The feudal lords were a gallant race on the whole; they didn't spend all their time making war; they played _boules_ and the _jeu-de-paume_, and held court at their château, where minstrels sang, and knights made verses for their lady loves, and men and women amused themselves much as country-house folk do to-day.
The following, extracted from the book of accounts of one of the minor noblesse of Béarn in the sixteenth century, is intimate and interesting. The master of this feudal household had a system of bookkeeping which modern chatelains might adopt with advantage. The items are curiously disposed.
Pot de vinaigre 5 0 Livre de l'huile d'olive 6 0 Sac du sel 30 0 Aux pauvre 30 0 { Pour deux laquais et la mulette 18 0 { Au valet pour boire 1 0 En { À Tarbes pour la couchée de lundi 4 10 0 Voyage { Un relevé pour la mulette 8 2 6 { Un fer pour la mulette 5 0 { Aux nomads 1 10 0
Evidently "la mulette" was a very necessary adjunct and required quite as much as its master.
THE PYRENEES--THEIR GEOGRAPHY AND TOPOGRAPHY
One of the great joys of the traveller is the placid contemplation of his momentary environment. The visitor to Biarritz, Pau, Luchon, Foix or Carcassonne has ever before his eyes the massive Pyrenean bulwark between France and Spain; and the mere existence of this natural line of defence accounts to no small extent for the conditions of life, the style of building, and even the manners of the men who live within its shadow.
The Pyrenees have ever formed an undisputed frontier boundary line, though kingdoms and dukedoms, buried within its fastnesses or lying snugly enfolded in its gentle valleys, have fluctuated and changed owners so often that it is difficult for most people to define the limits of French and Spanish Navarre or the country of the French and Spanish Basques. It is still more difficult when it comes to locating the little Pyrenean republic of Andorra, that tiniest of nations, a little sister of San Marino and Monaco. Some day the histories of these three miniature European "powers" (sic) should be made into a book. It would be most interesting reading and a novelty.
Unlike the Alps, the Pyrenees lack a certain impressive grandeur, but they are more varied in their outline, and form a continuous chain from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, while their gently sloping green valleys smile more sweetly than anything of the kind in Switzerland or Savoie.