through a country agreeably diversified with villas, to which the
wealthier inhabitants retire during the summer months. The river
resembles a lake for the greater part of its course, and is called the
Barban.

The Gothic church of Saint Pierre, built by the English in 1434, is
a fine old structure: having been much neglected for many years, and
greatly defaced during the Revolution, it was at this time restoring.
Among the monuments about to be replaced, was an excellent one of Anne
de Bretagne, whose effigy, and that of her husband, are as large as
life. The allegorical figures of Justice, Temperance, Prudence, and
Fortitude, the twelve Apostles, and the supporters to the Arms (a
greyhound and a lion), are all executed in the finest white marble.
They were hidden during the Revolution, and have only very lately been
discovered, as have also some capital paintings piously preserved
for the Church. Anne was first married to Charles VIII. in 1499, and
afterwards to Louis XII. She died at the Château de Blois in 1514, and
Louis in 1515.

The climate of Nantes is mild, and reckoned remarkably healthy: every
article of life is cheap, and from its mild temperature it abounds
in the finest fruits and most excellent wines. Its population is
estimated at 60,000 inhabitants. The numbers that were destroyed
during the Revolution, or, as the French emphatically term it, "Le
régne de la Terreur," were never ascertained; but the frightful
history of that bloody period would probably justify the computation
at half the number of its present population, many having fallen
victims to the murders that were termed "_Noyades_," independent of
those who perished in the Vendean war.