Part 10 (2/2)
Sobre et discret te montreras, Buvant peu, parlant rarement; De ton chef jamais n'agiras Attendant le commandement; Violemment rien ne prendras, Mais en payant exactement.
Age et s.e.xe respecteras, Etant soldat et non brigand.
Les comites corrigeras, Et les mouchards chretiennement; Ne Breton, tu n'oublieras, Afin d'agir loyalement.
Dans le succes clement seras; Dans le malheur, ferme et constant.
Chaque jour ton Dieu tu prieras; Que peux tu sans son bras puissant?”
Such were the first Chouans: they had no organisation until they followed Larochejaquelin and the Vendean army to Granville, and accompanied them in their retreat; when their numbers were materially increased and their character completely changed by the deserters and brigands, who joined and eventually succeeded the peasantry.
The church of Batz is of cut stone. It has a square tower, surmounted by a cupola steeple, which with that of Le Croisic serves as a landmark to vessels having to steer between the two dangerous rocks Le Four, in front of Le Croisic, and Les Blanches, situated near the mouth of the Loire.
The choir is inclined, like that of St. Pol and others in Brittany. On one of the bosses in the interior is a grotesque carving of a man torn to pieces by the seven capital sins. On others are the Santa Veronica, the Good Shepherd, Ste. Barbara, &c. Near the church are the pretty ruins of the chapel of Notre Dame-du-Murier.
We drove on to Le Croisic, in Breton, ”Little Cross;” so called from the small chapel of the Crucifix, built to commemorate the baptism by St.
Felix, Bishop of Nantes, in the sixth century, of the Saxon colony who occupied the peninsula. Le Croisic was one of the first towns in Brittany which received Christianity, and bears for its arms a cross between four ermines. Along the road-side are cisterns or wells dug in the sand, and girls were filling with water the cla.s.sical stone pitchers they carried upon their heads-quite an Eastern picture, suggestive of Rebecca and the damsels of her country. Le Croisic is almost surrounded by the sea, low, and without shelter, which renders it cold, damp, and exposed to the winds; turf is almost the only fuel used.
It is much frequented as a watering-place, and has an Etabliss.e.m.e.nt. It is also a sea-port, with a rocky entrance to the harbour, and the dangerous rock with its lighthouse, called Le Four, extending for a league in front.
The inhabitants of Le Croisic are princ.i.p.ally engaged in the sardine fishery, and the curing of these fish consumes much of the salt of the marshes. The people complain this year they have no large orders for sardines, and there is but little white salt.
The chapel of St. Goustan, on the edge of the harbour, is singularly built; its western gable perched upon a little rock, half of which is inside and half outside the building. The church is no longer open for Divine service; but the peasant-girl who desires to know if she will be married this year, tries to pa.s.s a pin through the bars of the northern window without touching the wall. On the opposite side of the estuary are Periac and La Turbale, both seats of the sardine fishery. Returning the way we came, we stopped at the Plage Valentin, another bathing-place in a pretty little bay; with dressing-rooms and a small Etabliss.e.m.e.nt. An omnibus conveys the bathers from Le Croisic, for two sous. The sea looks more inviting here and at Poulignan than at Le Croisic, where there is so much seaweed in the harbour. We returned through Batz; the cathedral tower of Saint Aubin at Guerande is to be seen at a great distance, and is a prominent object in the scenery; the whole country is covered with salt-pans. Guerande stands on a height, and turning back, the view of the whole district is most extensive. We pa.s.sed through Saille, where Duke John IV. married Joan of Navarre, afterwards the second wife of Henry of Lancaster.
Guerande, built on a vine-covered granite slope, is a singular old feudal town of the fifteenth century. It was fortified by Duke John V., and is nearly surrounded by granite walls, with ten towers and four old gateways, placed at the cardinal points of the compa.s.s. St. Michel, the princ.i.p.al gate, or rather a fortress, is flanked by two high towers, and contains the prison, archives, and hotel de ville. A moat formerly surrounded the walls; but it has long been filled in, and boulevards subst.i.tuted. From the battlements hang festoons of honeysuckle and ivy, and the moat is full of the yellow iris and water-lilies; nevertheless, Guerande has an austere, sombre aspect. There is a fine terrace walk, called the Mail, commanding a view of the whole country over Poulignan, Batz, and Le Croisic-a tented plain of salt.
[Ill.u.s.tration: 47. La Roche Bernard.]
The church of St. Aubin has Romanesque columns, with grotesque capitals.
In one, two persons are sawing a third, stretched upon a wheel. On the left of the double-arched porch, is a pulpit outside the church, and there is some good painted gla.s.s within. Notre Dame Blanche, a chapel of the fourteenth century, is a pretty little building with stone pulpit and a sculptured group of Notre Dame-de-la-Salette with the two peasant children of Alsace. Next day, we took a private carriage for La Roche Bernard; the road lying over a wide extent of land through Herbignac to La Roche Bernard (Morbihan), which is most picturesquely situated on a rocky height overhanging the Vilaine, here traversed by an elegant suspension-bridge, opened in 1839, about 666 feet long and above 108 feet above high-water mark-a terrible dizzy height to cross even in calm weather. A few years since, the postman, his cart, and horse were all blown over into the river, and nothing more was ever heard of them. We went fis.h.i.+ng several days in a large etang close to La Roche Bernard, and one evening took a pretty walk over the hills to another pond situated in a lovely secluded valley near a water-mill. La Roche Bernard was an early Protestant colony, founded by the Sieur d'Andelot, Seigneur of La Roche Bernard, brother to Admiral Coligny, and one of the firmest supporters of Calvinism. The Calvinists used to a.s.semble at his chateau of Bretesch, where the minister of La Roche Bernard came to preach to them. D'Andelot and his sister, who was equally zealous in the cause, are, it is said, interred at La Roche Bernard. Near the Halles is a square block of houses; one of timber, with ”Voie au Duc” inscribed upon it. These houses are said to have belonged to a Protestant community, and all to communicate with each other.
The evening of our arrival there was a wedding supper given at our hotel, the grand dinner having taken place elsewhere. The bride wore a white sash, with wreaths of white flowers round her Nantais cap. After supper the party danced Breton ”ronds.” The dancers form a large ring (grand rond), holding each other's hands, which they swing violently as they sidle round in a kind of hop-skip-and-a-jump step, accompanied by singing in a most monotonous tone. This went on until midnight. This kind of dance dates, they say, from Celtic times. The music consists of the biniou or bagpipe, and the flageolet or hautboy, sometimes with the addition of a drum. The biniou, cornemuse, or bagpipe, is the national instrument of western and southern France. How it came to be introduced into Scotland and expel the harp-which was as much the original music of Scotland as of Wales and Ireland-is a mystery. But, as in the sixteenth century the harp went out and the bagpipes came into fas.h.i.+on, it may be surmised that it was brought in, with other French novelties, on the return of Queen Mary, perhaps by the Queen herself, or, maybe, some itinerant player of the cornemuse may have accidentally been in her train, and his music set a fas.h.i.+on which has now become national.
On market-day numbers of the women from Muzillac, a place about ten miles distant, came in with their fruit. They all wear an enormous plaited black cap, which looks like the cowl of a friar. The graceful form of the earthenware pots attracted our attention: probably they came from the adjacent town of Herbignac. The 15th August, Fete de la Vierge, and also that of the Emperor, was kept as a general holiday. An immense concourse of people arrived from the neighbourhood, and attended the six o'clock ma.s.s. We walked to the quay, to see the sports on the water; the spectators picturesquely grouped on a ma.s.s of bare rocks, commanding a pretty view up and down the river.
The amus.e.m.e.nts consisted of some races, and a mat de cocagne, or greased pole, placed horizontally over the river; the feat being to walk safely to the end, where the prize was fixed, without falling into the water. In the evening ”ronds” were danced, and every house had illuminations, in the shape of a candle stuck in a potato, and placed on each end of the window sill.
Next day we left by diligence for Vannes, pa.s.sing through Muzillac and on to Auray, where we took the steamer for Belle Isle.
A steamer sails daily from the quay at Auray. The banks of the River Loch are very picturesque, the pine-trees (_Pinus maritima_) growing to the water's edge. On the left, the islands of the Morbihan; on the right, Locmariaker; the view extending to Carnac and Mont St. Michel, over the whole sweep of the bay formed by the peninsula of Quiberon.
At Port Navalo we emerged from the Morbihan, and, on our right, pa.s.sed the little rocky island of Teigneuse, with its lighthouse; and, on the left, those of Houat and Haedik (the duck and the duckling); the former famous as the retreat of St. Gildas, who leaped from here with one bound, a distance of ten miles, to the peninsula of Rhuys, where he built his monastery. From Auray to Belle Isle is in all forty-eight miles-ten miles of river to Port Navalo, the rest open sea. After eight hours' sail we reached Le Palais, the port and princ.i.p.al town of Belle Isle, built on the north-east side, and overhung by the citadel, the work of Vauban. The town consists of one princ.i.p.al street-the Rue Trochu-so called after the General of that name and his brother, who were the first, at the beginning of this century, to introduce agriculture into the island. We pa.s.sed, at a distance to the right, the model farm of M. Trochu fils, on our way across the island to the lighthouse,-a cheerless drive, as there are no trees to be seen except near Le Palais. When M. Trochu commenced his labours, agriculture was little attended to in France, but he persevered in his exertions, beginning by clearing about sixty acres of granite rock, a land covered with heath and furze, setting at defiance the Breton saying, ”Lande tu fus, lande tu es, lande tu seras.” This same district is now covered with rich meadows, fine woods, productive arable fields, and magnificent pasture land, on which horses are extensively reared.
[Ill.u.s.tration: 48. Entrance to Le Palais, Belle Isle.]
We gathered on the heathy moor three kinds of heath, the Cornish among others. The artichoke grows wild in the waste grounds. Wheat, turnips, beetroot, Indian corn, and potatoes, are the chief produce of the land in cultivation. This last vegetable was introduced by the families from Nova Scotia (Acadia), who settled in Belle Isle, after that province was ceded to England by the Treaty of Paris, in 1766. This was several years before Parmentier had extended the use of the potato, or ”truffe rouge,” as it was first called, over other parts of France. Indian corn was probably also brought in by the Nova Scotians. The leaves are constantly cut during its growth as fodder for the cattle, so that the cob hardly attains a foot in height from the ground. On the left of our road we saw in the distance the village of Bangor, which gives its name to one of the four districts into which Belle Isle is divided. A little south is the fine granite lighthouse, of the stupendous height of 450 feet. We toiled up 255 steps (223 stone and 32 iron) before we gained the lantern, and, though the view was very extensive, we were rejoiced at finding ourselves safe down. One of the guardians had been waylaid, kicked, and beaten, a few evenings before, for some slight grudge. He seemed in great suffering, but had no doctor; the Breton, in his simple confiding faith-that with the Almighty are the issues of life and death, and that illness will end according to His decree-considers the calling in of a medical adviser but an unnecessary expense to his family. From the lighthouse we walked to the sea-sh.o.r.e. Belle Isle is a table-land, surrounded by steep cliffs, averaging 130 feet in height, which can only be descended to the sh.o.r.e in particular places. We walked to the Grotte du Port Coton, where begins the ”Mer Sauvage,” as it is called, an extent of five to six miles of most picturesque rocks, some elevated from 130 to 160 feet above the level of the sea, jagged and torn into most fantastic forms by the ceaseless das.h.i.+ng of the waters of the Atlantic, which have formed various grottoes in the cliffs. We descended into one of these caverns by a narrow gulley, but could not proceed far, as the tide was entering fast, and would soon have surrounded us, cutting off all means of retreat.
[Ill.u.s.tration: 49. Device of Fouquet.]
It reminded us of the description in the 'Vicomte de Bragelonne' of the grotto at Locmaria, which was blown up, and crushed the mousquetaire Porthos, at the moment of his and Aramis' triumph over the soldiers of the King. So great at times is the fury of the waves, that our guide at the lighthouse told us he had seen on several occasions the spray driven over to Le Palais, nearly five miles distant. Continuing our walk along the cliffs, we came to an enormous ma.s.s of rock, standing far out detached from the cliff, and covered with screaming sea-gulls. We again descended by another fissure into a pretty sandy cove, surrounded by the same wild granite rocks; but in most places there is no beach at all. It was now high water, so it was useless to attempt the Grotte des Apothecaires,-the finest, they say, of them all, and we returned to Le Palais well pleased with the remarkably wild coast we had seen. Belle-isle forms now a canton in the department of Morbihan. In ancient days it belonged to the Abbot of Saint-Croix, at Quimperle, who sold it, in the time of Charles IX., to the Marechal de Gondi, and, in 1573, it was erected into a Marquisate.
(Cardinal de Retz lived here after his escape from the castle of Nantes.) One of his successors, Henri de Gondi, being overwhelmed with debt, sold the island to Nicolas Fouquet, the ill-fated Superintendent of Finance, on whose disgrace, and his being subsequently consigned to the fortress of Pignarol, his grandson, the Marquis de Belle Isle, exchanged it with Louis XV. for the Comte of Gisors, erected into a duchy in 1742. Fouquet built a palace and completed the citadel, for which he employed Vauban. He also projected fortifications to enclose the town, which are now in course of completion by the Emperor, after Vauban's plans. Several guns had just been landed, the day before we visited the citadel, to see which an order is requisite. Near the citadel is the ”Maison centrale des detenus,” now only containing a few old men, too feeble for hard labour. We were too tired to walk to look at the celebrated cistern of Vauban, which holds, we were told, above thirty thousand imperial gallons of water. Fouquet's palace was, it is said, destroyed to complete the line of fortifications.
A house was pointed out to us as having formed part of the original building. Some years since, a stone was picked up in the harbour bearing his ambitious device-a squirrel, with the motto, _Quo non ascendum?_ ”To where shall I not rise?” The greater number of the population of Belle Isle are employed in the fisheries; of these the sardine and the tunny are the chief. There are large establishments for curing sardines, which are very abundant, and lobsters, taken in the rocks of Belle Isle and the little islands of Houat and Haedic, are sent to London and Paris. The boats go as far as Spain, to the coast of Catalonia, for the tunny fishery, which extends from August to the beginning of October. These fish are taken by lines hung along the sides of the vessel, with a bell attached to each to give notice of a bite. The most esteemed part of the tunny is the underneath, or ”panse.” The next morning we sailed back to Auray. The nearest point to Belle Isle is Quiberon, only ten miles from Le Palais.
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