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 THE OFFICIAL RASPBERRY PI

CAMERA
GUIDE

FOR CAMERA MODULE & HIGH QUALITY CAMERA

2 THE OFFICIAL RASPBERRY PI CAMERA GUIDE
THE OFFICIAL RASPBERRY PI CAMERA GUIDE

3
 First published in 2020 by Raspberry Pi Trading Ltd, Maurice Wilkes Building,
St. John's Innovation Park, Cowley Road, Cambridge, CB4 0DS

Publishing Director: Russell Barnes • Editor: Phil King

Contributors: Dan Aldred, Wesley Archer, Jody Carter, PJ Evans,
Richard Hayler & family, James Singleton, Rob Zwetsloot,
the Raspberry Pi Foundation Education Team
Design: Critical Media
CEO: Eben Upton

ISBN: 978-1-912047-52-9

The publisher and contributors accept no responsibility in respect of any omissions

or errors relating to goods, products or services referred to or advertised in this book.
Except where otherwise noted, the content of this book is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported
(CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)

4 THE OFFICIAL RASPBERRY PI CAMERA GUIDE

 THE OFFICIAL RASPBERRY PI CAMERA GUIDE

Welcome to
The Official Raspberry
Pi Camera Guide
O
ne of the most popular add-ons for the Raspberry Pi, the official Camera Module –
or the new High Quality Camera – turns your favourite single-board computer into
a powerful digital camera. Launched back in 2013, the original Camera Module was
succeeded by the higher-spec v2 in April 2016. The High Quality Camera was launched in April
2020, offers Ultra HD image resolution, and enables you to attach any C- or CS-mount lens.
In this book we’ll show you how to get started with your Raspberry Pi camera, taking photos
and videos from the command line and writing Python programs to automate the process.
We’ll reveal how to create time-lapse and slow-motion videos, before moving on to exciting
projects including a Minecraft photo booth, wildlife camera trap, and smart door with video.
There are just so many things you can do with a Raspberry Pi camera!

Phil King, Editor

5
 Contents
Chapter 1: Getting started 008
Set up and connect your camera and start taking shots

Chapter 2: Precise camera control 016

Use command-line switches to access camera options and effects

Chapter 3: Time-lapse photography 020

Take photos at regular intervals, then turn the images into a video

Chapter 4: High-speed photography 024

Film dazzling slow-motion clips of exciting events

Chapter 5: Control the camera from Python 028

Use the picamera library to access the camera in Python programs

Chapter 6: Stop-motion and selfies 034

Wire up a physical push-button to take photos

Chapter 7: Flash photography using an LED 040

Add an LED flash to shoot images in low light

Chapter 8: Make a Minecraft photo booth 046

Build a booth in Minecraft that takes photos of the real world

6 THE OFFICIAL RASPBERRY PI CAMERA GUIDE

 THE OFFICIAL RASPBERRY PI CAMERA GUIDE

Chapter 9: Make a spy camera 050

Set up a motion-activated spy camera in your room

Chapter 10: Smart door 054

See who’s at the door and know when the post has arrived

Chapter 11: Car Spy Pi 062

Use ANPR to identify who’s parked on your driveway

Chapter 12: Build a wildlife camera trap 070

Detect and photograph animals in your back garden

Chapter 13: Take your camera underwater 076

Explore the underwater world with your Raspberry Pi and camera

Chapter 14: Install a bird box camera 086

Observe nesting birds without disturbing them

Chapter 15: Live-stream video and stills 092

Stream video and regular stills to a remote computer

Chapter 16: Set up a security camera 102

Protect your home from intruders using motionEyeOS

Chapter 17: Quick reference 108

A guide to the camera hardware, commands, and picamera Python library

7
 Chapter 1

Getting started
Find out how to connect your High Quality Camera or
Camera Module, enable it, and take your first shots

I
n this chapter, we show you how to connect the High Quality Camera or Camera Module
to your Raspberry Pi using the supplied ribbon cable. We will then enable it in Raspbian,
before entering some commands in a Terminal window to start shooting photos and
video. Let’s get started…

01. High Quality Camera

The High Quality Camera (HQ Camera for short) can capture higher-resolution images than
the standard Camera Module. Unlike the latter, it doesn’t have a lens already attached.
Instead, it can be used with any standard C- or CS-mount lens; 6 mm and 16 mm lenses are
available to purchase with the camera to help you get started.

