ness not to be believed on hear-say, and festooning | citement and adventure that keeps the spirit alive, and with the providential security of a drunken man, who works heathfully on the body through the medium of reels to the very edge of a precipice, but rarely over it. the mind. The accidents of such a life, and its enjoy"The Grange de la Reine takes its name from a visit ments, entirely unclouded by any qualm of conscience, to it by the ex-queen of Holland (Hortense,) who for it is the customhouse officer, not the smuggler, paused long upon its beauty; so did we, long and de- who is here considered as the robber,-endear it to lightedly. Before us rose the lofty Monné and its tall those who adventure in its course. If they are pinchcompeers, with the dark gorge of Cauteretz lengthened to-day, their sacks and wine-skins may be replenishing to the right, and the open valley of Angeles appeared to-morrow; if the morning rain wets them. through, ing in a light as soft as daybreak beyond it; while to the left the bold Pic de Peygara showed off proudly in an advantageous twilight. Looking against it as darkness falls, its fine pyramidal form seems to detach itself more firmly, its base to spread, its woods to blacken and grow more massive; while the green inclosures below, fed by streams and dotted with peaceful habitations, the quiet grange, the mellow thatch, seen dimly through the low trees, still keep some colouring of light on their brighter surface. "I know of nothing so beautiful as the shut of evening in the mountain gorges, when the deepening twilight falls like the shadow of an angel's wing upon the landscape, and the light of day still lies, as if upon another world, on the distant opening, as hope does on the threshold of the heart, though darkness may be in its inner chambers. But when is the hour in which the lights of heaven are not beautiful? Even the dreary or the angry ones have beauty in them to the eye that seeks it, a sullen beauty, perhaps a fearful one; but how lifted above all common-place impressions are those which the soul receives from its contemplation! they can generally reckon on good drying ground at night: often journeying in bands, always in movement, their versatile life forms a striking contrast to the melancholy monotony of a pastoral existence. After a hazardous or toilsome course, the luxury of rest, of welcome, perhaps of home, awaits them: or if their hearth be distant, the warm greetings of a familiar host, the snug shelter of an habitual corner where there coming is looked for, their return expected; a bench by the bright fire of the humble inn, a seat by the smoking olio, kept for the well-known visiter, whose periodical visits seldom fail, almost supply its place. "But the poor shepherd-the real one-has no such comfortable compensations: wrapped in his cloak of sheep's-skin, he watches his flock on the high mountains; and, cut off for many months from all communication with home or friends, paces away his hours on his solitary heath, employed perhaps in knitting the coarse stockings meant to constitute his winter provision. His days are passed in the solitude of the wild, his nights in the solitude of his hut; he eats his cake of maize, and swallows his draught of milk in silence, and lies down to rest without a living soul near him to whom he can say 'God bless you! Even the sabbathbell, that tolls in all within its sound to the general act of pious acknowledgment, has no voice in the desert; and the prayer which we are taught to hope will be accepted when two or three are gathered together in the name of God, must be pronounced alone."Vol. i. pp. 303-304. The following observations on the inhabitants in general are as just as they are well expressed. "I think I should dearly love to be transported now and then on a warm cloud to the top of some high mountain at the setting of the sun, or under the pale circle of the moon, to see the golden eye close, and hear the chimes of heaven, or at the early daybreak, when the young light seems to lift up the darkness that hangs heavily upon it; but as it is I am bound to the valleys, and there are many sweet bits and corners here that reconcile one to an humbler level, such as the bank on which we now repose, listening to the rough "The seemingly (and, I believe, really) happy conwaters, woods running upwards from the eye, ledges dition of the peasants here, who are usually small proprojecting towards it, and the mountain rents making prietors, and, as their dress denotes, sufficiently at ease wild vistas that, as the day lightens or the evening to lay by for a certain degree of luxury, makes the falls upon them, assume various and mystical aspects, seriousness of their habitual deportment, as contrasted shadowing out a land that one might imagine traversed with the lively image previously formed of French volaby other hunters than the brown berrêts that clamber tility, appear remarkable to strangers; who, drawing up after the bears; though the last perhaps becomes it their idea of national character from imperfect sources, best, and are more native to the rude mountains than believe a Frenchman to be a portion of organized quickthe plumed spectres of the gallant knights, Counts of silver, and that those who are not gay must be dull. Bigorre and chieftains of Bearn, who still fight and hunt But the fact is that Frenchmen, now everywhere in song and story over the dark Pyrenees. Yet only in thinkers, are influenced, like all other people, by the song and story, for their material presence has vanished moral and physical atmosphere which surrounds them; with the châteaux and the chatelains, to make way for and the shepherd or small farmer here, as in other the metairie and the red capulet."