Robert Louis Stevenson: Memoirs, Travel Sketches & Island Studies - Robert Louis Stevenson

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of his chief; only, as he passed, he struck lightly with his open hand on the shoulder of his late captive, and with that ringing, dramatic utterance of which he had the secret— “Suivez!” said he.

      The arrest of the members, the oath of the Tennis Court, the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Mark Antony’s oration, all the brave scenes of history, I conceive as having been not unlike that evening in the café at Châtillon. Terror breathed upon the assembly. A moment later, when the Arethusa had followed his recaptors into the farther part of the house, the Cigarette found himself alone with his coffee in a ring of empty chairs and tables, all the lusty sportsmen huddled into corners, all their clamorous voices hushed in whispering, all their eyes shooting at him furtively as at a leper.

      And the Arethusa? Well, he had a long, sometimes a trying, interview in the back kitchen. The Maréchal-des-logis, who was a very handsome man, and I believe both intelligent and honest, had no clear opinion on the case. He thought the Commissary had done wrong, but he did not wish to get his subordinates into trouble; and he proposed this, that, and the other, to all of which the Arethusa (with a growing sense of his position) demurred.

      “In short,” suggested the Arethusa, “you want to wash your hands of further responsibility? Well, then, let me go to Paris.”

      The Maréchal-des-logis looked at his watch.

      “You may leave,” said he, “by the ten o’clock train for Paris.”

      And at noon the next day the travellers were telling their misadventure in the dining-room at Siron’s.

       Table of Contents

       THE DONKEY, THE PACK, AND THE PACK-SADDLE

       THE GREEN DONKEY-DRIVER

       I HAVE A GOAD

       UPPER GÉVAUDAN

       A CAMP IN THE DARK

       CHEYLARD AND LUC

       OUR LADY OF THE SNOWS

       FATHER APOLLONARIS

       THE MONKS

       THE BOARDERS

       UPPER GÉVAUDAN

       ACROSS THE GOULET

       A NIGHT AMONG THE PINES

       THE COUNTRY OF THE CAMISARDS

       ACROSS THE LOZÈRE

       PONT DE MONTVERT

       IN THE VALLEY OF THE TARN

       FLORAC

       IN THE VALLEY OF THE MIMENTE

       THE HEART OF THE COUNTRY

       THE LAST DAY

       FAREWELL, MODESTINE!

      

       My dear Sidney Colvin,

       The journey which this little book is to describe was very agreeable and fortunate for me. After an uncouth beginning, I had the best of luck to the end. But we are all travellers in what John Bunyan calls the wilderness of this world — all, too, travellers with a donkey; and the best that we find in our travels is an honest friend. He is a fortunate voyager who finds many. We travel, indeed, to find them. They are the end and the reward of life. They keep us worthy of ourselves; and when we are alone, we are only nearer to the absent.

       Every book is, in an intimate sense, a circular letter to the friends of him who writes it. They alone take his meaning; they find private messages, assurances of love, and expressions of gratitude, dropped for them in every corner. The public is but a generous patron who defrays the postage. Yet though the letter is directed to all, we have an old and kindly custom of addressing it on the outside to one. Of what shall a man be proud, if he is not proud of his friends? And so, my dear Sidney Colvin, it is with pride that I sign myself

      Affectionately yours, R. L. S.

      THE DONKEY, THE PACK, AND THE PACK-SADDLE

       Table of Contents

      In a little place called Le Monastier, in a pleasant highland valley fifteen miles from Le Puy, I spent about a month of fine days. Monastier is notable for the making of lace, for drunkenness, for freedom of language, and for unparalleled political dissension. There are adherents of each of the four French parties — Legitimists, Orleanists, Imperialists, and Republicans — in this little mountain-town; and they all hate, loathe, decry, and calumniate each other. Except for business purposes, or to give each other the lie in a tavern brawl, they have laid aside even the civility of speech. ’Tis a mere mountain Poland. In the midst of this Babylon I found myself a rallying-point; every one was anxious to be kind and helpful to the stranger. This was not merely from the natural hospitality of mountain people, nor even from the surprise with which I was regarded as a man living of his own free will in Le Monastier, when he might just as well have lived anywhere else in this big world; it arose a good deal from my projected excursion southward through the Cevennes. A traveller of my sort was a thing hitherto unheard-of in that district. I was looked upon with contempt, like a man who should project a journey to the moon, but yet with a respectful interest, like one setting forth for the inclement Pole. All were ready to help in my preparations; a crowd of sympathizers supported me at the critical moment of a bargain; not a step was taken but was heralded by glasses round and celebrated by a dinner or a breakfast.

      It was already hard upon October before I was ready to set forth, and at the high altitudes over which my road lay there was no Indian summer to be looked for. I was determined, if not to camp out, at least to have the means of camping out in my possession; for there is nothing more harassing to an easy mind than the necessity of reaching shelter by dusk, and the hospitality of a village inn is not always to be reckoned sure by those who trudge on foot. A tent, above all, for a solitary traveller, is troublesome to pitch and troublesome to strike again; and even on the march it forms a conspicuous

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