The first apartment we were shown into contained the prisoners sentenced to detention for longer or shorter periods, according to their crimes. They were all working hard, and, seemingly, cheerfully; and the jailer told me, that a great object of those to whom the government of the prison was committed was to give the prisoners habits of industry, and to prevent them, by all means, from becoming utterly debased; so that, when they again receive their liberty, they may become better members of society instead of worse. Their principal occupation

seemed in straw work; and as this is an easy and light task, and fills up the moments which would otherwise prove tedious in confinement, they all appeared rather glad of it than otherwise. A portion of the emolument proceeding from their labour goes towards defraying the expenses of the prison, and a portion is reserved for the prisoner, in order that, when he goes back into the world, he may not again be driven to crime by poverty.

We next visited the apartment where were confined prisoners who had incurred severer punishment. They were generally persons condemned to the galleys for seven years or for life, and were waiting here till their sentence should be put in execution. When we entered there were several groups playing at piquet for sums of one or two sous. Among others was a lawyer, who had been sentenced to the galleys for forgery. I have generally remarked that those condemned for any serious crime have a heavy stupid expression of countenance and dull unmeaning eye; but this man was an exception. In his face there was plenty of keen, piercing cunning, with a touch of sarcastic bitterness, which showed itself also in his speech. He spoke to us for some time, and, like all villains, tried to darken his view of mankind till it became of the same hue as his own character. He took it for granted that all men were rascals, but only that he had been an unfortunate one.

From hence we went to the dungeons, where still deeper crimes awaited their reward. A damp obscure stone passage led to the cell where two murderers were confined expecting their execution. They were Spaniards, and had left nothing in the perpetration of their crime to excite anything but horror. Their victim had been one of their countrymen, who, having fled from the troubles and dangers which distressed his native land, had contrived to carry away a small sum to support him in his exile; and this proved the cause of their guilt and of his death. The evidence against them had left not a doubt of the facts, but yet they were suffered to linger on from week to week, not knowing which day would be their last, while (as we were told) the Spanish ambassador pleaded their cause at Paris, and endeavoured to procure a commutation of their punishment, on account of their having shown themselves staunch royalists, They seemed to be heavily and almost cruelly chained,

but nevertheless to mind it but little, smoking their cigars, 'and counting their rosaries with great sang froid.

I spoke a few words to them in Spanish concerning their situation, to which they replied without any show of feeling, appearing very cheerful, quite careless about dying, and not particularly contrite.

Although there can be no doubt that the long habit of indulging in any passion gives a peculiar expression to the countenance and sometimes even a cast to the features, I put little faith in physiognomy, in the general acceptation of the word; but I could not help remarking, that the heads of these two men were precisely similar to those of all murderers whom I have seen, almost spherical in shape, with the forehead low but rather protuberant, and the eye dull and heavy.

We went next to see the room in the castle where Jeanne d'Albret brought forth the heroic Henry IV., heard the story of her singing even in the pains of childbirth in order that the infant might prove a strong and resolute man, and were gratified with a sight of the tortoise shell in which he was cradled-though be it remarked that one tortoise-shell cradle was burned during the revolution. Afterward, however, the governor of the castle produced the present one as genuine, asserting that the one demolished was not that which had served the monarch for a cradle. Thus that which is shown at present has acquired the additional interest of uncertainty, notwithstanding which, the Bourbon family have surrounded it with gilt helmets and spears, tinsel and tawdry, which might well suit a toyshop, but not the birthplace of Henri Quatre.

As we were to set out very early the next morning for the mountains, we proposed to rest early, but did not fulfil that purpose. On the contrary, we sat late talking over all the pleasant moments which we had snatched from fate, in the little capital of Bearn, and our lucubrations ended in an

ADIEU TO PAU.

ADIEU, perchance for but a day,
Perchance for many a year;

While life's bright part shall slip away,
And Hope shall yield to Memory,
With many a tear.

But if Imagination too,

Be not among things been,

Her magie power shall call to view,
The kind, the good, that brightened you,
Repeopling the scene.

Adieu, sweet congress of fair things,
Stream, mountain, valley, plain;

And e'en when Time man's winter brings,
Remembrance still shall lend me wings,
To visit thee again.

LOURDES.

Dim grottoes, gleaming lakes, and fountains clear.

I BELIEVE it to be all the same, after all, whether a man travels or not; he's a stupid, cross-grained, drudging animal, not half so good as the horse that drags him on his road. Blessed with reason, it serves him less than the instinct of the brute; with experience constantly flogging him for his errors, he never corrects them; half of his time he forgets what is right, and when he remembers it he never puts it in practice.

Such were my reflections on finding-what? that John had forgotten that most indispensable requisite to an Englishman's comfort, the teakettle, at the instant we were leaving Pau. He had done so at every place where he had stopped on the road, and now he had to bring it down stairs, to tie it on the carriage, to cover it with the oilskin, and, in short, to detain the whole party, postillion, and horses, and all, for at least five minutes.

Now, being very well aware that when I begin to moralize on trifles, I am never in the best humour in the world; and judging by this infallible sign that I was in an ill temper, from having got up at four o'clock in the morning, I placed myself deep in the corner of the carriage, and pretended to fall asleep, for fear I should quarrel with my companion, which, Heaven knows, would have been no easy matter. However, as the carriage drove out of Pau, and began rolling along, in a

dull gray morning, over smooth ground, it became no longer a pretence, and I began seriously to make reparation for my morning's idleness-I nean for not having slept; as I consider not to sleep at the moments properly appropriated for it just as great a piece of idleness as any other misuse than man makes of his time.

I finished my nap as we crossed a bridge over the Gave, not very far from Lastelle. My friend, who, it appears, had occupied himself much like myself, woke up at the same time, and looked back to Pau, which we saw diminishing afar; I am sure we both thought of the friends we left there, of the kindness they had shown to wandering strangers, and the peaceful hours we had known in their society. I may never more see them again; if so, God bless them, for I am sure they deserve it.

It was scarcely past midday when we arrived at Lour. des. The approach is not unlike some of Mrs. Radcliffe's descriptions: the hills beginning to rise high and craggy on each side, with a wild torrent rushing in a valley below; and beyond, the castle of Lourdes, starting up on a high rock in the midst, sometimes seen and sometimes hidden, as the road winds along the side of the mountain. It was market day at Lourdes, and a curious scene, the whole place being impassable for the crowd of the Bearnais, with their Calmuck countenances and broad berrets, and the Bearnaises, each covered with a red or white triangular hood, edged with a black border, hiding the greater part of the head, and falling low down on the shoulders.

I have before mentioned the sightseeing propensities of my companion and myself; and though I had abjured grottoes, as the most unsatisfactory of all things, the first of our movements was towards the "Spelunque (or cavern) du Loup." It lies some way on the other side of the river; and, on arriving, we found the entrance so low that we were obliged to go in, not upon our hands and knees, but upon our faces. "The guide went first, and then my friend, who is six feet three, so that I thought he would never have done-there was such a quantity of him.

The cave widens rapidly after the entrance, elevating itself to a great height, and resembling in many places the niches and aisles of a Gothic cathedral. In the end it is terminated by a deep well, into which the guide