'lIliiiMHiiiiillijnMiintii UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN I 3 1822 02362 48 liiinnitiiiiHiMiiijlli iMfiainijniiiiiiujIllllillalllllluliitlllillll :fm!fii!ff(!i!iiiiiii[i(fn[iri!iiiii(iii(ii!iinni!n niinii [ LIBRARY mwwtt rr Of CJkHfOn -liA UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO 1><1 3 1822 02362 4810 /if^ TV'- v_ J^ 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET, Jim. 1841. Mr. COLBURN^S LIST OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. QUEEN VICTORIA, FROM HER BIRTH TO HER BRIDAL. 2 vols, post 8vo, with Portraits, 21s. bound. " These attractive volumes furnish not merely an adequate and authentic record of the pure and happy life of our young- Queen, but the only available one that has hitherto been given to the world. The charminj? letters of Miss Jane Porter, contained in the work, offer some of the most deUghtfol reminiscences of the infancy and cliildhoodof Queen Victoria that have ever been made public." — Naval and Militari/ Gazette. II. PRINCE ALBERT; AND THE HOUSE OF SAXONY. BY FREDERIC SHOBERL, ESQ. Second Edition, Revised, with Additions — By Autliority. In One Vol. post 8vo. with a Portrait of the Prince. 8s. 6d. bound. " The best and most authentic work on the subject of the prince- consort and his family." John Bull. III. LETTERS ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE COURT AND TIMES OF WILLIAM III. Addressed to the Duke of Shrewsbury, by James Vernox, Esq., Secretary of State. Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by G. P. R. James, Esq., Author of '• Richelieu," &c. 3 vols. 8vo, with Portraits, 42s. bound. " These letters detail, in a famiUar manner, somewhat after the fashion of Horace Walpole's celebrated epistles, all the important and interesting- events which took place at the period in question, with a liberal infusion of Court gossip ; forming- valuable historical illustrations of a reig:n of which our knowledge has hitherto been very limited." — Glul/e. IV. DEDICATED, BY PERMISSION, TO HER MAJESTY. LIVES OF THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND, FROM THE NORMAN CONQUEST. WITH ANECDOTES OF THEIR COURTS. Now first published from Official Records and other Authentic Documents, private as well as public. By AGNES STRICKLAND. Second Edition, Revised, with numerous Additions. First Series, complete in 3 vols., price 10s. 6d. each, bound, either of which may be had separately. " This interesting and well-written work, in which the severe truth of history takes almost the wildness of romance, will constitute a valuable addition to oui' biographical literature." — Morning Herald. " This agreeable book may be considered a valuable contribution to historical knowledge. It contains a mass of every kind of matter of mtcix-s\:."—.'it/ii;na;um. " The execution of this work is equal to the conception. Great pains have been taken to make it both interesting and valuable." — Literary Gazette. " This important work will form one of the most useful, agreeable, and essential additions to our historical library that we have had for many years." — Naval and Military Gazette. 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. MR. COLBIRN'S NEW PUBLICATIONS. MR. nrUKE'S TII^TOKY OF THE LANDED GENTRY; \ iKMl-AMON TO TIIK TEEKAGK AND BABuNETAC.E, CUMPRISISG ACCOCNTS OK ALL THE KMINKNT FAMILIES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, And of upwards of 100,000 Individuals connected with tliem. Illustrated with the Armorial Bearings of each Family, Portraits, &c. Complete in 4 vols., price 18s. each; or in IG parts, price 4s. 6d. each. ThU Imjxirtant work has l)ccn unilcrtakcn by Mr. Biu-kc as a companion to his well-known and cstabllshctl " Dictionar>- of the Poorag-c and Uaronetapc of the United Kingdom," and upon a fomewbat similar plan. In order that the two publications may embrace the whole body of the British Peeraire, Baronctapc, and CJentry, and may furnish such a ma.ss of authentic inform- ation. In refard to all the principal Families In the Kingdom, as has never before been brought together. ♦,* Subscribers should give immediate orders to their respective Booksellers for the completion of their tcta of this work, (a vcrj' small extra number of odd parts and volumes having; been printed for this purpose' which will eventually become exceedingly scarce and valuable. ALSO, BY THE SAME AUTHOR, BURKE'S peerage' AND BARONETAGE With important Additions, beautifully printed on a new plan, in one large volume, with an Emblazoned Title-page, and upwards of loOO Engravings of Armii, &c., price S8s. bound. Containing all the New Creations, and much other New Matter, the result of great research, and of Communications with the various Noble Families; forming the most complete, the most convenient, and the cheapest Work of the kind ever ofTcred to the public. MI. BURKE'S EXTINCT, DORMANT, & SUSPENDED PEERAGES OF ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND SCOTLAND. A COMPANION TO ALL OTHER PEERAGES. New and Cheaper Edition, liciutifiilly printed, in double columns, 1 vol. 8vo., with Eml>tazoned Title-pnge, &c., price 28s. l)ound. Thi* work, formed on a plan precisely similar to that of Mr, Hurke's very popular Dictionary of the present Peerage and Haronetage, comprises those Peerages which ha*c l>een suspended or extinguished since the Conquest, pariiculari/.ing the meml)eri of each family in each generation, and bringing the lineage, in all jiossible cases, through cillier collaterals or females, down to existing houses. It connects, in many inslancpt, the new with the old nobility, nnd it will in all cases shew the cau«c which ha* influenced the revival of an extinct dignity in a new creation. It should be particularly noticed, that this new work appertains nearly as much to extant at to extinct persons of distinction ; for though dignities poss away, it rarely occurs that whole familiea do. 13, (UttAT M.\in.HOIU)UGII STREET, HISTORICAL WORKS. QUEEN ELIZABETH AND HER TIMES. A SERIES OF ORIGINAL LETTERS. Selected from the Inedited Private Correspondence of the Lord Treasurer Burghley — the Great Earl of Leicester — the Secretaries Walsingliani and Smith — Sir Christopher Ilatton — and most of the distinguished Persons of the Period. EDITED BY THOMAS WRIGHT, M.A., F.S.A. &c. DEDICATED, BY PERMISSION, TO HER MAJESTY. 2 vols. 8vo, with Portraits, price 32s. " One of the most interesting historical works that have isr^ued from the press for some time. Tlie editor's object lias bt-cii to do for Enf^lish histoiy what Bishop Percy did for English poetry ; and by his judicious and instructive notes he has rendered his pages as interesting to the reader who may fly to them for amusement, as valuable to the inquirer who may resort to them for in- formation." — Literary Gazette. IX. OLIVER CROMWELL AND HIS TIMES. ILLUSTRATED IN A SERIES OF LETTERS BETWEEN THE DISTINGUISHED MEN OF THE PERIOD. WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES, BY DR. VAUGHAN, Author of " The Life of Wickliffe," &c. 2 vols. 8vo, with Portraits. Price 32s. " These volumes are higlily important ; they give authentic information of one of the most complicated periods of English history, and exhibit the workings of some of the most powerful minds which ever guided or disturbed a state. They develop the general policy of the great leader of the Commonwealth with a clearness and au interest of the most explicit and satisfactory nature." — New Monthly. X. THE LIFE OF SIR EDWARD COKE, LORD CHIEF JUSTICE IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. WITH MEMOIRS OF HIS CONTEMPORARIES. By C. W.JOHNSON, Esq., Barrister-at-Law. Second and Cheaper Edition, 2 vols. 8vo, with Portraits. Price 16s. bound. " This Is a very valuable work, illustrating one of the most important periods in our history, and written In a candid spirit, whose judgment is based on materials collected with great in- dustry. Mr. Johnson has neglected nothing that coidd make his work complete ; and it does equal honour to his intelligence and liis industry'." — Literary Gazette. DIARY OF THE REV. J. WARD, A.M., VICAR OF STRATFORD-UPON-AVON, Extending from 1648 to 1678, now just published, from the original MS. in the Library of the Medical Society of London. EDITED BY CHARLES SEVERN, ]M.D. 1 vol. 8vo, price 12s. bound. " This is one of the most ciuious and interesting works that for a long period has been pre- sented to the public. The Rev. J. Ward was all but contemporary ^^^th Shakspeare ;" and part of the work before us relates to our poet, and throws much light upon disputed portions of his biography, and elucidates that relating to his death, of which hitherto we have been m ignorance. Dr. Severn has presented to the public, from these invaluable records, a selection of very singular interest." — Dispatch. 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 4 MR. COLBURN'S NEW PUBLICATIONS. XII. THE COURT AND TIMES OF QUEEN ANNE; II.LrSTRATFD JN THE MEMOIRS OF SAllAII, DUCHESS OF MAUI.IU )UOlc;iI. IJY -MRS. A. T. THOMSON, Author of " r^ItMoiRs or Henry VIII.," " I-ike or Sir \\'. Rai.eiuh," &c. 2 vols. 8vo, price 28s. bound. " The author of these volumes Is so well known for her Memoirs of Henry VIII. and Life of Sir Walter Ralcitrh, that the readers of hor new work will at once jicrceivc In it the grace and viirour of style which so diitini;iii>h her former efforts. Tlie political intrigues which so dis- tracted the Court of Queen Anne are all very ably set forth. Circunistanccs h.ivc called public attention to tlie>e matters ; so that wc consider Mrs. Thomson's p'lhlication as |>eculiBrly well timcublishcil from the Originals.) W nil IIKR SKETCHES AND OPINIONS OF HER CONTEMPOR.\RIES Second edition. 2 vols. 8vo, witli Portraits, i)rice 28*. " Tills is a very delightful work. We have closed the volumes w ith a confirmed impression that in many of the highest iKjinlsof conduct, courage, and tmdcrstanding, the Duchess of Marlborough was the moit remarkable woman of her own or any other day."— /v'.Kir/ji/ipr. MEMOIRS OF THE BEAUTIES OF THE COURT OF CHARLES II. WITH .\N INTKODrCTORY VII.W OK TIIK STATK OK KKMALE SOCIETY, AND ITS INKI.IENCE, DIRINO THAT RE.MARKABI.K REKiN. \)\ MRS. JAMESON. ( uMrnisiNu A SERIES OF TWENTY-ONE SPLENDID roUlUAIT.S, Illtislrating tlic Di.iries of Pcpvs, Evelyn, Clnrcixlon, nixl other contemporary writers of that gay and interesting jieriod, — engraved by the most distinguished Artists. NJ.W AND (in APER EDITION, WITH CONSIDERARLE ADDITIONS, Aoif complrtf, in 2 roli. 8ro, liound, price Abt., or in Sir I'arti, price In. Cul. each. • ■ • ■ III mnke tills puhllcntion jierfect in its kind. Wc hnve the multum In I a- eaiity in the wculd— the choicest cxcelli-iice of England's L. ne— the mo»t masterly execution which modern engraving can bestow, t., . ' ir ol each of theielelirated rhnrncters thus brought belore our eyes by • , i< |im of one ol the most bcc< M)|' of those to whose hearts their country's glory is dear, and be received as a standard work ui all military circles." — Dublin ICi-eniiig Packet. " This work is likely to have a prodigious circulation. It contains the most complete, correct cind authentic details of the eventful life of this exalted military hero, profound statesman, and patriotic politician." — Bath Herald. XVI. THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE RT. HON. HENRY GRAITAN. BY HIS SOx\, HENRY GBATTAN, ESQ., M.P. In 2 vols. 8vo, with Portrait, «Sic., price 28s. "This truly valuable work will unquestionably form one of the most important and interesting additions to our biographical and historical literature that our own day has produced. The large body of private correspondence which is here brought to bear upon the early and private life of Grattan will be read with an eager and intense interest. Moreover, there is a fund of personal anecdote scattered through the volumes, all of which is characteristic as well as new." — Xavdl and Milittiry Gazette. XVII. THE LIFE OF AYASHINGTON, Commander-in-chief of the American Armies, and First President of the United States. WITH HIS DIARIES AND SPEECHES, AND VARIOUS OTHER PAPERS. BY JARED SPARKS. 2 vols. 8vo, with Portraits, price 28s. " The Life of Washington is now first given to the world from original sources. Ever>- inform, ation and document of value and undoubted authenticity that remain in the recollections and cabinets of America, France, and England, have been procured or examined, and here used at vast trouble and expense, and at tiie sacrifice of many years of labour. In short, the life of Washington is now complete ; and every new addition to our knowledge of him only sen-es the more clearly to exhibit him as ;in the resolution of Congress on his death) ' The man first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his fellow-citizens.' " — Sun. XVIII. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOSEPH HOLT, GENERAL OF THE IRISH REBELS IN 1798. Edited from his Original MS. BY T. CROFTON CROKER, ESQ. 2 vols. 8vo, with Portrait, price 28s. " We have read this work with great interest and satisfaction. It is a most remarkable piece of autobiography, teeming with romantic incidents." — Chronicle. 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. MR. COLIMRN'S NEW PITBLICATIONS. XIX. WOMAN AND HER MASTER; OR, Tin: iiisrouY i>f tiiu ikmam: skx from thk eauliest pf-Riod TO THE PRESENT DAY. B Y L A D Y 31 O U G A N. 2 vols post 8vo. Price '21s. '•I • • ha^ imparted to hi--tor>' the charm of romance. We have rend her scries of r«pl,: uiid vi^rous sketches with oil interest whicli many ^ novel fails to excite." — •• l.-i.T. M ivMii has in these volame<< undertaken to investiBate tlie position which woman should occupy in society. She lias soii|;lit in tlic records of tlic past, guidance and direction for the fiitnre : "he has snhjectcd tlic pnircs hilosopher."— Athentrum. XX. LIFE AND LEITERS OF BEETHOVEN. BY HI3 FRIEND. A. SCIIINDLEU. Edited, with Notes, 5e universally read. In addition to the chief memoir, there is a larpe body of miscellaneous anecdote, and a selection of Malibran's Ix:tters, all singularly characteristic jint^ amusing." — A'ora/ and Military Gazette. XXII. TFIE DUCHESS OF ST. ALLANS' MEMOIRS. Tliird and Clic.ii)cr Edition, in "2 vt)ls. with Portr.nils, i^c, jiricc Ifis. bound. " A life of this very extraordinary woman, whose career was so plethoric of pood fortune, and who«e »tntriilnr destiny placed her In so many and so varied situations, in which persons of every ranV involved, has at lenpth been written with candour and (Idelity. It would be rex' • lor us to pive even an analysis of volumes so full of interest ; every pape teems with i.ite Duchess' kind.licartednes« and ptiod sense, while the numerous anecdotes, thiri A, at oncf attract and instruct. The volumes are written with that taste and irood ti must cnminiind prneral approval, and will obtain the pafronape, not only of tho'' .1 theatrical matters, but of those who arc watchers of the preat sta^- of the worl'l."— .ti"-. XXIII. THE LIFE, CORRESPONDENCE, AxND POSTHUxMOUS \VR1T1NGS of M. G. LEWIS. .Author of" The Monk," " Casti.k Sfrrrnr," itc. " Hail ' wonder-workinfc Ix;wis."— Bvnov. 2 vols. 8vo, with Portrait, SiC, price 28s. bound. "Ttie IJfe of the rreat mairician of horrors, whose irenius imrtook of the ver)- essence of Orrman ' wonder w'-rkliie" nud inyNterious creation — the Life of Monk I.owis, who knew, withal, every fine of the .' -s of his time, afTords a most (eiuptiiip subject. Cranniied full of anecdote as the Ibcatrical, |HilUiral, aiul lilerary-lhcre is no! a dull papc • hr"iiehoiit. Tl" I the work has rrUition to theatrical matters, and (fives us some I 'i-t iT'imuient nicnilM-rs of the htstnonlr prolfssion ol both sexes ; but I so ninch matter of a difTerent kind b.is |ire-cnlrd us with so many ur— that the work Is as free Iroin the lault u( monotony as any we have rc.Ti. --< fiiirt Jiiiirnii. 10, (.IU:AT .M AHMJOKOldll STREET. NAVAL AND MILITARY WORKS. 7 XXIV. NARRATIVE of the WAR in AFFGHANISTAN. BY CAPTAIN HENRY HAVELOCK, In 2 vols, post 8vo, price '21s. bound, with a complete map of the seat of war. XXV. LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF ADMIRAJ. EAnh ST. VINCENT. BY CAPTAIN BRENTON, R.N. Author of" The Naval History of Gkeat Buitain," &c. 2 vols. 8vo, 28s. ". To the several valuajjje records of the achievements and characteristics of oijr great heroes which late j'ears have produced, these excellent vohnnes are now to h? adtjed. I^ey will claim a permanent place in the splendid collection, as worthy to rank iu design and execution with any- work of the class." — Court Journal. '' xxyi. THE STANDARD NAVAL HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN, EKOUGHT ppWN Tp THE PRESENT TIME. BY CAPTAIN EDWARD PELHAM BRENTON, R.N. 2 thick vols. 8vo, price 31 s. Gd.bd., comprising nearly 1400 closely-printed pam-cs, with numerous PORTRAITS OF DISTINGUISHED OFFICERS, Plans, &c. " This important work has long- been an esteemed chronicle of the triumphant exploits of the British Nav^, but its value is much farther enhanced in this edition by the history being; con- tinued to the present time by the gallant author, who, in addition to his long experierkce of fifty years' service, has also been facilitated jn the progress o^ bis work by the assistcince of most of the emment men whose actions he n^ates."-'-G^pAe. ■■-'•'■' THE MARINE OFFICER. BY SIR ROBERJ STEELE, KNT., K.C.S., ETC. In 2 vols, post Bvo, with Portrait. Price 21s. " Our ' Marine Officer' is a ven' pleasant, lively, and intelligent fellow ; and we have accordingly great pleasure in directing the attention of our readers to his autobiography. Jn the commence- ment of the work the writer gives an account of his birth, parentage, education, and first entry into military life, which is admirably written, reminding us often of some of the best parts of ' Peter Simple ;' but, Sh- Robert Steele does not confine himself to his own adventures, he touches, from time to time, on most of the leading events of the late war — fighting many naval battles over again. For marine officers Sir Robert's book will have peculiar attractions, as it records many anecdotes of the heroism and fidelity of the corps which would not discredit the palmiest era of Roman valour." — United Service Gazette. XXVIII. CAPT. D. H. O'BRIEN'S ADVENTURES DURING THE LATE WAR. COMPEISING A NARRATIVE OF SHIPWRECK, CAPTIVITY, ESCAPES FROM FRENCH PRISONS, &C., FROM 1804 TO 1827- In 2 vols. Bvo, with Illustrations, 28s. hound. " This is a work from the pen of a very distinguished officer, who has now added a literary fame to his professional reputation. Capt. O'Brien's adventures are numerous and extraordinary, and he narrates them in an unostentatious manly manner, and in a style, simple, natural, and eflfective. Every page bears the strongest features of truth and nature ; so much so, that the reader makes the case his own, and \-ividly enters into all the scenes of danger and noble daring with which the work abounds." — Dispatch. 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. MK. COLIU'KN'S NKW VrBLlCATIONS. THE VETERAN; on, rollTY YEAUS IN TllK DIIITISII fiKUVICE. I'lV CAPTAIN JOHN II A ULKY, late Paymaster, 47th Ucgimcnt. '2 vols, post 8vo, jirice '21s. hound. " Tlu5 work will alToril much amusement to militarj- rca- few works that arc destined to acquire more than an cphenicral re- putation. Wo have |>crusetl it with prcat interest, and look upon it as one of prcat historical value. It may be said to be the fln>t that has done full Justice to Napoleon's real character as a lltatc^man and as a man." — Courirr. XXXI. MEMOIRS OF PRLXCE CAMBACERES, SECOND CONSUL, &. . n Y U A II () N LANG O N. 2 vols. 8vo, with PoRTR.MTs of Nai'oleon & Cambacerf.s, price 28*. '• This work contains many revelations little inferior in interest to those contained in U>e famous ' Voice from St. Helena.'" — Sun. XXXII. THE BRITISH SENATE IX 1«4(): A f-ErOXn SKIIIES OF UANl)0>r UECOLLECTIONS OF THE LORDS AND COMMONS. IJv the Author of " The BrNcii and the Uau," " 'I'he GnEAT I\lETKoroLis," &c. 2 vols, post 8vo, 21s. " This work is cxrredinirlyentertaininp, as well as instnictivc. Mr. Grant has here furnihhcd the public with a 'ot of portraits of the members of Queen Vietoria'.s Parliament. In the Ixirds we have all the new hcieihtary lepislnfors, and tlio>e not particularly described in his former work ; then all the new mcmberh are exhibited, and a very correct and impartial estimate of their powers and abilities given, from tlie orator in embryo to the full-llcd|fcd stager." — Caledonian Mrrrury. XXXIII. THE BENCH AND THE BAR. By tlic .Author of " Uanpo.m HEcoi.i.rfTioNs ok the Loiins, and Commons," " Thk Grkat IMetkopoi.is," iSic. Now and Cheaper F.dition. 2 vols, j)ost 8vo, price 18s. " In these volume", as in a mirror, the reailer can catch a irllmp.'e vrr>- valuable, as Illustrations of the history of one of Ihr i i'> Ibrr srirnrr ; and Ihr irrncral reader will feel the (fre.-itesf interest In thr t ■ . of the work. We know of very few btwiks more iileasinply written, or morr l;k( 1) tj l>r •■( I'li'lic Imirflt. Toomurb can hardly be nald in praise of Dr. Jeiuier's private chararfrr, and rvvry one who will peruse the history oi his life will Iw sure to find himself the better for having: spent a few hours In such company. We wish, for the sake of the public, there were more such biographies."— Ttm«t. 13, f;Ui:.\T MARLBOROUGH STKl-KT. BOOKS OF TRAVELS. ITALY AND THE ITALIANS. BY FREDERICK VOX RAUMER, Author ol" " England in 1835," " Illustrations of History," &e. 2 vols, price 21s. bd. "The contents of this attractive book are multifarious, anil put together in a familiar and agreeable spirit. It forms a most pleasant, varied, and intcrestmg work upon Italy as she is."— Atlas. XXXVI. A SUMMER IN BRITTANY. BY T. A D O L P II U S l^R O L L O P E, ESQ. Edited by Mrs. TROLLOPE. 2 vols. 8vo, with Illustrations, 32s. bound. " A work full of every species of interest and value which can attach to a book of travels. To the inquiring tourist who is tired of the beaten tracks of the Continent, the author opens an entire new field of travel, aud smooths the paths through it. To the traveller whose journeys are confined to books, he offers one in which there is as much variety as novelty, as much entertam- ment as information. To the philosophic observer of human nature he presents a most interesting object of studv— to the antiquarian a most fertUe field of examination— to the lover of legendary lore, and the 'inquirer into popular superstition^, an ample fund of new and strange materials for thought and fancy. Finailv, he puts on record a large body of singular and mteresting facts, touching an actual condition of society to which the extraordinary social changes that are at hand throughout Europe, and especially in France, may, at no distant period, put an end for ever. Mi.xed with the graphic style of this book there is a liveliness and Ixjn-homnne, which greatly add to its charm, and which make the work altogether one of unusual attraction. The volumes are embellished by many spirited and characteristic etchings."— AVw Blotithly. TRAVELS TO THE CITY OF THE CALIPHS, ALONG THE SHORES OF THE PERSIAN GULPH AND THE MEDITERRANEAN. BY J. R. WELLSTED, ESQ., F.R.S., F.R.A.S., ETC., Author of " Travels in Arabia." 2 vols. Svo, with Illustrations, 2.5s. bound. " A publication of singular interest and entertainment."— AVcri; and Militan/ Gazette. " In these days of dull and flat common-place, it is quite refreshing to come upon a narrative of strange trayel and wild adventure like this, which recals to mind the exploits of the old voyagers of Spain and England, when half of the world was undiscovered, and the other half unknown. Our traveller quits India by embarking on the Persian Gulf in a trading vessel bound to Muscat, and the first important features of his narrative relate to that remarkable city. Here he commences slave merchant, and embarks for Gambrun, visiting, in his way thither, some of the singular islands in the Persian Gulf, aud particularly those where the pearl fisheries are established, of which he gives an interesting description. In due course he reaches Bagdad, the celebrated ' Citv of the Caliphs,' remains there a considerable time, and affords many details of it that are not to be found in the narrative of any other traveller. Among the most interesting of his adventures are those which take place among the Arabs of the Desert, particularly the Bedouins, with whom he passes a considerable period. Another point of great interest in these sketches is the celebrated city of Damascus, of which we have many graphic and characteristic descriptions. The first volume concludes with a visit to TripoU, Lebanon, and Baalbec— Naval and Military Gazette. XXXVIII. A WINTER IN ICELAND AND LAPLAND. BY THE IIOX. ARTHUR DILLOX. 2 vols, post Svo, with Illustrations, price 21s. bound. " The north of Europe presents much curious matter for investigation that has not yet been explored as it deserves. Iceland and Lapland are all but untrodden regions. Mr. Dillon, inured to the hardships of a northern winter, was induced by the interest he took in these nations to attempt the hazardous expedition of visiting them in their remote and unfrequented homesteads ; and these volumes, full of information, historical and descriptive, are the rcsidt of a journey not less creditable to his literary character than his courage. Of Iceland he gives a very full account, tracing the progress of the country from the earliest records of the first piratical descent on the island in the niuth century to the present time. The history is a sort of sea romance, in which all the actors are marked by the strong features of a hardy clime and a daring spurit." — Atlas. 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 10 MR. COMJlRNiS NEW PUHLK'ATIOXS. XXXIX. A YEAR AMONG THE CIRCASSIANS. \\\ J. A. I.(lN(;\VOUTII, Ksg. 2 vols |)ost Bvo, witli illustrations, 'ils. bound, •• In-o:nn«rnblv the roost valuable account nf Circassia that has yet appeared."— Court Journnl. ■ ■■<: .Mr. I.<>nirw"orth's ro>i(l»Micc in Clrcassia will dooply Interest our readers. \' rely with a view tn aniuKcmcnt, or studied as to the duties which Eii^l.ind 1. i:i the Ka-t, — in wliatever aspect it is CDiitomplated, Mr. Longworth's truly gr«i>Uic sketch caunot Jail to reward U»c reader's attention."— /'(*»<. XI.. THE SPIRIT OF THE EAST; 15V D. rKQriI.\RT, F.SQ. Aullior of" Turkey and its Ucsourccs." Second E^|ition, 2 vo|s. 8v£). 28*. I. luQS. and the a^irigrhttincbs ot |ii3 uaijaijvp, pa^ip thp o|ic pf the ^ofkg of mf) ^Vi"— Mercury. XII. LORD LINDSAY'S LEITERS on the HOLY LAND. 'Iliiril nnd Revised Edition, in 2 vols., with Illustrations. 24s. bound. " Atnonf; the many travellers who have conlribuled to our knowledge of the intercf tiuK refcions ili.,nilfl' il I.) tVi (it-, rtcortcfl in Holy Vi rit, a iiromirtent place must be assigned to "LoW l^lbdsay. Ii implishment-. arc cr«evcranre and devotion of a pilgrim, he ha.s felt and recorded wjiat be saw wirh the wl'(>i>lier and the fWth of an enlightened Chri-stfan."— '(Jjidrfer/y XIII. A PILGRIMAGE TO PALESTINE. BY THE \\v.\. r.\Tin:ii m.miie josetij pp geraiip, Abbot and Procurator of La Trnppc. 2 vols, post 8vo, with Illustrations, 21s. bound. .. Tl,.-.,. w,l,i.„< . t.r.- !).,. in,,»t . ,iri. il. f nrwl I >,l .rest i 111- rif their kiudth.-*^ WC hBVr !:.t.)^ iii-f ■ '. ever made public o( thi ri', mill the other most |.i ,.i ,, ,. .... .. ..... : -. . (oclinK which pcrt'ailca i... ., UifoiiKh'xit, wiii invr ttirm ■ nlrouK intrmt With the religious |K)ftion of the community." — Kami and iltlitari/ Uazrttr. XI.III. I'Pv.WELS IN PALESTINE AND SYRIA. IJY (iEOUGE KOUINSON. E.S(i. 2 rol.«. post 8vo, with Maps and Plans, price 21s. bound. Ifr i' • 1.1'. Including the countries lying •Mlbr - 11^' portions of Asia Minor. Of MitfSt' ''I a<-ciiunt. Mis Journal Is not the Lc.»t,bul pttliaps the unl), i;'.iiilc ihtuuijh Uicic rcinutc regions."- i'fcrar^ Oazetle. 18, GREAT >|ARLP0R0UGH STREET. VOYAGES AND TRAVELS. 11 XLIV. NARRATIVE OF A TEN YEARS' VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY ROUND THE WORLD OF II. M.S. ADVENTURE AND BEAGLE, UNDER THE COMMAND OF CAPTAINS KING AND FITZROY. In 2 large vols. 8vo, with Maps, Cliarts, and upwards of Sixty Illustrations, by Landsecr, and other eminent Artists, price 2/. 18s. bound. " One of the most interesting narratives of voyaging that it has fallen to our lot to notice, and which must always occupy a distinguished space in the history of scientific navigation." — Qu'irter/y Reriew. These volumes detail the various incidents which occurred during the examination of the Southern Shores of South America, and the Beagle's circumnavigation of the Globe, and add considerably to our knowledge of Hydrography, Geography, and Natural History, and of the Habits, Sec. of the Aborigines. There will be found in them the materials of two distinct works, embracing everything worthy of notice in the expeditions during a period of nearly ten years. The first volume, by Captain P. P. King, F.R.S., relates to the expedition under his command, with an Appendix by Major Sabine, R.A., F.R.S., containing discussions on the magnetic obser- vations made during the voyages. The second volume is by Captain Robert Fitzroy, and relates to the second voyage, with an Appendix, giving the determination of many positions and measurements of meridian distances, and other nautical information. The work is beautifully illustrated with etchings and engravings on steel, by Mr. Landseer and other eminent artists, from drawings by Mr. Martens and Mr. Earle ; and with Charts and Plans by Mr. Gardner and Messrs. Walker: and an entirely new Map of South America, by Mr. J. Arrowsmith, in which the position of places may be ascertained to within less than two miles. In the volumes notices will be found of the Cape Verd, Falkland, and other Islands in the Atlantic Ocean— of the coasts of South America, from Pernambuco to Guayaquil— of the Galapagos Islands— the dangerous Archipelago, or Low Islands — Otaheite— New Zealand— Australia— The Keeling Islands- Mauritius— the Cape of Good Hope. XLV. MR. BREMNER'S NORWAY, DENMARK, AND SWEDEN. WITH NOTICES OF THE STATE OF PUBLIC OPINION IN THOSE COUNTRIES, AND ANECDOTES OF THEIR COURTS, 2 vols. Bvo, with Portraits, 28s. bound. " There is not a single reader of Mr. Breraner's admirable book on Russia who will not be delighted again to encounter a traveller Vvho unites in himself so many excellent qualities. With liveUness and boti-hommie to please the most idle of readers, with good sense and impar- tialit>' to satisfy the most critical, with activity, information, and judgment to turn all these good qualities to account, and a position in society that enables him to do so; these are the character- istics which Mr. Bremner brings to the concoction of this new work. On eveo' subject which it touches — poUtics, statistics, public feeling, social habits and condition, agriculture, letters, science, personal character— all is treated with impartiality and strong good sense." — New Monthly. XLVI. MR. BREMNER'S EXCURSIONS IN THE INTERIOR OF RUSSIA; INCLUDING SKETCHES OF THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS AND HIS COURT, Second Edition, in two vols, post 8vo, with Illustrations, price 21s. bound. " This ample and able work, the production of a man of sense and impartial obsen-er, wiU soon be in the hands of the majority of readers throughout the empire, and not improbably throughout Europe also." — Literary Gazette. XLVII. AUSTRIA AND THE AUSTRIANS ; WITH SKETCHES OF THE DANUBE AND THE IMPERIAL STATES. 2 vols, post 8vo, with Portraits, price 21s. "This is at once an instructive and amusing book. It contains a great deal of information, a vast number of anecdotes ol distinguished persons, and a mass of general instruction, im- portant and novel." — Times. 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 10 MR. COLBURN'S NEW PUBLICATIONS. XLVIII. THE IDLER IN ITALY. BEING A JOTRNAI. UK TlIK TKAVKl.S OF THE COUNTKS8 OF BI.ESSINGTON. New anil clicapcr ctlitioii, '2 vols, post Hvo, with Portrait of the Author after Landsekb, price •24s. l)ouiul. MIX. LEra^.RS FROM THE SOUTH. in THOMAS CAMPBELL, ESQ., Author of " TiiF Pi.easi'Res or Ilorr,'* &c. In 2 vols. 8vo, with Eleven Plates of Scenery, &c., 1/. 11*. Gil. bound. " A most remark able anil iiitcrcstinp work."— JoAn Hull. " There h tniicli infuniintinn and novelty in these vulumcs, and many sound reflections and csqubite gracei of ijoctjcal Iccliii(j."— O/i/r/ Journal. L. SIR JAMES E. ALEXANDER'S EXCURSIONS IN WESTERN AFRICA. Second Edition, with Additions. *2 vols. 8vo., with Maps and numerous Plates, 24s. bound. " This 1.1 a very intereating account of the colonies of Western Africa. \'er)- little is known of the new setUements on the African frontier, and it is a matter of siiri>ri'C to us that no work, ex- cept Mr. Martin's, )mu< been published descriptive of the establishment and rapiacific require tlic public attention to be particularly drawn to its considera- tion."— Tim<-«. Mt. TRAVELS IN EGYPT AND CANDIA ; WITH nETAII.S OF TIIK MIIITAUY POWEIl AND RFSOfltrES OF THOSE COINTBIES, AND OBSEKV ATIONS ON Till. C;oVKIIN.MI;NT, I'OLirY, AND (OMMtnclAI. 8Y.STEM OF MoiIAM.Mi:D ALI. BY CAIT. C. n. SIOTT, H.P. Uoy.il Stan' Corps. 2 vols. Hvo, with Illustrations, jiricc 2H.s. " One of the most sterling publications of the sea.son."— .Vara/ and Mililary Unxette. EXCURSIONS IN THE MOUNTAINS OF RONDA AM) (iUANADA. BY CAPT.C. IIOCnroUT .scon, -Ju.U.Svo, will) Illtistr.jtions. 289. bound. 13, GREAT MAHLBOROUGH STREET. WORKS ON SPORTING. 13 LIV. HISTORY OF THE BRITISH TURF, FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE PRESENT DAY. BY JAMES CHRISTIE WIIYTE, ESQ. In Two Large Volumes, 8vo, with Illustrations. Price 28s. bound. COMPRISING : — 1. Memoirs and Anecdotes of re- markable Sporting Characters 2. The Performances and Pedigrees of celebrated Ilacehorscs 3. Descriptions of the Racecourses in Great Britain 4. The Plates and Stakes annually run for over them 5. Accounts of the most approved Method of Breeding, Training, and ^Managing Racehorses 6. Notices of celebrated Jockeys 7. Description of the principal Races and Matches. Also, every Particular, technical and otherwise, to which the Lover of Racing may desire to refer, either as a matter of business or amusement. "This work must become a standard authority on the subject of horses and horseracing', and no one at all interested in such subjects will be without it, whilst the general reader will be de- lighted with it for the pleasant spirit in which it is written, and the singular traits of extraor- dinary cliaracter with which it is so profusely studded." — Argus. LV. THE SPORTSMAN IN IRELAND, AND THE HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND. BY R. ALLEN, ESQ., A.M., F.S.A., &C. In 2 vols, post Bvo, with numerous illustrations, price 18s. bound. " A most well-informed, humorous, and agreeable travelling companion. The leading features are all, more or less, of a sporting nature ; and in this point of view tlie work has uncommon interest. The details the author gives of his various ' experiences' in the beautiful lands which he passed over, cannot fail to send hosts of sportsmen thither who never before contemplated such a visit, and many more who would scarcely have ventured such an undertaking without the guide here placed at their disposal. Tlie work is embellished with very many spirited and inter- esting sketches of remarkable localities, and is altogether one of the most readable and amusing books of its kind that we have had for many a day."— -Yeic Monthly. LVI, SCENES AND SPORTS IN FOREIGN LANDS. BY MAJOR E. NAPIER, 46th Regt. 2 vols, small 8vo, with Nineteen Illustrations, 21s. bound. " Througli the medium of these pages the sportsman in England may enjoy his leisure by becoming acquainted with tlie proceedings of his brother sportsmen abroad, in climes wliere the game sought, instead of being confined to hare, pheasant, partridge, and similar timid denizens of our stubbles and coverts, comprises tigers, wolves, bears, jackals, buffaloes, elks, and other dangerous inhabitants of tlie tropical wilderness. But, whatever may be the risk attendant on their pursuit and death, our gallant adventurer will here be found seeking them in their desert and jungle retreats, eager to attack whate\er might offer in the way of sport, from a snipe to an elephant ; the result of which is, that the v.-ide ' preserves' of the far East are thrown open for the reader, and he is shewn the various methods pursued to bruig down the game, while enter- tained with tlie amusing adventures of tiie daring hunter." — Age, LVII. SPORTING EXCURSIONS IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. BY J. K. TOWNSHEND, ESQ. 2 vols, post 8vo, with Illustrations, 18s. bound. " Mr. Townshend supplies in these volumes a fund of very cvirious and entertaining matter. There is much veu^ety and information of a practical kind in the book, and it will be especially acceptable to naturalists on account of the descriptions of the animals with %vhich the regions traversed by the WTiter abound. On the whole, the work forms a most valuable addition to the library of American travels." — Atlas. 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 14 MR. COLBURN'S NEW PUBLICATIONS. LVllI. COMIC MISCELLANIES. IN rilOSE AND VERSE. ]\Y TIIK LATK JA.MES SMITH, ESQ. One of tlic niitliorsof " Ilejcctcd Aililrcsscs." With a Sol ci-tii>n from l>is ('orrcs])on(lcncc, and IMcnioirs of his Life. nv HIS luioTHKi?, Horace s^HTn, esq. Second edition, witli additions, '2 vols. ])ost 8vo, with portrait, *21s. bound. "One of tlie most ainusing books that liave seen the light, since the ever famous Rejected .\d(lrc»ses themselves." — Globe, MX. COMMENTARIES ON THE HISTORICAL PLAYS OF SIIAKSPEARE. IJY THE RIGHT HON. T. T. COURTENAY. t2 vols, post 8vo, 18s. bound. " We have read this work with pleasure as the productinii of a scholar and a gentleman of refined taste and acute judirment. The many new points of view which he takes, and the many lichts which ho throws ui>on pa>sagcs of the immortal hard, command our lively interest. It dt-erves the attention of the public a.s an almost Inseparable companion to Shakspeare's Plays. Indeed, It is a work without which wc do not look to see a respectable library, or collection of polite literature."— Li<. Gazette, LX. VISCOUNT DE CHATEAUBRIAND'S SKETCHES OF THE LITERATURE OF ENGLAND. 2nd Edition. 2 vols. 8vo, 24s. " There has not appeared, for a long time, any work so calculated to pique the curiosity of the literary world as tills new production of the celebrated Chateaubriand, in which he discusses the merits' nf Sh.ikspcare, Mdton, IJyron, and the whole palaxy of ancient as well as modern English writers ; drawing the most curious comparisons and analogies."— (J/oAf. I.XI. LORD BROUGHAM'S OPINIONS 0\ POLITICS, THEOLOGY, LAW, SCIENCE, LITERATIRE, ETC. WITH A MEMoin OF Ills i-onnsiiip's life. One very thick nnd closely-printed volume, price 12s. bound. " T1>e design of thin volume is to afford a collective view of his Lordship's opinions and practical objectfi. It mill ilii - II' t only the most brilliant pa.vsa>rfs from his celebrated S|)Ccrhes and wntinir*, but ; lo the rrnder the irrniliial dev('lo)iment of his mind on those great quei. tinn* in |K)li! und science, in which learned men of all countries and all ages must ever tnkr n 1 To the selections Is prefixed a prefatory- memoir, which will be found I itu, and elalxirate, than any that has hitherio appeared, containing parti- ( l.'s earlv, and al-n of his mtire advancol, life, with a philosophical analysis of 1. .•-." '• I l.U \ liliinic ii ciilciilntrd to be of infinite service, by teacliing its readers to think, and think Jiutly, OD all tlic great jMditical questions of the day." — Sun. THE AMERICAN IN PARIS; OR, BKETrilFH or TIIK NEW INSTITI'TIONH, TUT IMBV.M.ISIIM PNTS, THE SOCIETY, THE ECrENTIHr (li AH ACTEIlS, THE WOMEN, THE I'llESS, THE I.ITEnATlKF, ETC., OF TABIS. 2 vols, post 8vo, price 18s. " Wc enrdially recmninmd this book to our readers as by very far the best, because incom- parably the most amusing as well as infr)nning (iulde to Taris that we arc acquainted with In \Xtt F.ngllsh language, or indeed in any otlier."— iVoni/ and Military Gaxrtte. 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. POETICAL WORKS, &c. 15 SONGS AND BALLADS. WRITTEN AND SET TO MUSIC BV HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE ALBERT, & PRINCE ERNEST. Translated from the Gerraan^by G. F. Richardson, Esq. DEDICATED, BY PERMISSION, TO H.R.H. THE DUCHESS OF KENT. Imperial 4to, containing Fourteen Songs, and Forty-two Pages of Music, with a beautifully engraved Portrait of Prince Albert, price 12s. LtST OF THE SOXCS. THE WORDS IN ENGLISH AND GERMAN. 1 . Farewell to Home. 2. To my Brother. 3. Italian Song. 4. The Bark dashes wildly. 5. The Wandering Harper. 6. Sleep, O Sleep. 7. Say, sleepest thou, Love ? 8. To an absent Friend. 9. Yonder, thou shall find the blesshig. 10. All silent were the foun- tains. 11. Come, dearest, come. 12. How sweet this hour of pure devotion. 13. As the bark dashes wildly. 14. The stcir of splendour. LXIV. THE DREAM; AND OTHER POEMS. BY THE HON. MRS. NORTON. Second Edition, with Additions. In 1 vol., with Fine Portrait of the Authoress, after a Drawing by E. Landseer, R.A,, price lOs. 6d. bound, " A very beautiful poem. This lady is the Byron of our modem poetesses." — Quarterly Review. LXV. POPULAR SONGS OF IRELAND. Collected and Edited, with Introductions and Notes, by T. CROFTON CROKER, ESQ. 1 vol. with Illustrations, price 10s. 6d. bound. "A volume of singular interest and curiosity. It is even more than this, — it is a publication of real value, as illustrative of tlie past and present condition, botli mental and mora], of the most singular people in the world. At the same time, it is, as a collection of lyrical compositions, full of the graces and beauty of which that class of poetry is so eminently susceptible." — Naval and Military Gazette. LXVI. THE ROSE-FANCIER'S MANUAL. BY MRS. CHARLES GORE, New and cheaper edition, one elegant vol., price 6s. bound. CONTENTS : Geography of Roses— Culture of Roses — Glossology of Roses — Hybridity— Importance of Specific Characters— Comparison of Specific Characters— On Species — Distinction of Species andVariety — Bibliography of the Rose — Pharmacopceia of R: ses— Monography of the Rose, comprising notices of 2500 Varieties— List of the Species admitted by Botanists, &c. &c. " All the lovers of flowers, and especially the fairer portion of our readers, ought forthwith to have this elegant volume in then' possession." — Sun. LXVII. THE ART OF NEEDLEWORK, FROM THE EARLIEST AGES. With Notices of the Ancient Historical Tapestries. EDITED BY THE RIGHT HON. THE COUNTESS OF WILTON. Second edition, revised, in 1 vol. post Svo, 10s. 6d. bound. " An admirable volume. It should be possessed by every lady." — Times. " A charming volume. We congratulate our fair countrywomen on this valuable addition to their libraries."— HeruW. 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 16 MR. COLBURN'S NEW PUBLICATIONS. LXVIII. THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF MICHAEL ARiMSTRONG, THE FACTORY BOY. HV MKS. 'l"Il()l,L()Pi:. Now complete in 1 Vol. 8vo., jirifc lis. hound, or in I'2 Parts at Is. eacli, printed and cinbellislicd uniformly with " Xiciiolas Nitkk'by," &c. " Wc are cxccccUnply glad that Mrs. TroUopc has devoted the energies of her powerful and fertile mind to the production of thi> at once striknisf, amu^inp, and useful work. Without oiiy desire to depreciate the value of similar productions, we cannot but consider this as infinitely more valuable than any which wc have yet seen." — Metropolitan Conarrvatire Journal. NOW IN COURSE OF PIBLIC ATION, IN OCCASIONAL VOLU.MES, raicK ovLv 6s. K.