Dumas' acquaintance with the French provinces was very comprehensive, though it is of the region northeast of Paris that he was most fond; of the beloved forest region around Crépy and Villers-Cotterets; the road to Calais, and Picardie and Flanders. Dumas was ever fond of, and familiar with, the road from Paris to Calais. The National Route ran through Crépy, and the byroad through his native Villers-Cotterets. In the "Vicomte de Bragelonne," he calls the region "The Land of God," a sentiment which mostly has not been endorsed by other writers; still, it is a beautiful country, and with its thickly wooded plantations, its industrious though conglomerate population, it is to-day--save for the Cantal and the Auvergne--that part of France of which English-speaking folk know the least. And this, too, on the direct road between London and Paris! Dumas, in the above-mentioned book, describes the journey through this region which was made by Buckingham and De Wardes. "Arriving at Calais, at the end of the sixth day, they chartered a boat for the purpose of joining the yacht that was to convey them to England, and which was then tacking about in full view." The old port of Calais must have been made use of by the personages of whom Dumas wrote, who trafficked forth between England and France. Calais has ever been the most important terminus of cross-channel traffic, and there be those who know, who say that the boat service is not improved in comfort in all these ages, and certainly Calais, which most English travellers know only by fleeting glimpses, might with profit be visited more frequently, if only to follow in the wake of Sterne's sentimental footsteps. The old port, of course, exists no more; new dykes, breakwaters, and the _gare maritime_ have taken the place of the ancient landing-places, where royalties and others used to embark in frail sailing-vessels for the English ports across the channel. The old belfry still exists, and forms a beacon by day, at least, much as it did of yore. By night the new electric-light flashes its beams twenty odd miles across the channel on Dover Cliff, in a way which would have astonished our forefathers in the days gone by. It was at Calais, too, that was enacted the final scene in the life of Mary Stuart in France. The misfortunes of Mary Stuart formed the subject of one of the series of "Les Crimes Célèbres." In the opening words of this chapter, Dumas has said, "Of all the names predestined to misfortune in France, it is the name of Henri. Henri I. was poisoned, Henri II. was killed (maliciously, so some one has said) in a tournament, Henri III. and Henri IV. were assassinated." In Scotland it is the name of Stuart.