Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2017 with funding from 
 Getty Research Institute 
 
 https;//archiye.org/details/visittomonasteryOOfell 
 
fV.D.FtUowts ael. 
 
A 
 
 VISIT 
 
 TO TfiE 
 
 IN 1817 : 
 
 WITH NOTES, 
 
 TAKEN DURING A TOUR THROUGH 
 
 LE PERCHE, NORMANDY, BRETAGNE, POITOU, ANJOU, 
 LE BOCAGE, TOURAINE, ORLEANOIS, AND 
 THE ENVIRONS OF PARIS. 
 
 #5r 
 
 W. D. FELLOWES, ESQ. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS COLOURED ENGRAVINGS, 
 FROM DRAWINGS MADE ON THE SPOT. 
 
 THIRD EDITION, 
 
 lontion : 
 
 PRINTED FOR THOMAS M’LEAN, 
 26 , HAYMARKET. 
 
 1820 . 
 
"W. Lewis* Printer, 21, Finch-lane, Cornhitl, 
 
LIST OF THE PLATES 
 
 To face page 
 
 View of the Monastery of La Trappe - - - - 8 
 
 Ruins of the Ancient Church of ditto - - - - 16 
 
 Ruins of the Gateway of the ancient Chartreuse - 38 
 Les Noyades ( vignette ^---*-----74 
 
 Grotto of Heloise at Clisson ------- 82 
 
 Tomb of Abelard and Heloise ------- 83 
 
 Ruins of Abelard’s House - - - - - - - - 84 
 Granite Rock in the Garenne - - - ----83 
 
 Le Connetable de Clisson ( outline ^ 88 
 
 Ruins of Clisson ----------- 92 
 
 Tour des Pelerins - -- -- -- -- --94 
 Moulin aux chevres - -- -- -- -- -99 
 Tour d’Oudon on the River Loire - - - - - 124 
 View of St. Florent - -- -- -- -- - 125 
 Tomb (etching) - -- -- -- -- -- 162 
 

 , f*: ... '. 
 
 mi 
 
 ;:;:?v,;:,»;^5!s;.::':?'i|i!5. 
 
 ■ 
 
 f«P#' 
 
 I* 
 
 ;:s 
 
 iii 
 
 f' 
 
 mi 
 
 ■ ""pi'* 
 
 .:, '"-pIP 
 
 ■t- 
 
 
 
 
 
 :H- * 
 
 
 .m§i- 
 
 Pi: 
 
 >■ • -‘it: 
 
 
 V, ; 
 
 ■-r o j. 
 
 <-1*7 ii* iy; 
 
 
 2 , - ■ ■ 
 
 
 i 
 
 ; rr 
 
 4 .ft ■ 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In justice to the public and to myself, I 
 must disavow for the following pages any 
 higher literary pretension than what is con- 
 veyed by the simple title of “ Notes,” under 
 which I have ventured to give them to the 
 world. I had no other aim in writing but to 
 occupy as rationally as I could the hours of 
 travel, and no other object in publishing but 
 to impart to others as plainly as I could a por- 
 tion of the pleasure I myself experienced. It 
 has somewhere been remarked to this effect, 
 that if every man of common understanding 
 were to put down the daily thoughts and oc- 
 currences of his life, candidly and unaffectedly 
 as he experienced them, he must necessarily 
 produce something of interest to his fellow- 
 
 b 
 
VI 
 
 men, • and make a book, which, though not 
 enlivened by wit, dignified by profundity of 
 reasoning, nor valuable by extent of re- 
 search, yet no man perhaps should throw 
 aside with either weariness or disgust. 
 
 Whether I shall prove fortunate enough 
 not to excite these sensations in such readers 
 as may honour my book with a perusal, I 
 fear to conjecture. But it was my good for- 
 tune, during a season of uncommon beauty, 
 to make a tour through some of the most in- 
 teresting parts of France, and to meet with 
 persons who, from situation and talents, were 
 highly calculated to give my journey every 
 charm of society and information. The 
 natural face of the country through which 
 I passed was peculiarly beautiful: I could 
 scarcely move a step without some novelty 
 of picturesque enchantment, and had the 
 most perfect opportunities of contemplating 
 Nature in all her varied poetry, from the 
 grand and terrible graces of savage sublimity, 
 to the soft and playful loveliness of cultivated 
 luxuriance. There was scarcely a town or 
 village where I arrived which romance or 
 history, religion or politics, had not invested 
 
Vll 
 
 and adorned with every interest of mental 
 association. Under such impressions, and 
 with such opportunities, it was scarcely pos- 
 sible to resist recording something of what I 
 saw and felt; and if the publication of my 
 hasty record be an error, it will be deemed 
 by my friends, I hope, a pardonable one. 
 My book can scarcely demand the serious 
 attention of the critic; nor could criticism 
 well expect a better style from one whose 
 profession is seldom supposed to allow much 
 leisure to acquire nicety in the arts of com- 
 position. I claim no other merit for my Notes 
 than having followed the advice (of Gray, 
 I believe) that ten words put down at 
 the moment upon the spot, are worth a 
 whole cart-load of recollections. I have not 
 sought to add to their attraction (if they 
 should possess any) by the embellishments 
 of my invention, or the graces of my 
 periods^the decorative artifices of execution 
 can never give value to falsehood, and truth 
 needs them not. A simple landscape, simply 
 described from nature, has always a charm 
 above ^the most high-finished compositions of 
 mere fancy; and, like a moderate painting 
 

 viii 
 
 from the same source, still imparts a feel- 
 ing of reality. I hope, therefore, I shall 
 be excused for attempting some descrip- 
 tion, slight and unskilful as it may be, of 
 places and scenery where the human mind 
 has exhibited some of its most curious and 
 powerful features, and which awaken reflec- 
 tions of the deepest interest-— I allude parti- 
 cularly to the monastery of La Trappe, and 
 to the country of La Vendee. The former 
 had dwelt among the earliest impressions of 
 youths with something like the wild and won- 
 derful force of a romantic tale; and I was 
 anxious to become an eye-witness of what 
 had so long been one of the most powerful 
 objects of my imagination. The gloomy and 
 almost inaccessible situation chosen by this 
 strange fraternity for their convent— their 
 rigid separation from human intercourse — = 
 the infringible taciturnity imposed upon 
 themselves — and the terrible severity of their 
 penances, are certainly circumstances more 
 resembling the visionary indulgence of fan- 
 tasy and Action, than actual realities to be 
 met with among living men, and in the pre- 
 jsent day. 
 
IX 
 
 With regard to the department of La 
 Vendee, whatever serves, trivial as it may be, 
 to recall or illustrate the history of its wars 
 and the character of its inhabitants, must 
 ever possess a charm for those who delight 
 to sympathize with the noble struggles of a 
 gallant people, conscientiously devoting them- 
 selves to the cause of a fallen and persecuted 
 monarchy, and resisting the cruel and de- 
 structive ferocity of a licentious enemy, who 
 had broken down the most sacred fences of 
 society, and trampled upon the dearest ties 
 of human nature. 
 
 In these Notes, slight as they are, I can 
 truly promise the reader that he will find no- 
 thing wilfully misrepresented, nor advanced 
 without just authority; and if the rapid and 
 cursory character of the observations, allu- 
 sions, and anecdotes, shall enable an hour to 
 pass agreeably that has no better employ- 
 ment, I am content, and gratified with the 
 attainment of all I ever hoped or designed 
 by an unpretending publication, which I 
 cheerfully dedicate to all w^ho love to unbend 
 their minds from a critical attitude, and can 
 
! 
 
 X 
 
 lounge good-naturedly over leaves written by 
 a traveller as idle and careless as themselves, 
 and who assures them that no one can think 
 more humbly of his production than himself. 
 
 March, 1818 . 
 
XI 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Route from Paris to Mortagne. — Excursion to La 
 Trappe — State of the Order since the restoration 
 in 1814 — Its foundation and rules under the Abbe 
 de Ranee - - I 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Ruins of the Convent of the Chartreux. — Forests of 
 Le Perche — Mortagne - -- -- -- - 36 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 From Mortagne to Rennes — Sceurs de la Charite — 
 Alen^on — Laval — Vitre, the celebrated residence 
 of Mad. de Sevigne - -- - -- -- -50 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 Rennes — Route from Rennes to Nantes — City of 
 Nantes — Historical anecdotes ------ 60 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Country south of the Loire. — Le Bocage. — Clisson 
 — Historical anecdotes.— The Garenne, and River 
 Sevres - -- -- -- -- -- -- -77 
 
XU 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 General appearance and limits of Le Bocage.— Na- 
 ture of the mode of warfare of the Vendeans - 
 
 Page 
 
 101 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 The River Loire, from Nantes to Angers - - - 122 
 CHAP. VIIL 
 
 Saumur to Tours.— fTours to Blois — Orleans — and 
 Orleans to Paris - 131 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 Environs of Paris. — Pere la Chaise. — Castle of 
 Vincennes, and Chateau of Saint Germain. — The 
 Forest, and Vicinity. — Conclusion. - - - - 153 
 
A VISIT 
 
 TO 
 
 iptonaisterg of £a ®fajn>f, 
 
 ^e. ^c. 
 
 CHAP. 1. 
 
 ROUTE FROM PARIS TO MORTAGNE.— EXCURSION TO lA TRAPPE,— 
 STATE OF THE ORDER SINCE THE RESTORATION IN 1814^ITS FOUN. 
 DATION AND RULES UNDER THE ABBE DE RANCE. 
 
 I PERFORMED this joumey during the 
 months of June, July, August, and Septem- 
 ber, a distance of near one thousand miles, 
 and had the singular good fortune to ^ enjoy 
 the finest weather possible. The perusal of 
 Madame de La Roche-Jaquelins interesting 
 work on the Vendean war, first gave me the 
 idea of visiting the country called le Bocage, 
 the theatre of so many events, and sufferings 
 
 B 
 
2 
 
 of the brave royalists; and, as the pro- 
 vince of le Perche, in which is situated 
 the ancient convent of La Trappe, was in 
 my route to Bretagne, I resolved to make 
 an excursion there, in order to satisfy myself 
 of the truth of those austerities which I had 
 read of in the Memoirs of the Count de 
 Comminge. 
 
 The route from Paris to Mortagne, in 
 le Perche, leads through Marly, Versailles, 
 Saint Cyr, Pont Chartrain, La Queue, Hou- 
 don, Marrolles, Dreux, Nonancourt, Tillieres, 
 Verneuil, and Saint Maurice. The roads 
 are excellent, and the country beautiful. 
 The first post out of Paris is Nanterre. Two 
 leagues and a half from the barriere, the vil- 
 lage of Ruel, and the park of Malmaison, 
 form a continuation of neat buildings. 
 At Nanterre, in the campaign of 1815, the 
 Prussians, after a severe engagement with 
 the retreating troops of the French, had one 
 regiment of cavalry cut to pieces. At Ruel, 
 
3 
 
 the celebrated Cardinal Richelieu had a 
 palace, which at the Revolution became 
 national property, and was purchased by 
 Massena, Due de Rivoli, Prince D’Essling, 
 lately deceased. The Duchess still resides 
 there. It was taken possession of by the 
 allies in 1815, and, like Malmaison, plun- 
 dered by the troops. There are extensive 
 barracks for cavalry at this* place, at present 
 occupied by the Swiss guards. 
 
 A little farther, between Malmaison and 
 Marly, is a beautiful chateau, formerly be- 
 longing to General Count Bertrand, who 
 accompanied Napoleon to Saint Helena; it 
 is now the property of M. Ouverard, the 
 banker : nearly opposite is the residence 
 of the celebrated Abbe Sieyes, who lives in 
 great retirement. Whatever may have been 
 the political transgressions of Bertrand, there 
 is something so noble in his devotion to the 
 fallen fortunes of his master, that it is impos- 
 sible not to respect his character. 
 
 B 2 
 
4 
 
 At Marly, the water- works and aqueduct 
 for conveying the water from the river Seine 
 to the palace and gardens of Versailles, are 
 very curious. The palace of Marly is de- 
 stroyed; but the basins, which were con- 
 structed by order of Louis XIV. are still to 
 be seen, though in ruins. Delille, the poet, 
 in his description of the chateau and beau- 
 tiful grounds of Marly, says, 
 
 C’est la que tout est grand, que Tart n’est point timide ; 
 
 Ld tout est enchante ; c’est le Palais d’Armide ; 
 
 C’est le jardin d’Alcine, ou plutot d’un Heros, 
 
 Noble dans sa retraite et grand dans sou repos. 
 
 Qui cherche encore a vaincre, a dompter des obstacles, 
 
 Et ne marche jamais qu’entoure de miracles. 
 
 On quitting Paris, I had procured a letter 
 of introduction from Count La Cou to Ma- 
 dame de Bellou, at Mortagne, a charming 
 old lady of an ancient and noble family in 
 that province, who had never quitted the seat 
 of her ancestors, but remained quiet and 
 respected during all the storms of the revolu- 
 tion. She received me with kindness, and 
 
5 
 
 politely introduced me to the Sub-Prefect, 
 Monsieur Lamorelie, who gave me a letter 
 of introduction to the Pere Don Au^stin, 
 Grand Prior of La Tfappe. The mayor of 
 the commune of Solignie, who happened to 
 be at the inn, and learned from the Auber- 
 giste, that a stranger intended visiting La 
 Trappe, very civilly introduced himself to 
 me, and gave me every necessary direction 
 how to proceed through the forest; at the 
 same time expressing his surprise that an 
 Englishman should take the trouble, and 
 undergo the fatigue of penetrating through 
 such a country, an attempt which few of his 
 own countrymen had ever ventured to make. 
 It was singular enough that only one person 
 in the town could be found to accompany me 
 as a guide, or who knew any thing of the 
 track through the forest, although the abbey 
 is distant only twenty-five miles. 
 
 I set out with the guide just at day-break, 
 mounted on a small Norman horse, and 
 
6 
 
 armed with pistols and a sword-cane, in case 
 of meeting* with wolves, which the mayor of 
 Solignie had cautioned me against, as abound- 
 ing throughout the country. We travelled, 
 after leaving the main road, at the distance 
 of a league, through a country scarcely ap- 
 pearing to be inhabited. Here and there 
 a lone cot, a mere speck, met the eye amidst 
 a landscape composed of nothing but barren 
 wastes and thick forests, nearly impervious 
 to the light. We had penetrated about half 
 a mile through one of the latter, my atten- 
 tion occupied with the romantic wildness 
 of the scene, when we were alarmed by 
 the howling of a wolf. My guide crossed 
 himself, and began cracking his whip with 
 the noise and singular dexterity peculiar to 
 the French postillions ; and as we entered a 
 part of the forest, impenetrable but for traces 
 known only to those who are accustomed to 
 them, he related (by way of consolation, I 
 suppose,) several stories of the peasantry 
 
7 
 
 having been recently attacked, and some 
 destroyed, by wolves ; and one instance of a 
 woman having had her infant torn from her 
 arms, only a short time since, in the neigh- 
 bourhood. 
 
 On quitting the forest the track was now 
 and then diversified by the ruins of a solitary 
 cottage, or the mouldering remains of a cru- 
 cifix, raised by pious hands to mark some 
 event, or to guide the traveller; and after 
 traversing a rocky plain, covered with heath 
 and wild thyme, where some herds of sheep 
 and goats were browsing, attended by the 
 shepherd, we entered the Forest of Belle- 
 garde. This forest spreads over a large 
 extent of country, and is so dark and intri- 
 cate, that those best acquainted with it fre- 
 quently lose their way. No vestige of human 
 footsteps or of the track of animals appear- 
 ed ; a mark, here and there, on some of the 
 trees, was the only direction ! Pursuing our 
 way through turnings and windings the most 
 
8 
 
 perplexing, we found ourselves to be on the 
 overhanging brow of a hill, the descent of 
 which was so precipitous, that we were under 
 the necessity of dismounting ; and by a wind- 
 ing path, hollowed out in its side, descend- 
 ed through a sort of labyrinth towards the 
 valley, whose sides were cloathed with lof- 
 ty woods, rising one above the other. The 
 valley itself is interspersed with three lakes, - 
 connected with each other, and forming a 
 sort of moat around the ground ; in the cen- 
 tre of which appears the venerable abbey 
 of La Trappe, with its dark gray towers, the 
 deep tone of whose bell had previously an- 
 nounced to us, that we had nearly reached 
 our journeys end. 
 
 The situation of this monastery was well 
 adapted to the founder’s views, and to sug- 
 gest the name it originally received of La 
 Trappe, from the intricacy of the road which 
 descends to it, and the difficulty of access 
 or egress, which exists even to this day, 
 
I 
 
 I 
 
 VIKW oftke MOWASTKItY of ILA TRAIPTF. 
 
9 
 
 though the woods have been very much thin- 
 ned since the revolution. Perhaps there 
 never was any thing in the whole universe 
 better calculated to inspire religious awe than 
 the first view of this monastery. It was im- 
 posing even to breathlessness. The total 
 solitude — the undisturbed and chilling silence, 
 which seem to have ever slept over the 
 dark and ancient woods — the still lakes, re- 
 flecting the deep solemnity of the objects 
 around them — all impress a powerful image 
 of utter seclusion and hopeless separation 
 from living man, and appear formed at once 
 to court and gratify the sternest austerities of 
 devotion — ^to nurse the fanaticism of diseased 
 imaginations — to humour the wildest fancies 
 — and promote the gloomiest schemes of pe- 
 nance and privation ! 
 
 In descending the steep and intricate path, 
 the traveller frequently loses sight of the 
 abbey, until he has actually reached the 
 bottom ; then, emerging from the wood, the 
 
10 
 
 following inscription is seen, carved on a 
 wooden cross: — - 
 
 C’est ici que la mort et que la verite 
 
 Elevent leurs flambeaux terribles ; 
 
 C^est de cette demeure, au monde inaccessible, 
 
 Que Foil passe a Feternite. 
 
 A venerable grove of oak-trees, which for- 
 merly surrounded the monastery, was cut 
 down in the revolution. In the gateway of 
 the outer court is a statue of Saint Bernard, 
 which has been mutilated by the republicans: 
 he is holding in one hand a church, and in 
 the other a spade — the emblems of .devotion 
 and labour. This gateway leads into a court, 
 which opens into a second enclosure, and 
 around that are the granaries, stables, bake- 
 house, and other offices necessary to the 
 abbey, which have all been happily pre- 
 served. 
 
 Owing to the fatigue of the journey, the 
 heat of the weather, and having frequently 
 been obliged to retrace our steps, from los- 
 
11 
 
 ing our way in the woods, it was late before 
 we arrived at the abbey. To the west, under 
 the glow of the setting sun, the forests were 
 still tinged with the warmest yet softest co- 
 lours that faded fast away ; and as we des- 
 cended towards the Convent, quickening our 
 pace to reach it before the last gleams of 
 evening departed, there was a silence around 
 us, which at such a moment, and in such a 
 spot, sunk sorrowfully upon the heart! Just 
 as I reached the gate, the bell tolled in so 
 solemn and melancholy a tone, that it vibrated 
 through my whole frame, and called strongly 
 to mind the beautiful lines in “ Parisina 
 
 The Convent bells are ringing, 
 
 But mournfully and slow; 
 
 In the grey square turret swinging, 
 
 With a deep sound, to and fro. 
 
 Heavily to the heart they go ! 
 
 On entering the gate, a lay-brother re- 
 ceived me on his knees ; and in a low and 
 whispering voice informed me they were at 
 vespers. The stillness and gloom of the 
 
12 
 
 building — ^the last rays of the sun scarcely 
 penetrating through its windows — the deep 
 tones of the monks chanting the responses, 
 which occasionally broke the silence, filled 
 me with reverential emotions which I felt 
 unwilling to disturb : it was necessary, how- 
 over, to present my letter of introduction, 
 and Frere Charle, the secretaire, soon after 
 came out, and received me with great civi- 
 lity. He appeared a young man about five- 
 and-twenty, with a handsome and prepos- 
 sessing countenance. He informed me that 
 the Pere Abbe was then absent, visiting a 
 convent of Female Trappistes, a few leagues 
 distant, but that he should be happy to shew 
 me every attention ; and requested that, in 
 going over the Convent, I would neither 
 speak nor ask him any questions in those 
 places where I saw him kneel, or in the 
 presence of any of the Monks. I followed 
 him to the chapel, where, as soon as the 
 service was over, the bell rung to summon 
 
13 
 
 them to supper. Ranged in double rows, 
 mth their heads enveloped in a large cowl, 
 and bent down to the earth, they chanted the 
 grace, and then seated themselves. During 
 the repast one of them, standing, read pas- 
 sages from scripture, reminding them of 
 death, and of the shortness of human exist- 
 ence; another went round the whole com- 
 munity, and on his knees kissed their feet in 
 succession, throwing himself prostrate on the 
 floor at intervals, before the image of our 
 Saviour ; a third remained on his knees the 
 whole time, and in that attitude took his re- 
 past. These penitents had committed some 
 fault, or neglected their religious duties, of 
 which, according to the regulations, they had 
 accused themselves, and were in consequence 
 doomed to the above modes of penance. 
 
 The refectory was furnished with long 
 wooden tables and benches ; each person was 
 provided with a trencher, a jug of water, 
 and a cup, having on it the name of the 
 
14 
 
 brother to whom it is appropriated, as Frere 
 Paul, Frere Francois, &c. which name they 
 assume on taking the vow. Their supper 
 consisted of bread soaked in water, a little 
 salt, and two raw carrots, placed by each; 
 water alone is their beverage. The dinner is 
 varied with a little cabbage or other vegeta- 
 bles : they very rarely have cheese, and never 
 meat, fish, or eggs. The bread is of the 
 coarsest kind possible. 
 
 Their bed is a small truckle, boarded, with 
 a single covering, generally a blanket, no 
 mattress nor pillow ; and, as in the former 
 time, no fire is allowed but one in the great 
 hall, which they never approach. 
 
 Within these three years a small cabaret 
 has been built near the Convent for the ac- 
 commodation of those who may occasionally 
 visit it, the buildings that remain being but 
 barely sufficient for their own members, which 
 have been rapidly increasing since its restora- 
 tion. In this cabaret I took up my abode for 
 
15 
 
 the night, in preference to the accommodation 
 very kindly offered me by Frere Charle, 
 and retired to rest, wearied with the day s 
 excursion, and fully satisfied, that all I had 
 heard, all I had imagined of La Trappe, was 
 infinitely short of the reality, and that no 
 adequate description could be given of its 
 awful and dreary solitude. 
 
 Monsieur Elzear de Sabran, in a poem 
 called Le Repentir, lately published, de- 
 scribing this Monastery, says very justly, 
 
 Temoins d’une commune et secrete soufFrance, 
 
 Ces freres de douleur, martyrs de Tesperance, 
 
 D’une lente torture epuisant les degres, 
 
 Constamment reunis, constamment separes, 
 
 L’un a I’autre etrangers, a cote Fun de Fautre, 
 Joignent tout ce malheur encore a tout le ndtre. 
 Jamais, dans ses pareils cherchant un tendre appui, 
 Un coeur ne s’ouvre aux coeurs qui souffrent comme lui. 
 
 The following morning the matin bell 
 
 summoned me to the Convent, and Frere 
 Charle attended me to the burial-ground: 
 here have been deposited the remains of 
 two of the brothers, deceased since the res- 
 
16 
 
 toration of their order in 1814. Another 
 grave was ready prepared; as soon as an 
 interment takes place, one being always 
 opened for the next that may die. The two 
 graves were marked with simple wooden 
 crosses, bearing the following inscriptions : 
 
 F. Nicolas. Pr^re DONNfi 
 Decede. le 24 Fevrier 1816. 
 
 On the other, 
 
 F. AUGUSTINUS. NOVITIUS 
 die 26 mensis novembris 
 
 ANNO. 1816 DECESSIT. 
 
 REQUIESCAT IN PACE 
 AMEN. 
 
 In the centre of the cemetery is the grave 
 of M. De Ranee. His monument, with his 
 figure carved at full length in a recumbent 
 posture, was removed when the destruction 
 of the old church took place; it is now a 
 complete ruin, and a few stones alone mark 
 the spot of its ancient founder s grave, which 
 is kept free from weeds with pious reverence 
 
i 
 
 RUJTNS ©f tke A:^TCI]EKT Cmuirch of ]LA. Traipfe, 
 
{ 
 
 
 iiiiiriiiiKi ''irtt 
 
17 
 
 and care. The revolution, which like a tor- 
 rent swept all before it, did not even spare 
 the dead. 
 
