difficult of comprehension.

The town of Fougeres is partly built upon a slate rock, which seems to
have slipped from the mountains that hem in the broad valley of Couesnon
to the west and take various names according to their localities. The
town is separated from the mountains by a gorge, through which flows a
small river called the Nancon. To the east, the view is the same as from
the summit of La Pelerine; to the west, the town looks down into the
tortuous valley of the Nancon; but there is a spot from which a section
of the great valley and the picturesque windings of the gorge can be
seen at the same time. This place, chosen by the inhabitants of the town
for their Promenade, and to which the steps of Mademoiselle de Verneuil
were now turned, was destined to be the theatre on which the drama begun
at La Vivetiere was to end. Therefore, however picturesque the other
parts of Fougeres may be, attention must be particularly given to the
scenery which meets the eye from this terrace.

To give an idea of the rock on which Fougeres stands, as seen on this
side, we may compare it to one of those immense towers circled by
Saracen architects with balconies on each story, which were reached by
spiral stairways. To add to this effect, the rock is capped by a Gothic
church, the small spires, clock-tower, and buttresses of which make its
shape almost precisely that of a sugar-loaf. Before the portal of this
church, which is dedicated to Saint-Leonard, is a small, irregular
square, where the soil is held up by a buttressed wall, which forms a
balustrade and communicates by a flight of steps with the Promenade.
This public walk, like a second cornice, extends round the rock a few
rods below the square of Saint-Leonard; it is a broad piece of ground
planted with trees, and it joins the fortifications of the town. About
ten rods below the walls and rocks which support this Promenade (due
to a happy combination of indestructible slate and patient industry)
another circular road exists, called the "Queen's Staircase"; this is
cut in the rock itself and leads to a bridge built across the Nancon by
Anne of Brittany. Below this road, which forms a third cornice, gardens
descend, terrace after terrace, to the river, like shelves covered with
flowers.

Parallel with the Promenade, on the other side of the Nancon and
across its narrow valley, high rock-formations, called the heights of
Saint-Sulpice, follow the stream and descend in ge