6 mm CS-mount lens
A low-cost 6 mm lens is available for the
HQ Camera. This lens is suitable for basic
photography. It can also be used for macro
photography because it can focus objects at
very short distances.

8 THE OFFICIAL RASPBERRY PI CAMERA GUIDE

 THE OFFICIAL RASPBERRY PI CAMERA GUIDE

The dust cap should be used when a lens is not

attached, as the camera sensor is sensitive to dust

Supplied with the camera, the C-CS adapter

should be used when attaching a C-mount lens

Use this screw to lock the back focus adjustment

ring in position

This ring can be used to adjust the focus when

using a fixed-focus lens, or to alter the focal range
of an attached adjustable-focus lens

This enables you to mount the camera on a

standard tripod: take care not to damage the
ribbon when screwing the tripod into the camera

The camera is supplied with a 20 cm ribbon cable

to connect it to Raspberry Pi’s Camera port, but
longer cables are available if needed

01 Fitting the lens

The 6 mm lens is a CS-mount device,
so does not need the C-CS adapter ring (see
diagram above). It won’t focus properly if the
adapter is fitted – so, if necessary, remove it.
Then rotate the lens clockwise all the way into
the back focus adjustment ring.

02 Back focus adjustment

ring and lock screw
The back focus adjustment ring should be
screwed in fully for the shortest possible back-
focal length. Use the back focus lock screw to
make sure it does not move out of this position
when adjusting the aperture or focus.

Chapter 1 Getting started 9

 03 Aperture
To adjust the aperture, hold the
camera with the lens facing away from you.
Turn the middle ring while holding the outer
ring, furthest from the camera, steady. Turn
clockwise to close the aperture and reduce
image brightness. Turn anti-clockwise to open
the aperture. Once you are happy with the light
level, tighten the screw on the side of the lens
to lock the aperture.

04 Focus
First, lock the inner focus ring, labelled
‘NEAR FAR’, in position by tightening its
screw. Now hold the camera with the lens
facing away from you. Hold the outer two
rings of the lens and turn them both clockwise
until the image comes into focus – it’ll take
four or five whole turns. To adjust focus, turn
the outer two rings clockwise to focus on a
nearby object. Turn them anti-clockwise to
focus on a distant object. You may find you
need to adjust the aperture again after this.

16 mm C-mount lens
The 16 mm lens provides a higher-quality
image than the 6 mm lens. It has a narrow
angle of view which is more suited to
viewing distant objects.

01 Fitting the
C-CS adapter
Ensure the C-CS adapter that comes with the
HQ Camera is fitted to the 16 mm lens. The
lens is a C-mount device, so it has a longer
back focus than the 6 mm lens and therefore
requires the adapter.

10 THE OFFICIAL RASPBERRY PI CAMERA GUIDE

 THE OFFICIAL RASPBERRY PI CAMERA GUIDE

02 Fitting the lens

to the camera
Rotate the 16 mm lens and C-CS adapter
clockwise all the way into the back focus
adjustment ring.

03 Back focus adjustment

ring and lock screw
The back focus adjustment ring should be
screwed in fully. Use the back focus lock screw to
make sure it does not move out of this position
when adjusting the aperture or focus.

04 Aperture
To adjust the aperture, hold the camera
with the lens facing away from you. Turn the
inner ring, closest to the camera, while holding
the camera steady. Turn clockwise to close the
aperture and reduce image brightness. Turn anti-
clockwise to open the aperture. When happy with
the light level, tighten the screw on the side of
the lens to lock the aperture into position.

05 Focus
To adjust focus, hold the camera with the
lens facing away from you. Turn the focus ring,
labelled ‘NEAR FAR’, anti-clockwise to focus
on a nearby object. Turn it clockwise to focus on
a distant object. You may find you need to adjust
the aperture again after this.

Chapter 1 Getting started 11

 02. Connecting and
using the camera
With your HQ Camera with lens – or your Camera Module – ready, it’s time to connect it to
Raspberry Pi and start to capture some images.

