archaeologists, among whom were a number of Englishmen, to Beaulieu.

'If you had only seen them,' he said, 'outside the church, all with their
noses lifted in the air! _Grand Dieu!_ What noses!'

Long before we reached Beaulieu I had had more than enough of the wild
spirits of my comic postman. On entering the town he insisted upon
taking me to a hotel which he said he could recommend to me with as much
confidence as if I were his brother. Then he left me; but I had not seen
the last of him. He presently returned, while I was enjoying the luxury
of a quiet and well-served little dinner. Seating himself in front of me
without waiting for an invitation, he helped himself with his fingers to
a dish of baked _cepes_, which I in consequence relinquished, but with a
complete absence of goodwill. There was no getting rid of him, short of
telling him plainly to go, and this I could not do after having accepted
his companionship on the road. He devoured all the mushrooms, expressing
his astonishment between whiles that I did not like them. '_J'aime bien
les champignons,_' he kept on repeating. '_Ca me va le soir. Ce n'est pas
lourd._' When the dessert was brought in, he picked out the only ripe
peach in the dish, and having poured another glass of wine down his really
terrible throat, he declared that it had given him great pleasure to make
my acquaintance, and left me with the hope that I should sleep well,
and would not forget the Beaulieu postman. I assured him, with perfect
sincerity, that I should never forget him.

When daylight returned I found Beaulieu a pleasant little town lying
under hills covered with chestnut woods, and at a short distance from the
Dordogne. Its name, however, was probably given to it on account of the
fertility of the soil in this bit of valley, where the cliffs that enclose
the Dordogne on each side fall back, and, by allowing a rich alluvium to