CHAPTER IX. Starting for the Mountains-Swiss Champagne-Setting to THOUGH it was midday, when all the village seems asleep or dead,' half the population turned out to see us set off for our summer's stay at Les Plans. What an exodus it was! First walked the girls with alpenstocks and various minor articles of luggage; then followed a large wagon piled with hampers, boxes, baths, &c., drawn by two fine horses belonging to a wealthy farmer of Frénières, the beau fils of the old dame who owned our châlet; next came the carriage in which I and the baby were seated, forming but a modicum of the baggage with which the remainder of the vehicle was crammed-bread, potatoes, hams, sausages, groceries, cooked meats, baskets, shawls, umbrellas, camp-stools, easels, and a collection of miscellaneous articles that would have done honour to a broker's shop; crowning all was a large STARTING FOR THE MOUNTAINS. 177 cage in which a green parrakeet screamed fearfully in its terror at being jolted up and down: at the back was fastened the baby's carriage, that, from tumbling on its sides, was minus all its paint long ere we reached Les Plans. Our St. Bernard dogs, as usual when starting, bayed and howled as if an army of robbers was approaching; while the little Lulu, who had a weakness for little boys' legs, kept up an incessant skirmishing among the people until she had received a kick from a man whose son's trousers she had torn. M- and the boys came last, to see that nothing fell from the baggage, the garçons being useful in scotching the wheels when we halted in steep places. As we passed the hotel, out came Wagner and his wife, followed by the waiters, to wish us bonne santé;' and even the visitors opened the closed shutters of their apartments to see what was the cause of the unusual excitement in the village. Mind you don't starve us,' was my parting injunction to the host, as, knowing the difficulty of procuring fresh meat at 4,000 feet above the level of the sea, we had made an arrangement for him to supply us with any cooked eatables that were transportable in hot weather whenever he sent up a carriage with excursionists. From almost every house came people to gaze at our cavalcade, and many were N the stoppages made to be shaken by the hand and receive the polite expressions of good-will of which the French language is so prodigal. The day was insufferably hot, the commencement of five weeks of the most scorching weather I have ever known, even at Bex; the horses were maddened with the flies that bit them till the blood ran on the ground, and for the first two miles the poor tortured animals could not go many paces without stopping so abruptly that I was nearly pitched on their backs in their desperate attempts to get rid of the pests. Their tormentors did not leave them till we got within the shade of the woods, long before which the horses were so covered with boughs that they were like Macduff's army coming to Dunsinane. Through the weight of our luggage we were much longer ascending than usual, but no one, however hot and tired he might be, found the way too long. There was always a shade on one side of the road at least, lovely rills and fountains of iciest water at which to drink, and fruits for those who would take the trouble to gather them. At Frénières we halted for half an hour before the house of Monsieur G to feed his horses, ourselves preferring to sit in the meadow under the cherry trees, from which the owner slashed down the fruit for us with his whip, to entering the house, though it was so clean-generally speaking, one finds a marked improvement in this respect as one mounts higher that it was almost too great a temptation to resist; and when asked to descend into the cellar and taste Père Giraud's champagne à la Suisse, we did not wait to be invited twice: and I advise my readers, if ever they are in Switzerland and tempted in like manner, to yield to the soft impeachment. This wine, being put into the casks and closed up before the juice of the grapes has undergone any fermentation, is so effervescent that it cannot be bottled, but is drawn as wanted from the barrel, which is made of extraordinary strength and covered with iron to prevent bursting, as instances are known of their exploding and causing death to persons who happened to be near. I sat down on the steps of the cool cellar whilst I drank my rosy champagne, and learned what I have related about its manufacture. As soon as we passed the saw-mill, everybody rushed off right and left in search of raspberries, returning with such marvellous accounts of the quantities seen and eaten that I hardly could believe them, until higher up I saw the heavily-laden bushes hanging over the rocks where they had been cut away to form a road. I don't think I ever felt more glad than when we crossed the rude little bridge and turned into the peaceful valley: the prospect of spending a considerable time there with those dearest to me among the pastoral simple peasants; the tranquil aspect of the spot, its green plain looking greener and fresher than ever now the hay was gathered; the rustic châlets, each with its little plot of garden, some as blue as the heavens above with the borage that the people prize for its healthful virtues; the hush, the quiet, the repose, not a sound being heard above the murmur of the Avençon,-were so captivating, so soul-subduing, that for a few moments I knew not whether I was experiencing more of pleasure or pain. Our approach roused the citizens from their afternoon's torpor, for assuredly no one had ever before seen such a getting up' there. Worthy Madame Bernard hurried across to help us; her son, with half a dozen others, lent a hand to the unloading; old Madame Giraud, who was to live during our stay in a tiny room like a box she had built at the back, lighted a fire, and set the tall coffeepot-shaped kettle on to boil in readiness for tea: one of the girls unpacked the provisions; another carried the other articles, as we turned them out, into the respective little chambers; a third held the baby, while the |