eleventh century to the rich _flamboyant_ of the fifteenth; and, like
many of the churches, its history dates from the time when the Druids
took possession of the island to the days when the storm of the
Revolution broke upon its shores.

The ordinary time for visiting the rock is when the tide is out, but we
have not seen Mont St. Michael to advantage until it is completely
surrounded by water, as it is during the spring tides; it is then that,
approached from the west, we may see it half-obscured by sea-foam, with
its turrets shining through the clouds, and the heavy Atlantic waves
booming against its foundations.

The little fishing population of Mont St. Michael, and the stories they
tell of the dangers of the quicksands, will while away the time in the
evening and reward us for staying; and we shall see such an exhibition
of hopeless _ennui_ on the part of the French officers in garrison as
will not soon be forgotten.

It would require a separate work to describe in detail all the buildings
on the rock;[33] (it takes a day to examine the fortifications and
dungeons alone); we have therefore only attempted to give the reader an
idea of its general aspect; of what M. Nodier, in his '_Annales
Romantiques_,' describes as 'l'effet poétique et religieux de la flèche
du Mont St. Michael;' and indeed we have hardly dared to picture to
ourselves the complete magnificence of the basilica of the Archangel, as
mariners who approached these shores must have seen it three hundred
years ago, with its lofty towers of sculptured stone; and the image of
its patron saint, turning towards the western sun a fiery cross of
gold.