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diff --git a/40699-0.txt b/40699-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d4174d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/40699-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2868 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40699 *** + +Transcriber's Note: + + Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have + been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. + + Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. + + Incorrect page numbers in the Table of Contents have been corrected. + + + + + [Illustration: "Keransiflan and I, sitting on our wheelbarrow, were + allowed to go on eating in peace"] + + + + + A Childhood + in Brittany + Eighty Years Ago + + by + Anne Douglas Sedgwick + + With illustrations by + Paul de Leslie + + New York + + The Century Co. + + 1919 + + + + + Copyright, 1918, 1919, by + THE CENTURY CO. + + _Published, October, 1919_ + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I QUIMPER AND BONNE MAMAN 3 + + II ELIANE 44 + + III THE FÊTE AT KER-ELIANE 55 + + IV THE OLD HOUSE AT LANDERNEAU 68 + + V TANTE ROSE 83 + + VI THE DEMOISELLES DE COATNAMPRUN 98 + + VII BON PAPA 122 + + VIII LE MARQUIS DE PLOEUC 131 + + IX LOCH-AR-BRUGG 153 + + X THE PARDON AT FOLGOAT 196 + + XI BONNE MAMAN'S DEATH 204 + + XII THE JOURNEY FROM BRITTANY 215 + + + + + A CHILDHOOD IN + BRITTANY + + +This little sheaf of childish memories has been put together from many +talks, in her own tongue, with an old French friend. The names of her +relatives have, by her wish, been changed to other names, taken from +their Breton properties, or slightly altered while preserving the +character of the Breton original. + + + + +A CHILDHOOD IN BRITTANY + + + + +CHAPTER I + +QUIMPER AND BONNE MAMAN + + +I was born at Quimper in Brittany on the first of August, 1833, at +four o'clock in the morning, and I have been told that I looked about +me resolutely and fixed a steady gaze on the people in the room, so +that the doctor said, "She is not blind, at all events." + +The first thing I remember is a hideous doll to which I was +passionately attached. It belonged to the child of one of the +servants, and my mother, since I would not be parted from it, gave +this child, to replace it, a handsome doll. It had legs stuffed with +sawdust and a clumsily painted cardboard head, and on this head it +wore a _bourrelet_. The _bourrelet_ was a balloon-shaped cap made of +plaited wicker, and was worn by young children to protect their heads +when they fell. We, too, wore them in our infancy, and I remember that +I was very proud when wearing mine and that I thought it a very pretty +head-dress. + +I could not have been more than three years old when I was brought +down to the _grand salon_ to be shown to a friend of my father's, an +Englishman, on his way to England from India, and a pink silk dress I +then wore, and my intense satisfaction in it, is my next memory. It +had a stiff little bodice and skirt, and there were pink rosettes over +my ears. But I could not have been a pretty child, for my golden hair, +which grew abundantly in later years, was then very scanty, and my +mouth was large. I was stood upon a mahogany table, of which I still +see the vast and polished spaces beneath me, and Mr. John Dobray, when +I was introduced to him by my proud father, said, "So this is Sophie." + + [Illustration: "Quimper is an old town"] + +Mr. Dobray wore knee-breeches, silk stockings, and a high stock. I see +my father, too, very tall, robust, and fair, with the pleasantest +face. But my father's figure fills all my childhood. I was his pet and +darling. When I cried and was naughty, my mother would say: "Take your +daughter. She tires me and is insufferable." Then my father would take +me in his arms and walk up and down with me while he sang me to sleep +with old Breton songs. One of these ran: + + Jésus péguen brasvé, + Plégar douras néné; + Jésus péguen brasvé, + Ad ondar garan té! + +This, as far as I remember, means, "May Jesus be happy, and may His +grace make us all happy." + +At other times my father played strange, melancholy old Breton tunes +to me on a violin, which he held upright on his knee, using the bow +across it as though it were a 'cello. He was, though untaught, +exceedingly musical, and played by ear on the clavecin anything he had +heard. It must have been from him that I inherited my love of music, +and I do not remember the time that I was not singing. + +I see myself, also, at the earliest age, held before my father on his +saddle as we rode through woods. He wore an easy Byronic collar and +always went bareheaded. He spent most of his time on horseback, +visiting his farms or hunting. + +My father was of a wealthy bourgeois family of Landerneau, and it must +have been his happy character and love of sport rather than his +wealth--he was master of hounds and always kept the pack--that made +him popular in Quimper, for the gulf between the _bourgeoisie_ and the +_noblesse_ was almost impassable. Yet not only was he popular, but he +had married my mother, who was of an ancient Breton family, the +Rosvals. One of the Rosvals fought in the Combats de Trente against +the English, and the dying and thirsty Beaumanoir to whom it was said +on that historic day, "Bois ton sang, Beaumanoir," was a cousin of +theirs. + + [Illustration: We played in the garden at Quimper] + +My mother was a beautiful woman with black hair and eyes of an intense +dark blue. She was unaware of her own loveliness, and was much amused +one day when her little boy, after gazing intently at her, said, +"_Maman_, you are very beautiful." She repeated this remark, laughing, +to my father, on which he said, "Yes, my dear, you are." + +My mother was extremely proud, and not at all flattered that she +should be plain Mme. Kerouguet, although she was devoted to my father +and it was the happiest _ménage_. I remember one day seeing her bring +to my father, looking, for all her feigned brightness, a little +conscious, some new visiting-cards she had had printed, with the name +of Kerouguet reduced to a simple initial, and followed by several of +the noble ancestral names of her own family. + +"What's this?" said my father, laughing. + +"We needed some new cards," said my mother, "and I dislike so much the +name of Kerouguet." + +But my father, laughing more than ever, said: + +"Kerouguet you married and Kerouguet you must remain," and the new +cards had to be relinquished. + +My mother, with her black hair and blue eyes, had a charming nose of +the sort called "_un nez Roxalane_." It began very straight and fine, +but had a flattened little plateau on the tip which we called "_la +promenade de maman_." My memory of her then is of a very active, gay, +authoritative young woman, going to balls, paying and receiving +visits, and riding out with my father, wearing the sweeping habit of +those days and an immense beaver hat and plume. + +Quimper is an old town, and the _hôtels_ of the _noblesse_, all +situated in the same quarter and on a steep street, were of blackened, +crumbling stone. From _portes-cochères_ one entered the courtyards, +and the gardens behind stretched far into the country. + +In the courtyard of our _hôtel_ was a stone staircase, with elaborate +carvings, like those of the Breton churches, leading to the upper +stories, but for use there were inner staircases. My mother's boudoir, +the _petit salon_, the _grand salon_, the _salle-à-manger_, and the +billiard-room were on the ground floor and gave out upon the garden. + +The high walls that ran along the street and surrounded the garden +were concealed by plantations of trees, so that one seemed to look out +into the country. Flower beds were under the salon-windows, and there +were long borders of wild strawberries that had been transplanted from +the woods, as my mother was very fond of them. Fruit-trees grew +against the walls, and beyond the groves and flower beds and winding +gravel paths was an orchard, with apricot-, pear-, and apple-trees, +and the clear little river Odel, with its washing-stones, where the +laundry-maids beat the household linen in the cold, running water. + +It was pleasant to hear the _clap-clap-clap_ on a hot summer day. Is +it known that the pretty pied water-wagtail is called _la lavandière_ +from its love of water and its manner of beating up and down its tail +as our washerwomen wield their wooden beaters? + +Beyond the river were the woods where I often rode with my father, and +beyond the woods distant ranges of mountains. I looked out at all this +from my nursery-windows, with their frame of climbing-roses and +heliotrope. Near my window was a great lime-tree of the variety known +as American. The vanilla-like scent of its flowers was almost +overpowering, and all this fragrance gave my mother a headache, and +she had to have her room moved away from the garden to another part of +the house. How clearly I see this room of my mother's, with its high, +canopied four-poster bed and the pale-gray paper on the walls covered +with yellow fleurs-de-lis! + +The wall-paper in my father's room was one of the prettiest I have +ever seen, black, all bespangled with bright butterflies. Of the +_grand salon_ I remember most clearly the high marble mantelpiece, +upheld by hounds sitting on their haunches. On this mantelpiece was a +huge _boule_ clock, two tall candelabra of Venetian glass, and two +figures in _vieux Saxe_ of a marquis and a marquise that filled us +with delight. On each side of the fireplace were two Louis XV court +chairs--chairs, that is, with only one arm, to admit of the display of +the great hoop-skirts of the period. I remember, too, our special +delight in the foot-stools, which were of mahogany, shaped rather like +gondolas and cushioned in velvet; for we could sit inside them and +make them rock up and down. + +The houses of the _noblesse_ swarmed with servants; many of them were +married, and their children, and even their grandchildren, lived on +with our family in patriarchal fashion. Men and maids all wore the +costumes of their respective Breton cantons, exceedingly beautiful +some of them, stiff with heavy embroideries, the strange caps of the +women fluted and ruffled, adorned with lace, rising high above their +heads and falling in long lappets upon their shoulders, or perched on +their