I had the satisfaction of discovering in the library of the marquis the historical documents I needed.  They form, indeed, a part of the ancient archives of the abbey, and have a special interest for the family of Malouet.  It was one William Malouet, a very noble man and a knight, who, about the middle of the twelfth century, with the consent of messieurs his sons, Hughes, Foulgues, John, and Thomas, restored the church and founded the abbey in favor of the order of the Benedictine monks, and for the salvation of his soul and of the souls of his ancestors, granting unto the congregation, among other dues and privileges, the fee-simple of the lands of the abbey, the tithe of all its revenues, half the wool of its flocks, three loads of wax to be received every year at Mount Saint-Michel-on-the-sea; then the river, the moors, the woods, and the mill, et molendinum in eodem situ.  I took pleasure in following through the wretched latin of the time the description of this familiar landscape.  It has not changed.

The foundation charter bears date 1145.  Subsequent charters show that the abbey of Rozel was in possession, in the thirteenth century, of a sort of patriarchate over all the institutions of the order of Saint Benedict that were then in existence in the province of Normandy.  A general chapter of the order was held there every year, presided over by the Abbot of Rozel, and at which some ten or a dozen other convents were represented by their highest dignitaries.  The discipline, the labors, the temporal and spiritual management of all the Benedictines of the province were here controlled and reformed with a severity which the minutes of these little councils attest in the noblest terms.  These scenes replete with dignity, took place in that Capitulary Hall now so shamefully defiled.

Aside from the archives, this library is very rich, and this is apt to divert attention.  Moreover, the vortex of worldly dissipation that rages in the chateau is not without occasionally doing some prejudice to my independence.  Finally, my worthy hosts frequently take away with one hand the liberty they have granted me with the other; like many persons of the world, they have not a very clear idea of the degree of connected occupation which deserves the name of work, and an hour or two of reading appears to them the utmost extent of labor that a man can bear in a day.

“Consider yourself wholly free,” Monsieur le Malouet tells me every morning; “go up to your hermitage; work at your ease.”

An hour later he is knocking at my door: 

“Well! are we hard at work?”

“Why, yes, I am beginning to get into it.”

“What! the duse!  You have been at it more than two hours!  You are killing yourself, my friend.  However, you are free.  By the way, my wife is in the parlor; when you have done you’ll go and keep her company, won’t you?”

“Most undoubtdedly I will.”

“But only when you have entirely done, of course.”