CHAPTER II.

MRS. MONTEAGLE.

“Heaven knows I wish Darrell a long life and a happy one,” said Colonel

Redacre, heaving a sigh from the bottom of his heart; “but when one sees

how he suffers from this terrible rheumatism, one can’t help feeling

that death would be a blessed release to him, poor fellow!”

“It is dreadful! I wonder if he has ever tried homœopathy?” said Mrs.

Redacre.

“Not he! He is too out-and-out a conservative to go in for any of those

new-fangled systems,” replied the colonel.

“That is so foolish! I really think I will write and urge him to call in

a homœopathist.”

“It would not be of the slightest use,” said her husband.

“My dear Hugh! How can you say that when you know that my father’s life

was prolonged ten years by homœopathy? You know Dr. New rescued him, one

may say, out of his coffin that time.”

“I mean there would be no use in your writing to Darrell about it. He

would laugh at you.”

“I don’t mind his laughing, if I could persuade him to try it. He has

always been civil to me, and I have not written to him for an age. I

will write to him this very day.”

“You will do nothing of the sort,” snapped the colonel; “he is quite old

enough to manage his own affairs and look after his own health.”

“My dear Hugh, a man never knows how to manage himself,” protested Mrs.

Redacre gently. “You all want a woman to do that for you; and it seems

to me the dean is a particularly helpless creature. He does absolutely

nothing for his rheumatism, and if it goes on as he describes it it may

go to his heart one of these days and carry him off in an instant.”

“Do as you like; you always get your own way,” said the colonel. “My

opinion is you had better not meddle with Darrell’s concerns; if he

gives in to you, and if the rheumatism goes to the heart, people will

say it was homœopathy that killed him.”

“Let them say what they like. The rheumatism is much more likely to kill

him if it is left to itself. If he goes on in this agony without

something being done to relieve him, he can’t hold out many months, I

feel certain.”

“Do as you like, do as you like,” said the colonel.

“Now, don’t say that, my dear Hugh. You know how I hate you to give in

to me in that way. I won’t write, if it annoys you.”

“Why the deuce should it annoy me? You don’t suppose I wish him dead?

Heaven knows I want the money. It is becoming impossible to make ends

meet on our present income, and things grow worse and worse in this

infernal country, where the rent is perpetually being raised, and where

a tradesman can’t send in a bill without announcing that _tout est

augmenté, monsieur_, as an excuse for swelling his items. I don’t know

where it is to end—I don’t, indeed.”

“We have no debts, at any rate, thank Heaven!” said Mrs. Redacre.

“No,” assented her husband; “I would rather live on beefsteaks and beer

than swindle a tradesman. All the same it is hard work, this screwing

one’s wants within one’s income; and poor Darrell, if the Almighty

called him away, could not leave his money to anybody harder up for it

than myself.”

Mrs. Redacre made no comment, but went on sorting her wools, while her

husband turned over the pages of the newspaper with an ill-humored jerk

and an occasional grunt. She was puzzled and pained. Could it be

possible that his reluctance to let her write to the dean sprang from

any unworthy motive?—he who was so emphatic in declaring in season and

out of season that he devoutly wished his cousin to outlive him, that it

was only on account of his children he cared for the inheritance, his

present income sufficing for his own wants; and as to ambitions, he had

none.

Every now and then within the last few years Col. Redacre had thrown out

hints of some remote but possible catastrophe overtaking them all; he

never said anything definite, but in a vague, moody way would remark

that there was no saying what straits they might not be one day reduced

to, and that it was well to look the danger in the face, so as not to be

taken altogether by surprise if a catastrophe occurred. When he first

took to saying this sort of thing Mrs. Redacre was very miserable, and

conjured up all kinds of dreadful spectres to explain the mysterious

words. She first thought he gambled; but after watching him for a time

as a cat watches a bird, she gave that up and took to suspecting him of

betting on the turf; but this, too, proved itself a chimera. Then she

began to suspect him of having made some bad investments and being in

terror of a sudden collapse; but this was in its turn dispelled by a

conversation with their man of business, who assured her that Col.

Redacre’s money—or rather his wife’s, for he had, so to speak, none of

his own—was safe beyond the reach of speculating schemers. When

everything was tried and found non-proven Pearl set down the gloomy

forebodings to Balaklava.

“You may be sure, mamma, it is all the east wind or some turn in the

weather—nothing else. I have noticed that we never hear of the

‘catastrophe’ except when Balaklava is worrying papa.” And Mrs. Redacre

was thankful to believe that this was really the word of the riddle.

Mrs. Monteagle lived on the floor above the Redacres. She received on no

particular evening, but she was at home every evening in general, seldom

going out anywhere except to her old friends’ on the entresol. Pearl and

Polly were up and down all day long with her, and she declared they

hardly ever came near her.

“Why should you, my dears? A tiresome old woman—what should you young

things have to say to her? But I am very glad whenever you have time to

pop in for five minutes. Not that I care much about seeing anybody. One

gets selfish as one grows old; one cares for nobody. And really, living

amongst these French people, it is no wonder. What a set they are, to be

sure! And what a government! Good gracious! when I remember how it used

to be when I came to Paris first. We had a court then, and real nobles

attended it. They were not much to look at, I must say; you never saw

such toilettes in your life as they used to wear coming to make their

court to Mme. d’Angoulême, and the Duchesse de Berri, and all of them.

But it was much pleasanter. People got themselves up like guys, but

nobody minded that, and they had not to ruin themselves in fine clothes.

I remember one evening the Duchesse de R—— presented herself in a dyed

pea-green gown with dirty feathers and lace that was the color of strong

tea. I felt ashamed for her, poor thing!—I did indeed; but, goodness me!

nobody saw it, I believe, but myself; the Duchesse d’Angoulême received

her as if she had been dressed like the Queen of Saba. They knew how to

receive, those princesses—not like this little woman you have at the

Tuileries now. But it won’t last, my dear. Things are going from bad to

worse, I hear. People fancy that because I don’t go _dans le monde_, as

they call it, I know nothing about what is going on. Ha! ha!” And the

old lady shook her finger at some invisible contradictor. “I can tell

you I know a great deal more than any of you. I hear many things that I

keep to myself; but I can tell you things are looking very badly indeed.

I suppose you are going to the ball at the Tuileries to-morrow night,

all of you?”

“Polly and I have our dresses ready,” said Pearl; “but I am afraid papa

won’t be well enough to come with us.”

“What’s amiss with him? Balaklava troublesome?”

“Yes, dreadfully. I wonder if Mme. Léopold is going? I dare say she

would take us, if papa asked her.”

“He mustn’t, though; he mustn’t do that, my dear,” said Mrs. Monteagle

very emphatically; and then, seeing Pearl’s brown eyes widening in

wonder, she added. “It would never do to have you sallying in after

Blanche, my dear; three young girls in a group are sure to interfere

with each other. It wouldn’t do at all.”

“What a funny idea!” And Pearl laughed merrily.

“And besides, the Léopolds are such out-and-out Bonapartists your father

would not care to have you appear under their flag,” continued the old

lady; “not that he thinks as much of that as he ought to do, I’m sorry

to say. We English get into very loose ways when we live abroad; going

to the theatre on Sunday, and going to these pinchbeck people at the

Tuileries, and doing all sorts of improper things. It is very naughty of

us—it is indeed; for we ought to know better. As to those French people,

one never expects anything from them; there is no truth in them; they

all tell lies, every one of them—they do indeed, my dear.”

“If we can’t go with Mme. Léopold I don’t see whom we can go with,” said

Pearl musingly. “Polly will be awfully disappointed. There was to be a

cotillon; it is in honor of the little archduchess. She can’t wait for

the _petit Lundi_, and the empress said she should have the cotillon

to-night. Polly would have looked so lovely in her new dress!”

“Where do you expect to go in the next world, you vain minx!” said Mrs.

Monteagle. “You are a great deal too conceited about Polly.”

Pearl laughed.

“Is there to be anybody at this ball to-morrow that she is particularly

anxious not to disappoint?” inquired the old lady, looking hard at

Pearl.

“No; she doesn’t care a straw for one of them. I wonder if she ever

will? I can’t imagine Polly in love.” And Pearl laughed gently to

herself.

“More’s the pity. I don’t like a girl who goes flirting on her way,

making every man she meets fall in love with her, and not caring a straw

for one of them. I suppose she means to marry for money, or rank, or

something of that sort.”

“O dear Mrs. Monteagle! how could you say such a thing of Polly?” said

Pearl. “She is incapable of marrying for anything but love!”

“Then, you silly puss, what did you mean by saying that she could not

fall in love?”

“I meant—well, I don’t know exactly. Only there is nobody going

to-morrow that she is the least in love with.”

“And you? Is there to be any one you are not cruel to? Come, tell me all

about them like a good child.”

Pearl tossed back her sunny head and laughed.

“As if anybody would look at me when Polly is there!”

“Nonsense! that is a matter of taste. If I were a young man I know what

would be my taste,” said Mrs. Monteagle; “and I shrewdly suspect there

is a certain young gentleman who is of the same opinion.” She looked

steadily at Pearl as she said this, and, raising a finger, shook it at

the laughing, astonished face. Pearl looked as unconscious as a baby at

first, but as the finger continued its slow, significant shake she grew

a little confused, then she blushed, first slightly, but the pink tint

rapidly deepened to scarlet and spread all over her face and neck.

“Ha! you naughty puss. I knew I should find you out,” said Mrs.

Monteagle with a mischievous laugh. “I know all about it, and, since you

care for him, it is all right. I think he is a good fellow, although I

confess I should have preferred your marrying an Englishman; however,

since you are in love with one another, one must make the best of it.”

“Dear Mrs. Monteagle, what _do_ you mean?” said Pearl, who had now

recovered her self-possession, and was looking mystified and curious,

but not the least guilty.

“I know all about it, my dear. I tell you I know more about most things

than people imagine. I have been watching this little game quietly in my

corner while you and M. Léon were singing and playing at your piano.”

“M. Léon? Capt. Léopold?”

