Béarn and the Pyrenees

When I first indulged the inclination, which I had long entertained, of visiting the famous castle of Chinon, and the equally interesting abbey of Fontevraud--the palace and tomb of our English kings--and paused on my way in "the lovely vales of Vire," and gathered in romantic Brittany some of her pathetic legends, I thought I should have satisfied my longing to explore France; but I found that every step I look in that teeming region opened to me new stores of interest; and, encouraged by the pleasure my descriptions had given, I set out again, following another route, to the regal city of Rheims, visiting the vine-covered plains of Champagne and Burgundy, and all their curious historical towns, till I reached the dominion of Charles the Seventh at Bourges, to become acquainted with whose gorgeous cathedral and antique palaces is worth any fatigue. From thence I wandered on to the beautiful Monts Dores, and the basaltic regions of unexplored Le Vellay; and, after infinite gratification, I once more turned my steps homeward; but, like Sindbad, I felt that there was much more yet to be explored; and I had visions of the romantic and delightful realms, which extend where once the haughty heiress of Aquitaine held her poetical courts of Love and Chivalry. The battle-fields of our Black Prince were yet to be traced; the sites of all the legends and adventures of the most entertaining of chroniclers, Froissart, were yet to be discovered; and the land of mountains and torrents, where the Great Béarnais passed his hardy childhood, was yet unknown to me.

I therefore again assumed my "cockle hat and staff," and, re-entering the Norman territory, commenced exploring, from the stone bed of the Conqueror, at Falaise, to the tortoise-shell cradle of Henry of Navarre, at Pau.

Not inferior to my two former pilgrimages, in interest, did this my third ramble prove. How many "old romantic towns" I passed through; how much of varied lore I heard and found amongst the still original and, even now, unsophisticated peasantry; how numerous were the recollections which places and things recalled, and how pleasant were the scenes I met, I have endeavoured to tell the lovers of easy adventure--for any traveller, with the slightest enterprise, could accomplish what I have done without fatigue, and with the certainty of being repaid for the exertion of seeking for amusement.

In succession, I paused at Le Mans, the scene of the great Vendéean struggle, where the majestic cathedral challenges the admiration of all travellers of taste; at Poitiers, full of antique wonders; in the region of the Serpent lady, Melusine; at Protestant La Rochelle, with all its battlements and turrets, and the most beautiful bathing-establishment in Europe. At mysterious Saintes, and all its pagan temples and arches; at Bordeaux, the magnificent; on the Garonne, and by its robbers'-castles; at Agen, with its barber troubadour; in the haunts of Gaston de Foix and Jeanne d'Albret and her son; in the gloomy valleys of the proscribed Cagot; and where the mellifluous accents of the Basquaise enchant the ear. All the impressions made by these scenes I have endeavoured to convey to my readers, as I did before, inviting them to follow my footsteps, and judge if I have told them true.

CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I.

Honfleur--Dejazet--The Sailor Prince--Le Mari--Lisieux--La Croix Blanche--Arrival at Falaise--Guibray--Castle of Falaise--The little Recess--Arlette--The Father--The Infant Hero--The Uncle--Arlette's Tears--Her Reception.

CHAPTER II.

Prince Arthur--Want of Gallantry Punished--The Recreant Sow--The Rocks of Noron--La Grande Eperonnière--Le Camp-ferme--Antiquities of Falaise--Alençon--Norman Caps--Geese--Le Mans--Tomb of Bérangère--Cathedral--Ancient Remains--Streets--The Veiled Figure.

CHAPTER III.

Tomb of Bérangère--Wives of Coeur de Lion--Tombs--Abbey Churches--Château of Le Mans--De Craon--The Spectre of Le Mans--The Vendéeans--Madame de la Roche-Jaquelin--A Woman's Perils--Disasters of the Vendéeans--Henri--Chouans.

CHAPTER IV.

The Museum of Le Mans--Venus--Mummy--Geoffrey-le-Bel--His Costume--Matilda--Scarron--Hélie de la Flèche--Rufus--The White Knight.

CHAPTER V.

Lude--Saumur Revisited--The Garden--La Petite Voisine--The Retired Militaire--Les Pierres Couvertes--Les Petites Pierres--Loudun--Urbain Grandier--Richelieu--The Nuns--The Victim--The Fly--The Malle Poste--The Dislodged Serpents.

CHAPTER VI.