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So restored did the church seem to be from the bottom of the hill that I doubted whether it would be worth a visit. Gardanne is surrounded by broad boulevards planted with trees. Now, no sooner has one passed inward, from this boulevard, than one finds a condition of affairs only a little less dreadful than that at Trets.
From Trets I went on by train to Gardanne, watching the evening lights die upon the silver-grey precipices of Mont Victoire. At Gardanne I had to change, and kick my heels for two hours. Gardanne is a picturesque little town, built on a hill round a castle in ruins and a church very much restored.
The publican of the little inn at Trets told me of him: of how, when his work is over, and other labouring men come to the cabaret or the cafe, he spends his time in prowling over the battle-field of Pourrieres, searching for antiquities, and how he hoards up his little savings to buy books that deal with archaeological subjects. It was to see M. Maneil that I visited the chateau.
It is the collection of a life, made by an enthusiast, and ought to be acquired by the museum of Aix. In the mairie at Trets is an urn full of calcined bones, in very good condition. It was found by two boys some little while ago in a tumulus on the side of the road to Puyloubier.
So he has left it in the mairie, in the hopes that some one will be induced to buy it, and so contribute a trifle towards the heavy expenses of the trial. Now, as I was walking from the field of Pourrieres to Trets, one solitary magpie appeared on my left, flew a little way, lighted, and flew on farther, and accompanied me thus for half the journey. "One is for sorrow."
They were all of one mind as to where the battle had raged from north to south, they said, between Trets and Pourrieres. The tradition is only worth anything in that it is based on the fact that along this line the greatest amount of weapons has been turned up by the spade, and pick, and plough.
In the meantime the Romans had approached from the south, from Trets, making a slight detour, following the tactics of Marius as before, to keep to the south of the horde, and with now a river between him and them. At Trets the ground inclines from south to north, with a broken edge of sandstone invisible from the river, serving as a screen behind which troops could be massed unperceived.
Marius, however, being at Les Milles, crossed the river, and kept to the south side of it till he reached Trets.
The fortifications of Trets The streets The church Roman sarcophagus Chateau of Trets Visit to a self-educated archaeologist His collection made on the battle-field Dispute over a pot of burnt bones One magpie Gardanne The church A vielle Trouble with it Story of an executioner's sword.
Trets is an odd little place, surrounded by its ancient walls and towers, and with its gates but, oh! if anyone would know what a cramped, unwholesome place one of these old mediaeval burghs was, let him visit Trets.
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