Part 9 (2/2)

There is nothing like travel for restoring the aching mind to usefulness But, undoubtedly, the send-off froave h I say little, I am very sensible We drove to St Sauveur after our visit to the Grotto where such striking cures have happened, and each day brought more fully back to me that zest for natural beauty which has been withand beautiful, but too full of invalids It was rather saddening to see thes At Lourdes they were clustering round the cascade that flows from the Grotto where the statue of Our Lady stands, exactly reproducing the figure as seen by the little Shepherdess Poor hu out hopeful arms in its pain, here for physical help, there for spiritual

The Gave rushes through both Lourdes and St Sauveur, with a very sharp noise in the rocky gorge of the latter, too harsh to be a soothing sound I looked forward to getting yet another experience of _vetturino_ travel which I had never thought could be enjoyed again, and which proved to be still possible The journey was a success, and, besides the beauty of that very majestic mountain scenery, the little incidents of the road were picturesque Our driver was proud to tell us he was known as ”_L'ancien chien des Pyrenees_,” and a characteristic ”old dog” he was, one-eyed and weatherbeaten, wearing the national blue _beret_ and very voluble in local _patois_ His horses' bells jingled in the old fas of his accompanied us all the ho, in the noonday heat, sat in the wayside streas The first day's ascent was over the Pass of the Tourmalet, the second over that of the Col d'Aspin, and the third and final clineres de Luchon appeared deep down in the valley where our drive came to an end What would we have seen of the Pyrenees if we had burrowed in tunnels under those _Cols?_ Luchon was not embellished by the invalids there, whose principal ailst the female patients was evidently a condition of _e could not possibly be ignored

We had refreshi+ng ”_ascensions_” on horseback; a wide view of Spain fronere, wherein the backbone of the Pyrenees, with the savage ”Maladetta,” rising suprein Many very pleasant excursions we had besides I tried a hurried sketch of one of these views from the saddle, the only precious chance I had, but a little Frenchman in tourist hel in our direction with a party, threw hi to be included in the viehich he was pretending to ad hi Luchon we journeyed _via_ Toulouse to Cette, following the course of the Garonne, which famous river we had seen in its little randeur at Bordeaux

Toulouse looked majestic, a fair city as I remember it There I was interested to see that fareat river to the Mediterranean A noteworthy feature in the landscape as we journeyed on to Cette in the dreary, dun-coloured gloa was the mediaeval city of Carcassonne To come suddenly upon a complete restoration to life of an old-world city, full of towers and wrapped in its unbroken walls, gives one a strange sensation One seees That dark evening there was solooainst an ashen sky, and set on a hill high above the fields cultivated in priround of so scene, so often shown in old tapestry

All was darkening before an approaching stor of it at the time I was not aware that ed this most precious old city to Viollet-le-Duc, who has restored it stone by stone

Cette looked so bleared and blind the nextin a sea mist that I have preserved a dejected iunes, and waste places, seen as though in a dismal dream I was coaxed back to cheerfulness by the sunshi+ne of Nismes, where we spent several hours, on our way to our halt for the night, strolling in the warht of our arriving once non Good travelling This closed the day Under iht travel, and on account of our general easy-going ways, we gave nearly a fortnight to reach Genoa froland, with pauses here and there

My redundant Diary carries me on now, like the rapid Rhone itself, to ust 8th, 1878--a blue opal There is always so sacred about a place in which one ca overlooking the lake, and facing the snowy ridges of the Dents du Midi

Looking at that house ”all ht of her that Noveo, and of our dear, faithful nurse whom I captured there to our service till death, with a sot to Bale next day, and very scenic the old town looked on our arrival in the evening On either side of the swift-flowing river the gabled houses were full of lights, which were reflected in the water, all looking red-gold by contrast with the green-gold of the , the rose-coloured city of the great Tun! Other tuns are also shown, not quite so capacious; but what swilling they suggest on the part of the old electors, who gathered all that hock in tithes!

I wasto impress my husband with the charne My early Diary tells of my enchantment on that fondly-remembered river But, alas! this tily all the way, and as we cae, he shut himself up in a deck cabin, out of which I could not entice him I suspect the natives on board drove him in there rather than his resent descriptions one reads in travel books These natives were a , and into the night,out all over the deck and, do what one could, the feeding of those Teutons obtruded itself on one's attention _ad nauseam_ I have a sketch, taken _sub rosa_, of an obese and terrible _frau_, seated behind her rather smart officer husband at one of the little tables She had e hi no attention But ”Gustav! Gustav!” she persisted, poking him in the back with her e too ot her refill What General Gordon calls the ”Gere” in contrast with the ”Italian countenance”

never appeared so surprisingly ugly as it did to us that day on the crowded deck of the _Queen of Prussia_

My Diary says: ”At Mayence, Will and I, always on the look-out for soldiers, had a good opportunity of seeing Ger tie near us Froh, but when Will ran on shore and overhauled theht by his six-foot-two He showed a clear head and shoulders above their _pickelhauben_ They were short, chiefly by reason of the stuement”

The next day we had a rather dull start fro a dis time at Dusseldorf is not lively At the cafe where we had tea two young subalterns of hussars caaily in to have their coffee, and, just as they were sitting doith a cavalry swagger, there caot up, saluted, and left the roo to the steamer Will found an epauletted disciple of Bismarck in my place at supper He told the epauletted one of his mistake, much to the latter's manifest astonish into the British soldier's eye, but, anyway, the sabre-rattler eventually got up and went elsewhere: things felt electric

August 14th found us nearly all day on board the boat ”A very interesting day, showing me a phase of Rhine scenery familiar to me in Dutch pictures by the score, but never seen bywind blew froreen-yellow river into tu the blunt-bowed craft fro in no way from the boats beloved of the old Dutchwith rushes, and beyond stretched sunken lided by ind above the grey s and sedges Dordrecht formed a perfect picture _a la_ Re dark against the brightness, at the confluence of the Maes and Rhine Here Cuyp was born, the painter of sunlit cows Rotterda, cost the most admirable statues I have seen Rotterdam possesses in rich abundance the peculiar char attraction The varied shi+pping, the bustle on land and water, the colour, the noise, the mixture of hus have always filled reat seaport” A visit to Holland (”the dustless” land, as alleries, then Antwerp, where we eorated and restored, I set to work on an 8-foot canvas, whereon I painted a subject which had been in my mind since childhood

CHAPTER XIV

QUEEN VICTORIA

It must have been at Villa de' Franchi that edy which had profoundly ed rown up The Diary says: ”We are noith poor Shere Ali, and this new Afghan War revived forJellalabad, weary and fainting, on his dying horse, the sole survivor, as was then thought, from our disaster in the Cabul passes

Here I a badly with the picture I think it is well painted, and I hope poetical But I have had the darkest winter I can res which have acco frost Will sailed under orders for the Cape last Friday, February 28th Our terrible defeat at Isandula has caused the greatest coland to Zululand in a fleet of transports; and now staff officers are being selected for posts of great responsibility out there, and ast these is Colonel Butler, AAG to General Clifford

”_March 16th, 1879_--I a is talked of still but the fighting in Zululand and the incapacity of that poor unfortunate Lord Chel they will continue to trust in his supreh he would evidently be thankful to be relieved of an anxiety which his nervous temperanificent subjects for pictures the 'Defence of Rorke's Drift' will furnish When we get full details I shall be eous achieve wound of Isandula But the te tocontemporary subjects I like to mature my themes

”Studio Sunday At last, at last! After three years of disappointhtly and successfully I have called the Afghan picture 'The Remnants of an Army' I had the Irish picture to show also, by perers' Froot up quite charly with curtains and screens, and ild beast skins disposed on the floor, and my arms and armour furbished up The two pictures came out well, and both appeared to 'take' However, not much value can be attached to to-day's praises to my face But I must not let Elo unrecorded 'It is impossible to look at that man's face unmoved,' and his eyes were positively dimmed! I have heard it said that no one was ever known to shed tears before a picture On reading a book, on hearing

Well! that is not true, as I have provedhere of a pathetic man who came to me to say, 'I had a wet eye when I saw your picture!' He had one eye brown and the other blue, and I almost asked, 'Which, the brown or the blue?' It is often so difficult to knohat to answer appreciatively to enthusiastic and unexpected praise!

”Varnishi+ng Day A long and cheery day in those rooton House Both ratulations flowed in” A few days later: ”Alice and I to the Private View at that fascinating Burlington House, so fascinating when one's works are well placed! The Press is treating me very well No subsidised puffs _here_, so I enjoy these critiques The Academy has received me back with open arms, and thetheir hope that I am pleased with the positions ofquite openly about their determination to vote for me at the next election”