where I remained all night for the purpose of visiting the chateau of
the celebrated Madame de Sevigne,[4] whose estate has descended to a
distant branch of her family, who had the good fortune to save it from
destruction during the revolution. The grounds are kept in excellent
order. Her picture hangs in the apartment in which she composed her
interesting and elegant letters, and every article of furniture
carefully preserved is shown to strangers. The distance from Vitre to
Rennes is seven leagues, over a road which becomes gradually less and
less Interesting.

[Footnote 4: Marie de Rabutin, Marchioness de Sevigne, was the
daughter of the Baron de Chantal, and born in 1626: she espoused at
the age of eighteen the Marquis de Sevigne, who fell in a duel in
1651, leaving her with one son and a daughter, to whose education
she paid strict attention: the daughter married in 1669 the Count de
Grignan, Commandant in Provence, and it was on a visit to her that the
Marchioness caught a fever and died in 1696. Her son Charles, Marquis
de Sevigne, was one of the admirers of Ninon de L'Enclos, and had
a dispute with Madame Dacier respecting the sense of a passage in
Horace. He died in 1713. (Moreri.)]

Rennes is the chief city of the Isle-et-Vilaine, and in former times
was the capital of Bretagne. It is a large ancient built town,
standing on a vast plain, between the rivers Isle and Vilaine. It has
a hall of justice, (Cour Royale,) an episcopal palace, and a foundry
for cannon. A more dismal dirty looking city, or a more uninteresting
one to a stranger, is seldom to be seen. Few traces remain of its
ancient splendor; the old rampart, which once encompassed it, now
forms a promenade.

Its commerce is considerable, being the entrepot for grain and cattle,
with which it supplies Paris and the Southern Provinces, not so
abundant in their produce. Jane of Flanders, Countess of Montfort,
the most extraordinary woman of her time, resided here, during the
imprisonment of her husband in the palace of the Louvre, by Philippe
de Valois,[5] when Edward the Third of England invaded France.
Hennebon, when attacked by Charles of Blois, was defended by the
Countess, and relieved by Sir Walter Manny, whom Edward had sent with
a body of 6,000 archers to her succour. The garrison, encouraged by
so rare an example of female valour, defended themselves against an
immense army, composed of French, Spaniards, Genoese, and Bretons,
who frequentl