soon
under way with Modestine. The road lay for a while over the plateau, and
then descended through a precipitous village into the valley of the
Chassezac. This stream ran among green meadows, well hidden from the
world by its steep banks; the broom was in flower, and here and there
was a hamlet sending up its smoke.

At last the path crossed the Chassezac upon a bridge, and, forsaking
this deep hollow, set itself to cross the mountain of La Goulet. It
wound up through Lestampes by upland fields and woods of beech and
birch, and with every corner brought me into an acquaintance with some
new interest. Even in the gully of the Chassezac my ear had been struck
by a noise like that of a great bass bell ringing at the distance of
many miles; but this, as I continued to mount and draw nearer to it,
seemed to change in character, and I found at length that it came from
some one leading flocks afield to the note of a rural horn. The narrow
street of Lestampes stood full of sheep, from wall to wall--black sheep
and white, bleating with one accord like the birds in spring, and each
one accompanying himself upon the sheep-bell round his neck. It made a
pathetic concert, all in treble. A little higher, and I passed a pair of
men in a tree with pruning-hooks, and one of them was singing the music
of a _bourree_. Still further, and when I was already threading the
birches, the crowing of cocks came cheerfully up to my ears, and along
with that the voice of a flute discoursing a deliberate and plaintive
air from one of the upland villages. I pictured to myself some grizzled,
apple-cheeked, country schoolmaster fluting in his bit of a garden in
the clear autumn sunshine. All these beautiful and interesting sounds
filled my heart with an unwonted expectation; and it appeared to me
that, once past this range which I was mounting, I should descend into
the garden of the world. Nor was I deceived, for I was now done with
rains and winds and a bleak country. The first part of my journey ended
here; and this was like an induction of sweet sounds into the other and
more beautiful.

There are other degrees of _feyness_, as of punishment, besides the
capital; and I was now led by my good spirits into an adventure which I
relate in the interest of future donkey-drivers. The road zigzagged so
widely on the hillside, that I chose a short cut by map and compass, and
struck through the dwarf woods to catch the road again upon a higher
level. It