FOOTNOTE:

[13] Ferd. Troubat: Danse des Treilles. Toulouse, 1900.

CHAPTER XVII

THE HÉRAULT

Clermont l'Hérault—Church and castle—Aimar Guilhem—Deserts the cause of his Count—Peyrolles the Potter—N.D. du Peyrou—Villeneuvette—Military cloth factory—Its semi-feudal organisation—Valley of the Dourbie—Mourèze—The quarries—Decomposition of the rock—Church—Lodève—The Count—Contest with him carried on by S. Fulcran—The bishops—Perjury—The people gain the victory—Cathedral—S. Michel-de-Grammont—Dolmen—Caverns—L'Escalette—Larzac—Le Caylar—Flora of Larzac—Abdias Maurel—La Couvertoirade—Aniane—Gorges of the Hérault—Mills—S. Guilhem-le-Désert—Guillaume de Courtenez—His parting from his wife—His visit to Paris—Church—Monuments—Cloister—Saracen inscriptions—Farewell to the Cévennes.

AN admirable centre for several expeditions of no little interest is Clermont l'Hérault, where is a good hotel.

Clermont, though called l'Hérault, is not actually on the river of that name, though near it. The town is built at the base and up the sides of a steep hill crowned by a ruined castle.

The church is one of the very few in the department with side aisles to the nave. Indeed, the form affected throughout southern Languedoc is a vast nave without pillars, and chapels between the buttresses. This church was begun in 1275 and ended in 1313. It has a seven-sided apse. Over the west window is a gallery with machicolations, so that it could be used as a fortress, and melted lead or boiling pitch could be thrown down on besiegers. Narrow, steep, and dirty streets climb the hillside to the castle, now enclosed within the walls of a convent; little remains, however, but a keep of this once sumptuous seigneural residence of the barons of Clermont. Formerly it consisted of a semicircular ring of wall defended at intervals by seven round towers, and with an eighth on the side of the chord of the arc. The view from the height extends over the plain watered by the Hérault and the Lergue, that begins at the feet of the Lodève Mountains and extends to the low range of the Taillades de Gignac. From thirty to forty towns, villages, and hamlets dot this plain.

S. Guilhem-le-Désert

In 1209 Aimar Guilhem, seigneur of Clermont, was the ally of the unfortunate Raymond, Count of Toulouse, against whom Innocent III. hurled the thunders of excommunication because he would not butcher and burn his subjects, who had embraced the Albigensian heresy; and Aimar was accordingly involved in his sentence. Innocent called together the riff-raff of Europe to join in a crusade against Raymond, promising life eternal and absolution from all sins to those who would join in an indiscriminate slaughter of the Albigenses, and placed Simon de Montfort at the head of this horde of the Children of God, as they called themselves, who swept over the land committing indescribable horrors. After the massacre of the inhabitants of Béziers by the crusaders, Aimar retired to his castle and awaited events. His conduct may have been prudent, as he saved the town from sack and slaughter, but it was unworthy of him; as had he roused the country of Lodève, he would have menaced the rear of Simon de Montfort, and might have forced this commander of the soldiers of the Papacy to deal less cruelly with the seigneurs of Languedoc, whom he robbed of their domains with impunity.

On the Place under trees is a monument, surmounted by a bust of Peyrolles, a potter of Clermont, who composed verses in the Languedoc dialect. He became jealous of the fame acquired by Jasmin, the hairdresser of Agen, the great vernacular poet, and sent him a challenge. "I will go to Montpellier any day and hour you choose to name. Let four men of literary notoriety give us three themes on which to compose poems in twenty-four hours; and let us be shut up in one room, with no admission of any one to us or of anything but our food—and see who in the time will turn out most poetry." Jasmin replied that he declined the contest. For his part, he could not produce verses as fast as Peyrolles could pots; his powers did not reach further than the composition of two or three verses in a day.

In the Cirque, Mourèze

A delightful walk or drive is to Mourèze, up the valley of the Dourbie. On the col crossed by the road leading into this valley is the quaint chapel of N. D. du Peyrou. It is pointed, with an immense porch composed of two flying buttresses sustaining a roof. A chapel at the west end is out of line with the axis of the principal building. The nave was rebuilt or altered at the Renaissance. In the choir on one side are oval frames containing representations of girls who have made their first communion, in white paper cut out with scissors, and on the other side similar frames contain nuptial crowns. A largely attended pilgrimage visits this chapel on Monday in Easter week. This shrine is at the entrance to the beautiful basin of Villeneuvette, rich with cork trees, micocouliers (Celtis Australis), mulberries, chestnuts, tall ancient cypresses, pines, caper bushes, and the kermes-oak.

Here in the bottom, by the little river, is the industrial settlement of Villeneuvette. An avenue of planes leads to a wall, with a gateway in it, over which is the inscription, "Honneur au travail." Up to 1848 it bore the title "Manufacture royale." This is the last existing example of the factories established by Colbert in 1666 for the weaving of cloth for the Levant trade, and for each piece of cloth woven was received a bonus of ten francs. It was found that the trade in the Levant of French cloth was failing owing to English competition. Colbert founded this among other colonies of workmen to ensure that the cloth exported was of good quality, and agents in Constantinople and in Pondicherry received and sold it. In order to protect the establishment during the religious wars that desolated the Cévennes, the settlement was surrounded by a rampart, crenelated and flanked by redoubts. Within are the factory, a church, and the houses of the artisans, arranged on a formal plan. The colony had its own municipal government, and elected its own mayor. Every night the drawbridge was raised and the gate fastened.

Villeneuvette owns a considerable territory around it, and the land is parcelled out among the workmen engaged in the factory. Each family has its garden, its vineyard, and its plantation of mulberries, so that when work is slack in the factory there is plenty of occupation for the hands in the fields.

For more than two centuries Villeneuvette has been in private hands. It had failed to be a success financially in 1703, and was disposed of to M. Castamé-d'Aurac, who built the church. A century later, in 1803, it became the property of the family of Maistre, and it has remained in the same hands ever since.

It now turns out exclusively cloth for the army and uniforms for colleges and railway officials. Long stretches of dark blue and crimson cloth are seen in the meadows outside the walls, destined to be cut into the jackets and breeches of the military. Villeneuvette has retained much of its curious patriarchal organisation. There is no village outside the embattled walls; of the ninety-eight cottages all are given rent free to the artisans, and nothing more is exacted of them save respect for rules of decency and cleanliness. Here no slops may be thrown out of the windows, nor may birds' nests be molested. These restrictions have been indignantly protested against by the Radicals, who charge the organisation of the little community with being bound down by the chains of feudalism. Where is liberty if a householder may not throw his slops down on the head of any one passing in the street? Where is equality if the urchins of Clermont may rob robins' nests and not those of Villeneuvette? Where is fraternity if the artisans may not get fuddled together and roar and riot in drunken bands?

