n the brink of a precipice.

The crowd accompanied the carriage to the iron gates of the avenue. From
there Madame Graslin could see her chateau, of which as yet she had only
caught glimpses, and she was thunderstruck at the magnificence of the
building. Stone is rare in those parts, the granite of the mountains
being difficult to quarry. The architect employed by Graslin to
restore the house had used brick as the chief substance of this vast
construction. This was rendered less costly by the fact that the
forest of Montegnac furnished all the necessary wood and clay for its
fabrication. The framework of wood and the stone for the foundations
also came from the forest; otherwise the cost of the restorations would
have been ruinous. The chief expenses had been those of transportation,
labor, and salaries. Thus the money laid out was kept in the village,
and greatly benefited it.

At first sight, and from a distance, the chateau presents an enormous
red mass, threaded by black lines produced by the pointing, and edged
with gray; for the window and door casings, the entablatures, corner
stones, and courses between the stories, are of granite, cut in facets
like a diamond. The courtyard, which forms a sloping oval like that of
the Chateau de Versailles, is surrounded by brick walls divided into
panels by projecting buttresses. At the foot of these walls are groups
of rare shrubs, remarkable for the varied color of their greens. Two
fine iron gates placed opposite to each other lead on one side to a
terrace which overlooks Montegnac, on the other to the offices and a
farm-house.

The grand entrance-gate, to which the road just constructed led, is
flanked by two pretty lodges in the style of the sixteenth century.
The facade on the courtyard looking east has three towers,--one in the
centre, separated from the two others by the main building of the house.
The facade on the gardens, which is absolutely the same as the others,
looks westward. The towers have but one window on the facade; the main
building has three on either side of the middle tower. The latter,
which is square like a _campanile_, the corners being vermiculated, is
noticeable for the elegance of a few carvings sparsely distributed. Art
is timid in the provinces, and though, since 1829, ornamentation has
made some progress at the instigation of certain writers, landowners
were at that period afraid of expenses which the lack of competition and
skilled workmen