Part 12 (2/2)
They engage the pa.s.ser-by to help them in wringing the linen; if he refuses, they drown him in their was.h.i.+ng trough, or suffocate him in a wet sheet. Should he show himself ill-disposed, after having agreed to help them, they dislocate his arm. If he wrings the wrong way, his fate is inevitable; but if docile and obliging, they give him some clothes and dismiss him.
[Ill.u.s.tration: 62. Rood-Screen or Jube, St Fiacre.]
A mile and a half from Le Faouet, on a height a little off the Quimperle road, is the beautiful church of Saint Fiacre, dating from the middle of the fifteenth century, celebrated for its carved wooden jube, or rood-screen, and its painted gla.s.s. The church is falling to decay. It would be tedious to enumerate all the figures, and describe the details of this beautiful jube. The carving is a perfect tracery of lace-work. Three large figures represent our Saviour and the two thieves. Then there are the Virgin and St. Joseph; the latter, with carpenter's plane and hammer.
Below, Adam and Eve, and the Angel with the flaming sword. Two angels hold cartouches, on one of which is inscribed, ”L'an mil C/IIII XX/IIII (1480) fut fait cette sculpture par Olivier de Loergan;” and, on the other, ”Cette pa.s.sion fut peinte l'an 1627. Yves Perez fabricant. Tous repaint en 1866.” Below are panels carved in the flamboyant style, of exquisite workmans.h.i.+p. The two middle panels have the sacred monogram, those on the east side ermines surrounded by cordelieres.
The side of the rood-loft facing the choir has pendents with grotesque carvings of allegorical signification.
A man in an apple-tree, gathering the fruit, symbolizes theft. Next comes a disgusting representation of gluttony: a man relieving himself of a pig he has swallowed, the tail alone remaining in his mouth. Then follow a young man and woman, gaily attired, emblematic of luxury. So far, three of the ”sept peches capitaux” are represented; but after these comes a national subject: a man playing on the bagpipe. The figures throughout the rood-screen are all boldly executed, and the tracery most elegant and delicate.
The painted gla.s.s in the church is considerable, and represents the Life of Our Saviour, that of St. Fiacre, the Feast of Herod, and the Martyrdom of the Baptist, figures of the Prophets of the Old Testament, with many others. In most of the subjects, the figures are much mutilated. On one window is inscribed, ”Pierre Androuet ouvrier demeurant a Kemperle 1552.”
Over one altar is a sculpture, representing the Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, between two archers, in the quaint costume of the sixteenth century.
About six miles from Le Faouet, is the ruined castle of Poncallec, with its forest, etang, and forge; once the demesne of the young marquis of that name, who was implicated in that conspiracy to transfer the Regency from the Duke of Orleans to Philip V. of Spain, called the plot of Cellamare. Of the hundred and forty-eight gentlemen included in the accusation, all escaped to Spain, except Poncallec and three others.
Poncallec refused to accompany them from a superst.i.tious fear, a fortune-teller having foretold he should perish by the sea, ”par la mer.”
They took refuge in a church, but were surprised by a party of cavaliers who had m.u.f.fled the feet of their horses to reach them unheard. They escaped through a subterranean pa.s.sage, and, for fifteen days, lay concealed in the hollow of a yew-tree, fed in secret by faithful peasants.
Poncallec traversed France in the disguise of a priest, but was arrested at the Pyrenees. He with the three others were all convicted of high treason, and, a few hours after their condemnation, were beheaded at Nantes. Poncallec was the last to suffer. When ascending the scaffold, he asked the executioner his name; on his answering ”La Mer,” Poncallec felt the witch's prophecy was fulfilled.
