other animals turn up with their feet, to come at the bite; beside
which, there grows a plant on this _Crau_ that bears a vermilion flower,
from which the finest scarlet dye is extracted; it is a little red
grain, about the size of pea, and is gathered in the month of May; it
has been sold for a crown a pound formerly; and a single crop has
produced eleven thousand weight. This berry is the harvest of the poor,
who are permitted to gather it on a certain day, but not till the Lord
of the Manor gives notice by the sound of a horn, according to an
ancient custom and privilege granted originally by King RENE.--On my way
over it, I _gathered_ only a great number of large larks by the help of
my gun, though I did not forget my _Montserrat_ vow: It was a fine day,
and therefore I did not find it so tedious as it must be in winter or
bad weather; for if any thing can be worse than sea, in bad weather, it
must be this vast plain, which is neither land or sea, though not very
distant from the latter, and in all probability was many ages since
covered by the ocean.

The first town we came to after passing this vast plain, I have forgot
the name of; but it had nothing but its antiquity and a noble and
immense old castle to recommend it, except a transparent agate statue of
the Virgin in the church, as large as the life, with a _tin crown_ upon
her head. Neither the town nor the inhabitants had any thing of the
appearance of French about them; every thing and every body looked so
wild, and the place was in such a ruinous condition, that I could scarce
believe I was not among the Arabs in _Egypt_, or the ruins of
_Persepolis_. Without the town, in a fine beautiful lawn stands a most
irregular high and rude rock, perpendicular on all sides, and under one
side of it are ruins of a house, which I suppose was inhabited by the
first _Seigneur_ in the province. I looked in, and found the ruins full
of miserable inhabitants, I fancy many families; but it exhibited such a