Hélas! que l'on serait heureux
Dans ce beau lieu digne d'envie,
Si, toujours aimé de Sylvie,
On pouvait, toujours amoureux,
Avec elle passer sa vie[517]!
Let Mademoiselle Honorine be on her guard against her beautiful voice! Talents are "gold of Toulouse:" they bring misfortune.
Bordeaux.
Bordeaux was as yet scarce rid of its scaffolds and its dastardly Girondins. All the towns which I saw had the appearance of beautiful women lately risen from a violent malady, and hardly commencing to breathe again. In Bordeaux, Louis XIV. had caused the Palais des Tutelles to be razed, in order to build the Chateau Trompette[518]; Spon[519] and the lovers of antiquity groaned:
Pourquoi démolit-on ces colonnes des dieux,
Ouvrage des Césars, monument tutélaire[520]?
There were but a few remains of the Arena to be seen. Were we to offer a token of regret to all that falls, life would be too short for our tears.
I took ship for Blaye. I saw the castle, then unknown, to which in 1833 I addressed these words:
"O captive of Blaye[521], I am sorrow-stricken to be able to do nothing to forward your present destinies!"
I travelled towards Rochefort, and went on to Nantes through the Vendée.
This district bore the mutilations and scars due to its valour, like an old warrior. Bones bleached by time and ruins blackened by fire met the gaze. When the Vendeans were on the point of attacking the enemy, they knelt down to receive the blessing of a priest. Prayers uttered under arms were not reckoned as weakness, for the Vendean who raised his sword towards Heaven asked for victory, not for life.