 While I was contemplating the ruins around 
 me, and watching the motions of a venerable 
 figure in silent prayer at one of the angles, 
 the bell tolled, when both Frere Charle and 
 the Monk dropped instantly on their knees. 
 How forcibly were the following lines of Pope 
 recalled to my mind ! 
 
 Lo, the struck deer, in some sequester’d part, 
 
 Lies down to die, (the arrow in his heart ;) 
 
 There, hid in shades, and wasting day by day, 
 
 Inly he bleeds, and pants his soul away. 
 
 The number of Monks who have taken the 
 vow are not in proportion to the others, who 
 are lay-brothers, and Frires Donnis; in all 
 there are about one hundred, besides no- 
 vices, who are principally composed of boys, 
 and who do not wear the sanie habit. The 
 Trappistes, who compose the first order, are 
 clothed in dark brown, with brown mantle 
 and hood ; the others are in white, with brown 
 
 c 
 
18 
 
 mantle and hood. I occasionally caught a 
 glimpse of their faces, but it was only mo- 
 mentarily; and I can easily believe, with 
 their perpetual silence, that two people well 
 known to each other, might inhabit the same 
 spot, without ever being aware of it, so com- 
 pletely are their faces hidden by their large 
 cowl. The Trappistes, or first order, are 
 distinguished by the appellation of Freres 
 Corners, the others by that of Religieux de 
 Coeur, 
 
 The hardships undergone by these monks 
 appear almost insupportable to human na- 
 ture, and notwithstanding the immense num- 
 ber of deaths occasioned by their rigorous 
 austerities, the Cenobites of La Trappe, at 
 the suppression of their order, amounted to 
 one hundred monks, sixty-nine lay-brothers, 
 and fifty-six Freres Donnes. The inmates are 
 classed under these three heads; but the lay- 
 brothers, who take the same vows, and follow 
 the same rules, are principally employed as 
 
19 
 
 servants, and in transacting the temporal 
 concerns of the abbey. The Freres Donnes 
 are brothers given for a time ; these last are 
 not properly belonging to the order ; they are, 
 rather, religious persons, whose business or 
 connexions prevent their joining the order 
 absolutely, but who, wishing to renew serious 
 impressions, or to retire from the world for a 
 given period, come here and conform strictly 
 to the regulations while they remain, without 
 wishing to join the order for life. Many 
 persons on their first conversion, or after 
 some peculiar dispensations of Providence, 
 retire here for a season. 
 
 In the refectory I observed a board hung 
 up, with “ Table pour VOffice Divinl' writ- 
 ten over it, and under it the regulations or 
 order of service to be performed for' that 
 week, which are occasionally varied, but 
 never diminished in their rigour. Frere 
 Charle said, that the whole were strictly ob- 
 served, and were frequently much more se- 
 
 c 2 
 
20 
 
 vere ; for the Pere Abbe had instituted more 
 austere regulations than formerly, with the 
 only one exception, of the sick being allowed 
 medicines; and, in cases of great debility, 
 a small quantity of meat. 
 
 The Table “ pour P Office DivinJ' was as 
 follows : — 
 
 Dimancbe ....12 Lemons et Communion, 
 
 Lundi ....... 3 Logons. 
 
 Mardi .......12 Logons— a jeun — Travail. 
 
 Morcredi .....12 Logons. 
 
 Jeudi .... . ... 3 Logons. 
 
 Vendrodi ....12 Logons — a jeun-— TravaiL 
 
 Samedi ..... -12 Logons — a jeun — Travail. 
 
 Their mode of life and regulations exist 
 nearly in the same state as established by the 
 founder ; in reciting them, such horrible per- 
 versions of human nature and reason make 
 it almost difficult to believe the existence of 
 so severe an order, and lead us to wonder 
 at the artificial miseries, which the ingenuity 
 of pious but morbid enthusiasm can inflict 
 upon itself. The abstinence practised at 
 
21 
 
 La Trappe allows not the use of meat, fish, 
 eggs, or butter ; and a very limited quan- 
 tity of bread and vegetables. They only 
 eat twice a day; which meals consist of a 
 slender repast at about eleven in the morn- 
 ing, and two ounces of bread and two raw 
 carrots in the evening: both together do 
 not at any time exceed twelve ounces. 
 The same spirit of mortification is observable 
 in their cells, which are very small, and have 
 no other furniture than a bed of boards, a 
 human skull, and a few religious books. 
 
 Silence is at all times rigidly maintained ; 
 conversation is never permitted: should two 
 of them even be seen standing near each 
 other, though pursuing their daily labour, 
 and preserving the strictest silence, it is con- 
 sidered as a violation of their vow, and highly 
 criminal ; each member is therefore as com- 
 pletely insulated as if he alone existed in 
 the Monastery. None but the Pere Abbe 
 knows the name, age, rank, or even the 
 
22 
 
 native country of any member of the com- 
 munity: every one, at his first entrance, as- 
 sumes another name, as I before observed, 
 and with his former appellation, each is sup- 
 posed to abjure, not only the world, but 
 every recollection and memorial of himself 
 and connexions: no word ever escapes from 
 his lips by which the others can possibly 
 guess who he is, or where he comes from ; 
 and persons of the same name, family, and 
 neighbourhood, have often lived together in 
 the Convent for years, unknown to each 
 other, without having suspected their proxi- 
 mity. 
 
 The abstraction of mind practised at La 
 Trappe, and the prevention of all external 
 communication with the world is such, that 
 few but the superior know any thing of what 
 is passing in it. It has been related, that so 
 little information of the affairs of mankind 
 did these people receive, that the death of 
 Louis XIV. was not known there for years. 
 
23 
 
 except by the Father Abbe; and such was 
 their state of seclusion, that a Nobleman 
 having taken a journey of five hundred miles, 
 purposely to see the Monastery, could scarce- 
 ly find in the neighbouring villages one per- 
 son who knew where it was situated. In- 
 deed, at the present day, it is quite astonish- 
 ing how little is known of this place, and 
 how very few, even among those in its im- 
 mediate vicinity, have ever visited it.^ 
 
 On the great festivals they rise at mid- 
 night; otherwise they are not called until 
 three quarters past one : at two they assemble 
 in the Chapel, where they perform different 
 services, public and private, until seven in 
 the morning, according to the regulations of 
 the week, as exemplified in the “ Table pour 
 tOffice Diving At this hour they go out to 
 
 * Among the most frequent visitors of La Trappe, was 
 the unfortunate James the Second. His first visit was on 
 the 20th November, 1690, where he was received by 
 M, de Ranee, whose account of it is very interesting. 
 
24 
 
 labour in the open air. Their work is of the 
 most fatiguing kind, is never intermitted, 
 winter or summer, and admits of no relaxa- 
 tion from the state of the weather. 
 
 When their labour is over, they go into 
 Chapel for a short time, until eleven o’clock, 
 the hour of repast ; at a quarter after eleven 
 they read till noon ; and afterwards lie down 
 to rest for an hour : they are then summoned 
 into the garden, where they again work until 
 three, then read again for three quarters of 
 an hour, and retire for another quarter to 
 their private meditations, by way of prepa- 
 ration for vespers, which begin at four, and 
 end at six; at seven they again enter the 
 Chapel, and at eight they leave it, and retire 
 to rest. 
 
 At the hour of their first repast, I again 
 attended Frere Charle to the eating-room, 
 where nearly the same forms were observed 
 as at their evening-meal; a small basin of 
 boiled cabbage, two raw carrots, and a small 
 
25 
 
 piece of black bread, with a jug of water, 
 constituted their solitary meal. A Monk, 
 during the whole time, read sentences from 
 Scripture; and a small hand-bell filled up 
 the intervals of his silence, and proclaimed 
 a cessation from eating, or movement of any 
 sort. Over the door of the Refectory I ob- 
 served the following inscription in Latin : — 
 
 Better is a dinner of herbs, where love is, 
 than a stalled ox, and hatred therewith.” 
 
 Frere Charle invited me to partake of the 
 frugal fare of his order. He said, You will 
 forgive my laying before you a vegetable 
 repast; it is all that I have in my power 
 to offer you, but you will confer a pleasure 
 by accepting it.” It was impossible to re- 
 fuse, for I felt I should appear ungrateful, 
 after the attentions that had been shewn 
 me, if I had. Frere Charle conducted me 
 into an apartment, in which I was gratified 
 to observe a well executed portrait of the 
 Abbe de Ranee, which, at the destruction 
 
26 
 
 of the Monastery, had been preserved by 
 the surgeon of the ancient fraternity, who 
 continued to reside there until the period 
 of his death, four or five years since. This 
 person was greatly respected by all the peo- 
 ple round the country, and resorted to by 
 all who sought relief either from sickness or 
 misery! — Had the other brothers followed 
 his example of remaining, in all probability 
 their Convent might have been spared, for 
 the accumulation of wealth could not be laid 
 to their charge ; and as their monastic vows 
 obliged them to remain within the Monas- 
 tery, they were most unlikely to incur the 
 suspicion of any political intrigues. — How 
 indeed could men, whose whole existence 
 was passed in solitude and penance, and 
 who never conversed even among themselves, 
 have been dangerous to those turbulent spi- 
 rits who had overturned the government 
 and all . the religious institutions of their 
 country ! 
 
27 
 
 In the portrait, the Abbe is dressed in the 
 habit of the order, a white gown and hood, 
 and sitting with a book before him, in which 
 he appears to be writing ; on the same table, 
 before him, are a crucifix and a skull. The 
 following inscription is painted in one corner 
 by the artist : — 
 
 « ARM^^ LE BOUTTHILLIER DE RANGE. 
 S^- SCAUANT. et celebre Abbe Reformateur De La 
 Trappe. Mort en 1700. a pres de 77 ans, et de 40 ans de 
 la plus austere penitence.” 
 
 The Monastery of La Trappe is one of the 
 most ancient Abbeys of the order of Bene- 
 dictins: it was established under the pontifi- 
 cate of Innocent the Second, during the 
 reign of Louis VIL in the year 1140, by 
 Rotrou, the second Count of Perche, and 
 is said to have been built to accomplish a 
 vow, made in the peril of shipwreck. In 
 commemoration of this circumstance, the roof 
 was made in the shape of the bottom of a 
 
28 
 
 ship inverted. It was founded under the 
 auspices of Saint Bernard, the first Abbot of 
 Clairvaux, the celebrated preacher in favour 
 of the Crusades. Many ages, however, had 
 elapsed, since its first institution, when the 
 Father Abbot de Ranee, the celebrated re- 
 former of his time, determined to become a 
 member, whose singular history and conver- 
 sion was the subject of a poem by Monsieur 
 Barthe. 
 
 The Abbe de Ranee became a Monk of 
 the Benedictin order of La Trappe in 1660, 
 and his conversion was attributed to a lady 
 whom he tenderly loved. They had been se- 
 parated for some time by her parents; she 
 having written to him to remove her for the 
 purpose of becoming united in marriage, he 
 set off, but, during his journey, she was 
 seized with a fever and died. Totally igno- 
 rant of the circumstance, he approached the 
 house under cover of the night, and got into 
 her apartment through the window. The 
 
29 
 
 first object he beheld was the coffin which 
 contained the body of his beloved mistress ! 
 It had been made of lead, but being found 
 to be too short, they had, with unheard-of 
 brutality, severed her head from her body ! 
 Horror-struck with the shocking spectacle, 
 he, from that hour, renounced all connexion 
 with the world, and imposed upon himself 
 the most rigid austerities, which he continued 
 until his death, forty years after. 
 
 When M. de Ranee undertook the super- 
 intendance of the Monastery, it exhibited a 
 melancholy picture, of the greatest declen- 
 sion, and it is curious to peruse the steps by 
 which he effected so wonderful a change;^ 
 and how men could ever feel it either an 
 inclination or a duty to enter upon a mode 
 of life so different from the common ways of 
 thinking or feeling. 
 
 The Monks of La Trappe were not only 
 
 * Reglements de L’Abbaye, La Maison-Dieu Notre 
 Dame de La Trappe, par Dom. Armand de Ranee, 
 
30 
 
 immersed in luxury and sloth, but were 
 abandoned to the most scandalous excesses ; 
 most of them lived by robbery, and several 
 had committed assassinations on the travel- 
 lers who had occasion to traverse the woods. 
 The neighbourhood shrunk with terror from 
 the approach of men who never went abroad 
 unarmed, and whose excursions were marked 
 with bloodshed and violence. The Banditti 
 of La Trappe was the appellation by which 
 they were most generally distinguished. Such 
 were the men amongst whom M. de Ranee 
 resolved to fix his abode ; all his friends 
 endeavouring to dissuade him from an un- 
 dertaking they deemed alike hopeless and 
 dangerous. 
 
 ‘‘ Unarmed, and unassisted,”^' says his his- 
 torian, “ but in the panoply of God, and 
 
 * The work from which I have taken this, is a transla- 
 tion by Mrs. Schimmelpenninck of Dom. Claude Lance- 
 lot’s Narrative, published in 1667. The present regula- 
 tions not differing from the former, I have extracted 
 some of the most important. 
 
31 
 
 by his spirit, he went alone amidst this com- 
 pany of ruffians, every one of whom was 
 bent on his destruction. With undaunted 
 boldness, he began by proposing the strictest 
 reform, and not counting his life dear to him, 
 he described the full intent of his purpose^ 
 and left them no choice but obedience or 
 expulsion.” 
 
 ‘‘ Many were the dangers M. de Ranee 
 underwent; plans were laid, at various times,^ 
 to poison him, to waylay and assassinate him^ 
 and even once one of his monks shot at him ; 
 but the pistol, which was applied close ta 
 his head, flashed in the pan, and missed 
 fire. By the good providence of God all 
 these plans were frustrated, and M. de Ranee 
 not only brought his reform to bear, but 
 several of his most violent persecutors be- 
 came his most stedfast adherents; many were^ 
 after a short time, won over by his piety — the 
 rest left the Monastery. He especially, who 
 had shot at M. de Ranee, became eminently 
 
32 
 
 distinguished for his piety and learning, and 
 was afterwards Sub-Prior of La Trappe.” 
 
 M. de Ranee lived forty years at the head 
 of this singular society, and the same ardor 
 and piety continued to distinguish him to 
 the last. The excess of self-denial and dis- 
 cipline, exercised by this order, which might 
 readily be doubted, became more known, es- 
 pecially to this country, at the time of the 
 French Revolution, when they shared the 
 fate of dissolution with the various religious 
 orders in France. On that occasion many of 
 them sought an asylum in England, and 
 were settled in Dorsetshire, where they re- 
 ceived the kind protection and benevolent 
 assistance of Mr. Weld, until the restoration 
 enabled most of them to return ; and, sur- 
 prising as it may appear in the present age, 
 notwithstanding the perpetual violence im- 
 posed by their regulations on every human 
 feeling, many are found anxious to enter the 
 establishment. 
 
33 
 
 When I was about to take my leave of Frere 
 Charlcj he said* “ he hoped I was pleased 
 with my humble fare: to such as it was 
 I had been truly welcome.” Indeed, he had 
 treated me with the kindest, most unaffec- 
 ted hospitality ; he had laid the table, spread 
 the dishes before me, stood the whole time 
 by the side of my chair, and pressed me to 
 eat: How could I not be thankful? I request- 
 ed he would be seated, but he observed that 
 it was not proper for him to be so. His man- 
 ners and general deportment bespoke him a 
 well-bred gentleman; and when I ventured 
 to ask if I might make a memorandum of 
 his name, he bowed his head with meekness 
 and resignation, and said, ‘‘ I have now no 
 other but that which was bestowed on me 
 when I took the vow, which severs me from 
 the world for ever!” It was impossible not 
 to be affected at the manner and tone of 
 voice in which he uttered this. When I said 
 that perhaps he would like that I should leave 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 an acknowledgment in writing, expressive of 
 the gratitude I felt at my kind and hospitable 
 reception, he appeared much pleased, and 
 ' instantly procured me paper. I left with 
 him the following lines : 
 
 Convent of La Trappe, Ju1y*20, 1817. 
 
 “ I have this day visited the Convent of La Trappe, 
 and in the absence of the Grand Prior, to whom I 
 brought a letter of introduction from Monsieur Lamo- 
 relie, Sub-Prefect of Mortagne, I was received and 
 have been entertained by Frere Charle Marie, his Se- 
 cretary. 
 
 ‘‘ It is quite impossible that I can do justice to the 
 kind, polite, and hospitable reception I have met with 
 from him, by any expressions in writing. I can only 
 observe, that it has made an impression on my mind 
 never to be effaced ! If these worthy and pious people 
 have abandoned the world for the solitude and austerities 
 of La Trappe# they have not forgotten, in their own self- 
 denial, the benevolence and benignity due to strangers. 
 May their self-devotion meet with its reward !” 
 
 I now took my leave of the Convent with 
 feelings which I will not pretend to describe, 
 but which, together with the impressions I 
 received when I first entered it, and the 
 whole circumstances of my visit, I am consci- 
 
3 j 
 
 ous of retaining* while Memory holds her 
 seat. ” The following lines, by P. Mandard, 
 on quitting La Trappe, convey a very faith- 
 ful and poetical picture of this extraordinary 
 solitude : — 
 
 Saint desert, sejour pur et paisible, 
 
 Solitude profonde, au vice inaccessible; 
 
 Impetueux torrens, et vous sombres forets, 
 
 Recevez mes adieux, comme aussi mes regrets! 
 Toujours epris de vous, respectable retraite, 
 Puisse-je, dans le cours d’une vie inquiete, 
 
 Dans ce flux eternel de folie et d’erreur, 
 
 Ou flotte tristement notre malheureux coeur; 
 Puisse-je, pour charmer mes ennuis et mes peines? 
 Souvent fuir en esprit au bord de vos fontaines, 
 Egarer ma pensee au milieu de vos bois, 
 
 Par un doux souvenir rappeler mille fois 
 De vos Saints liabitans les touchantes images, 
 Penetrer, sur leurs pas, dans vos grottes sauvages, 
 Me placer sur vos monts, et la, prennant lessort, 
 Aller chercher en Dieu ma joie, et mon tresor! 
 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 CHAP. IL 
 
 VAL-DIEU. -RUINS OF THE CONVENT OF THE CHARTREUSE.— FORESTS 
 OF LE PERCHE, MORTAGNE. 
 
 I QUITTED La Trappe in the afternoon of the 
 third day after my arrival there, for the Val- 
 Dieu, which lies three leagues to the east of 
 Mortagne, taking'the villages of Rinrolles and 
 Prepotin in my way; the latter stands in 
 the midst of a forest. By this road, so bad 
 that it scarcely deserves the name, a great 
 distance is saved, but the romantic scenery 
 of the approach to La Trappe is lost. The 
 one we took through the forest of Bellegarde 
 more than doubles the distance ; but the Ab- 
 bey is seen as in the centre of a lake be- 
 neath, and the continual beauty and wild- 
 ness of the landscape render it far prefer- 
 able. Until the Revolution this was the only 
 
37 
 
 road, the other having been made when the 
 lands became national property, and were 
 sold to the peasantry. 
 
 After passing through the above villages, 
 we came round by Tourouvre, a village on a 
 height, which has a manufactory for glass. 
 I did not stop to view it, having several lea- 
 gues to go through a wooded country. Soon 
 after crossing the main road leading into 
 Bretagne, we rode by the side of cultiva- 
 ted lands and orchards resembliiip* the wes- 
 
 o 
 
 tern parts of Devonshire, of which the nar- 
 row lanes and high hedges reminded me 
 very much, until we entered the forest lead- 
 ing to the Val-Dieu. Between eight and 
 nine in the evening we came to the edge 
 bounding that part of the Vale by which it 
 is approached, in the direction we had taken. 
 It was very considerably out of our way, ow- 
 ing to the guide having mistaken his road and 
 turned to the left instead of the right. After 
 resting a few minutes on the brow of the hill, 
 
38 
 
 we began our descent by a steep and narrow 
 pathway. When we were midway down the 
 gien, the ruins of the ancient Chartreuse sud- 
 denly burst upon the view ! At this moment 
 all the terrors of the declivity, and the mo- 
 mentary expectation of meeting some of the 
 wolves with which the forest abounds, vanish- 
 ed from my mind before the feelings of de- 
 light which the enchanting scene called forth. 
 The almost perpendicular view of the Vale 
 beneath, had an effect tremendous yet plea- 
 sing: on the left was a lake, seeming to en- 
 circle an ancient convent embosomed in a 
 wood; a thick forest covered the surround- 
 ing heights, and before me stood the remains 
 of the ancient Priory, with its gateway and 
 lodge so perfect as to create no suspicion of 
 the destruction within. ^ 
 
 This had been the hottest day and finest 
 weather I had experienced during my jour- 
 ney. It was a sweet evening, and the rich 
 tints of the departing sun-beams among the 
 
BvUIPTS of One (GATE-WAIT of tlie AVNCir.WT CEFARTmiKATSE „ 
 
39 
 
 woods, with the solitary calmness of the 
 scenery around, were circumstances that 
 made a strong* impression on my feelings. 
 Those who have never traversed the forests 
 of this country can form but a very imperfect 
 idea of what they are, or of the death-like 
 awful stillness that reigns within them; for 
 many miles together they form a dense shade, 
 which, like a dark awning, completely con- 
 ceals the sun from the view: even on the 
 brightest day the sun’s rays are only visible 
 as from the bottom of a deep w^ell ! The fo- 
 rests in Le Perche are reckoned the most 
 extensive in France, and every where abound 
 with vast quantities of game. 
 
 I was received on alighting from my horse 
 by a M. Boderie, a good-humoured hospita- 
 ble man, who, with his family, are the only 
 inhabitants of this lonesome spot. I found 
 afterwards that he had seen better days : he 
 informed me the Val-Dieu property was pur- 
 chased at the dissolution of the Monastery 
 
40 
 
 by the present proprietor, who resided at 
 Paris, and allowed him, being his friend, to 
 occupy that part of the building which had 
 not been destroyed. He made many apolo- 
 gies for the badness of the accommodations 
 and the homeliness of the fare he had to offer 
 me, which I considered as unnecessary, as 
 what he possessed was tendered with unaffec- 
 ted cheerfulness. 
 
 The Prussians in 1815 occupied this coun- 
 try, and notwithstanding M, Boderie was 
 absent at that time serving in the body-guard 
 of Louis XVIII. whom he had accompanied 
 in his retreat to Ghent, they plundered him 
 of every article, not even leaving his wife a 
 change of linen, The numerous accounts I 
 have heard from people of respectability and 
 loyalty, of the treatment experienced from 
 the Prussians, excites the greatest regret that 
 they were not able to distinguish the innocent 
 from the guilty. Many families have been 
 ruined, or greatly distressed in their circum- 
 
41 
 
 stances, who were devoted to the cause of 
 their sovereign. Such are the inevitable 
 consequences of war ! 
 
 The Val-Dieu extends upwards of three 
 miles in length, surrounded by almost im- 
 penetrable woods, except where paths have 
 been cut. It has three lakes, one communi- 
 cating with the other, containing great quan- 
 tities of fish. The Monastery, it is evident, 
 from the remains of its ruins, and from the 
 boundary-wall, still entire, must have been of 
 prodigious extent, M. Boderie informed me 
 that the plan, of which he had seen an en- 
 graving, shewed it to have been one of the 
 most considerable in the kingdom : some 
 idea may be formed of its former celebrity 
 and extent, by the remains of six hundred 
 fire-places being still traceable. A colon- 
 nade surrounded the whole, forming an ob- 
 long square, in the centre of which was a 
 jet d’eau, with several smaller ones, the basins 
 of which are still to be seen ; the space within 
 
42 
 
 formed a garden, with delicious walks, re- 
 sembling those in the Palais-Royal. 
 
 The gate-way remains perfect, excepting 
 only that the images over the side-doors have 
 been mutilated. The one in the centre 
 (over the great entrance) is still in excellent 
 preservation, and appears to be finely exe- 
 cuted : it is the figure of the Virgin Mary in 
 gray marble, the size of life, seated with the 
 infant Jesus in her arms. On a scroll beneath 
 are these letfrrs : — 
 
 ECCE MATER 
 TYA. 
 
