wretch! God prevents him from seeing and his fellow-men
forbid him to speak!

The following day, when the tide had again receded from the beach, we
left the Mount under a broiling sun which heated the hood of the carriage
and made the horses sweat. They only walked; the harness creaked and the
wheels sank deep into the sand. At the end of the beach, when grass
appeared again, I put my eye to the little window that is in the back of
every carriage, and bade goodbye to Mont Saint-Michel.

CHAPTER XII.

COMBOURG.

A letter from the Viscount Vesin was to gain us entrance to the castle.
So as soon as we arrived, we called on the steward, M. Corvesier. They
ushered us into a large kitchen where a young lady in black, marked by
smallpox and wearing horn spectacles over her prominent eyes, was
stemming currants. The kettle was on the fire and they were crushing
sugar with bottles. It was evident that we were intruding. After several
minutes had elapsed, we were informed that M. Corvesier was confined to
his bed with a fever and was very sorry that he could not be of any
service to us, but sent us his regards. In the meantime, his clerk, who
had just come in from an errand, and who was lunching on a glass of
cider and a piece of buttered bread, offered to show us the castle. He
put his napkin down, sucked his teeth, lighted his pipe, took a bunch of
keys from the wall and started ahead of us through the village.

After following a long wall, we entered through an old door into a
silent farm-yard. Silica here and there shows through the beaten ground,
on which grows a little grass soiled by manure. There was nobody around
and the stable was empty. In the barns some chickens were roosting on
the poles of the wagons, with their heads under their wings. Around the
buildings, the sound of our footsteps was deadened by the dust
accumulated from the straw in the lofts.

Four large towers connected by curtains showed battlements beneath their
pointed roofs; the openings in the towers, like those in the main part
of the castle, are small, irregular windows, which form uneven black
squares on the grey stones. A broad stoop, comprising about thirty
steps, reaches to the first floor, which has become the ground-floor of
the interior apartments, since the trenches have been filled up.

The yellow wall-flower does not grow here, but instead, one finds
nettles and lentisks, greenish moss and lichens. To the left, next to
the t