Commis Voyageurs-The King of the Pyrenean Dogs-The

which start in every direction from it as a common centre. The main feature of the town is a huge square, nine-tenths of the houses being glaring white-washed hotels, with messageries on the groundfloors. Diligences by the score lie scattered around; and every now and then the dogs'-meat old horses who draw them go stalking solemnly across the square beneath the stunted lime-trees. There is an adult population of conductors, with silver ear-rings, and their hands in their pockets, always lounging about; and a juvenile population of shoe-blacks, who swarm out upon you, and take your legs by storm. Tarbes is the best place-excepting, perhaps, Arles-for gett

have

ple

The great hotel rose on two sides, and

e girl, "until

sty smell. The last family had been gone a fortnight. Our footsteps echoed like Marianne's. It was decidedly a foreign edition, uncarpeted and waxy-smelling,

om. Monsieur may choose whatever room he ple

n a mouse; a parrot would have been invaluable-it would have shouted and screamed. But no; the hush of the place was like the Egyptian darkness-it was a thick silence, which could be felt. At length the table-d'h?te bell rang. The salle à manger was in the building across the yard. Thither I repaired, and found a room, or rather a lon

was tolerably crowded; and I got into conversation with a group of townspeople round the white Fayence stove. I abused the weather-never had seen such weather-might live a century in England, and not have such a dreary spell of rain-and so forth. The anxiety of the good people to defend the reputation of their climate was excessive. They were positively frightened at the prospect of a word being breathed in England against the skies of the Pyrenees in general, and those of Bagnerre in particular. The oldest inhabitant was appealed to, as never having remembered such weather at Bagnerre. As for the summer, it had been more than heavenly. All the springs were delightful; the autumns were invariably charming; and the winters, if possible, the best of the four. The present rain was extraordinary-exceptional-a sort of phenomenon, like a comet or a calf with two heads. One of these worthies, understanding that however strong my objections were to fog and drizzle, I was not by any

id to the girl next me; "how much

n. "Tell the gentleman, my dear, how much Mes

," said the

ary sous! This was worse th

an big sous where they once made francs; but all the trades of the poor are going to the devil.

ous specimen of the odd twists which unregulated and unintelligent ponderings sometimes give a man's mind. His grand notion seemed to be, that whatever might be the isolated cr

ly like to find the orator who would make that clear to his mind. It was terrible to see how men perverted the gifts of Nature! How could I, or any one else, prove to him that the

ion in the man's mind between analogy and resemblance. As I could not but admit that the two operations were conducted quite in a different fashion, my gratified opponent, not to be too hard upon me, warily changed the immediate subject of conversation. I was not a native of this part of France? Not a native of France at all? Then I came from some place far away? Perhaps from across the sea? From England! Ah! well, indeed, there was an English lady married, abo

ing proof of human malignity. It was more horrib

aking his head mournfully at each iteration,-"Steam!

the web, he added heartily: "After all, their moving iron and wood will never make t

case? I left the good man busily pursuing his avocation, and lamentin

in a moment. Anon I would get a glimpse of a long vista of valley, which next minute would be a mass of grey nonentity. The mist-wreaths rose and rolled beneath me and above me. Sometimes I would be enveloped as in a dense white smoke; then the fog-bank would flee away, ascending the broad breast of the hill before me, and wrapping trees, and rocks, and pastures in its shroud. All this time the wind blew a gale, and roared among the wrestling pines. Sometimes the sun looked out, and lit with fiery splendour the rolling masses of the fog, with some partial patch of landscape; and, altogether, the effect, the constant movement of the mist, the wild, hilly landscape appearing and disappearing, the glimpses occasionally vouchsafed of the distant plain of Gascony, sometimes dimly seen through the driving vapours, sometimes golden bright in a partial blaze of sunshine,-all this was very striking and fine. At length, however, I reached the Palombiere, situated upon the ridge of the hill-which cost