 1760 . 
 
 Several old chesnut-trees and elms still 
 remain, which once formed a fine avenue in 
 front of the building, from whence the pros- 
 pect is strikingly beautiful. The eye passes 
 over rocks, rugged, broken, and abrupt to- 
 wards their summits, crowned and darkened 
 with wood; and the narrow road winding 
 between the trees, until it loses itself in the 
 
43 
 
 forest, forms a feature very gratifying to 
 the traveller. The solitude of the place, 
 as I viewed it at the close of day, occa- 
 sioned mingled sensations of pleasure and 
 pain. It was impossible to resist the impo- 
 sing power of a situation, where every natu- 
 ral object was deeply tinged with the poeti- 
 cal character, and every remnant of architec-. 
 ture associated with the romance of religious 
 feeling. I recalled and dwelt upon various 
 passages of the poets inspired by similar 
 scenes, and thought of the holy and enthusi- 
 astic minds which had here devoted them- 
 selves to the sublimest duties and severest 
 sacrifices of the altar; and felt, that had I 
 lived in those days, I, perhaps, could have 
 become an inmate of walls which seem to 
 have been erected to exclude the evils of life, 
 and to nurture only the enchanting abstrac- 
 tions of unpolluted virtue and happiness; 
 but the present day has brought with it a 
 general philosophy and knowledge of hu- 
 
44 
 
 man nature, which lessen the delight of 
 contemplating the calm repose of such a 
 seclusion, and have taught that these re- 
 treats from the world were not always re- 
 treats from vice ; that the sacrifices of monk- 
 ish privacy were not always those of selfish 
 feelings ; and that the austerities once prac- 
 tised here, as now at La Trappe, might per- 
 haps arise more frequently from disappointed 
 pride and ambition, than from the pure feel- 
 ings of pious resignation. In the overthrow 
 of the monarchy and that of the priesthood, 
 this venerable pile became the object of 
 popular vengeance; and had the Revoluti- 
 on done no more than effected the dis- 
 solution of the different orders of monks 
 and nuns, every refiecting mind must have 
 been pleased: the removal of those abuses, 
 like the division of landed property into 
 smaller portions, (whereby the country 
 in general became more cultivated and 
 productive,) was serviceable to France ; and 
 
45 
 
 if any circumstance can restore permanent 
 tranquillity, it will be the interest which 
 the different landholders have in the soil and 
 the representative system, which will serve 
 to check the ambition of its future governors. 
 Already the good effects of these are to be 
 perceived; and the excessive abuses, inso- 
 lence, and profligacy, of ancient ministerial 
 oppression, which paved the way for the 
 dovvmfall of the monarchy, and, like a pes- 
 tilence, destroyed that which was good with 
 that which was evil, will be prevented in 
 future. 
 
 It is, nevertheless, melancholy to observe 
 the traces of devastation visible in all direc- 
 tions: the people themselves appear not to 
 regard it, but this may arise partly from the 
 long and habitual feelings generated by the 
 scenes to which the Revolution daily gave 
 rise, and partly from the constitutional 
 cheerfulness of the natives, who seldom 
 view objects through * the same dark medium 
 
46 
 
 that ours are supposed to do, and who, though 
 they are not celebrated for patience, are of 
 all mankind the least liable to despondency. 
 When I spoke to M. Boderie of my regret 
 at the destruction of an ancient structure 
 like the one in question, his answer was, 
 immediately, Oui, c’est bien malheureux ; 
 mais enfin que voulez-vous ?” He was “ de- 
 sole,” or had “ le eoeur tres sensible a tout 
 cela but finished by ‘‘ il faut se consoler.” 
 With this sort of philosophy they are always 
 ready to view the past, and accept of conso- 
 lation; and, in amusement, seek to bear or 
 dissipate the calamities inseparable from such 
 a state of events, without even appearing 
 to repine. None of them will ever enter 
 into conversation on the subject if it can be 
 avoided. 
 
 The following day, having taken leave of 
 my hospitable host, who refused any com- 
 pensation, I returned to Mortagne by another 
 route, through the Forest of Val-Dieu, more 
 
47 
 
 dark and difficult to penetrate than the other ; 
 but the guide was better acquainted with it, 
 and took the road by Saint Maure and Saint 
 Eloi, through a fine country, highly culti- 
 vated, and abounding in beautiful scenery 
 and distant landscapes. It was late at night 
 before I reached Mortagne, greatly fatigued 
 from the excessive heat of the weather. 
 
 I dined the following day with Madame 
 de Bellou, whose kind attention and elegant 
 hospitality, during the time I remained at 
 Mortagne, I must ever remember with senti- 
 ments of sincere gratitude. This lady had 
 invited Monsieur Lamorelie, the Sub-Prefect, 
 one of the most elegant men I had met with 
 in France, with several other gentlemen and 
 ladies, to meet me. Among the party were 
 Madame de Fontenay, Monsieur and Made- 
 moiselle Claire de Vanssay — very agreeable 
 people : the latter possessed, without great 
 beauty, all the charms and vivacity of her 
 countrywomen. In the evening we went to 
 
48 
 
 an assembly, where I had an opportunity of 
 seeing, and being presented to, all the re- 
 spectable families that yet remained in town ; 
 for at this season many were at their coun- 
 try-seats. The ease, elegance, and good man- 
 ners of the company composing this socie- 
 ty, I never saw excelled in any country. It 
 is but common justice to observe, 'that in 
 Mortagne, which is the residence of all the 
 best families in the province, there is to be 
 found all the characteristic good-breeding 
 for which the French were so long, and so 
 deservedly celebrated. 
 
 The town of Mortagne stands on the de- 
 clivity of a hill, in the province of Le 
 Perche, bordering on Normandy. The high- 
 road to Bretagne passes through it. It has 
 only one church remaining out of seven, 
 six having been destroyed at the Revolu- 
 tion. It has some manufactories for serges 
 and coarse cloths, and contains between five 
 and six thousand inhabitants, in the depart- 
 
49 
 
 ment of L’Orne. From its elevated position 
 and chalky soil, the air is pure and the situ- 
 ation healthy. The inhabitants are under 
 the necessity of supplying themselves with 
 water from the valley, as there are no wells 
 on account of the rocky height it stands on, 
 which is attended with inconvenience and 
 expense; otherwise it would be a desirable 
 residence for those who wish to unite econo- 
 my with a change of climate. 
 
 During theJVendean war, this town be- 
 came, at different periods, the victim of either 
 party as they were successful ; and it suffered 
 severely. The hotel kept by Gautier (Les 
 Trois Lions), which is likewise la Poste, and 
 le Bureau des Diligences, is the best, and 
 the people are very obliging ; but it partakes 
 of the same want of cleanliness, that so in- 
 variably distinguishes all similar establish- 
 ments in this country. 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 FROM MORTAONE TO RENNES, SOEURS DE LA CHARITE, ALENCON, 
 LAVAL, VITRE, THE RESIDENCE OF THE CELEBRATED MADAME DE 
 SEVIGNE. RENNES. 
 
 I TRAVELLED by the dilig’ence from Mor- 
 tagne to Alengoii and Laval : we arrived at 
 the former place to dinner, and at the latter 
 to remain all night. The carriage was filled 
 with Soeurs de la Chariti, 
 
 Qiii, pour le malheur seui coiinoissant la tendresse, 
 Aux besoiiis du vieil-age immollent leur jeunesse,” 
 
 on their way to different places in Bretagne, 
 on charitable missions, by the order of the 
 Superior at Paris. Four of these were young 
 and beautiful women, none of whom could 
 have attained the age of twenty; yet these 
 
51 
 
 females had already devoted themselves to 
 attend on the sick and poor wherever their 
 services might be required, for which pur- 
 pose they receive a suitable education, in an 
 Hospital at Paris, in such branches of medi- 
 cine and surgery as may render them useful. 
 They are distributed throughout the kingdom 
 to attend the hospitals and prisons, which 
 they do with the delicacy and attention pe- 
 culiar to their sex. Of all the classes of fe- 
 males who thus devote themselves to a reli^ 
 gious life, and to acts of charity, none are 
 more respected, or more truly serviceable to 
 their fellow-creatures. Their dress consists 
 of a coarse brown jacket and gown, with 
 a high linen cap, sloping down over the 
 shoulders, and a rosary hanging round their 
 waist. 
 
 Quitting Beauregard we crossed the river 
 Sart: here the province of Le Perche ter- 
 minates, and we enter that of Normandy. 
 For many miles, travelling close to the Forest 
 
 E 2 
 
52 
 
 of Bourse, the roads are excellent, though 
 hilly, and the country highly cultivated in 
 all directions. The peasantry were getting 
 in the hay and rye harvest, and large tracts 
 of wheat and barley were nearly ready for 
 cutting. 
 
 The town of Alengon is the capital of 
 L’ Orne-sur-Sart. It stands in the middle of 
 a fertile plain. The lace made here is the 
 most valuable of any manufactured in France. 
 The Hotel of the Prefecture is a fine build- 
 ing. After dinner I went to the theatre, 
 (formerly an old manufactory), to see the 
 Hotel Garni and Les deux Suisses : both per- 
 formances were of a very moderate cast. 
 The audience consisted principally of the 
 military in garrison. 
 
 On the road from Alengon to Laval, we 
 were guarded the whole day by two troopers 
 of the Gendarmerie, who are quartered along 
 the whole line of road from the capital ; they 
 are well armed and mounted, and keep a 
 
53 
 
 very vigilant guard. At every place we 
 stopped our passports were examined. The 
 police of this country is observed with greater 
 rigor than at any former period of its history, 
 with regard to passports. The circumstances 
 under which the restoration took place, the 
 political state of France in regard to other 
 powers, the conflicting interests and opinions 
 of various parties, probably render it highly 
 expedient. On the arrival of a stranger at 
 Paris, his passport must be presented, and 
 inscribed in the police-book. The revision 
 of the one under which the person has tra- 
 velled is indispensably necessary. It is then 
 carried to the British Ambassador, (if the 
 stranger be of that nation), or to the minister 
 of that country to which he belongs, where 
 it must obtain the Ambassador’s signature. 
 It is next taken to the office of the Minister 
 of Foreign Affairs, where it is deposited until 
 the following day, for which ten livres are 
 charged, and afterwards to the Prefecture of 
 
/ 
 
 54 
 
 the Police, to be signed there in its turn: 
 and when all this is done no one can quit the 
 capital for the interior without its being again 
 signed at the Prefecture of the police. 
 
 From Alencon, we passed the Briante, a 
 small river, at Ville Neuve, where the road 
 begins to skirt the Forest of Moultonue. 
 At Mayenne, the river of that name divides 
 the provinces. The whole of this country 
 is singularly beautiful. I observed vast quan- 
 tities of buck wheat, which the French 
 call hied noir or sarazin. The country was 
 very much enclosed, producing a great con- 
 trast to the vast tracts of land through 
 which I had passed without a single divi- 
 sion. 
 
 At two leagues from Mayenne we crossed 
 the river Aisne, winding through a beautiful 
 valley, between Martigne and Louverne. 
 On the left the river forms a small lake, sur- 
 rounded by a wood at the foot of a very long 
 and steep hill. 
 
55 
 
 The town of Mayenne is ancient, and 
 irregularly built, the river Mayenne running 
 through it. The ruins of an old wall and 
 some decayed towers remain of the fortifi- 
 cations which were taken by assault, after 
 several bloody attempts, during the siege by 
 the English, in 1424. 
 
 At Laval, where I stopped, after again 
 crossing the Mayenne, I entered the province 
 of Bretagne: it is an old dirty town, com- 
 pletely intersected by the river, and has a 
 manufactory for coarse cloths and cottons. 
 The Tete Noire is one of the worst inns I have 
 met with in the country. The department 
 of the Isle-et-Vilaine commences here. 
 
 This place is celebrated in the history of 
 the Vendean war by the refuge Madame de 
 Laroche-Jaquelin sought there, after the de- 
 plorable defeat of the royalist army at the 
 battle of Mans, where it received its death- 
 blow. The wreck of that army, under M. de 
 Laroche-Jaquelin, were driven from it again 
 
56 
 
 on the following day, and from that hour 
 never rallied so as to make any stand against 
 the victorious republicans. 
 
 Quitting Laval the day after my arrival, I 
 ascended a long and steep hill, travelled by 
 the side of the forest of Petre, and came to 
 Vitre, where I remained all night for the 
 purpose of visiting the chateau of the cele- 
 brated Madame de Sevigne,^" whose estate 
 has descended to a distant branch of her 
 family, who had the good fortune to save it 
 from destruction during the revolution. The 
 grounds are kept in excellent order. Her 
 
 * Marie de Rabutin, Marchioness de Sevigne, was the 
 daughter of the Baron de Chantal, and born in 1626: she 
 espoused, at the age of eighteen, the Marquis de Sevigne, 
 who fell in a duel in 1651, leaving her with one son and 
 a daughter, to whose education she paid strict attention ; 
 the daughter married, in 1669, the Count de Grignan, 
 Commandant in Provence, and it was on a visit to her 
 that the Marchioness caught a fever and died in 1696. 
 Her son Charles, Marquis de Sevigne, was one of the 
 admirers of Ninon de L’Enclos, and had a dispute with 
 Madame Dacier respecting the sense of a passage in 
 Horace. He died in 1713. [Moreri.] 
 
57 
 
 picture hangs in the apartment in which she 
 composed her interesting and elegant letters, 
 and eveiy article of furniture carefully pre- 
 served is shewn to strangers. The distance 
 from Vitre to Rennes is seven leagues, over a 
 road which becomes gradually less and less 
 interesting. 
 
 Rennes is the chief city of the Isle-et-Vi- 
 laine, and in former times was the capital of 
 Bretagne. It is a large ancient-built town, 
 standing on a vast plain, between the rivers 
 Isle and Vilaine. It has a hall of justice, 
 (Cour Royale,) an episcopal palace, and a 
 foundry for cannon. A more dismal dirty- 
 looking city, or a more uninteresting one to 
 a stranger, is seldom to be seen. Few traces 
 remain of its ancient splendor ; the old ram- 
 part, which once encompassed it, now forms 
 a promenade. 
 
 Its commerce is considerable, being the en- 
 trepot for grain and cattle, with which it sup- 
 plies Paris and the Southern Provinces, not 
 
58 
 
 so abundant in their produce. Jane of Flan- 
 ders, Countess of Montfort, the most extraor- 
 dinary woman of lier time, resided here, 
 during the imprisonment of her husband in 
 the palace of the Louvre, by Philipe de 
 Valois,^ when Edward the Third of England 
 invaded France. Hennebon, when attacked 
 by Charles of Blois, was defended by the 
 Countess, and relieved by Sir Walter Manny, 
 whom Edward had sent with a body of 6,000 
 archers to her succour. The garrison, en- 
 couraged by so rare an example of female 
 
 * Among the brave knights who engaged in so many 
 battles and perilous adventures, and other feats of arms, 
 Froissart mentions Philip, as opposed to those heroes of 
 high renown, Edward of England, the Prince of Wales 
 his son, the Duke of Lancaster, Sir Reginald Lord Cob- 
 ham, Sir Walter Manny of Hainault, Sir John Chandos, 
 Sir Fulk Harley, and many others recorded in his book 
 for worth and prowess. “ In France also was found good 
 chivalry, strong of limb and stout of heart, and in great 
 abundance, for the kingdom of France was never broiiglit 
 so low as to want men ever ready for combat. Such was 
 King Philipe de Valois, a bold and hardy knight, and 
 his son King John, also John king of Bohemia, and 
 Charles Count of Alem^on his son.” 
 
59 
 
 valour, defended themselves against an im- 
 mense army, composed of French, Spaniards, 
 Genoese, and Bretons, who frequently as- 
 saulted it, and were as vigorously repulsed. 
 On one occasion, Froissart mentions her 
 sallying out at the head of a body of two 
 hundred cavalry, throwing the enemy into 
 great confusion, doing great execution among 
 them, and setting fire to the tents and maga- 
 zines, which were entirely destroyed. 
 
 The population of Rennes is 27,000. It 
 is at present garrisoned by one thousand 
 troops, and people are of opinion that govern- 
 ment finds it no easy task to keep down the 
 spirit of the Vendeans, who are said to be, 
 ‘‘ plus Royalistes que le Roi.” There appears 
 every where a strong spirit of dissatisfaction 
 on the part of the Royalists, at the general 
 preference given to those who were employed 
 under the late ruler in places of public trust, 
 and who were avowed enemies to the restora- 
 tionofLouis XVIIL 
 
60 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 ROUTE FROM RENNES TO NANTES.— CITY OF NANTES.— HISTORICAL 
 ANECDOTES. 
 
 Arriving at the first post, we crossed the 
 river Vilaine, and between this and Redon 
 passed the river Brack, and ascended a high 
 mountain between Redon and La Breha- 
 raye. At this place we quitted the depart- 
 ment of the Isle-et-Vilaine. Crossing the 
 Cher, we arrived at Derval, and from thence 
 at Nozai, passing several large lakes, and 
 then over the river Don. The whole of this 
 distance, with the exception of the hill al- 
 ready mentioned, is composed of flat sandy 
 plains, mostly uncultivated, and the road is 
 very rough. 
 
 From Nozai to Ancenis we crossed the 
 river Isac; from thence to Redon, Herie, to 
 
61 
 
 La Croix Blanche, along the bank of the 
 river ; and after mounting another steep hill, 
 we descended into an extensive plain leading 
 to Gesvres and Nantes. 
 
 The whole of this country north of the 
 Loire, from Rennes to Nantes, the triangular 
 point resting upon Angers, is the country of 
 the Chouans, which it is necessary, in re- 
 ference to the Vendean war, to distinguish 
 from the country south of the Loire, in the 
 department of the Loire Inferieure, called 
 le Bocage, or la Vendee. Although the lat- 
 ter was the scene of the more desperate 
 warfare between the republicans and the 
 royalists, yet the former had its share of 
 bloodshed and misery. The whole country 
 on both banks of the Loire, as far as Angers, 
 is classic ground to those who revere the 
 efforts by which the Vendeans so long resisted 
 the republicans. 
 
 The city of Nantes is the chief seat of the 
 Prefecture of the department of the Loire 
 
62 
 
 Inferieure, standing on the right bank of the 
 river, surrounded by its ancient rampart, of 
 a circular form, and in good preservation: 
 on the opposite bank stand the ruined tower 
 and mouldering bastions of Permil. This 
 spot is interesting to an Englishman, from 
 the memorable events to which the fatal pre- 
 tensions of Edv/ard the Third gave rise, and 
 which occupy the pages of French and Eng- 
 lish history, during a period of more than a 
 century.^ 
 
 * In 1343, Edward the Third laid siege to this place. 
 Froissart mentions the English army being drawn out 
 on a hill, in battle array, near the town. The ground rises 
 a little in this direction, but, I should suppose, it must 
 have been on the right bank, as the country there is hilly, 
 and this ancient fortress must have defended the passage 
 of the river. “The king himself,” says the Chronicle, 
 “ with the rest of his army, advanced towards Rennes, 
 burning and ruining the country on all sides, and was 
 most joyfully received by the whole army who lay before 
 it, and had been there for a considerable time. When 
 he had tarried there five days, he learned that the Lord 
 Charles of Blois was at Nantes, collecting a large force 
 of men at arms. He set out, therefore, leaving those 
 whom he had found at Rennes, and came before Nantes, 
 
63 
 
 The river Loire, which is crossed by se- 
 ven bridges, winds through the town. They 
 
 which he besieged as closely as he could, but was unable 
 to surround it, such was its size and extent. The mar- 
 shals, therefore, and their people, overran the country 
 and destroyed it. The king of England, one day, drew 
 out his army in battle-array on a hill near Nantes, in ex- 
 pectation that the Lord Charles would come forth and offer 
 him an opportunity of fighting with him: but, having wait- 
 ed from morning until noon in vain, they returned to their 
 quarters : the light-horse, however, in their retreat, gallop- 
 ed up to the barriers, and set fire to the suburbs. 
 
 “The king of England, during the siege, made fre- 
 quent skirmishes, but without success, always losing some 
 of his men ; when, therefore, he found he could gain no- 
 thing by his assaults, and that the Lord Charles would 
 not come out into the plains to fight him, he establish- 
 ed there the Earl of Oxford, Sir Henry Beaumont, the 
 Lord Percy, the Lord Roos, the Lord Mowbray, the 
 Lord Delawar, Sir Reginald Cobham, Sir John Lisle, 
 with six hundred men armed, and two hundred archers. 
 
 ^‘The king himself advanced into the country of Bre- 
 tagne, wasting it wherever he went, until he came to the 
 town of Dinant, of which Sir Peter Porteboeuf was go- 
 venor. He immediately laid siege to it all round, and 
 ordered it to be vigorously assaulted. Those within made 
 a valiant resistance. Thus did the King of England in 
 one season, and in one day, make an assault by himself, 
 or those ordered by him, upon three cities in Bretagne, 
 and a good town, viz. Rennes, Vannes, and Nantes. The 
 
64 
 
 are the Pont Rousseau, De Per mil, D’Ai- 
 guillon, Feydeau, De la Belle Croix, Brise- 
 
 brave Sir Walter Manny was left before Vannes, with 
 five hundred men at arms, and six thousand archers, while 
 the king with the rest of his army advanced towards 
 Rennes and Nantes, This gallant soldier, at the battle 
 of Calais, had this singular honour conferred on him by 
 his sovereign, who, with his valiant son, the Prince of 
 Wales, both served under his banner. — Edward said to 
 Sir Walter Manny, ‘ Sir Walter, I will that you be the 
 chief of this enterprise, and I and my son will fight under 
 your banner.’ ” 
 
 The lively and picturesque historian then gives a very 
 interesting account of the above action, which was fought 
 the last day of December 1348, and of the gallantry of 
 Edward’s conduct to his prisoner. Sir Eustace de Ribeau- 
 mont. 
 
 “We will now speak of the King of England, who 
 was there incognito, under Sir Walter Manny’s banner. 
 He advanced, with his men on foot, to meet the enemy, 
 who were formed in close order, with their pikes short- 
 ened to five feet, planted out before them. The first at- 
 tack was very sharp and severe. The King singled out 
 Sir Eustace be Ribeaumont, who was a strong and hardy 
 knight: he fought a long time marvellously well with the 
 King, so that it was a pleasure to see them; but, by the 
 confusion of the engagement, they were separated; for 
 two large bodies met where they were fighting, and 
 forced them to break off the combat. 
 
 “ On the side of the French there was excellent fight- 
 
65 
 
 Bois, and Touissaint. The houses are re- 
 gular and handsome, having in some places 
 
 ing, by Sir Geoffrey de Chargny, Sir John de Landas, 
 Sir Hector, and Sir Gavin de Ballieul, and others; but 
 they were all surpassed by Sir Eustace de Ribeaumont, 
 who that day struck the King twice down on his knees: 
 at last, however, he was obliged to present his sword to 
 the King, saying, ‘ Sir Knight, I surrender myself your 
 prisoner, for the honour of the day must fall to the 
 English.’ 
 
 “ All that belonged to Sir Geoffry de Chargny were 
 either slain or captured: among the first was Sir Henry 
 du Bois, and Sir Peppin de Werre; Sir Geoffry and the 
 rest were taken prisoners. The last that was taken, and 
 who in that day had excelled all, was Sir Eustace de 
 Ribeaumont. 
 
 “ When the engagement was over, the King returned 
 to the Castle at Calais, and ordered all the prisoners to 
 be brought before him. The French taken knew, for the 
 first time, that the King of England had been there in 
 person, under the banner of Sir Walter de Manny. 
 
 “ The King said he would this evening of the new year 
 entertain them all at supper in the Castle. When the hour 
 for supper was come, the tables spread, and the King and 
 his Knights dressed in new robes, as well as the French, 
 who, notwithstanding they were prisoners, made good 
 cheer (for the King wished it should be so,) the King 
 seated himself at table, and made those Knights do the 
 same around him in a most honourable manner. The 
 gallant Prince of Wales, and the Knights of England, 
 
 F 
 
a very singular appearance, from the ground 
 having sunk, and the foundations given way, 
 
 served up the first course, and waited on their guests. 
 At the second course, they went and seated themselves at 
 another table, where they were served, and attended on 
 very quietly. 
 
