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diff --git a/8734-8.txt b/8734-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7a91f3c --- /dev/null +++ b/8734-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4569 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of East of Paris, by Matilda Betham-Edwards + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: East of Paris + Sketches in the Gâtinais, Bourbonnais, and Champagne + +Author: Matilda Betham-Edwards + + +Release Date: August, 2005 [EBook #8734] +This file was first posted on August 5, 2003 +Last Updated: May 20, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EAST OF PARIS *** + + + + +Produced by Carlo Traverso, Debra Storr, Sandra Brown, +Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + + + + +EAST OF PARIS + +SKETCHES IN THE GÂTINAIS, BOURBONNAIS, AND CHAMPAGNE + + +By Miss Betham-Edwards + + + + +CONTENTS + +Chap. + + INTRODUCTION + +I.--MELUN + +II.--MORET-SUR-LOING + +III.--BOURRON + +IV.--BOURRON--_continued_ + +V.--BOURRON--_continued_ + +VI.--LARCHANT + +VII.--RECLOSES + +VIII.--NEMOURS + +IX.--LA CHARITÉ-SUR-LOIRE + +X.--POUGUES + +XL.--NEVERS AND MOULINS + +XII.--SOUVIGNY AND SENS + +XIII.--ARCIS-SUR-AUBE + +XIV.--ARCIS-SUR-AUBE--_continued_ + +XV.--RHEIMS + +XVI.--RHEIMS--_continued_ + +XVII.--SOULAINES AND BAR-SUR-AUBE + +XVIII.--ST. JEAN DE LOSNE + +XIX.--NANCY + +XX.--IN GERMANISED LORRAINE + +XXI.--IN GERMANISED ALSACE + + + + +INTRODUCTORY. + + +I here propose to zig-zag with my readers through regions of Eastern +France not described in any of my former works. The marvels of French +travel, no more than the _chefs-d'oeuvre_ of French literature, are +unlimited. Short of saluting the tricolour on Mont Blanc, or of echoing +the Marseillaise four hundred and odd feet underground in the cave of +Padirac, I think I may fairly say that I have exhausted France as +a wonder-horn. But quiet beauties and homely graces have also their +seduction, just as we turn with a sense of relief from "Notre Dame de +Paris" or "Le Père Goriot," to a domestic story by Rod or Theuriet, so +the sweet little valley of the Loing refreshes after the awful Pass of +Gavarni, and soothing to the ear is the gentle flow of its waters after +the thundering Rhône. Majestic is the panorama spread before our eyes +as we pic-nic on the Puy de Dôme. More fondly still my memory clings +to many a narrower perspective, the view of my beloved Dijon from its +vine-clad hills or of Autun as approached from Pré Charmoy, to me, the +so familiar home of the late Philip Gilbert Hamerton. If, however, +the natural marvels of France, like those of any other country, can be +catalogued, French scenery itself offers inexhaustible variety. And so, +having visited, re-visited, and re-visited again this splendid hexagon +on the European map, I yet find in the choice of holiday resorts a +veritable _embarras de richesses_. And many of the spots here described +will, I have no doubt, be as new to my readers as they have been to +myself--_Larchant_ with its noble tower rising from the plain, +recalling the still nobler ruin of Tclemcen on the borders of the +Sahara--_Recloses_ with its pictorial interiors and grand promontory +overlooking a panorama of forest, sombre purplish green ocean unflecked +by a single sail--_Moret_ with its twin water-ways, one hardly knows +which of the two being the more attractive--_Nemours_, favourite haunt +of Balzac, memoralized in "Ursule Mirouët"--_La Charité_, from +whose old-world dwellings you may throw pebbles into the broad blue +Loire--_Pougues_, the prettiest place with the ugliest name, frequented +by Mme. de Sévigné and valetudinarians of the Valois race generations +before her time--_Souvigny_, cradle of the Bourbons, now one vast +congeries of abbatial ruins--_Arcis-sur-Aube_, the sweet riverside home +of Danton--its near neighbour, _Bar-sur-Aube_, connected with a bitterer +enemy of Marie Antoinette than the great revolutionary himself, the +infamous machinator of the Diamond Necklace. These are a few of the +sweet nooks and corners to which of late years I have returned again and +again, ever finding "harbour and good company." And these journeys, I +should rather say visits, East of Paris led me once more to that sad +yearning France beyond the frontier, to homes as French, to hearts as +devoted to the motherland as when I first visited the annexed provinces +twenty years ago! + + + + + +EAST OF PARIS + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +MELUN + +Scores upon scores of times had I steamed past Melun in the Dijon +express, ever eyeing the place wistfully, ever too hurried, perhaps too +lazy, to make a halt. Not until September last did I carry out a long +cherished intention. It is unpardonable to pass and re-pass any French +town without alighting for at least an hour's stroll! + +Melun, capital of the ancient Gatinais, now chef-lieu of the Department +of Seine and Marne, well deserves a visit. Pretty as Melun looks from +the railway it is prettier still on nearer approach. The Seine here +makes a loop, twice curling round the town with loving embrace, its +walls and old world houses to-day mirrored in the crystal-clear river. +Like every other French town, small or great, Melun possesses its outer +ring of shady walks, boulevards lying beyond the river-side quarters. +The place has a busy, prosperous, almost metropolitan look, after the +village just left. [Footnote: For symmetry's sake I begin these records +at Melun, although I halted at the place on my way from my third sojourn +at Bourron.] The big, bustling Hotel du Grand Monarque too, with its +brisk, obliging landlady, invited a stay. Dr. Johnson, perhaps the +wittiest if the completest John Bull who ever lived, was not far wrong +when he glorified the inn. "Nothing contrived by man," he said, "has +produced so much happiness (relaxation were surely the better word?) as +a good tavern." Do we not all, to quote Falstaff, "take our ease at our +inn," under its roof throwing off daily cares, assuming a holiday mood? + +A survey of the yard awoke another train of reflections. It really seems +as if the invention of the motor car were bringing back ante-railway +days for the tourist and the travelling world, recalling family coach +and post-chaise. The place was crowded with motor cars of all shapes +and sizes, some of these were plain, shabby gigs and carts of commercial +travellers, others, landaus, waggonettes and victorias of rich folks +seeing the world in their own carriage as their ancestors had done +generations before; one turn-out suggested royalty or a Rothschild, I +was about to say, rather I should name a Chicago store-keeper, since +American millionaires are the Haroun-el-Raschids of the twentieth +century. This last was a sumptuously fitted up carriage having a seat +behind for servants, accommodating eight persons in all. There was +also a huge box for luggage. It would be interesting to know how much +petroleum, electricity, or alcohol such a vehicle would consume in a +day. The manufacture of motor cars must be a very flourishing business +in France, next, I should say, to that of bicycles. Of these also there +was a goodly supply in the entrance hall of the inn, and the impetus +given to travel by both motor car and bicycle was here self-evident. +The Hotel du Grand Monarque literally swarmed with tourists, one and all +French folks taking their ease at their inn. And our neighbours do not +take their pleasure solemnly after the manner of the less impressionable +English. Stay-at-home as they have hitherto been, home-loving as they +essentially are, the atmosphere of an inn, the aroma of a holiday, fill +the Frenchman's cup of hilarity to overflowing, rendering gayer the +gayest. + +The invention and rapidly spreading use of the motor car in France shows +the French character under its revolutionary aspect, yet no people on +the face of the earth are in many respects so conservative. We English +folks want a new "Where is it?" for social purposes every year, the +majority of our friends and acquaintances changing their houses almost +as often as milliners and tailors change the fashion in bonnets and +coats. A single address book for France supplies a life-time. The +explanation is obvious. For the most part we live in other folks' houses +whilst French folks, the military and official world excepted, occupy +their own. Revisit provincial gentry or well-to-do bourgeoisie after +an interval of a quarter of a century, you always find them where they +were. Interiors show no more change than the pyramids of Egypt. Not so +much as sixpence has been laid out upon new carpets or curtains. Could +grandsires and granddames return to life like the Sleeping Beauty, they +would find that the world had stood still during their slumber. + +Melun possesses perhaps one of the few statues that may not be called +superfluous, and I confess I had been attracted thither rather by +memories of its greatest son than by its picturesque scenery and fine +old churches. The first translator of Plutarch into his native tongue +was born here, and as we should expect, has been worthily commemorated +by his fellow citizens. A most charming statue of Amyot stands in front +of the grey, turreted Hôtel de Ville. In sixteenth century doctoral +dress, loose flowing robes and square flat cap, sits the great +scholiast, as intently absorbed in his book as St. Jerome in the +exquisite canvas of our own National Gallery. + +Behind the Hôtel de Ville an opening shows a small, beautifully kept +flower garden, just now a blaze of petunias, zinnias, and a second crop +of roses. Long I lingered before this noble monument, one only of the +many raised to Amyot's memory, of whom Montaigne wrote:-- + +"Ignoramuses that we are, we should all have been lost, had not this +book (the translation of Plutarch) dragged us out of the mire; thanks to +it, we now venture to write and to discourse." + +And musing on the scholar and his kindred, a favourite line of +Browning's came into my mind-- + +"This man decided not to live but to know." + +Indeed the whole of "A Grammarian's Funeral" were here appropriate. Is +it not men after this type of whom we feel + + "Our low life was the level's and the night's. + He's for the morning"? + +To my surprise I found the church of St. Aspais locked. A courteous +hair-dresser thereupon told me that all churches in Melun were closed +from noon till half past one, but that, as noon had only just struck, +if I were brisk I might possibly catch the sacristan. After a pretty hot +chase I succeeded in finding a deaf, decrepit, dingy old man who showed +me round the church, although evidently very impatient for his mid-day +meal. He informed me that this closing of churches at Melun had been +necessitated of late years by a series of robberies. From twelve till +half past one o'clock no worshippers are present as a rule, hence the +thieves' opportunity. Unfortunately marauders do not strip beautiful +interiors of the tinselly gew-gaws that so often deface them; in this +respect, however, St. Aspais being comparatively an exception. Alike +within and without the proportions are magnificent, and the old stained +glass is not marred by modern crudities. I do not here by any means +exhaust the sights of this ancient town, from which, by the way, +Barbizon is now reached in twenty minutes, an electric tramway plying +regularly between Melun and that famous art pilgrimage. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +MORET-SUR-LOING. + +The valley of the Loing abounds in captivating spots, Moret-sur-Loing +bearing the palm. Over the ancient town, bird-like broods a majestic +church, as out-spread wings its wide expanse of roof, while below by +translucent depths and foliage richly varied, stretch quarters old and +new, the canal intersecting the river at right angles. Lovely as is the +river on which all who choose may spend long summer days, the canal to +my thinking is lovelier still. Straight as an arrow it saunters between +avenues of poplar, the lights and shadows of wood and water, the +sunburnt, stalwart barge folk, their huge gondoliers affording endless +pictures. Hard as is undoubtedly the life of the rope tower, rude as +may appear this amphibious existence, there are cheerful sides to the +picture. Many of these floating habitations possess a fireside nook cosy +as that of a Parisian concierge, I was never tired of strolling along +the canal and watching the barge folk. One day a friend and myself found +a large barge laden with coal at the head of the canal, the huge dark +framework and its sombre burden lighted up with touches of grace and +colour. At the farther end of the vessel was hung a cage of canaries, at +the other end was a stand of pot-flowers, geraniums and petunias in full +bloom and all the more brilliant by virtue of contrast. A neighbour +of the bargeman, a bright, intelligent woman, brown as a gipsy but +well-spoken and of tidy appearance, invited us to enter. Imagine the +neatest, prettiest little room in the world, parlour, bedchamber and +kitchen in one, every object so placed as to make the most of available +space. On a small side-table--and of course under such circumstances +each article must be sizable--stood a sewing machine, in the corner was +a bedstead with exquisitely clean bedding, in another a tiny cooking +stove. Vases of flowers, framed pictures and ornamental quicksilver +balls had been found place for, this bargewoman's home aptly +illustrating Shakespeare's adage--"Order gives all things view." The +brisk, weather-beaten mistress now came up, no little gratified by our +interest and our praises. + +"You ladies would perhaps like to make a little journey with me?" she +asked, "nothing easier, we start to-morrow morning at six o'clock for +Nevers, you could take the train back." + +Never perhaps in our lives had myself and my companion received an +invitation so out of the way, so bewilderingly tempting! And we felt +too, with a pang, that never again in all probability should we receive +such another. But on this especial day we were not staying at Moret, +only running over for the afternoon from our headquarters at Bourron. +Acceptance was thus hemmed round with small impediments. And by way +of consolation, next morning the glorious weather broke. A downpour +recalling our own lakeland would anyhow have kept us ashore. + +"Another time then!" had said the kind hostess of the barge at parting. +She seemed as sorry as ourselves that the little project she had mooted +so cordially could not be carried out. + +The Loing canal joins the Seine at Saint Mammes, a few kilomètres lower +down, continuing its course of thirty kilomètres to Bleneau in the +Nièvre. Canal life in Eastern France is a characteristic feature, the +whole region being intersected by a network of waterways, those _chemins +qui marchent_, or walking roads as Michelet picturesquely calls them. +And strolling on the banks of the canal here you may be startled by +an astonishing sight, you see folks walking, or apparently walking, on +water. Standing bolt upright on a tiny raft, carefully maintaining their +balance, country people are towed from one side to the other. + +These suburban and riverside quarters are full of charm. The soft reds +and browns of the houses, the old-world architecture and romantic sites, +tempt an artist at every turn. And all in love with a Venetian existence +may here find it nearer home. + +A few villas let furnished during the summer months have little lawns +winding down to the water's edge and a boat moored alongside. Thus their +happy inmates can spend hot, lazy days on the river. + +Turning our backs on the canal, by way of ivy-mantled walls, ancient +mills and tumbledown houses, we reach the Porte du Pont or Gate of the +Bridge. With other towns of the period, Moret was fortified. The girdle +of walls is broken and dilapidated, whilst firm as when erected in the +fourteenth century still stand the city gates. + +Of the two the Porte du Pont is the least imposing and ornamental, but +it possesses a horrifying interest. In an upper storey is preserved one +of those man-cages said to have been invented for the gratification of +Louis XI, that strange tyrant to whose ears were equally acceptable the +shrieks of his tortured victims and the apt repartee of ready-witted +subjects. + +"How much do you earn a day?" he once asked a little scullion, as +incognito he entered the royal kitchen. + +"By God's grace as much as the King," replied the lad; "I earn my bread +and he can do no more." + +So pleased was the King with this saying that it made the speaker's +fortune. + +We climb two flights of dark, narrow stone stairs reaching a bare +chamber having small apertures, enlargements of the mere slits formerly +admitting light and air. The man-cage occupies one corner. It is made of +stout oaken ribs strongly bound together with iron, its proportions just +allowing the captive to lie down at full length and take a turn of two +or three steps. De Commines tells us that the cage invented by Cardinal +Balue, and in which he languished for eleven years, was narrower still. +An average sized man could not stand therein upright. + +The bolts and bars are still in perfect order. Nothing more brings home +to us the abomination of the whole thing than to see the official draw +these Brobdingnagian bolts and turn these gigantic keys. The locksmith's +art was but too well understood in those days. By whom and for whom this +living tomb was made or brought hither local records do not say. + +From a stage higher up a magnificent panorama is obtained, Moret, old +and new, set round with the green and the blue, its greenery and bright +river, far away its noble aqueduct, further still looking eastward +the valley of the Loing spread out as a map, the dark ramparts of +Fontainebleau forest half framing the scene. + +The town itself is a trifle unsavoury and unswept. Municipal authorities +seem particularly stingy in the matter of brooms, brushes and +water-carts. Such little disagreeables must not prevent the traveller +from exploring every corner. But the real, the primary attraction of +Moret lies less in its historic monuments and antiquated streets than +in its _chemins qui marchent_, its ever reposeful water-ways. Like most +French towns Moret is linked with English history. Its fine old church +was consecrated by Thomas à-Becket in 1166. Three hundred years later +the town was taken by Henry V., and re-taken by Charles VII. a decade +after. Not long since five hundred skulls supposed to have been those +of English prisoners were unearthed here; as they were all found massed +together, the theory is that the entire number had surrendered and been +summarily decapitated, methods of warfare that have apparently found +advocates in our own day. + +Most visitors to Paris will have had pointed out to them the so-called +"Maison François Premier" on the Cour La Reine. This richly ornate and +graceful specimen of Renaissance architecture formerly stood at Moret, +and bit by bit was removed to the capital in 1820. A spiral stone +staircase and several fragments of heraldic sculpture were left behind. +Badly placed as the house was here, it seems a thousand pities that +Moret should have thus been robbed of an architectural gem Paris could +well have spared. + +My first stay at Moret three years ago lasted several weeks. I had +joined friends occupying a pretty little furnished house belonging +to the officiating Mayor. We lived after simplest fashion but to our +hearts' content. One of those indescribably obliging women of all work, +came every day to cook, clean and wait on us. Most of our meals were +taken among our flower beds and raspberry bushes. The only drawback to +enjoyment may at first sight appear unworthy of mention, but it was not +so. We had no latchkey. Now as every-one of all work knows, they are +constantly popping in and out of doors, one moment they are off to +market, the next to warm up their husbands' soup, and so on and so on. +As for ourselves, were we not at Moret on purpose to be perpetually +running about also? Thus it happened that somebody or other was always +being locked out or locked in; either Monsieur finding the household +abroad had pocketed the key and instead of returning in ten minutes' +time had lighted upon a subject he must absolutely sketch then and +there; or Madame could not get through her shopping as expeditiously as +she had hoped; or their guest returned from her walk long before she +was due; what with one miscalculation and another, now one of us had to +knock at a neighbour's door, now another effected an entrance by means +of a ladder, and now the key would be wholly missing and for the time +being we were roofless, as if burnt out of house and home. Sometimes we +were locked in, sometimes we were locked out, a current "Open Sesame" we +never had. + +But no "regrettable incidents" marred a delightful holiday. Imbroglios +such as these only leave memories to smile at, and add zest to +recollection. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +BOURRON. + +Two years ago some Anglo-French friends joyfully announced their +acquisition of a delightful little property adjoining Fontainebleau +forest. "Come and see for yourself," they wrote, "we are sure that +you will be charmed with our purchase!" A little later I journeyed to +Bourron, half an hour from Moret on the Bourbonnais line, on arriving +hardly less disconcerted than Mrs. Primrose by the gross of green +spectacles. No trim, green verandahed villa, no inviting vine-trellised +walk, no luxuriant vegetable garden or brilliant flower beds greeted my +eyes; instead, dilapidated walls, abutting on these a peasant's cottage, +and in front an acre or two of bare dusty field! My friends had indeed +become the owners of a dismantled bakery and its appurtenances, to the +uninitiated as unpromising a domain as could well be imagined. But +I discovered that the purchasers were wiser in their generation than +myself. Noticing my crestfallen look they had said:-- + +"Only wait till next year, and you will see what a bargain we have made. +You will find us admirably housed and feasting on peaches and grapes." + +True enough, twelve months later, I found a wonderful transformation. +That a substantial dwelling now occupied the site of the dismantled +bakery was no matter for surprise, the change out of doors seemed +magical. Nothing could have looked more unpromising than that stretch +of field, a mere bit of waste, your feet sinking into the sand as if you +were crossing the desert. Now, the longed-for _tonnelle_ or vine-covered +way offered shade, petunias made a splendid show, choice roses scented +the air, whilst the fruit and vegetables would have done credit to a +market-gardener. Peaches and grapes ripened on the wall, big turnips and +tomatoes brilliant as vermilion took care of themselves. It was not only +a case of the wilderness made to blossom as the rose, but of the horn +of plenty filled to overflowing, prize flowers, fruit and vegetables +everywhere. For the soil hereabouts, if indeed soil it can be called, +and the climate of Bourron, possess very rare and specific qualities. On +this light, dry sand, or dust covering a substratum of rock, vegetation +springs up all but unbidden, and when once above ground literally takes +care of itself. As to climate, its excellence may be summed up in +the epithet, anti-asthmatic. Although we are on the very hem of forty +thousand acres of forest, the atmosphere is one of extraordinary +dryness. Rain may fall in torrents throughout an entire day. The sandy +soil is so thorough an absorbent that next morning the air will be as +dry as usual. + +This house reminded me of a tiny side door opening into some vast +cathedral. We cross the threshold and find ourselves at once in the +forest, in close proximity moreover to its least-known but not least +majestic sites. We may turn either to right or left, gradually climbing +a densely wooded headland. The first ascent lands us in an hour on the +Redoute de Bourron, the second, occupying only half the time, on a +spur of the forest offering a less famous but hardly less magnificent +perspective, nothing to mar the picture as a whole, sunny plain, winding +river and scattered townlings looking much as they must have done to +Balzac when passing through three-quarters of a century ago. + +This eastern verge of the Fontainebleau forest is of especial beauty; +the frowning headlands seem set there as sentinels jealously guarding +its integrity, on the watch against human encroachments, defying time +and change and cataclysmal upheaval. Boldly stands out each wooded crag, +the one confronting the rising, the other the sinking sun, behind both +massed the world of forest, spread before them as a carpet, peaceful +rural scenes. + +I must now describe a spot, the name of which will probably be new to +all excepting close students of Balzac. The great novelist loved the +valley of the Loing almost as fondly as his native Touraine; and if +these pastoral scenes did not inspire a _chef d'oeuvre_, they have +thereby immensely gained in interest. "Ursule Mirouët," of which I shall +have more to say further on, is not to be compared to such masterpieces +as "Eugénie Grandet." But a leading incident of "Ursule Mirouët" occurs +at Bourron--a sufficient reason for recalling the story here. + +The beauty of our village, like the beauty of French women, to quote +Michelet, "is made up of little nothings." There are a hundred and +one pretty things to see but very few to describe. Who could wish it +otherwise? Little nothings of an engaging kind better agree with us +as daily fare than the seven wonders of the world. With forty thousand +acres of forest at our doors we do not want M. Mattel's newly discovered +underground river within reach as well. + +From our garden we yet look upon scenes not of every day. Those sweeps +of bluish-green foliage strikingly contrasted with the brilliant vine +remind us that we are in France, and in a region with most others having +its specialities. Asparagus, not literally but figuratively, nourishes +the entire population of Bourron. Everyone here is a market gardener on +his own account, and the cultivation of asparagus for the Paris markets +is a leading feature of local commerce. + +There is no more graceful foliage than that of this plant, and +gratefully the eye rests upon these waves of delicate green under a +blazing, grape-ripening sky. Making gold-green lines between are vines, +a succession of asparagus beds and vineyards separating our village from +its better known and more populous neighbour, Marlotte. In the opposite +direction we see brown-roofed, white-walled houses surmounted by a +pretty little spire. This is Bourron. To reach it we pass a double row +of homesteads, rustic interiors of small farmer or market gardener, +the one, as our French neighbours say, more picturesque than the other. +Each, no matter how ill kept, is set off by an ornamental border, +zinnias, begonias, roses and petunias as obviously showing signs of care +and science. Oddly enough the finest display of flowers often adorns +the least tidy premises. And oddly enough, rather perhaps as we should +expect it, in not one, but in every respect, this French village is the +exact opposite of its English counterpart. In England every tenant of +a cottage pays rent, there, not an inhabitant, however poor, but sits +under his own vine and his own fig-tree. In England the farm-house faces +the road and the premises lie behind. Here manure-heap, granary and pig +styes open on the highway, the dwellings being at the back. In England +a man's home, called his castle, is no more defended than the Bedouin's +tent. Here at nightfall the small peasant proprietor is as securely +entrenched within walls as a feudal baron in his moated château. In +England ninety-nine householders out of a hundred are perpetually +changing their domicile. Here folks live and die under the paternal +roof that has sheltered generations. Nor does diversity end with +circumstances and surroundings. As will be seen in another chapter, +habits of life, modes of thought and standards of duty show contrasts +equally marked. + +Bourron possesses twelve hundred and odd souls, most of whom are +peasants who make a living out of their small patrimony. Destined +perhaps one day to rival its neighbour Marlotte in popularity--even +to become a second Barbizon--it is as yet the sleepiest, most +rustic retreat imaginable. The climate would appear to be not only +anti-asthmatic but anti-everything in the shape of malady. Anyhow, +if folks fall ill they have to send elsewhere for a doctor. Minor +complaints--cuts, bruises and snake bites--are attended to by a +Fontainebleau chemist. Every day we hear the horn of his messenger who +cycles through the village calling for prescriptions and leaving drugs +and draughts. + +A post office, of course, Bourron possesses, but let no one imagine +that a post office in out of the way country places implies a supply of +postage stamps. English people are the greatest scribblers by post in +the world, whilst our wiser French neighbours appear to be the laziest. +An amusing dilemma had occurred here just before my arrival. One day my +friends applied to the post office for stamps, but none were to be had +for love or money. Off somebody cycled to Marlotte, which possesses not +only a post and telegraph, but a money order office as well--same +reply, next the adjoining village of Grez was visited and with no better +result--"Supplies have not