01 Connect ribbon cable to camera

On the HQ Camera or Camera Module board, you’ll
find a flat plastic connector. Carefully pull the sticking-out
edges until the connector pulls part-way out. Slide the ribbon
cable, with the silver edges downwards and the blue plastic
facing upwards, under the flap you just pulled out, then push
the flap gently back into place with a click (Figure 1); it doesn’t
matter which end of the cable you use. If the cable is installed
properly, it will be straight and won’t come out if you give it a
gentle tug; if not, pull the flap out and try again. Figure 1

Figure 2

12 THE OFFICIAL RASPBERRY PI CAMERA GUIDE

 THE OFFICIAL RASPBERRY PI CAMERA GUIDE

Figure 3

02 Connect cable to Raspberry Pi

Find the Camera port on Raspberry Pi and pull the plastic flap gently upwards. With
Raspberry Pi positioned so the HDMI port is facing you, slide the ribbon cable in so the silver
edges are to your left and the blue plastic to your right (Figure 2), then gently push the flap
back into place. If the cable is installed properly, it’ll be straight and won’t come out if you
give it a gentle tug; if not, pull the flap out and try again.
If using a Raspberry Pi Zero, its Camera port is found on the edge of the board. However,
as it’s a smaller size than the regular one on other Raspberry Pi models, you’ll need a camera
adapter cable to use it.

03 Enable the camera

Connect the power supply back to Raspberry Pi and let it load Raspbian. Before you
can use the camera, you’ll need to tell Raspberry Pi it has one connected: in the Raspbian
menu, select Preferences, then Raspberry Pi Configuration. When the tool has loaded, click
the Interfaces tab, find the Camera entry in the list, and click on the round radio button to the
left of ‘Enabled’ to switch it on (Figure 3). Click OK, and the tool will prompt you to reboot
your Raspberry Pi. Do so and your camera will be ready to use.

04 Test the camera

To confirm that your camera is correctly installed, you can use the raspistill tool.
This, along with raspivid for videos, is designed to capture images from the camera using
Raspberry Pi’s command-line interface (CLI). In the Raspbian menu, select Accessories, then

Chapter 1 Getting started 13

 Figure 4

Terminal. A black window with green and blue writing in it will appear (Figure 4): this is the
Terminal, which allows you to access the command-line interface.
To take a test shot, type the following into the Terminal:

raspistill -o test.jpg

As soon as you hit the ENTER key, you’ll see a large picture of what the camera sees
appear on-screen (Figure 5). This is called the live preview and, unless you tell raspistill
otherwise, it will last for five seconds. After those five seconds are up, the camera will
capture a single still picture and save it in your home folder under the name test.jpg. If you
want to capture another, type the same command again – but make sure to change the
output file name, after the -o, or you’ll save over the top of your first picture.

05 More advanced commands

The raspistill command has a list of options so long that it borders on the
intimidating. Don’t worry – you won’t need to learn them all, but there are a few that might be
useful to you, such as:

raspistill -t 15000 -o newpic.jpg

The -t option changes the delay before the picture is taken, from the default five seconds
to whatever time you give it in milliseconds – in this case, you have a full 15 seconds to get

14 THE OFFICIAL RASPBERRY PI CAMERA GUIDE

Other documents randomly have
different content
you would have gone two hundred leagues only to remain in the
same place. I am here on purpose to visit the sixteenth century; one
makes a journey for the sake of changing, not place, but ideas. Point
out to a Parisian the gate by which Henry IV. entered Paris; he will
have great difficulty in calling up the armor, the halberts and the
whole victorious and tumultuous procession that l’Etoile describes: it
is because he passed by there to-day on such and such business,
that yesterday he met there a friend, while last year he looked upon
this gate in the midst of a public festival.

FULL-SIZE -- Medium-Size

All these thoughts hurry along with the force of habit, repelling
and stifling the historic spectacle which was going to lift itself into
full light and unroll itself before the mind. Set down the same man in
Pau: there he knows neither hotels, nor people, nor shops; his
imagination, out of its element, may run at random; no known
object will trip him up and make him fall into the cares of interest,
the passion of to-day; he enters into the past as a matter of course,
and walks there as if at home, at his ease. It was eight o’clock in the
morning; not a visitor at the castle, no one in the courts nor on the
terrace; I should not have been too much astonished at meeting the
Béarnais, “that lusty gallant, that very devil,” who was sharp enough
to get for himself the name of “the good king.”
His chateau is very irregular; it is only when seen from the valley
that any grace and harmony can be found in it. Above two rows of
pointed roofs and old houses, it stands out alone against the sky and
gazes upon the valley in the distance; two bell-turrets project from
the front toward the west; the oblong body follows, and two massive
brick towers close the line with their esplanades and battlements. It
is connected with the city by a narrow old bridge, by a broad
modern one with the park, and the foot of its terrace is bathed by a
dark but lovely stream. Near at hand, this arrangement disappears;
a fifth tower upon the north side deranges the symmetry.

