral_ that reaches from Cette to Aigues Mortes, and it can be reached
+on foot by land from Palavas, but the simplest and shortest route is by
+boat in half an hour over the shallow mere, nowhere over three feet six
+inches deep. The boats of the fishermen are all flat-bottomed, and the men
+have to row gingerly, lest their oars strike the bottom, or else they punt
+along. One can see as one crosses, the points of rest of the old causeway.
+The church, like that of Les Trois Maries, is feudal castle as much
+as cathedral, calculated, on occasion, to give refuge within to the
+inhabitants of the town, whilst the garrison stood on the flat roof and
+showered arrows, stones, molten sulphur and pitch upon the besiegers.
+The whole of this coast was liable to the descent of Moorish and Saracen
+pirates, consequently the same type of church prevails all along it. The
+western tower is ruinous, but the remainder of the church is in tolerable
+condition. It is cruciform, with an apse, as but very narrow windows, high
+up and few. The roof is slabbed with stone, so as to form a terrace on
+which the besieged could walk, and whence they could launch their weapons
+through the slots and between the battlements. At the south-west end of the
+church is a curious entrance door of the twelfth century, with a relieving
+arch of coloured marbles over it, and the apostles Peter and Paul rudely
+sculptured as supporters of the arch. They occupy a crouching position, and
+are sculptured on triangular blocks. In the tympanum is the Saviour seated
+in glory. But what in addition to its quaintness of design gives peculiar
+interest to this doorway is the inscription it bears:--
+
+  AD PORTVM VITE SITIENTES QVIQVE VENITE.
+  HAS INTRANDO FORES, VESTROS COMPONITE MORES.
+  HINC INTRANS ORA, TVA SEMPER CRIMINA PLORA.
+  QVICQVID PECCATVR LACRIMARVM FONTE LAVATVR.
+  B. D. IIIVIS FECIT HOC ANNO INC. DO. CLXXVIII.
+
+  Let those who will come thirsting to the gate of Life.
+  On entering these doors compose your manners.
+  Entering here pray, and ever bewail your crimes.
+  All sin is washed away in the spring of tears.
+  Bernard de Trevies made this, A.D. 1178.
+
+Now Bernard of the Three-Ways is a man who did something else--he was a
+novelist and a poet. A Canon of Maguelonne, gentle and pure of heart, he
+wrote the story of 'Pierre de Provence et la belle Maguelone,' a charming
+monument of the old Languedoc tongue worthy to range alongside with
+'Aucassin et Nicolette.' It has been translated into most European
+languages, Greek not excepted, and has become a favourite chapbook tale.
+It is still read in all cottages of France, sold at all fairs, but sadly
+mutilated at each re-edition, and in its chapbook form reduced to a few
+pages, which is but a wretched fragment of a very delightful whole. No idea
+of its beauty can be obtained without reference to the old editions, where
+it occupies a goodly volume.
+
+The story of Pierre de Provence is not one of extraordinary originality,
+but its charm lies in its general tone, healthy, pure, gentle, full of the
+freshness of chivalry in its first institution, and of religion in its
+simplicity. We probably have not got the poetic romance quite in its
+original form as it left the hands of Bernard, for Petrarch, whilst a
+student at Montpellier, was struck with it, and added some polishing
+touches, and it is the version thus improved by his master-hand that is
+believed to have come down to us. I shrink from still further condensing a
+story spoiled already by condensation, and yet do not like altogether to
+pass it over without giving the reader some idea of it.
+
+The story tells of a Peter, son of the Count of Melgueil, who, hearing that
+the King of Naples had a daughter of surpassing loveliness, determined
+to ride and see her. He had himself accoutred in armour, with silver keys
+on his helm, and on his shield; and when he reached Naples jousted in
+tournament before the fair princess, whose name was Maguelone, and loved
+her well, and she him. But, alas! the king had promised to give her to the
+Prince of Carpona in marriage, and as she felt she could not live without
+her Pierre, and Peter was quite sure he could not live without her, they
+eloped together. When the sun waxed burning hot she became very weary,
+and he led her beneath a tree, and she laid her head on his knee and fell
+asleep. Then he saw how she had in her bosom a little silken bag, and he
+lightly drew it forth and peered within to see what it contained. Then, lo!
+he found three rings that he had sent her by her nurse. Afraid of waking
+her, by replacing the bag, he laid it beside him on a stone, when down
+swooped a raven and carried it off. Peter at once folded his mantle, put it
+under the head of the sleeping girl, and ran after the bird, which flew to
+the sea and perched on a rock above it. Peter threw a stone at the raven
+and made it drop the bag into the water. Then he got a boat, moored hard
+by, jumped into the boat and went after the floating bag with the rings.
+But wind and waves rose and brushed him out to sea, and carried him across
+the Mediterranean to Alexandria, where the Sultan made him his page. In
+the meantime the fair Maguelone awoke in the green wood, and finding
+herself alone, ran about calling "Pierre! Pierre!" but received no answer.
+She spent the night in the forest, and then took the road to Rome, and
+encountering a female pilgrim, exchanged clothes with her. Maguelone
+pursued her journey, prayed in S. Peter's Church at Rome, unnoticed by her
+uncle, who, with great state, passed by her kneeling there, and threw her
+alms. Then she went on to Genoa, where she took boat to Aigues Mortes.
+Hearing at this place that there was a little island off the coast suitable
+for a hermitage, thither she went, and with her jewels she had brought from
+Naples built a little church and a hospital, in which she ministered to
+sick people. The Countess of Melgueil, hearing of the holy woman, came to
+visit her, and won by her sympathy, with many tears told her how she had
+lost her dear son Peter, who had gone to Naples, and had not been heard of
+since.
+
+One day, a fisherman caught a tunny, and brought it as a present to the
+count. When the tunny was opened, in its stomach was found a little bag
+that contained three rings. Now, no sooner did the countess see these than
+she knew they were her own, which she had given to Pierre, and she hasted
+to tell the anchorite on the isle of the wondrous discovery, and to show
+her the rings. It need hardly be told that Maguelone also recognised them.
+
+Now the Sultan of Alexandria had become so attached to Peter, that he
+treated him as his own son, and finally, at Peter's entreaty, allowed him
+to return to Provence, having first extracted from him a promise to come
+back to him. Peter carried with him a great treasure in fourteen barrels,
+but to hide their contents he filled up the tops with salt. Then he engaged
+with a captain of a trader to convey him across to Provence. Now one day
+the vessel stayed for water at a little isle, called Sagona, and Peter went
+on shore, and the sun being hot, lay down on the grass and fell asleep. A
+wind sprang up. The sails were spread. The captain called Peter. The men
+ran everywhere searching for him, could not find him, and at length were
+reluctantly obliged to sail without him. On reaching Provence the captain
+was unwilling to retain the goods of the lost man, and so gave them to the
+holy woman who ministered to the sick in the hospital she had built on a
+tiny islet off the coast. One day when Maguelone was short of salt she went
+to fetch some from the barrels given her by the ship's captain, and to her
+amazement found under the salt an incalculable treasure. With this she set
+to work to rebuild the church and her hospital.
+
+In the meantime, Peter awoke, and found himself deserted. For some time he
+remained in the island, but from want of food and discouragement fell ill,
+and would have died had not some fishermen, chancing to come there, taken
+him into their boat. They consulted what to do with the sick man, and one
+said that they had best take him to Maguelone. On hearing the name Peter
+asked what they meant. They told him that this was the name given to a
+church and hospital richly built and tended to by a holy woman, on the
+coast of Provence. Peter then entreated them to carry him to the place that
+bore so fair a name. So he was conveyed, sick and feeble, into the hostel;
+but he was so changed with sickness that Maguelone did not recognise him,
+and as she wore a veil he could not see her face.
+
+Now Maguelone, whenever she went by his bed heard him sigh, so she stood
+still one day, spoke gently to him, and asked what was his trouble. Then he
+told her all his story, and how sad his heart was for his dear Maguelone,
+whom he had lost, and might never see again. She now knew him, and with
+effort constrained her voice to bid him pray to God, with whom all things
+are possible. And when she heard him raise his voice in prayer with many
+sobs, she could not contain herself, but ran off to the church, and
+kneeling before the altar gave way also to tears, but tears of joy mingled
+with psalms of thanksgiving. Then she arose, and brought forth her royal
+robes, and cast aside those of an anchorite, and bade that Pierre should be
+given a bath and be clothed in princely garb. After which he was introduced
+into her presence. Of the joy of the recognition, of the restoration of the
+lost son to his parents, of the happy wedding, no need that I should tell.
+The church and hostel of Maguelone remained ever after as testimony to the
+virtues and piety of La Belle Maguelone, its foundress.
+
+Such is the merest and baldest sketch of this graceful tale, told by the
+very man who cut the inscription I copied from the door of the church, in
+which he served as canon. When Vernon Lee says of Provençal poetry that
+adultery--rank adultery was what it lauded, we must not forget that there
+is another side to be considered--and that the Provençal poets turned their
+pens as well to drawing pure and artless love.
+
+The land and the old church are now the property of a private gentleman,
+a M. Fabre, who has a great love for the place. I remember the church,
+when I was a child, full of hay and faggots. It is now restored to sacred
+uses, but Mass is only said therein once in the year. The proprietor
+has built a farmhouse near it, and has moved his children's bodies to
+the old cathedral, and purposes to be laid there himself, when his hour
+strikes--surrounded by waters: the sea on one side, the great mere of
+Maguelonne on the other.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+BÉZIERS AND NARBONNE.
+
+
+Position of Béziers--S. Nazaire--The Albigenses--Their
+tenets--Albigensian "consolation"--Crusade against them--The storming
+of Béziers--Massacre--Cathedral of Béziers--Girls' faces in the
+train--Similar faces at Narbonne, in Cathedral and Museum--Narbonne
+a Roman colony--All the Roman buildings destroyed--Caps of
+liberty--Christian sarcophagi--Children's toys of baked clay--Cathedral
+unfinished--Archiepiscopal Palace--Unsatisfactory work of M.
+Viollet-le-Duc--In trouble with the police--Taken for a German spy--My
+sketch-book gets me off.
+
+
+The position of Béziers is striking. It crowns a height above the Orb, its
+grand fortified church of S. Nazaire occupying the highest point, where
+it stands on a platform. This fine church is not the cathedral. In La
+Madeleine is the bishop's throne, a church that, with the exception of the
+tower and exterior of the apse, has been modernised out of all interest.
+But S. Nazaire is a stately and beautiful church of the twelfth to the
+fourteenth century, in the style of the country, very little ornamented
+externally, and very strongly fortified; even the windows being made
+impenetrable by their strong _grilles_ of iron. There are two western
+towers, small, with an arch thrown between their battlements, over the rose
+window, and this battlemented archway is in fact a screen behind which
+the besieged sheltered whilst they poured down molten pitch on those
+who assailed the gateway of the cathedral. For this purpose there is an
+open space between the screen and the façade. The apse of eight sides,
+internally is fine; and there is a beautiful octagonal apsidal chapel on
+the north side, entered from the transept.
+
+Beziers is the scene of a horrible slaughter in 1209, after the siege by
+the Crusaders under Simon de Montfort. It had been a headquarter of the
+Albigenses. As we are now entering the region reddened with the blood of
+these heretics, it will not be improper here to give a little account of
+them.
+
+The Albigenses are often erroneously confused with the Waldenses, with
+whom really they had little in common. Actually, the Albigenses were not
+Christians at all, but Manicheans. The heresy was nothing other than the
+reawakening of the dormant and suppressed Paganism of the south of France.
+There are plenty of documents which enable us to understand their peculiar
+tenets and practices.
+
+[Illustration: Béziers from the river.]
+
+They held a dualism of good and evil principles in the world, equally
+matched; and they taught that the evil principle was the origin of all
+created matter. Accordingly they rejected the Old Testament, and declared
+that all the world and man's body were of diabolic origin, and that the
+spirit only was divine. With regard to the person of Christ they were
+divided in opinion. Some said He had a phantom body, and that He seemed
+only to die on the cross. The real Christ was incapable of suffering. But
+another school among them declared that He had a true body born of Mary and
+Joseph, and that this was due to the evil principle, and that this body did
+hang on the cross. It was the Evil God of the Jews who slew Pharaoh in the
+Red Sea. They held that the Good God had two wives, Colla and Coliba, from
+whom he had many generations of spiritual beings. Of the Good Christ, the
+spiritual, they asserted, that He neither ate nor drank, that He was the
+source of all mercy and salvation, but that the Bad Christ was the carnal
+one following the Good Christ as the shadow follows the body; that this Bad
+Christ had Magdalen as his concubine. They were not agreed as to the future
+of man. Some denied the existence of souls, some said that the souls were
+fallen angels inhabiting men's bodies, others that the soul was pure and
+could only attain to blessedness by emancipation from the body, all the
+works of which were evil.
+
+The faithful of the Albigenses were divided into two orders, the "perfect,"
+who wore a black dress, abstained from flesh, eggs, cheese, and from
+marriage; and the "believers" whose salvation was to be attained by a
+certain ceremony called the "consolation." This sacrament of consolation
+was performed by one of the perfect laying his hands on the believer; and
+after consolation, the newly-consoled must starve himself to death. A great
+number of trials of Albigenses have been collected by Limborch in his
+history of the Inquisition. One only can we now give. It is that of a woman
+who had herself consoled, and sending for a surgeon, ordered him to open
+her veins in a bath, that so, the blood running out more freely, she might
+sooner die. Also she bought poison, as the bleeding did not succeed, and
+procured a cobbler's awl wherewith to pierce her heart, but as the women
+with her were undecided whether the heart were on the right side or the
+left, she took the poison, and so died. [1]
+
+[Footnote 1: We have got the Acts of the Inquisition at Toulouse during
+sixteen years, between 1307-1323. The whole number of cases reported is
+932. The usual sentence on one found guilty--unless guilty of causing death
+by "consolation"--was to wear a tongue of red cloth on the garments. Of
+such there are 174 sentences. If a case of relapse, there was sentence of
+brief imprisonment, 218 cases; 38 were reported as having run away; 40 were
+condemned to death for having caused the death of dupes by "consolation;"
+113 were let off penances previously imposed; 139 were discharged from
+prison, and 90 sentences were pronounced against persons already dead.
+_See_ Maitland's Tracts and Documents on the Albigenses, 1831.]
+
+We can understand what alarm this great heathen reaction in Provence and
+Aquitaine awoke in France, and in the minds of the popes.
+
+Innocent III. at first employed against the Albigenses only spiritual and
+legitimate weapons; before proscribing he tried to convert them, but when
+they murdered his emissary, Peter de Castelnau, in 1208, he proclaimed a
+Holy War against them. It was a war undertaken on the plea of a personal
+crime, but in reality for the dispossession of the native princes who
+were believed to be in favour of the heresy. "The crusade against the
+Albigensians," says M. Guizot, "was the most striking application of two
+principles equally false and fatal, which did as much evil to the Catholics
+as to the heretics; and these are the right of the spiritual power to
+coerce souls by the material force of the temporal power, and the right to
+strip princes of their title to the obedience of their subjects--in other
+words, denial of religious liberty to consciences, and of political
+independence to states."
+
+[Illustration: Béziers.--Church of S. Nazaire.]
+
+In 1208 Innocent summoned the King of France to sweep from southern France
+these heretics, "worse than the Saracens," and he promised to the leaders
+of the crusade the domains they won of the princes who favoured the heresy.
+The war lasted fifteen years (from 1208 to 1223) and of the two leading
+spirits, one ordering and the other executing, Pope Innocent III. and Simon
+de Montfort, neither saw the end of it. During the fifteen years of this
+religious war, nearly all the towns and strong castles in the regions
+between the Rhone, the Pyrenees, the Garonne were taken, lost, retaken,
+given over to pillage, sack, and massacre, and burnt by the Crusaders with
+all the cruelty of fanatics and all the greed of conquerors. In the account
+of the war by a Provençal poet, we are told that God never made the clerk
+who could have written the muster-roll of the crusading army in two or even
+three months. One of the first victims was the young and gallant Viscount
+of Béziers, who, the same author assures us, was a good Catholic, but whose
+lands and towns the rapacious horde lusted to acquire. When they sat down
+before Béziers, then the Catholics within the walls made common cause with
+the heretics, and refused to surrender.
+
+[Illustration: Fountain in the cloister of S. Nazaire, Béziers.]