“Capt. Léopold, of the Third Hussars, officier de la Légion d’Honneur,

and heir to the title of baron. I don’t begrudge him any of his glories,

my dear; I only wish there were ten times more. I suppose he will be

very well off; not that you care about that.”

“No, indeed, I don’t!” cried Pearl. “Why should I?”

“Nonsense, child, nonsense! All the same I like to hear you say it.

Nowadays you young girls are so worldly-minded you only think of what a

husband can give you. It is dreadful—it is indeed; as to these French,

it is positively frightful to think of the way they go about it—just as

if they were buying a horse or hiring a house. But your Frenchman will,

I am sure, prove an exception. Of course he is supposed not to have said

a word to you himself; but you don’t expect me to believe that—”

“Indeed, dear Mrs. Monteagle, I give you my solemn word of honor—” broke

in Pearl.

“Ah! yes, my dear. Words of honor in a case like this are made to be

broken; but has his mother spoken to you—that is to say, to your father

yet?”

“Dear Mrs. Monteagle, I don’t know what you are talking about—I don’t

indeed! M. Léon has never opened his lips to me on such a subject, and I

feel sure he hasn’t to papa either.”

“Well, perhaps not; you young people have a way of understanding each

other without much talking. I know all about it; I was young once

myself, though you may not believe it. I know that in my time a young

man could tell a girl he adored her without putting it in so many

words.”

“I dare say they can do so nowadays, too,” said Pearl; “but I know that

M. Léon never told me, in words or in any other way, that he adored me.”

“Tut! tut! Then he made his sister say it for him; these French people

have peculiar ways I know. I dare say the little French girl did it.”

“Blanche? She declares that Léon adores only two things, fighting and

jam. ‘Set him before the enemy or before a _pot de confiture_ and he is

the happiest of men!’ That is what Blanche says of him.”

“Good gracious! what a character for any girl to give her brother. She

had a motive in it, my dear—depend upon it she had a motive. She wanted

to stand in your way, to prevent the marriage. I always thought she was

a sly minx; they all are, those French girls, though they look as if

butter would not melt in their mouths.”

Pearl was going to enter an indignant protest against this attack on her

friend, but she was prevented by the arrival of visitors. Mme. de Kerbec

and Mme. Léopold entered together.

Pearl started up from her seat of honor on the sofa beside Mrs.

Monteagle, and as Mme. Léopold came forward, profusely affectionate, to

embrace her, she blushed scarlet.

“Chère petite!” said the fond mother, playfully stroking the warm red

cheek, of which Pearl for very rage with herself could have scratched

the skin off. It was tantamount to confessing herself in love with Léon

to blush up and look so confused the moment his mother appeared. Mme.

Léopold and Mrs. Monteagle evidently thought so, too, for they laughed

significantly at one another as they shook hands and glanced at Pearl.

Mme. de Kerbec wondered what the little joke was about. She was not in

the intimacy of Mme. Léopold, because, as she put it, the deputy and his

wife were not _de notre monde_. They were of the court set, and Mme. de

Kerbec was of the faubourg; so, at least, she said, and as nobody of the

other set had the _entrée_ of the faubourg, nobody contradicted her.

“How is every one _chez vous, mon enfant_—your dear mother and your

excellent father? I suppose we shall meet him with you both to-morrow

evening?” said Mme. Léopold.

“I hope so, madame; but papa is not very well....” Pearl began to

explain.

“No; and very likely he will ask you to—” interrupted Mrs. Monteagle;

but Pearl made such imploring eyes at her and gave her hand such a

terrible squeeze that the old lady did not finish the sentence, but

turned off the subject by exclaiming on the splendor of Mme. de Kerbec’s

dress.

“You talk of the extravagance of the Tuileries set; but if we are to

judge your old faubourg by you, countess, you are a great deal worse.

Good gracious! what a superb costume, to be sure. In my young days one

never saw such things, except it might be at court; and even there, poor

old Queen Charlotte and Queen Adelaide never were much to speak of in

the way of elegance; and as to the people here at the Tuileries in those

days—”

When Mrs. Monteagle was thus fairly embarked Pearl seized the

opportunity to slip away.

“What a sweet girl she is!” said Mme. Léopold as the door closed on the

slight young figure.

“She is charming,” assented Mme. de Kerbec; “but Polly’s beauty throws

her quite into the shade.”

Both the French lady and Mrs. Monteagle exclaimed at this. “I think her

face more sympathetic and her manner infinitely more so!” said Mme.

Léopold.

“No comparison!” chimed in Mrs. Monteagle; “and she has three times the

brains of Polly.”

“One does not want much brains with such an amount of beauty,” said Mme.

de Kerbec. “Polly is sure to marry much better. Men don’t care for

clever wives; they are jealous of them.”

“That may be the case with Englishmen, but I protest in the name of my

own countrymen,” said Mme. Léopold. “I never knew a Frenchman yet who

objected to his wife having brains.”

“Very likely not,” said Mrs. Monteagle; “provided she has money, I don’t

suppose a Frenchman would object to anything, even to her being a

lunatic.”

“You are severe, chère madame,” said Mme. Léopold, looking hurt.

“Mrs. Monteagle suspects every Frenchman of marrying for money,” said

Mme. de Kerbec. This was a tender point with her, for everybody, of

course, knew that M. de Kerbec had married her for her money, and that

she had married him for his title.

“I can only judge by what I see,” said Mrs. Monteagle; “and I see that

the first and last and only thing that they ask, or rather that their

family asks, about a young lady is, ‘How much money has she?’”

“You do us an injustice there; that may be the first question, because

it is after all the essential one, but it is not the last,” said Mme.

Léopold. “And I can assure you our young men of the present day follow

very much the English fashion in marrying; they like to marry

themselves, and they often feel a great, a very decided sympathy for

their _fiancée_ before the family interferes at all. My son always said

he would marry himself _à l’anglaise_.”

“I am glad to hear it, madame, and I hope you will let him have his

way,” said Mme. de Kerbec.

“Certainly; my dearest wish is to see him happy,” replied Mme. Léopold,

and she looked at Mrs. Monteagle. It was immediately borne in on Mme. de

Kerbec that there was a marriage in the air between Léon and Pearl, and

that Mme. Léopold was here to discuss the matter with Mrs. Monteagle,

and, being a kind woman, she naturally felt at once a deep interest in

the match.

“I suppose Col. Redacre will give very handsome fortunes to both his

daughters,” she remarked; “but I think that arrangement very unjust.

Pearl should have it all; Polly has beauty enough to make a queen’s

dower.”

“For my part, I would rather have Pearl without a penny than Polly with

the two _dots_ together,” said Mrs. Monteagle with a little angry grunt.

“Their mother was an heiress, so there will be plenty for all the

children,” Mme. de Kerbec went on; “and then Dean Darrell is enormously

wealthy, and his money all comes to the Redacres. To be sure he may live

twenty years yet.”

“I did not know they had such great expectations,” said Mme. Léopold,

her interest kindling as she listened to these details. “Who is this M.

Darrell?”

“He is a cousin of Col. Redacre’s, and holds the property which comes to

the Redacres at his death. It is not much to speak of, I believe; but

the Dean is very rich, and will leave them all his money. He is Pearl’s

godfather, too, and they say he will leave a very large sum to her.”

“She deserves it; she is a most angelic girl. I never saw any girl I

admired so much,” said Mme. Léopold, waxing enthusiastic as Pearl’s

merits were thus unfolded to her. “_You_ know what I feel about her,

chère madame,” she added, addressing Mrs. Monteagle.

Other visitors came in, but Mme. Léopold contrived when saying _au

revoir_ to whisper to Mrs. Monteagle a request that she would, at her

earliest convenience, speak to Col. Redacre upon the subject “near our

hearts.”

“And M. Léon’s heart?” said Mrs. Monteagle once more before committing

herself.

“Chère madame! why will you doubt my dear boy?” said the mother with a

smile.

TO BE CONTINUED.

VOLTAIRE AND HIS PANEGYRISTS.

Voltaire has to this day, among a certain class of people, the

unenviable privilege of sharing with his great friend and patron the

devil a popularity which he richly deserves. He belongs to that race of

scoffers and liars that has never been wanting in the world since the

arch-deceiver was allowed entrance into it, and will never be wanting as

long as he sees in it anything bearing the image of God which he may

hope to destroy, any truth which he may contradict, any beauty which he

may defile, any goodness which he may turn into evil. Celsus, Porphyry,

Jamblichus, Julian the Apostate, Luther, were of that race; and if

Voltaire be inferior to most of these in genius, he has nevertheless

done the work of their common master as zealously, and certainly as

successfully, as any of his predecessors. Give, then, the devil his due,

and let the philosopher of Ferney have the admiration of his votaries.

Let him inhale in long draughts the incense which they offer him. It is

not the rich perfumes of Arabia that they burn upon his altars. The god

of the Revolution would have very little relish for anything sweet and

pure. He delights in filth, and filth they serve him in abundance. From

every cess-pool and garbage-plot, from every loathsome swamp and

poisonous marsh, from every infected spot, a thick cloud laden with

nauseous odors and death rises up to his nostrils. Surely the god must

be satisfied. What else has he sought during his long career from his

boyhood to his old age? To what did he devote his wonderful activity but

to create those very sinks of moral degradation which send back to him

from their unclean depths the impure homage which they are fit to give?

Voltaire deserves a statue; let him have it. Why should the French

government hesitate to comply with the desires of the Commune in this

regard? What more worthy hands can they find for the purpose than those

stained by the blood of so many innocent victims? Why should not one who

thirsted during his whole life for the destruction of what is most

sacred suffer the well-merited punishment of having a monument raised in

his behalf by cut-throats to perpetuate his ignominy? A statue to

Voltaire? Yes; and in Paris, too. Only choose the right place, and let

it be emblematical of the lewdness with which the works of that infamous

man reek. The fitting spot is that where all the sewers of the great

city empty themselves into the Seine.

The idol of the French Commune is not without his admirers on this side

of the Atlantic. One of our leading journals, speaking of the

demonstration that took place on the 30th of May in the French capital

in honor of Voltaire, gave us the following eulogistic and edifying

editorial, which we quote as a fair specimen of the cant that is now and

then reproduced in this country from the French radical papers of the

most advanced school:

“France, it is said, celebrated in a characteristic way the memory

of one of her great men, one of the makers of the great Revolution.

