zon, vaguely enclosed by
indistinct hills. The Loire flowed in the middle, bathing its islands,
wetting the edge of the meadows, turning the wheels of the mills and
letting the big boats glide peacefully, two by two, over its silvery
surface, lulled to sleep by the creaking of the heavy rudders; and in
the distance two big white sails gleamed in the sun.

Birds flew from the tops of the towers and the edge of the
machicolations to some other spot, described circles in the air,
chirped, and soon passed out of sight. About a hundred feet below us
were the pointed roofs of the city, the empty courtyards of the old
mansions, and the black holes of the smoky chimneys. Leaning in the
niche of a battlement, we gazed and listened, and breathed it all in,
enjoying the beautiful sunshine and balmy air impregnated with the
pungent odour of the ruins. And there, without thinking of anything in
particular, without even phrasing inwardly about something, I dreamed of
coats of mail as pliable as gloves, of shields of buffalo hide soaked
with sweat, of closed visors through which shot bloodthirsty glances, of
wild and desperate night attacks with torches that set fire to the
walls, and hatchets that mutilated the bodies; and of Louis XI, of the
lover's war, of D'Aubigne and of the charlocks, the birds, the polished
ivy, the denuded brambles, tasting in my pensive and idle occupation--what
is greatest in men, their memory;--and what is most beautiful in nature,
her ironical encroachments and eternal youth.

In the garden, among the lilac-bushes and the shrubs that droop over the
alleys, rises the chapel, a work of the sixteenth century, chiselled at
every angle, a perfect jewel, even more intricately decorated inside
than out, cut out like the paper covering of a _bonbonniere_, and
cunningly sculptured like the handle of a Chinese parasol. On the door
is a _bas-relief_ which is very amusing and ingenuous. It represents the
meeting of Saint Hubert with the mystic stag, which bears a cross
between its antlers. The saint is on his knees; above him hovers an
angel who is about to place a crown on his cap; near them stands the
saint's horse, watching the scene with a surprised expression; the dogs
are barking and on the mountain, the sides and facets of which are cut
to represent crystals, creeps the serpent. You can see its flat head
advancing toward some leafless trees that look like cauliflowers. They
are the sort of trees one comes upon