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[1] In 1419, John Duke of Burgundy, and the Dauphin, against whom he had taken part during the troubles of France, agreed to a reconciliation. "An interview was fixed to take place on the bridge of Montereau-sur-Yonne, where a total amnesty was to be concluded, to be followed by an union of arms and interests. Every precaution was taken by the duke for his safety; a barrier was erected on the bridge; he placed his own guard at one end, and advancing with only ten attendants, threw himself on his knees before the Dauphin. At this instant Tannegui de Chastel, making the signal, leaped the barrier with some others, and giving him the first blow, he was almost immediately despatched. Though the Dauphin was in appearance only a passive spectator of this assassination, there can be no doubt that he was privy to its commission."—Wraxall's Valois.
[2] The Welsh proverb, that a man who sleeps on the top of Snowdon, must awake either a fool or a poet, refers as probably to the effect produced on the mind by the prodigious mountain panorama discernible from thence, as to any fancied influence of the genius loci.
[3] Vide Cooke's View.
[4] The characteristic beauties of Italy are no proof of the picturesque taste of the Italians themselves, as planners and architects. The commanding situation of their villages, and the small proportion of window to wall, are circumstances favourable to landscape, but intended merely as the means of catching and retaining cool air. Their classical ruins are preserved as a source of pride and profit, and the natural features of the country cannot be altered.
[5] Vide Cooke's View.
[6] Vide Cooke's Views.
[7] Vide Cooke's Views.
[8] Collot d'Herbois.
[9] See Godwin's St. Leon.
[10] Vide Cooke's Views.
[11] There is, I believe, positive historical authority, which fixes Vienne as the place of Pilate's banishment and death.
[12] Vide Cooke's Views.
[13] Vide Cooke's Views.
[14] Vide Cooke's Views.
[15] "See Mad. de S.'s Letters."
[16] Vide Cooke's Views.
[17] "Je me réjouis, avec M. de Grignan, de la beauté de sa terrasse; s'il en est content, les ducs de Genes, ses grands pères, l'auraient été; son gout est meilleur que celui de ce temps-là; * * * * * ces vieux lits sont dignes des Adhemars."—Mad. de Sevigné.
[18] "L'air de Grignan me fait peur pour vous; me fait trembler; je crains qu'il n'emporte, ma chere enfant, qu'il ne l'épuise, qu'il ne la dessèche—."
"Voilà le vent, le tourbillon, l'ouragan, les diables dechaînés qui veulent emporter votre château; quel ébranlement universel! quelle furie! quelle frayeur répandue partout!"—Mad. de Sevigné.
[19] See Southey's translation of the Cid.
[20] Eighty feet by twenty-four, according to a measurement made previous to the burning of the castle.
[21] Pour entrer au vestibule (says the same letter which I quoted before, written before the Revolution) on monte par un escalier, car les appartemens sont tous au premier. Il y a quatre beaux salons, qui s'appellent la salle du roi, la salle de la reine, la salle des evêques, et la galerie: le reste de la maison, qui est vaste, est distribuêe en divers appartemens, dont chacun est composé d'une chambre a coucher, un grand cabinet, et un cabinet à toilette.
[22] Vide Cooke's Views.
[23] Vide Cooke's Views.
[24] See the Spectator.
[25] Vide Cooke's Views.
[26] Marius's victory is said to have been gained near Aix (Aquæ Seætiæ).
[27] Vide Cooke's Views.
[28] "Cette memorable bataille, sur laquelle nous n'avons aucun détail, nous sauva du joug des Arabes, et fut le terme de leur grandeur. Depuis ce revers, ils tenterent encore de pénétrer dans la France; ils s'emparerent même d'Avignon; mais Charles Martel les défit de nouveau, réprit cette ville, leur enleva Narbonne, et leur ota pour jamais l'espérance dont ils s'étaient flattés si longtemps."—Florian's Précis Historique sur les Maures.
[29] As late as 1688, Louis XIV. seized on the territory of Avignon in consequence of disagreements with Innocent XI., and the Count de Grignan held the city as his viceroy for two subsequent years. Mad. de Sevigné, in her letters written at this period of time, congratulates her daughter (whose boat was nearly overset against the piers of this identical bridge), on the dignity of the situation conferred on the count, and the more solid advantages which might accrue from it.
"Vous prenez, ma chere fille, (says she) une fort honnete resolution d'aller à votre terre d'Avignon, voir des gens qui vous donnent de si bon cœur ce qu'ils donnoient au vicelegat."—June, 1689.
"Quelle difference de la vie que vous faites à Avignon, toute à la grande, toute brillante, toute dissipée, avec celle que nous faisons ici!"—Les Rochers. June, 1689.
"Toutes vos descriptions nous ont divertis au dernier point; nous sommes charmés, comme vous, de la douceur de l'air, de la noble antiquité des eglises honorées comme vous dites, de la presence et de la residence de tant de Papes, &c. &c."—June 26, 1689.
[30] It is to be hoped that Adam Smith has taken a correct view of the subject of madness in his Moral Sentiments. "Of all the calamities," says he, "to which the condition of mortality exposes mankind, the loss of reason appears by far the most dreadful; and we behold that last stage of human wretchedness with deeper commisseration than any other. But the poor wretch who is in it, laughs and sings, perhaps, and is altogether insensible of his own misery. The anguish therefore which humanity feels at the sight of such an object, cannot be the reflection of any sentiment of the sufferer. The compassion of the spectator must arise altogether from the consideration of what he would himself feel if he were reduced to the same situation, and, what perhaps is impossible, were at the same time able to regard it with his present reason and judgment.
[31] Vide Cooke's Views.
[32] "Ce vertueux jeune homme paroit dejà consommé dans l'art Evangelique; ses instructions sont aussi sublimes qu'elles sont precises et pathetiques; il joint a ses grandes qualités un amour ardent pour les pauvres; il consomme annuellement les revenus d'un patrimoine majeur a de bonnes œuvres dans les cours des Missions. Une foule de faits attestant ses liberalitês journalieres."—Fransoy's Memoir.
[33] See the letter introduced in Joüy's Hermite en Provence.
[34] "And do not forget the toasted cheese." Vide Matilda Pottingen in "The Rovers."
[35] See the Quarterly Review, to which I am obliged for the Abbé's remark.
[36] See Campbell's ballad of "The Brave Roland," in one of the numbers of the New Monthly Magazine; and Southey's tale of Manuel and Leila, in his early productions.
[37] I had procured this document from Milan, and translated it for the press, previous to reading the version of it which is given in the Quarterly.
[38] Vide Cooke's Views.
[39] A similar dignity was conferred by some heathen poet, I believe, on the ποτνια συχη (the august, or god-like fig).
[40] The word Oc, according to tradition, meant in the old patois of the country "yes:" hence the original derivation of "Langue d'Oc."
[41] Vide Cooke's Views.
[42] The celebrated fair of Beaucaire, which may be almost called the carnival of the Mediterranean, is held in this meadow yearly.
[43] Vide Cooke's Views.
[44] For an account of the Tarasque, or fabulous dragon, which infested the country, and the ceremonies commemorative of it, see Miss Plumptre's tour. The name of Tarascon, she says, is derived from this animal.
[45] I do not except even John Bull's favourite yew peacocks and dragons, at least when they decorate the garden of a poor man.
[46] Vide Cooke's Views.
[47] Vide Cooke's Views.
[48] According to Sanson's excellent Atlas, the French part of which was laid down from measurement, in the reign of Louis XIV., this mountain is the Mont St. Victoire, near which Marius gained his celebrated victory over the Cimbri. The field of battle is fixed by history as near Aquæ Sextiæ.—(Aix.)
[49] For an account of the curious ceremonies and processions instituted by this monarch, see Miss Plumptre, under the heads of "Leis Razcassetos," "Lou Juec des Diables," &c. I cannot say but that the enumeration reminds me of the merry court of Old King Cole, with his fiddlers three, his tailors three, and the long list of et ceteras detailed in the well-known song.
[50] Vide Cooke's Views.
[51] See Second Part of Henry VI. Act 4.
[52] Vide Cooke's Views.
[53] See Colman.
[54] Vide Cooke's Views.
[55] Vide Cooke's Views.
[56] There is, I believe, no inn at Saorgio.
[57] Vide Cooke's Views.
[58] 'Mr. Wright, late Consul General for the Seven Islands, is author of a very beautiful Poem just published: it is entitled Horæ Ionicæ, and is descriptive of the Isles and the adjacent Coast of Greece.'—Lord Byron's English Bards.