CHAPTER V.
LUDE--SAUMUR REVISITED--THE GARDEN--LA PETITE VOISINE--THE RETIRED MILITAIRE--LES PIERRES COUVERTES--LES PETITES PIERRES--LOUDUN--URBAIN GRANDIER--RICHELIEU--THE NUNS--THE VICTIM--THE FLY--THE MALLE POSTE--THE DISLODGED SERPENTS.
LEAVING Le Mans, and all its recollections, we continued our way towards the Loire, which we proposed crossing at Saumur, not only with a pleasing memory of our former visit there, when the sight of Fontevraud and its treasured tombs of our English kings first delighted us, but because, with all my wish to leave nothing unnoticed in the interesting towns of France, I had quitted Saumur without having made a _pilgrimage_ to some of its most singular and important monuments.

It was only on reading a passage in Michelet's History of France, when he alludes to the "_prodigious Dolmen_" of Saumur, that I found there was still something of interest which I had neglected.

Doubtless this has often been the case in my wanderings; and, probably, there is scarcely a town where some new treasure may not be discovered by some fresh traveller, where there is so much to excite attention.
I determined, therefore, to pause at Saumur, to enjoy its beauties once more, and pass a day with its Druids.
Lude was in our way, where, on the banks of the Loire, stands a magnificent castle; now a private residence, kept up in great style, and surrounded with beautiful gardens, better attended to than any I ever saw in France, where the name of _Jardin Anglais_ is, usually, another term for a wilderness.

Lude belonged to a Breton nobleman, M.de Faltroeet, and now to his son, for the inhabitants were just deploring his recent death, and, what is sufficiently unusual in France, naming a man of rank with respect and affection.

He appears to have been one of the most amiable and considerate of men, and to be sincerely lamented.
The young woman from the inn, who was our guide there, spoke of his death with great sorrow, and was eloquent in his commendation, as the friend of the people and the poor.
The castle is very extensive and in high preservation: we could not see the interior, which I am told is very interesting: rooms being named after Francis I.and Henry IV., who are both said to have visited here; and the furniture of their time is preserved or introduced.