Voltaire did France more service than any twenty generals, but did

it by strictly intellectual methods; by operation on the national

mind; by exposure of the shams, pretences, villanies, and

oppressions of the system of organized wrong that those exposures

did so much to undermine and destroy. He created in great part that

public opinion, that common judgment of the nation, in the presence

of which it was impossible that the ancient _régime_ should continue

to exist beyond the day when the power to end it fell into the hands

of the representatives of the people. As his influence was felt by

its intellectual results, it is characteristic and just that his

memory should be celebrated, not by monuments or other preservations

of a great man’s name, but by the dissemination of a printed volume

of his own best thoughts, so distributed that a copy may be given to

every Frenchman. By this method honor is done to Voltaire and good

is done to the people; for the world is very much as yet in the

condition in which he criticised it, and his keen, sound judgments

on liberty, on the rights of the people and persons, on the church,

on law, on government, on freedom of the press, may yet continue his

influence with great advantage to society” (New York _Herald_, May

31).

It would be difficult to condense into a short page a greater number of

false assertions, of wrong appreciations and misleading suggestions.

“_Mentons; il en restera toujours quelque chose_,” the favorite motto of

Voltaire, continues to inspire his disciples all over the world. It is

the idiosyncrasy by which the members of the family are recognized. The

result of these often-repeated falsehoods is, in France, to keep the

people in a chronic state of dissatisfaction periodically finding vent

in those violent up-heavings of society which have more than once during

the last hundred years brought that beautiful country to the verge of

ruin; and though, in other places where they are rehearsed, they may not

produce the same fatal effects, they serve, nevertheless, to make dupes

of the ignorant who are unable to judge for themselves of the truth or

falsity of assertions stated with such unhesitating boldness and

assurance that the most glaring errors are accepted by them as articles

of faith; they are an insult to the conscience not only of Catholics but

of all those who still profess to retain the least vestige of

Christianity; they are a gross calumny thrown in the face of France

herself, who, by the voice of her most illustrious children and by a

vast majority, protests against the idea that Voltaire is one of her

great or representative men. “Lately,” says a French writer (the

_Correspondant_, May 25), “the radicals conceived the purpose of showing

to Europe the genius of France, personified in the image of Voltaire. A

lying symbol, assuredly. For if it be the glory of France that they

intended to represent, there are in our history twenty reputations

nobler, wider, purer which would contend with our rivals for the

admiration of the world. Voltaire possessed only one feeble spark of the

French genius; but, thank God, the flame has been more powerful and

shone with a deeper and brighter lustre, it ascended to greater heights,

with St. Bernard, Pascal, Bossuet, Corneille, Racine, Molière, Mirabeau,

Châteaubriand, Lamartine; and as to the other qualities that are

characteristic of the French people, France would disavow them had they

their type and model in Voltaire; and, in fact, how could she recognize

in him that generosity which is foremost amongst the gifts of her race,

her warm heart, her heroic soul, her chivalrous valor, her Christian

beneficence, her love for the weak and the oppressed, her loyalty, her

passion for great ideas and great actions? How could she sacrifice to

the genius of Voltaire all that she had of French genius in those times

of Charlemagne, of Godfrey de Bouillon, of St. Louis, of Joan of Arc, of

Richelieu, of Louis XIV., when those who were her chief ornaments by

their brilliant virtues so little resembled Voltaire? To pretend that a

nation which has deserved to be called by Shakspere ‘the soldier of

God’; a nation that has given to religion so many saints and heroes, so

many doctors and martyrs; a nation that has raised by its thought and

art so many monuments to Catholicity; a nation that can cite so many

names dear to the church from St. Jerome, Pope Sylvester, Peter the

Hermit and Suger, to St. Francis of Sales, De Bérulle, Fénelon,

Massillon, and Lacordaire—to pretend that such a nation ought and

desires to have its personification in Voltaire is a mockery.”

Bold indeed is the man who dares associate the idea of greatness with

the name of Voltaire in presence of the evidence we have to the

contrary, and which cannot be ignored by any one who has the slightest

acquaintance with the literature of the last century. He uses words at

random and cares very little about their true signification, or he

unduly presumes on the ignorance of others. We find in Voltaire no

element that constitutes the great man. He lacks those qualities of the

heart which ennoble their possessor and surround him with a halo of

serene splendor even in the lowliest station; his private life from

beginning to end is there to show us all the meanness of his character.

He had no civic virtue; he denied his country and despised the people.

As a philosopher he has discovered no truth, elucidated none,

contributed nothing to the advancement of knowledge. What he did was to

direct all his efforts to obscure by sophistry and revile by sarcasms

those truths of which mankind was in time-honored possession. He has no

claim to the reputation of a great poet; all critics worthy of the name,

even those of the age in which he lived, are at one in assigning to him

an inferior rank in this regard. Voltaire tried his hand in every

department, in literature, in the natural sciences, in philosophy, in

politics, in history, in theology, and has only succeeded in giving

proofs of his ignorance of the subjects he attempted to treat or of his

mediocrity. “Voltaire,” says W. Schlegel (_Dramatic Literature_, lect.

xix.), “wished to shine in every department; a restless vanity permitted

him not to be satisfied with the pursuit of perfection in any single

walk of literature; and, from the variety of subjects in which his mind

was employed, it was impossible for him to avoid shallowness and

immaturity of ideas.... He made use of poetry as a means to accomplish

ends foreign and extrinsical to it; and this has often polluted the

artistic purity of his compositions.”

We often read in the lives of holy personages that, in their very

infancy, they gave signs of their future greatness and sanctity. As to

Voltaire, he manifested in his early youth a degree of perverseness

which foreshadowed but too well what he subsequently proved to be. The

precocity of his mind showed itself by his precocious unbelief. Every

one knows the prediction which his impious sneers at religion elicited

from Father Le Jay when at the college of Louis-le-Grand—a prediction

which was so truly realized afterwards: “Wretch,” said the father to

him, “you will one day be the standard-bearer of infidelity in France.”

Expelled several times from his father’s house for improper conduct, he

pursues his career in the world, which he fills with the scandals of his

life. His disgraceful intrigues in politics and in love, his dishonesty

in business matters, his greed of money, his writings breathing lust and

revolt, fixed upon him the attention of the police, and more than once

brought him to the Bastille and sent him into exile. He had no heart; he

proved it by the contempt he entertained for his nearest relations. He

felt no shame in destroying the reputation of his mother; from allusions

he makes in a letter addressed to Richelieu, and in other passages of

his works, he throws suspicions upon the legitimacy of his birth.

Voltaire at first signed his name “Arouet”; but soon this family name

disgusted him, as he himself avows, and he rejected it for that of

Voltaire. To discard the name of one’s own family is certainly no sign

of a good son. He was no better citizen. The French having been beaten

at Rossbach by the King of Prussia, Frederick II., Voltaire, who kept a

correspondence with that prince, ridiculed his countrymen, and heaped

upon them the most injurious epithets. He wishes a Prussian officer to

come and take a certain city of France. He writes to the King of

Prussia: “Look upon me as the most devoted subject that you have, for I

have no other, and wish to have no other, master but yourself. It is to

my own sovereign that I write.” The vile and crouching sycophant goes so

far as to call Frederick “a god” and “the son of God.” Is it not

incredible and the height of impudence that men who call themselves

Frenchmen should urge their country to decree national honors to be paid

to this idolatrous worshipper of Prussia, and that after the disasters

of 1871? These men deserve the scorn of the whole world. Not satisfied

with having turned Prussian, the ambition of Voltaire was to become

Russian, and for this purpose he disowned France. In a letter of the

18th of October, 1771, to the Empress of Russia, Catherine II., after

having called the French who had gone to the assistance of Poland fools

and boors, he adds: “It is the Tartars who are civilized, and the French

have become Scythians. Please to observe, madame, that I am not Welsh

(that is, French); I am a Swiss, and, if I were younger, I would become

Russian.” And Russian he soon became in spite of his old age, and

Catherine could send him her felicitations on his being already “so good

a Russian.” We shall not transcribe the words of sacrilegious adulation

which he addressed to his idol, to a woman stained with the blood of her

husband and living in adultery. “To make of the flatterer of Frederick

II., the adulator of Catherine II., the adorer of Mme. de Pompadour, a

republican citizen, would be a difficult task. But to make a patriot of

the man who applauded the victory of Rossbach, who saw without pity the

blood of France flow, who defiled the reputation of Joan of Arc with the

loathsome profanation that we know, and who aspired to the happiness ‘to

die a Prussian,’ would be a want of respect for France and of pride for

the republic. In presence of the victors of Metz and of Sedan, in

presence of Alsace-Lorraine, France would betray herself and the

republic would disown France, were the one with the help of the other to

erect the image of Voltaire as that of our wounded country, which stands

waiting and hoping” (_Correspondant_).

We must never be astonished at anything from such a courtier of Fortune

as Voltaire was. The most irascible of poets is the most flexible

servant of the reigning powers. If, to use an expression of Diderot, he

bore a grudge to every pedestal placed in the path of his literary

glory, no one more grovellingly than he kissed the dust before every

statue of success raised to command men or to impose upon them. He

deserts to the King of Prussia after the defeat of De Rohan, he kisses

the blood-stained hand of that other Lady Macbeth seated on the throne

of Russia; he will do more: he will lower the purple of Richelieu before

that of the ignoble Dubois, to whom the Revolution alone could give

notoriety. Young, he had not the dignity which talent imparts; old, he

had not that of his gray hairs. His pretty prose and his small, prurient

madrigals will be scattered freely in the antechamber of every courtesan

who has usurped for the time being the rightful place of the queens of

France. It is to a Marquise de Prie, mistress of the heart and of the

politics of the Duke of Bourbon, or to a Mme. de Pompadour, that he

offers his mean and impure adulations. Mme. de Pompadour, metamorphosed

into an Agnes Sorel, is still but a mortal; Mme. du Barry will be a

divinity in this distich of the octogenarian of Ferney:

“C’est assez aux mortels d’adorer votre image,

L’original était fait pour les Dieux.”

