of Picardy, the King her father told her, that in case she proved with
child, he wanted her to come and lie-in at his house; and that he
would bring up the child himself, whether a boy or a girl. This
Princess finding herself pregnant, and in her ninth month, set out
from Compiègne, passed through all France as far as the Pyrenees, and
arrived in fifteen days at Pau in Béarn. She was very desirous to see
her father's will. It was contained in a thick gold box, on which was
a gold chain, that would have gone twenty-five or thirty times round
her neck. She asked it of him:--'It shall be yours,' said he, 'as soon
as you have shown me the child that you now carry; and that you may
not bring into the world a crying or a pouting child, I promise you
the whole, provided that whilst you are in labour, you sing the
Bearnese song _Notre Dame du bout du Pont aidez-moi en cette heure_".
No sooner was the Princess safely delivered, than her father, placing
the gold chain on her neck, and giving her the gold box wherein was
his will, said to her: 'These are for you, daughter, but this is for
me;' and took the child in his gown, without waiting for its being
dressed in form, and carried it into his chamber. The little Prince
was brought up in such a manner as to be able to undergo fatigue and
hardship; frequently eating nothing but common bread. The good King
his grandfather ordered it thus, and would not let him be delicately
pampered, in order that from his infancy he might be inured to
privation. He has often been seen, according to the custom of the
country, amongst the other children of the Castle and village of
Coirazze, bare-footed and bare-headed, as well in winter as in summer.
Who was this Prince?--Henry IV.
"Being descended from the Kings of France, he became the heir to that
Kingdom; but as he was educated a Protestant, his claim was resisted.
He early distinguished himself by feats of arms. After the peace of
Saint Germain, in 1570, he was taken to the French Court, and two
years afterwards married Margaret, sister of Charles IX. (At the
rejoicings on this occasion the infamous massacre of _La Saint
Barthélémy_ took place.) In 1589 he succeeded to the throne of France;
but his religion proving an obstacle to his coronation, he consented
to abjure it in 1593. In 1598 he issued the edict of Nantes, granting
toleration to the Protestants".
Mezeray, speaking of the marriage of the King of Navarre (afterwards
Henry IV.) with Margaret de Valois, says, "There were many diversions,
tournaments, and ballets at Court; and amongst others, one which
seemed to presage the calamity that was so near bursting out upon the
Huguenots--the King and his brothers defending Paradise against the
King of Navarre and his brothers, who were repulsed and banished to
Hell;" and Sainte Foix, in his relation of the horrible massacre,
gives a detail, which in the present age appears almost incredible.
Catherine of Medicis, whose abominable politics had corrupted the
disposition of her son, was at the head of the cabinet council who
agreed to the murder of more than one hundred thousand Protestants;
and the miserable bigot Charles IX. stationed during the massacre at
the window of a house then belonging to the Constable of Bourbon,
fired with his own hands upon the Huguenots with a long blunderbuss,
whilst they were trying to escape across the river.
The River Erdré runs northward of the city, and forms a beautiful
feature, winding for many miles among cultivated fields and woodlands,
through a country agreeably diversified with villas, to which the
wealthier inhabitants retire during the summer months. The river
resembles a lake for the greater part of its course, and is called the
Barban.
The Gothic church of Saint Pierre, built by the English in 1434, is
a fine old structure: having been much neglected for many years, and
greatly defaced during the Revolution, it was at this time restoring.
Among the monuments about to be replaced, was an excellent one of Anne
de Bretagne, whose effigy, and that of her husband, are as large as
life. The allegorical figures of Justice, Temperance, Prudence, and
Fortitude, the twelve Apostles, and the supporters to the Arms (a
greyhound and a lion), are all executed in the finest white marble.
They were hidden during the Revolution, and have only very lately been
discovered, as have also some capital paintings piously preserved
for the Church. Anne was first married to Charles VIII. in 1499, and
afterwards to Louis XII. She died at the Château de Blois in 1514, and
Louis in 1515.
The climate of Nantes is mild, and reckoned remarkably healthy: every
article of life is cheap, and from its mild temperature it abounds
in the finest fruits and most excellent wines. Its population is
estimated at 60,000 inhabitants. The numbers that were destroyed
during the Revolution, or, as the French emphatically term it, "Le
régne de la Terreur," were never ascertained; but the frightful
history of that bloody period would probably justify the computation
at half the number of its present population, many having fallen
victims to the murders that were termed "_Noyades_," independent of
those who perished in the Vendean war.
