Page:The Works of Honoré de Balzac Volume 29.djvu/33

Rh itself out before their eyes to leave Hulot's remark unanswered, its importance not being at all appreciated by them. They were young men who, like many others, had been torn away from learned studies to defend their country, and the art of war had not yet extinguished the love of other arts in them.

Although they were coming from Fougères, whence the same picture that now lay before their eyes could be seen equally well, they could not help admiring it again for the last time, with all the differences that the change in the point of view had made in it, They were not unlike those dilettanti who take more pleasure in a piece of music for a closer knowledge of its details.

From the heights of the Pèlerine the wide valley of the Couësnon extends before the traveler's eyes. The town of Fougères occupies one of the highest points on the horizon. From the high rock on which it is built the castle commands three or four important ways of communication, a position which formerly made it one of the keys of Brittany. From their point of view the officers saw the whole length and breadth of this basin, which is as remarkable for its marvelously fertile soil as for the varied scenery it presents. The mountains of schist rise above it on all sides, as in an amphitheatre, the warm coloring of their sides is disguised by the oak forests upon them, and little cool valleys lie concealed in their slopes.

The crags describe a wall about an apparently circular enclosure, and in the depths below them lies a vast stretch of delicate meadow-land laid out like an English garden. A multitude of irregularly-shaped quick-set hedges surrounds the numberless domains, and trees are planted everywhere, so that this green carpet presents an appearance not often seen in French landscapes. Unsuspected beauty lies hidden in abundance among its manifold shadows and lights, and effects strong and broad enough to strike the most indifferent nature.

At this particular moment the stretch of country was