FULL-SIZE -- Medium-Size
 The great egg-shaped court is a mosaic of incongruous masonry;
above the porch, a wall of pebbles from the Gave, and of red bricks
crossed like a tapestry design; opposite, fixed to the wall, a row of
medallions in stone; upon the sides, doors of every form and age;
dormer windows, windows square, pointed, embattled, with stone
mullions garlanded with elaborate reliefs. This masquerade of styles
troubles the mind, yet not unpleasantly; it is unpretending and
artless; each century has built according to its own fancy, without
concerning itself about its neighbor.

FULL-SIZE -- Medium-Size

On the first floor is shown a great tortoise-shell, which was the

cradle of Henry IV. Carved chests, dressing-tables, tapestries, clocks
of that day, the bed and arm-chair of Jeanne d’Albret, a complete set
of furniture in the taste of the Renaissance striking and sombre,
painfully labored yet magnificent in style, carrying the mind at once
back toward that age of force and effort, of boldness in invention, of
unbridled pleasures and terrible toil, of sensuality and of heroism.
Jeanne d’Albret, mother of Henry IV., crossed France in order that
she might, according to her promise, be confined in this castle. “A
princess,” says d’Aubigné, “having nothing of the woman about her
but the sex, a soul entirely given to manly things, a mind mighty in
great affairs, a heart unconquerable by adversity."

II.
 She sang an old Bearnese song when she brought him into the
world. They say that the aged grandfather rubbed the lips of the
new-born child with a clove of garlic, poured into his mouth a few
drops of Jurançon wine, and carried him away in his dressing-gown.

FULL-SIZE -- Medium-Size

The child was born in the chamber which opens into the tower of
Mazères, on the south-west corner. “His grandfather took him away
from his father and mother, and would have this child brought up at
his door, reproaching his daughter and his son-in-law with having
lost several of their children through French luxuries. And, indeed,
he brought him up in the Bearnese manner, that is, bareheaded and
barefoot, often with no more nicety than is shown in the bringing up
of children among the peasantry. This odd resolution was successful,
and formed a body in which heat and cold, unmeasured toil and all
sorts of troubles were unable to produce any change, thus
apportioning his nourishment to his condition, as though God wished
at that time to prepare a sure remedy and a firm heart of steel
against the iron knots of our dire calamities.”
His mother, a warm and severe Calvinist, when he was fifteen
years old, led him through the Catholic army to la Rochelle, and
gave him to her followers as their general. At sixteen years old, at
the combat of Arnay-le-Duc, he led the first charge of cavalry. What
an education and what men! Their descendants were just now
passing in the streets, going to school to compose Latin verses and
recite the pastorals of Massillon.
Those old wars are the most poetic in French history; they were
made for pleasure rather than interest. It was a chase in which
adventures, dangers, emotions were found, in which men lived in
the sunlight, on horseback, amidst flashes of fire, and where the
body, as well as the soul, had its enjoyment and its exercise. Henry
carries it on as briskly as a dance, with a Gascon’s fire and a soldier’s
ardor, with abrupt sallies, and pursuing his point against the enemy
as with the ladies. This is no spectacle of great masses of well-
disciplined men, coming heavily into collision and falling by
thousands on the field, according to the rules of good tactics. The
king leaves Pau or Nérac with a little troop, picks up the neighboring
garrisons on his way, scales a fortress, intercepts a body of
arquebusiers as they pass, extricates himself pistol in hand from the
midst of a hostile troop, and returns to the feet of Mlle. de
Tignonville.