The spot where the gallant Charette was shot, with several other
leaders of the Vendean army, is shown; and in the cemetery, a large
mound of earth marks the place where the bodies were thrown in, at the
time of the "_Fuzillades_" when the infamous Carrier presided at the
execution of the brave Royalists.[7] The print beneath represents this
monster on the banks of the Loire directing the Noyades.
[Illustration]
[Footnote 7: Chaque nuit on venait en prendre par centaines, pour les
mettre sur les bateaux. Là on liait les malheureux deux à deux, et
on les poussait dans l'eau à coups de baïonette. On saisissait
indistinctement tout ce qui se trouvait à l'entrepôt, tellement
qu'on noya un jour l'état major d'une corvette Anglaise, qui était
prisonnier de guerre. Une autre fois, Carrier, voulant donner un
exemple de l'austérité des moeurs républicaines, fit enfermer trois
cent filles publiques de la ville, et les malheureuses créatures
furent noyées. Enfin, l'on estime qu'il a péri à l'entrepôt quinze
mille personnes en un mois.--_Mémoires de Madame la Marquise de
Laroche-Jaquelin_.]
At the end of a fine avenue of trees, on the Boulevard, is a large
and splendid mansion built by that Deputy, and which is at present
inhabited by a merchant. Carrier's mistress (to whom he left it,
together with a very considerable fortune, amassed from the spoils
of his plunder, and the murder of the innocent inhabitants) was very
lately sentenced to two years' hard labour for some crime she had
committed: and it is no less remarkable, that, of the remaining
inhabitants known to have participated in the atrocities of that
frightful period, there is not one but is reduced to poverty, and most
of them in the extreme of wretchedness, shunned by all, and suffering
the ignominy they have so justly merited!
CHAP. V.
COUNTRY SOUTH OF THE LOIRE.--LE BOCAGE.--CLISSON.--HISTORICAL
ANECDOTES.--THE GARENNE, AND RIVER SÈVRES.
The best method of travelling in this country is on horseback: in
fact, it is impossible to proceed in any other way, after quitting the
main road. Having procured a guide and horses, I set out early in the
morning, crossing the Loire by the Pont Rosseau, to Verton, keeping
along the banks of the River Sèvres. Verton is a romantic village
standing on a hill: most of the houses are in ruins, from the effect
of the destructive war of La Vendée. From thence to Le Palet, most
intricate narrow roads, or more properly speaking, pathways, darkened
by the overhanging branches of trees, and in many parts deep with
mire, from the sun's rays not being able to dry the ground, make it
difficult to proceed, and we several times lost our way. It was late
before we reached Le Palet, and though I had not tasted food for many
hours, I could not resist stopping to view so interesting a spot, and
making a hasty sketch of the ruins of the house in which Abélard
was born, and in which Héloïse resided with him before their final
separation. The ruins of the House of Bérenger, the father of Abélard,
are close to the church of Palet, on the left of the high road, three
miles distant from Clisson. Le Palet is thus described by a French
author, in the history of the Province.
"Cet homme si célèbre par son savoir, ses amours, et ses infortunes,
amena Héloïse au Palet lorsqu'il l'eût enlevée de chez le Chanoine
Fulbert, pour la soustraire au ressentiment de cet oncle jaloux
et barbare; mais, obligé de quitter cette retraite paisible pour
retourner à Paris, où l'appelaient ses nombreux disciples, le soin de
sa gloire et de sa fortune, Abélard confia à sa soeur sa chère Héloïse
et le gage précieux qu'elle portait dans son sein. Elle accoucha au
Palet d'un fils d'une si rare beauté, qu'elle le nomma Astralabe,
c'est-à-dire, astre brillant; mais l'absence de celui qu'elle adorait
rendait moins vifs pour elle les doux plaisirs de la maternité; son
âme expansive et brûlante était livrée sans cesse à une inquiète et
sombre mélancholie qu'elle ne parvenait sans doute à dissiper qu'en
venant sur les bords de la Sèvres rêver à l'objet de sa tendresse, et
soupirer après son retour. Sept siècles se sont écoulés depuis cette
époque, et les noms d'Abélard et d'Héloïse embellissent toujours ce
délicieux ravage. On interroge avec une curiosité avide ces roches
éternelles et ces grottes mystérieuses qui furent les témoins discrets
de leurs peines et de leurs plaisirs. On se reporte à ces temps
reculés où ces amants venaient dans cette solitude enchanteresse, se
confier mutuellement leur vifs inquiétudes; on croit les voir s'égarer
sous ces riants ombrages, et s'abandonner à toutes les inspirations de
l'éloquence, à toutes les illusions de l'amour".
