Part 5 (2/2)
Running along the bay, of considerable extent, and well planted with trees, is the magnificent promenade called the Cours d'Ajot, from the name of the officer of the Engineers by whom it was laid out and planted a century back. Well sheltered by its trees and refreshed by the sea breezes, it commands a fine view over the new ”port de commerce,” and the whole extent of the harbour of Brest, which is capable of containing 500 s.h.i.+ps of the line, and is, with the exception of those of Rio Janeiro and Constantinople, the largest and most beautiful in the world.
Brest harbour has only one entrance, which is to the west, through a narrow channel called Le Goulet, less than a mile in width, and cut into two by the Mingant rock. In the year 1796 the 'Republican' was lost here.
Sailing out of the harbour, with a contrary wind and snow, the pilot thought he had pa.s.sed the Mingant rock, when the s.h.i.+p struck, and went down with 800 men on board. Brest Castle in the Middle Ages was a place of such strength and importance that John IV., who had four times besieged it fruitlessly, when it was under the English dominion, was wont to say ”Ce n'est duc de Bretagne, qui n'est pas sire de Brest.” It had been held by Sir Robert Knolles against the army of the King of France under Du Guesclin, who was obliged to raise the siege. The donjon was built by King Richard II. during the War of Succession. The making Brest an important naval station was the thought of Richelieu, and the work of Louis XIV., who built the a.r.s.enal.
Next day we made an excursion to see the church of Notre Dame-du-Folgoet or the Fool of the Wood, celebrated in legendary lore: the tale is so old and often told, we have some scruples in repeating it.
Towards the middle of the fourteenth century, there lived in the woods of Lesneven, a poor idiot boy, called Salaun (Solomon), better known under the name of the Fool of the Wood (Folgoet). He was miserably clad, had no bed but the ground; no pillow, but a stone; no roof, but the tree which gave him shelter. He went every day to Lesneven to seek his daily bread, but he never begged; he uttered the simple words ”Ave Maria! Solomon could eat bread,” and returned with whatever pittance was given him to his tree near the fountain, into which he dipped his crusts, and plunged even in the depth of winter, for his bath, always repeating the words, ”Hail, Maria!” One day a party of marauding soldiers accosted him. In answer to their questions, he replied, ”I am neither for Blois nor Montfort, I am the servant of the Lady Mary.” This simple life he led for nearly forty years, when at last he fell ill and died, repeating his favourite words ”Ave Maria.” He was found dead near the fountain, and was buried by his neighbours. After a time, when the memory of the poor idiot boy had nearly pa.s.sed away, there suddenly sprung up from his grave a white lily with the words ”Ave Maria” inscribed in letters of gold upon its petals. The news of the miracle spread throughout all Brittany, Duke John sent commissioners; the grave was opened, and it was found the lily proceeded from the mouth of Salaun,-”ceste royale fleur sortait par sa bouche du creux de son estomach”-a testimony of the innocence and piety ”du plus beau mignon de la reine des Cieux.” Duke John vowed to erect a church to our Lady over the fountain of the poor mendicant, whose faith had been thus recognised;(12) and, faithful to his promise, the first stone was laid by him in 1366, as a thank-offering for his success the previous year at the battle of Auray, which had fixed the crown upon his head. His wife, Joan of Navarre, not only made a pilgrimage to the Folgoet in 1396, but also contributed to the building of the church. It was completed by John V., about 1419. The Queen-d.u.c.h.ess Anne of Brittany went there in pilgrimage after the recovery from illness of Louis XIII. Anne of Austria founded six ma.s.ses at the Folgoet, in grat.i.tude for the birth of Louis XIV., and several popes granted indulgences to those who made pilgrimages to this shrine. This church is one of the finest in Brittany. Its colour is sombre; it is the oldest monument in Brittany in which the Kersanton stone is employed. This stone is a volcanic rock called hornblende, of very fine grain, with minute specks of mica. There is a large quarry near St. Pol de Leon; but it is found princ.i.p.ally on the west of the harbour of Brest, near a village from which it takes its name. Kersanton stone is of a dark-green colour, approaching to bronze, gives out a metallic sound when struck, and is easily worked in the quarry, in blocks of from twenty to forty feet cube, but hardens on exposure to the air. Time has no destructive effect on it; the most delicate, lightest, and most ornamental sculptures executed in it remain uninjured, while the hardest granites, erected at the same time, are friable and decomposed. The Kersanton stone cuts gla.s.s like a diamond.
The architecture of the Folgoet is distinguished for the elegance and richness of its ornamentation: the softness of the Kersanton stone, when fresh taken from the quarry fits it specially for the deeply cut, lace-like works of the artists of the flamboyant school, and the church is remarkable for the skill with which the productions of the vegetable kingdom are represented both within and without. It has no transepts, but to the south is a projection formed by the treasure chamber. The modern pulpit has a series of medallion bas-reliefs representing the legend of Solomon.
The jube, or roodloft, is a perfect lacework of stone. Above three arches, decorated with vine-leaves, is an open-worked gallery of pierced quatre-foils surpa.s.sing in exuberance of ornament any other known.
To the east are five altars, all of Kersanton stone, most delicately sculptured-the under-cutting of the foliage most wonderful. They are in the shape of tombs or sarcophagi, the form generally adopted for altars in the sixteenth century. Round the ”autel des anges,” richest of them all, is a row of eighteen niches, filled in with the figures of angels, holding alternately phylacteries and escutcheons; round the top is a cornice of thistle-leaves-on the cut stalk of one hangs a dew-drop perfect to nature.
