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I had always promised the Florians I would come and stay with them, and was curious to see their installation in one of the fine old hotels of the place. The journey was rather long not particularly interesting. We passed near Caen, getting a very good view of the two great abbayes with their towers and spires quite sharply outlined against the clear blue sky. The train was full.

In winter no one is working in the fields and one never hears a sound; a dog's bark is welcome it means life and movement somewhere. It is quite the country of the "haute culture," which Cherbuliez wrote about in his famous novel, "La Ferme du Choquart." The farms are often most picturesque have been "abbayes" and monasteries.

As their offices were in the gift of the king, and as no discipline was enforced upon them, they were chiefly to be found in the antechambers of Versailles and in the drawing-rooms of Paris. These appear to have been most of the rich abbeys. There were also abbayes regulieres, where the abbot was elected by the brethren. Rambaud, ii. 53.

By-the-by, it is rather quaint that the Archbishop of Tours should be chosen as godfather of these superchaste books, seeing that Touraine has a rather famous reputation for naughty stories, and Balzac alleges that his naughty "Contes Drolatiques" are "Colliges ez Abbayes de Touraine." It would be remarkable if the French tongue lent itself as easily as ours to the double entente.

We went to the two abbayes both of them quite beautiful St. Étienne Abbaye aux Hommes was built by William the Conqueror, who was originally buried there. It is very grand quite simple, but splendid proportions a fitting resting-place for the great soldier, who, however, was not allowed to sleep his last sleep, undisturbed, in the city he loved so well.

When the Emperor Sigismund came to Ulm in 1434 the streets were illuminated at such times as he or his suite desired to visit the common brothel. Brothels under municipal protection are found in the thirteenth century in Augsburg, in Vienna, in Hamburg. In France the best known abbayes of prostitutes were those of Toulouse and Montpellier.