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diff --git a/9073-8.txt b/9073-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4c29797 --- /dev/null +++ b/9073-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6442 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Roof of France, by Matilda Betham-Edwards + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Roof of France + +Author: Matilda Betham-Edwards + +Posting Date: April 26, 2014 [EBook #9073] +Release Date: October, 2005 +First Posted: September 2, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROOF OF FRANCE *** + + + + +Produced by Carlo Traverso, Michelle Shephard and +Distributed Proofreaders. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + + +THE ROOF OF FRANCE + +OR + +THE CAUSSES OF THE LOZÈRE + + +BY + +M. BETHAM-EDWARDS + + + +To M. SADI CARNOT. + +THIS VOLUME, THE THIRD OF MY PUBLISHED TRAVELS IN FRANCE, IS INSCRIBED +WITH ALL RESPECT TO HER HONOURED PRESIDENT. + + + + +CONTENTS. + +INTRODUCTORY + +PART I. + +_MY FIRST JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF THE CAUSSES_. + +CHAP. + + I. FROM LE PUY TO MENDE + II. MENDE + III. A GLIMPSE OF THE CAUSSES + IV. ON THE TOP OF THE ROOF + V. RODEZ AND AURILLAC + VI. THE LAND OF THE BURON + +PART II. + +_MY SECOND JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF THE CAUSSES._ + + I. THROUGH THE MORVAN + II. THROUGH THE MORVAN (_continued_) + III. FROM LYONS TO AVIGNON BY THE RHÔNE + IV. AVIGNON AND ORANGE + V. LE VIGAN + VI. NANT (AVEYRON) + VII. MILLAU (AVEYRON) + VIII. FROM MENDE TO ST. ÉNIMIE + IX. ST. ÉNIMIE + X. THE CAÑON OF THE TARN + XI. SHOOTING THE RAPIDS + XII. LE ROZIER + XIII. MONTPELLIER-LE-VIEUX + XIV. MONTPELLIER-LE-VIEUX (_continued_) + XV. LE ROZIER TO MILLAU AND RODEZ + XVI. RODEZ, VIC-SUR-CÈRE REVISITED.--A BREAKFAST ON THE BANKS OF THE + SAÔNE + + + + +INTRODUCTORY. + + +It is upon this occasion my rare and happy privilege to introduce the +reader to something absolutely new. How many English-speaking tourists +have found their way to the Roof of France--in other words, the ancient +Gévaudan, the romantic department of the Lozère? How many English--or +for the matter of that French travellers either--have so much as heard +of the Causses, [Footnote: From calx, lime] those lofty tablelands of +limestone, groups of a veritable archipelago, once an integral whole, +now cleft asunder, forming the most picturesque gorges and magnificent +defiles; offering contrasts of scenery as striking as they are sublime, +and a phenomenon unique in geological history? On the plateau of the +typical Causse, wide in extent as Dartmoor, lofty as Helvellyn, we +realize all the sombreness and solitude of the Russian steppe. These +stony wastes, aridity itself, yet a carpet of wild-flowers in spring, +are sparsely peopled by a race having a peculiar language, a +characteristic physique, and primitive customs. Here are laboriously +cultivated oats, rye, potatoes--not a blade of wheat, not an apple-tree +is to be discerned; no spring or rivulet freshens the parched soil. The +length and severity of the winter are betokened by the trees and poles +seen at intervals on either side of the road. But for such precautions, +even the native wayfarer would be lost when six feet of snow cover the +ground. Winter lasts eight months, and the short summer is tropical. + +But descend these grandiose passes, dividing one limestone promontory +from another--go down into the valleys, each watered by lovely rivers, +and we are, as if by magic, transported into the South! The peach, the +almond, the grape ripen out of doors; all is smilingness, fertility, +and grace. The scenery of the Causses may be described as a series of +exhilarating surprises, whilst many minor attractions contribute to the +stranger's enjoyment. + +The affability, dignity, and uprightness of these mountaineers, their +freedom from vulgarity, subservience, or habits of extortion, their +splendid physique and great personal beauty, form novel experiences of +travel. The general character of the people--here I do not allude to +the 'Caussenard,' or dweller on the Causse alone, but to the Lozérien +as a type--may be gathered from one isolated fact. The summer sessions +of 1888 were what is called _assizes blanches_, there being not a +single cause to try. Such an occurrence is not unusual in this +department. + +The Lozère, hitherto the Cinderella, poorest of the poor of French +provinces, is destined to become one of the richest. Not only the +Causses, but the Cañon du Tarn, may be regarded in the light of a +discovery by the tourist world. A few years ago the famous geographer, +Joanne, was silent on both. Chance-wise, members of the French Alpine +Club lighted upon this stupendous defile between the Causse de +Sauveterre and the Causse Méjean; their glorious find became noised +abroad, and now the Tarn is as a Pactolus flowing over golden sands--a +mine of wealth to the simple country folk around. The river, springing +from a cleft in the Lozère chain, winding its impetuous way, enriched +by many a mountain torrent, through the Aveyron, Tarn, and Garonne, +finally disemboguing into the Garonne, has lavished all its witchery on +its native place. + +Every inch of the way between the little towns of St. Énimie and Le +Rozier is enchanted ground by virtue of unrivalled scenery. In time the +influx of tourists must make the river-side population rich. The sandy +bed of the Tarn must attain the preciousness of a building site near +Paris. This materialistic view of the question affords mixed feelings. +I have in mind the frugality of these country folks, their +laboriousness, their simple, upright, sturdy ways. I can but wish them +well, even at the price of terrible disenchantment. Instead of rustic +hostelries at St. Énimie, gigantic hotels after the manner of Swiss +tourist barracks; the solitude of the Causses broken by enthusiastic +tittle-tattle; tourist-laden flotillas bearing the ensign of Cook or +Gaze skimming the glassy waters of the majestically environed Tarn! + +On the threshold of the Lozère, just outside the limits of the +department, lies another newly-discovered marvel, more striking, +stranger than the scenery of the Causses--as beautiful, though in quite +another way, as the Cañon or Gorge of the Tarn. This is the fantastic, +the unique, the eerie Cité du Diable, or Montpellier-le-Vieux, with its +citadel, ramparts, watch-towers, amphitheatres, streets, arcades, +terraces--a vast metropolis in the wilderness, a Babylon untenanted +from the beginning, a Nineveh fashioned only by the great builder +Nature. Little wonder that the peasants formerly spoke of the dolomite +city, when forced to speak at all, with bated breath, and gave it so +ill-omened a name. The once uncanny, misprized, even accursed city, +since surnamed Montpellier-le-Vieux, from a fancied resemblance to +Montpellier, is now very differently regarded by its humble owners. + +Literally discovered in 1882, its first explorers being two members of +the French Alpine Club, the Cité du Diable is already bringing in a +revenue. French tourists, who first came by twos and threes, may now be +counted by the hundred a month during the holiday season. Alert to the +unmistakable rat-tat-tat of Dame Fortune at their front-doors, the good +folks are preparing for the welcome invasions to come. The auberge is +being transformed into an inn, roads are improving, a regular service +of guides has been organized, and all charges for guides, carriages, +and mules have been regulated by tariff. It is hardly possible to +exaggerate the weird fascination and eldritch charm of this once +dreaded, ill-omened place. Only one pen--that, alas! at rest for +ever--could have done justice to such a theme. In the hands of the +great Sand, Montpellier-le-Vieux might have afforded us a chef d'oeuvre +to set beside 'La Ville Noire' or the adorable 'Jeanne.' + +Fresh and interesting as is a sojourn on the Roof of France, a name in +verity accorded to the Lozère, I have not restricted myself within such +limits. The climbing up and the getting down offer many a racy and +novel experience. I have given not only the middle of my journey, but +the beginning and the end. Those of my country-folk who have traversed +the picturesque little land of the French Morran, who have steamed from +Lyons to Avignon, made their way by road through the Gard and the +Aveyron, and sojourned in the cheese-making region of the Cantal--I +fancy their number is not legion--may pass over my chapters thus +headed. Had I one object in view only, to sell my book, I must have +reversed the usual order of things, and put the latter half in place of +the first. I prefer the more methodical plan, and comfort myself with +the reflection that France, excepting Brittany, Normandy, the Pyrenees, +the Riviera and the Hotel du Jura, Dijon, is really much less familiar +to English travellers than Nijni-Novgorod or Jerusalem. I no more +encountered anyone British born during my two journeys in the Lozère +than I did a beggar. This privileged corner of the earth enjoys an +absolute immunity from excursionists and mendicants. Strong +enthusiasts, lovers of France, moved to tread in my footsteps, will +hardly accuse me of exaggerating either the scenery, the good qualities +and good looks of the people, or the flawless charm of Lozérien travel. +In years to come I may here be found too eulogistic of all classes with +whom I came in contact, who shall say? A long period of increasing +prosperity, a perpetually swelling stream of holiday-makers, may by +degrees change, and perhaps ultimately pervert, the character of the +peasants, so glowingly delineated in the following pages. Let us hope +that such a contingency is at least very far off, and that many another +may bring home the same cordial recollections of the boatmen of the +Tarn, the aubergistes and voituriers of the Causses, the peasant owners +of the Cité du Diable. I need hardly add that I give a mere record of +travel. The geology of the strange district visited, its rich and +varied flora, its wealth of prehistoric remains, are only touched upon. +For further information the reader is referred to other writers. On the +subject of agriculture I have occasionally dwelt at more length, being +somewhat of a farmeress, as Arthur Young styles it, and having now +studied a considerable portion of France from an agricultural point of +view. The noble dictum of 'that wise and honest traveller'--thus aptly +does our great critic describe the Suffolk squire--'the magic of +property turns sands to gold,' will be here as amply illustrated as in +my works on Eastern and Western France. + +One word more. No one must undertake a journey in the Lozère with a +scantily-furnished purse. A well-known artist lately contributed a +paper to the _Pall Mall Gazette_ in which he set forth--in the +strangest English surely ever penned by man, woman, or child--the +facilities and delights of cycling in France on seven francs a day. Why +anyone in his sober senses should dream of travelling abroad on seven +francs a day passes my comprehension. Money means to the traveller not +only health, enjoyment, comfort, but knowledge. Why should we expect, +moreover, to be wholesomely housed and fed in a foreign country upon a +sum altogether inadequate to the tourist's needs at home? The little +wayside inns in out-of-the-way places mentioned by me were indeed very +cheap, but taking into account horses, carriages and guides, the +exploration of the Causses, the Cañon du Tarn and Montpellier-le-Vieux +will certainly cost twenty-five francs per diem, this outlay being +slightly reduced in the case of two or more persons. Of course, when +not absolutely making excursions, when settling down for days or weeks +in some rural retreat, expenses will be moderate enough as far as inns +are concerned. But carriage-hire is costly all the world over, and the +inquiring traveller must have his carriage. There will also be a daily +call upon his purse in the matter of pourboire to guides and +conductors. A pound a day is by no means too liberal an allowance for +the wise bent upon having the best, of everything. Those content to put +up with the worst may exist upon the half. + + + + +THE ROOF OF FRANCE + + +PART I. + +_MY FIRST JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF THE CAUSSES._ + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +FROM LE PUY TO MENDE. + + +The traveller in France will not unseldom liken his fortunes to those +of Saul the son of Kish, who, setting forth in search of his father's +asses, found a kingdom; or, to use a homelier parable, will compare his +case to that of the donkey between two equally-tempting bundles of hay. + +Such, at least, was my luck when starting for my annual French tour in +1887. I had made up my mind to see something of the Lozère and the +Cantal, settling down in two charming spots respectively situated in +these departments, when, fortunately for myself, I was tempted +elsewhere. Instead of rusticating for a few weeks in the country nooks +alluded to, there observing leisurely the condition of the peasants and +of agriculture generally, I took a contrary direction, thus ultimately +becoming acquainted with one of the most romantic and least-known +regions of Central France. + +'Since you intend to visit the Lozère' wrote a correspondent to me, +'why not explore the Causses? The scenery is, I believe, very +remarkable, and the geology deeply interesting.' + +The Causses? the Causses? I had travelled east, west, north, south on +French soil for upwards of thirteen years, yet the very name was new to +me. Having once heard of the Causses, it was, of course, quite certain +that I should hear of them twice. + +Meeting by chance a fellow-countryman at Dijon, as enthusiastic a lover +of French scenery as myself, and comparing our experiences, he suddenly +asked: + +'But the Causses? Have you seen the wonderful Causses of the Lozère?' + +It was a curious and highly-characteristic fact that both my informants +should be English, thus bearing out the assertion of an old French +writer, author of the first real tourist's guide for his own country, +that we are 'le peuple le plus curieux de l'Europe'; he adds, 'le plus +observateur,' perhaps a compliment rather paid to Arthur Young than to +the English as a nation. The work I refer to ('Itinéraire descriptif de +la France,' by Vaysse de Villiers, 1816) was evidently written under +the inspiration of our great agriculturist. + +From French friends and acquaintances I could learn absolutely nothing +of the Causses. The region was a _terra incognita_ to one and all. I +might every whit as well have asked my way to Swift's Liliputia or +Cloud Cuckoo Town, and the Island of Cheese of his precursor, the witty +Lucian. People _had_ heard of l'Ecosse; oh yes! but why an Englishwoman +should seek information about Scotland in the heart of France, they +could not quite make out. + +There was nothing for me to do but trust to happy chance and the +guide-book, and set out; and as a stray swallow is the precursor of +myriads, so no sooner had I got an inkling of one marvel than I was +destined to hear of half a dozen. + +Wonderful the scenery of the Causses, still more wonderful the cañon or +gorge of the Tarn and the dolomite city of Montpellier-le-Vieux, so I +now learned. + +There were difficulties in the way of seeing all these. I had been +unexpectedly detained at Dijon. It was the second week in September, +and the Roof of France--in other words, the department of the +Lozère--is ofttimes covered with snow before that month is out. My +travelling companion was a young French lady, permitted by her parents +to travel with me, and for whose health, comfort and safety I felt +responsible. It seemed doubtful whether this year at least I should be +able to realize my new-formed project, and penetrate into the solitudes +of the Causses. However, I determined to try. + +My journey begins at the ancient town of Le Puy, former capital of the +Vivarais, chef-lieu of the department of the Haute Loire, and, it is +unnecessary to say, one of the most curious towns in the world. We had +journeyed thither by way of St. Étienne, and were bound for Mende, the +little mountain-girt bishopric and capital of the Lozère. + +We had to be up betimes, as our train for Langogne, corresponding with +the Mende diligence, started at five in the morning. It might have been +midnight when we quitted the Hôtel Gamier--would that I could say a +single word in its favour!--so blue black the frosty heavens, so +brilliant the stars, the keen September air biting sharply. + +More fortunate than a friend whose pocket was lately picked of +twenty-five pounds at the railway-station here, I waited whilst the +terribly slow business of ticket-taking and registration was got over, +thankful enough that I had breakfasted overnight--that is to say, had +made tea at three o'clock in the morning. Not a cup of milk, not a +crust of bread, would that inhospitable inn offer its over-charged +guests before setting out. As I have nothing but praise to bestow upon +the hostelries of the Lozère and the Cantal, I must give vent to a +well-deserved malediction here. + +By slow degrees the perfect day dawned, a glorious sun rising in a +cloudless sky. We now discovered that our travelling companions were +two sisters--the one, an admirable specimen of the belle villageoise, +in her charming lace coiffe; the other, equally good-looking, but as +much vulgarized by her Parisian costume as Lamartine's sea-heroine, +Graziella, when she had exchanged her contadine's dress for modern +millinery. These pretty and becoming head-dresses of Auvergne, made +often of the richest lace and ribbon, may now be described as +survivals, the bonnet, as well as the chimney-pot hat, making the round +of the civilized world. + +From Le Puy to Langogne, viâ Langeac, we traversed a region familiar to +many a tourist as he has journeyed from Clermont-Ferrand to Nîmes. The +shifting scenes of gorge and ravine are truly of Alpine grandeur, +whilst the railway is one of those triumphs of engineering skill to +which Alpine travellers are also accustomed. + +One remark only I make by the way. The sarcasms levelled against the +system of peasant proprietorship, that would be cruel were they not +silly, are here silenced for once and for all. Nothing can be more +self-evident than the beneficial result of small holdings to the State, +wholly setting aside the superiority of the peasant-owner's position, +moral, social and material, to that of the English farm labourer. Even +a prejudiced observer must surely be touched by the indomitable +perseverance, the passionate love of the soil, evinced by the small +cultivators in the valley of the Allier, and, indeed, witnessed +throughout every stage of our day's journey. + +Wherever exists a patch of cultivable soil, we see crops of rye, +buckwheat and potatoes, some of these plots being only a few yards +square, and to all appearances inaccessible. In many places earth has +been carried by the basketful to narrow, lofty ledges of rock, an +astounding instance of toil, hopefulness and patience. No matter the +barrenness of the spot, no matter its isolation or the difficulty of +approach, wherever root or seed will grow, there the French peasant +owner plies hoe and spade, and gradually causes the wilderness to +blossom as the rose. + +So true it is, as Arthur Young wrote a hundred years ago, 'Give a man +secure possession of a black rock, and he will turn it into a garden.' +A considerable proportion of the land hereabouts has been quite +recently laid under cultivation, and on every side we see bits of waste +being ploughed up. + +At Langeac, a little junction between Le Puy and St. Georges d'Aurac, +we had a halt of over two hours, easily spent amid charming scenery. +The air is sweet and fresh, everyone is busy in the fields, and as we +saunter here and there, people look up from their work to greet us with +a smile of contentment and bonhomie. It is a scene of peace and homely +prosperity. A short railway jaunt to Langogne; a bustling breakfast at +the little restaurant; then begins the final packing of the diligence. +The crazy old berline looks as full as it can be before our four boxes +and numerous small packages are taken from the railway van, and the +group of bag and basket laden folks standing round, priests, nuns, and +commis-voyageurs, evidently waiting for a place. Surely room can never +be found for all these! Just then a French tourist came up and accosted +us, smiling ruefully. + +'Ah!' he said, shaking his head with affected malice, 'just like you +English--you have secured the best places.' + +True enough, the English when they travel are as the wise virgins, and +secure the best places. The French are as the foolish virgins, and +trust ofttimes to chance. + +I had, of course, telegraphed from Le Puy the day before for two seats +in the coupé. Our interlocutor, an army surgeon, making a holiday trip +with his wife, was obliged to relinquish the third good place to +madame, placing himself beside the driver on the banquette. The little +disappointment over, we became the best of friends, a highly desirable +contingency in such terribly close quarters. + +Once securely packed, we stood no more chance of being unpacked than +potted anchovies on their way from Nantes to Southampton. There we +were, and there perforce we must remain till we reached our +destination. To move a finger, to stir an inch, was out of the +question. Nothing short of physical torture for the space of six hours +seemed in store for us--for the three occupants of that narrow coupé, +like fashionable ladies of old, + + 'Close mewed in their sedans for fear of air.' + +We could at least enjoy the selfish satisfaction of faring better than +our neighbours. The unlucky occupants inside were as short of +elbow-room as ourselves, and had not the enjoyment of the view; the +passengers of the banquette were literally perched on a knife-board, +whilst one old man, a cheery old fellow, supernumerary of the service, +hung mid-air on one side of the vehicle, literally sitting on nothing. +Like the Indian jugglers and the Light Princess of George Macdonald's +wonderful fairy-tale, he had found means to set at nought the law of +gravity. + +There he hung, and as the sturdy horses set off at a fast trot, and we +were whirled round one sharp corner after another, I at first expected +to see him lose balance and fall with terrible risk to life and limb. +But we soon discovered that he had mastered the accomplishment of +sitting on air, and was as safe on his invisible seat as we on our hard +benches; old as he was, he seemed to glory in the exploit--exploit, it +must be allowed, of the first water. + +Once fairly off, our own bodily discomforts were entirely forgotten, so +splendid the sunshine, so exhilarating the air, so romantic the +scenery. The forty miles' drive passed like a dream. + +Our companion, like her husband, was full of health, spirits and +information. She could see nothing of the military surgeon but a pair +of neat, well-polished boots, as he sat aloft beside the driver; every +now and then she craned forward her neck with wifely solicitude and +interrogated the boots: + +'Well, love, how do you get on?' + +And the boots would make affectionate reply: + +'As well as possible, my angel--and you?' + +'We couldn't be better off,' answered the enthusiastic little lady +cheerily. Nor in one sense could we; earth could hardly show fairer or +more striking scenes than these highlands of the Lozère. + +The first part of our way lay amid wild mountain passes, deep ravines, +dusky with pine and fir, lofty granite peaks shining like blocks of +diamond against an amethyst heaven. Alternating with such scenes of +savage magnificence are idyllic pictures, verdant dells and glades, +rivers bordered by alder-trees wending even course through emerald +pastures, or making cascade after cascade over a rocky bed. On little +lawny spaces about the sharp spurs of the Alps, we see cattle browsing, +high above, as if in cloudland. Excepting an occasional cantonnier at +work by the roadside, or a peasant woman minding her cows, the region +is utterly deserted. Tiny hamlets lie half hidden in the folds of the +hills or skirting the edges of the lower mountain slopes; none border +the way. + +During the long winter these fine roads, winding between steep +precipices and abrupt rocks, are abandoned on account of the snow. The +diligence ceases to run, and letters and newspapers are distributed +occasionally by experienced horsemen familiar with the country and able +to trust to short cuts. + +What the icy blasts of January are like on these stupendous heights we +can well conceive. At one point of our journey we reach an altitude +above the sea equal to that of the Puy de Dôme. This is the lofty +plateau of granitic formation called Le Palais du Roi, a portion of the +Margéride chain, and as the old writer before mentioned writes, 'la +partie la plus neigeuse de la route'--the snowiest bit of the road. On +this superb September day, although winter might be at hand, the +temperature was of an English July. As we travelled on, amid scenes of +truly Alpine grandeur and loveliness, the thought arose to my mind, how +little even the much-travelled English dream of the wealth of scenery +in France! Our cumbersome old diligence carried only French passengers. +Nowhere else in Europe does the English tourist find himself more +isolated from the common-place of travel. + +Many of the landscapes now passed recall scenes in Algeria, especially +as we get within sight of the purple, porphyritic chain of the Lozère. +We gaze on undulations of delicate violet and gray, as in Kabylia, +whilst deep down below lie oases of valley and pasture, the dazzling +golden green contrasting, with the aerial hues of distant mountain and +cloud. + +Nothing under heaven could be more beautiful than the shifting lights +and shadows on the remoter hills, or the crimson and rosy flush of +sunset on the nearer rocks; at our feet we see well-watered dales and +luxuriant meadows, whilst on the higher ground, here as in the valley +of the Allier, we have proofs of the astounding, the unimaginable +patience and laboriousness of peasant owners. + +In many places rings of land have been cleared round huge blocks of +granite, the smaller stones, wrenched up, forming a fence or border, +whilst between the immovable, columnar masses of rock, potatoes, rye, +or other hardy crops, have been planted. Not an inch of available soil +is wasted. These scenes of mingled sternness and grace are not marred +by any eyesore: no hideous chimney of factory with its column of black +smoke, as in the delicious valleys of the Jura; no roar of millwheel or +of steam-engine breaks the silence of forest depths. The very genius of +solitude, the very spirit of beauty, broods over the woods and +mountains of the Lozère. The atmospheric effects are very varied and +lovely, owing to the purity of the air. As evening approaches, the vast +porphyry range before us is a cloud of purple and ruddy gold against +the sky. And what a sky! That warm, ambered glow recalls Sorrento. By +the time we wind down into the valley of the Lot night has overtaken +us. We dash into the little city too hungry and too tired, it must be +confessed, to think of anything else but of beds and dinner; both of +which, and of excellent quality, awaited us at the old-fashioned Hôtel +Chabert. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +MENDE. + + +Mende was the last but one of French bishoprics and chef-lieux to be +connected with the great highroads of railway. + +That tardy piece of justice only remained due to St. Claude in the Jura +when, owing to the Republic, Mende obtained its first iron road. Much +time and fatigue will henceforth be spared the traveller by these new +lines of railway, now spreading like a network over every part of +France; yet who can but regret the supersession of the diligence--that +antiquated vehicle recalling the good old days of travel, when folks +journeyed at a jog-trot pace, seeing not only places, but people, and +being brought into contact with wholly new ideas and modes of life? + +The benefits of the railway in the Lozère and the Jura are incalculable +from an economic point of view, to say nothing of the convenience and +comfort thereby placed within reach of all classes. It is an English +habit to rail at the lavish expenditure of the French Government. +Cavillers of this kind wholly lose sight of the tremendous strides made +during the last fifteen years in the matter of communication. Surely +money thus laid out is a justifiable expenditure on the part of any +State? + +I lately revisited the Vendée after twelve years' absence. I found the +country absolutely transformed--new lines of railway intersecting every +part, increased commercial activity in the towns, improved agriculture +in rural districts, schools opened, buildings of public utility erected +on all sides-evidences of an almost incredible progress. In Anjou the +same rapid advance, social, intellectual, material, strikes the +traveller whose first acquaintance with that province was made, say, +fifteen years ago. Take Segré by way of example; compare its condition +in 1888 with the state of things before the Franco-Prussian War. And +this little town is one instance out of hundreds. + +It was high time that something should be done for Mende. No town ever +suffered more from wolves and wolf-like enemies in human shape. Down +almost to our own day the depredations of wolves were frightful. The +old French traveller before cited, writing in 1816, speaks of the large +number of children annually devoured by these animals in the Lozère. +The notorious 'Bête du Gévaudan,' at an earlier period, was the terror +of the country. It is an exciting narrative, that of the gigantic +four-footed demon of mischief, how, after proving the scourge of the +country for years, desolating home after home, in all devouring no less +than a hundred old men, women, and children, he was at last caught in +1767 by a brave monster-destroying baron, the Hercules and the Perseus +of local story. The ravages of wild beasts were a trifle compared to +the enormities committed by human foes. + +It is not my intention to do more than touch upon the religious wars of +the Cévennes. Those blood-stained chronicles have been given again and +again elsewhere. No one, however, can make a sojourn at Mende without +recalling the atrocities perpetrated in the name of religion, and +compared to which the excesses of the Jacquerie and the Terror sink +into insignificance. If any of my readers doubt this, let them turn to +the impartial pages of the eminent French historian, the late M. Henri +Martin; or, to take a shorter road to conviction, get up the history of +the Gévaudan, or of this same little town of Mende. + +On a smaller scale, the horrors of the siege of Magdeburgh were here +repeated, the Tilly of the campaign being the Calvinist leader Merle. + +Devastated in turn by Catholic and Protestant, Royalist and Huguenot, +Mende was taken by assault on Christmas Day, 1579, and during three +days given up to fire, pillage, and slaughter. A general massacre took +place; the cathedral was fired and partially destroyed, the bells, +thirteen in number--one of these called the 'Nonpareil,' and reputed +the most sonorous in Christendom--being melted down for cannon. All +that fiendish cruelty and the demon of destruction could do was done. +In vain Henry of Navarre tried to put down atrocities committed in his +name. A second time Merle possessed himself of Mende, only consenting +to go forth on payment of a large sum in gold. + +The history of Mende is the history of Marvéjols, of one town after +another visited by the traveller in the Cévennes; and in the wake of +the burnings, pillagings and massacres of that horrible period follows +the more horrible period still of the guerilla warfare of the +Camisards, quelled by means of the rack, the stake, and the wheel. + +The Revolution, be it ever remembered, abolished all these; torture +ended with the Ancien Régime; and, although M. Taine seems of opinion +that the new state of things could have been brought about by a few +gentlemen quietly discussing affairs in dress-coats and white gloves, +we read of no great social upheaval being thus bloodlessly effected. At +such times a spirit of lawlessness and vengeance will break loose +beyond the power of leaders to hold in check. + +The approach to Mende is very fine, and the little city is most +romantically placed; above gray spires, slated roofs and verdant +valley, framing it in on all sides, rise bare, brown and purple +mountains. + +The cathedral presents an incongruity. Its twin-towers, each crowned +with a spire, recall two roses on a single stem, the one full-blown, +beautiful, a floral paragon, the other withered, dwarfed, abortive. + +The first towers over its brother by a third, and is a lovely specimen +of Gothic architecture in the period of later efflorescence. The second +is altogether unbeautiful, and we wonder why such a work should ever +have been undertaken at all. Far better to have left the cathedral +one-towered, as those of Sens and Auxerre. + +The town itself would be pleasant enough if its ædiles were more alive +to the importance of sanitation. It never seems to occur to the +authorities in these regions to have the streets scoured and swept. +Just outside Mende is a delicious little mountain-path, commanding a +wondrous panorama: although this walk to the hermitage of St. Privât is +evidently the holiday-stroll of the inhabitants, accumulations of filth +lie on either side. [Footnote: The same remark might be made by a +Frenchman of the lanes near Hastings!] No one takes any notice. As +Mende has without doubt an important future before it, let us hope that +these drawbacks will not afflict travellers in years to come. The +little capital of the Lozère must by virtue of position become a +tourist centre; surely the townsfolk will at last wake up to the +importance of making their streets clean and wholesome. + +To obtain the prettiest view of this charming, albeit tatterdemalion, +little city, we follow a walk bordered with venerable willows to the +railway station. Here is seen a belt of beautifully kept vegetable +gardens and orchards, all fresh and green as if just washed by April +showers. These are the property of peasant-owners, who dispose of their +crops here and at Langogne. As yet the good townsfolk are hardly alive +to the benefits of a railway. One of our drivers complained that it +ruined the trades alike of carriage proprietor, conductor, and carter; +another averred that the local manufacture of woollen goods, formerly +of considerable account, was at a standstill owing to the importations +of cheaper cloths. These grumblers will doubtless erelong take a +different tone, as the glorious scenery of the Lozère becomes more +widely known and Mende is made the tourists' headquarters. Our hotel, +situated in the middle of the town, offers good beds, good food, dirty +floors, charges low enough to please Mr. Joseph Pennell, and a total +absence of anything in the shape of modern ideas. The people are +charming, and the house is a mousy, ratty, ramshackle place hundreds of +years old. + +It may be as well to mention that folk assured me I was the first +English-speaking lady ever seen at Mende. A short time before no little +excitement had been created by the appearance of six young Englishmen +in knickerbockers, footing it with knapsack on shoulder. But +lady-tourists from the other side of La Manche? Never! Be this as it +may, it is as well for my country-women, if any follow me hither, to +avoid insular eccentricities of dress. The best plan, before exploring +wholly remote regions of France, is to buy the neatest possible +head-gear and travelling-costume in Paris. Without meaning to be +impertinent, bystanders will stand agape at the sight of any strangers, +English or French. Even my young French companion was stared at, just +because she was not a native of the place. Very obligingly, she offered +to fetch my letters from the poste restante, and look out for +photographs. As she had spent some time in England and acquired certain +habits of independence, I accepted. But not twice! + +The poor girl found so many eyes following her, that she took refuge in +the cathedral. As there chanced to be an abbé in the confessional +handy, she very sensibly seized the opportunity by the forelock, and +performed the duty of confession. But I did not permit her to roam +about alone after that. + +Meantime, the médécin militaire and his wife had set out for the +Causses and the Cañon du Tarn, and their enthusiasm but served to +heighten my own. That shooting of the rapids, too, I now heard of for +the first time, lent a spice of exhilarating hazard and adventure to +the excursion. They were going to shoot the rapids of the Tarn. Why +should I not follow their example? + +Sorely tempted as I was to carry out the same programme, once more I +hesitated. I could obtain very little precise information as to the +real difficulties, if any, that beset the way, but everyone agreed that +it was not at all a commonplace journey--in other words, not a very +easy one. The long drive across the solitary Causse to St. Éminie or +Florac, the four relays of boatmen necessary for the descent of the +Tarn, the doubtfulness of the accommodation at the different +halting-places--all these details had to be considered. Touring it +through the Causses seemed, indeed, beset with difficulties. You have +not only to take food with you for horse and man, but water also--ay, +and make sure that your driver, besides being trustworthiness and +sobriety itself, carries a revolver in his pocket. The Caussenards, or +dwellers on these steppes, are said to be harmless enough, but +suspicious-looking tramps from a distance, who always go in pairs, may +sometimes be met. Wayside inns there are none, and as relays are +therefore unattainable, the traveller must quit civilization as soon as +dawn breaks, and contrive to reach it before overtaken by nightfall. +Lastly, during the brief summer, the heat is torrid, and if you start +on your travels towards its close, say the middle or end of September, +today's scorching sun may be followed by tomorrow's snowstorm. And to +be caught in a snowstorm on the Causses would be an Alpine adventure +with no chance of a rescuing St. Bernard. + +Had I been alone I might have ventured, but, as before-mentioned, my +companion was a young French lady confided to my care by her parents. +On the whole, therefore, and with keenest regret, I felt it more +prudent to defer the undertaking, for undertaking it undoubtedly was, +till another year. Next summer, I said to myself, as soon as the snows +were melted, I would again climb the Roof of France. And delightful as +was the society of a bright, amiable, ready-witted girl, I would +instead find a travelling companion of maturer years, and responsible +for her own safety. + +There was one compensation within reach. If we could not enter the land +of Canaan, we could at least behold it from Mount Pisgah. So I engaged +a carriage with sturdy horses and a trustworthy driver, and we set off +for the plateau rising over against Mende in a south-easterly +direction, the veritable threshold of the Causses. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +A GLIMPSE OF THE CAUSSES. + + +The drive from Mende to the plateau of Sauveterre is a curious +experience. Here the Virgilian and Dantesque schemes are reversed: +Pluto's dread domain, the horrible Inferno, lies above; deep down below +are the Fields of the Blest and the celestial Paradise. + +Dazzlingly bright the verdure, fertile and sunny the valleys we now +leave behind--arid and desolate beyond the power of words to express +the tableland reached so laboriously. + +Between these two extremes, Elysium and Tartarus, we pass shifting, +panoramic scenes of wondrous beauty, stage upon stage of pastoral +charm, picture after picture of idyllic sweetness and grace. Long we +can glance behind us and see the little gray town, its spires outlined +in steely gray against the embracing hills, its gardens and orchards +bright as emerald--towering above all, the bare, purple, +wide-stretching Lozère. + +The weather is superlative, and the clear, gemlike lines of sky and +foliage are as brilliantly contrasted as in an Algerian spring. + +All this time we seemed to be climbing a mountain; we are, in reality, +ascending the steep, wooded sides or walls of the Causse de Mende, +prototype on a smaller scale of the rest--a vast mass of limestone, its +summit a wilderness, its shelving sides a marvel of luxuriant +vegetation. + +Every step has to be made at a snail's pace, the precipitous slopes +close under our horses' hoofs being frightful to contemplate. This +drive is an excellent preparation for an exploration of the Lozère. We +are always, metaphorically, going up or coming down in a balloon. + +After two hours' climb, the features of the landscape change. One by +one are left behind meandering river, chestnut and acacia groves, +meadows fragrant with newly-mown hay, grazing cattle, and cheerful +homesteads. + +We now behold a scene grandiose indeed as a panorama, but unspeakably +wild and dreary. + +Here and there are patches of potatoes, buckwheat and rye, the yellow +and green breaking the gray surface of the rocky waste; not a +habitation, not a living creature, is in sight. Before us and around +stretch desert upon desert of bare limestone, the nearer undulations +cold and slaty in tone, the remoter taking the loveliest, warmest +dyes--gold brown, deep orange, just tinted with crimson, reddish purple +and pale rose. We are on the threshold of the true Caussien region. +Sterility of soil, a Siberian climate, geographical isolation, here +reach their climax, whilst at the base of these lofty calcareous +tablelands lie sequestered valleys fertile fields and flowery gardens, +oases of the Lozérien Sahara. + +Above, not a rill, not a beck, refreshes the spongy, crumbling earth; +we must travel far, penetrate the openings just indicated by the +dark-blue shadows in the distance, and descend the lofty walls of the +Causses to find silvery cascades, impetuous rivers, and fountains +gushing from mossy clefts. The showers of spring, the torrential rains +of autumn, the snows of winter, have filtered to a depth of several +thousand feet. + +We are not within sight of the grand Causse Méjean, nor of the Black +Causse, or Causse Noir, and only on the threshold of Sauveterre, yet +some idea may be gathered here of what M. E. Réclus calls a 'Jurassic +archipelago,' once a vast Jurassic island. Imagine, then, a group of +promontories, their area equal to that of Salisbury Plain, Dartmoor and +Exmoor combined, with the varying altitudes of the loftiest Devonshire +tor and Cumberland hill. + +Such a comparison may convey some feeble notion of the three Causses +just named, two of which belong to the Lozère. The Causse Noir is +partly in the Aveyron. Their extraordinary conformation must be seen +and studied by all who would familiarize themselves with this +geological phenomenon. + +No solitude can be more complete than these wastes, except when a +leaden sky replaces the warm sunshine of to-day, and a deep, +impenetrable mantle of snow covers the plateau from end to end. Then +the little life that animates it is hushed, and none from the outer +world penetrates the fastnesses of the Causses. + +We drive on for a mile or two till we reach the summit of the plateau. +Here, at a height of 2,952 feet above the sea-level, is a ruined +château turned into a farmhouse, where we rest our horses a little and +prepare to make tea. The farmer's wife and two children come out to +chat with our driver and look at us, evidently welcoming such a +distraction. And no wonder! I brought out our bonbon box--one must +never take a drive in France unprovided with sweetmeats--and tried to +tame the children; but they clung to mother's skirts, and only +consented to have the bonbons popped into their mouths, with faces +shyly hidden in her apron. + +'Would you like a cup of tea?' I asked. + +But madame shook her head, giggling, and I do not suppose ever heard of +such an infusion in her life. + +Meantime, tea-making on that breezy eminence was no easy matter. The +little flames of my spirit-lamp were blown hither and thither--anywhere +but in the right direction. At last our excellent driver, resourceful +as a true son of Gaul is bound to be, lifted up the tiny machine, all +afire as it was, and thrust it into that convenient box behind the +calèche all travellers know of. The good man burnt his fingers, but had +the satisfaction of making the water boil, and there for the first +time, without doubt, tea was made after the English fashion. No place +could be better adapted for a holiday resort. In summer these sweeps +are one gorgeous mosaic of wild-flowers, and the short stunted grass +shoots up, making verdure everywhere. + +As I sipped tea, squatted gipsy-wise on the ground, the thought +occurred to my mind what a delightful, a unique villegiatura this spot +might make. A clean, comfortable inn on the site of the ruined château, +a sympathetic companion, a trusty guide, plenty of tea and one +book--the book absolutely necessary to existence--perhaps mine would be +Spinoza's Ethics or Schiller's 'Letters on the Æsthetic Education of +Mankind'--under these conditions, months would glide by like an hour in +such eerie, poetic, inspiring solitudes. + +The existence of a château on the borders of a veritable desert need +not surprise us. The entire department of the Lozère was devastated by +religious and seigneurial wars, and although the Causses themselves +were not invaded, offering as they did no temptation to the thirsters +after blood and spoil, the feudal freebooters had their strongholds +near. + +The treeless condition of the Lozère chain and other once well-wooded +regions was thus brought about. The Government is replanting many bare +mountain-sides here, as in the Hautes Alpes, in order to improve the +soil and climate. The barrenness of the Causses arises, as will be +seen, from natural causes. + +Even in autumn--at least, on such a day as this--with these wild scenes +is mingled much fairy charm and loveliness. Just as the distant scenery +is made up of sharp contrasts--on the lofty plateaux, weird solitude +and desolation; below, almost a southern luxuriance--so every square +yard of rocky waste shows fragrant plant and sweet flower. We have only +to stretch out our hands as we lie to gather half a dozen spikes of +lavender, wild thyme, rosemary, Deptford pink, melilot, blue pimpernel, +and white scabious. But the afternoon is wearing on. We must collect +our tea-things, give the children a farewell sweetmeat, cast a last +look round, and depart. + +It cost me many a pang to turn my back upon that farmhouse, +boundary-mark between savagery and civilization, romance and the +terre-à-terre of daily existence. + +Yonder diverging roads both led to fairy land and worlds of marvel--the +one to Florac, so majestically placed under the colossal shadow of the +Causse Méjean and above the lovely valley of the Jonte; the other +across the steppe of Sauveterre and by the strange dwellings of the +Caussenards to the picturesque little town of St. Éminie, the rapids of +the Tarn, and the dolomite city. + +There was, however, the consolatory hope of seeing all the following +year. Who could tell? Perhaps that very day twelve months later I might +delight the children with my bonbon box, and a second time make tea on +their breezy playground. At any rate, I entertained the project, and + + 'Should life be dull and spirits low, + 'Twill soothe us in our sorrow, + That earth has something yet to show, + The bonny holms of Yarrow.' + +We are overtaken by two pedestrians only on our way home--ill-looking +fellows enough, strangers in these parts, our driver assured us. 'No +Caussenards, they,' he said. 'The Caussenard is harmless enough, only a +trifle slow.' + +We get magnificent views of Mende and the Valley of the Lot--some +slight recompense for having had to retrace our footsteps--and what was +equally valuable, much useful information. + +'Is the land cut up into small parcels here?' I asked. + +We were just then on the outskirts of the town, and he pointed with his +whip to a large, well-built farmhouse, with solid, walled-in buildings. + +'Most of the land round about Mende is farmed by the monsieur who lives +there,' he replied. 'There he is, true enough, with his wife and +children.' + +Just then we passed a hooded carriage, in which were seated father, +mother, two little ones, and nursemaid, all taking a holiday jaunt, the +day being Sunday. + +'That is the owner of the farm,' he went on: 'several hundred acres--I +can't say how many--but it is stocked with two hundred sheep, ten oxen, +besides cows and pigs. There you have an idea of the size.' + +'Are there no small farms here, then?' + +'There are all sorts: little farms, big ones, and betwixt and between,' +he replied. 'Everybody has his little bit' (Tout le monde a son petit +lot); 'but the land immediately round the town is farmed by the +neighbour you saw in the calèche.' + +'Is he a peasant?' I asked. + +'A peasant if you like. He is a cultivator' (Un paysan si vous voulez. +C'est un cultivateur), was the answer. + +When a French peasant becomes what in rustic phraseology is called a +substantial man, owning or hiring a considerable extent of land, he +ceases to be called 'paysan,' and is designated 'cultivateur.' The very +word 'peasant,' as I have shown elsewhere, will, in process of time, +become a survival, so steady and sure is the social upheaval of rural +France. The most eminent Frenchmen of the day, witness the late Paul +Bert, are often peasant-born; and hardly a village throughout the +country but sends some promising son of the soil to Paris, destined for +one of the learned professions. I know of a village baker's son near +Dijon now studying for the Bar--one instance out of many. In one of her +clever novelettes, 'Un Gascon,' Madame Th. Bentzon gives us for hero +the village doctor, son of a peasant. The portrait of this young man, +devoted to duty, high-minded, self-sacrificing, is no mere ideal, as +experience proves. But if readers, compelled to make the acquaintance +of French peasants on paper, will accept Zola and certain English +writers as a guide to his moral and material condition, they will be +landed on some conclusions strangely at variance with experience. +[Footnote: I may add that I have received appreciative testimony from +various French journals--_L'Economiste_, and others--also from no less +an authority than M. Henri Baudrillart, of the Institut, of my studies +of the French peasant, notably the contribution to the _Fortnightly +Review_, August, 1887, in which I have summed up the experiences of +twelve years' French residence and travel.] + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +ON THE TOP OF THE ROOF. + + +The temperature of the Lozère is excessively variable. The traveller +must always be provided with winter wraps and the lightest summer +clothing. We had enjoyed almost tropic sunshine on the plateau of +Sauveterre. Next day (September 19th), when half-way to St. Flour, the +very blasts of Siberia seemed to overtake us. The weather was splendid +at starting, and for some hours we had a brisk air only, and unclouded +skies; but there were signs of a change, and I began to doubt whether I +should accomplish even my second programme. Having relinquished the +Causses, the rapids of the Tarn, and Montpellier-le-Vieux for this +year, I had hired a carriage, intending to drive straight across the +Lozère, sleeping at St. Chély, to St. Flour, chef-lieu of the Cantal, +thence making excursions to the two departments. I wanted especially to +see Condat-és-Feniers and La Chaldette, the two sweet spots already +alluded to. The hire of the carriage with two good horses was eighty +francs--forty for the two days' drive thither, and forty for the return. + +It is a striking journey from Mende to St. Amans-la-Lozère, half-way +halting-place between Mende and St. Chély. The region traversed is very +solitary, the Causse itself hardly more so, and now, as yesterday, we +follow a road wonderfully cut round the mountain-sides. Here also we +find certain English notions concerning peasant property entirely +disproved. So far is French territory from being cut into minute +portions of land, that on this side of Mende farms are let, not by the +hectare, but by the tract, many tenant farmers being unable to tell you +of how many hectares their occupation consists. The extent of land is +reckoned not by acreage, but by the heads of cattle it will keep. + +Much of the soil between Mende and St. Amans-la-Lozère is very stony +and unproductive; we heard even of a farm of several hundred acres let +at a rental of fifty pounds a year. And here, as in the valley of the +Allier, and on the road from Langogne to Mende, it is wonderful to see +the uncompromising devotion of the French peasant to Mother +Earth--neither stones, brushwood, nor morass daunting his energy. These +tenant farmers are almost invariably small freeholders also, but to +read certain English writers one might suppose that no such thing as a +tenant farm, much less one of a thousand acres, existed in France at +all, the entire superficies of the country, according to their account, +being cut up into minute patches, each by a process of subdivision, +growing smaller by degrees and beautifully less; in fact, the French +peasant owner of the future, according to these theorists, will possess +about as much of his native soil as can be got into a flower-pot, the +contents of the said flower-pot being mortgaged for a hundred times its +value. + +By the time we have driven for an hour and a half we obtain a most +beautiful view, looking back upon Mende, the gray and purple hills set +in a glowing semicircle round it, showing loveliest light and shadow. +The verdure of the valley is fresh as in May, and sweet scents of newly +mown hay, the autumn crop, reach us as we go. We look down on smooth, +lawn-like meadows, little rivers winding between alder-trees, +tan-coloured cows and orange-brown sheep browsing at their ease. The +contours of the pine and fir clad hills are bold and varied, whilst +deep gorges and ravines alternate with the more smiling aspects. +Fruit-trees and flowers are wholly absent from the sparsely scattered +villages, and there is little in the way of farming going on, only the +second hay-crops being turned, and the land ploughed for autumn sowing. +Buckwheat, rye, oats and hay form the chief crops. The road is set on +either side by young trees, service berry and mountain ash, or granite +pillars almost the height of a man. These columns, recalling Druidic +stones, are completely hidden by snow in winter. + +Fortunately, in another year or two the Lozère will be traversed by +railway, and its comparative isolation during several months of the +year cease for once and for all. + +Meantime we were anxiously looking out for St. Amans and our promised +breakfast, and here let me note a failing of the French rustic. His +notions of time and distance are often not in the very least to be +relied on. Thus, a countryman will tell you such and such a place lies +at a distance of 'une petite lieue,' and you will find you have to walk +or drive six miles instead of three. Again, a village conductor will +assure you that you will arrive at your destination 'dans une petite +demi-heure,' and you find on arriving that an hour and a half have +elapsed since putting the question. We were terribly tried by this +habit now. Our old driver--not the master, who had accompanied us to +the plateau, but his employé--seemed to have no more idea of the real +distance of St. Amans than of Spitzbergen. Again and again my young +companion put her head out of the window and cried: 'Well, driver, how +many kilomètres _now_ to St. Amans?' + +And the reply would be: + +'Three more' or 'Two more--just two, mademoiselle.' + +Whereas mademoiselle laughingly counted half a dozen by the milestones +between each inquiry. We had fondly looked forward to a fair inn and a +good meal at noon--it was nearly two o'clock when our driver +triumphantly deposited us before the dirtiest, most repulsive-looking +hostelry it was ever my fate to enter. + +In the kitchen, with walls blackened by smoke, hens and chickens +disported at will; the uneven, floor was innocent of broom or +scrubbing-brush as the road; in the salle-à-manger, gendarmes, +soldiers, carters, and gamekeepers were smoking, drinking and +discussing at the tops of their voices. + +The old man whispered a word in the ear of the patrone--a veritable hag +to look at--and she immediately begged us to walk upstairs. + +'You will find no elegance, but comfort here' ('Vous ne trouvez pas le +luxe, mais le confortable ici),' she said. + +Then, with evident pride, she threw open the door of what was evidently +the public bedchamber of the inn. + +Let not the reader take alarm. In these out-of-the-way places such +accommodation is often all that is offered the traveller, namely, a +spacious room, set round with four posters, each well curtained, so as +to form a tiny room in itself. As women never, or very rarely, travel +in such regions, the chief patrons being commis-voyageurs and soldiers, +the inconvenience is not great. The bedding looked good and clean, and +the room was airy. + +We opened the window. Madame complacently spread a snowy cloth, then, +with the airy aplomb of a head waiter of some famous restaurant, say, +the Chapeau Rouge at Bordeaux, asked: + +'And what would these ladies like for breakfast?' + +There seemed cruel, double-edged irony in the question. What could we +expect in such a place but just something to stay the cravings of +hunger: that something rendered uneatable by the terribly dirty--no, +let me say, smoke-dried--look of the speaker, who seemed to be cook and +waitress in one? + +'Suppose we have an omelette?' suggested my young friend. + +An omelette cooked by those hands! The very notion took away my +appetite; however, there were new-laid eggs, and no matter the unwashed +condition of the cook, the inside of a boiled egg may always be eaten +with impunity. We could have anything we chose by waiting a little, our +hostess said--mutton cutlets, roast chicken, partridges, fish, +vegetables; the resources of that rustic larder seemed inexhaustible. +Then she had choice wine, Burgundy and Bordeaux, besides liqueurs, in +the cellar. + +We had no time or inclination for a feast, but made an excellent +meal--what with the eggs and a tiny leg of cold-boiled mutton, I do +honestly believe the very best I ever tasted in my life. + +The mountain-fed mutton of these regions is renowned, and the country +folk boil it with just a slice of garlic by way of a flavour. + +This dingy little wayside hostelry could really offer a first-rate +ordinary, and, on principles not to be controverted, guests here pay, +not according to what they order, but the quantity they eat. Would that +all restaurant-keepers were equally conscientious! + +When we went downstairs and asked for the reckoning, the old woman, who +was all obligingness and good-nature, charming, indeed, but for her +neglected personal appearance, replied: + +'I must first see how much you have eaten, of course.' + +And true enough we were charged so much per item. Here let me give the +traveller a hint: never venture in out of-the-way parts of France +without a well-filled muffineer and pepper-box; but for our dry clean +pepper and salt brought from England, even the eggs would have been +swallowed with a painful effort. + +In the large kitchen I took note of extensive preparations going on for +dinner, huge caldrons bubbling above the wood fire; heaps of +vegetables, leeks, onions, garlic predominating, prepared for the pot, +with ample provision in the shape of flesh and fowl. + +At St. Amans the sun shone warm and bright, and the blue sky was of +extraordinary depth and softness. I was reminded of Italy. As we +sauntered about the long straggling village, a scene of indescribable +contentment and repose met our eyes. We are in one of the poorest +departments of France, but no signs of want or vagrancy are seen. The +villagers, all neatly and suitably dressed, were getting in their hay +or minding their flocks and herds, with that look of cheerful +independence imparted by the responsibilities of property. Many greeted +us in the friendliest manner, but as we could not understand their +patois, a chat was impossible. They laughed, nodded, and passed on. + +No sooner were we fairly on our way to St. Chély than the weather +changed. The heavens clouded over, and the air blew keenly. We got out +our wraps one by one, wanting more. If the scenery is less wildly +beautiful here than between Mende and St. Amans, it is none the less +charming, were we only warm enough to enjoy it. The pastoralness of +many a landscape is Alpine, with brilliant stretches of turf, scattered +châlets, groups of haymakers, herds and flocks browsing about the +rocks. Enormous blocks of granite are seen everywhere superimposed +after the manner of dolmens, and everywhere the peasant's spade and hoe +is gradually redeeming the waste. It is nightfall when we reach St. +Chély d'Apcher, reputed the coldest spot in France, and certainly well +worthy of its reputation. + +It stands on an elevation of 980 mètres--_i.e._, over 3,000 feet above +the sea-level. If the Lozère is aptly termed the Roof of France, then +St. Chély may be regarded as its Chimney top. Summer here lasts only +two months. No wonder that the searching wind seemed as if it would +blow not merely the clothes off our shoulders, but the flesh off our +bones. Yet the people of the inn smiled and said: 'Wait here another +month, and you will find out what WE call cold.' + +The little Hôtel Bardol wore a look of cheerfulness and welcome, +nevertheless. There were white and pink oleanders before the door, +geraniums in the window, testifying to the fact that winter this year, +at all events, had not yet begun. Men and maids bustled about intent on +our comfort. Soon the big logs crackled on the hearth; with curtains +drawn, tea and a good fire, the discomforts of the last hour or two +were soon forgotten. Needless, perhaps, to say that we found in this +small old-fashioned inn beds of first-rate quality, a good dinner, and +really fine old Bordeaux. + +St. Chély will necessarily become a junction town of considerable +importance when the new line of railway, by way of St. Flour, is +completed to Neussargues. As the proprietor of the Hôtel Bardol seems +fully alive to the requirements of tourists and the progress of ideas, +future visitors will doubtless find many improvements--well-appointed +rooms, bells, and other comforts. I hope myself to pay this obliging +host another visit ere long. + +The rain poured down all night, and next morning it was evident that +the projected journey by road to St. Flour must be given up. A long +day's drive across country in the teeth of biting wind and downpour was +not to be thought of, though both my young friend and myself had set +our minds upon seeing the wonderful Pont de Garabit, a tour de force of +engineering, worthy to be set beside the Eiffel Tower, and an +achievement of the same genius. But we were now within reach of the +railway. At the cost of a great disappointment and a forfeiture of +sixty francs, I determined to send the carriage back to Mende, and +reach the Cantal by way of Rodez, in the Aveyron. The Pont de Garabit, +like the Causses, all well, should be seen another year. + +Never shall I forget the amazement of my host. + +'To make a round-about journey like that by rail, when you have your +own carriage and horses!' he cried. 'Are you mad? Are you a +millionaire,' his face said, 'to pay eighty francs for one day's drive? +And the weather--the rain? you have glass windows; you can shut +yourselves in; you won't take any harm.' + +Say what I would, I could not convince him that it was wiser to forfeit +sixty francs than drive across the Lozère in a storm of wind and rain, +with the thermometer rapidly falling to freezing-point. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +RODEZ AND AURILLAC. + + +To travel from St. Chély d'Apcher to Rodez is like descending a +snow-capped Alpine peak for the flowery, sunbright valley below. +Instead of the stern grandeur of the Lozère, frowning peaks, sombre +pine-forests, vast stony deserts and wintry blasts, we glide swiftly +into a balmy region of golden vineyards, rich chestnut woods, softly +murmuring streams, and the temperature of July. The transformation is +magical. It is like closing a volume of Ossian and opening the pages of +Theocritus. + +We had spent our morning indoors at St. Chély, cloaked and shawled over +a blazing wood fire, quitting at one o'clock p.m. ice-cold rain, biting +winds, and a gloomy sky. By sundown we had reached the chef-lieu of the +Aveyron; we were in the South indeed! The scenery during the latter +part of the way is beautiful and exhilarating, every feature showing +the ripest, most brilliant tints--hills clothed with the yellowing +chestnut, soil of deep purplish red, the bright gold foliage of the +vine, and between spring-like greenery and azure sky, close to the +railway, the crystal-clear Aveyron. + +And here all is new and fresh; no familiar tourist element enters into +the day's experience. As our train stops at one picturesque village +after another, we see young soldiers, réservistes, alight, returning +home after the twenty-eight days' service, nuns, curés, village folks, +family groups, not an English traveller but myself. + +Rodez is superbly situated on a lofty, sunny plateau, surrounded by +hills and far mountain chains; but between these and the city, which is +almost encircled by the Aveyron, lies a broad belt of fertile country, +the soil of a deep claret colour. + +Just as Venice should be approached by sea at dawn, so all travellers +should reach Rodez at sunset. + +Never shall I forget the first enchanting view of its glorious +cathedral that September afternoon, the three-storied tower of +Flamboyant Gothic dominating the vast landscape, the rich red stone +flushed to a warmer dye, the noble masonry of the whole glowing with +the lustre and solidity of copper against the clear heavens. + +This lofty, triple-terraced tower is called the marvel of Southern +France, and no wonder. The cathedral of Antwerp itself is not more +captivatingly lightsome and lovely. High above the ancient city, with +its encompassing river and wide-stretched plain, confronting the +far-off mountains, almost on a level with their summits, visible from +afar as a lighthouse in mid-ocean, rises this belfry of Rodez. + +Certain places, as well as certain individualities, exercise +extraordinary fascination. The old capital of Rouergne, and later of +the Comté of Rodez, is one. Many and many a French city I have visited +of far greater architectural and historic importance; Poitiers among +these--Troyes is another; yet I should never go out of my way to +revisit Poitiers or Troyes, whilst certain other towns in France I +visit regularly once a year. They are like old friends, and every visit +makes them more precious. I determined to revisit Rodez during the +following summer. The cathedral is rich within and without. Its +rood-loft, carved stalls, altar screen, and monuments require a chapter +to themselves. Let us hope that some future traveller, more learned +than myself in such matters, will give us their history in detail. The +town, too, possesses some fine remains of Renaissance architecture, and +the views from the ancient ramparts are magnificent. + +But the memory I carry away is of that lovely three-storied tower, the +whole carved delicately as lace-work; the colour, deep terra-cotta; +above it a warm southern sky. + +Such a sight is worth a long journey, and the discomforts of a dingy +hotel, dirty floors, foul-smelling passages, broken chairs, scant +toilet appliances, as usual, in part compensated by excellent beds, +good food, good wine, and very moderate charges. The oddest part of +these experiences is that the dirtier the inn the better the fare. +Wherever we found a little smartness and tidiness, there we were sure +to find also a decided falling-off in the cuisine. + +Perhaps herein is to be found the true philosophical cause of our own +poor cookery. English cooks and housewives are ready to go mad on the +subject of scouring pots and pans, but pay scant heed to what goes +into, much less what comes out of them. In France the quality of the +dinner is the first question of national importance, after the recovery +of Alsace-Lorraine! + +The railway takes us direct to Aurillac, chef-lieu of the Cantal, and +ancient capital of Haute Auvergne. At first the scenery resembles that +passed through the day before, close under the embankment, the river +flowing clear and bright between green slopes, hanging chestnut-woods, +and sweeps of vineyards. The earth everywhere seems soaked with claret; +and this wine-red colour of the soil, contracted with the golden-leafed +vine, makes a landscape of wonderful brilliance. + +The aspect of the country changes as we quit the bright valley of the +Aveyron, and enter the department of the Cantal at Capdenac, where we +join the main line from Clermont-Ferrand to Toulouse. We just touch the +department of the Lot at Figeac, a quaint town, birthplace of the great +Orientalist Champollion, then enter the valley of the Cère, and are +soon at Aurillac. + +A bit of dull prose after a glorious poem! Whilst it is difficult to +tear one's self away from Rodez, despite its ill-kept hotel, there is +nothing whatever to detain the ordinary tourist at Aurillac beyond an +hour or two. It is prettily situated in a fair open country, watered by +the river Jordanne, and is an excellent centre for the study of rural +life. + +I had come hither provided with a letter introductory to the State-paid +professor of agriculture, and here let me explain matters a little. The +French State, stanch to the maxim of the great Sully, 'Le labourage et +le pâturage sont les deux mamelles de France,' is making tremendous +efforts on behalf of agricultural progress throughout the country. A +few years since, professorships of agriculture were appointed by the +Government in the various departments. The duties of these professors +is two-fold: they hold classes on the theory and practice of +agriculture in the Ecole Normale, or training-school for male teachers, +in winter, and in summer give free lectures, out of doors, in the +various towns and villages. Recruited from the great agricultural +schools of Grand Jouan, near Nantes, Grignan in the Seine, and Oise and +Montpellier, these lecturers have had the benefit of a thoroughly +practical training, and by little and little will doubtless effect +quite a revolution in out-of-the-way places. + +Among the least progressive regions, agriculturally speaking, must be +pronounced the Cantal. As yet the use of machinery and artificial +manure is almost unknown. The professor gets the peasants together on a +Sunday afternoon and discourses to them in an easy, colloquial way on +the advantages of scientific methods. The conference over, he shows +specimens of superphosphates, top-dressings, new seeds, roots, etc., +and here and there succeeds in inducing the more adventurous than the +rest to try an experiment. + +The agricultural shows have much effect in stimulating progress. The +country folks delight to obtain prizes for their cattle, cheese and +other products. They are, as a rule, averse to innovation, especially +when it involves expenditure. The departmental professor will have to +bring proof positive to bear out his theories ere he can induce his +listeners to spend their savings--in French phrase, 'argent +mignon'--upon unknown good, instead of investing in Government three +per cents. + +Other interesting facts I learned here, all confirmatory of my former +accounts of the French peasant. These Cantal farmers, many of them +hiring land on lease, others small owners, are well-to-do; £1,200 is +not infrequently given as a dowry to the daughter of a small +proprietor; I was told of one, possessor of a few hectares only, who +had just before invested in the funds £80, one year's savings. + +Avarice, I admit, is not infrequently the besetting sin of the French +peasant in these parts, but other characteristics of the Auvergnat, +such as roughness of manner, suspiciousness of strangers, a habit of +extortion, did not come under my notice during this stay in the Cantal. + +One of my pleasantest experiences, indeed, of French rural life, is +that of an afternoon visit paid to a farmer in the neighbourhood of +Aurillac. No well-bred gentleman, no lady accustomed to society, could +have received an entire stranger with more urbanity, kindliness and +grace, than did this peasant of the Cantal and his wife. A charming +drive of an hour through well-wooded and neatly cultivated country +brought us to the farmstead called Le Croizet, a group of buildings +lying a hundred yards or so from the roadside. + +In front of the well-built, roomy dwelling-house was a fruit and +vegetable garden, with a border of flowers and ornamental shrubs. The +place was not perhaps so neatly kept as English farm premises, but the +general look betokened comfort and well-being. + +The farmer and his wife were absent, and their daughter-in-law received +us somewhat awkwardly. She seemed puzzled by the fact of English ladies +wanting to see a farm, but after a little her shyness vanished. Her +husband, she told us, was just then minding his own farm; he was a +small proprietor, possessing a bit of land and a cow or two. Two cows, +she informed us, as we chatted on, would suffice for the maintenance of +a family of five persons. Such reckoning, of course, only holds good of +thrifty, homely France. The magic of property not only turns sands to +gold: it teaches the great lesson of looking forward, of confronting +the morrow--realizing 'the unseen time.' + +Soon the housewife came up, all cheeriness and hospitality. She made us +sit down in the large, airy, well-furnished kitchen--hitherto we had +chatted outside--and my curiosity being explained by the fact that I +was an English author, travelling for information, she readily answered +any questions I put to her. + +'My husband will be here in a minute. He can tell you much more about +farming than I can,' she said. + +She was a pleasant-looking, well-mannered, intelligent woman--a peasant +born and bred. Meantime I glanced round the kitchen. + +The floor certainly was of uncarpeted stone and uneven, but the place +was clean and tidy, and everything in order. Against the wall were rows +of well-scoured cooking vessels; also shelves of china--evidently +reserved for high days and holidays--and a few pictures for further +adornment. + +True, the curtained bedstead of master and mistress stood in one +corner, but leading out of the kitchen was a second room for the son +and son's wife; whilst the hired women-servants occupied in the dairy +slept upstairs. + +It may here be mentioned that the habit of sleeping in the kitchen +arises from the excessive cold. I found on lately revisiting Anjou, and +in the Berri, that the better-off peasants are building houses with +upper bedrooms. + +'It is tidier' (C'est plus propre), said a Berrichon to me. This +custom, therefore, of turning the kitchen into a bedchamber may be +considered as on the wane. + +Our hostess now brought out one local dainty after another--galettes, +or flat cakes of rye and oaten flour, peculiar in flavour, and said to +be extremely nutritious; cream, curds and whey, fresh butter, and +wine--and was quite distressed that we could not make a hearty +afternoon meal. Then the master came in, one of Nature's gentlemen, if +ever any existed--stalwart, sunburnt to the complexion of an Arab, with +a frank, manly, shrewd face. He wore sabots, and, like his wife, was +stockingless. Stockings are objected to by French country-folks in hot +weather, and it seems to me on good grounds. His clothes were clean, +neat, and appropriate, and all of the material that goes into the +weekly wash-tub. Like his wife, he was most willing to give me any +information, and a pleasant and instructive time I had of it. + +My host leased his farm. He was a tenant farmer precisely as the name +is understood here, with this difference--he owned a little land as +well. He could not tell me the exact size of his occupation in +hectares; land here, as in the Lozère, being computed instead by heads +of cattle, one hectare and a half of pasture allowed for each cow. Some +notion of its extent may be gathered from the fact that he possessed +120 cows. Besides these 200 hectares of pasturage, the farm comprised +arable land, the whole making up a total of nearly 1,000 acres. Much +larger farms, he told me, were to be found in the Cantal. The notion of +France being cut up into tiny parcels of land amused him not a little. +The crops here consist of wheat, barley, maize, rye, oats, buckwheat, +clover--a little of everything. + +'But this is a cheese-making country. We don't grow anything like corn +enough for ourselves in the Cantal,' he said. 'Large quantities are +imported every year. It is our cows that pay.' + +The principal stock kept is this beautiful Cantal cow, a small, red, +glossy-coated breed, very gentle, and very shy. The enormous quantities +of milk afforded by these dairy farms are sold in part at Aurillac for +home consumption. By far the larger proportion is used in the +cheese-makers' huts, or 'burons,' on the surrounding hills. The +pleasant, mild-flavoured Cantal cheese has hitherto not been an article +of export. It is decidedly inferior to Roquefort, fabricated from ewes' +milk in the Aveyron, and to the Gruyère of the French Jura. As the +quality of the milk is first-rate, a delicious flavour being imparted +by the fragrant herbs that abound here, this inferiority doubtless +arises from want of skill, or, perhaps, want of cleanliness in the +preparation. The numerous schools for dairy-farming that now exist in +France, and the new State-paid teachers of agriculture, will most +likely ere long revolutionize the art of cheese-making throughout the +department. We may then expect to find Cantal cheese at every English +grocer's. + +Many more interesting facts I learned, my host chatting leisurely. + +'It is usual in these parts,' he said, 'for the eldest son to inherit +an extra fourth part of land, he, in return, being bound to maintain +his parents in old age. A heritage is often thus divided during the +life-time of father and mother, the old folks not caring any longer to +be burdened with the toil of business.' + +Much he told me also concerning the rights of 'pacage,' or pasturage on +commons--privileges upheld rather by custom than law. These rights of +pasturing cattle on common-grounds date from the earliest times, and we +read in French history of certain communes being ruined by the mortgage +of their 'pacage.' + +After a stay of more than an hour we took leave, our host accompanying +us to the road, where the carriage waited. + +I have before alluded to the excessive timidity of the cattle here, +perhaps arising from the infrequency of strangers in these regions. As +we now walked up the narrow lane separating the farm from the road, we +met three separate droves of cows returning to their stalls. It was +curious to note the suspiciousness of the gentle creatures, also their +quickness of observation. Had we been a couple of peasant women from a +distance, they would have passed us without hesitation. I had evidently +an outlandish look in their eyes. Only by dint of coaxing and calling +each animal by name could the master get them to go by. + +'It is always well to be careful with beasts that don't know you,' he +said, as he planted himself between us and each drove. 'Gentle as my +cows are, they might give a stranger a kick.' + +When all were gone, he extricated my gown from a bramble, then, baring +his head, bade us adieu with the courtesy of a polished gentleman. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE LAND OF THE BURON. + + +Vic-sur-Cère, half an hour distant from Aurillac, is an earthly +paradise, a primitive Eden, as yet unspoiled by fashion and +utilitarianism. The large 'Etablissement des Bains,' described in +French and English guide-books, has long ceased to exist; bells, +carpets, curtains, and other luxuries are unknown; but the unfastidious +traveller, who prefers homeliness and honesty to elegance and +extortion, may here drink waters rivalling those of Spa without being +exposed to the exorbitant prices and insolence of the Spa +hotel-keepers. Rustic inns, or rather pensions, may be had at +Vic-sur-Cère, in which the tourist is wholesomely lodged and handsomely +'tabled' at a cost that would enrapture Mr. Joseph Pennell. Two or +three hundred visitors, chiefly from the neighbouring towns, spend the +summer holidays here, one and all disappearing about the middle of +September. + +When we arrived, we had the entire place to ourselves--inn, river-side +walks, and dazzlingly green hills. No palm island in mid-Pacific could +offer a sweeter, more pastoral halting-place. It is indeed a perfect +little corner of earth, beauty of the quiet kind here reaching its +acme; and neither indoors nor abroad is there any drawback to mar the +traveller's enjoyment. + +From the windows of our hotel, close to the station, we enjoy a +prospect absolutely flawless--Nature in one of her daintiest moods is +here left to herself. The inn stands amid its large vegetable, fruit +and flower gardens; looking beyond these, we see the prettiest little +town imaginable nestled in a beautiful valley, around it rising +romantic crags, wooded heights, and gentle slopes, fresh and verdant as +if the month were May. Through the smooth meadows between the +encompassing hills winds the musically-named stream, the Iraliot, and +from end to end the broad expanse of green is scented with newly-mown +hay. The delightful scenery, the purity of the air, the excellent +quality of the waters, ought to turn Vic-sur-Cère into a miniature +Vichy. Fortunately for the lovers of rusticity and calm, such has not +as yet been the case, and the simple, straightforward character of the +people is still unspoiled by contact with the outer world. Here, also, +the pervading aspect is of well-being and contentment. 