I arrived at Clisson just as the sun was disappearing, and its rays
were only sufficiently strong to reflect the ruined towers of the
Castle in the river which runs at its foot. It will be much easier
to imagine, than for me to convey the sensations I felt when I first
caught a glimpse of it, with the story of La Roche-Jaquelin full in
my recollection! I alighted at a small cabaret, dignified by the
appellation of the Hotel de la Providence, which seemed preferable to
another recommended to me by my guide,--such an one, indeed, as might
be expected in a remote place like this: part of the roof was off,
and, like most of the houses in the place, bore evident marks of the
desolating war that had been carried on here: many are still in ruins.
The descent into the town is very steep and rugged, the road being
formed out of the solid rock. The master of the cabaret was sitting
with his family at the door, but the appearance of his mansion was so
unpromising, that I thought it best to make some agreement, and a few
inquiries before dismounting;--these preliminaries being settled, and
having consented to pay him fifty sous for supper and my bed, and
thirty for breakfast, I entered the house: and never recollect having
a keener relish for a meal, or enjoying one more heartily, for I had
been sixteen hours on horseback.
Fatigued and exhausted as I was, I rambled after dinner towards the
delightful grounds of La Garenne, belonging to Monsieur La Motte, who
has embellished them in a most interesting and romantic manner.
The river Sèvres runs along the side, and separates them from the fine
old Castle of Clisson, whose high and decaying towers and battlements
give the beholder a noble idea of its ancient grandeur. The evening
was a very fine one,--one of those delightful soft, clear skies usual
at this season, the latter end of July. I sat myself down in the
grotto of Héloïse,--a spot of the deepest seclusion, formed, by the
hand of Nature, of large masses of granite. The nightingales were
singing in the lofty trees at the back; on the sides were shrubs of
every description intermingled with fruit trees, and the river having
several falls and little rocky islets, gave an air of delightful
enchantment to this most romantic scene.
Héloïse! à ce nom, qui ne doit s'attendrir?
Comme elle sut aimer! comme elle sut souffrir!
At the entrance of the grotto are engraved these lines, nearly effaced
by the hand of time.
Héloïse peut-être erra sur ce rivage,
Quand, aux yeux des jaloux dérobant son séjour,
Dans les murs du Palet elle vint mettre au jour
Un fils, cher et malheureux gage
De ses plaisirs furtifs et de son tendre amour.
Peut-être en ce réduit sauvage,
Seule, plus d'une fois, elle vint soupirer,
Et goûter librement la douceur de pleurer;
Peut-être sur ce roc assise
Elle rêvait à son malheur.
J'y veux rêver aussi; j'y veux remplir mon coeur
Du doux souvenir d'Héloïse.
I had but a few weeks before seen the tomb of Abélard and Héloïse in
the Cemetery of Père la Chaise at Paris, whither it had been recently
removed from the Convent of the Augustins, at which latter place I
had formerly made the annexed drawing of it. I had likewise been very
lately at Argenteuil, once the place of her asylum described by Pope:
In these deep solitudes and awful cells--
and had the same day witnessed the ruins of the house in which Abélard
was born, and in which Héloïse resided and became a mother, and from
whence she used to make frequent visits to this spot: all these
circumstances combined, gave the scene before me a most powerful
interest. I rose early the next day, anxious to revisit a place which
had afforded me such delight the previous evening. Wandering by the
beautiful banks of the river, along its green meadows, in a woody
recess, I observed the following lines beneath an urn, cut in the rock
on which it rested:
Consacrer dans l'obscurité,
Ses loisirs à l'étude, à l'amitié sa vie,
Sont des plaisirs dignes d'envie;
Etre chéri vaut mieux qu'être vanté!
[Illustration: RUINS OF ABÉLARD'S HOUSE.]
A little further on, is a stone pillar, with a venerable accacia tree
spreading its leaves over it. It has the following Latin inscription:
VII
IM CAESAR
AVGVSTVS
PONTIFEX MAX
VIAM. OLIM
A CONIVINCO
AD LIMONEM
IMP. CAESAR. TRAJ.
ADRIANVS AVG
PM. TRIB. POT.
VIAM AB AVGVSTO
STATAM REFICIT.[8]
[Footnote 8: Auguste étendit jusqu'à La Loire La Gaule Aquitanique,
autrefois bornée par la Garonne, et comprit L'Armorique dans la
Province Celtique ou Lyonnaise. L'Empereur Adrian, ayant fait depuis
une nouvelle distribution des Gaules, divisa La Lyonnaise en deux, et
mit L'Armorique dans la seconde; enfin cette Lyonnaise ou Celtique
ayant été encore divisée en deux, Tours devint la Métropole de la
troisième, qui comprenait la Touraine, le Maine, l'Anjou, et la
Bretagne.--_Histoire de Bret_.]
