Sometimes it passed through cool, shady
woods, full of primeval grandeur,--part of the great Forest of
Tilly, which stretched away far as the eye could reach over the
hills of the south shore. Huge oaks that might have stood there
from the beginning of the world, wide-branching elms, and dark pines
overshadowed the highway, opening now and then into vistas of green
fields where stood a cottage or two, with a herd of mottled cows
grazing down by the brook. On the higher ridges the trees formed a
close phalanx, and with their dark tops cut the horizon into a long,
irregular line of forest, as if offering battle to the woodman's axe
that was threatening to invade their solitudes.
Half an hour's driving brought the company to the Manor House, a
stately mansion, gabled and pointed like an ancient chateau on the
Seine.
It was a large, irregular structure of hammered stone, with deeply-
recessed windows, mullioned and ornamented with grotesque carvings.
A turret, loopholed and battlemented, projected from each of the
four corners of the house, enabling its inmates to enfilade every
side with a raking fire of musketry, affording an adequate defence
against Indian foes.
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