Lucky! lucky dog! you will exclaim, when you read the word Quimper at
the head of this letter; and are farther told, that I am comfortably
lodged, and seated at an English table. This welcome intelligence will,
I think, soon reach you through a channel by which I shall venture to
send you a packet.
We arrived here yesterday: Admiral Bligh brought with him a letter from
an English lady, who accompanied Lady Anne Fitzroy, to Mademoiselle
Brimaudiere, a native and inhabitant of the town; and, on presenting it,
was obligingly told by her, that she had already received notice to
prepare for him, from a gentleman at l’Orient, whose son-in-law, the
captain of the America, was a prisoner in England; and that if he
pleased to accept of such accommodations as her house, which was a hired
one, afforded, they were at his service. This courteous offer, you may
be sure, was immediately closed with, and we took possession of our new
apartments. Here we were also welcomed by two of our countrymen, whom we
found to be inmates of our house----Lieutenant Robinson, late of the
Thames frigate, and Mr. Burley, of the same ship. With these gentlemen
we have formed a mess. The good lady of the house condescends to market
for us; our servants, assisted by the maid of the house, officiate as
cooks; and we live already so much more comfortably than I ever expected
to do during my captivity, that I cannot describe to you the joyful
sensations I have experienced on this change.
We quitted the prison-ship on the 14th instant, to our unspeakable
satisfaction. From our military acquaintances there we parted without an
adieu, from our civil ones not without sentiments of esteem, For the
last nine days before our departure we had separated from their mess,
and lived entirely by ourselves, owing to the following
circumstance:----On some English prisoners being brought on board, one of
the officers of the ship, who is a Provençal, and speaks so
indistinctly, that his own countrymen cannot, without difficulty,
understand him, desired one of our young midshipmen to interpret for
him, which request he would readily have complied with, as he had often
done before, had he comprehended it; but not possessing the gift of
understanding inarticulate sounds, he turned round to his companion, and
said, “Monsieur -------- asks me some question, but as usual I don’t know
what it was.” The other not hearing himself called upon, and not
supposing the matter to be very important, smiled, and both of them, in
all the gaiety and thoughtlessness of fourteen, walked away. For this
enormous offence they were immediately sent for into the cabin, and,
without being suffered to urge a syllable in explanation, were told,
that they were not any longer to consider themselves as entitled to eat
at the table of the officers. The young gentlemen communicated this to
me, and I lost no time in informing the Admiral of it; who finding, on
examination, that they had not committed an intentional incivility,
desired me to explain the business, and to assure Monsieur-------- that the
apparent slight had proceeded from misapprehension. This I attempted to
do, and in return for it was honoured with several scandalous
appellations, as an instigator and abettor of the offenders, although it
happened that I had not been present when the crime was committed. Our
two friends in the civil department also attempted to interfere in their
favour, but were silenced by authority, the insult being deemed of a
public nature, and striking at the dignity of the republic. Admiral
Bligh now declared, that if the young gentlemen were to be thus driven
from the mess, he and I should look upon ourselves as included in the
expulsion. This they would willingly have prevented, and wished to draw
a line of distinction; but the Admiral’s manly resolution cut short
debate, and, on their refusing to yield the point, he and I directly
quitted them with contempt; and with two spoons belonging to our
servants, and a pocket-knife each, which constituted our whole stock of
utensils, we set up our mess forthwith, demanding our rations, but
refusing to receive any more _traitement_. Now was to be seen, for the
first time, in a civilized enemy’s country, a British Admiral, whose
seat was a trunk, and whose table was a trunk, eating a salt herring
laid on a scrap of paper, from want of a plate; or supping at the same
board, with a candle stuck in an ink-horn, on a second herring; or
dipping his spoon in a tub that held our soup, which was part of that
made for the ship’s company, sometimes of beef, and sometimes of
horse-beans and oil. Breakfast, however, by having a little tea and
brown sugar of our own, with the addition of some salt butter, which we
had procured from the shore for our servants, was a repast of real
luxury. This miserable fare, and want of common necessaries, lasted but
two days, when we got leave to employ the cook to market for us, and
dress our provisions. It brought me, however, perfectly acquainted with
the extent of the French allowance, and likewise with the prices of
different commodities on shore, which we found enormously high, and
every day rising. To console us, however, the value of gold, in exchange
for _assignats_, more than kept pace in its increase.----Here I take my
leave of the good ship La Normandie, and her worthy inmates, in full
trust that, in the course of our future correspondence, neither her
name, nor theirs, will ever again pollute my paper!
My observations since I left Brest could not be numerous; but, as I feel
an interest in them, they shall not be suppressed.
