ent to Paris; for three years the Count studied medicine and
surgery, and his wife became a skilful oculist. On their return to La
Garaye, they gave up all the amusements of society, and devoted themselves
to relieving the sufferings of their fellow creatures. Their house was
converted into an hospital for the sick and the wounded, under the
ministering care of the Count and his benevolent wife:--

"Her home is made their home; her wealth their dole;
Her busy courtyard hears no more the roll
Of gilded vehicles, or pawing steeds,
But feeble steps of those whose bitter needs
Are their sole passport. Through that gateway pass
All varying forms of sickness and distress,
And many a poor worn face that hath not smiled
For years,--and many a feeble crippled child,--
Blesses the tall, white portal where they stand,
And the dear Lady of the liberal hand."
THE LADY OF LA GARAYE.

Nor was their philanthropy confined to their own province. In 1720, they
offered themselves to M. de Belzunce--"Marseilles' good bishop"--to assist
him during the visitation of the Plague. The fame of their virtues reached
even the French Court, and Louis XV. sent Count de la Garaye the order of
St. Lazarus with a donation of 50,000 livres and a contract on the post of
25,000 more.

They both died at an advanced age, within two years of each other, and
were buried among their poor at Taden, but their marble mausoleum in the
church was destroyed in the French Revolution. Count de la Garaye(6) left
a large sum to be distributed among the prisoners, principally English, at
Rennes and Dinan, who were suffering pent up in these crowded gaols. The
Comte had attended the English prisoners at Dinan during a contagious
fever, called the "peste blanche," and, in acknowledgment of his humanity,
Queen Caroline sent him two dogs with silver collars round their necks,
and an English nobleman made him a present of six more.

[Illustration: 16. Chateau of La Garaye.]

The ruined chateau is approached by an ivy-covered gateway, through an
avenue of beeches:--

"Le lierre flottant comme un manteau de deuil,
Couvre a demi la porte et rampe sur le seuil."
LAMARTINE, _Harmonies Poetiques_.

or, as Mrs. Norton renders it:--

"And like a mourner's mantle, with sad grace,
Waves the dark ivy--hiding half the door
And threshold, where the weary traveller's foo