conjoined to his train of whiskered warriors, seemed to render him a
very type of the church militant. His eminence is extremely bulky; and
my pilgrims were wicked enough to be much amused by the oddity of his
pomp and pride. Nor did the postillion spare his facetiousness on the
occasion; for you are aware that in France, as in most other parts of
the continent, the servile classes use a degree of familiarity in their
intercourse with their betters, to which we are little accustomed in
England, and which has given rise to the Italian proverb, that "Il
Francese è fedele, l'Italiano rispettoso, l'Inglese schiavo[28]."

Throughout this part of France, large flocks of sheep are commonly seen
in the vicinity of the sea, and, as the pastures are uninclosed, they
are all regularly guarded by a shepherd and his black dog, whose
activity cannot fail to be a subject of admiration. He is always on the
alert and attentive to his business, skirting his flock to keep them
from straggling, and that, apparently, without any directions from his
master. In the night they are folded upon the ploughed land; and the
shepherd lodges, like a Tartar in his _kibitka_, in a small cart roofed
and fitted up with doors.

Fécamp, like other towns in the neighborhood, is imbedded in a deep
valley; and the road, on approaching it, threads through an opening
between hills "stern and wild," a tract of "brown heath and shaggy
wood," resembling many parts of Scotland. The town is long and
straggling, the streets steep and crooked; its inhabitants, according to
the official account of the population of France, amount to seven
thousand, and the number of its houses is estimated at thirteen hundred,
besides above a third of that quantity which are deserted, and more or
less in ruins[29].