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Still, as in the case of the valleys of Lake Aidot, of Channonat, and of Royat, these streams are sufficiently ancient to have given time for the existing rivers to have worn out in them channels of some depth, but bearing no comparison to the great valleys which had been eroded out of the more ancient lavas, such as those of the Coiron, of the Ardèche, and of the Dordogne and Chambon in the district of Mont Dore.
It was true that there was plenty of water always within reach; but it had already run past a good many villages and small towns, and, moreover, it was tepid. After leaving La Roche Chalais the river had on its left bank the department of the Dordogne, and on its right the Charente Inferieure.
The northern operations in 1356 sink into insignificance when compared with the exploits of the Black Prince in the south. After the capture of Périgueux, there had been some idea of the prince making a northward movement and joining hands with Lancaster on the Loire. When Lancaster retired from Verneuil, however, the Black Prince was still in the valley of the Dordogne.
By cutting off a curve of the Dordogne I soon came to the river-side village of Meyronne, and here I stopped for a meal at a very pleasant little inn, where to my surprise I found that I had been preceded a few days before by another Englishman, who, accompanied by a Frenchman, had come up from Bordeaux in a boat. They must have found it very hard work rowing against the rapids.
The matter is simple to those who know that the cap is formed by turning one of the ends in. There were mosquitoes in the room, but they sang me to sleep, and if they amused themselves at my expense afterwards, I was quite unconscious of it. The murmur of the rushing Dordogne mingled not unpleasantly with the impressions of dreams as I awoke. I got up and opened the small worm-eaten window-frame.
The moments are precious, for the tender loveliness of the landscape will wane as the light gains strength. On each side of the Dordogne, between the water and the vineyards, which stretch away with scarcely a break across the plain and up the sides of the distant hills, is a strip of rough field.
I found the road I wanted, and also the spot marked on the map as the Saut de la Pucelle. It is one of those numerous gouffres to be found in the Quercy, especially in the district of the Dordogne. Here a stream plunges beneath the surface of the earth to join the subterranean Ouysse, or the Dordogne.
It is a hideous coiffure, but an interesting relic of the past. The prototype of it was worn by the chatelaines of the twelfth century. Then, however, it had a certain stateliness which it lacks now. It is only to be seen in a very small district. I consulted some of the people of St. Sauve respecting my plan of following the Dordogne through its gorges.
Evening found me by the Dordogne, that flowed calmly in a salmon-coloured light, thrown down by a wasteful stony hill, itself lit up by a reflected glow of the sinking sun. The meadows through which the little path ran were dotted all over with golden spots of lotus, and near the water the pale, pure yellow of the evening primrose shone against the darkening willows.
Martin, before he became Bishop of Tours, was crossing one day this stony region of the Dordogne to visit a religious community on the banks of the Solane, whither he had been despatched by St. Hilary.
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