ture just mentioned; one of them, an
old grey arch beneath a fine clock-tower, I had passed through on my way
from the station. This substantial Tour de l'Horloge separates the town
proper from the port; for beyond the old grey arch the place presents
its bright, expressive little face to the sea. I had a charming walk
about the harbour and along the stone piers and sea-walls that shut it
in. This indeed, to take things in their order, was after I had had my
breakfast (which I took on arriving) and after I had been to the _hotel
de ville_. The inn had a long narrow garden behind it, with some very
tall trees; and passing through this garden to a dim and secluded _salle
a manger_, buried in the heavy shade, I had, while I sat at my repast, a
feeling of seclusion which amounted almost to a sense of incarceration.
I lost this sense, however, after I had paid my bill, and went out to
look for traces of the famous siege, which is the principal title of La
Rochelle to renown. I had come thither partly because I thought it would
be interesting to stand for a few moments in so gallant a spot, and
partly because, I confess, I had a curiosity to see what had been the
starting-point of the Huguenot emigrants who founded the town of New
Rochelle in the State of New York, a place in which I had passed sundry
memorable hours. It was strange to think, as I strolled through the
peaceful little port, that these quiet waters, during the wars of
religion, had swelled with a formidable naval power. The Rochelais had
fleets and admirals, and their stout little Protestant bottoms carried
defiance up and down.

To say that I found any traces of the siege would be to misrepresent the
taste for vivid whitewash by which La Rochelle is distinguished to-day.
The only trace is the dent in the marble top of the table on which, in
the _hotel de ville_, Jean Guiton, the mayor of the city, brought down
his dagger with an oath when in 1628 the vessels and regiments of
Richelieu closed about it on sea and land. This terrible functionary was
the soul of the resistance; he held out from February

[Illustration: LA ROCHELLE]

to October in the midst of pestilence and famine. The whole episode has
a brilliant place among the sieges of history; it has been related a
hundred times, and I may only glance at it and pass. I limit my ambition
in these light pages to speaking of those things of which I have
personally received an impression, and I have no such im