of the grotto. Arrived there, we were obliged to stop to cool ourselves, for the air of the interior was actually freezing. I have always been disappointed in grottoes and caverns; and this, like all the rest which I have seen, gratified me but little. It was a vast hole in the mountain, filled with large petrifactions in a great variety of forms; one of which, descending from above in the shape of an elephant's trunk, kept pouring forth a heavy shower of water, forming pools, that emptied themselves into the river in the centre. It was altogether far more curious than beautiful; and whether it was that my mind was not in train to enjoy, or what, I know not, but I found little to interest and less to admire. However, after having dined at the Eaux Chaudes, on passing through the deep ravine by which we had come, we had again new subject for pleasure, in the view down the lovely Valley d'Ossau. We returned to it with that feeling which man experiences on coming back to something loved, and we naturally called it our valley. It was on the hills near the Eaux Bonnes that I first met with that luxuriance of flowers for which the Pyrenees are famous. The morning before our departure, I took a walk over the mountains to a cascade higher up in the valley than that which we had formerly seen, and in the course of an hour gathered more than forty different species of flowers, a great many of which I had rarely seen before. The butterflies were nearly as numerous, and as brilliant in colour, and I was almost tempted to catch some of them; but as I had no means of preserving them, to have done so would have been but useless cruelty. We lingered for several days at the Eaux Bonnes, enjoying ourselves much; for it was one of those spots in which we can well live," the world forgetting." Every morning offered some new expedition through beautiful scenery; and in wandering among the rocks and woods, by the side of the bright streams, and over the blue tops of those ancient mountains, a calm and placid thoughtfulness fell upon me, different in every respect both from the fits of dark gloom which had been so frequently my companions, and from the wild and reckless spirit of excitement, by conjuring up which, I strove at other times to gain assistance to wage my constant warfare against memory. VOL. II.-6 How long I might have remained there I do not know had I not been driven thence by a return of my mental malady, which, though the fits were less frequent, more easily banished, and less painful in their effects, had never left me entirely. At Bordeaux I had suffered once or twice from the same delusion; and I only seemed to escape by constant occupation of mind and body. In the present instance I had roamed out early one morning, and had climbed one of the highest mountains during the continuance of a fog, which I knew to be the forerunner of a bright summer day. I was alone; but I ascended the mountain side so far, as to have all the vapours below me, and to get the blue sky around me. The whole world below was covered with the fog, which lay condensed and even, like a calm wide ocean, while round about on every side, from the surface of the mist, rose innumerable the granite peaks of the mountains, offering the same aspect which doubtless they had done when they looked down, long centuries before, upon the universal deluge. It was an extraordinary scene, and I paused to gaze upon it long; but as the sun advanced, he dispelled the mists, and descending by the valley of the cascade, I stopped by the side of the falling water. After gazing upon it for a moment, I raised my eyes, when suddenly, through the spray of the fall and among the bushes on the other side, I saw again that fearful countenance. Covering my eyes with my hand, to shut it out, I hurried back to the inn, and told my friend B- what had occurred. "Let us return to Pau," was his only reply, and we accordingly set out at once. My command over my mind, however, was now greater than it formerly had been; and ere we reached that place I had regained my calmness, and was prepared to act my allotted part with the rest. THE FRIENDS. Nor purpose gay, Amusement, dance, or song, he sternly scorns, Are of the social still and smiling kind. THOMSON. OUR Cook-yes, our cook-for we took it into our heads to keep house at Pau, and did not repent of it, for Therese behaved as well in our household as ever girl did; and besides other merits, could make fruit tarts and British dishes, having lived two years with the English family that I have said we met at Aire. Our cook then, on our return from the Eaux Bonnes, was called upon for her accounts, inasmuch as cooks must eat and drink like other animals, and we had told her to provide herself with what she liked during our absence. Her bread and her wine formed a regular weekly bill apart, but further than that, her expenses amounted to-and she was as fine a fat rosy-cheeked lass as one would wish to see-amounted to the sum of three halfpence per diem. I could scarcely forbear laughing, but I did so for the good of society. If I had laughed she would have charged the next people twopence a day, as long as she lived, and rightly too, for surely no one would be economical and laughed at for their pains. Two days after our first arrival in this little capital of the Basses Pyrenees, we strolled down into a valley below the town, and loitered along by the banks of the river; seeing several groups pass us, knowing no one, and known of none, and perhaps not wishing a little to place ourselves in the midst of some of them, and have our share of the conversation of Pau as well as the rest. At length, however, a party came near, and I began to have a strange undefined remembrance of the form of one of the persons composing it. I was not wrong, I had known her just before she left school; there was all the change from an interesting girl to a lovely young wo man; but it was the same person, and she had not for gotten me either. We were kindly greeted, and quickly became no longer strange even with the rest of the party. To know them was to have the highest regard for them all. We were glad to seek their acquaintance, and acquaintance soon ripened into friendship. Within their little circle we found all that could be desiredtalents, and grace, and cheerfulness, and nature, and in their society we had some of the happiest hours we met with on the Continent. Whether my companion had told tales of my rhyming propensities, or whether I had been my own accuser, I forget: but I was soon called upon for verses and drawings. I agreed to contribute if others would do so too; and we once more drew a magic circle round us, in which the spirit of poetry and romance rose up and whiled away many an hour at our bidding. Some of the pieces which I myself contributed I know were bad enough. I was sorry that I had written them; but I now only remember one or two, the rest of the tales and anecdotes were given by others. The first thing of the kind which I shall transcribe was occasioned by a lady accusing me of having composed nothing for herI asked for a subject, but she replied that I must choose one myself, she would give me "nothing." NOTHING. "O quantum est in rebus inane !" "Tis nothing all-our hopes, our fears, "Tis nothing all-the splendid earth, The emmet man toils on in vain To monument his hours of pain, Tracing on all that he destroys "Tis nothing all-the mighty man Who conquer'd realms and worlds o'erran; Rome! Rome! where is the wealth, the power, Thy tyrant standard which, unfurl'd, 'Tis nothing all-and Canna's plain, And Carthage' towers, and Leuctra's slain, And all the deeds that deadless seem, Are broken, like an idle dream. Without the better hope that flows And yet we love to leave behind And when Time's work is wrought on me One of the families of which our little circle was now composed had passed some time in Brittany; and among the first stories contributed was one by Colonel Cunder the awful title of, "Le Sorcier," preceded by some observations upon that province 6* |