yet reached us from headquarters," said the +third postmistress. + +Perhaps instead of smiling contemptuously we should take a moral to +heart. The amount of time, money, eyesight and handcraft expended among +ourselves on letter writing so-called is simply appalling. Was it +not Napoleon who said that all letters if left unanswered for a month +answered themselves? Too many Englishwomen spend the greater portion +of the day in what is no longer a delicate art, but mere time-killing, +after the manner of patience, games of cards and similar pastimes. + +Bourron is a most orderly village; within its precincts liberty is not +allowed to degenerate into licence. As in summer-time folks are fond of +spending their evenings abroad, a municipal law has enforced quiet after +ten o'clock. Thus precisely on the stroke of ten, alike café, garden, +private summer-house or doorstep are deserted, everyone betakes himself +indoors, leaving his neighbours to enjoy unbroken repose. A most +salutary by-law! Would it were put in force throughout the length and +breadth of France! At Chatouroux I have been kept awake all night by +the gossip of a _sergeant de ville_ and a lounger close to my window. At +Tours, La Châtre and Bourges my fellow-traveller and myself could get +no sleep on account of street revellers, whilst at how many other places +have not holiday trips been spoiled by unquiet nights? All honour then +to the aediles of dear little Bourron! + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +BOURRON--_continued_. + +Forty thousand acres of woodland at one's doors would seem a fact +sufficiently suggestive; to particularize the attractions of Bourron +after this statement were surely supererogation. Yet, for my own +pleasure as much as for the use of my readers, I must jot down one or +two especially persistent memories, impressions of solemnity, beauty and +repose never to be effaced. + +Of course it is only the cyclist who can realise such an immensity as +the Fontainebleau forest. From end to end these vast sweeps are now +intersected by splendid roads and by-roads. Old-fashioned folks, for +whom the horseless vehicle came too late, can but envy wheelmen and +wheelwomen as they skim through vista after vista, outstripping one's +horse and carriage as a greyhound outstrips a decrepit poodle. On the +other hand only inveterate loiterers, the Lazy Lawrences of travel, +can appreciate the subtler beauties of this woodland world. There +are certain sights and sounds not to be caught by hurried observers, +evanescent aspects of cloud-land and tree-land, rock and undergrowth, +passing notes of bird and insect, varied melodies, if we may so express +it, of summer breeze and autumn wind--in fine, a dozen experiences +enjoyed one day, not repeated on the next. The music of the forest is +a quiet music and has to be listened for, hardly on the cyclist's ear +falls the song or rather accompaniment of the grasshopper, "the Muse of +the wayside," a French poet has so exquisitely apostrophized. + +One's forest companion should be of a taciturn and contemplative turn. +Only thus can we drink in the sense of such solitude and immensity; +realizing to the full what indeed these words may mean, he may wander +for hours without encountering a soul, very few birds are heard by the +way, but the hum of the insect world, that dreamy go-between, hardly +silence, hardly to be called noise, keeps us perpetual company, and our +eyes must ever be open for beautiful little living things. Now a green +and gold lizard flashes across a bit of grey rock, now a dragon-fly +disports its sapphire wings amid the yellowing ferns or purple ling, +butterflies, white, blue, and black and orange, flit hither and +thither, whilst little beetles, blue as enamel beads, enliven the mossy +undergrowth. + +One pre-eminent charm indeed of the Fontainebleau forest is this wealth +of undergrowth, bushes, brambles and ferns making a second lesser +thicket on all sides. In sociable moods delightful it is to go +a-blackberrying here. I am almost tempted to say that if you want +to realise the lusciousness of a hedgerow dessert you must cater for +yourself in these forty thousand acres of blackberry orchard. + +But the foremost, the crowning excellence of Fontainebleau forest +consists in its variety. France itself, the "splendid hexagon," with its +mountains, rivers and plains, is hardly more varied than this vast area +of rock and woodland. We can choose between sites, savage or idyllic, +pastoral or grandiose, here finding a sunny glade, the very spot for a +picnic, there break-neck declivities and gloomy chasms. The magnificent +ruggedness of Alpine scenery is before our eyes, without the awfulness +of snow-clad peaks or the blinding dazzle of glacier. In more than one +place we could almost fancy that some mountain has been upheaved and +split asunder, the clefts formed by these gigantic fragments being now +filled with veteran trees. + +The formation of the forest has puzzled geologists, to this day the +origin of its rocky substratum remaining undetermined. + +Within half an hour's stroll of Bourron lies the so-called "Mare aux +Fées" or Fairies' Mere, as sweet a spot to boil one's kettle in as +holiday makers can desire, at the same time affording the best possible +illustration of what I have just insisted upon. For this favourite +resort is in a certain sense microcosmic, giving in miniature those +characteristics for which the forest is remarkable. Smooth and sunny as +a garden plot is the open glade wherein we now halt for tea, and while +the kettle boils we have time for a most suggestive bird's eye view. It +is a little world that we survey from the borders of this rock-hemmed, +forest-girt lake, one perspective after another with varying gradations +of colour making us realize the many-featured, chequered area spread +before us. From this coign of vantage are discerned alike the sterner +and the more smiling beauties of the forest, rocky defiles, gloomy +passes, sunlit lawns and mossy dells, scenery varied in itself and +yet varying again with the passing hour and changing month. And such +suggestion of almost infinite variety is not gained only from the +Fairies' Mere. From a dozen points, not the same view but the same kind +of view may be obtained, each differing from the other, except in charm +and immensity. Within a walk of home also stands one of the numerous +monuments scattered throughout the forest. The Croix de Saint Hérem, now +a useful landmark for cyclists, has a curious history. It was erected in +1666 by a certain Marquis de Saint-Hérem, celebrated for his ugliness, +and centuries later was the scene of the most extraordinary rendezvous +on record. Here, in 1804, every detail having been theatrically arranged +beforehand, took place the so-called chance meeting of Napoleon and Pope +Pius VII. The Emperor had arranged a grand hunt for that day, and in +hunting dress, his dogs at his heels, awaited the pontiff by the cross +of Saint Hérem. As the pair lovingly embraced each other the Imperial +horses ran away; this apparent escapade formed part of the programme, +and Napoleon stepped into the Pope's carriage, seating himself on his +visitor's, rather his prisoner's, right. A few years later another +rencontre not without historic irony took place here. In 1816, Louis +XVIII. received on this spot the future mother, so it was hoped, of +French Kings, the adventurous Caroline of Naples, afterwards Duchesse de +Berri. + +The crosses monuments of the forest are usefully catalogued in local +guide-books, and many have historic associations. The most interesting +of these--readers will excuse the Irish bull--is a monument that may be +said never to have existed! + +The great Polish patriot Kosciusko spent the last fifteen years of his +life in a hamlet near Nemours, and on his death the inhabitants of that +and neighbouring villages projected a double memorial, in other words, +a tiny chapel, the ruins of which are still seen near Episy, and a mound +to be added to every year and to be called "La Montagne de Kosciusko," +or Kosciusko's mountain. Particulars of this generous and romantic +scheme are preserved in the archives of Montigny. The inauguration +of the mound took place on the ninth of October 1836. To the sound +of martial music, drums and cannon, the first layers of earth were +deposited, men, women and children taking part in the proceedings. +A year later no less than ten thousand French friends of Poland with +mattock and spade added several feet to Kosciusko's mountain. But the +celebration got noised abroad. Afraid of anti-Russian manifestations the +government of Louis Philippe prohibited any further Polish fêtes. Thus +it came about that, as I have said, the most interesting monument in the +forest remains an idea. And all things considered, neither French nor +English admirers of the exiled hero could to-day very well carve on the +adjoining rock, + + "And Freedom shrieked when Kosciusko fell." + +Some time or other the Russian Imperial pair may visit Fontainebleau, +whilst an English tourist with _The Daily Mail_ in his pocket would +naturally and sheepishly look the other way. + +Another half hour's stroll and we find ourselves in an atmosphere of +art, fashion and sociability. Only a mile either of woodland, field path +or high road separates Bourron from its more populous and highly popular +neighbour, Marlotte. Here every house has an artist's north window, the +road is alive with motor cars, you can even buy a newspaper! Marlotte +possesses a big, I should say comfortable, hotel, is very cosmopolitan +and very pretty. Anglo-French households here, as at Bourron, favour +Anglo-French relations. In Marlotte drawing-rooms we are in France, +but always with a pleasant reminder of England and of true English +hospitality. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +BOURRON--_continued._ + +I will now say something about my numerous acquaintances at Bourron. +After three summer holidays spent in this friendly little spot I can +boast of a pretty large visiting list, the kind of list requiring no +cards or ceremonious procedure. My hostess, a Frenchwoman, and myself +used to drop in for a chat with this neighbour and that whenever we +passed their way, always being cheerily welcomed and always pressed to +stay a little longer. + +The French peasant is the most laborious, at the same time the most +leisurely, individual in the world. Urgent indeed must be those +farming operations that prevent him from enjoying a talk. Conversation, +interchange of ideas, give and take by word of mouth, are as necessary +to the Frenchman's well-being as oxygen to his lungs. + +"Man," writes Montesquieu, "is described as a sociable animal." From +this point of view it appears to me that the Frenchman may be called +more of a man than others; he is first and foremost a man, since he +seems especially made for society. + +Elsewhere the same great writer adds:--"You may see in Paris individuals +who have enough to live upon for the rest of their days, yet they labour +so arduously as to shorten their days, in order, as they say, to assure +themselves of a livelihood." These two marked characteristics are as +true of the French peasant now-a-days as of the polite society described +in the "Lettres Persanes." In the eighteenth century cultivated people +did little else but talk. Morning, noon and night, their epigrammatic +tongues were busy. Conversation in historic salons became a fine +art. There are no such literary côteries in our time. What with one +excitement and another, the Parisian world chats but has no time for +real conversation. Perhaps for _Gauloiseries_, true Gallic salt, we must +now go to the unlettered, the sons of the soil, whose ancestors were +boors when wit sparkled among their social superiors. + +Here are one or two types illustrating both characteristics, excellent +types in their way of the small peasant proprietor hereabouts, a class +having no counterpart or approximation to a counterpart in England. + +The first visit I describe was paid one evening to an old gardener whom +I will call the Père A--. Bent partly with toil, partly with age, +you would have at once supposed that his working days were well over, +especially on learning his circumstances, for sole owner he was of the +little domain to which he had now retired for the day. Of benevolent +aspect, shrewd, every inch alive despite infirmities, he received his +neighbour and her English guest with rustic but cordial urbanity, at +once entering into conversation. With evident pride and pleasure he +watched my glances at premises and garden, house and outbuildings +ramshackle enough, even poverty-stricken to look at, here not an +indication of comfortable circumstances much less of independent means; +the bit of land half farm, half garden, however, was fairly well kept +and of course productive. + +"Yes, this dwelling is mine and the two hectares (four acres four +hundred and odd feet), aye," he added self-complacently, "and I have a +little money besides." + +"Yet you live here all by yourself and still work for wages?" I asked. +His reply was eminently characteristic. "I work for my children." These +children he told me were two grown up sons, one of them being like +himself a gardener, both having work. Thus in order to hoard up a little +more for two able-bodied young men, here was a bent, aged man living +penuriously and alone, his only companion being a beautiful and +evidently much petted donkey. I ventured to express an English view +of the matter, namely, the undesirability of encouraging idleness and +self-indulgence in one's children by toiling and moiling for them in old +age. + +He nodded his head. + +"You are right, all that you say is true, but so it is with me. I must +work for my children." + +And thus blindly are brought about the parricidal tragedies that Zola, +Guy de Maupassant and other novelists have utilized in fiction, and +with which we are familiarized in French criminal reports--parents and +grandparents got rid of for the sake of their coveted hoardings. + +Thus also are generated in the rich and leisured classes that intense +selfishness of the rising generation so movingly portrayed in M. +Hervieu's play, "La Course du Flambeau." No one who has witnessed Mme. +Réjane's presentment of the adoring, disillusioned mother can ever +forget it. + +On leaving, the Père A---- presented us with grapes and pears, carefully +selecting the finest for his English visitor. + +At the gate I threw a Parthian dart. + +"Don't work too hard," I said, whereupon came the burden of his song: + +"One must work for one's children." + +This good neighbour could neither read nor write, a quite exceptional +case in these days. Our second visit was made to a person similarly +situated, but belonging to a different order. + +Madame B----, a widow, was also advanced in years and also lived by +herself on her little property, consisting of walled-in cottage and +outhouses, with straggling garden or rather orchard, garden and field in +one. + +This good woman is what country folks in these parts call rich. I have +no doubt that an English farmeress in her circumstances would have the +neatest little parlour, a tidy maid to wait upon her, and most likely +take afternoon tea in a black silk gown. Our hostess here wore the dress +of a poor but respectable working woman. Her interior was almost as bare +and primitive as that of the Boer farmhouse in the Paris Exhibition. +Although between six and seven o'clock, there was no sign whatever of +preparation for an evening meal. Indeed on every side things looked +poverty-stricken. Not a penny had evidently been spent upon kitchen or +bedrooms for years and years, the brick floor of both being bare, the +furniture having done duty for generations. + +This "rentière," or person living upon independent means, did not match +her sordid surroundings. Although toil-worn, tanned and wrinkled, her +face "brown as the ribbed sea-sand," there was a certain refinement +about look, speech and manner, distinguishing her from the good man her +neighbour. After a little conversation I soon found out that she had +literary tastes. + +"Living alone and finding the winter evenings long I hire books from a +lending library at Fontainebleau," she said. + +I opened my eyes in amazement. Seldom indeed had I heard of a peasant +proprietor in France caring for books, much less spending money upon +them. + +"And what do you read?" I asked. + +"Anything I can get," was the reply. "Madame's husband," here she looked +at my friend, "has kindly lent me several." + +Among these I afterwards found had been Zola's "Rome" and "Le Désastre" +by the brothers Margueritte. + +Like the Père A---- she had married children and entertained precisely +the same notion of parental duty. The few sous spent upon such +beguilement of long winter nights were most likely economized by some +little deprivation. There is something extremely pathetic in this +patriarchal spirit, this uncompromising, ineradicable resolve to hand +down a little patrimony not only intact but enlarged. + +"Our peasants live too sordidly," observed a Frenchman to me a day or +two later. "They carry thrift to the pitch of avarice and vice. Zola's +'La Terre' is not without foundation on fact." + +And excellent as is the principle of forethought, invaluable as is +the habit of laying by for a rainy day, I have at last come to the +conclusion that of the two national weaknesses, French avarice +and English lavishness and love of spending, the latter is more in +accordance with progress and the spirit of the age. + +In another part of the village we called upon a hale old body of +seventy-seven, who not only lived alone and did everything for herself +indoors but the entire work of a market garden, every inch of the two +and a half acres being, of course, her own. Piled against an inner +wall we saw a dozen or so faggots each weighing, we were told, half a +hundredweight. Will it be believed that this old woman had picked up +and carried from the forest on her back every one of these faggots? The +poor, or rather those who will, are allowed to glean firewood in all the +State forests of France. Let no tourist bestow a few sous upon aged men +and women bearing home such treasure-trove! Quite possibly the dole may +affront some owner of houses and lands. + +As we inspected her garden, walls covered with fine grapes, tomatoes and +melons, of splendid quality, to say nothing of vegetables in profusion, +it seemed all the more difficult to reconcile facts so incongruous. Here +was a market gardener on her own account, mistress of all she surveyed, +glad as a gipsy to pick up sticks for winter use. But the burden of her +story was the same: + +"Il faut travailler pour ses enfants" (one must work for one's +children), she said. + +All these little farm-houses are so many homely fortresses, cottage and +outhouses being securely walled in, a precaution necessary with aged, +moneyed folks living absolutely alone. + +A fourth visit was paid to a charming old Philémon and Baucis, the best +possible specimens of their class. The husband lay in bed, ill of an +incurable malady, and spotlessly white were his tasselled nightcap, +shirt and bedclothes. Very clean and neat too was the bedroom opening +on to the little front yard, beneath each window of the one-storeyed +dwelling being a brilliant border of asters. The housewife also was a +picture of tidiness, her cotton gown carefully patched and scrupulously +clean. This worthy couple are said to be worth fifty thousand francs. +The wife, a sexagenarian, does all the work of the house besides +waiting on her good man, to whom she is devoted, but a married son +and daughter-in-law share her duties at night. Here was no touch of +sordidness or suggestion of "La Terre," instead a delightful picture of +rustic dignity and ease. The housewife sold us half a bushel of pears, +these two like their neighbours living by the produce of their small +farm and garden. + +I often dropped in upon Madame B---- to whom even morning calls were +acceptable. + +On the occasion of my farewell visit she had something pretty to +say about one of my own novels, a French translation of which I had +presented her. + +"I suppose," I said, "that you have some books of your own?" + +"Here they are," she said, depositing an armful on the table. "But I +have never read much, and mostly _bibelots_" (trifles.) + +Her poor little library consisted of _bibelots_ indeed, a history of +Jeanne d'Arc for children, and half a dozen other works, mostly school +prizes of the kind awarded before school prizes in France were worth the +paper on which they were printed. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +LARCHANT. + +There is a certain stimulating quality of elasticity and crispness in +the French atmosphere which our own does not possess. France, moreover, +with its seven climates--for the description of these, see Reclus' +Geography--does undoubtedly offer longer, less broken, spells of hot +summer weather than the United Kingdom. But let me for once and for all +dispel a widespread illusion. The late Lord Lytton, when Ambassador +in Paris, used to say that in the French capital you could procure any +climate you pleased. And experience proves that without budging an inch +you may in France get as many and as rapid climatic changes as anywhere +else under the sun. At noon in mid-May last I was breakfasting with +friends on the Champs Elysées, when my hostess put a match to the fire +and my host jumped up and lighted six wax candles. So dense had become +the heavens that we could no longer see to handle knives and forks! +Hail, wind, darkness and temperature recalled a November squall at home. +Yet the day before I had enjoyed perfect summer weather in the Jardin +d'Acclimitation. Invariableness is no more an attribute of the French +climate than our own. Wherever we go we must take a change of dress, for +all the world as if we were bound for the other side of the Tweed. + +My first Sunday at Bourron, on this third visit, was of perfect +stillness, unclouded brilliance and southern languor, heralding, so we +fondly imagined, the very morrow for an excursion. + +In the night a strong wind rose up, but as we had ordered a carriage for +Larchant, and as carriages in these parts are not always to be had, +as, moreover, grown folks no more than children like to defer their +pleasure, off we set, two of the party on cycles forming a body guard. +There seemed no likelihood of rain and in the forest we should not feel +the wind. + +For the first mile or two all went well. Far ahead of us our cyclists +bowled gaily along in the forest avenues, all of us being sheltered from +the wind. It was not till we skirted a wide opening that we felt the +full force of the tornado, soon overtaking our blowzed, dishevelled +companions, both on foot and looking miserable enough. + +We re-entered the forest, and a little later, emerging from the fragrant +depths of a pine wood, got our first view of Larchant, coming suddenly +upon what looks like a cathedral towering above the plain, at its base +a clustering village, whitewashed brown-roofed houses amid vineyards and +orchards. + +[Illustration] + +A grandiose view it is, recalling the minaret of Mansourah near Tclemcen +in Algeria, that gigantic monolith apparently carved out of Indian gold +and cleft in two like a pomegranate. + +Slowly we wound up towards the village, the wind, or rather hurricane, +gathering in force as we went. It was indeed no easy task to get a +nearer view of the church; more than once we were compelled to beat +a retreat, whilst it seemed really unsafe to linger underneath such a +ruin. + +Imagine the tower of St. Jacques in the Rue de Rivoli split in two, +the upright half standing in a bare wind-swept level, and you have +some faint notion of Larchant. On nearer approach such an impression of +grandeur is by no means diminished. This magnificent parish church, +in part a ruin, in part restored, rather grows upon one upon closer +inspection. Reparation, for want of funds, has stopped short at the +absolutely necessary. The body of the church has been so far restored as +to be fit for use, but its crowning glory, the tower, remains a torso. + +The front view suggests no such dilapidation. How long will the shell +of that lofty twelfth century tower remain standing? To my mind it hangs +over the low, one-storeyed houses at its feet, a veritable sword of +Damocles, sooner or later sure to fall with crushing force. The porch +shows much beautiful carving, unfortunately defaced, and the interior +some perfect specimens of pure Gothic arches, the whole whitewashed and +bare as a barn. + +Larchant in the middle ages was a famous pilgrimage, and in the days of +Charles IX. a halting stage on the road to Italy. It does not seem to +attract many English pilgrims at the present time. Anyhow tea-making +here seems a wholly unknown art. In a fairly clean inn, however, a +good-natured landlady allowed us to make ourselves at home alike +in kitchen and pantry. One of our party unearthed a time-honoured +tea-pot--we had of course taken the precaution of carrying tea with +us--one by one milk and sugar were forthcoming in what may be called +wholesale fashion, milk-jugs and sugar-basins being apparently articles +of superfluity, and in company of a charming old dog and irresistible +kitten, also of some quiet wayfarers, we five-o'clocked merrily enough. + +Our business at Larchant was not wholly archaeological. Buffeted as we +were by the hurricane, we managed to pay a visit in search of eggs and +poultry for the table at home. + +If peasant and farming life in France certainly from time to time +reminds us of Zola's "La Terre," we are also reminded of an aspect which +the great novelist ignores. As will be seen from the following sketch +sordidness and aspiration oft times, I am almost tempted to say, and +most often, go hand in hand. + +We see one generation addicted to an existence so laborious and material +as to have no counterpart in England; under the same roof growing up +another, sharing all the advantages of social and intellectual progress. + +Not far from the church we called upon a family of large and wealthy +farmers, owners of the soil they cultivate, millionaires by comparison +with our neighbours at Bourron. + +We arrived in the midst of a busy time, a steam corn thresher plying in +the vast farm-yard. The interior of the big, straggling farm-house we +did not see, but two aged women dressed like poor peasants received +us in the kitchen, a dingy, unswept, uninviting place, as are most +farm-house kitchens in France. These old ladies were respectively +mother-in-law and aunt of the farmer, whose wife, the real mistress of +the house, soon came in. This tall, stout, florid, brawny-armed woman +was evidently what French folks call _une maîtresse femme_, a first-rate +housewife and manager; a somewhat awe-inspiring person she looked as she +stood before us, arms akimbo, her short coarse serge skirt showing shoes +well acquainted with stable and neat-house, one dirty blue cotton apron +worn over another equally dirty. Now, my hostess, as I have said, wanted +to purchase some poultry for the table, and here comes in the moral +of my story. Vainly the lady begged and begged again for a couple of +chickens. "But we want them for our Parisians," the three farming women +reiterated, one echoing the other. "Our Parisians, our Parisians," +the words were repeated a dozen times. And as was explained to me +afterwards, "our Parisians," for whom the pick of the poultry yard +was being reserved, were the two sons of the rather forbidding-looking +matron before us, young gentlemen being educated in a Paris Lycée, and +both of them destined for the learned professions! + +This side of rural life, this ambition, akin to what we see taking +quite another form among ourselves, Zola does not sufficiently realize. +Shocking indeed were the miserliness and materialism of such existences +but for the element of self-denial, this looking ahead for those to +follow after. How differently, for instance, the farm-house and its +group must have appeared, but for the evident pride and hopes centred in +_nos Parisiens_, who knows?--perhaps youths destined to attain the first +rank in official or political callings! + +The farther door of the smoke-dried kitchen opened on to the farm-yard, +around which were stables and neat-houses. In the latter the mistress +of the house proudly drew our attention to a beautiful blue cow, grey +in our ignorance we had called it, one of a score or more of superb kine +all now reclining on their haunches before being turned out to pasture. +In front, cocks and hens disported themselves on a dunghill, whilst +beyond, the steam corn thresher was at work, every hand being called +into requisition. No need here for particulars and figures. The +superabundant wealth, so carefully husbanded for the two youths in +Paris, was self-evident. + +The tornado, with threatening showers and the sight of a huge tree just +uprooted by the road side, necessitated the shortest possible cut home. +In fair weather a prolongation of our drive would have given us a sight +of some famous rocks of this rocky forest. But we carried home memories +enough for one day. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +RECLOSES. + +This ancient village, reached by the forest, is one of the most +picturesque of the many picturesque places hereabouts. Quitting a +stretch of pinewood we traverse flat cultivated land, gradually winding +up towards a long straggling village surmounted by a lofty church tower +of grey stone. On either side of this street are enclosed farm-houses, +the interiors being as pictorial as can be imagined. Untidy as are most +French homesteads, for peasant farmers pay little court to the Graces, +there is always a bit of flower garden. Sometimes this flower garden +is aerial, a bower of roses on the roof sometimes amid the incongruous +surroundings of pig styes or manure heaps. This region is a petunia +land; wherever we go we find a veritable blaze of petunia blossoms, pale +mauve, deepest rose, purple and white massed together without order or +view to effect. In one of the little fortresses--for so these antique +farmhouses may be called--we saw a rustic piazza, pillars and roof of +rude unhewn stone blazing with petunias, no attempt whatever at making +the structure whole, symmetrical or graceful to the eye. It seems as if +these homely though rich farmers, or rather farmers' wives, could not do +without flowers, above the street jutting many aerial gardens, the only +touch of beauty in the work-a-day picture. These interiors would supply +artists with the most captivating subjects. The women, their skins brown +and wrinkled as ripe, shelled walnuts, their head-dress a blue and white +kerchief neatly folded and knotted, the expression of their faces shrewd +and kindly, all contribute to the charm of the scene. + +Here as elsewhere the young women and girls affect a little fashion and +finery on Sundays. + +We should not know unless we were told that Recloses was one of the +richest villages in these parts. On this Sunday, September 1st, 1901, in +one place a steam thresher was at work, although for the most part +folks seemed to be taking their ease in their holiday garb. Perhaps the +difficulty of procuring the machine accounted for the fact of seeing it +on a Sunday. + +One of the farm-yards showed a charming menagerie of poultry and the +prettiest rabbits in the world, all disporting themselves in most +amicable fashion. Here, as elsewhere, when we stopped to admire, the +housewife came out, pleased to interchange a few words with us. The +sight of Recloses is not, however, its long line of little walled-in +farm-houses, but the curious rocky platform at the end of the village, +perforated with holes always full of water, and the stupendous view +thence obtained--an ocean of sombre green unrelieved by a single sail. + +Already the vast panorama of forest shows signs of autumn, light touches +of yellow relieving the depths of solemn green. On such a day of varied +cloudland the perspective must be quite different, and perhaps even more +beautiful than under a burning cloudless sky, no soft gradations between +the greens and the blues. The little pools or perforations breaking +the surface of the broad platform, acres of rocks, are, I believe, +unexplained phenomena. In the driest season these openings contain +water, presumably forced upwards from hidden springs. The pools, just +now covered with green slime, curiously spot the grey surface of the +rocks. + +If, leaving the world of forest to our right, we continue our journey +in the direction of Chapelle la Reine, we overlook a vast plain the +population of which is very different from that of the smiling fertile +prosperous valley of the Loing. This plain, extending to Étampes and +Pithiviers, might, I am told, possibly have suggested to Zola some +scenes and characters of "La Terre." A French friend of mine, well +acquainted with these parts, tells me that at any rate there, if +anywhere, the great novelist might have found suggestions for such a +work. The soil is arid, the cultivation is primitive in the extreme and +the people are rough and uncouth. The other day an English resident at +Marlotte, when cycling among these villages of the plain inquired his +way of a countryman. + +"You are not a Frenchman?" quoth the latter before giving the desired +information. + +"No I am not" was the reply. + +"You are not an American?" + +"No, I am an Englishman." + +"Ah!" was the answer, "I smelt you out sure enough" (_Je vous ai bien +senti_). Whereupon he proceeded to put the wayfarer on his right road. + +As a rule French peasants are exceedingly courteous to strangers, but +these good people of the plain seldom come in contact with the tourist +world, their country not being sufficiently picturesque even to attract +the cyclist. + +The curious thirteenth-century church of Recloses had long been an art +pilgrimage. It contains, or at least should contain, some of the most +wonderful wood carvings in France; figures and groups of figures +highly realistic in the best sense of the word. These sculptures, +unfortunately, we were not able to inspect a second time; exhibited in +the Paris Exhibition they had not yet been replaced. + +It is a beautiful drive from Recloses to Bourron by the Croix de Saint +Hérem. A little way out of the village we came upon a pretty scene, +people, in family groups, playing croquet under the trees. Dancing also +goes on in summer as in the olden time. It was curious as we drove along +to note the behaviour of my friend's dog: it never for a moment closed +its eyes, and yet there was nothing to look at but avenue after avenue +of trees. What could the little animal find so fascinating in the +somewhat monotonous sight? A friend at home assures me that a pet of her +own enjoyed drives from purely snobbish motives; his great gratification +arising from the sense of superiority over fellow dogs compelled to +trudge on foot. But in these woodland solitudes there was no room for +such a sentiment, not a dog being visible, only now and then a cyclist +flashing by. + +There is no more splendid cycling ground in the world than this forest +of Fontainebleau. + +Shakespeare says:-- + + "This guest of summer, + The temple-haunting martlet, does approve + By his loved mansionry that the heaven's breath + Smells wooingly here: no jutty frieze, buttress, + Nor coigne of vantage, but this bird hath made + His pendent bed, and procreant cradle: Where they + Most breed and haunt, I have observed the air + Is delicate." + +About this time at Bourron the village street was alive with swallows +preparing, I presume, for departure southwards. A beautiful sight it +was to see these winged congregations evidently concerting their future +movements. + +Another feature to be mentioned is the number of large handsome moths +frequenting these regions. One beautiful creature as large as a swallow +used to fly into our dining room every evening for warmth; fastening +itself to the wall it would there remain undisturbed until the morning. + +I finish these reminiscences of Bourron by the following citation from +Balzac's "Ursule Mirouët":-- + + +"On entering Nemours at five o'clock in the morning, Ursule woke up +feeling quite ashamed of her untidiness, and of encountering Savinien's +look of admiration. During the time that the diligence took to come +from Bouron (_sic_), where it stopped a few minutes, the young man had +observed Ursule. He had noted the candour of her mind, the beauty of her +person, the whiteness of her complexion, the delicacy of her features, +the charm of the voice which had uttered the short and expressive +sentence, in which the poor child said everything, while wishing to say +nothing. In short I do not know what presentiment made him see in Ursule +the woman whom the doctor had depicted, framed in gold, with these magic +words:--'Seven to eight hundred thousand francs!'" + +Holiday tourists in these parts cannot do better than put this +love-story in their pockets. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +NEMOURS. + +"Who knows Nemours," wrote Balzac, "knows that nature there is as +beautiful as art," and again he dwells upon the charm of the sleepy +little town memorialized in "Ursule Mirouët." + +The delicious valley of Loing indeed fascinated Balzac almost as much as +his beloved Touraine. + +As his recently published letters to Madame Hanska have shown us, +several of his greatest novels were written in this neighbourhood, +whilst in the one named above we have a setting as striking as that of +"Eugenie Grandet" or "Béatrix." A ten minutes' railway journey brings +us to Nemours, one of the few French towns, by the way, in which Arthur +Young lost his temper. Here is his own account of the incident:-- + +"Sleep at Nemours, where we met with an innkeeper who exceeded in +knavery all we had met with, either in France or Italy: for supper, +we had a _soupe maigre_, a partridge and a chicken roasted, a plate of +celery, a small cauliflower, two bottles of poor _vin du Pays_, and a +dessert of two biscuits and four apples: here is the bill:--Potage +1 liv. 10f.--Perdrix 2 liv. 10f.--Poulet 2 liv.--Céleri 1 liv. +4f.--Choufleur 2 liv.--Pain et dessert 2 liv.--Feu et appartement 6 +liv.--Total 19 liv. 8f. Against so impudent an extortion we remonstrated +severely but in vain. We then insisted on his signing the bill, which, +after many evasions, he did, _à l'étoile, Foulliare_. But having +been carried to the inn, not as the star, but the _écu de France_, we +suspected some deceit: and going out to examine the premises, we found +the sign to be really the _écu_, and learned on enquiry that his own +name was Roux, instead of _Foulliare_: he was not prepared for this +detection, or for the execration we poured on such infamous conduct; but +he ran away in an instant and hid himself till we were gone. In justice +to the world, however, such a fellow ought to be marked out." + +I confess I do not myself find such charges excessive. From a very +different motive, Nemours put me as much out of temper as it had done +my great predecessor a hundred years before. Will it be believed that a +town memorialized by the great, perhaps _the_ greatest, French novelist, +could not produce its title of honour, in other words a copy of "Ursule +Mirouët"? + +This town of 4,000 and odd souls and chef-lieu of department does not +possess a bookseller's shop. We did indeed see in a stationer's window +one or two penny books, among these an abridged translation of "Uncle +Tom's Cabin." But a friendly wine merchant, who seemed to take my +reproaches very much to heart, assured us that in the municipal library +all Balzac's works were to be found, besides many valuable books dealing +with local history. + +Cold comfort this for tourists who want to buy a copy of the Nemours +story! As we stroll about the grass-grown streets, we feel that +railways, telephones and the rest have very little changed Nemours since +Balzac's descriptions, written three-quarters of a century ago. + +The sweet and pastoral surroundings of the place are in strong contrast +with the sordid next-of-kin peopling the pages of his romance. Beyond +the fine old church of rich grey stone, you obtain as enchanting a +view as the valley of the Loing can show, a broad, crystal-clear river +winding amid picturesque architecture, richest and most varied foliage, +ash and weeping willow mingling with deeper-hued beech and alder. It is +difficult, almost impossible, to describe the charm of this riverside +scenery. In one passage of his novel, Balzac compares the view to the +scenery of an opera, and in very truth every feature forms a whole so +harmonious as to suggest artistic arrangement. + +Nature and accident have effected the happiest possible combination +of wood, water and building stone. Nothing is here to mar the complete +picture. Grandly the cathedral-like church and fine old château stand +out to-day against the brilliant sky, soft grey stone and dark brown +making subdued harmonies. Formerly Nemours was surrounded by woods, +hence its name. People are said to attain here a very great age, life +being tranquil and the nature of the people somewhat lethargic. + +Amongst the more energetic inhabitants are a lady dentist and her +sister, who between them do a first rate business. + +French peasants never dream of indulging in false teeth; such an idea +would never enter the head of even the richest. But an aching tooth +interferes with the labours of the farm, and must be got rid of at +any cost. This young lady _chirurgien et dentiste_, such is the name +figuring on her door plate, is not only most expert in using the +forceps, but is attractive and pretty. + +Her charges are two francs for a visit or operation; in partnership +with her is a sister who does the accounts, and as nuns and sisters +of charity unprovided with certificates are no longer allowed to draw +teeth, act as midwives and cut off limbs, country doctors and dentists +of either sex have now a fair chance. + +No town in this part of France suffered more during the German invasion. +The municipal authorities had at first decided upon making a bold stand, +thus endeavouring to check the enemy's advance on Paris. Differences +of opinion arose, prudential counsels prevailed, and it was through a +mistaken order that a Prussian detachment was attacked near the town. +The consequences were appalling. The station was burned to the ground, +enormous contributions in money and material were exacted from the town, +some of the authorities were made to travel on the railways with +the invaders, and others were carried off to remote fortresses of +Brandenburg and there kept as prisoners for nine months. + +The account of all these incidents, written by a victim, may be +consulted in a volume of the town library. + +If people frequently attain the age of a hundred in Nemours, as I was +assured, it is rather due to placid temperament than to intellectual +torpor. The town possesses learned societies, and a member of its +archaeological association has published a book of great local interest +and value, viz:--"Nemours, Temps Géologiques, Temps Préhistoriques, +Temps Historiques, par E. Doigneau, Membre de la Société Archéologique +de Seine-et-Marne, Ancien Vice Président de la section de Fontainebleau, +Paris." + +Strange to say, although this neighbourhood has offered a rich field for +prehistoric research, Nemours as yet possesses no museum, I do verily +believe the first French town of any size I have ever found in France +without one at least in embryo. For the cyclist the run from Bourron +to Nemours is delightful, on the hottest day in the year spinning along +broad well-wooded roads, with lovely perspectives from time to time. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +LA CHARITÉ-SUR-LOIRE. + +From Bourron, in September, 1900, I journeyed with a friend to La +Charité, a little town four hours off. + +It is ever with feelings of pleasurable anticipation that I approach +any French town for the first time. The number of these, alas! now being +few, I have of late years been compelled to restrain curiosity, leaving +one or two dreamed-of spots for the future, saying with Wordsworth:-- + + "Should life be dull and spirits low, + 'Twill soothe us in our sorrow, + That earth has something yet to show, + The bonny holms of Yarrow." + +La Charité, picturesque of the picturesque--according to French +accounts, English, we have none--for many years had been a Yarrow to me, +a reserve of delight, held back from sheer Epicureanism. + +As, on the 12th of September, the cumbersome old omnibus rattled over +the unpaved streets, both to myself and fellow traveller came a feeling +of disenchantment. We had apparently reached one more of those sleepy +little _chefs-lieux_ familiar to both, places of interest certainly, the +sleepiest having some architectural gem or artistic treasure. But here +was surely no Yarrow! + +A few minutes later we discovered our error. Hardly had we reached our +rooms in the more than old-fashioned Hôtel du Grand Monarque, than from +a side window, we caught sight of the Loire; so near, indeed, lay the +bright, blue river, that we could almost have thrown pebbles into its +clear depths; quitting the hotel, half a dozen steps, no more were +needed, an enchanting scene burst upon the view. + +Most beautiful is the site of La Charité, built terrace-wise, not on the +skirts but on the very hem of the Loire, here no revolutionary torrent, +sweeping away whole villages, leaving only church steeples visible above +the engulfing waters, as I had once seen it at Nantes, but a broad, +smooth, crystal expanse of sky-blue. Over against the handsome stone +bridge to-day having its double in the limpid water, we see a little +islanded hamlet crowned with picturesque church tower; and, placing +ourselves midway between the town and its suburban twin, obtain vast and +lovely perspectives. Westward, gradually purpling as evening wears on, +rises the magnificent height of Sancerre, below, amid low banks bordered +with poplar, flowing the Loire. Eastward, looking towards Nevers, our +eyes rest on the same broad sheet of blue; before us, straight as +an arrow, stretches the French road of a pattern we know so well, an +apparently interminable avenue of plane or poplar trees. The river is +low at this season, and the velvety brown sands recall the sea-shore +when the tide is out. Exquisite, at such an hour are the reflections, +every object having its mirrored self in the transparent waves, the +lights and shadows of twilight making lovely effects. + +As is the case with Venice, La Charité should be reached by river, and a +pity it seems that little steamers do not ply between all the principal +towns on the Loire. How enchanting, like the immortal Vert-Vert, of +Gresset's poem, to travel from Nevers to the river's mouth! + +If I had headed this paper merely with the words "La Charité," I should +surely be supposed to treat of some charitable institution in France, +or of charity as worked out in the abstract, for this first of Christian +virtues has given the place its name, presumably perpetuating the +charitableness of its abbatial founders. Just upon two thousand years +ago, some pious monks of the order of Cluny settled here, calling their +foundation La Charité. Gradually a town grew around the abbey walls, and +what better name for any than this? So La Charité it was in early feudal +times, and La Charité it remains in our own. + +The place itself is as antiquated and behindhand as any I have seen in +France, which is saying a good deal. A French gentleman, native of +these parts, told me that in his grandfather's time our Hôtel du Grand +Monarque enjoyed a fine reputation. In many respects it deserves the +same still, excellent beds, good cooking, quietude and low prices not +being so common as they might be in French provincial inns. The house, +too, is curious, what with its spiral stone staircases, little passages +leading to one room here, to another there--as if in former days +travellers objected to walls that adjoined those of other people--and +unaccountable levels, it is impossible to understand whether you were +on the first floor or the second floor, house-top, or basement. Our +bedrooms, for instance, reached by one of the spiral stone staircases +just named never used by myself without apprehension, landed us on the +edge of a poultry yard; I suppose a wide bit of roof had been converted +into this use, but it was quite impossible to make out any architectural +plan. These rooms adjoining this _basse-cour_, hens and chicks +would enter unceremoniously and pick up the crumbs we threw to them. +Fastidious tourists might resent so primitive a state of things, the +hotel, I should say, remaining exactly what it was under the Ancien +Régime. The beauty and interest of various kinds around, more than make +up for small drawbacks. Here the archaeologist will not grudge several +days. Ruined as it is, the ancient abbey may be reconstructed in the +mind's eye by the help of what we see before us. The fragments of +crumbling wall, the noble tower and portal, the delicately sculptured +pillars, cornices, and arches, enable us to build up the whole, just +as Cuvier made out an entire skeleton from the examination of a single +bone. These grand architectural fragments have not been neglected by the +learned. Unfortunately, and exceptionally, La Charité possesses neither +public library nor museum, but at Nevers the traveller would surely find +a copy of Prosper Merimée's "Notes Archéologiques" in which is a minute +account of these. + +Alike without and within the ruins show a medley of styles and richest +ornamentation. + +[Illustration] + +The superb north-west tower, that forms so striking an object from the +river, is said to be in the Burgundian style; rather should we put it +after a Burgundian style, so varied and heterogeneous are the churches +coming under this category. Again, the guide books inform us that +the open space between this tower and the church was occupied by the +narthex, a vast outer portico of ancient Burgundian churches used for +the reception of penitents, catechumens, and strangers. All interested +in ecclesiastical architecture should visit the abbey church of Vézelay, +which possesses a magnificent narthex of two storeys, restored by the +late Viollet le Duc. Vézelay, by the way, may be easily reached from La +Charité. + +Next to the elaborate sculptures of this grand tower, will be noted the +superb colour of the building stone, carved out of deep-hued gold it +looks under the burning blue sky. And of a piece are arch, portico and +column, one and all helping us to reconstruct the once mighty abbey, +home of a brotherhood so powerful as to necessitate disciplinary +measures on the part of the Pope. + +The interior of the church shows the same elaborateness of detail, and +the same mixture of styles, the Romanesque-Burgundian predominating, so, +at least, affirm authorities. + +The idler and lover of the picturesque will not find time hang heavy on +his hands here. Very sweet are the riverside views, no matter on which +side we obtain them, and the quaintest little staircases of streets run +from base to summit of the pyramidally-built town. A climb of a quarter +of an hour takes us to an admirable coign of vantage just above the +abbey church, and commanding a view of Sancerre and the river. That +little town, so splendidly placed, is celebrated for its eight months' +defence as a Huguenot stronghold. + +La Charité, with most mediaeval towns, was fortified, one old city gate +still remaining. + +To-day, as when that charming writer, Émile Montégut visited the +place more than a generation ago, the townspeople ply their crafts and +domestic callings abroad. In fine weather, no work that can possibly be +done in the open air is done within four walls. Another curious feature +of these engaging old streets, is the number of blacksmiths' shops. It +would seem as if all the horses, mules, and donkeys of the Nièvre were +brought hither to be shod, the smithy fires keeping up a perpetual +illumination. + +A third and still more noteworthy point is the infrequency--absence, I +am inclined to say--of cabarets. Soberest of the sober, orderliest of +the orderly, appear these good folks of La Charité, les Caritates as +they are called, nor, apparently, has tradition demoralised them. One +might expect that a town dedicated to the virtue of almsgiving would +abound in beggars. Not one did we see. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +POUGUES. + +If an ugly name could kill a place, Pougues must surely have been ruined +as a health resort centuries ago. Coming, too, after that soothing, +harmoniously named La Charité, could any configuration of letters grate +more harshly on the ear? Truth to tell, my travelling companion and +myself had a friendly little altercation about Pougues. It seemed +impossible to believe pleasant things of a town so labelled. But the +reputation of Pougues dates from Hercules and Julius Caesar, both +heroes, it is said, having had recourse to its mineral springs! Coming +from legend to history, we find that Pougues, or, at least, the waters +of Pougues, were patronised by the least objectionable son of Catherine +de Medicis, Henri II. of France and runaway King of Poland. Imputing +his disorders to sorcery, he was thus reassured by a sensible physician +named Pidoux: "Sire, the malady from which you suffer is due to no +witchcraft. Lead a quiet life for ten weeks, and drink the water of +Pougues." The best king France ever had, namely, the gay Gascon, and +after him Louis XIII., by no means one of the worst, had recourse to +Pougues waters; also that arch-voluptuary and arch-despot, the Sun-King, +who imagined that even syntax and prosody must bow to his will. +[Footnote: One day the young king ordered his carriage, saying, "_mon_ +carrosse," instead of "_ma_ carrosse," the French word being derived +from the Italian feminine, _carrozza_. On being gently corrected, the +king flew into a passion, declaring that masculine he had called it, and +masculine it should remain, which it has done to this day, so the story +runs. Let the Republic look to it!] And Madame de Sevigné--for whom, +however, I have scant love, for did she not hail the revocation of the +Edict of Nantes?--Madame de Sevigné honoured Pougues with an epigram. + +A second Purgatory she styled the douches, and, doubtless, in those +non-washing days, a second Purgatory it would have been to most folks. + +To Pougues, nevertheless, we went, and if these notes induce the more +enterprising of my countrypeople to do the same next summer, they are +not likely to repent of the experiment. Never, indeed, was a little +Eden of coolness, freshness, and greenery more abominably used by its +sponsors, whilst the name of so many French townlings are a poem in +themselves! + +From a view of sky blue waters and smooth brown sands we were +transported to a world of emerald green verdure and richest foliage, +interpenetrated with golden light. On this 14th of September the warmth +and dazzlingness of mid-summer still reigned at Pougues; and the scenery +in which we suddenly found ourselves, bosquets, dells, and glades, with +all the charm but without the savageness of the forest, recalled the +loveliest lines of the laziest poet:-- + + "Was naught around but images of rest, + And flowery beds, that slumberous influence kest[1], + Sleep-soothing groves and quiet lawns between, + From poppies breathed; and beds of pleasant green." + +[Footnote 1: Cast] + +A drive of a few minutes had landed us in the heart of this little +Paradise, baths and Casino standing in the midst of park-like grounds. +Apparently Pougues, that is to say, the Pougues-les-Eaux of later +days, has been cut out of natural woodland, the Casino gardens and +its surroundings being rich in forest trees of superb growth and +great variety. The wealth of foliage gives this new fashionable little +watering-place an enticingly rural appearance, nor is the attraction +of water wholly wanting. To quote once more a most quotable, if little +read, poet:-- + + "Meantime, unnumbered glittering streamlets played, + And hurled everywhere their water's sheen, + That, as they bickered through the sunny glade, + Though restless still, themselves a lulling murmur made." + +A pretty little lake, animated with swans, varies the woodland scenery, +and tropical birds in an aviary lend brilliant bits of colour. The +usual accessories of a health resort are, of course, here--reading room, +concert hall, theatre, and other attractions, rapidly turning the place +into a lesser Vichy. The number and magnificence of the hotels, the +villas and _cottages_, that have sprung up on every side, bespeak the +popularity of Pougues-les-Eaux, as it is now styled, the surname adding +more dignity than harmoniousness. One advantage Pougues possesses over +its rivals, is position. At Aix-les-Bains, Plombières, Salins, and how +many other inland spas, you are literally wedged in between shelving +hills. If you want to enjoy wide horizons, and anything like a breeze, +you must get well outside the town. Never in hot, dusty, crowded +cities have I felt so half-suffocated as at the two first named places. +Pougues, on the contrary, lies in a broad expanse of beautifully varied +woodland and champaign, no more appropriate site conceivable for the now +popular air-cure. "Pougues-les-Eaux, Cure d'Eau and Cure d'Air," is +now its proud title, folks flocking hither, not only to imbibe its +delicious, ice-cold, sparkling waters, but to drink in its highly +nourishing air. The iron-gaseous waters resemble in properties those of +Spa and Vichy. From one to five tumblers are ordered a day, according +to the condition of the drinker, a little stroll between each dose being +advisable. With regard to the air-cure, visitors are reminded that at +Pougues they find the four kinds of walking exercise recommended by a +German specialist, namely, that on quite level ground; secondly, a +very gradual climb; thirdly, a somewhat steeper bit of up-hill; and, +fourthly, the really arduous ascent of Mont Givre. In order to entice +health-seekers, all kinds of gratifications await them on the summit, +restaurant, dairy, reading room, tennis court, and croquet ground, to +say nothing of a panorama almost unrivalled in eastern France. We have, +indeed, climbed the Eiffel Tower, in other words, are on a level with +that final stage from which floats the Tricolour. Looking east we behold +the sombre Morvan and Nevers rising above the Loire, whilst westward, +beyond the plain and the Loire, may be descried the cathedral of +Bourges. How many regions visited and revisited by myself now lie before +my eyes as on a map--the Berri, Georges Sand's country, the little +Celtic kingdom of the Morvan, on the borders of which, for so many +years, that charming writer, Philip Gilbert Hamerton, made his home; +the Nivernais, with its souvenirs of Vert-Vert and Mazarin, or, rather, +Mazarin and Vert-Vert, the Department of the Allier made from the +ancient province of the Bourbonnais. + +A wanderer in France should never be without his Arthur Young. That +"wise and honest traveller," of course, had been before us, but +travelling in a contrary direction. "From the hill that descends to +Pougues," he wrote on his way from Nevers to Fontainebleau, in 1790, +"is an extensive view to the north, and after Pouilly a (_sic_) fine +scenery, with the Loire doubling through it." But the great farmer made +this journey in mid-winter, thus missing its charm. And Arthur Young +was ever too intent upon crops and roots to notice wild flowers. Had +he traversed this region earlier in the year, he might have missed an +exquisite feature, namely, the sweeps of autumn crocus. Just now the +rich pastures around Pougues, as well as suburban lawns and wayside +spaces, were tinted with delicate mauve, the ground being literally +carpeted with these flowers. It was as if the lightest possible veil of +pale purple covered the turf, the same profusion being visible on every +side. + +One final word about this sweet and most unmusically named place. On no +occasion and nowhere have I been received with more cordiality than +at dear little Pougues, a place I was told there utterly ignored by my +country people. I do honestly believe, indeed, that myself and fellow +traveller were the first English folk to wander about those delicious +gardens, and taste the incomparable waters, cool, sparkling, +invigorating as those of Spa. + +One enterprising proprietor of an excellent hotel was so anxious to +secure an English _clientèle_, the best _clientèle_ in the world, so +hotel keepers aver, that she offered me a handsome percentage on any +visitors I would send her. In the most delicate manner I could command, +I gave her to understand that my inquiries about Pougues were not made +from a business point of view, but that I should certainly proclaim its +many attractions on the house-tops. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +NEVERS AND MOULINS. + +I found the well-remembered Hôtel de France much as I had left it, just +upon twenty years before, every whit as quiet, comfortable, and moderate +in price, indeed, one of the best provincial hotels of France. The dear +old woman then employed as waitress, had, of course, long since gone +to her rest, and the landlord and landlady were new to me. But, the +traditions of an excellent house were evidently kept up, accommodation, +meanwhile, having been greatly enlarged. + +A place is like a book; if worth knowing at all, to be returned to again +and again. After the first brief visit so many years ago, I wrote, +"I envy the traveller who for the first time stands on the bridge of +Nevers." And more imposing, more exhilarating still, seemed the +view from the same spot now; under the brilliant sky, in the clear +atmosphere, every feature standing out as in a mosaic proudly dominating +all, the Cathedral, with its mass of sombre architecture; stretching +wide to right and left, the gay, prosperous-looking city; white villas +rising one above the other, hanging gardens and terraced lawns, making +greenery and verdure in mid-air. On the occasion of my first visit in +August, 1881, the Loire was so low as to appear a mere thread of palest +blue amid white sands; at the time I now write of, broad and beautiful +it flowed beneath the noble bridge, a deep twilight sky reflected in its +limpid waters. + +How well I remember the first sight of this scene years ago! Then it was +early morning of market day, and, pouring in from the country, I had +met crowds of peasants with their products, the men in blue blouses, the +women in neat white coiffes, some bearing huge baskets on their heads, +others drawing heavily laden barrows, driving donkey-carts, the piled-up +fruit and vegetables making a blaze of colour. For three sous I recorded +the purchase of more wild strawberries, peaches, and greengages than I +knew what to do with, each grower doing business on his own account, no +middleman to share his profits; choicest fruit and vegetables to be had +almost for the asking. On this lovely Sunday evening plenty of peasant +folk were about, the men fishing in the Loire, the women minding their +children under the trees. But I noted here, as elsewhere, a gradual +disappearance of the blue blouse and white coiffe. Broadcloth and +bonnets are fast superseding the homely, picturesque dress of former +days. + +The aerial residences just mentioned are characteristic of riverside +Nevers. Craning our necks as we strolled to and fro, we remarked how +much life in such altitudes must resemble that of a balloon, folks +being thus lifted above the hubbub, malodours, and microbes of the human +bee-hive below. For my own part I prefer a turnpike level, despite the +engaging aspect of those rose-girt verandahs, bowers, and lawns on a +level with the cathedral tower. + +"Nevers makes a fine appearance, rising proudly from the Loire," wrote +Arthur Young, "but on the first entrance it is like a thousand other +places." + +But the indefatigable apostle of the turnip had no time for archaeology +on his great tour, or he would have discovered that Nevers possesses +more than one architectural gem of the first water. The cathedral +certainly, alike without and within, must take rank after those of +Chartres, Le Mans, Reims, and how many others! but the exquisite little +church of St. Étienne and the Ducal Palace, are both perfect in their +way, and will enchant all lovers of harmony and proportion. The first, +another specimen of so-called Romanesque-Burgundian, has to be looked +for, standing as it does in a kind of _cul de sac_; the second occupies +a conspicuous site, forms, indeed, the centre-piece and crowning +ornament of the town. Daintiest of the dainty, this fairy-like Italian +palace in the heart of France, reminds us that once upon a time Nevers +was the seat of Italian dukes, the last of whom was a nephew of Mazarin. +The great Cardinal, "whose heart was more French than his speech," and +who served France so well, despite his nationality and his nepotism, +having purchased the Nivernais of a Gonzague, finally incorporated it +into the French crown in 1659. + +To this day, Nevers remains true to its Italian traditions. Go into the +tiniest suburban street, enter the poorest little general shop, and you +are reminded of the art that made the city famous hundreds of years ago, +an art introduced by a Duke of Mantua, relation of Catherine de Medicis. +It was in the sixteenth century, that this feudal lord of the Nivernais +summoned Italian potters hither, among these a native of Faenza. +Under his direction a manufactory of faïence was established, the ware +resembling that of his native city, scriptural and allegorical subjects +traced in manganese. The unrivalled blue glaze of Nevers is of later +date. Just as Rouen potters were celebrated for their reds, the +Nivernais surpassed them in blues. No French or foreign potters ever +achieved an azure of equal depth and purity. + +The golden age of Nevers majolica belongs to that early period, but the +highly ornamented faïence now produced in its ateliers, shows taste and +finish, and in the town itself may be found charming things as cheap as, +if not cheaper than, our commonest earthenware. + +As I write, I have before me some purchases made at a small general +dealer's, a plate, and two small amphora-shaped vases, costing a few +sous each. The colouring of this cheap pottery is very harmonious, and +the glaze remarkable for its brilliance. The shopwoman, with whom we +had a pleasant chat, did not seem astonished at our admiration for her +goods. + +"I sell lots of such things as you have just bought, to folks like +you" _(de votre genre)_, she said, "strangers who like to carry away a +souvenir of the place, and all my ware comes from the same manufacture." + +To-day Nevers thrives upon ornamental majolica. A hundred and ten years +ago it throve upon plates and dishes commemorating the Revolution. In +the upper storey of the Ducal Palace we may read revolutionary annals in +faïence, every event being memorialised by a piece of porcelain. + +Curious enough is this record in earthenware, one stormy day after +another being thus commemorated; and perhaps more curious still is +the evident care with which these fragile objects have been preserved. +Throughout the Napoleonic era they might pass--had not gold pieces +then on one side the portrait of "Napoleon Empereur," on the obverse +"République Français"?--but when Louis XVIII was brought back by his +foreign friends, how was it that there came no general smashing, a great +flinging of revolutionary potsherds to the dunghill? Safe enough now is +the Nivernais collection, under the roof of the Ducal Palace, the +rude designs and commonness of the ware strikingly contrasted with the +exquisite things around. + +In close proximity to these cheap plates, dedicated to the Phrygian cap +and sans-culottism, are the very choicest specimens of Nevers faïence of +priceless value. Why the municipality, as a rule so generous towards the +public, should thus inconveniently house its treasure, is inconceivable. + +The museum is reached by a long spiral staircase, without banister or +support, and a false step must certainly result in a broken leg, or, +perhaps, neck! The room also contains a striking portrait of Theodore de +Bèze, the great French reformer, who, then an aged man, penned a letter, +sublime in its force and simplicity, to Henry IV., conjuring him not +to abandon the Protestant faith. The mention of this fact recalls an +interesting experience. I here allude to the incontestable advance +of Protestantism in France. The traveller whose acquaintance with the +country began a quarter of a century ago, cannot fail to be impressed +with this fact. Alike in towns large and small, new places of worship +have sprung up, Nevers now possessing an Evangelical church. And good +was it to hear the appreciation of the little Protestant community from +my Catholic landlady. + +"Yes," she said, "the Protestants here are worthy of all respect +(_dignes gens_) and the pastor also; I esteem him much." Evidently the +Lemaitre-Coppée-Déroulède dictum, "Only the Catholic can be called a +Frenchman," is not accepted at Nevers. + +In dazzlingly brilliant weather, and amid glowing scenery, we continued +our journey to Moulins, as we travelled by rail, and not by road unable +to identify "the little opening in the road leading to a thicket" where +Sterne discovered Maria. Has anyone ever identified the spot I wonder, +poplar, small brook and the rest? + +Too soon were we also for "the heyday of the vintage, when Nature is +pouring her abundance into everyone's lap." For the vintage, indeed, +one must go farther. Sterne must have been thinking of Burgundy when he +penned that line, or the phylloxera has brought about a transformation, +vineyards here being changed into pastures. The scenery of the Allier, +like that around Autun, recalls many parts of England. Meadows set +around with hedges; little rises of green hill here and there; cattle +browsing by quiet streams; just such pictures as we may see in our own +Midlands. I well remember a remark of the late Philip Gilbert Hamerton +on this subject. We were strolling near his home, in the neighbourhood +of Autun, one day, when he pointed to the landscape over against us. + +"How like that is to many an English scene," he said; "and maybe it was +the English aspect of this region that tempted me to settle here." I had +paid Moulins a hasty visit many years before, but, unlike Nevers and so +many French towns, the _chef-lieu_ of the Allier does not improve upon +further acquaintance. And I surmise, that such is the impression of my +country people generally. English travellers must be few and far between +at Moulins, or why should the appearance of two English ladies attract +so much curiosity? Wherever we went, the good folks of Moulins, alike +rich and poor, turned round to have a good look at us, even stopping +short to stare. All this was done without any rudeness or remark, but +such extraordinary behaviour can only be accounted for by the foregoing +supposition. For some reason or other our compatriots do not, like +Sterne and Maria go to Moulins. + +Why should an essentially aristocratic place be so ill-kept, not to say +dirty? The town is no centre of industry. Tall factory chimneys do +not disfigure its silhouette or blacken its walls. Handsome equipages +enliven the streets. But the municipality, like certain saints of +old, seem to have taken vows of perpetual uncleanliness. Alike the +scavenger's broom and the dust-cart appear to be unknown. + +Whilst a riverside walk at Nevers presents nothing but cheerful bustle +and an aspect of prosperity, here you approach the Allier through scenes +of squalor and torpid neglect. The poorer inhabitants, too, are very +un-French in appearance, wanting that personal tidiness characteristic +of their country people in general. An aristocratic place, means an +Ultramontane place, and every third man you meet in Moulins wears a +soutane. What so many curés, Jesuits and Christian Brothers can find to +do passes the ordinary comprehension. + +However interesting twins may be in the human family, monumental duality +is far from successful. Unfortunately for this delightfully picturesque +old town, its graceful Cathedral has, in the grand new church of +Sacre-Coeur, a double. But-- + + "As moonlight unto sunlight, and as water unto wine," + +is the second self, the never to be obliterated shadow of the first and +far more beautiful church. + +Two towers of equal height, twice two spires like as cherries and +in close juxtaposition rise above the town, an ensemble spoiling the +symmetry of outline and general effect. + +How much better off was Moulins when, instead of four spires, she +gloried in two? Then, of a verity, the city would have presented as +noble a view as those of La Charité and Nevers from the Loire. + +The ancient château now used as a prison and the Jacquemart or clock +tower are rare old bits of architecture, of themselves worth the journey +to Moulins. Jacquemart, it may be here explained, is a corruption of +Jacques Marques, the name of a famous Flemish clockmaker who lived in +the fourteenth century. Amongst other achievements of this artist is +the clock of Nôtre Dame, Dijon, as curious in its way as the still +more celebrated cock-crowing time-piece of Strasburg, and declared +by Froissart to be the wonder of Christendom. World-wide became the +reputation of Jacques Marques, and thus it came about that clock towers +generally were called after his masterpieces. + +On my former hurried visit to Moulins, as was the case with my +predecessor, Arthur Young over a hundred years before, "other +occupations" had "driven even Maria and the poplar from my head, and +left me no room for the Tombeau de Montmorenci." In other words, I had +visited Rome without seeing the Pope. + +On this second, and more leisurely visit, I had ample opportunity of +making up for the omission. Truly, the tomb of the last Montmorency +deserves a deliberate examination. It is one of the most sumptuous +monuments in the world and as a testimony of wifely devotion worthy to +be ranked with that of the Carian Queen to her lord, the Mausolus, whose +name is perpetuated in the word mausoleum. + +French history cannot be at everyone's fingers' ends, so a word here +about the last of the Montmorencys, victim not so much of Richelieu's +policy as of a kinsman's meanness. + +When the dashing, devil-me-care, hitherto fortunate Henri de +Montmorency, Marshal of France and Governor of Languedoc, plotted +against Richelieu or rather against the Royal supremacy, it was mainly +at the instigation of Gaston of Orleans. No more abject figure in French +annals than this unworthy son of the great Gascon, Henri IV., thus +portrayed by one whose tongue was as sharp as his sword: "Gaston of +Orleans," wrote Richelieu, "engaged in every enterprise because he had +not the will to resist persuasion, dishonourably drawing back from want +of courage to support his associates." + +In the conspiracy of Montmorency, Gaston had played the part of +instigator, leaving the other to his fate as soon as the situation +became perilous. Every effort was made to save the duke, but in vain, +and at the age of thirty-seven he ended a brilliant, adventuresome life +on the scaffold at Toulouse. + +One thought was uppermost in my mind when, a few years ago, I visited +that city, the only French city that welcomed the Inquisition. As I +stood in the elegant Capitol, musing on Montmorency's story, it occurred +to me how few of us realise what a respecter of persons was French law +under the ancien régime. Hard as seems the fate of this dashing young +duke, we must remember what would have been his punishment, but for +his titles of nobility. Death swift and sudden, in other words, by +decapitation, was the choicest prerogative of the nobility; tortures +before and after condemnation, breaking on the wheel, burning alive, and +other hideous ends, being the lot of the people. + +This monument, so noteworthy alike from a historic and artistic point of +view, was saved from destruction by ready wit. When, in the ferment of +revolution, the iconoclastic spirit had got the upper hand, a citizen of +Moulins met a mob, bent on destroying what they supposed to be the +tomb of some hated grand seigneur, oppressor of the poor. Following the +rabble to the convent, no sooner did he see the mallet and hammer raised +than this worthy bourgeois, who himself deserves a monument, shouted, +"Hands off, citizens! Yonder reposes no aristocrat, but as good a +citizen as any man-jack of you, aye, who had the honour of losing his +head for having conspired against a King." + +The crowd melted away without a word, the monument remains intact, and +generations have had bequeathed to them an example of what presence of +mind may effect, not with nerve, sinew, or bodily prowess, but with +the tongue. The Convent of the Visitation, to which Montmorency's widow +retired, and in the chapel of which she raised this memorial, is now +converted into a Lycée. It is a handsome building and was built by +Madame de Chantal, foundress of the Order of Visitadines, or nuns whose +office it was to visit the sick. This pious lady, the friend of St. +François de Sales, and herself canonised by Pope Benoît XIV., was the +bosom friend of Felicia Orsini, Montmorency's wife, who succeeded her as +Superior of the convent on her death. + +But even an abbess, who had taken the veil, could not refuse visits, +some of which must have been as a second entering of iron into this +proud woman's soul. The coward Gaston, when passing through Moulins, +sought an interview. Richelieu, also, whose emissary received the +following message: "Tell your master, that my tears reply for me and +that I am his humble servant." Years after, Louis XIV. visited the once +beautiful and high-spirited Italian, now an aged abbess occupying a +bare cell and from his lips, despot and voluptuary though he was, might +always be expected the right word in the right place. "Madame," he said, +on taking leave, "we may learn something here. I need not ask you to +pray for the King." + +[Illustration: TOMB OF MONTMORENCY, MOULINS.] + +But interest in personalities is leading me from what I have set myself +to describe, namely, portraiture in marble. For this magnificent work +thus perpetuates the last of the Montmorencys and his wife as they were +when separated for ever in their prime. Imposing although the monument +is as a whole, these two figures in white marble, standing out against +a dark background, engross attention. The entire work covers the wall +behind the high altar, the sculptures being in pure white marble, the +framework in black. Dismissing the niched Mars and Hercules on the one +side, the allegorised Religion and Charity on the other, we study the +central figures both offering interest of quite different kind. + +Why a dashing soldier and courtier of the Renaissance should +be represented in the guise of a Roman warrior, is an anomaly, +irreconcilable as that of pagan gods and the personification of +Christian attributes here placed vis-à-vis. Perhaps the grief-stricken +wife, who was, as it appears, of a highly romantic and adventuresome +turn, wished thus to commemorate the heroic qualities of her husband; +she might also have wished to dissociate him altogether from his own +time, a period of which, in her eyes, he would be the victim. Be this +as it may, the Roman undress and accoutrements do not harmonise with a +physiognomy essentially French and French of a given epoch. Whilst the +interest aroused by the Duchess's effigy is purely artistic, that of her +husband excites curiosity rather than admiration. The head is +strangely poised, much as if the artist intended to suggest the fact +of decapitation; obliquity of vision, a defect hereditary in the +Montmorencys, is also indicated, adding singularity. The half-recumbent +figure by the Duke's side, is of rare pathos and beauty. Almost angelic +in its resignation and religious fervour is the upturned face. The +drapery, too, shows classic grace and simplicity, as strongly contrasted +with the martial travesty opposite as are the two countenances in +expression. + +Long will art-lovers linger before this monument raised by wifely +devotion, a monument, with so many another, perpetuating rather the +devotion of the survivor than claims on posterity of the dead. And let +not hasty travellers follow Arthur Young's example, jotting down, after +a visit to Moulins, "No room for the Tombeau de Montmorenci." + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +SOUVIGNY AND SENS. + +A quarter of an hour by rail, an hour and a quarter by road, from +Moulins lies Souvigny, the cradle of the Bourbons, and as interesting +and delightful a little excursion as travellers can desire. On a glowing +September morning the scenery of the Allier looked its very best. Never +as long as I live shall I forget the beauty of that drive. Lightest, +loveliest cumuli floated athwart a pure, not too dazzlingly blue sky, +before us stretched avenue after avenue of poplar or plane trees, +veritable aisles of green letting in the azure, reminding me of the +famous Hobbema in our National Gallery. At many points the landscape +recalled our native land; but for the white oxen of the Morvan, we +might have fancied ourselves in Sussex or the Midlands. And cloudage, +to borrow an expression of Coleridge, suggested England, too. Clouds and +skies of the Midlands, none more poetic or pictorial throughout England +seemed here--those skies above the vast sweeps of undulating chalk +having a peculiar depth and tenderness, the clouds a marvellous +brilliance, transparence, and variety of form! So beautiful are those +cloud-pictures that we hardly needed beauty below. Here on the road to +Moulins we had both, the landscape, if not romantic or striking, being +rich in pastoral charm. Arthur Young, who looked at every bit of country +first and foremost from the farmer's point of view, was so much struck +with the neighbourhood of Moulins that, but for the Revolution, he would +very probably have become a French landowner. Just eight miles from the +city he visited in August, 1789, an estate was offered for sale by its +possessor, the Marquis de Goutte. "The finest climate in France, perhaps +in Europe," he wrote, "a beautiful and healthy country, excellent roads, +and navigation to Paris; wine, game, fish, and everything appears on the +table except the produce of the tropics; a good house, a fine garden, +with ready markets for every kind of produce; and, above all the rest, +three thousand acres of enclosed land, capable in a very little time of +being, without expense, quadrupled in its produce--altogether formed a +picture sufficient to tempt a man who had been twenty-five years in the +constant practice of husbandry adapted to the soil." The price of the +whole was only thirteen thousand and odd pounds, and the seller took +care to explain that "all seigneurial rights _haute justice_" (that is +to say, the privilege of hanging poachers, and others, at the château +gates), were included in the purchase money. But the country was already +in a ferment, and had our countryman struck a bargain then and there, +the last-named extras would have proved a dead letter. Seigneurial +rights were being abolished, or rather surrendered, at the very time +that this transaction was under consideration. As Arthur Young tells +us, he might as well have asked for an elephant at Moulins as for a +newspaper. No one knew, or apparently cared to know, what was taking +place in Paris. On asking his landlady for a newspaper, she replied she +had none, they were too dear. Whereupon the irate traveller wrote down +in his diary: "it is a great pity that there is not a camp of _brigands_ +in your coffee room, Madame Bourgeau." + +This part of France is not a region of prosperous peasant farmers, nor +is it a chess-board of tiny crops, the four or five acre freeholds of +small owners cut up into miniature fields. I had a long talk with a +countryman, and he informed me that, as in Arthur Young's time, the land +belongs to large owners, and is still, as in his time, cultivated by +_métayers_ on the half-profit system. At the present day, however, +another class has sprung up, that of tenant farmers on a considerable +scale; these, in their turn, sublet to peasants who give their labour +and with whom they divide the profits. Now, the half-profit system does +certainly answer elsewhere; in the Indre, for example, it has proved a +stepping-stone to the position of small capitalist. Here I learned, with +regret, that such is not the case. Land, even in the highly-favoured +Allier, cannot afford a triple revenue. In the Indre, on the contrary, +there is no intermediary between land-owners and _métayers_, the former +even selling small holdings to their labourers as soon as they have +saved a little capital. + +"No; folks are not prosperous hereabouts," said my informant. "There are +no manufacturers at Moulins to enrich the people, and, what with high +rents and low prices, the half-profit system does not pay. If money is +made, it is by the tenant-farmer, not by the _métayer_." Curious and +instructive is the fact that the most Catholic and aristocratic centres +in France should often be the poorest; Moulins and the Allier afford but +one example out of many. + +A beautiful drive of an hour and a quarter brought us within sight of +Souvigny. Towering above the bright landscape rose the Abbey Church, +its sober dun, red and brown hues, the quaint houses of similar colour +huddled around it, contrasted with the dazzling brightness of sky and +verdure. + +Still more striking the contrast between the pile so majestic and +surroundings so homely! Here, as at La Charité, nothing is in keeping +with the mass of architecture, which, in its apogee, stood for the town +itself, what of town, indeed, there was being the merest accessory, +inevitable but unimposing entourage, growing up bit by bit. The present +population of Souvigny is something over three thousand, doubtless, as +in the case of La Charité, less than that of its former monastery and +dependencies. As we wind upwards, thus flanking the town and abbey, +we realise the superb position of this cradle and mausoleum of the +Bourbons. For Souvigny was both. Two thousand and odd years ago, here, +in the very heart of France, Adhémar, a brave soldier, nothing more, +became the first "Sire de Bourbon," Charles le Simple having given +him the fief of Bourbon as a reward for military services, its chief +establishing himself at Souvigny, and of course founding a religious +house. The Benedictine abbey, being enriched with the bones of two +saints, former Abbots of Cluny, became a famous pilgrimage. Adhémar's +successors transferred their seat of seigneurial government to +Bourbon l'Archimbault, but for centuries here they found their last +resting-place, and here they are commemorated in marble. + +Indescribably picturesque is this whilom capital of the tiny feudal +kingdom; topsy-turvy, higgledy-piggledy, coated of many colours are its +zig-zag little streets, one house tumbling on the back of its neighbour, +another having contrived to wedge itself between two of portlier bulk, +a third coolly taking possession of some inviting frontage, shutting out +its fellow's light, air, and sunshine; here, meeting the eye, breakneck +alley, there aerial terrace, and on all sides architectural reminders of +the Souvigny passed away, the Souvigny once so splendid and important, +now reduced to nothingness, as is, politically speaking, the so-called +House of France. + +The Abbey Church, like that of La Charité, shows a mixture of many +styles, the general effect being magnificent in the extreme. Throughout +eastern France you find no more imposing façade. But, as observes M. +Emile Montégut, in the work before quoted, the church has been created +as Nature creates a soil, each age contributing its layer; Byzantine, +Roman, Gothic, each style is here seen, the latter in its purity. + +Whilst the church itself stands taut and trim, a mass of sculptured +masonry in rich browns and reds, the interior shows melancholy +dilapidation. But, indeed, for the stern lessons of history, how sad +were the spectacle of these mutilated effigies in marble, exquisite +sculptures when fresh from the artist's hand, to-day torsos so hideously +hacked and hewn as hardly to look human! We cannot, however, forget that +the history of races, as of nations and individuals, is retributive. +When the 'Roi-Soleil,' that incarnation of the Bourbon spirit, was +so inflated with his own personality as to forbid the erection of +any statue throughout France but his own, he paved the way for the +revolutionary iconoclasts of a century later. It was simply a recurrence +of the old fatality, the inevitable moral, since History began. + +For here, defaced to such a point that sculptures they can be called +no longer, are memorialised not only Louis XIV.'s ancestors, but his +offspring, namely, Louise Marie, one of his seven children by Madame +de Montespan, all, as we know, with those of Madame de la Vallière, +legitimised, ennobled and enriched. Pierre de Beaujeu, husband of the +great Anne of France, was also buried here. Anne it was who, on the +death of Louis XI., governed France with all her father's astuteness, +but without his cruelty, and pleasant and comforting it is to find that +Duke Pierre, her husband, seconded her in every way, himself remaining +in the background, acting to perfection the difficult rôle of Prince +Consort. The sight of these once exquisite marbles may perhaps awaken +in other minds the reflection that crossed my own. Heretical as I shall +seem, I venture to express the opinion, that in such cases one of two +courses are advisable, either the removal of the torsos, or restoration; +why should not some genius be able in this field to do what Viollet +le Duc has so successfully achieved in another? But for that great +architect, the cathedral of Moulins--and how many other beautiful French +churches?