Louis Joseph Vance

Alias Louis Joseph Vance

Book Excerpt: ...nal low, rounded mound, a menhir or a dolmen, and (if such may be termed features) great pits that opened in the earth like cold craters, which the countryfolk termed avens. A strange, bleak land, inhospitable, wind-harried, haunted, the home of seven howling devils of desolation... Rain at length interned the traveller for three days in a little place called Meyrueis, which lies sweetly in the valley of the Jonte, at its confluence with the Butézon, long leagues remote from railroads and the world they stitch together--that world of unrest, uncertainty and intrigue which in those days seemed no better than a madhouse. The break in the monotony of daily footfaring proved agreeable. It suited one well to camp for a space in that quaint town, isolate in the heart of an enchanted land, with which one was in turn enchanted, and contemplate soberly the grave issues of Life and Death. Here (said Duchemin) nothing can disturb me; and it is high time for me to be considering what I am to m...