latter however had triumphed over the former: but for _accident_ you must
read _revolution_.

The day had been rather oppressive for a May morning; and we were getting
far into the afternoon, when clouds began to gather, and the sun became
occasionally obscured. We seated ourselves upon a grassy hillock, and began
to prepare for dinner. To the left of us lay a huge pile of fragments of
pillars and groinings of arches--the effects of recent havoc: to the right,
within three yards, was the very spot in which the celebrated AGNES SOREL,
Mistress of Charles VII, lay entombed:[82]--not a relic of mausoleum now
marking the place where, formerly, the sculptor had exhibited the choicest
efforts of his art, and the devotee had repaired to

Breathe a prayer for her soul--and pass on!

What a contrast to the present aspect of things!--to the mixed rubbish and
wild flowers with which every spot is now well nigh covered! The mistress
of the inn having furnished us with napkins and tumblers, we partook of our
dinner, surrounded by the objects just described, with no ordinary
sensations. The air now became oppressive; when, looking through the few
remaining unglazed mullions of the windows, I observed that the clouds grew
blacker and blacker, while a faint rumbling of thunder reached our ears.
The sun however yet shone gaily, although partially; and as the storm
neared us, it floated as it were round the abbey, affording--by means of
its purple, dark colour, contrasted with the pale tint of the walls,--one
of the most beautiful painter-like effects imaginable. In an instant
almost--and as if touched by the wand of a mighty necromancer--the whole
scene became metamorphosed. The thunder growled, but only growled; and the
threatening phalanx of sulphur-charged clouds rolled away, and melted into
the quiet uniform tint which usually precedes sun-set. Dinner being