heads like butterflies. These caps were decorated with large +gold pins and dangling golden pendants, and these and the materials +for the costumes were handed down in the peasants' families from +generation to generation. My young nurse Jeannie--there was an old +nurse called Gertrude--wore a skirt of bright-blue woolen stuff and a +black-cloth bodice opening in a square over a net fichu thickly +embroidered with _paillettes_ of every color. Hers was the small flat +cap of Quimper, with the odd foolscap excrescence, rather like the +horn of a rhinoceros, curving forward over the forehead. Needless to +say, the servants did not do their daily work in this fine array; +while that went on they were enveloped from head to foot in large +aprons. + +The servants and the peasants in the Brittany of those days had a +pretty custom of always using the _thou_ when addressing their masters +or the Deity, thus inverting the usual association of this mode of +address; for to each other they said _you_, and on their lips this was +the familiar word, and the _thou_ implied respect. Our servants were +of the peasant class, but service altered and civilized them very +much, and while no peasant spoke anything but Breton, they talked in +an oddly accented French. I remember a pretty example of this in a +dear old man who served my little cousin Guénolé du Jacquelot du +Bois-Laurel. Guénolé and I, because of some naughtiness, were deprived +of strawberries one day at our supper, and the fond old man, grieving +over the discomfiture of his little master, said, or, rather chanted, +half in condolence, and half in playful consolation: "Oh, le pauvre +Guén_o_lé, que tu es dés_o_lé!" accenting the _o_ in a very droll +fashion. + + [Illustration: "A very stately autocratic person"] + +The servants were all under the orders of a very stately autocratic +person, the steward or major-domo. It was he who directed the service +from behind his master's chair at the head of the table and he who +prescribed the correct costume for the servants. His wife had charge +of Jeannie and of me; it was she who, when two little sisters and a +brother had been added to the family, took us down to our breakfast +and supervised the meal. We had it in a little tower-room on the +ground floor, milk soup or gruel and the delicious bread and butter of +Brittany. + +We lunched and dined at ten and five--such were the hours of those +days--with our parents in the dining-room, and it was here that one of +the most magnificent figures of my childhood appears; for my devoted +father brought me back from Paris one day a splendid mechanical pony, +life-sized and with a real pony-skin, the apparatus by which he was +moved simulating an exhilarating canter. Upon this steed, after +dessert, we children mounted one by one, and we resorted to many ruses +in order to get the first ride of the day. This dear pony accompanied +all my childhood. He lost his hair as the result of an unhappy +experiment we tried upon him, scrubbing him with hot water and soap, +one day when we were unobserved. He had a melancholy look after that, +but was none the less active and none the less loved. When I saw his +dismembered body lying in the garret of a grand-niece not many years +ago I felt a contraction of the heart. How he brought back my youth, +and since that how many generations had ridden him! + +We played at being horses, too, driving each other in the garden, +where we spent most of our days when at Quimper. Strange to say, even +while we were thus occupied, we always wore veils tightly tied over +our bonnets and faces to preserve our skins from the sun. We all wore, +even in earliest childhood, stiff little dresses with closely fitting +boned bodices. My sister Eliane was delicate and wore flannel next her +skin; but my only underclothing consisted of cambric chemise, +petticoats, and drawers, these last reaching to my ankles and +terminating in frills that fell over the foot in its little sandaled +shoe. When I came back from a wonderful stay, later on, of four or +five years in England, a visit that revolutionized my ideas of life, I +wore the easy dress of English children, and had bare arms, much to my +mother's dismay. Another change that England wrought in me was that I +was filled with discomfort when I saw the peasants kneeling before us +at Loch-ar-Brugg, our country home; for in those days, although the +Revolution had passed over France, it was still the custom for +peasants to kneel before their masters, and my mother felt it right +and proper that they should do so. I begged her not to allow it, but +she insisted upon the ceremony to her dying day, and only when I came +as mistress to Loch-ar-Brugg with my children and grandchildren was it +discontinued. + +Another early memory is the long row of family portraits in the +_salle-à-manger_. I think I must have looked up at these from my +father's shoulder as he walked up and down with me, singing to me +while my mother went on with her interrupted dessert, for the awe that +some of them inspired in me seems to stretch back to babyhood. Some +were so dark and severe that it was natural they should frighten a +baby; but it was a pastel, in flat, pale tones, of an old lady with +high powdered hair, whose steady, forbidding gaze followed me up and +down the room, that frightened me most. This was an elder sister of my +grandmother's, a March'-Inder, who, dressed as a man, had fought with +her husband and daughter in the war of the Chouans against the +republic. Her husband was killed, and her daughter, taken prisoner by +a French officer, had hanged herself, so the family story ran, to +escape insult. Another portrait of a great-grandmother enchanted me +then, as it has done ever since, a charming young woman seated, with +her hands folded before her, her golden hair unpowdered, her dress of +citron-colored satin brocaded with bunches of pale, bright flowers. +And there was a portrait of my grandmother in youth, with black hair +and eyes as black as jet. I thought her very ugly, and could never +associate her with my dearly loved _bonne maman_. + +I must delay no longer in introducing this most important member of +the family, my mother's mother, with whom we lived, for the old +Quimper _hôtel_ was her dower-house. + +Poor _bonne maman_! I see her still, in her deep arm-chair, always +dressed in a long gown of puce-colored satin, a white lace mantilla, +caught up with a small bunch of artificial buttercups, on her white +hair. She wore white-thread lace mittens that reached to her elbows, +and her thin, white hands were covered with old-fashioned rings. My +mother was her favorite daughter, and I, as the eldest child of this +favorite, was specially cherished. Both of _bonne maman's_ parents had +been guillotined in the Revolution. I do not think her husband was of +much comfort to her. He came to Quimper only for short stays. He was +_directeur des Ponts et chaussées_ for the district, but also a deputy +in Paris, and these political duties, according to him, gave him no +leisure for family life. He was at least ten years younger than _bonne +maman_, very gay and witty, _l'homme du monde_ in all the acceptations +of the term, full of deference to _bonne maman_, whom he treated like +a queen, with respectful salutes and gallant kissings of the hand. He +seemed very fond of his home at Quimper when he was in it, but he +seldom graced it with his presence. + +When I went up to see _bonne maman_ in the morning, she would give me +her thumb to kiss, an odd formality, since she was full of +demonstrations of affection toward me. I did not find the salute +altogether agreeable, since _bonne maman_ took snuff constantly, and +her delicate thumb and forefinger were strongly impregnated with the +smell of tobacco. Taking me on her knees, she would then very gravely +ask to see my little finger, and when I held it up, she would +scrutinize it carefully, and from its appearance tell me whether I had +been good or naughty. Beside her chair _bonne maman_ had always a +little table, the round polished top surrounded by a low brass +railing. On this were ranged a number of toilet implements, her +glasses, scent-bottle, work-bag, and various knickknacks. A very +unique implement, I imagine, was a little stick of polished wood, with +a tuft of cotton wool tied by a ribbon at one end. This she used, +when her maid had powdered her hair or face, to dust off the +superfluous powder, and I can see her now, her little mirror in one +hand, the ribboned stick in the other, turning her head from side to +side and softly brushing the tuft over her brow and chin. The table +was always carried down with her to the _petit salon_, where, her +morning toilet over, she was borne in her chair by means of the +handles that projected before and behind it. + + [Illustration: "_Bonne maman_ was devoted to my father"] + +_Bonne maman_ had an old carriage, an old horse, and an old coachman. +None of these was ever used, since she never went out except on Easter +day, when she was carried in a sedan-chair to hear mass at the +cathedral near by. The sedan-chair was gray-green with bunches of +flowers painted on it, and upholstered with copper-colored satin. It +was carried by four bearers in full Breton costume. They wore jackets +of a bright light blue, beautifully embroidered along the edges with +disks of red, gold, and black; red sashes, tied round their waists, +hung to the knees; their full kneebreeches were white, their shoes +black, and their stockings of white wool. Like all the peasants of +that time, they wore their hair long, hanging over their shoulders, +and their large, round Breton hats were of black felt tied with a +thick chenille cord of red, blue, and black, which was held to the +brim at one side by a golden fleur-de-lis, and that had a scapular +dangling from the end. Within the chair sat my grandmother, dressed, +as always, in puce color; but this gala costume was of brocade, +flowers of a paler shade woven upon a dark ground, and the lace +mantilla of every-day wear was replaced by a sort of white tulle +head-dress, gathered high upon her head and falling over her breast +and shoulders. I remember her demeanor in church on these great +occasions, her gentle authority and _recueillement_, and the glance of +grave reproach for my mother, who was occupied in looking about her +and in