The little vessel which conveyed us hither was extremely inconvenient,
and ill-fitted for the purpose; but her commander, Monsieur Conseil, and
his officers, treated us with great civility and regard. She had been a
Jersey privateer, and retains her English name, the Betsy. About noon,
on the day before yesterday, we anchored just within the mouth of the
river that leads to Quimper, within twenty yards of the shore. After so
long a residence on ship-board, amidst men of coarse and ferocious
manners, I could not withdraw my eyes from the scene before me. It was a
clear frosty day, but the deep snow of the winter had been melted by
intervening thaws, and the fields bore that fresh and verdant hue, which
is so re-animating to the human heart. The river was of a moderate
breadth, and on each side stood a parish-church, surrounded by a few
scattering houses. Notwithstanding the keenness of the weather, the
peasantry were dancing in circles in the open air. The small space which
I could see bore no trace of distress or devastation; and so transported
was I with the appearance of all around me, heightened by a recollection
of the past, that I was almost ready, with the shipwrecked philosopher
of antiquity, to cry out to my companions, “Courage, my friends! from
these marks I know we are thrown among civilized beings!”
Our commander, who was of a pleasant unsuspicious temper, begged that
the Admiral would defer going up to Quimper until the next morning; and
offered, if we pleased, to accompany us on shore after dinner for a
walk. This was a welcome invitation, and eagerly embraced. About two
o’clock we landed with our conductor, and set out for a large handsome
looking house, the _château_ of the Marquis de Kersalaun, about a mile
off, which we had seen in the morning, in running along-shore, before we
entered the river. We passed through thick woods, and when we reached
the _château_ found there an engineer, who is stationed on the coast,
in the service of the republic, and is a friend of the Marquis. This
gentleman is permitted to reside here, and also two of the Marquis’s old
female servants. He received us very politely, and led us up large stone
staircases, through various apartments lined with old tapestry, and half
illumined “by rich windows, which almost exclude the light.” He shewed
us also a small chapel within the house, which, though commonly kept
shut up, bears marks of the fury of the times. The _château_ is long and
low, with a turret, which resembles a pigeon-house, on its centre, and
has a fine old avenue leading up to it from the sea-side. Before we left
the house, the gentleman presented to us some excellent cyder, and
lamented, with evident signs of mortification, that he possessed not a
drop of either wine or brandy. From the house he took us into two large
walled gardens, forming oblong squares. In the disposition of these, and
the other grounds surrounding the house, no mark of taste appears, but
they exhibit the hand of wealth and labour. In the centre of the largest
garden stands a circular bason or fountain of considerable size, “which
once,” said our civil and sensible conductor, “was thought an
embellishment to the _château_. Here,” continued he, “ran the leaden
pipes which supplied it, and here were fixed the plates of iron which
secured it; but, as you see, all the former are dug up, and cast into
bullets, and all the latter have been torn off in wantonness. Mark too
the breaches in that wall, through which the cattle and pigs enter; and
how the espaliers are either broken, or rooted up. No means to prevent
these depredations are left in my power. The _château_ was lately
converted into a temporary prison, to contain a party of Englishmen,
who, under the guard of a detachment of soldiers, were sent to cut down
the Marquis’s woods, for the use of the republic. I have less cause of
complaint against the English than against their guards, who were to the
last degree insolent and destructive. Twice did they set fire to the
house by their carelessness”----(we had seen the marks on the floors and
tapestry)----“I complained and remonstrated against them, in vain, to our
municipality: I obtained no redress. But this evil was temporary. The
fatal change which has taken place in our manners, and the
wide-extended spirit of rapine, which it has introduced, has infected
our peasantry. The farmers and tenants of the Marquis, who formerly
pressed forward to serve him (for he was a kind and generous landlord)
are now eager to promote the devastation, and to share in his spoils.
This and this,” (pointing to different marks of fury and ravage) “have
they committed.”----As we went homeward he made us observe, that all the
trees of the avenue were marked, for the use of the republic; “and,”
added he, “are all to be cut down soon, with the rest of the wood on the
estate, in order to be sent to Brest, the whole being in a state of
requisition.” I saw some large groupes of stately firs, many of which
were felled and squared on the spot. I put some questions to him about
the Marquis and his fortune. “He is,” said he, “between eighty-one and
eighty-two years old, and is now at Paris, where he is obliged to
reside, and, in return for stripping him of his estate, he has been
_promised_ a pension. Perhaps, as matters are certainly softening among
us, he may be enabled to make better terms. It is not pretended that he
has committed any crime; but he suffers for those of his two sons, who
have emigrated; and, at the age of fourscore years, he was thought too
dangerous a person to be permitted to dwell on his hereditary estate,
where he offered to remain tranquil, and submissive to the ruling
powers. He was formerly _Doyen_ of the States of Bretagne. In a letter,
which he lately wrote to a friend, he states himself to be in good
health, and to have borne the excessive cold of the winter very well;
but complains that wood was 400 livres a cord, and meat three livres a
pound. The value of his estate was between sixty and seventy thousand
livres _per annum_; but of this to the amount of not more than twelve
thousand lies contiguous to the house. The timber, however, on this
latter part was so valuable, as to be reckoned at twice the worth of the
land.”----It appeared to me, indeed, to be very thickly wooded.