^rn boi/nd, Printed uniformly with Byron and Scott, and beautifully embellished with the Portraits of the Authors, and other Engravings, by tiie Tindens and other eminent Artists, COLBURN'S STANDARD NOVELISTS, A SELECT COLLECTION OF 2rt)f Iirr^t £aJovU0 of fiction OF THE MOST PISTlNGUISlinn ENGLISH WRITEUS, WHICH CANNOT RE rUOCl'RKU IN ANY OTHER COLLECTION. Thk Proprietor of the Scries here aiinounctd having had tlie good fortune ti) publisli a very large projiortioti of tlie most masterly modern works of Fiction — such as have become incorporated with the literature of the countrv, — is obviously placed in the most favourable ])ositiou for an undertaking of this nature ; and he has determined that no composition of inferior and ephemeral character shall beatlmitted into the collection ; but tiiat tlinsi; works alone vhieli have received the .stamp of uneijuivoeal public apjirobalion, and which may be read from time to time witii still recurring j)leasure and profit, shall constitute tlu; Series. "Works whlcb bave already appeared in the above Collection. (AFT. MARUVAT S FRANK MILDMAY .MR. hook's sayings ANU DOINGS I First Srrirx) MR. hook's SAYINGS AND DOINGS ( SernnrI Srrim) MR. hook's SAYINGS ANU DOINGS Third Srrirt) MR. James's richelieu .MR. GLEIg's CHELSEA PENSIONERS SIR E. L. BILWEK S PELIIAM SIR K. L. ULLWLR's DISOWNED SIR E. L. P.II.WEr's DEVEREUX Mb. ward's TREMAINE MR. smith's brambletye house MR. smith's ZILLAH MR. lister's GRANBY lady morgan's o'donnel LADY morgan's FLORENCE MACARTHY •• ' Colbiini'ii Moilcrn Novelist''' prenent a series nf those works of Action that have mo»t tended, with the writinir* nf Sir Walter .Scott, to rlcvntc thiR description of literature. Tills publication presents a cnnccntrution of Lnininnatlvc genius." — Otolic. • ^» Due notice will be given o/ the future appearance of each new volume of this work. AGFNTS FOR SCOTLAND : MESSRS. BELL AND BRADFL'TK, EDINBURGH. AGENT FOR IRELAND: MR. JOHN CtlMMING, DUBLIN. T. r. Savin, Printer, in;, 8t. Martln'ii Lane. / / r/r^^-^ Towers — Piuspect over La Beauce — Corn Market at Cliartres — I'eiiiale Corporation — Mode of Transacting Business at Cliartres — Church ol St. Aifrnan — Churcli of St. Pierre — Journey to Orleans — Vineyards of the Orleanais — Their Produce — The Story of Jacques Boulay, a warn- ing to Authors — First View of the Loire — The Bridge — The Old Bridge — A Legend of its History — Kpigram on the Opening of the New Bridge — Orleans from the other side of the River 49 CH.VPTER V'. Orleans — View from the top of the Cathedral — La Sologne — Con- dition of the Population of tiiis Di.strict — Superstitions — Curious Custom — Cathedral — Interior — West pront — Destruction of the old Cathedral — Foundation of the Present Structure — The Jubi- lee at Orleans — Account of the Expences of Building the Cathe- dral — New Street — Beards and Bishops — " A DifTerence between a Bishop and a Dean" — Books in Orleans in the Sixteenth Cen- tury — Historical localities in Orleans — Anecdotes — Earl of Salis- bury — Marie Touchet — Diana of Poitiers — Jeanne d'Arc's House — Curious Passages concerning her — Present State of the House which she inhabited — Specimen of an Orleanais Ballad — Source of the River Loiret . . . . .GO CHAPTER VI. Steamboats on the Loire — Various Companies fur the Navi^^ation of the Hiver — The Quay at Orleans — Departure of the Boat — Con- struction of the Steamers on the Loire — Voyage to Meung — Junction of the Loiret with the Loire — Appearance of the Kiver — Cellars at St. Pierre — Bridge of Meung — The Town — Walk to Clery — Story of Notre Dame de Clery — Tomb of Louis XL — Strange Toll — Church at Clery — Figure of Louis XL — Walk to Beaugency — View of the Town — .Anecdotes of its History — Journey to Blois . . . .87 CHAPTER Vn. Blois — Its Position — Its Streets — The Chateau — Its exterior — Its Fouuilation, and Subsequent History — Murder of the Due de Guise — Architecture of the Chateau — The mo.st Ancient Part — Louis the Twelfth's Building — Lodging of the Ladies of Cathe- rine de Medicis — Part Built by Francis L— Hall of Assembly of the Stales — West Side built by Mansard — The Observatory of (.'atheriue de .Mcdicis — View from it — Porter of the Cha- teau . . . . . ,106 CONTENTS. V CHAPTER VIII. Blois — Roman Aqueduct — The Cathedral — Bishop's Palace — Gar- dens — School at Play — Evening Service in the Cathedral — " Via Crucis " — Scenic Effect — P'act versus Fancy — Journey to Cham- bord— Menars-le-Chateau — Situation of Chambord — Anecdotes of the Chateau — Marshal Saxe — Architecture of the Chateau — Return to Blois — Voyage to Ainboise — Steamboat aground — The River below Blois — Chaumont — Catherine de Medicis — Arrival at Amboise — The Castle — Its History — The Conspi- racy of Amboise — Present State of the Castle — Excavations — Extraordinary Monument — Approach to the Chateau — View from the Terrace — Servants' Offices — " Changement de De- coration" — The Chapel — Carriage Staircase — Departure for Blere 119 CHAPTER IX. Blere — The One Fact in its Hi-^tory — Chenonceaux — Its History — Its Last Proprietor before the Revolution — Its Architecture — Beaulieu — Loches — Valley of the Indre — Picturesque Scenery — The Chateau of Loches — Anecdote of its History — Agnes Sorel — Her Tomb — Inscriptions — The Collegiate Church — Town of Loches — Remarkable Sign of an Inn — How an Old Woman made Better Soup than she intended — Journey to Tours . 151 CHAPTER X. Tower of the Cathedral of Tours — Regulation for the Prevention of Suicide — Furniture of a Sacristan's House — A Fall from the Tower — Preparations for Suicide a la Franpaise — View from the Tower — Position of Tours — Plessis les Touts — Interior of the Cathe- dral — Church of St. Martin — Its Former Celebrity — Its Chapter — And other Members — Its History — Tours in the present Day — Its former Population — Present appearance of the Town — Former Luxury of the Inhabitants — Guillaume le Breton's De- scription of the Town — The Bridge — The Rue Royale — " La Cite" — Mode of Building a Town in the Middle Ages — Quaint Names of Streets — Anecdotes concerning them — Residence of Tristan I'Ermite — Public Library — English at Tours — Departure for Saumur ...... 167 CHAPTER XI. Journey from Tours to Saumur — " Les Levees de la Loire " — Im- portance of these Works — " Le Deluge de Saumur" — The Loire ▼» CONTENTS. below Tours — River Scenery — Barjjes on tlie Loire — Habitations in the Hock — Luynes — " Pile de (Jinq Mars" — Disputes us to its Origin — Langcais — Its Castle — " Seij^neurs Engagistes" — Cha- teau (le Rochecotte— Chateau (I'llssd — Chateau de Grillemont — Candes — Moiisorcau — Tonraine — Character of the Province — Prcnchman's Idea of Beauty — Resemblance between Americans and Frenchmen — Arrival at Saumur . . . 190 CHAPTER XII. Hotel de Londres — Revocation of the Edict of Nantes — Dujilessis- Mornay — Fallen Fortunes of Saumur — Its Present State — The Chateau — Its Architecture — Views from the Terrace — View over the Loire — Dampicrre — Margaret of Anjou — Mode of Cidtivating the Vine — ^'ie\v over the Valley of the Thouet — Streets of Sau- mur — View of the Town from the Northern Bank of the River — " Butte de Moulius" — Departure for Angers — Steamboat Stores, Literary and Culinary — Voyage to Angers . . 205 CHAPTER XIII. Voyage from Saumur to y\ugers — Tufeaux — Its Quarries — Ange- vinc Costume — Treves — Cuneault — Disadvantages of Steamboats — Gennes — Its Antiquities — Celtic — Roman — and Medieval — Traces of the Celtic Race in France — Superstitions attached to Oaks and Fountains in Anjou — Curious Practice — Beneficial ef- fects of the Irruption of the Northmen into Europe — St. Manr — Benedictines — Their Settlement and Wealth in Anjou — Transcript of Books — Anecdote — Diploma of Clotaire I. respecting the Abbey of St. Manr — Recovery of this Document — Ponts-de-Ce — Battle between Louis XIII. and his Mother — Remarkable Ispitaph — Country Houses on the Loire — Estimate of the Scenery of the Loire — Best Mode of performing the ^'oyage from Saumur to Angers . . . . .215 CH.\PTER XIV. Approach to Angers — Position of the Town — The " Doutre " — Bank of Slate — Peculiar Ap|)earanre of the Town — Hotel de Faisau— Walk to the Cathedral — lis Position — French Improve- ments — and taste — West Front of the Cathedral — Dale of the Building — Ancient\'estibide — I"\)id(|nes de Malhefelon — His Cha- racter — Excommunications — .\necdotc — A Miracle in the I'our- tcenth Century — A Bishop and his Chapter — Secrets of the Chapter House — Death of Foulques de Mathefelon— View from thcTopf)f the Tower of the Cathedral . . , 2.12 CONTENTS. vil CHAPTER XV. Walk to Visit the Slate Quarries in the Neislibourliood of Angers — Refuse of the Manufactured Slates — Manner of Working the Pits — " Le Grand Carreau " — Descent into the Pit — Under- ground Works — Striking Scene — A Narrow Escape — Nature of the Rock — Produce of the Quarries — Return to Angers — French Want of Punctuality— A Test of Philosophy . . 250 CHAPTER XVI. Interior of the Cathedral — Effect of Architecture — Provincial Anti- quaries — Painted Glass — Appearance of the Town — Embellish- ments — The University — Its Origin — Situation of several of its " Inns" — Republic of Letters during the Middle Ages — Migra- tion of Professors from Oxford to Angers — Academical Life in the Thirteenth Century — A Town and Gown Row in the Olden Time — Its Results — Oaths used by the Students of Angers in the Fifteenth Century — Punishment for using them — Manners of the Students at that Period — and in the Seventeenth Century — Anec- dote — FeteDieu at Angers — Gallantry of the Angevine Students, and the Heroic Devotion of the Angevines — The Bishop's " Man- dement" ....... 259 CHAPTER XVII. The Chateau — Its Appearance — and Position — Its Historical Reminiscences — Departure from Angers — Rival Steam Com- panies — " Le Riverain" — Loire below the Mayenne — Islands — Their Produce — Normans in the Loire — Isle de St. Jean — Epitaph — Notre Dame de St. Behuard — Angevin Wines — Banks of the Loire in A njou .... 281 CHAPTER XVIII. Voyage from Angers to Nantes — Savonnieres — Rocks of Rochefort — Coal-field on the Loire — Chalonnes — The Heresy of the Chalon- nais — Montjean — Chantoce — Gilles de Laval — Blue Beard — His Chapel Establishment — His Crimes — and Punishment — Ingrande — Salt Smugglers — The Loire below Ingrande — Coal Mines — St. Florent — Passage of the Loire by the Vendeeans — One Way of Writing History — Marillais — Ancient Festival — Speculation on the Origin of the Romish Festival on the 8th of September — Pil- grimages — Curious Letter of a Bishop in the Twelfth Century respecting them — Village Fetes — Ancenis — Former Tide in the Loire — Joachim du Bellay — Specimen of his Sonnets — Tower of Vlil CONTENTS. Oiitloii — Its Legend — ('h.im])tooi>i\ux — Its Historv — Ttion of Animal Food — Quai des Constructions — Quai d'Aiguillon — The Due d' Aiguillon's Purchase of the post of Lieutenant-general of the Province — La Svlphe Steatner — Hill below the Town — View frtmi it — Pj.rrv — Isle des Chevaliers — Trentemoux — View of Nantes — Rencontre with an Idiot — .Story of "La Fille de la Puni- tion" ....... 334 CHAPTKll XXI. French Tables d'Hole — Tiiose of (icrmauy — Invariable Com])any Diet at them in France — French " Commis \'oyageur " — and F.n"lish "Bagman" — Disagreeable Maimers of the Former — and (jross Languagi" — Anecilote — Present .State of France — Phyical Improvement and Progress — Moral Retrogression — Compatibility of the Two — Causes of Demorali/atiou in France Tendency to Social Di-ssolution — Favourite News|)a|M'rs in the Provinces — Charivari — National — Sierle — Presse — Circulating Libraries — Favourite Anlhor.s — Provinci.il Readers — Anecdote K^tent of Demoralization — Peasantry . 349 CONTENTS. IX CHAPTER XXII. Evening Walk — Place du Bouffay — Cours Saint Pierre— Fashion- able Promenade — Cours Saint Andre — Statue of Louis XVI. — Of Breton Worthies — Military Parade — Young Soldiers — Drilling — Dislike of the Population of certain Provinces to the Service — Origin of the feeling — Different Peaces — Aiitipalhy to the Service does not arise from want of Courage — Anecdote — A Perigordian Conscript and !iis Fatlier . . 3G5 CHAPTER XXIII. Ungdllant Band — Botanical Garden — Logical Classification of Plants — View from the Promenade — Cemetery de Misericorde — Legend — Rue de I'Eutrepot — Fine Line of Streets — Church of Notre Dame — Anecdote — Jean de Montfort's Three Vows, and how he kept them — New Quarter of the City — M. Graslin — Literary Nomenclatures of the Nantais Streets — The Theatre — The Audience — Return to hotel — and Departure from Nantes ....... 375 CEJAPTER XXIV. Journey to Ch^son — The Capital of La Vendee — The two Sevres — Their different Characters — French Guide-Books — Touching Anecdote respecting a Piaster-cast Merchant — Scenery ofClisson — Destruction of the Town in the War — Traces of the War in La Vendee — New Villages — Destruction of the Vendeean Vil- lages — Retreats and Hiding-places of the Inhabitants — " Le Refuge" — The Castle of Chsson — Its Architecture — Its pre- sent State — The Constable Oliver Cliison — The brotliers Ca- cault — Their History — Their Museum — Their Gardens — Anecdote of the Vendeean War . • . . . 388 ILLUSTRATIONS. VOL. I. A Veiideean Royalist Comiaissaiice Utile Departure of the " Inoxplosible" from Orleans Ecclesiastical Discipline iu the Middle Ages PAGE Frontispiece. l'ie 'I'liree Landladies ofTiil'auges Remarkable Stone Head La IVtnnie la plus bardie qui fut jamais Frontispiece. I'ignetlc Title. W) 114 '1X\ A SUMMER CENTRAL PROVINCES OF ERANCE. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. *' Adieu ! plaisant pays de France !" sighed Mary Stuart, as she stepped, with a tear in her eye and a melancholy foreboding at her heart, on board the boat which was to convey her from its shores for ever. And I confess that had I as much reason as she had for supposing- that I should never again breathe its clear atmosphere, or ramble among its woods and streams, my adieus would have been spoken in as sad a spirit. For truly, much as men have done, and are doing, to render it otherwise, Nature has VOL. I. B 2 INrUUDLCTlON. inteiuled France for a right pleasant and highly-favoured clime. From the green pas- tures and rich corn-lands of Normandy, to the vine-clad hills and olive groves of Pro- vence, every temperate variety of atmosphere and soil conspires to produce a greater num- ber of the thousand commodities, which to civilized man are become necessities, than any otiicr portion of Furopc of similar ex- tent. Yes! Mary Stuart was right! Assuredly France eminently deserves to be called a •' plaisant pays." It is true, many a rood of green forest has, since her time, yielded be- fore the plough and the wants of increasing population, and many a INIacadamized road is carrying modern ideas and new manners into nooks and recesses of the country, which in those days contained a handful of isolated, and therefore almost unprogressing iidiabi- tants. But, in spite of all tliat time and the march of events have done towards substi- tuting the useful for tlie romantic, and re- ducing to a dead level the j)ie(ures(jue in- equalities of |)r()vincial manners, France has not yet ceased to be either a " plaisant |)ays," or an interesting owv to lliose lovers of the knapsack and stall", who deliglit, while seeking" Nature's bcnilic^ in her most se- INTRODUCTION. 3 eluded haunts, to investigate also all those whimsical peculiarities and intricate sinuo- sities of human character, which, constituting local characteristics, form so large and amu- sing a chapter in the general history of man, and furnish so instructive a commentary on the annals of European civilization. To many persons who are accustomed to consider France as, par excellence, a land of change — a country where, above all others, ** old things have passed away, and all things have become new " — who think that the tre- mendous storm which has passed over her has, in breaking up the great deep of the moral as well as the political constitution of the nation, prepared her to be the first-born of a new order of things — a new era in the history of the world — it may appear a start- ling assertion to affirm that France is in fact very far less changed than England from what they both were three hundred years ago. Few, however, who know well, not Paris, but France — not the great towns, and the great houses, and the great roads only, but agricultural, rural France, in its far-away provinces, in its little market-towns, in its secluded hamlets, and scattered granges, will not be aware that such is the case. b2 I i.\ rK()i)r( I'loN. Nor is it (liflicult to assign an adccjuatc reason lor the lact. Tliat change wliich in England has been the gradual and silent work ol' ages, was sought to be elleeted in France by a sudden and violent convulsion, in the one case, the new elements passed gradually into the bones and veins of the body social, and were assi- milated, becoming integral and healthy parts of the system. In the other, the sudden vio- lence of the treatment adopted succeeded in- deed in throwing the whole body into con- vulsion, deranging the entire machinery of the constitution, and rendering it incaj)able of carrying on the vital functions in a healthy manner lor many a generation to come, but yet left many of the smaller and more hidden parts of IJH^ social body almost unaltered bv the violence of an agent, which has |)assed over and damaged them, but, has not pene- trated into their substance. The gentle ripj)le of a stream will, in pro- cess of time, entirely obliterate the most en- during- feat u res of t lie soil ovci- which it iiins ; bill the toricnt-rorce of a sudden imiiidation leaves the fields, when it has subsided, with the crops indeed destroyed, and the beauty of the country defaced, but with its features and general form unchanged. INTRODUCTION. 5 Tnlinitcly more traces and remains of the days when every man's "country" was the territory around the principal city, near which he lived, are to be found in the habits and ideas of the provincial French, than among the English. Not only does the " Angevin," the ** Tourangeau," the " Auvergnat," the " Poitevin," the " Berrichon," &c., invariably call himself by these provincial names, and feel each his own province to be his country, and his fellow provincials more especially his countrymen ; but each of these has a distinct character, whose differences are perceptible, and preserves customs and ideas peculiar to his locality. One very obvious cause of the much greater degree in which local character has been pre- served in France than in England is the very marked inferiority of the former country in all the means of communication and travel — that great agent which renders men uniform by rubbing them together, as pebbles on the seashore are all made round by the con- tinual rolling of the wave. The generality of Frenchmen, too, are naturally averse to tra- velling. A long journey — let Rousseau say what he will of the delights of " un voyage a faire ;" (the " Paris au bout," I admit, would be enough to tempt a Frenchman from one 6 INTRODUCTION. end of the world to the other) — is ever an object of dread and disagreeable necessity to him, and is never undertaken for its own sake. Tiiis dislike of travelling- may be a cause or a consequence of the bad and scanty pro- vision of the means of locomotion in France. It is probably in some deg?*ee both. All these circumstances conspire with se- veral others, w hich it would take a volume to develop, to cause an infinitely greater diffe- rence to exist between Paris and the rest of France than exists between London and the rest of England. It has been frequently said that ** Paris is France." And politically speaking, this is, most unfortunately for the country, almost absolutely true. No surer sign can be found that there is "something rotten in the state of" la grande nation, than the monstrous manner in which Paris has been able to lead all France by the nose. We are suffering ourselves from a determi- nation of blood to the head ; but with our neighbours the disease has far niore invete- racy, while the constitution has infinitely less stamina to resist it. A politician, therefore — unless his views arc much more extended tlian those of the generality of politicians — may study France in the palaces, the cabinets, the salons, the INTRODUCTION. 7 *' chambres," and the streets of Paris. But he who would form a competent notion of the real body of the people — of that which should be the thews and sinews of the nation — of that which must eventually make that vast country something very different from what it is at present, must take a wider range. The philosophical student of man, too, will hardly be content to form his estimate of so large and important a portion of mankind from the exquisitely artificial mass, which, in the streets, as well as in the society of Paris, is offered to him as a sample. The lover of history can need no second invitation to a ramble through any part of a country so storied, so redolent of great names, so thickly strewn with localities of highest interest, so intimately linked in almost every period with the history of deeds and names dear to the remembrance of every Englishman. The physiological inquirer again knows full well what important illustrations of his favourite science may be found in the charac- teristic differences of physiognomy, stature, temperament, and constitution, even yet to be observed in the descendants of these tribes of different origin, who settled themselves in different parts of the country. 8 INTRODUCTION. The pliilologist also will find much nialcrial for curious and interesting' research in the wiilely Miry'in^ patois still existing- unimpaired in many provinces, which have evidently arisen from the mixture of French with va- rious other dialects of different origin. But if, O, gentle reader, thou chancest to belong* to any of these grave and learned classes, peradventure — nay, assuredly — I should be guilty of presumption in inviting thee to be a companion of my summer ram- ble, with )ut warning thee that [ am none of these; alas! sir, neither politician, historian, pliilosopher, physiologist, nor philologist, but a simple admirer of Nature in all her moods, an humble gleaner in the bypaths of history, and sometimes a desultory wanderer in the shady lanes of hoar antic^uity, whose ways are, as the poet sings, " nor rough, nor bar- ren," " but strewn with (lowers." And now, most gentle reader, that I have been thus honest with thee, and we fairly understand each other, how sayest thou? Wilt thou allow me to be thy guide through those wide-spread provinces of central Krance, which extend from tiic F^oire to the Dordognc? The Icrlilc* 'roiiiainc, the |mtiir('s(jiie Anjou, the storied La Vendee, liorileaux, the rich. liNTRODUCTlON. 9 Perigord, dear to the gourmand, the back- ward Limousin, the aristocratic Berri, with many an etcetera, shall all be ransacked in turn, and all yield us somewhat to admire or to reflect on, somewhat to interest our curi- osity or amuse our fancy. Ailons ! PARISIAN I'LKASU RE-PARTIES. CllAPTI^R H. lA-|>ailiire from Paris — Parisian Pleasure-Parties — French Rail- roails — Versailles — The Miisec Monstre — " Toutes les Gloires ile la France" — Princess Mary's " Maid of Orleans " — Journey to Rainboiiillet — St. Cyr — (.'hateaii tie Rainbouillet — Journey to Epernou — A " Coinniissionaire, coinnie il y en a pew" — I''j)ernon — A Night's Unrest — Maintenon — Tiie Chateau — Juurney to Chartres. At eight o'clock on as briglit a morning- as ever smiled on the white walls and grey roofs of Paris, I reached the railroad station among a crowd of hurrying, chatteriug passengers, bound, some for St. Germains, and some for Versailles. The latter was my destination, as it was that of by far the greater number of the crowd. For it was one of the days on which Louis i*liili|)pc's muacc monstre is oj)en to his ad- miring subjects; and the loveliness of the inuiiiiiig — one of the first really fine days of the sprirjg of 1810 — liad tempted numerous parties of pleasure-loving Parisians and siglit- seeing strangers to fix on this morning for their visit to Versailles. .TERMINUS OF THE RAILWAY. U We Versaillians were ali marshalled inti) the right-hand apartment of the two, which are prepared respectively to receive the tra- vellers proceeding- to the two destinations to which the railroad conducts. Here we had to wait half an hour, while our more fortunate neighbours in the next room were despatched to St. Germains. The minutes passed how- ever not without amusement amid the gabble which filled the room on all sides. A French- man is totally without that feeling, whatever it may be, which makes an Englishman dis- like speaking of his little domestic arrange- ments and household affairs before indifferent strangers. The various groups around me were many of them loudly discussing the dif- ficulties which they had had to surmount be- fore the desired trip to Versailles could be accomplished, or their various plans for pass- ing the day when there, including minute cal- culations of expense, and warmly debated comparisons of the economy or costliness of various descriptions of refreshment. At length, amid the still unabated clamour, a bell sounded, the doors of our prison were unbarred, and we all rushed pell-mell down the steps leading to the carriages. I clam- bered to one of the seats with which the roofs of some of the carriages are furnished : in I- PFiKNCH liAILKOAHS about five minutes, by dint of intense liiirrv- int>-, running", sereainini;*, pushing;, and swonr- ing', all had seated themselves in tiie car- riages, a i)ugle sounded, and ofl' we went at a vei'v staid and soijer pace. We |)err()rnuHl the distance, about thirteen miles, in forty minutes e.vaetly, a degree of speed whieii quite as mucli exceeds that of the conveyances it has superseded, as the rate of travelling on our railways exceeds that of our best coaches. i5ut it is very much to be doubted whether France is yet sufficiently advanced in com- mercial energy, in general w^ealth and pro- sperity, and, above all, in confidence and security, to enable her to undertake such gigantic enterprizes as those of our railway companies with safety or advantage. No French company has yet been able to com- plete its operations without aid from the go- vernment. The truth is, that " la grande nation" has falI'Mi into the mistake of that great Cornis'i i;iaiit. whose lameiital)le end has been recorded in the instructivcM-lironicle of .lack the (liant-Iviller, as a memorable warning against overweening ambit ion. X(nv this great giant, when he saw little .lack make away with an enormous and most enviable (piani ity of lia^l\ -pudding, and inHn(Mliat''ly VFJiSAILLKS. 13 afterwards disembarrass himself of the load without inconvenience, exclaimed, as the vera- cious legend informs us, "Odds boddikins! hur can do that hurself!" And the unfor- tunate monster, in attempting to follow accu- rately the example of his subtle-witted adver- sary, " ripped up his own bov^els." This is an instructive parable, which might be recommended to the notice of our neigh- bours with advantage as regards some other matters, as well as their two railroads, one on each side of the Seine. The terminus of the line at Versailles is about a mile from the chateau, and a number of conveyances of various descriptions were waiting to convey the passengers to the grand object of nearly all of them, 1 preferred, however, to walk ; and when I arrived at the palace, I found that I had an hour and a half to dispose of before the Musee would be open, which it never is till eleven o'clock. 1 first secured a place in, or rather on a huge vehicle, partaking of the nature of a diligence and an omnibus, which was to start for Rambouillet at one o'clock, and employed the rest of the time in a stroll among the stately alleys of the gardens, and the long, formal, half-deserted streets of noble man- sions, wiiich constitute this town, so vastly 1 1 MLSKt: MONSTIilv too large and too magnificent for its present fortunes. The melanclioly Jacques found " sermons in stones;" and truly those which form these palaces so utterly *' fallen, fallen, fallen from their great estate,'' might furnish forth a thousand homilies on the preacher's text — " Vanity of vanities! all is vanity!" Hut let us quit these sombre contempla- tions, and turn we to the renascent splendours of the mighty pile, regilded, revarnished, j)ainted over, and dedicated by a citizen-king to all the glories of his country : " A toutes LES GLOIRES DE LA FuANCE,'" aS tWO COUSpicUOUS inscriptions in huge bright lackered letters inform us, one on each wing of the building, in order that there may be no possible mis- take about the matter. "A TOUTES LES GLOIRES DE LA FrANCe!" YcS ! there is the balcony from which I..ouis XVI. addressed the mob from Paris ! there is the door before which the faithful Swiss was mur- dered ; and there the stair by which French- men, thirsting for blood, rushed into the chamber of a defenceless, unprotected woman, their cpieen ! "A TOUTES LES GLOIRKS DE LA FkANCE!" YcS ! There is Napoleon risifiii^ the plague-stricken at .laffa! And there is I.ouis Philippe laying TOUTES LES GLOIKES DE LA FRANCE. 15 his hand on his heart, and swearing to ob- serve and preserve " la Charte." I had barely time to walk through the end- less suites of interminable rooms, all filled with the pictured glories of France, and I should think a Frenchman must reel througli them perfectly intoxicated with such a dose of glory. I culled, however, a few other specimens of French glory, in addition to those above enumerated, in my hasty passage among them, such as portraits of Oliver Cromwell, Luther, Melancthon, Charles Y. of Germany, &c. Louis XV. was there doing honour to his country in no less than sixteen different portraits. It is gratifying, too, to observe that his countrymen consider all his mis- tresses as so many glories of France. If the external aspect of the town of Ver- sailles conveys a lesson on the vanity of hu- man ambition, the interior of the '* monstre musee" most certainly supplies a curious commentary on the quality and value of am- bition's reward. In truth, one quits this huge " triomphe de Vart,'' as some one shrewdly and maliciously calls it, fatigued with promenading through its miles of galleries, with eyes aching from travelling over acres upon acres of gaudy 16 PWINCKSS MAKIKS STATUE. colouring- — to exainino wliich, if they were wortli examination, would take a month at least — and with the mind and taste offended at the exceeding- ba(hicss of the immense ma- jority uf the pictures. My reflections, as I at length reached the exit of the last gallery, were analogous to those of the children, who say, " If all the ponds in the world were made into one large pond, what a great big pond that would he ! and if all the hills in the world were made into one large hill, what a very great big hill that would be !" There are, however, one or two articles, amid the heterogeneous assemblage, which have interest enough to deserve a particular mention, and which merit a better fate than to be lost amid the wilderness of lumber which surrounds them. The principal of these is the Princess JNIary's well-known statue of the Maid of Orleans. It stands in a long gallery filled with statues, some in marble and some in plaster, of personages of every description who figure in French history, and enjoys no distinction of any kind lo mark i( .-iniong the miscellaneous crowd around, except that which it deriv(^s from its own intrinsic excel- lence. But it is imj)()ssil)le that the most un- educated eye should pass it by without being GOOD PICTURES. 17 arrested by the admirably combined grace and dignity of the figure. Nothing can be more iiappily chosen than the attitude of the person, and the expression of the slightly bent and thoughtful features. An infinity of mai- denly modesty is blended with the high re- solve and unflinching firmness which spring evidently from no unwomanly boldness of natural character, but from a deep undoubt- ing faith in the reality of her mission, and a devout reliance on God for the power to carry it into execution. It is difficult not to believe that the ex- traordinarily-gifted princess, who could thus conceive the character of the " maid of France," and thus give existence to the beau ideal of her mind, could herself have been the heroine she has portrayed, had her lot been cast in those days of mighty impulses, of un- questioning, energetic faith, and heroic deeds. There are also two or three good historical pictures by Scha?ffer, and a few of Rigaud's portraits, scattered among the heterogenous hundreds witli which the upper rooms are filled, no sort of order being observed appa- rently in the arrangement of them, except such as was necessary to make them fit, so as not to leave a foot of wall uncovered. By the time it was one o'clock I was very VOL. I. c 18 ST. CYK. ready to mount to my place on the top of the clilii;encc to proceed to llambouillet. The distance is ten leagues, which we performed in the very short space of three hours, for the very small sum of one franc — both speed and cheapness being attributable to that most salutary imj^rovcr of all things, competition. The drive is not an interesting one, the country passed through being for the most part flat, and lying low. I observed two or three extensive pieces of water, which, from their stagnant appearance, and the general features of the country, seemed to enhance the dreary and marshy character of the scene, rather than relieve it by any beauty of their own. St. Cyr, with its college, built by the cele- brated Mansard in one year, by dint of em- ploying two thousand five hundred workmen, does not deserve, maugre the great names connected with it, more than a j)assing glance. Poor Madame do Maintenon ! She little thought that her cherished foundation for two hundred and fifty " demoiselles nobles " would so soon be changed into a scliool for officers of infantry ! She died there, and was buried in the choir of the church, hoj)ing doubtless to piolil by the prayers of succes- sive generations of her protegees — a service of RAMBOUlLLIiT. 19 gratitude which she will hardly receive from the present occupants of her premises. We arrived at Rambouillet at four o'clock, and I persuaded the driver and proprietor of a little " voiture commissionaire," which was about to start for Epernon, to defer his de- parture for half an hour, while 1 walked to the gloomy-looking old chateau, and round the miserable looking extent of barren sandy ground in front of it, which serves as a bar- rack-yard to some recently-built cavalry bar- racks, but which the Rambouillians tenaci- ously persist in terming '• Le Pare." The edifice, as it now exists, consists of two masses of dingy red brick building, so placed as to form a right angle. At the ex- tremity of one of them is a large, battle- mented, round, stone tower, of apparently much older construction. The whole appear- ance of the place, with its entourage of dreary, sandy park, is a perfect picture of gloom and cheerless ugliness, and suits well with the me- lancholy nature of the reminiscences attached to the spot. It was from Rambouillet that the young Napoleon departed for Austria, when quitting for ever the country of his af- fections and his hopes. It was within the gloomy walls of this same old chateau that the unfortunate Charles IX. and his son c2 20 I'AKAGUN 1)1' A COMMISSIONAIRE. sigiunl the act of their abdication in IH.iO ; ami IVoni iiencc that they cleparteci, witli tiic young Henry, on tlieir meianclioly way to Cherbourg. The town contains notiiing which can in any way interest a traveller ; and the chateau is by no means worth stojiping for, unless to him who can find an interest in gazing on walls wiiich have been so sadly tenanted. Beyond Rambouillet the country improves in character. It is less fiat, and better cul- tivated, with a much larger proportion of arable land. The commissioner, in whose voituie I was journeying, seemed to be a most invaluable man in the country. Manifold were his duties, and most punctually executed they seemed to be. it appeared to be quite as much his vocation to carry news as more solid articles. Messages were delivered and inquiries made, relative to all sorts of domestic matters, at various roadside dwellings. Sometimes com- missions were intrusted to hini, which seemed to requiic no little delicacy and discretion. One old woman, for instnnce, ran out of her house as he passed, bawling (o him to biing her some ijxM-acuanha from Kpcrnon. " well! I low tiiucli then?" bawled this inc()n»parnblc Mcrcur) . NEIGHISOURHOOD OF PAHIS. 21 *' Oh, enoug^h for one dose," was the reply. "What! for yourself?" rejoined the mes- senger. " Non ! Grace a Dieu ! pour ma fiUe." " Bon ? Mais il faut le savoir ; parce que, voyez vous, c'est different." It was nearly dark by the time we arrived at Epernon, for my phoenix of a " commis- sionaire" had the road all to himself, and con- sequently did not think it necessary to hurry either himself or his horse, but stopped to drink a "coup de vin " here, and to gossip awhile with the goodwife there, with an utter disregard whether we arrived an hour or two sooner or later. Epernon is a town of more than fifteen hundred inhabitants, and is only fourteen leagues from Paris ; and yet it was with diffi- culty that I found a bed and supper at all, and when found, they were very little better than some of the worst cabarets in the most secluded parts of Britanny had afforded me. One of the peculiarities of Paris, which forcibly strikes an Englishman, accustomed to see and feel the influence of London for a distance of thirty or forty miles all round it, is the very trifling degree in which it radiates the vital warmth of which it is the depository, or vivifies the surrounding districts. Once 22 Kl'KHNON. beyond the litlle suburhaii villages, whose cafes aFid guinguettes are thronged with holi- day-making Parisians, and all signs of the near neighbourhood of Paris disappear. I did at length persuade the barefooted landlady of the best-looking cabaret I could find, to put a pair of clean sheets on a mise- rable straw mattras^s, and to make me an omelet to eat with the sandy bread, which was the best the j^lace afTorded. But she did it sulkily and unwillingly, and seemed by no means anxious for my custom. I secured my place overnight in a little un- pretending sort of omnibus, which was to leave Kpernon for Chartres at six in the morning. Hut, as it was light by five, and as my bed held out no temptations to remain in it at all longer than was absolutely necessary, I was up and dressed by that time, and set forth to employ the hour which I thus won in a survey of the little town. Rpernon gained its present name from the odious minion of Henry III., in whose favour it was erected into a dukedom by that most contemptible monarch. It is picturesquely placed on the side of a steep hill, which it covers with a mass of irregular buildings thrown together in uKcr defiance of any thing like order, and wliicli. ini\<'d as they VIEW OF CHARTRES CATHEDRAL. 23 are with sundry scattered morsels of ruins of the former feudal constructions of the place — walls, gateways, turrets, &,c. — might afford materials for a sketch or two. The town, when walled, must have been exceed- ingly small and closely packed ; as all the part which now lies at the bottom of the hill, and forms along the highroad one long, straggling street, constituting the best part of the town, is of modern date. The top of the hill rises considerably above the town, and that so immediately over it, that, even before the use of gunpowder, it must have afforded very considerable advan- tages to a besieging party, and much lessened the value of the place as a fortress. The limestone rock, of which the hill consists, pierces the thin coat of sod which covers it, in several parts near the top, and some small quarries were worked there. From the top of this hill 1 distinguished very plainly the two spires of Chartres cathe- dral, rising sharp and well defined in outline in the clear horizon, at the distance of eighteen miles. Towards them I now set forwards, after having in vain attempted to obtain at this most inhospitable of towns a cup of milk to stand in the place of breakfast till I should 21 MAINTKNON. arrive at ClKirtros, wliicli was not to be till ten o'clock. At two leagues from Epernon we passed JMaintenon. whicli gave its name to Francoise d'Aiibigne, when that remarkal)lc woman, *' devenue incognito reine de France," as a French writer has it, received from her royal lover the title of '* marquise," together with the estate and lordship of Maintenon. We had to await here the arrival of the voiture from Nogent-le-roi ; and this afforded mo time to run down to the chateau, which stands at the farther end of the town. Tt now belongs to the Due de Broglie, and looks like a fine picturesque old country house. The buildings form three sides of a square, the open side being turned towards the gar- den, which is well laid out a I'Anglaise. Across the valley, at the bottom of the gar- den, and forming a most picturesque orna- ment to the grounds, run the ruins of that colossal aqueduct undertaken by Louis XIV. to bring the waters of the Eure to Versailles. Nature, however, in this instance, beat the Grand IMonarque, though he beat her at Ver- sailles ; and the work was oblicfed to be aban- doned. alter having cost sevcial millions of francs and many lives. The cnoin.ous |)illars. however, which wci'c to hav(^ supported the ARRIVAL AT CHARTRES. 25 river in its passage from hill to hill, still re- main like the giant side of some mighty ruined nave, and are likely so to do for many a gene- ration yet to come, monuments at the same time of the monarch's failure, and of the au- dacious boldness of the attempt. Many a piquant anecdote of court scandal, and many a history of state intrigue, are connected with the chambers of this fine old house ; but, as I returned to the voiture from my flying visit, to pursue my breakfastless way to Chartres, I confess that the associ- ation of ideas, so apt to connect themselves in our minds with names of historic interest, suggested nought to my fasting thoughts but peculiarly vivid visions of JMaintenon cutlets. It was half past ten o'clock when we reached Chartres. I hasten to relieve the reader's sympathy by assuring him that I fell in with a company on the point of sitting down to a good " table d'hote ;" and this satisfactorily understood, we will allow Chartres a chapter to itself. -<> CHARTKliS CATHIiDKAJ.. CHAPTER Hi. (.'Iiarlres — Tlu' Cuthfclnil — l'"xterior — The West Front — l-larly His- tory of tlie Cluirch — Druids at Cliarti es — Druidical Temple there — Sinj^ular Tradition — Consideration of its Possible Fonndation in Truth — First Destruc-tion of the Cathedral by Fire — Nature of the Second Buildinjr — Second Destruction by Fire — Third — The Rebuilding; a Scene from the Life of the Middle Ages — Con- struction of the New Steeple — Curious Inscription — Fire in the Cathedral in 1836— The New Roof— The Interior of the Church — Painted Windows — Different Periods of the Art of Painting on Glass — Rose Windows — Walk on the Banks of the Eure — View of the City — A Twilight Hour in the Cathedral. The cathedral of Chartres, whicli has al- ways had the reputation of being- one of the finest in France, was the principal attraction which had induced me to quit Paris by the route described in the last chapter, instead of reaching the Loire at Orleans, its nearest j)oint to the capital, by the direct road to that city. I lost no time, therefore, before visiting it, as soon as the still more pressing necessity for i)rcakfast had i)e(Mi satisfied. The |)osition of the chinch, on Mie highest CHARTRES CATHEDRAL. 27 point of the isolated eminence on which the town is l)uilt, is superb; and the two noble spires, though labouring, alas ! under that almost universal and most important defect, want of uniformity, are imposing* and ma- jestic. Yet 1 cannot but own that my first feeling on lifting up my eyes to the mighty mass as I stood before the west front was one of disappointment. Our truant imagination will thus always outstrip realities and throw real beauties into the shade, by the abuse of its own boundless powers of creation ! A more deliberate and minute survey in a great measure corrected this first impression, and discovered numerous striking, and some peculiar beauties. Nevertheless, I am still inclined to think that Chartres cathedral is more to be admired for detached details of great beauty, and some of architectural curi- osity, than as a perfect whole. The west front is, in comparison with the other parts of the church, singularly simple and unornamented, with the exception of the rich work around the porches of the three great doors, which evidently dates from a later period. The rest of the west front, with the " clo- cher vieux," as the shorter and plainer of the 2s oil) li.^'roi.iA.NS. two steeples is ternuHl, is of a date as early as the tuelftli eentiiry, havin*;- been completed ill I 1 13. The principal part of the buikling-, iiKleed, dates IVoiii the same epoch. The history of its construction at that pe- riod afFords us one of those graphic jieeps into the mode of life and ways of thinking- and acting of those days, which are only to be obtained here and there from records written by their authors, and jireserved by their successors for far other purposes. 'I'he idea of leaving on record, for the bene- fit of their descendants, a picture of manners, w ritten as such, was for the vanity of a later and less actively occupied age. But the building, preservation, and fortunes of their churches, were naturally the facts considered most interesting and most worthy of being handed down to jiosterity by the ecclesiastical historians of the middle ages; and Chartres is peculiarly rich in curious do- cuments of this description. 