sh by famine or the sword.

CHAP. VIII.

SAUMUR TO TOURS--TOURS--TOURS TO BLOIS--ORLEANS--AND ORLEANS TO
PARIS.

I hired a small carriage, called a _patache_, to convey me to Saumur
and Tours; it is driven by a postillion with two horses, and is open
in front, giving the traveller a better opportunity of viewing the
country than in a close vehicle.

The town of Saumur is built on both banks of the Loire, with a
handsome stone bridge over it; an ancient castle, built on a high
rock, commands the whole town. The road from Angers to this place is a
high raised causeway, paved, and runs parallel to the river, within
a few paces of its banks, the whole distance. Here we entered into
Touraine from the province of Anjou. From Saumur to Tours, the road
is like the former. The river Loire is on the right hand, and a flat
level country on the left, covered with orchards, groves, and meadows.
The road is every where raised so high, that it forms a very steep
declivity, with narrow pathways down to the entrance of the cottages
and villages, which are most romantically situated,--some in orchards,
some amidst vineyards, some in gardens, and others in recesses peeping
from between the trees. The fences are fantastically interwoven with
wreaths of the vines, which frequently creep up the trunk of a pear or
a cherry-tree, and cover the slated roofs of the houses, thereby, from
the natural luxuriance and wildness of their spreading branches in the
fruit season, answering at once the purposes of utility and ornament;
for the slates, retaining the heat, ripen the grape sooner than any
other mode of training. The corn was now ripe, and added to the
interest and beauty of the scenes; in many of the fields the reapers
were at work, and the harvest (which happily for France had not been
so abundant for many years) was going on with the assistance of the
female peasantry, who on all occasions partake and cheer the labours
of the field.

Approaching nearer to Tours, I had a fine view of the bridge, which is
esteemed the handsomest in France. Between the branches of the trees,
I now and then caught a glimpse of the spires of the church and
buildings, encompassed by extensive orchards and groves, and open
vales between, varied by vineyards. It was a _jour de fete_, and as I
drove through the town the streets were gay with holyday people, and
crowded in some places with groups of women and girls, whose cheerful
countenances proved t