Brittany & Its Byways Part 2

The castle of Dinan is now a prison. It was occupied by the Queen-d.u.c.h.ess Anne, when on her way to a pilgrimage to Notre Dame-du-Folgoet, in fulfilment of a vow made during the illness of Louis XII. In the chapel is shewn a sculptured seat, still called the arm-chair of the d.u.c.h.ess Anne.

Within these walls were crammed, in the last century, about 2000 English prisoners of war, many of whom fell victims to a contagious fever. From the platform of the keep we had a magnificent view of the surrounding country, extending to Mont Dol and the sea.

The church of St. Sauveur has a richly sculptured Romanesque portal. It contains the heart of Du Guesclin, transferred from the church of the Dominicans, where he desired it to be interred by the side of his wife Tiphaine. His body was buried at St. Denis, in a tomb King Charles V.

caused to be made in his lifetime, and he left orders that on his death his Constable should repose at his feet. On the dark-coloured monumental stone now incrusted on the wall, are roughly sculptured his arms (an eagle displayed charged with a cotice(3)), with a commemorative inscription in gold letters:-

"Cy: gist: le cueur: de Missire: bertram: du gueaqui en: son vivat: conetiable de france: qui: trepa.s.sa: le: xiii^e jour: de: jullet: l'an: mil iii^e IIII^xx dont: son: corps: repos avecques: ceulx: des: Roys a sainct: denis en France."

Above hangs a painting representing the Governor of Chateauneuf Randon, laying the keys of the town upon the dead body of the Constable.(4)

[Ill.u.s.tration: 13. Effigy of Jean de Beaumanoir.]

Many of the streets of Dinan preserve the character of the Middle Ages, the houses upon columns forming a kind of porch or covered way; and most curious of all is the dirty, steep, narrow, winding street, called the Rue de Jerzual, a ravine extending from the top of the town, in one pitch, to the river's edge. The Museum at the Mairie has an interesting collection of tumulary slabs-rec.u.mbent figures taken from different churches and abbeys, mostly from the Beaumanoir chapel of the Abbey of Lehon. There is one of Jean de Beaumanoir, son of the hero of the "Combat des Trente,"

treacherously slain by his steward. He is represented in full armour, but with his head bare, to indicate the manner of his death. The effigy of his wife is also in complete armour, but on the belt that encircles her waist, like those worn by the knights, is sculptured a wreath of roses. She was a Du Guesclin by birth, and her feet repose upon an eagle, the bearing of her house. The statue of Roland, Vicomte de Dinan, one of the nine great Barons of Brittany in the twelfth century, is of gigantic proportions; the warrior is clad from head to foot in chain mail, but he holds one of his gauntlets in his hand. In the Museum is also a clock given to the city of Dinan by the d.u.c.h.ess Anne, inscribed with the name of its maker and the date of its construction: "1498, a Nantes par M. Hainzer de cette ville."

The ancient bronze standard measures (etalons) of Dinan are decorated with the arms of the City, and Gothic inscriptions in relief, "Cart (quart) a gros ble pour Dinan"-"Cart a fourmant (froment) pour Dinan"-and "Bouesceau a scel (boisseau a sel) pour Dinan." Portraits of Du Guesclin and other Breton worthies are in one of the rooms (Salle de l'Odeon). That of the Constable answers to the description given of his appearance. He was low in stature, with large Breton head, broad shoulders, long arms, and large hands. His eyes were green, and his complexion swarthy: "la peau noire comme un sanglier."

[Ill.u.s.tration: 14. Chateau of La Belliere.]

The drives round Dinan are endless in variety,(5) and all beautiful. We took a carriage to see the Chateau of la Belliere, about five miles and a half from Dinan, formerly the residence of Du Guesclin's wife, the celebrated Lady Tiphaine; her name answers probably to our English Tiffany:-

"William de Coningsby- Came out of Brittany With his wife Tiffany And her maid Manifas And his doggs Hardigras."

[Ill.u.s.tration: 15. Chimney. Chateau of La Belliere.]