making humorous comments on the odd clothes and attitude of her +fellow-worshipers. On all other days the curé brought the communion to +my grandmother in her room. I remember the first of these communions +that I witnessed. I was sitting on _bonne maman's_ bed when the curé +entered, accompanied by his acolytes in red and white, and I was +highly interested when I recognized in one of these important +personages the cook's little boy. The curé was going to lift me from +the bed, but _bonne maman_ said: "No; let her stay. When you are gone +I will explain to her the meaning of what she sees." This she +attempted to do, but not, I imagine, with much success. Old Gertrude, +Jeannie's chief in the nursery, had of course already told me of _le +petit Jesus_, and I had learned to repeat, "Seigneur, je vous donne +coeur." But _bonne maman_ was grieved to find that I did not yet +know "Our Father." + +"Sophie does not know her Pater," she said to my mother. "She must +learn it." + +"Oh, she is too young to learn it," said my mother. But _bonne maman_ +was not at all satisfied with this evasion and saw that the prayer was +taught to me. She was very devout, and confessed twice a week; but +more than this, she was the best of women. I never heard her speak ill +of any one or saw her angry at any time, nor did I ever see her give +way to mirth, though I remember a species of silent laughter that at +times shook her thin body. + +_Bonne maman_ was devoted to my father, even more devoted than to her +own sons, of whom she had had eight. They had been so severely brought +up by her, but especially, I feel sure, by my grandfather, that +through exaggerated respect and absurd ceremony they almost trembled +during the short audiences granted to them by their parents. My father +trembled before nobody. He was always cheerful, good-tempered, and +kind. During our life at Quimper he was not much at home, as he had a +horror of receptions and visits,--all the bother, as he said, of +social life,--and the time not spent in hunting was fully occupied in +seeing after his farms, his crops, and his peasants. Therefore, when +he came back for a three-or-four-days' stay with us, it was a delight +to young and old. I see him now, sitting in a low chair beside _bonne +maman's_ deep _bergère_, his head close to hers, his pipe between his +teeth,--yes, his pipe--for _bonne maman_ not only permitted, but even +commanded, him to smoke in her presence, so much did she value every +moment of the time he could be with her. So they smiled at each other +while they talked,--the snowy, powdered old head and the fair young +one enveloped in the midst of smoke,--understanding each other +perfectly; and although their opinions were diametrically opposed, +politics was their favorite theme. They must have taught me their +respective battle-cries, for I well remember that, riding my father's +knee and listening, while he varied the gait from trot to gallop, I +knew just when to cry out, "_Vive le Roi!_" in order to please _bonne +maman_, and "_Vive la République!_" to make papa laugh. When disputes +occurred in _bonne maman's_ room, they were between my father and +mother, if that can be called a dispute where one is so gay and so +imperturbable. It was _maman_ who brought all the heat and vehemence +to these differences, and, strange to say, _bonne maman_ always took +my father's side against her beloved daughter. My mother's quick +temper, I may add, displayed itself toward me pretty frequently in +slaps and whippings, no doubt well deserved, for I was a naughty, +wilful child; whereas in all my life I never received a punishment +from my father. I remember his distress on one of these occasions and +how he said, "It is unworthy to beat some one who cannot retaliate." +To which my mother, flushed and indignant, replied, "It would indeed +need only that." She was a charming and lovable woman, but I loved my +father best. + + [Illustration: "I heard music constantly"] + +_Bonne maman_ was very musical, and in the _petit salon_, when she was +installed there for the day, I heard music constantly, performed by +two young _protégés_ of the house. One of these was Mlle. Ghislaine du +Guesclin, the youngest descendant of our great Breton hero. It was a +very poor, very haughty family, and extremely proud of its origin. +Ghislaine's father, the Marquis du Guesclin (for with a foolish +conceit he had separated the particle from the name) had died, leaving +his daughter penniless and recommending her to my grandfather, who +placed her as _dame de compagnie_ beside my mother and _bonne maman_. +Ghislaine was an excellent musician, and their relation was of +the happiest. The other _protégé_ was called Yves le Grand, and was +the son of _bonne maman's coiffeur_. His story was curious. As a boy +of fourteen or fifteen he had come three times a week to wash the +windows and doors, and while he worked he sang all sorts of Breton +songs and strange airs that, as was learned later, were his own +improvisations. _Bonne maman_, noticing his talent, had him taken to +Paris by her husband, and he was educated in the conservatory, where, +after ten years of admirable study, he took the second prize. He +returned to Quimper, and earned a handsome livelihood by giving +pianoforte lessons while remaining in a sense our private musician, +for he was much attached to us all and accompanied us on all our +travels. Ghislaine sang in a ravishing fashion, and Yves accompanied +her on the clavecin that stood in the _petit salon_, mingling the +grave accents of his baritone with her clear soprano. When I first +heard them I was almost stupefied by the experience, cuddling down +into _bonne maman's_ arms, my head sunk between her cheek and +shoulder, but listening with such absorption and with such evident +appreciation that _bonne maman_ loved me more than ever for the +community of taste thus revealed between us. + +I must often have tired her. I was a noisy, active child, and +sometimes when I sat on her knee and prattled incessantly in my +shrill, childish voice, she would pass her hand over her forehead and +say: "Not so loud, darling; not so loud. You pierce my ear-drums; and +you know that _le bon Dieu_ has said that one must never speak without +first turning one's tongue seven times round in one's mouth." At this +I would gaze wide-eyed at _bonne maman_ and try involuntarily to turn +my tongue seven times, an exercise at which I have never been +successful. I may add in parenthesis that I have often regretted it. +Another amusing adage I heard at the same time from Gertrude. If a +child made a face, it was told to take care lest the wind should turn, +and the face remain like that forever. I was much troubled by this +idea on one occasion when _maman_ and Ghislaine had been to a fancy +dress ball. Ghislaine told me next day about the dances and dresses. +_Maman_ had danced a minuet dressed in a Pompadour costume, and she +herself had gone as a deviless, with a scarlet-and-black dress and +little golden horns in her black hair. I felt this to have been a very +dangerous proceeding, for if _le bon Dieu_ had noticed Ghislaine's +travesty, He might have made the wind turn, and she would then have +remained a deviless and been forced to live in hell for all eternity. + +A pretty custom at that time and in that place was that the young +matrons who went to such balls and dinner-parties were expected to +bring little silk bags in which they carried home to their children +the left-over sweetmeats of the dessert; so that we children enjoyed +these entertainments as much as Ghislaine and _maman_. + +Ghislaine taught me my letters from a colored alphabet in the _petit +salon_, showing an angelic patience despite my yawns and whimperings. +My memories of the alphabet are drolly intermingled with various +objects in the _petit salon_ that from the earliest age charmed my +attention. One of these was an immense tortoise-shell mounted on a +tripod, and another a vast Chinese umbrella of pale yellow satin, with +silk and crystal fringes, that, suspended from the ceiling in front of +the long windows that gave on the garden, was filled with flowers. +This had been an ingenious contrivance of my father's, and _bonne +maman_ found it as bewitching as I did, never failing to say to +visitors, after the first greetings had passed: "Do you see my Chinese +umbrella?" When I had learned seven letters _bonne maman_ gave me four +red _dragées de baptême_,--the sugar-almonds that are scattered at +christenings,--and promised me as many more for each new attainment. +Thus sustained, I was able to master the alphabet and to pass by slow +degrees to Æsop's Fables, with pictures and a yellow cover. It was +later on that Ghislaine began to coach me in all the _départements_ of +France and their capitals. _Maman_ lent a hand in this and instituted +a method that was singularly successful. I still laugh in remembering +how at any time of the day, before guests, at meals, or while we were +at play, she might suddenly call out to us, "Gers!" for instance, to +which one must instantly reply "Auch." Or else it was "Gironde!" and +the reply, "Bordeaux," must follow without hesitation. If I replied +correctly, I was given fifty centimes; if incorrectly, I received a +slap. I used to dream of the _départements_ and their capitals at +night. One rainy day I was playing in the _petit salon_, lying at full +length on the floor and making a castle of blocks, when _maman_, +coming suddenly out of the library, a great tray of books in her arms, +cried out to me as she came, walking very quickly, "Gare!" ["Take +care!"] Without moving and without looking up, I replied obediently, +"Nîmes" (the capital of Gard), and an avalanche of books descended +upon me, poor _maman_ and her tray coming down with a dreadful +clatter. _Maman_ was not hurt, but very much afraid that I was. + +When she found us both, except for a few bruises, safe and sound, she +went off into a peal of laughter, and I followed suit, much relieved; +for I had imagined for one moment that I had made a mistake in my +answer, and I found the punishment too severe. + +"You are sure I have not hurt you, darling?" said _maman_, kissing me; +and I replied with truth: + +"No, _Maman_; but I should have preferred the _gifle_." On that day, +instead of fifty centimes, I received a franc for consolation. + +It was not until my brother's tutor came to us, when I was eight or +nine years old, that I ever had any teacher but Ghislaine. + +Poor Ghislaine! Hers was a rather sad story. She had great beauty, +thick, black hair, white skin, her small prominent nose full of +distinction, but one strange peculiarity: there were no nails on her +long, pointed fingers. This, while not ugly, startled one in noticing +her hands. As I have said, she had been left penniless, and it was +difficult in France, then as now, to find a husband for a _jeune fille +sans dot_. Ghislaine only begged that he should be a gentleman. But +after _bonne maman's_ death, when we had gone to live in Paris, +Ghislaine was left behind with my aunt's family, and they finally +arranged a marriage for her with a notary. My mother was much +distressed by this prosaic match. She had for a time cherished the +romantic project of a marriage between Ghislaine and Yves, who, +besides being an artist, was the best of men, sincere, devoted, and +delicate. + + [Illustration: "Ghislaine taught me my letters"] + +For a descendant of du Guesclin the _coiffeur's_ son would, however, +have been as inappropriate as was the notary. The latter, too, was an +excellent man, and Ghislaine was not unhappy with him. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +ELIANE + + +An important event in my child life was the birth of my sister Eliane. +I remember coming in from the garden one day with a little basket full +of cockchafers that I had found, and running to show them to _maman_. +She was lying in her large bed, with its four carved bedposts and high +canopy, and, smiling faintly, she said: "Oh, no, my little girl; take +them away. They will creep and fly over everything." I was, however, +so much disappointed at this reception of my gift that _maman_, +bending from her pillows, selected a specially beautiful green +cockchafer and said that that one, at all events, she would keep. When +next morning I was told that I had a little sister, old Gertrude, in +answer to my eager, astonished questions, informed me that it was the +cockchafer who, fed on milk, had become very large during the night +and had given birth to a baby cockchafer, which it had presented to my +mother. This story of the cockchafer became a family jest, and later +on, after my mother had had four children, I remembered that when +cockchafers were referred to she would laugh and say: "No! no! No more +cockchafers for me, if you please! I have had enough of their gifts." + +The story, which was repeated to me on the occasion of each subsequent +birth, made a rather painful impression upon me. I did not like the +idea of the baby cockchafer. Nor did I like my little sister Eliane +into whom the cockchafer had grown. _Maman_ remained in bed for a long +time and paid no more attention to me, and I was deeply jealous. I was +no longer allowed to go in and out of her room as had been my wont, +and when my father took me in his arms and carried me gently in to see +my little sister, and bent with me over the small pink cradle so that +I might give her a kiss, I felt instead a violent wish to bite her. +One day I was authorized to rock Eliane while my father and mother +talked together. I was much pleased by this mark of confidence, and I +slipped into the cradle, unnoticed, my horrible doll Josephine, all +untidy and disheveled, not to say dirty, so that she, too, might have +a rocking. She lay cheek to cheek with Eliane, already a young lady +ten days old, and the contact of this cold, clammy cheek woke my +little sister, who began to cry so loudly that, in order to quiet her, +I rocked with might and main, and unless papa had rushed to the rescue +it is probable that Eliane and Josephine would have been tossed out +upon the floor. Jeannie was at once summoned to take me away in +disgrace, and in _bonne maman's_ room I was consoled by two _dragées_, +one white, I remember, and one pink. + +"You love your little sister, don't you, my darling?" asked _bonne +maman_, to whom Jeannie related the affair of the rocking. + +"No," I replied, the pink _dragée_ in my mouth. + +"Why not, dear?" + +"She is horrid," I said. And as _bonne maman_, much distressed, +continued to question and expostulate, I burst, despite the _dragées_, +into a torrent of tears and cried: "She is bad! She is ugly! She +cries!" + +Eliane's christening was a grand affair. Her godmother was _bonne +maman_, and her godfather my uncle de Salabéry, who brought her a +casket in which was a cup and saucer in enamel and also an enamel +egg-cup and tiny, round egg-spoon, and this I thought very silly, +since Eliane, like the cockchafer, ate only milk. The casket was of +pale-blue velvet, and had Eliane's name written upon it in golden +letters. She was carried to the cathedral by her nurse, who wore a +gray silk dress woven with silver fleurs-de-lis, a special silk, with +its silver threads, made in Brittany. The bodice opened on a net +guimpe thickly embroidered with white beads. The apron was of gray +satin scattered over with a design, worked in beads, that looked like +tiny fish. Her coif was the tall medieval hennin of Plougastel, a +flood of lace falling from its summit. Eliane, majestically carried on +her white-lace cushion, wore a long robe of lace and lawn, and again I +found this very silly, since if by chance she wished to walk, she +would certainly stumble in it! The curé was replaced by the bishop of +the cathedral, who walked with a tall golden stick, twisted at the top +into a pretty design. Papa, who was near me, explained to me that this +was called a crozier (_crosse_), which puzzled me, as _crosse_ is also +the name for the drumstick of a chicken. I also learned that what I +called the bishop's hat was a miter. When he passed before us every +one knelt down except me, for I wished to gaze with all my eyes at the +magnificent apparition. The bishop leaned toward me, smiling, and made +a little cross on my forehead with his thumb, and then he put his +hand, which was very white and adorned with a great ring of amethyst +and diamond, before my lips. "Kiss Monseigneur's hand," papa +whispered, and, again much puzzled, I obeyed, for _maman_ and _bonne +maman_ gave their hands to be kissed by men and never kissed theirs. +When the bishop put the salt in Eliane's mouth she made the most +hideous grimace. Heavens! how ugly she was! _Maman_ took her into her +arms to calm her. I was near _bonne maman_ who had been borne in her +sedan-chair into the cathedral, and I whispered to her: "You say +that she is pretty, _bonne maman_. Only look at her now! Doesn't she +look like an angry little monkey!" But _bonne maman_ reminded me in a +low voice that unless I was very good, I was not to come to the +christening breakfast, and, hastily, I began to turn my tongue in my +mouth. + + [Illustration: The beach of Loctudiy] + +I remember that on this day _bonne maman_ had left her puce-color and +looked like an old fairy as she sat, covered with all her jewels, in +the sedan-chair, dressed in orange-colored velvet. + +When we came out of the cathedral the square was full of people, and +all the children of Quimper were there. My father, leading me by the +hand, was followed by a servant who carried a basket of _dragées_. He +took out a bagful and told me that I was to throw them to the +children, and this I did with great gusto. What a superb bombardment +it was! The children rolled upon the ground, laughed, and howled, +while _maman_, and _bonne maman_ from the window of her chair, +scattered handfuls of _centimes_, _sous_, and _liards_, an old coin of +the period that no longer exists. Never in my life have I seen +happier children. They accompanied us to our door and stayed for a +long time outside in the street, singing Breton canticles and crying, +"Vive Mademoiselle Liane!" + +It must have been at about this time that I first saw the sea and had +my first sea-bath. Papa said one day that he would take me to the +beach of Loctudiy, near Quimper, with old Gertrude. It is a vast sandy +beach, with scattered rocks that, to my childish eyes, stood like +giants around us. Gertrude took off my shoes and stockings, and we +picked up the shells that lay along the beach in the sunlight like a +gigantic rainbow. What a delight it was! Some were white, some yellow, +some pink, and some of a lovely rosy mauve. I could not pick them up +fast enough or carry those I already had. My little pail overflowed, +and the painful problem that confronts all children engaged in this +delicious pursuit would soon have oppressed me if my thoughts had not +been turned in another direction by the sight of papa making his way +toward the sea in bathing-dress. The sea was immense and mysterious, +and my beloved papa looked very small before it. I ran to him crying: + +"Don't go, papa! Don't go! You will be drowned!" + +"There is no danger of that, my pet," said my father. "See how smooth +and blue the water is. Don't you want to come with me?" + +I felt at once that I did, and in the twinkling of an eye Gertrude had +undressed me, my father had me in his arms, and before I could say +"Ouf!" I was plunged from head to foot in the Atlantic Ocean. It was +my second baptism, and I still feel an agreeable shudder when I +remember it. My father held me under the arms to teach me to swim, and +I vigorously agitated my little legs and arms. Then I was given back +to Gertrude, who dried me and, taking me by the hand, made me run up +and down on the hot sand until I was quite warm. + +When I came home, full of pride in my exploits, I told _bonne maman_ +that during my swim I had met a whale which had looked at me. + +"And were you afraid of it?" asked _bonne maman_. + +"Oh, no," I replied. "They do not eat children. I patted it." + +Perhaps my tendency to tell tall stories dates from this time. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE FÊTE AT KER-ELIANE + + +It was shortly after Eliane's christening, and to celebrate my +mother's recovery, that my father gave a great entertainment at +Ker-Eliane, near Loch-ar-Brugg. + +Loch-ar-Brugg, which means Place of Heather, was an old manor and +property that my father had bought and at that time used as a +hunting-lodge, and Ker-Eliane was a wild, beautiful piece of country +adjoining it, a pleasure resort, called after my mother's name. + +To reach Loch-ar-Brugg we all went by the traveling carriage to my +father's native town of Landerneau. I dreaded these journeys, since +inside the carriage I always became sick; but on this occasion I sat +outside near an old servant of my grandmother's called Soisick, the +diminutive of François, and was very happy, since in the open air I +did not suffer at all. Soisick was an old Breton from Brest. He wore +the costume of that part of the country, a tightly fitting, long, +black jacket opening over a waistcoat adorned with white-bone buttons, +full knee-breeches of coarse, white linen girded over the waistcoat +with a red woolen sash, with white woolen stockings, and black shoes. +One still sees very old Bretons wearing this costume, but nowadays the +peasants prefer the vulgar, commonplace dress of modern work-people. + +My father was waiting for us on the quay of Landerneau. What joy I +felt when I saw him! When he climbed up beside me and Soisick my +happiness was complete. + + [Illustration: "The Château de Ker-Azel near by, where we were to + stay"] + +Loch-ar-Brugg at that time was not suitably arranged for our +habitation, and we drove on to the Château de Ker-Azel near by, where +we were to stay with my _tante_ de Laisieu. This elder sister of my +mother's was a fat, untidy, shiftless woman who had once been a +beauty, but whose abundant fair hair was now faded, and who went about +her house and gardens in the mornings _en camisole_. When dressed +for the day her appearance was hardly more decorous, for she wore no +stays, and fastened the slender bodices of her old dresses across her +portly person in a very haphazard fashion, so that intervals of white +underclothing showed between the straining hooks. She was a singular +contrast to my mother, always so freshly perfect in every detail of +her toilet. The château was partly old and partly new and very ugly, +though the park that sloped down to it was fine. Near the château +stood a very old and beautifully carved font that must have belonged +to a church long since destroyed. Later on, in the days of her +descendants, it was kept filled with growing flowers and was a +beautiful object, but my aunt merely used it as a sort of waste-paper +basket for any scraps she picked up in the park. We children used to +conceal ourselves in it in our games of hide-and-seek. I enjoyed +myself among my many cousins, for I was at this time so young and so +naughty that they tended to give way to me in everything. One of them, +however, a singularly selfless and devout boy called France, was fond +of me for myself, and though I never paid much attention to him, +victim rather than play-mate as he usually was in the games of the +others, I was always aware of his gentle, protecting presence, and +happy when his peaceful gaze rested upon me. After long years of +separation and in our great old age we discovered, France and I, that +we had always been dear friends, and in the few years that remained to +us before his recent death we saw each other constantly. But I must +return to the fête. + +My mother and my aunt were absorbed in preparations. It was a general +hurly-burly, every one running north, south, east, and west--to +Landerneau, to Morlaix, to Brest, to every place, in short, that could +boast some special delicacy. And at last the great day came, and we +children were up with the lark. There was first to be a luncheon for +the huntsmen, friends of papa's, and the ladies were to follow in +carriages and to enter Ker-Eliane from the highroad. But we preferred +the shorter way, by the deep paths overgrown with hawthorn and +blackberry. The boys rushed along on the tops of the _talus_, the +sort of steep bank that in Brittany takes the place of hedges, and +even with Jeannie to restrain me I was nearly as torn and tattered as +they when we arrived at Ker-Eliane. What a fairy-land it was! Rocks +and streams, heathery hills, and woods full of bracken. An old ruin, +strange and melancholy, with only a few crumbling walls and a portion +of ivy-clothed tower left standing, rose among trees on a little hill +near the entrance, and farther on, surrounded by woods of beech or +pine, were three lakes, lying in a chain one after the other. +Water-lilies grew upon them, and at their brinks a pinkish-purple +flower the name of which I never knew. The third lake was so somber +and mysterious that my father had called it the Styx. An ancient +laurel-tree--in Brittany the laurels become immense trees--had been +uprooted in a thunderstorm and had fallen across the Styx, making a +natural rustic bridge. We children were forbidden to cross on it, but +on this day I remember my adventurous cousin Jules rushing to and fro +from one bank to the other in defiance of authority. At the foot of +the hill, below the ruin, a clear, delicious stream sprang forth from +a stony cleft and wound through a valley and out into the lower +meadows, and at the entrance to the valley, among heather and enormous +mossy rocks, rose a cross of gray stone without Christ or ornaments. +The peasants made pilgrimages to it on Good Friday, but I never +learned its history. + +It was among the lower meadows, in a charming, smiling spot planted +with chestnuts, poplars, and copper beeches, that the table for the +thirty huntsmen was laid in the shade of a little avenue. Already +the _crêpe_-makers from Quimper, renowned through all the country, +were laying their fires upon the ground under the trees, and I must +pause here to describe this Breton dish. A carefully compounded +batter, flavored either with vanilla or malaga, was ladled upon a +large flat pan and spread thinly out to its edge with a wooden +implement rather like a paper-cutter. By means of this knife the +_crêpes_, when browned on one side, were turned to the other with a +marvelous dexterity, then lifted from the pan and folded at once into +a square, like a pocket-handkerchief, for, if allowed to cool, they +cracked. They were as fine as paper--six would have made the thickness +of an ordinary pancake, and were served very hot with melted butter +and fresh cream, of which a crystal jar stood before each guest, and +was replenished by the servants as it was emptied. + +The _crêpes_ were eaten at the end of the luncheon as a sweet, and +among the other dishes that I remember was the cold salmon,--invariable +on such occasions, salmon abounding in our Breton rivers,--with a +highly spiced local sauce, _filet de boeuf en aspic_, York ham, fowls, +Russian salad, and the usual cakes and fruits. The huntsmen seated at +this feast did not wear the pink coats and top-hats of more formal +occasions, but dark jackets and knee-breeches and the small, round +Breton cap with upturned brim that admitted of a pipe being tucked +into it at one side. And so they carried their pipes, as the peasants +did, and the legitimists among them had a golden fleur-de-lis fixed in +front. The ladies of the party, in summer dresses and wide-brimmed hats, +arrived when the more substantial part of the repast was over, and +their carriages filled the highroad outside the precincts of Ker-Eliane. +A feast was spread at a little distance for the peasants, and wine +flowed all day. After the feasting two famous _biniou_-players took up +their places on the high _talus_ that separated Ker-Eliane from +Loch-ar-Brugg and played the _farandol_, the _jabadao_, and other +country-dances for the peasants to dance to. The _biniou_ is rather +like a small bagpipe and produces a wild, shrill sound. The players +wore a special costume: their caps and their stockings were bright +red; their jackets and waistcoats bright blue, beautifully +embroidered; their full white breeches of coarse linen. Like all the +peasants at that time, they wore their hair long, falling over the +shoulders. It was a charming sight to see the peasants dancing, all in +their local costumes. The women's skirts were of black or red stuff, +with three bands of velvet, their bodices of embroidered velvet, and +they all wore a gold or silver Breton cross, hung on a black velvet +ribbon, round their necks, and a _Saint Esprit_ embroidered in gold on +the front of their bodices. Among the coifs I remember several +beautiful tall hennins. What a day it was! Landerneau talked of it for +years, and I have never forgotten it. We children had our luncheon +sitting on the grass near the big table, and afterward there were +endless games among the heather and bracken. My little sister Eliane +appeared, carried in her pink basket, and seemed to look about her +with great approval. + + [Illustration: "A feast was spread at a little distance from the + peasants, and wine flowed all day"] + +Later on in the day, when the dancing had begun, we went to look on at +that, and I wanted very much to dance, too; but nobody asked me, for I +was too little. I must by that time have begun to get very tired and +troublesome, for I remember that _maman_ promised me a little +wheelbarrow if I would be good and allowed Jeannie to take me back to +Ker-Azel. I was already sleepy, as I had drunk a quantity of +champagne, with which the servants had replenished my little +liqueur-glass, and I allowed myself at last to be carried away by +Jeannie, and fell asleep in her arms. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE OLD HOUSE AT LANDERNEAU + + +During these early years of my life our time, though mainly spent with +_bonne maman_ at Quimper, was also given for many months of the year +to Landerneau, and a little later on was divided between these two +houses and Loch-ar-Brugg. At Landerneau we lived in a vast old house +that had been part of my mother's marriage dowry. The family house, +equally old and vast, of the Kerouguets was also at Landerneau, and +the house of dear Tante Rose, my father's eldest sister. Landerneau +was a picturesque old town, so near the sea that the tides rose and +fell in the River Elorn, which flowed through it. A legend ran that +the part of Landerneau lying on the southern banks of the river, still +all wild with great rocks that seemed to have been hurled together by +some giant's hand, had been reduced to this condition by the devil. +He had been traveling through the country, and the inhabitants of the +southern half of Landerneau had refused to give him food and drink, +whereas those of the northern half had suitably and diplomatically +entertained him; and it was in vengeance that he had hurled these +great rocks across the river, to remain as permanent, if picturesque, +embarrassments to southern Landerneau. The morality of the story was +disconcerting, and very much puzzled me when I was told it by old +Gertrude. Our house formed a corner of the principal street in the +northern side of the town. In the days of the Terror, not so far +distant in my childhood, it had been used, with the house of Tante +Rose across the way, as a prison where the condemned were put on their +way to be guillotined at Brest, and a subterranean passage that ran +between the two houses, under the street, conveyed the unfortunates +swiftly and unobtrusively, if occasion required it, from one prison to +the other. Another lugubrious memento of that terrible time were the +small square openings in the floors of the upper rooms in these +houses. In our days they were used to summon servants from below, but +their original purpose had been for watching the captives unobserved. +In the panels of the great oaken door that opened on the street, in +our house, were little grated squares through which those who knocked +for admittance could be cautiously examined, and this feature gave a +further idea of the strange and perilous circumstances of bygone days. +The kitchen, which was entered from a stone hall, was our delight; it +was called the every-day kitchen. Enormous logs burned in a vast open +fireplace, archaically carved. At that time coal was little known in +the country, and the joints were roasted on a spit before this fire, +which looked like the entrance to an inferno. There was a little oven +for stews and sweets, etc. Under a square glass case on the +mantel-shelf, lifted high above the busy scene, stood a statue of the +Virgin, very old and very ugly, dressed in tinsel, a necklace of +colored beads around its neck. This was a cherished possession of +Nicole's, an old cook of my grandmother's, who followed us everywhere, +and at its foot, under the glass cover, lay her withered +orange-flower wedding-wreath. The kitchen was lighted at night by +numbers of tallow candles that burned in tall brass candlesticks, each +with its pincers and snuffer. (A candle with us does not "take snuff"; +it has "its nose blown"--_on mouchait la chandelle_.) Brass +warming-pans, which we children called Bluebeard's wives, were ranged +along the walls, and a multitude of copper saucepans hung in order of +size, glittering with special splendor on those spaces that could be +seen from the street, for "_où l'orgueil ne va t'il pas se nicher_?" +Through an opening in the wall opposite the big windows dishes could +be passed to the servants in the dining-room during meals. + +The dining-room windows looked out at a garden full of flowers, the +high walls embroidered with espalier fruit-trees, plum-, cherry-, +mulberry-, and medlar-trees growing along the paths. At the bottom of +the garden was a large aviary containing golden and silver pheasants, +magpies, canaries, and exotic birds that my father's naval friends had +brought him from their long Oriental voyages. My father himself +tended these birds, and I can answer for it that they lacked nothing. +I must tell here of the strange behavior of a golden pheasant. Despite +papa's gentleness and care, this bird seemed to detest him and would +not let him enter the aviary; but when I came with papa, the pheasant +would run to the wires and eat the bread I held out to it from my +hand. Papa was surprised and interested, and suggested one day that I +should go with him into the aviary and "see what the pheasant would +say." No sooner said than done. The bird rushed at papa and pecked at +his feet with a singular ferocity; then, feeling, evidently, that he +had disposed of his enemy, he turned to me, spread out his wings +before me, bowed up and down as if an ecstasy of reverent delight, and +taking the bread I held out to him, he paid no more attention at all +to papa. + + [Illustration: "In the panels of the great oaken door ... were little + grated squares"] + +The principal rooms on the ground floor of the house opened on a stone +hall with an inlaid marble floor, where, in a niche carved in the +wall, and facing the wide stone staircase, stood another Virgin, much +larger and even older than Nicole's. She was of stone, with a +blunted, gentle countenance, and hands held out at each side in a +graceful, simple gesture that seemed to express surprise as much as +benediction. As we came down from our rooms every morning it was as if +she greeted us always with a renewed interest. Fresh flowers were laid +at her feet every day, and we were all taught, the boys to lift their +hats, the girls to drop deep curtseys before her. Indeed, these +respects were paid by us to all the many statues of the Virgin that +are seen on our Breton roads. From the hall one entered the salon, +with its inlaid parquet floor, so polished that we were forbidden to +slide upon it, for it was as slippery as ice, and falls were +inevitable for disobedient children. On the mantelpiece was a clock +representing Marius weeping over the ruins of Carthage. His cloak lay +about his knees, and we used to feel that he would have done much +better had he drawn it up and covered his chilly-looking bronze +shoulders. On each side of the clock were white vases with garlands in +relief upon them of blue convolvulus and their green leaves. But what +bewitched us children were the big Chinese porcelain figures, +mandarins sitting cross-legged, with heads that nodded gently up and +down at the slightest movement made in the room. Their bellies were +bare, their eyes seemed to laugh, and they were putting out their +tongues. Black ibises upon their robes opened wide beaks to catch +butterflies. I remember crossing the hall on tiptoe and opening the +salon-door very softly and looking in at the mandarins sitting there +in their still merriment; and it required a little courage, as though +one summoned a spell, to shake the door and rouse them into life. The +heads gently nodded, the eyes seemed to laugh with a new meaning at me +now; and I gazed, half frightened, half laughing, too, until all again +was motionless. It was as if a secret jest had passed between me and +the mandarins. In an immense room to the left of the salon that had +once, perhaps, been a ball-room, but was now used as a laundry, was a +high sculptured fireplace that was my joy. On each side the great +greyhounds, sitting up on their hind legs, sustained the mantelpiece, +all garlanded with vines. Among the leaves and grapes one saw a nest +of little birds, with their beaks wide open, and the father and mother +perched above them. And, most beautiful of all, a swallow in flight +only touched with the tip of a wing a leaf, and really seemed to be +flying. Only my father appreciated this masterpiece, which must have +been a superb example of Renaissance work, and when, years afterward, +my mother sold the house, the new owner had it broken up and carted +away because it took up too much room! + +On the two floors above were many bedrooms not only for our growing +family, but for that of my Aunt de Laisieu, who, with all her +children, used to pay us long and frequent visits, so that even in the +babyhood of Eliane and Ernest and Maraquita I never lacked +companionship. + +My mother's room was called _la chambre des colonnes_, because at the +foot of the bed, and used there instead of bedposts, were two great +stone pillars wreathed with carving and reaching to the ceiling. What +a pretty room it was! In spring its windows looked down at a sea of +fruit-blossoms and flowers in the garden beneath. The bed had a domed +canopy, with white muslin curtains embroidered in green spots. Above +the doors were two allegorical paintings, one of Love, who makes Time +pass, and one of Time, who makes Love pass. A deep, mysterious drawer +above the oaken mantelpiece was used by _maman_ for storing pots of +specially exquisite preserves that were kept for winter use. On her +dressing-table, flowing with muslin and ribbons, I specially remember +the great jar of _eau de Cologne_, which one used to buy, as if it +were wine, by the liter. + +From this room led papa's, more severe and masculine. Here there were +glass cabinets fitted on each side into the deep window-seats and +containing bibelots from all over the world. A group of family +miniatures hung on the wall near the fireplace. + +On a turning of the staircase was a bath-room, with a little sort of +sentry-box for cold douches, and at the top of the house an enormous +garret, filled with broken old spinning-wheels and furniture, bundles +of old dresses, chests full of dusty papers. I found here one day +_bonne maman's_ betrothal-dress. It was of stiff, rich satin, a wide +blue and white stripe, with a dark line on each side of the blue and a +little garland of pink roses running up the white. The long, pointed +bodice was incredibly narrow. A strange detail was the coarseness with +which this beautiful dress was finished inside. It was lined with a +sort of sacking, and the old lace with which it was still adorned was +pinned into place with brass safety-pins. Finally, for my description +of the house, there was a big courtyard, with the servants' quarters +built round it, and a clear little stream ran through a _basse-cour_ +stocked with poultry. + +I had not seen this house for over fifty years when, some time ago, I +went to visit it. The new proprietor, an unprepossessing person, was +leaning against the great oaken door. He permitted me, very +ungraciously, to enter. + +I went through all these rooms that two generations ago had rung with +the sounds of our happy young life, and it was misery to me. In the +kitchen, which had been so beautiful, the window-panes were broken, +and the dismantled walls daubed with whitewash, with dusty, empty +bottles where Nicole's Virgin had stood. Upon the table was a greasy, +discolored oil-cloth, where one saw M. Thiers, with knitted eyebrows +and folded arms, surrounded by tricolor flags. The salon--I sobbed as +I stood and looked about it; all, all that I had known and loved had +disappeared. The stone Virgin was gone from her niche in the hall. +Trembling, I mounted to my dear parents' rooms. What desolation! +Unmade beds and rickety iron bedsteads; dust, disorder, and dirt. The +carved chimneypiece, with its great drawer, was gone; the paper