'i'he origin of the cliurch is sought l)v its historians amid the darkness of a period long antecedent to the first certain lights of history. It might bethought, perhaps, by the simple- minded reader, that the antiquity of a CMiris- ti.iii chiirch must at least be bounded h\ the advent of oiii' Saviour, and the origir) of DHL' IDS AT CHAKTRES. 29 Christianity. But the Chartres antiquarians have not been satisfied with any such re- stricted period for their researches. It is well known that the whole of the " pays Chartrain " was one of the strongholds of Druidism. The forest, which once covered the wide-spreading corn-fields of " La Beauce," as this district was called at a later period, was one of their most sacred haunts. A col- lege of Druid priests, supposed with good grounds to have been the seat of the supreme authority for all Gaul, dwelt and worshipped on the hill on which Chartres now stands. And though circumstances have not been so favourable to their preservation here as in the secluded wilds of Britanny, yet numerous monuments of their worship and traces of their sojourn may be found scattered through- out the whole of the ancient country of the Carnutes, the pays Chartrain of the middle ages. There is no reason for doubting the ancient tradition, which points to the site of the pre- sent cathedral as the spot where the principal Druid temple existed. I have mentioned in my volumes on Britanny several curious in- stances in which the new religion had availed itself of the superstitious reverence felt by its new ccmverts for the spots consecrated by 'M ANCIKNT TH ADIl'ION. the old faith. Tlie choice of such a locahty, moreover, as that in question, would be con- sonant to the habits and ideas of the wor- shippers of either iaith. " Les premiers aiitels," says an erudite French writer on the subject, " les premi- ers temples, furent g-6neralement (5rig6s sur des hauteurs. Dans les sieclcs d'ij^norance, I'homme, considerant les sommets des nion- tagnes comme des points intermddiaires entre la terre et le ciel, crut, en^s'elevant, s'approcher de la Divinite ; et, par une consequence natu- relle, de simples eminences furent, dans des pays peu montueux, les lieux de pr(!)di lection pour r6rection des monuments relis^^ieux." And no one at all conversant with Christian antiquity need be reminded how favourite a spot for the erection of their churches were the summits of eminences among- the early Christians. When, therefore, the Chartrain historians inform us that the cavern destined to the celebration of Druid rites was comprised in the plan of the foundations of tiie present church, there is little reason to d()ui)t the fact. Hut it is more startling to find a uni- form and constant tradition, which asserts that, in this cavern, or " grotte," was an altar, on which, long before the biilh of our DRUIDICAL STATUE TO THE VIRGIN. 31 Saviour, was a figure of a female, with the inscription, Virgini Paritur^. Of course the inscription thus written could have dated only from the invasion of Gaul by the Romans. But the old historians probably give it only as a translation of the Celtic inscription to the same purpose. This ancient tradition, preserved, attested, and accredited, after the fashion of their day, by a host of old chroniclers, became the sub- ject of sundry learned discussions and dubi- tations in the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- turies, after the fashion of their day. Those who are curious in such matters may consult an old octavo volume of 1088 pages, printed at Paris in the year 1609, and intituled " Parthenie, or Histoire de la tres avguste et tres devote Eglise de Chartres ; dedi^e par les vieux Drvides, en I'honneur de la Yierge qui enfanteroit, par M'' Sebastien Rovlliard de Melvn, aduocat en Parlement." The lawyer is a believer ; but the tradition will doubtless be summarily disposed of as a monkish imposture by us wise folks of the nineteenth century, after the fashion of our day. And yet it might possibly deserve some little attention, before it is altogether rejected as worthless and unprofitable. If a well-attested and uniform tradition had •■»- Dh'i iDK Ai. sr.\riK h) thk virgin. (Icclarccl tluit siicli an altar with such an in- scription had existed in the wilderness of .ludea, or on the banks ol the Jordan, should we instantly declare it incredible? Would it not, on the contrary, have appeared a not im- probable consequence of" the sini;ularly strik- iui^' prophecy of Isaiah ? And 1 confess that J cannot see any impossibility, or even any high degree of improbability, in the supposi- tion that the same prophecy may have found its way, at a very early period, to the Druids ofChartres. We know how intimate a cor- respondence was maintained between the con- tinental Druids and those of iiritain. We know C'ornwall tohave been one of their espe- cial haunts; and indeed the entire character and features of that peninsula are jieculiarly adapted to their wants and habits. And, lastly, we know that the Phenicians traded to Cornwall for tin, and might well have conveyed some facts and ideas of Eastern origin to these mystery-loving priests of the West. However this may be, Chartres has always considered itself as peculiarly under the pro- tection of the Virgin, and bound to honour her with pecidiar worsiiip. The first church which existed in this part of (iaul was dedi- cated (() hei- in this cifs ai)()ul the end ol" the third centuiy- 'I'his building shared (he fate of a great nninbci- — probably the majority — CHUKCH BUILDING. SS of the religious edifices of that period. It was burnt by the Normans in the year 858. This was its first burning. It was rebuilt in the manner most in use in the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries : that is, a number of large trunks of trees, split lengthways down the middle, were fixed up- right in the earth, at equal and very small distances from each other. The rough sides, with the bark on, were turned outwards, and the flat surface presented by the section in- wards. Two rows of these rude pillars thus arranged were placed opposite to each other. The interstices between them were filled with earth ; and a roof of thatch, thrown across from one of the walls thus formed to the other, completed the rustic nave of those primitive cathedrals, which served as centres, whence, strong in simple faith, went forth the spirit which was to humanize and civilize the nation. This second cathedral was a second time burnt down in the year 962, in the wars be- tween Thibaud-le-7VfcAez/r, count of Chartres, and Richard, duke of Normandy. Does the reader, par parenthese, remember a ballad in Bishop Percy's collection — one of the oldest there — beginning — " Richard! Richard! Thou wast always Irichard, Trichen shalt thou never more !" VOL. I. D 34 I'.isHoi' I'l i,HKirr. Robert-lo-Tricheur, then, who was a noted knight of that period, and is never spoken of by any otiier name, coukl not prevent the justice of his contemporaries from lianding; him down to all posterity as a knave. Whether it was to any trcacherij of his that Chartres owed the second demolition of its cathedral, does not appear. It seems, how- ever, to have been once more rebuilt, for we find that it was a third time destroyed by fire on the eve of the Nativity of the Yiigin, the seventh of September, in the year 1020. This misfortune was supposed to have been occa- sioned by lightning. And from this j)eriod dates the commencement of the building, which is still one of the most admired churches in Europe. It is of this rebuilding that we have so graphic and picturesque an account, extracted from various sources by M. Gilbert, one of the historians of the cathedral. Fulbert, a prelate of great reputation throughout Europe, and a prodigy of learning and sanctity, at that time heki the see of Chartres. He IkkI studied under the cele- brated Gerbert of Aurillac, who afterwards became pope under the title of Sylvester II., and whose great learning caused him to be deemed a profound proficient in the black art. BUILDING OF CHARTRES CAT[IEDRAL. 35 Fulbert had interest with most of the princes of his day, and he exerted it to the utmost to obtain assistance for the restoration of his cathedral on a scale of magnificence before unattempted. The kings of France, England, and Den- mark, Eudes, count of Chartres, Richard, duke of Normandy, and William, duke of Aquitaine, all gave large sums towards the building. Animated by these examples, and by the exhortations of their bishop, the whole body of artizans of every description in the town gave up their whole time and labour to the good work ; and those who had no skill to bring brought at least the labour of their hands, and dragged stones from the quarry, and timber from the forest, or brought food for the workmen. Large bodies of men from Rouen, and the other cities of Normandy, sought the benediction of their bishops, and, departing as on a crusade, flocked to Chartres to assist in the pious labours. Each troop of pilgrims chose themselves a chief, under whose directions they laboured at whatever was most urgent to be done. So great was the excite- ment of energy and zeal throughout the country, that men of all classes and profes- sions might be found among the labourers, d2 36 PIMJKIM WOHKMKN. performing the most servile and laborious tasks. It was impossible for so large a concourse to be accommodated in the houses of the town, more especially as a great part of it had pe- rished in tlie same fire which destroyed the church. The whole body of workmen re- mained, therefore, day and night around the walls of the rising cathedral ; and when they gathered round their fires at nightfall to par- take of their evening meal, and rest their limbs to prepare for the morrow's toil, they would sing together before they slept a hymn, whose swelling chorus might be heard far away by the lone habitants of the few huts which were scattered at wide distances over the forest, which then surrounded the hill on which the town is built. So delighted vvas the good Archbishop of Rouen, who went to Chartres to see how they were getting on, and so carried away with enthusiasm at the edifying sight, that he de- clares, and doubtless believed, that all those who had left his city sick returned from their pious labours perfectly recovered. Thus was accomplished the noble building, which has for seven hundred years formed the principal ornament and pride of the pays Chartrain. It must not be supposed, how- STEEPLE BURNT DOWN. 37 ever, that the good Fulbert lived to see the completion of it. He died on the tenth of April, in the year 1029, eight years after the commencement of the building. A little before his death he wrote to William, duke of Aquitaine, that, " by the grace and as- sistance of God, he had already completed the crypts of his church. " It was not finished till about the middle of the twelfth century. The church of Chartres would seem to be destined to perish by the flames, for twice since the above-mentioned period the building has been on fire. On the sixth of July, in the year 1506, the lightning struck the northern spire, which was then only of wood, covered with lead, and entirely consumed it, melting six bells which were in it. It was rebuilt of stone, in its pre- sent beautiful proportions, by the contribu- tions of the faithful. Louis XII. gave two thousand livres, a sum equal to about seven or eight thousand francs of the present day. Jean Texier, inhabitant of Chartres, was the architect. He received six or seven sous a day, and his workmen five, and he completed the spire in seven years, beginning in 1507, and finishing it in 1514. In the new steeple is a large white stone, bearing, in gothic let- 38 HKCKNl BUKiNLNCi OK ter, the rollouiuf;- inscription. The steeple speaks. " Jo fiis j.idis lie ploiiib ct bois const rnict, Graiul, hanU.et bi'au.ot ile soniptiicux onvraf^e, Jusqiies a ce que tonnerre et orugc M'lia consomme devaste et detruict. " Lo jour (le saiiict Anne, vers six lieures de nuict Kn I'an compte mille cinq cans et six Je fus l)rusle, demoli et recuit, Et avec moi de £;rosses cIocbv"S six. Apres Messieurs en ploin Cliapitre assis Ont ordoniie de pierre ine refaire, A grand vouUe, et pilliers bien massifs. Par Jehan de Beaulse, ouvrier qui le sceut faire." Some other lines follow, which are less to the purpose. This fourth fire was not the last from which this unlucky fabric was fated to suircr. On the evening- of the fourtli of June, 183G, the cathedral was once more on fire. The acci- dent originated, as so many others of the same description have, in the carelessness of workmen employed in repairs of the roof. I talked to several persons wlio were pre- sent on that memorable night, and received several accounts, all substantially the same, of the confiagration. JJut 1 despair of being able to convey to the reader's mind the same vivid idea of the tremendous scene, and of the emotions which agitated the city, which the n.arrative of these eye-witnesses, aided as it wns by the |)resence of all the localities re- Icrred to, imparted to me. THE CATHEDRAL. 39 It was about six o'clock in the evening that it was known throughout the town that the cathedral was on fire. The consternation was extreme. All rushed towards the church, and the inhabitants of the neighbouring streets added to the indescribable confusion by has- tening to empt their houses of every thing moveable, and carry it to places of safety. It very soon became evident that there was no hope of saving any portion of the enormous roof. The immense framework which sup- ported the lead was entirely of chestnut, and was popularly termed in the town " the fo- rest," from the vast quantity of wood it con- tained. Nothing could be conceived more adapted for burning than this vast forest of huge dry beams ; and the intensity of the fire was terrific. At eight o'clock the smoke was seen to issue from the northern spire. It was impossible to do any thing to check the flames here. The vast height, and the difficulty, or rather impossibility, of approaching the building, vomiting forth flames of the greatest inten- sity in every direction, reduced the unhappy Chartrains to look on in helpless despair at the threatened destruction of this highly- prized and much-vaunted ornament of their town. 40 THK I'lHi': IN rm: sii.i:i'i,k liv this lime the entire population of the neiLvhbonrinr;- coinnmnes had arrived, and if huni.iii power or lal)our eoiild liave availed aught, the eathedral would not have been de- stroyed lor want of bold efforts or ready hands. For the eountry jieojilc around are extremely attached to the venerable fabric which connects itself with all their earliest and dearest recollections. Thousands of anxious eyes and beating hearts, therefore, were now gazing; on a spec- tacle, which, to an indifferent spectator, if such there could be, would have been one of the grandest and most splendid which can be conceived. The whole of the wooden framework in the interior of the spire had become ignited. The roaring of the fire amid its abundant aliment, excited to the utmost fury by the |)owerful thorough draft which rushed in upon it from every aperture and window of the fabric, was awfully audible over the whole town. Presently the flames burst forth from every outlet, and the entire S|)ire was a colossal pyramid of light. The delicate stonework of its lac(»-like ornaments became suddenly illuminated, so as to be visible in their mi- nutest details, with a sort of unnatural dis- tinctness, which the broadcast light of day APPREHf-NSIONS FOR THI- J'OWN. 1 1 would fail to produce. Far and wide over the town and along' the valley of" the P^ure flashed that baleful light, peering into every remotest corner of the affrighted town, flash- ing on every roof, playing as in ferocious sport and mockery upon every window, and shewing painfully distinct to every man his neighbour's face, haggard with dismay and apprehension. And the stronger sentiment of self began now to turn men's thoughts from the public misfortune to fears each for his own house and home. For great apprehensions were enter- tained that the vast edifice of the spire would itself yield to the intense action of the fire, and spread ruin far and wide in his fall. The whole of the thickly populated quarter of the lower part of the town, too, was considered to be in imminent danger. For a strong wind blew the flames and burning fragments in that di- rection, and it seemed almost a miracle that it escaped. Yet what could be done ? Nothinp- ! The spectators were denied even the consolation of activity — of striving to avert the calamity, and were forced to await the result in silence, broken only by those inarticulate sounds which indicate the vacillating emotions of a vast multitude, as each alternation of hope and fear predominates. ■i2 i.K ('i.ociii i{ \ ii:rx. For a loiio- lime the hells were seen lia!ii;ing' red hoi amidst the burning- beams, as the im- mense limbers w hich supported them yielded but slowK even lo the {bre(* of the raging ele- ment whieh was preying upon them. At length, iiowever, with an awful crash they fell to the bottom of the spire, bearing down be- fore them the whole mass of half consumed blazing timbers below them. From that time the fire was confined to the bottom of the steeple ; and it is probable that to this cause the ultimate safety of the spire was due. Scarcely, however, had the fears of the town for the safety of this spire abated, before the other, the southern, or " vieuv clocher," was discovered to be on fire. It was expected that this would surely fall, for an erroneous notion had long been prevalent in the town that it was in an infirm state. The venerable stones, however, so cunningly put together by the old architects of the twelfth century, stood the fierce test as bravely as the more recent workmanship of " Maitre Jehan Texier de Heaulse" had done. And when the ponderous woodwork of the frame was at length con- sumed, the fire died away, and left the stone pyramid victorious. ( )n(' phciioniciion. howcNcr, took plarcdiiring REMARKABLE PHENOMENON. 43 the burning of tliis steeple, of which the effect must have far surpassed that of the finest firework ever invented. Unlike the other, this spire consists almost entirely of a simple cone, without any windows or apertures whatso- ever, except a small one at the top. When the fire, therefore, was raging- in the interior of this cone, being blown up to great intensity by a stream of air, like that in a blast furnace, rushing in at the bottom and passing out at the small aperture at the top, the concen- trated flame, finding no other vent, passed through this, and shot upwards to the sky in one unbroken fiery column, to the immense height of seventy-five feet. For many and many leagues around that portentous light must have been seen with astonishment by those who were too distant then to have as- certained the cause of it. The old steeple was the last part of the edifice in which the fire raged. It was to- wards morning when all fears for the safety of the stonework ceased ; and thus ended a night, which will be remembered and talked of in Chartres long after the generation which witnessed it has passed away. The repairs were all but finished when I visited it. The new framework of the roof is entirely of iron, and is well worth seeing, •M IMIiaoKOl I hi; CAIHKDI^AL. as an ai^inirable and colossal clief d'anivre of united strciii;th and lightness. The frame is entirely covered with plates of copper, and the total expense of this new roof must have been immense. I was more struck with the first coup d'oeil of the interior of Chartrcs cathedral, than 1 had been with the exterior. It has, I grieve to sav, the distressing drawback of a most hideous colour, every inch of wall, pillar, and arch, from the pavement to the vault, having been most sedulously washed with yellow ochre ! The proportions, however, are line, and the display of painted windows superb. These are, in point of fact, the grand feature of the cathedra], which in this respect must, I think, take rank heloi'c any other church I have ever seen. The much-vaunted windows of Jiouen are i)ossibly superior as specimens of the art, but they arc so mucii fewer in number that the general effect is not to be compared w ith that pioduccd at Chartrcs. I counted a hundred and thirty perfect windows of the richest colours and designs, besides a great numi)er in which |)arts ha\e been supplie(l w ith connnon glass. 'I'he.se are almost all of the eailv period of the art, paintcfl piohahl}' in the course of (he ihii- PAINTKI) GLASS. 45 teenth century. The subjects of the greatest part of them are portraits of the benefactors who contributed towards the re-edification of the cliurch. But as these were not only princes and great men, but whole classes of trades and professions, as has been related, so among* the portraitures of kings in their robes, and belted knights, and noble dames, will be found a variety of designs emblematical of the vari- ous crafts who assisted in the work, either by contribution or by manual labour. However barbarous it may appear to some, I must confess that I prefer the paitited glass of this early date to the improved drawing to be found in those of the second period of the art. It is true that the deep unshaded co- lours, the small figures which appear subor- dinate and of secondary importance to the forms of the pattern, and the absence of all apparent pretension of resemblance to the various objects represented, render the whole window more like a rich carpet than a pic- ture. Granted ! But who looks for an ef- fective picture in a painted window ? The large figures, the improvement in the arts of design and pictorial composition in the works of the •' maitres verriers" of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, do not compensate to my eye for the poverty of effect occasioned by 46 WALK ON TlIK V.UHE. their more transparent colouring-, and large s])accs of background, or white drapery, either uncoloured or coloured grey. What I love in tlie productions of these forgotten artists of a lost craft, is the gorgeous richness of the tout ensemble, the mellow-coloured light, repro- ducing the quaint design in fiiinter tints and fickle [)layfulness on pavement, wall, and pil- lar, and the perfect exclusion of even a sun- beam from the work-a-day world without, until it has been clothed in the grotesquely gay livery of the middle age, and compelled to assume a gothic air, in accordance with the character of the place. Chartres possesses three ver}^ fine and splen- didly-coloured rose windows, one at the west end of the nave, and one at the extremity ol" either transept, whicli add not a little to the splendour of the general effect. 1 could have fancied, as [ looked from one to another of them, that they were the mimic illusions of some gigantic kaleidescope. Chartres has little to shew of interest ex- cept its cathedral. 1 took a walk in the even- ing along the bank of the Eurc, which bathes the foot of the hill on the eastern side of the town. This seems to be the favourite walk of the Chartrains, and it is the side from which the town appears to most advantage. There INTERIOR OF TIJF^: TOWN. 47 are some remains of ancient walls, one fine old gate, called the " Porte Guilliaume," two or three bridges over the sluggish little river, and as many steeples of old churches emerg- ing here and there from the mass of irregular roofs which cover the hill-side. Each of these are in themselves to a certain degree picturesque, and I looked about to see if a spot could be found from which, with the towering spires of the cathedral for the prin- cipal object, a sketch might be made of them. But they would not group together at all kindly. So, passing through the " Porte Guilliaume," I found my way up the hill, which is exceedingly steep on this side, through a labyrinth of twisting turning lanes, which must be inaccessible to any thing but a very sure-footed pedestrian, and, returning to the cathedral, went and sat me down on a bench under the wall at the west end of the nave. Somebody was playing on the organ — a pupil of the organist's, I believe — whose tyro strains were quite sufficient at that time and place to charm my uncritical ears. So I sat listening to him, and looking at the rays of the setting sun pouring in many coloured streams through the windows of the choir, and thinking of William of Deloraine's visit 48 NUJirri'Ai.L in iiie c Ariii;ui(AL. to Micliaol Scott's tomb, and considering how much thinf;-s had chanocd outside tliose walls, and how little inside them since the dark be- nighted days when an excited populace had raised them, till twilight had passed into darkness. A silence as profound as that of the grave had succeeded to the roll of the organ, and still I mused on, till the bang of a distant door, echoing like thunder along the em|)ty aisles, as the sexton went his rounds to shut u|) ibr the night, startled me into the timely reflection that the stone bench 1 was sitting on would make but a cold and hard bed, and that it was high time to go home to my inn " to bed — perchance to" supper. ADVANTAG K OF ASCENDING TOWERS. 49 CHAPTER IV. The Advantages of Ascending High Towers — Prospect over La Beauce — Corn Market at Chartres — Female Corporation — Mode of Transacting Business at Chartres — Church of St. Aignan — Church of St. Pierre — Journey to Orleans — Vineyards of the Orleanais — Their Produce — The Story of Jacques Boulay, a warn- ing to Authors — First View of the Loire — The Bridge — The Old Bridge — A Legend of its History — Epigram on the Opening of the New Bridge — Orleans from the other side of the River. My usual practice on finding myself in any town for the first time is to betake myself forthwith to the top of the highest tower it can boast, and I can conscientiously recom- mend all travellers to follow herein my ex- ample. It is a compendious and pleasing mode of studying geography ; it gives you an opportunity of having a little instructive conversation with the sexton, who is in nine cases out of ten, according to my experience, the best informed man of his class in the place; and lastly, if the expedition is under- taken, as it ought to be, before breakfast, it furnishes you with an adequate appetite for that morning meal. VOL. 1. E 50 \ IKW KliOM 1 111". TOr OV THK TUWK.U. In the j)resent instance, however, I was so wliollv occupied with examining and admiring tlie building, that 1 neglected to climb to the top of it till the second morning of my stay at Chartres. And I must confess that if I wished to impress on a tyro the utility of the practice I have been recommending, I would not take him to the top of Chartres tower to begin with ; for a more monotonous and un- interesting prospect I never saw. And yet it enabled me to form a much more accurate notion of the character of the " pays Chartrain " than I could have obtained in any other manner. Large open cornfields, mixed with a very small |:)roportion of pasture or meadow land, stretch away to the distant horizon in every direction. One or two small bits of forest may be distinguished in the ex- treme distance, and a few villages in some degree break the monotony of the extensive panorama. Wheat is the staple produce of " La Beaucc," and its productive plains are the principal granary of the caj)ital. iicnce it arises that the Boauceron is usually better off in the world than the gcnoralitv of l^'rcnch peasants. 'riiere is a corn-market every Saturday at Chartres, tlu^ niosl inijxirtant in h'laiic*-, with FEMALE CORPORATION. 51 the exception of Paris. It is worth visiting for the sake of seeing the operations of the women, to whom the entire duty of measuring the corn, delivering it to the buyers, receiving the price, and paying it over to the sellers, is confided. These women are more expressively than elegantly termed " leveuses de culs-de- poche ;" poche signifying in the dialect of La Beauce the sack in which the grain is brought to market. These women form an organized corporation, which has existed for several centuries. They enjoy a reputation for the strictest integrity, which is indeed sufficiently attested by the fact that the whole transac- tions of the market, as above stated, are en- trusted to them. Nor are they under any surveillance whatsoever. The buyer and sel- ler alike put implicit confidence in them. The latter, when he has pitched his corn, leaves it entirely in their hands, goes about his busi- ness or pleasure in the town, and returns in the evening to receive the amount of the sale, without making any inquiries or taking any farther trouble about it. The amount of con- fidence placed in the honesty of these women, and the importance of the charge confided to them, may be estimated from the fact that ten thousand quintals of corn is by no means an unusual quantity to change hands in one e2 52 I'Aiasii c;iii:uLHi':s. market-day at Chartrcs, the wliolc of which is invariably disposed of for ready money, paid on tlie spot. I spent the rest of the day in lounging about the town and its environs, and visiting- two ()!• three parish churches. That of St. Aignan lias several painted windows, belong- ing to the second period of the art, in good preservation. Another, dedicated to St. Pe- ter, is still richer in them. This church formei'ly belonged to a numastery much pa- tronized by many of the earlier bishops of Chartrcs. There are several mural tablets commemorating the fact of sundry of them having been buried here, but their monu- ments have perished. Robert, Archbishop of Rouen, son of Richard 1., Duke of Nor- mandy, also lies here. The circular end of the choir in this church has six very richly painted lancet windows, and several others of a more recent period in different j)arts of the building. I left Chartrcs the next morning for Orleans, which I reached after about ten hours ol' very uninteresting travelling. We passed the little village of Jicrchcres, from whose calcareous (juarries was drawn the peculiarly hard stone with which the cathedral is built, and which still supply the wants of the town. Journey- .lOl'RNFY TO OHl.KANS. 53 \ng hence through the rich corn-lands of La Beauce, we reached the limit of the depart- ment, having accomplished about two-thirds of the distance between the two capitals. Entering the department of Loiret, we tra- versed in a direction due south a country of very similar description to that of the Eure et Loire. On entering the Orleanais, the corn begins to give place to the vine. The depart- ment produces nearly equal quantities of corn and wine ; the principal parts of the former coming from the districts bordering on the Eure et Loire, the Seine et Oise, and the Seine et Marne. Along the banks of the Loire, wine is the staple produce. Orleans, Beaugency, and Blois, alone produce on the average annually about two hundred thousand pieces of wine. The average value of this produce is thirty francs the piece, on the spot; at Paris it is worth about fifty-five. The piece differs some- what in different parts of the country. That of Orleans is the largest used, and contains about three hundred and twenty bottles. That of Bordeaux holds three hundred. About half this annual produce of wine is consumed as such. Tt is rarely bottled, but is sold from the tap in the cabarets and wine houses of Paris. The other half is made 54 JACgUKS BOULAY. into vinco^ar or brandy. The most esteemed growths of the environs are those of St. Jean dc J^rayo, St. Denis en Val, and St. Jean dc la Rucile. The best account of the vineyards of this part of France, and of the modes of culture adopted in them, may be found in a volume entitled " Le \'igneron Francais," printed at Orleans in 1723. It was written by Jacques Boulay, canon of St. Pierre en Pont, and con- tains, among- other matters, so faithful an ac- count of the frauds and adulterations prac- tised by the growers and sellers, that tradition says he was one fine morning found hung up in the midst of his own vineyard, as an ex- ample to all men of the consequences of tell- ing tales out of school. Immediately on reaching Orleans, after se- curing a bed at the hotel de France in the Place du Martroy, I hastened down to the river, and was a good deal disappointed with the first sight of it. The Loire unquestionably cannot be called a fine river at Orleans. Its broad, shallow stream is divided by large islands of sands, which entirely destroy the appearance of il. I'glv in themselves, they prevent the mass of water which finds its way among them from producing the effect of a mighty stream, by breaking the unity of it, THE BRIDGE OE ORLEANS. 55 and presenting- to the eye two or three mes- quin, low-banked streamlets, instead of one large river. The bridge is a fine one of nine arches. It is three hundred and fifty paces long, and thirteen broad. It succeeded to a very ancient construction of nineteen arches, which some of the provincial antiquarians insist upon attributing to the Romans, maintaining that this was the bridge mentioned by Caesar as connecting Genabum with the country of the Bituriges. But there is good reason for be- lieving that the little town of Gien, which is situated in the eastern part of the depart- ment, a good deal higher up the river, occu- pies the site of the ancient Genabum. And certain ancient documents are in existence respecting the right of passage over the old bridge, from which it should seem that it was built at the joint expense of Orleans and the ancient bourg of Avenum. This bridge was the scene of a memorable and disastrous fight on the sixth and seventh of May, in the year 1429. The English had entrenched themselves in a little fortress called " les tourelles," situated at the head of the bridge, on the opposite side of the river. The redoubtable Pucelle had arrived in Or- leans on the 29th of April, and the next day 5() \ ICTORY OF summoiKHl " Glacidas," the English captain, to surrender. " Mais Glacidas et ses gens lui respoiidirent avcc plusieurs injures atroces, rap[)ehint vacht*re et rihaude, et crians tout haut ([u'ils la fcroient arder s'ils la pouvoient tenir." Jane, therefore, in company with the Bas- tard of Orleans, La Hire, the Lord of Graville, and many other noble kniglits, and squires of low degree, marched out of the town at break of day, and advanced to the attack. The English sallied out to meet them, but were, after an obstinate fight, diiven back with much loss, and were obliged "se retirer dans leur fort des tourellcs, et dans leur grand bastion nomm^ Londres." This bastion was then taken ; and the F'rench leaders would have followed up their advantages by attack- ing the " tourellcs." " Mais la Pucelle fut d'avis, que c'etoit assez pour ce jour." The next morning, Saturday, she returned to the attack, crying to the troops as she pointed with the standard she carried, to the enemy on tlic walls of (he fort, "Alloiis! Allons ! ils sont a nous, jxiiscjuc Dieu est pour nous! ils ne j^euveiit ('('liapj)cr la main ilc nieu." Tiic fort was, after some hard lighting, taken, and tlie loss of the English was very LA PUCELLE. 57 great. •* Le.i uns sont tiiez sur la place, et les autres noyez dans la riviere de Loire ; ct y moururent bien des Anglois jusqu'au nombre de cinq cens combattans. Nul ne fut epargne que les seuls pretres par le commandement de la Pucelle." *' Ce brave Glacidas tousjours accoustume a vaincre abandonna son quartier, et se jetta en la basse cour des tourelles." But the misfortunes of the English were not yet come to an end. A large body, compri- sing many " chevaliers, bannerets, et nobles d'Angleterre," attempted to escape across the bridge. But " comme ils pensoient de sauver leur vie, le pont, desja fort ^branle par les bombardes, eprouve par le feu, et desurcroist extreniement charge par la pesanteurdecette foule, fondit sous eux, et s'enfoncant dans I'eau d'un effroiable bruit attira avec soy toute cette multitude. " Et quoy que les soldats Francois fussent faschez de la perte de ceux qui furent ainsi submergez, desquels ils eussent pu tirer bonne rancon, si est ce qu'ils se resjouissoient da- vantage du bien public." And so ended the most memorable day in the history of the old bridge. The first stone of the new one was laid on the 8th of September, 1751, and it was com- 58 I-.PIGHAM. plcted in eight years, under the superintend- ence of M. Hupcviu, a celebrated engineer, at a cost of 2,670,851) francs. Madame de Pom- padour was the first who passed over it when complete, upon which occasion the good lollv of Orleans circulated the following- epi- gram. Censcurs tie notre pout, vous dont rimpertiiience ^';l jus(ju' a la lemeiite, Hiipeau par iin sfMil fait vous reduit an silence ; Bieii solide est son pont ; ce jour il a porte Le plus lourd fardeau de la I-'rance. The town shews itself to advantage from the other side of the river, and a pretty draw- ing might be made of it from the water side a little above the bridge. The scene indeed is not eminently picturesque, being destroyed by the faults of tiie river above spoken of; yet the beauty of the evening, and the per- petual variations of liglits and shadows in the little |)icture formed by the river and the town, which a S[)lendid setting sun occasioned, tempted nie to stroll so far along the bank, that, as I returned to my inn, not a sound was to be heard ol all the various noises which had during tlic day jirocecdcd from tiie numerous craft upon the river ; the stream, as it ri|)ph'(l ah)ng tlie sides of tlic moored barges, made a low and gentle music ; and when I turned (he conicr ol the Hue Royaie, STATUE OF JEANNK D'ARC. 59 the moonlight was playing; on the figure of Jeanne d'Arc in the Place du Martroy, and the whole town was as silent as if it con- tained not a living creature. ()0 DIUJIANS. ClIAPTKR V. Orleans — Vipw from tlif top of tlie Cathedral — La Sologne — Con- ilition of the P(»|)iil;ition of tliis District — Suprrslitions — Curious Custom — Catlieilral — Interior — West Front — Desiniution of the old Cathedral — l-'oundalion of the Present Strurt\ire — The Jubi- lee at Orleans — Account ol the Kxpences of Unildinj^ the Calhe- Hral — New Street — Beards and Bishops — " A Difference between a Bishop and a Dean" — Books in Orleans in the Sixteenth Cen- tury — Historical localities in Orleans — Anecdotes — i'.arl of Salis- bury — Marie Touchet — Diana of Poitiers — Jeanne d'Arc's house — Curious Passages concernin'; her — Present State of the House which she inhabited — Specinien of an.C^rleaiiais Ballad — Source of tlie Ri\er Loiret. Rarly tlio next morninq;, accordin^^ to the usage set forth and exphiincd at tlic begin- ning of the last chaj)ter, for tlie imitation of all tourists, ramblers, topographers, and tra- vellers of all s()i-(s. I betook nivsclf to the abode ol" the |)riiHMpal sexton, sacristan, ver- ger, or bell-ring'^r of the cathedral chinch of St (Voix, and re(piested him to accompany me to the top ol" one of the towers, lie liv(Hi in a little house a few yards onl\ dislanl from the church, and wc coninicnccd onr asc(M)t VIEW FROM THE TOWER OF ORLEANS. 61 forthwith. The whole of the edifice is kept in the most perfect order, and the stair by which we ascended was in as good repair and swept as clean as the most thrifty housewife could desire. The view from the top is a wide one, for Orleans stands in the centre of the largest plain in France. Some remnants of the an- cient forest of Orleans might be descried to the eastward, and to the westward the eye could trace the course of the river for many a league, here loosing it as it wound under some vine-covered bank a little higher than the ge- neral elevation of the flat plain through which it meanders, and there again recognizing it by the sparkle and play of the morning sun upon some elbow of the stream when it swelled into a wider expanse of water. About the mid distance in this direction, my friend, the sacristan, pointed out to me the junction of the little river Loiret, from which the department takes its name, with the Loire ; and, still farther away to the south-west, the tower of Notre Dame de Clery, the finest church in the diocese, he assured me, " excepte toujours le notre." Due south of Orleans the eye wanders over a wide expanse of flat objectless country, which, unlike the northern part of the depart- G2 LA SOLOCiMv ment and the banks of the river, is poor, un- prodiictivc, and thinly |)opulatcd. This un- genial district, which extends a considerable distance to the south-west into the depart- ment of Loirc-et-Ciicr, is called La Sologne. It is a sandy, ill-cultivated, poverty-stricken country, and the population are in their habits and customs very diirerent from the inhabi- tants of the more favoured districts which surround it. A little excursion which I made into La Sologne from Orleans soon suHiced to shew me that a journey of a few miles iiad brought me among- a people fifty or a hundred years back warder in progress of every sort than their near neighbours of the northern bank of the Loire. It is impossible to conceive a country more totally devoid of every charm, or more tediously monotonous to traverse. Yet it is well worth a short visit, for the sake of appreciating the influences of soil and po- sition on the fortunes of a people. Poverty and the laborious life, which the difTiculty of wringing a niggard subsistence from the ungrateful soil necessitates, tend to isolate the inmates of each farmhouse, as well as to prevent much communication with the more fortunately-circumstanced population of TH1<: SOLONAIS. 63 the neighbouring districts. This isolation, too, is further increased by the great want of roads and means of communication, under which the Sologne labours. The result is, that a variety of those whim- sical customs, which every district is sure to preserve as long as its population remains unmingled with that of others, and which as surely fly before the advance of highroads, stage-coaches, and steamboats, are still to be found in the Sologne. Many of those strange superstitions which the human mind, in the lack of culture, engenders as surely and as abundantly as a neglected field brings forth weeds, still remain firm part and parcel of the creed of the Solonais peasant, though long since ridiculed and now forgotten by all the world ten miles off. At a Solonais wedding the bride and bride- groom invariably appear each with a wax taper in their hand, with the view of ascer- taining which is to be the survivor, as they doubt not that the one whose candle shall first burn out shall depart first from life. Their devotion to the church does not pre- vent their indulging in a sly piece of rustic satire at the expense of the priest. The first Sunday in Lent a procession of peasants, car- ^i"! L'l SID.MS OK IHE SULUNAIS. ryini; liolited torches, makes the circuit of tlic corn(iel(ls, singing as they march — *' Sortez, sortez, d'ici, iiiulots ! Ou je vais vous bruler vos crocs Qiiilfoz, quiftez, ces bles ; Allez ! vous trouvorez D;ms la cave dii cuie Plus ;i boiro rpi' a iuani;er. With the absurdities, however, are pre- served the virtues of a primitive condition of society. Kindness, hospitality, and mutual assistance, are universal among them. When a young couple marry without the means of commencing housekeeping, as is ordinarily the case, the contributions of the neighbour- hood are always forthcoming to supply the deficiency. The mode of collecting these is whimsical enough. Five young peasant girls, dressed of course in their l)est ** costume de fete," proceed to make the " quete" among the assembled company, which consists for the most pcivi of nearly the entire po|)ulation of the parish. They conduct their operations in the foHowiiig manner. The first holds a distaff and spindle in lier hands, which she presents to each of the company while she sings " 1/ epjusoi' a Ijioii fpionnuillo rt fusoau ; Mais dp chanvro, liplas ! pas un I'-clievcau ! I'durra-l-i'llc dmu- filt-r son trousseau f" The second damsel receives the offerings MARRIAGK OBI>ATIO\S. 65 produced by this appeal in the husband's drinking-cup. The third acts the part of Hebe, and pours out a draught of wine, which she offers to each contributor to the store. The fourth carries a napkin, with which she wipes the mouth of the g'uest after his draught, and thus prepares the way for the performance of the duty entrusted to the fifth, always the prettiest of the party, that of rewarding him for his generosity with a kiss. A miserable thin wine is produced on the light sandy soil of the Sologne, good for no- thing but to be turned into vinegar, but deemed a luxury by the poor people, who know how much labour it has cost to ob- tain it. I fear that I have been making rather an unconscionably long digression respecting these Solonais and their peculiarities, consi- dering that I left myself on the top of the tower of the cathedral Revenons a nos nioutons. After taking a general survey of the envi- rons, and acquiring a tolerably correct notion of the ichnography of the town, together with the nomenclature of all the different churches and public buildings, I signified to my patient VOL. I. F Oi> iNTEHioi; (»r ()KI,i:ans (•.