So much for the irreproachable citizen who reviled his country, rejoiced

at her misfortunes, and sold himself to her enemies; so much for the

model republican who fawned on despots and courted the good graces of

the most abandoned characters, provided they stood around a throne. But

what of Voltaire, the great democrat, the devoted friend of the people?

Those who wish to enlighten the working classes by the dissemination

among them of a printed volume of Voltaire’s _own best thoughts_ have

taken care, of course, to exclude from the precious popular volume,

_destined to perpetuate the great man’s influence in France_, such

passages as these, which clearly show his sentiments on the subject. He

writes to a friend:

“I believe that we do not understand each other on the question of

the people, who, according to you, deserve to be instructed. I

understand by _people_ the populace, or those who are forced to gain

their livelihood by the labor of their hands. I doubt whether that

class of citizens will ever have the leisure or the capacity

required for instruction. It appears to me essential that there

should be ‘ignorant boors.’ When the vulgar begin to reason, all is

lost. The absurd insolence of those who tell you that you must think

like your tailor and your washerwoman should not be tolerated. As to

the _canaille_, it will never be anything else but the _canaille_. I

have nothing to do with it.”

And again: “The _canaille_ whom every yoke fits is not worth

enlightening.” That hatred for the poor, the laboring classes, the

people, is a satanic trait characteristic of Voltaire. Were the

principles which he sought to establish to obtain in the world, we would

soon see the worst times of paganism return, when the vast majority of

men were slaves under unfeeling masters. From this abject condition

Christianity rescued the human race. It is Christianity that can still

make the people free; it is Christianity that saves it now, in spite of

the efforts made to exclude Christ’s influence from the face of the

earth and substitute for it that of Freemasonry, socialism, and

radicalism, which would willingly replace the worship of the Redeemer by

that of a Voltaire or a Mazzini. Were it possible to abolish the

Christian religion in the world, the earth would at once become a den of

wild beasts tearing one another to pieces. Witness the French

Revolution. It is Christ who said: “Come to me, all you that labor and

are burdened, and I will refresh you”; it is Christ who ennobled labor

by embracing a life of toil; it is Christ who taught the poor that

poverty is no disgrace, but rather an honor, ever since the King of

Kings sanctified it and glorified it in his own person; it is Christ who

gave us the true signification of sufferings, and revealed to us their

chastening and purifying influence when they are borne with resignation.

But it is Christ also who taught the rich to be charitable to those not

possessed of the goods of this world, and to consider themselves but as

God’s stewards in favor of the needy. In the acceptance of those

principles is to be found the solution of the social problems which

become more and more entangled in proportion as society withdraws itself

from the light of the Gospel. “Jesus has wept and Voltaire has smiled,”

said Victor Hugo at the celebration of the 20th of May, “and from those

divine tears and that human smile the sweetness of our civilization was

the result,” and the crowd applauded. Foolish and blasphemous words! To

associate Christ and his reviler in the same mission for the

regeneration of the human race! Voltaire never smiled—he grinned, and in

his infernal sneer he embraced those for whom Jesus especially came and

wept, suffered and died. But the tactics of the evil one are always the

same and are followed by his disciples, to draw men into his snares by

creating illusions around them.

The age of Voltaire had no philosophy. Its great voice was silent, and

was heard no more until it resounded again in the first part of this

century in De Maistre and De Bonald. The generation of Malebranche,

Descartes, and Bossuet had passed away, and was succeeded by a sect of

sophists headed by Voltaire, whom they nicknamed the “Philosopher of

Ferney.” The eighteenth century was the reign, not of philosophy, but of

philosophism, which consisted in an abuse of reason directed to the

demolition, by means of sarcasm and ridicule, by the corruption of

morals and by falsehood, of the religion of Christ and of all the

principles upon which human society is based. The pretended Reformation

had given the signal; in weakening the foundations of faith and the

respect for spiritual authority it opened the door to every error, to

revolt, and to all corruptions. Germany began, England followed, and

from England came out that spirit of incredulity and atheism which would

have plunged Europe into all the agonies of dissolution, and made it a

prey to renewed barbarism, had not the terrific thunder-peals of the

French Revolution awakened it on the brink of the abyss and warned men

to turn their eyes towards God and his church. Rousseau gives us in his

_Emile_ a faithful picture of those mad dreamers, possessed by the

genius of evil, who in his time proudly called themselves philosophers:

“Turn away from those who, under pretext of explaining nature, sow

in the hearts of men subversive doctrines, and whose apparent

scepticism is a hundred times more affirmative and dogmatic than the

decided tone of their adversaries. Under the haughty pretence that

they alone are enlightened, true, and sincere, they impose upon us

their peremptory decisions, and pretend to give us for the true

principles of things the unintelligible systems which their

imagination has built. Besides overthrowing, destroying, and

trampling upon everything that men revere, they take away from the

afflicted the last consolation in their miseries, from the powerful

and the rich the only check of their passions; they snatch from the

depth of the human heart remorse for crime, the hope which supports

virtue, and still boast of being the benefactors of mankind. Never,

do they say, is truth injurious to men. I believe as they do, and it

is, in my opinion, a strong proof that what they teach is not the

truth.”

Of all those who, at that period, took part in the infernal struggle

against Christianity, Voltaire was the recognized chief and leader. He

and Rousseau are the two men who did most to undermine the foundations

of religion, to extend the reign of unbelief, and destroy the bulwarks

that protect order and the family; the former by his inexhaustible fund

of impious raillery that scoffed at everything, and the latter by an

affectation of sickly sentimentality that paved the way but too well for

the atrocities by which the last years of that disgraceful century were

polluted. The eighteenth century is appropriately called the _Siècle de

Voltaire_; it will be its eternal shame. For Voltaire, notwithstanding

his sparkling wit and a few happy productions in literature, will remain

eternally the type of a mean character, of a corrupt intellect and

perverted reason. It is the conclusion to which men will necessarily

arrive who wish to draw their knowledge of Voltaire from another source

than that of an ignorant fanaticism, and who, not satisfied with vague

sounds floating in the air, will take the trouble to study his life and

his works. Not long ago the illustrious Bishop of Orleans, from his

senator’s seat, instructed the radicals of his country on this subject,

and his method is sure. It would be more in the interest of truth to

re-echo his voice on our shores than to spread amongst us those

groundless and erroneous appreciations issuing from disordered brains

maddened by passion. He cited to them the judgments of men whom their

party chiefly consults, to whom they defer, whom they admire and revere

most, as Rousseau, Marat, Béranger, Victor Hugo, Louis Blanc,

Sainte-Beuve, and Renan. He placed before their eyes the very writings

of Voltaire; and thus, by testimony that commanded their confidence, he

taught them what Voltaire was worth as a democrat, a citizen, a patriot,

and even as a philosopher. We have no space to give quotations from

those writers; but we cannot resist the temptation to place before our

readers a few lines written by Victor Hugo himself, when he had not as

yet lent his unquestionable genius to the vagaries of modern radicalism.

They tell us what the distinguished poet then thought of the man whom he

now extols to the skies and dares to put on a level with Christ. He

speaks of that filthy production of Voltaire’s pen, _The Maid of

Orleans_, and warns purity and innocence to beware of the poison

contained in that infamous book: “An old book is there, a romance of the

last century! A work of ignominy! Voltaire then reigned, that monkey of

genius, sent on a mission to man by the devil himself. O eighteenth

century, impious and chastised, society without God, struck by God’s

hand! world-blind for Christ, which Satan illumines! Shame on thy

writers in the face of nations! The reflection of thy crimes is in their

renown! Beware, O child! in whose tender heart no tainted breath has as

yet been felt. O daughter of Eve! Poor young mind! Voltaire the

_serpent_, _Doubt_, and _Irony_ is in a corner of thy blessed sanctuary;

with his eye of fire he spies thee and laughs. Tremble! This false sage

has caused the ruin of many an angel. That demon, that black kite,

pounces upon pious hearts and crushes them. Oftentimes have I seen under

his cruel claws the feathers fall one by one from white wings made to

rise and take flight towards heaven” (_Rayons et Ombres_).

Voltaire was not a great thinker, not a great poet, not a great

historian, not a great novelist, and not a great manager or man of

action. Of his twenty-eight or thirty dramatic pieces scarcely one rises

to the highest line of dramatic art; his comedies, like his epics, are

no longer read; his histories are sprightly and entertaining, but not

authentic; and his essays, both in prose and verse, with perhaps the

single exception of his historical disquisitions, have ceased to

instruct. This is the judgment about the man which we find recorded in

the _American Cyclopædia_, and we have no doubt of its correctness. If

we seek, then, for the secret of his success, we must turn not to his

lighter compositions, as has been advised, but to the corruption of the

age in which he lived. Voltaire found around him a society in a state of

disorganization produced by the orgies of the Regency, and the spirit of

incredulity which had invaded the whole of Europe. He seized upon those

materials which he used against Christianity. He wished to destroy it.

His intention was not doubtful; it had been clearly revealed by his

_Mahomet_, a tragedy given to the public in 1741. The piece had no

success at first, or rather people were frightened by it. Christianity

was too openly attacked in it not to revolt public opinion, which was as

yet profoundly Christian. It was withdrawn after three representations;

but, resumed ten years later, it was received with enthusiasm. It is at

that date and with that the eighteenth century properly begins. In 1751

all was changed. Religion, morals, taste, national honor, military glory

were soon to disappear from the soil of France. Fleury had ceased to

live, and voluptuousness had seated a Pompadour upon the throne;

flattery erected altars in her honor, whilst a philosophy, the enemy of

God and of the laws, placed itself under the protection of that worthy

patroness. It was not difficult to see already looming on the horizon

the horrors of 1793. Voltaire, undoubtedly, was one of the makers of the

great Revolution—“that grand conflict which,” as Schlegel says, “must be

looked upon in no other light than as a religious war; for a formal

separation, not only from the church, but from all Christianity, a total

abolition of the Christian religion, was an object of this Revolution.”

