it. Yet there are exceptions to every rule, and Nature herself delights
in occasional surprises.

[Illustration: LE FOLGOËT.]

We found Lesneven very dull and sleepy, but picturesque. There was a
singular old market-house of timber work, the quaintest we had ever
seen; and some of the houses formed ancient and interesting groups. Our
coachman had made an excellent déjeuner, if we were to judge by the
self-satisfied expression of his face, which resembled the sun at
mid-day seen through a red fog. He was now sitting in the courtyard
under a very lovely creeper, drinking his coffee out of a tall glass,
and of course smoking the pipe of peace. The creeper distinctly lent
enchantment to the view: the coachman did not.

We wandered about whilst he made his preparations for starting. The
market-place was broken and diversified in its outlines; one or two of
the streets turning out of it looked quite gabled and mediæval. The
covered market-house, with its curious roof and ancient timbers, gave it
a very distinctive and very individual appearance; so that it now rises
up in the memory as one of the many Breton pictures which make one's
experience of the little country a very exceptional pleasure.

Out of the Collège poured a small stream of boys, startling the silence
of the sleepy little town. We were mutually surprised at seeing each
other. They looked and gazed, and walked around and about us--at a
certain distance--and seemed as interested and perplexed as if we had
been visitants from other regions clothed in unknown forms. But they
manifested none of the delicacy of our little guide, and were not half
so interesting. Yet probably the roughest and rudest boy amongst them