orth to go to Spain, and they keep near the tops of the hills. Well, suppose a flock c

nier! what

d he shouted to the boy in th

-waving his arms, and at length launching into the air a missile w

it breaks the flight of the birds, and they

ly the wall of nets, which was balanced with

imagine that the birds are strugg

ORKS AT

t magnificent fellow, who, as you enter the yard, will rise from his haunches, like a king from his throne, and, walking up to you with a solemn magnificence of step which is perfect, will wag his huge tail, and lead you-you cannot misunderstand the invitation-to the counting-house door. For vastness of brow and j

who showed me the works, "you h

not dispose of him: he is fond of the place and the people here; so that, though we might sell him, h

will take good care to keep at a distance from them," and "English ladies will be cautious of presenting themselves at a French table-d'h?te, except"-in certain cases specified. Now, I agree with Mr. Murray, that commercial travellers, French and English, are not distinguished by much polish of manner, or elegance of address; on the contrary, the style of their proceedings at table is frequently slovenly and coarse, and their talk is almost invariably "shop." In a word, they are not educated people, or gentlemen. But when we come to such expressions as "selfish, brutal, and depraved," I think most English travellers in France will agree with me, that the aristocratic hand-book maker is going more than a little too far. I have met scores of clever and intelligent commis voyageurs-hundreds of affable, good-humoured ones-thousands of decent, inoffensive ones. In company with a lady, I have dined at every species of table-d'h?te, in every species of hotel, from the Channel to the Mediterranean, and the Bay of Biscay to the Alps, and I cannot call to mind one instance of rudeness, or voluntary want of civility,

s, half weavers, like the Saddleworth peasants, in Yorkshire-a jolly set-all sporting men, too, who give up their looms, and go into the woods after bears as boldly as Sir Peter de Bearne. And I would like, too, to try to bring before my reader's eye the viney valley of the Ariege, and the deep ravines through which the stream goes foaming, spanned by narrow bridges, each with a tower in the centre, where the warder kept his guard, and opened and shut the huge, iron-bound doors, and dropped and raised the portcullis at pleasure. And these old feudal memorials bring me to the castles and ruined towers so thickly peopling the land where lived the bands of adventurers, as Froissart calls them, by whom the fat citizens of the towns were wont to be "guerroyés et harriés," and most of which have still their legends of desperate sieges, and, too often, of foul murders done within their dreary walls. Pass, as I perforce must, however, and gain Provence-there is yet one legendary tale I cannot help telling. It is one of the best things in Froissart, and a little twisting would give it a famous satiric significance against a class of bores of our own day and generation. It relates to the lord of a castle not far from Tarbes, and was told to Froissart by a squire, "in a corner of the chapel of Orthez," during the visit paid by the canon to Gaston Ph?bus, Count of Foix-who, I am sorry to say, h

Foix was perfect in body and mind, and no contemporary princ

you could take a bribe with any man of your time, and having done so, you could attempt to deceive posterity, and wr

riest, who being unable to obtain his dues by ordinary legal or illegal remedies, sent a spirit to haunt the castle of Corasse. This spirit proceeded to perform his mission by making a dreadful hallabuloo all night long, and breaking the crockery-s

st is a poor devil, and will never be able to pay you handsomely. Thro

but only heard, insisted on keeping his friend, the baron, chatting all night. But the charms of Orthon's conversation at length palled, particularly as they kept the baron night after night from his natural rest; so he took to despatching the demon all over Europe, collecting information for him of all that was going on in the courts and councils of princes, and at the scene of war where there happened to be fighting. Still,

. "Let me in, Let me in. I have news for thee from Hungary or England," as the case might be; and the baron, groan

eep, for Heaven's sake!"

il I have told thee the news;" and he would go on with his budget of foreign intelligence til

peared, and Orthon was never seen after. I suspect, however, that Sir John was hoaxed in this respect. He clearly did not see the fun of the story, which is very capable of being resolved into an allegory-the fact being that the demon was