SECT. II. LOURDES, ARGELÈS, LUZ, GAVARNIE, BARÈGES, ETC. It is 60 miles from Pau to the Cascade de Gavarnie, of which only 24 are as yet by rail (there will be 11 more in 1871). Still, many persons, even young ladies, have done it all in a day from Pau, between 5 a.m. and 10 p.m. by taking post horses at Lourdes. Taking the Toulouse railway line, you first go to Betharram (15 miles. See Sec. 4). Here you enter the 'Hautes-Pyrénées,' and travel along the base of most picturesque, though quite second-rate, mountains, bare at the top, but very densely-wooded below. The line is cut mostly through the moraines of those great glaciers which once filled every depression in the Pyrenees, and perhaps in Europe. Sometimes it runs quite at the edge of the Gave (right bank), here an impetuous torrent, running madly over everything, like a true child of the mountains, born in glaciers and precipices. At St. Pé there is a 'petit-séminaire' for the education of priests, and the ruins are still standing of a monastery of Benedictines, burnt by Montgomery. Eight miles from Bétharram, see on the left bank of the Gave the handsome church built over the now world-renowned grotto of Lourdes, or rather of Massabielle, which, says Mr. Lawlor, 'from a lonely savage solitude has become one of the most renowned and frequented shrines in Christendom.” * Lourdes (9 miles from Bétharram) is a town of 5,000 inhabitants, situated at the base of the Pyrenees, and at the opening of seven valleys. The view from the railway station is striking, embracing, on one side, the frowning fort with the picturesque town crouching timidly at its foot, and on the other, as if melting into clouds in the distance, the eternal hills.' (Lawlor, p. 297.) * See Pilgrimages in the Pyrenees, by D. S. Lawlor, Esq., for all the facts connected with the miraculous apparitions of 1858 at Lourdes. The limestone ranges close to Lourdes are low, gray, and barren; but the snowy summits to the south, towards Gavarnie, Cauterets, and Panticosa, redeem the ugly foreground. Hotels: Lafitte, de France, des Pyrénées, etc. Famous chocolate (Pailhasson). The fortress, which looks so impregnable, is more than a thousand years old. Lourdes was visited by the Black Prince, and existed in Cæsar's time. It was taken in 778 by Charlemagne from the Moors. During the Wars of Religion, Montgomery took the town, but not the fort, which became a prison under Louis XV., and again under Napoleon I., who most rudely imprisoned Lord Elgin in its inhospitable walls, without the shadow of an excuse. Many caves in the neighbourhood contain bones of reindeer, and instruments made by pre-Adamite men. Marble and slate quarries. Hills covered with erratic boulders deposited by ancient glaciers. Moraines, etc. In fact, everywhere are to be seen traces of the action or passage of ice. Earthquakes frequent; during the one of Lisbon (1755) several houses fell. Distance to Bagnères de Bigorre, 13 miles by the road, 24 by rail. To proceed to Gavarnie, it is here you must get a carriage and post-horses, either at the railway station or at Lafitte's Hotel. Three horses to Gavarnie and back, with the carriage, will cost about 50 fr. in summer; a little less in spring: and in 1871 the railway will go 11 miles farther, to Pierrefitte. You now travel due south, following up the course of the Gave, straight to the Pyrenees. At the Pont-Neuf (2 miles) you pass to the left bank, and now one by one the mighty peaks near the Spanish frontier come into view (five miles from Lourdes). At the village of Agos, you see straight before you (just above a ruined old tower, probably used by the Romans in their : systems of signals) the Pyrenæan Matterhorn (Balaïtous, 10,318 feet), white and frightful (south-west); you also get a fugitive glimpse of the Mont-Perdu (11,000 feet), and Cylindre (10,900 feet) to the south and the whole of the Vallée d'Argelès opens before you like a circular paradise of meadows, gardens, water, and perfumes, with pastoral peaks all round. Its fertility is marvellous. The slopes immediately round it are so gentle that they are covered with villages it is only beyond, in the hazy south, that the snowy giants appear, in true Pyrenæan grandeur and livery. : Argelès (8 miles from Lourdes) is a very clean and pretty town of 2,000 inhabitants (1,410 feet), with a capital hotel (de France), much frequented by the English. South-west of it is the very long and beautiful valley d'Azun, which divides into two main branches at Arrens (8 miles), the left running up south to the Spanish frontier and the Balaïtous (10,318 feet), the right to Eaux-Bonnes. The sharp and grey Gabisos (8,468 feet) stands at the point of junction. Proceeding towards Gavarnie (south), you will observe on the heights to the right, above a rich mass of oaks and chestnuts, the ancient church and village of St. Savin. This church was built in the twelfth century. St. Savin was born at Barcelona in the eighth century, and came here to lead a life of prayer and penitence in a small hut built by himself. He was a man of admirable knowledge. On that holy spot there once stood also a Benedictine monastery, burned by the Normans (843), but rebuilt in the tenth century. The villages grouped round the abbey soon formed a republic, presided over by the abbot. Six hundred poor persons were daily supported by the monastery, of which scarcely anything now remains.