-Vol. i. pp. 296-298. mountain-valleys, condemned by his lonely calling, reThere is much truth in the contrasted simplicity of mote abode, and the long inclement winter to which his the muleteers and shepherds, the principal living fea- bleak position subjects him, to frequent solitude or tures of those wild scenes. home seclusion, becomes grave from habit, not from intellectual deficiency. From the same cause his atItachment to the objects that interest him becomes stronger; those are few, and often confined to his flock, his hut, and his mountains. If they should be shared with dearer objects, they are still few. Affection is not scattered over a large space, or weakened by many divisions; it is concentrated, and therefore deep. Those who live in the world love so many things, and love them in such various ways, that it loses its body, and "The Spanish muleteers are said to be a fine race. saw a sample at Pau, with a fringed instep and a slashed knee, and so hung about with aigulets and other gauderies, that at a distance I thought he jingled, and could almost have fancied that he had as many bells upon him as his mule. But theirs is a joyous, careless, varying life, and as they are always smugglers as well as muleteers, has something in it of ex becomes expanded into thinness; but in a remote spot, nues of plain trees ray out from Mont de Marsan, prethe calls upon the heart are few and stationary, and the facing a thickety country" (vol. i. p. 158.); "The purprodigious influence which habit has over our sympathies would of itself account for the attachment which the inhabitants of unfrequented countries feel for their mountains and their valleys, even if the natural instinct and memory of love, which attaches us to the place of our birth and the scenes of our childhood never existed." -Vol. ii. pp. 33, 34. The following brief passage gives a just and eloquent comparison between the scenery of the Pyrenees and the Alps, and the effect they severally produce on the mind. pling vapours, the crown-all of the landscape, the secret of its mind and mystery" (p. 178.); "And be neath is our old gossip the river, gabbling to the trees that wash their roots in its waters" (p. 195). But we will not, though we might, multiply those blemishes which detract in little or nothing from the merit of the book. Our authoress has, no doubt, played the game of ecarté in France? We strongly recommend her then, treating her present work on the principle of that very philosophical game, to throw out all the extraneous matter, preserving the passages which may be fairly called trumps; then adding a few notes of distances, expenses of living, and other useful accessories to the most romantic tour, republish in the form of a pocket volume, and we predict for it an extensive sale, and for the authoress a steady reputa tion. "Pastoral poets and landscape painters would perhaps prefer the Pyrenees to Switzerland; its scenery is softer, warmer, more Arcadian; it has more richness and glow, a finer fusion of tints and more harmony of tone than usually belongs to the strong contrasts and decided outlines of Swiss landscape; but it has not the same generally daring character, the same universal strength and mightiness. None will refuse to admit that there is great force and sublimity in the high regions of the Pyrenees, when the lovely majesty of Nature enthrones itself in the desert; all will allow the infinite, the ineffa-finished them before he arrived at the right one. He ble beauty of the softer part of Switzerland; but it is of the general character of each country that I speak, not of individual scenes. "The sentiment inspired by the contemplation of nature in Switzerland is often profoundly melancholy; there is awe in it, and great grandeur. The soul no longer looks through a glass darkly, but stands face to face with those high intelligences of which before it had only gleams. But there is too much coming and going, too much jostling and crowding, too much talking of scenes and projects, for the full indulgence of the intense and solitary feeling which seeks in a world of its own the sympathies that quadrate with its newly-winged desires; but this, it is true, is the fault, not of place, but circumstance. In the Pyrenees the general aspect of nature is softer, and, if I may say so, more touching; it acts more upon the affections of the heart, and links itself more with our ordinary and human feelings; while we dwell upon it the mind, full of belief, of happiness, of confirmation, bears upwards; yet with a love of the beautiful earth, a