, a very pleasing effect.
    The sides of the apartment, not occupied by the lattices, were (except the
space for the small door) fitted up with presses and shelves, some of
walnut-tree, curiously carved, and brought to a dark colour by time, nearly
resembling that of a ripe chestnut, and partly of common deal, employed to
repair and supply the deficiencies occasioned by violence and devastation. On
these shelves were deposited the wrecks, or rather the precious relics, of a
most splendid library.
    The Marquis's father had been a man of information, and his grandfather was
famous even in the Court of Louis XIV., where literature was in some degree
considered as the fashion, for the extent of his acquirements. Those two
proprietors, opulent in their fortunes, and liberal in the indulgence of their
taste, had made such additions to a curious old Gothic library, which had
descended from their ancestors, that there were few collections in France which
could be compared to that of Hautlieu. It had been completely dispersed, in
consequence of an ill-judged attempt of the present Marquis, in 1790, to defend
his Chateau against a revolutionary mob. Luckily, the Curé, who, by his
charitable and moderate conduct, and his evangelical virtues, possessed much
interest among the neighbouring peasantry, prevailed on many of them to buy, for
the petty sum of a few sous, and sometimes at the vulgar rate of a glass of
brandy, volumes which had cost large sums, but which were carried off in mere
spite by the ruffians who pillaged the castle. He himself also had purchased as
many of the books as his funds could possibly reach, and to his care it was
owing that they were restored to the turret in which I found them. It was no
wonder, therefore, that the good Curé had some pride and pleasure in showing the
collection to strangers.
    In spite of odd volumes, imperfections, and all the other mortifications
which an amateur encounters in looking through an ill-kept library, there were
many articles in that of Hautlieu, calculated, as Bayes says, »to elevate and
surprise« the bibliomaniac. There were
 
               »The small rare volume, dark with tarnish'd gold,«
 
as Dr. Ferrier feelingly sings - curious and richly painted missals, manuscripts
of 1380, 1320, and even earlier, and works in Gothic type, printed in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. But of these I intend to give a more detailed
account should the Marquis grant his permission.
    In the meantime, it is sufficient to say, that, delighted