'Everybody can +live here,' we were told by an intelligent resident; 'only the idle, +the drunkard, and the thriftless need come to want.' + +Vagrancy is altogether absent; the children are neatly dressed and very +clean; the men and women have all a look of cheerful independence as +they toil on their little farms or mind their small flocks and herds. + +Here also, as elsewhere, the greatest variety exists in the matter of +holdings. We find tiny freeholds and large tenant farms side by side. +With few exceptions, all possess a house and bit of land. Folks toil +hard and fare hard, but live in no terror of sickness or old age. The +house and bit of land will not support a family; with the savings of a +man's best years, it is the harbour of refuge when work is past. + +Without meeting here the urbanity and hospitable welcome that awaited +us near Aurillac, we found the peasant farmers exceedingly civil to +strangers; and when once made to understand the motives of my +inquisitiveness, they were quite ready to give me any information I +required. + +One farm I visited in the neighbourhood was a tenant-holding of about +1,000 acres, let at a fixed rental of £600 a year, and this is far from +the largest farm hereabouts. The stock consisted of seventy-eight cows, +five horses, four pair of team oxen, besides large numbers of sheep, +pigs, and poultry. Five women-servants were boarded in the house, and +several cheese-makers employed on the alps during summer. + +The farmer's wife received us pleasantly, and after a little +explanation, when she quite understood the reason of my visit, answered +all questions with ease and intelligence. She was resting from the +labours of the day, a piece of knitting in her hands, which she +politely laid aside whilst chatting. + +The kitchen was large, clean, and airy, its principal ornaments +consisting of rows of prize medals on tablets, awarded at different +agricultural shows. On the shelves were rows of copper cooking vessels, +burnished as those of a Dutch interior. The bed-chambers were apart. + +Certainly, the housewife's personal appearance left something to +desire, but we were assured that on Sundays she turned out for Mass +gloved, veiled and bonneted like any town lady. French peasants will +not set about the day's labour in smart or shabby-genteel clothes. + +Here, as near Aurillac, modern agricultural methods, machinery and +artificial manures are not yet the order of the day. As an instance of +what peasant farmers in France can effect whilst following old plans, +let me cite the predecessor of my hostess's husband. This man had +lately retired, having saved up enough money to live upon. He had, in +fact, become a rentier. + +Another tenant farm near consisted of 1,000 acres, stocked with 120 +cows, eight pair of team oxen, besides sheep, horses and pigs. +Adjoining such large holdings are small freeholds farmed by their +peasant owners--dairy farms of a few acres, market-gardens of one or +two, and so on. + +Métayage, or the system of half-profits, is rarely found in the Cantal. +Tenancy at a fixed rental is preferred, as less complicated and +troublesome. [Footnote: I have described the métayage of Berri in a +contribution to _Macmillan's Magazine_, 'In George Sand's Country,' +1886.] It was pleasant to see the people working in their little field +or garden, or minding their goats and sheep, their decent appearance, +cheerfulness and healthful looks testifying to the satisfactory +conditions of existence. + +I do not for a moment aver that such a state of things exists in every +part of France; but everywhere we find the same +qualities--independence, thrift and foresight--called forth by the +all-potent agency of possession. I have somewhere seen the fact +mentioned, and adduced as an argument against peasant property, that +the owner of seven cows had not a wardrobe in which to hang so much as +his wife's clothes; they were suspended on a rope. Was the writer aware +of the money-value of seven cows, the capital thereby represented, and +could she point to any farm-labourer in England, however well off in +the matter of cupboards and clothes-pegs, possessed of seven cows, +their stalls and pasture-ground--in other words, a capitalist to the +extent of several hundred pounds? Few French peasants, we fancy, would +exchange their house, land and stock for the furniture of an English +labourer's cottage, wardrobe included. As a matter of fact, most of +these small farmers own furniture, clothes and house-linen in abundance. + +Cheese-making is the chief industry of the place. Far away on the +summit of every green hill may be descried the red-roofed hut, or +buron, of the cheese-maker. Here, with his dog, and sometimes a +shepherd, he spends the summer months, descending to the valleys before +the first snow falls. The dairyman, or fromager, is generally a hired +workman, specially trained for the work. He is paid at the rate of £25 +or £30 a year, besides board and lodging. As soon as the snows melt and +the cows can be driven afield, he betakes himself to his buron on the +alp, if married, leaving his wife in the valley below. + +Have the fromager of the Cantal hills and the Caussenard of the +Lozérien steppe their legends, folklore, songs? Have their love-stories +been chronicled by some French Auerbach, their ballads found a +translator in a French Hebel? Without doubt this sequestered life of +shepherd and mountain has its vein of poetry and romance as well as any +other. To reach one of these cheese-makers' huts is quite an +expedition, and on foot is only practicable to hardy pedestrians. It is +a beautiful drive from the valley of the Cère to the open +pasture-ground, dotted with burons, behind its steep green hills on the +southern side. As the road winds upwards, we see the crags and slopes +clothed with the delicate greenery of young fir and pine. These are +seedlings planted by the State; here, as in other departments, some +strenuous efforts being made to replant the ancient forests. Goats are +no longer permitted to browse on the mountain-sides promiscuously, as +in former days, and thus slowly, but surely, not only the soil, but the +climate and products of these re-wooded districts, will undergo +complete transformation. And who can tell? Perhaps the Causse itself +will, generations hence, cease to exist, and the Roof of France become +a vast flowery garden. The country people here all speak a patois, and +the fromager is not communicative. It is always well to be accompanied +by a blue-bloused native on these visits. The dogs, too, that keep +guard over the buron, like the cows, are very suspicious of strangers. + +More attractive than the interior of the cheese-maker's hut--often +dark, ill-ventilated, and malodorous--is the scene without, a wide +prospect of pastoral, idyllic charm. The Cantal offers many a superb +mountain panorama and grandiose scene. Nowhere is to be found more +sweetness, graciousness and repose than in the valley of the Cère. + +After a few days' sojourn we journeyed to Clermont-Ferrand, which I +found much embellished since my long stay in that city, just ten years +before. Thence, seeing the Puy de Dôme flushed with the red light of +the rising sun, a sight compensating for much insolence and discomfort +at the Hôtel de l'Univers, we proceeded to St. Germain-des-Fossés, +where we parted, my young companion taking the train to Autun, I +proceeding by way of Lyons to Gap, on a visit to a beloved French +friend. + +The weather had remained brilliantly fine throughout our expedition, +although the cold of early morning was now piercing. And brilliantly +fine it remained till my departure for England, early in October. + + + + +PART II + + +MY SECOND JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF THE CAUSSES. + + +CHAPTER I. + +THROUGH THE MORVAN. + + +Of the four hundred and fifty passengers who crossed with us from Dover +to Calais, in August, 1888, we lost every trace when quitting the +Paris-Lyon-Mediterranée line at La Roche. Writing a hundred years ago, +the great agriculturist, Arthur Young, gave his countrymen the +following excellent piece of advice, which, it need hardly be said, has +been generally neglected from that day to this: 'It may be useful to +those who see no more of France than by once passing to Italy, to +remark that if they would view the finest parts of the kingdom they +should land at Dieppe, and follow the Seine to Paris, then take the +great road to Moulins, and thence quit it for Auvergne, and pass to +Viviers, the Rhône, and so by Aix to Italy. By such a variation from +the frequented road the traveller might suffer for want of good inns, +but would be repaid by the sight of a much finer and more singular +country than the common road by Dijon offers, which passes in a great +measure through the worst parts of France.' + +The Suffolk squire who rode through France on the eve of the Great +Revolution, in spite of his conscientious desire to see all that the +country had to show, lost much from want of roads, maps, and any kind +of accommodation. Nowadays, as will be seen from the following pages, +good food and good beds await the traveller in the most remote +districts; but in vain! Ninety-nine tourists out of a hundred remain of +the poet Shelley's opinion--there is nothing to see in France--and +hurry on as fast as the express can carry them to Geneva. + +At the clean, bright, friendly little town of Auxerre we find ourselves +as isolated from the beaten track as well can be. We are free to roam, +sketch, stare at will, and no one notices us; not even an importunate +beggar molests the sketcher as she brings out her book in the middle of +the street. + +This immunity from observation and annoyance forms a minor charm of +French travel. + +Auxerre possesses a beautiful little cathedral. It is one-towered, as +that of Sens, a circumstance probably due to want of funds for the +completion. + +We always carry away in the memory some striking characteristic of +French cathedrals, and no one can forget the exquisite tint of the +building-stone here, a ruddy hue as of gold lighting up the dark, +richly-sculptured mass without, nor the charming cluster of airy +columns joining the Lady Chapel to the choir within, daintiest bit of +architectural fancy. Whilst we were revelling in the contrast afforded +by the intense glow of the stained glass and the pure white marble--the +interior being one of the loveliest, if least spacious, in France--the +sacristan's wife came up and said that if we waited a few minutes +longer we should see a wedding. + +'Although,' she added with an air of apology, 'a wedding of the third +class.' + +Now, whilst fairly familiar with French ways, I had never heard of +marriages being divided after the manner of railway-carriages, into +first, second, and third class. Our informant hastened to enlighten us. +It seems that only wedding-parties of the first and second classes are +entitled to enter by the front-door, to music of the full church +orchestra, and to carpets laid down from porch to altar, every detail +of pomp and ceremony depending on the price paid. + +I must say that were I a French bride I should bargain for a wedding of +the first class at any sacrifice. To have the big doors of the front +portal flung open at the thrice-repeated knock of the beadle's staff; +to hear Mendelssohn's 'Wedding March' pealed from the great organ; to +march in solemn procession up the aisle, preceded by that wonderful +figure in cocked hat, red sash, pink silk stockings, and shoes +sparkling with huge buckles, all the congregation a-titter--it seems to +me it were worth while being married simply for the intoxication of +such a moment. + +The third-class wedding-party, entering by a small side-door, and +passing without music to the altar, made nevertheless a pretty picture: +the bride, a handsome demoiselle de boutique, or shop assistant, in +white, with veil and wreath; behind her, girls in bright dresses +bearing enormous bouquets; bridegroom and supporters, all in spick and +span swallow-tail coats, with white ties and gloves, like beaux in a +French comedy, backwards and forwards; the priests looking gorgeous, +although in their second-best robes, their gold plates shining as they +collected the money; for whether married first, second or third class, +the Church exacts its due. I felt real commiseration for these +middle-class, evidently hard-working people, as the gold plate was +presented again and again, first, I presume, for the Church; secondly, +for the poor; thirdly, for Heaven knows what. Then two of the +bridesmaids, each taking the arm of a white-gloved, swallow-tailed +cavalier, made the round of the wedding guests, begging money of them. +In fact, there seemed no end to the giving. Small wonder that marriages +are on the decline in France! We left the bridal party still on their +crimson velvet fauteuils--twelve being the number allotted to a wedding +of the third class, the remaining guests being accommodated on +rush-bottomed chairs--and next visited the underground Church of St. +Germain. + +What a contrast it presented to the lightness, brilliancy, and gaiety, +if we may use such a word, of the cathedral! There the effect on the +mind is of pure delight; we feel the exhilaration, not the austerity, +of religion. Very different is the impression produced by St. Germain, +which may be described as a church of tombs, a temple consecrated to +the dead. Although on a smaller scale, this ancient burial-place of +saints and martyrs recalls the awful mausoleum of Spanish kings. The +Escurial itself is hardly more impressive. + +The upper church stands airily in the garden of the town hospital, its +fine tower all that is left of the original building. The lower remains +intact. We descend into a perfect little Gothic interior, with naves, +choir, and chapel, all in darkness but for the feeble glimmer of the +sacristan's candle, every part showing ancient frescoes in wonderful +preservation. In huge niches of the walls and under our feet, the +enormous lids of the tombs yielding to our guide's touch, lie the bones +of saints deposited there nearly a thousand years ago, 'English saints, +many of them, who crossed the water with St. Germain,' our cicerone +said with animation, evidently thinking the fact would interest us +extremely. No less curious than these tombs are the frescoes, +illustrating, among other subjects, the life of St. Maxime, companion +of St. Germain, whose bones lie here. 'St. Maxime, St. Maxime,' I said, +as I laboriously deciphered the Latin inscription on the tomb. 'Does +this name, then, belong to a woman?' + +'Si fait,' rejoined our guide, no little astonished at such ignorance, +'we have many names in France that do for both sexes, and she belonged +to your own country.' + +I did not feel in a position to contradict the statement, but no matter +to what country she belonged, St. Maxime has secured double +immortality--first, in the saints' calendar; secondly, in the mausoleum +of Auxerre. Alike these tombs and frescoes, with the sepulchres of the +Pharaohs, seem able to defy the encroachments of Time. + +During the Revolution, great consternation prevailed concerning the +precious relics. The bones of the saintly bishop were disinterred and +hidden elsewhere for safety, and in the after-confusion were never +replaced, but buried elsewhere. + +The huge sarcophagus in the wall is a cenotaph. + +No similar panic is likely to create a second disturbance of the sacred +relics in this subterranean abbey church. And who can say? Centuries +hence, devout Catholics, dark-skinned descendants of races only just +emerging from cannibalism, may make a solemn pilgrimage hither and find +the pictured story of St. Maxime still intact on the walls! Be this as +it may, no travellers within reach of Auxerre should fail to visit its +two beautiful and perfect churches, the one with its majestic front and +single tower rising airily above the level landscape, its noble +proportions standing out in the bright sunshine, radiant and lightsome +alike within and without; the other, hidden in the bowels of the earth, +giving no visible evidence of its existence, aisle, vaulted roofs, +vistas of delicate columns, only to be realized in the glimmer of a +semi-twilight. + +But Auxerre possesses other antiquities and many ancient houses, in one +of which, the Fontaine Hôtel, the traveller is comfortably and +reasonably housed. When we descended to our late supper in the salle à +manger, we found master, mistress, and their children dining with the +entire staff of servants. Such a circumstance indicates the difference +between English and French ways. In an English hotel, would the chef +sit down to talk with boots?--the lady bookkeeper condescend to break +bread with the kitchen-maid? Just as in France there is nothing like +our differentiation of domestic labour, one servant there fulfilling +what are called the duties of three here, so there is no parallel to +our social inequalities, kept up even in the kitchen. + +The chef here, who obligingly quitted the table and the company to cook +our cutlets, was a strikingly handsome man, as so many head-cooks are. +The connection between cookery as a fine art and personal beauty I +leave to others to discover. I must say that after a considerable +acquaintance with these officials I can hardly call to mind any of mean +appearance. One of the handsomest, I remember, was an accomplished +young chef, who gave me lessons in the art of omelette-making at the +well-known, home-like Hôtel du Jura, Dijon. + +Auxerre, although possessing a cathedral, is not a bishopric, its See +having been annexed to that of Sens, after the Revolution. + +Formerly capital of the Auxerrois part of the kingdom of Burgundy, +Auxerre is now chef-lieu of the department of the Yonne, the little +river making such pretty pictures between Sens and La Roche. + +Between Auxerre and Autun much of the scenery has an English look. We +might be in Surrey or Sussex. Lofty hedges enclosing fields and +meadows, stretches of heath-covered waste, oak woods, and homesteads +half hidden by orchards form the landscape. As our train crawls on, +stopping at every station, we have ample time to enjoy the scenery and +scrutinize the agriculture, here somewhat backward. These very slow +trains off the great lines should always be resorted to by the +inquiring traveller, the Bommelzug as it is called in German, the train +de boeufs in French. What can be seen from the windows of the flying +_Rapide_? Here we might almost alight and pluck the wild flowers +growing so temptingly on the embankment. Brisk tourists might even turn +the long halt at Avallon to good account, and get a hasty peep of one +of the most wonderful sites in this part of France, not so much as +hinted at from the railway. It was hard to pass Avallon by, 'most +musical name, recalling the "Idylls of the King," a place that may be +compared with Granada, with anything;' harder still, not to revisit the +abbey church of Vézélay, beautiful in itself, so celebrated in history; +so majestically placed on a ridge overlooking the two departments of +the Yonne and the Nièvre, but Goethe's invaluable maxim must be that of +the conscientious traveller, 'An der Nächste muss man denken' (We must +think of the nearest, the most important thing). Time did not now admit +of a two days' halt here. As I have described Avallon and Vézélay fully +elsewhere, [Footnote: I allude to several papers contributed to the +_Pall Mall Gazette_ whilst under the editorship of Mr. John Morley +(September and October, 1881), also to my edition of Murray's 'Handbook +to France,' part ii., 1884.] I will only now assure all tempted to take +this suggestion and visit both, that they cannot be disappointed. So +the train crawled on till the pretty home-like landscape was lost in +the twilight, and night over took us. + +It was late when we reached Autun, not too late, however, to receive a +right cordial welcome from the author of 'Round my House,' who had +ridden from his country home in the starlight to welcome us. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THROUGH THE MORVAN (continued). + + +A delightful Sunday spent among delightful English and French friends, +long bright hours of perfect weather, long bright hours of genial and +affectionate intercourse, English sobriety lightened with French esprit +and playfulness-such reminiscences, however precious to the possessor, +hardly form materials for a chapter. I pass on to say something about +Autun itself, a town so rarely visited by my country-folk, that the +principal hotels have not as yet set up a teapot. The people, however, +are so obliging that they will let you go into the kitchen and there +make your own tea, even a plum-pudding, if you want it. + +First some will ask the meaning of a name at the head of my page. The +Morvan-what may that be? I must explain, then, without going over +ground I have already described, that the Morvan, accessible as a +tourist-ground from Avallon, Autun, or Nevers, is a little Celtic +kingdom, isolated till recent times from the rest of France, alike by +position, language, and customs. + +The name is familiar to French ears as Wales is to our own. Just as we +talk of such-and-such a place being in Wales, instead of specifying the +particular shire, so French folks will tell you that they have just +made a journey into the Morvan, that so-and-so lives in the Morvan, +without naming the department--Saône-et-Loire, the Yonne or Nièvre, in +each of which a portion of the Morvan lies. In the very heart of the +country, especially round about Château-Chinon, its marvellously placed +little capital, we still see the saie, a garment identical with the +Gallic sagum, and the Morvandial, although gradually losing his once so +strongly-marked characteristics, prefers his own dialect to French. +Throughout the entire country, indeed, Morvandial is spoken. + +From many points of view this region of survivals is full of interest. +Till half-way through the present century, village communism existed +here in full force, having withstood the shocks of the French +Revolution. The last village commune was not broken up till 1848. + +The ancient industry of wood-floating, or flottage à buches perdues, is +still actively carried on. The logs, which are cut in summer, each +being marked with the owner's name, are floated down the rivers in +winter to Paris, women and children doing the greater part of the work. +This simple system of water transport, without any kind of vehicle, was +invented by a Parisian, Rouvet by name, so long ago as 1569. + +More interesting than these facts, perhaps, to most travellers, is the +delightful scenery of the Morvan, and the beauty of its white oxen, a +race apart. We find these gentle, majestic creatures everywhere +tenderly cared for, as perhaps no other animals are in France, and +lending wonderful picturesqueness and charm to every landscape. No +matter whither you go, winding up the forest-girt mountain road, from +Autun to Château-Chinon, traversing the romantic valley of the Cure, +from Avallon to Vézélay, exploring the pretty, Surrey-like woods and +hills around the gay little watering-place of St. Honoré-les-Bains, are +to be seen the white, lustrous-skinned, majestic creatures, who almost +make us forgive the ungallant refrain of Pierre Dupont's famous song: +'J'aime bien Jeanne, ma femme, mais j'aimerais mieux la voir mourir, +que de voir mourir mes boeufs' (I love my wife Jane, but I would rather +see her die than my oxen). + +The best plan for the tourist wishing to see the Morvan is to hire one +of the light carriages called a calèche, and drive, not only round the +country so called, but right through--a journey occupying about a +fortnight when leisurely made. + +Travellers pressed for time may, however, visit Château-Chinon in a day +from Autun. This five hours' drive to the former capital of the Morvan, +one continued ascent, gives one an excellent idea of the Morvandial +scenery, and in clear weather is delightful. From the not too +comfortable coupé of the cumbersome old vehicle, we come ever upon +wider and more magnificent prospects; on either side are brilliant +green pastures, watered by little rivers clear as crystal, lofty alders +fringing their banks, and the grand white oxen pasturing peacefully +here and there; beyond these gracious scenes rise wooded hills, or +masses of granite, taking weird forms; while as we journey further on +we get tremendous panoramas, with a background of violet hills. These +heights are about equal to the Cumberland range, the loftiest peak of +the Morvan rising to that of Skiddaw. + +Far away the famous Mont Beuvray, the Bibracte of the 'Commentaries' +lying half-way between Château-Chinon and Autun, is a bold, grand +outline to day, under a cold, gray sky. Wild crags to climb and +romantic sites abound, also scenes of quiet caressing grace and smiling +pastoralness. Nowhere can be found more beautiful pastures, winding +lanes, tossing streams. The country round about is wonderfully +solitary, but newly-built schools in the scattered villages tell of +progress. + +Meantime driver and passengers alight whilst our steady horses climb +one sharp ascent after another. As we wind about the hills we catch +sight of tiny hamlets perched on airy crests, recalling the castellated +villages of the African Kabylia. + +Arrived at our destination, the ancient capital and stronghold of the +Celtic Morvan, the whole country lies at our feet as a map--sunny +pasture and cornland, glen and dale, mountain stream, tumbling river +and glittering cascade, alternating with sterner and grander +features--dark forests covering vast spaces, rugged peaks towering +aloft, wild sweeps of heather-covered moorland. Seen as I saw this +region, under a wind-tossed lowering heaven, the impression was of +extreme desolation and wildness; only a glimpse of sunshine was needed +to bring out the witchery of each shifting scene. Nothing can be +prettier in a quiet way than these countless rivers and rivulets, each +fringed with lofty alders, these velvety glades and winding lanes. +Forests abound, and I was assured by a peasant that the poor never need +buy any firewood. They can pick up enough to last them all winter. + +Immediately below Château-Chinon opens a fair valley, threaded by the +river Yonne. Bewildering is the sense of space and atmosphere we obtain +here, as we look straight down into the clifts below, or allow the eye +to wander over the vast panorama stretching around. + +A town perched on a height two thousand feet above the sea-level, so +placed as to command an entire kingdom, should have a history, and the +history of Château-Chinon goes very far back indeed. The fortified +citadel of the seigneury was built on the site of a Gallo-Roman camp, +or castrum, the castrum on that of a Gallic oppidum. The once warlike, +grim little place, that often defied its enemies in the seigneurial +wars, is now the most dead-alive, sleepy little provincial place +imaginable. + +'We will breakfast together,' said the gray-haired conductor of the +diligence to me; 'and you will afterwards have time to look round +before we start home.' + +Although pure Celts, the Morvandiaux have not the proud reserve and, +perhaps, distrust of strangers found among the Bretons. I have driven +for miles across country alone with a Breton peasant, and he would +never once open his lips. Had I carried bags of gold about me, I should +have been perfectly safe under such protection. But a sociable +invitation to chat over the ordinary of an auberge would never have +entered the head of a diligence-driver in the Morbihan or Finistère. + +The little inn looked temptingly rustic and primitive, and the smiling, +round-faced, rosy-cheeked landlady might have just walked out of a +picture. Exactly such a landlady I remember at Llangollen years ago. + +I had, however, no time to stay, and we drove v back to Autun, making +the descent at a rapid rate, catching by the way the glimpse of a +stately peasant, with the Gallic saie, or mantle, thrown over his +shoulders. He might have sat for a study of Vercingetorix! It was worth +while going to Château-Chinon for the sight of such a piece of +antiquity as that! + +Alas! Château-Chinon is to have a railway, and alike the mantle worn by +Vercingetorix and his countrymen, the ancient Gallic speech--even the +time-honoured system of log-floating--are doomed. Instead of being +invited to breakfast with the blue-bloused pleasant driver of the +diligence, I shall expect to find at table-d'hôte half a score of +English undergraduates, members of the bicyclist club, or a party of +enterprising ladies from Chicago. + +A word about Autun itself, a town that improves marvellously on +acquaintance. This was my third visit, and I found it more attractive +than ever. The beauty of its site is best appreciated from the lower +ground beyond its western suburb. And beautiful it is--the graceful +cathedral, with its airy spire and twin towers, pencilled in soft, +silvery gray against the dimpled green hills, every feature of the +landscape in harmony with it, as if, indeed, made to be in harmony with +it. Turning from the cathedral in an opposite direction, in order to +make the circuit of the city, we realize how grand was the predecessor +of modern Autun the Augustodonum of Gallic Rome. Keeping to this higher +ground, we can follow with the eye the tremendous span of the Roman +wall, fragmentary for the most part, yet perfect in places, and built +neither of bricks nor blocks of stone, but of small stones. + +Inside the enclosure we see the mediæval wall and picturesque +watch-towers of the French king Francis. Picturesque as these are--also +the bits of ordinary domestic architecture between airily-perched +dormers, stone balconies filled with flowers, little terraced gardens +rising one above the other-the mind is too much occupied with the grand +Roman aspect of the place to dwell as yet upon minor points. The +circuit of the city, so made as to visit its two magnificent Roman +gateways, and equally fine so-called Temple of Janus, is beyond the +reach of moderate walkers. All are noble specimens of Augustan +architecture, more especially the Porte d'Arroux. This stands on the +north side of the town, beyond the suburbs, its lofty arches spanning +the road, and wearing, from the distance, the look of an aqueduct. It +is built of huge blocks of stone adjusted without cement. Between the +upper tiers of arches are sculptured Corinthian columns, all happily +uninjured. So massive is this structure, so firmly it stands, that we +feel as if, like the Pyramids, it might last for ever. + +Beyond, on either side, stretches the pleasant open country-fields and +meadows and market-gardens; whilst far away, in bright sunny weather +looking like a violet cloud, is the vast height of Bibracte, so +celebrated in the 'Commentaries.' + +But the most curious monument at Autun is the so-called Pierre de +Couhard. From all parts of the city may be seen, rising conspicuously +from its green eminence, this stately relic-maybe of Roman or Gallic +times, perhaps raised of remoter date still--a vast pyramid of stone, +worthy to be compared to the great tomb of Caius Sextius in Rome. + +It is a pleasant walk to what the townsfolk call the Pierre de Quare. +Leaving behind us the cathedral and suburbs, we follow a road winding +in a south-easterly direction to the little village of Couhard, watered +by a gurgling stream, and sheltered by a fair green hill. As we quit +the highroad to reach the monument, we come upon pretty pastoral +groups. It is supper-time-l'heure de la soupe, as French rustics +say--and before every cottage-door are squatted family groups, eating +their pottage on the doorsteps. Around are the dogs and cats, chickens, +pigs and goats. To every humble homestead is attached orchard, garden, +even a patch of corn or vineyard. All is peace and contentment. + +Certainly these rural interiors would not satisfy everybody. Neatness +and cleanliness do not always prevail among poor folks in France, any +more than in England. But, alike, young and old are neatly and +wholesomely dressed. Beggars are almost nil, and the prevailing aspect +is one of unforgettable well-being, independence, and cheerfulness. + +In strange contrast with these domestic pictures--pet kittens and +children playing close under its shadow, tiny cabbage and tomato beds +planted to its very edge-stands the huge, angular, pyramidal pile +called the Pierre de Quare. + +Very striking is the effect of the huge, solid brown mass, tapering to +a point, from summit to base reaching half the height of the +cathedral-spire, its original height in all probability having been +much loftier. + +The whole is a ruin, yet intact, if I may be pardoned the paradox. +Whilst the inner part of the monument remains uninjured, its sides have +been stripped of the marble slabs or polished stones that once in all +probability covered and adorned them. The outer surface now shows a +rough, jagged ensemble of masses of stone rudely put together, the +entire pyramid being solid. + +We walked home in the evening light, getting dozens of charming +pictures in the twilight--pictures already familiar to me, yet ever +bringing a sense of newness. French towns, like French scenery, should +be revisited thus, and I hope ere very long to pay Autun my fourth +visit, and to take, for a second time, those delightful drives from +Avallon to Vézélay, and from the modern capital of the little Celtic +kingdom to the ancient, perched so airily above the surrounding hills. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +FROM LYONS TO AVIGNON BY THE RHÔNE. + + +From Autun to Lyons is a journey that calls for little comment, unless +made, as wise Arthur Young made it a hundred years ago, on horseback; +or unless we take the steamer at Châlon, and enjoy the scenery of the +Saône, Mr. Hamerton's favourite river. + +We were too impatient, however, to reach the Causses to stop, even for +the sake of a sail on the Saône, and made haste to catch the very next +_Gladiateur_ bound to Avignon. Why all these Rhône steamers should be +called _Gladiateur_ I don't know, but so it is. + +By half-past five this bright August day we are on the deck of the +little steamer, to find a scene of indescribable liveliness and bustle. +All kinds of merchandise were being stowed away--bedding, fruit, +bicycles, bird-cages, passengers' luggage, cases, and packages of every +imaginable description. + +A stream of peasants poured in, bound for various stations on the way, +all heavily laden, some accompanied by their pet dogs. First-class +passengers were not numerous. We had an elderly bridegroom, who might +have been a small innkeeper, with his youthful bride, evidently making +a cheap wedding-trip; a family party or two; an excitable man with a +sick wife; a couple of pretty girls with two or three youths--brothers +or cousins; a sprinkling of priests and nuns--that was all. The +peasants with their baskets and bundles, at the other end of the +vessel, made picturesque groups, and the whole scene was as French as +French could be. + +I was just thinking how pleasant it was thus to escape the routine of +travel, to find one's self in a purely foreign atmosphere, among French +people, picking up by the way French habits and ways of thought, when +one of the officials of the company bustled up to me. + +'Pray pardon me, madame,' he said, bringing out a note-book. 'I see +that you are English. Will you be so very kind as to give me the name +and address of the great tourist agency in London? We are organizing an +entirely new service between Lyons and Avignon; we are going to make +our steamers attractive to tourists. You will oblige us extremely by +giving a little information.' + +Crestfallen and with a sinking of the heart, I took his pencil--I +could, of course, not do otherwise--and wrote in big letters: + + + MM. Thomas Cook et Cie., + Ludgate Hill, + Londres. + +But those few words I had written sufficed to dispel the delightful +visions of the moment before. Another year or two, then, and the Rhône +will be then handed over to Messrs. Cook, Gaze and Caygill--benefactors +of their kind, no doubt, but ruthless destroyers of the romance of +travel. + +Instead of French folk, with whom we can chat about their crops, rural +affairs, the passing scenes, gaining all kinds of information, feeling +that we are really in France, and forgetting for awhile old +associations, henceforth we shall find on board these steamers our near +neighbours, whom, no matter how much respected, we are glad to quit for +a time. From end to end of the vessel we shall hear the voices of +English and Transatlantic tourists, one and all most probably +'disappointed in the Rhône;' but, indeed, for the river, we should as +well be at home! However, all this disenchantment happily belongs to +the future; let us enjoy the present experience--one long bright summer +day, so full of impressions as to seem many days rolled into one. + +The whistle sounds, punctually to the stroke of six; we are off. + +It is a noble sight as we steam out of the quay de la Charité: the vast +city rearing its stately front between green hills and meeting rivers; +above, white châteaux and villas dotting the greenery--below, the +quays, bordered with warehouses that might be palaces, so lofty and +handsome are they, and avenues of plane-trees. + +The day promises to be splendid, but mists as yet hang over the scene. +Leaving behind us majestic cities and suburbs and the confluence of the +Rhône and the Saône--one silvery sheet flowing into the other--we glide +between low-lying banks bordered with poplars, and soon reach the +little village of Irigny, its sheltering green hills dotted with +country houses. As we go swiftly on we realize the appropriateness of +the epithet ever applied to the Rhône. Truly in Michelet's phrase, +'C'est un taureau furieux descendu des Alpes, et qui court à la mer.' +If we are in haste to reach our destination in the heart of the +Cévennes, the Rhône seems still more in haste to reach the sea. This +swift current of the bright blue waters and the unspeakable freshness +and purity of the air make our journey very exhilarating. Past Irigny +we are so near the low, poplar-bordered shore to our left that we could +almost reach it with a pebble, whilst to the right lies Millery. From +this point the river winds abruptly, and we see far-off hills and +gentle declivities nearer shore, with vineyards planted on the slopes. +The country on both sides is beautifully wooded, and very verdant. + +The first halt is made at Givors, a little manufacturing town set round +with vine-clad banks; here the little river Giers flows into the Rhône, +one of the numerous tributaries gathered on the way. Just below the +town is a graceful suspension-bridge. But for the mists we should have +a lovely view a little further on, where the hills run nearer together, +the wooded escarpments running steep down to the water's edge. On both +right and left banks the scenery is now charming. Close to our left +hand rise banks fringed with silvery-green willows, and above a bold +line of hills, part wood, part vineyards, with white houses peeping +here and there; on our right, a little island-like group of poplar, the +whole picture very sweet and pastoral. + +For the most part our passengers, alike first and second class, pay +scant heed to the scenery; the tiny salle-a-manger below and the +resources of the kitchen seem more attractive. + +The excitable man with the sick wife, however, no sooner caught sight +of me with pencil and note-book than he rushed up, anxious to impart +information, also to pour out his own troubles. + +'That sick lady yonder is my wife; does she not look ill? Oh, the +misfortune to have a sick wife!' + +Then he went on to relate to me the history of his wife's long illness, +dilating on his own unhappiness in being so afflicted. It never seemed +to occur to him that it might be worse to be ill one's self, even than +to inflict one's illnesses on others. He had tried every imaginable +remedy, and now, as a last expedient, was about to take her to her +paternal home in the South, to see what native air might do. Poor lady! +ill and depressed she looked indeed. + +As we get nearer Vienne the aspect of the country changes. There is an +Italian look about the vines trellised on trees, and festooned under +the tiled roofs of the little riverside châlets. + +The approach to the ancient city itself is very striking. A light +suspension-bridge spans the river-banks just where Vienne faces the +village of St. Colombe, ancient as itself. On the right we see the +massive old town built by Philippe de Valois; to the left, behind the +houses, crowded together pell-mell, rises the massive pile of Vienne +Cathedral. Here another tributary, the Gère, flows into the Rhône. +Vienne was reputed a fosterer of poetry in classic times. At 'beautiful +Vienne,' Martial boasted that his works were read with avidity. The +scenery now shows more variety and picturesqueness. In one spot the +river winds so abruptly that we seem all on a sudden to be landlocked, +the hills almost meeting where the swift, impetuous stream has forced a +way. The cleft hills as they slope down to the shore show little dells +and combes deliciously fresh and verdurous. Everywhere we see the vine, +and with every bend we seem nearer the South. Between Vienne and +Roussillon the aspect is no longer French, but Italian--the distant +undulations dark purple, flecked with golden shadow, the nearer +terraced with the yellowing vine. + +Our next halting-place is Condrien, on the right bank, celebrated for +its white wines, a pretty, Italian-looking little town, with vineyards +and gardens close to the riverside, the bright foliage of the acacia +and vine contrasting with the soft yellows and grays of the +building-stone. Above the straggling town on the sunny hill are +deep-roofed châlets, and close to us--we could almost gather +them--patches of glorious sunflowers in the riverside gardens. The +mists had now cleared off, and we were promised a superb day. + +The traveller's mind is all at once struck by the extreme solitude of +this noble, vast-bosomed, swift-flowing river. We had been on our way +for hours without seeing a steamer or vessel of any kind, our little +craft having the wide water-way all to itself. Whilst the Saône is the +most navigable river in the world, quite opposite is the character of +its brother Rhône. Not inaptly has the one river--all gentleness, +yieldingness, and suavity--won a feminine, the other--all force, +impetuosity and stern will--obtained for itself a masculine, +appellative! And well has the Lyonnais sculptor given these +characteristics in his charming statues adorning the Hôtel de Ville of +his native city. + +The Rhône has been called 'un chemin qui marche trop vîte'; the +rapidity of its currents and the difficulties of navigation up-stream +are obstructions to traffic. But before the great line of railway was +laid down between Paris and Marseilles, it was nevertheless very +important. If we converse with French folk whose memory goes back to a +past generation, we shall find that the journey South was invariably +made this way. Formerly sixty-two steamers daily plied with passengers +and goods between these riverside towns, now connected by railway. At +the present time seven or eight suffice for the work. + +To render the Rhône adapted for navigation on a large scale, extensive +works are necessary in order to regulate its current and deepen its +bed. The question has long occupied the leading Chambers of Commerce +throughout France. Plans of the proposed ameliorations have been made; +works have even been begun. But the Rhône has that terribly powerful +Compagnie de Paris-Lyon-Mediterranée to contend with. It remains to be +seen whether wide public interests will be finally sacrificed to a +grasping railway company. For myself, I owe the P.