sentiment of its delights, a willingness to linger on it, as if it were another word for heaven: while in the loftier and more solemn regions of the Swiss mountains, it flutters to disengage itself from the interests of life, and tries to lose its present identity in the wide openings which heaven seems to make for it." -Vol. ii. p. 220. Mr. Murray began his travels at the wrong end, and started from Perpignan and stopped at Pau, thus choos ing the very ground denuded of all immediate interest, to the exclusion of that which was rife with events that keep all Europe on the qui vive. Had he made Navarre the scene of his first or his latest excursions, or let his voice come to us On Fontarabian echos borne, we could have pardoned a good deal of prolixity in consideration of the subjects which he must have introduced; and he would thus have bespoken attention for the more obscure localities of his course, and to which the hunting excursions he speaks of, but does not describe, might have afforded matter of stirring illustra tion. Mr. Murray entered on his rambles with apparently a most ignorant indifference to all that was previously written on the subject, and holds himself forth as a sort of second-rate Columbus, the discoverer of a world of wonders unheard of before his time. He asserts that there are no works treating of the objects he undertook to examine, "with the exception of those of the French geological writers," under which term we suppose he includes all the scientific authors, some of whom we After so many specimens of beauty and good taste have enumerated. He seems to have picked up a we may be allowed, in confirmation of some of our volume of Ramond on his way, (a translation of which, opening observations, to object to expressions like the instead of his original lucubrations, would have been following, which are rather profusely scattered through- a valuable offering to the English public,) and in an out, and are painful instances of that idiomatic fami- appendix he gives some information as to the heights liarity (to use a gentle word) which, though tolerated of the mountains, the names of the valleys, &c., withto a certain extent in conversation, are highly offensive out acknowledging his authorities; and even this might in print: ex. gr. “scrubby people," "dressy days," "a have been an after-thought of his publisher. But there delight of a climate," "paying too much for your were many other French writers, beside those he alwhistle," "a buzzing, tiresome, bluebottle of a man,' ,"ludes to, who have treated of "Pyrenean scenery "the forty-horse power of a noble mind." And such Pyrenean peasantry," quite independent of scientific bits of overstrained description, as "Three or four ave- research; among them Monsieur Thiers, whose political and celebrity alone might have attracted notice to his book; | considerable distance to burn it in this spot in security, and Monsieur Battier, whose account of his ascent of Mont Perdu and of other places now described by Mr. Murray, has been long before the public. This gentleman began his pedestrian operations by a visit to the Carrigou, the greatest point of elevation on the eastern extremity of the Pyrenees. His account is very meagre, as he professes himself quite incapable to portray "the grandeur and sublimity of the bird's-eye view" from the summit; and he abruptly dismisses the subject, "whose like," he says, "he ne'er may look upon again;" an apt quotation certainly, and one that we have met with before. for there are neither trees nor shrubs near it. They cerhave been extinguished; so we kept together, as we tainly had not been gone half an hour, or the fire would crossed the frontiers into Andorre, and looked about for the party in advance of us. "This valley of Andorre is encircled by rocky mounand frequented only for a short period of the year, by tains, and is one of the high pastures belonging to it, the flocks. Excepting alongside of the stream, there is little pasture; it debouches into the Spanish valley of Paillas, which runs across it, and presents its mountains covered with dark forests. There is not even a shrub in the Andorre valley large enough to conceal a dog; so that, excepting some masses of rock scattered about, there was nothing to prevent our taking in at a glance every object it contained; we were therefore surprised upou not seeing the party, who could be but a short distance from us. "We had descended into the valley, and skirting its stream for about one half its length, had begun to ascend the opposite mountains, when Etienne discover The question then naturally arises in the reader's mind, why was this book undertaken by a gentleman conscious of his inability to even attempt a description of one of the most inspiring and remarkable objects in the country he claims the exclusive merit of displaying to the public admiration? Disappointed thus early ined the party which we were on the look-out for. They our anticipations of picturesque description, we turned to the headings of the chapters, in hopes of some adventurous recitals; and our eye alighting on the exciting announcement, "Battle between the Carlists and