Ch. 3 - A Day Without a Morrow

The preceding events of this history having been greatly influenced by
the formation of the regions in which they happened, it is desirable
to give a minute description of them, without which the closing scenes
might be difficult of comprehension.

The town of Fougeres is partly built upon a slate rock, which seems to
have slipped from the mountains that hem in the broad valley of
Couesnon to the west and take various names according to their
localities. The town is separated from the mountains by a gorge,
through which flows a small river called the Nancon. To the east, the
view is the same as from the summit of La Pelerine; to the west, the
town looks down into the tortuous valley of the Nancon; but there is a
spot from which a section of the great valley and the picturesque
windings of the gorge can be seen at the same time. This place, chosen
by the inhabitants of the town for their Promenade, and to which the
steps of Mademoiselle de Verneuil were now turned, was destined to be
the theatre on which the drama begun at La Vivetiere was to end.
Therefore, however picturesque the other parts of Fougeres may be,
attention must be particularly given to the scenery which meets the
eye from this terrace.

To give an idea of the rock on which Fougeres stands, as seen on this
side, we may compare it to one of those immense towers circled by
Saracen architects with balconies on each story, which were reached by
spiral stairways. To add to this effect, the rock is capped by a
Gothic church, the small spires, clock-tower, and buttresses of which
make its shape almost precisely that of a sugar-loaf. Before the
portal of this church, which is dedicated to Saint-Leonard, is a
small, irregular square, where the soil is held up by a buttressed
wall, which forms a balustrade and communicates by a flight of steps
with the Promenade. This public walk, like a second cornice, extends
round the rock a few rods below the square of Saint-Leonard; it is a
broad piece of ground planted with trees, and it joins the
fortifications of the town. About ten rods below the walls and rocks
which support this Promenade (due to a happy combination of
indestructible slate and patient industry) another circular road
exists, called the "Queen's Staircase"; this is cut in the rock itself
and leads to a bridge built across the Nancon by Anne of Brittany.
Below this road, which forms a third cornice, gardens descend, terrace
after terrace, to the river, like shelves covered with flowers.

Parallel with the Promenade, on the other side of the Nancon and
across its narrow valley, high rock-formations, called the heights of
Saint-Sulpice, follow the stream and descend in gentle slopes to the
great valley, where they turn