-L.-M. a great and +lasting grudge. + +I am in the habit of paying yearly visits to French friends living in +and near Dijon; but for the P.-L.-M., I could pleasantly vary these +annual visits to the delightful Burgundian capital, going by way of +Sens and Tonnerre, and returning by the Ligne de l'Est through +Champagne. + +But no! The latter company is not permitted by the P.-L.-M. to set down +passengers in the Dijon railway-station. Those travellers desirous of +making the journey Paris-ward viâ Troyes are therefore forced to take +tickets to Is-sur-Tille, half an hour by rail from Dijon, on the Ligne +de l'Est. There they are permitted, and not before, to take through +tickets and register baggage to Paris. I rejoice to hear, however, that +influential Dijonnais are taking the matter up, and I yet live in hopes +of being able to avoid the P.-L.-M. line to and from Dijon. + +It must be admitted that the great solitude of the Rhône adds to its +majesty and impressiveness. Our little craft seems insignificant as a +feather--a mere bird skimming the vast blue surface. After the clearing +of the mists, we have a spell of unbroken blue sky and bright sunshine, +followed by a deliciously cool, gray English heaven, with sunny +glimpses and varied cloudage. + +Passing Serrières, with pastures and meadows close to the water's edge, +and groups of cattle grazing under the trees, we reach Annonay, crested +by a quaint ruin, the birth-place of the great balloonists, the +brothers Montgolfier. The first balloon ascent was made from this +little town in 1783. Boissy d'Anglas, the heroic president of the +Assembly in its stormiest days, was also born here. + +Next comes St. Vallier, an ancient little town close to the river-side, +with its castle of the beauty who never grew old, Diane de +Poitiers--she whose mysterious cosmetic was a daily plunge in cold +water; so say the initiated in historic secrets. Opposite to St. +Vallier rises a chain of sunny, vine-covered hills, with sharp clefts +showing deep shadow. + +At Arras, on the right bank, is seen another picturesque ruin. No river +in Europe boasts of more ruins than the Rhône. Then we reach the +legendary rock called the Table du Roi. Just as Æneas and his +companions made of their flat loaves, plates, and so fulfilled the +Sibyl's prediction, St. Louis saw in this tabular block a dinner-table, +providentially designed for the use of himself and his ministers. The +great advantage of such a table lay in its immunity from listeners, +thus the story runs. This al-fresco banquet above the banks of the +Rhône took place on the eve of the Seventh Crusade. + +At this point the river is magnificent. Beyond the nearer hills rise +the crumbling walls of a feudal stronghold, another ruin of imposing +aspect. One hoary tower only is seen, half hidden by the folds of a +valley. On every steep slope the vines make golden patches, little +terraces being planted close to the rocky summits. This persistence in +a phylloxera-ravaged district is quite touching. + +Passing Tournon and Tain, we soon come in sight of the famous little +village of the Hermitage, a sunburnt, granitic slope, its three hundred +acres once being a mine of gold. Formerly a hectare of this precious +vineyard was worth 30,000 francs. The phylloxera, alas! has invaded it. + +We now see in the far distance the blue range of the Dauphinnois Alps, +and can it be--is yonder silvery glimmer on the farthest horizon the +mighty Mont Blanc? Nothing can be lovelier than these wide mountain +vistas, far above broad blue river, plain, and hill. + +Passing the stately Gothic château of Châteaubourg, where sojourned St. +Louis, we get a glimpse of the sharply-outlined limestone heights +bordering on the vineyards of St. Péray, no less celebrated than those +of the Hermitage. On the topmost crag stand out in bold relief the +superb ruins of Crussol. At every turn we see gray walls of feudal +strongholds frowning above the bright, broad river. By the time we +reach Valence, soon after mid-day, we have passed one barge only. + +Valence is beautifully situated. [Footnote: In the early part of this +century the Rhône threw up gold-dust here. The beaver, be it also +mentioned, had his home then on the banks of this river, but it lived +in isolation, showing little of the intelligence of the Canada beaver.] +Facing the river and tawny, abrupt rocks rises the splendid panorama of +the French Alps. Here we ought to stay, were we not in such feverish +flurry to reach the Causses. And here we leave more than half our +passengers and merchandise. The cook, having now nothing to do, comes +on deck to chat with a friendly traveller. I may as well mention that +we fare as well on this little steamer as at a second-class +table-d'hôte. There is a small dining-room below, as well as a very +fairly comfortable saloon. The attendants are exceedingly civil, and +charges regulated by a tariff. + +As an instance of the prevailing desire to please, I cite the following +piece of amiability on the part of the chef. I had given tea and a +teapot, with instructions, to the waiter. The chef, however, anxious +that there should be no blunder, came up to me and begged for +information at first hand. + +'Pray excuse me,' he said; 'but I did not understand whether the milk +and sugar were to form part of the decoction.' + +I gave him a little dissertation on tea-making, with the result that +future travellers by the _Gladiateur_ will obtain a fragrant cup +admirably prepared. Even a French chef cannot be expected to know +everything in the vast field of cookery. + +Below Valence the scenery changes. The hills on either side of the +river recede, and we look above low reaches and lines of poplar upon +the far-off mountain-range of Dauphiné and Savoy. Here and there are +little farmsteads close to the shore, with stacks of wheat newly piled +and cattle grazing--everywhere a look of homely plenty and repose. The +river winds in perpetual curves, giving us new horizons at every turn. + +Lavoutte, on the right bank, is a picturesque congeries of red-tiled +houses massed round a square château. The town indeed looks a mere +appendage of this château, so conspicuous is the ancient stronghold of +the Vivarais. Livron, perched on a hill, looks very pretty. Soon we +come to perhaps the grandest ruin cresting the bank of the Rhône, the +donjon and château fort of Rochemaure, standing out formidably from the +dark, jagged peaks, running sheer down to the river's edge. + +After Le Teil is passed the clouds gradually clear. We have the deep +warm blue of a southern sky and burning sunshine. + +Viviers--ancient capital of the Vivarais, to which it gave the name--is +most romantically placed on the side of a craggy hill, its ancient +castle and old Romanesque cathedral conspicuous above the house-roofs. +Just above the verdant river-bank run its mediæval ramparts tapestried +with ivy, the yellowish stone almost the colour of the rocks. + +The scenery here is wild and striking. Far away the grand snow-tipped +Mont Ventoux, the limestone cliffs dazzlingly white against the warm +heavens, deep purple shadows resting on the vine-clad slopes, whilst +close to the water's edge are stretches of velvety turf and little +shady dells. At one point the opposite coasts are as unlike in aspect +as summer and winter; the right bank all grace and fertility, the left +all barrenness and desolation. And still we have the noble river to +ourselves as it winds between rock and hill. Pont St. Esprit is another +old-world town with a wonderful old bridge, making a charming picture. +It stands close to the water's edge, the houses grouped lovingly round +its ancient church with tall spire. Here we do at last meet a steamer +bound for Valence. + +After leaving Pont St. Esprit the scenery grows less severe, till by +degrees all sternness is banished, and we see only a gentle pastoral +landscape on either side. + +Bagnols, with its handsome old stone bridge, church, with perforated +tower, facing the river, makes a quaint and picturesque scene. This +curious old town, one of the most characteristic passed throughout the +entire journey, lies so close to the water's edge that we could almost +step from the steamer into its streets. Meantime, the long, bright +afternoon, so rich in manifold impressions, draws on; cypresses and +mulberry-trees announce the approach to Avignon. A golden softness in +the evening sky, a heavy warmth and languor in the air, proclaim the +South. Every inch of the way is varied and rememberable. Feudal walls +still crest the distant heights, as we glide slowly between reedy banks +and low sandy shores towards the papal city. + +At last it comes in sight, rather more than twelve hours since quitting +the quay of Lyons, and well rewarded were we for having preferred the +slower water-way to the four hours' flight in the railway express. + +The approach to Avignon by the Rhône may be set side by side in the +traveller's mind with the first glimpse of Venice from the Adriatic, or +of Athens from the Ægean. + +The river, after winding amid cypress-groves, makes a sudden curve, and +we see all of a sudden the grand old Italian-looking city, its +watch-towers, palaces, and battlements pencilled in delicate gray +against a warm amber sky, only the cypresses by the water's edge making +dark points in the picture. Far away, over against the city towers, the +stately snow-crowned Mont Ventoux and the violet hills shutting in +Petrarch's Vaucluse. How warm and southern--nay, Oriental--is the scene +before us, although painted in delicatest pearly tints! It is difficult +to believe that we are still in France; we seem suddenly to have waked +up in Jerusalem! + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +AVIGNON AND ORANGE. + + +My first business at Avignon was, of course, to visit the tomb of our +great countryman, John Stuart Mill. + +As we drive to the cemetery this cloudless August day there is little +to remind us of northern latitudes: warm yellow walls, burning blue +heaven, venerable fig-trees white with dust, peach and olive +orchards--all combine to conjure up a vision of the far-off East. The +perpetual wind, however, cools the air, and if it has not the delicious +freshness of the desert breeze tasted towards nightfall near Cairo, at +least it makes August in that apparently tropic region bearable. +Avignon should without doubt be visited in the height of summer, +otherwise we lose this Oriental aspect, which is its most striking and, +at the same time, most beautiful characteristic. + +Passing the colossal palace of the popes--pity such superb masonry +should be linked with the memories of crimes so horrible!--we reach the +public gardens, containing the statue of a comparatively humble +individual, who did more for the public weal than perhaps all the popes +and anti-popes put together. This is Althen, who, by the introduction +of the madder-root into France, promoted the peaceful industry and +wellbeing of thousands of honest families. From the lofty terrace of +this promenade--a natural precipice overlooking the river--we obtain a +glorious panorama--the entire city, with its towers, palace, and +churches, spread before us as a map, the glory of the Dauphinnois Alps, +the magnificent Mont Ventoux stretching across the northern horizon, +under the shadow of its sunny crest the pale violet hills of Vaucluse, +and, to complete the picture, the Rhône, silvery bright--I protest it +is not always muddy as some writers insist!--flowing swiftly between +green banks towards the sea. + +An avenue of stone pines leads to the cemetery--announced by +flower-stalls and stonemasons' yards--and we soon find the +head-gardener--an ancient man, proud to show us the tomb of the 'grand +Anglais.' + +'Do my country-people often come here to pay their respects to this +grave?' I asked. + +'Oh, many, many!' he said; 'and the demoiselle, his daughter--it is she +who sees to everything. She is always coming. Never was any grave so +cared for, as you will see.' + +He was right. The sarcophagus of pure white marble stands in the midst +of a tiny garden, exquisitely kept and railed in, with gate +well-locked. The well-known inscription inscribed by Stuart Mill to the +memory of his wife cannot be deciphered from outside the enclosure, and +no one, under any circumstances whatever, is permitted to enter it; but +the name of the noble apostle of liberty stands out bold and clear, and +may be seen from a distance. The flower-borders around the tomb were +bright with late summer and autumn flowers; not a seared leaf, not an +unsightly weed anywhere. The reverential care bestowed on this grave is +delightful to witness. Two English girls lie buried near the great +champion of women and of liberty of thought. Rare flowers--roses and +lilies--were not to be had, so I purchased a homely garland of zinnias +and China asters, and laid it just outside the little railing. In +paying this modest tribute to the memory of John Stuart Mill I +fulfilled a wish very dear to my heart. One other pilgrimage of the +like kind I would fain make did not wide seas intervene. I should like +to place a wreath on the tomb of another apostle of liberty--the +dauntless, the self-immolating Colenso! + +Schiller, great in poetry as in prose, says: 'The larger portion of +humanity are too much concerned with the struggle for bare existence to +occupy themselves with the search after truth.' Let us, then, rejoice +in the memory of those who have consecrated their existences to this +lofty task! + +Beautiful as is Avignon for a burial-place, we wonder how anyone could +from choice live here. The perpetual mistral-like wind, the dazzling +glare, the white dust, the malodorous streets of the old town, do not +at any rate invite a long stay during the dog-days, and much of its +picturesqueness would be lost in winter. With the prospect of the +breezy Roof of France ever before us, we certainly felt little disposed +to linger, in spite of our comfortable quarters and another attraction +not mentioned in guide-books. I allude to the great beauty of the +people, especially of the young girls and children. We seemed here to +have touched the first note of a gradually ascending scale of beauty, +the climax awaiting us in the mountain fastnesses of the Lozère. In and +around Avignon we saw many a girl beautiful as one of Raphael's +Madonnas, many a child lovely as an angel. We could not paint these +charming heads, we could not make the acquaintance of their possessors; +but it was delightful to obtain such glimpses of beauty by the way--to +feel one's self in a living portrait-gallery of beauty. The great +neatness and tidiness of the country people, and the absence of +vagrancy, are very striking. Wherever we go, we see evidence of an +existence laborious perhaps in the extreme, yet one of wholesomeness +and content. + +Strange to say, chemical science has proved as disastrous to the rural +population round about Avignon as the phylloxera has done in other +parts of the department. The supersession of madder by aniline dyes +has, indeed, for a time almost ruined the small farmers of Vaucluse. + +'Ah!' said an elderly man to me, 'in former days the madder made up for +everything. It was the harvest of the year. If a peasant's corn was +blighted, or potatoes and fruit crops failed, the madder was there to +take to market. The madder paid his way in bad seasons and in +good--gave him a little "argent mignon" to lay by. The peasant just +manages to live nowadays, but when madder was cultivated 'twas his own +fault if he didn't grow rich.' + +The culture of this plant, which extended over 13,500 hectares in +Vaucluse in 1860, had diminished to eight, representing a loss of +millions of francs. The vineyards have also been reduced, owing to the +inroads of the phylloxera, although not in equal proportion. Even the +silkworm, the third chief source of wealth here, has suffered from a +parasite. + +But the peasant-owner of the soil never loses heart. He drives his +plough across the ruined vineyard, digs up the madder-field, plants +other crops, and cheerfully accepts a fourth part of former profits. + +My companion, of course, would no more have dreamed of quitting Avignon +without a visit to Vaucluse than I should have thought it possible to +go away leaving unvisited the tomb of John Stuart Mill. But next +morning brought a lowering sky, heavy rain-drops, and an ominous +rumbling of thunder. To set out for a twenty miles' drive across +country under such auspices were madness. + +We decided to visit Orange instead, a short distance by railway. We +should be sure to obtain a covered carriage at the station. Under such +circumstances, need a deluging shower or two and a thunderstorm keep us +at home? + +The prospect brightened towards mid-day, so we started in high spirits, +assuring ourselves of a delightful excursion. We found pleasant company +in the railway-carriage, our fellow-travellers being all bound for +Paris. One, a young Jesuit who had been in England, was delighted to +practise his English. + +'You are not favoured with fine weather in your travels,' he said; 'but +you are probably going to remain at Orange some time?' + +'Oh dear no,' was the reply. 'We are spending the afternoon there, that +is all--just going to see the Roman theatre!' + +'I wish you enjoyment of your expedition,' he replied drily, no little +amused, but evidently somewhat accustomed to insular eccentricity. + +The rest of the company could hardly keep a grave countenance. 'These +English! these English!' their faces said, and the general verdict +evidently was parodying the immortal words of Madame Roland: 'O +Pleasure, what pains are endured under thy name!' + +By the time we reached our destination the storm had become truly +awful. Rain fell in torrents; the crashing thunder was like the roar of +artillery. The heavens were black as night, but for the blue flashes +that seemed to set the place on fire. Outside the station was no +vehicle of any kind; within, groups of storm-driven travellers and +pedestrians waited for the tempest to abate. + +And long, indeed, we had to wait. The most rational alternative seemed +to be to take the next train back to Avignon. But we might never again +find ourselves at Orange. We recalled Addison's words, 'The remains of +this Roman amphitheatre are worth the whole principality of Orange,' so +we abided the storm. We were, after all, as well off in the +comfortably-appointed little station as in a first class +railway-carriage, and the tempest, if awful, afforded a sublime +spectacle. Lightning so vivid I think I never before witnessed. + +At last the deluging rain slackened somewhat; the heavens grew clearer; +and the omnibus of the Hôtel de la Poste made its appearance. We took +our seats and rattled into the town, the poor drenched horses paying no +heed to the swiftly-recurring peals and flashes. + +At the Poste, most French and old-fashioned of French inns--very +spacious, very handsome, and scrupulously clean--we found a charming +landlady, to whom we carried friendly greetings from former visitors; +and after tea and a little chat, the thunder and lightning having +abated, we ventured forth. + +The streets, which on our arrival an hour before were like rivers, now +began to dry up; the raindrops fell at intervals only; the thunder +pealed from a distance. A few townspeople, like ourselves, were abroad. + +A noble avenue of plane-trees leads from the station to the ancient +town. Hardly a bit of modernization to be seen anywhere, its quaint, +narrow streets having deep, over-hanging roofs and round arched +galleries, as seen in some of the old Spanish towns of Franche-Comté. +After zigzagging for awhile in rain, we come suddenly upon the Roman +theatre, a sight to take one's breath away. Rome itself shows nothing +finer than this colossal mass of masonry--façade of the Augustan +amphitheatre, and at the same time an acoustic wall, built of such +thickness and solidity in order to retain the sound of the actors' +voices. The entire façade is very nearly perfect, and forms a splendid +specimen of Augustan architecture in its prime. It is constructed of +huge blocks put together symmetrically, without the adjunct of cement. +The colour is of deep, rich brown, the entire structure majestically +dominating the town, whilst around, dwarfed by its gigantic +proportions, rise the pleasant green hills. + +Close under the shadow of the façade, enhancing its grandeur by force +of contrast, are mean little houses, and in front an open space, where +poor people are washing their clothes and carrying on the homeliest +avocations. Some notion of the interior may be gathered from without, +but, on payment of a small fee, strangers are permitted to enter and +wander at will about the stone benches raised on tiers, the corridors, +and dressing-closets of the actors. Vandalism has all but done its +worst; still, enough are left of proscenium and auditorium, originally +constructed to hold 7,000 spectators, to admit of the performance of +plays here. The stone corbels, pierced with holes to hold the enormous +awning or velarium used in wet weather or extreme heat, remain intact. +The gray stone is covered with moss and greenery, and the whole scene +for magnificence and impressiveness may be compared with the great +Dionysiac theatre at Athens. + +As we lingered outside, it was pleasant to witness the pride of the +inhabitants in this great monument. + +'Ah, you should have been here a few days ago!' one bystander said to +us; 'you might then have seen the "OEdipe Roi" of Corneille given in +this amphitheatre, by the troupe of the Comédie Française. Never before +was a fête so brilliant seen at Orange! People flocked hither from +fifty miles and farther round!' + +We found, and lost, and lost, and found our way in the perplexing +labyrinth of ancient streets, till we reached the fine but somewhat +cold and uninspiring triumphal arch at the other end of the town. Then +we returned to Avignon, the thunderstorm bursting forth with renewed +fury. Our compartment was illuminated by the lightning from the +beginning of our journey to the end, and when we alighted the blue +flashes were positively appalling; the whole place seemed ablaze with +the steely-blue, blinding coruscations. So we rattled through the +lightning-lit streets and turned into bed, the storm taking its +departure as soon as we were safely housed. It was worth while making a +great effort to see Orange, but nothing--no, nothing--will ever tempt +me to excursionize in such a storm again! + +It is odd that English folk so rarely visit Orange; but the attractions +of Switzerland are too obvious, and the great Schweitzer Hof at Lucerne +has more charms for the multitude than the thoroughly French Hôtel de +la Poste. + +One illustrious English traveller, however, just two hundred years ago, +thought otherwise. + +In a recently-unearthed letter of Addison to Bishop Hough, dated 27th +October, 1700, he wrote: 'I was about three days ago at Orange, which +is a very fruitful and pleasant spot of ground. The governor, who is a +native of the place, told me there were about 5,000 people in it, and +one-third were Protestants. There is a Popish bishop and some convents, +but all live very amicably together, and are, I believe, not a little +pleased with their prince, who does not burden them with taxes and +impositions. There are two pieces of antiquity--Marius' triumphal arch, +and the remains of a Roman amphitheatre--that are worth the whole of +the principality.' + +It may be as well to add here that the prevailing opinion of +archæologists now refers the arch to the reign of Marcus Aurelius, and +that the name Marius has no reference to the conqueror of the Cimbri, +as has been generally supposed. The supposition was brought about by +the name Mario inscribed on a shield, among the many facsimiles +adorning the trophy. But it is clearly the name of the vanquished, not +the victor, found here, and Mario, part of Marion, may well have been +the name of a Gaulish prisoner. + +As all spoliations throughout France indiscriminately are imputed to +the Revolution, it may be as well to remind the reader that it was +Maurice, Prince of Nassau, who did his very utmost to demolish the +noble Roman theatre of Orange. + +By the Treaty of Ryswick, signed 1697, the family of Nassau were +confirmed in the possession of Orange, and the prince referred to in +Addison's letter was our William the Third. The spoliator of the Roman +theatre was his ancestor, the tyrannical and justly-hated Maurice. This +fact is to be noted. + +The thunderstorm cooled the air, and the next day we had unclouded +skies and burning sunshine, tempered with a brisk wind, for our +expedition to Vaucluse. The wind blows ever at Avignon, no matter what +the weather may be, and renders the tropic heat of summer tolerable. +All the way we caught sight of beautiful faces, these peasant-girls and +children having faultless features, a rich complexion, dark hair and +eyes, and a dignified carriage. They go bare-headed in the broiling +sun, and seem to revel in the heat. Passing suburban villas, +close-shuttered, vine-trellised, handsome châteaux, each approached by +stately avenues of plane or mulberry, cypress groves and vineyards, we +are soon in the heart of the country. + +Little farmhouses are seen on either side, their ochre-coloured walls +gleaming against the deep-blue sky--fig-trees in every garden, with +peach-orchards beyond, showing the brilliant fruit. It is a bit of the +East, only the blue-bloused peasant and the bare-headed, dignified +country girls, wishing us 'Bonjour' as they pass, remind us that we are +on French soil. There is no evidence here either of wealth or poverty; +but the fruits of the earth, so laboriously cultivated, are equally +shared by all. Everywhere we find cheerfulness, independence, and +thrift. + +Pilgrims to Vaucluse must be prepared to pay dear for the privilege. +Once--and once only during this journey-were we thoroughly overcharged, +and it was at the little inn here. + +I have not kept the bill, but was it not worth any money to taste trout +fished from Petrarch's stream, eggs whose ancestors had crowed in +Petrarch's hearing, salad grown within perhaps a stone's-throw of +Petrarch's garden? Thus doubtless our hostess reasoned, and in all +probability she was right. What devotee would be deterred from visiting +such a shrine by the prospect of a long bill? + +Many, however, will be deterred by another reason. I allude to the +burning noonday sun, that makes this close-shut valley, as it is +complimentarily called, a veritable furnace. It is in reality a deep +winding cleft between lofty, yellow rocks, by virtue of position and +formation a naturally formed sun-trap, not a ray being lost. Words can +give no idea of the scorching, blinding heat this August afternoon. Yet +a little girl who acts as our guide confronts the sun bareheaded, and +as we go we find dozens of relic-vendors equally unprotected. No one +seems to require a hat or umbrella. This child had the face of a +miniature Madonna, and others we met on the way equally beautiful and +well-formed. Strange thus to escape for a time altogether from the +region of human ugliness, to be as completely isolated from +ill-favoured looks and uncomely gait as if we were in a +sculpture-gallery of Florence! These country-bred girls and children +have not only statuesque features, but the stateliest carriage, holding +themselves with the air of Nature's princesses. + +I stopped when half-way through the burning, blinding cul-de-sac, and +took refuge under the shadow cast by a bit of wall and a fig-tree. If +the deluging showers of yesterday had failed to damp my enthusiasm, the +meridian heat of Vaucluse shrivelled it up. My companion, with her +angelic-faced little cicerone, perseveringly went on. + +This rock-shut valley, watered by the Sorgues, a tiny thread of water +and verdure amid towering walls of bare, sun-baked rock, has lost much +of its poetry and romance. The stream flows clear as in the poet's +time, but the solitude he loved so well is invaded. Of his garden not a +trace remains. The perpetually whirring wheels of a water-mill, the +clatter of washerwomen beating clothes on the bank, now drown the +murmur of the waves, whilst at every turn the traveller is beset by +vendors of immortelles and photographs. Truth to tell, an element of +vulgarity has found its way to this once ideal spot! But it requires no +very vivid imagination to transport ourselves to the Eden described so +musically in Petrarch's letters; and close at the doors of the +hermitage he has rendered immortal lies scenery that might well recall +his native Italy. All this is vividly portrayed in the pages of Arthur +Young, who was more fascinated by the scenery of Vaucluse than either +myself or my companion. + +'And what was the fountain like?' I asked, when, after a quarter of an +hour, she returned. + +This was her account: + +'Following the hot and dusty path, beset all the way with children +selling wild-flowers and dried grasses-it seems providential that they +don't all have sunstroke under this merciless sun-we at last reach a +semicircle of rocks, a miniature stone bay, slanting slippery rocks +leading down to the midst, covered, as my little guide said, in winter +by water. From under these rocks burst the Sorgues-not a very tiny +river at its first start-and flows into a dark pool of by no means +clear water. Indeed, I should say it looked slightly scummy. On the +only ledge of rock above, with soil enough for vegetation, is a bright +spot of green, covered with the sweet-scented flower-a plant of the +good King Henry tribe, which we had been pestered to buy all the way +from the inn. This little patch looked so inaccessible that I think the +children must find the plant elsewhere. + +'It is well,' sighed my friend, 'that Petrarch cannot see his beloved +village and river; for although the Sorgues is still limpid and +beautiful when flowing over the mossy rocks, what with guides, +tourists, and paper-mills, the place is vulgarized by people who +probably never read a line of the great poet of ideal love in their +lives, and never will.' [Footnote: + + 'The love from Petrarch's urn, + A quenchless lamp by which the heart + Sees things unearthly.' + SHELLEY.] + +If the outward drive amid orchards of peach and fig trees, vineyard and +cypress, conjures up a vision of the East, the return journey will give +some idea of the great olive-strewn plain of the Spanish Vega. + +Far as the eye can reach, nothing is seen but one continuous sweep of +country covered with the silvery-green olive. Beyond in a northerly +direction the vast grandiose outline of Mont Ventoux shows an opaline +hue, its deep violet tints being subdued in the paling afternoon light. +All the tones in the picture are uniform and subdued, but none can be +fairer, more harmonious, no spectacle more impressive, than the +delicate sea-green foliage of myriads of olive-trees--plumage were the +apter word--one unbroken sheeny wave from end to end of the immense +horizon. + +That the half may be better than the whole in travel is an axiom +verified every day. Was it worth while to incur a sunstroke for the +sake of seeing Petrarch's fountain--nearly dry, moreover, at such +seasons of the year? Far better to drive home without headache, and be +able thoroughly to enjoy such compensation for what we could not see. + +After the tomb of John Stuart Mill, Petrarch's Vaucluse; after +Petrarch's Vaucluse, the palace of the popes. + +But the sight of torture-chambers and horrid underground prisons is not +inviting; the souvenirs here awakened are anything but attractive. The +palace of the anti-popes, moreover, is turned into a caserne. I was +content to pass it by. Does not Mr. Symonds relate, in his history of +the Italian Renaissance, how a certain pope vivisected little children +in the hope of prolonging his own infamous existence? In other words, +the pope believed in the doctrine of transfusion of blood, and hapless +little lads were bribed into undergoing the operation of blood-letting +in order that the veins of the pontiff should be thereby revivified. + +The victims received the promised money and died, but I refer readers +to Mr. Symonds' work for the story--as horrible as any in the horrible +history of the sovereigns of the Vatican. Doubtless the walls of this +outwardly imposing papal palace here could tell others as ghastly. I +had not the slightest inclination to cross the threshold. + +At Avignon we made inquiries right and left as to the best means of +reaching the Causses. Nobody had so much as heard of the name. One +individual thus interrogated repeated after me: + +'L'Écosse, l'Écosse? Mon Dieu! je n'en sais absolument rien.' + +He thought we were asking the directest road to Scotland--a strangely +random question for two Englishwomen to make, surely, in the South of +France! + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +LE VIGAN. + + +Nîmes in August is about as hot as Cairo in May, which certainly is +saying a good deal. In front of the pleasant Hôtel de Luxembourg are +fountains and gardens, bright with oleanders and pomegranates; and the +town is open and airy, but the heat is very oppressive. The unremitting +precautions taken to keep out the sun show what is expected in +summer-time. The rooms are not only protected by shutters, but by +Venetian blinds as well, and are kept in semi-darkness during the +greater portion of the day. How the business of daily life can be +carried on in this perpetually enforced twilight I am unable to say. +Whether or no the majority of the townsfolk have acquired by sheer +force of habit the faculty of seeing in the dark, or contrive to +transact all obligatory affairs in the cool of the evening, when for a +brief moment shutters are thrown open and blinds drawn, is a mystery. + +I have no intention of describing Nîmes--a city, perhaps, as familiar +to my country-people as any in France; and, indeed, time only permitted +of a glance at the beautiful Roman baths, a quite fairy-like scene, the +exquisite little Greek temple, [Footnote: Colbert wished to move this +lovely little temple to Versailles, bit by bit, and the Cardinal +Alberoni demanded that it should be encased in gold.] known under the +name of the Maison Carrée, and the amphitheatre. All these have been +well and amply described for tourists elsewhere; also the lovely group +of Pradier adorning the principal fountain of the town--a modern +chef-d'oeuvre that may well figure amid so many gems of classic art. The +most hurried traveller will, of course, visit one and all. + +The modern aspect of Nîmes is worthy of note. + +Distinguished Frenchmen--or, for the matter of that, Frenchwomen--may +count with mathematical certainty upon the compensation of earthly +ills: they are sure of their statue after death. + +Nîmes, not behindhand in this appreciative spirit, has recently +conferred such honours upon two illustrious sons--Reboul, the artisan +poet; and Paul Soleillet, the gallant African explorer. Both monuments +are well worth seeing, and both men deserved to be so remembered. + +One-fourth of the inhabitants of Nîmes are Protestant; but a true +spirit of toleration was very slow to make itself felt there. In 1876, +for the first time, 'Les Huguenots' was given at the opera-house. +Hitherto the experiment had been considered risky. + +It is strange that the inroads of the phylloxera should have any +influence upon the movements of religious bodies, but so it is. +Narbonne, in the neighbouring department, has lately lost its +Protestant population, most of whom were wine-growers or +wine-merchants, ruined by the terrible vine-pest. So complete was the +exodus that the ministrations of a pastor were no longer needed. These +facts I had from the then _désoeuvré_ pastor himself, who was appointed +to the cure of souls in the little village of St. Georges de Didonne, +at the mouth of the Gironde, during my stay there two years ago. + +Thankful as the visitor may feel to get away from Nîmes in the +dog-days, it should certainly be visited then, otherwise we lose that +impression of the South--that warm glow of colour and Oriental languor +so new and striking in Northern eyes. For ourselves, we would willingly +have lingered days--nay, weeks--in the noble Roman city, but for the +heat and our feverish desire to reach that cool, breezy Roof of France, +so near, yet so apparently difficult to reach; in fact, the nearer we +approached our destination, the more unattainable it appeared. No more +at Nîmes than at Avignon could we get an inkling of information as to +the best means of reaching the Causses. + +We are but fairly off on our way to Le Vigan when we find a welcome +change in the atmosphere. The air is cooler, the heavens show +alternating cloud and sky; we feel able to breathe. Past olive grounds +and mulberry plantations, ancient towns cresting the hill-tops, +cheerful farmsteads dotted here and there--these are the pictures +descried from the railway. It was hard to pass Tarascon without +stopping, but the experience of last year was fresh in my memory. If we +lingered at every interesting place on the way, we should find the Roof +of France embedded in snow. There was nothing to be done but, in +policeman's language, 'move on.' Some of the little towns passed on the +way are very old and curious, but night closed in long ere we reached +our destination. + +I had heard nothing in favour of Le Vigan. The hotel was described to +us as a fair auberge. The very place was marked down in my itinerary +simply because it seemed impossible to reach the region we were bound +for from any other starting-point. At least, the two other alternatives +had drawbacks: we must either make a circuitous railway journey round +to Mende, or a still longer détour by way of Millau. + +Having therefore expected literally nothing either in the way of +accommodation or surroundings, what was our satisfaction next day to +wake up and find ourselves in quite delightful quarters, amid charming +scenery! Our hotel, Des Voyageurs, is as unlike the luxurious barracks +of Swiss resorts as can be. An ancient, picturesque, straggling house, +brick-floored throughout, with spacious rooms, large alcoves, outer +galleries and balconies facing the green hills, it is just the place to +settle in for a summer holiday. On the low walls of the open corridor +outside our rooms are pots of brilliant geraniums and roses; beyond the +immediate premises of the hotel is a well-kept fruit and flower garden; +everywhere we see bright blossoms and verdure, whilst the low spurs of +the Cévennes, here soft green undulations, frame in the picture. + +The weather is now that of an English summer, with alternating clouds +and sunshine and a fresh breeze. + +The people are no less winning than their entourage. Our host, a +septuagenarian of the old-fashioned school, in his youth was cook to +Louis Philippe, and has carried with him to this remote spot all the +polish and urbanity of the court. Aristocratic as he was in manner, and +evidently a man of substance, as behoved a royal cook to be, he yet +exercised supervision in the kitchen, not only giving instructions, but +inspecting saucepans, to see that the acme of cleanliness was arrived +at. + +For what we may therefore call a royal cuisine, besides excellent +accommodation, we were charged the modest sum of seven francs per diem +each. Madame la patrone was no less dignified in manner than her +husband, and from the first took me into her confidence. + +She told me that the prosperity of their old age had