The road ascends the valley of the Dourbie, but to reach Mourèze it makes a circuit round the conical mountain, Le Puy de Bissou, on the summit of which is a chapel where once lived a hermit, but to which no pilgrimages are now made. A bridge has been thrown over the river, and a new road has been begun which will give speedier access by carriage to Mourèze, but which can now only be traced on foot. The sparkling stream slides over contorted slate rocks, and trout dart through the pools. The hillsides are covered with pale grey flowered heath and the stunted kermes-oak with its glistening leaves. This, the Quercus coccifera, never grows higher than five feet, the garus it is that gives its name to the garigues, the desolate regions of limestone on which nothing else will grow. On its leaves feeds the kermes insect, round as a ball, and formerly supposed to be the fruit growing out of the rib of the leaf as does the berry of the butchers' broom. It produces a red dye, less brilliant than cochineal, and some of the Oriental reds are produced from it. The dye of the kermes is more permanent than cochineal. Suddenly on our eyes bursts Mourèze, one of the most fantastic groups of rock, castle, church, and village to be seen anywhere. We are disposed to regard the pictures by Gustave Doré of rock scenery interspersed with ruined towers as in his series, Le Juif errant, to be the creations of a fevered dream. But they are not so. He must have lived or travelled among the dolomitic formations of Languedoc, and thence drawn his inspiration.

Group at Mourèze

The approach to Mourèze by the old carriage road is different; it is through red sandstone, soft and friable, and torn by streams into gullies. One would suppose that Mourèze had been founded originally by refugees from a world devastated by wars. It is concealed from view on all sides. It is Nature's hiding-place for persecuted men. At its back start up sheer cliffs of limestone, pink and yellow and grey, rising from 1,300 to 1,600 feet. Dolomitic limestone is composed of carbonate of lime and carbonate of magnesia, and the texture is mostly crystalline and granulated. Each grain, having a power of resistance different from the other, yields or remains under the influence of the air and rains, so that alongside of massive rocks, eroded, hollowed out, perforated, or protruding in knots and elbows, are heaps of sand formed by the decomposition of the cement that held the grains in place. Thus are obtained the most bizarre and varied shapes of rock. All that imagination can picture of what is strange is found here—dismantled towers, gigantic monoliths, excavated walls, narrow gullies between monstrous shapes, great porticoes, pyramids standing on their heads, grouped together, and among them cottages clinging to their sides, a church on a ledge above a precipice, and over all a castle, the walls of which can hardly be distinguished from the rock out of which they grow. Contrast adds to the picturesque effect. The dolomite bristling with needles lies in the lap of a great cirque or cradle of more compact calcareous rock, disposed in regular horizontal beds, and attaining to a top over 1,610 feet that supports the ruins of the Romanesque church of S. Jean d'Aureillan. These walls back the scene on the north. The south is closed by the Puy de Bissou, clothed in woods, 1,450 feet. To the west is the mountain of S. Scholastica, 1,500 feet, and wooded ranges to the east of less elevation complete the enclosure and the screen that hides Mourèze from the world without.

The Sentinel, Mourèze

The dolomite formation of Mourèze forms an almost continuous belt from Bédarieux to Bories and the north of Clermont. The region of Carlencas on this line presents an equally extraordinary appearance. The same rock is found north of Lodève, above Pégairolles, where they constitute the picturesque passage of l'Escalette.

The castle is mentioned in records from 790; it is called Castrum Morelinum, or Morazios Villa; Mourezés in 1625, and Mourèze in 1659.

The church, of two bays, has a seven-sided apse, and is of the thirteenth century. It is vaulted, and has no aisles. The tower is square.

The train will take one to Lodève, an ancient cathedral city, and before that a Roman Castrum Luteva. Paris was also a Luteva.

When Charlemagne completed the expulsion of the Arabs out of Septimania, he made of Lodève a county under his empire, and granted considerable privileges to the bishops.

There arose by degrees three powers to dispute possession of the land, the Municipality, the Count, and the Bishop, representing the people, the aristocracy, and the clergy. The history of Lodève is thenceforth a history of their conflicts for pre-eminence. In the tenth century arose a man who gave a new direction to affairs. Hitherto the counts had retained the mastery; now the Church would attempt to grapple with their power.

This man was Fulcran, who ascended the episcopal throne at the age of thirty in 947. He was noted for his beauty, for his grace of manner towards all men, so that, although a member of a noble family, he was greatly beloved by the common people. He wrote nothing; he was above all an orator and a man of action. He began to build a tower to his cathedral. The Count Eldin, who occupied the Castle of Montbrun, ordered him to pull it down. Fulcran refused. Meanwhile the oppressions of the people by the count had become intolerable. They were crushed with taxation and denied municipal rights. The tower served as an excuse for a quarrel. Gentle as he was, Fulcran was determined to come to conclusions with the count. At his word the citizens rose, were aided by the country folk, Montbrun was stormed, and the bishop held Count Eldin prisoner till he had given guarantees not to continue his misrule. When Fulcran died in 1006 he had marked out the course his successors were to follow. They continued to snatch from the seigneur one right after another, and when the county passed into the hands of the Duke of Rodez, the Castle of Montbrun went by way of purchase to the bishops, and they became both spiritual and temporal lords of the county.

But what all this while of the people? At the outset it had assisted Fulcran in his strife with the count; it had contributed to effect the revolution that finally transferred the temporal power from lay into ecclesiastical hands. The ambition of Fulcran's successors knew no limits. After having conquered the seigneur they attacked the municipal liberties.

The people of Lodève soon saw that they had changed masters for the worse. A struggle broke out between them and their masters that caused much blood to flow. One bishop was driven from his palace. Later, in 1202, the inhabitants sent delegates to the prelate, Pierre de Frotier, to complain of his unendurable exactions. He refused to admit them to his presence. Then the mob broke in on him and made him swear to grant concessions. He appealed to Innocent III., who at once relieved him of his oath. The people, enraged at this bit of deceit, again rose, broke into the palace, and killed the perjured bishop. The punishment inflicted on the town for this act was severe. However, the citizens were determined on resistance, and at last the controversy was submitted to arbitration, and they gained most of what they had demanded.

The cathedral is of the fourteenth century. The nave of three bays has side aisles and chapels on the south side, one of which, dedicated to S. Michael, is recessed behind richly moulded arches. The choir consists of two bays, with a nine-sided apse with lofty narrow two-light windows in each side. A curious arrangement is the walling up on each side of the choir so as to transform the continuation of the aisles into lengthy independent chapels. On the north side is the richly adorned chapel of S. Fulcran. The west front has no doorway in it, but a beautiful rose window between machicolated turrets. To see it one must enter the gendarmerie which occupies this end of the building. Poor fragmentary cloisters remain on the south.

Ferdinand Fabre thus describes the interior of the cathedral:—

"It has a nave and side aisles. The choir is large, lengthy, and occupies almost half the church, which gives an impression of surprise, and awakes in one the unpleasant idea that there is a want of proportion in the general disposition of the monument. But when this vexatious impression has passed away, one admires the nine windows of the apse, of original design, enormously lofty, certainly not in the purest style. The Gothic of the South always retained something incomplete, coarse, disagreeable, and never attained to the marvellous proportion, to the supreme elegance, to the aerial grace of the North. Nevertheless, with all its faults, the clumsiness of hand of an unskilled artist, who opened these windows to let in the light of heaven;—these immense bays, enriched with little pillars having carved capitals, divided into two by a single mullion that rises unsustained to the point where the tracery begins, and receive the ribs of the vaulting, lay hold of and retain one's eyes. The vaults, distributed in five bays, are designed not without dignity. The whole edifice, in spite of gross and many architectural faults—faults of construction, faults of arrangement—breathes a certain robust grace, a barbaric charm, making it the most interesting and most grateful of sanctuaries in our land."

