ringing us upon a broad open plateau, the chateau of
Capello lay before us in all its beauty. At the sight, Francezka
stopped her horse, and, putting her hands to her face, fairly burst
into tears of joy.

Little did I think how I should come to know that place; of what I
should see and do and suffer there. I only saw in it the pleasantest
abode that man ever contrived for himself.

The chateau itself reminded one much of the Grand Trianon, which I
have often seen in the park of Versailles. It had the same form but
was larger. There was the graceful facade with its sweeping wings, the
curving marble balustrade of the terrace, the windows, large and many,
on which the autumn sun shone red. But the situation of the chateau of
Capello had far more of natural beauty than the Trianon. It lay in the
lap of the distant Ardennes, whose blue heights and rich woods marked
the horizon. Below the chateau the ground sloped gradually toward a
vast meadow-land, with many beautiful groves of aspens, and tall
ranked Lombardy poplars. On the slope lay the park and pleasure
grounds of the chateau. A silvery river made its devious way about
this fair domain. It washed one side of the chateau, where it had been
turned into a canal built like those of Venice, with a marble
banquette ornamented with statues and an ornate bridge; but after thus
playing the court lady for a short space, the river again became a
woodland nymph and ran away, laughing, to the woods and fields. On one
side of the chateau a rose garden was laid out, not too primly, and
many other gardens; while on the other side, overlooking the hedgeway
and quite screened from the chateau by groves of linden trees, and by
great clumps, almost groves, of huge old lilacs, was a plaisance, in
the formal Italian style.

These Italian gardens are common enough, and all much alike, but in
some strange manner, this one at Capello seemed to me to arrest
attention at once. Perhaps it was because it appeared solitary,
although in reality it was near the chateau. It had several falls,
with marble steps bordered with box, with many yew trees, and statues
of nymphs and fauns. At the very top was placed a statue of Petrarch,
and on one side of it was a moss-grown marble bench, and on the other,
an ancient sun-dial. The whole scene might have been transported from
Petrarch's land.

Below this garden lay a little lake, still and dark and cool. Tall
cedars of Lebanon fringed its banks both on