10 THE FLOWERS

gave the title to the family—a huge old
tower coeval with the first dukes of Nor-
mandy.

When first admitted to my cure, the family
at the chateau consisted of many individuals,
but one and another of these being removed
by death or marriage, Madame la Baronne
only was left to us after a few years; and
such was the kindness and amiable deportment
of this lady, that it was commonly said of
her, that all the virtues of the long and
illustrious line of ancestry, of which she
was the last in that part of the country, had
centred in her. In fact, her conduct merited
our sincere affection and gratitude; but
when we are made acquainted, through the
Divine teaching, with the fallen and corrupt
state of human nature, we dare not use or
admit that high strain of panegyric which
more presumptuous individuals employ with-
out apprehension.

Between the village and the chateau stood
our church, built also of grey stone, in the
Norman Gothic style; and near to the