A pretty, late flamboyant, melting into early Renaissance, chapel is between the cathedral and the cloister.

The old episcopal palace has been converted into municipal buildings, and the gardens into a fine promenade; so that the long conflict that endured for centuries has ended in the complete victory of the people. The bishopric was suppressed at the Concordat.

Between Clermont and Lodève the line runs through a red sandstone district, curiously bare and water-torn. The red stone seems to melt like butter under the rain, and with the least rush of water it swims away in masses, and grass can scarcely grow on the denuded surface.

At the distance of an hour and a half from Lodève is the well-preserved monastery of S. Michel-de-Grammont, now converted into farm buildings. It has a Romanesque cloister and a pointed chapter-house. The tower bears an octagonal campanile, rising out of a square base, the four windows of which are flamboyant.

The octagon is surmounted by a dome. The church is of great simplicity, and consists of a nave, vaulted, with a circular apse. On the north side is a pretty portal of three orders, resting on pillars with foliaged capitals.

Near the church is a little chapel, on the front of which is inlaid an inscription in characters of the twelfth century, stating that it was consecrated on the 11th of the Calends of June in honour of S. Michael, but without date of the year.

DOLMEN OF GRANDMONT

At no considerable distance is a remarkably well-preserved dolmen. The end stone is pierced with a triangular opening, through which food was thrust for the dead who lay within. From Lodève the great upland causse can be reached by the road that leads to Le Caylar, through the valley of the Lergue and by the passage of l'Escalette. This was formerly a scramble up a stair of rocks, but now a good road has been driven up the heights to the vast plateau of Larzac, which has been seen as the train passes over it from Le Vigan to Tournemire.

There are caves to be explored near Lodève by such as enjoy such underground excursions; and these with marvellous stalagmitic and stalactitic formations. Such are the Mas de Bouquet, in the commune of Soubès. Another is the Grotte de Labeil, opening out of a cirque of rocks above the source of the Baume-Bauède, that once found its issue thence, but has now burrowed its way to a lower level.

Larzac (Larga saxa) is the most extensive and the most barren of all the limestone causses—a Siberian tundra in winter, an Arabia Petræa in summer.

It seems to be transpierced by the Cévennes, that penetrate it at the Col de Sanctières, and issue from its huge bulk again at Mont Paon, a distance of fifteen miles. But from its abrupt precipices above Milau to the bold frontage of glaring white at L'Escalette is a distance of twenty-four miles. Elisée Reclus says of it:—

"The plateau of Larzac is a veritable table of stone. Water lacks on its surface. The soil, pierced by fissures, is hardly moistened by torrential rains. The drops falling on it pass through it as through a sieve and disappear. At certain spots the rifts in the rock are large, their walls have fallen in, and one sees huge funnels, avens, open in the calcareous surface, and descend to frightful depths. But almost everywhere the surface of the causse is uniform, and the subterranean wells are only indicated by superficial zigzags. Nowhere does a single spring rise.

"The inhabitants have for their own use and that of their cattle but the rain-water collected in cisterns or lavagnes, carefully cemented inside. Where water lacks, vegetation lacks also, and so also inhabitants.

"On most of the causses not a tree is to be seen, hardly a bush, save in dips offering some shelter from the wind. The rock is covered with naught but a short herbage, and the inhabitants, few in number, have utilised but scanty surfaces for the growth of barley, oats, and potatoes."

When the water in the cisterns fails, the caussenard has to make a day's journey to descend into the valleys and fetch the pure liquid from one of the springs that issue there, either in boisterous cascades or welling up out of deep abysses, thrust forth silently by the pressure of the water from above.

A century ago the Larzac could be reached from Lodève only by ladders planted against the precipice at the Pas de l'Escalette.

Le Caylar stands 2,400 feet above the sea, and was once a walled town, with its castle on a rock above it. From the summit the prospect is strange, and not to be forgotten. The eye stretches over the vast barren plain of the same white rock, that here and there assumes strange forms. At night, when the moon glares over it, these rocks with their black shadows stand up in the most fantastic shapes, and nothing can be conceived more surprising. One is in la belle France, indeed—but where is the beauty?

The flora of these plateaux is sufficiently interesting. A list of the plants that the Larzac produces will be found in Fabre (A.), Histoire du Canton du Caylar, Montpellier, 1895.

Le Caylar was the birthplace of Abdias Maurel, called Catinat, the Camisard chief, of whom I have already related some of the achievements.

When Cavalier submitted, Catinat in wrath withdrew and vowed to continue the conflict; but finally he also was compelled to abandon the struggle, and he retired into Switzerland in September, 1704. But he was restless, and two months later recrossed the frontier and entered into a conspiracy, the object of which was to remove the governor Bâville and the Duke of Berwick by assassination. The plot was discovered whilst he was in Nîmes, 20th April, 1705, and Catinat attempted to escape from the town in disguise, having shaved his face. A price had been set on his head. At the gate of Nîmes something suspicious in his appearance caused his arrest, and compromising letters were discovered secreted about his person. He was led to the Duke of Berwick. He demanded to be exchanged for Marshal Tallard, who was a prisoner in the hands of the English, and threatened that if this were not done the English would make Tallard suffer the same death that was inflicted on him. His trial was short, and he was condemned to be burnt alive along with Ravanel, his accomplice in the intended murder.

At the stake Ravanel thundered forth a psalm of Marot, but Catinat, who was chained by him, died biting Ravanel's shoulder, possibly in the delirium of his agony.

A very interesting walled town on the causse is La Couvertoirade, for which there is a station on the line from Le Vigan. It was a commandery of the Templars, and after their suppression of the Knights of S. John.

La Couvertoirade seems to attest to the present day the power of these military orders, and to reveal to us as in a picture the story of their greatness, their faults, and their misfortunes. The general plan is that of an irregular hexagon; the southern portion is occupied by a huge rock that sustains the castle and the church. The ramparts of the town, that are almost perfect, were begun at the end of the thirteenth century and finished at the beginning of the fourteenth. The houses of the little place have a character that harmonises well with the ring of walls enclosing them. If La Couvertoirade shows traces of decay produced by time or the violence of men, the town is, nevertheless, one of the most curious and best-preserved examples of a fortified place of the Middle Ages that can be found in Southern France.

On the Hérault

S. Guilhem-le-Désert is one of the strangest and most picturesque towns in France. It can be reached from Montpellier by taking the train to Aniane and walking or driving thence, or from Clermont in a carriage.

The Hérault escapes from its gorges at S. Jean de Foss, a little walled town, of which one gate remains. The church, crowded about by houses, is very early Romanesque and peculiar in many ways. It underwent alterations in the second Pointed period. There is a west tower, and the chancel is bored out under another.

Aniane is an uninteresting place, with a church built in the eighteenth century, very ugly. The huge abbey was also rebuilt about the same period, and now serves as a prison. I have not stayed the night at Aniane, and think that perhaps the inns may be better on the inside than they appear without. They do not invite to try their internal comforts.

