Part 4
"When supper was over, and the tables removed, the King remained in the Hall among the English and French Knights, bare-headed, except a chaplet of fine pearls, which was round his head. He conversed with all of them; but when he came to Sir Geoffry de Chargny, his countenance altered, and looking at him askance, he said, 'Sir Geoffry, I have but little reason to love you, when you wished to seize upon me by stealth last night, what had given me so much trouble to acquire, and cost me such sums of money' (Sir Geoffry had endeavoured to bribe the garrison to put him in possession of it in the night previous to the battle): 'I am, however, rejoiced to have caught you thus in attempting it.'--When he came to Sir Eustace de Ribeaumont, he assumed a cheerful look, and said with a smile, 'Sir Eustace, you are the most valiant knight in Christendom that I ever saw attack his enemy, or defend himself. I never yet found any one in battle, who, body to body, had given me so much to do as you have done this day. I adjudge to you the prize of valour, above all the knights of my Court, as what is justly due to you.'--The King then took off his chaplet, which was very rich and handsome, and placing it on the head of Sir Eustace, said, 'Sir Eustace, I present you with this chaplet, as being the best combatant this day, either within or without doors; and I beg of you to wear it this year for the love of me. I know that you are lively and amorous, and love the company of ladies and damsels; therefore say, wherever you go, that I gave it to you. I also give you your liberty, free of ransom; and you may set out to-morrow, and go whither you will.'"]
The river Loire, which is crossed by seven bridges, winds through the town. They are the Pont Rousseau, De Permil, D'Aiguillon, Feydeau, De la Belle Croix, Brisebois, and Toussaint. The houses are regular and handsome, having in some places a very singular appearance, from the ground having sunk, and the foundations given way, causing them to lean in various directions from the perpendicular line. In point of commerce, at one period antecedent to the Revolution, Nantes was the most considerable sea-port in France: since the loss of its West India trade, especially with Saint Domingo, it has been greatly reduced. The rich plains which surround it on three sides, in the form of an amphitheatre, and the river covered with vessels and boats, give it a most lively appearance. It has a large Theatre, a Royal College (lately the Lyceum), a Commercial Tribunal, a handsome Exchange, a Bishop's Palace, Hall of the Préfecture, Public Library, Anatomical and Surgical Academies, Botanical Garden, Museum of Natural History, and a foundry for cannon.
The latter is in the old and decaying Château on the bank of the river, called Goulemme. One of its bastions was blown up a few years since by accident, which has shaken and destroyed the whole fabric; but it is still capable of holding a garrison, and is a fine monument of ancient fortification. It was once the residence of Henry IV. of France, at the time he signed the celebrated edict, (1598,) in favour of the reformed religion, afterwards revoked by Louis XIV. in 1685, and which occasioned such deplorable consequences to the French nation.
M. de Sainte Foix, in his historical Essays upon Paris, vol. i. p. 113, speaking of the Rue de Grenelle, in the quarter of Saint Eustache, gives the following curious account of the birth of this great King, whose memory is revered in France, beyond that of all the other monarchs who have swayed the Gallic sceptre.
"Jeanne d'Albret, being desirous of following her husband to the wars of Picardy, the King her father told her, that in case she proved with child, he wanted her to come and lie-in at his house; and that he would bring up the child himself, whether a boy or a girl. This Princess finding herself pregnant, and in her ninth month, set out from Compiègne, passed through all France as far as the Pyrenees, and arrived in fifteen days at Pau in Béarn. She was very desirous to see her father's will. It was contained in a thick gold box, on which was a gold chain, that would have gone twenty-five or thirty times round her neck. She asked it of him:--'It shall be yours,' said he, 'as soon as you have shown me the child that you now carry; and that you may not bring into the world a crying or a pouting child, I promise you the whole, provided that whilst you are in labour, you sing the Bearnese song _Notre Dame du bout du Pont aidez-moi en cette heure_". No sooner was the Princess safely delivered, than her father, placing the gold chain on her neck, and giving her the gold box wherein was his will, said to her: 'These are for you, daughter, but this is for me;' and took the child in his gown, without waiting for its being dressed in form, and carried it into his chamber. The little Prince was brought up in such a manner as to be able to undergo fatigue and hardship; frequently eating nothing but common bread. The good King his grandfather ordered it thus, and would not let him be delicately pampered, in order that from his infancy he might be inured to privation. He has often been seen, according to the custom of the country, amongst the other children of the Castle and village of Coirazze, bare-footed and bare-headed, as well in winter as in summer. Who was this Prince?--Henry IV.
"Being descended from the Kings of France, he became the heir to that Kingdom; but as he was educated a Protestant, his claim was resisted. He early distinguished himself by feats of arms. After the peace of Saint Germain, in 1570, he was taken to the French Court, and two years afterwards married Margaret, sister of Charles IX. (At the rejoicings on this occasion the infamous massacre of _La Saint Barthélémy_ took place.) In 1589 he succeeded to the throne of France; but his religion proving an obstacle to his coronation, he consented to abjure it in 1593. In 1598 he issued the edict of Nantes, granting toleration to the Protestants".
Mezeray, speaking of the marriage of the King of Navarre (afterwards Henry IV.) with Margaret de Valois, says, "There were many diversions, tournaments, and ballets at Court; and amongst others, one which seemed to presage the calamity that was so near bursting out upon the Huguenots--the King and his brothers defending Paradise against the King of Navarre and his brothers, who were repulsed and banished to Hell;" and Sainte Foix, in his relation of the horrible massacre, gives a detail, which in the present age appears almost incredible.
Catherine of Medicis, whose abominable politics had corrupted the disposition of her son, was at the head of the cabinet council who agreed to the murder of more than one hundred thousand Protestants; and the miserable bigot Charles IX. stationed during the massacre at the window of a house then belonging to the Constable of Bourbon, fired with his own hands upon the Huguenots with a long blunderbuss, whilst they were trying to escape across the river.
The River Erdré runs northward of the city, and forms a beautiful feature, winding for many miles among cultivated fields and woodlands, through a country agreeably diversified with villas, to which the wealthier inhabitants retire during the summer months. The river resembles a lake for the greater part of its course, and is called the Barban.
The Gothic church of Saint Pierre, built by the English in 1434, is a fine old structure: having been much neglected for many years, and greatly defaced during the Revolution, it was at this time restoring. Among the monuments about to be replaced, was an excellent one of Anne de Bretagne, whose effigy, and that of her husband, are as large as life. The allegorical figures of Justice, Temperance, Prudence, and Fortitude, the twelve Apostles, and the supporters to the Arms (a greyhound and a lion), are all executed in the finest white marble. They were hidden during the Revolution, and have only very lately been discovered, as have also some capital paintings piously preserved for the Church. Anne was first married to Charles VIII. in 1499, and afterwards to Louis XII. She died at the Château de Blois in 1514, and Louis in 1515.
The climate of Nantes is mild, and reckoned remarkably healthy: every article of life is cheap, and from its mild temperature it abounds in the finest fruits and most excellent wines. Its population is estimated at 60,000 inhabitants. The numbers that were destroyed during the Revolution, or, as the French emphatically term it, "Le régne de la Terreur," were never ascertained; but the frightful history of that bloody period would probably justify the computation at half the number of its present population, many having fallen victims to the murders that were termed "_Noyades_," independent of those who perished in the Vendean war.
The spot where the gallant Charette was shot, with several other leaders of the Vendean army, is shown; and in the cemetery, a large mound of earth marks the place where the bodies were thrown in, at the time of the "_Fuzillades_" when the infamous Carrier presided at the execution of the brave Royalists.[7] The print beneath represents this monster on the banks of the Loire directing the Noyades.
[Footnote 7: Chaque nuit on venait en prendre par centaines, pour les mettre sur les bateaux. Là on liait les malheureux deux à deux, et on les poussait dans l'eau à coups de baïonette. On saisissait indistinctement tout ce qui se trouvait à l'entrepôt, tellement qu'on noya un jour l'état major d'une corvette Anglaise, qui était prisonnier de guerre. Une autre fois, Carrier, voulant donner un exemple de l'austérité des moeurs républicaines, fit enfermer trois cent filles publiques de la ville, et les malheureuses créatures furent noyées. Enfin, l'on estime qu'il a péri à l'entrepôt quinze mille personnes en un mois.--_Mémoires de Madame la Marquise de Laroche-Jaquelin_.]
At the end of a fine avenue of trees, on the Boulevard, is a large and splendid mansion built by that Deputy, and which is at present inhabited by a merchant. Carrier's mistress (to whom he left it, together with a very considerable fortune, amassed from the spoils of his plunder, and the murder of the innocent inhabitants) was very lately sentenced to two years' hard labour for some crime she had committed: and it is no less remarkable, that, of the remaining inhabitants known to have participated in the atrocities of that frightful period, there is not one but is reduced to poverty, and most of them in the extreme of wretchedness, shunned by all, and suffering the ignominy they have so justly merited!
CHAP. V.
COUNTRY SOUTH OF THE LOIRE.--LE BOCAGE.--CLISSON.--HISTORICAL ANECDOTES.--THE GARENNE, AND RIVER SÈVRES.
The best method of travelling in this country is on horseback: in fact, it is impossible to proceed in any other way, after quitting the main road. Having procured a guide and horses, I set out early in the morning, crossing the Loire by the Pont Rosseau, to Verton, keeping along the banks of the River Sèvres. Verton is a romantic village standing on a hill: most of the houses are in ruins, from the effect of the destructive war of La Vendée. From thence to Le Palet, most intricate narrow roads, or more properly speaking, pathways, darkened by the overhanging branches of trees, and in many parts deep with mire, from the sun's rays not being able to dry the ground, make it difficult to proceed, and we several times lost our way. It was late before we reached Le Palet, and though I had not tasted food for many hours, I could not resist stopping to view so interesting a spot, and making a hasty sketch of the ruins of the house in which Abélard was born, and in which Héloïse resided with him before their final separation. The ruins of the House of Bérenger, the father of Abélard, are close to the church of Palet, on the left of the high road, three miles distant from Clisson. Le Palet is thus described by a French author, in the history of the Province.
"Cet homme si célèbre par son savoir, ses amours, et ses infortunes, amena Héloïse au Palet lorsqu'il l'eût enlevée de chez le Chanoine Fulbert, pour la soustraire au ressentiment de cet oncle jaloux et barbare; mais, obligé de quitter cette retraite paisible pour retourner à Paris, où l'appelaient ses nombreux disciples, le soin de sa gloire et de sa fortune, Abélard confia à sa soeur sa chère Héloïse et le gage précieux qu'elle portait dans son sein. Elle accoucha au Palet d'un fils d'une si rare beauté, qu'elle le nomma Astralabe, c'est-à-dire, astre brillant; mais l'absence de celui qu'elle adorait rendait moins vifs pour elle les doux plaisirs de la maternité; son âme expansive et brûlante était livrée sans cesse à une inquiète et sombre mélancholie qu'elle ne parvenait sans doute à dissiper qu'en venant sur les bords de la Sèvres rêver à l'objet de sa tendresse, et soupirer après son retour. Sept siècles se sont écoulés depuis cette époque, et les noms d'Abélard et d'Héloïse embellissent toujours ce délicieux ravage. On interroge avec une curiosité avide ces roches éternelles et ces grottes mystérieuses qui furent les témoins discrets de leurs peines et de leurs plaisirs. On se reporte à ces temps reculés où ces amants venaient dans cette solitude enchanteresse, se confier mutuellement leur vifs inquiétudes; on croit les voir s'égarer sous ces riants ombrages, et s'abandonner à toutes les inspirations de l'éloquence, à toutes les illusions de l'amour".
I arrived at Clisson just as the sun was disappearing, and its rays were only sufficiently strong to reflect the ruined towers of the Castle in the river which runs at its foot. It will be much easier to imagine, than for me to convey the sensations I felt when I first caught a glimpse of it, with the story of La Roche-Jaquelin full in my recollection! I alighted at a small cabaret, dignified by the appellation of the Hotel de la Providence, which seemed preferable to another recommended to me by my guide,--such an one, indeed, as might be expected in a remote place like this: part of the roof was off, and, like most of the houses in the place, bore evident marks of the desolating war that had been carried on here: many are still in ruins. The descent into the town is very steep and rugged, the road being formed out of the solid rock. The master of the cabaret was sitting with his family at the door, but the appearance of his mansion was so unpromising, that I thought it best to make some agreement, and a few inquiries before dismounting;--these preliminaries being settled, and having consented to pay him fifty sous for supper and my bed, and thirty for breakfast, I entered the house: and never recollect having a keener relish for a meal, or enjoying one more heartily, for I had been sixteen hours on horseback.
Fatigued and exhausted as I was, I rambled after dinner towards the delightful grounds of La Garenne, belonging to Monsieur La Motte, who has embellished them in a most interesting and romantic manner.
The river Sèvres runs along the side, and separates them from the fine old Castle of Clisson, whose high and decaying towers and battlements give the beholder a noble idea of its ancient grandeur. The evening was a very fine one,--one of those delightful soft, clear skies usual at this season, the latter end of July. I sat myself down in the grotto of Héloïse,--a spot of the deepest seclusion, formed, by the hand of Nature, of large masses of granite. The nightingales were singing in the lofty trees at the back; on the sides were shrubs of every description intermingled with fruit trees, and the river having several falls and little rocky islets, gave an air of delightful enchantment to this most romantic scene.
Héloïse! à ce nom, qui ne doit s'attendrir? Comme elle sut aimer! comme elle sut souffrir!
At the entrance of the grotto are engraved these lines, nearly effaced by the hand of time.
Héloïse peut-être erra sur ce rivage, Quand, aux yeux des jaloux dérobant son séjour, Dans les murs du Palet elle vint mettre au jour Un fils, cher et malheureux gage De ses plaisirs furtifs et de son tendre amour. Peut-être en ce réduit sauvage, Seule, plus d'une fois, elle vint soupirer, Et goûter librement la douceur de pleurer; Peut-être sur ce roc assise Elle rêvait à son malheur. J'y veux rêver aussi; j'y veux remplir mon coeur Du doux souvenir d'Héloïse.
I had but a few weeks before seen the tomb of Abélard and Héloïse in the Cemetery of Père la Chaise at Paris, whither it had been recently removed from the Convent of the Augustins, at which latter place I had formerly made the annexed drawing of it. I had likewise been very lately at Argenteuil, once the place of her asylum described by Pope:
In these deep solitudes and awful cells--
and had the same day witnessed the ruins of the house in which Abélard was born, and in which Héloïse resided and became a mother, and from whence she used to make frequent visits to this spot: all these circumstances combined, gave the scene before me a most powerful interest. I rose early the next day, anxious to revisit a place which had afforded me such delight the previous evening. Wandering by the beautiful banks of the river, along its green meadows, in a woody recess, I observed the following lines beneath an urn, cut in the rock on which it rested:
Consacrer dans l'obscurité, Ses loisirs à l'étude, à l'amitié sa vie, Sont des plaisirs dignes d'envie; Etre chéri vaut mieux qu'être vanté!
A little further on, is a stone pillar, with a venerable accacia tree spreading its leaves over it. It has the following Latin inscription:
VII
IM CAESAR AVGVSTVS PONTIFEX MAX VIAM. OLIM A CONIVINCO AD LIMONEM
IMP. CAESAR. TRAJ. ADRIANVS AVG PM. TRIB. POT. VIAM AB AVGVSTO STATAM REFICIT.[8]
[Footnote 8: Auguste étendit jusqu'à La Loire La Gaule Aquitanique, autrefois bornée par la Garonne, et comprit L'Armorique dans la Province Celtique ou Lyonnaise. L'Empereur Adrian, ayant fait depuis une nouvelle distribution des Gaules, divisa La Lyonnaise en deux, et mit L'Armorique dans la seconde; enfin cette Lyonnaise ou Celtique ayant été encore divisée en deux, Tours devint la Métropole de la troisième, qui comprenait la Touraine, le Maine, l'Anjou, et la Bretagne.--_Histoire de Bret_.]
Farther on several large blocks of granite are piled together in so strange and curious a manner, that it must have been the work of Nature alone:--one of them has these beautiful lines carved on it:
O! Limpide Rivière! O Rivière chérie! Puisse la sotte vanité Ne jamais dédaigner ta rive humble et fleurie! Que ton simple sentier ne soit point fréquenté Par aucun tourment de la vie Tels que l'ambition, l'envie, L'avarice, et la fausseté! Un bocage si frais, un séjour si tranquille, Aux tendres sentiments doit seul servir d'azile. Ces rameaux amoureux entrelassés exprès Aux Muses, aux Amours, offrent leur voile épais; Et ce cristal d'une onde pure A jamais ne doit réfléchir Que les grâces de la nature Et les images du plaisir.
Close to the brink of the river stands a prodigiously large granite rock, immediately facing the waterfall called le Bassin de Diane: on it are these words:
SA MASSE INDESTRVCTIBLE A FATIGVÉ LE TEMS. a quotation from Delille.
The French writers, speaking of this interesting place, observe: "Comment soupçonner en effet qu'au milieu de cette _terrible Vendée_, qu'au centre de cet impénétrable et sombre Bocage, il existe un pays délicieux et fertile, couvert de mines séculaires qui rappelent tous les souvenirs historiques de notre ancienne France, comme le caractère de ses habitans en rappele les moeurs, le courage, et la loyauté".
On the opposite side of the river, a little to the right, stands the ancient Château de Clisson, celebrated in the modern as well as the ancient history of Bretagne. Its lofty turrets, and decaying bastions, extend a considerable distance along the shore of the Sèvres, recalling to mind the ancient days of chivalry, when bravery, love, and religion, were so singularly blended together, and gave a romantic half-polished manner to the greatest barbarians. In later times it became the scene of events which no one can contemplate without the deepest interest. In viewing this magnificent ruin, it is impossible not to regret that a place so frequently the theatre of noble achievements, inhabited by one of the greatest men that France has produced, François I. Connétable de Clisson,[9] father to Anne of Bretagne, should have been so recently the scene of such savage horrors and bloodshed! Now, all is silence and solitude: and amidst the noble ruins which were once decorated with banners, and the hard-earned trophies of victory,--where high-born knights and splendid dames mingled in mirth and festivity to the echoes of the minstrels, singing lays of love or battle,--are now only to be seen and heard the birds of prey, hovering over a solitary tree, planted to mark the spot where a deed was committed which has not often its parallel in the darkest histories of the most ferocious nations.
[Footnote 9: In the "Histoire Généalogique de France", tom. vi. is an account of the Constable's death. "The Duke of Orleans, brother to the king, was very fond of a Jewess, whom he privately visited. Having some reason to suspect that Peter de Craon, Lord of Sablé and de la Ferté-Bernard, his chamberlain and favourite, had joked with the Duchess of Orleans upon his intrigue, he turned him out of his house with infamy. Craon imputed his disgrace partly to the Constable of Clisson. On the night of the 13th June, having waited for him at the corner of the street _Coulture Ste. Catherine_, and finding he had but little company with him, he fell upon him at the head of a score of ruffians. Clisson defended himself for some time without any other weapon than a small cutlass; but after receiving three wounds, fell from his horse, and pitched against a door, which flew open. The report of this assassination reached the king's ears just as he was stepping into bed. He put on a great coat and his shoes, and repaired to the place where he was informed his constable had been killed. He found him in a baker's shop, wallowing in his blood. After his wounds were examined, "Constable, (said he to him), nothing was or ever will he so severely punished". It was given out that Clisson made his will the next day, and there was a mighty outcry about the sum of 1,700,000 livres, which it amounted to. It should be observed, that during twenty-five years that he was in the service of France, he had sought for and beaten the English every where; that he gained the famous battle of Robeck, and chastised the Flemish; that he enjoyed for twelve years the salary and appointments of Constable; and that, moreover, his landed estate, (which included many castles inherited from his ancestors, in Bretagne and Poitou,) was very considerable."]
During the Vendean war, the royalists had been driven out of Clisson by the republicans, under the command of a ferocious jacobin. The town was pillaged and burnt before they quitted it. Twenty-seven females had, during the battle, concealed themselves among the ruins: when information of it was given to the troops, who had already quitted the place, they were ordered to return, and the whole of these unhappy women were thrown alive into a well, where they perished!!! It has since been filled up, and the lonely tree, just mentioned, now records the bloody and inhuman deed.