\TH^:I)I^•\l, cicorono niv readiness to deseend and view the interior of the church. Orleans cathedral presents the iinnsnal spectacle of a gothic cluirch built principally in tlie seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, (ireat credit is due to the series of architects who wore successively entrusted with the worU. for having closely adhered to the ori- ginal plan of the projector. How entirely would the whole efTect of the building have been destroyed, if, instead of the two splendid towers at the west end, two hideous masses of the renaissance architecture had usurped their place ! The interior of the church is very fine, thougli for its breadth it wants height. The loss of the painted windows, too. destroyed in those troubles which also niucli injurcMJ tlie fabiic of the church, is severely felt. Th(^ newness of the building, and sharpness of all its outlines and angles, joined to the poverty of the foinnion glass windows, and the strong light admitted by them, give a look of raw- ness and a want of all those picturesqtiely vener:d)Ie cfTeets which the mellow tints and softening tondi of nge alone can impart. The west front is unrpiestionablv the finest thing about (h'leans cathedral. M'he oriia- niented portals, the SYmnictrieal beaut \ of BUILDING OF THE CATHEDRAL. <^7 the two noble towers, with their octagonal tops, and the light grace of the delicately- worked, diadem-like circlets which complete them, together with the exquisite lace-like tracery of the superb rose windows, form a very magnificent and striking whole. With few exceptions, the fine churches of Europe have all been the work of ages so long' past, that no detailed or accurate account of the expence of their construction can be ob- tained. A few particulars, therefore, of this nature, respecting this cathedral, may be in- teresting to those who have no means of esti- mating the amount of labour and expence which similar piles have cost. But the reader shall first of all hear under what circumstances the work was undertaken. In 1567 the cathedral was little more than a mass of ruins. When the protestants ob- tained possession of Orleans in 1562, the body of the church was preserved from total ruin only because it served as a stable to the Ger- man Reitres, their allies. Five years after- wards the fanatics completed its ruin. It is admitted by the Catholic writers that the Prince de Conde did all in his power to save the edifice from the blind fury of his party. He walled up all the doors, and even went so far as to order a man to be fired on f2 68 pnoTKsr.wT orTinnr.s. wlu) had climl)C(l up to the roof, and was tcs- tilying* his zeal for the ))urity of religion by cutting" away great bits of tlic gilded lead with which it was covered. His care, liow- ever, was all in vain : for in the night of the 24th of March, 1567, a band of enthusiasts, excited to the act by Theodore Beza, as tradi- tion — w ith what degree of truth, I know not — declares, got into the church by the win- dows, and worked a mine under the pillars which supported the bell-tower. They thus succeeded in levelling with the ground nearly the whole building. Charles IX. did somewhat towards repair- ing it in 1580; but the beginning of the pre sent edifice must be dated from the 18th of April, 1601, on which day Henry IV. and his queen laid the first stone. The day was a memorable one in the an- nals of Orleans ; and the scene which the city then presented must have been one that would not easily be forgotten by any of those who witnessed it ; some among whom have not neglected to transmit the record of it to pos- terity. It was a time of rejoicing and of hope throughout France. The civil war vviiich had so long ravaged llic idngdom from end to end was at lengtli appeased, and men began TAX IN FAVOUR OF THE CHURCH. 69 to SOW the land with a well-assured hope of reaj:)ing; the reward of their toil, and to labour in the creative arts of peace instead of turn- ing all their energies to the business of de- struction. Henry, anxious to bury in oblivion all re- miniscences which might tend to lessen the cordiality of his reconciliation with his Ca- tholic subjects, had already, on the occasion of his passing through the town in 1598, taken upon himself the task of restoring the cathedral, and had assigned for this purpose the proceeds of a tax on salt, to be levied throughout the districts of Tours, Moulins, Orleans, and Bourges. He also obtained from Clement VHI. that the promise he had made to that pope to found a convent for men, and one for women, in everv province both of France and Beam, as a price of his absolution from the stain of heresy, should be exchanged for his undertaking to rebuild the cathedral of St. Croix at Orleans. To assist the same object, the holy father was also induced to proclaim a jubilee, with the usual indulgencies for all those who should visit — of course not empty-handed — this church, in lieu of going to Rome. This ju- bilee was granted for three months, which were afterwards extended to five; and it was 70 TUli JU131LKE AT OHLliANS. during' this time that Henry with his (juceii, Mary de Medicis, came to Orleans to j)artake of the blessings promised to the pilgrims, and at the same time to lay the first stone of the new fabric. Never had Orleans seen such days as those which followed the proclamation of this me- morable jubilee; and it ma)' be very safely asserted that such she will never see again. Day after day fresh [)ilgrims of all classes arrived not only from all the provitices of France, but from every part of Euro])e. Every house in Orleans became a caravanserai for the reception of strangers, and was crowded with as many as could find shelter beneath its roof. Still the accommodation provided fell short of the wants ol" the increasing multitude. Day after day fresh bands [)oured in. A new town of tents arose around the walls and in the open spaces of the city. Every European language mingled in the united roar (^f human voices which rose from the mighty multitude; and men might have thought that old times were come again, and that it was the gather- ing for a fresh crusade. A tablet, bearing a long insciiption, with the heading, " Posri:iiirATi sacrum," records that the holy sacrament was then adminis- tered to five hundred thousand persons. CURIOUS INSCRIPTION. 71 " Anno per Jesum Christum reparatae sa- lutis, MDC," thus runs this curious docu- ment ; " die xviii. Novembr. sepoltis bellorum civilium cineribus, partibus sublatis, parta firmataque toto regno pace, ubi fessae res in Henricum IV. gloriosisimum regem cessere, et lamentabile regnum tot quassatum impe- tubus tantisper elata cervice refloruit, Cle- mens VIII., summus pontifex, Pater orbis, et Francorum amor, ad promerendam Dei gra- tiam, succidendas haereses, et ecclesiae stabi- lienda columina, in hac Aureliorum civitate, Jubilaeum ad tres menses indixit, ad quod ex orbe Franco reliquisque terrarum partibus tot populorum globi confluxere, ut innumeros hospites urbe non capiente, sacratissimum Eucharistiae epulum, quod vix credatur, quin- genties mille hominibus magna omnium ad- miratione fuerit irapertitum." The inscription goes on to declare that the king came to the jubilee, and laid the first stone of the pillar, on which the recording- tablet is now fixed. It is to the right of the entrance of the choir. ^I'he king's offering upon the occasion, in addition to the tax before mentioned, was thirty thousand francs, payable in the course of ten years — a proviso which sounds strange when considered with reference to the sum to 72 I'.XPINSi, Ol TIM. lU 11. DING. he paid. €1200 — ami forty acres of the finest wood ill his foi'cst of Orleans. In 1G12, twelve years from the period of this grant, we find tiuit the produce of these forty acres was all used uj); and Louis XIII. then granted a hundred more from the same forest. The works were continued under several architects up to 1708, at a cost of 13,661,586 francs. From 1708 to 1710. 50,000 francs were expended ; and from the latter period to 1738, 25,000 francs. In 1731), the whole structure was raised twelve feet, six inches, at a cost of 83,952 francs. A further cleva- vation of sixteen feet, nine inches, in 1746, cost 110,000. In 1752, and the following years, seventeen feet, nine inches, were added to the i)ile, at an ex[)ense of 260,000 francs; from 1768 to 1773, the progress of the works cost 2,1000,000 francs; in 1771, 365,000 francs; in 1775, I'iO.OOO; in 1776, 500,000; in 1777, 200,00); in 1778,600,000; in 1771), 110,000; in 1780,250,000; in 1781, 115,000 ; in 1782, 236,000; in 1783, 120,000; in 1781, 200,000; in 178.5,300,000; in 1786,400,000; in 1787, 136,000; in 1788, 280,000; in I78i), 120,000; and in IVJO, 150,000 francs were ex])cnd('d. X'arious sums disbursed for re- jiairs, alterations, and completion of the work from 181 li to 1829, amount to 100,000. NliW STREET. 73 The whole of these sums, together with some small charges for models in wood, &c., will give a total of twenty-two millions of francs, as the entire cost of the building ; a sum very far inferior, it must be remembered, to that which it would require to produce the same result at the present day in France, and still more below what a similar pile would cost in this country. The citizens of Orleans are still engaged in beautifying and improving their town. The cathedral, when at length complete, was so masked by the closely-surrounding houses that it was almost impossible to see it. This mis- fortune is now in the course of being reme- died. A large street has been opened exactly opposite the west front of the church, com- municating with the principal thoroughfare in the town, the Rue Roy ale, which runs from the Place du Martroy to the bridge. This will be a very important improvement, and will, at the same time that it embellishes the town and opens a communication much wanted, afford as fine a view of the magnificent west front of the cathedral as can be desired. Somebody or other says somewhere that a very interesting and amusing book might be written on the various fashions \yhich have regulated in different ages and countries the 71 i.()\i;l(H'Ks and bkauus. nuinagement of the hair and beard. It would not he a volume eonversant only with the toilet and the euiling-tongs, and redolent (Kdy of precious eastern ointments, or their celebrated modern rival, IMacassar oil. On the contrary, the competent author of such a work must have turned many a huge folio of musty jurisprudence, and have fought through many a tome of fiercest polemical discussion. From the ante-Mosaic regulations of Chi- nese legislators to the bitter warfare against " love-locks," waged by Puritan Prynne, and from the anathemas of grave councils, and reverend bishops, to the late ordinance of the citizen king, commanding all civilians in his employ to shave their upper lips, great has been the anxiety of mankind respecting the trimming of their lellow-creatures' beards and hair. The bishops and canons of Orleans were principally engaged during the sixteenth cen- tury in bitter warfare respecting these trou- blesome excrescences. Jean de Longueville, a grave and strict prelate and rigorous observer of discipline, when he was appointed to the see in 1 528, found to his honor all hi.s chapter moustaclied, whiskered, and bearded, like so many citizens of La Jeune France. It was not till after a BEARDS AND BISHOPS tO long and hard contest, in which the contend- ing parties all but came to blows, that the matter was settled. Jt was not always that similar quarrels were brought to a termination in those days so happily. For we find it expressly forbidden to the canons by a regulation of the chapter, to " repondre a des arguments par des coups des poing." Jean de Longueville, however, was victo- rious ; and each member of the chapter was compelled to remove every trace of hair from his face, and was ordered, moreover, not to show himself in the choir except with shoes " square, and of a decent shape." Now it so happened that when all the canons were shaved clean, and peace was once more established in the church, Jean de Longueville died, and Jean de Morvilliers was appointed to the bishopri'ck in his stead. Now Jean de Morvilliers was another guess sort of priest from his predecessor, and he arrived one fine morning at Orleans with a magnifi- cent long black beard, and a splendid mous- tache and whiskers to match. This really was rather too bad. It was more than mortal — even though ecclesiastical — flesh and blood could bear. However, it was now their turn. They were scandalized 76 HKAUDS AM) lilSHOl'S. and shocked. Tliey had never heard of such a thing*. They pointed to the regulations, re- ferred to the councils, and quoted the canons ; and finally they shrugged their shoulders, rubbed their smooth chins, and declared una- nimously that it was quite out of the ques- tion having a bisliop with such a beard as that, and that tliey would not admit him into the church. So Jean de ^lorvilliers was forced to go back to his patron, King Henry II., and tell him that the canons (if Orleans had *' laughed at his beard," and refused to ad/nit liim to the see. Whereupon the king despatched the following epistle to the chapter, wherein his majesty seems to incline quite as much to the deprecatory as to the objurgatory and impe- rative moods. "Notre ami et f6al Jean de Morvilliers, (!;veque d 'Orleans, deliberant de faire son en- tree, et d'autant (pio portant barbe vous pourriez difr6rer sa reception, sous ombre des coutumes et usances observees en seml)lal)le cas, nous avons bicn voulu vous avcrlir coinnie I'ayant cmploy6 en plusieurs affaires, taut en notre royaume, (pie hors d'icelui, conimc nous avons encore (lelil)er6 de faire pour ses virtus, experience et dexterite que nous lui connai- sons au maiiiemeiit des ailaires, il est coutraint THE KING'S LETTER. 77 pour le bien de notre service de s'accoraiiioder a la facon de ceux aupr^s de quels il a a re- sider et n^gotier ; et encore le reconnaissant personne si vertueuse, desirantsingulierement I'observation des saints decrets, entretenement de bonnes et louables coutumes, et de toutes choses qui appartiennent a I'honneur de Dieu, et de notre mere Sainte Eg'lise ; nous pensons bien que vous ne voudrez pas, pour si peu de chose, empecher la dite reception ; nean moins nous vous prions et comniandons que, sans vous arreter a ce qu'il porte barbe, coinme dit est, vous ayez a le recevoir en votre Eglise, sans qu'il soit tenu d'abattre la dite barbe." His majesty's letter was received and read in full chapter, where it gave rise to much indignation among the good canons, but alto- gether failed of producing an}^ other result. " Pour si pen de chose !" cried they. " To think of calling such a beard as that ' peu de chose!' And such whiskers! and such a moustache! Oh! it can't be! The church of St. Croix of Orleans would be disgraced in the eyes of all Christendom !" So the chapter broke up in the firm deter- mination of resisting such a scandal to the uttermost. And as Jean de ]\Iorvilliers was as firmly attached to his moustache and whiskers, and made a point of his beard, it /"> SCARCITY OK HOOKS. raiiH' to pa-^s that the see of Orleans remainoH vacant for the next three years. If these \v(^rtliv fathers should seem to have herein preferred the orcatcr to the lesser evil, or to have sliown themselves in any deoree nnenlio'htened or illiheral. anoth(M* curious fact, which the archives of the cathedral of about the same period furnish, mav in some measure excuse, or at least account for their want of cultivation. Rooks, it seems, were at that time so scarce in Orleans, owing* partly no doubt to the sufferings of the town during* the wars, that even the few copies of the church service, which constituted the library of the cathedral, were let out to the preben- daries. The use of a common breviary for a man's life cost seven crowns. After leaving the cathedral, where I fear the reader may think I have detained him too long, I spent tlie remainder of tiie ('ay in rambling through the streets of the town, and j)oking into the multitude of nooks and corners it po.ssesses, which are rendered inte- resting from having been connected with names of historic celebrity, or from being the subject of traditions illustrative of past times and manners. Orleans is particularly rich in such spots. Indeed, it is ehiefly on necount of its old his- ANFX'DOTRS 79 torical renown and l,^^iditional reminiscences, that it is still an interesting' city to the tourist. For with the exception of the cathedral, and the general view of the town from the river, it possesses little or nothing to gratify the eye. But the spot may still be seen where in 1429 the Earl of Salisbury fell mortally wounded by a stone thrown from a sling from the top of St. Mary's tower. The house where the beautiful Marie Touchet, Charles IX. 's mistress, was born, and in this gloomy residence of the old provincial magistrate her father, grew into that surpassing loveliness which led her to the equivocal splendour of a court, is yet pointed out in the Rue de la Vieille Poterie. Then we have an anecdote of another beauty of a very different stamp. In a little street called La Rue des Albanais, which opens into the Rue Neuve, is a house on which an imme- morial tradition has affixed the title of " Mai- son de Diane de Poitiers." This celebrated mistress of Henry II. is known to have inha- bited, when at Orleans, a house of more pre- tension in the Rue Neuve. But the tradition respecting the obscure dwelling in the Rue des Albanais relates that it was here that she was brought, after a fall from her horse, which broke her leg. Henry II., and his yO DIANA <)1 !H)l('l IKHS AT ORLKANS. (|iu^cn, uidi a brilliant train, and tlio beautiful Diana among- thcni, had been to the cathedral to hear the bishop preach, on the 4th of Au- <»ust, 1551. " Or advint que revenant de Sainte Croix, ou I'evec^uc Duchastel avait harangu6 la Cour, elle (Diana) se pensa romprc le col, et en fust (juitte |)Our la janibe droicte, son cheval ayant failli des pieds de devant en passant devant Sainct Pierre-em-j)()nt." " On la porta de suite dans son logis de la rue neuve ou elle guarit assez longuenient," says the historian. But she was probably taken in the first instance to the house indicated by tiie popular tradition, and removed to her own lodgings afterwards. We are told that she fell from her horse " malgr^ son addresse a le bien conduire." " II aurait scniblc," adds the gallant Bran- t6me, " (|ue telle rupture et les maux cpi'clle endura, auraient du changer sa belle face; point du tout ; je la vis si belle encore que je saclie cnnir de roche qui ne s'en fust esmu," Lastly, though twenty other localities might be enumerated, each with its legend, if time and space; permitted, there is the " maison de .leanne d'Arc." This house is now No. 35 in the T^ue du Tabourg. It is a very ancient building, and in Jeanne's time was close to the wall of the town, by the " Porte Renard." ENTRY OF I.A PUCELLR INTO ORLEANS. 81 It then belonged to Jacques Bouchier, trea- surer to the Duke of Orleans ; and it was here that the heroine resided on her arrival in Orleans, previous to its delivery frosn the English, 1429. The follovk^ing passage from an old chro- nicler is somewhat long, but it is so extremely graphic and interesting, that I cannot cur- tail it. *' Apres que la pucelle fust entree a Orleans le Vendredy 29^ jour d'Avril de I'annee 1429 par la porte Bourgongne, accompaignee des bourgeois et gens d'armes qui estoient alles a sa rencontre jusqu' a Ch^cy, les bourgeois et les bourgeoises se portoient sur son passage en grand tumulte, et la regardoient si affec- tueusement que tous avoient les yeux fiches sur elle, tant hommes, que femmes et petits enfans. Avec cette admiration et affection ils I'accompaignerent tout le long de la grand' rue qui traverse la ville, et la conduisirent de- puis la porte Bourgongne jusqu' aupres de la porte Renard en I'hostel de Jacques Bouchier, pour lors thresorier du due d'Orleans, ou elle feust honorablement recue et logee avec ses deux freres et les deux gentilhommes, et leur valet, qui estoient venus avec elle du pais de Barrois. On lui avoit faict appareiller -k sou- per bien et honorablement ; mais elle fist VOL. I. G 82 JKANNF. D'ARCS VISION. seulement mettre du vin dans line tasse d'ar- gent, oil elle mist moiti6 d'eau, ct cinq ou six soupcs dedans, qu'clle manoca, ct ne prist austre chouse tout ce jour, pour manger ni boire, quoiqu' elle eust est6 tout le jour j\ cheval ; puis s' alia coucher en la chambre qui lui avoit este ord()nn6e; ct avec elle estoient la femme et la fille du diet Thresorier, la cjuelle fille coucha avec la dicte Jeanne. Le premier dc May elle chevaucha par la ville, accompaign^e de plusieurs chevaliers et es- cuyers, pour ce que ceulx d' Orleans avoient si grant volont6 de la veoir, qu' ils rompoient presque I'huy de I'hostel ou elle estoit log^e." On a subsequent occasion, we have the fol- lowing very curious account of a scene which took place in the chamber above mentioned, on the eve of the day on which she routed the English on the bridge, as has been re- lated above. It is her squire, Daulon, who is speaking, at his examination respecting her. " Ji (|ui parlc se mist sur une couciiette en la chambre de la dicte Pucelle pour un pou soy reposer ; et aussi se mist icclle avecque sa dicte hostessc sur un autre lict pour pareille- ment soy (hjrmir et reposer; mais ainsi que Icdict drposant commonroit i\ prendre son ref)Os, soudainemcnt icellc I'uccllc se leva du diet lict en laisant grant bruit, I'esveilla ; et JEANNF/S CHAMBF':r^ 83 lors lui demanda, il qui parle, qu' elle vouloit ; laquclle lui respondit en nom de Dieu ; mon conseil m'a diet que je voise contre les An- glois ; mais je ne scay si je dois aller a leurs bastilles, ou contre Fascolf qui les doict avi- tailler. Sur quoi se leva le diet deposant in- continent, et le plus tost qu' il peust, arma la dicte Pucelle," &c. A stranger is shown in the house above mentioned tv^^o small vaulted rooms, one above the other, which the people who now live in the house assure him were Jeanne's cabinet and sleeping'-chamber. The walls of them are immensely thick, and the vaulted roofs are ornamented with quaint sculptures in re- lief. But the real fact is, that the facade facing the street is the only remaining portion of the building which existed in La Pucelle's time. A M. Colas sieur Desfrancs, who had become possessor of the house towards the end of the sixteenth century, rebuilt it almost entirely, and built these two rooms on the site q/* Jeanne's chamber, as a memorial of her re- sidence there. For these facts, as well as for several others in the above pages, I am in- debted to a very satisfactory history of Or- leans, by E. F. Vergnaud-Romagnesi. I had not concluded my perambulations till it was quite dark ; and as returning to my G 2 84 " LKS REVEHBERES." inn I stumbled along a winding lane between two (lead walls, as black as Erebus, I could not lielj) thinking- that the paeans (^f tiiunij)h contained in an old song, still remembered in Orleans, which was made on the introduction ol' lamps into the city, in 1776, were some- what premature. Take two stanzas of it for a specimen. Vous qui vencz de compagnie Et de mener joyeuse vie, Etes vous gris? Vous ne pouvez lomber pnr tene Car vous avez le reverbere Comme a Paris ! Jeunes amans qui savez plaire Ne parlez sous le reverbere Qu' i vos amis. Si voire ainante a cette audace. On verra tout ce qui se passe Comme a Paris. The next day was spent in a little excursion into the Sologne, the fruits of which the reader is already in possession of. On my return T visited " Le Ciuiteau de la Source," whicli is deemed a great lion throughout the country. " La Source," wliich gives its name to tliis count ry-liouse, is in fact the source of the Loirct. This river runs but three leagues, and then falls into the Loire. Hut the curio- sity of the thing is, that it rises in the midst of a level surface in sufticient (quantity to LA SOURCE. 85 carry a boat from its very source. It is on record here that Lord Bolingbroke some time in the last century visited the chateau, and threw a silver cup into the pool, in the midst of vv^hich the spring bubbles up with consi- derable force, at the same time causing an expert diver from Nantes to plunge for it. The man very soon rose to the surface, and refused to try a second time, for fear of being drawn into the vast caverns, which he said he had perceived below. The peasants of the neighbouring villages have all sorts of strange tales of enormous fishes and unknown monsters having been at divers times seen in the bubbling pool, and nothing could induce one of them to venture into it. There are several circumstances about this river, which would make it worth a natu- ralist's while to visit it, if he found himself in the neigbourhood ; but any Englishman not accustomed to fall into raptures at the sight of the grounds of a moderate country gentle- man's house will be disappointed if he is in- duced to visit La Source on the score of the picturesque merits so lavishly attributed to it by the good folks of Orleans. But it must be confessed that the generality of the scenery in the Orleanais is sufficiently devoid of na- 86 LA SOURCK. tural beauty to excuse the inhabitants going a btlle into ecstacies respecting the only bttle bit of tolerably pretty ground in the ncigh- bourliood. STEAMBOATS ON THE LOIRE. 87 CHAPTER VI. Steamboats on the Loire — Various Companies for the Navigation of the River — The Quay at Orleans — Departure of the Boat — Con- struction of the Steamers on the Loire — Voyage to Meung — Junction of the Loiret with the Loire — Appearance of the River —Cellars at St. Pierre— Bridge of Meung— The Town— Walk to Clery — Story of Notre Dame de Clery — Tomb of Louis XL — Strange Toll — Church at Clery — Figure of Louis XL — Walk to Beaugency — View of the Town — Anecdotes of its History — Journey to Blois. On the following morning I left Orleans by the steamboat which descends the river. These boats have only recently been established, for though the great utility of such a means of communication, carrying thus the powers of steam, the great agent of modern progress, into the very heart and centre of the land, is sufficiently obvious, there were great diffi- culties and obstacles to be overcome. The Loire is now navigated by steamboats the whole way from Nevers to St. Nazaire, a dis- tance of about five hundred miles. This na- vigation is divided into three portions, which are, I believe, worked by three different com- panies. S8 STEAM NAVICA'I ION ON THE LOIRE. The first of these plies between Nevers and Orleans, a distance of about a hundred and sixty miles. This is perlornied in one day for the descent, and two for the return. The second carries you from Orleans to Nantes, about two hundred and forty miles. This distance is accomplished in two days descend- ing, and three in ascending the stream. Fi- nally, the boats of the bas Loire descend and return from Paimbceuf twice daily, and pro- long their voyage to St. Nazaire, a mere little fishing-town, twice or thrice a week. This lower part of the river has of course been navigated by steam for a much longer jicriod ; and indeed I believe that from Nantes np as far as Angers boats have been for some time established. But the navigation of the u})per })art of the river is difficult, from the great want of water to which the stream is oc- casionally subject during the dry season. At length, however, chiefly by the persevering energy of M. Henri Larochejaciuehn, a ne- phew, I believe, of him who has connected the name of Larochejaquelin for ever with associ- ations and recollections of so different a cha- ractc)-. this difliciilty has Ix-en in a great measure overcome by tlie adojHion of light iron boats, which draw from nine to thirteen inches only of wat1U;SKNT Al'PEAIJANrK OF BKAUGKNCY. backwards and Ibruards by the two contend- ing parties with so much charitable zeal and fervour, and unfortunately with such alternate success, that it has never recovered from the force of the arguments then used by both sides to convince it. In fact, to the present day, it bears, legibly imprinted on its physiognomy, the character of a town '• which has had misfortunes;" and sundry ornamented facades, gothic stone door- ways, corniced windows, conical-roofed stair- case turrets, and fragments of town w^alls, are unmistakeable evidences of its having seen better days. I intended to have left it the same night for Blois, but failed in getting a place in the diligence, and was fain, therefore, to content myself with such accommodations as the town in its reduced circumstances could afford me. The next morning, at six o'clock, I started for Blois in a spruce little vehicle, which the people called a " patache," but wiiich, as I afterwards discovered, bore not tiie smallest affinity to the very primitive conveyance re- joicing in that appellation. The genuine " patache" is now, I believe, not to be met with out of tlie central districts of France; jjiit I suppose (he eaniagc which carried me to IJIois still continues to be called " l.i |)a- A PATACHE. 105 tache" by those who remember the time when the service was performed by one. A four hours' drive through an open coun- try, for the most part covered with vines, and, though no longer flat, yet by no means re- markable for its beauty, brought me to Blois by ten o'clock. 106 lu.ois. CIIAPTKR VII. B'ois — lis Position — Its Streets — The Cliateau — lis exterior — Its Foiimlatiiiii, and Subseciuent History — Murder of tlie Duo dc Guise — y\ 1 el li lecture of the Chateau — The most Ancient Part — Louis the Twelfth's Buildin^j; — Lodj^in;; of the Ladies of Catlie- rine de Medicis — Part Built by Francis L — Hall of Assembly of the States — West Side built by Mansard — The Observatory of Catherine de Medicis — \'ie\\ from it — Porter of the Chateau. Blois is a pleasant town. Not that it is cither well built, or the streets well arranged — quite the contrary. Hut its picturesque position, its warm, southern aspect, and fine promenades, render it decidedly a pleasant place. I had rather dwell there, if I were compelled to make choice ol" either residence, than at tlie far more pretentious Tours, the town of j)rcdilection to the Kni;lish. l>uilt on the side of a steep hill, which hcnds into the form of an amj)hitiieatre towards the river, its gothic cathedral on the most ele- vated point of its eastern extremity, its cha- teau of a thousand .souvenirs on that to the west, its grey roofs rising one above the otlicr 13L0IS. 107 in picturesque confusion, and mingling them- selves with planted terraces and sunny spots of garden, its heavy, solid -looking bridge below, symmetrically placed opposite the mid- dle of the town, its broad river, here free from visible sands, and the fine trees, which form a shady promenade along the quay on its bank, Blois does not disappoint the in- terest which its historic name excites in its behalf. The principal, or at least the busiest street in Blois, is that which runs along the bank of the river the whole length of the town. This has houses only on one side, which look out pleasantly on the quays, the river, and, above the bridge, on the trees of the promenade. All the traffic which passes through the town is confined almost entirely to this street, for it is on the line of the great and important road which runs along the left bank of the Loire the whole distance from Orleans to Nantes. Here also are the two principal inns ; and chance having led me to the Hotel de I'Europe, an old-fashioned house with a spiral stone stair, and various other marks of the olden time, I took up my quarters there in a pleasant room looking over the promenade, for the few days I purposed remaining; at Blois. 108 INTKUlcm OF THE TOWN. After break fasting there, my earliest excur- sion was to the chateau. Turning; up the first street whicli led into the interior of the town, I soon found that the position which gives it so picturesque an appearance from the river is not exactly the one best calculated to en- sure the comfort and convenience of its inha- bitants, and that the picturesque irregularity of its buildings was scarcely likely to com- pensate to permanent residents for the incon- venience and inaccessibility of many of the streets. As soon as I had plunged fairly into the middle of the old town, I found myself in- volved amidst a labyrinth of steep lanes and steeper stairs. The upper parts of the city would be utterly inaccessible, excej^t by a considerable circuit, were it not for these mul- titudes of stairs. There were tlie " Degrees de St. Nicolas," and the " Degrees de St. Louis," and the *' Rampe du Chateau," &c. This last appellation indicated my route; and, after persevering! v mountijig 1 wo or three long sets of stairs, I at length emerged from the closely-packed mass of building, tiirough the heart of which I had been ascending, and found myself on a considerable open space in front of t lie cliatc'in. It does not make an imposing appearance on this, the cnstcMn. side, and I would advise THE CASTLE. J 09 a visitor to pass under an archway he will perceive in the north-eastern corner of the building, which will lead him down a steep declivity to an open space on the northern side of the castle, from which the best near view of it that is to be obtained will be found. The chateaux of few country towns can boast so many and so important events, so long a list of illustrious inmates, or so large a collection of historical recollections, as that of Blois. Founded in the ninth century, we find it, in its earliest records, offering an asylum and protection to the neighbouring population and monks at the period of the Norman invasion. It remained the posses- sion and residence of the Counts of Blois till the year 1391, when Guy de Chatillon, twen- tieth count, sold it, together with his county, to Louis of Orleans. United to the crown by Louis XII., it was for many ages an object of affection and soli- citude to his successors, and was successively added to and embellished by Louis XL, Louis XII., Francis I., Louis XIIL, and Louis XIV. The Blasois boast that upwards of a hun- dred kings, princes, and princesses, have at different periods inhabited it; and various are the memories, grave and gay, which they have left behind them. We have records of 110 1I1>T()1{IC.\L ASSOCIATIONS. royal nuptials, and liigh festivals, jousts, and tournays, brilliant fetes, and pompous pa- geants, celebrated with all the elaborate splen- dour and quaint conceits of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and recorded with tiiat circumstantial minuteness and laborious diffuseness which the " painful" chroniclers of those times were wont impartially to be- stow on the record of a battle, " big with the fate of nations," or the description of a noble dame's costume on the occasion of some court ceremony. Then, mixed with such recollections — mixed so inextricably, that if each deed these same old walls had looked on were orderly set down as they occurred, without remark or comment, the record would furnish at once a bitter satire on the littleness of greatness, and a potent homily ai^ainst envying the great — we have graver reminiscences of treaties made, and broken ; solemn public conferences, and more important private intrigues; together with a far darker background of treacheries and crimes. 'i'hero is something singularly stirring to the mind in walking through chandjcrs peopled with the phantoms of such a past. I suppose it is because " Segnius irritant animos de- missa per aures, quam quao sunt oculis suh- MURDER OF THR GUISES. HI jecta fidclibus," that we seem more able to comprehend and sympathize with the emo- tions of the dramatis personao of a tale, while gazing' on each minute detail of the localities of its scene, than when the same story is re- counted to us at a distance from it. We knew, perhaps, all the circumstances of an event before, but we seem more completely to realize the facts, and are more vividly im- pressed with the nobleness or baseness, the beauty or horror of a deed, when we are able to interrogate the mute witnesses in whose immediate presence the thing took place. Thus, when the old porter, who shows the castle, told me, as I passed a narrow doorway through a wall of immense thickness, " Ici tomba le Due de Guise perce de quarante-cinq coups de poignards," and then went on to point out to me the other localities of that memorable tragedy, it seemed to me as if I had never rightly understood the manner of the deed before. What! was it on this spot that he fell ! Was it on these identical boards that the blood flowed from the mangled body ? If the boards had been changed, there would have seemed an evidence the less of the fact. And to this doorpost he clung to save himself as he fell! And there stood the royal bed! And in this recess skulked the coward king. 112 IM-M'I-NCK OK F.OCAIJTIF.S. trembling' not at the baseness, but the b()ld- ness of the deed ; fearing* " to look on what he luul done," yet eager to assure himself that it was " well done," and that the auda- cious subject, beneath whose strong will his craven nature quailed, could never more op- press his feebleness. Yes! all this really was. On these same walls on which my eyes are resting, rested the last failing glance of the murthered man's glazing eye, as the bold, proud, ambitious, worldly spirit passed away, leaving unac- complished all those vast plans and daring hopes — " a world too large " for one short life — for whose achievement he had striven, toiled, and fought, and vexed the earth with turmoil during the term of his existence in it ! How many a human being has since passed that fatal doorway, leading to the chamber of the king, in every variety of mood, of hope, and fear ; how many a heart beating* with every manifold emotion of successful ambition or gratified revenge; of hope-sick disappointment, or dangerous discontent! Strange phantasmagoria ! And here on the same spot stand I, the creature of a state of society, fashioned and moulded while vt in the womb of time, by tiic deeds llicii done. P'oi* tJirough the un- INTERIOR OF THE QUADRANGLE. 113 broken, though frequently untraced chain of causes and consequences, in which every hu- man action is a link, our actual state is influ- enced and modified more or less perceptibly by the thoughts, and words, and actions, done in the flesh by each figure in the long- procession of phantoms which Fancy summons to march in review before her through these vacant halls. A thousand pardons, kind reader, for having inflicted all this moralizing on thee! Yet who could abstain from " moralizing into a thousand " homilies so suggestive an object as these storied walls. Let us proceed, how- ever, to examine them in a more matter-of- fact spirit. On entering the great gateway, in the eastern side of the chateau, a large quad- rangle presents itself, of which each of the four sides is the work of a diff'erent age, and built in a totally different style of architecture. The building is therefore interesting in an architectural point of view, as presenting four sufficientspecimensof as many very diffe- rent periods of the art, assembled on the same spot. The most ancient portion is the southern side of the quadrangle. This is of the time of Louis XI. It is of red brick, with sharp VOL. I. I I 11 GUOTESQUE CARVING. pointed gables fronting the court, and is, like its builder, low, mean, and mcsquin. The eastern side, on which the entrance is, is next in date. It was added by Louis XII., and proves that domestic architecture had made very considerable progress since the former building- was raised. It is constructed of brick and stone conjointly, is much loftier, more ornamented, and though scarcely de- serving to be called handsome, is, perhaps, notwithstanding the quaintncss produced by the strongly contrasted colour of the brick and stone, the most picturesque part of the castle. This side of the building contains two peculiarly elegant staircases, one at cither extremity, in which the brickwork vaulting, though untouched as I was assured since it was built, was as perfect as on the day it was put together. JSome curiously absurd orna- mental sculptures in the staircase at the north- east angle of tlie building had not fared so well. On the outside front, also, of this por- tion of the chateau, there are a series of aro- tesque carvings, which the ofrended delicacy of a more refined generation has mutilated. A range of garrets, such as many a London maid-servant would refuse to sleej) in, runs along under (he roof of this side of the quad- rangle, and are pointed out as the rooms ARCHITECTURE. ]15 which were inhabited by the ladies of the court of Catlierine de Medicis. The northern side was next added to the pile by Francis 1. Many a specimen yet re- mains in France of the gorgeous style of building- in vogue under that magnificent and splendour-loving monarch. The characte- ristics of it are strongly marked in the ex- ample in question. The richly carved stone- work, the multiplication of ornament in every part of the structure, the increased loftiness and airiness of the rooms, the greater num- ber of windows, and the superior magnificence of the material, all declare the lavish expen- diture and luxurious taste of Francis I. It is in this part of the building that the murder already alluded to of the Due de Guise and the proud churchman, his brother, took place. The state apartments are reached by an ex- tremely handsome staircase, which forms, as was frequently the case in the buildings of that period, a round tower in the middle of the facade, which projects beyond it more than half its circumference. The construc- tion of this stair is peculiarly light and ele- gant. On this side of the court, also, is the hall in which the memorable assembly of the states-general, convoked by Henry HI., was i2 I 1(> MANSARD'S HIILDlNd. held. It is a fiiK^ hall, about a iitiiidrcd feet loiij;', by sixt V broad. The western side of the quadrangle is the most modern. It was budt for CJaston of Orleans, by Mansard, Louis XI V.'s celebrated architect Of course all Frenchmen, who are ordinarily extremely proud of " le grand nionarque," and all belonging to him, al- though they tlid murder a better king, his great grandson, think Mansard's building ex- tremely fine. Hut 1 confess that to my eye its ponderous, unrelieved masses, its straight lines, and heavy cornices, have infinitely less of grace or beauty than the richer and more fanciful style of the sixteenth century. At the south-west corner of the quadrangle, between the work of Louis XI. and that of Gaston of Orleans, there is an old round tower of an earlier period than any other part of tiie present building — a remnant of the feodal fortress of the old counts of Blois — which is now used as a powder-magazine. This was the observatory of C'atluu'ine de Medicis, who was a great stargazer. On the topis .in ()|)en j)latform, with a stonc" table, like ;in ;dtar, in the middle ol it. 'J^he tower still bears tlu^ inscrij)tion, " Lhani.k sacrum." I know not whetliT the machiavellian old OBSERVATORY OF CATHKHINE DE MEDICIS, 1 1 7 lady ever used it as an observatory of terres- trial objects; but it is at all events admi- rably adapted to such a purpose, command- ing, as it does, a splendid view of the town beneath it, and the course of the river, and a wide extent of country on the southern side of it. What with lingering- long in every room, and prying into every nook and corner of the building — to the great irritation and impa- tience of the old concierge, who wanted to say by rote his oft-repeated obligato accom- paniment in each room, and then go on to the next, instead of which I preferred a cateche- tical method of extracting his information — and what with loitering around the exterior of the chateau, and seeking from what points of view it might be seen to the best advan- tage, my first day at Blois Vv^as well nigh gone before I said adieu to its principal ornament and boast. The dinner-hour at the Hotel de I'Europe was five ; and as soon as this rather long- some affair was over, I went out to the pro- menade, and remained lounging there and on the bridge, watching the numerous barges with their large white sails, which a stiff west wind was blowing gallantly up the river. 