The Hérault breaks out into the plain through a gorge of calcareous rocks, and it has sawn for itself a deep cleft in the bed below the roadway. The strata therein are strangely contorted. From Aniane a bridge is crossed, Le Pont du Diable, not very alarming, in spite of its name, and above is an aqueduct that conveys the water of the Hérault by a channel into the plain to Gignac and beyond that to S. André, carrying fertility with it.

Springs break forth from the cliffs, forming tables of calcareous deposit. One of these, of a high temperature, has constructed a large shelf extending towards the river, into which it flows.

The cliffs on each side of the ravine are very bare, striated, grey and yellow and white, spotted here and there with shrubs, aromatic and evergreen, and the wild pomegranate with its crimson flowers may be found here and about Aniane.

As we ascend the valley, looking down into emerald green pools or wreaths of foam, we light on curious domed structures by the water. These are ancient mills, vaulted over with stone as a protection against floods that sometimes cover them many feet with rolling water, and in one place is a tower beside them up which the millers might fly for refuge when the torrent came rolling down unexpectedly.

All at once we reach the opening of a narrow lateral valley, where are the remains of a tower and walls, and where also are two humble inns, in one of which, as I can vouch, at very short notice an excellent déjeuner can be improvised. "Go up and see S. Guilhem," said the old woman of the inn, "and see what I shall have when you return." So we went, and on coming back she produced crayfish just caught in a net, also a rabbit; further, a couple of fieldfares plump with juniper berries; these, with vegetable soup, foie gras, boiled beef, etc., made a rare lunch.

S. Guilhem is a little town drawn out in a thread alongside of a small stream that rises at the base of a cirque of pink and yellow Jura-limestone above the place. It is itself surmounted by a crag towering high into the sky with what appears to be a lacework of stone on top, actually the ruins of a castle, called of Don Juan. Half-way up is a tower and gateway, through which alone the castle could be reached by a stair cut in the rock, but now the summit can be attained by a circuitous path cut for the purpose.

S. Guilhem-le-Désert

Mills on the Hérault

The village, or little town, grew about an abbey founded by Guillaume, Duke of Aquitaine, in 804. He was grandson of Charles Martel, and he also was a hammer to smite the Saracens. In 793 he fought them at Carcassonne and drove them back; in 797 he wrested Narbonne from them. Then, pursuing them, he drove them out of Barcelona. War made him a misanthrope, and misanthropy made a monk of him. He retired to this desert, settled there with his sisters twain, Albara and Bertrara, and died there on May 28th, 812; and when he died the bells pealed of themselves. His heroic life and pious end became the theme of one of the longest and finest of the Provençal Chansons de Gestes, that of Guillaume de Courtenez—whence the honoured name of Courtenay in England. This is what Fauriel says of the romance:—

"William is the ideal of the Christian knight, fighting for the maintenance of his faith against the Saracens. The epic, in accord with history, does not always paint him as happy, as always victorious. It represents him sometimes as defeated, reduced to the most deplorable extremities, but never losing courage, and always vanquishing in the long run. No other epic of the Carlovingian cycle is so deeply impressed with a sentiment of shuddering apprehension, which one may assume to be a traditional reflection of the contemporary feelings excited by the terrible struggle that took place in the South and lasted two centuries against the Andalusian Arabs."

I think I must find place for a single episode from this poem. It relates to the parting of Guillaume and his wife Gibors, when he was about to go to Paris to ask for succour:—

"Sire Guillaume," said she, "you go into France so highly lauded, and you leave me here, sad, among people that love me not. In the honoured land of France you will meet with many a fresh-faced damsel, many a well-dressed dame, and therefore will lose your heart. You will forget me and this land where you have suffered such pains and endured hunger and thirst."

It must be known that at this time Guillaume and Gibors had been married something like five-and-twenty years. They were not a young couple just out of their honeymoon. Then he replied, kissing Gibors tenderly:—

"Gentle lady, do not concern yourself about me. Receive now my solemn vow, which I will keep faithfully. During my journey I will not change my linen or my coat. I will not taste meat or anything peppered. I will not drink wine nor water out of a goblet; only such of the latter as I can scoop up in my hand. And know further that never shall another mouth be joined to mine, which has been kissed and made spicy by your lips."

On reaching Paris, Guillaume was very badly received. The reason was that Louis the Emperor had married Blanchefleur, the sister of the Duke; that she was white only in name; was, in fact, a disreputable character; so dreading a scolding from her pious brother she had prejudiced her husband against him. When he reached the door of the palace, no squire came to his aid, no one saluted him, no groom offered to take his horse, which he accordingly tied to an olive tree. The southern poet, never having been in the north, supposed that the same trees grew there as in Provence and Languedoc. Guillaume entered the royal hall and saw the Emperor on his throne and the Empress in ermine and gold at his side, both crowned. Neither took notice of him, and all the princes and nobles turned the cold shoulder to him. And indeed he cut a sorry figure. His garments were threadbare and ragged, his linen had obviously not been washed for months, nor was his hair combed and brushed. He was constrained to take a stool far back in the hall. Presently his wrath overcame his astonishment at this insulting reception. He stood up, as he saw his own father and mother, the Count and Countess of Narbonne, received with favour and seated beside the Emperor and Empress. In a loud and terrible voice he cried: "Louis! for all the great services I have rendered you, for all the battles I have fought for you—is this my reward?" "Set your mind at rest," answered the King; "you shall be rewarded by and by." "What!" cried the Queen, "will you rob me of my heritage to give it to him?" Then Guillaume shouted: "Tais-toi, impure chienne!" and he recited before all the court some of his sister's escapades. Then, striding through the crowd of nobles, he mounted to the throne, plucked the crown from his sister's head, and dashed it on the floor.

The abbey church is a fine Romanesque building, not earlier than the first years of the eleventh century. Of that date are the nave and side aisles. Choir, transepts, and porch were added at the end of the twelfth century. The nave communicates with the side aisles by five great arches supported by cruciform piers, and is lighted by three loftily placed windows. The ornamentation of the church is on the outside. To each transept is an apse. The principal apse has an arcade externally like the Lombardic churches on the Rhine. In the apse of the north aisle are the sarcophagi of Guillaume Courtenez and his sisters. That of the founder was so broken by the Camisards that it was not possible to piece it together again, as has been done with the tomb of the ladies, which they also broke. Their sarcophagus is a Christian tomb of the fourth century, with Christ and the evangelists, or apostles, carved on it; at the extremities Adam and Eve and the Three Children in the Furnace. Perhaps the greatest treasure in the church is a black marble altar with panels of white marble and inlaid work of coloured glass, very beautiful, of the date 1138.

Pilgrimages arrive at S. Guilhem on Monday in Easter week and October 1st.

On the south side of the church is the cloister, very early, contemporary with the nave, and with traces of painting in it; but it has been pulled to pieces. In the midst stood a fountain that spouted water in as many jets as there are days in the year. But it was sold to a Paris dealer in antiquities, and where it now is cannot be said. The old monastic buildings, burnt by the Camisards, were reconstructed, and are now occupied by a Baron d'Albenas.

Some of the houses in the town are certainly Romanesque. There was a second church in the place, but it is now in ruins.