The estates of the four victims were confiscated, their arms effaced from the fronts of their houses, the moats of their castles filled in, and their trees (hautes futaies) cut down, ”a hauteur d'infamie,” that is, within nine feet of the ground, in like manner as were those of Moor Park, after the execution of the Duke of Monmouth. A list was presented to the Regent Philip of other offenders, but he tore the paper, and published an amnesty. The story of Poncallec is dramatically told by Alexandre Dumas, in his novel, called 'Une fille du Regent.' The Bretons honoured the victims as martyrs, and M. de la Villemarque, in his 'Chansons Bretons,'
gives a touching elegy which shows the sympathy excited by the tragic fate of Poncallec:
”Quand il arriva a Nantes, il fut juge et cond.a.m.ne, Cond.a.m.ne non par ses pairs, Mais par des gens tombes de derriere les carrosses.
Ils demanderent a Poncallec: 'Seigneur marquis, qu'avez vous fait?
-Mon devoir; faites notre metier.'
Il est mort, chers pauvres, celui qui vous nourissait, Qui vous vetissait, qui vous soutenait; Il est mort celui qui vous aimait, habitants de Berne Celui qui aimait son pays et qui l'a aime jusqu'a mourir.
Il est mort a vingt-deux ans Comme meurent les martyrs et les saints; Que dieu ait pitie de son ame!
Le seigneur est mort ... Ma voix s'eteint, ...
Toi qui l'as trahi, sois maudit, sois maudit; Toi qui l'as trahi, sois maudit.”
We left Le Faouet and its comfortable primitive inn, the ”Lion d'Or,” with much regret; the country around is beautiful, and we had arranged to set out early that we might cross the Montagnes Noires by daylight; but we were disappointed in procuring a carriage, and it was not till late in the afternoon that we were able to leave in a diligence, of which the coupe alone was reserved to us, the interior being occupied by Breton farmers, returning from a horse-fair. From the elevated wooded ground of Le Faouet, the road makes a precipitous descent, and crosses the little stream of Moulin-au-duc, after which it again rises, in a winding direction, along the side of a mountain with a valley and little stream beneath. Then a rapid descent brought us to Gourin, where we would gladly have risked staying the night, and waited till morning to pursue our road over the mountains, but we had paid our fare to Carhaix. Up hill and down again, like all the roads in mountainous Finistere, from Gourin we ascended again and pa.s.sed a crest of the Montagnes Noires, which separates the three departments of Finistere, Morbihan, and Cotes-du-Nord; and proceeded through a valley to Carhaix, where we arrived at midnight, and therefore had no opportunity of seeing the beauties of the mountain scenery.
Carhaix is a dirty, unpaved, dull town of the middle ages, much decayed from its ancient importance when capital of the country dismembered from Cornouaille, in the sixth century, by Comorre the Breton Bluebeard. It is situated on an eminence, commanding an extensive view of the barren monotonous surrounding country, bounded by the Arre mountains, the Alps of Finistere. It is the centre of Lower Brittany, and the Duke d'Aiguillon, Minister of Louis XV., caused six roads to be made from it to Brest, Quimper, Morlaix, St. Brieux, Vannes, and Chateaulin, with the hope of introducing commerce and civilisation into this barren district, ”le dernier trou du monde,” as it is styled by the Parisian.
La Tour d'Auvergne, Premier Grenadier de France, was born here, and a bronze statue of him, by Marochetti, has been erected to his memory. He is in the uniform of a private soldier, and presses to his heart the sword of honour just presented to him by the First Consul. Round the pedestal are four bas-reliefs, representing scenes in his life. In the first, he saves a wounded soldier; in the second, he forces the gates of Chambery; in the third, he takes leave of the parents of a youth, for whom he goes as a subst.i.tute into the army. The last represents his death; he was killed by a lance at Ober-hausen (Bavaria), fighting against the Austrians. The monument bears this inscription on its four sides:-
”La Tour d'Auvergne, 1^er Grenadier de France, ne a Carhaix le 23 Decembre, 1715; mort au champ d'honneur le 27 Juin, 1800.
”Ecrivain, Citoyen, Soldat, sa vie toujours glorieus.e.m.e.nt remplie ne laisse que de sublimes exemples a la posterite.
”Tant de talens, et de vertus, appartenaient a l'histoire et au premier Consul, de les devancer.
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