As for myself, recognising the honour that you will do me in receiving
from my hand the work thus restored to its right state, I shall ever
feel obliged to render you most humble duty.
THE HEPTAMERON.
[Illustration: 013a.jpg]
[Prologue: The Story-tellers in the Meadow near The Gave.]
PROLOGUE.
On the first day of September, when the baths in the Pyrenees
Mountains begin to be possessed of their virtue, there were at those of
Cauterets(1) many persons as well of France as of Spain, some to drink
the water, others to bathe in it, and again others to make trial of the
mud; all these being remedies so marvellous that persons despaired of
by the doctors return thence wholly cured. My purpose is not to speak to
you of the situation or virtue of the said baths, but only to set forth
as much as relates to the matter of which I desire to write.
1 There are no fewer than twenty-six sources at Cauterets,
the waters being either of a sulphureous or a saline
character. The mud baths alluded to by Margaret were
formerly taken at the Source de Cesar Vieux, half-way up
Mount Peyraute, and so called owing to a tradition that
Julius Caesar bathed there.
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