d
the river, rose above its surface and undulated upon it, yielding to its
caprices and swaying to the turmoil of the water when the mill-wheels
lashed it. Here and there were mounds of gravel, against which the
wavelets broke in fringes that shimmered in the sunlight. Amaryllis,
water-lilies, reeds, and phloxes decorated the banks with their glorious
tapestry. A trembling bridge of rotten planks, the abutments swathed
with flowers, and the hand-rails green with perennials and velvet
mosses drooping to the river but not falling to it; mouldering boats,
fishing-nets; the monotonous sing-song of a shepherd; ducks paddling
among the islands or preening on the "jard,"--a name given to the coarse
sand which the Loire brings down; the millers, with their caps over
one ear, busily loading their mules,--all these details made the scene
before me one of primitive simplicity. Imagine, also, beyond the bridge
two or three farm-houses, a dove-cote, turtle-doves, thirty or more
dilapidated cottages, separated by gardens, by hedges of honeysuckle,
clematis, and jasmine; a dunghill beside each door, and cocks and hens
about the road. Such is the village of Pont-de-Ruan, a picturesque
little hamlet leading up to an old church full of character, a church
of the days of the Crusades, such a one as painters desire for their
pictures. Surround this scene with ancient walnut-trees and slim young
poplars with their pale-gold leaves; dot graceful buildings here and
there along the grassy slopes where sight is lost beneath the vaporous,
warm sky, and you will have some idea of one of the points of view of
this most lovely region.

I followed the road to Sache along the left bank of the river, noticing
carefully the details of the hills on the opposite shore. At length I
reached a park embellished with centennial trees, which I knew to be
that of Frapesle. I arrived just as the bell was ringing for breakfast.
After the meal, my host, who little suspected that I had walked from
Tours, carried me over his estate, from the borders of which I saw the
valley on all sides under its many aspects,--here through a vista, there
to its broad extent; often my eyes were drawn to the horizon along the
golden blade of the Loire, where the sails made fantastic figures among
the currents as they flew before the wind. As we mounted a crest I
came in sight of the chateau d'Azay, like a diamond of many facets in
a setting of the Indre, standing on wooden piles con