306 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



to one of the fhepherds to attend me as a guide, 

 which was a very eafy matter to him, for the great 

 road leading to Anet crofles the foreft in a ftraight 

 line ', and it is, on that fide, fo little frequented, 

 that I found it covered in many places, with tufts 

 of grafs and ftrawberry plants. I felt all the way, 

 as I walked along, a ftifling heat, and much more 

 ardent than was at that hour felt in the open 

 country. I did not begin to refpire freely, till I 

 had got fairly clear of it, and had made my 

 efcape from the edge of the foreft more than the 

 diftance of three mufket (hot. In other refpeds, 

 thofe fhepherds, that folitude, that filence of the 

 woods, blended with the recolledion of Henry IV. 

 appeared to me much more affefting and fublime, 

 than the emblems of the chace in bronze, and the 

 cyphers of //i?;^;;)' II. interwoven with the crefcents 

 of Diana, which embellilh, on all fides, the domes 

 of the Caftle of Anet. This royal refidence, 

 loaded with ancient trophies of love, infpired, at 

 firft, a mixed emotion of pleafure and melancholy, 

 which gradually fubfided into profound forrow, 

 on recollecting that this love was illicit; but this 

 was followed, at laft, by fentiments of veneration 

 and refpeCl, which took complete poffeffion of my 

 mind, on being informed that, by one of thofe 

 revolutions to which the monuments of men are 

 fo frequently fubjefted, the caftle was then inha- 

 bited by the virtuous Duke of Penthièvre. 



I have 



