langes family exists they
and their property will be respected. Such folks are large-minded; they
let every one make his profit, and they find it pays."

"Yes, but the Comte de Soulanges has three children, who, at his death,
may not agree," replied Rigou. "The husband of his daughter and his
sons may go to law, and end by selling the lead and iron mines to
manufacturers, from whom we shall manage to get them back."

The chateau just then showed up in profile, as if to defy the ex-monk.

"Ah! look at it; in those days they built well," cried Soudry. "But
just now Monsieur le Comte is economizing, so as to make Soulanges the
entailed estate of his peerage."

"My dear friend," said Rigou, "entailed estates won't exist much
longer."

When the topic of public matters was exhausted, the worthy pair began to
discuss the merits of their pretty maids in terms too Burgundian to be
printed here. That inexhaustible subject carried them so far that before
they knew it they saw the capital of the arrondissement over which
Gaubertin reigned, and which we hope excites enough curiosity in the
reader's mind to justify a short digression.

The name of Ville-aux-Fayes, singular as it is, is explained as the
corruption of the words (in low Latin) "Villa in Fago,"--the manor of
the woods. This name indicates that a forest once covered the delta
formed by the Avonne before it joins its confluent the Yonne. Some Frank
doubtless built a fortress on the hill which slopes gently to the long
plain. The savage conqueror separated his vantage-ground from the
delta by a wide and deep moat and made the position a formidable one,
essentially seignorial, convenient for enforcing tolls across the
bridges and for protecting his rights of profit on all grains ground in
the mills.

That is the history of the beginning of Ville-aux-Fayes. Wherever feudal
or ecclesiastical dominion established there we find gathered together
interests, inhabitants, and, later, towns when the localities were in a
position to maintain them and to found and develop great industries.
The method of floating timber discovered by Jean Rouvet in 1549, which
required certain convenient stations to intercept it, was the making
of Ville-aux-Fayes, which, up to that time, had been, compared to
Soulanges, a mere village. Ville-aux-Fayes became a storage place for
timber, which covered the shores of the two rivers for a distance of
over thirty miles. The work of taking out of the