+
+Then the city was stormed, the walls scrambled up by a rabble rout of
+camp-followers, in shirts and breeches, but without shoes, who burst over
+the parapets whilst the envoys of the town were being amused by mock
+conferences with Montfort and the other leaders of the crusading host. A
+general massacre ensued; neither age nor sex were spared, even priests
+fell. It is said that news of what was being done was brought to Arnauld,
+Abbot of Citeaux, one of the commanders of the crusade, and he was told
+that faithful and heretics were being slaughtered alike. "Slay them all,"
+said he, "God will know His own."
+
+The story is told by a contemporary, but only as an _on-dit_, and may
+therefore be quite untrue. But Simon de Montfort, the hero of the crusade,
+employed like language. One day two heretics, taken at Castres, were
+brought before him, one of whom was unshakable in his belief, the other
+expressed himself open to conviction. "Burn them both," said the count; "if
+this fellow mean what he says, the fire will expiate his sins; and, if he
+lie, he will suffer for his imposture."
+
+An attempt has been made to exculpate the leaders of the crusade from the
+atrocities committed at the capture of Béziers, and to clear them of the
+charge of treachery. It is so far certain that the town was captured and
+the massacre begun by the camp-followers, but the Crusaders soon joined in
+and accomplished the work begun by the "ribauds;" and no attempt was made
+by the leaders to stay the carnage. In the cathedral church of S. Madeleine
+some seven thousand who had taken refuge there were butchered without
+regard to the sanctity of the spot. The city was then set on fire and the
+cathedral perished in the flames.
+
+After all, it was well that the cathedral should be purged with fire, and
+rebuilt. One could not pray, one would not like to see the service of
+God rendered in a building that had been thus bespattered with blood. S.
+Nazaire is later. It was almost wholly rebuilt in the fourteenth century,
+and within it one can forget the horrors of that hateful siege and
+butchery.
+
+As I travelled on to Narbonne, there entered the carriage in which I was
+two girls with remarkable profiles, and I wondered whether they bore the
+features of the Ligurian race that first peopled all this coast, now
+probably represented by the Basques--a race akin to the Lap. These girls
+had fine dark eyes and hair, sallow complexions, and their full faces were
+not unpleasant, but their profiles were certainly most remarkable. Now
+curiously enough, on entering the cathedral at Narbonne, I saw a tomb of
+the eighteenth century with mourners represented on it--some six to eight,
+and they had all the same type of face. Not only so, but in the museum of
+the town is a Classic bust, found among the remains of Roman Narbona, and
+the same type is there.
+
+[Illustration: Types of faces, Narbonne. Modern. Sixteenth-century tomb in
+Cathedral. Classic bust in museum.]
+
+Narbonne was once a great capital. It stood on a lagoon, and did a large
+trade in the Mediterranean. It was a Roman colony, founded at the same time
+as Arles, and had its forum, capitol, baths, amphitheatre, theatre, and
+temples. But, alas! the necessity for fortifying the city in the Middle
+Ages induced the inhabitants to go to these Roman buildings and pull them
+to pieces in order with them to construct the walls and towers surrounding
+the town, and now not one of all these monuments remains. The walls have
+served, however, as a rich quarry of antiquities that have supplied the two
+great collections in the town, one in the Hôtel de Ville, the other in a
+ruined church. These collections are only second to the Avignon museum, and
+abound with objects of interest.
+
+Among the monumental stones for the dead are several with caps figured on
+them. The like are to be seen at Nimes, Avignon, and elsewhere. These are
+freedmen's caps. When a noble Roman died he left in his will that so many
+of his slaves were to be given their liberty, and then this was represented
+by caps sculptured on his tombstone.
+
+[Illustration: Freedmen's caps, Narbonne.]
+
+Thus it happened that the cap came to be regarded as the symbol of liberty.
+The museum contains a Christian sarcophagus on the staircase, with an
+orante, a woman praying with uplifted hands in the midst, on the sides the
+striking of the rock and the multiplication of the loaves. On the lid is
+the portrait of the lady who was buried in it, with hair dressed in the
+fashion worn by the Julias of the Heliogabalus and Alexander Severus epoch,
+with whose busts one becomes so familiar at Rome, 218-223--a fashion that
+never came in again, that I am aware of. Another Christian sarcophagus
+has on it the multiplication of loaves, the denial of Peter, and a
+representation of Christ unbearded, which is the earliest form. Another,
+again, represents him unbearded holding a scroll, on the right St. Peter
+and two other apostles holding rolls, and three apostles on the left; on
+the lid is an orante.
+
+In this museum may be seen one or two examples of bronze Gaulish sun-wheels
+with four and eight spokes; and, what is to me very touching, a number of
+children's toys made in clay, found in children's tombs--cocks and hens,
+pigs and horses, very rude. Similar toys are to be found in the Arles and
+the Avignon museums. I remember in the catacomb of S. Agnes at Rome is a
+whole collection of toys found in a Christian grave there, ivory dolls, a
+rattle, bells, and an earthenware money-box, just such as may be bought
+for a sou now in a foreign fair. De Rossi, the curator of the catacombs,
+has had them all put together under glass in proximity to the little grave
+where they were found. In a child's grave at S. Sebastian was found a
+little terra-cotta horse dappled with yellow spots. I suppose parents could
+not bear to see the toys of their darlings about the house, and so enclosed
+them with their dear ones in the last home. I remember a modern French
+grave, near La Rochelle; in the centre of the head-cross was a glass case,
+with a doll dinner-service enclosed, that had been a favourite toy with the
+poor little mite lying under the cross. So human hearts are the same as
+centuries roll by and religions alter.
+
+[Illustration: Children's toys in the museum, Narbonne.]
+
+The cathedral of Narbonne is very delightful, after a course of castellated
+fortress-churches of early date. It is of the fourteenth century, light,
+lantern-like, with glorious flying buttresses.
+
+The church is unfinished, it has no nave, only the lovely soaring choir,
+standing alone, like that of Beauvais; and as was that of Cologne till the
+last thirty years. Unfortunately this choir is so built round with houses
+that it is only in one place at the east end that it can be seen, and just
+there, out of delightful play of fancy, the architect has thrown a bow
+across from one flying buttress to another high up, and through this stone
+rainbow one sees the pinnacles and the sweeping arches of the buttresses
+crossing each other at every angle.
+
+The archiepiscopal palace was a fortress, with two strong towers. M.
+Viollet-le-Duc was invited by the town to take them in hand and construct
+between them a façade in keeping with their architecture, which was to be
+thenceforth the façade of the Hôtel de Ville. There was not a man in France
+who had a more intimate knowledge of Gothic architecture than he; but,
+unfortunately, like Rickman in England and Heideloff in Germany, he was
+incapable of applying his knowledge. The consequence is that he has
+produced a façade which is disfiguring to the two grand towers between
+which it is planted. Viollet-le-Duc was delighted with the grand effect
+of the face of the papal palace at Avignon, where the buttresses run up
+unstaged and then are united by bold arches that sustain the parapet and
+battlements, so he attempted the same thing at Narbonne on a smaller scale.
+Now these buttresses or piers at Avignon are 5 ft. 1 in. by 2 ft. 9 in.,
+whereas the measurements of M. le-Duc's little props are reduced to 1 ft.
+2 in. by 1 ft. 6 in. Relative proportions are changed as well as sadly
+reduced. The result is that they are ludicrous. Moreover, instead of
+sinking his façade modestly--a little, eighteen inches would have been
+enough--he has carried the face of his niggling little buttresses flush
+with the massive walls of the great towers. I wished I could have had M.
+Viollet-le-Duc there by both his ears and knocked his head against the
+abomination he has created. He had a splendid opportunity, and through
+incapacity he lost it.
+
+I got into trouble at Narbonne.
+
+As I was walking on the platform of the station, a man in plain clothes
+with very blue eyes came to me, touched his hat, and asked if he might be
+honoured with a few words privately. I at once suspected he was going to
+beg or borrow money, and said I was willing to hear what he wanted to say
+on the spot. He smiled, and said that he thought perhaps it would be better
+that we had our conversation elsewhere, outside the station. After a little
+hesitation, I complied, and when we were by ourselves, "Monsieur," said he,
+"I must request you to show me your papers and allow me to identify you.
+I am in search of some one uncommonly like yourself. I am--the _chef_ of
+the secret police down here. Will you come to my office, and bring your
+luggage?"
+
+"Certainly, delighted to make your acquaintance. I will get my Gladstone
+bag, and my roll of rugs in a moment. There is a--a hurdy-gurdy--" "I
+know there is," said the _chef_ sternly. "It is that _vielle_ that is
+suspicious."
+
+So all my luggage was conveyed to the office of the police. I showed no
+concern, but laughed and joked.
+
+"What countryman do you say you are?"
+
+"English."
+
+"Impossible. You have not the English accent when you speak. It is rather
+German than anything else."
+
+"You think I am a German?"
+
+"But certainly. Your bag has a German address on it, written in German
+characters." So it had. I had been in Germany before going to Rome, and had
+never removed the address, which, as he said, was in German characters. I
+explained, but the _chef_ was unsatisfied. I became now convinced that he
+thought I was a spy.
+
+"Here are German newspapers and a German book in your bag!" said the
+_chef_.
+
+"Certainly. Why not? I have been in Germany."
+
+"Yet you say you are English?"
+
+"Here is my passport." I extended one to him. He looked at it, shook his
+head, and said: "It is a very old one of 1867." That was true, and I had
+not had it _viséd_ since.
+
+"Then," said the _chef_, "this passport is for you and your wife. Where is
+the wife?"
+
+"Minding the babies. Thirteen of them--a handful," said I.
+
+I had to produce card-case, letters, all of which the _chef_ examined
+carefully, and yet he was not satisfied. Then, suddenly, a bright idea
+struck me.
+
+"Monsieur!" said I, "I see what you take me to be. It is true I have been
+sketching in Narbonne, and along the whole coast. Would you like to see my
+drawings? Here is the result of my studies in Narbonne: the very remarkable
+profile of a Narbonnaise girl, the face of a lady carved in the cathedral,
+of another in the museum, some sketches of children's clay toys found in
+Roman tombs, and sundry Gaulish and Merovingian bronzes; also! yes, see, a
+bone toothcomb discovered among the remains of the fortifications."
+
+The _chef_ laughed, especially over the beauties of Narbonne, ran his eye
+through the book, took it over to his assistant to look at and laugh over
+the wonderful girls' faces, returned it to me, and let me off.
+
+"And the _vielle_," said I, "what do you think of that--"
+
+"Mais! with the _vielle_ over your shoulder, and that book of sketches and
+thirteen babies--_assurément_--you could only be an Englishman."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+CARCASSONNE.
+
+
+Siege of Carcassonne by the Crusaders--Capture--Perfidy of legate--Death
+of the Viscount--Continuation of the war--Churches of New Carcassonne--_La
+Cité_--A perfect Mediæval fortified town--Disappointing--Visigoth
+fortifications--Later additions--The Cathedral--Tomb of Simon de Montfort.
+
+
+The Viscount of Béziers was not in the city from which he took his title
+when it fell. He had hurried on to Carcassonne to prepare that for defence.
+There he exerted himself with the utmost energy, with rage and despair, to
+be ready against the bloodthirsty, and yet blood-drunken ruffians who were
+pouring along the road from smoking Béziers, to do to Carcassonne as they
+had done there. Pedro, king of Aragon, interfered; he appeared as mediator
+in the camp of the Crusaders. Carcassonne was held as a fief under him as
+lord paramount. He pleaded the youth of the viscount, asserted his fidelity
+to the Church, his abhorrence of the Albigensian heresy; it was no fault of
+his, he argued, that his subjects had lapsed into error, and he declared
+that the Viscount had authorised him to place his submission in the hands
+of the legate of Pope Innocent. But the Crusaders were snorting for plunder
+and murder. The only terms they would admit were that the young viscount
+might retire with twelve knights; the city must surrender at discretion.
+The proud and gallant youth declared that he had rather be flayed alive
+than desert the least of his subjects. The first assaults, though on one
+occasion led by the prelates chanting the 'Veni Creator' ended in failure.
+
+[Illustration: Towers on the wall, Carcassonne.]
+
+Carcassonne might have resisted successfully had it been properly
+provisioned, or had the viscount limited the number admitted within its
+walls. But multitudes of refugees had come there from all the country
+round. The wells failed. Disease broke out. The viscount was obliged to
+come to terms, to accept a free conduct from the officer of the legate, and
+he endeavoured to make terms for his subjects.
+
+Most of the troops made their escape by subterranean passages, and the
+defenceless city came into the power of the Crusaders. The citizens were
+stripped almost naked, and their houses given up to pillage, but their
+lives were spared, with the exception of some fifty who were hanged and
+four hundred who were burned alive. The viscount had given himself up on
+promise of safe conduct; but no promises, no oaths were held sacred in
+these wars of religion, and the perfidious legate seized him, cast him into
+a dungeon, and there he died a few months later of a broken spirit and the
+pestilential prison air.
+
+The law of conquest was now to be put in force. The lands of the heretic
+the Pope was ready to bestow on such as had dutifully done his behest. The
+legate assembled the principal crusading nobles, that they might choose
+among them one to act as lord over their conquests. The offer was made,
+successively, to the Duke of Burgundy, the Count of Nevers, and the Count
+of S. Pol; but they all three declined, saying scornfully that they had
+lands enough of their own without taking those of another. They were,
+perhaps, fearful of the perilous example of setting up the fiefs of France
+to the hazard of the sword. Simon de Montfort was less scrupulous, or
+more ambitious, and he took immediate possession of the lands that had
+been acquired. The Pope wrote to him and confirmed him in the hereditary
+possession of his new dominions, at the same time expressing to him a hope
+that, in concert with the legates, he would continue very zealous in the
+extirpation of the heretics.
+
+From this time forth the war in southern France changed character, or,
+rather, it assumed a double character; with the war of religion was openly
+joined a war of conquest; it was no longer merely against the Albigenses
+and their heresies, it was against the native princes of the south of
+France, for the sake of their dominions, that the crusade was prosecuted.
+
+If it came within my scope to speak about Toulouse, I should be constrained
+to tell more of this sanguinary story. I am thankful that I need not
+prosecute the hateful tale; but so much it was not possible for me to
+withhold from the reader, as it is with these memories that Carcassonne and
+Beziers must be visited and looked at.
+
+Carcassonne is a double city, a city on a hill and another on the plain,
+each ancient, but that below with the modern element leavening it, that
+above wholly steeped in mediævalism.
+
+[Illustration: An entrance to Carcassonne.]
+
+In the lower town are two fine churches, very peculiar in design, forming
+vast halls without pillars, and with small chancels and apses. There can be
+no question that they look uncomfortable without pillars, that the choir
+does not grow out of the church naturally, and is devoid of dignity. These
+two churches are S. Vincent and S. Michael. The latter is of the thirteenth
+century, and seems to have formed the pattern upon which the other was
+built in the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. There is no west portal,
+but it has a fine rose window. The church is entered by a small door on
+the north. The other and later church, S. Vincent, has a very fine tower,
+which has, unfortunately, not been completed. It also has no west door,
+and is entered by a small portal at the side. These churches have their
+lateral chapels arranged like those in the cathedral at Munich between
+the buttresses, and the church is lighted by windows above them. Such
+buildings make admirable preaching-halls, but as churches are not pleasing
+internally.
+
+To the east of New Carcassonne flows the river Aude crossed by a bridge,
+with a quaint little chapel recently restored beside it. From this bridge a
+view of Old Carcassonne, _La Cité_, as it is called, bursts on the sight.
+It stands on a height about 125 ft. above the river, and this height has
+two peaks, one is occupied by the citadel, the other by the old cathedral
+of S. Nazaire.
+
+The whole of this _Cité_ is surrounded by its walls and towers, quite
+as perfect as when originally built, for they have been very carefully
+restored by M. Viollet-le-Duc. Consequently we have before us a French
+fortified town of the Middle Ages come down to us unaltered. That it is
+picturesque is unquestionable, that it is _eminently_ picturesque cannot be
+allowed. The builders had no concern for making a beautiful picture, they
+thought only of making an impregnable place. It is precisely this that
+differentiates it from a score of German fortified towns. The burghers of
+these latter were resolved to make their towns miracles of beauty as well
+as strong places. Consequently they varied the shapes of their towers, they
+capped them quaintly, hardly making two alike. Here, at Carcassonne, every
+tower, or nearly every tower, resembles its fellow, and all have sugar-loaf
+caps that irritate the eye with iteration of the same form. The citadel
+has no character of massiveness, no grand donjon to distinguish it from
+the rest of the fortifications, and the cathedral has only two mean little
+donkey's ears of towers that are most ineffective, peeping over the walls
+of the south-western angle of the town. In looking out for a study for a
+picture one has to get where some of the sugar-loaf towers are eclipsed,
+and there is only one point in the whole circumference where a really
+satisfactory grouping is obtainable, and that is at the angle outside
+immediately below the cathedral platform to the west, where the one
+respectable turret of the castle stands up boldly from the rock, and the
+flanking turrets overlap and hide each other.