 “When supper was over, and the tables removed, the 
 King remained in the Hall among the English and French 
 Knights, bare-headed, except a chaplet of fine pearls, 
 which was round his head. He conversed with all of 
 them; but when he came to Sir GeofFry de Chargny, his 
 countenance altered, and looking at him askance, he said, 
 ‘ Sir Geoffry, I have but little reason to love you, when 
 you wished to seize upon me by stealth last night, what 
 had 'given me so much trouble to acquire, and cost me 
 such sums of money’ (Sir Geoffry had endeavoured to 
 bribe the garrison to put him in possession of it in the 
 night previous to the battle:) ‘I am, however, rejoiced 
 to have caught you thus in attempting it.’ — When he 
 came to Sir Eustace de Ribeaumont, he assumed a cheer- 
 ful look, and said with a smile, ‘ Sir Eustace, you are 
 the most valiant knight in Christendom that I ever saw 
 attack his enemy, or defend himself. I never yet found 
 any one in battle, who, body to body, had given me so 
 much to do as you have done this day. I adjudge to 
 you the prize of valour, above all the knights of my Court, 
 as what is justly due to you.’ — The King then took off 
 his chaplet, which was very rich and handsome, and pla- 
 cing it on the head of Sir Eustace, said, * Sir Eustace, I 
 present you with this Chaplet, as being the best combat- 
 
67 
 
 causing them to lean in various directions 
 from the perpendicular line. In point of 
 commerce, at one period antecedent to the 
 Revolution, Nantes was the most consider- 
 able sea-port in France: since the loss of 
 its West India trade, especially with Saint 
 Domingo, it has been greatly reduced. The 
 rich plains which surround it on three sides, 
 in the form of an amphitheatre, and the 
 river covered with vessels and boats, give it 
 a most lively appearance. It has a large The- 
 atre, a Royal College (lately the Lyceum,) a 
 Commercial Tribunal, a handsome Exchange, 
 a Bishops Palace, Hall of the Prefecture, 
 Public Library, Anatomical and Surgical 
 Academies, Botanical Garden, Museum of 
 Natural History, and a foundry for cannon. 
 
 ant this day, either within or without doors ; and I beg of 
 you to wear it this year for the love of me. I know that 
 you are lively and amorous, and love the company of la- 
 dies and damsels; therefore say, wherever you go, that I 
 gave it to you. I also give you your liberty, free of ran- 
 som; and you may set out to-morrow, and go whither 
 you will.’ ” 
 
 F 2 
 
68 
 
 The latter is in the old and decaying Cha- 
 teau on the bank of the river, called Gou- 
 lemme. One of its bastions was blown up 
 a few years since by accident, which has 
 shaken and destroyed the whole fabric ; but 
 it is still capable of holding a garrison, 
 and is a fine monument of ancient for- 
 tification. It was once the residence of 
 Henry IV. of France, at the time he signed 
 the celebrated edict, (1598,) in favour of 
 the reformed religion, afterwards revoked 
 by Louis XIV. in 1685, and which occasion- 
 ed such deplorable consequences to the 
 French nation. 
 
 M. de Sainte Foix, in his historical Essays 
 upon Paris, vol. i. p. 113, speaking of the 
 Rue de Grenelle, in the quarter of Saint 
 Eustache, gives the following curious account 
 of the birth of this great King, whose memo- 
 ry is revered in France, beyond that of all 
 the other monarchs who have swayed the 
 Gallic sceptre. 
 
69 
 
 “ Jeanne d’ Albret, being desirous of fol- 
 lowing her husband to the wars of Picardy, 
 the King her father told her, that in case she 
 proved with child, he wanted her to come 
 and lie-in at his house; and that he would 
 bring up the child himself, whether a boy or 
 a girl. This Princess finding herself preg- 
 nant, and in her ninth month, set out from 
 Compiegne, passed through all France as 
 far as the Pyrenees, and arrived in fifteen 
 days at Pau in Bearn. She was very 
 desirous to see her father’s will. It was 
 contained in a thick gold box, on which 
 was a gold chain, that would have gone 
 twenty-five or thirty times round her neck. 
 She asked it of him: — ‘ It shall be yours,’ 
 said he, ‘ as soon as you have shown 
 me the child that you now carry ; and 
 that you may not bring into the world 
 a crying or a pouting child, I promise 
 you the whole, provided that whilst you 
 are in labour, you sing the Bearnese song 
 
70 
 
 Notre Dame du bout du Pont, aidez-moi en 
 cette heure!' No sooner was the Princess 
 safely delivered, than her father, placing the 
 gold chain on her neck, and giving her the 
 gold box wherein was his will, said to her ; 
 * These are for you, daughter, but this is for 
 me and took the child in his gown, without 
 waiting for its being dressed in form, and 
 carried it into his chamber. The little Prince 
 was brought up in such a manner as to be 
 able to undergo fatigue and hardship; fre- 
 quently eating nothing but common bread. 
 The good King his grandfather ordered it 
 thus, and would not let him be delicately 
 pampered, in order that from his infancy he 
 might be inured to privation. He has often 
 been seen, according to the custom of the 
 country, amongst the other children of the 
 castle and village of Coirazze, bare-footed 
 and bare-headed, as well in winter as in 
 summer. Who was this Prince ?• — Henry IV. 
 
 Being descended from the Kings of France, 
 
71 
 
 he became the heir to that kingdom ; but as 
 he was educated a Protestant, his claim was 
 resisted. He early distinguished himself by 
 feats of arms. After the peace of Saint Ger- 
 main, in 1570, he was taken to the French 
 Court, and two years afterwards married 
 Margaret, sister of Charles IX. (At the re- 
 joicings on this occasion the infamous mas- 
 sacre of La Saint BartMlemy took place.) In 
 1589 he succeeded to the throne of France; 
 but his religion proving an obstacle to his 
 coronation, he consented to abjure it in 1593. 
 In 1598 he issued the edict of Nantes, grant- 
 ing toleration to the Protestants.” 
 
 Mezeray, speaking of the marriage of the 
 King of Navarre (afterwards Henry IV.) 
 with Margaret de Valois, says, ‘‘ There were 
 many diversions, tournaments, and ballets 
 at Court; and amongst others, one which 
 seemed to presage the calamity that was so 
 near bursting out upon the Huguenots — 
 the King and his brothers defending Para- 
 
72 
 
 dise against the King of Navarre and his 
 brothers, who were repulsed and banished 
 to Hell;” and Sainte Foix, in his relation 
 of the horrible massacre, gives a detail, 
 which in the present age appears almost 
 incredible. 
 
 Catharine of Medicis, whose abominable 
 politics had corrupted the disposition of her 
 son, was at the head of the cabinet-council 
 who agreed to the murder of more than one 
 hundred thousand Protestants ; and the mi- 
 serable bigot Charles IX. stationed during 
 the massacre at the window of a house then 
 belonging to the Constable of Bourbon, 
 fired with his own hands upon the Hugue- 
 nots with a long blunderbuss, whilst they 
 were trying to escape across the river. 
 
 The River Erdre runs northward of the 
 city, and forms a beautiful feature, winding 
 for many miles among cultivated fields and 
 woodlands, through a country agreeably di- 
 versified with villas, to which the wealthier 
 
73 
 
 inhabitants retire during the summer months. 
 The river resembles a lake for the grea- 
 ter part of its course, and is called the 
 Barban. 
 
 The Gothic church of Saint Pierre, built 
 by the English in 1434, is a fine old struc- 
 ture : having been much neglected for many 
 years, and greatly defaced during the Revo- 
 lution, it was at this time restoring. Among 
 the monuments about to be replaced, was an 
 excellent one of Anne de Bretagne, whose 
 effigy, and that of her husband, are as large 
 as life. The allegorical figures of Justice, 
 Temperance, Prudence, and Fortitude, the 
 twelve Apostles, and the supporters to the 
 Arms (a greyhound and a lion), are all exe- 
 cuted in the finest white marble. They were 
 hidden during the Revolution, and have only 
 very lately been discovered, as have also some 
 capital paintings piously preserved for the 
 Church. Anne was first married to Charles 
 yilL in 1499, and afterwards to Louis XIL 
 
74 
 
 She died at the Chateau de Blois in 1514, 
 and Louis in 1515. 
 
 The climate of Nantes is mild, and reck- 
 oned remarkably healthy; every article of 
 life is cheap, and from its mild temperature 
 it abounds in the finest fruits and most excel- 
 lent wines. Its population is estimated at 
 60,000 inhabitants. The numbers that were 
 destroyed during the Revolution, or, as the 
 French emphatically term it, ‘‘ Le regne de 
 la Terreur,” were never ascertained ; but the 
 frightful history of that bloody period would 
 probably justify the computation at half the 
 number of its present population, many 
 having fallen victims to the murders that 
 were termed “ Noyades^' independent of those 
 w^ho perished in the Vendean war. 
 
 The spot where the gallant Charette was 
 shot, with several other leaders of the Ven- 
 dean army, is shown; and in the cemetery, 
 a large mound of earth marks the place 
 where the bodies were thrown in, at the time 
 
fy TV, ,.^ckdaZcM^l.Ticca,diZi^ . 
 
 \ 
 
75 
 
 of the “ Fuzillades,” when the infamous Car- 
 rier presided at the execution of the brave 
 Royalists.^ The print beneath represents this 
 monster on the banks of the Loire directing 
 the Noyades. 
 
 * Chaque nuit on venait en prendre par centainesj pour 
 les mettre sur les bateaux. La on liait les malheureux 
 deux a deux, et on les poussait dans I’eau a coups de bai- 
 onette. On saisissait indistinctemente tout ce qui se 
 trouvait a I’entrepot, tellement qu’on noya un jour I’etat- 
 major d’une corvette Anglaise, qui etait prisonnier de 
 guerre. Une autre fois, Carrier, voulant donner un ex- 
 emple de I’austerite des moeurs republicaines, fit enfer- 
 
76 
 
 At the end of a fine avenue of trees, on 
 the Boulevard, is a large and splendid man- 
 sion built by that Deputy, and which is at 
 present inhabited by a merchant. Carriers 
 mistress (to whom he left it, together with a 
 very considerable fortune, amassed from the 
 spoils of his plunder, and the murder of the 
 innocent inhabitants) was very lately senten- 
 ced to two years’ hard labour for some crime 
 she had committed: and it is no less re- 
 markable, that, of the remaining inhabitants 
 known to have participated in the atroci- 
 ties of that frightful period, there is not 
 one but is reduced to poverty, and most 
 of them in the extreme of wretchedness, 
 shunned by all, and suffering the ignominy 
 they have so justly merited ! 
 
 mer trois cent filles publiques de la ville, et les malheur- 
 euses creatures furent noyees. Enfin, Ton estime qu’il 
 a peri a Tentrepot quinze mille personnes ’en un mois. — 
 Memoires de Madame la Marquise de Laroche^J aqueliue 
 
77 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 COUNTRY SOUTH OF THE LOIRE.—LE BOCAGE.—CLISSON. -HISTORICAL 
 ANECDOTES.-THE GARENNE, AND RIVER SEVRES. 
 
 The best method of travelling in this country 
 is on horseback : in fact, it is impossible to 
 proceed in any other way, after quitting the 
 main road. Having procured a guide and 
 horses, I set out early in the morning, cross- 
 ing the Loire by the Pont Rosseau, to Ver- 
 ton, keeping along the banks of the River 
 Sevres. Verton is a romantic village stand- 
 ing on a hill : most of the houses are in 
 ruins, from the effect of the destructive war 
 of La Vendee. From thence to Le Palet, 
 most intricate narrow roads, or, more pro- 
 perly speaking, pathways, darkened by the 
 overhanging, branches of trees, and in many 
 
78 
 
 parts deep with mire, from the sun’s rays not 
 being able to dry the ground, make it diffi- 
 cult to proceed, and we several times lost 
 our way. It was late before we reached Le 
 Palet, and though I had not tasted food 
 for many hours, I could not resist stopping to 
 view so interesting a spot, and making a 
 hasty sketch of the ruins of the house in 
 which Abelard was born, and in which He- 
 loise resided with him before their final sepa- 
 ration. The ruins of the House of Berenger, 
 the father of Abelard, are close to the church 
 of Palet, on the left of the high-road, three 
 miles distant from Clisson. Le Palet is thus 
 described by a French author, in the history 
 of the Province : — 
 
 “ Get homme, si celebre par son savoir, ses 
 amours, et ses infortunes, amena Heloise 
 au Palet lorsquil Teut enlevee de chez le 
 Chanoine Fulbert, pour la soustraire au fes- 
 sentiment de cet oncle jaloux et barbare; 
 mais, oblige de quitter cette retraite paisible 
 
79 
 
 pour retourner a Paris, ou Fappelaient ses 
 nombreux disciples, le soin de sa gloire et de 
 sa fortune, Abelard confia a sa soeur sa chere 
 Heloise et le gage precieux qu’elle portait 
 dans son sein. Elle accoucha au Palet dun 
 fils dune si rare beaute, qu elle le nomma As- 
 tralabe, c’est-a-dire, astre brillant ; mais I’ab- 
 sence de celui qu elle adorait rendait moins 
 vifs pour elle les doux plaisirs de la maternite ; 
 son ame expansive et brulante etait livree 
 sans cesse a une inquiete et sombre melan- 
 cholie qu elle ne parvenait sans doute a dissi- 
 per qu en venant sur les bords de la Sevres 
 rever a Tobjet de sa tendresse, et soupirer 
 apres son retour. Sept siecles se sont ecoules 
 depuis cette epoque, et les noms d’Abelard et 
 d’Heloise embellissent toujours ce delicieux 
 rivage. On interroge avec une curiosite 
 avide ces roches eternelles et ces grottes 
 mysterieuses qui fiirent les temoins discrets 
 de leurs peines et de leurs plaisirs. On se 
 reporte a ces temps recules ou ces amants 
 
80 
 
 venaient dans cette solitude enchanteresse^ 
 se confier mutuellement leur vifs inquietudes; 
 on croit les voir s’egarer sous ces riants 
 ombrages, et s’abandonner a toutes les inspi- 
 rations de I’eloquence, a toutes les illusions 
 de Tamour.” 
 
 I arrived at Clisson just as the sun was dis- 
 appearing, and its rays were only suffici- 
 ently strong to reflect the ruined towers 
 of the Castle in the river which runs at its 
 foot. It will be much easier to imagine, than 
 for me to convey the sensations I felt when I 
 first caught a glimpse of it, with the story of 
 La Roche Jaquelin full in my recollection! 
 I alighted at a small cabaret, dignified by the 
 appellation of the Hotel de la Providence, 
 which seemed preferable to another recom- 
 mended to me by my guide, — such an one, in- 
 deed, as might be expected in a remote place 
 like this : part of the roof was off, and, like 
 most of the houses in the place, bore evident 
 marks of the desolating war that had been 
 
81 
 
 carried on here: many are gtill in ruins. 
 The descent into the town is very steep and 
 rugged, the road being formed out of the 
 solid rock. The master of the cabaret was 
 sitting with his family at the door, but the 
 appearance of his mansion was so unpro- 
 mising, that I thought it best to make some 
 agreement, and a few inquiries before dis- 
 mounting ; — these preliminaries being settled, 
 and having consented to pay him fifty sous 
 for supper and my bed, and thirty for break- 
 fast, I entered the house : and never recollect 
 having a keener relish for a meal, or enjoying 
 one more heartily, for I had been sixteen 
 hours on horseback. 
 
 Fatigued and exhausted as I was, I ram- 
 bled after dinner towards the delightful 
 grounds of La Garenne, belonging to Mon- 
 sieur La Motte, who has embellished them in 
 a most interesting and romantic manner. 
 
 The river Sevres runs along the side, and 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 separates them from the fine old Castle of 
 Clisson, whose high and decaying towers 
 and battlements give the beholder a noble 
 idea of its ancient grandeur. The evening 
 was a very fine one, — one of those delightful 
 soft clear skies usual at this season, the latter 
 end of July. I sat myself down in the 
 grotto of Heloise, — a spot of the deepest 
 seclusion, formed, by the hand of Nature, of 
 large masses of granite. The nightingales 
 were singing in the lofty trees at the back ; 
 on the sides were shrubs of every descrip- 
 tion, intermingled with fruit-trees, and the 
 river, having several falls and little rocky 
 islets, gave an air of delightful enchantment 
 to this most romantic scene. 
 
 Heloise ! a ce iiom, qui ne doit s’aftendrir ? 
 
 Comme elle sut aimer I comme elle sut soufTrir ! 
 
 At the entrance of the grotto are engraved 
 these lines, nearly effaced by the hand of 
 time 
 
G-KOTTO o£ ]H[]R]LO]rSIE at CI.ISSOW 
 

 i 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
 ■A 
 
83 
 
 Heloise peut-etre erra sur ce rivage, 
 
 Quand, aux yeux des jaloux derobant son sejour, 
 Dans les murs du Palet elle vint mettre an jour 
 Un fils, cher et malheureux gage 
 De ses plaisirs furtifs et de son tendre amour. 
 
 Peut-etre en ce reduit sauvage, 
 
 Seule, plus d^une fois, elle vint soupirer, 
 
 Et gouter librement la douceur de pleurer; 
 Peut-etre sur ce roc assise 
 Elle revait 4 son mailieur. 
 
 J’y veux rever aussi ; j’y veux remplir mon coeur 
 Du doux souvenir d’Heloise. 
 
 I had but a few weeks before seen the 
 tomb of Abelard and Heloise in the Ceme- 
 tery of Pere la Chaise at Paris, whither it 
 had been recently removed from the Con- 
 vent of the Augustins, at which latter place 
 I had formerly made the annexed drawing 
 of it. I had likewise been very lately at 
 Argenteuil, once the place of her asylum 
 described by Pope — 
 
 In these deep solitudes and awful cells — 
 
 -t- G 2 
 
84 
 
 and had the same day witnessed the ruins of 
 the house in which Abelard was born, and in 
 which Heloise resided and became a mother, 
 and from whence she used to make fre- 
 quent visits to this spot : all these circum- 
 stances combined, gave the scene before me 
 a most powerful interest. I rose early the 
 next day, anxious to revisit a place which 
 had afforded me such delight the previous 
 evening. Wandering by the beautiful banks 
 of the river, along its green meadows, in a 
 woody recess, I observed the following lines 
 beneath an urn, cut in the rock on which it 
 rested : — 
 
 Consacrer dans Tobscurite, 
 
 Ses loisirs a T^tiide, a ramitie sa vie, 
 
 Sont des plaisirs dignes d’envie ; 
 
 Etre cheri vaut mieux qu’^tre vante ! 
 
 A little further on is a stone pillar, with a 
 venerable accacia-tree spreading nts leaves 
 over it. It has the following Latin in- 
 scription : — 
 
FaTirw:^ of Abieilam.id)’§ Hoitjse 
 
85 
 
 VII 
 
 IM C^SAR 
 
 AVGVSTVS 
 
 PONTIFEX MAX 
 VIAM. OLIM 
 A CONlViNCO 
 AD Li3fONE3I 
 
 IMP. C^SAR. TRAJ. 
 A BRIAN VS AVG 
 P3f. TRIE. POT. 
 viA3I AB AVGVSTO 
 8TATAM REFICIT.* 
 
 Farther on several large blocks of granite 
 are piled together, in so strange and curious 
 
 * Auguste etendit jusqu’a La Loire La Gaule Aqui- 
 tanique, autrefois bornee par la Garonne, et comprit U 
 Armorique dans la Province Celtique ou Lyonnaise. L' 
 Empereur Adrien, ayant fait depuis une nouvelle distri- 
 bution des Gaules, divisa La Lyonnaise en deux, et mit 
 L’Armorique dans la seconde ; enfin cette Lyonnaise ou 
 Celtique ayant ete encore divisee en deux, Tours devint 
 la Metropole de la troisieme, qui comprenait la Touraine, 
 le Maine, TAnjou, et la Bretagne . — Histoire de Bret. 
 
86 
 
 a manner, that it must have been the work 
 of Nature alone: — one of them has these 
 beautiful lines carved on it : 
 
 O ! Limpide Riviere^! O Riviere cherie! 
 
 Puisse la sotte vanity 
 
 Ne jamais dMaigner ta rive humble et fleurie ! 
 
 Que ton simple sender ne soit point frequente 
 Par aucun tourment de la vie 
 Tels que Tambition, Tenvie, 
 
 L’avar^ice, et la faussete ! 
 
 Un bocage si frais, un sejour si tranquille, 
 
 Aux tendres sentiments doit seul servir d’azile . . 
 
 Ces rameaux amoureux entrelasses expres 
 
 Aux Muses, aux Amours, offrent leur voile epais; 
 Et ce cristal d’une onde pure 
 A jamais ne doit reflechir 
 Que les graces de la nature 
 Et les images du plaisir. 
 
 Close to the brink of the river stands a 
 prodigiously large granite rock, immediately 
 facing the waterfall called le Bassin de Diane : 
 on it are these words^ 
 
 SA MASSE TNDESTRVCTiPLE 
 A FATIGVfi LE TEMS, 
 
 a quotation from Delille. 
 
GRABITE ROCK ill tine (CaRIKRHE, 
 
p4 
 
 
 
 A 
 
87 
 
 The French writers, speaking of this inte- 
 resting place, observe : Comment soupgon- 
 ner en effet quau milieu de cette terrible 
 Vendee, quau centre de cet impenetrable et 
 sombre Bocage, il existe un pays delici- 
 eux et fertile, convert de mines seculaires 
 qui rappelent tons les souvenirs historiques 
 de notre ancienne France, comme le carac- 
 tere de ses habitans en rappele les moeurs, le 
 courage, et la loyaute.” 
 
 On the opposite side of the river, a little to 
 the right, stands the ancient Chateau de 
 Clisson, celebrated in the modern as well as 
 the ancient history of Bretagne. Its lofty 
 turrets, and decaying bastions, extend a con- 
 siderable distance along the shore of the 
 Sevres, recalling to mind the ancient days of 
 chivalry, when bravery, love, and religion, 
 were so singularly blended together, and 
 gave a romantic half-polished manner to 
 the greatest barbarians. In later times it 
 became the scene of events which no one 
 
88 
 
 can contemplate without the deepest interest. 
 In viewing this magnificent ruin, it is impos- 
 sible not to regret that a place so frequent- 
 ly the theatre of noble achievements, in- 
 habited by one of the greatest men that 
 France has produced, Francois I. Conne- 
 table de Clisson,^ father to Anne of Bre- 
 
 * In the “Histoire Genealogique de Prance,” tom. vi. 
 is an account of the Constable’s death. “ The Duke of 
 Orleans, brother to the king, was very fond of a Jewess, 
 whom he privately visited. Having some reason to sus- 
 pect that Peter de Craon, Lord of Sable and de la Ferte- 
 Bernard, his chamberlain and favourite, had joked with 
 the Duchess of Orleans upon his intrigue, he turned him 
 out of his house with infamy. Craon imputed his 
 disgrace partly to the Constable of Clisson. On the 
 night of the 13th June, having waited for him at the cor- 
 ner of the street Coulture Ste^ Catherine, and finding he 
 had but little company with him, he fell upon him at the 
 head of a score of ruffians. Clisson defended himself for 
 some time without any other weapon than a small cut- 
 lass; but after receiving three wounds, fell from his 
 horse, and pitched against a door, which flew open. The 
 report of this assassination reached the king’s ears just 
 as he was stepping into bed. He put on a great-coat and 
 his shoes; and repaired to the place where he M^as in- 
 formed his constable had been killed. He found him in a 
 baker’s shop, wallowing in his blood, x4.fter his wouikW 
 
89 
 
 tagiie, should have been so recently the scene 
 of such savage horrors and bloodshed ! Now, 
 all is silence and solitude : and amidst the 
 noble ruins which were once decorated with 
 banners, and the hard-earned trophies of 
 victory, — ^where high-born knights and splen- 
 did dames mingled in mirth and festivity 
 to the echoes of the minstrels, singing lays of 
 love or battle, — are now only to be seen 
 and heard the birds of prey, hovering over a 
 solitary tree, planted to mark the spot where 
 a deed was committed which has not 
 
 were examined, ‘‘ Constable, (said he to him), nothing was 
 or e^er will be so severely punished.” It was given out 
 that Clisson made his will the next day, and there was a 
 mighty outcry about the sum of 1,700,000 livres, which 
 it amounted to. It should be observed, that during twen- 
 ty-five years that he was in the service of France, he had 
 sought for and beaten the English every where; that he 
 gained the famous battle of Robeck, and chastised the 
 Flemish; that he enjoyed for twelve years the salary 
 and appointments of Constable ; and that, moreover, his 
 landed estate, (which included many castles, inherited 
 from his ancestors, in Bretagne and Poitou,) was very 
 considerable.” 
 
