Pretty enough. And yet who will blame the rail,
which now sends her quickly into Bayonne--or even her fish without
her; and relieves the fair young maiden from being degraded into a
beast of burden?
Handsome folk are these brown Basques. A mysterious people, who
dwell alone, and are not counted among the nations; speaking an
unique language, and keeping up unique customs, for which the curious
must consult M. Michel's interesting book. There may be a cross of
English blood among them, too, about Biarritz and Bayonne; English
features there are, plainly to be seen. And whether or not, one
accepts the story of the country, that Anglets, near by, is an old
English colony left by our Black Prince, it is certain that Bayonne
Cathedral was built in part by English architects, and carries the
royal arms of England; and every school history will tell us how this
corner of France was long in our hands, and was indeed English long
before it was properly French. Moorish blood there may be, too, here
and there, left behind by those who built the little 'atalaya' or
fire-beacon, over the old harbour, to correspond, by its smoke
column, with a long line of similar beacons down the Spanish coast.
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