+
+[Illustration: A bit of Carcassonne.]
+
+Interesting, most interesting is Old Carcassonne, and picturesque in its
+fashion; the regret one feels is that, with its opportunities, it is not
+more so. I do not think that M. Viollet-le-Duc's restoration is in fault,
+but that the original architects had no idea of anything better, were men
+of mediocre abilities, or cared only to make the defences strong at all
+costs, and to sacrifice everything else to this one consideration.
+
+But the same fault is inherent in all French castle-building and
+city-fortification of the Middle Ages. It is picturesque when in ruins. On
+the other hand, the German castles and fortified towns look their very best
+when in perfect repair. Let the reader take up Albert Dürer's delightful
+little engraving of the Hermit, and compare the background of a German
+walled town and castle on a height with _La Cité_, Carcassonne, and he will
+see how vast is the difference in quality of picturesqueness between the
+two.
+
+The _Cité_ is actually enclosed within double ramparts, and a portion of
+these dates from the time of the Visigoths. Their walls were composed of
+cubic blocks of stone, with alternate layers of brick, were double-faced,
+and filled in with rubble bedded in lime, forming a sort of concrete
+core. The towers were round outside with flat face to the town, and large
+round-headed windows which were closed with boards. These in later times
+were built up. The interior walls and towers are the earliest, and were
+those besieged by the Crusaders. It was in one of the towers of the castle
+that the unhappy young viscount died. The outer fortifications were erected
+by Louis IX. and his son, Philip the Bold. The Visigoth walls were defended
+by thirty-two towers, of which only one was square. Louis IX. constructed a
+great barbican below the castle, commanding the bridge over the Aude, but
+that was destroyed some years ago.
+
+[Illustration: Inside the wall, Carcassonne.]
+
+The _Cité_ underwent a second siege in 1240, whilst Louis IX. was on his
+crusade, and Queen Blanche was regent. Very curious letters exist from
+Guillaume des Ormes, the seneschal to the regent, describing the siege
+of Carcassonne by the troops of the viscount; but for these, and for a
+detailed account of the fortifications, I must refer the reader to M.
+Viollet-le-Duc's account, in his treatise on the Military Architecture of
+the Middle Ages.
+
+[Illustration: Entrance to the Castle, Carcassonne.]
+
+The old town of Carcassonne, crowded within the walls, has very narrow
+streets and tiny squares; the only open space being before the citadel and
+the cathedral. This latter has a fine Romanesque nave that was consecrated
+by Pope Urban II. in 1096, with its west end designed for defence, after
+the customary manner in the south. It is supported by massive piers,
+alternately round and square. To this plain nave is added a light
+and lovely choir with transepts, of the beginning of the fourteenth
+century. Here the glorious windows are filled with rich old stained
+glass--barbarously restored. And here, on one side of the high altar may
+be seen a slab of red marble--rightly blood-red--marking the tomb of the
+infamous Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, the cruel and remorseless
+right hand of the Pope, with which this fair region was deluged with blood.
+He was killed on June 20th, 1218, by a stone flung from the walls of
+Toulouse, which he had been unsuccessfully besieging for nine months. From
+the south side of the old _Cité_ a delightful view is obtained of the
+Pyrenees, snow-clad when I was there in April; but the mountain forms
+of the chain as it approaches the Mediterranean lose boldness and
+picturesqueness of outline, as they also dwindle in altitude.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+AVIGNON.
+
+
+How Avignon passed to the Popes--The court of Clement VI.--John
+XXII.--Benedict XII.--Their tombs--Petrarch and Laura--The Palace of
+the Popes--The Salle Brûlée--Cathedral--Porch--S. Agricole--Church of
+S. Pierre--The museum--View from the Rocher des doms--The Rhone--The
+bridge--Story of S. Benezet--Dancing on bridges--Villeneuve--Tomb of
+Innocent VI.--The Castle at Villeneuve--Defences--Tête-du-pont of the
+bridge.
+
+
+We leave Languedoc and are again in Provence, or what was Provence, till
+the Popes by a fraud obtained it. Avignon belonged to Provence, which was
+claimed by Charles of Anjou in right of his wife, and it had descended
+to his son, Charles II. of Naples. On the death of the latter it fell to
+Robert of Naples, and from him to his grand-daughter, Joanna, the heiress
+of the Duke of Calabria.
+
+The Papal residence was now at Avignon, and there it remained for a century
+and a quarter. Joanna fell into trouble, her kingdom of Naples was invaded
+by Louis, King of Hungary, who asserted his right to her throne. She fled
+to Provence--to Avignon--where at once Pope Clement VI. seized the occasion
+to purchase this portion of her Provençal inheritance of her at the price
+of eighty thousand gold crowns. He kept the principality, but never paid
+the money.
+
+The Popes have left their indelible mark on the place in the glorious
+palace, a vast castle, of the boldest structure, wonderful in its size and
+massiveness.
+
+The Papal court at Avignon, under Clement VI., "became", says Dr. Milman,
+"the most splendid, perhaps the gayest, in Christendom. The Provençals
+might almost think their brilliant and chivalrous counts restored to power
+and enjoyment. The Papal palace spread out in extent and magnificence; the
+Pope was more than royal in the number and attire of his retainers; the
+papal stud of horses commanded general admiration. The life of Clement was
+a constant succession of ecclesiastical pomps and gorgeous receptions and
+luxurious banquets. Ladies were freely admitted to the Court, and the Pope
+mingled with ease in the gallant intercourse. The Countess of Turenne,
+if not, as general report averred, actually so, had at least many of the
+advantages of the Pope's mistresses--the distribution of preferments and
+benefices to any extent, which this woman, as rapacious as she was handsome
+and imperious, sold with shameless publicity."
+
+Under the Papal rule, with such an example before it, Avignon became the
+moral sink of Christendom. To see what its condition was, and how flagrant
+was the vice in all quarters, the letters of Petrarch must be read. He
+speaks of the corruption of Avignon with loathing abhorrence; Rome itself,
+in comparison, was the seat of matronly virtue.
+
+But I must step back for a moment to John XXII. because of the lovely
+monument to him in the cathedral, and because thereon we have his authentic
+portrait.
+
+This Pope was a cobbler's son of Cahors; he was a small, deformed, but
+clever man: the second cobbler's son who sat on the seat of S. Peter. He
+had gone, when a youth, to Naples, where his uncle was settled in a little
+shop. There he studied, his talents and luck pushed him into notice, and
+he became bishop of Fréjus. But he preferred to live on the sunny shores
+of Naples, and to keep within the circle of the king, where lay chances of
+higher preferment, and he troubled his diocese little with his presence. He
+became a cardinal, and in 1316 was elected Pope at the conclave of Lyons.
+He at once dropped down the Rhone, and fixed the seat of his pontificate at
+Avignon. Able, learned though he was, he was not above the superstitions
+of his age. He had been given a serpentine ring by the Countess of Foix,
+and had lost it. He believed that it had been stolen from him wherewith to
+work some magic spell against his health. The Pope pledged all his goods,
+movable and immovable, for the safe restoration of his ring: he pronounced
+anathema against all such as were involved in the retention of it. It was
+rumoured that one of those involved in the plot by witchcraft to cause his
+death through this serpentine ring was Gerold, bishop of his own native
+city, Cahors. The alarmed and angry sovereign Pontiff had the unhappy
+bishop degraded, _flayed alive_, and torn to pieces by wild horses.
+
+[Illustration: Papal Throne in the Cathedral of Avignon.]
+
+John XXII. issued an edict of terrible condemnation against all such as
+dealt in magical arts, who bottled up spirits, made waxen images and stuck
+pins into them, and the like. He died at the age of ninety, having amassed
+enormous wealth by drawing into his own power all the collegiate benefices
+throughout Christendom, and by means of reservations, an ingenious mode
+of getting large pickings out of every bishopric before the institution
+of a new bishop. The brother of Villani the historian, a banker, took the
+inventory of his goods when he was dead. It amounted to eighteen millions
+of gold florins in specie, and seven millions in plate and jewels. His
+face, on his monument, is indicative of his harsh, grasping, and cold
+character.
+
+Now look at this other face, it is that of the successor of John, of James
+Fournier, who took the name of Benedict XII. He lies in the north aisle of
+the cathedral.
+
+[Illustration: John XXII.]
+
+On the death of John XII. twenty-four cardinals met, mostly Frenchmen,
+and their votes inclined to a brother of the count of Comminges, but they
+endeavoured to wring from him an oath to continue to make Avignon the seat
+of the Papacy. He refused; and then, to his own surprise, the suffrages
+fell on the Cistercian abbot, James Fournier.
+
+"You have chosen an ass!" he said, in humility or in irony.
+
+[Illustration: Benedict XII.]
+
+But he did himself an injustice: he was a man of shrewdness and sagacity,
+he lacked only courage and strength to have made a great Pope. His whole
+reign was a tacit reproach against the turbulence, implacability and
+avarice of his predecessor. The court of Avignon was crowded with fawning
+courtier bishops seeking promotion: he sent them flying back to their sees.
+He discouraged the Papal reserves, the iniquitous system whereby Pope John
+had amassed his wealth; he threw open the treasury of his predecessor, and
+distributed some of the coin among the cardinals, the rest he spent in the
+erection of the huge castle-palace that is now the wonder of all who visit
+Avignon, and the construction of which made the money circulate among the
+poor and industrious artificers.
+
+When Benedict died, after a brief reign of eight years, his reputation was
+disputed over with singular pertinacity by friends and foes.
+
+[Illustration: An angle of the Papal Palace, Avignon.]
+
+"He was a man wiser in speech than in action, betraying by his keen words
+that he saw what was just and right, but dared not follow it. Yet political
+courage alone was wanting. He was resolutely superior to the Papal vice of
+nepotism. On one only of his family, and that a deserving man, he bestowed
+a rich benefice. To the rest he said, 'As James Fournier I knew you well,
+as Pope I know you not. I will not put myself in the power of the King of
+France by encumbering myself with a host of needy relatives.' He had the
+moral fortitude to incur unpopularity with the clergy by persisting in his
+slow, cautious, and regular distribution of benefices; with the monks by
+his rigid reforms. He hated the monks, and even the Mendicant Orders. He
+showed his hatred, as they said, by the few promotions which he bestowed
+upon them." [1]
+
+[Footnote 1: Milman: 'Latin Christianity.']
+
+The bitter hatred begotten in return was displayed in the epitaph set up
+over him, describing him as a Nero, as death to the laity, a viper to the
+clergy, a liar and a drunkard. [1] But malignity of disappointed ambition
+and repressed vice did not go so far as to caricature his face. The graver
+had to copy the epitaph given him, but the sculptor reproduced the face
+of the man himself, and that face, sweet, gentle, and pure, tells its
+own tale. It is quite another face from that of John XXII. John has a
+magnificent shrine of incomparable Gothic pinnacle-work; but Benedict is
+laid in a very humble tomb, yet over it is the best of monuments, his own
+good face. Of this "Nero" there is not recorded one single act of cruelty;
+and he was guiltless of human blood shed in war.
+
+[Footnote 1: "Ille fuit Nero, laicis mors, vipera clero, Devius a vero,
+cuppa repleta mero."]
+
+Here, at Avignon, and writing of the very epoch in which he lived, it is
+not possible to withhold the pen from some lines relative to Petrarch, and
+I feel the more disposed to write about him, for I think that the words
+used relative to him and Laura in Murray's Handbook are not quite just.
+Speaking of Vaucluse, the author says: "It is more agreeable to contemplate
+Petrarch in these haunts, as the laborious student retired from the world,
+than as the mawkish lover sighing for a married mistress."
+
+Petrarch was an exile, living at Avignon in exile, when he saw his Laura in
+a church there, and lost his heart. He was then aged twenty-one, and she
+was twelve or thirteen; she belonged to the illustrious family of Sade. Now
+it so happens that the chief authority for the history of Petrarch is the
+Abbé de Sade, who set to work with a determination to show that his family
+were lineal descendants of Petrarch's Laura, and he ingenuously left out
+such particulars as militated against his doctrine. The great family of
+Sade, who had their castle between Avignon and Vaucluse, had not the
+smallest intention of suffering a daughter of the house to become allied
+to an exile of no great birth and prospects; accordingly every impediment
+was put in the way of a meeting. Petrarch's love for her was well known,
+indeed his imprudence was great, he allowed his poems in her honour to pass
+from hand to hand. It was impossible for her relatives to suffer this to
+continue. She was placed with her aunt Stephanette de Romanie; and died
+unmarried. Her father was Hugo de Sade, and her mother Laura de Neves; and
+the Abbé de Sade, and all who follow him, suppose that Petrarch was in love
+with the mother, whereas there is abundant evidence that the object of his
+passion was the daughter. [1]
+
+[Footnote 1: The whole matter has been thoroughly discussed, and I think
+the story of his love for the wife of Hugo de Sade refuted by Bruce-Whyte
+('Hist. des Langues Romanes,' t. iii. c. 38)].
+
+Whether Petrarch's love for Laura was as pure as he represents it in some
+of his sonnets--whether the unhappy Laura did not suffer from his pursuit
+in honour as she certainly lost in repute, is uncertain. Petrarch in
+some of his poems exalts his passion for her into the most pure platonic
+affection, but other verses addressed to her have a very different
+complexion.
+
+[Illustration: The Cathedral and the Palace of the Popes, Avignon.]
+
+The vast fortress-palace of the Popes at Avignon has stood a siege. It
+was at the time of the Great Schism, when three grey-headed claimants to
+be representatives of S. Peter and Vicegerents of Christ were thundering
+anathemas against each other and the supporters of their rivals. Benedict
+XIII. was then Pope in Avignon, but there was a general desire in
+Christendom that the scandal should be terminated. All his cardinals except
+two deserted Benedict, and the King of France required his renunciation of
+the tiara. "Pope I have written myself; Pope I have been acknowledged to
+be; Pope I will remain to the end of my days," was his answer. Then he was
+besieged in his palace and forced to capitulate, and thrown into prison,
+where he lingered under the jealous ward of the cardinals for five years.
+
+[Illustration: Lantern at the Cathedral, Avignon.]
+
+The palace has been restored, and is now a barrack. In it is shown a hall,
+the principal dining hall, called now la Salle Brûlée, as in 1441 the Papal
+Legate brought together into it the burghers and nobles of Avignon, and in
+the height of revelry withdrew himself, and had fire applied to barrels
+of gunpowder under it, and blew the guests into the air. This was done in
+revenge for the murder of his nephew, a young libertine who had dishonoured
+a maiden of good family in the town.
+
+[Illustration: Angel at W. Door, Church of S. Agricole]
+
+Adjoining the palace, on higher ground, the Rocher des doms, is the
+cathedral of Nôtre Dame, small and early. With barbarous taste, the fine
+Romanesque west tower has been finished off with an octagonal structure
+supporting as apex a gigantic figure of the Virgin, leaning against a
+lightning conductor that is screwed into her head and back, and looks
+much like the apparatus of a photographer to steady her for a successful
+_carte_. To the cathedral ascent is made by flights of stone steps, and
+it is entered by a porch that is made up of Corinthian pillars taken
+from a Classic temple. Some have thought the whole porch to be of Roman
+architecture, but it is not so. For some time Provençal architecture was
+much influenced by the remains that covered the soil, and from which the
+builders of churches not merely drew their ideas but also appropriated
+materials.
+
+The dome of the cathedral is noticeable within from the bold and effective
+manner in which it is sustained on four successive receding arches. There
+is a fine north aisle, the vaulting of which starts as though it were about
+to spread into the fan-tracery of English Perpendicular. It is curious
+as showing French architects on the eve of reaching the same marvellous
+development attained in England.
+
+There is a fine church at Avignon, S. Agricole, of noble proportions, the
+vaulting and arcades springing from the pillars without capitals. In the
+south aisle is a curious fourteenth-century shrine. The west front of the
+church is of very poor design.
+
+[Illustration: A Bit of the Old Wall, Avignon.]
