Fortress the arms of France and Spain, cut on stone pillars, are placed
_vis-a-vis_ on each side of the road; a spot where some times an affair
of _honour_ is decided by two men, who engage in personal combat; each
standing in a different kingdom; and where, if one falls, the other need
not run; for, by the Family Compact, it is agreed, not to give up
deserters or murderers.

The road is not less romantic on the Spanish, than on the French side of
the _Pyrenees_; the face of the country is more beautiful, and the faces
of all things, animate and inanimate, are quite different; and one would
be apt to think, that instead of having passed a few hills, one had
passed over a large ocean: the hogs, for instance, which are all white
on the French side, are all black on this.

We arrived here upon a Sunday, when the inhabitants had on their best
apparel: but instead of high head-dresses, false curls, plumes of
feathers, and a quantity of powder, the women had their black hair
combed tight from their foreheads and temples, and tied behind, in
either red, blue, or black nets, something like the caul of a peruke,
from which hang large tassels down to the middle of their back; the
men's hair was done up in nets in the same manner, but not so gaudy.

Before we arrived here, I overtook a girl with a load of fresh hay upon
her head, whom (_at the request of my horse_) I entreated to spare me a
little, but, till she had called back her brother, who had another load
of the same kind, would not treat with me; they soon agreed, however,
that my request was reasonable; and so was their demand; and there,
under the shade of a noble grove of large cork-trees, we and our horse
eat a most luxurious meal: appetite was the sauce; and the wild scenes,
and stupendous rocks, which every way surrounded our _salle a manger_,