FULL-SIZE -- Medium-Size
 They arrange their plan from day to day; nothing is done unless
unexpectedly and by chance. Enterprises are strokes of fortune.
Here is one which Sully had recounted by his secretary; I like to
listen to old words among old monuments, and to feel the mutual
fitness of objects and of style: "The king of Navarre formed the
design of seizing on the city of Eause, which, by good right, was his,
and where he had chance of fine fortune; for deeming that the
inhabitants, who had not been willing to receive a garrison, should
have respect for his person, who was their lord, he determined to
march all day long in order to enter in with few people, so as to
create no alarm, and, indeed, having taken only fifteen or sixteen of
you, gentlemen, who placed yourselves nearest to him, among
whom were you, with simple cuirasses under your hunting tunics,
two swords and two pistols, he surprised the gate of the city and
entered in before they of the guard were able to take up arms. But
one of these gave the alarm to him who was sentinel at the portal,
and he cut the cord in the slide of the portcullis, so that it fell
immediately almost on the croup of your horse and that of your
cousin, M. de Béthune the elder, and hindered the troop which was
coming up on the gallop from entering, so that the king and you
fifteen or sixteen alone remained shut up in this city, where all the
people, being armed, fell upon you in divers troops and at divers
times, while the tocsin rang furiously, and a cry of ‘Arm, arm!’ and
'Kill, Kill! resounded on all sides,—seeing which, the king of Navarre,
from the first troop which came up, some fifty strong, in part well, in
part ill armed, he, I say, marching, pistol in hand, straight at them,
called out to you: ‘Come now, my friends, my comrades; it is here
that you must show courage and resolution, for thereon depends our
safety; let each one then follow me and do as I do, and not fire until
the pistol touches.’ At the same time, hearing three or four cry out:
'Fire at that scarlet tunic, at that white plume, for it is the king of
Navarre,’ he charged on them so impetuously that, without firing
more than five or six times, they took fright and withdrew in several
troops. Others in like manner came against you three or four times;
but as soon as they saw that they were broken, they fired a few
times and turned away until, having rallied nearly two hundred
together, they forced you to gain a doorway, and two of you went up
to give a signal to the rest of the troop that the king was there, and
that the gate must be burst open, as the draw-bridge had not been
raised. Whereupon each one began working, and then several
among that populace who loved the king, and others who feared to
offend him, began raising a tumult in his favor; finally, after a few
arquebusades and pistol-shots from both sides, there arose such
dissension among them, some crying, ‘We must yield;’ others, ‘We
must defend ourselves;’ that the irresolution afforded means and
time for opening the gates, and for all the troops to present
themselves, at the head of whom the king placed himself, and saw
most of the peoples fleeing and the consuls with their chaperons
crying: ‘Sire, we are your subjects and your peculiar servants. Alas!
allow not the sacking of this city, which is yours, on account of the
madness of a few worthless fellows, who should be driven out. He
placed himself, I said, at the head to prevent pillage: thus there was
committed neither violence, nor disorder, nor any other punishment,
except that four, who had fired at the white plume, were hung, to
the joy of all the other inhabitants, who thought not that they should
be quiet on such ood terms."

FULL-SIZE -- Medium-Size

At Cahors he burst in the two gates with petard and axe, and
fought five days and five nights in the city, carrying house after
house. Are not these chivalric adventures and poetry in action? “So,
so, cavaliers,” cried the Catholics at Marmande; “a pistol-shot for
love of the mistress; for your court is too full of lovely ladies to know
any lack of them.” Henry escaped like a true paladin, and lost his
victory at Contras in order to carry to the beautiful Corisandre the
flags that he had taken. To act, to dare, to enjoy, to expend force
and trouble like a prodigal, to be given up to the present sensation,
be forever urged by passions forever lively, support and search the
extremes of all contrasts, that was the life of the sixteenth century.
Henry at Fontenay “worked in the trenches with pick and mattock.”
On his return there was nothing but feasting.