+
+S. Pierre is a flamboyant church, the details passing into Renaissance. In
+the north aisle is a superb Renaissance altar-piece, representing Christ
+between S. Peter and S. Paul. Underneath is the Last Supper. It was too
+fine and good to be appreciated, and a modern vulgar altar and altar-piece
+have been erected at the side for use. The choir-stalls are really
+wonderful. They are also of Renaissance woodwork, with painted panels
+in the back representing architectural scenes alternating with vases of
+flowers. They are separated by Corinthian columns gilt, and very sumptuous,
+yet the whole effect is subdued and pleasing, not gaudy. In this church
+also the arches spring from the pillars without capitals. Altogether this
+church deserves careful study.
+
+The museum of Avignon is the richest in antiquities in the south of France.
+Unfortunately the substance of the collection was gathered by a M. Calvert
+who made no note as to _where_ he got the various articles he collected,
+and this naturally deprives much that is there of its value. However, there
+is a great deal there to be seen; notably a bronze cavalry standard, Roman,
+in admirable preservation; a stamp in bronze with the letters
+
+    A I
+    V N
+
+and the seven-branched-candlestick between, clearly a Jewish stamp. A
+magnificent gold necklace and gold bracelets with a large medallion of a
+Roman Empress in gold in the midst. The head is said to be that of Orbiana,
+third wife of Severus Alexander, unknown to history, and known only by her
+coins.
+
+Among the statues preserved there is the Venus Victrix found at Pourrières,
+and a very rude but interesting Gaulish warrior, discovered at Montdragon
+in 1834, cut in sandstone. He is leaning on a huge shield. There are
+several busts of Roman emperors, a good one, but with nose broken, of the
+Elder Drusus, Lucius Verus, Tiberius, Trajan, a Plautilla--and some that
+are doubtful.
+
+Of the paintings in the _Musé_ I cannot say much, as I looked at two
+only--two perfectly delicious Brueghels, a Flemish Fair, and, I think, a
+wedding. I won the heart of the _concierge_ by studying them. He found me
+careering about the gallery, like an owl in sunlight, looking for Brueghel,
+and when he found what I was after, led me back to them, one on each side
+of the entrance door. "Why do you want to see Brueghel?" he asked. "Why?
+because I love his oddities." "Are you a Belge?" "No." "But you seem
+to know the Flemish artists. I am by ancestry a Belge. My grandfather
+came from Brussels." So we talked over dear, delightful Belgium for
+half-an-hour, and I had the most eager, amiable guide to all that was of
+interest in the museum, after that. And it is a collection! The mediæval
+and Renaissance sculptures alone deserve a visit.
+
+One can hardly bear to think of the amount of good work that has perished
+in Avignon. The city possessed before the Revolution sixty churches, and
+of these only eighteen remain; of between two and three hundred towers
+and spires, not one-tenth are left standing. There is, however, a very
+fine tower and east end in S. Didier, a church of the fourteenth century,
+another in the Hôtel de Ville built round with a tasteless Classic
+structure that obscures it from view. The Musée Requien is in an old
+convent, the chapel of which is given up to the Protestants; it has a rich
+flamboyant window to the north, unfortunately blocked.
+
+[Illustration: Part of Church of S. Didier, Avignon.]
+
+A quaint and picturesque tower stands by itself in the Rue Carréterie; it
+is machicolated and has a delicate little spire. It is all that remains
+of the church of the Augustinians. Nearly opposite is a rich flamboyant
+portal.
+
+[Illustration: Bridge and Chapel of S. Benezet.]
+
+Avignon is completely surrounded by its old walls and towers. Much of the
+space inside is now occupied by gardens and vineyards; apparently in the
+time when Avignon was the seat of the Papacy, it was far more populous
+than at present. I should like the clergy of Rome to see Avignon with its
+fifty-two desecrated churches and its thirty-five abandoned convents, and
+compare it with Rome where nearly everything is left them; then perhaps
+they would be inclined to salute their king and queen.
+
+What a lovely view that is from the gardens on the Rocher des Domes! To the
+east rises Mont Ventoux, a spur of the Alps thrown out into the plain, and
+in April veiled in snow. To the west the chain of the Cevennes, and the
+plain gleaming with water from the many windings of the Rhone, and from
+its branches, as it splits and circumvents islands clothed with willow and
+poplar.
+
+Above Avignon is a very large island, and below it the Durance enters the
+Rhone through a lacework of rubble-beds with scanty growths upon them, the
+water flickering in a thousand silver threads between. Then, immediately
+under the Rocher des Domes is the mighty river sweeping on with strong
+purpose, and half-bridged by a quaint old structure, built between 1177
+and 1185 under the direction of S. Benezet. On the second pile is a little
+chapel, erected in honour of the founder, in which Mass is still said on
+his day, April 14th. S. Benezet was a shepherd, he was baptised by the name
+of Benedict, but, being a very little man, he received the diminutive that
+has adhered to him. He heard of the accidents that happened to those who
+crossed the rapid Rhone in boats, and he considered in his mind that it
+were well if the prelates and burghers of Avignon would devote their wealth
+to making a good bridge, instead of squandering it in show and riotous
+living. So he came into the city, and adjured the Pope and the bishop of
+the see to construct a bridge. The haughty ecclesiastics scoffed at him,
+and, as he would not desist from his urgency, sent him to the city governor
+to be chastised. Unshaken by this treatment, the shepherd persisted. He
+went among the citizens, he sought out the clergy, he collected knots of
+men to listen to him in the market-place, preaching the advantage of a
+bridge. It was his one idea. He was ignorant, perhaps foolish, in other
+matters, but he was possessed with the belief that God had sent him to
+induce the Avignonese to build a bridge. After a while, nothing was talked
+of in the place but the great question of this same bridge. Its advantage
+was apparent to all. Finally it was decided by acclamation that they must
+have a bridge, and when it was built, and the shepherd died, "Really," said
+the good people of Avignon, "he must have been a saint to have roused us
+out of our apathy."
+
+[Illustration: At Villeneuve.]
+
+The poor shepherd's body was not respected by the revolutionists, though he
+was a sans-culotte, but he was a sans-culotte who was a constructor and not
+a destroyer, therefore--to the dogs with him.
+
+There was a saying--
+
+  "Avenio ventosa
+  Cum vento fastidiosa,
+  Sine vento venenosa."
+
+That may be rendered in French--
+
+  "Avignon venteuse
+  Avec vent ennuyeuse,
+  Sans vent pernicieuse."
+
+Windy it was when I was there, and when I went out on the broken-down
+bridge of S. Benezet I was nearly blown off it. This bridge in French
+nursery rhyme takes much the same place as does London Bridge in English
+children's jingles. We have:--
+
+  "London Bridge is broken down,
+  Dance over my Lady Lee."
+
+And the French have:--
+
+  "Sur le Pont d'Avignon tout le monde danse, danse;
+  Sur le Pont d'Avignon tout le monde danse en rond."
+
+Why dancing should be associated with bridges I cannot tell for certain,
+but there is probably some mythologic origin. It was customary in Pagan
+times to sacrifice a human being when the foundations of a bridge were
+laid, by burying the victim alive under it, and every year an offering of
+a life was made to the river to propitiate it, and ensure the stability of
+the bridge. Our nursery games of children dancing in a round, and one being
+taken by the casting of a kerchief, is a relic of an old heathen _sors_, by
+which a victim for immolation was selected; and it is very probable that
+the dancing on bridges had something to do with this. One out of the chain
+that danced over the bridge, or the ring that wheeled on it was chosen, and
+cast over the parapet as an offering to the river.
+
+[Illustration: Castle of S. André, at Villeneuve.]
+
+This superstition lingered on through the Middle Ages, in spite of
+Christianity. We say in Devon:--
+
+  "The River Dart
+  Every year demands a heart."
+
+Anciently the Dart was _given_ his victim; now, however, he _takes_ it.
+
+The bridge of S. Benezet is broken down and abandoned, but a suspension
+bridge unites Avignon with the farther bank of the Rhone, and this must
+be crossed to reach Villeneuve, which stood to Avignon as Beaucaire to
+Tarascon. Villeneuve was French, and Avignon Papal down to the Revolution,
+when in 1791 it was annexed to France. At Villeneuve the army was assembled
+that besieged Pope Benedict XIII. in his palace.
+
+Villeneuve is full of picturesque points. It was originally well fortified,
+and was a frontier fortress of Languedoc. The old Hôpital contains the tomb
+of Pope Innocent VI., which may be compared with that of John XXII. in the
+cathedral. Innocent was a native of Limoges. There was a strange struggle
+at his election.
+
+On the death of Clement VI. a conclave of cardinals assembled to consider
+about choosing John Borelli, Carthusian superior, but, when Cardinal
+Talleyrand warned them that a man of such stern simplicity would in a very
+few days order their stately caparisoned horses to be turned to toil at
+the plough, they were alarmed, and looked elsewhere. But first of all they
+passed a law by unanimous vote that the College of Cardinals should become
+a dominant, self-elective assembly, superior to the Pope, and that one-half
+of the revenues of the Papacy should be diverted into the pockets of the
+cardinals. Then they proceeded to elect, and chose Stephen Aubert, a
+distinguished canon lawyer, who assumed the title of Innocent VI., and
+his first act was to emancipate himself from the oath he had taken, to
+rescind and declare null this statute of the Conclave. He was a severe
+disciplinarian. He drove away a great portion of the swarm of bishops and
+beneficed clergy, who passed their time in Avignon in luxury and indolence,
+on the look-out for rich emoluments. One story is told of his conduct with
+regard to preferments. A favourite chaplain presented his nephew, a boy,
+and asked for him a rich benefice.
+
+"You are already the holder of seven," said the Pope, "give him one of
+those." The chaplain looked discouraged. The Pope compelled him to choose
+three of the best. "These must suffice thee and the boy," said Innocent, "I
+will give the others to poor and deserving clerks."
+
+It was under Cardinal Albornoz, the martial legate of this Pope, that
+Rienzi was subdued, and Rome recovered to the Papal chair.
+
+[Illustration: At Villeneuve.]
+
+The castle of Villeneuve was built by Philip the Bold in the thirteenth
+century, and is interesting in many ways. It contains a little chapel of an
+earlier date with a small apse and little round-headed windows. The whole
+of the body is under a very low-pitched roof supported on an almost Classic
+cornice. The fortifications of the castle are an example of a stage of
+defence carried beyond what was attained at Aigues Mortes. There, as we
+saw, the upper portion of the walls was covered with a balcony of wood on
+to which the besieged stepped through the doorways left in the battlements.
+
+[Illustration: A well at Villeneuve.]
+
+When, in sieges, the catapults were made to fling barrels of flaming tar
+over these balconies, and set them on fire, recourse was had to structures
+of stone, and the wooden _hourdes_, or balconies, disappeared. Then came
+the machicolated galleries. But even these were deemed insufficient, and
+_échauguettes_ were erected, sentry-boxes between the towers standing
+forward beyond the curtains, and with double slits in the floor, through
+which two streams of flaming combustible or of stones could be sent down on
+the besiegers. The palace of the Popes at Avignon exhibits these on piers
+standing forth from the wall. They are also to be seen at Villeneuve.
+
+The fine Gothic church of the Chartreuse is ruinous; in that stood the
+tomb of Innocent VI. A grand tower, erected by Philip the Fair, formed the
+Tête du Pont of the bridge of S. Benezet. It was erected after the bridge
+had been constructed, as a protection against the troops of the Papacy.
+Thereupon the popes raised a tower of defence at their end of the bridge.
+There were originally seventeen arches in the bridge, resting on eighteen
+piers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+VALENCE.
+
+
+A dull town--Cathedral--Jacques Cujas--His daughter--Pius VI.--His
+death--Maison des Têtes--Le Pendentif--The castle of Crussol--The dukes of
+Uzès--A dramatic company of the thirteenth century.
+
+
+What a sleepy place Valence is! There was supposed to be a fair there when
+I was at Valence, but even that could not wake it up. But the fair was in
+a condition of the utmost somnolence itself. Why--I did not suspect till
+I reached Vienne, when I found that this latter place had drawn to it all
+that was enterprising, startling, attractive, and left only the very dregs
+of fairings to poor Valence.
+
+It has a great boulevard, very wide, very inviting, but the spotted boys,
+and fat girls, and bearded women, would have nothing to say to it--they
+herded to Vienne. It has a vast terrace, planted with trees, where any
+amount of stalls might stand, but there were erected there only some very
+inconsiderable ranges of boot and shoe tables, and of old cutlery, and slop
+clothes.
+
+The cathedral is interesting and fine. The apse at the east end is early
+and curious; in place of buttresses receding in stages are Corinthian
+pillars tied into the walls they are to support at their heads by caps
+laid on them. There is no clerestory to the church, only an arcade of rude
+character. The walls of the cathedral are of sandstone, and have been so
+gnawed by the wind and rain, that the whole pile looks like a piece of
+very decayed cheese. The interior, however, is quite sound, reposeful, and
+lovely. That weather-beaten exterior, with its calm sweet interior, struck
+me as a picture of many a good Christian, buffeted and worn by storm and
+trial without, whose inner self is ever still and untouched.
+
+[Illustration: Cathedral of Valence.]
+
+The church was consecrated in 1095 by Pope Urban II. in person. A new
+western tower has been erected and a very fine west entrance in the
+Romanesque style, all very good, except the topmost stage of the tower,
+which has probably been confided to an inferior architect, who has managed
+to mar a work of great promise.
+
+Jacques Cujas, born at Toulouse in 1520, one of the most famous lawyers of
+his time, taught at Valence. He was a candidate for the chair of laws in
+the university of his native city, but was refused it; a certain Forcadel
+was elected instead, whose chief merit seems to have been that he was a
+wag. Cujas, on leaving Toulouse, turned, and shaking the dust off his feet
+against it said, "Ungrateful fatherland, in you my bones shall not rest."
+He kept his word, he died and was buried at Bourges. After he was gone
+from the place and his fame was sounded abroad, the university of Toulouse
+wanted to recall him, and sent a letter to him nominating him to the
+chair of laws. His answer was, "Frustra absentem requiris, quem præsentem
+neglexistis." "In vain do you desire him absent whom present you flouted."
+
+At Valence he had eight hundred scholars, who attended his lectures. So
+great was the reverence shown for his opinion, that it is said that in the
+schools of Germany, when the professors quoted him they were wont to raise
+their hands to their caps. And he deserved it. His burning ambition was to
+break down the system of injustice to the accused which prevailed in French
+courts, where one charged with a crime, if the crime were unproved did not
+obtain complete acquittal. He wrote in the cause of humanity against the
+abuses of tyranny and ignorance. "Where there is not complete proof of
+guilt," said he, "there let there be no condemnation," a maxim observed in
+England, but not in France. "What is not full truth," is a saying of his,
+"is full falsehood." It was his hope, his prayer, that he might live to see
+the injustice of the French laws swept away. That he was not destined to
+see. He was a kind professor to all his scholars. When he found that some
+were needy, he assisted them with money and books. "I was once a poorer lad
+than you," said he to one whom he assisted, "and very grateful if any one
+would have pity on me."
+
+[Illustration: Doorway in the house Dupré Latour, Valence.]
+
+He had a daughter, unworthy of her virtuous father. When his scholars were
+caught flirting with the damsel, they were wont to excuse themselves by
+saying that they were only "commenting on the works of Cujas."
+
+On this the following epigram was composed:--
+
+"Videras immensos Cujaci labores Æternum patri commeruisse decus: Ingenio
+haud poterat tam magnum æquare parentem Filia; quod potuit corpore fecit
+opus."
+
+In his will Cujas desired that none of his books should be sold to a
+Jesuit; and that his library should be sold in parcels, lest any one should
+use his ill-digested notes for publication. His behest was obeyed. The
+booksellers of Lyons purchased his MSS. and used them as binding for books.
+It was not till sixteen years after his death that Alexander Scott of
+Carpentras, one of his pupils, collected his works.
+
+At Valence died and was buried the unfortunate Pope Pius VI. who had been
+treated with great harshness, and had been loaded with insults by the
+French. His was, indeed, a strange story. He began his pontificate in
+splendour in 1775, and set to work at once to aggrandise his family, the
+Braschi. He was a man of rapacious avarice; of this one glaring instance is
+given. He persuaded, or compelled, a certain Amanzio Lepri to constitute
+him his heir, and hand over to him the title-deeds of an estate worth
+many millions of lire. The natural heirs of Lepri were greatly annoyed at
+this, and instituted proceedings before the tribunals, which gave judgment
+sometimes for them and sometimes for the Pope, and the matter might have
+dragged on indefinitely, had not public opinion begun to manifest itself
+with such force that Pius thought it best to agree to a compromise.
