At length I emerged from the wood, and stood upon the fertile pastures of the mountain; from whence the ascent to the immense block of marble which crowns Mont l'Heris, is tolerably easy.

It is a singular mass, on the southern side of which is an enormous excavation; amongst the _debris_ of which was a path that led to the top.

If the view below was lovely, this was magnificent; my eyes were, however, riveted on one object--the towering height of the _Pic du Midi_, which seemed almost immediately above my head; though the mountain on the other side of the valley of Campan at our feet, showed us how far distant it really was.

Directed by the peasant-guide, who had volunteered his services at Aste, I contrived to form a tolerable notion of the track which I was to pursue on the morrow; and it was only the warning shadows which began to creep over the valleys, and the clear tones of the church bells, at Bagneres, marking the hour at which I had promised to join the _table d'hote_ at the Hotel de France, that expressively told me to loiter no longer on the mountains, lest darkness should entangle my feet before I had cleared its steep declivities.

I made haste, therefore, to return to Bagneres, crossing the Adour this time by a bridge no less picturesque than the former, but somewhat more secure.
On the following morning I rose at daylight, and, at the moment fixed upon, Charlet, the guide, whom I had agreed with, rode up to the door of the hotel, leading another small, sturdy, mountain horse, and accompanied by the inseparable companion of his wanderings, a bull-dog named Pluto, which, had sex been considered, should have been called Proserpine, though not for beauty.
We were soon clear of the town, and jogged pleasantly along the road, which lay through the lovely valley of Campan--a scene whose beauty cannot be too highly extolled.