"Etienne," replied the _marmiton_. "Thy _pays_, my lad?" "Le Berry." "Thy age?" "Fifteen, come St. Martin's." "Thy wish?" "To be as great as the king" (he had not recognized his royal master). "And what wishes the king?" "His expenses to become less." The reply brought good fortune for the lad, for Louis made him his _valet de chambre_, and took him afterward into his most intimate confidence. Louis was fond of _la chasse_, and Scott does not overlook this fact in "Quentin Durward." When affairs of state did not press, it was the king's greatest pleasure. For the royal hunt no pains or expense were spared. The carriages were without an equal elsewhere in the courts of Europe, and the hunting establishment was equipped with _chiens courants_ from Spain, _levriers_ from Bretagne, _bassets_ from Valence, mules from Sicily, and horses from Naples. The attractions of the environs of Tours are many and interesting: St. Symphorien, Varennes, the Grottoes of Ste. Radegonde, and the site of that most famous abbey of Marmoutier, also a foundation of St. Martin. Here, under the name Martinus Monasterium, grew up an immense and superb establishment. From an old seventeenth-century print one quotes the following couplet: "De quel côté que le vent vente Marmoutier a cens et rente." From this one infers that the abbey's original functions are performed no more. [Illustration: _ENVIRONS OF TOURS_] In the middle ages (thirteenth century) it was one of the most powerful institutions of its class, and its church one of the most beautiful in Touraine. The tower and donjon are the only substantial remains of this early edifice. A curious chapel, called the "Chapelle des Sept Dormants," is here cut in the form of a cross into the rock of the hillside, where are buried the remains of the Seven Sleepers, the disciples of St. Martin, who, as the holy man had predicted, all died on the same day. Beyond Marmoutier, a stairway of 122 steps, cut also in the rock, leads to the plateau on which stands the gaunt and ugly Lanterne de Rochecorbon, a fourteenth-century construction with a crenelated summit, an unlovely companion of that even more enigmatic erection known as "La Pile," a few miles down the Loire at Cinq-Mars. CHAPTER XI. LUYNES AND LANGEAIS Below Tours, and before reaching Saumur, are a succession of panoramic surprises which are only to be likened to those of our imagination, but they are very real nevertheless. As one leaves Tours by the road which skirts the right bank of the Loire, he is once more impressed by the fact that the _cailloux de Loire_ are the river's chief product, though fried fish, of a similar variety to those found in the Seine, are found on the menus of all roadside taverns and restaurants.