the remaining decorations, which, besides, have
been tarnished by the cobwebs of the spiders one sees crawling around
the joists. Wild mignonette has grown on the door of Kersa-lion; near
the turret is a pointed window flanked by a lion and a Hercules, which
stand out in bold relief on the wall like two gargoyles. At Kerland, I
stumbled against a wolf-trap while I was ascending the large winding
staircase. Ploughshares, rusted shovels, and jars filled with dried
grain were scattered around the rooms or on the wide stone window-seats.

Kerousere has retained its three turrets with machicolations; in the
courtyard can still be seen the deep furrows of the trenches that have
been filled up little by little, and are now on level with the ground;
they are like the track of a bark, which spreads and spreads over the
water till it finally disappears. From the platform of one of the towers
(the others have pointed roofs), one can see the ocean between two low,
wooded hills. The windows on the first floor are half stopped up, so as
to keep the rain out; they look out into a garden enclosed by a high
wall. The grass is covered with thistles and wheat grows in the
flower-beds surrounded by rose-bushes.

A narrow path wends its way between a field where the ripe wheat sways
in the breeze and a line of elm-trees growing on the edge of a ditch.
Poppies gleamed here and there amongst the wheat; the ditch was edged
with flowers, brambles, nettles, sweet-brier, long prickly stems, broad
shining leaves, blackberries and purple digitalis, all of which mingled
their colours and various foliage and uneven branches, and crossed their
shadows on the grey dust like the meshes of a net.

When you have crossed a meadow where an old mill reluctantly turns its
clogged wheel, you follow the wall by stepping on large stones placed in
the water for a bridge; you soon come to the road that leads to Saint-Pol,
at the end of which rises the slashed steeple of Kreisker; tall and
slender, it dominates a tower decorated with a balustrade and produces a
fine effect at a distance; but the nearer one gets to it, the smaller
and uglier it becomes, till finally one finds that it is nothing more
than an ordinary church with a portal devoid of statues. The cathedral
also is built in a rather clumsy Gothic style, and is overloaded with
ornaments and embroideries: but there is one notable thing, at least, in
Saint-Pol, and that is the _table d'hote_ of the inn.