118 CAl-K AT BLOIS. till it was nearly dark, and then sought the friendly retreat of a caf6, to enjoy the luxu- ries of a cup of coffee, a cigar, and *' La Presse," till it was time to go to bed. RLOIS. 110 CHAPTER VIII. Blois — Roman Aqueduct — The Catliedral — Bishop's Palace — Gar- dens — School at Play — Evening Service in the Cathedral — " Via Crucis" — Scenic Effect — Fact versus Fanc}' — Journey to Cham- bord — Menars-le-Chateau — Situation of Chambord — Anecdotes of the Chateau — Marslial Saxe — Architecture of the Chateau — Return to Blois — Voyage to Ainboise — Steamboat aground — The River below Blois — Cliaumont — Catherine de Medicis — Arrival at Amboise — The Castle — Its History — The Conspi- racy of Amboise — Present State of the Castle — Excavations — Extraordinary Monument — Approach to the Chateau — View from the Terrace — Servants' Offices — " Changement de De- coration " — The Chapel — Carriage Staircase — Departure for Blere. The next day was spent in rambling about the town and strolling along the banks of the river. The upper part of the town contains a good many traces of ancient fortifications and fragments of monastic buildings. There is an aqueduct, too, a monument of an age anterior to the earliest date that can be as- signed to the ancient chateau, a bequest to Blois from its some-time masters, the Romans. It has been cut in the living rock by those workers for all time, and being kept in a pro- 120 POSITION OK HLOIS CATflRDRAL. per state of cleanliness and freedom iVoin ac- eumulations of earth, still furnishes to the town a copious supply of water, which is dis- tril)iited by several fountains in different parts of it. The catheflral is very finely placed, but is not worthy t)f its situation. From the river bank below, indeed, it makes rather an ini- j)osini;" appearance, showing hi of the little hill which there rises from the side of the l>.oire. BUILDING OF CHAMBORD. 127 From St. Die the road lies through some sandy vineyards, and mounts a small hill, from which Chambord is seen. Nothing' can well be conceived more cheerless, ugly, and miserable-looking than the situation of it. Placed in the midst of a low, swampy-looking bottom, with its horizon shut in on all sides, it does not possess even the usual compensa- tion for such disadvantages in luxuriant plan- tations, or rich green vegetation, but looks out on a vacant, unadorned, brown waste, which, though it cannot quite be called desert, certainly can lay but little claim to be styled meadow. Chambord was originally a manor of the counts of Blois, and came into the possession of the crown with the other dependences of that county. The chateau, as it now exists, was built by Francis I., Henry II., Louis XIIT., and Louis XIV., on plans furnished in the first instance by Primatice, but after- wards modified by Mansard. It was here that that celebrated architect first made the experiment of adding the apartments, which have from him taken the appellation of *' Man- sardes." Louis XIY. was in his youth particularly fond of Chambord, until he determined on building Versailles ; and it was here that, in 128 MAKTCH \1, I)K SAXE. the UK tilth of October, 1G70, Moli^rc's Bour- geois Gentilhomme was iicted for the first time. It was unlucky that Louis did not iiKike up his mind w^here he woukl live a little sooner, for when he abandoned Cham- lx)rd he had just ex})ended 2,451,403 francs on it. Louis XV. gave it to the Marechal de Saxe, as an appropriate reward for his services to Franco, and he ended his life here on the 30th of November, 1750. He had lived and died in the Lutheran religion, with reference to which the queen remarked at liis death, " II est bien fS-cheux qu'on ne puisse pas dire un De Profundis pour un homme, qui a fait chanter tant de Te Doum." Le Mareclial de Saxe had here, by the es|)e- cial permission of the king, two regiments, which the old soldier used to amuse himself l)y keeping in the most perfect state of disci- |)line. He superintended daily tiieir parade and evolutions, and kept uj) in all respects the forms and observances of a garrison. What a piototype en grande of my I'ncle Toby! The jilan on which the chateau is built is whiiiisi.al. .'iii(] tlic ;i|)p(';irancc ol' it grotesque in the extreme ()iiclai-g(' tower in I he centre of the building is tlie loftiest part of it. and contains a curiouslv-eoiistructed doid)ie stair, ARCHITECTURK OF THE CHATEAU. 129 which is handsomely executed. The principal building, or donjon of the castle, is a solid square built around this, and having at each angle a little tower not so high as that in the centre. Another range of building lower still surrounds this, and has also a turret at each angle, so that the entire mass assumes a py- ramidal form, which, thickly set \v\th all its little cupola-topped towers and innumerable chimneys, makes a strange-looking, but far from handsome whole. The appearance of it is rendered also still further grotesque and absurd by the white stone, of which it is built, being studded with a vast number of circular and diamond-shaped bits of black slate let in- to its surface. An old woman who inhabits some of the rooms, and who is the sole occupant of the immense mass, now the property of the Due de Bordeaux, walked with me through a vast number of empty halls and apartments of all sizes, grumbling all the way she went at the thorough drafts which were whistling through the long suites of rooms in every direction, and declaring that she could not think, for her part, what the people had been dreaming about to build a house all doors and windows like that. There is but little to gratify curiosity or VOL. I. K 130 iNTKinoK or thk cfiatkau. excite interest in the perambulation. Some of tlie apartments are still decorated with the F and the Salamander, Francis I.'s well known device, sculptured in relief, on the stone ; and others exhibit the ridiculously inflated vanity of Louis XIY., making itself manifest in his cognizance — a noonday sun, with the motto, " Nee pluribus impar." In those parts of the building constructed by Henry II., the cres- cent of Diana of Poitiers, and the II and D entwined, are yet to be seen. Hut all the fine frescoes, after designs by Leonardo da Yinci, which were begun here under Francis I., and afterwards finished by Jean Cousin, have pe- rished. The pane of glass, too, said to have been still in its place up to the revolution, on which F^rancis I. had written with a dia- mond, " Sotivent femme varie ; Mai habile (jui s'y fie!" has vanished. After I had walked through a mile or two of corridors, and staircases, and echoing halls, and deserted bowers, and had rcMuunerated, very inadecpiately I fear, the old dame for the rheumatisni she must have caught in accom- panying mo, I ndurncd to lilois in tinu* to leave it !)y the steamboat coming from Or- leans. Tliis arrived at Hlois about one o'clock, STEAMER AGROUND. 131 on its route to Tours, and came alongside of the little quay long- enough to allow some dozen or so of passengers to disembark, and about as many more to supply their places on board. My present destination was Amboise, which we ought to have reached in a little more than two hours. We did not, however, arrive there till past four, having been detained a long time by running aground, an accident it seems of no unfrequent occurrence, although the boat we were then in drew only ten inches of water. They generally, however, get ofFw^ith much less difficulty than it cost us on this occasion ; for the stream was running very swiftly, and the boat got athwart the sand- bank. A little nutshell of an iron boat, which they carry in case of such disasters, was hoisted into the water, and a man sent in it to fix an anchor some hundred yards or so above the bank we were on. To this a cable was attached, and thus, after no small diffi- culty, and by the exertions of all the crew, and most part of the passengers, we at length succeeded in hauling ourselves off. The banks of the river improve somewhat in appearance as we advance westward. The country is neither so low nor so monotonous. But I have not seen any thing as yet which k2 V'^'2 rHAi MONT. can justify the reputation the Loire enjoys for beauty. The stream itself is as much dis- figured by sands as above Blois. Tliere is, however, one object which occu- pies the eye satisfactorily for some distance. This is the chateau do Chaumont, wliich is equidistant from Blois and Ambnise, being four leagues and a lialf from citlicr. It is situated on the top of a well-wooded hill on the southern bank of the river, and must command a fine view of a long reach of the stream. This chateau was sold about the middle of the sixteenth century, toCatherine dc Mcdicis, ijy the lord of La Rochefoucauld, for the sum of a hundred and twenty thousand francs: niid it was here that this remarkable woman — a contemner of vulgar prejudices, yet her- self the slave of the absurdest of them, a ruler of kings, yet herself the tool of others, un- scruj)ulous, yet bigoted, shrewd, yet weak, crafty, yet duped — was w ont to retire from the more active cares of her tortuous political intrigue.-, and, surrounded by astrologers and magicians, a|)|)ly herself to studies, which she fondly hoped would enable hci- (osee the issue ol (hose inlricalc and crooked ijalh-^, in w hicli her ceaseless plans and niaeiiinat ions h.-ui in- vf)lvcd her. RIVER BEFORE AMBOISE. 133 Shortly after losing sight of Chaumont, the castle of Amboise, towering high above the surrounding objects on its lofty rock, becomes visible, and the boat presently shot under the bridge which crosses the river opposite the town, leaving me and two or three others to find our way to shore in a punt, as before at Meung. The river is divided at Amboise into two streams by a long strip of an island, one of which is crossed by a stone bridge, and the other by one of wood. The steamer took the northern or right hand stream ; but the town is on the southern bank. So that when our punt had landed us on the island (which it took us a good while to reach, as the current is there very rapid, and the boat had drawn us several yards down the stream while an old man, who could not move very fast, was disembarking), we had still to cross the island to the other stream before we reached the town. It was more than half-past four, therefore, by the time I had found my quarters for the night in a very good and unusually clean little inn, called the Boule d'Or. But I set forth, as soon as this was accomplished, on a reconnoitering ramble through the town, with the intention of examining a little the 134 ANTIQUITY OF AMUOISK. remarkable position of tlic chateau before visiting- the interior of it. The antiquaries dispute a good deal whe- ther or not there is sufficient evidence for sup- posing Aniboise to have been the site of a fortress in the time of the Romans. Chalmel, the historian of Tourraine, seems to think tliat there is not. The popular tradition in the country says that Julius Caesar founded a castle here. And this is, to my mind, cor- roborated by tile nature of tlie locality ; for, knowing as we do that Tourraine was go- verned by the Romans for five hundred and thirty-eight years, I do not think it at all likely that a spot so eminently calculated for the purpose, and so remarkable in every way, shoukl have escaped their observation, or not have been turned to advantage. A small rivulet, called the Amasse, falls into the Loire at this point, flowing round the base of a chalk rock, which runs up precipitously to a very considerable height between the two rivers. Some deep cutting has completely separated this lofty headland from the rising ground behind it, and has left it a completely isolated platform, raised to a height of about a hundred feet, on a rock whose sides are as inaccessible as a wall. The foundation (►( tlu' present building. THE CASTLE. 135 however, is due to Charles VII. Louis XI., Charles VI 1 1., and Francis I., all added to it. It was alienated from the crown by Louis XV., and became the property of the Due de Choiseul. It afterwards passed into the pos- session of the Due de Penthi^vre, and now be- longs to Louis Philippe, as his heir. It was frequently inhabited by Louis XL, and still more so by Charles VIII. , who was born and died there. In subsequent reigns, also, the court often came there for short pe- riods, and of course, therefore, the chateau of Amboise has its share of those tragic remi- niscences which followed surely in the train of the kings of France of that period. But the most important event in its history is the conspiracy against the Guises, in 1560, which is known in history as the ** conjuration d'Amboise." Henry II. died in 1559. The young king, Francis II., was weak in cha- racter, and a minor. His mother Catherine and the Guises shared all power and autho- rity between them. The principles of pro- testantism, potently assisted by political jea- lousies and party feeling, were rapidly spread- ing, and the persecutions, proscriptions, and cruelties of the Guises, and the more bigoted of the Catholic party, kept pace with them. Great was the general discontent and indig- 13C CONSPIRACY nation throughout the country; and the Guises, not sufliciently cautious, or not suHi- ciently all-|)Owerl"ul with the victim ol" their lust of |K)\ver and place, had not been able to keep irom Francis himself all knowledge of the feelings of the nation, and the cause of them. "On m'assuic," he is recorded to have said, with inlinite naivete, to the princes of Lor- raiii. after the attempt of the conspirators to surprise the court, "on m'assure (jue Voii ncn veul qu'a vous ; je voudrais done cjue vous vous eloignassiez pendant quelque tem|)s, ])our savoir au juste ce cjui en est." Poor bov ! But the (luises stuck tight to him, and the country was plunged in civil war. The " conjuration d'Amboise" was om^ of the first partial outi)reaks of that tremendous fire of civil discord, which so soon afterwards blazed forth over t lie whole count rv — the first spittings ol" the volc.'ino. whose (hdl, sullen roar had for some time past been heard coming no from the social de|)ths of the nation. A meeting of sonu^ of the heads of the Pro- test.ant party took place in the chateau of the Duke of i>oui-l)()n at N'endome. Some of the; members of this .'isseni 1)1 \ wei'e not p|-(>j).'U'e(l to adopt such measures as were then ])roposed. Ol< AM BOISE. 137 But at a second meeting a plan of action was determined on, and the execution of it en- trusted to a certain gentleman of Perigord, named La Renaudie. This man travelled over France, and indeed into Switzerland and the neighbouring provinces of Germany, for the purpose of seeking partizans. The hatred of the Guises was almost universal, and he was emineiitly successful in his search. All seemed to favour the hopes of the conspi- rators. At last, when every thing was nearly ready for the attempt, the object of which was to make away with the Guises, and obtain possessiosi of the king's person. La Renaudie communi- cated the secret to one Desavenelles, an ad- vocate of Paris, who had lent his house for a meeting of the conspirators. This man, fear- ing what the result might be to himself in case the project should miscarry, went to the secretary of the Duke de Guise, and revealed to him the whole plot. The court, which was at Blois at that time, was considerably alarmed ; and it was deter- mined to remove the king immediately to Am- boise, a place far stronger naturally, and then in a much better state of preparation for re- sistance. This removal somewhat discon- certed the conspirators ; but, notwithstanding 138 CONSPIRACY this, and sundry other symptoms, proving plainly enough that the suspicions at least of the court were awakened, if not that the plot was entirely betrayed, they determined to risk every thing rather than abandon the at- tempt. On the evening of the tenth of March, in the year 1561, considerable numbers of the con- spirators had dispersed themselves over the country, in all the villages and Iiamlets around Amboise. Among others, the Baron of Cas- telnau, with a troop of partizans, entered one of the faubourgs of Tours. Here the gover- nor, who was in the interest of the Guises, immediately on hearing of the arrival of armed men in the town, went in person, with a party of soldiers, to satisfy himself of the character of his guests, and, not liking their a})pear- ance, was about to arrest Castelnau. This produced an onset of the two parties, in which the governor's men were worsted. They ran through the streets, calling on the inhal)itants to assist them ; but a very large proportion of the population of Tours having embraced the new doctrines, and the political princi|>les connected with tlicm, the cili/.ens remained traiuiuiily in tlicir iiouses, and refused to pay any attention to the apj)eal. So the Baron of Castelnau and his men marched oil to join an- OF AM BOISE. 131) other detachment of the conspirators at Noi- zay, a village about half way between Tours and Amboise. Information of all this, how- ever, was conveyed to the Duke of Nemours, who immediately marched to Noizay, and surrounded it with a larger body of troops than that of the malecontents. Upon which Castelnau and his party most inconceivably gave up their arms, and were all marched prisoners to Amboise. The king's troops were equally successful in every direction, defeating the conspirators in detail, before the various dispersed parties had time to unite themselves into a body, which would have made the issue of the strug- gle more doubtful, and might have entirely changed the subsequent destinies of France. La Renauciie, however, was meanwhile making a last effort to gather together a suffi- cient body of the insurgents from the dispersed fragments of the different parties, to have some chance of being able to make head against the royal forces. He had been, before he un- dertook the conduct of this conspiracy, a man of broken fortunes and not unsullied character ; and he had shown in the manage- ment of it a degree of ability in projecting, and activity in executing similar enterprises, which would have made him a dangerous, as 110 DlvVni or l.A UKNAUDIE. Ilis position r(Mi(l(M*0(l liiin a desperate, man liad he escaped upon this occasion. Hut such was not fated to be the case. As he was ridino; through the forest of Chateau- Regnault, a small town a few miles to the north of Aniboise, with a small band only of followers, he was encountered by his own cousin, Pardaillan. at the head of two hun- dred of the king's horse. Pardaillan instantly spurred forward uj^on him, pistol in hand, but was laid dead at his feet by a eouj)le of blows of La Renaudie's sabre, lie himself, however, was shot dead almost in the same instant by one of Pardaillan's followers. His body was carried to Amboise, where it was huna,' on a gibbet erected in the centre of the bridge, and was afterwards quartered. As for the prisoners, who had been brought in to Amboise in great numbers, the chiefs were thrown into dungeons, to be alteiwards interrogated, while the common s(^ldiers were either strung up in long lines on the walls of the chateau, or thrown with their hands and feet tied into the Loire, without any form of process or trial whatsoever. Nevcrl hclcss, there remained a vast nund)er of j)risoners in liie dungeons of the castle, and the king, by the advice of the chancellor, h'raneois ( )li\ ier. w islied t hat their lives should MASSACRE OF 1HK PKISONERS. 141 be spared. But, just as the balance on which the existence of so many human beings de- pended was inclining- towards mercy, a most unfortunate and imprudent attempt was made by a certain captain, named La iVlotte, to sur- prise the chateau. His own fate and that of all his fellow-prisoners was then sealed ; and fifteen hundred men were that day condemned to die in the town of Amboise. Castelnau, and many of the principal con- spirators, were beheaded in the presence of the court, which blushed not, says the histo- rian, to come and feed their eyes and gratify their vengeance with the bloody spectacle. The remainder were hung. The market- places and streets of Amboise stood thick with gibbets, yet could not supply space enough for all who had to die. Many were thrown into the Loire. Yet enough remained to encumber the streets of the town with the dead. High on the castle rock the triumphant Guise looked down upon the frightful scene. But the very air became loathsome with the unburied corpses of their slaughtered ene- mies ; and the effluvia from the infected town rose even to the walls of the lordly castle, and pursued the inmates to their chambers. The chancellor, Francois Olivier, is re- 142 I'URSENT STATE OF THE CHATEAU. corded to have died of o^ricf and horror at a carnage which he had in vain endeavoured to avert. The scene became too friglitful and too loathsome even for the appetite of revenge and hate, and it was decided that the court slioiild be removed to Tours. So ended the " conjuration d'Amboise," one of the most bloody tragedies of those blood-stained days, and certainly the most memorable event in the annals of the little town. In its latter days the chateau had been sufTercd to fall very much out of repair, till it came into the hands of its present owner. A large portion of it, indeed, was destroyed du- ring the revolution ; but the remaining parts have been put into good order and thorough repair. I observed, as I strolled around the foot of the castle rock, a large number of labourers at work, who, I found, were engaged in boring a passage for the highroad through the very middle of the mass on which the chateau stands. A way was already opened from one side to the other, through which I passed. It will not be long, therefore, before this singularly situated road is comj)leted. TIk; huge clialk dill" on which the castle stands is said to !)(• riddU'd in every direction bv snl)terrancan excavations, of whici) some CASTLE CHAPEL. 143 are known, but many more, though known to exist, have never been explored or their ex- tent ascertained. Under these circumstances, great care must have been necessary in testing the soundness and strength of that part of the rock, through which the new opening was to be made ; though I suppose that the vaults and dungeons below the castle could hardly have extended to so great a depth as to interfere with this new tunnel through the foot of the cliff. The most remarkable of the buildings on the platform of the rock, as seen from the town below, is a tiny little chapel, which, isolated from the rest of the chateau, stands on a pinnacle at the very extremest verge of the cliff. Its elegant form and delicate stone- work show themselves to great advantage against the clear sky ; and its extraordinary position makes it an extremely striking ob- ject from almost every part of the town below. I did not intend to visit the interior of the chateau till the next morning, as it was get- ting rather too late in the evening to see to advantage the view which I expected to enjoy from the top of the rock. But as there re- mained an hour of light after I had satisfied myself with viewing it in every possible direc- 144 EXTi;A()i{i)iNAin' monument. tion" from below, f j)assc(l uiu1(m* ;in old gate- way — the last remnant of the ancient fortifi- cations of the place — and took a turn through the streets of the old town. It would be im- possible for a stranger, dropped into any corner of Amboise, to mistake it for a modern town ; but there is little to remark in each individual building. In one of the churches, however, is a monument curious in itself, and still more so in connection with the legend attached to it. In the church of St. Florentin there is a sepulchral monument, representing a sarco- phagus with the figure of a dead Christ in it, and seven other figures standing around it. These represent St. .John the Baptist, Nico- demus, Joseph of Arimathea, the Virgin l\Iary, ISIary ^lagdalen, and two others of the women mentioned in the gospel. The curious part of the matter is, that these eight figures are all portraits, to each of which local his- tory enables us to assign an original. But far more extraordinary still is it, that the mem- !)crs of such a fdtuihj pfir/i/ as these figures represent, should have been willing to be thus handed down to posterity in connection with each other, and tliat, nu)r(M)V(M% under the semblances of (he holy personages they have MONUMKNTAL MORALITY. 145 selecte(l to personate in this strangely chosen masquerade. The figure of Christ represents Philbert Babou de la Bourdaisiere, to whose memory the monument was erected. The St. John and Nicodemus are his sons, Jacques and Philbert. One of the holy women represents his wife, dame Marie Gaudin ; and the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalen, and the other female figure, are the likenesses of her three daugh- ters. This is all vastly well ! but who is the eighth statue? Who is the tall, handsome figure which personifies " the just man, who waited for the kingdom of God?" Joseph of Ariinathea, reader, is no other than the gal- lant Francis I., who thus takes his place among this ''united" family, so highly ho- noured by this permanent association with their sovereign, no less naturally than conde- scendingly, seeing that the exemplary mother, as well as all three of the young ladies, who have so appropriately chosen their characters in the family group, were all of them, one after the other, his mistresses. With what honest pride must the Babous of after-days have looked on this permanent memorial of the family honours ! And how sweet and wholesome a lesson of morality must the " rus- tic moralists," who frequented the church in VOL. I. L l'i<) AMHOISF. CASTl.KS. which this edifying monument was erected, have (hawn from the toucliing story so well told by it! Early the next morning 1 presented myself before the gate of the castle, and requested permission to visit it. The old porter looked out of a window in the face of the cliff", out of which his dwelling is hollowed, and admitted me by jndling a string. This gateway is about half way up the rock, and must have offered great facilities for defence. A road raised on an artificial mound leads up to it, and there enters the face of the cliff. A steep ascent leads thence by a covered way up to the platform above, in the midst of which it emerges. On reaching it, the visitor of these days finds himself in the midst of a |)rc'tty well- kept garden. ()[)posite to him, on the extre- mity of the platform, towards the Loire, is what remains of the ancient chateau, which has, under its present proprietor, assumed the ap|)earance of a moderate- sized, though venerable-looking and |)ieturcs(jue gentle- fnan's house. At some hundred yards distance, on the western side of the cliff, overlooking the town, is the ex(piisite little chapel above mentioned. Along the cd'^^v of the rock, to the north and VIEW FROM THE TERRACE. 147 west, is a magnificent terrace protected by a parapet wall, commanding' a glorious view of the valley of the Loire. Blois is visible to the east, and the towers of the cathedral of Tours still more distinctly to the west. Be- hind the present chateau, on the part of the rock farthest from the town, are plantations, and " jardins d I'Anglais," with some fine trees. The whole of this large space was formerly occupied by the buildings of the castle, which must have resembled a town rather than a single residence. As it is now altered it must make a delightful dwelling. It is very sel- dom that any of the royal family come there, howev er. The king himself has never visited Amboise. A servant in the royal livery, who was watering some flowers in the garden, left his occupation to show me the interior of the building. There is not much of it, and the rooms are fitted up in a style of great simplicity. The servants' offices are the most interesting- part of the present fabric. These are situated in excavations of the rock, looking out upon that face of it which commands the Loire. They were formerly occupied by " offices " of a very different sort, which were as indispen- sable in the arrangements of a feodal fortress l2 I lb CUANCJKS AT AMI'.OISK. as those which liave succeeded them are to the abodes of the present <»eiieratioii. The alterations which the citizen-king has effected in this part of liis mansion are amusingly characteristic of the times we live in ; and tlic various destinations of the modernized, but still strangely-shaped, and still more strangely situated chambers through which 1 was shown, contrasted whimsically enough, and pleasantly too, witii the former purposes of the same localities. Thus the " j)atis- serie ■" is made, where the "question" was forujcrly put to the victims of judicial barba- rism. The " argenterie " is safely secured in a ci-devant dungeon ; and the " batterie de cuisine " occupies a gallery along the face of the rock, from which a battery of another sort was wont to pour its less agreeable, though, perhaps, not less tlangerous contents. On quitting these transmogrified chambers, my conductor took me across the garden to the little chapel. This also has been entirely restored and repaired by the present owner. It is a perfect golhic churcli in iiiiiiialiiie. It looks like a toy ; and the beauty and justness of iis tiny [jrojxjrtions, the dainty delicacy of its carved stone-work, and the thorough state of repaii- in wiiich it has been put. make it a perfect bijou. The little building is twelve CARRIACiF STAIK. 149 paces in length, and ten across the transepts. Behind the altar are some steps, which go down to a chamber hollowed out of the rock beneath, which was formerly a place of sepul- ture, but has been turned into a sacristy. When I had sufficiently admired this little model of a church, and had at length satiated my eye with gazing over the view commanded by the terraces of the chateau, I was about to descend by the same road which had con- ducted me up. But my guide told me that there still remained what he considered the greatest curiosity about the place. This proved to be a huge tower situated at the south side of the rock, and reaching from the level of the town to the top of the platform, and con- taining a spiral inclined plane, by which horses and even carriages might mount to the top of the cliff. The walls were in several places marked by the boxes of wheels, which had scraped them in passing. The idea of such a stair, if stair it can be called, was not quite new to me, as I have seen a similar one at Stuttgardt, by which the knights used to ascend to their chambers at the top of the ancient castle of that city, without dismount- ing from their steeds. T returned from my early visit to the castle to the '' Boule d'Or," which I strongly re- 150 (.A H()ri>i-, iron. commend to anyone who may find themselves in want ot' "entertainment for man or horse," in the nejohhonrliood of Amhoise, just in time to depart, thoiigli at the expense of doing- so without any breal^fast, by a diligence which was passing through the town, to Blere. BLERK. 151 CHAPTER IX. Bleie — The One Fact, in its History — Clienonceaiix — Its History — Its Last Proprietor before the Revolution — Its Architecture — Beaulieu — Loches — Valley of the Indre — Picturesque Scenery — The Chateau of Loches — Anecdote of its History — Agnes Sorel — Her Tomb — Inscriptions — The Collegiate Church — Town of Loches — Remarkable Sign of an Inn — How an Old Woman made Better Soup than she intended — Journey to Tours. Bler^ is a little town a few leagues to the south of Amboise, with nothing whatever to distinguish it from many another one. But there were brave men before Agamemnon. And so I doubt not there have passed deeds of pith and moment at Blere. Both have perished for the same reason, "caruerunt quia vate sacro." Where human hearts have been beating and human passions working weal and woe for fifteen hundred years, since Blere was founded by one Blireius, in the middle of the fourth century, it cannot be that nothing- was done bravely, said wisely, thought nobly, or suffered patiently, which deserved to be handed down to posterity, besides the inte- resting fact that Philippe-le-bel and his queen 152 HLKUK. slept tliere on the night of the twenty-third of August, in the year of our Lord, 1301. Yet, with the exception of a long list of the names of their seigneurs, this is all that I have been able to discover of the history of Blere. Modest Bl^r^ians ! Here have ye been unobtrusively eating and drinking, being born and dying, for fifteen hundred years, without ever dream- ing that any of ycmr sayings or doings were worth recording for the instruction of your descendants ! The unmarked little town would have been as much neglected by me as it apparently has been by every body else, had it not been for its neighbourhood to Chenonceaux, a spot to which fortune's lottery has assigned a far dif- ferent fate. This celebrated chateau is but a league and a half from Bler6, and immediately on arri- ving at the town, I set out to walk thither. Chenonceaux was a " chatellenie " under its feodal lords, (one of whom, .lean Marques, in the reign of Charles VL, received an Knglish garrison into his castle, in punishment for which llie chateau was dismantled, and the woods cut " a hauteur d'infamie,") till it was taken possession of by Anne de Montmorenci on behalf of the crown, in 1535, on the ground of its last proprietor, Thomas Bohier, having CHRNONCEAUX. 153 died a hundred nm.] ninety thousand francs in the king's debt. From this period dates the celebrity of Chenonceaux. Successively the possession and the habitation of Diana of Poitiers, Ca- therine de Medicis, and Louise de Lorraine, widow of Henry HL, it was frequently during this period honoured by the sejour of royalty. The chateau then passed into the family of Vendome. Louis Joseph de Vendome, elder brother of Philippe de Vendome, grand prieur de France, died without children in 1712, leaving the estate and mansion of Chenon- ceaux to his wife, Marie Anne de Bourbon Conde. Her daughter by a former husband sold it in 1720 to the Due de Bourbon, who again sold it in 1733 to the well-known Claude Dupin. Then commenced the second period of Che- nonceaux 's celebrity. Its new proprietor as- sembled annually within its walls all that was most distinguished in literature and art, during that brilliant period of both in France. M. Dupin himself was the author of a refu- tation of his friend Montesquieu's book, which he entitled "Observations sur un livre intitule, de L'esprit des Lois." It was printed at Paris in 1753, in three volumes, 8vo., and is exceedingly rare, as the author was induced lol .9ocii:i^ \r to sii|)|)r(»ss the whole edition, of wlneh live or six copies only eseaped. It is said that Montesquieu was so much alarmed at the a))- pearance of it, that he prevailed on Madame de Pomj)a(lour to use her influence with Du- ])in to induce him to suppress it. " II est digne de remarque," says Chalmel, in his history of Tonrraine, "(pie chaque siecle, depuis le quinzieme, offre a Chenon- ceaux sa jihysionomie particuliere. Manoir d'une famillc factieuse pendant les guerres que I'Anglais faisait k la France ; sous Fran- cois premier, monument de la protection, (jue ce prince accordait aux arts, ainsi que de son gout pour les plaisirs ; t^moin de la magnifi- cence et des intrigues de Catherine de M6di- cis ; et peu de temps a|)res du g^nereux par- don accord^ par le grand Menri aux fana- tiques qui osaient hii disputer nn trone dont il fit la gloire et les d6lices ; retraite au seizieme siecle de la pieuse veuve de Henry III., et au dix-scptieme de I'un des plus grands capi- taines du regne de Louis XIV.; il etait re- serve a M. et a M" Dupin de marquer a Icur toui- I'epoque brillant du di\-lniilieme .siecle, en reunissant dans leur riant asil(^ les per- sonages les plus illustresoii les plus aimables de cette periode si feeonde en grands homines, parmi les(piels se faisaient encore rejnar(pier CHENONCEAUX. 155 M. Dupin par son gout et son Erudition, M'' Diipin par sa beaute, ses graces et son esprit. La J. J. Rousseau, qui leur fiit attache quelque temps en quality de secretaire, com- posa plusieurs pieces pour le theatre du cha- teau ; sur lequel iut joue pour la premiere fois le Devin de Village. " Chenonceaux reunissait habituellement dans la belle saison I'elite de ce que les lettres, les sciences, et les arts, offraient de plus dis- tingue, tels que Fontenelle, Mairan, Buffon, le comte de Tressan, Montesquieu, le marquis de St. Aulaire, I'abbe de Saint-Pierre, Mably, Condillac, son frere, M. M. de Sainte Palaye, Lord HoVm^brocke et Voltaire lui-meme. Au milieu de tant de celebres personages bril- laient aussi Mesdames de Boufflers, de Luxem- bourg, de Rohan-Chabot, de Forcalquier, de Mirepoix, de Tencin, et la Marquise du Def- fant, tous attires, moins peut-etre par le charme des lieux que par celui de la society de leurs maitres." In the midst of all this wit and beauty, gaiety and splendour, how importunate and disagreeable is the recollection that the wealthy host was a " fermier general;" and the reflection which will follow on the state of those from whose hard-earned sous the colos- sal fortunes of these financial leviathans were accumulated ! 15G ARCHITKCTURE AT fHENONCEAUX. With this recollection in one's mind, it seems douhly a miracle that Chenonccaux should have escaped tlie storm of the revolu- tion. Yet such was the case. M'" Dupin, also, the mistress of these gay fetes, survived the social system, of v.hich they were the off- spring*, and died in the strangely-changed scene of them in \1\)\), in the ninety-third year of her age. The building is a huge, strangely-con- structed mass, built in part over the river Cher. Diana of Poitiers built the bridge com- municating with the other side of the river, and constructed the kitchens of the chateau in the three first piers of it. Chenonceaux, however, is now chiefly worth visiting for the sake of those portions of its architecture which mark the moment of the transition from the gothic forms to those of the renaissance. From Chenonceaux I returned to Hldr6, and wont on to [^oclies the same afternoon. Towards Loches the road passes through tlic remains of the ancient forest of the same name. j)arts of which contain some line old trees, and offer to the eve sevei'al inviting- vistas of Hiivsdaelian sc(mhm"v. About a mile before reach in<:;' Loches w(^ |)asse(l through the long, (brty, straggling street of lieaulieu ; .in .'ippollat ion which a local wi-iter very BKALILIKU. 157 justly admits to be such a niisnomer, tliat he is led to believe that the latiu name, from which the Fre..ch is taken, was *' Belli-locus" rather than " Bellus-locus ;" the place having doubtless deserved that name at some time or other, which it certainly never could have done the other. Leaving Beaulieu in possession of its name, which, after all, it may lay quite as good a claim to as many a " Bellevue Place," " Para- side Row," and " Prospect Terrace," which I have met with in my travels, we crossed the wide valley of the Indre, the river which, in conjunction with the Loire, gives its name to the department, and entered Loches. There was yet time before the light failed for a stroll up the valley, which strongly in- vited it. I never saw a lovelier scene of its kind, or one more adapted to the pencil. The broad flat bottom of the valley is occupied with watermeads of the freshest green, and rich with most luxuriant herbage, through which the river serpentines its lazy, capricious way, visiting either side of the vale, by turns, as if to assert, like the proud descendant of a fallen dynasty, its ancient right to fill the whole valley with its waters, which it is no longer able to exercise. The whole of this irrigated space, as far 15S L()( iii;s. u|) iho vallov ns tho c\c could roarli. was studtled over with various herds, which were j;radi.ially i>athcrino- into difrcrcnt groups, and begiiiinng. "full of the pasture," to move lazily and slowly towards their respective homesteads on the gently-rising wooded hills, whic'li bound the valley. To the right, the quiet little town, and above it, hanging over th(i watermeads below, tlie isolated rock which rises above the country around, as if for the express purpose of affording a site for its ancient castle, are leading features in tlie landscape. The remains of tlie once ex- tensive chateau, with the collegiate church, formerly dependent on it, and included within its precincts, crown this eminence ; and are precisely in that stage of decay which har- monises best with the soft and tranquil nature of the surrounding scenery. The rugged masses of broken walls, and rent towers, still grimly frowning amid the ruins that attest the final victory of time, such as those with which Salvator loved to enhance the savage wildness of his landscapes, would mar the dreamy serenity of these peacefid fields. Hut the pietures(|uely time-stricken fragments of the venerable building, still habitable, though not by princes or nobles, and the crumbling towers of the old church. SCENERY. 159 with their quaint pointed roofs, are in perfect keeping' with the other features of the scene. On the other side of the valley, at a greater jjistance, the tall, handsome tower of Beaulieii church, formerly belonging to a rich convent of Benedictines, makes an imposing object, and assists much in the composition of the picture. Over all, the rich, warm rays of the setting sun were throwing a golden light, sparkling on the river where it was here and there visible, brightening the ever-returning youthful verdure of the trees and pastures, and playfully mocking the hoary age of man's decaying creations with a fleeting gleam of youth-like light and cheerfulness. As f returned from my walk, after the last horizontal rays had vanished from the valley, the curfew-bell of Loches was ringing out " the knell of parting day," and mingled pleasingly its softened sounds with the rippling of the many little streams, by which the water of the Indre is made to irrigate every part of the valley. 1 have rarely enjoyed a walk more than I did this evening's stroll in the valley of the Indre beneath Loches ; and I returned to the inn, at which the diligence had deposited me, to record this in my note-book as decidedly a " dies creta notandus." 