h he
never had been absent a single day from his home. In a nation where
almost every person of a certain age has such incidents as these burnt
into his recollection, it is not wonderful that the general character
should somewhat alter, and that the lively thoughtless Frenchmen of
Sterne should become nearly an obsolete race. It may be perhaps a
fanciful idea to trace to the same source the nature of a Frenchman's
vanity, which has generally more reference to mental qualities, than to
those goods of which fortune or the will of a despot may deprive him in
an instant. "Bene vixit qui bene latuit" should seem the motto of the
bulk of the nation.

The first part of the road from Cujes to Toulon traverses great
inequalities of ground, affording very odd bird's eye glimpses of the
sea through little chasms in the line of cliffs to the right. Beausset,
through which we passed, is as filthy a town as Cujes, and the country
as beautifully cultivated, and as rich in flowers, fruit, and corn; it
is difficult, indeed, to find animal and vegetable nature more strongly
contrasted. If I may be allowed to parody the words of a noble poet--

"They are brown as the dunghills whereon they decline,
"And all, save the dwelling of man, is divine."

About three miles from Beausset, the road inclines towards a barrier of
high and nearly perpendicular rock to the right, which it appeared
impossible either to penetrate or ascend. A large string of mules,
however, which met us from Toulon, loaded with barilla for the great
glass works at Beausset, showed us that the one or the other was
practicable, and on advancing a little farther, we distinguished the
chasm through which the road to Toulon is conducted, surmounted by the
black ruins of an old castle to the left. On the right of the road in
this place, a singular cluster of conical rocks occurs, which, both
from their form and position, seem exactly like a heap of gigantic
shells, piled up to batter the old ruin on the opposite cliff. Their
appearance was that of a mass of large pebbles, held together by
indurated clay; but as each probably weighed some scores of tons, it was
impracticable to bring away one as a geological specimen; nor would such
specimen give a more accurate idea of the singular and wild effect of
the whole mass, than a single corner stone of the Colosseum would of the
grandeur of the whole amphitheatre. The country name of the castle is
Chateau Negro, as we under