illustration: "'to the health of the count!'" see p. 32] the christmas kalends of provence and some other provençal festivals * * * * * by thomas a. janvier sòci dòu felibrige author of "in old new york" "the passing of thomas" "in great waters" etc. _illustrated_ * * * * * harper & brothers publishers new york and london 1902 copyright, 1902, by harper & brothers. _all rights reserved._ published november, 1902. to c. a. j. contents page the christmas kalends of provence 1 a feast-day on the rhône 133 the comédie française at orange 209 illustrations "'to the health of the count!'" _frontispiece_ at the well _facing p._ 6 planting saint barbara's grain " 14 elizo's old father " 74 magali " 100 the passing of the kings " 112 "the blind girl"--noël " 118 the landing-place at tournon " 166 the defile of donzère " 190 the roumanille monument " 198 avignon " 204 general view of the theatre " 210 "it looked treasons, conspiracies and mutinous " 236 outbursts" the great façade " 238 scene from the first act of "oedipus" " 248 scene from the second act of "antigone" " 256 the christmas kalends of provence i fancy you've journeyed down the rhône, fancy you've passed vienne, valence, fancy you've skirted avignon- and so are come _en pleine_ provence. fancy a mistral cutting keen across the sunlit wintry fields, fancy brown vines, and olives green, and blustered, swaying, cypress shields. fancy a widely opened door, fancy an eager outstretched hand, fancy--nor need you ask for more- a heart-sped welcome to our land. fancy the peal of christmas chimes, fancy that some long-buried year is born again of ancient times- and in provence take christmas cheer! in my own case, this journey and this welcome were not fancies but realities. i had come to keep christmas with my old friend monsieur de vièlmur according to the traditional provençal rites and ceremonies in his own entirely provençal home: an ancient dwelling which stands high up on the westward slope of the alpilles, overlooking arles and tarascon and within sight of avignon, near the rhône margin of provence. the vidame--such is monsieur de vièlmur's ancient title: dating from the vigorous days when every proper bishop, himself not averse to taking a breather with sword and battle-axe should fighting matters become serious, had his _vice dominus_ to lead his forces in the field--is an old-school country gentleman who is amiably at odds with modern times. while tolerant of those who have yielded to the new order, he himself is a great stickler for the preservation of antique forms and ceremonies: sometimes, indeed, pushing his fancies to lengths that fairly would lay him open to the charge of whimsicality, were not even the most extravagant of his crotchets touched and mellowed by his natural goodness of heart. in the earlier stages of our acquaintance i was disposed to regard him as an eccentric; but a wider knowledge of provençal matters has convinced me that he is a type. under his genial guidance it has been my privilege to see much of the inner life of the provençaux, and his explanations have enabled me to understand what i have seen: the vidame being of an antiquarian and bookish temper, and never better pleased than when i set him to rummaging in his memory or his library for the information which i require to make clear to me some curious phase of provençal manners or ways. the château de vièlmur has remained so intimately a part of the middle ages that the subtle essence of that romantic period still pervades it, and gives to all that goes on there a quaintly archaic tone. the donjon, a prodigiously strong square tower dating from the twelfth century, partly is surrounded by a dwelling in the florid style of two hundred years back--the architectural flippancies of which have been so tousled by time and weather as to give it the look of an old beau caught unawares by age and grizzled in the midst of his affected youth. in the rear of these oddly coupled structures is a farm-house with a dependent rambling collection of farm-buildings; the whole enclosing a large open court to which access is had by a vaulted passage-way, that on occasion may be closed by a double set of ancient iron-clamped doors. as the few exterior windows of the farm-house are grated heavily, and as from each of the rear corners of the square there projects a crusty tourelle from which a raking fire could be kept up along the walls, the place has quite the air of a testy little fortress--and a fortress it was meant to be when it was built three hundred years and more ago (the date, 1561, is carved on the keystone of the arched entrance) in the time of the religious wars. but now the iron-clamped doors stand open on rusty hinges, and the court-yard has that look of placid cheerfulness which goes with the varied peaceful activities of farm labour and farm life. chickens and ducks wander about it chattering complacently, an aged goat of a melancholy humour stands usually in one corner lost in misanthropic thought, and a great flock of extraordinarily tame pigeons flutters back and forth between the stone dove-cote rising in a square tower above the farm-house and the farm well. [illustration: at the well] this well--enclosed in a stone well-house surmounted by a very ancient crucifix--is in the centre of the court-yard, and it also is the centre of a little domestic world. to its kerb come the farm animals three times daily; while as frequently, though less regularly, most of the members of the two households come there too; and there do the humans--notably, i have observed, if they be of different sexes--find it convenient to rest for a while together and take a dish of friendly talk. from the low-toned chattering and the soft laughter that i have heard now and then of an evening i have inferred that these nominally chance encounters are not confined wholly to the day. by simple machinery (of which the motive-power is an aged patient horse, who is started and left then to his own devices; and who works quite honestly, save that now and then he stops in his round and indulges himself in a little doze) the well-water is raised continuously into a long stone trough. thence the overflow is led away to irrigate the garden of the château: an old-fashioned garden, on a slope declining southward and westward, abounding in balustraded terraces and stone benches stiffly ornate, and having here and there stone nymphs and goddesses over which in summer climbing roses kindly (and discreetly) throw a blushing veil. the dependent estate is a large one: lying partly on the flanks of the alpilles, and extending far outward from the base of the range over the level region where the rhône valley widens and merges into the valley of the durance. on its highest slopes are straggling rows of almond trees, which in the early spring time belt the grey mountains with a broad girdle of delicate pink blossoms; a little lower are terraced olive-orchards, a pale shimmering green the year round--the olive continuously casting and renewing its leaves; and the lowest level, the wide fertile plain, is given over to vineyards and wheat-fields and fields of vegetables (grown for the paris market), broken by plantations of fruit-trees and by the long lines of green-black cypress which run due east and west across the landscape and shield the tender growing things from the north wind, the mistral. the château stands, as i have said, well up on the mountain-side; and on the very spot (i must observe that i am here quoting its owner) where was the camp in which marius lay with his legions until the time was ripe for him to strike the blow that secured southern gaul to rome. this matter of marius is a ticklish subject to touch on with the vidame: since the fact must be admitted that other antiquaries are not less firm in their convictions, nor less hot in presenting them, that the camp of the roman general was variously elsewhere--and all of them, i regret to add, display a lamentable acerbity of temper in scouting each other's views. indeed, the subject is of so irritating a complexion that the mere mention of it almost surely will throw my old friend--who in matters not antiquarian has a sweetness of nature rarely equalled--into a veritable fuming rage. but even the antiquaries are agreed that, long before the coming of the romans, many earlier races successively made on this mountain promontory overlooking the rhône delta their fortified home: for here, as on scores of other defensible heights throughout provence, the merest scratching of the soil brings to light flints and potshards which tell of varied human occupancy in very far back times. and the antiquaries still farther are agreed that precisely as these material relics (only a little hidden beneath the present surface of the soil) tell of diverse ancient dwellers here, so do the surviving fragments of creeds and customs (only a little hidden beneath the surface of provençal daily life) tell in a more sublimate fashion of those same vanished races which marched on into eternity in the shadowy morning of time. for this is an old land, where many peoples have lived their spans out and gone onward--yet have not passed utterly away. far down in the popular heart remnants of the beliefs and of the habits of those ancients survive, entranced: yet not so numbed but that, on occasion, they may be aroused into a life that still in part is real. even now, when the touch-stone is applied--when the thrilling of some nerve of memory or of instinct brings the present into close association with the past--there will flash into view still quick particles of seemingly long-dead creeds or customs rooted in a deep antiquity: the faiths and usages which of old were cherished by the kelto-ligurians, phoenicians, grecians, romans, goths, saracens, whose blood and whose beliefs are blended in the christian race which inhabits provence to-day. ii in the dominion of vièlmur there is an inner empire. nominally, the vidame is the reigning sovereign; but the power behind his throne is misè fougueiroun. the term "misè" is an old-fashioned provençal title of respect for women of the little bourgeoisie--tradesmen's and shopkeepers' wives and the like--that has become obsolescent since the revolution and very generally has given place to the fine-ladyish "madamo." with a little stretching, it may be rendered by our english old-fashioned title of "mistress"; and misè fougueiroun, who is the vidame's housekeeper, is mistress over his household in a truly masterful way. this personage is a little round woman, still plumply pleasing although she is rising sixty, who is arrayed always with an exquisite neatness in the dress--the sober black-and-white of the elder women, not the gay colours worn by the young girls--of the pays d'arles; and--although shortness and plumpness are at odds with majesty of deportment--she has, at least, the peremptory manner of one long accustomed to command. as is apt to be the way with little round women, her temper is of a brittle cast and her hasty rulings sometimes smack of injustice; but her nature (and this also is characteristic of her type) is so warmly generous that her heart easily can be caught into kindness on the rebound. the vidame, who in spite of his antiquarian testiness is something of a philosopher, takes advantage of her peculiarities to compass such of his wishes as happen to run counter to her laws. his machiavellian policy is to draw her fire by a demand of an extravagant nature; and then, when her lively refusal has set her a little in the wrong, handsomely to ask of her as a favour what he really requires--a method that never fails of success. by my obviously sincere admiration of the château and its surroundings, and by a discreet word or two implying a more personal admiration--a tribute which no woman of the pays d'arles ever is too old to accept graciously--i was so fortunate as to win misè fougueiroun's favour at the outset; a fact of which i was apprised on the evening of my arrival--it was at dinner, and the housekeeper herself had brought in a bottle of precious châteauneuf-du-pape--by the cordiality with which she joined forces with the vidame in reprobating my belated coming to the château. actually, i was near a fortnight behind the time named in my invitation: which had stated expressly that christmas began in provence on the feast of saint barbara, and that i was expected not later than that day--december 4th. "monsieur should have been here," said the housekeeper with decision, "when we planted the blessed saint barbara's grain. and now it is grown a full span. monsieur will not see christmas at all!" but my apologetic explanation that i never even had heard of saint barbara's grain only made my case the more deplorable. "mai!" exclaimed misè fougueiroun, in the tone of one who faces suddenly a real calamity. "can it be that there are no christians in monsieur's america? is it possible that down there they do not keep the christmas feast at all?" to cover my confusion, the vidame intervened with an explanation which made america appear in a light less heathenish. "the planting of saint barbara's grain," he said, "is a custom that i think is peculiar to the south of france. in almost every household in provence, and over in languedoc too, on saint barbara's day the women fill two, sometimes three, plates with wheat or lentils which they set afloat in water and then stand in the warm ashes of the fire-place or on a sunny window ledge to germinate. this is done in order to foretell the harvest of the coming year, for as saint barbara's grain grows well or ill so will the harvest of the coming year be good or bad; and also that there may be on the table when the great supper is served on christmas eve--that is to say, on the feast of the winter solstice--green growing grain in symbol or in earnest of the harvest of the new year that then begins. [illustration: planting saint barbara's grain] "the association of the trinitarian saint barbara with this custom," the vidame continued, "i fear is a bit of a makeshift. were three plates of grain the rule, something of a case would be made out in her favour. but the rule, so far as one can be found, is for only two. the custom must be of pagan origin, and therefore dates from far back of the time when saint barbara lived in her three-windowed tower at heliopolis. probably her name was tagged to it because of old these votive and prophetic grain-fields were sown on what in christian times became her dedicated day. but whatever light-mannered goddess may have been their patroness then, she is their patroness now; and from their sowing we date the beginning of our christmas feast." it was obvious that this explanation of the custom went much too far for misè fougueiroun. at the mention of its foundation in paganism she sniffed audibly, and upon the vidame's reference to the light-mannered goddess she drew her ample skirts primly about her and left the room. the vidame smiled. "i have scandalized misè, and to-morrow i shall have to listen to a lecture," he said; and in a moment continued: "it is not easy to make our provençaux realize how closely we are linked to older peoples and to older times. the very name for christmas in provençal, calèndo, tells how this christian festival lives on from the roman festival of the winter solstice, the january kalends; and the beliefs and customs which go with its celebration still more plainly mark its origin. our farmers believe, for instance, that these days which now are passing--the twelve days, called _coumtié_, immediately preceding christmas--are foretellers of the weather for the new twelve months to come; each in its turn, by rain or sunshine or by heat or cold, showing the character of the correspondingly numbered month of the new year. that the twelve prophetic days are those which immediately precede the solstice puts their endowment with prophetic power very far back into antiquity. our farmers, too, have the saying, 'when christmas falls on a friday you may sow in ashes'--meaning that the harvest of the ensuing year surely will be so bountiful that seed sown anywhere will grow; and in this saying there is a strong trace of venus worship, for friday--divèndre in provençal--is the day sacred to the goddess of fertility and bears her name. that belief comes to us from the time when the statue of aphrodite, dug up not long since at marseille, was worshipped here. our _pater de calèndo_--our curious christmas prayer for abundance during the coming year--clearly is a pagan supplication that in part has been diverted into christian ways; and in like manner comes to us from paganism the whole of our yule-log ceremonial." the vidame rose from the table. "our coffee will be served in the library," he said. he spoke with a perceptible hesitation, and there was anxiety in his tone as he added: "misè makes superb coffee; but sometimes, when i have offended her, it is not good at all." and he visibly fidgeted until the coffee arrived, and proved by its excellence that the housekeeper had been too noble to take revenge. iii in the early morning a lively clatter rising from the farm-yard came through my open window, along with the sunshine and the crisp freshness of the morning air. my apartment was in the southeast angle of the château, and my bedroom windows--overlooking the inner court--commanded the view along the range of the alpilles to the luberoun and mont-ventour, a pale great opal afloat in waves of clouds; while from the windows of my sitting-room i saw over mont-majour and arles far across the level camargue to the hazy horizon below which lay the mediterrænean. in the court-yard there was more than the ordinary morning commotion of farm life, and the buzz of talk going on at the well and the racing and shouting of a parcel of children all had in it a touch of eagerness and expectancy. while i still was drinking my coffee--in the excellence and delicate service of which i recognized the friendly hand of misè fougueiroun--there came a knock at my door; and, upon my answer, the vidame entered--looking so elate and wearing so blithe an air that he easily might have been mistaken for a frolicsome middle-aged sunbeam. "hurry! hurry!" he cried, while still shaking both my hands. "this is a day of days--we are going now to bring home the _cacho-fiò_, the yule-log! put on a pair of heavy shoes--the walking is rough on the mountain-side. but be quick, and come down the moment that you are ready. now i must be off. there is a world for me to do!" and the old gentleman bustled out of the room while he still was speaking, and in a few moments i heard him giving orders to some one with great animation on the terrace below. when i went down stairs, five minutes later, i found him standing in the hall by the open doorway: through which i saw, bright in the morning light across the level landscape, king rené's castle and the church of sainte-marthe in tarascon; and over beyond tarascon, high on the farther bank of the rhône, count raymond's castle of beaucaire; and in the far distance, faintly, the jagged peaks of the cévennes. but that was no time for looking at landscapes. "come along!" he cried. "they all are waiting for us at the mazet," and he hurried me down the steps to the terrace and so around to the rear of the château, talking away eagerly as we walked. "it is a most important matter," he said, "this bringing home of the _cacho-fiò_. the whole family must take part in it. the head of the family--the grandfather, the father, or the eldest son--must cut the tree; all the others must share in carrying home the log that is to make the christmas fire. and the tree must be a fruit-bearing tree. with us it usually is an almond or an olive. the olive especially is sacred. our people, getting their faith from their greek ancestors, believe that lightning never strikes it. but an apple-tree or a pear-tree will serve the purpose, and up in the alp region they burn the acorn-bearing oak. what we shall do to-day is an echo of druidical ceremonial--of the time when the druid priests cut the yule-oak and with their golden sickles reaped the sacred mistletoe; but old jan here, who is so stiff for preserving ancient customs, does not know that this custom, like many others that he stands for, is the survival of a rite." while the vidame was speaking we had turned from the terrace and were nearing the mazet--which diminutive of the provençal word _mas_, meaning farm-house, is applied to the farm establishment at vièlmur partly in friendliness and partly in indication of its dependence upon the great house, the château. at the arched entrance we found the farm family awaiting us: old jan, the steward of the estate, and his wife elizo; marius, their elder son, a man over forty, who is the active manager of affairs; their younger son, esperit, and their daughter nanoun; and the wife of marius, janetoun, to whose skirts a small child was clinging while three or four larger children scampered about her in a whir of excitement over the imminent event by which christmas really would be ushered in. when my presentation had been accomplished--a matter a little complicated in the case of old jan, who, in common with most of the old men hereabouts, speaks only provençal--we set off across the home vineyard, and thence went upward through the olive-orchards, to the high region on the mountain-side where grew the almond-tree which the vidame and his steward in counsel together had selected for the christmas sacrifice. nanoun, a strapping red-cheeked black-haired bounce of twenty, ran back into the mazet as we started; and joined us again, while we were crossing the vineyard, bringing with her a gentle-faced fair girl of her own age who came shyly. the vidame, calling her magali, had a cordial word for this new-comer; and nudged me to bid me mark how promptly esperit was by her side. "it is as good as settled," he whispered. "they have been lovers since they were children. magali is the daughter of elizo's foster-sister, who died when the child was born. then elizo brought her home to the mazet, and there she has lived her whole lifelong. esperit is waiting only until he shall be established in the world to speak the word. and the scamp is in a hurry. actually, he is pestering me to put him at the head of the lower farm!" the vidame gave this last piece of information in a tone of severity; but there was a twinkle in his kind old eyes as he spoke which led me to infer that master esperit's chances for the stewardship of the lower farm were anything but desperate, and i noticed that from time to time he cast very friendly glances toward these young lovers--as our little procession, mounting the successive terraces, went through the olive-orchards along the hill-side upward. presently we were grouped around the devoted almond-tree: a gnarled old personage, of a great age and girth, having that pathetic look of sorrowful dignity which i find always in superannuated trees--and now and then in humans of gentle natures who are conscious that their days of usefulness are gone. esperit, who was beside me, felt called upon to explain that the old tree was almost past bearing and so was worthless. his explanation seemed to me a bit of needless cruelty; and i was glad when magali, evidently moved by the same feeling, intervened softly with: "hush, the poor tree may understand!" and then added, aloud: "the old almond must know that it is a very great honour for any tree to be chosen for the christmas fire!" this little touch of pure poetry charmed me. but i was not surprised by it--for pure poetry, both in thought and in expression, is found often among the peasants of provence. even the children were quiet as old jan took his place beside the tree, and there was a touch of solemnity in his manner as he swung his heavy axe and gave the first strong blow--that sent a shiver through all the branches, as though the tree realized that death had overtaken it at last. when he had slashed a dozen times into the trunk, making a deep gash in the pale red wood beneath the brown bark, he handed the axe to marius; and stood watching silently with the rest of us while his son finished the work that he had begun. in a few minutes the tree tottered; and then fell with a growling death-cry, as its brittle old branches crashed upon the ground. whatever there had been of unconscious reverence in the silence that attended the felling was at an end. as the tree came down everybody shouted. instantly the children were swarming all over it. in a moment our little company burst into the flood of loud and lively talk that is inseparable in provence from gay occasions--and that is ill held in check even at funerals and in church. they are the merriest people in the world, the provençaux. iv marius completed his work by cutting through the trunk again, making a noble _cacho-fiò_ near five feet long--big enough to burn, according to the provençal rule, from christmas eve until the evening of new year's day. it is not expected, of course, that the log shall burn continuously. each night it is smothered in ashes and is not set a-blazing again until the following evening. but even when thus husbanded the log must be a big one to last the week out, and it is only in rich households that the rule can be observed. persons of modest means are satisfied if they can keep burning the sacred fire over christmas day; and as to the very poor, their _cacho-fiò_ is no more than a bit of a fruit-tree's branch--that barely, by cautious guarding, will burn until the midnight of christmas eve. yet this suffices: and it seems to me that there is something very tenderly touching about these thin yule-twigs which make, with all the loving ceremonial and rejoicing that might go with a whole tree-trunk, the poor man's christmas fire. in the country, the poorest man is sure of his _cacho-fiò_. the provençaux are a kindly race, and the well-to-do farmers are not forgetful of their poorer neighbors at christmas time. an almond-branch always may be had for the asking; and often, along with other friendly gifts toward the feast, without any asking at all. indeed, as i understood from the vidame's orders, the remainder of our old almond was to be cut up and distributed over the estate and about the neighborhood--and so the life went out from it finally in a christmas blaze that brightened many homes. in the cities, of course, the case is different; and, no doubt, on many a chill hearth no yule-fire burns. but even in the cities this kindly usage is not unknown. among the boat-builders and ship-wrights of the coast towns the custom long has obtained--being in force even in the government dock-yard at toulon--of permitting each workman to carry away a _cacho-fiò_ from the refuse oak timber; and an equivalent present frequently is given at christmas time to the labourers in other trades. while the vidame talked to me of these genial matters we were returning homeward, moving in a mildly triumphal procession that i felt to be a little tinctured with ceremonial practices come down from forgotten times. old jan and marius marching in front, esperit and the sturdy nanoun marching behind, carried between them the yule-log slung to shoulder-poles. immediately in their wake, as chief rejoicers, the vidame and i walked arm in arm. behind us came elizo and janetoun and magali--save that the last (manifesting a most needless solicitude for nanoun, who almost could have carried the log alone on her own strapping shoulders) managed to be frequently near esperit's side. the children, waving olive-branches, careered about us; now and then going through the form of helping to carry the _cacho-fiò_, and all the while shouting and singing and dancing--after the fashion of small dryads who also were partly imps of joy. so we came down through the sun-swept, terraced olive-orchards in a spirit of rejoicing that had its beginning very far back in the world's history and yet was freshly new that day. our procession took on grand proportions, i should explain, because our yule-log was of extraordinary size. but always the yule-log is brought home in triumph. if it is small, it is carried on the shoulder of the father or the eldest son; if it is a goodly size, those two carry it together; or a young husband and wife may bear it between them--as we actually saw a thick branch of our almond borne away that afternoon--while the children caracole around them or lend little helping hands. being come to the mazet, the log was stood on end in the court-yard in readiness to be taken thence to the fire-place on christmas eve. i fancied that the men handled it with a certain reverence; and the vidame assured me that such actually was the case. already, being dedicate to the christmas rite, it had become in a way sacred; and along with its sanctity, according to the popular belief, it had acquired a power which enabled it sharply to resent anything that smacked of sacrilegious affront. the belief was well rooted, he added by way of instance, that any one who sat on a yule-log would pay in his person for his temerity either with a dreadful stomach-ache that would not permit him to eat his christmas dinner, or would suffer a pest of boils. he confessed that he always had wished to test practically this superstition, but that his faith in it had been too strong to suffer him to make the trial! on the other hand, when treated reverently and burned with fitting rites, the yule-log brings upon all the household a blessing; and when it has been consumed even its ashes are potent for good. infused into a much-esteemed country-side medicine, the yule-log ashes add to its efficacy; sprinkled in the chicken-house and cow-stable, they ward off disease; and, being set in the linen-closet, they are an infallible protection against fire. probably this last property has its genesis in the belief that live-coals from the yule-log may be placed on the linen cloth spread for the great supper without setting it on fire--a belief which prudent housewives always are shy of putting to a practical test. the home-bringing ceremony being thus ended, we walked back to the château together--startling esperit and magali standing hand in hand, lover-like, in the archway; and when we were come to the terrace, and were seated snugly in a sunny corner, the vidame told me of a very stately yule-log gift that was made anciently in aix--and very likely elsewhere also--in feudal times. in aix it was the custom, when the counts of provence still lived and ruled there, for the magistrates of the city each year at christmas-tide to carry in solemn procession a huge _cacho-fiò_ to the palace of their sovereign; and there formally to present to him--or, in his absence, to the grand seneschal on his behalf--this their free-will and good-will offering. and when the ceremony of presentation was ended the city fathers were served with a collation at the count's charges, and were given the opportunity to pledge him loyally in his own good wine. knowing aix well, i was able to fill in the outlines of the vidame's bare statement of fact and also to give it a background. what a joy the procession must have been to see! the grey-bearded magistrates, in their velvet caps and robes, wearing their golden chains of office; the great log, swung to shoulder-poles and borne by leathern-jerkined henchmen; surely drummers and fifers, for such a ceremonial would have been impossibly incomplete in provence without a _tambourin_ and _galoubet_; doubtless a brace of ceremonial trumpeters; and a seemly guard in front and rear of steel-capped and steel-jacketed halbardiers. all these marching gallantly through the narrow, yet stately, aix streets; with comfortable burghers and well-rounded matrons in the doorways looking on, and pretty faces peeping from upper windows and going all a-blushing because of the over-bold glances of the men-at-arms! and then fancy the presentation in the great hall of the castle; and the gay feasting; and the merry wagging of grey-bearded chins as the magistrates cried all together, "to the health of the count!"--and tossed their wine! i protest that i grew quite melancholy as i thought how delightful it all was--and how utterly impossible it all is in these our own dull times! in truth i never can dwell upon such genially picturesque doings of the past without feeling that fate treated me very shabbily in not making me one of my own ancestors--and so setting me back in that hard-fighting, gay-going, and eminently light-opera age. v as christmas day drew near i observed that misè fougueiroun walked thoughtfully and seemed to be oppressed by heavy cares. when i met her on the stairs or about the passages her eyes had the far-off look of eyes prying into a portentous future; and when i spoke to her she recovered her wandering wits with a start. at first i feared that some grave misfortune had overtaken her; but i was reassured, upon applying myself to the vidame, by finding that her seeming melancholy distraction was due solely to the concentration of all her faculties upon the preparation of the christmas feast. her case, he added, was not singular. it was the same just then with all the housewives of the region: for the chief ceremonial event of christmas in provence is the _gros soupa_ that is eaten upon christmas eve, and of even greater culinary importance is the dinner that is eaten upon christmas day--wherefore does every woman brood and labour that her achievement of those meals may realize her high ideal! especially does the preparation of the great supper compel exhaustive thought. being of a vigil, the supper necessarily is "lean"; and custom has fixed unalterably the principal dishes of which it must be composed. thus limited straitly, the making of it becomes a struggle of genius against material conditions; and its successful accomplishment is comparable with the perfect presentment by a great poet of some well-worn elemental truth in a sonnet--of which the triumphant beauty comes less from the integral concept than from the exquisite felicity of expression that gives freshness to a hackneyed subject treated in accordance with severely constraining rules. it is no wonder, therefore, that the provençal housewives give the shortest of the december days to soulful creation in the kitchen, and the longest of the december nights to searching for inspired culinary guidance in dreams. they take such things very seriously, those good women: nor is their seriousness to be wondered at when we reflect that saint martha, of blessed memory, ended her days here in provence; and that this notable saint, after delivering the country from the ravaging tarasque, no doubt set up in her own house at tarascon an ideal standard of housekeeping that still is in force. certainly, the women of this region pattern themselves so closely upon their sainted model as to be even more cumbered with much serving than are womenkind elsewhere. because of the vidame's desolate bachelorhood, the kindly custom long ago was established that he and all his household every year should eat their great supper with the farm family at the mazet; an arrangement that did not work well until misè fougueiroun and elizo (after some years of spirited squabbling) came to the agreement that the former should be permitted to prepare the delicate sweets served for dessert at that repast. of these the most important is nougat, without which christmas would be as barren in provence as christmas would be in england without plum-pudding or in america without mince-pies. besides being sold in great quantities by town confectioners, nougat is made in most country homes. even the dwellers on the poor up-land farms--which, being above the reach of irrigation, yield uncertain harvests--have their own almond-trees and their own bees to make them honey, and so possess the raw materials of this necessary luxury. as for the other sweets, they may be anything that fancy and skill together can achieve; and it is in this ornate department of the great supper that genius has its largest chance. but it was the making of the christmas dinner that mainly occupied misè fougueiroun's mind--a feast pure and simple, governed by the one jolly law that it shall be the very best dinner of the whole year! what may be termed its by-laws are that the principal dish shall be a roast turkey, and that nougat and _poumpo_ shall figure at the dessert. why _poumpo_ is held in high esteem by the provençaux i am not prepared to say. it seemed to me a cake of only a humdrum quality; but even misè fougueiroun--to whom i am indebted for the appended recipe[1]--spoke of it in a sincerely admiring and chop-smacking way. anciently the christmas bird was a goose--who was roasted and eaten ('twas a backhanded compliment!) in honour of her ancestral good deeds. for legend tells that when the kings, led by the star, arrived at the inn-stable in bethlehem it was the goose, alone of all the animals assembled there, who came forward politely to make them her compliments; yet failed to express clearly her good intentions because she had caught a cold, in the chill and windy weather, and her voice was unintelligibly creaky and harsh. the same voice ever since has remained to her, and as a farther commemoration of her hospitable and courteous conduct it became the custom to spit her piously on christmas day. i have come across the record of another christmas roast that now and then was served at the tables of the rich in provence in mediæval times. this was a huge cock, stuffed with chicken-livers and sausage-meat and garnished with twelve roasted partridges, thirty eggs, and thirty truffles: the whole making an alimentary allegory in which the cock represented the year, the partridges the months, the eggs the days, and the truffles the nights. but this never was a common dish, and not until the turkey appeared was the goose rescued from her annual martyrdom. the date of the coming of the turkey to provence is uncertain. popular tradition declares that the crusaders brought him home with them from the indies! certainly, he came a long while ago; probably very soon after europe received him from america as a noble and perpetual christmas present--and that occurred, i think, about thirty years after columbus, with an admirable gastronomic perception, discovered his primitive home. ordinarily the provençal christmas turkey is roasted with a stuffing of chestnuts, or of sausage-meat and black olives: but the high cooks of provence also roast him stuffed with truffles--making so superb a dish that brillat-savarin has singled it out for praise. misè fougueiroun's method, still more exquisite, was to make a stuffing of veal and fillet of pork (one-third of the former and two-thirds of the latter) minced and brayed in a mortar with a seasoning of salt and pepper and herbs, to which truffles cut in quarters were added with a lavish hand. for the basting she used a piece of salt-pork fat stuck on a long fork and set on fire. from this the flaming juice was dripped judiciously over the roast, with resulting little puffings of brown skin which permitted the savour of the salt to penetrate the flesh and so gave to it a delicious crispness and succulence. as to the flavour of a turkey thus cooked, no tongue can tell what any tongue blessed to taste of it may know! of the minor dishes served at the christmas dinner it is needless to speak. there is nothing ceremonial about them; nothing remarkable except their excellence and their profusion. save that they are daintier, they are much the same as christmas dishes in other lands. while the preparation of all these things was forward, a veritable culinary tornado raged in the lower regions of the château. both magali and the buxom nanoun were summoned to serve under the housekeeper's banners, and i was told that they esteemed as a high privilege their opportunity thus to penetrate into the very arcana of high culinary art. the vidame even said that nanoun's matrimonial chances--already good, for the baggage had set half the lads of the country-side at loggerheads about her--would be decidedly bettered by this discipline under misè fougueiroun: whose name long has been one to conjure with in all the kitchens between saint-remy and the rhône. for the provençaux are famous trencher-men, and the way that leads through their gullets is not the longest way to their hearts. vi but in spite of their eager natural love for all good things eatable, the provençaux also are poets; and, along with the cooking, another matter was in train that was wholly of a poetic cast. this was the making of the crèche: a representation with odd little figures and accessories of the personages and scene of the nativity--the whole at once so naïve and so tender as to be possible only among a people blessed with rare sweetness and rare simplicity of soul. the making of the crèche is especially the children's part of the festival--though the elders always take a most lively interest in it--and a couple of days before christmas, as we were returning from one of our walks, we fell in with all the farm children coming homeward from the mountains laden with crèche-making material: mosses, lichens, laurel, and holly; this last of smaller growth than our holly, but bearing fine red berries, which in provençal are called _li poumeto de sant-jan_--"the little apples of saint john." our expedition had been one of the many that the vidame took me upon in order that he might expound his geographical reasons for believing in his beloved roman camp; and this diversion enabled me to escape from marius--i fear with a somewhat unseemly precipitation--by pressing him for information in regard to the matter which the children had in hand. as to openly checking the vidame, when once he fairly is astride of his hobby, the case is hopeless. to cast a doubt upon even the least of his declarations touching the doings of the roman general is the signal for a blaze of arguments down all his battle front; and i really do not like even to speculate upon what might happen were i to meet one of his major propositions with a flat denial! but an attack in flank, i find--the sudden posing of a question upon some minor antiquarian theme--usually can be counted upon, as in this instance, to draw him outside the roman lines. yet that he left them with a pained reluctance was so evident that i could not but feel some twinges of remorse--until my interest in what he told me made me forget my heartlessness in shunting to a side track the subject on which he so loves to talk. in a way, the crèche takes in provence the place of the christmas-tree, of which northern institution nothing is known here; but it is closer to the heart of christmas than the tree, being touched with a little of the tender beauty of the event which it represents in so quaint a guise. its invention is ascribed to saint francis of assisi. the chronicle of his order tells that this seraphic man, having first obtained the permission of the holy see, represented the principal scenes of the nativity in a stable; and that in the stable so transformed he celebrated mass and preached to the people. all this is wholly in keeping with the character of saint francis; and, certainly, the crèche had its origin in italy in his period, and in the same conditions which formed his graciously fanciful soul. its introduction into provence is said to have been in the time of john xxii.--the second of the avignon popes, who came to the pontificate in the year 1316--and by the fathers of the oratory of marseille: from which centre it rapidly spread abroad through the land until it became a necessary feature of the christmas festival both in churches and in homes. obviously, the crèche is an offshoot from the miracle plays and mysteries which had their beginning a full two centuries earlier. these also survive vigorously in provence in the "pastouralo": an acted representation of the nativity that is given each year during the christmas season by amateurs or professionals in every city and town, and in almost every village. indeed, the pastouralo is so large a subject, and so curious and so interesting, that i venture here only to allude to it. nor has it, properly--although so intensely a part of the provençal christmas--a place in this paper, which especially deals with the christmas of the home. in the farm-houses, and in the dwellings of the middle-class, the crèche is placed always in the living-room, and so becomes an intimate part of the family life. on a table set in a corner is represented a rocky hill-side--dusted with flour to represent snow--rising in terraces tufted with moss and grass and little trees and broken by foot-paths and a winding road. this structure is very like a provençal hill-side, but it is supposed to represent the rocky region around bethlehem. at its base, on the left, embowered in laurel or in holly, is a wooden or pasteboard representation of the inn; and beside the inn is the stable: an open shed in which are grouped little figures representing the several personages of the nativity. in the centre is the christ-child, either in a cradle or lying on a truss of straw; seated beside him is the virgin; saint joseph stands near, holding in his hand the mystic lily; with their heads bent down over the child are the ox and the ass--for those good animals helped with their breath through that cold night to keep him warm. in the foreground are the two _ravi_--a man and a woman in awed ecstasy, with upraised arms--and the adoring shepherds. to these are added on epiphany the figures of the magi--the kings, as they are called always in french and in provençal--with their train of attendants, and the camels on which they have brought their gifts. angels (pendent from the farm-house ceiling) float in the air above the stable. higher is the star, from which a ray (a golden thread) descends to the christ-child's hand. over all, in a glory of clouds, hangs the figure of jehovah attended by a white dove. these are the essentials of the crèche; and in the beginning, no doubt, these made the whole of it. but for nearly six centuries the delicate imagination of the provençal poets and the cruder, but still poetic, fancy of the provençal people have been enlarging upon the simple original: with the result that twoscore or more figures often are found in the crèche of to-day. either drawing from the quaintly beautiful mediæval legends of the birth and childhood of jesus, or directly from their own quaintly simple souls, the poets from early times have been making christmas songs--noëls, or nouvé as they are called in provençal--in which new subordinate characters have been created in a spirit of frank realism, and these have materialized in new figures surrounding the crèche. at the same time the fancy of the people, working with a still more naïve directness along the lines of associated ideas, has been making the most curiously incongruous and anachronistic additions to the group. to the first order belong such creations as the blind man, led by a child, coming to be healed of his blindness by the infant's touch; or that of the young mother hurrying to offer her breast to the new-born (in accordance with the beautiful custom still in force in provence) that its own mother may rest a little before she begins to suckle it; or that of the other mother bringing the cradle of which her own baby has been dispossessed, because of her compassion for the poor woman at the inn whose child is lying on a truss of straw. but the popular additions, begotten of association of ideas, are far more numerous and also are far more curious. the hill-top, close under the floating figure of jehovah, has been crowned with a wind-mill--because wind-mills abounded anciently on the hill-tops of provence. to the mill, naturally, has been added a miller--who is riding down the road on an ass, with a sack of flour across his saddle-bow that he is carrying as a gift to the holy family. the adoring shepherds have been given flocks of sheep, and on the hill-side more shepherds and more sheep have been put for company. the sheep, in association with the ox and the ass, have brought in their train a whole troop of domestic animals--including geese and turkeys and chickens and a cock on the roof of the stable; and in the train of the camels has come the extraordinary addition of lions, bears, leopards, elephants, ostriches, and even crocodiles! the provençaux being from of old mighty hunters (the tradition has found its classic embodiment in tartarin), and hill-sides being appropriate to hunting, a figure of a fowler with a gun at his shoulder has been introduced; and as it is well, even in the case of a provençal sportsman, to point a gun at a definite object, the fowler usually is so placed as to aim at the cock on the stable roof. he is a modern, yet not very recent addition, the fowler, as is shown by the fact that he carries a flint-lock fowling-piece. drumming and fifing being absolute essentials to every sort of provençal festivity, a conspicuous figure always is found playing on a _tambourin_ and _galoubet_. itinerant knife-grinders are an old institution here, and in some obscure way--possibly because of their thievish propensities--are associated intimately with the devil; and so there is either a knife-grinder simple, or a devil with a knife-grinder's wheel. of old it was the custom for the women to carry distaffs and to spin out thread as they went to and from the fields or along the roads (just as the women nowadays knit as they walk), and therefore a spinning-woman always is of the company. because child-stealing was not uncommon here formerly, and because gypsies still are plentiful, there are three gypsies lurking about the inn all ready to steal the christ-child away. as the inn-keeper naturally would come out to investigate the cause of the commotion in his stable-yard, he is found, with the others, lantern in hand. and, finally, there is a group of women bearing as gifts to the christ-child the essentials of the christmas feast: codfish, chickens, carde, ropes of garlic, eggs, and the great christmas cakes, _poumpo_ and _fougasso_. many other figures may be, and often are, added to the group--of which one of the most delightful is the turk who makes a solacing present of his pipe to saint joseph; but all of these which i have named have come to be now quite as necessary to a properly made crèche as are the few which are taken direct from the bible narrative: and the congregation surely is one of the quaintest that ever poetry and simplicity together devised! in provençal the diminutive of saint is _santoun_; and it is as santouns that all the personages of the crèche--including the whole of the purely human and animal contingent, and even the knife-grinding devil--are known. they are of various sizes--the largest, used in churches, being from two to three feet high--and in quality of all degrees: ranging downward from real magnificence (such as may be seen in the seventeenth-century neapolitan crèche in room v. of the musée de cluny) to the rough little clay figures two or three inches high in common household use throughout provence. these last, sold by thousands at christmas time, are as crude as they well can be: pressed in rude moulds, dried (not baked), and painted with glaring colours, with a little gilding added in the case of jehovah and the angels and the kings. for two centuries or more the making of clay santouns has been a notable industry in marseille. it is largely a hereditary trade carried on by certain families inhabiting that ancient part of the city, the quarter of saint-jean, which lies to the south of the vieux port. the figures sell for the merest trifle, the cheapest for one or two sous, yet the santoun fair--held annually in december in booths set up in the cour-du-chapitre and in the allée-des-capucins--is of a real commercial importance; and is also--what with the oddly whimsical nature of its merchandise, and the vast enjoyment of the children under parental or grand-parental convoy who are its patrons--the very gayest sight in that city of which gayety is the dominant characteristic the whole year round. vii not until "the day of the kings," the feast of the epiphany, is the crèche completed. then are added to the group the figures of the three kings--the magi, as we call them in english: along with their gallant train of servitors, and the hump-backed camels on which they have ridden westward to bethlehem guided by the star. the provençal children believe that they come at sunset, in pomp and splendour, riding in from the outer country, and on through the street of the village, and in through the church door, to do homage before the manger in the transept where the christ-child lies. and the children believe that it may be seen, this noble procession, if only they may have the good fortune to hit upon the road along which the royal progress to their village is to be made. but mistral has told about all this far better than i can tell about it, and i shall quote here, by his permission, a page or two from the "memoirs" which he is writing, slowly and lovingly, in the between-whiles of the making of his songs: "to-morrow's the festival of the kings. this evening they arrive. if you want to see them, little ones, go quickly to meet them--and take presents for them, and for their pages, and for the poor camels who have come so far!" that was what, in my time, the mothers used to say on the eve of epiphany--and, _zòu!_ all the children of the village would be off together to meet "les rois mages," who were coming with their pages and their camels and the whole of their glittering royal suite to adore the christ-child in our church in maillane! all of us together, little chaps with curly hair, pretty little girls, our sabots clacking, off we would go along the arles road, our hearts thrilling with joy, our eyes full of visions. in our hands we would carry, as we had been bidden, our presents: fougasso for the kings, figs for the pages, sweet hay for the tired camels who had come so far. on we would go through the cold of dying day, the sun, over beyond the rhône, dipping toward the cévennes; leafless trees, red in low sun-rays; black lines of cypress; in the fields an old woman with a fagot on her head; beside the road an old man scratching under the hedge for snails. "where are you going, little ones?" "we are going to meet the kings!" and on we would run proudly along the white road, while the shrewd north wind blew sharp behind us, until our old church tower would drop away and be hidden behind the trees. we could see far, far down the wide straight road, but it would be bare! in the cold of the winter evening all would be dumb. then we would meet a shepherd, wrapped in his long brown cloak and leaning on his staff, a silhouette against the western sky. "where are you going, little ones?" "we are going to meet the kings! can you tell us if they are far off?" "ah, the kings. certainly. they are over there behind the cypresses. they are coming. you will see them soon." on we would run to meet the kings so near, with our fougasso and our figs and our hay for the hungry camels. the day would be waning rapidly, the sun dropping down into a great cloud-bank above the mountains, the wind nipping us more shrewdly as it grew still more chill. our hearts also would be chilling. even the bravest of us would be doubting a little this adventure upon which we were bound. [illustration: the passing of the kings] then, of a sudden, a flood of radiant glory would be about us, and from the dark cloud above the mountains would burst forth a splendour of glowing crimson and of royal purple and of glittering gold! "les rois mages! les rois mages!" we would cry. "they are coming! they are here at last!" but it would be only the last rich dazzle of the sunset. presently it would vanish. the owls would be hooting. the chill night would be settling down upon us, out there in the bleak country, sorrowful, alone. fear would take hold of us. to keep up our courage a little, we would nibble at the figs which we had hoped to give to the pages, at the fougasso which we had hoped to present to the kings. as for the hay for the hungry camels, we would throw it away. shivering in the wintry dusk, we would return sadly to our homes. and when we reached our homes again our mothers would ask: "well, did you see them, the kings?" "no; they passed by on the other side of the rhône, behind the mountains." "but what road did you take?" "the road to arles." "ah, my poor child! the kings don't come that way. they come from the east. you should have gone out to meet them on the road to saint-remy. and what a sight you have missed! oh, how beautiful it was when they came marching into maillane--the drums, the trumpets, the pages, the camels! _mon dieu_, what a commotion! what a sight it was! and now they are in the church, making their homage before the manger in which the little christ-child lies. but never mind; after supper you shall see them all." then we would sup quickly, and so be off to the church, crowded with all maillane. barely would we be entered there when the organ would begin, at first softly and then bursting forth formidably, all our people singing with it, with the superb noël: in the early morning i met a train of three great kings who were going on a journey! high up before the altar, directly above the manger in which the christ-child was lying, would be the glittering _bello estello_; and making their homage before the manger would be the kings whom it had guided thither from the east: old white-bearded king melchior with his gift of incense; gallant young king gaspard with his gift of treasure; black king balthazar the moor with his gift of myrrh. how reverently we would gaze on them, and how we would admire the brave pages who carried the trains of their long mantles, and the hump-backed camels whose heads towered high above saint mary and saint joseph and the ox and the ass. yes, there they were at last--the kings! many and many a time in the after years have i gone a-walking on the arles road at nightfall on the eve of the kings. it is the same--but not the same. the sun, over beyond the rhône, is dipping toward the cévennes; the leafless trees are red in the low sun-rays; across the fields stretch the black lines of cypress; even the old man, as long ago, is scratching in the hedge by the roadside for snails. and when darkness comes quickly, with the sun's setting, the owls hoot as of old. but in the radiant glory of the sunset i no longer see the dazzle and the splendour of the kings! "which way went they, the kings?" "behind the mountains!" viii in the morning of the day preceding christmas a lurking, yet ill-repressed, excitement pervaded the château and all its dependencies. in the case of the vidame and misè fougueiroun the excitement did not even lurk: it blazed forth so openly that they were as a brace of comets--bustling violently through our universe and dragging into their erratic wakes, away from normal orbits, the whole planetary system of the household and all the haply intrusive stars. with my morning coffee came the explanation of a quite impossible smell of frying dough-nuts which had puzzled me on the preceding day: a magnificent golden-brown _fougasso_, so perfect of its kind that any provençal of that region--though he had come upon it in the sandy wastes of sahara--would have known that its creator was misè fougueiroun. to compare the _fougasso_ with our homely dough-nut does it injustice. it is a large flat open-work cake--a grating wrought in dough--an inch or so in thickness, either plain or sweetened or salted, fried delicately in the best olive-oil of aix or maussane. it is made throughout the winter, but its making at christmas time is of obligation; and the custom obtains among the women--though less now than of old--of sending a _fougasso_ as a christmas gift to each of their intimates. as this custom had in it something more than a touch of vainglorious emulation, i well can understand why it has fallen into desuetude in the vicinity of vièlmur--where misè fougueiroun's inspired kitchening throws all other cook-work hopelessly into the shade. as i ate the "horns" (as its fragments are called) of my _fougasso_ that morning, dipping them in my coffee according to the prescribed custom, i was satisfied that it deserved its high place in the popular esteem. when i joined the vidame below stairs i found him under such stress of christmas excitement that he actually forgot his usual morning suggestion--made always with an off-hand freshness, as though the matter were entirely new--that we should take a turn along the lines of the roman camp. he was fidgeting back and forth between the hall (our usual place of morning meeting) and the kitchen: torn by his conflicting desires to attend upon me, his guest, and to take his accustomed part in the friendly ceremony that was going on below. presently he compromised the divergencies of the situation, though with some hesitation, by taking me down with him into misè fougueiroun's domain--where he became frankly cheerful when he found that i was well received. although the morning still was young, work on the estate had been ended for the day, and about the door of the kitchen more than a score of labourers were gathered: all with such gay looks as to show that something of a more than ordinarily joyous nature was in train. among them i recognized the young fellow whom we had met with his wife carrying away the yule-log; and found that all of them were workmen upon the estate who--either being married or having homes within walking distance--were to be furloughed for the day. this was according to the provençal custom that christmas must be spent by one's own fire-side; and it also was according to provençal custom that they were not suffered to go away with empty hands. misè fougueiroun--a plump embodiment of benevolence--stood beside a table on which was a great heap of her own _fougasso_, and big baskets filled with dried figs and almonds and celery, and a genial battalion of bottles standing guard over all. one by one the vassals were called up--there was a strong flavour of feudalism in it all--and to each, while the vidame wished him a "_bòni fèsto!_" the housekeeper gave his christmas portion: a _fougasso_, a double-handful each of figs and almonds, a stalk of celery, and a bottle of _vin cue_[2]--the cordial that is used for the libation of the yule-log and for the solemn yule-cup; and each, as he received his portion, made his little speech of friendly thanks--in several cases most gracefully turned--and then was off in a hurry for his home. most of them were dwellers in the immediate neighbourhood; but four or five had before them walks of more than twenty miles, with the same distance to cover in returning the next day. but great must be the difficulty or the distance that will keep a provençal from his own people and his own hearth-stone at christmas-tide! in illustration of this home-seeking trait, i have from my friend mistral the story that his own grandfather used to tell regularly every year when all the family was gathered about the yule-fire on christmas eve: it was back in the revolutionary times, and mistral the grandfather--only he was not a grandfather then, but a mettlesome young soldier of two-and-twenty--was serving with the army of the pyrénées, down on the borders of spain. december was well on, but the season was open--so open that he found one day a tree still bearing oranges. he filled a basket with the fruit and carried it to the captain of his company. it was a gift for a king, down there in those hard times, and the captain's eyes sparkled. "ask what thou wilt, _mon brave_," he said, "and if i can give it to thee it shall be thine." quick as a flash the young fellow answered: "before a cannon-ball cuts me in two, commandant, i should like to go to provence and help once more to lay the yule-log in my own home. let me do that!" now that was a serious matter. but the captain had given his word, and the word of a soldier of the republic was better than the oath of a king. therefore he sat down at his camp-table and wrote: army of the eastern pyrénées, december 12, 1793. we, perrin, captain of military transport, give leave to the citizen françois mistral, a brave republican soldier, twenty-two years old, five feet six inches high, chestnut hair and eyebrows, ordinary nose, mouth the same, round chin, medium forehead, oval face, to go back into his province, to go all over the republic, and, if he wants to, to go to the devil! "with an order like that in his pocket," said mistral, "you can fancy how my grandfather put the leagues behind him; and how joyfully he reached maillane on the lovely christmas eve, and how there was danger of rib-cracking from the hugging that went on. but the next day it was another matter. news of his coming had flown about the town, and the mayor sent for him. "'in the name of the law, citizen,' the mayor demanded, 'why hast thou left the army?' "now my grandfather was a bit of a wag, and so--with never a word about his famous pass--he answered: 'well, you see i took a fancy to come and spend my christmas here in maillane.' "at that the mayor was in a towering passion. 'very good, citizen,' he cried. 'other people also may take fancies--and mine is that thou shalt explain this fancy of thine before the military tribunal at tarascon. off with him there!' "and then away went my grandfather between a brace of gendarmes, who brought him in no time before the district judge: a savage old fellow in a red cap, with a beard up to his eyes, who glared at him as he asked: 'citizen, how is it that thou hast deserted thy flag?' "now my grandfather, who was a sensible man, knew that a joke might be carried too far; therefore he whipped out his pass and presented it, and so in a moment set everything right. "'good, very good, citizen!' said old redcap. 'this is as it should be. thy captain says that thou art a brave soldier of the republic, and that is the best that the best of us can be. with a pass like that in thy pocket thou canst snap thy fingers at all the mayors in provence; and the devil himself had best be careful--shouldst thou go down that way, as thy pass permits thee--how he trifles with a brave soldier of france!' "but my grandfather did not try the devil's temper," mistral concluded. "he was satisfied to stay in his own dear home until the day of the kings was over, and then he went back to his command." ix the day dragged a little when we had finished in the kitchen with the giving of christmas portions and the last of the farm-hands, calling back "_bòni fèsto!_," had gone away. for the womenkind, of course, there was a world to do; and misè fougueiroun whisked us out of her dominions with a pretty plain statement that our company was less desirable than our room. but for the men there was only idle waiting until night should come. as for the vidame--who is a fiery fume of a little old gentleman, never happy unless in some way busily employed--this period of stagnation was so galling that in sheer pity i mounted him upon his hobby and set him to galloping away. 'twas an easy matter, and the stimulant that i administered was rather dangerously strong: for i brought up the blackest beast in the whole herd of his abominations by asking him if there were not some colour of reason in the belief that marius lay not at vièlmur but at glanum--now saint-remy-de-provence--behind the lines of roman wall which exist there to this day. so far as relieving the strain of the situation was concerned, my expedient was a complete success; but the storm that i raised was like to have given the vidame such an attack of bilious indigestion begotten of anger as would have spoiled the great supper for him; and as for myself, i was overwhelmed for some hours by his avalanche of words. but the long walk that we took in the afternoon, that he might give me convincing proof of the soundness of his archæological theories, fortunately set matters right again; and when we returned in the late day to the château my old friend had recovered his normal serenity of soul. as we passed the mazet in our afternoon walk, we stopped to greet the new arrivals there, come to make the family gathering complete: two more married children, with a flock of their own little ones, and elizo's father and mother--a bowed little rosy-cheeked old woman and a bowed lean old man, both well above eighty years. there was a lively passage of friendly greetings between them all and the vidame; and it was quite delightful to see how the bowed little old woman kindled and bridled when the vidame gallantly protested that she grew younger and handsomer every year. a tall ladder stood against the mazet, and the children were engaged in hanging tiny wheat-sheaves along the eaves: the christmas portion of the birds. in old times, the vidame explained, it was the general custom for children to make this pretty offering--that the birds of heaven, finding themselves so served, might descend in clouds to the feast prepared for them by christian bounty. but nowadays, he added, sighing, the custom rarely was observed. other charitable usages of christmas had vanished, he continued, because the need for them had passed away with the coming of better times. save in the large cities, there are very few really poor people in provence now. it is a rich land, and it gives to its hard-working inhabitants a good living; with only a pinch now and then when a cold winter or a dry summer or a wet harvest puts things out of gear. but of old the conditions were sadly different and there was need for all that charity could give. in those times, when in comfortable homes the christmas feast was set, there would be heard outside a plaintive voice calling: "give something from your yule-log to the sorrowful poor!" and then the children quickly, would carry out to the calling poor one good portions of food. pious families, also, were wont to ask some poor friend or acquaintance, or even a poor passing stranger, to eat the great supper with them; and of the fragments a part would be sent to the poor brethren in the hostel de dieu: which offerings were called always "the share of the good god." in many towns and villages the offerings of christian bounty were collected in a curious way. a gigantic figure of wicker-work--called melchior, after one of the three kings of the epiphany--clothed in a grotesque fashion and with a huge pannier strapped to his back, was mounted upon an ass and so was taken from door to door to gather for the poor whatever the generous would give of food. into the big basket charitable hands threw figs, almonds, bread, cheese, olives, sausages: and when the brave melchior had finished his round his basket was emptied upon a table at the church door, and then all the poor people of the parish were free to come there and receive portions of those good things--while the church bells rang, and while there blazed beside the table a torch in representation of the star which guided melchior and his fellow kings to bethlehem. a reminiscence of this general charity still survives in the little town of solliès, tucked away in the mountains not far from toulon. there, at christmas time, thirteen poor people known as "the apostles" (though there is one to spare) receive at the town-house a dole of two pounds of meat, two loaves of bread, some figs and almonds, and a few sous. and throughout provence the custom still is general that each well-to-do family shall send a portion of its christmas loaf--the _pan calendau_--to some friend or neighbour to whom fortune has been less kind. but, happily, this gift nowadays often is a mere friendly compliment, like the gift of _fougasso_; for the times are past when weak-kneed and spasmodic charity dealt with real poverty in provence. x 'twas with such kindly reminiscences of old-time benevolence, rather than with explosive archæological matters, that i kept the vidame from falling again a-fuming--while we waited through the dusk for the coming of seven o'clock, at which hour the festivities at the mazet were to begin. our waiting place was the candle-lit salon: a stately old apartment floored formally with squares of black and white marble, furnished in the formal style of the eighteenth century, and hung around with formal family portraits and curious old prints in which rather lax classical subjects were treated with a formal severity. the library being our usual habitat, i inferred that our change of quarters was in honour of the day. it was much to my liking; for in that antiquely ordered room--and the presence of the vidame helped the illusion--i felt always as though i had stepped backward into the thick of eighteenth century romance. but for the vidame, although he also loves its old time flavour, the salon had no charms just then; and when the glass-covered clock on the mantle chimed from among its gilded cupids the three-quarters he arose with a brisk alacrity and said that it was time for us to be off. our march--out through the rear door of the château and across the court-yard to the mazet--was processional. all the household went with us. the vidame gallantly gave his arm to misè fougueiroun; i followed with her first officer--a sauce-box named mouneto, so plumply provoking and charming in her arlesian dress that i will not say what did or did not happen in the darkness as we passed the well! a little in our rear followed the house-servants, even to the least; and in the mazet already were gathered, with the family, the few work-people of the estate who had not gone to their own homes. for the great supper is a patriarchal feast, to which in christian fellowship come the master and the master's family and all of their servitors and dependants on equal terms. a broad stream of light came out through the open doorway of the farm-house, and with it a great clatter and buzz of talk--that increased tenfold as we entered, and a cry of "_bòni fèsto!_" came from the whole company at once. as for the vidame, he so radiated cordiality that he seemed to be the veritable spirit of christmas (incarnate at the age of sixty, and at that period of the nineteenth century when stocks and frilled shirts were worn), and his joyful old legs were near to dancing as he went among the company with warm-hearted greetings and outstretched hands. all told, we numbered above forty; but the great living-room of the mazet, notwithstanding the space taken by the supper-table ranged down the middle of it, easily could have held another score. save in its size, and in the completeness of its appointments, this room was thoroughly typical of the main apartment found in farm-houses throughout provence. the floor was laid with stone slabs and the ceiling was supported upon very large smoke-browned beams--from which hung hams, and strings of sausages, and ropes of garlic, and a half-dozen bladders filled with lard. more than a third of the rear wall was taken up by the huge fire-place, that measured ten feet across and seven feet from the stone mantle-shelf to the floor. in its centre, with room on each side in the chimney-corners for a chair (a space often occupied by large lockers for flour and salt), was the fire-bed--crossed by a pair of tall andirons, which flared out at the top into little iron baskets (often used, with a filling of live coals, as plate-warmers) and which were furnished with hooks at different heights to support the roasting-spits. hanging from the mantle-shelf was a short curtain to hold the smoke in check; and on the shelf were various utilitarian ornaments: a row of six covered jars, of old faience, ranging in holding capacity from a gill to three pints, each lettered with the name of its contents--saffron, pepper, tea, salt, sugar, flour; and with these some burnished copper vessels, and a coffee-pot, and a half-dozen of the tall brass or pewter lamps for burning olive-oil--which long ago superseded the primitive _calèu_, dating from roman or from still earlier times, and which now themselves practically have been superseded by lamps burning petroleum. to the right of the fire-place was the stone sink, with shelves above it on which was a brilliant array of polished copper and tin pots and pans. to the left was the covered bread-trough, above which hung the large salt and flour boxes and the grated bread-closet--this last looking like a child's crib gone wrong--all of dark wood ornamented with carving and with locks and hinges of polished iron. on the opposite side of the room, matching these pieces in colour and carving and polished iron-work, were a tall buffet and a tall clock--the clock of so insistent a temperament that it struck in duplicate, at an interval of a minute, the number of each hour. a small table stood in a corner, and in ordinary times the big dining-table was ranged along one of the walls, with benches on each side of it supplemented by rush-bottomed chairs. near the bread-trough was hung a long-armed steel-balance with a brass dish suspended by brass chains, all brilliant from scouring with soap and sand; an ancient fowling-piece rested in wooden crutches driven between the stones on one side of the clock, and on the other side was hung a glittering copper warming-pan--a necessary comfort here of cold nights in fireless rooms. by way of ornament, three or four violently-colored lithographs were tacked against the walls, together with a severely formal array--a pyramidal trophy--of family photographs. excepting the warming-pan and the two arm-chairs ordinarily in the chimney-corners, there was no provision in the room for bodily ease or comfort: a lack unperceived by its occupants, but which an american house-wife--missing her many small luxuries and conveniences--would have found sharply marked. xi the crèche, around which the children were gathered in a swarm, was built up in one corner; and our coming was the signal for the first of the ceremonies, the lighting of the crèche candles, to begin. in this all the children had a part--making rather a scramble of it, for there was rivalry as to which of them should light the most--and in a moment a constellation of little flames covered the bethlehem hill-side and brought into bright prominence the holy family and its strange attendant host of quite impossible people and beasts and birds. the laying of the yule-log followed; a ceremony so grave that it has all the dignity of, and really is, a religious rite. the buzz of talk died away into silence as elizo's father, the oldest man, took by the hand and led out into the court-yard where the log was lying his great-grandson, the little tounin, the youngest child: it being the rule that the nominal bearers of the _cacho-fiò_ to the hearth shall be the oldest and the youngest of the family--the one personifying the year that is dying, the other the year new-born. sometimes, and this is the prettiest rendering of the custom, the two are an old, old man and a baby carried in its mother's arms--while between them the real bearers of the burden walk. in our case the log actually was carried by marius and esperit; but the tottering old man clasped its forward end with his thin feeble hands, and its hinder end was clasped by the plump feeble hands of the tottering child. thus, the four together, they brought it in through the doorway and carried it thrice around the room, circling the supper-table and the lighted candles; and then, reverently, it was laid before the fire-place--that still sometimes is called in provençal the _lar_. [illustration: elizo's old father] there was a pause, while the old man filled out a cup of _vin cue_; and a solemn hush fell upon the company, and all heads were bowed, as he poured three libations upon the log, saying with the last: "in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy ghost!"--and then cried with all the vigor that he could infuse into his thin and quavering old voice: cacho-fiò, bouto-fiò! alègre! alègre! diéu nous alègre! calèndo vèn! tout bèn vèn! diéu nous fague la gràci de vèire l'an que vèn, e se noun sian pas mai, que noun fuguen pas mens! yule-log, catch fire! joy! joy! god gives us joy! christmas comes! all good comes! may god give us grace to see the coming year, and if we are not more, may we not be less! as he ended his invocation he crossed himself, as did all the rest; and a great glad shout was raised of "alègre! alègre!" as marius and esperit--first casting some fagots of vine-branches on the bed of glowing coals--placed the yule-log upon the fire. instantly the vines blazed up, flooding the room with brightness; and as the yule-log glowed and reddened everybody cried cacho-fiò, bouto-fiò! alègre! alègre! again and again--as though the whole of them together of a sudden had gone merry-mad! in the midst of this triumphant rejoicing the bowl from which the libation had been poured was filled afresh with _vin cue_ and was passed from hand to hand and lip to lip--beginning with the little tounin, and so upward in order of seniority until it came last of all to the old man--and from it each drank to the new fire of the new year. anciently, this ceremony of the yule-log lighting was universal in provence, and it is almost universal still; sometimes with a less elaborate ritual than i have described, but yet substantially the same: always with the libation, always with an invocation, always with the rejoicing toast to the new fire. but in modern times--within the last century or so--another custom in part has supplanted it in marseille and aix and in some few other towns. this is the lighting of candles at midnight in front of the crèche; a ceremony, it will be observed, in which new fire still bears the most important part. one of my aix friends, the poet joachim gasquet, has described to me the christmas eve customs which were observed in his own home: the gasquet bakery, in the rue de la cepède, that has been handed down from father to son through so many hundreds of years that even its owners cannot tell certainly whether it was in the fourteenth or the fifteenth century that their family legend of good baking had its rise. as monsieur auguste, the _contre-maître_ of the bakery, opened the great stone door of the oven that i might peer into its hot depths, an historical cross-reference came into my mind that made me realize its high antiquity. allowing for difference of longitude, the _contre-maître_ who was monsieur auguste's remote predecessor was lifting the morning's baking out of that oven at the very moment when columbus saw through the darkness westward the lights of a new world! in the gasquet family it was the custom to eat the great supper in the oven room: because that was the heart, the sanctuary, of the house; the place consecrated by the toil which gave the family its livelihood. on the supper-table there was always a wax figure of the infant christ, and this was carried just before midnight to the living-room, off from the shop, in one corner of which the crèche was set up. it was the little joachim whose right it was, because he was the youngest, the purest, to carry the figure. a formal procession was made. he walked at its head, a little chap with long curling golden hair, between his two grandfathers; the rest followed in the order of their age and rank: his two grandmothers, his father and mother, monsieur auguste (a dashing blade of a young baker then) with the maid-servant, and the apprentices last of all. a single candle was carried by one of his grandfathers into the dark room--the illumination of which, that night, could come only from the new fire kindled before the crèche. precisely at midnight--at the moment when all the clocks of aix striking together let loose the christmas chimes--the child laid the holy figure in the manger, and then the candles instantly were set ablaze. sometimes there would be a thrilling pause of half a minute or more while they waited for the bells: the child, with the image in his hands, standing before the crèche in the little circle of light; the others grouped behind him, and for the most part lost in dark shadow cast by the single candle held low down; those nearest to the crèche holding matches ready to strike so that all the candles might be lighted at once when the moment came. and then all the bells together would send their voices out over the city heavenward; and his mother would say softly, "now, my little son!"; and the room would flash into brightness suddenly--as though a glory radiated from the christ-child lying there in the manger between the ox and the ass. every evening throughout the christmas season the candles were relighted before this christmas shrine, and there the members of the family said in common their evening prayer; and when the time came for taking down the crèche those parts of it which were not preserved for the ensuing year--the refuse scraps of wood and pasteboard and moss and laurel--were burned (this is the orthodox general custom) with something of the flavour of a rite; not cast into the household fire nor the bakery oven, but saved from falling into base places by being consumed in a pure fire of its own. xii while our own more orthodox yule-log ceremonial was in progress, the good elizo and janetoun--upon whom the responsibility of the supper rested--evidently were a prey to anxious thoughts. they whispered together and cast uneasy glances toward the chimney, into the broad corners of which the various cooking vessels had been moved to make way for the _cacho-fiò_; and the moment that the cup of benediction had passed their lips they precipitated themselves upon the fire-place and replaced the pots and pans for a final heating upon the coals. the long table had been set before our arrival and was in perfect readiness--covered with a fine white linen cloth, sacredly reserved for use at high festivals, that fairly sparkled in the blaze of light cast by the overhanging petroleum lamp. yet the two ceremonial candles, one at each end of the table, also were lighted; and were watched anxiously as the supper went on: for should the wick of one of the christmas candles fall before the supper is ended, the person toward whom it points in falling will pass from earth before the christmas feast is set again. but misè fougueiroun, to guard against this ominous catastrophe, had played a trick on fate by providing wax candles with wicks so fine that they wasted away imperceptibly in their own flame. beside those fateless candles were the harvest harbingers, the plates on which was growing saint barbara's grain--so vigorous and so freshly green that old jan rubbed his hands together comfortably as he said to the vidame: "ah, we need have no fears for the harvest that is coming in this blessed year!" in the centre of the table, its browned crust slashed with a cross, was the great loaf of christmas bread, _pan calendau_; on which was a bunch of holly tied with the white pith of rushes--the "marrow" of the rush, that is held to be an emblem of strength. old jan, the master of the house, cut the loaf into as many portions as there were persons present; with one double-portion over to be given to some poor one in charity--"the portion of the good god." it is of a miraculous nature, this blessed bread: the sailors of provence carry morsels of it with them on their voyages, and by strewing its crumbs upon the troubled waters stay the tempests of the sea. for the rest, the table had down its middle a line of dishes--many of them old faience of moustiers, the mere sight of which would have thrilled a collector's heart--heaped with the nougat and the other sweets over the making of which our housekeeper and her lieutenants so soulfully had toiled. and on the table in the corner were fruits and nuts and wines. grace always is said before the great supper--a simple formula ending with the prayer of the yule-log that if another year there are no more, there may be no less. it is the custom that this blessing shall be asked by the youngest child of the family who can speak the words: a pretty usage which sometimes makes the blessing go very queerly indeed. our little tounin came to the front again in this matter, exhibiting an air of grave responsibility which showed that he had been well drilled; and it was with quite a saintly look on his little face that he folded his hands together and said very earnestly: "god bless all that we are going to eat, and if we are no less next year may we be no more!" at which everybody looked at janetoun and laughed. in our seating a due order of precedence was observed. old jan, the head of the family, presided, with the vidame and myself on his right and with elizo's father and mother on his left; and thence the company went downward by age and station to the foot of the table, where were grouped the servants from the château and the workmen on the farm. but no other distinction was made. all were served alike and all drank together as equals when the toasts were called. the servers were elizo and janetoun, with nanoun and magali for assistants; and those four, although they took their places at the table when each course had been brought on, had rather a passover time of it: for they ate as it were with their loins girded and with full or empty dishes imminent to their hands. the stout nanoun--whose robust body thrills easily to superstitious fears--was still farther handicapped in her own eating by her zealous effort so to stuff the family cat as to give that animal no excuse for uttering evil-portending miaus. for it is well known that should the family cat fall to miauing on christmas eve, and especially while the supper is in progress, very dreadful things surely will happen to the family during the ensuing year. fortunately nanoun's preventive measures averted this calamity; yet were they like to have overshot their mark. only the cat's natural abstemiousness saved her that night from dying of a surfeit--and in agony surely provocative of the very cries which nanoun sought to restrain! as i have said, the great supper must be "lean," and is restricted to certain dishes which in no wise can be changed; but a rich leanness is possible in a country where olive-oil takes the place of animal fat in cooking, and where the accumulated skill of ages presides over the kitchen fire. the principal dish is the _raïto_--a ragout made of delicately fried fish served in a sauce flavoured with wine and capers--whereof the tradition goes back a round twenty-five hundred years: to the time when the phokæan housewives brought with them to massalia (the marseille of to-day) the happy mystery of its making from their grecian homes. but this excellent dish was not lost to greece because it was gained to gaul: bearing the same name and made in the same fashion it is eaten by the greeks of the present day. it usually is made of dried codfish in provence, where the cod is held in high esteem; but is most delicately toothsome when made of eels. the second course of the great supper also is fish, which may be of any sort and served in any way--in our case it was a perch-like variety of dainty pan-fish, fresh from the rhône. a third course of fish sometimes is served, but the third course usually is snails cooked in a rich brown sauce strongly flavoured with garlic. the provençal snails, which feed in a _gourmet_ fashion upon vine-leaves, are peculiarly delicious--and there was a murmur of delight from our company as the four women brought to the table four big dishes full of them; and for a while there was only the sound of eager munching, mixed with the clatter on china of the empty shells. to extract them, we had the strong thorns, three or four inches long, of the wild acacia; and on these the little brown morsels were carried to the avid mouths and eaten with a bit of bread sopped in the sauce--and then the shell was subjected to a vigorous sucking, that not a drop of the sauce lingering within it should be lost. to the snails succeeded another dish essentially provençal, _carde_. the carde is a giant thistle that grows to a height of five or six feet, and is so luxuriantly magnificent both in leaf and in flower that it deserves a place among ornamental plants. the edible portion is the stem--blanched like celery, which it much resembles, by being earthed-up--cooked with a white sauce flavoured with garlic. the garlic, however, is a mistake, since it overpowers the delicate taste of the carde--but garlic is the overlord of all things eatable in provence. i was glad when we passed on to the celery, with which the first section of the supper came to an end. the second section was such an explosion of sweets as might fly into space should a comet collide with a confectioner's shop--nougat, _fougasso_, a great _poumpo_, compotes, candied-fruits, and a whole nightmare herd of rich cakes on which persons not blessed with the most powerful organs of digestion surely would go galloping to the country of dreadful dreams. this was prodigality; but even the bare requirements of the case were lavish, the traditional law of the great supper ordaining that not fewer than seven different sweets shall be served. misè fougueiroun, however, was not the person to stand upon the parsimonious letter of any eating law. here had been her opportunity, and she had run amuck through all the range of sugary things! of the dessert of nuts and fruit the notable features were grapes and winter-melons. possibly because they are an obscure survival of some bacchic custom connected with the celebration of the winter solstice, the grapes are considered a very necessary part of the great supper; but as provençal grapes are of a soft substance and soon wither, though a world of care is taken to preserve a few bunches until christmas, this part of the feast usually is a ceremony rather than a satisfaction. but our melons were a pure vegetable delight. these winter-melons are a species of cantaloupe, but of a firmer texture than the summer fruit, sowed late in the season and laid away a little green on beds of straw in cool and dark and well-aired rooms. thus cared for, they will keep until the end of january; but they are preserved especially for christmas, and few survive beyond that day. they are of american origin: as i discovered quite by chance while reading a collection of delightful letters, but lately published, written near three hundred years ago by dr. antoine novel; that provençal naturalist, whom buffon quotes under the wrongly latinized name of natalis, sometime physician to the duke of medina-sidonia in spain. he was a rolling stone of a naturalist, the excellent novel; but his gatherings were many, and most of them were for the benefit of his beloved provence. it was from "sainct luquar," under date of march 24, 1625, that he wrote to his friend peiresc in aix: "i send you by the patron armand a little box in which are two specimens of ore ... and ten sorts of seeds of the most exquisite fruits and flowers of the indies; and to fill the chinks i have put in the seeds of winter-melons." and in a letter of june 12th, following, he wrote: "i hope that you have received my letter sent by the patron armand of martigues, who sailed in holy week for that town, by whom i sent you some seeds of exquisite fruits and flowers of the indies, together with two specimens of ore, the one from potosí and the other from terra-firma, and also a box of seven winter-melons of that country." and so the winter-melons came into provence from somewhere on the spanish main. i could wish that my gentleman had been a bit more definite in his geography. as he leaves the matter, his melons may have come from anywhere between the orinoco and florida; and down in that region somewhere, no doubt, they still are to be found. with the serious part of the supper we drank the ordinary small wine diluted with water; but with the dessert was paraded a gallant company of dusty bottles containing ancient vintages which through many ripening years had been growing richer by feeding upon their own excellence in the wine-room of the mazet or the cellar of the château. all were wines of the country, it being a point of honour in provençal households of all degrees that only from provençal vineyards--or from the near-by vineyards of languedoc--shall come the christmas wines. therefore we drank rich and strong tavel, and delicate ledenon, and heavy frontignan--the cloyingly-sweet mouscat de maroussa--and home-made champagne (the _clairette_, with a superabundance of pop and fizz but undeniably cider-like), and at last, for a climax, old châteauneuf-du-pape: the dean of the provençal vinous faculty, rich, smooth, delicate, with a slightly aromatic after-taste that the dallying bees bring to the vine-blossoms from the blossoms of the wild-thyme. anciently it filled the cups over which chirped the sprightly popes of avignon; and in later times, only forty years back, it was the drink of the young félibrien poets--mistral, roumanille, aubanel, mathieu and the rest--while they tuned and set a-going their lyres. but it is passing into a tradition now. the old vines, the primitive stock, were slain by the phylloxera, and the new vines planted to replace them do not produce a wine like that over which popes and poets once were gay. only in rich old cellars, such as that of vièlmur, may still be found a bin or two of dust-grey papal veterans: survivors of the brave army that has gurgled its life out in a happy past! xiii but the material element of the great supper is its least part. what entitles it to the augmenting adjective is its soul: that subtle essence of peace and amity for which the word christmas is a synonym in all christian lands. it is the rule of these family gatherings at christmas time in provence that all heartburnings and rancours, which may have sprung up during the year, then shall be cut down; and even if sometimes they quickly grow again, as no doubt they do now and then, it makes for happiness that they shall be thus banished from the peace-feast of the year. janetoun and one of her sisters-in-law were the only members of our party who had a hatchet to bury; and the burial was over so quickly--being but an extra hug and an explosion of kisses--that i should have known nothing about it but for the over-long tongue of misè fougueiroun: who, in a kindly way, is as thorough-going a gossip as ever lived. of all things in the world to quarrel about, this quarrel had grown out of a spirited difference of opinion as to how the heel of a knitted stocking should be turned! but the matter had come to be quite of a seriousness, and all the family breathed freer when those resounding peace-kisses were given and received. actually, as i happened to learn later, the reconciliation was pushed to such an extreme that each of them incontinently adopted the other's knitting creed--with the curious result that they now are in a fair way to have a fresh quarrel for next christmas out of the same matter on inverted lines! it was before the lighting of the yule-log that the feud of the stocking heels thus happily (even though only temporarily) was pacified, and the family festival was cloudless from first to last. when the serious part of the supper had been disposed of and the mere palate-tickling period of the dessert had come, i was much interested in observing that the talk--mainly carried on by the elders--was turned with an obviously deliberate purpose upon family history; and especially upon the doings of those who in the past had brought honour upon the family name. and i was still more interested when, later, the vidame informed me that it is the provençal custom at the christmas festival for the old thus to instruct the young and so to keep family tradition alive. no doubt there is in this a dim survival of ancestor-worship; but i should be glad to see so excellent a relic of paganism preserved in the christmas ritual of my own land. the chief ancestral glory of the family of the mazet is its close blood-relationship with the gallant andré étienne: that drummer of the fifty-first demi-brigade of the army of italy who is commemorated on the frieze of the panthéon, and who is known and honoured as the "tambour d'arcole" all over france. it was delightful to listen to old jan's telling of the brave story: how this andré, their own kinsman, swam the stream under the enemy's fire at arcolo with his drum on his back and then drummed his fellow-soldiers on to victory; how the first consul awarded him the drum-sticks of honour, and later--when the legion of honour was founded--gave him the cross; how they carved him in stone, drumming the charge, up there on the front of the panthéon in paris itself; how mistral, the great poet of provence, had made a poem about him that had been printed in a book; and how, crowning glory, they had set up his marble statue in cadenet--the little town, not far from avignon, where he was born! old jan was not content with merely telling this story--like a true provençal he acted it: swinging a supposititious drum upon his back, jumping into an imaginary river and swimming it with his head in the air, swinging his drum back into place again, and then--_zóu!_--starting off at the head of the fifty-first demi-brigade with such a rousing play of drum-sticks that i protest we fairly heard the rattle of them, along with the spatter of italian musketry in the face of which andré étienne beat that gallant _pas-de-charge_! it set me all a-thrilling; and still more did it thrill those other listeners who were of the arcolo hero's very blood and bone. they clapped their hands and they shouted. they laughed with delight. and the fighting spirit of gaul was so stirred within them that at a word--the relations between france and italy being a little strained just then--i verily believe they would have been for marching in a body across the south-eastern frontier! elizo's old father was rather out of the running in this matter. it was not by any relative of his that the drum-sticks of honour had been won; and his thoughts, after wandering a little, evidently settled down upon the strictly personal fact that his thin old legs were cold. rising slowly from the table, he carried his plate to the fire-place; and when he had arranged some live coals in one of the baskets of the waist-high andirons he rested the plate above them on the iron rim: and so stood there, eating contentedly, while the warmth from the glowing yule-log entered gratefully into his lean old body and stirred to a brisker pulsing the blood in his meagre veins. but his interest in what was going forward revived again--his legs being, also, by that time well warmed--when his own praises were sounded by his daughter: in the story of how he stopped the runaway horse on the very brink of the precipice at les baux; and how his wife all the while sat calmly beside him in the cart, cool and silent, and showing no sign of fear. when elizo had finished this story she whispered a word to magali and nanoun that sent them laughing out of the room; and presently magali came back again arrayed in the identical dress which had been worn by the heroine of the adventure--who had perked and plumed herself not a little while her daughter told about it--when the runaway horse so nearly had galloped her off the baux rock into eternity. it was the provençal costume--with full sleeves and flaring cap--of sixty years back; but a little gayer than the strict arles dress of that period, because her mother was not of arles but of beaucaire. it was not so graceful, especially in the head-dress, as the costume of the present day; nor nearly so becoming--as magali showed by looking a dozen years older after putting it on. but magali, even with a dozen years added, could not but be charming; and i think that the little old bowed grandmother--who still was a bit of a coquette at eighty--would have been better pleased had she been spared this encounter with what must have seemed to her very like a meeting with her own young ghost, raised suddenly from the depths of the distant past. [illustration: magali] by long experience, gained on many such occasions, the vidame knew that the culminating point of the supper would be reached when the family drummer swam the river and headed the french charge at arcolo. therefore had he reserved until a later period, when the excitement incident to the revival of that honourable bit of family history should have subsided, a joy-giving bomb-shell of his own that he had all ready to explode. an american or an englishman never could have fired it without something in the way of speech-making; but the vidame was of a shy temper, and speech-making was not in his line. when the chatter caused by magali's costuming had lulled a little, and there came a momentary pause in the talk, he merely reached diagonally across the table and touched glasses with esperit and said simply: "to your good health, monsieur the superintendent of the lower farm!" it was done so quietly that for some seconds no one realized that the vidame's toast brought happiness to all the household, and to two of its members a life-long joy. esperit, even, had his glass almost to his lips before he understood to what he was drinking; and then his understanding came through the finer nature of magali--who gave a quick deep sob as she buried her face in the buxom nanoun's bosom and encircled that astonished young person's neck with her arms. esperit went pale at that; but the hand did not tremble in which he held his still-raised glass, nor did his voice quaver as he said with a deep earnestness: "to the good health of monsieur le vidame, with the thanks of two very happy hearts!"--and so drained his wine. a great danger puts no more strain upon the nerves of a man of good fibre than does a great joy; and it seemed to me that esperit's absolute steadiness, under this sudden fire of happiness, showed him to be made of as fine and as manly stuff as went to the making of his kinsman who beat the _pas-de-charge_ up the slope at arcolo at the head of the fifty-first demi-brigade. but nothing less than the turbulence of the whole battle of arcolo--not to say of that whole triumphant campaign in italy--will suffice for a comparison with the tumult that arose about our supper-table when the meaning of the vidame's toast fairly was grasped by the company at large! i do not think that i could express in words--nor by any less elaborate method of illustration than a kinetoscope--the state of excitement into which a provençal will fly over a matter of absolutely no importance at all; how he will burst forth into a very whirlwind of words and gestures about some trifle that an ordinary human being would dispose of without the quiver of an eye. and as our matter was one so truly moving that a very dutchman through all his phlegm would have been stirred by it, such a tornado was set a-going as would have put a mere hurricane of the tropics to open shame! naturally, the disturbance was central over esperit and magali and the vidame. the latter--his kind old face shining like the sun of an easter morning--gave back with a good will on magali's cheeks her kisses of gratitude; and exchanged embraces and kisses with the elder women; and went through such an ordeal of violent hand-shaking that i trembled for the integrity of his arms. but as for the young people, whom everybody embraced over and over again with a terrible energy, that they came through it all with whole ribs is as near to being a miracle as anything that has happened in modern times! gradually the storm subsided--though not without some fierce after-gusts--and at last worked itself off harmlessly in song: as we returned to the ritual of the evening and took to the singing of noëls--the christmas canticles which are sung between the ending of the great supper and the beginning of the midnight mass. xiv the provençal noëls--being some real, or some imagined, incident of the nativity told in verse set to a gay or tender air--are the crèche translated into song. the simplest of them are direct renderings of the bible narrative. our own christmas hymn, "while shepherds watched their flocks by night," is precisely of this order; and, indeed, is of the very period when flourished the greatest of the provençal noël writers: for the poet laureate nahum tate, whose laurel this hymn keeps green, was born in the year 1652 and had begun his mildly poetic career while saboly still was alive. but most of the noëls--_nouvè_, they are called in provençal--are purely imaginative: quaintly innocent stories created by the poets, or taken from those apocryphal scriptures in which the simple-minded faithful of patristic times built up a warmly coloured legend of the virgin's life and of the birth and childhood of her son. sometimes, even, the writers stray away entirely from a religious base and produce mere roistering catches or topical songs. such are those marseille noëls which are nothing more than pantagruelian lists of succulent dishes proper to christmas time--frankly ending, in one case, with the materialistic query: "what do i care for the future, now that my belly is well lined?" it was against such "bacchanals of noël" that the worthy father cotton preached in marseille in the year 1602: but the flesh and the devil always have had things pretty much their own way in that gay city, and he preached in vain. and at aix-en-provence the most popular noël of all that were sung in the cathedral was a satirical review of the events of the year: that as time went on grew to be more and more of a scandal, until at last the bishop had to put a stop to it in the year 1653. the provençaux have been writing noëls for more than four hundred years. one of the oldest belongs to the first half of the fifteenth century and is ascribed to raimond féraud; the latest are of our own day--by roumanille, crousillat, mistral, girard, gras, and a score more. but only a few have been written to live. the memory of many once-famous noël-writers is preserved now either mainly or wholly by a single song. thus the chanoine puech, who died at aix almost two hundred and fifty years ago, lives in the noël of the christ-child and the three gypsy fortune-tellers--which he stole, i am sorry to say, from lope de vega. the abbé doumergue, of aramon, who flourished at about the same period, is alive because of his "march of the kings": that has come ringing down through the ages set to lulli's magnificent "march of turenne"; and it is interesting to note that lulli is said to have found his noble motive in a provençal air. antoine peyrol, who lived only a little more than a century ago, and who "in our good city of avignon was a carpenter and wood-seller and a simple-hearted singer of bethlehem" (as roumanille puts it) has fared better, more than a dozen of his noëls surviving to be sung each year when "the nougat bells" (as they call the christmas chimes in avignon) are ringing in his native town. and, on the other hand, as though to strike a balance between fame and forgottenness, there are some widely popular noëls--as "c'est le bon lever"--of which the authorship absolutely is unknown; while there are still others--as the charming "wild nightingale"--which belong to no one author, but have been built up by unknown farm-house poets who have added fresh verses and so have passed on the amended song. the one assured immortal among these musical mortalities is nicolas saboly: who was born in monteux, close by avignon, in the year 1614; who for the greater part of his life was chapel-master and organist of the avignon church of st. pierre; who died in the year 1675; and who lies buried in the choir of the church which for so long he filled with his own heaven-sweet harmonies. of his beautiful life-work, roumanille has written: "as organist of the church of st. pierre, saboly soon won a great and beautiful renown as a musician; but his fame and his glory have come to him because of the blessed thought that he had of composing his marvellous noëls. yet it was not until the year 1658, when he himself was fifty-four years old, that he decided to tie together and to publish his first sheaf of them. from that time onward, every year until his end, a fresh sheaf of from six to a dozen appeared; and, although no name went with them, all of his townsfolk knew that it was their own troubadour of the nativity who made them so excellent a gift just as the nougat bells began to ring. the organ of st. pierre, touched by his master hand, taught the gay airs to which the new noëls were cast. and all avignon presently would be singing them, and soon the chorus would swell throughout the comtat and provence. the inimitable troubadour of bethlehem died just as he had tied together the eighth of his little sheaves.... his noëls have been reprinted many times; and, thanks be to god, they will be printed again and again forever!"[3] in addition to being a genius, saboly had the good fortune to live in one of the periods of fusing and recasting which give to genius its opportunity. he was born at the very time when claude monteverde was taking those audacious liberties with harmony which cleared the way for the transition from the old tonality to the new; and he died before the great modern masters had set up those standards which composers of our time must either accept or defy. he certainly was influenced by the then new italian school; indeed, from the fourteenth century, when music began to be cultivated in avignon, the relations between that city and italy were so close that the first echoes of italian musical innovators naturally would be heard there. everywhere his work shows, as theirs does, a searching for new methods in the domain of modulation, and a defiance of the laws of transformation reverenced by the formal composers of his time. yet he did his searching always on his own lines and in his own way. nor was his original genius lessened by his willingness at times to lay hands on the desirable property of other people--since his unlawful acquisitions received always a subtle touch which really made them his own. he knew well how to take the popular airs of the moment--the gavotte or minuet or vaudeville which every one was singing: the good old airs, as we call them now, which then were the newest of the new--and how to infuse into them his own personality and so to fit them like a glove to his own noëls. thus, his twelfth noël is set to an air composed by lulli for the drinking song, "qu'ils sont doux, bouteille jolie," in molière's "médecin malgré lui"; and those who are familiar with the music of his time will be both scandalized and set a-laughing by finding the uses to which he has put airs which began life in far from seemly company. but his forays were made from choice, not from necessity, and the best of his noëls are his own. saboly's music has a "go" and a melodic quality suggestive of the work of sir arthur sullivan; but it has a more tender, a fresher, a purer note, even more sparkle, than ever sullivan has achieved. in his gay airs the attack is instant, brilliant, overpowering--like a glad outburst of sweet bells, like the joyous laughter of a child--and everything goes with a dash and a swing. but while he thus loved to harmonize a laugh, he also could strike a note of infinite tenderness. in his pathetic noëls he drops into thrillingly plaintive minors which fairly drag one's heart out--echoes or survivals, possibly (for this poignant melody is not uncommon in old provençal music), of the passionately longing love-songs with which saracen knights once went a-serenading beneath castle windows here in provence. nor is his verse, of its curious kind, less excellent than his music. by turns, as the humour takes him, his noëls are sermons, or delicate religious fancies, or sharp-pointed satires, or whimsical studies of country-side life. one whole series of seven is a history of the nativity (surely the quaintest and the gayest and the tenderest oratorio that ever was written!) in which, in music and in words, he is at his very best. above all, his noëls are local. his background always is his own country; his characters--micolau the big shepherd, gossip guihaumeto, tòni, christòu, and the rest--always are provençaux: wearing provençaux pink-bordered jackets, and white hats bedizened with ribbons, and marching to bethlehem to the sound of the _galoubet_ and _tambourin_. it is from avignon, out by the porte saint lazare, that the start for bethlehem is made by his pilgrim company; the provençal music plays to cheer them; they stamp their feet and swing their arms about, because the mistral is blowing and they are desperately cold. it is a simplicity half laughable, half pathetic--such as is found in those mediæval pictures which represent the apostles or the holy family in the garb of the artist's own time and country, and above the walls of bethlehem the church spire of his own town. this naïve local twist is not peculiar to saboly. with very few exceptions all provençal noëls are packed full of the same delightful anachronisms. it is to provençal shepherds that the herald angel appears; it is provençaux who compose the _bregado_, the pilgrim company, that starts for bethlehem; and bethlehem is a village, always within easy walking distance, here in provence. yet it is not wholly simplicity that has brought about this shifting of the scene of the nativity from the hill country of judæa to the hill country of southeastern france. the life and the look of the two lands have much in common; and most impressively will their common character be felt by one who walks here by night beneath the stars. here, as in the holy land, winding ways pass out from olive-orchards, and on across dry reaches of upland broken by outcropping rocks and scattered trees and bushes and sparsely thatched with short dry grass. through the silence will come now and then the tinkle of sheep-bells. sometimes a flock will be seen, dimly in the starlight, feeding beside the road; and watching, from an overlooking standpoint on a rock or little upswelling hill-top, will be its shepherd: a tall muffled figure showing black against the loom of the sky. and it all is touched, in the star-haze of those sombre solitudes, with the poetic realism of unreality; while its deeper meaning is aroused by the stone crosses, telling of calvary, which are found at every parting of the ways. told to simple dwellers in such a land the bible story was neither vague nor remote. they knew its setting because their own surroundings were the same. they practised the shepherd customs; the ass was their own beast of burden; the tending of vines and fig-trees and olive-orchards was a part of their daily lives. and so, naturally, the older noël writers without any thought of anachronism, and the modern writers by poetic instinct made complete their translation of the story of the nativity into their vernacular by transferring its scene to their own land. xv it was with saboly's "hòu, de l'houstau!" that our singing began. it is one of the series in his history of the nativity and is the most popular of all his noëls: a dialogue between saint joseph and the bethlehem inn-keeper, that opens with a sweet and plaintive long-drawn note of supplication as saint joseph timorously calls: "o-o-oh, there, the house! master! mistress! varlet! maid! is _no_ one there?" and then it continues with humble entreaties for shelter for himself and his wife, who is very near her time; to which the host replies with rough refusals for a while, but in the end grants grudgingly a corner of his stable in which the wayfarers may lie for the night. esperit and magali sang this responsively; magali taking saint joseph's part--in which, in all the noëls, is a strain of feminine sweetness and gentleness. then marius and esperit, in the same fashion, sang the famous "c'est le bon lever": a dialogue between an angel and a shepherd, in which the angel--as becomes so exalted a personage--speaks french, while the shepherd speaks provençal. "it's high time to get up, sweet shepherd," the angel begins; and goes on to tell that "in bethlehem, quite near this place," the saviour of the world has been born of a virgin. "perhaps you take me for a common peasant," the shepherd answers, "talking to me like that! i am poor, but i'd have you to know that i come of good stock. in old times my great-great-grandfather was mayor of our village! and who are you, anyway, fine sir? are you a jew or a dutchman? your jargon makes me laugh. a virgin mother! a child god! no, never were such things heard!" but when the angel reiterates his strange statement the shepherd's interest is aroused. he declares that he will go at once and steal this miraculous child; and he quite takes the angel into his confidence--as though standing close to his elbow and speaking as friend to friend. in the end, of course, he is convinced of the miracle, and says that he "will get the ass and set forth" to join the worshippers about the manger at bethlehem. there are many of these noëls in dialogue; and most of them are touched with this same quality of easy familiarity with sacred subjects, and abound in turns of broad humour which render them not a little startling from our nicer point of view. but they never are coarse, and their simplicity saves them from being irreverent; nor is there, i am sure, the least thought of irreverence on the part of those by whom they are sung. i noticed, though, that these lively numbers were the ones which most hit the fancy of the men; while the women as plainly showed their liking for those of a finer spirit in which the dominant qualities were pathos and grace. of this latter class is roumanille's rarely beautiful noël "the blind girl" ("la chato avuglo")--that magali sang with a tenderness which set the women to crying openly, and which made the older men cough a little and look suspiciously red about the eyes. of all the modern noëls it has come closest to and has taken the strongest hold upon the popular heart: this pathetic story of the child "blind from her birth" who pleads with her mother that she also may go with the rest to bethlehem, urging that though she cannot see "the lovely golden face" she still may touch the christ-child's hand. and when, all thrilling, to the stable she was come she placed the little hand of jesus on her heart- and saw him whom she touched! [illustration: "the blind girl"--noël] but without the music, and with only these crude translations in which is lost also the music of the words, i feel that i am giving very much less than the true effect of these provençal christmas songs. to be appreciated, to be understood, they must be heard as i heard them: sung by that christmas company, with magali's tenderly vibrant voice leading the chorus in which every one of those singing provençaux joined. even the old grandfather--still standing at the fire-place--marked the time of the music with the knife that he held in his hand; and his thin old voice piped in with the others, and had a gay or a tender ring in it with the changing melody, for all that it was so cracked and shrill. i am persuaded, so thoroughly did they all enjoy their own carolling, that the singing of noëls would have gone on until broad daylight had it not been for the intervention of the midnight mass. but the mass of christmas eve--or, rather, of christmas morning--is a matter not only of pleasure but of obligation. even those upon whom churchly requirements at other times rest lightly rarely fail to attend it; and to the faithful it is the most touchingly beautiful--as easter is the most joyous--church festival of the year. by eleven o'clock, therefore, we were under way for our walk of a mile or so down the long slope of the hill side to the village: a little clump of houses threaded by narrow crooked streets and still in part surrounded by the crusty remnant of a battlemented wall--that had its uses in the days when robber barons took their airings and when pillaging saracens came sailing up the slack-water lower reaches of the rhône. down the white road in the moonlight we went in a straggling company, while more and more loudly came to us through the crisp night air the sound of the christmas bells. presently some one started a very sweet and plaintive noël: fairly heart-wringing in its tender beseeching and soft lament, yet with a consoling under-note to which it constantly returned. i think, but i am not sure, that it was roumanille's noël telling of the widowed mother who carried the cradle of her own baby to the virgin, that the christ-child might not lie on straw. one by one the other voices took up the strain, until in a full chorus the sorrowingly compassionate melody went thrilling through the moonlit silence of the night. and so, singing, we walked by the white way onward; hearing as we neared the town the songs of other companies coming up, as ours was, from outlying farms. and when they and we had passed in through the gateways--where the townsfolk of old lashed out against their robber infidel and robber christian enemies--all the black little narrow streets were filled with an undertone of murmuring voices and an overtone of clear sweet song. xvi on the little grande place the crowd was packed densely. there the several streams of humanity pouring into the town met and mingled; and thence in a strong current flowed onward into the church. coming from the blackness without--for the tall houses surrounding the grande place cut off the moonlight and made it a little pocket of darkness--it was with a shock of splendour that we encountered the brightness within. all the side-altars were blazing with candles; and as the service went on, and the high-altar also flamed up, the whole building was filled with a soft radiance--save that strange luminous shadows lingered in the lofty vaulting of the nave. after the high-altar, the most brilliant spot was the altar of saint joseph, in the west transept; beside which was a magnificent crèche--the figures half life-size, beautifully modelled, and richly clothed. but there was nothing whimsical about this crèche: the group might have been, and very possibly had been, composed after a well-painted "nativity" by some artist of the late renaissance. the mass was the customary office; but at the offertory it was interrupted by a ceremony that gave it suddenly an entirely mediæval cast: of which i felt more fully the beauty, and the strangeness in our time, because the vidame sedulously had guarded against my having knowledge of it in advance. this was nothing less than a living rendering of the adoration of the shepherds: done with a simplicity to make one fancy the figures in ghirlandojo's picture were alive again and stirred by the very spirit that animated them when they were set on canvas four hundred years ago. by some means only a little short of a miracle, a way was opened through the dense crowd along the centre of the nave from the door to the altar, and up this way with their offerings real shepherds came--the quaintest procession that anywhere i have ever seen. in the lead were four musicians--playing upon the _tambourin_, the _galoubet_, the very small cymbals called _palets_, and the bagpipe-like _carlamuso_--and then, two by two, came ten shepherds: wearing the long brown full cloaks, weather-stained and patched and mended, which seem always to have come down through many generations and which never by any chance are new; carrying tucked beneath their arms their battered felt hats browned, like their cloaks, by long warfare with sun and rain; holding in one hand a lighted candle and in the other a staff. the two leaders dispensing with staves and candles, bore garlanded baskets; one filled with fruit--melons, pears, apples, and grapes--and in the other a pair of doves: which with sharp quick motions turned their heads from side to side as they gazed wonderingly on their strange surroundings with their bright beautiful eyes. following came the main offering: a spotless lamb. most originally, and in a way poetically, was this offering made. drawn by a mild-faced ewe, whose fleece had been washed to a wonder of whiteness and who was decked out with bright-coloured ribbons in a way to unhinge with vanity her sheepish mind, was a little two-wheeled cart--all garlanded with laurel and holly, and bedizened with knots of ribbon and pink paper roses and glittering little objects such as are hung on christmas-trees in other lands. lying in the cart placidly, not bound and not in the least frightened, was the dazzlingly-white lamb, decked like the ewe with knots of ribbon and wearing about its neck a red collar brilliant to behold. now and then the ewe would turn to look at it, and in response to one of those wistful maternal glances the little creature stood up shakily on its unduly long legs and gave an anxious baa! but when a shepherd bent over and stroked it gently, it was reassured; lying down contentedly again in its queer little car of triumph, and thereafter through the ceremony remaining still. behind the car came ten more shepherds; and in their wake a long double line of country-folk, each with a lighted candle in hand. there is difficulty, indeed, in keeping that part of the demonstration within bounds, because it is esteemed an honour and a privilege to walk in the procession of the offered lamb. slowly that strange company moved toward the altar, where the ministering priest awaited its coming; and at the altar steps the bearers of the fruit and the doves separated, so that the little cart might come between them and their offering be made complete, while the other shepherds formed a semi-circle in the rear. the music was stilled, and the priest accepted and set upon the altar the baskets; and then extended the paten that the shepherds, kneeling, might kiss it in token of their offering of the lamb. this completed the ceremony. the _tambourin_ and _galoubet_ and _palets_ and _carlamuso_ all together struck up again; and the shepherds and the lamb's car passed down the nave between the files of candle-bearers and so out through the door. within the past sixty years or so this naïve ceremony has fallen more and more into disuse. but it still occasionally is revived--as at barbentane in 1868, and rognonas in 1894, and repeatedly within the past decade in the sheep-raising parish of maussane--by a curé who is at one with his flock in a love for the customs of ancient times. its origin assuredly goes back far into antiquity; so very far, indeed, that the airs played by the musicians in the procession seem by comparison quite of our own time: yet tradition ascribes the composition of those airs to the good king rené, whose happy rule over provence ended more than four centuries ago. another custom of a somewhat similar character, observed formerly in many of the provençal churches, was the grouping before the altar at the mass on christmas day of a young girl, a choir-boy, and a dove: in allegorical representation of the virgin mary, the angel gabriel, and the holy ghost. but the assembly of this quaint little company long since ceased to be a part of the christmas rite. xvii when the stir caused by the coming and the going of the shepherds had subsided, the mass went on; with no change from the usual observance, until the sacrament was administered, save that there was a vigorous singing of noëls. it was congregational singing of a very enthusiastic sort--indeed, nothing short of gagging every one of them could have kept those song-loving provençaux still--but it was led by the choir, and choristers took the solo parts. the most notable number was the famous noël in which the crowing of a cock alternates with the note of a nightingale; each verse beginning with a prodigious cock-a-doodle-d-o-o! and then rattling along to the gayest of gay airs. the nightingale was not a brilliant success; but the cock-crowing was so realistic that at its first outburst i thought that a genuine barn-yard gallant was up in the organ-loft. i learned later that this was a musical _tour-de-force_ for which the organist was famed. a buzz of delight filled the church after each cock-crowing volley; and i fancy that i was alone in finding anything odd in so jaunty a performance within church walls. the viewpoint in regard to such matters is of race and education. the provençaux, who are born laughing, are not necessarily irreverent because even in sacred places they sometimes are frankly gay. assuredly, there was no lack of seemly decorum when the moment came for the administration of the sacrament; which rite on christmas eve is reserved to the women, the men communing on christmas day. the women who were to partake--nearly all who were present--wore the provençal costume, but of dark colour. most of them were in black, save for the white chapelle, or kerchief, and the scrap of white which shows above the ribbon confining the knotted hair. but before going up to the altar each placed upon her head a white gauze veil, so long and so ample that her whole person was enveloped in its soft folds; and the women were so many, and their action was with such sudden unanimity, that in a moment a delicate mist seemed to have fallen and spread its silvery whiteness over all the throng. singly and by twos and threes those palely gleaming figures moved toward the altar, until more than a hundred of them were crowded together before the sanctuary rail. nearest to the rail, being privileged to partake before the rest, stood a row of black-robed sisters--teachers in the parish school--whose sombre habits made a vigorous line of black against the dazzle of the altar, everywhere aflame with candles, and by contrast gave to all that sweep of lustrous misty whiteness a splendour still softer and more strange. and within the rail the rich vestments of the ministering priests, and the rich cloths of the altar, all in a flood of light, added a warm colour-note of gorgeous tones. slowly the rite went on. twenty at a time the women, kneeling, ranged themselves at the rail; rising to give room to others when they had partaken, and so returning to their seats. for a full half hour those pale lambent figures were moving ghost-like about the church, while the white-veiled throng before the altar gradually diminished until at last it disappeared: fading from sight a little at a time, softly--as dream-visions of things beautiful melt away. * * * * * presently came the benediction: and all together we streamed out from the brightness of the church into the wintry darkness--being by that time well into christmas morning, and the moon gone down. but when we had left behind us the black streets of the little town, and were come out into the open country, the star-haze sufficed to light us as we went onward by the windings of the spectral white road: for the stars shine very gloriously in provence. we elders kept together staidly, as became the gravity of our years; but the young people--save two of them--frolicked on ahead and took again with a will to singing noëls; and from afar we heard through the night-stillness, sweetly, other home-going companies singing these glad christmas songs. lingering behind us, following slowly, came esperit and magali--to whom that christmas-tide had brought a life-time's happiness. they did not join in the joy-songs, nor did i hear them talking. the fullest love is still. and peace and good-will were with us as we went along the white way homeward beneath the christmas morning stars. saint-remy-de-provence, _september, 1896._ a feast-day on the rhône i this water feast-day was a part of the biennial pilgrimage to the sainte-estelle of the félibrige and the cigaliers: the two félibrien societies maintained in paris by the children of the south of france. through twenty-three dreary months those expatriated ones exist in the chill north; in the blessed twenty-fourth month--always in burning august, when the melons are luscious ripe and the grapes are ripening, when the sun they love so well is blazing his best and the whole land is a-quiver with a thrilling stimulating heat--they go joyously southward upon an excursion which has for its climax the great félibrien festival: and then, in their own gloriously hot midi, they really live! by a semi-right and by a large courtesy, we of america were of this gay party. four years earlier, as the official representatives of an american troubadour, we had come upon an embassy to the troubadours of provence; and such warm relations had sprung up between ourselves and the poets to whom we were accredited that they had ended by making us members of their own elect body: the society of the félibrige--wherein are united the troubadours of these modern times. as félibres, therefore, it was not merely our right but our duty to attend the festival of the sainte-estelle; and our official notification in regard to this meeting--received in new york on a chill day in the early spring-time--announced also that we were privileged to journey on the special steamboat chartered by our brethren of paris for the run from lyons to avignon down the rhône. ii we were called at five o'clock in the morning. even the little birds of lyons were drowsy at that untoward and melancholy hour. as i slowly roused myself i heard their sleepy twitterings out in the trees on the cours du midi--and my sympathies were with them. there are natures which are quickened and strengthened by the early day. mine is not such. i know of nothing which so numbs what i am pleased to term my faculties as to be _particeps criminis_ in the rising of the sun. but life was several shades less cheerless by the time that we left the hôtel univers--which i ever shall remember gratefully because it ministered so well, even in the very midst of the driving bustle of the lyons exposition, to our somewhat exacting needs--and went down to the river side. already the mists of morning had risen, and in their place was the radiant sunshine of the midi: that penetrating, tingling sunshine which sets the blood to dancing and thence gets into the brain and breeds extravagant fancies there which straightway are uttered as substantial truths--as m. daudet so often has told us; and also, when writing about this his own dearly-loved birth-land, so often has demonstrated in his own text. yet had we come to the boat while still in the lowering mood begotten of our intemperate palterings with the dawn we must have yielded quickly to the infectious cheerfulness which obtained on board the _gladiateur_. even a grey penitent would have been moved, coming unawares into that gay company, to throw off his _cagoule_ and to dance a saraband. from end to end the big _gladiateur_ was bright with bunting--flags set in clusters on the great paddle-boxes, on the bow, on the stern--and the company thronging on board was living up to the brightness of the sunshine and the flags. for they were going home, home to their dear south, those poet exiles: and their joy was so strong within them that it almost touched the edge of tears. i could understand their feeling because of a talk that i had had three days before, in paris, with baptiste bonnet: up in his little apartment under the mansard, with an outlook over the flowers in the window-garden across roof-tops to notre dame. bonnet could not come upon this expedition--and what love and longing there was in his voice while he talked to us about the radiant land which to him was forbidden but which we so soon were to see! to know that we were going, while he remained behind, made us feel like a brace of jacobs; and when madame bonnet made delicious tea for us--"because the english like tea," as she explained with a clear kindliness that in no wise was lessened by her misty ethnology--we felt that so to prey upon their hospitality in the very moment that we were making off with their birthright was of the blackest of crimes. but because of what our dear bonnet had said, and of the way in which he had said it, i understood the deep feeling that underlay the exuberant gayety of our boat-mates--and it seemed to me that there was a very tender note of pathos in their joy. they were of all sorts and conditions, our boat-mates: a few famous throughout the world, as the player mounet-sully, the painter benjamin constant, the prose poet paul arène; many famous throughout france; and even in the rank and file few who had not raised themselves above the multitude in one or another of the domains of art. and all of them were bound together in a democratic brotherhood, which yet--because the absolute essential to membership in it was genius--was an artistic aristocracy. with their spiritual honours had come to many of them honours temporal; indeed, so plentiful were the purple ribbons of the palms and the red rosette of the legion--with here and there even a legion button--as to suggest that the entire company had been caught out without umbrellas while a brisk shower of decorations passed their way. a less general, and a far more picturesque, decoration was the enamelled cigale worn by the cigaliers: at once the emblem of their society, of the félibrien movement, and of the glowing south where that gayest of insects is born and sings his life out in the summer days. most of the poets came to the boat breakfastless, and their first move on board was toward the little cabin on deck wherein coffee was served. the headwaiter at the improvised breakfast table--as i inferred not less from his look and manner than from his ostentatiously professed ignorance of his native tongue--was an english duke in reduced circumstances; and his assistants, i fancy, were retired french senators. indeed, those dignified functionaries had about them an air of high comedy so irresistible, and so many of the ladies whom they served were personages of the odéon or the comédie française, that only the smell of the coffee saved the scene from lapsing into the unrealism of the realistic stage. seven o'clock came, but the _gladiateur_ remained passive. at the gang-plank were assembled the responsible heads of the expedition--who were anything but passive. they all were talking at once, and all were engaged in making gestures expressive of an important member of the party who had been especially charged to be on hand in ample time; who had outraged every moral principle by failing to keep his appointment; whose whereabouts could not be even remotely surmised; whose absence was the equivalent of ruin and despair--a far less complex series of concepts, i may add, than a southern frenchman is capable of expressing with his head and his body and his hands. it was the pianist. a grave majoral, reaching down to the kernel of the matter, solved the difficulty with the question: "have we the piano?" "we have." "enough!" cried the majoral. "let us go." in a moment the gang-plank was drawn aboard; the lines were cast off; the great paddle-wheels began to turn; the swift current laid hold upon us--and the _gladiateur_, slipping away from the bank, headed for the channel-arch of the pont-du-midi. the bridge was thronged with our friends of lyons come down to say good-bye to us. above the parapet their heads cut sharp against the morning glitter of the sun-bright sky. all together they cheered us as we, also cheering, shot beneath them: and then the bridge, half hidden in the cloud of smoke from our huge funnel, was behind us--and our voyage was begun. iii of all the rivers which, being navigable, do serious work in the world the rhône is the most devil-may-care and light-hearted. in its five hundred mile dash down hill from the lake of geneva to the mediterrænean its only purpose--other than that of doing all the mischief possible--seems to be frolic fun. and yet for more than two thousand years this apparently frivolous, and frequently malevolent, river has been very usefully employed in the service of mankind. in the misty barbaric ages before history fairly began, and in the early times of the roman domination, the rhône was the sole highway into northern gaul from the mediterrænean; later, when the gallic system of roman roads had been constructed, it held its own fairly well against the two roads which paralleled it--that on the east bank throughout almost its entire length, and that on the west bank from lyons southward to a point about opposite to the present montélimar; in the semi-barbarous middle ages--when the excitements of travel were increased by the presence of a robber-count at every ford and in every mountain-pass--it became again more important than the parallel highways on land; and in our own day the conditions of roman times, relatively speaking, are restored once more by steamboats on the river and railways on the lines of the ancient roads. and so, having served these several masters, the rhône valley of the present day is stored everywhere with remnants of the barbarism, of the civilization, and of the semi-barbarism which successively have been ploughed under its surface before what we have the temerity to call our own civilization began. keltic flints and pottery underlie roman ruins; just beneath the soil, or still surviving above it, are remains of roman magnificence; and on almost all the hill-tops still stand the broken strongholds of the robber nobles who maintained their nobility upon what they were lucky enough to be able to steal. naturally--those ruined castles, and the still-existent towns of the same period, being so conspicuously in evidence--the flavour of the river is most distinctly mediæval; but a journey in this region, with eyes open to perceive as well as to see, is a veritable descent into the depths of the ancient past. indeed, the _gladiateur_ had but little more than swung clear from lyons--around the long curve where the saône and the rhône are united and the stream suddenly is doubled in size--than we were carried back to the very dawn of historic times. before us, stretching away to the eastward, was the broad plain of saint-fons--once covered with an oak forest to which druid priests bearing golden sickles came from the île barbe at yule-tide to gather mistletoe for the great pagan feast; later, a battle-field where clodius albinus and septimius severus came to a definite understanding in regard to the rulership of gaul; later still, the site of a pleasure castle of the archbishops of lyons, and of the villa longchêne to which light-hearted lyons' nobles came. palace and villa still are there--the one a dominican school, the other a hospital endowed by the empress eugénie: but the oaks and the druids and the battle are only faint legends now. i am forced to admit that never a thought was given to that aggregation of antiquities by the too-frivolous passengers aboard the _gladiateur_. at the very moment when we were steaming through those gallo-roman and mediæval latitudes there was a burst of music from the piano that fired our light-headed company as a spark fires a mine. the music was the air of "la coupe," the félibrien anthem, and instantly a hundred voices took up the song. when this rite was ended, the music shifted to a livelier key and straightway a farandole was formed. on the whole, a long and narrow steamboat is not an especially good place for a farandole; but the leader of that one--a young person from the odéon, whose hair came down repeatedly but whose exceptionally high spirits never came down at all--was not one of the sort whom difficulties deter. at the head of the long line of dancers--a living chain held together by clasped hands--she caracoled and curveted up and down the narrow passes of the boat; and after her, also caracoling and curveting, came the chain: that each moment grew in length as volunteers joined it, or (in keeping with farandole customs) as the less vivacious members of the party were seized upon and forcibly impressed into its ranks. and so we farandoled clear away to givors. it took the place of a master of ceremonies, our farandole, and acted as an excellent solvent of formalities. yet even without it there would have been none of the stiffness and reserve which would have chilled a company assembled under like conditions in english-speaking lands. friendliness and courtesy are characteristics of the french in general; and especially did our american contingent profit by those amiable traits that day on the rhône. save for a slight correspondence with a single member of the party, all aboard the boat were strangers to us; but in that kindly atmosphere, before we had time to fancy that we were outsiders, we found ourselves among friends. givors slipped by almost unnoticed in the thick of the farandole: a little town hung out to sun in long strips upon terraces rising from the water-side; the walls and tiled roofs making a general effect of warm greys and yellows dashed with the bright greens of shrubs and trees and gardens and the yellow green of vines. 'tis a town of some commercial pretensions: the gateway of a canal a dozen miles long leading up through the valley of the little river gier to iron-works and coke-works and glass-works tucked away in the hills. the canal was projected almost a century and a half ago as a connecting channel between the rhône and the loire, and so between the atlantic and the mediterrænean; wherefore the canal of the two oceans was, and i suppose continues to be, its high-sounding name. but the revolution came, and the digging never extended beyond that first dozen miles; and thus it is that the canal of the two oceans, as such, is a delusion, and that the golden future which once lay ahead of givors now lies a long way astern. yet the town has an easy and contented look: as though it had saved enough from the wreck of its magnificent destiny to leave it still comfortably well to do. before we fairly had passed it, and while the farandole was dying out slowly, there crashed down upon us a thunderous outburst of song: as though an exceptionally large-lunged seraph were afloat immediately above us in the open regions of the air. yet the song was of a gayer sort than seraphs, presumably, are wont to sing; and its method, distinctly, was that of the modern operatic stage. in point of fact, the singer was not a seraph, but an eminent professor in a great institution of learning and a literary authority of the first rank--whose critical summary of french literature is a standard, and whose studies of beaumarchais and le sage have been crowned by the academy. in sheer joyousness of spirit that eminent personage had betaken himself to the top of the port paddle-box, and thence was suffering his mountain-cleaving voice to go at large: so quickening was the company in which he found himself; so stimulating was the racy fervour of his own southern sun! iv from givors the river runs almost in a straight line to vienne. on both shores rise round-crested wooded hills--the foothills of the parallel ranges of mountains by which the wide valley is shut in. down this perspective, commandingly upon a height, is seen the city--misty and uncertain at first, but growing clearer and clearer, as the boat nears it, until the stone-work of man and the rock-work of nature become distinct and the picture is complete in all its parts: the time-browned mass of houses on the hill-top; the tower of philip the fair; over all, the huge façade of saint maurice--an ogival wonder that for centuries was the cathedral church of the primates of gaul. after marseille, vienne makes as handsome pretensions to age as are made by any town in france. the tradition of its founding lies hidden in the mists of heroic legend, and is the more momentous because it is so impressively vague. over its very name the etymologists wrangle with such violence that one is lost in amazement at their ill-tempered erudition; and over its structure the archæologists--though a bit more civil to each other--are almost as violently at cross-purposes. the best esteemed of those antiquary gentry--at least the one whom i esteem the most, because i like the fine boldness of his claim--is the dominican chronicler lavinius: who says flatly that vienne was founded thirteen centuries before the dawn of the christian era by a contemporary of moses, one king allobrox--a keltic sovereign descended from hercules in a right line! that is a good beginning; and it has the merit of embodying the one fact upon which all of the testy antiquaries are agreed: that vienne the strong, as folk called it in those days, was a flourishing town long before lyons was built or paris even thought of, and an age or two before the romans came over into gaul. when at last they did come, the romans transformed the town into a great city--the metropolis of the region lying between geneva and marseille; and so adorned it with noble buildings--temples, forum, circus, theatre, aqueducts, baths--and so enriched it with all manner of works of art, that it came to be known as vienne the beautiful throughout the civilized world. one temple, approximately perfect, has survived to us from that time; and one statue--the famous crouching venus: and it seems fair enough to accept vienne's beauty as proved by these. moreover, painting and music were cultivated there, together with the other arts: and from all that the historians have to tell us it would appear that the roman citizens of that city lived softly and well. in the dark ages of mediæval christianity most of the beauties of vienne vanished: being destroyed outright, or made over into buildings pertaining to the new faith and the new times. a pathetic little attempt, to be sure, was made by the viennese to hold fast to their comfortable paganism--when valentinian ii. was slain, and the old rites were restored, at the end of the fourth century; but it was a mere flash in the pan. the tendencies of the times were too strong to be resisted, and presently the new creed rode down the old. then it was that vienne was called vienne the holy--because, while losing nothing of her splendours temporal, she gained great store of splendours spiritual: whereof the culmination was that famous council, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, which crushed the templars and gave over their possessions to the crown. while the council deliberated, philip the fair "watched his case," as the lawyers would put it, from the village of sainte-colombe--across the river--where he was quartered with his court in the convent of the cordeliers; and in sainte-colombe, the next year, he built the tower that was to safeguard the royal domains against the aggressions of the archbishops: whose too-notorious holiness was making them overbold. and nowadays vienne is a mean little town; a withered kernel in the shell of its former grandeur; a mere sousprefecture; scarcely more than a manufacturing suburb of lyons. in the tower of philip the fair are a cheap restaurant, and a factory of macaroni, and a carpenter-shop. it is enough to make the spirits of the roman emperors indignant and the bones of the archbishops rattle dismally in their graves. no longer either strong, or beautiful, or holy, they call it vienne the patriotic, now. a city must be something, of course--and patriotism is an attribute that may be had for the claiming, in these days. but the saving grace of poetry, at least of the love of poetry, still abides in vienne: as was proved in a manner mightily tickling to our self-complacency as we swept past the town. taking the place of the stone bridge that was built in roman times--and so well built that it was kept in service almost down to our own day--a suspension bridge here spans the stream: and the poets and the poet-lovers of vienne were all a-swarm upon it, their heads and shoulders rising in an animated crenellation above its rail, in waiting for our galley to go by. while we still were a hundred yards away up stream there was a bustling movement among them; and then a bouquet, swinging at the end of a light line, was lowered away swiftly--the bright flowers flashing in the sunlight as they swayed and twirled. our brethren had calculated to a nicety where our boat would pass. right over the bow came the bouquet, and fairly into the eager hands stretched out for it--while a great cheer went up from the grateful poets in the boat that was echoed by the generous poets in the air. and the prettiest touch of all was the garland of verses that came to us with the flowers: to bid us welcome and to wish us god-speed on our way. truly, 'twas a delicately fine bit of poetic courtesy. no troubadour in the days of vienne the holy (the holiness was not of an austere variety) could have cast a more graceful tribute upon the passing galley of the debonaire queen jeanne. v before vienne the river cuts its way narrowly through the rock, and on each side the banks lift high above the stream. far above us was the town, rising in terraces to where was the citadel in the days of vienne the strong. we had a flying glimpse of it all as we flashed past, sped by the current and our great wheels; and then the valley widened again, and soft meadows bordered by poplars and gay with yellow flowers lay between us and the mountain ranges rising to right and left against the sky. here and there along the banks, where an outcrop of rock gave good holding-ground, were anchored floating grist-mills carrying huge water-wheels driven by the current--the wooden walls so browned with age that they seemed to have held over from the times when the archbishops, lording it in vienne, took tithes of millers' toll. we were come into a country of corn and wine. the mills certified to the corn; and as we swung around the curves of the river or shot down its reaches we met long lean steamboats fighting against the current under heavy ladings of big-bellied wine-casks--on their genial way northward to moisten thirsty paris throats. off on the right bank was the ancient manor of mont-lys, where begins the growth of the côtes-rôties: the famous red and white wines, called the _brune_ and the _blonde_, which have been dear to bottle-lovers for nearly two thousand years: from the time when the best of them (such as now go northward to paris) went southward to the greek merchants of marseille and so onward to rome to be sold for, literally, their weight in gold. and as to the melons and apricots which grow hereabouts, 'tis enough to say that lyons bereft of them would pine and die. the softly-swelling banks, capped by the long lines of yellow-green poplars, slipped by us at a gallop; while the mountains in the background, seen through the haze of flickering leaves, seemed to stand still. it was the most peaceful of landscapes: but there was endless fighting thereabouts in former times. in an early christian way the archbishops of vienne ravaged among the protestants; between whiles the robber-counts, without respect to creed, ravaged among the travelling public with a large-minded impartiality; and, down in the lowest rank of ravagers, the road-agents of the period stole all that their betters left for them to steal. as we passed the little town of condrieu--where a lonely enthusiast stood up on the bank and waved a flag at us--we saw overtopping it, on a fierce little craggy height, the ruined stronghold of its ancient lords. already, in the thirty miles or thereabouts that we had come since leaving lyons, we had passed a half-dozen or more warlike remnants of a like sort; and throughout the run to avignon they continued at about the rate of one in every five miles. singly, the histories of these castles are exceedingly interesting studies in mediæval barbarism; but collectively they become a wearisomely monotonous accumulation of horrors. yet it is unfair to blame the lords of the castles for their lack of originality in crime. with the few possible combinations at their command, the law of permutation literally compelled them to do the same things over and over again: maintaining or sustaining sieges ending in death with or without quarter for the besieged; leading forays for the sake of plunder, with or without the incentive of revenge; crushing peasant rebellions by hanging such few peasants as escaped the sword; and at all times robbing every unlucky merchant who chanced to come their way. it was a curious twist, that reversion to savagery, from the roman epoch: when the rhône valley was inhabited by a civilized people who encouraged commerce and who had a genuine love for the arts. and, after all--unless they had some sort of pooling arrangement--the robber lords in the mid-region of the rhône could not have found their business very profitable. merchants travelling south from lyons must have been poor booty by the time that they had passed vienne; and merchants travelling north from avignon, similarly, must have been well fleeced by the time that they were come to the pont-saint-esprit. indeed, the lords in the middle of the run doubtless were hard put to it at times to make any sort of a living at all. nor could the little local stealing that went on have helped them much--since, their respective castles being not more than five miles asunder, each of them in ordinary times was pulled up short in his ravaging at the end of two miles and a half. in brief, the business was overcrowded in all its branches, and badly managed beside. the more that i look into the history of that time the more am i convinced that mediævalism, either as an institution or as an investment, was not a success. condrieu is a dead little town now. as a seat of thieving industry its importance disappeared centuries ago; and its importance as a boating town--whence were recruited a large proportion of the rhône boatmen--vanished in the dawn of the age of steam. they were good fellows, those condrieu boatmen, renowned for their bravery and their honesty throughout the river's length. because of their leather-seated breeches they were nicknamed "leather-tails"; but their more sailor-like distinction was their tattooing: on the fore-arm a flaming heart pierced with an arrow, symbol of their fidelity and love; on the breast a cross and anchor, symbols of their faith and craft. from roman times downward until railways came, the heavy freighting of central france has been done by boat upon the rhône--in precisely the same fashion that flat-boat freighting was carried on upon the mississippi and its tributaries--and three or four of the river towns were peopled mainly by members of the boating guilds. trinquetaille, the western suburb of arles, still shows signs of the nautical tastes of its inhabitants in the queer sailor-like exterior and interior adornments of its houses: most noticeable of which is the setting up on a house-top of a good-sized boat full-rigged with mast and sails. the survivors of the boating period nowadays are few. five years ago i used to see whenever i crossed to trinquetaille a little group of old boatmen sitting at the end of the bridge on a long bench that was their especial property. they moved stiffly and slowly; their white heads were bowed breastward; their voices were cracked with age. yet they seemed to be cheery together, as they basked in the hot sunshine--that warmed only comfortably their lean old bodies--and talked of ancient victories over sand-bars and rapids: and the while looked southward over the broad rhône water toward the sea. no doubt they held in scorn their few successors--one where of old were a hundred--who navigate the rhône of to-day, clipped of its perils by dykes and beacons, in boats driven by steam. yet these modern mariners, charged with the care of the great steamboats two and three hundred feet long, are more heroic characters than were the greatest of the old-time navigators. the finest sight that i saw in all that day aboard the _gladiateur_ was our pilot at his post as he swung us around certain of the more dangerous of the curves: where rocks or sand-bars narrowed the channel closely and where a fall in the river-bed more than usually abrupt made the current fiercely strong. in such perilous passes he had behind him in a row at the long tiller--these boats are not steered by a wheel forward, but by a tiller at the stern--two, three, and at one turn four men. he himself, at the extreme end of the tiller, stood firmly posed and a little leaning forward, his body rigid, his face set in resolute lines, his eyes fixedly bent upon the course ahead; behind him the others, elately poised in readiness to swing their whole weight with his on the instant that his tense energy in repose flashed into energy in action as the critical turn was made--the whole group, raised above us on the high quarter-deck, in relief against the deep blue sky. amy, or another of the southern sculptors, will be moved some day, i hope, to seize upon that thrilling group and to fasten it forever in enduring bronze. vi as we approached the bridge of serrières it was evident that another demonstration in our honour was imminent. on the bridge a small but energetic crowd was assembled, and we could see a bouquet pendent from a cord descending toward the point where our boat was expected to pass. the projectors of that floral tribute cheered us finely as we came dashing toward them; and up in our bows was great excitement--which suddenly was intensified into anguish as we perceived that our admirers had made a miscalculation: a fateful fact that was anticipated and realized almost in the same instant--as we saw the bouquet level with our deck but forty feet away a-beam! yet good luck saved the day to us. as we shot the bridge we also rounded a curve, and a moment after the bow of the long _gladiateur_ had gone wide of the bouquet the stern had swung around beneath it and it was brought safe aboard. in the same breath we had passed under and beyond the bridge and were sending up stream to our benefactors our cheers of thanks. when the discovery was made that a bottle was enshrined among the flowers, and that upon the bottle was an inscription--necessarily a sonnet, as we impulsively decided--our feeling toward serrières was of the warmest. without question, those generous creatures had sent us of their best, and with a posy of verse straight from their honest hearts. only poets ministering to poets could have conceived so pretty a scheme. but the eager group that surrounded the majoral who held the bottle flew asunder in wrath as he read out loudly, in place of the expected sonnet, these words: "quinine prepared by cuminat at serrières"! and then our feeling toward serrières grew much less warm. yet i am not sure that cuminat was moved only by the sordid wish to advertise at our expense his preparation of quinine. i am disposed to credit him in part with a helpful desire to check the fever rising in the blood of our boat-load of southerners who each moment--as they slid down that hill-side of a river--were taking deeper and stronger drafts of the heady sunshine of their own southern sun. on the other hand, i am forced to admit that had his motive been pure benevolence his offering would not have been so pitiably scant. but the people of tournon--to which generous town, and to the breakfast provided by its cordial inhabitants, we came an hour before noon--entreated us with so prodigal a liberality in the matter of bottles that the questionable conduct of the serrières apothecary quickly faded from our minds. in ancient times tournon had a black reputation for its evil-dealing with chance wayfarers along the rhône, and one's blood runs cold with mere thought of the horrors which went on there in the times of the religious wars. but very likely because of an honest desire to live down its own bad record--which i mention here rather to its present credit than to its past shame--it now seems determined to balance matters by manifesting toward passing travellers the most obliging courtesy in the world. certainly, we poets--coming thither famished, and going thence full fed and sleekly satisfied--had cause that day to bless its name. as we came galloping around a curve in the river--i cannot insist too strongly upon the dashing impetuosity that was the constant buoyant undertone of our voyage--this tournon the blessed shot up before us perked out upon a bold little hill thrust forward into the stream: a crowd of heavily-built houses rising around a church or two and a personable campanile, with here and there bits of crenellated ramparts, and higher still the tough remnant of a castle still fit to do service in the wars. indeed, it all was so good in colour--with its blendings of green and grey shot with warm yellow tones; and its composition was so excellent--with its sweep upward from the river to the castle battlements--that to my american fancy (used rather to mediæval semblances than to mediæval realities) it seemed to be temporarily escaped from an exceptionally well-set operatic stage. [illustration: the landing-place at tournon] all tournon was down at the water-side to meet us, and on the landing-stage was the very mayor: a lean and tri-coloured man who took off his hat comprehensively to our whole company in a magnificent bow. notables were with him--the sous-prefect, the mayor of tain, the adjoint, leading citizens--who also bowed to us; but not with a bow like his! laurel garlands decorated the landing-stage; more laurel garlands and the national colours made gay the roadway leading up the bank; and over the roadway was a laurel-wreathed and tri-coloured triumphal arch--all as suitable to welcoming poets and patriots, such as we were, as suitable could be. as the _gladiateur_ drew in to the bank there was a noble banging of _boîtes_--which ancient substitute for cannon in joy-firing still are esteemed warmly in rural france--and before the mayor spoke ever a word to us the band bounded gallantly into the thick of the "marseillaise." with the _boîte_ banging fitfully, with the band in advance playing "la coupe," the tri-coloured mayor led off with the most distinguished lady of our company upon his arm: and away we all went, under the triumphal arch and up the garlanded roadway two by two--as though tournon were a rhône-side ararat and we were the animals coming out of the ark. our entry was a veritable triumph; and we endeavoured (i think successfully) to live up to it: walking stately through the narrow streets, made narrower by the close-packed crowds pressing to see so rare a poetic spectacle; through the cool long corridors of the lycée; and so out upon a prettily dignified little park--where, at a triad of tables set within a garlanded enclosure beneath century-old plane-trees, our breakfast was served to us to the accompaniment of bangs from the _boîte_ and musical remarks from the band. and all tournon, the while, stood above us on a terrace and sympathetically looked on. in its adaptation to the needs of travelling poets the breakfast was a master-stroke. it was simple, substantial, delicious; and in its accompanying prodigal outpouring of red and white hermitage, cornas, and saint-péray, the contrast with the bottle-niggardliness of serrières was bravely marked. the hermitage, from the hill-sides directly across the river from tournon, around the town of tain, scarcely lives up to its heroic tradition just now--the phylloxera having destroyed the old vines, planted by the hermit of blessed memory, and the new vines having in them still the intemperate strength of youth. yet is it a sound rich wine, in a fair way to catch up again with its ancient fame. while we feasted, the _boîte_ and the band took turns in exploding with violence; and when, with the filet, the band struck up "la coupe" away we all went with it in a chorus that did not die out entirely until well along in the galantine. the toasts came in with the ices, and on the basis of the regional champagne, saint-péray--sweet, but of good flavour--that cracked its corks out with the irregular volleyings of a line of skirmishers firing in a fog. the tri-coloured mayor on behalf of tournon, and paul arène and delightful sextius michel on behalf of the félibrige and the cigaliers, and m. maurice faure, the deputy, on behalf of the nation at large, exchanged handsome compliments in the most pleasing way; and the toasts which they gave, and the toasts which other people gave, were emphasized by a rhythmic clapping of hands in unison by the entire company--in accordance with the custom that obtains always at the feasts of the félibres. but that was no time nor place for extended speech-making. all in a whiff our feast ended; and in another whiff we were up and off--whisking through the lycée corridors and the crowded streets and under the triumphal arch and so back on board the _gladiateur_. the mayor, always heroically ablaze with his patriotic scarf of office, stood on the landing-stage--like a courteous noah in morning dress seeing the animals safely up the ark gang-plank--and made to each couple of us one of his stately bows; the _boîte_ fired a final salvo of one round; the band saluted us with a final outburst of the "marseillaise"; everybody, ashore and afloat, cheered--and then the big wheels started, the current caught us and wrenched us apart from all that friendliness, and away we dashed down stream. vii long before we came abreast of it by the windings of the river we saw high up against the sky-line, a clear three hundred feet above the water, all that is left of the stronghold of crussol--still called by the rhône boatmen "the horns of crussol," although the two towers no longer shoot out horn-like from the mountain-top with a walled war-town clinging about their flanks. one géraud bartet, a cadet of the great house of crussol--of which the representative nowadays is the duc d'uzès--built this eagle's nest in the year 1110; but it did not become a place of importance until more than four hundred years later, in the time of the religious wars. on the issue of faiths the crussols divided. the head of the house was for the pope and the king; the two cadets were for god and the reform. then it was that the castle (according to an over-sanguine chronicler of the period) was "transformed into an unconquerable stronghold"; and thereafter--always for the advancement of christianity of one sort or another--a liberal amount of killing went on beneath its walls. in the end, disregarding the fact that it was unconquerable, the castle was captured by the baron des adrets--who happened at the moment to be on the protestant side--and in the interest of sound doctrine all of its defenders were put to the sword. tradition declares that "the streams of blood filled one of the cisterns, in which this terrible huguenot had his own children bathed 'in order,' as he said, 'to give them strength and force and, above all, hatred of catholicism.'" and then "the castle was demolished from its lowest to its highest stone." this final statement is a little too sweeping, yet essentially it is true. all that now remains of crussol is a single broken tower, to which some minor ruins cling; and a little lower are the ruins of the town--whence the encircling ramparts have been outcast and lie in scattered fragments down the mountain-side to the border of the rhône. it was on this very mountain--a couple of thousand years or so earlier in the world's history--that a much pleasanter personage than a battling baron had his home: a good-natured giant of easy morals who was the traditional founder of valence. being desirous of founding a town somewhere, and willing--in accordance with the custom of his time--to leave the selection of a site a little to chance, he hurled a javelin from his mountain-top with the cry, "va lance!": and so gave valence its name and its beginning, on the eastern bank of the river two miles away, at the spot where his javelin fell. at a much later period the romans adopted and enlarged the giant's foundation; but nearly every trace of their occupation has disappeared. indeed, even the ramparts, built only a few hundred years ago by francis i., have utterly vanished; and the tendency of the town has been so decidedly toward pulling down and building up again that it now wears quite a modern and jauntily youthful air. valence was our next stopping-place, and we had a world of work to do there during the hour or so that we remained ashore. very properly believing that we, being poets, could dedicate their local monuments for them far better than they could do such work for themselves, the excellent people of this town had accumulated a variety of monuments in expectation of our coming; and all of these it was our pleasant duty to start upon their immortal way. our reception was nothing short of magnificent. on the suspension bridge which here spans the river half the town was assembled watching for us; and the other half was packed in a solid mass on the bank above the point where our landing was made. the landing-stage was a glorious blaze of tri-colour; and there the mayor, also gloriously tri-coloured, stood waiting for us in the midst of a guard of honour of four firemen whose brazen helmets shone resplendent in the rays of the scorching sun. a little in the background was the inevitable band; that broke with a crash, at the moment of our landing, into the inevitable "marseillaise." and then away we all marched for half a mile, up a wide and dusty and desperately hot street, into the heart of the town. the detachment of welcoming townsfolk from the bank closed in around us; and around them, presently, closed in the detachment of welcoming townsfolk from the bridge. we poets (i insist upon being known by the company i was keeping) were deep in the centre of the press. the heat was prodigious. the dust was stifling. but, upheld by a realizing sense of the importance and honour of the duties confided to us, we never wavered in our march. our first halt was before a dignified house on which was a flag-surrounded tablet reading: "dans cette maison est né général championnet. l'an mdcclxii." m. faure and sextius michel made admirable speeches. the band played the "marseillaise." we cheered and cheered. but what in the world we poets had to do with this military person--who served under the lilies at the siege of gibraltar that ended so badly in the year 1783, and who did a great deal of very pretty fighting later under the tri-colour--i am sure i do not know! then on we went, to the quick tap of the drums, the mayor and the glittering firemen preceding us, to the laying of a corner-stone that really was in our line: that of a monument to the memory of the dramatist émile augier. here, naturally, m. jules claretie came to the fore. in the parlance of the academy, augier was "his dead man"; and not often does it happen that a finer, a more discriminating, eulogy is pronounced in the academy by the successor to a vacant chair than was pronounced that hot day in valence upon émile augier by the director of the comédie française. when it was ended, there was added to the contents of the leaden casket a final paper bearing the autographs of the notables of our company; and then the cap-stone, swinging from tackles, was lowered away. we had the same ceremony over again, ten minutes later, when we laid the corner-stone of the monument to the comte de montalivet: who was an eminent citizen and mayor of valence, and later was a minister under the first napoleon--whom he had met at madame colombier's, likely enough, in the days when the young artillery officer was doing fitful garrison-duty in that little town. again it seemed to me that we poets were not necessarily very closely associated with the matter in hand; but we cheered at the proper places, and made appropriate and well-turned speeches, and contributed a valuable collection of autographs to the lead box in the corner-stone: and did it all with the easily off-hand air of thorough poets of the world. in the matter of the autographs there was near to being a catastrophe. everything was going at a quick-step--our time being so short--and in the hurry of it all the lead box was closed and the cap-stone was lowered down upon it while yet the autographs remained outside! it was by the merest chance, i fancy, in that bustling confusion, that the mistake happened to be noticed; and i cannot but think--the autographs, with only a few exceptions, being quite illegible--that no great harm would have come had it passed unobserved. however, the omission being discovered, common courtesy to the autographists required that the cap-stone should be raised again and the much-signed paper put where it belonged. having thus made what i believe to be a dedicatory record by dedicating three monuments, out of a possible four, in considerably less than an hour, we were cantered away to the hôtel de ville to be refreshed and complimented with a "vin d'honneur." that ceremony came off in the council chamber--a large, stately room--and was impressive. m. le maire was a tall man, with a cherubic face made broader by wing-like little whiskers. he wore a white cravat, a long frock-coat, appositely black trousers, and a far-reaching white waistcoat over which wandered tranquilly his official tri-coloured scarf. the speech which he addressed to us was of the most flattering. he told us plainly that we were an extraordinarily distinguished company; that our coming to valence was an event to be remembered long and honourably in the history of the town; that he, personally and officially, was grateful to us; and that, personally and officially, he would have the pleasure of drinking to our very good health. and then (most appropriately by the brass-helmeted firemen) well-warmed champagne was served; and in that cordial beverage, after m. édouard lockroy had made answer for us, we pledged each other with an excellent good will. i am sorry to say that we "scamped" our last monument. to be sure, it was merely a tablet in a house-front setting forth the fact that émile augier had been born there; and already augier had had one of the best speeches of the day. but that was no excuse for us. actually, we scarcely waited to see the veil of pink paper torn away by a man on a step-ladder before we broke for the boat--and not a speech of any sort was made! yet they bore us no malice, those brave valençois. all the way down to the river, under the blaze of the sun, they crowded closely around us--with a well-meant but misapplied friendliness--and breathed what little air was stirring thrice over before it had a chance to get to our lungs. they covered again in a black swarm the bank and the bridge in our honour. their band, through that last twenty minutes, blared steadfastly the "marseillaise." from his post upon the landing-stage the cherubic mayor beamed to us across his nobly tri-coloured stomach a series of parting smiles. the brass-helmeted firemen surrounded him--a little unsteadily, i fancied--smiling too. and as we slipped away from them all, into the rush of the river, they sent after us volley upon volley of cheers. our breasts thrilled and expanded--it is not always that we poets thus are mounted upon high horses in the sight of all the world--and we cheered back to those discriminating and warm-hearted towns-folk until we fairly were under way down-stream. to the very last the cherubic mayor, his hat raised, regarded us smilingly. to the very last--rivalling the golden glory of the helmet of mambrino--the slightly-wavering head-gear of his attendant firemen shot after us golden gleams. viii we drew away into calmer latitudes after leaving that whirlwind of a town. for the time being, our duties as public poets were ended; and there was a sense of restful comfort in knowing that for the moment we were rid of our fame and celebrity, and were free--as the lightest hearted of simple travellers--to enjoy the beauties of the river as it carried us, always at a full gallop, downward toward the sea. in that tranquil spirit we came, presently, to the leaning tour-maudite: and found farther restfulness, after our own varied and too-energetic doings, in looking upon a quiet ruin that had remained soberly in the same place, and under the same sedative curse, for more than three hundred years. it is an architectural curiosity, this curséd tower--almost as far out from the perpendicular as is its better-known rival of pisa; but more impressive in its unnatural crookedness because it stands upon an isolated crag which drops below it sheer to the river in a vast precipice. anciently, before it went wrong and its curse came upon it, the tower was the keep of the benedictine nunnery of soyons. most ungallantly, in the year 1569, the huguenots captured the abbey by assault; and thereupon the abbess, louise d'amauze (poor frightened soul!) hurriedly embraced the reformed religion--in dread lest, without that concession to the prejudices of the conquerors, still worse might come. several of her nuns followed her hastily heterodox example; but the mass of them stood stoutly by their faith, and ended by making off with it intact to valence. i admit that an appearance of improbability is cast upon this tradition by the unhindered departure from the abbey of the stiff-necked nuns: who thus manifested an open scorn equally of the victorious huguenots and of the reformed faith. but, on the other hand, there are the ruins of the abbey to prove conclusively that it truly was conquered; and there, slanting with a conspicuously unholy slant high up above the ruins, bearing steadfast witness to the wrath of heaven against that heretical abbess and her heretical followers, is the curséd tower! while the abbess of soyons, being still untried by the stress of battle, went sinless upon her still orthodox way, there lived just across the river on the manor of l'étoile a sinner of a gayer sort--diane de poitiers. the castle of the star dates from the fifteenth century; when louis xi. dwelt there as governor of dauphiny and was given lessons in how to be a king. diane the beautiful--"the most beautiful," as francis i. gallantly called her--transformed the fortress into a bower, and gave to it (or accepted for it) the appropriately airy name of the château de papillon. there she lived long after her butterfly days were over; and in a way--although the castle of the butterfly is a silk-factory now--she lives there still: just as another light lady beautiful, queen jeanne of naples, lives on in provence. to this day her legend is vital in the country-side; and the old people still talk about her as though she were alive among them; and call her always not by her formal title of the duchesse de valentinois, but by her love title of "la belle dame de l'étoile." of this joyous person's family there is found a ghastly memento at the little town of lène--a dozen miles down the river, beyond the great iron-works of le pouzin. it is the tour de la lépreuse: wherein a leper lady of the house of poitiers was shut up for many years in awful solitude--until at last god in his goodness permitted her to die. i suppose that this story would have pointed something of a moral--instead of presenting only another case of a good moral gone wrong--had diane herself been that prisoner of loathsome death in life. but aboard the _gladiateur_ our disposition was to take the world easily and as we found it--since we found it so well disposed toward us--and not to bother our heads a bit about how moral lessons came off. with cities effervescing in our honour, with mayors attendant upon us hat in hand, with brazen-helmeted firemen playing champagne upon us to stimulate our poetic fires, with _boîtes_ and bands exploding in our praise--and all under that soul-expanding sun of the midi--'tis no wonder that we wore our own bays jauntily and nodded to each other as though to say: "ah, you see now what it is to be a poet in these latter days!" and we were graciously pleased to accept as a part of the tribute that all the world just then was rendering to us the panorama of mountains and towns and castles that continuously opened before us for the delectation of our souls. off to the right, hidden behind the factory-smoke of la voulte, was the sometime home of bernard de ventadour, a troubadour whom the world still loves to honour--quite one of ourselves; off to the left, commanding the valley of the drôme, were livron and loriol, tough little huguenot nuts cracked all to pieces (as their fallen ramparts showed) in the religious wars; and a little lower down we came to cruas: a famous fortified abbey, surmounted by a superb donjon and set in the midst of a triple-walled town, whereof the byzantine-romanesque church is one of the marvels of southern france. cruas was founded more than a thousand years ago, in the time of charlemagne, by the pious hermengarde, wife of count eribert de vivarais; being a thank-offering to heaven erected on the very spot where that estimable woman and her husband were set upon in the forest by a she-wolf of monstrous size. but the fortified abbey was a later growth; and was not completed, probably, until the sixteenth century. it was toward the end of that century, certainly, that the huguenots attacked it--and were beaten off finally by abbot étienne déodel and his monks, who clapped on armour over their habits and did some very sprightly fighting on its walls. below cruas, around the bend in the river, rochemaure the black came into sight: a withered stronghold topping an isolated rock of black basalt six hundred feet above the stream. it is a grewsome place: the ruin of a black nightmare of a basalt-built castle, having below and around it a little black nightmare of a basalt-built town--whereof the desperately steep and crooked streets are paved with black basalt, and are so narrowed by over-hanging houses as to show above them only the merest strip of sky. it is a town to which, by preference, one would go to commit a murder; but 'tis said that its inhabitants are kindly disposed. only a step beyond it lies le teil: a briskly busy little place tucked in at the foot of a lime-stone cliff--town and cliff and the inevitable castle on the cliff-top all shrouded in a murky white cloud, half dust, half vapour, rising from the great buildings in which a famous hydraulic cement is made. not a desirable abiding place, seemingly; but in cheerful contrast with its lowering neighbour up the stream. and then, passing beyond a maze of islands--amidst which the river wandered so tortuously that our pilot had behind him a strong tiller-crew in order to carry us through safely--we came to the noble town of viviers. from afar we saw its tall bell-tower, its beautiful cathedral, its episcopal palace; and as we drew nearer the whole environment of ancient houses and fortifications spread out around those governing points in a great amphitheatre. but what held us most was the gay dash of tri-colour on its bridge, and the crowd there evidently waiting for our coming to manifest toward us their good will. they cheered us and waved their hats and handkerchiefs at us, those poet-lovers, as we neared them; and as we passed beneath the bridge a huge wreath of laurel was swung downward to our deck, and a shower of laurel branches fluttered down upon us through the sunlit air. in all the fourteen centuries since viviers was founded i am confident that nothing more gracious than this tribute to passing poetry is recorded in the history of the town. naturally, being capable of such an act of nicely discriminating courtesy, viviers has sound traditions of learning and of gentle blood. in its day it was a great episcopal city: whose bishops maintained an army, struck money, counted princes among their vassals, in set terms defied the power of the king of france--and recognized not the existence of any temporal sovereign until the third conrad of germany enlarged their knowledge of political geography by taking their city by storm. yet while finely lording it over outsiders, the bishops were brought curiously to their bearings within their own walls. each of them, in turn, on his way to his installation, found closed against him, as he descended from his mule before it, the door of the cathedral; and the door was not opened until he had sworn there publicly that he would maintain inviolate as he found them the rights and privileges of the chapter and of the town. moreover, once in each year the men and women of rank of viviers asserted their right to a part enjoyment of the ecclesiastical benefices by putting on copes and mitres and occupying with the canons the cathedral stalls. the line of one hundred and thirty bishops who in succession reigned here ended--a century back, in the time of the revolution--in a veritable lurid flame; yet with, i think, a touch of agonized human nature too. the church historian can see only the diabolical side of the situation; and in a horror-struck way tells how that last bishop, "being overcome by the devil, abjured the episcopacy; with his own hands destroyed the insignia of his sacred office; and thereafter gave himself up to a blasphemous attack upon the holy religion of which he had been for a long while one of the most worthy ministers." it certainly is true that the devil had things largely his own way about that time here in france; but it does not necessarily follow that in this particular matter the devil directly had a hand. to my mind a simpler and more natural explanation presents itself: that the iconoclastic bishop was a weak brother who had suffered himself to be forced into a calling for which he had no vocation, and into an apparent championship of a faith with which his inmost convictions were at war; that for years and years the struggle between the inward man and the outward bishop had gone on unceasingly and hopelessly, until--as well enough might happen to one strong enough to resent yet not strong enough to overcome restraint--the galling irksomeness of such a double life had brought madness near; and that madness did actually come when the chains of a life and of a faith alike intolerable suddenly were fused in the fierce heat of the revolution and fell away. ix below viviers the rhône breaks out from its broad upper valley into its broader lower valley through the defile of donzère. here the foothills of the alps and the foothills of the cévennes come together, and behind this natural dam there must have been anciently a great lake which extended to the northward of where now is valence. the defile is a veritable cañon that would be quite in place in the sierra madre. on each side of the sharply-narrowed river the walls of rock rise sheer to a height of two hundred feet. the rush of the water is tumultuous. in mid-stream, surrounded by eddies and whirling waves, is the roche-des-anglais--against which the boat of a luckless party of english travellers struck and was shattered a hundred years ago. indeed, so dangerous was this passage held to be of old--when faith was stronger and boats were weaker than in our day of skepticism and compound-engines--that it was customary to tie-up at the head of the defile and pray for grace to come through it safely; and sincerely faithful travellers tied-up again when the passage was ended to offer a service of grateful praise. but nowadays they clap five men on the tiller and put on more steam--and the practical result is the same. the cliffs bordering the cañon, being of a crumbling nature, are known as the maraniousques; but usually are called by the rhône boatmen the monkey rocks--because of the monkeys who dwelt in them in legendary times and stoned from their heights the passing travellers. it was a long while ago that the monkeys were in possession--in the time immediately succeeding the deluge. during the subsidence of the waters it seems that the ark made fast there for the night, just before laying a course for ararat; and the monkey and his wife--desperately bored by their long cooping-up among so many uncongenial animals--took advantage of their opportunity to pry a couple of tiles off the roof and get away. the tradition hints that noah had been drinking; at any rate, their absence was not noticed, and the ark went on without them the next day. by the time that the deluge fairly was ended, and the rhône reopened to normal navigation, a large monkey family was established on the maraniousques; and the monkeys thenceforward illogically revenged themselves upon noah's descendants by stoning everybody who came along. later, the ill-tempered monkeys were succeeded by more ill-tempered men. in the fighting times the defile of donzère was a famous place in which to bring armies to a stand. fortifications upon the cliffs entirely commanded the river; and at the lower end of the defile the castle and the walled town of donzère, capping a defiant little hill-top, commanded both the river and the plain. even the most fire-eating of captains were apt to stop and think a little before venturing into the defile in those days. all of those perils are ended now. the dangers of the river are so shorn by steam that the shooting of the cañon rapids yields only a pleasurable excitement, that is increased by the extraordinary wild beauty of that savage bit of nature in the midst of a long-tamed land; and the ramparts and the castle of donzère, having become invitingly picturesque ruins, are as placable remnants of belligerency as are to be found anywhere in the world. indeed, as we saw them--with the afternoon sunlight slanting down in a way to bring out delectably the warm greys and yellows of the stone-work and to produce the most entrancing effects of light-and-shade--it was not easy to believe that people had been killing each other all over them not so very long ago. [illustration: the defile of donzère] having escaped from the defile of donzère, the river wanders away restfully into a wilderness of islands--a maze so unexplored and so unexplorable that otters still make their home in it, and through the thick foliage poke out their snub noses at passing boatmen now and then. thence onward for a long way islands are plentiful--past pierrelatte, and bourg-saint-andéol, (a very ancient and highly roman flavoured town), and the confluence of the rhône and the ardèche--to the still larger archipelago across which the bridge building brothers, with god himself helping them, built the pont-saint-esprit. modern engineers--possibly exalting their own craft at the expense of that of the architects--declare that this bridge was the greatest piece of structural work of the middle ages; certainly it was the greatest work of the frères pontifes: that most practical of brotherhoods which, curiously anticipating one phase of modern doctrine, paid less attention to faith than to works and gave itself simply to ministering to the material welfare of mankind. in the making of it they spent near half a century. from the year 1265 steadily onward until the year 1307 the brothers labored: and then the bridge was finished--a half-mile miracle in stone. in view of the extraordinary difficulties which the engineer in charge of the work overcame--founding piers in bad holding-ground and in the thick of that tremendous current, with the work broken off short by the frequent floods and during the long season of high water in the spring--it is not surprising that the miracle theory was adopted to explain his eventual victory. nor is it surprising that the popular conviction presently began to sustain itself by crystalizing into a definite legend--based upon the recorded fact that the brothers worked under the vocation of the holy spirit--to the effect that the spirit of god, taking human form, was the designer of the fabric and the actual director under whose guidance the work went on. and so the genesis of the bridge was accounted for satisfactorily; and so it came by its holy name. personally, i like miracles; and this miracle is all the more patent, i think, now that the bridge has been in commission for almost six hundred years and still is entirely serviceable. yet while its piers and arches, its essential parts, remain nearly as the brothers built them, the bridge has undergone such modifications in the course of the past century--in order to fit it to the needs of modern traffic--that its picturesqueness has been destroyed. the chapel of st. nicholas upon one of its piers, and the tower at its centre, were razed about the end of the last century; a little later the fortified approaches were removed; in the year 1854, to provide for the increasing river navigation, the first two arches from the right bank were replaced by a single iron arch of two hundred feet span over the main channel; and in the year 1860 the entire superstructure on the north side, with a part of the superstructure on the south side, was torn down--and in place of the old narrow roadway, with turn-outs on each pier, there was built a roadway uniformly twenty-two feet wide. in a sentimental way, of course, these radical changes are to be regretted; but i am sure that the good brothers, could they have been consulted in the premises, would have been the first to sanction them. for they were not sentimentalists, the brothers; they were practical to the last degree. what they wanted was that their bridge, living up to their own concept of duty, should do the greatest amount of good to the greatest number of men. almost as we came out from beneath that monument to practical christianity, we saw over on the left bank two monuments to the theoretical christianity of three hundred years ago: the grisly ruins of mornas and montdragon--each on a hill dark green with a thick growth of _chêne vert_, and each having about it (not wholly because of its dark setting, i fancied) a darkly sinister air. in truth, the story of mornas is sombre enough to blacken not merely a brace of hill-tops but a whole neighbourhood. in the early summer of the year 1565, a day or two before the fête-dieu, the papists surprised and seized the town and castle and put the entire huguenot garrison to the sword. then, as now, it was the custom in honour of the fête-dieu to adorn the house-fronts with garlands and draperies; and by way of variant upon this pretty custom "certain of the conquerors, more fanatical than the rest, flayed the dead huguenots and draped their houses bravely with protestant skins." thereupon the baron des adrets, the huguenot commander in that region, sent one of his lieutenants, dupuy-montbrun, to avenge that deviltry. at the end of a three-days' siege mornas was conquered again, and then came the vengeance: "for which the castle of mornas, whereof the battlements overhung a precipice falling sheer two hundred feet to broken rocks below, offered great advantages." in a grave and orderly fashion, the survivors of the conquered garrison were assembled in the castle court-yard; were taken in orderly squads of ten up to the battlements; and thence were thrust over into that awful depth. and so the account was squared. it is instructive to note that des adrets, who ordered the vengeance on mornas, a little later abjured the reformed religion and became a papist; and that dupuy-montbrun, who carried out his orders and who succeeded him upon his recantation in the command of the protestant army, but a little while before had renounced papacy to become a huguenot. so the leaders, the worst of them, shifted from side to side as they happened to be swayed by pay or policy; and to such creatures of no real faith were due the direst of the atrocities of those hideous times. but the huguenots of the rank and file were of another sort. their singleness and sincerity in their fight for their faith were beyond question. they died for it willingly. failing the happiness of death, yet being conquered, they still held fast to it. in the end, rather than relinquish it, they unhesitatingly elected--at a stroke giving up country, rank, fortune--to be outcast from france. for me the history of those desperate wars has a very vital interest: for my own ancestors took the share in them that was becoming to faithful gentlemen vowed to the reform, and i owe my american birthright to the honourable fact that they fought on the losing side. as i myself am endowed with a fair allowance of stubbornness, and with a strong distaste to taking my opinions at second hand, i certainly should have been with my kinsfolk in that fight had i lived in their day; and since my destiny was theirs to determine i am strongly grateful to them for having shaped it so well. x but i was glad when mornas, vivid with such bitter memories, dropped out of sight astern. sleeping dogs of so evil a sort very well may lie; though it is difficult not to waken a few of them when they lie so thickly as here in the rhône valley, where almost every town and castle has a chapter of nightmare horrors all its own. even châteauneuf-du-pape--which we saw a half hour later off to the eastward, rising from a little hill-top and thence overlooking the wide vineyard-covered valley--came to its present ruin at the hands of des adrets; who, having captured and fired it, left standing only its tall square tower and some fragments of its walls. this was an unfairly lurid ending for a castle which actually came into existence for gentle purposes and was not steeped to its very battlements in crime; for châteauneuf was built purely as a pleasure-place, to which the popes--when weary with ruling the world and bored by their strait-laced duties as saint peter's earthly representatives--might come from avignon with a few choice kindred spirits and refreshingly kick up their heels. as even in avignon, in those days, the popes and cardinals did not keep their heels any too fast to the ground, it is an inferential certainty that the kicking up at châteauneuf must have been rather prodigiously high; but the people of the middle ages were too stout of stomach to be easily scandalized, and the pope's responsibilities in the premises were all the lighter because the doctrine of his personal infallibility had not then been formulated officially. and so things went along comfortably in a cheerfully reprehensible way. it was in those easy-going days that the vineyards were planted, on the slopes below the castle, which were destined to make the name of châteauneuf-du-pape famous the toping world over long after the new castle should be an old ruin and the avignon popes a legend of the past. only within the present generation did those precious vines perish, when the phylloxera began among them its deadly work in france; and even yet may be found, tucked away here and there in the favoured cellars of provence and languedoc, a few dust-covered bottles of their rich vintage: which has for its distinguishing taste a sublimated spiciness due to the alternate dalliance of the bees with the grape-blossoms and with the blossoms of the wild thyme. it is a wine of poets, this bee-kissed châteauneuf, and its noblest association is not with the popes who gave their name to it but with the seven poets--mistral, roumanille, aubanel, matthieu, brunet, giéra, tavan--whose chosen drink it was in those glorious days when they all were young together and were founding the félibrige: the society that was to restore the golden age of the troubadours and, incidentally, to decentralize france. one of the sweetest and gentlest of the seven, anselme matthieu, was born here at châteauneuf; and here, with a tender love-song upon his lips, only the other day he died. the vineyards have been replanted, and in the fulness of time may come to their glory again; but the greater glories of châteauneuf--which belonged to it once because of its popes, and again because of its sweet-souled poet--must be only memories forevermore. [illustration: the roumanille monument] the castles over on the right bank, montfaucon and roquemaure, are of the normal painful sort again. roquemaure is a crooked, narrow, up-and-down old dirty town, where old customs and old costumes and old forms of speech still live on; and, also, its people have a very pretty taste in the twisting and perverting of historic fact into picturesque tradition--as is shown by the way in which they have rearranged the unpleasant details of the death of pope clement v. into a bit of melodramatic moral decoration for their own town. their ingeniously compiled legend runs in this wise: clement's death in the castle of roquemaure occurred while he was on his way homeward from the council of vienne; where--keeping with the king the bargain which had won for him the papal throne--he had abolished the order of the templars and had condemned their grand master, jacques de molay, to be burned alive. when that sentence was passed, the grand master, in turn, had passed sentence of death upon the pope: declaring that within forty days they should appear together, in the spirit, to try again that cause misjudged on earth before the throne of god. and the forty days were near ended when pope clement came to roquemaure--with the death-grip already so strong upon him that even the little farther journey to avignon was impossible, and he could but lay him down there and die. while yet the breath scarce was out of his body, his servants fell to fighting over his belongings with a brutal fierceness: in the midst of which fray a lighted torch fell among and fired the hangings of the bed whereon lay the dead pope--and before any of the pillagers would give the rest an advantage by stopping in their foul work to extinguish the flames his body was half-consumed. and so was clement burned in death even as the grand master had been burned in life; and so was executed upon him the grand master's summons to appear before the judgment seat on high! it is interesting to note that this tradition does very little violence to the individual facts of the case, and yet rearranges them in such a fashion that they are at sixes and sevens with the truth as a whole. when, in my lighter youth, i entered upon what i fancied was antiquarian research i was hot for the alluring theory that oral tradition is a surer preserver of historic fact than is written record; and as i was not concerned with antiquities of a sort upon which my pretty borrowed theory could be tested i got along with it very well. but i am glad now to cite this capital instance in controversion of my youthful second-hand belief--because it entirely accords with my more mature conviction that oral tradition, save as a tenacious preserver of place-names, is not to be trusted at all. and as unsupported written record rarely is to be trusted either, it would seem that a certain amount of reason was at the root of king david's hasty generalization as to the untruthfulness of mankind. the day was nearly ended as we passed that town with a stolen moral history: and so swept onward, in and out among the islands, toward avignon. already the sun had fallen below the crest of the cévennes; leaving behind him in the sky a liquid glory, and still sending far above us long level beams which gilded radiantly--far off to the eastward--the heights of mont-ventour. but we, deep in the deep valley, threaded our swift way among the islands in a soft twilight which gently ebbed to night. and then, as the dusk deepened to the westward, there came slowly into the eastern heavens a pale lustre that grew brighter and yet brighter until, all in a moment, up over the alpilles flashed the full moon--and there before us, almost above us, the rocher-des-doms and the pope's palace and the ramparts of avignon stood out blackly against the moon-bright sky. so sudden was this ending to our journey that there was a wonder among us that the end had come! * * * * * all the félibres of avignon were at the water-side to cheer us welcome as the _gladiateur_, with reversed engines, hung against the current above the bridge of saint-bénézet and slowly drew in to the bank. our answering cheers went forth to them through the darkness, and a stave or two of "la coupe" was sung, and there was a mighty clapping of hands. and then the gang-plank was set ashore, and instantly beside it--standing in the glare of a great lantern--we saw our capoulié, the head of all the félibrige, félix gras, waiting for us, his subjects and his brethren, with outstretched hands. from him came also, a little later, our official welcome: when we all were assembled for a _ponch d'honneur_ at the hôtel du louvre--in the great vaulted chamber that once served the templars as a refectory, and that has been the banquet-hall of the félibrige ever since this later and not less honorable order was founded, almost forty years ago. [illustration: avignon] not until those formalities were ended could we of america get away to receive the personal welcome to which through all that day we had been looking forward with a warm eagerness--yet also sorrowing: because we knew that among the welcoming voices there would be a silence, and that a face would be missing from among those we loved. roumanille was dead; and in meeting again in avignon those who had been closest and dearest to him, and who to us were close and dear, there was heartache with our joy. saint-remy-de-provence, _august, 1894._ the comédie française at orange i after a lapse of nearly fifteen centuries, the roman theatre at orange--founded in the time of marcus aurelius and abandoned, two hundred years later, when the northern barbarians overran the land--seems destined to arise reanimate from its ruins and to be the scene of periodic performances by the comédie française: the first dramatic company of europe playing on the noblest stage in the world. during the past five-and-twenty years various attempts have been made to compass this happy end. now--as the result of the representations of "oedipus" and "antigone" at orange, under government patronage and by the leading actors of the national theatre--these spasmodic efforts have crystallized into a steadfast endeavour which promises to restore and to repeople that long-abandoned stage.