90 
 
 often its parallel in the darkest histories 
 of the most ferocious nations. 
 
 During the Vendean war, the royalists 
 had been driven out of Clisson by the repub- 
 licans, under the command of a ferocious 
 jacobin. The town was pillaged and burnt 
 before they quitted it. Twenty-seven females 
 had, during the battle, concealed themselves 
 among the ruins : when information of it was 
 given to the troops, who had already quitted 
 the place, they were ordered to return, and 
 the whole of these unhappy women were 
 thrown alive into a well, where they pe- 
 rished ! ! ! It has since been filled up, and 
 the lonely tree, just mentioned, now records 
 the bloody and inhuman deed. 
 
 In the account of Clisson, by a late French 
 author, no notice is taken of this circum- 
 stance. He merely observes, when men- 
 tioning the destruction of the place, after the 
 de la Roche-Jacquelins had quitted it, Les 
 Rives ombragees de la Sevres, si seduisante 
 
par ses belles cascades, et rensemble de ce 
 paysage poetique, feroient de cette contree 
 un sejour delicieux, si de tristes debris, qui 
 heureusement disparoissent tous les jours, 
 ne rappelaient encore le souvenier affligeant 
 de nos discordes civiles. Les armees Revolu- 
 tionnaires qui combattirent les Vendeens, 
 en 1793 et en 1794, employerent inutilement 
 pour les reduire le fer et le feu ; la flamme at- 
 teignit les villes, les villages, les metairies, " 
 et jusqu aux humbles chaumieres ; et, dans 
 ce vaste et epouvantable incendie, Clisson 
 ne put echapper a une ruine complete. 
 Jamais peut-etre cette petite ville ne se seroit 
 entierement reedifiee, sans une circonstance 
 particuliere qui contribua puissamment a ]a 
 faire renoitre de ces cendres.’’ 
 
 In the town of Clisson was born the cele- 
 brated Barin de la Galissonniere, Admiral 
 of France, who fought the well-known action 
 off Mahon, in the month of June*, 1756, with 
 Admiral Byng, who, in consequence of his 
 
y2 
 
 conduct on that occasion, was brought to 
 a court-martial and shot. The French wri- 
 ters make the following absurd remark, as to 
 the cause of his fate: “ Les Anglais, furieux 
 d’avoir ete vaincus par un Ainiral Fran9ois, 
 firent fusilier TAmiral Byng.” It is now well 
 known that he was sacrificed to an unprin- 
 cipled ministerial faction. 
 
 The ancient Chateau de Clisson is built on 
 a rock, on the bank of the Sevres, facing the 
 mouth of the river called Le Moine, which 
 empties itself into the Sevres at this place, so 
 that the town of Clisson stands between 
 the two rivers at their junction. An ancient 
 bridge, from whence this view is taken, joins 
 one part of. the town to the other, and leads 
 to the castle, which was once considered the 
 barrier of Bretagne. The two rivers run over 
 a bed of granite rock, which, in some places, 
 forming a cataract, adds considerably to the 
 surrounding scenery: large masses of this 
 rock in many parts seem as if piled up by 
 
1 
 
93 
 
 nature for the purpose of giving it a more 
 romantic effect. The whole forms a most 
 picturesque object, when viewed from the 
 opposite shore, from whence the sketch of 
 the temple erected on the ruin of St. Gilles is 
 taken; and the remembrance of its recent 
 fate throws over the scene a strong and me- 
 lancholy interest. 
 
 The castle is supposed to have been first 
 erected by the Romans, as the Province 
 formed a part of the Gaule Aquitanique, 
 under the Emperors Augustus and Adrian. 
 
 The French repaired it during the reign of 
 Louis VIII. in 1223, under Olivier I. Sire 
 de Clisson, as he is styled; and it was 
 made a regular fortification, and surrounded 
 by a wall a century after, by the Connetable : 
 in 1464 the Due de Bretagne, Francis II. 
 entirely finished it. 
 
 The Sire de Clisson, Olivier I. who 
 had served during one of the Crusades in 
 Palestine, was knighted with several others, 
 
94 
 
 in 1218. “ Un nombre prodigieux de Seig- 
 
 neurs Anglais, Normands, Angevins, Man- 
 ceaux, Tourangeaux, et Bretons, prirent la 
 Croix; Le Pape, Innocent III. envoya en 
 Bretagne, en 1197? Helvain, Moine de St. 
 Denis, pour y precher une croisade. Une 
 grande quantite de Bretons se laisserent con- 
 duire en Syrie par ce Moine; et, en 1218, 
 plusieurs Seigneurs Bretons suivirent leur 
 exemple, entre autres, Herve de Leon, Mor- 
 vau, Vicomte du Fou, et le Sire de 
 Clisson.” 
 
 From the construction of the towers and 
 bastions, it is supposed that at his return 
 from the Holy Land, he had copied the Syri- 
 an style of building ; and one of the towers, 
 which is represented in the sketch of the 
 gateway of the Chateau de Clisson, is still 
 called La Tour des Pelerins. 
 
 This tow^er, which has been used as a dun- 
 geon, is the most perfect of any remaining. 
 In it are subterranean galleries, anciently 
 
TOUR des riKlLRlRIKS . 
 
95 
 
 used as a prison, and appropriated by the re- 
 publicans to the same purpose. It is dreadful 
 to think of the horrors that have been prac- 
 tised within its walls, in our own time. 
 
 From the top of this tower the prospect is 
 very extensive, and, during the year 1793, 
 when the republican army quartered them- 
 selves in it, a sentinel was placed there to 
 give notice in case of the approach of an ene- 
 my. The historian of that period, speaking 
 of the entrance to this tower, observes, in re- 
 ference to the cruelties committed there in 
 the Vendean war: 
 
 “ II existait au milieu de la derniere cour 
 un tres beau puits, taille dans le roc et 
 extremement profond : il est actuellement 
 comble . . . . , et ma plume se refuse a tracer 
 les scenes horribles qui ensanglanterent ce 
 lieu en 1793 et en 1795, tristes et epouvanta- 
 bles effets des guerres civiles !’' 
 
 This passage alludes, I imagine, to the 
 circumstance related in page 90. Within its 
 
96 
 
 walls are various inscriptions, many of them 
 in characters so difficult to decypher, that 
 they remain unknown. The following has 
 been rendered into more modern French by 
 Cerutti. 
 
 J’ai gravi, mesure ces ruines sublimes ; 
 
 Mon cceur s’eii est emu ! De nos vaillants aieux 
 Tout y representait les tournois magnanimes, 
 
 IIs semblaient reparoitre et combattre a mes yeux; 
 J’entendois sous leurs coups retentir les abimes ; 
 Juge de leurs combats, idole de leur cceur, 
 
 Du haut des tours, la dame admiroit le vainqueur. 
 Casques et boucliers, cuirasses gigantesques, 
 
 Cris d’armes, mot d’amour, devises de Tlionneur, 
 Carlets pour Tinfidele ou pour le suborneur, 
 
 Tout garde sur ces murs vraiment clievaleresques. 
 La memoire d’un siecle ou lepee, od la foi, 
 
 Od la galanterie etaient la seule loi. 
 
 Louis IX. and Blanche of Castille, his 
 queen, retired to Clisson, at the time the 
 English, under Henry III. penetrated into 
 Poitou, and were received by Olivier de Clis- 
 son, who then garrisoned it. 
 
 In the war of the League, which convulsed 
 the kingdom of France, Clisson remained 
 
97 
 
 faithful to Henry HI. and during the early 
 part of the reign of his successor, Henry 
 IV. The Protestants were there protected, 
 and established themselves in the fauxbourg. 
 From the period at which Henry IV. signed 
 the edict at Nantes, 15th April, 1598, until 
 the war of La Vendee, this celebrated for- 
 tress is no where mentioned by any of the 
 French historians : it became neglected when 
 the feudal system declined, and the repub- 
 lican army completed its ruin. The sad 
 events of this period, and the destruction 
 and carnage which followed, can never be 
 effaced from the page of history. The ruined 
 towns and villages prove the melancholy 
 truth, that the general corruption of a nation 
 prepares the way for general anarchy, 
 and that the blindness of political rage is 
 always more vindictive than even private 
 hatred. 
 
 I can never sufficiently lament the ab- 
 sence, at this time, of Madame de La Roche 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 Jaquelin from the country, as she occasional- 
 ly resides in the neighbourhood, since the re- 
 storation of her property, (although her once 
 noble residence is now in a state of ruin,) 
 occupying a small chateau at some dis- 
 tance, which had partly escaped the fire and 
 destruction that had been fatal to most houses 
 in the district. Who can read the inter- 
 esting memoirs of this lady, and not sympa- 
 thize in the sufferings of herself, and of those 
 brave and loyal people whose heroic struggle 
 against their republican oppressors lasted with 
 little intermission from the overthrow of the 
 monarchy until its final restoration? Among 
 the number of heroic females who, like Ma- 
 dame de la Roche-Jacquelin, thus distinguish- 
 ed themselves, was Madame de La Rochefou- 
 cault, who, like her admirer Charette, was 
 put to death at Nantes. This lady, of an 
 ancient and noble family, and of great 
 beauty, signalized herself on various occa- 
 sions, but being taken prisoner at the battle 
 

 \ 
 
 I 
 
 t 
 
 !' 
 
 li 
 
 I 
 
 f 
 
 i 
 
 li 
 
 (i 
 
 n 
 
 :j 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 ¥ 
 
 9 
 
 ! 
 
99 
 
 of the Moulin aux .Chevres, she was immedi- 
 ately shot ! 
 
 The whole history of this terrible war is 
 filled - with the noble devotion of heroic 
 females. The chiefs were attended in the 
 most sanguinary battles by ladies, who had 
 themselves ornamented their standards with 
 loyal and chivalrous emblems of the cause for 
 which they were prepared to sacrifice them- 
 selves, and who were frequently seen rallying 
 the broken troops, and falling, covered with 
 wounds, by the hands of their enemies ! 
 
 The annexed view of the Moulin aux 
 Chevres, which is rendered interesting from 
 the account given by Madame de la Roche- 
 Jacquelin of the battle fought near it, will 
 convey a tolerable idea of the scenery of the 
 country. 
 
 The prodigious growth of the willow-tree 
 in Bretagne, is such as to claim the peculiar 
 notice of travellers : here they attain a gigan- 
 tic height, no where else to be seen. Batard, 
 
 h2 
 
100 
 
 in his Notices sur les Vegetauxl' mentions 
 one in the commune of Pommeraie in the ar- 
 rondissement de Beaupreau, whose age was 
 supposed to be nearly two thousand years. 
 Within the Chateau at Clisson are some very 
 old ones, but the finest I observed were at 
 the Moulin aux Chevres. 
 
CHAP. VI. 
 
 LIMITS AND GENERAL APPEARANCE OF LE BOCAGE.-MODE OF WAR- 
 FARE PRACTISED BY THE VENDEANS. 
 
 My opportunity of becoming* acquainted 
 with that singular district called Le Bocage, 
 will be best understood by very briefly 
 sketching my route through it. I traversed 
 it, and the district called Le Loroux, by the 
 route of Montaigne and Lege, and on my 
 return I passed through Clisson, Vallet, and 
 Loroux, along the banks of the Loire. By 
 pursuing this route, I had every where the 
 interesting opportunity of exploring the scene 
 of that destructive warfare which had ra- 
 vaged the towns and villages of this part of 
 France. 
 
 At one period, the war of La Vendee ex- 
 tended to the north of the Loire, as far as 
 
102 
 
 Rennies, foraiing a triangle, the eastern point 
 of which rested on the town of Angers. To 
 the south of the Loire it spread nearly as far 
 as la Rochelle ; and as in this part also it ex- 
 tended nearly to Angers, the tract over which 
 it spread its ravages formed nearly a square. 
 The district called Loroux runs parallel with 
 the Loire; Le Bocage, which occupies both 
 districts, and the whole country south of that 
 river, is comprehended under the general ap- v 
 pellation of La Vendee, Under the old divi- 
 sions of France, Le Bocage formed part 
 of the province of Poitou, and Le Loroux 
 part of the provinces of Anjou and Bretagne: 
 but when, at the revolution, France was 
 
 --'V ... , 
 
 divided into departments, these two dis- 
 tricts were denominated La Vendee, Les 
 deux Sevres, La Loire Inferieure, and May- ■ 
 enne and Loire, j 
 
 ^ La Vendee is an extremely interesting dis- 
 trict, not merely on account of tne^ sin- 
 gular and heroic warfare that was carried on 
 
103 
 
 there so long, but also from the appearance 
 of the country, and the manners, opinions, 
 and general character of its inhabitants ; and 
 Le Bocage is, in all these respects, the most 
 interesting part of La Vendee. In Le Bo- 
 cage, the war was carried on with most won- 
 derful vigour and pertinacity, as well as with 
 almost unparalleled destruction and cruelty. 
 Those who are acquainted only with the 
 other parts of France, can form no idea of 
 the aspect of this district, or of the manners 
 of its inhabitants ; they differ so widely and 
 essentially, that they seem to belong to an- 
 other portion of the globe. It has always 
 been regarded as the most fertile country in 
 France; and, before the revolution, it was 
 undoubtedly one of the most populous. 
 
 There are only two roads in the whole 
 country : one of them runs from Nantes to la 
 Rochelle, and the other from Bourdeaux 
 to Tours, through Poitou : all the rest of 
 this district is a complete labyrinth : there 
 
104 
 
 are, indeed, numerous pathways, so very 
 winding and narrow, that they are much 
 more calculated to harass and mislead, than 
 to assist a traveller in his journey : these path- 
 ways are flanked by wide and deep ditches, 
 and almost rendered completely dark by lofty 
 hedges on each side of them, the trees of 
 which meet at top, and thus form an arch: 
 hence they are rough and uneven in summer, 
 besides being intolerably hot, and deep and 
 miry in winter. To add to these inconveni- 
 ences, the bed of a rivulet flowing along 
 them frequently constitutes the only passage. 
 Even when the traveller, after toiling along 
 these dreadful pathways, comes near a town 
 or village, he generally finds that the ap- 
 proach to it is practicable only by ascending 
 irregular steps, cut out of the solid rock, 
 on which they are built. The inhabitants 
 themselves even are frequently puzzled by 
 these pathways ; and, after wandering for a 
 considerable length of time, at last find out 
 
105 
 
 that they have been travelling in a wrong 
 direction. 
 
 The whole country bears the appearance 
 of an extensive and thick forest: this arises 
 from the nature of the enclosures ; they are 
 extremely small, often not more than fifty 
 or sixty perches, surrounded with strong 
 hedges planted in the banks. These circum- 
 stances alone would give the appearance just 
 noticed; but the effect is much increased 
 from other causes. On each side of the 
 banks, on which the trees are planted, there 
 are ditches and drains, and the moisture which 
 they constantly supply to their roots, ren- 
 ders their growth very rapid and luxuriant; 
 so that when we consider the number of 
 the trees and their great size, we shall not be 
 surprised that the country looks like an im- 
 mense forest. Sometimes the trees are so dis- 
 posed as to answer the purpose of a palisade; 
 and this purpose they answer most effectual- 
 ly, not only from the great size and strength 
 
I 
 
 106 
 
 of the trees themselves, but also from the in- 
 tervening spaces between them being filled 
 up with strong and impassable underwood/^ 
 
 * A tract of about 150 miles square, at the mouth and 
 on the southern bank of the Loire, comprehends the scene 
 of those deplorable hostilities. The most inland part of 
 the district, and that in which the insurrection first broke 
 out, is called Le Bocage; and seems to have been almost 
 as singular in its physical conformation, as in the state 
 and condition of its population. A series of detached emi- 
 nences, of no great elevation, rose over the whole face of 
 the country, with little rills trickling in the hollows and 
 occasional cliffs by their sides. The whole space was 
 divided into small enclosures, each surrounded with tall 
 wild hedges, and rows of pollard-trees; so that though 
 there were few large woods, the whole region had a syl- 
 van and impenetrable appearance. The ground was most- 
 ly in pasturage ; and the landscape had, for the most part, 
 an aspect of wild verdure, except that in the autumn some 
 patches of yellow corn appeared here and there athwart 
 their green enclosures. Only two great roads traversed 
 this sequestered region, running nearly parallel, at a dis- 
 tance of more than seventy miles from each other. In the 
 intermediate space, there was nothing but a labyrinth of 
 wild and devious paths, crossing each other at the extre- 
 mity of almost every field — often serving, at the same time, 
 as channels for the winter torrents, and winding so capri- 
 ciously among the innumerable hillocks, and beneath the 
 meeting hedge-rows, that the natives themselves were 
 
107 
 
 This luxuriance of growth does not pro- 
 ceed entirely from the moisture supplied by 
 
 always in danger of losing their way when they went a 
 league or two from their own habitations. The country, 
 though rather thickly peopled, contained, as may be sup- 
 posed, few large towns; and the inhabitants, devoted al- 
 most entirely to rural occupations, enjoyed a great deal 
 of leisure. The noblesse or gentry of the country were 
 very generally resident on their estates, where. they lived 
 in a style^of simplicity and homeliness which had long 
 disappeared front every other part of the kingdom. No 
 grand parks, fine gardens, or ornamented villas; but spa- 
 cious clumsy chateaux, surrounded with'farm offices and 
 cottages for the labourers. Their manners and way of 
 life, too, partook of the same primitive rusticity. There 
 was great" cordiality, and even much familiarity, in the in- 
 tercourse of the seigneurs with their dependants. They 
 were followed by large trains of them in their hunting 
 expeditions, which'occupied so great a part of their time. 
 Every man had his fowling-piece, and was a marksman 
 of fame or pretensions. They were posted in various 
 quarters, to intercept or drive back the game; and were 
 thus trained, by anticipation, to that sort of discipline and 
 concert, in which their whole art of war was afterwards 
 found to consist. Nor was their intimacy confined to their 
 sports. Tlje peasants resorted familiarly to their land- 
 lords for advice, both legal and medical; and they repaid 
 the visits in their daily rambles, and entered with interest 
 into all^ the details of their agricultural operations. They 
 came to the weddings of their children, drank with their 
 
108 
 
 the ditches and drains; the soil naturally is 
 uncommonly fertile: and whatever springs 
 
 guests, and made little presents to the young people. On 
 Sundays and holidays, all the retainers of the family as- 
 sembled at the chateau, and danced in the barn or the 
 court-yard, according to the season. The ladies of the 
 house joined in the festivity, and that without any airs of 
 condescension or of mockery; for, in their own life, there 
 was little splendour or luxurious refinement. They tra- 
 velled on horseback, or in heavy carriages drawn by 
 oxen; and had little other amusement than in the care of 
 their dependants, and the familiar intercourse of neigh- 
 bours among whom there was no rivalry or principal of 
 ostentation. 
 
 From all this there resulted, as Madame de L. assures 
 us, a certain innocence and kindliness of character, joined 
 with great hardihood and gaiety, — which reminds us of 
 Henry IV. and his Bearnois, — and carries with it, perhaps 
 on account of that association, an idea of something more 
 chivalrous and romantic — more honest and unsophistica- 
 ted, than any thing we expect to meet with in this mo- 
 dern world of artifice and derision. There was great pu- 
 rity of morals accordingly, Mad. de L. informs us, and 
 general cheerfulness and content in all this district; — 
 crimes were never heard of, and lawsuits almost unknown. 
 Though not very well educated, the population was ex- 
 ceedingly devout; — though theirs was a kind of super- 
 stitious and traditional devotion, it must be owned, rather 
 than an enlightened or rational faith. They had the 
 greatest veneration for crucifixes and images of their 
 
109 
 
 from it, whether planted by the hand of man 
 and nourished, while growing, by his atten- 
 tion and skill, or its spontaneous production, 
 bears witness to this uncommon fertility. 
 The country abounds in corn and vineyards ; 
 the produce of the latter consists principally 
 in white vines. At the season of the year 
 when I passed through it, the intermixture 
 of the rich and soft yellow of the wheat 
 nearly ripe, with the light green foliage of 
 the vines, produced a most pleasing effect. 
 In Poitou and Anjou, the harvest generally 
 begins about the latter end of June: this 
 year it was late every where, but very abun- 
 dant. The vineyards had mostly failed. 
 
 saints, and had no idea of any duty more imperious than 
 that of attending on all the solemnities of religion. They 
 were singularly attached also to their cures, who were al- 
 most all born and bred in the country, spoke their patois^ 
 and shared in all their pastimes and occupations. When 
 a hunting-match was to take place, the clergyman an- 
 nounced it from the pulpit after prayers, — and then took 
 his fowling-piece, and accompanied his congregation to 
 the thicket. It was on behalf of these cures, in fact, that 
 the first disturbances were excited. — Edin. Rev.for Feh, 
 1816. 
 
110 
 
 Le Marais, which is also comprehended 
 within the limits of Le Bocage, is that part 
 of Lower Poitou adjacent to the sea. There 
 the country is open and flat, and the passes 
 are impracticable during the winter, and 
 very difficult at other seasons of the year. 
 The inhabitants of Le Marais formed a divi- 
 sion of the army of the celebrated chief 
 Charette. La Vendee was divided into two 
 circuits ; each army had its own, until the 
 junction of the whole under La Roche-Jac- 
 quelin, &c. that of Charette occupied the dis- 
 trict of Chalans, Machecoul, la Roche-Sur 
 Yon, les Sables, a part of the districts of St. 
 Florent, Vehiers, Chollet, Chatillon, la Cha- 
 taigneraie, a great part of the districts of Clis- 
 son, Montaigne, Thouars, Parthenay, and 
 Fontenay-le-peuple. Although the locality 
 of Le Bocage is a perfect contrast to that of 
 le Marais, nature seems to have exerted all 
 her power in forming these two districts into 
 one extensive fortress, capable of opposing 
 
Ill 
 
 every thing to an attack, and presenting so 
 many means of defence, that it was rarely 
 possible for the enemy to lead a column, or 
 to regulate its movements so as to preserve 
 union in its marches or manoeuvres, disposi- 
 tions for an attack, or retreat. The positions 
 of the Vendeans could never be understood, or 
 their projects foreseen, in a country where the 
 frequent undulations of land, hedges, trees, 
 and bushes, obstructing the surface, would 
 not admit of seeing fifty paces round ; and one 
 of the republican generals, writing to the Con- 
 vention, thus speaks of Charette s movements. 
 “ It is no easy matter to find Charette, parti- 
 cularly to bring him to action. To-day at the 
 head of ten thousand men^ the next day wan- 
 dering with a score of horsemen, it is very rare 
 that one can come up with him. When we 
 believed him to be in our front, he was in 
 our rear. Yesterday he threatened such a 
 post, to-day he is ten leagues from it; more 
 able to avoid than fight us, he almost always 
 
112 
 
 disconcerts, and often, without knowing it, all 
 our combinations. He endeavours to surprise 
 us, to carry off our patroles, and to kill our 
 stragglers.” 
 
 The inhabitants of le Marais and le Bo- 
 cage for a long period confined themselves to 
 defensive warfare, for which nature seems 
 to have formed their country. The situa- 
 tion of le Marais enabled the brave royalists 
 to receive succours from the English, and to 
 facilitate and protect the debarkation of such 
 as they wished to procure from the North 
 side of the Loire, the coast being flat and 
 easy of access by sea. 
 
