Berwick. The expense and difficulty of the journey on the mountain
roads would likewise be great, and it seemed advisable to avoid these
dangers by going by sea. Madame de Bourke eagerly acceded to this
plan, her terror of the wild Pyrenean passes and wilder inhabitants had
always been such that she was glad to catch at any means of avoiding
them, and she had made more than one voyage before.

Estelle was gratified to find they were to go by sea, since Telemachus
did so in a Phoenician ship, and, in that odd dreamy way in which
children blend fiction and reality, wondered if they should come on
Calypso's island; and Arthur, who had read the Odyssey, delighted her
and terrified Ulysse with the cave of Polyphemus. M. de Varennes could
only go with his sister as far as Montpelier. Then he took leave of
her, and the party proceeded along the shores of the lagoons, in the
carriage to the seaport of Cette, one of the old Greek towns of the
Gulf of Lyon, and with a fine harbour full of ships. Maitre Hebert was
sent to take a passage on board of one, while his lady and her party
repaired to an inn, and waited all the afternoon before he returned
with tidings that he could find no French vessel about to sail for
Spain, but that there was a Genoese tartane, bound for Barcelona, on
which Madame la Comtesse could secure a passage for herself and her
suite, and which would take her thither in twenty-four hours.

The town was full of troops, waiting a summons to join Marshal
Berwick's army. Several resplendent officers had already paid their
respects to Madame l'Ambassadrice, and they concurred in the advice,
unless she would prefer waiting for the arrival of one of the French
transports which were to take men and provisions to the army in Spain.

This, however, she declined, and only accepted the services of the