ake it
a comfortable family residence. St. Aubert felt a kind of affection for
every part of the fabric, which he remembered in his youth, and would
not suffer a stone of it to be removed, so that the new building,
adapted to the style of the old one, formed with it only a simple and
elegant residence. The taste of Madame St. Aubert was conspicuous in its
internal finishing, where the same chaste simplicity was observable
in the furniture, and in the few ornaments of the apartments, that
characterized the manners of its inhabitants.

The library occupied the west side of the chateau, and was enriched by
a collection of the best books in the ancient and modern languages. This
room opened upon a grove, which stood on the brow of a gentle declivity,
that fell towards the river, and the tall trees gave it a melancholy
and pleasing shade; while from the windows the eye caught, beneath the
spreading branches, the gay and luxuriant landscape stretching to the
west, and overlooked on the left by the bold precipices of the Pyrenees.
Adjoining the library was a green-house, stored with scarce and
beautiful plants; for one of the amusements of St. Aubert was the
study of botany, and among the neighbouring mountains, which afforded a
luxurious feast to the mind of the naturalist, he often passed the day
in the pursuit of his favourite science. He was sometimes accompanied
in these little excursions by Madame St. Aubert, and frequently by his
daughter; when, with a small osier basket to receive plants, and another
filled with cold refreshments, such as the cabin of the shepherd did
not afford, they wandered away among the most romantic and magnificent
scenes, nor suffered the charms of Nature's lowly children to abstract
them from the observance of her stupendous works. When weary of
sauntering among cliffs that seemed scarcely accessible but to the steps
of the enthusiast, and where no track appeared on the vegetation, but
what the foot of the izard had left; they would seek one of those green
recesses, which so beautifully adorn the bosom of these mountains,
where, under the shade of the lofty larch, or cedar, they enjoyed their
simple repast, made sweeter by the waters of the cool stream, that crept
along the turf, and by the breath of wild flowers and aromatic plants,
that fringed the rocks, and inlaid the grass.

Adjoining the eastern side of the green-house, looking towards the
plains of Languedoc, was a room, which Emily cal