ildren are playing?" "It is the _old Roman Theatre_, Sir." I
immediately called to mind M. Le Prevost's instructions--and if I could
have borrowed the wings of a spirit, I should have instantly alighted upon
the spot--but it was situated without the precincts of the old castle and
its appurtenances, and a mortal leap would have been attended with a mortal
result. "Have you many English who visit this spot?" said I to my
guide.--"Scarcely _any_, Sir--it is a frightful place--full of desolation
and sadness.." replied she. Again I gazed around, and in the distance,
through an aperture in the orchard trees, saw the little fishing village of
_Quillebeuf_,[88] quite buried, as it were, in the waters of the Seine. An
arm of the river meanders towards Lillebonne. Having gratified my
picturesque and antiquarian propensities, from this elevated situation, I
retrod, with more difficulty than toil, my steps down the stair-case. A
second stroll about the area, and along the skirts of the wall, was
sufficient to convince me only--how slight and imperfect had been my
survey!

On quitting the portal through which I entered, and bidding adieu to my
Shepherdess and guide, I immediately hastened towards the Roman
Theatre.[89] The town of Lillebonne has a very picturesque appearance from
the old mound, or raised terrace, along the outer walls of the castle. In
five minutes I mingled with the school boys who were amusing themselves
within the ruins of all that is left of this probably once vast and
magnificent old theatre. It is only by clearing away a great quantity of
earth, with which these ruins are covered, that you can correctly ascertain
their character and state of preservation. M. Le Prevost bade me remark
that the walls had much swerved from their original perpendicularity,--and
that there was much irregularity in the laying of the bricks among the
stones. But time, design, and accident, have each in turn (in all
probability) so contributed to decompose, deface, and alter the original
aspect of the building, that there is no forming a correct conjecture as to
its ancient form. Earth, grass, trees, flowers, and weeds, have taken
almost entire possession of some low and massive outer walls; so that the
imagination has full play to supply all deficiencies which appear to the
eye.

From the whole of this interesting spot I retreated--with mixed sensations
of melancholy and surprise--to the little auberge of the _Three Moors_, in
the