a Belliere.]

The drives round Dinan are endless in variety,(5) and all beautiful. We
took a carriage to see the Chateau of la Belliere, about five miles and a
half from Dinan, formerly the residence of Du Guesclin's wife, the
celebrated Lady Tiphaine; her name answers probably to our English
Tiffany:--

"William de Coningsby--
Came out of Brittany
With his wife Tiffany
And her maid Manifas
And his doggs Hardigras."

[Illustration: 15. Chimney. Chateau of La Belliere.]

The Lady Tiphaine was heiress and daughter of the Vicomte de Belliere; so
deeply versed was she in astrology, she was called Tiphaine la Fee. During
her husband's absence in Spain, she resided at Mont Saint Michel, having
chosen this insulated spot for the facilities it afforded her of studying
the stars. She gave Du Guesclin a calendar on vellum, containing verses at
the beginning of each month, pointing out the lucky and unlucky days; how
many she marked down as such, we know not. Tycho Brahe had thirty-two
fatal days in his calendar. Had Du Guesclin consulted this precious
volume, which is now preserved in the Library at Avranches, he would never
have risked his fortune by fighting the battle of Auray on the Feast of
St. Michel, one of the fatal days against which she specially warns him in
her book. We wished to have seen the room where she died, and where many
memorials of her are preserved; but the proprietor was at his dejeuner,
and would not grant us admittance, so we were forced to be content with
seeing the exterior of the house, a chateau of the end of the fourteenth
century. It stands on the edge of a large sheet of water, in the midst of
trees on the roadside between Dinan and St. Malo. Its principal
characteristics are its tall octagonal chimney-shafts, composed of
granite, brick, and slate. They are surmounted by pieces of slate placed
edgeways and forming a kind of capital or coronet to the granite shaft.
Some of the chimneys have two circles of these coronets, and others are
enriched with little rows of arches, of which the sombre slate background
throws out the delicate ornamentation. Recrossing the magnificent viaduct,
we proceeded to visit the Benedictine Priory of Lehon, called in the
country "Chapelle des Beaumanoirs" from the mortuary chapel of that family
attached to the abbey:--

"Beaumanoir! a ce nom de glorieux prodiges
Des siecles ecoules reveillent les prestiges:
La pierre des to