Cathedrals and Cloisters of the South of France, Volume 1Rose, Elise Whitlock
Religion
Cathedrals and Cloisters of the South of France, Volume 1
Rose, Elise Whitlock
Cathedrals -- France; France -- Description and travel
Long afterwards this simple, saintly prelate saved a man from crime, and
history relates that this same man died at Waterloo as a good and
faithful soldier fighting for the fatherland. His benefactor, that loyal
servant of Christ and His Church, soon followed him in death, and unlike
many a Saint whom this earth forgets his memory lives on, not only in
the little city of the snow-clad Alps, but in the hearts of those who
read of his good deeds. For Monseigneur Miollis of Digne is truly
Monseigneur Bienvenu of "Les Miserables," and only the soldier of
Waterloo was glorified in Jean Valjean.
[Sidenote: Forcalquier.]
If it is difficult to picture sleepy, stately Aix as one of the most
brilliant centres of mediaeval Europe, and the garrisoned castle of
Tarascon filled with the gay courtiers and fair ladies of King Rene's
Court, it will be almost impossible to walk in the smaller Provencal
"cities," and see in imagination the cavalcades of mailed soldiers who
clattered through the streets on their way to the castle of some
near-by hill-top, my lord proudly distinguishable by his mount or the
length of his plume, a delicate Countess languishing between the
curtains of her litter, or a more sprightly one who rode her palfrey and
smiled on the staring townsfolk. It is almost impossible to conceive
that the four daughters of Raymond Berenger, a Queen of the Romans, of
France, of Naples, and of England, were brought up in the castle of the
little hillside hamlet of Saint-Maime Dauphin. Provence is quiet, rural,
provincial; a land of markets, busy country inns, and farms; not of
modern greatness nor of modern renown. Its children are a fine and busy
race, no less strong and fine than in the land's more stirring times,
but they live their years of greatness in other, "more progressive"
parts of France, and the Provencal genius, which remains very native to
the soil, is broadly known to fame as "French." Like some rich old wine
hidden in the cellars of the few, Provence lies safely ensconced behind
Avignon and Arles, and only the epicures of history penetrate her hills.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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