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CHAPTER I

During the early part of the month of March, in the year 1841, I traveled in
Corsica.

There is nothing more agreeable than a journey through this picturesque
country. Embarking at Toulon, you arrive in twenty hours at Ajaccio, or in
twenty-four hours at Bastia, where you can either hire a horse for five francs
per day, or purchase one for a hundred and fifty francs. Do not smile at the
poorness of this price; the animal which you thus hire or buy, like that famous
horse of the Gascon, which jumped from the Pont-Neuf into the Seine, does things
which neither Prospero nor Nautilus could do, those heroes of the races of
Chantilly and the Champ-de-Mars. He will go safely over roads where Balmah
himself would have used cramp irons, and over bridges where even Auriol must
have required a balance-pole.

As for the traveler, he has only to shut his eyes and let the animal go; the
dangers of the road are not his business.

Besides, this horse, who surmounts with ease all the difficulties and
impediments of the way, travels on an average fifteen leagues a day, without
demanding any thing to eat or drink. From time to time, when you stop, in order
to visit an old castle, built by some Seigneur, the hero and chief of a feudal
tradition, or to take a sketch of some old tower built by the Genoese, the horse
quietly crops the grass near him, or takes the bark from a tree, or perhaps
licks some moss from the rocks, with which he is perfectly satisfied.

As for the night’s lodging, this is still more simple; the traveler arrives
at some village, goes through the whole length of its principal street, selects
the most commodious-looking house, and knocks at the door.

In a few minutes after, the master or mistress of the house appears at the
threshold, invites the traveler to enter, offers him one half of his supper, and
the whole of his bed, if he has but one, and the following day, while conducting
him to the door, thanks him for the preference he has shown his house.

There is of course never any question of payment; your host would consider
himself insulted by the most distant allusion to this subject. But if there
should be a young female servant in the family, you may offer her a silk
handkerchief, which will make her a picturesque head-dress when she goes to the
fête of Calvi or Corte.

Should the servant of the house be a male, he will be delighted to accept a
stiletto, with which, should an opportunity offer, he might rid himself of an
enemy.

It will be well, however, to inquire if the domestics are not poor relations
of the master; this sometimes occurs, in which case they consent to accept for
their services one or two piastres a month, with their board and lodging. And
don’t believe that the masters who are thus served by their grandnephews and
cousins in the fifteenth or twentieth degree, are more carelessly served for
that. No such thing. Corsica, it is true, is a French department, but Corsica is
yet very far from being France.

As for thieves, they are unknown in this country, but there are bandits in
abundance; they must not be confounded with each other. Go without fear to
Ajaccio, to Bastia, a purse filled with gold, hanging down from your saddlebow,
and you will travel over the whole island, without having been exposed to the
shadow of danger.

But do not go from Occana to Levaco, if you have an enemy who has denounced
you as the object of his vengeance. I would not answer for your life during this
short journey of two leagues only.

I was then in Corsica, as I have said before, in the beginning of March. I
had arrived there from the island of Elba, had landed at Bastia, and bought
there a horse at the price before mentioned. I had visited Corte and Ajaccio,
and was now traveling in the province of Sartene.

The same day I went from Sartene to Sullacaro; although the distance was not
great, I had to travel about ten leagues, on account of the windings of the road
on a prominent point of the principal line of mountains forming the back-bone of
the island, and which I had to cross. I had also provided myself with a guide
for fear of getting lost.