of its waters, flowing swiftly to the sea, been welcomed by men in danger of life and liberty. Colonel Péroz[55] has graphically described his escape by swimming the river during the last Carlist war. On May 5, 1808, Marbot reached the Bidasoa, after riding day and night through hostile country to bring the Emperor (then at the Château de Marrac, near Bayonne) news of the _Dos de Mayo_ rising at Madrid. At the beginning of November Napoleon himself crossed the frontier, and as he rode rapidly along the _route d’Espagne_ and beneath the Church of Urrugne, with its ancient, sad inscription,[56] little thought that the enterprise upon which he was now engaged was to be a main cause in bringing him swiftly to the last hour that kills. In the Middle Ages the pilgrims to the shrine of Santiago went through the Basque country and across the frontier in fear of their lives. The Basques were fierce and brave, and fond of plunder. In 1120 a Bishop was obliged to lay aside his episcopal robes, and taking with him only two servants and a guide who understood the “barbarous tongue of the Basques,” so passed through to Compostella. In later times the pilgrims would sing, as they left Irun,-- “Adieu la France jolie Et les nobles fleurs de lys Car je m’en vais en Espagne, C’est un étrange pays,” and would look back with sighs to the good cheer of France: “Quand nous fûmes á Saint Jean de Luz[57] Les biens de Dieu en abondance, Car ce sont gens de Dieu élus, Des charités ont souvenance.”