It is no wonder, then, that all revolutionists have made an idol of

Voltaire, who played so prominent a part in bringing it about. It is

still Voltaire the enemy of Christianity whom they celebrate. This they

openly avow. One of the organs of the party, the _Bien Public_, declared

that it was not the centenary of Voltaire the man of letters that they

intended to celebrate, but that of him who had said “_Écrasons

l’infâme_” (Let us crush the wretch). The _Droits de l’Homme_ also

wrote: “Voltaire had no respect for things established; he dared look

Christ in the face; he insulted him. This is the reason why we have

chosen Voltaire to pay him our respects.” It is his hatred for the

religion of Christ which they wish to propagate. The volume containing

Voltaire’s _best thoughts_, ordered to be printed and distributed among

the people, tells us that “everything which is related of Jesus is

worthy of a pack of fools”; that “miracles are ridiculous and the work

of charlatans”; that “Christ himself was a vile mechanic from the scum

of the people, a seducer who had lost all scruple”; that “our sacred

books are the work of insanity, and that Christians are dupes, fools,

and cowards.” And they desire such a book to replace among the masses

the catechism and the Gospel! Do so, and you have wolves instead of men.

BRETON LEGENDS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN.

The steadfastness of Breton Catholicity is proverbial. From the far-away

time when the disciples of the good St. Patrick, among whom, says the

Breton legend, “he was like a nightingale among wrens, or a beech-tree

among ferns,” first planted the cross in Armorica, up to that last

crusade in defence of it wherein only yesterday, as it were, Lamoricière

and Pimodan and their gallant comrades sacrificed themselves as

chivalrously as any knight of old on the fatal field of Castelfidardo,

the Breton has never wavered in his faith. Evil example has not availed

to weaken it; persecution has only made it stronger; the poisoned arrow

of the scoffer, deadlier than the Moor’s, has fallen blunted on the

armor of its tranquil simplicity. When all France beside, with few

exceptions, had sunk into indifferentism or infidelity, Breton peasant

and Breton gentleman still held fast to their fathers’ creed, still

doffed their hats as reverently as of yore to wayside cross or Madonna,

still knelt as devoutly side by side in the little rustic chapels which

so cover the land “that,” says a sympathetic writer, “it seems

fertilized by so many holy shrines.” Some idea may be had of the number

of the religious monuments of Brittany from the fact that when, at the

Restoration, the proposition was mooted to replace the wayside crosses

which the iconoclastic frenzy of the Revolution had overturned, it was

found that 1,500,000 francs would be needed to restore those in the

department of Finisterre alone.

Indeed, it may be said that the Revolution in Brittany took the form not

so much of a political struggle as of a religious proscription. It was

not the royalist so much as the Catholic who was there the object of

partisan fury. To the butchers of the Temple, the mad idolaters of

Reason, religion was a crime even greater than loyalty. “It was,” says

the author already quoted,[134] “a conflict between the guillotine and a

people’s faith—a merciless conflict, in which the guillotine blunted its

knife and was baffled.” Catholic Brittany offered but a passive

resistance to her persecutors, but it was a resistance none the less

stubborn, unflinching, unconquerable. On her knees with clasped hands

she defied the _noyades_ of Carrier and the bayonets of Hoche.

“Nothing,” says M. Souvestre, “could alter the freshness of her faith.

She gave way neither to anger nor to fear. The red cap might be put upon

her head, but not upon her thoughts.

“‘I will throw down your belfries,’ said Jean Bon-Saint-André to the

mayor of a village, ‘so that you will have no longer any reminder of

your effete superstitions.’

“‘You will still have to leave us the stars,’ returned the peasant, ‘and

we can see them farther than our belfries.’”

Nevertheless, the threat was carried out, at least so far that the

churches were closed, the celebration of Mass was made a crime, the

priests were hunted like wild beasts, and the faithful were reduced to

much the same straits as their English co-religionists under Elizabeth,

or as Irish Catholics under the Penal Laws. Among the many shifts they

were put to to evade their savage pursuers, the coast population were

often driven to take to their boats and put to sea, where, under favor

of the midnight, the faithful pastor offered Mass upon a raft. Surely

the people who could resort to such measures rather than forego the

exercise of their faith must have been devoted to it.

It may seem strange that so brave and hardy, nay, so fiery, a race as

the Bretons should submit so tamely to provocation so bitter. Unlike La

Vendée, Brittany never, as a province, made any effectual head against

the Revolution, which made so ruthless an onslaught upon all that Breton

and Vendean held most sacred. The uprising in Upper or Western Brittany

which broke out just as the Vendean insurrection was about being

crushed, and which is known to history as the _Chouannerie_, or war of

the Chouans, was but a desultory guerilla warfare, confined for the most

part to that division of Brittany which has preserved fewest of the

Breton characteristics. The only important engagement which took place

in Lower Brittany during the Revolution was the surprise of Fort

Penthièvre by Hoche, when “the sickle sweep of Quiberon Bay” reaped its

harvest of slaughter; and there the royalists were in the main composed

of _emigrés_, nobles, and Chouans from Western Brittany. Even the

brothers Cottereau, nicknamed _Chouan_,[135] who gave its name to this

insurrection, were not Bretons, but from Maine. Doubtless had not De la

Rouarie’s plot miscarried through treachery and the premature death of

that far-seeing and audacious schemer, the result might have been

otherwise. As it was, the counter revolution took in Brittany and La

Vendée very different directions. In the former it was the hostility of

the “patriots” to the church that was most deeply felt and most bitterly

resented; while the Vendeans fought for their faith, indeed, and their

army bore the name of “Catholic and loyal,” but they fought at least as

directly for their king. We have not space to philosophize upon this

curious distinction, further than to point out that Brittany, so far as

the bulk of its population is concerned, has always been rather Catholic

than royalist. It is not so very long ago that a Frenchman was nearly as

much of an alien as the hated _Saozon_ or Saxon[136] himself to the man

of Tréguier or the Léonnais; even two centuries of submission to an

enforced and distasteful union scarcely sufficed to make the Breton look

upon the French king as other than a usurper. In this, as in devotion to

the faith, which the same apostle brought to both, and in readiness to

give up all for it, the parallel between Brittany and that other great

Celtic colony, Ireland, is of the closest kind. True, the union of

Brittany and France, like that of England and Scotland, was effected

through marriage,[137] and not, as in the Irish union, by force and

fraud. But it was none the more popular for that; and though all overt

opposition was effectually crushed with the overthrow of the League,

headed by the ambitious and self-seeking though gallant Duc de Mercœur,

in the early part of the seventeenth century, there still remained a

smouldering fire of resentment and dislike which only lately, if ever at

all, has been extinguished. And from that time, too, to quote M.

Souvestre again, of the two sovereign powers on which the feudal edifice

was based, the nobility and the church, the latter alone preserved its

authority in Brittany. Deceived and disappointed in his worldly leaders,

it seemed as though the Breton peasant turned more implicitly to his

spiritual guides. Certain it is that in no Catholic land, not even in

Ireland, has the priesthood retained more ascendency, nor, if we may

trust writers who cannot be accused of partiality, deserved it more.

The spirit of devotion breathes all through the Breton’s daily life. No

important act is begun without its appropriate religious ceremonies. Is

it a house or a barn that he has built?—he will use neither till they

have been blest, as in Aubrey de Vere’s “Building of the Cottage”:

“Mix the mortar o’er and o’er,

Holy music singing;

Holy water o’er it pour,

Flowers and tresses flinging.

Bless we now the earthen floor;

May good angels love it!

Bless we now the new-raised door,

And that cell above it!”

He thinks, with the poet,

“Better to roam for ay than rest

Under the impious shadow of a roof unblest.”

In little acts as in great ones it is the same. The knife does not cut

the loaf until it has made over it the sign of the cross; the children

tell their ages by the number of Easters they have made; the sowing of

the grain is preceded by a solemn procession. “The barren field,” says

the Breton proverb, “grows fertile under the stole of the priest.” In

all his thoughts the religious idea is uppermost. “I was walking in the

fields,” says M. de la Villemarquée, “reading a book, when a peasant

accosted me. ‘Is it,’ said he, ‘the _Lives of the Saints_ you are

reading?’” And the strongest idea a Breton can give you of the truth of

any book is that it was written and printed by a priest.

It is not surprising, therefore, that among a people of such simple and

fervid faith devotion to the Blessed Virgin should especially have

flourished. The popular impulse towards the expression of piety which

displayed itself in France in the sixteenth century, and which soon

covered the land with Calvaries and Chapels of Notre Dame, was nowhere

more outspoken or lasting than in Brittany. _Mme. Marie de Bon Secours,

mère des pêcheurs_—Mme. Mary of Good Help, mother of fishermen—is

invoked as heartily on the coast of Tréguier as _Notre Dame de tous les

remèdes_—Our Lady of All-Healing—on the mountains of Cornouailles. And,

as might be looked for in an impressionable and imaginative race, this

devotion has entwined itself with many quaint and curious legends. It is

a general belief in Brittany—as, indeed, it is among the peasantry

elsewhere in France, and we believe in some parts of Spain—that our Lord

and his Blessed Mother visited their country _in propria persona_ after

the Resurrection. Ask a peasant of Vannes, for example, the origin of

the _galgals_, or heaps of pebbles which diversify the monotony of his

vast _Landes_, and he will tell you that the Blessed Virgin carried them

there in her apron. The folk-lore of the country turns largely upon her

intervention for the protection of those who call upon her. Two of the

most curious of these legends we propose to give our readers from M.

Souvestre’s very interesting collection entitled _Le Foyer Breton_. So

far as we know they have not been rendered into English except in a

mutilated and imperfect version styled _Popular Legends and Tales of

Brittany_, which is simply the translation of a German adaptation of

Souvestre’s book, and in which the essentially Catholic features of the

original are for the most part studiously eliminated. This process of

“evangelizing” Catholic literature is familiar enough from _Dies Iræ_

down; it is to be regretted that Catholic publishers are sometimes found

willing to father and to circulate such counterfeits.