+
+In everything relating to himself and his family the Pope showed unbounded
+extravagance and ostentation. He had pedigrees manufactured to prove
+the descent of his family from ancient Scandinavian heroes, and that of
+his nephews, on whom he heaped honours, from the Dukes of Benevento. He
+collected all the proudest devices of heraldry to incorporate them as
+quarterings into his arms, and this gave rise to an epigram from the pen of
+an ex-Jesuit, to this effect: "The eagle belongs to the Empire, the lilies
+of the field to France, to heaven belongs the stars--to Braschi what?
+Puff."
+
+His extravagance had become so great that the States of the Church were
+practically bankrupt long before the French overran and pillaged them. In
+his money difficulties he laid his hands on the funds appropriated to pious
+works, and so barefaced were his robberies at last, that ten years before
+the French invasion he had appropriated 36,000 pounds weight of silver from
+the Holy House of Loretto. Then came the crash. This luxurious and splendid
+Pope, in his old age, was reduced to be a prisoner, and to be hustled about
+from place to place by the French. He had been sent first to the Certosa,
+near Florence, with only two companions; then, by order of the Directory,
+was conveyed to Parma. There he was allowed to remain only thirteen days,
+and, in spite of his age and growing infirmities, was conveyed to the
+citadel of Turin. One day was there allowed him for repose, and then he was
+carried over the Alpine pass of Mont Genèvre in April to Briançon. There he
+was left in peace, but sick and feeble, till the end of June, when he was
+hurried away by Gap towards Dijon, but at Valence he became so ill that he
+could be no further moved, and there he died on the 29th August 1799, three
+days after his arrival.
+
+[Illustration: Doorway and niche in the Maison des Têtes, Valence.]
+
+The story is told that the official at Briançon on receiving him, sent to
+headquarters a formal receipt couched in these terms: "Reçu--un pape, en
+fort mauvais état."
+
+There is not much of interest in domestic architecture at Valence, with the
+sole exception of the Maison des Têtes, which stands near the market-place,
+and which is sculptured over with great richness, with heads representing
+the seasons, and Roman emperors. The enrichment of this house is in the
+style of Flamboyant passing into Renaissance; the façade being in sandstone
+has been sadly gnawed by the tooth of Time, has indeed lost all edge to the
+sculpture, but within the entrance porch, where protected, the sandstone
+retains its sharpness. Curiously enough, no one knows for whom this
+gorgeous mansion was raised. It has a pretty interior court, but there is
+not much sculpture therein. One cannot quite forgive the original owner and
+edifier of the mansion for a bit of ostentation and vulgarity of which he
+has been guilty. The house has one portion looking on to the square, but at
+the side bends away at an obtuse angle down the street. As the whole façade
+was not visible at a single glance, only that portion which was most seen
+was sculptured, and that with overpowering richness, whereas the other
+portion in the street was left bare to baldness. Wind and rain and frost
+are engaged in rubbing down all the decoration, and flattening the surface
+of the decorated portion to the simplicity of the other part.
+
+The same destroying agencies are at work upon a very quaint mausoleum, on
+the north side of the cathedral, called _Le Pendentif_, which was erected
+in 1548 in Classic style as a monument to the Mistral family. It is
+quadrangular, and consists of four great piers at the angles, and is
+adorned with pillars and with arches in the sides sustaining a vault. In
+the rusticated space that fills the sides, quaint sculptures of monsters
+and birds of foreign plumage may, or rather might have been traced, the
+honeycombing by weather has made them almost undiscoverable. Probably the
+structure is more picturesque now in its decay than it ever was before.
+
+Immediately opposite Valence, on the farther side of the Rhone, rises a
+bold scarp of sandstone cliff, crowned with the ruined castle of Crussol
+above the village of S. Peray at its feet, where is made a very capital
+sparkling wine, not at all inferior to champagne. There is also there an
+odd château, designed, it is believed, by Marshal Vauban, on the plan of a
+mimic fortress, with bastions, curtains, glacis, portcullis, and loopholes.
+It is now the residence of the owner of the great vineyards where the S.
+Peray effervescing wine is made.
+
+The view of the cliff of Crussol and the village of S. Peray from the
+terrace of Valence is spoiled by the river being at some distance from the
+base of the terrace, and the flat land that intervenes being covered by
+poplars, manufactories and cottages, so that the Rhone is shut out from
+sight.
+
+Originally, certainly, the cliff on which stands the cathedral, as well as
+that now converted into a promenade, were swept by the Rhone, but it has
+thrown its gravels on to the left bank and cut its way farther to the west.
+
+The castle of Crussol belonged to the Dukes d'Uzès, and occupies a headland
+formed by the torrent at its side, that has sawn a chasm through the soft
+sandstone in its course to join the Rhone. Within the walls may be seen the
+remains of a small town that clustered there, much like Les Baux, but now
+completely deserted. The family of Crussol was not of much note till Louis
+de Crussol gained the favour of Louis XI., and was created his chamberlain,
+and governor of Dauphiné. The son married the heiress of Uzès, and with
+her the title of viscount passed to their son Charles, whose son Anthony
+obtained the title of Duke d'Uzès. There is nothing very remarkable in the
+story of the Crussols, but the origin of the Uzès is of romantic interest.
+
+There were three brothers, Ebles, Guy, and Pierre, who had a little estate
+and castle at Uzès near Nimes. There they lived together, unmarried, and in
+very pinched circumstances. So, one day Ebles said to his brothers that it
+was a shabby life for three gentlemen thus to live scraping a few coppers
+together whilst all was beautiful beyond Uzès. Let them all three leave the
+crumbling walls and leaky roof of Uzès to the bats and owls, and seek their
+fortunes in the courts of princes.
+
+His advice was relished, and they invited their cousin, named Elias, a
+comic poet, to travel with them. Now Guy, the youngest of the brothers,
+and Ebles the eldest, had a pretty gift at poetry, and the second brother,
+Pierre, had a pleasant pipe, so they agreed that Ebles should write
+_sirventes_, and Guy _chansons_, and that Pierre should sing them.
+Moreover, Elias should compose little comedies that could be performed by
+their small party, and the profits were to be equally shared between them.
+They also put their hands together and vowed to be true and friendly, and
+not to separate till they came back to ramshackle Uzès.
+
+So the company started, and went first to the court of Reynald, Viscount of
+Albuzoni and of Marguerite his wife, who received them with pleasure, both
+of them being fond of Provençal poetry. The brothers and cousin had great
+success with their songs and comedies, sent round the hat, and got a
+handsome sum. Then, when they had sucked their orange, they went farther,
+mounted like paladins, and passed into the territories of the Countess of
+Montferrat, who received them quite as cordially as had the Viscount of
+Albuzoni. There they sang and twanged the guitar, but having unhappily
+composed some satirical verses under the title of "The Life of the Tyrants"
+in which the morals and greed of the popes and some of the princes of
+Europe were chastised, the Papal Legate complained and threatened them
+with public punishment; he finally imposed silence on them, under threat
+of excommunication. Then the little company returned home laden with
+treasures, but sad at heart; and Guy died about 1230. The company must have
+done pretty well, if Guy founded with his share of the profits the family
+which later became one of viscounts. I fear dramatic and musical companies
+nowadays have not the same success.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+VIENNE.
+
+
+Historic associations--Salvation Army bonnets--The fair--A quack--A
+vampire--The amphitrite--A _carousel_--Temple of Augustus and
+Livia--The Aiguille--Cathedral--Angels and musical instruments--S.
+André-le-Bas--Situation of Vienne--Foundation of the Church there--Letter
+of the Church on the martyrdoms at Lyons.
+
+
+I went on to Vienne with mind full of thoughts of the Burgundian kingdom
+of which it was the capital in the fifth century, of S. Avitus, of King
+Clovis, of Calixtus II., of the condemnation of the Templars at the Council
+of Vienne in 1307--one of the most cruel and iniquitous deeds done by the
+Crown of France in compact with the Papacy--and I found myself plunged,
+unexpectedly, suddenly, into the vortex of a great popular fair. I had
+passed from a fair in a condition of languor into one in full flush of
+life.
+
+Which was to be done first, the temple of Augustus and Livia, the remains
+of the Roman theatre--microscopic I found afterwards--the cathedral of S.
+Maurice, or the shows?
+
+But surely, the proper study of mankind is man, so I resolved on seeing the
+fair first, and after that of studying the antiquities, and indulging in
+antiquarian and historic dreams.
+
+The weather was sorry: wind and threatenings of rain. Moreover it was
+cold and overcast. Yet nothing damped the ardour of the sellers, and the
+acquisitiveness of the buyers. But--had I come upon a nursery of hallelujah
+lasses? Were the nights to be made hideous with Salvation Army howls? On
+all sides of me were great girls and little girls, matrons and maids, in
+Salvation Army straws. I turned sick and faint with dismay. In the city of
+S. Mamertius, of S. Avitus and of Ado--"General" Booth's great Religious
+Speculation! It was not so, however, I was rejoiced to find, only all the
+women had been buying straws in the fair of the Salvation Army shape that
+were selling cheap, and having bought them ran home, trimmed them, and then
+out they popped again and marched about to show them.
+
+An avenue of booths and stalls. Boots, straw hats and Salvation bonnets,
+ribbons, kerchiefs, books and engravings. There was even a reduced
+household selling off all their worldly goods, lamps, chairs, prayer-books,
+kettles, crocks, linen--and a spinning-wheel. I looked lovingly, longingly
+at that spinning-wheel, and might have bought it for a franc and a half,
+and would have done so, had I not been encumbered with the hurdy-gurdy.
+_That_ had brought me into such difficulties that I felt convinced a
+hurdy-gurdy + a spinning-wheel would lodge me in a lunatic asylum. So
+reluctantly I left it.
+
+A gust of wind, and away went the straw hats from the stall, up into the
+air, over the heads of the crowd, spinning along in the gutters; one, a
+very kiss-me-quick, was blown slap in the face of an old priest trudging
+along reading his breviary. Then such outcries, entreaties, objurgations,
+as the straw hats and bonnets were run after and recovered, or sought to be
+recovered.
+
+Here--a quack with an assortment of bones that were so brown they looked as
+if they had been devilled, but they had acquired their tone from his hands.
+He held up a distorted piece of spine and pelvis, and declared he had a
+plaster so curative--fifty centimes, ten sous--that it would restraighten
+the most curved back. As for corns! He raised a horrible foot, applied
+to it some tow steeped in green fat, rapidly narrated the treatment he
+recommended--_et voilà!_--he drew away the tow, and the supposed corn was
+lodged in the midst of it. An inflammation of the lungs? a darling child
+sick? He opened a coffin and exposed a baby skeleton. "Look! your _cher
+enfant_ will be like this, but for fifty centimes I will save it, I
+guarantee. Pelt me with rotten apples, with addled eggs, if I fail. This
+plaster placed here (he applied it to the breast of the skeleton), and your
+child breathes thus (drew a long inhalation)--is well. Warts (a labourer
+held up a horny hand, the middle joint of the little finger disfigured with
+such excrescences)? Nothing easier! You take this bottle--warts are my
+speciality--you rub the wart with this. Thank you, fifty centimes. Come
+here next Sunday. If the wart be not gone--I do not say it will not leave
+a scar, but the scar will disappear in a month--here is a knife, stick it
+into my heart. I give you leave. I will not resist. I will not budge."
+
+[Illustration: House in Vienne.]
+
+Here--a man selling silvering-liquor, to be applied to vulgar yellow
+spoons, only a franc a bottle, and a whole set turned into purest
+silver-plating, plating that will not wear out through all your lives.
+
+Then, among the shows:--Cora, the Beautiful Serpent Charmer. Cora was
+outside beating a drum, and was quite the reverse of beautiful; she may
+have had the faculty of charming serpents, but not men. A cluster of young
+soldiers stood without, shook their heads, and would not be allured within.
+
+"Galerie des actualités artistiques"--a peep-show at photographs from the
+Paris Exhibition.
+
+"The real Vampire, alive, living on BLOOD. Called by the Chinese, from its
+powers of traversing twenty kilometres in an hour, 'The Flying Horse.'"
+
+The showman was outside, haranguing. His system was to thrill the audience
+with horror, till they precipitated themselves in a spasm of terror into
+his show. Just as when one is on a height, a nervous, uncontrollable
+impulse fills some men to throw themselves down out of very fear of
+falling, so did this great artist in horrors work up the feelings of
+his audience to such tension that it became insupportable, they must go
+headlong in, and see the vampire, if they died for it.
+
+"The vampire is to be seen--smacking his lips--thirsting, ravening, for
+BLOOD. A live rabbit will be offered him; he will roll his eyes, look at
+the human beings present, try the bars of his cage--he cannot reach them.
+En fin, a rabbit is better than nothing! Mesdames, je vous implore! Do not
+bring your babes within. A stern necessity--a care for the consequences
+would prevent me from admitting them. The sight of a human babe rouses in
+the vampire the sanguinary passion to a paroxysm of frenzy. In its natural
+state the vampire sucks the blood of men. This vampire has sucked that of
+KINGS, and to have to descend to--RABBIT!"
+
+[Illustration: At Vienne.]
+
+I did not expend my sous to see the wretched bat, but I did lavish
+thirty centimes on the amphitrite next door. The programme was so
+characteristically French that I give it:--
+
+    "Amphitrite vivante. Tous les soirs au couche du soleil elle laisse son
+    palais royal de coraux et d'algues, et sort des vagues sombres pour
+    jouir de son amour idéal. Légère et vaporeuse comme un ange, elle
+    caresse les ondes, et observe d'un doux regard son idéal, et réplonge
+    au fond de l'océan. Dépeindre avec quelle perfection on présente cette
+    expérience au public est impossible!!!"
+
+Thirty centimes, reserved seats; twenty, unreserved. As it turned out,
+there were no seats at all, but a slushy soil on which one stood, where the
+water had run in under the sides of the booth, and which sightseers had,
+with their boots, churned into mud.
+
+I supposed I was to see a nautilus; it was légère et vaporeux, it could not
+then be a seal. No, a nautilus. Thirty centimes--here goes for a sight of
+the nautilus. But it was touching to observe the confidence of the showman.
+He refused the entrance fee.
+
+"No, gentlemen. You shall yourselves decide whether the amphitrite is worth
+six sous. If you say not--go forth; I am content, but I pity you."
+
+A piece of drugget served as a curtain, which cut off what may be termed
+the stage. At a signal the drugget was withdrawn, and the spectators looked
+into a cave, the sides made of painted calico. Beyond this was the rippling
+ocean, with the evening sun sparkling on it, much like the scene in
+"Oberon," only on a very small scale, and with no stage. At a word from
+the showman, Amphitrite arose. By Ginger! not a nautilus, not a seal, but
+a living girl of sixteen summers, in fleshings, who floated in the air,
+made revolutions, waved her hands, stood on her head, touching nothing,
+precisely as if she really were devoid of all specific gravity. Only when
+hand or foot touched the calico-rocks did these same rocks begin to wave
+about.
+
+I supposed at the time, I suppose still, that the trick is done by means
+of mirrors. But _how_--I cannot conceive. Presently the hat went round for
+Amphitrite's special benefit: her _amour idéal_ had something of the sordid
+mammon in it. As everyone put a copper into the hat, "Merci, monsieur;
+merci, madame!" was what she said. So that there is a difficulty in
+supposing that the phenomenon was achieved by reflectors. She watched and
+acknowledged every offering made, as she calmly folded her arms and floated
+in mid-air, with head on one side, observant.
+
+I can't explain it--I am puzzled still. I paid my thirty centimes with
+alacrity, so did every one else. The show was worth the money.
+
+There was a merry-go-round--a _carousel_; the only feature in it with which
+I was unfamiliar was a ship, sails spread, on a pivot athwart the ring, so
+that it swayed as on a rolling sea when the _carousel_ was in revolution. I
+would not have entered that ship for twenty francs. Before the orchestrion
+that accompanied the merry-go-round had accomplished the first strain
+of Strauss's waltz I should have been feebly calling for the steward. I
+observed that those silly youngsters with nautical proclivities who did
+scramble into the swaying ship, got out with livid lips, and did not ask to
+go in again.
+
+Some years ago I was at Innsprück with a friend. We were sauntering
+together in the afternoon, not exactly knowing what to do with ourselves,
+when we found one of these _carousels_. We went farther; then I said, "We
+will return and go and see the Xaverianum"--a collection of paintings,
+mostly daubs, at Innsprück. "No," said my companion, "I don't feel inclined
+for the Xaverianum, I'll go down by the river." So we parted. Now, I had
+not gone far along my way in the direction of the Xaverianum, before I said
+to myself, "I don't want to see the Xaverianum either; but, as my friend
+is away--upon my word--I am unknown here! I'll--yes, I will--by Jove, I
+will--I'll go and have a round on the whirligig."
