CHAPTER VIII.

_MORTAIN--VIRE--FALAISE._


We now turn our faces towards the east, and starting again from
Avranches on our homeward journey, go very leisurely by diligence,
through Mortain and Vire to Falaise.

The distance from Avranches to Mortain is not more than twenty miles,
and takes nearly five hours; but the country is so beautiful, and the
air is so fresh and bracing, that a seat in the banquette of the
diligence is one of the most enviable in life. The roof is over-loaded
with goods and passengers, which gives a pleasant swaying motion to the
vehicle; but the road is so smooth and even that 'nobody cares'--the
rocking to and fro is soothing, and sends the driver to sleep, the
pieces of string that keep the harness together will hold for another
hour or two, and the crazy machine will last our journey at least.

We halt continually on the journey--once, for half-an-hour, literally
'under the lindens'--they are not yet in bloom, but they give out a
pleasant perfume into the dreamy air; we are again in the open country,
in the atmosphere of old historic Normandy, and bound, slowly it is
true, for the birthplace of William the Conqueror; and we can read or
sleep at pleasure, as our crazy diligence crawls up and creeps down
every hill, and stops at every cottage by the way.