I quitted _La Trappe_ in the afternoon of the third day after my
arrival there, for the Val-Dieu, which lies three leagues to the east
of Mortagne, taking the villages of Rinrolles and Prepotin in my way;
the latter stands in the midst of a forest. By this road, so bad that
it scarcely deserves the name, a great distance is saved, but the
romantic scenery of the approach to La Trappe is lost. The one we took
through the forest of Bellegarde more than doubles the distance;
but the Abbey is seen as in the centre of a lake beneath, and
the continual beauty and wildness of the landscape render it far
preferable. Until the Revolution this was the only road, the other
having been made when the lands became national property, and were
sold to the peasantry.

After passing through the above villages, we came round by Tourouvre,
a village on a height, which has a manufactory for glass. I did
not stop to view it, having several leagues to go through a wooded
country. Soon after crossing the main road leading into Bretagne,
we rode by the side of cultivated lands and orchards resembling the
western parts of Devonshire, of which the narrow lanes and high hedges
reminded me very much, until we entered the forest leading to the
Val-Dieu. Between eight and nine in the evening we came to the edge
bounding that part of the Vale by which it is approached, in the
direction we had taken. It was very considerably out of our way, owing
to the guide having mistaken his road and turned to the left instead
of the right. After resting a few minutes on the brow of the hill, we
began our descent by a steep and narrow pathway. When we were midway
down the glen, the ruins of the ancient Chartreuse suddenly burst upon
the view! At this moment all the terrors of the declivity, and the
momentary expectation of meeting some of the wolves with which the