[4] [illustration: general view of the theatre] if they know about it--over there in the shades--i am sure that no one rejoices more sincerely over this revival than do the romans by whom the theatre at orange was built, and from whom it has come down to us as one of the many proofs of their strong affection for that portion of their empire which now is the south-east corner of france. to them this region, although ultimately included in the larger narbonensis, always was simply provincia--_the_ province: a distinguishing indistinction which exalted it above all the other dependencies of rome. constantine, indeed, was for fixing the very seat of the empire here; and he did build, and for a time live in, the palace at arles of which a stately fragment still remains. unluckily for the world of later periods, he was lured away from the banks of the rhône by the charms of the bosporus--and so, without knowing it, opened the eastern question: that ever since has been fought over, and that still demands for its right answering at least one more general european war. thus greatly loving their province, the romans gladly poured out their treasure in adding to its natural beauties the adornments of art. scattered through this region--through the provence of to-day, and, over on the other side of the rhône, through languedoc--are the remnants of their magnificent creations: the pont-du-gard; the arena, and the baths, and the tour-magne, and the beautiful maison-carrée, at nîmes; at arles the arena, the palace of constantine, and the wreck of the once exquisite theatre; the baths at aix; the triumphal arches at orange and carpentras; the partly ruined but more perfectly graceful arch, and the charming monument, here at saint-remy--all these relics of roman splendour, with many others which i have not named, still testify to roman affection for this enchanting land. the theatre at orange--the arausio of roman times, colonized by the veterans of the second legion--was not the best of these many noble edifices. decidedly, the good fortune that has preserved so large a part of it would have been better bestowed upon the far more beautiful, because more purely grecian, theatre at arles: which the blessed saint hilary and the priest cyril of holy memory fell afoul of in the fifth century and destroyed because of its inherent idolatrous wickedness, and then used as raw material for their well-meant but injudicious church-building. but the orange theatre--having as its only extant rival that at pompeii--has the distinction of being the most nearly perfect roman theatre surviving until our day; and, setting aside comparisons with things nonexistent, it is one of the most majestic structures to be found in the whole of france. louis xiv., who styled it "the most magnificent wall of my kingdom," placed it first of all. the unknown architect who wrought this great work--traversing the roman custom of erecting a complete building on level ground--followed the grecian custom of hollowing out a hill-side and of facing the open cutting with a structure of masonry: which completed the tiers of seats cut in the living rock; provided in its main body the postscenium, and in its wings the dressing-rooms; and, rising in front to a level with the colonnade which crowned and surrounded the auditorium, made at once the outer façade and the rear wall of the stage.[5] the dominant characteristic of the building--a great parallelogram jutting out from the hill-side into the very heart of the town--is its powerful mass. the enormous façade, built of great blocks of stone, is severely simple: a stony height--the present bareness of which formerly was a little relieved by the vast wooden portico that extended along the entire front--based upon a cornice surmounting open tuscan arches and broken only by a few strong lines. the essential principle of the whole is stability. it is the roman style with all its good qualities exaggerated. elegance is replaced by a heavy grandeur; purity by strength. the auditorium as originally constructed--save for the graceful colonnade which surmounted its enclosing wall, and for the ornamentation which certainly was bestowed upon the rear wall of the stage and probably upon the facing-wall of the first tier of seats--was as severe as the façade: simply bare tiers of stone benches, divided into three distinct stages, rising steplike one above another in a great semi-circle. but when the theatre was filled with an eager multitude its bareness disappeared; and its brilliant lowest division--where sat the nobles clad in purple-bordered white robes: a long sweep of white dashed with strong colour--fitly brought the auditorium into harmony with the splendour of the permanent setting of the stage. it was there, on the wall rising at the back of the stage and on the walls rising at its sides, that decoration mainly was bestowed; and there it was bestowed lavishly. following the grecian tradition (though in the grecian theatre the sides of the stage were open gratings) that permanent set represented very magnificently--being, indeed, a reality--a royal palace, or, on occasion, a temple: a façade broken by richly carved marble cornices supported by marble columns and pilasters; its flat surfaces covered with brilliantly coloured mosaics, and having above its five portals[6] arched alcoves in which were statues: that over the royal portal, the _aula regia_, being a great statue of the emperor or of a god. extending across the whole front of this wall, entirely filling the space between the wings, was the stage. ninety feet above it, also filling the space between the wings, was a wooden roof (long since destroyed) which flared upward and outward: at once adding to the acoustic properties of the building and protecting the stage from rain. still farther to strengthen the acoustic effect, two curved walls--lateral sounding-boards--projected from the rear of the stage and partly embraced the space upon which the action of the play usually went on. i shall not enter into the vexed question of scenery. it is sufficient to say that this permanent set, in regard to which there can be no dispute--a palace, that also would serve as a temple--made an entirely harmonious framework for most of the plays which were presented here. indeed, a more fitting or a more impressive setting could not have been devised for the majority of the tragedies of that time: which were filled with a solemn grandeur, and which had for their chief personages priests or kings. above all, the dignity of this magnificent permanent scene was in keeping with the devotional solemnity of the early theatre: when an inaugural sacrifice was celebrated upon an altar standing in front of the stage, and when the play itself was in the nature of a religious rite. ii certainly for two centuries, possibly for a longer period, the people of arausio maintained and enjoyed their theatre. the beautiful little city of which it was a part was altogether charming: abounding in comforts and luxuries and rich in works of art. from the hill-top where now stands the statue of the virgin was to be seen in those days a miniature rome. directly at the base of the hill was the theatre, and beyond it were the circus and the baths; to the left, the coliseum; to the right, the field of mars; in front--just within the enclosing ramparts, serving as the chief entrance to the town--the noble triumphal arch that remains almost perfect even until this present day. only the theatre and the arch are left now; but the vanished elegance of it all is testified to by the fragments of carved walls and of mosaic pavements which still continue to be unearthed from time to time. surrounding that opulent little city were farms and vineyards and olive-orchards--a gentle wilderness interset with garden-hidden villas whereto the citizens retired to take their ease; and more widely about it was the broad rhône valley, then as now a rich store-house of corn and wine and oil. no wonder that the lean barbarians of the north came down in hungry hordes and seized upon that fatness as roman strength decayed; and no wonder, being barbarians, that the invaders wrecked much of the beauty which they could neither use nor understand. after the second german invasion, in the year 406 of our era, there was little left in gaul of roman civilization; and after the coming of the visigoths, four years later, roman civilization was at an end. yet during that period of disintegration the theatre was not injured materially; and it actually remained almost intact--although variously misused and perverted--nearly down to our own day. the lords of baux, in the twelfth century, made the building the outguard of their fortress on the hill-top in its rear; and from their time onward little dwellings were erected within it--the creation of which nibbled away its magnificent substance to be used in the making of pygmy walls. but the actual wholesale destruction of the interior did not begin until the year 1622: when prince maurice of nassau and orange, in manner most unprincely, used the building as a quarry from which to draw material for the system of fortifications devised for his little capital by his dutch engineers. and this piece of vandalism was as useless as it was iniquitous. only half a century later--during the temporary occupation of orange by the french--prince maurice's fortifications, built of such precious material, were razed. in later times quarrying was carried on in the theatre on a smaller scale; but, practically, all that this most outrageous prince left standing of it still stands: the majestic façade, together with the rooms in the rear of the stage; the huge wings, which look like, and have done duty as, the towers of a feudal fortress; the major portion of the side walls; most of the substructure, and even a little of the superstructure, of the tiers which completed the semi-circles of seats hollowed out of the hill-side; and above these the broken and weathered remains of the higher tiers cut in the living rock. but the colonnade which crowned the enclosing walls of the auditorium is gone, and many of the upper courses of the walls with it; the stage is gone; the wall at the rear of the stage, seamed and scarred, retains only a few fragments of the columns and pilasters and cornices and mosaics which once made it beautiful; the carvings and sculptures have disappeared; the royal portal, once so magnificent, is but a jagged gap in the masonry; the niche above it, once a fit resting place for a god's image, is shapeless and bare. and until the work of restoration began the whole interior was infested with mean little dwellings which choked it like offensive weeds--while rain and frost steadily were eating into the unprotected masonry and hastening the general decay. iii this was the theatre's evil condition when, happily, the architect auguste caristie, vice-president of the commission charged with the conservation of historical monuments, came down to orange early in the nineteenth century--and immediately was filled with an enthusiastic determination that the stately building should be purified and restored. the theatre became with him a passion; yet a steadfast passion which continued through more than a quarter of a century. he studied it practically on the ground and theoretically in the cabinet; and as the result of his patient researches he produced his great monograph upon it (published in a sumptuous folio at the charges of the french government) which won for him a medal of the first class at the salon of 1855. in this work he reëstablished the building substantially as the roman architect created it; and so provided the plan in accordance with which the present architect in charge, m. formigé--working in the same loving and faithful spirit--is making the restoration in stone. most righteously, as a principal feature of the ceremonies of august, 1894, a bust of auguste caristie was set up in orange close by the theatre which owes its saving and its restoration to the strong purpose of his strong heart. and then came another enthusiast--they are useful in the world, these enthusiasts--who took up the work at the point where caristie had laid it down. this was the young editor of the _revue méridionale_, fernand michel--more widely known by his pseudonym of "antony réal." by a lucky calamity--the great inundation of the rhône in the year 1840--michel was detained for a while in orange: and so was enabled to give to the theatre more than the ordinary tourist's passing glance. by that time, the interior of the building had been cleared and its noble proportions fully were revealed; and as the result of his first long morning's visit he became, as caristie had become before him, fairly infatuated with it. for my part, i am disposed to believe that a bit of roman enchantment still lingers in those ancient walls; that the old gods who presided over their creation--and who continue to live on very comfortably, though a little shyly and in a quiet way, here in the south of france--have still an alluring power over those of us who, being at odds with existing dispensations, are open to their genial influences. but without discussing this side issue, it is enough to say that michel--lightly taking up what proved to be the resolute work of half a lifetime--then and there vowed himself to the task of restoring and reanimating that ruined and long-silent stage. for more than twenty years he laboured without arriving at any tangible result; and the third decade of his propaganda almost was ended when at last, in august, 1869, his dream was made a reality and the spell of silence was broken by the presentation of méhul's "joseph" at orange. and the crowning of his happiness came when, the opera ended, his own ode composed for the occasion, "les triomphateurs"--set to music by imbert--echoed in the ancient theatre, and the audience of more than seven thousand burst into enthusiastic cheering over the victory that he had won. truly, to be the hero of such a triumph was worth the work of nine-and-twenty years. even through the dismal time of the german war no time was lost. m. michel and his enthusiastic colabourers--prominent among them being "antony réal, _fils_," upon whom has descended worthily his father's mantle--cared for the material preservation of the building; and succeeded so well in keeping alive a popular interest in their work that they were able to arrange for yet another dramatic festival at orange in august, 1874. both grand and light opera were given. on the first evening "norma" was sung; on the second, "le chalet" and "galatée." to the presentation of these widely differing works attached a curious importance, in that they brought into strong relief an interesting phase of the theatre's psychology: its absolute intolerance of small things. "norma" was received with a genuine furore; the two pretty little operas practically were failures. the audience, profoundly stirred by the graver work, seemed to understand instinctively that so majestic a setting was suited only to dramas inspired by the noblest passions and dealing with the noblest themes. during the ensuing twelve years there was no dramatic performance in the theatre; but in this interval there was a performance of another sort (in april, 1877) which in its way was very beautiful. m. michel's thrilling "salute to provence" was sung by a great chorus with orchestral accompaniment; and sung, in accord with ancient custom--wherein was the peculiar and especial charm of it--at the decline of day. the singers sang in the waning sunlight, which emphasized and enlarged the grandeur of their surroundings: and then all ended, as the music and the daylight together died away. iv in august, 1886, a venture was made at orange the like of which rarely has been made in france in modern times: a new french play demanding positive and strong recognition, the magnificent "empereur d'arles," by the avignon poet alexis mouzin, was given its first presentation in the orange theatre--in the provinces--instead of being first produced on the paris stage. in direct defiance of the modern french canons of centralization, the great audience was brought together not to ratify opinions formulated by parisian critics but to express its own opinion at first hand. silvain, of the comédie française, was the _maximien_; madame caristie-martel, of the odéon (a grand-daughter of caristie the architect who saved the theatre from ruin), was the _minervine_. the support was strong. the stately tragedy--vividly contrasting the tyranny and darkness of pagan rome with the spirit of light and freedom arising in christian gaul--was in perfect keeping with its stately frame. the play went on in a whirl of enthusiastic approval to a triumphant end. there was no question of ratifying the opinion of parisian critics: those southerners formed and delivered an opinion of their own. in other words, the defiance of conventions was an artistic victory, a decentralizing success. then it was that the félibres--the poets of languedoc and of provence who for forty years have been combating the parisian attempt to focus in paris the whole of france--perceived how the orange theatre could be made to advance their anti-centralizing principles, and so took a hand in its fortunes: with the avowed intention of establishing outside of paris a national theatre wherein should be given in summer dramatic festivals of the highest class. with the félibres to attempt is to accomplish; and to their efforts was due the presentation at orange in august 1888, of the "oedipus" of sophocles and rossini's "moses"--with mounet-sully and boudouresque in the respective title-rôles. the members of the two félibrien societies of paris, the félibrige and the cigaliers, were present in force at the performances--so timed as to be a part of their customary biennial summer festival in the midi--and their command of the paris newspapers (whereof the high places largely are filled by these brave writers of the south) enabled them to make all paris and all france ring with their account of the beauty of the orange spectacle. out of their enthusiasm came practical results. a national interest in the theatre was aroused; and so strong an interest that the deputy from the department of the drôme--m. maurice faure, a man of letters who finds time to be also a statesman--brought to a successful issue his long-sustained effort to obtain from the government a grant of funds to be used not merely for the preservation of the building, but toward its restoration. thanks to his strong presentation of the case, forty thousand francs was appropriated for the beginning of the work: a sum that has sufficed to pay for the rebuilding of twenty of the tiers. and thus, at last, a substantial beginning was made in the recreation of the majestic edifice; and more than a beginning was made in the realization of the félibrien project for establishing a national theatre in provincial france. the festival of last august--again promoted by the félibres, and mainly organized by m. jules claretie, the director of the comédie française--was held, therefore, in celebration of specific achievement; and in two other important particulars it differed from all other modern festivals at orange. first, it was directly under government patronage--m. leygues, minister of public instruction and the fine arts, bringing two other cabinet ministers with him, having come down from paris expressly to preside over it; and, secondly, its brilliantly successful organization and accomplishment under such high auspices have gone far toward creating a positive national demand for a realization of the félibrien dream: that the theatre, again perfect, shall become the home of the highest dramatic art, and a place of periodic pilgrimage, biennial or even annual, for the whole of the art-loving world. i am disposed to regard myself as more than usually fortunate in that i was able to be a part of that most brilliant festival, and i am deeply grateful to my félibrien brethren to whom i owe my share in it. with an excellent thoughtfulness they sent me early word of what was forward among them, and so enabled me to get from new york to paris in time to go down with the félibres and the cigaliers by train to lyons, and thence--as blithe a boat-load of poets as ever went light-heartedly afloat--on southward to avignon on the galloping current of the rhône. v avignon was crowded with dignitaries and personages: m. leygues, who was to preside over the festival; the ministers of justice and of public works, who were to increase its official dignity; artistic and literary people without end. of these last--who also, in a way, were first, since to them the whole was due--our special boat from lyons had brought a gay contingent three hundred strong. with it all, the city of the popes fairly buzzed like a hive of poetic bees got astray from hymettus hill. from avignon to orange the distance is less than eighteen miles, not at all too far for driving; and the intervening country is so rich and so beautiful as to conform in all essentials--save in its commendable freedom from serpents--to the biblical description of paradise. therefore, following our own wishes and the advice of several poets--they all are poets down there--we decided to drive to the play rather than to expose ourselves to the rigours of the local railway service: the abject collapse of which, under the strain of handling twelve or fifteen hundred people, the poets truthfully prophesied. it was five in the afternoon when we got away from avignon. a mistral--the north wind that is the winter bane and summer blessing of provence--was blowing briskly; the sun was shining; the crowded cours de la république was gay with flags and banners and streamers, and with festoons of coloured lanterns which later would be festoons of coloured fire. we passed between the towers of the gateway, left the ramparts behind us, and went onward over the perfect road. plane-trees arched above us; on each side of the road were little villas deep-set in gardens and bearing upon their stone gate-posts the names of saints. as we increased our distance from the city we came to market-gardens, and then to vineyards, olive-orchards, farms. rows of bright-green poplars and of dark-green cypress--set up as shields against the mistral--made formal lines across the landscape from east to west. the hedges on the lee-side of the road were white with dust--a lace-like effect, curious and beautiful. above them, and between the trees, we caught glimpses of mont ventour--already beginning to glow like a great opal in the nearly level sun-rays. old women and children stood in the gateways staring wonderingly at the long procession of vehicles, of which our carriage was a part, all obviously filled with pleasure-seekers and all inexplicable. pretty girls, without stopping to wonder, accepted with satisfaction so joyous an outburst of merrymaking and unhesitatingly gave us their smiles. we crossed the little river ouvèze, and as we mounted from it to the northward the tower of the ruined châteauneuf-du-pape came into view. a new key was struck in the landscape. the broad white road ran through a brown solitude: a level upland broken into fields of sun-browned stubble and of grey-brown olive-orchards; and then, farther on, through a high desolate plain tufted with sage-brush, whence we had outlook to wide horizons far away. off to the eastward, cutting against the darkening sky, was the curious row of sharp peaks called the rat's teeth. all the range of the alpilles was taking on a deeper grey. purple undertones were beginning to soften the opalescent fire of mont ventour. presently the road dipped over the edge of the plain and began a descent, in a perfectly straight line but by a very easy grade, of more than a mile. here were rows of plane-trees again, which, being of no great age and not meeting over the road, were most noticeable as emphasizing the perspective. and from the crest of this acclivity--down the long dip in the land, at the end of the loom of grey-white road lying shadowy between the perspective lines of trees--we saw rising in sombre mass against the purple haze of sunset, dominating the little city nestled at its base and even dwarfing the mountain at its back, the huge fabric of the theatre. dusk had fallen as we drove into orange--thronged with men and beasts like a noah's ark. all the streets were alive with people; and streams of vehicles of all sorts were pouring in from the four quarters of the compass and discharging their cargoes on the public squares to a loud buzzing accompaniment of vigorous talk--much in the way that the ark people, thankful to get ashore again, must have come buzzing out on ararat. i am sorry to say that the handling of a small part of this crowd by the railway people, and of the whole of it by the local management, was deplorably bad. the trains were inadequate and irregular; the great mistake was made of opening only three of the many entrances to the theatre; and the artistic error was committed (against the protest of m. mounet-sully, who earnestly desired to maintain the traditions of the greek theatre by reserving the orchestra for the evolutions of the chorus) of filling the orchestra with chairs: with the result that these so-called first-class seats--being all on the same level, and that level four feet lower than the stage--were at once the highest-priced and the worst seats in the building. decidedly the best seats, both for seeing and hearing, were those of the so-called second class--the newly erected tiers of stone. but so excellent are the acoustic properties of the theatre, even now when the stage is roofless, that in the highest tier of the third-class seats (temporary wooden benches filling the space not yet rebuilt in stone in the upper third of the auditorium) all the well-trained and well-managed voices could be clearly heard. naturally, the third-class seats were the most in demand; and from the moment that the gates were opened the way to them was thronged: an acute ascent--partly rough stairway, partly abrupt incline--which zigzagged up the hill between the wall of the theatre and the wall of an adjacent house and which was lighted, just below its sharpest turn, by a single lamp pendant from an outjutting gibbet of iron. by a lucky mischance, three of the incompetent officials on duty at the first-class entrance--whereat, in default of guiding signs, we happened first to apply ourselves--examined in turn our tickets and assured us that the way to our second-class places was up that stairway-path. but we heartily forgave, and even blessed, the stupidity of those officials, because it put us in the way of seeing quite the most picturesque bit that we saw that night outside of the theatre's walls: the strong current of eager humanity, all vague and confused and sombre, pressing upward through the shadows, showing for a single moment--the hurrying mass resolved into individual hurrying figures--as it passed beneath the hanging lamp, and in the same breath swept around the projecting corner and lost to view. it looked, at the very least, treasons, conspiracies, and mutinous outbursts--that shadowy multitude surging up that narrow and steep and desperately crooked dusky footway. i felt that just around the lighted turn, where the impetuous forms appeared clearly in the moment of their disappearance, surely must be the royal palace they were bent upon sacking; and it was with a sigh of unsatisfied longing that i turned away (when we got at last the right direction) before word came to me that over the swords of his dying guardsmen they had pressed in and slain the king! [illustration: "it looked treasons, conspiracies and mutinous outbursts"] the soldiers on guard at the ascent, and thickly posted on the hill-side above the highest tiers, gave colour to my fancy. and, actually, it was as guards against assassins that the soldiers were there. only a little more than two months had passed since the slaying of president carnot at lyons; and the cautionary measures taken to assure the safety of the three ministers at orange were all the more rigid because one of them was the minister of justice--of all the government functionaries the most feared and hated by anarchists, because he is most intimately associated with those too rare occasions when anarchist heads are sliced off in poor payment for anarchist crimes. this undercurrent of real tragedy--with its possibility of a crash, followed by a cloud of smoke rising slowly above the wreck of the gaily decorated ministerial box--drew out with a fine intensity the tragedy of the stage: and brought into a curious psychological coalescence the barbarisms of the dawn and of the noontime of our human world. vi we came again to the front of the theatre: to an entrance--approached between converging railings, which brought the crowd to an angry focus, and so passed its parts singly between the ticket-takers--leading into what once was the postscenium, and thence across where once was the "court" side of the stage to the tiers of stone seats. [illustration: the great façade] however aggravating was this entrance-effect in the matter of composition, its dramatically graded light-and-shade was masterly. from the outer obscurity, shot forward as from a catapult by the pushing crowd, we were projected through a narrow portal into a dimly lighted passage more or less obstructed by fallen blocks of stone; and thence onward, suddenly, into the vast interior glaring with electric lamps: and in the abrupt culmination of light there flashed up before us the whole of the auditorium--a mountain-side of faces rising tier on tier; a vibrant throng of humanity which seemed to go on and on forever upward, and to be lost at last in the star-depths of the clear dark sky. notwithstanding the electric lamps--partly, indeed, because of their violently contrasting streams of strong light and fantastic shadow--the general effect of the auditorium was sombre. the dress of the audience--cloaks and wraps being in general use because of the strong mistral that was blowing--in the main was dark. the few light gowns and the more numerous straw hats stood out as spots of light and only emphasized the dullness of the background. the lines of faces, following the long curving sweep of the tiers, produced something of the effect of a grey-yellow haze floating above the surface of a sable mass; and in certain of the strange sharp combinations of light and shade gave an eerie suggestion of such a bodiless assemblage as might have come together in the time of the terror at midnight in the place du grêve. the single note of strong colour--all the more effective because it was a very trumpet-blast above the drone of bees--was a brilliant splash of red running half-way around the mid-height: the crimson draperies in front of the three tiers set apart for the ministerial party and the félibres. and for a roof over all was the dark star-set sky: whence the great bear gazed wonderingly down upon us with his golden eyes. we were in close touch with the higher regions of the universe. at the very moment when the play was beginning there gleamed across the upper firmament, and thence went radiantly downward across the southern reaches of the heavens, a shooting-star. not until we were in our seats--at the side of the building, a dozen tiers above the ground--did we fairly see the stage. in itself, this was almost mean in its simplicity: a bare wooden platform, a trifle over four feet high and about forty by sixty feet square, on which, in the rear, was another platform, about twenty feet square, reached from the lower stage by five steps. the upper level, the stage proper, was for the actors; the lower, for the chorus--which should have been in the orchestra. the whole occupied less than a quarter of the space primitively given to the stage proper alone. of ordinary theatrical properties there absolutely were none--unless in that category could be placed the plain curtain which hung loosely across the lower half of the jagged gap in the masonry where once the splendid royal portal had been. but if the stage were mean in itself it was heroic in its surroundings: being flanked by the two castle-like wings abutting upon huge half-ruined archways, and having in its rear the scarred and broken mighty wall--that once was so gloriously magnificent and that now, perhaps, is still more exalted by its tragic grandeur of divine decay. and yet another touch of pathos, in which also was a tender beauty, was supplied by the growth of trees and shrubs along the base of the great wall. over toward the "garden" exit was a miniature forest of figs and pomegranates, while on the "court" side the drooping branches of a large fig-tree swept the very edge of the stage--a gracious accessory which was improved by arranging a broad parterre of growing flowers and tall green plants upon the stage itself so as to make a very garden there; while, quite a master-stroke, beneath the fig-tree's wide-spreading branches were hidden the exquisitely anachronistic musicians, whose dress and whose instruments alike were at odds with the theatre and with the play. two ill-advised electric lamps, shaded from the audience, were set at the outer corners of the stage; but the main illumination was from a row of screened footlights which not only made the whole stage brilliant but cast high upward on the wall in the rear--above the gaping ruined niche where once had stood the statue of a god--a flood of strong yellow light that was reflected strongly from the yellow stone: so making a glowing golden background, whence was projected into the upper darkness of the night a golden haze. vii with a nice appreciation of poetic effect, and of rising to strong climax from an opening note struck in a low key, the performance began by the appearance in that heroic setting of a single figure: mademoiselle bréval, in flowing white draperies, who sang the "hymn to pallas athene," by croze, set to music by saint-saëns--the composer himself, hidden away with his musicians beneath the branches of the fig-tree, directing the orchestra. the subduing effect produced by mademoiselle bréval's entrance was instantaneous. but a moment before, the audience had been noisily demonstrative. as the ministerial party entered, to the music of the "marseillaise," everybody had roared; there were more roars when the music changed (as it usually does change in france, nowadays) to the russian anthem; there were shouts of welcome to various popular personages--notably, and most deservedly, to m. jules claretie, to whom the success of the festival so largely was due; from the tiers where the parisians were seated came good-humored cries (reviving a legend of the chat noir) of "vive notre oncle!" as the excellent sarcey found his way to his seat among the cigaliers; and when the poet frédéric mistral entered--tall, stately, magnificent--there broke forth a storm of cheering that was not stilled until the minister (rather taken aback, i fancy, by so warm an outburst of enthusiasm) satisfied the subjects of this uncrowned king by giving him a place of honour in the ministerial box. and then, suddenly, the shouting ceased, the confusion was quelled, a hush fell upon the multitude, as that single figure in white swept with fluttering draperies across from the rear to the front of the stage, and paused for a moment before she began her invocation to the grecian goddess: whose altar-fires went out in ancient ages, but who was a living and a glorious reality when the building in which was this echo of her worship came new from the hands of its creators--seventeen hundred years ago. the mistral, just then blowing strongly and steadily, drew down upon the stage and swept back the singer's grecian draperies in entrancing folds. as she sang, standing in the golden light against the golden background, her supple body was swayed forward eagerly, impetuously; above her head were raised her beautiful bare arms; from her shoulders the loose folds of her mantle floated backward, wing-like--and before us, in the flesh, as in the flesh it was of old before the grecian sculptors, was the motive of those nobly impulsive, urgent statues of which the immortal type is the winged victory. the theory has been advanced that the great size of the greek stage, and of the palace in its rear which was its permanent set of scenery, so dwarfed the figures of the actors that buskins and padding were used in order to make the persons of the players more in keeping with their surroundings. with submission, i hold that this theory is arrant nonsense. even on stilts ten feet high the actors still would have been, in one way, out of proportion with the background. if used at all in tragedy, buskins and pads probably were used to make the heroic characters of the drama literally greater than the other characters. in point of fact, the majestic height of the scene did not dwarf the human figures sustaining serious parts. the effect was precisely the contrary. mademoiselle bréval, standing solitary in that great open space, with the play of golden light upon her, became also heroic. with the characters in "oedipus" and "antigone" the result was the same: the sombre grandeur of the tragedies was enlarged by the majesty of the background, and play and players alike were upraised to a lofty plane of solemn stateliness by the stately reality of those noble walls: which themselves were tragedies, because of the ruin that had come to them with age. upon the comedy that so injudiciously was interpolated into the program the effect of the heroic environment was hopelessly belittling. m. arène's "l'ilote" and m. ferrier's "revanche d'iris" are charming of their kind, and to see them in an ordinary theatre--with those intimate accessories of house life which such sparkling trifles require--would be only a delight. but at orange their sparkle vanished, and they were jarringly out of place. even the perfect excellence of the players--and no grecian actress, i am confident, ever surpassed mademoiselle rachel-boyer in exquisitely finished handling of grecian draperies--could not save them. quite as distinctly as each of the tragedies was a success, the little comedies were failures: being overwhelmed utterly by their stately surroundings, and lost in the melancholy bareness of that great stage. it was all the more, therefore, an interesting study in the psychology of the drama to perceive how the comparatively few actors in the casts of the tragedies--how even, at times, only one or two figures--seemed entirely to fill the stage; and how at all times those plays and their setting absolutely harmonized. viii of scenery, in the ordinary sense of the word, there was none at all. what we saw was the real thing. in the opening scene of "oedipus," the _king_--coming forward through the royal portal, and across the raised platform in the rear of the stage--did literally "enter from the palace," and did "descend the palace steps" to the "public place" where _creon_ and the priests awaited him. it was a direct reversal of the ordinary effect in the ordinary theatre: where the play loses in realism because a current of necessarily recognized, but purposely ignored, antagonistic fact underruns the conventional illusion and compels us to perceive that the palace is but painted canvas, and (even on the largest stage) is only four or five times as high as the _prince_. the palace at orange--towering up as though it would touch the very heavens, and obviously of veritable stone--was a most peremptory reality. [illustration: scene from the first act of "oedipus"] the fortuitous accessory of the trees growing close beside the stage added to the outdoor effect still another very vivid touch of realism; and this was heightened by the swaying of the branches, and by the gracious motion of the draperies, under the fitful pressure of the strong gusts of wind. indeed, the mistral took a very telling part in the performance. players less perfect in their art would have been disconcerted by it; but these of the comédie française were quick to perceive and to utilize its artistic possibilities. in the very midst of the solemn denunciation of _oedipus_ by _tiresias_, the long white beard of the blind prophet suddenly was blown upward so that his face was hidden and his utterance choked by it; and the momentary pause, while he raised his hand slowly, and slowly freed his face from this chance covering, made a dramatic break in his discourse and added to it a naturalness which vividly intensified its solemn import. in like manner the final entry of _oedipus_, coming from the palace after blinding himself, was made thrillingly real. for a moment, as he came upon the stage, the horror which he had wrought upon himself--his ghastly eye-sockets, his blood-stained face--was visible; and then a gust of wind lifted his mantle and flung it about his head so that all was concealed; and an exquisite pity for him was aroused--while he struggled painfully to rid himself of the encumbrance--by the imposition of that petty annoyance upon his mortal agony of body and of soul. in such capital instances the mistral became an essential part of the drama; but it was present upon the stage continuously, and its constant play among the draperies--with a resulting swaying of tender lines into a series of enchanting folds, and with a quivering of robes and mantles which gave to the larger motions of the players an undertone of vibrant action--cast over the intrinsic harshness of the tragedy a softening veil of grace. an enlargement of the same soft influences was due to the entrancing effects of colour and of light. following the grecian traditions, the flowing garments of the chorus were in strong yet subdued colour-notes perfectly harmonized. contrasting with those rich tones, the white-robed figures of the leading characters stood out with a brilliant intensity. and the groups had always a golden background, and over them always the golden glow from the footlights cast a warm radiance that again was strengthened by the golden reflections from the wall of yellow stone, so that the whole symphony in colour had for its under-note a mellow splendour of golden tones. ix in this perfect poetic setting the play went on with a stately slowness--that yet was all too fast for the onlookers--and with the perfection of finish that such actors naturally gave to their work amidst surroundings by which they were at once stimulated and inspired. even the practical defects of the ruinous theatre were turned into poetical advantages which made the tragic action still more real. the woeful entrance of _oedipus_ and the despairing retreat of _jocasta_ were rendered the more impressive by momentary pauses in the broken doorway--that emphasized by its wreck their own wrecked happiness; in "antigone" a touching beauty was given to the entry of the blind _tiresias_ by his slow approach from the distant side of the theatre, led by a child through the maze of bushes and around the fallen fragments of stone; and mademoiselle bartet (_antigone_), unable to pass by the door that should have been but was not open for her, made a still finer exit by descending the steps at the side of the stage and disappearing among the trees. but the most perfect of those artistic utilizations of chance accessories--which were the more effective precisely because they were accidental, and the more appreciated because their use so obviously was an inspiration--was the final exit of _oedipus_: a departure "into desert regions" that mounet-sully was able to make very literally real. over in the corner beside the "garden" exit, as i have said, was a tangled growth of figs and pomegranates; and thence extending almost to the stage was a light fringe of bushes growing along the base of the rear wall among the fragments of fallen stone. it was through that actual wilderness that _oedipus_--crossing half the width of the theatre--passed from the brilliant stage into shadow that grew deeper as he advanced, and at last, entering the gap in the stone-work where once the doorway had been, disappeared into the dark depth beyond. an accident of the moment--the exhaustion of the carbons of the electric lamps--gave to his exit a still keener dramatic intensity. the footlights alone remained burning: flooding with a golden splendour the stage and the great yellow wall, and from the wall reflected upward and outward upon the auditorium; casting over the faces in the orchestra a soft golden twilight, and a still fainter golden light over the more remote hill-side of faces on the tiers--which rose through the golden dusk, and vanished at last in a darkness that still seemed to be a little softened by the faint suggestion of a golden haze. interest and light thus together were focused upon the climax of the tragedy. leaving the light, and with it love and hope and life, behind him, _oedipus_ descended the steps of the palace, leaning upon the shoulder of a slave, and moved toward the thickening shadows. watching after him with a profoundly sorrowful intensity was the group upon the stage: a gorgeous mass of warm colour, broken by dashes of gleaming white and bathed in a golden glow. slowly, painfully, along that rough and troublous way, into an ever-deepening obscurity merging into darkness irrevocable, the blinded king went onward toward the outer wilderness where would be spent the dreary remnant of his broken days. feeling his way through the tangled bushes; stumbling, almost falling, over the blocks of stone; at times halting, and in his desperate sorrow raising his hands imploringly toward the gods whose foreordered curse had fallen upon him because of his foreordered sin, he went on and on: while upon the great auditorium there rested an ardent silence which seemed even to still the beatings of the eight thousand hearts. and when, passing into the black depths of the broken archway, the last faint gleam of his white drapery vanished, and the strain relaxed which had held the audience still and silent, there came first from all those eager breasts--before the roar of applause which rose and fell, and rose again, and seemed for a while to be quite inextinguishable--a deep-drawn sigh. x "antigone," played on the second evening--being a gentler tragedy than "oedipus," and conceived in a spirit more in touch with our modern times--was received with a warmer enthusiasm. no doubt to the greeks, to whom its religious motive was a living reality, "oedipus" was purely awe-inspiring; but to us, for whom the religious element practically has no existence, the intrinsic qualities of the plot are so repellent that the play is less awe-inspiring than horrible. and even in grecian times, i fancy--human nature being the same then as now in its substrata--"antigone," with its conflict between mortals, must have appealed more searchingly to human hearts than ever "oedipus" could have appealed with its conflict between a mortal and the gods. naturally, we are in closer sympathy with the righteous defiance of a man by a woman--both before our eyes, passionately flaming with strong antagonistic emotions--than we are with a man's unrighteous defiance of abstract and invisible fate. as "antigone" was given at orange, the softening influences which had subdued the harshness of "oedipus" still farther were extended, making its deep tenderness still deeper and more appealing. the inspersion of music of a curiously penetrating, moving sort--composed by saint-saëns in an approximation to grecian measures--added a poetic undertone to the poetry of the situations and of the lines; and a greater intensity was given to the crises of the play--an artistic reproduction of the effect caused by the accident of the night before--by extinguishing the electric lamps and so bringing the action to a focus in the mellow radiance which came from the golden footlights and richly lighted the stage. the poetic key-note was struck in the opening scene: when _antigone_ and _ismene_, robed all in white, entered together by the royal doorway and stood upon the upper plane of the great stage, alone--and yet so filled it that there was no sense of emptiness nor of lack of the ordinary scenery. again, the setting was not an imitation, but the real thing. the palace from which the sisters had come forth rose stately behind them. beside the stage, the branches of the fig-tree waved lightly in the breeze. in the golden glow of the footlights and against the golden background the two white-robed figures--their loose vestments, swayed by the wind, falling each moment into fresh lines of loveliness--moved with an exquisite grace. and all this visible beauty reinforced with a moving fervour the penetrating beauty of _antigone's_ avowal of her love for her dead brother--tender, human, natural--and of her purpose, born of that love, so resolute that to accomplish it she would give her life. [illustration: scene from the second act of "antigone"] again, the utter absence of conventional scenery was a benefit rather than a disadvantage. when _creon_ entered upon the upper plane, attended by his gorgeous guard, and at the same moment the entrance of the chorus filled the lower plane with colour less brilliant but not less strong, the stage was full, not of things, but of people, and was wholly alive. the eye was not distracted by painted scenery--in the ordinary theatre a mechanical necessity, and partly excusable because it also supplies warmth and richness of tone--but was entirely at the service of the mind in following the dramatic action of the play. the setting being a reality, there was no need for mechanism to conceal a seamy side; and the colour-effects were produced by the actors themselves: whose draperies made a superb colour-scheme of strong hues perfectly harmonized, of gleaming white, of glittering golden embroideries--which constantly was rearranged by the shifting of the groups and single figures into fresh combinations; to which every puff of wind and every gesture gave fresh effects of light and shade; and over which the golden light shed always its warm radiance. of all those beautiful groupings, the one which most completely fulfilled the several requirements of a picture--subject, composition, colour, light-and-shade--was that of the fourth episode: the white-robed _antigone_ alone upon the upper plane, an animate statue, a veritable galatea; the chorus, a broad sweep of warm colour, on the lower plane; the electric lights turned off, leaving the auditorium in semi-obscurity, and concentrating light and thought upon the golden beauty of the stage. with the entry of _creon_ and his guards both the dramatic and the picturesque demands of the situation were entirely satisfied. in the foreground, a mass of strong subdued colour, were the minor figures of the chorus; in the background, a mass of strong brilliant color, were the minor figures of the guards; between those groups--the subject proper--were _creon_ and _antigone_: their white robes, flashing with their eager gestures and in vivid relief against the rich background, making them at once the centre and the culmination of the magnificent composition. and the beauty and force of such a setting deepened the pathos and intensified the cruelty of the alternately supplicating and ferocious lines. there was, i regret to say, an absurd anticlimax to that noble scene. _antigone_, being recalled and made the centre of a volley of bouquets, ceased to be _antigone_ and became only mademoiselle bartet; and the greek chorus, breaking ranks and scampering about the stage in order to pick up the leading lady's flowers, ceased to be anything serious and became only ridiculous. for the moment french gallantry rose superior to the eternal fitness of things, and in so doing partially destroyed one of the most beautiful effects ever produced upon the stage. even in the case of minor players so complete a collapse of dignity would not easily have been forgiven. in the case of players so eminent, belonging to the first theatre in the world, it was unpardonable. xi but it could be, and was, for the time being forgotten--as the play went on with a smooth perfection, and with a constantly increasing dramatic force, as the action strengthened and quickened in accord always with the requirements of dramatic art. without any apparent effort to secure picturesque effect, with a grouping seemingly wholly unstudied and always natural, the stage presented a series of pictures ideal in their balance of mass, and in their colour and tone, while the turning off and on of the electric lights produced effects analogous to those in music when the soft and hard pedals are used to give to the more tender passages an added grace and delicacy, and to the stronger passages a more brilliant force. and always, be it remembered, the play thus presented was one of the most tenderly beautiful tragedies possessed by the world, and the players--by natural fitness and by training--were perfect in their art. presently came the end--not a climax of action; not, in one sense, a climax at all. with a master-touch, sophocles has made the end of "antigone" the dead after-calm of evil action--a desolate despair. slowly the group upon the stage melted away. _creon_, with his hopeless cry upon his lips, "death! death! only death!" moved with a weary languor toward the palace and slowly disappeared in the darkness beyond the ruined portal. there was a pause before the chorus uttered its final solemn words. and then--not as though obeying a stage direction, but rather as though moved severally by the longing in their own breasts to get away from that place of sorrow--those others also departed: going slowly, in little groups and singly, until at last the stage was bare. the audience was held bound in reality by the spell which had seemed to bind the chorus after _creon's_ exit. some moments passed before that spell was broken, before the eight thousand hearts beat normally again and the eight thousand throats burst forth into noisy applause--which was less, perhaps, an expression of gratitude for an artistic creation rarely equalled than of the natural rebound of the spirit after so tense a strain. in another moment the seats were emptied and the multitude was flowing down the tiers--a veritable torrent of humanity--into the pit: there to be packed for a while in a solid mass before it could work its way out through the insufficient exits and so return again to our modern world. and then the roman theatre--with a fresh legend of beauty added to the roll of its centuries--was left desert beneath the bright silence of the eternal stars. saint-remy-de-provence, _december, 1894._ the end footnotes [1] _recipe for poumpo_: flour, 10½ oz.; brown sugar, 3½ oz.; virgin olive oil (probably butter would answer), 3½ oz.; the white and the yolk of one egg. knead with enough water to make a firm paste. fold in three and set to rise for eight or ten hours. shape for baking, gashing the top. bake in a slow oven. [2] _vin cue_, literally cooked wine, is made at the time of the vintage by the following recipe: boil unfermented grape-juice in a well scoured cauldron [or porcelain-lined vessel] for a quarter of an hour, skimming thoroughly. pour into earthen pans, and let it stand until the following day. pour again into the cauldron, carefully, so as to leave the dregs, and boil until reduced to one-half--or less, or more, according to the sweetness desired. a good rule is to boil in the wine a quince stuck full of cloves--the thorough cooking of the quince shows that the wine is cooked too. set to cool in earthen pans, and when cold bottle and cork and seal. the provençal cooked-wine goes back to roman times. martial speaks of "cocta fumis musta massiliensis." [3] the admirable edition of saboly's noëls, text and music, published at avignon in the year 1856 by françois seguin has been reissued by the same publisher in definitive form. it can be obtained through the librarie roumanille, avignon. [4] as yet (1902) these high hopes have not been fully realized. in the past eight years dramatic performances repeatedly have been given in the orange theatre, and always with a brilliant success; but their establishment as fixtures, to come off at regular intervals, still is to be accomplished. [5] the dimensions of the theatre are: width, 338 feet; depth, 254 feet; height of façade and of rear wall of stage, 120 feet; radius of auditorium, 182 feet. [6] the conventions of the greek theatre--and, later, of the roman theatre--prescribed that through the great central portal kings should enter; through the smaller side portals, queens or princesses (on the left) and guests (on the right); from the portals in the wings, natives of the country (on the left) and strangers (on the right). the conventional entrances from the wings arose from the fact that the spectators in the dionysiac theatre, on the acropolis, saw beyond the stage on the one side the white houses of athens and on the other the plains of attica: and so to them the actors coming from the athenian side were their own people, while those entering from the side toward attica were strangers. in the modern french theatre the "court" and "garden" entrances still preserve this ancient tradition. * * * * * transcriber's note obvious printing errors were repaired; these changes are listed below. other variation in hyphenation is as in the original text. felibrien changed to félibrien "it was the drink of the young félibrien poets" builded changed to built "long before lyons was built or paris even thought of" hughes south of france only two hundred and fifty copies printed. "----i informed my friend that i had just received from england a journal of a tour made in the south of france by a young oxonian friend of mine, a poet, a draughtsman, and a scholar--in which he gives such an animated and interesting description of the château grignan, the dwelling of madame de sevigné's beloved daughter, and frequently the place of her own residence, that no one who ever read the book would be within forty miles of the same without going a pilgrimage to the spot. the marquis smiled, seemed very much pleased, and asked the title at length of the work in question; and writing down to my dictation, 'an itinerary of provence and the rhone made during the year 1819, by john hughes, a.m. of oriel college, oxford,'--observed, that he could now purchase no books for the château, but would recommend that the itineraire should be commissioned for the library to which he was abonné in the neighbouring town,"--_sir walter scott's quentin durward_. thomas white, printer, johnson's court. * * * itinerary of provence & the rhone, made during the year 1819. by john hughes, m.a. of oriel college oxford. [illustration: j. hughes esq. del. w. woolnoth, sg. isle of st. marguerite near cannes and prison of masque de fer.] second edition. london: james cawthorn. md.cccxxix. preface. it has been the author's object to render the following volume a companion to persons visiting the country described. he has therefore not so much studied to compile from known books of historical reference, as to answer those plain and practical questions which suggest themselves during an actual journey, and to enable those whose time is limited, and who wish to employ it actively, to form the necessary calculations as to what is to be seen and done. the best points of view, and the parts which may be passed over rapidly, are therefore specified, as well as the places where good accommodation are to be expected, or imposition to be guarded against. the subjects of the illustrations will be mentioned in the course of the itinerary, for the information of collectors, of whose notice it is trusted they will be rendered worthy by the well-known talents of mr. dewint and the messrs. cookes. contents. chap. i.--paris to rochepot chap. ii.--rochepot to lyons chap. iii.--lyons chap. iv.--lyons to montelimart chap. v.--château grignan chap. vi.--orange--avignon chap. vii.--avignon--murder of brune--hôpital des fous--mission of 1819 chap. viii.--pont du gard--nismes--montpelier--cette chap. ix.--tarascon--beaucaire--st. remy--orgon--lambesc chap. x.--aix--marseilles chap. xi.--ollioules--toulon chap. xii.--frejus--cannes--isle of st. marguerite--antibes chap. xiii.--nice--col di tende--conclusion * * * an itinerary, &c. * * * chap. i. paris to rochepot. no one, i imagine, ever yet left an hotel in a central and bustling part of paris, without feeling the faculty of observation strained to the utmost, and experiencing a whirl and jumble of recollections as little in unison with each other as the well known signs of that whimsical city, the _boeuf à-la-mode_, (with his cachemire shawl and his ostrich feathers) and the _mort d'henri quartre_. the contrasts and varieties of the grave and gay, the affecting and the burlesque, the magnificent and the paltry, which exist and may be sought out in abundance in every great capital, are perhaps more vividly concentrated at paris than any where else, and brought with less trouble under the eye of those whose spirits or leisure may not allow them to mix in society. in london every thing wears a busy uniform exterior, varied only by the apparition of a turk, a lascar, or a highlander; and home appears to be the place reserved for the development of character: but in paris, from the fashion of living almost in public, and the freedom which every one enjoys of following his own taste in dress or amusement without notice, the history of most individuals appears to a certain degree written on their exterior; and a morning's walk brings you in contact with all the diversities of character which rapidly succeeding events have created. the old beau, with the identical toupet of 1770; the musty, moth-eaten nondescripts sometimes seen at the mass of notre dame, which remind you of a still earlier period; the faded royalist, with a countenance saddened by the recollection of former days; the ex-militaires, whose looks own no friendship with "the world or the world's law;" the old bourgeois riding in the same roundabout with his grandchildren, and enjoying the _jeu de bague_ as cordially,--revolve in succession like the different figures in a magic lantern, while the place of punch and pierrot is supplied by a host of laborious drolls and _gens à l'incroyable_. the various members of this motley assemblage appear also more distinct from each other, as connected in the recollection with places so strongly marked by historical events, or bearing in themselves so peculiar a character:--the place louis quinze, the grim old conciergerie, the deserted fauxbourg st. germain, with the grass growing in its streets; the place de carousel, the boulevards, and the catacombs, the palais royal and the morgue. to attempt, however, to say any thing new of a place so well known and so fully described as paris, would be as superfluous as to write the natural history of the dog or cat. the peculiarities of such animals are continually striking one in new and amusing points of view; but verbal delineation has already done its utmost in acquainting us with them. in like manner, every thing relating to paris, and illustrative of it at a period of interest which probably will not arise again for centuries, has been already made known in paul's admirable letters, in poor scott's powerful but unmerciful satire, and finally in a host of books, booklings, and bookatees, teaching us how to spend any period of time at paris from three to three hundred and sixty-five days; how to enjoy it, how to eat, drink, see, hear, feel, think, and economise in it. kotzebue has devoted sixty pages to its bon bons and savories; others more modestly give you only a diary of their own fricasseed chicken and champagne, and information of a still lower sort is supplied by the delectable mr. hone, for the instruction of our jerries and corinthian toms. i shall commence dates, therefore, from the 26th of april, on which day we quitted the hôtel de l'europe, rue valois, not sorry to obtain a respite from sounds and sights. though in such a country as tuscany, where every furlong of ground affords a new and rich subject for the pencil, the voiture mode of travelling is preferable to posting; yet no one, i think, would recommend it in traversing the tedious interval which separates paris from the southern provinces. we had adopted this species of conveyance from the idea that it would afford more leisure for observation to those of the party to whom france was new; but we found in reality that by subjecting us to a dependence on hours, it diverted our attention from those places where we might have spent half a day to advantage, and familiarized us only with one branch of knowledge,--the merit and demerit of most of the inns on the roads, whose characters i shall not fail to give as we found them. homely as this species of information may be, i have often regretted the want of it beforehand; and concluding that others may be of the same opinion, i shall therefore afford it as far as i am able: premising, that it is as well not to vary, on this or any other road, from the practice of ascertaining beforehand the rate of the aubergiste's charges. the traveller's first impulse certainly is to save himself trouble, by paying whatever is demanded, and not to expend time and attention on a series of petty disputes, which make no great difference in his travelling expenses. there is, however, in all or most of those who are fitted to conduct the business of life, a feeling of shame at being outwitted even in trifles, which naturally rebels against this easy mode of proceeding, and inclines one rather to take the trouble of asking a few questions, than to be laughed at as a _grand seigneur_ by a cunning landlord. this trouble after all may be taken by a servant, and need not subject the master to the necessity of entering every inn like an angry terrier, with his bristles up and ready for battle; and the settlement of preliminaries does not lead to any want of attention on the part of the people of the inn. we neglected this precaution at essonne, where we breakfasted on leaving paris, and where accordingly we paid about double the charge which tortoni or the cafe hardy would have made. it appears, in truth, that at the croissant d'or, as at the emperor joseph's memorable german inn, "though eggs are not scarce, yet gentry are." the distance from paris to this place is about 24 miles: the road of course excellent, as is uniformly the case in the route to chalons; but the only thing during the stage which remains on my recollection, is an obelisk inscribed, "dieu, le roi, et les dames;" a melange perhaps compounded in compliment to louis xv. who greatly improved a part of this road, which was once nearly impassable. corbeil, a neat flourishing town within half a mile of essonne, and possessing large cotton manufactories, derives some interest from the celebrated siege it sustained during the war of the league. two miles beyond essonne we remarked, at a short distance to the right, château moncey, once the seat of the gay and brilliant duke de villeroi and his descendants; and on a hill to the left, château coudray, the former residence of the prince de chalot. both the possessors of these estates were guillotined during the reign of terror, and their places are filled by marechal jourdan, and some _nouveau riche_, whose very name the peasants seemed never to have heard, or to have forgotten from want of interest. we found the hôtel de la ville de lyon at fontainebleau a good inn, and fair in its charges. the old palace, though not intrinsically worth a visit in point of architecture, yet conveys one of those "sermons in stones," in which the fauxbourg de st. germain so much abounds; and presents also more pleasing recollections of louis quatorze (a prince possessing many of the good points of the _bon henri_) than the bombastic personification of him as jupiter tonans, in the palace of versailles, which is on a par as a painting with tom thumb as a tragedy. april 27.--to fossard, eighteen miles: the first six through the forest, just sufficiently sylvan to suffer by a comparison with that of windsor. at the end of two more miles we crossed the valley, in which is situated the town of moret, to which is attached a history equally curious, as anquetil observes, with that of the iron mask. the following is the extract from the duke de st. simon's memoirs, which he introduces as relative to it. "il y avoit à moret, petite ville auprès de fontainebleau, un petit couvent, où étoit professé une mauresse inconnue, et qu'on ne montroit a personne. bontemps, gouverneur de versailles, par qui passoient les choses du secrèt domestique du roi, l'y avoit mise toute jeune, avoit payé une dot assez considerable, et continuoit à lui payer une grosse pension tous les ans. il avoit attention qu'elle eût son necessaire, que tout ce qu'elle pouvoit desirer en agrémens et douceurs, et qui peut passer pour abondance pour une religieuse, lui fut fourni. la reine y alloit souvent de fontainebleau, et prenoit grand soin du bien-être du couvent; et mad. de maintenon après elle. ni l'une ni l'autre ne prenoit de cette mauresse un soin direct, et qui peut se remarquer. elles ne la voyoient même toutes les fois qu'elles alloient au couvent, mais elles s'informoient curieusement de sa santé, de sa conduite, et de celle de la superieure à son egard. quoiqu'il n'y eût dans cette maison personne d'un nom connu, monseigneur (le dauphin) y a été quelquefois; les princes, ses enfans, aussi; et tous demandoient et voyoient la mauresse. elle étoit dans un couvent avec plus de consideration que les autres, et se prevaloit fort des soins qu'on prenoit d'elle, et du mystère qu'on en faisoit. quoiqu'elle veçut très-religieusement, on s'appercevoit bien que sa vocation avoit été aidée. il lui echappoit une fois, entendant monseigneur chasser dans le forêt, de dire negligemment, 'c'est mon frère qui chasse.' on dit qu'elle avoit quelquefois des hauteurs, que sur les plaintes de la superieure, mad. de maintenon alla un jour exprès pour tâcher de lui inculquer des sentimens plus conformes a l'humilité religieuse; que lui ayant voulu insinuer qu'elle n'étoit pas ce qu'elle croyoit, elle lui repondit, 'si cela n'étoit pas, madame, vous ne prendriez pas la peine de venir me le dire!' ces indices ont fait conjectures qu'elle étoit fille du roi et de la reine, et que sa couleur l'avoit fait sequestrer, en publiant que la reine avoit fait une fausse couche." in addition to this extract, anquetil adds, "en effet, la fantaisie de garder devant ses yeux une naine monstreuse (her favourite negress mentioned previously), peut faire conjecturer que marie therèse n'aura pas été assez exacte à detourner ses regards d'objets qu'une femme prudente doit s'interdire; qu'elle les aura fixés sur les negres que le progrès du commerce maritime commençoit de rendre communs en france; et que de là sera venue la couleur de cette infortunée, qu'il aura fallu cacher dans un cloître. cette mauresse et l'homme au masque de fer sont les deux mystères du regne de louis xiv. le redacteur des memoires de st. simon dit qu'elle est morte à moret en 1732, et que son portrait étoit encore en 1779 dans le cabinet de l'abbesse, d'où, quand cette maison a été réunie ou prieuré de champ benôit à provins, il a passé dans le cabinet des antiques et curiosités de l'abbaye de st. genevieve du mont à paris, où il est encore. on lit au bas de ce portrait, ces mots, religieuse de moret." such are the words of the extract relative to this singular person. the hôtel de poste, (as it chooses to style itself) at fossard, is a dismal pot-house; and the people possess none of that good humour and alacrity which cover a multitude of faults. having swallowed some of their gritty coffee, which might have been very delectable to the palate of a turk, we walked about a mile and a half to the bridge[1] of montereau-sur-yonne, on which john duke of burgundy was murdered by tannegui de chastel, in the presence, and probably with the connivance of the dauphin, afterwards charles vii. near this spot we remarked a small mass of ruins, the only remains of the once magnificent château varennes. its former owner, the duke de châtelet, as we were informed by some market-people, resided for six months in the year at this seat, maintaining or employing most of the poor within his reach, and entertaining his peasantry with a weekly dance at the château. like many others, he fell a victim to the guillotine during the reign of terror; his lands, with the exception of a portion recovered by his heirs, were alienated, and the fragment which we observed was the only part of his residence left standing. from the tone and manner in which the french peasantry appear to speak of these very common occurrences, i should judge that the effects of the revolution have not yet eradicated that "subordination of the heart," which is natural among a simple and industrious people, and which nothing but very gross neglect or misconduct on the part of their superiors, or the unchecked licence of political quacks, can destroy. most of the ravages in question might no doubt be traced to bands of plunderers, organized from the most desperate and notorious characters in many different parishes, and sufficiently countenanced by the revolutionary tribunals to overawe the peaceable and unarmed mass of the population, whom it would be hardly fair to confound with them. let us fancy for a moment, how quickly, under similar political circumstances, a moveable spencean brigade might be collected in any district of england from poachers, sheep-stealers, gypsies, incendiaries, and those whose latent love of mischief might be drawn out by proper encouragement, and we may find reason not to condemn the french peasantry in general, as sharers in the outrages which they probably abominated, but could not prevent. [footnote 1: in 1419, john duke of burgundy, and the dauphin, against whom he had taken part during the troubles of france, agreed to a reconciliation. "an interview was fixed to take place on the bridge of montereau-sur-yonne, where a total amnesty was to be concluded, to be followed by an union of arms and interests. every precaution was taken by the duke for his safety; a barrier was erected on the bridge; he placed his own guard at one end, and advancing with only ten attendants, threw himself on his knees before the dauphin. at this instant tannegui de chastel, making the signal, leaped the barrier with some others, and giving him the first blow, he was almost immediately despatched. though the dauphin was in appearance only a passive spectator of this assassination, there can be no doubt that he was privy to its commission."--_wraxall's valois_.] from fossard to sens, 21 miles: the country uninteresting as far as pont-sur-yonne. chapelle de champigny affords a tolerably exact idea of a spanish village; each farm-house and its premises forming a square, inclosed in blank walls, and opening into the street by folding gates, with hardly a window to be seen. from pont-sur-yonne to sens, the road becomes more cheerful; and its fine old cathedral forms a good central object in the valley, along which the yonne is seen winding. the principal inn at sens being full for the night, we found neat and comfortable accommodations, with great civility, at the bouteille. whether there be any object worthy of notice in this cheerful little city, besides its cathedral, i do not know; but the latter possesses works of art which deserve an early and attentive visit. nothing can be more minutely beautiful than the small figures and ornaments on the tomb of the cardinal du prat, which is sufficient in itself to give a character to any one church. but the grand object of interest is a large sepulchral group in the centre of the choir, to the memory of the dauphin and his consort, the parents of louis xvi. the grace and classical contour of this monument, which is executed by the well-known nicholas coustou, would excite admiration even in the studio of canova, while the deep tone of genuine feeling displayed, particularly in the figure of hymen quenching his torch, is worthy of the chisel of our own chantry. somewhat might perhaps be owing to an evening light, which cast strong mellow shades on the figures, and gave an effect of reality to the fine white marble of which they are composed; but their merits are very striking, and are quite unalloyed by the graphic bombast of which the most able french artists have been with too much truth accused. the character of the dauphin, whose exemplary life in the midst of a corrupt court, was a tacit reproof which his haughty father could ill brook, is well known. ostendunt terris hunc tantum fata, neque ultrâ esse sinunt. he was snatched in the flower of his age, in the year 1765, from an evil which was even then brooding, and which might have brought his grey hairs to a bloody end at a more advanced period: and his consort survived him about a year and a half. "they were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their deaths they were not divided." the latter monument, as well as others of inferior merit, owed its preservation from revolutionary fury to the conduct and firmness of mons. menestrier, an avocat, and mayor of auxerre during the reign of terror. _ce brave homme_ (i like the old sacristan's term of _brave homme_, as it is one of the few untranslateable french words) flew to the cathedral at the moment that a horde of brigands had entered it to commence the work of mutilation; and, seconded by nothing but his known character for resolution, and an athletic person, fairly intimidated and turned them out for the time. losing not a moment, he removed to a place of safety the dauphin's monument, the avowed object of their vengeance, before a second visit took place; and desirous also to preserve a fine bas relief which stands in another part of the church, representing st. nicholas portioning three orphan girls, he engraved on the wall under it an inscription to benevolence in the republican style, which produced the desired effect. not very long afterwards he fell a victim to a fever caught by over-exertion in advocating the cause of a poor family; and his wife survived him only a few days, exhibiting an humble copy of the conjugal affection of those whose memorials her husband had so loyally preserved. whether to give full credit or not to the old sacristan's narration, i do not know; but it appears more probable that even so large a monument was removed piecemeal at short notice, than that the malice of the brigands would have allowed it to stand unhurt; and there is besides an ingenuity and presence of mind shown in the preservation of st. nicholas, quite consistent with the character of m. menestrier, as described by the old man. had the latter felt that inclination to romance, which is not uncommon among his brethren, he would probably have adopted the hacknied legend, that both monuments were miraculously secreted from the eyes of the marauders. april 28.--to joigny, where we breakfasted, twenty-one miles. passed through villeneuve, a decayed old town, with two singular gateways. even this place emulates paris in the possession of a tivoli, which, in the present instance, consisted of a walled square of court-yard (for garden it could not be called), measuring about thirty yards by twenty, and overshadowed by poplars from three to four feet high: a most pleasant representative, in truth, of the wild olive woods, the sequestered waterfalls, and the classical ruins of the original tivoli. domus albunese resonantis, et præceps anio, et tiburni lucus. on leaving joigny, a neat pleasant town, extending in one wide street along the yonne, and crowned by a handsome château, left unfinished by the due de villeroi, we reached the heart of the wine district of burgundy. the country here assumes the appearance of a garden, both from the steep and regular form of the hills, which exactly resemble the dutch slopes in old-fashioned gardens, and from the high state of culture to which their thin gravelly soil is brought. the hoe and the pruning-knife seem never at rest, and not a weed is to be seen; while the slightest portion of manure dropt on the high road becomes a prize, if not an object of contention, to the nearest vignerons. the air of cheerfulness and beauty, however, which we annex to our notions of high cultivation, is wholly wanting. the appearance of the vines was that of sapless black stumps, about thirty inches high, and pruned so as to leave only four or five eyes; and though the subject of poverty is too serious to joke on, the withered and stunted appearance of the country people exactly corresponded to that of these dry pollards. i trust that we were in some degree deceived by their natural ugliness, and that hard labour and scanty profits are not the only reasons which render their _tout ensemble_ such a contrast to the healthy robust looks of the normans and picards, whose very horses show the effects of their abundant corn harvests. from joigny to auxerre, twenty-one miles. we arrived too late to visit the interior of the cathedral, which was not mentioned to us as containing any thing remarkable. its exterior, however, is fine and venerable, and affords a beautiful evening study, viewed from the opposite bank of the yonne, about half a mile on the vermanton road. the rest of the town, seen from this point, is broken into fine masses of conventual and other old buildings; and the river and bridge complete a landscape very well worthy of an accurate sketch. the excellence of the hôtel de beaune, at auxerre, "tenu par boillet, gendre mineau," as his cards inform us, deserves notice. this is one of those palm-islands among a desert of dirty pothouses, most treacherously adapted to lure onward a certain class of fair weather pilgrims, whom one wonders to meet with beyond paris, and whose dolorous complaints of thin milk and large coffee-spoons, have afforded me no small amusement in casual rencounters. the most fastidious, however, of this class of smelfungi, would find but little to carp at under the roof the civil mr. boillet; and would do well to lay in a stock of comfortable recollections in this place, on which to feast as far as chalons; for the interval between auxerre and the latter city will prove but a dreary one to a traveller of the gastronomic school. the general air of auxerre is ancient and respectable; but conveys no ideas of populousness or commerce. in the opinion, however, of an old sub-matron of the enfans trouvées (who looked over my shoulder while sketching, and whom, by way of something to say, i ignorantly complimented on her fine family of grandchildren), there is nothing, or, according to malthus, much to complain of in the former respect. "ah, monsieur, que voulez vous? ce sont les militaires, ils vont par çi, ils vont par là, et puis--voilà des enfans, et où chercher les peres?" april 29.--to vermanton, our first stage, eighteen miles: a succession of fine vineyards and square steep hills, such as uncle toby might have constructed for his amusement, with gargantua for an assistant instead of the corporal. about six miles short of vermanton, at the bottom of a long descent, we remarked cravant, a little town to the right, fortified in an ancient and picturesque manner, and which, the peasants said, had been the seat of much fighting in days of old. our informant was ploughing in a fierce cocked hat, with a team composed of a cow and an ass. query, might not cocked hats, which appear to our ideas an exclusively military costume, have originated in such countries as these, among the vine-dressers? who flap down the sides alternately, in a manner that shows they understood the true use of them as a parasol. vermanton is a small obscure place, affording an inn slovenly enough, though not glaringly bad. from hence to lucy le bois, where the horses were baited, fifteen miles. a pretty sequestered valley occurs about three miles beyond vermanton; but the whole of the road, like that of the day before, may be travelled in the dark without any loss: the best part of it consists of a distant view of the vale and town of avalon, backed by the nivernois hills. in the old french fablieux, the valley of avalon is selected as the spot where a fairy confined sir lanval, her mortal lover; but whether the french avalon, or the beautiful vale of glastonbury was meant, appears doubtful, as the latter formerly bore the same name. there is a resemblance between the two districts, which amounts to an odd coincidence, particularly with regard to one of the nivernois hills in the back ground, which presents a strong likeness of glastonbury tor. we should have passed through avalon, but for a trick of the voiturier, who took a cross road to avoid paying the post duty there, and save his money at the expense of our bones. for this manoeuvre he might have been severely punished, had we chosen to interfere. from lucy le bois to rouvray, where we slept, the level of the country becomes gradually more elevated, and its general features much more english, consisting of corn, woody copses, and pastures full of cowslips. i cannot say, however, that we found any thing to remind us of england at the detestable inn where we were quartered for the night, and have no doubt but that lucy le bois or avalon would have afforded somewhat much better. the only civilized person was a large black baker's dog, who, like gil blas's first travelling acquaintance, seemed free of the house, and did the honours of the supper to us with an assiduity as disinterested, "ah, messieurs," said his civil master, when we stept across the street in the morning, to return the dog's visit in form, "je suis charmé que vous trouvez l'abri si beau; je suis au desespoir qu'il ne soit pas chez lui a present, mais je vais le chercher partout afin qu'il vous fasse ses hommages." the good man could not have spoken of a favourite son with more unsuspecting complacency. april 30.--to saulieu, where we breakfasted at a tolerably good inn, fifteen miles: the morning intensely cold, and one of those white frosts on the ground, which so much endanger the vintage at this season. we observed, however, no vineyards on the elevated ridge of country along which we were travelling, and which was perfectly english. a respectable old château, with a rookery, quick hedges, and extensive woods, thick enough for a fox covert, kept up the illusion agreeably. this style of ground continues beyond saulieu; and between the latter place and arnay le duc, eighteen miles farther, its features are not unromantic. one or two castles of a very baronial air occur; the first of which, reduced to ruins, is visible at about a mile beyond saulieu, occupying an insulated hill at some distance from the road, and much resembling the remains of an italian freebooter's stronghold. another, situated at the head of a glen, about six miles farther on, and overlooking a small village, is more perfect and striking in its appearance. it is the property, as we were informed, of the widow of m. fenou, a royalist, who, during the revolution, stood a siege within its walls equal to that of tillietudlem, repulsing a strong body of republicans with considerable loss. buonaparte subsequently recalled m. fenou, with the grant of a free pardon; and the estate was, in the course of things, restored to his widow. such, as far as we could collect from the account of our informant, was the history belonging to château torcy la vachere, which bears some resemblance, in situation and general outline, to eastnor castle, the seat of the earl of somers, at the foot of the malvern hills. arnay le duc, a town situated on commanding ground, where we slept, boasts of an earlier celebrity, having been the scene of one of admiral de coligni's victories. it possesses several convents, now private property, and one or two fragments of building of a peculiarly antiquated style. among these i particularly remarked an old iron-shop, supposed, as a bourgeois informed me, to be more than seven hundred years old, and which seems to have communicated with the ancient walls as a guard-house. while busied in sketching this singular relic, we were saluted gracefully by an old chevalier de st. louis, who was passing, and whose distinguished air would have become the person of coligni himself. on casually inquiring the name of this gentleman, we learnt that he had been one among the many imprisoned during the reign of terror, and would have fallen by the guillotine, had the fall of robespierre happened four-and-twenty hours later. this, it must be owned, is a trite and common story; but it is, perhaps, by the very triteness and frequency of such hair-breadth escapes, more than by any other circumstance, that the extent and ferocity of the revolutionary massacres are brought home to the imagination. the appointed victims, whom the delay of a day or an hour preserved from destruction at this crisis, still survive in all parts of france, like widely-scattered land-marks, to remind one of the numbers swept away in the previous deluge of murder. may 1.--to rochepot twenty-one miles. we were not sorry to leave the hôtel de poste, at arnay le duc, which, with higher pretensions than the inn at rouvray, only differs from it in the ratio of "dear and nasty" to "cheap and nasty;" and to commence a stage which promised more to the eye than any part of our former route. the country still continues to rise in this direction, and soon assumes the air of an extensive forest or chase, enlivened by half-wild herds of cattle, and opening into green glades and vistas of distant ranges of hills. at ivry, we wound up a steep hill; the summit of which, a wide naked common, might match most parts of dartmoor in height and bleakness. i had observed heaps of granite and micaceous stone at a much lower elevation in the course of the day before; and conclude that we were now on one of the highest inhabited points which occur in the interior of france. we had not leisure to walk to a telegraph on the right, which, to judge from the occasional glimpses which we had, must command a splendid map of the country near autun. it had been recommended to us to take the route to chalons through the latter town, as affording the most objects of interest; but, on the whole, i doubt whether that which we had adopted as the least circuitous, be not also preferable, as possessing the striking panoramic point to which we had climbed. after two or three more miles over an expanse of parched turf, we reached what geologists would call the bluff escarpment of the stratum. the descent before us was so precipitous, as to leave us at first at a loss to make out how the road could be conducted down it: and the prospect which burst upon us in front, had apparently no limit but the power of human vision. beyond the foreground, which was formed by a series of rocky glens diverging from below the point on which we stood, the immense vale of the saone extended like a bird's-eye view of the ocean, its relative distances marked by towns and villages glittering like white sails. above the flat line of haze, which, at the first glance, appears to terminate the prospect at the distance of sixty miles, or more, we distinguished a faint blue outline of lofty mountains, which must have been the barrier separating france from switzerland; and, as occasional gleams of sunshine broke out, the glittering and jagged lines of a barrier still more distant, and apparently hanging in mid air, became distinctly visible. among these i recognised, at last, the features of mont blanc, in whose peculiar outline i could not be mistaken, and which, according to the map, cannot be less than 110 or 120 miles distant, in a direct line from the montagne de rochepot. it is, perhaps, not necessary to be a mountaineer, like jean jacques, by birth and education, in order to feel the peculiar expansion of mind, which he describes as caused by breathing mountain-air, and contemplating prospects like this of which i speak.[2] a boundless plain, and enormous mountains, such as the alps, whether viewed individually, or contrasted with each other, are objects not physically grand alone, but affording also food for deep and enlarged reflection. the mind, while expatiating over the mass of feelings and projects, of hopes and fears, which are passing within the limits of the wide map below, feels the nothingness of the atom which it animates, and the comparative insignificance of its own joys and griefs in the scale of creation, and retires at last into itself, sobered into that calm state which is so favourable to the formation of any momentous decision, or the prosecution of a train of deep thought. a moment's glance changes the scene from culture and population to the silence and solitude of a dead icy desert; from the redundancy of animal and vegetable life to its "solemn syncope and pause." the ideas of obscurity, danger, and infinity, all powerful and acknowledged sources of the sublime, are excited at the view of a range of frozen summits, cold, fixed, and everlasting as the imaginary nature of those destinies, with whom a noble bard has peopled them; alternately glittering in sunshine, and enveloped in clouds, and from the well-known effects of haze and distance, appearing suspended in the air in their full dimensions and relative proportions. the imagination dwells upon the appalling hazards peculiar to their few accessible parts, and on the almost total extinction of life and animal powers, which is the penalty of a few hours sojourn there. and here again, too, the mind is forcibly impressed with the utter helplessness of the speck of dust which it inhabits, and that momentary dependence on providence, which must be so convincingly felt in traversing such regions. ascending in the scale of comparison, it may reflect, that these gigantic forms, which fill the eye at a distance at which cities and pyramids would fade into imperceptible specks, are but excrescences on the face of that earth, which itself is but an atom in the map of the universe. but i am wandering from my subject, and from the route, which, in this quarter, is somewhat precipitous. i shall, therefore, only remark what has frequently struck me as not an improbable conjecture, that milton might have formed his splendid conception of the icy region of pandæmonium from some of these colossal ranges of alps with which his eye must have been familiar, seen through the vistas of a stormy sky. in the well-known passage which i shall take the liberty of quoting, one seems to recognise the deep drifts of snow, and the blue crevasses which abound in such a spot as the mer de glace, as well as the castellated peaks and glaciers which border on it, and the biting atmosphere which prevails among their summits. [footnote 2: the welsh proverb, that a man who sleeps on the top of snowdon, must awake either a fool or a poet, refers as probably to the effect produced on the mind by the prodigious mountain panorama discernible from thence, as to any fancied influence of the genius loci.] "beyond this flood a frozen continent lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms of whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems of ancient pile; or else deep snow and ice, a gulf profound as that serbonian bog 'twixt damiata and mount casius old, where armies whole have sunk: the parching air burns frore, and cold performs th' effect of fire." chap. ii. rochepot to lyons. "mon dieu, ma fille," says madame de sevigné in one of her letters to mad. de grignan, "que vous avez raison d'etre fatiguée de cette montagne de rochepot! je la hais comme la mort; que de cahots, et quelle cruauté qu'au mois de janvier les chemins de bourgogne soient impracticables!" allowing this to have been the case in her days, i can hardly wonder that even mad. de sevigné was insensible to the magnificence of the prospect from this elevated point; and thought only of the safety of her neck. no danger however exists at present, as the road descending to rochepot is good, and judiciously conducted down the brow of the hill; though the nature of the ground gives no very pleasing idea of what it must have been as a cross-country track. the inn also at rochepot, situated at the junction of four roads, is clean and comfortable. a household loaf, weighing not less than thirty pounds, stood on the table to welcome us on our arrival, and we saw for the first time straw hats bearing a full proportion to it, the rim of which equalled in size a moderate umbrella. after breakfast we visited the ruined castle of rochepot,[3] on which we had at first looked down, but which, seen from the village, bears a strong resemblance to harlech castle in north wales, both in its form, and its position upon a commanding rock. we found upon inquiry that it had been tenanted at a much later period than its appearance would have led us to suppose. m. blancheton, the proprietor, had made it his chief residence some thirty years ago, and kept it up in a style imitating as nearly as possible its ancient feudal grandeur. at the revolution however it was forfeited, and has since been sold twice; but though each purchaser has pulled down a part, and sold the materials, enough still remains to give a perfect idea of its former strength and massiveness. m. blancheton now resides, as we were informed, near beaune, regretted as a _bon seigneur_ by his poorer neighbours, whom he has not visited since the demolition of his paternal seat. "it would break his heart," said a poor old woman, "to see it as it now is." i could not help thinking of campbell's "lines on visiting a spot in argyleshire," which bear the impress of a real occasion of this sort. [footnote 3: vide cooke's view.] from rochepot to chalons-sur-saone, eighteen miles; commencing with a steep hill, to the left of which winds a rocky valley of a singular description, cultivated to the very top of the abrupt heights which surround it, and so bare of soil, that the eye is surprised by the flourishing state of its corn and fruit-trees. the heat reflected from the rocks upon the thin gravel which supports its vineyards, must boil their juices to a liqueur; at least such was its effect on ourselves, while winding along a series of these natural forcing-houses, through which the road is conducted into the great plain of chalons. from the ridges which border these valleys, the wide extent of the latter, and its border of alps, are visible, though not so finely as from the elevation which we had descended. "mont blanc, the monarch of mountains," was however more plainly discernible than before, like a thin distinct fabric of vapour, with his "diadem of snow faintly lighted up by the sun;" and i never recollect to have seen this white-headed patriarch of the alps before in any position which gave so fully the effect of his enormous height, i will not even except the spot near merges, where from a gap in the intervening mountains, he appears almost to rest his base upon the lake of geneva. on emerging from the hilly country near rochepot, the road to chalons passes along a dead flat, cheerful from its richness, but rather monotonous. to the right, we looked back upon a semicircular range of well wooded hills, in front of which, on an eminence, stands a stately old château belonging to the count de rouilly. it answers very much to the beau ideal of what a french château ought to be, but seldom is. i say "ought to be," premising that most of us have formed our first ideas of french châteaux, from those works of imagination which endow such places so liberally with gothic architecture and haunted woods. the mansion of the count de rouilly would not greatly disappoint a reader of mrs. ratcliffe's romances; and bears a strong resemblance to westwood, near ombersley, in worcestershire, the seat of sir john packington, which is said to have been once a conventual building. with no small pleasure did we arrive at the handsome town of chalons, our patience being nearly exhausted by the tiresome running base with which our noah's ark accompanied the driver's abuse of his clumsy grey mares. _grand chameau, sacre vache_, and _canaille_, where the most genteel and decent terms with which he favoured them, and his perverseness was in proportion. for this precious commodity, selected i should conceive from the most consummate ragamuffins on the road, we were indebted to mons. picon, a master voiturier at paris, who imposed on us both as to the number of horses, and the length of time in which we were to be conveyed to chalons. "hic niger est; hunc tu, romane, caveto." having met with a respectable voiturier, named veroux, who conveyed us admirably from calais to paris, my habitual distrust of this class of gentry had relaxed just at the wrong time, for the benefit of m. picon. if cities are to be estimated by their appearance of neatness and opulence, chalons deserves to be marked on the map in more capital letters than the imposing names of sens or auxerre. to no town indeed does it bear a greater resemblance than to tours, both from the modern air of its houses, and from its noble river, adapted for every purpose of internal commerce. the hôtel des trois faisans is also an excellent inn, and, like that at auxerre, sufficiently well frequented to find no account in these little beggarly impositions which are practised at inferior places. may 2.--we walked before breakfast to st. marcel, a village about a mile from chalons, to visit the church and monastery where abelard, after his removal from cluni, died and was buried. our excursion however only answered in affording us an hour's healthy exercise; for the monastery has been destroyed, and the church stript of what ornaments it possessed, during the time of the revolution; and the monument of abelard is removed to paris. nor does the town of chalons itself, handsome and cheerful as it is, present any food for the pencil, the more particularly as its flat situation offers no favourable point of perspective. the spot from which its stately quay, and its stone bridge ornamented with obelisks, are seen to the most advantage, is about a mile down the river;--in fact from the deck of the coche d'eau, in which we embarked at noon for lyons. this excellent conveyance is a large covered boat, towed at the rate of six miles an hour by four post-horses, or, when necessary, by six; and performs the journey from chalons to lyons, a distance of about ninety miles, in twenty-eight or thirty hours, affording ample time for rest and refreshment at a line of inns of a superior description. the reasonable amount of the fare paid by each person at the bureau des diligences, (nine francs fourteen sous) might induce a fastidious or inexperienced traveller to form an indifferent idea both of the company and accommodations of the coche d'eau. both however appear unexceptionable in their way, as this is the mode of conveyance adopted for the royal mail, and as generally preferred for the sake of comfort and expedition, as the margate or glasgow steam-boats. it affords the range of a tolerably spacious deck, and a couple of cabins, to which the passengers may retire in inclement weather. had it indeed been less convenient or agreeable, we should have found it a blessed respite after the rumbling tub of penance in which we had been cooped. indeed, the abuse which our voiturier had vented on the _desagremens et disgraces_ of the coche d'eau, in order to secure himself our company to lyons, had determined us on trying this conveyance; for the habit of lying is so constant and inveterate in this class of fellows, as to possess all the advantages of truth; inasmuch as you have only to believe the direct contrary of what they say. the only inconvenient and perplexing liars are those who sometimes speak truth by accident; and their fictions moreover are seldom extravagant enough to afford the amusement created by romancers of the former class; among whom i may reckon a beggar, who beset us on the quay of chalons, maintaining in a strong french accent, that he was the son of a carman of thames-street, in the parish of st. george hanovre, and had only been a few months in france. the _élite_ of our company consisted of a tall well-looking officer, wearing the croix d'honneur; a shrewd old provençal merchant, to whom we were indebted for much valuable travelling information; two young friends, one of whom sang very agreeably and unaffectedly, and the other, a lively french falstaff ate and talked enough for both; and last, not least, an old gentleman of the name of c. travelling to his campagne in languedoc, whose arch quiet manners answered very much to my idea of the imaginary hermite en province. at tournus, we took in a host of additional passengers, not so polished, but unobtrusive and well-behaved. i question however, whether, in the event of a rainy day, we should have found this mode of travelling very desirable; as the common cabin is but small in proportion to the number of persons capable of being accommodated on deck. there is indeed a smaller cabin adjoining, which, though the exclusive right of the diligence passengers from paris, is usually shared by them with the rest. it is distinguished by the words over the door, "chambre de pairs," which some wag had altered into "chambre des paris," or the upper house, inscribing the other cabin with his pencil as the chambre des deputés. many a person fond of indulging in classical reveries, and not aware of the real breadth of the clitumnus, may have formed a very spacious idea of that celebrated stream, and longed to contemplate its wide reaches from the foot of its well-known temple. as however the clitumnus is in this identical spot, not broader than what a yorkshire farmer would call "a bonny beck," and a yorkshire fox-hunter would ride at without hesitation, the imaginary picture of it may with real propriety be transferred to the saone near tournus, winding as it does through the extensive meadows of a rich champaign country, and reflecting in its broad blue mirror the herds of fine white cattle which we saw paddling in every creek. it bears a strong resemblance to many parts of the po, excepting in the stillness of its current, which was so great, that it would have been easy while leaning over the bow of the vessel, to fancy the saone into the blue sky, and the coche d'eau, into southey's vessel of the suras, or wordsworth's ærial skiff. at seven in the evening we came within view of the stately towers of mâcon, a town, to all appearance, fully equal to chalons in size and opulence, and much exceeding it as a subject for the pencil. its fine navigation, the general richness of the country, and the productive vineyards on the neighbouring hills, all unite to render it a central point of business and bustle. there are several inns on the quay, of a good appearance; but we found the hôtel de l'europe, to which we had been directed, in every respect deserving of its high reputation, and inferior, perhaps, to no country inn on the continent. after reconnoitring mont blanc again from the windows of the clean and airy bed-rooms to which we had been shown, we dined at the table d'hôte, which was served within a quarter of an hour after the arrival of the coche. among the more polished company present, i was not a little diverted by some scattered specimens of the french gentleman-farmer, present for the express purpose of wallowing for once in a dinner drest by the duc d'angouleme's ci-devant cook; fat and well-clad; their countenances wearing a sort of awkward purse-proud defiance to the cool sarcastic look with which the parisian travellers eyed them; and their conscious shame struggling with the desire to appropriate all the good things before them. numps, in the well-known old tale, was but a type of these honest personages, who seemed to be considered as "de trop" by the majority. in spite of the mixtures (i do not mean those made in the stomach) which must necessarily take place on these occasions, and allowing for the english prejudice in favour of privacy, there are advantages in dining at all french table d'hôtes, frequented by tolerable company. to the epicure it ensures better fare and attendance than he can command by any other means, as the landlord and his attendants feel both their credit and interest concerned in displaying the most alacrity, and producing the greatest variety of dishes before a large party; while chance customers, after waiting for a long hungry interval, may have to encounter tired waiters, and partake of the tossed-up leavings of this very table d'hôte; which, certainly, these gentlemen must own, is much more dignified than entertaining, as colman pleasantly saith. there is a better and more satisfactory reason for this practice, which is, that it affords the best opportunity of ascertaining those points of local knowledge, which at once give an interest to the district through which you are travelling, and instruct you in the best methods of doing and seeing every thing. a frenchman's manners and acquirements ought never to be judged of by his travelling suit, which is always avowedly the refuse of his wardrobe; and the importance which he is apt to attach to everything connected with his own town or district, if it leads to ridiculous minuteness, at least insures the accuracy of his details. the marked civility and attention of the french to strangers is too well known to be commented on, particularly to those who pay them the compliment of acquiescing in their national customs. i think i never saw the temper of french travellers thoroughly ruffled but on one occasion, when a shabby-looking englishman and his gawky son, who had arrived in a cabriolet, made a fruitless attempt to exclude a large diligence party from any share in the table and fire of a country inn. had they been contented to make their bread-and-butter arrangements in concert with the party, which included a member of the chamber of deputies, and a young officer, their company would have been considered as a pleasure. may 3.--we embarked at five o'clock in the morning, in the face of a very strong gale, which rendered six horses necessary, and tempted us to wish for warmer clothing. the morning, however, was beautifully clear and bright; and mont blanc, which is perceptible even from the low level of the river, was without a cloud. to the right, the beaujolois hills, at the foot of which mâcon stands, accompanied us as far as trevoux, presenting an outline not unlike that of our own malverns; but more varied and rich, as well as occasionally more lofty, and sprinkled with thousands of white farm-houses and villas: many of the parts are similar, and almost equal, to the hills which front florence on the fiesole side. at noon we stopped to breakfast, or rather dine, at trevoux. here the beaujolois hills (or, at least, a range which runs in an uniform line with them) recede, and conduct the eye to a distant vista of higher mountains, toward the south; while, to the left, the river takes a sudden turn among the steep but cultivated sides of the limonais. this curve brought us all at once upon such a green sunny nook, as might have served for the hermitage of alexander selkirk, in the island of juan fernandez; in the centre of which stands trevoux, crowned by the ruins of an old castle, and overlooking the beautifully fertile valley which skirts the foot of the limonais hills. from its situation, and the form and disposition of its houses, piled tier above tier to the top of a woody bank, trevoux affords a perfect idea of a little tuscan town. the hôtel du sauvage, and the hôtel de l'europe, are equally well frequented; and, like oxford pastry-cooks, take care to employ the fair sex as sign-posts to their good cheer. each inn has its couple of waiting-maids stationed at the waterside, in the costume of shepherdesses at sadler's wells, full of petits soins and agrémens, and loud in the praises of their respective hotels. by these pertinacious damsels every passenger is sure to be dragged to and fro in a state of laughing perplexity, like garrick, contended for by the tragic and comic muse, in sir joshua's well-known picture; nor do their persecutions cease, till all are safely housed. we went to the hôtel de l'europe, whose table may be supposed not deficient in goodness and variety, from the specimen of one man's dinner eaten there. i shall enumerate its particulars, without attempting to decide on the question so often canvassed, whether our neighbours do not exceed us in versatility and capacity of stomach. our young falstaff then (for it was he of whom i speak), ate of soup, bouilli, fricandeau, pigeon, boeuf piquée, salad, mutton cutlets, spinach stewed richly, cold asparagus, with oil and vinegar, a roti, cold pike and cresses, sweetmeat tart, larded sweetbreads, haricots blancs au jus, a pasty of eggs and rich gravy, cheese, baked pears, two custards, two apples, biscuits and sweet cakes. such was the order and quality of his repast, which i registered during the first leisure moment, and which is faithfully reported; and, be it recollected, that he did not confine himself to a mere taste of any one dish. perhaps i may be borne out by the experience of those who have had the patience to sit out an old parisian gourmand, by the help of coffee and newspapers, and observed him employed corporeally and mentally for nearly two hours, digesting and discriminating, with the carte in one hand, and his fork in the other. the solemn concentration of mind displayed by many of these personages is worthy of the pencil of bunbury; and though french caricaturists have done no more than justice to our guttling bob fudges, i question whether they would not find subjects of greater science and physical powers among their own countrymen. on our return to the coche d'eau, our fat companion lighted his cigar, and hastened to lie down in the cabin, observing, "il faut que je me repose un peu, pour faire ma digestion;" and monsieur c., instead of leaving him quietly in his state of torpidity, like a boa refreshed with raw buffalo, began to argue with us on the superior nicety of the french in eating. "nous aimons les mets plus delicats que vous autres," quoth he; at which we laughed, and pointed to the cabin. we found, upon explanation, however, that mr. c., though well-informed in general upon the subject of english customs, entertained an idea not uncommon in france, viz. that we always despatch the whole of those hospitable haunches and sirloins, which appear at an english table, at one and the same sitting: with this notion, his observation was certainly natural enough. from trevoux, the saone winds between narrow, steep, and picturesque banks as far as lyons, near which place they close in upon its channel, exhibiting more varieties of rock and wood than before. for the good taste displayed by the rich lyonnais in their villas and gardens, which began to peep upon us at every step, i cannot in truth say much; but our french companions, who had overlooked the merely natural beauties of the country, found much to commend in these little vagaries of art. a lively bourgeoise, on whom we stumbled the next day behind the counter of a glove-shop, ran up, openmouthed, to explain to us the beauties of one of their show spots, in view of which a sudden turn of the river was just bringing us. a conspicuous inscription on a large vulgar-looking house painted red and yellow, informed us that it was styled the "hermitage du mont d'or." in the space of not quite an acre of ground, on the side of a wooded hill of the highest natural loveliness, the proprietor had contrived to commit a host of the most outrageous and fantastical absurdities, which were hailed with a smile from mons. c., and a burst of approbation from the rest of the party. at the top of the hill were four scattered pillars of different diminutive forms, with gilt balustrades; all painted with gaudy colours, and none large enough for a moderate tea-garden, or sufficiently solid to have resisted the point-blank stagger of a drunken man. lower down were two holes in the rock, which, from their size and appearance, i should have taken for a rabbit-burrow and a badger's earth, but for the young lady's joyous exclamation--"ah! voilà les hermitages. messieurs, il y a deux hermites là-dedans." "à la bonne heure, mademoiselle; ils sont vivans, sans doute"--. "mais pour cela--pas absolument--c'est que--ils sont de cire, voyez vous, mais d'une beauté! ah, c'est une chose à voir!" then came an inclosure so thickly studded with pillars of different sizes, as to resemble a mahometan burying ground. "vous y trouverez des inscriptions de toute espèce, et là vous voyez la colonne de trajan." this was a wooden obelisk about ten feet high, painted white, at the base of which rome was written in large black letters, occupying the whole of one side. immediately above the house stood a small wooden building, with a red and white dome, and pillars and windows painted on the sides. the name cosmorama, which took up half the height of the side fronting us, still left us in doubt as to its use or intention; and our fair cicerone could no more explain the nature of her favourite building, than bardolph could the meaning of the word "accommodate." "eh, monsieur, c'est ce qu'on appelle cosmorama; je ne saurois vous dire precisement; peut-être il y a des bêtes sauvages;--ou--quelque chose de gentil, voyez vous--mais enfin c'est un cosmorama." "mais voilà ce qui est vraiment joli," resounded on all sides; and so general and good-humoured was their admiration of this rickety bauble, that we did our best to acquiesce in it. after all, we could admire, without any breach of sincerity, the natural beauties of this spot, which very much resembles the more open parts of the glen where matlock is situated, and which all these abominations could not entirely deface. how to account for this perversion of eye in a people of sensibility and taste, i am rather at a loss; but this last is by no means a singular instance. "bientôt vous allez sortir de ces tristes bois," compassionately observed a very gentleman-like officer, with whom we had fallen in during a stage of beautiful forest scenery; and not a soul in a voiture which breakfasted in the salle à manger at rochepot, could understand why we stopped to admire the distant prospect of the alps. not to multiply instances of the indifference to the beauties of simple nature, which will, i think, be allowed to exist in the french, as contrasted with ourselves, i am inclined to extend the line of distinction still farther, and to affirm, that this deficiency in taste appears generally to distinguish the teutonic from the southern blood. it is no exaggeration to say, that for one french or italian traveller in switzerland, twenty english, or ten germans, may be reckoned. the french taste in landscape gardening is well known, and that of the italians[4] is but a shade or two better: witness the detestable baby-house with which they have defaced one of the finest scenes in the world, and which they distinguish, _par excellence_, as the isola bella; to say nothing of a host of similar instances, as contrasted with our own longleat and rydal park. [footnote 4: the characteristic beauties of italy are no proof of the picturesque taste of the italians themselves, as planners and architects. the commanding situation of their villages, and the small proportion of window to wall, are circumstances favourable to landscape, but intended merely as the means of catching and retaining cool air. their classical ruins are preserved as a source of pride and profit, and the natural features of the country cannot be altered.] the fairest account of the matter, perhaps, is, that this inferiority in one branch of taste may result from a difference of temperament in our lively southern neighbours, which, in other respects, has its advantages. restless, acute, and loquacious, they delight more naturally in those objects which remind them of the "busy hum of men:" and, whatever the force of circumstances may have effected in particular cases, it may be safely asserted, that the diplomatist and man of the world is the indigenous growth of france and italy, while the powers of abstraction and meditation exist more naturally in english and german minds, inducing the love of solitary nature. the styles of claude, who was a german by birth, and of our own wilson, are strongly contrasted with that of vernet, as illustrative of the present subject. in the admirable paintings of the latter, bustle and motion are generally the characteristics of the scene represented, and the features of nature seem intended to be subordinate to some human action which is going on. in the pictures of claude, the combinations of scenery are every thing, and the figures nothing, or rather, merely introduced to illustrate and harmonize with the effect which the landscape itself is to produce: and nothing is allowed to disturb the repose and serenity of the whole. of wilson, who delighted more in storms and convulsions of nature, it may be said, that his figures, also are merely subordinate to the effect of a dashing sea, a thunder-cloud, or a forest waving and crashing with the wind; and that they are not strongly enough marked to interrupt the eye in the contemplation of these objects. gaspar poussin, i must own, is an instance that a french painter can understand and represent the deep repose of nature; but the style of poussin is certainly not that of the french school in general, nor that of salvator to be considered as establishing a rule by which to judge of italian taste. mais revenons à nos moutons. we were surprised to observe how much our fellow-passengers interested themselves about the characters of the royal family of england. several of its members underwent a free review, though not an ill-natured one; but all who spoke of our late queen charlotte, did her more justice than has, perhaps, been done in england, and particularly praised the purity of her court, and the excellent domestic example which her private life afforded to englishwomen in general. on this point we cordially agreed with them; but our sly acquaintance, mons. c., was not disinclined to lead us to ground more debateable, and lay a trap for our national vanity. the master of the vessel had a wooden leg, which led to the subject of artificial limbs, and the perfection to which the art of making them had arrived in england. we accidentally mentioned the case of lord anglesey. "et qui est ce lord anglesey?" said m.c., looking archly. "un de nos plus grands seigneurs, monsieur." still he persisted in inquiring how he lost his leg. "c'était in flandres." "ah, vous voulez dire à vaterloo, n'est ce pas?" said the old gentleman, with a smile, not displeased to observe the motive of our hesitation. he would not allow us to use the word _emprunter_, as applied to the conduct of his countrymen, with regard to the louvre collection, "non, _voler_, voilà le mot." the little bourgeoise, who had lionized the hermitage du mont d'or so eloquently, grew very communicative on the strength of the display which she had made, and m.c.'s good humour; and volunteered her sentiments on the folly of reflecting too deeply, observing, that all but the old ought to banish the idea of death and such dismal bugbears from their minds. "mais, songez, mademoiselle," quoth he, interrupted in some observation rather better worth hearing, "que tout le monde ne possède pas votre force de caractère;" a compliment to which the young lady assented with a grateful curtsy. by the time f. had finished his sleep and digestion, as he had proposed to do, and learned "pescator dell' onda," by repeated trials and lessons, we arrived at the pierre incise, at the corner of which the saone enters lyons. tradition says that this spot, which reminded me of st. vincent's rocks, near clifton, derives its latinized name from the great work performed by agrippa in cutting through the solid rock, and enlarging the channel of the river. the site of the castle of pierre incise, formerly a prison, and destroyed at the revolution, is still visible on a strong height overhanging the river to the right; the bottom of which appears to have been cut away artificially. on another height, to the left, stands an old fort; on passing which, an abrupt turn of the saone brought us into the centre of dirt, bustle, and business. its course becomes in a moment confined between masses of tall, smoky, old houses, and its azure colour stained by party-coloured streams from dyers' shops, and a thousand other abominations, which would defy the pen of a smollett to describe, and all the breezes from the alps to purify. there are several bridges in this quarter, mostly appearing from their paltry and irregular character, to have been erected on some sudden emergency; from these, however, the noble pont de tilsit, near the cathedral, claims an exception. long before we approached this last bridge, however, the boat reached the diligence office, and our porter dived with us to the left, through a succession of courts and streets as high and gloomy as the cavern of posilipo. we emerged into the place de terreaux, and took up our quarters opposite to the hôtel de ville, a formal, but fine old building. chap. iii. lyons. every traveller on his first arrival at a large place of any interest, and where his time is limited, must have experienced a difficulty in classing and forming, as it were, into a mental map, the various objects around him, and in familiarizing his eye with the relative position of the most striking features. to meet this difficulty, i should advise any one visiting lyons, to direct his first walk to the eastern bank of the rhone, and after crossing a long stone bridge called the pont la guillotiere, to follow the course of the river for about a mile along the meadows, towards its junction with the saone. from this point of view, lyons really presents a princely appearance.[5] the line of quays facing the rhone, and which constitute the handsomest and most imposing part of the city, extend along the opposite bank in a lengthened perspective, in which the hôtel dieu and its dome form a central and conspicuous feature. in the back ground, the heights which divide the rhone and saone from each other rise very beautifully, covered with gardens and country seats. more to the left, and on the other side of the saone, the hill of fourvières (anciently forum veneris) presents a bold landmark, and forms a very characteristic back-ground to the city. instead of continuing his walk towards the junction of the rhone and the saone, which possesses nothing worthy of notice, i should recommend the traveller to re-cross the pont la guillotiere, and make for this eminence. in his way he may pass through the place louis le grand, formerly the place de bellecour, of the architecture of which the lyonnais are very proud, and which is a marked spot in the revolutionary history of lyons. though on a costly and extensive plan, its proportions want breadth, and are too much frittered away to convey the idea of grandeur or solidity; and the inscription vive le roi, which occupies a place on two of its sides, in enormous letters, assists in giving it the air of a temporary range of building for a loyal fête. not so the beautiful[6] pont de tilsit, by which you cross the saone soon afterwards. this bridge, built by buonaparte, to commemorate the treaty of tilsit, unites elegance, solidity, and chasteness of design in a very great degree. some of the stones, which i measured, are eighteen feet in length, and proportionably large, and altogether it reminded me of waterloo bridge upon a smaller scale, and divested of its columns. the cathedral, which stands on the other side of the saone, nearly at the foot of this bridge, is a venerable black old building of great antiquity, and though far inferior to those of beauvais, tours, abbeville, or rouen, in its general outline, possesses many detached parts of rich and curious architecture. it bears no marks of the devastation which it suffered in the revolution, or during the late war, when, as we were told, the austrians stabled their horses in it. much of its repair has been owing to cardinal fesch, the late archbishop. the windows, rich as they are, have a gloomy effect, from being entirely composed of painted glass; and prevented us from distinguishing much very clearly. a statue of john the baptist, however, crowned with artificial roses, should not be forgotten. a considerable part of the old town of lyons lies on this side of the saone; but as it will not repay the trouble of exploring, the traveller will do well to proceed immediately, or rather climb, to the church of notre dame de fourvières. the fame of peculiar sanctity which this church enjoys, attracts many daily visitors from lyons, though from its situation, it reminds one of the chapel in shropshire, which as country legends tell, "the devil removed to the top of a steep hill to spite the church-goers." the continual resort of all ranks hither has attracted also a host of beggars, who have taken their stations in the only footway leading up to the church, some singly, some in parties, every four or five yards, and all besetting you in full chorus. the same cause has drawn to the terrace in front of the church a seller of catholic legends, who to suit all tastes, mingles the spiritual, the secular, and the loyal, in his profession. the legend of st. genevieve, le testament de louis xvi., l'enfant prodigue, damon and henriette, judith and holofernes, and le portrait du juif ambulant, might all be bought at his stall, adorned with blue and red wood-cuts. poor damon cut but a sorry figure in this goodly company; for though adorned with a crook secundum artem, he looked more rawboned and ugly than holofernes, and more villainous than the wandering jew: fully justifying the scorn with which the stiff-skirted henriette seemed to treat him. it is almost misplaced however to enumerate such follies in a place, which on a fine day presents perhaps one of the most varied and magnificent views in the world: and which a person who had only an hour to spare in lyons, ought to visit, to the exclusion of every other object of curiosity. by changing one's position from the terrace of the church to some rude and imperfect remains of roman masonry on the western side of it, a complete panorama of the surrounding country is obtained. the rhone and saone are both seen inclining towards each other from the north and north-east, like the two branches of the letter y; the former issuing like a narrow white thread from the distant gorges of the alps, and widening into broad reaches through the intermediate plain; and the latter issuing suddenly from among the hills of the mont d'or: till after inclosing the peninsula in which the principal part of lyons is situated, and which lies like a map under your feet, they unite towards the south; and the broad and rapid body of water formed by their junction, loses itself at length among ranges of hills surmounted by mont pilate, a lofty mountain near valence. towards the east, north-east, and south-east, the view is of the same description as that from rochepot; a wild chain of alps seen over a plain of great extent and richness. in a western direction, the broad hilly features of the adjoining country are enlivened by a continual succession of vineyards, woods, gardens, and villas of all sizes, absolutely perplexing to the eye from its undulating richness: with which the sober gray of distant ranges of mountains contrasts well. one cannot form a better idea of this part of the view, than by fancying the most hilly parts of the country near bath, clothed in a lively french dress; the only deformity of which consists in the high stone walls that enclose every tenement, and whose long white lines cut the eye unpleasantly. most persons can point out the château duchere, which is visible from this spot at the distance of about a mile on the north-west side, and was the scene of a sharp action between the french and austrians in 1814. [footnote 5: vide cooke's view.] [footnote 6: vide cooke's views.] if an hour or two of leisure remain after this walk, they may be filled up by a visit to the public library and the palais des arts. the former contains, they say, ninety thousand volumes, rather an embarrass de richesses to a hurrying traveller. i confess i was more amused by the importance with which the little old woman, who acted as concierge, talked of the "esprit mal tournu de voltaire." the latter building adjoins the hôtel de ville, in the place des terreaux, the scene of one of the revolutionary fusillades. it contains, besides, several good pictures hung in bad lights, a large collection of roman altars and sepulchral monuments, arranged in a cloister below, which serves as the exchange; and a cabinet of roman antiquities found in the environs. the hôtel de ville itself is a massy stone building, a good deal in the taste of the tuileries, and containing two fine statues of the rivers rhone and saone, which deserve notice. whether the interior of lyons can boast of any thing else worth notice i know not, but from the specimen which we had, too minute a survey of it can hardly be edifying to any one but a scavenger; and no single building can be named of any particular beauty, though its masses of tall well-built houses are imposing at a distance. to complete the short general survey of lyons, which i mentioned, another not very long walk will suffice; traversing first the fine line of quays which front the rhone, from the pont la guillotiere to the quai st. clair. from this point ascend the highest part of the city, called the croix rousse, and inquire for a place called château montsuy, which stands bordering upon its outskirts, and is best described as the most elevated spot on this line of heights.[7] from hence the view of mont blanc and the vale of the rhone is peculiarly fine on a bright evening; and the whole prospect as rich and extensive as that from fourvières. beware of being persuaded by the laquais de place to visit la tour de la belle allemande, which is one of their show spots, and so called from some old legend of the imprisonment of a german lady. the view from château montsuy must, from the nature of the ground, be just the same, or, perhaps, even superior: and, what is more to the purpose, the baroness de vouty, in whose garden this old tower stands, seldom admits either lyonnese or strangers to see it. on descending from the croix rousse, cross the rhone by the pont morand, the wooden bridge next to that of la guillotiere. near the foot of this bridge is situated a large open space of ground, called les brotteaux, where the most atrocious of the revolutionary massacres took place. the site of the fusillade, by which two hundred and seven royalists perished at one time, is marked by a large chapel, dedicated to the memory of the victims, in the erection of which they are now proceeding. three only are said to have escaped from this massacre, and to be still living. one of them finding his cords cut asunder by the first shot that reached him, escaped in the confusion, and plunging amid the thick bushes and dwarf willows which bordered upon the rhone, baffled the pursuit of several soldiers. there is nothing remarkable in the appearance of the brotteaux at present; but no true lover of his country ought to neglect visiting a spot associated with such warning recollections. one of the stanzas inscribed by delandine on the cenotaph of his countrymen (which has been removed to make room for the chapel above mentioned), expresses briefly, and much in the spirit of simonides's well known epitaph on the spartans, the impressions conveyed by the sight of this aceldama: passant, respecte notre cendre; couvrez la d'une simple fleur: à tes neveux nous te chargeons d'apprendre "que notre mort acheta leur bonheur." this passage is, indeed, prophetic of the salutary effects of a lesson, which these and a thousand more voices from the tomb will proclaim to future ages; if, indeed, future ages will believe, that a[8] dastardly stroller was allowed to glut his full vengeance on the kindred of those who had hissed him from their stage, and to vow in a fit of wanton frenzy, that an obelisk only should mark the site of the second city in france; that he found himself seconded in this plan of destruction by thousands of hands and voices; that one citizen was executed for supplying the wounded with provisions, another for extinguishing a fire in his own house; and that when these pretexts failed, such ridiculous names as "quadruple" and "quintuple counter-revolutionist" were invented as terms of accusation. such facts as these, written in the blood of thousands, furnish a strong practical comment on the consequences of anarchy, and the uncompromising firmness which should be displayed in checking its first inroads; the nature of which was never more eloquently or instructively described than in lord grenville's words. "what first occurred? the whole nation was inundated with inflammatory and poisonous publications. its very soil was deluged with sedition and blasphemy. no effort was omitted of base and disgusting mockery, of sordid and unblushing calumny, which could vilify and degrade whatever the people had been most accustomed to love and venerate. * * * * * * * and when, at last, by the unremitted effect of all this seduction, considerable portions of the multitude had been deeply tainted, their minds prepared for acts of desperation, and familiarized with the thought of crimes, at the bare mention of which they would before have revolted, then it was that they were encouraged to collect together in large and tumultuous bodies; then it was that they were invited to feel their own strength, to estimate and display their numerical force, and to manifest in the face of day their inveterate hostility to all the institutions of their country, and their open defiance of all its authorities." [footnote 7: vide cooke's views.] [footnote 8: collot d'herbois.] a vivid description this, and strikingly applicable to the operations of that evil spirit which is still at work, with less excuse and provocation than france could plead for her atrocities. such are the first and second acts of the drama of modern sedition; the fifth is well delineated in a tract by m. delandine, the public librarian of lyons in 1793, as introduced in miss plumtre's tour in france. this interesting narrative, intitled "an account of the state of the prisons at lyons during the reign of terror," bears a character of truth and feeling, which bespeaks him an eye-witness of the horrors he describes. torn from his family without any assignable cause, and imprisoned in the hourly expectation of death, his own apprehensions seem at no time to have absorbed his interest in the fate of his suffering friends; and to their merit and misfortunes he does justice in the verses before alluded to. the following is a free translation of them. oft, lyonnese, your tears renew to those who died upon this spot; their valour's fame descends to you, in life, in death, forget them not. here calm they drew their parting breath, soul-weary of their country's woes, here, fearless, in the stroke of death met honour,--victory,--repose. pilgrim, revere their dust, and strew one flow'ret on this lowly tomb; then say unto thy sons, "for you, "children of france! they braved their doom." thou fatal, hallow'd spot of earth, immortal shrines shall mark thy place! alas! what genius, valour, worth, lie mouldering in thy narrow space! within less than half an hour's walk of the brotteaux, and on the same side of the river, stands the château la motte, in which henry iv. received mary de medicis as his bride. the way thither is best found by following the street leading to the turin road for about a mile, when a turn to the right, not far from the junction of the road to vienne, brings you in the course of a few minutes to the castle. when seen at a distance either from the croix rousse or fourvières, its four turrets and a watch-tower give it an air of grandeur consistent with its former history, and distinguish it from the adjoining suburb. in a nearer point of view, indeed, its patched and dilapidated appearance shows the vain attempts which have been made to repair the ravages of the revolution. at that period it belonged, as we were informed, to m. de verres, a brave royalist gentleman, whose activity against the revolutionists drew their marked vengeance upon himself and his possessions. at the time of the siege of lyons, he garrisoned the château la motte with a strong detachment of chasseurs; and, as a peasant informed us, "fought like a devil incarnate," obstructing the operations of the sans-culotte army materially, and retarding their success against lyons by his obstinate resistance. the position of his extensive premises, detached from the rest of the suburb, and surrounded with a wall, added to the advantage of a gently rising ground, must have enabled him to prolong the contest with effect. his fate was like that of so many other loyal and intrepid lyonnese: being forced at last to surrender, he underwent, as may be supposed, a very summary trial, and was shot on the brotteaux, in sight of the distant turrets of his own house. the property was confiscated, and great part of the château pulled down; but fortunately the round tower, containing henry the fourth's bed-room, still remains, rather owing in all probability to the ignorance of the jacobins, than their good will. a part of the estate has been restored to his daughter, mad. d'a., together with the château, which she inhabits; but i have reason to fear this part is but an inconsiderable one. observing us wandering round the château with an air of curiosity, she politely sent to invite us to walk in. the room in which she was sitting opened upon a terrace, commanding a fine view down the rhone towards mont pilate; and its interior was decorated with a few specimens of magnificent old furniture, which contrasted strongly with the air of desolation visible throughout. two fauteuils of rich crimson velvet, with massy gilt frames, and two commodes inlaid and ornamented with brass, seem all the remains of the splendour of this once royal residence. from hence we visited henry's apartment, which occupies the middle story of a large turret. it commands a fine view of lyons and its noble environs; and the ceiling and walls bore some remains of the golden fleurs-de-lys on a blue ground, which had once ornamented them. nearly the whole, however, had been white-washed during the revolution; and on the advance of the austrians, in 1814, the whole building suffered more by the hands of the combatants, than during the former sanguinary times. "cependant il est bien connu," as mad. d'a. answered with a proud smile, when we expressed our surprise at having found a well dressed person who could not direct us to château la motte. it may claim, indeed, to be well known to every good frenchman, both from its former and latter history. it is singular, that in the course of the same day we should receive attentions from two persons, both of whom had lost their dearest friends in the carnage which followed the siege of lyons. while i was sketching mont blanc and the course of the rhone from the environs of château montsuy, a tall genteel old man, looking very like a castilian, accosted us civilly, and, having peeped over my shoulder for a moment or two, invited us into his garden, which commanded the same view in a much superior manner. his sister-in-law, who was walking with him, had, he informed us, lost her husband and son in the fusillade. yet, perhaps, when we consider the extent of the havoc, it would seem more singular to find a family who had not suffered, nearly or remotely, from its consequences. in returning over the pont la guillotiere, we were led to remark the probable antiquity of its construction. the centre still retains the drawbridge; and the whole fabric appears to have been widened, when wheel carriages came into fashion, with a supplementary parallel slice, riveted on to it by iron bolts. this expedient rather reminded me of a story which i had heard in my infancy, of a prudent housewife, who first roasted half a turkey for the family dinner, and when it had been twenty minutes on the spit, sewed on the remaining half to welcome an unexpected guest. our excursion on the saone had in every respect answered so well, that we were tempted to make inquiry whether the rhone was also practicable as far as avignon. learning, however, that this mode of conveyance was seldom resorted to, and not liking the appearance of the passage-boats which we saw, we concluded, and found afterwards, that there were sufficient objections against it, excepting to those who wish to save time and expense. the rapidity of the current, and the violence and uncertainty of the winds which prevail upon the rhone, render it necessary to employ a very skilful boatman; and, in a picturesque point of view, as much is lost by the intervention of the high banks of the rhone, which shut out the distant parts of the landscape, as is gained by the perpetual accompaniment of water as a foreground. on the whole, we found reason to prefer the land route by vienne and valence, for which our arrangements were made accordingly. i think it is an observation of cowper, that "god made the country, and man made the town;" and not even the centre of lombard-street itself affords a truer illustration of the sentiment, than this town of mud and money, contrasted with its beautiful environs. the distant view of lyons is imposing from most points; but the interior presents but few objects to repay the traveller for its closeness, stench, and bustle (not even good silk stockings). its two noble rivers have had no apparent effect in purifying it, nor the easterly winds from the alps, which stand in full sight, in ventilating its narrow smoky streets: and though usually considered the second city of the empire in wealth and importance, the houses and their inhabitants appear marvellously inferior to bordeaux and the bordelais in the air of neatness and fashion which might be expected to mark this distinction. in every thing relating to bordeaux there is an easy elegant exterior, which conveys the idea of an independent and frequented capital of a kingdom, and an eligible residence; whereas lyons bears the obvious marks of its manufacturing origin, defiling, like our own colebrook dale, a lovely country by its smoke and stench, and leaving hardly one of the five senses unmolested. those fine buildings of which it can boast, take their place amid the general mass, like a fastidious courtier in low company, "wondering how the devil they came there." whereas the elegant theatre of bordeaux appears just in its proper situation, and supported by suitable accompaniments of well-dressed people and airy streets. after the sight of the hôtel dieu, a standing proof that the lyonnese can employ their money laudably and well, i will not pretend to judge whether there is any truth in the charge of avarice brought against them, and which voltaire slyly admits in a professed eulogium on lyons. there are other reasons accounting in a degree for its inferiority to bordeaux in appearance, and the sordid impression which it leaves on the mind. in the first place, to judge from the innumerable quantities of villas of all sizes within reach of the town, it seems that the rich lyonnese appreciate their fine environs as they deserve, and consider the country as the scene of display and enjoyment, while they treat lyons as a mere counting-house. on the contrary, the villas in the neighbourhood of bordeaux appear comparatively few, and business and pleasure to unite in the town itself. the imagination also may have some share in giving the preference, particularly after reading[9] m. de ruffigny's tirade against his infantine life in the silk mills of lyons. one fancies the merchant conversant with a higher and less sordid class of persons and details than the master spinner, and vineyards more agreeable objects than dying-houses and treddles. be this as it may, appearances are certainly in favour of bordeaux as the second city in france. [footnote 9: see godwin's st. leon.] chap. iv. lyons to montelimart. may 7.--from lyons to st. symphorien, our breakfast-stage, twelve miles. for the first seven, the outskirts of lyons, extending along the western bank of the rhone, continue to exhibit one unvarying appearance of wealth and population. the archbishop's palace, which stands about two miles out of the city, on a hill overlooking the river, does not add much to the beauty of the country, as it strongly resembles a large manufactory. st. symphorien, a neat small town, marked by a ruined watch-tower to the left of the road, possesses no inn at which a tolerable breakfast can be procured; but we fared well, in this respect, at a coffee-house in the middle of the town, situated under the mairie. to vienne, nine miles more. during this stage, the alps become again visible in full majesty, from a high terrace overlooking a range of woody rising ground; and extend as far as the eye can reach from north to south. mont blanc and monte viso, the gog and magog of this gigantic chain, preserve their pre-eminence; the distant pyramid of the latter, which shoots into the clouds like the peak of teneriffe, from a cluster of lower mountains, contrasting with the massy dome of the former. from its figure and position in the map, i judged it could be no other than monte viso, which is so strikingly conspicuous on the road from coni to turin. mont pilate, towards the foot of which the rhone wound to the right, sinks into utter insignificance when compared with these alps, though of a height and grandeur which would render it a leading feature in wales or cumberland. it is considered in this neighbourhood as stored with rich specimens of botany, and its appearance, much less scorched and barren than the mountains of a southern climate usually are, renders this probable. the view of vienne, as you descend into the narrow green valley in which it is situated, crowned by the dark ruins of an old roman castle, and watered by a deep and rapid reach of the rhone, combines beauties calculated to please all tastes. on the opposite side of the river, overlooking the ruins of a bridge with which it probably once communicated as a guard-house, stands a tall, square, roman tower, called the tour[10] de mauconseil. the legends of the country affirm, that this was the abode of pontius pilate,[11] and that, in a fit of despair and frenzy, he threw himself from its windows into the rhone, where he perished. this point the good catholics must settle as they can with the swiss, who maintain that he drowned himself in a little alpine lake on the mountain which bears his name; and that the storms by which it is frequently agitated are occasioned by the writhings of his perturbed spirit. nothing shows more forcibly the power of association in minds not capable of discriminating, than that the name of a man so obviously a reluctant instrument in the hands of god, and who declared by a public act his abhorrence of the part he was forced to act, should be selected as synonymous to every thing fiendlike and murderous. [footnote 10: vide cooke's views.] [footnote 11: there is, i believe, positive historical authority, which fixes vienne as the place of pilate's banishment and death.] the cathedral of vienne was shut, and its external appearance did not tempt us to make further inquiries; but we were directed to a roman temple, which, like that at nismes, is called the maison carrée. it can only boast of the remains of lofty pilasters, and the marks of what was once an inscription; and the inside being converted into a paltry-looking palais de justice, will hardly repay the trouble of waiting for the concierge. we departed from vienne with too unfavourable an impression of its dirty inn, and of the place in general, to render us desirous of spending the night there. the squalid, dispiriting appearance of the town itself, indeed, forms a strong contrast both to the fine country in which it stands, and the capital letters which decorate its name in the map of france. instead of loitering in its smoky, desolate streets, while horses are changing, i should recommend the traveller to walk on and await their arrival at the aiguille, an old roman monument so called, which stands close to the road on the right, within about a mile of the town. this singular pyramidical relic commands a beautiful view of the rhone, winding into the sequestered vallies at the foot of mont pilate; and the variety of coins and other small relics, found there, indicate the ancient boundaries of the city as extensive, and comprising both this building and the temple above-mentioned; the inhabitants, forgetting that a person once set afloat "in the blue rushing of the arrowy rhone," would probably find no grave but the gulf of lyons, have denominated this building the tomb of pilate. near vienne the country of silk-worms begins, every tree almost being a mulberry; and on the steep hills, which inclose the channel of the rhone during two days journey from this town, the celebrated cote-roti wine is chiefly produced. the vineyards are in the highest state of cultivation; and, as in burgundy also, the nature and position of the soil seem to operate as a forcing-wall upon the vines, which had, at this early season, made immense shoots from their knotty close-pruned stumps. here i frequently observed the industrious expedient practised in many parts of valencia and catalonia. on the steepest parts of the hills, terraces above terraces, of loose stones, are built to secure and consolidate the scanty portion of earth which would otherwise be washed away from the roots of their vines by the first winter storm; and not a spot is neglected, however unpromising and difficult of access, where a barrow-full of mould can be raked together, and increased by hand-carriage. one cannot witness such industry without wishing that it could procure more of the comforts of life; but here, as in burgundy, the exertions of the inhabitants seem hardly repaid by a bare subsistence, if one may judge by the general appearance of their houses and persons. those travellers who have not yet learned to button themselves up in total indifference, will find, that the interest and pleasure derived from a tour depend on nothing more than on the apparent well-being of those whom they see around them. it is this circumstance which, viewed in the mind's eye, throws a perpetual sunshine over the fine scenes of tuscany and catalonia, and lends a charm even to the flat uninteresting corn-fields of picardy. the absence of it, on the contrary, disfigures the finest scenes in the south of italy, and causes naples, the most delightful spot on earth, perhaps, for situation and climate, to dwell on the recollection like a whited sepulchre, a gilded lazar-house of helpless and incurable wretchedness. a roman beggar, glaring at you from the arches of a ruined temple, like one of salvator rosa's radicals, with a look at once abject and ferocious, may be, perhaps, a characteristic accompaniment to the scene; but the active, erect walk, the frank countenance, and cheerful salutation of a peasant of the val d'arno, leave a more pleasing recollection on the mind, as connected with the ideas of comfort, manliness, and independence. about five miles from vienne, we ascended a steep hill to the left, leaving on the opposite side of the rhone a well-wooded château, belonging to a mons. d'arangues; which forms a good accompaniment to the view of mont pilate. by the road side was a very primitive mill, near which we saw a woman sifting corn as we walked up the hill. the corn is laid in the circular trough, and ground by a stone revolving round the shaft in the centre; which is probably worked by an ass. such little circumstances as these frequently remind us more strongly of the change of place, than the difference of language and costume, which we are prepared to witness in the different provinces of a wide empire. nothing, for instance, forms a stronger or more distinct feature in one's recollections of the south of france, than the enormous remises which are annexed to every paltry inn on the road from lyons to the southward, and which serve both as warehouse and stable to the hosts of stout provençal carriers, who travel with wine, oil, and merchandise to the interior. the remise at vienne was sixty feet square, without compartment; its roof-timbers were worthy of westminster hall, and for its folding doors "the gates wide open stood, that with extended wings a banner'd host, under spread ensigns marching, might pass through, with horse and chariots ranked in loose array; so wide they stood!" independent of the uses to which these capacious buildings are properly applied, they furnish the most agreeable place for rest and refreshment, during the heat of the day, being, as the traveller will frequently experience, the coolest and the sweetest place belonging to the inn. during the rest of our day's journey, nothing occurred worthy of attention, until the descent into peage de rousillon, where we slept. here the rhone, of which we had lost sight, again appears winding through the broad rich valley which opens at the foot of the hill; and mont pilate also, after you have lost sight of it for the last seven or eight miles, and expect to see it behind you, again makes its appearance at a distance seemingly undiminished. so difficult is it to judge of the real bearings of objects in this clear air, which in fact is less favourable to the display of the grander features of nature, than our own misty ossianic climate. our inn at peage de rousillon, although the only place in the neighbourhood at which we could have slept in any comfort, somewhat resembled, in its general style, those recorded in don quixote, and afforded similar adventures. in the midst of our supper, (which was by no means a bad one of the kind), in burst a fat german woman in a transport of fury, who thought herself ill-used in the allotment of the rooms; squabbling in a very discordant key with the landlady, who followed her "blaspheming an octave higher." both were apparently viragos of the first order, and the keen encounter of their wits was so loud, that we turned a deaf ear to the german's appeal, and insisted on their choosing another field of battle. battle however was the order of the day, or rather night, for both myself and my servant were roused in the middle of the night to put a stop to a drunken quarrel on the staircase, which we effected by ordering down stairs the maritornes, who proved the bone of contention. the hôtel du grand monarque, is evidently on a par with that class of inns in our english country towns, which bear the royal badge of the george and dragon, through some fatality attendant on high names and dignities. from peage de rousillon to st. vallier, you traverse eighteen miles of flat road, only enlivened by the hills to the right of the rhone, which, becoming gradually more rocky and abrupt, meet at length with a corresponding barrier on the left, and enclose the river in a narrow valley. just beyond its entrance, which we had distinguished from above peage de rousillon, stands the town of st. vallier, where the conducteur intended that we should breakfast. the hôtel de poste is a most dismal hole indeed, in every respect, and no appearance of any other inn: but soon after we learnt by experience, that wherever there is a café of tolerable appearance, it affords a much better chance for breakfast than any inn of the same rank. neatness is the more the trade of the cafêtier, and his notions of breakfast much more english, than those of the inn-keeper, who is usually put completely out of his way by our habits. "eh! messieurs," said a well-dressed bourgeoise, who saw us sauntering about near the door of her shop, "vous irez sans doute voir notre beau château: il fut donné par jean de poitiers au premier seigneur de st. vallier, et il a descendu jusqu'à mons. de st. vallier l'actuel proprietaire." nothing could be more acceptable to idle wanderers than this information, and off we set at a round pace up a most filthy street, according to our directions; our heads full of crenelles, pont-levis, donjon, fosse, and the proper etceteras. i am not sure that we did not half expect to meet m. de st. vallier himself, (a good baronial name) cap-a-pie at the barbacan gate, his lance in rest, and his visor down, like sir boucicault, or the lord de roye, or the doughtiest of froissart's heroes. a long white-washed mud wall, with green folding gates, began somewhat to cool our gothic enthusiasm--. "perhaps the portcullis was destroyed at the revolution." a bell hung at the gate. "pshaw, it ought at least to have been a bugle-horn." when we had rung, instead of sounding a blast, not a dwarf, but a slipshod dirty girl, not much bigger, opened the door cautiously. "il ne faut pas entrer: monsieur ne permet personne de voir le château." we made involuntarily two steps forward; when lo! the end of a modern house, with a pea-green door and sash windows, and a shrubbery of lilacs interspersed with lombardy poplars, blasted our sight. no longer ambitious of pursuing the lord of st. vallier in flank, we hoped at least that a front view of his castle from the road to avignon might afford some remains of feudal splendour. off we set accordingly, and emerging from the dirty town as quickly as possible, beheld on turning round!--a large modern front, in the full smile of complacent ugliness, with a grecian portico, not of masonry, but of red and yellow paint à la lyonnaise; the whole edifice quite worthy of the hermitage du mont d'or. the two short round towers on the sides might have been originally gothic; but if really so, they had been most effectually disguised by white-washing, and new tiled tops, which very much resembled grimaldi's red cap and his whited face. in front of the windows, instead of the sweeping lawns and dark avenues of which mrs. ratcliffe is so liberal, stood a large close-pruned vineyard, inclosed by a high white wall; at one end of which, and facing the front of his red and yellow château, m. de st. vallier had built a red and yellow summer-house, with green shutters, to keep it in countenance. very much diverted at our ludicrous disappointment, we sauntered along the road, which followed the course of the rhone. at two miles distance, just where the river winds with a broad and rapid sweep into a woody gorge, with one blue mountain peeping over it, a black venerable old ruin, with turret and watch-tower, and every thing to render it complete, stood cresting an abrupt rock which hung over the river. nothing, said i, shall persuade me that this castle is not the genuine gift of john of poitiers, and the real object of our search. down we sat at all events to sketch it, and meeting by good fortune a communicative young officer on the road, we learnt that this castle, called[12] château la serve, had in reality been the residence of the lords of st. vallier; that many years ago it had been reduced by an accidental fire to its present state, and was finally wrested from the family at the revolution. of the present château st. vallier, and the estate annexed, they have remained in uninterrupted possession; and all admirers of the gothic must rejoice that the ruin has been purchased by the commune of la serve: for, standing as it does within view of the new château, no doubt it would have been brought to the state of that delectable domicile by the aid of the trowel and paint-brush. [footnote 12: vide cooke's views.] from la serve to tain, the same style of country continues, without much alteration. the utmost exertions of the inhabitants seem necessary to struggle against the stony ungenial nature of the soil; and a black storm which was rolling to the right over mont pilate, appeared to menace the scanty crops of vines which their labour had produced. in every hamlet we heard the bells ringing, and saw the poor peasants crowding to the church to put up prayers against the coming hail, which at this season of the year is peculiarly fatal. if this be a superstition, it is surely not a contemptible or uninteresting one to witness: nor can one wonder at the influence gained over peasants thus instructed to associate heaven with their daily hopes and fears. to our great satisfaction, after two or three vivid flashes of lightning, the clouds broke away to the north-west, and a light rain fell partially, more beneficial to the parched vineyards than hurtful to the hay, which even at this early season was in great forwardness in most places. on the whole, i should say that the district lying fifty miles south of lyons, is a month more early than our own in point of climate and productions. at tain, the rhone forces for itself a narrow passage into the vale of valence, from among the rugged skirts of mont pilate, leaving on the one side tain, and on the other tournon; both backed by strong heights, which seem to guard the entrance of the defile. the situation of tournon is striking, and very much corresponds with the ideas which one forms of a strong baronial hold upon the rhine. a large portion of the precipitous hill which commands it, is connected with the town by a broken line of grim old walls and towers, which betoken the former importance of this position. its castle, a building of a heavy conventual style of architecture, and standing on a fortified terrace, formerly belonged to the prince de soubisc, but is now converted, as we were informed, into a prison. to this purpose it is well adapted, as a leap from one of the round towers which breast the river at the angles of its terrace, would be fatal; and the character of despotism impressed on its walls seems to say, that in former times its uses were not very different. the resemblance indeed which it bears to the château d'amboise on the loire, the scene of the duke de guise's murder, may possibly assist its effect on the imagination. on issuing from this gloomy but not uninteresting spot, the eye opens upon an extensive prospect, rich in many of those features which we find scattered through the works of claude and salvator. to the right, the hills which hung[13] over the road to tain, recede into a long perspective, terminated in the distance by a ruined castle on a pyramidical rock, near valence; and the rhone, following the same direction, winds away from the road in a slower and wider current than before. to the left, the outskirts of the dauphiné alps form a singularly wild and fantastic barrier, sometimes rising in abrupt pinnacles, and sometimes rent as if by an earthquake into precipices of some thousand feet of sheer perpendicular descent. the vale inclosed between these rough walls, and in the centre of which the isere unites itself to the rhone, appears a perfect garden in point of richness, cheerfulness, and high cultivation. we crossed the isere, a strong and rapid stream, by a ferry, for our itineraire, with its usual accuracy, forgot to mention that the bridge of which it speaks was broken down by augereau on the advance of the austrians. within two or three miles of valence, a rising ground, fringed with scattered oak underwood, affords a more distinct and striking semicircular view of the mountains to the left; and glimpses of others yet more distant, bordering an immense plain, through which the rhone takes its course towards avignon. [footnote 13: vide cooke's views.] as we approached valence, the ancient civitas valentinorum, we again observed the ruined castle which we had at first remarked, called château crussol. it stands on a conical cliff on the opposite side of the river, overlooking the town at about two cannon-shots distance. on inquiring into the history of this eagle's nest, we found that it had been in days of yore the fortress of a petty free-booting chieftain, who kept the inhabitants of valence in a perpetual state of war and annoyance; a history which almost appears fabricated to suit its appearance and character. it bears a very strong resemblance, in point of situation, to the ruin within a mile of massa di carrara; which the tradition of the peasants assigns as the abode of castruccio castracani, the scourge of the pisans. seeing it relieved by a gleam of sunshine from a dark evening cloud behind it, we could fancy, without any great effort of imagination, that, like the bed-ridden giant pope in honest john bunyan, it was grinning a ghastly smile of envy at the prosperity which it could no longer interrupt. or, if this idea should seem extravagant, at least the two opposite neighbours present as lively a personification as stone and mortar can afford, of their respective inhabitants; the town of valence flourishing in industrious cheerfulness, and the castle domineering, savage, poverty-stricken, and formed only for purposes of plunder and mischief. in the suburbs of valence we found an excellent inn, called the croix d'or, worthy to be recommended both for comfort, civility, and fair charges. a walk into the town of valence itself has very little in it to repay the traveller, with the exception of the champ de mars, a sort of public garden bordering on the rhone. certainly no place ever united such a degree of dirt and closeness to so smiling an exterior. its old gothic walls still remain, and the streets therefore are probably built on the same scale as in those times when they crowded together for security against feudal aggressors. may 9.--to loriol five miles. the road passes through a country as beautiful and diversified as before, seldom deviating above a mile or two from the course of the river: corn and hay-fields, the latter fit for cutting, mulberry, almond, and fig-trees, cover every inch of ground. about a mile before we reached loriol, and just after passing a small town called livron, we crossed the drome, over a noble bridge of three arches, constructed of a rough sort of whitish marble, and reminding us somewhat of a reduced section of the strand bridge. its massy solidity is not misplaced, as a view up the mountain glen to the left of it convinced us. though the river was at this time low, the immense extent of dry beds of gravel showed what its volume and force must be when swoln by rain; and the cluster of gloomy mountains which close the valley from whence it issues, seem the perpetual abode of storms. in one of them i recognised the montagne de midi, whose form is so remarkably perpendicular when seen from tain; and altogether, i have no idea of forms more wild and extraordinary upon so large a scale. the rocks of st. michel, in savoy, near st. jean de maurienne, are a miniature resemblance of them; but a better idea as to size and wildness, may be formed by those who recollect the mountains of nant francon, in wales, and can imagine them not yet settled into place, after the first confusion of the titanic war. "ter sunt conati imponere pelio ossam scilicet, atque ossâ frondosum involvere olympum; ter pater exstructos dejecit fulmine montes." the view is worth several hours of an artist's time, and its effect is considerably increased by a solitary tower, resembling a moss-trooper's abode, which stands in the middle distance. it is called, as we understood, the château de crest, and is the relic of a state prison. on passing a corner of rising ground this wild valley disappears, and the same rich and cheerful country as has been already described recommences. the same unbroken rocky barrier bounds the rhone on the right, while in front numberless peaks of very distant mountains become visible over the plain through which its windings are traced. the neat-looking inn at loriol probably affords better breakfasts than the café, which, in spite of its neat outside, is dirty and imposing, an exception to the usual rule. to montelimart fifteen miles: the first three we walked, and rested on a rising ground, commanding in each direction a long day's journey through this fine district. our walk perhaps made us relish the more a bottle of the vin du pays, which derbieres, a little village a mile or two farther on, afforded; but i have no doubt that worse is sold in paris at seven or eight francs a bottle, under the name of pink champagne: it is at least worth the while of any thirsty traveller to try the experiment, if it were merely for the sake of the civil old landlady of the little inn. we could obtain no information from her respecting the history of a singular ruin on the opposite side of the river, excepting that it was called château crucis, and about seven hundred years ago was an abbey. somewhat beyond this black pile stand two or three pyramidical rocks, projecting from the general line of hills, the same probably which the french itineraire mentions as commanding a celebrated view, and exhibiting in themselves a geological curiosity. i doubt, however, whether any person would do well to cross the rhone to explore them, upon the mere credit of that wise octavo. montelimart is a large old town, the ancient fortifications of which, as of valence, remain in perfect preservation. the approach to it from loriol gives by no means so favourable an idea of it as it deserves; and to estimate its beauties fully, it is necessary to visit the citadel, now used as a prison, which stands on a height above the town.[14] the view which it commands is uniformly mountainous in the back grounds, and flat and rich in its nearer details; but the finest part of it is towards the east. the snowy alps near grenoble, and the line of mountains from whence the drome issues, and at whose foot château grignan is situated, are its prominent features; and the little farm-houses and tufts of trees in the rich pasture grounds which intervene, seem disposed by the hand of a painter. [footnote 14: vide cooke's views.] not to omit the luxuries of the palate as well as those of the eye, it is worth while to procure at montelimart a wedge or two of the nogaux, or almond-cakes, which miss plumptre so particularly recommends. the genuine sort is as glutinous as pitch, and made in moulds, from whence it is cut like portable soup; and the makers at montelimart, like the rusk-bakers of kidderminster, have, i understand, refused a large sum for the receipt. another of the good things of provence, to which miss plumptre's tour introduced us, was the confiture de menage, or fruit boiled up with grape juice instead of sugar. this is a preserve which you meet with in most of the commonest inns, but which is so easily made and little esteemed, that they do not bring it without a particular order. it is very much like asking for treacle at an english inn; nevertheless i, for my part, felt obliged to the fair tourist for an information which has served to mend many a bad breakfast; and a bad breakfast, as the world doth know, is the stumbling-block, or the grumbling-stock, of most englishmen, travelled or untravelled. the inn at montelimart is excellent; but madame must not be left to make her own charges. we should, however, have parted from her in good humour, had not her avarice affected persons less able to help themselves. the poor maid, who appeared jaded to the bone, confessed that her mistress detained half her etrennes, and i have reason to believe that she spoke truth. to the classical ground of château grignan, which we visited next day, i shall devote a separate chapter. chap. v. château grignan. may 10.--this was the day of the greatest interest and fatigue which we had as yet passed; and moreover afforded us a tolerably accurate idea, at the risk of our bones, of the nature of french crossroads. having understood that the road from montelimart to grignan was inaccessible to four-wheeled carriages, we set off at four in the morning in a patache, the most genteel description of one-horse chair which the town afforded. let no one imagine that a patache bears that relation to a cabriolet which a dennet does to a tilbury; for ours, at least, would in england have been called a very sorry higgler's cart. the inside accommodations were so arranged, that we sat back to back, and nearly neck and heels together, after swarming up a sort of dresser or sounding-board in the rear, which afforded the most practicable entrance. "mais montez, montez, messieurs, vous y serez parfaitement bien," quoth our civil conducteur, haranguing, handing, and shoving at the same time. the alacrity with which he and his merry little dog carlin did the honours of the vehicle, and the stout active appearance of the horse (to say nothing of the whim of the moment, and the fine morning), reconciled us to a mode of conveyance no better than that which calves enjoy in a butcher's cart; and for the first few miles we forgot even the want of springs. after travelling a league or two, the road began to wind into the outskirts of the range of mountains which we had first seen from tain, and reminded us, in its general features, of some of the most sequestered parts of south wales. the soil is generally poor, but derives an appearance of verdure and cheerfulness from the large walnut and mulberry-trees which shade the road, and the stunted oak copses through which it occasionally winds. we passed an extensive pile of building, of a character which we had not before observed, consisting of a number of small awkwardly-contrived rooms, without any uniformity, piled like so many inhabited buttresses against the outside and inside of a circular wall. this, it seems, is the property and habitation of one person, a m. dilateau; but it certainly has more the appearance of the residence of a whole birkbeck colony, each back-settler established in his own nook, amid the contents of his travelling waggon. a little farther, on the summit of a bare rocky ridge to the left, stands a castle of a more gothic character, but equally uncouth and comfortless. it was demolished, as we understood, at the time of the revolution; but in its best days must have been but a wretched residence, as no trace remains within many hundred yards of it, of any soil where tree or garden could have stood. to the genuine admirers of mad. de sevigné, however, even these cheerless mountain holds present an interesting object, as having been peopled by the honest country families whose ceremonious visits to grignan afforded her many a good-natured laugh.[15] or to treat the château race-du-fort (for such we understood to be the name of this last castle) with more respect, we may fancy its proprietor sallying forth, like old hardyknute, at the head of his armed sons and servants, to join the seven hundred country gentlemen who volunteered their services, with the count de grignan at their head, in besieging the rebellious town of orange. [footnote 15: "see mad. de s.'s letters."] we found it necessary, both from common consideration for the patache-horse, and our own necks, to walk up the two miles of steep ascent, which occur after passing this last castle. on the top of the hill all vegetation appears to cease, excepting a few shrubby dwarf firs, and a profusion of aromatic plants, such as juniper, lavender, southernwood, and wild thyme, which delight in the stony hot-bed afforded by the interstices of disjointed rocks. the view from the high table of ground to which we climbed at length fully repaid our exertions, and may be almost compared, for extent and beauty, to those from the church of fourvières, and the montagne de rochepot. towards the north we surveyed not only the valleys of montelimart and the drome, but nearly the whole of the route of the three preceding days, bordered on the one side by the abrupt and lofty mountains, from which the latter river takes its source, and on the other by the steep banks of the rhone. on proceeding a little farther, over a road which consisted of the native rock in all its native inequality, we caught sight of the comtat grignan, and the great plain of avignon, into which that district opens in a south-western direction, flanked on the east by a colossal alp, called mont ventou, on whose long ridge traces of snow were still visible. in the centre of the comtat, [16]château grignan is easily distinguished by the grandeur of its outline and proportions, and the tall insulated rock on which it stands, somewhat resembling that on which windsor castle is situated, though inferior in size. its effect is somewhat heightened by several other smaller crags at different distances, which thrust themselves through the scanty stratum of soil, each crowned with a solitary tower, or little fortalice. in the feudal days of the adhemars, ancestors of the grignan family, who possessed the whole of the comtat, these were probably the peel-houses, or outposts, of the old château, in the quarter from which it would have been most exposed to attack. the château race-du-fort was, in all likelihood, also the key of the mountain glen leading to the hill which we were descending, and formed the line of communication with montelimart, which was formerly included in the family territory. the records on this subject trace the foundation of the lordship of grignan up to the days of charlemagne, who is said to have created adhemar,[17] one of his paladins, duke of genoa, as a reward for having re-conquered corsica from the saracens. adhemar having fallen in a second expedition against the same enemy, his children divided his possessions: the elder remaining duke of genoa, another possessing the towns of st. paul de trois château et mondragon; and a third, the sovereignty of orange. a fourth possessed the town of monteil, called after him monteil adhemar, or montelimart; and in 1160, the emperor frederic i. granted to gerard adhemar de monteil, his descendant and heir, the investiture of grignan, with many sovereign rights, such as that of coining money. it was to this noble family that the count de grignan, whose third wife was the daughter of madame de sevigné, traced his blood and inheritance in a direct line. [footnote 16: vide cooke's views.] [footnote 17: "je me réjouis, avec m. de grignan, de la beauté de sa terrasse; s'il en est content, les ducs de genes, ses grands pères, l'auraient été; son gout est meilleur que celui de ce temps-là; * * * * * ces vieux lits sont dignes des adhemars."--_mad. de sevigné_.] as we reached the level of the plain, and approached the castle, its commanding height and structure seemed completely to justify mad. de s.'s expression to her daughter, "votre château vraiment royal." few subjects certainly ever had such a residence as this; which, though reduced to a mere shell by the ravages of the revolution, still seems to bespeak the hospitable and chivalrous character of its former possessor. it rises from a terrace of more than a hundred feet in height, partly composed of masonry, and partly of the solid rock. the town of grignan, piled tier above tier, occupies a considerable declivity at the foot of this terrace, and communicates with the castle by a road which winds round the ascent, and terminates in a massy gateway. on entering the town, we were directed to the bons enfans, kept by a man of the name of peyrol; which, contrary to the expectations we had naturally formed of an inn not much frequented, provided us with a breakfast, which even the editor of honest blackwood would delight to describe in all its minutiæ, for it was quite scotch in variety and excellence, and served up with great cleanliness. it may be well to remark, that as far as i could judge from the appearance of the rooms, a family might spend two or three days here without sacrificing their comfort to their curiosity, and would be as well off as at the quatre nations at massa, or the tre maschere at caffagiolo, the models of little country inns. our host, we found, was entrusted with the privilege of showing the castle by the count de muy, in whose family he had been a servant; and he accordingly accompanied us in our visit thither. on gaining the level of the terrace, we found the wind, which had been imperceptible in the town, blowing with such force, as to account for[18] mad. de sevigné's fears lest her daughter should be carried away from her "belle terrasse" by the force of the bise. persons travelling to the south of france for the sake of health, should be particularly on their guard against this violent and piercing wind, as well as that called the mistral; both of which are occasionally prevalent in this country at most seasons of the year, and render warm clothing adviseable. i shall quote, as illustrative of the power with which the bise blows, an extract from a letter by an intelligent traveller, written previous to the destruction of château grignan: "en faisant le tour du château, je remarquais avec surprise que les vîtres du coté du nord étaient presque toutes brisées, tandis que celles des autres faces étaient entières. on me dit, que c'était la bise qui les cassait; cela me parut incroyable; je parlai à d'autres personnes, qui me firent la même reponse: et je fus enfin forcé de le croire. la bise y souffle avec une telle violence, qu'elle enleve le gravier de la terrasse, et le lance jusqu'au second étage, avec assez de force pour casser les vîtres." from the violence of the bise wind this morning, and my subsequent experience of its force at beaucaire, i have but little difficulty in believing this account; and conceive that the danger of yielding to the occasional temptation of heat, and wearing light clothing, cannot be too strongly insisted on in this country. persons, indeed, who have not visited the south of france, connect its very name with the idea of uniform mildness; but in reality, its caprices render it, without proper caution, a more dangerous climate than our own. [footnote 18: "l'air de grignan me fait peur pour vous; me fait trembler; je crains qu'il n'emporte, ma chere enfant, qu'il ne l'épuise, qu'il ne la dessèche--." "voilà le vent, le tourbillon, l'ouragan, les diables dechaînés qui veulent emporter votre château; quel ébranlement universel! quelle furie! quelle frayeur répandue partout!"--_mad. de sevigné_.] on advancing to the balustrades of what appeared a projecting part of the terrace, we were surprised to find that it formed one of the towers of the lofty church of grignan, on the top of which, as on a massy buttress, we were standing. a trap-door, formed by a moveable paving stone, admitted us upon the leads of the church, which are secured from the effects of weather by the additional casing which the terrace affords. its interior communicates with the lower rooms of the castle by a passage, terminating in a stone gallery, where from its height above the body of the church, the family could hear mass unperceived, as in a private oratory. the establishment of this church, founded entirely at the private expense of the count de grignan's ancestors, was very rich, and consisted of a deanery, twenty-one canonries, and a numerous and well-appointed choir. from its lofty proportions, i should suppose that the internal decorations had also been costly; but much mischief, we were informed, had been done to it during the time of the revolution by the same troop of brigands which burnt the castle, and which consisted of the refuse of the neighbouring towns, countenanced by the revolutionary committee of orange. with a natural aversion to every thing noble, these ragamuffins directed their outrages particularly against the statue of the founder of the church, whose grim black trunk stands in the vestibule, deprived of its head. one almost regrets that the figure did not possess the miraculous power of revenge which the corpse of campeador[19] exerted when the jew plucked his beard, and fall headlong of its own accord into the thick of its assailants. the remains of mad. de sevigné, and of the grignan family, however, were safe from their violence, as the adherents of the castle had taken the precaution of changing the position of the flat black stone inscribed with the name of the former, which marked the entrance of the family vault; and which has since been restored to its original place. the inscription on this stone, which stands, a little to the right of the communion-table, is simply, "cy git marie de rabutin chautal, marquise de sevigné;" the date of her death, april 14, 1696, annexed. such a name, in truth, does not need the assistance of owl-winged cherubs, brawny fames, and blubbering cupids, those frequent appendages of departed vanity and selfishness; which would have been probably as repugnant to the wishes of the good marchioness, as inconsistent with her simple and unassuming character. [footnote 19: see southey's translation of the cid.] to return to the subject of the revolution, as it affected château grignan. miss plumptre, a writer of much research and general accuracy, and whose book would furnish twenty gentlemen-tourists with good materials, has, i believe, been misled as to one circumstance, the disinterment of mad. de sevigné, which, as far we could ascertain by inquiry, never took place from causes to which i have just alluded. the silk wrapping-gown, the expression of the features, and the respect with which the brigands beheld the corpse, are circumstances which miss plumptre's french informant appears to have accumulated, "pour faire une sensation;" and, had they taken place, our communicative guide, who was rather given to the melting mood, would have dwelt on them for the same purpose. they appear, however, to know nothing about the matter at grignan, a place which miss p. acknowledges herself never to have visited. the work of destruction was more complete in the castle than in the church. the count de muy, whose family had become possessed by purchase of this splendid pile of building, inhabited it for half the year, doing extensive good, if one may trust the partial account of his old servant, and maintaining a mode of living which would have done honour to a legitimate descendant of the adhemars. eighty-four lits de maître, and servants' beds in proportion, were made up, we understood, during a visit paid to the count by the present king, then count of provence. these hospitable doings, however, were not to last long. the revolutionists broke into the castle, and having pillaged it of whatever they could turn to any use, burnt the remainder of the furniture, pictures, &c., in the market-place, to the amount of 20,000 francs. one fellow, now residing at montelimart, had the good taste to select for his share the dressing-glass and writing-table known as those of mad. de sevigné. the castle, which they set on fire, continued burning for two or three days: yet such was the solidity and goodness of the masonry, that an imposing mass still remains, sufficient to give an idea of what it must have once been. "qualem te dicam bonam antehac fuisse, tales cum sint reliquiæ!" as the terrace remains uninjured, and many of the walls are still perfect, the castle might be rendered again habitable at a comparatively reasonable expense. but the count de muy is seventy, has no children, and has lost 25,000 pounds per annum by the revolution; a combination of circumstances not very favourable to the spirit of improvement. "c'est là," said peyrol, pointing out a small house at the foot of the terrace, "c'est là que demeure l'homme d'affaires de m. le comte; il y vient tous les ans pour peu de jours; moi je lui fais son petit morceau; et souvent je le vois se promener sur cette belle terrasse, les larmes aux yeux; c'est que monsieur aimait passionnement ce beau château. ah, mon dieu! ça me fait pleurer; moi qui ai tout perdu; ma place, mon bon maître, et puis je gagne le pain ici avec beaucoup de peine: cette pauvre ville est abîmée; nous avons perdu tous nos droits, notre bailliage, notre cour de justice, tout, tout--" &c. our host had apparently imbibed all his master's enthusiastic respect for the house of grignan; for, finding that we had purposely deviated from our route to behold the residence of mad. de sevigné, his delight and loquacity appeared to know no bounds. the space of years, and the succession of owners from the time of the good marquise and her son-in-law, to that of his own master, seemed to have no place in his mind. he had her letters by heart, i believe, for he quoted them with great volubility and correctness, a-propos to almost every question which we asked; and seemed fairly to have worked himself, by their perusal, into the idea that he had seen and waited on her. "c'est ici qu'elle dormait; voilà le cabinet où elle écrivait ses lettres; c'est ici qu'elle prisait ses belles idées." nothing indeed could be more delightful, or more calculated to inspire fine ideas, than the situation of the ruined boudoir into which he conducted us at these words. it occupies one floor of a turret, about fifteen feet in diameter, and opens into the shell of a large bedchamber. its large croisees, which look out in three directions, command an extensive bird's eye view of the comtat grignan, surmounted by the long alpine ridge of mont ventou, and an amphitheatre of other smaller mountains: and enough remained of both apartments to give a full idea of the lightness and airiness of their situation, and of their former magnificence. the walls, on which some gilding still remained, the stone window-frames, and the chimney-pieces, were still entire. from the door, we looked out into the long gallery[20] built by the count de grignan, and communicating with different suites of handsome rooms, or at least their remains. we explored them as far as was consistent with safety, and descended to the "belle terrasse," now over-run with weeds and lizards, in order to take[21] another survey of the castle, and form a general idea of the parts which we had separately visited. though built at different periods of time, each part is in itself regular and handsome. the two grand fronts are the north and west, the former of which is represented in mr. cooke's first engraving of grignan. the eastern part, facing mont ventou, is in a more ornamental style of architecture, somewhat resembling that of the inside square of the louvre.[22] the southern part, affording a view of mad. de sevigné's window, and of the collegiate church founded by the family, is represented in the second engraving, the subject of which was sketched on the road to la palud, whither we were bound for the night. in our way thither, we made a short detour, accompanied by our host, to the roche courbiere, a natural excavation on the rock, within sight of the terrace, and to the left of the road. this cool retreat, it may be recollected, was discovered and chosen by mad. de sevigné, as a sort of summer pavilion; and was embellished by the count de grignan with a marble table, benches of stone, and a stone bason, which collected the filterings of a spring that took its source from this cavern. i have since seen a drawing made previous to the revolution, which confirms peyrol's account. even this modest hermitage, however, was not spared by the systematic spite of the brigands who destroyed the castle. only one stone bench remains; the table and bason are demolished, and the spring now oozes over the damp floor as it did in a state of nature. on returning from this spot to the road, we crossed an open common field on the south side of the castle, planted with corn, and apparently of a better quality than the land in its vicinity. "voilà le jardin," said our guide; "c'étoit là où il y avoit de ces belles figues, ces beaux melons, ce delicieux. muscat dont madame parle." the fine trees, which marked the limits of the garden, have all been cut down and burnt, with the exception of a row of old elms on the western side, forming part of the avenue which flanked the mail, or ball-alley, a constant appendage in days of old to the seats of french noblemen. the turf of the mail is even and soft still, and the wall on both sides tolerably perfect--"and now, messieurs," said mine host, "you may tell your countrymen, that you have walked in the actual steps of the marquise. c'est ici qu'elle jouoit au mail avec cette parfaite grace--et m. le comte aussi--ah! c'étoit un plaisir de les voir." we hardly knew whether to laugh at, or be interested by the comical quixotism of this man, who i verily believe had, by dint of residence on the spot, and thumbing constantly a dirty old edition of madame's letters, worked himself up to the notion that he had witnessed the scenes which he described. we were induced, in the course of our walk, to inquire somewhat into his own history, which appeared rather a melancholy one, though common enough in the times through which he had lived. about a week after the pillage and destruction of château grignan, he was denounced as a royalist, and immured in the prison of orange, in company with several gentlemen of the neighbourhood, acquaintances of his master. by means of a friend in the town, (for they were not all devils at orange, as he emphatically assured us), he was enabled to procure a few common necessaries, to improve the scanty prison allowance of some of the more infirm; but his charitable labour soon ceased, for all were successively dispatched by the guillotine in a short space of time. in the course of three months, 378 persons perished by decree of the miscreants composing the revolutionary tribunal at orange, whose names were fauvette, fonrosac, meilleraye, boisjavelle, viotte, and benôit carat, the greffier. one of their first victims was an aged nun of the simiane family, canoness of the convent of bollene, accused of being a counter-revolutionist; so lame and infirm, that her executioners were forced to carry her to the scaffold. madame d'ozanne, marquise de torignan, aged ninety-one, and her grand-daughter, a lovely young woman of twenty-two, perished in the same massacre. the personal beauty of the latter, which was much celebrated in the neighbourhood, had interested one of the brigands of orange in her fate, who promised to exert his influence with the council of five, to save the life of the grandmother, on condition of receiving the hand of mademoiselle d'ozanne. the poor girl overcame her horror and reluctance for the sake of her aged relative, and promised to marry this man on condition of his success in the promised application. the life, however, of so formidable a conspirator as a superannuated and dying woman, was too great a favour to be granted even to a friend; and the only boon which he could obtain was the promise of mademoiselle d'ozanne's life, in consideration of her becoming his wife. "eh bien! il faut mourir ensemble;" was her answer without a moment's deliberation, and next day, accordingly, both the relatives perished on the same scaffold. poor peyrol himself, after expecting the fatal _allons_ for many a morning, was at length relieved from his apprehensions by the fall of robespierre, and obtained his release, on condition of serving in the army. after fighting for four years, with a cordial detestation of the cause in which he was engaged, he was disabled for the time by a severe wound, and obtained leave to return to grignan, where he settled in the little inn; but the most severe blow of all was yet in store for him; for his wife died not long after, leaving him with five children. "ainsi vous voyez, monsieur, que j'ai connu le malheur. au reste, mons. de muy m'a donné la clef de ce château, et cela me vaut quelque chose; car il y a du monde qui viennent quelquefois le voir." then, relapsing into his habitual strain of complaint, he ended with, "oh mon pauvre cher maître! ce beau, ce grand château! ah, j'ai tout perdu!" one bright moment, however, as he exultingly remarked, occurred during his compulsory service in the army; for it so chanced that he was one of the guard on duty during the execution of his former oppressor, fauvette. "moi à mon tour je l'accompagnois a cet echafaud où il m'auroit envoyé; il avoit la mine triste, un fleur de jasmin à la bouche; ma foi, ça ne sentoit pas bon pour lui." such is an exact transcript of our communicative host's conversation, which, notwithstanding the suspicion with which i regard the prattle of foreign guides, seemed to me not so much a well-conned lesson, as the genuine overflowing of such a disposition as honest thady m'quirk's. his interest in the persons and events of which he spoke, appeared as warm and genuine as his _naïveté_ was amusing and we took leave of him with a strong feeling of good will towards himself and his little clean inn. [footnote 20: eighty feet by twenty-four, according to a measurement made previous to the burning of the castle.] [footnote 21: pour entrer au vestibule (says the same letter which i quoted before, written before the revolution) on monte par un escalier, car les appartemens sont tous au premier. il y a quatre beaux salons, qui s'appellent la salle du roi, la salle de la reine, la salle des evêques, et la galerie: le reste de la maison, qui est vaste, est distribuêe en divers appartemens, dont chacun est composé d'une chambre a coucher, un grand cabinet, et un cabinet à toilette.] [footnote 22: vide cooke's views.] it is as needless to apologize for devoting a whole chapter to local circumstances connected with madame de sevigné's life, as it would be to detail the well-known social virtues which have erected this amiable and unpretending woman into a sort of household deity in the eyes of so large a class of persons, while the lauzuns, the montespans, and other gay and brilliant favourites of that period, are only recollected with disgust. chap. vi. orange--avignon. our road to la palud lay along the rocky vale first discovered from the heights above château grignan, which in fact is not so much a vale as a high plateau of ground enclosed between hills, like many parts of castille. to the latter country, indeed, the comtat grignan bears a striking resemblance in the characteristic features which prevail through the greater part of it. the insulated grey rocks have forced themselves through the starved soil, like projecting bones; the parched fields are more full of pebbles than corn; and the stunted evergreen oaks, with their diminutive tough leaves of a dingy grey, though well enough adapted to the inhospitable ground in which they grow, present an appearance quite repugnant to our english ideas of verdure and vegetation. the immediate neighbourhood of château grignan, indeed, seems tolerably fertile, but it is difficult nevertheless to conceive from whence the adequate supplies for the count's immense table were procured, or how the feudal contributions of such a country could have supported in earlier days the number of castles and towers, whose ruins we saw on the summits of every detached rock. these, from their resemblance to the "antiguas obras de moros," which the muleteers used to point out, presented another feature strongly reviving my spanish recollections. in the days of romance, this country must have been the utopia of troubadours, where each might in the compass of a short walk have taken morning draught, breakfast, nooning, dinner, and supper, at the strong holds of different barons. the first of these fortalices, called chamaret le maigre, presents a striking landmark from the town of grignan; but, on a nearer approach, consists of little more than a tall slender tower upon an insulated rock; the rest is in ruins. at a short distance beyond this spot stands montsegur, a little old fortified town upon a hill, which, from its name and appearance, may have been one of those cradles of civil liberty, where the "bon homme jacques" first found refuge from his haughty feudal oppressors. a ruin of a more lordly description close to it, is called, as we understood, the château beaume: but the number of less important ruins, which occurred in this day's journey, is too great to admit of a particular description. a turn to the right between a couple of commanding heights, brought us out of this barren country into the wide and fertile plain of the rhone, and under the walls of st. paul de trois châteaux, the ancient augusta tricastinorum. from the respectable appearance of this town, we conceived ourselves in the high road to la palud, and likely to be soon indemnified by dinner and rest, for the joltings of the day; but our driver, instead of taking the proper direction, lost himself in a series of inextricable cross roads, which terminated in a quagmire. in this slough of despond the unfortunate patache, from which we had descended, might have stuck for ever, but for the assistance of two shepherds, as wild in their attire, and as civil, as don quixote's friendly goatherds. by dint of their exertions and those of the floundering and groaning horse, the vehicle, which was too deeply imbedded in the muddy ruts to dread an overturn, was dragged out by main force; the driver sometimes wringing his hands in king cambysses' vein, and sometimes strenuously applying his shoulder to the wheel. a franc or two dismissed our bare-legged friends grinning to their very earrings, and we pursued our road without further interruption, quite satisfied with this specimen of the loamy fatness of the soil. from the experience of this day, i certainly should recommend no one to make the detour to grignan in a wheeled carriage of any sort. an active person might accomplish on foot, before breakfast, the whole distance from montelimart to grignan, and might reach st. paul de trois châteaux, or perhaps la palud, by night; but even lady travellers would find less fatigue in hiring saddle-horses and mules from montelimart, than in being bumped at the rate of two miles and a half per hour, over roads which frequently seem a jumble of unhewn paving-stones. we afterwards understood that there was a direct road from grignan to orange, which would have saved us some distance, and could not have been worse than that which we travelled this evening. at la palud we found the servants and voiture established in the second inn, the name of which i forget. the accommodations, however, were decent and comfortable, and the charges moderate: and, on the whole, the appearance of this inn was nearly, or quite as good as that of the hôtel d'angouleme. the people of the latter house, to which the servants were originally directed, concluding that they had positive orders to await us there, persisted in demanding a price for every thing which more than doubled any charge yet attempted; an instance of pertinacious rascality which it is not amiss to mention, and which would have diverted us by its very absurdity, had we not been too tired to find amusement in any thing but supper and beds. in the course of this day and the next, we heard, for the first time, the provençal patois, which seems a bad compound of french, spanish, and italian, with an original gibberish of their own. as far, indeed, as a slight and partial observation enables me to judge, i have been much struck by a similarity which the inhabitants of the mediterranean coast bear to each other in language and character, a similarity so great, as to lead one to suppose them descended from the same original stock. the same savage originality of manner, (accompanied frequently by much good-humour and civility), the same extravagance of gesture, which seems the overflow of bodily vigour and animal spirits, the same red cap, and lastly, the same villainous compound of languages, mixed up in discordant cadences and terminations, appear to distinguish the inhabitants of provence, languedoc, naples, and genoa, and last and noblest of all, the catalans. may 11.--to orange eighteen miles, through the same rich and extensive plain, from which the barrier of hills that accompanied us before, receded to a considerable distance; but which is still interrupted and broken occasionally by rocks of the wildest and most abrupt shape possible, with the addition in general of a frowning castle in ruins. the little towns of montdragon[23] and mornas, which we passed this morning, are each situated under heights of this description. the castle of the former, of which a plate is given in mr. cooke's work, i think even superior to that of caerphilly, in south wales, in the "awsome eyriness," as a scotsman would express it, with which its detached masses are grouped. the castle of mornas is not so remarkable, but the rocks on which it stands are very striking; for if they have any inclination out of the perpendicular, it is rather towards than from the road. it is indeed impossible, when you stand under the shade of this lofty barrier, and look up to the clouds drifting over it, to fancy that it is not in the act of toppling down upon your head. we had not as yet emerged from the land of castles, for, as in yesterday's route, almost every little town possessed some vestige of ancient fortification, a silent testimony to the peaceful virtues of "the good old days." the heat of the weather at this comparatively early season of the year, induced us to congratulate ourselves that we had not chosen a month, or even a fortnight later, for our excursion, particularly as the mulberry-trees, which in this thrifty country form almost the only shade, were beginning to lose their covering of leaves. every where we met women and children carrying ladders, shaped exactly like those used by cocks and hens in roosting, or perched high in trees, stripping them for the food of the silk-worms. the natural gracefulness of the mulberry foliage is entirely destroyed by the unmerciful pruning and pollarding which it undergoes in this country, in order to concentrate it for gathering. very little fruit, and that small and tasteless, is produced from these cabbage-cut trees; a circumstance which i mention to prevent disappointment, since, no doubt, many a gentle traveller may indulge, as i confess to have done, the luxurious hope of feasting on this fruit in perfection under every hedge-row in provence. another month would have rendered the heat of the country insufferable, and stript it of much of its beauty, by reducing to bunches of bare poles those trees which still continued to afford verdure and finish to the prospect. [footnote 23: vide cooke's views.] within a few miles of orange we crossed the river aigues by a handsome stone bridge, commanding a magnificent view of mont ventou. this mountain seems the most conspicuous landmark in the part of france which we were traversing, continuing visible as it does for two or three days journey with very little alteration of outline. to judge from its situation on the map, it could not be less than twenty-five or thirty miles from the place where we stood, though from the deception caused by its enormous length and height, and not uncommon in mountain scenery, it appeared accessible in a walk of two or three hours. i well remember, as an instance illustrative of this deception, the surprise of a berkshire servant at capel curig, when informed that he really could not take an evening's walk to the top of snowdon after littering up his horses, and return to supper. the effect in question is increased, and rather to the detriment of picturesque beauty, by the less hazy atmosphere of southern countries; but i never recollect so strong an instance of it, as in the view of mont ventou of which i am speaking. i was struck also by its great similarity to drawings which i had seen of ætna from the catanian coast, as well its outline, as the manner in which it rises from a cluster of satellite hills into the borders of the snowy region. several scattered snow-ridges were visible near its top, contrasting curiously with the effect of the sun's rays reflected from its sides, which, instead of campbell's picturesque "cliffs of shadowy tint" appeared a red-hot stony mass, and might be fancied by a slight effort of imagination, into ætna covered with an eruption of burning cinders. the approach to the celebrated arch of orange, commemorating marius's victory over the cimbri, is marked by an avenue of lombardy poplars which line the high road. the classical and sombre stone pine, which gives so striking an effect to the tomb of the scipios (as it is styled) near tarragona, would have been more in character as an accompaniment to this proud monument also; but since the days of [24] alpheus and his red silk stockings, the taste for _quelque chôse de gentil_ has constantly poisoned those classical associations of which the french are so fond. the grave patavinian is still designated by the tom-tit appellation of tite live; and the majestic arch, whose history would have been so well illustrated by his lost annals, is tricked out with a poplar avenue, like a summer-house on clapham-common. [footnote 24: see the spectator.] the townsmen of orange, however, deserve credit for the substantial style in which they have repaired one end of it, to prevent farther dilapidation, and for the manner in which the road is diverted from it on both sides in a handsome sweep, leaving a green space in the middle, in which the arch stands. we returned to it immediately after breakfast, and our second impressions were fully equal to the first. as[25] a work of art, it is certainly worthy of one of the proudest places in the campo vaccino, though of course its effect is more striking in the neighbourhood[26] of the victory which it commemorates. the bas relief on the side facing orange, would not be unworthy of a place between the well-known statues of dacian captives, which ornament the arch of constantine. different as were their respective æras, the stern thoughtful dignity of the barbarian chiefs, and the spirit which animates "the fiery mass of living valour, rolling on the foe," as represented in the battle of marius, appear to have been conceived by the same powerful mind, and embodied by the same master hand. the same chastened energy and unaffected greatness of design which characterizes the poetry of milton, the painting of michael angelo, and the music of handel, is conspicuous in both. the bas relief which i have mentioned forms the principal ornament of the arch; but the trophies, the rostra, &c. which appear in other parts, are in a style of simple and soldier-like grandeur corresponding with its character and the achievement which it commemorates. i do not pretend to consider this monument as comparable on the whole to the arch of constantine; but still it is of a very different school of art from that which produced the arch of severus. on the bas relief representing marius's victory, one might fancy the most high born and athletic of achilles's myrmidons in the full "tug of war;" whereas the swarms of crawling pigmies which burlesque the triumph of severus might be supposed the original myrmidon rabble, just hatched, as the fable reports, from their native ant-hills, and basking in the sun like so many tadpoles. [footnote 25: vide cooke's views.] [footnote 26: marius's victory is said to have been gained near aix (aquæ seætiæ).] the roman colony of orange, to judge from the relative positions of the arch and circus, must have been very considerable, and have occupied a far larger space than the present town. the arch stands detached from its entrance, as i mentioned, on the lyons' side, and the circus at the extreme end, in the direction of avignon; yet the former we may suppose to have joined on to the ancient town, and the latter to have stood in the same central position which the colosseum occupied in rome. of the circus nothing now remains but the chord of the semicircle, or, to express it more familiarly, the straight line of the d figure, in which it was built. as far as i could guess, from pacing the length of this enormous wall, encumbered and buttressed as it was by dirty shops, it is in length nearly or quite a hundred yards, and of a height proportionate. the point of view from which it appears to the most advantage, is on the road to avignon, about two or three furlongs out of the town. when viewed in this direction, it stands with a commanding air of a grim old roman ghost among a group of men of the present day; forming, by its blackness and colossal scale of proportions, a striking contrast to every thing around it, and overtopping houses, church-tower, and every thing near, excepting a circular hill at the foot of which it stands. the latter is marked as the position of the ancient roman citadel by the remains of tower and wall, half imbedded in turf, which surround it: and one veteran bastion still stands firm and unbroken, in a position facing the circus, its companion through the silent and ruinous lapse of so many centuries. without the affectation of decrying well-known and celebrated monuments of antiquity, or the wish to put any thing really in comparison with the ruins of ancient rome, i must still own, that the unexpected view which i caught of the citadel and circus from this position, realized more strongly to my mind the august conceptions so well expressed in childe harold, than any view in rome itself, hardly excepting the colosseum. o'er each mouldering tower dim with the mist of years, grey flits the shade of power. the stanza concluding with these lines involuntarily occurs to the mind, while viewing orange in the direction of which i now speak; and the lofty visions of the noble author, which are, perhaps, too over-wrought and ideal to harmonize with the sober contemplations of the closet, seem in this spot to assume "a local habitation and a name." undoubtedly they ought to do so more particularly at rome, and would so in every instance, but that much of the effect of the "eternal city" is lost from the deserved eminence in which we know it to stand, and the consequent familiarity which we have acquired with it through the works of piranesi and innumerable other artists. thus its very celebrity lessens its effect, as the commendations bestowed on a celebrated beauty frequently occasion disappointment. the _on admire ici_ of the well-bound itineraire, the elaborate descriptions of vasi, and the _ecco signore_ of your obliging cicerone, produce the same effect upon the mind, which the mistaken attentions of koah, the south sea priest, did on the stomach of captain cook. the meat was good, but honest koah spoiled its relish by proffering it ready chewed; and in the same manner, the effect of what is really most admirable in nature and art is weakened by the impertinent obtrusion of ready-made ecstasies. it is no reflection on human perverseness to say, that every one has his own way of admiring, and loves to feel and observe for himself; as well as to chew with his own teeth. for my own part, i never could appreciate the stupendous beauties of rome as i wished, until i managed to abstract myself from the notion that i was come to admire as thousands had done before, and from the recollection of the unclassical comforts of the excellent inn in the piazza di spagna. an english letter, or newspaper, is an excellent preparative for this purpose; and when once absorbed in the train of thought which it creates, the sudden transition to the mighty scenes before you, produces by contrast the effect which it ought to do. i have been led into these observations, to account for the reason why orange struck me so much; a place of which i had heard and read little or nothing. no attentive and intelligent cicerone anticipated our reflections in this place; nor did the creature-comforts of a good inn debase our roman reveries, though we could well have pardoned their so doing. madame ran, of the croix blanche, was as mean and dirty as the hole in which she lived; and looked as malevolent as canidia, erichtho, or any other classical witch; and as to the inhabitants of orange, though the revolutionary anecdotes which we have heard of them at grignan might create some prejudice to their disadvantage, i think, in truth, that i never beheld a more squalid, uncivilized, ferocious-looking people. a grin of savage curiosity, or a cannibal scowl, seems almost universally to disfigure features which are none of the best or cleanest; and their whole appearance is as direct a contrast as can well be imagined, to the hale, honest norman, or le franc picard, as he is proverbially styled. we turned our backs upon them with pleasure, after casting back one lingering look at the noble old circus; and soon found ourselves in the centre of the extensive plain in which avignon stands. the forwardness of the climate, and the skilful system of irrigation pursued here, afforded us, at this early time of the year, the spectacle of hay-making in many places. an english farmer might be shocked by the rudeness of the method here pursued, the hay being mostly carried in sail-cloth sheets, and turned with large wooden forks. with respect to the former practice, i have nothing to say; but, having attentively observed their method of using these forks, i am confident that they are better adapted to the purpose of turning the hay than our heavy prongs of ash and iron. they are at once lighter in hand, and, from the length of their teeth, they take up a larger portion of hay at once; and must therefore be well calculated for making the most of the fine weather, which, in our climate, cannot always be calculated upon, and occasions a scarcity of working hands. at three or four miles from avignon, and before any other part of the town becomes visible,[27] the legate's palace appears conspicuously rising with its tiara of proud towers at airy distance, with majestic motion; and a more splendid gothic building, both as to outline and dimensions, cannot be imagined. on a nearer approach, a long and wide reach of the rhone, winding round the base of this noble pile, and reflecting its figure in a deep mirror, adds greatly to its effect. in mr. cooke's work, the palace is represented nearly in this direction, from a point somewhat diverging to the right of the road, so as to introduce a broken gothic bridge, and a part of the roche don, or roche notre dame (for i believe it bears both names). the rest of the town of avignon, placed as it is on a low level, affords no striking coup d'oeil, from the direction in which we approached it: the ancient walls, however, which inclose its whole circumference, unbroken and perfect, and beautifully crenated in every part, are a very remarkable feature. i know but of one other instance of this continuity of gothic wall, which occurs at valencia; but the fortifications of the spanish town, though they far exceed those of avignon in dimensions and strength, fall as short of them in beauty. we had a full opportunity of examining the merits of the latter, as the police had unaccountably thought fit to shut up all the entrances to the town but one or two; which obliged us, on arriving at the foot of the walls, to add two miles more to our day's journey before we could reach their interior. we found the hôtel de l'europe, kept by the widow pierron, a superior inn in every respect, both in the comfort and liberality of the establishment, and the cleanliness of the servants. [footnote 27: vide cooke's views.] chap. vii. avignon--murder of brune--hospital des fous--mission of 1819. on the opposite side of the square in which our inn was situated, stands the hôtel du palais royal, the scene of brune's assassination. the account which m. joüy gives in the hermite en provence, of this horrible transaction, corresponds as nearly as possible with the particulars which we heard upon the spot. being summoned on the restoration of louis to answer the charge of treason, and having stopped with his escort at avignon for the purpose of changing horses and refreshing himself, the marshal was recognized by the populace as one of the supposed murderers of the princess de lamballe. a ferocious mob soon assembled at the door of the hôtel, broke in by force, and after deliberately shooting him, dragged the body to the adjoining bridge, and with every mark of contumely threw it into the rhone. such is the brief outline of the murder of a defenceless man, on a charge which, whether true or not, should have rested between god and his conscience. joüy may indeed be pardoned for commenting and enlarging on this story, though the simple facts address themselves more strongly to the mind, than when dressed up with stage effect, and must be better adapted to produce the impression probably desired by that author. in the detestable ruffians who disgraced the good cause of loyalty on this occasion, we recognize the same black and fiery blood which flowed in the veins of the marseillois assassins of 1793, and of the fanatics of nismes: and whose ebullitions render them equally hateful as friends or enemies. there are many strange historical discoveries which would surprise me more than to learn that the moorish blood remained in this part of france unextirpated by the victories of charles martel;[28] for to a person who knows them only by report and casual observation, the _tout ensemble_ of its inhabitants seems to differ totally from that of the gascon and the basque; names which, like the name of norman, convey to the mind an image of frankness and gallantry. [footnote 28: "cette memorable bataille, sur laquelle nous n'avons aucun détail, nous sauva du joug des arabes, et fut le terme de leur grandeur. depuis ce revers, ils tenterent encore de pénétrer dans la france; ils s'emparerent même d'avignon; mais charles martel les défit de nouveau, réprit cette ville, leur enleva narbonne, et leur ota pour jamais l'espérance dont ils s'étaient flattés si longtemps."--_florian's précis historique sur les maures._] on the morning after our arrival, we ascended first of all the roche don, a hill enclosed within the walls of the town, and backing the ruined palace of the legate; being desirous, as in lyons, to begin our survey from a point which might serve as a general key to the whole, and instruct us in the bearings of different objects. from this elevated spot, situated at the north-western extremity of the city, we looked to the east, north, and south, over a plain as rich in verdure and cultivation as the finest parts of lombardy; to which the stately towers of the palace, and the clustering spires and battlemented walls of avignon form a fine foreground. the distant hills, at the foot of which vaucluse is situated, form the eastern boundary of this plain; and are succeeded and overtopped to the northward by a chain of the dauphiné alps, among which the long sweeping mass of mont ventou predominates. from the latter quarter the rhone is traced winding up in a wide and rapid current, till it reaches the highly cultivated islands at the foot of mont don, and pursues its course with increased grandeur towards the southward. the neighbourhood of its junction with the durance is marked in this quarter by a barrier of mountains of less height than those above-mentioned, but more abrupt and wild in their forms, at whose foot appear casual glimpses of the two rivers, winding like narrow silver threads into the horizon. "vous avez passé ce diantre de rhone," says madame de sevigné, "si fier, si orgueilleux, si turbulent; il faut le marier avec la durance quand elle est en furie; ah le bon ménage!" the good people of lyons have, however, settled this point otherwise by their inscriptions and statues in the hôtel de ville, which certify this river-god as already married to the saone: the durance, therefore, can hold no higher rank than that of his termagant mistress, while the gentle, even, beneficent character of her rival, and the priority of her claims, suit much better with the title of wife. if it be permitted me to quote mad. de sevigné once more, i should remark, that the broken gothic bridge beneath our feet, which forms so picturesque an object in every point of view, is the same against the piers of which mad. de grignan was nearly lost.[29] it formerly connected the roche don with the heights on the western side of the rhone, up which the road to nismes winds near fort villeneuve; and is well worthy of a nearer survey as an architectural relic. the few arches which remain have the same bold span and elegant lightness of design so remarkable in the celebrated pont y prydd in south wales; and the piers, which appear slight at a distance, are nevertheless solid and well adapted to the nature of the rhone, whose current they cut like the sharp bow of a canoe. its remarkable narrowness, which hardly allows two horses to pass abreast, and the ancient guard-house in the centre, secured by gates on both sides, carry the mind strongly back to those days of distrust and violence, which have by some been called "the good old times:"- "ego me nunc denique natum gratulor." [footnote 29: as late as 1688, louis xiv. seized on the territory of avignon in consequence of disagreements with innocent xi., and the count de grignan held the city as his viceroy for two subsequent years. mad. de sevigné, in her letters written at this period of time, congratulates her daughter (whose boat was nearly overset against the piers of this identical bridge), on the dignity of the situation conferred on the count, and the more solid advantages which might accrue from it. "vous prenez, ma chere fille, (says she) une fort honnete resolution d'aller à votre terre d'avignon, voir des gens qui vous donnent de si bon coeur ce qu'ils donnoient au vicelegat."--june, 1689. "quelle difference de la vie que vous faites à avignon, toute à la grande, toute brillante, toute dissipée, avec celle que nous faisons ici!"--_les rochers_. june, 1689. "toutes vos descriptions nous ont divertis au dernier point; nous sommes charmés, comme vous, de la douceur de l'air, de la noble antiquité des eglises honorées comme vous dites, de la presence et de la residence de tant de papes, &c. &c."--june 26, 1689.] at the period when the territory of avignon was styled by the kings of france the "derriere du pape," from the convenient posture in which it lay for their correction, one may fancy the same scenes to have taken place on a larger scale, which are described as occurring at the bridge of kennaquhair, the same struggle between secular and monastic authority, the same sullen important bridgeward, and the same forcible arguments employed by wandering troops of jackmen to effect a passage. in mr. cooke's first view of the legate's palace, this bridge appears projecting from the part of the roche don where we stood, a spot marked with two round buildings, like small martello towers. the window marked by two birds flying directly over it, and second from the highest in the same tower, has acquired a bloody notoriety. from this giddy height, as we were informed by an inhabitant whom we met, the half-murdered victims of revolutionary massacre were thrown, to put an end to their sufferings: and their remains heaped up for a time in the square building which stands below, originally erected for the purpose of an ice-house. having familiarized ourselves with the leading features of avignon and its vicinity, as viewed from this commanding point, we descended into the town to take a more particular survey. rhetor comes heliodorus, græcorum longè doctissimus. to translate horace freely, our companion was a rhetorician, or talker by profession, and the most learned of his class in extraordinary legends and fabrications; in other respects an useful civil fellow, with an irish brogue, which his service in the french army had not been able to eradicate, or even weaken, and the established cicerone of the place. to account satisfactorily for his wooden leg and french uniform, he anticipated our inquiries by informing us, that he had been crippled by a shipwreck on the french coast, and through the recommendation of his friends the _duchess_ of westmoreland and _countess_ of devonshire, patronized by louis, "who allowed him this uniform coat to wear, and two _males_ a-day." in england, one would not have borne the sight of such a lying varlet another instant, but i must confess that the mere sound of our own language in a foreign town, disarmed our indignation, and we bore with the fellow, whom we found not unamusing, and from his local knowledge, serviceable. a very small degree of merit indeed suffices to open one's heart towards a fellow-countryman in a strange land; a truth no doubt known and acted on by knights of industry, matrimonial speculators, and "broken dandies lately on their travels." the legate's palace is now divided into barracks and a prison, and the nakedness of its appearance upon a nearer view make its lofty proportions more striking. we were expressing to each other our wonder at its size, when our guide interrupted us with an original observation of his own:--"the reason of its size, sir, is quite _clare_. the pope, you see, always went about with such a _hape_ of monks--and of nuns--and of all them kind of people, that the big number of rooms which you see could hardly hold them any how." after all, if the annals of former times have been truly written, the milesian's account of this merry menage might be nearer the truth than he knew or suspected. the papal chapel exhibits now but few remains of its former probable grandeur, its inside having been defaced with the most persevering animosity during the revolution, and presenting little more than a damp bare shell, filled with the broken remains of monumental figures. headless popes and crippled cardinals lie together in heaps, mingled in a manner which will render it impossible to restore to each his proper allotment of limbs, when the projected repairs of the chapel are put in execution. one tomb, broken up and shattered to pieces more than the rest, was pointed out by the old woman as the sepulchre of la belle laure, an honour which, for aught i know, may be claimed by a tomb in every church of avignon. an assertion apparently still more apocryphal, however, is that one of the small side chapels was built by constantine. the interior of avignon affords a much more agreeable promenade than that of lyons, from the superior cleanliness of its inhabitants, and the moderate height of the houses. these circumstances tend to disperse the combinations of ill smell, and purify the thick, vapid, flagging air which is felt so perceptibly at lyons. it may, perhaps, be beneath the dignity of a _printed book_ to enumerate such circumstances as these, but they occupy in fact a high place in the scale of human comfort; and, joined to the cheapness of the necessaries of life, (which we inferred from the price of two or three articles of consumption,) must have their weight in rendering avignon a desirable place of banishment. banishment, i say; for i have no better name by which to express a prolonged residence abroad, especially in cases where the mind has lost its power of deriving amusement from trifles. with the exception of its fine walls, its gothic bridge, and the legate's palace, avignon possesses in itself no remarkable architectural feature, or fine combination of buildings. its churches are numerous; but no one remarkable above the rest, as far at least as external appearance is concerned; and we had not time for a very minute internal survey. the hôpital des fous, however, is an establishment well calculated to gratify the laudable curiosity of the humane; and to judge from all we witnessed, may perhaps exhibit points of internal regulation worthy the attention of professional men. nothing indeed can exceed the quiet, orderly behaviour of the patients there confined, whom we found walking about at perfect liberty in a square court planted with trees. many of them wore a certain air of content and satisfaction which could not be mistaken, and all seemed much gratified by the notice of the mild sensible ecclesiastic who accompanied us, and who presides over the establishment. no coercion, as we understood from him, is used, save restriction from walking with their fellow patients, and the restraint of handcuffs, when rendered necessary in cases of violent conduct. i particularly observed also, that he had never any occasion to exert that command of the eye, on which so much stress is laid as a means of intimidation, but passed all their little follies off with a smile, in which we were frequently inclined to join. one poor patient accosted us with high titles of nobility, dwelling on the peculiar pleasure he experienced from our visit; another, an old man of a very venerable appearance, called our attention to a dirty stone which he held in his hand, affirming it to be a piece of henri quatre's identical foot: but none were troublesome or obtrusive, and most appeared to be deriving as much enjoyment from their own little vagaries as their melancholy state would admit of.[30] their apartments, built round the square, are neat and airy, each furnished with a bed, dressing table, and a few plain utensils. in one large room are a row of hot and cold baths, which are frequently and regularly used; and nothing, the good priest said, has been found to produce so desirable an effect on the mind and body as this custom. the rank of the patients is various; the poorer sort are supported by voluntary contributions; and many persons in the higher ranks are also placed here at their own expense, or that of their friends. among others, there is a general who became deranged, as we were assured, on hearing of the abdication of his patron napoleon; the most unequivocal instance of misplaced fidelity, which i have ever heard. how this poor man contrives to agree with the partizan of henry iv., i am at a loss to make out: and he was not then visible to answer for himself. at the time of the revolution, the estates belonging to the hospital were confiscated; and the establishment itself would have been abolished, had not one of the members of the council at avignon observed, half in jest, that they might possibly be one day glad themselves of such a retreat. it is now, as i mentioned, maintained by private donations, and by the salaries paid for the accommodation of the richer patients. the only objects of taste belonging to the institution are a fine altar-piece attributed to murillo, and an ivory crucifix carved by jean guillermin, in 1659. the latter is not above two feet in length; but the manner in which every muscle and vein indicate suffering, and the mingled expression of pain and resignation in the countenance, place it on the footing of a statue; and i could hardly have supposed that a small piece of ivory-carving could do such justice to a sacred subject. the worthy priest dwelt, with great exultation, on the precautions he had taken to secure this favourite relic from revolutionary pillage, slightly alluding to the circumstance of having been forced to fly for his life to italy, as a matter of minor importance to himself. [footnote 30: it is to be hoped that adam smith has taken a correct view of the subject of madness in his moral sentiments. "of all the calamities," says he, "to which the condition of mortality exposes mankind, the loss of reason _appears_ by far the most dreadful; and we behold that last stage of human wretchedness with deeper commisseration than any other. but the poor wretch who is in it, laughs and sings, perhaps, and is altogether insensible of his own misery. the anguish therefore which humanity feels at the sight of such an object, cannot be the reflection of any sentiment of the sufferer. the compassion of the spectator must arise altogether from the consideration of what he would himself feel if he were reduced to the same situation, and, what perhaps is impossible, were at the same time able to regard it with his present reason and judgment.] the admirers of show houses, may find some gratification in visiting the hotel of m. de leutre, the banker; which was purchased of m. villeneuve, an emigré, and contains, besides the usual etceteras of carving and gilding, orange-trees, and gold fish, a curious collection of prints representing chinese battles, and supposed to be the only perfect duplicate of that in the royal collection. a sight more interesting is presented in the hospital of invalid soldiers, established in the place; 1500 of whom are maintained as in-pensioners, apparently in great comfort. "on est bien ici," said a blind veteran, who, hearing the voices of strangers, invited us to walk in; and indeed most of those whom we saw strolling in the garden, or sitting under the shade of the trees, seemed very cheerful, though some of them, and those very young men, were dreadfully mutilated, and the loss of both legs very common. the two buildings which accommodate them were formerly the convent des celestins, and that of the dames de st. louis. two other handsome convents have been converted to uses less beneficent, one being now a gunpowder manufactory, and the other a cannon foundery. in the evening we walked across the long wooden bridge adjoining our hotel,[31] towards the western bank of the rhone; and the expectations which we had formed of the view from this quarter, were not disappointed. the roche don terminates more abruptly on the side of the river than in any other part, and in a manner which sets off strikingly the commanding height of the legate's palace. with this princely pile of building, the broken gothic bridge and its guard-house, the ancient palace of the archbishop, and a portion of the battlemented walls of avignon, combine to form a striking architectural group, whose unity of character is hardly at all broken by meaner objects; and the whole is well backed by mont ventou and the dauphiné alps. from this spot we again returned to roche don, a station to which every visitor of avignon may return twice or thrice in the day with undiminished pleasure. in our way we fell in with a procession of children, the eldest of whom could not be more than seven years of age, in pairs, and with lighted candles in their hands, escorting a cross of lath and a very indifferent daub, which represented some female saint, and screaming in chorus with all their might. those who had no candles, ran about with little dishes, vociferously begging money to buy some; and in spite of the respect with which one would wish to consider whatever fellow christians choose to denominate, in pure earnest, a religious ceremony, it was impossible not to be reminded, by the petitions of these sucking catholics, of guy fawkes's little votaries on the fifth of november. we thought involuntarily of a boy who had followed us that very morning into the church of st. didier, tossing a ball in his hand, and after crossing himself with great gravity, immediately began his game again. whether the interests of religion gain or suffer most by the familiarity with the ordinary business of life which it assumes in catholic countries, is a point which i cannot presume to determine. it is true, that it may frequently occasion such ridiculous scenes as those which i have mentioned; and our habits of mind, as protestants, may lead us to conceive that such familiarity may tend to generate levity and indifference. on the other hand, however, amidst all the mummery which may mix itself up with the occasional ceremonies of the catholic service, there is much worthy of commendation in the more common ordinances, to which alone a sensible catholic must look for religious improvement. i particularly allude to the shortness and frequent recurrence of the mass (such as it is), and the constant access afforded to catholic churches, in which some service or other appears to be carried on during great part of the day. these regulations are well adapted to take advantage of those serious trains of thought which often arise most forcibly at accidental times, and from unpremeditated causes. the attention is thus excited without being fatigued, and the privacy of the closet is combined with that solemnity which attaches itself to the house of god. it may be said, indeed, that to consult the caprices and associations of the human mind, is to lower the dignity of religion; but surely a good end must justify any means which are not in themselves culpable or ridiculous. the mechanic, for instance, in returning from his daily labour, enters an open church from accident or curiosity, crosses himself from habit, and is led on by the momentary feeling of reverence which that act must generally awaken, to employ five minutes in his devotions, a well spent portion of time, which probably would not otherwise have been rescued from the business of the day, but which may influence his conduct during the rest of it. [footnote 31: vide cooke's views.] on ascending the mont don, we found it the scene of a graver ceremony than the infantine gambols which we had just witnessed. in the centre of the terrace facing the river, a new and highly gilt crucifix of colossal size has been erected at the expense of the mission, round which a number of monks and inhabitants were collected on their knees, the still evening increasing the effect of a solemn mass which they were singing, and in which we heard the name of st. paulus several times repeated. several nuns, belonging to an establishment lately revived, knelt on the steps of the cross, enveloped in their black hoods; and the prisoners at the palace window united their deep tones to the chant, pausing every now and then to solicit the charity of passers by. scattered at different distances from the cross, eight or ten separate groups of persons were kneeling farther off, in attitudes of the deepest devotional abstraction, though surrounded on all sides by sauntering soldiers, children playing, and groups of loungers laughing or whispering. the different distances at which they knelt were regulated, as we were told, by the degrees of penance imposed upon them, and the place which their respective consciences allowed them to assume. some, in the true spirit of the poor publican, were kneeling at a considerable distance, just within view of the cross, to which they hardly lifted their eyes; others, whose penance was originally lighter, or its term abridged by frequent visits to this place, had approached the cross more nearly, and with greater signs of satisfaction. i must confess, that we observed these poor penitents with an interest and attention which the other parts of the ceremony had failed to excite. the manifestation of a deep and genuine religious feeling is respectable in catholic, turk, or bramin, and seldom or never to be mistaken; and though attended by no circumstances of external pomp, must impress upon serious beholders of every creed a reverence which trappings and mummery fail to excite. it should seem indeed that providence, wishing gently to humble the pride of men, delights in producing by the simplest means those physical and moral effects, which they waste toil and expense in bringing about. the splendid procession, for instance, which takes place on the day of corpus christi at rome, with all its assemblage of monks, horse and foot guards, cardinals, choristers, and banners, would dwindle before the eye of reason into "shreds and patches, were it not for the figure of the truly venerable man who now fills the papal chair, kneeling with the same humility and abstraction from the busy scene around him, which marked the deportment of the penitents just mentioned. time, which decides all questions when they have ceased to be any longer interesting, will probably show whether the celebrated mission, which has excited such a sensation in many parts of france, be a mere political manoeuvre to strengthen the hands of government by calling in the aid of superstition, or (which is at least as probable) a sincere and well-meant attempt to awaken the forgotten spirit of religion. in the mean while, it is a desirable thing to have turned the attention of the french to a subject which, by all accounts, is become nearly obsolete among the higher orders of the nation. even with a view to the ascendancy which a more simple and purified religion may ultimately obtain under an improved and free constitution, it is better that a religious feeling of some sort should exist. the worst and most twisted crabstock, if alive, possesses an active principle, which allows of successful grafting; not so with a dead branch. i shall annex a statement of the proceedings of the mission at avignon, during the lent of 1819, copied and abridged from a short pamphlet, written by a m. fransoy, a lawyer of that city; which being published by a layman on the spot where the events in question recently took place, possesses the most probable claim to accuracy and impartiality. the writer begins by describing the demoralization and ignorance occasioned by the revolution, "which had completely realised," he observes, "in the kingdom of the lilies all the misfortunes foretold by the prophet jeremiah. the people of avignon, who had remained without instruction during this period of horror and barbarism, were soon infected with that gross ignorance which assimilates men to brutes: and in a short time this field of the lord, once so fertile, only produced brambles and thorns; the evil plants choked the good, and the tares every where devoured the corn. scarcely, however, was the catholic worship restored in france by the concordat, before religion shed among us some rays of its former light. dazzled by the majesty of religious ceremonies, the people were jealous to emerge from their revolutionary blindness. the dearth of ministers was the cause that instruction only distilled drop by drop upon this people famishing with want." the scanty manner in which this dearth had been occasionally supplied for some time, excited a longing to participate in the instructions of the new mission, which had already visited arles, valence, and tarascon, under the sanction of the state; and whose claims to religious authority the writer defends by precedents unnecessary to enumerate here. on the first sunday in lent, 1819, its proceedings were commenced at avignon, by a solemn procession, which made the circuit of the principal streets of the town, singing penitential psalms, and halted on the hill of notre dame; where an inaugural sermon was delivered on a spot called calvary, and supposed to represent that sacred place. the multitude, assembled by curiosity or a better feeling, was so great, that two of the missionaries found it expedient to address them at the same time from different stations. one of these was m. guyon, the director of the mission; of whose eloquence and animation, as a preacher, the author speaks highly. on the succeeding day, the nine ecclesiastics composing the mission attached themselves respectively to the different churches of the town, and called in the assistance of the neighbouring clergy, as confessors to those persons whom their discourses might affect most strongly. this step was rendered the more necessary, inasmuch as the common people of the vicinity understand french merely as the welsh do english, and converse only in their native provençal with any facility. if we may believe their zealous eulogist, the effects which the missionaries had anticipated immediately followed, and their utmost exertions, as well as those of their new associates, were taxed to satisfy the spiritual wants of the populace. "the avignonese," says the narrative, "hungered so after the word of god, that the gates of the churches were besieged from three hours before daybreak, by those who flocked to be present at the morning exhortation. the inhabitants of the country and the neighbouring communes walked during a part of the night, in order to secure seats; each anxiously sought to place his chair many hours beforehand, and caused it to be kept, in fear that another might deprive him of it; the churches were so full, that it was hardly possible to move in them. the eagerness to obtain room was so great, that indecorous and even scandalous scenes took place among the wives of the populace; they quarrelled for chairs and seats with a ferocity, _qui les mettoit souvent hors du cercle de la politesse civile et chretienne_." (perhaps, as a townsman, he is unwilling to be more particular). "more than twenty thousand individuals were assembled in the churches at every service; and a circumstance which proves how admirably each missionary and associate fulfilled his particular task is, that each parish gave the preference to the persons attached to it, and none allowed the superiority to its neighbouring quarter. like mothers, who can see nothing more perfect than the children to whom themselves have given birth, each parishioner acknowledged no better men than the missionaries appointed to his own church. mm. guyon, menoult, and bourgin, shone as much at st. agricol, as mm. ferrail and levasseur at st. pierre; and mm. gerard and rodet in the church of st. didier, as much as mm. fauvet and poncelet in that of st. symphorien." to the character of m. levasseur[32] the writer bears honourable testimony, as a young man who had devoted time, talents, and a liberal private fortune, to the cause; and whose exertions on this occasion impaired a naturally delicate constitution. "from four in the morning to eight or nine at night, their time," he says, "was for many days occupied in public or private instruction, and in visiting the hospitals and prisons; and forty missionaries would have been necessary to have completely accomplished what these nine took cheerfully upon them." [footnote 32: "ce vertueux jeune homme paroit dejà consommé dans l'art evangelique; ses instructions sont aussi sublimes qu'elles sont precises et pathetiques; il joint a ses grandes qualités un amour ardent pour les pauvres; il consomme annuellement les revenus d'un patrimoine majeur a de bonnes oeuvres dans les cours des missions. une foule de faits attestant ses liberalitês journalieres."--_fransoy's memoir_.] the effects of their preaching were manifested by the number of penitents who flocked to confession, which, during the second week of the mission, increased to such an extent as to render access difficult. the missionaries, unable to meet the wishes of all at once, gave an obvious preference, not to the more habitually devout, but to those classes of persons whose attendance was most unexpected. "dissipated young coxcombs, disabled soldiers, dragoon officers with fierce mustaches, and worldly-wise men with formal wigs," says our author, "met with attention and encouragement, to the exclusion of those whose habits of piety deserved it better." the apparent injustice of this procedure he excuses by the plea, "that it was necessary to quit the regular fold in order to recover these lost sheep"--that "the stouter and better worth catching the fish were, the more anxious should they be to secure them in the net of the prince of apostles." when separated from the figurative bombast by which a frenchman frequently obscures a sensible reason, this plea seems fair enough: provided that the motives of the missionaries were unmixed with spiritual vanity, and the pride of creating a strong sensation. it was no doubt most consonant to the purposes of a special mission like this, to accomplish that which was most difficult, and to make an impression, while the opportunity lasted, on a class of persons least accessible to the usual means of religious instruction. the example of such, if permanently reclaimed, would naturally be more striking than that of others, and influence public opinion more strongly, and this may furnish some excuse for a conduct which, in the ordinary course of things, would have been unjust and out of place. a large part of the tract is occupied by accounts of several solemn ceremonies which ensued, "for the purpose," says the author, "of striking the senses of the lower orders, who are not sufficiently affected by argument." these, as in the instance of the general communion, were rendered more imposing by the attendance of the civil and military authorities, and most persons of rank and wealth in the vicinity. nor did they degenerate into mere processions and pompous forms, if the narrative is to be trusted. the missionaries appear on every occasion to have availed themselves of the excitation of the moment, in calling forth such feelings as must be approved by christians of every country and persuasion, and which, among frenchmen, may not be the less sincere for being expressed somewhat extravagantly. in the account of the amende honorable, a solemn act of profession of repentance, the following passage occurs:--"he (the missionary) drew an affecting picture of our unhappy country, oppressed by the burden of impiety and anarchy. he rapidly enumerated the series of crimes produced by license and want of faith. he implored the pardon of the most holy god in the name of all; and he proclaimed in a loud tone of voice, mutual forgiveness between enemies. all his questions were interrupted by the tears and sobs of his audience. 'do you feel contrition and repentance,' said he, 'for your offences against god?'--'yes.' 'do you ask pardon sincerely?' the congregation again answered 'yes.' 'does every one of you individually pardon his neighbour all the injuries and offences which he may have received from him?'--'yes.' 'do you renounce all hatred, all enmity, all revenge?'--'yes.' 'do you promise god to live in future as becomes good christians, in a perfect union and concord among yourselves?'--'yes.' 'do you promise fidelity, respect, and love, to the monarch who governs france, to the princes of his blood, and his representatives, and submission to the laws?'--'yes.' the pen can but imperfectly describe the effect produced by these questions of the missionaries, and the answers of the congregation. no countenance but wore the expression of grief and repentance, no cheek but was wet with tears. the officiating priest who held the host in his hand, then pronounced in the name of the god of mercy, his holy pardon; the magnificat, the benedictus, and the te deum, were thundered forth; and the festival concluded with the benediction of the host. the innumerable crowd of individuals present, each holding a lighted taper, presented a magnificent spectacle." in describing the renewal of the baptismal vow, the next ceremony which took place, the author says,--"this act was held in so solemn a manner, that it will remain eternally engraved in the memory of the avignonese. a magnificent altar was displayed to the sight of the faithful: a great number of priests in their sacerdotal habits encircled this altar, which a thousand tapers and a thousand sacred objects rendered more dazzling, and the holy sacrament was majestically exposed on it. after the performance of the anthems appropriate to this august ceremony, the missionary delivered a discourse, as forcible as it was sublime, on the object of the festival, which produced the greatest impression on his congregation. the eternal book of the gospel was then held up to the people. they were summoned to swear to the observance of the precepts of the lord, contained in that book.--'we swear it,' answered the congregation. all their baptismal vows were in turn repeated, ratified, and confirmed by the congregation, with an effusion of tears which might have affected the hardest hearts. their cries, their tears, and their sobs, were more eloquent than the addresses of the missionaries. the minister in his chair seemed to receive the promises and the vows of his parishioners, as ezra formerly received those of the people of israel." after the consecration of the avignonese and their children to the service of the virgin mary and the general communion, which followed the ceremonies last described, the great cross, which now stands near the cathedral, was carried in procession to the place of its erection, on the 18th of april. so great a sensation had been excited by the expectation of this ceremony, and so anxious were all ranks to participate in it, that "the town," says the narrator, "swarmed like an ant-hill (fourmilloit) with strangers, the inns and private houses afforded no more room, and they who could find no quarters, covered the roads during the whole of the preceding night." the number of persons employed to assist in the procession amounted to twenty thousand, including the civil and military authorities, the monastic establishments, the neighbouring clergy, and a limited number of inhabitants from each parish. the cross, amounting in weight to three tons and a half, was supported on a frame constructed so as to admit one hundred and twenty bearers at once. these were relieved from station to station by detachments from all ranks and professions, selected from innumerable claimants, and amounting altogether to two thousand men. having thus traversed thirty principal streets, the inhabitants of which vied with each other in decorating their windows with garlands and tapestry, the cross was borne to the terrace on the roche don, and erected in sight of more than eighty thousand individuals, who crowded the hill above, the extensive space of ground adjoining, and the windows and roofs of the houses. "the whole discourse pronounced on the occasion," says the narrator, "was as affecting as it was energetic. the orator at length closed it, by exhorting his audience not to forget the cross and their religion. 'remember,' said he, 'that you are christians and frenchmen; fly to the foot of the cross as christians in all your misfortunes, and it will be your consolation; as frenchmen, you will there learn to be faithful to your country, and submissive to your king.--et d'un ton plein de franchise il s'ecria, vive la croix, vive la religion, vive la roi--l'auditoire repeta les mêmes mots avec la même enthousiasme, et y ajouta, 'vive les missionaries.'" on the 19th, the following day, a solemn service was performed for the dead in the cemetry of st. roch; and the mission was closed by sermons, exhorting the people to perseverance in the religious vows which they had voluntarily made. having thus performed their proposed duties, the missionaries prepared for a private departure. the affectionate zeal of the people, however, would not allow the execution of this plan; and numbers, consisting chiefly of the national guards, kept watch at the doors of their lodgings all night; and in the morning they were besieged by a crowd of persons desirous to take leave of them. at the special request of these visitors, among whom were some of the most distinguished inhabitants of avignon, they performed an additional service at the foot of the newly-erected cross, and were escorted out of the town amidst the acclamations of the multitude, who persisted in drawing their carnages a certain distance. many persons accompanied them on horseback and in coaches as far as orange. to the practical effects of the mission, the writer bears the following testimony.--"prudence restricts us from naming individuals; and yet we can vouch, that many husbands, separated from their wives and living in concubinage, have put away their mistresses and re-established their legitimate wives in their houses. after the revolutionary horrors which have afflicted our city, there existed inveterate hatreds and animosities, founded on real offences. well! union and concord have removed many of these intestine divisions, many deadly enmities have been laid at rest, many resentments have been stifled; great numbers of enemies have made the sacrifice of all their revengeful feelings. a citizen, round whose neck one of the revolutionary hangmen had actually fixed the noose for the fatal suspension, perceived his executioner in a state of penitence during the mission, and approaching the communion table--'i congratulate you,' said he, 'on your reformation, and i pardon your offences against me, as i would god may grant me his pardon and peace.' the porters of the rhone, who had been long at variance, have been many of them cordially reconciled: the invalids of the national guard have also mutually vowed a perpetual friendship." whatever the interests and prejudices of m. fransoy may be, it is improbable that he would have risked his professional and private reputation, by misrepresenting recent occurrences on the spot where they took place; and certainly his narrative places the mission in a new point of view, both as to its conduct, its reception, and its effects. it is, indeed, natural enough that such wits as do not affect either much knowledge or much interest on religious subjects, should indulge in desultory sarcasms (and the hermite en provence prudently does no more) on such instances of spiritual quixotism as may possibly have occurred. the absurd[33] choice of hymn tunes, the petulant zeal of one or two ecclesiastics, and the rueful countenances of some of the penitents, though they prove nothing as to the main question, present a ludicrous picture to the imagination, and have been made the most of by the fictitious correspondent of the hermite. it is also natural enough that the violent liberaux, who view with distrust every measure countenanced by government, should treat the mission as a mere engine of policy; that the avaricious should consider the donatives received on its behalf as squandered away; and that a large class of persons, who are inveterately sceptical as to their neighbour's good motives, and childishly credulous as to his bad ones, should pronounce it a mere manoeuvre of bigotry. the little tract in question, however, addressed to the experience of eye-witnesses of all that it describes, tells a different story, though its effect may be weakened by the ludicrous _naïveté_ of its style. it describes the missionaries as addressing themselves particularly to those who stood most in need of their instructions, and who were most likely to treat them with derision; as availing themselves of the favourable reception which they experienced from the avignonese, to preach the duties of forgiveness and reconciliation, both private and political, and to dwell on the practical and fundamental parts of christianity. [footnote 33: see the letter introduced in joüy's hermite en provence.] had they, indeed, in a public manner, denounced the vengeance of heaven against the murderers of the unfortunate brune, or pointedly rebuked the religious and political animosities subsisting in the south of france, they would have given a proof of their sincerity, but at the risk of much of that good which it was desirable to use their temporal influence in effecting. instead, therefore, of giving unnecessary offence, they laboured to eradicate from the minds of their hearers the seeds of hatred and uncharitableness, and to divert their attention from their private bickerings and dissensions, to the common guilt of all in the sight of heaven. the very object which, from all we learn respecting the state of feeling in languedoc and provence, appears particularly desirable, appears also to have been sought, not only by repeated and fervent exhortations, but by the exaction also of public vows and promises, so as to enlist the sense of shame as much as possible, in favour of the general forgiveness which the missionaries preached. their exertions also, always supposing the tract in question to be entitled to credit, were rewarded by the conduct of their penitents, some of whom put away their vices, and others their mutual animosities. if this be fanaticism, then it were to be wished that such fanaticism should prevail widely in the south of france. "out of the same mouth cannot proceed blessing and cursing;" and if the secret object of the mission be to denounce the disaffected, or preach crusades against protestants, it must be owned that their public labours at avignon savour but little of such a purpose, as far as all appearances go. there is, it is true, something extravagant and bordering on stage effect, in many of the ceremonies performed, and expressions used, as recorded by the pen of m. fransoy. an englishman, however, is not always a fair judge of the best means of influencing the mind of a frenchman, more particularly a south-eastern one. the provençaux possess, both in appearance and in character, the strong characteristics of a people born under a burning sun; at once lively and ferocious, strongly led away by the excitement of the moment, and ardent in their partialities and antipathies: in short, the same romance of character is perceptible among them, which, in the dark ages, peopled the country with troubadours. the mass of such a people, particularly when profoundly ignorant, may not be accessible to cool argument; and the manner and style of oratory which would disgust a reasoning scotch peasant, or english mechanic, may be exactly adapted to act on the temperament of an avignonese. the surest test, therefore, of the character and design of the mission, will be the practical effects which it produces on the conduct of its congregation, as well as the future application of those liberal donatives, which have excited so much unfavourable feeling against it. time and fair play alone can justify the motives of those who planned and conducted it. the question in the mean time is, not whether they may or may not have occasionally gone to the lengths of a "zeal without knowledge," but whether or not their purpose has been to instruct and benefit their fellow-countrymen according to the best of their power and belief, and without reference to political party. chap. viii. pont du gard--nismes--montpelier--cette. may 13.--this day was fixed on for a journey to vaucluse, the road to which is better adapted for the accommodation of two wheels than of four. m. durand, our voiturier, attended accordingly with one of his portly mares harnessed to a sort of cabriolet, very much resembling an irish noddy. its high boarded front reaching to our chins, and the little fat person of durand rather incommoded than accommodated on a cushion tied to the shaft, and much too near the mare on every account, formed a grotesque combination but little in character with what ought to have been a voyage of sentiment. the deficiency in pathos, however, was made up by the poor mare, who bewailed her absent companion with such incessant roarings, as to draw many cuts of the whip, and "sacra carognas," from the unrelenting durand. we were struck, by-the-by, more than once during this day's route, by the spanish and italian terminations of the provençal patois. a village which we passed, on an insulated height commanding the road, and crowned by ruined fortifications, is laid down as château neuf in the map, and called by the peasants castel novo. a man of whom we inquired the distance to avignon, answered "tres horas," using not only the words, but the method of computation which a spaniard would employ. whether we really reached our place of destination, or were stopped short by intense heat and execrable roads, were interested, or overturned, this deponent saith not, nor indeed is it necessary. one may be pardoned for omitting the mention of a subject already so fully described as vaucluse, its rocks and fountain, its associations, and even its eatables; for some travellers have dwelt on the subject of its excellent bisque, or crayfish soup, and its eels, a solace, no doubt, to[34] that gentle degree of melancholy, which fielding affirms to be a whet to the appetite. [footnote 34: "and do not forget the toasted cheese." vide _matilda pottingen_ in "the rovers."] "and, says the anatomic art, the stomach's very near the heart;" as peter pindar also maintains. some also, with an accuracy worthy moubrays treatise on domestic fowls, have informed us that the hens near the fountain of vaucluse are peculiarly prolific in fine eggs, and so on. for my own part, i may as well honestly confess that i am more partial to the memory of petrarch as a philosopher, a patriot, and reviver of ancient learning, than as the werter of troubadours, though in the latter capacity he has stood unrivalled for five hundred years. i must own, also, that the hermitage whither he retired to stifle his rebellious passion for the wife of another, however melancholy and impressive the ideas may be which it would of itself excite, is poisoned, in my mind, by the pestilent frivolities with which the mawkish of all ages have defaced its sombre features, in violation of truth and sound feeling. what syllables of dolour the forgotten della-cruscan school may have yelled out on the subject, is not worth ascertaining, and probably recollected by few or none. the french, who with all their ingenuity, are not very apt at comprehending the madness of contemplative minds, have caricatured the shade of poor petrarch most woefully, and[35] the abbé delille (peace to his ashes!) has teazed the innocent trees of vaucluse with embarrassing questions, fitter for the mouths of susanna's elders. under such blighting influence, the stern rocks of vaucluse are transformed into a sentimental tea-garden, the high-minded and melancholy petrarch into a more ingenious piercie shafton, and the virtuous laura, who probably never saw the place, into a starched gloriana of the old school, paraded and gallanted round it with all due form. it is, perhaps, a judgment on petrarch's adulterous platonism, that it has laid him open to impertinences like these, which would torture his sensitive ghost almost as keenly as oblivion itself, and which very strongly remind one of punch's intrusion at a tragedy. such ideas cannot be engrafted on the [36]nonwenwerder, or the [36]pena de los enamorados, spots on which a simple and obscure legend has thrown an interest which vaucluse cannot really possess, though embellished by every thing which poetry can do for it. [footnote 35: see the quarterly review, to which i am obliged for the abbé's remark.] [footnote 36: see campbell's ballad of "the brave roland," in one of the numbers of the new monthly magazine; and southey's tale of manuel and leila, in his early productions.] it were to be wished, that the shade of petrarch could return to his former haunts, to frighten away frivolous visitors, and read a lesson to the thinking. instead of rejoicing at the posthumous fame which his poetical talents have earned, he would probably dwell on the insufficiency of the highest mental endowments without conduct and self-command. he would also probably describe his passion as fostered by the pedantic and high-flown gallantry of the age, and the applauses bestowed on his verses; as increasing and strengthening, after the marriage of laura had rendered it criminal, without any purpose which his better conscience dared avow, till his eyes at length opened themselves too late to its culpable nature. his mind, of that high-wrought and desponding tone which often characterizes extraordinary genius, and too sincere to trifle with impunity, struggled then fruitlessly against a fatality formerly imagined, but become real; and the flower of his life was passed amid illusions and conflicts, in alternate self-deception and self-reproach, in wild and beautiful visions from which he awoke to sickness of heart and weariness of himself and all things, like the victim of a powerful opiate. compromising weakly between his passion and his conscience, he would say, he secluded himself at vaucluse from a society which had become dangerous to him, and by the verses which he composed as a vent to his feelings, fixed the illusion too deep to be eradicated by lapse of time, or the indifference of laura. such voluntary mental martyrdom resembles the punishment inflicted by some tyrant of history on his prisoners, whom he commanded to embrace his apega, a beautiful automaton so constructed as to plunge a concealed dagger into their hearts. the better feelings of petrarch's readers will dwell with the least alloy on the period after the death of laura, when he contemplated her as beyond the reach of human ties, affections, or jealousies, and sought only to rescue from oblivion the virtues and purity which had strengthened and refined his passion, while they rendered it hopeless. there is a beautiful passage in campbell which appears exactly written to express his state of mind at this time, and the retrospective glance which he must have often cast on his past life. "and yet, methinks, when wisdom shall assuage the griefs and passions of our greener age, though dull the close of life, and far away, each flower that hailed the dawning of our day, yet o'er her lovely hopes that once were dear, the time-taught spirit, pensive, not severe, with milder griefs her aged eye shall fill, and weep their falsehood, though she love them still!" the private memorandum,[37] written in the manuscript virgil, of this extraordinary man, which is shown in the ambrosian library at milan, may be considered as expressing his most undisguised feelings, as excited by an event which dissolves trifling attachments, while it gives permanence to those of a genuine nature. it was probably intended for no eye but his own. i annex as literal a translation as possible, and from the beauty and ease of their latinity, have been tempted to precede it with the original words. [footnote 37: i had procured this document from milan, and translated it for the press, previous to reading the version of it which is given in the quarterly.] "laura, propriis virtutibus illustris, et meis longum celebrata carminibus, primum oculis meis apparuit sub primum adolescentiæ meæ tempus, anno domini 1327, die 6 mensis aprilis, in ecclesiâ sanctæ claræ avinioni, horâ matutinâ. et in eâdem civitate, eodem mense aprilis, eodem die 6, eâdem horâ primâ, anno autem domini 1348, ab hac luce lux illa subtracta est, cum ego forte veronæ essem, heu fati mei nescius! rumor autem infelix, per literas ludovici mei, me parmæ reperit, anno eodem, mense maii, die mane. "corpus illud castissimum ac pulcherrimum in loco fratrum minorum repositum est ipsâ die mortis ad vesperam. animam quidem ejus, ut de africano ait seneca, in coelum, unde erat, rediisse, mihi persuadeo. "hæc autem, ad acerbam rei memoriam, amarâ quâdam dulcedine scribere visum est; hoc potissimum loco, qui sæpe sub oculis meis redit, ut cogitem nihil esse debere quod amplius mihi placeat in hac vitâ, et effracto majori laqueo, tempus esse de babylone fugiendi, crebrâ horum inspectione, ac fugacissimæ ætatis æstimatione, commonear. quod, præviâ dei gratiâ, facile erit, præteriti temporis curas supervacuas, spes inanes, et inexpectatos exitus acriter ac viriliter cogitanti." "laura, illustrious for her own virtues, and long celebrated by my verses, first appeared to my eyes, in the time of my early youth, on the morning of the sixth day of april, in the year of our lord 1327, in the church of st. clare at avignon; and in the same month of april, on the same first hour of the morning, in the year of our lord 1348, that light was removed from this light of day, while i by chance was at verona, unconscious, alas! of my fate. the unhappy news, however, reached me at parma, in a letter from my friend ludovico, on the morning of the 19th of may. "her most chaste and fair body was buried in the evening of the day of her death, in the convent of the fratres minores; but her soul, as seneca saith of the soul of africanus, hath returned, i am persuaded, to the heaven from whence it came. "i have felt a kind of bitter pleasure in writing the memorial of this mournful event, the rather in this place, which so often meets my eyes, to the end that i may consider there is nothing left which ought to delight me in this world; and that i may be reminded by the frequent sight of these words, and the due appreciation of this fleeting life, that my principal tie to the world being broken, it is time for me to fly from this babylon; which, through the preventing grace of god, will be an easy task, when i reflect deeply and manfully on the superfluous cares, the vain hopes, and the unlooked for events of the time past." this simple and affecting tribute, written, as it evidently seems, under such solemn impressions, clears the memory of laura from the imputation of any thing trifling or criminal, while it sufficiently establishes the identity of "a nymph," according to gibbon, "so shadowy, that her existence has been questioned." may 14.--we left avignon this morning, with a more favourable impression of its cleanliness and comfort than any other town had as yet left on our minds. the road to nismes, winding up a hill on the opposite side of the river, above fort villeneuve, is remarkably adapted also to display its numerous spires, and the grand gothic mass of the legate's palace, to the utmost advantage: and we watched with something like regret the disappearance of these objects over the brow of the hill which we had ascended, more especially as on this spot the eye takes leave, for some time, of every thing agreeable. the view here consists of a high dull flat, with hardly a tree, and the road of rolling stones and dust; and a high wind prevailed, which seemed a combination of the bise and mistral, aided by all the bottled stores of a lapland witch, and very nearly blew poor durand off his box. after passing fouzay and demazan, two little villages, adorned each à la provençale, with a ruined castle, we turned out of the road to nismes at remoulin, where the features of the country somewhat improve. another mile and a half brought us to an indifferent inn within a ten minutes' walk of the pont du gard. it is adapted for nothing more than a baiting-place for a few hours, and not at all of that description which so well-known a ruin would be in most cases capable of maintaining. the landlord, however, "a sallow, sublime sort of werter-faced man," was civil, and inclined to do his best, and gathered us some double yellow roses, of a sort we had never seen before, to season his bad fare. the pont du gard, which we were not long in visiting, is seen to the greatest advantage on the side on which we approached it from the inn. the deep mountain glen, inhabited only by goats, whose entrance it crosses from cliff to cliff, forms a striking back-ground, and serves as a measure to the height of the colossal arches which appear to grow naturally, as it were, out of the gray rocks on which they rest.[38] there is certainly something more poetical in the stern and simple style of architecture of which this noble aqueduct is a specimen, than in the more florid and graceful school of art. the latter speaks more to the eye, but the former to the mind, possessing a superiority analogous to that which the great style of painting (as it is termed) boasts over the florid and ornamental venetian school. our own stonehenge is too much, perhaps, in the rude extreme of this branch of architecture to be quoted as a favourable instance of it; but few persons can come suddenly in sight of stonehenge on a misty day without being struck by its peculiar effect; and the pont du gard, placed in as lonely a situation, exhibits materials almost as gigantic in detail, and knit into a towering mass which seems to require no less force than an earthquake, or a battery of cannon, to change the position of a single stone. a large and solid bridge which has been built against it by the states of languedoc, appears by comparison to shrink into insignificance, and shelter itself behind the old roman arches, the lower tier of which, eleven in number, overtop it in height by about three-fifths. the span of the largest arch is about 78 feet; of the other ten, 66 each: and they are surmounted by a row of thirty-five smaller arches. with the exception of two or three of these last, the whole fabric is complete, and, if unmolested, appears likely to witness more changes of language and dynasty than it has already done. i do not know that the mind is ever more impressed with the idea of roman power and greatness, than by contemplating such structures as these, erected for subordinate purposes at a distance from the main seat of empire. it is like discovering a broken hand or foot of the colossus of rhodes, and estimating in imagination the height and bulk of the whole statue from the size of its enormous extremities. [footnote 38: vide cooke's views.] from the pont du gard the road to nismes has little to recommend it excepting the high state of cultivation of the country, and this is not of a nature to gratify an eye accustomed to english verdure. olive-groves, it is true, have been naturalized in poetry as conveying an image of beauty and freshness; but in reality nothing can be more opposed to the oaks and elms of an english hedge-row, than the pale shining gray of this stunted tree, which has more of a metallic than a vegetable appearance. nor does a perpetual succession of corn-fields, however rich in reality, present the same appearance of luxuriant vegetation as an english pasture. there is, besides, nothing in the nearer approach to nismes, which reminds one of the environs of an opulent commercial town, and its precincts would cut a poor figure when compared with those of leeds or bristol. the transition is immediate, from a dull range of corn-fields, without a gentleman's house, to a long dirty suburb. on emerging, however, from the latter into the better and more central part of the town, one is surprised to find wide and elegant streets well watered and planted, and public buildings, whose beauty and good taste show that the citizens of nismes have made a good use of the fine architectural models afforded by the ancient nemausis. the palais de justice deserves to be particularly remarked for its classical elegance, and contrasts well with the black solid arches of the arenes, near which it is placed. "_monsieour!_ les antiquités!--_heou! monsieour!_ les arenes!--commissionaire pour voir la maison carrée!--_heou--ou! monsieour!_ decrotteur, s'il vous plait!--le temple de diane, _monsieour!_" are the cries with which every third or fourth ragamuffin at nismes salutes you, enforcing his application by a peculiar yell, of which no combination of letters can give an idea uncouth enough. as it is hardly possible to walk in the central part of nismes without seeing its antiquities before you, it is best to avoid a troublesome live appendage of this sort, by appearing totally deaf. the arenes are nearly in front of the hôtel du louvre, and the maison carrée is within two or three minutes' walk of it: the temple of diana and the baths are situated in the most conspicuous spot in the public gardens, whither a perpetual concourse of people may be seen thronging; and the pharos overlooks them from the summit of a small precipitous hill, which may be ascended in five minutes by a good walker. every thing therefore lies within the compass of an evening's stroll. the maison carrée is a beautiful bijou, better known than any other of the curiosities of nismes. i believe the opinion of mons. seguier (formed from a laborious examination of the nail-holes belonging to its last bronze inscription) is generally adopted; viz. that it was a temple dedicated to caius and lucius cæsar, grandsons of augustus. a perfect copy of it, built from actual measurement, may be found in the temple of victory and concord, in the duke of buckingham's gardens at stowe. so admirable is the preservation of the original in every part, owing to the dry and pure air of languedoc, as almost to operate as a disadvantage. its freshness and compactness suggest rather too much the idea of a modern pavilion of twenty or thirty years standing, instead of that of a temple; and if i may venture to say so, the same want of the ærugo of age, which renders it more valuable as an architectural relic, produces an incongruous and unpoetical effect on the imagination. age, in fact, has its own characteristic branch of beauty. an old man with curly hair and a fresh smooth complexion, like godwin's struldbrugg, st. leon, would be an unpleasant and unnatural object. there is a masculine and imposing medium between youthful vigour and decay, in which the leading features of the former man may be distinctly traced; as in wordsworth's beautiful description of the old knight of rylstone, and sir walter scott's fine portraiture of archibald bell-the-cat: and i think the analogy holds good in classical remains. somewhat should be decayed for effect's sake; and those parts only left which are strikingly beautiful, or of a leading and important nature. the arena, which we next visited, is perhaps more consonant to this standard than the maison carrée. its structure is similar to that of the colosseum at rome, of which, however, it falls infinitely short in size and grandeur, while at the same time it so far exceeds it in perfectness, as to give a complete idea to an inexperienced eye of its original figure and arrangement, and of the admirable system of accommodation which such places possessed. it has just enough of the graceful decay of age to render it picturesque, and enough of freshness to answer the questions of the antiquarian: and neither too much nor too little is left to the imagination. mr. albanis beaumont, in his work on the maritime alps, calculates the number of persons which this building must have held at 16,599, and the spectators in the colosseum at 34,000. he also states the widest interior circumference of the arena, as 1110-1/2 feet. the plate engraved in his work, dated 1795, represents two square towers over the principal entrance, erected perhaps by charles martel, when he converted the building into a citadel; they have however been since destroyed, and the work of clearing away the houses which defaced both its inside and outside, commenced originally by louis xvi., has been completed. it now stands in a broad open space, adapted to set off its full height and proportions. the public garden also presents a well-arranged group of interesting objects; but to behold them to any advantage, it is necessary to turn your back upon a pert little café, roofed with party-coloured tiles like the scales of a fancy fish, which glares from under the shade of the trees. from hence you look over a handsome balustrade into a large excavated space adorned with stone steps, which collects the waters of a fine fountain, and in which the foundations of the ancient baths are still visible. on the summit of the opposite cliff, from whence these waters issue, the ruined pharos, which forms the principal landmark of nismes, rises with great majesty, and at its foot, immediately to the left of the fountain, the ruined temple of diana, though not individually striking, combines admirably with the general group. from the fountain arises a beautifully clear stream, which is distributed in wide and deep stone channels through some of the principal streets at nismes, and greatly contributes to the ornament and cleanliness of the town. the pharos, or tour magne, to which i scrambled from the baths, fully answers to its distant appearance. there is a peculiar dignity and solidity in a figure approaching to the pyramidical, when placed on the top of a rock; and independent of its height, which is between eighty and ninety feet, the pharos has this recommendation also. its interior appears a curious work of masonry. a high wide conical vault, without pillar or buttress, constitutes almost the whole internal space, admitting just light sufficient to render "the darkness visible," and give additional solemnity to a mere shell of brickwork. we found the hôtel du louvre (to which we had been recommended in preference to the hermite's inn, the hôtel du luxembourg) excellent in every respect. the two hotels adjoin one another so closely, be it observed, and are so similar in appearance, that one may walk into the wrong salle-à-manger, and only discover the mistake through the difference of the waiter's faces. may 15.--seventeen miles to new lunel, where we breakfasted indifferently enough, not liking french customs sufficiently to qualify the bad coffee with a glass of the brandy of this place, which is as celebrated as its wine. new lunel, which has grown on the back of the old town, in consequence of a branch of the languedoc canal which runs close to it, is a neat and thriving place, but possesses no feature worthy of remark. the country is of the same character as the town, a dull rich flat, over which one may sleep with the soothing consciousness that every thing is going on well with its trade and agriculture. to montpelier eighteen miles. within the last league or two, the country begins rather to improve, and rise into somewhat of an undulating form; but no romantic or interesting feature marks the approach to this celebrated town. "how i envy you the sight of that delightful montpelier, of which one reads and hears so much!" exclaims many an untravelled lady, no doubt, to her travelled brother or cousin. no place certainly sounds more familiarly in the ear as a novel-scene; and its very name is associated with ideas of beauty, verdure, retirement, orange groves, hanging woods, and all the et ceteras of a spot. "where simply to feel that we breathe, that we live, is worth the best joy that life elsewhere can give." the truth is, that the montpelier of the imagination may be found at vico, sorrento, massa di carrara; or, with a little alteration, in some spots of our own devonshire coast. the real montpelier is a large, opulent, well-frequented provincial capital, full of noise and dress, and possessing an air of neatness and fashion, but totally devoid of any thing allied to the poetry of nature. it stands on a round sweeping hill, commanding a considerable extent of land and sea; but the sea-coast is chiefly an expanse of low ground and etangs, or salt-water lakes; and the neighbouring hill country, resembling in form a succession of cultivated downs, has neither height nor variety to recommend it. the most interesting spot in montpelier is the place peyrou, a public garden raised on high terraces, in a situation commanding the rest of the town. at the extremity of the principal walk stands an elegant open building of the grecian order, overarching a basin into which the waters of the celebrated aqueduct of montpelier are received, and from thence distributed through the town. the aqueduct itself, which springs from the foot of this pavilion, and conveys the water from the crest of an opposite hill, is a truly noble work, and, though modern, worthy in every respect of a roman ædile. it was erected by the states of languedoc in honour of louis xiv. whose statue is placed in the garden. like the pont du gard, it consists of two tiers of arches, fifty of which we counted in the lower range, and one hundred and fifty in the upper, until the lessening perspective baffled all farther attempts at reckoning. the architecture is inferior in dignity and massiveness to that of the roman work, but exceeds it in extent, and probably in the quantity of masonry employed. nothing can be more elegant than its general form, and the manner in which it is united to the terrace of the place peyrou. whatever natural objects are interesting in the environs, may be seen also from this elevated spot, though i am inclined to think that the views of distant pyrenees which we were taught to expect, are a fiction existing in the minds of some travellers. at all events, the glimpses must be partial, and only to be obtained on a fine day. the cevennes mountains rise, however, to a tolerable height in the distance to the west; and to the south-east, the remains of the old town and cathedral of maguelone, form a striking distant group, projecting like a low reef of rocks into the sea at the distance of three or four miles. to judge from the site of this ancient town, which tradition describes as the original nucleus of montpelier, the sea must have made great inroads on the neighbouring coast. the air, it is said, is growing less wholesome than formerly, owing probably to the accumulation of the etangs. from the edge of the coast to maguelone, the distance cannot be much less than a mile and a half at low water. the montpelliards are considered a scientific people; and, at all events, they seem to have found out the secret of perpetual motion, if we may judge from the experience of the first night we spent in the town. at half past nine, the principal street, which our hotel overlooked, began to swarm with heads. the whole population were on the alert, promenading during the greater part of the night; and such a busy hum arose from beneath the windows, which the heat obliged us to keep open, that it was impossible even to think of sleeping till daybreak. our accommodations indeed were not of the most tempting sort; for finding the hôtel du midi full of travellers, and consequently saucy and unaccommodating, we had tried the cheval blanc, described to us as the next best hotel; and detestable enough we found it. on stepping however next morning into a café and restaurant in the place de comedie, whose superior appearance had attracted us, we found that m. pical, the master of it, was in the habit of letting rooms, and we immediately removed to his house. nothing indeed could be more clean and elegant than its accommodations, or more refreshing after the dusty journey of the former day, and the nightly bustle of the streets, than its quiet and coolness, situated as it is in a large area in the suburbs or boulevards. the salle-à-manger partakes of the same character with the rest of the house, and the carte contains a list of many more good things than we were inclined to do justice to. in short, no traveller can do better than order himself to be driven directly to this house, which comprises all the advantages of a private residence at a reasonable charge, with the recommendations of great attention and civility. this day, may 16, we attended service at the french protestant church, and were gratified both with spending a morning on the shores of the mediterranean in a manner which reminded us of an english sunday, and witnessing also the full and respectable attendance of fellow protestants. the service was performed in the following order:--1, a psalm; 2, a general confession of sins; 3, another psalm; 4, a sermon; 5, the commandments and the creed; 6, a long prayer for the sick and distressed, the king and the royal family; 7, another psalm, and the blessing. the singing was impressive, not so much from any intrinsic merit in the performance, as the earnestness in which the whole congregation joined in it, "singing praises lustily with a good courage," instead of deputing this branch of religious duty to half a dozen yawning and jangling charity children, assisted by the clerk and parish tailor. i believe it is an observation of dr. burney, in his history of handel's commemoration, that no sound proceeding from a great multitude can be discordant. in the present instance, certainly, the separate voices qualified and softened down each other, so as to produce a good compound. of the sermon i cannot speak so favourably, for in truth it savoured somewhat of the conventicle style. its theme was chiefly the raptures which persons experience under the influence of the holy spirit, and it was calculated to discourage all whose imaginations were not strong enough to assist in working them into this state. the manner of the preacher was however good, and his delivery fluent; and so great was the attention of the congregation, that during three quarters of an hour not a sound interrupted his voice, until, on his pausing to use his handkerchief, a general chorus of twanging noses took place, giving a ludicrous effect to what was, in fact, a mark of restraint and attention. in the evening we departed for cette. the road, according to the set phrase of the french itineraire, is through a "campagne de plus agréables;" but our observation showed us only a bleak high common to the right, and to the left a succession of etangs and sandy flats, affording a prospect at once desolate and uninteresting. the space between the etangs and the road is generally marshy; and instead of a fine blue expanse of sea in motion, the horizon is commonly bounded by a long white sandy line, over which the sails of the little vessels appear very oddly. one or two houses erected on these ridges, which border the etangs, give to the view, if possible, a still more desolate appearance, being totally unaccompanied by even a tree or a patch of verdure, and only serve to remind you of the nakedness of the land. near frontignan the prospect improves, as far merely as concerns its fertility; for it is in the vicinity of this town that the famous frontignac wine, or to denominate it more correctly, the muscat de frontignan, is made. the only thing during this evening's route which could be considered as a feature, was the lofty cape at whose foot cette stands; a perfect idea of which, from the side on which we approached it, is given by vernet's picture of that port, in the louvre. a bridge of fifty-one arches, traversing a series of swampy ground and etangs, connects this promontory with terra-firma, and crosses the great languedoc canal, which communicates at this spot with the sea. a beautiful sunset, which made the whole expanse of back-water appear of a rose-colour, and which, i confess, i have seldom seen equalled in england, gave as much richness to the view as it was capable of receiving. there is naturally but little in it; and the effect of vernet's view is derived from accidental circumstances purposely introduced; so that, on the whole, we wished that our evening's excursion had been confined to the place peyrou. i should, however, conceive the air of cette to be much better adapted to tender lungs than that of montpelier, as well from the difference of temperature, perceptible even to a person in sound health, as from the superior shelter which its situation affords; while the high and exposed site of montpelier leaves a doubt whether, in most cases it would not be more hurtful than salutary. the productions of the neighbourhood of cette are also in a more forward condition than those of montpelier. we saw hedges of arbor vitæ in full flower; and peaches two-thirds grown, in almost a wild state. may 17.--we rose at five in the morning, desirous to secure a cool walk to the tour des pilotes, a signal post on the high cape above cette. the sun was however prepared for us, and continued to grill us alive from the first moment; and, after all, the prospect from this station, to which you climb as if ascending the steep roof of a house, is not of a nature to repay the exertion. we went to satisfy our consciences that there was nothing to see, and we saw nothing. the pyrenees, so far from being visible near montpelier, cannot be distinguished even from this nearer point, excepting, perhaps, on a peculiarly clear day; and no other feature worth mentioning occurs. the coast presents a bare and uninhabited appearance, arising partly from the almost total want of trees. our perquisitions in the town of cette itself were more fortunate, though, by-the-by, it exceeds lyons itself in dirt and ill smells. it is a place of considerable trade in proportion to its size, and is employed chiefly as an entrepôt for goods, which may be landed and reshipped without paying duty: and a walk on the quay affords, in consequence, considerable varieties of the human face divine, neat as imported. i recognised a group of catalan sailors by their brown jackets embroidered with shreds of gaudy cloth, their red night-caps, and the redicillas in which their hair was bagged. no race of men with whom i am at all acquainted bear so marked a character of animation and decision in every movement of ordinary life as these sturdy provincials, or would be more remarked by a stranger among a mixed concourse of different nations. the same exuberance of animal motion which degenerates into restlessness and buffoonery in the neapolitan, or the native of languedoc, assumes a more dignified character in the catalan, who is certainly a gentleman of nature's own making. one of the crew, a tall athletic fellow, was holding forth to the rest on some trivial matter with a varied and graceful action, which might have served as a model to a painter. the rest were at breakfast; but even their mode of pouring the wine on their tongues at arm's length, from the long spout of a sort of glass kettle, had somewhat classical in it, and reminded me of the recumbent figure in the herculanean painting, who is drinking in the same manner. simple as it may appear, this knack is not to be acquired without a long apprenticeship, and i was ludicrously reminded of my abortive efforts to master it by the sight of the party on the quay. it certainly is adapted for making the most of any liquid, and might have been adopted during such a scarcity of water as the hanoverian consul informed us existed in cette during the former year. not a drop of rain fell for ten months, and water at last became dearer than wine. on crossing the bridge, we observed a man on one of the piers, spearing aiguilles de mer, a beautiful silvery fish, of which he had taken several. they were about two feet long, and of the shape of an eel, excepting in the form of their long picked heads and jaws, which correspond exactly with their name. the tunny is also caught in abundance near this part of the coast; and vernet has introduced the fishery, from a lack of picturesque circumstances, into one of his sea-ports, painted by royal order. no other fish can better deserve this particular compliment, uniting, as it does, size, flavour, and the merits of both fish and flesh in a great degree. the "thon mariné" is its plainest and best preparation, and is preferable, with a dish of salad, to all the high-seasoned dishes which form a provençal bill of fare; in short, if our national sirloin obtained knighthood, such a good lenten substitute as the tunny deserves canonization.[39] i cannot say so much for the dish, common enough among frenchmen, which a well-dressed man, the harlequin to a troop of comedians, was eating in the salle-à-manger when we entered; viz. a raw artichoke with oil and vinegar. sterne, it appears, little knew the extent of the ass's good taste, when he deprived him of this article in the tabella cibaria, "to see how he would eat a macaroon." [footnote 39: a similar dignity was conferred by some heathen poet, i believe, on the _potnia sykê_ (the august, or god-like fig).] we set off at two o'clock in the day on our return to montpelier, not a little envying the horses and mules their cool quarters in the immense remise. within a mile of cette lies the breakwater of rough stones, which forms a prominent object in the foreground of vernet's picture, and serves to ascertain the spot from whence he took his design. at villeneuve, where we stopped to bait the horses, we were diverted by a scene characteristic of the country. a bag had just been found on the road by the conductor of the cette diligence, which drove up to the inn while we were there; and on durand disowning it, a shabby-looking foot passenger claimed it, but could not establish his plea by identifying a single article. in a few seconds every soul in the inn, excepting ourselves, was assembled to take part in the discussion, and argued the pro and con with a vehemence of voice and action, which would have made a stranger believe it was a matter of life and death to each. a female inside-passenger, with an infant in her arms, which she nearly let drop in her energies, was the coryphée of this chorus of tongues, which could be compared to nothing but bees in the act of swarming, or the cackle which the entrance of a fox causes in a hen-roost. we were no longer surprised at hearing the peasants whom we met conversing in a tone which we had mistaken for quarrelling. the french generally, indeed, are fond of noise and action and emphasis about what does not concern their own interests a jot, while a london mob indulges an equal degree of curiosity by silent gaping; but these good folks certainly outdid anything i ever witnessed in france before. an action for defamation brought in languedoc[40] might, with propriety, be worded, "that the defendant did, with four-and-twenty mouths, four-and-twenty tongues, and four-and-twenty pair of lungs, vilify and damnify his neighbour's reputation;" for it is probable that a scolding match could not take place in the open air of that country, without enlisting volunteer seconds to that amount on both sides, all equally bawling and violent. at nismes, a fellow bellows across the street to offer himself as cicerone, in a tone which seems intended to warn you of a mad dog at your heels; and, in general, the lungs of languedoc appear constructed on a larger and more discordant scale than is usual, and their volubility is rather a contradiction to the yea and nay appellation of the country. a respectable frenchman informed us, that the peasants of languedoc were considered to possess much wit and ingenuity by those who could understand their patois, which he frankly owned was unintelligible to himself. their liveliness and animal exuberance are as strong a contrast to the immoveable form into which they are swathed when infants, as the flutter of a butterfly is to its torpidity as a chrysalis; indeed a fanciful person might be apt to suppose, that on emerging from their bandages, they indemnify themselves for the previous constraint by a life of perpetual fidget, and that the same re-action takes place as in the case of munchausen's horn, which played for half an hour of its own accord when unfrozen. to speak seriously, nothing can be more piteously ridiculous than the state of a poor languedoc child, swathed and bandaged into all the rigidity of a mummy, and totally motionless. our friend h. declares, that his attention was once drawn behind a door by a faint cry, and that he there discovered and took down one of these little teraphims from the hook by which it hung suspended by a loop, like a young american savage. "c'est la mode du pays," is the only account of the practice which you get either here or at nice; and it is fortunate that they have not still improved on it by a hint from the black nurses of barbadoes, who embalm weakly young creoles in wrappers lined with assa-foetida, and think it prejudicial to "burst their cerements" more than once in a fortnight. [footnote 40: the word oc, according to tradition, meant in the old patois of the country "yes:" hence the original derivation of "langue d'oc."] after our horses had eaten a pound of honey with their corn, which honest durand considered a powerful cordial, we resumed our route, and reached montpelier to a late dinner, enjoying in no small degree the coolness and quiet of pical's house. it was indeed the love of quiet, and the dislike to a constant ferment, which drove our landlord from nismes to settle in this place. the bigotry and party zeal of the former town, in truth, appear to have been hardly exaggerated in the accounts which have reached england, and to exist in such a degree as to render nismes an unsafe place for a moderate man, who is owned by neither party. the spirit of discord and enmity is instilled by the more violent of both parties into their children as a duty, so that it will probably descend from generation to generation. both parties, indeed, might adopt as a crest and motto a boot-maker's sign in montpelier, which is somewhat diverting from its bombast, when merely applied as honest crispin meant it. a lion is represented tearing a boot, with the inscription, "tu peux me dechirer, mais jamais me decoudre." construe it, "you may cut my throat, but not alter me," and it will show the pleasant state of party spirit at nismes, if what we heard so near the scene of action be true. we returned to nismes on the 18th with associations not so pleasant as had been created by its beautiful walks and buildings, and the civility with which our questions were answered by the inhabitants. we might have seen the country between montpelier and nismes to greater advantage, the dust being somewhat less stifling than before; but unluckily there was nothing worth seeing. the district is certainly a garden, but then it is a flat uninteresting kitchen garden, for the supply of the lunel brandy merchants, and the rich nismes manufacturers, who appear too polite in their tastes to venture into it. hardly a single thing that can be called a gentleman's house occurs, and that not for want of culture or opulence. the case seems to be this; the people of nismes, like the bordelais, are proud of their elegant and airy city, embellished with classical relics, and uniting most of the advantages of town and country, and are well satisfied without the campagne which a rich lyonnais, carrying on his business in a close town, considers as his paradise. although this system of "rus in urbe" gives but a mean and poor appearance to the environs of a town, it produces much pleasure and convenience to such resident strangers as can enjoy the society of nismes, which, by all accounts, must somewhat resemble sleeping in exeter 'change, the keepers, in the shape of a strong preventive force of military, on the alert, it is true, and the bars are well secured, but the beasts only watch their opportunity to tear each other to pieces. how an englishman would fare in a public disturbance is difficult to say. it is probable that the catholics would abominate him as a heretic, and the protestants denounce him as an anti-buonapartist, and that he would consequently be thrust from the one to the other, like a new comer between two roguish school-boys. this, however, was no concern of ours, as we left nismes the next morning on the road to beaucaire. the old pharos was the last landmark we took leave of, as it was the first of which we caught sight. it contrasts with the maison carrée as a wild legend of the dark ages would with a letter of pliny; and though rough in its fabric, and uncertain in its history, dwells as strongly on the recollection as that highly-finished gem. "the tower by war or tempest bent, while yet may frown one battlement, demands and daunts the stranger's eye, each ivied arch and pillar lone pleads haughtily for glories gone!" chap. ix. tarascon--beaucaire--st. remy--orgon--lambesc. to tarascon 19 miles of road for the most part bad and sandy. i am not geologist enough to decide with accuracy on the formation of that part of the banks of the rhone which we were approaching, but the detached specimens of rock are of a curious nature. after passing a little village called st. vincent, we came to an open plain, bounded in front by several singular round hills on the summit of one of which, called the roche duclay, was a rock so exactly resembling an old castle in size and shape, that a nearer inspection alone satisfied us as to its real nature. there is also a great singularity of outline in the hills which became soon visible in the distance on the other side of the rhone, one or two of which appeared as if they had shells upon their backs. beaucaire, with its old castle overhanging the rhone, soon came in sight. "jeunet encore, étois sortant de page, lorsque à beaucaire ouvrit un grand tournoi. maint chevaliers y firent maint exploits, dames d'amour animoient leur courage;" says the french roman: and in the old fabliaux also, the scene of aucassin and nicolette is laid in this place. these are, i believe, but a small portion of the claims which beaucaire possesses to chivalrous celebrity, and its very name is in a manner connected with knights and ladies, tourneys and pageants. there is something in its appearance also which does not belie these associations, although it was crowded with farmers and market people at the time of our arrival: and those too of the vulgar bettermost sort, which is the most hopelessly unchivalrous.[41] the castle stands detached from the town, on as bold and perpendicular a cliff as any romance writer could wish, and overlooking one of the broadest and most rapid reaches of the rhone; an extensive green[42] meadow planted with trees, and large enough for a tournament on the most extensive scale, or another champ du drap d'or, divides the steep side of this rock from the river; and on the land side it is backed by another cliff garnished with as many windmills as don quixote himself could have desired. we crossed the rhone on a bridge of boats to a long narrow island, from whence the view on both sides is striking. beaucaire, with the accompaniments i have just described, and tarascon, flanked by the large ancient castle of the counts of provence, front each other on the opposite banks of the rhone, which rushes and thunders on both sides of the isle, making the cables by which the floating bridge is lashed, creak most fearfully every moment.[43] from this point i made a drawing of tarascon in defiance of a violent wind, which forced me to place my paper on the lee side of a stranded boat, and to sketch in the attitude of a plasterer white-washing a ceiling. another bridge of boats conducted us to tarascon;[44] where we walked out while the horses were baiting, the whole inn being in the same confusion from market people as beaucaire itself, and not seeming of the most comfortable description. being driven by a heavy scud of rain into a shoemaker's shop, we found a civil and intelligent guide in his son, from whom, however, we could not ascertain that there was any thing worthy of notice in this populous place, except the castle. we passed the maison de charité, in front of which is a new cross lately erected by the mission, on the scale of that at avignon, and profusely gilt and ornamented. the same agency also has lately re-established an ursuline convent of fifty-two nuns in this place. the cathedral is old and mean, and apparently under no very strict regulations, for an old woman was selling cakes in the aisle close to one of the chapels. we went into a vault beneath to see a marble statue of st. martha, which has merit in itself, and by the light of a single wax candle, had a striking effect: the great admiration, however, in which it is held here may chiefly arise from an opinion of its miraculous powers. "elle devenoit invisible pendant la revolution," whispered our young crispin.--"oui, elle étoit cachée, voilà ce que tu veux dire, mon petit--." "eh! non, pardon, messieurs, elle se cacha; mais il y a trois ans qu'elle se montre encore," replied the little fellow, with the most confident gravity. i trust that this monstrous fiction did not originate in the ursuline convent which he mentioned; and that the fifty-two good ladies employ their time in more charitable and useful actions than in filling the heads of poor children with stories so hurtful to the real interests of religion. however credulous our young guide was, he was not mercenary, being with difficulty persuaded to accept a franc or two for what he styled the pleasure of having conducted us. we next visited the castle of tarascon, now used as the public prison, and in which 1500 english were confined during the war. the enormous height and massiveness of its walls, which overtop the weather-cock of the cathedral, and the smallness of its few windows, qualify it well for this purpose; and a greater appearance of strength and solidity is given by the solid rock in which its foundations are embedded, and which in some places is shaped into wall and moat. we crossed a drawbridge into a court flanked by four round towers, and having a square keep in its centre. on the top of one of these towers is an esplanade, from whence the view of the course of the rhone, and the great plain of arles, is fine: the latter town, which is about nine miles distant, was seen distinctly. we were rather disappointed by the inside of the castle, which seemed chiefly to consist of small mean rooms: perhaps the baronial hall might be the dormitory of the prisoners, and not in a presentable state; but we saw nothing which recalled any idea of feudal magnificence. the same description which serves for the tower of westburn-flat, in the black dwarf, allowing for the difference of size and finish, would exactly suit the cubical shape and high blind walls of this castle, which probably was intended to serve similar purposes in the days of club law. its durability is not so remarkable as the fresh colour and sharpness of every part of the carving, and it might pass for a modern gothic edifice of twenty years standing, but for the solidity and frowning grandeur which characterise it. the air of provence appears more clear and dry than even that of italy, and to be more favourable to the preservation of old buildings. its clearness certainly is remarkable, particularly in diminishing the effect of distance; and on monday night, at montpelier, i recollect that we could plainly discover with the naked eye the stars of the milky way, which are commonly imperceptible without a glass. i cannot say that our route from tarascon to st. remy was well calculated to show the climate of provence in this light. the whole eleven miles were performed in almost a perpetual storm of rain and wind, which prevented our seeing much of the rich plain we were traversing. what we could see, however, was pleasing: every inch teemed with olives, vines, mulberries, corn, onions, and lucerne. we remarked many sheep sheared in a comical manner, with two or three tufts, like pincushions, running down the centre of their backs, and painted red. circumstances like these, though trivial, are or ought to be pleasing, as they indicate that something like comfort or leisure exists, and that the farmer's business is partly become an amusement. a needy peasant, pinched by high rents or bad seasons, would have but little inclination to ornament his favourite wether in this absurd manner; and though forsyth's remark is very true, that a peasant never attempts to become fine but he is hideous, such hideous attempts[45] are grateful to the mind's eye from the cheerfulness and play of mind which they indicate. within a little distance of st. remy the storm cleared sufficiently to enable us to discern the line of hills to the right, the foot of which we were skirting, and which border the great plain of avignon to the south. there is something very singular in the outline of these rocks, which are a miniature resemblance of the wild mountains near valence, but more savage and fantastic, presenting the appearance of the sea turned to stone in its wildest state of commotion, or in the powerful words of manfred, "the aspect of a tumbling tempest's foam frozen in a moment; a dead whirlpool's image." [footnote 41: vide cooke's views.] [footnote 42: the celebrated fair of beaucaire, which may be almost called the carnival of the mediterranean, is held in this meadow yearly.] [footnote 43: vide cooke's views.] [footnote 44: for an account of the tarasque, or fabulous dragon, which infested the country, and the ceremonies commemorative of it, see miss plumptre's tour. the name of tarascon, she says, is derived from this animal.] [footnote 45: i do not except even john bull's favourite yew peacocks and dragons, at least when they decorate the garden of a poor man.] at the foot of one of these barren gray rocks, which, from its shape and perforation, exactly resembles the barbacan and gate of a castle, st. remy is situated. the hôtel de la graille, where we took up our abode for the night, was as comfortable as most french inns, excepting those in the large towns: and though the _gros chien de menage_, for whose company we always stipulated, was perfectly agreeable, and of a gigantic size, yet he was by no means, as is frequently the case, the only civilized person in the house. this _gros chien du menage_, be it known, is a person of great responsibility in a provençal inn, as well as of formidable strength and size, and is entrusted for the night with the care of the remise, and all the live and dead stock, horses, carriages, and waggons, which it contains; and a more effectual guard cannot well be: his manners during the day are very mild and gentleman-like, as if he acted as master of the ceremonies; and he generally steals in at supper-time, as if to inform you that all is safe, and to claim a pat of your hand, and a pairing of your fricandeau in acknowledgment of his professional care. the greasy landlord will stand staring at his kitchen door, the landlady will not be very attentive to your accommodation when you are once safely housed, and the dirty, bare-legged fille will poison you with steams of garlic; but the _gros chien_ will always make amends to a genuine lover of dogs. may 21.--we were tempted by a beautiful morning to rise somewhat before four o'clock, in order to visit the roman ruins near this place, before our departure for orgon. a walk of ten minutes conducted us up a gentle terrace on which they were situated, and which rises between the town and the fantastic hills we had remarked the day before. having heard but little of these classical remains, we were most agreeably surprised to find them in such perfect preservation, and so beautiful in themselves. they consist of a mausoleum and an arch, which stand within a few yards of each other, and appear to have formed the principal objects in a public square or place; the area of which is evidently marked out by a row of solid stone seats, well adapted for the accommodation of gazers[46] at these beautiful gems. the arch has suffered the most decay of the two: or rather, it most exhibits the effects of violence; for the unmutilated parts are as sharp and bold as if fresh from the hand of the sculptor. the human figures on each side have suffered the most, either perhaps from some party commotion of past ages, or the same wanton propensity which leads man to disfigure his fellow-creature's image in preference to any other work of art; and to which we owe the demolition of andré and washington's heads in westminster abbey. the fretted compartments in the inside, and the border which surrounds the bend of the arch, are in the highest preservation. the latter represents clusters of grapes, olives, figs, and pomegranates with the accuracy of a miniature, and in a free and natural style. one of the pomegranates was represented as ripe and cracking, and every seed distinctly expressed. the mausoleum is, i should venture to say, a building perfectly unique in its way, as a remnant of antiquity; and therefore more difficult to describe by a recurrence to any known work of art. i cannot better, however, describe its effect on the mind than by saying, that it ought to be removed to pompeii in company with the arch. it is certainly superior, as a work of art, to any thing yet discovered in that singular place; while it possesses the same indescribable domestic character which seems to bring you back to the business and bosoms of the ancients, in a manner which nothing at rome can do. as far as i could judge by the eye, it is from forty to fifty feet in height. an open circular lanthorn of ten corinthian pillars, surmounted by a conical roof of stone, and containing two standing figures, rests on a square base, presenting an open arch on each side, which is in its turn supported by a solid pedestal, exhibiting on each of its four sides a bas relief corresponding to the respective arch. there is great spirit and fine grouping in the bas reliefs, which represent battles of cavalry and infantry. the standing figures before-mentioned, to whose honour the mausoleum may be supposed to have been erected, are in the civil garb: and there is an ease and repose in their attitudes, corresponding with the grave, calm expression of the heads, of which necessary appendage the merciless french itineraire has guillotined them without warrant. the colour of the freestone of which it is built is as fresh as that of the castle of tarascon. the building is constructed with a thorough knowledge of what the human eye requires, tapering and becoming more light towards its conical top. it is also of size sufficient for all purposes of effect, though not too large for a private monument. the situation in which these relics stand is sufficient to add beauty to objects of less merit. they are placed, as i mentioned, on a cultivated rising ground, at the foot of the wild gray rocks which ran parallel to the former day's route, and which assume from this spot a more castellated appearance than when viewed from the road. on the other side a fine and boundless view opens into the great plain of avignon and the rhone, almost perplexing to the eye by its variety and number of objects: in which we distinguished avignon itself, and mont ventou many leagues behind it, rising in height apparently undiminished, with light hazy clouds sailing along its middle, and backed by the wild dauphiné mountains, near château grignan. we could also distinguish beaucaire, tarascon, and a large part of the former day's route, to the extreme left; and the right opened into various vistas of the hilly country which we had to cross in our road to marseilles. the whole scene was lighted up and perfumed by the effects of the shower of rain which had fallen in the night, and without which a summer landscape in this country is a dusty mass oppressive to the eyes. the thyme and lavender on which we sat, and the mulberries and standard peaches which shaded us, seemed, as well as the vineyards, to be actually growing; and the catching lights were thrown in such a manner as to make every distant object successively distinct. after a couple of hours survey, we took leave of the ancient glanum livii, convinced that we had as yet seen nothing more perfect in its way than their tout ensemble, when combined with the surrounding scenery. [footnote 46: vide cooke's views.] to orgon twelve miles: winding still round the base of the cluster of rocks which form the southern barrier of the vale of avignon, and which assumed every variety of whimsical shape during our morning's route. at about a mile and a half from the conclusion of our stage, we joined the high road from avignon to marseilles, which renders the hôtel de la poste at orgon, a good and well-accustomed inn. while we were at breakfast, a soeur de la charité called on us to beg for an hospital newly established, and in truth her request was but reasonable, for the town seems poor enough, and unequal to the maintenance of such an establishment. several of the houses are well built, but wear a decayed appearance, as if they had seen much better days. orgon still deserves notice from its beautiful situation, and from its having been the place where buonaparte met with so narrow an escape from the fury of the inhabitants during his journey to elba. "vous allez sans doute voir la pierre percée," said every body at the inn, whom we interrogated as to what was best worth seeing in the compass of an hour's walk. to the pierre percée we went accordingly, and found it nothing but a common tunnel cut in a neighbouring rock, to draw off the waters of the durance when swoln with avalanches, from the vale of avignon, and supply a canal communicating with the etang de berre.[47] the summit of the rock affords by far the best view of orgon, and one which seems expressly constructed for the purposes of landscape: nothing can group better together than an old ruined castle just above it, and a dilapidated convent on the summit of the hill, standing out in bold relief from the narrow vale of the durance, up which we traced the course of our next stage; and the variety of exotic dwarf shrubs, which grew on the cliff where we were standing, gave great richness to the foreground. these, and the hedges of cypress and cane, which we occasionally saw, began to give an italian character to this part of france. [footnote 47: vide cooke's views.] the adjoining part of the vale of the durance is called the district of the cheval blanc, and, like its namesake, the vale of white horse in berks, is celebrated for its fertility. to lambesc twelve miles. for six or seven miles the road follows the course of the durance, which, to judge from the extent of its stony shoals, must be a tremendous stream at high water, and deserving the termagant appellations which mad. de sevigné bestowed upon it. the back of the rocks of orgon, which we traversed during the first mile, and on which the convent stands, is very singular, and resembling more a mass of strange petrifactions than any regular stratum. at senas, we saw the ruins of a handsome house belonging to a m. de b. to whom his property has been restored since the revolution; but the gentleman was disgusted at the woods having been cut down and sent to toulon for ship-building, and resides entirely at aix. an english squire in m. de b.'s case would have rebuilt his ruined mansion, and raised a belt of young forest trees in a very few years. for some miles during this stage the face of the country was interesting and rich in cultivation, with a ruined castle or two, which form striking features; but on turning to the right up a long hill which led to lambesc, and leaving the vale of the durance behind us, backed by its high barrier of table-shaped mountains, the country became very monotonous. it is on a higher level, and though tolerably fertile, is deficient in verdure, the olive being almost the only tree met with. lambesc, like orgon, which it much exceeds in size, has an air of faded gentility and desertion, and its fine public fountains tell a tale of better days. in this town the states of provence were convened annually in the reign of louis xiv.; and it possessed also many of the privileges of a capital in the days of the counts of provence, but at present it is celebrated for nothing but the growth of the best provence oil. this is no small distinction in the _almanac des gourmands_, as there is no article in which it is so difficult to hit the critical taste of a provençal. i have seen them often make hideous faces at the twang of oil which a spaniard would abuse, and an englishman admire, for its tastelessness. a provençal lady, with the knowing air of a _bonne menagére_, told us, that no traveller could meet with really good oil, for that the ordinary sort which we ignorantly thought excellent, was made from heaps of olives laid to ferment in order to increase the quantity of produce. the best (which answers, i suppose, to the cayenne pepper sent in presents) is made by the proprietors in small quantities for their own use, from the natural runnings of choice fresh-picked olives, like cold drawn castor oil, and has a greenish tinge; and this the good lady assured us was the only true thing. no more, when ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise; more particularly in matters relating to the palate. we walked to see the house where the count de grignan resided in state, during his official visits to lambese: like many other dilapidated mansions in the place, it bears the marks of fallen greatness. there is a handsome stone gateway belonging to it, decorated with a carved coat of arms supported by lions; but the house, like the poor palazzo foscari at venice, is tenanted only by a nest of squalid families. the hôtel du bras d'or is a plain, comfortable country inn, civil and reasonable. chap. x. aix--marseilles. may 22.--to aix sixteen miles. though the country during the first part of the stage is hilly without any romantic character, and rather unpromising, the difference of climate was already apparent from the strong and brilliant colours of the very hedge flowers, of which we observed an endless variety. after passing st. canat, the first post, the country improves a little, and the [48]mountain under which aix is situated begins to thrust its lofty head above the intervening line of hills. in proceeding a little further, we caught a distant glimpse of the etang de berre to the west, and presently distinguished aix in a deep vale under our feet, into which the descent is long and steep. a cart escorted by five gens d'armes, in which we saw a priest and another person quietly ensconced, and exposed to a burning sun, was toiling up the hill on a very different errand from ours. we were surprised to see a grave character in so equivocal a situation, but found on inquiry that he had benevolently offered his assistance in escorting a woman on her journey to arles, where she was to be executed for a murder. the circumstances under which it had been committed, struck us as more atrocious than common. about seven years before, this person, in concert with her husband, who was since dead, invited an old lady, their friend and patroness, and godmother to one of their children, to walk and eat grapes in their vineyard. watching their opportunity, they cut her throat, buried her on the spot, and possessed themselves of her property, with which they removed from the neighbourhood of arles, where the murder was committed. [footnote 48: according to sanson's excellent atlas, the french part of which was laid down from measurement, in the reign of louis xiv., this mountain is the mont st. victoire, near which marius gained his celebrated victory over the cimbri. the field of battle is fixed by history as near aquæ sextiæ.--(_aix_.)] arles and its environs, it seems, are a sort of french lancashire in point of brutal ferocity, and are celebrated for murders as much as for pork sausages; not that i mean to connect the two things together, as in the well-known nursery tale. the hôtel des princes at aix is justly to be praised for cleanliness and excellent accommodations; but madame alary is too well aware of its merits to lose by them. it is somewhat ridiculous to pay, in this fine fruit country, three francs for a small coffee-saucer of marmalade, with which we were charged as a separate item in the breakfast; and those therefore who intend staying a couple of days at this inn, should make their bargain first. mons. gibelin, a physician residing in the rue italienne at aix, possesses, and obligingly allows to be shown, some good pictures, including original portraits of mad. de sevigné and her daughter. finding him from home, and the house shut up, we extended our walk further into the town, which, in point of airy streets and cleanliness, deserves to hold a very high rank indeed among french cities. the houses are generally stately, regular, and well built, and give you the idea both of former and of present gentility and opulence. it is in some degree cooled by several fine fountains, a circumstance of no small importance at this season of the year, for the effects of the "beau soleil de provence" began to exceed even my recollections of naples. speaking merely at hazard on the subject, i should doubt whether any place in the south of france is better adapted for the cure of pulmonary complaints than aix. it stands on the side of a rising ground, facing a delightfully well-watered and fertile valley to the south-west, and sheltered from the piercing winds, so prevalent in provence at some seasons, by a mountainous barrier which rises to the north and north-east. its situation is thus at once sheltered, airy, and cheerful, and does the greatest honour to the taste of king réné[49] in selecting it for his capital. [footnote 49: for an account of the curious ceremonies and processions instituted by this monarch, see miss plumptre, under the heads of "leis razcassetos," "lou juec des diables," &c. i cannot say but that the enumeration reminds me of the merry court of old king cole, with his fiddlers three, his tailors three, and the long list of et ceteras detailed in the well-known song.] to marseilles sixteen miles. at the end of a mile and a half, the road ascends a hill to the south, marked by a clump of stone pines, which commands the best view of aix and its environs. the vale running up to the right under mont st. victoire deserves particular mention, as uniting the highest degree of beauty and verdure with a certain wildness of feature; and would give a fair idea of the best parts of italian scenery to a person not desirous of crossing the alps. after taking leave of this valley, which better deserves to be called the garden of provence than any other district i have yet seen, the face of the country is less pleasing, but in some places more singular and original. the first few miles were dull enough, it is true; and to add to our pleasure intensely hot, and destitute of any sort of shade. it was therefore with no small satisfaction that we stopped for a few minutes under a grove of tall old trees which overshadowed the road, with a fountain spouting up in the midst, which completely altered the atmosphere. no palm island in the deserts of arabia was ever more welcome than this cool spot, which belonged, we understood, to the adjoining château albertas. whoever was the planner of it, he has discovered more true taste and gentlemanly feeling than if he had built the finest possible entrance or lodge as a mere tribute to self-love: and were pride alone consulted as a motive, nothing leaves so striking a recollection on the minds of strangers, or so strongly disposes them to inquire the name of the proprietor of a spot, as an elegant proof of attention to their convenience, like the one in question. having traversed a second interval of dry parched country, we crossed another pleasant valley, in which is situated the château simiane. this seat, visible about a mile to the left, was the residence of pauline de grignan, wife of the marquis de simiane; who is said to have inherited much of the talent and liveliness of her grandmother and mother. her verses beginning with "lorsque j'étois encore cette jeune pauline," &c. jesting on the annoyance of a lawsuit in which she had to defend her title to the grignan estates, are still on record. after passing the château simiane, the country became wild and singular in parts. we particularly remarked a small village built round the base of one of those castellated rocks which abound in the neighbourhood of beaucaire, as also a singular defile near the post-house of la pin. the high gray rocks which inclose this spot appear as if seared to the quick with drought, and for some distance leave room only for the road and a narrow riband-shaped line of rich cultivated ground of a few yards in breadth; which is again succeeded by a small village, whose houses completely block up the defile. from this point you creep and wind gradually to the hill called la viste, from which we were instructed to expect the most celebrated view of marseilles. it fully equals all that can be said of it; and, though inferior to the bays of naples and genoa, possesses features which strongly remind one of both. on reaching a wood of stone pines on the summit of the hill, the bay of marseilles bursts on you all at once, in an immense sheet of bright blue, studded with sunny islands, among which the château d'if, a little spot fortified to the teeth, and commanding the entrance of the inner port, is most conspicuous. on advancing a little further, the shores of the bay are seen lengthening themselves into a half moon, one horn of which is formed by a line of mountains of no remarkable outline, and the other by a more lofty chain, communicating with mont st. baume and mont victoire, and the out-post of which is formed by a lofty and barren cape jutting into the sea at the back of marseilles. the town itself possesses no remarkable feature from this point, except the fort of notre dame de la garde, which crowns and commands it at the top of a lofty hill; but its environs, which rise in an amphitheatre from the sea to the adjoining mountains, are one perpetual succession of white villas, vineyards, orange, lemon and fruit-tree groves, and every thing in short which can enrich and enliven a prospect. too much certainly is not said by the french of this celebrated viste, which deserves at least a quarter of an hour's attention; and there are one or two decent cabarets on the top of it, the resort of the marseillois for cool air and refreshment, where the horses can be baited while a survey or a sketch is taken. after the descent of this hill, nothing worth notice occurs, till you have passed a long and uninteresting suburb, and enter marseilles by the cours, the first effect of which is striking, as it runs in a straight line dividing the town into two parts. we turned off to the right, towards the stately quarter which vernet has represented in his celebrated view from the inner harbour; and took up our abode at the hôtel de beauveau, which we found in every way deserving the rank which it holds among the number of excellent hotels in this place. we rose soon after day-light the next morning, to walk to the fort and signal post of notre dame de la garde, the most conspicuous object in a distant view of marseilles, and which we had observed rearing its flag-staff at the end of almost every vista of street, like the castle of st. elmo at naples. in our walk we picked up a species of locust, the sauterelle of this country, of a pale, dirty brown, and somewhat more than three inches in length. thanks to the great cleanliness of the hôtel de beauveau, this was the first insect which we had as yet met with at marseilles. in a climate, indeed, of a certain degree of heat, perpetual scouring and sweeping becomes absolutely necessary in all comfortable establishments, and these little evils are more completely eradicated than in those places where they are less natural. the simple precaution of shutting the windows before candles are brought, is commonly sufficient to keep off the mosquitos; and as for the scorpions, this formidable bug-bear exists only in the imaginations of travelling ladies, in glass jars at apothecaries' shops, and occasionally in the poorer houses of the old town, where the dirt and rubbish afford it a shelter. on ascending the hill of notre dame de la garde, we found reason to approve our choice of it as a point of general survey. it commands not only the whole bay, but also the flat space of land encircled by mountains, in which marseilles is enclosed as between hot walls, and the town itself lies like a map under it. as a point, however, for a general sketch, i should prefer the island of ratoneau, which possesses sufficient elevation for all purposes of the picturesque, and brings in the sea and the château d'if as a front ground, grouping at the same time the masses of building of marseilles better than a mere bird's eye view would do. the chapel of this fort, like that of notre dame de fourvières at lyons, possesses a great reputation for sanctity, and much resembles it also in its steep ascent, which one would suppose that some austere monk had in both cases contrived as a penance to short breathed devotees. the same hosts of beggars also besiege both places, of all ranks and pretensions, from those who stand silent in a white sheet for drapery, to those who obstreperously exhibit their want of any drapery at all. the chapel is hung with little pictures, dedicated to the virgin by the honest sailors and peasants, and representing different providential escapes: the wretched daubing of which is somewhat atoned for by the good feeling which placed them there. one of them represents the virgin appearing to a ship in a storm, with a visage and demeanor which might as well accompany a flying mermaid; another describes a man run over by a cart, and preserved unhurt by a similar interference; a third, the recovery from a sick bed, and the joy of the friends on the occasion, whose countenances not a little reminded us of our grim friends damon and holofernes. some offerings of a better and richer description were pillaged at the time of the revolution. we descended from this airy situation down a range of streets as precipitous as the roof of a house, the slope of which probably counteracts the effect of heat, and prevents the stagnation of air in the crowded situations of the old town: marseilles is said to be healthy in consequence; and the generally active and fine appearance of its population confirms it. the heat, however, to judge from a comparison with naples at the hottest season of the year, must be tremendous. it struck on us at nine in the morning, on re-entering the town, like the air from the mouth of an oven; and the herds of poor goats who compose the walking dairies of marseilles and the environs, dead asleep on the trottoirs, formed, with a few strolling turks, almost all the out-of-doors population in the principal streets. we had no objection whatever to imitate the general practice, and to sit still in a cool room for the rest of the morning, reserving ourselves for an evening's walk on the quay. i have as yet seen no place where a promenade of this sort is so fraught with little circumstances of amusement, or where such a variety of different ideas can be taken in by the eyes alone. "greeks, romans, yankeedoodles, and hindoos," and more nations than could be described in a whole stanza of names, may be found clustering in knots, or lounging under the awnings of their different coffee-houses; while new detachments of fresh-men are seen continually landing, with lank staring quarantine faces, and elbowed in every direction by the busy marseillois, whose curiosity is too much deadened by continual importations, to be excited by the newest or strangest costume. in short, the memorable political masquerade which was got up so awkwardly by anacharsis clootz and his friends from the fauxbourg st. antoine, might here be represented almost every day in the week by real and genuine actors, in every possible variety. may 24.--i cannot say much for the old cathedral; and as far as i can collect from the conversation of a scientific englishman, who has dropt his watch into one of the boiling vats, while minuting some process, the great soap manufactory of this place offers nothing very different from other places of the same sort. our morning's walk was therefore confined principally to the cours, the shade of whose spreading trees, and the profusion of fine bouquets and cheerful faces in the flower-market at one end of it, render it a most agreeable promenade. the pleasure of lounging, which in the spirit-stirring climate, and among the busy faces of england is the offspring of conceit, becomes in such places as this, and to an unoccupied person, a real and physical satisfaction, and we much preferred it to the lions of marseilles, which are not many. in the evening we explored the western side of the bay, and the low reef of rocks opposite to the lazaretto, which may someday or other be known by the name of alfieri's[50] seat, as he has described it in his life with sufficient accuracy to mark the spot. it commands one of the best and most cheerful views of marseilles, including several features of the prospect afforded from the viste, but of course on a lower elevation. [footnote 50: vide cooke's views.] chap. xi. ollioules--toulon. may 23.--from marseilles to cujes twenty-four miles. from the views which we had from the viste and notre dame de la garde, we were prepared to expect much from the nearer acquaintance with the environs of marseilles, which the first seven or eight miles would afford us. in this case, however, as in campbell's mountain, "'twas distance lent enchantment to the view;" for that which as a distant whole presented a scene of the highest beauty, and the richest cultivation, was nothing better in detail than a drive between stone walls. i have always thought that the ostentation of riches, or of those things which they will procure, was not a subject of vanity so common in france as in england; but there is a medium in all things, and it would be as well if the marseillois and their countrymen of lyons, had a little of that social and respectable pride, which induces every cit of hampstead or clapham to set off his little box to the best advantage. they seem to prefer the philosophical sulkiness which shakspeare's iden describes himself as enjoying between four garden walls.[51] on passing aubagne, however, the valley of gemenos makes ample amends to the eye, uniting the verdure and wild character of a swiss vale, to the rich productions of provence. after about three miles, the road narrows to a mere cleft in the hills, which we threaded for several miles, emerging at last upon the green bason of ground on which cujes stands. here, for the first time, we saw capers, with a profusion of every sort of esculent vegetable, which the inhabitants cultivate with great assiduity, losing not an inch of ground. to such a pitch, indeed, does their laudable economy proceed, that every inhabitant of cujes keeps a pet dunghill before his house, fearing no doubt to lose sight of it; and in this wilderness of sweets the good women sat basking and gossiping with great satisfaction. [footnote 51: see second part of henry vi. act 4.] at cujes we breakfasted in the same salle-à-manger with an agreeable old marseillois and his wife, who confirmed peyrol's account of the bloody revolutionary committee at orange, and added circumstances which, at this distance of time, seemed still fresh in their minds. the latter had been confined four months in the prison at l'isle, near avignon, from which detachments of persons were daily sent to be tried at orange, none of whom returned. among the sufferers were a mad. vidou, a superannuated widow of ninety, who was guillotined in company with her son, an amiable and respectable man, and was unconscious of her fate till the last. forty nuns of the convent of bollene were also among the prisoners, accused of a plot to bring about a counter-revolution, and four had been already guillotined on this charge when the fall of robespierre took place. three of this lady's friends had been reported as emigrants, and lost their property, merely from not having been at home when the commissaires made their visit. the wife of one of these offered to recall him in ten minutes, if necessary: "non, citoyenne, c'est egal;" and he was accordingly enrolled and treated as an emigrant, though he never had been absent a single day from his home. in a nation where almost every person of a certain age has such incidents as these burnt into his recollection, it is not wonderful that the general character should somewhat alter, and that the lively thoughtless frenchmen of sterne should become nearly an obsolete race. it may be perhaps a fanciful idea to trace to the same source the nature of a frenchman's vanity, which has generally more reference to mental qualities, than to those goods of which fortune or the will of a despot may deprive him in an instant. "bene vixit qui bene latuit" should seem the motto of the bulk of the nation. the first part of the road from cujes to toulon traverses great inequalities of ground, affording very odd bird's eye glimpses of the sea through little chasms in the line of cliffs to the right. beausset, through which we passed, is as filthy a town as cujes, and the country as beautifully cultivated, and as rich in flowers, fruit, and corn; it is difficult, indeed, to find animal and vegetable nature more strongly contrasted. if i may be allowed to parody the words of a noble poet- "they are brown as the dunghills whereon they decline, "and all, save the dwelling of man, is divine." about three miles from beausset, the road inclines towards a barrier of high and nearly perpendicular rock to the right, which it appeared impossible either to penetrate or ascend. a large string of mules, however, which met us from toulon, loaded with barilla for the great glass works at beausset, showed us that the one or the other was practicable, and on advancing a little farther, we distinguished the chasm through which the road to toulon is conducted, surmounted by the black ruins of an old castle to the left. on the right of the road in this place, a singular cluster of conical rocks occurs, which, both from their form and position, seem exactly like a heap of gigantic shells, piled up to batter the old ruin on the opposite cliff. their appearance was that of a mass of large pebbles, held together by indurated clay; but as each probably weighed some scores of tons, it was impracticable to bring away one as a geological specimen; nor would such specimen give a more accurate idea of the singular and wild effect of the whole mass, than a single corner stone of the colosseum would of the grandeur of the whole amphitheatre. the country name of the castle is château negro, as we understood from some gens d'armes whom we met in the pass; and the houses adjoining it, which seem actually overhanging the perpendicular edge of the rock, belong to the ancient bourg of emenos. nothing, one would suppose, but the overruling motive of security, ever could have induced human beings to take up their abode in such an eagle's nest as this, and its date is therefore probably as ancient as it professes to be. in days of old, the castle must have been completely the key of the pass, many hundred yards of which would have been exposed to stones and arrow-shot from it. a turn to the right conducted us into the heart of the val d'ollioules, as this mountain chasm is called, which is somewhat on the scale of the celebrated pass of pont aberglasllyn in wales, but far exceeds it in striking effect. a dreary whiteness, unrelieved by hardly a single blade of vegetation, covers the whole, as if it had been recently cleft by a volcanic eruption, and had as yet had no time to smooth down the sharpness of its original fissure; and nothing occurs to break the silence, except the trickling of a narrow brook, which just finds room to creep along the side of the road, the distant bleating of numberless adventurous goats, climbing over head from the mere love of peril, and the occasional echo of large stones disengaged by their leaps. one of these, of a size which would have shattered the carriage to pieces, came whirling and crashing down just in the direction which it had quitted. the whole spot, in short, is such as tasso might have imagined to be the scene of ismeno's incantation, and the congress of devils whom he convoked; and at a sudden turn of the road, the château negro peeps from between the opposite heights in such a new and striking position, as to seem, without much stretch of imagination, the abode of the wizard himself. after threading all the sharp angles of this savage pass, some of which are chiseled out to admit the road, the eye is at length relieved by a vista of sky, and the sight of the little town of ollioules close at hand, sheltered in a grove of orange trees and olives, and just filling up the entrance of the pass. the view is completed by some singular gothic ruins to the right, and by the town of six fours in the distance, which is situated on such a commanding conical hill, that we mistook it for the citadel of toulon. on emerging from the pass, we turned abruptly to the left, pursuing our route along the foot of the mountain barrier through whose bowels we had just penetrated, and which acts on the climate and productions of toulon like a high south wall. some corn was already reaped at ollioules; and it may be said almost without exaggeration, that the two last miles of the road make a difference of at least a degree in latitude, if one could be allowed to judge by one's feelings. there is nothing remarkable in the situation of toulon itself, which is flat and uninteresting; but the shores of the bay possess great beauty and variety, and the mountains which overhang the town are very bold in their outline. the bastides of the wealthy inhabitants are sprinkled along the foot and sides of this abrupt range, overlooking extensive views of the bay and its vicinity, and disposed with better taste and less encumbered with walls than those in the neighbourhood of marseilles. instead of a multitude of white spots, vying in numbers with the trees which surround them, the mansions of the toulonais are placed just thickly enough to agreeably enliven the woods, pleasure grounds, and vineyards from which they peep at scattered and irregular distances. we found ourselves well accommodated at the croix de malte, situated in one of the best parts of the town, which although airy, neat, and well watered by little streams conducted through the streets, possesses no building or feature worth recollection, save its strong and regular fortifications. may 26.--a morning of very pleasant lounging, without any particular object. we rose at five, and not obtaining admission to the platform of the fort du malgue, walked about on the heights near it, which are situated on the south-east of the town, and form one of the best panoramic points in its vicinity. the mountain cape to the south, under which the entrance to the harbour winds, the distant islands of hieres, and in a different direction, the town of six fours, are striking objects from this place. there is certainly more local propriety in this latter name, than in its more classical and ancient appellation, sextii forum, from which it has probably been corrupted in the derivation by some wag, for no one would suppose that such a situation afforded room to heat more than six ovens, or indeed bread to fill even one. the town of hieres, seen at a distance in a contrary direction, appears to much more advantage. the nature of its soil is said to be peculiarly favourable to the growth of the orange and lemon trees, for which it is celebrated, but the climate can hardly exceed that of toulon in mildness. we were particularly struck with the softness of the sea breeze during this morning's walk, and the vivid verdure of every thing around us, contrasting strongly with the dry and naturally sterile character of the immediate neighbourhood of marseilles. the vegetable productions of the latter place seem wrung by the hand of industry from a rocky and hide-bound soil, whereas a walk near toulon almost realizes the ideas of some favoured green spot in a tropical climate, where the sun has both soil and moisture to act upon. the pleasure of sitting down upon cushions of lavender and other aromatic plants, under myrtle hedges in flower, of gathering capers in their natural state, and tracing the most curious and rich varieties of our own wild and garden flowers, amid the infinite profusion of others which we could not name, may seem trifling to a scientific botanist, but is no small addition to the morning's walk of a plain traveller. a visit to the jardin des plantes will complete the illusion to the most critical eye: and the lovers of romance may fancy themselves at once in juan fernandez, or in the isle of france, as they walk in the open air, under the shade of palm-trees, and seeing tea, coffee, guava fruit, and a hundred other exotic luxuries, growing in their natural state. this establishment, which we visited in the course of the day, appears a favourite walk of the inhabitants of toulon, and is conducted in a manner which reflects the highest credit on their taste and liberality. the system of irrigation is well contrived, and the whole, from its variety and extent, interesting to the commonest observer. we were unsuccessful in our attempts to see the arsenal, the object best worth attention in toulon; as it is open to none but naval officers, the very class of men, one would suppose, whose prying eyes it would be least desirable to admit. the young officer at the gate, however, was very pleasant and communicative, and conversed with us in excellent english; a language which he had partly acquired as a prisoner during the war, and partly by his education at the marine school of this place, where our language is one of the first things taught. an inveterate john bull might remark, "ay, these fellows know they are sure to be made prisoners, if they fight with us; and that is the reason they take this precaution." our english pride was certainly gratified this evening, but it was by the voluntary civility which we experienced during our walk from this young man and several others who had been prisoners in our country. it is peculiarly pleasing to find those who visited england under circumstances commonly the most unfavourable, expressing grateful recollections of their treatment, and ready to acknowledge them by little attentions. we found, indeed, nothing but friendly faces among that very class of people of whom we should have been most shy of making inquiries, and at the very place where we should have expected them to excite the least pleasant recollections. two marines accosted us on the quay, to point out a sand-bank which the english had attempted to cut through during the siege of toulon, in order to facilitate the entrance into the harbour; and on our inquiry whether they had penetrated as far as a station where we saw a 140 gun ship and some others laid up, they answered with a laugh, "ah oui, messieurs, ils étoient là, et encore plus loin, je vous en reponds." it were to be wished on many accounts, that the french government would keep their galley-slaves as much out of sight as they do their arsenal. under the ancient regime, these unfortunate creatures were only employed in the works of the latter place, which they never left; but under the present system, those only who are condemned for life are so treated, and the rest are employed in different parts of the port, where they perform the work of horses, in the most public manner, chained by the leg in pairs. some were drawing timber, and stone carts; and others, rather more favoured, were laying the pavement of the pier, with a single heavy iron link on one leg. how far economy may justify this arrangement, or whether the exposure of incorrigible offenders may answer as a public example, it is not for a mere visitor to determine; but certainly a plan more adapted to deaden and sear the sense of shame which may still remain in them, and brutalize their minds by constant irritation, can hardly be devised. the mildness and temper with which the guard and superintendants appear to behave is not likely to counteract sufficiently the effect of the constant gaze of passengers, a circumstance which to judge by one's own sensations must tend to stifle those feelings of repentance which solitary confinement naturally induces, and harden every manly particle of the mind into rebellion. it is hard to reproach them with the natural effects of this rough mode of regeneration; but i think i never saw a worse or more obdurate set of countenances. one fellow in particular, when civilly directed by the overseer to change the position of a stone, gave him a look of deadly malignity when his back was turned, which reminded me strongly of the look of kemble in zanga, while pronouncing the emphatic "indeed!" strange as it may appear, we were informed that there were several colonels, generals, priests, and men who could afford to spend 300 francs a day, among this body. these contrive, it seems, by bribery, to procure more variety of food than the bread, soup, and vegetables, which are the regular allowance; and are permitted to purchase better linen than the ordinary convicts; but the dress and regulations are to outward appearance the same in all. those condemned for military insubordination are marked by a bullet round their necks, and the convicts cast for life by a green cap. the individuals whose term of confinement is nearly expired wear only an iron ring round the ankle, as it is presumed they will not incur the penalty of fifty blows and three years additional confinement by an attempt to escape: there are others, however, sentenced for five, ten, fifteen, or twenty years, and these are heavily ironed and more strictly watched. a detachment of the celebrated thibet goats, who are to make the fortune of the french shawl-manufacturers, is now in harbour, and others are performing quarantine at marseilles. the specimen of their fleece which was shown us, resembles the coat of the musk ox. the wool of which the shawls are made grows at the roots of the longer hair, and is of a warm and delicately fine texture; a circumstance which should seem to prove these animals natives of the cold and mountainous districts of thibet, and capable by dint of british skill and enterprise, of being naturalized in our own country. chap. xii. frejus--cannes--isle of st. marguerite--antibes. may 27.--from toulon to puget les crottes, 23 miles. on passing the small town of la valette, from which the road to hieres diverges, the mountain barrier under which toulon is situated ends abruptly in a precipice, fortified by a strong redoubt. from this spot a detachment of the combined forces were driven by the republicans, who scaled the rock during the night at the most imminent risk; and the evacuation of toulon was the ultimate consequence of this daring coup de main, in which buonaparte is said to have first distinguished himself. after passing this point, and leaving on the right the distant hills of hieres, no remarkable feature presents itself. the country is chiefly an extensive olive forest, varied by a few vineyards, and enlivened by hedges of pomegranate, and spanish broom. we found puget les crottes but a bad exchange for the fountains, and clean airy streets of toulon: and it better deserves the name of puget le crotté, by which it is laid down by some mistake in some maps. the inn was perfectly worthy of the place; a frowzy kennel of bustling yahoos, totally deficient in that readiness and attention which can put a reasonable traveller in good humour with the worst accommodations. our servant fought his way to the kitchen fire to execute our orders; finding them neither attended to by the old dame who presided in the kitchen, of whom gil blas's leonarda was a faint type, nor by the maid who screamed rejoinders at the top of the stairs, to the ravings of her mistress at the bottom, in a tone that deafened us. the arrival of the draguignan diligence, which we had passed on the road, heavily laden with money and passengers, and travelling at a foot pace, escorted like a condemned cart by two gens d'armes, accounted for this mighty sensation. we were glad enough to escape from the din of tongues and the steams of garlic, and resume our road, which did not offer any variety, till we had nearly reached la luc, 17 miles from puget, whose situation and red sandy soil reminded us of a herefordshire glen. the junction of two main roads has created a tolerable inn at this small place, which may with safety be recommended to persons on an abstemious regimen, and to none else. may 28.--to la muy 19 miles, without any remarkable feature, though the character of the country is rather pleasing. la muy is a wretched village, whose _tout ensemble_ is completed by a ruinous house of the count de muy: this, as well as his castle at grignan, was destroyed in the revolution, and the annexed property alienated from him. to frejus 12 miles: the few last of which improve as to scenery. we saw cork trees for the first time, and a profusion of myrtle in hedges and bushes. there is something peculiarly stagnant and wo-begone in the appearance of frejus, which, however, is in more strict poetical character with its roman ruins, than the populous and wealthy streets of nismes would be. the inn where we dined and slept preserved the same character most rigidly; indeed, madame, whose ideas seemed perfectly in unison with those of mine hostess of la luc, wished apparently that our feast at forum julii should be entirely intellectual, and that we should rise from dinner with unclouded heads, to enjoy a walk among its antiquities. we were really diverted by the formal parsimony with which the good woman had contrived to invent a dinner for four, out of what would have hardly have sufficed as a whet to an english farmer. were i blest with the culinary accuracy of the facetious christopher north, or his friend dr. morris, i could better record a bill of fare which would form a complete contrast to the vaunted luxuries of their inspiring deity, mr. oman of edinburgh. suffice it, as a specimen, that three pettitoes of an unfortunate roasting-pig, or rather pigling, which i fear must have died a natural death, formed the most substantial part of our repast. the amphitheatre of frejus, to pass to a more dignified subject, is situated without the walls of the town, on the side by which we had entered from toulon; and is sufficiently perfect to be interesting, though it must suffer by a comparison with the better known, and finer specimens of the same sort which exist. there is also a temple, and an arch, the latter known by the name of the porte dorée, neither of which possesses any thing remarkable when compared with the ruins of nismes and orange. the aqueduct built by vespasian, and situated to the north-east of the town, is on a more extensive scale, and taken with its concomitants, better merits the attention of a painter: even when viewed from under the walls of frejus, which it adjoins at one end, it possesses as sombre a character of repose as poussin could have wished, and which is unbroken by the intervention of mean houses, and busy figures. its scattered groupes recede from the eye up a solitary valley, interspersed with clumps of olive trees, and backed by pine forests, and the foreground derives a degree of wildness from the profusion of spanish broom of an unusual size and beauty, with which its scattered blocks are fringed. we walked also to the small village of st. raphael, a mile or two from the town, which is the modern port of frejus, and stands in what was formerly the main sea; while the pharos which marked the entrance of the ancient harbour is now surrounded by an alluvial meadow, and in place of the numerous vessels which must have crowded the ancient quay, a brig, and two or three feluccas, were quietly at anchor. a change like this, of the very soil, and local features, speaks more strongly to the imagination than the most mighty and extensive ruins. 29th.--we rose at a very early hour to pursue our route, ----for our sleep was airy light, from pure digestion bred, and temperate vapours bland, thanks to the precautions of mine hostess of the chapeau rouge: the first part of our road lay almost parallel with the line of ruins, marking the course of the aqueduct, and afforded a more just idea of its extent and size than the view which we had taken before. to judge from the scattered groupes of arches, it must have extended as far as the hills bounding the bay of napoule, up whose sides we began to wind, at the distance of about two miles from frejus, and continued to ascend for six more. this morning's drive was agreeable enough from its novelty, so little reminding us of the usual features of france. the bold and sombre character of its fine woods, undiversified save by an occasional patch of cultivation, or a solitary hut, and swept by bodies of clouds in their progress from the mediterranean, reminded us more of the descriptions of norwegian forests, and of the mountains haunted by the wild huntsman, than of provençal scenery. the enormous extent of these forests has not, as may well be supposed, improved the state of society. about fifteen years ago a banditti, composed of deserters, and of the peasantry of the country, and regularly organized, held them for a length of time, and defied the efforts of a numerous body of gend'armerie sent to subdue them. we observed also the traces of a wider spread conflagration, which we understood to have caused damage to the amount of a million of francs, and the perpetrators of which had equally escaped detection: it had made but a small comparative gap in these immense tracts of wood. soon after passing the post-house of estrelles, situated on the summit of the mountain, the view which opens on the other side becomes strikingly fine, and extensive. the shores of the bay of napoule, beautifully wooded and interspersed with white villas, lie under foot in a complete bird's-eye view, backed by the sweeping mountains of the neighbourhood of grasse, and terminated by the cape where antibes stands. farther still the back-ground is surmounted by the colossal groups of the maritime alps. the descent from this hill to level ground is about seven miles of road as excellent as the former part of the stage; the whole having been very much improved by buonaparte; and although the distance from frejus to cannes cannot be less than twenty-eight miles, it appears to occupy a shorter space of time than many much shorter stages. a nearer approach to cannes in no way disappointed us: the bay of napoule, in the centre of which it is situated, presents, in different points of view, every variety of italian scenery; and there may be conjectures less probable than that it was called originally by mariners the bay of napoli, from some fancied likeness. to the latter celebrated spot it bears somewhat of a resemblance, but a stronger still to the porto venere, or bay of spezia, both in the wilder and the softer part of its features; and the illusion is kept up by the grouping and form of the houses, and the italian patois of the inhabitants, who are mostly a colony of genoese fishermen. nor ought the hôtel des trois pigeons to be forgotten, though its cleanliness and comfort, and the cheerful alacrity of its inmates, remind the traveller more of some quiet country inn on the devon or somerset coast, than of any thing italian or french. it stands on a little rock just out of the town, looking on the sea, and facing the island of st. marguerite; and there is perhaps no scene in which more historical recollections are combined under one point of view, than that which its windows command. the island, whose garrison and buildings are distinguishable by the naked eye, was for many years the prison of the mysterious masque de fer, whose identity, like that of junius, has hitherto baffled conjecture. in the room where we were sitting murat passed some of the time intervening between his expulsion from naples, and the crisis of his fate; and on the sands about half a mile to the left, is the spot where buonaparte first landed from elba, and bivouacked during the night, surrounded by numbers whom curiosity had drawn out of the town to behold him. there is perhaps something characteristic of the different fortunes of this singular man, in the place from which he had embarked for elba a year before, and in that where he first set foot on his return, full of hope and confidence. the former was frejus, a place dreary and comfortless, surrounded by memorials of departed greatness, shrunk within a small part of its former limits, and deserted by the very sea, and it might have been mercifully chosen on purpose as the scene of his exit, in order to blunt his regret at leaving france. the latter was cannes, a place,[52] as i have fully described it, full of cheerfulness, beauty, and rich distant prospects, corresponding almost in brilliancy to those which his mind was forming at the time. [footnote 52: vide cooke's views.] far different must have been the feelings of murat during the anxious interval of forced leisure which he spent at this place; and i will confess, that while listening to the landlord's simple account of the manner in which he passed his time, we forgot the massacre of madrid in the well-known anecdote of the drowning officer's rescue. during the first eight days he remained shut up in the bed-room or sitting-room which we occupied, in expectation of despatches from buonaparte, to whom he wrote on his arrival at cannes. at the end of this time, having received no answer, he used to beguile his impatience by rambling on the sea shore, or watching the sports of the peasants, till at length, evidently heart-sick and desperate, he set out for toulon on the rash expedition which closed his career. "toujours, toujours, il avoit la mine triste.--ah! si vous l'aviez connu, vous auriez pleuré son sort--il étoit un si bel homme!--d'une taille superbe!" said our honest host, whose knowledge of murat was probably confined to his soldier-like figure, and his desolate state: he could have been no judge of the small extent of buonaparte's obligations to his brother-in-law, whose former defection was but repaid in kind. he pointed out a green spot under the walls of an old castle which overlooked the inn, where he had frequently observed murat lying with his face concealed in his hands, or in his more cheerful moments, watching the dances of the country people who resorted thither, and whose sports seemed to interest him considerably. it would be a task for the hand of a master poet or painter, to describe an ambitious and desperate man, softened for a time by disappointment, overleaping in thought the immeasurable distance between his present and his former self, and contemplating the sports of his youth with a sort of melancholy pleasure, yet under the influence of the strong fatality which hurried him to his end. it is by mixing somewhat of this feeling in the character of macbeth, that shakspeare has excited a momentary interest even for a murderer and usurper, who perceives "his life fallen into the sere and yellow leaf," and pauses for a moment in melancholy reflection as he rushes to "die with harness on his back." "out, out, brief, candle," &c. having spent an hour among the sunny basking places which abound in the rocks of this place, we hired a fishing-boat to convey us to the island of st. marguerite. it was impossible to help being diverted by the uncouth appearance of our new conductors, which was two or three degrees wilder than that of poor murat's amphibious subjects: one fellow in particular, was "a man, cast in the roughest mould dame nature boasts, with back much broader than a dripping pan, and legs as thick about the calves as posts,"[53] or indeed thicker, and tanned a bright copper colour by sun and salt water; his broad face grinning with good humour, from beneath a mane as shaggy as a lion's. it may be supposed that two or three such rowers, proud of the new honour of officiating in a pleasure-boat, got us on more quickly than the less athletic boatmen of show lakes, and we soon landed at the small fort which was the object of our pursuit, and which the commandant politely allowed us to explore. at its eastern extremity is situated a guard-house, a chamber of which on the ground floor served as the prison of the mysterious captive; it is airy and commodious enough, in comparison with places of the sort in general; but the height of its only window, strengthened by treble bars from the sea, and the perpendicular cliff which it overhangs, with the dangerous breach under it, are sufficient protections against any escape. for the last five years no persons have been confined in this fort, which was formerly used exclusively as a state prison, but in the revolution its benefits were extended to persons of all ranks. restraint, indeed, is not at present the order of the day within its precincts, to judge from appearances. the soldiers seemed to have little or nothing to do, but to flirt with two or three gaudily-dressed negresses, who showed their white teeth and their black muzzles from the doors of the casernes, and to laugh at the chaplain of the garrison, for such i conclude was the grade of the old priest, who met us, toddling about in a state of drunken fatuity, very much resembling the condition of obadiah in the committee, with a nose exhibiting the visible effects of a fight or a fall. having escaped at last from the good man's persecuting attentions, we got back to cannes in time to make a sketch from the precise spot where buonaparte landed.[54] [footnote 53: see colman.] [footnote 54: vide cooke's views.] may 30.--from cannes to antibes eleven miles; a pleasant drive, chiefly running close to the sea. though considerably flattered in vernet's beautiful picture at the louvre, antibes, nevertheless, leaves a pleasing impression on the mind, from its airy, well-frequented, prosperous appearance, and the bustle arising from the presence of a garrison. its inner harbour, and the neck of land which defends it, terminated by a little picturesque fort, seem beautifully constructed by nature for their respective purposes; but i do not know of any thing else meriting notice. chap. xiii. nice--col de tende--conclusion. from antibes to nice, sixteen miles, along a beautiful sweep of coast, the whole extent of which, crowned by the gigantic chain of maritime alps, lies in full view for the whole way. no sketch, much less any description, can give an idea of the combined effect of this extensive bay, or the air of cheerfulness spread over the whole; among all the celebrated first views of italy, there are probably few which speak to the imagination in a more imposing as well as pleasing manner. we crossed the frontier by a long wooden bridge over the var, a broad, wild stream, roaring down with violence after the storm of the preceding night. we were immediately struck with the different culture of the vines, festooning as near naples, over the other trees, in a manner more picturesque than useful. the straw hats of the nissardes, also resembling an inverted wicker corn basket, gave quite a new and laughable character to the human apex. such little novelties as this, which would excite no more attention in a professed book of costumes, than a view into an old fancy clothes shop, are nevertheless recollected with interest when seen in travelling, as connected with particular trains of thought or association, which they preserve fresh in the mind; and to forget these extraordinary potlids of straw, and the fanciful little red toques occasionally substituted for them, would be to forget an important feature of the italian frontier. much as i had heard of nice, i was not disappointed either in the first view, or in the nearer survey of it. the situation of its ruined citadel on a commanding and insulated rock, and its narrow valley of almost tropical richness, surrounded by tier above tier of mountains, and studded with villas and orange-groves, present every variety of beauty; and there is a stateliness of proportion, and a careless elegance in its white houses, and an airiness in their situation, which very much remind the eye of the best parts of naples near the chiaja and villa real. the first glance of nice, in short, bespeaks a higher and more fashionable tone of society than that of any french town, excepting paris, through which we had passed. it is impossible, nevertheless, for a person looking beyond the mere amusement of the moment, to banish a certain train of morbid ideas which connect themselves with the sight of this beautiful town. there are few persons perhaps moving in good english society, whose ears do not familiarly recognise the hopeless phrase of "being sent to die at nice," and many have watched the departure of the wrecks of what was once health, strength, and beauty, consigned to this painted sepulchre with the certainty of never returning from it. thus the very efficacy of the air of nice, which has brought it into vogue when all other resources have failed, has inseparably connected it in the mind with despondency and decay. if such ideas occurred to us, they were certainly not removed by the sight of a funeral which past the windows of the inn, within an hour or two after our arrival; the corpse laid on an open bier, the hands crossed, and ornamented with flowers, and the monks and attendants all joining in a solemn chant. a bell was also tolling in another quarter, the signal that a man just condemned to the galleys was passing in procession through the town, as is customary. "but let the stricken deer go weep, the hart ungalled play." the english dance and dress during an assize week, and the lively nissards, more naturally still, enjoy their fine climate, and elegant town, without entering into the gloomy reflections which haunt the mind of an englishman on his arrival. the cafés and public walks were swarming with company, and the whole place appeared to take its tone of gaiety from the gaudy young officers, whose troops were quartered in the extensive barracks; the peasants were dancing their grand round on the quay, or fighting between jest and earnest with open hands; the native dandies managed their green fans with the same adroitness as their fair companions; the shops displayed every luxury and accommodation; and every thing, in short, savoured of the habits of a continental cheltenham. the hôtel des étrangers, where we established ourselves, is somewhat high in its charges, but proportionably good, and possesses a delightful garden of orange-trees adjoining. after being kept awake by mosquitos, which seem more prevalent than at marseilles, and whose little angry note of preparation had apprized us of an attack, we walked in the morning to the citadel hill, whose solid masses of ruin had attracted our notice on the first view of the town. this point affords the best general idea of nice and its vicinity, though in the month of may, it is not attained without a roasting walk. the heat indeed was tremendous, as may be expected in a triangular tongue of land only a few miles in extent, and encircled by lofty mountains; and the mildness of the climate in winter, as we were informed, bears a full proportion to its oppressiveness in summer. green peas are to be had all the year: mulberries and gourds were already ripe, and every garden was a wood of the finest orange and lemon-trees loaded with ripe fruit. the thermometer too is seldom or never lower than 55 in the depth of winter. at the foot of the citadel hill is a road blasted out of the solid rock, running along the edge of the sea, and connecting nice with its port; along which we walked towards the afternoon. i should be inclined to remark this spot, near which is an esplanade of good houses, as the most sheltered and desirable quarter of nice. the breeze, which had begun to freshen, was just perceptible where we stood, though its effects in the open sea were visible by the plunging of the waves under our feet; and it appears hardly possible for any but a south or south-west wind to get at this point. whether or not the part of nice north of the citadel be equally calculated for an invalid, i should doubt. the mountain gully running up towards escarene may possibly bring down searching winds from the north-east; and on the whole the marine esplanade seems to afford a situation cooler in summer, and warmer in winter, than the interior of the town. such as are tolerably active pedestrians will find themselves well repaid for an evening's toilsome walk to the height which divides nice from ville franche, and whose situation is marked by a small fort.[55] [footnote 55: vide cooke's views.] from hence the view to the west is very wide, including nearly the route of the two preceding days. towards the east it is less extensive, but more striking. the town of ville franche, and the beautiful little basin which forms its port, appear as completely under the feet, as if you could leap over them to the opposite side of the water; and the headland between that town and monaco, up and down which the road to savona is seen meandering, is more boldly defined and on a larger scale than that of lulworth cove, and though strongly resembling it possesses greater beauty and variety. one of buonaparte's projects was to render the corniche, as this giddy track is expressively called, practicable for carriages; but the sardinian government, instead of completing, have defaced (as we heard, out of jealousy) the part which he had begun: this is, i think, rather too absurd for belief. it is at the same time probable enough, that the undertaking has been abandoned for want of adequate funds. we were lighted homewards by myriads of fire-flies, a circumstance which produces on a person unaccustomed to the sight, a more novel and brilliant effect than any other accompaniment of an italian climate. june 2.--our original idea had been to have proceeded to genoa either by a felucca or the corniche, but learning that the latter route was impracticable, excepting on mules, and that the variable nature of the wind on this coast rendered feluccas a dangerous and uncertain mode of performing the journey, we preferred the road into italy by the col di tende. to escarene twelve miles: the first four skirt along the beautiful valley at whose mouth nice stands, following, and sometimes crossing, the course of the river poglion; the rest gradually winds up into the heart of the mountains, through deep ravines and woods of gigantic olives, which in this district become picturesque forest-trees. we breakfasted at escarene, a quiet pretty village, possessing tolerable accommodation. to sospello fifteen miles of good road, the first seven or eight of which ascend the lofty wall of mountain which closes up the entrance of the valley, and appears at a distance like a score of corkscrews laid in a vandyke figure. up the whole of this we walked, mounting, by an easy but tedious circuit of good road, a long series of crags, and courses of torrents, and sometimes looking almost perpendicularly down upon the point which we had passed half an hour ago. nothing can be more bare or desolate than the rocky mountain ridge in which this ascent terminates, and on which vegetation seems at its last gasp. a dance of satyrs might be appropriately introduced to complete the wildness of a sketch from this spot, but that it does not afford a single berry or blade of grass to regale them, even if they could live like their cousins the goats. a large family of peasants, as wild and merry as these "hairy sylvans," accompanied us up the mountain with their cattle, on their way to the summer chalets, exhibiting the laughing side of human nature in a manner which it is delightful to witness in the poor. "pleased with a feather, tickled with a straw," and grateful for the slightest civility, they seemed to consider the mere change of place as a festival. the wife had twitched off her husband's cocked hat, which she wore in frolic; the bare-legged children appeared ready to dance to their own voices as they walked; and the very infant, committed in his cradle to the entire discretion of the family donkey, was equally pleased and satisfied with his own situation, as he headed the patriarchal cavalcade. the view of the mediterranean and the coast of france, which this point commands, is prodigious; and the intermediate ranges of mountains which shut out nice, and which appeared elevated peaks when seen from its citadel, seem from this spot only masses of wavy ground. from hence a descent much steeper than the ascent and almost equally long, conducted us into the rich and well-inhabited valley in which sospello stands. the inn at this place is rather below mediocrity; the mistress sturdy and rapacious in her demands, and shameless in retracting them when forced to do so. from the valley of sospello, which appears as completely insulated by nature from the society of the world as rasselas's happy valley, we wound next morning up another eight miles of ascent as steep and tedious as the last. on a wild heath between the tops of two mountains called the col de brouais, in which this ascent terminated, we unexpectedly discovered a hut tenanted by an old gend'arme, a pet lamb, a kid, and two tame hares, to all which quadrupeds we were introduced by the master with great glee, while waiting for the carriage under his roof. we were so much pleased and diverted by the whimsical manner in which this merry contented mortal lived among his menagerie, that we sent the horses on to breglio, and complied with his eager desire of entertaining us at his cabaret, if a hut the size of a tea-caddy, without another human habitation visible for four miles, could be so called. he produced, to our surprise, bread, milk, cheese, fresh curd, eggs, fruit, and preserves, all clean and neatly served, and was equally surprised at our giving him two francs a head, which tender he at first remonstrated against with great naivété as too extravagant. the trouble which he had taken in fetching most of these articles from a distance of five miles appeared not to enter into this honest fellow's calculation. the french were encamped in some force on the col de brouais at the time of the session of the comtat of nice and of savoy by the king of sardinia in 1796. it was, also, about four years previous to our visit, infested by a band of robbers, to whom its lofty situation afforded great facilities: these were, however, swept off and conveyed to the galleys by the exertions of the mountain patrole, of whom our host was one, and the whole of the country is now perfectly safe and undisturbed. after contemplating for a short time the principal summit of the col de tende, which from this point appears at its full height, we dived into the intervening valley of breglio by a rapid descent, like the road into a mine. the trout stream, which runs past this place in its way to vintimiglia, is such as would cause a traveller fond of fishing, to regret the want of his rod and tackle. after leaving breglio we ascended the course of this river till it narrowed into a defile between two rocks; on entering which the town of saorgio appears, after a mile or two, piled on the top and shelving side of the precipice to the right in a singular manner. the architect who planned it must have taken his idea from a colony of swallows' nests in a sand-rock, for it seems hardly possible to get to or from it without wings: to judge of it from the road, there is no room or footing for streets; a man might jump down the chimney of his neighbour's house, or be dashed to pieces on its roof, by leaping from his own ground floor; and the fall of a house in the upper tier would probably open a clear downward passage to the valley. a traveller desirous of making a sketch of what is an unique thing in its way, would do well to get three hours start of his carriage from breglio,[56] and scramble among the heights to the right of the river, for a point which gives a more accurate idea of saorgio than we could obtain from the valley. the view is attempted in aquatinta in beaumont's maritime alps, and badly as it is executed, the original drawing must have been good, and, as far as i can judge, have given an accurate idea of it. the peasants call the place by some name sounding in their patois like chavousse; it cannot, however, be mistaken. this is the only spot between breglio and tende which would be adapted for a drawing; but the scenery, nevertheless, is of the most stupendous and extraordinary nature i ever witnessed, exceeding, on the whole, the defile of gondo and iselle in the route of the simplon, and more decided, though less varied in its features, than that justly admired spot. the pass is not on a larger scale than the val d'ollioules, as far as saorgio; but after leaving the latter village, the rocks rise to a much greater height, and assume a more savage character. it is impossible to form an adequate idea of the depth of the defile and its effect on the eye, without actual inspection; the nearest approach to it will be made by conceiving a chasm rent from top to bottom by an earthquake through snowdon, or any other mountain of similar height. for about twelve miles you travel in the condition of those fabled criminals, "quos super atra silex jamjam lapsura, cadentique imminet assimilis." [footnote 56: there is, i believe, no inn at saorgio.] jutting rocks, whose gradual change of posture is marked by the inclination of the pines on them, hang toppling over your head at a height to which the strongest voice could not be heard from the valley; and above and between them just peep glimpses of still more elevated heights, where a tree appears hardly of the size of a pin's head. a peculiar gray, sombre atmosphere overspreads the whole at noon day, similar to that which prevails during a solar eclipse; and the deep echo of the river is the only sound heard for miles. on the whole, i never saw any place so calculated to convey gloomy and wild ideas, and the sicilian name of "val demone," or john bunyan's "valley of the shadow of death," would be appropriately applied to this savage spot. nor would the danger be imaginary at the breaking up of a frost, or after violent rains, which might bring one of the highest rocks perpendicularly down without the intervention of a single crag to give warning and break its fall. the visible rents made in the road from time to time, and the obstructions in the deep bed of the stream, show sufficient marks of these formidable incursions. in one place the valley originally afforded only a passage for the river, and the road has been cut and blasted along the cheek of the rock: close to this spot an inscription on the stone informs you that this road was the work of the late king of sardinia; and he had in truth a right to be proud of such an undertaking. the whole road from nice to turin is admirable, presenting hardly a single mauvais pas. the natural difficulties which the construction of the road presents have been surmounted in a manner which might be a study to a civil engineer, and the whole is, perhaps, as fine a specimen of labour and skill as buonaparte's route over mont cenis or the simplon. the natural features of its wilder parts resemble those in the pictures of salvator rosa, but on a larger scale than he ever attempted to give an idea of. within a mile or two of tende,[57] the chasm in the rocks (for it was no more) widens into a small narrow valley of a peculiarly quiet character, in which the monastery of st. gervase occupies one of those retired green spots which prove so well the good taste of the monks of old. a turn which this valley takes to the left affords the view, first, of the old castle of tende, looking quite ghastly in the dusk of evening, and next of the town of tende itself, which stands piled like saorgio, against the shelving side of the valley. tende is a large and apparently flourishing town, affording two inns of very respectable appearance. the albergo imperiale is high in its charges, but makes amends for it by the liberality and comfort of its appointments. it fronts one of the principal peaks which form the chain of the col di tende, which we contemplated as it caught the last rays of the evening sun, forming different guesses how we were to get up it. [footnote 57: vide cooke's views.] june 4.--from tende to limone 15 miles. we left tende at a quarter before four: after twisting and re-twisting for about an hour and a half among narrow defiles, through which the first part of the rise is gradually conducted, we reached a mountain valley at a high level above the sea, closed at the opposite end by the main ridge of the col di tende. here the chief ascent commences, in a regular zigzag up a jutting shoulder of the mountain. the road is wide and good, and free from ravine or precipice; but from its continual turns, (of which i counted not less than sixty-five) is difficult and embarrassing to any but a crane-necked carriage; though in no place could an overturn produce worse consequence than a roll of a few yards. the distance may be abridged on foot, either by crossing the zig-zags, or by taking the summer path to the right through a fine range of alpine pasture, which exhibits a profusion of hardy flowers growing up to the edge of the snow-drifts: amongst many others, whose names were unknown to us, we observed blue and yellow crocusses, hearts-ease, oxlips, cowslips, primroses, and two sorts of gentianella. in this direction the road cannot be missed to the turf cabaret which stands on the sharp edge of the mountain. it is curious to look back a moment from this elevated spot down the narrow valley behind you, and observe the road curling from below your feet into blue distance, like the coils of an immeasurable white snake. at this fine season of the year, it exhibits a busy scene of passengers and loaded strings of mules, toiling up in your rear, or lessening in the perspective till hardly visible at the bottom of the ascent. the site of the cabaret borders on the line of perpetual snow, and though inferior in height to the crest of the simplon road, stands in a situation, i should conceive, much more exposed to the effects of sudden hurricanes and snow storms. the road appears to be commanded by no spot where avalanches could accumulate, as on the precipice where you first overlook brieg, and must, therefore, during the winter, be rather difficult than dangerous. on the other hand, no mountains intervene on the turin side, to blunt the edge of the north winds from the savoy alps; and in the direction of nice, the south-west winds must be concentrated and driven up the mountain avenue of tende with the roar of artillery. i can, therefore, easily credit beaumont's account, that many mules are annually lost in consequence of the tempestuous weather on the col. we did not, however, taste any of the mule-hams at the cabaret, which, according to that writer, are afforded to the frugal natives by these casualties, but contented ourselves with a spoonful of brandy, and a taste of their good brown bread. had our stomachs been desperate, other refreshments, i believe, were to be had. the view to the north from this "raw and gusty" ridge affords a more striking idea of height and space combined, than any other prospect with which i am acquainted; though not on the whole so imposing as the first glimpse of the swiss side of the simplon. the eye is carried directly over two or three lower peaks of the col, grinning with snow drifts, to the great range of alps south-west of mont cenis, which appear hanging in mid air like the domains of a cloud-king; their jagged and glittering tops distinctly defined, but their bases melting into the hazy abyss which the plain of piedmont presents. as far as i can estimate, we were about five hours in performing the ascent from tende. two more hours took us to limone, at a jog trot, down a zigzag road, less abrupt in its turns than that on the other side. at limone the post-road to turin begins. the post-house is a tolerably good inn: the douaniers, the most troublesome we had yet met with, refusing to compound for the customary donation, and asking for money when their search was ended. we had, therefore, the sweet revenge of first watching them as pick-pockets, and next refusing them as beggars. to coni fifteen miles; the first seven or eight through a beautiful valley fringed with chestnut woods; every thing, however, appeared diminutive, as our eyes had not yet recovered the strain which the enormous scenery of the col had occasioned. in this fine open valley, goitres abound as much as near sion; this malady, therefore, cannot be attributed, as some think, to the stagnation of air. coni, a neat arcaded town, deserves mention for the beauty of its situation, and the fine alpine panorama which it commands. the glittering pinnacle of monte viso, is the most striking feature through this and the following day's journey. june 5.--breakfasted at savigliano, a large flourishing town; slept at carignan, and reached turin to breakfast next day. june 6.--the best of turin is seen in the general survey of the town and its princely environs, particularly on the moncaliere side. our principal amusement was derived from zuchelli's masterly performance at the opera buffa. the plot of the piece turned partly on the discomfitures and discontents of a supercilious english dandy, which part this singer performed with an immoveable countenance, which kept us in a roar of laughter, his grave rich toned bass voice giving a double effect to the solemn absurdity of the character. for the sake of avoiding open offence to our countrymen, the hero was styled a danish count; but the portrait was perfect to the very tail of the coat, and could not be mistaken, and the countenances of some of his prototypes in the next box showed, that the satire, fair and gentlemanly as it was, cut deeper than the awkward puppet-show of "les anglaises pour rire." the neapolitan character was handled more unmercifully in the part of a guttling, fulsome old coxcomb, as cowardly as the dane was quarrelsome. milan, its inimitable cathedral, and its other curiosities, have, i am aware, been well-trodden ground for some years. no one, however, appears to notice the courier's little spaniel in the archduke rainier's hall, who has watched for his master's return from russia more than a year without stirring from his mat, and whom the good-natured viceroy feeds and protects without allowing him to be disturbed. i hope he will find a place in some future animal biography, for the credit of his species. as to the splendid fête dieu, which we just arrived in time to witness, with its military, civil, and ecclesiastical pageantry,--the beggar-boys plucking the guttering wax from the long tapers of the priests, and the priests occasionally singeing their noses in return, i could no more undertake to describe, than to sort a bag of gaudy feathers of different birds. the best companion over the simplon with which i am acquainted, is a little french tract, written, i think, by a m. mallet, and touching slightly, but sufficiently, on all subjects of interest connected with that stupendous route. the short account which it gives of the life of cardinal borromeo may be read through while walking up the hill of arona to visit his colossal statue, which deserves a higher rank than perhaps it holds, either as a work of art or an achievement of labour. the attitude of the figure is easy and graceful, and the artist has managed the flowing cardinal's robe with great taste. there is also an expression of benevolence and majesty in the countenance and extended hand, suitable to one's conceptions of this apostolic character, who seems looking and waving a blessing on his native arona. the height of the figure and pedestal is stated at 104 feet; but the effect of its grace and proportion renders this difficult of belief, until you look back at the distance of two miles on the road to baveno, and see it like a walking giant overtopping the neighbouring woods by more than the head and shoulders. with this noble statue ends my admiration of borromean taste: for it is not to be borne that the isola bella, which nature intended as a central finish to such a fairy land as the lago maggiore, should have been tortured into a piece of confectionary less elegant than the good taste of gunter or grange would have devised as the centre of a bowl of lemon cream. the isola madre, it is true, is beautiful; for no italian landscape gardener has yet assailed it with his line and rule. our welcome into switzerland was novel, but pleasing to lovers of animals. several herds of cattle met us on our road to brieg, accompanying their masters to the mountain chalets, and fairly beset us with their attentions. the cows crowded and shouldered each other to be scratched; one large goat; slipping under their legs, put her head under my arm, and took my hand in her mouth; and a whole flock of sheep turned round and ran after us in order to obtain more notice. i had no idea before that any animal but the dog might be tamed to such a degree of instinctive tact, as to perceive whether or not its caresses will be acceptable to a stranger; and i am convinced, that the celebrated ritson might have made more converts to his braminical system by importing and exhibiting a swiss flock, than by writing a book against animal food, and classing eggs as a vegetable succedaneum. it would be as superfluous to describe the well-known ground of switzerland, as that of cumberland; and indeed when once within sight of geneva, one is almost at home. one and one only stage seems to remain, more desirable still. "cum peregrino, labore fossi venimus larem ad nostram, desideratoque acquiescimus lecto." the end. * * * books published by james cawthorn, cockspur street. itinerary of provence and the rhone, made during the year 1819, by john hughes, a.m. of oriel college, oxford: illustrated by the following views, engraved in the line manner from drawings by dewint, by w.b. cooke, g. cook, and j.c. allen. royal quarto or imperial octavo. isle of st. marguerite, the prison of the masque de fer--château rochepot--lyons--lyons cathedral--mont blanc from a height above lyons--tower of mauconseil, vienne--château la serve--valence and dauphine mountains--montelimart--château grignan, two views--castle of montdragon--triumphal arch at orange--avignon, two views--aqueduct of pont du gard--castle of beaucaire and bridge of boats--tarascon--arch and mausoleum at st. remy--orgon--bay of marseilles--cannes, where buonaparte remained the night of his landing from elba, and where murat sheltered when he fled from naples, two view--maritime alps, from the castle of nice--castle of tende. *** this work is sold with or without the illustrations. "i informed my friend that i had just received from england a journal of a tour in the south of france by a young oxonian friend of mine, a poet, a draughtsman, and a scholar,--in which he gives such an animated and interesting description of the château grignan, the dwelling of madame de sevigné's beloved daughter, and frequently the place of her own residence, that no one who ever read the book would be within forty miles of the same, without going a pilgrimage to the spot. the marquis smiled, seemed very much pleased, and asked the title at length of the work in question; and writing down to my dictation, 'an itinerary of provence and the rhone made during the year 1819, by john hughes, a.m. of oriel college, oxford,'--observed, he could now purchase no books for the château, but would recommend that the itineraire should be commissioned for the library to which he was abonné in the neighbouring town."--_sir walter scott's quentin durward_. "the tower of mauconseil must have been very difficult to express; for the water on the right is between a light coloured stone-quay and the tower itself, also very bright; yet the artist, w.b. cooke, has contrived to give it a fine and natural transparency entirely in keeping with the scenery around. the second is a simple and lovely landscape, with a sky exquisitely managed: but avignon is still a greater favourite with us. the rich architectural structures on one hand, the silvery river, the picturesque bridge, the distant alps of dauphiné, and the little bit of rustic scenery on the foreground of the left, all combine to render this a very charming view; and mr. allen has great merit in executing it as he has done. the château grignan is of a different and darker character, and an extremely interesting performance. upon the whole, the lovers of elegant art will find this publication well entitled to their attention."--_literary gazette_, no. 309. a journey through albania and other provinces of turkey in europe and asia, in company with the late lord byron; including a life of ali pasha, and illustrated by views of athens, constantinople, and various other plates, maps, &c. by john cam hobhouse, esq. m.p. second edition, with corrections. 2 vols. 4to. 5l. 5s. boards. "both the general reader and the scholar may look for no small portion of information and amusement from the present volume. the work itself will have a standard place in all collections of voyages and travels; a place which it will fully merit, by the industry and ardour of research conspicuous throughout, as well as by the spirit vivacity and good sense of the general narrative."--_quarterly review_, xix. "the narrative which he has produced bears unquestionable marks of a curious, capacious and observant mind; and the same may be said of the poetical production of his friend lord byron, who accompanied him on his travels. as reviewers are sometimes charged with a propensity to cavilling, we will not close these introductory remarks without declaring in round terms in justice to mr. hobhouse, and in vindication of ourselves, that we have received as much pleasure and instruction from the perusal of these travels as from that of any others which have ever come before us," &c. &c.--_british review_, no. ix. horæ ionicæ, descriptive of the ionian isles and part of the adjacent coast of greece, together with other poems. by waller rodwell wright, esq. third edition. 7s 6d. boards. "wright?[58] 'twas thy happy lot at once to view those shores of glory, and to sing them too; and sure no common muse inspired thy pen to hail the land of gods and godlike men." [footnote 58: 'mr. wright, late consul general for the seven islands, is author of a very beautiful poem just published: it is entitled horæ ionicæ, and is descriptive of the isles and the adjacent coast of greece.'--_lord byron's english bards_.] an historical sketch of the last years of the reign of gustavus the fourth, late king of sweden, including a narrative of the causes, progress, and termination of the late revolution; and an appendix containing official documents, letters, and minutes of conversations between the late king and sir john moore, general brune, &c. &c. 10s. 6d. boards. beauties of don juan; including those passages only which are calculated to extend the real fame of lord byron. 10s. 6d. "this is a very captivating volume with all the impurities of don juan expurgated, and yet displaying a galaxy of connected lustre, which is well calculated to throw a halo of splendour round the memory of lord byron. it may with perfect propriety be put into female hands, from which the levities and pruriences of the entire poem too justly excluded it in spite of all its charms of genius."--_literary gazette_, 599. "we cannot conclude our observations without again congratulating the compiler upon the success which has attended his labour, and strongly recommending the work to those who desire that the female branches of their family should participate in the beauties of this modern prince of poesy."--_public ledger_. an account of the empire of morocco and the district of suse, compiled from miscellaneous observations during a long residence in and various journies through those countries. to which is added, an interesting account of timbuctoo, the great emporium of central africa. by j.g. jackson, esq. quarto. second edition. 2l. 12s. 6d. boards. "the observations which he has himself made upon these parts, and the notices which he has collected respecting the interior from native travellers, form a work of considerable value both in a commercial and literary view, and leads us to rejoice that merchants who have resided in foreign countries are beginning more and more to communicate information on their return home," &c. &c.--_edinburgh review_. melanges et litterature d'histoire de morale et de philosophie, par comte d'escherney. 3 vols. 1l. 1s. the wonders of a week at bath, in a doggrel address to the hon. t. s----, from f. t----, esq. of that city. price 7s. boards. it contains a satirical description of the present style of life and amusements at bath, with delineations of some individual characters. his lines are easy and flowing, and his _general_ satire not wanting in vivacity," &c. &c.--_british critic_. memoirs of the life of mrs. elizabeth carter, with a new edition of her poems. by the rev. montagu pennington, m.a. 2 vols. 8vo. second edition. 10s. 6d. boards. traits and trials; a novel. 2 vols. 14s. boards. "a pretty little tale, in which we find more discernment of character and acquaintance with human nature than are usually discoverable in the first attempts of novel writers,"--_monthly review_. ourika; a tale by the duchess de duras. 2s. 6d. "about a month ago a very pretty story under this title was published in paris. it soon not only attracted attention but became quite the rage; and every thing in fashion and drama and picture has since been ourika. there are ourika dresses, ourika vaudevilles, ourika prints. madlle. mars blacked her face to perform ourika, but did not like her appearance in the glass, and refused the character. such an event, like mad. george's insult, was enough to set all that sensitive metropolis in a flame; and every mouth and every journal has rung and is ringing with ourika."--_literary gazette_, 383. the lay of the scottish fiddle; a poem in five cantos. 7s. 6d. boards. "i believe that the nature of this american poem was known to the proprietor of the quarterly review. so far as it was a burlesque on the lay of the last minstrel, i know it was; yet was he as a publisher so anxious to get it, that he engaged lord byron to use his utmost influence with me to obtain it for him, and his lordship wrote a most pressing letter upon the occasion. he asked me to let mr. murray, who was in despair about it, have the publication of this poem as the greatest possible favour."--_dallas's recollections of byron_, p. 270. adrastus; a tragedy: amabel, or the cornish lovers; and other poems. by r.c. dallas, esq. 7s. 6d. boards. anecdotes, hitherto _unpublished_, of the private life of peter the great, on the authority of mons. stehling, member of the council of state to the empress catharine, and translated from the french of the count d'escherney, chamberlain to the king of wirtemberg. 5s. boards. "these are some very entertaining anecdotes of peter the great, and place the private character of that sovereign in a most amiable point of view," &c. &c.--_gentleman's mag._ a catalogue of a miscellaneous collection of books, new and second-hand, on sale for ready money. * * * the public are most respectfully informed, they can be supplied with clean and perfect copies of most of the new and costly works _as soon us the first demand has subsided_, at half the publication price. a spring walk in provence _by the same author_ the house of merrilees richard baldock exton manor the squire's daughter the eldest son the honour of the clintons the greatest of these the old order changeth watermeads upsidonia abington abbey the graftons the clintons, and others sir harry many junes a spring walk in provence peggy in toyland [illustration: evening among the olives] a spring walk in provence by archibald marshall author of "exton manor," "sir harry," etc. with illustrations from photographs [illustration] new york dodd, mead and company 1920 copyright, 1920, by dodd, mead and company, inc. the quinn & boden company book manufacturers rahway new jersey to sir owen seaman preface the following pages owe a considerable debt to what others who have been over the same ground have written. mr. t. a. cook's[1] "old provence" (london: rivington's, 2 vols.) is a most valuable record of the history of the country as it attaches to the innumerable places of interest to be visited, and his taste and knowledge when brought to bear upon its architectural remains have greatly enhanced my own appreciation of those rich treasures. i know of no book, either in french or english, from which a visitor to provence could get so much to supplement his own observation, and i have made constant use of it. to mr. thomas okey's[2] "avignon" in dent's "mediæval towns" series, i also owe a great debt of gratitude. the rev. sabine baring-gould's "in troubadour land" (london: w. h. allen), though slighter than those two works, contains much interesting information. mistral's "mes origines" (paris: libraire plon), translated from the provençal, is of course invaluable for its pictures of provençal life, and from that book and from m. paul mariéton's "la terre provençale" (paris: ollendorf) one can get the best information about the movement of the félibrige, which has done so much to revivify the old life of provence. a good deal of desultory information is afforded by m. louis de laincel's "la provence" (paris: oudin), and some of the stories that linger on provençal soil are well told in m. charles-roux's "légendes de provence" (paris: bloud). these books, and the french translation of mistral's "mirèio," which is a mine of provençal lore, besides being a noble poem, have been my chief "authorities," but they have been very usefully supplemented by the various pamphlets to be picked up locally. some of these have been excellent, and i have made mention of their authors in the following pages. the photographs are of my own taking, except those very kindly given to me by mr. hope macey, whom i was fortunate enough to come across in avignon in the course of an expedition that coincided with mine at many points. the one of mistral's birthplace i bought at arles, and those of the picture and tapestry at aix in paris.[3] this account of my spring journey has been finished under the shadow of the great war, which might have caused me to look upon the _jours de conscription_ with which i fell in on the early days of the walk in a light much sadder, if i could have foreseen it. i left provence in a train full of young soldiers going to their homes in various distant parts of france for their easter furlough. of those who crowded the carriage in which i travelled from arles to lyons the faces come before me as clearly as if i saw them in the flesh, and i can hear their songs and jokes and laughter. they seemed to have been drawn from all classes, but to mix in the readiest frankest comradeship. whenever i read now of the french in action i think of those light-hearted boys in their holiday mood, and wonder what they are doing, and how many of them are still alive. one has somewhat changed one's view of the toll that france has taken of her manhood since those days that now seem so far off. chateau d'oex, _august, 1914_. * * * * * the world has changed since this book was written, but i hope that the record of an expedition made in the happy days before the war may still be read with pleasure, now that the great shadow is in part removed. i have been over the manuscript again and made a few alterations here and there, but have altered nothing that shows it to have been written five years ago. burley, hants, _august, 1919_. contents chapter page i. hills and olives 1 ii. flowers and scents 18 iii. in old provence 31 iv. draguignan and saint-maximin 48 v. the church of saint-maximin 68 vi. caius marius and the great battle 85 vii. aix 97 viii. salon and the crau 116 ix. les baux 127 x. les baux (_continued_) 143 xi. mistral 158 xii. saint-remy 168 xiii. avignon 175 xiv. the palace of the popes 190 xv. vaucluse 209 xvi. nimes and the pont du gard 227 xvii. aigues-mortes and the camargue 239 xviii. saintes-maries de la mer 252 xix. saint-gilles and montmajour 266 xx. the last walk. st. michel de frigolet 282 xxi. villeneuve-sur-avignon 301 xxii. arles 311 illustrations evening among the olives _frontispiece_ facing page the road downhill "looks just like a temperature chart" 10 i "posed" him among the ruins 11 a provençal shepherd 44 fayence could be seen on its own hillside 44 how they prune the plane-trees 45 the dolmen near draguignan 45 altar of the crucifixion, saint-maximin 74 the field of the great battle, with mount olympus in the background 75 the canterbury tapestry 106 the famous "tarasque" 107 le buisson ardent 110 porte d'eyguières 111 the castle ruins, les baux 130 the castle dovecot, les baux 131 pavillon de la reine jeanne 140 huguenot chapel in les baux 141 les baux from the castle ruins 150 one of the beauties of les baux 151 mistral's birthplace, mas du juge 160 fresco in the palace of the popes at avignon 161 the mausoleum, saint-remy 170 the triumphal arch, saint-remy 171 sixteenth century doors and virgin and child of eighteenth century, st. pierre, avignon 182 the pont benezet 183 the cathedral, avignon 194 "the popes' palace is most like those almost brutally strong buildings that the romans left" 195 the "fountain," vaucluse 212 the caves above the "fountain" 213 the pont du gard 228 the fountains, nîmes 229 the maison carrée 234 the amphitheatre, nîmes 235 aigues-mortes, the ramparts 244 "looked away to the desolate salt marshes" 245 saintes-maries, the fortress church 256 saint-gilles, the central porch 257 the maison-romaine 276 the staircase in the farmyard at montmajour 277 saint-michel de frigolet 284 the coronation of the virgin, villeneuve-sur-avignon 285 a courtyard in villeneuve 308 the rotunda at villeneuve 309 the arena at arles 312 the greek theatre, arles 313 the cloisters, south walk, st. trophime 316 the cloisters, north walk, st. trophime 317 arles, the alyscamps 320 boy's head in marble, musée lapidaire, arles 321 a spring walk in provence a spring walk in provence chapter i _hills and olives_ i was to walk through the country from the italian border, but it rained so heavily on the first day that i went to mentone and took the mountain tramway to sospel, where in any case i had intended to spend the night. two years ago, before this tram-line was quite finished, i motored up to sospel to play golf. it was a pleasant experience, though not without its thrills, for the road zigzags and corkscrews up mountain sides and across deep gorges in a way to make one thankful for strong brakes and a reliable driver, especially on the return journey. the hillsides are cultivated everywhere. the precipitous slopes have been terraced with infinite labour, and orange and lemon groves surrounding pretty little lodges and cottages, only give way as one mounts higher to the grey-green of olive plantations. when you have climbed up 2,300 feet, the road, as if tired of twisting and turning, boldly attacks the mountain side, runs through a tunnel pierced in the solid rock and comes out on the other side of the peak. then it takes a turn so sharp that not long ago a car coming too fast through the tunnel went over the precipitous edge and all its occupants were killed. the crowning danger safely surmounted, you drop down into a green mountain valley, surrounded by what smollett, who passed through sospel on his way from nice to italy a hundred and fifty years ago, described as "prodigious high and barren mountains." the valley is all verdant pasture, watered by a broad, shallow, tree-shaded river, which, to quote the same authority, "forms a delightful contrast with the hideous rocks surrounding it." all mountains were "hideous" and "horrid" in the eyes of our ancestors. we, as we play along the grassy meadows, and cross here and there the clear river rippling over its pebbles, have come to think that the towering rock-ramparts, upon which the sun and the clouds play with infinite gradations of light and colour, have as much to do with the beauty of the scene as the verdant valley itself, or the little old huddled italian-looking town which hugs both banks of the river. it was that little old town, which the golfer coming up from mentone only skirts on his way to the links, that had remained in my memory, even more than the unusual charm of the links and the excellence of the greens. it stands curiously aside from the wave of modernity that has washed up to it from the wealthy delocalized coast. turn to the right when you reach the corner, and you are still in the atmosphere of the côte d'azur, although you are fifteen miles inland from mentone; turn to the left and you are in southern provincial france, in a street of little shops and little _cafés_ and _buvettes_, and pick your way amongst a crowd of peasants and townspeople, buying and selling, talking of their crops and their commerce, and as little concerned with what is going on half a mile away as if they had never seen a mashie or a putter, and none of them had ever shouldered a bag of clubs for a curiously-garbed curiously-spoken foreigner. probably it is only the caddies or the ex-caddies who ever mention golf in the town of sospel. it stands so aloof that even its prices have not yet been affected by the lavish ways of the holiday coast, with which it has formed this late new connection. so i turned to the left. i wanted to have done for a time with everything english, and more particularly with the sort of hotel that has an english-speaking waiter, or indeed a waiter at all. sospel was to provide me with my first genuine experience of a french inn, as used by the people of the country and not by the tourist. sospel rose adequately to the occasion, as i had thought it would. i found an hotel facing the market stalls and the river beyond them. i went up a flight of stone stairs and into a kitchen, which was also the bureau of the _patronne_. yes, i could have a room for the night, and the charge would be two francs. i went up to see the room. it had a tiled floor, which was very clean, a large four-poster bed hung round with muslin curtains, and a few old cumbrous pieces of furniture besides--just the sort of room i wanted. i had a good dinner, which i ate in company with four _commis voyageurs_ and an engineer, all of whom were cordially interested in my coming expedition, and none of whom had a word of english or seemed to have any idea in their minds of connecting sospel with golf. i felt that i had fallen plumb into it by taking that left-hand turn, and it needed an effort to call to mind the great new hotel at the other end of the links two miles away, where no diner had tucked his napkin inside his collar, or would soak his dessert biscuits in his wine; where the waiter brought a clean knife and fork for every course, and the proprietor would have requested me to leave if i had sat down in the clothes in which i intended to walk on the morrow. i felt happy, as i went to bed at nine o'clock, after a look at the rapid-flowing river on which the moon was now shining through the parting clouds. the fun had begun. i felt happier still at six o'clock the next morning, when i took the road with my pack on my back. the clouds had blown away from the mountain tops, though wisps of them hung about the lower slopes, and the cup of the valley still held a light mist. it was going to be a lovely day, and perhaps hotter than would be altogether comfortable for a walker habited and burdened as i was. for it was still early in march, and i had come down from alpine snows. moreover, the replenishments of clothing that i had sent on ahead were at least a week away, and i carried "changes" to a rather nervous extent; also some reading matter, which is a mistake, for books weigh heavy, however light their contents, and if your day on the road is not filled with walking, eating and sleeping, and whatever recreation in the way of talk may come to you, you are not throwing yourself enough into the spirit of your adventure. the road wound and turned and twisted, always going uphill, but never very steeply. i was on the old high road from the north, where it enters on its last stage of about five and twenty miles to nice. i thought i must have come near to its highest point when i had climbed up on a level with the heavy fort that frowned on me from a hill near by, and sat down to take my last look at the green valley now lying far beneath me. it showed as a level carpet of vivid green, broken by the grey mass and outlying buildings of the town, with the river threading it lengthwise. the hills rose up sheer on every side. their lower slopes were so regularly terraced that at this distance they had the effect of horizontal "shadings" in a pencil drawing. above that they were grey, and dark green, and red as with heather, and the summits of some of them still held snow. white roads jagged them here and there, but the flat valley floor had the effect of being completely cupped and confined by the rugged heights, as indeed it is, except just where the river, having filled up the bottom of the cup with a rich layer of alluvium, must have broken through at some time, and left the fertile plain all ready and waiting for cultivation. it was like looking down on a miniature promised land, so marked was the contrast between the fresh green of the valley and the sombre tones of its encircling hills. this southern country flushes to tender spring green only here and there. the cultivated hillsides keep their darker colours, though they may be most sweetly lit with the pink of almonds. march would be a glorious month in provence if it were only for the almond blossom. mixed with the soft grey of the olives it makes delicious pictures, and it is to be found everywhere. and the wild rosemary is in flower--great bushes of it, lighting up the rocky hillsides with their delicate blue. they were all around me as i sat on this height, and there were brooms getting ready to flower, and wild lavender, and thyme. the air held an aromatic fragrance, and as i walked on between the pines and the deciduous trees, not yet in leaf, the birds were singing and the water rushing down its channels from the snowy heights very musically. there were primroses and violets by the roadside, as if it had been spring in england, and juicy little grape hyacinths to remind one that it was not. there was something to look at and enjoy at every step. i was nowhere near the top of the pass, as i had thought, but reached it at last at the col de braus, where i found a rude little inn, and entered it not without reluctance in search of refreshment. i found myself in a vaulted stone kitchen, its floor below the level of the ground outside. an elderly woman sat by the hearth, winding wool, with a child playing at her knee; a younger woman brought me wine and bread and cheese. the place was very dirty, but the wine was good and the viands eatable. the older woman was a picture of grief as she sat under the great stone chimney and told me how hard life was in that exposed spot, especially in the winter, when they were sometimes flooded out of the lower rooms. and now they had taken away her only son, for his military service, and what she should do without him she could not think. it was a hard tax on poor mothers. in three years, when he had done with the army, who knew? she might be dead. "but you have a husband, madame, isn't it so? otherwise they could not take him." yes; she had a husband. she nodded her head slowly with infinite meaning, and as if to interpret it there entered the room an extremely unattractive person, dirtier even than his dirty surroundings, who addressed her, or the younger woman, or perhaps me, in a flood of intemperate speech, of which i could not make out a single word. nobody answered him, and he slouched out of the room again. "is that your husband, madame?" she nodded her head slowly up and down, without speaking. i could see for myself. we talked about the little child, and her face lighted up. presently the husband came in again, and expressed himself in his unrecognizable tongue with as much freedom and fervour as before. again nobody took any notice of him, and again he went out. i don't know whether he was drunk or not, but am inclined now to think that he only wanted to be. i was sure that he was annoyed with me, for some reason, by the way he glared at me, and as i was a customer and prepared to pay for my entertainment it must either have been because i did not offer him any or because i was interfering with the hour of his own repast. i think it is likely that his bark, which was strident enough, was worse than his bite, that he was merely a ne'er-do-well with an unusual gift of self-expression, which had ceased to interest those about him. his wife took no steps to carry out whatever may have been his wishes at this particular juncture of circumstances, and her attitude of frozen grief, effective at the time, thawed enough to enable her to make a mild overcharge when i came to settle up. she gave me permission to take a photograph of the room and its occupants if i wished to do so, but i said that the light was not good enough, and came away. now i changed my view for a different set of hills, and began to descend on roads that zigzagged more than ever. there was a good deal of quarrying going on. great blocks of stone were lying by the roadside ready to be built up into the parapet, and presently i came upon a group of italian workmen busy with their picks and crowbars. i don't know why, after all these years, the enormous work of protecting this old road should be taken in hand, but certainly there are places in it at which a fall over the edge can hardly be thought of without a shudder, and with the surface in the muddy state in which i found it a motor-car might easily skid with danger. at one place, if you stand where it rounds a point and look down to where it takes another slope, it looks just like a temperature chart, where the thermometer has taken a series of rises and drops and at last runs off steadily downwards. this long downward slope led me at last to welcome shade, and i found a little lawn under olive boughs, below the road and above a river gorge which was an ideal place for a siesta. if food and drink are so good when one is on the long steady tramp, sleep is no less so. there are those who scorn it except at night between sheets, but when one has made an early start, and has covered many miles by the time the sun has reached its greatest power, it is pleasant enough to sleep for an hour under the shade of a tree, and to wake up refreshed for what remains to be done of the day's journey. the sound of the river beneath me, and the birds singing all around, lulled me to sleep. but for this there was no sound, except a very rare noise of wheels, and once a motor-car, on the road above, to arouse me for a moment and to make the sinking back into sleep more blissful. the first time, on an expedition of this sort, that you take your pack for a pillow, mother earth for your bed and green leaves for your canopy, there is something that falls away from you of the troubles and irritations of the world. you are as near to nature as you are ever likely to be in this sophisticated age, and nature will smooth things out for you if you trust yourself to her. [illustration: the road downhill "looks just like a temperature chart"] [illustration: i "posed" him among the ruins _page 20_] i dropped down to l'escaréne, a picturesque old town with an ancient bridge straddling across the quick-flowing river. but before i reached it i was met by a man with a drum and several intoxicated youths carrying a flag, who cried "vive la république" and "vive l'armée," with the most patriotic fervour. i had begun my walk just at the time when the conscripts were being called up from their homes all over france, and lived in the thick of the concomitant disturbances during the next few days. these rather pathetic little processions of service-old boys, usually accompanied by middle-aged men more drunk than they were, trailing out of a town and back again, became a commonplace. they shouted at me frequently, but never rudely. i sat under a naked vine-trellis on a raised terrace outside an inn and drank wine. a talkative damsel, with needlework to occupy her hands, but nothing to keep her fine eyes from noting everything that happened in the _place_, for the observation of which this was a vantage-ground, kept me company. she explained to me, with much shrugging of shapely shoulders, some of the differences between the _patois_ used in this part of the country and the true french, but she disclaimed knowledge of provençal. i was in provence, but not yet among the true provençals--unless i mistook her altogether, which is quite possible. she gave me excited and exhaustive instructions how to reach the hill town of berre, where i had thought to spend the night. i had had a description of it from the engineer in whose company i had dined the evening before, and when i came within sight of it, perched on its rock summit, an hour or two later, its high walls and dominating church tower lit by the westering sun, it gave me a little thrill--it was so beautiful, and so just right. it was just right to look at from a distance, or for a walk through its narrow twisting alleys, part staircase, part passage, part drain. there is nothing more picturesque than these little rock-perched towns and villages that lie behind the italian and french rivieras. they are as untouched as anything in the way of congregated buildings can be in these days, and carry your imagination right back into the past. and i had thought that a night spent in some old inn in one of them would strengthen that touch of romance for me. but in berre there was no inn such as i had pictured, where one would sleep in such a room as i had slept in the night before and awake to a glorious view as from some commanding tower. there were two _cafés_, and i penetrated one of them in search of dinner and a bed. militarism was being celebrated with much consumption of fluid, and much singing and shouting, and the place was very dirty, and had that air of hard discomfort and newness which is the peculiar property of french _buvettes_ of the poorer sort. i was not sorry to be told that it was impossible for me to have a bed there. i think i could have got one by pressing for it, but i did not press. the romance of berre was oozing out fast, and i still had in me the four miles or so that would take me to contes, in the valley below. the revellers here were all men of middle age, or at any rate long past the age at which the new three years' service could affect them personally, but their enthusiasm for it was very great. one of them, who had detached himself from the rest while i had been making my enquiries and was reeling down the road waving a branch of mimosa and singing loudly, showed me the way to contes; for i already knew better than to follow the road, which always approaches these high-perched villages in an over-deliberate fashion for pedestrians. he was very amiable about it, and i rather feared that he would offer to go with me. but he only came a little way, to where he could point me out a mule-track, and during our walk together i understood him to be persuading me, and possibly himself, that he was on the eve of gaining much military glory. but he was bald and pot-bellied, and i think that he was only touched by that noble and unselfish enthusiasm which takes patriotic men when there is question of other people doing their duty. dusk was falling, and i went down stony paths between olive gardens, which are very peaceful and mysterious in twilight. i met some of the inhabitants of berre mounting slowly to their little town after their day's work. most of the women carried cut olive boughs on their heads, and some of the men drove asses laden with them. it was the time of pruning, and olive leaves are very acceptable to most animals as food. by and bye i had the track to myself, and sometimes lost it, but i did not much mind. i could see the lights of contes below me, and whenever i found myself on a path that seemed to lead aside from them i took a straight line over the terraces till i found a more suitable one. i was rather tired, but rest and refreshment were not far off, and it was soothing to the spirit to walk in this odorous dusk, and in such quietness. it was quite dark by the time i came to contes, and i was quite ready for my dinner. but i did not reach it for some time yet. when i had gone down long, steep, paved paths between walls to what seemed to be the heart of the town i had to go down much farther still until i thought i should never come to the end of things. but at last, there was the bottom of the hill, and an hotel, no less, with a garden in front of it. i sat down in the _café_, since, although a room was promised me, there was no suggestion of taking me to it, and at the moment i had no wish to mount stairs even for the sake of a wash. there are certain habits of civilization that are very easily dropped. one comes to the end of a day's march, and one's first desire is for rest, one's second for food and drink; and in these little inns this sequence of desire seems to be well understood. it seemed quite natural to exchange my heavy dusty boots for a pair of slippers out of my pack, sitting by the table, to pass at once to the consumption of wine, and as soon as might be to the consumption of food, without any further preparation. the wine was very good, with a slight tang that was almost a sparkle in it, and as i sat blissfully at rest with it the room was invaded first by a man with a drum, then by a man with a cornet, then by several more men with very loud voices. i was immediately whisked away by the youth who had received me, and who seemed to be in sole charge of the place, into another little room across a passage, where he presently served me with dinner, consisting of soup, an omelette, beef, potatoes and carrots, cheese, oranges, and biscuits, and another litre of the good wine. soon after that he showed me a clean little room, in which i slept deeply, hardly disturbed by the voices of the _jour de fête_ beneath me, and was only once thoroughly awakened, at about one o'clock, by a great bustle of arrival in a room adjoining mine. the busy young man was still as active as possible at that hour, but he was quite ready to give me my coffee at six o'clock the next morning, at a little table in the garden. he had also thoroughly cleaned my boots, but before i left i heard him called a marauder for something or other he had omitted to do for the two gentlemen who had arrived in the night. for the whole of this entertainment i paid five francs and a half, and the helpful and willing young man explained that the charge was rather high because i had drunk two litres of wine. and so i came happily to my second day, in the bright spring sunshine. chapter ii _flowers and scents_ if you look at a map of this coast, before it begins to run south from cagnes and villeneuve, you will see that the hills stretch down to the sea like the fingers of a hand spread out, and the main roads run down between them. i should have preferred to keep away from the coast and cross the remaining ranges by tracks and footpaths, but i wanted to see a relative who lives at nice. otherwise i should never have gone near such a place, for which i was quite unsuited, both in spirit and attire. contes is only fourteen miles or so from nice by a good road, and i thought i might pay my visit, and in the afternoon get back into the hills again. but crowning the ridge opposite to the one i had come down the night before was the old deserted town of châteauneuf, and in the soft early morning sunshine it looked so attractive that i thought i would go up to it, and walk down to nice along the valley on the other side. it was a steep and stony climb. when i got a little way up i was already glad i had embarked upon it, for if i had gone down by the road i should have missed the glorious view i had looking back upon contes, and upon berre on its wooded height far above it. i saw now that contes itself was a most picturesque little town on a hill of its own, crowned by the spire of its church, that its outlying houses ran straggling up the higher slope down which i had come, and that the inn at which i had slept was in another little group right at the bottom of the hill. it was not nearly so large as it had seemed to me in the dark, but it was wonderfully picturesque, from whatever shifting point of view i saw it. i sat for half an hour outside a little inn before i climbed the last steep slope to the ruins above me. they loomed big and massive, and i asked why the place had been deserted. owing to lack of water, they told me, but there was still a woman who inhabited it with her children, and had some small "lands" to cultivate thereabouts. there were a few little pocket handkerchiefs of terraced soil among the lower ruined walls, and some tall cypresses growing among the scattered stones. but it was a scene of desolation when one went along what had been a street or lane of the village. the ruin was too far advanced to tell many stories, and only the glorious view, which embraced the sea to the south and all the great panorama of the hills and distant mountains elsewhere, made the reward of the climb. a ragged child came running towards me over the stones. i "posed" him among the ruins which were his habitation, and asked him questions about them, which he did not answer. i found his mother, with some smaller children, in a dwelling not so very uncomfortable, and she was pleasant with me, and said there was no lack of water at all in châteauneuf, and it was a convenient enough place to live in, and cheap. there was not much to stay there for. the ragged child was instructed to take me to some grotto or other which his mother said was well worth seeing, and he did accompany me a few hundred yards on my way down the other side of the hill; but i saw nothing of any grotto, and presently he went back again. a depression of spirit came upon me as i walked down the road to nice, which, however, was picturesque enough, passing for some distance through a narrow gorge with a foaming river running along the bottom of it. but there were people in carriages and motor-cars, and presently there were tram-lines and untidy-looking buildings such as always hang on to the skirts of a french town. i was coming into a sort of civilization that i wanted none of at that time. i cut short the approach by taking a tram, and i will say nothing more of nice except that i spent the rest of the day and the night there. it took me a long time to get out of it the next morning, and in fact its atmosphere seemed to hang about me all day. i walked along the pavement of the interminable promenade des anglais, drank coffee at an _auberge_ somewhere at the end of it, and then took a tram to cagnes, where they play golf. i must not be taken to throw scorn upon nice because it did not happen to be the sort of place i wanted at that particular time. it is the chief of the pleasure cities of that sunny flowery coast, and was so when all the rest were mere fishing villages. it is bright and gay, and fronts its curving shore with a flaunting elaboration of architecture that spells wealth and luxury down to the smallest eccentric pavilion. and this wealth and luxury spreads its influence for miles around. it was evident in the little _café restaurant_ at which i rested early in the afternoon, which was just off the dusty high road to grasse, and was continually passed by motor-cars speeding along in either direction. it was not a place at which any of them were ever likely to stop, but i was charged at least double prices for the mild refreshment that i took, and when i had paid for it was requested to leave as soon as possible, for the lady of the house wished to shut it up and go and wash at the fountain. i was sitting outside, and could only have carried off a chair and a table if i had been minded to carry off anything, but i was not to be allowed to sit there a little longer. she had got my money and wanted to see my back. i walked on, into the land of flowers--flowers grown not for their beauty but for their scent, and grown in terraced fields, just like any other crop. grasse, the centre of the industry, draws supplies for its scents and soaps, pomades and oils, from miles of country around it, and i was getting near to grasse. there were great plantations of roses, all carefully pruned and trained on low trellises, but not yet in flower. sometimes the rows were interspersed with vines, and many of the fields were bordered with mulberries. there were ledges covered with the green foliage of violets, and great double heads of purple, scented bloom peeping out of it. there were fields of jasmine, of tuberoses; terraces of lavender, of lilies of the valley, carnations, mignonette; gardens of orange trees, grown more for their flowers than for their fruit; and of course groves of olives, of which the oil forms so important a part in the local manufactures. this day and the next day i walked for miles with the scent of flowers all about me. i climbed up to another châteauneuf; there must be a round dozen of them in provence alone, and they are all very old. this was another most picturesque hill town, and again i thought i might get a bed there. but i could get no such thing, and after sitting for half an hour on a terrace and enjoying the wide view i set out again as the sun sank behind the hills to walk to grasse. i had come up by a wide sweeping road, and took a short cut down through the olive groves to where i thought i should strike it again. but my sense of direction, never very strong, failed me altogether, and i don't know where i might have wandered to if i had not frequently caught sight of the lights of grasse in the distance. presently i seemed to be going right away from them, but between me and them there was a deep valley, and i knew that the road which i ought to have taken, or found again, kept to the level on my right. so i turned, to round the slope of the hill which would take me on to it. i wandered for an hour up paths and down paths and along the edges of terraces where there were no paths, but keeping my face generally to the right quarter. the lights of grasse shone more and more plainly between the tree-trunks, but were still a very long way off. sometimes i came across little secluded farms, and in the garden of one of them a great stretch of yellow jonquil shone in the dusk like a square of sunshine left behind from the departed day, and its fragrance followed me for a long way. from another a dog barked and somewhat alarmed me, for dogs are not to be lightly regarded in this country. later on i should have been more alarmed still, for reasons which will presently appear. but this dog did no more than bark savagely, and bye and bye, when it was quite dark, i came out onto the road, not so very far from châteauneuf, round which i had walked almost in full circle. i was still four miles or so from grasse, but had no wish to walk there if i could find my dinner and bed closer at hand, and just beyond where i had come out onto the road there was an inn, in which i got both. i think this place was called pré du lac, but am not sure. i dined in the _café_, which was so large as to take up nearly the whole of the ground floor. there was a billiard table in it, but it was in a corner and seemed to make small impression on the floor space. as i sat at my table against a wall, the people of the inn dined at another one, pushed up against an iron stove, and at such a distance from mine that we had to raise our voices in talking to one another. they were an interesting group, but i had some difficulty in making out their relationship. there was a woman at the head of things, bustling and voluble, who brought me one special dish, which she said was a _plat du pays_, and not given to every guest. i have forgotten all about it, except that it was good. there was a man with one eye who may have been her husband, but i think he was only a friend of the family. there was a married daughter, rather handsome, with a small child who went to sleep over his macaroni. these sat at the table. but there were besides, a son, who was to be off on his military service the next day, and a girl who may have been a younger daughter. she wore a boy's cloth cap and a black skirt, and looked very much like a kentish hop-picker. these two hovered about the scene. there were also people coming in now and then, to bring something or to take something away, and they all stayed for a word or two before going out into the night, and slamming the door. one man, who had just cut his beard very short, or else had not shaved for a week, came to fill a bottle with wine. he stood for a minute or two by the table, talking loudly, and then made for the door, still talking. by the time he reached it he had found something to say that took him back to the table, where he stayed for another two or three minutes. then he went to the door again, stood there as before, and came back. he did this six or seven times. he first came in as i finished my soup, and finally left us as i was peeling my orange, and i am quite sure that he pictured himself as having stopped just to say a word, and told his wife so when he got home with the wine for their meal. i watched them as they sat and stood there, talking vociferously, and frequently all at the same time, and thought how different they were from our northern peasantry. they live far better; the poorest of them have well-cooked food and wholesome natural wine as a matter of course. their ideas flow more freely, and they take a great delight in imparting them. they are not so much under the domination of richer men. one could not, in england, walk through the country and drop down to the way of life of the peasantry without a conscious and possibly irksome process of self-adjustment--as irksome to them as to oneself. there one lives exactly as they do, and lives better than in most middle-class houses in england; and they will talk to you freely, and interest you. i went over and sat at their table, while the one-eyed man and the married daughter played a game of cards, which they explained to me but i did not understand, and offered me most fragrant coffee, from the stove at the lady's elbow. the _patronne_ came in, and gave me a liqueur glass of rum, which she said would be good for me. a handsome young man in the clothes of a plasterer came in and watched the card game, and another rather older man joined the circle, together with the son and the girl in the cloth cap, who had carried off the sleeping child and put him to bed. she was smoking a cigarette. i suggested that the rum should go round to my order, but only the _patronne_ herself, the one-eyed man and the young plasterer accepted it. the budding soldier would have done so, but his mother forbade him. the talk was of military service, as it had been throughout the evening. they all disliked the new three years' law, except the one-eyed man, who said that soldiering was all fun and no work, and you saw the world. but they cried out at him that he had never done military service, and he subsided and helped himself largely to counters out of the pool. they were all as genial as possible with me, looked at my map with interest, and suggested various places that i might visit. the conscript presently showed me up to my room, which was bare but clean, and asked me how many handkerchiefs i had with me. i thought it was rather a personal question, but showed them to him, and he deluged each one with a different scent. he said they were the best scents that could be obtained in or around grasse, and they were certainly very strong. for some days thereafter my "essences turned the live air sick," and one of the handkerchiefs now, after several washings, retains a faint commemorative odour. but the attention i valued, though the scent i came to dislike extremely. they were nice people, all of them, though a little greedy, as next morning's settling up showed. but i was still on the high road between nice and grasse, and i suppose was fair game. the weather was still lovely as i set out early in the morning, and grasse was a sight to see, with its towers and roofs lit up by the sun, as it stood on its dominating height over the wide valley, in which the light mists still lingered. i walked right through the town, but if i had not already seen something of the processes by which the scents from the miles of flowery fields through which i was passing are extracted and hoarded, i think i should have stayed to do so. for i am so constituted that every manufacturing process remains a complete and insoluble mystery to me until i have seen it, and yet arouses my curiosity and my willing interest. it was about this time of the year that i had visited one of the light, airy factories of grasse. i remember a huge, scented mass of the heads of violets heaped up on a white sheet on one of the upstairs floors. it was half as high as i was, and smelt divinely. these were the only flowers in evidence, for the full harvest, when all the great space of this chamber would be covered with gathered blossoms, was not yet. but there were sacks of lavender there besides, and bundles of sweet-scented roots--orris, and patchouli, and _vétiver_--which can be turned into essences as sweet as those taken from the flowers themselves. i remember in other rooms boiling vats, very clean, and bright copper vessels, and great stills; and casks full of the fine grease which is used to catch and hold the distilled essences. it is spread on sheets of glass, framed in wood, like school slates, which are stacked in tiers; and other tiers hold the wooden trays for the flower-heads ready to be treated. and of course there were great stores of attractive flasks and bottles, all labelled and ribboned, and ready to take their places in the shops of bond street or the rue de la paix, and every other place where there is a market for them. there was a room, too, with machinery for turning out scented soap. you saw a soft fat pink deliciously-smelling roll squeezed out of a press, and in no time sections were cut off and stamped in another press into cakes ready for the toilet table. i must confess that i have only the dimmest idea now as to the actual details of the various processes by which the scent of the flowers is stoppered up into the aristocratic bottles, but i have seen it all done, and the impression remains on my mind that any scent that bears a label from grasse does come from the flowers themselves, and with no adulteration that i could see anywhere. chapter iii _in old provence_ i now finally left behind me the cosmopolitan coast, and came into the true provence. my objective was the old city of aix, which lay almost due east, across country in which there are not many places standing out on the map as of any importance, but which seemed to me rather more attractive on that account. once at aix, one would be in the thick of it. avignon, nîmes, arles, and a score of points of interest lie within a few miles of one another. when i reached this rich and crowded corner, the adventure of walking through unknown country would take second place. but at least as long as the weather held i wanted to be on foot, and in the country that lies apart from the main tourist routes. when i had passed beyond the sphere of the villas with their flowery gardens the road became rather lonely. the fields of blossom became rarer, but there were vines and olives everywhere. the earth was red, and looked rich, and the hills on either side of me took on all sorts of lovely shades of orange and purple and blue, as the light changed and shifted during the day. i could still see, when i turned round, some of the higher mountains from among which i had come, and the country did not sensibly change its character until i had crossed another pass later on in the day. i walked for some miles, hoping to come across an inn where i could get something to drink. i had had nothing since the bread and coffee of the early morning, and had walked straight through grasse, only stopping to get my letters and buy some provisions. i believe that most people on the tramp find it enough to have one good meal at the end of the day. some of them find it necessary to start with a stout breakfast, but that is hardly possible outside england, and for my part the coffee and roll of france or switzerland carries me on very well for two or three hours, when i am ready for something more substantial. you need not trust to an inn for this second collation, and if you do they will only send out to get for you what you could have got for yourself, and charge you rather more for it. they quite understand your bringing your own _vivres_ with you, and eating them to the accompaniment of their wine. even the wine you can buy and carry with you, but it is hardly necessary to do that as long as you are in a country where you can get it anywhere. you go to a _boulangerie_ and buy a crisp, newly baked loaf for a penny. then you go to an _épicerie_ and buy cheese or sausage, or both; also oranges and chocolate to amuse yourself with at odd moments during the day. here is food fit for the gods, and all you want is wine to wash it down with. my own preference is for a great deal of wine at such times, but there are some who may be content with water. i want water, too, and a great deal of that, and carry an aluminum folding cup with me, filling it almost anywhere without regard to possible germs. it may be dangerous in some places, and possibly so in provence; but i have never taken any harm from it, there or anywhere. it was on this morning that i realized for the first time that it was not necessary to find an inn in order to find wine. everybody makes wine in provence and almost anybody will sell it to you. i got my litre at a blacksmith's; they brought me out a chair under a tree, and i ate and drank to the ring of the anvil. the wine cost fourpence halfpenny--i like to present these little sums in english money--and was drinkable, but no more. i was beginning to get rather tired of the ordinary red wine of the country, though i never drank white that was not good. but it is mostly red wine that the peasants make, and it is only occasionally that it is anything more than a mere beverage. that afternoon i came to a beautiful place. the road had been falling for some time, and at last entered a deep and narrow valley of verdant meadows through which flowed a very clear river. i had walked a long way, and it was very hot. the idea came to me to find a sheltered spot and bathe in these clear waters. perhaps fortunately, there was an inn at the point at which the road crossed a bridge and doubled back on the other side of the gorge, and when i had refreshed myself there bathing did not seem such a reasonable undertaking. the river, though invitingly clear, was rapid, and must have been fed by snows not so very far away; and it was still early march, in spite of the hot sun. there were motor-cars in front of this inn, and a party had finished a late and from evidence a long _déjeuner_ at a table in the open. they were flushed with food and wine and other liquors, and chattered like parrots before they packed themselves into their cars and made off in the direction of the coast. i disliked them one and all, and felt vastly superior to them--a feeling which no doubt they also experienced towards me, if they took any notice of me at all. their sensation of superiority would be based upon the fact that they were showing themselves in command of quite a lot of money, and would be heightened by the mild delirium that comes from over-feeding and being carried along swiftly in that state, with no call for bodily or mental effort. mine arose from the pride of living frugally and feeling particularly well from having walked a good many miles and being ready to walk a good many more in about half an hour's time. i'm not sure, now that i have drawn the comparison, that the one feeling was any more laudable than the other. i crossed the bridge, which was called the pont de la saigne, and began the long ascent to the colle noire. when i had reached it the scenery began to show a change. i had left the high rugged hills behind me at last, and was dropping down into a fertile valley, which spread out into a plain. the hills, more rounded now, bounded this plain to the north, and were dotted at intervals with little towns that showed up picturesquely from a distance on their blue and purple slopes. i was making for one of them--fayence, where i had been assured that i should find a good inn. it was still a long way off after a few hours' walk, and still hidden from me by an intervening hill, and i had walked quite far enough that day. i sat down on the coping of a bridge as the dusk began to steal over the fields and hills. it was a peaceful, soothing scene. an old shepherd came slowly towards me with his flock following him to their night's shelter. it was like a picture by millet. there was not enough light for a photograph, but i took one of another shepherd with his flock later on. they watch their sheep as the swiss watch their cattle in the mountain pastures, never leaving them alone; and i never saw a flock of sheep in provence that numbered above thirty. when i had walked on a little farther i got a lift in a cart drawn by an old white horse that was jogging along my way. it was driven by a good-looking young man with a wonderful set of teeth and a pleasant smile. he was a sort of general carrier. he dropped a large bundle of what looked like washing at one cottage and a basket of provisions at another, and a man stopped him on the road to hand in a lantern for repair, and a woman at a railway crossing asked for medicine to be brought the next day. there was a little conversation on general topics at every stop, and the tongue was the true provençal, which he told me they all talked among themselves, though most of them talked french as well. provençal is soft and sweet. it is not difficult to make out its meaning in print if one knows some latin and some french, but i never succeeded in catching more than the glimmer of an idea of what was being talked about. of provençal as a literary language there will be more to say later on. as we rounded the hill that had hidden fayence, there came into view a castle with two towers that stood most imposingly on a summit overlooking the valley; but as we approached it turned out to be, not an ancient ruined keep as it had seemed in the dusk, but a not very ancient unfinished château of enormous proportions. it had been built so far, my friend informed me, by a general fabre, or favre, and, as i afterwards learnt, about the year 1836. i made up my mind to visit it the next day, for it showed up as a most lordly pleasure house, with terraced gardens commanding the great stretch of country between the range of hills on which it stood, and the mountains of the estérel and the maures towards the sea. fayence lay just beyond it. my carrier was going on to seillans, and dropped me at the foot of the hill, and i made my way slowly up a winding road to my night's shelter. i found a good inn where they gave me an excellent dinner and a delicious white wine. the dinner consisted of pea soup, a spit upon which was impaled alternate morsels of liver and bacon, a dish of little sausages with succulent cabbage, a dish founded on beef or mutton, i forget which, cream cheese, biscuits, oranges, and nuts, and the charge for this, including the wine, of which i drank a large quantity, was two francs. my bed, in a small clean room, was also two francs, and coffee and rolls the next morning fifty centimes. this comes to about three shillings and ninepence for a day's living, apart from what one consumes upon the road; and this was the chief hotel in a town of fifteen hundred inhabitants. such hotels are common all over southern france, and easy enough to find in a town not too large or too small. they are not so well furnished or so comfortable as an english inn of the same class, but it would be rare indeed to find an english inn where the food would be so good. an evening meal would have to be ordered or cooked specially, and one would consider oneself charged moderately in a bill that came to no more than three times as much. in the bigger towns such hotels are more difficult to find, but they are there if one knows where to look for them, and has learnt exactly what to look for. in the smaller places to which tourists go, and there is no choice, the charges are considerably higher; but one can usually get a bath, which is an unknown luxury in the ordinary way of things. i wish very much that i had not left these wanderings on foot over foreign countries until middle age. i can imagine no more delightful experience for a young man, either alone or in company. if i could go back to undergraduate days, i would spend some part of every spring and summer vacation on foot in this way. ready money is apt to be scarce at that happy age, but it need cost so little. my own experiences, for various reasons, are no particular guide, but mr. hilaire belloc, who is pastmaster in the art of seeing fresh country, is worth quoting on the subject. he wrote to me when i asked him for advice before setting out on this expedition: "i think the thing is quite easy if one only remembers that the conditions, upon the western continent at least, that is, in france, italy and spain, are so different from those in england that no one asks questions and no one dreams of interfering with one's liberty. the rule is as simple as possible. any inn whatsoever in france and almost any inn north of naples in italy gives you a tolerable bed, and on entering it you ask the price of a room and of coffee the next morning. they are accustomed to the process and bargain with you. i have been to dozens of places where i was charged no more than a franc. "for your mid-day meal you will be wise to carry a leather bottle which the french call a _gourde_ and the spaniards a _bota_, holding wine, which again you must have filled in shops where wine is sold retail. you will again do well to ask before it is filled at what price the wine is sold. i have carried a half-gallon _gourde_ of this kind over many journeys. it is slung from the shoulders by a strap and is purchasable in all the mountain countries. bread is purchasable everywhere, and that kind of sausage which the french call by various names, which the spaniards call 'salpicon' and the italians 'salami' is common to all countries and is with cheese the accompaniment of the meal. your night meal you must make the principal meal of the day, and if you wish to save money eat it at some place different from the place where you sleep. thus accoutred you can live indefinitely at a rate of five francs a day and see all that there is to be seen. always carry upon your person in such countries one good 'piece,' as they call it, for identification, the best of which is a passport issued by the british authorities wherever you are. be careful to have it _viséd_ by the consul of the countries where you are to travel. it is the _visa_ that counts more than the passport. for instance, if you are starting from switzerland get such a document _viséd_ by the consul in some principal towns of france, italy and spain, then you have nothing to fear. "remember that telegrams or letters sent to you at one place _poste restante_ do not tie you to going to that place. you have but to send a message to the post office to have them forwarded to another, and it will be done. but you cannot get your letters, still less your registered letters, at a _poste restante_ without some such 'piece' as i mentioned. "it is a good rule not to carry personal luggage except in the smallest amount in your sack, and to buy things as you need them. it is cheaper in the long run." now five francs a day is not quite thirty shillings a week, and for the price of a few days' revel "in town" an enterprising youngster might spend a fortnight walking through almost any beautiful stretch of country in nearer europe, including his journey there and back to england. however it may have been in the past, it is now possible to travel third class on the continent in no more discomfort than in england, and indeed in the holiday season third class is apt to be a good deal less crowded than second, on the fast trains in which third-class passengers are carried. they are not carried, of course, in all trains; but where the saving of shillings is an object it is no particular hardship to spend a few hours more on the way, and unless the journey is a very long one the time lost is small and the money saved considerable. the burden to be carried is a more debatable matter. mr. belloc's advice is worth a good deal more than mine, but his early training in arms must have used him to a less fearful regard of discomfort than is possible with most of us. the less you carry the easier your walking will be, and i would never hamper myself with any protection against rain. unless you can keep your legs as well as your body protected you must occasionally expect to be under the necessity of having something dried before a fire, and while you are about it you may as well go to bed and have everything dried. but i should not care to be without a spare shirt, at least one pair of spare socks, and a pair of light felt slippers, and with other small necessaries for comfort and a reasonable degree of cleanliness this already makes up a fair weight. let every one choose for himself. my experience is that one very quickly gets used to a moderate pack strapped upon one's shoulders, and hardly notices it, except for a time after one may have taken a day off and walked about carrying nothing. i took a day off at fayence. it was sunday, although i had no idea of it until well on into the morning. i came down at about half past seven, and found that the three _commis voyageurs_ in whose company i had dined the night before had already finished their breakfast and gone out; but two of them came in again as i was finishing mine, and transacted serious business with some townspeople whom they brought with them. they keep early hours in france. i walked up to the top of the hill upon which the town is built, and found an old and very solid tower with a clock in its face and a bell in a cage of wrought iron on the top of it. the clock had a date on it--1908--and i took some little trouble to discover whether it could be seen from any part of the town except by climbing up to it as i had done. i found that it could not. then i made my way to the château du puy. i approached it along a sort of drive, and stood in a doorway looking down three stories deep into the stone-built husks of enormous rooms, and up into three or four stories more. there was a series of great halls, one above the other, in the main part of the building, and many rooms opening out of them in both wings, which were carried up into imposing towers; and there were lateral extensions besides. the house seemed to have been designed for the accommodation of a regiment rather than one solitary general. the gardens to the south of it were on a level two stories lower, and the gate to them was locked; but by a little scrambling i reached them. the terraces had been laid out on a grand scale, and gardening had been begun at some date or other. there were overgrown beds of iris getting ready to flower, and in one corner a _pièce d'eau_, without which no french garden is complete. a tall palm grew in one corner, and there were fig-trees and bushes of hibiscus. in an extension of the main building there were signs of habitation, and an orange-tree bright with fruit grew in the middle of a chicken-run. olives and almonds had been planted where the ordered garden should have been, and most of the ground had been made use of. i had been able to get no information about the building of this great pile; the tradition seemed to have departed. i do not know whether it had been stopped by the death of the owner, or, as seems not improbable, by a lack of money to go on. i imagined him, as i sat and smoked in the deserted garden, as having thought continually of this glorious site in his native country, and coming back to it when his fighting was done to build himself the finest house for many miles around. i think he must have enjoyed himself enormously while it was in the building, but not without some doubts as to the way in which it was to be lived in when it should at last be finished. [illustration: a provençal shepherd _page 36_] [illustration: fayence could be seen on its own hillside _page 45_] [illustration: how they prune the plane-trees _page 50_] [illustration: the dolmen near draguigan _page 53_] his site must have given him continual pleasure. from his terraced garden the wide fertile plain was spread out before him, in front and on either side. as i saw it, it was all browns and greens, threaded with white roads, and punctuated by dark cypress spires. miles away it was bounded by pine-clad mountain slopes, beyond which lay the sea. at the back of the house the little town of tourettes showed its huddle of old roofs and walls a mile away, and behind it the hills rose until snow could be seen on distant summits. from the little side garden with the fish pond, fayence could be seen on its own hillside, and a range of blue and purple hills beyond it. the sun came out as i sat there, and the shadows of clouds played all over the beautiful scene. it was the true provence, which gets into the blood of those who are born in it, and makes them think that no country in the world is fairer. i walked back to the town and went into the church, a large eighteenth century structure of some dignity, with an unornamented tower that looks much older. the curé came in as i was looking about me. he was as handsome and dignified as his church, with his white hair and portly presence, and reminded me of parson irvine in "adam bede." he was inclined to deprecate my admiration of his church. it was large, yes, not particularly fine, he thought. but i was judging by other standards. a church as large as this would hardly have been built in england in the eighteenth century for a thriving town; for one of the size of fayence the idea of it would have been laughed at. it would hardly have been built in fayence a few years later. when i had gone out on to the little _place_ in front of it, where there were busy market stalls under a row of giant planes, and a view past the château du puy to the rich plain and the mountains beyond it, i went back into the church and watched the congregation arrive for mass. it was not until then that i made it out to be sunday. one enjoys a blessed disregard of the calendar on such expeditions as mine, walking on from day to day. women and children--they filled about a quarter of the seats provided, and these filled hardly more than half the church. there were two old men besides, and one middle-aged one, who came in with his family with an air of importance. the rest of the male population of fayence was buying and selling outside in the market, or in the shops, or talking together on the terrace steps above the _place_, or in the _cafés_, or walking up and down the steep streets. in the late afternoon i walked over to seillans, and saw the populace of that town enjoying themselves on a fine promenade that they have on the edge of their hill. it is planted with the ubiquitous shady plane, and overlooks the magnificent view to the south. a good many of the men were playing their game of _boule_, which needs only a few yards of hard ground, and some wooden balls about the size of a cricket ball, studded closely with nails. they throw a "jack" about fifteen or twenty yards and then follow closely the rules of our game of bowls. but they throw the ball with the back of the hand up, and give it a spin which makes it run on after it has fallen. when all of them do no more than this the game is dull enough, at least to watch, although the inequalities of the ground give it some interest to the players. but the good players will aim at coming right down upon an adversary's ball and punching it away out of danger. they bend down very low with the right leg curiously crooked, and then run forward fast and spin the ball in the air. it looks a most difficult shot, but i saw it brought off many times by these players at seillans. chapter iv _draguignan and saint-maximin_ early on monday morning i set out to walk to draguignan, which lay on the other side of a range of hills to the southwest, at a distance of about twenty-two miles. i kept to the high road all the way, but did not pass a single village, although the land was cultivated almost everywhere, with olives, vines, mulberries and cereals. the only episode of a rather dull walk that remains in my memory is a chat with a very stout proprietor of vineyards, who sold me a litre of his _bon vin_ for fourpence. he said that his wine was very wholesome, and i had no fault to find with any of its qualities, except possibly that of taste. he talked to me about mistral, the poet. he had seen him, and said he was a very great man; but he did not seem to have read his poems. there was to be a big provençal _fête_ at draguignan in may, and mistral would be there, as gay as any of them, in spite of his eighty-four years. but alas! mistral's death was to move all this country for which he had done so much in little more than a week from that time. it was on that day that the wind, from which the poet's family took its name, and which so vexes the plains of provence, began to blow. i did not recognize it at first. the sun still shone brightly in a blue sky, and i was rather glad of the strong clean wind that cooled me as i walked. there is something about the name _mistral_ that had seemed to me to connote an unhealthful fever-bringing air. i suppose i had unconsciously connected it with the word "malarial." but the _mistral_ of provence is the _magistral_, the great master-wind from the north or the north-east, which rushes down from the alps and cevennes to replace the hot air that rises from the sun-baked plains in the great rhône delta. it is like our east wind, keen and strong, and seems to deprive the air of all moisture, and to make even a cloudless sky look cold. i first saw draguignan some four miles away, as i rounded the shoulder of a hill. it is the capital of the department of var, having replaced toulon, which now has more than ten times its population, at the end of the eighteenth century. baedeker describes it as an _assez belle ville_, but it was not _assez belle_ for me. i thought it the dullest possible sort of town, although there were picturesque "bits" in the streets of the older quarter. the first thing that struck the eye as i neared it was an enormous range of new barracks, with a huge barrack square. the bugles were blowing gaily, and when i came to the town it was alive with soldiers in dirty white, with dark-blue waist sashes, puttees and tam-o'-shanters. as i walked up the narrow streets of the old town into the untidy-looking newer part, i could not help comparing it with another french military city that i had visited some months before. this was besançon, the brightest, cleanest, pleasantest large town that i have seen in the whole of france, and i have seen a good many. perhaps it was hardly fair to compare the two, for i was in besançon on a fine mellow september day, and draguignan must have been about at its worst, with the _mistral_ tearing along its streets, filling the eyes with dust and making the pavements look as if all the waste paper and light rubbish of the town were habitually thrown on to them. and they were pruning the plane-trees. no one who has not visited the south of france when this operation is going on can form any idea of what it means. these trees are planted everywhere, and in summer give a most welcome shade to the hot streets and the wide squares of the bigger towns. they grow to an immense girth, and those in draguignan were especially fine. the way they prune them, from the very first time of their planting, shows that they know very well what they are about, for they get a wide spread of branch and an even and impenetrable roof of green. the trees are never allowed to get out of hand, and are kept at school when they have passed the span of the longest human life. with ladders and saws and ropes they remove great branches with as little concern as one cuts into a rose-bush. the reward comes in the summer, but an avenue or a "square" of these trees in march, when the saws have been at work upon them, is a desolating sight. those that i photographed the next morning are umbrageous compared with some. i have seen far bigger planes than these kept to three branches, each as big as a good-sized tree. i read in the official directory of the department of var that towards the end of the fifth century the town was infested by an enormous dragon (symbol of heresy). the inhabitants had recourse to st. hermentaire, bishop of antibes, who delivered them from the monster. to perpetuate the memory of this happy disencumbrance the town changed its ancient name of griminum to that of dragonia, from which has come draguignan. and st. hermentaire has been regarded with affection in the locality ever since, though his name is little known outside of it. i had been recommended by my friends among the _commis voyageurs_ at fayence to an hotel of the right sort. i should certainly have passed it by but for that, for it seemed to be nothing but a large restaurant, not of the first order nor even of the second, and there was nothing to show that it had much accommodation elsewhere. but when i asked for a bedroom, and suggested two francs for it instead of two and a half, i was introduced to a noble apartment, which reminded me of the pictures one sees in the illustrated papers, when his majesty the king is put up for a few days at an embassy abroad. it was very large, and the furniture was old, and some of it handsome, especially the bed, which had more in the way of canopy and curtains than i am accustomed to. the lady of the house told me afterwards that she kept a shop of antiquities in the town, which accounted for some of the unusual splendour. i felt ashamed at paying no more than one and eightpence for the privilege of sleeping in such a room. the dinner was the same price, and included a bottle of white wine that was worth thinking about as one drank it. a good many men came in to dine, at any time between half past seven and half past eight. very few of them looked to be above the rank of a workman, and all of them kept on their hats as they ate. they sat in groups at different tables, and enjoyed themselves in much the same way as men do in a club in london. probably they paid even less for the same dinner than i did, and i hope their wives had as good a one at home. the _mistral_ blew as keenly as ever the next morning, and i determined to cut off a bit of the distance by train. i wanted to get to some of the interesting places, which are nearly all in the west of provence. it was a two days' march to saint-maximin, where there is a noble church, but i thought i would sleep there that night. the train did not start until half past nine. i had time to walk out a few miles on the other side of draguignan to see a famous dolmen, the only remains of prehistoric life to be found in this immediate region. it was a curious well-preserved structure, hard by a little farmhouse just off the road. i paid a youth who said he was the proprietor fifty centimes for the privilege of looking at it, but thought his demand for a further two francs because i had photographed it unreasonable. he blustered, but made no effort to detain me as i walked off the field with the two francs in my pocket instead of his. i had already been asked once or twice if i was travelling for the purpose of taking picture postcards, and probably that was his idea. but he was a potential robber all the same, and i doubt if he was the proprietor at all. i wish i had thought of threatening him with st. hermentaire. it took three hours to cover the thirty miles to barjols, where i took the road again at half past twelve. barjols is quite out of the beaten track, although this pottering little line, which eventually reaches arles, passes near it. as i walked through a very wide _place_ i stopped to ask a group of school children playing marbles which was my route. at the sound of my voice they scattered away with every sign of alarm, and i laughed at them and went on, with my vanity rather wounded at being regarded as an object of terror. when i had gone a mile down the hill i met a man in his best clothes reading a newspaper. i had seen the start of a funeral procession in barjols, and i supposed him to have the intention of joining it at his own convenience. he asked me where i was going, and told me i could cut off four kilometres if i followed the route he would describe to me. he took immense trouble about it, and it was a kindly thought, but i wished afterward that he had not had it, although i found his interest in me soothing after having so lately been run away from. i left the road bye and bye and followed the path that he had indicated, but, as generally happens in such circumstances, it soon ceased to be a path at all, and i found myself wandering among the hills with a very small idea of where i was on the map. there was frequent cultivation, but very few signs of habitation, and i saw no living soul until i struck the high road again more than two hours later. it was not the high road i had expected, and left me about eleven miles to do out of what would have been a total of fifteen if my adviser had been punctual at the funeral. the road to saint-maximin was quite straight for the last three miles, and i saw the long line of the great church standing high above the roofs of the town from far away. i approached saint-maximin with an agreeable sense of anticipation. the learned m. rostan considers that its church shows the fairest page of gothic art in the south, and to be the only religious monument of real architectural importance in provence. this is perhaps extravagant praise, but it was at any rate the first big thing of its kind that i was to see. i had surveyed the country at large for a week, and was ready for a different sort of interest, especially as the _mistral_ had blown steadily all day long and walking was beginning to lose the edge of its rapture. it is not only the architectural beauties of this noble church that give it its interest. it is its connection with a tradition that has left its marks all over provence, and in past centuries has met with such universal acceptance that it is small wonder that innumerable people firmly believe in it to this day. saint-maximin was the first place to which i came that had to do with it. i read about it that evening sitting before a wood fire in a room more comfortable than is to be found in most french inns. i had come in to saint-maximin as dusk was beginning to fall and had gone straight to the church. but it was closed for the night. all i saw was the disappointing west front, which has never been finished. so i betook me to the hotel. saint-maximin is a town of small importance in the present day, but it contains a good one, something like an old english coaching inn, both in appearance and custom. it was a pleasant change to dine in a medium-sized parlour instead of a large bare _café_, and to find a fire in it; for the _mistral_ had blown away all the warmth in the air and was blowing still. possibly it was from this inn that lucien bonaparte married his first wife, who was the daughter of an _aubergiste_ of saint-maximin, where at the age of twenty-one he administered the military provisions of the revolutionary army. the revolutionists, disliking any name inclusive of saint, called the town marathon, but it reverted later. so i sat very late before the fire and read about saint-maximin and about the legend of the three marys. it must have been after ten o'clock when i took my candle and went up to bed. here is the story, adapted from the learned m. rostan, who made a life study of the antiquities of provence and especially of saint-maximin, and whose memory is deservedly held in honour throughout the country. after the death of jesus christ and his divine resurrection, the jews, alarmed by the rapid progress made by the new faith in jerusalem, began a terrible persecution, for which the martyrdom of st. stephen was, so to speak, the signal. they threw into a boat, without sails, oars or rudder, the following saints: mary magdalene,[4] lazarus and martha with their servant marcelle, sidonius, the man who was born blind, maximin, one of the seventy-two disciples, mary the wife of cleophas, and mary the wife of zebedee, also called salome, and several others, including sarah the black servant of these last two marys, trophimus, and joseph of arimathea. (the list extended itself as the legend grew, for it almost certainly began with three only, as we shall see later. but m. rostan includes most of the above.) the illustrious confessors were exposed to what seemed a certain and horrible death, but the sacred barque, far from being overwhelmed by the waves, floated in a calm that spread immediately around it, and protected by the mercy of providence on its long and perilous voyage, touched at last the shores of provence at the mouth of the rhône, at the place now called saintes-maries, or notre dame de la mer. mary the mother of james the less, and salome stayed in that place with their black servant sarah. the other holy men and women spread themselves over different parts of the country and diligently preached their religion. st. maximin went to aix, of which he was the first bishop, st. martha to tarascon, which she delivered from the ravages of a horrible monster, st. lazarus and st. mary magdalene to marseilles. now although the church and town of saint-maximin bear the name of that illustrious saint their chief glory is of a still greater. st. mary magdalene made herself celebrated at marseilles, then one of the chief cities of the world, by her preaching. after having made numerous converts and performed striking miracles, she went to aix, where she was named in the charter of the church of st. saviour as co-founder with the bishop, st. maximin. after some years she formed a wish to take refuge from the eyes of the world, and betook herself to the heart of the mysterious mountain forest now called sainte-baume, because of the cave in which she passed the last thirty years of her life in the practice of the most austere penitence. seven times a day angels came to her in this wild retreat and exalted her to the summit of the mountain, so that her ears might be ravished by the celestial harmonies. as her last moments approached they transported her some distance from sainte-baume near to an obscure spot in which st. maximin was then in retreat. she received the last sacraments at his hands, and a few days later breathed her last sigh, leaving behind her, says the golden legend, "an odour so sweet that the oratory was perfumed by it for seven days." her mortal remains were reverently interred, and her tomb became thenceforward an object of remarkable devotion. shortly afterwards the holy prelate himself, with others of the blessed saints, was buried at her side, and above these sacred remains arose a church that became from that time a place of pilgrimage and deep veneration. it is unfortunate that the invasions of the saracens in the eighth century should have made it impossible to produce documentary evidence of any of this earlier than that date, for those barbarians devastated everything. seven or eight hundred years is a big gap to cover, and when we begin to look into profane history the gap becomes much bigger; for the legend cannot be traced earlier than the translation of the relics of st. trophimus in the twelfth century, and did not receive general acceptance until three hundred years later still. but since that time it has exercised an immense power upon the imagination of christendom. m. rostan, who was an antiquarian of note, believed in it. he summons in evidence the stones of saint-maximin itself. in 1859, when the church was undergoing restoration, he examined a brick-built tomb which was incontestably of the date of the early christian era, and "might well be the primitive burial-place of one of the holy personages venerated on this spot." it is true that the tomb was empty, but the sacred relics are stated to have been removed after the persecutions of the fifth century into the sarcophagi which are there to this day. the walls of the crypt also, exposed in course of further restoration thirty years ago, convinced m. rostan, who saw them uncovered, that this was "the veritable cubiculum, the sepulchral chamber of st. magdalene, not only in its plan and dimensions, but in its still living reality, as it existed when the celebrated penitent was buried there, and where they placed her sarcophagus in the fourth or fifth century after the triumph of the church. the vaulting alone is not the same." out of all of which the sceptic may at least accept the fact, interesting enough, that the crypt as it stands is of the date at which st. mary magdalene probably died. when the saracens were burning all the churches, and scattering all the sacred relics that they could lay hands upon, the cassianite monks who had been in charge of these peculiarly holy ones for three hundred years, filled the crypt of their church with earth so as to hide it, and for further precaution moved the bones of st. mary magdalene from their tomb in the place of honour into that previously occupied by those of sidonius, where they remained for five hundred years. so far, then, we have in evidence the tradition of the landing of this company of saints on the shores of provence and their subsequent missions, not from st. maximin alone, but also from aix, marseilles, tarascon and saintes-maries, in each of which places are monuments to their glory. we have also the evidence of a burial-place of the first century which was an object of veneration at that time and remained so thereafter. it is true that during the epoch of the crusades the magnificent church of vezelay in burgundy, in which bernard of clairvaux preached and richard coeur de lion took the vows, attracted to itself great honour by its claim to possess the true relics of st. mary magdalene. but m. rostan points out that this belief on the part of vezelay, so far from being in flagrant contradiction to the provençal tradition, confirms it; for the monks of the abbey of vezelay attributed the possession of these sacred relics to the piety of their founder, gérard de roussillon, who was count and governor of provence under the emperor lothair. "but as the body of st. magdalene had not been visible at saint maximin for a long time, and the precise spot in which it was hidden was not known, the statement of vezelay was believed, and conferred great celebrity upon it as a place of pilgrimage, until the moment when it entered the designs of providence to clear up the mystery that enveloped the tomb of the glorious saint and dispel all uncertainty upon the subject of her relics." the instrument of this discovery was the prince of salerno, known later as charles ii, king of sicily and count of provence, who was the son of charles of anjou, the belligerent brother of st. louis. it was in 1279. while charles i was fighting in italy, his son, then at aix, moved by a great devotion towards st. mary magdalene and a lively desire to recover her relics, betook himself to saint-maximin in order to have excavations made beneath the pavement of the church. he put himself at the head of the workers, and on the ninth day of september had the singular happiness of uncovering the ancient sarcophagus which held the venerated body. restraining the zeal of his assistants the prince put his seal on the tomb, and at once summoned a convocation of prelates to witness the exhumation of the sacred bones, which took place on the eighteenth day of the same month. in the dust of the tomb was discovered a box of cork enclosing an inscription on parchment or papyrus, which, translated from the latin, runs thus: "in the year of our lord 716, in the month of december, very secretly in the night, when the most pious odo was king of the french, at the time of the invasion of the perfidious nation of the saracens, this body of the most dear and revered mary magdalene was translated from its own tomb of alabaster into this one of marble, out of fear of the said perfidious nation of the saracens, because it is more secret here, the body of sidonius having been removed." contemporary historians unanimously report the miraculous circumstances that accompanied the discovery. all make mention of the delicious odour that came from the sarcophagus when it was opened. they tell, too, how a verdant plant of fennel grew from the tongue of the blessed penitent, whose body had not yet known corruption. the _noli me tangere_, the spot on the forehead which the saviour had touched, was in a perfect state of preservation. among the eminent churchmen who vouched for the miraculous events that surrounded the disinternment was the cardinal de cabassoles, petrarch's friend, whose country retreat at vaucluse we shall visit later. prince charles caused a magnificent reliquary to be made at aix to hold the head of the saint. it was of silver gilt, in the form of a hollow bust, into which the skull was fitted. the face and the hair were of gold, and it was surmounted by a gold crown set with precious stones. in the next year prince charles was taken prisoner by peter of aragon, and shut up in barcelona for four years. he attributed his deliverance and the restoration of his kingdom--his father having died in the meantime--to the influence of st. mary magdalene, and set in hand the building of a church at saint-maximin which should be more worthy of the holy relics it contained. but it was not until more than two hundred years later that it was finished. charles carried to rome the sacred head, to offer it for the veneration of the pope, boniface viii. we are not told how it had come about, but the head had been discovered deprived of the lower maxillary. the pope knew that a relic of this sort was honoured at the church of st. john lateran in connection with st. mary magdalene. it was found to fit perfectly, and the pope presented it to the king, who did not keep it with the greater part of the head, possibly because the magnificent reliquary would have had to be altered to receive it, but presented it in his turn to the nuns of notre dame de nazareth at aix. there it remained, until the amiable king rené, who has left such a pleasant memory of himself in provence, finally restored it to saint-maximin. during all the two hundred and forty years that the great church was in the building the precious relics that it enshrined attracted pilgrims without number. six popes visited them, to say nothing of two anti-popes; in one year alone five kings bowed before the shrine; royalties came from as far off as sweden; the unfortunate albigenses, after they had "abjured their errors," were compelled to make pilgrimage to it; and finally louis xiv, with his mother, anne of austria, his brother, afterwards duke of orleans, and a numerous and splendid following, bent his knee at the sacred tomb, and assisted in the translation of the relics into a magnificent receptacle of porphyry. these relics would not, of course, include the head. some vertebræ were offered to the queen, who accepted them with gratitude. the sacred bones were examined by the king's head physician, and immediately placed in a case of lead covered with gold brocade, upon which the king placed his seal in six places. it was carried the next day in procession, and the church was filled with people, who shed tears of joy to see renewed in their own day "a devotion so holy and august in the presence of a king and queen so pious and devout." during all these years, however, the relics had not been preserved without vicissitude or diminution. under the queen jeanne, provence was overrun by brigands, and for three years they were hidden at sainte-baume. king rené gave part of the lower arm to the nuns who had the lower jaw. in 1505 a neapolitan monk robbed the reliquary of its jewels, and was caught and hanged. after this mutilation a new reliquary was presented by the queen of france, anne of brittany, as splendid as the old one, and a statuette of herself was added to it in enamelled gold. louis xiii asked for some fragments of the body, and was refused. four years later he asked again, on behalf of the queens mary of medici and anne of austria, and was more successful, obtaining also a fragment to be presented to the sovereign pontiff. in 1639 a portion of the much venerated _noli me tangere_ was stolen from the head, and, whether it is the same or not, a minute particle of the _noli me tangere_ is cherished in the church of mane, in the basses-alps. in 1781 louis xvi ordered a thigh bone to be detached and presented to the duke of parma, which was done. we have followed the story for nearly eighteen hundred years, and now comes the revolution, which wrought more havoc than all the successive disturbances that had taken place before it. the church was spoiled and the sacred relics profaned. the porphyry urn was violated, and the documents it contained burnt. the glorious remains of the saint were thrown pell-mell on the pavement, the head was torn from its gold case, and the other bones from their reliquaries. but the piety of the sacristan preserved the chief glory of the church, which was restored to it five years later. the head, a bone from one of the arms, some locks of hair, together with the reliquary of the holy ampulla, and sundry fragments of the bodies of other saints were received back when the storm had passed over, and there the bulk of them remain to this day. chapter v _the church of saint-maximin_ so persuasive was m. rostan that when i had read his account of all this, sitting in front of the fire at my inn, within a stone's throw of the great church that had been the scene of so many strange and moving happenings, it is small wonder that i was inclined to believe at least a good half of it. it was my first introduction to the legend, which was to colour so much of my future wanderings, and many of the facts that i have given were unknown to me then. i thought, at least, that the main facts vouching for its truth went much farther back than they seem to, and if it was difficult to accept quite that galaxy of new testament names, or the story of the miraculous voyage, still i thought there might be some truth in the tradition as attaching to some of them. what emerges as indisputable fact, and what moved me at the time, is that through some centuries countless people did believe in every word of it, and thronged this little town where i was resting from all parts of the then known world. and there in the church which i was to see on the morrow was--no doubt about this either--the very thing that had brought them here--princes and prelates, hard soldiers and lawyers, men and women of every degree, making journeys, some of them, of immense difficulty just for the sake of beholding what i or any other traveller coming into a dull little town could see for a few sous before passing on our way. or would not even take the trouble to see. a man with whom i had talked at dinner came to saint-maximin several times in the year and had never seen it. he was '_bon catholique_,' too, and said that there was no doubt at all that it was the head of st. mary magdalene they had in the church there. some day he would go and see it, but not to-morrow, for he was too busy. you may put your finger on strange gaps in such a story; you may find the first foundations upon which it rests too weak to bear it; parts of it you may refuse altogether to believe. but make what deductions you wish, and what a lot remains. _some_ poor tired body was laid to rest in the soil from which this great church has sprung at a time when there were still alive those who had walked and talked with our lord; and it was the body of one who was venerated. out of the dusk of successive centuries come gleams of light that show innumerable people, who differed not so greatly from ourselves, believing that the remains they had knowledge of were those that their forbears had held in honour from the beginning. it becomes hardly more difficult to believe that they were than that they were not. say that there has been error, say that there has been fraud if you like, and what have you denied? nothing in the way of strong and moving power over those who have believed. there is the church, to which men whose names stand out in history made successive gifts through two centuries and a half, until it stood the splendid monument that it is today. there is the dust that countless pilgrims' feet have trodden for two centuries past. there is the echo of prayers and hymns, sighs from burdened hearts and praise from lightened ones that have gone up through ages from this place. the revolution, which was to sweep away all error and superstition, might despise these sanctities, and scatter the venerated human dust, but it could not destroy the least particle of the faith that had been. it did not move the iconoclasts, but it had moved the world, and its effects remain in spite of them. the wind had blown itself out the next morning and the air was cold, but sunny and still, as i paid my early visit to the church. its beauty is compelling, and when i had walked round it i sat down and tried to find out for myself in what it consists. the first impression is one of austere simplicity. there are a nave and two aisles, with chapels, no transepts, and except for the renaissance work about the choir and the altar, and the fine pulpit, scarcely any decoration. rows of clustered pillars carry arches between the nave and the aisles; and between the arches spring from the floor itself successive groups of three very slender pillars, like rods of stone attached to the wall, which run up uninterrupted far above the arcading, until from a simple moulding spring the delicate ribs of the vaulting, all as light as if it were a roof of leaves held up by slim tree-trunks. the sense of lightness is wonderful, gained as it is without the slightest disguise of the solid masonry, by sculpture or other suggestion; and the wonder increases when one remembers that this is not the work of one architectural genius, but the flower of many successive periods of building. it is clean and strong and beautiful, a church with a true religious significance. the choir contains some very fine wood-carving and metal-work of the seventeenth century, and above the gilt and jasper of the high altar is a rich device of almost life-size angels and cherubs, surrounding and enclosing a little oval window on which the holy dove is emblazoned. the morning sun, shining through this window, made a striking effect, though it is perhaps at variance with the pure dignity of the church itself. the celestial figures are wrought with a gay and delightful luxuriance of imagination. they overflow from the main composition with its sweep and spread of angels' wings; delicious cherubic forms perch on the marble of the reredos, on the carved frames of the medallions which it encloses, on the rich screens of the choir itself; and each of them has its own attitude of devotion, or interest, or expectation, or even curiosity.[5] the inspiration of the gothic had begun to die away when the fabric of the church had come near to completion. we may perhaps be thankful that it was never quite finished, for it has such perfection of life as it stands: life that sprang from an impulse lasting through centuries. no such impulse exists now. it is safe to say that the most understanding and sympathetic architecture would seem like a dead thing if it were sought to complete what was left undone. the church lovers of the renaissance made no such mistake. their work was alive, too, and they spent their inspiration not on the beautiful fabric of the church but on its rich furnishing. what they wrought is as far away from us as the work of the gothic builders was from them, and it is almost as unapproachable. the iconoclasts of the revolution wreaked their devastating zeal upon this gloria, and upon any symbol or figure in the rich carvings of the choir that spoke of power or privilege. the church itself they spared, though you may see a device of _fleur de lys_ on a boss of the roof vaulting spitefully disfigured by bullets. what was it that they hated so? the arrogance of a church that had allied itself too much with the rich and powerful and worked on superstitions of mankind to gain riches and power and glory to itself, when there was so much wretchedness all around that it made small attempts to cope with? they would have said so, and to imagine them possessed only by the spirit of wickedness would be to make the same mistake about them as they made about the church. in that dark hour the church reaped the reward of its virtues at the same time as it paid for its sins. to the extent that it had been faithful those who had drawn comfort and consolation from it came to its aid; and if the fury of its attackers had been ten times as great they could not have stamped out the life that persisted through all the years of destruction; and flowered again profusely when the poor substitutes that had been planted in its place had wilted away. religion could have done everything to heal the wrongs that had been suffered by the people who were now rising up to take the redress of wrongs into their own hands; and religion had done very little. it had been chiefly on the side of the oppressors, not of the oppressed. at its best it had given consolation in trouble that it had not sought to remove, at its worst it had committed crimes unspeakable. no wonder that a blind, insensate fury against the outward tokens of such a system seized those who thought that they had a mission to remove all oppression from the world. the buildings that enshrined it they could put to other uses, and the churches themselves were spared. but sacred relics they scattered to the dust with bitter contempt, and the treasures of art which spoke of an impotent faith that they despised, they destroyed or mutilated. one of the minor glories of saint-maximin is the altar of the crucifixion, or the _corpus domini_, at the end of the north aisle. the high reredos, with gilded columns and pilasters, frames two large paintings and a series of sixteen smaller ones on wood, which are of the utmost interest. it has only comparatively lately become known that these are the work of a venetian painter of the early sixteenth century, antonio ronzen, who stayed at saint-maximin two years and a half to execute them, together with the reredos itself. [illustration: altar of the crucifixion, saint-maximin] [illustration: the field of the great battle, with mount olympus in the background _page 94_] though ronzen came into provence from venice, it seems unlikely that he was an italian. his name is dutch, and so is his style of painting; and a striking resemblance has been pointed out between one of these paintings and an engraving of the same subject executed by lucas van leyden ten years before. wherever he came from, ronzen was a great artist, and left behind him at saint-maximin a great treasure. the sixteen panels are of different scenes in the passion. the light was not good when i was in the church, and some of them are too high to be seen easily; but most of them are wonderfully fresh and vivid and suggestive, crowded with figures, and creating that sense of intimacy which has always been the mark of the dutch school. each of the scenes is set in a characteristic landscape. you can pick out the ducal palace at venice, the palace of the popes at avignon, the coliseum; and the figures include all the types of the period, from the aristocrat to the peasant. many of them, no doubt, are portraits of people very well known in their time, who came in and out of the church, or wherever the artist did his work, to see how he was getting on, and had a great deal to say about the painting and about the magnificent present that the seigneur de semblançay was making to the church, and what a fortunate thing it was that so clever an artist had been available to undertake the commission. perhaps they used a little flattery, so that he should offer to "put them in." he was an important person, this jacques de beaune, seigneur de semblançay. he was superintendent of the finances of francis i, whose finances wanted a good deal of looking after, and lived at this time chiefly in paris. but previously he had been treasurer-general of provence, and it might have been well for him if he had stayed in his own country. for he fell into disgrace, and was put to death seven years after ronzen had finished the pictures he had ordered from him. probably he found time, during the period from the end of 1517 to july, 1520, when ronzen was at saint-maximin, to pay him a few visits and see how he was progressing. according to the custom of the time his portrait would almost certainly have been included among the figures that still appear so lifelike after five hundred years, and remains there, if we could only tell which of them all it is. did he have any premonition or dread of the fate that was hanging over him, and did the people who were taking such a lively interest in the work he was inaugurating think of him as having attained to the pinnacle of success, and much to be envied in comparison with themselves, living humdrum lives in their beautiful provence? saint-maximin has a fine sacristy, furnished with presses and panelling of beautifully carved walnut, of the seventeenth century. before the revolution it contained many rich treasures, gold cups and chalices, silver reliquaries, ornaments jewelled and enamelled. kings and sovereign pontiffs had showered gifts upon it; but in 1793 everything was rifled. "barras and fréron came to carry out the spoliation. barras presented himself to the popular assembly to announce his mission, and a simple peasant, jean saurin, who died in 1842, member of the club, alone rose before the representative of the convention to protest against the act of vandalism. he spoke honourably and with energy, but without success: the church was despoiled. some rare and precious fragments, however, were saved from the wreck by the care and devotion of the sub-sacristan, joseph bastide, whose name deserves to be held in grateful memory by archæologists; for besides the sacred bones that the church of saint-maximin can still offer, thanks to him, to public veneration, he was able to withdraw from the revolutionary spoliation a few rich ornaments, some ancient reliquaries, and a textile specimen of great value, the cope of st. louis d'anjou, bishop of toulouse. this cope, of the end of the thirteenth century, left by the holy bishop to the convent founded by his father, is one of the most beautiful and curious ornaments of the period." thus m. rostan, who proceeds to describe it. but alas! it is no longer there. the sacristan, worthy descendant of the pious joseph bastide, told me the sad story after he had made me admire the beautiful woodwork and shown me how the long drawers in the presses that held the vestments drew in and out, as if they had been made yesterday instead of two hundred and fifty years ago. he had taken such care of the treasures under his charge, locking up everything whenever he left the church, and seeing that all was fast when he went home for the night. and often he would look out of his window, in the little ancient house in which he lived hard by, to satisfy himself that no marauders were about. but ten years ago--how well he remembered it--the marauders had come. he pointed to the iron-barred window through which they had made their entry. they had taken i forget what from the sacristy, but not the precious cope. i think he rather wished they had. then they had broken into the church and into the crypt, and from there they had stolen the holy ampulla. "this name is given," wrote m. rostan, some years before the theft, "to a tube of crystal bearing the characters of the fourteenth century, and containing little fragments of glass, the remains of a phial still more ancient, which enclosed, according to tradition, some of the precious blood of the saviour, collected by st. mary magdalene on mount calvary, brought by her to our country and discovered with the remains of this illustrious penitent." the thieves had broken into the iron-protected case in which this relic was kept, together with the skull of the saint in its rich and heavy reliquary, and a bone from the arm. they had stolen the bone, too, but had left the chief treasure intact, possibly because it was too heavy and bulky to bear away with safety. what was the meaning of this strange crime? as far as i understand what happened, the breaking in was difficult, and nothing of great intrinsic value was taken, though many things might have been. much money, certainly, would be paid for such relics as were stolen, if they could have been bought openly; but if the fact that they had been stolen would have to be disclosed, as it would in order to attach even a damaged authenticity to them, of what value were they to anybody? protestant zeal, which sometimes indulges itself in a similar way in england, may be ruled out. in france it does not act with those impulsions, and in any case destruction or contemptuous mutilation would be its object rather than theft, and i think the people who had done the damage would be rather inclined to advertise it, and themselves. the sacred skull was not damaged. is it not forced upon one to believe that their value to the thief, or to those who may have encouraged the theft, was precisely that which they had always had; which was not represented by money at all? "if our tradition is well-founded," wrote m. rostan, "the _sainte ampoule_ is evidently the most precious relic of the church of saint-maximin. it has enjoyed wide celebrity throughout centuries, and frequent miracles have been attributed to it. on good friday, after the reading of the passion, the traces of the divine blood were seen to liquefy, to rise and fall, bubbling, and to fill the whole phial. it was called the 'holy miracle.' a great crowd of pilgrims came each year to witness it." where is the relic hidden now? does the thief who risked so much to possess it cherish it in secret, with his sin on his conscience, but hoping from its possession one knows not what in the way of preservation or blessing? or is it hidden fearfully in some church--a priceless treasure that may never be displayed, but may be expected, by its secret presence, to sanctify its resting-place above other places? do those who hold it still watch with strained attention on good fridays for the "holy miracle" to be performed? do they perhaps persuade themselves that they see it, as many others must have done before them? for even m. rostan, good and believing catholic that he is, does not assert that the liquefaction has been plain to see within living memory. i asked the sacristan whether the theft had been held to be the work of religious enthusiasts, but either he misunderstood me or his grievance overshadowed all such questions. they had taken the wonderful cope out of his care. it was a unique specimen of thirteenth century needlework, and is now in safe keeping in paris. after so many years they might have trusted him to look after it, he said, ignoring the fact that his care had proved unequal to the preservation of relics still more valuable, at least in the eyes of the church. the ministry of fine arts, or whatever authority had deprived saint-maximin of the cope, had been quite content that it should keep the sacred skull, showing some cynicism, it may be thought, as well as indulgence. with much unlocking of iron grilles and doors, we descended into the crypt, the storied place that has seen so much during centuries past, where kings and popes have bent the knee, and before which so many princes and nobles have put off their arms. it is almost square--a vaulted chamber about fourteen feet wide and a little longer, with an apse containing the altar, behind which is the reliquary enclosing the skull. the staircase leading down to it, and the side walls of the crypt itself, have been decorated with marble, comparatively recently, but the form of the chamber remains much as it always has been. the sacred tombs, heavily carved with biblical subjects, in the manner of the fourth century, are ranged on either side. they are said to be those of st. maximin, st. marcelle, st. susan, st. sidonius, and st. mary magdalene herself. they have been a good deal mutilated "by the piety of pilgrims," and in some degree made up, for the covers do not always belong to the sarcophagi on which they are fixed, or indeed to any other here. the head of the magdalen is contained in an elaborate gilt reliquary of the year 1860, of small artistic value. under a heavy canopy four angels hold up a hollow metal bust with flowing hair, into which the head has been fitted. what can one say of it? the sacristan pointed out to me the _noli me tangere_ on the forehead, and i tried hard but could not distinguish it, though he said that it was quite plain to him. he was a believer, and i, frankly, was not, although the great antiquity of the relic and its stirring history aroused at least an endeavour to put myself in the mood of one who believed. but he, the believer, made it all appear so commonplace, holding up his stump of a candle here and there to exhibit a great curiosity, but showing no sign either in manner or speech of being moved to veneration or awe, or to any feeling outside those attaching to his customary occupation, that it is little wonder that i was scarcely able to produce any emotion at all. one asks oneself many questions. are not all the signs and wonders wrought by such relics as these a matter of self-deception, induced by crowds and movement and the atmosphere of enthusiasm? or, in the rare instances in which they have been experienced by one alone, arising out of some state of ecstasy, hardly to be accepted as convincing testimony? if not, then how vaguely and arbitrarily these occult powers work! faced by a known, even if half understood, power of nature, one knows the power to be there, and it will be felt beyond question if contact is made with it. here, with a supposed spiritual power, there is only deadness of spirit, even with those who have the faith. with one's facile modern venerations one is inclined to shudder at the iconoclasm of the revolutionists, who laid rude hands on such objects as this. but may they not have been right after all? long periods of deadness of spirit are a heavy price to pay for an occasional and questionable exhibition of arbitrary activity. and there are spiritual powers that do react to an exercise of faith, neither occasionally nor questionably, nor arbitrarily, which belief in tangible sanctities tends to obscure. we locked and barred the grilles and doors and came up into the sunlight, leaving the much venerated relic to keep its watch in the dark crypt. with whatever lack of emotion it may be faced now, even by a believer, there has been no lack of it in the long past. and whatever view you may take of it, it is the seed from which sprang this strong and beautiful church. chapter vi _caius marius and the great battle_ it was still early when i had finished with these sights and took the long straight road to trets on my way to aix. the sky was very clear and cold, and the country was flat and open. for a long time, whenever i looked back, i could see the great church standing up across the plain, and it was a long time before i ceased thinking about it. but gradually another interest began to take its place, for i was passing through country where scenes had been enacted that changed the current of history long before the legend of which my mind had been full had had its beginning. indeed, centuries were to elapse before the legend was to emerge out of the twilight of rumour and tradition and to rest upon documentary evidence, and yet the one story seems to go back to the dim ages of history while the other far earlier one is as plain in its main facts as if it were of yesterday. for it is of the roman occupation of this country, and our feet are on the solid rock of history. after two thousand years, the name of the great deliverer, caius marius, is still alive in provence. twice alive, indeed, if the very legend of the marys which permeates the country can be traced back to the tradition of the marii, of which there seems little doubt. but to that we shall come when we visit les baux and the monuments there. in the year 102 b.c. caius marius gained a great victory over the ambrons and teutons at a spot between saint-maximin and trets which i was to pass that morning. it was one of the decisive battles of the world, and to judge by the number of the slain one of the fiercest. you may read all about it in plutarch, and here on the very spot you may follow the details of the parallel march of the romans and the barbarians until they came to the place of the great slaughter, with recognition at every step, finding indeed here and there actual traces of the battle itself. certain doubtful points have been cleared up and the story told by the rev. sabine baring-gould, who went over the whole ground, plutarch in hand, and published his results in a chapter of his interesting book, "in troubadour land." in the year 113 b.c. the northern frontiers of italy were threatened by a vast horde of barbarians, of whom the chief were the cimbri and the teutons. they did not, however, cross the alps, but swept westwards into gaul, carrying with them other tribes, among whom were the ambrons. they reached the rhône three years afterwards and defeated the governor of the roman province. three successive consuls were sent against them from rome, and were also defeated. their chiefs exalted by success consulted as to whether they should march into italy and exterminate or enslave the romans, but although they devastated the province they could not yet make up their minds to march upon rome. the cimbri divided from the rest and poured into spain, which they ravaged. a few years later they returned, and it was now decided to invade italy. the cimbri were to enter it by way of the brenner pass, the teutons and ambrons by the maritime alps. the menace of the barbarians had been hanging over rome for ten years, and the utmost consternation now prevailed. marius was despatched into provence, as the only man who could cope with the danger there. the barbarian horde had not yet reached the rhône on their eastward march, but were moving slowly in that direction, and marius had a winter in which to organize the demoralized roman troops and to choose his positions. in the spring, when the grass had grown enough to provide food for their horses and oxen, the barbarians put themselves in motion. marius left the cimbri to take their agreed-upon route to the north-east, and waited for the teutons and ambrons. he allowed them to cross the rhône, and they drew up before his fortified camp at st. gabriel on the westernmost spur of the alpilles, and shouted defiance and insult to his troops. but he restrained the romans from attacking them. their ambition, he told them, should not now be for triumphs and trophies but to dispel the dreadful storm that hung over them and to save italy itself from destruction. the barbarians made a half-hearted attack upon the roman camp, which was easily repulsed, and then moved on. it was said that though they moved forward without pause it took them six days to pass the camp, so vast were their numbers. they were indeed nations and not only armies on the march. the cumbrous house-wagons with which they moved were their homes, for their wives and families were with them, and none had been left behind. the hot-blooded romans were by now inured to their insults, one of which was to shout the question whether they had any commands for their wives in italy, for they would shortly be with them. one can picture them sulkily watching from the high ground, where they were encamped, the interminable rabble moving on day after day, and wondering whether they would ever end. but directly the barbarians had passed marius struck camp and followed them, not by the straight roman road which they had taken along the valley, but by the heights to the south, and observed all their movements, himself out of sight. at aix the ambrons detached themselves from their allies to make a descent upon marseilles. marius had fixed upon a hill for his camp at les milles, four miles to the south of aix. it was unexceptionable in point of strength, but afforded little water. by this circumstance, says plutarch, they tell us he wanted to excite his soldiers to action, and when many of them complained of thirst he pointed to the river arc, which ran close by the enemy's camp, and told them that thence they must buy water with their blood. it was this lack of water that precipitated the contest. the soldiers obeyed the order first of all to fortify their camp, but the servants of the army could not be restrained from going down to the river for water. some of the enemy were bathing in the hot springs that well up in this place, others were eating. these were cut off by the camp-followers, others came to their assistance, and the roman soldiers rushed down from the hill to rescue their servants. the engagement became general, and the ambrons were beaten with great loss, the river being choked with their dead. this was a good beginning, but the romans spent the night in fear of attack, for their camp was not yet fortified. "there remained yet many myriads of the barbarians unconquered; and such of the ambrons as escaped mixing with them, a cry was heard all night not like the sighs and groans of men, but like the howling and bellowing of wild beasts. as this came from such an innumerable host the neighbouring mountains and the hollow banks of the river returned the sound, and the horrid din filled all the plains. the romans felt a sense of terror, and marius himself was filled with apprehension at the idea of a tumultuous night engagement." fortunately, however, the barbarians did not attack, but after a day and a night moved on and joined the teutons, who were passing along the road to the north of the river arc. at this point plutarch's narrative becomes confused, for he does not effectually distinguish the fields of the two battles, which were fought two days apart. it is here that mr. baring-gould's careful investigations are valuable in elucidating the narrative. the barbarians halted at the roman station tegulata, now the hamlet of la petite pugère, a day's march from aix. marius crossed the river and kept to the south of it till he reached trets. at his rear he had a fortified camp on mount olympus, to the north of the barbarians was another fortified roman camp, panis annonæ, still called pain de munition. to this he had sent the day before an officer with three thousand men, who had made their way to it protected by the range of mont victoire. his plan must have been made long before, from a careful consideration of the route the enemy was likely to take, and the commanding positions fortified and provisioned. the barbarians were in a trap, but did not yet know it. in the morning the enemy awoke to see the bulk of the roman army drawn up on the slope of a hill to the south of their camp. they could not contain their impatience until the army advanced into the plain, and received their first setback by rushing up to attack it. marius sent his officers among the troops with orders to stand still and await the onslaught. when the enemy was within reach they were to throw their javelins, and then, sword in hand, press them down with their shields. he knew that the slope was so slippery that the blows of the enemy would be delivered with no great force and that they could not keep any close order. when this attack had been repulsed the romans crossed the river and fell upon the main body of the enemy, who was beginning to form again. but at the same time the ambushed troops descended from panis annonæ in the rear, and panic seized the barbarians. the slaughter was terrific. plutarch gives the number of killed as a hundred thousand of the enemy alone. some accounts double the number, and give that of the prisoners as another eighty thousand. it is said also that three hundred thousand of the camp-followers and women were either killed or sold into slavery. it was the extermination not of an army but of a nation. so frightful was the carnage that the field of battle was known as campi putridi, and the neighbouring village is still called pourrières. it was said that the inhabitants of marseilles walled in their vineyards with the bones they found in the field, and that the rain which fell the winter following soaked in the moisture of the putrefied bodies and the ground was so enriched by it that it bore a prodigious crop. "after the battle, marius selected from among the arms and other spoils such as were elegant and entire, and likely to make the greatest show in his triumph. the rest he piled together, and offered as a splendid sacrifice to the gods. the army stood round the pile, crowned with laurel; and himself, arrayed in his purple robe, and girt after the manner of the romans, took a lighted torch. he had just lifted it up with both hands towards heaven, and was about to set fire to the pile, when some friends were seen galloping towards him. great silence and expectation followed. when they were come near, they leaped from their horses and saluted marius as consul for the fifth time, delivering him letters to the same purpose. this added great joy to the solemnity, which the soldiers expressed by acclamations and by clanking their arms; and while the officers were presenting marius with new crowns of laurel, he set fire to the pile and finished the sacrifice."[6] how different from the sort of corroboration brought to bear upon the later christian history of provence is the fact that the spot on which this great holocaust took place two thousand years ago has lately been identified by the ashes, melted lead and other metals, and fragments of burnt pottery discovered there! here also was erected a monument to marius, which existed in its entirety up to the time of the revolution, and was then partially destroyed, one would like to know why. and here was found some five and twenty years ago a beautiful greek marble statue of venus victrix, but without head and arms, which is now in the museum at avignon. mr. baring-gould considers that this proves that the monument was raised by julius cæsar, for there would be an indirect compliment to his own family in it. "venus was the ancestress of the julian race, and cæsar perhaps insinuated, if he erected the statue, that the success of marius was due to the patronage of the divine ancestress and protectress of the julian race, and of julius cæsar's aunt, the wife of marius, quite as much as to the genius in war of marius himself." on the top of mount victoire, which overlooks the scene of the terrific battle, a temple was erected and dedicated to venus victrix. this became a christian church, and venus victrix became st. victoire. right up to the time of the revolution the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages ascended the mountain on march 23rd, bearing boughs of box and shouting "victoire! victoire!" and mass was celebrated. then a bonfire was lit, and the peasants with garlands on their heads danced the farandole round it. the beautiful ancient music to which the peasants made their progress is still preserved; so hard does tradition die in this land of long memories. i should have liked to make a stay at trets, and to explore this country. there is so much to see in connection with the battle--the ruins of the church on mont victoire, the ruins of the trophy on the field itself, the traces of the fortifications on the pain de munition, and perhaps the very hill slope of slippery marl upon which the romans first bore back the attacking enemy. but i wanted to get on to aix, the first large provençal city in my itinerary, and thence to arles and nîmes and the rest of the beautiful places that are like a cluster of jewels in the country's diadem. so i contented myself with identifying the mountain heights which played their part in that grim struggle twenty centuries ago. there was the great range running parallel to the road on the south, with mount aurelian rising up and overlooking saint-maximin, and mount olympus due south from the field of battle. there was the bold rampart of mont victoire away to the north, and the hills among which is the pain de munition, on the other side of the plain on which the battle was fought. i could picture it alive with the tents and wagons of the vast horde of barbarians, so soon to be exterminated, and then strewn with their dead or mangled bodies. i knew that i was looking upon the same everlasting hills as those thousands upon thousands of dying eyes looked upon centuries ago; and there was more of a thrill in that than in the sight of the blackened skull in the church of saint-maximin. for this mighty conflict happened here, without a doubt, and the plain and the hills upon which our eyes look today were a part of the happening. there is something for the imagination to rest and work upon. chapter vii _aix_ the rain began to fall as i sat outside the inn at porcieux, and by the time i reached trets i was wet through. so i went to bed in an inn until my clothes should be dry, and greatly daring ordered a cup of tea. when it came it was of a pale straw colour, and its flavour would not have satisfied the connoisseurs of mincing lane. but it was tea, with the astringent quality possessed by that beverage alone among all infusions of herbs or berries. wine is one of the gifts of god that in this drab world one may be thankful for, but as a beverage it palls. of all the many drinks i enjoyed in my travels in provence i think that cup of indifferent tea stands out as the most refreshing. my clothes were brought up to me in an hour or two's time almost as wet as ever, and i put them on and went down into the kitchen to dry them myself. there was an enormous open hearth, but very little fire on it; but they threw on bundles of sticks, and very soon there was a hot fire. the master of the inn, his wife and daughters, the cook in his white cap and apron, who had just come in to begin his evening's work, and one or two maids, all took the most serious and sympathetic interest in the process. i hung my coat on the back of a chair, which i placed on the hearth itself, and stood by the fire, turning to it first one side and then the other, enveloped in a cloud of steam from my sopping flannel trousers. i should have thought that most people under the necessity of drying their clothes would have done so something after this fashion, but to them it seemed to show an ingenious originality, and people were summoned from tables in the _café_ to stand at the kitchen door and see the remarkable sight. when i was fairly dry we all drank wine together, after which we shook hands and i went out to see the town, leaving behind me, by all tokens, an agreeable memory. trets is very old, and has the appearance of being uncared for. one is so accustomed, in france, to seeing remains of historic interest cleaned and furbished up and saved from further decay, that these ruinous gateways and towers and fortifications, and narrow untidy streets with decayed-looking houses lining them, strike a dismal note. the church is partly of the eleventh century, very massive and very dark inside, and has an unfinished tower that adds to the general appearance of decay. perhaps the rain, which had begun to fall again, had something to do with the impression that the place made upon me; i was glad enough to get away from it and take the train to aix. i dined for a franc at gardanne, and reached aix after dark in renewed torrents of rain. but i had something to look forward to--an hotel that i knew, which would provide a hot bath, and a bag of clothes waiting for me. i had been on the road for nine days, and was ready for a little ordinary comfort. it was dull and cold the next morning, and aix is a city that has provided itself against heat. its fine broad central boulevard, the cours mirabeau, is shaded by a double avenue of planes, which must be among the largest to be found even in this land of planes. the place de la rotonde, at one end of it, has an elaborate system of fountains, and there are three other fountains in the middle of the boulevard itself, one of which is fed by a hot spring. the shade of the giant trees and the plash of the water must be pleasant enough in hot weather, but the bare branches conveyed none of the charm that their foliage would give later on, and aix seemed to me a little cheerless, though i hasten to say that that is not its true character. aix rejoices in the name of "the french athens." it has always been learned, classical, and aristocratic. the streets are lined with the fine hotels of the provençal _noblesse_, some of which are still occupied by families whose roots strike far back into history. many of them are said to contain rare treasures of art, hidden from the public gaze in proud seclusion, and for the most part unknown to the world. these things are not for the wayfarer to see, but i think that if i had read m. paul mariéton's charming book, "la terre provençal," before my walk in provence instead of after, i should have made an attempt to see some of them. "in aix," he writes, "you will find masterpieces in rooms scarcely furnished, mansions mouldering to decay, with staircases of honour bare and cold leading to garden courts uncultivated--unless a few vegetables for the pot are grown between staves in wine casks. "an undoubted masterpiece, in a mansion neither cold nor bare, but full of laughter and gaiety, is the portrait of rubens by vandyke, which the master presented to his friend peiresc at antwerp. the existence of this page of genius, the most significant, it seems to me, of the great painter's work, is not suspected by the critics, and scarcely known except to a few amateurs." in another vast louis xiv hotel, m. mariéton mentions a teniers, two van eycks, a vanloo, a hobbema, and a raphael; in another, a superb ivory christ attributed to cellini. and he speaks of the store of historic documents, still unpublished, to be found in these ancient houses. a wandering englishman might possibly receive a welcome in some of these houses because of his nationality. aix used to be a favourite place of residence for english people of rank and wealth. in the cathedral is a memorial tablet which i find inscribed in a guide-book as that of the wife of "sir dolben, baronnet d'angleterre," and of his three children, who died, the first aged seven years, the second seven days, and the third seven hours; and there is another to "sir webb, baronnet anglais." m. louis de laincel wrote thirty years ago of his childhood's memories of a very rich englishwoman, "my lady russel." "this lady had the generous habit of sending magnificent presents to all the children of her acquaintance on new year's day. dieu! what joy for the children, when the lackey of mylady russel rang at the door of the house, carrying on his arm an enormous basket full of presents! what bonbons, and what delightful toys! bonne lady!"[7] this was in the twenties and thirties of the nineteenth century, but it is quite likely that in this country of long memories the tradition of english generosity still remains. but there is plenty to see in aix without invading privacies. the city itself i found not very attractive, partly for the reasons i have already given. but it is lacking in the pleasant public gardens which make so many french towns places of grateful memory: there is only one, rather small and uninteresting, on the outskirts. perhaps it was the society of aix that attracted our forbears; otherwise one would have expected them to prefer avignon, or nîmes or arles, of the inland cities of southern france. the large church of st. madeleine is of the early eighteenth century, with a rather clumsy imitation renaissance façade of the year 1860. it faces the place des prêcheurs, which opens out into the larger place du palais, on the west side of which is the fine palais de justice, and behind it the heavy ancient prison. a busy market was going on in this open space, and people were crowding in and out of the church for the thursday's mass. it was being sung at a side altar. from the stacks of chairs by the west door those who entered would take one, slipping the necessary _sous_ into the hand of the old woman in charge of them, and put it down in the most convenient place available within view of the ceremony. the organist sat at a harmonium to the left of the altar, with his choir boys about him and the congregation almost jostling his elbows. there was a sort of domesticity about the scene. one felt that all the people who came into the church so busily and familiarly thought of it as a place in which to make themselves at home. there was no such air about the fine cathedral church of st. saviour. it gave the impression, more than any french church i have visited, that one gets in an english cathedral: of a noble monument of the past, kept in apple-pie order, but with its religious usages somewhat subordinated to its historic interest. at st. madeleine, the little votive tablets and pictures and relics that pious souls have brought to their favourite altars for years past are stuck all over the walls of the chapels in great profusion, and with no particular regard to order. the cathedral is not without them, but they are confined severely to the neat oval tablet with a gilt frame and gold lettering on a blue or red ground, and they are disposed upon the walls or over the arches in austere devices. and there is none of the tawdriness about the altars that belongs to churches in which people make themselves at home. indeed, the high altar, and the choir, might belong to a stately anglican cathedral, with which the common people have about as much to do as with the furnishing of the deanery. this cathedral church of st. saviour is full of happy surprises. its component parts have been built in widely different periods, but it has "come together" in the most satisfactory way, and its variety is only equalled by its beauty. the first surprise, upon entrance, is the magnificent octagonal baptistery. it is said to have been originally a temple of apollo, and the eight monolithic columns that support the modern cupola are of the roman period. two are of granite, and the rest of porphyry, but the bases and the delicately carved capitals are of white marble. the effect of the whole structure is exquisite; it can be seen from different parts of the cathedral through intervening arches, and adds enormously to the charm of the building. the baptistery is to the south of the aisle that was the original church. this aisle was consecrated in 1103. the present nave, with the choir slightly out of axis, and the north aisle, were begun at the end of the thirteenth century and not finished until the sixteenth. the central nave is enclosed by walls almost entirely solid, and the effect of the narrow openings cut through them, with glimpses into the side aisles, is singularly pleasing. the long rows of carved stalls on either side of the choir are surmounted by some very fine tapestries. the design is attributed to quentin matsy's, and although the guide-books call them the "cantorbéry" tapestry, they state that they came from our st. paul's cathedral and were bought in paris in the year 1656 for twelve hundred crowns. but dr. montagu rhodes james, provost of king's college,[8] investigated the whole question some years ago, and read a paper before the cambridge antiquarian society, from which it appears that there is no foundation for the connection with st. paul's. nor does he say anything about quentin matsy's, though the tapestries are undoubtedly flemish, and of his date. in the inventory of christchurch, canterbury, taken in 1540, after the suppression of the monastery, is the entry "item one faire new hanging of riche tapestrie con(taining) vj peces of the story of christ and our lady." three of them were the gift of a prior, thomas goldston, whose device appears in the border, and three of richard dering, cellarer; and on the border is part of an inscription, of which the beginning is lost: _celarius me fieri fecit anno domini millesimo quingentesimo undecimo_; ... the cellarer had me made a.d. 1511. so there is no doubt about it. these fine tapestries hung in the choir of canterbury cathedral for at least a hundred and thirty years, and then they were sold and taken to aix, where part of them hang in the choir and part in the archbishop's palace. they have been a good deal cut about, and dr. james thinks there must originally have been five scenes to a piece, which would give thirty instead of the twenty-six now to be seen. katharine of aragon is said, but not by dr. james, to be represented among the figures in the "descent from the cross," and there is a whole bevy of fair englishwomen in the first panel of all, which represents "the birth of the virgin." they are portraits of ladies of the english court, and might be beautiful english girls of today, so lifelike and characteristic are they; some of them with the sweetest young faces of a type that is as well known now as it apparently was four hundred years ago. i tried to get photographs of at least some of this delightful work in aix, but without success. there are postcards of the whole series, but they are evidently from drawings and not photographs of the original. in that charming picture of the english girls the faces lose most of their character and half their beauty. let nobody who may happen to receive one of these postcards imagine that it gives a satisfactory reproduction of the original.[9] [illustration: the canterbury tapestry] [illustration: the famous "tarasque" _page 108_] behind the high altar is the chapel of st. mitre. the life of this saint is pictured in many of its episodes in a curious painting of the sixteenth century which is to be seen there. his end was remarkable. he was beheaded but rose to his feet, picked up his head, and carried it more than a thousand paces to this very spot. you may see him approaching the cathedral, his head in his hands, and the bishop with his attendant clergy waiting for him at the door. and in the centre of the composition he is represented, still with his head in his hands, with many people on their knees around him, including the whole family of the pious jacques de la roque, who did not happen to have been present at the time, but who gave the picture. st. mitre's tomb is upheld by two columns of soft stone, from which is said to exude moisture that cures blindness. there is a little hole in the right hand pillar in which the sweating is supposed to show itself, and during the octave of the saint many people come to do him honour and to anoint their eyes from the pillar. in the chapelle de l'université in the north aisle is a moving representation of st. martha and the dragon, the famous "tarasque," from which she freed the stricken country. the bull's head of this curious monster wears an expression of mildness and mournful surprise, as if it is wondering what it has done to make itself so disliked. it seems to be saying: "i was made like this; i can't help it; i have only followed the dictates of my nature." the tradition of the tarasque is all over provence, and as most of the early christian legends are based upon roman happenings it is probable that the dragon stands for the scourge of invasion by the barbarians, and the various rescuing saints for marius and his romans. the triptych, called "le buisson ardent," famous since it was exhibited in the great exhibition of "primtifs" in the louvre, in 1904, hangs on a wall of the nave. it is kept closed, but a few _centimes_ will unlock it, and also uncover the beautiful carving of the west doors. this very fine picture is by nicolas froment, a fifteenth century painter from avignon. it has been attributed to king rené, but skilful as that versatile amateur was he could never have painted anything half so beautiful. the central picture, with its exquisite and wonderfully preserved gold border, represents the virgin and the holy child seated upon a great mass of foliage, from which spring little flickering flames. beneath them is an angel appearing to moses, who is struck with astonishment and is taking off his shoe. a flock of sheep and goats is pasturing between them, and moses's dog, resting at his feet, turns his head to the angel with a look of interest and watchfulness. behind is a rich provençal landscape, with the rhône running through it. it is a delicious picture, both in design and colouring. the side panels contain portraits of king rené, and of his second wife, jeanne de laval, kneeling--a panel to each. above the king stand saints madeleine, antoine, and maurice, above the queen saints nicolas, catharine and john, all of them evidently contemporary portraits. the old king, whose many trials and happy disposition, as well as his love for provence, have preserved his memory as that of few kings has been preserved, is shown to us here as realistically as if we could look in on him in the flesh. it is a serious moment with him, and his mouth is set tightly above the jutting double chin. but it is not the seriousness of austerity. when he rises from his knees his face will break out into smiles, and he will have much to say about the details of the ceremony at which he has just assisted. for he was well versed in such matters, and a patron of all the arts besides. he was like a monarch out or a book, this good king rené; and he has been put into at least one famous book, though not without a touch of caricature. in "anne of geierstein," sir walter scott describes him thus: "rené was a prince of very moderate parts, endowed with a love of the fine arts, which he carried to extremity, and with a degree of good humour, which never permitted him to repine at fortune, but rendered its possessor happy, when a prince of keener feelings would have died of despair. this _insouciant_, light-tempered, gay and thoughtless disposition conducted rené, free from all the passions which embitter life, to a hale and mirthful old age. even domestic losses made no deep impression on the feelings of this cheerful old monarch. most of his children had died young; rené took it not to heart. his daughter margaret's marriage with the powerful henry (vi) of england was considered a connection above the fortunes of the king of the troubadours. but in the issue, instead of rené deriving any splendour from the match, he was involved in the misfortunes of his daughter, and repeatedly obliged to impoverish himself to supply her ransom.... among all his distresses, rené feasted and received guests, danced, sang, composed poetry, used the pencil or brush with no small skill, devised and conducted festivals and processions, studied to promote the mirth and good humour of his subjects." [illustration: le buisson ardent] [illustration: porte d'eyguières _page 128_] of his genuine skill with the brush there is a most pleasing example preserved in the bibliothèque méjane at aix--a book of hours, of which the initial letters are beautifully illuminated by his hand. there is also a patent of nobility signed by him in a bold and picturesque manner. whether the illuminations are authentic or not--and i have no reason to throw doubt upon them--rené could sign his name, like a king and an artist. at the end of the cours mirabeau is a large statue of this merry monarch, of no great artistic value, but showing him holding in his hand a bunch of muscat grapes, which he first introduced into europe. it is not his least claim to memory. we have not quite done with the cathedral. the wonderful carving of the west doors is protected by wooden covers, which have kept them in a perfect state of preservation. they are of walnut wood, and were done in 1504, seven years before richard dering, the canterbury cellarer, gave that commission for the tapestries which now hang near them. in the lower parts are figures of ezekiel, daniel, isaiah and jeremiah, each under a rich canopy; and above them are the twelve sibyls, each of a different nation and with appropriate symbol. the borders of fruit and flowers are exquisite. there is hardly a finer piece of wood-carving on a large scale to be seen anywhere than on these massive doors, and they and the triptych should on no account be missed by any one who finds himself in the cathedral. the portal that enshrines these beautiful doors is of the same date, and is quite worthy of them. there is a charming figure of the virgin and child on a pedestal between the doors. the lusty, well-grown baby is held upon his mother's arm, and she looks at him with smiling pride, as mothers do all the world over. the cloisters should also be visited, for the sake of the carvings on the double rows of pillars that hold up the arcading, in which the sculptors have let themselves loose in all sorts of luxuriant fancies. they are hardly less interesting than those in the famous cloisters of st. trophime at arles. aix is rich in pictures, besides those in the churches. i spent a pleasant rainy afternoon in the museum, and found a great deal to interest me. not to mention the very fine examples of the "primitives," there are several pictures by ingres, including the richly coloured "jupiter and thetis," and the very interesting portrait of granet. but it was my discovery of granet himself that gives me my pleasantest recollection of the aix museum. there is a whole room devoted to his pencil and water-colour drawings, which contains also many of his best known paintings. his subjects are something of the same as those of wilkie, who was his contemporary, but in his composition and beautiful effects of lighting he seems to me an incomparably greater artist. he was a native of aix, and died there in 1849. i was told by an old gossip at avignon that he was servant in the house of a rich amateur painter, and that he used to lock himself into his garret, whenever he had a moment to himself, to make his own experiments. one day his master looked through the keyhole and saw what he was doing. he might, said my gossip, have been struck with jealousy. but he was of the _noblesse_. he was struck instead with admiration of the work that he beheld--probably after having knocked at the door--, greeted the valet as _his_ master, and assisted him to make his career. the late afternoon was fine. i walked all about the town, visited the remaining churches, and paid due attention to other objects of interest. among the curiosities of aix is the monument of joseph sec, which the owner of that harmonious name caused to be erected on the edge of his garden in 1792. it faces the street, and bears the inscription: venez, habitants de la terre, nations, écoutez la loi! it includes the figures of themis and moses, and among other symbols two bas-reliefs of banknotes for a hundred and two thousand francs. the whole erection is rather absurd, although it was the work of the sculptor chastel. but probably joseph sec was one of those patrons of the arts who know what they want and see that they get it. i have not the smallest doubt that chastel, who was a sculptor of merit, heard from him the phrase: "i pay the piper, and it is only fair that i should call the tune," or its french equivalent. joseph sec called another very curious tune to chastel, of which m. mariéton tells. he was taken into the deserted garden behind the monument--"the trianon of the bourgeois of aix," he calls it--and into a little louis xvi kiosk littered with tools. in it was an old sofa, the seat of which was lifted for him to see the life-sized figure of a naked man in painted marble, with a bloodstained scar on his forehead--a dreadful, realistic representation of a workman who had been killed by a stone falling from joseph sec's monument. how modern he was, this good bourgeois of aix, who died over a hundred years ago! a taste for the arts, and money enough to indulge it! i own that i should have tried to get a glimpse of this artistic atrocity of his, if i had known of its existence. chapter viii _salon and the crau_ ever since i first saw les baux, on a motoring trip from the north to the south of france, i had wanted to get back to it. i saw aix and avignon and nîmes and arles at the same time, and i wanted to get back to them. but les baux was the _bonne bouche_. when i contemplated this spring walk it was what i was thinking of as the central point of interest of the whole expedition; and i was thinking of it all the time i was walking through the country during those first nine days. for it sums up the whole past of provence. it is connected with the græco-phoenician colonies that preceded the roman occupation; with the roman occupation itself, and especially with that stirring episode of the marian defeat of the barbarian invaders; with the christian marian legends; almost more than any other place with the romantic era of the troubadours; with every internal struggle of the many that disturbed the country during the middle ages; with the religious wars; and indeed with every movement of significance in provence down to the time of the merging of the kingdom into that of france. after that its importance dwindled, but did not expire until much later. when it did, its ruin was so complete that it acquired another sort of interest altogether. it arouses much the same feelings now as the one-time flourishing cities of herculaneum and pompeii, for it is almost as dead as they, and its ruins tell as eloquently of the time when it was alive. added to which, it is most romantically situated, in the very heart of the country that is most characteristic of provence as it is today--the provence that lives its rich, picturesque life with an eye kept always on its rich, picturesque past; the country of mistral, and the scenes of that moving epic in which all the poetry and glamour of provence is garnered up: "mireille." i shouldered my pack once more, but was in such a hurry now to get to les baux that i took the train early in the morning as far as maussane. it was well that i did so, for the rain fell heavily when i reached salon, where i had an hour to wait. nostradamus, who was born at saint-remy, lived at various times at salon, and died there. out of his thousand prophecies it is not surprising that a few hit the mark, and from them he gained an immense reputation. exactly a hundred years after his death we find pepys writing: "amongst other discourse we talked much of nostradamus, his prophecy of these times, and sir george cartaret did tell a story how at his death he did make the town (of salon) swear that he should never be dug up or his tomb opened after he was buried; but that they did after sixty years do it, and upon his breast they found a plate of brasse saying what a wicked, unfaithful people the people of that place were, who after so many vows should disturb and open him such a day and year and hour, which, if true, is very strange." probably it was not true, as to the time; but he would not have risked much if he had prophesied the fact. he did, however, prophesy that a new era would begin for france in the year 1792, which was a bold shot, as it was more than two hundred years after his death; and napoleon is said to have seen predictions that concerned himself in his writings. m. mariéton tells of the fashion in which he seized his opportunity in the town of salon. charles ix was making a solemn progress through provence with his mother catharine de' medici and the little prince henry of navarre. the town of salon made elaborate preparations for their reception, and nostradamus was asked where he would like to walk in the procession. he said that he proposed to have a little procession of his own. when the royal party appeared before the gates the queen mother looked anxiously about for the prophet, and when she saw him apart from the rest beckoned him to take up his position between herself and the king. he had been counting on something of this sort, for he had already been in paris, and had gained a considerable ascendancy over catharine. he was lodged in the castle during the royal visit, and invited to a solemn consultation on the subject of the stability of the royal line. catharine wanted him to tell the fortune of prince henry. he was quite ready to do it, and ordered the child to be undressed, as a preliminary. the little prince thought he was going to be whipped, and filled the castle with his howls. when he had calmed down, nostradamus boldly announced that he would come to be king. if this story is true, it shows the prophet to have been a schemer rather above his kind. catharine had three sons still alive, and could not have been expected to welcome the announcement. nor would the young king have been particularly pleased with it. indeed, it may be said to have been a prophecy not altogether free from risk to the man who was bold enough to make it. but he seems to have judged human nature aright. his reputation was vastly increased by the prediction, and catharine summoned him to paris for the second time, which was no doubt what he wanted. the royal visit to salon took place in the year 1564, and while the great humbug of the time was preparing for his own little private effect there must have been somewhere in the crowd that filled the streets strewn with rosemary and lavender and thyme a young man who deserved far better to be noticed. this was adam de craponne, who by that time had already begun his work of fertilizing the great crau. mr. baring-gould, in the book already mentioned, gives an interesting account of this "little sahara in europe," which occupies 30,000 acres. "at a remote period, but, nevertheless in one geologically modern, the vast floods of the diluvial age that flowed from the alps brought down incredible quantities of rolled stones, the detritus of the alps.... this rubble, washed down from the alps, forms the substratum of the immense plain that inclines at a very slight angle to the mediterranean, and extends for a considerable distance below the sea.... there is a break in the chain on the south, between the limestone alpines and the sandstone trévaresse; and the brimming durance, unable to discharge all her water, choked with rubble, into the rhône, burst through the open door or natural waste-pipe, by salon, and carried a portion of her pebbles into the sea directly, without asking her sister the rhône to help her. now the two great plains formed by the delta of the rhône, and that of the durance with the rhône, are called the great and the little crau. they were known to the ancients, and puzzled them not a little. strabo says of the great crau: 'between marseilles and the mouth of the rhône, at about a hundred stadia from the sea, is a plain, circular in form, and a hundred stadia in diameter, to which a singular event obtained for it the name of the field of pebbles. it is, in fact, covered with pebbles, as big as the fist, among which grows some grass in sufficient abundance to pasture heads of oxen.'" the singular event referred to was the fight between hercules and the ligurians. hercules had used up all his arrows, and had retired to a cave in the alpilles to make his last stand, when jupiter came to his assistance and rained down a shower of stones which killed all his enemies. when the hero, thus miraculously aided, emerged from his cave, he saw the great plain covered with stones as it is today. or rather, as it was; for thanks to craponne and those who came after him the desolate area is now much circumscribed. this legend, which is still alive in provence, takes us back to the very earliest times. for hercules is the phoenician melkarth, and wherever his name survives it is in connection with phoenician trading, before the greek colonization. craponne's scheme was to bring "some of the waters of the durance through the gap where some of its overspill had flowed in the diluvial period, by a canal, into the great crau, so that it might deposit its rich alluvium over this desert of stones. he spent his life and his entire fortune in carrying out his scheme, and it is due to this that year by year the barren desert shrinks, and cultivation advances." there are few things more interesting to learn about than the bold works by which man gets the better of nature, or rather sets nature to work to correct, as it were, her own mistakes. about a hundred years later than this, vermuyden, the dutch engineer, started draining the lincolnshire and cambridgeshire fens, a work of even greater magnitude, which gave england some of its richest agricultural land. the draining of holland was already a thing accomplished; the draining of the rommy marshes in kent and sussex was partly effected before the roman conquest of britain. of late years australia has dammed up a great river, and turned a dry valley into a lake over two hundred feet deep, from which land will be irrigated as many miles away. in all these great works, varied in means but the same in intention, the thing to be done is as simple as a child's diversion of water on the sloping sands of the seashore. what he does with his wooden spade, digging his channels and building up his banks, the engineers do with their laborious machinery, trenching canals, and piling up the huge masses of their dams. the waters, obeying the few simple laws of their fall, do all the rest. the greatest of all these works, and one of the simplest in idea, was the damming of the nile at assouan. more than two thousand years before christ the yearly rise and fall of the great river began to be recorded, but it was not until four thousand years later that the action was adapted to man's more effective use. the natural laws are there waiting, always to be trusted. there is no scale too great, as there is none too small, upon which they can be applied. the result of this slow fertilization of the provençal crau is plain to be seen from the line that skirts it on the way to arles. there are great plantations of olives, each tree clipped and pruned like a rare shrub in a conservatory, every branch and almost every twig at an even distance from the next, so as to get the maximum of air and sun to the buds and the fruit. and there are wonderful sheets of almond blossom, sometimes covering acres. as far as the eye can see on the level, the plain is of the richest. there are frequent villages and homesteads, and everywhere lines of cypresses, planted very close together and allowed to grow as tall as they please. these are to break the force of the _bise_, which blows so strongly as to scoop the crops out of the ground if they are left unprotected, and once actually carried away the suspension bridge between beaucaire and tarascon. we pottered along the little single line, while the rain still came down, but the clouds began to look a little lighter. one of my fellow-travellers was a young conscript who was on furlough from his regiment in tunis. he was a handsome, charming-mannered youth. he said that he liked soldiering, and there was little hardship in the life. he wore his uniform when he was going on a journey, because soldiers are taken at half fares on the railways. he told me with a grin that he was liable to be court-martialled for wearing patent-leather boots, but on this line he thought he might risk it. he was inclined to be facetious at the expense of the line, and told me a story about it that i first heard some twenty years or so ago in connection with one of our own railways. and he said that it was a good deal used by companies of cinema actors; that at any time you might find yourself in the society of desperate characters prepared to do desperate deeds, or slowing down between stations so that somebody might be photographed crawling along the footboard or the roof of the carriages. the railway company had obligingly arranged for a collision not long before, being glad enough to sell some of its antiquated stock for this purpose; and in fact, if it had not been for the money made out of the cinema operators, it would have closed down long before. he told me something about the crau, too. this fertile tract through which we were passing was very unlike the part that was still desert, which i should be able to see from the heights of les baux. it is dry and desolate, scorched by the sun in summer, but in winter affording pasturage for flocks and herds that are brought down from the alps. the flocks are led by wise old goats, who know every mile of their three weeks' journey; then come the she-goats, and after them the innumerable company of sheep. the dogs of the shepherds surround the flock, and the rear of the procession is brought up by asses, carrying the baggage, and the little lambs that are too young to follow their dams. every night the great flock is shut in with hurdles, and the shepherds keep guard over them. there are said to be two or three hundred thousand sheep in the flocks that make these yearly migrations, which have been going on for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years. pliny mentions them, and there is little doubt that the order followed in his day was much the same as it is now. for the primal industries of the world do not change much, and in this ancient land scarcely at all. i asked my young soldier if he had ever seen the flights of flamingoes that are said to make lovely the desert of the crau, but i do not think that he had, although he would not say that they were not to be seen. he expressed himself with admiration and affection about his beautiful country of provence, and especially about this corner of it, in which he had been brought up. a station or two before we reached maussane, he got out. there was an open carriage waiting for him, and an elderly, prosperous-looking gentleman in it whom i took to be his uncle, on no grounds except that i liked to think of him during his holiday coming out from salon to visit relations who lived in some roomy, picturesque "mas," where there was welcome and good cheer for him in the hospitable old-fashioned way of the country. chapter ix _les baux_ as i got out of the train the rain ceased, though there looked to be more to come, and i walked the three miles to les baux with the sun shining, and the birds singing among the drenched leaves of the trees. i was faced by the craggy rampart of the alpilles, which hang over the great plain, and were once sea cliffs washed by the mediterranean. they are of white limestone, and rise in places to a height of close upon a thousand feet. just at this point they thrust themselves forward in a series of fantastic crags, rising up sheer from the plain and crowned by great masses of gleaming rocks that look almost as if they had been placed there by some giant hand. i knew that les baux was upon one of these crags, and thought that i remembered which it was. but there was nothing of it to be seen from the plain. the line of cliffs was quite bare; the road might have been leading over some deserted col to fairer regions beyond. no one could have guessed himself to be nearing the remains of a once flourishing city. the road led up through a fertile valley in which there were fields and scattered houses and gardens, and some sort of a mill. the cliff rose abruptly to the right, and at a turn of the road--the green valley now lying some way below--there came into view the walls of a few houses. they were perched up high overhead, and seemed to be growing out of the cliff itself, as indeed they were; for half of this strange city is built out of the solid rock, and its ruins remain part of the cliff from which they were hewn. the road has been remade, so that it now zigzags steeply to an entrance from the north. but the foot passenger can leave it and take a still steeper track to the ancient gateway that was once the chief entrance into this eagle's aerie. it is called the porte d'eyguières, and is still in a good state of preservation, with the grooves of its portcullis to be seen, and a stone bearing the arms of the lords of les baux--the star with sixteen rays which marks their descent from balthasar, one of the wise kings from the east, who brought gifts to the infant christ. a steep and narrow lane leads up through the still inhabited quarter of the town, past the old but rebuilt hôtel de ville to the place where the new road comes in and the two inns are situated. so far there is nothing particularly to strike the visitor--nothing at all to compare for picturesqueness with the old hill towns of western provence, from which i had come. picturesqueness is not the note of les baux, and in the lower quarter of the town the air is rather that of a poor village which contains the bare remnants of some past importance. but as one mounts up towards the summit of the crag this impression of something like squalor gives place to a very different one. the inhabited cottages are soon left behind. they have already been seen to be interspersed with the ruins of noble mansions, and to be themselves, for the most part, salvage from greater buildings. they line a narrow, winding street, paved with rock in which the ruts of old cartwheels are worn, just as they are in the streets of pompeii. and now there is nothing but ruin on either side, except where part of a great house has been put into some sort of repair for the purposes of a museum. it is ruin complete and irreparable; but it is not like other ruins. there stands up a bare wall, with apertures for windows and doors; and it is seen to be, not the remains of a structure of built-up stones, but a shell of living rock, from which the inside has been scooped, like a cheese with nothing left but the rind. now one is on the summit of the crag. it is a wide, grassy platform, upon which rear themselves huge masses of rock cut into the forms of towers and battlements, like a giant's castle in some fantastic dream. the castle itself stands back on the northern edge of the cliff. nearer at hand are the remains of dwellings that are nothing but caves in great jutting masses of rock. but they are caves with a difference. they are carefully squared chambers, with chimney places still showing the marks of fire, with holes into the walls that were once cupboards, with ceilings cut into so as to provide hanging for lamps. they are open to the south, and the entrances blocked with débris; but there is no doubt that they were once merely the back parts of houses, which showed fronts as well built as some of those still standing in the streets below. the grassy height is strewn with the stones of many buildings quite destroyed, but once it contained the ordered precincts of the great pile that nothing has been able completely to destroy. it stands grim and majestic, towering over the whole mass of tumbled walls and the few roofs and chimneys that are all that remain of the rich city. one can see stone stairs and galleries high up in the rock and can mount up to some of them. the dungeon, cut out of solid stone, shows a yawning hole in the ground. it lies open to the sky, but the ribs of its vaulting are still seen springing from the corners. two sides of a rock hard by are scooped into cells. this was the great castle dovecot. there is a little ruined chapel, its roof delicately carved. [illustration: the castle ruins, les baux] [illustration: the castle dovecot, les baux] from the summit of the castle there is a magnificent view of the great plain to the south. it includes the whole extent of the crau; and now you can see which part of it has been fertilized, with the threads of canals running through it, and which part still remains in its stony desolation. the great lagoon, called the etang de berre, lies a glistening sheet almost on the horizon, and you can just descry the line of the sea beyond it. to the right you see arles and the famous abbey of montmajour, and the rhône rolling its turgid waters through the plain of the camarque, to where stes. maries rears its fortress church on the edge of the sea, and the holy men and women from palestine miraculously landed. it is very far away, but there is hardly so much as a hillock between you and it. from here too can be seen the strange, blanched desolation of the valleys that creep up into the solitudes of these stony hills. they are strewn with gigantic rocks that take on all sorts of fantastic tortured shapes. part of it is called the val d'enfer, and it is said that dante, who is known to have sojourned in arles, took from it the scenery of his inferno. in the spring it is lightened with the delicate flush of almond blossom, and les baux is beautiful with the silvers and blues and purples of its surrounding country, and its own wild aspect of strength and desolation. but its appeal is to the past, and without some knowledge of its history it must present itself as an almost undecipherable riddle. we need not linger over the importance that this natural fortress had in the time of marius, who had camps very near to les baux, and perhaps on the very spot; nor the story of the christians who were driven to take refuge here by alaric the visigoth. the first of the long line of the counts of les baux who is known to history was leibulf, who lived at the end of the eighth century. from that time, until the year 1426, when the death of the princess alix at last brought it to an end, it continually increased in wealth and importance, until it vied with the rest of the royal houses in europe. yes; this deserted, almost forgotten city, which now contains a bare hundred of inhabitants, was the seat of princes who intermarried with the reigning families of england, france, poland, savoy, nassau, brunswick and many more. it was the centre of a principality that included seventy-nine towns and bourgs, villages, or castles. its rulers were princes of orange, besides, from which our own royal house is sprung; they derived titles from milan, naples, piedmont, marseilles and elsewhere; they were kings of arles and vienne; princes of achaia, counts of provence, cephalonia, spoleto, and other places; finally emperors of constantinople, and that this was not an empty title is shown by the fact that an embassy was sent to a reigning princess of les baux to treat for her rights as empress. in the twelfth century the towns owned by the prince of les baux included aix, saint-remy, salon, pertvis, and the bourg-neuf at arles. the possessions of "la baussenique" already made of it a second provence. indeed, raymond des baux, who died in 1150, claimed, through his marriage with the daughter of the count of provence, the whole of the country, and fought for it until his death. there was continual fighting, with les baux as its centre, during the middle ages, and sometimes its lords were on the summit of fortune, sometimes forced to give up some of their lands. they fought with the saracen corsairs, with the counts of barcelona and kings of aragon, with the counts of anjou and poitou, the king of naples, and many more. they went crusading with the rest, and one of them is mentioned with honour in the pages of froissart. it was at the siege of la reole in gascony. the earl of derby lay before it for nine weeks, and the townspeople were so reduced by starvation that they wished the place to be given up. but sir agos des baux, who commanded the troops, would not consent to this, and retired to the castle, with plenty of wine and other provisions. the castle had been erected by the saracens, and was much stronger than the english had supposed. so they prepared to mine under it, and then the garrison grew alarmed. so "sir agous dyscendedde downe fro the hygh towre, and dyd put out his heed at a lytell wyndo, and make a token to speke with some of the host." lord derby, sir walter manny and lord stafford came to parley with him, and he offered to give up the fortress if he and his troops might retain "our lyves and goodes saved." lord derby replied, "sir agos, sir agos, you will not get off so. we know your distress, and will receive only an unconditional surrender." then sir agos said that he would trust to the honour of the english, and lord derby, commending his gallantry, granted honourable surrender to the garrison, with their armour. "then they dyd on their harnesse and toke their horses, whereof they hadde no mo but sixe; some bought horses of thenglysshmen, the whiche they payed for truely. thus sir agous de baus departed fro the ryoll, and yelded up the castele to the englysshemen, and sir agos and his company wente to tholons." one of the bloodiest struggles of all that had surrounded les baux took place when the princess alix succeeded to its sovereignty at the age of seven, and it was twenty-six long years before she was able, as a widow, to take up her residence in her much battered but still noble castle. she was the ward of the viscount of turenne, the "scourge of provence," who married her at the age of thirteen to a young noble whom he thought he could use for his own purposes, which were of course to get possession of his ward's property. but adon de villers unexpectedly decided to fight him, and succeeded in gaining valuable support, from the neighbouring cities, and from the pope himself, who was then seated at avignon. besides men at arms, the pope launched a threat of excommunication against turenne, who laughed at it, and said that for a thousand florins he could get more soldiers than the pope for seven years of plenary absolution. he was not in the least particular where he got his fighters from. he allowed a robber-chief to seize and sack les baux itself and to murder and pillage in all the country round, and he roused the mediterranean pirates to spread further devastation through the lands of his ward. but, in the meantime, the pope who had been deified died, and it happened that the king of france had a quarrel with his successor and sent troops against him under marshal boucicaut. when this little affair was settled boucicaut turned his attention to turenne, whose daughter he had married. as persuasion was useless, he besieged and took les baux and other towns, and turenne was brought to his knees. he broke out again immediately afterwards, and there is no knowing how much longer the poor princess alix could have been kept out of her rights if he had not been accidentally drowned while he was crossing the rhône. her castle was almost defenceless, but she married again and lived in it in peace for another twenty-four years. when she lay dying, it is said that a bright star descended from the heavens and entered her room, hanging over her until she breathed her last, when it faded away. it was thought to be that very star of the east which had shone upon the founder of her long race, now extinguished with her. mr. t. a. cook, in his admirable book on provence, from which i have chiefly drawn for the above facts, gives an account of the inventory of princess alix's household effects, made for the crown after her death. it makes a welcome impression of peace and luxury, which no one can feel inclined to grudge this much-tried lady after the strife and bloodshed with which half of her life had been surrounded, and shows the grim castle of les baux in a light that is pleasant to contemplate. "the entrance-courtyard of the château lay to the south. the chapel of ste. marie, with its vaulted roof, was in the rez-de chaussée, near several large reception-rooms, with kitchens, bakery, larders, and cellars beneath them. above were fifteen more out of the thirty-five rooms. that in which alix died was situated in a tower, beneath a granary. it was furnished with two candlesticks of silver, with plate of silver and of gold, with many lengths of tapestry, and with fine eastern rugs. in the oaken chests were robes of silk and velvet, of cloth of gold, and 'vair'; furs, belts, eight rosaries set with pearls, prayer-books, and books of hours, bound in red cloth of gold, with clasps of silver-gilt. within the 'chambre de la rose' were more books of prayer, bound in cloth of gold and pearls, and set in a case of stamped leather, bound with a silver band all gilt with fleurs de lys. the chapel and its vestry were filled with rich ecclesiastical garments and plate, chalices, pattens, candlesticks, and reading-desks, in gold and silver-gilt, enriched with gems, enamel, and embroidery, a number of illuminated liturgies, and a set of tapestries, showing the adoration of the magi, with balthasar, the traditional ancestor of the house. in other rooms were tables with huge legs enriched with carving, long seats that opened to form linen-chests, sideboards in solid worked wood, cupboards let straight into the stone, and lined with cedar. in the larders and cellars were tuns of wine, both white and red, great store of nuts and grain, piles of salt beef and pork, rows of fishing-nets, and stronger nets for hunting the stag and the wild boar; with herds of cattle, pigs, and sheep, in the pastures below, and nearly fifty chickens. in the halls and passages were trophies of arms, cuirasses, helmets, arbalètes, coulevrines, bombardelles, lances; and swords; 'the most of them rusty,' for their day was over; the furniture was partly sold by order of the king, partly bequeathed to the bishop of tortosa, and partly sent over to the château of tarascon." the princedom of les baux now became merged in that of provence, and a few years later the good king rené succeeded to its honours. as les baux had been famous in the annals of the troubadours, it is probable that he took considerable interest in the romantic place. he restored the ramparts and the towers of the castle, and made over the barony for life to his second wife, jeanne de laval, whose kneeling figure faces him in the triptych at aix. there is a charming little reminder of her still to be seen at les baux. in the valley beneath the fortress-rock is a square walled-in field which was once a garden. in a corner of it is a little stone pavilion with delicately carved renaissance work, upon which time and weather have had very little effect. there was once one of these in each corner, but all signs of the others have disappeared, as well as the "knots" and parterres and treillages and the beds of sweet smelling herbs that lay between them. the one that is left is called the pavillon de la reine jeanne, and if it did not, actually belong to her, which it probably did not, for she would have had her pleasaunce nearer to the castle, it must have given delight to some fair lady of her court, or to the wife of one of the provençal nobles whose mansions lined the narrow streets of les baux. fine as their remains show them to have been, they had no more ground attached to them than a house in a street of mayfair, and it is agreeable to think that it was possible at this time for the ladies of les baux to enjoy a garden outside the fortifications, and not to be cooped up day after day within the protecting walls. soon after the principality of les baux became merged in that of provence, provence itself came to the throne of france. louis xi was on the throne, and in the last year of his reign he ordered the destruction of the ramparts and the castle of les baux. it was not the first time that the castle had been destroyed, and it was not to be the last. its immense strength seems to have given it a sort of vitality that suffered dismemberment without complete destruction, and even now it seems not to be quite dead, though it is long since it was at last rendered uninhabitable. probably on this occasion it was only the offensive and defensive parts of the castle that were destroyed, for fifty years later, during a royal progress through provence, francis i visited it with a brilliant train, and was entertained there by his own high constable, anne de montmorency, to whom he had given the barony of les baux. another royal visit, in 1614, ended in sad disaster. the duc de guise was entertained one sunday in may in the castle, and at every toast that was drunk there was a salvo of artillery. being probably a little flushed with wine, the prince announced his intention of firing a cannon himself. the cannon exploded and shattered his leg, and a few days later he was buried at st. trophime in arles. in the sixteenth century les baux, still in the thick of whatever strife was going forward, became the battleground of catholics and protestants. in 1543 claude de savoie, count of tende, who was seneschal of provence, took up his residence in the castle, and stayed there for a year trying to bring peace between the factions. in 1561 the protestants got into les baux, and made havoc, quite in the old-fashioned way. in three months they were turned out, not at all gently. but two years later they were back again, not only free to practise their religion, but with the governor, jehan de manville, a convert to it. he converted part of his house into a chapel to the huguenots. the house is in ruins, but there is enough left to show what a fine one it was, and among the remains is a pedimented renaissance window of the chapel, with the famous reformation motto carved over it in stone: "post tenebras lux," and the date 1571. [illustration: pavillon de la reine jeanne] [illustration: huguenot chapel in les baux] this family of manvilles is the most important in the annals of les baux after that of its titulary princes. they held some sort of seignorial authority for about a hundred years, but in 1621 the fourth and last of them had to resign his rights for continuing to harbour the protestants. a few years later the prosperity of les baux departed. louis xiii sent troops against its last seigneur, antoine de villeneuve, who was an adherent of the duke of orleans, and richelieu ordered the final destruction of the castle. this time the work was done thoroughly. but the stout old pile made a resistance of its own. it took a month to demolish it, and gunpowder had to be used to blow it up. and even now there is a great deal of it left. after that les baux steadily declined until it became no more than a refuge for a handful of peasants, who squatted amongst the ruins, fed their sheep where the grass grew over the castle courts, and cultivated a few fields outside. but it kept one church out of its five or six, and has always had some sort of corporate life. it is a little more prosperous now, because of its visitors; but compared with its rich past the life is a mere trickle, and only the ruins remain to tell of what it once was. chapter x _les baux_ (continued) mr. cook had written of the inn at les baux that lunch was "a perilous adventure, and any other form of hospitality impossible." this did not frighten me, because when one takes a pack on one's back one drops a good many prejudices. read what the inns were like when smollett travelled through france, or casanova, or arthur young. probably the inn at les baux, when mr. cook visited it, would have seemed to an eighteenth century traveller a most desirable place of entertainment. at any rate, the reproach is now removed altogether, for there is an excellent inn at les baux. it is called the hôtel de la reine jeanne. the other inn is called the "hôtel de monte carlo," which recalls a curious episode in the history of les baux--the last in its long history. it was after richelieu had wrecked it, and was caused, says mr. cook, by the ambition of spain to become possessed of monte carlo. "the young honoré de grimaldi, seeking the protection of louis xiii, who had no desire to see the spaniards conveniently planted between genoa and nice, so near to his own territories, arranged by the treaty of péronne for the independence of monaco, and the protection of a french garrison, in 1641, together with sufficient lands in france to compensate for the loss of any italian revenues confiscated by spain. grimaldi got the spaniards out of monaco by a cleverly audacious ruse, and was rewarded by lands in france which were called his duchy of valentinois; and in 1643 les baux was created a marquisate in the possession of the grimaldis, princes of monaco, and dukes of valentinois. the title that had been held by diane de poitiers, and by cæsar borgia, added perhaps the last touch of sinister romance that was needed to complete the history of les baux. a little country pleasure-house, beneath the ruins of the fort, was enough for the grimaldis; and even that was knocked to pieces by the revolution, which also cut down every forest on the mountain-slopes."[10] this "hôtel de monte carlo" used to be called "a la chevelure d'or." some years ago when the pavement of the church was undergoing repair there was found the body of a beautiful young girl, wrapped in a mantle of her own golden hair. it fell to dust when exposed, all but the long strands of hair which the innkeeper possessed himself of and displayed in his tavern. when he left les baux he took the "cabelladuro d'or" with him, but a tress of it is now in the musée arlaten at arles. the rock beneath the church is honeycombed with graves of the knights and ladies of old time, and this fair girl is supposed to have been the princess strella of florence, who came to les baux to marry the reine jeanne's seneschal, but died instead, and was buried beneath the stone on which she would have stood to be wedded. a sad little story, very real at the time, then forgotten for four hundred years, and now again real enough to touch the heart! all that afternoon and evening i wandered about among the ruins of the deserted city. i call it deserted because the greater part of it is actually so, and the life of the part that is inhabited is so different from the life it once enshrined that it has little power to change the meaning of the old buildings in which it shelters. the church is perhaps an exception, for so many churches as ancient as this have survived. but if you sit in its darkness and silence for a time the present drops away from you and you are back again in the days when it rang with the tread of mailed knights and rustled with the silks and satins of their ladies. it has been clumsily enough restored without, but inside it is much as it was centuries ago. the south aisle is the oldest, and it has three chapels, as well as an altar, scooped out of the living rock. mr. cook reminds us of dumas' visit to it. "as he entered the little, cold, dark building (in the days before its restoration) he heard a sound of sorrow at the eastern end. upon an open bier, before the high altar, lay the dead body of a little girl. her two tiny sisters knelt on either side. her mother sat crying in a corner, and continued sobbing after the good alexandre had thrown her his whole purse. her little brother tried to toll the bell for a service at which no priest was present. a dozen or so of beggars had looked in to see the sight. they comprised the whole population of les baux." in front of the church is a terrace overlooking the valley in which is the garden with the pavilion. in one corner of it are the ruins of a chapel of the white penitents. on the other side the rock rises sheer and steep, and in it is hollowed out a semi-circular cistern called the deïmo. into this the vassals of the lords of les baux poured their tithes of wine and corn and olive oil. one can picture this terrace on a sunny spring morning filled with the people who had just come out from hearing mass in the church. they would linger awhile to gossip by the stone parapet, or round the steps of the cross in the middle of the little _place_, before they went off to their fine houses in the narrow streets. les baux was a favourite residence of the provencal nobility in its more peaceful days. hardly less interesting than the ruins of the castle and the older houses are those of the fifteenth and sixteenth century mansions, with their noble proportions and their rich decoration. one of them, hard by the church, is still standing, and is used as a school. you can get permission to see its vaulted frescoed hall. it belonged to the noble family of the porcelets, the origin of whose name is legendary. a proud lady of the family drove away a beggar woman, rebuking her for bringing into the world more children than she could provide for. the beggar chanced to be a witch, as so frequently happened in such circumstances, and prophesied in return that the lady herself would bear as many children as there should be little pigs in the litter of a sow that was near them. the sow produced nine _porcelets_, and the lady as many children, who with their descendants were thenceforward called porcelet. if only one could catch just one glimpse of the place as it was in the days of high romance! it would be impossible to dip anywhere into the history of song and chivalry in the south during the middle ages without coming across mention of les baux. some of its princes were noted troubadours, knights and ladies thronged its courts of love, and the names of its queens ring musically through the poetry that was made there. passe-rose, douce, etiennette, adélasie, briande, clairette, barbe, aybeline, baussette--how sweet they sound! and there are stories to be told of all of them. characteristic of the times is that of the fair azalais, wife of count barral des baux. her charms were sung by the famous troubadour, foulquet of marseilles, but "neither by his prayers nor by his songs could he ever move her to show him favour by right of love." whether or no he actually transferred his affections to his lady's young sister-in-law, laura, or only pretended to do so, azalais took umbrage, and "would have no more of his prayers or fine words." so, "he left off singing and laughing, for he had lost the lady whom he loved more than the whole world." but his homage continued, and we hear no more of laura. barral des baux grew tired of his countess and divorced her, but foulquet, in spite of his friendship with her husband, maintained his allegiance to azalais. at last he wearied of his fruitless sighing, and took the cowl. he rose to be bishop of toulouse, and his name lives, not as one of the greatest poets of his time, which he was, but as the cruel persecutor of the albigensian heretics. as one mounts towards the summit of the rock one sees the ruins of yet other churches and chapels, and on the grassy plateau is a wide space that was once used as an arena for bull-fights, but before that was the site of a hospital for lepers, of which there were many in les baux during the seventeenth century. in the foundations of the walls that are left can be seen the recesses for the beds of the patients cut into the rock. it rained a good deal that afternoon, but as i was standing on the summit of the rock in the evening, looking out over the plain, the sun sank into a clear belt of sky between the clouds, and the whole wide landscape, with its encircling hills, was bathed in a glory of golden light. i turned, and almost held my breath at the beauty that was revealed to me. the setting sun had caught the ruins of the castle, and it was glowing in the unearthly light, like a fairy palace, while the walls and roofs below it were still in shadow. the deep blues and purples of the hills beyond were indescribably lovely. i could not expect to get a reminder of their beauty; but the castle, standing out like that--i might get it in a photograph. i turned and ran down the steep street to get my camera. i had carried it about with me all day, but had left it behind for my evening stroll. as i hurried up to the top again, the sun was just touching the lower bank of heavy cloud. as i ran towards the first place from which i could possibly get a view, the light slowly faded from the towers and battlements; as i reached it, it died away altogether. the ruins were once more cold and grim and forbidding. it was the more disappointing because it is very difficult to get any view of les baux that is characteristic of the place as a whole. the castle stands up boldly from the north-east, but even there the rock on which it is built does not show its height. the view of the town taken from the castle gives some idea of its situation, with the rocks on the other side of the valley and the plain spread out below; but it is only a fragment, after all, and the only photograph i took of it that "came out" was when there was a driving scud of rain that blotted out the view, and shows few details of the foreground. another trouble came upon me that night. i was walking through a narrow street in the darkness when a big dog rushed out of a doorway and made for me. i turned quickly to defend myself, and at the same time a man standing in the doorway shouted at the dog and picked up a stone to throw at it. i felt a sudden pain in the calf of my leg, and thought that the dog had bitten me, or a stone had hit me, very sharply. but it was a split muscle, and it kept me laid up in les baux for two days longer than i had intended. and that produced the greatest disappointment of all. on sunday i should have gone to maillane, on my way to avignon, and seen mistral, who was then quite well, and who liked to see visitors. but on monday i could not walk so far, and put off the visit till later; and on monday mistral was taken ill with the illness from which he died on wednesday. [illustration: les baux from the castle ruins] [illustration: one of the beauties of les baux _page 152_] but this further disappointment was hidden from me at the time, and i spent the next two days hobbling about les baux and getting an indelible impression of it, as familiarity with its nooks and corners increased. it became, by degrees, not so much a ruined city as a city of ruined houses, with a character to each. there are many intersecting streets and lanes, and as one poked about them here and there, some faint shadow of reality made itself felt above the destruction. little bits of staircases, windows, hearths, chimneys, stood out from the mass of heaped stones. one could imagine the houses whole and clean and occupied. from some life seemed only recently to have departed, though they had been left to decay for centuries. the ghosts of the men and women of the past were very near to showing themselves, especially at dark, when what is preserved and what is destroyed was difficult to distinguish. i spent much time on the quiet grassy summit of the rock. a few sheep are fed there, and the shepherds watch them, as they always do in this country, sitting in the shade of some ruin or leaning over the rough stone parapet to look at the valley below. an old inhabitant came up to read his paper there, as he told me he did every evening when it was fine, and we saw the first swallow of the summer as we talked. the children came to cut plants for salads, busily turning over the stones and filling their wire baskets. they are very friendly, the children of les baux. when i had been there two years ago a slim little dark-eyed girl of twelve had shown me the church, and i had taken her photograph sitting on the steps of the cross. now i found her grown into a young woman, and present her here as one of the beauties of les baux. her name is martha montfort and i wondered if perhaps she was a descendant of the great montforts. for our simon de montfort's father was count of toulouse, and campaigned it here against the albigenses. the people at the inn were very kind to me over my accident, provided me with embrocation and cotton wool and the best of advice, and sent me away nearly cured. mistral had visited them in the early days of their occupancy, and had written in their visitors' book, in his fine delicate hand, the following poem: fiéu de maiano s'ère vengu d'ou tèms de dono jano quand èro à soun printems e soubeirano coune èron autre-tèms s'ènso autro engano que soun regard courons, aurieu, d'elo amourouns, trouva, j'eu benurons vaur fino canvouneto que la bella janeto m'aurié donna'n mantèu pèr parèisse au cassèn. one can get the lilt of the soft provençal, in which the poet sings so sweetly, and with the french translation, added in his own hand, make out the sense. fils de maillanne, si j'étais venu au temps de madame jeanne, comme ou l'était dans sa fleur et souveraine, comme on l'était jadis, sans autre politique que son regard brillant, j'aurais, amoureux d'elle trouvé, moi bienheureux, chansonette si fine que la belle jeanette m'eût donné un manteau pour paraître au château. mistral would certainly have been rewarded if he had appeared at the castle of les baux in the time of the troubadours. he sings in the same tongue, poems at least as beautiful as any that they have left behind them. he was anxious that the _patronne_ of the inn should wear the provençal costume, and i do not wonder at it, for although she is a swiss from valais, she has the regular features and the stately bearing of the arlesiennes who are said to be the most beautiful women in europe. i found an english artist settled at les baux. he had bought one of the old houses and restored part of it, a great deal with his own hands. we sat and talked in a large upstairs room with a fine open fireplace and the window open to the western valley and the hills beyond it. and on sunday we visited the val d'enfer together, and the chapel of the trois maries, or the "trémaïé." the carved stone in front of which this little shrine is built--it lies under the castle rock to the west--supplies the key to much that we have already heard about. it is one of the great limestone rocks with which the hillside and the valley are littered--about twenty-five feet high, and is a semi-circular niche twelve feet or so from the ground containing the weathered carving of these draped figures, nearly life-size. at first sight they appear to be those of three women, and for centuries the tradition has been that they were the three marys who landed with the other saints at stes. maries de la mer. but the carving is roman, and the figures are roman, dressed quite recognizably in togas and tunics, the right-hand figure facing us is a man, the other two are women, the one in the middle, taller than the others and wearing a sort of turban and carrying a rod decorated with foliage, though this is not easy to make out now. but it is not difficult to identify the three figures. there is a wealth of evidence to show that they are contemporary portraits of caius marius, his wife julia, and in the middle martha the prophetess who attended marius in his campaign against the barbarians. "for he had with him," writes plutarch, "a syrian woman named martha, who was said to have the gift of prophecy. she was carried about in a litter with great respect and solemnity, and the sacrifices he offered were all by her direction. she had formerly applied to the senate in this character, and made an offer of predicting for them future events, but they refused to hear her. then she betook herself to the women, and gave them a specimen of her art. she addressed herself particularly to the wife of marius, at whose feet she happened to sit when there was a combat of gladiators, and fortunately enough told her which of them would prove victorious. marius's wife sent her to her husband, who received her with the utmost veneration, and provided for her the litter in which she was generally carried. when she went to sacrifice she wore a purple robe lined with the same, and buttoned up, and held in her hand a spear adorned with ribbons and garlands." * * * * * the inscription below the figures has almost entirely disappeared; but enough remains to show its date, and the name of the sculptor, caldus. mr. cook makes the interesting suggestion that this may have been "that plebeian partisan of marius, who forged his own way to the front, was made tribune in 107 b.c., and won his honours by hard work like his master." for "he was lieutenant at les baux with marius before he went to spain; and in memory of his spanish campaigns he struck the gold medals which record his rise to the consulate in 97 b.c." here then are the three marii: caius marius, martha marii, and julia marii; and as is the way of such things they became presently transformed to the three maries, and a whole new tradition was attached to them. there is little doubt either that martha the sister of mary who rid provence of the scourge of the dragon derived from martha the companion of marius, who rid it of the scourge of the barbarians. not far from the rock of the trémaïé is that of the gaïé which bears the much mutilated carving of two figures which are probably those of caius marius and his wife julia, or possibly of martha. these two stones, and especially the trémaïé, are from one point of view the most interesting remains in the whole of provence; for they join on the past to a past still more remote, and a story that took two thousand years in the telling is made plain. chapter xi _mistral_ i started early on monday morning to walk to saint-remy. it was fine and sunny again, but there was a touch of the _mistral_. the road winds up through the limestone crags to a _col_ from which there is a view even more magnificent than that from les baux to the south. the undulating plain, all silver and delicate green and indigo and deep purple, stretches away on either hand, and very far away rise the snow peaks of the pyrenees, like mountains in a dream. the rhône and the durance are at about equal distances to the right and left, the durance flowing on one side of the alpilles to join her sister at avignon, and both these together passing the other side on their way to the sea. beyond avignon are the heights of the cevennes and the basses-alpes to close in the picture, of which the foreground is the very heart of the rich and picturesque provençal country. the life of the soil, as it existed for hundreds of years, and exists still though shorn of some of its character since the days of steam, has been immortalized by mistral, who was born in the village of maillane a few miles off the road i was taking that day, spent all his life there, and was to die two days later. all its sweet charm is summed up in the great epic of "mirèio," or "mireille" published when he was twenty-five and instantly hailed by no less a critic than lamartine as a work of genius. i had been reading it at les baux, in a version in which a french rendering--prepared, i am told, by mistral himself--is printed parallel to the provençal. it was possible to get an idea of the swing and mastery of the original verse. with some knowledge of latin and french, with a few simple rules of pronunciation, which were given in the introduction, and with the ear attuned somewhat to the sounds--for i had constantly heard provençal spoken--i could take a stanza here and there and make it out. but one was carried along by the translation, even though it was in prose, and i could not put it down until i had finished its twelve books. the story is of the innocent burning loves of a youth, the son of a wandering basket-maker, and of a young girl, the daughter of a rich farmer. the earliest books are full of simple and beautiful feeling for the common episodes of country life, as they unrolled themselves before the poet's own eyes at the time he was writing of them. we see the basket-maker and his son joining the master of the farm, his family, and his numerous dependents, at their meal on the long stone table under the vine-trellis in front of the house, and hear the stories they tell; we see the girls picking the mulberry leaves from the trees, and winding the silk from the cocoons, their hands and tongues alike busy; and hear wise talk of seasons and crops, and of all the active pastoral and agricultural life of the country. there come three rich suitors for the hand of the fair mireille; a man of mighty flocks, who brings his sheep and goats down from the high alps to winter on the crau; the owner of troops of horses running wild on the windy marshes of the camarque; and the strong tamer of bulls, tales of whose strength and prowess ring through the country, who fights a homeric battle with the young lover, is defeated by him, but by a stroke of malevolent cunning leaves him for dead before he goes to his own death in the flooded river. the after scenes have immortalized the grotto des fées in the val d'enfer of les baux, and the pilgrimage church of saintes-maries, in which mireille dies, after hearing from the saints themselves the story of their miraculous voyage and their landing in provence. all the scenes of the poem are laid within a few miles of mistral's home, and neither in this poem nor in any other has he drawn inspiration except from the life and legends of his own provence. [illustration: mistral's birthplace, mas du juge] [illustration: fresco in the palace of the popes at avignon _page 203_] he has told the story of his own life in a charming book. his father was of the old peasant aristocracy of the country of arles, and married his second wife, mistral's mother, when he was already fifty-five. "one year, on st. john's day, the master, françois mistral, was in his cornfields, which the harvesters were cutting with their sickles. a crowd of women followed the reapers to pick up the grain which escaped the rake. soon my father noticed a pretty girl who hung behind them as if she were afraid to glean like the others. he approached her and said: "'where do you come from, little one? what is your name?' "'i am the daughter of etienne poulinet, mayor of maillane,' she replied. 'my name is délaïde.' "'what!' said my father, 'the daughter of poulinet, mayor of maillane, coming out to glean!' "'master,' she replied, 'we are a large family, six girls and two boys, and our father, although he is fairly well-off, when we ask him for pin-money, says, "my dears, if you want money to make yourselves smart go and earn it." so that is why i have come to glean.' "six months after this meeting, which reminds one of the old story of ruth and boaz the gallant yeoman asked master poulinet for his daughter, and i was born of this marriage. "well, then, my arrival in the world having taken place on september 8, 1830, in the afternoon, the happy mother sent for my father, who was at that time, as usual, in his fields. "as soon as the running messenger came within hearing, he called out: 'come, master, for the mistress has just been delivered.' "'how many?' asked my father. "'one--a fine boy.' "'a son! may the bon dieu make him strong and wise!' "and without more, as if nothing had happened, the good man finished his work and returned deliberately to the farm. this showed no lack of tenderness, but, brought up, and indoctrinated, like the old provençals, in the roman tradition, his manner showed the surface roughness of the ancient _pater familias_."[11] the child narrowly escaped being christened nostradamus, but was called frédéric instead, in memory of a poor little urchin who had carried love-letters between mistral's parents during their courtship and had died shortly afterwards. his childhood was spent in soaking in the details of the large simple life in and about his home, and all the lore of the past that was stored up by the country people. he went to the university of avignon, and to aix to study law, and there gradually formed in him the purpose to devote his life to the literary revival of the national tongue, which had sunk from its proud estate as a language of high poetry to little more than a peasant dialect. he was not alone in his love for it. other names were honoured throughout provence of the joyous, high-mettled band that formed themselves into a society to advance their object, and made such an immense pleasure of their lives as they worked towards their end. there were sweet singers among them--aubanel, roumanille, félix gras, and others--although none whose names will live as mistral's will; for he long outlived them all, and his fame has spread everywhere. they called themselves the "félibres," and their movement the "félibrige," using a word that mistral had found in an old legend to designate the seven doctors of the law with whom christ disputed in the temple; and no one who has visited provence needs telling how much alive the movement is. besides his poems, and some charming stories, mistral has produced an exhaustive dictionary of the provençal language, and if his fame had not been established half a century ago on the publication of "mireille," his museum at arles, in which he sought to gather up all the story of provençal life, so that what has passed or is passing away should never be forgotten, would keep his memory green. it is a noble gift in itself, this museum housed in one of the ancient buildings of arles. in 1906 mistral was awarded the nobel prize for literature, and dedicated it to this purpose. he wanted nothing for himself that money could buy. for eighty-four years he lived among his own people the common life of the land, and came to be supremely honoured by them all. they called him the emperor of the south; there was no one whose name carried more weight. for the gift that he brought to his people, his grand old father of whom he draws such a delightful portrait in his memoirs, must be accorded some of the thanks. as in the case of ruskin and of browning, a parent who had no connection with literature himself fostered the early studies of the son and left him to follow his bent, while relieving him of the necessities which often smother talent, though never perhaps genius. but then mistral's father was himself an inspiration to the work his son set himself to do when he returned to the large liberty of his home. "the judge's farm was at this time a true home of pure poetry, biblical and idyllic. did it not live and sing around me, this poem of provence with its blue depths framed by the alpilles? one had only to go out to be dazzled by it. did i not see mireille passing, not only in my young dreams, but even in person, sometimes in one of those pretty young girls of maillane, who came to pick mulberry leaves for their silkworms, sometimes in the grace of those who came and went with bare throats and white coifs among the corn and the hay, in the olive-gardens and among the vines? "did not the actors in my drama, the labourers, harvesters, herdsmen and shepherds, come and go before my eyes from dawn till dusk? could you have a finer old man, more patriarchal, more worthy to be the prototype of my master ramon, than old françois mistral, whom no one, not even my mother, ever called anything but the master? my poor father--sometimes when the work was pressing and he wanted help, either to get in the hay or to draw up the water from the well, he would call out: 'where is frédéric?' although at that moment i might be stretched under a willow idly pursuing some fugitive rhyme, my dear mother would reply: 'he is writing.' and immediately the rough voice of the good man would soften as he said: 'don't disturb him.' for to him, who had never read anything in his youth but the bible and don quixote, writing was almost a holy office." as a young man mistral's father had been requisitioned to carry corn to paris during the reign of terror, and was struck with horror at the execution of the king.[12] * * * * * "he was profoundly religious. every evening, summer as well as winter, kneeling at his chair, head uncovered, hands to his forehead, with his hair in a queue tied by a silk ribbon, he would pray for us aloud; and when the evenings lengthened in the autumn he would read the gospels to his children and his servants.... "although he would pick up a fagot on the road and carry it home; although he would content himself for his ordinary fare with vegetables and brown bread; although, in the midst of plenty, he was always abstemious, and would mix water with his wine, yet his table was always open, as well as his hand and his purse, to any poor wayfarer. then, if there was talk of any one, he would ask first: 'is he a good worker?' and if the answer was, yes, he would say: 'ah, he's a good man; i'm his friend.'"[13] this charming book of mistral's and his poems, give more of flavour of provence than anything i have read, and the link between our times and his was not even snapped by his death on the day i walked through the country that he more particularly wrote of. he was never for long away from provence during the eighty-four years of life, but was much lionized when he did venture as far as paris. i very much wish that i had seen him, for his personality counted for a great deal in the movement he spent his life in fostering, and he was the last survivor of the original félibres. it now remains to be seen whether the revival will continue of itself. i have heard it compared with other national revivals, fostered by intellectuals, but taking no great hold of the people, and prophecies of its decay. but i think it has life in it. mistral would certainly not have called himself an intellectual, and he never behaved like one. he was one of the people himself, and they are fortunate to have found such an interpreter. chapter xii _saint-remy_ on the way up from les baux to the _col_, and for some distance beyond, the country is arid and cold; but the wealth of aromatic and flowering shrubs that carpet the ground in these stony regions, and the breathing spirit of the spring, gives them a charm of their own that is far removed from desolation. the road was lonely enough. a few flocks of sheep and goats clattered among the loose stones of the hillsides that were on either side, among the pines and the thyme and rosemary and the yellow brooms; and the shepherds watched and whistled to them, never very far away. a motor-car passed me as i rested at the top of the hill, and a carriage jogging along the straight road to the "plateau des antiquités" offered itself for a lift; for i was on my way to see something that every tourist in these parts comes to see, and this one was plying for hire in this lonely region in the ordinary way of business. but otherwise i had the road to myself in the early morning, and took my time over the six or seven kilometres that were all that i was yet able to accomplish. the two noble monuments that stand in an open space a mile or so to the south of saint-remy, and dominate the wide expanse on all sides, can be seen long before one reaches them, from the south. the wildness of the hills has begun to give place to cultivation, but they stand by themselves with no other buildings near them, reminders of a story that has never been forgotten by the poorest and least educated of those who work within sight of them. the so-called mausoleum is the older of the two. it has an inscription that has caused considerable difficulties to the antiquarians. i need not go into the controversy, but will accept the conclusions set forth by mr. cook, who deals with the question in his own lucid and convincing way. the inscription is to the effect that sextus, lucius, and marcus, julii, and sons of caius, dedicated this monument to their parents; and within the colonnade on the top of it are two statues which have been supposed to represent these objects of filial piety. but the inscription is not less than a hundred years later than the date of the monument on which it was carved, and the probability is that some rich colonials "calmly appropriated a fine 'antiquity,' wrote their own names on it, and buried the respected corpses of their parents within a building originally intended for entirely different uses." the bas-reliefs on the four sides of the base represent a roman triumph, and there seems little doubt that this noble monument was erected to commemorate the great victory of caius marius over the barbarians, on the spot where he had first met them. it was erected by julius cæsar, the nephew of marius, and the two figures represent the great general himself, and catullus, his colleague in the consulship, when their combined forces crushed the cimbrians upon the raudine plain. the triumphal arch, which stands close to the monument, was also erected by julius cæsar, to celebrate his great victory over vercingetorix. it is the earliest roman triumphal arch outside italy, and there are probably only two in rome that are earlier. [illustration: the mausoleum, saint-remy] [illustration: the triumphal arch, saint-remy] the photographs will show the wonderful state of preservation of the monument, as well as its beautiful details. the arch also preserves much of its detail, and the two monuments together have a striking effect. mr. cook draws a just comparison between these sane and beautiful relics of classical antiquity and the misery and squalor of the mediæval ruins of les baux. it is a comparison that strikes one forcibly throughout provence. we shall see other examples of roman architecture--in the pont du gard, the arenas at nîmes and arles, and elsewhere--and in comparison with them all but fragments of the oldest churches and palaces and fortifications that came after them are things of yesterday. and yet the roman works seem to be built to stand for ever, and tell their tale so that all may read it; while with the buildings of centuries after, the tale is confused often beyond unravelment. we know of the history that led to the erection of these "antiquities" at saint-remy, and the men who made them, almost as if they were things of a generation ago. move forward a thousand years and the long history of les baux was just beginning. its princes crept out of obscurity, and its stately buildings arose, to arrive at splendour through long centuries, to decay and to lie in ruins for centuries more; and all the time these other buildings within a few miles of them, whose life has been twice as long as theirs in all their phases, have continued almost in their first perfection. and you must move on for much more than a thousand years before you find the christian legends that derived from the people and events which these monuments commemorated firmly fixed in the minds of men, and giving rise to the beautiful buildings which now vie with those of the romans in interest. in this country, one is not allowed to forget how many hundreds of years it took for the church to produce its fine flowers of architecture, when one is continually coming across those of a civilization that was old before the church ever existed. not far from these roman "antiquities" is an interesting church and cloister of the twelfth century, but i did not turn aside to see it, as walking had now become a painful business, and it took me half an hour to limp down the long avenue that led to the pleasant town of saint-remy. it is a gay, clean little town, its broad streets and squares shaded by great limes and planes and chestnuts, its gardens full of flowering shrubs, and rich with beds of colour. one seems to have got back to the country about grasse, but here the flowers are grown for seed, not for scent. saint-remy's chief industry is the production of seeds for the horticulturists. i should have liked to see something of it, but had to content myself with sitting still until the departure of the omnibus for avignon. this was a great clumsy petrol-driven conveyance in which the men stood in one compartment, holding on to anything within reach as it lurched and swayed along the road, and the women sat in another. i think it was market-day. at any rate the seated compartment was full of peasant women nursing their baskets, every window closed and the heat considerable. i might have borne that for the sake of a seat, of which there was one vacant, but when i opened the glass door between the compartments i was met with such a powerful efflux of garlic that i closed it again hurriedly and swayed and lurched with the rest until we reached châteaurenard. it was a charming, fertile country that we passed through, with one farm succeeding another--comfortable-looking, rambling, stone-built houses and outbuildings, shielded from the fierce winds by rows of tall cypresses, and even the fields and market-gardens fenced in with dried reeds. the _mistral_ and the _bise_, when they really set to work, are a scourge. but as old françois mistral used to say when he heard grumbling about the weather: "good people, there is one above who knows what he is about, and what is good for us. supposing those great winds which bring life to provence never blew, how would the mists and fogs of our marshes be dispersed? and if we never had the heavy rains, how would our wells and springs and rivers be fed? we need all sorts, my children." at châteaurenard we changed omnibuses for the five miles' journey to avignon. they were mostly townspeople now who crowded the compartments. there was a family in the corner of mine--a mother with three handsome daughters who crocheted or knitted busily during the whole journey, and a father who sat silent and looked learned, but amiable. perhaps he was a _félibre_; they are mostly learned and amiable; and avignon is one of their chief centres. we crossed the durance, a broad and mighty river, soon to join its waters with those of the rhône. the sun was setting over it, and the knitting ladies laid down their wool and exclaimed at the beauty of the scene. after another mile or so we were set down just outside the ramparts of the ancient city. chapter xiii _avignon_ some one had told me that he had stayed at avignon for a night while motoring down to the riviera early in march, and had seen the rhône under a full moon from the garden of the popes' palace, while the nightingales sang among the trees all around him. this information had been presented to me amidst the dreary days of clouds and thawing snow which come with the end of winter in the swiss alps, and the contrast was so entrancing that i had half a mind to make straight for avignon first of all, by train. i had seen that beautiful garden, and the grand view from its terraces, with the rhône rolling its mighty stream down below; the fabled bridge of st. bénézet still throwing a few arches across it, with its two-storied chapel at the end of them; the forts and towers of villeneuve a mile away on the other side; and the distant mountains closing in the great expanse of fruitful country. it was a spot to dream of and to long for. but i think there must have been a mistake about the nightingales; or at least about the month. it was now the twenty-fourth of march, and, although the trees were beginning to break into leaf at last, i heard no nightingales in provence. avignon has a famous inn--the hôtel de l'europe--very old, very picturesque, with its archway and flower-grown court. indeed, it is so much in keeping with all the rest that a stay there serves to heighten the pleasant memories that every visitor must carry away with him of the fascinating city. but on this journey i was on the lookout for something more retiring; and by good fortune i found something as good of its kind as i have ever happened upon. i walked up the broad rue de la république, with its gay and busy shops, _cafés_ and picture palaces, its trams, plane-trees, soldiers and citizens, and all the life and appearance of a modern street, and came to the place de l'hôtel de ville. on either side of this main artery lies the old avignon, and i knew that i only had to turn aside from it to lose that somewhat disconcerting note of modernity, and perhaps to find my ideal _auberge_. i found it just off the _place_, very ordinary outside, and indeed in, but with a host and hostess whose sole aim seemed to be the welfare of their guests, and with cooking that would make the fortune of one of those soho restaurants that the world occasionally discovers and flocks to for a time. good wine, too, and all at a price that makes one wonder how these things are done. find it for yourselves, ye travellers who want to save your pockets, and are content with a clean bed, good fare and a kindly welcome; commend me to madame, and ask her to give you a dish of _bouillabaisse_. i went up that evening, past the huge looming mass of the popes' palace and the cathedral to that delightful garden, with its dark foliage, gleaming sheets of water, statues and balustrades, and looked out over the rhône and the dim country beyond. it is one of those places in which the past of a very old city seems to concentrate its memories. whatever one knows of its history comes before one, half real; whatever is left of the city itself that is part of its history takes on its old meaning, and whatever is new is forgotten. in this corner of avignon, the buildings round the great oblong of the place du palais, the ancient streets just off it, the huge rocks that lift it high in the air, the ramparts and towers and forts below, the cottages and quays along the river, the half-ruined bridge--all are of the old storied avignon, and only the garden itself is new, though its newness takes off none of the effect of its surroundings. the site of this garden was in papal times a barren windswept waste, with windmills and forts, and a cemetery used when avignon was isolated by floods. when the rue de la république was cut right through the city, the débris was carted up here and mixed with soil from the river banks, and this delightful garden laid out. shortly after the crimean war marshal canrobert planted an oak among the ilexes and cedars and cypresses that mix their dark foliage with the living green of the deciduous trees, and dedicated the garden to the use of the citizens of avignon. it is a charming spot at all times. i found myself continually wandering up there, in the intervals of more serious sight-seeing, or in the early morning before sight-seeing began, or in the evening when it was over. sight-seeing is really the bane of all beautiful places; one wants to see everything and is glad one has done so afterwards, but the way to enjoy a place is to live one's own life in it, for however short a time, and take the sights as they come. unfortunately they do not come quickly enough when one has only a day or two to spare for a place that is full of them, and the only way is to make a business of sight-seeing, with whatever intervals of peace one can afford. i did my duty the next day in spite of the rain that fell intermittently. in retrospect there are churches; crooked mediæval streets with little shrines in niches of the walls; broader renaissance streets with handsome buildings; the immense ring of rampart, too big to make any single impression, but effective enough here and there when one found oneself at the edge of the city; the busy modern boulevards, which after a time fail to take away from the impression of the whole as a very ancient and very picturesque city; and the mighty palace so dominating everything that one is hardly ever able to forget it, however far one's wanderings take one. i think st. agricol was the first church i visited. it is of the fourteenth century, on a very much older foundation, simple and pleasing, with a late renaissance memorial chapel, richly and gracefully decorated, and containing some beautiful statuary. avignon employed many sculptors of note in the days of its wealth and fame, and their work is to be found here and there, sometimes outside of a church and sometimes inside. one learns to look out for it, and gains many a little thrill of pleasure in spotting something true and right and beautiful, among a good deal that is commonplace. the same may be said of the paintings of which the churches are full, but both buildings and pictures are apt to be dark, and without a great deal of trouble it is difficult to pick out the good from the ordinary. probably the best are in the musée, and some of those are so fine that one is content to enjoy thoroughly a few, and let the rest go by. st. agricol was rather busy on the morning i visited it. in one of the side chapels a number of small boys were awaiting their turn at the confessional box. they sat on wooden benches, their bare legs dangling, and occupied themselves as is usual with small boys on their best behaviour, not making too much noise and ready to be diverted by anything in the shape of novelty that came their way. when i came unexpectedly upon them they showed great interest in me, but the opportunities for comment that i afforded were immediately displaced by something much more worthy of attention. the great west doors were opened and a coffin was carried in and laid in the chancel. there was a muttered service lasting a very few minutes, and silverheaded _aspersoirs_ were handed from one to the other of the scant body of mourners. then the untidy-looking men with their cloth caps on their heads lifted up the coffin and almost ran with it down the church, led by a cocked-hatted functionary whose aim seemed to be to get the whole business over as quickly as possible. it was the briskest funeral i have ever seen. after that, the church rapidly filled up with crowds of children, and the small boys from the side chapel, relieved of their burdens of sin, clattered in to join the rest. a handsome, cheerful-looking priest mounted the pulpit and began to address them and ask them questions. he very soon had them interested, and the church rang with their eager answers and not infrequent laughter, as he cleverly led them from one point to another, and caught and threw back every word that he drew from them. just as i was going out of the church a mischievous urchin poked his head in at another door and shouted something opprobrious, then ran away as fast as his legs would carry him. the priest was as ready for this interruption as he had been for the calls of his flock. he said something too quickly for me to catch, and the whole churchful of children shouted their applause. more beautiful than st. agricol is the church of st. pierre. its fine gothic front, completed early in the sixteenth century, shows a wealth of delicate carving, and it fronts a picturesque _place_ which enables one to get its full effect. the façade is worth examining in detail, with the luxuriant carving, round the portal, of vines and oak leaves and acorns and little figures engaged in all sorts of agricultural pursuits. i did not see the carved sixteenth century doors, which are protected in the same way as those of the cathedral at aix, but in a niche between them is a lifelike eighteenth century statue of the virgin and child--the mother, tender and matronly, bending forward and holding up her flowing drapery--which is well worth noting. very attractive is the little plane-shaded _place du cloître_, approached under an archway to the north of the church. the old ecclesiastical buildings have been taken possession of by all and sundry, and are alive with the signs of modern habitation--clothes fluttering, gay pot-flowers in windows of old grey stone, children playing under the trees. but it is a sweet and peaceful spot in the midst of a busy city, and its cloistered charm still hangs to it. i visited this church several times during the days i found myself in avignon, between journeys. it has the same sort of interest as the churches one goes in and out of in italy, though to a less degree than the finest of them--a sense of perfection in the whole, and a good deal that is worth looking at in detail. there is a lovely little gothic pulpit of white stone, with statues of apostles and saints under delicately carved canopies; richly carved and gilded woodwork in the choir, which frames a series of dark but decorative pictures; a renaissance altar-piece with a relief of the last supper; some really fine pictures by the best-known artists of avignon--nicholas mignard, simon de châlons, pierre parrocel, and others. but the most human and pathetic possessions of this church are the cardinal's hat and tunic of st. pierre de luxembourg hung up in a glass case in one of the side chapels. [illustration: sixteenth century doors and virgin and child of eighteenth century, st. pierre, avignon] [illustration: the pont bénézet _page 185_] this infant phenomenon of the church had won fame in paris for his learning and piety at the age of nine. at fourteen, already a bishop, he was made a cardinal, and summoned to the papal court at avignon by clement vii, in order that his fame might convert the urbanists to the clementine obedience. his reputation spread throughout christendom, and was enhanced by the stories of his extraordinary self-disciplines. the poor child caused himself to be scourged as he was lying on his deathbed, and gave orders that he was to be buried in the common cemetery of the poor. his shroud and vestments were torn to shreds, and even the bier broken into fragments for relics, and countless miracles were wrought by the touch of his body and afterwards at his grave. three thousand of these were attested by the papal commissioners, not of the common sort, it was explained, such as "recovery from fevers and such trivial ills, but the blind were given sight, the deaf heard, the dumb spake, and, what is more, the dead were raised to life." this boy-bishop was canonized a hundred and fifty years after his death. now he is forgotten, and his relics hang there dusty and neglected. baedeker does not even mention them, though joanne does. there are none of the signs of devotion and remembrance that are shown to saints of popular memory, no candles or other offerings. the church itself seems to have forgotten him. has the efficacy of his self-tortured life died out, or is there still virtue in these relics of his princedom, which is there for any one to whom it may occur to draw on it? in the rather dark church of st. didier is a notable work of art formerly known as the _image du roi rené_, for whom it was executed. it is a relief in marble representing christ bearing the cross, with a figure of the virgin on her knees in the foreground, and a score or so of other figures, with an architectural background. its realism is striking, and rather painful, but it should not be missed, for it is one of the earliest sculptures of the renaissance to be seen in france. high up on the wall opposite to the chapel in which this relief is half hidden is a beautiful gothic pulpit, or tribune, which is also worth notice. probably it was not used for preaching from. mr. okey in his admirable historical and descriptive account of avignon, suggests that it was built for the exposition of relics. st. didier has a fine tower and belfry, which draw the eye when one looks down upon the roofs of avignon from the heights above. there are not many left now of the two or three hundred towers that were there before the revolution, and of the sixty churches or chapels there are only eighteen, not all of which are intact, or used for their original purpose. but there are many curious "bits" still left in avignon, which one continually comes across as one strolls about the streets--noble fronts of rich mansions, carved porches and doorways, innumerable ancient streets of smaller houses, which have remained almost untouched, and here and there a church or a single tower that has escaped destruction so long that one hopes it will be preserved for ever. avignon, indeed, would be interesting enough if its great lions were left out; as it is, they dwarf everything else, and perhaps an apology is needed for dealing with the parish churches before the cathedral and the palace of the popes. but before we give ourselves over to the big things of avignon, let us finish with the smaller. every one has heard of the bridge of st. bénézet, and the old jingle: _sur le pont d'avignon l'on y danse l'on y danse, sur le pont d'avignon l'on y danse tout en rond. les beaux messieurs font comm' çà, et puis encor comm' çà. sur le pont d'avignon l'on y danse tout en rond._ it was a stupendous work of its time, which even the romans seemed to shirk; indeed, so great that it was necessary to assign it to a supernatural origin. the story was told by order of friar raymond of the bridge, and sealed by the pontifical rectors. when benet was a young child and was watching his mother's sheep, the voice of jesus christ came to him ordering him to build a bridge over the rhône, which until then he had never heard of. an angel in the guise of a pilgrim led him to the place where the bridge was to be built and telling him to cross the river and show himself to the bishop and the townspeople of avignon, vanished from his sight. the ferryman was a jew, and scoffed at his prayer to be taken over the river for the love of god and our holy lady mary, but little benet gave him the three farthings which were all his worldly wealth, and he ferried him across. little benet interrupted the bishop's sermon by announcing his mission. he was led to the provost of the city to be chastised, and announced it also to him. the provost reviled him but said that if he could carry away a certain stone which he had in his palace he would believe that he could build the bridge. the bishop and all the townspeople looked on while he raised the stone, which thirty men could not have moved, as easily as if it were a small pebble and carried it away to form the foundation stone of his bridge. so, with a gift of money from the repentant provost, and more from the townsfolk, and with the usual miracles of healing and raising the dead to life, the bridge was begun, and little benet hailed as a true saint. the pretty story, which is given in full, translated from the provençal, in mr. okey's book need not be rejected entirely. there _was_ a little benet, as well as a great, and he was instrumental in building the bridge. for he was chief of a community of friars hospitallers founded at maupas, near avignon, in 1164, "to establish ferries, build bridges, and give hospitality to travellers along the rivers of provence."[14] one of the most attractive exhibitions of religious feeling in the middle ages, among a good many that are not at all attractive, was this undertaking of works of necessity by men of piety who believed that they were doing service to god by doing service to men. "travellers were considered as unfortunates deserving pity," says m. jusserand in his "english wayfaring life in the middle ages," in which there is much interesting information about the building and preservation of roads and bridges, "and help was given to them to please god." thus, when henry viii gave the lands of the dissolved monastery of christ church to canterbury cathedral, he declared that he made this donation "in order that charity to the poor, the reparation of roads and bridges, and other pious offices of all kinds should multiply and spread afar." it is probable that the frères pontifes, taking their pattern from the collegium pontificum of rome, owed their christian impetus to st. benet of avignon, for his is the first society of its kind that is known, though it was soon copied all over europe. it took him eleven years to build the bridge, and he also built the chapel of st. nicholas that still stands upon it. he was buried in this chapel, and his body remained there for five hundred years. but the great floods of 1669 so shook the structure that his remains were translated to a chapel at the end of the bridge, thence to the church of the célestines, and finally at the revolution, into the church of st. didier. is it too fanciful to suppose that there is some foundation in fact for the legend of his beginning his great work as a child? i like to imagine him filled with his great idea as he walked by the side of the rhône as a boy, talking about it and being laughed at, gradually forming a strong purpose, and finally bringing it to a triumphant issue. it reminds me of dickens, as a poor child, passing the mansion of gad's hill and making up his mind that he would some day live there. the bridge passed through many vicissitudes. it was much quarrelled over, and seems to have been kept in fair repair whenever the church's rights in it were recognized, but let go when it was in the hands of the laity. it has been in ruins now for two hundred and fifty years, but the few arches that remain show how well little benet and his bridge-builders did their work; and as it stands now it is one of the most picturesque features of the beautiful city. chapter xiv _the palace of the popes_ "no one who did not see avignon in the time of the popes has seen anything. for gaiety, life, animation and one fête after the other, there was never a town like it. from morning till night there were processions, pilgrimages, streets strewn with flowers and hung with stuffs, disembarkings of cardinals from the rhône, banners flying, galleys gay with flags, the soldiers of the pope singing latin in the squares, the begging friars swinging their rattles. and from top to bottom of the houses that pressed humming round the great papal palace, like bees round their hive, there was the _tic-tac_ of the lace-makers' bobbins, the flying shuttles that wove cloth of gold for the chasubles, the little hammers of the metal-workers who made the chalices, the sound-boards being adjusted by the lute-makers, the songs sung over the looms; and above it all the pealing of the bells, and always the beating of tambourines down by the bridge. for with us, when people are happy they must dance, they must dance; and as in those times the streets of the town were too narrow for the _farandole_, fifes and tambourines posted themselves _sur le pont d'avignon_, in the fresh air of the rhône, and day and night _l'on y dansait, l'on y dansait_. "ah, happy time! happy town! halberds without an edge; state prisons in which wine was kept to cool! never any scarcity; never any fighting! that was how the popes of the comtat knew how to rule their people; and that is why their people have missed them so much." thus alphonse daudet, a true son of provence, draws his picture of papal avignon, in that delicious story of his, "la mule du pape." as for the freedom of avignon from war, during the seventy years that the popes had their seat there, history would hardly justify the people of avignon in regretting them on that account; nor probably were the dungeons of the papal palace lacking in tenants even at the best of times, for it was a cruel age, and the pleasures of the best of popes would not have been greatly disturbed by the thought of men rotting in misery beneath the hall in which he was feasting. but the experience of all times of strife is that life goes on side by side with fear and danger, and merrily enough when the weight is lifted ever so little. very likely daudet's picture of avignon enjoying itself is true enough. clement vi, to whose time his story would refer, if it were intended to refer to any particular pontificate, was not much like the kindly old man who fed his mule with spiced wine, and advanced the adventurer who admired her, but neither was he like what a pope would have to be nowadays. "generous and open-handed," writes mr. okey, "a thousand hungry clerics are said to have crowded into avignon seeking preferment, none of whom went empty away; for no suitor should leave a prince's court, said he, unsatisfied. exquisitely polite and courteous, clement had a gracious amenity of manner. accustomed to the society of noble ladies, his court was crowded with fair dames and gallant knights; his stables were filled with beautiful horses; his hospitality was regal and his table loaded with rich viands and rare wines. the fair countess of turenne, his constant companion, disposed of benefices and preferments, and her favour was the surest avenue to fortune. no sovereign of his time kept so brilliant and expensive a court, and when one of the cardinals remonstrated and recalled the examples of benedict and john, he replied magnificently: 'ah! my predecessors never knew how to be a pope.' clement relaxed the rigid constitution of gregory x, _ubi magis_, for the government of conclaves, made in 1274, and ordered that the cardinals might have curtains to their cells, to be drawn when they rested or slept; they might have two servants, lay or cleric, as they pleased, and after the lapse of three days, in addition to their bread and wine, they might have fruit, cheese, and an electuary, and one dish of meat or fish at dinner, and another at supper."[15] it was in 1309, for reasons that we need not go into, that clement v set up his court at avignon in the papal county of venaissan. "this was a man," wrote villani, "most greedy for money and a simoniac. every benefice was sold in his court for money, and he was so lustful that he openly kept a most beautiful woman, the countess of perigord, for his mistress." but he was also a great lover of the arts, as is shown by "the vast treasure of gold and silver vessels, gems, antiques and manuscripts seized by his nephew at his death." he died five years later, when there was an interregnum for two years. then the bishop of avignon was elected pope under the title of john xxii. he was a small, wiry, learned and subtle old man of seventy-one, the son of a cobbler, and he lived to be nearly ninety. the conclave took place at lyons, and he is said to have compassed his election by a promise to the roman cardinals that he would not mount horse or mule except to go to rome. so he got into a boat, and dropped down the rhône to avignon, "entered the papal palace on foot, and never left it again save to cross to the cathedral."[16] his palace was the old bishop's palace that stood where the mighty mass of the pope's palace stands now, but the cathedral was the same, although it has been very much altered. it stands very nobly, high above the _place_, and towering above the palace itself, which it adjoins. its square tower is surmounted by a colossal gilt statue of the virgin, which was put there in 1859, and bears that appearance. the cathedral dates from the eleventh century, but was rebuilt in the twelfth. the west porch with its corinthian architecture was long thought to be of roman construction, but it was probably erected rather later than the first rebuildings, and owes its classical appearance to the influence that roman work had upon the provençal architects, who had before them many fine buildings to study. it was once decorated with frescoes by simone memmi, who was brought to avignon from siena in the fourteenth century and did some beautiful work there, some of which we shall see later in the popes' palace. his paintings in the cathedral have unfortunately disappeared, all but a few fragments, which, however, include a figure in a green gown, kneeling, which is said to be a portrait of petrarch's laura. simone did meet laura in avignon and painted her portrait, for which petrarch paid him in two sonnets that "brought more fame to the poor life of master simone," says vasari, "than all his works have brought him or will bring." [illustration: the cathedral, avignon] [illustration: "the popes' palace is most like those almost brutally strong buildings that the romans left"] the great west doors of the cathedral stand open, and its floor is wholly bare. it is much more effective so, but it makes the church look smaller than it is. indeed, when you consider that you are standing in what was, during the seventy years of the "babylonian captivity," the first church in christendom, you must be struck by its smallness. but the popes of avignon gave most of their attention to their palace, and not much was done for the cathedral. the main plan is a high nave, lighted, from an octagonal lantern in the last bay, and a semi-circular apse. the chapels came later. so did the elaborately carved marble gallery and tribunes on either side of the nave. one of the two chapels first to be built contains the remains of the beautiful tomb of pope john xxii and his nephew. it has been much mutilated and much restored. the recumbent figure is not that of the pope whose effigy first lay there, and of the sixty marble statues that adorned its niches none remain, though it is possible that one or two of those on the pulpit of st. pierre, which we have already seen, may have been taken from the tomb. it must have been a glorious monument when it was first erected, and is even now a thing to see. what is called the tomb of benedict xii in another chapel is a pure "make-up," much of it of the nineteenth century. there _was_ a beautiful monument to this great pope, but in the eighteenth century all that was left of it was moved. it stood in the chapel of the tailors' guild, and they wanted the space for a monument to a tailor. the revolution created great havoc in the cathedral. the cloisters and chapter-house that stood to the east of it were swept away, and all their treasures and those of the cathedral looted, or else broken up. for some reason the old papal throne was spared, and stands in the choir--a plain chair of white marble, with the lion of st. mark and the ox of st. luke carved upon it. it was john xxii who really fixed upon avignon as the papal city--clement v had thought of transferring his seat to bordeaux--and he soon set about housing himself in a manner worthy of a pope. he bought land, and began to build splendidly, not only a palace for himself, but one for his nephew, who had been presented with the bishopric. it still stands on the north side of the _place_, a comfortable and roomy house enough, though nothing beside the vast pile upon which it looks. he also built himself splendid country houses, one of them at châteauneuf, where were the famous papal vineyards, and from which still comes a famous wine. experts have pointed out some traces of pope john's work, as well as of the small palace which he replaced; but the great fortified pile in which these were incorporated dates from the next reign--that of benedict xii. the necessity there was for building a fortress is rather curious. pope john had amassed a treasure so vast that his successor had to take exceptional steps to guard it. "according to villani--who makes the statement on the authority of his brother, who was the representative at avignon of the great florentine banking house of the bardi, of which they were members--eighteen millions of gold florins were found in the papal treasury at john's death; and gold and silver vessels, crosses, mitres, jewels and precious stones to the value of seven millions more. and this prodigious wealth, adds the historian, was amassed by his industry and sagacity and the system of the reservation of all the collegiate benefices in christendom on the plea of preventing simony."[17] mr. okey goes into an elaborate and interesting discussion as to the present-day value of this vast sum, and puts "the approximate value of the papal treasure at john's death, according to villani's statement, at the incredible figure of one hundred million pounds sterling." no wonder the walls of the palace were built to stand! benedict xii was the third french pope, and in spite of remonstrances decided to stay on at avignon. indeed, rome was impossible at this time. civil strife raged there; and "so neglected and ruinous and overgrown with weeds were the churches, that cattle browsed up to the altars in st. peter's and the lateran, and a papal legate offered the marbles of the coliseum for lime-burning." sometimes, in all that welter of crime and piety, squalor and luxury, cruelty and sentiment, of the middle ages, there stands out the figure of a man whom we seem to recognize as something nearer to ourselves than most of them. our religion--even the religion of catholic countries--is so different in spirit from the religion of those days that it is difficult to account for the actions of one after another of the great churchmen, except under the supposition that they were a set of greedy, bloodthirsty hypocrites, which probably most of them were not. but through it all there were constantly arising men and women who were actuated by much the same ideas as we should recognize as holy and righteous if we contemplated them in a living person. the greatest of these saints, we know, helped to fix the standard of goodness that is generally held today. they were men and women of genius, and we understand them as well as they were understood in their own day or perhaps better. but it is something a good deal less than genius that brings that sense of recognition in the case of a character like that of benedict xii. he was a large, red-faced man, who was said by his detractors to love coarse jokes and to drink heavily; but his detractors were the clergy from whom he insisted upon behaviour much more in accordance with modern ideas than with those of his own age, and they could not forgive him. "he was a man," wrote one of them, "hard, obstinate, avaricious; he loved the good overmuch, and hated the bad; he was remiss in granting favours, and negligent in providing for the services of the church; more addicted to unseemly jests than to honest conversation; he was a mighty toper, and '_bibamus papaliter_--let us drink like a pope'--became a proverb of the day." the indictment contains more than a touch of spite. it is not to be supposed that a man who drank mightily, if he really did so, or laughed at a broad story, would have been thought deserving of much censure in those days, especially by one who felt no incongruity in accusing him of loving the good overmuch or setting his face against nepotism. those were virtues that were hated in that society, so crooked in its views that it could even brand them openly as faults without fear of reproach. this bluff, honest man built the greater part of the palace, "which," wrote one of his chroniclers, "with its walls and towers of immense strength stands like himself, four-square and mighty." about half as much again, however, was added in later pontificates, and benedict's building was a good deal altered; but the four great fortified towers are his, and the buildings in between, which include his chapel. these are used now for the storing of archives, and other similar purposes, and are not shown to the public, but one or two of the towers can be ascended and magnificent views obtained from them. of the massive walls little has been destroyed either by time or by the many vicissitudes through which the great building has passed. of all the architecture that one sees in this country the popes' palace is the most like those huge, enduring, almost brutally strong, buildings that the romans left behind them. an ineffaceable impression is gained of it as one walks up the narrow, winding rue de la peyrolie which leads from the lower parts of the town on the east to the place du palais. part of the street has been cut out of the naked rock, and far overhead towers the south wall of the building, looking no less solid and permanent than the rock itself. it is like a gigantic cliff rearing its bulk above one, and that impression as of something vaster and stronger than mere human building is never quite absent from the whole mass, on whatever point of view it obtrudes itself. the enormous court of honour, which is the first thing you see after passing in, is undergoing repair, as, fortunately, is the whole of the building. it badly needed it, for until seven or eight years ago the greater part of the palace was used as a military barracks, and not only was the noble hall of justice divided up into three floors, and other parts ruthlessly adapted, but great gothic windows were destroyed to give place to commonplace square openings, and in fact no beauty was spared where it might interfere with convenience. the restoration has been in hand for over seven years and is expected to take about as long again before the palace is put back into something like its original state. the work is being done with the utmost care, as all such things are done in france, but in many details the damage done has been irreparable. the great _salle du conclave_ has been cleared of its rubbish and the tall gothic windows restored. it is huge and bare. there are no more than the worn remains of the frescoes with which clement vi caused its walls to be covered, either by simone memmi himself, or by some one of his school. some effort was made nearly a hundred years ago to induce the military authorities to look after their preservation; but "the commandant of the engineers replied that he did not share the commissioners' views with regard to the frescoes; they were of little artistic interest and not worth preserving; in fact they were not consonant with the spirit of a military establishment." it was in this hall that queen joan of naples defended herself from the charge of being privy to the murder of her first husband, and won the day by her eloquence and beauty. avignon was hers, and she sold it for 80,000 golden florins to clement vi, who thus made an excellent bargain for the papacy. by a broad staircase one mounts to the fine doorway leading to the "new" chapel. it contains two doors, and the part on the left has been barbarously mutilated, but the whole is now carefully restored, as well as the beautiful chapel itself. you pass through numerous chambers and corridors, some of them restored to what they were, others in the hands of the work-people, and some still showing the hideous wreck that the adaptations to military use made everywhere of the interior of the palace. there is a room with charming fourteenth century frescoes of country scenes as pleasant as anything of the sort i know of. there is a garden with a fish pond and people preparing to take the disturbed-looking fish out of it; nymphs bathing; boys getting fruit from a tree; sportsmen rabbiting with ferrets; others hunting with falcons. the walls are covered with a realistic and most decorative groundwork of foliage and grass, in which you can pick out all sorts of trees, flowers, fruits, birds and little animals. fortunately the greater part of these delightful paintings are intact, and a great deal of skill has been shown in restoring them to something of their pristine state. the more famous frescoes of simone memmi in the chapel of st. john the baptist, and those of matteo di viterbo in that of st. martial above it have not escaped so well. "in 1816 a corsican regiment being quartered in the palace, some of the soldiers (who as italians knew the value to collectors of the st. jean frescoes) began the exploitation of the neglected chapel and established a lucrative industry in the corps. special tools were fashioned for the work; the men became experts in the art of detaching the thin layer of plaster whereon the heads were painted, which they sold to amateurs and dealers."[18] so in these beautiful new testament scenes which cover roof and walls there are many unsightly white patches which sadly lessen the effect of the whole. but i cannot help thinking that the soldiers must have been stopped in their depredations, for very much more is left than has been taken away. i forget in which of these two chapels it was that i noticed on a patch of white wall names scribbled, with dates, quite in the modern tourist's fashion, and as fresh as if they had been written yesterday. but the script was "german," and the dates of three hundred or so years ago. so little do habits change! the rest of the palace that one is allowed to see has left no very definite impression on my mind, except that of vast space, and, where it has not yet been cleared of its barrack adaptations, of miserable degradation. one sees the funnel chimney in the middle of the great kitchen which was for so long said to have been the torture chamber of the inquisition; one gets beautiful views from the higher chambers and windows and from the towers; and here and there one looks down on to a neglected space that was once a trim garden. if one cannot picture the old popes and cardinals walking in the beautiful garden from which we now look down to the rhône and across to villeneuve and the purple country beyond, they were not without such pleasures, although it never occurred to any of them to make a garden just there. "among the amenities of the old palace were the spacious and lovely gardens on the east, with their clipped hedges, avenues of trees, flower-beds and covered and frescoed walls, all kept fresh and green by channels of water. john xxii maintained a menagerie of lions and other wild and strange beasts; stately peacocks swept proudly along the green swards,--for the inventory of 1369 specifies seventeen peacocks, some old and some young, whereof six are white."[19] even when the restoration is finished it will need a strong effort of imagination to recall the scenes that were witnessed by these gigantic walls. they tell of the strength of the place and of the necessity for that strength. one can imagine the fighting, but it will all be too much swept and garnished to call up the scenes of splendour and luxury that were piled one upon another even in times of misery--of war and of flood and of plague. the luxury was like nothing that we know of except that of some of the roman imperial courts. mr. okey has collected many extraordinary details, from which i take as an example the account of the banquet given by two cardinals to pope clement v. "clement, as he descended from his litter, was received by his hosts and twenty chaplains, who conducted him to a chamber hung with richest tapestries from floor to ceiling; he trod on velvet carpet of triple pile; his state-bed was draped with fine crimson velvet, lined with white ermine; the sheets of silk were embroidered with silver and gold. the table was served by four papal knights and twelve squires, who each received silver girdles and purses filled with gold from the hosts; fifty cardinals' squires assisted them in serving the banquet, which consisted of nine courses of three plates each--twenty-seven dishes in all. the meats were built up in fantastic form: castles, gigantic stags, boars, horses, &c. after the fourth service, the cardinals offered his holiness a milk-white steed worth 400 florins; two gold rings, jewelled with an enormous sapphire and a no less enormous topaz; and a bowl, worth 100 florins; sixteen cardinal guests and twenty prelates were given rings and jewels, and twelve young clerks of the papal house and twenty-four sergeants-at-arms received purses filled with florins. after the fifth service, a great tower with a fount whence gushed forth five sorts of choicest wines was carried in; and a tourney was run during the interval between the seventh and eighth courses. then followed a concert of sweetest music, and dessert was furnished by two trees--one of silver, bearing rarest fruits of all kinds, and the other loaded with sugared fruits of many colours. various wines were then served, whereupon the master cooks, with thirty assistants, executed dances before the guests. clement, by this time, having had enough, retired to his chamber, where, lest he might faint for lack of refreshment during the night, wine and spices were brought to him; the entertainment ended with dances and distractions of many kinds."[20] the luxury has gone, and so has the terror. the thick-barred windows of the towers speak of the many who were immured there in pain and misery; if the kitchen was not a torture-chamber, such a chamber was certainly to be found elsewhere; somewhere on the walls is the hook from which was suspended the iron cage in which a cardinal who had offended the pope was hung up for months in the sight of all. the times needed a good deal of gilding. chapter xv _vaucluse_ it was very pleasant to get on to the road again, with my pack on my back. i was not yet tuned up to the nearly twenty mile walk between avignon and vaucluse, though my damaged muscles were now giving me little trouble, so i took the train to l'isle-sur-sorgue, which is distant from vaucluse between four and five miles. in 1789, arthur young made this pilgrimage to the shrine of petrarch and laura, and allowed himself to be more moved by sentimental interest than was his custom. l'isle has changed very little since that time. it is still the bright, pleasant, well-watered little town he describes it. "l'isle is most agreeably situated," he wrote. "on coming to the verge of it i found fine plantations of elms, with delicious streams, bubbling over pebbles on either side; well dressed people were enjoying the evening at a spot i had conceived to be only a mountain village. it was a sort of fairy scene to me. now, thought i, how detestable to leave this fine wood and water, and enter a nasty, beggarly, walled, hot, stinking town; one of the contrasts most offensive to my feelings. what an agreeable surprise, to find the inn without the town, in the midst of the scenery i had admired! and more, a good and civil inn. i walked on the banks of this classic stream for an hour, with the moon gazing on the waters, that will run for ever in mellifluous poetry: retired to sup on the most exquisite trout and crawfish in the world. to-morrow to the famed origin."[21] i do not remember the elms, but the planes were there, as usual, and fine, spreading ones they were; and what was more, they were beginning to show a delicate haze of green, which was very delightful, and what i had been looking out for ever since i had started on my expedition. during the two days i had been at avignon the spring seemed to have taken that little definite step forward which makes all the difference. in the south, where the sun gets hot long before the trees get green, and so many flowers come forth to greet it, this longed-for arrival of the true spring is apt to be discounted, and comes with less of a thrill than is felt in the north. but the thrill is there, if one's senses are open to it; and i felt it on that morning as i walked to vaucluse. "i am delighted with the environs of l'isle," arthur young wrote of his next morning's ride; "beautiful roads, well planted, surround and pass off in different directions, as if from a capital town, umbrageous enough to form promenades against a hot sun, and the river splits and divides into so many streams, and is conducted with so much attention that it has a delicious effect, especially to an eye that recognizes all the fertility of irrigation." * * * * * it is still a fertile, carefully cultivated country, but gets wilder as one approaches the famous spring "justly said to be as celebrated almost as that of helicon." the river sorgue, whose source provides the fountain, is already a full and rapid stream as one nears the village, and flows through green meadows down the valley not far from the winding road. the hills are high on either side and a great cliff looms in front of one, closing in the gorge. one's eye instinctively searches for a cleft down which the torrent must descend; but none is to be seen--only the tall rampart of rock. the village is pleasant enough, and contains two inns, each of them quite capable of providing for a comfortable night's lodging. too much, i think, has been written in disgust of the paper-mills, which use the power of the stream and provide the village with employment. their buildings are old enough to make them not so very incongruous, and they are a small detail beside the huge masses of rock that enclose the village on three sides. nor is either of them in the village itself. there is an ancient church, an old stone bridge, gardens and terraces and parapets, and much shade of trees, and the beautiful sparkling river that makes music all the time. and dominating the village on a high crag are the ruins of the bishop of cavaillon's castle, up to which petrarch so often climbed to see his friend. the fountain is some little distance beyond the village. the road, which runs by the river, passes one of the factories and then the garden of a _café_, where everything was being painted up and prepared for the coming influx of visitors, and "la belle laure," the motor-boat upon which trips can be taken on the river, was just about to be drawn from her winter quarters. with all this, and with the booths for the sale of picture-postcards and all sorts of reminiscent rubbish, most of which has nothing to do with vaucluse, or even with provence, the place has been cockneyfied enough, and i dare say that if i had seen it later in the year, or on a sunday, when it is crowded with people, i should not have carried away with me the next morning such an agreeable impression. but i had it pretty well to myself, and when i had got past the last of the booths on to the rocky path above the stream it was as lonely as it must have been in petrarch's time, six hundred years ago. [illustration: the "fountain," vaucluse] [illustration: the caves above the "fountain" _page 223_] but where was the fountain? i had read of a rocky cave in which it bubbles up, and had pictured i don't know what in the way of gloom and mystery. the path led up to the straight, towering cliff, and there stopped. to my right was a broad pool of water, and that was all. at first sight it was just a pool at the foot of the great rock. then i saw that the water was flowing all the time as it were from the face of the rock itself. there may have been an inch, but not more, of the top of the cavern showing. i had found it at its fullest. sometimes it sinks so low that the waters of the pool do not rise to the rocks over which they were now thundering to the torrent below, and then the river is fed by an underground stream, of which the waterfall is only the overflow. the pool was very still, and very blue, and the rocks about it were very bold, but naked and oppressive. i must confess to having been rather disappointed; for this is a place in which countless people have been moved to tears by the beauty of their surroundings as well as by a sensibility to the past of which we seem in these prosaic days to have lost the knack. mr. okey tells us how in 1783 alfieri, "on his way to buy horses in england, turned aside with transport to visit the magic solitude of vaucluse, and 'the sorgue,' he writes, 'received many of my tears; and not simulated or imitative tears, but verily hot, scalding, heartfelt tears.'" also how wordsworth, "on his way to italy in 1837, was most of all pleased with the day he spent at vaucluse, where he was enchanted with the power and beauty of the stream and the wildness and grandeur of the rocks." in the eighteenth century the cult of petrarch and laura was very much alive, and no traveller with any pretensions to taste would have omitted a visit to the famous fountain if he had found himself anywhere near. we have already seen how arthur young, who was anything but a sentimentalist, thought nothing of avignon except in connection with the loves of petrarch and laura. the engaging rascal casanova, who was a sentimentalist beyond everything, went to avignon for no other purpose but to make the pilgrimage to vaucluse. of course he wept copiously; nothing else was to be expected of him, and i do not see why mr. okey should take it for granted that his emotion was not genuine.[22] he was not the most estimable of characters, but there can be no doubt of his love of letters, nor indeed of the power of such a story as that of petrarch and laura to touch him. "i threw myself on the ruins," he tells us, "arms extended as if to embrace them; i kissed them, i moistened them with my tears; i sought to breathe the divine breath which had animated them." and then he characteristically proceeded to draw a moral from his emotion that would help him with the lady to whom he was paying court at the time. "i asked pardon of mme. stuard for having relinquished her arm to render homage to the shade of a woman who loved the finest spirit that the age had produced. "i say spirit; for the flesh, as it seems, was not concerned in the matter. 'it is four hundred and fifty years, madame,' said i to the frigid statue that regarded me with an air of amazement, 'since laura de sade walked on the very spot on which you stand now. it is quite likely that she was not so beautiful as you are, but she was gay, bright, sweet, merry and good. may this air which she breathed, and which you are breathing at this moment, enliven you with the divine fire that ran in her veins, that made her heart beat and her breast palpitate! then you will capture the homage of all sensible men, and you will find none who will dare to cause you the least annoyance. gaiety, madam, is the lot of the happy, and sadness is the dreadful shadow of spirits condemned to eternal torments. be gay then, and thus merit your beauty!'"[23] it is sad to read that this inspiring address was received by the lady with no signs of emotion whatever. she took the chevalier's arm again and the party returned to the house of messer francesco d'arezzo, where casanova spent a quarter of an hour in carving his name; after which they dined and went back to avignon. from casanova's description this scene must have passed at a house just below philip de cabassole's castle, as he describes himself mounting to the point of a rock. such a house was shown as petrarch's during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and one opposite to it, with an underground passage between the two, was shown as laura's. i do not remember either of these houses, which i believe no longer exist. and it is pretty certain that none of the places that were ever celebrated as petrarch's house was really his, though a fair case for the situation of his dwelling, and the garden he describes with such affection, has been made out. the story of petrarch's love for laura, like that of dante for beatrice and abelard for héloïse, has passed into the very texture of literature, and need not be told here. and it would be an affectation for one who is unable to read italian to pretend to any absorbing interest in petrarch's expression of it. i must confess that, for my own part, i find much more to delight me in the details of his life at vaucluse than in anything that i can gather at second-hand of his worship of laura, and those details are real and fresh enough to give to the place such a charm as hangs over no other that i visited in provence. mr. okey has collected them so well in his chapter "petrarch at vaucluse," that i cannot do better than make a long extract from his pages. "in 1337 the poet, revolted by the atmosphere of the papal court, and perhaps a little disappointed at curial insensibility to his claims for beneficial favours, turned his back on avignon and withdrew to live the simple life near the source of the sorgue at vaucluse, whose romantic beauty had been impressed on his mind since a boyish excursion he had made thither in 1316. to a modest little house fit for a cato or a fabricius, with no companion but a dog given him by cardinal colonna, living on hard rustic fare and dressed like a peasant, figs, nuts, almonds and some fish from the sorgue his sole luxuries, the poet retired with his beloved books; the only sounds that greeted his ears in that sylvan solitude were the songs of birds, the lowing of oxen, the bleating of lambs, the murmuring of the stream. like horace, he scorns gold and gems and ivory and purple; the only female face he looks upon is that of his stewardess and servant--a visage withered and arid as a patch of the libyan desert, and such that if helen had possessed it, troy would yet be standing. but her soul was as white as her body was black, and her fidelity was imperturbable. by indomitable industry she was able to attend to the poet's wants as well as to those of her own household; faring on hard, dry, black bread, watered wine, sour as vinegar, she lay on the bare ground, and would rise with the dawn; in the fiery heat of the dog-days, when the very grasshoppers are overcome, her invincible little body would never tire. two small gardens the poet had: one a shady transalpine helicon, sacred to apollo, overlooked the deep, mysterious, silent pool where the sorgue rises, beyond which there was nothing save naked, barren, precipitous, trackless crags, inhabited only by wild animals and birds--the like of it could not be found under the sun. the other garden, better tilled and nearer his house, was bathed by the crystal waters of the rapid sorgue, and hard by, separated by a rustic bridge from his house, was a grotto whose cool shade and sweet retirement fostered study; there, in a little retreat, not unlike the _atriolo_ where cicero was wont to declaim, the happy recluse passed the hot afternoons in meditation; in the cool of the evening he roamed about the green meadows, and in the morning rose early to climb the hills. were not italy so far and avignon so near the poet could end his days there, fearing nothing so much as the return to a town. "dear friends, too, are not lacking. the cultured philip of cabassoles, bishop of cavaillon, dwells in the château that crowns the hill above his hermitage, and the great ones of the earth are pleased to seek him in his rustic home. the island garden of the sorgue gave incessant trouble. writing to guglielmo di pastrengo, the studious recluse recalls the stony patch of ground his friend helped to clear with his own hands, and informs him, the once barren waste is now enamelled with flowers, rebellious nature having been subdued by human toil. in a charming epistle, in latin verse, to cardinal colonna, petrarch tells of the fierce frontier wars he waged with the naiads of the sorgue in order to recover possession of the garden which he had usurped from them and which they had reconquered during his absence in italy. by dint of strenuous labour he had cleared a stony patch of land and planted there a little green meadow, as a retreat for the muses. the nymphs, taking it ill that he should establish strangers in their territory and prefer nine old maids to a thousand young virgins, rushed furiously down the mountain to ravage and destroy his budding garden; he retires terrified, but, the storm passed, he returns shamefacedly and restores the desolated land to its former verdure. scarce had the sun run his course when the furious nymphs return, and once more undo all his labour. again he prepares to restore the evicted muses, but is called away to foreign parts. after six years he returns to his solitude: not a vestige remains of his handiwork, and fish swim at their ease over the site of his garden. grief gives him arms, and anger, strength; he calls to his aid the peasant, the shepherd, the fisherman; together the allies roll away great stones and tear out the entrails of the earth; they chase forth the invading nymphs; with phoebus's help re-establish the sacred muses in their place and build them an abiding temple. the enemy retires breathing vengeance and awaits the help of the winter floods and storms; but the victorious champion of the muses is prepared; he defends his conquest by a rocky rampart and defies the fury of the nymphs. now will he enjoy a lasting peace and fear no foes; not even were they allied to the waters of the po and the araxes. his triumph was, however, short-lived, for we learn from a further letter that with their allies, the winter floods, the naiads of the spring gained a final victory, and the defeated petrarch was forced to lodge the muses in another spot. "the poet always found solace and refreshment in his gardens. a true lover of horticulture, he cultivates exotics, experiments on soils and plants, and writes to naples for peach and pear trees. he invites the archdeacon of genoa to his dwelling, happy, celestial and angelic; to the silence and liberty of his grateful solitude; he will find secure joy and joyful security, instead of the noise and strife of cities; he shall listen to the nocturnal plaints of philomela, and the turtledove cooing for her mate. "he bids the convalescent bishop of viterbo find health of body and serenity of mind in the soft and balmy air of vaucluse. there in the warm sun, by the crystal fountain, in umbrageous woods and green pastures, he shall experience the delights of paradise as described by theologians, or the charms of the elysian fields as sang by poets; a good supply of books and the society of faithful friends shall not be lacking."[24] that is a picture worthy to be put beside those that one makes for oneself of horace enjoying his sabine retreat, and indeed, if one were to leave laura out of consideration, there is an almost exact parallel in the retirement of the two poets. if one could have read petrarch, as one reads horace, there would have been a constant series of little discoveries and recognitions to be made all about vaucluse. even as it was, wandering about the pleasant quiet place as i did that afternoon and evening, with the music of its many waters always in my ears, i gained an impression that comes back to me now as among the best that that land of many memories afforded me. it was only the "fountain" itself in which i was a little disappointed. the rest was as sylvan and poetic and peaceful as one would wish such a place to be, and the shade of the courtly nature-loving poet seemed to brood over it all, so little has it changed in essentials. i made my way up through the olive gardens to the ruins of the castle, of which there are enough left to provide a most picturesque feature, but hardly enough to enable one to picture it as it was when petrarch visited his friend there. one sees the pool and the cliff from it, and the river running over its stones below, the curious cave dwellings high up in the rocks opposite, and the pleasant fertile valley opening out on the other side. it must have been a delightful country retreat, and in that remote spot fairly safe from the disturbances that were apt to centre round such dwellings, although it was strongly built and fortified. the next morning i set out early to walk back to l'isle by a roundabout way which took me over the hills to saumane, where i had heard that there was an ancient castle still inhabited. i found a hill village, very picturesque, as is the way of such villages in provence, and walked round the walls that guarded the château from the gaze of the vulgar, but found it more inaccessible to curiosity than is usual with such places. so i went down again to the village and into the _auberge_ to refresh myself, and found a friendly postman also refreshing himself at a table in the kitchen, who conversed with me on many subjects but particularly on that of dogs. he seemed to take an occasional bite as something in the ordinary way of his rounds, and only showed apprehension in the case of the dog that bit him being "malade." i am bound to confess that this possibility gave me something of a chill. i had seen the teeth of so many dogs, which seem to be of a particularly unfriendly disposition in that country, and although i had always managed to drive them off, my accident at les baux had made me nervous about them. but i had not considered the chance of hydrophobia, which an englishman is apt to forget all about. however, i suffered nothing further, except an occasional scare; but whenever i approached a farm and heard the bark of a dog, i went past very gingerly. both the postman and the woman of the inn gave me to understand that, although the château was kept strictly closed against unauthorized visitors, something might possibly be done for me if i called at a certain cottage with a large rose over the porch and rattled the coins in my pocket. which i did, and was sent up the road hopefully. on it i met a man leading a donkey laden with fagots, who promised to join me at the entrance when he had disposed of his load. parts of the château date back to the twelfth century, but the dull square front is of the seventeenth. it is magnificently situated on a point of rock above the village, and commands splendid views. or rather, the terraces do, for a grove of ilexes has been planted all along the front--i suppose for shade, and shelter from the wind--and nothing can be seen from those windows. i had exhausted the interest of the gardens, and the immediate surroundings of the château long before the man with the ass reappeared. there was an untidy "pièce d'eau" on the sandy square in front of the house, and some dejected-looking peacocks in a cage, and over all the rest was that air of makeshift and economy which marks so strange a contrast between the châteaux of france and the lavishly kept-up country houses of england. nor was the impression altered when i was taken inside, as far as the appointments of the rooms were concerned. i have never been inside any of the great french provincial châteaux, but i have seen a good many of the size of an ordinary english country house, and never one that was not full of rubbish, or that had gardens kept up except with the bare minimum of labour. they have the air of places to which their owners occasionally retire for a sort of picnic existence, and i suppose that is what they are generally used for--as appanages to some fine house in a city. but all the rubbishy furniture and decoration of this château could not detract from its interest. it had belonged to the marquises of sade. i do not know whether the infamous eighteenth century marquis ever owned or lived in it, but it was the property of the sades when petrarch was at vaucluse, and even if laura had not married into the family, as it is generally supposed that she did, petrarch must have visited it. the vaulted dining-hall, with its curious echo, can have changed but little since his time, and one can say almost with certainty that his feet trod the stones upon which one stands today, or at least that he knew the room as one sees it. the appalling dungeon cells, most of them too dark and inconvenient to be used now even as storerooms, show that this castle was equipped with all the conveniences of the middle ages. one could more easily imagine a nobleman of those days doing without his dungeons than a modern one without his bathrooms or garage. but the owners of this château seem to have been more enterprising in making economic use of their prisoners than most of their fellows. they ran an illicit mint. there are the stone trough and table in one of the maze of cells underground. nobody could have been indelicate enough to pry into the domestic arrangements of a gentleman's dungeons, and the coiners were no doubt as safe from detection there as anywhere. nor was it probable that any of them would give away the secret. they did not mix with the outside world, and were not likely to do so again when once they had been initiated into their new trade. chapter xvi _nîmes and the pont du gard_ the surpassing charm of nîmes is provided by its waters, which are the chief feature of a garden as beautiful of its kind as is to be seen anywhere. but these waters were considered too sacred for common use in roman times, and in order to provide this quite unimportant colonial town, which is not even mentioned by classical writers, with pure drinking water, an aqueduct was built to convey to it the waters of the springs five and twenty miles away; and the remains of this aqueduct are one of the wonders of the world. we will take the pont du gard first, as i did on this expedition, walking from remoulins, and then back again by the other side of the river, and on to nîmes. it was a bright, hot, spring day, and the first view i had of the famous aqueduct was through a haze of foliage which later on would have been thick enough to hide it until one was almost underneath its soaring arches. taking this road to the left, which is the usual and the shorter one, the huge structure comes as a sudden surprise; but i am not sure that it does not provide a more interesting sight seen over miles of olive gardens from the other road. no detailed description of this mere fragment of a monumental and enduring work is necessary, as i am able to give an excellent photograph of it from a point of view that is not usually taken. but i doubt if its immensity can be gauged from any photograph that it is possible to take. it rises a hundred and eighty feet from the level of the river. the huge blocks of which it is composed are put together, and have held together, without any mortar. it has lasted for close upon two thousand years, and looks as if it would last till the end of the world, without much trouble being taken to keep it in repair. its effect, indeed, as one lingers about it, and looks at it now from the hills above, now from the road below, now from a distance across the plain, and tries to get some definite outstanding impression, is of a work on such a scale that it rivals that of nature herself. it is huge and yet it is light; it is regular in design, but irregular in detail; its use is gone, yet it has life. it stands in majestic solitude. the blue river with its sandy bars flows between rocky, wooded hills, and the white road keeps it company, but seems to be little used. there is some sort of a _café_ near it, but it is hidden by the trees. i had the place all to myself during the hour or so that i stayed there. the impression of something belonging to nature more than to the art of man deepened. [illustration: the pont du gard] [illustration: the fountains, nîmes] the photograph, taken from the north bank of the river, shows the end of the squared channel which conducted the water, and a little farther along the roofing with which the whole length of it was covered. a tall man can walk under it upright; but if he is inclined to be bulky there are places where he may have to squeeze himself through. this is because of the calcareous deposit left by the water flowing through the channel for centuries. the thickness and hardness of this coating must be seen to be believed. at first i could not imagine how such enormous masses of what looked like natural rock had been raised to the summit, and then i remembered reading something about the deposit, and recognized it for what it was. houses have been built of it, and a whole church in a village not far off. the jutting-out stones in the middle row of arches may also be noticed. they were put there by the romans probably to provide for scaffolding when repairs should become necessary. i do not know why it is that my stay in nîmes seems in retrospect rather depressing. the weather was fine, and what there is to see is well worth seeing. perhaps i was getting a little tired of being alone; perhaps the large, dirty hotel in which i spent the night had something to do with it. one puts up with very poor quarters in the country, and always has some sort of intercourse with one's fellow-creatures. but in a town it is different, and i was glad enough to get away from nîmes the next morning, bearing with me nothing very fresh in the way of impressions to add to those that i had formed of the place during an hour's visit two years before. in fact, a motorist who stays to lunch at nîmes, and sees the fountains, the arena and the maison carée, may congratulate himself that he has tasted the full flavour of the brew. but these three sights, and the "temple of diana," by the fountains, are by all means worth seeing. except the arena, which is somewhat similar to the one at arles, there is nothing to equal them. the "fountains" are, as to their aspect, seventeenth century of the happiest. how far they follow the lines of the roman baths and washing pools i have not troubled to enquire, nor does it very much matter. probably the semi-circular basin in which rises the once sacred spring is much the same as it was in shape. from it the waters are led underneath pavings and bridges to the various balustraded and ornamented pools of the central garden, and then into canals, still of formal architecture, until they disappear somewhere at either end of the long tree-shaded quai. it is always fascinating to see water flowing, and i know nothing more attractive of its sort than the way this limpid spring comes from under the dark arches leading to the central pool and covers a shallow stone floor recessed all the way round in a colonnade. the photograph gives some idea of this happy invention, but it is not possible to convey its pleasing ingenuity. the gardens, beautifully planted, slope up in a series of bold staircases and terraces. they show a wealth of variegated foliage that makes a most pleasing background to the graceful architecture of the pools and fountains, and on the lower side broad avenues of trees lead away from the charming place quite in the best style of french garden planning. in the garden itself are the ruins of a roman temple, which has for long been known as the temple of diana. in 1739 an inscription was found dedicating it to the god nemausus and the goddess diana on behalf of the commonwealth of nîmes, and attributing its building to the munificence of the emperor augustus. part of the beautiful colonnaded portico has been reconstructed. it connected the temple with the nymphæum, which was where the central square basin now is. preserved in the temple is a single tall pillar--one of those used to support the _velarium_ under which the roman ladies reclined in the course of their bathing. the architecture of this temple forms a valuable connecting link between that of the romans and of the later provençal builders, concerning which mr. cook has something interesting to tell us. he is more interesting still on the subject of the maison carrée, for he gives us, with a wealth of technical detail and illustration, the curious reason for its being so supremely satisfying to the eye. no one even with an uneducated eye for beauty can look at this little gem of greek architecture without a sensation of pleasure. mr. baring-gould, whose eye is not uneducated, writes of it: "it is the best example we have in europe of a temple that is perfectly intact. it is _mignon_, it is cheerful, it is charming. i found myself unable at any time to pass it without looking round over my shoulder, again and again, and uttering some exclamation of pleasure at the sight of it."[25] and mr. henry james, in that delightful book, "a little tour in france," writes in his own way: "the first impression you receive from this delicate little building, as you stand before it, is that you have already seen it many times. photographs, engravings, models, medals, have placed it definitely in your eye, so that from the sentiment with which you regard it curiosity and surprise are almost completely, and perhaps deplorably, absent. admiration remains, however,--admiration of a familiar and even slightly patronizing kind. the maison carrée does not overwhelm you; you can conceive it. it is not one of the great sensations of the antique art; but it is perfectly felicitous, and, in spite of having been put to all sorts of incongruous uses, marvellously preserved. its slender columns, its delicate proportions, its charming compactness, seemed to bring one nearer to the century that built it than the great superpositions of arenas and bridges, and give it the interest that vibrates from one age to another when the note of taste is struck." in a word, the beauty of this little temple is alive, and one of the reasons for its being so i now proceed to extract from mr. cook's discussion of a subject that he has made particularly his own. why is it that the maison carrée is so eminently pleasing to the eye--is alive--while the madeleine in paris, which is a strictly mathematical enlargement of it, is "dull and unsuccessful"? because the lines of the madeleine are straight, and those of this temple, as of all greek architecture, are not, though they are so nearly so that the fact was not discovered until about twenty years ago. the divergences are surprisingly small, and in fact this great secret of the ancient builders--egyptian, roman, byzantine and gothic, as well as greek--was not suspected until it was proved on the parthenon in the middle of the last century. "in the parthenon the curve is under four inches in two hundred and twenty-eight feet. at nîmes it is nearly five inches in less than a hundred feet."[26] these skilful curves can be traced in gothic cathedrals. the walls in the nave of westminster abbey "are bent inwards at about the height of the keystones of the arches and outwards above and below this point, and they are structurally sound unto this day."[27] mr. cook explains the difference caused by following this principle "as something of the difference between an architectural drawing done with compass and rulers, and an artist's painting of the same building done with a free hand and with just those 'inaccuracies' which give it life and beauty." it is "an essential principle which, known to greece, and known to the builders of the maison carrée, is one of the chief reasons why this little temple is the greatest treasure of classical architecture north of the alps."[28] [illustration: the maison carrée] [illustration: the amphitheatre, nîmes] the maison carrée has been at various times a kind of hôtel de ville, a private dwelling, a stable, a church, a granary, and a public market, and it is surprising that with all the structural changes it has undergone there is anything of it left. but fortunately its exterior was never much interfered with, and now its interior has been cleared out, and is used as an antiquarian museum. the amphitheatre at nîmes is very slightly smaller than that at arles, but it is rather better preserved. in fact, it is the best preserved of any of the roman amphitheatres--far better than the coliseum, for instance. its seating accommodation was about twenty-two thousand, as against ninety thousand of the coliseum, but the area of the arena was in the proportion of about seven to twelve, so that this provincial city was very well off in this respect, as compared with the capital of the world. the photograph will show what a noble building this was, and will incidentally provide an example of the manner in which the french treat their ancient monuments. you may imagine from it an ellipse of about four hundred and thirty feet by three hundred and thirty, all of it in much the same state. it will be seen that where the original structure is strong enough it has been left, where it needs repair the old work has been copied, and here and there--as in the balustrading beneath the upper row of arches--features have been restored not absolutely necessary to the support of the building. there are those who object to this sort of restoration. i suppose it is a matter of knowledge and imagination; but ordinary persons, of whom in questions of architecture and archæology i am one, may be grateful for a system that shows plainly what an ancient building really looked like, and what purposes it served, while he is nowhere invited to take the new for the old. as the original seating accommodation of the amphitheatre would provide for more than a quarter of the present inhabitants of nîmes--that at arles would take some thousands more than there are now people in arles--it has not been necessary to restore all the tiers of seats for the uses to which the arena is put. consequently, it is possible to see the ingenious plan on which it was constructed, so as to give ample means of ingress and egress, and to divide up the spectators according to their rank. there were thirty-four tiers of them--four for the senators, ten for the knights, ten for the freedmen, and ten for the slaves and menials--and everybody had an uninterrupted view of what went on in the arena. the holes for the masts supporting the gigantic awning that sheltered the spectators can be seen here and there in the topmost circle; but the moderns do without that luxury, and watch their bull-fights in the full glare of the southern sun. i cannot describe a provençal bull-fight, as the season had not begun when i was in the country, though preparations were being made for a spectacle on the following sunday. it is an ancient sport with the provençaux, but, as mr. henry james says, "the thing is shabbily and imperfectly done. the bulls are rarely killed, and indeed often are bulls only in the irish sense of the term,--being domestic and motherly cows." but the "grande tauromachie" is creeping in. large bills were posted about the amphitheatre announcing events in which spanish matadors and toréadors would compete for the favour of the populace, and the organizers of the sport were full of self-commendation of the noble struggle they were making over the innovation. it seemed to be almost a matter of conscience with them. they spoke of their loyalty and simplicity, of their scrupulous honesty and untiring good-will, and of the inexhaustible force of energy that they would bring to bear in this contest against discouraging circumstance. mises à mort they call their spanish bull-fights, and to judge by a picture postcard that i bought of one in progress, in which every seat in the amphitheatre is occupied, and dense masses of people are standing where there are no seats, they are taking very kindly to the pastime. chapter xvii _aigues-mortes and the camargue_ aigues-mortes, like les baux, is one of those places which are apt to dawn upon the traveller only when he is in reach of them. i might hesitate to confess that i had never heard of les baux before my first journey in provence, or of aigues-mortes even then, if i had not met so many well-informed and well-travelled people who had never heard of either of them. and yet aigues-mortes is a place of absorbing interest. it is romantically situated on the edge of the great plain of the camargue, surrounded by salt marshes, lagoons, canals, and only a few miles from the sea. here the town is entirely confined within its unbroken mediæval fortifications, and its walls and gates and towers are more perfectly preserved than those of any other fortified town in europe; more so even than those of carcassonne, which owe much to modern restoration. the story of its building is soon told, and it is a story that cannot be forgotten when one visits the place, for there has been nothing since that has overshadowed it. the poor little town, laid out in square "blocks" like an american village that hopes some day to become a city, has hardly a voice of its own, it is so nothing-at-all compared with its girdling ramparts. these are as nearly as possible a mile round, and probably the stones of all the buildings they enclose would not suffice for one side of them. so the walls and towers are everything at aigues-mortes, and speak insistently of the purpose for which they were built. when st. louis took his crusading vows in 1244, he had to acquire a port from which to embark. he exchanged land with the abbey of psalmodi for the site of aigues-mortes and the marshland between it and the sea. there was already an old fortified tower there, erected five hundred years before as a place of refuge from the saracens, and this was rebuilt as the tour de constance. st. louis also dug the long winding canal to the sea, which is now completely silted up, and its place taken, for the barge traffic to beaucaire, by one quite straight and about half its length. by this he embarked an army of thirty-six thousand men in 1248. in 1270 he embarked another great crusading army at aigues-mortes, but died almost immediately upon landing at tunis. between the two crusades the walls of the fortress town had begun to be built, but it was st. louis's son philip iii who completed the fortifications as we see them today. they have lasted for seven centuries and a half, and although the history of aigues-mortes did not quite end in the thirteenth century, they have sustained no destruction or decay, and no essential modification. this, then, is what one sets out to see--a town which presents itself to our eyes exactly as it did to the eyes of the crusaders, who built it. can one see the like anywhere else in europe? i left nîmes on a bright sunday morning and travelled by the pottering little train that runs across the plain of the camargue. it was a little too far to walk in one day, and i wanted to see aigues-mortes that afternoon and start early the next morning for saintes-maries. it was a very pleasant journey. the flat country lay soaking in a haze of sunshine, and the hills to the north showed lovely soft purples and golds and blues. at first the country reminded me very much of that stretch of reclaimed marshland across which one travels to get to our old english town of rye. there were brooks and willows and green fields, and to one who has lived on "the marsh" it was plain that all this fertility had the same origin--alluvial soil spread over what was once a bare expanse, from which the sea had receded. or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that i knew the fact and recognized the signs of it. but after a time this english-looking scenery gave place to the provençal rows of cypresses, to groups and dottings of stone pines, and to scattered buildings on an unkinder-looking soil. after st. laurent d'aigouze, the next station before aigues-mortes and ten kilometres from it, the unreclaimed marsh begins, with stunted vegetation growing on poor stony soil, and water here and there, but not yet the great reed-bordered "étangs," which are the home of so many wild fowl. to the left of the line straggles the broad road, and beyond it is the clean-cut line of the canal that leads from the sea through st. gilles to beaucaire. on a sort of island in the marsh stand the ruins of the abbey of psalmodi, and a little farther on is the outpost tour carbonnière, which is about two miles from aigues-mortes and its main fortifications. the line, which runs quite straight from st. laurent takes a right-handed turn just before it reaches aigues-mortes, and before the turn comes you can see the walled city in front of you, just as you can see the surprising picturesque little town of rye, growing out of the marsh, as it were, before you come to it from ashford. "on this absolute level, covered with coarse grass," writes mr. henry james, "aigues-mortes presents quite the appearance of the walled town that a schoolboy draws upon his slate, or that we see in the background of early flemish pictures,--a simple parallelogram, of a contour almost absurdly bare, broken at intervals by angular towers and square holes." the sight makes its instant appeal. one is back in a long past century, the aspect of which is familiar from just those pictures which mr. james recalls, and from little illuminated drawings in old manuscripts. there is an agreeable sense of surprise and recognition, almost of awe. it is rather as if one had suddenly come face to face with some dead personage well known from portraits--such as napoleon or henry viii. one had no idea that there was anything left quite like that. you mount up through a fortified gateway into the little town, which although old is almost entirely devoid of interest. its rectangular streets gave me a reminiscence of our old english cinque ports. about the time that philip le hardi was building aigues-mortes, edward i was building, or causing to be built, the new town of winchelsea in place of the old one that had been submerged by the sea; and winchelsea was also laid out in rectangles, and surrounded by walls. the two princes had crusaded together. perhaps they had talked over this new way of laying out a town, in place of the old way of radiating streets from a centre; but they could hardly have foreseen that it would be some hundreds of years before their plan would be generally adopted. there is a good inn at aigues-mortes, for people make an excursion of it from nîmes and arles, and on the sunday i was there there were a good many visitors. and all the inhabitants of the town seemed to be about the streets. there was a confirmation going on in the church, and after it a well attended funeral, in which none of the mourners were dressed in black. i would rather have struck the place on any other day, for the slight air of bustle and holiday-making did not suit it. m. maurice barrès has made it the background of "le jardin de berenice," and every one who has read that remarkable novel will remember the atmosphere of brooding peace and suggestion in which he has bathed it. mr. henry james indicates its charm no less skilfully: "it is true that aigues-mortes does a little business; it sees certain bags of salt piled into barges which stand in a canal beside it, and which carry their cargo into actual places. but nothing could well be more drowsy and desultory than this industry as i saw it practised, with the aid of two or three brown peasants and under the eye of a solitary douanier, who strolled on the little quay beneath the western wall. 'c'est bien plaisant, c'est bien paisible,' said this worthy man, with whom i had some conversation; and pleasant and peaceful is the place indeed, though the former of these epithets may suggest an element of gaiety in which aigues-mortes is deficient. the sand, the salt, the dull sea view, surround it with a bright, quiet melancholy. there are fifteen towers and nine gates, five of which are on the southern side, overlooking the water. i walked all round the place three times (it doesn't take long) but lingered most under the southern wall, where the afternoon light slept in the dreamiest, sweetest way. i sat down on an old stone, and looked away to the desolate salt marshes and the still, shining surface of the _étang_; and, as i did so, reflected that this was a queer little out-of-the-world corner to have been chosen, in the great dominions of either monarch, for that pompous interview which took place, in 1538, between francis i and charles v."[29] [illustration: aigues-mortes, the ramparts] [illustration: "looked away to the desolate salt marshes"] this meeting between the emperor and the pope and the king of france is one of the few outstanding episodes in the history of aigues-mortes. it need only be remarked of it that louis ix's channel had already fallen into disuse, and another and a shorter one had been dug out through the lagoons for the royal and papal galleys. this, from grau de croisette, has also ceased to be practicable, and the present canal starts from grau de roi, a little fishing and bathing resort at the nearest possible point on the coast, to which this railway also runs. another chapter in the history of aigues-mortes--the last before it sank to be the unimportant village it is now--is a long and painful one. it centres round the strong tour de constance, which was used as a prison for protestants in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, until the horror was finally removed from it in 1767. it was mostly women who were interned in it during long years, amidst circumstances of great cruelty. i quote, from mr. t. a. cook's pages, the account of one who accompanied the prince de beauvan in his mission of release. "we found at the entry of the tower," writes de boufflers, "an eager guardian, who led us through a dark and twisting passage, and opened a great clanging door on which dante's line might well have been inscribed: _lasciate ogni speranza voi ch' entrate_. i have no colours in which to paint the terrors of the picture which gradually grew upon our unaccustomed eyes. the scene was hideous yet pathetic, and interest in its victims struggled with disgust at their condition. almost without air and light, fourteen women languished in misery and tears within that stone-walled chamber. as the commandant, who was visibly touched, entered the apartment, they all fell down together at his feet. i can still see them, bathed in tears, struggling to speak, unable at first to do anything but sob. encouraged by our evident sympathy they all began to tell us their sorrows at once. alas, the crime for which they were then suffering was the fact that they had been brought up in the same religion as henri quatre. the youngest of them was fifty, and she had been here since she was eight years old. in a loud voice that shook with emotion the marshal said, 'you are free!' and i was proud to be his servant at that moment."[30] you can visit the three round chambers, one above the other, in which these unfortunate women were imprisoned, which are in exactly the same structural state. their walls are of enormous thickness, and they are lighted by mere slits of windows. they have been swept and furnished, and one can admire their vaulting and other architectural features, but not without a thought of the misery that they contained, which is too recent and too detailed to lose any of its horror in the mists of time. at the other end of the north-west wall is the tour des bourgignans, round which also cling dreadful memories. in 1421 a party of burgundians seized the town but were all massacred and their bodies were thrown into this tower, and covered with salt in order to avoid a plague. to the south of aigues-mortes lie the shimmering lagoons and the desolate marshlands of the carmague, which breed fever and ague, and make the peace of the little dead town not altogether so desirable. this great plain, which contains something like twenty thousand acres, has had a varied history. it is naturally formed by the rhône delta. the river rolls down its detritus which gradually chokes up its mouth. there is no tide in the mediterranean to scour it out, and a bar is formed. then the river has to find another outlet, and this happens again and again until it has wandered all over a large area, leaving behind it more and more deposit raised above the sea level. in the meantime, behind the bars thrown up both by the river and the sea, are left lagoons of fresh water, into which the sea sometimes rushes in times of storm, and leaves behind brackish and stagnant water. now in classical times it was well understood that if outlets to these lagoons were kept open, not only were their surroundings perfectly healthy, but that natural forces would do what was necessary to turn the great expanse of the camargue from a desert waste into fertile corn-growing land. these natural forces were the simple ones which have made the nile and other deltoid rivers the fertilizers of the land about them--periodical floodings and changes of their beds. in fact in the time of the roman occupation the camargue was called "the granary of the roman army," and arles, which was the market for its corn was so flowing with plenty as to be called "the breasts." why is only part of this great stretch of land now fertile, and the rest a desolating waste? the mistake was made in the sixteenth century, when the engineers of louis xiv examined the country and made recommendations for its treatment. the outlets from the lagoons had been allowed to get choked up, and the camargue had for long been a fever-breeding waste instead of providing the rich corn land that it had once done. the king's engineers recommended the embanking of the rhône, so that it should be kept to its course, instead of flooding the adjacent land, and the building of dykes against the inrush of the sea. drains, protected by traps, were also cut to carry out the stagnant water from the lagoons into the sea, and all this was done at an original cost of about a million pounds, and is kept up at an annual cost of about five thousand. there are now two hundred and thirty miles of dike, and although the land is fertile enough where the rhône is allowed its periodical overflow, and has been laboriously reclaimed elsewhere, the main effect of these works has been to reduce the camargue to sterility. it has been estimated that at every overflow of the rhône, eighteen thousand cubic yards of rich alluvial soil was deposited over the land. this is now carried out to sea, and thrown down to make new bars. perhaps some day the work will be done again, the dikes removed and the river allowed to take its natural course. all that would have to be done then would be to keep open the mouths of the lagoons, to prevent them from stagnating and breeding fever and ague; and then the whole camargue would once more be one of the most fertile tracts of the earth. in the meantime it has its own picturesque wild life, just as the fen country of eastern england had before it was drained. as in all flat countries it domed with magnificent skies; the mirage is a common effect of the scorched desolation; flights of rose-coloured flamingoes are to be seen among the commoner wild fowl. bulls and horses roam the great solitudes in a wild state, until the time comes round for one of those great pastoral manoeuvres, half business, half sport, in which a whole countryside takes part, when the animals that are wanted are cut out from the rest and their ownership settled. the _guardiens_ ride over the wide territory committed to their charge, mounted on wiry little white horses of the breed that is most common on the plain. they are splendid-looking young men, for the most part, and it gave me quite a thrill to see one of them a few days later. for there is a romance about them, and the wild yet anciently ordered life they lead, which is hardly of our civilization. you may read all about it in some of the novels of jean aicard, and especially in "roi de camargue," which seems to cry aloud for translation into english, it is so much finer than later ones by which he is chiefly known here. now that mistral and daudet are dead jean aicard is the chief literary interpreter of provençal life, and in his pictures of this wild life of the great plains with its primitive pursuits and passions he stands supreme. chapter xviii _saintes-maries de la mer_ i was on the road early the next morning with a twenty-mile walk before me to saintes-maries de la mer. i had to follow the canal for a couple of miles to the north, then to strike across the plain to the westward, then to follow the course of the little rhône to the south. this took me through country that has been for the most part reclaimed, and grows acres upon acres of vines. to the south and west of aigues-mortes it is nothing but _étangs_ and unreclaimed marsh, and if there is a way through it all i could hardly have expected to find it and should certainly have been cut off by water besides. the walk was not very inspiring. any one who knows the reclaimed fen lands of lincolnshire and cambridgeshire will agree that, fertile though these flats may be, they provide the modicum of picturesque scenery. i imagine that the vine-growing industry hereabouts is a comparatively new thing, but it is already a big one. after walking along a straight road between vineyards--flat fields regularly planted with vines about the size of small gooseberry bushes--for five miles, i saw ahead of me an enormous castellated, spired building which i afterwards learnt to be a wine lodge, but which was not on my map at all. and just outside the walls of aigues-mortes they have recently erected a building having to do with the shipping or storage of wine over which there has been a good deal of controversy; for it is built in a sham castellated style, and interferes with the effect of the ancient fortifications. my road turned before i came to the big building i have mentioned, and presently the fields became less ruled and planed, and little bits of untouched marshland began to encroach upon them. i came to the hamlet of sylvéreal at a turn of the little rhône, where there is a bridge and a road running to saintes-maries on either side of the river. i refreshed myself at a poor little inn and was heavily charged for sour bread and hard cheese. but these regions are really out of the world, habitations are sparse and communications rare. five miles further on i came to a ferry--the bac du sauvage--and was put across the little rhône, which is not little at all, but a big river with a rapid flow. except for the quite good road, one might well have imagined oneself during these last miles in a new country gradually being opened up. the river carries no merchandise, its banks are deserted. since aigues-mortes, in sixteen miles or so, i had passed no village except sylvéreal, and there cannot be more than a dozen houses there. i could not rid myself of the feeling of being somewhere in the bush of australia, which i know best of the new countries. even the occasional wayside shanties were not absent--little groups of them occasionally, in which there was nearly always one announcing itself as that of a _coiffeur_. the feeling vanished when i came within sight of the fortress church of saintes-maries towering above the low roofs of the village that surrounds it. it could be seen from afar across the plain, and immediately carried the mind back to the past, which is never very far away from you wherever you go in provence. and this is one of the most ancient and storied places of the whole country. the walls and towers of aigues-mortes are new beside it. if you reject the story of the landing of the new testament saints here--and you will find it hard to reject in saintes-maries itself--still the church itself dates partly from the tenth century; it was built on the site of another church destroyed by the saracens; and that church was built on the site of a temple erected by augustus. in roman times there was a sort of island here, and a prosperous settlement. the state of almost destitution to which the wretched little town has come must be owing to the defertilization of the camargue, of which i have already written. but in the time of king rené it was a prosperous town with many privileges, afterwards confirmed to it by the kings of france, and at least since that time the church has been the object of a yearly pilgrimage that has kept its fame alive to an extent that is perhaps not equalled anywhere in france, except at lourdes. i cannot but think that "les saintes," as it is commonly called, must be now at the very nadir of its poverty. it is right on the edge of the mediterranean, and beautiful firm sands backed by sand dunes stretch away from it on either side. it is on a little line of railway from arles; and by far the nearest possible watering-place to that city, and even to avignon. in fact, le grau du roi, near aigues-mortes, would be its only rival for the central cities of provence. in england, a place of this historical importance and advantageous situation would be a prosperous town instead of a squalid village. i need scarcely say that to the sentimental traveller the present dejected state of saintes-maries, in which nothing detracts from the extraordinary interest of its shrine, is a boon almost beyond gratitude. but one can hardly help being struck by its possibilities, and the difference between france and england in respect of making use of such; nor by the fact that at any time the whole aspect of the place may become changed. there are two inns in saintes-maries, and i went to the worst of them, because it faced the sea. it was the dirtiest inn i struck in provence, but that was not altogether the fault of the proprietors, as part of it was rebuilding. perhaps the visitors to saintes-maries have already begun to demand more accommodation, and this is the sign of it. i did come across one honeymoon couple, or one that looked like it, sunning themselves below the stones of the dike in view of the shining mediterranean, but i walked along the sands to the mouth of the little rhône, a distance of about two miles, without seeing any one else, except a few fishermen. and at the mouth of the river there were only a few scattered huts. it seemed almost ludicrous that a mighty and famous river--even if only the lesser branch of it--should be allowed to take to the sea with so little ceremony. again the likeness to a stretch of coast in a brand-new country was overwhelming. but one only had to turn round and see that ancient church for the odd sensation to pass away again; and only the peace and the windy solitude of the sea remained of it. [illustration: saintes-maries, the fortress church] [illustration: saint-gilles, the central porch _page 268_] the church is, i think, the most compelling thing in provence. the photograph will give an idea of its fortress exterior, but not of the way it dominates the country for miles around. that is a thing to remember, but unfortunately my own photograph, taken from the shore some little way off, went wrong. the first thing that strikes one in the dark interior--what windows there are are mere slits in the thick wall--are the rows of rough deal seating that run round three sides of the church in a sort of narrow gallery. these are for the crowds that come on may 24th, and during the following week for the great annual festival, when the coffin containing the bones of the blessed saints is let down from the chapel above the apse, and the church is packed full of pilgrims. they are a makeshift affair and do not add to the dignity of the church, although they serve to remind one that this church does not depend for its fame on its age or architecture. the high altar with its simple decoration of wrought iron stands forward. the priest celebrates facing the congregation; it is a privilege granted by the pope to this church. immediately in front of it is the entrance to the crypt. in front of that, just aside from the main aisle, is the miraculous well, with pitcher and pulley all complete. when the saints landed near to this place, they set about building a little oratory, "erecting an altar for the celebration of the holy mysteries, as near as possible like to the one which moses constructed by the order of god. the two marys, with martha and magdalene, prepared the ground for this purpose, and god made known to them how agreeable in his eyes were their devotion and their sacrifices, by causing to spring up a fountain of sweet water in a place where hitherto only salt water had been known." this well must have been of the utmost value to those who stood a siege in the church some hundreds of years later, and may be thought to have been sunk for that purpose. but its miraculous properties are still recognized, and its waters are resorted to by "persons bitten by enraged animals." the narrow little chapels that line the church are fuller of votive offerings than any others i have seen. besides the usual _ex voto_ tablets, and chaplets and ribbons of first communions, there is a regular picture gallery of miraculous escapes, most of them, it must be confessed, of the lowest possible artistic value, but going a long way back, and telling a series of tales of considerable interest. a characteristic one, which bears the date of 1777, is of a man being attacked by five dogs. his companion is not going to his assistance, but is represented on his knees, and in an upper corner of the picture appear the two marys, who presumably saved the victim from any ill effects of the attack. another rather well-executed pencil drawing represents a man dragging a horse out of a swollen river. another is of a child being run over--or possibly just not run over--by a cart. many are of elderly people in bed with friends and relatives standing around them--and the saints in their usual corner. in one of the chapels are the old carved wood figures of the two marys in their boat, which are carried every year in procession to the sea, and into it, in commemoration of the miraculous voyage which ended at this place. i don't know how it was that i did not realize on my first visit to the church that the chapel containing the sacred remains, the outside of which can be seen in the photograph above the apse, was to be seen by taking a little trouble about it. from the inside of the church appear the doors from which the double ark is let down by ropes and carried in procession, but i had not thought that there was rather an elaborate chapel up there behind the doors. it was rather late in the evening when the old priest came out from his presbytery to take me up to it. it is approached by a narrow, winding stairway from the outside of the church, and is about forty feet from the ground. it was enriched in the time of louis xv, but its decorations were much damaged by the revolutionaries. the pictured coffer containing the relics of the saints is in a chamber closed by ornamented double doors, in which are also the pulleys and cords by which it is lowered to the floor of the church on the great day of the pilgrimage. all round the little chapel are the crutches and other offerings of those who have been cured by attendance at the shrine. one of the latest is a sort of strait-waistcoat left behind by a cripple who had used it for many years, but went away, as the curé told me, on his own feet, and praising god and the blessed saints. i walked all round the strong battlements, from which a glorious view extends itself, of the plain with its bright sheets of water on the one side, and the sea and the sands on the other. it was a lovely, peaceful evening, and the old priest admired it as much as i did. he said he liked to come up here away from the world, and often said his mass in the quiet chapel high above the low roofs of the town. i bought from him the little book he has written about his church, which contains the hymns and prayers and canticles, partly in latin, partly in french, partly in provençal, that are used during the days of pilgrimage. of the church as a work of defence, he writes: "it is a fortress, with its sentry's walk, its watch tower, its crenellations and machicolations. when saracens or pirates invaded us, and during the wars of religion, the men went up to the high chapel for defence, at the summons of the watchman, who gave the alarm, while the women and children were shut up in the church, which communicated by two staircases with the roof. during the religious wars, the church was smoked out several times by the assailants." it was nearly dark when we went down into the crypt, and what i saw of the tomb of the servant sarah was by the light of a candle which the curé lit for me, dropping the grease about plentifully, as seems to be the way of those who show sacred treasures. it will be remembered that this black servant of the holy ladies accompanied them on their miraculous voyage to provence. her body, exhumed with theirs, under the auspices of the good king rené, and in his presence, was reburied here, and this half subterranean chapel at saintes-maries has been from time immemorial the centre of a cult, the strangest of any with which we have to do. at the time of the yearly pilgrimage, when good catholics come to venerate die remains of the saints, there come also hordes of gipsies, who prostrate themselves before the tomb of the servant sarah, and practise strange rites which have nothing to do with the christian religion. the good curé in his book mentions the fact that they come in, but says nothing about their worship, which is said to include the adoration of fire, and other mysteries of an immemorially old religion. i have been able to find nothing very illuminating that bears upon this strange survival and its origins. the marquis de baroncelli-javon has published a little illustrated pamphlet which is of some interest on the subject of gipsies in general, and those that are to be found in this stretch of seaboard in particular, but he is not able to suggest why st. sarah, as he calls her--but i do not think that she was ever canonized, or regarded as a christian saint--should have attracted to herself this ancient worship, except by reminding us that she was commonly supposed to be an egyptian, which is hardly convincing. but that the gipsies should gather at this particular spot and perform their rites, he does find some reason for, and his theories are at least interesting. he says, first of all, that there are two distinct races of _bohémiens_ different in feature, in bone formation, colour, character, language and traditions; that they have nothing in common and treat each other not only as strangers but often as enemies. "a gipsy who traffics in horses will never have anything to do with one who leads about dancing bears or works in copper; there will be no understanding between them and they will treat one another with indifference if not with hatred. but this trafficker in horses will immediately recognize as his blood brother another _maquignon_ at saintes-maries, it matters not where he comes from." now at saintes-maries the gipsies with performing bears, or the tinsmiths, are never to be met with. these are the zingaris, and their home is in the east of europe. they talk the languages of the north and the east willingly and easily, but with difficulty those of the south. the gipsies who are to be found in spain, languedoc, provence and parts of italy call themselves gitanos or gitans. these are they who come once at least during their life wanderings to saintes-maries, "to salute the earth, to fulfil strange rites, and to regard the sea, their eyes fixed in ecstasy." where do they come from? "from the parts where the sun sets," they say of themselves; and if you ask an american indian the same question he will tell you that he comes "from the parts where the sun rises." they are the ancient inhabitants, says m. de baroncelli-javon, of the lost atlantis, which lay between the old world and the new. the resemblances between the gitanos and the redskins are curious, not only in appearance and language but in many small details and habits. they use, for instance, exactly the same actions when they examine a horse's teeth. the author adds to the list of survivors of atlantis the basques, the bretons and perhaps the copts of egypt, and finds resemblances in them too. my small ethnological knowledge prompts me to reject the bretons, but the basques have always been a puzzle, and seem to fit in with this theory. there is also a hint, in a footnote, of the inclusion of the laps, samoyeds, and esquimaux, whom we might perhaps accept in place of the celts. but to continue. the egyptians and the gitanos--probably two branches of the same family--found themselves on either side of the mediterranean. the egyptians moved westwards to the nile and the red sea, the gitanos took up a roving life and were to be found everywhere along the coast, from the gaudalquiver to the var. they are thus not descendants, but brothers of the egyptian race. "little by little arrive the iberians, and then others and still others. the gitano flies before the invader; he finds refuge nearer and nearer to the coast, following the last wild horses into the most lonely places, among the lagoons and the unhealthy marshes, uninhabitable by all except him, the aboriginal. there he erects his temples, in which he adores fire and the sun, like the redskin and the egyptian, where he buries his chiefs and his wise men, thus consecrating special places. and he is always moving on, with the wild horse, along the line of the sea. centuries and centuries pass, christianity shines forth, which founds the altars of its saints on those of the pagans, and it is not unscientific to think that the pilgrimage to the place of the saintes-maries existed long before christianity, and honoured first the gods of the soil, then those of the iberians and ligurians, before it honoured our saints." chapter xix _saint-gilles and montmajour_ this was to be the last full day's walk. i had to meet a friend at avignon the next afternoon; then to arles with no further time for walking; and then home. there was a lot of ground to cover. the first stage, after going halfway to arles by train, was an eight-mile walk across the plain to saint-gilles. the train started at six, and soon after seven i was on the road, on a fine still spring morning, and in company with an old peasant woman who was also going to saint-gilles, and had suggested in the train that we should walk together. i had not known quite how to refuse, but had thought that after a mile or so i might say that i was in a hurry, and push on from her. provençal was her tongue, and french is not mine; the burden of a conversation lasting for two hours daunted me. we walked and talked together for about a mile, and although she must have been getting on for seventy, and carried a heavy basket, her steady pace was just a trifle faster than my usual one at the beginning of a long day's walk. i could not for shame suggest that i should drop back; besides, she would have offered to walk more slowly. so when we had exhausted the first burst of conversation, i drew myself together, lifted my hat, and with a word of apology, forged on ahead with all the air of a marathon racer. she chased me for miles. whenever i looked back i saw her plodding form on the straight road across the marsh. i was ashamed of myself, but i couldn't keep it up. the walk to saint-gilles was only to be the beginning of my day. at a wide turn of the road i took what looked to be an easy short cut across the marsh. if it had been easy, of course she would have taken it too, and the end of it was that when i came out on to the road again after my windings there was her black determined figure a quarter of a mile ahead of me. so i let her take her pace, and i took mine, and she crossed the great suspension bridge into saint-gilles nearly half an hour before i did. i saw her the whole way, and she never looked round. i hope she thought i was ahead of her. scarcely any of its original importance is left to saint-gilles, which dates from the earliest dawn of provençal history. it was the phoenician heraktra. in those days the branch of the rhône upon which it stands was an open trade route. the phoenician traders came to it from their expeditions to britain, by way of the seine valley and the rhône. early in the twelfth century the building of one of the noblest churches in provence was begun here; and its remains, in spite of the successive destructions and mutilations it has received, make it still well worth a visit. all that is left in its original state is the wonderful carved façade, which is finer even than the famous one, of about the same date, of st. trophimus at arles, and takes in three portals instead of one. it is in its original state only as far as its main structure is concerned, for its figures have been sadly mutilated by successive generations of enraged protestants. but one can be thankful to them for sparing it at all, instead of treating it as they did the church behind it. the story of st. gilles is charmingly told by m. j. charles-roux, in his "légendes de provence." he was a greek, of royal lineage. in all the country there was not to be found a man richer than his father, or a woman more chaste and charitable than his mother. he was baptized with great rejoicing, and from an early age his parents sought to bring him up in their faith. at seven years of age he was taught his letters, and thus early he devoted himself to study and the service of god. modest and of fine address, he grew into the flower of his country's youth; his hair was fair and curling, his skin as white as milk, he had a delicate nose and ears, white teeth and a sweet mouth. the day came when god was ready to show his designs concerning him. he was on his way to school, when he saw crouching in the gutter a poor cripple, pale, hideous and horrible. the child addressed him, and he replied, "sir, hunger is killing and cold overwhelming me; death is near, and i only want to die." gilles's eyes filled with tears, and as he had neither silver nor gold he gave the poor wretch his coat, and he at once arose cured and thanked god with such fervour that presently more than a hundred persons appeared on the scene. the fame of gilles's holiness began to spread, and soon afterward he healed a man bitten by a venomous snake. after his father and mother died he was pressed to marry by his vassals, who wished him to continue his royal race, but he begged a respite. he was much troubled by the crowd that besieged his doors--crippled, dumb, blind, lame,--who besought him to heal them. he was willing to do so, but dreaded the worldly fame that was beginning to attach itself to his name. he wished to seek a road that would bring him nearer to god, and he determined to go to rome. he ordered a great feast in his palace, and at night, when all were sleeping, overcome with the fumes of wine, after praying for a long time he left his chamber softly, and made his escape from the battlements, hidden in a fog. he was never seen there again. after wandering on foot for a long time, he came to the sea, and saw a ship being driven on to the rocks in a storm. he prayed to god, and the storm abated, and the ship came safe to shore. he asked the sailors to take him to rome, and they, recognizing him for a holy man, took him on board. they were for the most part provençals, and were carrying a rich cargo of corn from russia, silks, precious stuffs and spices. they sailed for days under a clear sky, and never had to touch a rope, for god was guiding them. they landed at marseilles, and gilles, who had been so rich, went from door to door, begging his food. after a time, having heard of the good bishop, cæsar of arles, he went to that ancient city. he lodged with a widow whose daughter had been paralysed for twelve years. when he had prayed for a moment beside her bed she arose well and joyful. when the good bishop heard of this miracle, he sent his archdeacon to bring gilles to him. the archdeacon found him praying in the church. the bishop received him with affection and honour and kept him by him for twelve years, during which time he wrought many miracles. but this was not the sort of life gilles had dreamed of. he escaped from arles and plunged into the wild forest which surrounded it. at last he came to a monstrous rock in which some steps had been cut. he climbed up them and found a pious hermit with whom he lived for twelve years in perfect communion of prayer and meditation. although his retreat was remote and hidden, the piety and the miracles of st. gilles were so renowned that at last it was discovered. so he resolved to find a hiding-place more impenetrable still. he wandered far into the forest until he came to a cave choked with brambles. he hid its opening with branches, leaves and clods of turf, and took it as his hermitage. a fresh spring welled up at a short distance from it, round which grew a cress upon which he sustained himself until god sent him a doe which gave him milk. every day while he was at his prayers she went into the forest to feed, and returned at fixed hours to the cave, where gilles had prepared for her a couch near his own. at this time florenz was king in provence, under charlemagne. holding his christmas court at montpelier, he entertained all the lords of the country round at banquets and parties of the chase. one evening as they were feasting news was brought in by the royal huntsman of a wonderful white hind that had been tracked to her hiding-place in the forest, and early the following morning the king set out with a great retinue to chase her. the chase was long and florenz found himself ahead of his companions with the hind flying in front of him. as she was disappearing among the trees, he launched an arrow at her, and immediately the hermit, gilles, appeared, to whom the hind had flown for shelter, and whose hand the king's arrow had pierced. after this the king conceived a great veneration for the saint, visited him often alone and pressed him to accept presents. gilles resisted him for a long time, but said at last: "sire, if you really wish to give me a portion of your lands, of your treasures, of your vessels of gold and silver, found a monastery upon this spot, and fill it with monks for the service of god, who shall pray day and night for your people and for your law." "i will do so," said the king, "if you will be their abbot." after much hesitation gilles consented, and the noble abbey was built and greatly enriched by gifts from the king. gilles continued to live in it the same life as he had lived in the woods, and that his flesh might be still further mortified he prayed that the wound in his hand might never heal; which prayer was granted to him. after a time gilles's great renown reached charlemagne, who wished to confess his sins to so holy a man, and sent an embassy to invite him to paris. after consultation with his brethren he went there, and was received with the utmost veneration and magnificence. but the honour done to him caused him nothing but shame. charlemagne confessed all his sins but one, which he had not the courage to avow. gilles pleaded with him for twenty days, but in vain. one sunday, as he was going to celebrate the mass at st. croix he saw a demoniac chained to a pillar of the church. his prayers drove out the demon; all the bells in the city began to ring, and the king came with a great crowd to hear the mass. during the celebration gilles prayed that the king might be brought to confess the sin that it would cost him so much to acknowledge, and an angel appeared above the altar and deposited near the sacred host a little letter which god himself had sent his faithful servant. you can see the scene sculptured on a pillar in the cathedral of chartres. the letter announced that the famous sin, of which we do not know the details, might be remitted to the king together with all other sins humbly confessed and secretly detested; also that the saint's own life would soon end and his reign in glory begin. gilles, refusing the king's rich presents, made the journey back to his monastery in great pain because of his still open wound, but in great joy, and learnt that during his absence his monks had behaved in all respects as he could have wished them. he resumed his customary life of prayer and meditation, but feeling that he would not for long continue to direct the affairs of his flourishing abbey, and that the favour of kings was fleeting, he determined to go to rome to put his monastery under the protection of the holy see. the pope received him with great honour and granted his request. he also showed his interest in the church that st. gilles had built by giving him two doors of cypress wood, wonderfully carved. st. gilles threw them into the tiber, commanding the water to carry them to his church. he himself arrived at the moment when they stranded on the banks of the river, in perfect preservation, and was made happy by this still further proof of divine favour. his work was now done, and he prepared himself for death. his monks stood around him, scarcely able to recite the sacred offices because of their sobs. just before midnight he began to recall to them events in the life of the saviour, and at the moment of death he had a vision of the glorious resurrection of our lord, and prayed st. michael to conduct him to god. these were his last words; he made signs of blessing those who knelt around him, and two of them saw angels take the soul that issued from his lips, to carry it to paradise. although the story which i have condensed speaks of charlemagne, it was his grandfather, charles martel, in whose reign st. gilles lived, and who gave him shelter when he fled from the saracens who had attacked his monastery. but st. gilles did die in peace in it in 721, and he had long before handed over the property to the holy see, for the pope's bull taking it over in 685 is still extant. the fine crypt, which fortunately still remains, was constructed in the eleventh century to receive the tomb of the saint, and its high altar consecrated by the pope in 1095. the church above it was begun twenty years later, and its magnificence can be judged from the ruins of the choir, which stretch far to the east of the present building, as well as from the carving of the front which took over thirty years to complete. in 1562 the victorious protestant troops murdered the priests and the choir boys and threw their bodies into the well that is still to be seen in the crypt. the church, says mr. t. a. cook, "was alternately desecrated by the reformers and used as a fortress by the churchmen." it was completely destroyed in 1622, the tomb of st. gilles removed and the crypt filled with rubbish; "and the façade itself seems only to have been left standing in order that its carvings might the more openly be debased and mutilated." at the revolution still further havoc was wrought, and it was not until seventy years later that the crypt was excavated and restored under the auspices of the commission of "monuments historiques," who also restored as far as possible the façade. considering the vicissitudes it has gone through this splendid work retains a surprising effect. it stretches right across the front of the church, except for the two narrow towers on each flank, and is of a wonderful interest and richness. another wonderful relic is the vis de st. gilles, the spiral stone staircase that stands among the ruins of the choir, and the tower. it is famous everywhere among architects for the delicacy and preciseness of its stone-cutting and vaulting. another thing to see in saint-gilles is the maison-romaine, a tall town house of the twelfth century which was restored at the same time as the church. it comes as something of a surprise to the inexpert, it looks so very modern--rather like the sort of house an advanced architect might build in munich today. but its proportions are beautiful, and the quiet wall space contrasting with the decorations of the windows is very effective. indeed, the advanced architect might do worse than copy such a model. after eight hundred years he could learn more of the twelfth century builder than he could teach him. [illustration: the maison-romaine] [illustration: the staircase in the farmyard at montmajour] i took train to arles and walked straight out of the station towards the abbey of montmajour two miles distant. arles itself was to wait for a few days. the road lay along a broad shady avenue too full of traffic for pleasurable tramping, but turned off presently from the main road to tarascon, and the mass of the great abbey could be seen towering above the trees across the open country. this great benedictine abbey, under the stones of which lie buried the ancient kings of arles, was founded in the sixth century, and its splendid church was rebuilt in the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. it was situated on an island among the lagoons of the camargue, but now stands overlooking the fertile plain right away to the sea, on what is no more than a low hill overgrown on one side by a little wood. i left the road, which goes round by the front, and climbed up through the trees, to find myself in a littered farmyard, with the walls of a seventeenth century building, now in ruins, towering above me. the remains of a carved stone staircase finished off by a rickety wooden bridge ran up under a bold arch, and had a very extraordinary effect, springing thus out of the straw and muck of the yard. this great palace, joined on to the original monastic buildings, seems strangely out of place even now, more than a hundred years after both suffered the same destruction. it was built when the abbey was at its richest and proudest, but was not occupied for long, for the revolution swept new and old alike away. of all the treasures it contained, only three remain--a bible of 1320, which is in the museum at arles, an abbatial cross in the museum of cluny, and a twelfth century pyx, now in the louvre. what remain of the buildings themselves have suffered no less changes of ownership. when they were sold by the state after the revolution many of the walls were broken down and the stones taken away to build bridges and houses and to mend roads. the painter réatlu of arles bought the great tower and saved it. the chapel of st. croix became the property of a fisherman, but finally fell into the hands of the city of arles, and was restored and maintained by them. this stands apart from the rest of the abbey, of which the site is still private property. until recently the later buildings were partly inhabited by peasants. gradually the rest has been bought back, and classed among the "monuments historiques." the buildings thus saved from further desecration are the church with its crypt and cloisters, the tower, the "confessional" of st. trophimus, and the chapel of st. croix, and each and all of these are remarkable. the church, which was begun early in the eleventh century and was never quite finished, is of a severe and grateful simplicity. the enormous crypt beneath it is of a still earlier date, and is still more remarkable. the apse is divided into five little chapels opening on to an ambulatory, and from each can be seen the high altar. the cloisters are best preserved of anything, and retain their stone penthouse roofing. but the most interesting thing about montmajour is the little chapel, part scooped out of the living rock, part built in the ninth century, which is called the confessional of st. trophimus. you descend to it down stairs cut in the side of the rock. it stands in a sort of overgrown garden, and looks as if it were trying to hide itself. its rock chambers were no doubt used by the early christians for hiding and shelter, in the same way as the catacombs at rome. at the east end is a big chamber almost entirely filled with a stone bench, which opens into two other chambers. whether st. trophimus was ever there or not, it has very much the appearance of a confessional. and scepticism sinks before this pathetic little secret place, in which beyond doubt the holy mysteries were celebrated and the faith taught at a date before one can be certain of perhaps any other ecclesiastical remains in the country, whatever antiquity they may claim. the curious eastern-looking chapel of st. croix stands at some little distance from the rest of the abbey buildings. it is in the form of a greek cross with four semi-circular apses radiating from a central square-domed tower, and a porch attached to that on the west. its date is 1019, but there was probably a cemetery on this spot at a much earlier date, and it was built entirely as a mortuary chapel. viollet le duc wrote of it: "the monks brought their dead here processionally; the body was placed in the porch and the brethren remained outside. when mass was said, the body was blessed, and it was conveyed through the chapel and out at the little south door, to lay it in the grave. the only windows which lighted this chapel looked into the walled cemetery. at night, a lamp burned in the centre of this monument, and, in conformity with the use of the first centuries of the middle ages, these three little windows let the gleam of the lamp fall upon the graves. during the office for the dead a brother tolled the bell hung in the turret, by means of a hole reserved for the purpose in the centre of the dome." this little architectural gem with its delicate exterior carvings has been very carefully preserved. up to the eighteenth century it was the object of a popular and crowded pilgrimage on may 3rd, but on the destruction of the abbey the precious indulgences with which it had been dowered by successive popes were transferred to the church of st. julian at arles, and it is now nothing but a "monument historique." chapter xx _the last walk. st. michel de frigolet_ i walked on from montmajour through the most delightful country. the road dipped up and down, crossed thymy, brambly, rocky heaths, and gave promise of pleasant villages to come. one begins here to get out of the plain, and on the low heights the comfortable land, dotted with nestling farms and towers and steeples, can be seen stretching away to the white alpilles, upon which les baux perches and makes its romantic presence felt, though it cannot be seen. this little corner is full of curiosities, but i had a long walk before me and a fair one behind, and turned aside to see none of them. there are the remains of the roman aqueduct, built to carry the waters of vaucluse into the arena at arles. it is still called ouide de sarrasin (stonework of the saracens) by the country people, because the spanish moors marched along it to attack arles. at the foot of the montagne de cordes are the remains of fortifications, contemporary and perhaps built by the invading saracens. on the top of the same hill is the grotto of the fairies, with its curious pavement and stones which were cut in prehistoric times. and there are other megalithic remains in the little hill of castellet, and a cavern in which were found a hundred skeletons, and among other objects ornaments of a stone only to be found in the indies and the caucasus. the french call it _calaïs_; i do not know its english name. all these things are to be seen within a mile or two of montmajour. but two of the sights i did see, because they lay right on my road, and the second of them i would have gone out of it a reasonable distance to see in any case. the first was the "_allées couvertes_," of which signposts obligingly give notice, at so many metres from the road. they are subterranean passages, running at a short distance beneath the surface, on either side of the road and parallel to it, broken into here and there, and their entrances covered with brambles. when they were constructed, or what for, i have not the slightest idea, and no book that i have been able to get hold of tells me. my impression is that they extend for some miles, but i don't know where i got it from, and perhaps i am wrong. the "_allées couvertes_" are a mystery of which i am content to be without the key. but nearly halfway between arles and tarascon is the charming little village of fontvieille, and there is something to see there that i would not willingly have missed. it is the disused mill which alphonse daudet bought to retire to as a young man, and from which he wrote that delightful collection of tales and essays about his beloved native country to which he gave the title "lettres de mon moulin." they breathe provence, as nothing modern does, except the works of mistral and his brother félibres, and some of the tales of jean aicard, and if one wanted to make a pilgrimage to the heart of it, one would come either to the "mas" at maillane in which mistral was born, or to daudet's mill at fontvieille. nevertheless when i came within sight of it i was a trifle disappointed. there it stood on its thymy hill overlooking the village, familiar enough in its aspect from the photograph in my edition of this book. but there were two other mills exactly like it on the little hill, and all three quite close together; and it was in full view of the village, and not very far from it. i had imagined a place of more reflective solitude. i was glad to have seen it, but did not trouble to go up and examine it more closely. [illustration: saint-michel de frigolet] [illustration: the coronation of the virgin, villeneuve-sur-avignon _page 303_] in the evening i came to the roadside chapel of st. gabriel, which was marked on my map with a cross, showing it to be something worth looking at, but was left without mention alike by the german baedeker and the french joanne. it is just a single, heavily buttressed nave with a richly carved porch, within the arch of which is a curious relief representing adam and eve in the garden of eden. it stands in an olive garden by the side of the road and there are no other buildings quite near to it, so that it comes as something of a surprise. it is important, as i have learnt since from mr. t. a. cook, as a link in the progression of early provençal architecture, and is certainly worth seeing on its own account. a little farther on was an _auberge_, before which some great wagons were standing while their drivers refreshed themselves within. it was in a quiet and pleasant corner, where four roads met, all overshadowed by trees now in their full leafage. i should have liked to get a bed and a dinner there, as by this time i had walked quite far enough, and it was the sort of peaceful countrified place that it is pleasant to wake up in. but they did not want me, and after sitting there for a time i tramped the three or four miles into tarascon. it was dark by the time i got there, and i saw very little of the immortal tartarin's town. i went up under an old gateway, and wandered about the streets on the lookout for an inn. i would have taken the first that came, for i was very tired by this time. but i could not find one at all. at last i was directed to a large hotel, where they gave me a bad dinner and charged me preposterously. but i got a good deal of fun out of it. tarascon is a military town, and the big dining-room in a corner of which i sat was providing entertainment for many of the soldiers of the regiments quartered there, and their friends among the townspeople. there were cavalry officers in natty little cambridge-blue tunics, and troopers with tunics of a deeper shade of blue. they did not mix, but their friends were all of the same class, and of course a trooper of a french cavalry regiment may be just as well bred as his officers. it seemed to me, remembering the character that daudet fixed upon the tarasconnais, that he had done them no injustice. there was a sort of theatrical swagger about those that came within my view that marked them off from their companions of the military even more than their civilian garb. i remember sir henry irving in "the lyons mail" taking a meal with his back to the audience. he seemed to be eating chiefly with his shoulders, and that was exactly the way in which these gentlemen of tarascon ate, as if they were in the limelight, and everything must be done for effect. when they talked, they did so with terrific emphasis and gesticulation, and when somebody else was talking they would suddenly withdraw themselves from the conversation and reflectively twirl their moustaches. and when my waiter, who was tremendously overworked, did bring my long pauses of reflection to an end, he served me with a flourishing air that would have made it almost indecent to complain of being kept waiting, since my reward was to be attended to with an amount of pomp and circumstance that must warm the coldest of victuals. i was up early next morning and walked out of the town by a roundabout way, which gave me a sight of its quaint arcaded streets, king rené's castle, which would have been worth a visit if i had had time for it, and the suspension bridge across the river to beaucaire. i passed along a plane-shaded boulevard on the outskirts of the town, always on the lookout for tartarin's villa, which i think i saw, though there were no signs of the india-rubber tree in its elegant little garden. i was on a literary pilgrimage. you remember daudet's story "l'elixir du révérend père gaucher"--how the monastery of the white canons had fallen upon such evil times that even the belfry was as silent as a deserted dovecot, and the monks, for lack of money, were obliged to sound to matins with rattles of almond-wood; how the humble cowherd restored them to affluence by the cordial cunningly distilled from provençal herbs, of which he had learnt the secret from the naughty old woman who had brought him up; and the dreadful things that followed when the wonderful elixir proved too seductive for his soul's health. now this monastery was st. michel de frigolet, up in the hills a mile or two off the road from tarascon to avignon, and there is a good deal more attached to it than daudet's story. to begin with, mistral went to school there, and i will make use of another chapter of his memoirs to describe its situation and tell its story. it was nearly eighty years ago that he was taken there from maillane in the farm cart, together with a small folding bed, a deal box to hold his papers and a bristly pigskin trunk containing his books and belongings. "at the revolution, the lands of saint-michel had been sold piece by piece for paper money, and the despoiled abbey, deserted and solitary, remained up there, bereft in the wilds, open to the four winds and the wild animals. sometimes smugglers would use it to make their powder in. when it rained the shepherds would shelter their sheep in the church. the gamblers of the neighbourhood would hide there in winter at midnight to avoid the police, and there by the pale light of a few candles, as the gold followed the movement of the cards, the vaulted roof echoed with oaths and blasphemies instead of psalms. then when their game was finished these rakes ate and drank and revelled and rioted until dawn. "about 1832 some mendicant friars established themselves there. they had put a bell in the old roman belfry, and rang it on sundays. but they rang in vain; nobody came up the hill to their offices, for they had no faith in them. the duchess de berry about this time had come to provence to raise the carlists against louis philippe, and i remember it being whispered that these runaway friars were nothing but spanish bandits under their black robes plotting some dubious intrigue. "following these friars a worthy native of cavaillon, m. donnat, came and started a boarding-school for boys at the convent of saint-michel, which he had bought on credit. "he was an old bachelor, yellow and swarthy in complexion, with lank hair, flat nose, large mouth with prominent teeth, in a long black frock-coat and tanned shoes. very devout, and as poor as a church mouse, he had made shift to start his school and to find pupils without a penny to bless himself with. "for instance, he would go to graveson, or tarascon, or barbentane or saint-pierre to a farmer who had boys. "'i have come to tell you,' he would say, 'that i have opened a school at saint-michel de frigolet. you have thus at your very door an excellent institution to which you can send your sons and have them prepared for their examinations.' "'my dear sir,' the father of the family would reply, 'that may be all very well for rich people, but we are not the sort of folk to give our boys so much learning. they will have quite enough for working on the land.' "'look here,' m. donnat would say, 'there is nothing better than a good education. don't worry about payment. give me every year so many measures of corn, so many casks of wine, so many drums of oil, and arrange matters in that way.' "so the worthy farmer would send his children to saint-michel de frigolet. "then i suppose m. donnat would go to a tradesman and begin thus: "'what a fine boy you have there! he looks sharp enough, too. i suppose you are not going to turn him into a counter-jumper.' "'oh, sir, if we only could, we should be glad to give him a little education, but schools are dear, and when there isn't much money----!' "'if it's a question of a school,' m. donnat would reply, 'send him to mine at saint-michel de frigolet. we will teach him latin and make a man of him. as for payment, let it come out of the shop. you will have an extra customer in me, and a very good customer too.' "and then and there the shopkeeper would promise him his son. "another time he would pass a carpenter's house, and supposing he saw a child playing in the gutter who looked pale, he would say to his mother: 'what's the matter with this pretty little fellow? he looks very white. is he ill, or has he been eating cinders?' "'oh, no,' she would reply, 'it is always playing about that makes him look like that. play is meat and drink to him, sir.' "'well, then, why not send him to my school at saint-michel de frigolet?' m. donnat would say. 'the good air alone will give him rosy cheeks in a fortnight. and he will be watched over and taught his lessons; and when he has been well educated he will find an easier occupation than a carpenter's.' "'ah, sir! but when one is poor!' "'don't trouble about that. we have up there i don't know how many doors and windows to mend. i can promise your husband more work as a carpenter than he will know how to get through; and so, my good woman, we shall settle the matter of fees.' "so this child would also find himself at saint-michel, with those of the butcher, the baker and the candlestick-maker, and by these means m. donnat collected into his school about forty boys, of whom i was one. out of them all, i and a few others were there for a money payment, but three-quarters of them were paid for in kind, or by the labour of their parents. in a word, m. donnat had solved the problem of the bank of exchange, quite simply and without any fuss, which the celebrated proudhom tried in vain to establish in paris in 1848.... "in those days saint-michel was of much less importance than it has since become. there was left just the cloister of the augustinian monks, with its green in the middle of the court; to the south the refectory and chapter-house; then the dilapidated church of st. michael, with its frescoes of the damned, and of demons armed with forks, and the battle between the devil and the great archangel in the middle; and then the kitchen and stables. "but apart from this little group of buildings there was a buttressed chapel, dedicated to our lady of succour, with a porch in front of it. masses of ivy covered the walls, and the interior was lined with gilded carvings which enclosed pictures said to be by mignard representing scenes in the life of the virgin. anne of austria, mother of louis xiv, had given these decorations in accordance with a vow she had made to the virgin if she should bear a son. "this chapel, a real gem, hidden in the mountains, had been saved during the revolution by the good people who piled up fagots under the porch and hid the entrance. it was there that every morning in the year, at five o'clock in summer and six in winter, we were taken to hear mass; it was there that i prayed, i remember--we all prayed--with a faith that was really angelic.... "the little hills all around were covered with thyme, rosemary, asphodel, box and lavender. in odd corners there were vines, which produced a wine of some repute-the wine of frigolet; patches of olives on the lower slopes; plantations of almond-trees, twisted, dark and stunted, on the stony ground; and wild fig-trees in the clefts of the rocks. this sparse vegetation was all that these rugged hills could show; the rest was nothing but waste and scattered rocks. but how delicious it smelt! the scent of the mountains at sunrise intoxicated us.... "we became as rugged as a troop of gipsies. but how we revelled in these hills and gorges and ravines, with their sonorous provençal names ... eternal monuments of the country and its language, all embalmed in thyme and rosemary and lavender, all illumined in gold and azure. oh, sweet land of scents and colours and delights and illusions, what happiness, what dreams of paradise thou didst reveal to my childhood!"[31] this idyllic existence came suddenly to an end. m. donnat, being frequently away collecting pupils, neglected to educate them when he had found them, and being anxious to increase his numbers took pupils who paid little or nothing, and they were not those who ate the least. one morning the cook disappeared. "no cook, no broth for us. the masters left us in the lurch one after the other. m. donnat had disappeared. his poor old mother boiled us some potatoes for a few days, and then his father said to us one morning, 'children, there is nothing more to eat; you had better go home.'"[32] this was the end of poor m. donnat's experiment, and he finally died in an almshouse. the old monastery was abandoned for twelve years, and was then bought by a premonstrant, who restored it under the rules of his order, which had ceased to exist in france. "thanks to the activity and preaching and begging of this ardent zealot, the little monastery grew enormously. numerous crenellated buildings were added to it, a new, magnificently decorated church was built, with a nave and two aisles and two towers. a hundred monks or novices occupied its cells, and every sunday the neighbouring people drove up to admire the elaborate pomp of their offices. the abbey of the white fathers became so popular that when in 1880 the republic ordered the convents to be closed a thousand peasants or inhabitants of the plains shut themselves up in it to protest against the execution of the decree. and it was then that we saw a whole army on the march--cavalry, infantry, generals and captains, with their commissariat and all the apparatus of war--and encamping round the convent of saint-michel de frigolet, seriously undertaking the siege of a comic-opera citadel, which would have given in to four or five gendarmes."[33] it may be remembered that the romantic heart of the immortal tartarin was stirred within him to take part in these proceedings. equipped with a regular arsenal of weapons, he led his followers up the hill one dark night and taking immense pains to circumvent the investing troops crawled laboriously to the gates of the monastery. as he was crouching behind a stone, an officer on guard, who had often met him at his club, called out affably, "bon soir, m. tartarin," and made no difficulty whatever about his proceeding. the more people there were inside the monastery to consume its stock of provisions the quicker the siege would end. it has been made the basis of other stories and poems, but mistral assures us that none of them are half as comic as were the facts themselves. i have read elsewhere that two thousand soldiers, horse and foot, united to expel twenty recalcitrant but unarmed monks, who were finally reduced by hunger and led triumphantly between two files of dragoons to tarascon. i do not know when or how the monks came back to their monastery, but they were finally expelled with all the rest ten years ago, and settled themselves somewhere in belgium. well, you will agree that saint-michel de frigolet was a place to see. i got up to it by a winding track among the hills. it was a clear, sunny morning, and the bees were humming among the scented herbs that give such a character to these stony hills, just as they did in the poet's happy childhood. on this side of the hill were a few olives here and there, but no other sign of cultivation until i came to the top of a hill, where there was a patch of dug ground, and beyond it a collection of pinnacles and walls conveying the impression that i had unexpectedly hit upon a large modern cemetery. the first building i came to was a tall, jerry-built structure which seemed to have been used as a sort of factory. its doors were open and its chambers empty and already beginning to fall to pieces. i walked down the hill between this and another building of the same sort, modern, hideous and deserted, and came to a large church, which looked on the outside much like a pretentious nonconformist chapel in a london suburb. the west doors stood open, and i looked over an iron railing to find the interior blazing with gold and bright blues and reds and greens on every inch of wall and roof, and with coloured windows to match. at first sight it looked gorgeous, at second, its gorgeousness was seen to be mere garish vulgarity. the sacristan was inside, and i pushed open the iron gate and went in. he showed me the glories of the church with pride. he said that the decorations alone had cost one million six hundred thousand francs, which is £64,000, and the more i looked the more depressed i became at the senseless, conscienceless waste of it all. this was the building that the premonstrants had erected in 1854, the "magnificently decorated church" to which mistral describes all the neighbouring countryside flocking to admire the elaborate pomp of its offices. but all mistral's artistic genius went into his poetry. he seems to have been incapable of appreciating the art that surrounded him so richly. i was told that the tomb he had erected for himself in the churchyard at maillane was a close copy of the pavillon de la reine jeanne at les baux, but that he had substituted the heads of favourite dogs for the carvings on the keystones of the arches; and i came across another instance of his lack of artistic understanding later on in his musée arlaten. the premonstrants have for their object the celebration of the ceremonies of the church with the highest possible degree of elaboration, and i suppose that when they acquired this monastery money was lavished upon them for enriching it. it was the same spirit, one would have said, that had created the treasures of ecclesiastical art and architecture of which provence is so full, but if so, what had become of its creative force? and yet the people--the uncontaminated sons of the soil, to whom the latest doctrine would have us look for the truest appreciation of art--flocked to this pinchbeck shrine, and took its gaudy ignorance for a true revival of ancient splendours. the sacristan took me over the rest of the buildings. they had all been bought a few years before by a rich priest who admirably uses them for the training of boys whom he sends out to the colonies. he has bought farms and large tracts of land all around, and the score or so of youths that he looks after work on them. i should have liked a chat with him, but he was away for the day, and i suppose the boys were all out at work, for i did not see any of them. some of the buildings that were used by the original monks--and i suppose also by m. donnat--are used now; others, even of the newer ones, are empty and some of them dilapidated. i was shown the library--two big rooms fitted up with painted deal shelves from which all the books had been removed. they looked poor and desolate, and there was not a trace of architectural dignity about anything else i saw that had been built in the last century, though it was all convenient enough for its purpose. and yet there was the old church which these aspiring religionists had left to its quiet decay while they built their vulgar modern one, the sweet little peaceful cloister, the chapel of our lady of succour, which mistral has described, with its gilded louis xiv _boiseries_ round the altar, from which, however, the pictures had been removed. they had models around them, if they had had the wit to use them. i went down the expensively embanked road towards graveson, when i had seen all that there was to see. it was lined on either side with heavily built shrines exhibiting the stations of the cross, which looked like the rooks of a set of clumsy chessmen. and the last thing i saw of this derelict monument of bad taste, before the windings of the road hid it, was a large cross toppling over sideways, as if even that had not been built to last. chapter xxi _villeneuve-sur-avignon_ my walking was done. i had another day and a half for avignon and a day and a half for arles, and that was to be the extent of this expedition. i wish it could have included carcassonne, which is not, however, in provence. but neither are nîmes nor aigues-mortes, nor saintes-maries nor saint-gilles, strictly speaking. the old province of provence ended with the rhône, and languedoc began on the other side of it. i should have liked, too, to renew my acquaintance with orange, and visited montelimar, if only for the sake of its _nougât_, and martigues, and half a dozen other towns. but it is not a bad thing to leave out some places in a country one loves. there is always something to come back for. i have said nothing yet about villeneuve, which, by the bye, is also in languedoc; but one can never forget it in avignon. the great fort of st. andré frowns across the river on to the papal city; and the tower of philip le bel, at which the pont bénezet used to end, is a conspicuous object on the lower ground. i suppose the two cities, one very much alive, the other almost dead, are about a mile apart. the two branches of the rhône and the isle de barthelasse are between them. it seems a long way round by the suspension bridge on a hot day, but it is worth going there, if only to see avignon from the other side. the city stands up magnificently, its rock crowned by the cathedral and the palace. but there is much to see in villeneuve itself. there is a fine fourteenth century church, which contains among other treasures a wonderful ivory virgin and child, coloured, which was presented by cardinal arnaud de via, nephew of pope john xxii, who founded the church in 1333. it is kept in an ancient safe in the sacristy, and there is a tremendous fuss of unlocking by various keys when it is shown. there is also the very fine gothic tomb of pope innocent vi, which, although much restored, is still in better preservation than the not dissimilar one of john xxii in the cathedral at avignon. "when seen by mérrimée in 1834," writes mr. okey, "the monument was in the possession of a poor vine-grower and used as a cupboard; casks were piled up against it, and all the beautiful alabaster statuettes had been destroyed or sold. another visitor of the period saw the tomb in use as a rabbit hutch."[34] the tomb stands in the middle of the little chapel of the hôpital, which also contains a small collection of paintings, one at least of which is of first-rate importance. it represents the coronation of the virgin. it was long attributed to king rené, as were most of the pictures of its date of which the authorship was doubtful, then to jan van eyck, and then to van der meere. but in 1889 the contract for its painting was discovered, "drawn up in the spicer's shop of jean brea at avignon, between a priest, jean de montagnac, and master enguerrand charonton, of laon, and dated april 24, 1453." as this contract shows the sort of terms on which artists of the middle ages worked, and how little was left to their own initiative, and is an interesting document besides, it is worth quoting mr. okey's mention of it. "every detail is specified, narrowly and precisely, as in a contract for building a house, and in order that the artist may have no excuse for not following the specification, the details are written in french, whereas the terms of the contract are in latin. first, there was to be the representation of a paradise, and in this paradise must be (_doit estre_) the holy trinity. there is to be no difference between the father and the son, and the holy ghost must be in the form of a dove. our lady is to be crowned by the said holy trinity, and the vestments are to be rich; that of our lady is to be cloth of white damask, figured as may seem best to the said master. the disposition of the angels and archangels, the cherubim, seraphim, prophets, patriarchs and saints is specified in elaborate detail: moreover, all the estates of the world are to be represented in the paradise. above paradise are to be the heavens, with sun and moon, and the church of st. peter, and the walls of rome are to be figured over against the setting sun; and at the issue of the church is to be a pine cone of bronze; thence spacious steps are to descend to the great piazza, and a street is to lead to the bridge of st. angelo, with houses and shops of all kinds. the castle of st. angelo must be also seen and many churches; the tiber is to be shown starting from rome and entering the sea; and on the sea are to be a certain number of galleys and ships. beyond the sea must be figured part of jerusalem: first, the mount of olives and the crucifixion of my saviour and a carthusian in prayer at the foot of the cross; and a little further the sepulchre of my saviour, and an angel saying: _surrexit, non est hic_. at the foot of the sepulchre shall be two (persons) praying; and at the right side, the vale of jehosaphat, between two mountains, and in the valley a church with the tomb of our lady, and an angel saying: _assumpta est_, etc., and there shall be a figure praying at the foot of the tomb. on the left is to be a valley, wherein are three persons of one and the same age, and from all these three shall shine forth rays of the sun, and there shall be seen abraham coming out of his tent and worshipping the said three persons, saying, _domini si inveni_, etc.; on the second mountain shall be moses tending his sheep, and a young girl playing the pipes, and our lord in the burning bush, and our lord shall say: _moyses, moyses_, and moses shall answer, _assum_. and on the right shall be purgatory with angels leading forth rejoicing those that are going to paradise, whereat the devils shall show forth great grief. on the left side shall be hell, and an angel is to be seen comforting the souls in purgatory. then in the part where hell is shall be a devil, very hideous, turning his back to the angel and casting certain souls into hell which other devils are handing to him. in hell and purgatory, too, all estates of the world are to be represented according to the judgment of the master. the said picture is to be painted in fine oil colour, and the blue must not be german blue but fine blue of acre; german blue may, however, be used on the border. the gold used for the picture and the border must be fine burnished gold. the said master is to display all his science in the representation of the holy trinity and the blessed virgin, and the rest may be painted according to his conscience. on the reverse of the picture is to be painted a fine cloth of crimson damask figured with fleur-de-lys. the said master is to have the said picture faithfully done by st. michael's day, and to be paid 120 florins at 24 soldi to the florin, of which sum the master had received 40 florins on account; the balance is to be paid--20 florins when the picture was half finished; 40, according to the rate of the progress of the work thereafter; and the remaining 20 florins when the picture was completed and delivered at the carthusian church."[35] almost an anecdotal picture! but a very beautiful one. it was amusing to stand before it with this description in one's hand and pick out the various commissions which master enguerrand charonton so conscientiously fulfilled. they could do these things, even at that early date, without sacrificing composition or anything that is the mark of a great picture in all ages. i think there are not many artists who could do it now. the sleepy high street, or what corresponded to such, of the once famous city is full of memorials of its past grandeur, although they are for the most part hidden behind the rows of ordinary looking house-fronts. there are courtyards surrounded by stately buildings, deposed from their once high estate, when the princes of the church and the great nobles of provence had their summer palaces here; but the main surprise that villeneuve holds out to the visitor is the ruins of the great charter house of the val de benediction, which was founded by innocent iii, and so grew in importance that it became the second of the order. it is a surprising place to visit. the circuit of the walls was a full mile round, and they are mostly standing on the two sides towards the open country. on the other two sides there are streets, and the main entrance is in the grande rue--a fine gateway standing between the house-fronts and leading by a vaulted passage to what is left of the monastic buildings. these are all mixed up with houses and cottages, some rebuilt from the old materials, others adapted for modern dwellings out of the walls as they stood. at the revolution the monastery was sacked, and its buildings sold in small lots. there are said to have been two hundred families of the poorer sort living within the walls, and there are still a very large number, although the whole is being very gradually bought up, and as much as possible of it restored as an historical monument. the church still stands, though in advanced ruin, and the chapel of the holy trinity, built by innocent vi retains some of its frescoes. there are also the remains of a fine cloister, and in the cloister garth is the eighteenth century rotunda, built over the old well of st. jean. to my mind, however, the interesting thing about these ruins are not the important remains, but the endless little ones that one comes across as one wanders about the narrow alleys and yards. there is probably not a hovel that has not got something about it that tells of the past. as i was poking about, two urchins accosted me and asked if i would like to see the _plafond_. they took me to a house standing in a row of others like it--a house of perhaps half a dozen rooms--and up a stone stair into a bedroom of which the ceiling was painted, not in the least ecclesiastically, but in a good eighteenth century style. it was in excellent preservation, and indeed the whole house, into some of the other rooms of which i peeped, was no more dilapidated than any house might be that had come down in the world, but not so very far. i do not know what purpose it may have served in the monastic days. i suppose there were those in this great monastery who lived much in the style of people outside, and this was the dwelling of one of them. the place was a town in itself, and not a very small one. [illustration: a courtyard in villeneuve] [illustration: the rotunda at villeneuve] the photograph of the rotunda will give some idea of the sort of buildings that now surround this and other remains of the past. a lane runs round the two sides of the old walls that do not face the town, and doors are cut into them leading to the houses inside, or into their yards. the clearing out must be a very slow process, if all the descendants of those who acquired the many "lots" at the revolution are to be removed. i doubt if the result will be worth while, except here and there. the whole has been destroyed and altered past repair, and it is interesting enough in its present state. the mighty fort of st. andré stands on the hill above the monastery. with its double fortress towers and frowning battlements, it is the most conspicuous object in villeneuve as seen from avignon, and avignon is seen from its heights, as well as the wonderful stretch of country around, perhaps to greater advantage than from any other point. its long history was closed, except for later restorations, by an occupation which mr. okey describes as follows: "in the later years of the monarchy a post of artillery was stationed in the fort, and it was from the fire of a battery planted there that a young captain of artillery, one napoleon bonaparte, in 1793, overawed the city of avignon, which was occupied by the marseillais federalists who had declared against the convention; and it was with the cannon seized at st. andré that bonaparte marched to toulon and expelled the english from its harbour. the papal soldiery were ever objects of scorn to the royalists of villeneuve, who dubbed them _patachines_ (_petachina_, italian for slipper), and taunted them with drilling under parasols--a pleasantry repaid by the italians who hurled the epithet _luzers_ (lizards) against the royalists, who were said to pass their time sunning themselves against the hot rocks of villeneuve."[36] chapter xxii _arles_ of all the larger towns in provence, arles is perhaps the one that creates the deepest impression upon the visitor. avignon is much finer, and its interest is at least as great as that of arles, although it lacks that of roman remains. and the roman remains of nîmes are finer than those of arles, although nîmes has very little mediæval interest. but both avignon and nîmes are thriving modern cities, while arles is a comparatively small provincial town. its ancient remains are everything, and you can never forget them in connection with it. i do not remember any feeling of modernity at all about arles. the streets are cobbled, narrow and puzzling. if you once get away from any central point you must use a map to get back again. i do not remember any modern houses or any large shops. it is a sleepy old town, and a pleasant one to wander about in, even when one has no immediate object in the direction of its outstanding antiquities. of the arena i need say little. the exterior is less striking than that of nîmes, because it is not nearly so well preserved. the arches of the upper tier stand naked all the way round, and it is not possible anywhere to get an idea of what the exterior looked like without more knowledge and imagination than most visitors are likely to possess. the interior, as will be seen by the photograph, has been to some extent restored for spectacular purposes. as it was built to hold thirty thousand spectators, and the whole population of arles is now about half that number, the ancient seats of honour afford ample accommodation, and the rest has been left to its ruin. but this ruin is really a considerable restoration in itself. the arenas, both at arles and nîmes, suffered many vicissitudes after the roman occupation. the square tower above the entrance was a fortification of the saracens, and there is another still standing which is not shown in the photograph. in the seventeenth century the whole area was crowded with houses. according to contemporary prints, the round tops of the arches, with the coping above them removed, formed the roofs of separate narrow dwellings; here and there extensions clung to the outside walls; the interior was a mass of buildings and alleys, and there was even a church. it was a little town within a town, and a very horrible one at certain times of its history, for it was the resort of criminals of the basest type, who made a sort of fortress of it. in 1640 the plague that ravaged arles broke out first in this crowded den, and its inhabitants were shot down if they came out of it. it was not until 1825 that it began to be cleared of buildings, and a careful restoration was set in hand twenty years later and carried on slowly until the present considerable result was attained. [illustration: the arena at arles] [illustration: the greek theatre, arles] the remains of the greek theatre are unfortunately even less complete, but they are enough to cause one to linger over this unique survival of ancient days. the two beautiful marble columns which remain give one an idea of what the proscenium must have been like. one is of white marble from carrara, the other of african marble. charles ix took eight columns of porphyry and one of verd-antique for shipment to paris, and they were lost in the rhône. one would willingly exchange the whole of the arena--contenting oneself with that of nîmes--for an equal preservation of the theatre. but its destruction dates very far back. it was in 441 that the deacon cyril aroused a fanaticism that led a christian mob to attack and wreck it, and they left it in little better state than it is now. in 1664 a monastery was built with the materials, actually on the stage of the theatre itself. this complete and sudden demolition, however, had the effect of preserving some precious objects which would otherwise have disappeared entirely. when excavations were made, possibly in preparation for the building of the monastery, there was brought to light the beautiful vénus d'arles, now in the louvre, and there are other priceless remains of statuary and architecture in the musée lapidaire of arles itself, which go to show what a treasure-house this theatre was; for the early iconoclasts paid special attention to the destruction of the statuary. behind the stage of the theatre rises the romanesque tower of the cathedral of st. trophime. this wonderful church has suffered as little as anything of its date in provence. its carved façade is not so fine as that of st. gilles, but it has been better preserved, and while st. gilles has lost nearly everything that was behind its façade, st. trophime has kept nearly everything. the interior of the church is very solid and very dignified. it has little decoration, but the light that is let in on it is just enough to give it mystery and solemnity. the aisles are so narrow that looking up to the vaulting one has the impression of mere passages, but their narrowness is effective, and the whole structure conveys an uplifting sense of austerity. the richness of the famous cloister, happily in good preservation, comes as something of a surprise when one steps into it from the dark church, though its earliest "walk" is of the same date as the portal and not less luxuriant in decoration. this beautiful cloister is one of the most satisfying things in all ecclesiastical provence, and would make a visit to arles memorable if there were nothing else there to see. a chapter might be written on its carvings alone, and its irregularities of date and of construction provide constant fresh interest. the photographs of the north and south walks will show the great variety that exists. the north is of the twelfth century, the south as it was altered at the end of the fourteenth, and the west is later still. at the south-east corner is a well, said to have been originally fed by a roman aqueduct which was older than the amphitheatre, for the water rose in a channel cut through the rock beneath it. mr. henry james speaks of the musée lapidaire as the most roman thing he knows of outside rome, and, indeed, its contents, which are not so numerous as to confuse the mind, show what arles had lost in the way of beauty centuries before st. trophimus and other mediæval glories were bestowed upon it. i was pleased to come across, in mr. james's pages, mention of the delightful little boy's head in marble, of the second century, which had particularly struck me. there is another similar one, not quite in such perfection, but even more tender and "naturalistique". one seems to know these little children, who died close upon two thousand years ago, and almost to love them. in the musée are some of the finest of the early christian tombs from the alyscamps, which has enriched half the museums in europe with its treasures. this ancient burying-place lies a little outside the town. it is a rather mournful avenue of poplars underneath which are the rows of stone coffers, all empty now, which remain of the many that once stood there, and an ancient ruined church at the end of it. "here," writes mr. t. a. cook, "was the true necropolis of gaul, consecrated, as the legend runs, by the blessing of the christ himself, who appeared to st. trophime upon this sacred spot.... at first a roman burial-place, this cemetery gradually became the chosen bourne of every man who wished his body to await in peace the coming of the resurrection. by the twelfth century it was sufficient to place the corpse of some beloved dead, from avignon or further, into a rude coffin, fashioned like a barrel, and to commit it to the rhône, which brought its quiet charge in safety to the beach of la roquette. no sacrilegious hands were ever laid upon that travelling bier; for once a man of beaucaire had robbed the coffin that was floating past his bridge, and straightway the corpse remained immovable in the current of the river, and stayed there until the thief confessed his crime and put the jewels back."[37] [illustration: the cloisters, south walk, st. trophime] [illustration: the cloisters, north walk, st. trophime] the ancient church of st. honorat, at the end of the avenue, is in a sad state of desolation, for its ruin went very far before what was left of it began to be cared for. i remember little of it but the octagonal domed belfry which gives it its character in the scene, the enormous round pillars of the interior, and a side chapel which interested me because it belonged to the porcelets of les baux. st. honorat was only one of nineteen churches and chapels within the alyscamps when it was most famous. the translation of the body of st. trophimus to the cathedral in 1152 took away something of its prestige. it was served by the monks of st. victor of marseilles until the middle of the fifteenth century, by which time the people of arles seem to have realized that they had an almost inexhaustible supply of coveted christian antiquities to dispose of, and ever since the sixteenth century the spoliation has been going on. there is nothing of much value left compared with what can be seen of the treasures of the alyscamps elsewhere, and even the sacred ground has been whittled away by degrees, and the railway has set up workshops on the very spot where so many christians of the first centuries were buried. one hears the clang of metal as one walks along the melancholy avenue, or stands in the empty ruined church. the glory has all departed, and most of the romance. there are many other memories of the past in arles, but they need not detain us. the ancient city has of late years been the centre of the provençal revival of the félibres, and we may take leave of it as well as of the charming land of provence, with a glance at the musée arlaten, which owes its foundation to the patriotism and largely to the generosity of mistral. it is housed in a fine old mansion built round a courtyard in which have lately been discovered some valuable roman remains. it fills all the rooms and passages of the first floor and is already an ethnological and local museum of great value. they call it the palace of the félibrige, and it aims to sum up all the life and traditions of provence. "art, letters, customs, manners, pottery, costumes, furniture," announces the catalogue, "all are there. the whole of provence unfolds itself and lives again in all its aspects in these admirable galleries, masterpieces of patience as well as genius." the patience as well as the genius have been mostly mistral's. his neat, angular writing is to be seen on nearly all the labels, and up to the very week before his death he came regularly to the museum one day every week and worked there cataloguing and arranging. as i was waiting at graveson station after visiting saint-michel de frigolet, the station-master told me how much they should miss him. every thursday he would come over from maillane, in the old diligence, and take the train to arles. he talked a great deal about his museum. it was his pride and his chief interest of latter years. one of the smaller rooms is called the salo mistralenco, or the cabinet de mistral. "the walls of this _salle d'honneur_ are decorated with illustrations of _mireille_, _nerte_, _calendal_, &c. on the chimneypiece a superb bust of the master. in glass cases: the works of mistral, things that have belonged to him, the 'original' of the great nobel prize adjudged to the poet, and a letter to the same from roosevelt, president of the united states, etc. in the middle of the _salle_, a wonderful reliquary estimated at over 10,000 francs, the gift of m. mistral-bernard of saint-remy: it contains the hair, the christening robe and the cradle of the infant mistral; in the cradle the manuscript of 'mireille.'" there may seem something a little odd to english ideas in this naïve acceptance of immortality, and preparation for the veneration of posterity, in a man's own lifetime. but mistral's advanced years may excuse it, if excuse is needed. long ago he saw his cause triumph, and it is a cause that looms big in provence. he could hardly help knowing that he was its central figure, and from the very first he has laid all the fame that it brought him at the feet of his beloved country. in any case the slight anachronism will soon disappear. it was already beginning to fade away when i was there in the week after his death, and saw the chamber darkened and the pathetic reminders of his infancy all swathed and wreathed in black. [illustration: arles, the alyscamps] [illustration: boy's head in marble, musée lapidaire, arles _page 313_] two of the larger rooms have been given up to a kind of wax-work show, the one of a christmas eve feast in the kitchen of a provençal farm, the other of the ceremonies surrounding the birth of a child. the descriptions in the catalogue, probably written by mistral himself, may be quoted. * * * * * "salle de noël.--here is christmas eve represented in all the truth of its poetry, very spaciously and completely, in the kitchen of a provençal 'mas.' a dozen very expressive _mannequins_ in coloured stucco by m. férigoule represent the inhabitants of the farm.... on the table; three cloths and three candles; the _pain calendal_ is served with the great pike cooked with black olives, and with snails, celery, artichokes, brandied raisins, and the little cask of mulled wine. by the hearth, facing the grandmother, the head of the house sprinkles with wine and blesses the yule log. round the table the servants mix with the masters: here family simplicity equalizes all ranks. * * * * * "chambre conjugale.--another group, superb in arrangement, expression and poetry. in the room, discreetly lighted, there arrive, wonderfully dressed in arlésian costume, the relations and friends of the young mother, lying with her new-born child in a bed of the fifteenth century. the visitors are bringing the symbolical and traditional gifts, of bread, salt, a match and an egg. they are expressing the customary wishes: _sage coume la sau;--bon coume lou pan;--plen coume un ion;--dre coume uno brouqueto_; which means, may your child be as wholesome as salt, as good as bread, as full as an egg, and as straight as a match. with what jealous care does the grandmother, seated apart, seem to watch that those coming and going shall behave quietly! bravo, m. férigoule, for your composition; you have done the work of an artist. the scene, indeed, is religious in its impression." well, i suppose m. férigoule has done his work as well as such work can be done; but as for art!--it is the negation of all art, this imitation of life, which is as dead as the stuff of which it is made. the more realistic such figures are the more dreadful they are. for my part i can never look at them without a shudder, and those in the musée arlaten took away all my pleasure in the careful and interesting furnishing of the rooms, in which they stand and sit and lie in their horrible immobility. if only they were taken out, how imagination might play about the rooms themselves, which contain every detail of the warm picturesque home-life of the past, now fading away. with them, imagination is killed. it is as if the rooms had been prepared for corpses. but one must not let one's disgust for these _mannequins_, which cannot be felt by everybody, or so great a man as mistral would not have been so pleased with them, stand for one's whole impression of this interesting museum. i spent a couple of hours in it very happily employed in gathering up the pleasure that this spring expedition in provence had brought me. it touches on all the life and all the memories of that fascinating country, and it is especially rich in the accessories of the ancient and picturesque work of the soil, perhaps more ancient and more picturesque in provence than in most countries. in mistral's youth there can have been little change from the ways of centuries past. he lived to see much that made his country unlike others disappear, and gathered what he could in his museum so that it should not be forgotten. but it has not all disappeared. except here and there, men and women have given up their old distinctive costumes, harvests are reaped by machinery, the rhône no longer bears its freights drawn by the huge teams of horses or oxen, the festivals of the church do not see every house decked and every street strewn with green. but the queenly arlésian women still wear their becoming coifs; and on high days and holidays some of the rich dresses, of which there is such a variety in this museum, are taken out of old coffers and presses, in the great country farmhouses the old furniture that has descended from father to son is polished and cherished, and many of the old customs are kept up. the harvest of the olives sees the girls of provence filling their baskets as they did in the days of mireille, and the old-fashioned mills grind out their tons of rich oil. the shepherds lead their flocks over the stony, herb-scented hills as they led them when marius drove out the barbarians. the wild bulls and horses roam the plains of the camargue, and the life of the men who have to do with them is not changed. of all these things, and many others, there is evidence in the musée arlaten, and walking through the country one sees it for one's self, enough at least to make one love the fair sunburnt land that holds so many memories, and to love its roads and fields and hills no less than the treasures it hoards in its ancient cities. the end. appendix _the provençal legend_ dr. m. r. james has sent me a pamphlet, "saint lazare et saint maximin," by dom g. morin, which, although published in paris in 1897, he considers to be the last word on the provençe legends of st. lazarus, etc. i summarize its conclusions shortly. 1. dom morin produces evidence that the cult of st. lazarus by the church of marseilles, which dates at least from the eleventh century, has, for historic foundation, the burial of a bishop of that name in the crypt of the abbey of saint-victor. this was not the lazarus of the new testament, but most probably a bishop of aix in the first half of the fifth century, who was dispossessed of his see for the part that he had taken in the pelagian controversy, and came to end his days with the bishop of marseilles, who had ordained him. 2. for the cult of the saints of saint-maximin there is an ingenious and probable explanation. in the ancient town of billom, in the auvergne, and in the adjacent villages, the relics of several saints were venerated from a very early date. among them were st. maximin, a confessor, perhaps a bishop; st. sidonius, who was none other than sidonius apollinaris, the fifth century poet and orator; st. marcelle, a shepherdess for whom the villagers of chauriat have had from time immemorial a deep veneration. now these are not names that are to be found scattered all over the martyrologies. besides those of billom and saint-maximin, there are only three or four other st. maximins, one st. sidonius, and two st. marcelles; and there are not two of any of them, otherwise, who can be referred to the same locality or between whom there exists any connection whatever. dom morin can find no other explanation of this curious 'bilocation' than by supposing a translation of relics either from auvergne to provence or from provence to auvergne; and he gives good reasons for preferring the first supposition. june, 1920. index aicard, jean, 251, 284 aigues-mortes, 239, 240, 241, 242, 244, 245, 246, 248, 252, 254, 255, 301 aix, 31, 58, 61, 62, 64, 65, 85, 89, 91, 95, 97, 99, 100, 101, 102, 106, 113, 116, 133, 163, 181 alaric the visigoth, 132 albigenses, 65, 149, 152 alix, princess, 132, 135, 136, 137 "allées convertes," 283 alpilles, 88, 121, 127, 158, 165, 282 alpines, 120 alps, 49, 86, 120, 125, 160, 175, 235 altar of the crucifixion, or corpus domini, st. maximin, 74 alyscamps, 316, 317 ambrons, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90 anne of austria, 65, 66, 293 anne of brittany, 66 arc, 89, 90 arena, the, arles, 171, 235, 282, 311, 313 arena, the, nîmes, 171, 230, 235, 311, 312, 313 arles, 31, 54, 95, 102, 116, 123, 131, 132, 161, 164, 171, 230, 235, 236, 244, 249, 255, 266, 268, 271, 277, 278, 281, 282, 283, 301, 302, 311, 312, 313, 314, 315, 317, 318, 319 aubanel, 163 avignon, 31, 94, 102, 108, 113, 116, 135, 151, 158, 163, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 190, 191, 192, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 202, 209, 210, 214, 216, 217, 219, 255, 266, 288, 301, 302, 303, 309, 311, 316 augustus, emperor, 231 azalais, 148 bac du sauvage, 253 barbentane, 290 barjols, 54 baroncelli-javon, marquis de, 262, 263 barras, 77 barrés, m. maurice, 244 basses-alps, 67, 158 bastide, joseph, 77, 78 baux, sir agos des, 133, 134 baux, count barrai des, 148 baux, raymond des, 133 beaucaire, 124, 240, 242, 287, 316 beauvan, prince de, 246 beaune, jacques de, 75, 76 benedict xii, avignon, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200 bernard of clairvaux, 61 berre, 12, 13, 14, 19 berry, duchess de, 289 besançon, 50 bibliothèque méjane, 111 "the birth of the virgin," aix, 106 bonaparte, lucien, 56 bonaparte, napoleon, 310 boniface viii, pope, 64 boucicaut, marshal, 135 bourg-neuf, arles, 133 brenner pass, 87 cabassoies, cardinal de, 64 cabassole, philip de, bishop of cavaillon, 212, 216 "cabelladuro d'or," 145 cæsar borgia, 144 cæsar of arles, bishop, 270 cagnes, 18, 21 caldus, 156 camargue, the, 131, 160, 239, 241, 248, 249, 250, 255, 277, 323 campi putridi, 92 canrobert, marshal, 178 "cantorbery" tapestry, aix, 105 carcassonne, 239, 301 carlists, 289 casanova, 143, 214, 216 cassianite monks, 61 castellet, 283 catullus, 170 cavaillon, 289 célestines, church of, avignon, 188 cevennes, 49, 158 châlons, simon de, 182 chapelle de l'université, aix, 107 charlemagne, 271, 273, 275 charles ii, count of provence, 62, 64 charles v, 245 charles ix, 118, 313 charles martel, 275 charles of anjou, 62 charonton, master enguerrand, 303, 306 chartres, cathedral of, 273 chastel, 114 château du puy, 43, 46 châteauneuf, 18, 20, 23, 24, 197 châteaurenard, 173 cimbri, 86, 87, 88, 170 cinque ports, 243 clement v, pope, 193, 196, 206, 207 clement vi, pope, 191, 192, 202 clement vii, pope, 183 cluny museum, 278 col de braus, 7 colle noire, 35 contes, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19 cook, a. t., 136, 143, 146, 156, 169, 170, 232, 233, 234, 246, 275, 285, 316 côte d'azur, 3 craponne, adam de, 120, 121, 122 crau, 123, 125, 126, 131, 160 crusades, 61 daudet, alphonse, 191, 251, 284, 286, 287, 288 deacon cyril, 313 deïmo, 146 derby, earl of, 133, 134 "descent from the cross," aix, 106 donnat, m., 289, 290, 291, 292, 294, 299 dragonia, 51 draguignan, 48, 49, 50, 51, 53 dumas, alexandre, 146 durance, 120, 122, 158, 174 estérel, 37 etang de berre, 131 fabre, or favre, general, 37 fayence, 35, 37, 43, 45, 46, 51 "félibres," 163, 167, 284, 318 "félibrige," 163, 318 field of pebbles, 121 florenz, king of provence, 271, 272 fontvieille, 283, 284 foulquet of marseilles, 148 fountains, the, nîmes, 230 francis i, 76, 140, 245 fréron, 77 friars hospitallers, 187 froissart, 133 froment, nicolas, 108 gardanne, 99 gaul, 86 gitanos, or gitans, 263, 264 granet, portrait of, aix, 112, 113 gras, félix, 163 grasse, 21, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 30, 32, 172 grau de croisette, 246 grau de roi, le, 246, 255 graveson, 89, 299, 319 great crau, 120, 122 grimaldi, honoré de, 143, 144 griminum, 51 grotto des fées, les baux, 160 guardiens, 251 guise, duc de, 140 henry vi of england, 110 henry of navarre, prince, 118, 119 henri quatre, 247 hercules, 121, 122 holy ampulla, 67, 78, 80 holy trinity, chapel of, villeneuve, 308 hôtel de la reine jeanne, les baux, 143 hôtel de l'europe, avignon, 176 "hôtel de monte carlo," les baux ("a la chevelure d'or"), 143, 144 hôtel de ville, les baux, 128 huguenots, 141 iberians, 264, 265 "image du roi rené," avignon, 184 innocent iii, 307 innocent vi, pope, 302, 308 isle de barthelasse, 302 jeanne, queen, 66, 109, 138, 145 joan of naples, queen, 202 john xxii, pope, 193, 195, 196, 197, 198, 205, 302 joseph of arimathea, 57 julia, wife of caius marius, 155, 156, 157 julius cæsar, 94, 170 jupiter, 121 "jupiter and thetis," by ingres, aix, 112 katharine of aragon, 106 "la baussenique," 133 laincel, louis de, 101 lamartine, 159 languedoc, 263, 301 la petite pugère, 90 la reole, gascony, siege of, 133 la roquette, 316 laura, 195, 209, 214, 215, 216, 217, 222, 225 "le buisson ardent," aix, 108 leibulf, 132 "le jardin de berenice," 244 "l'elixir du révérend père gaucher," 287 les baux, 86, 116, 117, 125, 127, 128, 129, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 138, 139, 140, 141, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 154, 156, 158, 159, 168, 170, 171, 239, 282, 317 l'escaréne, 11 les milles, 89 "lettres de mon moulin," 284 ligurians, 121, 265 l'isle-sur-sorgue, 209, 210, 223 little benet, 186, 187, 189 little crau, 121 little rhone, 252, 253, 256 lothair, emperor, 62 louis ix, 246 louis xi, 139 louis xiii, 66, 141, 143 louis xiv, 65, 249, 293 louis xv, 260 louis xvi, 67 louis philippe, 289 lourdes, 255 louvre, 108, 278, 314 madeline, the, paris, 233, 234 maillane, 151, 159, 165, 284, 288, 298, 319 maison, carée, nîmes, 230, 232, 233, 235 maison-romaine, saint-gilles, 276 mane, 67 manny, sir walter, 134 manville, jehan de, 141 mariéton, paul, 100, 114, 118 maritime alps, 87 martha, 155, 156, 157 marius, caius, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 108, 132, 155, 156, 169, 170, 323 marius mausoleum, saint-remy, 169 marseilles, 58, 61, 89, 92, 121, 270 martigues, 301 mary of medici, 66 mary, wife of cleophas, 57, 58, 258, 259 mary, wife of zebedee (salome), 57, 58, 258, 259 matsys, quentin, 105 maupas, 187 maures, 37 maussane, 117, 126 medici, catharine de, 118, 119 memmi, simone, 194, 195, 202, 203 mentone, 1, 2, 3 mignard, nicholas, 182, 293 millet, 36 "mireille," or "mirèio," 117, 159, 160, 164, 165, 319, 323 mistral, françois, 161, 162, 164, 165, 166, 173 mistral, frédéric, 48, 117, 151, 152, 154, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 167, 251, 284, 288, 296, 297, 298, 299, 318, 319, 320, 322 mistral-bernard, m. of saint-remy, 319 monaco, 144 montagnac, jean de, 303 montagne de cordes, 282 montelimar, 301 montfort, martha, 152 montfort, simon de, 152 montmajour, abbey of, les baux, 131, 277, 279, 282, 283 montmorency, anne de, 140 montpelier, 271 mont victoire, 91, 94, 95 monuments historiques, 276, 278, 281 mount aurelian, 95 mount olympus, 91, 95 musée arlaten, arles, 145, 298, 318, 322, 324 musée lapidaire, arles, 314, 315, 316 museum, aix, 112, 113 musée, avignon, 179 nice, 2, 5, 18, 20, 21, 28, 144 nîmes, 31, 95, 102, 116, 171, 227, 229, 230, 231, 234, 235, 236, 241, 244, 301, 311, 312 noli me tangere, 64, 66, 67, 82 nostradamus, 117, 118, 119 notre dame de nazareth, nuns of, aix, 65 odo, 63 okey, thomas, 184, 187, 192, 198, 206, 213, 214, 217, 302, 303 orange, princes of, 132 orange, 301 orleans, duke of, 65, 141 ouide de sarrasin, 282 our lady of succour, chapel of, saint-michel de frigolet, 292, 299 palace of the popes, avignon, 75, 175, 177, 185, 194, 200, 201, 203 palais de justice, aix, 102 panis annonæ, 91, 92 pain de munition, 91, 95 parma, duke of, 67 parrocel, pierre, 182 "passion, the," st. maximin, 75 pavillon de la reine jeanne, les baux, 139, 298 peiresc, 100 périgord, countess of, 193 péronne, treaty of, 144 pertvis, 133 peter of aragon, 64 petrarch, 64, 195, 209, 212, 214, 215, 216, 217, 219, 221, 222, 225, 226 philip iii (philip le hardi), 241, 243 philip le bel, tower of, 301 plutarch, 86, 89, 90, 92, 155 poitiers, diane de, 144 pont bénezet, villeneuve, 301 pont de la saigne, 35 pont du gard, nîmes, 171, 227 porcelets, 147, 317 porcieux, 97 porte d'eyguières, 128 poulinet, délaïde, 161 poulinet, etienne, 161, 162 pourrières, 92 pré du lac, 24 premonstrants, 294, 297, 298 promenade des anglais, 21 proudhon, 292 provence, 6, 12, 23, 31, 33, 36, 45, 49, 53, 55, 57, 58, 61, 62, 65, 66, 75, 76, 86, 87, 93, 97, 108, 109, 116, 117, 118, 122, 126, 129, 133, 136, 138, 139, 140, 157, 160, 161, 163, 165, 167, 173, 176, 187, 212, 217, 223, 239, 254, 255, 256, 257, 261, 263, 268, 271, 284, 289, 298, 301, 307, 311, 314, 315, 318, 320, 322, 323 psalmodi, abbey of, 240, 242 pyrenees, 158 raudine plain, 170 réattlu, 278 remoulins, 227 rené, king, 65, 66, 108, 109, 110, 111, 138, 255, 261, 287, 303 rhône, 49, 58, 87, 88, 109, 120, 121, 131, 136, 158, 174, 175, 177, 186, 188, 190, 191, 194, 205, 248, 249, 250, 267, 268, 301, 302, 313, 316, 323 richard coeur de lion, 61 richelieu, 141, 143 riviera, 12, 175 "roi de camargue," 251 romans, 86, 87, 88, 90, 91, 93, 95, 108 ronzen, antonio, 74, 75, 76 roque, jacques de la, 107 rostan, m., 55, 57, 60, 62, 68, 78, 80, 81 roumanille, 163 roussillon, gerard de, 62 rubens, portrait of, by vandyke, 100 sade, marquises of, 225 sainte-baume, 59, 66 saintes-maries, or les saintes, or notre dame de la mer, 58, 61, 131, 155, 160, 241, 252, 253, 254, 255, 256, 261, 263, 265, 301 saint-gilles, 266, 267, 276, 301, 314 saint-maximin, 53, 55, 56, 60, 62, 64, 65, 69, 74, 75, 76, 77, 80, 86, 95, 96 saint-pierre, 290 saint-remy, 117, 133, 158, 169, 171, 172 salo mistralenco, or the cabinet de mistral, 319 salon, 117, 118, 120, 121, 126, 133 saracens, 59, 61, 63, 66, 134, 240, 254, 261, 275, 282, 312 sarah, 57, 58, 261, 262 saumane, 223 saurin, jean, 77 savoie, claude de, 140 see, joseph, 113, 114 seillans, 37, 47 smollett, 2, 143 sorgue, 211, 214, 217, 218, 219, 220 sospel, 1, 2, 3, 4 st. agricol, church of, avignon, 179, 180, 181 st. andré, fort of, villeneuve, 301, 309 st. antoine, 109 st. bénézet, bridge of, avignon, 175, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189 st. catherine, 109 st. croix, chapel of, montmajour, 273, 278, 279, 280 st. didier, church of, avignon, 184, 188 st. gabriel, camp of, 88 st. gabriel, chapel of, 284 st. gilles, 242, 268, 269, 270, 271, 272, 273, 274, 275, 276 st. hermentaire, bishop of antibes, 51, 54 st. honorat, church of, arles, 317 st. john, 109 st. julian, church of, arles, 281 st. laurent d' aigouze, 242 st. lazarus, 57, 58 st. louis, 62, 240 st. louis d' anjou, bishop of toulouse, 77 st. madeleine, 109 st. madeleine, church of, aix, 102, 103 st. marcelle, 57, 82 ste. marie, chapel of, les baux, 137 st. martha, 57, 58, 107, 258 st. mary magdalene, 57, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 69, 79, 82, 258 st. maurice, 109 st. maximin, 57, 58, 59, 61, 82 st. michael, 275 st. michel de frigolet, 288, 289, 290, 291, 292, 295, 296, 319 st. mitre, chapel of, aix, 107 st. nicolas, 109 st. pierre, church of, avignon, 181, 183, 196 st. saviour, church of, aix, 58, 103, 104 st. sidonius, 57, 61, 63, 82 st. stephen, 57 st. susan, 82 st. trophimus, 57, 60, 112, 140, 268, 279, 314, 315, 316, 317 st. victor of marseilles, monks of, 317 st. victoire, 94 strella of florence, princess, 145 sylvéreal, 253, 254 tailors' guild, chapel of, avignon, 196 tarascon, 58, 61, 124, 138, 277, 283, 285, 286, 288, 290, 296 "tarasque," 108 tartarin, 285, 287, 295, 296 tegulata, 90 "temple of diana," nîmes, 230, 231 teutons, 86, 87, 88, 90 tomb of innocent vi, villeneuve, 302 tortosa, bishop of, 138 toulon, 49, 310 tour carbonnière, 242 tour de constance, 240, 246 tour des bourgignans, 248 tourettes, 45 trets, 85, 86, 91, 94, 97, 98 trévaresse, 120 triumphal arch, saint-remy, 170 trois maries, or the "trémaïé," les baux, 154, 157, 160 troubadors, 116, 138, 148, 154 turenne, countess of, 192 turenne, viscount of, "scourge of provence," 135, 136 urbanists, 183 val de benediction, villeneuve, 307 val d' enfer, les baux, 131, 154, 160 valentinois, duchy of, 144 var, department of, 49, 51 vasari, 195 vaucluse, 64, 209, 210, 212, 214, 217, 222, 225, 282 venaissan, 193 venice, 75 ----, ducal palace, 75 venus d'arles, 314 venus victrix, 94 vercingetorix, 170 vermuyden, 122 vezelay, 61, 62 via, cardinal arnaud de, 302 villeneuve, antoine de, 141 villeneuve-sur-avignon, 18, 175, 205, 301, 302, 307, 309, 310 villers, adon de, 135 vis de st. gilles, saint-gilles, 276 viterbo, matteo di, 203 white canons, monastery of, tarascon, 287, 295 white penitents, chapel of, les baux, 146 young, arthur, 143, 209, 211, 214 zingaris, 263, 264 footnotes: [1] now sir t. a. cook. [2] now professor okey. [3] i have added others recently bought. [4] according to the tradition held from time immemorial by the churches of provence, st. mary magdalene and st. mary of bethany were one and the same. [5] i have not been able to get a photograph of the gloria, but some of the cherubs are to be seen over the altar of the crucifixion. [6] plutarch. [7] laincel, _la provence_. [8] now provost of eton. [9] i have since procured the accompanying photograph in paris, but something seems to have been lost even in that, besides the fresh colouring. [10] cook, _old provence_. [11] mistral, _mes origines_. [12] mistral, _mes origines_. [13] mistral, _mes origines_. [14] okey, _avignon_. [15] okey, _avignon_. [16] okey, _avignon_. [17] okey, _avignon_. [18] okey, _avignon_. [19] okey, _avignon_. [20] okey, _avignon_. [21] young, _travels in france_. [22] the robust dr. samuel butler, bishop of lichfield, wrote in his diary, in 1822: "i could not contemplate from this spot (the capitol), which commands all the monuments of ancient rome, without feeling very strong sensations; in short i could not refrain from an actual gush of tears." [23] casanova, _mémoires_. [24] okey, _avignon_. [25] baring-gould, _in troubadour land_. [26] cook, _old provence_. [27] cook, _old provence_. [28] cook, _old provence_. [29] james, _a little town in france_. [30] cook, _old provence_. [31] mistral, _mes origines_. [32] mistral, _mes origines_. [33] mistral, _mes origines_. [34] okey, _avignon_. [35] okey, _avignon_. [36] okey, _avignon_. [37] cook, _old provence_. transcriber's note -plain print and punctuation errors fixed. [frontispiece: tower of st. trophimus, arles.] in troubadour-land. a ramble in provence and languedoc. by s. baring-gould, m.a., author of "mehalau," "john herring," "old country life," etc. illustrated by j. e. rogers. "what is this life, if it be not mixed with some delight? and what delight is more pleasing than to see the fashions and manners of unknown places? you know i am no common gadder, nor have oft troubled you with travell."--_tom of reading_, 1600. 1891. preface. with murray, bædeker, guide joanne, and half-a-dozen others--all describing, and describing with exactness, the antiquities and scenery--the writer of a little account of provence and languedoc is driven to give much of personal incident. when he attempts to describe what objects he has seen, he is pulled up by finding all the information he intended to give in murray or in bædeker or joanne. if he was in exuberant spirits at the time, and enjoyed himself vastly, he is unable, or unwilling, to withhold from his readers some of the overflow of his good spirits. that is my apology to the reader. if he reads my little book when his liver is out of order, or in winter fogs and colds--he will call me an ass, and i must bear it. if he is in a cheerful mood himself, then we shall agree very well together. s. baring-gould. lew trenchard, devon, _october 28, 1890._ contents. chapter i. introductory. the tiber in flood--typhoid fever in rome--florence--a jew acquaintance--drinking in provence--buying _bric-à-brac_ with the jew--the _carro_ on easter eve--its real origin--my jew friend's letters--italian _dolce far niente_ chapter ii. the riviera. no ill without a counterbalancing advantage--an industry peculiar to italy--italian honesty--buffalo bill at naples--the prince and the straw-coloured gloves--the riviera--a tapestry--nice--its flowers--notre dame--the château--my gardener--a pension of ugly women--horses and their hats--antibes--meeting of honoré iv. and napoleon--the grimaldis--lérins, an isle of saints--a family jar--healed chapter iii. fréjus. the freedman of pliny--forum julii--the port of agay--the port of fréjus--roman castle--aqueduct--the lantern of augustus--the cathedral--cloisters--boy and dolphin--story told by pliny--the _chains des maures_--désaugiers--dines with the porkbutchers of paris--siéyès--_sans phrase_--agricola--his discoveries chapter iv. marseilles. the three islands phoenice, phila, iturium--marseilles first a phoenician colony--the tariff of fees exacted by the priests of baal--the arrival of the ionians--the legend of protis and gyptis--second colony of ionians--the voyages of pytheas and euthymenes--capture of marseilles by trebonius--position of the greek city--the acropolis--greek inscriptions--the lady who never "jawed" her husband--the tomb of the sailor-boy--hôtel des négociants--ménu--entry of the president of the republic--entry of francis i.--the church of s. vincent--the cathedral--notre dame de la garde--the abbey of s. victor--catacombs--the fable of s. lazarus chapter v. the crau. the basin of berre--a neglected harbour--the diluvium--formation of the crau--the two craus--canal of craponne--climate of the crau--the _bise_ and _mistral_--force of the wind--cypresses--a vision of kobolds chapter vi. les alyscamps. difficulty of finding one's way about in arles--the two inns--the _mistral_--the charm of arles is in the past--a dead city--situation of arles on a nodule of limestone--the elysian fields--a burial-place for the submerged neighbourhood--the alyscamp now in process of destruction--expropriation of ancient tombs--avenue of tombs--old church of s. honoré--s. trophimus--s. virgilius--augustine, apostle of the english, consecrated by him--the flying dutchman--tomb of ælia--of julia tyranna--her musical instruments--monument of calpurnia--her probable story--mathematical _versus_ classic studies--tombs of _utriculares_--christian sarcophagi--probably older than the date usually attributed to them--a french author on the wreckage of the elysian fields chapter vii. pagan arles. the arles race a mixture of greek and gaulish--the colonisation by the romans--the type of beauty in arles--the amphitheatre--a bull-baiting--provençal bull-baits different from spanish bull-fights--the theatre--the ancient greek stage--the destruction of the arles theatre--excavation of the orchestra--discovery of the venus of arles--a sick girl--palace of constantine chapter viii. christian arles. sunday in france--improved observance--the cathedral of arles--west front--interior-tool-marks--a sermon on peace--the cloisters--old sacristan and his garden--number of desecrated churches in arles--notre dame de la majeur--s. cæsaire--the isles near arles--cordes--montmajeur--a gipsy camp--the ruins--tower--the chapel of s. croix chapter ix. les baux. the chain of the alpines--the promontory of les baux--the railway from arles to salon--first sight of les baux--the churches of s. victor, s. claude, and s. andrew--the lords of les baux claimed descent from one of the magi--the fair maid with golden locks--the chapel of the white penitents--the _deïmo_--history of the house of les baux--the barony passes to the grimaldi--the ladies of les baux and the troubadours--fouquet--william de cabestaing--the morality of the loves of the troubadours--the porcelets--story of a siege--les baux a place of refuge for the citizens of arles--_glanum liviæ_--its roman remains--in the train--jäger garments chapter x. the campaign of marius. the trémaïé--representation of c. marius, martha, and julia--the gaïé--the teutons and ambrons and cimbri threaten italy--c. marius sent against them--his camp at s. gabriel--the canal he cut--the barbarians cross the rhone--first brush with them--they defile before him at orgon--the rout of the ambrons at les milles--he follows the teutons--the plain of pourrières--position of marius--the battle--slaughter of the teutons--position of their camp--monument of marius--venus victrix--annual commemoration chapter xi. trets and gardanne. the fortifications of trets--the streets--the church--roman sarcophagus--château of trets--visit to a self-educated archæologist--his collection made on the battle-field--dispute over a pot of burnt bones--one magpie--gardanne--the church--a vielle--trouble with it--story of an executioner's sword chapter xii. aix. dooll, but the mutton good--les bains de sextius--ironwork caps to towers--s. jean de malthe--museum--cathedral--tapestries and tombs--the cloisters--view from s. eutrope--king rené of anjou--his misfortunes--his cheeriness--his statue at aix--introduces the muscat grape chapter xiii. the camargue. formation of the delta of the rhone--the diluvial wash--the alluvium spread over this--the three stages the river pursues--the zone of erosion--the zone of compensation--the zone of deposit--river mouths--estuaries and deltas--the formation of bars--of lagoons--the lagoons of the gulf of lyons--the ancient position of arles between the river and the lagoons--neglect of the lagoons in the middle ages--they become morasses--attempt at remedy--embankments and drains--a mistake made--the camargue now a desert--les saintes maries--no evidence to support the legend--based on a misapprehension chapter xiv. tarascon. position of tarascon and beaucaire opposite each other--church of s. martha--crypt--ancient paintings--catechising--ancient altar--the festival of the tarasque--the phoenician goddess martha--story of s. fronto--discussion at _déjeûner_ over the entry of m. carnot into marseilles--the change in the french character--pessimism--beaucaire--font--castle--siege by raymond vii.--story of aucassin and nicolette chapter xv. nimes. the right spelling of nimes--derivation of name--the fountain--throwing coins into springs--collecting coins--symbol of agrippa--character of agrippa--what he did for nimes--the maison carrée--different idea of worship in the heathen world from what prevails in christendom--s. baudille--vespers--activity of the church in france--behaviour of the clergy in italy to the king and queen--the revolution a blessing to the church in france--church services in italy and in france--the tourmagne--uncertainty as to its use--cathedral of nimes--other churches--a canary lottery--altars to the sun--the sun-wheel--the cross of constantine--anecdote of fléchier chapter xvi. aigues mortes and maguelonne. a dead town--the rhônes-morts--bars--s. louis and the crusades--how s. louis acquired aigues mortes--his canal--the four littoral chains and lagoons--the fortifications--unique for their date--original use of battlements--deserted state of the town--maguelonne--how reached--history of maguelonne--cathedral--the bishops forge saracen coins--second destruction of the place--inscription on door--bernard de treviis--his romance of pierre de provence--provençal poetry not always immoral--present state of maguelonne chapter xvii. béziers and narbonne. position of béziers--s. nazaire--the albigenses--their tenets--albigensian "consolation"--crusade against them--the storming of béziers--massacre--cathedral of béziers--girls' faces in the train--similar faces at narbonne, in cathedral and museum--narbonne a roman colony--all the roman buildings destroyed--caps of liberty--christian sarcophagi--children's toys of baked clay--cathedral unfinished--archiepiscopal palace--unsatisfactory work of m. viollet-le-duc--in trouble with the police--taken for a german spy--my sketch-book gets me off chapter xviii. carcassonne. siege of carcassonne by the crusaders--capture--perfidy of legate--death of the viscount--continuation of the war--churches of new carcassonne--_la cité_--a perfect mediæval fortified town--disappointing--visigoth fortifications--later additions--the cathedral--tomb of simon de montfort chapter xix. avignon. how avignon passed to the popes--the court of clement vi.--john xxii.--benedict xii.--their tombs--petrarch and laura--the palace of the popes--the salle brûlée--cathedral--porch--s. agricole--church of s. pierre--the museum--view from the rocher des doms--the rhone--the bridge--story of s. benezet--dancing on bridges--villeneuve--tomb of innocent vi.--the castle at villeneuve--defences--tête-du-pont of the bridge chapter xx. valence. a dull town--cathedral--jacques cujas--his daughter--pius vi.--his death--maison des têtes--le pendentif--the castle of crussol--the dukes of uzes--a dramatic company of the thirteenth century chapter xxi. vienne. historic associations--salvation army bonnets--the fair--a quack--a vampire--the amphitrite--a _carousel_--temple of augustus and livia--the aiguille--cathedral--angels and musical instruments--s. andré-le-bas--situation of vienne--foundation of the church there--letter of the church on the martyrdoms at lyons chapter xxii. bourges. the siege of avaricum by cæsar--the complete subjugation of gaul--the statue of the dying gaul at rome--beauty of bourges--the cathedral--not completed according to design--defect in height--strict geometrical proportion in design not always satisfactory--necessity of proportion for acoustics--domestic architecture in bourges--the house of jacques coeur--story of his life--a rainy day--why bourges included in this book--a silver thimble--_que de singeries faites-vous là, madeleine?_--adieu appendix list of illustrations. full page illustrations. tower of s. trophimus, arles abbey of s. victor, marseilles part of the north cloister of arles cathedral les baux the pont du gard béziers from the river an entrance to carcassonne the cathedral and the palace of the popes, avignon general illustrations. the carro a florentine torch holder a horse in a hat lérins aqueduct of fréjus lantern of augustus map of massalia musical instruments from the tomb of julia calpurnia's monument an arelaise. (_from a photograph._) part of the amphitheatre of arles back of a house at arles a boat with two rudders at arles on a house at arles samson and the lion, from the west door of the cathedral of arles on a house at arles south entrance to the cloister, arles cathedral church of notre dame de la majeur, arles tower of the desecrated church of s. croix, arles part of the courtyard of the convent of s. cæsarius, arles church of the penitents gris, arles in the cloisters, montmajeur in the cloister at arles les baux range of the alpines from glanum liviæ ruins s. gabriel la trémaïé les gaïé caius marius (_from a bust in the vatican._) orgon and the durance mont victoire and the plain of pourrières sketch plan of the battle-fields monument of marius venus victrix gardanne the vielle les saintes maries early altar, tarascon spire of s. martha's church, tarascon iron door to safe in s. martha's church king rené's castle, tarascon a bit in tarascon the chapel of beaucaire castle beaucaire castle from tarascon.--sunset in the public garden, nimes the maison carrée, nimes cathedral of nimes.--part of west front aigues mortes.--one of the gates aigues mortes.--tower of the bourgignons sketch map of aigues mortes and its littoral chains original use of battlements. (_from viollet-le-duc._) second stage of battlements east end of the church of maguelonne béziers.--church of s. nazaire fountain in the cloister of s. nazaire, béziers types of faces, narbonne: modern--sixteenth-century tomb in cathedral--classic bust in museum freedmen's caps, narbonne children's toys in the museum, narbonne towers on the wall, carcassonne a bit of carcassonne inside the wall, carcassonne papal throne in the cathedral of avignon john xxii. benedict xii. an angle of the papal palace, avignon lantern at the cathedral, avignon angel at west door, church of s. agricole a bit of the old wall, avignon part of church of s. didier, avignon bridge and chapel of s. benezet at villeneuve castle of s. andré, at villeneuve at villeneuve a well at villeneuve cathedral of valence doorway in the house dupré latour, valence doorway and niche in the maison des têtes, valence house in vienne at vienne hurdy-gurdy played by an angel church of s. andré-le-bas.--the tower porte de l'ambulance, vienne a street corner, bourges part of jacques coeur's house turret in the hôtel lallemand staircase in the hôtel lallemand sculpture over the kitchen entrance at jacques coeur's house jacques coeur's knocker chapter i. introductory. the tiber in flood--typhoid fever in rome--florence--a jew acquaintance--drinking in provence--buying _bric-à-brac_ with the jew--the _carro_ on easter eve--its real origin--my jew friend's letters--italian _dolce far niente_. conceive yourself confronted by a pop-gun, some ten feet in diameter, charged with mephitic vapours and plugged with microbes of typhoid fever. conceive your sensations when you were aware that the piston was being driven home. that was my situation in march, 1890, when i got a letter from messrs. allen asking me to go into provence and languedoc, and write them a book thereon. i dodged the microbe, and went. to make myself understood i must explain. i was in rome. for ten days with a sirocco wind the rains had descended, as surely they had never come down since the windows of heaven were opened at the flood. the tiber rose thirty-two feet. now rome is tunnelled under the streets with drains or sewers that carry all the refuse of a great city into the tiber. but, naturally, when the tiber swells high above the crowns of the sewers, they are choked. all the foulness of the great town is held back under the houses and streets, and breeds gases loathsome to the nose and noxious to life. not only so, but a column of water, some twenty to twenty-five feet in height, is acting like the piston of a pop-gun, and is driving all the accumulated gases charged with the germs of typhoid fever into every house which has communication with the sewers. there is no help for it, the poisonous vapours _must_ be forced out of the drains and _must_ be forced into the houses. that is why, with a rise of the tiber, typhoid fever is certain to break out in rome. as i went over ponte s. angelo i was wont to look over the parapet at the opening of the sewer that carried off the dregs of that portion of the city where i was residing. one day i looked for it, and looked in vain. the tiber had swelled and was overflowing its banks, and for a week or fortnight there could be no question, not a sewer in the vast city would be free to do anything else but mischief. i did not go on to the vatican galleries that day. i could not have enjoyed the statues in the braccio nuovo, nor the frescoes in the loggia. i went home, found messrs. allen's letter, packed my gladstone bag, and bolted. i shall never learn who got the microbe destined for me, which i dodged. i went to florence; at the inn where i put up--one genuinely italian, bonciani's,--i made an acquaintance, a german jew, a picture-dealer with a shop in a certain capital, no matter which, editor of a _bric-à-brac_ paper, and a right merry fellow. i introduce him to the reader because he afforded me some information concerning provence. he had a branch establishment--never mind where, but in provence--and he had come to florence to pick up pictures and _bric-à-brac_. our acquaintance began as follows. we sat opposite each other at table in the evening. a large rush-encased flask is set before each guest in a swing carriage, that enables him to pour out his glassful from the big-bellied flask without effort. each flask is labelled variously chianti, asti, pomino, but all the wines have a like substance and flavour, and each is an equally good light dinner-wine. a flask when full costs three francs twenty centimes; and when the guest falls back in his seat, with a smile of satisfaction on his face, and his heart full of good will towards all men, for that he has done his dinner, then the bottle is taken out, weighed, and the guest charged the amount of wine he has consumed. he gets a fresh flask at every meal. "du lieber himmel!" exclaimed my _vis-à-vis_. "i do b'lieve i hev drunk dree francs. take up de flasche and weigh her. tink so?" "i can believe it without weighing the bottle," i replied. "and only four sous--twenty centimes left!" exclaimed the old gentleman, meditatively. "but four sous is four sous. it is de price of mine paper"--brightening in his reflections--"i can but shell one copy more, and i am all right." brightening to greater brilliancy as he turns to me: "will you buy de last number of my paper? she is in my pocket. she is ver' interesting. oh! ver' so. moche information for two pence." "i shall be charmed," i said, and extended twenty centimes across the table. "ach tausend! dass ist herrlich!" and he drew off the last drops of pomino. "now i will tell you vun ding. hev you been in provence?" "provence! why--i am on my way there, now." "den listen to me. ebery peoples hev different ways of doing de same ding. you go into a cabaret dere, and you ask for wine. de patron brings you a bottle, and at de same time looks at de clock and wid a bit of chalk he mark you down your time. you say you will drink at two pence, or dree pence, or four pence. you drink at dat price you have covenanted for one hour, you drink at same price anodder hour, and you sleep--but you pay all de same, wedder you drink or wedder you sleep, two pence, or dree pence, or four pence de hour. it is an old custom. you understand? it is de custom of de country--of la belle provence." "i quite understand that it is to the interest of the taverner to make his customers drunk." "drunk!" repeated my mosaic acquaintance. "i will tell you one ding more, ver' characteristic of de nationalities. a frenchman--_il boit_; a german--_er sauft_; and an englishman--he gets fresh. der you hev de natures of de dree peoples as in a picture. de frenchman, he looks to de moment, and not beyond. _il boit_. de german, he looks to de end. _er sauft_. de englishman, he sits down fresh and intends to get fuddled; but he is a hypocrite. he does not say de truth to hisself nor to nobody, he says, _i will get fresh_, when he means de odder ding. big humbug. you understand?" one morning my jew friend said to me: "do you want to see de, what you call behind-de-scenes of florence? ver' well, you come wid me. i am going after pictures." he had a carriage at the door. i jumped in with him, and we spent the day in driving about the town, visiting palaces and the houses of professional men and tradesmen--of all who were "down on their luck," and wanted to part with art-treasures. here we entered a palace, of roughed stone blocks after the ancient florentine style, where a splendid porter with cocked hat, a silver-headed _bâton_, and gorgeous livery kept guard. up the white marble stairs, into stately halls overladen with gilding, the walls crowded with paintings in cumbrous but resplendent frames. prince so-and-so had got into financial difficulties, and wanted to part with some of his heirlooms. there we entered a mean door in a back street, ascended a dirty stair, and came into a suite of apartments, where a dishevelled woman in a dirty split dressing-gown received us and showed us into her husband's sanctum, crowded with rare old paintings on gold grounds. her good man had been a collector of the early school of art; now he was ill, he could not attend to his business, he might not recover, and whilst he was ill his wife was getting rid of some of his treasures. there we entered the mansion of a widow, who had lost her husband recently, a rich merchant. the heirs were quarrelling over the spoil, and she was in a hurry to make what she could for herself before a valuer came to reckon the worth of the paintings and silver and cabinets. in that day i saw many sides of life. "but how in the world," i asked of my guide, "did you know that all these people were wanting to sell?" "i have my agents ebberywhere," was his reply. i thought of the _diable boiteux_ carrying the student of alcala over the city, madrid, removing the roofs of the houses, and exposing to his view the stories of the lives and miseries of those within. i was at florence on easter eve. a ceremony of a very peculiar character takes place there on that day at noon. in the morning a monstrous black structure on wheels, some twenty-five feet high, is brought into the square before the cathedral by oxen, garlanded with flowers. this erection, the _carro_, is also decorated with flowers, but is likewise covered with fireworks. a rope is then extended from the _carro_ to a pole which is set up in the choir of the duomo, before the high altar. for this purpose the great west doors are thrown open, and the rope extends the whole length of the nave. upon it, close to the pole, is perched a white dove of plaster. crowds assemble both in the square and in the nave of the cathedral. peasants from the countryside come in in bands, and before the hour of noon every vantage place is occupied, and the square and the streets commanding it are filled with a sea of heads. [illustration: the carro.] at half-past eleven, the archbishop, the canons, the choir, go down the nave in procession, and make the circuit of the duomo, then re-enter the cathedral, take their places in the choir, and the mass for easter eve is begun. at the gospel--at the stroke of twelve, a match is applied to a fusee, and instantly the white dove flies along the rope, pouring forth a tail of fire, down the nave, out at the west gates, over the heads of the crowd, reaches the _carro_, ignites a fusee there, turns, and, still propelled by its fiery tail, whizzes along the cord again, till it has reached its perch on the pole in the choir, when the fire goes out and it remains stationary. but in the meantime the match ignited by the dove has communicated with the squibs and crackers attached to the _carro_, and the whole mass of painted wood and flowers is enveloped in fire and smoke, from which issue sheets of flame and loud detonations. meanwhile, mass is being sung composedly within the choir, as though nothing was happening without. the fireworks continue to explode for about a quarter of an hour, and then the great garlanded oxen, white, with huge horns, are reyoked to the _carro_, and it is drawn away. the flight of the dove for its course of about 540 feet is watched by the peasants with breathless attention, for they take its easy or jerky flight as ominous of the weather for the rest of the year and of the prospects of harvest. if the bird sails along without a hitch, then the summer will be fine, but if there be sluggishness of movement, and one halt, then another, the year is sure to be one of storms and late frosts and hail. now what is the origin of this extraordinary custom--a custom that is childish, and yet is so curious that one would hardly wish to see it abolished? several stories are told to explain it, none very satisfactory. according to one, a florentine knight was in the crusading host of godfrey de bouillon, and was the first to climb the walls of jerusalem, and plant thereon the banner of the cross. he at once sent tidings of the recovery of the holy sepulchre back to his native town by a carrier pigeon, and thus the florentines received the glad tidings long before it reached any other city in europe. in token of their gladness at the news, they instituted the ceremony of the white pigeon and the _carro_ on easter eve. [illustration: a florentine torch holder.] another story is to the effect that this florentine entered the city of jerusalem before the first crusade, broke off a large fragment of the holy sepulchre, and carried it to florence. he was pursued by the saracens, but escaped by shoeing his horse with reversed irons. another version is that he resolved to bring back to florence the sacred flame that burnt in the church of the holy sepulchre. accordingly he lighted thereat a torch, and rode back to italy with the torch flaming. but to protect it from the wind, he rode with his face to the tail of his steed, screening the torch with his body. as he thus rode, folk who saw him shouted "pazzi! pazzi!"--fool! fool! and this name was assumed by his family ever after. the pazzis of florence every year paid all the expenses of the _carro_ till quite recently, when the municipality assumed the charge and now defray it from the city chest. clearly the origin of the custom is forgotten; nevertheless it is not difficult to explain the meaning of the ceremony. in the eastern church, and still, in many churches in the west, the lights are extinguished on good friday, and formerly this was the case with all fires, those of the domestic hearth as well as the lamps in church. on easter day, fresh fire was struck with flint and steel by the bishop, and all candles, lamps and hearths were rekindled from this new light. at the present day one of the most solemn scenes in the eastern church is this kindling of the easter fire, and its communication from one to another in a vast congregation assembled to receive it and carry it off to their homes. in the church of the holy sepulchre at jerusalem, the new fire kindled and blessed by the patriarch, is cast down from the height of the dome. in florence, anciently, it was much the same. the archbishop struck the easter fire, and it was then distributed among the people; but there were inconveniences, unseemly scuffles, accidents even, and the dove was devised as a means of conveying the easter fire outside the duomo, and kindling a great bonfire, whereat the people might light their torches without desecrating the sacred building by scrambling and fighting therein for the hallowed flame. at this bonfire all could obtain the fire without inconvenience. by degrees the bonfire lost its significance, so did the dove, and fables were invented to explain the custom. the bonfire, moreover, degenerated into an exhibition of fireworks at mid-day. one morning my jew friend insisted on my reading a letter he had just received from his daughter, aged fourteen. he was proud of the daughter, and highly pleased with the letter. it began thus: "cher papa--nous sommes sauvés. that picture of a genoese lady you bought for 200 francs, and doubted if you would be able to get rid of, i sold before we left home for provence to an american, as a genuine queen elizabeth for 1,000 francs." then followed three closely-written pages of record of business transactions, all showing a balance to the good, all showing a profit nowhere under thirty per cent. finally, the letter concluded: "mamma's back is better. louis and i went on sunday to see a farm. a cow, a stable, an old peasantess saying her rosary, a daughter knitting--all real, not waxwork. votre fille très devouée, leah." "that is a girl to be proud of," said my acquaintance. "and only fourteen! but hein! here is another letter i have received, and it is awkward." he told me that when he had been in london on business he had lodged in the house of a couple who were not on the best of terms. the husband had been a widower with one child, a daughter, and the stepmother could not abide the child. whilst m. cohen, my friend, was there, the quarrels had been many, and he had done his best to smooth matters between the parties. then he had invited them over to visit the continent and stay at his house. they had come, and he had again to exercise the office of mediator. "and now," lamented my good-hearted friend, "nebber one week but i get a letter from de leddy. here is dis, sent on to me. read it." the letter ran as follows:-"do write to me. i fear my last letter cannot have reached you, or you would have answered it. i am miserable. my husband is so cross about that little girl, because i cannot love the nasty little beast. oh, mr. cohen, do come to london, or let me come abroad and live in your house away from my husband and that child. you were so sensible and so kind. i can't bear to be longer here in the house with my husband and the spoiled child." my friend looked disconsolately at me. "what am i to do?" he asked. "she writes ebery week, and i don't answer. and my wife sends on dese letters." "do?" said i. "send this one at once to madame cohen, and ask her to answer it for you. that london lady will never trouble you again." the following circumstance i relate, not that it has the smallest importance except as a characteristic sketch of italian _dolce far niente_, and as a lesson to travellers. the proper study of mankind is man, and a little incident such as occurred to me, and which i will now relate, raises the curtain and shows us a feature of humanity in italy. when i hurried from rome, i sent off all my luggage by goods train to england, except such articles as i could compress into a gladstone bag; a change of raiment of course was there. but mark the cruelty of fate. my foot slipped on a white marble stair, and i rent a certain garment at the knee. i at once dived into my gladstone bag and produced another pair, but found with a shock that they also had suffered--become threadbare, and needed attention from a tailor. what was to be done? i had to leave florence at noon. the discovery was made the night before. i rose early, breakfasted early, and hung about the shop door of a tailor at 8 a.m. till the door was opened, when i entered, stated my case, and the obliging _sartore_ promised that the trifling remedy should be applied and i should have my garment again in one hour. "in one hour!" he said, holding up his hand in solemn asseveration. nine o'clock came; then ten, and my raiment had not returned. i flew to the tailor's shop and asked for my garment. "it was all right," said he, "only the thread being knotted. it should be sent to my inn." so i returned and waited. i had my lunch, paid my bill, packed my bag, looked at my watch. the omnibus was at the door. no garment. i ran to the tailor's. he listened to my tale of distress with an amiable smile on his face, then volunteered to come with me to my inn, and talk the matter over with the host. accordingly he locked up his shop and sauntered with me to bonciani's. bonciani and he considered the circumstances at length, thrashed the subject thoroughly. then, as the horses were being put into the omnibus--"come," said the tailor, "i have a brother, a grocer, we will go to him." "but why?" asked i. "do you see, the boxes are being put on the omnibus. i want my--garment." "you must come with me to my brother's," said the tailor. so to the grocer's went we. vainly did i trust that the journeyman who was engaged on my article of apparel lodged there, and that, done or undone, i could recover it thence. but no--not so. the whole story was related with embellishments to the brother, the grocer, who listened, discussed, commented on, the matter. "there goes the 'bus!" i shouted, looking down the street. "even now, if you will let me have the article, i can run to the station and get off; i have my ticket." "subito! subito!" said the tailor. then the grocer said that the thing in request might be sent by post. "but," i replied, "i am going into france, to nice, and clothes are subjected to burdensome charges if carried across the frontier." "ten minutes!" i gasped. "almost too late." a moment later-"appunto!" "the clock is striking. i am done for." "appunto!" and he lighted a cigarette. so i had to travel by night, instead of by day. chapter ii. the riviera. no ill without a counterbalancing advantage--an industry peculiar to italy--italian honesty--buffalo bill at naples--the prince and the straw-coloured gloves--the riviera--a tapestry--nice--its flowers--notre dame--the château--my gardener--a pension of ugly women--horses and their hats--antibes--meeting of honoré iv. and napoleon--the grimaldis--lérins, an isle of saints--a family jar--healed. that was not all. the dawdling of the tailor not only made me lose the mid-day train, but delayed my arrival in nice for twenty-four hours. i took the night train to pisa, where i purposed catching the express from rome. but the express came slouching along in a hands-in-the-pocket sort of way, and was over half-an-hour late, and would not bestir itself to pick up the misspent, lost moments between pisa and genoa, the consequence of which was that the train for nice had gone on without waiting, and accordingly those who desired to prosecute their journey in that direction were obliged to loiter about in the small hours of the morning between a restaurant, half asleep, and a waiting-room where the electric light had gone out, till the hour of seven. before leaving italy, i may mention an industry which i found cultivated there, original, and i believe unique. when i procured postage stamps at the post-offices, i was surprised, if i took them home with me, to find that their adhesive power had failed. i also received indignant letters from correspondents in england remonstrating with me for posting my communications to them unstamped. this surprised me, and at rome, where i had been accustomed to purchase _franco-bolli_ at the head office, i took them home and regummed them. but the remarkable phenomenon was, that such stamps as were purchased at tobacconists' shops had gum on them--only those acquired at the post-offices were without. i learned that the same peculiarity existed at florence, and indeed elsewhere in italy, and finally the explanation was vouchsafed to me. the functionary at the post-office passes a wet sponge over the back of the sheets of _franco-bolli_ supplied to him, thus removing the adhesive matter. when he sells stamps at the window, he hopes that those who purchase will proceed at once to apply them to their letters, without perceiving their deficiencies. as soon as the stamp becomes dry it falls off, and quite a collection of stamps of sundry values can thus be gathered at every clearing of the box, and the postal clerk reaps thence a daily harvest that goes a long way towards the eking out the small pittance paid him by government. it is interesting to see the directions taken by human enterprise. whilst i was in rome, buffalo bill was in naples exhibiting his troupe of horses and gang of indians. the italian papers informed the public of a remarkable exploit achieved by the neapolitans. they had done buffalo bill out of two thousand francs. it had been effected in this wise. his reserved seats were charged five francs. four hundred forged five-franc notes were passed at the door of his show by well-dressed neapolitans, indeed, the _élite_ of neapolitan society; and the trick played on him was not discovered till too late. now consider what this implies. it implies that some hundreds of the best people, princes, counts, marquesses at naples lent themselves to see buffalo bill's exhibition by a fraud. they wanted to see and be seen there, but not to pay five francs for a seat. there must have been combination, and that among the members of the aristocracy of naples. the italian papers did not mention this in a tone of disgust, but rather in one of surprise that italians should have been able to overreach a yankee. but i do not believe such a fraud would have been perpetrated at rome, florence, or milan. it was considered quite in its place at naples. a lady of my acquaintance was staying in a pension at naples. there resided at the time, in the same pension, a prince--neapolitan, be it understood. one day, just before she left, she brought in a packet of kid gloves she had purchased, among them one pair, straw-coloured. she laid them on the table, went out for two minutes, leaving the prince in the room with the gloves. on her return, the prince and the straw-coloured gloves were gone. she made inquiries of the landlady, who, when told that the prince had been in the room, laughed and said: "but of course he has them. you should never leave anything in the room unguarded where there is a prince." two days after the departure of this lady, the straw-coloured gloves were produced by his highness and presented by him to a young lady whom he admired, then in the same pension. no evil comes without a counterbalancing good. the day i was detained in florence by that tailor, and the loss of the night train at genoa were not immense evils. a furious gale broke over the coast, and when at seven in the morning we steamed out of genoa, the mediterranean was sullen, the rain poured down, and the mountains were enveloped in vapour. but as we proceeded along the coast the weather improved, and before long every cloud was gone, the sky became blue as a gentian, and the oranges flamed in the sunshine as we swept between the orchards. had i gone by the noon train from florence i should have travelled this road by night, had i caught the 3.27 a.m. train i should have seen nothing for storm and cloud. and--what a glorious, what an unrivalled road that is! it was like passing through a gallery hung with rénaissance tapestry, all in freshness of colour. the sea deep blue and green like a peacock's neck, the mountains pale yellow, as shown in tapestry, with blue shadows; the silvery-grey olives, the glossy orange trees with their fruit--exactly as in tapestry. surely the old weavers of those wondrous webs studied this coast and copied it in their looms. i have said that the sea was like a peacock's neck; but it had a brilliancy above even that. as i have mentioned tapestry i may say that it resembled a sort of tapestry that is very rare and costly, of which i have seen a sample in a private collection at frankfort, and another in the palazzo bardini at florence. it consists of the threads being drawn over plates of gold and silver. in the piece at florence the effect of the sun shining through a tree is thus produced by gold leaf under the broidery of tree-leaves. silver leaf is employed for water, with blue silk drawn in lines over it. so with the sea. there seemed to be silver burnished to its greatest polish below, over which the water was drawn as a blue lacquer. and nice. what shall i say of that bright and laughing city--with its shops of flowers, its avenues of trees through which run the streets, its gardens, its pines and cactus and aloe walks? only one blemish can i pick out in nice, and that is a hideous modern gothic church, notre dame, filled with detestable garish glass, so utterly faulty in design, so full of blemish of every sort, that the best wish one could make for the good people of nice is that the next earthquake that visits the riviera may shake this wretched structure to pieces, so as to give them an opportunity of erecting another in its place which is not a monstrosity. the avenue de la gare is planted with the eucalyptus, that has attained a considerable size. it is not a beautiful tree, its leaves are ever on the droop, as though the tree were unhealthy or unhappy, sulky at being transplanted to europe, dissatisfied with the climate, displeased with the soil, discontented with its associates. it struck me as very much like a good number of excellent and very useful souls with whom i am acquainted, who never take a cheerful view of life, are always fault-finding, hole-picking, worry-discovering, eminently good in their place as febrifuges, but not calculated to brighten their neighbourhood. what a delightful walk is that on the cliff of the château! the day i was at nice was the 9th of april. the crags were rich with colour, the cytisus waving its golden hair, the pelargonium blazing scarlet, beds of white stock wafting fragrance, violets scrambling over every soft bank of deep earth exhaling fragrance; roses, not many in flower, but their young leaves in masses of claret-red; wherever a ledge allowed it, there pansies of velvety blue and black and brown had been planted. in a hot sun i climbed the château cliff to where the water, conveyed to the summit, dribbled and dropped, or squirted and splashed, nourishing countless fronds of fern and beds of moss, and many a bog plant. the cedars and umbrella pines in the spring sun exhaled their aromatic breath, and the flowering birch rained down its yellow dust over one from its swaying catkins. i see i have spoken of the cytisus. i may be excused mentioning an anecdote that the sight of this plant provokes in my mind every spring. i had a gardener--a queer, cantankerous creature, who never saw a joke, even when he made one. "please, sir," he said to me with a solemn face, "i've been rearing a lot o' young citizens for you." "have you?" said i, with a sigh. "i fancy i'm rearing a middling lot of them myself." "please, sir," said he to me on another occasion, "that there lumbago be terrible trying to know what to do with it." "oh!" said i with alacrity, "nothing equals hartshorn and oil applied to the small of the back with a flannel. you have a wife--" "yes, sir." he looked at me vacantly. "and yet, it's a beautiful thing." "well--yes, when it attacks one's deadly enemy." "i've cut it down, and trimmed it out, and tied it up," said the gardener. he meant the _plumbago capense!_ that man never would allow that he was beaten. my eldest boy one day held some pansies over the fumes of ammonia, turned them green, and showed them as a _lusus naturæ_ to the gardener. he smiled contemptuously. "them's the colour of biled cabbage," said he; "i grew them verdigris green--beds of 'em, when i was with squire cross." one day he said to me: "the nurserymen call them plants big onias just to sell them, i call them little onias; you shall just see them i grow, them be the true big onias, as large as the palm of your hand." i tumbled, by hazard, at nice into a pension, where i believe i saw at _table d'hôte_ a score of the ugliest women i have ever had the trial of sitting over against in my long career. i found out, in conversation with a porter at the station afterwards, that this pension was notorious for the ugly women who put up there, and it is a joke among the porters when they see one very ill-favoured arrive by the train, that she is going to be an inmate of the hotel ----. the name i will not give, lest any of my fair readers, in that spirit of delightful perversity that characterises the sex, should go there and spoil the credit of the pension. i could not endure the _table d'hôte_ there for many days. an ugly woman is, or may be, restful for the eye when her face is in repose--not when she is chewing tough beef or munching an apple. besides, lent was passed. when i was in rome there appeared in a comic paper at the beginning of lent the picture of a very stout lady, who thus addressed her spouse. "hubby, dear! you haven't kissed me." "can't, love," he replies, "_fat_ is forbidden in lent." ugliness was uncongenial to me in radiantly beautiful nice, and in sparkling easter--so i packed my gladstone bag and went further. the snow still lying on the crests of the maritime alps and the intermediate ranges broken into fantastic forms, the lovely range of red porphyry esterel to the south, with the intensely blue sea drawing a thread of silver about its base, together made a picture of incomparable loveliness. the sun was so hot that the horses had already assumed their summer hats. "a good man is merciful to his beast," and the good-hearted peasants of the riviera and provence, thinking that their horses must suffer from the burning heat of the sun, provide, them with straw hats, very much the same sort of hats as girls wear, adorned also with ribbons and rosettes, but to suit the peculiarity of formation of the horse's head, two holes are cut in the hat through which the ears are drawn. the effect is comical when you are being driven in a carriage with a pair of horses before you wearing straw hats, and their ears protruding, one on each side, like the horns in the helmets of mediæval german knights. one lovely glimpse of the sea i got that i shall never forget. the blue sea was in the background gleaming; against it stood a belt of sombre cypresses; before the cypresses the silvery, smoke-grey tufts of olive, in a grove; and before the olive, in mid-distance, a field of roses in young claret-red foliage--a landscape of belts of colour right marvellous. [illustration: a horse in a hat.] then antibes--a blue bay with castle on one horn, on the other the little town, its lighthouse, and a couple of bold towers. it was at cannes that prince honoré iv. of monaco encountered napoleon in 1815, as he was returning from paris in his carriage to take possession of his principality, that had been restored to him by the treaty of paris in 1814. the grenadiers of the imperial guard stopped his carriage, made the prince descend, and conducted him before a little man with clean-cut features, whom he at once knew as the emperor--returned from elba. "où allez-vous, monaco?" asked napoleon bluntly. "sire," replied honoré iv., "je vais à la découverte de mon royaume." the emperor smiled. "voilà une singulière rencontre, monsieur," said napoleon. "deux majestés sans place; mais ce n'est peut-être pas la peine de vous déranger. avant huit jours je serai à paris, et je me verrai forcé de vous renverser du trône, mon cousin. revenez plutôt avec moi, je vous nommerai sous-préfet de monaco, si vous y tenez beaucoup." "merci de vos bontés, sire," replied the prince in some confusion; "mais je tiendrais encore plus à faire une restauration, ne dut-elle durer que trois jours." "allons! faites la durer trois mois, mon cousin, je vous garderai votre place de chancellier, et vous viendriez me réjoindre aux tuileries." the two monarchs separated after having shaken hands amicably. the story would be spoiled by translation. the grimaldis anciently possessed much more extensive territories than at present. at cagnes, near vence, is their ancient château, now converted into a hospital and barrack, and they owned considerable property, manors and lordships near cannes and vence. we shall meet them again as princes of les baux. the present reigning family are not properly grimaldis. the last representative was a daughter, married to the count of thorigny in 1715, who, on the extinction of the male line in 1731, assumed the name of grimaldi, and succeeded to the principality. [illustration: lérins.] everywhere, for the mere delight of the eye, not from thought of any gain gotten out of it, is the judas tree covered with pink flowers, standing among the cool grey olives. here and there is a mulberry bursting into fresh, green, vivid leaf; in every garden the palms are rustling their leaves in the pleasant air, and are glistening in the sun. out at sea lies the low, dull island of lérins; but, though low and dull, full of interest, as taking the place to provence occupied by iona to scotland and lindisfarne to northumberland, a cradle of christianity, a cradle rocked by the waves. i cannot do better than quote montalembert's words on this topic. "the sailor, the soldier, or the traveller who proceeds from the roadstead of toulon to sail towards italy and the east, passes among two or three islands, rocky and arid, surmounted here and there by a slender cluster of pines. he looks at them with indifference, and avoids them. however, one of these islands has been for the soul, for the mind, for the moral progress of humanity, a centre purer and more fertile than any famous isle of the hellenic archipelago. it is lerins, formerly occupied by a city, which was already ruined in the time of pliny, and where, at the commencement of the fifth century, nothing more was to be seen than a desert coast. in 410, a man landed and remained there; he was called honoratus. descended from a consular race, educated and eloquent, but devoted from his youth to great piety, he desired to be made a monk. his father charged his eldest brother, a gay and impetuous young man, to turn him from his purpose; but, on the contrary, it was he who won over his brother. disciples gathered round them. the face of the isle was changed, the desert became a garden. honoratus, whose fine face is described to us as radiant with a sweet and attractive majesty, opened here an asylum and a school for all such as loved christ." from this school went forth disciples, inspired with the spirit of honoratus, to rule the churches of arles, avignon, lyons, vienne, fréjus, valence, nice, metz, and many others. honoratus himself, taken from his peaceful isle to be elevated to the metropolitan see of arles, had for his successor, as abbot of lerins, and afterwards as bishop of arles, his pupil and kinsman s. hilary, to whom we owe the admirable biography of his master. hilary was celebrated for his graceful eloquence, his unwearied zeal, his tender sympathy with all forms of suffering, his ascendency over a crowd, and by the numerous conversions which he worked. but, indeed lerins was a hive whence swarmed forth the teachers and apostles of southern gaul. hence came the modest vincent of lerins, the first controversialist of his time, who at the head of his greatest work inscribed a touching testimony of his love for that poor little isle where he had spent so many years, and learned so much. salvian, also, the "master of bishops," as he was called, though himself only a priest, was held to be the most eloquent man of his day, only second to s. augustine. s. eucherius of lyons, s. lupus of troyes, who had married the sister of s. hilary, were other prelates trained in this holy isle. when troyes was threatened by attila and his huns, lupus boldly went forth to meet him. "who art thou?" asked the bishop. "i am attila, the scourge of god," was the reply. the intrepid gentleness of the bishop disarmed the ferocious invader. he left troyes without injuring it, and drew back to the rhine. and this isle through lupus claims some regard from a native of britain, for lupus, trained in it, was chosen by the council of arles in 429 to combat the pelagian heresy in great britain, along with s. germanus of auxerre. into the same carriage with me, at nice, got a pair--a young couple; he, with an amiable but weak face; she heavy featured, her only charm her eyes. there had been a breeze between the pair, evidently, before they took their places, and she was sulky. he, poor fool, endeavoured by every means to allay her ruffled temper, always ineffectually. he pulled out his guide joannot, and endeavoured to interest her in the places we passed, their history, their antiquities; in vain, she sat scowling, with pursed lips. he called her attention to the red porphyry cliffs of esterel with purple shadows in their hollows, to the blue bays opening between their red horns--all to no purpose, she would not look out at the window. he produced a box of jujubes, and offered her one between his thumb and forefinger. she refused it, but thrust her fingers into the box and extracted one for herself. then she leaned back in the carriage, drew her hat over her face, and exposed to view only a chin and a mole under it, that moved up and down as she sucked her jujube. next, the feeble, amorous husband, endeavoured to get hold of her hand. she snatched it away vixenishly. hectic spots formed on his cheeks, and perspiration stood in great drops on his brow. this was clearly the first ruffle he had experienced on the hymeneal sea. he got out of the carriage at cannes, and hung about the buffet till the extreme moment, hoping to betray her into tokens of uneasiness lest he should miss the train. as it was, at the final moment he swung himself into another carriage. she thrust her hat a little on one side, protruded an eye to see what became of him, then covered it once more. he got in at the next station, breathless, in pretended agitation. he had nearly lost his place--he was all but left behind. had he been so left, what would she have done? she vouchsafed no reply. tired, however, of looking into the crown of her hat, she now removed it and placed it on her lap. the face was still sullen, with the jowl hanging down, the coarse lips set in defiance, and an ugly flicker in the eyes. now the hectic-cheeked husband became boisterous in merry conversation with other travellers near him, but always with an eye reverting at periods to his wife, whose lips retained a contemptuous curl. then he sulked in his turn, folded his arms, thrust forth his feet under the seat opposite, and looked gloomily into the space between them. thereat she began to hum an air from "la traviata," when suddenly the situation was altered. by some marvellous instinct she discovered that i had been observing the little play; the comedy _à deux_, and had made my comments thereon--not in her favour. instantly the expression of her countenance changed. she turned to her husband. "gustave!" said she, "je souffre," and she laid her head on his shoulder. a flash in his face, full of surprise sliding into ecstasy. he could not understand this sudden change in her disposition, and i am quite sure she never gave him the key. i left the carriage at fréjus, and at parting caught her eye. she laughed, so did i. we understood each other. now, as it happened, at nice, when i was seeking a carriage, i entered one where were a lady and an elderly gentleman. at the first glance i recognised a "milord anglais," the lady was his daughter. at the same moment that i said to myself, "this carriage will never do for me," the lady addressed me, "monsieur! ce voitoore est réservée à noos doox." if i had gone to fréjus with them, i should have missed that little episode of the young married couple and that would have grieved me, and the reconciliation would not have been brought about before marseilles. oh, how grateful i was to fate, that the lady had said, "monsieur! ce voitoore est réservée à noos doox." chapter iii. fréjus. the freedman of pliny--forum julii--the port of agay--the port of fréjus--roman castle--aqueduct--the lantern of augustus--the cathedral--cloisters--boy and dolphin--story told by pliny--the _chaine des maures_--désaugiers--dines with the porkbutchers of paris--siéyès--_sans phrase_--agricola--his discoveries. it was strange. the first person i thought of, on arriving at fréjus, was not julius cæsar the founder of this old port--no, nor agricola, a native of fréjus, who is so associated with british history, especially with scottish--no! it was pliny's sick freedman, about whom that polished orator wrote in his nineteenth letter, in book v. of his collected epistles. pliny was a native of como, he had two villas on the lake. he was a kindly, honourable, somewhat bumptious man--but what great talkers think small matter of themselves? he had a slave, a greek, named zosimus, of whom he writes to his friend paulinus, who had an estate at fréjus: "he is a person of great worth, diligent in his services, and well skilled in literature; but his chief talent is that of a comedian. he pronounces with great judgment, propriety, and gracefulness; he has a very good hand too upon the lyre, and performs with more skill than is necessary for one of his profession. to this i must add, he reads history, oratory, and poetry. he is endeared to me by ties of long affection, now heightened by the danger in which he is." pliny had given zosimus his liberty, but zosimus remained attached to his service as freedman. some years before, this accomplished slave had overstrained his voice, and begun to spit blood. thereupon pliny sent him to egypt, where in the dry air he seemed better, and after a while zosimus returned to his master, apparently completely restored. pliny goes on, in his letter: "having exerted himself again beyond his strength, there was a return of his former malady and a spitting of blood. for this reason, i intend to send him to your farm at forum julii (fréjus), having often heard you mention the exceeding fine air there, and recommend the milk of that place as very salutary in disorders of this nature. i beg you will give directions to your people to receive him into your house, and to supply him with what he shall have occasion for: which will not be much; for he is so temperate as not only to abstain from delicacies, but even to deny himself the necessaries his ill health requires. i shall supply him with all that is needful for his journey. farewell." now, on reaching fréjus on a balmy day in april, when the air was soft as butter-milk, and the sun was hot, not scorching, my thoughts went at once to poor zosimus, with his hacking cough, his delicate complexion, come here to inhale the soft air and drink the warm milk. and i thought of him the more from certain experiences of my own relative to como. i went to that city in january from england, thinking that it lay in a warm nook, and that there i might bask for a few weeks, when recovering from an attack of bronchitis, till i was able to go further south. i went into an hotel where i had stayed in summer and been comfortable; but--oh!--never shall i forget the horrors of that hotel in january! i was the sole person staying in it. there was no bedroom that had in it a stove. in the _salle-à-manger_ the fire was lighted for half-an-hour at nine in the morning, then let out and not rekindled through the day. the fountain in the square was frozen. an icy wind descended from the alps. my bedroom was a tomb; brick-floored, stone vaulted. my bed measured two feet across, and the sheet and crimson _duvet_ were so nicely adjusted as exactly to fit the bed, when unoccupied. when i lay in the bed, that _duvet_ was balanced like a logan stone on the ridge of my body shivering under it, and it oscillated as i shivered. then it slid gently to the floor, and left me with a chill and damp linen sheet over me, the thermometer being below zero, and i--afflicted with a cough. next morning i fled--fled to milan--was stabbed there by the tramontana, fell ill, escaped to genoa, and there recovered. now, perhaps, the reader will understand how it was that naturally, and at once, my mind turned to poor zosimus, as i entered fréjus. his dust is laid there--i doubt not. he had wandered there--some eighteen hundred years ago, and, like me, had inhaled the sweet scent of the flowering beans, looked on the esterel chain glowing as if red-hot in the sunshine, and had entertained, like me, kindly, affectionate thoughts of that somewhat pedantic, conceited, but eminently worthy caius plinius cæcilius secundus. although julius cæsar is said to have formed the port at forum julii, and to have given the place his name, it is probable that there was a settlement there earlier. he, however raised it into consideration by the construction of the harbour. the port is there still, within its moles, and guarded by two castles on heights above it, but--alas for the well being of fréjus, the harbour is filled with sand and soil brought down by the river argens and washed in by the waves, and is now a level meadow, every portion belonging to a farmer cut off from another portion by a ditch, in which spring the rushes and croak the frogs. augustus enlarged the port, and after the decisive battle of actium (b.c. 31) sent thither the galleys captured from anthony. the sea is now two miles distant. the mistake of making ports at the mouths of rivers was one constantly made by the romans. the greeks knew better--marseilles has not been choked. hard by, at agay, is a perfect natural harbour. the red porphyry mountains rise in fantastic shapes above it, and plunge in abrupt crags into the deep blue water. it is a little harbour that calls out "come and rest in me from every wind." now a lighthouse has been erected at the extremity of one of the natural moles of rock, a coastguard establishment crowns the heights, two or three fishermen's cottages nestle in the lap of the bay--that is all. on the south of the port of fréjus is an old castle. there must have existed there originally a nodule of rock, but out of this a platform has been formed artificially of earth gathered from the port, and this platform was converted in roman times into a fort. on one side may be seen a curious contrivance for resisting the outward pressure of the earth heaped up within. the basement wall has not buttresses thrust forth, but consists of a series of semicircular concave depressions in its face. in mediæval times a strong castle with circular towers was erected on the ancient basement, that also is now in ruins, the ledges where the old roman wall ended and the mediæval wall sprang at half the thickness of the former were, when i saw them, dense with white irises. [illustration: aqueduct of fréjus.] fréjus was supplied in roman times with an aqueduct, the arches of which, broken and ruinous, still stretch across the plain, and were destined to convey into the town the waters of the siagnole, from a distance of about fifty miles. the arcade is about forty-five feet high. following a path that leads along the ancient mole one reaches a quadrangular tower of roman masonry with a stone conical roof, which goes by the name of the lantern of augustus, and is supposed to have served as lighthouse at the entrance of the harbour, but the height is too insignificant for this purpose, it is not over thirty-five feet, and there is no indication of any contrivance whereby it could have been utilised for the purpose of a pharos. in the torlonia museum at rome is a bas-relief representing the port of ostia, with its pharos; that is a structure of several stages, each receding as it is superposed on the other, and the topmost sustains the ever-burning fire--quite a different sort of building from this tower at fréjus. [illustration: lantern of augustus.] fréjus is a cathedral city, though numbering only 3,500 inhabitants, but it is an ancient see, dating from about 374, when it was an important maritime place. its fortunes had gone down in the middle ages, and the citizens and prelates were never in a position to build much of a cathedral. the present church is of the eleventh century, both small and plain. it contains little of interest save a fine painting on gold ground of s. margaret and other saints, brought from the ancient monastery of lerins. the organ gallery is supported on granite pillars, classic, found among the ruins of the amphitheatre. the baptistery is surrounded by eight porphyry columns with corinthian capitals taken from a pagan temple. the carved doors of the cathedral deserve to be seen, they are of rich rénaissance work. in the north aisle of the cathedral to the west is the tomb of two bishops of the seventeenth century, bartholomew and peter de camelin, kneeling; and at the east end are two alabaster monuments of bishops three centuries earlier. the cloisters are of the usual provençal type, the arcade resting on double columns, but walls have been erected blocking up the spaces, and the interior yard is turned into the bishop's fowl-house. but--is not that sufficient? i am not writing a guide book; and i enter into these details here solely because the guide books pass over the cathedral very slightingly, and concern themselves chiefly with the roman antiquities. of these latter, besides what i have mentioned, there is the porte dorée, one arcade only of what was formerly a noble portico facing the harbour; also a fine amphitheatre, now traversed by a highway, not however as perfect as those of nimes and arles. fragments also remain of the ancient theatre, but they are unimportant. hard by the hôtel de ville is a beautiful red porphyry figure of a boy and a dolphin which one would have taken to have been rénaissance work, but that the rénaissance artists would hardly have taken the pains to sculpture such intractable material as porphyry for a petty town of the size of fréjus. the group recalls that very odd story told by pliny in one of his letters, which, as it may not be familiar to many of my readers, i will venture here to repeat. he says that the story "was related to him at table by a person of unsuspected veracity." at hippo, in africa, when the boys were playing in the lake that communicates with the sea, and the lads were contending together which could swim furthest, one boy found a dolphin play about him as he swam, and he ventured to climb on the back of the fish. the dolphin was not alarmed, but conveyed the little fellow on his back to the shore. the fame of this remarkable event spread through the town, and crowds came down to the water's edge to see the boy and ask him questions. next day he went into the water again, and once more the dolphin appeared, played round him, and again took him on his back. this happened several times, and the circumstance was bruited throughout the neighbourhood, so that great numbers of people came in from the countryside to see the fish play in the water with the children, and carry them on its back. at last the authorities of the town, annoyed at the concourse of the curious, destroyed the playful dolphin, a bit of barbarity that excites pliny's wrath. to the south-west of fréjus lies the chaine des maures, the outline of which is by no means so bold as that of the porphyry esterel, but the mountains rise in sweeping lines from a broad and fertile plain covered and silvered with olives, growing out of rich red soil, like the old red sandstone of devonshire. the red sandstone rocks through which the line passes are ploughed with rains. on the right appears the wonderfully picturesque little town of la pauline, with an extensive ruined castle, and the walls and towers of the town in tolerable condition. above it rises a stately peak capped with the white limestone that forms the mountains about toulon and marseilles, and having all the appearance of a flake of snow. when we reach the basin between aubaine and camp-major we are surrounded by these barren white ranges, so white that they look as if a miller had shaken his flour-bag over them. but i have not quite done with fréjus yet. i fear the reader will think i have given him a dull chapter of antiquarian and historical detail, so i will here add an anecdote, to spice it, concerning a worthy of fréjus, désaugiers, one of the liveliest of french poets. he was born at fréjus in 1772. one day he was invited to preside at the annual banquet of the pork-butchers. at dessert everyone present was expected to pronounce an epigram or sing a song; and when the turn came to désaugiers, he rose, cleared his throat, looked around with a twinkle in his eye, and thundered forth "des cochons, des cochons." the pork-butchers bridled up, grew red about the cheeks and temples, believing that an insult was intended, when désaugiers proceeded with his song:- "décochons les traits de la satire." siéyès was another native of fréjus, that renegade priest, to whom is attributed the ferocious saying, when called on to give his vote on the condemnation of louis xvi., "la mort--sans phrases." some few years after the directory sent siéyès as ambassador to berlin. he invited a prince of the blood royal of prussia to dine at the embassy with him; but the prince took the invitation and scored across it his answer:-"non--sans phrases." napoleon as national recompense to siéyès for the services he had rendered to france, and to himself personally, gave him the estate of crosne. this gave rise to the epigram- "bonaparte à siéyès a fait présent de crosne, siéyès à bonaparte a fait présent du trône." but after all, it is chiefly as the birthplace of agricola, that true model of a roman soldier of the best description, that fréjus interests us most. his father, julius græcinus, had fallen a victim to caligula, because he refused to undertake the prosecution of a man the emperor was determined to destroy, and there is some reason to suspect that agricola himself was sacrificed to the suspicions and envy of domitian. like most good and honourable men, he had a good mother, whose virtues tacitus records. when agricola was proconsul of britain, his rule was mild, and he took pains to win the confidence of the provincials. he it was who drew a chain of forts from sea to sea between the tyne and solway, to protect the reclaimed subjects of the southern valleys from the untamed barbarians who roved the cheviots and the pentlands. he was not merely a conqueror, but an explorer and discoverer, in scotland. in a.d. 83 he passed beyond the frith and fought a great battle with the caledonians near stirling. the roman entrenchments still remaining in fife and angus were thrown up by him. in 84 he fought another battle on the grampians, and sent his fleet to circumnavigate britain. the roman vessels at all events for the first time entered the pentland frith; examined the orkney islands, and perhaps gained a glimpse of the shetlands. it was interesting to tread the soil where the childhood was passed of a man who left such permanent marks in britain, and to whom we are indebted for our first knowledge of scotland. chapter iv. marseilles. the three islands phoenice, phila, iturium--marseilles first a phoenician colony--the tariff of fees exacted by the priests of baal--the arrival of the ionians--the legend of protis and gyptis--second colony of ionians--the voyages of pytheas and euthymenes--capture of marseilles by trebonius--position of the greek city--the acropolis--greek inscriptions--the lady who never "jawed" her husband--the tomb of the sailor-boy--hôtel des négociants--ménu--entry of the president of the republic--entry of francis i.--the church of s. vincent--the cathedral--notre dame de la garde--the abbey of s. victor--catacombs--the fable of s. lazarus. the traveller approaching marseilles from the sea observes three islets of bare limestone rock that are apparently a prolongation of that rocky promontory now crowned by the fortress of s. nicolas, and that act as a natural breakwater against wave and storm from the s.e. they go by the names of pomègue, ratonneau, and château d'if. but the classic geographers called the group the little stoechades, and named these islets phoenice, phila, and iturium; and these three appellations give us in a compact form the story of ancient marseilles, founded by the phoenicians, refounded by the greeks, and then made a dependency under the roman empire. that marseilles was a phoenician colony before the phoceans settled there is shown by the monuments that have been exhumed from the foundations of the modern houses, and are now collected in the museum. there are some curious images of melkarth and melita, the hercules and venus of these asiatic traders, known also to us through the bible as baal and ashtaroth. but most curious of all is a long phoenician table of charges made by the priests of baal for the various sacrifices and oblations offered by the people. this tariff of charges was found in 1845. it consists of twenty-one lines, and begins:-"the temple of baal.--this is the regulation relative to the dues legally established by italis-baal, the suffete, son of bod-tanith, son of bod-milcarth, and by italis-baal. "for an entire ox, the ordinary sacrifice, the priests are to receive ten shekels. at the sacrifice, in addition, three hundred mishekels of flesh. "item. for the ordinary sacrifice, of cereals and flour of wheat, also the hide, the entrails, and the feet of the victim. all the rest of the flesh goes to the master of the sacrifice." so it continues to regulate the fees for a calf, a ram, a bird; also for cakes, and for offerings made by lepers and by common people. the table of fees is extremely curious and is, i believe, unique. the phoenician colony at marseilles was probably in decline when, in b.c. 599, a greek fleet left the port of phocæa, one of the twelve ionian cities of asia minor, seeking new homes in the west. the colony was under the command of an adventurer named protis. attracted by the bay of marseilles, and the basin surrounded by hills that lay in its lap, the greek colony disembarked. and now for a legend. the first measure taken by the new arrivals was to send a deputation to the king of the segobrigæ, a keltic race occupying what is now called provence. the king was at arles, which was his capital; his name was nannos. by a happy coincidence the embassy arrived on the day upon which nannos had assembled the warriors of his tribe, for his daughter, gyptis, to choose a husband among them. the arrival of the young greek, protis, in the midst of this banquet was a veritable _coup-de-théâtre_; he took his place at the board. his natural grace, his easy and polished manners, the nobleness and elegance of his person and features, contrasted strangely with the savagery and coarseness of the gaulish warriors. free to choose whom she would, gyptis rose from the table, filled a cup, and made the circuit of the board. every eye was fixed on her; he was to be her choice to whom she offered the bowl. she did not hesitate for a moment, she went to the greek stranger and extended it to him. protis put the goblet to his lips, and the alliance was concluded. the example of gyptis was followed by some of her maidens. the gauls agreed to receive the greeks, and suffer them to colonise the basin of marseilles. but the chiefs who had been set aside by the fair gyptis bore a grudge against the new-comers. the growing prosperity and rapid development of the new settlement aroused their jealousy, which was probably augmented by the defection of some of their wives and daughters. profiting by the feast of flora in may, they presented themselves at the gates of marseilles in attendance on some waggons laden with green boughs, under which were their arms concealed. but love, that had founded the ionian colony, was destined to save it. a young gaulish woman revealed the plot to her hellenic lover, and the greeks laid their hands on the arms that were to have been employed against them, turned them against the intrusive gauls, and massacred them to a man. but having thus saved themselves from one danger they felt that they had incurred another. they had provoked the deadly animosity of the whole tribe of the segobrigæ. they therefore appealed to their countrymen in ionia to come to their aid. the appeal met with a ready response, a second fleet of colonists arrived. marseilles was encompassed with walls on the land side, and thus made secure against the assaults of undisciplined barbarians. such is the graceful legend of the origin of marseilles. it is only so far historical that it gives us in poetic and romantic form the main facts, that the first colony settled at marseilles without opposition, that after a while it got embroiled with the gaulish tribes of the neighbourhood, and that a second ionian colony came to strengthen the first. but this second colony arrived b.c. 542, fifty-seven years after the first, and was due to the taking of phocæa by the medes and persians. as a greek mercantile colony marseilles flourished, and sent forth other colonies, that formed settlements along the ligurian coast, as a literal crown from ampurias and rhodé in catalonia to the confines of etruria. free, rich, protected by the roman legions, these greek settlements cultivated the arts and sciences with ardour, as well as carrying on the trade of the mediterranean. in the year b.c. 350 two of her most illustrious citizens, pytheas and euthymenes, explored the northern and southern atlantic. pytheas was charged to make a voyage of discovery towards the north. he coasted spain, portugal, aquitania, brittany, discovered great britain, coasted it, and reached thule, which some have supposed to be iceland, but others the orkney isles. in a second voyage he penetrated the baltic by the cattegat and sound, and reached the mouths of the dwina or the vistula. on his return he composed two works, records of his discoveries, of which precious fragments have been preserved by pliny and strabo. thanks to his labours, marseilles was the first town whose latitude was determined with some precision. about the same time, euthymenes was commissioned to make explorations in the opposite direction. he sailed south-west, traced the western coast of africa, and penetrated the mouths of the senegal, whence he brought back gold dust. marseilles was taken, b.c. 49, by trebonius, the lieutenant of julius cæsar. two naval battles ruined her fleet; and, but for the clemency of cæsar, the doom of the city would have been sealed. she had enthusiastically taken the part of pompey, and had resisted cæsar with unusual determination. but he appreciated the importance of the colony and the mercantile energy of her inhabitants, and he did not lay his hand in retribution too severely upon her. [illustration: ancient massilia.] the old greek city of massilia occupied the promontory which is still old marseilles, clustered on the butte st. laurent and butte des moulins, where was the acropolis, with the temples of apollo and diana, and the butte des cannes. the harbour was the natural fiord, which is now the vieux port; and the modern splendid street canebière runs along the site of the old shipbuilding-docks of the greeks. here was found a few years ago an ancient galley with keel and ribs of cedar, and coins in her of the date of julius cæsar. she is now in the museum. to the south of the old port was a marsh; the rectangular canal and the bassin du carénage mark the position of this marsh, now built over--a marsh that reached to the base of the limestone hills that rise to the peak now occupied by notre dame de la garde. the old greek walls of massilia ran in a sweep along where is now the boulevard des dames, rue d'aix, and reached the vieux port at the bourse. considering the importance of the greek city, its wealth and splendour, it is surprising to find nowhere in marseilles any ruins of its ancient founders. but marseilles has traversed every historic period, in the midst of storm; and after a voyage of three thousand years through history, she has been plundered of every fragment of her ancient treasures. in rome the colosseum and the tomb of augustus were robbed of their materials for the construction of houses; and in marseilles every stone of her ancient temples and acropolis have been appropriated for baser purposes. she has passed through twenty fires, and as many sieges. taken, sacked, decimated, she has been rebuilt over and over again, always hurriedly, consequently always with material taken where nearest at hand, without respect for her monuments and historic recollections. the disturbed soil of marseilles is not even a heap of ruins, for every stone found in the soil has been utilised as material for construction. nevertheless some traces of the greek founders remain in the beautiful coins of the colony, and in inscriptions that have been picked out of the walls or foundations of mediæval houses. the coins, stamped with classic beauty, are well-known to numismatists. we have space to notice only one or two inscriptions. one is the sign of athenades, son of dioscorides, professor of latin grammar, probably set up two thousand years ago over his door; another is a notice of a young lad, cleudemos, son of dionysius, having gained a prize. a curious greek inscription is found at carpentras, a colony from marseilles, that illustrates the manner in which foreign religions got mixed up with those that were proper to the greeks. "blessed be thebe, daughter of thelhui, laden with oblations for the god osiris--she never jawed her husband--she was blameless in the eyes of osiris, and receives his benediction." truly such a wife deserved that her conduct towards her husband should be commemorated through ages upon ages, and we may thank good fortune that it has preserved to us the name of this incomparable lady. as i am on the subject of greek inscriptions, i may quote the following touching one, that has been found built into the wall of a house at aix. "on the banks, beaten by the waves, a youth appeals to thee, voyager! i, beloved by god, am no more subject to the domination of death. i passed my life sailing on the sea, myself a sailor, like to the youthful gods, the amyclæans, saviours of sailors, free from the yoke of matrimony. here in my tomb, which i owe to the piety of my masters, i rest sheltered from all maladies, free from toil, from cares, from pains; whereas in life, all these woes fall on our gross envelopes of matter. the dead, on the other hand, are divided into two classes, of which one returns to the earth, whereas the other rises to join the dance with the celestial choirs; and it is to this latter class that i belong, having had the good fortune to range myself under the banners of the divinity." clearly this was the tomb of a young sailor-boy, a native of aix, who had served in a merchant vessel of marseilles. there is something graceful and pathetic in the monument. but enough of the past. now for the present, and in considering the present let us attend to that which feeds and builds up that gross envelope of matter the young greek sailor had laid aside. at marseilles i put up at the hôtel des négociants, in the cours belzunce. let me observe that i do not see the fun of going to hotels of the first class. not only is one's expense doubled, but one is thrown among english and american travellers, and sees nothing whatever of the people in whose country one is travelling. now, here in this commercial inn, i had for dinner the following dishes, which i am quite sure i should not have had in the grand hôtel de noailles, where a dinner is six francs, whereas at my inn i paid just half. i must also observe that the dinners were abundant and excellent, but among the dishes were some that were peculiar to the provençal cuisine, for instance:-bread slices sopped in saffron, with fish, garnished with small crabs, to be chewed up, shell and all. artichokes, raw, with oil and vinegar. oranges with pepper and salt. on the table were glass jugs with tar-water, and i observed that over half those present drank their wine diluted with this tar-water. one day in summer i was at table-d'hôte in france when i saw a very fine melon on the table. said i, in my heart of hearts, "i'll have some of you by-and-by!" but, to my consternation, the melon was taken round with stewed conger eel, and eaten with salt and pepper. i could not summon up courage to try the mixture, and the whole melon was consumed before the next course came on. i was at marseilles when m. carnot, the president of the republic visited it, april 16th. great efforts were made to give him a splendid reception. venetian masts were set up, strings of fairy lamps were suspended between them, and tricolours were hung as banners to the masts, or grouped together in trophies. but alas! no sooner were all preparations made, than a furious gale broke over the coast, the venetian masts swayed in the wind and were upset or thrown out of the perpendicular, the little lamps jingled against each other and were broken, such as were not shivered were filled with rain, the banners were lashed with the broken wires and torn to shreds, and when m. carnot arrived, in a pouring rain, it was amidst a very wreckage of festival preparations, and he was received by a crowd of umbrellas. under such circumstances enthusiasm was damped and ejaculations of welcome were muffled. the president occupied an open landau, and drove along the boulevards without umbrella or waterproof, bowing to right and left in a slashing rain. a deputation of flower women presented him with a sodden bouquet, by the hand of a dripping little girl in white that clung to her as a bathing gown. the president insisted on the maid being lifted to him into the carriage, where he hugged and kissed her, whilst the moisture ran out of her garments like a squeezed sponge, and this demonstration provoked some damp cheers. i bought henri rochefort's paper next day, to see what his correspondent had to say about the visit. some passages from it are too racy not to be quoted. "il faisait un temps à ne pas mettre un ministre dehors, lorsque le train présidentiel est arrivé en gare, et le défilé à la détrempe était pitieux à voir dans _le gargouillement et la transsudation de ce dégorgement cataractal_. sadi carnot avait donné l'ordre de laisser son landau découvert, afin de recevoir les ovations enthousiastes des parapluies. "bref, la présidence est arrivée à la préfecture _trempée comme une soupe à l'oignon et fortement dessalée_." verily there is no tongue like the french for saying nasty things in a nasty way. i do not know whether it is fair for one to pass an opinion on a man from a sight of his face overrun with rain-water, and with his nose acting like a shoot from a roof; but certainly the impression produced on me by m. sadi carnot was that his features were wooden, and that he was but a very ordinary man--intellectually. i pass this opinion with hesitation. when dried possibly the sparks of genius may be discovered and may flare up; they were all but extinguished in the downpour when i saw him. that cheerful king, réné of anjou and provence, paid a visit to marseilles in 1437, and made his royal entry on sunday, december 15th. he was delighted with the reception accorded him, and in a gush of kindly feeling promised to make marseilles his headquarters. but he forgot his promise, or circumstances were against his keeping it. he never revisited marseilles. on january 22, 1516, francis i. entered the town and was received by children carrying banners and garlands, and troupes of young girls in white, then followed archers, arquebusiers, the consuls, and the clergy bearing the relics of s. lazarus and s. victor. a theatre was erected at every street corner, on which were presented to his sight incidents from the life of s. louis. the procession ended with a battle of oranges and lemons, in which the king gave and received a good many blows on the head with the golden fruit. at the head of the allées des capucins, a fine street planted with trees and with a handsome fountain in the place where the allées de meilhan unites with it, is a really fine modern gothic church with twin west spires of open tracery. they are perhaps too thin, a usual fault with modern work, but otherwise the church is very good and stately. it is as fine within as without, but sorely disfigured by the coloured glass, which is garish. french painted glass is very bad. it is precisely the sort of stuff that was turned out by english glass-painters about thirty years ago, the colours crude and distressing to the eye--windows that our more cultured taste cannot now endure. but the french artists have not advanced, the windows put in to-day are as detestable as those they put in at the beginning of the revival. unfortunately, every cathedral is crowded through the length and breadth of france with this abominable stuff, that is only tolerable in a modern tasteless church, vulgar in its architecture and insipid in its sculpture, but is painfully out of place in a venerable minster. the city of marseilles has been lucky in securing a good architect for the church of s. vincent de paul, but in another architectural venture marseilles has been unfortunate. she was resolved to have a cathedral, and she gave the designing of it to a man void of taste, who has built a hideous erection on the quay in what he is pleased to call byzantine style. i am quite sure any byzantine architect would cheerfully have jumped into the bosphorus rather than disfigure a city with such a structure as notre dame. the germans have a saying that the higher a monkey climbs the more he exposes his monkeyishness; and unfortunately this architect has been allowed to climb very high. he was given the peak of notre dame de la garde, that towers over marseilles, on which to erect a church. the site is exceptionally good, one on which a man of ordinary genius would have done something, could hardly have failed to have done something, that would have been picturesque. but such is the perversity of this unfortunate man's talent that he has erected a structure on the limestone crag, of almost miraculous hideousness. it is also in so-called byzantine architecture. there is a dish-cover which serves as a dome, and a tower which would be comical if it were not irritating. it resembles the handle of a renaissance knife or fork stuck into a sheath and standing upright with a figure at top. we have made a blunder at south kensington in setting side by side a depressed dome--the albert hall, and the acute pinnacle of the albert memorial; but a road runs between them, and it is possible to shut one eye and see one of these two structures apart from the other. but in notre dame de la garde the two are combined in one building, and tease the eye from every point in marseilles. [illustration: abbey of s. victor, marseilles] i ascended the steep crag to the church and found it full of a devout congregation. the service was the "salut," and the host was being elevated to the strains of "the last rose of summer," on the hautbois stop of the organ. the view from the platform of the church, of marseilles, the coast, the blue mediterranean and the islands is beautiful. below notre dame de la garde, and above the old port, stands the ancient abbey of s. victor; this abbey, of which the church alone remains, occupies a site where the successive generations of massaliots buried their dead from the earliest pagan times, and here the first christians formed catacombs of which some traces remain under the church, subterranean passages bearing some resemblance to those in the outskirts of rome. the abbey itself was founded by cassian, in the fourth century, over these galleries containing the bones of the first christians, but his monastery was wrecked by the saracens four hundred years later, and it was rebuilt in the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. what remains of this famous abbey of s. victor has rather the appearance of a fortress than a church; the walls and ramparts date from 1350, and were the work of william de grimoard, who was prior of the monastery before he was elevated to be pope under the title of urban v. the heavy, clumsy pile is a type of the architecture, at once military and ecclesiastical, that characterises most of the churches along the coast. externally the venerable church is devoid of beauty. no attempt at decoration has been made. it seems a shapeless pile of towers and machicolated and battlemented curtains, falling into almost complete ruin. but on passing through the single entrance, one finds oneself in a well-proportioned church of nave and side aisles, a south chapel, and an apse. each buttress of the apse is battlemented outside and forms a turret, and two strong towers are adapted internally to serve as a transept and a porch. marseilles claims to have had as its first apostle lazarus, whom christ raised from the dead. the foundation of this myth is that in the fourth century it perhaps had a prelate of the name of lazarus, though the earliest known bishop was orestius, a.d. 314. the fact is that the existence of s. lazarus at marseilles was unsuspected till the eleventh century. when cassian founded his abbey he dedicated it to s. victor. if he had known anything about lazarus, almost certainly he would have dedicated the church to him; he erected moreover, two other chapels, one to ss. peter and paul, the other to the blessed virgin and s. john the baptist. when, in 1010, benedict ix. enumerates the glories of the abbey restored after the destruction by the saracens, he does not make the most transient allusion to s. lazarus. however, benedict ix., in 1040, does mention the passion of this lazarus raised from the dead by christ, as one of the causes why the abbey was venerable. his relics were said to have been transported thence to athens, to preserve them from the saracens. we shall learn more about this fable when we come to the camargue. chapter v. the crau. the basin of berre--a neglected harbour--the diluvium--formation of the crau--the two craus--canal of craponne--climate of the crau--the bise and mistral--force of the wind--cypresses--a vision of kobolds. on leaving marseilles by train for arles, the line cuts through the limestone ridge of the estaque, and the traveller passes from the basin of marseilles into the much more extensive basin of berre, surrounded by hills on all sides, a wide bowl like a volcanic crater, with the great inland salt lake of the etang de berre occupying its depths. this is a great natural harbour, seven times the size of the port of toulon, and varying in depth from 28 to 32 feet; it is perfectly sheltered from every wind, and entire fleets might anchor there in security, not only out of reach, but out of sight of an enemy, for the chain of l'estaque intervenes between it and the sea. it would seem as though nature herself had designed berre as a safe harbour for the merchant vessels that visit the south coast of france. it is almost inconceivable how this sheet of water, communicating with the sea by the channel of martignes, can have been neglected; how it is that its still blue waters are not crowded with ships, and its smiling shores not studded with a chain of industrial and populous towns. "the neglect of this little inland sea as a port of refuge," says m. elisée reclus, "is an economic scandal. whilst on dangerous coasts harbours are constructed at vast expense, here we have one that is perfect, and which has been neglected for fifteen centuries." but though the romans or greeks had a station here, they did not utilise the lagoon. at s. chamas are remains of the masters of the ancient world, but no evidence that they had there a naval station. the line cuts again through the lip of the basin, and we are in the crau. at a remote period, but, nevertheless, in one geologically modern, the vast floods of the diluvial age that flowed from the alps brought down incredible quantities of rolled stones, the detritus of the alps. this filled up a great bay now occupied by the mouths of the rhone, and spread in a triangle from avignon as the apex, to cette in the west, and fos in the east. this rubble, washed down from the alps, forms the substratum of the immense plain that inclines at a very slight angle into the mediterranean, and extends for a considerable distance below the sea. not only did the rhone bring down these boulders, but also the durance, which enters the rhone above arles, and formed between the chain of les alpines and the luberon another triangular plain of rolled stones, with the apex at cavaillon and the base between tarascon and avignon. but the durance did more. there is a break in the chain on the south, between the limestone alpines and the sandstone trévaresse; and the brimming durance, unable to discharge all her water, choked with rubble, into the rhone, burst through the open door or natural waste-pipe, by salon, and carried a portion of her pebbles into the sea directly, without asking her sister the rhone to help her. now the two great plains formed by the delta of the rhone, and that of the durance into the rhone, are called the great and little craus. they were known to the ancients, and puzzled them not a little. strabo says of the great crau: "between marseilles and the mouth of the rhone, at about a hundred stadia from the sea, is a plain, circular in form, and a hundred stadia in diameter, to which a singular event obtained for it the name of the field of pebbles. it is, in fact, covered with pebbles, as big as the fist, among which grows some grass in sufficient abundance to pasture herds of oxen." then we are given the legend that accounts for it. here hercules fought against the ligurians, when the son of jove, having exhausted his arrows, was supplied with artillery by a discharge of stones from the sky, showered on his enemies by jupiter. this desert, a little sahara in europe, occupies 30,000 acres. "it is composed entirely of shingle," says arthur young, "being so uniform a mass of round stones, some to the size of a man's head, but of all sizes less, that the newly thrown up shingle of a seashore is hardly less free from soil; beneath these surface-stones is not so much a sand as a cemented rubble, with a small admixture of loam. vegetation is rare and miserable, some of the absinthium and lavender so low and poor as scarcely to be recognised, and two or three miserable grasses, with _centaurea calycitropes_ and _solstitialis_, were the principal plants i could find." a mineralogical examination of the rolled stones presents peculiar interest. in the little crau, the mouth of the durance, are found prodigious numbers of green and crystalline rocks, granite and variolite brought down from the alps of briançon, but nine-tenths of the pebbles of the great crau are white quartz brought from the great chain of the alps, together with mica-slate and calcareous stones, and only a few of the variolites of mont genèvre. one may say that the great crau is a complete mineralogical collection of all the rocks that form the chain of the alps, whence flow the rhone and its tributaries. the aspect of the crau is infinitely desolate, but it is no longer as barren as it was formerly. it is in fact, undergoing gradual but sure transformation. this is due to a gentleman of provence, named adam de craponne, born in 1525 at salon, who conceived the idea of bringing some of the waters of the durance through the gap where some of its overspill had flowed in the diluvial epoch, by a canal, into the great crau, so that it might deposit its rich alluvium over this desert of stones. he spent his life and his entire fortune in carrying out his scheme, and it is due to this that year by year the barren desert shrinks, and cultivation advances. there are to-day other canals, those of les alpines, of langlade, and d'istres, besides that of craponne that assist in fertilising the waste. wherever the water reaches, the soil is covered with trees, with pasture-land, with fields of corn; and in another century probably the sterility of the crau will have been completely conquered. in its present condition, the crau may be divided into two parts, that which is watered, and which has been converted into a garden, and that which is not as yet reached by the rich loamy waters of the durance, and is therefore parched and desolate, overrun by herds of sheep and cattle, driven down in winter from the alps, when a certain amount of herbage is found on the desert, which in summer is utterly dry and barren. these migrations date back to a remote epoch, for they are mentioned by pliny. previous to the construction of the canal by craponne, who began it in 1554, the desert reached to arles; the whole of the plain south of the chain of the alpines was either marsh lagoon, or a waste of stones, where now grow and luxuriate mulberries, olives, almond trees and vines. the canal of craponne was carried by the originator for thirty-three miles, sending out branches at salon, eyguières, and elsewhere. in winter the meadows are green as those of devon in spring, and the fields yield heavy crops. indeed, the durance acts to this region in the same way as does the nile to egypt. "the meadows i viewed," says young, "are among the most extraordinary spectacles the world can afford in respect to the amazing contrast between the soil in its natural and in its watered state, covered richly and luxuriantly with clover, chicory, rib-grass, and _avena elatior_." the climate of the crau presents contrasts most extreme. in winter the thermometer falls and remains below zero for many nights in succession, and the glacial _bise_ sweeps over the face of the desert, curdling the blood; the flocks and herds seek shelter from this blast behind the long walls of dry stones, which sometimes the violence of the wind throws down upon them. during the summer the phenomenon of the mirage is almost continuous. the bed of air in contact with the surface of stones scorched by the blazing sun becomes rarified and dilated, so that the horizon appears to be fringed on all sides with lakes of rippling water, most deceptive and tantalising to the eye of the traveller. the troops of wandering bulls and wild horses, flights of rose-coloured flamingoes, of partridges and wild ducks give this region a pronounced oriental physiognomy, and however painful it may be at such a time to traverse this burning plain, it affords a curious picture of the sahara in miniature nowhere else to be seen in europe. the great scourge of the crau is the north-west wind, the _bise_, the black boreas of the ancients, so violent as to roll over the pebbles, and to blow away the roofs of houses, and tear up trees by the roots. in fact, the crau may be regarded as the home of the winds. it is easy to explain the origin of these furious gales, _bise_ and _mistral_. the low sandy regions at the mouth of the rhone, denuded of all vegetation, and the great stony plain of the crau, heated by the direct rays of the sun, rarify the air over the surface of the soil, and this rises, to be at once replaced by the cold air from the alps and cevennes; the air off the snow pours down with headlong violence to occupy the vacuum formed by the heated ascending column of air off the plain, sweeping the valley of the rhone, and reaching its maximum of intensity between avignon and the sea, where it meets, and is blunted in its force by the equable atmosphere that covers the surface of the mediterranean. the violence of the wind is consequently due to the difference of temperature between the hot air of the plain and the cold air of the mountain. an old saying was to this effect:- "parlement, mistral et durance sont les trois fléaux de provence." parlement exists no longer, or rather is expanded into a national assembly that is a discredit to all france, and not provence alone; the durance has become, thanks to adam de craponne, an agent of fertilisation and wealth. but the _mistral_ (_magistral_, the master-wind) remains, and still scourges the delta of the rhone. in 1845 it carried away the suspension bridge between beaucaire and tarascon; the passage of the rhone is often rendered impossible for days, through its violence. it has been found necessary to plant rows of cypress on each side of the line that crosses the crau, to break the force of the wind upon the trains. indeed, throughout the district, the fields will, in many places, be found walled up on all sides by plantations of cypresses from thirty to fifty feet high, as screens against this terrible blast, to protect the crops from being literally blown out of the ground. when i was a child of five years my father's carriage with post horses was crossing the crau. it was in summer. i sat on the box with my father and looked at the postilions. presently i saw a number of little figures of men with peaked caps running about the horses and making attempts to scramble up them. i said something about what i saw, whereupon my father stopped the carriage and put me inside with my mother. the heat of the sun on my head, he concluded, had produced these illusions. for some time i continued to see these dwarfs running among the pebbles of the crau, jumping over tufts of grass, or careering along the road by the carriage side, making faces at me. but gradually their number decreased, and i failed finally to see any more. one june day in the year 1884, one of my boys, then aged eight, was picking gooseberries in the fruit garden at home, when, standing between the bushes, he saw a little man of his own height, with a brown peaked cap, a red jacket, and green breeches. he had black hair and whiskers and beard. he looked angrily at the boy and said something. the child was frightened, ran indoors and told his elder brother and sister. they brought him to me, and his elder brother repeated the story, but purposely varied the description of the apparition, so as to see whether the lad held to the same account, but the child at once corrected him, and told me his story, which his brother informed me agreed exactly with what in his alarm, he had first told. the little boy was looking white, and frightened. again a case of sun on the head. now for another. a lady whom i know very well indeed, and who never deviated from the truth in her life--save when she swore at the altar to honour and obey me--was walking one day, when a girl of thirteen, beside a quickset hedge; her brother was on the other side. i believe they were looking for birds' nests. all at once she saw a little man dressed entirely in green, with jacket, breeches, and high peaked hat, seated in the hedge, staring at her. she was paralysed with terror for a moment, then recovering herself, she called to her brother to come round and see the little green man. when he arrived the dwarf had disappeared. now these are funny stories, and are to be explained by the fact that the sun was hot on the head. but it does not strike me that the explanation is wholly satisfactory. _why_ should the sun on the head superinduce visions of kobolds? is it because other people have suffered from a hot sun, and that the hot sun reproduces year after year the same phenomenon, that the fable of little men, pixies, gnomes, brownies, fairies, leprechauns is to be found everywhere? or--is it possible that there is such a little creation only visible to man when he is subject to certain influences? sir charles isham, of lamport, has collected a good deal of evidence of a similar nature. i do not venture to express an opinion one way or another. i can remember still, with vividness, the impression produced on me by what i saw that hot day on the crau, when but a child of five years; but i cannot for the life of me explain it satisfactorily to myself. chapter vi. les alyscamps. difficulty of finding one's way about in arles--the two inns--the _mistral_--the charm of arles is in the past--a dead city--situation of arles on a nodule of limestone--the elysian fields--a burial-place for the submerged neighbourhood--the alyscamp now in process of destruction--expropriation of ancient tombs--avenue of tombs--old church of s. honoré--s. trophimus--s. virgilius--augustine, apostle of the english, consecrated by him--the flying dutchman--tomb of ælia--of julia tyranna--her musical instruments--monument of calpurnia--her probable story--mathematical _versus_ classic studies--tombs of _utriculares_--christian sarcophagi--probably older than the date usually attributed to them--a french author on the wreckage of the elysian fields. i do not know a more perplexing place anywhere to find one's way in and out of than arles. during a fortnight spent there i never could hit my inn aright once on coming from the railway station. the place is like a labyrinth; but one of those labyrinths that our forefathers delighted to construct of pleached alleys of box or lime were always to be traversed when you possessed the key. there is no key, no principle whatever upon which arles has been built. every public edifice seems to be dodging round the corner, like chevy slyme, hiding from some other public edifice with which it is on dubious terms, or not quite on social equality, and wishes to avoid the difficulties of an encounter. arles streets are about the worst paved in europe. they are floored with the cobble-stones rolled down by the diluvium, and torture the feet that walk over them and rick the ankles. there are two melancholy inns in the place du forum, and it is hard to choose between them, probably it does not much matter. i was given a bed-chamber in one where neither the door nor the window would shut, and where there were besides two locked doors that did not fit, and as the _mistral_ was blowing, my hours in that room were spent in a swirl of draughts. moreover, an old party with bronchitis was in the adjoining room, also suffering from the draughts, and in despair of recovering his health in such a situation. i complained, and was given another room where the draughts were the same, but i was without my coughing and hawking neighbour. no wonder that i was charged half a franc per night for my candle. it guttered itself in no time into the tray of the candlestick, as it was blown upon from four distinct directions simultaneously. arles--when not in a _mistral_--is charming, but the charm is in the past. there one must be a _laudator temporis acti_, for the present is wholly wretched and bad. the fact is, arles had a glorious past, from which it has been falling throughout the middle ages till it reached a point approaching extinction, and it has not as yet realised that better days are shining before it, and that there is a future to which it may look up. so depressed did arles become some time ago, that its only lively trade was in old coffins. it had a vast cemetery outside its walls, crammed with memorials of the dead of all ages; and as the curators of the museums of paris, marseilles, avignon, aix, &c., thirsted after sarcophagi, the mournful arelois went to their necropolis, dug up as many as were wanted, and forwarded coffins to those who had made requisition for them. arles is planted upon a nodule of limestone rock that rises out of the diluvium of rolled stones. in former times it was almost the sole dry spot to be found for miles round, and as the dead of pagan and christian times alike seem to have objected to wet beds, their bodies were transported from all the country round to the plateau east of arles and there entombed. this plateau was called the elysian fields, now alyscamp, and is so thick with tombs that you walk over them as you follow the road that runs along the plateau. you see the grass at the side dead in one place, there is a tomb there; you see a bit of white marble cropping up in another, that is a tomb. you see a great stack of stones heaped up by the side of a railway cutting, they are all tombs. you look at the cutting itself, and see that to a certain depth it is honeycombed with tombs, some cut through, some sticking out. in every farmyard the pigs eat out of old sarcophagi. the fountains squirt into them, the bacon is cured in them. the farrier dips his hot iron into a sarcophagus. in the churches the altars are made of them. the foundations of the houses are laid in them. the very air seems to be pervaded with the dust of the dead, and this dust lies heavy on the spirits and energies of the inhabitants. but what an age we live in! utilitarian and disrespectful of the past! the other day a cargo of mummied cat-deities arrived at liverpool and was sold for manure. at arles, the paris, lyons and mediterranean railway company has bought up the elysian fields to convert them into a factory for their engines. the company are excavating les alyscamp for this purpose, throwing about the sarcophagi, pagan or christian, or using them for building materials--and sawn in half they make decent quoins for a brickshed--and strewing the dust of the dead of ages under the wheels of the locomotives. one undesecrated, unrifled headland remains above the factories, on which is a venerable but abandoned church. the company would grub that up too, but the proprietor will not sell, as he believes the tradition that an incalculable treasure is hidden somewhere among these tombs. but the arelois not only expropriate the tombs of their forefathers, they have given away or sold other things as well. on the alyscamp is the venerable church of s. honoré, half ruinous, in which, underground in the crypt is the ancient baptistery that had served the first christians when the church was young. it was furnished with a large porphyry circular vessel for immersing adults. louis xiv. saw it, coveted it for some water-works, and got the arelois to give it him. among the ruins of the theatre was found a venus of greek workmanship and of parian marble. they sent it away also; it is in paris. the old church of s. honoré is now reached by a long avenue of poplars lined with pagan roman tombs. the nave of the church is in ruins, but the choir is in tolerable condition, and is the most interesting portion. it consists in fact of an early romanesque basilica with three aisles ending in three apses. the pillars separating nave from aisles, three on each side, are great drums ten feet in diameter. the later, ruinous nave contains the reputed chapel of s. trophimus, apostle of arles. when the fourteenth century church was added, this little chapel was left standing within, and though now crumbling, it is comparatively watertight. it has, however, undergone recasing in renaissance times, and to understand its structure the chapel must be entered. it is then seen to have been an open porch of four semicircular arches, and may possibly have been erected over the tomb of s. trophimus. the only ornament about it is a moulding, which may give its date. s. trophimus, reputed apostle of aix, is now said to have been that asiatic who was a companion of s. paul mentioned in acts xx. 4, xxi. 27-29, and 2 tim. iv. 12, 20. but the very early diptychs of the church of arles mention s. dionysius as the first prelate, and the cathedral was built in 625 by s. virgilius, and dedicated to s. stephen. it did not take the title of s. trophimus till the twelfth century, when the relics of this saint were brought to it from the little chapel just described. the exact date was 1152; the tradition of s. trophimus having been one of the disciples of christ and companion of s. paul arose about this time. not a trace of such a tradition appears in the provençal poem composed by an eye-witness of the translation of the relics. there was, no doubt, a bishop of this name at arles, and probably early, but the first whose name is authenticated is martianus, who followed the novatian heresy in 254. gregory of tours--and his testimony is confirmed by a ms. of the fifth century--says that s. trophimus was sent into gaul in the consulship of decius and gratus, i.e., 250, and that he was the first bishop of arles, and gregory of tours is the earliest and most reliable authority that we have on the beginnings of the christian church in gaul. the church of s. honoré was built by s. virgilius, archbishop of arles a.d. 588-618, and the baptistery dates from his time. according to the legend, whilst he was erecting the basilica, the people toiled ineffectually to move the pillars to their destined place. at last they sent word to s. virgil that the truck was fast, and the pillars could neither be taken on nor carried back. then virgil hurried to the spot, and saw a little devil, like a negro boy, sitting under the truck, obstructing its progress. virgil drove him away, whereupon the columns were easily moved. he was buried in this church, but i do not fancy his tomb is known. a strange story is told of him, how one night, as he was pacing the walls of arles, or possibly walking in the alyscamp, he saw a mysterious ship come sailing over the meres. in the starlight he discerned forms of sailors. the ship drew up near where he stood, and a voice called to him: "reverend father, we know who thou art. now we are bound for jerusalem, and are here to ask thee to come on board with us." "no, thank you," answered virgilius, "not till you have shown me who you are." then he made the sign of the cross, and suddenly the ship resolved itself into a drift of fog that rolled away before the wind along the surface of the mere. this is the _second_ version of the world-wide-known myth of the flying dutchman. the earliest form comes to us in the legend of s. adrian, a martyr in asia minor. as his widow basilissa was sailing over the black sea with his body, to bury it at byzantium, a phantom ship passed by, which also vanished when adjured in the sacred name. what is, to us english, of interest in connection with s. virgil of arles is, that it was he who consecrated augustine for his mission to kent, at the command of gregory the great. so here, probably, in this ruinous, silent old church, our apostle of the english knelt and received his commission to go and preach the gospel to us angles. this same virgil also built the cathedral, and dedicated it to s. stephen. but of his work there not a trace remains. another bishop of arles of some note was regulus, who when preaching one day was so troubled by the noise made by the frogs, that he interrupted his sermon to order them to be silent, and--they obeyed. in a side chapel of the old church of s. honoratus is a sarcophagus that contains the skull and bones and dust of a young girl. the coffin is of lead, and this perhaps accounts for the preservation. along with it were found the gold ear-rings and other trinkets. on the ear-rings a cross, but the inscription on the tomb hardly leads one to believe the girl was a christian. she was aged seventeen years, eight months, and eighteen days, when she died. her name was ælia. here is the inscription in the lead, translated:- ælia, daughter of ælia. thou who can'st read these lines, read a sad mishap, and learn our plaintive lay. many call that a sarcophagus which contains bones, but this has become the home of unhallowed bees. [1] shame it should be so! here lies a damsel of exceeding beauty. there's more than grief in this: a dearly loved wife has been snatched away. she lived a virgin so long as nature willed. when she became a bride, the marriage vows were a joy to her parents. she lived seventeen years, eight months, and eighteen days. happy the father who lived not to see such sorrow. the wound rankles in the bosom of her mother, her precious jewel, and her father, taken away in old age, still holds her clasped to his heart. [footnote 1: the ancients thought that bees were bred of dead bodies. see virgil, georgics. iv. 281-5.] here is the original with conjectural restorations. would not old dr. keates have whipped the eton boy who wrote such barbarous latin verses! but it must be remembered the arles folk were græeco-gallic, and not masters of latin. some of the words are run together. it runs thus- ælia æliæ littera.quinosti.lege.casum.et.d(_ice querelam_.) multi.sarcophagum.dicunt.quod.con(_tinet ossa_:) set.conclusa.decens.apibus.domus.ist(_a profanis_:) onefas.indignum.jacet.hic.præclara(_puella_.) hoc.plusquam.dolor.est.rapta.est.s(_uavissima conjux_.) pervixit.virgo.vbi.jam.natura.placebat. vixit.enim.ann.xvii.et.menses viii.diesque xviii. o.felice.patrem.qui.non.vidit.tale.dolorem. hoeret.et.in fixo.pectore.volnus.dionysyadi matri. et junctam.secum.geron.pater.tenet.ipse.puellam. this is an exact copy. i am not responsible for the grammatical blunders, they were made clearly by the sculptor of the inscription, who did not understand what he cut. among the tombs extracted from the alyscamp and now in the museum of arles, is another of a girl, and a very accomplished young lady she must have been; her name was julia, and she was the daughter of lucius tyrannus. she died at the age of twenty; the inscription on her tomb records that in her morals and in her schooling she was a pattern to all other girls. [illustration: musical instruments from the tomb of julia.] what is particularly interesting about this monument is that it gives illustrations of all the musical instruments she was able to play, and it affords us i believe, the earliest known example of the organ. [1] but what is even more curious is that on it is represented a guitar, very much the same as is now manufactured. [footnote 1: nero on the night when he died was going to try a water-organ, when the news of the revolt of galba and the defection of the troops reached him. i am puzzled about this organ on the tomb of julia tyranna. sir george grove, in his 'dictionary of music,' gives an illustration of this same organ copied from dom. bedos' 'l'art du facteur d'orgues,' paris, 1766. this represents two slaves crouched and blowing into the organ bellows. i could not see these figures. i made my sketch carefully, and can hardly suppose the figures have been chipped away since the monument was placed in the museum.] the instruments she could play were the organ, the guitar, the syrinx or panpipe, and the lyre, which she struck not with her fingers, but a plectrum represented beside it. observe, between the lyre and the banjo her little satchel of music-books, and below the syrinx a lamb and palm. this is the only sign on the monument that could in the least lead to a supposition that julia tyranna was christian. the inscription bears no trace of christianity. [illustration: calpurnia's monument.] another interesting monument found there is that to calpurnia, daughter of caius marius. probably she died from the exposure and roughness of life camping out, when the barbarian hordes rolled west, and all the inhabitants of the towns were obliged to fly before them to the hills. i shall in a future chapter tell the story of caius marius and his great victory at pourrières over the teutons, having first thrashed the ambrons near aix. suffice it now to note that here is the tombstone of his poor little daughter. i must, however, state that the genuineness of this inscription has been called in question. it is also worthy of notice how that the victory of marius and delivery from the barbarians impressed the people of the neighbourhood. in the museum the name of marius occurs on other monuments. the name of marius is even now a popular christian name in provence. but to return to calpurnia. the place where the arles inhabitants fled from the teutons was the limestone range of les alpines, almost an island, so surrounded was it by lagoons and marshes. looking at calpurnia's monument i fell into a dream, and saw her whole story unfolded before me. caius marius was a rough-mannered man, of peasant origin, but he had a wife julia, of patrician rank, and who, i have not a shadow of doubt, flourished her noble origin before him, and talked very big of her grand relations. when little missie was born: "i'll have none of your plebeian names, if you please, for my baby," said julia; "you will please note that my family derives from the immortal gods. i shall call the child calpurnia." [1] madame julia was a good wife, and she followed her rough husband everywhere. at the beginning of windy march, tidings came that the teutons and ambrons were on the move. in april all the women and children of arles, glanum, ernaginum, and cabelio were clustered on the heights of les alpines, in extemporised cabins or in some of the prehistoric habitations they found scooped out of the limestone. down came the rains. a gale and driving out-pour then as to-day, when m. carnot comes into provence. the roofs of the cabins let in water, the sides of the caves ran down with moisture. then the wind changed, the sun shone out hot, but the _mistral_ tore over the country cold and sharp as a double-edged sword. poor calpurnia could not stand it. she shivered and coughed, lost appetite and spirits. next came the tidings of the battle at les milles, and a couple of days later of the extermination of the enemy at pourrières. now the refugees might in safety descend from their rocky refuges, and return to their homes. [footnote 1: see appendix a, on this monument and the question of its genuineness; as well as for some other inscriptions in the arles museum.] then julia went with the sick girl to arles. meantime marius on the battlefield had received the ovation of his officers and soldiers, and the salutations of the delegates from the senate proclaiming him consul. but at the same time there appeared--i doubt not, though plutarch does not say so--a slave with a note from julia:-"i am sorry to tell you that calpurnia is very unwell. that horrible _mistral_ froze her, and she has done little else than cough night and day since. i have given her snail broth, but it has not relieved her much, and she is now spitting blood. bother these teutons, it is all their work. i always told you that you made a mistake in letting them come into provence, and cross the rhone. however, you were ever pigheaded, and now it serves you right. you will lose calpurnia, who is the apple of your eye. now if you had listened to me, etc., etc. "salve." but there was something further to complicate matters, and superinduce sickness in a delicate girl. to escape to the hills the good people of arles could not follow a road, for the whole district between them and the range of les alpines was covered with one vast lagoon. they could not travel in boats, for the lagoon was shallow, so they went on rafts supported on inflated skins, about which i shall have something to say presently. so calpurnia, creeping close to her mother, wrapped in her _pallium_, was exposed for hours on a raft at the beginning of april to the cold winds, and to the water oozing up between the joints of the raft. the whole story works out like an equation. i fancy--but am not sure--a quadratic equation, somehow thus:- as i, in a 19th cent. hotel, and in jäger underclothing: calpurnia, on a raft and in a pre-historic cave:: a cold in the head i got: x x x self in hotel and jäger costume = calpurnia on a raft and in a cave x cold in the head. x = pthysis. i think this is right. i cannot be sure; and i cannot be sure, though i was educated to be a mathematician by a senior wrangler. the facts were these. my dear father thought, and thought perhaps justly, that a classical education was but a throwing back of the current of the mind into the past, whereas a mathematical education directed it to the future, and was the sole course which would prove pactolean. so i was cut down in my classical studies, and drawn out in those which were mathematical. likewise i was sent the year before entering the university to a senior wrangler to ripen me. i then learned that what as a boy i was wont to call the rule of three was more properly termed equations, and that equations might be complicated to the highest limits of muddledom, and when so complicated were termed quadratics. after a course of equations that flattened out my head like the camargue, i was thrust into what are called surds, a sort of wood of errors, in which one spends hours in hewing one's way to get at nothing of the slightest profit to man or beast; finally, i believe my good tutor, now a bishop, got tired of me. i was stupefied by surds; and i entered the university. now, after thirty-seven years, i find that every ode of horace, every chapter of cæsar, every line of virgil i learned at school lies as a sprig of lavender in the folds of my memory--but i cannot even set and work out a common equation, or add up a sum in compound addition correctly. i beg the pardon of the reader for this digression. i have made it because i think, should my reader be a father, this experience of mine may be of profit to him. to return to the monuments of the elysian fields. a considerable number have been found here, also at nimes, s. gabriel, and cavaillon, which are the memorials of _utriculares_. [1] there were guilds of these men. they appointed noble romans as their patrons, and these patrons on their tombstones made mention of the fact. but what were these _utriculares_? they were raftsmen who carried on trade over the lagoons, sustaining their flat vessels upon distended skins. the lagoons were so shallow that no vessel of deep draught could travel over them, and all the merchandise of central gaul for the mediterranean--the tin from britain for instance--and all the goods of the mediterranean for gaul, had to be transhipped at arles from the river boats, unable to cross the bar, on to these barges sustained on inflated skins that conveyed them to fos, at the mouth of the lagoons, where they were again shipped for the sea voyage. after marius had cut a canal, matters were better. ships could come up through the lagoons to arles, but none at any time of deep draught, and the raftsmen, the _utriculares_, carried on their trade till the middle ages, when the mouths of the lagoons became choked, and the lagoons themselves turned into noxious morasses. here is one of their monuments, in the museum of arles:- "to the manes. to marcus junius messianus, of the guild of the utriculares of arles, four times president of this corpora junia valeria raised this monument to him, her son, who died aged twenty-eight years, five months, and ten days." here is another, found near lyons:- "to the manes and eternal repose of caius victorinus ... urix, also called quiguro, citizen of lyons, one of the corporation of utriculares there, who lived twenty-eight years,... months and five days, without giving offence to anyone. his mother, castorina, raised this to the memory of her sole and very dear boy." the navigation on distended skins is now everywhere extinct except on the euphrates. on some of the nineveh sculptures may be seen men swimming across rivers sustained on these primitive air-vessels. [footnote 1: see appendix c.] in the museum at arles are numerous sculptured christian sarcophagi, with groups of the raising of lazarus, the multiplication of loaves, the striking of the rock by moses, the opening of the eyes of the blind, &c. these are attributed to the fourth and fifth centuries. for myself i am by no means satisfied that the christian sarcophagi of rich and beautiful sculpture are as late as the dates generally given to them. i judge by the fashion of the hair worn by the ladies. now there is a sarcophagus at arles with the twelve apostles on it, six on each side of christ, and a portrait of the deceased. this is set down to be a tomb of the fifth century, and yet the lady wears her hair in precisely the fashion, and it was a peculiar one, of the faustinas, the wives of antoninus pius and marcus aurelius, a.d. 138-177. it must not be forgotten that the protection of the laws was extended to christian sepulchres as well as pagan till the edict of valerian in a.d. 257, and although this was withdrawn by gallienus in a.d. 260, yet after that edict, the cemeteries, the catacombs, were never quite secure; before that, the christians made no concealment of their places of burial, they used the richest available decorations for them, in sculpture and in painting. only after a.d. 257 do the ornamentations cease, or become hastily sketched and rude, and the inscriptions degenerate into scrawls. all the finest, costliest work in the roman catacombs belongs to the first two centuries and the beginning of the third. when peace returned to the church, art had fallen into decay, and there were not sculptors capable of performing such work as had been done before. no more convincing proof of this can be found than the two porphyry tombs of constantia and helena, daughter and mother of constantine, now in the vatican. to what a depth of degeneracy sculpture fell may be judged by the lid of the sarcophagus of s. hilary, bishop of arles, d. 449, now in the arles museum. beside the rude lettering, there are but a leaf and two birds on it, but they might have been scribbled by a child. it is to me inconceivable that some of the beautiful white marble sarcophagi both at arles and at rome, sculptured with scriptural scenes, can belong to the period when art was as degraded as it certainly was in the time of constantine, and i think that antiquarians have been misled in dating them. before taking leave of the elysian fields, i must quote the words of a french author upon them:--"it has been a rich quarry only too easily worked, and we will not here enter on the painful story of its spoliation. all the museums of the south of france possess tombs stolen from the alyscamp. as to the monolithic tombs, they were abandoned to any one who cared to have them, and for many centuries have been regarded as stones quarried ready for use. the city of arles has on several occasions had the culpable condescension of giving up the tombs of its ancestors to the princes and great men of the world. charles ix. laded several ships with them, which sank in the rhone at pont s. esprit. the duke of savoy, the prince of lorraine, the cardinal richelieu, and a hundred others have taken away just what they liked, and arles to-day has hardly more to show of this vast cemetery than an avenue--but a noble one--of sarcophagi and some fragments of fine gothic or romanesque chapels lost in the midst of a desert." [1] [footnote 1: lenthéric, 'la grèce et l'orient en provence,' 1878.] chapter vii. pagan arles. the arles race a mixture of greek and gaulish--the colonisation by the romans--the type of beauty in arles--the amphitheatre--a bull-baiting--provençal bull-baits different from spanish bull-fights--the theatre--the ancient greek stage--the destruction of the arles theatre--excavation of the orchestra--discovery of the venus of arles--a sick girl--palace of constantine. before describing arles i began with the elysian fields, the great cemetery of pagan and christian arles, for this seems to have affected the whole town, and with the dust of ages to have smothered the life out of it. now let us look at the remains of ancient arles. but first of all let me observe that the arles race prides itself on its singular purity of descent. there was, unquestionably, a gaulish settlement there. the keltic name ar-lath, the "moist habitation," tells us as much. so does the legend of protis and gyptis, already related. but it was speedily occupied by a large greek contingent, and the race was formed of greek and gaulish blood united. in the year b.c. 46 a roman colony was planted at arles. cæsar, desirous of paying off his debt of gratitude to the officers and soldiers who had served him in his wars, commissioned claudius tiberius nero, one of his quæstors, father and grandfather of the emperors tiberius, claudius, and caligula, to conduct two colonies into southern gaul, one was settled at narbonne and the other at arles, and this was one of the first military colonies planted beyond italy. the office of this tiberius was to portion out the land among the veteran soldiers, six thousand men of the sixth legion occupied the town and country round--such of it, at all events, as was not under water--and thenceforth the city took the name of arelate sextanorum. tacitus gives us a picture of the proceedings on such occasions. after the tribunes and the centurions came a cloud of officials called _agrimensores_, surveyors, charged with the duty of parcelling out the soil among the new comers. then followed a hierarchy of civil officers, religious, judicial, administrative, all under the direction of an administrator-general, who was entitled _curator coloniæ_. from that moment the transformation of the colonial town into a little rome was a matter of time only. the new comers constructed a capitol, a forum, temples, triumphal arches, aqueducts, markets; besides these, theatres, a circus, baths. in a very few years the aspect of arles was completely changed. a mercantile city of græco-gauls had become latinised, bureaucratic, and nattered itself that it was like its new parent on the tiber. it called itself _gallula roma, arelas_. [illustration: an arelaise. (_from a photograph_)] consequently, we find in arles a strong current of roman blood mingled with the greek and gallic, and there has been practically no other admixture. cut off from the country round by its marshes and lagoons, it has maintained its purity of blood and its characteristic stamp of face. the arles women are said to be, believe themselves to be, and show to everyone that they believe themselves to be, the handsomest women in france. their type is quite distinct from that of the inhabitants of nimes, marseilles, aix, and even of the peasantry outside the gates of arles. what is the more singular is that this peculiarity of type is not noticeable among the men. among the women it is quite unmistakable. their straight brows and noses are sometimes greek, but the roman arch appears as frequently as the straight nose; they have magnificent dark eyes; black hair which is curled up over their broad straight brows, brought forward about their faces so as to form a dark misty halo round the olive-complexioned features, then tied into a horn at the top of the head, which is bound round with black satin ribbon, that flows down at the back. the face is haughty, noble, somewhat imperious. queens these arelaises feel themselves to be, down to the fishwives in the market-place; they walk as queens, as well as the cobble stones will permit, and bear themselves, their black mantillas cast over their arms, in a queen-like manner. i had a fine opportunity of studying them, for i went to the first bull-fight of the season in the old roman arena, and all arles was there, male and female, down to the babies in arms. between each _course_ all the spectators promenaded under the galleries and on the terrace at the top of the amphitheatre, the women in gala dress of white lace bodices, black mantle, and dark silk skirts; and a very fine sight they were; it was worth the forty centimes i paid for admission to see these majestic women pace along and sweep the little men from their path as they careered round and round the amphitheatre, with cold, stern faces, full of pride of ancestry and conscious beauty. i will quote the opinion on the arles type of a very competent judge perfectly acquainted with the whole of provence:--"it can be affirmed without contradiction that greek beauty exists at arles, and exists only among the women. the men are clumsy, small and vulgar, rude in form and rough in vocal intonation. the women, on the contrary, have preserved the ancestral delicacy. the face is that of a cameo, the nose is straight, the chin very greek, the ear delicately modelled; the eyes, admirably shaped, have in them a sort of attic grace, transmitted from their mothers, and to be handed on to the children. "to get an idea of this characteristic type, one must not study two or three subjects, but must observe the whole population _en bloc_, and especially compare it with the neighbouring populations. the result of such a comparison brings out with force the grand lines constituting in the arelaise the character of a perfectly definite and distinct race." [1] [footnote 1: lenthéric, _op. cit._] [illustration: part of the amphitheatre of arles.] as i have already mentioned the amphitheatre, i will begin my account of the antiquities of arles with that. in the middle ages it was turned into a fortified _bourg_ in the heart of fortified arles; it contained streets about as broad as a man could walk up and touch walls on both sides with arms akimbo, a crowd of houses, and two chapels or churches. four great towers were erected at the cardinal points, and the vast galleries and arcades were a very warren of human habitations. constructed of huge blocks of limestone, laid without cement, the amphitheatre forms an ellipse, whose axis measures four hundred and twenty feet by three hundred and ten feet. it is said to be able to contain twenty-six thousand spectators, which is just two thousand five hundred more persons than the entire population of modern arles. externally it presents two stages of sixty arcades, between the arches are engaged doric pillars in the lower storey, those above are corinthian, but only about six of the capitals of these latter remain. there are, within, three stages of seats, those for the senators, those for the knights, and the upper range for the common people, now much mutilated, and turned into a promenade. fortunately the accumulation of earth over which the houses were built within the arena was so great, that when that was cleared away, the marble casing of the _podium_ was disclosed in very tolerable perfection. when i visited the amphitheatre, les arènes they are called, it was to see a _course aux taureaux_. the provençals are passionately fond of these bull-baits, which take place weekly through the summer, beginning at easter, but it is only at arles and nimes that they are carried out in the ancient roman amphitheatres. these _courses_ are quite distinct from the spanish bull-fights. there is no brutality, no torturing of the beast with arrows and crackers, no goring of horses. the bull is uninjured, and, though he gets furious, clearly relishes the fight, and in some cases cannot be induced to abandon it. the old proconsular seat was draped, and occupied by the _prefet_ and madame, and the _sous-prefet_. the spectators went where they liked, men paid fourpence, women threepence for admission. the arena was enclosed within a screen of strong timber boards. five wild bulls from the camargue were advertised to be baited. one, a strong black fellow, nero, was clearly a favourite--his name was announced in very large letters. every bull is given a rosette of coloured ribbons, fastened between his horns, and the sport consists in plucking away this rosette, and bearing it in safety beyond the barricades. should a rosette fall to the ground, it does not count. a prize is given to whoever recovers a rosette. the blood-red rosette of nero entitled the snatcher of it to one hundred francs. another characteristic feature of the provençal _courses_ is that there are no professional toreadors. any man or boy who likes enters the lists against the bull. usually there are from a dozen to a score and a half in the arena, all endeavouring to pluck the bunch of ribbons from the brow of the enraged bull. from practice, and acquaintance with the habits of bulls, the young men become very skilful, and fatal accidents are rare. the amateur runs up alongside of the bull, swings himself round in front of it, and makes his snatch. the bull at once goes at him, and he takes to his heels. when he is flying a second invariably runs across his path at right angles, and the bull can never resist the temptation of turning upon this second. if he also is hard pressed, a third crosses between him and the bull, and again diverts the angry beast. in one case a man's foot slipped as he was flying, and he fell. then the bull was on him before another could intervene, but the brute rolled over the prostrate man, who got up, shook himself, and cleared the barricade. [illustration: back of a house at arles.] one very nimble young fellow in a grey shirt had attracted general attention by his dexterity. he was resolved to have nero's rosette. he managed to wrench it from between the bull's horns, but not completely to disengage it. the bull drove after him so close that it was impossible for another man to run between, the grey shirt reached the barrier and swung over, but the horns caught his nether garment and rent it, fortunately without really injuring the man, who, however, was not able to enter the arena again that day. when a _course_ has been run the doors are opened, and one or two young bulls are sent into the arena; they run round, and the bull who has been baited adjoins them, and they all run out together. nero, however, would not go. he was fagged, but his blood was up. five bulls were sent in to lure him away, but he was resolved to gore his man before he left. his rosette he had dangling on his brow, uncaptured. then the keepers entered with a species of halbert, with half-moon shaped steels at the head, and one small spike in the midst. with this they caught the horns of nero, and he was forced to retreat before the men, for if he resisted the spike entered his head and hurt him. thus finally, by sheer force, he was driven, snorting, pawing the ground, and with arched tail from off the place of contest. the sport is good. it is not cruel. it draws out the courage, provokes dexterity and nimbleness, and takes the place in provence that cricket does in england and golf in scotland. the romans loved the brutal and demoralising games of the amphitheatre. wherever they went they erected these huge places for entertaining themselves with the spectacle of suffering. there never was an amphitheatre at marseilles, for marseilles was greek and not roman, and to the greek such spectacles were abhorrent. at arles there are the equally interesting remains of a theatre. the stage is fairly perfect, with its customary scenery of corinthian pillars grouped so as to form two doors for entrance and exit between them. the pillars of this permanent scene are not all in place. two are standing, and the bases of others remain. at the proscenium may be noticed the grooves into which the beams fitted for the wooden small stage that stood forward in front of the curtain. the ancient greek theatre was composed, like that of our days, of a hemicycle for the spectators, and a rectangular portion that formed the place for dramatic performance. the pit was a semicircle, and was not fitted with seats, but constituted the orchestra. this orchestra among the greeks formed an inferior stage, and, as its name implies, was reserved for the ballet. it was not till roman times that specially privileged spectators were admitted into it, but it never had the musicians installed in it. these latter were placed in front of the stage, much where is our modern proscenium. the actors performed, as nowadays, on the boarded anterior portion, which was called the _pulpitum_. finally, to facilitate communication between the stage and the orchestra, a pair of flights of steps descended laterally from the proscenium. in the centre of the pit or orchestra was usually placed an altar to bacchus, around which the choirs executed their evolutions; and against this little altar sat the prompter, hidden by it, whilst some flute-players stood beside the altar, in flowing robes, acting as ballet masters, and giving the measure with the shrill notes of their pipes. the greek tragedy, therefore, had a double action, one on the stage proper and the other below, and all was graceful and refined. the purest taste, the most elevated sentiments, were the characteristics of the greek drama, and the most beautiful and stirring effects were produced by means of the utmost simplicity. thus, when the tragedy of the persæ of æschylus was being performed, the depth of the stage opened, to show in the distance the blue sea on which a recent victory had taken place, with the rocky isle of salamis bathed in the tints of the eastern setting sun. a thrill of the most lively emotion ran instantly through the whole crowd of spectators. but with the romans the theatre lost its dignity, and was degraded to low buffoonery, indecencies the most repulsive, and to gaudy spectacles. so bad was the moral result produced by the theatre, that the first christian bishops who were able to do so, stirred their adherents to the destruction of this breeding-place of moral pestilence. the ms. chronicles of the church of arles have preserved the name of the man who destroyed the theatre. he was a deacon, cyril; acting under a strong moral impulse, filled with righteous indignation at the obscenities perpetrated on the boards, he roused the christian populace of arles to attack and wreck the theatre and expel the actors. the mob burst in--tore the marble from the proscenium, smashed the statues of admirable greek sculpture, overthrew the altar and ground it to powder, upset the columns, and reduced it to a state of ruin very little better than that in which it is at present. heads of statues were knocked off, bas-reliefs broken in half, cornices, capitals, were thrown into the pit and choked it to the level of the stage. in 1651 the pick was set to work to clear out this orchestra, and almost the first stroke revealed one of the most admirable works of greek sculpture that has descended to us, the venus of arles, an imitation or reproduction of the celebrated venus of praxiteles, now, unhappily, lost. this statue lay before the columns of the proscenium and had been saved from destruction by the ruins that had buried it. head and body are almost intact, only the arms were gone. the goddess is half naked, like the venus of milo. the bust is slightly turned. head and coiffure are of the noblest and purest execution. it was evening when i visited the theatre, a balmy spring evening, where shelter could be obtained from a cold wind. the pink judas trees were in full flower. the syringas scented the air. the golden sunlight filled the theatre with light and warmth. but two persons were present, except myself. seated on one of the white marble steps for the audience, was an arles mother with a royal face, in the quaintly beautiful costume the women of all classes still affect, and she had spread her mantle over the shoulders of a girl of fourteen, sick, with face of the purest alabaster, and of features as fine as were ever traced for venus anadyomene, with large, solemn, dreamy eyes, watching a robin that was perched on the proscenium and was twittering. the pity, love, and sorrow of that mother's heart were not to be read in her calm disciplined countenance, but i could see the emotions flow in short wavelets from her heart, through the arm that encircled the sick girl, into the hand that rhythmically contracted and expanded on the sharp little shoulder, rocking the child in the warm sun, against her own heart, and with her dark eyes looking into the future, in which she would have no more the child at her side to sway. in that theatre!--the ebbing tide of a white and limpid life taking its last sunning, where the crowds had laughed and roared their applause at sights and songs of unspeakable foulness. [illustration: a boat with two rudders at arles.] in the museum may be seen some of the treasures from the theatre, a head of augustus, a so-called livia, a bust of the young marcellus, bas-reliefs, dancing women, a few inscriptions, and the seal of a roman dentist, which i suppose he lost there one day when watching a play, and which has recently been found there. it is worth the visitor's while to walk by the broad muddy rhone, and observe the clumsy picturesque vessels moored there, or gliding down the turgid stream. so clumsy is the construction that some are provided with two rudders, one being found insufficient to direct the course of these tubs. at arles, near the river, is a palace of constantine the great, now turned into cottages and sheds, and in a very ruinous condition, but sufficient of it is preserved to show what a falling off in architecture had ensued through the anarchy of rising and sinking emperors, and the destruction of the great families of the patriciate. employment for architects and sculptors was gone in times of proscription and military revolts, and apparently all at once the arts that had reached the utmost perfection fell into a condition of the most abject degradation. chapter viii. christian arles. sunday in france--improved observance--the cathedral of arles--west front--interior--tool-marks--a sermon on peace--the cloisters--old sacristan and his garden--number of desecrated churches in arles--notre dame de la majeur--s. cæsaire--the isles near arles--cordes--montmajeur--a gipsy camp--the ruins--tower--the chapel of s. croix. i spent the first sunday after easter at arles. it was a bright and joyous spring day. i went to the cathedral at nine o'clock and found a good congregation there, listening to a sermon on the obligation of observing the sunday. it was dull, and i left. but i may here observe what a great change has taken place in france of late years relative to this observance. i can remember when i was a boy how that every shop was open, and business went on much as on other days. but the church has made great efforts to obtain a due recognition of the lord's day, and all who consider themselves to be good catholics now shut their shops, and others, who find that there is now very little trade going on upon sunday, shut their shops also because it is of no use having them open. it is only the polemical infidels who continue to keep their factories in full work and their places of merchandise open to invite purchasers. some few years ago i was talking with a frenchman in rome, a commercial man, about the phylloxera that was devastating the vines, and ruining the peasantry, and i asked him what was being done to correct the evil. "bah!" said he. "everything has been tried. mon ami. we don't observe the sunday. voilà le vrai phylloxera." [illustration: on a house at arles.] now this observation of his was only worth so much, that it showed how that the clergy had been going hammer and tongs at the consciences of their sheep, till they had impressed a conviction on them that if they neglected the commandment of god relative to the observance of one day in seven, he would chastise them till they realised that they had erred, acknowledged their error, and endeavoured to rectify it. the cathedral of arles is a very interesting church indeed. externally the west front is rich in the bold rude style of the twelfth century, and consists of a deeply-recessed semicircular arch resting on a horizontal sculptured frieze which forms the lintel of the door, and is continued on each side upon pillars that rest on the backs of lions and have apostles and saints standing between them. the interior of the church is very solemn and striking. it has been cleaned, but judiciously, without sand-papering away the tool-marks on the ancient stone. has the reader never been puzzled to note the difference between old work and new, even when the new is a reproduction of the old? in the new there is an absence of something, but what we cannot tell. this something is very probably nothing more than the old tool-marks. the ancient workers left on the stone the tale of every stroke they dealt, and to ages on ages these marks tell us: here was a strong arm employed, here was dealt a vigorous blow; here symon the hewer was tickled with a comical story that mason peter told and he laughed, and the blow he dealt ran jagged with his laughter. these strokes were done in the morning, when the workers were fresh; those at even, when their arms were weary. but nowadays the stone is all gone over with a metal toothcomb, and scraped till not a tool-mark remains, and wood is glass-papered till every particle of sharpness and character is taken out of the work. [illustration: samson and the lion, from the west door of the cathedral of arles.] the aisles of the cathedral of arles are but five feet wide, the arches are round, the windows romanesque; the church is barrel-vaulted, nothing could be plainer, and yet somehow that old church is full of poetry and charm. i went to high mass at eleven. it was all very homely, quiet and reverent. another congregation was gathered; a gregorian simple service sung, which the congregation knew and joined in heartily. then up into the pulpit got a canon, and gave out his text, from the gospel, s. john xx., end of verse nineteen. my heart stood still. why--you shall hear. [illustration: on a house at arles.] just twenty-two years ago, i was in switzerland on whit sunday, and went to the little village church. the _curé_ gave out these same words as his text, and preached a very good sermon on peace, though perhaps not very appropriate to the day. peace, he said, was an excellent thing, whether (1) in a country; (2) in a household; (3) in the conscience. there we had the three heads; on these he dilated. first we had a picture of the miseries of war in a country, and the converse picture of prosperity in peace. then, secondly, we had a description of domestic discomfort, where husband and wife were at loggerheads, and--naturally, a charming family piece where both were in unity. then came, thirdly, the special topic of his discourse, peace in the conscience, and how it was to be obtained and secured. i bottled up that sermon in my memory and have preached it since, myself, once or twice. one day, some fifteen years ago, i was at eichstädt in bavaria, on a saturday. the church of s. michael there is reserved for the episcopal seminary; i wanted to see the interior and found it locked, but discovering a side door into the cloisters open, i, and my wife who was with me, entered. the church was empty, save that a sacristan with a feather brush was dusting the side altars, but to my surprise i heard a sermon being preached, and caught a glimpse of a priest in the pulpit haranguing and gesticulating to an empty church. the sacristan, who saw us enter, went into convulsions of laughter. i did not understand the situation, and walked slowly down the aisle looking at the pictures, and listening to the discourse. i was very much surprised to hear the subject of peace being chopped into three portions: peace in the country, peace in the family, peace in the conscience. it was my old friend the sermon on peace again. presently, my wife and i, having finished with the pictures in the north aisle, crossed the nave of the church to look at those in the south aisle, when, suddenly the preacher was aware of a strange gentleman and lady acting as his audience. his voice faltered, he broke down, searched for his ms., could not find his place, fell into complete confusion, turned tail, and bolted down the stairs and out of the church. he was a recently ordained seminarist rehearsing his first sermon. two years later i was in brussels. a new dean had been appointed to s. gudule, and was to preach his first sermon. i went there with a friend. he gave out his text. i pricked up my ears. then he addressed himself to his subject, peace; and showed how it naturally divided itself into three heads, peace in a country, peace in a household, peace in the conscience. it was my old friend again. [illustration: south entrance to the cloister, arles cathedral.] now when i heard this text given out by a canon at arles, i thought with a shock: bless me! we shall have those three heads once more! but i was mistaken. the old man gave us a simple, crystal-pure discourse of ten minutes on the peace that passeth man's understanding. now i do not mean to hint that the swiss, the german, and the belgian preachers all used literally the same discourse; but i suppose that in the seminaries there are supplied certain skeleton discourses for the whole year, and these skeletons are dressed up sometimes in homely fustian, sometimes in rhetorical tinsel: yet they never remain other than dressed-up skeletons. there is very little of colour in the cathedral of arles--only nine great pieces of flemish tapestry, green and soft pale yellow, that are suspended in the aisles. all the rest is of unadorned limestone blocks, unadorned save for the chipping marks of the old masons seven hundred years ago. on the south side of the church is a delightfully rich cloister, the arcade resting on double columns whose capitals are richly sculptured with sacred subjects, incidents from the old and new testament. in the cloister is a well, fed, i believe, originally by the old roman aqueduct that supplied the town with pure water from the hills, but which was suffered in the middle ages to fall into complete ruin. this aqueduct was older than the amphitheatre, for it ran in a cut channel through the rock beneath it. one evening that i was in the cloister the aged sacristan was engaged drawing from this well and watering a little garden of flowers he had made in the sunny sheltered nook within the cloister, against the south wall. [illustration: part of the north cloister of arles cathedral.] it was a pretty little subject; the old man in his long black coat, with silvery hair, stooping over his anemones and tulips, tying up the white narcissus that a swirl of the _mistral_ had broken; with the quaint sculptured capitals of the pillars above, and the deep shadows between the pillars before him; in the junctions of the old blocks above the arcade were wild gillyflowers blooming, and under the tiles were swallows busy over their mud nests. and as the old man tied up the bruised narcissus, in a cracked voice he sang to himself one of the vesper psalms, and i caught the verse: "hæc requies mea in sæculum sæculi: hic habitabo quoniam elegi eam." ("this shall be my rest for ever, here will i dwell, for i have a delight therein.") [illustration: church of notre dame de la majeus, arles.] arles was at one time a city of churches, but the hurricane of the revolution swept over her, and now she has left but four. on the walls, is a very early romanesque church, tottering to ruins, because the society for the promotion of athletic sports, to whom it has been surrendered up for tumbling, climbing, wrestling, are impecunious and cannot keep it watertight. hard by is another church, still earlier, a temple adapted to christian worship, now half swept away, half devoted to a cabaret. the church of the cordeliers is turned into a school, and the octagonal tower rises out of the roof of the dormitory. the beautiful fourteenth-century church of the dominicans is a stable for the horses of the omnibuses that ply between the train and the town. s. martin is desecrated, so is s. isidore. the earliest church in arles is notre dame de la majeur, near the arènes, but it does not look its age. it was in that church that the council assembled in 475 on the doctrine of grace, when the gallican prelates were by no means disposed to admit s. augustine's predestinarian teaching. outside the church in the open space are traces of walls that are level with the earth; and if i am not mistaken, they are the foundations of an early basilica, with apse to the west. the church was rebuilt in the middle ages, and made to orientate, and was thrown further east than the earlier church. that is my impression, but nothing can be determined without pick and spade. [illustration: tower of the desecrated church of s. croix, arles.] in the church of s. antonine is a metal font, made to resemble the laver of solomon, resting on the backs of oxen. [illustration: part of the courtyard of the convent of s. cæsarius, arles.] the old grand priory has a charming renaissance front to the river, and some late rich flamboyant work in a street at the back. it is now turned into a gallery of indifferent pictures. the church of s. cæsaire is modernised, and has, alas! nothing of interest remaining in it, only its historic memories to hallow it. [illustration: church of the penitents gris, arles.] s. cæsarius, son of a count of chalons, born in 470, had been educated at lerins, but thence he was drawn in 501, to succeed the first fathers of that holy isle, honoratus and hilary, upon the archiepiscopal throne of arles. he was engaged in erecting a great monastery for women outside the walls, when the ostrogoths and the franks met in a furious conflict beneath them. his monastery was reduced to a ruin. a priest, a relative of cæsarius, had the meanness to let himself down the walls at night, escape to theodoric the ostrogoth king, and denounce him as engaged in secret communication with clovis, king of the franks. as soon as arles was taken, cæsarius was led under custody to theodoric, but was speedily set at liberty by that great-minded prince. another and similar charge was made against him later, and cæsarius was forced to travel to ravenna to exculpate himself. on his return to arles he set to work to rebuild his monastery, not this time without the walls. he made his own sister, cæsaria, the abbess, and she governed it for thirty years, and gathered about her a community of two hundred nuns. this brave christian woman caused to be prepared, and ranged symmetrically round the church, stone coffins for herself and for each of the sisters. they sang day and night the praises of god in the presence of the new tombs that awaited them. when each sister was dead, she was placed in one of these stone coffins and carried off to the elysian fields, and most likely some of them are among those there strewn about or being now broken up. it was into this church that cæsarius himself, feeling his end approach, had himself conveyed, that with feeble uplifted hands he might bestow his final blessing on that band of faithful women who were labouring to bring a higher ideal of womanhood before the arles folk, corrupted by the vices of the decayed civilisation of rome. as already said, arles was formerly surrounded by water, river on one side, meres on the other. out of the lagoons, however, rose islets of limestone rock; of these there are two, cordes and montmajeur, but there were also formerly a number of smaller tofts standing above the water, but not always rocky, forming an archipelago, and were covered with the cottages of fishermen and _utriculares_, and farmers who cultivated vines and olives on the slopes above the reach of the water. such were castelet, mont d'argent, pierre-feu, and trébonsitte. nowadays we can go by road to all these spots, formerly they could be reached only by boat or raft. the isle of cordes is about five miles from arles, it was evidently at one period fortified, and is believed to have formed for some time the camp of the saracen invaders who scourged and swept provence with sword and flame. in the rocks of cordes is a very curious cave, called the trou des fées, formed exactly in the shape of a sword, with lateral galleries to answer to the cross-piece at the hilt. it was undoubtedly a prehistoric habitation, probably enlarged by the saracens and used by them as a storehouse for their spoils. it is entered through an oval antechamber which resembles the hilt of the sword; and which most likely was the original prehistoric dwelling. but the largest of the islands was montmajeur, that now rises abruptly from the plain, crowned with ruins. i walked to it in driving rain and _mistral_. as i approached, i saw a gipsy woman bringing water in a pail to the camp, but the wind literally scooped the water out of the pail as with a spoon, and when she reached her destination very little remained. i stopped and had a little chat with the gipsies. they had tried to set up their tent, but it had been blown down over their heads, and had been rolled along with them in it, as they said, like a bag of potatoes. they were now squatted in the lee of a wall, an old ruined wall, and were endeavouring to boil a kettle, but the flames were carried by the wind in horizontal flashes, and would not touch the bottom of the vessel. they wanted me to have a cup of coffee with them when i returned from seeing the ruins, and i promised to do so, but, on my return, i found that rain and wind had blown and soused out their little fire, and they had not been able to get the water to boil, so were drinking it lukewarm. good-natured, merry folk, they laughed over their troubles as though it were a sovereign joke, and yet they were drenched to the skin. [illustration: in the cloisters, montmajeur.] montmajeur was a great benedictine abbey, with a glorious church founded in the sixth century, that was rebuilt in the eleventh and thirteenth centuries, over a large and interesting crypt, and with cloisters at the side like those of arles, but by no means as rich. beneath the abbey are the chapel and the reputed cell of s. trophimus, who probably never lived there--a charming specimen of early romanesque. part of this chapel is scooped and sculptured out of the living rock. but what is one of the grandest portions of the abbey is the machicolated tower that commands the plain for miles to the sea, a noble specimen of a donjon, and in excellent preservation. the abbey buildings adjoining the church were erected about fifty years before the revolution, when the monastery was in the plenitude of its wealth. they form the wreckage of a palace for princes rather than of an abbey for the sons of s. benedict, who i am quite sure would have been one of the first, had it been possible for him to be there, to lay his hand to destroy it, along with the mob of arles' republicans, as utterly out of accord with the spirit of his rule. indeed, on looking up at these sumptuous halls and stately galleries, one cannot but feel that the time was past in which the monastic orders, wealthy and luxurious and idle, could be endured. the church is no longer in use, and is ruinous. below the rock is a spit of land that stood anciently dry above the meres, and on that is a very singular old church dedicated to the holy cross, round which has been discovered a minor alyscamp, a place of sepulture utilised from the earliest times. sainte croix is now regarded as a national monument, and is preserved carefully. it consists of a central square tower, from which project four equal semicircular apses, that to the west having a porch attached. it was consecrated in 1019. it is lighted by three little windows, only one to the east and two to the s. and s.e. internally it is entirely deficient in sculpture, and was probably decorated with paintings. this was a funeral chapel in the midst of the cemetery, and was never used as a church. "the monks brought their dead hither," says viollet le duc, "processionally; the body was placed in the porch; the brethren remained outside. when mass was said, the body was blessed, and it was conveyed through the chapel and out at the little s. door, to lay it in the grave. the only windows which lighted this chapel looked into the walled cemetery. at night, a lamp burned in the centre of this monument, and, in conformity with the use of the first centuries of the middle ages, these three little windows let the gleam of the lamp fall upon the graves. during the office for the dead a brother tolled the bell hung in the turret, by means of a hole reserved for the purpose in the centre of the dome." a similar but earlier mortuary chapel is at planès, in roussillon. [illustration: in the cloister at arles.] chapter ix. les baux. the chain of the alpines--the promontory of les baux--the railway from arles to salon--first sight of les baux--the churches of s. victor, s. claude, and s. andrew--the lords of les baux claimed descent from one of the magi--the fair maid with golden locks--the chapel of the white penitents--the _deïmo_--history of the house of les baux--the barony passes to the grimaldi.--the ladies of les baux and the troubadours--fouquet--william de cabestaing--the morality of the loves of the troubadours--the porcelets--story of a siege--les baux a place of refuge for the citizens of arles--_glanum liviæ_--its roman remains--in the train--jäger garments. from east to west runs the chain of les alpines, for just twenty miles, separating the durance from the plain of the great crau. it is of limestone, and rises to the height of about eight hundred or a thousand feet, but is remarkable from the abruptness with which it springs out of the plain, and the fantastic shapes assumed by its crest. this chain dies into the plain to the west at s. gabriel, and its extreme limits to the east are the crags of orgon, which rise sheer above the durance, and the mont du defends farther to the south. to the north is the broad flat valley of the durance stretching away to tarascon, to the south the vast desert of the crau reaching to the sea. about twelve miles from s. gabriel, the chain of the alpines thrusts forth an arm to the south that rises sheer from the plain some five hundred feet, and forms a plateau at the top encrusted with white crags, two thousand seven hundred feet long, by six hundred feet wide. it is detached from the main chain by a dip, and on every other side stands up in precipices. this is les baux, the name in provençal signifies _cliffs_. there is a little railway from arles to salon, by which one travels at a snail's pace to the station of paradou, whence a walk of five miles takes one into a crater-like valley surrounded by bald white limestone crags, and there, towering overhead, are the walls and towers of les baux, in a position apparently inaccessible. this valley struck me as very much like one of the lunar craters, as i had seen it through the northumberland telescope, just as white, ghastly and barren. in the bottom were, indeed, a few patches of green field and a cluster of poplars, but the sides of the crater were almost wholly devoid of vegetation; and the white stone where quarried, and it was quarried extensively, glistened like sugar, with a greenish white lustre. in coming from arles i had travelled third class, in a compartment on top of the second and first class carriages; for on these little lines the carriages are of two storeys; the upper storey commands the best view; and in the compartment with me was an intelligent postman. we got into conversation about les baux. he told me that he had lived there, and had found there a considerable number of flint and bronze weapons. he was now stationed at tarascon, and he invited me to pay him a visit, when he would show me the weapons he had found on these hills. he also strongly urged me not to return by the same route, but to strike across the chain, reach s. remy, see the roman remains there, catch the evening train, and so return to arles by tarascon. [illustration: les baux.] and now for les baux, which is certainly one of the most astounding places i have ever seen. let the reader conceive of a rocky plateau standing up on abrupt precipices above the plain, with its top not altogether level, but inclined to the west, and the eastern side fringed with white crags. let him imagine a little town clustered on the slope to the west, clinging to the inclined surface to prevent itself from slipping over the edge and shooting down the precipice. then let him imagine the white limestone fringe that rises to the east some ninety feet above the town, adapted to serve the purpose of a castle, natural cliffs sculptured and perforated to form window and door, and vault and hall, and where living rock did not avail, masonry added, and the whole thrown into ruin. this is what he sees looking up from the valley. then let him climb the steep ascent, anciently the only way by which the town and castle could be approached, and his amazement will grow with every step he takes. after having passed under a gateway well defended, he will find himself in the street of a mediæval pompeii: houses--not cottages, but the mansions of nobles--all, or nearly all, in ruins and uninhabited, some with architectural pretensions; a church, still in use, dedicated to s. vincent; another still larger, s. claude, half sculptured out of the living rock, half of masonry, beautifully vaulted, with no glass in the windows, and the doors fallen in; a chapel of s. anne, without a roof, and some trees growing out of the floor. another church, the second parish church of les baux, s. andrew, crumbled to its foundations. further up the ascent, bedded in the ruins of the castle, a beautiful gothic chapel with delicate ribbed vaulting of the thirteenth century, also in ruins. on one portion of the platform to the south the remains of a great hospital, with the recesses for the beds of the patients round it. a cemetery enclosed within walls; guard rooms, halls, a mighty dove-cot hewn out of the rock; galleries and the windows of banqueting halls cut in the rock; high up, unapproachable, as the masonry has been blown up and thrown down that formed the western side of the castle. and to the north, where was the only approach to the castle by the neck of land, a curved ridge of limestone rock was hewn into a wall of defence. now a road has been engineered along this _col_, and the rock wall has been cut through; not only so, but it has been carried through a nobleman's mansion, and the sculptured fireplaces overhang the carriage road. such, briefly, is the general aspect of les baux. now we will enter into details. we will begin with the only parish church still in use. this church consists of nave and side aisles, with lateral chapels. the floor of the church is honeycombed with graves scooped out of the rock. in one of these before the high altar, a few years ago, when the slab that covered it was raised, the body of a man in rich garments was disclosed holding a book in his hand, that seemed to have escaped the ravages of time. however, on the first touch, it fell to dust. in another sepulchre was found the body of a young lady. singularly enough, her hair, which was of a golden straw colour, was uninjured, though the rest of her body crumbled to dust in the air. the innkeeper of the little place managed to possess himself of it, and at once dubbed his tavern "a la chevelure d'or." he was wont to exhibit the mass of golden locks to the visitor for a consideration. recently the tavern has changed hands, and the old innkeeper has carried off with him the golden locks. consequently, the inn has changed its name, and is now the hotel monaco. [illustration: les baux.] in front of the church is a small platform that overhangs the precipice. on it is the ruined chapel of the white penitents, erected in 1659. over the door may be read with difficulty the inscription in latin, "at the name of jesus every knee shall bow." hard by is a cistern, semicircular, dug out of the living rock; this goes by the name of the _deïmo_--that is to say, the place of tithe. into this cistern the farmers of the manor were bound to pour the tenth of all the wine they made, as the due of the lord of les baux. the ruined church of s. claude has in the bosses of the vaulting the arms of the princes of les baux, and of other noble families who lived in the little town and were feudatories of the princes, as well as of some of the guilds which had chapels in this church. the arms of the princes represented a star, for these princes claimed descent from balthazar, one of the magi who came from the east to bring gifts to the infant saviour. the tomb of raymond des baux, grand chamberlain of queen jeanne of naples, at casaluccio, bears the inscription, "to the illustrious family of the baux, which is held to derive its origin from the ancient kings of armenia, to whom, under the guidance of a star, the saviour of the world manifested himself." the barony of les baux consisted of seventy-nine towns or bourgs, which formed the territory called la baussenique. it was confiscated by louis iii., duke of anjou, and count of provence in 1414, after having been governed by one family from pons des baux, the first who appears in history, and who died in 970. the last male representative died in 1374, and his sister and heiress, alice, married conrad, count of freiburg, who died in 1414. she bequeathed the principality to her kinsman, william, duke of andria, but on account of his attachment to the opposed party, louis iii. seized on les baux. in 1642, louis xiii. erected it into a marquisate, and gave it to honoré grimaldi, prince of monaco, and it remained in the possession of the house of monaco till the revolution of 1789. the princes of baux were podestas of milan, consul-podestas of arles, where they had a castle, were seneschals of piedmont, grand justiciaries of the kingdom of naples, princes of orange, and viscounts of marseilles. they bore also the titles of counts of provence, kings of arles and vienne, princes of achaia, counts of cephalonia, and finally assumed that of emperors of constantinople. the castle was thrice besieged, twice destroyed, and again rebuilt; it lasted over eleven centuries. the most complete restoration of the castle and of the town-walls took place in 1444 by louis iii. of provence; but when it passed to the crown of france in 1630, by order of cardinal richelieu, it was destroyed. the strength of the position was such that he feared it. in the old days, when the princes and princesses des baux held court in this eagle's nest, it was a great resort of the troubadours, who came to it from all quarters. fouquet, the provençal poet, celebrated in his verses adelasia, wife of berald, prince of baux. he was filled with a romantic love for this exalted lady, and on her death, in a fit of sorrow, became monk of citeaux. afterwards he became abbot of thoronêt, bishop of marseilles, and finally archbishop of toulouse. he was born between 1160 and 1170, and was the son of a merchant of venice who had retired from business and settled at marseilles. when richard coeur de lion was on his way to syria, he made some stay at marseilles before going on to genoa, where he was to embark, and there fouquet insinuated himself into his good graces. he was married, but his wife was sorely neglected, and all his devotion was paid to the lady adelasia des baux. provençal traditions diverge as to the result of his suit. according to one account, he could "jamais trouver merci, ni obtenir aucun bien en droit d'amour," from the object of his passion, and, in disgust, he turned to make love to laura de s. jorlan, sister of berald des baux. but the other account is that he made love to both ladies at once, and that adelasia cast him off because she found that his fickle heart was turning to the fresher charms of laura. anyhow, he made his rejection by adelasia the subject of poetical laments, and prosecuted with vigour his siege of the heart and virtue of his patron's sister. and then he pursued with the same ardour the conquest of eudoxia, wife of william, count of montpellier. as already said, after the death of adelasia, he assumed the cowl. as bishop of toulouse, he exercised the ferocity of a wolf in his dealings with the albigenses. "there is no act of treachery or cruelty throughout the war," says dean milman, "in which the bishop of toulouse was not the most forward, sanguinary, and unscrupulous." the historian of his life, in the 'histoire littéraire de la france,' says of him: "after having given half his life to gallantry, he gave up, without restraint, the remainder of his life to the cause of tyranny, murder, and spoliation, and unhappily he profited by it.... loving women passionately, a ferocious apostle of the inquisition, he did not give up the composition of verses which bore the impress of his successive passions." another troubadour, william de cabestaing, sang the praises of berengaria des baux. afterwards he lost his heart to sermonda, wife of raymond de roussillon, who, not seeing the fun of this romantic spooning of his wife, waylaid and slew him, then plucked out his heart and had it served up at table in the evening. after his wife had partaken of the dish he informed her that what she had tasted was the heart of her admirer. she, full of horror, threw herself from a window of the castle and was dashed to pieces. this outrage was the occasion of civil war. the relatives of the lady and of william de cabestaing persuaded alphonso i., king of aragon, to ravage the territories of the count of roussillon and to destroy his castle. again, another troubadour, sordel, sang the praises of rambaude des baux, but in such enigmatical fashion that his verses may be read as a satire upon her charms. the princely family, moreover, had among its members two troubadours, berard des baux in the twelfth century, and in the next rambaud des baux, who in 1236 distinguished himself by his songs in honour of marie de chateauvert and of the countess of argeuil. in 1244 the troubadours vied with each other in lauding cecilia des baux, who was called passe-rose, on account of her beauty. other ladies of the same family sung by the poets were clairette in 1270 and 1275 by pierre d'auvergne, and etiennette de ganteaume--who shone in the court of love in 1332 at romanil, and baussette, daughter of hugh des baux in 1323, sung by roger of arles. so the family must have been one that in its alliances and daughters was distinguished by its beauty, or else paid liberally for flattery. vernon lee, in her euphorion, passes a severe sentence on the romantic affection professed by the minstrels of the middle ages for noble ladies. she says it was rank adultery and nothing short. i do not think so. there may have been cases, there no doubt were instances of criminal passion, but in nine cases out of ten these troubadours sang for their bread and butter. they lauded the seigneurs to the skies for their _gestes_ of valour, and their ladies for their transcendent beauty; they laid on their colours with a trowel, and were paid for so doing. that some of them burnt their fingers in playing with fire one cannot doubt, but i hardly think that they set to work in their trifling with the intent of provoking blisters. the husbands of the much-lauded ladies were hardly likely to suffer this sort of fun to proceed beyond romancing. there was always a chance of a minstrel who went too far with his heart into the flames, getting it roasted on a spit and served up à la william de cabestaing. besides, a good many of these much-besung ladies were no young brides, but mature and withering matrons. a troubadour attached himself to a lady as he attached himself to a seigneur, and, as a client of both, fawned on and flattered both. i cannot refer to petrarch, for i believe his laura was not a married woman, and the platonism of his affection is more than questionable. he was not an acknowledged troubadour, but an exile, whom the haughty family of sade would not suffer laura to marry. but there is the case of dante and beatrice, and of wolfram of eschenbach, one of the noblest and purest of singers, who idealised his lady elizabeth, wife of the baron of hartenstein, and with him most undoubtedly the devotion was without tincture of grossness. it is precisely this unreal love, or playing at love-making, that is scoffed at by cervantes in don quixote and the peerless dulcinea del toboso. why, that unfortunate william de cabestaing, whose heart was offered to his mistress, sang of her as cold to his suit:- "since adam gathered from the tree the apple, cause of all our woe, christ ne'er inspired so fair a she. a graceful form, not high nor low, a model of just symmetry, a skin whose purity and glow the rarest amethyst surpass; so fair is she for whom i sigh. but vain are all my sighs, alas! she heeds me not, nor deigns reply." the courts of love held by ladies of high rank were originally courts in which the rules of minstrelsy were laid down, they pronounced on the qualifications of a candidate, they polished and cherished the langue d'oc in its purity, dictated the subjects upon which the troubadours were to compose their lays, judged their pretensions, settled their controversies, recompensed their merits, and punished by disgrace or exclusion those who violated the laws. in the twelfth century these courts of ladies drew up provençal grammars, in which the rules of the dialect were laid down. one of these is the "donatus provincialis," another was composed by raimond vidal. but these courts of love went further. they laid down rules for love; they allowed married women to receive the homage of lovers, and even nicely directed all the symptoms they were to exhibit of reciprocation. but it is quite possible that this was all solemn fooling, and meant no harm. i wonder whether those golden locks carried off by the taverner had belonged to one of those queens of beauty sung by the troubadours! probably so, for the church of s. vincent was their mausoleum. one of the noble families that owed feudal duty to the lords of les baux was that of porcelet, and their mansion is one of the very few that is not deserted and ruinous in the little town. it is now occupied by some sisters of mercy who keep in it an orphanage. the porcelets were the first nobles of arles. king rené of anjou, who was fond of giving nicknames, sometimes flattering, sometimes the reverse to this, entitled the family grandeur des porcelets. other of his designations were inconstance des baux, déloyauté de beaufort, envie de candole, dissolution de castelane, sottise de grasse, and opiniâtreté de sade. a story is told of one of the sieges of les baux which is found elsewhere. the garrison of the castle and the inhabitants of the town were reduced to great straits for food, when orders were issued that everyone should surrender what he had into a common fund, to be doled out in equal portions to all. as none complied with this order, a domiciliary visit was made to every house, when an old woman was found to have a pig, likewise a sack of barley meal. the sieur des baux ordered the pig to be given a feed and then to be thrown over the precipice. when the besiegers found that the besieged had a pig so well nourished they thought it was hopeless to reduce the place, and raised the siege. in the thirteenth century the little eagle's nest of a town numbered three thousand six hundred inhabitants. at the present time it cannot count four hundred. every two or three years sees another house deserted, and the tenants migrate to the valley or plain. the houses are, like the castle, partly scooped out of the rock, and partly constructed. whole chambers, kitchens, cellars are veritable caverns. there can be no doubt that the place has been colonised from prehistoric times, and that many of these caves are the dwellings of a primitive population in the stone period. vast quantities of greek marseilles medals and of coins of the empire have been found here, as well as fragments of pottery of every age. a few years ago a beautiful bronze helmet of greek shape was here discovered. the place has served as a refuge for the inhabitants of arles at various periods. hither they fled before the teutons and ambrons in b.c. 102, when these invaders swept across the south of gaul on their return from spain; and opposite les baux, on the heights of costa pera, may be traced the walled camp and cisterns, where they took refuge and remained till the danger was overpast. again, in a.d. 480, when earic, king of the visigoths, took possession of arles, the inhabitants fled to the heights of les baux and constructed dwellings for themselves there in the rock. these chambers, scooped out of the limestone crag, are locally called baumes. anciently the roofs of the castle caught the rains, and shoots conveyed the water into great reservoirs that remain, but since the destruction of the castle the inhabitants have had to pave one whole sweep of the plateau so as to catch the showers, and convey them away into a subterranean cistern where the water purifies itself for use. after the hôtel dieu ceased to be used as an hospital, it was converted into an arena for bull-fights, but as on several occasions the bulls escaped and fell over the precipices, the utilisation of the great hall for this purpose was abandoned. i had a charming walk across the hills to s. remy, near which are the remains of the roman city of glanum liviæ. these remains consist of a triumphal arch, and a lovely monument about fifty feet high, quadrangular at the base, adorned with well-preserved bas-reliefs representing a skirmish of cavalry, a combat of infantry, and a sacrifice after a battle. above this basement rises a circular temple with corinthian pillars, containing in the midst two statues. the triumphal arch is not in equally good condition. the bas-reliefs on it represent captive barbarians and their wives. i caught the evening train at s. remy, and again ascended to the third-class compartment in the upper storey. presently after me came the guard: "would not monsieur like to descend? there is female society downstairs." "but, assuredly--only i have a third-class ticket." "ça ne fait rien," replied the guard, "so have the ladies below, but we never send them up into the attics. come, monsieur!" accordingly i descended to a carriage-load of cheery arles damsels and matrons in the quaint and picturesque costume of that town, and to a little french doctor and a couple of good-natured zouaves. "but--this is very remarkable," said the doctor. "only an hour ago i saw a monsieur in the same hat and boots as yourself--only the face was not the same." "very possibly. are you a doctor, and do not recognise jäger garments? i am not, it is true, in coat and continuations of that sanitary reformer, because i had to discard them. the fact is, i had a complete suit, but having been out in the rain in them, they shrank on me to such an extent that i entered the house contracted like a trussed fowl, and had to be cut out of the suit with a penknife." "what countryman are you?" asked the doctor. when i told him he shook his head. "you have not an english pronunciation. are you german?" i also shook my head. then he attempted some words in english. i was obliged to laugh: he was unintelligible. as i could not understand his english--"mais, monsieur!" said the arles women, "you must be a swiss." it was not complimentary, i must admit, to be thought to speak french with a german accent. it has come about thus, i suppose, that, though as a boy i lived in france for many years, yet of late i have been, almost annually, a visitor to germany. i only mention this incident, because i got into trouble later through a similar misapprehension as to my nationality. [illustration: range of the alpines from glanum liviæ.] chapter x. the campaign of marius. the trémaïé--representation of c. marius, martha, and julia--the gaïé--the teutons and ambrons and cimbri threaten italy--c. marius sent against them--his camp at s. gabriel--the canal he cut--the barbarians cross the rhone--first brush with them--they defile before him at orgon--the rout of the ambrons at les milles--he follows the teutons--the plain of pourrières--position of marius--the battle--slaughter of the teutons--position of their camp--monument of marius--venus victrix--annual commemoration. [illustration: ruins s. gabriel.] the two oldest and most interesting monuments of les baux have been unnoticed in the last chapter. these are the sculptured stones of trémaïé and gaïé. they are two limestone blocks fallen from the precipices above, lying on the flounce of rubble near the bottom of the promontory of les baux, the one on the east the other on the south. that on the east, la trémaïé, consists of a block of shell-limestone about twenty-five feet high, in which, twelve feet from the soil, is sculptured a semicircular headed niche, five and a half feet high by four and a half feet wide, that contains a group of three personages, a bearded man on the left of the observer, a tall woman in the centre wearing a mitre, and on the right another woman. at first glance, i confess i supposed this was a bit of sculpture of the eleventh century, but on climbing to the roof of the chapel erected beneath the niche, some forty-five years ago, i was able to examine the group minutely, and satisfied myself that the work is of the classic period. [illustration: la trémaïé.] what gave me the first impression that it was of later date was the use of the honeysuckle ornament at the crown of the arch, and at the capitals of the pillars supporting it, which was adopted by architects of the eleventh century from classic work. but on close examination i found that, not only were the figures dressed in pure classic tunics and togas, but that the drapery is modelled in conformity with that of the same epoch, and is quite distinct from the modelling by the mediæval artists. this is specially noticeable where the statues have been protected by the sides from weathering. moreover, below the figures is an inscription in letters, the date of which is unmistakable, though unfortunately it can be only partially deciphered. it runs:- ........f. caldvs .....ae posvit. p... the three figures are life-size. the central one is very peculiar, owing to the mitre or diadem it wears, which, however, is utterly unlike the episcopal mitre of the eleventh century. moreover, there is no doubt about the person wearing it being a female. popular belief, also, does not err as to her sex; it has made a mistake relative to that of the man on her right, and when some forty-five years ago the curé of les baux erected the chapel under the rock, he believed that these figures represented the three marys. the man is in consular habit, the toga, _neque fusa neque restricta_, worn till the time of augustus. his feet appear beneath the tunic. unfortunately the face is too much weathered to present any features. not so the tall, mitred central figure, whose right hand is raised, as is thought, to hold a staff wreathed with chaplets. her mantle, the [greek: himation], is clasped on the shoulder of her right arm. the third figure is that of a roman matron. now it has been supposed, with a great degree of probability, that these three figures represent c. marius, his wife julia, and the prophetess martha, who attended him in his campaign against the teutons and ambrons. plutarch says: "he had with him a syrian woman named martha, who was said to have the gift of prophecy. she was carried about in a litter with great solemnity, and the sacrifices which he offered were all by her direction. when she went to sacrifice she wore a purple robe, lined with the same, and buttoned up, and held in her hand a spear adorned with ribands and garlands." i confess that the staff with ribands and chaplets seen by some in this sculpture, were not distinguishable by myself. at the same time i was puzzled with certain ornaments below the raised hand of the diademed lady, which i could not explain. it is said that the staff is only visible when the morning sun strikes the weathered surface. it may be there--but i think that a fold of drapery has been mistaken for a staff. yet--the wreath or buckle below her hand in such a case remains unaccounted for. if these three figures represent caius marius, martha, and julia, then we can understand the name given the group--les trémaïés--the three marii; caius marius, martha marii, and julia marii, which has since been altered into les trois 'maries, and the figures assumed to be those of mary the wife of salome, mary magdalen, and martha the sister of mary. in the belief that such is the case, mass is said in the chapel on the 25th of may, and there is a concourse of devotees assembled from the neighbourhood around the little chapel and memorial stone. the second sculptured block lies about three hundred paces to the south, and is called les gaïé, i.e., _caii imagines_. it resembles hundreds of similar roman monuments to a husband and wife, found in the museums of rome, arles, nimes, and avignon. here also there is a niche, four feet wide by two feet four inches high. on the right of the observer is a bearded man holding a roll in his left hand, and with his right he clasps the right hand of his wife. he is in consular habit; unfortunately both heads have been damaged. at some time or other a vandal thought that the upper portion of the block would serve his purpose as a step or threshold, and drove a crowbar into the face of the stone between the two heads, and split off the cap, thus exposing the sculpture to the ash of the rain. [illustration: les gaïé.] beneath the figures is an inscription no longer legible. it is _possible_ that this monument may represent caius marius and his wife julia. a somewhat lively french imagination has taken the figure of the man to be martha with her staff and mitre, but i examined the sculpture under a favourable light, and satisfied myself that this figure is that of a man. the face was apparently struck by the crowbar, which has broken off a film of the limestone, and destroyed the nose. the caldus whose name appears on the trémaïé is probably caius cælius caldus, who belonged to the party of marius, was created tribune b.c. 107, and who was one of the lieutenants of marius in the war against the cimbri, and signed a disgraceful treaty with the ligurians to save the remnant of the army, after the death of the consul cassius. he was named consul b.c. 97, and some medals struck by him exist. possibly caldus erected this monument in honour of marius, who had made the platform of les baux and the range of the alpines the vantage ground whence he watched the march of the teutons and whence he swooped down to destroy them. the great figure of caius marius overshadows the whole of provence, and it is not possible for one who has any interest in the past not to feel its influence and be inspired by it. stirred by the sight of these sculptures at les baux, i resolved to go over all the ground of his campaign, plutarch in hand, and i venture to think that what i saw and discovered will not only interest the reader, but help to elucidate the history of that memorable struggle. in the year b.c. 113, there appeared to the north of the adriatic, on the right bank of the danube, a vast horde of barbarians ravaging noricum--the present austria, and threatening italy. two nations prevailed, the cimbri, kaempir, _i.e._, warriors, perhaps scandinavian, and the teutons, pure germans. they had come from afar, from the cimbric peninsula, now jutland and holstein, driven from their homes by an irruption of the sea. for a while they roamed over germany. the consul papirius carbo was despatched in all haste to defend the menaced frontier of italy. the barbarians pleaded to be given lands on which to settle. carbo treacherously attacked them, but was defeated. however, the hordes did not yet venture to cross the alps. they inundated the swiss valleys, and as they flowed west swept along with them other races, amongst which was that of the ambrons, a german race, whose name meets us again as sicambrians, of which stock later was chlodovig (clovis). when clovis was about to enter the font, s. remigius thus addressed him: "bow thy head, haughty sicambrian; adore what thou hast burned; burn what thou didst adore." in the year b.c. 110 all together entered gaul, and then, continuing their wanderings and ravages in central gaul, at last reached the rhone and menaced the roman province. there, however, the fear of rome arrested their progress; they applied anew for lands, but silanus, the governor, answered them haughtily, that the commonwealth had neither lands to give nor services to accept from barbarians. he attacked them and was defeated. three consuls, l. cassius, c. servilius cæpio, and cn. manlius, sent in all haste against them, successively experienced the same fate. with the barbarians victory bred presumption. their chieftains met, and deliberated whether they should not forthwith cross into italy and exterminate or enslave the romans. scaurus, a prisoner, was present at this deliberation. he laughed at the threat, and cried to his captors, "go, but the romans you will find are invincible." in a transport of fury one of the chiefs present ran him through with his sword. howbeit the warning of scaurus had its effect. the barbarians scoured the roman province, but did not as yet dare to invade the sacred soil of the peninsula. then the cimbri broke off from their comrades and passed into spain, as an overswollen torrent divides, and disperses its waters in all directions. after ravaging spain, the cimbri returned, and the re-united hordes resolved no longer to spare italy. the cimbri were to invade it by way of the brenner pass and the adige, the teutons and ambrons by the maritime alps. [illustration: caius marius. (_from a bust in the vatican._)] the utmost terror prevailed in rome, and throughout italy. there was but one man, it was said, who could avert the danger. it was marius, low-born, but already illustrious, esteemed by the senate for his military genius and successes; swaying at his will the people, who saw in him one of themselves; beloved and feared by the army for his bravery, his rigorous discipline, and for his readiness to share with his soldiers all toils, and dangers; stern and rugged, lacking education, eloquence, and riches, but resolute and dexterous in the field. his father had been a farmer, and his hands had been hardened in youth at the plough. but as a free-born latin he had been called to serve in war, and his skill and genius had advanced him, from step to step. he was consul in africa at the time when summoned to save his country from the danger threatening it from the barbarian hordes. on reaching provence, he found the soldiers demoralised by disaster, and with discipline relaxed. the barbarians had not as yet reached the rhone, they were moving east slowly, and during the winter remained stationary. he had therefore time to organise his troops and choose his positions. [illustration: orgon and the durance.] now the old græco-phoenician road along the coast, that had been restored by the consul cn. domitius, and thenceforth bore his name, deserted the coast as it approached the mouths of the rhone, the region of morasses, stony deserts, lagoons, and broad streams; kept to the heights, and reached nimes, whence, still skirting lagoons, it ran along the high ground of limestone to beaucaire. the rhone was crossed to tarascon, and thence the road followed the durance up to orgon, where it branched; one road to the left went to apt, and crossed the alps into italy by pont genèvre, the other turned south to aix and marseilles. the road, afterwards called the aurelian way, led from aix up the river are, over a low _col_ to s. maximin, and reached the coast by the valley of the argens, that flows into the sea at fréjus. it was a little doubtful to marius which course the barbarians would pursue. accordingly he formed a strong camp at ernaginum, now s. gabriel, at the extreme limit of the chain of the alpines, to the west. almost certainly all the inhabitants of arles, tarascon, glanum, and cavaillon, all græco-gaulish towns, took refuge on the plateau of the limestone hills. the barbarians could not go south of the alpines, because the whole region was desert, or was covered with lagoons. in order to victual his camp, marius set his soldiers to work to convey a branch of the durance [1] past ernaginum into the lagoons below, and he cut a channel of communication between these lagoons, and opened a mouth into the sea through the etang de galéjon. by this means vessels from rome or marseilles could reach the walls of his camp with supplies. [footnote 1: plutarch says the rhone, but he is almost certainly mistaken. the canal was afterwards probably that called les lonnes (lagunes), the dried-up bed of which can be distinguished in places still. the line from tarascon to arles runs beside it for a little way. see appendix b.] in the spring of 102 b.c. the teutons and ambrons packed their tents and began to move east. the grass had grown sufficiently to feed their horses and oxen. marius allowed them to traverse the rhone without offering resistance; and they began their march along the road that ran at the foot of the precipitous alpines. they soon appeared, "in immense numbers," says plutarch, "with their hideous looks and their wild cries," drawing up their chariots, and planting their tents in front of the roman camp. they showered upon marius and his soldiers continual insult and defiance. the romans, in their irritation, would fain have rushed out of their camp, but marius restrained them. "it is no question," said he, with his simple and convincing common sense, "of gaining triumphs and trophies, but of averting this storm of war and of saving italy." a teuton chief came one day up to the very gates of the camp, and challenged him to fight. marius had him informed that if he were weary of life, he could go and hang himself. as the barbarian still persisted, marius sent him a gladiator. however, he made his soldiers, in regular succession, mount guard on the ramparts, to get them familiarised with the cries, appearance, and weapons of the barbarians. the most distinguished of his officers, young sertorius, a man whose tragic story is, itself, a romance, and who understood and spoke gallic well, penetrated in the disguise of a gaul into the camp of the ambrons, and informed marius of what was going on there. at last, the barbarians, in their impatience, having vainly attempted to storm the roman camp at ernaginum, struck their own, and put themselves in motion towards the alps. marius followed them along the heights, out of reach, ready to rush down on their rear, observant of their every movement. they reached orgon. there the limestone precipices rise as walls sheer above the plain, now crowned by a church and a couple of ruined castles. it was probably from this point that marius watched the hordes defile past. for six whole days, it is said, their bands flowed before the roman position. the teutons looked up at the military on the cliffs and flung at them the insolent question: "have you any messages for your wives in italy? we shall soon be with them." the soldiers, still restrained by marius, waited till all had passed, and then the general struck his camp, and crossing the dip at lamanon, where the overspill of the durance had once carried its rolled stones into the crau, he regained the heights on the farther side of the touloubre, at pelissanne, the ancient pisavis. still keeping to the heights, now of red sandstone, marius again came on the barbarians at les milles, four miles to the south of aix. he had observed all their movements, and had seen that the ambrons had detached themselves from the teutons at aix, so as to make a descent on marseilles. possibly aix had been given up to ravage by the teutons, and the ambrons were bidden find their spoil in marseilles. at les milles the red sandstone cliff stands above the are, which makes here a sweep, leaving a green meadow in the loop. here, from under the rocks ooze forth countless streams; some were, like those at aix, hot; [1] now i will again quote plutarch. "here marius pitched on a place for his camp, unexceptionable in point of strength, but affording little water; and when his soldiers complained of thirst, he pointed to the river that flowed by the enemy's camp, and told them, 'that they must thence purchase water with their blood.' 'why then,' said they, 'do you not immediately lead us thither, before our blood is quite parched?' to which he replied, in a milder tone, 'so i will; but first of all let us fortify our camp.' [footnote 1: whether so at present i am unable to state, not having been able to test them. all the hot springs have been reduced in temperature considerably since roman times.] "the soldiers, though with some reluctance, obeyed. but the camp-followers, being in great want of water for themselves and their cattle, ran in crowds to the stream, some with pick-axes, some with hatchets, and some with swords and javelins, along with their pitchers; for they were resolved to have water, even if forced to fight for it. these were, at first, encountered by only a small party of the enemy; for of the main body, some, having bathed, were engaged at dinner, and others were still bathing, the country there abounding in hot wells. this gave the romans a chance of cutting off a number of them, while they were indulging themselves in these delightful baths. their cry brought others to their assistance, so that now it was no longer possible for marius to restrain the impetuosity of his soldiers, who were uneasy for the fate of their servants. besides, these were the ambrons, who had defeated manlius and cæpio, that they saw before them." the contest became general. the ambrons rushed across the river, yelling "ambra! ambra!" their war-cry, which was at once retorted on them by a body of auxiliaries in the roman camp, who heard their own cry and name. after a furious engagement, the romans remained victors, the little river are being choked with the bodies of the barbarians. those who retreated to their camp were pursued by the romans. there the women, with loud cries, armed themselves, and made a desperate resistance, catching at the swords with their naked hands, and suffering themselves to be hacked to pieces. the night was spent by the romans in some alarm, for though they had defeated their foes and penetrated to their camp, yet they had not time to fortify their own position; and they dreaded lest the ambrons should make head during the night, call the teutons to their assistance, and charge up the hill. "a cry was heard from the defeated ambrons all through the night, not like the sighs and groans of men, but like the howling and bellowing of wild beasts." two days after this a second and decisive battle ensued. the narrative in plutarch is a little confused, and it is only by familiarity with the sites that the whole story becomes unfolded clearly before us. thus, it is only on the spot that one sees how it was that marius, striking from the chain of the alpines, came up over against the ambrons on the hill above les milles, and how he pursued his course thence. plutarch, though he speaks of the two battles, does not distinguish the sites effectually. the teutons, as already said, were making their way east from aix. the road ran through the broad basin of the are; to the north rise, precipitously, the bald white precipices of the limestone mont victoire, to the height of 3,000 feet, with not a ledge on the sides where a shrub can find root. between these cliffs and the plain are, however, two low sandstone ridges, the higher of which forms an arc, and dives into the wall of mont victoire, about half way through the plain. on the southern side of the river are low hills; at the extreme north-east is a conical green hill named pain de munition, which is fortified much like the hereford beacon, with walls in concentric rings. to the south-east is the chain of mont aurelien, and there, on the mont olympe, is another fortified position, beneath which is the town of trets, an ancient roman settlement. [illustration: mont victoire and the plain of pourrières.] now the barbarians followed the road on the north side of the river are, to the roman station on it named tegulata, the first station out of aix, their numbers swelled by the discomfited ambrons. marius, however, being at les milles, crossed the river, and kept to the south side of it till he reached trets. then he had a fortified position in his rear, the camp of mont olympe; moreover, the barbarians were encamped on three tofts of red sandstone on the north side of the river, at the station tegulata, with, at their back, the roman fortified position of _panis annonæ_, now called pain de munition, where one may conjecture marius had his stores and reserves. they were probably unaware of the trap into which they had walked. marius, however, had despatched on the day before claudius marcellus, with three thousand men, up the long valley of the infernet, to the north side of mont victoire, so as to reach and strengthen the fortress of panis annonæ, and secure his stores, and next day to descend the height and fall on the rear of the enemy. the slopes along which marius marched were probably well-wooded, and he was unobserved by the teutons. they had spent one whole day in pacing along the straight flat roman road under mont victoire. as they approached the station tegulata, a singular blood-red splash on the white sides of mont victoire emerged from behind the lower wooded sandstone road, a signal of warning to them that they were approaching a place of peril. moreover, the sandstone deepened in colour, till at tegulata the little streams that oozed from under the sandstone ran like blood about their feet. of these they could not drink, therefore they halted at tegulata, where they again reached the river, and where there was a bridge; they there encamped on the three tofts already mentioned, the surfaces of which are of hard, dry, yellow sandstone, superposed on beds of friable red sand. here the river flowed sparkling and clear, and supplied them with what water they required. everything points to this spot as their camp. it is one day's march from aix. it is the first point at which drinkable water is reached. the sandstone tofts stand up above the plain, then undrained and marshy, as a dry base for their tents. finally, the monument of marius is opposite them, on the farther side of the river. [illustration: sketch plan of the battle fields.] in the meantime the romans had approached from the south, from trets, making a slight détour, following the tactics of marius as before, to keep to the south of the horde, and with now a river between him and them. at trets the ground inclines from south to north, with a broken edge of sandstone--invisible from the river, serving as a screen behind which troops could be massed unperceived. here it was, i suspect, that marius passed that spring night, the second after the defeat of the ambrons. the broken edge of sandstone is not eighteen feet high. from the top the ground slopes down for a mile, and then ensues a gully cut in the sandstone by a small blood-red confluent of the are. another mile, or mile and a half beyond, is the river, and close to the river, on the farther bank, was the camp of the teutons. on the morning of the 23rd march [1] the roman cavalry were discovered by the teutons drawn up on the slope. [footnote 1: my reason for fixing the day i shall give in the sequel.] "on seeing this, unable to contain themselves," says plutarch, "nor stay till the romans were come down into the plain, they armed themselves hastily and advanced up the hill. marius sent officers throughout the army, with orders that they should await the onslaught of the enemy. when the barbarians were within reach, the romans were to hurl their javelins, then draw their swords, and advance, pressing the enemy back by their shields. for the place was so slippery that the enemy's blows could have little weight, nor could they preserve close order, where the declivity of the ground made them lose their balance." one can see exactly where this took place, it was where the confluent of the are formed a natural protection to the position of the romans; the hollow cut in the greasy red marl was too insignificant to prevent the teutons from attempting to pass it, but was sufficient to break their order, and to give the romans the first advantage over them. having driven back the assailants, the romans now crossed the natural moat and bore down on the teutons. at the same moment the well-designed manoeuvre of marius, in despatching marcellus to the fort on panis annonæ, produced its result. marcellus had descended the hill, screened by the trees, and had suddenly fallen on the rear of the camp of the teutons. thus attacked, both in front and in the rear, the barbarians were seized with panic. a frightful carnage ensued. no quarter was given. women and children were mown down; the dogs furiously defending their masters' bodies were also slaughtered. [illustration: monument of marius, position of marius, treta.] "after the battle, marius selected from among the arms and other spoils such as were elegant and entire, and likely to make the most brilliant show in his triumph. the rest he piled together, and offered them as a splendid sacrifice to the gods. the army stood around the hill crowned with laurel; and he himself, arrayed in a purple robe, girt after the manner of the romans, held a lighted torch. he had just raised it with both hands towards heaven, and was about to set fire to the pyre, when some men were seen approaching at a gallop. great silence and expectation followed. on their coming up, they leaped from their horses and saluted him with the title of consul for the fifth time, and presented letters to the same purport. this added joy to the solemnity, which the soldiers expressed by acclamations and by clanking of arms; and, while the officers were presenting marius with new crowns of laurel, he set fire to the pile, and finished the sacrifice." according to some accounts the number of teutons slain numbered two hundred thousand, and that of the prisoners is stated to have been eighty thousand. the most moderate computation of the slain is fixed at one hundred thousand. in any case the carnage was great, for the battle-field, where all the corpses rested without burial, rotting in the sun and rain, got the name of _campi putridi_, the fields of putrefaction, a name still traceable in that of pourrières, the neighbouring village. [illustration: venus victrix.] on the site of the battle, on the south bank of the river, over against the camp of the enemy, where also was the pyre in which the waggons, chariots, arms and vesture of the invaders was consumed, a monument to marius was erected, which was tolerably perfect before the french revolution, but which now presents a mass of ruins. it consists of a quadrangular block of masonry, measuring fifteen feet on each side, within an enclosing wall fourteen feet distant. this quadrangular block sustained a pyramid, with statues at the angles, as it still figures upon the arms of the commune and on some renaissance tapestry in a neighbouring château. here, three or four years ago, was found a beautiful statue in parian marble of venus victrix, unfortunately without head and arms, but quite of the best greek workmanship. the city of avignon bought it of the proprietor of the field for one thousand eight hundred francs, and it is now one of the principal ornaments of the avignon museum. the statue, to my mind, proves that this monument was raised by julius cæsar; there is an indirect compliment to his own family in it. venus was the ancestress of the julian race, and cæsar perhaps insinuated, if he erected the statue, that the success of marius was due to the patronage of the divine ancestress and protectress of the julian race, and of julius cæsar's aunt, the wife of marius, quite as much as to the genius in war of marius himself. we know, moreover, that the trophies erected to marius for his cimbric and teutonic victories were overthrown by sulla, and that they were re-erected by julius cæsar in a.d. 65. the anniversary of the battle was annually celebrated in a little temple dedicated to venus victrix on the apex of mont victoire, that overhangs the plain. when provence became christian the temple was converted into a chapel, venus victrix became transformed into s. victoria; and the procession remained unaltered, the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages ascended the mountain bearing boughs of box, which they waved and shouted "victoire! victoire!" on reaching the chapel, mass was celebrated. this took place annually on march 23rd till the revolution, when the chapel was suffered to fall into ruin. i was on the battlefield on the day which is traditionally held to have been that when this decisive battle took place. a brilliant day. the frogs were croaking in the marshes and dykes, the tones of some like the cawing of young rooks. the ground was strewn with grape-hyacinth, and white star of bethlehem, the rocks were covered with rosemary in pale grey bloom, the golden chains of the broom waving over the blood-red sandstone rocks. that the tradition is correct, or approximately so, i think probable, for towards the end of march would be the suitable time for the barbarians to set themselves in motion for the invasion of italy. sufficient grass could be had for their horses and cattle, and they would desire to reach the plains of italy before the great summer heats. [illustration: march of s. victoire (23rd march). harmonised by f. w. bussell, esq., m.a.] i talked a good deal to peasants working in the fields. they were all of one mind as to where the battle had raged--from north to south, they said, between trets and pourrières. the tradition is only worth anything in that it is based on the fact that along this line the greatest amount of weapons has been turned up by the spade, and pick, and plough. [1] a french writer, referred to in the footnote, says that if a little rill trickling into the are be examined where it flows in, opposite the monument of marius, the banks will be found at first to be full of broken roman pottery, but if the course of the stream be pursued a little farther up it will be found to flow through beds of charcoal and molten masses of metal--clearly the site of the pyre raised by marius. i accordingly searched the locality. i found the pottery, and picked out fragments of samian ware; the bank is from three to nine feet deep in them. farther on, i came, as m. gilles said, to remains of charcoal and cinder. i was perplexed. i followed the stream farther up, and found that it crossed a road that was metalled for half a mile with cinder, and that the cinder lay on the road and on the road only. i instituted inquiries and ascertained that this was all brought from a steam mill a mile and a half off along this road. but though these remains of charcoal and scoria are not ancient, yet the little rill does ooze from the plateau on which i believe marius raised the pyre. it is exactly opposite his monument, between his position and the panis annonæ, whence swept down marcellus with his cavalry. it was the site at once of the camp and of the pyre. no remains could possibly be found on it of camp or pyre, as the sandstone is in constant disintegration, and the whole surface has been many times washed bare and renewed during the nineteen hundred and ninety-two years that have elapsed since the battle. [footnote 1: m. gilles, "campagne de marius dans la gaule," paris, 1870, thinks that marius pursued the teutons along the aurelian road, and that the battle was fought on the north side of the river. i do not hold this. the monument of marius is on the south side, and i think he would naturally secure a fortified camp in his rear.] the story how marius, having destroyed the hordes of ambrons and teutons, and secured italy on the west, returned to the peninsula, and finding that the cimbri were streaming down from the north-east, met them near vercellæ, and there defeated and slaughtered them also, i leave for other pens to describe. that battle took place on july 30th. * * * * * i have given (_ante_, pp. 152, 153) what may interest the musical reader, the traditional march performed on the day of the battle of pourrières, when the pilgrims ascended the mountain to return thanks for the victory of marius. chapter xi. trets and gardanne. the fortifications of trets--the streets--the church--roman sarcophagus--château of trets--visit to a self-educated archæologist--his collection made on the battle-field--dispute over a pot of burnt bones--one magpie--gardanne--the church--a vielle--trouble with it--story of an executioner's sword. [illustration: trets.] trets is an odd little place, surrounded by its ancient walls and towers, and with its gates--but, oh! if anyone would know what a cramped, unwholesome place one of these old mediæval burghs was, let him visit trets. the streets are some four and some five feet across; in threading them you pass under a succession of archways, for every house desiring more space has thrust forth a couple of storeys over the street, sustained by an arch. the exhalations from the dirt-heaps, the foulness of every house, the general condition of tumble-down, compose a something to make a sanitary officer's hair stand on end. but it is very wonderful. carcassonne is marvellous, but this is carcassonne seen through a diminishing glass. trets has an ancient church, but that has a tower in ruins, and it is a marvel to the visitor how that the rain does not enter and souse the interior and congregation, so dilapidated is the whole structure. in the basement of the tower is a white marble sculptured roman sarcophagus; on it are the heads of husband and wife, supported by genii. within the church is a slab bearing record of the consecration, a.d. 1051. the town has a stately château, now abandoned to the poor and cut up into small habitations. there is in it a grand stone staircase with ornamental plaster ceilings on the several landings; one represents a boar hunt, the other an ostrich chase. in the château lives a miner, a m. maneil, who is an enthusiastic archæologist. the publican of the little inn at trets told me of him: of how, when his work is over, and other labouring men come to the cabaret or the café, he spends his time in prowling over the battle-field of pourrières, searching for antiquities, and how he hoards up his little savings to buy books that deal with archæological subjects. it was to see m. maneil that i visited the château. he has a rich collection of objects. i counted twenty-four stone hatchets, and something like three hundred beads strung for necklaces, flint arrow-heads in large numbers, also many bronze implements, a quern, pierced shells, several sculptured stones found in dolmens, and a great many roman coins. it is the collection of a life, made by an enthusiast, and ought to be acquired by the museum of aix. in the mairie at trets is an urn full of calcined bones, in very good condition. it was found by two boys some little while ago in a tumulus on the side of the road to puyloubier. the farmer whose land it was on, hearing of the discovery, and concluding that something precious had been found, brought an action against the youthful archæologists, and strove to recover the treasure. after a hard-fought battle he obtained his rights. they were forced to surrender their acquisition--a crock--and, to the disgust of the farmer, it contained not a coin of any sort, only bones. so he has left it in the mairie, in the hopes that some one will be induced to buy it, and so contribute a trifle towards the heavy expenses of the trial. [illustration: gardanne.] now, as i was walking from the field of pourrières to trets, one solitary magpie appeared on my left, flew a little way, lighted, and flew on farther, and accompanied me thus for half the journey. "one is for sorrow." my mind immediately recurred to home--to wife and children. what had or would happen? influenza--would that decimate the flock? or a fire--would that consume my books and pictures? nothing happens but the unexpected. never for one moment did i obtain a glimpse, no, not half a glimpse, into the trouble in store for me, which was to arise, not from the loss of anything, but out of an acquisition. from trets i went on by train to gardanne, watching the evening lights die upon the silver-grey precipices of mont victoire. at gardanne i had to change, and kick my heels for two hours. gardanne is a picturesque little town, built on a hill round a castle in ruins and a church very much restored. so restored did the church seem to be from the bottom of the hill that i doubted whether it would be worth a visit. gardanne is surrounded by broad boulevards planted with trees. now, no sooner has one passed inward, from this boulevard, than one finds a condition of affairs only a little less dreadful than that at trets. gardanne was a walled town, but all the walls have been transformed into the faces of houses, inns and cafés, plastered and painted and so disguised as not to reveal their origin till one passes behind them. then one is involved in a labyrinth of narrow, dark lanes scrambling up the hill, running in and out among the houses, paved with cobble stones in some places, in others resolving themselves into flights of broken steps. on scrambling to the terrace on which the church stands on the apex of the hill, i saw that it was of very remarkable width, all under one low gable--certainly extraordinarily ugly, and newly plastered, marked out in sham blocks of stone, and made as hideous as the ingenuity of man could well achieve. however, i entered the west door, and passed into almost complete darkness, only relieved by the paschal candle that was burning at a side altar and the red lamp in the choir. as my eyes became accustomed to the gloom, i discovered to my surprise that i had entered a very interesting eleventh-century church, of five aisles, all under one roof, without clerestory. but the evening light through the small stained windows did not suffer me to make out any details. the east end of the church rises from the crag on which it is built, without any window in it. on leaving the top of the hill and descending into the town i met my fate in the form of a woman who was playing a hurdy-gurdy, and singing to its strains a provençal ballad. i stopped at once, and asked her to let me investigate the instrument. i have a fancy for ancient musical instruments. a handle is turned that grates on one catgut string, and the fingers of the left hand, passed under the hurdy-gurdy, touch notes that stop the string at various lengths, and so vary the tone. [illustration: the vielle.] she told me the instrument was called the vielle, in fact--our old english viol; a very ancient instrument, which is represented as being played by one of the minstrels sculptured on the east front of launceston parish church, circ. 1525. on a capital at s. georges de boscherville, in normandy, is an eleventh-century representation of a huge hurdy-gurdy resting on the knees of two performers. one turns the handle, the other plays on the keys. mr. chappell at one time believed it was the old english _rote_, from _rota_, a wheel, but changed his mind later, and showed that the rote had a hole through it, which enabled it to be played with both hands like a lyre or harp, and derived its name from the anglo-saxon "rott"--cheerful. this branch of archæology being one in which i was particularly interested, nothing would suffice me but buying the viol of the woman; and having acquired it, i slung it round my neck by a very dirty blue ribbon, and hastened to the station to catch my train to aix. now only did i discover what the magpie portended, for with the acquisition of that hurdy-gurdy my life became a burden to me. i could not pack it into my gladstone bag. i could not fold it up with my rugs. i was forced to travel with it slung round my neck. naturally, in a railway carriage i was asked to perform on the singular instrument--but i was incapable of doing this. fellow travellers disbelieved in my statement. why did i wander through provence, the land of troubadours, if i were no troubadour? surely i was sulky--not incapable; unwilling to oblige--not unable to do so. when i arrived at an hotel--especially late in the evening--i found the host doubtful about receiving me. he looked at my bag, then at my hurdy-gurdy, then scrutinised my boots; wanted to know what priced rooms i required; must consult madam. on the railway platform again, i found myself an object of attention to certain men in plain clothes, with keen searching eyes--and, as i shall relate in the sequel, brought one of them down on me. vexed that i was unable to pass the tedious time in the train with a tune on my vielle, and entertain my fellow travellers, i began to practise on it in my room at night. then the fellow inmates complained: they sent their compliments and desired to know whether there were wild beasts next door--they objected to be lodged near a menagerie. my experiences with the hurdy-gurdy recall to my memory some others i went through a few years ago. on one occasion i spent a winter in a city in the south of germany, where i made the acquaintance of an antiquary who was very old and bedridden, and had no relations, no one to care for him but an old housekeeper. the man had belonged to the town-council, and had spent his life in collecting curiosities connected with the history of his town. among his treasures above his bed, was the city executioner's sword, much notched. this sword was six feet long, with a huge handle, to be grasped with two hands, and with an iron ornamented knob as counterpoise at the end of the handle. how life is made up of lost opportunities! how much of the criminal history of the city might i not have learned, if i had paid longer visits to herr schreiber, and listened to his account of the notches in the blade, to each of which a ghastly history attached. but the antiquary's bedroom measured fifteen feet by seven, and the window was hermetically sealed; moreover, there was a stove in the room, and--herr schreiber himself, always. "ach, mein herr! do you see dis great piece broken out of de blade? dat vas caused by a voman's neck. de executioner could not cut it drough; her neck vas harder dan his sword. she vas a very vicked voman; she poisoned her fader.--do you see dis littel nick? dis vas made by a great trater to the kaiser and vaterland. i vill tell you all about it." i never heard all the stories: i should have been suffocated had i stayed to listen; but i found, whenever i called on my friend, that my eyes invariably turned to the sword--it was so huge, it was so notched, and had such a gruesome history. poor old schreiber, i knew, would have to bow his neck before long under the scythe of time. how he hung on in that stuffy room under the great sword so long was a marvel to me, and would be pronounced impossible by sanitary authorities in england. nevertheless, he did live on for a twelvemonth after i left the town. when about to depart, i said to the english chaplain: "old schreiber can't last long; he must smother shortly. keep an eye on the sword for me, there's a good fellow. he has left everything to the housekeeper." a twelvemonth after, as i was about to leave england for a run into bohemia, i got a letter from the chaplain: "schreiber is dead. i have the sword." i wired at once to him: "send it me to my inn at aix-la-chapelle. will pick it up on my way home." so i went on my way rejoicing, ascended the rhine to mainz, trained to nuremberg, and passed through the gap of the bohemian mountain-chain to pilsen, and on to prague. after six weeks in bohemia and silesia, i descended the rhine to aix-la-chapelle, and arrived at my inn. "dere is vun vunderful chest come for you," said the landlord. "ve vas not very comfortable to take him in. ve keep him, dough." and no wonder. the chest was shaped somewhat like the coffin of a very tall man. "vat ish he? he have been here four veek and doe days.--dere is no schmell." "i cannot take that thing--i really cannot. it is preposterous. how could the chaplain have put my sword into the hands of an undertaker?--get me a hammer; i will knock the case to pieces." now, there was a reason why the chest should assume the shape of a coffin--that was, because of the crosspiece between the handle and the blade. my name and address were on the lid, at the place where usually goes the so-called "breast-plate." the host of my inn, the waiters, the porter, the boots, all stood in breathless curiosity to see the box opened, and when the sword was exposed--"ach!" exclaimed the host gravely, "i vas right--dere vas no schmell, because dere could be no schmell." i could not see the force of this reasoning, remembering herr schreiber's room, and how long the sword had been in it; and allowing that there is no porosity in tempered steel, still, the black velvet casing of the handle might have absorbed a considerable amount of schreiberian bacteria, bacilli, or whatever it is that physiologists assert to be so nasty and so ubiquitous, and so set on finding out our weak places and hitting us there, as swordfish "go" at whales. i had got my sword out of its coffin, but had not considered what to do with it next, and i found myself in as great a difficulty as before. i got a porter to convey it for me to the station, and he placed it in the first-class waiting-room with the iron counterpoise on the floor, beside a divan, and leaned the tip of the blade against the wall. there it was allowed to remain; and i walked about, pretending that it did not belong to me. presently, a well-dressed, very stately lady--she was a _gräfin_ (countess)--came in, stalked to the divan, and seated herself on it, very upright, without observing the sword. she opened a reticule and produced a lace-edged handkerchief, with which she proceeded to dust the velvet of her dress, and in so doing, with the end of her delicately-shod foot, touched the counterpoise. at once the sword-blade began to grate against the wall. she looked up suddenly, saw the huge notched executioner's sword descending upon her bowed neck, uttered a little scream, sprang to her feet and ran, fleet as a rabbit, across the waiting-room; whilst down its full length after her with a clang fell the weapon--followed by a burst of laughter from everyone in the room but the countess. after this, i took the sword up and marched on the platform with it at my side. this i will say for it--that, considering its size and weight, it is easily carried; for not only is there the crosspiece as hand-guard, but above this is a crescent worked in the iron, the horns extending with the convexity towards the point of the blade. by putting a couple of fingers under these horns, the sword is carried at the side, pommel downwards, blade up, with perfect ease, the balance is so true. some difficulty attended the getting into the carriage with the sword; i had to enter backwards and bring my sword in after me, passengers keeping judiciously out of its reach till it was safely brought within. not the douvres-calais that day! only that horrible little narrow boat that always upsets me--and i--such an heroic being, bearing the mighty mediæval sword, an object of wonder and questioning to sailors, _douaniers_, passengers alike. as it happened, i was the sole individual on board whose inner organs had not their sea-legs on this occasion. i lay on a bench upon deck, hugging my executioner's sword, and faintly calling: "a basin please!" two ruffians--i can call them, nothing else--paced the deck, smoking, and passed me every forty seconds. if there is a thing which tumbles a human being of a highly-strung nervous temperament over when he feels squeamish, it is the occasional whiff of a cigar. then, added to the occasional whiff, were occasional catches of derogatory remarks, which came home to me as unpleasantly as did the tobacco: "a chap with a sword like that should live up to it, and not grovel over a basin."--and a quotation from the burial of sir john moore: "he lay like a warrior taking his rest." my spine, with the pitching and vibration of the vessel, felt not like a spinal column, but like a loose string of beads. if by swallowing the sword i could have acquired stamina, i should have tried it; but i did not think i could keep it down. at length, with a pasty face, blear-eyes, liver-coloured lips, a battered hat, a dripping and torn waterproof, reeling, holding my ticket in my teeth, the sword in one hand and my portmanteau in the other, looking like a dynamitard every inch, and at once pounced on and overhauled by the police and customs-officers, i staggered ashore. having that sword was as much as proclaiming that i had infernal machines about me somewhere, and even my pockets were not sacred. having turned out all my insides at sea, i had to turn out my exterior pockets and portmanteau now. it was monstrous. that was not all. i am sure a detective followed me to town. when i got into a hansom at charing cross, the sword would go nowhere except between my knees, with the blade shooting up between the reins of the driver, high above the top of the conveyance. i caused great amusement as i drove through the streets of london thus. the sword is at rest now, lodged on my staircase, and of one thing i am sure: no one is likely to run away with it. i have lost curiosities too tempting for specialists to keep their fingers from; but no one will carry away my sword. i shall go, but the sword will remain. chapter xii. aix. dooll, but the mutton good--les bains de sextius--ironwork caps to towers--s. jean de malthe--museum--cathedral--tapestries and tombs--the cloisters--view from s. eutrope--king rené of anjou--his misfortunes--his cheeriness--his statue at aix--introduces the muscat grape. i had a friend, a parson, a good fellow, who was some years ago in cumberland, where he was concerned about the spiritual condition of the neighbouring parsons. among these latter was one, very bucolic, with a heavy red face. my friend urged him to take advantage of a "retreat," that is a gathering of clergy for devotion and meditation, that was to take place in carlisle. after some persuasion the heavy-souled parson agreed to go, and my dear good friend hoped that some spark of spiritual zeal might be thus kindled in him. when the retreat was at an end he button-holed him, and asked, "well, how did you get on?" "dooll, varry dooll!" replied the heavy soul, "i shud ha' left long ago, but--the mutton was good." i had gone for a couple of weeks to commercial inns, and now that i visited aix i thought i would like to see another aspect of gallic life, so i went to the hôtel des bain de sextius, and took a plunge into the society of patients drinking waters and taking baths. i may say of that social phase in the bain, that it was "dooll, varry dooll, but the mutton was good." i was a fool to go there; of course one cannot expect people with their livers and their spleens, and their entire internal tubular mechanism out of order, to be chirpy and frolicsome. there were a good many ladies there, pale, i could not quite make out whether from ill-health or from violet-powder; but i think the latter had something to do with their pallor, for, after drinking, when they wiped their lips, roses began to bloom, wherever the napkin touched. they lived up to their appearance, natural or applied, they were "mild-eyed, melancholy, lotus-eaters," to whom it was "always afternoon." the gentlemen were equally sad, still and forlorn. but the mutton was good. the feeding left little to be wished for. aix lies in a green basin of hills, at a little distance from the river are, clustered about the hot springs that rise at the junction of the porphyry and the limestone. they were certainly hotter when aix was founded by caius sextius calvinus, b.c. 123, to serve as a protection to the greeks of marseilles against the attacks of the salyes. roman colonists were planted there, consequently in race distinct from the massalliotes. i cannot say that the greek type lingers in marseilles, certainly the women who hover about the vieux port are as ugly as women can well be, nor have the natives of aix a peculiarly roman character of face and head. the only people who retain any distinguishing features of their ancestry are those of arles, of whom i have already told. aix has lost its old walls and towers within the last twenty years. it has good boulevards and shaded walks, and in the old parts of the town many charming bits. most charming perhaps are the iron crowns to two of the towers, one by the hôtel de ville, which is conical, the other opposite the church of la sainte esprit, which is like a papal tiara. when i saw in baedeker that "en face de cette église--une tour de 1494, qui a un beau campanile en fer," my mind turned at once to that horrible iron spire at rouen, and i felt disposed to look at the pavement when approaching the church. however, it is not modern, and not hideous; it is quite the reverse, a study in fine ironwork. that the ancients could, however, do very villainous things, may be seen on a visit paid to the church of s. jean de malthe. it has a square east end, is an edifice of the thirteenth century, with a tower of the fourteenth and fifteenth. the original architect in the thirteenth century was a fool, and those who desired to complete the church a century later probably advertised for the greatest fool then in the profession, and secured him. within the church is a monument that pretends to be the tomb of alphonso ii., count of provence, in 1209, and to be adorned not only with his statue, but also with those of his son raymond berengarius iv., and of beatrix, queen of naples, the wife of the latter. the monument is, however, a hoax. the statues are there, but are modern, of the namby-pamby school, and of the original tomb possibly a crocket and a cusp may remain. hard by this odious church, with its horrible modern garish windows, is the museum, containing some greek inscriptions, a christian sarcophagus or two, not grown on the spot, but imported from arles, and some fragments of statues. the cathedral of s. sauveur is the great attraction in aix, and it is, indeed, a very fascinating church. the west front contains a recessed gateway with ranges of saints in the outer member, and a legion of cherubim with their wings, some spread, some folded, in the inner member. the lower portion of the doorway was encased by a hoarding, and i could not see it. it is undergoing restoration. the saints' figures thereon had their heads knocked off at the revolution, and these were restored in bad taste later, and now fresh heads--we will hope more successful--are being adjusted. oh that we also could change our heads! the octagonal tower, which formerly had a somewhat bold appearance, has been successfully completed with an open traceried parapet and pinnacles. on the right hand of the church is a very interesting doorway, clearly classic. two fluted corinthian pillars are let into the wall, and support an entablature. between these a romanesque doorway has been inserted, with a twisted pillar on one side, and another fluted, opposite it. the interior of the cathedral is full of surprises, the baptistery on the right is supported on classic columns of grey polished granite. the s. aisle of the church is romanesque of the twelfth century, and was the original nave of the minster. in the fourteenth or fifteenth century the present nave and n. aisle were added, and then the s. aisle of the romanesque church was destroyed. consequently the cloister of the twelfth century, which originally abutted on the s. wall of the church, now stands detached from it by the width of the destroyed aisle. in some chapels is soft old glowing marigold-yellow cinque-cento glass. the choir of the cathedral is hung with tapestries, said to be by quentin matsys, gorgeous in colour, of, however, beauteous harmony of tone. there are quaint old paintings on gold grounds in the nave. in the n. aisle lovely tombs that served as memorials of the dead, and likewise as altar-pieces. [1] [footnote 1: christ on the cross is between kneeling figures of a knight and a lady; s. anne and the b. v. mary are also represented. this reredos is so excellent, so beautiful, that of course it did not suit the taste for tawdriness that sprang up in the eighteenth century, and a vulgar reredos has been erected, and the altar moved before that.] the church is rich in picturesque features, not to be sketched with pencil, but laid in with the brush and colour. moreover, the cloister is charming in its rich quaintness. the sculptors have revelled in the foliage with which they have adorned the capitals. here we have twisted pillars, there they are sculptured over with scales, lozenges, and other ornamental fancies. in the capitals, groups of figures alternate with bursting fronds of ferns, unfolding vine leaves, and fantastic playing monsters. in the centre of the quadrangle stands an old column, on which is s. mary magdalen with her ointment-pot, and doves were fluttering and cooing as an old canon scattered crumbs to them about his feet. aix lacks one thing greatly, a terrace above the town whence the valley may be seen, the towers of aix, and the crags of mont victoire. but a walk should on no account be omitted up the heights of s. eutrope to an old windmill that stands on a crest of limestone. the view thence is charming. to the right the green valley of l'infernet, up which marched marcellus on the eve of the great battle of pourrières. towering overhead, catching the evening sun on its glistening bald peaks is to be seen mont victoire. a little to the s.e. the cleft in the wooded hills through which the are breaks its way, a cleft up which the teutons trudged with their wives and children and the spoil of gaul, to their destruction. to the south-east also a quaint chain of hills that rise above gardanne, with a boss like a great snuff-box on the top, the pillon du roi. at one's feet is aix, with its many towers, surrounded by silvery olive orchards, and away to the south is the red hill above les milles where marius was encamped the night after the fight with the ambrons. aix is closely associated with that delightful old mark tapley of kings, rené of anjou, whose character has been hit off with such masterly fidelity by sir walter scott in "anne of geierstein." rené was born at angers in 1409, and was the second son of duke louis ii., of the junior house of anjou, and of iolanthe, daughter of king john of aragon. he bore the title of duke of guise till his father's death. louis ii. had been adopted by joanna of naples, as her heir, and had been crowned king of naples at avignon by clement vii., but was never able to obtain possession of his inheritance. after his death, in 1417, rené's eldest brother, louis iii., succeeded to his titles and rights, and when he died without issue, in 1434, anjou, provence, and claims to naples, sicily and jerusalem devolved on rené, who had in the meantime acquired, by the death of an uncle, the duchy of bar, and, by right of his wife, laid claim to the duchy of lorraine. when he desired to make these latter claims good, he was involved in war with his wife's kinsmen, and was taken prisoner and locked up at dijon. finally, the question of the right to the duchy of lorraine was referred to the decision of the emperor sigismund, who gave it in favour of rené. his opponent, however, appealed to philip of burgundy, who summoned rené to appear before him, and when he did not appear, ordered him to return to his prison, from which he had been released on parole. rené at once submitted. whilst he was in prison at dijon, delegates from naples arrived offering him the crown; but duke philip would not release him. thereupon rené transferred his rights provisionally to his wife, the duchess isabella, and she became regent of naples, sicily, anjou, and provence. she, however, soon found herself involved in war with the king of aragon. in the meantime rené managed to ransom himself for the sum of 400,000 gold florins (1437) and at once hasted to naples. there, however, he found himself unable to make head against alphonso of aragon, and he was finally driven out, and obliged to return to provence. he died at aix on july 10, 1480. sir walter well says of him: "born of royal parentage, and with high pretensions, rené had at no period of his life been able to match his fortunes to his claims. of the kingdoms to which he asserted right, nothing remained in his possession but the county of provence, itself a fair and friendly principality, but diminished by the many claims which france had acquired upon portions of it by advances of money to supply the personal expenses of its master, and by other portions, which burgundy, to whom rené had been a prisoner, held in pledge for his ransom.... rené was a prince of very moderate parts, endowed with a love of the fine arts, which he carried to extremity, and with a degree of good humour, which never permitted him to repine at fortune, but rendered its possessor happy, when a prince of keener feelings would have died of despair. this _insouciant_, light-tempered, gay and thoughtless disposition conducted rené, free from all the passions which embitter life, to a hale and mirthful old age. even domestic losses made no deep impression on the feelings of this cheerful old monarch. most of his children had died young; rené took it not to heart. his daughter margaret's marriage with the powerful henry of england was considered a connection above the fortunes of the king of troubadours. but in the issue, instead of rené deriving any splendour from the match, he was involved in the misfortunes of his daughter, and repeatedly obliged to impoverish himself to supply her ransom.... among all his distresses, rené feasted and received guests, danced, sang, composed poetry, used the pencil or brush with no small skill, devised and conducted festivals and processions, and studied to promote the mirth and good humour of his subjects." in the cathedral is his portrait along with that of his second wife, jeanne de laval. in the _place_ is his statue, a mediocre work, holding a bunch of muscat grapes, a species he first introduced to europe. i sought in vain at aix for a photograph of the merry monarch taken from the authentic picture, and was offered one from the characterless statue, which i declined. poor king rené's poems have found an editor and a publisher--in four volumes (paris, 1845-6, edited by quatrebarbes), but, i fear, not many readers. no; it will not be through his laboured poetic compositions, nor through the daubs which he painted, that rené will be known and will have earned the gratitude of posterity, but through the introduction of the muscat grape. henceforth, let my readers, whenever they enjoy their muscatels out of the grape-house at home, or sip moscada toscana in italy, or muscat in la vallais, give a kindly thought to that much-tried but never downcast monarch. chapter xiii. the camargue. formation of the delta of the rhone--the diluvial wash--the alluvium spread over this--the three stages the river pursues--the zone of erosion--the zone of compensation--the zone of deposit--river mouths--estuaries and deltas--the formation of bars--of lagoons--the lagoons of the gulf of lyons--the ancient position of arles between the river and the lagoons--neglect of the lagoons in the middle ages--they become morasses--attempt at remedy--embankments and drains--a mistake made--the camargue now a desert--les saintes maries--no evidence to support the legend--based on a misapprehension. as i said when speaking of the crau, the whole delta of the rhone, which extended in the diluvial epoch from cette to fos, consists of a vast sloping plain of rolled stones from the alps. what is now a great convexity thrust into the mediterranean, perpetually gaining ground on the sea, was at the commencement of the present geologic epoch a great bay, and the waves of the mediterranean broke against the cliffs of les monts garrigues, at lodève, the heights of nimes and beaucaire, against the limestone crags of the alpines, and swirled against that calcareous spur that now separates the lagoon of berre from the desert of la crau. but, at an epoch which it is impossible to fix, which, however, is posterior to the last geologic dislocations of the soil, two formidable deluges swept from the alps down the troughs of the rhone and the durance, carrying with them vast masses of stone torn from the flanks of the mountains. they were veritable avalanches of water, mud and rubble, that filled the entire bay and covered the land, wherever they poured, with the wreckage of the alps. the stones were broken into a thousand pieces in their course, their angles rubbed down, and their surfaces polished by friction, and this vast bed of rubble measures near the mouth of the rhone some sixty feet in depth, and extends under the blue surface of the sea to the distance of many miles. but, when the diluvium ceased, and the rivers rhone and durance assumed approximately their present character, a change of procedure took place. the volume of water rolled down was by no means so great, the inclination of the fall was vastly lessened, consequently the rivers were enabled to do what they had not been able to do in the diluvial period, chew up their food of stone, and reduce it to the condition of mud. this is what the two rivers are engaged upon now, and instead of strewing their _embouchures_ with pebbles, they distribute over them, or would do so, if permitted, a film of fertilising mud. through many ages the rhone has rambled at its sweet will over the vast tract of rubble that formed its delta in the diluvial age, changing its course capriciously, and always, wherever it went, covering up the pebble bed with a deposit of fertile soil. other streams helped in the good work--the hérault, rich with red mud, the ley, that flows past montpellier, and the vidourle from lunel: consequently a very large portion of the rubble bed is covered with rich soil, that grows vines, mulberries, and olives. the plough and spade, however, speedily reach the boulders that lie but slightly buried beneath the surface. the canal of craponne, that conveys the charged waters of the durance over the crau of arles, is effecting artificially over that portion of the rubbly desert, the work that was done by nature herself in past ages over the whole region from cette to aiguesmortes. now let us examine very shortly the stages through which every mountain-born river runs. when young, sprung from eternal snows, gushing from under glaciers, it cuts its way through mountain gorges, receiving the rocks that fall from above, and carrying them along in its course, tearing its way round rocky spurs, and breaking them in its fury, and, as it travels down into the lower ground, it carries with it a vast mass of stone. every tributary does the same. this first stage is called the _zone of erosion_. but, as the river leaves the alps, its course becomes less rapid, and the fall is not so abrupt. the bed widens, and what was a boiling torrent becomes a rapid river. as it rolls along, it carries down with it the stones that it has brought from the mountains, turning them over and over in its course, rubbing down all rough points, and becoming itself discoloured with the particles it has rubbed off the pebbles. all this matter thus produced has a tendency to fall to the bottom and form banks of gravel; but the violence of the stream is constantly altering the shape and position of these beds, carrying the gravel farther, and throwing down in their place half-triturated deposits of the same character. this is called the _zone of compensation_. any traveller who has visited the vallais may see the rhone at work in its first stage. in the second he can trace the river from below lyons, and see the thousand gravel-banks formed, swept away, and reformed, at every flood, that mark the course of the river in its second stage. by the time the rhone has reached arles all its gravel has been champed up and reduced to impalpable mud. that blue crystalline flood that gushed from the lake of leman, unsullied by a particle of earth, is now a river of brown mud--thick as pea-soup, and as nutritious. the stones that would have killed all vegetation have been pounded into a condition so attenuated, that they form rich alluvial matter. the river now seeks to deposit all this mud. on reaching the sea, the difference in gravity between the meeting waters, and their variation in temperature, produces rapid precipitation of all the earthy matter held in suspense by the stream. this last stage in the river's course is called the _zone of deposit_. the inclination of the bed of the rhone between tarascon and arles is four feet three inches in the mile; but at arles the elevation of the bank is but three feet six inches above the level of the sea; and the river has to run sixty-two miles before it reaches salt waves. consequently the bed widens, the river branches, and the rapidity of its movement diminishes progressively. the alluvium is deposited, banks multiply, the mouths are encumbered with submarine islets, locally called _theys_, which the waves and currents of the sea displace and remodel continuously, and render the entrance to the river impracticable. [1] [footnote 1: lenthéric: 'les villes mortes du golfe de lyon,' paris, 1883.] river mouths vary greatly; they are either estuaries, like those of the thames, the seine, and the s. lawrence, or they are deltas, like those of the nile, the po, and the rhone. very generally in tidal seas we have estuaries; but in those that are tideless, as the mediterranean and the black sea, they are deltas. where there is a tide, the mouth of the river is washed out and kept open by the flux and reflux of the sea; but where there is no tide there is nothing to interfere with the river choking its mouth with its deposits. in such a case, after a while, the mass of deposit becomes so great as to interfere with the course of the river. the sea beating against this bar throws up sand and gravel upon it, and at every storm raises it higher. then the river divides into two or more branches, and forms for itself new beds, which are destined in turn to undergo the same process. now, when a river has formed its bar choking its mouth, and is then forced to make a fresh mouth, it leaves a lagoon behind this bar. at every flood its waters overflow, and are unable to escape to the sea when left behind the bar. sometimes, in like manner, in a gale of wind on shore, the waves are carried over the bar, and there are left as a brackish pool, unable to return to the sea. thus the whole of the bay of the gulf of lyons is masked by a false coastline of old bars, behind which lie lagoons all formed in the way indicated. between rousillon and leucate is the etang de salses; narbonne anciently was seated in the lap of another great inland lake or lagoon. the vast etang de tau has a barrier between it and the sea on which is planted cette. lagoons behind bars extend thence the whole way to aiguesmortes; and between the mouths of the rhone, as they flow at present, is the etang de valcarès. after the river has deserted its old bed, and the lagoon has been formed behind the bar, or littoral cord, wave and storm working upon this long line of mud and sand succeed in breaking through; then, as the inclination of the land is but 0'm, 01 in the metre--almost nothing, the sweet and salt water mingle in these lakes, they never run dry, though in many cases not three feet deep. a look at the map of the gulf of lyons will show the reader that its special characteristic is the chain of lagoons separated from the sea by a narrow ribbon of sand. it may have caused perplexity in the mind of many that the gulf should bear the name it does. it cannot take its name from the city of lyons--the ancient lugdunum--which is two hundred and twenty miles inland. it certainly cannot derive it from the wild beasts--lions--for there are none nearer than africa. the fact is, that the gulf takes its title from the keltic word for a lagoon, lôn or lyn, a name that recurs in maguelonne--the dwelling on the pool--in the canal des lonnes, a channel connecting the ponds and lagoons of the durance and rhone, and, indeed, in our own london (londinium) the dinas, castle on the lon, or pool of the thames and the essex marshes. anciently, in historic times, arles, that lies near the apex of the triangle formed by the branches of the rhone, was bathed on one side by the river, by which she received merchandise from the north; and, on the other side by the _lones_, or submerged land, that extended to the sea; and after marius had connected these lones with his canal, she exported and imported merchandise over the mediterranean through the lagoons, as the sea could not be reached by the river on account of its bars. moreover, the greek and roman cities along the coast are not found on the actual coast, on the bars, but were planted on the lagoons, which afforded them perfect harbourage for their merchant vessels. these lagoons, through which flowed salt and fresh water, were always healthy, and remained healthy as long as communication was maintained with the sea and the river. but wind and wave and alluvium working together choke these communications, and directly the mouth seawards of a lagoon is closed it is converted into a stagnating marsh that exhales malaria. during the middle ages no attention was paid to this fact, and those stations which had been perfectly wholesome in the classic epoch were rendered pestilential, and dwindled from populous cities to a cluster of fever-smitten peasants' hovels. in later times this desperate condition of affairs called for remedy. louis xiv. sent engineers to examine and report on the state of this region, and works were begun which have been maintained and extended annually, the raising of dykes against overflow by the rhone and by the sea. drains have been cut in all directions to carry off the stagnant water, opening by traps into the sea. the extent of dyke now reaches two hundred and thirty miles. the banks of the two main branches of the rhone are protected, as well as the sea-face of the camargue, the triangle between them, and the annual cost to the country to keep them in repair is one hundred and twenty thousand francs. a flood, however, often breaks through the banks, and submerges a large district. on such occasions the additional expense is heavy. now, what is the result of all this outlay? the engineers and scientific authorities of the coast-works and dykes are pretty unanimous in saying that a great mistake was made in the beginning by louis xiv. the rhone ought never to have been embanked. what should have been done was to keep open the mouths of the lagoons, to preserve them from festering. formerly, the large island of the camargue, occupying nearly twenty thousand acres, was periodically inundated by the rhone, and when the waters fell, a film of the richest deposit was left behind, just as in egypt the nile overflows and fertilises its delta. at every overflow eighteen thousand cubic yards of alluvium was deposited over this district, all of which is now carried into the mediterranean and thrown down in the construction of new bars; utterly wasted. in the time of the roman domination the camargue was a second egypt, and was called "the granary of the roman army;" and arles was given the designation of "the breasts," so flowing with plenty was it held to be. at the initial cost of millions of pounds, and an annual outlay of five thousand pounds, the camargue has been reduced to absolute sterility. the protected lands, deprived of the sweet water which would have washed from them the salt that now spoils their fertility, and of the natural dressing that providence sends down to them every spring and autumn, are now productive of only a little coarse wiry grass and thistles, and the dried soil is white with saline efflorescence. at the present day the value of land in the neighbourhood of arles that is subject to periodic inundation is three times that of the land guarded by costly embankments against the bounties of the river. on descending the sinuous course of the lesser rhone the hills disappear, the horizon is level as the sea, and all around is desert. then the current of the rhone seems to fail wholly, the waters of the river and of the lagoons on both sides of its bed mingle, and become confounded in one sheet. all nature is dead. the dull and sluggish water, streaked with lines of ooze, extend on all sides as far as the eye can reach. the effects of the mirage add bewilderment. one can hardly distinguish water from sky. nothing can be more dreary than this naked surface, hushed into silence, where vegetation is reduced to a few tufts of rushes and tamarisks. but, suddenly, out of the marshy, submerged plain, a strange pile of buildings is seen cutting the horizon, half a castle, half a cathedral, imposing in a mass as it towers above the fragile and squalid hovels crouched at the feet. this building is _les saintes maries_. [illustration: les saintes maries.] probably nowhere in the world is to be seen a spot so desolate and so wretched. the village is planted at the extreme west angle of the camargue. it can be reached by one road only, rough to travel over, and impracticable in winter. this road leaves arles, or rather trinquetailles, opposite arles, traverses the marsh of the grand mar, follows the dyke of the river, and then threads its way among morasses, and over soil white with salt, and burning under the rays of the sun. once in the year this route is crowded with pilgrims, who come to pay their devotions at the spot where it is supposed that the three marys, mary, the mother of james, mary salome, and their servant sara, landed. the legend is somewhat mixed. according to one version, those who came to provence, flying from the persecution raised by the jews, were lazarus, mary magdalene, and martha. lazarus, as we have seen, has been appropriated by marseilles as its apostle; martha has been settled at tarascon, and mary magdalene has been given a cell in la sainte baume. here, at les saintes maries, however, the apostolic three are said to be mary, mother of james, mary, wife of cleopas, and sara, their servant; but a concession to the other tradition is made, in that it is allowed that these three brought with them lazarus and martha. nothing was known of all this till the time of good king rené. the church at this point was called in the sixth century s. maria de ratis, s. mary of the boats, by s. cæsarius, bishop of arles. william, count of provence, in his will, a.d. 992, gives it the same designation; so raimbald, archbishop of arles in a.d. 1061, "the church of the ever virgin mother of god, mary of the boats." so also bertrand ii., count of provence, at the same date. two bulls of popes in 1123 and 1200 speak of the church as that of s. mary on the sea. so does gervais of tilbury. in 1241 raymond berengarius, count of provence, entitles it notre dame de la mer. and so it continued to be called in documents down to 1395. if not our lady of the sea, it was s. maria de la mar, of the mere, the lagoon. however, in 1448, king rené took it into his head that mary and the mere were distinct persons, that mary was not, could not be, the virgin, she must be one of the other marys; so with a little putting together of heads and puzzlement, he and his advisers decided that the two marys were mary, the mother of james, and mary salome. the next thing to be done was to find their bodies there, but that naturally presented no difficulty. there were bones there--from pagan times. since that date a great pilgrimage has taken place annually to les saintes maries; and the curé of les baux, being very satisfied that the trémaïé in his parish must be the three marys, erected a chapel under the rock sculptured with the figures of marius, martha, and julia. the magdalen is probably a personation of the perished city of maguelonne, as one of the marys is the mar or mere; and martha, there can hardly be a question, is the syrian prophetess who accompanied marius, but who in her place inherited the attributes and cult of martis, the phoenician goddess, venerated, doubtless, at all the settlements of these mercantile adventurers along the coast. chapter xiv. tarascon. position of tarascon and beaucaire opposite each other--church of s. martha--crypt--ancient paintings--catechising--ancient altar--the festival of the tarasque--the phoenician goddess martha--story of s. fronto--discussion at _déjeuner_ over the entry of m. carnot into marseilles--the change in the french character--pessimism--beaucaire--font--castle--siege by raymond vii.--story of aucassin and nicolette. tarascon and beaucaire stand frowning at each other across the rhone, each with its castle; beaucaire a grand pile on a crag, tarascon dipping its feet in the water, and sulkily showing to its enemy a plain face, reserving all its picturesqueness for its side towards the town. this castle of tarascon was one in which king rené resided, as well as in that at aix, but the aix castle is gone, and that at tarascon remains. beaucaire belonged to the counts of toulouse, whereas tarascon, as already said, belonged to provence. i do not like to venture on an explanation of the name, but the _tar_ with which it begins is most probably the keltic _daur_, water. [1] but the tarasconese will not hear of this. to them the name is taken from the tarasc, a monster that devastated the whole country round, but whom s. martha bridled and slew. s. martha, as we have already seen, is the very prophetess who directed caius marius in his campaign against the teutons and ambrons, the devastating horde that has in the popular imagination been represented as a dragon. the body of s. martha is supposed to lie in the crypt, in an early christian marble sarcophagus, probably brought from the alyscamp at arles, representing moses striking the rock, and the miraculous feeding of the multitude, the miracle of cana, and the resurrection of lazarus. [footnote 1: _gwask_, in breton, is _contraction_, and at tarascon the river is drawn together by the opposed points of beaucaire and tarascon. this may perhaps form the second syllable.] [illustration: early altar, tarascon.] [illustration: spire of s. martha's church, tarascon.] in this crypt is a corinthian capital turned upside down and converted into a holy water stoup; also a very early and curious altar, the slab of which is just two feet square, and has in the midst a square hole cut, probably of later date, for the reception of relics; the height of the altar is three feet three and a-half inches, it is of a porous stone that has become greatly corroded with weather. it is probably the earliest christian altar in france. in the crypt is a life-size representation of the entombment of s. martha, with figures standing round, christ at the head, and s. pronto at the feet. [illustration: iron door to safe in s. martha's church.] the church of s. martha is of the fourteenth century, with the exception of the south portal, which dates from 1187, and is rich in its deeply-recessed mouldings filled with sculpture, but has been sadly mutilated. within the church is some very fine ironwork, a grille dividing the choir from the side aisles, and a charming iron safe let into the wall on the north side, of ironwork painted and gilt. there are moreover some quaint paintings; an ancient altarpiece representing s. rocque, between s. john and s. laurence, on a gold ground; a s. mary magdalen with the portrait of a canon kneeling at her feet; the finest painting is s. michael, also with a canon kneeling below. the armour of the archangel is very rich, and heightened with gold. the date of these pictures is 1513. there is another of the nativity that is inferior. whilst looking round the church, i heard singing muffled and distant, and presently, on reaching the steps that descended to the crypt, found that a young priest was there catechising a class of little girls. after some instructions they sang a hymn, which a sister of mercy was accompanying on the harmonium. the air was taking. it puzzled me at first. it was familiar and yet strange, and not till the children had reached the last verse did i recognise a wonderfully distorted form of the mermaid's song in _oberon_, all the accents being altered. in this crypt is the tomb of a neapolitan knight attached to the court of king rené; and in the floor a well the water of which rises and falls with the river. in all probability this crypt was originally the baptistery of the first basilica erected in tarascon. [illustration: king rené's castle, tarascon.] the castle of king rené is wonderfully picturesque on the landside. it was begun in 1400; he is said to have instituted the festival of the tarasque, that used to be conducted with great merriment annually on july 29th. a procession of mummers attended by the clergy paraded the town, escorting the figure of a dragon, made of canvas, and wielding a heavy beam of wood for a tail, to the imminent danger of the legs of all who approached. the dragon was conducted by a girl in white and blue, who led it by her girdle of blue silk, and when the dragon was especially frolicsome and unruly dashed holy water over it. the ceremony was attended by numerous practical jokes, and led to acts of violence, in consequence of which it has been suppressed. s. martha has inherited the symbols of the phoenician goddess of her own name, the ship and the dragon; there can be little doubt that the first phoenician settlers in provence introduced her worship as the patroness of sailors, and that this worship acquired a fresh impulse after the destruction of the teutons who had overrun the land, when the prophetess martha was regarded as one with the earlier goddess. when christianity came in, the name of the hostess of bethany was given to the churches erected where martha the moon goddess had been venerated before, so as gradually to wean the heathen from their old faith. they came over into the church, but brought with them their myth of the pagan goddess. [illustration: a bit in tarascon.] an odd legend is told of her death. on a sunday morning, s. fronto, bishop of perigeux was about to say mass, and whilst waiting for the congregation to assemble, fell asleep in his chair, when he saw christ appear, who bade him come and assist at the obsequies of martha. instantly he found himself translated to tarascon, in the church with our lord, he at the feet and christ at the head of the body, and the saviour sang the burial office. in the meantime at perigeux, the deacon wondered at the heavy sleep of the bishop, and had much ado to rouse him. at length fronto opened his eyes, when the deacon whispered that the people were impatient with long waiting. "do not be troubled," said fronto, "you do not understand what i have been about." now it fell out that whilst at tarascon fronto was engaged in burying martha, he had taken off his glove and ring, and had put them into the hands of the sacristan. when fronto informed the congregation at perigeux what he had been about, they disbelieved. however, messengers were sent to tarascon, and his glove and ring were identified. these were preserved as relics in the church till the revolution. unfortunately for the story, fronto of perigeux belongs to the fourth century, so that the lapse in dream was not merely a skip over half france, but also through four centuries. tarascon has some picturesque bits in the town, arcades with shops underneath, and quaint doorways of renaissance work; but its chief charm after the castle is certainly the view across the river to the heights of beaucaire with its grand ruins. i lunched at an hotel where, nearly opposite me, was a gentleman who had been at marseilles on the arrival of the president, and was very full of what he had seen. at the table were half-a-dozen beside myself, and he held forth to them on the spectacle. opposite him sat a bullet-headed commercial traveller. "but," said the latter, "i would not have crossed the rhone by the bridge of tarascon to have seen him. what is m. sadi-carnot? he is naught." "no, but he represents the nation. give us a pump as president, and we must garland that pump with flowers. and believe me, c'est un vilain métier cet de président. if he leans a little too much on this side he goes down into the mud, a little too much on the other he rolls in the dust. one must feel some respect for the man who undertakes such a thankless office. and, again, when a man rides in an open landau in pelting rain, when il lui pleut dans le nez, without an umbrella, with his hat off, saluting right and left, he deserves recognition." "it was not worth the cost of his entertainment. i am surprised that marseilles did it." "i beg pardon. it was worth while doing it. had the weather been fine, it would have brought money into the town." "what! would any english and american travellers desert montecarlo for a day to see a sadi-carnot?" "no, but every woman in marseilles would have bought a new kerchief or a trinket to make herself smart, just because it was a fête. as it was, money circulated." "how so?" "one thousand and ninety-seven umbrellas were sold that day at prices ranging from five to fifteen francs, which on other occasions sell for two francs twenty-five centimes, and ten francs." i do not know whether i have been peculiarly unfortunate in lighting on only one class of men under the present _régime_, but whether it be in france, switzerland, belgium, or italy, that i have come across frenchmen and had a talk with them of late years, i have noticed a prevailing discouragement, a pessimism, that certainly was absent in former days. the very character of a french _table d'hôte_ is changed. instead of gallic vivacity, merriment, and general conversation, such as one was wont to find there, one encounters silence, reserve, and a marked absence of self-assertion. it is the germans who are now boisterous and self-assertive at table. the french are quiet and subdued. as i have already said, i may be mistaken; i may have hit on exceptional cases, but it is a fact that those frenchmen i have conversed with during the last two or three years have been oppressed with a conviction that france has lost caste among the nations, that her future is menaced, and they say that they see no way out of their present condition. as one said to me last winter in rome: "the idea of france is an abstraction. we range ourselves now under parties, our devotion is no longer to our country but to our party. have you ever been at a stag hunt? when the noble beast is down the huntsman slices it open and throws the heart and liver and entrails to the hounds. then ensues a battle. every dog snatches at what he desires, and envies the other the piece of offal he has secured. all are filled with hatred of each other, and selfish greed as to who can eat most and the best morsels of the fallen beast. and that is a picture of france. if war came upon us, we must infallibly be overthrown, for each general would be seeking out of the accidents of warfare to steal an advantage for himself or the party he favours." the town of beaucaire, on the farther side of the rhone, is fuller of picturesque points than is tarascon. seated at the head of the beaucaire canal, that communicates with the sea, it has that commercial prosperity which is lacking at tarascon. the old church is an exact reproduction of that of s. martha, but has in addition a most remarkable font, a structure rising in stages like a tower, and with a spire to cap it, resembling somewhat the sacramental tabernacles in the german churches. the hôtel de ville is a picturesque renaissance building with bold open staircase on pillars. the castle of beaucaire crowns the ridge of limestone that extends across the country from nimes and is cut through by the rhone, again emerging, in a low eminence, at tarascon. this noble castle was taken by simon de montfort in the albigensian war from the count of toulouse, but the youthful raymond vii., though only nineteen years old, laid siege to it in 1216, and succeeded in recovering it. in this siege, the inhabitants of the town, under the young count, assailed the castle. simon de montfort collected an army and attacked raymond in the rear. there is a very curious account of this siege in a provençal poem on the albigensian war, from which i will quote a few lines, only premising that in the original the castle is called the capitol:-"the townsmen set up their engines against the crusaders in the castle, and so battered it that castle and watch-tower were broken, beams and lead and stone. at holy easter the battering-ram was made ready, long, iron-headed, sharp, which so struck and cut that the wall was injured, and the stones began to fall out. but the besieged were not discouraged; they made a loop of cords attached to a wooden beam, and with that they caught the head of the ram and held it fast. this troubled those of beaucaire sore; till the master engineer came, and he set the ram in motion once more. then several of the assailants got up the rock, and began to detach portions of the wall with their picks. this the besieged were ware of, and they let down upon them sulphur and pitch and fire in sackcloth by a chain along the wall, and when it blazed it broke forth and was spilt over the workmen, and suffocated them so that not one could there continue. then they went to their machines for casting stones, and they threw them with such effect into the castle as to break all the beams thereof." beaucaire castle is now in ruins, but the romanesque chapel remains in tolerable condition. in it louis ix. is said to have heard mass before he embarked for the crusade to egypt. the pretty old provençal poem of aucassin and nicolette, which has been recently translated into english by mr. andrew lang and daintily published, has its scene laid at beaucaire. tieck gave a version of it in his "phantasus." [illustration: the chapel of beaucaire castle.] as we are on the very scene of this graceful little tale, i must give the essence of it. the romance, which dates from the second half of the thirteenth century, is in prose, mingled with scraps of rhyme, destined to be sung, and with their musical notation given. at the head of each scrap of verse comes the rubric "now is to be sung," and the prose passages are headed, "now is to be said." aucassin was the son of the count of beaucaire. he was fair of face, with light curled hair and grey eyes. now there was a viscount in the town who had bought of the saracens a little maid, and he taught her the christian faith, and had her baptised and called nicolette. then said the count of beaucaire to his son aucassin that he should go to battle and win his spurs and be dubbed a knight. aucassin replied that he had no wish to be a knight, unless his father would give him nicolette "ma douce mie" to wife. the count is indignant. he says that his son must marry the daughter of a king or of a count; but aucassin replies that were an empress offered him he would refuse her for nicolette. thereat the count goes to the viscount and bids him give up the little maid that he may burn her as a witch. the viscount hesitates, and promises he will put her out of reach of aucassin. thereupon he shuts her up in a tower, along with her nurse, where there is but a single window. and the count promises his son that he shall have his "douce mie" if he will go to fight against the mortal enemy of their house, the count of vallence. aucassin believes his father; goes and captures the count. then the father refuses to fulfil his promise. aucassin in a rage releases the count of vallence, and the count of beaucaire imprisons his son in a tower of the castle. one moonlight night, when her nurse is asleep, nicolette ties the bedclothes together and lets herself down out of the window, escapes from the town, and goes under the castle, where she hears aucassin lamenting in his prison. she speaks to him and he replies. but (as it is ascertained that she has escaped) the guard are sent forth in search of her, with orders to run her through the body if found. however, the chief officer of the guard is a merciful man, and so, as he goes about, he sings a song to warn her, and she hides in the shadow of the tower till the watch is gone by and then flies away into the forest land. there she builds herself a hut. when no tidings of nicolette are heard, the count of beaucaire lets his son forth from prison. one day, as aucassin rides in the forest, he lights on the cabin of his dear nicolette, and they resolve to fly together. so they take a boat on the rhone and they are washed down towards the sea, captured by saracen pirates and separated. aucassin is ransomed and returns home. nicolette stains her face, makes her escape, obtains a _vielle_, and travels about provence, singing ballads. she comes to beaucaire, where aucassin is now count, his father having died, and sings to her hurdy-gurdy the song of her adventures. the tears run down his cheeks, and he promises her rich gifts if she will tell him more. then she goes to the viscountess--the viscount is dead--washes off the walnut juice, dresses in best array, is seen and recognised by aucassin, they are married with great pomp, and are happy ever after. a dear little innocent story, fresh and sweet with the springtime bloom of early literature, withal full of curious pictures of the feelings of the time relative to chivalry, monachism, and religion. [illustration: beaucaire castle from tarascon.--sunset.] chapter xv. nimes. the right spelling of nimes--derivation of name--the fountain--throwing coins into springs--collecting coins--symbol of agrippa--character of agrippa--what he did for nimes--the maison carrée--different idea of worship in the heathen world from what prevails in christendom--s. baudille--vespers--activity of the church in france--behaviour of the clergy in italy to the king and queen--the revolution a blessing to the church in france--church services in italy and in france--the tourmagne--uncertainty as to its use--cathedral of nimes--other churches--a canary lottery--altars to the sun--the sun-wheel--the cross of constantine--anecdote of fléchier. i pray the reader to observe how i spell the name of nimes, with neither an s nor a circumflex, neither as nismes, nor as nîmes, for both are wrong. nimes is nemausus, and there is no s to be sounded or suppressed in the ancient name of the place, which comes from the keltic _naimh_, a fountain or spring. and in very truth no other name could better suit it, for here under a limestone hill wells up the river in one large flood sufficient for boats to go on it at once. this great green spring, ever flowing, mysterious even nowadays, is the great feature of nimes, and this fountain certainly awoke the veneration of the old gauls, who believed it to be a direct gift of the gods. one follows up a canal between streets planted with trees, and looks down into the pure water like liquid green glass, then suddenly reaches a garden. above rises a wooded hill, thick with pines, syringa, judas tree of brilliant pink lake, laburnum with its chains of gold, forming an arc of flowers, and sees before one a wide enclosed pool, walled round, of the shape of the figure 8, heaving with cold pure water that flows away under the terrace and falls with a roar to the lower level of the canal. on one side are ruins--of a temple to the nymphs; but one cannot at first look at that, the volume of water engages one--a lake lifting itself up by its own strength out of the earth, always, night and day, inexhaustible, hardly varying in volume, coming no one knows whence, deep and green, with no visible bottom, without a bubble, without a ruffle--it is indeed wonderful. i have seen the spring of the danube at donaueschingen: it is nothing to this; the fountain of vaucluse one can understand--it breaks out from a cave in the mountainside, like scores of others; this is otherwise--a river rising with no fuss, no display, no noise, without even a ripple. it does not gush, it does not boil up. it is simply one glassy surface, and looking at it you cannot conceive that it is a river rising vertically and sliding away under your feet. pliny says of the source of the clitumnus: "at the foot of a little hill covered with venerable and shady trees, a spring issues which, gushing out in different and unequal streams, forms itself, after several windings, into a spacious basin, so extremely clear that you may see the pebbles, and the little pieces of money that are thrown into it, as they lie at the bottom." i have quoted this passage, not because the source of the clitumnus at all resembles that of the river at nimes, but because of the mention of the coins thrown in. suetonius speaks of this same practice in his life of augustus. now this fountain at nimes has yielded, and yields still, an almost inexhaustible supply of roman and gaulish and gallo-greek coins that have been thus thrown in as oblations to the nymphs in remote times; and these coins are now in the museums of nimes and paris, and in those of private collectors. the same custom still remains, but instead of coins, pins are now cast into springs. [illustration: in the public gardens, nimes.] at the entrance to the public gardens, over the iron gate is a medallion representing a crocodile and a palm-tree. the moment i saw it i stood still and stared. i knew that symbol, had known it from a boy. and this is how i came to know it. living much in the south of france, and having always a hankering after old things, i collected coins, and i got them from the priests. the peasants were wont to drop old roman coins which they found in their fields into the offertory bags and plates, and as these were of no use to the _curés_, they were very glad to give or sell them to me for small current sous. by this means i succeeded in making a very tolerable collection of roman coins at an incredibly small cost. now among these, one of the very first i got, and most curious, represented octavius and agrippa on one side, and on the reverse this identical symbol of a crocodile under a palm tree. often enough did i turn that coin over and wonder what it meant, and highly delighted was i to discover its signification at length. it was symbolical of the subjugation of egypt, and was struck in compliment to agrippa. then most assuredly agrippa had something to do with nimes. i turned to a little history of the place that i had, and to my delight found that he it was who is held to have been the great benefactor, indeed maker, of this little town. i have the greatest possible respect for agrippa. his stern, yet noble face, once seen in this bust is never to be forgotten, and infinitely sad--sad beyond comparison in history is the story of his family. he was a man of obscure, plebeian birth, marcus vipsanius agrippa, belonging to a family, the vipsanian, of which the gentlemen of rome professed never to have heard, or not to have found it necessary to trouble their heads to learn anything. he was a fine soldier, a man of plain manners, good morals, upright, faithful, unambitious. octavius augustus was warmly attached to him, and valued his good qualities and his admirable military genius; and agrippa on his side was tenderly devoted to his noble friend. their characters were as unlike as their faces and as their manners. when octavius became the supreme ruler of the destinies of rome, he heaped honours on his friend. he made him put away his wife and marry his own daughter julia. he had children by her, caius and lucius, who grew to man's estate and then died, one from a wound, the other of decline, and another son, an ill-conditioned boy, agrippa posthumus, put to death, probably by order of octavius, a commission given on his own deathbed, to save rome from internecine war. his daughter, agrippina, starved herself to death, heartbroken at the murder of her two sons by tiberius, and despairing at the thought that her other son, the crazy, debauched, cruel caligula was alone left to represent her family. the other daughter of agrippa, julia, was infamous for her debaucheries, and died in banishment. the family was then represented by the second agrippina, daughter of the first agrippina, who became the mother of nero--that son who was his mother's and his brother's murderer, and died finally by his own hand, amidst the execrations of the roman world. the sad shadow that lies on the brow of agrippa almost seems to be cast there by the destiny awaiting his family. not one drop of his blood mingled with the sacred _ichor_ of the julian race remains on earth. but other remnants of agrippa abide. the pantheon of rome, and the pont du gard near nimes, aye--and the baths he made for the washerwomen in the water he led into this town, that they might not sully the sacred spring that welled up before the temple of the nymphs. agrippa in his various offices and governorships accumulated great wealth, but he was not a grasping man, nor one who spent his wealth upon himself. wherever he was, he expended his fortune on improving and embellishing the cities under his sway. thus it was that for quite an inconsiderable little town, which the classic authors pass over without notice, he lavished very large sums to provide it with excellent water from two springs twenty-five miles distant, not that the river that rises at nimes is impure, but that a certain awe felt for it withheld the natives from desecrating the sacred waters to common use. the pont du gard which carried the waters by three tiers of arches across the valley of the gurdon, at a height of one hundred and eighty feet, is one of the most striking and perfect of the monuments left by the romans in gaul, or anywhere; and it is certainly remarkable that the two most complete relics of this great people that remain, should have been the work of agrippa, the pantheon and the pont du gard. this latter is a colossal work. its length is 873 feet at top, and may well be compared to its advantage with the modern aqueduct that conveys water to the prado of montpellier, a more lengthy, but a feeble structure. [illustration: the pont du gard.] the roman remains in nimes are held famous everywhere. nowhere, least of all in rome, are the relics of that great people of builders to be seen in such perfection. there is the amphitheatre, smaller, but more perfect even, than that at arles. there is the _maison carrée_, a temple almost quite perfect, and of surpassing proportional perfection. small this temple is: it consists of thirty elegant corinthian columns, ten of which are disengaged, and form the portico, whereas the remainder are engaged in the _naos_ or sanctuary. no engraving can give an idea of its loveliness. it is the best example we have in europe, of a temple that is perfectly intact. it is mignon, it is cheerful, it is charming. i found myself unable at any time to pass it without looking round over my shoulder, again and again, and uttering some exclamation of pleasure at the sight of it. [illustration: the maison carrée, nimes.] that temple is instructive in a way the ordinary traveller would hardly suspect. it is a valuable example to us of the complete and radical difference that existed between the pagan and the christian ideas of worship. the pagan world had no idea of gathering a congregation together, any more than i may say have the old canons of florence, or of s. peter's, rome, who shut themselves into glass boxes, of bringing all men into one building to unite in prayer and praise. the sanctuaries of the pagan gods were quite small and dark. worship was simply an individual matter, a bringing of a sacrifice to an altar. there was nothing like congregational worship in the jewish temple either. the priest alone went within to offer the incense, whilst the people stood without. but in the christian church the condition of affairs was completely reversed. the worship of god was to be for all the people, all together, with one heart and one voice. that is why the early christians in the fourth century never adapted a temple to a church. a temple could not be adapted. the pillars were all outside, and within was a little dark box--the sanctuary--that would not hold more than a couple of score of persons. they could not use the temples; what they wanted were temples turned outside-in, the pillars within forming great halls in which a crowd might be gathered. i had been looking at this delightful little temple and considering this, and it was a sunday. i sauntered on, this still on my mind, when i fell in with trains of school children, all drifting in one direction. i followed them, and found myself in the great new church of s. baudille. the time was afternoon. the church, quite a cathedral in size, was crowded, boys' schools, girls' schools, men, women, of all sorts and ranks were there. then i heard such a service as did the heart good to hear. it was only vespers--just five psalms, a hymn, and the magnificat; nothing more. but the psalms were sung in alternate verses between the choir and the congregation, who knew every word and every note, and sang lustily from their hearts' depths, the plain old gregorian tones with which many of us are so familiar at home. i found the words welling up in my mind: "the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, alleluia: for the lord god omnipotent reigneth." i was glad there was no one with me as we dispersed, to speak to me. i could not have answered, my heart was too full. but i went back to the maison carrée, and looked again at it for long, and then realised, in a way i had never realised before, how that the carpenter of nazareth had transformed the whole idea of worship into something of which the world previously had no conception. to the ordinary english traveller the services in a foreign roman catholic church are so unintelligible that i may be excused if i say a word on vespers that may enable him to understand it. usually--always on week days--two evening services, vespers and compline are said together, or rather one immediately after the other. each consists of confession and absolution, a short scriptural lesson, psalms, a canticle, a hymn and collects. the canticle for vespers is the magnificat; for compline is the nunc dimittis. now as the two services were practically united, what our reformers did was to weld them together. they cut out the second confession and absolution and the second batch of psalms, but retained the second lesson and the second canticle. the english even-song is therefore simply the latin vespers and compline pressed into a single service. the reformers, by putting a psalm as alternative for each canticle, perhaps intended the english even-song to serve as either vespers (when magnificat was sung) or as compline (when nunc dimittis was sung). when i was in rome during the winter, i was very much astonished, one day, as the king of italy passed, to see a whole school of little boys under the direction of three christian brothers, strut by with their little noses in the air, and without raising their hats. at the same pension with myself was a young swiss benedictine monk, who sat by me at _table d'hôte_, and with whom i struck up a warm friendship. i commented to him on what i had seen. "oh!" he replied, "we make a point of never saluting the king. why," he continued, "only yesterday i was walking down the corso with cardinal u----, when we saw the queen's carriage approaching. i asked what was to be done. his eminence replied, 'keep your hat on, don't notice her.'" i confess that my english blood boiled up, and for the first and last time i spoke sharply to my friend. i believe i made a certain allusion to an injunction of s. paul, and told him plainly that i thought such conduct unbecoming in a gentleman and a christian, and a priest. on entering france ones sees what devastation the revolution wrought on the church, and one compares the condition there with the very light and easy way in which she has been taken out of her temporal throne and seated on the ground in italy. she has been treated there too easily, so easily that she pouts, and frets, and sulks; whereas in france she has been an antæus who rose from the ground stronger than when cast down. in rome, the church shuffles along in her old slouching, hands-in-the-pockets, half-asleep, don't-care style, letting every opportunity slip away, neglected by the people, because she neglects them. in france, the church is tingling with fresh life-blood to her fingers' ends, full of energy, activity, zeal. why, there is not to be found in rome, or florence, or naples, a church where a tolerable service is to be heard sung. in rome one gets sick of and angry with the squalling of eunuchs, and longs for a scourge of small cords to drive them out of the temple. no one cares for the church services in rome. no attempt is made to attract the people to them. at florence the service is like the bleating of a flock of sheep driven into a pen to be shorn, and the old canons who baa are enclosed within glass against draughts, and to the exclusion of all congregational worship. but in france, the people who have any religion in them love their services--love them and have made them their own, sing in them and follow them with eager interest. i remember, when i was a youth in france, that few men were seen in church, and the ladies lounged through the service. it is not so now, you see as many men in church as you will in england, and the women are attentive and devout. the italian church must suffer deeper humiliation, and learn to touch her cap to "the powers that be, ordained of god," before the people will rally to her and show her reverence. on the summit of the hill above the fountain and temple of the nymphs is a most puzzling building, the _tourmagne_. it is of roman construction, a great tower like that of babel, in stages, the upper stage with semicircular recesses that sustained the external wall, now in part fallen. no one can tell its purpose. it has clearly been utilised since its first construction by the romans, by making it an angle tower of some other building, the foundations of which have been quite recently exposed. the tower is octagonal. it resembles the structure of the lighthouse at ostia, already mentioned as in the torlonia gallery. but why a lighthouse here? it is true that to the south of nimes was lagoon and marsh, with islets and strips of dry land scattered about among the tracts of water, all the way to the sea, but one hardly supposes such a lighthouse would have been raised to guide the _utriculares_ on their skin-sustained rafts. yet for what other purpose it can have been raised it is hard to imagine. it stands on very high ground, and commands a most extensive prospect. it has long been, and is likely to remain, a hard nut for antiquaries to break their teeth upon. the cathedral of nimes has been, not so much restored as transformed internally, so as to void it of much interest, but it must have been a curious church at one time. externally, at the west end, is a most wonderful frieze, a band of rich sculpture representing the story of man from the creation to the drunkenness of noah. in one chapel within is an old christian sarcophagus utilised as an altar, on it our lord is represented as teacher surrounded by the apostles. s. paul is a modern church good in proportion, with an admirable central octagonal tower and spire. the only fault to be found with the church is in the details. s. baudille is a pretentious gothic church, with two asparagus shoots as western towers, it has a square east end, with a really marvellously ugly east window. the new church of s. perpetue is beneath criticism. [illustration: cathedral of nimes.--part of west front.] there are two roman triumphal arches at nimes, but neither is remarkable. in front of one i found a man exhibiting a cage of canaries. he had a little table before the cage on which small cards, each numbered, were set out. then he sold among the bystanders tickets with corresponding numbers. there were eighteen numbers, and each card sold for a sou, and the whole constituted a lottery for a chain and some seals that the fellow dangled before the eyes of the little circle of lookers-on. the lots were taken up after a little persuasion and chaffering. then he opened the cage door; out hopped a canary that trotted up and down the little table, and finally picked up one of the cards. "number nine," called the proprietor of the canaries. "which monsieur is the happy possessor of card number nine?" a soldier stepped forward, presented his tally, and received the silver watch-chain. then all those who had been unsuccessful restored their cards, and the same process was repeated, this time among women, for a silver thimble. nimes struck me as one of the very brightest, pleasantest towns i have ever visited, and the one in which, if forced to live out of england, i think i could live most happily in. i have said not one word about the museum at nimes, which is within the maison carrée, and yet the museum contains some objects deserving of attention. there are two altars with wheels carved on them, both small, the largest only two feet three inches high, and that has on it not the wheel only, but the thunderbolt. these are altars to the gaulish god of the sun. the second bears an inscription "et terræ matri." it was dedicated doubtless to the "sun and to the earth mother," but the first portion of the legend is lost. in the avignon museum is a statue of a gaulish jupiter in military costume, with his right hand on the wheel, and with the eagle on his left. [1] [footnote 1: others at trèves, moulin, and paris.] moreover, in the nimes museum are some bronze circular ornaments, found in 1883 in the caves of s. vallon in ardèche, representing the wheel. on the triumphal arch of orange are gaulish warriors with horned helmets, and wheels as crests between the horns. the wheel, as symbol of the sun, was very general everywhere, in the east as well as the west, among the germans as well as among the gauls, but among the latter it assumed a very special importance, and it is due to this fact that in the french cathedrals the west window is a wheel window. at basle there is a round window in the minster with figures climbing and falling on the spokes, and fortune sits in the midst. it is a wheel of fortune. it is the same at beauvais, at amiens, and elsewhere. at chartres is a representation in stained glass of the transfiguration; and christ is exhibited in glory in the midst of an eight-spoked wheel. a curious statue at luxeuil, now lost, represented a rider protecting a lady whilst his horse tramples on a prostrate foe; his raised hand over the woman is thrust through a six-rayed wheel. on the meuse a similar peculiarity has been noticed in a fragment of a sculptured figure, it is a hand holding a four-spoked wheel. in the museum kircherianum at rome are bronze six-rayed wheels, the spokes zigzagged like lightnings, found at forli, others at modena. all these were symbols of the sun. now when constantine professed to have seen his vision, which was in all probability a mock-sun, he thought that the rays he saw formed the greek initials of christ, and he therefore ordered these initials, _forming a six-rayed wheel_, to be set up on the standards of his soldiers. the only difference between his "labarum" and the symbol of the gaulish sun-god was that his upper spoke was looped to form the letter p. no doubt whatever, that his keltic soldiers hailed the new standard as that of their national god, and that when they marched against maxentius and met him at saxa rubra, eight miles from rome, they thought that they, as gauls, were marching to a second capture of the capital of the world, under the protection of their national god. among men of note that have been associated with nimes is fléchier, born at pernes in vaucluse in 1632, who became bishop of nimes in 1687. he was the son of a tallow-chandler. from his eloquence he was much regarded as a preacher, but unfortunately his discourses contain very little except well-rounded sentences of well-chosen words. he was a favourite of louis xiv., who respected his integrity and piety. one day a haughty aristocratic prelate about the court had the bad taste to sneer at him for his origin. "avec votre manière de penser," replied fléchier calmly, "je crois que si vous étiez né ce que je suis, vous n'eussiez fait, toute votre vie--que de chandelles." chapter xvi. aigues mortes and maguelonne. a dead town--the rhônes-morts--bars--s. louis and the crusades--how s. louis acquired aigues mortes--his canal--the four littoral chains and lagoons--the fortifications--unique for their date--original use of battlements--deserted state of the town--maguelonne--how reached--history of maguelonne--cathedral--the bishops forge saracen coins--second destruction of the place--inscription on door--bernard de treviis--his romance of pierre de provence--provençal poetry not always immoral--present state of maguelonne. aigues mortes is a dead town, and differs from maguelonne, to be presently described, in this, that it is a dead _town_, whereas maguelonne is only the ghost of a dead town. it is a great curiosity, for it is a dead mediæval town surrounded by its walls, and dominated by its keep. but first about its name, which signifies dead waters. if the reader will remember what has been already said about the structure of the delta of the rhone, he will recall the fact that the river is constantly engaged in changing its mouths. when it has formed for itself a new mouth, it deserts its former course, which it leaves as a stagnating canal. this occasions the delta to be striped with what are locally termed rhônes-morts, whereas a flowing branch is called a rhône-vif. [illustration: aigues mortes.--one of the gates.] moreover the stagnant masses of water left by floods are called aigues mortes--dead waters; and it is precisely on such that the little fortified town i am now writing about, stands. i know of no point on the littoral of the rhone that offers so excellent an opportunity of observing the processes of that river than at aigues mortes. the river has, indeed, long ago deserted the branch that once discharged itself here, and it has left four lines behind it, making successive stages of advance, four bars, with their several backwaters, now converted into ponds or meres. the canal of beaucaire now passes by aigues mortes, and reaches the mediterranean nearly three miles below the town. it was from aigues mortes that s. louis sailed on his crusades in 1248 and 1270; and it has a little puzzled many people to account for his having chosen such a wretched place as this for the assembly of his crusaders and for embarkation. but he could not help himself. [illustration: aigues mortes.--tower of the bourgignons.] as soon as louis had, in 1244, made his vow to assume the cross, his first care was to obtain on the shores of the mediterranean a territory and a port sufficient for the concentration of the troops that were to from his expedition. but he encountered great difficulty. the king was not _suzerain_ over the southern provinces of france, and possessed as his own not a single town on the coast. the port of narbonne was choked with sand, and belonged to the viscounts of that town. the port of maguelonne was under the sovereignty of the bishop. the lagoons and their openings into the sea of montpellier were under the king of aragon. the ports of agde and s. gilles were subject to the counts of toulouse, and independent provence was not to be attached to the crown till three centuries later. the marshy district of aigues mortes was alone available; it was under the abbey of psalmodi, planted amidst the swamps on a little sandy elevation. louis ix. entered into negotiations with the abbot, and in exchange for certain royal domains near sommière, he was enabled to acquire the town of aigues mortes and all the zone of lagoons between it and the sea. at that time there existed but a single fortification--the tower of matafera--erected about five centuries before as a place of refuge from the saracens. s. louis restored this tower, or rather rebuilt it, in the form in which it remains to this day. then he constructed a quay, and scooped out a canal through the lagoons to the sea. this is the old canal, now full of sand, and up this vessels were able to proceed through two lagoons to the tower of matafera, which acquired later the name of tour de constance. but the old canal had an ephemeral existence; every inundation of the lagoons of the rhone altered their depths, and disturbed the canal. a century or two later another canal was cut between the old one and that now in use, that also was destined in time to be choked up; but the old discharging and lading place of the vessels can still be distinguished by the heaps of ballast thrown out, consisting of stones from genoa and corsica. it is quite a mistake to suppose that aigues mortes was on the sea in the thirteenth century. the crusaders embarked in the canal cut by s. louis, and sailed through the lagoons before they reached the open mediterranean. the most ancient maps show us aigues mortes bathed by one of those branches of the rhone, now deserted, which go by the name of rhônes-morts. at a time before history--at all events the history of gaul begins, the rhone had its principal mouth in the great etang de maugio; but it choked up its mouth there, and advanced eastward in several stages, leaving in its rear, as the river thus shifted its quarters, a series of dwindling and then dead channels. [illustration: sketch map of mortes and its littoral chains.] what is now the petit rhône, reaching the sea at les saintes maries, was then the main stream, which has long ago turned away, and now discharges its greatest body of water into the mediterranean at saint louis. it has left behind it, not only the dead or stagnant rhones, its neglected beds, but also, as already noticed, its old bars, and these are very distinctly marked at aigues mortes. the first chain gives us the primitive beach, which began at the lagoon of maugio, traversed the entire camargue, and can be traced to fos. it is formed of an almost uninterrupted succession of sandhills crowned with a tolerably rich vegetation; on it grow the white poplar, the aleppo and the umbrella pines. to the south of this lay the prehistoric sea; the ground is horizontal, and although subjected to culture shows sufficient evidence that it was at one time sea-bed, covered with more recent alluvium. here is the great lagoon of loyran, which, before many years are passed, will be completely drained, and its bed turned up by the plough. still advancing seaward, we reach a second littoral chain, not so distinctly marked as the first, but nevertheless distinguishable by its low line of sandy dunes, on which a scanty growth of tamarisks and coarse grass is sustained. then we come to a succession of lagoons, once united into one, and after them the third bar, presenting exactly the same features--a low range of sand and pebbles, and beyond it once more lagoons, cut off from the waves of the mediterranean by a fourth and last chain, the most recent, that belongs to the historic epoch. but that is not all: the wash of the sea, its current settling west, and carrying with it the mud of the rhone is gradually, but surely building up a fifth bar or bank, which will in time close the gulf from the point of espignette to the bathing-place of palavas, when the gulf of aigues mortes will be converted into a second etang de berre. [illustration: map of the coast of provence & languendoc showing old lagoons & deserted river mouths] aigues mortes is surrounded by its mediæval fortifications just as they were left by philip the bold, son of s. louis. the plan of the town is almost quadrilateral, it has six gates and fifteen towers. only one angle of the parallelogram is cut off, where stands the stately circular tower of constance. the streets are laid out in the most precise manner, cutting each other at right angles; there are four churches, of which the principal is notre dame des sablons. the others were all formerly attached to monasteries or convents. [illustration: original use of battlements.--(_from viollet-le-duc._)] the plan of the fortification is precisely that adopted by the crusaders wherever they built defences, in syria, in cyprus, in palestine. the walls are crenellated, usually without machicolations, pierced with long slots, and with square holes through which beams were thrust, supporting wooden balconies which commanded the bases of the walls, and enabled the besieged to protect themselves against the efforts made by the assailants to sap the bases of the ramparts, or to escalade the walls. towers, round and square at intervals, strengthened the walls, and formed points of vantage and of assembly for the besieged. precisely similar fortifications were raised about the same period at tortosa, antioch, ascalon, cæsarea, &c.; but all these have been destroyed, only aigues mortes remains, an unique and perfect example of the systematic fortification adopted by the crusaders everywhere. the reader, probably, has not given a thought to the original purpose of a battlement, so common on towers and churches and castles. i therefore venture to show what it was originally. it was a wall broken through with doorways into the wooden gallery that overhung, and through which the assailants could be kept from approaching too near to the base of the walls. but, after a time, these wooden galleries were found to be inconvenient. means were taken by the besiegers to set them on fire. consequently they were abandoned, and their places were taken by projecting galleries of stone, supported, not on wooden beams, but on stone corbels, and it is this second stage in fortification which is called machicolation. the battlements were retained, but were no longer roofed over. consequently it is possible to tell approximately the epoch of a mediæval fortification, by a look at the battlements, whether they stand back flush with the walls, and have the beam-holes, or whether they stand forward, bracketed out from the walls. [illustration: second stage of battlements.] aigues mortes is a dead town. about a third of the area within the walls is devoted to gardens, or is waste. the population, which in the thirteenth century numbered 15,000 souls, has shrunk to a little over 3,000, a number at which it remains stationary. it does a little sleepy trade in salt, and sees the barges for beaucaire pass its walls, and perhaps supplies the boatmen with wine and bread. the neighbourhood is desolate. the soil is so full of salt that it is impatient of tillage, and produces only such herbs as love the sea border. but its lagoons are alive with wild fowl, rose-coloured flamingoes, white gulls, and green metallic-throated ducks. and now for maguelonne. i said that aigues mortes was a dead town, but maguelonne was the ghost of one. the best way to reach this latter very singular spot is to take the train from montpellier to villeneuve de maguelonne, and walk thence to the border of the etang. there one is pretty sure to find fishermen--they catch little else than eels--who will row one across to the narrow strip of land that intervenes between the lagoon and the sea. the littoral chain here is not of sand and gravel only, for a mass of volcanic tufa rises to the surface, and originally formed an islet in the sea, then, when the process began of forming a littoral belt with a lagoon behind it, the sands clung to this islet and spread out from it to left and right. on this volcanic islet stood first a greek and then a roman city, but of its history nothing is known till the sixth century, when it was attacked from the sea by wamba, king of the visigoths. it had been an episcopal city for a century before. after the visigoths came the saracens, who gave the place their name, and the harbour of maguelonne was called port sarasin. in 737, charles martel, in order to clear the pirates completely out of their stronghold, destroyed the city to its last foundation, with the sole exception of the old church of s. peter. the bishop took up his abode on the mainland at villeneuve, and the seat of the bishopric was moved to castelnau near montpellier. for three centuries the islet was abandoned and left a heap of ruins. but it was restored in the eleventh century. the walls were again set up, and flanked with towers, and a causeway consisting of a chain of wooden bridges was carried across the lagoon to villeneuve. the entrance to the port was closed lest it should invite saracen pirates, and another opened under the walls of the town which could be rendered impassable by a chain at the first sign of danger. the newly-built town speedily showed vigour, became populous, and the harbour was filled with the merchandise of the mediterranean. two popes visited the city, gelasius ii. in 1118, and alexander iii. in 1162. in addition to the cathedral of s. peter, other churches were raised, dedicated to s. augustine and s. pancras. a castle with keep was erected. for several centuries maguelonne was a sort of ecclesiastical republic, in which the bishop exercised the office of president. it became very rich and luxurious. the bishop, not too scrupulous, forged imitation saracen coins, and was called to order for doing this by clement iv. in 1266. it seemed to the sovereign pontiff a scandal, not that the bishop should forge the coins, but that he should forge them with the name of mahomet on them as "prophet of god." in 1331 statutes for the monastery on maguelonne were drawn up, which proved that the discipline kept therein left much to be desired; and a monastic treatise on cooking that came thence shows that the monks and canons were consummate epicures. maguelonne was ruined first by charles martel. it was again, and finally ruined, by louis xiii. the castle, the walls, the towers, the monastic buildings--everything was levelled to the dust, with the sole exception of the cathedral church. the stones of the dismantled buildings encumbered the ground till 1708, when they were all carried off for the construction of the new canal which runs along the coast through the chain of lagoons from cette to aigues mortes. "a church and its archives," says the historian of maguelonne, "that is all that the revolution of fate has respected of one of the principal monastic centres in the south. a church in which service is no longer said, and archives that are incomplete. even the very cemetery of maguelonne has vanished, as though death had feared to encounter himself in this desert, where naught remained save the skeleton of a cathedral. yet what dust is here! phoenician, greek, celtic, roman, christian, mahomedan, french: a few tombs escaped the observation of the stone collectors of 1708, and even fewer inscriptions, excepting such as are found within the church, that is all! what a realization is this of the sentence on all things human, _pulvis es_." [1] [footnote 1: germain: "maguelonne et ses évêques," 1859.] [illustration: east end of the church of maguelonne.] the islet of maguelonne is but one knot in the long thread of _cordon littoral_ that reaches from cette to aigues mortes, and it can be reached on foot by land from palavas, but the simplest and shortest route is by boat in half an hour over the shallow mere, nowhere over three feet six inches deep. the boats of the fishermen are all flat-bottomed, and the men have to row gingerly, lest their oars strike the bottom, or else they punt along. one can see as one crosses, the points of rest of the old causeway. the church, like that of les trois maries, is feudal castle as much as cathedral, calculated, on occasion, to give refuge within to the inhabitants of the town, whilst the garrison stood on the flat roof and showered arrows, stones, molten sulphur and pitch upon the besiegers. the whole of this coast was liable to the descent of moorish and saracen pirates, consequently the same type of church prevails all along it. the western tower is ruinous, but the remainder of the church is in tolerable condition. it is cruciform, with an apse, as but very narrow windows, high up and few. the roof is slabbed with stone, so as to form a terrace on which the besieged could walk, and whence they could launch their weapons through the slots and between the battlements. at the south-west end of the church is a curious entrance door of the twelfth century, with a relieving arch of coloured marbles over it, and the apostles peter and paul rudely sculptured as supporters of the arch. they occupy a crouching position, and are sculptured on triangular blocks. in the tympanum is the saviour seated in glory. but what in addition to its quaintness of design gives peculiar interest to this doorway is the inscription it bears:- ad portvm vite sitientes qviqve venite. has intrando fores, vestros componite mores. hinc intrans ora, tva semper crimina plora. qvicqvid peccatvr lacrimarvm fonte lavatvr. b. d. iiivis fecit hoc anno inc. do. clxxviii. let those who will come thirsting to the gate of life. on entering these doors compose your manners. entering here pray, and ever bewail your crimes. all sin is washed away in the spring of tears. bernard de trevies made this, a.d. 1178. now bernard of the three-ways is a man who did something else--he was a novelist and a poet. a canon of maguelonne, gentle and pure of heart, he wrote the story of 'pierre de provence et la belle maguelone,' a charming monument of the old languedoc tongue worthy to range alongside with 'aucassin et nicolette.' it has been translated into most european languages, greek not excepted, and has become a favourite chapbook tale. it is still read in all cottages of france, sold at all fairs, but sadly mutilated at each re-edition, and in its chapbook form reduced to a few pages, which is but a wretched fragment of a very delightful whole. no idea of its beauty can be obtained without reference to the old editions, where it occupies a goodly volume. the story of pierre de provence is not one of extraordinary originality, but its charm lies in its general tone, healthy, pure, gentle, full of the freshness of chivalry in its first institution, and of religion in its simplicity. we probably have not got the poetic romance quite in its original form as it left the hands of bernard, for petrarch, whilst a student at montpellier, was struck with it, and added some polishing touches, and it is the version thus improved by his master-hand that is believed to have come down to us. i shrink from still further condensing a story spoiled already by condensation, and yet do not like altogether to pass it over without giving the reader some idea of it. the story tells of a peter, son of the count of melgueil, who, hearing that the king of naples had a daughter of surpassing loveliness, determined to ride and see her. he had himself accoutred in armour, with silver keys on his helm, and on his shield; and when he reached naples jousted in tournament before the fair princess, whose name was maguelone, and loved her well, and she him. but, alas! the king had promised to give her to the prince of carpona in marriage, and as she felt she could not live without her pierre, and peter was quite sure he could not live without her, they eloped together. when the sun waxed burning hot she became very weary, and he led her beneath a tree, and she laid her head on his knee and fell asleep. then he saw how she had in her bosom a little silken bag, and he lightly drew it forth and peered within to see what it contained. then, lo! he found three rings that he had sent her by her nurse. afraid of waking her, by replacing the bag, he laid it beside him on a stone, when down swooped a raven and carried it off. peter at once folded his mantle, put it under the head of the sleeping girl, and ran after the bird, which flew to the sea and perched on a rock above it. peter threw a stone at the raven and made it drop the bag into the water. then he got a boat, moored hard by, jumped into the boat and went after the floating bag with the rings. but wind and waves rose and brushed him out to sea, and carried him across the mediterranean to alexandria, where the sultan made him his page. in the meantime the fair maguelone awoke in the green wood, and finding herself alone, ran about calling "pierre! pierre!" but received no answer. she spent the night in the forest, and then took the road to rome, and encountering a female pilgrim, exchanged clothes with her. maguelone pursued her journey, prayed in s. peter's church at rome, unnoticed by her uncle, who, with great state, passed by her kneeling there, and threw her alms. then she went on to genoa, where she took boat to aigues mortes. hearing at this place that there was a little island off the coast suitable for a hermitage, thither she went, and with her jewels she had brought from naples built a little church and a hospital, in which she ministered to sick people. the countess of melgueil, hearing of the holy woman, came to visit her, and won by her sympathy, with many tears told her how she had lost her dear son peter, who had gone to naples, and had not been heard of since. one day, a fisherman caught a tunny, and brought it as a present to the count. when the tunny was opened, in its stomach was found a little bag that contained three rings. now, no sooner did the countess see these than she knew they were her own, which she had given to pierre, and she hasted to tell the anchorite on the isle of the wondrous discovery, and to show her the rings. it need hardly be told that maguelone also recognised them. now the sultan of alexandria had become so attached to peter, that he treated him as his own son, and finally, at peter's entreaty, allowed him to return to provence, having first extracted from him a promise to come back to him. peter carried with him a great treasure in fourteen barrels, but to hide their contents he filled up the tops with salt. then he engaged with a captain of a trader to convey him across to provence. now one day the vessel stayed for water at a little isle, called sagona, and peter went on shore, and the sun being hot, lay down on the grass and fell asleep. a wind sprang up. the sails were spread. the captain called peter. the men ran everywhere searching for him, could not find him, and at length were reluctantly obliged to sail without him. on reaching provence the captain was unwilling to retain the goods of the lost man, and so gave them to the holy woman who ministered to the sick in the hospital she had built on a tiny islet off the coast. one day when maguelone was short of salt she went to fetch some from the barrels given her by the ship's captain, and to her amazement found under the salt an incalculable treasure. with this she set to work to rebuild the church and her hospital. in the meantime, peter awoke, and found himself deserted. for some time he remained in the island, but from want of food and discouragement fell ill, and would have died had not some fishermen, chancing to come there, taken him into their boat. they consulted what to do with the sick man, and one said that they had best take him to maguelone. on hearing the name peter asked what they meant. they told him that this was the name given to a church and hospital richly built and tended to by a holy woman, on the coast of provence. peter then entreated them to carry him to the place that bore so fair a name. so he was conveyed, sick and feeble, into the hostel; but he was so changed with sickness that maguelone did not recognise him, and as she wore a veil he could not see her face. now maguelone, whenever she went by his bed heard him sigh, so she stood still one day, spoke gently to him, and asked what was his trouble. then he told her all his story, and how sad his heart was for his dear maguelone, whom he had lost, and might never see again. she now knew him, and with effort constrained her voice to bid him pray to god, with whom all things are possible. and when she heard him raise his voice in prayer with many sobs, she could not contain herself, but ran off to the church, and kneeling before the altar gave way also to tears, but tears of joy mingled with psalms of thanksgiving. then she arose, and brought forth her royal robes, and cast aside those of an anchorite, and bade that pierre should be given a bath and be clothed in princely garb. after which he was introduced into her presence. of the joy of the recognition, of the restoration of the lost son to his parents, of the happy wedding, no need that i should tell. the church and hostel of maguelone remained ever after as testimony to the virtues and piety of la belle maguelone, its foundress. such is the merest and baldest sketch of this graceful tale, told by the very man who cut the inscription i copied from the door of the church, in which he served as canon. when vernon lee says of provençal poetry that adultery--rank adultery was what it lauded, we must not forget that there is another side to be considered--and that the provençal poets turned their pens as well to drawing pure and artless love. the land and the old church are now the property of a private gentleman, a m. fabre, who has a great love for the place. i remember the church, when i was a child, full of hay and faggots. it is now restored to sacred uses, but mass is only said therein once in the year. the proprietor has built a farmhouse near it, and has moved his children's bodies to the old cathedral, and purposes to be laid there himself, when his hour strikes--surrounded by waters: the sea on one side, the great mere of maguelonne on the other. chapter xvii. béziers and narbonne. position of béziers--s. nazaire--the albigenses--their tenets--albigensian "consolation"--crusade against them--the storming of béziers--massacre--cathedral of béziers--girls' faces in the train--similar faces at narbonne, in cathedral and museum--narbonne a roman colony--all the roman buildings destroyed--caps of liberty--christian sarcophagi--children's toys of baked clay--cathedral unfinished--archiepiscopal palace--unsatisfactory work of m. viollet-le-duc--in trouble with the police--taken for a german spy--my sketch-book gets me off. the position of béziers is striking. it crowns a height above the orb, its grand fortified church of s. nazaire occupying the highest point, where it stands on a platform. this fine church is not the cathedral. in la madeleine is the bishop's throne, a church that, with the exception of the tower and exterior of the apse, has been modernised out of all interest. but s. nazaire is a stately and beautiful church of the twelfth to the fourteenth century, in the style of the country, very little ornamented externally, and very strongly fortified; even the windows being made impenetrable by their strong _grilles_ of iron. there are two western towers, small, with an arch thrown between their battlements, over the rose window, and this battlemented archway is in fact a screen behind which the besieged sheltered whilst they poured down molten pitch on those who assailed the gateway of the cathedral. for this purpose there is an open space between the screen and the façade. the apse of eight sides, internally is fine; and there is a beautiful octagonal apsidal chapel on the north side, entered from the transept. beziers is the scene of a horrible slaughter in 1209, after the siege by the crusaders under simon de montfort. it had been a headquarter of the albigenses. as we are now entering the region reddened with the blood of these heretics, it will not be improper here to give a little account of them. the albigenses are often erroneously confused with the waldenses, with whom really they had little in common. actually, the albigenses were not christians at all, but manicheans. the heresy was nothing other than the reawakening of the dormant and suppressed paganism of the south of france. there are plenty of documents which enable us to understand their peculiar tenets and practices. [illustration: béziers from the river.] they held a dualism of good and evil principles in the world, equally matched; and they taught that the evil principle was the origin of all created matter. accordingly they rejected the old testament, and declared that all the world and man's body were of diabolic origin, and that the spirit only was divine. with regard to the person of christ they were divided in opinion. some said he had a phantom body, and that he seemed only to die on the cross. the real christ was incapable of suffering. but another school among them declared that he had a true body born of mary and joseph, and that this was due to the evil principle, and that this body did hang on the cross. it was the evil god of the jews who slew pharaoh in the red sea. they held that the good god had two wives, colla and coliba, from whom he had many generations of spiritual beings. of the good christ, the spiritual, they asserted, that he neither ate nor drank, that he was the source of all mercy and salvation, but that the bad christ was the carnal one following the good christ as the shadow follows the body; that this bad christ had magdalen as his concubine. they were not agreed as to the future of man. some denied the existence of souls, some said that the souls were fallen angels inhabiting men's bodies, others that the soul was pure and could only attain to blessedness by emancipation from the body, all the works of which were evil. the faithful of the albigenses were divided into two orders, the "perfect," who wore a black dress, abstained from flesh, eggs, cheese, and from marriage; and the "believers" whose salvation was to be attained by a certain ceremony called the "consolation." this sacrament of consolation was performed by one of the perfect laying his hands on the believer; and after consolation, the newly-consoled must starve himself to death. a great number of trials of albigenses have been collected by limborch in his history of the inquisition. one only can we now give. it is that of a woman who had herself consoled, and sending for a surgeon, ordered him to open her veins in a bath, that so, the blood running out more freely, she might sooner die. also she bought poison, as the bleeding did not succeed, and procured a cobbler's awl wherewith to pierce her heart, but as the women with her were undecided whether the heart were on the right side or the left, she took the poison, and so died. [1] [footnote 1: we have got the acts of the inquisition at toulouse during sixteen years, between 1307-1323. the whole number of cases reported is 932. the usual sentence on one found guilty--unless guilty of causing death by "consolation"--was to wear a tongue of red cloth on the garments. of such there are 174 sentences. if a case of relapse, there was sentence of brief imprisonment, 218 cases; 38 were reported as having run away; 40 were condemned to death for having caused the death of dupes by "consolation;" 113 were let off penances previously imposed; 139 were discharged from prison, and 90 sentences were pronounced against persons already dead. _see_ maitland's tracts and documents on the albigenses, 1831.] we can understand what alarm this great heathen reaction in provence and aquitaine awoke in france, and in the minds of the popes. innocent iii. at first employed against the albigenses only spiritual and legitimate weapons; before proscribing he tried to convert them, but when they murdered his emissary, peter de castelnau, in 1208, he proclaimed a holy war against them. it was a war undertaken on the plea of a personal crime, but in reality for the dispossession of the native princes who were believed to be in favour of the heresy. "the crusade against the albigensians," says m. guizot, "was the most striking application of two principles equally false and fatal, which did as much evil to the catholics as to the heretics; and these are the right of the spiritual power to coerce souls by the material force of the temporal power, and the right to strip princes of their title to the obedience of their subjects--in other words, denial of religious liberty to consciences, and of political independence to states." [illustration: béziers.--church of s. nazaire.] in 1208 innocent summoned the king of france to sweep from southern france these heretics, "worse than the saracens," and he promised to the leaders of the crusade the domains they won of the princes who favoured the heresy. the war lasted fifteen years (from 1208 to 1223) and of the two leading spirits, one ordering and the other executing, pope innocent iii. and simon de montfort, neither saw the end of it. during the fifteen years of this religious war, nearly all the towns and strong castles in the regions between the rhone, the pyrenees, the garonne were taken, lost, retaken, given over to pillage, sack, and massacre, and burnt by the crusaders with all the cruelty of fanatics and all the greed of conquerors. in the account of the war by a provençal poet, we are told that god never made the clerk who could have written the muster-roll of the crusading army in two or even three months. one of the first victims was the young and gallant viscount of béziers, who, the same author assures us, was a good catholic, but whose lands and towns the rapacious horde lusted to acquire. when they sat down before béziers, then the catholics within the walls made common cause with the heretics, and refused to surrender. [illustration: fountain in the cloister of s. nazaire, béziers.] then the city was stormed, the walls scrambled up by a rabble rout of camp-followers, in shirts and breeches, but without shoes, who burst over the parapets whilst the envoys of the town were being amused by mock conferences with montfort and the other leaders of the crusading host. a general massacre ensued; neither age nor sex were spared, even priests fell. it is said that news of what was being done was brought to arnauld, abbot of citeaux, one of the commanders of the crusade, and he was told that faithful and heretics were being slaughtered alike. "slay them all," said he, "god will know his own." the story is told by a contemporary, but only as an _on-dit_, and may therefore be quite untrue. but simon de montfort, the hero of the crusade, employed like language. one day two heretics, taken at castres, were brought before him, one of whom was unshakable in his belief, the other expressed himself open to conviction. "burn them both," said the count; "if this fellow mean what he says, the fire will expiate his sins; and, if he lie, he will suffer for his imposture." an attempt has been made to exculpate the leaders of the crusade from the atrocities committed at the capture of béziers, and to clear them of the charge of treachery. it is so far certain that the town was captured and the massacre begun by the camp-followers, but the crusaders soon joined in and accomplished the work begun by the "ribauds;" and no attempt was made by the leaders to stay the carnage. in the cathedral church of s. madeleine some seven thousand who had taken refuge there were butchered without regard to the sanctity of the spot. the city was then set on fire and the cathedral perished in the flames. after all, it was well that the cathedral should be purged with fire, and rebuilt. one could not pray, one would not like to see the service of god rendered in a building that had been thus bespattered with blood. s. nazaire is later. it was almost wholly rebuilt in the fourteenth century, and within it one can forget the horrors of that hateful siege and butchery. as i travelled on to narbonne, there entered the carriage in which i was two girls with remarkable profiles, and i wondered whether they bore the features of the ligurian race that first peopled all this coast, now probably represented by the basques--a race akin to the lap. these girls had fine dark eyes and hair, sallow complexions, and their full faces were not unpleasant, but their profiles were certainly most remarkable. now curiously enough, on entering the cathedral at narbonne, i saw a tomb of the eighteenth century with mourners represented on it--some six to eight, and they had all the same type of face. not only so, but in the museum of the town is a classic bust, found among the remains of roman narbona, and the same type is there. [illustration: types of faces, narbonne. modern. sixteenth-century tomb in cathedral. classic bust in museum.] narbonne was once a great capital. it stood on a lagoon, and did a large trade in the mediterranean. it was a roman colony, founded at the same time as arles, and had its forum, capitol, baths, amphitheatre, theatre, and temples. but, alas! the necessity for fortifying the city in the middle ages induced the inhabitants to go to these roman buildings and pull them to pieces in order with them to construct the walls and towers surrounding the town, and now not one of all these monuments remains. the walls have served, however, as a rich quarry of antiquities that have supplied the two great collections in the town, one in the hôtel de ville, the other in a ruined church. these collections are only second to the avignon museum, and abound with objects of interest. among the monumental stones for the dead are several with caps figured on them. the like are to be seen at nimes, avignon, and elsewhere. these are freedmen's caps. when a noble roman died he left in his will that so many of his slaves were to be given their liberty, and then this was represented by caps sculptured on his tombstone. [illustration: freedmen's caps, narbonne.] thus it happened that the cap came to be regarded as the symbol of liberty. the museum contains a christian sarcophagus on the staircase, with an orante, a woman praying with uplifted hands in the midst, on the sides the striking of the rock and the multiplication of the loaves. on the lid is the portrait of the lady who was buried in it, with hair dressed in the fashion worn by the julias of the heliogabalus and alexander severus epoch, with whose busts one becomes so familiar at rome, 218-223--a fashion that never came in again, that i am aware of. another christian sarcophagus has on it the multiplication of loaves, the denial of peter, and a representation of christ unbearded, which is the earliest form. another, again, represents him unbearded holding a scroll, on the right st. peter and two other apostles holding rolls, and three apostles on the left; on the lid is an orante. in this museum may be seen one or two examples of bronze gaulish sun-wheels with four and eight spokes; and, what is to me very touching, a number of children's toys made in clay, found in children's tombs--cocks and hens, pigs and horses, very rude. similar toys are to be found in the arles and the avignon museums. i remember in the catacomb of s. agnes at rome is a whole collection of toys found in a christian grave there, ivory dolls, a rattle, bells, and an earthenware money-box, just such as may be bought for a sou now in a foreign fair. de rossi, the curator of the catacombs, has had them all put together under glass in proximity to the little grave where they were found. in a child's grave at s. sebastian was found a little terra-cotta horse dappled with yellow spots. i suppose parents could not bear to see the toys of their darlings about the house, and so enclosed them with their dear ones in the last home. i remember a modern french grave, near la rochelle; in the centre of the head-cross was a glass case, with a doll dinner-service enclosed, that had been a favourite toy with the poor little mite lying under the cross. so human hearts are the same as centuries roll by and religions alter. [illustration: children's toys in the museum, narbonne.] the cathedral of narbonne is very delightful, after a course of castellated fortress-churches of early date. it is of the fourteenth century, light, lantern-like, with glorious flying buttresses. the church is unfinished, it has no nave, only the lovely soaring choir, standing alone, like that of beauvais; and as was that of cologne till the last thirty years. unfortunately this choir is so built round with houses that it is only in one place at the east end that it can be seen, and just there, out of delightful play of fancy, the architect has thrown a bow across from one flying buttress to another high up, and through this stone rainbow one sees the pinnacles and the sweeping arches of the buttresses crossing each other at every angle. the archiepiscopal palace was a fortress, with two strong towers. m. viollet-le-duc was invited by the town to take them in hand and construct between them a façade in keeping with their architecture, which was to be thenceforth the façade of the hôtel de ville. there was not a man in france who had a more intimate knowledge of gothic architecture than he; but, unfortunately, like rickman in england and heideloff in germany, he was incapable of applying his knowledge. the consequence is that he has produced a façade which is disfiguring to the two grand towers between which it is planted. viollet-le-duc was delighted with the grand effect of the face of the papal palace at avignon, where the buttresses run up unstaged and then are united by bold arches that sustain the parapet and battlements, so he attempted the same thing at narbonne on a smaller scale. now these buttresses or piers at avignon are 5 ft. 1 in. by 2 ft. 9 in., whereas the measurements of m. le-duc's little props are reduced to 1 ft. 2 in. by 1 ft. 6 in. relative proportions are changed as well as sadly reduced. the result is that they are ludicrous. moreover, instead of sinking his façade modestly--a little, eighteen inches would have been enough--he has carried the face of his niggling little buttresses flush with the massive walls of the great towers. i wished i could have had m. viollet-le-duc there by both his ears and knocked his head against the abomination he has created. he had a splendid opportunity, and through incapacity he lost it. i got into trouble at narbonne. as i was walking on the platform of the station, a man in plain clothes with very blue eyes came to me, touched his hat, and asked if he might be honoured with a few words privately. i at once suspected he was going to beg or borrow money, and said i was willing to hear what he wanted to say on the spot. he smiled, and said that he thought perhaps it would be better that we had our conversation elsewhere, outside the station. after a little hesitation, i complied, and when we were by ourselves, "monsieur," said he, "i must request you to show me your papers and allow me to identify you. i am in search of some one uncommonly like yourself. i am--the _chef_ of the secret police down here. will you come to my office, and bring your luggage?" "certainly, delighted to make your acquaintance. i will get my gladstone bag, and my roll of rugs in a moment. there is a--a hurdy-gurdy--" "i know there is," said the _chef_ sternly. "it is that _vielle_ that is suspicious." so all my luggage was conveyed to the office of the police. i showed no concern, but laughed and joked. "what countryman do you say you are?" "english." "impossible. you have not the english accent when you speak. it is rather german than anything else." "you think i am a german?" "but certainly. your bag has a german address on it, written in german characters." so it had. i had been in germany before going to rome, and had never removed the address, which, as he said, was in german characters. i explained, but the _chef_ was unsatisfied. i became now convinced that he thought i was a spy. "here are german newspapers and a german book in your bag!" said the _chef_. "certainly. why not? i have been in germany." "yet you say you are english?" "here is my passport." i extended one to him. he looked at it, shook his head, and said: "it is a very old one of 1867." that was true, and i had not had it _viséd_ since. "then," said the _chef_, "this passport is for you and your wife. where is the wife?" "minding the babies. thirteen of them--a handful," said i. i had to produce card-case, letters, all of which the _chef_ examined carefully, and yet he was not satisfied. then, suddenly, a bright idea struck me. "monsieur!" said i, "i see what you take me to be. it is true i have been sketching in narbonne, and along the whole coast. would you like to see my drawings? here is the result of my studies in narbonne: the very remarkable profile of a narbonnaise girl, the face of a lady carved in the cathedral, of another in the museum, some sketches of children's clay toys found in roman tombs, and sundry gaulish and merovingian bronzes; also! yes, see, a bone toothcomb discovered among the remains of the fortifications." the _chef_ laughed, especially over the beauties of narbonne, ran his eye through the book, took it over to his assistant to look at and laugh over the wonderful girls' faces, returned it to me, and let me off. "and the _vielle_," said i, "what do you think of that--" "mais! with the _vielle_ over your shoulder, and that book of sketches and thirteen babies--_assurément_--you could only be an englishman." chapter xviii. carcassonne. siege of carcassonne by the crusaders--capture--perfidy of legate--death of the viscount--continuation of the war--churches of new carcassonne--_la cité_--a perfect mediæval fortified town--disappointing--visigoth fortifications--later additions--the cathedral--tomb of simon de montfort. the viscount of béziers was not in the city from which he took his title when it fell. he had hurried on to carcassonne to prepare that for defence. there he exerted himself with the utmost energy, with rage and despair, to be ready against the bloodthirsty, and yet blood-drunken ruffians who were pouring along the road from smoking béziers, to do to carcassonne as they had done there. pedro, king of aragon, interfered; he appeared as mediator in the camp of the crusaders. carcassonne was held as a fief under him as lord paramount. he pleaded the youth of the viscount, asserted his fidelity to the church, his abhorrence of the albigensian heresy; it was no fault of his, he argued, that his subjects had lapsed into error, and he declared that the viscount had authorised him to place his submission in the hands of the legate of pope innocent. but the crusaders were snorting for plunder and murder. the only terms they would admit were that the young viscount might retire with twelve knights; the city must surrender at discretion. the proud and gallant youth declared that he had rather be flayed alive than desert the least of his subjects. the first assaults, though on one occasion led by the prelates chanting the 'veni creator' ended in failure. [illustration: towers on the wall, carcassonne.] carcassonne might have resisted successfully had it been properly provisioned, or had the viscount limited the number admitted within its walls. but multitudes of refugees had come there from all the country round. the wells failed. disease broke out. the viscount was obliged to come to terms, to accept a free conduct from the officer of the legate, and he endeavoured to make terms for his subjects. most of the troops made their escape by subterranean passages, and the defenceless city came into the power of the crusaders. the citizens were stripped almost naked, and their houses given up to pillage, but their lives were spared, with the exception of some fifty who were hanged and four hundred who were burned alive. the viscount had given himself up on promise of safe conduct; but no promises, no oaths were held sacred in these wars of religion, and the perfidious legate seized him, cast him into a dungeon, and there he died a few months later of a broken spirit and the pestilential prison air. the law of conquest was now to be put in force. the lands of the heretic the pope was ready to bestow on such as had dutifully done his behest. the legate assembled the principal crusading nobles, that they might choose among them one to act as lord over their conquests. the offer was made, successively, to the duke of burgundy, the count of nevers, and the count of s. pol; but they all three declined, saying scornfully that they had lands enough of their own without taking those of another. they were, perhaps, fearful of the perilous example of setting up the fiefs of france to the hazard of the sword. simon de montfort was less scrupulous, or more ambitious, and he took immediate possession of the lands that had been acquired. the pope wrote to him and confirmed him in the hereditary possession of his new dominions, at the same time expressing to him a hope that, in concert with the legates, he would continue very zealous in the extirpation of the heretics. from this time forth the war in southern france changed character, or, rather, it assumed a double character; with the war of religion was openly joined a war of conquest; it was no longer merely against the albigenses and their heresies, it was against the native princes of the south of france, for the sake of their dominions, that the crusade was prosecuted. if it came within my scope to speak about toulouse, i should be constrained to tell more of this sanguinary story. i am thankful that i need not prosecute the hateful tale; but so much it was not possible for me to withhold from the reader, as it is with these memories that carcassonne and beziers must be visited and looked at. carcassonne is a double city, a city on a hill and another on the plain, each ancient, but that below with the modern element leavening it, that above wholly steeped in mediævalism. [illustration: an entrance to carcassonne.] in the lower town are two fine churches, very peculiar in design, forming vast halls without pillars, and with small chancels and apses. there can be no question that they look uncomfortable without pillars, that the choir does not grow out of the church naturally, and is devoid of dignity. these two churches are s. vincent and s. michael. the latter is of the thirteenth century, and seems to have formed the pattern upon which the other was built in the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. there is no west portal, but it has a fine rose window. the church is entered by a small door on the north. the other and later church, s. vincent, has a very fine tower, which has, unfortunately, not been completed. it also has no west door, and is entered by a small portal at the side. these churches have their lateral chapels arranged like those in the cathedral at munich between the buttresses, and the church is lighted by windows above them. such buildings make admirable preaching-halls, but as churches are not pleasing internally. to the east of new carcassonne flows the river aude crossed by a bridge, with a quaint little chapel recently restored beside it. from this bridge a view of old carcassonne, _la cité_, as it is called, bursts on the sight. it stands on a height about 125 ft. above the river, and this height has two peaks, one is occupied by the citadel, the other by the old cathedral of s. nazaire. the whole of this _cité_ is surrounded by its walls and towers, quite as perfect as when originally built, for they have been very carefully restored by m. viollet-le-duc. consequently we have before us a french fortified town of the middle ages come down to us unaltered. that it is picturesque is unquestionable, that it is _eminently_ picturesque cannot be allowed. the builders had no concern for making a beautiful picture, they thought only of making an impregnable place. it is precisely this that differentiates it from a score of german fortified towns. the burghers of these latter were resolved to make their towns miracles of beauty as well as strong places. consequently they varied the shapes of their towers, they capped them quaintly, hardly making two alike. here, at carcassonne, every tower, or nearly every tower, resembles its fellow, and all have sugar-loaf caps that irritate the eye with iteration of the same form. the citadel has no character of massiveness, no grand donjon to distinguish it from the rest of the fortifications, and the cathedral has only two mean little donkey's ears of towers that are most ineffective, peeping over the walls of the south-western angle of the town. in looking out for a study for a picture one has to get where some of the sugar-loaf towers are eclipsed, and there is only one point in the whole circumference where a really satisfactory grouping is obtainable, and that is at the angle outside immediately below the cathedral platform to the west, where the one respectable turret of the castle stands up boldly from the rock, and the flanking turrets overlap and hide each other. [illustration: a bit of carcassonne.] interesting, most interesting is old carcassonne, and picturesque in its fashion; the regret one feels is that, with its opportunities, it is not more so. i do not think that m. viollet-le-duc's restoration is in fault, but that the original architects had no idea of anything better, were men of mediocre abilities, or cared only to make the defences strong at all costs, and to sacrifice everything else to this one consideration. but the same fault is inherent in all french castle-building and city-fortification of the middle ages. it is picturesque when in ruins. on the other hand, the german castles and fortified towns look their very best when in perfect repair. let the reader take up albert dürer's delightful little engraving of the hermit, and compare the background of a german walled town and castle on a height with _la cité_, carcassonne, and he will see how vast is the difference in quality of picturesqueness between the two. the _cité_ is actually enclosed within double ramparts, and a portion of these dates from the time of the visigoths. their walls were composed of cubic blocks of stone, with alternate layers of brick, were double-faced, and filled in with rubble bedded in lime, forming a sort of concrete core. the towers were round outside with flat face to the town, and large round-headed windows which were closed with boards. these in later times were built up. the interior walls and towers are the earliest, and were those besieged by the crusaders. it was in one of the towers of the castle that the unhappy young viscount died. the outer fortifications were erected by louis ix. and his son, philip the bold. the visigoth walls were defended by thirty-two towers, of which only one was square. louis ix. constructed a great barbican below the castle, commanding the bridge over the aude, but that was destroyed some years ago. [illustration: inside the wall, carcassonne.] the _cité_ underwent a second siege in 1240, whilst louis ix. was on his crusade, and queen blanche was regent. very curious letters exist from guillaume des ormes, the seneschal to the regent, describing the siege of carcassonne by the troops of the viscount; but for these, and for a detailed account of the fortifications, i must refer the reader to m. viollet-le-duc's account, in his treatise on the military architecture of the middle ages. [illustration: entrance to the castle, carcassonne.] the old town of carcassonne, crowded within the walls, has very narrow streets and tiny squares; the only open space being before the citadel and the cathedral. this latter has a fine romanesque nave that was consecrated by pope urban ii. in 1096, with its west end designed for defence, after the customary manner in the south. it is supported by massive piers, alternately round and square. to this plain nave is added a light and lovely choir with transepts, of the beginning of the fourteenth century. here the glorious windows are filled with rich old stained glass--barbarously restored. and here, on one side of the high altar may be seen a slab of red marble--rightly blood-red--marking the tomb of the infamous simon de montfort, earl of leicester, the cruel and remorseless right hand of the pope, with which this fair region was deluged with blood. he was killed on june 20th, 1218, by a stone flung from the walls of toulouse, which he had been unsuccessfully besieging for nine months. from the south side of the old _cité_ a delightful view is obtained of the pyrenees, snow-clad when i was there in april; but the mountain forms of the chain as it approaches the mediterranean lose boldness and picturesqueness of outline, as they also dwindle in altitude. chapter xix. avignon. how avignon passed to the popes--the court of clement vi.--john xxii.--benedict xii.--their tombs--petrarch and laura--the palace of the popes--the salle brûlée--cathedral--porch--s. agricole--church of s. pierre--the museum--view from the rocher des doms--the rhone--the bridge--story of s. benezet--dancing on bridges--villeneuve--tomb of innocent vi.--the castle at villeneuve--defences--tête-du-pont of the bridge. we leave languedoc and are again in provence, or what was provence, till the popes by a fraud obtained it. avignon belonged to provence, which was claimed by charles of anjou in right of his wife, and it had descended to his son, charles ii. of naples. on the death of the latter it fell to robert of naples, and from him to his grand-daughter, joanna, the heiress of the duke of calabria. the papal residence was now at avignon, and there it remained for a century and a quarter. joanna fell into trouble, her kingdom of naples was invaded by louis, king of hungary, who asserted his right to her throne. she fled to provence--to avignon--where at once pope clement vi. seized the occasion to purchase this portion of her provençal inheritance of her at the price of eighty thousand gold crowns. he kept the principality, but never paid the money. the popes have left their indelible mark on the place in the glorious palace, a vast castle, of the boldest structure, wonderful in its size and massiveness. the papal court at avignon, under clement vi., "became", says dr. milman, "the most splendid, perhaps the gayest, in christendom. the provençals might almost think their brilliant and chivalrous counts restored to power and enjoyment. the papal palace spread out in extent and magnificence; the pope was more than royal in the number and attire of his retainers; the papal stud of horses commanded general admiration. the life of clement was a constant succession of ecclesiastical pomps and gorgeous receptions and luxurious banquets. ladies were freely admitted to the court, and the pope mingled with ease in the gallant intercourse. the countess of turenne, if not, as general report averred, actually so, had at least many of the advantages of the pope's mistresses--the distribution of preferments and benefices to any extent, which this woman, as rapacious as she was handsome and imperious, sold with shameless publicity." under the papal rule, with such an example before it, avignon became the moral sink of christendom. to see what its condition was, and how flagrant was the vice in all quarters, the letters of petrarch must be read. he speaks of the corruption of avignon with loathing abhorrence; rome itself, in comparison, was the seat of matronly virtue. but i must step back for a moment to john xxii. because of the lovely monument to him in the cathedral, and because thereon we have his authentic portrait. this pope was a cobbler's son of cahors; he was a small, deformed, but clever man: the second cobbler's son who sat on the seat of s. peter. he had gone, when a youth, to naples, where his uncle was settled in a little shop. there he studied, his talents and luck pushed him into notice, and he became bishop of fréjus. but he preferred to live on the sunny shores of naples, and to keep within the circle of the king, where lay chances of higher preferment, and he troubled his diocese little with his presence. he became a cardinal, and in 1316 was elected pope at the conclave of lyons. he at once dropped down the rhone, and fixed the seat of his pontificate at avignon. able, learned though he was, he was not above the superstitions of his age. he had been given a serpentine ring by the countess of foix, and had lost it. he believed that it had been stolen from him wherewith to work some magic spell against his health. the pope pledged all his goods, movable and immovable, for the safe restoration of his ring: he pronounced anathema against all such as were involved in the retention of it. it was rumoured that one of those involved in the plot by witchcraft to cause his death through this serpentine ring was gerold, bishop of his own native city, cahors. the alarmed and angry sovereign pontiff had the unhappy bishop degraded, _flayed alive_, and torn to pieces by wild horses. [illustration: papal throne in the cathedral of avignon.] john xxii. issued an edict of terrible condemnation against all such as dealt in magical arts, who bottled up spirits, made waxen images and stuck pins into them, and the like. he died at the age of ninety, having amassed enormous wealth by drawing into his own power all the collegiate benefices throughout christendom, and by means of reservations, an ingenious mode of getting large pickings out of every bishopric before the institution of a new bishop. the brother of villani the historian, a banker, took the inventory of his goods when he was dead. it amounted to eighteen millions of gold florins in specie, and seven millions in plate and jewels. his face, on his monument, is indicative of his harsh, grasping, and cold character. now look at this other face, it is that of the successor of john, of james fournier, who took the name of benedict xii. he lies in the north aisle of the cathedral. [illustration: john xxii.] on the death of john xii. twenty-four cardinals met, mostly frenchmen, and their votes inclined to a brother of the count of comminges, but they endeavoured to wring from him an oath to continue to make avignon the seat of the papacy. he refused; and then, to his own surprise, the suffrages fell on the cistercian abbot, james fournier. "you have chosen an ass!" he said, in humility or in irony. [illustration: benedict xii.] but he did himself an injustice: he was a man of shrewdness and sagacity, he lacked only courage and strength to have made a great pope. his whole reign was a tacit reproach against the turbulence, implacability and avarice of his predecessor. the court of avignon was crowded with fawning courtier bishops seeking promotion: he sent them flying back to their sees. he discouraged the papal reserves, the iniquitous system whereby pope john had amassed his wealth; he threw open the treasury of his predecessor, and distributed some of the coin among the cardinals, the rest he spent in the erection of the huge castle-palace that is now the wonder of all who visit avignon, and the construction of which made the money circulate among the poor and industrious artificers. when benedict died, after a brief reign of eight years, his reputation was disputed over with singular pertinacity by friends and foes. [illustration: an angle of the papal palace, avignon.] "he was a man wiser in speech than in action, betraying by his keen words that he saw what was just and right, but dared not follow it. yet political courage alone was wanting. he was resolutely superior to the papal vice of nepotism. on one only of his family, and that a deserving man, he bestowed a rich benefice. to the rest he said, 'as james fournier i knew you well, as pope i know you not. i will not put myself in the power of the king of france by encumbering myself with a host of needy relatives.' he had the moral fortitude to incur unpopularity with the clergy by persisting in his slow, cautious, and regular distribution of benefices; with the monks by his rigid reforms. he hated the monks, and even the mendicant orders. he showed his hatred, as they said, by the few promotions which he bestowed upon them." [1] [footnote 1: milman: 'latin christianity.'] the bitter hatred begotten in return was displayed in the epitaph set up over him, describing him as a nero, as death to the laity, a viper to the clergy, a liar and a drunkard. [1] but malignity of disappointed ambition and repressed vice did not go so far as to caricature his face. the graver had to copy the epitaph given him, but the sculptor reproduced the face of the man himself, and that face, sweet, gentle, and pure, tells its own tale. it is quite another face from that of john xxii. john has a magnificent shrine of incomparable gothic pinnacle-work; but benedict is laid in a very humble tomb, yet over it is the best of monuments, his own good face. of this "nero" there is not recorded one single act of cruelty; and he was guiltless of human blood shed in war. [footnote 1: "ille fuit nero, laicis mors, vipera clero, devius a vero, cuppa repleta mero."] here, at avignon, and writing of the very epoch in which he lived, it is not possible to withhold the pen from some lines relative to petrarch, and i feel the more disposed to write about him, for i think that the words used relative to him and laura in murray's handbook are not quite just. speaking of vaucluse, the author says: "it is more agreeable to contemplate petrarch in these haunts, as the laborious student retired from the world, than as the mawkish lover sighing for a married mistress." petrarch was an exile, living at avignon in exile, when he saw his laura in a church there, and lost his heart. he was then aged twenty-one, and she was twelve or thirteen; she belonged to the illustrious family of sade. now it so happens that the chief authority for the history of petrarch is the abbé de sade, who set to work with a determination to show that his family were lineal descendants of petrarch's laura, and he ingenuously left out such particulars as militated against his doctrine. the great family of sade, who had their castle between avignon and vaucluse, had not the smallest intention of suffering a daughter of the house to become allied to an exile of no great birth and prospects; accordingly every impediment was put in the way of a meeting. petrarch's love for her was well known, indeed his imprudence was great, he allowed his poems in her honour to pass from hand to hand. it was impossible for her relatives to suffer this to continue. she was placed with her aunt stephanette de romanie; and died unmarried. her father was hugo de sade, and her mother laura de neves; and the abbé de sade, and all who follow him, suppose that petrarch was in love with the mother, whereas there is abundant evidence that the object of his passion was the daughter. [1] [footnote 1: the whole matter has been thoroughly discussed, and i think the story of his love for the wife of hugo de sade refuted by bruce-whyte ('hist. des langues romanes,' t. iii. c. 38)]. whether petrarch's love for laura was as pure as he represents it in some of his sonnets--whether the unhappy laura did not suffer from his pursuit in honour as she certainly lost in repute, is uncertain. petrarch in some of his poems exalts his passion for her into the most pure platonic affection, but other verses addressed to her have a very different complexion. [illustration: the cathedral and the palace of the popes, avignon.] the vast fortress-palace of the popes at avignon has stood a siege. it was at the time of the great schism, when three grey-headed claimants to be representatives of s. peter and vicegerents of christ were thundering anathemas against each other and the supporters of their rivals. benedict xiii. was then pope in avignon, but there was a general desire in christendom that the scandal should be terminated. all his cardinals except two deserted benedict, and the king of france required his renunciation of the tiara. "pope i have written myself; pope i have been acknowledged to be; pope i will remain to the end of my days," was his answer. then he was besieged in his palace and forced to capitulate, and thrown into prison, where he lingered under the jealous ward of the cardinals for five years. [illustration: lantern at the cathedral, avignon.] the palace has been restored, and is now a barrack. in it is shown a hall, the principal dining hall, called now la salle brûlée, as in 1441 the papal legate brought together into it the burghers and nobles of avignon, and in the height of revelry withdrew himself, and had fire applied to barrels of gunpowder under it, and blew the guests into the air. this was done in revenge for the murder of his nephew, a young libertine who had dishonoured a maiden of good family in the town. [illustration: angel at w. door, church of s. agricole] adjoining the palace, on higher ground, the rocher des doms, is the cathedral of nôtre dame, small and early. with barbarous taste, the fine romanesque west tower has been finished off with an octagonal structure supporting as apex a gigantic figure of the virgin, leaning against a lightning conductor that is screwed into her head and back, and looks much like the apparatus of a photographer to steady her for a successful _carte_. to the cathedral ascent is made by flights of stone steps, and it is entered by a porch that is made up of corinthian pillars taken from a classic temple. some have thought the whole porch to be of roman architecture, but it is not so. for some time provençal architecture was much influenced by the remains that covered the soil, and from which the builders of churches not merely drew their ideas but also appropriated materials. the dome of the cathedral is noticeable within from the bold and effective manner in which it is sustained on four successive receding arches. there is a fine north aisle, the vaulting of which starts as though it were about to spread into the fan-tracery of english perpendicular. it is curious as showing french architects on the eve of reaching the same marvellous development attained in england. there is a fine church at avignon, s. agricole, of noble proportions, the vaulting and arcades springing from the pillars without capitals. in the south aisle is a curious fourteenth-century shrine. the west front of the church is of very poor design. [illustration: a bit of the old wall, avignon.] s. pierre is a flamboyant church, the details passing into renaissance. in the north aisle is a superb renaissance altar-piece, representing christ between s. peter and s. paul. underneath is the last supper. it was too fine and good to be appreciated, and a modern vulgar altar and altar-piece have been erected at the side for use. the choir-stalls are really wonderful. they are also of renaissance woodwork, with painted panels in the back representing architectural scenes alternating with vases of flowers. they are separated by corinthian columns gilt, and very sumptuous, yet the whole effect is subdued and pleasing, not gaudy. in this church also the arches spring from the pillars without capitals. altogether this church deserves careful study. the museum of avignon is the richest in antiquities in the south of france. unfortunately the substance of the collection was gathered by a m. calvert who made no note as to _where_ he got the various articles he collected, and this naturally deprives much that is there of its value. however, there is a great deal there to be seen; notably a bronze cavalry standard, roman, in admirable preservation; a stamp in bronze with the letters a i v n and the seven-branched-candlestick between, clearly a jewish stamp. a magnificent gold necklace and gold bracelets with a large medallion of a roman empress in gold in the midst. the head is said to be that of orbiana, third wife of severus alexander, unknown to history, and known only by her coins. among the statues preserved there is the venus victrix found at pourrières, and a very rude but interesting gaulish warrior, discovered at montdragon in 1834, cut in sandstone. he is leaning on a huge shield. there are several busts of roman emperors, a good one, but with nose broken, of the elder drusus, lucius verus, tiberius, trajan, a plautilla--and some that are doubtful. of the paintings in the _musé_ i cannot say much, as i looked at two only--two perfectly delicious brueghels, a flemish fair, and, i think, a wedding. i won the heart of the _concierge_ by studying them. he found me careering about the gallery, like an owl in sunlight, looking for brueghel, and when he found what i was after, led me back to them, one on each side of the entrance door. "why do you want to see brueghel?" he asked. "why? because i love his oddities." "are you a belge?" "no." "but you seem to know the flemish artists. i am by ancestry a belge. my grandfather came from brussels." so we talked over dear, delightful belgium for half-an-hour, and i had the most eager, amiable guide to all that was of interest in the museum, after that. and it is a collection! the mediæval and renaissance sculptures alone deserve a visit. one can hardly bear to think of the amount of good work that has perished in avignon. the city possessed before the revolution sixty churches, and of these only eighteen remain; of between two and three hundred towers and spires, not one-tenth are left standing. there is, however, a very fine tower and east end in s. didier, a church of the fourteenth century, another in the hôtel de ville built round with a tasteless classic structure that obscures it from view. the musée requien is in an old convent, the chapel of which is given up to the protestants; it has a rich flamboyant window to the north, unfortunately blocked. [illustration: part of church of s. didier, avignon.] a quaint and picturesque tower stands by itself in the rue carréterie; it is machicolated and has a delicate little spire. it is all that remains of the church of the augustinians. nearly opposite is a rich flamboyant portal. [illustration: bridge and chapel of s. benezet.] avignon is completely surrounded by its old walls and towers. much of the space inside is now occupied by gardens and vineyards; apparently in the time when avignon was the seat of the papacy, it was far more populous than at present. i should like the clergy of rome to see avignon with its fifty-two desecrated churches and its thirty-five abandoned convents, and compare it with rome where nearly everything is left them; then perhaps they would be inclined to salute their king and queen. what a lovely view that is from the gardens on the rocher des domes! to the east rises mont ventoux, a spur of the alps thrown out into the plain, and in april veiled in snow. to the west the chain of the cevennes, and the plain gleaming with water from the many windings of the rhone, and from its branches, as it splits and circumvents islands clothed with willow and poplar. above avignon is a very large island, and below it the durance enters the rhone through a lacework of rubble-beds with scanty growths upon them, the water flickering in a thousand silver threads between. then, immediately under the rocher des domes is the mighty river sweeping on with strong purpose, and half-bridged by a quaint old structure, built between 1177 and 1185 under the direction of s. benezet. on the second pile is a little chapel, erected in honour of the founder, in which mass is still said on his day, april 14th. s. benezet was a shepherd, he was baptised by the name of benedict, but, being a very little man, he received the diminutive that has adhered to him. he heard of the accidents that happened to those who crossed the rapid rhone in boats, and he considered in his mind that it were well if the prelates and burghers of avignon would devote their wealth to making a good bridge, instead of squandering it in show and riotous living. so he came into the city, and adjured the pope and the bishop of the see to construct a bridge. the haughty ecclesiastics scoffed at him, and, as he would not desist from his urgency, sent him to the city governor to be chastised. unshaken by this treatment, the shepherd persisted. he went among the citizens, he sought out the clergy, he collected knots of men to listen to him in the market-place, preaching the advantage of a bridge. it was his one idea. he was ignorant, perhaps foolish, in other matters, but he was possessed with the belief that god had sent him to induce the avignonese to build a bridge. after a while, nothing was talked of in the place but the great question of this same bridge. its advantage was apparent to all. finally it was decided by acclamation that they must have a bridge, and when it was built, and the shepherd died, "really," said the good people of avignon, "he must have been a saint to have roused us out of our apathy." [illustration: at villeneuve.] the poor shepherd's body was not respected by the revolutionists, though he was a sans-culotte, but he was a sans-culotte who was a constructor and not a destroyer, therefore--to the dogs with him. there was a saying- "avenio ventosa cum vento fastidiosa, sine vento venenosa." that may be rendered in french- "avignon venteuse avec vent ennuyeuse, sans vent pernicieuse." windy it was when i was there, and when i went out on the broken-down bridge of s. benezet i was nearly blown off it. this bridge in french nursery rhyme takes much the same place as does london bridge in english children's jingles. we have:- "london bridge is broken down, dance over my lady lee." and the french have:- "sur le pont d'avignon tout le monde danse, danse; sur le pont d'avignon tout le monde danse en rond." why dancing should be associated with bridges i cannot tell for certain, but there is probably some mythologic origin. it was customary in pagan times to sacrifice a human being when the foundations of a bridge were laid, by burying the victim alive under it, and every year an offering of a life was made to the river to propitiate it, and ensure the stability of the bridge. our nursery games of children dancing in a round, and one being taken by the casting of a kerchief, is a relic of an old heathen _sors_, by which a victim for immolation was selected; and it is very probable that the dancing on bridges had something to do with this. one out of the chain that danced over the bridge, or the ring that wheeled on it was chosen, and cast over the parapet as an offering to the river. [illustration: castle of s. andré, at villeneuve.] this superstition lingered on through the middle ages, in spite of christianity. we say in devon:- "the river dart every year demands a heart." anciently the dart was _given_ his victim; now, however, he _takes_ it. the bridge of s. benezet is broken down and abandoned, but a suspension bridge unites avignon with the farther bank of the rhone, and this must be crossed to reach villeneuve, which stood to avignon as beaucaire to tarascon. villeneuve was french, and avignon papal down to the revolution, when in 1791 it was annexed to france. at villeneuve the army was assembled that besieged pope benedict xiii. in his palace. villeneuve is full of picturesque points. it was originally well fortified, and was a frontier fortress of languedoc. the old hôpital contains the tomb of pope innocent vi., which may be compared with that of john xxii. in the cathedral. innocent was a native of limoges. there was a strange struggle at his election. on the death of clement vi. a conclave of cardinals assembled to consider about choosing john borelli, carthusian superior, but, when cardinal talleyrand warned them that a man of such stern simplicity would in a very few days order their stately caparisoned horses to be turned to toil at the plough, they were alarmed, and looked elsewhere. but first of all they passed a law by unanimous vote that the college of cardinals should become a dominant, self-elective assembly, superior to the pope, and that one-half of the revenues of the papacy should be diverted into the pockets of the cardinals. then they proceeded to elect, and chose stephen aubert, a distinguished canon lawyer, who assumed the title of innocent vi., and his first act was to emancipate himself from the oath he had taken, to rescind and declare null this statute of the conclave. he was a severe disciplinarian. he drove away a great portion of the swarm of bishops and beneficed clergy, who passed their time in avignon in luxury and indolence, on the look-out for rich emoluments. one story is told of his conduct with regard to preferments. a favourite chaplain presented his nephew, a boy, and asked for him a rich benefice. "you are already the holder of seven," said the pope, "give him one of those." the chaplain looked discouraged. the pope compelled him to choose three of the best. "these must suffice thee and the boy," said innocent, "i will give the others to poor and deserving clerks." it was under cardinal albornoz, the martial legate of this pope, that rienzi was subdued, and rome recovered to the papal chair. [illustration: at villeneuve.] the castle of villeneuve was built by philip the bold in the thirteenth century, and is interesting in many ways. it contains a little chapel of an earlier date with a small apse and little round-headed windows. the whole of the body is under a very low-pitched roof supported on an almost classic cornice. the fortifications of the castle are an example of a stage of defence carried beyond what was attained at aigues mortes. there, as we saw, the upper portion of the walls was covered with a balcony of wood on to which the besieged stepped through the doorways left in the battlements. [illustration: a well at villeneuve.] when, in sieges, the catapults were made to fling barrels of flaming tar over these balconies, and set them on fire, recourse was had to structures of stone, and the wooden _hourdes_, or balconies, disappeared. then came the machicolated galleries. but even these were deemed insufficient, and _échauguettes_ were erected, sentry-boxes between the towers standing forward beyond the curtains, and with double slits in the floor, through which two streams of flaming combustible or of stones could be sent down on the besiegers. the palace of the popes at avignon exhibits these on piers standing forth from the wall. they are also to be seen at villeneuve. the fine gothic church of the chartreuse is ruinous; in that stood the tomb of innocent vi. a grand tower, erected by philip the fair, formed the tête du pont of the bridge of s. benezet. it was erected after the bridge had been constructed, as a protection against the troops of the papacy. thereupon the popes raised a tower of defence at their end of the bridge. there were originally seventeen arches in the bridge, resting on eighteen piers. chapter xx. valence. a dull town--cathedral--jacques cujas--his daughter--pius vi.--his death--maison des têtes--le pendentif--the castle of crussol--the dukes of uzès--a dramatic company of the thirteenth century. what a sleepy place valence is! there was supposed to be a fair there when i was at valence, but even that could not wake it up. but the fair was in a condition of the utmost somnolence itself. why--i did not suspect till i reached vienne, when i found that this latter place had drawn to it all that was enterprising, startling, attractive, and left only the very dregs of fairings to poor valence. it has a great boulevard, very wide, very inviting, but the spotted boys, and fat girls, and bearded women, would have nothing to say to it--they herded to vienne. it has a vast terrace, planted with trees, where any amount of stalls might stand, but there were erected there only some very inconsiderable ranges of boot and shoe tables, and of old cutlery, and slop clothes. the cathedral is interesting and fine. the apse at the east end is early and curious; in place of buttresses receding in stages are corinthian pillars tied into the walls they are to support at their heads by caps laid on them. there is no clerestory to the church, only an arcade of rude character. the walls of the cathedral are of sandstone, and have been so gnawed by the wind and rain, that the whole pile looks like a piece of very decayed cheese. the interior, however, is quite sound, reposeful, and lovely. that weather-beaten exterior, with its calm sweet interior, struck me as a picture of many a good christian, buffeted and worn by storm and trial without, whose inner self is ever still and untouched. [illustration: cathedral of valence.] the church was consecrated in 1095 by pope urban ii. in person. a new western tower has been erected and a very fine west entrance in the romanesque style, all very good, except the topmost stage of the tower, which has probably been confided to an inferior architect, who has managed to mar a work of great promise. jacques cujas, born at toulouse in 1520, one of the most famous lawyers of his time, taught at valence. he was a candidate for the chair of laws in the university of his native city, but was refused it; a certain forcadel was elected instead, whose chief merit seems to have been that he was a wag. cujas, on leaving toulouse, turned, and shaking the dust off his feet against it said, "ungrateful fatherland, in you my bones shall not rest." he kept his word, he died and was buried at bourges. after he was gone from the place and his fame was sounded abroad, the university of toulouse wanted to recall him, and sent a letter to him nominating him to the chair of laws. his answer was, "frustra absentem requiris, quem præsentem neglexistis." "in vain do you desire him absent whom present you flouted." at valence he had eight hundred scholars, who attended his lectures. so great was the reverence shown for his opinion, that it is said that in the schools of germany, when the professors quoted him they were wont to raise their hands to their caps. and he deserved it. his burning ambition was to break down the system of injustice to the accused which prevailed in french courts, where one charged with a crime, if the crime were unproved did not obtain complete acquittal. he wrote in the cause of humanity against the abuses of tyranny and ignorance. "where there is not complete proof of guilt," said he, "there let there be no condemnation," a maxim observed in england, but not in france. "what is not full truth," is a saying of his, "is full falsehood." it was his hope, his prayer, that he might live to see the injustice of the french laws swept away. that he was not destined to see. he was a kind professor to all his scholars. when he found that some were needy, he assisted them with money and books. "i was once a poorer lad than you," said he to one whom he assisted, "and very grateful if any one would have pity on me." [illustration: doorway in the house dupré latour, valence.] he had a daughter, unworthy of her virtuous father. when his scholars were caught flirting with the damsel, they were wont to excuse themselves by saying that they were only "commenting on the works of cujas." on this the following epigram was composed:-"videras immensos cujaci labores æternum patri commeruisse decus: ingenio haud poterat tam magnum æquare parentem filia; quod potuit corpore fecit opus." in his will cujas desired that none of his books should be sold to a jesuit; and that his library should be sold in parcels, lest any one should use his ill-digested notes for publication. his behest was obeyed. the booksellers of lyons purchased his mss. and used them as binding for books. it was not till sixteen years after his death that alexander scott of carpentras, one of his pupils, collected his works. at valence died and was buried the unfortunate pope pius vi. who had been treated with great harshness, and had been loaded with insults by the french. his was, indeed, a strange story. he began his pontificate in splendour in 1775, and set to work at once to aggrandise his family, the braschi. he was a man of rapacious avarice; of this one glaring instance is given. he persuaded, or compelled, a certain amanzio lepri to constitute him his heir, and hand over to him the title-deeds of an estate worth many millions of lire. the natural heirs of lepri were greatly annoyed at this, and instituted proceedings before the tribunals, which gave judgment sometimes for them and sometimes for the pope, and the matter might have dragged on indefinitely, had not public opinion begun to manifest itself with such force that pius thought it best to agree to a compromise. in everything relating to himself and his family the pope showed unbounded extravagance and ostentation. he had pedigrees manufactured to prove the descent of his family from ancient scandinavian heroes, and that of his nephews, on whom he heaped honours, from the dukes of benevento. he collected all the proudest devices of heraldry to incorporate them as quarterings into his arms, and this gave rise to an epigram from the pen of an ex-jesuit, to this effect: "the eagle belongs to the empire, the lilies of the field to france, to heaven belongs the stars--to braschi what? puff." his extravagance had become so great that the states of the church were practically bankrupt long before the french overran and pillaged them. in his money difficulties he laid his hands on the funds appropriated to pious works, and so barefaced were his robberies at last, that ten years before the french invasion he had appropriated 36,000 pounds weight of silver from the holy house of loretto. then came the crash. this luxurious and splendid pope, in his old age, was reduced to be a prisoner, and to be hustled about from place to place by the french. he had been sent first to the certosa, near florence, with only two companions; then, by order of the directory, was conveyed to parma. there he was allowed to remain only thirteen days, and, in spite of his age and growing infirmities, was conveyed to the citadel of turin. one day was there allowed him for repose, and then he was carried over the alpine pass of mont genèvre in april to briançon. there he was left in peace, but sick and feeble, till the end of june, when he was hurried away by gap towards dijon, but at valence he became so ill that he could be no further moved, and there he died on the 29th august 1799, three days after his arrival. [illustration: doorway and niche in the maison des têtes, valence.] the story is told that the official at briançon on receiving him, sent to headquarters a formal receipt couched in these terms: "reçu--un pape, en fort mauvais état." there is not much of interest in domestic architecture at valence, with the sole exception of the maison des têtes, which stands near the market-place, and which is sculptured over with great richness, with heads representing the seasons, and roman emperors. the enrichment of this house is in the style of flamboyant passing into renaissance; the façade being in sandstone has been sadly gnawed by the tooth of time, has indeed lost all edge to the sculpture, but within the entrance porch, where protected, the sandstone retains its sharpness. curiously enough, no one knows for whom this gorgeous mansion was raised. it has a pretty interior court, but there is not much sculpture therein. one cannot quite forgive the original owner and edifier of the mansion for a bit of ostentation and vulgarity of which he has been guilty. the house has one portion looking on to the square, but at the side bends away at an obtuse angle down the street. as the whole façade was not visible at a single glance, only that portion which was most seen was sculptured, and that with overpowering richness, whereas the other portion in the street was left bare to baldness. wind and rain and frost are engaged in rubbing down all the decoration, and flattening the surface of the decorated portion to the simplicity of the other part. the same destroying agencies are at work upon a very quaint mausoleum, on the north side of the cathedral, called _le pendentif_, which was erected in 1548 in classic style as a monument to the mistral family. it is quadrangular, and consists of four great piers at the angles, and is adorned with pillars and with arches in the sides sustaining a vault. in the rusticated space that fills the sides, quaint sculptures of monsters and birds of foreign plumage may, or rather might have been traced, the honeycombing by weather has made them almost undiscoverable. probably the structure is more picturesque now in its decay than it ever was before. immediately opposite valence, on the farther side of the rhone, rises a bold scarp of sandstone cliff, crowned with the ruined castle of crussol above the village of s. peray at its feet, where is made a very capital sparkling wine, not at all inferior to champagne. there is also there an odd château, designed, it is believed, by marshal vauban, on the plan of a mimic fortress, with bastions, curtains, glacis, portcullis, and loopholes. it is now the residence of the owner of the great vineyards where the s. peray effervescing wine is made. the view of the cliff of crussol and the village of s. peray from the terrace of valence is spoiled by the river being at some distance from the base of the terrace, and the flat land that intervenes being covered by poplars, manufactories and cottages, so that the rhone is shut out from sight. originally, certainly, the cliff on which stands the cathedral, as well as that now converted into a promenade, were swept by the rhone, but it has thrown its gravels on to the left bank and cut its way farther to the west. the castle of crussol belonged to the dukes d'uzès, and occupies a headland formed by the torrent at its side, that has sawn a chasm through the soft sandstone in its course to join the rhone. within the walls may be seen the remains of a small town that clustered there, much like les baux, but now completely deserted. the family of crussol was not of much note till louis de crussol gained the favour of louis xi., and was created his chamberlain, and governor of dauphiné. the son married the heiress of uzès, and with her the title of viscount passed to their son charles, whose son anthony obtained the title of duke d'uzès. there is nothing very remarkable in the story of the crussols, but the origin of the uzès is of romantic interest. there were three brothers, ebles, guy, and pierre, who had a little estate and castle at uzès near nimes. there they lived together, unmarried, and in very pinched circumstances. so, one day ebles said to his brothers that it was a shabby life for three gentlemen thus to live scraping a few coppers together whilst all was beautiful beyond uzès. let them all three leave the crumbling walls and leaky roof of uzès to the bats and owls, and seek their fortunes in the courts of princes. his advice was relished, and they invited their cousin, named elias, a comic poet, to travel with them. now guy, the youngest of the brothers, and ebles the eldest, had a pretty gift at poetry, and the second brother, pierre, had a pleasant pipe, so they agreed that ebles should write _sirventes_, and guy _chansons_, and that pierre should sing them. moreover, elias should compose little comedies that could be performed by their small party, and the profits were to be equally shared between them. they also put their hands together and vowed to be true and friendly, and not to separate till they came back to ramshackle uzès. so the company started, and went first to the court of reynald, viscount of albuzoni and of marguerite his wife, who received them with pleasure, both of them being fond of provençal poetry. the brothers and cousin had great success with their songs and comedies, sent round the hat, and got a handsome sum. then, when they had sucked their orange, they went farther, mounted like paladins, and passed into the territories of the countess of montferrat, who received them quite as cordially as had the viscount of albuzoni. there they sang and twanged the guitar, but having unhappily composed some satirical verses under the title of "the life of the tyrants" in which the morals and greed of the popes and some of the princes of europe were chastised, the papal legate complained and threatened them with public punishment; he finally imposed silence on them, under threat of excommunication. then the little company returned home laden with treasures, but sad at heart; and guy died about 1230. the company must have done pretty well, if guy founded with his share of the profits the family which later became one of viscounts. i fear dramatic and musical companies nowadays have not the same success. chapter xxi. vienne. historic associations--salvation army bonnets--the fair--a quack--a vampire--the amphitrite--a _carousel_--temple of augustus and livia--the aiguille--cathedral--angels and musical instruments--s. andré-le-bas--situation of vienne--foundation of the church there--letter of the church on the martyrdoms at lyons. i went on to vienne with mind full of thoughts of the burgundian kingdom of which it was the capital in the fifth century, of s. avitus, of king clovis, of calixtus ii., of the condemnation of the templars at the council of vienne in 1307--one of the most cruel and iniquitous deeds done by the crown of france in compact with the papacy--and i found myself plunged, unexpectedly, suddenly, into the vortex of a great popular fair. i had passed from a fair in a condition of languor into one in full flush of life. which was to be done first, the temple of augustus and livia, the remains of the roman theatre--microscopic i found afterwards--the cathedral of s. maurice, or the shows? but surely, the proper study of mankind is man, so i resolved on seeing the fair first, and after that of studying the antiquities, and indulging in antiquarian and historic dreams. the weather was sorry: wind and threatenings of rain. moreover it was cold and overcast. yet nothing damped the ardour of the sellers, and the acquisitiveness of the buyers. but--had i come upon a nursery of hallelujah lasses? were the nights to be made hideous with salvation army howls? on all sides of me were great girls and little girls, matrons and maids, in salvation army straws. i turned sick and faint with dismay. in the city of s. mamertius, of s. avitus and of ado--"general" booth's great religious speculation! it was not so, however, i was rejoiced to find, only all the women had been buying straws in the fair of the salvation army shape that were selling cheap, and having bought them ran home, trimmed them, and then out they popped again and marched about to show them. an avenue of booths and stalls. boots, straw hats and salvation bonnets, ribbons, kerchiefs, books and engravings. there was even a reduced household selling off all their worldly goods, lamps, chairs, prayer-books, kettles, crocks, linen--and a spinning-wheel. i looked lovingly, longingly at that spinning-wheel, and might have bought it for a franc and a half, and would have done so, had i not been encumbered with the hurdy-gurdy. _that_ had brought me into such difficulties that i felt convinced a hurdy-gurdy + a spinning-wheel would lodge me in a lunatic asylum. so reluctantly i left it. a gust of wind, and away went the straw hats from the stall, up into the air, over the heads of the crowd, spinning along in the gutters; one, a very kiss-me-quick, was blown slap in the face of an old priest trudging along reading his breviary. then such outcries, entreaties, objurgations, as the straw hats and bonnets were run after and recovered, or sought to be recovered. here--a quack with an assortment of bones that were so brown they looked as if they had been devilled, but they had acquired their tone from his hands. he held up a distorted piece of spine and pelvis, and declared he had a plaster so curative--fifty centimes, ten sous--that it would restraighten the most curved back. as for corns! he raised a horrible foot, applied to it some tow steeped in green fat, rapidly narrated the treatment he recommended--_et voilà!_--he drew away the tow, and the supposed corn was lodged in the midst of it. an inflammation of the lungs? a darling child sick? he opened a coffin and exposed a baby skeleton. "look! your _cher enfant_ will be like this, but for fifty centimes i will save it, i guarantee. pelt me with rotten apples, with addled eggs, if i fail. this plaster placed here (he applied it to the breast of the skeleton), and your child breathes thus (drew a long inhalation)--is well. warts (a labourer held up a horny hand, the middle joint of the little finger disfigured with such excrescences)? nothing easier! you take this bottle--warts are my speciality--you rub the wart with this. thank you, fifty centimes. come here next sunday. if the wart be not gone--i do not say it will not leave a scar, but the scar will disappear in a month--here is a knife, stick it into my heart. i give you leave. i will not resist. i will not budge." [illustration: house in vienne.] here--a man selling silvering-liquor, to be applied to vulgar yellow spoons, only a franc a bottle, and a whole set turned into purest silver-plating, plating that will not wear out through all your lives. then, among the shows:--cora, the beautiful serpent charmer. cora was outside beating a drum, and was quite the reverse of beautiful; she may have had the faculty of charming serpents, but not men. a cluster of young soldiers stood without, shook their heads, and would not be allured within. "galerie des actualités artistiques"--a peep-show at photographs from the paris exhibition. "the real vampire, alive, living on blood. called by the chinese, from its powers of traversing twenty kilometres in an hour, 'the flying horse.'" the showman was outside, haranguing. his system was to thrill the audience with horror, till they precipitated themselves in a spasm of terror into his show. just as when one is on a height, a nervous, uncontrollable impulse fills some men to throw themselves down out of very fear of falling, so did this great artist in horrors work up the feelings of his audience to such tension that it became insupportable, they must go headlong in, and see the vampire, if they died for it. "the vampire is to be seen--smacking his lips--thirsting, ravening, for blood. a live rabbit will be offered him; he will roll his eyes, look at the human beings present, try the bars of his cage--he cannot reach them. en fin, a rabbit is better than nothing! mesdames, je vous implore! do not bring your babes within. a stern necessity--a care for the consequences would prevent me from admitting them. the sight of a human babe rouses in the vampire the sanguinary passion to a paroxysm of frenzy. in its natural state the vampire sucks the blood of men. this vampire has sucked that of kings, and to have to descend to--rabbit!" [illustration: at vienne.] i did not expend my sous to see the wretched bat, but i did lavish thirty centimes on the amphitrite next door. the programme was so characteristically french that i give it:- "amphitrite vivante. tous les soirs au couche du soleil elle laisse son palais royal de coraux et d'algues, et sort des vagues sombres pour jouir de son amour idéal. légère et vaporeuse comme un ange, elle caresse les ondes, et observe d'un doux regard son idéal, et réplonge au fond de l'océan. dépeindre avec quelle perfection on présente cette expérience au public est impossible!!!" thirty centimes, reserved seats; twenty, unreserved. as it turned out, there were no seats at all, but a slushy soil on which one stood, where the water had run in under the sides of the booth, and which sightseers had, with their boots, churned into mud. i supposed i was to see a nautilus; it was légère et vaporeux, it could not then be a seal. no, a nautilus. thirty centimes--here goes for a sight of the nautilus. but it was touching to observe the confidence of the showman. he refused the entrance fee. "no, gentlemen. you shall yourselves decide whether the amphitrite is worth six sous. if you say not--go forth; i am content, but i pity you." a piece of drugget served as a curtain, which cut off what may be termed the stage. at a signal the drugget was withdrawn, and the spectators looked into a cave, the sides made of painted calico. beyond this was the rippling ocean, with the evening sun sparkling on it, much like the scene in "oberon," only on a very small scale, and with no stage. at a word from the showman, amphitrite arose. by ginger! not a nautilus, not a seal, but a living girl of sixteen summers, in fleshings, who floated in the air, made revolutions, waved her hands, stood on her head, touching nothing, precisely as if she really were devoid of all specific gravity. only when hand or foot touched the calico-rocks did these same rocks begin to wave about. i supposed at the time, i suppose still, that the trick is done by means of mirrors. but _how_--i cannot conceive. presently the hat went round for amphitrite's special benefit: her _amour idéal_ had something of the sordid mammon in it. as everyone put a copper into the hat, "merci, monsieur; merci, madame!" was what she said. so that there is a difficulty in supposing that the phenomenon was achieved by reflectors. she watched and acknowledged every offering made, as she calmly folded her arms and floated in mid-air, with head on one side, observant. i can't explain it--i am puzzled still. i paid my thirty centimes with alacrity, so did every one else. the show was worth the money. there was a merry-go-round--a _carousel_; the only feature in it with which i was unfamiliar was a ship, sails spread, on a pivot athwart the ring, so that it swayed as on a rolling sea when the _carousel_ was in revolution. i would not have entered that ship for twenty francs. before the orchestrion that accompanied the merry-go-round had accomplished the first strain of strauss's waltz i should have been feebly calling for the steward. i observed that those silly youngsters with nautical proclivities who did scramble into the swaying ship, got out with livid lips, and did not ask to go in again. some years ago i was at innsprück with a friend. we were sauntering together in the afternoon, not exactly knowing what to do with ourselves, when we found one of these _carousels_. we went farther; then i said, "we will return and go and see the xaverianum"--a collection of paintings, mostly daubs, at innsprück. "no," said my companion, "i don't feel inclined for the xaverianum, i'll go down by the river." so we parted. now, i had not gone far along my way in the direction of the xaverianum, before i said to myself, "i don't want to see the xaverianum either; but, as my friend is away--upon my word--i am unknown here! i'll--yes, i will--by jove, i will--i'll go and have a round on the whirligig." so i retraced my steps, and, on reaching the merry-go-round, what should i behold but my friend seated on a piebald horse, with a short sword in his hand, aiming at the targets he passed in his revolution. he was a bald-headed man, with a long grey beard. his face and head became like a beetroot when he saw me; but i comforted him. at würzburg, in the episcopal palace, is a _carousel_, in which the bishop--a prince elector--was wont on rainy days to go round and round, seated in a purple velvet chair with the episcopal arms embroidered on the curtains, and the mitre over it. enough of the fair. now to graver matters; and first the temple of augustus and livia. i do not know whether it was that the weather was gloomy, or that the fair had set me out of tune for antiquities; but somehow this temple did not impress me as did the dear little maison carrée at nimes. for one thing the stone is dingy, whereas that of nimes is bright and white; and the proportions did not please me. i believe the knowing ones say that the nimes temple is not proportioned according to the laws of vitruvius, and this at vienne is. if that be the case, then i am sorry for vitruvius. the temple is structurally perfect--as perfect as that of nimes. another object of interest is the aiguille, a roman obelisk seventy-six feet high. there is a square base, pierced by arches in each face, and the obelisk, or pyramid rather, stands on this. it is not very beautiful, but it is worth examining. it is thought that the monument to marius at pourrières was somewhat similar. [illustration: hurdy-gurdy played by an angel.] the cathedral of vienne is of sandstone, and has decayed accordingly. the west end, which was very rich, and is rich still, has suffered from corrosion in the upper part; but a firmer, less friable sandstone was fortunately employed for the lower stage, in which is the richest sculpture, and that is fairly perfect. murray pooh-poohs this west front: "it is rich in flamboyant ornaments, but they are clumsy and without delicacy." the sculpture was adapted to the material, and any other would not have looked well. after the severe and bald west fronts in provence, i was disposed, i suppose, to be pleased with the rich façade at vienne. i confess that "clumsy and without delicacy" though it might be, i thoroughly enjoyed it. but that façade caught me quite by my weak point. there is a central doorway, and one into each aisle, and round the archways into these lateral doors are sculptured angels playing upon musical instruments. as i have told the reader, ancient forms of musical instruments are my hobby, or rather one of my hobbies. i at once pulled out my sketch-book and drew them; there are angels with fiddles, angels with viols--no, not hurdy-gurdys!--but twanged with the fingers, angels with pipes and horns, one with a harp, two with portable organs of ten pipes in each, two angels with bagpipes with single drones. conceive of a salutation on bagpipes from the celestial choir! an angel plays the cymbals, and another with a plectrum strikes a metal disc. [illustration: church of s. andré-le-bas. the tower.] the interior of the cathedral is remarkable for the peculiarly fine sculpture of the capitals of the pillars. the foliage is of exquisite loveliness and variety; but over the transept door is a very brueghel creation of horrors--in fact, the zodiacal signs worked up together into a nightmare. a church of remarkable interest in vienne is s. andré-le-bas; it has in it two roman marble corinthian columns supporting the arch of the apse, and a corinthian capital used as a font. the situation of vienne is remarkable, it resembles one of the towns on the rhine, where the river is contracted among hills. the mountains rise immediately behind the city, and are crowned with old castles. the space between the river and the bases of the heights is small, and the city is somewhat cramped accordingly. but the gère issues from the hills on the north, and gives some scope for the suburbs of the old town to creep up its banks. vienne is one of the most ancient towns of gaul, it was the capital of the allobroges; it claims as the founder of the church there crescens, disciple of s. paul. crescens, it will be remembered, was sent by paul into galatia. that was quite sufficient for these gallic enthusiasts, who desired to give to the french bishoprics apostolic founders. they supposed that galatia was a slip of the pen for gallia, and argued, if to gallia, then to vienne, the most ancient and important city therein, _q.e.d._ but no bishop of vienne appears fixed with any certainty before verus, who attended the council of arles in a.d. 314. it is, however, quite certain that the church was founded there before a.d. 150; for one of the most precious and authentic records of the early church we have is the letter written by the vienne christians to those of the east, recording the martyrdom of the bishop pothinus of lyons. [illustration: porte de l'ambulance, vienne.] it used to be said of the old gallo-roman city that its wealth was so great that the streets were paved with mosaic. now one would be thankful for a bit that was smooth. the pavement is almost as bad as that of arles. chapter xxii. bourges. the siege of avaricum by cæsar--the complete subjugation of gaul--the statue of the dying gaul at rome--beauty of bourges--the cathedral--not completed according to design--defect in height--strict geometrical proportion in design not always satisfactory--necessity of proportion for acoustics--domestic architecture in bourges--the house of jacques coeur--story of his life--a rainy day--why bourges included in this book--a silver thimble--_que de singeries faites-vous là, madeleine?_--adieu. bourges stands in the very forefront of gaulish history marked by a great disaster. there, on a little height at the junction of the yèvre and the auron, the gallant bituriges had their capital, avaricum. in six campaigns cæsar had, as he believed, broken the neck of all resistance, and gaul was under the iron heel of rome. "my aunt julia," said cæsar, "is, maternally, the daughter of kings; paternally--" he passed his fingers through his curled and scented locks--"paternally, she is descended from the immortal gods." after that, even barbarians must feel that it was in vain to strive against a man thus preordained to mastery. yet they did not see it. when julius cæsar was in rome, after six years of stubborn conflict, after incredible suffering and bloodshed, the heart of the people though bowed down was not broken. there lived among the arvernians, in the high mountainland, among the volcanic peaks of auvergne, as it is now called, a young chief, whose real name is not known, but whom history calls vercingetorix, that is, head over a hundred tribes. the time was come for an united, determined, and desperate resistance. he sent messengers throughout gaul. the downtrodden inhabitants rose to a man and invested vercingetorix with the chief command. in the year of rome 702, b.c. 32, cæsar was suddenly informed in italy that his work of six years was threatened with ruin. most of the gallic nations, united under a chieftain hitherto unknown, were rising with one common impulse, and recommencing war. cæsar at once returned to gaul. he had one quality, rare even amongst the greatest men, he remained cool amidst the hottest alarms. he was always quick, never hasty. he placed himself at the head of his troops, and, in the early part of march, moved to what is now sens, the very centre of revolt, and looked round to decide where first to strike. vercingetorix from the outset knew that the ill-armed and worse disciplined gauls could not cope in the open field with cæsar and the roman legions; he therefore formed a plan of campaign that required great sacrifices on the side of the gauls, for the sake of the common safety. no walls, he assured the confederates, could withstand the skill of the romans in engineering, no array maintain itself in the field against their phalanx. but he reminded them that through the winter and early spring the soil on which the enemy trod could not furnish him with provision. he must disperse his troops among the fortresses. let then, said he, no further attempts be made to defy the roman in the open field; let him rather be followed in detail, and cut off when separated into cantonments, and above all, let the towns that served him for magazines be destroyed by the hands of the inhabitants themselves. he recommended in fact the very course pursued more than eighteen hundred years later by the russians against the french cæsar, a course which proved fatal to him. the assembled council of gaulish states assented gallantly to this proposal. in one day twenty cities of the bituriges were flaming, and similar havoc was made throughout the territories of the allies. but when the fate of avaricum (bourges) came to be discussed, the hearts of the bituriges failed them. their deputies knelt to the assembled chiefs and interceded for the preservation of their beautiful, and as they deemed it, impregnable city. the council yielded. in vain did vercingetorix urge them to carry out their determination without exception. they would surrender every other city to the flames, but not their loved capital, not avaricum. the situation was admirably calculated for defence. it stood on rising ground, and the only approach to it then was a causeway between the river and a morass. the garrison laboured night and day to strengthen their defences with earthworks and with palisades of sharpened stakes. the romans at once moved from sens and surrounded the place. the story of its fall i will take from the graphic pen of dean merivale:--"whilst the bituriges within their city were hard pressed by the machinery which the roman engineers directed against their walls, the forces of the proconsul on their side were harassed by the fatigues of the siege and the scarcity of provisions. cæsar is lavish of praise in speaking of the fortitude with which his soldiers bore their privations; they refused to allow him to raise the siege, and when he at last led them against the enemy's army, and finding it too strongly posted for an attack, withdrew them again within their lines, they submitted to the disappointment, and betook themselves once more without a murmur to the tedious operations of the blockade. the skill of the assailants at length triumphed over the bravery of the defenders. the walls were approached by towers at various points, and mounds constructed against which the combustible missiles of the besieged were unavailing. finally, a desperate sally was repulsed, and then, at last the constancy of the bituriges began to fail. taking advantage of a moment when the watch on the walls had relaxed its vigilance, cæsar marshalled his legions behind his works, and poured them suddenly against the opposing ramparts. they gained the summit of the walls, which the defenders abandoned without a blow, rallying, however, in the middle of the town, in such hasty array as the emergency would allow. a bloody struggle ensued; both parties were numerous, and the assailants gave no quarter. the gauls were routed and exterminated, their women and children mercilessly slaughtered, and the great central city of gaul fell into the hands of the conquerors without affording a single captive for their triumph." after that the fate of the insurrection was sealed. the war was carried on with fluctuations of fortune even into an eighth campaign, and then the yoke of rome, iron, and doubly weighted with the wrath of the conqueror, was riveted on to the neck of prostrate gallia, never again to be shaken off. [illustration: a street corner, bourges.] now, day after day at rome during the winter had i stood before the dying gaul in the capitoline museum, that statue of incomparable pathos:- "he leans upon his hand--his manly brow consents to death, but conquers agony, and his drooped head sinks gradually low- from the red gash fall heavy, one by one, like the first of a thunder-shower; and now the arena swims around him--he is gone, ere ceased the inhuman shout which hailed the wretch who won." _childe harold._ the statue is not of a dying gladiator, but of a gaulish chief, who has dealt himself the death-wound rather than fall into servitude to the roman, and then has broken his sword. and, after having looked and dreamed over that figure, could one come to bourges and not think of that heroic and fatal struggle? bourges was a beautiful city in those times, loved by the bituriges so that they could not resolve to destroy it; but oh! how beautiful it is now, with its quaint mediæval and renaissance houses, and above all that most glorious cathedral, one of the very finest creations of art in the world. and yet, it is not perfect. the original design was not carried out. the nave has not the height proposed. funds failed, and it was finished off as best might be. it wants about forty-six feet of the height it should have had, to be in correct proportion. the flying buttresses outside were designed and executed to carry a vaulting some forty-six feet higher than the present one, and they are now of no use; they sustain nothing, all the outward thrust of the central vault is thrown on the second stage of buttresses. fine as is the interior, it ought to be finer. the clerestory windows are dwarfed, and the height of the side aisles is felt to be out of all proportion to that of the nave. moreover, there is nothing of the wonderful skill of design in the apsidal chapels, that is seen at amiens, vezelai, beauvais, &c. instead of forming an integral portion of the plan, they are mere excrescences in the sides of the apse. however, in spite of defects, partly in design, but mainly through lack of means to carry it out, the cathedral of bourges is of singular beauty. in one point the architect was a greater man than the designers of amiens and cologne. these two cathedrals are in strict proportion in all their parts. the designer of each, like the architect of york minster, was a great man with the compasses. but an architect should be artist as well as geometrician. i have ever felt in york minster, in amiens and cologne, that there is a lack of genius, of the human soul in the creation. there is strict formality, exact rule, that is all. no allowance has been made for effect of perspective, for the foreshortening to the eye at distances; there is no poetry in these three cathedrals. the designers drew them out on paper without having the faculty of seeing them in their minds' eye rise before them out of the soil. these churches made better sketches than they do structures. they are in admirable proportion on paper, but they are out of proportion when seen in stone. now such architects as the men who designed beauvais and bourges were geniuses. they were not tied hard and fast by rule of compass. they worked from a definite geometric plan, but deviated from it where their taste and feeling for beauty taught them that such deviation was advisable. now at beauvais and at bourges the exact, proportions have been abandoned. for instance, at bourges, to be exact, each of the two side aisles should have been half the width of the nave. but the architect was perhaps afraid of the great span, perhaps he dreaded too great formality, and he made the aisle next to the nave about 2 ft. 3 in. less than the width it ought to have had, if in exact proportion. the outer aisle was given almost, but not quite, the exact proportional width. the great defect of our modern architects is that they do not work from a foundation of geometrical proportion, but design out of their own heads by eye; we are sometimes distressed at finding that our churches recently built are bad acoustically. this is very generally due to the fact that they have been built regardless of geometric proportion. if bourges had been carried out as intended, the crown of the vault would have been exactly seven times half the width of the nave. s. servin, toulouse, has the keystone of the vault exactly five times the half width. if we desire to have good acoustic qualities in our churches and halls we must observe some such rule. so with the plan. the length of autun is seven times the width of the nave; beauvais the same, or would have been, had the nave been completed. amiens has exactly the same proportion, measured to the end of the apse. so noyon. in fact, the mediæval architects were careful to build so as never to give even proportions. twice, four times, six times, would have had bad acoustic effects. there would have been an echo. of the sculpture on the west façade, the richly, deeply-recessed portals, i will not speak. that has been sufficiently observed and admired by other writers. i am not writing a guide-book, and i do not as a rule notice at any length what may be found in easily-accessible works. here, as at rouen, is a butter tower, so called because built with money paid for indulgence to be allowed to eat butter in lent. does the reader know how strictly the observance of lent was enforced down to the civil wars in england? i have gone through some episcopal registers of our english bishops since the reformation, and find that in james i.'s time a bishop's licence was sought to obtain permission to eat meat in lent. not only so, but all schoolmasters, surgeons, and midwives were required to obtain an episcopal licence before being permitted to practise in the diocese. in bourges one feels that one is removed altogether from the influences that moulded architecture in provence. there the abundance of classic remains affected the minds and formed the taste of the mediæval builders. in central france there were few traces of the roman conquerors, and gothic architecture developed freely according to its own genius. the domestic architecture is different. we come now to the gables standing over the street. there are many and charming specimens in bourges. among the houses is that of cujas, concerning whom some anecdotes have already been told. bourges was famous for its university and school of laws, and cujas was invited to a professorship in it. the house is of brick, of the sixteenth century, and richly adorned. another interesting house is that of charles vii., with a graceful staircase, and an old hall with open fireplace. but the striking mansion of all is that of jacques coeur, the bourges jeweller, father of an archbishop of this his native city. throughout the house is introduced his canting device, a human heart and the scallopshell of s. james. his motto is also graven, "a vaillants coeurs rien impossible." [illustration: part of jacques coeur's house.] i hate doing a thing again and in an inferior manner that has already been done inimitably; and madame parkes-belloc, with her fresh pen dipped in sunlight has written about bourges and jacques coeur's house in her charming book, 'la belle france,' [1] and i dare not tread after her. so i simply quote her words--i fear her pleasant book is not much sought after and read now:--"his dwelling must have fitted jacques coeur as its skin fits an animal. all its quaint architectural corners seem, as it were, wrinkles and creases, whereby it adapted itself to the nature and genius of the man. we, in our day, know nothing of such a style of building. if we want a large house we send for an architect, who submits his plans to our enlightened judgment; allotting ample stairs, a sufficiency of best bedrooms, kitchen, butler's pantry, &c. if rather less, then rather cheaper; and as to making the slightest difference in style on account of our late pursuits, as whether, for instance, we were a retired candlestick-maker, or a lord chancellor, or a physician, the very idea would savour of lunacy. not so jacques coeur. this man wished, in dying, to leave a beautiful shell behind him, so that the passers-by might say: 'here lived a great merchant; he had a wife, sons, and a daughter, and numerous domestics. he liked his money, but loved art more. he kept a negro; he was pious, also loyal. he didn't mind fighting, if needs must be; but preferred commerce and politics. he loved bourges, and bourges loved him; for he paid his workmen well.' all this, and more, jacques coeur continued to write in legible characters on the walls of his house, some of it on the outside, some of it on the inside." [footnote 1: published in 1868.] he had humour, a quaint conceit, this man of gold and jewelry. he had the very knocker to his door made to strike upon a _heart_. under the eaves of his observatory he had his negro sculptured hugging his money-box, and a little beyond an angel exhibiting his newly-acquired coat-of-arms. the one led to the other--the money-box brought on gentility. hard by is the shield of an allied commercial family, their coat one of _fleurs-de-lis_ interspersed with woolsacks. the fuggers of augsburg, when desiring a coat, asked maximilian for lilies--for, said these wealthy spinners--as for the lilies, "_they_ toil not, neither do they spin." with droll invention jacques had one of his fireplaces made like a fortress, with little windows above, out of which folk are peeping. he had a gift for pungent mottoes. here are some he had wrought into the decorations of his house:- "a close bouche il n'entre mouche." another is:- "entendre, taire, dire, et faire, est ma joie." i remember a merchant's house, very sumptuous, at schaffhausen, on which he had written this bitter device--"god preserve me from my friends; i will protect myself from my enemies." another man altogether from jacques coeur. the ending of this bright, merry, pomp-loving merchant was sad. he fell into disgrace with his king--he had probably lent him too much money; he was accused falsely of several crimes--forging money and selling arms to infidels, and was thrown into prison. the king then seized his wealth, tore up the bills in his name, and left one of jacques' sons only a remnant of his treasure and the house. jacques coeur managed to escape from prison, got to rome, and was taken into favour by nicolas v. and calixtus iii., and was appointed captain of an expedition against the turks. he is thought to have been wounded in a skirmish with them, for he is known to have died in chios. and so he passed his old age, and laid his bones far from the house he had built for himself in which to end his days, and was not buried in the chapel of the cathedral which he had constructed as his mausoleum. [illustration: turret in the hôtel lallemand.] another very delightful old house in bourges is the hôtel lallemand, constructed after the great fire of 1487; there is another in the rue des toiles, and another again in the rue s. suplice. [illustration: staircase in the hôtel lallemand.] the reader may ask--if you are writing a book on provence and languedoc, why give us bourges? bourges, which is in berry, which is in the very centre of france? for the same reason that i began with florence. one does not drop out of a balloon into provence, nor ascend out of it by one. one must stay somewhere in going there, and stay somewhere and see something on leaving there. and as my stay at florence led on as a sort of preface to my flight up and down in provence, so will this chapter on bourges serve as an epilogue. for, in verity, as my encounter with the jew dealer served me as an introduction so shall a little incident i met with in bourges serve me as an easy mode of making my exit with a bow. it was raining. it had rained all day. the interior of the cathedral, dark at all times with its deep-dyed (and dirty) glass, was in darkness, too deep to see and study much. the gurgoyles were spouting, the eaves dripping, the gutters running as mountain torrents. however, towards sunset, the windows of heaven were closed, the rain ceased, and folk who had been indoors all day came out with umbrellas and pattered and splashed about. now, by some fatality a thimble had been brought down from the roof of one of the houses by a descending water-spout; perhaps a dragon-gurgoyle had spat it disdainfully down. how had the thimble got on the roof? that was the question, not how it got down into the gutter. had a cunning jackdaw, as in the 'gazza di ladra' carried it off, or had a child tumbled it out of an attic window on to the leads? i was not the only person interested in this thimble. there was a young man, a student, a french exquisite, who also observed it; and i saw him poking at it in the water with the ferrule of his umbrella. indeed it was his behaviour towards the thimble that attracted my attention to it. presently he managed to extricate the thimble from the flood, to lodge it on a paving-stone, but it was slippery and round, and rolled off between two cobbles. then he put up his eye-glass and studied it. was it worth soiling his fingers over or not? was it of silver or of brass? he walked round the thimble, with his eye-glass up, stood astride over the little torrent that had brought it down, stiffened his back, clapped the umbrella under his arm, and pursed up his lips to consider. then he formed his resolution, stooped, and with the extreme point of his forefinger turned the thimble about. then he stood erect again, pulled out a pocket handkerchief--saw it was of spotless cleanliness, considered that it would cost him two sous to have it washed if he dirtied it by drying thereon his forefinger, replaced it, and put his finger up his back under his coat tails and wiped it on the calico of his waistcoat. he had made up his mind to have nothing more to do with the thimble, when along the _trottoïr_ came tripping a pretty damsel, with the purest of white caps, a sallow face, with fine dark eyes and abundant black hair. she bore over her shoulder, expanded, a plum-coloured umbrella. it had ceased raining, but the plum-colour threw out her pleasant face into relief: she knew that, and tripped on without folding it. instantly down bent the student, and, regardless of the dirty water, picked up the thimble. it slipped from his fingers into the gutter. boldly he plunged his hand in, soiling thereby his _manchette_; but he recovered the trifle. the girl was abreast of him, and had passed before he was prepared. he now pulled out a dogskin glove and polished the article. it _was_ silver. he affixed it to the end of his little finger and waited his opportunity. three ladies approached. the youth plucked up courage--holding out his little finger shod with the thimble. it was like paris and the three goddesses. the ladies looked at him, at his thimble, then at each other, tossed their heads, and walked on. then came a very ugly woman--the exquisite put the thimble resolutely behind his back. next--back, under her plum-coloured umbrella, returned the grisette. at once the dandy stood forward. "mademoiselle, as you passed just now, assuredly you dropped this." [illustration: sculpture over the kitchen entrance at jacques coeur's house.] "mais, monsieur! ce n'est pas possible. ce n'est pas à moi." "pardon, mademoiselle, you dropped it; i saw you. i heard it fall." "cependant,--it is not mine." "then it is nobody's. i will throw it away." "mais, monsieur, it is of silver." "take it, mademoiselle, i pray." she held the little silver thimble between thumb and forefinger, turned it about, studied it, hesitated, was inclined to take it, but did not wish to place herself under an obligation to a fop, and a stranger--knitted her brows--when up came a young workman, with a lead pencil in his hand--in his blouse. "mais! que de singeries faites-vous là, madeleine?" said he, and flip!--with his pencil he sent the thimble out from her hand, flying--neither he, nor the girl, nor i saw whither it went, or where it fell. and--just thus stands the author of this little work, offering his trifle to the gentle and well-disposed reader, who is inclined, may be, to be pleased with it, and to adopt it. but up comes the envious reviewer, and with his pen--flip--he sends the poor little article away--away--away, into the limbo of forgotten books, "que de singeries faites-vous là--avec cette bagatelle là?" [illustration: jacques coeur's knocker.] appendix. a.--monuments from the alyscamps. 1. the inscription to cornelia, daughter of marius, is something of a puzzle. against its genuineness may be urged that he is represented as conqueror of the cimbri, whereas the cimbri were not defeated till the following year, near vercelli. now it is strange that he should have left his daughter at arles instead of moving her into italy; and it is also odd that, if she were left there, he should be designated as conqueror of the cimbri, whereas in the engagement with the cimbri he shared the glory with catulus; and he alone was victor over the teutons and ambrons near aix. moreover, one would have supposed that at arles he would have been entitled the conqueror of these latter, the terror of whom had fallen on the province, and not of the cimbri who did not menace it. on the other hand, the inscription is in shockingly bad latin; calpurnia is made conqueror of the cimbri, not her father, by a grammatical blunder; and one would suspect a forger would have avoided such a grotesque error, which is quite in agreement with other blunders made by the sculptors of monuments in the alyscamps, who were clearly gallo-greeks, and hardly understood latin. also--and this is remarkable--the name of the girl is calpurnia; and caius marius was a native of arpinum, and when this town was taken by the romans from the samnites, in b.c. 188, the franchise was given to the inhabitants, who were enrolled in the calpurnian _gens_. now this is a little fact that it is most improbable a forger would know--but it quite explains the girl receiving the name of calpurnia, if genuine. 2. the tomb of julia tyranna. the inscription runs:- ivliæ . lvc . filiæ . tyranniæ . vixit ann . xx . m . viii . qvæ moribvs . pariter . et . disciplina . ceteris . feminis . exemplo . fvit . antarcivs . nvrvi . lavrentivs . vcxori . it was raised to her memory by her father-in-law antarcius, and by her husband, laurentius. the organ is represented with seven pipes. 3. o dolor . qvantæ lachrimæ . fecere sepvlcrvm . ivl . lv cinæ . qvæ . vixit . ka d . rissima . matri . flos . æ m. tatis . hiq . iacet . intvs . condita . saxoo . vtinam . possit . reparari . spiritvs . ille . vt . sciret . qvantvs . dolor . est . qvæ . vixit . ann . xxvii . m . x . die xiii . ivl . parthenope . posvit . infelix mater . "o grief! what tears have watered this tomb of julia lucina who in life was very dear to her mother. carried off in the flower of her age, here she lies, buried in this marble tomb. would that her spirit might be restored, that she might learn how great is my grief. she lived twenty-seven years, ten months, and thirteen days. julia parthenope, her unhappy mother, raised this." 4. hydriæ tertvllæ c . f . conivgi . amantissi mæ et axiæ oelianæ . filiæ dvlcissimæ . terentivs mvsevs hoc sepvlcrvm posvit . "terentius musæus placed this to his most loving wife, hydria tertulla, and to his most sweet daughter, axia oeliana." on this is a child with a cock in hand, an oblation to the infernal deities. 5. f . mario . mf . marino . exs . testa mento . observe in this, as in no. 3, the queer spelling, in both phonetic:--hiq, saxoo, exs. 6. here is a christian inscription:- integer . atqve . pivs . vita . et . corpore . pvrvs . æterno . hic . positvs . vivit . concordivs . ævo . qvi . teneris . primvm . minister . fvlsit . in . annis . post . etiam . lectvs . coelesti . lege . sacerdos triginta . et geminos . decem . vix . reddidit . annos . hvnc . cito . sideream . raptvm . omnipotentis . in avlam mater . blanda . et . frater . sine fvnere qværvnt . "intact and pious, pure in life and body, here lies buried, but eternally lives concordius, who in his tender years shone first as a deacon, afterwards chosen by the celestial law a priest; he lived hardly fifty years. transported too soon to the starry hall of the almighty, his gentle mother and his brother seek him without bewailing him." this is on a sarcophagus of white marble with a colonnade carved on the face, the pillars channeled and spiral. in the centre is jesus christ, seated on a throne, instructing his apostles and a crowd, which is seen through the arcade, at the right a man, on the left a woman, on the cover are the twelve apostles with rolled volumes before them. this sarcophagus belongs to the fourth century. 7. pax æterna dvlcissimæ . et . innocen tissim . filliæ . chrysogone . iv nior . siricio . qvæ . vix . ann . iii . m . ii . dieb . xxvii . valerivs . et . chry sogone . parentes . filliæ . karis simæ . et . omni . tempore . vi tæ . sve . desiderantiss . m . a . e . "peace eternal to the most sweet and innocent girl, chrysogone (the younger) siricio, who lived three years, three months, and twenty-seven days. valerius and chrysogone, her parents, raised this monument to their most dear daughter, whom they will regret all their lives." the bones were found in a leaden coffin enclosed in one of stone. the body of the little chrysogone had been enveloped in a rich brocade of gold thread and silk. 8. a curious column dedicated by the good people of arles to flavius valerius constantinus (constantine the great), son of constantius, long served the boatmen on the rhone to fasten their vessels to, and it is sadly furrowed by the chains and cords so employed. it bears the inscription:- imp . cæs . fl . val . constantino p . f . avg . divi constanti . avg . rii . filio . constantius chorus also bore the names of flavius valerius. b.--the campaign of marius. for determining this the following points must be settled:-i. _where was his camp?_ to fix the position of his camp we must see where he could best watch the barbarians cross the rhone, in such a place as he would have his rear covered, and where he could keep open his communications with rome, and receive both reinforcements and victuals. now there is absolutely no point that answers these requirements like s. gabriel. it was certain that the barbarians would not cross at arles, for they could not advance thence south of the chain of les alpines, owing to the lagoons and morasses, and the desert of the great crau. they must cross below avignon and at or above tarascon. now, as they would almost certainly march along the high table-land that extends from montpellier by nimes to beaucaire, and not wade through the marshes below these hills, they would arrive with dry feet at beaucaire, and there, naturally would cross and follow up the valley of the durance. s. gabriel was a natural watch-tower, whence marius could observe them. it is an ancient roman settlement. numerous roman remains have been found there. marius had but to mount the heights behind the little town, and he commanded all the country to the north-west and south for a vast distance. then, again, by means of his canal, connecting the lagoons, he was able to bring ships with supplies under his walls. his canal opened out of the etang de galéjon, with a station at fos, not at the exact entrance of the canal, which was low and marshy, but at the entrance of the channel of martigues that opens into the etang de berre. through galéjon it ran north, cutting through a chain of lagoons, passed under mont majeur to s. gabriel, and there probably received the waters, the overspill of the durance, above château renard. plutarch says that it was connected with the rhone, but this was probably an error. its course to s. gabriel remained in use and falling into decay in the middle ages as the canal des lonnes. between s. gabriel and the etang de galéjon it could also be traced, and bore the name of le vigueirat. this canal of marius was perfectly protected from the barbarians by the morasses that intervened between it and the rhone. ii. _to determine his march._ the old pre-roman road from nimes to aix certainly followed the high and dry ground to tarascon, thence traced up the valley of the durance. it could no longer follow the high ground, as that is broken into limestone peaks, but it followed up the river below them, carried above the rubble of the durance. the first station after tarascon was glanum, now s. remi. then it went to orgon, where it touched the durance for the first time, and whence branched the roads to italy--one by mont genèvre, the other by aix and the coast. i suppose that marius, following the barbarians, he on the heights, they in the valley, observed the direction they took to right or to left, from the precipitous crags of orgon. it must be remembered that marius had an army made up of demoralised soldiers, who had escaped from defeat by the barbarians, and of raw levies, and all were in deadly fear of their savage foes, so that he dare not bring them to a pitched battle till they had become accustomed to the sight of the teutons and ambrons, and were themselves impatient to come to blows with them. the host of invaders turned south towards aix. marius pursued: there can, i think, be little question that he pursued the same tactics, exchanging a sandstone range for one of limestone, and following them steadily step by step, keeping the heights. now, if the camp of marius was at s. gabriel, and if the teutons marched up the durance valley to orgon, and then turned to aix, then, it seemed to me, on the spot, that no one save an idiot in command of the roman soldiers could have done anything else than strike for the sandstone ridge and march along that, still observing the enemy. another theory relative to the roman road is that it ran south of the chain of les alpines. this would not matter for the course of marius, but would explain the fact of the monument of marius being found at les baux; and les baux would then be the cliff whence he watched the march of the barbarians. iii. _to determine the position of the battles._ plutarch does not distinguish between sites. he says that there were two battles separated from one another by two days, and that in the first marius defeated the ambrons. in the second he defeated the teutons. he leaves us to infer that both battles were fought on the same field. but there are difficulties in supposing this. 1. the field of pourrières does not answer the description of the first battle site; it does that of the second. 2. the ambrons alone were engaged in the first battle, and no teutons came to their help. we may therefore fairly suppose that the two great bodies of barbarian invaders had separated. 3. there was a very tempting bait, marseilles lying to the south, inviting attack and pillage. following m. gilles in his monograph on the campaign of marius, i believe that the first battle was fought at les milles, the first station out of aix on the marseilles road, and that the ambrons had parted company with the teutons so as to try their luck with marseilles, or perhaps only so as to ravage the coast, if they could make no impression on a walled city. now, the sandstone ridge along which marius and his army were marching, as i suppose, ends abruptly above les milles. below flows the river are, making a loop in which is a rich green meadow, and under the hill ooze out countless rills of water. indeed, the bottom of the hill is dense with irises loving the slushy percolated soil. there is no water on the sandstone heights. here, if i am right, marius came out and saw the ambrons below, and wanted to form his camp, but was deterred by an engagement being begun by the water-carriers of the camp going down to the river and springs with their pails, and being attacked by the ambrons. aix lies away to the north in a broad basin, and at some little distance, two kilos., from the river. the battle could not have happened there. there is no other place save les milles where we have hill, river, green plain and springs together, as in plutarch's narrative. let us then suppose that marius fought the first battle at les milles and there defeated the ambrons. those not slain would fly along the aurelian road that leads from aix through the plain of pourrières, crosses a low _col_, and enters the valley of the argens, and leads to fréjus, where i suppose teutons and ambrons designed to meet again, and pursue their course westward together. in the meantime the teutons had been advancing up the are valley along the aurelian way. a mile and a half out of aix they reached the are, five miles above les milles, and thence followed up the river for three miles, when they left it. their road now lay due east before them, across the almost level plain of pourrières, below the limestone precipice to the north of mont victoire. but there is a curious formation here. south of mont victoire is a semicircular sandstone chain, inferior in height, precipitous towards the plain, called le cengle, "the belt," dying into the limestone mountain at the point where the latter attains its greatest altitude, above the village of puyloubier. this sandstone girdle slopes easily inward to the precipice of mont victoire, and its rills flow together into a little stream that reaches the are at the point where the aurelian road left it, _i.e._ seven and a half miles from aix. m. gilles supposes that marius followed on the heels of the flying ambrons along the aurelian way, and that he detached marcellus at this point to go up this little stream behind the cengle and come out farther east so as to gain pain de munition. i do not think this is tenable, for there is a long tract of bare hill-slope between the extremity of the cingle and the conical fortified hill of pain de munition, and even if marcellus were concealed whilst ascending this little lateral valley, he would emerge in full view of the barbarians for the last five or six miles of his march. my belief is that marcellus was despatched up the valley of the infernet, behind mont victoire, by which means his march would be concealed throughout, nor would it be much longer. also, i do not think that marius pursued the teutons the whole way along the road. according to plutarch's account, the second time he came on them so as to cause them surprise. again, if he had pursued a certain plan up to the first engagement, and it had succeeded, it is likely that he would follow the same plan up to the second and final engagement. now hitherto he had kept to high ground always to the south of the advancing horde. from les milles he very probably, as i think, only followed the traces of the flying ambrons along the road till he struck the are in the open plain of pourrières, and then at once crossed to the south bank of the river, and marched along on ground that slopes up to the south, so that he had the river between him and the enemy. if, as is probable, this hill-slope, along which the rail now runs, was then, more than now, dense with broom and pine, his march would not be seen by the enemy. and so i conclude marius by a forced march reached trets. then, as i have said in my text, he had the enemy in a trap. behind them was the fortified camp of pain de munition into which he had thrown marcellus, and behind him he had the chain of mont aurélien and mont olympe, with another fortified camp. between him and the enemy was a slope, and this was cut by streams that had torn their way through a friable marly soil. moreover, he had a natural screen of rock between him and the enemy, with the low face towards him, and an easy slope towards the barbarians. the actual site of the camp of the teutons is fixed without very much doubt. they would certainly camp in the first available situation near water. now they had been marching for five miles without water, and on reaching the are at the station tegulata, they found an admirable site, three tofts of dry level sandstone apparently made for their purpose. moreover, opposite them is the ruin of the monument of marius. about the ruin there might have been doubts whether it was roman, and whether it referred to the victory, but for the discovery there of the statue of venus victrix, which sets that question at rest for ever. m. gilles supposes that the battle was fought along the road, when the teutons saw marius overtake them in pursuit, and that it began at a point about a mile due west, at le logis neuf. if it had been so, then surely the monument would have been on the west side of tegulata, and north of the are. the tradition that it raged from north to south between the bridge and trets is only of value from its being based on the masses of weapons, bronze and flint, found on the south side of the river, and not on the north. there is something too to be said for what common sense would point out. standing on the red sandstone hill above les milles, and looking at aix, and away east, one tries to imagine the barbarian hordes marching along the aurelian way; and then one asks, "now had i to fight them, what would i do?" the answer i gave to myself was, "common sense bids me make with forced marches away to trets, keeping my flank protected by the river, and surprise them again." i am not a general--but it appeared to me that it would be hard for any one on the spot in the position of marius, if he had his wits about him, not to see that the barbarians had given him a splendid chance, and that he must catch it, and take them unawares when they had stepped into his net. c.--the utriculares. there are twenty-three inscriptions relative to the colleges of utriculares in provence. m. lenthéric gives five in the appendix to his volume, 'les villes mortes du golfe de lyon,' and nineteen in that to his volume 'le grèce et l'orient en provence,' but of these one is from temesvar in hungary. then m. gilles, in his 'campagne de marius,' engraves a medal of the guild of utriculares of cabelio (cavaillon), which is now in the cabinet of medals at paris. it was found on the hill-slopes of the luberon. on the obverse it bears a representation of an inflated skin of a beast (a calf?); on the other side the inscription-_colle(gium)utri(culariorum) cab(ellionensis) l(ucius) valer(ius) succes(sor)._ i will give a few of the inscriptions on stones. 1. _d. m. g. paqui, optati lib(erti) pardalæ, sextum (viri) aug(ustalis) col(oniæ) ju(liæ) pat(ernæ) ar(elatensis) patron(i) ejusdem corpor(is), item patron(i) fabror(um) naval(ium), utricular(iorum) et centena(riorum) c. paquius epigonus cum liberis suis patrono optime merito._ "to the manes of g. paquius pardalas, freedman of optatus, sevir augustal of the colony of julia paterna of arles, patron of the same body, and also patron of the shipbuilders, of the utriculares, and of the centenares. c. paquius epigonius and his children to a well-deserving patron." this was found under the porch of s. cæsarius at arles. the centenarii were the men who made the patchwork beds that covered towers and walls in war as a protection against the ram and against fire. 2. _d. m. l(ucio) secundia eleutheria navicular(io) arel(atensi) item sevir(o) aug(ustali) corpor(ato) c(oloniæ) j(uliæ) p(aternæ) a(relatensis) secundia tatiana fil(ia) patri pientissim(o)._ "to the manes of lucius secundius eleutherius, boatman of arles, and augustal sevir, incorporated in the colony of julia paterna of arles. secundia tatiana, his daughter, to the most tender of fathers." found on the banks of the rhone, at arles. 3. _d. m. m(arco) junio messanio, utricul(ario) corp(orato) arelat(ensi), ejusd(em) corp(oris) mag(istro) quater, fi(lio), qui vixit ann(os) octo et viginti menses quinque, dies decem, junia valeria._ "to the manes. to marcus junius messianus of the corporation of the utriculares of arles, four times president of the same; junia valeria to her son, who died at the age of twenty-eight years, five months, and ten days." this is on a stone sarcophagus in the museum at arles. 4. _m(arco) frontoni eupori, sevir(o) aug(ustali) col(oniæ) julia(e) aug(ustæ) aquis sextis, navicular(io) mar(ino) are(late) curat(ori) ejusd(em) corp(oris) patrono nautar(um) druen(ticorum) et utricularior(um) corp(oratorum) ernaginensium. julia nice uxor conjugi carissimo_. "to marcus fronto eupor, augustal sevir of the colony of julia augusta at aix, mariner of arles, curator of the said corporation, patron of the corporations of the mariners of the durance and of the utriculares of ernaginum. julia nice to her dearest husband." found in the church of s. gabriel (ernaginum). finis. 