Here the monks used to walk in bad weather, contriving the next
day's dinner, or imagining excuses for detaining some of the many pretty
female pilgrims who resorted, under various pretences, to this celebrated
monastery. At present, it affords shelter to the veterans and gendarmes
who keep guard over the prisoners below.
From various portions of the monastery, we obtain admirable views of sea
and shore; but the most superb coup-d'oeil is from a tall slender tower,
which shoots up above almost every other portion of the building. Hence
are seen the hills and coasts of Brittany, the sea, the sandy plain
stretching inland, with the rivers meandering through it, and the long
sweep of shore which encompasses the Greve, with Avranches, and its
groves and gardens, in the back ground. Close at hand, and almost
beneath one's feet, as it were, is the barren rock called the
Tombelaine, which, though somewhat larger than the Mont St. Michel, is
not inhabited. Even this rock, however, was formerly fortified by the
English; and several remains of the old towers are still found among the
thorns and briers with which it is at present overrun.
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