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It is delightful to an English visitor to those valleys to recount the long lines of deserved connection between his own country and this Goshen of the Alps a line reaching from the days of our first Charles, strengthening visibly during the time of Cromwell, revived under William and Mary, and Ann, continuing still through the time of the Georges; though suspended for awhile by the interference of European warfare, yet again rekindled by the energy and eloquence of Gilly, expanded and deepened by the devotedness of Beckwith, and other benefactors following in his train too numerous for us to register, but not one of them ignored or forgotten by the grateful valley-men benefitted by their Christian kindness.
Very near us was the little village Catelineau, and in the distance on our left, between the wood and the river, lay the village of Gilly. The sound of musketry, cannon, and platoon firing, was heard constantly in that direction. The news soon came that the Emperor had driven the Prussians out of Charleroi, and that they had re-formed in squares at the corner of the wood.
And still the swan chanted as she drew near to the shore where Gilly and the six robbers stood. She spread out her wings, and, raising her neck she curved it, while she stayed watching the men on the bank. "Hear the Swan of Endless Tales the Swan of Endless Tales" she sang in words they knew.
However, they worked so well together, that the gilly never misdoubted either her or my grandfather, and took the errand to his mistress, from whom he soon came with a light foot and a glaikit eye, saying she would na fail to keep the tryst.
Fitzpatrick's brother, the Earl of Upper Ossory, who had come up to London, so he said, to see a little Italian dance at the Garden; to Gilly Williams; to Sir Charles Bunbury, who had married Lady Sarah Lennox, Fox's cousin, the beauty who had come so near to being queen of all England; to Mr. Storer, who was at once a Caribbee and a Crichton; to Mr. Uvedale Price.
"And what to say to my wife Ann I don't know," said he, "particularly as I have brought no shawl to put her in good humor. Heavy is the blame she'll give me on account of my losing a goat, a sheep and a bullock." Gilly took a key out of his pocket. "Do you see this key?" said he. "Take it and open the byre door at such a place, and you'll find in that byre your goat, your sheep and your bullock.
The Spae-Woman wiped the tears from her face with her apron, gave Gilly a cake with her blessing, and he started off with the Churl for the Townland of Mischance. What did Gilly of the Goatskin do in the Townland of Mischance?
Then it was that he formed the determination of visiting the valleys and ascertaining the actual condition of the people in person. His visit was made in 1823, and in the course of the following year Dr. Gilly published the result in his "Narrative of an Excursion to the Mountains of Piedmont."
With that he stooped down to put the lighted hay to the grass of the pasture-field. "Stop, stop," said the Churl, "I meant that you were to go to the town, without loitering on the way." "Well, it's a pity you didn't speak more clearly," said Gilly, "for now the grass is a-fire." The Churl bad to stamp on the grass to put the fire out. He burnt his shins, and that made him very angry.
They would come into it and stay there for many nights and days, and Gilly used to go out and talk with them. They knew about far countries, and strange paths and passes, but they did not know so much about men and about the doings of other creatures as the Fox did. The Fox used to come in the evening and stay until nearly morning whether Gilly fell asleep or kept awake.
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