 The Vendeans, favoured by every natural 
 advantage, had a peculiar tactic which they 
 knew perfectly well how to apply to their 
 position and local circumstances, and adopted 
 a mode of fighting hitherto unknown, and 
 practicable in that country alone. Confi- 
 dent in the superiority which their mode of 
 attack gave them, they never suffered them- 
 
113 
 
 selves to be anticipated, they never engaged 
 but when and where they pleased. Their 
 dexterity in the use of fire-arms was such, 
 that no people, however well skilled in ma- 
 noeuvring, could make such good use of a 
 gun ; the huntsman of Loroux, and the poa- 
 cher of le Bocage, having been always 
 proverbial as excellent marksmen. It was 
 no unusual thing for the Veiideans, when at 
 the plough, to carry with them a musket; 
 and whenever they observed “ a blue coat,” 
 (as they called the republican soldiers) they 
 stopt their plough, took up their musket, 
 and fired at him; it seldom happened that 
 they missed the object of their vengeance. 
 A melancholy circumstance, connected with 
 this mode of warfare, took place : the son of 
 one of the Vendean farmers, or ploughmen, 
 had been compelled to join the republican 
 army ; but having succeeded in escaping, he 
 was hastening, in his republican uniform, to 
 rejoin his relations, when being observed by 
 
 I 
 
114 
 
 his father, while at the plough, the latter, 
 unable from the distance to recognize his son, 
 and seeing only the uniform of an enemy, 
 fired and shot him. 
 
 Their attacks were always dreadful, sudden, 
 and almost unforeseen, because it was very 
 difficult to reconnoitre or obtain information 
 so as to guard against surprize. Their order 
 of battle was generally in the form of a cres- 
 cent, their wings being composed of the 
 most expert marksmen, who never fired with- 
 out taking aim, and seldom ever missed. 
 Their retreat was so precipitate that it 
 was difficult to come up with them, as 
 they dispersed themselves through rough 
 fields, hedges, woods, and bushes, knew all 
 the bye-roads, secret escapes and defiles, and 
 were acquainted with all the obstacles which 
 could obstruct their flight, and the means of 
 avoiding them. Their mode of warfare was, 
 according to the locality of the country, well 
 calculated to prolong the struggle and waste 
 
115 
 
 the strength of the forces sent to oppose 
 them. In the district of les Sables, inter- 
 sected by canals, rivulets, and salt marshes, 
 where there were scarcely carriage-roads, but 
 chiefly bye-ways, and raised paths, a spe- 
 cies of natural fortification was every where 
 formed: this rendered any attack against 
 them dangerous, and consequently it was 
 most favourable for defence, particularly to 
 the inhabitants. The canals are in general 
 from thirty to forty feet wide on the upper 
 extremity of the banks. The Vendean, car- 
 
 I 
 
 rying his musket in a bandoleer, and leaning 
 upon a long pole, leaped from one bank to 
 the other with amazing facility. When the 
 pressure of the enemy would not admit of 
 his doing this, without exposing himself to 
 their fire, he threw himself into a niole, (a 
 kind of small boat,) very flat, and light, and 
 crossed the canal with great rapidity, being 
 always sufficiently shut up to hide himself 
 from his pursuers: but he soon appeared 
 
 I 2 
 
116 
 
 again, and firing at his enemy, again disap- 
 peared. The republican soldier, to whom 
 this mode of fighting was unknown, was 
 obliged to be continually upon his guard, to 
 march along the shores of the canals, and to 
 follow slowly their circuitous track, support- 
 ing at the same time frequent skirmishes, 
 while it took him several hours to traverse a 
 space which the Vendean commonly accom- 
 plished in a few minutes. 
 
 Among the difficulties which the execution 
 of all military plans met with in La Vendee, 
 the nature and degree of which may be judged 
 of from the local dispositions and the kind of 
 warfare carried on by the royalists, there 
 was one which was invincible, and which sin- 
 gularly retarded the operations of the repub- 
 licans. Whenever they were desirous of 
 sending an order from head-quarters to a 
 division at the distance of twelve or fifteen 
 leagues, the messenger was often obliged to 
 travel fifty or sixty in order to avoid passing 
 
 / 
 
117 
 
 through the revolted country. Hence the 
 impossibility of attempting any expedition, 
 however necessary or desirable, which re- 
 quired to be executed without delay. The 
 Vendeans would appear one day at a certain 
 point to the number of several thousand men; 
 measures were concerted for attacking them 
 the next day, but before that arrived they 
 were eight or ten leagues distant from the 
 place where they had showed themselves the 
 day before. 
 
 Thus were the republicans exposed to fruit- 
 less victories or disastrous checks, which 
 exhausted their men and resources. Masters 
 of the field of battle, they found, says one 
 of their generals, nothing but wooden shoes 
 and some slain, never any arms or ammuni- 
 tion. The Vendean, when perceived, would 
 either hide or break his gun, and in surren- 
 dering his life, seldom left his weapon. Being 
 well acquainted with the country, and more 
 dexterous than the republicans, they carried 
 
118 
 
 scarcely any artillery with them, four or five 
 pieces sufficed for an army of thirty or forty 
 thousand men ; these were generally light 
 field-pieces. Equally sparing of ammunition, 
 they took but few waggons ; one alone served 
 the pieces, as they well knew it was not artil- 
 lery that would procure them the victory; 
 thence, when the republicans met with any 
 disastrous affair, they lost from twenty to 
 thirty pieces of cannon, and waggons in pro- 
 portion ; whereas, when they gained a victory 
 they acquired only two or three pieces of 
 cannon, with scarcely any ammunition. 
 
 From this slight sketch of the nature of 
 the country, so disadvantageous to the inva- 
 ders, and of the mode in which the Ven- 
 deans carried on this unfortunate war, our 
 surprise will cease at the determined and pro- 
 tracted resistance made to the republicans by 
 this loyal and brave people. For many 
 years they defended their beloved country, 
 ^nd endured privations, and accumulated 
 
119 
 
 miseries, such as human nature has seldom 
 been exposed to. To use the words of a re- 
 publican general, A girdle of fire enve- 
 loped the revolted country ; fire, terror, and 
 death, preceded the march,” 
 
 But the principal cause of the long resist- 
 ance of the Vendeans must be sought for in 
 their moral character; they were most ho- 
 nourably distinguished by an inviolable at- 
 tachment to their party, and unlimited and 
 unshaken confidence in their chiefs ; and an 
 earnest, warm, but steady zeal, which sup- 
 plied the place of discipline. Their invinci- 
 ble courage, both active and passive, was 
 proof against every kind of danger, fatigue, 
 and want. It has been well observed that 
 “ irregular and undisciplined wars are natu- 
 rally far more prolific of extraordinary in- 
 cidents, unexpected turns of fortune, and 
 striking displays of individual talent, of vice 
 and virtue, than the more solemn move- 
 ments of national hostility, where every tiling 
 
120 
 
 is in a great measure provided and foreseen ; 
 and where the inflexible subordination of 
 rank, and the severe exactions of a limited 
 duty not only take away the inducement, but 
 the opportunity for those exaltations of perso- 
 nal feeling and adventure which produce 
 the most lively interest, and lead to the most 
 animating results. In the unconcerted pro- 
 ceedings of an insurgent population, all is 
 experiment and all is passion. The heroic 
 daring of a simple peasant lifts him at once 
 to the rank of a leader, and kindles a ge- 
 neral enthusiasm to which all things become 
 possible.” 
 
 From the operation of these causes the 
 Vendeans were enabled to send forth formid- 
 able armies: and such was the confidence 
 of the chiefs in the troops, that they never 
 would have been subdued if they had not 
 lost their leaders in the various hard-fought 
 actions, or been deprived of their ser- 
 vices by their mutual jealousy. Another 
 
121 
 
 circumstance proved equally fatal to them; 
 after the fall of the gallant Lescure, they 
 most imprudently quitted the strong country 
 for the open plains on the left bank of 
 the Loire. 
 
122 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 RIVER LOIRE, FROM NANTES TO ANGERS. 
 
 The Loire is one of the finest rivers in 
 France; and perhaps there is no river in 
 the world that equals that part of it which 
 flows from Angers to Nantes : the breadth of 
 the stream; the islands of wood; the bold- 
 ness, culture, and richness of its banks, all 
 conspire to render it worthy of this cha- 
 racter. As a useful river it is equally cele- 
 brated : its banks being bordered by rich and 
 populous cities ; and the benefits it ren- 
 ders to industry and commerce being 
 incalculable. 
 
 Its stream is so rapid and strong, that 
 in ascending it is generally necessary, from 
 Nantes to Angers, to track the barge: this 
 
123 
 
 mode of proceeding, though slow, has its ad- 
 vantages ; as it gives greater time and oppor- 
 tunity for observing all the various beauties 
 of scenery which present themselves at every 
 turn of the river. 
 
 I embarked early in the morning with a 
 favourable breeze from the west: we soon be- 
 gan to be interested, and almost enchant- 
 ed, with the rich and beautiful scenery, 
 which almost every moment opened to our 
 view in endless variety. This scenery not 
 only pleased the eye and imagination by its 
 beauty, but also excited high and deep inter- 
 est by the fertility which it displayed. The 
 banks were lined with corn-fields, vineyards, 
 or orchards. Occasionally the nature and in- 
 terest of the prospect were agreeably di- 
 versified by the spire of a convent or the 
 turrets of a chateau, rising above gardens or 
 groves, or rich woodlands. At other places 
 there were still more decided marks of popu- 
 lation, for villages, country-houses, and farms. 
 
124 
 
 caught the eye, and added to the charms 
 by which it was so willingly and power- 
 fully detained. 
 
 The whole country on each side is well 
 cultivated. But even this part of France, 
 interesting and beautiful as it is, cannot be 
 traversed without the recollection of the hor- 
 rors of the revolution breaking in upon, and 
 greatly damping the interest and pleasure de- 
 rived from the view of the scenery. As we 
 approached the ruined tower of Oudon, it was 
 impossible not to feel a melancholy regret at 
 the scenes of unparalleled bloodshed that 
 took place on the rich and delightful banks 
 of this river during the phrenzy of the revo- 
 lution. These dreadful recollections assailed 
 us most poweiTully as we came in view 
 of Ancenis on the left, and of Saint Florent 
 le Viel to the right. At the latter place we 
 stopped for the night. It was a fine serene 
 evening, the wind had left us, and we were 
 forced to track the shore for some distance 
 
Tour b'Oubot^ on the IEITER boirk. 
 
■ V' 
 
 I.'- 
 

 
 
 c 
 
 >■ 
 
 
 !-■ 
 
125 
 
 before we reached it: just as the sun was set- 
 tina: I made a sketch of its ruined convent on 
 the hill. 
 
 After the defeat of the Vendean army, 
 and their retreat across the Loire at this 
 place, says a French writer, “ There were 
 “ seen upon the right bank, following the 
 army, which increased prodigiously, a 
 multitude of bishops, priests, monks, reli- 
 gious persons, old countesses, baronesses, 
 ‘‘ &c. &c. who were carried off by cart-loads, 
 “ and which did nothing but embarrass the 
 ‘‘ army.^ There were a great many of them 
 killed at the battle of Mans.” 
 
 * On gaining the heights of St. Florent, one of the 
 most mournful, and at the same time most magnificent 
 spectacles, burst upon the eye. These heights form a 
 vast semicircle; at the bottom of which a broad bare plain 
 extends to the edge of the water. Near an hundred 
 thousand unhappy souls now blackened over that dreary 
 expanse, — old men, infants and women, mingled with 
 the half-armed soldiery, caravans, crowded baggage- 
 waggons and teams of oxen, all full of despair, im- 
 patience, anxiety, and terror: — Behind, were the smoke 
 
126 
 
 It is said that when the Prince Talmont, 
 with the royalists, crossed over from Saint 
 Florent, under the fire of the republican 
 troops who had taken possession of the 
 heights, they consisted of thirty thousand 
 individuals, but that there were not twenty 
 thousand warriors; among them were five 
 thousand women : arrived in the open coun- 
 try, without warlike stores, they soon wanted 
 provisions. This multitude created a famine 
 wherever it went, and suffered a famine itself. 
 The first unsuccessful enterprize produced 
 
 of their burning* villages, and the thunder of the hostile 
 artillery; — before, the broad stream of the Loire, divided 
 by a long low island, also covered with the fugitives, — 
 twenty frail barks plying in the stream— and, on the far 
 banks, the disorderly movements of those who had 
 effected the passage, and were waiting there to be rejoin- 
 ed by their companions. Such, Mad. de L. assures us, 
 was the tumult and terror of the scene, and so awful the 
 recollections it inspired, that it can never be effaced 
 from the memory of any of those who beheld it; and 
 that many of its awe-struck spectators have concurred in 
 stating, that it brought forcibly to their imaginations the 
 unspeakable terrors of the great day of judgment. — 
 Udinb. Rev. No. LI. p. 24. 
 
127 
 
 discouragement, and necessarily the desertion 
 of the army : it diminished two-thirds when 
 it was repulsed at Angers; and' when the 
 chiefs, despairing (after the battle of Mans) of 
 not being able to recross the Loire at 
 Ancenis, led back the wrecks of the army 
 to Savenay, it consisted only of fifteen thou- 
 sand men, half dead with hunger and 
 misery: the major part of these were exter- 
 minated by the republicans ; the rest dis- 
 persed themselves, and from that time all 
 efforts ceased. Prince de Talmont was ar- 
 rested near Erne, tried at Rennes, and exe- 
 cuted at Laval: of the fate of Lescure and 
 the other chiefs, a melancholy catalogue 
 is furnished by Madame de la Rocheja- 
 quelin. 
 
 The wind favoring us the day following, 
 we sailed at break of day, and arrived at An- 
 gers at the close of a beautiful evening. 
 The approach to this town, in sailing up the 
 river Mayenne, is highly picturesque; its 
 
128 
 
 ancient castle is situated on a high rock 
 overhanging the river; its walls and antique 
 towers, built by the English, have an im- 
 posing effect. The town stands in a plain, 
 which, in the distance, being fringed with 
 wood, together with the corn and meadow 
 ground, give it that richness and beauty that 
 characterizes the whole country ^between 
 Nantes and Angers. The river Mayenne, 
 and a small branch of the Loire, divide the 
 town. It is the chief seat of the province of 
 Maine-et-Loire, formerly the capital of Anjou. 
 It is a large ancient city, with a fine cathe- 
 dral, a botanical garden, museum, and seve- 
 ral manufactories of cottons ; one of them in 
 imitation of India handkerchiefs. Here the 
 last effort was made by the Vendeans, whose 
 flight from it was immediately followed by 
 the bloody and disastrous affair of Mans. 
 
 I had now passed the provinces of Bre- 
 tagne and Poitou, as they border the Loire; 
 and, in point of beautiful and romantic 
 
129 
 
 scenery, this district can scarcely be sur- 
 passed. The left bank of the river, running* 
 along the country of Le Bocage, from Nantes 
 to Angers, a distance of seventy-two miles, 
 is a continued range of lofty hills, agreeably 
 diversified with corn-lands, and studded with 
 vineyards. The opposite bank is a more 
 flat and variegated country, with pleasant 
 eminences and broad plains, watered by 
 branches of the Loire, which in many parts 
 contains small islands covered with trees. 
 The whole course of this fine river, as the 
 eye sweeps and ranges over its banks, pre- 
 sents at almost every bend the view of villas 
 enriched with gardens, orchards, and vine- 
 yards ; castles, convents, and villages in 
 ruins ! bearing innumerable evidences of the 
 desolating war that has destroyed them. 
 
 The religious communities, whose love of 
 scenery and retirement in general led them 
 to prefer the most sequestered valleys, have 
 in these provinces chosen the most elevated 
 
 K 
 
130 
 
 and picturesque spots for the erection of their 
 monasteries; and these, notwithstanding their 
 deserted and decaying state, prove the 
 good taste of their ancient possessors, and 
 the skill and industry with which they 
 embellished them. No situations could have 
 been selected more abounding in picturesque 
 combinations of magnificent landscapes. 
 
 The pleasure of the traveller in surveying 
 such scenes, cannot but be frequently inter- 
 rupted, by the recollection of the various 
 atrocities which the inhabitants of these fine 
 provinces committed against each other, and 
 of the immense number of innocent victims 
 that were driven from their abode to perish 
 by famine or the sword. 
 
CHAP. vin. 
 
 SAtTMUR TO TOURS— TOURS-TOURS TO BLOIS-ORLEANS— AND 
 ORLEANS TO PARIS. 
 
 I HIRED a small carriage, called a patache^ 
 to convey me to Saumur and Tours; it is 
 driven by a postillion with two horses, and is 
 open in front, giving the traveller a better 
 opportunity of viewing the country than in a 
 close vehicle. 
 
 The town of> Saumur is built on both 
 banks of the Loire^ with a handsome stone 
 bridge over it ; an ancient castle, built on a 
 high rock, commands the whole town. The 
 road from Angers to this place is a high 
 raised causeway, paved, and runs parallel to 
 the river> within a few paces of its banks^ 
 the whole distance. Here we entered into 
 
 K 2 
 
132 
 
 Touraine from tlie province of Anjou. From 
 Saumur to Tours, the road is like the former. 
 The river Loire is on the right hand, and a 
 flat level country on the left, covered with 
 orchards', groves, and meadows. The road 
 is every where raised so high, that it forms a 
 very steep declivity, with narrow pathways 
 down to the entrance of the cottages and 
 villages, which are most romantically situ- 
 ated, — some in orchards, some amidst vine- 
 yards, some in gardens, and others in recesses 
 peeping from between the trees. The fences 
 are fantastically interwoven with wreaths 
 of the vines, which frequently creep up 
 the trunk of a pear or a cherry-tree, and 
 cover the slated roofs of the houses, thereby, 
 from the natural luxuriance and wildness of 
 their spreading branches in the fruit-season, 
 answering at once the purposes of utility 
 and ornament; for the slates, retaining the 
 heat, ripen the grape sooner than any other 
 mode of training. The corn was now ripe, 
 
133 
 
 and added to the interest and beauty of the 
 scenes; in many of the fields the reapers 
 were at work, and the harvest (which happily 
 for France had not been so abundant for 
 many years) was going on with the assistance 
 of the female peasantry, who on all occa- 
 sions partake and cheer the labours of the 
 field. 
 
 Approaching nearer to Tours, I had a fine 
 view of the bridge, which is esteemed 
 the handsomest in France. Between the 
 branches of the trees, I now and then caught 
 a glimpse of the spires of the church and 
 buildings, encompassed by extensive orchards 
 and groves, and open vales between, varied 
 by vineyards. It was 2. jour de fete, and as I 
 drove through the town the streets were 
 gay with holyday people, and crowded in 
 some places with groups of women and 
 girls, whose cheerful countenances proved 
 fhe admiration with which they viewed the 
 
134 
 
 performances of some mountebanks.^ Tours 
 is the chief seat of the prefecture of the In- 
 dre-et-Loire, formerly the capital of the pro- 
 vince of Touraine, and is built on a plain 
 on the bank of the Loire. The houses are of 
 a white stone, and in the principal streets 
 well built and lofty : it is altogether one of 
 
 * There is no city in Europe where there are more of 
 these sort of people to be seen than at Paris, on 
 the boi^levards and different carrefours. The fondness 
 of the Parisians for shows has existed for ages. In a ta- 
 riff of Saint Lewis for regulating the duties upon the dif- 
 ferent articles brought into Paris by the gate of the 
 little Chatelet, it is ordained, (Hist, lviii. cxxxiii.) that 
 whosoever fetches a monkey into the city for sale, shall 
 pay four deniers; but if the monkey belongs to a merry- 
 andrew, the merry-andrew shall be exempted from pay- 
 ing the duty, as well upon the said monkey as on every 
 thing else he carries along with him, by causing his mon- 
 key to play and dance before the collector ! Hence is de- 
 rived the proverb Payer en monnoie de singe,” i. e. to 
 laugh at a man instead of paying him, By another arti- 
 cle, it is specified, that jugglers shall likewise be exempt 
 from all imposts, provided they sing a couplet of a song 
 before the toll-gatherer, 
 
135 
 
 the handsomest towns in France. The main 
 street, the rue Royale, can boast of a foot 
 pavement, which is seldom to be met with in 
 this country. The environs of the town 
 are also very beautiful ; the luxuriance of the 
 soil, abounding in vines, fruits, and every ar- 
 ticle of life, has attracted such numbers of 
 English to its vicinity, that Tours may be al- 
 most considered an English colony. 
 
 Its ancient cathedral is in good preserva- 
 tion, notwithstanding it became a prey to the 
 licentious fanaticism of the republicans. 
 
 The hotel Saint Julien, where I resided du- 
 ring my stay, stands upon the cloisters of an 
 ancient abbey ; and the church, with its fine 
 Gothic pillars and chapels, remains a monu- 
 ment of those destructive and desolating 
 times ! The side-aisles are stalls for horses 
 and cattle, and the centre is a reniise for 
 carriages and the public diligences which 
 run to this inn ! The best hotel is the hotel 
 du Faisan. 
 
136 
 
 The vast number of English who keep 
 pouring into all the western provinces of this 
 country, by degrees has affected the markets, 
 and will continue to do so, as long as the 
 rage for emigration lasts. At Tours, every 
 article is one4hird dearer than at Nantes, 
 and in proportion as the capital is ap- 
 proached every thing becomes more expen- 
 sive ; yet, notwithstanding this, living is, and 
 must ever be, infinitely cheaper than in 
 England, 
 
 It certainly is no exaggeration to say, that 
 France is richer in the production of fruits 
 and vegetables than any country in Europe, 
 for in no other can be found so many 
 productions of the same climates of the 
 earth, or a soil more naturally abundant, 
 With the exception of some of the northern 
 provinces, every part of France has wine, 
 and the culture of that delicious fruit which 
 produces it is mentioned in its earliest re- 
 cords. By a happy distribution, those pro- 
 
137 
 
 vinces which do not bear the vine, are 
 abundantly supplied with other productions. 
 Normandy and Bretagne abound in the finest 
 fruits ; Picardy, and the adjoining pro- 
 vinces, in corn. The riches of Lorraine are 
 in its woods ; Touraine has ever been famous 
 for its plums and its pears. The banks of 
 the Loire, and the valleys of Dauphine, are 
 celebrated for the richness of their verdure 
 and vegetation; and the more southern pro- 
 vinces of Languedock and Provence partake 
 of the climate and productions of Italy and 
 Spain, 
 
 Between Tours and Amboise, I passed the 
 once celebrated Chateau of Chanteloup, for- 
 merly the property of the Due de Choiseuil, 
 now the residence of the Comte de Chaptal, 
 who became the purchaser when it was sold 
 as national property. 
 
 At the distance of six miles from Blois, 
 the road leads near enough to Valengay to 
 have a good view of its magnificent palace 
 
138 
 
 and grounds; this place, now belonging to 
 M. de Talleyrand, Prince et Due de Bene- 
 vento, (one of the most extraordinary cha- 
 racters who have figured so conspicuously 
 during the present age,) is the more inte- 
 resting, from having been so long the place 
 of confinement of Ferdinand the present 
 King of Spain; and from whence our go- 
 vernment tried to extricate him through the 
 agency of Baron de Kolly, who lost his life 
 in the attempt. This singular transaction 
 has appeared in all the public papers, but 
 having had an opportunity of collecting the 
 particulars through a channel of undoubted 
 authority, I consider it an anecdote of too 
 interesting a nature, as connected with the 
 subject before me, not to insert it here. 
 
