308 EAMBLES OF A NATUKALIST. 



it, and the roof is concealed by a platform which 

 entirely encircles it, and is flanked with turrets and 

 bristles with battlements. The gate and all the 

 windows are commanded by loopholes, while nu- 

 merous embrasures complete the preparations of 

 defence. By way of greater security, every opening 

 looking towards the sea has been carefully blocked 

 up. This was indeed the point from which danger 

 was to be apprehended ; for, protected by its 

 marshes, Esnandes had nothing to fear excepting 

 from the incursions of pirates, and being too poor 

 to enclose herself within walls, she had metamor- 

 phosed her church into a fortress. Marsilly and 

 several other villages on the coast trusted to similar 

 means of defence, but none of these fortified 

 churches have been so well preserved as the one of 

 which I have spoken. 



From the tower of Esnandes the eye embraces 

 the whole of the neighbouring country. To the 

 south the view is bordered by the hills, which ex- 

 tend as far as La Rochelle, and by the small plateau 

 of Vildoux, whose ancient shores still retain the 

 iron rings to which the ships of the middle ages 

 were moored. To the north and east extends, like 

 one great solid lake, the plain, which is enamelled 

 with the rich tints of the flowering meadows, the 

 waving cornfields, and the glistening marshes. On 

 the horizon rise the cathedral of Lucon, and the 

 hills of Maillezais and Fontenay, whilst Marans and 

 its neighbouring district, resuming for a moment the 

 appearance of what they once were, resemble a 

 small island. To the west the shore merges so in- 