[Illustration: GROTTO of HÉLOÏSE at CLISSON.]
[Illustration: TOMB of ABÉLARD and HÉLOÏSE.]
Farther on several large blocks of granite are piled together in so
strange and curious a manner, that it must have been the work of
Nature alone:--one of them has these beautiful lines carved on it:
O! Limpide Rivière! O Rivière chérie!
Puisse la sotte vanité
Ne jamais dédaigner ta rive humble et fleurie!
Que ton simple sentier ne soit point fréquenté
Par aucun tourment de la vie
Tels que l'ambition, l'envie,
L'avarice, et la fausseté!
Un bocage si frais, un séjour si tranquille,
Aux tendres sentiments doit seul servir d'azile.
Ces rameaux amoureux entrelassés exprès
Aux Muses, aux Amours, offrent leur voile épais;
Et ce cristal d'une onde pure
A jamais ne doit réfléchir
Que les grâces de la nature
Et les images du plaisir.
Close to the brink of the river stands a prodigiously large granite
rock, immediately facing the waterfall called le Bassin de Diane: on
it are these words:
SA MASSE INDESTRVCTIBLE
A FATIGVÉ LE TEMS.
a quotation from Delille.
[Illustration: GRANITE ROCK in the GARENNE.]
The French writers, speaking of this interesting place, observe:
"Comment soupçonner en effet qu'au milieu de cette _terrible Vendée_,
qu'au centre de cet impénétrable et sombre Bocage, il existe un pays
délicieux et fertile, couvert de mines séculaires qui rappelent tous
les souvenirs historiques de notre ancienne France, comme le caractère
de ses habitans en rappele les moeurs, le courage, et la loyauté".
On the opposite side of the river, a little to the right, stands the
ancient Château de Clisson, celebrated in the modern as well as the
ancient history of Bretagne. Its lofty turrets, and decaying bastions,
extend a considerable distance along the shore of the Sèvres,
recalling to mind the ancient days of chivalry, when bravery, love,
and religion, were so singularly blended together, and gave a romantic
half-polished manner to the greatest barbarians. In later times it
became the scene of events which no one can contemplate without the
deepest interest. In viewing this magnificent ruin, it is impossible
not to regret that a place so frequently the theatre of noble
achievements, inhabited by one of the greatest men that France has
produced, François I. Connétable de Clisson,[9] father to Anne of
Bretagne, should have been so recently the scene of such savage
horrors and bloodshed! Now, all is silence and solitude: and amidst
the noble ruins which were once decorated with banners, and the
hard-earned trophies of victory,--where high-born knights and splendid
dames mingled in mirth and festivity to the echoes of the minstrels,
singing lays of love or battle,--are now only to be seen and heard the
birds of prey, hovering over a solitary tree, planted to mark the spot
where a deed was committed which has not often its parallel in the
darkest histories of the most ferocious nations.
[Footnote 9: In the "Histoire Généalogique de France", tom. vi. is an
account of the Constable's death. "The Duke of Orleans, brother to the
king, was very fond of a Jewess, whom he privately visited. Having
some reason to suspect that Peter de Craon, Lord of Sablé and de la
Ferté-Bernard, his chamberlain and favourite, had joked with the
Duchess of Orleans upon his intrigue, he turned him out of his house
with infamy. Craon imputed his disgrace partly to the Constable of
Clisson. On the night of the 13th June, having waited for him at the
corner of the street _Coulture Ste. Catherine_, and finding he had but
little company with him, he fell upon him at the head of a score of
ruffians. Clisson defended himself for some time without any other
weapon than a small cutlass; but after receiving three wounds, fell
from his horse, and pitched against a door, which flew open. The
report of this assassination reached the king's ears just as he was
stepping into bed. He put on a great coat and his shoes, and repaired
to the place where he was informed his constable had been killed. He
found him in a baker's shop, wallowing in his blood. After his wounds
were examined, "Constable, (said he to him), nothing was or ever will
he so severely punished". It was given out that Clisson made his will
the next day, and there was a mighty outcry about the sum of 1,700,000
livres, which it amounted to. It should be observed, that during
twenty-five years that he was in the service of France, he had sought
for and beaten the English every where; that he gained the famous
battle of Robeck, and chastised the Flemish; that he enjoyed for
twelve years the salary and appointments of Constable; and that,
moreover, his landed estate, (which included many castles inherited
from his ancestors, in Bretagne and Poitou,) was very considerable."]
