314 CAMPS IN THE CARTBBEES. 



its walls are very thick, at least two feet, and it is 



covered with the durable brown tiles so in harmony 



with the landscape. In the eastern half are, or were, 



two large chambers extending two-thirds the length 



of the building, which is above one hundred feet long 



and fifty wide. The roof is fallen in at one place, 



and you can look into the interior of one of the cham- 

 j 



bers in which Josephine and her parents lived during 

 her youth. 



Ah, if those massive walls could speak ! Through 

 these low windows how many times has the youthful 

 empress looked out upon a landscape that once pos- 

 sessed all the beauties of the tropics ! Through the 

 wide doorway on the southern side how many times 

 has she descended to indulge in the gambols which 

 she loved so well ! 



I climbed to the great rafters, from which the floor- 

 ing had been many years removed, and looked through 

 those windows, and stood in the same doorway in which 

 the happy Josephine had so often stood — a doorway 

 bordered by blocksof granite, connecting the two cham- 

 bers. But there was nothing there to recall her who 

 had once illumined these walls by her presence, and 

 who had now been absent a hundred years. Above, 

 the roof was black with bats clustered in noisy groups, 

 hanging from the tiles ; beneath, the rafters ; and be- 

 low, the ground. The sun sank low behind the hills 

 that ringed this lovely valley round, and fell with fee- 

 ble glare through the rent in the roof that once had 

 sheltered an empress. Nothing could be evoked from 

 empty space ; I could merely say that T had seen the 

 home which once was hers, and had trodden ground 

 her feet had pressed. 



