St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-07-24
s V!s!E TO NEweAs14E:
FSY LUKE SHARP.

never been up at Chateauneuf: how,
| then, should they know. We take good
care not to tell them. If a horse ever
got up to Chateauneuf and came down
again you would never get another
horse to pull the harder when you told
the story of the pirates.
By this time the minute of departure
had come, and, although | tried to get
| the driver to tell HE the story of the
pirates en- route, lie would not, because
the horses were within hearing distance.
But he told me how to get to the town
OF the pirates.
Having taken no notes of this trip to
| the pirates town, am not sure whether
| got off at the village of Trinita or at
Drappo, which Is further on. 1t was
the Town at which the wooden bridge
crosses the Torrent. From there steep
path ZigZagS up the mountain. 1t was
a tough climb, and. not being accuS-
! toned to mountaineering, | sat often by
the path and enjoyed the ever-increaS-
ing view. 1t was very silent after the
hustle of Nice, and ] met no one.
| Finally AL old woman came along driv-
/ ing donkey. The donkey was loaded
to the gunnels. The old woman, seeing
| was tired. offered me the tail OF the
donkey. This seemed rather a risky eX-
pSIIulSIlG " lIN, DuG Vic uODhey was
used to 1t, as the old woman showed by
hanging on to the tail herself while the
: donkey logged upward. | have to ad-
NIT that 1t was great help.
We three reached a slittle village
! perched on the side of the hill up among
| the clouds. its only communication with
| the outer and lower world being that
terrible path. The path ran through
| the village, which was huddled together
| Just as ii they mad not all tue space they
wanted on which to built it. The
| houses on one side hung over a fright
! full declivity, and on the other you
could step from the roofs into
the back garden. The old wom-
an refused to take any rent
for the donkey's tail and insisted
on my coming i'll and being made ac-
! quainted with the whole family, while
she got me glass of wine. Her son
was the nominal head of the family,
! and appeared to put III his time smok-
| ing, while his old mother and his wife
did the work. There were fifteen Chill
dren, and | shook hands with them all.
giving them a penny each. So much
wealth had never been in the town at
| any one time before, and this sudden
| shower of Doodle created the greatest
excitement.
This being the metropolis of the dis
trict the path became worse and worse
after left the village, going upward all
| the time. One more little hamlet was
passed and then the path went up a
| tree. After that, naturally, l got lost,
fol If there are two ways to go it is al
ways my luck to take the wrong one.
came to an elevated bit of pasture on
| which were grazing flock of sheen and
| goats. A shepherd attended them.
clothed himself i'll unShorn sheep skin.
1 came suddenly on this man sit
ting under a rock asleep and |
don't know which Of us was the most
| frightened. | think l was until | saw
that he was. The place was so lonesome
| and so out Of the world that man
| might be murdered and no one ever find
the body. l should dislike being muir
| dered and the body not found. How
| ever. the shepherd was most peacefully
| inclined, and after he saw that | meant
| him no harm, he directed me to Cha
| teauneuf, but warned me that it would
| be no fun getting there.
This lonely man had the most beauti-
ful view that human eyes could desire.
| When L congratulated him on his lofty
| perch he shrugged his shoulders, and
said he never noticed the view.
! The pasture faced south, and one saw
all down the valley of the PaiIlon with
| Nice away below in the distance, its
feet in the blue Mediterranean.
l had TO go through a painless pine
wood to the east of this mountain, and,
as the shepherd had predicted, 1t was
lively going. The mountain side was
so steep that if the trees were not there
no human foot could make way along
what was practically precipice. Hap
PLY the pine trees grew thick, and
Jumped from one tree trunk TO another.
Even when | missed and fell the trunks
prevented my going far. | did not hello
till | got out of the wood, and then |
was too much exhausted to do anything
but lie on my back OIL the mountain
side and look at Castle-new, which now
appeared grim on the next mountain
top, reached by narrow, elevated
rocky ridge connecting the two mount
talns, and along which l still had to
scramble. Chateauneuf looked like a
long, great pulverized castle. On three
sides the rocks were precipitous. 1t had
been stronghold that no army could
take, if it were defended by few reso-
lutte men.
Having climbed along the ridge, en-
tered the desolate town. They knew
| how to build in the days that town was
erected. 1t was built, as one of the
pirates had boosted. to stand until the
Judgment day, and So it did, but the
Judgment day came sooner to tile mount
ain top than to the rest of the world.
The place reminded me of POmpeii, but
was much more strongly built. POmpeii
was but frivolous place of fashion
Chateauneuf was fortress intended
to withstand anything the power
of man could bring against it. But the
town at the foot of the mountain and
the town at the top of the mountain
each felt the heavy hand of fate.
You We got to get up early" says
Hosea Biglow, eff you want to take in
God" The pirates got up early and
they got up high, but neither early
enough nor high enough. God appar-
emily got tired of bOthPompeii andChat.
eauneuf, and gave each of the places &
little judgment day of its own.
The pirates, long the terror of the
whole countryside, had one warning
which they did not heed. The water in
their deep rock well suddenly gave out
From this airy porch they could see
rivers nearly 5000 feet below, but the
bottom apparently dropped out of theil
well. water, water everywhere, but
not drop to boil anything in" OF
course, they did not want the fluid tC
drink as long as cellars down below had
wine casks.
At last the earthquake came, and thai
settled accounts forever. The ruins are
today just us the earthquake left them
AS ! stumbled over the huge piles Of
stone in the evening light and traced
the narrow streets and saw the roof1ess
halls overlooking all creation, L coulC
not help thinking what a pity it is thai
all records of the revels held there have
been lost What a high Old time ir
every sense of the word, the robber:
must have had. Why they are calico
pirates instead of plain robbers do no.
know. Perhaps they came originally
from the sea.
Down below. on one side, is the little
village of Tourette, and on the Other
side Comics. 1t seems as if one coulC
drop stone i'll either place. Yet. al
though it looks as if one could reach
Contes in about ten minutes. it takes
over an hour of about as hurried climb