+
+So I retraced my steps, and, on reaching the merry-go-round, what should
+I behold but my friend seated on a piebald horse, with a short sword in
+his hand, aiming at the targets he passed in his revolution. He was a
+bald-headed man, with a long grey beard. His face and head became like a
+beetroot when he saw me; but I comforted him. At Würzburg, in the Episcopal
+palace, is a _carousel_, in which the bishop--a prince elector--was wont on
+rainy days to go round and round, seated in a purple velvet chair with the
+Episcopal arms embroidered on the curtains, and the mitre over it.
+
+Enough of the fair. Now to graver matters; and first the temple of Augustus
+and Livia. I do not know whether it was that the weather was gloomy, or
+that the fair had set me out of tune for antiquities; but somehow this
+temple did not impress me as did the dear little Maison Carrée at Nimes.
+For one thing the stone is dingy, whereas that of Nimes is bright and
+white; and the proportions did not please me. I believe the knowing ones
+say that the Nimes temple is not proportioned according to the laws of
+Vitruvius, and this at Vienne is. If that be the case, then I am sorry for
+Vitruvius. The temple is structurally perfect--as perfect as that of Nimes.
+
+Another object of interest is the Aiguille, a Roman obelisk seventy-six
+feet high. There is a square base, pierced by arches in each face, and the
+obelisk, or pyramid rather, stands on this. It is not very beautiful,
+but it is worth examining. It is thought that the monument to Marius at
+Pourrières was somewhat similar.
+
+[Illustration: Hurdy-Gurdy Played by an Angel.]
+
+The cathedral of Vienne is of sandstone, and has decayed accordingly.
+The west end, which was very rich, and is rich still, has suffered
+from corrosion in the upper part; but a firmer, less friable sandstone
+was fortunately employed for the lower stage, in which is the richest
+sculpture, and that is fairly perfect. Murray pooh-poohs this west front:
+"It is rich in flamboyant ornaments, but they are clumsy and without
+delicacy." The sculpture was adapted to the material, and any other would
+not have looked well. After the severe and bald west fronts in Provence, I
+was disposed, I suppose, to be pleased with the rich façade at Vienne. I
+confess that "clumsy and without delicacy" though it might be, I thoroughly
+enjoyed it. But that façade caught me quite by my weak point. There is a
+central doorway, and one into each aisle, and round the archways into these
+lateral doors are sculptured angels playing upon musical instruments. As I
+have told the reader, ancient forms of musical instruments are my hobby,
+or rather one of my hobbies. I at once pulled out my sketch-book and
+drew them; there are angels with fiddles, angels with viols--no, not
+hurdy-gurdys!--but twanged with the fingers, angels with pipes and horns,
+one with a harp, two with portable organs of ten pipes in each, two angels
+with bagpipes with single drones. Conceive of a salutation on bagpipes
+from the celestial choir! An angel plays the cymbals, and another with a
+plectrum strikes a metal disc.
+
+[Illustration: Church of S. André-le-Bas. The Tower.]
+
+The interior of the cathedral is remarkable for the peculiarly fine
+sculpture of the capitals of the pillars. The foliage is of exquisite
+loveliness and variety; but over the transept door is a very Brueghel
+creation of horrors--in fact, the zodiacal signs worked up together into a
+nightmare.
+
+A church of remarkable interest in Vienne is S. André-le-Bas; it has in it
+two Roman marble Corinthian columns supporting the arch of the apse, and a
+Corinthian capital used as a font.
+
+The situation of Vienne is remarkable, it resembles one of the towns on the
+Rhine, where the river is contracted among hills.
+
+The mountains rise immediately behind the city, and are crowned with old
+castles. The space between the river and the bases of the heights is small,
+and the city is somewhat cramped accordingly. But the Gère issues from the
+hills on the north, and gives some scope for the suburbs of the old town to
+creep up its banks.
+
+Vienne is one of the most ancient towns of Gaul, it was the capital of the
+Allobroges; it claims as the founder of the Church there Crescens, disciple
+of S. Paul. Crescens, it will be remembered, was sent by Paul into Galatia.
+That was quite sufficient for these Gallic enthusiasts, who desired to give
+to the French bishoprics Apostolic founders. They supposed that Galatia was
+a slip of the pen for Gallia, and argued, if to Gallia, then to Vienne, the
+most ancient and important city therein, _q.e.d._ But no bishop of Vienne
+appears fixed with any certainty before Verus, who attended the Council
+of Arles in A.D. 314. It is, however, quite certain that the Church was
+founded there before A.D. 150; for one of the most precious and authentic
+records of the early Church we have is the letter written by the Vienne
+Christians to those of the East, recording the martyrdom of the bishop
+Pothinus of Lyons.
+
+[Illustration: Porte de l'Ambulance, Vienne.]
+
+It used to be said of the old Gallo-Roman city that its wealth was so great
+that the streets were paved with mosaic. Now one would be thankful for a
+bit that was smooth. The pavement is almost as bad as that of Arles.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+BOURGES.
+
+
+The siege of Avaricum by Cæsar--The complete subjugation of Gaul--The
+statue of the Dying Gaul at Rome--Beauty of Bourges--The cathedral--Not
+completed according to design--Defect in height--Strict geometrical
+proportion in design not always satisfactory--Necessity of proportion
+for acoustics--Domestic architecture in Bourges--The house of Jacques
+Coeur--Story of his life--A rainy day--Why Bourges included in this book--A
+silver thimble--_Que de singeries faites-vous là, Madeleine?_--Adieu.
+
+
+Bourges stands in the very forefront of Gaulish history marked by a great
+disaster. There, on a little height at the junction of the Yèvre and the
+Auron, the gallant Bituriges had their capital, Avaricum. In six campaigns
+Cæsar had, as he believed, broken the neck of all resistance, and Gaul was
+under the iron heel of Rome. "My aunt Julia," said Cæsar, "is, maternally,
+the daughter of kings; paternally--" he passed his fingers through his
+curled and scented locks--"paternally, she is descended from the immortal
+gods." After that, even barbarians must feel that it was in vain to strive
+against a man thus preordained to mastery. Yet they did not see it.
+
+When Julius Cæsar was in Rome, after six years of stubborn conflict, after
+incredible suffering and bloodshed, the heart of the people though bowed
+down was not broken.
+
+There lived among the Arvernians, in the high mountainland, among the
+volcanic peaks of Auvergne, as it is now called, a young chief, whose real
+name is not known, but whom history calls Vercingetorix, that is, Head
+over a Hundred Tribes. The time was come for an united, determined, and
+desperate resistance. He sent messengers throughout Gaul. The downtrodden
+inhabitants rose to a man and invested Vercingetorix with the chief
+command.
+
+In the year of Rome 702, B.C. 32, Cæsar was suddenly informed in Italy that
+his work of six years was threatened with ruin. Most of the Gallic nations,
+united under a chieftain hitherto unknown, were rising with one common
+impulse, and recommencing war.
+
+Cæsar at once returned to Gaul. He had one quality, rare even amongst the
+greatest men, he remained cool amidst the hottest alarms. He was always
+quick, never hasty. He placed himself at the head of his troops, and, in
+the early part of March, moved to what is now Sens, the very centre of
+revolt, and looked round to decide where first to strike.
+
+Vercingetorix from the outset knew that the ill-armed and worse disciplined
+Gauls could not cope in the open field with Cæsar and the Roman legions; he
+therefore formed a plan of campaign that required great sacrifices on the
+side of the Gauls, for the sake of the common safety. No walls, he assured
+the confederates, could withstand the skill of the Romans in engineering,
+no array maintain itself in the field against their phalanx. But he
+reminded them that through the winter and early spring the soil on which
+the enemy trod could not furnish him with provision. He must disperse his
+troops among the fortresses. Let then, said he, no further attempts be made
+to defy the Roman in the open field; let him rather be followed in detail,
+and cut off when separated into cantonments, and above all, let the towns
+that served him for magazines be destroyed by the hands of the inhabitants
+themselves. He recommended in fact the very course pursued more than
+eighteen hundred years later by the Russians against the French Cæsar, a
+course which proved fatal to him.
+
+The assembled council of Gaulish states assented gallantly to this
+proposal. In one day twenty cities of the Bituriges were flaming, and
+similar havoc was made throughout the territories of the allies. But when
+the fate of Avaricum (Bourges) came to be discussed, the hearts of the
+Bituriges failed them. Their deputies knelt to the assembled chiefs and
+interceded for the preservation of their beautiful, and as they deemed it,
+impregnable city. The council yielded. In vain did Vercingetorix urge them
+to carry out their determination without exception. They would surrender
+every other city to the flames, but not their loved capital, not Avaricum.
+
+The situation was admirably calculated for defence. It stood on rising
+ground, and the only approach to it then was a causeway between the river
+and a morass. The garrison laboured night and day to strengthen their
+defences with earthworks and with palisades of sharpened stakes. The Romans
+at once moved from Sens and surrounded the place. The story of its fall I
+will take from the graphic pen of Dean Merivale:--"Whilst the Bituriges
+within their city were hard pressed by the machinery which the Roman
+engineers directed against their walls, the forces of the proconsul on
+their side were harassed by the fatigues of the siege and the scarcity of
+provisions. Cæsar is lavish of praise in speaking of the fortitude with
+which his soldiers bore their privations; they refused to allow him to
+raise the siege, and when he at last led them against the enemy's army, and
+finding it too strongly posted for an attack, withdrew them again within
+their lines, they submitted to the disappointment, and betook themselves
+once more without a murmur to the tedious operations of the blockade.
+The skill of the assailants at length triumphed over the bravery of the
+defenders. The walls were approached by towers at various points, and
+mounds constructed against which the combustible missiles of the besieged
+were unavailing. Finally, a desperate sally was repulsed, and then, at last
+the constancy of the Bituriges began to fail. Taking advantage of a moment
+when the watch on the walls had relaxed its vigilance, Cæsar marshalled his
+legions behind his works, and poured them suddenly against the opposing
+ramparts. They gained the summit of the walls, which the defenders
+abandoned without a blow, rallying, however, in the middle of the town, in
+such hasty array as the emergency would allow. A bloody struggle ensued;
+both parties were numerous, and the assailants gave no quarter. The
+Gauls were routed and exterminated, their women and children mercilessly
+slaughtered, and the great central city of Gaul fell into the hands of the
+conquerors without affording a single captive for their triumph." After
+that the fate of the insurrection was sealed. The war was carried on with
+fluctuations of fortune even into an eighth campaign, and then the yoke
+of Rome, iron, and doubly weighted with the wrath of the conqueror, was
+riveted on to the neck of prostrate Gallia, never again to be shaken off.
+
+[Illustration: A street corner, Bourges.]
+
+Now, day after day at Rome during the winter had I stood before the Dying
+Gaul in the Capitoline Museum, that statue of incomparable pathos:--
+
+      "He leans upon his hand--his manly brow
+      Consents to death, but conquers agony,
+      And his drooped head sinks gradually low--
+      From the red gash fall heavy, one by one,
+      Like the first of a thunder-shower; and now
+      The arena swims around him--he is gone,
+  Ere ceased the inhuman shout which hailed the wretch who won."
+
+_Childe Harold._
+
+The statue is not of a Dying Gladiator, but of a Gaulish chief, who has
+dealt himself the death-wound rather than fall into servitude to the Roman,
+and then has broken his sword.
+
+And, after having looked and dreamed over that figure, could one come to
+Bourges and not think of that heroic and fatal struggle?
+
+Bourges was a beautiful city in those times, loved by the Bituriges so that
+they could not resolve to destroy it; but oh! how beautiful it is now,
+with its quaint Mediæval and Renaissance houses, and above all that most
+glorious cathedral, one of the very finest creations of art in the world.
+And yet, it is not perfect. The original design was not carried out. The
+nave has not the height proposed. Funds failed, and it was finished off
+as best might be. It wants about forty-six feet of the height it should
+have had, to be in correct proportion. The flying buttresses outside were
+designed and executed to carry a vaulting some forty-six feet higher than
+the present one, and they are now of no use; they sustain nothing, all
+the outward thrust of the central vault is thrown on the second stage of
+buttresses. Fine as is the interior, it ought to be finer. The clerestory
+windows are dwarfed, and the height of the side aisles is felt to be out
+of all proportion to that of the nave. Moreover, there is nothing of the
+wonderful skill of design in the apsidal chapels, that is seen at Amiens,
+Vezelai, Beauvais, &c. Instead of forming an integral portion of the plan,
+they are mere excrescences in the sides of the apse.
+
+However, in spite of defects, partly in design, but mainly through lack of
+means to carry it out, the cathedral of Bourges is of singular beauty. In
+one point the architect was a greater man than the designers of Amiens and
+Cologne. These two cathedrals are in strict proportion in all their parts.
+The designer of each, like the architect of York Minster, was a great
+man with the compasses. But an architect should be artist as well as
+geometrician. I have ever felt in York Minster, in Amiens and Cologne, that
+there is a lack of genius, of the human soul in the creation.
+
+There is strict formality, exact rule, that is all. No allowance has been
+made for effect of perspective, for the foreshortening to the eye at
+distances; there is no poetry in these three cathedrals. The designers drew
+them out on paper without having the faculty of seeing them in their minds'
+eye rise before them out of the soil. These churches made better sketches
+than they do structures. They are in admirable proportion on paper, but
+they are out of proportion when seen in stone. Now such architects as the
+men who designed Beauvais and Bourges were geniuses. They were not tied
+hard and fast by rule of compass. They worked from a definite geometric
+plan, but deviated from it where their taste and feeling for beauty taught
+them that such deviation was advisable. Now at Beauvais and at Bourges the
+exact, proportions have been abandoned. For instance, at Bourges, to be
+exact, each of the two side aisles should have been half the width of the
+nave. But the architect was perhaps afraid of the great span, perhaps he
+dreaded too great formality, and he made the aisle next to the nave about 2
+ft. 3 in. less than the width it ought to have had, if in exact proportion.
+The outer aisle was given almost, but not quite, the exact proportional
+width.
+
+The great defect of our modern architects is that they do not work from a
+foundation of geometrical proportion, but design out of their own heads
+by eye; we are sometimes distressed at finding that our churches recently
+built are bad acoustically. This is very generally due to the fact that
+they have been built regardless of geometric proportion.
+
+If Bourges had been carried out as intended, the crown of the vault would
+have been exactly seven times half the width of the nave. S. Servin,
+Toulouse, has the keystone of the vault exactly five times the half width.
+If we desire to have good acoustic qualities in our churches and halls we
+must observe some such rule. So with the plan. The length of Autun is seven
+times the width of the nave; Beauvais the same, or would have been, had
+the nave been completed. Amiens has exactly the same proportion, measured
+to the end of the apse. So Noyon. In fact, the Mediæval architects were
+careful to build so as never to give even proportions. Twice, four times,
+six times, would have had bad acoustic effects. There would have been an
+echo.
+
+Of the sculpture on the west façade, the richly, deeply-recessed portals,
+I will not speak. That has been sufficiently observed and admired by other
+writers. I am not writing a guide-book, and I do not as a rule notice at
+any length what may be found in easily-accessible works. Here, as at Rouen,
+is a butter tower, so called because built with money paid for indulgence
+to be allowed to eat butter in Lent. Does the reader know how strictly the
+observance of Lent was enforced down to the Civil Wars in England? I have
+gone through some episcopal registers of our English bishops since the
+Reformation, and find that in James I.'s time a bishop's licence was
+sought to obtain permission to eat meat in Lent. Not only so, but all
+schoolmasters, surgeons, and midwives were required to obtain an episcopal
+licence before being permitted to practise in the diocese.
+
+In Bourges one feels that one is removed altogether from the influences
+that moulded architecture in Provence. There the abundance of Classic
+remains affected the minds and formed the taste of the Mediæval builders.
+In Central France there were few traces of the Roman conquerors, and Gothic
+architecture developed freely according to its own genius. The domestic
+architecture is different. We come now to the gables standing over the
+street. There are many and charming specimens in Bourges. Among the houses
+is that of Cujas, concerning whom some anecdotes have already been told.
