ngs.]

It was too early to go home, so we went on to the Chateau de Lassay. We
raced through pretty little clean gray villages, looking peaceful and
sleepy and deserted and evidently quite accustomed to automobiles. No
one took much notice of us. There were only a few old people and
children in the streets; all the men were working in the fields
gathering in their harvest. Lassay is quite a place, with hotels, shops,
churches, and an old Benedictine convent. We left the auto in the
square, as it couldn't get up the narrow, steep little road to the
hotel. There were swarms of beggars of all ages--old women, girls,
children--lining the road before we got to the chateau. Monsieur B.
(deputy), who was with us, remonstrated vigorously, particularly with
stout, sturdy young women who were pursuing us, but they didn't care a
bit, and we only got rid of them once we had crossed the moat and
drawbridge and got into the court-yard, where a wrinkled and red-cheeked
old woman locked the door after us. The chateau is almost entirely in
ruins, but must have been splendid. There is a sort of modern
dwelling-house in the inner court, but I fancy the proprietor rarely
lives there. It is enormous. There are eight massive round towers
connected by a courtine (little green path) that runs along the top of
the ramparts. The big door that opens on the park is modern, and makes
decidedly poor effect after the fine old pointed doorway that gives
access to the great court-yard. The park, with a little care and a
little money spent on it, would be beautiful, but it is quite wild and
uncared for. There are splendid old trees, some of them covered entirely
with ivy growing straight up into the branches and giving a most
peculiar effect to the trees; ragged green paths leading to woods;
running waters with little bridges thrown over them; a splendid
vegetation everywhere, almost a jungle in some places--all utterly
neglected. The old woman took us through the "casemates"--dark stone
galleries with little narrow slits for windows or to fire through; they
used to run all around the house, connected by a subterranean passage,
but they are now, like all the rest, half in ruins. It was most
interesting. We had not the energy, any of us, to go up into the tower
and see the view--we had seen it all the way, culminating at Domfront
on the top of the mountain, and though very beautiful, it is always the
same--great stretches of green fields, hedges, and fin