1<)0 OMVKN DAIM. A couple of hours the next morning, before !)reakfiist, were employed in examining the inteiior of the town ami the remains of the castle. The principal remaining part of this is now used as a court-house for the despatch of the business of the arrondissemcnt, of wliich Loches is the chef-lieu. It is a place of sombre souvenirs, having been used for several generations as a state prison. When, in tlie list of governors of t!iis castle, we read the name of Oliver Daim, Louis XL's well-known barber — a name at which men used to tremble, and which pos- terity has (loomed to an immortality of infamy as lasting as that of his master — we are at no loss to know what was the destination of the Ibrtress, to which was a[)pointed so redoubt- able a governor. He was in fact placed there, as an historian of Loches says : " moins cominc gouverneur, (jue comme geolier du chateau." Tlie infamous Cardinal lvalue was one of his prisoners here, after having been for some time shut up in one of the celebrated iron cages — his own invention, according to tra- dition — on the wal's of Plessis les Tours. Halue's crime was treason, in betraying the secicts of I^ouis XL's cabinet to his detested enemy, Charles of fiurgurub. His treachery LOUIS XI. -1(31 ought to have shewn Louis that his plan of confiding- every thing to men of low extraction, who owed every thing to his bounty, was not a sure means of securing their gratitude, and should have taught him the folly of expecting that a man whom he knew to be an unprin- cipled scoundrel, and whom he required to be so unscrupulously to others, should be faithful and honest towards him. But such are ever the inconsistencies of knavish cunning. The principal lion at Loches is the tomb of Agnes Sorel, or Seurelle, rather, as the name is written in all the inscriptions of the time. It was formerly in the collegiate church, where her body was buried — her heart and bowels having been interred at Jumieges — but was removed most unreasonably and sacrilegiously by Napoleon, as the people there say ; but, in fact, by his officer, to the buildings of the sous-prefecture, where it is now shewn to the curious, in a little, damp, half-ruined cell. When Charles died, and Louis XI. succeeded him, the canonsof Loches, knowing the dislike he had always borne to her, requested his permission to turn her monument out of their church. But the king- bid them " respecter la cendre de la belle des belles;" unless, indeed, they chose to give up tlie two thousand golden crowns which Agnes VOL. I. M 1C2 TOMB or AGNES SOREL. had left to them by will. He, however, gave them six thousand francs more to assist in quieting- their consciences. The monument consists of a figure of Agnes, reclining on an altar-tomb, bearing several inscriptions. The following records the re- moval of it to its present situation. " Les Clianoinos de Loclies, enricliis de ses dons, Demanderent a Louis XI. D'eloigner son toiiibcau de leur chcrur. J'y cousens, dit il ; mais rendez la dot. Le tombeau y resta. Un archeveqiie de Tours moins juste Le fit relegiier dans une cliapelle. A la revolution il fut detruit. Des hommes seusibles recueillirent Ics restes d'Agnes Et le general Pomraereul, prefet d'Indro-et-Loire, Beleva le mausolee de la scule maitrosse de nos rois Qui ait bien nierite de .sa patrie. En mettant pour prix a ses faveiu-s L'e-xpulsiou des Anglais hors de la France. Sa restaiiration cut lieu I'an MDCCCV^L Among several ancient inscriptions I will transcribe only one, as a notable specimen of the talents of that day for overcoming the almost insurmountable dillicultics, which those Quixotic versifiers imposed upon themselves to such a degree as to render rhythm or rea- son out of the question. It will be observed that not only do the following lines rhyme both at the end and in l\\c middle, but that the thirtcon first of (hrm form an acrostic of Agnes Seurellk. ACROSTIC ON HRR NAMK. 163 It must be owned that some parts of it are sufficiently obscure, and not a little irre- verent. " Astra petit mollis Agnes, redimitaque flore Grato CBelicolis, banc credo vigere decore. Nulla sub aethereo thalamo permansit imago, Ejus namque Deo placuit sublimis origo. Simplex alloquiis, at libera munera dando Sacris ecclesiis, et egenis subveniendo. Kripuit pariter animam mors atque cruorem, Veuarum per iter solitum prsestare decorem, Rexit Venionis, Issolduiii quoque geiitem. Effleat hinc omnis ipsam populus morientem. Liiniua Belaltam Vincennarum comitantem Lseta per banc vitam tenuit turrim resonantem, Et Roquasereria fuit illi subdita jure. Uli propitia sit. virginis optio puree Quarn pingi voluit ratio de jure Ducissam ; Nam titulis decuit ornari talibus ip«am. Anno milleno nono, simul et quadrageno Cum quadracenteno decessit ab orbe sereno ; Nona dies Februi vitam cum sanguine movit: Prosint spiritui quae sfepe precamina vovit. Et si defunctte nomen cognoscere curas, Metrorum primas tredecim conjunge figuras." If difficulties overcome be tokens of success, it will be admitted that this is the production of a successful poet. The chateau of Loches, when entire, must have been an immense building. The walls and gates which surrounded its precincts yet remain, and inclose, besides that part of its remains which is now the sous-prefecture, two fine old towers, now used as a prison, the old collegiate church, whose quaint architecture and circular-headed arches attest a high de- al 2 164 TOWN or I.OCHF-S. gree of antiquity, and several modern dwell- ings. From two or tlirec j)oints of this in- closure a good view may be obtained over the valley \viiich was the scene of my last night's walk ; l)ut the best is from a balcony at the back of the sous- prefecture. Hesides the buildings which have been men- tioned as occupying the elevated platform of the chateau, Loches has sundry other relics of the feodal days, such as bits of the town wall, one or two of the old gates, with their peaked roofs and grim little iron-grated windows, and a few ancient houses. On one of these, which had become a little cabaret in its old age, though it had evidently seen better days, I observed, aflixed as a sign, a representation of Charon in his boat, ferrying over the Styx a very jolly-looking soul in a cocked hat and blue coat, who had a huge bottle in his iianti, from which he was offering the grim old boat- man a sup. I left Loches at three in the afternoon by a diligence which j)asse(l tiirough it from the south, and reached Tours a liKle after eiiace bounds tlie valley of the liidre. The whole of this, as far as it extends, is hollowed out into a vast number of truly troirlodyt ical ha- OLH WOMAN'S SOUP. 165 bitations, the chimneys of them appearing at the top of the cliff like so many little vol- canoes. An old woman in the diligence told a long story about a good wife, who inhabited one of them, finding her " soupe maigre" one Fri- day particularly good to her surprise but great contentment, till, at the bottom of the pot, she found a snake which had fallen into it down the chimney. The snake made excel- lent soup, and if it had happened on any other day it would have been a piece of good luck, and there would have been an end of it. But here had the good soul been eating " gras' on a Friday. She thought the snake was a young one of the old serpent's, expressly sent to fling himself into her pot, and be made soup of — a martyr to the bad cause, for the perdition of her sonl. She hurried to the cure, and as- sured him, with tears in her eyes, that, though the soup had tasted particularly good, she had not the slightest notion of what was in the pot till she came to the bottom of it ; on the strength of which assurance the good priest gave her absolution, admonishing her only to put a cover on her pot for the future — on Fridays. The remainder of the journey to Tours pre- sented nothing of particular interest. The 166 JOURNEY TO TOURS. road lies throug'h a country ricli in tliat spe- cies of beauty which arises from all the agree- able associations connected with luxuriant crops, thriving- industry, and all the indica- tions of agricultural prosperity and abundant harvests, but possessing none of the attrac- tions of picturesque scenery. It was dark wlicn we arrived at Tours, and I was lucky in stundjling at once on so good an inn as the " Houle d'Or," the namesake of my Amboise hostelry. REGULATION TO PREVENT SUICIDE. 167 CHAPTER X. Tower of the Cathedral of Tours — Regulation for the Prevention of Suicide — Furniture of a Sacristan's House — A Fall from the Tower — Preparations for Suicide a la Franpaise — View from the Tower — Position of Tours — Plessis les Tours — Interior of the Cathe- dral — Church of St. Martin — Its Former Celebrity — Its Chapter — And other Members — Its History — Tours iu the present Day — Its former Population — Present appearance of the Town — Former Luxury of the Inhabitants — Guillaume le Breton's De- scription of the Town — The Bridge — The Rue Royale — " La Cite" — Mode of Building a Town in the Middle Ages — Quaint Names of Streets — Anecdotes concerning them — Residence of Tristan I'Ermite — Public Library — English at Tours — Departure for Saumur. Before breakfast the next morning I sought out the sacristan of the cathedral church of St. Gatien, and requested to be conducted to the summit of one of its two splendid towers. The sacristan himself was engaged in some of his multifarious duties in the church, but his wife, an old woman some sixty or seventy years of age, was ready to accompany me, provided I could find somebody to go with me, as it was forbidden to take up a single person. The same absurd regulation — as I cannot but consider it — is in force at Paris 168 TOURS. with regard to tlie towers of Notre Diime. The object is to prevent people from making an improper use of tlie church tower, by turn- ing it into a place of self-execution ; as if any man, totally unaware of any such a project, could prevent another from throwing* himself over the parapet, if ho was determined so to do. However, the orders of the chapter were not to be disputed, and, as I knew no one in the city of Tours whom I could invite to go with me on such an expedition, I was about to turn away, and give the matter up. The old lady, however, had no intention of giving up so easily her prospective franc, so she begged me to wait a few minutes, while she endeavoured to (ind somebody to stand god- father to the |)ropriety of my intentions on reaching the top of the tower. For liiis pur- pose she sallied forth into the street, leaving me at leisure to examine a very miscellaneous assortment of censers, huge wooden pvramids, painted to resemble wax candies, tall ciosses, palls elegantly " parsem6" with large glisten- ing till tears, and various other ecclesiastical paraphernalia, which her mansion, situated close to the f(jot ol the lower, and communi- cating with the church, contained. In a few minutes she returned with a poor, tottering. CHAPTER RhXJULATlONS. 1 <)9 decrepit old man, who I sliould have thought would have found it impossible to crawl to the top at all, and who could not have made the least resistance to my throwing- him over, if 1 thought fit so to do, and much less could have prevented me from " doing what T would with my own." However, he was sufficient to satisfy the letter of the law, and that was enough. So off I set with my old man and old woman, and finding, when once inside the door at the bottom, all the doors open, I went on to the top of the tower, leaving them to follow as they pleased. When at the top I heard the poor old man's cough rumbling among the sinuosities of the spiral staircase, and the stroke of his crutch on each stair, for some minutes before he emerged at the top of it, and sat himself down forthwith on the top- most step. He did not care to take a single look at all he had left below him, but sat there on the stair head till I was ready to go down again. For sheer pity I could not avoid pay- ing him the same fee that I gave the old wo- man, though the understanding between us had been that she should provide a sponsor for me at her proper cost and charges. She told me that this precautionary measure on the part of the chapter only dated from 170 ANECDOTE OF three months since, and was adopted in conse- (jiKMue ol' an act, ol" wliich she had herself been witness. She then pointed out to me a certain spot from which a youn;^^ man had throw n liim- sclf before her eyes. The poor old soul declared that she had never recovered the shock it gave her. She had not, until the present day, been up the tower herself since ; and in truth she seemed quite overpowered at the sight of the spot, and the vivid remcnil)rance of the scene which it recalled. Me throw himself from that side of the tower which overlooks the nave of the church, and fell across one of the flying buttresses which adorn it. Not- withstanding the tremendous height, and the terrible nature of his fall, which almost severed him in two, as he was found lying, like a sack of corn, doubled over the ridge of the flying buttress, he lived for thirty hours after it. The poor old woman said her first impulse, after seeing him take the leap, and hearing, as her straining eyes followed him in his fall, the dull dead sound which announced the ar- rival of the body at the bottom, was to rush to tho other si(h'. and scream to the j)e()|)le below, liut she was unable to make them hear, or to draw any attention. A ii()rril)le fear of beinii- there alone tluMi cam(^ over her, THE CAl'HEDKAL TOWER. 171 and she hurried down the broken stairs as fast as her old hmbs would carry her, till, coming; nearly to the level of the roof of the church, she began to hear the moans of the mutilated body, which she had taken for granted was ere this a corpse. She dashed on, heedless whether she fell or not, excited not so much, by her own account, by the ne- cessity of obtaining succour, as by a sort of horrid, superstitious terror. She quite lost her presence of mind, and recollects nothing of how she got to the bottom, but that the awful dull moaning of the corpse, as she per- sisted in calling it, was incessantly ringing in her ears till she got into the air at the bottom of the tower-stair. On mounting the same steps now for the first time since the event, she declared that she could not help fancying she still heard the same frightful sounds pursuing her steps, She went on to tell me that the suicide was a young merchant's clerk, who had the inis- fortune to kill his dearest friend in a duel. So, being conscience-stricken, he fell into a profound melancholy, and feeling himself to be broken-hearted, he determined first to spend every sous he possessed, and as many more as he could contrive to obtain credit for, in a few months of riotous living and de- 172 VIEW FROM THE TOWER. I)aiic'lu'r\- of all sorts ; then to write, a la I-*a- risicnne, a letter to the newspaper, intimating his utter disarust of life and all in it, as also a detailed aceount of the philosophical train of reasoning- by which he was led to the deter- mination of quitting a world, " qui nc m' a jamais compris," to use the favourite phrase made and provided for such occasions by our philosophical and phrase-loving neighbours, and Ihcn to take a leap from the top of St. Ciatien's tower, and be the talk of all Tours for the next week. The prospect from the summit of 'I'ours cathedral is a wide and pleasing one, if not par- ticularly beautiful. Though out of 334,910 hectares of land, of which the department of Indre-et-I.oire consists, no less than 02,979 are moorlands, or heaths, yet Touraine has long been called the garden of France ; and Tours is situated in the midst of the richest and best cultivated part of it. Ikiilt on the flat, long strip of land b tween the Loire and the CJher, the former river washes its quays, and the latter is distant but a (juarter of a league from its ()|)|)()sitc extremity. The nar- row t()n<;iie ol' land tlins b()uii(l(>d by these two rivers, runs for about nine leagues below Tours, where the Cher at length falls into its mightier neighbour. Above the town the pi.Kssis Lb;s 'I'ouRS. 173 two streams ^riidually recede to a greater distance from eacli other, till, at the eastern limit of the department, there is a space of from four to five leagues between them. Al- most all this is fine rich land, which supplies amply to the markets of Tours all the neces- saries and many of the luxuries of life. The Loire itself, however, is the most at- tractive object in the panorama. For a con- siderable distance both above and below Tours its broad, placid bosom, studded with many a labouring barge, and a variety of smaller craft, is visible, and has here more of the ap- pearance of the important stream it really is, than at any point of it I had yet seen. Plessis les Tours, too, cannot fail to be looked on with interest, though but one sin- gle turret of the sombre residence of Louis XL remains to mark the site. The other buildings v/hich adjoin this are modern, and are used for the unpicturesque purposes of a shot manufactory. As at Orleans, the finest part of the cathe- dral of Tours is the west front, and the two noble and highly-ornamented towers, the work of our Henry V. The interior of the church is fine, though smaller than many other cathe- drals. It has the great advantage of perfect symmetry in every part, and in all the details 174 PATNTKD WINDOWS. of tlio architecture. The nave is remarkably narrow for its height, which made me at first suppose the church much more than its real length, a hundred and five paces. The cle- restory of the nave is extremely handsome, consisting of a range of double arches of the elegant " flamboyant" gothic of the fifteenth century. The choir has still preserved its brilliantly-painted windows, executed by Sa- rasin, a " vcrinier Tourangeau," who flou- rished in his native city in the sixteenth cen- tury. He must have been a worthy rival of the Beuselins, Pinaigriers, and Anquetils, who were the glory of their art in France at that period ; but he is not noticed in the able book on the subject, by Langlois of Rouen. The windows which decorate the ends of the tran- septs and the western extremity of the nave arc also still in existence. But a tremendous hail-storm, which visited Tours about the middle of the seventeenth century, destroyed those in the body of the church. The popular creed at Tours respecting the foundation of their ciiurcii, is that St. Lidoire erected it on the site of a house given liim for the j)urposc by Cornelius, the cciihirioii ! We this as it may, it is recorded to have been burnt in a general fire of the town in 500. The old Tourangeau poet, Olivier Cherreau, however, ST. MARTIN'S CHURCH. 175 who wrote a poetical history of the Arch- bishops of Tours, records that " Le Temple de St. Gatien sentit aussi le feu, Mais estant seco\iru, n'en brusla que bien peu." But it was again burnt in 1166, and the earliest portions of the present fabric must be dated from 1170. The colleg'iate church of St. Gatien, how- ever, was not originally the cathedral of the archbishops of this see. The church of St. Martin of Tours was one of the largest in Christendom, and, at one period of its exist- ence, one of the richest. But with the excep- tion of two towers, one called the Tour de St. Martin, and the other the Tour de Charle- magne, not a vestige of it remains. Of these towers one was at the west end, and the other at the point of intersection of the nave and transept, and they thus still serve to mark the extraordinary length of the church. The records and descriptions of it, which have come down to us, however, do not lead to the impression that its architectural beauties were as conspicuous as its size ; and we are somewhat consoled for its destruction when we read that '* le chevet, ou rond point, ^tait la seule qui meritat quelque attention. Le reste n'etait qu'une vaste carriere, ou le gout 176 ST. MAirriN. age et raison, Vivre entre ses parents le reste de son age 1 Quand reverrai-je, helas 1 de mon petit village Fumer la cheminee ; et en quelle saison Reverrai-je le clos de ma pauvre maison, Qui m' est une province, et beaucoup davantage! Plus me plait le sejour, qu' ont Bali rnes ayeux. Que des pala!s remains le front andacieux ; Plus que le raarbre dur, me plait 1' ardoise fine ; Plus mon Loire gaulois, que le Tibre latin ; Plus mon petit Lire, que le mont Palatiu, Et plus que 1' air marin, la douceur Angevine. The boat has hardly passed out of sight of 314 OUDON. Anceiiis before the lofty, well-preserved tower of Oiulon comes in sight ; and opposite to it, on the southern bank of the river, the exten- sive ruins of the huge old castle of Champ- toceaux, whose rugged masses, partly clothed with a luxurious growth of bushes and bram- bles, make a picturesque appearance on the top of their rocky hill. Both of these relics of feodality have their histories and traditions attached to them. But it would take a whole chapter, which I have not to spare, to tell at length, and with all its circumstances, as it deserves, the story of Jean and Julien de Maletroit, lords of Oudon, in 1526 ; how these barons bold, taking a hint, if the truth must be told from the most christian kings, their masters, made bad money in this their tower of Oudon, and compelled tlieir vassals to take it for good ; how these good-for-nothing vas- sals, instead of being thankful for any sort of money their lords might please to give them, as they ought to have been, seeing that they were in luck not to receive kicks instead of any half-pence at all, complained to the king ; and how King Francis f., being greatly in- censed at this invasion of his prerogative, laid siege to tlie castle of Oudon, as he was passing by Nantes on liis return from Spain; took .lean and Juhen Maletroit, prisoners, to CHAMPTOCEAUX. 3 1 5 Nantes, and there had them tried, condemned, and executed. Then, on the other side of the water, have not both Henry Plantagenet and Saint Louis left memorials of their passage under the walls of Champtoceaux ? At a later period, in the romantic history of the wars between Jean de Montfort and Charles de Blois for the sovereignty of Britanny, Champ- toceaux often played a prominent part; and in 1420, it was the scene of the unrelenting and perfidious Margaret de Clisson's ven- geance against the descendants of the house of Montfort. But all these matters would fill a volume ; and a very amusing one might be written on the chateau of Champtoceaux, be- ginning with old Bourdigne's naif account of its foundation, by Celsus, the Roman questor, and ending with its destruction by order of the Breton parliament, assembled at Vannes, on the 16th of February, 1424. The imperative conditioiis of time and space make it impossible for me to do more than barely hint at all these interesting details ; more especially as I am under engagement to get to Nantes by the end of this chapter, which ought to be drawing to its close. Almost immediately after quitting Champ- toceaux, and losing sight of its more hale and hearty neighbour, the veteran tower of 316 LKS FOLIESSIFI AIT. Oiulon, the traveller sees, in the distance, a vast mass of dark-coloured building, of most inexplicable form and appearance. At first, it looks more like very extensive fortifications than any thing else. But, as the boat ap- proaches, it is soon perceived that the unac- countable congeries of dead walls, innume- rable angles, and many terraces, rising with- out order, regularity, or beauty, cannot serve to this purpose, and the heterogeneous pile, which covers a whole hill-side, becomes more unintelligible than ever. If, after uselessly racking his brains, the puzzled stranger asks his neighbour on the deck of the steamer for what purpose all those stones and mortar were heaped together in a manner so totally unlike any thing else that ever was seen, he will, probably, simply be told that it is called •' Les Folies SifTait." But a more persevering inquiry into tlie origin of these " Folies" will lead him to think that tliey might deserve a better name, as it seems that the strange mass was put together by a benevolent pro- prietor of the neighbourhood, for the sake of giving employment to a large number of la- bourers, w ho were thrown out of work during a very hard winter. His benevolent purpose, however, might certainly have been as effec- tually achieved by constructing an edifice LA LOIRE INFKRIKURE. 317 which mig'ht have served some purpose of either utiUty or beauty. The good man was probably determined, that in this case virtue should be its own exceeding* great reward, and, therefore, employed his labourers on a task which, by no possible contingency, could bring a return of either pleasure or profit to himself or any one else. It is very near this spot that we finally bid adieu to Anjou, and for the short remainder of the voyage to Nantes have the communes of the department of La Loire Inferieure on either side of us. This department was one of the five into which the ancient province of Bri- tanny was divided. La Loire Inferieure has, however, long since ceased to be distinguished by any of the peculiarities which yet make the inhabitants of the more western and northern parts of the ancient duchy a distinct people. It is no longer a part of " la Bretagne Bretoiinante." The Celtic language has given place entirely to the French. The ancient costume and habits of the Breton race have been gradually abandoned, and the depart- ment is become, to all intents and purposes, part of France, and is inhabited by French- men, which certainly cannot be said of the departments of Morbihan, Finistere, and great part of the Cotes du Nord. The causes of 318 CHARACTERISTICS OF ANJOU. this are easily understood. The Loire, a vast highway of communication and traffic, has powerfully tended to produce that intercourse with the neighbouring- provinces which never fails to wear out the traces of local characteris- tics and distinct nationality ; and the existence of a large and important commercial city, such as Nantes, produces a similar effect, by radia- ting to a considerable distance around it the town born ideas and habits communicated to it by its trade and constant relations with the capital. Those, therefore, who would see Britanny and the Bretons, must seek them in the more western parts of the province, and be prepared to find the peasants of La Loire Inferieure, though possessing many characte- ristic marks of habit and opinion, yet in all respects a F'rench people. 1 quitted Anjou with much greater regret than I had Touraine. Though it has never been vaunted, as its perhaps more fertile neighbour-province has, it is really far more picturesque, far more varied, and is richer in localities of historical interest. The portion of the river which runs through Anjou is, in fact, the only truly picturesque part of the Loire — at least, of that portion of it below Orleans. And though I cannot agree with some Angcvine writers that their stream is VOYAGE DOWN THE LOIRE. 319 the most beautiful in Europe, I am most ready to testify that in the part of its course which washes their fields it is indeed a most lovely river, and most worthy of being' visited by all lovers of the softer and more smiling style of river scenery. I would, however, recommend any one who had thoughts of making the voyage, not to begin it above Saumur, unless, indeed, its " in- explosible" steamboats might be deemed the pleasantest mode of conveyance to the diffe- rent interesting cities on its banks. Soon after quitting Anjou, the irregular mass of Nantes cathedral is seen above the dense crowd of buildings which surrounds it; then thelowbanksof a vast, flat meadow, occu- pying a large island, which divides the stream just above the town, are skirted by; in a minute or two more Le Riverain puffs up alongside of the quay, under the walls of the old castle, and we are at Nantes. This portion of the voyage from Orleans to Nantes — the half day's journey, that is to say, from Angers to the latter capital — had been performed at a speed considerably greater than that of the " Tnexplosibles" in which I had descended the upper part of the river. Whether this was occasioned entirely by the superior power of the high-pressure engines 320 VOYAGE DOWN THE LOIRE. of Le Riverain, or wiiether it might be, in some degree, to be attributed to the stronger current and larger body of water in the river, I cannot say. But be this as it may, I am inclined to recommend the smaller boats of the younger company to voyagers on the Loire, both because increased speed in pas- sing between banks teeming with objects of interest could hardly be deemed an advan- tage by any traveller, and because, in cleanli- ness and neatness, the Inexplosibles have, at all events, the advantage. N ANTICS. 321 CHAPTER XIX. First Appearance of Nantes — Islands in Front of it — Ancient Streets ill Nantes — Mode of Building — La Juiverie — Curious Inscription on a House in it — The Cathedral — Exterior — Nave— Its Founda- tion — St. Felix — His Claims to Canonization — Subsequent For- tunes of the Cathedral — Bishop Hoctron and the Golden Apple — Revenues of Nantes in the Teuth Century — Foundation of the Present Cathedral Edifice — Inscription — Tomb of Francis II. — Casket containing Duchess Anne's Heart — Curious Inscriptions — Inhabitants of the Old Part-of the Town — The Cliateau — Henry IV.'s First Visit to Nantes — Appearance of the Castle — Duche.sse de Berri — Cardinal de Retz — Return to I'Hotel de I'Europe. Nantes does not make so handsome an ap- pearance to those approaching* it by the river as I had been led to expect. The Loire is divided here by no less than three islands of different sizes, all abreast in front of the town. The smallest of these, called the Isle Feydeau, is nearest the northern bank, and is entirely covered by the town ; the other two, much larger, which lie to the south of it, are chiefly occupied by extensive flat meadows The great road from Nantes to the south crossed them both, and is bordered with houses most VOL. I. Y 322 FIRST PROSPECT OF NANTES. part of the way to the southern bank of the river. The prospect, then, which is presented to the visitor on arriving- at Nantes by the Loire, when the steamer is moored to the qnai du Port Maillard, immediately above the Isle Feydeau, consists of a vast extent of low, watery-looking meadows, intersected by a va- riety of streams, on the left hand ; in front, the Isle Feydeau, with a fish-market occupy- ing- the extreme point of it, and the two bridges, which on either side connect it with the main land and its neighbour isle ; and on the right, the most ancient part of the town, with the chateau immediately overlooking the quay, and behind it a confused mass of build- ings occupying the sides of a gentle eminence, the top of which is crowned by the hoary, lumpish-looking towers of the cathedral. On stepping from the boat, I sought and found quarters at an hotel on the Isle Feydeau — de r Europe 1 think it was called — and re- mained there the two days which it took me to satisfy my curiosity respecting the town of Nantes. It was about two or three o'clock when Le Riverain arrived ; and I had plenty of time, therefore, after taking possession of the cham- ber allotted to me at my inn, to take a turn ANC[ENI NANTES. 323 in the town. Quitting the Isle Feydeau by the bridge by which I had entered it, I struck into the interior of the town due northwards, and soon found myself in the midst of the oldest quarter of the city. Many of the streets even here are rapidly changing their ancient appearance. The old houses, with their sto- ries projecting one above the other, till they nearly met at top and shut in the narrow street beneath them, depriving the inhabitants of both light and air, are continually being replaced by new perpendicular facades. The dark slate-covered walls, which were for- merly the universal mode of building here, are giving way to stone, and the huge, small- paned casements, which stretched across the whole front of many of the houses, to long, upright, modern-shaped windows. There are still, however, remaining, though they are be- coming less numerous from day to day, spe- cimens of the old streets amply sufficient to show what Nantes was in the olden time. The ancient practice ahnost universal for- merly throughout the cities of Europe of assigning to the Jews a quarter of their own, which alone they were permitted to inhabit, and in which they were shut up at night, is still shown to have prevailed here by the existence of a street called to the present day y2 324 THE CATHFDRAL. '* La Juiverie." There is in this street an old house, with a curious frontage, ornamented with various apparently allegorical figures, and several unintelligible inscriptions. One, however, of them is clear enough, and marks the religion of the former owner. It is simply " expecto donee veniat,"and alludes, of course, to the Messiah. In the midst of these ancient buildings is the huge, lofty mass of the cathedral dedi- cated to St. Peter. This church is totally devoid of any pretensions to symmetry or beauty of any kind externally. The nave is certainly of a noble height ; but the two heavy, massive towers, scarcely, if at all, ex- ceeding in altitude the ridge of the roof, are a dissight rather than an ornament. The choir is low and mean, and of the transepts a part only of one has been achieved. In the inside, the sole thing to admire is the loftiness of the nave, which, however, is far too short for its other proportions. The six arches on either side of it are ex- ceedingly grand and bold, regarded as de- tached fragments of architecture ; but the total want of uniformity, symmetry, and just- ness of proportion in the other parts of the edifice, prevent them from giving the effect they would otherwise be calculated to produce. FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH. 325 The fact is that the fabric, as it at present exists, is a patchwork construction, badly put together. The first cathedral of Nantes was built, in the sixteenth century, by Euhemerus, then bishop of that city, and was dedicated by St. Euphrane, archbishop of Tours, as- sisted by St. Felix, bishop of Nantes, the suc- cessor of Euhemerus, and the bishops of Vannes, Rennes, Angers, and Mans, on the 30th of September, 560. Fortunatus, the poetical bishop of Poitiers, who was a con- temporary of Felix, has left us a latin poem, giving a detailed account of the event. This St. Felix appears to have owed his canonization to his exertions for the temporal benefit of his flock, rather than to any other more strictly episcopal merit. And his name has been perpetuated in the recollection of his fellow-citizens in a manner less likely to fail in preserving his memory than a place in Rome's calendar might have proved. The original city was, it should seem, built, not on the immediate bank of the river, but with the wide expanse of the meadow, now called the " prairie de la Madelaine," between its walls and the stream. The disadvantages of this were perceived by Felix, who undertook the vast work of remedying them by forming that branch of the Loire which now flows along 326 CANAL DE ST. FELIX. the quays beneath the chateau, and makes the " prairie de la Madelaine" an island. And this part of the stream bears, to the present day, the name of the " Canal de St. Felix." Le Baud, the first historian of Britanny, thus mentions this important and still extremely useful work. " 11 fist fouyr," says he, " un parfond et large foss6 transversal de I'ancien cours de la Loire, qu' il fist courir jouxt les murs de la cite, a fin d'eschiver le labeur des citoyens qui allaient qu^rir les marchandises jusques au fleuve." If the spirit of St. Felix were to revisit the scene of his labours, he would be gratified by finding his canal crowded with barges, boats, and steamers, and conducting more wealth to the magazines and quays of his city in a day than it did in a month in his time. But the cathedral which he dedicated has not fared so well, for, in 946, one of his successors, a very different sort of bishop from himself, one Hoctron, as old Le Baud tells us, " fist desmolir une tour, qui encore estait desmourde des ancients edifices de celle 6glise pour la convoitise d'une pomme doree qui estoit sur ladictc tour, dont il fust moque et desprisd par lo diet due Alain, ct par honte d^laissa revesche de Nantes, et s'en retourna^ Saint Paul, ou premier il avoit est^ onlonn6e." FISCAL VALUE UF NANTKS. 327 What a strange picture of savage-like barba- rism ! Bishop Hoctron, with much about the wisdom and sense of a child who cries for the top brick of the chimney, pulls down the last remaining tower of his cathedral to get at the gilt apple on the top of it. It is consoling, however, to find that this feat made his dio- cese too hot for him, and the fact, as it is re- lated by the historian, is a remarkable in- stance of the force of opinion in the tenth century It is worth noticing, too, that Le Baud goes on to relate, without any commen- tary or remark, that the son of the archbishop of Dol was chosen by the duke to succeed him in his bishoprick. About the same time, we find the following- curious notice of the fiscal value of the town of Nantes in those days, and of the proportion it bore to that of other towns. Foulques, count of Anjou, had married the widow of Duke Alain, and had taken his wife and step- son, the young Drogon, to his city of Angers, to which place he commanded to be brought to him the revenues for the year of the city of Nantes. Whereupon, there were brought to him " un jour ainsi qu'il jouoit aux tables en sa salle," three sacks full of " deniers," and four boat-loads of great fish ; " dont il fust moult esmerveille en son courage, et raconta 328 BUILDING Ol' THE PRESENT CATHEDRAL. a tous les assistans, qu'il n'y avoit si riche ni si })uissant en tout le royaume de France, que celui qui pouvoit poss6der la cit6 de Nantes." The cathedral had been rebuilt, and a se- cond time in part destroyed, before the mid- dle of the fifteenth century. In 1434, John Y., then duke of Britanny, undertook to rebuild it ; and the lofty nave which we now see is his work. The grand i)ortal, which, by itself, is certainly fine, was the first part executed, and bore inscribed upon it the following re- cord of its foundation. " L'aii mil qiiatre cent tiente quaire A m3-Avril sans moult rabattre. All porfail de oette l''p;lise Flit la premiere piene assise.'" The duke laid the first stone; Jean de Mal- estroit, then bishop, placed the second ; the young prince Francis, the third ; the chapter, the fourth ; the prince Peter, the fifth ; and the town, by deputy, the sixth. The works, however, advanced but very slowly, and in 1525 we find them still unfinished. In fact, the choir, as it at present exists, low, heavy, and sombre, was part of the second church. The small part of the south transept which has been completed has been turned into a sepulchral chapel for the reception of the TOMB OF FRANCIS II. 329 tomb of Francis 11., the last duke of Britanny, which was formerly in the church of the Car- melites, destroyed at the revolution. This tomb, which is still considered one of the great lions of the town, was the chef d'ceuvre of Michel Colomb, a native of the remote little Breton town, St. Pol de Leon, and one of the most talented sculptors of his day. It is a large altar tomb, about five feet high, on which repose the figures, a little larger than life, of Francis II. and Margaret de Foix, his second wife. At the four corners of the tomb are four statues, representing the four car- dinal virtues. The figure which is intended for " Prudence" is, oddly enough, represented with two visages, which looks very much as if Michel Colomb's notion of that virtue came very near to what we should call " Dissimu- lation." Thirty-two smaller figures, of very delicate workmanship, surround the tomb, and are divided from each other by arabesque designs very elegantly executed. More at- tention has apparently been paid by the artist to these details, and to the lavish adornment of his work by an unsparing profusion of labour, than to the principal figures, which have no unusual degree of merit. This tomb was opened on the 16th of Octo- ber, 1727, about two hundred vears after the 330 THK DUCHESS ANNE'S HEART. bodies of its tenants were placed in it. Be- tween the leaden coffins of Francis and Mar- garet, which were in good repair, and orna- mented with the ermine of Britanny, was a small leaden vessel, which was found to con- tain a golden casket, in the form of a heart. This had formerly contained the heart of the celebrated duchess Anne, who was so much beloved by her Breton subjects, that her me- mory still flourishes among them, and many a history is yet preserved by the peasants of " la bonne Duchesse." The little vessel was found no longer to contain anything but a little water, and the remains of a scapulary ; but the following inscription was still per- fectly legible. " En ce petit vaisseau, de fin or pur et rnunde Repose iH) phis grand cueur que onqne Dame eut au monde. Anne fut le notn d'elle; en France deux fois Royne, Duchesse des Bretons, royale et souveraine. Ce cueur fut, si hault que de la lerre aux cieulx Sa vertu hberale accroissait mieulx et mieulx. Mais Dieu en areprins sa portion meilleure, Et ceste part terrestre en grand deuil nous demeiire. IX Janvier. M. V. XIII." On the interior lining of the casket were engraved the following lines, two on each side. O cueur caste et pndirque ! () juste et benoist cueur ! Cueur magnanime et franc, de tout vice vainqueur ! O cueiu" (hgnu cnlre tons de coiuounc celeste. Ores est ton chcr esprit hois de piiisiic el inoleste. THE CASTLE. 331 With the exception of the time it took me to examine all the details and rich workman- ship of this tomb, the cathedral did not de- tain me long. Turning in a south-westerly direction from its great door, I rambled through several streets, inhabited, it seemed to me, principally by old clothes dealers and brokers ; a class of people who, for some latent cause, invariably inhabit, in every city, the oldest and most tumble-down part of it, till I once more emerged on the quay by the side of the old castle. The external walls of this ancient historical residenceof the independent dukes of Britanny are all that remain to indicate to the eye its former strength and magnificence. The in- terior is filled with modern buildings, and is used as a magazine for military stores. The circuit of the outward wall, however, which, with its fortifications, occupied a fortieth part of the whole town, sufficiently attests its for- mer importance, and justifies the oft-cited exclamation of Henry IV., when he first saw it. " Ventre saint gris ! les Dues de Bre- tagne n'etaient pas de petits compagnons !" On the side towards the Loire, which is the first that presents itself to a stranger arriving at Nantes, the castle does not make so impo- sing an appearance as it deserves to do. For ^32 HISTORICAL REMINISCENCES. the quay, which now occupies the space be- tween it and the river, is raised to nearly half the height of the walls, and thus destroys much of the effect that would be produced if their whole mass were visible. A great variety of historical events have passed within the walls of this chateau from the time of its foundation, by Alain Barbe- torte, duke of Britanny, in the tenth century, to the confinement there of the Duchess de Berri, in 1832, previous to her removal to Blaye. She was not the first royal prisoner its gates have closed on by a good many. But by far the most important of the souvenirs attached to the castle of Nantes is the pro- mulgation of the celebrated edict of Nantes by Henry IV. The Cardinal de Retz, so well known by his memoirs of himself, was a pri- soner here in the year 1654 ; and the spot from which he effected the hazardous escape, so minutely related in hisautobiography, is still pointed out. It took place at five o'clock in the afternoon of the eighth of August, and was, therefore, accomplished in broad day- light, which makes his final success seem little less than miraculous. It certainly could never have been achieved had not the accident, which the worthy cardinal relates so com- j)laisantly, of (he poor .Iac<)l)in friar (h'owniiig RETURN TO THK ISl.K FKYDEAU. 333 himself as he was bathing, fortunately oc- curred just at the moment, to draw off the attention of all passers along; the quay. From the chateau I returned across the narrow stream that separates the Isle Fey- deau from the bank of the river, by the easternmost of the two bridges which con- nect its streets with those of the main part of the town, and returned to my inn with the in- tention of devoting the whole of the next morning to a long walk in the newer and more busy parts of the city. XU NANTKS. CHAPTER XX. Nantes — Walk along the Quays — Tlie Bourse — Character ot the Nantais Merchants — and Population generally — Quai ile la Fosse — Characteristics common to Seaport Towns — Those pecu- liar to Nantes — Former Prosperity of Nantes — Slave Trade — Amount of Imports and Exports before the Revolution — Present Population of the Town — Consumption of Animal Food — Quai des Constructions — Quai d'Aiguillon — The Due d' Aiguillon's Purchase of the post of Lieutenant-general of the Province — La Sylph e Steamer — Hill below the Town — View from it — Perry — Isle des Chevaliers — Trentemoux — View of Nantes — Rencontre with an Idiot — Story of" La Fille de la Punition." The next morning*, as early as I thought it likely that all the various business of the port would be commenced, I set forth for a stroll of observation along the line of quays which border the Loire for a distance of a league. Passing westward along the entire length of the Isle Feydeau through a long, sombre street, T crossed the bridge, which, at the western extremity of the isle, traverses the narrow stream that separates it from the shore exactly opposite to the Bourse. This is a neat, modetn, stone building, standing- isolated, with a little " place" planted with NANTAIS COMMRRCK. 335 trees in front of it. Neither now, nor on pas- sing it subsequently at other hours of the day, did I observe any ver}^ animated appearance of business being carried on there. If, how- ever, the Bourse of Nantes cannot be cele- brated for the quantity of affairs transacted there, it may, according to general report, for the quality of them. For the habits of trade, and the loose morality of a large city, have not been able to destroy the indigenous home- spun honesty of the Breton character ; and Nantes has always been celebrated among the com'mercial cities of France for the upright- ness and honesty of her merchants, and the honourable exactitude of their dealings. Of all the large towns of France, Nantes, too, has the character of being the least demo- ralized in the habits and manners of its citi- zens of all classes, and the least fertile in all the various evidences of crime. This it, of course, owes to its position between the dis- tricts inhabited by two races — the Bretons and the Vend^eans, both equally detesting the revolution, and the new standard of morality and duty it has brought with it, equally nurtured in the intimately-allied vir- tues of loyalty, honour, and honesty, and both equally attached to the religion and principles of their fathers. ^36 QUA] DE LA FOSSE. After passing the short " Quai de la Bourse," I found myself at the commencement of a long- line of handsome, well-grown trees, which line the entire length of the " Quai de la Fosse." '^rhis quay is the largest and most important of the city, and stretches along the whole of the more commercial part of the town. The scene of bustle and business which the quai de la Fosse presented was such as cha- racterises every thriving seaport town. And these have, in all countries, many features of general resemblance which mark them as be- longing to the same class. There were the slop-shops exhibiting red baize shirts; flat, round, tarpaulin hats, and strangely-latitu- dinarian, canvass inexpressibles. There were the curiosity shops, unfailing accompani- ments of a seaport, displaying their hetero- p-eneous store of shells, Indian clubs and slippers, sea-fans, monkeys, macaws, and Chinese idols. There were the drinking houses, setting forth their polyglott announce- ments of wine, brandy, and beer, in half a dozen different languages ; the sail-makers, ship-brokers, block-makers, etc., etc., as usual. Then the active business on the river, and the side of the quay adjoining it, enlivened the scene with the usual sights and sounds. Innumerable barrels, bearing all sorts of in- SEAPORT SIGHTS AND SOUNDS. 