ough the league be
double a German one, still it is "une petite!" Here however the paysanne
happened to be right. We passed through the wood, gained the avenue, and
from the further end saw--even yet towering in imposing magnitude--the
far-famed _Chateau de Montmorenci_. It might be a small league off. I
gained spirits and even strength at the sight: told the postilion to mend
his pace--of which he gave immediate and satisfactory demonstration, while
the echoes of his whip resounded along the avenue. A closer road now
received us. Knolls of grass interwoven with moss, on the summits of which
the beech and lime threw up their sturdy stems, now enclosed the road,
which began to widen and to improve in condition. At length, turning a
corner, a group of country people appeared--"Est-ce ici la route de
Tancarville?"--"Tancarville est tout pres: c'est la, ou on voit la fumee
des cheminees." Joyful intelligence! The post-boy increased his speed: The
wheels seemed to move with a readier play: and in one minute and a half I
was upon the beach of the river Seine, and alighted at the door of the only
auberge in the village.

I know you to be both a lover of and connoisseur in Rembrandt's pictures:
and especially of those of his _old_ characters. I wish you could have seen
the old woman, of the name of _Bucan_, who came out of this same auberge to
receive us. She had a sharp, quick, constantly moving black eye; keen
features, projecting from a surface of flesh of a subdued mahogany tint;
about her temples, and the lower part of her cheeks, were all those
harmonizing wrinkles which become old age--_upon canvas_--while, below her
chin, communicating with a small and shrunken neck, was that sort of
concavity, or dewlap, which painters delight to express with a minuteness
of touch, and mellowness of tint, that contribute largely to picturesque
effect! This good old woman received us with perfect elasticity of spirits
and of action. It should seem that we were the first Englishmen who had
visited her solitude this year. Her husband approached, but she soon
ordered him "to the right about"--to prepare fuel, coffee, and eggs. I was
promised the best breakfast that could be got in Normandy, in twenty
minutes. The inn being sufficiently miserable, I was anxious for a ramble.
The tide was now coming up, as at Caudebec; but the sweep and breadth of
the river being, upon a considerably larger scale, its increase was not yet
so obvious--although