The Lady Tiphaine was heiress and daughter of the Vicomte de Belliere; so deeply versed was she in astrology, she was called Tiphaine la Fee. During her husband's absence in Spain, she resided at Mont Saint Michel, having chosen this insulated spot for the facilities it afforded her of studying the stars. She gave Du Guesclin a calendar on vellum, containing verses at the beginning of each month, pointing out the lucky and unlucky days; how many she marked down as such, we know not. Tycho Brahe had thirty-two fatal days in his calendar. Had Du Guesclin consulted this precious volume, which is now preserved in the Library at Avranches, he would never have risked his fortune by fighting the battle of Auray on the Feast of St. Michel, one of the fatal days against which she specially warns him in her book. We wished to have seen the room where she died, and where many memorials of her are preserved; but the proprietor was at his dejeuner, and would not grant us admittance, so we were forced to be content with seeing the exterior of the house, a chateau of the end of the fourteenth century. It stands on the edge of a large sheet of water, in the midst of trees on the roadside between Dinan and St. Malo. Its princ.i.p.al characteristics are its tall octagonal chimney-shafts, composed of granite, brick, and slate. They are surmounted by pieces of slate placed edgeways and forming a kind of capital or coronet to the granite shaft.

Some of the chimneys have two circles of these coronets, and others are enriched with little rows of arches, of which the sombre slate background throws out the delicate ornamentation. Recrossing the magnificent viaduct, we proceeded to visit the Benedictine Priory of Lehon, called in the country "Chapelle des Beaumanoirs" from the mortuary chapel of that family attached to the abbey:-

"Beaumanoir! a ce nom de glorieux prodiges Des siecles ecoules reveillent les prestiges: La pierre des tombeaux a paru se mouvoir Et des trente Bretons les clameurs belliqueuses Semblent repondre, sous ces voutes fameuses, A ce grand nom de Beaumanoir." -AUBRY.

The west front, with its round-arched portal surmounted by a large Gothic window, is very pretty. The chapel of the Beaumanoirs was ravaged at the Revolution, the lead of the coffins sold, and the bones scattered. The statues have since been removed to the Museum at Dinan, and the crypt beneath, where they were buried, is inaccessible. At the Revolution, when the monks were expelled, the priory was sold and used for a spinning factory; and the weight of the machines crushed the floors, so as to shut up the entrance to the vaults. In the parish church adjacent, is to be noticed an ancient baptismal font, of cylindrical form, sculptured within and without. We returned home by the Chateau du Chene-Ferron, approached by an avenue of firs, and had a lovely drive along the banks of the Rance.

Our last excursion in Dinan was to the Chateau of La Garaye, rendered famous by the virtues and boundless charity of its last proprietors, Count Claude Toussaint Marot de la Garaye and his wife, whose interesting story is told in the charming poem of Mrs. Norton:-

"Listen to the tale I tell, Grave the story is-not sad, And the peasant plodding by Greets the place with kindly eye, For the inmates that it had."

THE LADY OF LA GARAYE.

Count Claude de la Garaye and his wife were young, beautiful, and endowed with friends, riches, and all that could make life bright and happy. They entertained with hospitality, and enjoyed the pleasures and amus.e.m.e.nts of the world; when one day the Countess was thrown from her horse, the expectations of an heir vanished, and she was left a cripple for life.

Both were inconsolable for their disappointment. One day a monk came to visit them, and tried to comfort them, seeking by his converse to turn their thoughts from earthly affections to heavenly consolation-

"Ah! my father," said the lady, "how happy are you, to love nothing on earth!"

"You are mistaken," answered the monk; "I love all those who are in sorrow or suffering, and I submit myself to the will of the Almighty, and bend myself with resignation to every blow He strikes."

He proceeded to show them there was still great happiness in store for them, in ministering to the comforts of others. Following his counsel, they went to Paris; for three years the Count studied medicine and surgery, and his wife became a skilful oculist. On their return to La Garaye, they gave up all the amus.e.m.e.nts of society, and devoted themselves to relieving the sufferings of their fellow creatures. Their house was converted into an hospital for the sick and the wounded, under the ministering care of the Count and his benevolent wife:-

"Her home is made their home; her wealth their dole; Her busy courtyard hears no more the roll Of gilded vehicles, or pawing steeds, But feeble steps of those whose bitter needs Are their sole pa.s.sport. Through that gateway pa.s.s All varying forms of sickness and distress, And many a poor worn face that hath not smiled For years,-and many a feeble crippled child,- Blesses the tall, white portal where they stand, And the dear Lady of the liberal hand."

THE LADY OF LA GARAYE.

Nor was their philanthropy confined to their own province. In 1720, they offered themselves to M. de Belzunce-"Ma.r.s.eilles' good bishop"-to a.s.sist him during the visitation of the Plague. The fame of their virtues reached even the French Court, and Louis XV. sent Count de la Garaye the order of St. Lazarus with a donation of 50,000 livres and a contract on the post of 25,000 more.