Returning to Aniane, it is worth mentioning that in destroying the old presbytery a marble slab was found bearing an Arabic inscription: "In the name of Allah, the clement and merciful, peace be with Mahomed. There is but one God. It is to Him, and to Him alone, that all power is due." A precisely identical inscription has been found at Montpellier, and this shows that the Saracens were in Languedoc not only as destroyers and raiders, but as inhabitants. Guillaume planted himself very close to where they had been, and whence he had turned them out.

And now my account is ended: not that I have exhausted the country. I have done no more than touch upon some points in it. It is a country that fascinates any one who visits it, that lays hold of his heart in strange fashion, and he is inclined when back in England to say, with Ferdinand Fabre:—

"Quand mon cerveau à vidé sur le papier blanc sa mince provision d'idées journalières, les coudes à la barre d'appui (de ma fenêtre) je coule là, en une paresse délicieuse, de longues heurs à rêver. Mon âme alors s'envole au pays si profondément incrusté en elle, ce pays que je rétrouve dans le moindre plis de mes pensées, ce pays qui, le plus ordinairement, lorsque j'ose écrire, me commande, et auquel j'obéis."

INDEX

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MR. JOHN LONG'S SUMMER AND EARLY
AUTUMN BOOKS 1907

SIX SHILLING NOVELS

Crown 8vo., cloth gilt

ITINERANT DAUGHTERS By Dorothea Gerard (Mme. Longard de Longgarde)

In this story Dorothea Gerard tells of the result of an experiment, invented and tried on four girls, to whom home life had become irksome, by an up-to-date doctor. This experiment forms, in the main, the peg on which the story hangs, and which dissects and lays bare the characters of the heroines. The manner in which the girls meet the fate falling to them provides a great variety from the ordinary love-story, and the novel promises to be one of the most original and amusing published for some considerable time.

ONLY BETTY By Curtis Yorke. With Coloured Frontispiece by E. J. Sherie

In "Only Betty" Curtis Yorke has imagined a story which gives full rein for the display of those gifts of tenderness, naturalness, and distinction which readers and critics alike associate with her work. "Only Betty" is one of a large family left in poverty by the death of their father, and she answers an advertisement for services in a remote Welsh village. Betty obtains the post, and the authoress proceeds with great vivacity and charm to describe the lively series of events which follow. Curtis Yorke's popularity grows with every new book she produces, and her public will be immeasurably increased by her latest.

MRS. BARRINGTON'S ATONEMENT By Violet Tweedale

In Violet Tweedale's new novel an excellent plot is unfolded with subtlety and force. It would spoil the reader's pleasure to enter fully into details—the curious psychic experiences, the tragedy and pathos of an immature soul, misunderstanding and misunderstood—but we can promise to those who read the novel that they will not find a dull page in this newest work of a writer to whom we can always look for novelty, brilliance and substantial interest.

THE WHITE HAND AND THE BLACK By Bertram Mitford

Mr. Bertram Mitford has done for South Africa what Mr. Rudyard Kipling has done for India. He has brought home to the English people the character of the work that Britons are doing in the outposts of Empire. Mr. Mitford's knowledge, like Mr. Kipling's, has been acquired at first hand, by living in the land and among the people he describes. In his new novel the author chooses as background a Rising of the Blacks against the Whites. The reader is brought into contact with various kinds of natives, good and bad, with the British official of the better class, and with the grit and solidity and daring of the ordinary Britisher who finds himself in a tight corner and fights with his back against the wall. Trickling through the stirring incidents of the story is a love romance. Mr. Mitford has intimate knowledge, insight, sympathy and imagination, and he has written a novel of virility and vigour whose superiority to most fiction may be observed on every page.

DELILAH OF THE SNOWS By Harold Bindloss

No living writer has a more intimate knowledge of colonial manners than Mr. Harold Bindloss. He describes for the stay-at-home Englishman not so much the well-ordered life in the great settlements as the virile, rugged, desperate, and often lawless struggles among the colonists in the undeveloped outposts of Empire. The earlier scenes in "Delilah of the Snows" take place in England. Later on the characters are transplanted bodily to Western Canada among the gold-seekers. In such surroundings Mr. Harold Bindloss, as may be conjectured, is in his element, and he develops a story of consummate artistry and strength. The spirit of adventure and tragedy and comedy is over it all, and an unconventional ending is in keeping with the rest of this brilliant book.

DR. MANTON By Morice Gerard

Mr. Morice Gerard has advanced with rapid strides to the position of one of the most popular writers of the day. "Dr. Manton" is a splendid instance of his power in weaving a dramatic story, made up of the great elements of love, mystery and conflict between opposing forces, with a wonderful dénouement, which no reader can read without being moved. Mr. Morice Gerard believes in a happy ending; hero and heroine find their happiness and peace achieved after stress and struggle. The story is up to date in every respect.

A WOMAN PERFECTED By Richard Marsh

A new story by Mr. Richard Marsh is an event which is eagerly anticipated; and "A Woman Perfected" will not disappoint the expectations, however high, of any of Mr. Marsh's innumerable admirers. The starting-point of the story is the sudden death of a man of mysterious habits and ostentatious wealth, whose only daughter, Nora, is apparently left unprovided for. The young girl has been led to believe that she would be a great heiress, but the secret of her father's past and the source of his income cannot be discovered. A series of events follow, which excite a curiosity that amounts to anxiety. The author marshals his plot and characters with conscious mastery; and he has written what may, with very truth, be described as a brilliant book.

CYNTHIA IN THE WILDERNESS By Hubert Wales. Author of "Mr. and Mrs. Villiers," "The Yoke"

This book almost reverses the question raised by the author's earlier work, "Mr. and Mrs. Villiers." It is a study of a wife who, through the incapacity of her husband to understand or respond to the deeper woman in her, finds herself shut out upon the wilderness of joyless things. Mr. Hubert Wales has made his mark as an author, and his first two books, "Mr. and Mrs. Villiers" and "The Yoke," have been out-standing successes.

HER FATHER'S SOUL By Lucas Cleeve

An incident which occurs in India between a Native Prince and an English Peeress is the source whence the subsequent events spring. The power of the story lies in its imagination and its phantasy. Lucas Cleeve has the great gift of expression, and in "Her Father's Soul," she enables the reader to realize something of the weird, mysterious beauty and fascination of the land of the Oriental.

THE WHITE COUNTESS By Florence Warden

It may safely be stated of Miss Florence Warden's new story, "The White Countess," that before the reader has reached the end of the first chapter he will find himself immersed in a mystery of baffling complexity, and that the sensational events which follow in swift succession will give him no pause until the last lines are in sight. "The White Countess" is a story of action and plot, and it will uphold Miss Florence Warden's reputation as a writer of straightforward, dramatic, and exciting fiction.

THE CURSE OF THE FEVERALS By L. T. Meade. With coloured Frontispiece by E. J. Sherie

Mrs. L. T. Meade has chosen the subject of heredity as the theme of her new novel; but, as might be imagined, there is nothing unpleasant or technical in her treatment of "The Curse of the Feverals." On the contrary, Mrs. Meade invariably looks at the brighter side of life—upon its joys rather than its sorrows—and she has brought her best talents to bear in the construction of this effective and moving story of domestic life.

THE HOUSE ON THE THAMES By G. W. Appleton

A boating accident on the Thames, the rescue of Jeannie, a beautiful girl, and her sudden disappearance almost immediately afterwards, are the events which occur in the first chapter of Mr. G. W. Appleton's new novel. Thenceforward the reader's perplexity is mingled with an intense desire to probe the mystery. Mr. Appleton keeps well within the region of probability, and his sunny outlook upon life peeps forth in this exciting, dramatic, and withal humorous story.

KINDRED SPIRITS By L. T. Meade

Deals with the passionate love of two girls for one man, and shows how the one whose love he did not return yet loved him so thoroughly, so nobly, so unselfishly, that in the end she was the means of his salvation. The story largely deals with an old family curse, and a strange mystery which is partially founded on fact. The characters of some of the most important persons are taken from life. In a word, this is the most exciting story that Mrs. Meade has ever produced, and the publisher predicts a more than ordinary success for it.

IN HIS GRIP By David Christie Murray

Mr. David Christie Murray has imagined in his new story a combination of circumstances which afford ample scope for the exercise of his uncommon powers. A merchant of character is left, by a dying friend, in the position of trustee without documentary conditions, and the property, which he thinks to be worthless, proves to be of untold value. His own financial embarrassments create the temptation to which he momentarily succumbs. The story gallops along at a furious pace amid an atmosphere of stirring events, through which runs a delightful love episode.

A JACOBITE ADMIRAL By R. H. Forster

In the opinion of the critics, Mr. R. H. Forster knows Northumbria as Mr. Hardy knows Wessex, as Mr. Crockett knows Galloway, and as Mr. Blackmore knew Exmoor. Higher praise for a writer of historical fiction it would be difficult to imagine. In "A Jacobite Admiral" the Jacobite rebellion of 1715 forms the superstructure of the story, and the hero's adventures in his loyalty to the doomed house of Stuart, as conspirator, rebel, fugitive, and lover, afford ample scope for the description of scenes and localities of great natural beauty and historic interest. Over and above this, Mr. R. H. Forster has written a novel which is instinct with the finest romantic spirit.

IN THE QUEEN'S SERVICE By Dick Donovan

Dick Donovan has gone back to the troublous times of Mary Queen of Scots for the incidents which form the basis of his new romance, "In the Queen's Service." Manners and morals were doubtless less refined and less humane in those days, and objects were pursued with more violence and more disregard of consequences. From the novelist's standpoint, the period is rich in materials and possibilities. Intrigue, treachery, murder, disaster, chivalry, gallantry, passion, self-sacrifice—these are the constituents of "In the Queen's Service," and the author has, with his accustomed skill, created from them a story of great and penetrating interest.

PURPLE HEATHER By Alan St. Aubyn

The late Hawley Smart was a master of the true sporting novel, and Alan St. Aubyn has run him very close in "Purple Heather." In this she has given us a picture of the wilds of Exmoor the whole year round, with vivid descriptions of some of the inhabitants, and at the same time has woven about them a story of very human interest which centres on the packs of stag and fox hounds.

THE SECRET SYNDICATE By Fred Whishaw

To the English reader there is a perennial fascination in the conditions of life in the mighty realms of the Czar, and few English writers have a more intimate knowledge of the various revolutionary currents in Russian affairs than Mr. Fred Whishaw. The action of "The Victims" transpires mainly in St. Petersburg, and the characters are wholly Russian. A young journalist and a young girl of the landed class are the central figures, and around these two are described the events which culminate in the recent peasant revolt. The story is graphically told, and has the air of being a veritable transcript from life.

THE PLEASURE MONGER By C. Ranger-Gull

The novel which tells of a complete, triumphant, and overwhelming success is always delightful to read. This is the case in Mr. Ranger Gull's new book, "The Pleasure Monger," one which will be found to be the best of all the brilliant studies of modern life which this author has given us. The character studies are especially strong and vivid, and the keen love-interest, which runs like a scarlet thread through the warp and woof of the tale, is novel and daring. It is very rarely, moreover, that a well-known author lifts the veil of the modern literary life and shows it as it really is. Stories which deal in part with literary life are nearly always written by amateurs. "The Pleasure Monger," in short, will be found full of force, brilliancy, and interest.

THE SIN OF GABRIELLE By Mrs. Coulson Kernahan

In this story Mrs. Kernahan has shown in the character of Gabrielle Desturnelle a beautiful young French adventuress, who has all the seductive charm of "Fanchette," without that heroine's innocence. The story shows how, by her arts and unscrupulous cleverness, she wrecks the life of Donovan Fitzgerald, a man of high ideals. The heartlessness of Gabrielle is put forth with power, while the nobility of Fitzgerald will win the sympathy of the reader.

THE SECOND BEST By Coralie Stanton & Heath Hosken

The work of Coralie Stanton and Heath Hosken stands out from the fiction of to-day in bold outline; there is nothing commonplace or anæmic about it. Their new novel, "The Second Best," is a realistic story of modern English society; the characters are vivid and natural, and the incidents palpitate with drama. The title is in keeping with the underlying idea, but "The Second Best" is, in point of fact, the authors' very best; it grips from the first, and a rich treat is in store for those who come within the spell of this rousing story.

A LOVELY LITTLE RADICAL By Alice M. Diehl

The work of Alice M. Diehl has two main recommendations—its freedom from the unpleasant and its polished and artistic setting. "A Lovely Little Radical," however, is not a placid story. It recounts the love of a young girl of patrician birth and heritage for a simple man of the people. The author manipulates her theme with unfailing tact and discrimination, and succeeds in eliciting the reader's sympathies from the commencement. "A Lovely Little Radical" may be regarded as the crowning achievement of this popular romanticist.

THE LADY OF THE BLUE MOTOR By G. Sidney Paternoster. With Coloured Frontispiece

Mr. Paternoster seems determined to prove in this novel that the motor-car provides inimitable opportunities for the rebirth of romance in an unromantic twentieth century. The central character, "My Lady Melodé," is a veritable heroine of romance. From the time she makes her appearance, enshrouded in a cloud of mystery, in the salon of a hotel at Versailles, she is the centre of a series of thrilling adventures and dramatic situations which enchain the reader's attention until the happy outcome is reached.

INNOCENT MASQUERADERS By Sarah Tytler

This story is founded on an incident which happened at Blackheath upwards of thirty years ago. Two baby girls were exposed and left on the same night at opposite points of the heath to the charity of wayfarers. There is abundance of interest and incident before the mystery of their origin is solved. On one occasion the wrong waif is installed with an old city knight and his lady as their lost grandchild and heiress, but all comes right in the end. Best of all, the two waifs are innocent, good girls, although their adventures should appeal to every lover of true romance.

RUBINA By James Blyth. With Coloured Frontispiece

Mr. James Blyth stands almost alone among English novelists as a realist of the Zola School, but superadded to his realism is a strain of thought at once subtle and poetical. "Rubina" is the story of a girl of the people, and her life is passed wholly in a village in the heart of the Fens. Surrounded by the sights and sounds of nature, she herself is a child of nature, untrammelled by the niceties and scruples of modern conventions. Mr. Blyth pursues his theme in a legitimate and logical fashion, and he has produced a work which is a veritable piece of life, the poignant emotional power and truth of which will be acknowledged by every thoughtful reader.