The high altar is decorated with vine-leaves, birds pecking the grapes, and the ermine, with its motto ”a ma vie,” introduced. The altar of the rosary has also a cornice of vine-leaves modelled evidently after the high altar.
[Ill.u.s.tration: 24. The Fool's Well, Folgoet.]
The fine flamboyant rose window at the east of the church resembles that of St. Pol de Leon, and below it is the fountain of Salaun. The spring is concealed under the high altar, and flows into a basin without, preserved by a kind of Gothic porch sculptured with thistle-leaves and crockets, and within it, on a bracket, is a delicately chiseled image of the Virgin.
Some children round the fountain offered us pins, the use of which we did not understand. We afterwards learned that it is the custom in Brittany for girls to take a pin from their bodice, and throw it into a sacred well, to ascertain, by its manner of sinking, when they would be married.
If the pin falls head foremost, then there is no present hope of matrimony, but if the point goes first, it is a sure sign of being married that year.
On the new year, in some parts of Brittany, pieces of bread-and-b.u.t.ter are thrown into the fountains, and from the way in which they swim the future is foretold. If the b.u.t.tered side turns under, it forebodes death; if two pieces adhere together, it is a sign of sickness; and if the piece floats, it is an a.s.surance of long life and happiness.
The veneration for springs and healing wells is of very ancient date, and was prohibited by early councils of the Church; but the wors.h.i.+p of that element from which suffering humanity seeks for relief in all its ailments has pa.s.sed through succeeding creeds, and that which was held sacred a thousand years back is still the object of reverence and affection.
Nor is the sculpture outside the church less remarkable than the interior.
The west door, now fallen to decay, has an arch with double entrance separated by a column containing a benitier. A wreath of curled leaves runs round the arch, and on a bracket of thistle-leaves formerly stood a statue of John V.
The north side has little ornament. The great richness is in the south, where is the fine porch of Bishop Alain de la Rue, who consecrated the building, and more splendid still, is, at the angle formed by the projecting sacristy facing the west, the Porch of the Apostles. The twelve Apostles are ranged on each side, under rich canopies; the whole porch one ma.s.s of floral decoration, vine-leaves and mallows, interspersed with dragons, birds, and insects. On the right of the porch is a crouching figure with a label inscribed: ”Bn soiez venz,”-”Bien soiez venuz” or ”Soyez les bien venus”-an invitation to the faithful to enter into the church. On the lintel of the two doors are ermines pa.s.sant, and the motto of the Dukes of Brittany, ”a ma vie,” and towards the south are the remains of a whole cornice of ermines, running through the rings of a long scroll inscribed with ”a ma vie.” This motto was first taken by Duke John IV. (who inst.i.tuted the order of the Ermine) to imply that he had conquered Brittany, and would maintain it, even at the cost of his life, ”a ma vie.”(13)
The collar consisted of a double chain, in each of which were four ermines, and two more hung suspended from two chains, surmounted by coronets. The motto ”a ma vie” was placed round each of these ten ermines.
The Pere Lobineau quotes a history of Duke John, in which the order is thus spoken of:-
”Lors fit mander tous les Prelats, Abbes et Clercs de tous Estats, Barons, Chevaliers, Escuyers, Qui tous portoient nouveaux Colliers De moult bel port et belle guise; Et etoit nouvelle Devise De deux Rolets brunis et beaux, Couples ensemble de deux fermeaux; Et au dessus etoit l'Ermine En figure et en couleur fine, En deux Cedules avoit escript _a ma vie_, comme j'ai dit; L'un mot est blanc, l'autre noir, Il est certain, tien, pour le voir.”
In the churchyard is a cross erected by Cardinal de Coetivy (died 1474), who is represented kneeling at the foot; it is said to be the work of Michel Colomb, sculptor of the celebrated monument raised by Queen Anne of Brittany to her parents, now in the Cathedral at Nantes. Next day, we went to Le Conquet, returning by St. Mathieu. We crossed the swing-bridge to the suburb Recouvrance, so called from the chapel of our Lady, to whom s.h.i.+pwrecked mariners addressed their pet.i.tions to recover (recouvrir) their property. On our left we saw the islet rock of Bertheaume, about 200 feet high, distant from the coast 150. Until lately, the communication with the mainland was by means of a kind of cradle drawn on two cables, about nine metres in circ.u.mference.
Le Conquet(14) is a little seaport built on the slope of a steep hill.
Formerly it was of some importance, and a great resort of pirates. Sir Walter Manny took the town for the Countess of Montfort, during the war of the two Jeannes, and it was attacked by the fleets of Henry VIII. and his daughter Mary. Opposite is a beautiful beach, called the Blancs Sablons, accessible at low water by walking across the harbour. Here is the point of communication with the island of Ouessant, about seventeen miles distant, by means of a steamer, weather permitting, as the Chenal du Four, which separates this group of islands from the continent, is covered with rocks and is very dangerous in rough weather. Its men are all seamen or fishermen, the women perform the agricultural labour. They bring in their produce to Brest at the monthly fairs, and are not so cut off from the world as Gresset describes them:-
”Sous un ciel toujours rigoureux Au sein des flots impetueux, Non loin de l'Armorique plage Habitacle marecageux, Moitie peuple, moitie sauvage, Dont les habitants malheureux Separes du reste du monde, Semblent ne connoitre l'onde Et n'etre connus que des cieux.”
GRESSET.-_Careme impromptu._
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