* (You can drive from Argelès to Pierrefitte by St. Savin. It is but one mile longer.) Do not fail to observe, on the eastern side of the valley, the imposing mass of ruins now belonging to M. Fould, and * See Lawlor's Pilgrimages, &c. which were once the feudal fortress of Beaucens, the property of the powerful Viscounts of Lavedan. The road is charming, all lined with trees, and winding constantly. The pointed Viscos (7,030 feet) rises before you, between the Cauterets gorge (right) and the one of Luz you are to follow. Pierrefitte (3 miles from Argelès) stands at the meeting of the two. Hôtel de la Poste (1,663 feet). Following the Pau Gave to the left, you enter the grand gorge of Luz, where the road is almost everywhere cut out of the rock, sometimes 400 feet above the torrent, which is oftener heard than seen in the mysterious depths below. Flowers in abundance. After crossing and recrossing the Gave three times in five miles, and suddenly leaving behind everything dismal and dark, you enter the smiling and pastoral triangular basin of Luz (2,410 feet), a small town surrounded with rivulets and the greenest meadows, with maize and buckwheat, but overshadowed, especially to westward, by high and perilous peaks (some nearly 10,000 feet), of Arctic and African desolation, as they are both burnt and frozen. Luz is 8 miles from Pierrefitte, and 44 from Pau. Hôtel des Pyrénées. It was once the capital of a republic. Curious church built by the Templars (twelfth century). The steep and barren gorge opening to the left (east) goes up to Barèges, only four miles and a half distant, but terrible miles for a carriage, as you rise 1,700 feet. Barèges is 4,084 feet above the sea level. It is but a village, though famous as any capital for its almost miraculous waters. (Hôtel des Pyrénées, de France, de l'Europe, etc.) Very exciting sulphurous springs. It is on the way from Luz to Bagnères de Bigorre by the col du Tourmalet (7,000 feet), only open for carriages towards the middle of June. As you enter Luz, see to the left the ruins of the castle of Ste. Marie, built by the English in the fourteenth century, and taken from them in 1404 by the troops of the Barèges Republic. South-east of Luz rises the pyramidal Maucapérat (9,000 feet). At the foot of the immense peaks to the s.w., and almost suspended like a nest over the furious Gave, stands the white and clean village of St.-Sauveur (one mile from Luz, sulphurous springs). Its new church, its trees, its running streams, and its most romantic position, make it a lovely spot, even when it is empty. The Pont-Napoléon, over the Gave, might almost be called the eighth wonder of the world. But the reader being probably bound to Gavarnie, will leave Barèges and St. Sauveur unvisited, and continue south, along the Gave, his constant and faithful, though restless and troubled companion, ever since he has left Pau. Between the very popular pic de Bergons to the east (6,791 feet, said to be the residence of fairies) and the bald huge peaks of Ardiden and Barbe de Bouc to westward (nearly 10,000 feet) opens the far-famed Gavarnie gorge. This you now enter (south). Two short miles from Luz, you leave on the right the PontNapoléon, built in less than two years, and probably the most colossal arch in the world. Its span is 153 feet, the total length 218 feet, and the height above the torrent is 212 feet. From this bridge there is an uninterrupted ascent of nearly 7,000 feet (west) up to the Barbe de Bouc, passing by a tarn seldom, if ever, free from ice. In fact everything is wonderful and stupendous in this region-peaks, road, bridges, as if nature and man were competing with each other in a work of miracles. You can sometimes look down from your carriage at the raging torrent 500 feet below. At the Pont de Sia (3 miles from Luz) you take the left bank. There are a few meadows, well-irrigated; then in the clefts of the rock many specimens of the Ramondia py renaica. At the Desdouroucat (uprooted') bridge, you return to the right bank, and get a glimpse of the Pic du Marboré |