+Bourges was famous for its University and School of Laws, and Cujas was
+invited to a professorship in it. The house is of brick, of the sixteenth
+century, and richly adorned. Another interesting house is that of Charles
+VII., with a graceful staircase, and an old hall with open fireplace. But
+the striking mansion of all is that of Jacques Coeur, the Bourges jeweller,
+father of an Archbishop of this his native city. Throughout the house is
+introduced his canting device, a human heart and the scallopshell of S.
+James. His motto is also graven, "A vaillants coeurs rien impossible."
+
+[Illustration: Part of Jacques Coeur's House.]
+
+I hate doing a thing again and in an inferior manner that has already been
+done inimitably; and Madame Parkes-Belloc, with her fresh pen dipped
+in sunlight has written about Bourges and Jacques Coeur's house in her
+charming book, 'La Belle France,' [1] and I dare not tread after her. So I
+simply quote her words--I fear her pleasant book is not much sought after
+and read now:--"His dwelling must have fitted Jacques Coeur as its skin
+fits an animal. All its quaint architectural corners seem, as it were,
+wrinkles and creases, whereby it adapted itself to the nature and genius
+of the man. We, in our day, know nothing of such a style of building. If
+we want a large house we send for an architect, who submits his plans
+to our enlightened judgment; allotting ample stairs, a sufficiency of
+best bedrooms, kitchen, butler's pantry, &c. If rather less, then rather
+cheaper; and as to making the slightest difference in style on account
+of our late pursuits, as whether, for instance, we were a retired
+candlestick-maker, or a Lord Chancellor, or a physician, the very idea
+would savour of lunacy. Not so Jacques Coeur. This man wished, in dying, to
+leave a beautiful shell behind him, so that the passers-by might say: 'Here
+lived a great merchant; he had a wife, sons, and a daughter, and numerous
+domestics. He liked his money, but loved art more. He kept a negro; he was
+pious, also loyal. He didn't mind fighting, if needs must be; but preferred
+commerce and politics. He loved Bourges, and Bourges loved him; for he paid
+his workmen well.' All this, and more, Jacques Coeur continued to write in
+legible characters on the walls of his house, some of it on the outside,
+some of it on the inside."
+
+[Footnote 1: Published in 1868.]
+
+He had humour, a quaint conceit, this man of gold and jewelry. He had the
+very knocker to his door made to strike upon a _heart_. Under the eaves of
+his observatory he had his negro sculptured hugging his money-box, and a
+little beyond an angel exhibiting his newly-acquired coat-of-arms. The one
+led to the other--the money-box brought on gentility. Hard by is the
+shield of an allied commercial family, their coat one of _fleurs-de-lis_
+interspersed with woolsacks. The Fuggers of Augsburg, when desiring a coat,
+asked Maximilian for lilies--for, said these wealthy spinners--as for the
+lilies, "_They_ toil not, neither do they spin." With droll invention
+Jacques had one of his fireplaces made like a fortress, with little windows
+above, out of which folk are peeping. He had a gift for pungent mottoes.
+Here are some he had wrought into the decorations of his house:--
+
+  "A close bouche
+  Il n'entre mouche."
+
+Another is:--
+
+  "Entendre, taire,
+  Dire, et faire,
+  Est ma joie."
+
+I remember a merchant's house, very sumptuous, at Schaffhausen, on which he
+had written this bitter device--"God preserve me from my friends; I will
+protect myself from my enemies." Another man altogether from Jacques Coeur.
+
+The ending of this bright, merry, pomp-loving merchant was sad. He fell
+into disgrace with his king--he had probably lent him too much money; he
+was accused falsely of several crimes--forging money and selling arms to
+infidels, and was thrown into prison. The king then seized his wealth, tore
+up the bills in his name, and left one of Jacques' sons only a remnant of
+his treasure and the house. Jacques Coeur managed to escape from prison,
+got to Rome, and was taken into favour by Nicolas V. and Calixtus III., and
+was appointed captain of an expedition against the Turks. He is thought to
+have been wounded in a skirmish with them, for he is known to have died in
+Chios. And so he passed his old age, and laid his bones far from the house
+he had built for himself in which to end his days, and was not buried in
+the chapel of the cathedral which he had constructed as his mausoleum.
+
+[Illustration: Turret in the Hôtel Lallemand.]
+
+Another very delightful old house in Bourges is the Hôtel Lallemand,
+constructed after the great fire of 1487; there is another in the Rue des
+Toiles, and another again in the Rue S. Suplice.
+
+[Illustration: Staircase in the Hôtel Lallemand.]
+
+The reader may ask--If you are writing a book on Provence and Languedoc,
+why give us Bourges? Bourges, which is in Berry, which is in the very
+centre of France? For the same reason that I began with Florence. One does
+not drop out of a balloon into Provence, nor ascend out of it by one. One
+must stay somewhere in going there, and stay somewhere and see something on
+leaving there. And as my stay at Florence led on as a sort of preface to my
+flight up and down in Provence, so will this chapter on Bourges serve as an
+epilogue. For, in verity, as my encounter with the Jew dealer served me as
+an introduction so shall a little incident I met with in Bourges serve me
+as an easy mode of making my exit with a bow.
+
+It was raining. It had rained all day. The interior of the cathedral,
+dark at all times with its deep-dyed (and dirty) glass, was in darkness,
+too deep to see and study much. The gurgoyles were spouting, the eaves
+dripping, the gutters running as mountain torrents. However, towards
+sunset, the windows of heaven were closed, the rain ceased, and folk who
+had been indoors all day came out with umbrellas and pattered and splashed
+about.
+
+Now, by some fatality a thimble had been brought down from the roof of one
+of the houses by a descending water-spout; perhaps a dragon-gurgoyle had
+spat it disdainfully down. How had the thimble got on the roof? That was
+the question, not how it got down into the gutter. Had a cunning jackdaw,
+as in the 'Gazza di Ladra' carried it off, or had a child tumbled it out of
+an attic window on to the leads?
+
+I was not the only person interested in this thimble. There was a young
+man, a student, a French exquisite, who also observed it; and I saw him
+poking at it in the water with the ferrule of his umbrella. Indeed it
+was his behaviour towards the thimble that attracted my attention to it.
+Presently he managed to extricate the thimble from the flood, to lodge it
+on a paving-stone, but it was slippery and round, and rolled off between
+two cobbles. Then he put up his eye-glass and studied it. Was it worth
+soiling his fingers over or not? Was it of silver or of brass? He walked
+round the thimble, with his eye-glass up, stood astride over the little
+torrent that had brought it down, stiffened his back, clapped the umbrella
+under his arm, and pursed up his lips to consider. Then he formed his
+resolution, stooped, and with the extreme point of his forefinger turned
+the thimble about. Then he stood erect again, pulled out a pocket
+handkerchief--saw it was of spotless cleanliness, considered that it would
+cost him two sous to have it washed if he dirtied it by drying thereon his
+forefinger, replaced it, and put his finger up his back under his coat
+tails and wiped it on the calico of his waistcoat.
+
+He had made up his mind to have nothing more to do with the thimble, when
+along the _trottoïr_ came tripping a pretty damsel, with the purest of
+white caps, a sallow face, with fine dark eyes and abundant black hair. She
+bore over her shoulder, expanded, a plum-coloured umbrella. It had ceased
+raining, but the plum-colour threw out her pleasant face into relief: she
+knew that, and tripped on without folding it.
+
+Instantly down bent the student, and, regardless of the dirty water, picked
+up the thimble. It slipped from his fingers into the gutter. Boldly he
+plunged his hand in, soiling thereby his _manchette_; but he recovered the
+trifle. The girl was abreast of him, and had passed before he was prepared.
+
+He now pulled out a dogskin glove and polished the article. It _was_
+silver. He affixed it to the end of his little finger and waited his
+opportunity.
+
+Three ladies approached. The youth plucked up courage--holding out his
+little finger shod with the thimble. It was like Paris and the Three
+Goddesses. The ladies looked at him, at his thimble, then at each other,
+tossed their heads, and walked on.
+
+Then came a very ugly woman--the exquisite put the thimble resolutely
+behind his back.
+
+Next--back, under her plum-coloured umbrella, returned the grisette. At
+once the dandy stood forward.
+
+"Mademoiselle, as you passed just now, assuredly you dropped this."
+
+[Illustration: Sculpture over the kitchen entrance at Jacques Coeur's
+house.]
+
+"Mais, Monsieur! ce n'est pas possible. Ce n'est pas à moi."
+
+"Pardon, mademoiselle, you dropped it; I saw you. I heard it fall."
+
+"Cependant,--it is not mine."
+
+"Then it is nobody's. I will throw it away."
+
+"Mais, monsieur, it is of silver."
+
+"Take it, mademoiselle, I pray."
+
+She held the little silver thimble between thumb and forefinger, turned it
+about, studied it, hesitated, was inclined to take it, but did not wish to
+place herself under an obligation to a fop, and a stranger--knitted her
+brows--when up came a young workman, with a lead pencil in his hand--in his
+blouse.
+
+"Mais! que de singeries faites-vous là, Madeleine?" said he, and
+flip!--with his pencil he sent the thimble out from her hand,
+flying--neither he, nor the girl, nor I saw whither it went, or where it
+fell.
+
+And--just thus stands the author of this little work, offering his trifle
+to the gentle and well-disposed reader, who is inclined, may be, to be
+pleased with it, and to adopt it. But up comes the envious reviewer, and
+with his pen--flip--he sends the poor little article away--away--away, into
+the limbo of forgotten books, "que de singeries faites-vous là--avec cette
+bagatelle là?"
+
+[Illustration: Jacques Coeur's knocker.]
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+
+A.--MONUMENTS FROM THE ALYSCAMPS.
+
+1. The inscription to Cornelia, daughter of Marius, is something of a
+puzzle. Against its genuineness may be urged that he is represented as
+conqueror of the Cimbri, whereas the Cimbri were not defeated till the
+following year, near Vercelli. Now it is strange that he should have left
+his daughter at Arles instead of moving her into Italy; and it is also odd
+that, if she were left there, he should be designated as conqueror of the
+Cimbri, whereas in the engagement with the Cimbri he shared the glory with
+Catulus; and he alone was victor over the Teutons and Ambrons near Aix.
+Moreover, one would have supposed that at Arles he would have been entitled
+the conqueror of these latter, the terror of whom had fallen on the
+province, and not of the Cimbri who did not menace it.
+
+On the other hand, the inscription is in shockingly bad Latin; Calpurnia
+is made conqueror of the Cimbri, not her father, by a grammatical blunder;
+and one would suspect a forger would have avoided such a grotesque error,
+which is quite in agreement with other blunders made by the sculptors of
+monuments in the Alyscamps, who were clearly Gallo-Greeks, and hardly
+understood Latin.
+
+Also--and this is remarkable--the name of the girl is Calpurnia; and Caius
+Marius was a native of Arpinum, and when this town was taken by the Romans
+from the Samnites, in B.C. 188, the franchise was given to the inhabitants,
+who were enrolled in the Calpurnian _gens_. Now this is a little fact that
+it is most improbable a forger would know--but it quite explains the girl
+receiving the name of Calpurnia, if genuine.
+
+2. The Tomb of Julia Tyranna. The inscription runs:--
+
+        IVLIÆ . LVC . FILIÆ . TYRANNIÆ .
+          VIXIT ANN . XX . M . VIII .
+         QVÆ MORIBVS . PARITER . ET .
+       DISCIPLINA . CETERIS . FEMINIS .
+         EXEMPLO . FVIT . ANTARCIVS .
+         NVRVI . LAVRENTIVS . VCXORI .
+
+It was raised to her memory by her father-in-law Antarcius, and by her
+husband, Laurentius. The organ is represented with seven pipes.
+
+3.
+
+               O DOLOR . QVANTÆ
+              LACHRIMÆ . FECERE
+             SEPVLCRVM . IVL . LV
+            CINÆ . QVÆ . VIXIT . KA
+     D .   RISSIMA . MATRI . FLOS . Æ    M.
+         TATIS . HIQ . IACET . INTVS .
+           CONDITA . SAXOO . VTINAM .
+      POSSIT . REPARARI . SPIRITVS . ILLE .
+      VT . SCIRET . QVANTVS . DOLOR . EST .
+  QVÆ . VIXIT . ANN . XXVII . M . X . DIE XIII .
+   IVL . PARTHENOPE . POSVIT . INFELIX MATER .
+
+"O Grief! what tears have watered this tomb of Julia Lucina who in life was
+very dear to her mother. Carried off in the flower of her age, here she
+lies, buried in this marble tomb. Would that her spirit might be restored,
+that she might learn how great is my grief. She lived twenty-seven years,
+ten months, and thirteen days. Julia Parthenope, her unhappy mother, raised
+this."
+
+4.
+
+                HYDRIÆ TERTVLLÆ
+          C . F . CONIVGI . AMANTISSI
+             MÆ ET AXIÆ OELIANÆ .
+              FILIÆ DVLCISSIMÆ .
+               TERENTIVS MVSEVS
+                 HOC SEPVLCRVM
+                    POSVIT .
+
+"Terentius Musæus placed this to his most loving wife, Hydria Tertulla, and
+to his most sweet daughter, Axia Oeliana." On this is a child with a cock
+in hand, an oblation to the infernal deities.
+
+5.
+
+                F . MARIO . MF .
+                    MARINO .
+              EXS . TESTA MENTO .
+
+Observe in this, as in No. 3, the queer spelling, in both phonetic:--HIQ,
+SAXOO, EXS.
+
+6. Here is a Christian inscription:--
+
+ INTEGER . ATQVE . PIVS . VITA . ET . CORPORE . PVRVS .
+   ÆTERNO . HIC . POSITVS . VIVIT . CONCORDIVS . ÆVO .
+      QVI . TENERIS . PRIMVM . MINISTER . FVLSIT .
+                   IN . ANNIS .
+  POST . ETIAM . LECTVS . COELESTI . LEGE . SACERDOS
+    TRIGINTA . ET GEMINOS . DECEM . VIX . REDDIDIT .
+                      ANNOS .
+   HVNC . CITO . SIDEREAM . RAPTVM . OMNIPOTENTIS .
+                    IN AVLAM
+     MATER . BLANDA . ET . FRATER . SINE FVNERE
+                    QVÆRVNT .
+
+"Intact and pious, pure in life and body, here lies buried, but eternally
+lives Concordius, who in his tender years shone first as a deacon,
+afterwards chosen by the celestial law a priest; he lived hardly fifty
+years. Transported too soon to the starry hall of the Almighty, his gentle
+mother and his brother seek him without bewailing him."
+
+This is on a sarcophagus of white marble with a colonnade carved on the
+face, the pillars channeled and spiral. In the centre is Jesus Christ,
+seated on a throne, instructing His apostles and a crowd, which is seen
+through the arcade, at the right a man, on the left a woman, on the cover
+are the twelve apostles with rolled volumes before them. This sarcophagus
+belongs to the fourth century.
+
+7.
+
+                    PAX ÆTERNA
+             DVLCISSIMÆ . ET . INNOCEN
+         TISSIM . FILLIÆ . CHRYSOGONE . IV
+      NIOR . SIRICIO . QVÆ . VIX . ANN . III .
+    M . II . DIEB . XXVII . VALERIVS . ET . CHRY
+         SOGONE . PARENTES . FILLIÆ . KARIS
+           SIMÆ . ET . OMNI . TEMPORE . VI
+             TÆ . SVE . DESIDERANTISS .
+                    M . A . E .
+
+"Peace eternal to the most sweet and innocent girl, Chrysogone (the
+younger) Siricio, who lived three years, three months, and twenty-seven
+days. Valerius and Chrysogone, her parents, raised this monument to their
+most dear daughter, whom they will regret all their lives."
+
+The bones were found in a leaden coffin enclosed in one of stone. The body
+of the little Chrysogone had been enveloped in a rich brocade of gold
+thread and silk.
+
+8. A curious column dedicated by the good people of Arles to Flavius
+Valerius Constantinus (Constantine the Great), son of Constantius, long
+served the boatmen on the Rhone to fasten their vessels to, and it is sadly
+furrowed by the chains and cords so employed. It bears the inscription:--
+
+        IMP . CÆS . FL . VAL . CONSTANTINO
+          P . F . AVG . DIVI CONSTANTI .
+               AVG . RII . FILIO .
+
+Constantius Chorus also bore the names of Flavius Valerius.
+
+
+B.--THE CAMPAIGN OF MARIUS.
+
+For determining this the following points must be settled:--
+
+I. _Where was his camp?_
+
+To fix the position of his camp we must see where he could best watch the
+barbarians cross the Rhone, in such a place as he would have his rear
+covered, and where he could keep open his communications with Rome, and
+receive both reinforcements and victuals.
