44 



HOW THE AUTHOR WAS LED TO 



selves from this sombre orchard. Penetratinsc the ancient liedo-es 

 and chestnut-alleys, you found yourself in a nook of barren argil- 

 laceous soil, where, among thyme-laurels and other strong, rude trees, 

 rose an enormous cedar, a veritable leafy cathedral, of such stature 

 that a cypress already grown very tall was choked by it, and lost. 

 This cedar, bare and stripped below, was living and vigorous where 

 it received the light; its immense arms, at thirty feet from the 

 ground, clothed themselves with strange and pointed leaves; then 

 the canopy thickened; the trunk attained an elevation of eighty feet. 

 You saw, about three leagues distant, the fields opposite the banks 



of the Sevre and the woods of La Vendee. Our home, low and 

 sheltered on the side of this giant, wa.s not less distinguished by it 



