gence. The weather
was very cold, and we travelled through a very uninteresting country. It
seemed like a frozen ocean, the road being over an immense plain unbroken
by trees or fences.

"We stopped a few moments at Melun, at Joigny and Tonnerre, which latter
place was quite pretty with a fine-looking Gothic church. We found the
villages from Paris thus far much neater and in better style than those
on the road from Boulogne.

"Our company consisted of Mr. Town, of New York, Mr. Jocelyn, of New
Haven, a very pretty Frenchwoman, and myself. The Frenchwoman was quite a
character; she could not talk English nor could we talk French, and yet
we were talking all the time, and were able to understand and be
understood.

"At four o'clock the next morning we _dined!!_ at Montbar, which place we
entered after much detention by the snow. It was so deep that we were
repeatedly stopped for some time. At a picturesque little village, called
Val de Luzon, where we changed horses, the country began to assume a
different character. It now became mountainous, and, had the season been
propitious, many beautiful scenes for the pencil would have presented
themselves. As it was, the forms of the mountains and the deep valleys,
with villages snugly situated at the bottom, were grateful to the eye
amidst the white shroud which everywhere covered the landscape. We could
but now and then catch a glimpse of the scenery through our coach window
by thawing a place in the thickly covered glass, which was so plated with
the arborescent frost as not to yield to the warmth of the sun at midday.

"We arrived at Dijon at nine o'clock on Saturday evening, after three
days and two nights of fatiguing riding. The diligence is, on the whole,
a comfortable carriage for travelling. I can scarcely give you any idea
of its construction; it is so unlike in many respects to our stage-coach.
It is three carriage-bodies together upon one set of wheels. The forward
part is called the _coupe_, which holds but three persons, and, from
having windows in front so that the country is seen as you travel, is the
most expensive. The middle carriage is the largest, capable of holding
six persons, and is called the _interieur_. The other, called the
_derriere_, is the cheapest, but is generally filled with low people. The
_interieur_ is so large and so well cushioned that it is easy to sleep in
it ordinarily, and, had it not been for the sudden stops occasioned by
the clo