During the Vendean war, the royalists had been driven out of Clisson
by the republicans, under the command of a ferocious jacobin. The town
was pillaged and burnt before they quitted it. Twenty-seven females
had, during the battle, concealed themselves among the ruins: when
information of it was given to the troops, who had already quitted the
place, they were ordered to return, and the whole of these unhappy
women were thrown alive into a well, where they perished!!! It has
since been filled up, and the lonely tree, just mentioned, now records
the bloody and inhuman deed.
In the account of Clisson, by a late French author, no notice is
taken of this circumstance. He merely observes, when mentioning the
destruction of the place, after the de la Roche-Jaquelin had quitted
it, "Les Rives ombragées de la Sèvres, si séduisante par ses belles
cascades et l'ensemble de ce paysage poétique, feroient de cette
contrée un séjour délicieux, si de tristes débris, qui heureusement
disparoissent tous les jours, ne rappelaient encore le souvenir
affligeant de nos discordes civiles. Les armées Révolutionnaires qui
combattirent les Vendéens, en 1793 et en 1794, employèrent inutilement
pour les réduire le fer et le feu; la flamme atteignit les villes, les
villages, les métairies, et jusqu'aux humbles chaumières; et, dans ce
vaste et épouvantable incendie, Clisson ne put échapper à une ruine
complète. Jamais peut-être cette petite ville ne se seroit entièrement
réédifié, sans une circonstance particulière qui contribua puissamment
à la faire renoître de ces cendres".
In the town of Clisson was born the celebrated Barin de la
Galissonniere, Admiral of France, who fought the well-known action
off Mahon, in the month of June, 1756, with Admiral Byng, who, in
consequence of his conduct on that occasion, was brought to a court
martial and shot. The French writers make the following absurd remark,
as to the _cause_ of his fate: "Les Anglais, furieux d'avoir été
vaincus par un Amiral François, firent fusiller l'Amiral Byng". It is
now well known that he was sacrificed to an unprincipled ministerial
faction.
The ancient Château de Clisson is built on a rock, on the bank of the
Sèvres, facing the mouth of the river, called Le Moine, which empties
itself into the Sèvres at this place, so that the town of Clisson
stands between the two rivers at their junction. An ancient bridge,
from whence this view is taken, joins one part of the town to the
other, and leads to the castle, which was once considered the barrier
of Bretagne. The two rivers run over a bed of granite rock, which, in
some places, forming a cataract, adds considerably to the surrounding
scenery: large masses of this rock in many parts seem as if piled up
by nature for the purpose of giving it a more romantic effect. The
whole forms a most picturesque object, when viewed from the opposite
shore, from whence the sketch of the temple erected on the ruin of St.
Gilles is taken; and the remembrance of its recent fate throws over
the scene a strong and melancholy interest.
[Illustration: RUINS OF CLISSON.]
The castle is supposed to have been first erected by the Romans,
as the Province formed a part of the Gaule Aquitanique, under the
Emperors Augustus and Adrian.
The French repaired it during the reign of Louis VIII. in 1223, under
Olivier I. Sire de Clisson, as he is styled; and it was made a regular
fortification, and surrounded by a wall a century after, by the
Connétable: in 1464 the Duc de Bretagne, Francis II. entirely finished
it.
The Sire de Clisson, Olivier I. who had served during one of the
Crusades in Palestine, was knighted with several others, in 1218. "Un
nombre prodigieux de Seigneurs Anglais, Normands, Angevins, Manceaux,
Tourangeaux, et Bretons, prirent la Croix; Le Pape, Innocent III.
envoya en Bretagne, en 1197, Helvain, Moine de St. Denis, pour y
prêcher une croisade. Une grande quantité de Bretons se laissèrent
conduire en Syrie par ce Moine; et, en 1218, plusieurs Seigneurs
Bretons suivirent leur exemple, entre autres, Hervé de Léon, Morvau,
Vicomte du Fou, et le Sire de Clisson".
From the construction of the towers and bastions, it is supposed that
at his return from the Holy Land, he had copied the Syrian style of
building; and one of the towers, which is represented in the sketch
of the gateway of the Château de Clisson, is still called La Tour des
Pélerins.
This tower, which has been used as a dungeon, is the most perfect of
any remaining. In it are subterranean galleries, anciently used as a
prison, and appropriated by the republicans to the same purpose. It is
dreadful to think of the horrors that have been practised within its
walls, in our own time.
[Illustration: TOUR des PÉLERINS.]