m this spot to the road, we crossed an open common field on
the south side of the castle, planted with corn, and apparently of a
better quality than the land in its vicinity. "Voila le jardin," said
our guide; "c'etoit la ou il y avoit de ces belles figues, ces beaux
melons, ce delicieux. Muscat dont Madame parle." The fine trees, which
marked the limits of the garden, have all been cut down and burnt, with
the exception of a row of old elms on the western side, forming part of
the avenue which flanked the mail, or ball-alley, a constant appendage
in days of old to the seats of French noblemen. The turf of the mail is
even and soft still, and the wall on both sides tolerably perfect--"And
now, Messieurs," said mine host, "you may tell your countrymen, that you
have walked in the actual steps of the Marquise. C'est ici qu'elle
jouoit au mail avec cette parfaite grace--et M. le Comte aussi--ah!
c'etoit un plaisir de les voir." We hardly knew whether to laugh at, or
be interested by the comical Quixotism of this man, who I verily believe
had, by dint of residence on the spot, and thumbing constantly a dirty
old edition of Madame's letters, worked himself up to the notion that he
had witnessed the scenes which he described. We were induced, in the
course of our walk, to inquire somewhat into his own history, which
appeared rather a melancholy one, though common enough in the times
through which he had lived. About a week after the pillage and
destruction of Chateau Grignan, he was denounced as a royalist, and
immured in the prison of Orange, in company with several gentlemen of
the neighbourhood, acquaintances of his master. By means of a friend in
the town, (for they were not all devils at Orange, as he emphatically
assured us), he was enabled to procure a few common necessaries, to
improve the scanty prison allowance of some of the more infirm; but his
charitable labour soon ceased, for all were successively dispatched by
the guillotine in a short space of time. In the course of three months,
378 persons perished by decree of the miscreants composing the
Revolutionary tribunal at Orange, whose names were Fauvette, Fonrosac,
Meilleraye, Boisjavelle, Viotte, and Benoit Carat, the greffier. One of
their first victims was an aged nun of the Simiane family, canoness of
the convent of Bollene, accused of being a counter-revolutionist; so
lame and infirm, that her executioners were forced to carry her to the
scaffold. Madame d'Oza