y of the ravines, the natural path of the
torrents when they tore down the slopes. She wished to measure the task
before her,--to study the land and the water-ways, and find for herself
the essential points of the enterprise which the rector had suggested to
her. She followed Colorat, who rode in advance; Champion was a few steps
behind her.

So long as they were making their way through parts that were dense with
trees, going up and down undulations of ground lying near to each other
and very characteristic of the mountains of France, Veronique was lost
in contemplation of the marvels of the forest. First came the venerable
centennial trees, which amazed her till she grew accustomed to them;
next, the full-grown younger trees reaching to their natural height;
then, in some more open spot, a solitary pine-tree of enormous height;
or--but this was rare--one of those flowing shrubs, dwarf elsewhere,
but here attaining to gigantic development, and often as old as the soil
itself. She saw, with a sensation quite unspeakable, a cloud rolling
along the face of the bare rocks. She noticed the white furrows made
down the mountain sides by the melting snows, which looked at a distance
like scars and gashes. Passing through a gorge stripped of vegetation,
she nevertheless admired, in the cleft flanks of the rocky slope, aged
chestnuts as erect as the Alpine fir-trees.

The rapidity with which she advanced left her no time to take in all
the varied scene, the vast moving sands, the quagmires boasting a few
scattered trees, fallen granite boulders, overhanging rocks, shaded
valleys, broad open spaces with moss and heather still in bloom
(though some was dried), utter solitudes overgrown with juniper and
caper-bushes; sometimes uplands with short grass, small spaces enriched
by an oozing spring,--in short, much sadness, many splendors, things
sweet, things strong, and all the singular aspects of mountainous Nature
in the heart of France.

As she watched these many pictures, varied in form but all inspired with
the same thought, the awful sadness of this Nature, so wild, so ruined,
abandoned, fruitless, barren, filled her soul and answered to her secret
feelings. And when, through an opening among the trees, she caught a
glimpse of the plain below her, when she crossed some arid ravine over
gravel and stones, where a few stunted bushes alone could grow, the
spirit of this austere Nature came to her, suggesting observations new
to