Christinos," we referred to the indicated place, in chapter v. vol. 1. We there found that, in addition to the guide Mr. Murray had engaged at Prades, he provided himself with a well-armed escort of four men, active, and hardy bear-hunters, of the valley of Cerdagne, and having arrived with his followers at the village of the Tour de Carol, he met a gendarme who took him "to the best auberge in the place." "From him I learnt," continues our adventurer, "that had I arrived in the village the preceding day (!) I might have mounted to the top of the low ridge in front of the auberge, and looking into the valley below been witness to a battle between the Carlists and Christinos." -Vol. i. p. 94. This was a damper to our excitement. We take it for granted, there being no return of killed or wounded, or further allusion to the affair, that the author did not see the remnants of the combatants, on the well-known principle in optics which has held good in the military as well as the naval service of Spain ever since the days of Philip II. The Spanish fleet I do not see-because But still running over the contents, we saw, "Intelligence of the Carlists.-Discovery of the marauders. -Preparations for a fight." The result of this intelligence, discovery and preparation we give in the au thor's own words. "At the very crest of the ridge, and where a step to one side or the other would have been either into France or Andorre, we found the remains of a fire still smouldering, which must evidently have been lit by the party we had heard of; they must have carried their wood a were at a considerable distance from us, and no one but mountain. As "Presently ten of the party above us, leaving their bundles with the remainder, began to descend the Etienne again proposed that we should start; but he was overruled. The only precautions which we took, were to separate a little from each other, and sit down; so that, should we be fired at, they less chance of hitting us, while we could have the adwould at least have to pick out their shots, and have vantage of a more deliberate aim. Down the fellows came. The affair wore a business-like aspect, and my companions new primed their muskets. I had no less than two brace of pistols with me; for one of the gendarmes at Carol, finding I had only a pair of pocket articles, insisted upon my taking a pair of his, which could be returned to him with the guides; so I was sufficiently well provided; and the staff I carried looked, I have no doubt, very like a musket at a distance. "When they came near us, we could see that only six of them had muskets; the others had, probably, no turned over and over, in hopes of some enlivening reweapons but their knives, which a Spaniard never by cital keeping promise with this tempting bill of fare; any chance is without, and which he knows well how to use. We were not to fire until they had either done but all ended in a result analogous to one which befel so, or given such unequivocal signs of their hostility the author himself in the valley of Ossau, and which that there could be no doubt of their intentions. They he designates "Unsatisfactory pursuit of a bear and never stopped until they reached the little plain which cubs." It is astonishing how a man possessed of the lay between us and the mountain side, down which they had come, and were about two hundred yards dis- physical vigour and the mental fidgitiness of which tant, when they halted to observe us more particularly. his book gives evidence, could so ingeniously avoid They consulted for a few minutes: those who had no all matter of personal interest in the course of excur muskets evidently disliked to come on, and endeavoured sions over full a hundred miles of such a country as to persuade the others not to do so; which advice they he traversed. Had the elderly gentlewoman whose at last allowed themselves to be guided by, more particularly when they found, upon a nearer inspection, pages we have so largely quoted from been carried in that the booty they were likely to find upon a few pea- her sedan chair to many of the sites Mr. Murray visit sants would hardly repay the risk they would expose ed, we have no doubt she would have discovered, or themselves to in acquiring it; so they wheeled about, imagined (which would have done equally well) and leisurely retraced their steps up the mountain. As something connected with human action and passion we were not pressed for time, we remained where we were until they joined their comrades and proceeded correspondent with those romantic scenes. on their journey. Our honour being perfectly satisfied when we saw them recommence their march, it was the signal for us to do the same; and, among the turnings and windings of the ascent, we soon lost sight of the Carlists." Vol. i. pp. 108-112. Fate, however, as if in revenge for this disappointment to the pugnacious party, threw a compensation in their way. "Descending into this valley," continues the author, "we sprung a covey of partridges, and my walking-staff came instinctively to my shoulder; the birds, little accustomed to the sight of human beings, did not take a long flight, and were marked down a few hundred yards off. I could not resist having a shot at them, especially as I found that there were some of the party who had small shot with them. Carlists were therefore, for the time, forgotten; and I drew the balls from two of the muskets, and charging them with shot followed the covey. I was able to spring the two old birds, both of which I shot, but the covey would not rise," thus seeking security in a diametrically opposite plan to that of the Carlist marauders. Nothing daunted by this large quantity of smoke proceeding from so little fire, we followed our plan, and marked out for reference the following index notifications in various parts of the volumes: "Gallant conduct of an English frigate," "Anecdote of Guerilla warfare,”—Arrival of the British legion in Spain," "Murder of a Spanish muleteer," -"Loss of a guide," "Izard and bear hunting,"— "Assassination of Ernault," "Murder of four Christino officers,"—"Destruction of the village of St. Lary." In every one of these instances our researches led to nothing but the repetition of anecdotes from history, or received at secondhand by our author. None of those events had reference to his own adventures, and consequently not one of them is described in the spirited manner of an eye-witness. Page after page we There are anecdotes inserted here and there to eke out the volumes, on the authority of others, but of the smallest possible worth. Thus in the first chapter of the first volume we have an account of the battle of Toulouse by a certain "facetious old gentleman, who had served under Napoleon in his Italian campaign" (Qu. which?); and who, no doubt by way of cracking a joke at our traveller's expense, took upon himself to criticise the Duke of Wellington's manoeuvring. And a considerable portion of chapter xviii. vol. ii. is devoted to the retailing of some pointless old stories about King George III., Queen Charlotte, and a deserter from the German legion; one being something about "boots," and all quite à propos de bottes, recounted to our author by another, garrulous but "esteemed indi vidual, a Hanoverian baron,” whose family resided at Pau. Once, however, Mr. Murray had the good luck to stumble upon a person who, unlike those old worthies of knife-grinding analogy, had really a “story to tell;" though story is not exactly the word to ex press the valuable matter-of-fact information (on a singular political phænomenon) which we allude to, and which we consider well worthy of transposition into our pages. Mr. Murray was overtaken by a storm in the hamlet of Saldeon and valley of Andorre. He and his guides took refuge in a hovel, and they amused themselves "by boiling several eggs and sour bread together, and making a kind of soup, which a hungry traveller could relish sufficiently well." But in honour of Pyrenean good living we must note that on another occasion, at La Barthe, he had "a couple of gorgeous ducks and a prime little round of veal" served up for breakfast. (See vol. ii. p. 338.) "While eating our meal, another stormstaid traveller entered the cabin. He was an Andorrian, and proprie tor of some quantity of land in one of the communes. I offered him a share of the soup which I had cooked. which he very thankfully accepted; and throwing off his capote or cloak, took a seat near me. He had re ceived a better education than most of his countrymen, them with provisions and taking care of their woundand could speak French perfectly. The circumstance ed, that the Emperor, to recompense them for their of meeting with such an Andorrian I considered as very kindness, made them independent of the neighbouring fortunate, and was at once reconciled and indifferent to princes, delivered them from the Moors, and permitted the storm, and thought not of the comfortable quarters them to be governed by their own laws. After him which, but for it, I should have had at the Hospitalet. Louis le Debonnaire, whom the Andorrians style the I had now an opportunity which had not hitherto pre- pious, having driven the Moors across the Ebro, ceded sented itself, of acquiring a perfect knowledge of the to Lisebus, the Bishop of Urgel, a part of the rights constitution and character of the people among whom I over Andorre which Charlemagne had reserved to himwas, and I lost no time in profiting by it. Question af- self and his successors. It was in virtue of this grant ter question I put to my neighbour, and he was most that the Bishop of Urgel acquired a right to a part of civil and kind in giving me the information I wished to the tithes of the six parishes, and still exercises a spiprocure. I shall here give an account of the little ritual jurisdiction over the country. This is the only republic of Andorre, compiled from the information manner in which it has any dependence upon Spain. which this native gave me, and from other authentic sources. "The republic of Andorre, situated upon the south ern side of the Pyrenees, and beyond the natural frontier of France, ought, from its physical position, to belong to Spain. It is, however, considered as a neutral and independent province, although it is to a certain extent connected with both countries; to Spain by its religious, to France by its civil government. The history of this little country presents a phenomenon well worthy the attention and study of the naturalist and the politician. It affords the almost solitary instance of a people, few in number, and, in comparison with their powerful neighbours, almost incapable of defence, having preserved during twelve centuries their independence and their institutions, uninjured by the many revolutions which have so frequently convulsed the two great kingdoms which surround it. The contented and unambitious minds of its inhabitants, with their seclusion from the world, and indifference to or ignorance of the political intrigues and commotions which have overthrown and subverted its many states, has for such a length of time secured to them, as the feudatory rep ublic of France, more real and substantial liberty than was ever enjoyed under the purest of the Italian republics. "Afterwards, the Counts of Foix exercised in Andorre the rights of the crown of France, in the name of their sovereign, but more frequently upon their own account. Since Henry the Fourth the kings of France have maintained their rights according to the usages established by the Counts of Foix. In 1793 these rights, being considered as feudal, were abandoned, and Andorre was for a time completely separated from France; but notwithstanding this temporary independence, the Andorrians continued to preserve their attachment to that country. The inhabitants courageously resisted the violation of their territory by the Spaniards, and furnished to the French during the late war both guides and assistance of every kind. At the same time they anxiously solicited the establishment of the ancient order of things, and Napoleon yielded to their wish by a decree of the 20th of March, 1806. By this decree Andorre continued to be a republic connected with France; its Viguier, or criminal judge, being a Frenchman chosen from the department of Arriege, and paying an annual sum of nine hundred and sixty francs, for which he was to enjoy the privilege of receiving various articles of commerce free of duty from France. Thus, excepting as regards the spiritual jurisdiction of the Bishop of Urgel, which after all cannot be said to interfere with its independence any more than the Pope's ecclesiastical authority over Catholic countries can with theirs, Andorre is altogether independent of Spain; and as regards France, the annual payment it makes to that country is only in lieu of certain privileges which it enjoys from it; while there being so little crime in Andorre, the appointment of the French judge has been more with a view to deter criminals of that country from taking refuge in the neutral province, than for the punishment of its natives. Andorre may therefore be considered as the oldest free republic in existence. The population is from seven to eight thousand, quite great enough for the resources of the country. The Andorrians are all of the church of Rome, and very religious. The mem"The government is composed of a council of twenty-bers of their clergy are generally natives, and they and four, each commune electing four members, who are the more wealthy of the inhabitants receive their educhosen for life. The council elect a syndic, who con-cation at Toulouse or Barcelona. Each curé, in addivokes the assemblies and takes the charge of public affairs. He enjoys great authority, and when the assemblies are not sitting, he has the complete government of the community. "Andorre is composed of three mountain valleys, of the basin formed by the union of those valleys, and its embouch, which stretches towards the Spanish Urgel. Its valleys are the wildest and most picturesque in the Pyrenees, and the mountains with their immense peaks which inclose it amongst the highest and most inaccessible. Its length from north to south may be six-andthirty miles, from east to west thirty. It is bounded on the north by Arriege, on the south by the district of Urgel, on the west by the valley of Paillas, and on the east by that of Carol. It contains six communes; Andorre, the chief town, Canillo, Enchamp, La Massane, Urdino, Saint Julien, and above thirty villages or hamlets. tion to his pastoral duties, has the charge of a school, where the poor are instructed gratuitously; but this does not give him much extra trouble, few of the peasants thinking it at all necessary to send their children "It is to Charlemagne that Andorre owes its inde- to school to acquire what, in their land of shepherds pendence. In 790 that prince having marched against and labourers, they imagine can be of little consequence the Moors of Spain, and defeated them in the neigh- to them in their future lives; this erroneous impression bouring valley of Carol, the Andorrians (following is the cause why few of the natives have more learning the tradition of the country, the only, but in a state than is sufficient to enable them to read and write, and like this the best authority to rely upon), rendered the great majority are in total ignorance of even these themselves so useful to the French army, supplying first principles. |