登陆注册
5588900000051

第51章

I spent but a few hours at Carcassonne;but those hours had a rounded felicity,and I cannot do better than transcribe from my notebook the little record made at the moment.Vitiated as it may be by crudity and incoherency,it has at any rate the freshness of a great emotion.This is the best quality that a reader may hope to extract from a narrative in which "useful information"and technical lore even of the most general sort are completely absent.For Carcassonne is moving,beyond a doubt;and the traveller who,in the course of a little tour in France,may have felt himself urged,in melancholy moments,to say that on the whole the disappointments are as numerous as the satisfactions,must admit that there can be nothing better than this.

The country,after you leave Toulouse,continues to be charming;the more so that it merges its flatness in the distant Cevennes on one side,and on the other,far away on your right,in the richer range of the Pyrenees.Olives and cypresses,pergolas and vines,terraces on the roofs of houses,soft,iridescent mountains,a warm yellow light,what more could the difficult tourist want?He left his luggage at the station,warily determined to look at the inn before committing himself to it.It was so evident (even to a cursory glance)that it might easily have been much better that he simply took his way to the town,with the whole of a superb afternoon before him.When I say the town,I mean the towns;there being two at Carcassonne,perfectly distinct,and each with excellent claims to the title.They have settled the matter between them,however,and the elder,the shrine of pilgrimage,to which the other is but a steppingstone,or even,as I may say,a humble doormat,takes the name of the Cite.You see nothing of the Cite from the station;it is masked by the agglomeration of the villebasse,which is relatively (but only relatively)new.

A wonderful avenue of acacias leads to it from the station,leads past,rather,and conducts you to a little highbacked bridge over the Aude,beyond which,detached and erect,a distinct mediaeval silhouette,the Cite presents itself.Like a rival shop,on the invidious side of a street,it has "no connection"with the establishment across the way,although the two places are united (if old Carcassonne may be said to be united to anything)by a vague little rustic faubourg.Perched on its solid pedestal,the perfect detachment of the Cite is what first strikes you.To take leave,without delay,of the villebasse,I may say that the splendid acacias I have mentioned flung a summerish dusk over the place,in which a few scattered remains of stout walls and big bastions looked venerable and picturesque.A little boulevard winds round the town,planted with trees and garnished with more benches than I ever saw provided by a softhearted municipality.This precinct had a warm,lazy,dusty,southern look,as if the people sat outofdoors a great deal,and wandered about in the stillness of summer nights.The figure of the elder town,at these hours,must be ghostly enough on its neighboring hill.Even by day it has the air of a vignette of Gustave Dore,a couplet of Victor Hugo.It is almost too perfect,as if it were an enormous model,placed on a big green table at a museum.A steep,paved way,grassgrown like all roads where vehicles never pass,stretches up to it in the sun.It has a double enceinte,complete outer walls and complete inner (these,elaborately fortified,are the more curious);and this congregation of ramparts,towers,bastions,battlements,barbicans,is as fantastic and romantic as you please.The approach I mention here leads to the gate that looks toward Toulouse,the Porte de l'Aude.There is a second,on the other side,called,I believe,the Porte Narbonnaise,a magnificent gate,flanked with towers thick and tall,defended by elaborate outworks;and these two apertures alone admit you to the place,putting aside a small sallyport,protected by a great bastion,on the quarter that looks toward the Pyrenees.

As a votary,always,in the first instance,of a general impression,I walked all round the outer enceinte,a process on the very face of it entertaining.

I took to the right of the Porte de l'Aude,without entering it,where the old moat has been filled in.

The fillingin of the moat has created a grassy level at the foot of the big gray towers,which,rising at frequent intervals,stretch their stiff curtain of stone from point to point.The curtain drops without a fold upon the quiet grass,which was dotted here and there with a humble native,dozing away the golden afternoon.The natives of the elder Carcassonne are all humble;for the core of the Cite has shrunken and decayed,and there is little life among the ruins.Afew tenacious laborers,who work in the neighboring fields or in the villebasse,and sundry octogenarians of both sexes,who are dying where they have lived,and contribute much to the pictorial effect,these are the principal inhabitants.The process of converting the place from an irresponsible old town into a conscious "specimen"has of course been attended with eliminations;the population has,as a general thing,been restored away.I should lose no time in saying that restoration is the great mark of the Cite.

同类推荐
  • 皇朝经世文三编

    皇朝经世文三编

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 维摩经义记卷第四

    维摩经义记卷第四

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 续画品

    续画品

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • The Second Funeral of Napoleon

    The Second Funeral of Napoleon

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 彰武县乡土志

    彰武县乡土志

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 追妻无门:女boss不好惹

    追妻无门:女boss不好惹

    青涩蜕变,如今她是能独当一面的女boss,爱了冷泽聿七年,也同样花了七年时间去忘记他。以为是陌路,他突然向他表白,扬言要娶她,她只当他是脑子抽风,他的殷勤她也全都无视。他帮她查她父母的死因,赶走身边情敌,解释当初拒绝她的告别,和故意对她冷漠都是无奈之举。突然爆出她父母的死居然和冷家有丝毫联系,还莫名跳出个公爵未婚夫,扬言要与她履行婚约。峰回路转,破镜还能重圆吗? PS:我又开新文了,每逢假期必书荒,新文《有你的世界遇到爱》,喜欢我的文的朋友可以来看看,这是重生类现言,对这个题材感兴趣的一定要收藏起来。
  • 快穿之大佬在渡劫

    快穿之大佬在渡劫

    沐晴作为修真界的大佬,从没想过自己会被丢出去渡劫,还被绑定了一个超级扯淡的CP服务系统,要求她去不同的位面给人牵线保媒。单纯善良的女鬼:“我要和青梅竹马双宿双飞!”精分战神砍人狂:“想给我妹妹说媒,先过了我这关。”娱乐圈全网黑艺人:“我要做影帝,娶影后,进军国际,横扫全球。”冷漠深沉小狼狗:“我不想娶公主!就看上你了。”敢爱敢恨女罗刹:“我要统领武林,CP不重要!”佛系孟婆女:“我无欲无求,只想熬孟婆汤。”......面对一个比一个难搞的任务,沐晴抓狂:“劳资不干了,CP有什么好,做个炫酷吊炸天的单身狗难道不好吗?”系统哭:“祖宗,你在渡劫啊。”沐晴冷笑:“我这渡的什么破玩意劫?”系统幽幽的吐出两个字:“情劫!”PS:本文有男主,但每个位面女主谈不谈恋爱全凭心情和运气。
  • 都市之极品恶魔猎人

    都市之极品恶魔猎人

    当游戏里的但丁和维吉尔被恶魔之树打落到地球,濒死之际,将自己的全部传承给了一个咸鱼之后,各位打开脑洞吧!(绝不会太猥琐,但可能很血腥,)
  • 九重劫0a

    九重劫0a

    世人不解天道之心无人去怜碧落九华往生之门暗藏玄机奈何桥上红炎再现八荒业火毁尽苍生沧田桑海斗转星移九重劫后苦尽甘来
  • 女丐与少爷

    女丐与少爷

    阴险毒辣的丈夫,心计深沉的婆婆,还有幕后那一双巨大的黑手,都深深扼住了她的命运。被注射了焕颜毒,涅槃重生之后,容貌惊为天人,回复到18岁的如花岁月!这样娇滴滴活生生的成功实验体,狠辣的前夫怎么可能放过?在黑帮钻天入地的追铺下,她只能潜入到社会最底层,成为一名女乞丐。骆氏集团总裁,谪仙一样的美男子,有着豪门家世,却为了身为女丐的她不惜与父兄反目。就在她终于决定付出真心的时候,却发现了一个足以摧毁她整个世界的惊天秘密。断崖边,残阳似血,绝境处,无处逢生,她只能纵身一跃,跳下悬崖……爱过了,痛过了,逝去的岁月终究不再复返,豪门少爷,真的能挽回女丐的心吗?
  • 穿越后我成了国民女神

    穿越后我成了国民女神

    【1v1苏爽甜宠】修真界招财猫属性的洛师师,一朝渡劫被雷劈到了现代爹不疼后娘不爱,妹妹欺负未婚夫劈腿的小可怜身上。拿着这种狗血剧本,众人都等着看笑话。上层圈子画风突然变了。某知名落魄富豪:洛小姐,求发财。某特殊破烂剧组:洛小姐,求暴富。某顶级大佬:洛小姐,求婚请收一下。大家懵逼时,国民之声凶猛来袭。#表白这只美人喵,一夜暴富,不是梦!#
  • 紫电青霜

    紫电青霜

    本书是一部长篇武侠小说,由“现代武侠小说之王”还珠楼主创作。全书共五回,约十万字。本书延续了还珠楼主以往的写作风格,是其鲜有人知的一部作品,曾在《益世报》连载,至1935年3月中断,未载完。作品文笔洒脱,人物刻画细腻,行笔颇有刚中带柔的侠客风范。本书后附还珠楼主创作年表。
  • 穿越之绝色商娇

    穿越之绝色商娇

    “对,就是这样。为了维护世界的和平,为了防止宇宙被坏,为了,呵呵,说大了,重来一遍!!为了前世未完成的梦想,为了今生绚烂的未来,为了这世界因我而精彩,我,韩思思,郑重决定,要做一个巾帼商人,我要赚遍世间财富,我要——我还要——”~给你不一样的穿越感受,构架恢弘的架空大作,“推荐+收藏”,你在还等什么?
  • 盛世嫡女请接招

    盛世嫡女请接招

    她这一生从来都没活明白过,远嫁和亲,受尽折磨,再睁眼意外回到了青葱年少的岁月,这一世,她不想再稀里糊涂的活了。
  • 校草甜心爱上我

    校草甜心爱上我

    这本书以前是打算写短篇小说的,但我写小说原本就是因为自己喜欢,所以我还是想写自己喜欢的人,然后如果各位有兴趣可以一看,没兴趣就……算了,我不强求,谢谢大家!