t riding is particularly seductive; you are insensibly led on to
see where this alley will open, or how that path will terminate. Some
of the spirit of discovery seems to seal its attractions to the wild
and devious track, untrodden as it looks; and you feel all the charm
of adventure as you advance. The silence, too, is most striking;
the noiseless footfall of the horse, and the unbroken stillness, add
indescribable charm to the scene, and the least imaginative cannot fail
to weave fancies and fictions as he goes.

Near as it was to a great city, not a single rider crossed my path; not
even a peasant did I meet. A stray bundle of faggots, bound and ready
to be carried away, showed that the axe of the woodman had been heard
within the solitude; but not another trace told that human footstep had
ever pressed the sward.

Although still a couple of hours from sunset, the shade of the wood was
dense enough to make the path appear uncertain, and I was obliged
to ride more cautiously than before. I had thought that by steadily
pursuing one straight track, I should at last gain the open country, and
easily find some road that would reconduct me to the chateau; but now I
saw no signs of this. 'The alley' was, to all appearance, exactly as I
found it--miles before. A long aisle of beech-trees stretched away in
front and behind me; a short, grassy turf was beneath my feet, and not
an object to tell me how far I had come, or whither I was tending. If
now and then another road crossed the path, it was in all respects like
this one. This was puzzling; and to add to my difficulty, I suddenly
remembered that I had never thought of learning the name of the chateau,
and well knew that to ask for it as the residence of the Count de
Maurepas would be a perfect absurdity. There was something so ludicrous
in the situation, that I could not refrain from laughing at first; but
a moment's reconsideration made me regard the incident more gravely. In
what a position should I stand, if unable to discover the chateau! The
cure might have left Paris before I could reach it; all clue to the
count might thus be lost; and although these were but improbable
circumstances, they came now very forcibly before me, and gave me
serious uneasiness.

'I have been so often in false positions in life, so frequently
implicated where no real blame could attach to me, that I shall not be
in the least surprised if I be arrested as a horse-stealer!' The night
now