fered much by the Vendean wars, which threw it back nearly to what it was under Louis XIV.; nor has the share which it had in the general reorganization of France, materially changed its original physiognomy, either physically or morally. Rude and remote, however, as it was, it still produced some of the finest and most distinguished characters which illustrate the history of France. The two rival and romantic Dukes, Charles de Blois, and John de Montfort ; the heroic Jeanne

+ The Traité des Landes, made between these two pretenders to the Duchy, was characteristic of the men and times." Rien de plus simple que les conditions. Le Duché étoit partagé en deux. Chacun devoit porter le titre de Duc, et avoir sa capitale; Rennes pour l'un, Nantes pour l'autre. On se sépara avec promesses de se rejoindre, dans un lieu indiqué, pour convenir des arrangemens que le partage exigeoit, et recevoir la ratification de la Duchesse, Jeanne la Boiteuse, épouse de Charles de Blois. C'est d'elle, qu'il tenoit le duché de Bretagne. Quand elle eut lu le traité que son mari lui envoya, elle dit à celui qui l'apportoit, Il fait trop bon marché de ce qui n'est pas à lui;' et dans sa lettre de réponse, elle lui mandoit, "Vous ferez ce qu'il vous plaira ; je ne suis qu'une femme, et ne puis mieux mais plutôt je perdrais la vie, ou deux si je les avais, avant de consentir à chose si réprochable, à la honte des miens.' Sa lettre étoit mouillée de larmes ; l'époux en fut ému ; et encore plus, lorsque en quittant sa femme, qu'il étoit allé voir, elle lui dit, 'Conservez-moi votre cœur, mais aussi conservez-moi mon Duché ; et quelque chose qu' arrive, faites que la souveraineté me reste toute entière.' Il le promit, baisa sa dame, et partit.”—ANQUETIL.

la Boiteuse, Duchess of the province, in whose right Charles de Blois held the sovereignty; the clever Olivier de Clisson, constable of France; the gallant Tennegui du Chatel; and that flower of chivalry, Bertrand du Guesclin" le franc et loyal," are characters which belong to the poetry of history, and almost redeem those bold, bad times, which produced such human monsters as Charles le Mauvais, and Pierre le Cruel. It is, perhaps, no false induction to assert, that much of their soldierly frankness and noble simplicity arose from an organization, nourished and preserved by the very localities of the rude clime and wild scenery in which they received their existence.

With the history of Bertrand du Guesclin in my hand, which had been lent me by my host of the Prefecture, (that history which Madame de Sévigné had recommended to Madame de Grignan,) and with my head full of de Montfort and de Blois, and les grandes compagnies, and the maladrins, and the Black Prince, and Jean Chandos, and the other prominent characters in the great melodrame enacted in Bretagne during the foureenth century, I was abruptly recalled to the dull

realities of the present moment, on the evening of the third day's journey, by a shock, a concussion, that awoke my sleeping partners, and extorted exclamations from Madame de , screams from Félicie, and a loud, shrill, continuous howl from Sylphide. These, with the crashing of flacons, and the pious interjections of the coachman Baptiste, and the gros juron of Hypolite the laquais, 66 gave the world assurance" that we were "abîmés, plantés pour la nuit,"-in one word, that the carriage was not only overturned, but rendered wholly unserviceable, till it should have passed through the renovating hands of a country smith.

To proceed farther was impossible; we were, by a mile or two, less than half-way between Vitri (where we had dined, "à la tour de Sévigné,") and Rennes, our proposed halt for the night. Baptiste was a Bas-Breton; and having assured us that he knew every step of the road, comme son bonnet de nuit, he had turned into a narrow cross road, which was to have shortened the distance by a league. It was this unlucky pretension that produced the accident, which now left us, at

sunset, in a dreary by-road, with a broken-down vehicle, and no visible prospect of aid, nearer than Vitri. While Madame de was exhausting herself in inefficient complaint, while Félicie was scolding Baptiste from the window, and Sylphide was accompanying both with a basso continuo of howl, I alighted to reconnoitre our position, and discover what chance we had of assistance; and while Baptiste was showing me where the spring was broken, a person approached with a book in his hand, from the gate of a little orchard to the left. As he took off his hat and discovered his tonsured head, he observed, that there was a forge belonging to the château, the turrets of which were visible through the dark woods which cover the whole plain between Vitri and Rennes; that immediate assistance could be had, and the spring patched up, so as to bring us, with careful driving, to Rennes before midnight. The person who gave us this information was an elderly man, of interesting appearance, and in a clerical habit, with a certain air de prêtre, which left us no doubt as to his vocation.

"Et le château, Monsieur ?" demanded Madame de; "what is its name? It probably belongs to some of my friends; for I am connected with nearly all the old noblesse of the province.'

"It is the Château des Rochers, Madame !" "The Château des Rochers!" reiterated Madame de

"The château of Madame de Sévigné !" I exclaimed, with almost breathless delight.

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The stranger bowed assent. "Eh, mon dieu ! qui est donc le châtelain? to what noble family has it descended? The Sévignés are extinct; and I believe Les Rochers were bequeathed to the Duchesse de Simiane by her illustrious grandmother."

"Les Rochers have fallen into various hands within the last half-century, Madame. It was sold, with other national property, at the Revo

lution. The present proprietor is a rich gentleman of the province, Le Baron de . He is at present in Paris; but there will be no difficulty in showing you the château, which may amuse away the time till your carriage is set to rights."