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A Visit to the Monastery of La Trappe in 1817 - With Notes Taken During a Tour Through Le Perche, Normandy, Bretagne, Poitou, Anjou, Le Bocage, Touraine, Orleanois, and the Environs of Paris. - Illustrated with Numerous Coloured Engravings, from Drawings by W.D. Fellowes
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whip with the noise and singular dexterity peculiar to the French
postillions; and as we entered a part of the forest, impenetrable but
for traces known only to those who are accustomed to them, he related
(by way of consolation, I suppose,) several stories of the peasantry
having been recently attacked, and some destroyed, by wolves; and one
instance of a woman having had her infant torn from her arms, only a
short time since, in the neighbourhood.

On quitting the forest the track was now and then diversified by the
ruins of a solitary cottage, or the mouldering remains of a crucifix,
raised by pious hands to mark some event, or to guide the traveller;
and after traversing a rocky plain, covered with heath and wild thyme,
where some herds of sheep and goats were browsing, attended by the
shepherd, we entered the Forest of Bellegarde. This forest spreads
over a large extent of country, and is so dark and intricate, that
those best acquainted with it frequently lose their way. No vestige of
human footsteps or of the track of animals appeared; a mark, here and
there, on some of the trees, was the only direction! Pursuing our way
through turnings and windings the most perplexing, we found ourselves
to be on the overhanging brow of a hill, the descent of which was so
precipitous, that we were under the necessity of dismounting; and by
a winding path, hollowed out in its side, descended through a sort
of labyrinth towards the valley, whose sides were clothed with lofty
woods, rising one above the other. The valley itself is interspersed
with three lakes, connected with each other, and forming a sort of
moat around the ground; in the centre of which appears the venerable
abbey of La Trappe, with its dark gray towers, the deep tone of whose
bell had previously announced to us, that we had nearly reached our
journey's end.

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