_May 19th._--This day was, for a rarity, very warm. We saw in the
garden a swallow-tail butterfly and some small red moths, which
were almost the only kinds I saw in France. I never saw anywhere so
few butterflies: we thought it quite a treat to see a single white
one. There was the same scarcity of birds; and, notwithstanding the
quantity of wood in the gardens, we hardly heard one. In the middle
of the day we walked to the Trianons. The Grand Trianon is situated
at the extremity of one of the branches of the canal. We went to it
from the palace garden along a hayfield, near which we sometimes saw
the soldiers playing at ninepins. Near the Trianons were some tall
lombardy poplars and some very pretty acacias. At the gate were a great
many soldiers. An avenue leads up to the little Trianon, which, though
it is called a palace, is not larger than a small private house. The
Grand Trianon is very pretty, but looks small after the other great
palace: it is adorned with eight green marble, and fourteen red marble
pillars. We this day saw neither the inside nor the gardens, but merely
passed by it. Lower down was a pond near which some sheep were feeding,
which, with the wood of the forest, formed a pretty scene. We returned
through part of the forest, and home through the gardens. As we were
going along one of the walks we saw a great many people running,
and on enquiring the reason we were told it was to see the Duchesse
d'Angoulême: we saw her go into one of the walks which were closed,
and afterwards pass through the Orangerie. She was on horseback; there
were some ladies and gentlemen beside her, and other attendants behind.
She was dressed in a dark habit; her eyes were red, as if she had been
crying, and she was not good-looking. We saw her two or three times
afterwards, when she came to visit a college for educating priests to
send over the country, and which was very near our house. We often
saw scores of students going a-walking in their long black gowns
tucked up through the pocket-hole. They were in general very vulgar
and ungentlemanly-looking. The people did not seem to pay them much
respect, as the porter's wife and the nurse pointed, and then burst
out a-laughing when they passed. There were above three hundred at the
college.