337 explicable hieroglyphics and devices, heaps of logwood, bags of coffee, piles of skins, sheafs of split cane, strange-smelling drugs, etc., etc., were strewn upon the quay in motley, and one would have thought inextricable, confusion. Every here and there were little wooden houses, moveable on wheels, in each of which sat a clerk, pen in hand, tranquil amid the surrounding bustle, but busily engaged in regulating the multifarious labours of the swarming ant-hill. Meanwhile, the ear is as variously and ac- tively employed as the eye. Old women screamingly inviting the hungry to purchase savoury morsels of cold, fried fish, or the more luxurious and costly dainty bit of a black pudding, vie with hoarse excisemen, bel- lowing forth the tally of the goods of which they are taking account. And here and there the measured merry cheer of a party of Eng- lish sailors, engaged in hoisting their cargo in or out of their vessel, may be heard at regu- lar intervals above the indiscriminate jabber- ing, squabbling, screaming, and bawling of a French crew, engaged in the same operation ; while, from time to time, a steam-boat just arrived from Paimbceuf, or about to start down the river, drowns all other noise with its own panting, hissing, and bellowing. VOL. I. z 338 SLAVK TRADE AT iNANTES. All these sights and sounds are the com- mon characteristics of seaport and commer- cial towns. But that which gives to the " quai de la Fosse," at Nantes, a character and appearance peculiar to itself is the splen- did row of large trees, under whose spreading shade all these unsylvan operations take place. There is a degree of contrast between the quiet, rural verdure of their foliage and the busy city scene beneath them, which is striking, and imparts a degree of picturesque interest to persons and things not ordinarily remark- able for that quality. Nantes is, at the present day, a thriving town, though its commerce is far from being what it was before France lost her colonies. During the latter half of the last century, the slave trade was the most important and lucra- tive branch of commerce exercised by the Nantes merchants. Thirty ships, on the average, were annually employed in this spe- culation, and they seized, on the coast of Africa,annually, a bout twelve thousand slaves. It used to be said that a fifth part of these perished on the passage ; but there is reason to believe that the proportion of deaths was, in reahty, much larger than that. Each slave was estimated to cost the merchant seven hun- dred and fifty francs, and was sold by him to COMMERCE OF NANTES. 339 the planter for an average sum of eighteen hundred francs. In the year 1790, the total value of goods imported at Nantes amounted to 40,703,232 livres, and that of exports to 23,163,386 livres. At that period, the third part of all the colonial produce imported into France was brought to the port of Nantes, and, with regard to its commerce with the Antilles, it was considered the second port in the king- dom. This is very far from being the case at the present day. A great portion of its for- mer trade has been annihilated by the loss of the French colonial possessions, and Havre has run away with another portion. The present population of the town is 77,982. The consumption of meat is, on the average, 2,724 oxen ; 20,597 calves ; 24,278 sheep ; and 9,058 pigs — a very small quantity of animal food for the population. Yet distress is not said to be common at Nantes. I strolled leisurely along the whole length of the Quai de la Fosse, and then, emerging from the shade of its fine trees, pursued my way along the " quai des constructions," which succeeds it. A great number of small vessels were here on the stocks in different stages of forwardness ; and the sound of the hammer, the saw, and the axe, together with several z 2 310 QlJAl D'AIGUILLUN. reeking cauldrons of pitch, each suspended over its blazing fire of chips, and the clatter of copper sheeting, rendered the *' quai des constructions " as busy a scene, in its line, as the more central quai de la Fosse. Beyond this is the "quai d'Aiguillon," named after the Due d'Aiguillon, who, in the year 1755, purchased the appointment of lieu- tenant-general of the province of Britanny for the sum of six hundred thousand livres. The emoluments of the place, however, would seem to have been hardly worth so large a sum, for they were estimated at from twenty-five to twenty-six thousand livres only per annum. Moreover, at the time of the Duke's purchase, it was made incumbent on the lieutenant- general to reside three months in every year in his province. The buildings on this quay seemed to con- sist principally of large magazines for mari- time stores, and two or three royal warehouses for various purposes. There was not much appearance of active business going on there, nor did I observe more than two vessels lying alongside of it, one of which was a fine large ship about to sail the next day for New South Wales, and the other the steamer " La Sylphe," which runs between Nantes and Bourdeaux. J thought that the accommodations on board LOIRE BELOW NANTES. 341 her seemed singularly insufficient for making such a voyage with any degree of comfort ; and La Sylphe herself, with her forty-horse power, seemed to me far too Sylph-like in her size and proportions to be comfortably trusted on such an expedition in any but perfectly fine weather. Beyond the quai d'Aiguillon, the river is for a short space free from islands ; but the op- posite bank is low and sandy, and altogether, except the effect of the broad expanse of water, the stream has no beauty here. A little farther down, the hill on which the western and more modern part of the city is built, and which slopes gently down to the water edge in the town, closes in upon the river suddenly, and forms an almost precipitous descent. Consi- derable quarries are worked in the face of this cliff, and I climbed up to the top of it in the hopes that it might command a view of the town. In this, however, I was disap- pointed. But in the opposite direction it af- forded a wide, though by no means pleasant, prospect over the expanding river, and the flat, sandy meadows, that seemed to form the principal feature of country through which it flows below the town. Here and there in the distance a fishing-boat might be seen ascend- ing the river with the tide, and on the wide- 342 TRENTEMOUX FERRY. spreading- sands on the other side two or three not unpicturesqiie groups of fishermen were engaged in spreading out their nets to dry in the now blazing heat of the sun, and repairing the damages they had sustained during their last cruise. A little idealizing and arrange- ment, and judicious managing of sun and shade, might have enabled a Calcott or a Stan field to have found there the materials of a pretty picture ; but on the whole the naked reality of the scene was monotonous and dreary. Just opposite to the above mentioned quar- ries there is a ferry which communicates with the little village of Trentemoux, on the oppo- site side of the river, and I determined, in- stead of returning to the town along the quays, to cross and walk back on the other side. By the time I had settled this plan of operations, the old Charon of the ferry below, which I could see from the top of the hill, had nearly got together a boat-load of passengers, and I was obliged to descend the cliff some- what more precipitously than prudence war- ranted, to be in time for that trip. I was just soon enough to be conveyed to the other side for the moderate charge of one sou, which the old man said was all very well in summer, when there were plenty of passeng-ers, and ISLK DES CHEVALIERS. 343 nothing to do but to dip the oars in the water and lift them out again, but was very hard upon him in winter, when fares were scarce, and it was often no joke at all to get across. It is impossible to conceive a more wretched- looking dwelling-place than the little village of Trentemoux. It is situated on a long strip of land, divided from the southern bank of the river by a narrow streamlet, called the " Isle des Chevaliers." This miserable isle consists of about equal portions of marsh, parched, half-barren meadow, and sheer sand ; and a few miserable houses, which seemed to be burrowing in the latter, form the village of Trentemoux, and^the homes of a few fishermen and boat-builders and their families, to whom Trentemoux is the most important, and, doubt- less, the best-loved spot on earth ! 1 had a broiling walk along the shore of this unin- viting isle ; but I did not regret having chosen this way of returning to the town, as it af- forded by far the best view of Nantes I could find. As seen from the Isle des Chevaliers, the old town, with its massive cathedral in the background, and the long line of the quai de la Fosse, with its handsome trees skirting the river, below it, and the wide extent of the flat " Prairie au Due,'' with its grazing herds for the foreground, Nantes makes a handsome 344 lUIOT GIKL. and pleasing appearance. This " Prairie au Due " occupies a large island exactly in front of the quai de la Fosse, and between it and the Isle des Chevaliers. As I was pursuing my hot journey along the sandy shore of the island, I was startled by a strange sound on my left ; and, on ad- vancing a little in that direction towards a small arm of the river, which, straying from the stream, found a lazy way among the sand, I discovered that it proceeded from a poor idiot girl, who was sitting in an old abandoned boat that lay rotting in the sun. She was miserably clad in an old rug, and had not any covering whatever on her head; and if her poor brain had not been already dried up, the heat of the sun, that was shining upon her in unmitigated power, was enough to have done so. From time to time, she uttered the most horrid cries, and shook her hideous head and red, dishevelled hair backwards and forwards incessantly. She took no notice apparently of my approach, and I hastened to quit the spot, for the sight of the unfortunate creature was more horrible and painful than 1 can describe. The sight of this poor girl brought to my recollection forcibly the story of the " V'\\\e de la Punition," so well told by the Vicomte Walsh in iiis " Lcttres Vendeenes." For a DENOUNCERS OF ROYALISTS. 345 moment, till the recollection of dates showed me that it could not be, I fancied that I had met with that awful creature herself. She must, however, be, I suppose, long since dead. On reaching- Nantes, I made several inquiries about " La fille de la Punition," but could learn no more than that such a being had really existed, and that her terrible history was well known at Nantes. La Fille de la Punition was the daughter of a man and woman, who, during the worst time of the revolutionary horrors, drove, at Nantes, the disgusting trade of scenting out and hunt- ing down concealed royalists and Vendeeans, whom they denounced to the infamous com- mittee of public safety. It is difficult to con- ceive a deeper depth of infamy than those de- scended to who practised such a calling in order to support existence. But this was reached by the parents of " La Fille de la Pu- nition." For not the want of the necessaries of life, but the most miserly avarice, was the incitement which induced them thus to traffic in blood. And that nothing might be want- ing to fill up the measure of their revolting wickedness, and justify the loathing and ex- ecration of mankind, they took a fiend -like pleasure in witnessing the executions which resulted from their denouncements. 346 LA FILLE DE LA PUNITION. The woman, especially, never failed to be present in the foremost rank of spectators ill the Place du Boiiffay, at Nantes, morn- ing after morning', to glut her unnatural fe- rocity with the sight of the blood of the vic- tims, and the sound of their death-cry. She would insult the sufferers on the scaffold, and when the last shriek of the victim was heard, drunk with gratified blood-thirstiness, and excited to ecstacy by the sight and sound of suffering and death, she would shout forth the detestable burthen of one of the revolutionary songs, Du sang! Dii sang ! il faiit du sang. Pour regenerer la republiqup ! During the most fearful period of the daily executions, this female was with child. Think ! what could be the child of such a mother, nur- tured on milk drawn from a bosom palpitating with such joys ! That child was " La Pille de la Punition." She was born an idiot, and grew up misshapen and hideous in every fea- ture. By one of those mysterious operations of nature, whose results are so often observed, though the mode of agency remains inscru- table, this wretched creature's constant yell was an exact imitation of a death-shriek. And thus, when in after-years her miserable parents would fain have forgotten the past, FEELING OF THE PEOPLE. 347 and would, if possible, have frequented the society of their fellow-creatures, La Fille de la Punition was there to keep alive their own remorse, and awaken in others the associations of too faithful memory by her constant horrid cry. By night as well as by day, sleeping or waking, the same fearful voice was for ever ringing in their ears. In vain every sort of brutal treatment was resorted to by the wretched parents to compel the daughter of their punishment to cease the repetition of that well-remembered sound ; it could neither be suppressed nor changed. When ill-used at home, the unfortunate creature would escape into the fields and wander through the country, scaring the peasants with her awful cry, and was thus well known in the neighbourhood by the not inappropriate title of " La Faille de la Punition." Such she had most unquestionably been through a long series of years to her wretched, and very deservedly-punished parents. The house in which they dwelt stood in the neigh- bourhood of the city, isolated from other ha- bitations, and was as universally shunned by the neighbours of all classes, as if it had been smitten with a pestilence, or were one of those lazar-houses appropriated to the reception of those wretched outcasts, the lepers, which so 348 FEELING OF THE PEOPLE. generally were established on the outskirts of large cities during the middle ages. The poorest beggar would not enter the polluted dwelling of the feeders of the guillotine; and as often as the unfortunate daughter of the outcast was seen in her wanderings by the superstitious and horror-stricken peasants, so often was the fearful story of her birth re- peated, and set before the eyes of the rising generation as the visible judgment of God upon the traffickers in blood. TABLES DHOTE. 349 CHA.PTER XXT. French Tables d'Hote— Those of Germany — hivariable Company met at them in France — French " Commis Voyageur " — and Enghsh "Bagman" — Disagreeable Manners of the Former— and Gross Language — Anecdote — Present State of France — Physical Improvement and Progress— Moral Retrogression — Compatibility of the Two — Causes of Demoralization in France — Tendency to Social Dissolution— Favourite Newspapers in the Provinces — Charivari— National — Siecle — Presse — Circulating Libraries — Favourite Authors — Provincial Readers— Anecdote — Extent of Demoralization — Peasantry. I RETURNED from my walk to dine at five o'clock at the table d'hote of the Hotel de I'Europe. When I first travelled on the conti- nent of Europe, I was much pleased with this mode of accomplishing the important business of dining. It was something new ; and the opportunity it afforded me of observing men and manners amused me. But T soon began to get exceedingly tired of the tables d'hote in France. In Germany they are much more amusing. From what cause it arises I know not — perhaps simply from the Germans being a more travelling people than the French— 350 TABLES D'HOTE. but in Germany the company assembled around mine host's table is sure to be more or less varied in its component parts ; and the hour of dinner in every new town never fails to bring' with it something new to ob- serve and be amused by. At the public tables of Germany, moreover, you are in no danger of being disgusted by improprieties ; and though a certain homeliness of manners may be observed, you are sure to find perfect cour- tesy and kindliness. In every respect, the reverse is the case in France. The company at the tables d'hote throughout the French provinces almost in- variably consists of commis-voyageurs — an- glice, bagmen — cockney-landice, commercial gentlemen. The diligences and hotels swarm with them, and, in the great majority of cases, every single individual at the table at which you have to dine belongs to this class. At the best hotel in the town or the worst this is equally the case ; and if you take care to arrive too late for dinner, and desire some- thing to be set before you afterwards, it is twenty to one that you find two or three com- mercial gentlemen also late, and ready to join your mess. Now, although the term " commis voya- geur'' may be correctly translated into Eng- ENGLISH BAGMEN. 351 lish as above, I must beg to state most dis- tinctly that the class of men similarly em- ployed in England are as different from the commis voyageurs of France, as any one thing English is from any thing French. My home travels have not left me unacquainted with the race of English commercial travel- lers, though they are much less exposed to the observation of the vulgar than abroad, seeing that they have frequently their own inns, or at least their own room in every inn. It so happens, however, that, despite these precautions of exclusiveness, I have more than once dined at " a commercial table " — once, as 1 very well remember, some years ago, at Caermarthen — upon which occasion, though possibly a slight shade of contempt might have mingled with the evidences of pitying condescension, which were manifest among the gentlemen travellers, when it was found that I was not " travelling for any article " of a more profitable and tangible description than my own amusement; and, though I found myself sconced of my beer by being in- formed that " it was not the etiquette to take malt liquor at their table," I was on the whole perfectly contented with my companions. To speak seriously, however, this class of men in England are as incapable of the gross 352 COMMIS VOYAGEURS. manners and offensive improprieties which a traveller in France — excepting of course such as journey, en grand seigneur, with their own carriage, and bespeak private rooms — is ex- posed to from his inevitable association with the ubiquitous commis voyageurs, as the most highly-educated gentleman could be. They constantly sit down to table with their hats on ; and this I have frequently ob- served to be equally the case, when occasion- ally female travellers have chanced to be present. This is certainly a trifling matter, but still is worth noticing, as a slight trait of the retrograding civilization of " polite" France. Their personal habits, and those connected with the economy and arrangement of the dinner-table, are frequently such as to go far towards rendering any dinner unnecessary for the nonce to any unseasoned stranger who may chance to fall among them. But the worst annoyance, as well as the most important indication of national cha- racter, is their conversation and language. The topics of their talk are frequently such as to evince a total demoralization, not with regard to any one particular vice only, but on every point of principle and moral senti- ment. And it has over and over again oc- ANECDOTE. 353 curred to me to hear language used before respectable females, which it is impossible to hint at specifically in these pages, which no Englishman would dream of uttering in the presence of a woman, and which many by no means remarkable for refined language would be startled to hear in any tolerably decent exclusively male society. Upon one occasion, I occupied the interior of a diligence together with four of these de- lightful companions. There was, therefore, room for one more person in the vehicle. It was between LaRochelle and Rochefort; and we had not long quitted the former town, when the coach stopped in a little village, and M. le Cur6 was seen approaching, evidently prepared for a journey. The ingenuous youths, my fellow-travellers, seemed highly delighted at the prospect of this accession to our party ; and with bursts of laughter con- gratulated themselves on the amusement they should have in the course of the journey, from tormenting and insulting the poor ecclesiastic by blasphemous and obscene conversation. Fortunately, however, for me as well as him- self, M. le Cure had taken a place in the coupe, and was thus secured from the dis- gusting and dastardly blackguardism of VOL. I. A A 354 MATI-HIAL IMPROVKMEN'I' IN FRANCE. these interesting representatives of La Jeune France. And yet these were men with decent coats on their backs, earning by their employment an ample and comfortable maintenance, and holding a responsible, and what ought to be respectable, station in society ! An old priest, to whom I related these facts upon a subse- quent occasion, shook his head, and said that it was very bad, but did not appear the least surprised at it ; and evidently disbelieved me, when, in answer to a question, I assured him that such things did not take place in Eng- land, and that a priest might travel in a public coach, from one end of it to the other, without being the least likely to be so insulted bv his fellow-passengers. France is unquestionably advancing rapidly in physical and material civilization. It is impossible to travel through the country with an observant eye without being convinced of the fact. Her new roads in her more back- ward and hitherto neglected provinces, and improved roads throughout the kingdom ; her greatly-increased means of communication by the almost daily establishment of new com- petitors in the carrying business on the public roads, and the formation of new companies for the navigation by steam of rivers hitherto MORAL RETROGRESSION. 355 profitless to commerce ; the almost daily com- mencement or completion of quays, bridges, and other public works, in almost every part of the country ; the cultivation of much hither- to uninclosed ground in many provinces, and the general establishment throughout the country of agricultural and industrial so- cieties, are all manifest and easily-recognized proofs of the progress h" ranee is making in the various branches of material civiliza- tion. The evidences of a nation's advancement or retrogression in moral and intellectual civilization do not lie quite so much on the surface of things, and are not by their nature so manifest to observation. But an obser- vant traveller will not pass through the king- dom without finding many a straw, which will serve to indicate which way the wind is blowing in these respects also. And I saw, both in Paris and in the provinces, enough to convince me that the country is making as decided a progress towards moral barba- rism, as it is towards physical civilization. The history of the world has amply proved that progress in the one of these directions is not incompatible with as rapid an advance in the other. It remains to be seen whether or not there is any necessary connection A A 2 356 WANT OF FAITH. between them ; and it is for England, as the most advanced nation of Europe, to dis- cover for herself, and shew to others, how great a degree of material refinement and luxury mankind can endure, without its be- coming the cause of dissolution of manners and moral retrogression. This, however, has certainly not been the cause of the present low state of morality in France. It must be ascribed rather to that tremendous moral earthquake, of which the revolution was, in an ethical point of view, but the first and most violent shock, and which has not only torn up from men's minds all those ancient prejudices and superstitions, which constituted a safe though narrow tram- road for the conduct of a volatile and un- thinking people to run on, but has unsettled and, in a great degree, destroyed more im- portant and rational principles of action. The most malignant symptom of this moral disease, which is destroying the nation, is the universal want of faith — not religious faith only, but of faith in any thing — in virtue, honesty, and morality — in the reality of any thing not cognizable by the material senses — in the government, in tlieir superiors, in their ncighl)Ours, and in themselves. Every thing but the material interests of bodily com- INDIVIDUALISM. 357 fort and well-being is spoken of in the same colfl, sneering- tone of sceptical ridicule, and the existence of any good, but that of sensual enjoyment, is deemed, at best, doubtful, and, therefore, unworthy of pursuit. It requires but small penetration to perceive that such a temper of mind must lead to a degree of selfishness and individualism, which, as soon as ever it becomes sufficiently uni- versal, must sever the bond which binds indi- viduals into bodies politic, and dissolve so- ciety into its original elements. Among a variety of small traits and indi- cations of national feeling, which, as I said just now, serve as straws to shew which way the wind blows, many, though producing an impression at the moment of their occurrence which is not afterwards effaced, are themselves of a nature to slip from the memory. One un- mistakeable index, however, to the moral sen- timents of a people, may be found in their newspapers and popular literature; and, throughout the whole of my tour through the provinces, I took considerable pains to ascer- tain what newspapers and books were the most read. The cafes and reading-rooms afforded me the means of judging of the first, and the contents of the circulating libraries, and the information of the keepers of them, 358 NEWSPAPERS. supplied a tolerably sure criterion of the latter. The " Charivari" is, comparatively speak- ing', an expensive paper, and would not, there- fore, be found in the smaller and poorer caf^s. But, in those of more pretension, it was inva- riably taken, and was, as far as very constant and, 1 may say, very extensive observation could enable me tojudge, more eagerly asked for, and more constantly in hand, than any other publication. The nature of this print is unfortunately too well known to make it necessary for me to characterise it with much particularity. It is written certainly not without much talent ; but its staple contents are blasphemy, obscenity, and unceasing at- tacks on every species of existing institution, whether whig, tory, or radical. The church, the state, the law, ihe tribunals, the judges, the peers, the deputies, the ministers, be they whom they may, are all in turn assailed with its clever though somevvhat monotonous ridi- cule. It is difficult to conceive the idea of a publication of a nature to be more extensively and deeply pernicious than the " Charivari. " The eminent success which has followed the establishment of this paper has brought into existence a crowd of imitators, such as " Le Corsaire." and others of the same stamp. They FEUILLETONS. 359 are, for the most part, equally detestable, without being- so cleverly written ; and sup- ply obscenity and blasphemy at a cheaper rate to those who cannot afford to take the Charivari. Their circulation, however, is far from being- equal to that of their prototype. Of regular newspapers, the "National," the " Siecle," and the " Presse," are those most commonly met with in the provinces over which I have travelled. The various shades of politics professed by these papers are suffi- ciently well known. In moral tone they are all, more or less, objectionable. The " feuil- leton" of Le Siecle is generally supplied by some of the popular writers of fiction of the dav ; and to those who are in any degree ac- quainted with the current French literature of these times, that is saying quite enoui^h. Some of the tales and romances, thus offered to thousands as their literary daily food, are, of course, less censurable than others ; but the general tendency of them all is bad and demoralizing. If, from the cafes, we turn to the circulating- libraries, their contents of a nature equally pernicious, and little less ephemeral, amply confirm the conclusions we shall have been inclined to draw from the favourite sheets of the public press. The innumerable volumes SCO CIRCULATING LIBRARIES. of Frederic Soulie, Paul de Kock, Eugene Sue, and Balzac, and a few others of similar cha- racter, constitute nearly their entire stock. And the mass of corrupt and corrupting ideas which address themselves to the passions, the imagination, and, occasionally, to the reason- ing faculty throughout a series of works, not one of which any English father of a family would dream of suffering to enter his house, forms the daily and nightly reading of the young of both sexes. I have been assured, in Paris, by French- men, who appeared ashamed of the present national literature of their country, that these works were not generally read ; that the pro- ductions, especially of the second of the above named authors, the most grossly indecent, perhaps, of all, were confined, in their circu- lation, to the porters, and water-carriers, etc., of Paris. It would be bad enough if it were so; but such is very far from being the case. These classes could not pay for the continual production of new works by many authors, or support the countless circulating libraries of Paris. But neither are these works con- fined to Parisian consumption. The poison is circulating actively through the smallest veins and remotest parts of the body of the state. And I cannot name any town in ROMANCES. 361 France, out of the great number T have visi- ted, so small, so remote, so isolated, so hack- ward, as not to possess, at least, one circula- ting- library, from whose stores — rich only in such works as these — the youth of France are nurtured. Each new accession to this "stan- dard" literature is forthwith received from Paris. The glad tidings of its arrival are conspicuously placarded in immense posting- bills ; and the young provincials hasten to devour the exciting food, which alone their minds, debilitated by similar reading, can relish, and strive to make themselves " au courant du jour" by being not one whit less corrupted than their Parisian contempo- raries. Upon one occasion, I was travelling in the diligence with the wife of a merchant, resi- ding in one of the small towns of Auvergne. She had been to Paris for a few weeks to visit some friends, and was on her way back to Clermont, there to meet her husband. If it were possible to find in any part of France a spot which the poison disseminated from the capital had not reached, one might have ex- pected to discover it among the mountains of Auvergne. And if any person, in any class of society, might be supposed to be, by posi- tion, secure from the almost universal cor- '^62 ANKCDOTF.. riiption, it would surely be the young' wife of a respectable merchant in a remote country town. I entered into conversation with her; and. in answer to my questions whether she was fond of reading', whether there were means of getting' books where she lived, etc., etc., was very soon informed that she delighted in reading, read all the new novels as soon as they came out, but that her especially favou- rite author was Paul de Kock. T had hoped that the deep-seated causes of profound demoralization, which I knew to exist in Paris, were confined to the capital, or, at least, to the larger cities of France. But my journeys through the provinces have amply convinced me, that any estimate of the state of the country, based on such a notion, would be eminently fallacious. It is useless to point out, as has frequently been done to me, when speaking to Frenchmen on the sub- ject, individual cases of exception, which, nine times out of ten, occur in the family of some old Carlist, who regards the whole state of things with horror, and keeps himself and his family carefully aloof from all contact with the world around him. To cite the sound health of a family who had escaped the con- tagion of an infected city by keeping their doors scrupulously shut and hernictical/y sealed, as MORALITY AMONG THE PEASANTRY. 363 a proof that the pestilence was not raging- there, would not be more absurd. The truth is, that the country is demoralized to an awful deg-ree. Throughout the whole length and breadth of the land the plague-spot appears. The fountains of all morality and healthy feeling have been poisoned at their source, and it is, therefore, vain to expect the stream to run pure. The only part of the nation yet free from the wide-spread contagion is the peasantry, the rural labourers of the villages and scattered farms; and they, alas! are so only in exact proportion to the dark- ness of their ignorance. Nothing can be farther from my intention than to advocate the continuance of this ignorance. Most dangerously precarious in its nature, and lamentably insufficient in its quality, must be the comparative innocence which results from the benighted condition of a large proportion of the French agricul- tural population. Yet such has been the nature of the enlightenment bestowed upon the people, that it results incontestably from statistical documents that those departments and communes of France are most free from crime in which education — as it is most erroneously termed — has made the least pro- gress. 364 MORALITY AMONG THE PEASANTRY. These departments are found in the exclu- sively agricultural districts in the centre of France. According- to Dupin's exceedingly interesting tables and charts, the department of La Creuse is that in which the smallest proportion of the inhabitants can read and write ; and it is also that in which crime, of every kind, is the least common. One such fact as this is worth ten volumes of abstract theories. And what is the prac- tical lesson to be drawn from it? Not that ignorance is good, as a preservative of inno- cence, but that a steam-engine Lancasterian process of turning out the greatest number of readers and writers in a given time is not education, and can lead, when unaccompanied by moral culture, only to a hothouse forcing of all that is bad in human nature, instead of implanting the seeds of good. PLACE DU BOUFFAY. 365 CHAPTER XXIL Evening Walk — Place du Bouffay — Cours Saint Pierre — Fashion- able Promenade — Cours Saint Andre — Statue of Louis XVL — Of Breton Worthies — Military Parade — Young Soldiers — Drilling — Dislike of the Population of certain Provinces to the Service — Origin of the feehng — Different Races — Antipathy to the Service does not arise from want of Courage — Anecdote — A Perigordian Conscript and his Father. The serious subject upon which I was led to speak in the last chapter drew me far away from the dinner-table at the Hotel de 1' Eu- rope, at Nantes. There was nothing there to tempt me to carry the reader back to it ; so let us suppose the business accomplished, and set forth on an after-dinner stroll, to enjoy the delicious temperature of the lovely even- ing, which had succeeded to a broiling day. Having quitted the Isle Feydeau, by the Pont d'Aiguillon, J crossed the " Place du Bouffay," not without a thrilling recollection of all the horrors of which it was the scene in those terrible days, when the mother of " La Fille de la Punition," and others like herself, •^66 BEAU MONDK AT NANTES. thronged it each morning, seeking, like foul beasts, their daily feast of blcod ; and, passing along the *' quai de Port Maillard," under the walls of the chateau, I turned up the " Place Cincinnatus," (!) and found .myself on the " Cours St. Pierre," the principal promenade in the town. Here f met all the beau monde of Nantes, assembled to enjoy the evening air, and listen to the band of a regiment, quartered in the town, which continued to play several popu- lar airs, while the men were being drilled a little farther off in the " Cours St. Andr^" — another similar promenade; a continuation, in fact, ol the Cours St. Pierre, and separated from it only by a handsome "place," with a pil- lar and statue of l^ouis XVI. in the middle of it. These two promenades are farther deco- rated with statues of the Duchess Anne, and the three celebrated constables of France, Du- guesclin, Oliver Clisson, and Arthur III., of Britanny, and due de Richemont. The regiment which was going through its exercise had been, for the most part, newly raised, and the young soldiers were being- initiated into some of the rudiments of their military education. They were divided into a number of small bodies of about ten men in each, and were endeavouring, under the su- AWKWARD SQUAD. 367 perintendence and tuition of several veteran corporals, to acquire the rapidity and unifor- mity of motion and the exactitude of position, which constitute, on the parade, at least, a good soldier. The exceeding- clumsiness of the great majority of them, and the reiterated repetition of the same plain instructions for the execution of a simple movement, without the smallest visible amelioration in the pupils' attempts, did not seem, as far as they went, to confirm the favourite boast of the French, that their countrymen are more easily and more rapidly turned into soldiers than those of any other nation. J know not whether this regiment had been raised in the neighbourhood, but it is well known that the inhabitants of this part of France have an insuperable aversion to the military service. I have spoken before of the hatred the Bretons entertain for it, and of the extravagances they are occasionally led into by their despair at being drawn as con- scripts. The same dislike exists in all the western and central provinces of France. And though, from the irore modified and less energetic nature of the population, their feel- ings on the subject are rarely manifested in so violent and characteristic a manner as is frequently the case among the unmixed and 368 DISLIKE TO THE SERVICE unchanged Celtic population of Western Bri- tanny, yet tlie known fact of their dislike for the military life, and reluctance to quit their homes, is curious as a remaining trait of their once distinct nationality, and an evidence of that peculiar temperament, which can only be ascribed to their descent from a race differ- ently constituted from the inhabitants of other parts of the kingdom. May we not also trace, in the readiness and alacrity with which the Normans and Alsacians enlist, the remains of that martial ardour, and love of enterprise and adventure, still fermenting in the hot blood transmitted through the gene- rations of a thousand years from ancestors whom we know to have been so strongly char- acterised by the military spirit. Not that the distaste, which the inhabi- tants of the western provinces evince for a military life, in any degree arises from want of courage, or even dislike of fighting. Far from it ! Witness almost every page of the history of Britanny during its existence as an independent kingdom ! Witness the burghers of La Rochelle, and the story of many another hardly-contested fort and field, during the period when so many of the men of these provinces were fighting against bigotry and oppression for religious liberty ! Witness IN THE WESTERN PART OF FRANCE. 369 more notably than all, the glorious struggle of the gallant peasants of La Vendee ! No ; it is a dislike, rather, to leave their homes, and to enter on a new and unwonted mode of life, and an unconquerable aversion to be sub- mitted to all the irksome details of a soldier's discipline, and that too, under superiors they have never known, strangers alike, in all probability, to their habits, manners, and country. Though, as I have said, it does not ordina- rily happen that the conscripts of Anjou, Poitou, Limousin, Perigord, etc., fall into that excess of grief and despondency which has frequently proved fatal to those of Britanny, yet tragical occurrences, from time to time, take place, which mark, in a sufficiently strong and striking manner, their hatred of the ser- vice and their anxiety to escape from it. A very remarkable case in point occurred while I was in France, at the village of Savignac- les-eglises, near Perigueux, which the news- papers noticed at the time. A young peasant, the only son of his pa- rents, was drawn. He was a very fine young- man, and a very good son ; and the family, though the father was but a common labourer, enjoyed a high degree of consideration in his native village; for the old couple had spent VOL. I. B B 370 PKRIGORDIAN CONSCRIPT. there nearly the whole of a long life of honesty and industry. When the fatal result of the lottery was known, the young man's agony was extreme. The duty before him was hate- ful enough to his own feelings ; but the neces- sity of leaving his aged parents, and the task of conveying to them the heavy news, made the prospect he had to face black indeed. It must, however, be done ; and with a heavy heart he returned to his father's cottage, and told, as he best might, his news. The parents were inconsolable. In vain he spoke to them, with a cheerfulness he did not feel, of his re- turn, and attempted to view the calamity on its brighter side. Life was to them hence- forward but a dreary blank, and they could only look forward to dying while he was far away, at best, with none but strangers around their bed — perhaps in the desolation of unat- tended solitude. When the first paroxysm of their grief had in some measure subsided, every possibility of escape from the im|)ending doom was can- vassed by the dejected party. In vain ! It was inevitable. The whole property which the family could scrape together by selling every possession they had in the world, w^ould fall far short of the sum necessary to procure a substitute. The poor mother fell on her son*s AND HIS PARENTS. 371 neck ill a fresh burst of g'rief, while the grey- headed old man stood aloof and gazed on the pair with an eye in which a stony, immoveable, and unnatural composure had taken the place of the expression of uncontrolled despair. " This," said he, at length, " is my doing. It is impossible now to purchase a substitute, but I might have saved enough, if I had be- gun early enough, to have paid the insurance against conscription. I trusted to chance what I ought by my own industry to have se- cured, and I am punished. But God, my son, does not will that you and your aged mother should suffer for my fault. He wills not that you should quit her and this roof; and," raising his voice, and speaking with impres- sive solemnity, " you will not quit it. It is your father who tells you so !" This speech produced no great impression upon the mother or son. The belief in super- natural warnings and presentiments is very common among the more ignorant of the French peasants, and on an ordinary occasion such a prediction as the old man had just ut- tered would not have been altogether disre- garded. But the hearts of the unfortunate conscript and his mother were too deeply miserable to be relieved by such slenderly- sustained hope. The night was passed by B B 2 372 AN RXCEPTION FROM them in weeping and lamentation ; for the French peasant, like the Irish, is ever demon- strative and noisy in his grief. The old man, however, preserved his stiff and cold tranquillity ; and in the morning, after renev^^ing his declaration that God would find a means of escape for his son, and bid- ding adieu affectionately to his wife and boy, he left the house, saying that he was going to the tribunal, whose business it is to superin- tend the drawing for the conscription, to con- sult the judges upon the matter. The young man shook his head, and began afresh his fruitless endeavours to console his mother, while his father left them and pro- ceeded to the tribunal. Arrived before the authorities, he of course received in answer to all he could urge the assurance that the lot had fallen regularly and legitimately on his son ; that it was the duty of every Frenchman to be ready at a mon.ent's notice to serve his country, &c , and that he must be ready to depart with the other conscripts. " But there are exceptions," still urged the old man, " many exceptions ; all are not liable to the conscription ; and perhaps it may be found that my son " " There can be no exception in your son's THE CONSCRIPTION. 