just been saddened +by the death of their only child--the hope of hopes, the joy of joys. +No one remained to inherit their good name and little fortune. + +'And a young girl so carefully brought up, so well educated and +amiable, so useful in the house! Voyez-vous, madame, ces choses sont +trop tristes,' she said with tears; and what could we say to comfort +her? + +To attend upon us we had a delightful peasant woman, neat, clean, +sturdy, unlettered; yet very intelligent, and full of interest in +English inventions and English ways. What a treasure such a woman would +be at home! but for the hindrance of husband and children, we should +have felt sorely tempted to bring her away with us. Then there was a +tall, handsome fellow, a man of all work, in the establishment, who +would rap at my door at all hours of the day with two enormous jugs of +boiling water. I required a considerable supply of hot water early in +the morning wherewith to fill my portable indiarubber bath--a perpetual +source of amusement in the Lozère-and he seemed to think that a warm +bath, like a cigarette or a petit verre, was a luxury to be indulged in +at all hours of the day. + +I would be absorbed in the study of maps and geographies when a +thundering rat-tat-tat would make me start from my seat, and, lo! on +opening the door, there stood the tall, soldierly, well-favoured +François, holding in each hand a huge steaming jug filled to the brim, +his handsome face beaming with satisfaction at having thus anticipated +my wishes. + +He evidently thought, too, that anyone with an appetite so unreasonable +in the matter of hot water must have innumerable wants equally +unreasonable. So quite unexpectedly, I believe whenever he had a spare +moment, he would knock at our door and stand there, stock-still, +awaiting commands. + +Seductive as is Le Vigan by virtue of site and surroundings, I am sorry +to have to say that the town is badly kept. Its ædiles are terribly +wanting in a sense of what is due to public health and enjoyment. The +streets look as if they were never cleaned from January to December, +although there is an abundant supply of water. Sanitation is for the +most part woefully disregarded, and the little that is needed to make +the place wholesome and attractive is left unattempted. What distressed +my companion more than the neglected aspect of the streets was the +sight of so many apparently uncared-for, ill-fed cats and dogs. As a +rule, French people are kind to their domestic pets, but the +bare-ribbed cats and their kittens here told a different story. +Fortunately, when sketching just outside the town one day, the curé +came up and entered into conversation with the sketchers. Here was an +opportunity not to be neglected, and it was eagerly seized upon. + +'Do, M. le Curé,' pleaded the English lady, after drawing his attention +to the destitute condition of many four-footed parishioners, 'speak to +your people, and make them see how wrong it is thus to rear cats and +dogs, and leave them to starve.' + +The benevolent old man promised to do his best, reminding me of the +different response made to a similar appeal by a Breton priest. + +I was once so shocked at the cruel treatment of calves at a country +fair that I boldly stopped the curé in the middle of the road, and +entreated him to preach against such wickedness. + +'Madame' was his reply, 'ce n'est pas un têché' (it is no sin); +meaning, I suppose, that diabolical cruelty to animals did not come +under the head of offences against the Church. + +It may be a consolation to many readers to know that the Loi Grammont +now prohibits the misdeeds ignored by so-called ministers of religion +in France; and it is a law, if not often, occasionally enforced with +little ceremony. At Clermont-Ferrand, a few weeks later, a cab-driver +was carried off to prison before our eyes for having brutally beaten +his fallen horse. + +Throughout the remainder of this journey I am bound to say that we were +struck with the kindness and gentleness of our drivers to their horses. +Any sign of ill-temper or skittishness was always coaxed away, an angry +word or blow never being resorted to. + +As I have said, Le Vigan might easily be made a charming halting-place +for tourists in these regions. The pulling down of a few ancient, +ill-favoured streets, a wholesale cleaning and white-washing, a general +reparation of the town from end to end, open spaces utilized as public +gardens--all this might be done at half the expense of the +supernumerary statues now being raised all over France. Sanitation +first, statues afterwards, should be the maxim of its préfets and +maires in these remote and behindhand regions. Our hotel, it must be +added, is clean and well kept, and even furnished with the luxury of +baths. A few more royal cooks at the head of French country inns, and +we should soon find cosmopolitan luxuries in out-of-the-way corners. + +But such an epithet will not long apply to our favourite town. A +railway now in course of construction will soon link it to Millau, on +the Toulouse line, thus rendering it accessible from all south-westerly +points. Who knows? This quaint, old-fashioned, thoroughly French hotel +may be replaced a few years hence by some huge fashionable barracks, in +which there will be a perpetual come and go of tourists furnished with +return tickets, including the Causses, the gorges of the Tarn and +Montpellier le Vieux. + +An English pedestrian or cyclist or two have, I believe, found their +way hither, but no lady tourists. + +Poorly off in matters of sanitation, Le Vigan could not, nevertheless, +afford to lose its one statue to its one hero. We all know the story of +the gallant young Chevalier d'Assas, captain of an Auvergnat regiment, +and of his no less heroic companion, the Sergeant Dubois: how when +reconnoitring at night in the forest near Closter-camp, their men in +ambush behind them, they came suddenly upon the foe. A dozen bayonets +were pointed at their breasts with the whisper, 'Silence or death!' + +The pair in a breath gave the warning: 'The enemy! Fire!' and fell side +by side, pierced with the bullets alike of friend and foe. + +This bronze statue is the only monument the town can boast of, but it +possesses a compensation for many monuments--I allude to its noble +grove of venerable chestnuts. Well-planted boulevards of plane-trees +lead to what appears a bit of primeval forest--an assemblage of ancient +trees, their knotted, hoary trunks each in girth huge as a windmill, in +striking contrast to the bright foliage and abundant fruit. Nothing can +be more weird and fantastic than these broken, corrugated stems, +battered by storm, worn out by time, apparently dropping to pieces, yet +at the root full of vitality, sending forth the most luxuriant harvest, +the freshest, youthfullest leafage: the whole--the gray old world +below, the fairy-like greenery above--making a glorious scene under the +bright blue sky. May not this chestnut grove symbolize the phenomenal +richness and activity of highly-endowed natures in old age--the +Goethes, the Titians, the Voltaires? From these pleasant suburbs, +little paths wind invitingly upward among the hills, planted on all +sides with the vine, and although the summer is already so far +advanced, wild-flowers abound. What a paradise this would be for the +botanist in spring, or for the portrait painter! The good looks of the +people, their rich colouring, fine stature, and dignified bearing, +strike us ever with a sense of novelty. + +How many makable places, if I may coin such a word, still remain in +France--sweet spots, Cinderellas of the natural world, only awaiting +the fairy godmother to turn them into princesses, courted by wealth and +fashion. Many a nook in the environs of Le Vigan doubtless answers to +this description. I will only describe one, Cauvalet, an inland +watering-place sadly in need of enterprise and patronage. + +The 'Établissement des Bains' stands in a nest of greenery within ten +minutes' drive of the town; its mineral waters, strongly impregnated +with sulphur, are said to be very efficacious in rheumatic affections. +We found a few visitors lounging in the gardens; with proper +accommodation, and under good management, the place might doubtless +become a miniature Vals. The same remark might be applied to many other +equally favoured spots I have met with in my French travels. It is a +consolation to remember that, sooner or later, their time must come. So +enormously has the habit of travelling increased of late years among +French people, that France itself will erelong prove too narrow for its +own tourists, to say nothing of foreigners. + +Our good hosts were very anxious that we should see everything. +Accordingly we were escorted to one of the numerous silk factories in +the town. Here, as at Vic-sur-Cère the year before, and in places to be +described later on, we were rather treated as guests in a country house +than Nos. 1 and 2 of an ordinary hotel. Everybody--master, mistress, +and servants--wanted to do the honours of their native place for us, +and this without any thought of interest or advantage. It was the good, +invaluable, middle-aged chambermaid who, out of her own head and on her +own account, carried us off to see the silk factory. The fact of two +English ladies having come so far to see the country evidently +impressed her wonderfully. + +'Ah!' she sighed cheerfully, 'were it not for my good man and my +demoiselles' (her daughters), 'how pleased I should be to return with +you and see l'Angleterre!' and as she went along, having dressed +herself in her Sunday's best for the occasion, she stopped in high glee +to tell chance-met friends and neighbours that we were two Englishwomen +come across the sea 'pour s'instruire'--for self-instruction. The fact +of having crossed that tiny strip of sea ever impresses French country +folk. Had we reached France by land, no matter the distance--say, from +St. Petersburg--the exploit would not appear half so striking to them. + +The work-room of a silk factory affords a curious spectacle. + +At long narrow tables, stretched from end to end of the workshop, sit +rows of girls manipulating in bowls of hot water the cocoons--in +Gibbon's phrase, 'the golden tombs whence a worm emerges in the form of +a butterfly'--carefully disengaging the almost imperceptible film of +silk therein concealed, transferring it to the spinning-wheel, where it +is spun into what looks like a thread of solid gold. Throughout the +vast atelier hundreds of shuttles are swiftly plied, and on first +entering the eye is dazzled with the brilliance of these broad bands of +silk, bright, lustrous, metallic, as if of solid gold. This flash of +gold is the only brightness in the place, otherwise dull and monotonous. + +Gibbon gives a splendid page on the 'education of silkworms,' once +considered as the labour of queens, and shows impatience with the +learned Salmasius, who also wrote on the subject, because, unlike +himself, he did not know everything. He tells us how two Persian monks, +long resident in China, amid their pious occupations viewed with a +curious eye the manufacture of silk; how they made the long journey to +Constantinople, imparting their knowledge of the silkworm and its +strictly guarded culture to the great Justinian; finally, how a second +time they entered China, 'deceived a jealous people by concealing the +eggs of the silkworm in a hollow cane, and returned in triumph with the +spoils of the East.' 'I am not insensible of the benefits of an elegant +luxury,' adds the historian, 'yet I reflect with some pain that if the +importers of silk had introduced the art of printing, already practised +by the Chinese, the comedies of Menander and the entire decade of Livy +would have been perpetuated in the sixth century.' + +Alas! a pound of silk is no longer worth twelve ounces of gold, as the +Emperor Aurelian complained; and the education of the silkworm, instead +of being the labour of queens, is far from a remunerative occupation. + +The hours in these factories are terribly long--fifteen--two of which +are, however, allowed for meals. The wages, on the other hand, contrast +favourably with those of many of our own factories in which women are +chiefly employed. About fifteenpence a day is the average pay, the +ateliers being always closed on Sundays. Several causes have brought +about a temporary depression of the French silk trade. Just as cheap +Chinese and Japanese straw-plaits have paralyzed our home industry of +hand-plaited straw in Bedfordshire, so cheap Oriental silks have, for a +time at least, done much to supplant the more solid, richer, and more +brilliant Lyons manufacture. + +Again, the silkworm industry, not only in France, but in other +countries, was some years back threatened with an enemy as ruthless as +the phylloxera. It is interesting to learn that here science has come +to aid with a simple but effectual remedy, which it is said has +benefited French industry to the extent of the Prussian war indemnity, +viz., four hundred million sterling (five milliards of francs). The +silkworm-rearers are now taught to breed from healthy moths only. Girls +and women are employed in examining the bodies of the moths with +microscopes. If the diseased corpuscles are found, the eggs are +discarded. + +Thus, by a simple method of artificial selection, the silkworm industry +has been rescued from what threatened to be a collapse. + +Of course, one consequence of these fluctuations in rural industries is +a universal migration into the towns, and consequent diminution of +population in country places. The towns gain, but the villages lose. We +find Le Vigan a little centre of increasing commercial activity, and +the same may be averred of the secondary towns of this department, this +prosperity having originally a different source. + +The Protestant communities of France, formerly deprived, like the Jews, +of civil and political rights, threw heart and soul into industrial +pursuits. Wherever they settled they founded +manufactures--cotton-mills, silk-factories, manufactures of woollen +stuffs--many of which have flourished in these small towns on the +outskirts of the Cévennes till this day. + +The Gard is foremost of all other departments in the matter of +silk-worm rearing, the Ardèche alone surpassing it in the number of +silk-factories. In all the villages around Le Vigan are small silk-worm +farms, the peasants rearing them on their own account, and selling them +to the manufacturers. The curious on this subject will everywhere be +cordially received, and gain any information they may require. At +least, such was our own experience. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +NANT (AVEYRON). + + +All this time Le Vigan was to us as Capua to Hannibal's +soldiers--Circe's charmed cup held to the lips of Odysseus. + +We ought not to have stayed there an unnecessary hour. We should have +continued our journey at once. On and on we lingered, nevertheless, and +when at last we braced ourselves up for an effort, the terrible truth +was broken to us. Instead of being nearer to the goal of our wishes, we +had come out of the way, and were indeed getting farther and farther +from that mysterious, so eagerly longed-for region, the terribly +unattainable Causses. Our project at last began to wear the look of a +nightmare, a harassing, feverish dream. We seemed to be fascinated +hither and thither by an ignis fatuus, enticed into quagmires and +quicksands by an altogether illusive, mocking, malicious +Will-o'-the-wisp. + +I was painfully reminded of what had been a pleasing puzzle in childish +days: the maze at Needham Market, famous throughout Suffolk, and +familiar to all Suffolk-bred folk. This is a wonderfully constructed +shrubbery or thicket, cut into numerous little circular and +semicircular paths, so contrived that the most ingenious are caught +like flies in a spider's trap. Round and round, backwards and forwards, +in and out, scuttle the uninitiated, only to find themselves at the +precise point whence they had started hours before. The conviction of +being thus foiled in my purpose, and for the second time, weighed upon +my spirits. My companion also became somewhat dejected. The superb +weather might forsake us. September was at hand. It really seemed as if +we were doomed to return to our dogs and cats at Hastings without +having reached the Roof of France after all. + +True, a matter of eighty miles only divided us from our destination, +but surely the most impracticable eighty miles out of Arabia Petræa! We +were bound for a certain little town called St. Énimie, but between us +and St. Énimie stretched a barrier, insurmountable as Dante's fog +isolating Purgatory from Paradise, or as the black river separating +Pluto's domain from the region of light. We seemed as far off the +Causses as Christian from the heavenly Jerusalem when imprisoned in +Castle Doubting, or as the Israelites from Canaan when in the +wilderness of Zin. + +To reach St. Énimie, then, meant two long days' drive, _i.e._, from six +a.m. to perhaps eight p.m., in the lightest, which stands for the most +uncomfortable, vehicle, across a country the greater part of which is +as savage as Dartmoor. Our first halting-place would be Meyrueis, and +between Le Vigan and Meyrueis relays could be had, but at that point +civilization ended. The second day's journey must lie through a +treeless, waterless, uninhabited desert; in other words, as a glance at +the map will show, we must traverse the Causse Méjean itself. + +Romantic as this expedition sounded, our host, the royal cook, shook +his head at the proposal. Suppose we were overtaken by a storm in that +wilderness? Suppose any accident happened to horses or harness? +Suppose---- + +'In fact,' he said, 'there is nothing for these ladies to do but make +the round to Mende by railway.' + +'To Mende!' I cried aghast. 'Back to Nîmes, back to heaven knows where! +Never! Get to St. Énimie we can, we will, we must, without making the +round by railway to Mende.' + +After a good deal of somewhat painful excitement, a rueful inspection +of the only kind of vehicle that was practicable on the stony, uphill +Causse, the Helvellyn we wanted to climb, I gave in. Yes, it was out of +the question to drive for fourteen hours at a stretch, seated on such a +knifeboard. I had made a blunder in thinking eighty miles only eighty +miles under any circumstances. Crestfallen, and having in mind the +dictum of the great Lessing: 'Kein mensch muss müssen,' I again took in +hand maps and guidebooks. At this stage of affairs came to aid the +voiturier who had gallantly proposed to drive us to the top of the +Lozérien Helvellyn, provided we could sit on a knifeboard. He was one +of the handsomest men we saw in these parts, which is saying a good +deal. Tall, well-made, dignified, with superb features and rich +colouring, it seemed a thousand pities he should be only a carriage +proprietor in this out-of-the-way spot. He appeared, however, as every +other good-looking person does here, altogether unconscious of his +magnificent physique and striking features. What occupied him much more +was evidently his business, and the duty incumbent upon him to make +things pleasant to strangers. + +'If these ladies,' he said in country fashion, thus addressing +ourselves--if these ladies will let me drive them to Millau, they can +have my most comfortable carriage, as the roads are excellent. They can +sleep at a good auberge on the way. From Millau it is only five hours +by railway to Mende, and from Mende only a four hours' drive to St. +Énimie.' + +We joyfully hailed the proposal. It seemed a roundabout way to St. +Énimie, but it did seem a way; and, at any rate, if we were going back, +we were not going back to the precise point from which we had started. + +My companion still persisted in the melancholy conviction that we +should never get to the Causses, but I comforted her with the +observation that if we did not get to the Causses, we should at all +events get somewhere. Before starting, our host presented us with a +letter of introduction to the master of the auberge at our +halting-place for the night--the little village of Nant, half-way +between Le Vigan and Millau. + +'It is only an auberge,' he said apologetically; 'you must not expect +much. But the patron is a friend of mine; he will do his very best for +you after what I have written.' + +The letter of introduction being, of course, an open one, we read it. +'Permit me to commend to your attentive care,' wrote the royal cook, +'two respectable ladies----' Here amusement got the better of +curiosity; we laid down the missive and had a hearty laugh over what +seemed at best a strange, almost ludicrous, compliment. Surely he might +have substituted an adjective of a more flattering nature, accorded us +some more winning attribute--charming, amiable, learned. Could we lay +claim to none of these? + +I summed up the matter in our favour, after all. Such a testimony +coming from a courtier, as the chef of a king's cuisine must be called, +was, perhaps, the very highest he felt able to give; and to be +respectable means more than meets the ear. + +Does not La Bruyère say: 'Un homme de bien est respectable par lui-même +et indépendamment de tous les dehors'? He had, perhaps, that axiom in +his mind. + +Having sent on our four big boxes to Millau by diligence, we set off +for the first stage of our journey. The weather was perfect, and I +cannot at any time reconcile my experiences of French weather with +those of another ardent explorer of France a hundred years ago. +'Amusements,' wrote Arthur Young from the North of France in September, +1787, 'in truth, ought to be taken within doors, for in such a climate +none are to be depended on without; the rain that has fallen here is +hardly credible. I have, for five-and-twenty years past, remarked in +England that I never was prevented by rain from taking a walk every +day, with going out while it actually rains; it may fall heavily for +many hours, but a person who watches an opportunity gets a walk or a +ride. Since I have been at Liancourt we have had three days in +succession of such incessantly heavy rain that I could not go a hundred +yards from the house without danger of being quite wet. For ten days +more rain fell here, I am confident, had there been a gauge to measure +it, than ever fell in England in thirty.' + +We are accustomed to reverse this comparison, and I should say that the +years 1787-88-89, during which the Suffolk squire journeyed through the +country on horseback, must have been revolutionary in a meteorological +as well as a political sense. I have now made travels and sojourns in +various parts of France during fifteen years, and I should say to all +who want sunshine for their holiday trip, go to France for it. + +Upon this, as upon the occasion of former expeditions, a rainy day +never came except when a spell of bad weather was an unmitigated boon, +enforcing rest, and giving leisure for the utilization of daily +experiences. + +On the whole, the route now decided upon has much to recommend it, +especially to travellers unfit for excessive fatigue. The drive from Le +Vigan to Millau is thus divided into two easy stages, and the scenery +for the greater part of the way is diversified and interesting. + +Gradually winding upwards from the green hills surrounding our +favourite little town, its bright river, the Arre, playing +hide-and-seek as we go, we take a lonely road cut around barren, rocky +slopes covered with stunted foliage, here and there tiny enclosures of +corn crop or garden perched aloft. + +The charm of this drive consists in the sharp contrasts presented at +unexpected turns. Now we are in a sweet, sunbright, sheltered valley, +where all is verdure and luxuriance. At every door are pink and white +oleanders in full bloom, in every garden peach-trees showing their +rich, ruby-coloured fruit--the handsome-leaved mulberry, the shining +olive, with lovely little chestnut-woods on the heights around. Now we +seem in a wholly different latitude. The vegetation and aspect of the +country are transformed. Instead of the vine, the peach, and the olive, +we are in a region of scant fruitage, and only the hardiest crops, +apple orchards sparsely mingled with fields of oats and rye. And yet +again we seem to be traversing a Scotch or Yorkshire moor--so vast and +lonely the heather-clad wastes, so bleak and wild the heavens. + +But every zone has its wild-flowers. As we go on, our eyes rest upon +white salvias, the pretty Deptford pink, wild lavender, several species +of broom and ferns in abundance. The wild fig-tree grows here, and the +huge boulders are tapestried with box and bilberry. One rare lovely +flower I must especially mention--the exquisite, large-leaved blue flax +(the Linum perenne), that shone like a star amid the rest. + +It is Sunday, and as we pass the village of Arre in its charming +valley, we meet streams of country folks dressed in their best, +enjoying a walk. No one was afield. Here, as in most other parts of +rural France, Sunday is regarded strictly as a day of rest. + +After a long climb upwards, our road cut through the rock being a grand +piece of engineering, we come upon the works of a handsome railway +viaduct now in construction. This line, which, when finished, will +connect Le Vigan with Millau and Albi, will be an immense boon to the +inhabitants--one of the numerous iron roads laid by the Republican +Government in what had hitherto been forgotten parts of France. Close +to these works a magnificent cascade is seen, a sheet of glistening +white spray pouring down the dark, precipitous escarpment. + +Hereabouts the barren, stony, wilderness-like country betokens the +region of the Causses. We are all this time winding round the rampart +like walls of the great Causse de Larzac, which stretches from Le Vigan +to Millau, rising to a height of 2,624 feet above the sea-level, and +covering an area of nearly a hundred square miles. This Causse affords +some interesting facts for evolutionists. The aridity, the absolutely +waterless condition of the Larzac, has evolved a race of non-drinking +animals. The sheep browsing the fragrant herbs of these plateaux have +altogether unlearned the habit of drinking, whilst the cows drink very +little. The much-esteemed Roquefort cheese is made from ewes' milk, the +non-drinking ewes of the Larzac. Is the peculiar flavour of the cheese +due to this non-drinking habit? + +The desert-like tracts below this 'Table de pierre,' as M. Réclus calls +it, are alternated with very fairly cultivated farms. We see rye, oats, +clover, and hay in abundance, with corn ready for garnering. + +Passing St. Jean de Bruel, where all the inhabitants have turned out to +attend a neighbour's funeral, we wind down amid chestnut woods and +pastures into a lovely little valley, with the river Dourbie, bluest of +the blue, gliding through the midst. Beyond stream and meadows rise +hills crested with Scotch fir, their slopes luxuriant with buck-wheat, +maize, and other crops--here and there the rich brown loam already +ploughed up for autumn sowing. Well-dressed people, well-kept roads, +neat houses, suggested peace and frugal plenty. + +What a contrast did the little village of Nant present to Le Vigan! It +was like the apparition of an exquisitely-dressed, pretty girl, after +that of a slatternly beauty. Nant, 'proprette,' airy, well cared for, +wholesome; Le Vigan, dirty, draggle-tailed, neglected, yet in itself +possessed of quite as many natural attractions. We had been led to +expect a mere country auberge, decent shelter, no more--perhaps even +two-curtained, alcoved beds in a common sleeping-room! What was our +astonishment to find quite ideal rustic accommodation--quarters, +indeed, inviting on their own account a lengthy stay! + +A winding stone staircase led from the street to the travellers' +quarters. Kitchen, salle-à-manger and bedrooms were all spick and span, +cool and quiet; our rooms newly furnished with beds as luxurious as +those of the Grand Hotel in Paris. Marble-topped washstands and +newly-tiled floors opened on to an outer corridor, the low walls of +which were set with roses and geraniums as in Italy. Below was a +poultry-yard. No other noise could disturb us but the cackling of hens +and the quacking of ducks. On the same floor was a dining-room and the +kitchen, but so far removed from us that we were as private as in a +suite of rooms at the celebrated Hôtel Bristol. + +Nant is a quite delightful townling; we only wished we could stay there +for weeks. It is a very ancient place, but so far modernized as to be +clean and pleasant. The quaint, stone-covered arcades and bits of +mediæval architecture invite the artist; none, however, comes! + +The sky-blue Dourbie runs amid green banks below the gray peak, rising +sheer above the town; around the congeries of old-world houses are +farms, gardens and meadows, little fields being at right angles with +the streets. In the large, open market-place, where fairs are held, +just outside the town, is a curious sight. The corn is gathered in, and +hither all the farmers round about have brought their wheat to be +threshed out by water-power. + +Next morning, by half-past eight, our landlady fetched me to see some +farms. She was a delicate, even sickly-looking little woman, although +the mother of fine, healthful children, and very intelligent and +well-mannered. Without showing any inquisitiveness as to my object, she +at once readily acceded to my request that she should accompany me on a +round of inspection. First of all, however, and as, it seemed, a matter +of course, she carried me off to see the Bonnes Soeurs--in other words, +the nuns, often such important personages in rural places. + +I had already seen so much of nuns, nunneries and the like, that I +sorely begrudged the time thus spent. Good manners forbade a demur. +There was nothing to do but to feign some slight interest in the +schoolrooms, dormitories, playground, chapel--facsimiles, as were the +nuns themselves, of what I had seen dozens of times before. + +But one thing these nuns had to show I had never seen before. I allude +to their herbarium. The mother superior, so it seems, was a capital +herbalist and doctor, consulted in case of sickness by all the +country-folks for miles round, and, in order to supply her +pharmacopoeia, had yearly collections made of all the medicinal plants +in which the neighbourhood abounds. Here in a drying chamber, exposed +to air and sun, were stores of wild lavender for sweetening the linen +presses; mallows, elder flowers, gentian, leaves of the red vine, +poppies, and many others used in medicine. What I was most interested +in was the vast stores of the so-called thé des Alpes, a little plant +of the sage tribe, of which I had heard at Gap, in the Hautes Alpes. +The country-people in that part of France, as in the Aveyron, use this +little plant largely as a febrifugal infusion; they also drink it as +tea. My landlady showed me great bundles of it that she had dried for +household use. The thought struck me, as I surveyed the mother +superior's herbarium--here is an excellent hint for the projectors of +home colonies. Surely, if poor people are to be made self-supporting in +one sense, they should be made so in all. + +Why should not every home colony--for the matter of that, every +isolated village--have its medicine-chest of simple field remedies? The +originators of home colonies have only to translate that excellent +little sixpenny work, 'Les Rémèdes de Campagne,' written by Dr. +Saffray, and published by Hachette, and put it into the hands of these +backwoodsmen of the old country. The least intelligent would soon learn +to cure common ailments by the use of remedies ever at their doors, and +not costing a penny. Having taken leave of the nuns, madame la patrone +next conducted me to the country on the other side of the town, +stopping to chat with this acquaintance and that. I suppose lady +tourists are wholly unknown in these parts, for these good people, +having glanced at me, said to madame: + +'A relation, I suppose, and you are showing her about?' + +All seemed pleased to learn that I was an Englishwoman come to see +their corner of the world. + +We then paid a visit to some elderly farming-folks, friends of hers, +just outside the town. We found the farmer and his wife at home, and +both received us very cordially. The old man had a shrewd, pleasant +face, and, without any ado or ceremony, bade me sit down beside him +whilst he finished his morning soup. I chatted to him of my numerous +travels in various parts of France, and after listening attentively for +some time, he said: + +'You must be finely rich' (joliment riche) 'to travel as you do.' + +'Not at all,' said I; 'my fortune is my pen. I see all that I can, and, +on my return to England, write a book for the amusement and instruction +of others, which more than covers the expense of my journey.' + +The old man's eyes twinkled; he touched his forehead, and then said +something to his wife in patois. I laughingly begged him to translate +the remark, which he did with a smile. + +'I said to my wife that you must have a good head' (une bien forte +tête) 'to do that.' + +'Le bon Dieu has given me eyes to see and a memory to retain,' said I. +'I have only to look well about me and take note.' + +He paused, and added after a little reflection: + +'Above all, you must talk with learned people.' + +'That is not always necessary,' I replied. 'On the contrary, what +serves my purpose best is to talk with country-folk like yourself, who +can tell me about the details of farming in these parts--prices, crops, +and so on--not with fine ladies and gentlemen, who do not know a turnip +when they see it growing.' + +This observation seemed to gratify him exceedingly. We then talked of +land tenure in France and in England. When I made him understand that +the law of entail still existed in my country, he shook his head +gravely. When I added that the English peasant did not possess an acre +of land, a garden, not even a house or a cow, he looked graver still. + +'Il faut que tout cela change' (All that will have to be changed), he +remarked; and I told him that I fully concurred in the sentiment, and +that a great change of opinion on this subject was taking place in +England. + +His wife, who had meantime listened attentively to our conversation, +now joined in. The fact that we had no conscription seemed to strike +her more than any other piece of information I had as yet given. + +'You English people are very fortunate,' she said. 'Think of what it is +to be a mother, and rear your son to the age of twenty, then to see him +torn from your arms and shot down by a mitrailleuse. War, indeed! Grand +Dieu! the world has seen enough of it.' + +We then had a long talk on farming matters, the old man quite ready to +devote half an hour even at this time of the day to a stranger. Like +many another French peasant of the poorer class, he was the owner of a +house and garden only, his occupation being that of bailiff on the +estate of a large owner. Here, as everywhere else throughout France, a +great diversity may be seen in the matter of land tenure--peasant +properties from five acres upwards, large holdings either let on lease, +as in England, cultivated by their owners, or lastly, as in the present +instance, managed by farm stewards. The system of métayage, or +half-profits, is not in force. + +On five acres, my informant told me, a man with thrift and intelligence +may rear and maintain a family. The crops are very varied, corn, maize, +oats, rye, buckwheat, hay, being the principal. Butter is not made on +any considerable scale, but sheep, pigs, goats, and poultry are reared +in abundance. + +I have mentioned that this old man possessed a house and garden. Rare, +indeed, is it to find a deserving peasant without them in France! But +he let these, meantime occupying the large, rambling old farmhouse, +formerly an abbey, belonging to his employer. When too old to work, he +would, with his little savings, retire to the cottage, from which none +could eject him. + +As will be seen, the agriculture in this part of the Aveyron presents +no special features. What strikes the stranger, as he rambles about the +well-cultivated belt of country immediately around Nant, is the +sobriety, contentment, and independence of the people. All are suitably +and tidily dressed. Of beggary there is not a trace, and if life is +laborious, the sense of independence lightens every burden. + +At present the entire education of girls and that of little boys is in +the hands of the nuns. In spite of every attempt to render popular +education unsectarian throughout France, how long it will be ere the +same mental training is accorded both sexes--ere, to use Gambetta's +noble words, 'our girls and boys are made one by the understanding +before they are made one by the heart'! Is it any wonder that +Boulangism, miracle-seeking, or any other mental aberration, gets the +upper hand in France, so long as young girls are reared by convent-bred +women, and their brothers and lovers-to-be in the school of Littré, +Herbert Spencer, and Darwin? + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +MILLAU (AVEYRON). + + +It is a charming drive from Nant to Millau. Our road winds round the +delicious little valley of the Dourbie, the river ever cerulean blue, +bordered with hay-fields, in which lies the fragrant crop of autumn hay +ready for carting. By the wayside are tall acacias, their green +branches tasselled with dark purple pods, or apple trees, the ripening +fruit within reach of our hands. Little Italian-like towns, surrounded +by ochre-coloured walls, are terraced here and there on the rich +burnt-amber walls, the limestone ridges above and around taking the +form of a long line of rampart or lofty fortress, built and fashioned +by human hands. In contrast to this savagery, we have ever and anon +before our eyes the sweet little river, no sooner lost to sight amid +willow-bordered banks than found again. + +Nervous people should avoid these drives, on account of the steep +precipices, often within a few inches of the horses' heels. Wherever on +the shelves of rock a few square yards of soil are found or can be +laid, are tiny crops of buckwheat, potatoes, and beetroot. The weather +has a southern warmth and brilliance, and in and out the burning-hot +mountain wall on our left large beautiful brown lizards disport +themselves. The road is very solitary. Till within the precincts of +Millau, we meet only a few peasants and two Franciscan brothers. + +The approach to Millau is very pretty. Almond and peach orchards, +vineyards and gardens, form a bright suburban belt. Two rivers, the +Tarn and the Dourbie, water its pleasant valley, whilst over the town +tower lofty rocks in the form of an amphitheatre. Nant may be described +as a little idyll. After it Millau comes disenchantingly by comparison. + +Never was I in such a noisy, roystering, singing, lounging place. There +was no special cause for hilarity; nothing was going on; the business +of daily life seemed to be the making a noise. + +In spite of its pretty entourage, too, the town is not engaging. Its +hot, ill-kept, malodorous streets do not call forth an exploring frame +of mind. The public garden is, however, a delightful promenade, and +the well-known photographer of these regions has his atelier in one of +the most curious old houses to be seen anywhere. + +Climbing a narrow, winding stone stair, we come upon an open court, +with balconies running round each story, carved stone pillars +supporting these; oleanders and pomegranates in pots make the ledges +bright, whilst above the gleaming white walls shines a sky of Oriental +brilliance. The whole interior is animated. Here women sit at their +glove-making, the principal industry of the place, children play, pet +dogs and cats sun themselves; all is sunny, careless, southern life--a +page out of 'Graziella.' + +There are several mediæval façades, and some curious old carved arcades +also; much, indeed, that is sketch worthy, if our artists could be +brought to deem anything worth sketching in France, out of Brittany and +Normandy. + +Millau, once one of the stanchest Protestant communities of the +Cévennes, was quite ruined by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. + +May not French history up to the date of the Revolution be summed up in +a single sentence--one woman created France; another ruined it? The +glorious work of Jeanne d'Arc was for a time wholly undone by the +machinations of that arch enemy of mankind, Madame de Maintenon. We +must travel in the Cévennes, and learn by heart the vicissitudes of +these once-flourishing little Protestant centres to realize the +bloodstained page in French history played by the bigoted adventuress +whose sole ambition was to become Queen of France. + +And how worthy of such a career the last little episode of her court +life! When the old king, a shadow of his former self, lay on his dying +bed, and whispered that his chief consolation in dying was the thought +that she would rejoin him in heaven, Madame de Maintenon made no reply. +She was, indeed, wearied of the task that had been, in her eyes, so +inadequately rewarded--amusing for thirty and odd years a dull, +resourceless, ennuyé and ennuyant husband; and had no desire to see any +more of him, either in this world or the next. + +At present there is but a sprinkling of Protestants in Millau. + +We took train to Mende. It is one of those delightfully slow trains +which enable you to see the scenery in detail, after the leisurely +fashion of Arthur Young, trotting through France on his Suffolk mare. + +Part of the way lies through a romantic bit of country: château-crowned +hills follow each other in succession, every dark crag having its +feudal shell, whilst patchwork crops cover the lower slopes. + +Everywhere vineyards predominate, so persistent the faith of the French +cultivator in the vine, so touching the efforts made to entice it to +grow on French soil. Few and far between are little wall-encompassed +villages perched on the hilltops. + +At Sévérac-le-Château romance culminates in the stern, yellowish-gray +ruin cresting the green heights. A most picturesque little place is +this, seen from the railway. We now leave behind us cornlands and the +vine, and reach the region of pine and fir woods. + +On the railway embankment we see the yellow-horned poppy and the golden +thistle growing in abundance; many another flower, too, as brilliant +brightens the way-a large, handsome broom, several kinds of mullein, +with fern and heather. + +Bright and strongly contrasted are the hues of the +landscape--purply-black the far-off mountains, emerald-green the fields +of rye and clover at their feet. A large portion of the land hereabouts +is mere wilderness; yet the indomitable peasant wrenches up the +boulders, cleans the ground of stones, and turns, inch by inch, the +waste into productive soil. At every turn we are reminded of the dictum +of 'that wise and honest traveller,' Arthur Young: 'The magic of +property turns sands to gold.' + +We are now in the region of the Causses; around us rise the spurs of +Sauveterre and Sévérac. The scenery between Marvejols and Mende is +grand; sombre, deep-green valleys, shut in by wide stretches of +stupendous rocky wall, dark pinewoods, and brown wastes. + +Then evening closes in, and the rest is lost to us. As on my first +visit to Mende, a year ago, I lose the romantic approach to this +wonderfully placed little city. + +The Hôtel Manse, whither we now betake ourselves, is a great +improvement on the other mentioned in my first chapter in matters of +situation, sanitation, and comfort; the people are very civil and +obliging in both. + +Here, however, we are not in the very heart of the stuffy, dirty, +ill-kept town, but on the outskirts, looking on to suburban gardens and +pleasant hills, with plenty of air to breathe. + +Our rooms are so spacious, well-furnished, and clean that once more we +regret we cannot stay for weeks. Such quarters might indeed tempt many +a tourist to idle away a month here. The people are well-mannered, +affable, and strikingly handsome; and if the town requires an advanced +ædileship, no one need see much of it. Abundance of excursions are to +be made from Mende, and the prices of hotels are very moderate. + +At Millau we saw a drunken man, and in the streets of Mende one old +woman came up to us begging an alms. I note these facts as we have so +rarely encountered either drunkards or mendicants on our way. + +Strangers might naturally expect a somewhat low standard of morality in +a department so isolated from the great French highways and social +centres as that of the Lozère. The railway to Mende, as I have before +mentioned, dates from a few years only; up till that time the little +bishopric in the mountains would often be completely shut off from the +outer world by the snow, the only link being the telegraphic wire. +Nevertheless, an exceptional freedom from crime distinguishes the +country, as may be gathered from the following statement in a French +newspaper, dated August 29th, 1888. + +'The opening of the assizes of the Lozère, which should have taken +place on the 3rd of September, will now be unnecessary, the list of +cases being _nil_.' What are called 'white sessions' (assises +blanches), for the matter of that, are of no infrequent occurrence in +the department of the Lozère, eminently an honest one. This is the +second time that 'white sessions' have distinguished it during the +present year. + +As the Lozère is essentially a region of peasant owners, far from the +richest of their class, I commend the fact to the opponents of peasant +property--albeit, I know too well, to small purpose. The people have no +right to the soil in the eyes of these political economists. Whether +the possession of the soil makes them better or happier is wholly +beside the question. Just as the great autocrat Louis XIV, after very +serious reflection on the matter, came to the solemn conclusion that +his subjects had no right to any property whatever, and that the +sovereign was the divinely-ordained owner of everything supposed to +belong to them, so certain writers believe that, according to some +direct Providential arrangement--a second choosing of a special +people--not a Canaan alone, but every inch of Mother Earth, is the +heaven-sent heritage of the superior few. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +FROM MENDE TO ST. ÉNIMIE. + + +So, just upon twelve months later, I once more found myself climbing to +the summit of the lofty plateau between Mende and St. Énimie. + +It was a fortnight earlier in the year, and the weather was perfect; +light clouds that had threatened rain cleared off, mild sunshine +brightened the scene, and the air, although brisk and invigorating, was +by no means cold. Still more enticing now looked the billowy swell of +gold and purple mountains, and the dark cliffs frowning over green +valleys. To-day, too, the exhilarating conviction of fulfilment was +added to that of looking forward. A second time I had reached the +threshold of the long-dreamed-of region of marvels, at last really to +cross it and enter in. + +I was on my way to the Causses at last! More striking and beautiful +than when first seen now seemed the upward drive from Mende--the +beautiful gray cathedral cushioned against the soft green hills, the +cheerful little town in its fertile valley, its wild entourage of +far-stretching waste and barren peak. More musical still sounded in my +ears the purling of the Lot, as unseen it ran between sunny pastures +over its stony bed far below. + +Little I thought, indeed, although of firm intention, when making the +journey so far twelve months all but two weeks ago, that on this 5th of +September, 1888, I should be gazing on the same scene--a scene +reminding me now, as then, of the vast reedy plateau gazed on at Saïda, +dividing the Algerian traveller from the Sahara. + +This time I did not stop to make tea gipsy-wise on the turf in front of +the farmhouse; nor, to my disappointment, did the children run out to +share the contents of my bonbon-box. Not a soul was abroad; an eldritch +solitude reigned everywhere. + +The Causse of Sauveterre is not reached till we have left the farmhouse +and ruined château far behind. From that point the roads diverge, and +we see our own leading to St. Énimie wind like a ribbon till lost to +view in the gray, stony wilderness. + +A considerable portion of the land hereabouts is cultivated. We see +little patches of rye, oats, Indian corn, clover, potatoes, and here +and there a peasant ploughing up the soil with oxen. + +As we proceed, the enormous horizon ever widens; long shadows fleck the +purply-brown and orange-coloured undulations; scattered sparsely are +little flocks of sheep, of a rich burnt-umber-brown, but herbage is +scant and little cattle can be nourished here. The swelling hills now +show new and more grandiose outlines; at last we come in sight of the +dark mass of the Causse de Sauveterre, and soon we enter upon the true +'Caussien' landscape in all its weird and sombre grandeur. Just as when +fairly out on the open sea we realize to the full its beauty and sense +of infinity, so it is here. The farther we go the wider, more +bewilderingly vast becomes the horizon: wave upon wave, billow upon +billow, now violet-hued, with a tinge of gold; now deep brown, partly +veiled with green, or roseate with sunlit clouds--the gray monotony of +stone and waste is thus varied by the way. + +By the roadside slender trees of the hornbeam tribe are planted at +intervals, and where these are wanting, tall flagstaffs take their +place, to guide the wayfarer when six feet of snow cover the ground. +Wild-flowers in plenty brighten the edges of the road--stonecrops, +cornflowers, purple 'lady's fingers,' and many others; but wedged as we +are in our not too comfortable calèche, to get out and pluck them is +impossible. + +The road from Mende to the summit of the plateau can only be described +as a vertical ascent; before beginning to descend, we have a few +kilomètres of level, that is all. As we approach the village of +Sauveterre, we see one or two wild figures--shepherds, uncouth in +appearance as Greek herdsmen; poorly dressed, but robust-looking, +well-made girls and women, short-skirted, bare-headed, footing it +bravely under the now hot sun. + +Portions of the land on either side consist of waste, quite recently +laid under cultivation; the huge blocks of stone have been wrenched up, +heaven knows how, and conspicuously piled up in the midst of the +newly-created field, a veritable trophy. How much more commendable than +that commemorative of blood-stained victory! The rich red earth amply +repays these Herculean labours. With regard to the tenure of land, I +should suppose the state of things here must be very much what it was +in the age of primitive man. I fancy that any native of these parts, +any true Caussenard, has only to clear a bit of waste and plant a crop +to make it his own; a stranger would doubtless have his right to do so +contested, or, maybe, some patriarchal system is still in force, and +the village community is not yet extinct in France. + +'Voilà la capitale de Sauveterre!' soon cries our driver, pointing to a +cluster of bare brown, apparently windowless, houses, and a tiny +church, all grouped picturesquely together. + +A poor-looking place it was enough when we obtained a nearer view, +reminding me of a Kabyle village more than anything else; not, however, +brightened with olive or fig tree! Nothing in the shape of a garden is +to be seen, only dull walls of close-set dwellings, with narrow paths +between. Windows, however, our driver assured us, were there; but the +village is built with its back to the road. + +The great privation of these poor people is that of a regular +water-supply--one large, by no means pellucid, pond, with cisterns, are +all the sources they can rely upon from one end of the year to the +other; not a fountain issues from the limestone for miles round, not a +stream waters the entire Causse, a region extensive as Dartmoor or +Salisbury Plain. When we consider that this plateau has a height above +the sea-level equal to that of Skiddaw, we can easily imagine what the +long eight months' winter here is like. For the greater part of the +time the country is under several feet of snow, and the Caussenard +warms his poor tenement as best he can with peat. + +It was curious to hear our conductor, himself evidently accustomed to a +hard, laborious life, speak of the inhabitants of Sauveterre. He +described their condition much as a well-to-do English artisan might +speak of the half-starved foreign victims of the sweater--so wide is +the gulf dividing the Caussenard from the French peasant proper. + +'Just think of it,' he said; 'they don't even dress the rye for their +bread, but eat it made of husks and all. Rye-bread, bacon, potatoes, +that is their fare, and water: if it were only good water one would +have nothing to say--bad water they drink. But they are contented, +pardie.' + +'What do they do for a doctor?' I asked. + +He made a curious grimace. + +'They doctor themselves till they are at the point of death, and then +send for a doctor. But it is not often. They are healthy enough, +pardie!' + +With regard to the ministrations of religion, they are in the position +of dalesfolk in some parts of Dauphiné. A curé from St. Énimie, he told +us, performed Mass once a fortnight in summer, and came over as +occasion required for baptisms, marriages, and burials. In winter alike +ordinary Mass and these celebrations were stopped by the snow. The +services of the priest had then to be dispensed with for weeks, even +months, at a time. + +I next tried to gain some information as to schools, but here my +informant was not very clear. Yes, he said, there was schooling in +summer; whether lay or clerical, whether the children were taught the +Catechism in their mother-tongue--in other words, the patois of the +Causse--or in French, I could not learn. + +Do these wild-looking mountaineers exercise the electoral privilege? Do +they go to the poll, and what are their political views? Are their sons +drafted off, as the rest of French youth, into military service? Does a +newspaper, even the ubiquitous _Petit Journal_, penetrate into these +solitudes? It was difficult to get a satisfactory answer to all my +questions, and quite useless to make a tour of inquiry in the village. +One must speak the patois of the Caussenard to obtain his confidence, +and though the population is inoffensive, even French tourists are +advised on no account to adventure themselves in these parts without +being accompanied by a native of the country. + +One thing is quite certain: The four thousand and odd wild, +sheepskin-wearing inhabitants of the entire region of the Causses must +erelong be nationalized--like the Breton and the Morvandial, undergo a +gradual and complete transformation. Travellers of another generation +on this road will not be stared at by the fierce-looking, picturesque +figures we now pass in the precincts of Sauveterre. Brigands they might +be, judging from their shaggy beards, unkempt locks, and Robinson +Crusoe-like dress; also their fixed, almost dazed, look inspires +anything but confidence. Still, we must remember that Sauveterre is in +the Lozère, and that the Lozère enjoys the enviable pre-eminence of +'white assizes'--a clean bill of moral health. + +After quitting the village, which has a deserted look as of a +plague-stricken place, the road descends. We now follow the rim of a +far-stretching, tremendous ravine, its wooded sides running +perpendicularly down. For miles we drive along this giddy road, the +only protection being a stone wall not two feet high. The road, +however, is excellent, our little horses steady and sure-footed, and +our driver very careful. We are, indeed, too much interested in the +scenery to heed the frightful precipices within a few inches of our +carriage-wheels. But the retrospection makes one giddy. The least +accident or mishap, contingencies not dwelt upon whilst jogging on +delightfully under a bright sky, might, or rather must, here end in a +tragedy. Tourists should be quite sure of both driver and horses before +undertaking this drive. + +By-and-by the prospect becomes inexpressibly grand, till the impression +of magnificence culminates as our road begins literally to drop down +upon St. Énimie, as yet invisible. Our journey must now be compared to +the descent from cloud-land in a balloon. Meantime, the stupendous +panorama of dark, superbly-outlined mountain-wall closes in. We seem to +have reached the limit of the world. Before us, a Titanic rampart, +rises the grand Causse Méjean, now seen for the first time; around, +fold upon fold, are the curved heights of Sauveterre, the nearer slopes +bright green with sunny patches, the remoter purply black. + +It is a wondrous spectacle--wall upon wall of lofty limestone, making +what seems an impenetrable barrier, closing around us, threatening to +shut out the very heavens; at our feet an ever-narrowing mountain pass +or valley, the shelves of the rock running vertically down. + +When at last from our dizzy height our driver bids us look down, we +discern the gray roofs of St. Énimie wedged between the congregated +escarpments far below, the little town lying immediately under our +feet, as the streets around St. Paul's when viewed from the dome. We +say to ourselves we can never get there. The feat of descending those +perpendicular cliffs seems impossible. It does not do to contemplate +the road we have to take, winding like a ribbon round the upright +shafts of the Causse. Follow it we must. We are high above the +inhabited world, up in cloudland; there is nothing to do but descend as +best we can; so we trust to our good driver and steady horses, obliged +to follow the sharply-winding road at walking pace. And bit by bit--how +we don't know--the horizontal zigzag is accomplished. We are down at +last! + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +ST. ÉNIMIE. + + +How can I describe the unimaginable picturesqueness of this little town +wedged in between the crowding hills, dropped like a pebble to the +bottom of a mountain-girt gulf? + +St. Énimie has grown terrace-wise, zigzagging the steep sides of the +Causse, its quaint spire rising in the midst of rows of whitewashed +houses, with steel-gray overhanging roofs, vine-trellised balconies, +and little hanging gardens perched aloft. On all sides just outside the +town are vineyards, now golden in hue, peach-trees and almond groves, +whilst above and far around the gray walls of the Causse shut out all +but the meridian rays of the sun. + +As I write this, at six o'clock on the evening of the 5th of September, +the last crimson flush of the setting sun lingers on the sombre, +grandiose Causse Méjean. All the rest of the scene, the lower ranges +around, are in a cool gray shadow: silvery the spire and roofs just +opposite my window, silvery the atmosphere of the entire picture. +Nothing can be more poetic in colour, form, and combination. + +Close under my room are vegetable gardens and orchards, whilst in +harmony with the little town, and adding a still greater look of +old-worldness, are the arched walls of the old château-fort. As evening +closes in, the fascination of the scene deepens; spire and roofs, +shadowy hill and stern mountain fastness, are all outlined in pale, +silvery tones against a pure pink and opaline sky, the greenery of near +vine and peach-tree all standing out in bold relief, blotches of +greenish gold upon a dark ground. I must describe our inn, the most +rustic we had as yet met with, nevertheless to be warmly recommended on +account of the integrity and bonhomie of the people. + +Somewhat magniloquently called the Hôtel St. Jean, our hostelry is an +auberge placing two tiny bedchambers and one large and presumably +general sleeping-room at the disposal of visitors. We had, as usual, +telegraphed for two of the best rooms to be had. So the two tiny +chambers were reserved for us, the only approach to them being through +the large room outside furnished with numerous beds. The tourist, +therefore, has a choice of evils--a small inner room to himself, +looking on to the town and gardens, or a bed in the large outer one +beyond, the latter arrangement offering more liberty, freedom of +ingress and egress, but less privacy. However, the rooms did well +enough. A decent bed, a table, a chair, quiet--what does the weary +traveller want beside? + +Here, as at Le Vigan, we were received with a courteous friendliness +that made up for all shortcomings. The master, a charming old man, a +member of the town council (conseiller municipale), at once accompanied +me to the post-office, where the young lady post-mistress produced +letters and papers, probably the first English newspapers ever stamped +with the mark of St. Énimie. The townsfolk stared at me in the +twilight, but without offensive curiosity, I may here give a hint to +future explorers of my own sex, that it is just as well to buy one's +travelling-dress and head-gear in France. An outlandish appearance, +sure to excite observation, is thus avoided. In the meantime the common +inquiry was put to us, 'What will you have for dinner?' It really +seemed as if we only needed to ask for any imaginable dish to get it, +so rich in resources was this little larder at the world's end. The +exquisite trout of the Tarn, here called the Tar; game in abundance and +of excellent quality; a variety of fruit and vegetables-such was the +dainty fare displayed in the tiny back parlour leading out of the +kitchen. Soup in these parts, it must be confessed, is not very good. +In other respects we fared as well for our five francs per diem, +including lights and attendance, as if at some big Paris hotel paying +our twenty-five! + +The fastidious are warned that certain luxuries we have learned to +regard as necessary to existence are unheard of in the Lozère. A bell, +for instance--as well expect to find a bell here as in Noah's Ark! A +very good preparation for this journey would be the perusal of Tieck's +humorous novelette called 'Life's Superfluities' (Des Lebens +Uberfluss), wherein he shows that with health, a cheerful disposition, +and sympathetic companionship, we may do without anything in the way of +an extra at all. Shelter, covering, bed--beyond these all is mere +superfluity. + +Having dined, we made inquiries as to the morrow's journey on the Tarn, +and that somewhat portentous shooting of the rapids we longed for, yet +could hardly help shrinking from. + +Our host soon set our minds at rest, and smiled when I suggested +discomfort and peril. + +'Make your minds easy,' he said; 'I will myself answer for your safety.' + +He then gave me the following printed programme of the day's excursion, +which I translate below, as it shows into what excellent hands the +stranger falls at St. Énimie. The most timid lady travellers may safely +trust themselves to these town councillors and maires of the little +villages bordering the Tarn. Not only will they be taken he very +greatest care of; not only are they perfectly secure from any form of +extortion: they make acquaintance throughout every stage of the way +with the very best type of French peasant, a class of men, as will be +shown in these pages, of whom any country might justly be proud. I have +now a fairly representative experience of the French peasant. The +dignity, sobriety, and intelligence of the Lozérien I have nowhere +found surpassed. It was a happy thought of the leading men in these +parts to organize a kind of tourist agency among themselves, thus +keeping out strangers and speculators sure to spoil the business by +overcharges. A village mayor here, a municipal councillor there, in all +about a score of the inhabitants, have formed what they call 'La +Compagnie de Batellerie St. Jean,' which ensures the traveller a fixed +tariff, good boats, and, above all, experienced boatmen, for what is +during the last stage of the way a somewhat hazardous journey. The +prospectus runs thus: + + +'NOTICE TO TOURISTS. + +'The Hôtel St. Jean at St. Énimie places at the disposal of tourists a +service of boats between that town and Le Rozier. + +'The service is divided into four stages, the entire journey without +halt occupying six hours. + +'The corresponding members of the company at the four stations are as +follows: + +'At St. Énimie, St. Jean, hotel proprietor and town councillor. + +'At St. Chély, Bernard, town councillor. + +'At La Malène, Casimir Montginoux, hotel proprietor. + +'At St. Préjet, Alphonse Solanet, mayor. + +'The charge for the complete transit, whether the boat numbers one +passenger or several, is forty-two francs, which may be paid to any of +the boatmen or at any stage of the journey.' + +St. Énimie is what Gibbon calls 'an aged town,' its sponsor and +foundress being a Merovingian princess. For the pretty legend +concerning this musically-named maiden, I refer readers to the +guide-books, liking better to fill my pages with my own experiences +than with matter to be had for the asking elsewhere. + +Had it been somewhat earlier in the year, we might perhaps have decided +to make a little stay here. But in the height of summer the heat is +torrid on the Roof of France. In winter the cold is Arctic, and there +is no autumn in the accepted sense of the word; winter might be at +hand. We were advised by those in whose interest it was that we should +remain, to lose no time and hurry on. Having bespoken the four relays +of boatmen for next day, we betook ourselves to our little rooms, +somewhat relieved by the fact that we were the only travellers, and +that the large, general bedroom adjoining our own would be therefore +untenanted. We had reckoned without our host, the comfortable beds +therein being evidently occupied by various members of the family when +the tourist season was slack. We were composing ourselves to sleep, +each in our own chamber, when we heard the old master and mistress of +the house, with some little grandchildren, steal upstairs and, quiet as +mice, betake themselves to bed. Then all was hushed for the night. + +Only one sound broke the stillness. Between one and two in the morning +our driver descended from his attic. A quarter of an hour later there +was a noise of wheels, pattering hoofs, and harness bells. He had +started, as he told us was his intention, on his homeward journey, +traversing the dark, solitary Causse alone, with only his lantern to +show the way. Soon after five o'clock our old host, evidently +forgetting that he had such near neighbours, or perhaps imagining that +nothing could disturb weary travellers, began to chat with his wife, +and before six, one and all of the family party had gone downstairs. I +threw open my casement to find the witchery of last night vanished, +cold gray mist enshrouding the delicious little picture, with its +grandiose, sombre background. That clinging mist seemed of evil +bodement for our expedition. Ought we to start on a long day's river +journey in such weather? Yet could we stay? + +I confess that there was something eerie in the isolation and +remoteness of St. Énimie. Compared to the savagery and desolation of +the Causses, it was a little modern Babylon--a corner of Paris, a bit +of boulevard and bustle, but with such narrow accommodation, and with +such limited means of locomotion at disposal, the prospect of a stay +here in bad weather was, to say the least of it, disconcerting. I +prepared in any case for a start, made my tea, performed my toilet, and +packed my bag as briskly as if a bright sun were shining, which true +enough it was, although we could not see! + +When, soon after seven o'clock, I descended to the kitchen, I found our +first party of boatmen busily engaged over their breakfast, and all +things in readiness for departure. + +'The sun is already shining on the Causse,' said our old host. 'This +mist means fine weather. Trust me, ladies, you could not have a better +day.' + +We did our best to put faith in such felicitous augury. Punctually at +eight o'clock, accompanied by the entire household of the little Hôtel +St. Jean, we descended to the landing-place, two minutes' walk only +from its doors. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE CAÑON OF THE TARN. + + +Amid many cordial adieux we took our seats, the good old town +councillor having placed a well-packed basket at the bottom of the +boat. Excellent little restaurants await the traveller at the various +stations on the way, but all anxious to arrive at their journey's end +in good time will carry provisions with them. + +The heavy gray mist hung about the scene for the first hour or two, +otherwise it must have been enchanting. Even the cold, monotonous +atmosphere could not destroy the grace and smilingness of the opening +stage of our journey--sweet Allegro Gracioso to be followed by stately +Andante, unimaginably captivating Capricioso to come next--climax of +the piece--the symphony closing with gentle, tender harmonies. Thus in +musical phraseology may be described the marvellous cañon or gorge of +the Tarn--like the pen of true genius, enchanting, whatever the theme. +Quiet as the scenery is at the beginning of the way, without any of the +sublimer features to awe us farther on, it is yet abounding in various +kinds of beauty. Above the pellucid, malachite-coloured river, at first +a mere narrow ribbon ever winding and winding, rise verdant banks, tiny +vineyards planted on almost vertical slopes, apple orchards, the bright +red fruit hanging over the water's edge, whilst willows and poplars +fringe the low-lying reaches, and here and there, a pastoral group, +some little Fadette keeps watch over her goats. + +The mists rise at last by slow degrees. Soon high above we see the sun +gilding the limestone peaks on either side. Very gradually the heavens +clear, till at last a blue sky and warm sunshine bring out all the +enchantment of the scene. + +The river winds perpetually between the bright green banks and shining +white cliffs. Occasionally we almost touch the mossy rocks of the +shore; the maiden-hair fern, the wild evening primrose, wild Michaelmas +daisy, blue pimpernel, fringed gentian, are so near we can almost +gather them, and so crystal-clear the untroubled waters, every +object--cliff, tree, and mossy stone--shows its double. We might at +times fancy ourselves but a few feet from the pebbly bottom, each stone +showing its bright clear outline. The iridescence of the rippling water +over the rainbow-coloured pebbles is very lovely. + +All is intensely still, only the strident cry of the cicada, or the +tinkle of a cattle-bell, and now and then the hoarse note of some wild +bird break the stillness. + +Before reaching the first stage of our journey the weather had become +glorious, and exactly suited to such an expedition. The heavens were +now of deep, warm, southern blue; brilliant sunshine lighted up +gold-green vineyard, rye-field bright as emerald, apple-orchard and +silvery parapet on either side. + +But these glistening crags, rearing their heads towards the intense +blue sky, these idyllic scenes below, are only a part of what we see. +Midway between the verdant reaches of this enchanting river and its +sheeny cliffs, between which we glide so smoothly, rise stage upon +stage of beauty: now we see a dazzlingly white cascade tumbling over +stair after stair of rocky ledge; now we pass islets of greenery +perched half-way between river and limestone crest, with many a combe +or close-shut cleft bright with foliage running down to the water's +edge. + +Little paths, laboriously cut about the sides of the Causses on either +side, lead to the hanging vineyards, fields and orchards, so +marvellously created on these airy heights, inaccessible fastnesses of +Nature. And again and again the spectator is reminded of the axiom: +'The magic of property turns sands to gold.' No other agency could have +effected such miracles. Below these almost vertical slopes of the +Causse, raised a few feet only above the water's edge, cabbage and +potato beds have been cultivated with equal laboriousness, the soil, +what little of soil there is, being very fertile. + +On both sides we see many-tinted foliage in abundance: the shimmering +white satin-leaved aspen, the dark rich alder, the glossy walnut, +yellowing chestnut, and many others. + +Few and far between are herdsmen's cottages, now perched on the rock, +now built close to the water's edge. We can see their vine-trellised +balconies and little gardens, and sometimes the pet cats run down to +the water's edge to look at us. + +And all this time, from the beginning of our journey to the end, the +river winds amid the great walls of the Causses--to our left the spurs +of the Causse Méjean; to our right those of Sauveterre. We are +gradually realizing the strangeness and sublimity of these bare +limestone promontories--here columns white as alabaster--a group having +all the grandeur of mountains, yet no mountains at all, their summits +vast plateaux of steppe and wilderness, their shelving sides dipping +from cloudland and desolation into fairy-like loveliness and fertility. + +St. Chély, our first stage, comes to an end in about an hour and a half +from the time of leaving St. Énimie. We now change boatmen--punters, I +should rather call them. The navigation of the Tarn consists in skilful +punting, every inch of the passage being rendered difficult by rocks +and shoals, to say nothing of the rapids. + +Here our leading punter was a cheery, friendly miller--like the host of +the hotel at St. Énimie, a municipal councillor. No better specimen of +the French peasant gradually developing into the gentleman could be +found. The freedom from coarseness or vulgarity in these amateur +punters of the Tarn is indeed quite remarkable. Isolated from great +social centres and influences of the outer world as they have hitherto +been, there is yet no trace either of subservience, craftiness, or +familiarity. Their frank, manly bearing is of a piece with the +integrity and openness of their dealings with strangers. + +Shrewd, chatty, kindly, the municipal councillor--Bernard by +name--showed the greatest interest in us, his easy manners never +verging on impertinence. He was much pleased to learn that I had come +all the way from England in order to describe these regions for my +country-folks, and told us of the rapidly increasing number of French +tourists. + +'It is astonishing!' he said--'quite astonishing! Two or three years +ago we had a score or two of gentlemen only; then we had fifty in one +summer; now we have hundreds--ladies as well; hardly a day passes +without tourists. I have to leave the management of my mill to my son, +as I am perpetually wanted on the river at this season of the year.' + +'Such an influx of strangers must surely do good in the country?' I +asked. + +'Ça ne fait pas de mal' (It does no harm), was his laconic reply; but +one could see from his look of satisfaction that he highly appreciated +the pacific invasion. The plain truth of the matter is, that the Cañon +du Tarn is proving a mine of wealth to these frugal, ingenuous peasants. + +How pleasant to reflect that the gold thus showered into their laps by +Nature will not be squandered on vice or folly, but carefully +husbanded, and put to the best possible uses! What the effect of a +constantly-increasing prosperity may be on future generations, no one +can predict. Certain we may be that the hard-earned savings of these +village mayors and municipal councillors will go to the purchase of +land. The process of turning sands to gold will proceed actively; more +and yet more waste will be redeemed, and made fertile. + +A charming château, most beautifully placed, adorns the banks of the +river between St. Chély and La Malène; alas! untenanted, its owner +being insane. Nowhere could be imagined a lovelier holiday resort; no +savagery in the scenes around, although all is silent and solitary; +park-like bosquets and shadows around; below, long narrow glades +leading to the water's edge. + +At La Malène, reached about noon, we stop for half an hour, and +breakfast under the shade. Never before did cold pigeon, hard-boiled +eggs, and water from the stream have a better flavour. Our municipal +councillor was much concerned that we had no wine, and offered us his +own bottle, which we were regretfully obliged to refuse, not being +claret-drinkers. Then, seeing that our supply of bread was somewhat +small, he cut off two huge pieces, and brought them to us in his bare +hands. This offer we gratefully accepted. + +'Ah! what weather, what weather!' he said. 'You said your prayers to +good purpose this morning. This is the day for the Tarn.' + +Magnificent was the day, indeed, and sorely did La Malène tempt us to a +halt. It is a little oasis of verdure and luxuriance between two arid +chasms--flake of emerald wedged in a cleft of barren rock. The hamlet +itself, like most villages of the Lozère, has a neglected appearance. +Very fair accommodation, however, is to be had at the house of the +brothers Montginoux, our boatmen for the next stage, and all +travellers, especially good walkers, should make a halt here if they +can. + +For ourselves, two motives hastened departure. In the first place, we +had heard of formidable rivals in the field; in other words, +competitors for whatever rooms were to be had at our destination, Le +Rozier. Three distinguished personages, deputies of the Lozère, were +making the same journey; whether before us or behind us, we could not +exactly make out. One thing was certain: like ourselves, they were +bound for Le Rozier. This alarming piece of information, coming as it +did on the heels of our last night's experience, made us doubly anxious +to get to our journey's end and insure rooms. What if we arrived to +find the auberge full--not an available corner anywhere, except, +perhaps, in the general bedchamber left for belated waifs and strays, +such as Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson describes in his voyage with a +donkey? + +Again the weather, although most favourable for to-day's excursion, +betokened change. The light fleecy clouds playing about the summits of +the Causses, on either side grew heavier in appearance. We must hasten +on. We heard, too, a pitiful story of two American ladies who had +lately made this journey in a perpetual downpour, arriving at Le Rozier +drenched to the skin, and having seen nothing. We had not crossed the +Atlantic certainly to shoot the rapids of the Tarn, but it would be +deplorable even to have come from Hastings and meet with such a fiasco. + +We now took leave of our worthy miller and his companion, giving a +liberal pourboire, as I am sure all travellers will do. It must be +borne in mind that the return journey occupies the punters three or +four times the duration of the journey downstream. Each stage is an +entire day's work, therefore, for which the tariff alone is +insufficient remuneration. Our new boatmen are the brothers +Montginoux--young men, very pleasant, very intelligent, and exceedingly +skilful in their business. The elder, who stands with his face towards +us, is full of enthusiasm for the scenery, and knows the river so well +that during the greater part of the way he is able to chat to us, +pointing out every remarkable feature in the shifting scene, and giving +us a good deal of information. + +Both brothers, as is the universal rule in these parts, are exceedingly +good-looking, and have that frank, dignified manner characteristic of +the French peasant at his best. Peasant, did I say? These young men +might have passed for gentlemen anywhere; they are instances of the +great social transformation taking place throughout France. 'Le paysan, +c'est l'aristocrat de l'avenir,' French people say; and true enough we +see every day sons of peasants like the late Paul Bert, enrolled in the +professional ranks, attaining not only a respectable position, but +eminence in science, literature, and art. Turn over a dictionary of +French contemporary biography--how often do these words come after a +well-known, even distinguished, name: 'Fils d'un paysan'! + +The first care of our young punters was to cut willow-branches, and +spread at the bottom of the boat in order to keep our feet dry. Do what +they will, the boat is flooded from time to time, and but for this +precaution renewed at intervals, we should be in sore discomfort. + +On quitting La Malène, with its fairy-like dells, hanging woods, and +lawny spaces, the third and most magnificent stage of our journey is +entered upon, the first glimpse preparing us for marvels to come. +Smiling above the narrow dark openings in the rock are vineyards of +local renown. Here and there a silvery cascade flashes in the distance; +then a narrow bend of the river brings us in sight of the frowning crag +of Planiol crowned with massive ruins, the stronghold of the sire of +Montesquieu, which under Louis XIII. arrested the progress of the +rebellious Duke de Rohan. + +For let it not be supposed that these solitudes have no history. We +must go much farther back than the seigneurial crusades of the great +Richelieu, or the wholesale exterminations of Merle, the Protestant +Alva or Attila, in the religious wars of the Cévennes-farther back even +than the Roman occupation of Gaul, when we would describe the townlings +of the Causses and the banks of the Tarn. Their story is of more +ancient date than any of recorded time. The very Causses, stony, arid +wildernesses, so unpropitious to human needs, so scantily populated in +our own day, were evidently inhabited from remote antiquity. Not only +have dolmens, tumuli, and bronze implements been found hereabouts in +abundance, but also cave-dwellings and traces of the Age of Stone. +Prehistoric man was indeed more familiar with the geography of these +regions than even learned Frenchmen of to-day. When, as I have before +mentioned, in 1879 a member of the French Alpine Club asked the +well-known geographer Joanne if he could give him any information as to +the Causses and the Cañon du Tarn, his reply was the laconic: + +'None whatever. Go and see.' + +It would take weeks, not days, to explore these scenes from the +archæological or geological point of view. I will content myself with +describing what is in store for the tourist. + +We now enter the defile or détroit, at which point grace and +bewitchingness are exchanged for sublimity and grandeur, and the +scenery of the Causses and the Tarn reach their acme. The river, +narrowed to a thread, winds in and out, forcing laborious way between +the lofty escarpments, here all but meeting, yet one might almost fancy +only yesterday rent asunder. + +It is as if two worlds had been violently wrenched apart, the cloven +masses rising perpendicularly from the water's edge, in some places +confronting each other, elsewhere receding, always of stupendous +proportions. What convulsive forces of Nature brought about this +severance of vast promontories that had evidently been one? By what +marvellous agency did the river force its way between? Some cataclysmal +upheaval would seem to account for such disrupture rather than the +infinitely slow processes suggested by geological history. + +Meantime, the little boat glides amid the vertical rocks--walls of +crystal spar--shutting in the river, touching as it seems the blue +heavens, peak, parapet, ramparts taking multiform hues under the +shifting clouds, now of rich amber, now dazzlingly white, now deep +purple or roseate. And every one of these lofty shafts, so majestic of +form, so varied of hue, is reflected in the transparent green water, +the reflections softening the awful grandeur of the reality. Nothing, +certes, in nature can surpass this scene; no imagination can prefigure, +no pen or pencil adequately portray it. Nor can the future fortunes of +the district vulgarize it! The Tarn, by reason of its remoteness, its +inaccessibility--and, to descend to material considerations, its +expensiveness as an excursion--can never, fortunately, become one of +the cheap peep-shows of the world. + +The intense silence heightens the impressiveness of the wonderful hour, +only the gentle ripple of the water, only the shrill note of the cicada +at intervals, breaks the stillness. We seem to have quitted the +precincts of the inhabited familiar world, our way lying through the +portals of another, such as primeval myth or fairy-tale speak of, +stupendous walls of limestone, not to be scaled by the foot or measured +by the eye, hemming in our way. + +This defile, so fancy pictures, was surely the work of Titans in the +age of the ancient gods; their play, their warfare, were over hundreds +of thousands of years ago: only these witnesses left to tell of their +greatness! The famous Cirque des Baumes may be described as a double +wall lined with gigantic caves and grottoes. Here it is the fantastic +and the bizarre that hold the imagination captive. Fairies, but fairies +of eld, of giant race, have surely been making merry here! One and all +have vanished; their vast sunlit caverns, opening sheer on to the +glassy water, remain intact; high above may their dwellings be seen, +airy open chambers under the edge of the cliffs, deep corridors winding +right through the wall of rock, vaulted arcades midway between base and +peak, whence a spring might be made into the cool waves below. All is +still on a colossal scale, but playful, capricious, phantasmagoric. + +Nor when we alight at the Pas de Soucis are these features wanting. +Here the river, a narrow green ribbon, disappears altogether, its way +blocked with huge masses of rock, as of some mountain split into +fragments and hurled by gigantic hands from above. + +The spectacle recalls the opening lines of the great Promethean drama +of the Greek poet. Truly we seem to have reached the limit of the +world, the rocky Scythia, the uninhabited desert! The bright sunshine +and balmy air hardly soften the unspeakable savagery and desolation of +the scene, fitting background for the tragedy of the fallen Fire-giver. + +Dominating the whole, as if threatening to fall, adding chaos to chaos, +and filling up the vast chasm altogether, are two frowning masses of +rock, the one a monolith, the other a huge block. Confronting each +other, tottering as it seems on their thrones, we can fancy the +profound silence broken at any moment by the crashing thunder of their +fall, only that last catastrophe needed to crown the prevailing gloom +and grandeur. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +SHOOTING THE RAPIDS. + + +At this point we alight, our water-way being blocked for nearly a mile. +It is a charming walk to Les Vignes: to the left we have a continuation +of the rocky chaos just described, to the right a path under the shadow +of the cliffs, every rift showing maidenhair fern and wild-flowers in +abundance, the fragrant evening primrose and lavender, the fringed +gentian. The weather is warm as in July, and of deepest blue the sky +above the glittering white peaks. Half-way we meet the rural postman, +whose presence reminds us that we are still on the verge of +civilization, eerie as is all the solitude and desolation around. + +At Les Vignes we lose our pleasant, chatty, well-informed young +boatmen, the brothers Montginoux, and embark for the fourth and last +time. We have now to shoot the rapids. + +A boat lay in readiness; two chairs placed for us, and willow branches +in plenty below; our baskets and bundles carefully raised so as to be +above water. In the least little detail the greatest possible attention +is thus paid to our comfort. I would suggest that if lady tourists had +the courage to imitate a certain distinguished Frenchwoman--an +explorer--and don male attire here, the shooting of the rapids would be +a more comfortable business. The boatmen cannot prevent their little +craft from being flooded from time to time, and though they scoop up +the water, skirts are apt to prove a sore incumbrance. Foot-gear and +dress should be as near water-proof as possible upon this occasion. + +We were somewhat disconcerted at the sight of our first boatman, an +aged, bent, white-haired man, hardly, one could fancy, vigorous enough, +to say nothing of his skill, for the hazardous task of shooting the +rapids. He at once informed us that his name was Gall, to which the +first place is given in French guide-books. Even such a piece of +information, however, hardly reassured us. + +Our misgivings were set at rest by the first glance at his companion. + +'My colleague, brother of Monsieur le Maire,' said the veteran, +presenting him. + +A handsome, well-made man in his early prime, with a look of +indomitable resolution, and a keen, eagle-like glance, our second +boatman would have inspired confidence under any circumstances, or in +any crisis. I could but regret that such a man should have no wider, +loftier career before him than that of steering idle tourists through +the rocks and eddies of the Tarn. Enough of character was surely here +to make up a dozen ordinary individualities. You saw at a look that +this dignified reserve hid rare qualities and capacities only awaiting +occasion to shine conspicuously forth. + +How Carlyle would have delighted in the manly figure before us, from +which his simple peasant's dress could take not an iota of nobility! + +This French rustic, brother of a village mayor, was endowed by Nature +beyond most, the spirit within--there could be no doubt of +that--matching an admirable physique. Of middle stature, with regular +features and limbs perfectly proportioned, every pose might have served +for a sculptor's model, whilst his behaviour to-day sufficiently +indicated his fitness for weightier responsibilities and more complex +problems. Never shall I forget the study before us during that short +journey from Les Vignes to Le Rozier. The old man Gall we could not +see, being behind; his companion stood at the other end of the boat +facing the rapids, and having his back turned towards us. + +With form erect, feet firmly planted, sinews knit, every faculty under +command, he awaited the currents. + +It was a soldier awaiting the enemy, the hunter his prey. + +The white crests are no sooner in sight than he seizes his pole and +stands ready for the encounter. + +A moment more and we are in the midst of the eddying, rushing, foaming +rapids. We seem to have been plunged from a lake of halcyon smoothness +into a storm-lashed sea. Around us the waves rise with menacing force; +now our little boat is flooded and tossed like a leaf on the turbulent +waters; every moment it seems that in spite of our brave boatman we +must be dashed against the rocks or carried away by the whirlpool! + +But swift and sure he strikes out to the right and to the left, never +missing his aim, never miscalculating distances by an inch, till, like +an arrow shot by dexterous archer, the little craft reaches the calm. +Whilst, indeed, it seems tossed like a shuttlecock on the engulphing +waves, it is in reality being most skilfully piloted. The veteran at +the stern we could not see, but doubtless his skill was equally +remarkable. The two, of course, act in concert, both knowing the river +as other folks their alphabet. + +To each series of currents follows a stretch of glassy water for +awhile, and we glide on deliciously. It was instructive to watch the +figure at the helm then; he laid down his pole, his limbs relaxed, and +he indulged in cigarette after cigarette, pausing to point out any +object of interest on the way. + +The swirling, rushing, eddying currents once more in sight, again he +prepared himself for action, and for a few minutes the task would be +Herculean--the mental strain equally phenomenal. His keen, swift, +unerring glance never once at fault, his rapid movements almost +mechanically sure, he plied his pole, whilst lightly as a feather our +little boat danced from cascade to cascade, all but touching the huge +mossy slabs and projecting islets of rock on either side. + +There was wonderful exhilaration in this little journey. We felt that +every element of danger was eliminated by the coolness and dexterity of +our conductors, yet the sense of hazard and adventuresomeness was +there! My more stout-hearted companion was a little disappointed, would +fain have had an experience nearer akin to Niagara. It is as well to +remind the traveller that these apparently playful rapids are by no +means without risk. Several are literally cascades between rocks, +hardly allowing space for the boat to pass. Here the least imprudence +or want of skill on the part of the boatman might entail the gravest +consequences. At one of the points, indeed, a party of tourists very +nearly lost their lives some years since, their boatman being +unfamiliar with the river. + +The scenery changes at every turn. Just as one moment we are in +lake-like waters, smooth as a mirror, the next apparently in mid-ocean, +so we pass from sweet idyllic scenes into regions of weird sternness +and grandeur. Now we glide quietly by shady reaches and sloping hills, +alive to the very top with the tinkle of sheep-bells; now we pass under +promontories of frowning aspect, that tower two or three thousand feet +above the water's edge. The colours of the rock, under the shifting +clouds, are very beautiful, and golden, bright and velvety the little +belts and platforms of cultivated land to be counted between base and +peak. We have to crane our necks in order to catch sight of these truly +aerial fields and gardens, all artificially created, all yet again +illustrations of the axiom: 'The magic of property turns sands to gold.' + +Truly marvellous is the evidence of this love of the soil in a region +so wild and intractable! High above we obtain a glimpse of some ancient +village, its scrambling roofs shining amid orchard-trees and firwoods, +or an isolated chalet of goatherd or shepherd breaks some solitude. One +ruined château crests the jagged cliffs, a real ruin among the +semblances of so many. + +Again and again we fancy we can descry crumbling watch-towers, +bastions, and donjons on the banks of the Tarn, so fantastic the forms +of the Causses on either side. What a scene for a Doré! + +Soon straight before us, high above the wooded heights that hem us in, +rises the Causse Noir--dark, formidable, portentous as the rock of +Istakhar keeping sentinel over the dread Hall of Eblis, or the +Loadstone Mountain of the third Calender's story, which to behold was +the mariner's doom. The Causse Noir from the Tarn is a sight not soon +forgotten. With black ribs set close about its summit, it wears rather +the appearance of a colossal castellation, an enormous fort of solid +masonry, than of any natural mass of rock. + +What with this spectacle, the excitement of the rapids, the varied +landscape, the study of that statuesque figure before us, the brother +of M. le Maire, this stage of the way seemed all too short. We +regretted--but for the sake of our boatman--that there were not +twenty-five more rapids still to be passed before we reached our +destination. We regretted, too--who could help it?--that we were not +hardy pedestrians, able to clamber amid the rocks overhead, and make +that wonderful expedition on foot described by the discoverers of this +region, as the writers I have before alluded to may indeed be called. +But if the half may not always prove better than the whole in travel, +at least it is better than nothing, and the day's excursion here +described had of itself amply repaid the long journey from England. + +Sorry, then, were we to come in sight of the bridge spanning the Tarn, +behind the village of Le Rozier. Just eight hours after quitting St. +Énimie we alighted for the last time, and, following our boatmen, took +a winding path that led to the village. + +It was a scene of quiet, pastoral beauty that now met our eyes. The +Tarn, its sportive mood over, the portals of its magnificent gorge +closed, now flows amid sunny hills, quitting the wild Lozère for the +more placid Aveyron; immediately around us are little farmsteads, +water-mills, and gardens, whilst opposite, like a black thundercloud +threatening a summer day, the Causse Noir looms in the distance! + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +LE ROZIER. + + +Next morning we woke up to a delightfully wet day, the very best piece +of good fortune that can occasionally overtake the traveller. We could +write, sketch, chat with the people of the house--above all, enjoy a +brief period of entire repose. For my own part, I hail nothing so +enthusiastically in my travels as a day of unmitigated downpour. Not +the most astounding landscape, not the most novel experience, can evoke +a warmer outburst of gratitude and welcome. I suppose there are +tourists who never feel the need of rest, who, like the Flying +Dutchman, are impelled to move on perpetually, who do not want to nurse +their impressions, if I may legitimize the expression. I, for one, +cannot understand the condition of body and mind implied in such a +temperament. Were life long enough and did circumstances and seasons +permit, I should make a six weeks' halt at least between every stage of +a journey, sipping experiences as we sip exquisitely flavoured +liqueurs, and making the whole last as long as possible. + +To our intense satisfaction, we had not been anticipated by those +much-dreaded deputies of the Lozère. We had a choice of rooms, although +later in the day a large contingent of tourists arrived--two or three +French families travelling in company. The hotel at Le Rozier is a +primitive, but quite lodgeable, place--open, airy, cheerful. Bells, +bolts and bars are apparently unheard of. When we remonstrated with the +patrone on the insecurity of our doors, there being no means whatever +of fastening them, she gazed at us with the greatest possible +astonishment. 'Grand Dieu!' her face said, 'is there a country under +heaven in which folks are such ruffians that no one can sleep safely in +his bed?' + +'N'ayez pas peur' (Have no fear), was the reply; such a question in her +eyes was evidently the naïvest in the world. + +The primitive--I am almost tempted to say ideal--condition of things +here was more strikingly illustrated a little later. + +I had begged madame to give me change for a hundred-franc note; she +immediately accompanied me back to my room, unlocked a drawer, and +displayed a heap of money--notes, gold and silver. + +'Good heavens, madame!' I cried, 'do you keep your money in a room +given up to strangers?' + +'Il n'y a pas de danger' (There is no danger), she replied, with almost +a contemptuous toss of the head, as she took out what she wanted and +turned the key in its loosely fastened lock. Anyone with a pocket-knife +could have wrenched it off. + +We begin to understand why there should be 'white assizes' in the +Lozère! + +I exchanged my bedroom containing the drawer full of money, and which +was the best in the house, for a quieter one, higher up. Nothing could +be homelier than my present quarters, an attic bare as a barn, and +almost as spacious. There was a bed in it of excellent quality, a chair +and one very rickety table furnished with jug and washbasin--no more. I +believe at night the bats, to say nothing of rats and mice, were +tolerably familiar with this part of the house. The floor sadly showed +its unacquaintance with soap and scrubbing-brush, but there were +compensating advantages. I was far away from the noise and savoury +smells of the kitchen; my window opened on to a wonderful view, and +turning the bed into a sofa, I could write or read as cosily as at home. + +Nor did my companion spend less happy hours below. Her room had a more +cosmopolitan appearance. The table serving as washstand stood securely +on its four legs. She had even the luxury of a table and an arm-chair. + +The rain was a veritable windfall of good luck to her as well as +myself, affording leisure to paint the floral treasures culled by the +way. How those sweet sketches brightened the bare room! + +There was the golden thistle, the horned poppy, the fringed gentian, +the blue pimpernel, the rare orobanche ramosa, the yellow salvia, and +pinks in profusion. + +Blessed, thrice blessed, the traveller with companions whose mind to +them a kingdom is! What disenchantment to have had the glorious +experiences of the last few days followed by a spell of boredom! +Diderot says: 'Ceux qui souffrent, font souffrir les autres' (Those who +suffer make others suffer); and certainly to be in company of the bored +is to become bored one's self. + +That long wet day passed like an hour. Towards sunset the rain ceased, +and at last the three deputies of the Lozère made their appearance. +They looked drier and more cheery than could be expected, although to +have shot the rapids of the Tarn in such weather was about as +mortifying a circumstance as could befall any travellers. + +They displayed the true verve Gauloise in dealing with a trying +situation, smoked cigarettes, chatted with the people of the house, and +made friends with everybody. + +Le Rozier is an attractive little place, and its one inn stands airily +in the village street; on the other side of the way, a little lower +down, is its rival, the Hôtel Dieudonné, which, although within a +stone's throw, is in another village and another department. Behind us +lies the Lozère, in front the Aveyron, and perched most picturesquely +on a pyramidal green hill, crowned with a fine old church tower, rises +the little Aveyronnais village of Peyreleau. Travellers have therefore +a choice of inns and of prospects, the twin townlings being both most +advantageously placed between the three Causses, and accommodation very +fair in both. + +As we sauntered about in the bright sunshine following the storm, +watching the red light on the dark flanks of the Causse Noir, on which +we can now discern the feudal tower of Capluc, gathering the fringed +gentian just outside the town, interchanging friendly talk with the +cheery peasant-folk, the thought arose: What a paradise for weary brain +workers! What a perfect summer retreat! Removed from the routine of +daily life, escaped for a time from the artificiality of ordinary +travel, how happy were the lover of nature, of pastoral existence, of +quietude in such a spot! No whistle of railway, no bustle of streets, +only the placid rippling of the Tarn and the wind gently swaying the +pine-trees. + +Alas! I was soon to undergo the cruellest disillusion. + +'There are now three religions in these parts,' said our host to us: +'the Catholic religion, the Protestant religion, and the religion of +the Salvation Army.' + +He then added, much as if such a piece of news could but give us the +liveliest satisfaction: + +'Not so very long ago Booth was here himself!' + +The Salvation Army on the very Roof of France! That solitude of +solitude invaded by fife and drum; the wastes of Sauveterre echoing the +hackneyed air, 'Hold the Fort;' Hallelujah lasses in hideous +poke-bonnets parading the picturesque streets of St. Énimie; the very +rapids silenced by the stentorian exordiums of these Salvationist +orators! Could any disenchantment be more complete? + +Now, whilst accrediting every member of the Salvation Army with the +best possible intentions, I quite approve of the severe measures taken +in so many English towns, and also in some places abroad, against one +of the most tremendous social nuisances that ever afflicted humanity. +Doubtless these good people, whether Protestants or Catholics of Le +Rozier and Peyreleau, follow their religion in all sincerity; for +Heaven's sake, then, let us leave our neighbours' creeds and spiritual +concerns alone. In a community in which assizes, not once only, but +often, are found to be unnecessary, there being no criminals to try, +General Booth and his noisy followers are surely out of place. In the +face of such results as these, the religion of the people must be +pronounced adequate to their needs. + +Let the Salvationist chiefs occupy themselves instead with mastering +the principles of Spinoza's 'Tractatus Theologico-Politicus,' Colenso's +'Pentateuch,' and, thrown into the bargain, Sir G. B. Airey's essay on +'The Earlier Hebrew Scriptures.' + +One piece of information, however, in no small degree consoled me for +that terrible nightmare of the Salvation Army on the banks of the Tarn. + +'There are three religions in these parts, but one political belief +only,' added our host. 'Everybody in the department of Lozère is a +stanch Republican,' and a conclusion, novel to many minds, may be drawn +from this fact also. The Republic is not the demoralizing force some +would have it believed. An entire department may show a clean bill of +moral health when the assizes come round, and yet be ardently devoted +to a democratic form of government! + +Whilst Le Rozier is a prosperous, well-to-do little place, its twin +village Peyreleau has a woefully forlorn and neglected appearance. If a +French Chadwick or Richardson would preach the gospel of sanitation +there, and, by force of precept and example, teach the people how to +sweeten their streets and make wholesome their dwellings, I for one +would wish God-speed to the undertaking. Perhaps over-much of devotion +has made these village-folks neglectful of health and comfort. Let us +by all means give them instead a dose of positive philosophy. Certain +amateur political economists would straightway set down the +unsightliness of this remote spot to peasant property, whereas I shall +show that the causes are to be sought elsewhere. + +The detesters of peasant property, single-minded persons who love the +land so well that they cannot support the notion of a neighbour +possessing so much as an inch, remind me of certain French folks, +determined antagonists, they hardly know why, of the Republic. These +worthy people--the only thing that can be said against them is that +they have come into the world a hundred years too late--impute every +conceivable mishap or calamity, public or private, to the fact of +having a Republican form of government. They entertain but lukewarm +feelings for any other; they are adherents of neither the Bonapartist +nor Orleanist pretenders, nor do they care a straw for the charlatan +hero of the crutch and blue spectacles: their only political dogma is a +dislike to the Republic. + +So, if a landslip occurs and an express train runs off the line with +disastrous results, they immediately cry, 'Is M. Carnot out of his +senses?' If there is an inundation of the Loire and the riverside +villages are under water, they lift up their hands, exclaiming: 'What +can be expected under such a Government as ours?' When cholera breaks +out at Toulon, or the phylloxera makes further inroads in the Côte +d'Or, or murrain appears among sheep, they protest that nothing in the +shape of bad news astonishes them. The only wonder is that, under a +Republic, honest folks keep their heads on their shoulders! + +On a par with this is the reasoning of the would-be political +economists alluded to. If a French peasant is lazy, it is because he +has no rent to pay; if a French peasant works too hard, it is because +he owns a bit of land. If a cottage is untidy, it is because its +occupants are not farm labourers in receipt of ten shillings a week; in +fact, the possession of land--except in the hands of English +squires--is the most impoverishing, demoralizing, satanic force +imaginable, and the only way of turning modern France into a Utopia +would be to clap every peasant proprietor alive into nice comfortable, +well-conducted workhouses, after the English model. + +Now, in the first place, peasant proprietors in many parts of France, +as I have shown elsewhere, enjoy not only the comforts, but also the +luxuries, of their neighbours of the towns; and in the second, the +untidiness, excessive thrift, and even squalor, occasionally found in +out-of-the-way places, are to be attributed to quite other causes than +that of having no rent to pay. Tidiness, seemliness, order, are taught, +like everything else, by example, and from one cause and another this +example has not been widely set the French peasant. + +The matter is one requiring much more space than can be devoted to it +here. I would only observe that the life of French country gentlemen is +often simple to homeliness, and that their poorer neighbours have few +practical illustrations of the value of comfort and hygiene. I have +been astonished to find in the houses of rich landed proprietors in +Anjou and Berri, brick-floored bedrooms, carpetless salons, déjeûner +served on the bare table, and servants in waiting with their +unstockinged feet thrust in sabots. + +This condition of things is slowly changing, but there is another and +yet more formidable obstacle to the progress of ideas in isolated rural +districts. I now allude to the celibate clergy. There are doubtless +many estimable parish priests in France, but how can these worthy men +revolutionize the homes of the peasant? Their own is often hardly more +comfortable or hygienic. If feminine influence presides over a priestly +household in the country, it is generally of the homeliest kind. The +mother, sister, housekeeper of a village abbé belongs in all +probability, like himself, to the peasant class, and, unlike himself, +gets no glimpse from time to time of a more polished society and +cosmopolitan ways. Let the clergy marry in France, laicize all schools, +alike for rich and poor, and what may be called the æsthetic side of +domestic economy, to say nothing of hygiene, would soon spread to the +remotest corners of the country. Will it be believed, at Nant, in that +conventual establishment I have before described, there was absolutely +no lavatory for the children at all? They were just taken to a fountain +in the courtyard, there to be washed after the manner of little +Bedouins. + +There is also another cause which in part accounts for the ofttimes +squalid and unsanitary condition of the peasant's home. Educated +Frenchwomen as a rule have little love of the country, and convent-bred +Frenchwomen have still less sympathy with their humbler neighbours in +rural districts, whose Republican convictions are well known. Thus it +comes about that, generally speaking, the housekeeping sex of different +ranks remains apart. And as the well-to-do peasant regards domestic +service in the light of degradation, his daughters in turn may become +heads of houses without ever having once been inside a home conducted +on modern principles. One word more: ill-kept, ofttimes squalid as is +the house of the French peasant owner, he can say with Touchstone, 'Tis +a poor thing, but 'tis my own.' The son of the soil in France may want +carpets, wardrobes, clean swept hearths: he at least owns a home from +which only imprudence or thriftlessness can eject him. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +MONTPELLIER-LE-VIEUX. + + +After a day of gloom and downpour the weather became again perfect--no +burning sun, no cold wind; instead, we had a pearly heaven with +shifting sunlight and cloud, and the softest air. + +The carriage-roads of the Lozère are a good preparation for ascending +Mont Blanc or the Eiffel Tower. + +Here we seem to be perpetually going up or coming down in a balloon; +and to persons afflicted with giddiness, each day's excursion, however +delightful, takes the form of a nightmare when one's head rests on the +pillow. For days, nay, weeks after these drives on the Roof of France, +my sleep was haunted with giddy climbs and still giddier descents. It +was the price I had to pay for some of the most glowing experiences of +my much-travelled life. The journey to Montpellier-le-Vieux formed no +exception to the rule. Happy, thrice happy, those who can foot it +merrily all the way! + +The pedestrian has by far the easier task. Throughout the two hours' +drive thither, and the somewhat shorter journey back, the horses have +to crawl at a snail's pace, their hoofs being within an inch or two of +the steep incline as the sharp curves of the corkscrew road are turned. +The way in many places is very rough and encumbered with stones; and +there is a good deal of clambering to be done at the last. Let none but +robust travellers therefore undertake this expedition, whether by +carriage or on foot. + +Our landlord drove us, much to our satisfaction; his horses, steadiest +of the steady, his little dog--a distant cousin to my own pet at +home--trotting beside us, sniffing the air joyously, as if he too were +a tourist in search of exhilaration and adventure. + +Over against Le Rozier, towering high above Peyreleau, its twin +village, rises a sharp pyramidal spur of the Causse Noir, its shelving +sides running vertically down. That mountain wall, impracticable as it +seems, we have to scale. + +The road cut so marvellously round it is excellent, wild lavender +scenting the way. As we wind slowly upwards we see an old, bent woman +filling a sack with the flowery spikes for sale. Thus the Causse, not +in one sense but many, is the bread-winner of the people. We follow +this zig-zag path westward, leaving behind us sunny slopes covered with +peach-trees, vineyards, gardens and orchards, till flourishing little +Le Rozier and its neglected step-sister, Peyreleau, are hidden deep +below, dropped, as it seems, into the depths of a gulf. + +An hour's climb and we are on the plateau, where the good road is +quitted, and we take a mere cart-track between pastures, rye-fields, +and woods of Scotch fir. So uneven and blocked with stones is the way +here, that the poorest walker will soon be glad to get down. The +deliciousness of the air, and the freshness of the scenery, however, +soon make us insensible to bodily fatigue. Every minute we obtain wider +and grander horizons, the three Causses being now in view, their +distant sides shining like gigantic walls of crystal; deep blue shadows +here and there indicating the verdant clefts and valleys we know of. +All lightness and glitter are the remoter surfaces; all warm colour and +depth of tone the nearer undulations. What a wealth of colour! what +incomparable effects for an artist! + +The prospect now increases in wildness, and we seem gradually to leave +behind the familiar world. We are again in the midst of a stony +wilderness, but a wilderness transformed into a fairy region of beauty +and charm. + +Nothing can be softer, more harmonious, more delicate than the soft +gray tints of the limestone against the pure heaven; every bit of rock +tapestried with the yellowing box-leaf, or made more silvery still with +the flowers of the wild lavender. + +East, west, north, south, the lines of billowy curves in the far +distance grow vaster, till we come in sight of what seems indeed a +colossal city towering westward over the horizon; a city well built, +girt round with battlements, bristling with watch-towers, outlined in +gold and amethyst upon a faint azure sky. + +It is our first glimpse of Montpellier-le-Vieux. + +The jolting now becomes excessive; we leave our carriage, conductor and +little dog to follow a traverse leading to Maubert, the farmhouse and +auberge where are to be had guides, food, and bedchambers for those who +want them. + +We could not miss the way, our driver said, and woe betide us if we +did! We seem already to have found the city of rocks, the famous Cité +du Diable; so labyrinthine these streets, alleys, and _impasses_ of +natural stone, so bewildering the chaos around us. For my own part, I +could not discern the vestige of a path, but my more keen-eyed +companion assured me that we were on the right track, and her assertion +proved to be correct. After a laborious picking of our way amid the +pêle-mêle of jumbled stones, we did at last, and to our great joy, +catch sight of a bit of wall. This was Maubert; a square, straggling +congeries of buildings approached from behind, and of no inviting +aspect. A dunghill stood in front of the house, and hens, pigs, and the +friendliest dogs in the world disported themselves where the +flower-garden ought to have been. At first the place seemed altogether +deserted. We knocked, shouted, ran hither and thither in vain. +By-and-by crawled forth, one after the other, three ancient, hag-like +women, staring at us and mumbling words we could not understand. On +nearer inspection they seemed worthy old souls enough, evidently +members of the household; but as their amount of French was scant, they +hurried indoors again. A few minutes later a young, handsome, untidy +woman popped her head from an upper window, and seeing that we were +tourists, immediately came downstairs to welcome us. + +She would send for her husband to act as guide at once, she said; in +the meantime, would we breakfast? + +I am sorry to confess that this young mistress of the house--a bride, +moreover, of three months--did poor credit to the gifts Nature had +lavished upon her. Very bright, good-looking, amiable and intelligent +she was, but sadly neglectful of her personal appearance, with locks +unkempt and dress slatternly--a strange contrast to the neat, clean, +tidy peasant-women we had seen elsewhere on our journey. + +The farmhouse, turned into a hostelry, only required a little outlay +and cosmopolitan experience to be transformed into quite a captivating +health resort. If, indeed, health is not to be recruited on these vast, +flower-scented heights, nearly three thousand feet above the sea-level, +swept clean by the pure air of half a dozen mountain chains, where may +we hope to find invigoration? + +Even now non-fastidious tourists may be fairly comfortable. A large, +perfectly wholesome upper dining-room; bedrooms containing excellent +beds; a farmhouse ordinary with game in abundance; courteous, honest +hosts, and one of the marvels of the natural world within a +stroll--surely scores of worn-out brain-workers would regard Maubert as +a paradise, in spite of trifling drawbacks. + +We found a pleasant young French tourist with his blue-bloused guide +eating omelettes in the salle-à-manger. Soon the master of the house +came up--a young man of perhaps twenty-five--as well favoured as his +wife, and much neater in appearance. This youthful head of the family +possesses a large tract of Causse land, besides owning in great part +what may prove in the future--is, indeed, already proving--a mine of +wealth, an El Dorado, namely, the city of rocks, Montpellier-le-Vieux. + +We now set out, our host, whilst quite ready to chat, possessing all +the dignity and reserve of the Lozérien mountaineer. As we sauntered +through patches of oats, rye, potatoes, and hay, I obtained a good deal +of information about rural affairs. + +'As near as you can guess, how large is the size of your property?' I +asked. + +I had learned by experience that the precise acreage of these highland +farms is seldom to be arrived at, the size of a holding in the Lozère +and the Cantal often being computed by the heads of stock kept. + +He informed me that he owned four hundred hectares, that is to say, +nearly a thousand acres, a considerable portion of which consisted of +rocky waste or scant pasturage. He employed several labourers, +possessed a flock of several hundred sheep, six oxen for ploughing, +besides pigs and poultry. + +Here, as elsewhere throughout France, all kinds of land tenure are +found. Thus we find land let or owned in holdings from two and a half +to a thousand hectares, some of the tenant farmers hereabouts paying a +rental of several hundred pounds a year. Roquefort cheese is the most +important production, and sheep are always housed like other cattle in +winter. Here is a hint for Welsh farmers! + +'Have you any neighbours?' I asked. + +'Oh, yes!' he replied, 'farmers here and there. And we have a postal +delivery every day in summer; when winter comes we get letters as we +can. I take a newspaper, too. It is not so out of the way a place as it +seems. But a church! Ah, church-going is impossible; the nearest is too +far off.' He added: 'This influx of tourists is changing everything. I +never saw anything like it. My uncle, who acts as guide here, is always +occupied now, and I am so much in request as guide too during the +summer season, that I think of letting my farm and giving myself wholly +up to the business of hotel-keeper. I should keep mules for tourists, +horses and carriages, improve the roads, and furnish my house better. +There is to be a model of Montpellier-le-Vieux at the grand exhibition +in Paris next year; that will make people come here more than ever. I +have almost decided to do as I say.' + +I thought to myself that the model of a house constructed on strictly +scientific principles should be exhibited also. Nothing were easier +than the proposed transformation; but it is less money and enterprise +that are needed than knowledge of the world and its ways. I wished that +I could invite this intelligent, well-mannered young peasant and his +handsome, sprightly wife to England, in order to show them how much +more besides good food and good beds are summed up in our oft-quoted +'le confort.' + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +MONTPELLIER-LE-VIEUX (_continued_). + + +Chatting thus pleasantly, we come nearer and nearer the city, painted +in violet tints against an azure sky, to find it, as we approach, a +splendid phantasmagoria. What we deemed citadels, domes and parapets, +prove to be the silvery dolomite only: limestone rock thrown into every +conceivable form, the imposing masses blocking the horizon; the shadow +of a mighty Babylon darkening the heaven; but a Babylon untenanted from +its earliest beginning--a phantom capital, an eldritch city, whose +streets now for the first time echo with the sound of human voice and +tread. + +I can think of but one pen that could aptly describe the scene: the pen +of a Shelley dipped in iridescence and gold; of a poet whose inner eye +could conjure up visions of loveliness and enchantment invisible to the +rest of mortal born. I do not know how Montpellier-le-Vieux would look +on a dull, gray day; doubtless imagination would people it then with +gnomes, horrid afrits, and shapes of fear. To-day, under an exquisite +sky, pearly clouds floating across the blue, a soft southern air +wafting the fragrance of wild pink, thyme and lavender, it was a region +surely peopled by good genii, sportive elves and beneficent fairies +only. We were in a spirit, a phantasmal world; but a world of witchery +and gracious poetic thrall only. + +But as yet we are on the threshold, and, like other magic regions, the +Cité du Diable unfolds its marvels all at once, as soon as the novice +has entered within its precincts. Before us rose the colossal citadel +so-called, pyramid upon pyramid of rock, which our guide said we must +positively climb, the grandest panorama being here obtained; a bit of a +scramble, he added, but a mere bagatelle--the affair of a few minutes +only. + +I hesitated. We were at the foot of a chaotic wall of enormous blocks, +piled one upon the other, with deep, ugly fissures between--the height, +from base to summit, that of St. Paul's Cathedral. In order to reach +even the lower platform of these superimposed masses it was necessary +to be hoisted up after the manner of travellers ascending the Pyramids, +only with this disadvantage--that holding on to the rocks where any +hold was possible, and planting the feet as firmly as was practicable +on the almost vertical sides, we had here to bestride chasm after chasm. + +'Don't be afraid,' cried our guide. 'It is nothing.' + +'I would venture if I were you,' urged my friend mildly. So up I went. + +The climbing, beyond a somewhat breathless scrambling and painful +straining of the limbs, was nothing to speak of. For a few moments I +could revel in the marvellous spectacle before me. + +Lying on a little platform, perhaps two yards square, high above the +bright heavens, I had, far around and beneath, the wide panorama of the +dolomite city, vista upon vista of tower and monolith, avenues, arches, +bridges, arcades, all of cool, tender gray, amid fairy-like verdure and +greenery. Not Lyons itself, seen from the heights of La Fourvière, +shows a more grandiose aspect than this capital of the waste, unpeopled +by either the living or the dead! + +Hardly had I realized the magic of the prospect when I became conscious +of frightful giddiness. The flowery shelf of rock on which I lay was +only a foot or two removed from the edge of the piled mass just climbed +so laboriously, and, sloping downwards, seemed to invite a fall. From +this side the incline was almost vertical, and the turf below at a +distance of over a hundred feet. No descent was practicable except by +bestriding the same fissures, two feet wide, and clinging to the sides +of the rocks, as before. I now felt that terrible vertigo which I am +convinced accounts for so many so-called suicides from lofty heights. +To throw myself down seemed the only possible relief from the terrible +nightmare. Had I been longer alone I must, at least, have allowed +myself to slip off my resting-place, with certain risk to life and +limb. As it was, I called to my companion, who had scaled another +story--had, indeed, reached the topmost shelf of the citadel; and she +tripped down looking so airy and alert that I felt ashamed of my own +weakness. + +Pale and trembling, I pointed to the horrible staircase by which we had +come. + +'Get me down some other way,' I said to the guide, who now followed, +not slightly embarrassed. Had he possessed the physique of our punter +of the rapids, or of our conductor, now attending to his horses at the +farm, he could have shouldered me like a baby. But he was slight of +build and by no means robust. Not a creature was within call, and those +dreaded fissures had to be bestridden. There was no other means of +descent. + +'It is of no use to try, I cannot get down,' I repeated, and for a +moment a sombre vision of broken limbs and a long incarceration at the +farm passed before my mind's eye. + +Reassuring me as best he could, our poor guide now grasped one of my +hands, with the other got a strong grip of the rock, and the first +dreaded step was achieved. The second presented greater difficulties +still. Once more he tried to carry me, but found the task beyond his +strength. I remembered that he was a bridegroom of a few months only; +what would be the young wife's feelings if he now came by mishap? So I +closed my eyes, shutting out the prospect beneath, and allowed myself +to be dragged down somehow, never more to venture on such giddy +heights. The incomparable view had been too dearly purchased. + +The moral of this incident is, let tourists subject to vertigo carry a +smelling-bottle with them, or, better still, stay below. + +All had ended well, however, and I could once more enjoy the scene. +When the first bewilderment of wonder and admiration is over; when the +fantastic city no longer appears a vision, but a reality, pile upon +pile of natural rock so magically cast in the form of architecture, we +realize countless beauties unperceived at first. The intense limpidity +and crystalline clearness of the atmosphere, the brilliance of the +limestone, the no less dazzling hue of the foliage everywhere adorning +it, the beautiful lights and shadows of the more distant masses, line +upon line of far off mountain-chain, mere gold and violet clouds rising +above the rugged outline of the Causses, the deep, rich tones of the +nearer--these general effects are not more striking than the details +close under our feet. About every fragment of rock is a wealth of +leaves, flowers and berries, the dogwood and bilberry with their +crimson and purple clusters and tufts, wild lavender and thrift, whilst +the ground is carpeted with the leaf of the hepatica. + +We found also the pretty purple and white toad-flax, [Footnote: Linaria +versicolor] the handsome gold-flowered spurges, [Footnote: Euphorbia +sylvatica and E. cyparissea] the elegant orange and crimson-streaked +salvia, [Footnote: Salvia glutinosa] with others more familiar to us. +If the adorer of wild flowers is a happy person here in September, what +enchantment would await him in the spring! + +Like the Russian Steppes and the African Metidja, these wastes are a +mosaic of blossoms. The foot-sure, hardy and leisurely traveller must +not content himself with the bird's-eye view of this dolomite city just +described. He should spend hours, nay, days here, if he would +conscientiously explore the stone avenues, worthy to be compared to +Stonehenge or Carnac; the amphitheatre, vast as that of Nîmes or +Orange; the fortifications, with bulwarks, towers, and ramparts; the +necropolis, veritable Cerameicus, or Père-la-Chaise; the citadel, the +forum, the suburbs; for the enthusiastic discoverers of +Montpellier-le-Vieux, or the Cité du Diable, have made out all these. + +The most striking rocks have been fancifully named after the celebrated +structures they resemble. We find the Château Gaillard, the Sphinx, the +Gate of Mycenæ, or of the Lions, the Street of Tombs supposed to +resemble Pompeii, some of colossal dimensions. Thus the citadel +measures a hundred and fifty feet from the ground, at this point +Montpellier-le-Vieux attaining an altitude of two thousand five hundred +feet above the sea-level. When I add that the Cité du Diable measures +nearly two miles in length and a mile in breadth, and that its city and +suburbs, so-called, cover a thousand hectares, an area a third less +than that of Windsor Forest, the enterprising tourist will have some +feeble notion of the waste before him. The place is indeed altogether +indescribable--surely one of the most striking testimonies to the force +of erosion existing on the earth's surface. The explanation of the +phenomenon is found here. At a remote period of geological history the +action of mighty torrents let loose sculptured these fantastic and +grandiose monoliths, bored these arcades and galleries, hollowed these +fairy-like caves. Erosion has been the architect of the Cité du Diable, +partly by impetuous floods, partly by slow filtration. Water has +gradually, and in the slow process of ages, built up the whole, then +vanished altogether. Nothing strikes the imagination more than the +absolute aridity of the region now. Not a drop left in the bed of +ancient lake or river, not a crystal thread trickling down the rock +channelled by ancient cascades, and nevertheless abundance of greenery +and luxuriant foliage everywhere! The waterless world of stone is not +only a garden, but a green forest! Immediately around us flowers, +ferns, and shrubs adorn every bit of silvery gray rock, whilst wherever +space admits we see noble trees, pines, oaks, beeches, some of +marvellous growth, yet perched on heights so remote and lofty as to +appear mere tufts of grass. + +And then the wonderful deliciousness and invigorating quality of the +air! It is like tasting the waters of the Nile, an experience never to +be forgotten. + +Those, indeed, who have once breathed the air of the Lozère will have +only one desire: to breathe it again. + +True, Montpellier-le-Vieux, departmentally speaking, is in the Aveyron, +if so phantom-like a city can be said to have a local habitation and a +name. But the Lozère chain is still in sight; its breezes are wafted to +us; we seem still in my favourite department of the eighty-seven, that +now being the proper number, including the newly-created one of the +Territoire de Belfort. I note the fact, as so many errors find their +way into print on the subject of French geography. As we reflect on the +mine of wealth this newly-discovered marvel may, we should say must, +inevitably become to its owners and their near neighbours, a terrible +vision rises before the mind. The gradually-diminishing area of the +picturesque world, in proportion to the enormously-increasing +percentage of tourists, can have but one ultimate result. In process of +time the dolomite city must undergo the fate of other marvels of the +natural world. Waggonettes drawn by four horses will convey the curious +from the Grand Hotel and Hotel Splendide at Le Rozier to the Cité du +Diable. Who can tell? A steam tramway may be placed at the disposal of +globe-trotters sleeping at Maubert, and a patent lift or captive +balloon for the ascension of the citadel. But no! We may at least +console ourselves with the reflexion that such a contingency is far +off. It will take more than a generation or two to vulgarize the Cité +du Diable, which in our days may be considered as remote from London as +Bagdad. The ideas of tourists in general must undergo entire +transformation ere they will cease to endorse Shelley's opinion: 'There +is nothing to see in France.' + +Perhaps these pages may tempt a stray sketcher or lover of wild flowers +to follow my route, but the peasant-owner of Montpellier-le-Vieux, +although reaping a fair harvest from his unique possession, will not +certainly become a millionaire through the patronage of Messrs. Cook, +Gaze and Caygill. And, truth to tell, it is not even every ardent lover +of natural beauty who would be held captive here. It requires a +peculiar temperament to appreciate this gray, silent, fantastic world +of stone. When once within its precincts, our mood is not precisely +that of delight or exhilaration; it is more akin to the eerie and the +awesome. We are spellbound, not so much by the sublimity or loveliness +of the place, but by its absolute uniqueness, its total unlikeness to +any other on the face of the globe, its kinship with the few +incomparable marvels Nature has given us; creations of her mysterious, +freakish, dæmonic humour. Strange that a neighbourhood so weird should +have exercised only a wholesome influence on the character of the +people! As far as we can judge, no franker, cheerier, more +straightforward folks are to be found in France, to say nothing of that +little fact of white assizes, so creditable to the department. + +Perhaps the fine prospect framing in Montpellier-le-Vieux is best +appreciated as we walk back to the farm, the mind not then being full +of expectancy. What a superb coup d'oeil! Distance upon distance, one +mountain range rising above another, almost in endless succession, the +various stages showing infinite gradation of colour--subtle, +distracting, absolutely unpaintable! No wonder the air is unspeakably +fresh and exhilarating, seeing that it blows north, south, east and +west from lofty Alps. We have in view the sombre walls of the three +Causses, the wide outline of the Larzac, in a vast semicircle the +western spurs of the Cévennes, whilst from east to west stretch the +Cantal chain, the Lozère, and the Cévennes des Gardons. [Footnote: So +called from this portion of the Cévennes rising above the valleys of +the streams and rivers Gardon.] + +We are on the Roof of France indeed! Having escaped a broken leg or +dislocated shoulder, my only regret was that we could not spend at +least a month within reach of the Cité du Diable. What explorations in +search of rare flowers! what sunset effects! what impressions to be +obtained here! How delightful, too, to make friends with the young +owners of this strange property--the strangest surely out of the +'Arabian Nights,' 'Vathek,' or 'The Epicurean!'--and get the farmhouse +turned into quite an ideal hostelry! I saw in my mind's eye the +dunghill replaced by a pretty flower-garden, a tablecloth spread for +breakfast, the floors swept and scoured, carpets and armchairs in the +best bedrooms, and even--my ambition went so far--trays, bells, and +door-fastenings introduced into these wilds. As the Utopia could not be +realized this year, I chatted with our hosts upon 'le confort,' whilst +they brought out one liqueur after another--rum, quince-water, heaven +knows what!--with which to restore us after our fatigues. Whilst I +conversed on this instructive topic: 'Yes,' said the handsome, +slatternly little mistress of the Cité du Diable, turning to her +husband, 'we must buy some hand-basins, my dear.' + +We had not noticed the fact that the six bedchambers at Maubert were +altogether unprovided with these luxuries, for luxuries they must be +called in a region where there is absolutely nothing whatever to render +them necessary. Without smoke, fog, artificial or atmospheric +impurities of any kind, one might surely remain here in a condition of +ideal cleanliness from January to December. + +Invigorated by the various petits verres of home-made cordials this +hospitable young couple had pressed upon us, we now set off jauntily +for Le Rozier. My companion, with a courage and endurance I could but +envy, mounted the calèche; I followed close behind on foot with the +little dog. + +It was amusing to watch the imperturbability of our conductor as the +somewhat antiquated vehicle swayed this side and that, at every moment, +as it seemed, in jeopardy of overthrow. For a mile and a half from the +farm the road, or, rather, cart-track, may be described as a kind of +steeplechase on wheels, every step of the way showing either a +stone-heap or a ditch, the word 'rut' being quite an inadequate +definition. Now I saw the hood of the carriage nod to the right, now to +the left, as some stone-heap impeded the way; now it curtseyed forward, +almost disappearing altogether as some gully was plunged into, horses, +driver, and vehicle, wonderful to relate, emerging as if nothing +unusual had happened, my companion sitting bolt upright and coolly +enjoying the view. + +All this time it was instructive to watch the behaviour of the little +dog. Whenever I lingered behind to gather a flower or gaze around, the +intelligent little creature stopped too and waited for me, with a look +that plainly said, 'You must not be left behind, you know.' Nothing +would induce him to rejoin his master till I had caught him up. + +The drive back to Le Rozier is another balloon descent from the clouds. +Like St. Énimie, the little town lies, figuratively speaking, at the +bottom of a well, and as we approach we could almost drop a +plummet-line on to the house-tops. It is a dizzy drive, and many will +shut their eyes as their horses' hoofs turn the sharp curves of the +precipitous mountain-sides, only an inch or two between wheel and +precipice. + +And here is a caution to the adventuresome. During our stay a +family-party set off on mule-back from Maubert to Peyreleau somewhat +late in the day. Darkness and rain overtaking them, they were obliged +to take shelter for the night in a peasant's cottage, thankful enough +to obtain even such rough hospitality. + +Let no one undertake an expedition in these regions without proper +information and the support of accredited guides--men well known and +well-recommended by residents on the spot. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +LE ROZIER TO MILLAU AND RODEZ. + + +The road between Le Rozier and Millau is delightful; the verdure and +brilliance of the valley in striking contrast with the sombre, +dark-ribbed Causse Noir frowning above. For two-thirds of the way we +follow the Tarn as it winds--here a placid stream--amid poplars, +willows, and smooth green reaches. Gracious and lovely the shifting +scenes of the landscape around, stern and magnificent of aspect the +Causse, its ramparts as of iron girding it round, its gloomy +escarpments showing deep clefts and combes, lines of purply gold and +green breaking the gray surface. + +Close under this mighty shadow--a bit of fairyland by the dwelling of +evil genii--are sunny little lawns, peach-groves, orchards, and +terraced gardens overlooking the river; beyond, fertile fields, and +here and there, perched on the crags, some quaint village or ruined +château. The road is bordered for the most part with walnut-trees, +affording rich foliage and delicious shadow. The colours of every +feature in the scene--luxuriant belt of field and garden, blue hills +and sky--have a southern warmth and brilliance. + +Growing close to road and river are apple-trees laden with ruddy fruit. +In England such crops would be pillaged in a day. Among peasant +proprietors, each respects the possession of his neighbour. This fact +and one or two others impressed my companion much. It was her first +acquaintance with rural France, and she had undertaken the journey +purely as a lover of nature and art, not at all as a student of +political economy, agriculture, or statistics. Peasant property was no +more in her way than the Impressionist school of modern art in mine. +But being keenly observant, and feeling, as any other member of the +propertied class must do, aghast at the condition of rural affairs in +England--vast tracts of cultivated land deteriorating into waste, +agricultural wages lowered to nine shillings a week, vagrancy on the +increase in consequence of the general migration to the towns, the sons +of country squires enlisting in the ranks, or betaking themselves to +manual labour in the Colonies--aghast, I say, at these signs of the +times among ourselves, she could but feel some surprise at her French +experiences. The entire absence of mendicants in the departments we had +lately traversed--these reputed among the poorest in France--was +altogether a revelation to her, as indeed it must be to any stranger on +French soil. Even in a neglected-looking place like Peyreleau, where +the people are wholly unused to the sight of tourists, and life is +evidently one of extreme laboriousness, no hand is held out for an +alms. In our long drives across country, where strangers in a carriage +and pair are assuredly taken for millionaires, we were never asked by +man, woman or child for a sou. + +Again, the good, neat, suitable clothes of the country-people struck my +friend no less. The total absence of tawdriness and finery on Sundays, +the equally total absence of rags and squalor on week-days, afforded a +striking contrast to what we are accustomed to see at home. It is more +especially in the matter of foot-gear that the working-classes in +France show to advantage. My friend noticed with admiration the +well-stockinged, well-shod children, all having good strong +shoes--stockings evidently bought or made for them, not the ill-fitting +belongings of others, gifts of charity or bargains of the pawnshop. The +men and women, too, are uniformly well shod, with strong, clean, +home-knit stockings. Again, the implied sense of security in these +unprotected gardens and wayside orchards is a novelty to the English +mind. At Hastings, which may also be called the metropolis of vagrancy, +it is impossible to keep a poor little wallflower or a primrose in +one's garden. An apple-tree would be pillaged on any public road in +England before the fruit was half ripe. Not only here, but in Anjou and +many other regions, I have walked or driven for miles, amid unprotected +vineyards and fruit-trees, the ripening crops being within reach of +passers-by. No one pillages his neighbour. + +Yes, peasant property is a detestable, nay, an iniquitous, institution, +only to be compared to the Inquisition itself. No one who does not +already possess several thousand acres of land ought to be permitted by +law to purchase a single rood. Nine shillings a week, Christmas doles +of beef and flannel petticoats from the Hall, the workhouse as a reward +for fifty years' patient following the plough--these make up the only +Utopia worth mentioning. Every right-minded person, every true +Christian, has come to such conclusions long ago. Yet when it is +possible to spend weeks in a civilized country without encountering a +beggar; when we see an entire population well-clothed, cheerful, and +self-supporting in old age; when we see fruit-crops ripening in all +security by the roadside, and inquire throughout the length and breadth +of the land for a poor-house in vain; when we find judge and jury +dismissed at assize after assize because there are no criminals to try, +we are tempted to exclaim: + +'Peasant property or no, they manage these things better in France!' + +'There is no want here,' our driver said, and the fact is self-evident. + +As we approach Millau we meet streams of country folk disporting +themselves, some afoot, others in rustic vehicles--the men wearing +clean blue blouses over the Sunday broadcloth, the women neat black +gowns, kerchiefs, and spotless white coiffes. The fields are deserted. +Man and beast are resting from the labours of the week. + +The landscape now changes altogether, and we are reminded that we have +quitted the Lozère for the Aveyron. The air has lost the matchless +purity and exhilarating briskness of Sauveterre and +Montpellier-le-Vieux. Alike sky, atmosphere, and vegetation recall the +south. Pink and white oleanders bloom before every door; the quince, +the mulberry, the peach, ripen in every garden. We long to get at our +boxes and exchange woollen travelling-dresses for cottons and muslins. + +Pleasant and welcome as is this soft air, this warm heaven, this +bright, rich-coloured, flowery land, we strain our eyes to get a last +glimpse of the Causse Noir. To betake ourselves to cosmopolitan hotels, +cities and railways, after this sojourn in elfdom, was like closing the +pages of 'Don Quixote' or Lucian to read a debate in the House or +listen to a sermon. + +And now that I am no longer held spellbound by wizardry and genii, good +or evil, and the first glow of enthusiasm is over, let me jot down a +few hard facts for the reader's edification--give in a few words the +geological and general history of the Causses, if nothing more--a bare +outline to serve the tourist on his way. The origin of the phenomenon +is thus explained by the great French geographer, Elisée Réclus, in his +chapter on 'Le Plateau Central de la France.' [Footnote: See his +'Géographie Universelle,' vol. ii.: 'La France,' 1885.] 'There is no +doubt,' he writes, 'that at a remote period all these plateaux of +jurassic rock formed a single Causse, deposed by the sea in the +southern strait of the granitic group of France. Although the Causse +Méjean, placed almost in the centre of the series of plateaux, is a +hundred mètres loftier than the rest, its formation accords with +theirs. All show the same features. From the banks of the Hérault to +those of the Lot and the Aveyron, all show the same development of +continuous strata. The ancient glaciers spread on the highest summits +of the Cévennes as they melted, gradually cut into the rock, channelled +openings--finally, forcing their way through the layers, have formed +these gigantic defiles, now the marvel of geologists. If the rivers +flow in an unbroken stream in these deep gorges, on the contrary, water +is altogether absent from the plateaux above. The ground, riddled +everywhere into holes and fissures, is hardly moistened by a shower. +The rain, as if falling through a sieve, immediately disappears. In +some places the chasms of rock have widened, the intermediate +projections given way, and huge cavities of rightful depth--avens or +tindouls, as they are locally called--are formed in the limestone. But +the surface of the Causse is almost universally uniform, and these +subterranean wells are only indicated by slight openings. Nowhere a +foundation springs forth. Alike as to formation, aspect, and climate, +the Causses are unique in France.' + +This entire chapter is a necessary preparation for no matter how hasty +a journey in the Lozère; equally to be recommended is the study of the +Causses by M. Onèsime Réclus in his work 'La France.' [Footnote: +'L'orage aux larges gouttes, la pluie fine, les ruisseaux de neige +fendue, les sources joyeuses ne sont pas pour le Causse, qui est +fissure, criblé, cassé, qui ne retient point les eaux, tout ce que lui +verse la nue, entre dans la rocaille. Et c'est bien, bien bas que +l'onde engloutie se décide à reparaître, elle sort d'une grotte, au +fond des gorges, au pied de ces roches droites, symétriques, +monumentales, qui porte le terre-plein du Causse. Mais ce que le +plateau n'a bu qu'en mille gorgées, la bouche de la caverne le rend +souvent par un seul flot, les gouttes qui tombent du filtre s'unissant +dans l'ombre en misseaux, puis en rivières. Aussi, les sources du pied +du Causse, sont-elles admirables par l'abondance des eaux, par la +hauteur et la sublimité des rocs, de leur "bouts de mondes." Trop de +soleil si le Causse est bas, trop de neige s'il est élevé, toujours et +partout le vent, qui tord les bois chétifs, pour lac, une mare, pour +rivière un ravin, de rocheuses prairies tondues par des moutons et des +brébis à laine fine, des champs caillouteux d'orge, d'avoine, de pommes +de terre, rarement de blé, voila les Causses! Le Caussenard seul peut +aimer le Causse, mais qui n'admirerait les vallées qui l'entourent?'] + +I may add that the only traces of volcanic action in the Causses have +been found at Sauveterre, near the so-called capital. Here basaltic +rocks exist amid the limestone. + +It is not only the geologist and the botanist, in search of an emotion, +to use a French phrase, who will find a paradise here. The +palæontologist is no less happy. Sparsely peopled, isolated from +civilization as is the 'great jurassic island' in our own day--lost as +it seems to have been in the pages of French history--it was inhabited +by our prehistoric forerunners, contemporaries of the great cave-bear. +The entire department of the Lozère is a rich palæontological field, +and the Causse Méjean especially has afforded abundant treasure-trove. +In the vast caverns and grottoes of its walls, great quantities of +flint implements and fossils, human and animal, have been discovered. A +collection of these may be seen in the museum of Mende. + +The Causses, owing to their isolated position, may be said to have +escaped a history. The great wave of religious warfare that devastated +the Cévennes in the Middle Ages passed them by. Only here and there on +the skirts of Sauveterre, near Mende, and of the Causse Noir, near +Millau, as we have seen, are relics of feudal times. Close around, +under the very shadow of these vast promontories, cresting the borders +of the Tarn and the green heights between Millau and Mende, ruined +strongholds and châteaux abound. The Causse itself enjoyed immunity +alike from ferocious seigneurs and still more ferocious theologian +bandits, seeking, as they put it, the salvation of their neighbours' +souls. The merciless Calvinist leader, Merle, who burnt, pillaged, and +depopulated Mende; the equally merciless quellers of the Camisard +revolt, emissaries of Louis XII., were tempted by no more prey to +penetrate these solitudes. + +Were they, indeed, peopled at all? Was the so-called capital of +Sauveterre even in existence? Who can answer the questions? Nor is it +easy to determine when the entire region first fell under the +observation of French geographers, and found at last a name and a place +on the map of France. + +Arthur Young, the most curious and accurate traveller of his time, +brought, moreover, into contact with the best informed Frenchmen of the +day, had evidently never heard of any portion of the Gévaudan, as the +Lozère was then called, at all answering to the Causses. But a French +traveller before alluded to--himself without doubt stimulated by the +example of our countryman--M. Vaysse de Villiers, author of the +'Itinéraire Descriptif de la France,' did in 1816, or thereabouts, +accomplish the journey from Mende to Florac by way of Sauveterre. +'Never,' he wrote, 'have I seen a more complete aridity, so utter a +desert,' He goes on to describe the beauty of the Tarnon (a small river +of the Lozère) and its verdant banks. 'All this, added to the +delightfulness of the autumn day and the horrible Causse of +Sauveterre,' but just passed, transformed the dreary town and narrow +valley of Florac into a delicious retreat. In a note he gives the +accepted derivation of _Causse_ from _calx_, saying that it was of +general application, and that the word certainly filled a blank in +French nomenclature. + +It is now instructive to turn to French guidebooks and see how +completely the region here described was ignored till within the last +few years. I have before me Joanne's invaluable and conscientious +guides for Auvergne, including the Cévennes, published respectively in +1874 and 1883. In the former, whilst the Causses figure in the map, +beyond a brief allusion to the Causse Noir, they are ignored +altogether. St. Énimie is not once mentioned, and nothing is said about +the gorges of the Tarn. As to Montpellier-le-Vieux, it could find no +place in a guide-book of that date, seeing that it was only discovered +ten years later. We now take the edition of 1883. Here, the route from +Mende to St. Énimie by way of Sauveterre is described also in the +fewest possible words, two pages being found sufficient for short +descriptions of the gorges of the Tarn by way of Florac, St. Énimie and +the valley of the Joute. Montpellier-le-Vieux, for the very good reason +mentioned above, is still absent. But just a year later we find the +guide-book remodelled altogether. Joanne now devotes an entire, volume +to the Cévennes, and states in his preface that the new issue of the +'General Itinerary of France' contains an account of a region very +little known to French tourists, yet well worth visiting, the region +comprising the Causses, the Cañon du Tarn and Montpellier-le-Vieux. The +distinguished geographer, alas! did not live to see his little purple +volume, and, I am compelled to add, Baedeker's red rival, in the hands +of scores and hundreds of his fellow-countrymen and women bound for the +Lozère. + +If the reader now turns to a map of France, and draws a perpendicular +line from Mende to Lodève, and a vertical line from Millau to Florac, +he will have a pretty good notion of the area occupied by the Causses, +including that of the Larzac in Aveyron. + +When it is taken into account that the superficies thus covered in the +Lozère alone reaches the total of 125,000 hectares, some idea may be +gathered of the magnitude of the whole. The entire population of these +highlands was only 6,662 souls in 1876, and there can be little doubt +that, in the slow process of time, either they will be abandoned +altogether, or by means of scientific methods utterly transformed. The +laborious, long-suffering, hitherto ignored Caussenard will not surely +be long neglected by the patriarchal Government of France. The Republic +has laid iron roads across the Lozère, thus redeeming the department +from the isolation and inertia of former times. Another tardigrade act +of justice will surely ere long complete the work, and the inhabitant +of the French steppes be made to share in the well-being and happiness +long enjoyed by his fellow-countrymen. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +RODEZ, VIC-SUR-CÈRE REVISITED.--A BREAKFAST ON THE BANKS OF THE SAÔNE. + + +In future, tourists bound northward will be able to reach Neussargues +on the Clermont and Nîmes railway by a direct line from Mende and St. +Flour. As this new line is not yet completed, and I had set my heart +upon revisiting Rodez and Vic-sur-Cère, we took the more circuitous +route, going over the same ground I had traversed the year before. It +was once my ambition to visit one by one every noteworthy spot in +France. The appetite grows by what it feeds on, and now I never see any +striking place without making up my mind to see it twice. + +Great was my delight at Rodez to find a bright, cheerful, spick and +span hotel, newly opened since last year. The time-honoured house of +Biney has two credentials worthy of mention--very low charges and good +food. Its modern rival has greater claims upon the wayfarer's +gratitude--pleasant, wholesome rooms, neat chambermaids, and the kind +of modernization so necessary to health and comfort. The Hôtel Flouron, +too, is presided over by a lady, and when we have said this we have +implied a good deal. A grand old town is the capital of the Aveyron. We +must see it again and again to realize its superb position and the +unique splendour of its cathedral, towering over the wide landscape as +our own Ely Cathedral over the eastern plains. To-day it was not +flushed with the flaming red and gold of sunset, as when first I saw it +a year before, but its aspect was perhaps all the more grandiose for +sombre colouring. + +From both extremities of the town we obtain vast panoramas; we look +down as if from a mountain-top, the plateau or isthmus on which Rodez +stands being two hundred and fifty feet above the circumjacent plain, +the river Aveyron almost cutting it off from the mainland. Within a few +yards of the Hôtel Flouron we reach the edge of this escarpment, and +gaze upon the wide valley of the Aveyron, village-crested hills, and +the dim blue outline of the far-off Larzac. + +From the public promenade at the other end of the city we look westward +upon a richly-cultivated plain set round with the Cantal mountains, +gold-green vineyards, wine-red soil, and deep purple distance. + +The physical characteristics of some French departments are as nicely +defined as their political demarcations. Nothing can afford a sharper +contrast than the Aveyron, with its ruddy soil and red rocks, and the +green, pastoral Cantal, land of smiling valleys, unbroken pastures, and +hills that wear a look of perpetual spring. These differences cannot +fail to strike the traveller who journeys from Rodez to Vic-sur-Cère; a +charming bit of railway it is, especially in autumn, when the chestnut +woods begin to show autumn crimson and gold. + +And Vic-sur-Cère, too, delights even more on a second visit. The spot +is indeed a corner of Eden--a happy valley, to be transformed, alas! +into a miniature Vals. My hostess told me that a casino, hotel, and +bathing establishment are about to be built, all bringing their +concomitant evils or advantages, as we may respectively regard +cosmopolitan comforts, high prices, frivolous distractions, and a +fashionable crowd. + +How kindly the good folks of the homely Hôtel du Pont welcomed their +guest of last year, filling my basket at departure with gifts of +flowers, fruit, and little cheeses, begging me to return the following +summer! At Clermont-Ferrand, good fortune for the first time directed +me to a really comfortable hotel, as on previous visits, alike in +lodgings and hotels, I had been cheated, bullied, and made +uncomfortable. Let me signal alike the fact and the name: at the Hôtel +de la Poste I was enabled really to enjoy this interesting old town, +the views of the Puy de Dôme from every opening, the noble, Romanesque +church of Nôtre Dame du Port, the magnificent display of the shops-no +town in all France where you can buy more beautiful jewellery, bronzes +and porcelain than at Clermont. + +My companion quitted me here, proceeding by night express to Paris, and +I took the long, slow, wearisome parliamentary to Lyons, a ten hours' +journey, which wiser travellers will not fail to break half-way. The +only express train between Clermont and Lyons leaves very early in the +morning, so we have a choice of evils. + +I do not know why the Puy de Dôme should be my favourite mountain, but +so it is, and never did it look lovelier than to-day, as, with its +sister volcanoes, pyramid upon pyramid of warm purple, it towered above +the green Limagne; gradually the rest receded from view, till at last +nothing was left but that solitary dome of amethyst under the golden +heaven. At Lyons--where I awaited a dear French friend--I always make a +point of seeing the famous town-clock, work of a modern sculptor, a son +of Lyons. + +This clock, or rather the marble façade adorning it, is not only a work +of genius, but a sermon in stone, perpetually preached to the surging, +buzzing crowds below. It stands high above the central hall of the +Exchange, at business hours a scene of extraordinary bustle and +excitement, which the public can always watch from the gallery above, +and from which they command an excellent view of the clock. + +The noble piece of sculpture forming the façade represents the various +stages of human life--three female figures composing the group--the +Hour that is gone, the Hour that is here, the Hour that is coming. +Simple as is the arrangement of the whole, nevertheless, so skilful is +the pourtrayal that each figure seems to move before our eyes. We +almost see the despairing past sink into the abyss, her passive, erect +sister, the dominant hour, letting go her hand, whilst, radiant and +impatient for her own reign to begin, the joyous impersonation of the +future springs upward as if on wings. + +This allegory, so powerfully and poetically rendered in marble, might +have been more appropriately placed. Does it not savour of irony thus +to idealize the three stages of human existence 'among the +money-changers of the Temple'? + +Next day was Sunday, as glorious a sixteenth of September as could be +desired. In company with my friend I set off for an al-fresco breakfast +on the banks of the Saône. + +No city in all France boasts of more umbrageous walks than Lyons, and +for miles we drive along the plane-bordered quays and suburban slopes, +dotted with villas and chateaux, the modest chalet of the artisan and +small shopkeeper peeping amid vineyards and orchards, whilst showing a +splendid front from English-like park we see many a palatial mansion of +silk merchant or iron-founder. Between the sunny vine-clad hills and +belt of suburban dwellings flows the placid Saône, a contrast indeed to +its swift, impetuous brother--no wonder the Rhône has a masculine name! + +An hour of upward climb, and we might fancy ourselves in Switzerland or +at Keswick, anywhere but within an easy walk of the second Paris--so +cool the shadow of the over-arching trees, so rustic the ferny rock, so +quiet the woodland glades. We got lovely glimpses of the clear, blue +river as, freighted with many a pleasure-boat, it winds its way towards +Macon. + +In a sequestered nook at the foot of these wooded hills is a curious +monument, none more martial to be found in the world--the tomb of a +soldier, constructed by soldiers; on a plain marble slab inscribed the +words: 'Here lies a soldier,' not a syllable more. + +On either side, under a small open chapel, portico-shaped, in which the +stone lies, are two figures, a dragoon and a foot-soldier, who keep +perpetual watch over their chief. + +This is the self-chosen monument of the General Castellane, one of the +first Napoleon's veterans. Perpetual Masses are celebrated here on his +behalf. + +We drive on to our destination, the Île Barbe, a narrow wooded islet, +dividing the Saône into two branches, and forming the favourite +holiday-ground of the Lyonnais. The rich hire a special pleasure-boat +or carriage; the happy tourist is, perhaps, like myself, driven thither +by ever-hospitable, too hospitable, French friends, who, not content +with affording their guests a day's unmitigated pleasure, invariably +contrive to eliminate every element of fatigue. Holiday-making is +indeed cultivated to the point of a fine art in France. + +For slender purses there are cheap boats, cheap railways, and the +omnibus. It does one's heart good to see scores of family parties +to-day availing themselves of the superb weather and taking a last +picnic. In every green, shady nook we see a merry group squatted on the +ground, relishing their cold patties, fruit and wine, as they can only +be relished out of doors. The babies, nursemaids, and pet dogs are +there. Breakfast over, the holiday-makers amuse themselves, +grandparents and bantlings, with fishing for minnows in the clear +waters. + +How merry are all! How all too swiftly fleet the bright hours! + +In the spacious, terraced garden of the restaurant we find dozens of +tables spread for richer folk. We prefer the cool, quiet dining-room, +which we have to ourselves, after all. The food is not of the choicest, +the wine compels criticism between each course, we have to wait long +enough for the making of an ordinary meal; but French gaiety and +good-nature overlook these drawbacks, and the charming view of the +river and its wooded banks, the freshness of the air, the atmosphere of +gala and relaxation, make up for everything; the bill is cheerfully +paid, and all but the separate items of the day's enjoyment forgotten. + +Perhaps the charm of a French picnic is enhanced by the fact that it is +never made too long. Our neighbours do not make what is called 'a day +of it,' but wisely prefer to take their pleasure as they do their +champagne--in moderation. We drive home, feeling fresh and alert as +when we set out. + +Everyone is abroad. As we pass through the workman's suburb, the +ultra-socialist, ultra-revolutionary quarter of the city, in which +political passions have so often raged hotly, and popular feeling has +taken incendiary form, we find only peacefulness and calm. The +socialist and red-revolutionary, in his Sunday's best, sits before his +front door, reading a newspaper, playing with his baby or chatting with +a neighbour. Pet dogs and cats sun themselves with a lazy, Sunday air, +girls and lovers flirt, children play, gossips tell each other the +news. It is difficult to believe that we are passing the stormiest +quarter of the stormiest city in France. All is as quiet as the +riverside scenes we have just left. + +With this delightful recollection I close my latest--not, I trust, +last--French journey. + +I took leave of my dear friend at Lyons, both of us hoping to breakfast +together next time, not on the banks of the Saône, but on the Eiffel +Tower, there to fête the glorious Revolution, in the words of our great +Fox: 'How much the greatest event that ever happened in the world, and +how much the best!' + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Roof of France, by Matilda Betham-Edwards + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROOF OF FRANCE *** + +***** This file should be named 9073-8.txt or 9073-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/9/0/7/9073/ + +Produced by Carlo Traverso, Michelle Shephard and +Distributed Proofreaders. 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