We bade adieu to our obliging informer, and returned towards our ship,
by a different way from that which we had come. On this road I observed
three or four stone crosses, broken and thrown down. When we reached the
landing-place, the peasants were again dancing, with some soldiers,
sailors, and fishermen. We went close to look at them, and, except from
one lady, who told us, in broken French, she did not like the English,
met with neither rudeness or insult. The figure of their dance was very
simple, consisting only of describing a circle, through various parts of
which, with joined hands, they threaded from time to time; and
notwithstanding their wooden shoes, I thought they executed it with more
spirit and less awkwardness than our clowns generally perform. None of
the women were handsome, but they had all healthy cheerful countenances,
and were coarsely but cleanly dressed; their long white caps, which form
a sort of hood behind, giving to the younger ones a very sober and
matron-like appearance. A publick-house, which the dancers of both sexes
frequently visited, was close by, where cyder and a small acid red wine
were retailed. These people conversed entirely in the Breton language,
the sound of which, had I not forcibly felt from other circumstances
where I was, would have made me swear that I was in Wales. I found, upon
trial, that not one in ten of the peasants could speak French, or even
understood it when spoken to them. I asked if the gaiety which I saw was
continual, or only occasional; and was told, that this was the week of
the _carnival_, a period of festivity, which the Bretons of all ranks,
notwithstanding the austerity of the times, have never failed to
celebrate in revelry and dissipation.
I went into several houses. They form a medium between the neatness of
an English, and the filthiness of an Irish, cottage; they are dark and
gloomy like the latter, but the walls are strongly built of stone, the
roofs well thatched, and none of them are without a chimney. There was a
moderate quantity of necessary household utensils in all, and a good
fire burning, over which, in most of them, hung large pots boiling. Here
was no indication of want or distress. “Destruction to the châteaux,
peace to the cottages,” is an aphorism, which has been often repeated in
the convention, to instigate the poor to plunder the rich.
The church-door being open, I walked in, and found it converted into a
barrack for the soldiers belonging to a small fort which stands at a
little distance. There was a large fire burning in it, and it was filled
by the bedding and other effects of the men; but I observed that the
altar was entire. A serjeant, seeing me regard it with attention,
whispered me, that it owed its preservation to him: a piece of
intelligence of which I could not doubt the truth, when he carried me
into a little vestry, which he unlocked with a key that he took from his
pocket. There he showed me the images of our Saviour and the Virgin,
which were here deposited uninjured. I commended the zeal of this honest
halberdier, and we parted good friends, it being time to return on
board.
Next morning after breakfast we were conveyed hither, in one of the
ship’s boats. The distance is about three leagues; and a cold easterly
wind blowing strongly against us, made the passage tedious and
disagreeable. The river winds very much, and gradually narrows, until it
becomes contracted at Quimper to a fresh-water brook, deep enough,
however, to permit vessels, which do not draw more than eleven feet, to
reach the town at high water. Its banks are highly picturesque, very
woody, and rather wild and bold than fertile. They are besides adorned
by many gentlemen’s houses, on a smaller scale than the Marquis de
Kersalaun’s _château_, but built in the same taste, and surrounded by
plantations of fir-trees. Like the _château_ too, they all bear marks of
the unhappy state of the country, the windows being broken, the
garden-walls and fences destroyed, and an air of desolation spread
around them.
About one o’clock we reached Quimper, and were taken to the house of the
commissary of prisoners, whose reception of us did not forebode the
pleasing consequences which followed; for this man of power, when
acquainted with our names and ranks, neither did us the honour to return
our salute of the hat, or to ask us to sit down. However, after having
given a receipt for us to the captain of the vessel, he condescended to
conduct us in person to the house of Mademoiselle B-------- (to whom he is
related) whose polite and obliging reception of us, soon caused us to
forget the republican manners of _Citoyen_ Precini.
We have found here abundance of our countrymen, this town being the
principal _depôt_ of prisoners of war in the Western departments. In
this unfortunate list are Captain Kittoe, of l’Espion sloop of war, and
his two lieutenants; Colonel Caldwell, who is a native of Ireland, and
in the Portugueze service; with many other officers and gentlemen, and
several hundred British seamen.