FULL-SIZE -- Medium-Size

“We came together,” says Marguerite, “to take walks in company,

either in a lovely garden where are long alleys of cypress and laurel,
or in the park which I had caused to be made, in alleys three
thousand paces long, which border the river; and the rest of the day
was spent in all sorts of suitable pleasures, a ball ordinarily filling the
afternoon and the evening.” The grave Sully “took a mistress like the
rest.” In visiting the restored dining-hall, you repeople it involuntarily
with the sumptuous costumes described by Brantôme: ladies “clad in
orange-color and gold lace, robes of cloth of silver, of crisped cloth
of gold, stuffs perfectly stiff with ornaments and embroidery. Queen
Marguerite in a robe of flesh-colored Spanish velvet, heavily loaded
with gold lace, so decked out with plumes and precious stones as
nothing ever was before.” I said to M. de Ronsard: “Do you not seem
to see this beautiful queen, in such guise, appearing as the lovely
Aurora, when she is going to spring up before the day, with her
beautiful pale face, bordered with its ruby and carnation color?” At
the ball in the evening, she loved to dance “the pavane of Spain and
the Italian pazzemano. The passages in this were so well danced,
the steps so judiciously conducted, the rests so beautifully made,
that you knew not which most to admire, the beautiful manner of
dancing, or the majesty of the steps, representing now gayety, now
a fine and grave disdain.”
You may well believe that the good king was not sparing of sport.
“Il fut de ses sujets le vainqueur et le père”
The maids of honor of Marguerite could bear witness to this;
hence intrigues, quarrels and conjugal comedies, one of which is
very prettily and very artlessly told by the queen; Mlle. de Fosseuse
was the heroine. “The pain seized her one morning, at the break of
day, while in bed in the chamber of the maids, and she sent for my
physician and begged him to go and inform the king my husband,
which he did. We were in bed in the same chamber, but in separate
beds, according to our custom. When the physician gave him this bit
of news, he was in great trouble, not knowing what to do, fearful on
the one hand lest she should be discovered, and on the other lest
she should want help, for he loved her dearly. He determined, finally,
to confess all to me, and to beg me go to her assistance, for he
knew well that, whatever might have passed, he should always find
me ready to serve him in anything that could please him. He opens
my curtain and says to me: ‘Dearest, I have concealed from you one
thing which I must confess to you: I beg you to excuse me for it,
and not to remember all that I have said to you on this subject. But
oblige me so much as to get up at once, and go to the assistance of
Fosseuse, who is very ill; I am sure that you would not wish, when
you see her in that condition, to resent what is past. You know how
much I love her; I beg that you will oblige me in this matter.’ I told
him that I honored him too much to be offended with anything
coming from him. That I would be off and do as if it were my
daughter; that in the mean time he should go to the chase and take
everybody with him, so that no talk of it should be heard.
“I had her promptly removed from the chamber of the maids and
put into a chamber apart, with my physician and women to wait
upon her, and gave her my best assistance. God willed that it should
be only a daughter, which moreover was dead. After the delivery,
she was carried to the chamber of the maids, where, though all
possible discretion was used, they could not prevent the report from
spreading throughout the castle. When the king my husband was
returned from the chase, he went to see her according to his
custom; she begged him that I would come to see her, as I was
accustomed to visit all my maids when they were ill, thinking to stop
by this means the spread of the report. The king my husband came
into the chamber and found that I had gone to bed again, for I was
tired with getting up so early, and with the trouble I had had in
rendering her assistance. He begged that I would get up and go to
see her; I told him that I had done so when she had need of my aid,
but now she no longer had occasion for it; that if I went there, I
should reveal rather than cloak the truth, and that everybody would
point their finger at me. He was seriously vexed with me, and this
was far from pleasant to me, for it seemed that I had not deserved
such a recompense for what I had done in the morning. She often
put him into similar mood toward me.”
 FULL-SIZE -- Medium-Size

Compassionate souls, who admire the complaisance of the queen,

do not pity her too much: she punished the king, by imitating him,
at Usson and elsewhere.
And yet Pan was a lesser Geneva. Amidst these violences and this
voluptuousness, devotion was warm; they went to sermons or to the
church, with the same air as to the battle-field or the rendezvous.
This is because religion then was not a virtue, but a passion. In such
case, the neighboring passions, instead of extinguishing it, only
inflame; the heart overflows on that side as on the others. When the
lazzarone has stabbed his enemy, he finds a second pleasure, says
Beyle, in prating about his anger, alongside a wire grating in a great
box of black wood. The Hindoo that gets excited and howls at the
feast of Juggernaut, to the hubbub of fifty thousand tom-toms, the
American Methodist who weeps and cries aloud his sins in a revival,
feels something the same sort of pleasure as an Italian enthusiast at
the opera. That explains and reconciles the zeal and the gallantry of
Marguerite.
“They only allowed me,” said she, “to have mass said in a little
chapel not more than three or four paces long, which, narrow as it
was, was full when there were seven or eight of us there. So when
they wanted to say mass, they raised the bridge of the castle, for
fear that the Catholics of the country, who had no exercise of their
religion, should hear of it; for they had an infinite desire to assist at
the holy sacrifice, of which they had been deprived for several years.
And, urged by this sacred desire, the inhabitants of Pau found
means, at Whitsuntide, before the bridge was raised, to enter the
castle, and slip into the chapel, where they were not discovered until
toward the end of mass, when, half opening the door to let in one of
my people, some Huguenots who were spying round the door
perceived them, and went to tell it to le Pin, secretary of the king my
husband, and he sent there some guards of the king my husband,
who, dragging them forth and beating them in my presence, carried
them off to prison, where they remained a long time, and paid a
heavy fine.”

