Part 2 (1/2)
The castle of Dinan is now a prison. It was occupied by the Queen-d.u.c.h.ess Anne, when on her way to a pilgrimage to Notre Dame-du-Folgoet, in fulfilment of a vow made during the illness of Louis XII. In the chapel is shewn a sculptured seat, still called the arm-chair of the d.u.c.h.ess Anne.
Within these walls were crammed, in the last century, about 2000 English prisoners of war, many of whom fell victims to a contagious fever. From the platform of the keep we had a magnificent view of the surrounding country, extending to Mont Dol and the sea.
The church of St. Sauveur has a richly sculptured Romanesque portal. It contains the heart of Du Guesclin, transferred from the church of the Dominicans, where he desired it to be interred by the side of his wife Tiphaine. His body was buried at St. Denis, in a tomb King Charles V.
caused to be made in his lifetime, and he left orders that on his death his Constable should repose at his feet. On the dark-coloured monumental stone now incrusted on the wall, are roughly sculptured his arms (an eagle displayed charged with a cotice(3)), with a commemorative inscription in gold letters:-
”Cy: gist: le cueur: de Missire: bertram: du gueaqui en: son vivat: conetiable de france: qui: trepa.s.sa: le: xiii^e jour: de: jullet: l'an: mil iii^e IIII^xx dont: son: corps: repos avecques: ceulx: des: Roys a sainct: denis en France.”
Above hangs a painting representing the Governor of Chateauneuf Randon, laying the keys of the town upon the dead body of the Constable.(4)
[Ill.u.s.tration: 13. Effigy of Jean de Beaumanoir.]
Many of the streets of Dinan preserve the character of the Middle Ages, the houses upon columns forming a kind of porch or covered way; and most curious of all is the dirty, steep, narrow, winding street, called the Rue de Jerzual, a ravine extending from the top of the town, in one pitch, to the river's edge. The Museum at the Mairie has an interesting collection of tumulary slabs-rec.u.mbent figures taken from different churches and abbeys, mostly from the Beaumanoir chapel of the Abbey of Lehon. There is one of Jean de Beaumanoir, son of the hero of the ”Combat des Trente,”
treacherously slain by his steward. He is represented in full armour, but with his head bare, to indicate the manner of his death. The effigy of his wife is also in complete armour, but on the belt that encircles her waist, like those worn by the knights, is sculptured a wreath of roses. She was a Du Guesclin by birth, and her feet repose upon an eagle, the bearing of her house. The statue of Roland, Vicomte de Dinan, one of the nine great Barons of Brittany in the twelfth century, is of gigantic proportions; the warrior is clad from head to foot in chain mail, but he holds one of his gauntlets in his hand. In the Museum is also a clock given to the city of Dinan by the d.u.c.h.ess Anne, inscribed with the name of its maker and the date of its construction: ”1498, a Nantes par M. Hainzer de cette ville.”
The ancient bronze standard measures (etalons) of Dinan are decorated with the arms of the City, and Gothic inscriptions in relief, ”Cart (quart) a gros ble pour Dinan”-”Cart a fourmant (froment) pour Dinan”-and ”Bouesceau a scel (boisseau a sel) pour Dinan.” Portraits of Du Guesclin and other Breton worthies are in one of the rooms (Salle de l'Odeon). That of the Constable answers to the description given of his appearance. He was low in stature, with large Breton head, broad shoulders, long arms, and large hands. His eyes were green, and his complexion swarthy: ”la peau noire comme un sanglier.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: 14. Chateau of La Belliere.]
The drives round Dinan are endless in variety,(5) and all beautiful. We took a carriage to see the Chateau of la Belliere, about five miles and a half from Dinan, formerly the residence of Du Guesclin's wife, the celebrated Lady Tiphaine; her name answers probably to our English Tiffany:-
”William de Coningsby- Came out of Brittany With his wife Tiffany And her maid Manifas And his doggs Hardigras.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: 15. Chimney. Chateau of La Belliere.]
The Lady Tiphaine was heiress and daughter of the Vicomte de Belliere; so deeply versed was she in astrology, she was called Tiphaine la Fee. During her husband's absence in Spain, she resided at Mont Saint Michel, having chosen this insulated spot for the facilities it afforded her of studying the stars. She gave Du Guesclin a calendar on vellum, containing verses at the beginning of each month, pointing out the lucky and unlucky days; how many she marked down as such, we know not. Tycho Brahe had thirty-two fatal days in his calendar. Had Du Guesclin consulted this precious volume, which is now preserved in the Library at Avranches, he would never have risked his fortune by fighting the battle of Auray on the Feast of St. Michel, one of the fatal days against which she specially warns him in her book. We wished to have seen the room where she died, and where many memorials of her are preserved; but the proprietor was at his dejeuner, and would not grant us admittance, so we were forced to be content with seeing the exterior of the house, a chateau of the end of the fourteenth century. It stands on the edge of a large sheet of water, in the midst of trees on the roadside between Dinan and St. Malo. Its princ.i.p.al characteristics are its tall octagonal chimney-shafts, composed of granite, brick, and slate. They are surmounted by pieces of slate placed edgeways and forming a kind of capital or coronet to the granite shaft.
Some of the chimneys have two circles of these coronets, and others are enriched with little rows of arches, of which the sombre slate background throws out the delicate ornamentation. Recrossing the magnificent viaduct, we proceeded to visit the Benedictine Priory of Lehon, called in the country ”Chapelle des Beaumanoirs” from the mortuary chapel of that family attached to the abbey:-
”Beaumanoir! a ce nom de glorieux prodiges Des siecles ecoules reveillent les prestiges: La pierre des tombeaux a paru se mouvoir Et des trente Bretons les clameurs belliqueuses Semblent repondre, sous ces voutes fameuses, A ce grand nom de Beaumanoir.” -AUBRY.
The west front, with its round-arched portal surmounted by a large Gothic window, is very pretty. The chapel of the Beaumanoirs was ravaged at the Revolution, the lead of the coffins sold, and the bones scattered. The statues have since been removed to the Museum at Dinan, and the crypt beneath, where they were buried, is inaccessible. At the Revolution, when the monks were expelled, the priory was sold and used for a spinning factory; and the weight of the machines crushed the floors, so as to shut up the entrance to the vaults. In the parish church adjacent, is to be noticed an ancient baptismal font, of cylindrical form, sculptured within and without. We returned home by the Chateau du Chene-Ferron, approached by an avenue of firs, and had a lovely drive along the banks of the Rance.
Our last excursion in Dinan was to the Chateau of La Garaye, rendered famous by the virtues and boundless charity of its last proprietors, Count Claude Toussaint Marot de la Garaye and his wife, whose interesting story is told in the charming poem of Mrs. Norton:-
”Listen to the tale I tell, Grave the story is-not sad, And the peasant plodding by Greets the place with kindly eye, For the inmates that it had.”
THE LADY OF LA GARAYE.
Count Claude de la Garaye and his wife were young, beautiful, and endowed with friends, riches, and all that could make life bright and happy. They entertained with hospitality, and enjoyed the pleasures and amus.e.m.e.nts of the world; when one day the Countess was thrown from her horse, the expectations of an heir vanished, and she was left a cripple for life.
Both were inconsolable for their disappointment. One day a monk came to visit them, and tried to comfort them, seeking by his converse to turn their thoughts from earthly affections to heavenly consolation-
”Ah! my father,” said the lady, ”how happy are you, to love nothing on earth!”
”You are mistaken,” answered the monk; ”I love all those who are in sorrow or suffering, and I submit myself to the will of the Almighty, and bend myself with resignation to every blow He strikes.”