373 case, old man !" interrupted the magistrate, rather angry at the peasant's pertinacity. " He has been legally drawn, and he must serve. There is no help for it." " But is not the only son of a widow ex- empted by the law?" still persisted the old man. " I have heard say that the conscrip- tion spares such." " Certainly it does. But what is that to you !" said the magistrate ; " that is not your son's case; and is not likely to be, as far as I can judge; for you look as hearty an old fellow as one could wish to see. Come ! come ! make up your mind to it at once! — for go he must." " He will not go," replied the old man, calmly and slowly, " for he is the only son of his mother, and she is a widow." And at the same instant he put to his tem- ple the muzzle of a pistol, which he had drawn from the concealment of his blouse as he uttered the last words, and fell before them a corpse. It is needless to attempt a description of the effect produced upon the presiding ma- gistrates and the spectators by this unex- pected catastrophe. The young man had indeed become entitled to the benefit of the exception accorded by the law to the only son 374 DREADFUl. SACRIFICE. of a widow; but it may be doubted how far the house of mourning', which the determined old man had left never to return to it, would be comforted, when the young conscript's liberation from the hated duty, and the price which had been paid for it, were communi- cated to the son and widow of the suicide. REGIMENTAL BAND. 375 CHAPTER XXIII. Ungallaiit Band — Botanical Garden — Logical Classification of Plants — View from the Promenade — Cemetery de Misericorde — Legend — Rue de I'Entrepot — Fine Line of Streets — Church of Notre Dame — Anecdote — Jean de Montfort's Three Vows, and how he kept them — New Quarter of the Citv — M. Graslin — Literary Nomenclatures of the Nantais Streets — The Theatre — The Audience — Return to hotel — and Departure from Nantes. I CONTINUED lounging; on the promenade, sometimes walking down the hill, on the Cours St. Pierre, on the south side of Louis XVI. 's pillar, to look at all the gay Nantais and Nantaises who had come there to see and to be seen, and sometimes on the Cours St. Andr6, on the north side of the pillar, to see if the recruits were getting on, and holding up their heads a little better, till the band ceased playing. They were stationed in the " Place Louis XVI., between the two prome- nades, so as to serve at the same time to ex cite the awkward squad to military ardour, and amuse the beau monde of Nantes with their music. I am obliged, however, to infer, however painful it may be to draw a conclu- 376 REGIMKNTAL BAND. sion so unfavourable to the gallantry of the officers of the regiment in question, that the first of these objects was the only one they had in view; for as soon as ever the unpro- mising young men who were going through the painful process of being made to turn out their toes at their eighteenth or twen- tieth years of age, after having turned them in all their lives, had arrived at the end of their lesson, and began scampering off in all directions like a flock of boys turned out of a village-school, the band immediately packed up their instruments, and marched off with bag and baggage. I followed their example, and directed my course towards the botanical garden, which I had been told was a very fine one. It is situated not very far from the promenade, a little to the eastward of it, on the outskirts of the town, it was evidently a recent establish- ment, and had been laid out, as perhaps a bota- nical garden ought to be, without the slightest regard to beauty or pleasing effect of any kind. Yet I regretted not my pains in having quitted the gay and festive scene of the pro- menade to visit it ; for though 1 was unable to appreciate the rarity or excellence of the various plants exiiibited there, my inspection afforded me a more superlatively exquisite BOTANICAL GARDEN. 377 example of logical division, than it could ever have entered the head of Doctors Aristotle or Aldrich to conceive. A placard, affixed to a pole erected in the garden, exhibited five coloured streaks of black, blue, yellow, green, and red, together with the information that each of these colours painted on the label attached to each plant in the garden signified respectively that the said plant appertained to one of the five fol- lowing classes. 1st. Poisonous Plants ! 2nd. Medicinal!! 3rd. Ornamental ! ! ! 4th. Used for food or in cookery ! ! ! ! 5th. Used in the Arts!!!!! Under which head, I wonder, would the Nantais savants range the laurel ? Poisonous ? That it certainly is. Medicinal? — Prussic acid decidedly vindi- cates for the laurel a place in this depart- ment. Ornamental ? — Shades of Le Notre and Ca- pability Brown ! What would ye feel were the evergreen laurel decided to be no longer ornamental ! Used for food or in cookery ? — What is a custard good for without the flavour the laurel leaf imparts! 378 DIVISION OF PLANTS. Used in the arts? — Many an academician is of opinion tliat tiie arts would be more flourishing if the laurel was made use of in them — or on the artists, it is the same thing — a little oftener. I quitted the garden after 1 had culled from it this delicious specimen of classification, and returning to the Cours, walked to the nor- thern extremity of the Cours St. Andre, from which a considerable part of the town and the course of the Erdre are looked down on. These promenades must have been constructed on the rampart which shut the original city into the corner formed by the junction of the Erdre and the Loire. The south end of the Cours St. Pierre, accordingly, looks upon the Loire, and the north end of the Cours St. Andre on the Erdre. A good deal of the height of the rampart remains in this part, and is ascended by steps. The Erdre, how- ever, whose stream is here made use of by the canal from Brest to Nantes, is so built up with houses, and covered with bridges, as to be very little seen. Descending from the rampart, and crossing the Erdre by one of its numerous bridges, I passed an immense "abattoir," — conveni- ences subsidiary to health and cleanliness, which ought, ere now, to have been added to CHAPELLE DE MISERICORDE. 379 our list of improvements — and, still walking- in a north-westerly direction, soon came to the large cemetery " de Misericorde," on the extreme outskirts of the town. There is a long " Rue de Misericorde," and a " chemin de misericorde," leading to the " Chapelle de Misericorde," which used, in old times, to be a very favourite place of devotion with the Kantais. The foundation of this chapel is of very great antiquity, being placed by the his- torians of the town in the fifth century. It is said to have been originally built to commemorate the victory which three knights obtained over a dragon, who inhabited the forest that then covered the country to the north of the town. Three knights to one un- fortunate dragon ! What would that gallant Yorkshireman, More, of More Hall, who, " with nothing at all, slew the dragon of Wantley," have said to such odds ? However, the Nantais dragon devoured one of his three opponents, but was slain by the two others, who carried his body in triumph to the cathe- dral, where it was graciously received by the Bishop, who caused the lower jaw to be de- tached from the monster's head and enclosed in a silver box. This was lodged among the treasures of the cathedral, where, say the Nantais, it was still to be seen in 1773. 380 LEGEND. The Chapelle de Misericorde had handsome painted windows, on which was represented the combat of the three knights, together with the following curious inscription, which, with the popular tradition, constituted the only record of the event. " Un roi dessus iin blanc clieval Tira Tare pour faire mal. Un autre, sur un clieval roux, Tire l'epee,tout en courroux. L'autre, sur un clieval noir, Vit la mort et I'infernal maiioir." The use of the word " roi " in these lines is worthy of remark. The rhymes, as they stand here, are of course not of the period they refer to. They were doubtless written according to the mode in vogue at the time when the Chapelle de Misericorde was adorned with its painted window, but, in all proba- bility, repeated the tradition accurately, and as nearly as the alteration of language would permit in the words in which it had been handed dovvn from generation to genera- tion. From the cemetery I found my way south- wards to the top of a handsome street, planted with an avenue of trees, called the *' Rue de I'Entrepot," which I descended. At the bot- tom of it is the large building from which it takes its name. And from this point, run- NUT RE D\MK. 381 ning in an easterly direction at right angles, or nearly so, with the Rue de ['Entrepot, is a handsome series of streets, leading in a straight line to the Place Royal, on the other side of which is the old part of the town. This street, or rather these streets, for though the same line is preserved, it is called by va- rious names, is parallel to the quays which I had traversed this morning, and equally con- ducted me towards my quarters, which the darkening twilight reminded me it was nearly time to reseek. In the first of these streets is the church of Notre Dame, the next in importance to the cathedral. The edifice has, however, nothing remarkable in it; but I was amused by the following anecdote from the archives of its history. When the duke Jean de Montfort was Mar- guerite de Clisson's prisoner in her castle of Champtoceaux, as has been before mentioned, he made a vow that, if ever he should be so fortunate as to escape from that violent-tem- pered old lady's clutches, he would perform these three works of piety and devotion. In the first place, he would give to the church of N6tre Dame in Nantes his own weight of gold, and to that of St. Yves a similar weight of silver. Secondly, he undertook to make a 382 .IKAN DE MONTFORT'S VOW, pilgrimage to the holy land. Thirdly, he promised never more to levy any taxes on his subjects. He vowed a vow ; and in process of time he did escape from Dame Margaret's durance vile. But, though he kept his promises in some sort, as the reader shall hear, he can hardly be said, like that admirable example of fidelity and devotion, the Turk's daughter, in the instructive poem, intituled " the loving Ballad of Lord Bateman and the fair Sophia," to have " kept them strong.'' The duke, on his escape, first turned his attention to the gifts promised to our Lady's shrine and that of St. Yves. It was certainly expedient that this part of his obligation should be attended to immediately, for it may easily be supposed that the lady Margaret's prison diet had left him in a condition to ac- quit himself of this portion of his vow more cheaply than he could at any other time. So he weighed himself forthwith, and found that he fairly balanced three hundred and eighty marcs and seven ounces, which made about three hundred and twenty thousand francs of the present currency for Notre Dame, and twenty-two thousand francs for St. Yves. And this he truly and honestly paid. The next thing to be considered was the AND HOW HK KKPT IT. 383 pilgrimage to the holy land. This was very easily settled ; for though it would have been exceedingly inconvenient for him to have quitted his dominions just then, matters were arranged without difficulty by his paying a substitute for performing the pilgrimage in his place. The third article of his promise remained — to refrain from ever more imposing any con- tributions upon his people. It was by far the most difficult part of the affair, and the duke was rather puzzled. He could not conceive how he ever could have been rash enough to make so monstrous a vow. It was so very incompatible, too, with the performance of the other parts of his promise, and in every point of view so exceedingly inconvenient ! Sure never prince made, under the circumstances, so ill-judged and injudicious a vow before ! But we know that " When the devil was sick, the devil a monk would be ; But when the devil got well, the devil a monk was he !" However, a vow is a vow, and must be dis- posed of in some way. What was to be done ? In all such cases there is ever one unfailing and infallible resource for true and faithful sons of the church of Rome, and obedient servants of her pontiff. The duke laid his dis- tressing case before the Holy Father, who 384 PLACE GRASLIN. expressed his strong sympathy for the dis- agreeable predicament in which his pious son had incautiously placed himself, and gene- rously accorded him his paternal dispensation from that unprofitable part of his vow — on receipt of a remittance of twenty thousand florins, which the well-pleased Duke forth- with raised by the imposition of new taxes, together with as much more, when he was about it, for his own immediate neces- sities. And thus Jean de Montfort's three vows, if not altogether " kept strong," were dis- charged, to the perfect ease and tranquillity of his own conscience, and the entire satis- faction, doubtless, of all parties concerned. Quitting the church of Notre Dame, and passing by the " Hotel des Monnaies," a large building, of no architectural beauty, I soon reached the Place Graslin, named after a wealthy " fermier general," who, towards the latter part of the last century, was the prin- cipal projector and builder of all this quarter of the town. This " place " is in the form of a Norman arch, of which the theatre, a hand- some modern building, adorned with several statues surmounting itsprincipal facade,forms the base. M. (Iraslin has left, as it should seem, a record of his literary tastes in the THEAI'RE. 385 names of the surrounding streets. Next to the theatre are appropriately placed the Rues Corneille and Moliere ; and, in the neighbour- hood, those of Voltaire, Jean Jacques Rous- seau, Racine, Rubens, Franklin, Crebillon, Copernic, Cassini, Petrarque, Boileau, Des- cartes, Fourcroy, Piron, Gretry, La Fontaine, Le Sage, Montesquieu, Marivaux, &c. From the Place Graslin I turned into the Rue Piron, which, as I ought to have ex- pected, I found dirty and dark. It led me sadly astray, moreover, and, before I could get clear of the learned labyrinth in which I found myself entangled, it was dark. At last, however, I rambled back into the Place Graslin, and there, finding myself before the open door of the theatre, I walked into the pit, "moyennant" something about thirty sous. What the performances consisted of this deponent saith not. I am, however, able to give a somewhat better account of the audi- ence. There were about a dozen " habitu^"- looking men in the same division of the pit with myself — genuine Frenchmen — " petits rentiers," probably, or employes in some of the innumerable government offices — men who subscribe to the theatre by the season, VOL. I. CO 38(> NANTATS AUDIENCE. and to whom " le spectacle "is a far more pressing daily '* besoin " than a dinner, and almost as much so as their " tabatiere " and *' demi-tasse de caf^." In the backward divi- sion of the pit were about a similar number of private soldiers. In the centre box of the -lower tier sat, in solitary dignity, a very stout, white-headed old gentleman, in a general's uniform, who, from time to time, yawned por- tentously. A thin sprinkling of officers, to- gether with not more than a dozen elegant extracts, male and female, from the Nantais beau monde, were scattered over the other boxes of the same tier. And in the row above, immediately over the old general's head, in the exact centre of the circle, sat a solitary gensd'arme, with his cocked hat on his head, his chin on his thumbs, and his elbows on the rail in front of him. The whole of the house was in an incredi- bly filthy state, and I soon left it, thin king- that T had seen enough to warrant me in coming to the conclusion that the drama does not flourish at Nantes. 1 groped my way home through streets that could hardly be said to be lighted at all ; and having charged both the " garcon" and " fille de chanibrc " to call mo without fail DEPARTURE FROM NANTES. 387 at half past four o'clock the next morning, [ mounted to my room, to prepare every thing- for leaving Nantes the next morning, and make the best of a somewhat short night. c c 2 388 JOURNEY TO CLTSSON. CHAPTER XXIV. Journey to Clisson — The Capital of La Vendee — The two Sevres — Their different Characters — French Guide-Books — Touching Anecdote respecting a Plaster cast Merchant — Scenery ofCHsson — Destruction of the Town in the War — Traces of the War in La Vendee — New Villages — Destruction of the Vendeean Vil- lages — Retreats and Hiding-places of the Inhabitants — " Le Refuge" — The Castle of Clisson — Its Architecture — Its pre- sent State — The Constable Oliver Clisson — The brothers Ca- cault — Their History — Their Museum — Their Gardens — Anecdote of the Vendeean War. I LEFT Nantes at five o'clock in the morn- ing, by a little voiture, carrying four persons inside, and one in front, with the driver, which was bound for Clisson, a little chef lieu de Canton, about ten leagues to the south, on the extreme verge of the department. Its natural beauties, and interesting historical associations, together with the unusual cir- cumstance of a little country village, such as Clisson, having possessed an extensive col- lection of pictures, open to the public, and some pretty pleasure-grounds around the building which contained them, have made it CAPITAL OF LA VENDEE. 389 a celebrated place in this part of the country, and a favourite resort of Nantais pleasure- parties. Under these circumstances, I must needs have visited Clisson, even if it had not fallen in with my proposed route ; but, as it happens, it is situated in the way leading- to the bocage of La Vendee, not far out of the great road to Bourbon, the capital of the de- partment, and thus exactly in my course. My three fellow-travellers in the little voi- ture were all Vendeean farmers of the bo- cage, returning from Nantes to their homes. For the latter city is, in fact, to all intents and purposes, the capital of La Vendee. Be- fore the revolution and the division of France into departments, this district formed part of the province of Poitou, and Poitiers was, therefore, legally, its metropolis. Now, the town of Bourbon Vendee is its recognized capital. But, both before and since that great change, the habits of the people, from time immemorial, were stronger than the geogra- phical arrangements of the law, and neither Poitiers nor Bourbon have ever been more than in name the capital town of the Vendeeans. Whether it was that Nantes was more con- veniently situated, or that it offered better markets, or, possibly, that the political feel- ings of the Nantais accorded better with those 390 BIRTHPLACE OF ABELARD. of the Yendeeans than the politics of Poitiers : from whatever cause it may have arisen, all the communication which the villages of La Vendee and the scattered population of the bocage require with the city, is invariably maintained with Nantes. With the exception of an extensive view from the top of a hill, about half way between Nantes and Clisson, the route is not particularly interesting. The country is chiefly occupied with vineyards, whose produce was, last year, worth sixty francs the piece. About a couple of leagues, or so, before ar- riving at Clisson, the road passes close to the small village of Palet, the birth-place of Peter Abelard. The local antiquaries and guide- books maintain that the ruins of his father Berenger's house are still in existence, and to be seen at Palet. But it distresses me to be obliged to say that I deem this fact of a very apochryphal nature. We arrived at Clisson about ten o'clock ; and all descended from the carriage to de- scend the extremely steep hill, which dips down to the village — town, perhaps, theClissonians would call it — on the banks of the SevreNan- tais. There are two rivers in this neigh- bourhood called S6vrc, from which the adjoin- ing department of '* Les Deux Sevres" is THE TWO RIVKRS OF SEVRR. 391 named. La Vendee lies almost entirely between them, La Sevre Nantais passing along its eastern and northern frontier, and falling* into the Loire, opposite to Nantes ; and the Sevre Niortaise — so called from the town of Niort — the capital of" Les deux Sevres" — forming its southern boundary, and falling into the ocean. It is impossible for two rivers to present a greater contrast to each other than do these sister Sevres. She, of Nantes, the northern stream, is a laughing, sparkling, active, noisy, boisterous, giddy nymph, rattling along at a jovial pace over her rocky path, and dashing, flashing, and splashing about at the bottom of her deep, narrow valley, not quite like Low- dore, but in a very sprightly manner. Her southern namesake, of Niort, on the contrary, solemnly, sulkily, sleepily, and slowly pursues her dull, still way, and skulks into the sea, amid sands and marshes, as if anxious to make off unseen, with the stolen spoils of the rich, loamy meadows, with which she is laden. Clisson is niched into a narrow ravine, through which dances along the gayer and more attractive of these contrasted twins, and is, certainly, an extremely picturesque spot. But the good people of Nantes, in their local partiality for this favourite haunt, know no bounds to their ecstasies and enthusiasm of 31J2 INTERESTING ANECDOTE. admiration. Guide-books, histories, and de- scriptions, poems, in quarto, octavo, duode- cimo, and lithographed v^ews of scenery innumerable, have been published ; and, by their account, " there is not in the wide world a valley" half so sweet as that of the Sevre. One author gravely remonstrates with French- men for being so unpatriotic as to leave their country in search of scenery beyond the Alps, when here, at home, they have landscapes *' which yield, in no respect, to the most lovely sites in Switzerland and Italy." A temple of Vesta lias been built tliere ; and the case of an Italian image-boy is recorded, who, on pas- sing the spot by chance, was so overcome by the emotions this exact fac-simile of his native village produced in his bosom, that he could only stretch forth his arms and cry, " Tivoli ! Tivoli !" before he fell to the ground in a swoon. The recorder of this touching anec- dote has not stateil how it fared with the poor Italian's board of images at this interesting- crisis, but there is great reason to fear that it must have g\)ne hard with them. Let us hope that the delighted witness of the affecting occurrence pulled out a five franc piece, and presented it to the victim of patriotism to re- [)lace his broken wares. Were it not tliat the exaggerated praises of SCENERY AROUND CLISSON. 39o these very French Guide-books prepare disap- pointment for the traveller, and beget in him the inclination to pick holes in the charms which have been so outrageonsly over-stated, Clis- son, and the neighbouring scenery of the Sevre, could not fail to delight the most fasti- dious critic. A little stream, called the Moine, falls into the S6vre at this point, and varies the shape of the ground picturesquely, by the addition of its own little valley. The village itself is, from its raw and new appearance, less calculated to adorn the landscape than might have been expected. In fact, the traveller begins here to see the traces of the tremen- dous struggle which desolated this country twice over at the close of the last and begin- ning of the present century. The village of Clisson was almost entirely destroyed, and was not rebuilt till some time afterwards. The devastated fields around it, trampled, burned, and wasted, as were the corps, and strewn, as was the soil, with all the scathing vestiges of war, have again as- sumed an aspect of peaceful industry and plenteous increase; and the luxurious herbage has covered the hideous scars inflicted on earth's bosom by the violence of civil strife. But the bounty of nature effaces man's mar- ring of her works more rapidly than he can 394 EFFECTS OF THE WAR. repair the mischief his fury wreaks upon the creations of his own hands. And the dread- ful sufferings this unfortunate country en- dured will be marked on its surface for yet many a year by the ug'ly, formal, bright- coloured, unfinished-looking villages, which seem, by some strange metamorphosis, to have been transplanted from amongst the wilds and forests of some newly-settled colony into the midst of the ancient cultivation and immemorial hedge-rows of the old world. It is true, the patient labours of peace have re- laid the hearthstones, and once more raised the roofs which the drunkenness of war had desecrated and thrown down. But these are no longer native villages. Where are the time-stricken cottages, each, to their several inmates, hallowed into homes, by the sacred ties of a thousand linked associations of family joys and sorrows ; the well-remembered fur- niture ; the infant's cradle, in which the father himself, too, slept, when an infant ; the cham- ber in which a son has closed his father's eyes ; or the chair first purchased years ago, or con- structed by himself, perhaps, for the comfort of an aged mother? These things are the family archives of the rustic villager ; and the reminiscences attached to them, connecting him retrospectively and prospectively with DESTRUCTION OF THE VILLAGES. 395 his kind, are potent agents of good, and safe- guards of real civilization. But all these are swept away ! Where, too, is the village churchyard, with its still more holy associations ? The graves of their fathers, so sacred in the eyes of these religious peasants ; and the hallowed spot, whose carefully-tended turf had been so often pressed by their knees, while their prayers mingled with solemn anticipations of the day when their own forms should be laid to rest with the venerated dust beneath ? Where, too, in many instances, is the village church itself, that storehouse of the hopes and fears of so many simple hearts, the ancient point of union and bond of fellowship of the little community around it, whose fondly-revered fabric entered so largely into each man's idea of home ? Desecrated ! despoiled ! devas- tated ! gone ! Yes ; material nature may bloom again, as fair or fairer than before ; labour may recover its losses, and thriving industry forget the destroyed wealth of its former content in newly-born prosperity. But many a generation must pass away before La Vendue can, if ever, really recover from the effects of the devouring fire which has passed over it, or assume, even to the careless eye of 396 DEVASTATION OF THE COUNTRY. a superficial observer, the external appear- ance of its former self. The generality of English readers are, pro- bably, not aware of the degree to which this devoted land was laid waste, and, in many parts, even depopulated by the too celebra- ted Vend^ean wars. Many villages, and that of Clisson among the number, were utterly de- serted and left desolate. The scattered popu- lation dared not venture back to look at the sad spectacle of their ruined homes : and the country around them rapidly assumed the appearance of a wilderness, whose former population had migrated, in a mass, to other lands. The sudden summons ran through the vil- lage like lightning, " The Blues ! the Blues !" together with the appointed spot where one of their almost adored and implicitly-obeyed leaders and seigneurs would meet them, passed from mouth to mouth. Each man caught his musket, or, more frequently, his fowling-piece, from the wall, said a few hasty words of adieu and instruction, in case of the worst, to his family, and hurried singly and by devious paths to the place of rendezvous. There, the orders for the business in hand were quickly given ; an ambuscade, probably, to be laid behind the shelter of their enormous hedges, MODE OF VENDEEAN WARFARE. 397 in a spot where it was known the Blues were to pass. The moment for the assault came, a deadly fire was opened on the confused soldiers, and, at the well-known command, " egaillez voiis mes gars'' — '* scatter your- selves, my boys !" — lon^ the only word of com- mand in use among the Vendeean armies, the peasants dispersed in every direction into the thickets, along the hedge-rows, or among the dense gorse bushes, and were, in a minute, beyond all possibility of pursuit or re- taliation. But, if the plans of his leader required his presence for a longer period, no pressure of want, no excess of fatigue, no anxiety for the fate of those he had left be- hind at home, no imminence of danger, could seduce the untrained, unmilitary Vendeean peasant from his post. Night or day, wet or dry, nourished as he could find the means, or to the very extent of nature's power of endu- rance — and often beyond it — not nourished at all, he dreamed not of returning to his home till his leader gave the word. And then, when cautiously he approached his village across the fields and commons, it frequently occurred that he found it a smoul- dering mass of ruins, strewn around, perhaps, with the corpses of the murdered old men, women, and children, who, in the absence of 398 CONCEALMENT AMONG THE GORSE. every arm capable of bearing a musket, had been its only occupants ; or, at all events, de- serted by every living creature, silent as death, and desolate. And in this state many of the villages remained till the final pacifica- tion of the country. The moss began to grow on the blackened and prostrate timbers ; the grass covered alike the streets and the fallen thatched roofs ; and the luxuriant rank vegetation, thriving on the process of decay, was rapidly converting the remains of the en- tire village into one undistinguishable mass of ruins. If the miserable inhabitants had been for- tunate enough to get notice of the approach of the Blues in time to effect their escape from their dwellings, their usual resource was the shelter of the gorse. This plant, as I had be- fore remarked to be the case in Britanny, grows throughout the bocage of La Vendee to a very great height, and in the greatest })ro- fusion. There are whole fields of it growing to tiie height of ten or twelve feet, and so thick as to be almost impenetrable. Nothing could be better adapted for concealment. In hiding-places, ingeniously constructed in the centre of these masses of vegetation, and most cautiously approached, the inhabitants of entire villages have lain concealed. T.K RFFUGK. 399 But the most notable asylum of the Yen- deean women and children, and such of the men as were not absent on expeditions, was a regular sylvan city, which was called " Le Refuge." This was situated in the heart of the thick forest of Grala, which stretches over a considerable space of country, some leagues to the southward of Clisson. This place of concealment was first resorted to in 1793, and for a long time proved a secure asylum for a very great number of Vendeean families, whose villages were destroyed . A great num- ber of huts, constructed of branches and sods of turf, were arranged in regular streets. A larger shed was erected for a church ; and the proscribed community lived in their sylvan city in peace, waiting for happier and better times. There are old couples still living who were married in this woodland retreat ; for it may be easily imagined that there was no lack of priests at Le Refuge, seeing that the hottest persecution was directed against ec- clesiastics who refused to submit their con- sciences to the dictation of an atheist govern- ment. Many Vend^eans, too, are still living, who first saw the light under the leafy roofs of the cabins of Le Refuge. The forest of Gr§.la was, of course, deserted by its temporary inmates as soon as the com- 400 I ASI I.K UK CMSSON. plexidii of the times permitted them to return to their fields, and rebuild their villages. And hut small traces now remain of the httle city it once harboured in its bosom. When Clisson was destroyed by the repub- lican forces, there was, however, one morsel too tough for them. This was the old castle. Its majestic ruins finely crown a rocky emi- nence on the op|)osite side of the valley to that by which I entered the village, and still, though dismantled, frown in gloomy feodal dignity and scorn upon the new, rickety- look- ing buildings beneath it. This castle, in the days of its pride, must have been a place of immense strength, and all but impregnable. Its walls, more than sixteen feet thick, were cannon-proof; and the fortifications of the principal entrance, together with the combinations of means for offensive operations against a besieging party, are considered to be arranged with peculiar skill. It is said, indeed, that the whole ar- chitecture of this side of the castle is an exact copy of a portion of the Saracenic fortress of Cesarea. IJut- little remains of the interior. A few arches, rent .ind ivs-grown, one or two towers hanging over the precipitx^us side of the rock, which seem to hold together and retain their OLIVER CLISSON. 401 threatening position only from long- habit, some narrow windows, two dungeons, one underneath the other, cut in the rock, with the judgment-chamber above them, and the walls surrounding the two courts, are all that remain of the patrimonial dwelling of the re- doubtable Constable, Oliver Clisson. One of the poets of this favoured spot says, or sings, of this castle, " Casques et boucliers, cuirasses gigantesques, Cris d'armes, mots d'amour, devises de I'honneur, Cartels pour I'infidele, ou pour le suborneur. Tout garde sur ces mars vraiment chivaleresques La memoire d'vm siecle ou I'epee, ou la foi, Ou la galanterie etaient la seule loi." However all this may apply to the old walls, I fear that their most notable possessor, the redoubtable Oliver, was by no means a model of a preux chevalier. As far as being very brave and bloody-minded goes, he was unexceptionable. But his courage seems to have been of the bull-dog sort ; and in other respects, though he certainly rendered great service to the cause of Charles de Blois, whose quarrel he espoused against de Montfort, history represents him as a veritable cur- mudgeon. The finest thing about the castle, as it now stands, is one of the bastions, from which there is a very striking view of the valley of VOL. I. D D 402 PIERRE CACAULT. the S^vre, and the pleasure-grounds and plantations which were made by the brothers Cacault. These brothers may be regarded as the founders of the present town of Clis- son, for, under their auspices, and by their assistance, it was rebuilt after its destruction in 1793. And the extensive grounds which their taste and wealth created are, with the generality of visiters, the chief lion of the place. Pierre Cacault was originally a painter of Nantes. But he must apparently have been a man of fortune also. His brother Alex- ander was, during the French republic, am- bassador at Rome. Pierre, returning thence shortly after the war in La Vendee, was one of the first persons who ventured into this part of the Bocage since its desolation. He found it literally a wilderness — the ruins of a town overgrown with rushes and brambles, and not a single human being, or a sign or sound of life, near the abandoned spot. He was, nevertheless, delighted with the scenery of the environs, established himself, with a few necessaries, in the ruins of a half-burned house, and set to work with his pencils and brushes. In a day or two, so goes the tale, he became so charmed with the beauties of the place, all disfigured and ruined as it was, GALLERY OF PICTURES. 403 that he determined to fix his future residence there. Gradually he succeeded in inducing the old inhabitants to venture back to their former dwellings, and by degrees to rebuild their town. He himself persuaded his bro- ther to join him there ; and together they built themselves a handsome house, and, moreover, a large museum to hold the extensive collec- tion of pictures they had brought home with them from Italy. These they always threw open to the public ; and the great concourse of persons who were attracted to Clisson to visit them contributed not a little to the re- viving prosperity of the town. This is the tale as it is told. Whether there may have been aught else to tell, or whether any other motives may have co- operated with the love of scenery, to induce the republican ex-ambassador and his brother to have fixed their abode amid the deserted homes of the defeated royalists, must be left to the guesses of the ingenious. At all events, it is certain that they were great benefactors to the place. Their collection of pictures was eventually in part carried to Nantes, where it formed the nucleus of the present public gal- lery of that town, and the remainder was dispersed. The grounds they laid out on the sloping side of the valley of the Sevre are D D 2 404 ANECDOTE. still, however, to be seen, and, though in some degree injured in the visitor's eyes by the ridiculously exaggerated eulogiums of their Nantais admirers, are, it must be admitted, exceedingly pretty gardens, and as pleasant a summer lounging-place as a lover of Nature " en grande toilette " could desire. I had satisfied myself with gazing over the valley, and was turning to quit the castle, when the old woman who had acted as my cicerone put her hand upon my arm, say- ing~ " II y a encore quelque chose a voir, qu'il ne faut pas oublier. Venez par ici." I followed her into the second court, and we advanced towards a few cypress trees which had been planted in one part of it. The old woman knelt down for a few mo- ments, and, crossing herself as she rose from her knees, said, in a constrained and unna- turally calm and quiet sort of voice — " II y a sous ce gazon quatre cents et cinq Vendeens, femmes, enfants, et vieillards !" *' Comment ! entcrr6s la !" I cried. " Enterres ! Non pas ! non pas ! . . . . jet^s ! jetes tout vivants !" returned the old woman, having now lost her stoicism ; " entasses pele- mele les uns sur les autres ! Grand Dieu ! c'^tait un puits !" REPUBLICAN CRUELTY. 405 Such, in truth, is the last page of the his- tory of these old walls. Upwards of four hundred Yendeeans, all old men, women, and children, inhabitants of Clisson, had hid them- selves in the large building, less ruinous than it is now, which forms the western side of the court. They had lain concealed there for some days, when a few wreaths of smoke, escaping from the top of the building, be- trayed them to a portion of Kleber's army, who w^ere in possession of the town. Their doom was sealed, for the republicans never spared blood that might be spilt. There seems something awful and beyond the common course of nature, bad enough as that often is, in the degree to which the French republicans, who had publicly and deliberately denied the existence of their God, were per- mitted to sink below the level of humanity, and become degraded into ferocious monsters, to whom the purposeless, useless slaughter of their species w^as a pleasure. These men compelled the unfortunate wretches, whom they had hunted out, to pass from their retreat into the court by a little doorway, which may still be seen, and there flung them, living, one after another, into the castle-well. Upwards of four hundred were thus thrown in, and the large and deep well 40G CLISSON CASTLE WELL. was nearly filled. It has been since built over ; and some pious hand has planted a few cypress-trees upon the spot. No memorial of the deed has been raised. But it is unne- cessary. For generations, whose sires are yet unborn, will tell in La Vendee of Clisson castle-well, and the deed there done by the men who denied their God and murdered their king-. END OF VOL. I. LONDON : F. SHOBERL, JUN., 51, Rl'PKRT STREKT, HAYMAKKET, PRINTER TO H. R. H. PRINCE ALBERT. JUST PUBLISHED, in 2 vols. 8vo. with Illustrations, bound. A SUMMEE IN BRTTTA]S"Y. BY T. ADOLPHUS TROLLOPE, ESQ. Edited by Mrs. TROLLOPE. " A very pleasant book, describing a country full of what is curious and important ; and differing from all other provinces in France in its language, its customs, its modes of life, its domestic economy, and the manners and customs of its inhabitants." — Times. " A work full of every species of interest and value which can attach to a book of travels. To the inquiring tourist who is tired of the beaten tracks of the continent, the author opens an entirely new field of travel, and smooths the path through it. To the traveller whose journeys are confined to books, he offers one in which there is as much variety as novelty, as much entertainment as information; to the philosophic ob- server of human nature, he presents a most interesting object of study; to the antiquarian a most fertile field of examination ; to the lover of legendary lore and the inquirer into popular superstitions, an ample fund of new and strange materials for thought and fancy: finally, he puts on record a large body of singular and inteiesting facts touching an actual condition of society to which the extraordinary social changes that are at hand throughout Europe, and especially in France, niay, at no distant period, put an end for ever. Mixed with the graphic style of the book, there is a liveliness and bonhommie which greatly add to its charm, and which make it altogether a work of universal attraction." — New Monthly. " The volumes of Mr. Troliope are the result of two several journeys through and residences in various districts of Brittany ; the greater part of these journeys being performed on foot ^ knapsack at back, and staff in hand — not merely the best, but the only mode of coming at the chief features of interest and curiosity which Brittany presents, and of gaining a knowledge of her singular and interesting people. Moreover, they are the result of that strong and glowing interest which is felt in its ful- ness only in early life (Mr. Troliope is son to the distinguished authoress of the " Widow Barnaby," &c.) Although, therefore, the author's pic- tures everywhere present marks of careful spirit of observation, and a competent knowledge of life and of books, yet they are coloured also by that spirit of youth, the absence of which (at all events in a book whose chief aim is entertainment) is ill supplied by all the wisdom which age (sometimes) brings with it." — Naval and Military Gazette. " Although the entertaining lends so extended a charm to these vo- lumes, there is combined with it a mass of extremely valuable infor- mation respecting a Province which, though unremote, is comparatively unknown, and of which the distinctive features are most singular. We therefore cordially recommend the perusal of these very delightful volumes. The appeals to the eye as well as the mind are admirable. Mr. Hervieu was never more characteristic, or more archly comical, as will be acknowledged while laughing over the ' Going to RIarket;' the groups after Cathedral service at Quimper, the Priest of Coraly, and many others. Both in the analyzation of individual manners, and in the descriptions of scenery, there is a prevailing truthfulness in this summer sojourn, which is invaluable." — Court Journal. ' HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER, 13, GRl.AT MARLBOKOUGH STREET. iU BE HAD OF ALL BOOKSELLERS. ] 3, Great Marlborough Street. INTERESTING NEW WORKS JUST PUBLISHED BY MR. COLBURN. TO BE HAD OF ALL BOOKSELLERS. I. THE LIFE OE PETEARCH. BY THOMAS CAMPBELL. ESQ. Author of " The Pleasures of Hope," &c. 2 vols. 8vo., with Portraits. n. DE CLIFFORD ; OR, THE C0:NSTAN^T MAIST. BY ROBERT PLUMER WARD, ESQ. Author of " Tremaine," " Ue Vere," &c. 4 vols., post 8vo. III. THE FRET^CH STAGE Al^D THE FRENCH PEOPLE. Edited by THEODORE HOOK, Esq. 2 vols., small 8vo. IV. THE BOOK WITHOUT A NAME. BY SIR CHARLES AND LADY MORGAN. 2 vols., post 8vo. V. THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF GEORGE IV. By the REV. GEORGE CROLY. Second Edition, 2 vols, post 8vo., 21s. bound. VI. THE COURTS OF EUROPE, AT THE CLOSE OF THE LAST CENTURY. By the late HENRY SWINBURNE, Esq. Author of " Travels in Spain, Italy," &c. 2 vols. 8vo. with Portrait. VII. SOCIETY IN INDIA. BY AN INDIAN OFFICER. In 2 vols, post 8vo. VIII. THE SPAS OF ENGLAND. BY DR. GRANVILLE, Author of" The Spas of Germany," &c. 1 vol., with Map and Thirty Illustrations, 153. bound. UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 000 888 333 2 CENTRAL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY University of California, San Diego DATE DUE •-■-^ 1 1 CI 39 i UCSD Libr. iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiil jii I jj iliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiii