emporary lakes, until the accumulation of force
behind bursts the barrier, and a furious flood rushes down the valley.
By one of such floods, which occurred a few centuries since, through
the bursting of the hike of St. Laurent in the valley of the Romanche,
a large part of Grenoble was swept away, and many of the inhabitants
were drowned.

The valley of the Romanche is no sooner entered, a few miles above
Grenoble, than the mountains begin to close, the scenery becomes
wilder, and the fury of the torrent is evinced by the masses of debris
strewed along its bed. Shortly after passing the picturesque defile
called L'Etroit, where the river rushes through a deep cleft in the
rocks, the valley opens out again, and we shortly come in sight of the
ancient town of Vizille--the most prominent building in which is the
chateau of the famous Duc de Lesdiguieres, governor of the province in
the reign of Henry IV., and Constable of France in that of Louis XIII.

* * * * *

Wherever you go in Dauphiny, you come upon the footmarks of this great
soldier. At Grenoble there is the Constable's palace, now the
Prefecture; and the beautiful grounds adjoining it, laid out by
himself, are now the public gardens of the town. Between Grenoble and
Vizille there is the old road constructed by him, still known as "Le
chemin du Connetable." At St. Bonnet, in the valley of the Drac,
formerly an almost exclusively Protestant town, known as "the Geneva
of the High Alps," you are shown the house in which the Constable was
born; and a little lower down the same valley, in the commune of
Glaizil, on a hill overlooking the Drac, stand the ruins of the family
castle; where the Constable was buried. The people of the commune were
in the practice of carrying away the bones from the family vault,
believing them to possess some virtue as relics, until the prefect of
the High Alps ordered it to be walled up to prevent the entire removal
of the skeletons.

In the early part of his career, Lesdiguieres was one of the most
trusted chiefs of Henry of Navarre, often leading his Huguenot
soldiers to victory; capturing town after town, and eventually
securing possession of the entire province of Dauphiny, of which
Henry appointed him governor. In that capacity he carried out many
important public works--made roads, built bridges, erected fourteen
fortresses, and enlarged and beautified his palace at Grenoble and his
chateau at Vizi