The first of our legends is one current in the country of Tréguier—the

Lower Breton still divides his beloved province, not into the

departments fixed by the Revolution, but as of old into the four

bishoprics of Léon, Tréguier, Vannes, and Cornouailles—and is known as

_Les Trois Rencontres_, or, as we shall call it,

THE THREE BEGGARS.

Once upon a time, in the days when Jesus Christ and his Mother came

often to visit Lower Brittany, when along the roads there were as many

cells of holy hermits as there are now new houses with a manger and a

branch of mistletoe by the door, there lived in the bishopric of Léon

two young lords as rich as heart could wish, and so handsome that even

their mother could not have wished them better-looking. They were called

Tonyk and Mylio.

Mylio, who was the elder, was going on sixteen, while Tonyk was but

fourteen. Both had taken lessons from masters so able that there was

nothing to hinder them from becoming priests at once, if they had been

old enough and had had a vocation.

Now, Tonyk was pious, ever ready to help the poor and forgive injuries.

Money stayed no longer in his hand than anger in his heart; while Mylio

would give to no one more than his due, and even haggled over that, and

if anybody offended him he never rested until he had avenged himself to

the utmost of his power.

As God had taken their father from them while they were still in long

clothes, the widow, who was a woman of great virtue, had brought them up

herself; but now that they were well grown, she deemed it time to send

them to an uncle of theirs at a distance, from whom they might look for

good counsel as well as a great inheritance. So one day, making each of

them a present of a new hat, shoes with silver buckles, a purple cloak,

a well-lined purse, and a horse, she bade them be off to the house of

their father’s brother.

The two lads set out, glad enough of the chance to see strange lands.

Their horses went so fast that at the end of some days they found

themselves in another kingdom, where the trees and grain were unlike any

they had seen at home. But one morning, as they were passing a

cross-roads, they spied a poor woman sitting by the cross, her face

buried in her apron. Tonyk pulled up his horse to ask her what was the

matter. The beggar-woman told him with sobs that she had just lost her

only son, who was her all, and that she was thrown upon the charity of

Christians.

The lad was greatly touched; but Mylio, who had stopped some paces off,

cried out with a jeering air:

“You are not going to swallow everything the first whimpering old woman

tells you? That creature is there only to trick travellers out of their

money.”

“Hush, my brother,” replied Tonyk, “hush, in God’s name! Your words make

her cry still harder. Do you not see that she has the years and mien of

our own mother, God bless her!”

Then, bending forward and handing his purse to the beggar-woman, “Take

it, poor woman,” he said; “I can only help you, but I will pray to God

to console you.”

The beggar-woman took the purse, and, kissing it, said to Tonyk:

“Since your lordship has wished to enrich a poor woman, you will not

refuse to take from her this nut, which holds a wasp with a diamond

sting.”

Tonyk took the nut, thanked the beggar-woman, and went his way with

Mylio.

The two soon came to the edge of a wood, where they saw a little child,

nearly naked, who was prying about in the hollows of the trees, and

singing the while an air sadder than the chants of the Mass for the

Dead. Often he stopped to slap his little frozen hands together, saying

in a kind of sing-song, “I’m so cold! I’m so cold!” And then they could

hear his teeth chatter.

At this sight Tonyk felt like crying, and he said to his brother:

“For pity’s sake, Mylio, do you see how this poor little innocent

suffers from the cold?”

“He is a great baby, then,” said Mylio. “I, for my part, do not find the

wind so cold.”

“Because you have on a velvet vest, and over that a cloth coat, and over

that again your purple cloak, while he is clad only in the air of

heaven.”

“Well, what of it?” said Mylio. “He is only a little peasant.”

“Alas!” replied Tonyk, “when I think that you might have been born in

his place, my brother, my heart bleeds and I cannot see him suffer so.”

With these words he drew rein, called the little boy, and asked him what

he was doing there.

“I am looking for the _winged needles_[138] that sleep in the crannies

of the trees,” answered the child.

“And what wouldst thou do with these winged needles?” said Mylio.

“When I have enough of them I will sell them in the city and buy a coat

which will keep me warm as if it was always sunshine.”

“Hast thou found any yet?” went on the young noble.

“But one,” replied the child, showing a little cage of rushes within

which he had shut the blue fly.

“Very good, I will take it,” broke in Tonyk, throwing him his cloak.

“Wrap thyself up in that precious cloth, little one, and add every

evening in thy prayers a Hail Mary for Mylio and another for her who

bore us both.”

The two brothers went on their way, and Tonyk at first suffered much

from the wind for want of the cloak he had given away; but when they had

got through the wood the wind fell, the air grew milder, the fog lifted,

and a _vein of the sun_[139] shone along the clouds.

Just then they came to a meadow where there was a spring, and by the

side of it an old man in rags carrying upon his shoulder the sack of the

_seekers for bread_.[140] When he saw the two cavaliers he called to

them in a supplicating voice. Tonyk went up to him.

“What would you, father?” he asked, lifting his hand to his hat out of

respect for the beggar’s age.

“Alas! dear sir,” replied he, “you see how white my hair is and how

wrinkled my cheeks. I am grown so weak from age that my legs can no

longer carry me; so I must needs die in this spot, unless one of you

will sell me his horse.”

“Sell thee one of our horses, bread-seeker!” cried Mylio with a scornful

air. “And wherewith wilt thou pay us?”

“You see this hollow acorn?” said the beggar. “It holds a spider which

can spin webs stronger than steel. Let me have one of your horses, and I

will give you the spider and the acorn for it.”

The elder of the two lads burst out laughing.

“Do you hear, Tonyk?” he cried, turning to his brother. “By my baptism!

there must be two calves’ feet in this man’s _sabots_.”[141]

But the younger replied gently: “The poor man can offer only what he

has.” Then, getting off his horse and going up to the old man, “I give

you my horse, my good man,” said he, “not because of the price you put

on it, but in remembrance of Him who has said that the _seekers for

bread_ were his elect. Take it as your own, and thank God, who has made

use of me to offer it you.”

The old man murmured a thousand blessings, got upon the horse with the

lad’s help, and was soon out of sight across the meadow.

But Mylio could not forgive his brother this last almsgiving, and it led

to an outbreak.

“_Big mouth!_”[142] he cried to Tonyk, “you ought to be ashamed of the

plight your folly has brought you to. You thought, no doubt, that, once

stripped of everything, you would be let share my money, my horse, and

my cloak; but do not hope it! I want the lesson to do you good, that by

feeling the hardships of prodigality you may be more thrifty hereafter.”

“It is indeed a good lesson, my brother,” Tonyk answered mildly, “and I

am perfectly willing to take it. I never thought to have any part in

your money, your horse, or your cloak; so go your way without troubling

yourself about me, and may the Queen of the angels guide you!”

Mylio deigned no answer and set off on a trot, while his young brother

kept on afoot, watching him from afar and bearing him no grudge in his

heart.

They came thus to the opening of a narrow pass between two mountains

which lost themselves in the clouds. It was called the Cursed Pass,

because a _Rounfl_, or ogre, dwelt upon the cliffs, and there lay in

wait for travellers as a hunter lies in wait for the game. He was a

giant, blind and without feet, but of so quick an ear that he could hear

the worm working underneath the ground. His servants were two eagles he

had tamed, one white and the other red (for he was a great magician),

and he sent them out to seize his prey when he heard it coming. So the

people of that country, whenever they had to go through the pass,

carried their shoes in their hands, like the girls of Roscoff when they

go to the market of Morlaix, scarce daring to breathe for fear the ogre

should hear them. Mylio, who had no warning of this, rode in on his

horse, and the giant was aroused by the noise of the hoof-strokes on the

flint.

“Ho, there! my eagles,” cried he, “where are you?”

The white eagle and the red eagle ran to him.

“Go get me for my supper what is going by,” cried the ogre.

Like two balls from a gun they plunged to the bottom of the pass, seized

Mylio by his purple cloak, and bore him away to the ogre’s dwelling.

At this moment Tonyk reached the mouth of the pass. He saw his brother

carried off by the two birds, and with a cry ran towards him; but the

eagles and Mylio were out of sight in the clouds which covered the

highest mountain.

The lad stood for a moment rooted to the spot and beside himself with

grief, staring at the sky and the cliff as steep as a wall; then he sank

upon his knees with clasped hands and cried:

“Almighty Lord, Creator of the world, save my brother Mylio!”

“Trouble not God the Father for such a trifle,” replied three small

voices which he heard all at once near by.

Tonyk turned round wonder-stricken.

“Who spoke then, and where are you?” he asked.

“In your waistcoat pocket,” replied the three voices.

The lad felt in his pocket, and pulled out the nut, the acorn, and the

little cage of rushes, wherein were the three insects.

“Is it you, then, who wish to save Mylio?” said he.

“Yes, yes, yes!” replied they in their three different voices.

“And how will you go about it, my poor nobodies?” said Tonyk.

“Open our cages and you will see.”

The lad did as they asked; then the spider made up to a tree, against

which she began a web shining and strong as steel; then she got upon the

_winged needle_, who wafted her gently into the air, while she went on

with her web, whose threads were far enough apart to make a kind of

ladder, reaching higher and higher as they went up. Tonyk followed them

up this wonderful ladder until he had reached the top of the mountain.

The wasp flew in front of him, and together they came to the giant’s

house.

It was a cave hollowed in the rock and as high as a church. In the

middle of it sat the ogre, without eyes or legs. He kept rocking himself

to and fro like a poplar, while he sang these words to an air of his

own:

“The Léonard’s flesh I love to eat,

Fed is he on the fattest of meat;

The man of Tréguier tastes beside

Of sweet new milk and pancakes fried;

But Vannes and Cornouailles who could eat,

Bitter and tough as their coarse buckwheat?”

All the while he sang this song he got ready slices of pork to roast

Mylio, who lay at his feet, his legs and arms tied upon his back like a

chicken trussed for the spit. The two eagles held a little aloof, near

the chimney, and one set the turn-spit while the other stirred up the

fire.

