By some fatality, surely unjustly, the Gascons are credited throughout France with being braggarts, cowards, the makers of bad bulls and as bad jokes. This is what a writer says of them in _Le Passe-temps Agréable_, Rotterdam, 1737:-- “If in France you would speak of a braggart and swash-buckler, whose magnanimity and courage are discoverable in his speech, and in his speech alone; who speaks of war, without having been in it; say but, He is a Gascon, and this explains everything. Those friends at the table who are faithful so long as it is spread with good cheer, but who vanish when the platter and the beaker are empty--say that they are Gascons, and that explains all. Should you encounter a fellow who boasts of his gallantries and the favours he has received from fair ladies, intimate that he is a Gascon, and all will know the worth of his statements. The word Gascon suffices to comprehend various characters never estimable. But it must not be supposed that all Gascons are such sorry creatures as those spoken of above. There are to be found among them men of rare merit, and men with plenty of courage, men as honest as are any others. But, actually, all Gascons do not come from Gascony. Every nation under the sun breeds its braggarts and false braves. ‘The true Gascons,’ says a writer who knew them well in their own land washed by the Garonne, ‘the true Gascons possess a good deal of heart, and are desirous of making all the world aware of the fact.’ But I am not satisfied that they do not make display of more heart than they actually possess.” A collection of bons-mots and blunders made by Gascons is found in _Vasconia_, Lyons, 1730. The description of a Gascon, as given by a fellow-countryman, is more flattering than that above. He says: “To be a Gascon is to be a happy mixture of dazzling virtues and of agreeable and convenient faults. Everything in us is charming, even our imperfections. What if there be blemishes perceptible in us? There are spots in the sun itself.” CHAPTER III BAYONNE Approach to the Pyrenees--Colour of the mountains--Bayonne-- Cathedral--Attachment of Bayonne to the English--Quarrels with Norman towns--Taken by the French--Bayonets--Meeting of queens--Wild Scotchmen--Napoleon lures the Infante and King of Spain to Bayonne--Dethrones the King--The crossing of the Pyrenees by Wellington--Battles--About Bayonne--Cemetery-- Lakes in the Landes--Biarritz--The Refuge--S. Jean de Luz-- Riding _en cacolet_--Heaving at Eastertide--The Bidassoa-- Peace of the Pyrenees--Fontarabia--Passages--San Sebastian-- Siege--Charges brought against the English. Michelet, with florid eloquence, describes the approach to the Pyrenees from Bordeaux in the first chapter of the second volume of his _History of France_.