THE PASSING OF NIGHT By J. Fovargue Bradley

"The Passing of Night" is a political novel written with a purpose. The author is a Congregational Minister who does not write at random, but whose views will be found worthy of attention, if they do not find acceptance. The story, from its argumentative side, treats of the attitude of the Church Association towards the Ritual excesses in the Church of England, and of Disestablishment in the interests of religious and social life; but the author challenges the advocates of Disendowment to show the equity of their case. "The Passing of Night" is polemical and controversial, but it is also a romance of consummate interest; there is wit, imagination, insight, sense of character, and high literary quality in it. It is a first work, but it is certain to be regarded as one of the most remarkable novels of the year.

A BRIAR ROSE By Sarah Tytler

It is a characteristic of most fiction that the last chapters close to the sound of wedding bells. In "A Briar Rose" the order has been reversed, and the marriages take place at the commencement of the story. Miss Sarah Tytler has chosen the everyday lives of two young couples as her foundation, and around their joys and sorrows she has written a domestic story of quiet and penetrating charm. In this book, as in all her works, Miss Sarah Tytler's delicate literary gifts are distinctively apparent.

LITTLE JOSEPHINE By L. T. Meade. With Coloured Frontispiece by E. J. Sherie

There is scarcely a household in which the novels of Mrs. L. T. Meade are not known and appreciated; her work is infinite in its variety, and never dull. The thesis of her new story, "Little Josephine," is the marriage of a good and charming young girl with a man of blemished character. Incidentally, the follies and vices of the worst side of society are exposed and castigated in the manner of Father Vaughan. Mrs. L. T. Meade has never written with greater effect than in this poignant story.

A WOMAN'S AYE OR NAY By Lucas Cleeve

All who are interested in the suffragette movement—and who is not?—will read Lucas Cleeve's new novel with profit and pleasure. The story is set some ten years ahead, when women are allowed to vote for Parliament; but although there is much in the novel of a quasi-political character, it is the love side of it which is uppermost, and which will call for highest appreciation. As an exponent of the "tender passion," few living novelists can compare with Lucas Cleeve.

VALDORA By Thomas Pinkerton

"Valdora" belongs to the order of romance which is a perpetual joy to the novel reader. A Princess of a small State secures the services of an Englishman to defend her possessions from the attacks of envious neighbours. There is the clash of arms, and the delight of love. "Valdora" suggests the method of Mr. Anthony Hope, with whose work it will well bear comparison.

A WIFE FROM THE FORBIDDEN LAND By Archer Philip Crouch

The particular fascination of Mr. A. P. Crouch's new story is that the scene of its operations is placed in that weird, mysterious land, Thibet. A young Englishman of the self-reliant, strong, and adventurous type determines to visit Lhasa—the sacred Thibetan capital—a city which the foreigner is not allowed to explore upon pain of death. How the Englishman succeeds in his object, and how he brings back with him "A Wife from the Forbidden Land," is the function of the story to tell. Mr. Crouch knows the peoples of the wonderful East like a native; and his book is not only an engrossing romance: it is a vivid presentment of the customs, institutions, and manners of a land which is as yet but little known to the European.

A YANKEE NAPOLEON By John F. Macpherson

The "Yankee Napoleon" is a scientist who manufactures a brain serum, by which his own intellect and will-power are so enormously increased that the whole of America lies helpless at his feet. He uses his power, not like a benevolent genius, but like a criminal lunatic who is held in check by no law, human or divine. How, after a devastating war, in which East and West are involved, the "Yankee Napoleon's" plans are frustrated and brought to nothingness by an English scientist and a Japanese Marquis, the reader must discover for himself. He is confidently promised a story unique in plot and inventive power, full of amazing thrills, and written with the pen of a wizard.

A FULL-LENGTH PORTRAIT OF EVE By Daniel Douglas Brewer

The action of this story is placed in Paris, and the characters are wholly French, but "A Full-Length Portrait of Eve" will appeal with irresistible force to English readers. In its essence it is a love-story—a fiery, passionate, overwhelming love-story; and it is written with a beauty of phrase and a distinctive style rarely to be found in the work of a new writer.

THE JEWEL HOUSE By Mrs. Isabel Smith

Mrs. Isabel Smith has already achieved a reputation by her first work, "The Minister's Guest." In her new story, "The Jewel House," the same qualities of quiet charm and literary style will be found united to a fine gift of portraiture. The incidents happen in the country, and the chief characters are a baronet, the scion of an ancient house, and a young and beautiful girl of the yeoman class. "The Jewel House" is a love-story; but it is natural, healthy, and wholly delightful, and it cannot fail to win fresh admirers for an authoress whose work has only to be known to be justly appreciated.

IN SEARCH OF JÉHANNE By Avis Hekking

A new historical romance which can bring effectively before the reader the life and manners of a bygone age, and make real flesh and blood of the characters which it introduces, is a rarity, and sure of a warm welcome. Such is "In Search of Jéhanne." Miss Avis Hekking has taken the sixteenth century and the Massacre of the Huguenots as a background. The characters are French, and the events happen wholly in France. "In Search of Jéhanne" is a romance of first-rate quality, and it should create for the author a high position among writers of historical novels.

A LIGHT-HEARTED REBELLION By John Langfield

In this story the author unwinds a plot in which there is nothing hackneyed or commonplace, but which in character and incident is fresh and natural and wholesome, and brimming with delightful comedy. Humorists are rare, and readers will assuredly be glad to have their attention directed to this light, bright, laughable, captivating book.

THE WAY OF WAR By Hew Scot

Of late there have been attempts (feeble, it must be admitted) to portray in fiction the jealousy of Continental nations against our realm, but in no case has one of them approached the realistic and thrilling description of the sudden and secretly planned attempted invasion by Germany of Great Britain, as set forth in Hew Scot's splendid work, "The Way of War." Commencing with the admittance of a German patient into an Edinburgh hospital, and the suggestion of a strong love interest, we are carried swiftly through seven days of intense stress and adventure, during which the fate of our country seems to hang on the skill and resource of a single individual, by whose adroitness and courage the secret designs of the enemy are discovered, and as far as possible prepared for, until the climax is reached in a naval battle, when the steel-clad might of England, being at length let loose, swoops down in all its tremendous power and sweeps the foe from our waters. This is a book full of life and movement, and one it is impossible to lay aside, having once commenced.

ONE EVENTFUL SUMMER By Ethel Grace Tapner

"One Eventful Summer" is the work of a new writer, but not since the days of "Lorna Doone" has a story been written which conveys so much of the subtle charm of Devonshire. The central idea of the story is whimsical, but there is comedy and tragedy in it—love and laughter and tears. "One Eventful Summer" differs essentially from fiction in general, and upon that account, as well as upon its undoubted intrinsic merits, it will be greatly appreciated by those who are fortunate enough to read the book.

A HUMAN BACILLUS By Robert Eustace

A story that will make some demand upon the nerves of the reader, and leave behind it a burning remembrance. Such is "A Human Bacillus." It describes the life and love of a strange being—partly genius, partly saint, and partly madman—whose subtle acts of renunciation and revenge lead to an extraordinary dénouement. The story is written by Robert Eustace, who is well known as the collaborator of L. T. Meade in "The Brotherhood of the Seven Kings," "The Sanctuary Club," "The Sorceress of the Strand," etc.