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The little chapel has disappeared, I believe, since the castle and
the whole country were restored to the Catholic worship. Besides,
this treatment arose from humanity: Saint-Pont, at Macon, “afforded
the ladies, as they went out from the banquets that he gave, the
pleasure of seeing a certain number of prisoners leap off from the
bridge.” Such were these men, extreme in everything, in fanaticism,
in pleasure, in violence; never did the fountain of desires flow fuller
and deeper; never did more vigorous passions unfold themselves
with more of sap and greenness. Walking through these silent halls,
disturbed from time to time by fair invalids or pale young
consumptives who walk there, I fancied that enervation of the inner
nature came from the enervation of the bodies. We spend our time
within doors, taken up with discussions, reflections and reading; the
gentleness of manners removes dangers from us, and industrial
progress fatigues. They lived in the open air, ever following the
chase and in war. “Queen Catherine was very fond of riding, up to
the age of sixty and more, and of making great and active journeys,
even after she had often fallen, to the great injury of her body, for
she was several times so far hurt as to break her leg and wound her
head.” The rude exercises hardened their nerves; their warmer
blood, stirred by incessant peril, urged upon the brain impetuous
caprices; they made history, while we write it.

III.
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The park is a great wood on a hill, embedded among meadows

and harvests. You walk in long solitary alleys, under colonnades of
superb oaks, while to the left the lofty stems of the copses mount in
close ranks upon the back of the hill. The fog was not yet lifted;
there was no motion in the air; not a corner of blue sky, not a sound
in all the country. The song of a bird came for an instant from the
midst of the ash-trees, then sadly ceased. Is that then the sky of the
south, and was it necessary to come to the happy country of the
Béarnais to find such melancholy impressions? A little by-way
brought us to a bank of the Gave: in a long pool of water was
growing an army of reeds twice the height of a man; their grayish
spikes and their trembling leaves bent and whispered under the
wind; a wild flower near by shed a vanilla perfume. We gazed on the
broad country, the ranges of rounded hills, the silent plain under the
dull dome of the sky. Three hundred paces away the Gave rolls
between marshalled banks, which it has covered with sand; in the
midst of the waters may be seen the moss-grown piles of a ruined
bridge. One is at ease here, and yet at the bottom of the heart one
feels a vague unrest; the soul is softened and loses itself in
melancholy and tender revery. Suddenly the clock strikes, and one
has to go and prepare to take his soup between two commercial
travellers.

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IV.
To-day the sun shines. On my way to the Place Nationale, I
remarked a poor, half-ruined church, which had been turned into a
coachhouse; they have fastened upon it a carrier’s sign. The
arcades, in small gray stones, still round themselves with an elegant
boldness; beneath are stowed away carts and casks and pieces of
wood; here and there workmen were handling wheels. A broad ray
of light fell upon a pile of straw, and made the sombre corners seem
yet darker; the pictures that one meets with outweigh those one has
come to seek.
From the esplanade which is opposite, the whole valley and the
mountains beyond may be seen; this first sight of a southern sun, as
it breaks from the rainy mists, is admirable; a sheet of white light
stretches from one horizon to another without meeting a single
cloud. The heart expands in this immense space; the very air is
festal; the dazzled eyes close beneath the brightness which deluges
them and which runs over, radiated from the burning dome of
heaven. The current of the river sparkles like a girdle of jewels; the
chains of hills, yesterday veiled and damp, extend at their own
sweet will beneath the warming, penetrating rays, and mount range
upon range to spread out their green robe to the sun. In the
distance, the blue Pyrenees look like a bank of clouds; the air that
bathes them shapes them into aerial forms, vapory phantoms, the
farthest of which vanish in the canescent horizon—dim contours,
that might be taken for a fugitive sketch from the lightest of pencils.

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In the midst of the serrate chain the peak du Midi d’ Ossau lifts its
abrupt cone; at this distance, forms are softened, colors are
blended, the Pyrenees are only the graceful bordering of a smiling
landscape and of the magnificent sky. There is nothing imposing
about them nor severe; the beauty here is serene, and the pleasure
pure.
 The statue of Henry IV., with an inscription in Latin and in patois,
is on the esplanade; the armor is finished so perfectly that it might
make an armorer jealous. But why does the king wear so sad an air?
His neck is ill at ease on his shoulders; his features are small and full
of care; he has lost his gayety, his spirit, his confidence in his
fortune, his proud bearing. His air is neither that of a great nor a
good man, nor of a man of intellect; his face is discontented, and
one would say that he was bored with Pau. I am not sure that he
was wrong: and yet the city passes for agreeable; the climate is very
mild, and invalids who fear the cold pass the winter in it. Balls are
given in the clubs; the English abound, and it is well known that in
the matter of cookery, of beds and inns, these people are the first
reformers in the universe.
They would have done well in reforming the vehicles: the rickety
little diligences of the country are drawn by gaunt jades which
descend the hills on a walk, and make stops in the ascent. All
encouragements of the whip are thrown away on their backs; you
could not bear them any grudge on that account, so piteous is their
appearance, with their ridgy backbones, hanging ears, and shrunken
bellies. The coachman rises on his seat, pulls the reins, waves his
arms, bawls and storms, clambers down and up again; his is a rude
calling, but he has a soul like his calling. His passengers are of small
consequence to him; he treats them as useful packages, a necessary
counterpoise over which he has rights. At the foot of a mountain,
the machine got its wheel into a ditch and tilted over; every one
leaped out after the manner of Panurge’s sheep.
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He went running from one to another to get them back, especially

exhorting the people from the impériale, and pointing out to them
the danger to the vehicle, which was leaning back, and so needed
ballast in front. They however remained cool, and went on afoot,
while he followed grumbling and abusing their selfishness.

VI.
The harvests, pale in the north, here wave with a reflex of reddish
gold. A warmer sun makes the vigorous verdure shine more richly;
the stalks of maize spring from the earth like discharges of rockets,
and their strong, wrinkled leaves fall over in plumes; such burning
rays are needed to urge the sap through those gross fibres and gild
the massy spike.

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Toward Gan, the hills, over which undulates the road, draw nearer
together, and you travel on through little green valleys, planted with
ash and alder in clusters, according to the caprices of the slopes,
and with their feet bathed in living water; a pellucid stream borders
the road, with waters sombre and hurried under the cover of the
trees, and then, by fits and starts, brilliant and blue as the sky. Four
times in the course of a league it encounters a mill, leaps and foams,
then resumes its course, hurried and stealthy; during two leagues
we have its company, half hid among the trees that it nourishes, and
breathing the freshness it exhales. In these gorges, water is the
mother of all life and the nurse of all beauty.

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At Louvie the valley of Ossau opens up between two mountains

covered with brushwood, bald in places, spotted with moss and
heather from which the rocks peep out like bones, while the flanks
start forth in grayish embossments or bend in dark crevices. The
plain of the harvests and meadows buries itself in the anfractuosities
as if in creeks; its contour folds itself about each new mass; it
essays to scale the lower ridges, and stops, vanquished by the
barren rock. We go through three or four hamlets whitened by dust,
whose roofs shine with a dull color like tarnished lead. Then the
horizon is shut off; Mount Gourzy, robed in forests, bars the route;
beyond and above, like a second barrier, the peak of the Ger lifts its
bald head, silvered with snows. The carriage slowly scales an
acclivity which winds upon the flank of the mountain; at the turn of
a rock, in the shelter of a small gorge, may be seen Eaux Bonnes.
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 CHAPTER III. EAUX BONNES.
I.

I
thought that here I should find the country; a village like a
hundred others, with long roofs of thatch or tiles, with crannied
walls and shaky doors, and in the courts a pell-mell of carts with
fagots, and tools, and domestic animals, in short, the whole
picturesque and charming unconstraint of country life. I find a Paris
street and the promenades of the Bois de Boulogne.
Never was country less countrified: you skirt a row of houses
drawn up in line, like a row of soldiers when carrying arms, all
pierced regularly with regular windows, decked with signs and
posters, bordered by a side-walk, and having the disagreeably
decent aspect of hotels garnis. These uniform buildings,
mathematical lines, this disciplined and formal architecture make a
laughable contrast with the green ridges that flank them. It seems
grotesque that a little warm water should have imported into these
mountain hollows civilization and the cuisine.
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