You May Have A Tolerable Look At The Cathedral Without Leaving The Railway-Carriage; For It Stands Just Above The Tunnel, And Is Exposed, Much Foreshortened, To The Spectator Below.

There is evidently a charming walk round the plateau of the town, commanding those pretty views of which Balzac gives an account.

But the train whirled me away, and these are my only impressions. The truth is that I had no need, just at that moment, of putting myself into communication with Balzac; for opposite to me in the compartment were a couple of figures almost as vivid as the actors in the "Comedie Humaine." One of these was a very genial and dirty old priest, and the other was a reserved and concen- trated young monk, - the latter (by which I mean a monk of any kind) being a rare sight to-day in France. This young man, indeed, was mitigatedly monastic. He had a big brown frock and cowl, but he had also a shirt and a pair of shoes; he had, instead of a hempen scourge round his waist, a stout leather thong, and he carried with him a very profane little valise. He also read, from beginning to end, the "Figaro" which the old priest, who had done the same, presented to him; and he looked altogether as if, had he not been a monk, he would have made a distinguished officer of engineers. When he was not reading the "Figaro" he was conning his breviary or answering, with rapid precision and with a deferential but dis- couraging dryness, the frequent questions of his com- panion, who was of quite another type.

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