inhabitants are distinguished by their frankness aud agreeable manners: the country-women wear large straw-hats, in the shape of a boat, which is not unbecoming. There are several forges in the neighbourhood, and some quarries of red, yellow, and blue marble; population 13,800.

Moulins may be considered a cheaper residence even than Tours, particularly since the latter place has been overstocked with English economists. Meat is plentiful and cheap, and poultry, vegetables, and fruit abundant. A very good family-house, with a nice garden and paddock, may be had here for 251. a year. Those who object to the interior of the town, may easily find a house in its charming environs. The town of Moulins is not at all ancient, and is, perhaps, the most modern of any capital of a district in France. Its origin is not anterior to the 14th century, and it appears that it was not called a town till the end of that century or the beginning of the following. Its name is derived from an old mill situated on the banks of the Allier, which was destroyed only about fifty years ago.

riage for two or three miles, importuning travellers to spend a little money with them. This is also the case at Cosne, and at other places en route. One of them, having once been very importunate to a gentleman who persisted in refusing to buy her wares, she absolutely got into the carriage when she saw it ready to set off. He, in order to see how far she would go, let her remain there quietly, and she accompanied him to the next post, a distance of eight or nine miles, when finding him still inexorable she departed, and bent her way homewards,

The Dukes of Bourbon, who resided at Souvigny, Bourbon, or Chantelle, had a hunting seat in this spot; it was a tower, which afterwards formed part of the castle of Moulins. This was enlarged by Louis II, Duke of Bourbon, who died in the beginning of the 15th century, and who founded there a collegiate church. The agreeable situation of the place, and the residence which the Dukes made in it, drew many private families there, till it increased to such a degree as insensibly to become a town. But a proof of its recent formation is, that down to the year 1789 it had never been the see of a bishop, and that, at that period, it had not even a parish church. The famous mausoleum of the Duke of Montmorency, which we have mentioned above, is a beautiful piece of sculpture, and the more to be admired as it was executed at a period when that art was only beginning to revive in France. The celebrated Francis Anguier had the direction, of the whole work, and sculptured the principal figures: he took for his associates, Renaudin, many of whose works are to be seen at Paris and Versailles, and Poissant. The whole was executed at Paris. The following inscription is on the pedestal of the sarcophagus, which is of black marble:

Henrico II, Momoriaci Ducum ultimo et maximo, Franciæ Pari, Thalassiarcho, Polemarcho, terrori hostium, amori suorum, Maria-Felix-Ursina, ex Romanâ stirpe, conjux unica, cui ex immensis viri divitiis une amor

viventis et defuncti cineres, post exactos in conjugio felicissimo annos XVIII, marito incomparabili, de quo dolere nihil unquam potuit nisi mortem, benemerenti, F. C. Anno Sal. 1652, sui luctûs XX.

The dutchess, after the tragical death of her husband, who was the victim of the cruel vengeance of Cardinal Richelieu, and was beheaded at Toulouse, was herself accused of having excited him to revolt; and, in consequence, was arrested, and taken prisoner to the castle of Moulins, where she was kept in close confinement for a year. The following year she had more indulgence. The nuns of the visitation often afforded her spiritual consolation and assistance, which she gratefully received; she had also frequent communications with Madame de Chantal, and the Jesuit Lingendes, her director. The example of the former and the sollicitations of the latter, joined to her profound grief, determined her to live in retirement. After an imprisonment of two years, she was set at liberty; but she always lived at Moulins, and, in 1641, entered the monastery of the Visitation, where she took the veil; and died superior of it, in the year 1666, at the age of sixty-six.

In 1642, Louis XIII passed through Moulins, and lodged in the castle. This circumstance revived the sorrows of the Dutchess of Montmorency. The King sent one of his gentlemen to make enquiries after her; to whom the Dutchess gave this answer : I beg you to tell the King, that I am much surprised he

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should still bear in his memory such an unfortunate creature, and so unworthy of the honour she receives from him. »

The Cardinal, who was with the King, had also assurance or hypocrisy enough, to dare, to send a gentleman, on his part, to the Dutchess. On hearing this, she could not at first contain her indignation. On est femme avant d'être dévote; says a French writer: however, her piety soon got the better of nature; she went to the parlour, and said to the gentleman: Sir, you may tell your master, that my tears speak for me, and that I am his most humble servant. »

The bridge of Moulins, which is like that of Neuilly, near Paris, is justly considered as one of the finest works of the kind in France. Four bridges had been constructed in this spot, in the space of a century; three of stone and one of wood the third, which was built of stone, fell in 1689; a fourth was undertaken in 1706, on the designs of the celebrated Mansard; but it was hardly finished, when it was carried off by the impetuosity of the stream in 1710. In 1754, the construction of a fifth bridge was begun, which is the one that subsists at present, under the management and from the designs of Regemortes. This construction required great care and a new method; for all the ground being sand, it was very difficult to form the foundations, and almost impossible to pump out the water. The architect, however, surmounted every obstacle; and

completed a bridge as beautiful as solid, which was entirely finished in 1763.

This bridge, which has flags on each side, is perfectly horizontal. It is composed of thirteen equal arches, each sixty feet in width, of an elliptical form; it is forty-two feet wide, and the length, from one butment to the other, is 1050 feet.

From Moulins to Bessay, the next post, we pass through a level but rich and fertile country, and observe the left bank of the Allier, sprinkled with vineyards, woods, villages, and chateaux; the right is still more beautiful. Some distance beyond Varennes, the Puy-deDome is seen, part of a long chain of mountains; still farther, Mont-d'Or raises its snow-capped summit, bounding the horizon: on the left is the modern chateau of Gaîté, now converted into a hospital. About five miles farther, there is a fine view from the top of a hill, of the mountains of Auvergne on the right. Pass St.-Gerand-le-Puy, a post, with a good inn, through a woody and hilly country, with some pretty valleys, to La Palisse; but before we descend to this place, we observe a road on the right, which leads to Vichy, much resorted to in the summer, for its warm mineral waters, celebrated for the cure of palsy, rheumatisms, and obstructions, and often visited by Madame de Sévigné, who has given an entertaiming account of the place in her charming « Letters.» It is now visited every year by the Dutchess of Angoulême. The trade of La Palisse, consists of

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