ing enough to see a little of the city, which contains
forty thousand inhabitants, and was the ancient capital of the dukedom
of Brittany.

"This is Laval," said the doctor, an hour and a half after the train
left Rennes.

"See there!" exclaimed Grace, pointing to a man clothed in goatskins,
the hair outside. "Is that Robinson Crusoe?"

"No; that is the fashion for the peasants in this part of Brittany.
They don't depend upon Paris for the _mode_. I suppose you have all
heard of the Vendean war."

"Yes, sir. The people of La Vendee were royalists, and fought against
the republicans as long as there was anything left of them," replied
Paul.

"La Vendee lies south of the Loire; but one of their greatest battles
was fought near Laval, in 1793. They conducted themselves with fearful
desperation, and after the republicans had sent word, as the battle
waned, to the Convention at Paris, that La Vendee was no more, the
wounded leader of the insurgents was carried through their ranks, and
they rallied, gaining the day in a decisive victory, by which the
government troops lost twelve thousand men."

Fifty-six miles farther brought the excursionists to Le Mans, where the
Vendean army was finally destroyed by the forces of General Marceau.
The carnage was terrible, and extended even to the massacre of many of
the wives and children of the royalists. An obelisk to the memory of
the republican general, who was born at Le Mans, informs the reader
that he was a soldier at sixteen, a general at twenty-three, and died
when he was twenty-seven.

At Chartres, forty-seven miles from Paris, the train stopped half an
hour, and the party had an opportunity to see the cathedral, the most
magnificent in France, and one of the most ancient. It is four hundred
and twenty-five feet long. Henry IV. was crowned in it in 1594, for the
reason that Rheims, where coronations formerly took place, was in
possession of the Leaguers.

At seven o'clock, the train arrived in Paris, and the party hastened to
the lodgings which had been engaged for them. In the evening they
attended the grand opera, at the invitation of Mr. Arbuckle, and the
next morning proceeded to Strasburg. After a short delay, the party
continued the journey, crossing the Rhine into Germany, and halting at
Offenburg, a small town, where hotel accommodations had been bespoken.
After supper, the excursionists were collected in a large room, and
Professor Mapps took a position in fr