lodging you pay six francs a day, out of which, judging from the hunger
of the company, the profit arising would be small except to clerical
hotel-keepers. We must bear in mind that nuns work without pay, and that
all the fish, game, dairy and garden produce the bishop gets for nothing.
However, all tourists must be glad of such a hostelry, and the nuns are
very obliging. One sister made us some afternoon tea very nicely (we
always carry tea and teapot on these excursions), and everybody made us
welcome. We found a delightful old Frenchman of Strasburg to conduct us
to the Pagan Wall, as, for want of a better name, people designate this
famous relic of prehistoric times. Fragments of stone fortifications
similarly constructed have been found on other points of the Vosges not
far from the promontory on which the convent stands, but none to be
compared to this one in colossal proportions and completeness.

We dip deep down into the woods on quitting the convent gates, then climb
for a little space and come suddenly upon the edge of the plateau, which
the wall was evidently raised to defend. Never did a spot more easily
lend itself to such rude defence by virtue of natural position, although
where the construction begins the summit of the promontory is
inaccessible from below. We are skirting dizzy precipices, feathered
with light greenery and brightened with flowers, but awful
notwithstanding, and in many places the stones have evidently been piled
together rather for the sake of symmetry than from a sense of danger. The
points thus protected were already impregnable. When we look more nearly
we see that however much Nature may have aided these primitive
constructors, the wall is mainly due to the agency of man. There is no
doubt that in many places the stupendous masses of conglomerate have been
hurled to their places by earthquake, but the entire girdle of stone, of
pyramidal size and strength, shows much symmetrical arrangement and
dexterity. The blocks have been selected according to size and shape, and