"You do not consider what you ask," I replied; "my gossip may have amused you, but the effusions of my pen would to a certainty make you yawn like graves." "Nonsense," whispered the flatterer, "you will open to us a new country, you will confer a real service upon hundreds of restless Englishmen, who when summer comes know not for the life of them where to go, or where not to go;--write your work, and advise them to turn their steps to Le Morvan at the time of the vintage." But now another, a huge difficulty, sprung up. Printers do not lend their types for nothing any more than they give gratis their time and paper. To publish a book is always an expensive affair; misfortune, which had touched me with its wing, which has been the sad guest of my house, deprived me of the power of undertaking it myself: and where to find a person so generous as to take upon himself the responsibility of the undertaking? Happily I was in England, in the land of kind hearts and warm sympathies. A noble lady, the mother of a distinguished English nobleman, who passes her life in doing good, took an interest in my forlorn history, and was pleased to honour me with her patronage. With this mantle of protection thrown around me, and my generous friend having undertaken to bear the responsibilities of publishing, the difficulties were soon swept away, and Le Morvan was written. I had hoped that I should in this Preface be permitted to mention her name, which would have been less a compliment to her than an honour to me; but her modesty has refused this public acknowledgment of my unbounded gratitude,--a veil of respectful reserve shall therefore remain suspended over her name. As for me and mine, we shall treasure it in our thankful hearts--every day shall we pray that the Great Giver of all good may confer upon her His most precious and gracious blessings. HENRI DE CRIGNELLE. LONDON, _August_, 1851. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. English propensity to ramble--Where and how--Le Morvan--Vezelay--Description of the town--Historical associations connected with it--Charles IX.--Persecutions of the Protestants--View from Vezelay--Scenery and wild sports--The Author--Object of the Work _p._ 1 CHAPTER II. Le Morvan--Forests--Climate--Patriarchs and Damosels--Peasants of the plain and the mountains--Jovial Curés--Their love of Burgundy--The Doctor and the Curé 14 CHAPTER III. Geology--Fossil shells--Antediluvian salmon--The Druids--Chindonax, the High Priest--Roman antiquities--Julius Cæsar's hunting-box--Lugubrious village--Carré-les-Tombes--The Inquisitive Andalusian 26 CHAPTER IV. Le Morvan during the Middle Ages--Legendary horrors--Forest of La Goulotte--La Croix Chavannes--La Croix Mordienne--Hôtel de Chanty--Château de Lomervo--A French Bluebeard--Citadel of Lingou 35 CHAPTER V.