Porte de l'Ambulance, Vienne
A Street Corner, Bourges
Part of Jacques Coeur's House
Turret in the Hotel Lallemand
Staircase in the Hotel Lallemand
Sculpture over the Kitchen Entrance at Jacques Coeur's House
Jacques Coeur's Knocker




CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.


The Tiber in Flood--Typhoid fever in Rome--Florence--A Jew
acquaintance--Drinking in Provence--Buying _bric-a-brac_ with the Jew--The
_carro_ on Easter Eve--Its real Origin--My Jew friend's letters--Italian
_dolce far niente_.


Conceive yourself confronted by a pop-gun, some ten feet in diameter,
charged with mephitic vapours and plugged with microbes of typhoid fever.
Conceive your sensations when you were aware that the piston was being
driven home.

That was my situation in March, 1890, when I got a letter from Messrs.
Allen asking me to go into Provence and Languedoc, and write them a book
thereon. I dodged the microbe, and went.