INCAPABLE LOVERS, LIMITED By W. W. Ward

A new work of humour is rare in these days, and if the humour is of the right sort—if it is wholesome and natural and unforced—such a book is something to be thankful for. "Incapable Lovers" is written in great good spirits, and the characters and incidents sparkle and bubble over with delightful fun. Not since the days of "Three Men in a Boat" has so popular and infectious a work of humour appeared.

THE SHADE OF THE ACACIA By Jessie E. Livesay

To say that "The Shade of the Acacia" fulfils the high promise which was held out in the author's previous story, "The Little Tin Gods," does not adequately describe the fine qualities of this novel. It not only shows literary gifts of an unusual order, but there are flashes of insight and penetration in it of rare power. The plot is taken up with the marriage of a baronet to a young girl who loves her husband's best friend; and the eternal duel between love and duty is presented in an entirely original form; even the minor characters are distinct and individual. In a word, "The Shade of the Acacia" belongs to the higher rank of fiction.

THE SACRED HERB By Fergus Hume

This story deals with a herb, brought from the South Seas, which is used for religious ceremonial, and is called the "Devil Root" by the natives. When burnt, the fumes produce insensibility, and release the spirit, which can see all that takes place on the physical world, without being able to interfere. The hero is a witness (while in such a trance) to a murder, for which he is afterwards blamed; but he cannot prove his innocence, until assisted by the heroine, whose psychic powers enable her to clear his character. The book is a new departure for Mr. Fergus Hume, as, although the mystery is still retained, the tale deals largely with the power of the occult in modern life.

THE AUTHOR WITH THE LARGEST PUBLIC

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Mr. JOHN LONG is now the exclusive Publisher of all Mr. Nat Gould's New Novels, with cover designs in four colours by Mr. Harington Bird, the well-known horse painter.

The following is the List to October, 1907:

Price 2s. each, illustrated boards; or in cloth gilt, 2s. 6d. each. Crown 8vo., 288 pages

FIFTH YEAR OF PUBLICATION

NAT GOULD'S ANNUAL, 1907
A STROKE OF LUCK

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BY THE AUTHOR OF "WHEN IT WAS LIGHT"

THE FOOL HATH SAID ——

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JOHN LONG'S LIBRARY OF MODERN CLASSICS

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CONFESSIONS OF A PRINCESS

Being the astounding Revelations of Manners and Morals in European Courts.

The late editor of the Saturday Review writes: "The book gives one an extraordinary impression of reality; it is true, truer even than the shorthand account of a trial in our Divorce Court. I have enjoyed the book, and I will maintain before all and sundry that it is a good book, an excellent book, a book that had to be written."

N.B.—The Sales of this remarkable book in the more Expensive Edition exceeded 200,000 copies.

WILHELMINA IN LONDON

By Barry Pain, Author of "Eliza," etc.

Standard. —"A most amusing and delightful book. Take it along in the train, and you won't have to struggle for sleep against comfortless cushions and exiguous seats."

Pall Mall Gazette.—"A light, charming piece of literary frivolity."

MR. AND MRS. VILLIERS

By Hubert Wales, Author of "The Yoke"

The Times: "The situations and the dialogue are handled with sureness and skill, and the two sisters present feminine character studies of singular beauty."—Daily Telegraph: "Hubert Wales is a capable writer, and has produced a story which is worth being read."—Daily Chronicle: "The story is extremely well written, the characterization admirable. Mr. Wales has amused us, and we have enjoyed his book."—Morning Leader: "There is no denying the cleverness of the book."—Athenæum: "Powerfully written."—Tatler: "A very notable book."

GENERAL LITERATURE

A BOOK OF THE CEVENNES By S. Baring-Gould, M.A.

With upwards of 40 Illustrations on art paper, printed in sepia, with 8 plates in colours and a Map. Crown 8vo., cloth gilt, price 6s.

⁂ This work is uniform in scope and size with the author's well-known books on Devon, Cornwall, Dartmoor, Brittany, the Riviera, etc. Prospectus post free

PICTURES FROM NATURE'S GARDEN Or, Stories from Life in Wood and Field. By H. W. Shepheard-Walwyn, M.A., F.Z.S., F.E.S., etc. Author of "Nature's Nursery," "Nature's Riddles," "The Lay of the Wee Brown Wren," etc.

With 78 Illustrations on art paper, printed in sepia, from the author's photographs direct from Nature. Crown 8vo., cloth gilt, 6s. Prospectus post free

TERRIERS: Their Points and Management By Frank Townend Barton, M.R.C.V.S.

With upwards of 40 Illustrations from photographs on art paper, printed in sepia. Crown 8vo., cloth, heavily gilt, price 5s. net. [Prospectus post free]

This is an entirely new and important work on Terriers, and the only one of its kind yet published. It is a departure from the style usually followed by authors in canine literature. In a word, it is a book for everybody who wants to know all about terriers.

THREE NEW VOLUMES OF POEMS

In royal 16mo, cloth gilt and gilt top, with silk marker, price 3s. 6d. net each.

THE TESTAMENT OF OMAR KHAYYAM (The Wasiyyat), comprising his Testament (or Last Words), A Song, Hymn of Prayer, The Word in the Desert, Hymn of Praise, also the Maráthi, or Odes of the Disciples. By Louis C. Alexander

THE COMING OF SPRING; and Other Poems By Rowe Lingston

VOCES AMORIS By John B. Rankin

"Will outbid all rivals."—The Bookman.

"Certainly wonderful."—Athenæum.

"It has remained for Mr. John Long to undersell all rivals by his 'Carlton Classics.' The copy before us—Thackeray's 'English Humorists'—is extremely well printed and nicely got up, and must certainly be reckoned as the last word in cheap editions."—Daily News.

JOHN LONG'S CARLTON CLASSICS

Prices: Artistic Cloth, gilt, 6d. net; Leather, gilt top, gold-blocked back and side, 1s. net; postage, 1-1/2d. per vol. Length from 160 to 320 pages, newly set in clear, new type, and printed on the best paper. Each Volume contains a Biographical Introduction by the Editor, Mr. Hannaford Bennett. The first twelve only are bound in decorative paper covers.

Other Volumes in Preparation

THE HAYMARKET NOVELS

A Series of Copyright Novels by Popular Authors. The Volumes are printed upon a superior Antique Wove Paper, handsomely bound in specially designed cover, red cloth, heavily Gold Blocked at back. The size of the volumes is 7-1/2 in. by 5-1/4 in. by 1-1/4 in., the length from 300 to 350 pages, and the price 2s. 6d. each.

VOLUMES NOW READY

VOLUMES IN PREPARATION

RECENT POPULAR NOVELS

SIX SHILLINGS EACH

JOHN LONG'S SIXPENNY NOVELS

In Striking Picture Covers, 9 in. by 6 in.

NEW VOLUMES (JANUARY-SEPTEMBER, 1907)

JOHN LONG, 12, 13 & 14 Norris Street, Haymarket, London

BILLING AND SONS, LIMITED, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD