St. Martory 51 



displeased to have a little rest in the cool mountains after so 

 burning a ride. — 28 miles. 



10th. Finding our party not yet ready to set out on their 

 return to Paris, I determined to make use of the time there was 

 yet to spare, ten or eleven days, in a tour to Bagnere de Bigorre, 

 to Bayonne, and to meet them on the way to Bourdeaux at 

 Auch. This being settled, I mounted my English mare and 

 took my last leave of Luchon — 28 miles. 



nth. Pass a convent of Bernardine monks, who have a 

 revenue of 30,000 li\Tes. It is situated in a vale, watered by 

 a charming crystal stream, and some hills covered with oak 

 shelter it behind. — Arrive at Bagnere which contains httle 

 worthy of notice, but it is much frequented by company on 

 account of its waters. To the valley of Campan, of which I 

 had heard great things, and which yet much surpassed my 

 expectation. It is quite different from all the other vales I 

 have seen in the Pyrenees or in Catalonia. The features and 

 the arrangement novel. In general the richly cultivated slopes 

 of those mountains are thickly enclosed; this, on the contrary, 

 is open. The vale itself is a flat range of cultivation and watered 

 meadow, spread thickly with villages and scattered houses. 

 The eastern boundary is a rough, steep, and rocky mountain, 

 and affords pasturage to goats and sheep; a contrast to the 

 western, which forms the singular feature of the scene. It 

 is one noble sheet of corn and grass unenclosed, and intersected 

 only by lines that mark the division of properties, or the 

 channels that conduct water from the higher regions for irri- 

 gating the lower ones ; the whole hanging is one matchless slope 

 of the richest and most luxuriant vegetation. Here and there 

 are scattered some small masses of wood, which chance has 

 grouped with wonderful happiness for giving variety to the 

 scene. The season of the year, by mixing the rich yellow of 

 ripe corn, with the green of the watered meadows, added greatly 

 to the colouring of the landscape, which is upon the whole the 

 most exquisite for form and colour that my eye has ever been 

 regaled with. — Take the road to Lourde, where is a castle on a 

 rock, garrisoned for the mere purpose of keeping state prisoners, 

 sent hither by lettres de cachet. Seven or eight are known to be 

 here at present; thirty have been here at a time; and ma.ny 

 for life — torn by the relentless hand of jealous tyranny from 

 the bosom of domestic comfort; from wives, children, friends, 

 and hurried for crimes unknown to themselves — more probably 

 for virtues — to languish in this detested abode of misery — and 