 In 1810, our government laid a plan to 
 liberate King Ferdinand VII. of Spain, simi- 
 lar to the one which had already effected 
 the escape of the Marquis de la Romana. 
 The person entrusted with this commission, 
 
139 
 
 assumed the name of Baron de Kolly, and, 
 besides the necessary credit and credentials, 
 he was furnished with the original letter, 
 written by Charles IV. to George III. in 
 1802, notifying the marriage of his son, the 
 Prince of the Asturias, and containing a 
 marginal note from the Marquis W .... in 
 corroboration of his mission. A small squa- 
 dron was also sent to cruize off that part of 
 the coast most contiguous to Valen 9 ay, under 
 the orders of Commodore C , , . . to be in 
 readiness to receive the royal fugitive. On 
 a sudden the Baron de Kolly was seized, and 
 the plan frustrated, but the real particulars 
 were never known until after the events of 
 the campaign of 1815, 
 
 In the course of the passage to St. Helena, 
 Admiral C . . . . (who had been entrusted 
 with the project) expressed a wish to know of 
 Buonaparte, by what means de Kolly had 
 been discovered and arrested, and the true 
 circumstances of the affair so totally un- 
 
140 
 
 known in England, adding, that if no motive 
 of state-policy intervened, he was anxious 
 to hear the whole disclosure. Buonaparte 
 readily consented, and told him that de Kolly 
 arrived at Paris and lived in the greatest 
 obscurity, dressed shabbily, and eating his 
 meals only at cheap traiteurs in the Faux- 
 bourg St. Antoine. However, he was not 
 satisfied with the common wine served up, 
 and would ask for the best Bordeaux, for 
 which he paid five francs per bottle. This 
 contrast of poverty and luxury excited suspi- 
 cions in the waiters of the two houses he 
 thus frequented, who being in the pay of the 
 police, immediately sent in a report. De 
 Kolly was watched, and soon afterwards 
 seized with all his papers. Buonaparte said 
 he then procured a person, as nearly re- 
 sembling de Kolly as could be found, to 
 carry on the English stratagem, under a 
 hope that Ferdinand would have fallen into 
 the trap ; and with all the original credentials. 
 
141 
 
 this agent of the French police went into the 
 castle of Valengay, under a pretext of selling 
 some trinkets. Ferdinand, however, said 
 Buonaparte, was too great a coward to enter 
 into the views proposed to him, but instantly 
 gave information of what had been commu- 
 nicated, to his first chamberlain, Amazada, 
 in a letter written to the governor of the 
 castle! — By this means Ferdinand escaped 
 being placed at the mercy of Buonaparte, 
 whose intention was to intercept him in 
 his flight. 
 
 Although the conduct of Ferdinand was in 
 this instance pusillanimous and cruel, it 
 was next to an impossibility that he could 
 have effected his escape. He was surrounded 
 by guards and spies of every description, 
 under the superintendence of M. Darberg, 
 Auditor of the Council of State, and without 
 whose leave no admittance could be ob- 
 tained. Twenty-five horse-gendarmes regu- 
 larly mounted guard about the castle, and 
 
142 
 
 every person found in its vicinity without 
 regular passport, was confined and strictly 
 examined. 
 
 At a small distance is the residence of 
 Marshal Victor, Due de Belluno, whom 
 I met walking in the grounds. I was very 
 civilly permitted to enter, on sending a mes- 
 sage desiring permission, as a traveller, to 
 see it. It stands at the entrance of the village 
 of Menard, and was once the favourite resi- 
 dence of Madame de Pompadour, the mis- 
 tress of Louis XV. The river Loire winds 
 beautifully beneath the terrace. The grounds 
 are of a vast extent, and tastefully laid out. 
 Over the entrance, the workmen were then 
 placing the arms of the Marshal, finely exe- 
 cuted in stone. 
 
 The country is thickly enclosed on each 
 side of the river, varied with hill and dale, 
 clothed with vineyards. The villages and 
 small towns along the banks, as far as Or- 
 leans, are numerous and invariably pic- 
 
 
143 
 
 turesque. Nothing can be more beautiful 
 than the natural festoons which are formed 
 by the long shoots of the vines as they project 
 over the road. The peasants and the vig- 
 nerons live in the midst of their vineyards ; 
 their dwellings are excavations in chalky 
 strata of the solid rock, which aflford them 
 warm and dry habitations; some of them 
 were so covered with the vines that the 
 entrance was scarcely visible, and the compa- 
 rison of them to so many birds’ nests is 
 not badly imagined. The hedges were cover- 
 ed with wild thyme and rosemary ; and the 
 clematis, interwoven with honeysuckles and 
 other fragrant flowers, richly perfumed the 
 air. The grapes in Touraine and Orleanois 
 are not abundant this year, but the wine that 
 is expected to be made, will, it is supposed, 
 from the dryness of the summer, be of an ex- 
 cellent quality. 
 
 The town of Orleans is memorable for the 
 siege it sustained against the English in 1428, 
 
144 
 
 when the maid of Orleans acquired so much 
 renown, and whose barbarous execution at 
 Rouen cannot be remembered without feel- 
 ings of horror and indignation, and must 
 ever remain a stain on the memory of that 
 brave soldier the Duke of Bedford. The 
 transactions subsequent to that event led to 
 the almost entire expulsion of the English 
 from France; and those glittering conquests 
 which were an object of more glory than in- 
 terest, and had been purchased at such an 
 expense of blood and treasure, were from 
 that time lost to the English nation. 
 
 During the Revolution, the ancient statue 
 of this celebrated female was taken down 
 and unfortunately destroyed, and one more 
 modern, but less interesting, finely executed 
 in bronze, has been since erected. She is 
 habited in armour, with a lance and shield, 
 supposed to be leading on the victorious 
 troops. At the four angles, are the emble- 
 matical figures in relief, of the principal 
 
146 
 
 events of her singular career. On a marble 
 pedestal, is inscribed — 
 
 A JEANNE D’ARC. 
 
 Orleans is the chief seat of the department 
 of the Loiret, formerly the capital of Or- 
 leanais, on the river Loire, over which it has 
 a handsome bridge like the one at Tours, 
 though not of such extent, as the river here 
 is not so wide, and very shallow. The com- 
 munication by water with Paris is carried on 
 by means of a canal. 
 
 The church is one of the finest specimens 
 of Gothic architecture I have seen in France. 
 The towers are of open fretwork, and in ex- 
 cellent preservation. More cheerful scenes 
 of exuberant fertility are no where to be met 
 with than along the banks of the river, and 
 in the country surrounding the town. 
 
 From Orleans to Etampes, there is a plain 
 of eighteen leagues in extent, the whole 
 of which was covered with one entire tract of 
 
 L 
 
146 
 
 com and vines ; not an intervening hill or 
 hillock ; and the scene was doubly interesting 
 from the harvest carrying on in every direc- 
 tion as I traversed it. 
 
 Leaving Etampes, I passed through the 
 beautiful villages of Sceaux, Bourg-la-Reine, 
 and Fontenay-aux-Roses ; the latter still con- 
 tains the ruins of the Palace of Colbert, the 
 celebrated minister of Louis XIV. 
 
 The village of Fontenay-aux-Roses is situ- 
 ated in a valley six miles from Paris, and 
 takes its name from the culture of roses, 
 which cover large tracts of ground. The 
 proprietors sell the flowers to the distillers 
 for making rose-water and essences, and the 
 flower-market is supplied with the choicest 
 bouquets; it is likewise celebrated for its pro- 
 duce of the finest strawberries and peaches. 
 
 The beauty of its situation, and the asso- 
 ciation of its name with the sweetest of 
 flowers, has attracted many of the wealthy 
 inhabitants of the metropolis to reside in its 
 
147 
 
 vicinity, where they have summer-houses ; 
 among them is the Maire de Fontenay, Mon- 
 sieur Ledru, whose history is singular and 
 interesting. 
 
 His father, who was very wealthy, and a 
 great miser, sent for him one morning, at the 
 time he had just attained his eighteenth year, 
 and said to him : “I began life at your age 
 with half-a-crown ; there is one for you — ^go, 
 and be as fortunate as I have been f — ^saying 
 which, he turned him out of the house, and 
 shut the door in his face. 
 
 Undismayed at such unexpected and un- 
 natural conduct on the part of his parent, 
 whom he had never offended, the youth 
 sought the advice and assistance of a friend, 
 by whose opinion he applied himself to the 
 study of medicine. After an indefatigable 
 study at the Hotel Dieu, he became celebra- 
 ted in his profession, and had the good 
 fortune to be employed by a lady of great 
 wealth, whose life he saved. Out of grati- 
 
 L 2 
 
148 
 
 tude, she proposed to become his wife, and 
 to settle upon him an income of fifty thou- 
 sand livres, that he might give up his medi- 
 cal pursuits ; which, having accepted, he re- 
 warded her by an attention and kindness suit- 
 able to the noble generosity of her conduct. 
 
 The revolution soon after occurred, and in 
 the general wreck of property she lost all 
 her fortune, it having been invested either 
 in the funds or public securities. It then 
 became the turn of Mons. Ledru to support 
 his wife, by renewing the practice of his 
 profession, which soon placed them again in 
 affluent circumstances. 
 
 At the death of bis father, who left an im- 
 mense fortune to be divided between Mons. 
 Ledru and his two maiden-sisters, he took 
 possession of the estate at Fontenay-aux- 
 Roses, from whence he had been cruelly ba- 
 nished when a boy, and which the unkind- 
 ness of his parent had never after permitted 
 him to enter. 
 
149 
 
 Fortune, which had hitherto played a way- 
 ward and capricious game with him, had not 
 yet ceased her freaks. In removing a mirror 
 from over a chimney-piece which required 
 an alteration, he discovered a prodigious 
 treasure that had been concealed there by 
 his father ! With that generosity and nobie- 
 ness of character, which make him esteemed 
 and beloved by all his acquaintance, and 
 adored by the whole commune over which 
 he presides, he instantly sent for his sis- 
 ters and divided it with them. His wife did 
 not long survive this last event, and since her 
 death he has continued to reside at Fon- 
 tenay-aux-Roses with his sisters, where he 
 exercises his authority with mildness; and by 
 constant acts of beneficence and charity, 
 is justly styled, “ Le Pere de Fontenay !” 
 
 Between Fontenay-aux-Roses and Paris, 
 to the right of the road, is the village of 
 Gentilly, whose numerous guinguettes are 
 ^uch frequented by the Parisians in fine 
 
150 
 
 weather. It being a holyday we met crowds 
 of well-dressed citizens, in all sorts of vehi- 
 cles, driving towards it. An interesting cir- 
 cumstance had been related to me of the 
 cure of this village, M. Detruissart ; and on 
 asking permission to visit his rural habitation, 
 I found the story to be true. His garden, 
 which is not above half an acre, has been 
 laid out with such art and ingenuity as 
 to give an idea of considerable extent, and to 
 add to the charms of this little spot, which 
 he calls his “ bonheur,” there are a variety 
 of inscriptions of his own composition ; over 
 an arbour of vines is the following : — 
 
 MA SOLITUDE. 
 
 Loin des mechans, du bruit, des tempetes du raonde, 
 Sous uii simple berceau dont la treille est feconde. 
 Sous un modeste toit, dans de rians jardins, 
 
 Dessines, el eves, cultives par mes mains; .... 
 
 C’est dans ces lieux cheris que s’ecoule mavie 
 Dans une paix profonde, une tranquillite 
 Qui sans cesse rappele a mon ame ravie 
 Le temps de F%e d^or et ma felicite; 
 
151 
 
 Mais, quelque doux qu’il soit, rnon sort est peude chose; 
 Car enfin, apres tout, je dois mourir bientot! 
 
 Ne ressernblons-nous pas a la feuille de rose 
 Qiii paroit un instant et qui seehe aussitot ! 
 
 It was ill the practice of the moral con- 
 veyed by these lines, and in the pursuit 
 of literature, and constant acts of charity, 
 that Mons. Detruissart passed his life, which 
 was rewarded by the esteem and affection of 
 all his parishioners, of which they gave a re- 
 markable proof on the 4th of July, 1815, 
 when the Prussian troops took post at Gen- 
 tilly, from whence they had driven the 
 French the preceding evening into Paris. 
 
 The poor cure, with many other of the inha- 
 bitants, sought refuge in the capital, leaving 
 his house at the mercy of the enemy, who 
 commenced plundering in all directions ; 
 the humble and modest appearance of M. 
 Detruissart’s cottage not attracting their 
 notice, it^ remained untouched, when a single 
 word from any of the inhabitants would have 
 
152 
 
 devoted it to ruin ; but such was their esteem 
 for him, that at his return he found every 
 thing as he had left it. 
 
 I entered Paris, leaving Bicetre to my 
 right, by the barriere d’Enfer, after one of 
 the most agreeable and interesting journeys I 
 ever performed. 
 
CHAP. IX. 
 
 ENVIRONS OF PARIS-PERE LA CHAISE-CASTLE OF VINCENNES— AND 
 CHATEAU OF ST. GERMAIN— ITS FOREST AND VICINITY. 
 
 Prior to the revolution, the French, like 
 most other European nations, were in the 
 practice of depositing their dead in churches 
 and cemeteries within the most populous 
 towns, in compliance with those precepts 
 of evangelical doctrine which recommend 
 us unceasingly to reflect on death; and 
 hence originated a custom which cannot but 
 be attended with most pernicious conse- 
 quences to health, when we reflect that the 
 decomposition of human bodies is productive 
 of putrid exhalations, and consequently preg- 
 nant with the causes of contagious disorders. 
 It is indeed surprising that some regulations 
 
154 
 
 have not hitherto been adopted in England 
 regarding the interment of the dead, from 
 the example of other countries. 
 
 In the year 1793, a decree was passed by 
 the National Assembly, to prevent burying 
 in churches, or in church-yards, within the 
 city of Paris. Since which period, there 
 have been three places selected in its imme- 
 diate neighbourhood for that purpose — Mont- 
 martre, called “ Le Champ du Repos” — Vau- 
 girard, and Pere La Chaise. 
 
 Quitting the Boulevards, at the extremity 
 of the Boulevards Neufs, eastward of the 
 city, and passing through the Barriere d’Aul- 
 nay, I arrived at the Pere La Chaise. At 
 the entrance, through large folding gates, is 
 a spacious court-yard, having at one angle 
 the dwelling of the Concierge, or Keeper. 
 The enclosure contains one hundred and 
 twenty acres, on a gently rising ground, in 
 the centre of which stands the ancient man- 
 sion constructed by Louis XIV. for his con- 
 
155 
 
 fessor, Pere la Chaise, the celebrated Jesuit, 
 who, with Madame de Maintenon, governed 
 France. Rising above the thousands of 
 tombs which surround it, it displays itself a 
 wrecked and mouldering monument of an- 
 cient splendour, and the mutability of hu- 
 man affairs! This spot became afterwards a 
 place of public promenade and great resort, 
 from the beauty of its position overlooking all 
 Paris; and though so often the scene of 
 festivity and pleasure, now presents to the 
 eye of the beholder a mournfully interesting 
 sight of tombs and sarcophagi, intermixed 
 with various fruit-trees, cypress-groves, the 
 choicest flowers, and rarest shrubs. 
 
 From the rising ground, above the builds 
 ing of Pere La Chaise, a most delightful view 
 displays itself The city of Paris appears to 
 stand in the centre of a vast amphitheatre. 
 The heights of Belleville, Montmartre, and 
 Menilmontant, in the west. To the east, the 
 beautiful plain of Saint-Mande, Montreuil, 
 
156 
 
 and Vincennes, with the lofty towers of its 
 fortress. — The fertile banks of the river 
 Marne are on the North, and in the South, 
 the horizon encircles Bicetre and Meudon. 
 
 The various tombs are placed without 
 order or regularity : they are mostly enclosed 
 with trellis- work of wood, sometimes by 
 iron-railing ; and consist of a small marble 
 column, a pyramid, a sarcophagus, or a single 
 slab, just as may have suited the fancy or 
 the taste of the friends of the departed. — • 
 Some surrounded with cypress, some with 
 roses, myrtles, and the choicest exotics ; others 
 with evergreens, and not unfrequently a 
 single weeping willow, with the addition of a 
 rose-tree ! 
 
 This intermixture of the sweetest-scented 
 flowers and fruit-trees, in a burying-groimd, 
 among the finest pieces of sculptured marble, 
 with evergreens growing over them, in the 
 form of arbours, and furnished with seats, 
 cannot fail to produce in the mind of the 
 
 \ 
 
157 
 
 pei-son who views it for the first time, 
 peculiar and uncommon feelings of do- 
 mestic melancholy, mingled with pleasing 
 tenderness. 
 
 Who could be otherwise than powerfully 
 affected, as I was, by the first objects that 
 presented themselves to me on entering the 
 place? — A mother and her two sons, kneel- 
 ing in pious devotion at the foot of the hus- 
 band s and the father s grave ! At a short 
 distance, a female of elegant form, watering 
 and dressing the earth around some plants at 
 her lover s tomb !-r-not a day, and seldom an 
 hour, passes, but some one is seen either 
 weeping over the remains of a departed 
 relative, or watching with pious solicitude 
 the flowers that. spring up around it. 
 
 Among the many interesting objects that 
 presented themselves at my first visit; was 
 the tomb of Abelard and Heloise, which 
 had not long since been removed from 
 
158 
 
 the convent of the Augustins, where I had 
 seen it in 1815. 
 
 At a little distance, to the left of the for- 
 mer, was the burial-place of Labedoyere. 
 The fate of this brave and unfortunate officer 
 is well known; his youth, and misled zeal, 
 have procured him a sympathy, which his 
 fellow-sufferer Marshal Ney did not find, and 
 did not merit. 
 
 In the centre of a square plot of ground, 
 enclosed with lattice-work, is erected a 
 wooden cross, painted black. Neither mar- 
 ble, nor stone, nor letters, indicate his name. 
 Two pots of roses, and a tuft of violets, alone 
 marked the spot, which is carefully weeded. 
 There is something more affecting in all' this 
 simplicity, something, in my mind, that goes 
 more directly home to the heart, than in the 
 most splendid monument or the most studied 
 eulogium. As we came suddenly up we saw 
 two females, clad in deep mourning, weeping 
 
159 
 
 over it; at each arm of the cross was sus^ 
 pended a garland of flowers; we were about 
 to retire again immediately, from the fear of 
 disturbing their melancholy devotions, when 
 the concierge, with a brutality indescribable, 
 rushed forward, and removing the garlands, 
 threw them among the shrubs at a consider- 
 able distance. The friend who accompanied 
 me, after searching, recovered one of the 
 garlands, and with more gallantry perhaps 
 than policy, immediately replaced it, and 
 reproaching the keeper with his unmanly 
 conduct, vowed vengeance if he dared to in- 
 terrupt the ladies again, when bowing to 
 them we retired. 
 
 As we were about to quit the place some 
 time after, we were arrested by two gen- 
 darmes, and it was not till after a detention 
 of some hours, and a long discussion be- ^ 
 tween the police-officers who had been sum- 
 moned to attend, and being threatened to 
 
160 
 
 be sent to the Conciergerie prison, that we 
 were allowed to depart. 
 
 The following words were engraved on a 
 plain marhle slab that covered the remains of 
 Marshal Ney. 
 
 ci gIt 
 
 LE MARfiCHAL NEY 
 Due D’ECHLINGEN 
 
 prInce DE MOSCOWA 
 
 DECEDE le 7 Decembre, 1815. 
 
 The grave of the Marshal, as well as that 
 of Labedoyere, when I again visited the 
 spot, had been stripped of every thing, and 
 the railing around them removed so as to 
 prevent any one from discovering the place 
 of their interment. 
 
 The monument of Madame Cottin, the 
 author of Elizabeth and of Mathilde, is, like 
 her writings, simple and affecting ! — Sur- 
 rounded by a trellis-work in the form of an 
 arbour, planted with rose-trees, stands a pil- 
 
161 
 
 lar of the whitest marble, highly polished, 
 inclining forwards, and engraven with 
 
 ICI REPOSE 
 
 Marie-Sophie Risteav 
 Veuve de J. M. Cottin 
 Decedee le 25 Aout. 
 
 1815. 
 
 Near this is the tomb of the esteemed and 
 celebrated poet Delille, the “ Songster of 
 the Gardens,” as the French term him. The 
 monument is enclosed in a small garden, 
 planted with the choicest flowers and shrubs : 
 it is of white marble, of large dimensions, 
 and approached by an allee verte. The door 
 leading to the vault is of brass, with emble- 
 matical figures in relief : above the entrance 
 is inscribed in letters of gold, 
 
 JACaVES-DELILLE. 
 
 The linden-tree, intermixed with various 
 evergreens, form an interesting and beautiful 
 bouquet around it, 
 
 M 
 
162 
 
 Beyond this, to the right, are the tombs 
 of Gretry the composer, Fourcroy the great 
 chemist, Fontenelle, Boileau, Racine, and 
 of Mademoiselle Raucourt, the celebrated 
 actress, to whom the bigotry of the clergy 
 refused burial in consecrated ground in 1815 ! 
 a circumstance which gave rise to much 
 clamour and dissatisfaction. It is surprising, 
 that after such events as have been expe- 
 rienced in France, the folly of denying the 
 right of consecrated ground to a comedian 
 should have been persevered in, after the 
 restoration of Louis xvill! 
 
 Close to the tomb of Mademoiselle Rau- 
 court, is one, which for its affecting simplicity 
 and modesty, struck me very forcibly : in a 
 little garden of roses and lilies, and amidst 
 some tufts of mignonette which appeared to 
 have been newly watered, stood a plain 
 marble column, with the words as represented 
 in the annexed sketch- — an accacia shaded it 
 from the sun s rays. 
 

 
 FuFlCrkzd Tf^JtcMa/iJSlFcsuLdiUj’. 
 
 

163 
 
 In 1814, when the Allies approached Paris, 
 this height, like the others commanding 
 the capital, was fortified, and occupied by 
 the students of the Poly technical School, 
 who defended it with great gallantry. The 
 walls were perforated with holes for the mus- 
 ketry : the marks are still visible where they 
 have been since filled up. On the 30th of 
 March, 1814, this position was vigorously 
 attacked, with great slaughter on both sides : 
 the assailants and the assailed fell in heaps, 
 and it was not .until the chief part of a Prus- 
 sian corps, (that afterwards carried it by 
 assault) had been annihilated, that the brave 
 youths gave way. 
 
 The tomb of my early friend and brother 
 ' officer, the brave and unfortunate Captain 
 Wright, who was murdered in the Temple, 
 is in the cemetery of Vaugirard. I had 
 searched for it in vain at Pere la Chaise, 
 where it was reported he had been buried. 
 It has on it the following inscription, written 
 
 M 2 
 
164 
 
 to his memory by his companion in arms, 
 and in imprisonment, the gallant Sir Sidney 
 Smith : — 
 
 HERE LIES INHUMED 
 
 JOHN WESLEY WRIGHT, 
 
 BY BIRTH AN ENGLISHMAN, 
 
 CAPTAIN IN THE BRITISH NAVY, 
 
 Disting^aished both among his own Countrymen and Foreigners 
 For skill and courage ; 
 
 To whom. 
 
 Of those things which lead to the summit of glory, 
 
 Nothing was wanting but opportunity. 
 
 His ancestors, whose virtues he inherited. 
 
 He honoured by' his deeds. 
 
 ^ Quick in apprehending his orders. 
 
 Active and bold in the execution of them. 
 
 In success modest. 
 
 In adverse circumstances firm. 
 
 In doubtful enterprises, wise and prudent. 
 
 Awhile successful in his career. 
 
 At length assailed by adverse winds, and on an hostile shore, 
 
 He was captured ; 
 
 And being soon after brought to Paris, 
 
 Was confined in the prison called the Temple, 
 
 Infamous for midnight murders, 
 
 And placed in the most rigid custody ; 
 
 But in bonds. 
 
 And suffering severities still more oppressive. 
 
 His fortitude of mind and fidelity to his country 
 Remained unshaken. 
 
 A short time after. 
 
 He was found in the morning with his throat cut. 
 
 And dead in his bed. 
 
 He died the 28th October, 1805, aged 36. 
 
 To be lamented by his Country, 
 
 Avenged by his God ! 
 
THE DONJON, 
 
 OR 
 
 CASTLE OF VINCENNES. 
 
 This ancient fortress is situate at the en- 
 trance of the forest of Vincennes, (now 
 reduced to a wood of small trees, the large 
 timber having been cut down during the 
 revolution) and surrounded by a deep ditch 
 of great width, about two miles from the 
 Barriere du Trone. During many ages, it 
 had been the casual residence of the sove- 
 reigns of France. Philip de Valois added 
 considerably to its dimensions in 1337. 
 John continued the works, and during his 
 captivity in England, Charles his son, then 
 regent of the kingdom, finished it. 
 