The noise the giant made in singing, and also the care he gave to

getting ready his slices of pork, had kept him from hearing the approach

of Tonyk and his three little servants. But the red eagle spied the lad;

he darted upon him, and was about to make off with him in his claws when

the wasp pierced his eyes with her diamond dart. The white eagle ran to

help his brother, and his eyes were put out too. Then the wasp flew to

the ogre, who had sprung up on hearing the cries of his two domestics,

and fell to piercing him with her sting without let or truce. The giant

roared like a bull in August. But it was in vain for him to dash his

arms about like the sails of a windmill; he could not catch the wasp for

want of eyes, and no more, for want of feet, could he get away.

At last he dropped face down upon the ground to escape the sting of

fire; but the spider at once came up and wove about him a net which held

him fast. In vain he called his two eagles to his aid. Mad with pain,

knowing the ogre was helpless, they wished to avenge their long slavery;

with flapping wings they rushed upon their former master and sought to

tear him to pieces under his net of steel. At each stroke of their beaks

they tore away a shred of flesh, and never stopped till they had picked

his four bones clean. Then they lay down upon the carcass of the ogre,

and, as the magician’s flesh was indigestible, they never got up again,

but burst there on the spot.

As to Tonyk, he had untied his brother’s bonds, and, after embracing him

with tears of joy, led him out of the ogre’s house to the edge of the

cliff. The _winged needle_ and the wasp were soon at hand, harnessed to

the little cage of rushes, now changed to a coach. Praying the two

brothers to take seats, while the spider posted herself behind like the

lackey of some great house, the equipage went off with the speed of the

wind.

Tonyk and Mylio in this way crossed with the utmost ease meadows,

mountains, and villages (for in the air the roads are always in good

order) until they were come to their uncle’s castle.

There the carriage alighted and rolled towards the drawbridge, where the

brothers saw their two horses waiting for them; but at Tonyk’s saddlebow

hung his purse and cloak; only the purse was bigger and much better

lined, and the cloak was all embroidered with diamonds.

The wondering lad would have turned to the carriage to ask the meaning

of this; but the carriage was gone, and in place of the wasp, the

_winged needle_, and the spider there stood only three angels dazzling

with light.

The two brothers, confounded, fell upon their knees. Then one of the

angels drew near Tonyk and said to him:

“Be not afraid, dear youth; for the woman, the child, and the old man

thou didst succor were no other than the Virgin Mary, Jesus her Son, and

St. Joseph. They have given us to thee that thou mightest make the

journey without danger, and, now that it is ended, we go back to

Paradise. Bethink thee only of what has happened to thyself, and let

this be a warning.”

With these words the three angels spread their wings and flew off like

three swallows, chanting the hosannah which is sung in the churches.

The motive of this tale, it will be observed, is the beauty of charity,

and it is perhaps another form of the ancient legend of St. Julian which

is found, in one shape or another, in the traditions of many peoples.

But charity and hospitality are pre-eminently Breton as they are Irish

virtues. With a “God save all here!” the beggar walks unbidden and

unrepulsed into the first cabin he comes to, and takes his seat, as one

expected, by the fireside or at the table. No one dreams of turning him

away, for he is the guest of God. The following legend also turns on the

same virtues; but it is peculiar in introducing a personage almost

unique in Breton tradition—viz., a wicked priest. “In our pious

Armorica,” says M. Souvestre, “the respect accorded to the priesthood

partakes of worship. The tonsure is a crown which gives a right to royal

homage.” But in proportion to the veneration paid to the good priest is

the contempt and detestation visited upon the derelict, as the few

“constitutional” _curés_ whom the Revolution found among the Breton and

Vendean clergy were made fully aware. The reader of Carleton’s _Tales

and Legends of the Irish Peasantry_ may discover here another element of

likeness in the kindred race.

MAO, THE LUCKY.

Christians who wish a powerful protectress in heaven cannot do better

than address themselves to _Notre Dame de tous remèdes_ (Our Lady of

All-Healing), near the City of the Beech.[143] She has in that place the

richest chapel that the hand of man ever built. All inside it is filled

with golden statues; the belfry, which is brother to that of Kreisker,

has more windows in it than there are holes in a Quimper waffle, and

there is near the church a fountain of masonry whose waters wash away

all evil of soul and body.[144] Our Lady of All-Healing is one of the

four great Pardons of the Virgin Mary in Lower Brittany. The others are

at Auray, at _Bois du fou_ (Fol-goat, or Madman’s Wood), and Callot.

It was to Our Lady of All-Healing that Mao stopped to pray. Mao was on

his way from Loperek, a pretty parish between Kimerc’h and Logoma. He

had neither kith nor kin, and his guardian had put in his hand a

_frappe-tête_[145] with three silver crowns, telling him to seek his

fortune where he would.

After saying at the foot of the great altar all the prayers his nurse

and the rector had taught him, Mao left the church to go his way. But as

he was about passing through the hedge he saw a crowd of folks gathered

about a dead body lying on the grass at the door of the priest’s house;

and he was told it was a poor _bread-seeker_ who had given up his soul

the night before, and whom the priest refused to bury.

“Was he, then, a pagan or a wretch who had denied his baptism?” asked

Mao.

“He was a true sheep of God’s fold,” made answer all who were there;

“and even when hunger pressed him sore he would have taken neither the

three ears of corn nor the three apples which custom permits the

wayfarer to pluck.”

“Why, then, does the rector deny him the holy water and the consecrated

earth?” asked the youth.

“Because poor Stevan left nothing to pay for the prayers of the church,”

replied the spectators.

“What!” cried Mao, “is there a priest in this country, so hard-hearted

that he shuts the door on the poor while living and will not open to

them when dead? If it is money is wanted, here are three crowns. ’Tis

all I have in the world; but I give it with all my heart to open to a

Christian the consecrated earth.”

The unworthy priest was called; he took the three crowns, rattled off

the prayers for the dead in as little time as it takes a carrier’s horse

to eat his truss of hay, dumped poor Stevan into a hole in the ground,

and went off to see that the sucking pig which was a-cooking for his

dinner was properly done on both sides.

As for Mao, he made a cross with two branches of yew, planted it on the

grave of the poor _seeker of bread_, and after saying a _De Profundis_

went on his way to Camfront.

But after a time Mao grew hungry and thirsty, and bethought him that he

had nothing left of what his guardian had given him to buy food and

drink. So he set about finding some mulberries or wild sorrel or wild

plums, and all the while he hunted for them he kept looking at the birds

who were picking away in the thickets, and saying to himself:

“Those birds there are better off than baptized creatures; they want

neither for inns nor butchers, nor bakers nor gardeners; God’s heaven is

all their own, and the earth spreads itself before them like a table

always served; the little insects are their game, the seeds are their

fields of standing corn, hips and haws their dessert; they have the

right to take everywhere without paying or as much as saying by your

leave. So the little birds are gay, and they sing all day long.”

Turning these thoughts in his mind, Mao slackened his pace, and at last

sat down under a great oak and fell fast asleep.

But, lo and behold, all of a sudden while he slept there came to him a

saint, all dressed in shining stuffs and crowned with a halo, and the

saint said to him:

“I am the poor _seeker of bread_, Stevan, to whom thou hast opened the

gates of Paradise by buying for his body a consecrated grave. The Virgin

Mary, whose faithful servant I was on earth, has just had me made a

saint, and she has let me come back to thee as the bearer of good

tidings. Believe no longer that the birds of the air are happier than

baptized souls, since for these the blood of the Son of God has been

shed and they are the favorites of the Trinity. Hear, then, what the

Three Persons have done to reward thy piety:

“Near by, beyond the meadows, is a manor which thou wilt know by its red

and green weathercock. There lives a lord named Tréhouar, who is the

father of a daughter as lovely as the day and as gentle as a babe in the

cradle. Go and knock this evening at his door, and say that thou comest

for what he well knows; he will receive thee, and the rest thou wilt

learn thyself. Remember only, if thou hast need of help, thou must say,

“Come, dead beggar, come quick to aid

Here am I all helpless stayed.”

With these words the saint vanished and Mao awoke.

His first care was to thank God for the safeguard he had sent him; then

he took his way towards the meadows in order to seek the manor-house. As

night was falling, he had at first some trouble to find it; but he saw

at length a flight of pigeons and followed them, sure they could lead

him only to a noble house.

Sure enough, he spied at last the red and green weathercock peeping

above some trees loaded with black cherries—for that is the country

where they grow. It is the mountain parishes which send all the wild

cherries you see laid out on straw at the Pardons of the Léonnais, and

which lovers bring to the _pennérèz_[146] in their great felt hats. Mao

crossed the lawn set out with walnuts, knocked at the smallest door he

could find in the manor-house, and said, as the saint bade him, that he

came for what they knew.

The gentleman was told at once. He came shaking his head, for he was old

and feeble, but leaning upon his granddaughter, who was young and fresh;

so that to look at them you would have said it was a ruined wall held up

by a blooming honeysuckle.

Both, with the utmost politeness, bade the young man come in; he was

given a carpet-covered stool by the old man’s arm-chair, and served with

sweet cider while supper was getting ready.

Mao wondered greatly at this greeting, and could not keep his eyes off

the young girl as she ran about getting everything ready and singing

like a lark. The more he looked the prettier he found her, and his heart

beat like a clock.

“Alas!” he thought, “he alone may call himself happy who will be able to

talk with the _pennérèz_ of the manor behind the gable.”[147]

At last, when supper was over, the grandfather had Liçzenn (that was the

young girl’s name) clear away the things, and said to Mao:

“We have given you of our best and according to our means, young man,

but not according to our wish, for the house of Tréhouar has long

suffered from a grievous wound. Once upon a time we reckoned here as

many as twenty horses and forty cows; but the fiend has made himself

master of cattle-sheds and stables; cows and horses have vanished one

after another and as often as they have been replaced, until I have sunk

all my savings. All our prayers to conjure away the destroying spirit

have been in vain; we have had to resign ourselves, and for lack of

live-stock my lands are now lying fallow. I had some hopes of my nephew

Matelinn, who has gone to the French wars; but as he never came back I

have caused it to be given out through the country, at sermons and

elsewhere, that the man who freed the manor should have Liçzenn to wife,

and my whole estate after me. But all who have come here to this end and

watched in the stable have disappeared like the cows and horses. I pray

God you may have better hap.”

