If I Called Les Baux A City, Just, Above, It Was Not
That I Was Stretching A Point In Favor Of The Small
Spot Which To-Day Contains But A Few Dozen Inhabi-
Tants.
The history of the plate is as extraordinary
as its situation.
It was not only a city, but a state;
not only a state, but an empire; and on the crest of
its little mountain called itself sovereign of a territory,
or at least of scattered towns and counties, with which
its present aspect is grotesquely out of relation. The
lords of Les Baux, in a word, were great feudal pro-
prietors; and there-was a time during which the island
of Sardinia, to say nothing of places nearer home,
such as Arles and Marseilles, paid them homage. The
chronicle of this old Provencal house has been written,
in a style somewhat unctuous and flowery, by M. Jules
Canonge. I purchased the little book - a modest
pamphlet - at the establishment of the good sisters,
just beside the church, in one of the highest parts of
Les Baux. The sisters have a school for the hardy little
Baussenques, whom I heard piping their lessons, while
I waited in the cold _parloir_ for one of the ladies to
come and speak to me. Nothing could have been
more perfect than the manner of this excellent woman
when she arrived; yet her small religious house
seemed a very out-of-the-way corner of the world. It
was spotlessly neat, and the rooms looked as if they
had lately been papered and painted:
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 223 of 276
Words from 60994 to 61257
of 75796