They both died at an advanced age, within two years of each other, and were buried among their poor at Taden, but their marble mausoleum in the church was destroyed in the French Revolution. Count de la Garaye(6) left a large sum to be distributed among the prisoners, princ.i.p.ally English, at Rennes and Dinan, who were suffering pent up in these crowded gaols. The Comte had attended the English prisoners at Dinan during a contagious fever, called the "peste blanche," and, in acknowledgment of his humanity, Queen Caroline sent him two dogs with silver collars round their necks, and an English n.o.bleman made him a present of six more.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 16. Chateau of La Garaye.]

The ruined chateau is approached by an ivy-covered gateway, through an avenue of beeches:-

"Le lierre flottant comme un manteau de deuil, Couvre a demi la porte et rampe sur le seuil."

LAMARTINE, _Harmonies Poetiques_.

or, as Mrs. Norton renders it:-

"And like a mourner's mantle, with sad grace, Waves the dark ivy-hiding half the door And threshold, where the weary traveller's foot Shall never find a courteous welcome more."

It is fast falling to pieces. The princ.i.p.al part remaining is an octagonal turret of three stories, with elegant Renaissance decoration round the windows. One more quotation from Mrs. Norton, and we quit these hallowed ruins:-

"We know the healthy stir of human life Must be for ever gone!

The walls where hung the warrior's shining casque Are green with moss and mould; The blindworm coils where Queens have slept, nor asks For shelter from the cold.

The swallow,-he is master all the day, And the great owl is ruler through the night; The little bat wheels on his circling way, With restless flittering flight; And that small bat, and the creeping things, At will they come and go, And the soft white owl with velvet wings, And a shout of human woe!

The brambles let no footsteps pa.s.s By that rent in the broken stair, When the pale tufts of the windle-strae gra.s.s Hang like locks of dry dead hair; But there the keen sound ever sweeps and moans, "Working a pa.s.sage through the mouldering stones."

THE LADY OF LA GARAYE.

From Dinan, instead of taking the customary road to the railway station of Caulnes, we hired a carriage, in order to visit the fortress castle of La Hunaudaye, midway between Dinan and Lamballe. The road lay by Jugon, a town prettily situated in the cleft of two hills. On one once stood an important castle, which gave rise to the saying:-

"Qui a Bretagne sans Jugon, A chape sans chaperon."

Jugon is on the edge of two ponds. One of them, the largest in Brittany, hangs suspended over the town, as if threatening it with inundation. They told us it was swarming with fish of every description, and with pike of fabulous dimensions. Turning off the road to the right, we entered the forest of La Hunaudaye, and walked in a pouring rain to the chateau, situated a short distance from the road. It is of vast extent, has five round towers with ramparts of cut stone, and is surrounded by walls with machicolated parapets. It is a splendid ruin, but the incessant rain prevented us from spending much time in its examination. It was built in the thirteenth century by Olivier de la Tournemine, and was one of the strongest fortresses in Brittany. Situated in the midst of a vast forest, its lord and his retainers were the terror of the surrounding country. No traveller pa.s.sed untaxed; all were compelled to pay toll. In 1504, the Bishop of St. Brieuc complains to the Parliament at Rennes that, regardless of the safeguard of the Duke, the foresters of the Lord of La Hunaudaye had carried off his horses, trunks, and baggage, and, a year later, they had the audacity to stop the Queen-d.u.c.h.ess Anne on her way to a pilgrimage to the Folgoet. The Queen was conducted to the presence of the Lord of La Hunaudaye, who maintained to her that he had only exercised his right of exacting a ransom from all who pa.s.sed through the forest without his permission, but that he waived his privilege in favour of his Sovereign. Be that as it may, he received her Majesty most royally, as the old chaplain, Oliver de la Roche recounts, and gave a splendid banquet, which he fully describes. The table, he says, was four times covered with thirty-six dishes of viands, and lastly, was brought in, "en grande veneration," by eight squires, a whole calf, standing on its legs, well seasoned, with an orange in its mouth; and, when it appeared, the trumpets sounded so loud that it seemed as if the walls shook. On seeing the "dainty dish" that was "set before the Queen," all wished to have a share; and the chaplain relates, with great satisfaction, how he was served himself twice by the Lord of La Hunaudaye.

The dark deeds of the lords of La Hunaudaye have given rise to many a legend. The following is a translation of one of the most popular:-

LEGEND OF LA HUNAUDAYE.

_(Translation.)_