--would long ago have tumbled to pieces, been handed over as +storage to corn merchants, or brewers! Is it so much more difficult to +restore a marble effigy, whether of human being or animal, than a façade +or an altar-piece? If impossible, then, I say, let broken marbles like +those of Souvigny be hidden from view. + +The agreeable town of Sens on the Yonne is here described for +completeness' sake. Although not lying in the Bourbonnais, Sens formed +the last stage of our little tour in this direction, a direct line of +railway connecting the town with Moulins. What a change we found here! +Instead of unswept, malodorous streets, and sordid riverside quarters, +all was clean, trim, and cared for, one wholly uncommon feature lending +especial charm. + +For the tutelar goddess of Sens, benignant genius presiding over the +city, is a stream, or rather parent of many streams, that water the +streets of their own free will, supplying thirsty beasts with copious +draughts in torrid weather, and keeping up a perpetual air of rusticity +and coolness. + +Wherever you go you are followed by the musical ripple of these +runlets, purling brooks so crystalline that you are tempted to look for +forget-me-nots. + +The voluntariness of this street watering constitutes its witchery. Post +haste flows each tiny course; not having a moment to spare seems every +current. Need we wonder at the fabled Arethusas and Sabrinas of more +youthful worlds? + +Of itself Sens is very engaging. We can easily understand the fact of +the late Mr. Hamerton having made his first French home here. In the +memoir of her husband, affixed to his autobiography, Mrs. Hamerton gives +us particulars, not only of individual, but of super-personal interest. +I use the last expression because the idiosyncrasy described is common +to most men and women of genius or exceptional talent. The charming +essayist then, the art-critic, gifted with so much insight and +feeling settled down at Sens we are told, for the purpose of painting +'commission pictures.' His career was to be decided by the brush and not +by the pen. The author of "The Intellectual Life," with how many other +works of distinction, had, at the outset, wholly mistaken his vocation. +"The first thing considered by Gilbert when he settled at Sens," writes +Mrs. Hamerton, "was the choice of subjects for his commission pictures, +which he intended to paint directly from nature; and he soon selected +panoramic views from the top of a vine-clad hill, called Saint Bon, +which commands an extensive view of the river Yonne, and of the plains +about it." Unfortunately, rather we should say fortunately, anyhow, +for the reading world, the 'commission pictures' were declined. The +disappointed artist, out of humour with Sens, made a series of journeys +in search of an ideal home, the result being that most entertaining and +successful book, "Round My House," and the final devotion of its author +to letters. + +Sens might well seem an ideal place of abode to many. Formed from the +ancient Province of Burgundy, the Department of the Yonne has the charm +of Burgundian scenery, with the addition of a wide, lovely river. +All travellers on the Lyons-Marseilles Railway will recall the noble +appearance of the town from the railway--the Cathedral, with its one +lofty tower, rising above grey roofs, no factory chimneys marring the +outline, and, between bright stretches of country, the Yonne, not least +enchanting of French rivers, if not the most striking or romantic, +perhaps the sweetest and most soothing in the world. The favourable +impression of Sens gained by this fleeting view, is more than justified +on nearer acquaintance. The Cathedral, externally less imposing than +those of Bourges, Rheims, or even Rodez and Beauvais, is of a piece +alike without and within, no tasteless excrescence disfiguring its +outer walls, little or no modern tawdriness to be seen inside, an +architectural gem of great purity. For the curious in such matters, the +sacristy offers many wonders, among others a large fragment of the +true cross, presented to Sens by Charlemagne. Less apocryphal are the +vestments of our own Archbishop Thomas, alb, girdle, stole, and the +rest, all most carefully preserved and exhibited in a glass case. It +will be remembered that, when the turbulent Thomas of London, afterwards +known as Becket, was condemned as a traitor, he fled to France. "This is +a fearful day," said one of his attendants on hearing the sentence. "The +Day of Judgment will be more fearful," replied Thomas. It was not at +Sens, however, that the refugee took up his abode, but in the Abbey of +St. Colombe, now in ruins hard by. + +On the other side of the bridge, crowning an islet, stands one of those +curious church_lets_, or churc_lings_ I was about to say, that possess +so powerful a fascination for the archaeological mind. Particularly +striking was the little Romanesque interior in the September twilight, +a picturesque group of Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul, rehearsing +canticles with their pupils at one end, the subdued light just enabling +us to realise the harmony of proportions. This little church of +St. Maurice dating from the twelfth century, partly restored in the +sixteenth, must not on any account be missed. Its pretty spire crowns +the Isle d'Yonne, or island of the Yonne. + + + + +Chapter XIII. + + +ARCIS-SUR-AUBE. + +Late and tired, I arrived, one September evening, at Arcis-sur-Aube, +birthplace and home of the great Danton. + +I had brought with me letters of introduction to friends' friends, +unaware that at such a moment the sign-manual of the President of the +Republic himself would hardly have secured me a night's lodging. For +at this especial moment the little town, from end to end, was in the +possession of the military headquarters of that year's manoeuvres. + +Every private dwelling showed a notice of the officers in command +sheltered under its roof. Here and there, the presence of sentinels +indicated the location of generals. The hotels were crowded from +basement to attic, folks who let lodgings for hire had made bargains +long before, whilst the very poorest made up beds, or turned out of +their own, to accommodate the rank and file. At the extreme end of the +town, close to the ancestral home of the Dantons, stands the straggling +old-fashioned Hôtel de la Poste, a hostelry, I should suppose, not in +the least changed since the days of the great conventionnel. All here +was bustle and excitement. Mine host was spitting game in the kitchen, +and could hardly find time to answer my application; soldiers and +officers' servants, scullions and men of all-work, almost knocked +each other down in the inn-yard, the landlady, generally so affable a +personage in provincial France, gave me the cold shoulder. I turned out +in the forlorn hope of finding a good Samaritan. Of course, to present +a letter of introduction under such circumstances, was quite out of the +question, my errand would have been the last hair to break the camel's +back, final embarrassment of an already overdone hostess. But night was +at hand; the last train to Troyes, the nearest town, had gone, no other +would pass through Arcis-sur-Aube until the small hours of the morning. +Unless I could procure a room, therefore, I should be in the position of +a homeless vagrant. Well, not to be dismayed, I set out making inquiries +right and left, to my astonishment being rebuffed rather surlily and +with looks of suspicion. The fact is, during these manoeuvres, a +lady arriving at head-quarters alone is apt to be looked upon with no +favourable eye. Especially do people wonder what on earth can bring a +foreigner to an out of the way country place at such a time--she must +surely be a spy, pickpocket or something worse! + +After having vainly made inquiries to no purpose along the principal +street, I turned into a grocer's shop in a smaller thoroughfare; two +young assistants were chatting without anything to do, and they looked +so good-natured that I entered and begged them to help me. + +Very likely an English hobbledehoy similarly appealed to would have +blushed, giggled, and got rid of the stranger as quickly as possible; +French youths of all ranks have rather more of the man of the world in +them. The elder of the lads became at once interested in my case, and +manifested a keen desire to be serviceable. Hailing a little girl from +without, he bade her conduct me to a certain Mademoiselle D---- who let +rooms and might have one vacant. The little maid, fetching a companion +to accompany us--here also was a French trait; whatever is done, must be +done sociably--took me to the address given; the demoiselle in question +was, however, not at home, but the concierge said that, another +demoiselle living near would probably be able to accommodate me, which +she did. Before I proceed with my narrative, however, I must mention the +ill fortune that befell my useful little cicerone. + +On taking leave I had given her half a franc, a modest recompense enough +as I thought. The following story would seem to show that the good +people of Arcis have not yet become imbued with modern ideas about +money, also that they have a high notion of the value of truth. To my +dismay I learnt next morning that the poor little girl had been soundly +slapped, her mother refusing to believe that she had come honestly by so +much money; as my hostess observed, the good woman might at least have +waited for corroboration of the child's statement. A box of chocolate, +transmitted by a third hand, I have no doubt acted as a consolation. + +Dear kind mademoiselle Jenny M---- How warmly she welcomed me to her +homely hearth! My little purple rosette, insignia of an officer of +Public Instruction of France, proved a bond of union. This excellent +woman was the daughter of a schoolmaster who had himself worn the +academic ribbon, a French schoolmaster's crowning ambition. He had left +his daughter, in comfortable circumstances, that is to say, she enjoyed +an annuity of £40 a year, the possession of a large, roomy house, part +of which she let, and half an acre of garden full as it could be of +flowers, fruit and vegetables. We at once became excellent friends. + +"Now," she said, "I am very sorry that my best bedroom is given up +to soldiers, two poor young fellows I took in the other night out of +compassion. You can, however, have the little back room looking on +to the garden, it is rather in disorder, but you will find the bed +comfortable. I cannot offer to do much for you in the way of waiting, +having a lame foot, but a woman brings me milk early in the morning and +she shall put a cupful outside your door; bread and butter you will find +in the little kitchen next to your room." + +I assured her that such an arrangement would suit me very well, as I +had my own spirit lamp and could make tea for myself; then we went +downstairs. The great difficulty that night was to get anything to eat. +The soldiers had eaten every body out of house and home, she assured me +there was not such a thing as a chop or an egg to be had in the town for +love or money. Fortunately, I had the remains of a cold chicken in my +lunch basket, and this did duty for supper, my hostess pressing upon me +some excellent Bordeaux. + +As we chatted, she mentioned the fact that two or three friends, much +in the same situation as herself, occupied the little houses running +alongside her garden. + +"We are all old maids," she informed me. + +"Old maids," quoth I, "how is that? I thought there were no single women +out of convents in France." + +"The thing," she said, "has come about in this way--we have all enough +to live upon, and so many women worsen their condition by marriage, +instead of bettering it, that we made up our minds to live comfortably +on what we have got, and not trouble our heads about the men. We +live very happily together, and are all socialists, radicals, _libres +penseuses_ and the rest. We read a great deal, and, as you will see +to-morrow, my father left me a good library." + +As we sat at table in the somewhat untidy kitchen, my fellow guests, the +conscripts, came in, they were pleasant, civil young fellows belonging +to different classes of life. One was a middle-class civilian from an +industrial city of the north, the other a homely peasant, son of the +soil. + +These conscripts, however poorly fed in barracks, fare like aldermen +during these manoeuvres, everybody giving them to eat and drink of their +best. They had just dined plentifully, but for all that, managed to get +down a bumper of wine immediately offered by Mademoiselle Jenny; a hunk +of Dijon gingerbread they did evidently find some difficulty in getting +through. We toasted each other in friendliest fashion, and the civilian, +out of compliment to myself, drank to the health of the English army. + +Next morning I fared no less sumptuously than a soldier during the +manoeuvres. A savoury steam had announced game for our mid-day meal. + +"Now," said my hostess, as she dished up and began to carve a fat +partridge cooked to a turn--"this bird that came so àpropos, is a +present from a great-nephew of Danton. He is the _juge de paix_ here and +a good neighbour of mine. We will pay him a visit this afternoon." + +Of this gentleman, of Danton's home and family, I shall say something +later on. We made a round of visits that day, but the _juge de paix_, +who seemed to share the tastes of his great ancestor, was in the country +in search of more partridges. Other friends and acquaintances we found +at home; among these was a retired confectioner, who had once kept a +shop in Regent Street, and had told Mademoiselle Jenny that she would be +delighted to talk English with me. + +Warmly welcomed I was by the portly, prosperous looking pastry-cook, +who was reading a newspaper and smoking a cigarette in a well-furnished, +comfortable parlour. But alas! thirty years had elapsed since his +departure from England, and during the interval he had never once +interchanged a word with any of my country-people. To his intense +mortification, he had completely lost hold of the English tongue! +Another acquaintance, an elderly woman, who seemed to be living on small +independent means, had a curious house pet. This, once a pretty little +frisking lamb, had now reached the proportions of a big fat sheep. So +docile and affectionate, however, was the animal, and so attached had +the good soul become to it, that a pet it seemed likely to remain to the +end of its days; the creature followed its mistress about like a dog. + +The little town of Arcis-sur-Aube, like many another, is now deserted by +all who can get to livelier and more bustling centres. Tanneries, vest, +stocking and glove weaving and stitching, are the only resources of the +place. + +During my stay, I made the acquaintance of a charming family engaged in +the latter trade. Stopping one day in front of a weaver's open door to +watch him at work, I was cordially invited to enter. The head of the +house, one of those quiet, intelligent, dignified artisans so typical of +his class in France, was weaving vest sleeves at a hand loom, just as +I had seen, at St. Étienne, ribbon weavers pursuing their avocations at +home. As we chatted about his handicraft and its modest emoluments, +his little son came in from school, a bright lad who, to his father's +delight, had lately gained prizes. It is curious that only one part of +a vest, stocking or glove is done by a single hand; some goods I found +came to this house to be finished and others were sent away to be +made ready for sale elsewhere. By-and-by, a pretty, refined girl, the +daughter of the house, came in and asked me if I would like to see what +she was doing. + +Forthwith she took me to a neat, cheerful little room upstairs +overlooking a garden. + +On a table by the open window was a hand-sewing machine, and her +occupation was the ornamental stitching of silk and cotton gloves by +machinery. The pay seemed excessively low I thought, I believe something +like twopence per dozen pair, but the young machinist seemed perfectly +contented and happy. + +"It is pleasant," she said, "to be able to earn something at home and to +live with papa and mamma and my little brother." + +Before leaving, with the prettiest grace in the world, she begged my +acceptance of a dainty pair of lavender silk gloves knitted by her own +hands. + +Some day I hope to revisit Arcis-sur-Aube, and meantime I hold +occasional intercourse by post with my friends in Danton's town. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +ARCIS-SUR-AUBE--(_continued_). + +But by far the most interesting acquaintance at this most historic +little town was the great-nephew of Danton. Middle-aged, unpretentious +of aspect, yet with that unmistakable look partly of dignified +self-possession, partly of authority, seldom absent from the French +official, I looked in vain for any likeness to the portraits of his +great kinsman. Yet perhaps in the stalwart figure, manly proportions and +bronzed complexion, might be traced some suggestion of the athlete, the +strong swimmer, the bold sportsman, whose mighty voice once made Europe +tremble. The brother of this gentleman also lived at Arcis-sur-Aube, but +was absent during my visit. The _juge de paix_ and his family were on +friendliest terms with my hostess, and he would often drop in for a +chat. + +From him and other residents I gathered some interesting particulars +about the Danton family. The great tribune left two little sons, George +and Antoine, who grew up and resided in their ancestral home, hiding +themselves from the world. Their young step-mother it was whose memory, +when on the way to the guillotine, evoked from Danton the only betrayal +of personal emotion throughout his stormy career: "Must I leave thee for +ever, my beloved," then, quickly recovering himself, cried "Danton, no +weakness!" + +Madame Danton married again and is lost sight of. One of Danton's +sisters entered a convent, as it was supposed hoping to expiate by a +life given up to prayer the crimes, as she deemed them, of her brother. +Meantime, appalled by the shadow of their father's memory, George and +Antoine decided to remain celibate, a pair marked out for solitude and +obloquy. + +"Let the name of Danton perish from the recollection of man," they said. + +The elder, however, afterwards acknowledged and, I believe, legitimised +a daughter according to the merciful French law. Mademoiselle Danton +became Madame Menuel, and, strange as it may seem, at the time of my +visit, this direct descendant of Danton was still living. President +Carnot had given her a small pension in the form of a _bureau de tabac_ +at Troyes, where she died in 1896, leaving a son, who some years ago was +divorced from his wife, emigrated to Buenos Ayres, and has never been +heard of since. It is supposed that he is dead. The two great-nephews +have each a son and a daughter living. + +The _juge de paix_ and his brother are now among the most respected +citizens of Arcis, and have lived to witness the rehabilitation of their +great ancestor. Neither of the pair inhabit the house in which Danton +was born, and to which he ever returned with joy and satisfaction. + +A sight of Danton's house is sufficient to disprove the calumnies of +that noble woman, but inveterate hater, Madame Roland. + +From her memoirs we might gather that Danton was a poverty-stricken, +pettifogging lawyer of the basest class. That Danton's family belong to +the well-to-do upper middle ranks, we see from the object lesson before +us. At the time of my visit, this large, roomy, well-built house, with +coach-house, stables and half-a-dozen acres of garden, orchard and wood, +was to let for 700 francs a year. But so low a rent now-a-days is no +indication of its value a hundred years ago. + +[Illustration: DANTON'S HOME AT ARCIS-SUR-AUBE.] + +The owner of the house most kindly showed me over every part. + +It is two-storeyed, plainly but solidly constructed, and evidently +arranged, according to French fashion, for a combined tenancy. Two or +three families could here well be accommodated under the same roof, each +having separate establishments. I found myself in a covered carriageway, +cool dark corridors leading to outhouses and stables, a wide staircase +with handsome oak balustrade to upstair kitchen and bed-chambers, on +either side of the ground floor were spacious salon and dining room, +fronting town and river, water-mills and quays. In the vast kitchen was +an enormous chopping block, suggestive of large family joints. + +My kind cicerone allowed me to linger in Danton's bed-chamber. I now +looked out from the window at which the fallen leader was often seen +by his townsfolk during the last days of his stormy career. In his +night-cap the colossal figure might be descried gazing out into the +night, as if peering into futurity, trying to read the future. Did he +perhaps from time to time waver in his decision to abide his doom? +We know that again and again his friends urged him to seek safety in +flight. + +"Does a man carry his country on the sole of his shoe?" he retorted +fiercely, but it may well be that he here envied weaker men. Danton's +character was thoroughly French. His ambition was as he said to retire +to Arcis-sur-Aube and there plant cabbages. A devoted son, husband and +father, his affections were also centred upon others not of his blood +and name. He tenderly loved his old nurse, and left her a small pension. +Within the last thirty years, thanks to M. Aulard and his collaborators, +the history of the Revolution has been written anew, or rather for the +first time. The gigantic figure of Danton stands forth to-day in its +true light, as the saviour of France from the fate of Poland, and as a +founder of the democratic idea. He succumbed less because he was a rival +of Robespierre than because he was a friend of humanity. + +"I would rather be guillotined than guillotine," he repeated, and it was +mainly his effort to stay the Terror that made him its victim. + +The study adjoining contained that suggestive library of English, +Spanish, Italian, and ancient classics of which his biographers have +given us a catalogue, but which are now, alas! dispersed for ever. + +The house stands conspicuous, rearing a proud front to the world, if +world could be used appropriately of so quiet, humdrum a little place. +A few hundred yards off we reach the Church, Hôtel de Ville and open +square. In 1886, a monument to Danton was inaugurated here with much +ceremony. A bronze statue represents the great tribune in the fiery +attitude of an orator, pronouncing his immortal phrase:-- + +_"De l'audace, encore de l'audace, toujours de l'audace!"_ + +Arcis-sur-Aube is a little town of three thousand souls, within an +hour's railway journey from Troyes. The river Aube (Alba), so called +from its silveriness flows by Danton's house. In his time and up to the +opening of the railways the place was a port of some importance. Boats +and barges carried goods to Troyes, Bar-sur-Aube and other towns. + +Of late years Arcis has been partially surrounded with pleasant shady +walks greatly appreciated by the townsfolk. Regretfully I quitted my +circle of acquaintances here, little dreaming under what interesting +circumstances I should next meet Danton's great-nephew. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +RHEIMS. + +The grandest of all the grand cathedrals in France has been so fully +described elsewhere, that I will not attempt to do justice to the +subject myself. During one of my numerous visits to Rheims, however, it +was my good fortune to enjoy a very rare experience. On the occasion of +President Faure's funeral, the great _bourdon_ or bell, formerly only +tolled for the death of monarchs, was now heard for the second time +during the Third Republic. Standing under the shadow of that vast +minster the sound seemed to come from east and west, from above and +below, dwarfing the hum of the city to nothingness, as if echoing from +the remotest corners of France. It was no heroic figure now knelled by +the deepest-voiced bell in the country, but in the person of the Havre +tanner raised to the dignity of a ruler, was embodied a magnificent +idea, the sovereignty of the people and the overthrow of privilege. +Never as long as I live shall I forget the boom of that great bell, and +long the solemn sound lingered on my ears. + +A few days later the interior of the vast Cathedral echoed with sound +almost as overwhelming in its force and solemnity. A grand mass was +given in honour of the dead President. + +In front of the high altar stood a lofty catafalque, the rich purple +drapery blazing with gold. The nave was filled with dazzling uniforms +and embroidered vestments. In especially reserved seats sat the officers +of the Legion of Honour, among these in civilian dress figuring the +honoured citizen of Rheims who has ever retained English nationality, +Mr. Jonathan Holden. + +What with beating drums, clashing cymbals, blaring trumpets and pealing +organ, the tremendous vault seemed hardly capacious enough for the +deafening combination of sound. As a relief came the funeral march of +Chopin, the more subdued strains seeming almost inaudible after the +tumult of the moment before. Never surely had plebeian requiem so +imperial! + +The rich, artistic and archaeological treasures of Rheims are well +known. I will now describe one or two sights which do not come in the +way of the tourist. + +One of these is the so-called "Maison de Retraite" or associated +home for people of small means. The handsome building, with its large +grounds, accommodating three hundred tenants, is neither a hotel nor a +boarding establishment, least of all an almshouse. + +Under municipal patronage and support the "Maison de Retraite" offers +rooms, board, attendance, laundress and even a small plot of garden for +the annual sum of £16 to £24 per inmate, the second sum procuring +larger rooms and more liberal fare. Personal independence is absolutely +unhampered except by the fact that the lodge gate is closed at 10 p.m. +As most of the tenants of the home are elderly folks, such a rule is +no hardship. One great advantage of the system is the protection thus +afforded to single women and old people, and the immunity from +household cares. Meals are taken in common, but otherwise intercourse is +voluntary. The French temperament is so sociable, however, and chat +is such a necessity of existence, that we saw many groups on garden +benches, and also in the recreation and reading rooms. When the +number of small _rentiers_ is considered, i.e., men and women of +the middle-class living upon a minimum income, we can understand +the usefulness of this home. I learned that the establishment is +self-supporting, the initiatory expense having been borne by the town +and philanthropists. + +We strolled about with one of the managing staff finding the inmates +very sociable; one elderly gentleman invited us to sit down in his bit +of garden, very proud, as he might well be, of all the flowers he had +contrived to crowd into so small a space. We were also welcomed into +some of the neat interiors, these varying in size according to the scale +of payment. The class profiting by this associated home was evidently +that of the small _bourgeoisie_. + +Children there seemed to be none, one and all of the tenants being +elderly widows, widowers, bachelors or spinsters. There were, however, +a few married couples, who, if they preferred it, could cook their +own meals at home. For single, middle-class women here was a refuge +answering to the conventual boarding house of the upper classes. + +Unmarried women in France are not nearly so numerous as in England, +and I must say they may well envy their English and American sisters +in spinsterhood. An unmarried French lady belonging to genteel society +cannot cross the street unaccompanied till she has passed her fortieth +year, nor till then may she open the pages of Victor Hugo or read a +newspaper. Even in this "Maison de Retraite" special provision was made +for the privacy of single ladies; whether they liked it or not they were +expected to eat in a separate dining room, and meet for social purposes +in a separate salon. As there is no limit to the emotional period and +the age of sentiment, perhaps these safeguards of propriety are not +wholly superfluous. + +Of course the economy of such an arrangement is very great. Think of +a respectable fairly-educated young woman getting what good old John +Bunyan calls "harbour and good company," in other words, all the other +necessaries of life, with society into the bargain, for £16 a year! The +attendance is of course somewhat rough and ready. We saw a stalwart, +rough-haired, rather masculine-looking female setting one of the +dinner-tables with a clatter that would drive the fastidious to +distraction. But the good soul had evidently her heart in her work, and +I dare aver that single-handed she got through as much as three English +housemaids with ourselves. Would such a scheme answer in England? I +doubt it. The Anglo-Saxon character is the reverse of sociable, and +class distinctions are so in-rooted in the English nature that it would +be very difficult to get ten English women together who considered +themselves belonging to precisely the same class. + +Furthermore, are there with us many widows or spinsters of the same +class enjoying even such small independent means as the sums above +mentioned? In France, teachers, tradeswomen, female clerks and others, +by dint of rigid economy, usually insure for themselves a small income +before reaching old age. Fortunately habits of thrift are increasing +in England, and our women workers have a larger field and earn higher +wages. I had also the privilege of seeing the great wool-combing factory +of our countryman Mr. Jonathan Holden, for upwards of forty years a +citizen of Rheims. This town has been for centuries one of the foremost +seats of industry in France. Mr. Holden's chimneys are kept going night +and day, Sundays excepted, with alternating shifts of workmen. All +the hands employed are of French nationality and--a fact speaking +volumes--no strike has ever disturbed the amicable relations of English +employer and French employed. The great drawback to an inspection of +these workshops is the din of the machinery and the odour of the +skins. But there is something that takes hold of the imagination in the +perfection to which machinery has been carried. As we gaze upon these +huge engines, only occasionally touched by a woman's hand, we are +reminded of man, the pigmy guiding an elephant. We seem conscious, +moreover, of what almost approaches human intelligence, so much of the +work achieved appearing voluntary rather than automatic. The skins reach +Rheims direct from Australia and are here dressed, cleaned and prepared +for working up into cloth. If machinery is brought almost to the +perfection of manual dexterousness, human beings attain the precision of +machinery. + +I saw a neatly dressed girl at work whose sole occupation it was to tie +up the wool, now white as snow and soft as silk, into small parcels. The +wool already weighed came down by a little trough, and as swiftly and +methodically as wheels set in motion, the girl's fingers folded the +paper and tied the string. I should not like to guess how many of these +parcels she turned off in half a minute. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +RHEIMS--(_continued_). + +Rheims possesses a handsome theatre, the acquaintance of which I +was enabled to make under exceptional circumstances. At the risk of +appearing slightly egotistical, I will here describe an incident which +has other than personal interest. My visit to Damon's country, the +particulars of which were given in a former chapter, had an especial +object, viz., the setting of a novel of my own having the great +conventionnel for its hero. The story was dramatised by two French +collaborators, one of whom was at that time stage manager of the Grand +Theatre, Rheims. What, then, was my delight to see one morning placarded +throughout the town the announcement of the Anglo-French play? A few +days before the first representation I had witnessed a rehearsal, and as +I was guided through the dusky labyrinths of the theatre I could realise +the excessive, the appalling, combustibility of such buildings. It +is difficult, moreover, for those who have never penetrated into such +recesses--whose only acquaintance is with the representation on the +stage--to imagine how gloomy and sepulchral "behind the scenes" +may appear. However, by-and-by it was all cheerful enough, and the +rehearsal, I must say, although of a tragedy, abounded in touches of +humour. My friend and myself were accommodated with chairs just in +front of the stage near the prompter, a very friendly personage, who +was evidently interested in the fact of my presence. The actors and +actresses dropped in one by one and we exchanged a cordial handshake. +There was nothing theatrical about the dress or manners of these ladies, +whose ages ranged from extreme youth to middle age. They all looked +pleasant, lady-like, ordinary women, who might have quitted their +housekeeping or any other occupation of a domestic nature. The men, too, +impressed me agreeably as they greeted myself and their colleagues. Very +amusing was the commencement of proceedings. + +"Come, my children, put yourselves into position," said the stage +manager, making corrections or suggestions as he went on; now somebody +spoke too loud, and now somebody was too inarticulate, now an arm was +held too forward, and now a leg dragged too much. Excessively diverting, +also, the dummy show. In one scene of the play, a village schoolmaster +is holding a class of little boys and girls. To-day, a row of chairs +did duty for the scholars and were duly harangued, catechised, and even +admonished with a cane. In another scene, a peasant woman appears with +her donkey, to whom she confides a long tirade of troubles, the donkey +for the moment being like the showman's hero in the famous story, "round +the corner." A third and still more amusing piece of dumb show occurred +later, when an ex-abbess acting as housekeeper to the village curé, let +fall a basket of potatoes which were supposed to roll about the stage. +All went well and the prompter, to whom I appealed for an opinion, +assured me that I need be under no uneasiness, for the piece would go +off like a house on fire. + +In spite of that favourable prognostic an author's first night is always +a nervous affair, especially when that author is a foreigner, and her +piece a translation from the original. + +However, everything went merry as a marriage bell, my kind friends +filled several boxes, and perhaps one of the most interesting +incidents of the evening was the fact that just underneath sat Danton's +great-nephew with his clerk, who had come from Arcis-sur-Aube expressly +for the occasion. Between the acts I went down and chatted with these +two gentlemen, also with a French friend who had travelled from Dijon--a +six hours' railway journey--in order to witness the piece. To the best +of my knowledge now for the first time Danton figured on the French +stage. + +It must be confessed that the theatre on this especial night was not a +crowded house. In the first place, three large soirées, which had been +postponed on account of the President's funeral, coincided with the +representation. In the second place, as a rule, the wealthier and more +fashionable classes do not patronise provincial theatres, especially +when residing within easy reach of Paris. However, the pit and gallery +were packed, and loud was the applause with which the appearance +of Danton in a blue tail coat, top boots and sash, and his vehement +utterances were greeted. + +It had never crossed my mind that under such circumstances an author +would be called for; when, indeed, at the close of the piece, cries of +"Auteur! auteur!" were heard throughout the theatre, my friends begged +me to show myself. Which, proudly enough, I did, first saluting the +sovereign people in the gallery, then bowing less beamingly to the +scantier audience in the boxes, finally acknowledging the acclamations +from the pit. If "Danton à Arcis" brought its author neither fame nor +fortune, it certainly repaid her in another and most agreeable fashion. +Two or three days later, a second representation of the piece at +popular prices was given, and upon that occasion the house was full to +overflowing. + +The Grand Theatre, Rheims, is a very handsome building, and like most +other provincial houses maintains a company of its own, although from +time to time it is visited by the best Paris troupes. + +Yet another uncommon recollection of Rheims must here be recorded. In +September of last year, I witnessed such a spectacle as my military +friends assured me had never before been afforded to the marvel-loving; +in other words, the sight of a hundred and sixty thousand men--a host +perhaps more numerous than any ever commanded by Napoleon--performing +evolutions within range of vision. + +By half-past five in the morning I was off from Paris with my host and +hostess in their motor car for the Northern railway station. The day +of the great review broke dull and grey, and deserted indeed looked the +usually gay and lively Paris streets. We reached the station at five +minutes to six, i.e., five minutes before the starting of our train, and +at once realised the neatness with which the day's programme had been +arranged, both by the railway companies and the Government. The tens +of thousands of sightseers had been despatched to Rheims by relays of +trains during the night, and the station was now kept clear for the +numerous specials conveying members of the Senate, the Chamber, and the +Press. Here, therefore, was no crowding whatever, only a quiet stream +of deputies, wearing their tricolour badges accompanied by their ladies, +each deputy having the privilege of taking two. + +Precisely on the stroke of six, our long and well-filled train +consisting of first-class carriages only steamed out of the station, +taking the northern route and only making a short halt at Soissons. No +sooner had we joined the Compiègne line than we realised the tremendous +precautions necessary in the case of visitors so august; double rows of +soldiers were placed at short intervals on either side of the railway +and detachments of mounted troops stationed at a distance guarded the +route. The arrangements for our own comfort were perfect. Our train set +us down, not at Rheims, but at Bétheny itself the scene of the review, a +temporary station having been there erected. We were, therefore within a +hundred yards or so of our tribune, or raised stage, and of the luncheon +tents, roads having been laid down to each by the Génie or engineering +body. Numbered indications conspicuously placed quite prevented any +confusion whatever, and, indeed, it was literally impossible for +anyone to miss his way. The only eventuality that could have spoiled +everything, wet weather, fortunately held off until the show was over. +The review itself was a magnificent spectacle, surely not without irony +when we consider that this great military display, one of the greatest +on record, was got up in honour of the first Sovereign in the world who +had dared to propose a general disarmament! Another line of thought was +awakened by the fact of our isolation. The specially invited guests +of the French Government upon this occasion numbered three thousand +persons, and it seemed that for the Czar, his train, and these, the +great show was got up. The thousands of outsiders, sightseers, and +excursionists, brought to Rheims by cheap trains from all parts of +France, were nowhere; in other words, invisible. + +Whether or no such spectators got anything like a view of the evolutions +I do not know. I should be inclined to think that from the distance at +which they were kept the moving masses were mere blurs and nothing +more. From our own tribune, adjoining that of the Presidential party, +we commanded a view of the entire forces covering the vast plain, +surrounded by rising ground. + +Amazing it was to see the dark immovable lines slowly break up, and +as if set in motion by machinery, deploy according to orders. The vast +plain before us was a veritable sea of men, an army, one would think, +sufficient for the military needs of all Europe. + +One striking feature of these superb regiments, cavalry as well as +infantry, was the excellence of the bands. Never before had I realised +the inspiriting thing that martial music might be. Another interesting +point was that afforded by the cyclists, several regiments having these +newly formed companies. Whenever a flag was borne past, whether by foot +or mounted soldier, the cheering was tremendous, but it was reserved for +a regiment of Lorrainers to receive a veritable ovation. Still so fondly +yearns the heart of France after her lost and mutilated provinces! On +the whole, and speaking as a naïve amateur, I should say that no country +in the world could show a grander military spectacle. Enthusiasm reigned +amongst all beholders, but there was no display of political bias or any +discordant note. Cries of "Vive la France!" were as frequent as those of +"Vive l'armée!" + +Not a policeman was to be seen anywhere, the deputies keeping order for +themselves. And not always without an effort! People would rise from +their seats, even stand on benches, despite the thundered out "Remain +seated!" on all sides. On the whole, and with this exception, nothing +could surpass the general good humour. And when the splendid cortege +filed by at the close, delight and satisfaction beamed on every face. M. +Loubet was so dignified, folks said, Madame Loubet was so well dressed, +the deportment of M. Waldeck Rousseau was perfect, M. Deschanel +handsomer than ever, and so on, every member of the Czar's, or rather +the President's, entourage winning approval. General André and M. +Delcassé were very warmly received. The slim, pale, fastidious looking +young man in flat, white cap, green tunic, and high boots, seated beside +the portly, genial figure wearing the broad Presidential ribbon, set me +thinking. How at the bottom of his heart does the Autocrat of All The +Russias view these representatives of the great French Republic! How +does he really feel towards France, the first nation of the western +world to set the example of officially recognised self-government, the +initiator of a system as opposed to Russian despotism as is white +to black? Whatever may be the secret of this strange Franco-Russian +alliance, it is apparently in the interest of peace, and, as such, +should be warmly welcomed by all advocates of progress. + +The luncheon was superabundant, consisting of wines, cold meat, and +bread in plenty. The task of finding refreshment for three thousand +people had been satisfactorily solved. The only thing wanting was +water. It seems that upon such an occasion no one was expected to drink +anything short of Bordeaux, Burgundy, or pale ale. + +All the special trains were crowded for the return journey, made by way +of Meaux, but everyone made way for everyone, and we reached Paris at +eight o'clock, almost as fresh and quite as good-humoured as we had +quitted it at dawn. If this great review was interesting from one point +more than another, it was from the manner in which it displayed the +wonderful organising faculty of the French mind. The most trifling +details no more than the largest combinations can disconcert this +pre-eminently national aptitude. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +SOULAINES AND BAR-SUR-AUBE. + +The first of these places mentioned is a Champenois village twelve miles +from a railway station. From the windows of my friends' château I look +upon a magnificent deer park, where during the oft-time torrid heat of +summer delicious shade is to be found. + +Far away vast forests bound the horizon, to the north a hot open road +leading to Brienne-le-Château, where Napoleon studied as a military +cadet; eastward, lies varied scenery between Soulaines and Bar-sur-Aube, +there woodland ending and the vine country beginning. + +On one especial visit during September, not even these acres of +closely-serried forest could induce more than a suggestion of shadow and +coolness. Although screened from view the sun was there. Throughout a +vast region--half a province of woodland--folks breathed the hot air of +the Soudan. The tropic temperature admitted of no exercise during the +day, but after four o'clock tea we broke up into parties--drove, rode, +strolled, called upon homelier neighbours, visited quaint old churches +hidden in the trees or forest nooks, the solitude only broken by +pattering of deer and rabbits, or nut-cracking squirrel aloft. Here +and there we would come upon huts of charcoal-burner and wood-cutter, +gamekeepers and foresters, too, had their scattered lodges; such signs +of human habitation being few and far between. + +We are here in the remnant of the great Celtic forest of Der. The +straggling village of Soulaines is one long street, a little stream +running behind the picturesque, timbered houses, many of these have +outer wooden staircases leading to grange or storehouse. Church and +presbytery, convent and Mairie were conspicuous. + +In the opposite direction, another church rose above the horizon, the +centre of what in France is called not a village but a hamlet. Bare as +a barn seen from far and near showed this little church, and we often +walked thither for the sake of its picturesque surroundings. The portal +of the quaint old building is a mass of ancient sculpture, close round +it being grouped a few mud-built, timbered, one-storeyed dwellings all +of a pattern. + +Even in France are to be found day labourers, only the very poorest, +however, being without a cottage, plot of ground, a cow and of poultry +their own. Many of their interiors are far neater and cleaner than those +of the farm-houses, their occupants not being so tied to the soil from +morning to night, not, in fact, incited to Herculean labours by the spur +of larger possession. We visited one of the poorest villages hereabouts, +of not quite a hundred souls, but of course, provided with church, +school and Mairie. Many a group of potato diggers we saw in the +exquisite twilight, suggestive of Millet, many a landscape recalling +other masters. This handful of woodlanders--for the village is +surrounded by forests--is perhaps as poor as any rural population to be +found throughout France. Yet here surprises await us. Some of the better +off hire a little land, keep cows, rear poultry, most likely in time to +become owners of a plot. They are paid for harvest work in kind, several +we talked to having earned enough corn for the winter's consumption--as +they put it--our winter's bread. They are a fine, sunburnt, well-formed +race and seem cheerful enough. In one of the poorest houses, a huge +pipkin on the fire emitted savoury steam, and rows of small cheeses +garnished the shelves. Good oak bedsteads, linen presses and +old-fashioned clocks were general. Every mantel-piece had its framed +photograph and ornamental crockery. New milk was always freely offered +us. + +Within the precincts of this hamlet we find ourselves in a bluish-green +land of mingled wood and water; above the reedy marsh, haunt of wild +fowl, willows grew thick; here and there the water flowed freely, its +surface broken by the plash of carp and trout. At this season all hands +hereabouts were busy with threshing out the newly garnered corn and +getting in potatoes. The crops are very varied, wheat, barley, lucerne, +beetroot, buckwheat, colza, potatoes; we see a little of everything. +Artificial manures are not much used, nor agricultural machinery to a +great extent, except by large farmers, but the land is clean and in a +high state of cultivation. Peasant property is the rule; labouring for +hire, the condition of non-possession, very rare. And whether the times +are good or evil, land dirt cheap or dear, the year's savings go to +the purchase of a field or two and, as a necessary consequence, to +the consolidation of the Republic and the maintenance of Parliamentary +institutions. + +I will now say something of our neighbours. One of these was the parish +priest, who had the care of between six and seven hundred souls. The +fact may be new to some readers that a village curé, even in these days, +receives on an average little more than Goldsmith's country parson, +"counted rich on forty pounds a year." This curé's stipend, including +perquisites amounted to just sixty pounds yearly, in addition to which +he had a good house, large garden and paddock. But compare such a +position with that of one of our own rectors and vicars! + +The Protestant clergy in France are better paid than those belonging +to the orthodox faith. Being heads of families, they are supposed, and +justly, to need more. Let it not be imagined, however, that the priest +receives less under the Republic than under the Empire. But the cost of +living has increased. + +Of course there are black sheep in the Romish fold as elsewhere; perhaps +even the simplicity, learning and devotion to duty of the individual I +here write of, are rare. Yet one cannot help feeling how much more +money the Government would have at command with which to remunerate +good workers in pacific fields if disarmament were practicable. This +excellent priest, like other men of education and taste, would have +relished a little travel as much as do our own vicars and curates their +annual outing to Norway or Switzerland. What remains for recreation and +charity after defraying household expenses and cost of a housekeeper out +of sixty pounds a year? + +Next, let me say a word about the _juge de paix_ in France, as I presume +most readers are aware, a modest functionary, yet better paid than that +of a priest. The average stipend of a justice of the peace is about a +hundred pounds a year, with lodging, but although his duties often take +him far afield he is not provided with a vehicle, and must either +cycle or defray the cost of carriage hire. I know many of these rural +magistrates, and have ever found them men of education and intelligence. +I, now, for the first time, found one well read in English literature, +not only able to discuss Shakespeare and Walter Scott, but the latest +English novel appearing in translation as a feuilleton. It is well that +these small officials should have such resources. Tied down as they are +to remote country spots, their existence is often monotonous enough, +especially during the winter months. + +It seems to be a canon of French faith that you cannot have too much +of a good thing, anyhow in the matter of wedding festivities. Parisian +society is beginning to adopt English saving of time and money, +fashionable marriages there now being followed by a brief lunch and +reception. Country-folks stick to tradition, preferring to make the +most of an event which as a rule happens only once during a lifetime. +Gratifying as was the experience to an English guest, especially that +guest being a devoted admirer of France, I must honestly confess that my +share in such a celebration constituted probably the hardest day's work +I ever performed. Here I will explain that the bride's father was head +forester of my host and hostess, the great folks of the place, and +adored by their humbler neighbours. Château and cottage were thus +closely, nay affectionately, interested in the important event I am +about to describe, and this aspect of it is fully as noteworthy as the +truly Gallic character of the long drawn out fête itself. + +By nine a.m. horses and carriages of the château, adorned with wedding +favours, were flying madly about in all directions conveying the wedding +party to and from the Mairie for the civil ceremony. An hour later we +were ourselves off to the village church, the house party including +three English guests. The enormously long religious ceremony over, a +procession was formed headed by musicians, bride and bridegroom leading +the way, fifty and odd couples following and the round of the village +was made. At the door of the festive house we formed a circle, the +newly-wedded pair embracing everyone and receiving congratulations; +this is a somewhat lachrymose ceremony. The marriage was in every way +satisfactory, but the nice-looking young bride, a general favourite, was +quitting for ever her childhood's home. After some little delay we +all took our places in two banqueting rooms, the tables being arranged +horse-shoe wise. Facing bride and bridegroom sat my host, the second +room being presided over by the bride's father, of whom I shall have +something to say later. Here I give the bill of fare, merely adding that +the festive board was neatly, even elegantly, spread, and that every +dish was excellent:-- + + Hors d'oeuvre Salade de saison + Radis, beurre frais, Langue fumée Fruits + Bouchées à la Reine Brioche. Nougat + Daim, sauce chassuer Desserts varies + Galantine truffée Vins + Salmis de canards Pineau, Bordeaux, Champagne + Choux-fleurs Café, Liqueurs. + Dinde truffée. + + +Looking down the lines of well-dressed people, all with the exception of +ourselves belonging to the same rank as the bride, I could but be struck +with the good looks, gentle bearing, and general appearance of everyone. +As to the head forester, he was one of Nature's gentlemen, and might +easily have passed for a general or senator. At the table sat several +young girls of the village, each having a cavalier, all these dressed +very neatly and comporting themselves like well-bred young ladies +without presumption or awkwardness. During the inevitable pauses between +dish and dish, one after another of these pretty girls stood up and +gratified the company with a song, the performance costing perhaps an +effort, but being got through simply and naturally. In the midst of the +banquet, which lasted over three hours, two professionals came to sing +and recite. From the breakfast table, after toasts,--the afternoon being +now well advanced--we again formed a procession to the Mairie, in front +of which _al fresco_ dancing commenced. Add that this out-of-door ball +lasted till a second dinner, the dinner being followed by a second ball +lasting far into the small hours. Nor did the celebration end here. +The following day was equally devoted to visits, feasts, toasts, and +dancing. What a national heritage is this capacity for fellowship, +gaiety, and harmless mirth! + +Bar-sur-Aube lies twelve miles off and a beautiful drive it is thither +from Soulaines. We gradually leave forest, pasture and arable +land, finding ourselves amid vineyards. At the little village of +Ville-sur-Terre, we one day halted at a farm-house for a chat, the +housewife most kindly presenting me with two highly decorative plates. + +As we approach Bar-sur-Aube we come upon a wide and beautiful prospect, +wooded hills dominating the plain. + +This little town is very prettily situated, and like every other in +France possesses some old churches. Perhaps its most famous child is +Bombonnel, the great panther-slayer, born close by, who died at Dijon +and whose souvenirs bequeathed to me as a legacy I have given elsewhere. +The son of a working glazier, he made a little fortune as hawker of +stockings in the streets of New Orleans, returned to France, cleared +the Algerian Tell of panthers, for a time enjoyed ease with dignity in +Burgundy; on the outbreak of the Franco-German War in 1870, as leader +of a thousand _francs-tireurs_, gave the Germans more trouble than any +commander of an army corps, twice had a price of £1,000 set upon his +head, was glorified by Victor Hugo, received the decoration of the +Legion of Honour, and as a reward for his patriotic services several +hundred acres of land in Algeria. A gigantic statue of Sant Hubert, the +patron of hunters, now commemorates the great little man, for he was +short of statue, in the cemetery of Dijon. + +Bar-sur-Aube is connected with another notoriety, the infamous Madame +de la Motte, the arch-adventuress, who, a descendant herself of Valois +kings, proved the undoing of Marie Antoinette. As was truly said by +a great contemporary:--"The affair of the Diamond Necklace," wrote +Mirabeau, "has been the forerunner of the Revolution." + +This Jeanne de Valois, rescued from the gutter by a benovolent lady of +title and a charitable priest, presents a psychological study rare even +in the annals of crime. Never, perhaps, were daring, unscrupulousness, +and the faculty of combination linked with so complete a disregard to +consequences. The moving spring of her actions, often so complicated and +foolhardy, was love of money and display. It seemed as if in her person, +was accumulated the lavishness of French Royal mistresses from Diane +de Poitiers down to Madame Dubarry. There was a good deal of the Becky +Sharp about her too, although there is nothing in her history to show +that, like Thackeray's heroine, "she had no objection to pay people if +she had the money." If, indeed, anything in the shape of ethics guided +the most astoundingly ingenious swindler we know of, it was some such +principle as this: she ought to have been at Versailles, there being +received as a recognised Princess of the Royal House; since, through +no fault whatever of her own, she was not, she had a perfect right to +avenge herself upon royalty and society in general. + +How she wormed herself into the confidence of the Cardinal de Rohan, a +man of the world and of education, would seem wholly unaccountable +but for one fact. The Prince Primate had faith in Cagliostro and +his nostrums, and when an individual has recourse to astrologers +and fortune-tellers, we are quite in a position to gauge his mental +condition. Like Mdlle. Couesdon of contemporary fame, Cagliostro held +intercourse with the angel Gabriel, but his occult powers and privileges +far exceeded those of the Parisian lady-seer. He was actually in the +habit of dining with Henri IV., and two days before the Cardinal's +arrest made his client believe that he had just accepted such an +invitation! + +It had been Rohan's ambition to obtain the favour of the Queen and a +foremost position at court, hence the readiness with which he fell into +the trap. For "the Valois orphan," now Comtesse de la Motte, not only +possessed great personal attractions, but an extraordinary gift of +persuasiveness. Without much apparent trouble she made the Cardinal +believe that she was in the Queen's favour, and indeed in her +confidence. Having got so far the rest was easy. + +How the acquisition of the already celebrated Diamond Necklace was first +thought of, how, by the aid of willing tools, she matured and carried +out her deep-laid and diabolical scheme, reads like an adventure from +the "Arabian Nights." The personification of the Queen by a little +dressmaker who happened to resemble her, the forgery of the Royal +signature, the final attainment of the diamonds, all seemed so easy to +this consummate trickster that it is small wonder she became intoxicated +with success and blind to consequences. No sooner was the necklace in +her possession than, of course, as fast as possible it was turned, not +into money, but into money's worth. Houses and lands, equipages and +furniture, costly apparel, and delicacies for the table were purchased, +not with louis d'or, but with diamonds. + +We read of her triumphant entry into the little town of Bar-sur-Aube, +cradle of the Saint Rémy-Valois family, in a berline with white +trappings and the Valois armorials, before and behind the carriage, +which was drawn by "four English horses with short tails," rode +lacqueys, whilst on the footboard ready to open the door stood a negro, +"covered, from head to foot with silver." Still more dazzling was the +dress of Madame la Comtesse, richest brocade trimmed with rubies and +emeralds. As to the Count, not content with having rings on every finger +he wore four gold watch chains! Besides holding open house when at home, +the pair had a table always spread with dainties for those who chose to +partake in their hosts' absence. Among the toys paid for in diamonds was +an automatic bird that warbled and flapped its wings. This was intended +for the amusement of visitors. + +The carnival proved of short duration. It was on the 1st of February, +1783, that the diamond necklace was handed over to Madame de la Motte, +Rohan receiving in return the forged signature of "Marie-Antoinette de +France." On August of the same year, in the midst of a banquet given +at Bar-sur-Aube, a visitor arrived with startling news. "The Prince +Cardinal de Rohan, Grand Almoner of France, was on the Festival of +Assumption, arrested in pontifical robes, charged with having purchased +a diamond necklace in the name of the Queen." + +The charm of these little French towns and rustic spots lies in their +remoteness, the feeling they give us of being so entirely aloof from +familiar surroundings. In many a small Breton or Norman town we hear +little else but English speech, and in the one general shop of tiny +villages see _The New York Herald_ on sale. But from the time of leaving +Nemours to that of reaching the farthest point mentioned in these +sketches we encounter no English or American tourists. This essentially +foreign atmosphere is not less agreeable than conducive to instruction. +We are thus thrown into direct contact with the country people and are +enabled to realise French modes of life and thought. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +ST. JEAN DE LOSNE. + +Within the last twenty-five years so many new lines of railway have been +opened in France that there is no longer any inducement--I am inclined +to say excuse--for keeping to the main road. Yet, strangely +enough, English tourists mostly ignore such opportunities. For one +fellow-countryman we meet on the route described here, hundreds are +encountered on the time-honoured roads running straight from Paris to +Switzerland. Quit Dijon by any other way and the English-speaking world +is lost sight of, perhaps more completely than anywhere else on the +civilised globe. Again and again it has happened to myself to be +regarded in rural France as a kind of curiosity, the first subject of +Queen Victoria ever met with; again and again I have spent days, nay +weeks, on French soil, the sole reminder of my native land being the +daily paper posted in London. It is now many years since I first visited +St. Jean de Losne, in company of a French acquaintance, a notary, both +of us being bound to a country-house on the Saône. At that time the +railway did not connect it with Dijon, and in brilliant September +weather we jogged along by diligence, a pleasant five hours' journey +enough. My companion, a native of the Côte d'Or, seemed to know everyone +we passed on the way, whenever we stopped to change horses getting out +for a gossip with this friend and that he had taken the precaution to +provide himself with a huge loaf of bread, from which he hacked off +morsels for us both from time to time. As we had started at seven +o'clock in the morning, and got no déjeûner till past noon, the doles +were acceptable. The fellow-traveller of that first journey--alas! With +how many friends of the wine country!--has long since gone to his rest. +The second time I set forth alone, taking my seat in the slow--the very +slow--train running alongside the Canal de Bourgogne. On the central +platforms of the Dijon railway station, crowds of English and American +tourists were hurrying to their trains, bound respectively for Paris and +Geneva. No sooner was I fairly off, my fellow travellers being two or +three country-folks, than the conventionalities of travel had vanished. +Surroundings as well as scenery became entirely French. + +The Burgundian character is very affable, and although people may +wonder what can be your errand in remote regions, they never show their +curiosity after disagreeable fashion. They are delighted to discover +that interest in France--artistic, economic, or industrial--has led you +thither, and will afford any assistance or information in their power. +They seem to regard the wayfaring Britisher as whimsical, that is all. + +A train that crawls has this advantage, we can see everything by the +way, villages, crops, and methods of cultivation. The landscape soon +changes. The familiar characteristics of the wine country disappear. +Instead of vine-clad hills, nurseries of young plants grafted on +American stocks, and vineyard after vineyard in rich maturity, we now +see hop gardens, colza fields, and wide pastures. Here and there we +obtain a glimpse of some walled-in farmhouse, recalling the granges of +our own Isle of Wight. + +Alongside the railway runs the canal, that important waterway connecting +the Seine with the Saône; but the Saône itself, Mr. Hamerton's favourite +river, is not seen till we reach our destination. + +The little town of St. Jean de Losne, although unknown to English +readers, is one of the most historic of France. No other, indeed, boasts +of more honourable renown. As Jeanne d'Arc had done just two centuries +before, St. Jean de Losne saved the country in 1636. When the Imperial +forces under Galas attempted the occupation of Burgundy, the dauntless +townsfolk long held the enemy at bay and compelled final retreat. After +generations profited by this heroism. Until the great year of 1789, the +town, by royal edict, enjoyed complete immunity from taxation. On the +outbreak of the Revolution, with true patriotic spirit, the citizens +surrendered those privileges, of their own free will sharing the public +burdens. + +The first sight that meets the eye on entering St. Jean de Losne is +the monument erected in commemoration of the siege. "Better late than +never," is a proverb applicable to public as well as private affairs of +conscience. + +A little farther, and we reach the church of St. Jean. It contains a +magnificent pulpit, carved from a single block of rich red marble, the +niches ornamented with charming statuettes of the apostles. Close by is +the Hôtel de Ville, in which are some interesting historic relics. As I +passed through the courtyard, I saw an odd sight. One might have fancied +that a second Imperial army threatened a siege, and that the townsfolk +were laying in stores. The pavement was piled with bread and meat, +whilst butchers and bakers were busily engaged in dividing these into +portions, authorities, municipal, military and police, looking on. + +I learned that these rations were for the regiments quartered in the +town during the autumn manoeuvres. Every day such distributions take +place; in country places the troops have recourse to the peasants, very +often being treated as guests. A young friend, serving his three years, +told me that nowhere had he found country folk more hospitable than in +the Côte d'Or. No sooner did the soldiers make their appearance in a +village, than forth came the inhabitants to welcome them, officers being +carried off to châteaux, men by twos and threes to the home of curé or +small owner. "Not a peasant," he said, "but would bring up a bottle +of good wine from his cellar, and often after dinner we would get up a +dance out of doors. On the saddle sometimes from two in the morning till +twelve at noon, the kind reception and the jollity of the evening made +up for the hardship and fatigue. We have just had several days of bad +weather, and had to sleep on straw in barns and outhouses, wherever +indeed shelter was to be had. Not one of us ever lost heart or temper; +we remained gay as larks all the time." + +An hour's railway journey from St. Jean de Losne takes the traveller to +Lons-le-Saulnier, beautifully situated at the foot of the Jura range on +the threshold of wild and romantic scenery. + +A decade had not robbed this little town of its old-world look familiar +to me, but meantime a new Lons-le-Saulnier had sprung up. Since my first +visit a handsome bathing establishment has been built, with casino, +concert-room, and all the other essentials of an inland watering-place. +The waters are especially recommended for skin affections, gout, and +rheumatism. Formerly the mineral springs of Lons, as the townsfolk +lazily call the place, were chiefly frequented by residents and near +neighbours. Improved accommodation, increased accessibility, cheapened +travel and additional attractions, have changed matters. The season +opening in May, and lasting till the end of October, is now patronised +by hundreds of visitors from all parts of eastern France. These health +resorts are much more sociable than our own. Folks drop alike social, +political, and religious differences for the time being, and cultivate +the art of being agreeable as only French people can. Excursions, +picnics, and pleasure parties are arranged; in the evening the young +folks dance whilst their elders play a rubber of whist, chat, look on, +or make marriages. Many a wedding is arranged during the _Saison des +Bains_, nor can such unions be called _mariages de convenance_, as in +holiday-time intercourse is comparatively unrestricted. Grown-up or +growing-up sons and daughters then meet as those on English or American +soil. + +Lons-le-Saulnier possesses little of interest except its Museum, rich +in modern sculpture, and its quaint arcades, recalling the period of +Spanish rule in Franche Comté. The excursions lying within easy reach +are numerous and delightful. Foremost of these is a visit to the +marvellous rock-shut valley of Baume-les-Messieurs, so called to +distinguish it from Baume-les-Dames near Besançon. The descent is made +on foot, and at first sight appears not only perilous but impracticable, +the zigzag path being cut in almost perpendicular shelves of rock. +This mountain staircase, or the "Échelle des Baumes," is not to be +recommended to those afflicted with giddiness. Little sunshine reaches +the heart of the gorge, yet below the turf is brilliant, a veritable +islet of green threaded by a tiny river. The natural walls shutting us +in have a majestic aspect, but playful and musical is the Seille as it +ripples at our feet. Travellers of an adventuresome turn can explore the +stalactite caverns and other marvels around; not the least of these is +a tiny lake, the depth of which has never been sounded. For half-a-mile +the valley winds towards the straggling village of Baume, and there the +marvels abruptly end. + +Nothing finer in the way of scenery is to be found throughout eastern +France. In the ancient Abbey Church are two masterpieces, a retable in +carved wood and a tomb ornamented with exquisite statuettes. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +NANCY. + +It is a pleasant six hours' journey from Dijon via Chalindrey to Nancy. +We pass the little village of Gemeaux, in which amongst French friends I +have spent so many happy days. + +From the railway we catch sight of the monticule crowned by an obelisk; +surmounting the vine-clad slopes, we also obtain a glimpse of its "Ormes +de Sully," or group of magnificent elms, one of many in France supposed +to have been planted by the great Sully. Since my first acquaintance +with this neighbourhood, more than twenty years ago, the aspect of the +country hereabouts has in no small degree changed. Hop gardens in +many spots have replaced vineyards, owing to the devastation of the +phylloxera. It was in the last years of the third Empire that the +inhabitants of Roquemaure on the Rhône found their vines mysteriously +withering. + +A little later the left bank was attacked, and about the same time the +famous brandy producing region of Cognac in the Charente showed +similar symptoms. The cause of the mischief, the terrible Phylloxera +devastatrix, was brought to light in 1868. This tiny insect is hardly +visible to the naked eye, yet so formed by Nature as to be a wholesale +engine of destruction, its phenomenal productiveness being no less fatal +than its equally phenomenal powers of locomotion. One of these tiny +parasites alone propagates at the rate of millions of eggs in a season, +a thousand alone sufficing to destroy two acres and a half of vineyard. +As formidable as this terrible fertility is the speed of the insect's +wings or rather sails according extraordinary ease of movement. A gust +of wind, a mere breath of air, and like a grain of dust or a tuft of +thistledown, this germ of destruction is borne whither chance directs, +to the certain ruin of any vineyard on which it lights. The havoc spread +with terrible rapidity. From every vine-growing region of France arose +cries of consternation. Within the space of a few years hundreds of +thousands of acres were hopelessly blighted. In 1878 the invader was +first noticed at Meursault in Burgundy; a few days later it appeared in +the Botanical Gardens of Dijon. The cost of replanting vineyards with +American stocks is so heavy, viz.: twenty pounds per hectare, that even +many rich vintagers have preferred to cultivate other crops. Some owners +have sold their lands outright. + +On quitting Is-sur-Tille we enter the so-called Plat de Langres, or +richly cultivated plains stretching between that town and Toul, in the +Department of the Meurthe and Moselle. + +With the almost sudden change of landscape--woods, winding rivers, and +hayfields in which peasants are getting in their autumn crop, literally +mauve-tinted from the profusion of autumn crocuses--we encounter +sharp contrasts, the events of 1870-1 changing the French frontier, +necessitating the transformation we now behold--once quiet, old-world +towns now wearing the aspect of a vast camp, everywhere to be seen +military defences on a wholly inconceivable scale. It is comforting to +hear from the lips of those who should know, that at the present time +war is impossible, the engines of warfare being so tremendous that the +result of a conflict would be simply annihilation on both sides. After +ten years' absence, and in spite of radical changes, the elegant, +exquisitely kept town of Nancy appears little altered to me. The ancient +capital of Lorraine is now one of the largest garrisons on the eastern +frontier, but the military aspect is not too obtrusive. Except for the +perpetual roll of the heavy artillery waggons and perpetual sight of the +red pantalon, we are apt to forget the present position of Nancy from a +strategic point of view. + +Other changes are pleasanter to dwell on. The Facultés, or schools of +medicine, science, and law, removed hither from Strasburg after the +annexation, have immensely increased the intellectual status of Nancy, +whilst from the commercial and industrial side the advance has been +no less. Its population has doubled since the events of 1870-1, and is +constantly increasing. Why so few English travellers visit this dainty +and attractive little capital is not easy to explain. More interesting +even than the artistic and historic collections of Nancy is the +celebrated School of Forestry. Formerly a few young Englishmen +were out-students of this school, but since the study had been made +accessible at home the foreign element at the time of my visit, +consisted of a few Roumanians, sent by their Government. The École +Forestière, courteously shown to visitors, was founded sixty years ago +and is conducted on almost a military system. Only twenty-four students +are received annually, and these must have passed severe examinations +either at the École Agronomique of Paris, or at the École Polytechnique. +The staff consists of a director and six professors, all paid by the +State. Two or three years form the curriculum and successful students +are sure of obtaining good Government appointments. Forestry being a +most important service, every branch of natural science connected with +the preservation of forests, and afforesting is taught, the school +collections forming a most interesting and wholly unique museum. Here we +see, exquisitely arranged as books on library shelves, specimens of +wood of all countries, whilst elsewhere sections from the tiniest to +the gigantic stems of America. Very instructive, too, are the models of +those regions in France already afforested, and of those undergoing +the process; we also see the system by means of which the soil is so +consolidated as to render plantation possible, namely, the arresting of +mountain torrents by dams and barrages. In the Dauphiné, and French +Alps generally, many denuded tracks are in course of transformation, the +expense being partly borne by the State and partly by the communes. It +is impossible to over-estimate the importance of such works, alike +from a climatic, economic, and hygienic point of view. The extensive +eucalyptus plantations in Algeria, teach us the value of afforesting, +vast tracks having been thereby rendered healthful and cultivable. + +A strikingly beautiful city, sad of aspect withal, is this ancient +capital of Lorraine, ever wearing half mourning, as it seems, for the +loss of its sister Alsace. + +Unforgettable is the glimpse of the Place Stanislas, with its bronze +gates, fountains, and statue, worthy of a great capital; of the +beautiful figure of Duke Antonio of Lorraine on horseback, under +an archway of flamboyant Gothic; of the Ducal Palace and its airy +colonnade; lastly, of the picturesque old city gate, the Porte de la +Crafie, one of the most striking monuments of the kind in France. + +All these things may be glanced at in an hour, but in order to enjoy +Nancy thoroughly, a day or two should be devoted to it, and creature +comforts are to be had in the hotels. + +In the Ducal Palace are shown the rich tapestries found in the tent of +Charles le Téméraire after his defeat before Nancy, and other relics of +that Haroun-al-Raschid of his epoch, who bivouacked off gold and silver +plate, and wore on the battle-field diamonds worth half a million. The +cenotaphs of the Dukes of Lorraine are in a little church outside +the town--the _chapelle ronde_, as the splendid little mausoleum is +designated, its imposing monuments of black marble and richly-decorated +octagonal dome, making up a solemn and beautiful whole. Graceful and +beautiful also are the monuments in the church itself, and those of +another church, des Cordeliers, close to the Ducal Palace. + +Nancy is especially rich in monumental sculpture, but it is in the +cathedral that we are enchanted by the marble statues of the four +doctors of the church--St. Augustine, St. Grégoire, St. Léon, and St. +Jerome. These are the work of Nicholas Drouin, a native of the town, +and formerly ornamented a tomb in the church of the Cordeliers just +mentioned. The physiognomy, expression, and pose of St. Augustine are +well worthy of a sculptor's closest study, but it is rather as a +whole than in detail that this exquisite statue delights the ordinary +observer. + +All four sculptures are noble works of art; the beautiful, dignified +figure of St. Augustine somehow takes strongest hold of the imagination. +We would fain return to it again and again, as indeed we would fain +return to all else we have seen in the fascinating city of Nancy. + +From Nancy, by way of Epinal, we may easily reach the heart of the +Vosges. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + +IN GERMANISED LORRAINE. + +At the railway station of Nancy, I was met by a French family party, my +hosts to be in a château on the other side of the French frontier. + +We had jogged on pleasantly enough for about half an hour, when the +gentlemen of the party, with (to me) perplexing smiles, briskly folded +their newspapers and consigned them, not to their pockets or rugs, but +to their ladies, by whom the journals were secreted in underskirts. + +"We are approaching the frontier," said Madame to me. + +I afterwards learned that only one or two French newspapers are allowed +to circulate in the annexed provinces, the _Temps_ and others, the +names of which I forget; for the first and second offence of smuggling +prohibited newspapers, the offender is subjected to a reprimand, the +third offence is punished by a fine, the fourth involves imprisonment. +Now, as all of us know who have lived in France, the _Figaro_ is a +veritable necessity to the better-off classes in France, the _Times_ to +John Bull not more so. Similarly, to the peasant and the artisan, the +_Petit Journal_ takes the place of the half-penny newspaper in England. +This deprivation is cruelly felt, and is part of the system introduced +by William II. + +Custom-house dues are at all times vexatious, but on the French-Prussian +frontier they are so arranged as to provoke patriotic feeling. It may +seem a foolish fancy for French folks, German subjects of the Kaiser, +to prefer French soap and stationery, yet what more natural than the +purchase of such things when within easy reach? Thus, on alighting at +the frontier, not only were trunks and baskets turned out, we were +all eyed from head to foot suspiciously. My hosts' newspapers were +not unearthed, certainly; perhaps their rank and position counted for +something. But one country girl had to pay duty on a shilling box of +writing paper, another was mulcted to half the value of a bottle of +scent, and so on. There was something really pathetic in the forced +display of these trifles, the purchasers being working people and +peasants. All French goods and productions are exorbitantly taxed. Thus +a lady must pay three or four shillings duty on a bonnet perhaps costing +twenty in France. On a cask of wine, the duty often exceeds the price of +its contents, and, according to an inexorable law of human nature, the +more inaccessible are these patriotic luxuries, so the more persistently +will they be coveted and indulged in. + +Custom House officials on the Prussian side have no easy time of it, +ladies especially giving them no little trouble. The duty on a new dress +sent or brought from France across the frontier is ten francs; and +we were told an amusing story of a French lady, who thought to neatly +circumvent the douane. She was going from Nancy to Strasburg to a +wedding, and in the ladies' waiting-room on the French side changed her +dress, putting on the new, a rich costume bought for the ceremony. +The officials got wind of the matter. The dress was seized and finally +redeemed after damages of a thousand francs! + +Persons in indifferent circumstances, however patriotic they may be, can +subsist upon German beer, soap, and writing paper. The blood tax, upon +which I shall say something further on, is a wholly different matter. + +A short drive brought us to a noble château, inside a beautifully wooded +park, the iron gateway showing armorial bearings. Indoors there +was nothing to remind me that I had exchanged Republican France for +autocratic Prussia. Guests, servants, speech, usages, books, were +French, or, in the case of the three latter, English. Every member of +the family spoke English, afternoon tea was served as at home, and the +latest Tauchnitz volumes lay on the table. + +Difficult indeed it seemed to realise that I had crossed the frontier, +that though within easy reach, almost in sight of it, the miss, alas! +Was as good as a mile. + +Alsace-Lorraine, I may here mention, is a verbal annexation dating +from 1871. Whilst Alsace was German until its conquest by Louis XIV., +Lorraine, the country of Jeanne d'Arc, had been in part French and +French-speaking for centuries. Alsace under French _régime_ retained +alike Protestantism and Teutonic speech. We can easily understand that +the changes of 1871 should come much harder to the Catholic Lorrainers +than to their Protestant Alsatian neighbours. + +Bitterness of feeling does not seem to me to diminish with time. On the +occasion of my third visit to Germanised France, I found things much +the same, the clinging to France ineradicable as ever, nothing like the +faintest sign of reconciliation with Imperial rule. + +One might suppose that, after a generation, some slight approach to +intercourse would exist among the French and Prussian populations. By +the upper classes the Germans, no matter what their rank or position, +remain tabooed as were Jews in the Ghetto of former days. + +At luncheon next day, my host smilingly informed me that he had filled +up the paper left by the commissary of police, concerning their newly +arrived English visitor. We are here, it must be remembered, in a +perpetual state of siege. + +"I put down Canterbury as your birthplace--" he began. + +"Good Heavens!" exclaimed I, "I was born near Ipswich." + +"Oh!" he said, smiling, "I just put down the first name that occurred to +me, and filled in particulars as to age, etc.," here he bowed, "after a +fashion which I felt would be satisfactory to yourself." + +This kind of domiciliary visit may appear a joking matter, but to live +under a state of siege is no subject for pleasantry, as I shall show +further on. Here is another instance of the comic side of annexation, if +the adjective could be applied to such a subject. In the salon I noticed +a sofa cushion, covered, as I thought to my astonishment, with the +Prussian flag. But my hostess smilingly informed me that, as the +Tricolour was forbidden in Germanised Lorraine, by way of having the +next best thing to it, she had used the Russian colours, symbol of the +new ally of France. + +Another vexation of unfortunate _annexés_ is in the matter of +bookbinding. French people naturally like to have their books bound in +French style, but it is next to impossible to get this done in Alsace. +If the books are bound in France, there is the extra cost of carriage +and duty. + +A very pleasant time I had under this French roof on German soil. Our +days were spent in walks and drives, our evenings entertained with music +and declamation. Now we had the Kreutzer Sonata exquisitely performed by +amateur musicians, now we listened to selections from Lamartine, Nadaud, +Victor Hugo and others, as admirably rendered by a member of this +accomplished family, all the members of which were now gathered +together. I saw something alike of their poorer and richer neighbours, +all of course being their country-people. This social circle, including +the household staff, was rigorously French. + +Let me now describe a Lorraine lunch, as the French _goûter_ or +afternoon collation is universally called, our hosts being a family of +peasant farmers, their guests the house party from the château. We had +only to drive a mile or two before quitting annexed France for France +proper, the respective frontiers indicated by tall posts bearing the +name and eagle of the German Empire and the R.F. of France. + +"You are now on French soil," said my host to me with a smile of +satisfaction, and the very horses seemed to realise the welcome fact. +Right merrily they trotted along, joyfully sniffing the air of home. + +The Lorraine villages are very unlike their spick and span neighbours of +Alsace, visited by me two years before. Why Catholic villages should be +dirty and Protestant ones clean, I will not attempt to explain. Such, +however, is the case. As we drove through the line of dung-heaps and +liquid manure rising above what looked like barns, I was ill-prepared +for the comfort and tidiness prevailing within. What a change when the +door opened, and our neatly dressed entertainers ushered us into their +dining-room! Here, looking on to a well-kept garden was a table spread +with spotless linen, covers being laid as in a middle-class house. +An armchair, invariable token of respect, was placed for the English +visitor; then we sat down to table, two blue-bloused men, uncle and +nephew, and three elderly women in mob caps and grey print gowns, +dispensing hospitality to their guests, belonging to the _noblesse_ +of Lorraine. There was no show of subservience on the one part, or of +condescension on the other. Conversation flowed easily and gaily as at +the château itself. + +I here add that whilst the French _noblesse_ and _bourgeoisie_ remain +apart as before the Revolution, with the peasant folk it is not so. +These good people were not tenants or in any way dependents on my +hosts. They were simply humble friends, the great tie being that of +nationality. The order of the feast was peculiar. Being Friday no +delicacy in the shape of a raised game pie could be offered; we +were, therefore, first of all served with bread and butter and _vin +ordinaire_. Then a dish of fresh honey in the comb was brought out; +next, a huge open plum tart. When the tart had disappeared, cakes +of various kinds and a bottle of good Bordeaux were served; finally, +grapes, peaches, and pears with choice liqueurs. Healths were drunk, +glasses chinked, and when at last the long lunch came to an end, we +visited dairy, bedrooms, and garden, all patterns of neatness. This +family of small peasant owners is typical of the very best rural +population in France. The united capital of the group--uncle, aunts and +nephew--would not perhaps exceed a few thousand pounds, but the land +descending from generation to generation had increased in value owing to +improved cultivation. Hops form the most important crop hereabouts. This +village of French Lorraine testified to the educational liberality of +the Republic. For the three hundred and odd souls the Government here +provides schoolmaster, schoolmistress, and a second female teacher for +the infant school, their salaries being double those paid under the +Empire. + +Now a word concerning the blood-tax. Rich and well-to-do French +residents in the annexed provinces can afford to send their sons across +the frontier and pay the heavy fines imposed for default. With the +artisan and peasant the case is otherwise. Here defection from military +service means not only lifelong separation but worldly ruin. To the +wealthy an occasional sight of their young soldiers in France is an easy +matter. A poor man must stay at home. If his sons quit Alsace-Lorraine +in order to go through their military service on French soil, they +cannot return until they have attained their forty-fifth year, and the +penalty of default is so high that it means, and is intended to mean, +ruin. There is also another crying evil of the system. French conscripts +forced into the German Army are always sent as far as possible from +home. If they fall ill and die, kith or kin can seldom reach them. +Again, as French is persistently spoken in the home, and German only +learnt under protest at the primary school, the young _annexé_ enters +upon his enforced military service with an imperfect knowledge of the +latter language, the hardships of his position being thereby immensely +enhanced. No one here hinted to me of any especial severity being shown +to French conscripts on this account, but we can easily understand the +disadvantage under which they labour. I visited a tenant farmer on the +other side of the frontier, whose only son had lately died in hospital +at Berlin. The poor father was telegraphed for but arrived too late, the +blow saddening for ever an honest and laborious life. This farmer was +well-to-do, but had other children. How then could he pay the fine +imposed upon the defaulter? And, of course, French service involved +lifelong separation. Cruel, indeed, is the dilemma of the unfortunate +_annexé_. But the blood-tax is felt in other ways. During my third stay +in Germanised Lorraine the autumn manoeuvres were taking place. This +means that alike rich and poor are compelled to lodge and cook for +as many soldiers as the authorities choose to impose upon them. I was +assured by a resident that poor people often bid the worn-out men to +their humble board, the conscripts' fare being regulated according to +the strictest economy. In rich houses, German officers receive similar +hospitality, but we can easily understand under what conditions. + +The annexed provinces are of course being Germanised by force. +Immigration continues at a heavy cost. Here is an instance in point. + +When Alsace was handed over to the German Government it boasted of +absolute solvency. It is now burdened with debt, owing, among many other +reasons, to the high salaries received by the more important German +officials; the explanation of this being that the position of these +functionaries is so unpleasant they have to be bribed into such +expatriation. Thus their salaries are double what they were under +French rule. Not that friction often occurs between the German +civil authorities and French subjects; everyone bears witness to the +politeness of the former, but it is impossible for them not to feel the +distastefulness of their own presence. On the other hand, the perpetual +state of siege is a grievance daily felt. Free speech, liberty of the +press, rights of public meeting, are unknown. Not long since, a peasant +just crossed the frontier, and as he touched French soil, shouted "Vive +la France!" On his return he was convicted of _lèse majesté_ and sent +to prison. Another story points to the same moral. At a meeting of a +village council an aged peasant farmer, who cried "We are not subjects +but servants of William II." Was imprisoned for six weeks. The occasion +that called forth the protest was an enforced levy for some public +works of no advantage whatever to the inhabitants. Sad indeed is the +retrospect, sadder still the looking forward, with which we quit French +friends in the portions of territory now known as Alsace-Lorraine. +And when we say "Adieu" the word has additional meaning. Epistolary +intercourse, no more than table-talk, is sacred. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + +IN GERMANISED ALSACE. + +Who would quit Alsace without a pilgrimage to Saverne and the country +home in which Edmond About wrote his most delightful pages and in which +he dispensed such princely hospitality? The author of "Le Fellah " was +forced to forsake his beloved retreat after the events of 1870-1; the +experiences of this awful time are given in his volume "Alsace," and +dedicated to his son--_pour qu'il se souvienne_--in order that he might +remember. Here also as under that Lorraine roof I felt myself in France. +At the time of my visit the property was for sale. French people, +however, are loth to purchase estates in the country they may be said +to inhabit on sufferance, while rich Germans prefer to build palatial +villas within the triple fortifications and thirteen newly constructed +forts which are supposed to render Strasburg impregnable. + +The railway takes us from Strasburg in an hour to the picturesque old +town of Saverne, beautifully placed above the Zorn. Turning our backs +upon the one long street winding upwards to the château, we follow a +road leading into the farthermost recesses of the valley, from which +rise on either side the wooded spurs of the lower Vosges. Here in +a natural _cul-de-sac_, wedged in between pine-clad slopes, is as +delightful a retreat as genius or a literary worker could desire. On the +superb September day of my visit the place looked its best, and warm +was the welcome we received from the occupiers, a cultivated and +distinguished French Protestant family, formerly living at Srasburg, but +since the events of 1870-1 removed to Nancy. They hired this beautiful +place from year to year, merely spending a few weeks here during the +Long Vacation. The intellectual atmosphere still recalled bygone days, +when Edmond About used to gather round him literary brethren, alike +French and foreign. Pleasant it was to find here English-speaking, +England-loving, French people. Nothing can be simpler than the house +itself, in spite of its somewhat pretentious tower of which About wrote +so fondly. His study is a small, low-pitched room, not too well lighted, +but having a lovely outlook; beyond, the long, narrow gardens, fruit, +flower and vegetable, one leading out of another, rising pine woods and +the lofty peaks of the Vosges. So remote is this spot that wild deer +venture into the gardens, whilst squirrels make themselves at home +close to the house doors. Our host gave me much information about the +peasants. Although not nearly so prosperous as before the annexation, +they are doing fairly well. Some, indeed, are well off, possessing +capital to the amount of several thousand pounds, whilst a millionaire, +that is, the possessor of a million francs or forty thousand pounds, is +found here and there. The severance from France entailed, however, one +enormous loss on the farmer. This was the withdrawal of tobacco culture, +a monopoly of the French State which afforded maximum profits to the +cultivator. With regard to the indebtedness of the peasant-owner, my +informant said that it certainly existed, but not to any great extent, +usury having been prohibited by the local Reichstag a few years before. +Again I found myself among French surroundings, French traditions, +French speech. Let me add, however, that I heard none of the passionate +regrets, recriminations, and wishes that had constantly fallen on my +ears ten years before. One prayer, and one only, seems in every heart, +on every lip, "Peace, peace--only let us have peace!" It must be borne +in mind that 20,000 French Alsatians quitted Strasburg alone, and that +those of the better classes who were unable to emigrate sent their young +sons across the frontier before the age of seventeen. Thus, by a gradual +process, the French element is being eliminated from the towns, whilst +in the country annexation came in a very different guise. + +This will be seen from the account of another excursion made with French +friends living in Strasburg. + +It is a beautiful drive to Blaesheim, southwest of the city, in a direct +line with the Vosges and Oberlin's country. We pass the enormous public +slaughterhouses and interminable lines of brand-new barracks, then under +one of the twelve stone gates with double portals that now protect the +city, leaving behind us the tremendous earthworks and powder magazines, +and are soon in the open plain. This vast plain is fertile and well +cultivated. On either side we see narrow, ribbon-like strips of maize, +potatoes, clover, hops, beetroot, and hemp. There are no apparent +boundaries of the various properties and no trees or houses to break +the uniformity. The farm-houses and premises, as in the Pyrenees, are +grouped together, forming the prettiest, neatest villages imaginable. +Entzheim is one of these. The broad, clean street, the large +white-washed timber houses, with projecting porches and roofs, may stand +for a type of the Alsatian "Dorf." The houses are white-washed outside +once a year, the mahogany-coloured rafters, placed crosswise, forming +effective ornamentation. No manure heaps before the door are seen +here, as in Brittany, all is clean and sightly. We meet numbers of +pedestrians, the women mostly wearing the Alsatian head-dress, an +enormous bow of broad black ribbon with long ends, worn fan-like on +the head, and lending an air of great severity. The remainder of the +costume--short blue or red skirt (the colours distinguishing Protestant +and Catholic), gay kerchief, and apron--have all but vanished. As +we approach our destination the outlines of the Vosges become more +distinct, and the plain is broken by sloping vineyards and fir woods. +We see no labourers afield, and, with one exception, no cattle. It is +strange how often cattle are cooped up in pastoral regions. The farming +here is on the old plan, and milch cows are stabled from January to +December, only being taken out to water. Agricultural machinery and new +methods are penetrating these villages at a snail's pace. The division +of property is excessive. There are no lease-holds, and every farmer, +alike on a small or large scale, is an owner. + +Two classes in Alsace have been partly won over to the German rule; one +is that of the Protestant clergy, the other that of the peasants. + +The Third Empire persistently snubbed its Protestant subjects, then, +as at the time of the Revocation, numbering many most distinguished +citizens. No attempts, moreover, were made to Gallicise the +German-speaking population of the Rhine provinces. Thus the wrench was +much less felt here than in Catholic, French-speaking Lorraine. Higher +stipends, good dwelling-houses and schools, have done much to soften +annexation to the clergy. An afternoon "at home" in a country parsonage +a few miles from Strasburg, reminded me of similar functions in an +English rectory. + +At the parsonage of Blaesheim we were warmly welcomed by friends, and +in their pretty garden found a group of ladies and gentlemen playing at +croquet, among them two nice-looking girls wearing the Alsatian _coiffe_ +that enormous construction of black ribbon just mentioned. These young +ladies were daughters of the village mayor, a rich peasant, and had been +educated in Switzerland, speaking French correctly and fluently. Many +daughters of wealthy peasants marry civilians at Strasburg, when they +for once and for all cast off the last feature of traditional costume. +After a little chat, and being bidden to return to tea in half an hour, +we visited some other old acquaintances of my friends, a worthy peasant +family residing close by. Here also a surprise was in store for me. The +head of the house and his wife--both far advanced in the sixties and +who might have walked out of one of Erckman-Chatrian's novels--could not +speak a word of French, although throughout the best part of their lives +they had been French subjects! + +Admirable types they were, but by no means given to sentiment or +romance. The good man assured me in his quaint patois that he did not +mind whether he was French, German, or, for the matter of that, English, +so long as he could get along comfortably and peacefully! He added, +however, that under the former _régime_ taxes had been much lower and +farming much more profitable. The good folk brought out bread and wine, +and we toasted each other in right hearty fashion. Over the sideboard +of their clean, well-furnished sitting room hung a small photograph of +William II. On our return to our first host we found a sumptuous five +o'clock tea prepared for the ladies, whilst more solid refreshments +awaited the gentlemen in the garden. + +Even in a remote corner of Alsace, memorialized by Germany's greatest +poet, we find pathetic clinging to France. + +Everyone has read the story of Goethe and Frederika, how the great poet, +then a student at the Strasburg University, was taken by a comrade to +the simple parsonage of Sesenheim, how the artless daughter of the house +with her sweet Alsatian songs, enchanted the brilliant youth, how he +found himself, as he tells us in his autobiography, suddenly in the +immortal family of the Vicar of Wakefield. "And here comes Moses too!" +cried Goethe, as Frederika's brother appeared. That accidental visit has +in turn immortalised Sesenheim. The place breathes of Frederika. It has +become a shrine dedicated to pure, girlish love. + +A new line of railway takes us from Strasburg in about an hour over the +flat, monotonous stretch of country, so slowly crossed by diligence in +Goethe's time. The appearance of the city from this side--the French +side--is truly awful: we see fortification after fortification, with +vast powder magazines at intervals, on the outer earthworks bristling +rows of cannon, beyond, several of the thirteen forts constructed since +the war. The bright greenery of the turf covering these earthworks does +not detract from their dreadful appearance. Past the vast workshops +and stores of the railway station--a small town in itself--past market +gardens, hop gardens, hayfields, beech-woods, all drenched with a +week of rain, past old-world villages, the railway runs to Sesenheim, +alongside the high road familiar to Goethe. We alight at the neat, +clean, trim station (in the matter of cleanliness the new _regime_ bears +the palm over the old), and take the flooded road to the village. An +old, bent, wrinkled peasant woman, speaking French, directs us for full +information about Frédérique--thus is the name written in French--to the +auberge. First, with no little interest and pride, she unhooks from +her own wall a framed picture, containing portraits of Goethe, and +Frederika, and drawings of church and parsonage as they were. The former +has been restored and the latter wholly rebuilt. + +As we make our way to the little inn over against these, we pass a +new handsome communal school in course of erection. On questioning two +children in French, they shake their heads and pass on. The thought +naturally arises--did the various French Governments, throughout the +period of a hundred and odd years ending in 1870, do much in the way of +assimilating the German population of Alsace? + +It would not seem so, seeing that up till the Franco-Prussian war the +country folk retained their German speech, or at least patois. Under +the present rule only German is taught in communal schools, and in +the gymnasiums or lycées, two hours a week only being allowed for the +teaching of French. At the Auberge du Bouf, over against the church and +parsonage, we chat with the master in French about Goethe and Frederika; +his womankind, however, only spoke patois. Here, nevertheless, we find +French hearts, French sympathies, and occasionally French gaiety. + +Unidyllic, yet full of instruction, is the drive in the opposite +direction to Kehl. We are here approaching friendly frontiers, yet the +aspect is hardly less dreadful. True that cannon do not bristle on the +outer line of the triple fortifications; otherwise the state of things +is similar. We see lines of vast powder magazines, enormous barracks +of recent construction, preparations for defence, on a scale altogether +inconceivable and indescribable. Little wonder that meat is a shilling +a pound, instead of fourpence as before the annexation, that bread has +doubled in price, taxation also, and, to make matters worse, that trade +has remained persistently dull! + +A tremendous triple-arched, stone gate, guarded by sentinels, has been +erected on this side of the lower Rhine, over against the Duchy of +Baden. No sooner are we through than our hearts are rejoiced with signs +of peace and innocent enjoyment, restaurants and coffee gardens, family +groups resting under the trees. Beyond, flowing briskly amid wooded +banks to right and left, is the Rhine, a glorious sight, compensating +for so many that have just given us the heartache. + +Of Strasburg I will say little. Full descriptions of the new city, for +such an expression is no figure of speech, are given in the English, +French, and German guide books. The first care of the German Government +after coming into possession was to repair the havoc caused by the +bombardment, the rebuilding of public buildings, monuments and streets +that had been partially or entirely destroyed in 1871. Among these were +the Museum and Public Library, the Protestant church, several orphanages +and hospitals, lastly, incredible as it may seem, the beautiful +octagonal tower of the Cathedral. The incidents of this vandalism have +just been graphically described in the new volume of the brothers' +Margueritte prose epic, dealing with the Franco-Prussian War, entitled +"Les Braves Gens." + +I remember writing on the occasion of my first visit to Strasburg, a few +years after these events--"There is very little to see at Strasburg now. +The Library with its priceless treasures of books and manuscripts, the +Museum of painting and sculpture, rich in _chefs d'oeuvre_ of the French +school, the handsome Protestant church, the theatre, the Palais de +Justice, were all completely destroyed by the Prussian bombardment, +not to speak of buildings of lesser importance, four hundred private +dwellings, and hundreds of civilians killed and wounded by the shells. +Nor was the cathedral spared, and would doubtless have perished +altogether also but for the enforced surrender of the heroic city." + +Since that sad time a new Strasburg has sprung up, of which the +University is the central feature. A thousand students now frequent this +great school of learning, the professorial staff numbering a hundred. +One noteworthy point is the excessive cheapness of a learned or +scientific education. Autocratic Prussia emulates democratic France. +I was assured by an Alsatian who had graduated here that a year's fees +need not exceed ten pounds! Students board and lodge themselves outside +the University, and, of course, as economically as they please. They +consist chiefly of Germans, for sons of French parents of the middle and +upper ranks are sent over the frontier before the age of seventeen in +order to evade the German military service. They thus exile themselves +for ever. This cruel severance of family ties is, as I have said, one +of the saddest effects of annexation. Without and within, the group +of buildings forming the University is of great splendour. Alike +architecture and decoration are on a costly scale; the vast corridors +with tesselated marble floors, marble columns, domes covered with +frescoes, statuary, stained glass, and gilded panels, must impress the +mind of the poorer students. Less agreeable is the reflection of the +taxpayer. This new Imperial quarter represents millions of marks, whilst +the defences of Strasburg alone represent many millions more. One of +the five facultés is devoted to Natural Science. The Museum of Natural +History, the mineralogical collections, and the chemical laboratories +have each their separate building, whilst at the extreme end of the +University gardens is the handsome new observatory, with covered way +leading to the equally handsome residence of the astronomer in charge. +Thus the learned star-gazer can reach his telescope under cover in +wintry weather. In addition to the University library described above, +the various class-rooms have each small separate libraries, sections +of history, literature, etc., on which the students can immediately lay +their hands. All the buildings are heated with gas or water. + +Just beyond these precincts we come upon a striking contrast--row after +row of brand-new barracks, military bakeries, foundries, and stores; +piles of cannon balls, powder magazines, war material, one would +think, sufficient to blow up all Europe. Incongruous indeed is +this juxtaposition of a noble seat of learning and militarism only +commensurate with barbaric times. A good way off is the School of +Medicine. This, indeed, owes little or nothing to the new régime, having +been founded by the French Government long before 1870. It is a vast +group of buildings, one of which can only be glanced at with a shudder. +My friend pointed out to me an annexe or "vivisection department." Here, +as he expressed it, is maintained quite a menagerie of unhappy animals +destined for the tortures of the vivisector's knife. The very thought +sickened me, and I was glad to give up sight-seeing and drop in for +half-an-hour's chat with a charming old lady, French to the backbone, +living under the mighty shadow of the Cathedral. She entertained me with +her experiences during the bombardment, when cooped up with a hundred +persons, rich and poor, Jew and Gentile, all passing fifteen days in a +dark, damp cellar. Many horrible stories she related, but somehow +they seemed less horrible than the thought of tame, timid, and even +affectionate and intelligent creatures, slowly and deliberately tortured +to death, for the sake, forsooth, of what? Of this corporeal frame +man himself has done his best to vitiate and dishonour, mere clayey +envelope--so theologians tell us--of an immortal soul! + +Strasburg, like Metz, is one vast camp, at the time of this second +visit the forty thousand soldiers in garrison here were away for the +manoeuvres. In another week or two the town would swarm with them. + +I will now say a few words about the administration of the annexed +provinces, a subject on which exists much misapprehension. + +As I have explained, no liberty, as we understand it, exists for the +French subjects of the German Emperor, neither freedom of speech, nor of +the press, nor of public meeting are enjoyed in Alsace and the portion +of Lorraine no longer French. A rigorous censorship of books as well +as newspapers is carried on. Even religious worship is under perpetual +surveillance. One by one French pastors and priests are supplanted +by their German brethren. A much respected pastor of Mulhouse, long +resident in that city and ardently French, told me some years ago that +he expected to be the last of his countrymen permitted to officiate. +Police officers wearing plain clothes attend the churches in which +French is still permitted on Sunday. There is nothing that can be called +representative or real parliamentary government. The Stadtholder or +Governor is in reality a dictator armed with autocratic powers. He +can, at a moment's notice, expel citizens, or stop newspapers. As to +administration, it rests in the hands of the State Secretariat or body +of Ministers, three in number. There is a pretence at home rule, but +one fact suffices to explain its character and working. Of the thirty +members forming the local Reichstag, sitting at Strasburg, fifteen are +always named by the Stadtholder himself. This little Chamber of Deputies +deliberates upon provincial affairs, all Bills having to pass the +Chamber at Berlin and receive the Imperial sanction before becoming law. +As to the party of protest in the Reichstag itself, formerly headed by +the late Jean Dollfuss, I was assured that it had ceased to exist. +Years before, then burdened with the weight of care and years, the great +patriot of Mulhouse had said to me, "I no longer take my seat at Berlin. +Of what good?" And were he living still, that great and good man, +burning as was his patriotism, inextinguishable as was his love for +France, would doubtless echo the words I now heard on every lip, "Peace, +peace; only let us have peace!" + +Whilst at Strasburg German has crowded out French, at Mulhouse I found +French still universally spoken. The prohibition of native speech in +schools is not only a domestic but a commercial grievance. As extensive +business relations exist between the two countries, especially near the +frontier, a knowledge of both French and German is really necessary +to all classes. Even tourists in Alsace-Lorraine nowadays fare badly +without some smattering of the latter language. Hotel-keepers especially +look to the winning side, and do their very utmost to Germanise their +establishments. Shopkeepers must live, and find it not only advantageous +but necessary to follow the same course. Sad indeed is the spectacle +of Germanised France! Nemesis here faces us in militarism, crushing +the people with taxation and profoundly shocking the best instincts of +humanity. + +In conclusion I must do justice to the extreme courtesy of German +railway and other officials. Many employés of railways and post +offices--all, be it remembered, Government officials--do not speak any +French at all, especially in out-of-the-way places. At the same time, +all officials, down to the rural postman, will do their very best to +help out French-speaking strangers with their own scant vocabulary of +French words. + +My Alsatian hosts, one and all, I found quite ready to do justice to +the authorities and their representatives, but, as I have insisted +upon before, an insuperable barrier, the fathomless gulf created by +injustice, exists between conquerors and conquered. And only last year +dining with my hosts of Germanised Lorraine in Paris, I asked them if in +this respect matters had changed for the better. The answer I received +was categoric--"Nothing is changed since your visit to us. French and +Germans remain apart as before." + +"East of Paris" has led me somewhat farther than I intended, but to +a lover of France, no less than to a French heart, France beyond the +Vosges is France still! + +THE END. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of East of Paris, by Matilda Betham-Edwards + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EAST OF PARIS *** + +***** This file should be named 8734-8.txt or 8734-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/7/3/8734/ + +Produced by Carlo Traverso, Debra Storr, Sandra Brown, +Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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