for the speculations of both the gentlemen,— who admired the romantic site of François' dwelling, and wondered it was not oftener visited by the restless pilgrims of Britain. The landlord assured them he had no cause of complaint, for that during the season for the waters, the Pyrenean namlets were well stocked with travellers, and that many had lately passed in their way to Barèges, and St. Sauveur, towns now not far off. 66 "We have had," said De Vere, as they mounted their horses to pursue their way to Lourde, a beautiful lesson on true natural happiness, unsophisticated by the artificial excitements with which, under our management of them, we contrive to plague ourselves." "I wish all the Aristippusses I have seen," cried Wentworth, "with ribbands and stars on their breasts, but hearts within, worn out and blazes with great passions, could have seen this place and heard this story. Bolingbroke's in scriptions are nothing to it." To this, De Vere heartily assented, for it flattered all his feelings, and fell in with all his favourite principles; so that, both gentlemen meditated internally over La Chataignerie, long after they had quitted it. At length, breaking silence, "I believe," said Wentworth, "you knew this good fellow's history when you talked so emphatically just now of your young Hottentot. At any rate, you see it is not the having mixed in the world that always prevents men from being happy out of it." "It is not I who want that lesson," answered De Vere; "I who am not only untried, but too poor, both in fortune and reputation, to be of service; though too rich, while I have a brown loaf, to be the hanger-on of a party or a patron. But you are different, and, whatever right you may have to complain of particular persons, you have no right yet to live for yourself, and dream away life as you just now talked of doing.” "All this is very fine," said Wentworth; "but I fear, if only public virtue were concerned, in my present humour it would not last long. My fear, after all, is, that however we may be delighted with it in books, the imagination of no one is strong enough to keep seclusion warm. I might otherwise leave ambition to those who murdered Beaufort; yet, I should be glad (if only to solve a problem in the moral history of man), to make the discovery whether it is pos sible for any one beyond a certain age, and who has at all tasted of public excitement, to throw it off and be happy with privacy, and nothing but his imagination to gild it. Shew me such a man, and I may still be a dreamer.” De Vere thought of Okeover and Flowerdale, whose history he recounted; but Wentworth rejected it, as not in point. "He was evidently," he said, "a country gentleman, with a good estate, without which, perhaps, his philosophy would not have served him. Besides, you say he was fully interested in the business and politics of the world. This is not what I want. Bolingbroke, indeed, had his favourite maxim of vacare literis. But this was only secondary in his mind: his real wish, to the last, was for power. What I do want is a man of keen faculties, buoyant and active, with spirits under no disgusts, swayed by no other absorbing passion, and therefore fit for the world if he pleases, yet rising above its ambition by sufficing to himself where ever he goes. Shew me, such I say, a man, and as at present disposed, I should be inclined to enlist under him." De Vere laughed, and said he knew of no such person, but, under such an alternative, would not shew him if he could. "He is not to be found," observed Wentworth, "and therefore my dream of romance may continue for a few weeks at least, without danger." . At that moment, they had arrived at the castle of Lourde, high among the mountains, to the governor of which they had letters; but, on presenting themselves, they were sorry to find he was absent at Toulouse; and as the only auberge in the place was a poor one, and their horses could proceed no further without rest, they were glad to learn, that by a pleasant walk among torrents and fells, they might easily reach the romantic St. Sauveur. The serjeant of Lourde, who commanded the small party called the garrison, in lieu of the governor, said they would there find an hotel magnifique, and, being famous for its waters, la meilleure société du monde. They, therefore, set out on foot, leaving their horses to follow as soon as refreshed. CHAPTER XVI. THE MAN OF IMAGINATION. I pr'ythee, shepherd, if that love or gold, Can in this desert place buy entertainment; SHAKSPEARE. THE travellers had not proceeded very far when St. Sauveur opened to their view, though at a great distance, and perched up among the crags like eagles' nests. It overhung one of the numerous mountain-torrents that abounded, and was, as usual, backed by a grove of dark pines, The western sun, clothed all the front in splendor, but rendered the heat powerful enough for a pair of fatigued and hungry pedestrians to wish to avoid it. By entering the bed of a river, now almost dry, they thought not only to do this, but to escape a hill. Accordingly, they pursued a goat-path worn within the channel, till they came to a sort of natural shrubbery, |