"LA GERBETIERE" 139 



ramparts of stone. On higher ground stood the wind- 

 mills, characteristic of Brittany also, — stalwart towers 

 of stone, with broad arms of latticed wood ever ready 

 to take the sails. 



The small station for Coueron lies in the commune 

 of Sautron, and at this isolated point the traveler will 

 sometimes find a country conveyance to take him to the 

 village. While we were raising the dust from this old 

 Coueron pike on the eighteenth day of August, swallows 

 hawking with characteristic energy for their insect prey 

 were the only birds we saw to remind us of the orni- 

 thologist, who as a youth had doubtless passed this way 

 many times, over a hundred years before. The most 

 direct approach to the old Audubon place from Sautron, 

 as we afterwards learned, is by a path which diverges 

 on the right and leads through stubble fields and cab- 

 bage patches, along hedgerows and stone walls. We, 

 however, fared on to the town and soon began to pass 

 shops and small modern houses. On the side of the 

 village the traveler's eye is certain to be arrested by a 

 great crucifix in stone, 2 which rises high above the street 

 from a lofty pedestal, and is approached by tiers of 

 stone steps. Nearly opposite stands the secretariat, or 

 official bureau of the commune, where a solitary clerk, 

 who seemed to welcome my intrusion in a place where 

 business was utterly stagnant, closed his office and with 

 characteristic courtesy cheerfully showed me the way. 

 This led directly westward to one side of the center of 

 the town, and after passing down a street of old houses 



2 There is also the grand calvaire, which stands on an eminence in 

 the village. This was erected in 1825 on the foundations of the chateau 

 of the dukes of Brittany, the last of whom, Francis II, died at Coueron 

 in 1488. His tomb is in the nave of the cathedral at Nantes; the grand 

 calvaire was restored by two Coueron families in 1873, and is a very elabo- 

 rate structure. 



