American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1873-07-12

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comb and curl into shape?
| Delighted to meet Ashley, l dragged
him off to the hotel to introduce him To
MDermot and his sister As a friend OF
mine they gave him Il cordial welcome
and we passed that day and the following
ones together. l soon, however, | must
confess, began to repent II little having
| brought my handsome friend into the so
ciety of Dora. She seemed better pleased
with him than | altogether liked; nor
| could | wonder at it. Walter Ashley was
exactly the man to please woman OF
| Dora's character. She was of rather a ro-
mantle turn, and about him there was a
| dash of the chivalrous, well calculated to
captivatc her imagination. Although
| perfectly feminine, she was an excellent
| horsewoman, and an ardent admrer of
| feats of address and courage, and she had
| heard me tell her brother of Ashley's per-
| fiction in such matters. On his part,
| Ashley, like every one else who saw her,
was evidently greatly struck with her
| beauty and fascination of manner. | can
not say that l was jealous; had no right
| to be so, for Dora had never given me en-
| couragement; but | certainly more than
| once regretted having introduced third
| person into what-honest Jack NJ Der
mot counting, of course, for nothing
had previously been a sort of tete-a-tete so
ciety. l began to fear that, thanks to my
| self, my occupation was gone, and Ashley
| had got it.
1t was the fifth day after our meeting
| with Walter, and we had started early in
the morning upon an excursion to a
neighboring lake, the scenery around
| which, we were told, was particularly
wild and beautiful. 1t was situated on a
| piece of table land on the top of a noun
tain, which we could see from the hotel
window. The distance was barely ten
miles, and the road being rough and pre-
cipitous M'Dermot, Ashley and myself
had chosen to walk rather than risk our
necks by riding the broken kneed ponies
| that were offered to us. A sure-footed
mule and indifferent side-saddles had
been procured for Miss M'Dermot, and
was attended by a Withholding Bearnese
boy, or gossoon, as her brother called
him, creature like grasshopper, all
legs and arms, with SCARED counte-
nance, and long black hair hanging in
irregular shreds about his face.
There is no season more agreeable in
the Pyrenees than the month of Septem-
Der. People are very apt to eXpatiate on
the delights of autumn, its mellow beau
ty, pensive charms, and such like. / con-
fess that in a general way | like the youth
of the year better than its decline, and
prefer the bright green tints of spring,
with the summer in prospective, to the
melancholy autumn, its russell hues and
falling leaves; its regrets for fine weather
past, and anticipations of bad to come
But if there be any place where | should
be tempted to reverse my judgment, it
would be in Southern France, and espe-
cially its western and central portion.
The clear, cloudless sky; the moderate
heat succeeding to the sultriness, often
overpowering, of the summer months;
the magnificent vineyards and merry
vintage-time; the noble groves of chestnut,
clothing the lower slopes of the noun
tains; the bright streams and fiower-span
gled meadows of Bearn and Languedoc,
render no part of the year more delightful
in those countries than the months of
September and October.
As before mentioned, Dora rode little
in front with Ashley beside her, pointing
out the beauties of the wild scenery
through which we passed, and occasion
ally laying a hand upon her bride to
guide the mule over some unusually rug
ged portion of the almost trackless noun
tain. MDermot and / were walking be-
hind, little puffy by the steepness of the
ascent Our guide, whose name was
Cadet, a name answered to by every sec
ond man one meets in that part of France,
strobe along beside u.s. like a pair of com
passes with leathern lungs. Presently
the last named individual turned to me
"Ces messieurs ueulentils rot, le !Saut de
lou Contra5andiste 3'' said he, in the bar
barous dialect of the district, half French,
half patois. with small dash of Spanish.
"Le Saut du COntrabandier, the Snug
gler's Leap-what is that?" asked Dora,
who had overheard the question, t,.rning
round her graceful head, and dazzling
us-me, at LASTLY sudden view of her
lovely face, now glowing with exercise
and the mountain air.
The Smusgler's Leap, so Cadet informed
us, was a narrow cleft in the rock of vast
depth, and extending for a considerable
distance ac'Oss a flank of the mountain
1t owed its name to the following Incl
dent: Some five years previously, Il SNUG
gler, known by the name of Juan lie
Negro or Black Juan, had, for consid-
cradle perod, set the custom-house off
GERS at defiance, and brought great dis
credit on mem by his success in passing
contrabanl goods from Spain. In vain
did they lie in ambush and set snarcs for
him; they could never come near him, or
ifthey di, it was when he was backed by
such a free of the hardy desperadOes
carry ing on the same lawless traffic, that
the doualiers were either forced to beat Il
retreat, c get feariully mauled in the con
test that .nsued. One day, however, three
of theso green coated guardians of the
French revenue caught sight of Juan
alone aI1 unarmed. They pursued him,
| and IA IRE race he led them, over cleft
and Graz, across rock and ravine, until at
| last the saw with eXultation that he made
| right fr the chasm i'll question, and there
| they made sure of securing him. 1t
| seemct lis if he had forgotten the position
of the left, and only remembered it when
| he gotNithin Il hundred yards or there
| abouts for then he slackened his pace.
The Ouaniers gained on him, and eX-
pectet him to desist from his flight and
surreLler. What was their surprise and
CONSERVATION when they saw him, on
| reaching the edge of the chasm, spring
from he ground with lizard like agility,
and y one bold leap clear the yawning
abys The douanicrs uttered Il shout of
rage and disappointment, and two of
then ceased running; and the third, IA
man f activity and courage, and who had
| freqrmtly sworn to earn the reward set
on til head of Juan, dared the perilous
jump He fell short; his head was dashed
againt the opposite rock, and his horror
struc companions, gazing down into the
dark epths beneath, saw his body strike
the ayss. The smuggler escaped, and the
| spot here the tragical incident occurred
was tcnccfDrward known us lie Saul du
! Contbandicr.'
Bore our guide had finished his nara
| Twelve were unanimous in our wish to
Visits scene which we reached by the
timhe had brought the tale to IA conclu-
| sion 1t was certainly IA most remarkable
| chan, whose existence was only to be ac-
couted for by reference to the volcanic
agecy of which abundant traces exist in
Souiern France. The whole side of the
| fni flr..l