Climbing on the step below this window and peering in, we saw a low, mean-looking room, with a few common wooden benches in it, and a small altar at the end, surmounted by an insignificant picture. An iron cross was placed on the west end of the little edifice, which otherwise might have been taken for a cow-shed.
Two or three hundred yards from the chapel, and just at the foot of the rocks, was a small cottage, uninviting and unclean-looking; but, saving for this, a grand solitude reigned over this most wild and picturesque spot.
The plain, or rather valley (for high hills mount guard on either side), runs some distance out towards the sea, which beats angrily at the foot of the cliffs which abruptly break its course.
The rocks facing the north are the grandest imaginable. Several hundred feet high, and composed of magnificent grey granite boulders, they rise, with jagged and serrated points, into the blue sky in two almost perpendicular ridges.
Maquis clings to the lower crags and fir-trees to the higher, and little paths, made by the sheep, and steep as ladders, wind confusingly in and out among hollowed and grotesque rocks.
Round about the cottage were two or three little gardens, fenced in with wattles to a height of six feet, to keep out the destructive goats, and giving the appearance of African kraals.
Nos. 1 and 3 were still sketching the little chapel, and No. 2 sitting upon a furze bush in silent reflection, when our card-playing friends reappeared round the corner of the sand-hills. Laying down their burdens on a knoll close beside the chapel, they proceeded to put their fingers in their mouths and give a series of shrill whistles, which echoed among the rocks.
The call was soon answered from the heights, and presently, bounding down the steep hill-side, came three of the wildest and roughest human animals of the male species it is possible to picture.
There was little doubt about the purpose of their meeting, as men and women reclined upon the grassy bank, and set to, with hearty good will, at their al fresco repast, cracking noisy jokes, and retailing rapid gossip to each other.
They were rather a cut-throat looking party; and when, half an hour afterwards, No. 1, who had departed a little distance for another sketch, could not be found for some minutes, a horrid qualm, having reference to brigands, vendetta knives, and deep gorges, came over Nos. 2 and 3 with unpleasant force.