THE ROAD TO ANGERS--CATHEDRAL AND TOMB OF KING RENÉ--CASTLE
OF BLACK ANGERS--CRADLE OF THE PLANTAGENETS--HISTORY--TO
CHATEAUBRIANT IN A STORM--A FRENCH INN--RENNES AND THE TRIAL OF
DREYFUS--THE ROADS IN BRITTANY--ARRIVAL AT ST. MALO--THE RIDE
TO MONT ST. MICHEL--INN OF THE POULARD ÂINÉ--THE CATHEDRAL AND
CASTLE--THEIR HISTORY.
The country becomes more barren and unpleasing as we enter Anjou, and
Angers is an uninteresting busy town. It holds some quaint old houses,
and King René sleeps in its cathedral, being probably the only king
of France--prior to 1793--who lies where he was interred. The furies
of the Revolution did not discover his tomb, therefore it was not
molested. I would rather sleep in fair Provence; but if he had been
buried there, his ashes would long since have been scattered to the
winds of heaven.
As the traveller approaches the Castle of Angers over the long bridge,
it presents a most impressive, majestic appearance. Its seventeen great
round towers and lofty walls seventy feet high fairly oppress the
beholder. In its prime this fortress was called the key of France, and
bears a key upon its shield. It commanded the outlet of the rivers of
Brittany when rivers were the open highways. The château dates only
from the days of Philip Augustus, but it looks ancient enough to have
sheltered Cæsar. It was the birthplace of the Foulques of Anjou, the
ancestors of the Plantagenets, and the place still resounds with tales
of their times.
There was Foulques the black-hearted, also his son. One hears of a
Geoffrey made by his father--the Black Falcon--to crawl for miles
with a saddle on his back, of this same Geoffrey having led his wife,
dressed in her most gorgeous robes, to the stake where he burned
her swiftly and well for infidelity. He was all powerful. There was
Foulques the Fifth, King of Jerusalem and his son Geoffrey Plantagenet,
who married the Empress Matilda and so the countship of Anjou passed to
England through their son Henry II., only to be returned to France in
the next century.
We read of Bertrade of Monfort so enchanting two husbands that they sat
at the same table with her here.
Roland's name is woven into the warp and woof of its
history,--Charlemagne's also, though the present château is not of that
date; still it is claimed that the "Tower of the Devil" is part of the
early Celtic castle. It is certain that Robert the Strong, founder of
the Capet family, lived here.
It came finally to King René, who with his court of love and minstrels
surely felt strangely out of place within yonder gloomy walls; at
least fate would appear to have thought so, for it passed Anjou on to
Louis XI., a more fitting custodian for this sullen fortress of this
"Black City."
[Illustration: THE STATUE OF KING RENÉ AND THE CHÂTEAU AT ANGERS
By permission of Messrs. Neurdein]
Disenchantment awaits one on entering the castle for it is but a vast,
empty shell. There is nothing for the traveller of to-day save the
panorama of its outer walls, and I confess the disappointment drove me
hence and away.
As we enter Brittany, the weather darkens, and rain sets in, so that
we reach our stopping-place for the night, Chateaubriant, in a driving
storm, not wet but very glad to get under cover. The little hotel has a
blazing fire and the cook in cap and apron is enjoying a game of cards
with one of the guests. He asks me to come in, but I do not care for
cards, and so look on. The conversation is brisk. "Madame" joins in,
and the cat takes her place by the fire, making the family complete.
Outside the wind howls and the rain pours in torrents off the roofs of
the old gabled houses. It is a night and place when one might hear such
a story as that of "The Bells," but the faces all look friendly and we
chat on until dinner, about anything save murder. It is a good night
for sleep and I am not long in seeking that tonic of nature.
Next day the ride is through storm and clouds. The people are more
opposed to automobiles than in the other sections and we have several
conflicts with old women who, with their cattle, insist upon occupying
the entire road.
We lunch at Rennes--a bustling, prosperous city of no interest save as
the theatre for the trial of Dreyfus the Jew. One meets with soldiers
everywhere in France and I have taken occasion to talk with many of
them concerning this man, famous, or infamous, as the case may be, and
from general to private I find but one opinion, "guilty." When I ask
what they make of Esterhazy and Pâté du Clam, they do not hesitate to
say that they were bought by the Jews, and that Dreyfus's entire case
has been governed by money from the chosen people. I was not surprised
at this opinion from the officers, but coming also from the rank and
file it was unexpected, to say the least.
It is early in the afternoon when St. Malo is reached and there we pass
the night, almost the only guests within the Hôtel de France.
All the world knows St. Malo, the ancient town on an island, where one
must have a room on the third floor in order to see over the walls.
Though it is picturesque as one approaches, St. Malo is gloomy and
depressing when one enters within its gates. The whole town reeks with
moisture and one is not tempted to remain, at least at this season.
The route from there onward lies over roads not in very good condition,
at least for France, though they would be considered prime in America.
In fact the sections of Brittany through which we have passed do
not possess the superb highways universal all over the rest of the
Republic, and her climate just now is rainy and cold, though the rain
is more of a mist from the sea. Occupying the long cape-like projection
lying between the stormy Bay of Biscay and the equally unquiet Channel,
she is swept by the winds of both, alternately, and at times it would
seem from both at the same moment. But when one enters Normandy, all
the land is as smiling as Touraine, and one goes on rejoicing. Brittany
is picturesque, but with a sad sort of picturesqueness. In all of
her churches you will find a catafalque ready for the dead, and she
knows all the wild, sad legends, and truths sadder than any legend, of
the neighbouring ocean. Normandy smiles at you seemingly happy. Her
valleys are all abloom with millions of fruit trees, and spring is well
advanced.
As we turn out towards Mont St. Michel, a fussy little train makes
great to-do over its no miles an hour and puffs indignantly as we,
leaving it far behind, speed on over the broad high dyke, which
connects St. Michel with the main land. On either side stretch the
sands over which, when the tide races in, it outstrips a fast horse,
but the sea is far out to-day, so far that its murmurs do not reach us,
and there is no sound save our own on-rushing.
Mont St. Michel, pinnacle on pinnacle, rises directly before us five
hundred feet into the blue sky and becomes more and more distinct as
we approach until we finally reach a stand-still with the nose of our
auto poked against--a blank wall. Where to now? Above rises the wall
with no sign of a gate, and on either side and below us stretch the
wet sands,--no thoroughfare there surely. However, over an elevated
foot-bridge come a man and a woman, the former covers up the auto,
while the latter assures us that the Hôtel Poulard Âiné is the only
place for a gentleman to breakfast, a statement which causes high
words with the runner of another house who arrives a moment late.
But "Madame" carries the day and we follow her over the foot-bridge
which the high tides cover, and rounding a corner pass under a gateway
and into the quaintest spot in France. The way is narrow and steep,
disappearing upwards under a second gateway, but our guide turns us
promptly into a great kitchen with a bell above its entrance clanging
for the meal about to be served. One finds these kitchens in France,
but I have no memory of them elsewhere. Always spotlessly clean, the
walls hung with shining copper utensils, while the cook, in snowy
cap and apron, turns the spit where some fowls are roasting before
a roaring fire, whose glow is most acceptable after our swift ride
through the air. These cooks are personages in France and the proper
making of an omelette an affair of State, as it were. This man greets
us with a salutation so magnificent that I return it in kind as nearly
as I know how--but feel that I fall short.
[Illustration: MONT SAINT-MICHEL, FROM THE SOUTH
By permission of Messrs. Neurdein]
Every house in St. Michel climbs up the rocks. This one climbs high
and I must mount four flights of stairs to find the lavatories. As for
a lift, Mont St. Michel permits no such desecration of her ancient
usages. If you come here you will use the legs God gave you.
After breakfast, which by the way was excellent, I descend to the
street with the intention of exploring the place alone, but I reckon
without my host, who, in this instance, proves to be the old lady who
met us on arrival. She waves aside my gentle remonstrance, tells me
that I may never come again and had best see it all, and no one can
do as well for me as herself. I yield perforce, also because of her
cheery old face; God bless her! I have no doubt but that she is a good
mother to some one. So I start, Yama and Jean following closely. The
latter will fully appreciate all he sees, but the former will not know
any more two hours hence than he does now. But let him come; as my
instructor in German used to say when I could not remember the dative
case, that she should continue to pour it into one ear in the hopes
that some of it would stick before it passed out of the other. I think
she was wrong, for I never knew how I got into that case and was always
at a loss as to how I was to get out.
The old lady mounts to the lower battlements and begins her story. Her
French is so distinct and so slowly spoken that all must understand
her. She should command a high salary in some school at home. One could
not help but learn even without studying. So she rolls out the history
of the celebrated spot until we reach the portals of the fortress,
a lofty donjon flanked by two projecting turrets. There she must
consign us to its custodian, cheerily housed with his family in the
great guard-room, and under his guidance we mount the wide and stately
staircase of the Abbots, and for another hour wander through gallery
after gallery, crypt over crypt, here in a donjon in the rock, and
there in a prison spacious and cheerful. From every casement glimpses
of the beautiful panorama without greet one's eyes, but the full glory
of that is reserved until, having mounted five hundred steps, we
emerge upon a platform where stands the Cathedral, lifted far above
the sins of the earth, a fitting place for the worship of God. Gazing
downward one sees the fair land of Normandy to the left, while Brittany
stretches away to the right and the glistening waters of the English
Channel are behind one. The sunlight comes in long rays through the
cloud rifts and the land sparkles and the sea dances where it strikes
far out towards England.
High above us rise the pinnacles of the Cathedral, while on the topmost
point of its Gothic spire the gilded statue of St. Michael seems to
shout his hosannas upwards far towards the blue of heaven.
The wind is strong and fresh and full of life, for this is spring, and
the world rejoices; this is Holy Week with its divine resurrection and
its hope for all men! Lilies and apple blossoms deck these altars,
while in far off New Zealand autumn leaves will crown this festival.
How strange a circumstance!
There may be those in Europe and America who do not know the history
of this famous spot, but it has been so often described that there can
be but few so uninformed, and I fancy that its picture is certainly
known to all.--A conical rock rising from the sands close to the sea
and covered by houses, abbeys, and fortresses with the whole capped by
a great Cathedral, which flings its gilded statue of St. Michael five
hundred feet into the air where, on the apex of the delicate spire, it
seems, especially on a cloudy day when the support is invisible, to
float in the air.
The Holy Monks of the Order of St. Benedict founded the abbey here in
the year 709, and until the Revolution of 1793 it flourished and was a
prime factor in most political events from the Norman conquest downward.
Here again we hear of Louis XI. and Cardinal Balue who occupied one of
these prisons for two years, probably before the King had conceived
the happy thought of that cage,--and in fact, this same rock prison
may have suggested the cage, for both were a singular combination of
confinement and exposure. This in St. Michel, however, was spacious
and supported by many columns, as you may see it in its perfect state
to-day and from its loop holes the prisoner had spread out before him
a page from the book of nature whose interest was inexhaustible and
from which he could not be shut away save by chains or blindness. If
I must go to prison I hope it will be in Mont St. Michel, for here I
could scarcely be lonely. On sunny days one could see much of the world
below and many stately ships on the seas, and on stormy nights what
awe-inspiring sounds one must listen to, and listening, wonder whether
even this fortress of stone will not be blown into high air, mere dust
before the tempest, and then when the moon comes out, casting long
rifts of light into the darkness amongst these arches, what strange
shadows of kings, priests, knights, and prisoners must flit to and fro.
In the cathedral above, Louis XI. founded the knightly order of St.
Michael, but long before his day the city on the rock was called the
"City of Books," and here is a cloister in perfect condition,
where many of the books were written, I doubt not. Note the exquisite
capitals of the columns of polished granite and the double arcades. In
the crypt below, forming a cemetery, there is an old wheel of gigantic
proportions used as a windlass to haul provisions up into the castle.
[Illustration: THE CLOISTERS OF THE ABBEY OF MONT SAINT-MICHEL
By permission of Messrs. Neurdein]
The guard tells the history as he moves onward, and I notice that those
of the party who evince the least reverence for the sacred places are
two priests, who laugh at everything. The refectory interests them
most--one of the finest Gothic halls in France--and time is spent in
the inspection of the three great chimneys in the kitchen with many
sighs and much patting of capacious stomachs,--in regret, I doubt
not, at not having been on hand at all these feasts throughout the
centuries. This portion of the monastery dates from the year 1203, and
if you descend into the crypt beneath the church choir you will find
pillars twelve feet in diameter. Though one sees much, I fancy, that as
at Loches, there is much one does not see. If you could only come alone
and be permitted the freedom of the place. But you might get lost,--it
is quite possible I should think. If Louis XI. did not have some
particularly choice and horrible prison hidden away in Mont St. Michel
then he was not the king history paints for us. The cathedral is being
restored by the State. France seems desirous of preserving her historic
spots in the proper form and gives a good example to her neighbour,
Great Britain, who allowed the great hall of Edinburgh Castle to be
restored by a private citizen, and still permits the desecration of
Stirling Castle. There are plenty of places which would serve as well
and better for barracks and it is a disgrace to Scotland that she
permits such a use to be made of Stirling, whose great halls are cut
up and divided by common partitions to form accommodations of such a
character. Royal Stirling of all places! For the sake of the history of
the nation and the students thereof it should be cleared out, it would
be far more instructive than any history extant.
[Illustration: THE CRYPT DE L'AQUILON IN THE ABBEY OF MONT SAINT-MICHEL
By permission of Messrs. Neurdein]
But time passes,--we must move on.
Descending the rock, we enter our machine and are soon speeding along
the wide high dyke, which forms also the dividing line between Normandy
and Brittany.
These people look glad to see us. In Brittany we met with many frowns.
As the day wears onward the air becomes perceptibly colder. We have a
short storm or two and one burst of hail, so that the ancient city of
Caen is not an unwelcome sight, nor the comfort of her hotel "Place
Royale" objectionable.