 During the reign of Charles VII. in 1422, 
 Henry VI. of England died in this castle. 
 From this time Vincennes became a royal 
 
166 
 
 residence, until the reign of Louis XIV. 
 when that monarch fixed himself at Ver- 
 sailles, from which period it has never been 
 used but as a prison.^ 
 
 Dulaure, a French writer, in speaking of 
 the persons who were confined here, ob- 
 serves, it would be difficult to enumerate 
 the number of individuals that have been 
 shut up in this prison within these few years, 
 ‘‘ We will merely notice,” he says, the 
 
 * Monstrelet relates a curious anecdote, during the re- 
 sidence at the Castle of Vincennes of Isabeau de Ba- 
 viere, strongly illustrative of the barbarous manners of 
 those times, ‘‘ Lewis de Bourbon, who was handsome 
 and well-made, and had signalized himself upon various 
 occasions, and amongst others at the battle of Agincourt, 
 going one night, as was customary, to visit the Queen, 
 Isabeau de Baviere, at the Castle of Vincennes, met the 
 King (Charles VI.); he saluted him, without either 
 stopping or alighting from his horse, but continued gaU 
 loping on. The King having recollected him, ordered 
 Tangui du Chatel, prevost of Paris, to pursue, and to 
 confine him in prison. At night the qtiestion was 
 applied, and he was afterwards tied up in a sack 
 and cast into the Seine, with this inscription upon the 
 sack, ‘Let the King’s justice take place.’ ” 
 
celebrated Count Mirabeau, who was con- 
 fined from 1777 to 1780 ; here it was that 
 he translated his Tibulle, and Joannes Se- 
 cundus, and wrote his ‘ Lettres orig^inales 
 “ to his mistress, Madame Lemonnier, which 
 abound with passages as affecting as the 
 “ letters of Heloise.” 
 
 This prison was thrown open during the 
 reign of the unfortunate Louis XVI. by the 
 Baron de Breteuil, Minister of the Depart- 
 ment of Paris in 1784. In going over it, 
 every one w^as penetrated with horror ; and 
 feelings of the most melancholy interest 
 were excited by reading the various inscrip- 
 tions on the walls, indicative of the hopeless 
 misery that had been experienced within 
 them ! Many were expressive of piety and 
 resignation at the approach of death !— 
 others complaining of the cruel oppression 
 which had immured them ! On one wall was 
 written, II faut moiirir, moii frere; mon 
 frere, il faut inourir, quand il plaira a Dieu.” 
 
168 
 
 On the door of another prison were, “ Bead 
 qui persecutionem patiuntur propter justi- 
 tiam, quoniam ipsorum est regnum caelorum.” 
 On the same spot were, “ Career Socratis, 
 templum honoris.” 
 
 This Donjon remained unoccupied until 
 1791* At this period, the prisons of the 
 capital being filled with criminals. Govern- 
 ment ordered it to be prepared for the re- 
 ception of that class of prisoners; but on 
 the massacres that followed, the mob either 
 murdered or released them all, after a bloody 
 contest, and it remained again without pri- 
 soners until the Imperial Government under 
 Buonaparte. It was then garrisoned by a 
 detachment of the Imperial Guard, and mul- 
 titudes of victims were transferred there 
 whose fate remains, and probably ever will 
 remain, unknown. 
 
 It was to this place that the Duke D’En- 
 ghien, who was arrested the 15th March, 
 1804, at Ettenheim, in the Electorate of 
 
169 
 
 Baden, was conducted the 20th of the same 
 month, at five in the evening, and condemned 
 to death the night following, by a military 
 commission, at which Murat presided. He 
 was accordingly shot on the 21st, at half 
 past four in the evening, in the ditch of the 
 castle which looks towards the forest, on the 
 north side, and his body thrown into a grave, 
 ready dug to receive it, where he fell. The 
 details of this cruel and wanton act of bar- 
 barity are too well known to need any repe- 
 tition here. 
 
 This spot is now marked by a wooden 
 cross, enclosed by an iron railing. The re- 
 mains of the Prince were dug out on the 
 20th March, 1816, by order of Louis XVIIL 
 and deposited with solemn funeral ceremony 
 in a coffin which is placed in the same apart- 
 ment where the council of war condemned 
 him to suffer ! since transformed into a cha- 
 pel. Under a cenotaph, covered with a 
 cloth of gold, is placed the coffin, with a 
 
170 
 
 prodigious large stone lying on it, the same 
 that was found lying on his head, and which 
 from its weight had crushed his skull ! 
 
 The apartment is hung with black cloth, 
 and remains continually lighted, with a guard 
 placed over it. Mass is daily performed for 
 the repose of his soul, agreeable to the 
 Catholic religion. 
 
 On the lid of the coffin is the following 
 inscription 
 
 Ici est Le Corps 
 
 De Tres-Haut, Tres-Puissant Prince 
 Louis-Antoine-Henri De Bourbon 
 Due D’Enghien, Prince du Sang 
 Pair de France 
 
 Mort A Vincennes, Le 21 Mars 1804 
 A L’age de xxxi Ans vii 3Iois xviii Jours. 
 
 A marble bust of the Prince, by Bosio, is 
 placed at the entrance. 
 
 During the periods of 1814 and 1815, 
 when Paris was in possession of the Allies, 
 Vincennes continued under the command of 
 General Daiimesnil, who declared that he 
 
171 
 
 held it for his country until the Government 
 was settled, and would not open its gates to 
 a foreign army. It was not attacked either 
 of the times. 
 
 It is approached by two gates, with draw- 
 bridges, and defended by cannon on all 
 sides. The fosse is of great depth, and dry, 
 extending, I should suppose, nearly a quar- 
 ter of a mile. It has nine towers, of prodi- 
 gious height and solidity : the largest, at the 
 south-western angle, called the Donjon, is 
 considerably more elevated than the others. 
 The principal entrance is fronting the forest, 
 on the north side, in the form of a triumphal 
 arch, with six pillars, ornamented in bas- 
 reliefs, and was decorated with marble 
 statues, which were destroyed when it was 
 seized by the mob. 
 
 The Donjon is surrounded by a separate 
 ditch, within the other, of forty feet depth, 
 and is approached by two draw-bridges ; one 
 for carriages, the other for foot-passengers; 
 
172 
 
 and the main tower is flanked by four other 
 angular ones, each having a high turret. The 
 windows are treble barred within and with- 
 out, so as to admit but a faint glimmering 
 light ! Three gates of great solidity are to 
 be passed at the entrance ; that which com- 
 municates with the draw-bridge of the castle 
 is secured both within and without. After 
 passing the three gates, there is a court, in 
 the middle of which stands the Donjon. 
 Three other immense gates guard its en- 
 trance ! 
 
 The form of the Donjon is a square. The 
 towers at the four angles are divided into five 
 floors, each having a separate staircase, and 
 each floor is vaulted, with an apartment in 
 the centre, sustained by pillars, which are 
 chimnies. At each of the four corners of 
 the apartment in the centre is a cell thirteen 
 feet square. The towers are encompassed 
 on the third story by a large gallery on the 
 outside, and on the top of each there is a 
 
173 
 
 small circular terrace. Such is the strength 
 and prodigious solidity of this building, that 
 it is said to be capable of resisting the 
 heaviest cannon, and is bomb-proof. The 
 hand of time appears not to have made any 
 impression on its outward surface. 
 
 The first hall is called “ La chambre de la 
 question its name indicates sufficiently the 
 horrid purposes to which it was appropriated ! 
 So late as the year 1790 were to be seen 
 chairs formed of stone, where the unhappy 
 victims were seated, with iron-collars fixed 
 to the wall by heavy chains, that confined 
 them to the spot while undergoing the tor- 
 ture ! In these prisons, deprived of air and 
 light, were beds of timber, on which they 
 were allowed to repose during the interval of 
 their sufferings. 
 
 The upper floor, named “ La salle du 
 conseil,” from the King s holding their coun- 
 cil there, while it was a royal residence, is 
 
174 
 
 secured by a door of great solidity, and each 
 prison at the angles had three doors covered 
 with iron plates, with double locks and treble 
 bolts. The doors were so contrived as to 
 open crossways, each serving as a security to 
 the other. The first acted as a bar to the 
 second, and this to the third, so that it was 
 necessary to close one before the other could 
 be opened. — Such was the mode of confine- 
 ment in this prison, the walls of which are 
 sixteen feet thick, and the arches thirty feet 
 high. 
 
 The other eight towers were also prisons. 
 The one called “ La tour de la surintend- 
 ance' contains cells six feet square; the bed 
 places are of stone. There is a square hole 
 to descend into the vaults beneath, where, 
 like a tomb, the miserable prisoner was im- 
 mured for ever ! ! ! Often, alas ! for imagi- 
 nary crimes, or for causes which make us 
 shudder at their wantonuess and barbarity. 
 
an unfortunate ^^ictim has been torn from 
 the bosom of his family, to perish unheard 
 of and unknown ! 
 
 The French Government have, I under- 
 stand, issued an order to prevent any one 
 from entering this place from motives of 
 curiosity; and let us hope that the humane 
 and enlightened policy of the restored Mo- 
 narch will close its cells for ever ! 
 
 The following beautiful lines, with which I 
 close an account of the most horribly inte- 
 resting spot I ever visited, are from the pen 
 ofDelille:— 
 
 Voyez gemir en proie a sa longue torture, 
 
 Ce mortel confine dans sa noire cloture. 
 
 Pour unique plaisir et pour seul passe-temps, 
 
 De sa lente journee il compte les instans, 
 
 Ou de son noir cachot mesure Tetendue, 
 
 Ou medite en secret sa fuite inattendue; 
 
 Ou, de ceux qu’ avant lui renferma la prison, 
 
 Lit, sur ces tristes rnurs, la complainte et le nom: 
 Et Ini-meme y traqant sa douloureuse histoire, 
 
 A ceux qui le suivront en transmet la memoire. 
 
 Cest peu d’etre enchainee dans ces tristes tombeaux, 
 Coinbien de souvenirs viennent aigrir ses maux ! 
 
Helas! tanclis qu’aupres de leurs jeunes compagnes, 
 Dans les riches cites, dans les vastes campagnes, 
 Ses amis d’autrefois errent en liberte, 
 
 Lorsque I’heure propice a la soci^te, 
 
 Reconduit chaque soir la jeunesse folatre 
 Aux entretiens joyeiix, a la danse, au theatre, 
 
 Ou, d’un plaisir plus doux annonqant le retour, 
 
 Du moment fortune vient avertir Pamour, 
 
 II est seul ; en un long et lugubre silence, 
 
 Pour lui le jour s’acheve, et le jour recommence; 
 
 II n’entend point Paccent de la tendre amitie, 
 
 II ne voit point les pleurs de la douce pitie : 
 
 N’ayant de mouvement que pour trainer des chanes, 
 Un cceur que pour Pennui, des sens que pour les peines, 
 Pour lui, plus de beaux jours, de ruisseau, de gazon ; 
 Cette voute est son ciel, ces murs son horizon. 
 
 Son regard, eleve vers les flambeaux celestes, 
 
 Vient mourir dans la nuit de ses cachots funestes ; 
 Rien n’egaie a ses yeux leur morne obscurite ; 
 
 Ou si, par des barreaux avares de clarte, 
 
 Un faible jour se glisse en ces antres funebres, 
 
 II redouble pour lui les horreurs des tenebres, 
 
 Et, le cceur consume d’un regret sans espoir, 
 
 II cherche la lumiere et gemit de la voir.” 
 
 DELILLE. 
 
177 
 
 CHATEAU DE SAINT GERMAIN. 
 
 This ancient pile of building is now a 
 barrack for the Kings Gardes du Corps, 
 containing two troops, one of Luxembourg, 
 and the other of Grammont, which are re- 
 lieved every three months. 
 
 It is supposed to have been built in the 
 reign of Robert, but there appears to be 
 no certainty as to the exact period. It is 
 interesting to the English traveller, from hav- 
 ing been the last refuge of James the Second 
 of England, and the residence, at various 
 times, of very celebrated and distinguished 
 characters. It was taken, and pillaged, and 
 partly burnt, during the reign of Philip VI, 
 in 1346, by Edward the Third, and again by 
 the English in 1419, and rebuilt by Francis 
 the First. During the war of the League in 
 1574, Catherine de Medicis retired to this 
 Castle, but from the predictions of an astro- 
 
 N 
 
 0 
 
loger, that she would die there, quitted it 
 shortly after, and returned to the Tuilleries, 
 which Palace she had founded.”^ Henry the 
 Fourth often frequented Saint Germain. The 
 Chateau Neuf, and one of the towers, called 
 he Pavilion de Gabrielle, which is still in 
 
 * According* to Mezeray, this palace had its name from 
 the spot whereon it is situated, which was called Les 
 Tuilleries, because tiles (des tuiles) were made here. Ca- 
 therine de Medicis built it in 1504. It consisted of no- 
 thing but the large square pavilion in the middle, the two 
 wings, and the two pavilions which terminate the wings. 
 Henry IV. Louis XIII. and Louis XIV. afterwards ex- 
 tended, elevated, and embellished it. It is said to be nei- 
 ther so well-proportioned, so beautiful, or so regular, as it 
 was at first. TheTuilleries is, nevertheless, a very splendid 
 palace. An astrologer having predicted to Catherine de 
 Medicis, that she would die near St, Germain, she imme- 
 diately flew, in a most superstitious manner, from all 
 places and churches that bore this name; she no more 
 resorted to St. Germain-en-Laye, and because her palace 
 of the Tuilleries was situated in the parish of Saint Ger- 
 main FAuxerrois, she was at the expense of building 
 another, which was the Hotel de Soissons, near the church 
 of St. Eustache. When it was known to be Laurence de 
 Saint Germain, Bishop of Nazareth, who had attended 
 her upon her death-bed, people infatuated with astrology 
 averred that the prediction had been accomplished. 
 
179 
 
 good preservation, v^ere erected by him, close 
 to the Castle, for the residence of his fa- 
 vourite, La belle Gabrielle and the superb 
 terrace was begun in his reign. From this 
 spot the view is very interesting and exten- 
 sive: nothing can surpass the admirable as- 
 semblage of hills, meadows, gardens, and 
 vineyards, which charm the eye, and which, 
 as they are viewed from its different points 
 on a clear summer s evening, appear at every 
 turn, in new beauty, and endless variety. 
 
 * Henri IV. se plaisait beancoup a Saint-Ijermain, 
 y vint souvent, quand son coeur fut epris des cliarmes de 
 la belle Gabrielle. Ce prince galant et liberal, qni dej4 
 lui avait prouve son amour par le don d’une infinite de 
 maisons de campagne, aux environs de Paris, voulut en- 
 core lui donner une preuve de sa tendresse, en batissant 
 pour elle, a deux cents toises de Fancien chateau, une 
 nouvelle et belle habitation, qu’on appelale Chateau Neuf. 
 Eleve sur les dessins de Farchitecte Marchand, il etait 
 surtout remarquable par son architecture simple, ses nom- 
 breuses devises, les chifFres amoureux et les emblemes 
 allegoriques qui le decoroient, et qui faisoient une inge- 
 nieuse allusion a la passion du monarque pour sa maitresse. 
 Lbine des ailes de ce chateau s’appelait meme le Pavilion 
 de Gabrielle. — Hist, Topo, des Environs de Paris, 
 
 N 2 
 
180 
 
 The City of Paris is seen in the distance. 
 The fine aqueduct of Marly, the mountain 
 de Coeur volant, Mount Calvary,'^ and Mal- 
 maison to the right ; in front the forest of 
 Vesinet, and beyond it the vale of Saint 
 Denis ; on the left the hills which encom- 
 pass the beautiful vale of Montmorency ; 
 the Seine winding at the foot, and extending 
 its course until it loses itself in the distance- 
 all within one sweep of the eye;^Such is 
 the enchanting prospect which presents itself 
 It was at different times the residence of 
 Louis Xlll.t of Anne of Austria, Christiana 
 
 * On the top of this height is the Pavilion de Lucienne, 
 built by Madame Dubarry, Mistress to Louis XV. after^ 
 wards the property of Madame La Frincesse de Conti, 
 now the residence of M. de Puy; at the foot is the village 
 of Lucienne, surrounded by numerous villas; among the 
 most remarkable is the residence of General Comte 
 Campon. 
 
 t Lewis XIV. would not reside here, because the 
 steeples of the Abbey of St. Denis, where he was to be 
 interred, could be seen from the Chateau. The amount 
 of the immense treasure which the consequent erection of 
 the Palace of Versailles cost was never known, the King 
 
181 
 
 of Sweden, and of Madame La Valiere, when 
 Madame de Montespan rivalled her in the 
 affections of Louis XIV. After the former 
 had retired to the Convent of the Carmelites 
 at Paris, it was assigned, in 1689, to the 
 unfortunate James the Second, whose bigotry- 
 had driven him from the throne of England. 
 Here, together with his Queen, and those of 
 his court who fled with him to seek an asy- 
 lum in France, and surrounded by those 
 priests and monks, whose pernicious councils 
 had led to his fall, the unhappy James re- 
 mained until his death, the 16th Sept. 1701. 
 The apartment in which he breathed his 
 last is still preserved; but the whole of the 
 interior has been very much neglected. It 
 
 having destroyed the bills with his own hand. In the 
 neighbourhood of Versailles stands the celebrated^ Mili- 
 tary School of St. Cyr, which was originally an esta- 
 blishment for the gratuitous admission of two hundred and 
 fifty young ladies of rank, who were to receive an educa- 
 tion correspondent to their situation in life. Madame de 
 3Iaintenon buried in the Chapel of the Convent. 
 
182 
 
 served as a quarter for a body of Prussians 
 in 1815, and the following year was a barrack 
 for the English troops quartered at St. Ger- 
 main, A French poet of his time wrote these 
 lines descriptive of the life he led in his 
 retirement. 
 
 “ C’est ici qihe Jacques seconrF’ 
 
 Sans Ministres et sans maitresse, 
 
 Le matin allait a la Messe, 
 
 Et le soil’ allait an sermon.’^ 
 
 Mary Stewart, daughter of James, died 
 here in April 1712, and his Queen in May 
 171 8. These were the last persons of any 
 consequence who inhabited this palace, which 
 in its exterior still preserves all its ancient 
 appearance of grandeur. It is built of stone, 
 with a facing of red brick ; the windows are 
 of great height, and the whole is surrounded 
 by a deep ditch, forming a very striking con- 
 trast to the buildings of the present age. 
 
m3 
 
 FOREST OF SAINT GERMAIN, 
 
 This forest is enclosed by a wall of thirty 
 miles in circumference, according to M. Prud- 
 homme. It is now preserved exclusively for 
 the Due de Berri, who is the Ranger. 
 
 Of all the ancient forests with which Paris 
 is surrounded, this is the most extensive. It 
 is stocked with prodigious quantities of game, 
 with deer, and wild boar. The pheasants 
 and partridges are reared in an extensive 
 faisanderuy in the centre of the forest, en- 
 closed by a high wall, and such vigilance is 
 exercised by the keepers, that no person can 
 possibly destroy the game. It is guarded 
 by a captain and two lieutenants, who have 
 under them a corps of gardes de chasse. 
 
 The royal chace is, at the commencement 
 of the season, quite a state ceremony, at 
 which all the royal family and the court 
 assemble to be spectators. The dress of the 
 hunt is green and gold, with gold-laced 
 
184 
 
 cocked hats and swords. The Duke invites 
 his party, and gives them permission to wear 
 the uniform, which is considered a high 
 honour. 
 
 Nothing can be more delightful than the 
 walks and rides through this forest; the roads 
 are kept in the best possible state. At inter- 
 vals are large open spaces called Etoiles, 
 from whence branch off sometimes ten and 
 twelve roads with direction-posts, each bear- 
 ing a separate name, either from some me-^ 
 morable event, or remarkable person; as the 
 croix de Poissy, croix de la Pucelle, croix de 
 Montchevreuil, croix de Berri, and croix de 
 Noailles, &c. &c. 
 
 A story is related of a lamentable occurs 
 rence which took place the 7th June 1812, 
 at the Etoile des Marres, and a similar one 
 happened in August this year, near the same 
 spot. 
 
 The first of these events was occasioned 
 by the parents of a young lady having re- 
 
185 
 
 fused their consent to her being married to 
 her lover, whose want of fortune was the 
 chief obstacle. The lovers, in despair, came 
 to the fatal resolution of putting a period to 
 their lives, and this forest was fixed upon as 
 the spot for the dreadful deed! Having par- 
 taken of a repast which they had brought 
 with them, and sworn to love each other (if 
 it were permitted them) after death, they 
 discharged, at the same moment, their pistols 
 at themselves. The unhappy girl fell dead, 
 but the hand of her lover having missed its 
 aim, he was only wounded. Having no other 
 means left of accomplishing his dreadful pur- 
 pose, he took the handkerchief from her 
 bosom and suspended himself by it to a tree. 
 In this state they were discovered, and their 
 bodies deposited in the same grave! The 
 other circumstance was of the same romantic 
 and melancholy nature.'^ This forest supplies 
 
 * There never was known in this country so many fatal 
 instances of suicide as at thn present period; few days 
 
186 
 
 Paris with great quantities of wood. In 
 1814, and in 1815, the palisades that were 
 
 pass over without some persons throwing themselves out 
 of their windows, or into the river Seine; and among the 
 disappointed partizans of the late ruler, it has been usual 
 to hurl themselves from the top of the column in the Place 
 Vendome, which has been shut up in consequence by an 
 order from Government. 
 
 Among the instances of deliberate self-destruction, the 
 following is a remarkable fact, inasmuch as it serves to 
 prove the pernicious effects of the writings of Voltaire 
 and Rousseau in the minds of youth, when at an age in- 
 capable of discriminating between fanaticism and real 
 piety! 
 
 The person in question was a youth not turned sixteen, 
 who destroyed himself last summer, while at college, and 
 who left the following paper as his last will. The lady 
 who gave it me copied it from the original. 
 
 . “ Testament de Villemain. 
 
 “ Samedi. July 6th, 1816. 
 
 “ Je donne mon corps aux Pedants; je legue mon ame 
 aux manes de Voltaire, et de J. J. Rousseau, qui mont 
 appris, a mepriser toutes les vaines superstitions de ce 
 monde, et tons les vains prejuges qu’a enfantes la gros- 
 sierte des hommes, et surtout les subtiles noirceurs des 
 fourbes de Pretres. 
 
 “ J’ai toujours reconnu un Etre supreme, et ma religion 
 a toujours ete la religion naturelle. 
 
 Quant a mes biens terrestres, je donne. [^Here he 
 
18 | 
 
 made to surround Paris for its defence 
 against the Allied armies, were cut in this 
 wood, and the large timber has consequently 
 been greatly thinned. 
 
 Here conclude my notes, and if my reader 
 has condescended to accompany me through 
 
 mentions various articles to his favorite school-fellows.] 
 A Mondesir^ mon dernier soupir. 
 
 “ J’ai toujours connu, je Fai dit plus haut, reconnu un 
 Etre supreme, j^ai toujours peiise que la seul religion 
 digne de lui, etait la vertu et la probite ! 
 
 “ J’ose dire que je m’en suis rarement ecarte malgre 
 la foiblesse, et la fragilite humaine. 
 
 Je parois devant FJEtre supreme en disant avec Vol- 
 taire : Un Bonze, honnete homme, un Dervis, chari- 
 table, trouveront plutot grace a ses yeux, qu^un Pontife 
 ambitieux.’ ” 
 
 Then follows a Eatin quotation, All things are due to 
 “ death, and without delay, sooner or later, hasten to the 
 ‘‘ same goal : Hither we all tend; This is our last asylum.” 
 
 De tout les Pedants qui mont le plus tourmente je 
 compte surtout Poir, son Jeannes et Veissier, qui sont la 
 cause du vol que je fais a la nature en tranchant moi 
 meme le fil de mes joursf je leur pardonne, Fequite le 
 fait aussi: Je n’ai cesse de repeter avec Rousseau avant 
 de moiirir, ‘ Tu veux cesser de vivre, sais-tu si tu as 
 commence.’ 
 
 “Adieu!!! Mortels et foiblesses ! “ Villemain.” 
 
188 
 
 my little Tour without feeling fatigue or dis- 
 pleasure at his “ Compagnon de Voyage,” 
 my aim and ambition as an author are satis- 
 fied — so wishing that all the journeys he may 
 ever take, may prove as delightful to him 
 as this has been to me, I sincerely thank 
 him for his attention, and kindly bid him 
 Farewell! 
 
 FINIS, 
 
 W. Lewis, Printer, 21, Finch-lane, CornlhU, 
 
i