ed. But the sloping banks, on each side of the ascending road, were
covered with plantations of this precious tree; and I was told that, if the
_autumn_ should prove as auspicious as appeared the _spring_, there would
be a season of equal gaiety and abundance. I wished it with all my heart.
Indeed I felt particularly interested in the whole aspect of the country
about _Nonancourt_. The sun was fast descending as we entered the town of
_Dreux_--where I had resolved upon taking leave both of the diligence and
of my companions; and of reaching Paris by post. At seven we dined, or
rather perhaps made an early supper; when my fellow travellers _sustained_
their reputation for their powers of attack upon fish, flesh, and fowl.
Indeed the dinner was equally plentiful and well cooked; and the charge
moderate in proportion. But there is nothing, either on the score of
provision of reasonableness of cost, like the _table d'hote_ throughout
France; and he who cannot accommodate himself to the hour of dining
(usually about one) must make up his mind to worse fare and treble charges.

After dinner we strolled in the town, and upon the heights near the castle.
We visited the principal church, _St. Jean_, which is very spacious, and
upon the whole is a fine piece of architecture. I speak more particularly
of the interior--where I witnessed, however, some of the most horrible
devastations, arising from the Revolution, which I had yet seen. In one of
the side chapels, there _had been_ a magnificent monument; perhaps from
sixteen to twenty feet in height--crowded with figures as large as life,
from the base to the summit. It appeared as if some trenchant instrument of
an irresistible force, had shaved away many of the figures; but more
especially the heads and the arms. This was only one, but the most
striking, specimen of revolutionary Vandalism. There were plenty of similar
proofs, on a reduced scale. In the midst of these traces of recent havoc,
there was a pleasure mingled with melancholy, in looking up and viewing
some exceedingly pretty specimens of old stained glass:--which had escaped
the destruction committed in the lower regions, and had preserved all their
original freshness. Here and there, in the side chapels, the priests were
robing themselves to attend confession; while the suppliants, in kneeling
attitudes, were expecting them by the side of the confessionals. From the
church I bent my steps to the principal bookseller of th