Béarn and the Pyrenees

E-text prepared by Janet Blenkinship, Chuck Greif, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team at DP Europe (http://dp.rastko.net/)
AND
A LEGENDARY TOUR
TO THE
COUNTRY OF HENRI QUATRE.
AUTHOR OF the bocages and the vines, a pilgrimage to auvergne, etc.
LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,
Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty.
1844.
PRINTED BY R. CLAY, BREAD STREET HILL.
TO MISS BURDETT COUTTS, THESE VOLUMES ARE DEDICATED WITH MUCH RESPECT AND AFFECTION BY HER SINCERELY OBLIGED HUMBLE SERVANT, LOUISA STUART COSTELLO. London, March 16, 1844.
When I first indulged the inclination, which I had long entertained, of visiting the famous castle of Chinon, and the equally interesting abbey of Fontevraud—the palace and tomb of our English kings—and paused on my way in the lovely vales of Vire, and gathered in romantic Brittany some of her pathetic legends, I thought I should have satisfied my longing to explore France; but I found that every step I look in that teeming region opened to me new stores of interest; and, encouraged by the pleasure my descriptions had given, I set out again, following another route, to the regal city of Rheims, visiting the vine-covered plains of Champagne and Burgundy, and all their curious historical towns, till I reached the dominion of Charles the Seventh at Bourges, to become acquainted with whose gorgeous cathedral and antique palaces is worth any fatigue. From thence I wandered on to the beautiful Monts Dores, and the basaltic regions of unexplored Le Vellay; and, after infinite gratification, I once more turned my steps homeward; but, like Sindbad, I felt that there was much more yet to be explored; and I had visions of the romantic and delightful realms, which extend where once the haughty heiress of Aquitaine held her poetical courts of Love and Chivalry. The battle-fields of our Black Prince were yet to be traced; the sites of all the legends and adventures of the most entertaining of chroniclers, Froissart, were yet to be discovered; and the land of mountains and torrents, where the Great Béarnais passed his hardy childhood, was yet unknown to me.