he Revolution, but, of course,
there are not many of these. When the young ones succeed, there is
always a tendency to modify and change, and it is not easy to mix the
elaborate luxurious furniture of our times with the stiff old-fashioned
chairs and sofas one finds in the old French houses. Merely to look at
them one understands why our grandfathers and grandmothers always sat
upright.

One of the most interesting of the Norman chateaux is "Abondant," in the
department of the Eure-et-Loir, belonging until very recently to the
Vallambrosa family. It belonged originally to la Duchesse de Tourzel,
gouvernante des Enfants de France (children of Louis XVI and Marie
Antoinette). After the imprisonment of the Royal Family, Madame de
Tourzel retired to her chateau d'Abondant and remained there all through
the Revolution. The village people and peasants adored her and she lived
there peacefully through all those terrible days. Neither chateau nor
park was damaged in any way, although she was known to be a devoted
friend and adherent of the unfortunate Royal Family. A band of
half-drunken "patriots" tried to force their way into the park one day,
with the intention of cutting down the trees and pillaging the chateau,
but all the villagers instantly assembled, armed with pitchforks, rusty
old guns and stones, and dispersed the rabble.

Abondant is a Louis XV chateau--very large--seventeen rooms en
facade--but simple in its architecture. The Duchess occupied a large
corner room on the ground-floor, with four windows. The ceiling (which
was very high) and walls covered with toiles de Jouy. An enormous bed a
baldaquin was trimmed with the same toile and each post had a great
bunch of white feathers on top.

In 1886, when one of my friends was staying at Abondant, the hangings
were the same which had been there all through the Revolution. She told
me she had never been so miserable as the first time she stayed at the
chateau during the lifetime of the late Duchesse de Vallambrosa. They
gave her the Duchesse de Tourzel's room, thinking it would interest her
as a chambre historique. She was already nervous at sleeping alone on
the ground-floor, far from all the other inmates of the chateau. The
room was enormous--walls nearly five metres high--the bed looked like an
island in the midst of space; there was very little furniture, and the
white feathers on the bed-posts nodded and waved in the dim light. She
scarcely closed her eyes, c