gend, a lady true who came every night and
clasped her lover's hand stretched out to her between the bars of his
dungeon window. Lesdiguieres discovered the rendezvous, and the spot is
still pointed out where his soldier was stationed one fatal night to
chop off the hand that sought its accustomed pledge. The historical
associations of our excursion were, indeed, somewhat confused, but a
fresh feature was added to its interest by the departure, which we
chanced to witness, of Monsieur Thiers from the Chateau de Vizille, now
occupied by Casimir Perier, whom the ex-president had been visiting.

The two days' diligence journey from Grenoble to the departement des
Hautes-Alpes was over one of those broad macadamized highways which make
driving a luxury in many parts of Europe. If we were more huddled than
in the less-antiquated Swiss diligences, we had the compensation of far
more original fellow-travelers than one is apt to find among the
tourists that monopolize those vehicles. There were generally two or
three priests, half a dozen merry peasants, and a sprinkling of small
officers and country-townspeople, who respectively lost no time in
establishing a pleasant intimacy with their neighbors. The unflagging
chatter, in which all joined vivaciously, and often all at once, was in
striking contrast with the silent gloom which would have enshrouded a
similar party of English or American travelers. It was impossible to
resist the contagion of cheerfulness or to refuse to mingle more or less
in the talk.

On the second evening, having trusted to the map and the very meagre
information supplied by _Murray_, we found ourselves deposited at an
isolated wayside cabaret. It presently transpired that St. Bonnet, where
we expected to pass the Sunday, was some half mile or more off the
high-road on which this was the nearest station. While we waited in a
long, low, dimly-lighted room for the guide we had bespoken, two
gendarmes and a peasant sat listening to, or rather looking at, a vivid
account of some shooting adventure given in extraordinary pantomime by
a deaf and dumb huntsman. In time a withered gnome trundling a
wheelbarrow took possession of us and our light belongings, and led us
forth into the night. We traversed the valley, mounted the hill on the
other side, and at last entered the deeper night of a lampless village,
and began to thread its steep, black streets. The only gleam of light
was at what seemed to be the centra