+
+Now there is absolutely no point that answers these requirements like S.
+Gabriel. It was certain that the barbarians would not cross at Arles, for
+they could not advance thence south of the chain of Les Alpines, owing to
+the lagoons and morasses, and the desert of the Great Crau. They must cross
+below Avignon and at or above Tarascon. Now, as they would almost certainly
+march along the high table-land that extends from Montpellier by Nimes to
+Beaucaire, and not wade through the marshes below these hills, they would
+arrive with dry feet at Beaucaire, and there, naturally would cross and
+follow up the valley of the Durance. S. Gabriel was a natural watch-tower,
+whence Marius could observe them. It is an ancient Roman settlement.
+Numerous Roman remains have been found there. Marius had but to mount the
+heights behind the little town, and he commanded all the country to the
+north-west and south for a vast distance. Then, again, by means of his
+canal, connecting the lagoons, he was able to bring ships with supplies
+under his walls. His canal opened out of the Etang de Galéjon, with a
+station at Fos, not at the exact entrance of the canal, which was low and
+marshy, but at the entrance of the channel of Martigues that opens into
+the Etang de Berre. Through Galéjon it ran north, cutting through a chain
+of lagoons, passed under Mont Majeur to S. Gabriel, and there probably
+received the waters, the overspill of the Durance, above Château Renard.
+Plutarch says that it was connected with the Rhone, but this was probably
+an error. Its course to S. Gabriel remained in use and falling into
+decay in the Middle Ages as the Canal des Lonnes. Between S. Gabriel and
+the Etang de Galéjon it could also be traced, and bore the name of Le
+Vigueirat. This canal of Marius was perfectly protected from the barbarians
+by the morasses that intervened between it and the Rhone.
+
+II. _To determine his march._
+
+The old pre-Roman road from Nimes to Aix certainly followed the high and
+dry ground to Tarascon, thence traced up the valley of the Durance. It
+could no longer follow the high ground, as that is broken into limestone
+peaks, but it followed up the river below them, carried above the rubble
+of the Durance. The first station after Tarascon was Glanum, now S. Remi.
+Then it went to Orgon, where it touched the Durance for the first time, and
+whence branched the roads to Italy--one by Mont Genèvre, the other by Aix
+and the coast. I suppose that Marius, following the barbarians, he on the
+heights, they in the valley, observed the direction they took to right or
+to left, from the precipitous crags of Orgon. It must be remembered that
+Marius had an army made up of demoralised soldiers, who had escaped from
+defeat by the barbarians, and of raw levies, and all were in deadly fear of
+their savage foes, so that he dare not bring them to a pitched battle till
+they had become accustomed to the sight of the Teutons and Ambrons, and
+were themselves impatient to come to blows with them.
+
+The host of invaders turned south towards Aix. Marius pursued: there can,
+I think, be little question that he pursued the same tactics, exchanging a
+sandstone range for one of limestone, and following them steadily step by
+step, keeping the heights.
+
+Now, if the camp of Marius was at S. Gabriel, and if the Teutons marched up
+the Durance valley to Orgon, and then turned to Aix, then, it seemed to me,
+on the spot, that no one save an idiot in command of the Roman soldiers
+could have done anything else than strike for the sandstone ridge and march
+along that, still observing the enemy.
+
+Another theory relative to the Roman road is that it ran south of the chain
+of Les Alpines. This would not matter for the course of Marius, but would
+explain the fact of the monument of Marius being found at Les Baux; and Les
+Baux would then be the cliff whence he watched the march of the barbarians.
+
+III. _To determine the position of the battles._
+
+Plutarch does not distinguish between sites. He says that there were two
+battles separated from one another by two days, and that in the first
+Marius defeated the Ambrons. In the second he defeated the Teutons. He
+leaves us to infer that both battles were fought on the same field. But
+there are difficulties in supposing this.
+
+1. The field of Pourrières does not answer the description of the first
+battle site; it does that of the second.
+
+2. The Ambrons alone were engaged in the first battle, and no Teutons came
+to their help. We may therefore fairly suppose that the two great bodies
+of barbarian invaders had separated. 3. There was a very tempting bait,
+Marseilles lying to the south, inviting attack and pillage.
+
+Following M. Gilles in his monograph on the campaign of Marius, I believe
+that the first battle was fought at Les Milles, the first station out of
+Aix on the Marseilles road, and that the Ambrons had parted company with
+the Teutons so as to try their luck with Marseilles, or perhaps only so as
+to ravage the coast, if they could make no impression on a walled city.
+
+Now, the sandstone ridge along which Marius and his army were marching,
+as I suppose, ends abruptly above Les Milles. Below flows the river Are,
+making a loop in which is a rich green meadow, and under the hill ooze
+out countless rills of water. Indeed, the bottom of the hill is dense
+with irises loving the slushy percolated soil. There is no water on the
+sandstone heights. Here, if I am right, Marius came out and saw the Ambrons
+below, and wanted to form his camp, but was deterred by an engagement being
+begun by the water-carriers of the camp going down to the river and springs
+with their pails, and being attacked by the Ambrons. Aix lies away to the
+north in a broad basin, and at some little distance, two kilos., from the
+river. The battle could not have happened there. There is no other place
+save Les Milles where we have hill, river, green plain and springs
+together, as in Plutarch's narrative. Let us then suppose that Marius
+fought the first battle at Les Milles and there defeated the Ambrons. Those
+not slain would fly along the Aurelian road that leads from Aix through
+the plain of Pourrières, crosses a low _col_, and enters the valley of the
+Argens, and leads to Fréjus, where I suppose Teutons and Ambrons designed
+to meet again, and pursue their course westward together. In the meantime
+the Teutons had been advancing up the Are valley along the Aurelian way.
+A mile and a half out of Aix they reached the Are, five miles above Les
+Milles, and thence followed up the river for three miles, when they left
+it. Their road now lay due east before them, across the almost level plain
+of Pourrières, below the limestone precipice to the north of Mont Victoire.
+But there is a curious formation here. South of Mont Victoire is a
+semicircular sandstone chain, inferior in height, precipitous towards the
+plain, called Le Cengle, "the Belt," dying into the limestone mountain at
+the point where the latter attains its greatest altitude, above the village
+of Puyloubier. This sandstone girdle slopes easily inward to the precipice
+of Mont Victoire, and its rills flow together into a little stream that
+reaches the Are at the point where the Aurelian road left it, _i.e._ seven
+and a half miles from Aix.
+
+M. Gilles supposes that Marius followed on the heels of the flying Ambrons
+along the Aurelian way, and that he detached Marcellus at this point to go
+up this little stream behind the Cengle and come out farther east so as to
+gain Pain de Munition.
+
+I do not think this is tenable, for there is a long tract of bare
+hill-slope between the extremity of the Cingle and the conical fortified
+hill of Pain de Munition, and even if Marcellus were concealed whilst
+ascending this little lateral valley, he would emerge in full view of
+the barbarians for the last five or six miles of his march. My belief is
+that Marcellus was despatched up the valley of the Infernet, behind Mont
+Victoire, by which means his march would be concealed throughout, nor would
+it be much longer.
+
+Also, I do not think that Marius pursued the Teutons the whole way along
+the road. According to Plutarch's account, the second time he came on them
+so as to cause them surprise. Again, if he had pursued a certain plan up
+to the first engagement, and it had succeeded, it is likely that he would
+follow the same plan up to the second and final engagement. Now hitherto he
+had kept to high ground always to the south of the advancing horde. From
+Les Milles he very probably, as I think, only followed the traces of the
+flying Ambrons along the road till he struck the Are in the open plain of
+Pourrières, and then at once crossed to the south bank of the river, and
+marched along on ground that slopes up to the south, so that he had the
+river between him and the enemy. If, as is probable, this hill-slope, along
+which the rail now runs, was then, more than now, dense with broom and
+pine, his march would not be seen by the enemy. And so I conclude Marius by
+a forced march reached Trets. Then, as I have said in my text, he had the
+enemy in a trap. Behind them was the fortified camp of Pain de Munition
+into which he had thrown Marcellus, and behind him he had the chain of Mont
+Aurélien and Mont Olympe, with another fortified camp. Between him and the
+enemy was a slope, and this was cut by streams that had torn their way
+through a friable marly soil. Moreover, he had a natural screen of rock
+between him and the enemy, with the low face towards him, and an easy slope
+towards the barbarians.
+
+The actual site of the camp of the Teutons is fixed without very much
+doubt. They would certainly camp in the first available situation near
+water. Now they had been marching for five miles without water, and on
+reaching the Are at the station Tegulata, they found an admirable site,
+three tofts of dry level sandstone apparently made for their purpose.
+Moreover, opposite them is the ruin of the monument of Marius. About the
+ruin there might have been doubts whether it was Roman, and whether it
+referred to the victory, but for the discovery there of the statue of Venus
+Victrix, which sets that question at rest for ever.
+
+M. Gilles supposes that the battle was fought along the road, when the
+Teutons saw Marius overtake them in pursuit, and that it began at a point
+about a mile due west, at Le Logis Neuf. If it had been so, then surely the
+monument would have been on the west side of Tegulata, and north of the
+Are. The tradition that it raged from north to south between the bridge
+and Trets is only of value from its being based on the masses of weapons,
+bronze and flint, found on the south side of the river, and not on the
+north.
+
+There is something too to be said for what common sense would point out.
+Standing on the red sandstone hill above Les Milles, and looking at Aix,
+and away east, one tries to imagine the barbarian hordes marching along
+the Aurelian way; and then one asks, "Now had I to fight them, what would
+I do?" The answer I gave to myself was, "Common sense bids me make with
+forced marches away to Trets, keeping my flank protected by the river, and
+surprise them again." I am not a general--but it appeared to me that it
+would be hard for any one on the spot in the position of Marius, if he had
+his wits about him, not to see that the barbarians had given him a splendid
+chance, and that he must catch it, and take them unawares when they had
+stepped into his net.
+
+
+C.--THE UTRICULARES.
+
+There are twenty-three inscriptions relative to the Colleges of Utriculares
+in Provence. M. Lenthéric gives five in the appendix to his volume, 'Les
+Villes Mortes du Golfe de Lyon,' and nineteen in that to his volume 'Le
+Grèce et l'Orient en Provence,' but of these one is from Temesvar in
+Hungary.
+
+Then M. Gilles, in his 'Campagne de Marius,' engraves a medal of the Guild
+of Utriculares of Cabelio (Cavaillon), which is now in the Cabinet of
+Medals at Paris. It was found on the hill-slopes of the Luberon. On the
+obverse it bears a representation of an inflated skin of a beast (a calf?);
+on the other side the inscription--
+
+_Colle(gium)utri(culariorum) Cab(ellionensis) L(ucius) Valer(ius)
+succes(sor)._
+
+I will give a few of the inscriptions on stones.
+
+1. _D. M. G. Paqui, Optati lib(erti) Pardalæ, sextum (viri) Aug(ustalis)
+col(oniæ) Ju(liæ) Pat(ernæ) Ar(elatensis) patron(i) ejusdem corpor(is),
+item patron(i) fabror(um) naval(ium), utricular(iorum) et centena(riorum)
+C. Paquius Epigonus cum liberis suis patrono optime merito._
+
+"To the manes of G. Paquius Pardalas, freedman of Optatus, sevir Augustal
+of the Colony of Julia Paterna of Arles, patron of the same body, and also
+patron of the shipbuilders, of the utriculares, and of the centenares. C.
+Paquius Epigonius and his children to a well-deserving patron."
+
+This was found under the porch of S. Cæsarius at Arles. The Centenarii were
+the men who made the patchwork beds that covered towers and walls in war as
+a protection against the ram and against fire.
+
+2. _D. M. L(ucio) Secundia eleutheria navicular(io) Arel(atensi) item
+sevir(o) Aug(ustali) corpor(ato) c(oloniæ) J(uliæ) P(aternæ) A(relatensis)
+secundia Tatiana fil(ia) patri pientissim(o)._
+
+"To the manes of Lucius Secundius Eleutherius, boatman of Arles, and
+Augustal sevir, incorporated in the colony of Julia Paterna of Arles.
+Secundia Tatiana, his daughter, to the most tender of fathers."
+
+Found on the banks of the Rhone, at Arles.
+
+3. _D. M. M(arco) Junio Messanio, utricul(ario) corp(orato) Arelat(ensi),
+ejusd(em) corp(oris) mag(istro) quater, fi(lio), qui vixit ann(os) octo et
+viginti menses quinque, dies decem, Junia Valeria._
+
+"To the manes. To Marcus Junius Messianus of the corporation of the
+utriculares of Arles, four times president of the same; Junia Valeria to
+her son, who died at the age of twenty-eight years, five months, and ten
+days."
+
+This is on a stone sarcophagus in the museum at Arles.
+
+4. _M(arco) Frontoni Eupori, sevir(o) Aug(ustali) col(oniæ) Julia(e)
+Aug(ustæ) Aquis Sextis, navicular(io) Mar(ino) Are(late) Curat(ori)
+ejusd(em) corp(oris) patrono nautar(um) Druen(ticorum) et utricularior(um)
+corp(oratorum) Ernaginensium. Julia Nice uxor conjugi carissimo_.
+
+"To Marcus Fronto Eupor, Augustal sevir of the Colony of Julia Augusta
+at Aix, mariner of Arles, curator of the said corporation, patron of the
+corporations of the mariners of the Durance and of the utriculares of
+Ernaginum. Julia Nice to her dearest husband."
+
+Found in the church of S. Gabriel (Ernaginum).
+
+
+FINIS.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of In Troubadour-Land, by S. Baring-Gould
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN TROUBADOUR-LAND ***
+
+This file should be named 8819-8.txt or 8819-8.zip
+
+Produced by Distributed Proofreaders
+
+Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we usually do not
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections,
+even years after the official publication date.
+
+Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.
+
+Most people start at our Web sites at:
+https://gutenberg.org or
+http://promo.net/pg
+
+These Web sites include award-winning information about Project
+Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new
+eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!).
+
+
+Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement
+can get to them as follows, and just download by date.  This is
+also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
+indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
+announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.
+
+http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or
+ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03
+
+Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90
+
+Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
+as it appears in our Newsletters.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.   Our
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If the value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text
+files per month:  1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+
+We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002
+If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
+will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks!
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.
+
+Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated):
+
+eBooks Year Month
+
+    1  1971 July
+   10  1991 January
+  100  1994 January
+ 1000  1997 August
+ 1500  1998 October
+ 2000  1999 December
+ 2500  2000 December
+ 3000  2001 November
+ 4000  2001 October/November
+ 6000  2002 December*
+ 9000  2003 November*
+10000  2004 January*
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created
+to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people
+and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut,
+Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois,
+Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts,
+Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New
+Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
+Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South
+Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West
+Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
+
+We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones
+that have responded.
+
+As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list
+will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states.
+Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state.
+
+In answer to various questions we have received on this:
+
+We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally
+request donations in all 50 states.  If your state is not listed and
+you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have,
+just ask.
+
+While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are
+not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting
+donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to
+donate.
+
+International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about
+how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made
+deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are
+ways.
+
+Donations by check or money order may be sent to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Ave.
+Oxford, MS 38655-4109
+
+Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment
+method other than by check or money order.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by
+the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN
+[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154.  Donations are
+tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law.  As fund-raising
+requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be
+made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+You can get up to date donation information online at:
+
+https://www.gutenberg.org/donation.html
+
+
+***
+
+If you can't reach Project Gutenberg,
+you can always email directly to:
+
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+
+Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.
+
+We would prefer to send you information by email.
+
+
+**The Legal Small Print**
+
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how
+you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks,
+is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
+through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
+Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook
+under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market
+any commercial products without permission.
+
+To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may
+receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims
+all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from. If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy. If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation,
+and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated
+with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including
+legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the
+following that you do or cause:  [1] distribution of this eBook,
+[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook,
+or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     eBook or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word
+     processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the eBook (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the
+     gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
+     the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
+     legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
+     periodic) tax return.  Please contact us beforehand to
+     let us know your plans and to work out the details.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of
+public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
+in machine readable form.
+
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
+public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses.
+Money should be paid to the:
+"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
+software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
+hart@pobox.com
+
+[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only
+when distributed free of all fees.  Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by
+Michael S. Hart.  Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be
+used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be
+they hardware or software or any other related product without
+express permission.]
+
+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END*
+
diff --git a/8819-8.zip b/8819-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..48abec2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/8819-8.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..865e807
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #8819 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8819)