However, the beds seemed to be in good order, and the coffee, with which I was quickly served, proved to be excellent.  I strolled out, on a reconnoissance, about half-past nine; but owing to the deep shadows from the moon, arising from the narrowness of the streets, I could make out nothing satisfactory of the locale.  The church, however, promised a rich treat on the morrow.  As soon as the morrow came, I betook myself to the church.  It was Sunday morning.  The square, before the west front of the church, was the rendezvous both of townsmen and countryfolks:  but what was my astonishment on observing in one corner of it, a quack doctor vending powder for the effectual polishing of metals.  He had just beaten his drum, in order to collect his audience; and having got a good assemblage, was full of the virtues of his wares—­which were pronounced to be also “equally efficacious for complaints in the stomach!”

This man had been preceded, in the situation which he occupied, by a rival charlatan, on horseback, with powders to kill rats.  The latter stood upon the same eminence, wearing a hat, jacket, and trowsers, all white—­upon which were painted black rats of every size and description; and in his harangue to the populace he took care to tell them that the rats, painted upon his dress, were exact portraits of those which had been destroyed by means of his powders!  This, too, on a Sunday morning.  But remember Dieppe.[152]

Having despatched my breakfast, I proceeded to survey the church, from which the town takes its name.  First, for the exterior.  The attached towers demand attention and admiration.  They are so slightly attached as to be almost separated from the body or nave; forming something of that particular character which obtains more decidedly at the cathedral of Coutances.  I am not sure whether this portion of the church at St. Lo be not preferable, on the score of regularity and delicacy, to the similar portion at this latter place.  The west front is indeed its chief beauty of exterior attraction; and it was once rendered doubly interesting by a profusion of alto-rilievo statues, which disappeared during the commotions of the revolution.  You ascend rather a lofty flight of steps to this entrance; and into which the whole town seemed to be pouring the full tide of its population.  I suffered myself to be carried away along, with the rest, and almost startled as I entered the nave.[153] To the left, is a horribly-painted statue of the Virgin, with the child in her arms.  The countenance is even as ugly, old, and repulsive, as the colouring is most despicable.  I never saw such a daub:  and what emotions, connected with tenderness of feeling, or ardour of devotion, can the contemplation of such an object excite?  Surely the parish must have lost its wits, as well as its taste, to endure such a monstrous exhibition of art.