t, to whom we had sent forwards our letters from Nantes,
addressed himself to us, and insisted that we should continue our
journey to his house, about half a mile on the other side of the town.
The ladies at length acceded to this proposal, on the condition that our
horses, servants, &c. should be sent back to the inn, and that ourselves
only should be the visitors of Mons. de Corseult.

CHAP. XII.

_Angers--Situation--Antiquity and Face of the Town--Grand
Cathedral--Markets--Prices of Provisions--Public Walks--Manners
and Diversions of the Inhabitants--Departure from
Angers--Country between Angers and Saumur--Saumur._

WE had intended to have reposed ourselves at Angers, but Mons. de
Corseult, having been very lately married, had his house daily full of
visitors, and as we were strangers, parties were daily made for us.
Whatever time I could steal from this unintermitting round, I employed
in walks to the town, and in the neighbourhood. Mr. Younge generally
accompanied me, but I was sometimes fortunate enough to be honoured with
Mademoiselle St. Sillery, an happiness of which I should have been more
sensible, had it not usually tempted the intrusion of some coxcomb, who
converted a tour of information into a mere lounge of levity and
senseless gallantry. How miserable would have been an English girl, of
the beauty and wit of this young lady, with such gallants! Or is it with
ladies as with the poet in Don Quixotte--are love and flattery sweet,
though they may come from a fool and a madman? I should hope not, or at
least with Mademoiselle St. Sillery.

In despite, however, of these intrusions, we had two or three pleasant
walks through Angers, in which the curiosity of Mademoiselle was of much
use to me. He must be less than a man, who could be wearied even by the
most minute interrogations of an handsome woman. Mademoiselle St.
Sillery, as if resolved to be ignorant of nothing, put the most endless
questions to those who accompanied us about the town; and with true
French gallantry, the answers even exceeded the questions. I had little
to do but to look and to listen.

Angers is situated in a plain, which, in the distance being fringed with
wood, and being very fertile in corn and meadow, wants nothing of the
richness and beauty which seem to characterize this part of the
province. It is parted into two by a river called the Mayenne, which is
a small branch of the Loire, and again falls into the main r