CHAPTER XII.
"Dans sa pompe elegante, admirez Chantilly, De heros en heros, d'age en age, embelli."-- DE LILLE.
The health of the good Sister Frances, which had suffered much from the shock her mind received at the commencement of the revolution, declined so rapidly in the course of the two succeeding years, that she was obliged to leave Paris, and she retired to a little village in the neighbourhood of Chantilly.

She chose this situation because here she was within a morning's walk of Madame de Fleury's country-seat.

The Chateau de Fleury had not yet been seized as national property, nor had it suffered from the attacks of the mob, though it was in a perilous situation, within view of the high road to Paris.

The Parisian populace had not yet extended their outrages to this distance from the city, and the poor people who lived on the estate of Fleury, attached from habit, principle, and gratitude, to their lord, were not disposed to take advantage of the disorder of the times, to injure the property of those from whom they had all their lives received favours and protection.

A faithful old steward had the care of the castle and the grounds.