Mao, whom the remembrance of his vision emboldened to take the risk,

answered that, with the grace of the Virgin Mary, he hoped to overthrow

the hidden demon. With that he asked for some fire to keep his limbs

from getting stiff, took his _frappe-tête_, and besought Liçzenn to

think of him in her prayers.

The place to which they brought him was a great shed divided into two

parts for the cows and the horses; but it was wholly empty, and spiders

had spun their webs upon the feed-racks. Mao lit a fire of furze upon

the great stones which served for pavement, and betook himself to his

prayers.

For the first quarter of an hour he heard only the crackling of the

flame; for the second quarter of an hour he heard only the wind

whistling sadly through the cracks of the door; for the third quarter of

an hour he heard only the little death’s hammer[148] which sounded in

the wood-work; but at the fourth quarter a muffled sound was heard under

the pavement, and at the end of the building in the darkest corner he

saw the largest stone rise slowly and a dragon’s head come out of the

ground; it was as big as a cheese-trough, flat like a viper’s, and all

about its forehead flashed a row of parti-colored eyes.

The animal set two paws with red claws upon the edge of the pavement,

looked at Mao, and left his hole with a hiss.

As he drew near Mao could see his scaly body unroll itself, coming out

from under the stone like a great cable from the hold of a ship.

Although the lad was bold enough, yet his blood ran cold, and as he felt

the fumes of the dragon’s breath he cried:

“Come, dead beggar, come quick to aid!

Here am I all helpless stayed.”

That very instant the shining shape he had summoned stood by his side.

“Fear nothing,” said he; “the wards of the Mother of God will always

prevail against the monsters of the earth.”

So saying, Stevan stretched forth his hand, spoke some words of the

language they talk in heaven, and instantly the dragon rolled over on

his side, struck dead.

At sun-up next morning Mao went and woke all the people of the manor and

took them to the stables; but at sight of the dead beast the boldest

fell back ten paces.

“Have no fear,” the young man said to them; “the Virgin Mary has helped

me. The monster that devoured the cattle and their keepers is now but

lifeless clay. Go fetch cords and drag him hence to some deserted

quarry.”

They did as he bade them, and when the dragon had been dragged from his

lair the entire body went twice round the buckwheat-thrashing yard.

Overjoyed to be freed from so dangerous a foe, the grandfather kept his

promise to Mao and gave him Liçzenn to wife. The young _pennérèz_ was

led to the church at Camfront, her right arm encircled, as usual, with a

band of silver lace for each thousand francs in her dowry, and the story

goes that she had eighteen.

Once married, Mao bought live-stock, hired servants, and the lands of

the manor were soon worth more than ever. Then it was that the

grandfather went to receive his reward from God, leaving all he owned to

the young couple.

These last were happier than any other baptized creatures—so happy that

every evening they could find nothing to ask of God, and could only

thank him. But one day, just as they were sitting down to supper with

their servants, who should come in with one of the maids but a soldier,

so tall that his head touched the beams of the ceiling, and whom Liçzenn

knew at once for her cousin Matelinn. He had come back from the French

wars to marry the _pennérèz_, and, learning what had passed while he was

away, great indeed was his wrath; but he took good care not to show it

to the young couple, for he was a dissembler by nature.

Mao, nothing doubting, welcomed him with open arms; he gave him of the

best in the manor, had the best room made ready for him, and rode with

him everywhere about his fields, now covered with harvests.

But the taller Matelinn found the flax, and the heavier the wheat, the

angrier he grew that all these things were not his, without speaking of

his cousin Liçzenn, who seemed to him prettier than ever. So one day he

got Mao to hunt with him on the downs of Logoma, and brought him to a

far thicket where there was an abandoned windmill, against which bundles

of furze had been piled for the baker of Daonlas; arrived there, he

turned his eyes towards Camfront and said all of a sudden to the young

man:

“Look! I can see from here the manor with its great court.”

“Which way?” asked Mao.

“Behind that little beechwood: don’t you see the windows of the great

hall?”

“I am too short,” said Mao.

“You are right,” cried Matelinn, “and it is a great pity, for I see my

cousin Liçzenn in the little paddock by the garden.”

“Is she alone?”

“No; she is talking to some gentlemen, who are whispering in her ear.”

“And what is Liçzenn doing?”

“Liçzenn is listening to them and twisting the strings of her apron.”

Mao stood on tip-toe.

“Oh! how I wish I could see,” he said.

“Nothing is easier,” replied Matelinn; “you have but to go up to the top

of the mill, and you will be taller than I.”

Mao thought well of the advice and climbed the old ladder. When he was

come to the top his cousin asked him what he saw.

“I see only trees which seem as near the earth as two-months corn,”

answered he, “and houses which seem as little as shells left dry

stranded on the shore.”

“Look nearer,” said Matelinn.

“Nearer I see only the sea with barks that skim the water like gulls.”

“Nearer yet,” continued the soldier.

“Nearer yet is the heather in bloom and the golden gorse.”

“But below you?”

“Below me!” cried Mao in a fright, “instead of the ladder to get down I

see flames coming to devour me.”

And he saw truly, for Matelinn had taken away the ladder and set fire to

the heaped-up piles of furze, so that the old mill was in the midst of a

furnace.

In vain Mao begged the giant not to leave him to perish, in so cruel a

manner; he turned his back and went off along the downs, whistling.

Then the young man, feeling himself near to stifle, repeated the

invocation:

“Come, dead beggar, come quick to aid!

Here am I all helpless stayed.”

Instantly the saint appeared, holding in his right hand a rainbow one

end of which sank in the sea while the other shed a heavy dew, and in

the left hand Jacob’s ladder which joined heaven and earth. The rainbow

put out the fire, while Mao climbed down on the ladder and made his way

back to the manor without the slightest hurt.

At sight of him Matelinn was thunderstruck; sure that his cousin would

denounce him to justice, he ran to get his arms and his war-horse, but

as he was going out of the great court Mao went up to him and said:

“Have no fear, cousin; for no man on earth will know what has passed on

the heath of Daonlas. Your heart was sickened that God had given me more

prosperity than you; I wish to cure your heart. From to-day on, while I

live, you will have the right to half of all that is mine, save my

dearest Liçzenn. Go, then, cousin, and have no more bad thoughts against

me.”

This agreement was drawn up by the notary in due form, and Matelinn had

every month half of all the produce of the fields, the poultry-yard, and

the cattle.

But this generosity of Mao only embittered the venom of his heart. For

undeserved benefits are like wine drunk without thirst; they give

neither joy nor profit. He no longer sought Mao’s death, for, Mao dead,

he would lose the allotted share of his wealth; but he hated him as a

caged wolf hates the master who feeds him.

What heightened his wrath was that all turned to gold for his cousin. Up

to that time only a child was wanting to his happiness, and Liçzenn now

brought him a handsome, hearty boy who was born without a tear. Mao sent

word to all the gentlefolks for more than five leagues round, praying

them to the christening feast; they came from Braspars, from Kimerc’h,

from Loperek, from Logoma, from Faou, from Irvilhac, and from Saint

Eloi—all mounted on well-caparisoned horses, with their wives or

daughters on pillions behind them. The baptism of a prince of

Cornouailles would not have drawn together more people of rank.

All were gathered in front of the manor, and Mao was come to get the

new-born infant in Liçzenn’s chamber with those who were to hold it at

the font and his nearest friends, when in comes Matelinn, wearing on his

face a treacherous smile. At his entrance the sick mother gave a cry,

but he drew near, twisting his shoulders, and with many compliments

thanked her for the present she had made him.

“What present?” asked the poor woman in bewilderment.

“Have you not just added an heir to my cousin’s wealth?” said the

soldier.

“And if I have?” said Liçzenn.

“A deed on parchment entitles me to half of all that shall belong to

Mao, save your dearly-beloved self,” added Matelinn, “and I come,

therefore, to claim my half of the new-born heir.”

All present cried out, but Matelinn repeated coldly that he must have

his share of the infant, adding that if denied he would take it himself;

and he showed a great knife for cutting up pork which he had brought

with him for the purpose.

Vainly did Mao and Liçzenn beseech him with clasped hands and on bended

knees to give up his right; the giant’s only answer was to whet his

knife on the steel which hung from his girdle. At last he was in the act

of tearing the child from the young woman’s arms when Mao bethought him

all at once of the appeal to the dead beggar, and repeated it aloud. He

had no sooner ended than the room was flooded with a heavenly light, and

the saint was descried upon a cloud with the Virgin Mary by his side.

“I am here, good people,” said the Mother of God; “my faithful servant

has had me come from the starry realms to judge between you.”

“If you are the Mother of God, save the child,” cried Liçzenn.

“If you are the Queen of Heaven, make them give me my due,” said

Matelinn with effrontery.

“Listen to me,” said Mary. “You first, Mao, and you, Liçzenn, draw near

with the babe. Until now I had given you only the joys of life; I wish

to do more, and so I give you the joys of death. You will follow me into

the Paradise of my Son, where neither sorrow nor treason nor sickness

comes. As for you, Goliath, it is your right to share the new good which

is given them, and you will die like them, but to descend twelve hundred

and fifty leagues[149] into the kingdom of the evil one.”

With these words she held out her hand, and the giant was swallowed up

in a gulf of fire, while the young husband and wife with their child

bent towards each other like a family asleep, and disappeared, borne

upon a cloud.

* * * * *

In the incomplete version referred to the beggar-man is changed into a

spirit of the air like the genii of the _Arabian Nights_, the Blessed

Virgin, it is needless to say, makes no appearance at all, and the

beautiful touch at the end, possible only in a Catholic legend, by which

Mao and Liçzenn receive the crowning reward of their virtue on being

translated to Paradise, is altogether omitted; so that all that is truly

significant and characteristic in the story is lost.

Footnote 134:

M. Emile Souvestre has done more than almost any of his countrymen,

except M. de la Villemarquée, to illustrate and set forth the Breton

character.

Footnote 135:

A corruption of _chat-huant_ (screech-owl), the cry of which bird the

brothers, who were salt-smugglers, used as a signal to inform one

another of their whereabouts at night.

Footnote 136: