Pastoral Scenery of Valombré.--Ascent of the highest Peak in the
Desert.--Grand amphitheatre of Mountains.--Farewell benediction of
the Fathers.
We had hardly supped before the gates of the convent were shut, a
circumstance which disconcerted me not a little, as the full moon
gleamed through the casements, and the stars sparkling above the forests
of pines, invited me to leave my apartment again, and to give myself up
entirely to the spectacle they offered.
The coadjutor, perceiving that I was often looking earnestly through the
windows, guessed my wishes, and calling a lay-brother, ordered him to
open the gates, and wait at them till my return. It was not long before
I took advantage of this permission, and escaping from the courts and
cloisters of the monastery, all hushed in death-like stillness, ascended
a green knoll, which several ancient pines strongly marked with their
shadows: there, leaning against one of their trunks, I lifted up my eyes
to the awful barrier of surrounding mountains, discovered by the
trembling silver light of the moon shooting directly on the woods which
fringed their acclivities.
The lawns, the vast woods, the steep descents, the precipices, the
torrents, lay all extended beneath, softened by a pale blueish haze,
that alleviated, in some measure, the stern prospect of the rocky
promontories above, wrapped in dark shadows. The sky was of the deepest
azure, innumerable stars were distinguished with unusual clearness from
this elevation, many of which twinkled behind the fir-trees edging the
promontories. White, grey, and darkish clouds came marching towards the
moon, that shone full against a range of cliffs, which lift themselves
far above the others. The hoarse murmur of the torrent, throwing itself
from the distant wildernesses into the gloomy vales, was mingled with
the blast that blew from the mountains.
It increased. The forests began to wave, black clouds rose from the
north, and, as they fleeted along, approached the moon, whose light
they shortly extinguished. A moment of darkness succeeded; the gust was
chill and melancholy; it swept along the desert, and then subsiding, the
vapours began to pass away, and the moon returned; the grandeur of the
scene was renewed, and its imposing solemnity was increased by her
presence. Inspiration was in every wind.
I followed some impulse which drove me to the summit of the mountains
before me; and there, casting a look on the whole extent of wild woods
and romantic precipices, thought of the days of St. Bruno. I eagerly
contemplated every rock that formerly might have met his eyes; drank of
the spring which tradition says he was wont to drink of; and ran to
every pine, whose withered appearance bespoke the most remote antiquity,
and beneath which, perhaps, the saint had reposed himself, when worn
with vigils, or possessed with the sacred spirit of his institutions. It
was midnight before I returned to the convent and retired to my quiet
chamber, but my imagination was too much disturbed, and my spirits far
too active, to allow me any rest for some time.
I had scarcely fallen asleep, when I was suddenly awakened by a furious
blast, which drove open my casement, for it was a troubled and
tempestuous night, and let in the roar of the tempest. In the intervals
of the storm, in those moments when the winds seemed to pause, the faint
sounds of the choir stole upon my ear; but were swallowed up the next
instant by the redoubled fury of the gust, which was still increased by
the roar of the waters.
I started from my bed, closed the casement, and composed myself as well
as I was able; but no sooner had the sunbeams entered my window, than I
arose, and gladly leaving my cell, hastened to the same knoll, where I
had stood the night before. The storm was dissipated, and the pure
morning air delightfully refreshing: every tree, every shrub, glistened
with dew. A gentle wind breathed upon the woods, and waved the fir-trees
on the cliffs, which, free from clouds, rose distinctly into the clear
blue sky. I strayed from the knoll into the valley between the steeps of
wood and the turrets of the convent, and passed the different buildings,
destined for the manufacture of the articles necessary to the fathers;
for nothing is worn or used within this inclosure, which comes from the
profane world.
Traversing the meadows and a succession of little dells, where I was so
lately bewildered, I came to a bridge thrown over the torrent, which I
crossed; and here followed a slight path that brought me to an eminence,
covered with a hanging wood of beech-trees feathered to the ground, from
whence I looked down the narrow pass towards Grenoble. Perceiving a
smoke to arise from the groves which nodded over the eminence, I climbed
up a rocky steep, and, after struggling through a thicket of shrubs,
entered a smooth, sloping lawn, framed in by woody precipices; at one
extremity of which I discovered the cottage, whose smoke had directed me
to this sequestered spot; and, at the other, a numerous group of cattle,
lying under the shade of some beech-trees, whilst several friars, with
long beards and russet garments, were employed in milking them.
The luxuriant foliage of the woods, clinging round the steeps that
skirted the lawn; its gay, sunny exposition; the groups of sleek,
dappled cows, and the odd employment of the friars, so little consonant
with their venerable beards, formed a picturesque and certainly very
singular spectacle. I, who had been accustomed to behold “milk-maids
singing blithe,” and tripping lightly along with their pails, was not a
little surprised at the silent gravity with which these figures shifted
their trivets from cow to cow; and it was curious to see with what
adroitness they performed their functions, managing their long beards
with a facility and cleanliness equally admirable.
I watched all their movements for some time, concealed by the trees,
before I made myself visible; but no sooner did I appear on the lawn,
than one of the friars quitted his trivet, very methodically set down
his pail, and coming towards me with an open, smiling countenance,
desired me to refresh myself with some bread and milk. A second,
observing what was going forward, was resolved not to be exceeded in an
hospitable act, and, quitting his pail too, hastened into the woods,
from whence he returned in a few minutes with some strawberries, very
neatly enveloped in fresh leaves. These hospitable, milking fathers,
next invited me to the cottage, whither I declined going, as I preferred
the shade of the beeches; so, throwing myself on the dry aromatic
herbage, I enjoyed the pastoral character of the scene with all possible
glee.
Not a cloud darkened the heavens; every object smiled; innumerable gaudy
flies glanced in the sunbeams that played in a clear spring by the
cottage; I saw with pleasure the sultry glow of the distant cliffs and
forests, whilst indolently reclined in the shade, listening to the
summer hum; one hour passed after another neglected away, during my
repose in this most delightful of valleys.
When I returned unwillingly to the convent, the only topic on which I
could converse was the charms of Valombré, for so is this beautifully
wooded region most appropriately called. Notwithstanding the
indifference with which I now regarded the prospects that surrounded the
monastery, I could not disdain an offer made by one of the friars, of
conducting me to the summit of the highest peak in the desert.
Pretty late in the afternoon I set out with my guide, and, following his
steps through many forests of pine, and wild apertures among them,
strewed with fragments, arrived at a chapel, built on a mossy rock, and
dedicated to St. Bruno.
Having once more drunk of the spring that issues from the rock on which
this edifice is raised, I moved forward, keeping my eyes fixed on a
lofty green mountain, from whence rises a vast cliff, spiring up to a
surprising elevation; and which (owing to the sun’s reflection on a
transparent mist hovering around it) was tinged with a pale visionary
light. This object was the goal to which I aspired; and redoubling my
activity, I made the best of my way over rude ledges of rocks, and
crumbled fragments of the mountain interspersed with firs, till I came
to the green steeps I had surveyed at a distance.
These I ascended with some difficulty, and, leaving a few scattered
beech-trees behind, in full leaf, shortly bade adieu to summer, and
entered the regions of spring; for, as I approached that part of the
mountain next the summit, the trees, which I found there rooted in the
crevices, were but just beginning to unfold their leaves, and every spot
of the greensward was covered with cowslips and violets.
After taking a few moments’ repose, my guide prepared to clamber amongst
the rocks, and I followed him with as much alertness as I was able, till
laying hold of the trunk of a withered pine, we sprang upon a small
level space, where I seated myself, and beheld far beneath me the vast
desert and dreary solitudes, amongst which appeared, thinly scattered,
the green meadows and hanging lawns. The eye next overlooking the
barrier of mountains, ranged through immense tracts of distant
countries; the plains where Lyons is situated; the woodlands and lakes
of Savoy; amongst which that of Bourget was near enough to discover its
beauties, all glowing with the warm haze of the setting sun.
My situation was too dizzy to allow a long survey, so turning my eyes
from the terrific precipice, I gladly beheld an opening in the rocks,
through which we passed into a little irregular glen of the smoothest
greensward, closed in on one side by the great peak, and on the others
by a ridge of sharp pinnacles, which crown the range of white cliffs I
had so much admired the night before, when brightened by the moon.
The singular situation of this romantic spot invited me to remain in it
till the sun was about to sink on the horizon: during which time I
visited every little cave delved in the ridges of rock, and gathered
large sprigs of the mezereon and rhododendron in full bloom, which with
a surprising variety of other plants carpeted this lovely glen. A
luxuriant vegetation,
That on the green turf suck’d the honey’d showers,
And purpled all the ground with vernal flowers.
My guide, perceiving I was ready to mount still higher, told me it would
be in vain, as the beds of snow that lie eternally in some fissures of
the mountain, must necessarily impede my progress; but, finding I was
very unwilling to abandon the enterprise, he showed me a few notches in
the peak, by which we might ascend, though not without danger. This
prospect rather abated my courage, and the wind rising, drove several
thick clouds round the bottom of the peak, which increasing every
minute, shortly skreened the green mountain and all the forest from our
sight. A sea of vapours soon undulated beneath my feet, and lightning
began to flash from a dark angry cloud that hung over the valleys and
deluged them with storms, whilst I was securely standing under the clear
expanse of æther.
But the hour did not admit of my remaining long in this proud station;
so descending, I was soon obliged to pass through the vapours, and,
carefully following my guide (for a false step might have caused my
destruction) wound amongst the declivities, till we left the peak
behind, and just as we reached the green mountain which was moistened
with the late storm, the clouds fleeted and the evening recovered its
serenity.
Leaving the chapel of St. Bruno on the right, we entered the woods, and
soon emerged from them into a large pasture, under the grand
amphitheatre of mountains, having a gentle ascent before us, beyond
which appeared the neat blue roofs and glittering spires of the convent,
where we arrived as the moon was beginning to assume her empire.
I need not say I rested well after the interesting fatigues of the day.
The next morning early, I quitted my kind hosts with great reluctance.
The coadjutor and two other fathers accompanied me to the outward gate,
and there within the solemn circle of the desert bestowed on me their
benediction.
It seemed indeed to come from their hearts, nor would they leave me till
I was an hundred paces from the convent; and then, laying their hands on
their breasts, declared that if ever I was disgusted with the world,
here was an asylum.
I was in a melancholy mood when I traced back all the windings of my
road, and when I found myself beyond the last gate in the midst of the
wide world again, it increased.
We returned to Les Echelles; from thence to Chambery, and, instead of
going through Aix, passed by Annecy; but nothing in all the route
engaged my attention, nor had I any pleasing sensations till I beheld
the glassy lake of Geneva, and its lovely environs.
I rejoiced then because I knew of a retirement on its banks where I
could sit and think of Valombré.