was +peeled from the walls. Only over the doors, almost invisible under +their cobwebs, were the painted panels of Love, who makes Time pass, +and Time, who makes Love pass. The garden was a dung-heap. + +When I came out, pale and shaken, the proprietor, still complacently +leaning against the door, remarked, "_Eh bien_, Madam is glad to have +seen her house, isn't she!" + +The animal! I could have strangled him! + + [Illustration: "I felt that Tante Rose was enchanting"] + + + + +CHAPTER V + +TANTE ROSE + + +Over the way lived Tante Rose. We children liked best to go to her +house by means of the subterranean passage. It was pitch-dark, and we +felt a fearful delight as we galloped through it at full speed, and +then beat loudly upon the door at the other end, so that old +Kerandraon should not keep us waiting for a moment in the blackness. +In the salon, between the windows, her tame magpie hopping near her, +we would find Tante Rose spinning at her wheel. There were pink +ribbons on her distaff, and her beautiful, rounded arms moved gently +to and fro drawing out the fine white linen thread. Sitting, as I see +her thus, with her back to the light, her white tulle head-dress and +the tulle bow beneath her chin surrounded her delicate, rosy face with +a sort of aureole. She had a pointed little chin and gay, blue eyes, +and though she had snowy hair, she looked so young and was so active +that she seemed to have quicksilver in her veins. A tranquil mirth was +her distinguishing characteristic, and even when hardly more than a +baby I felt that Tante Rose was enchanting. Her first question was +sure to be, "Are you hungry?" and even if we had just risen from a +meal we were sure to be hungry when we came to see Tante Rose. She +would blow into a little silver whistle that hung at her waist, and +old Kerandraon (we children pronounced it Ker-le dragon) would appear +with his benevolent, smiling face. + +"Take Mademoiselle Sophie's orders, Kerandraon," Tante Rose would say; +but the dear old man, who was a great friend, did not need to wait for +them. + +"Demoiselle would like _crêpes_ and fresh cream; and there is the rest +of the chocolate paste which Demoiselle likes, too." + + [Illustration: "She did not conceal that she found him a dull + companion"] + +"Bring what pleases you," Tante Rose would say, "and take my key, +Kerandraon, and fetch the box of _sucre d'orge_ from the shelf in my +wardrobe." When Kerandraon had come ambling back with his laden +tray he would stop and talk with us while we ate. He was seventy years +old and had a noble air in his long Louis XV jacket. Tante Rose's +mother had taken him from the streets when he was a little beggar-boy +of twelve. He lived in the family service all his life, and when he +died at seventy-five he was buried in the family vault. Jacquette, the +magpie, sometimes became very noisy on these festive occasions, and +Tante Rose would say: "Go into the garden, Jacquette. _Tu m'annuis_" +(so she pronounced _ennuies_). And Jacquette, who seemed to understand +everything she said, would go obediently hopping off. In the garden, +adjoining the salon, was a greenhouse full of grapes and flowers, and +that was another haven of delight on our visits to Tante Rose. It was +the prettiest sight to see her mounted on a step-ladder cutting the +grapes. A servant held the ladder, and another the basket into which +the carefully chosen bunches were dropped. Tante Rose's little feet +were shod in a sort of high-heeled brown-satin slipper called +_cothurnes_, probably because they tied in classic fashion across the +instep, little gold acorns hanging at the ends of the ribbons. I have +the most distinct recollection of these exquisite feet as I stood +beside the ladder looking up at Tante Rose and waiting for her to drop +softly a great bunch of grapes into my hands. The fruit-trees of Tante +Rose's garden were famous. A great old fig-tree there was so laden +with fruit that supports had to be put under the heavy branches; there +were wonderful Smyrna plums, and an apple-tree covered with tiny red +apples that were our joy. From a high terrace in the garden one could +watch all that went on in the town below. Tante Rose's cream, too, was +famous. Great earthenware pans of milk stood on the wide shelves of +her dairy, and when _maman_ came to see her she would say, "May I go +into the dairy, Rose?" It was always known what this meant. _Maman_ +would skim for herself a bowlful of the thick, golden cream. + +Even the kitchen had an elegance, a grace, and sparkle all its own, +and it is here that I can most characteristically see Tante Rose +distributing milk for the poor of Landerneau. Her farmers' wives had +brought it in from the country in large, covered pails, and Tante +Rose, dressed in a morning-gown of puce-colored silk (like _bonne +maman_ in this, she wore no other color), her full sleeves, with their +wide lawn cuffs turned back over her arms, ladled it into jars, giving +her directions the while to the servants: "This for Yann. This for +Hervé [an old cripple]. Did this milk come from the yellow? It is +sure, then, to be very good; take it to the hospital and--wait! This +little jug of cream to the _supérieure_; she is so fond of it. And, +Laic, this large jar is for the prison," for Tante Rose forgot nobody, +and all with such quiet grace and order. The poor of Landerneau adored +her. The thread she spun was woven at her country place, La Fontaine +Blanche, into linen to make clothes for them, and she knitted socks +and waistcoats even as she went about the streets on her errands of +mercy. If the poor loved her, it was respect mingled with a little +fear that the _bourgeoisie_ felt, for she had no patience with +scandal-mongering and sharply checked their gossiping, provincial +habits. The chatelaines of the surrounding country sought her out and +delighted in her charm, her accomplishments, and her devil-may-care +wit. Tante Rose was married to a wealthy and excellent Landernean, +Joseph Goury, whom we called Tonton Joson, and his friends, Jason. He +had a placid, kindly face, and stout, fine calves incased in silk +stockings. Still in love with his wife, he was patiently submissive to +her gay sallies; for though very fond of him, she did not conceal that +she found him a dull companion. Very drolly, though she tutoyéd him, +she used always to address him as "Monsieur Goury." "_Tais-toi, +Monsieur Goury_," she would say; "you are as tiresome as the flies." +And after enduring his prosy talk for some time she would say quite +calmly: "I am beginning to drink hemlock. Go away, Monsieur Goury--_va +t'en_. You bore me to distraction. You stun and stupefy me. Go away. +_Je n'en puis plus._" And poor Tonton Joson remaining helplessly +gazing, she would lift the little trap-door beside her chair, if the +scene took place in her room, and call out to the servants below, +"Tell Laic to come up and help monsieur on with his coat." + +"But, my dear, I was not thinking of going out," Tonton Joson would +protest; and Tante Rose would reply: + +"_Mais tu sors, Monsieur Goury._" + +Tante Rose was very devout, but after her own fashion. She read the +office to herself every day, but had many _librepensant_ friends, with +whom she used good-temperedly to argue. Any bishop who came to +Landerneau stayed always with Tante Rose. + +Her cuisine was the best I have ever eaten; and oh, the incredible +abundance of those days! All the courses were served at once upon the +immense table. The great silver soup-tureen, big enough for a baby's +bath, and so tall that she had to stand up to it, was in front of +Tante Rose, and before she began to ladle out the platefuls, with the +light, accurate movements of her arms characteristic of her, a servant +carefully fastened behind her her long sleeves _à la pagode_. It was +really charming to watch her serving the soup, and I remember one +guest asserting that he would eat _potage_ four times if Mme. Goury +helped him to it. + +An enormous salmon usually occupied the center of the table, and there +were six _entrées_, _four rôtis_, two hot and two cold, and various +_entremets_ and desserts. A favorite _entrée_ was a _purée_ of +pistachio nuts, with roasted sheeps' tails on silver spits stuck into +it. The hot dishes stood on silver heaters filled with glowing +charcoal. Between the courses little pots of cream, chocolate, +vanilla, and coffee were actually passed and actually eaten! Chocolate +cream to fill the gap between woodcock and _foie-gras_, for instance! +Champagne-bottles stood in silver coolers at each corner of the table. +I wonder that we all survived. On the other hand, when Tante Rose or +my mother received the visits of their friends, there was no afternoon +tea to offer them, as nowadays. The servants merely passed round +little glasses of Spanish wines and plates of small biscuits. The good +ladies of Landerneau afforded, I imagine, much amusement to my mother +and to Tante Rose, who, though a native, was of a very different +caliber. One little trait I remember was very illustrative of the +bourgeois habit of mind. At that time, as now, lengths of velvet were +included in every _corbeille_ offered to a bride by the bridegroom's +family, and the velvet dresses made from them were dignified +institutions worn year after year. One knows how marked and unsightly +velvet soon becomes if sat upon, and it was a wise and crafty fashion +to have a breadth of perfectly matching silk introduced between the +full folds at the back of these dresses, so that when one sat down it +was upon the silk. It was in regard to this sensible contrivance that +the ladies of Landerneau were reported to declare that it was strange +indeed to see the _noblesse_ so miserly that they could not afford a +whole velvet dress, and therefore let silk into the back. + + [Illustration: "I had only to sweep up the rubbish ... and carry it + out of the wood in my little wheelbarrow"] + +Some of Tante Rose's children were, like herself, very clever and +charming, some very stupid, like Tonton Joson. It can be imagined what +games we all had. Once, in the coach-house, my older cousins put young +Raoul into a large basket with a number of smooth stones under him +and told him that they were eggs and that if he were quiet and +patient, they would hatch out. Then by means of a rope and pulley to +which the basket was attached (it must have been used for raising and +lowering hay and fodder) we pulled poor Raoul up to the rafters, and +there we left him and forgot all about him. His desolate cries were +heard after a time, and when he was rescued, it was found that the +rocking of the basket had made him very seasick. + +Of all our games the best were those in the woods of La Fontaine +Blanche. This property of Tante Rose's, with its old manor-house +dating from the time of Queen Anne of Brittany, was near Landerneau, +and since papa went there nearly every day, caring for it as if it +were his own, we were able to go with him and take full possession of +the beautiful woods. We were given planks and tools, and we built a +little hut on the banks of the stream. I was so young that my share of +the labors was unexacting, as I had only to sweep up the rubbish left +by the builders and carry it out of the wood in my little +wheelbarrow; but I remember that pride with which I felt myself +associated in any capacity with such marvels of construction. Not only +was the hut entirely built by my cousins, but they made an oven inside +it and even fabricated a sort of earthenware service with the clay +soil found along the banks of the stream. It would never fire +properly, however, and therefore our attempts to bake bread were not +successful. + +But _crêpes_, as pure-blooded young Bretons, we could make, and our +parents were often entertained by us and regaled with them as they sat +under the trees. Oh, how happy we were! The woods were full of lilies +of the valley, and our hut had been baptized by the curé of Landerneau +the château de la Muguetterie, while we were called _Robinson +Crusoes_, and this was to us all our greatest glory. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE DEMOISELLES DE COATNAMPRUN + + +Across the way from our house in Landerneau lived two old maiden +ladies, the Demoiselles de Coatnamprun. The Marquis and Marquise de +Coatnamprun, their father and mother, had died many years ago, and +most of the small fortune had been filched from them in some +iniquitous lawsuit. I remember them very clearly, for I often went to +see them with _maman_ and Tante Rose, who watched over them and +protected them; gentle, austere figures, dressed always in threadbare +black, almost like nuns, with long, white bone rosaries hanging at +their sides, and on their breasts, tied with a red cord, great +crucifixes of brass and wood. Around their necks they wore white +handkerchiefs folded, the points behind, and when they went out, +old-fashioned black _capotes_, which were large bonnets mounted and +drawn on wires, a quilling of white inside around the face. The elder +was called Isménie, and the younger Suzette; they had the tenderest +love for each other. + +Their house was one of the oldest in Landerneau and was covered with +strange carvings. The great knocker always fascinated me, for it +represented a devil with his pitchfork, and one lifted the pitchfork +to knock. Almost always it was one of the Demoiselles de Coatnamprun +who answered, and she always held a clean white handkerchief by the +center, the points shaken out, and always swept us, as she appeared +before us in the doorway, a wonderful, old-fashioned, stately court +curtsey. The sisters were plain, with dark, mild eyes, faded skins, +and pale, withered lips; but their teeth were beautiful, and they had +abundant hair. Isménie's features were harsh, and her half-closed, +near-sighted eyes gave her a cold and haughty expression; but in +reality she was a lamb of gentleness, and no one seeing the sisters in +their poverty would have taken them for anything but _grandes dames_. + + [Illustration: "Gentle, austere figures, dressed always in threadbare + black"] + +When we were ushered into the house it was usually into the +dining-room that we went. The drawing-room, which was called the +_salle de compagnie_, was used only on ceremonious occasions, Easter, +the bishop's visit, or when the _noblesse_ from the surrounding +country called, and the proudest among them were proud to do so. So in +the _salle de compagnie_, where engravings of the family coats of arms +hung along the walls, the ugly, massive mahogany furniture was usually +shrouded in cotton covers, and it was in the dining-room that the +sisters sat, making clothes for the poor. Here the pictures interested +me very much; they were _naif_, brightly colored prints bought at the +Landerneau fairs, and representing events in the lives of the saints. +St. Christopher, bending with his staff in the turbulent stream, bore +on his shoulder a child so tiny that I could never imagine why its +weight should incommode him, and another doll-like child stood on the +volume held by St. Anthony of Padua. The oil-cloth cover on the table +had all the kings and queens of France marching in procession round +its border, the dates of their reigns printed above their heads. +The chairs were common straw-bottomed kitchen chairs. _Maman_ +sometimes tried to persuade the sisters to paint the chairs, saying +that if they were painted bright red, for instance, it would make the +room so much more cheerful. But to any such suggestion they would +reply, with an air of gentle surprise: "Oh, but _maman_ had them like +that. We can't change anything that _maman_ had." Their large bedroom +was on the first floor, looking out at the street. It was a most +dismal room. The two four-posted beds, side by side, had canopies and +curtains of old tapestry, but this was all covered with black cambric +muslin and had the most funereal air imaginable. At the head of +Isménie's bed, crossed against the black, were two bones that she had +brought from the family vault on some occasion when the coffins had +been moved or opened. The only cheerful thing I remember was a +childish little _étagère_ fastened in a corner and filled with the +waxen figures of the _petit Jésus_, and the tiny china dogs, cats and +birds that had been among their presents on Christmas mornings. To +give an idea of the extreme simplicity and innocence of the +Demoiselles de Coatnamprun I may say here that to the end of their +lives they firmly believed that _le petit Jésus_ himself came down +their kitchen chimney on Christmas eve and left their presents for +them on the kitchen table. _Le petit Jésus_, as a matter of fact, was +on these occasions impersonated by _maman_ and Tante Rose. Tante Rose +always had the key of the sisters' house, so that at any time she +could go in and see that nothing was amiss with _ses enfants_, as she +tenderly called them,--and indeed to the end they remained lovely and +ingenuous children,--so she and _maman_, when the sisters were safely +asleep, would steal into the house and pile every sort of good thing, +from legs of mutton to _galettes_, upon the table, and fill the garden +sabots that stood ready with bonbons, handkerchiefs, and the little +china figures of animals the sisters so cherished. And always there +was a waxen figure of _le petit Jésus_ and the card with which he made +his intention clear; for "_Aux Demoiselles de Coatnamprun, du petit +Jésus_" was written upon it. + + [Illustration: Old Kerandraon] + +Other instances of the sisters' ignorance of life and the world I +might give, but they would simply be received with incredulity. Such +types no longer exist, and even then the sisters were unique. I do not +believe that in all their lives they knew an evil thought; they were +incapable of any form of envy or malice or uncharitableness, and +filled with delight at any good fortune that came to others and with +gratitude for their own lot in life. Sometimes Suzette, in the +intimacy of friends, would refer with simple sadness to the one drama, +if such it can be called, that had befallen them. "_Oui_," she would +say, "_Isménie a eu un chagrin d'amour_." Once, when they were young, +in their parents' lifetime, an officer had been quartered with them, a +kindly, intelligent, honest young fellow of the _bourgeoisie_, and at +once aware of the atmosphere of distinction that surrounded him. He +showed every attention to the sisters, and poor Isménie found him +altogether charming. He never even guessed at her attachment. Indeed, +no such a marriage at that time would have been possible, but she was +broken-hearted when he went away. Her sister was her confidante, and +this was the _chagrin d'amour_ to which Suzette sometimes referred. + +I have said that when they walked out they wore _capotes_. On one +occasion Mlle. Suzette found in a drawer, among old rubbish put away, +a crumpled artificial rose, a pink rose, and had the strange idea of +fastening it in front of her _capote_. Isménie, when her near-sighted +eyes caught sight of it, stopped short in the street and peered at her +sister in astonishment. "But, Suzette, what have you there?" she +asked. Suzette bashfully told her that she had found the rose and +thought it might look pretty. "No, no," said Isménie, turning with her +sister back to the house, "you must not wear it. _Maman_ never wore +anything in her _capote_." It required all my mother's skill to +persuade them to allow her to dress their hair for them on the +occasion of an evening party at Tante Rose's, to which, as usual, they +were going, as "_maman_" had gone, wearing black-lace caps. +"_Voyons_, but you have such pretty hair," said _maman_. "Let me only +show you how charmingly it can be done." They were tempted, yet +uncertain and very anxious, and then _maman_ had the opportune memory +of an old picture of the marquise in youth, her hair done in puffs +upon her forehead. She brought it out triumphantly, and the sisters +yielded. They could consent to have their hair done as "_maman's_" had +been done in her youth. + + [Illustration: "They were buried together on the same day"] + +We children always went with our parents to the evening parties in +Landerneau. _Maman_ did not like to leave us, and it will be +remembered that in those days one dined at five o'clock and that we +children had all our meals except breakfast with our parents. It was +at a dinner-party at Tante Rose's that Mlle. Suzette, next whom I sat, +said to me smiling, with her shy dignity, "I have a present here for a +little girl who has been good," and she drew a small paper parcel from +the silk reticule that hung beside the rosary at her side. I opened +it, and found, to my delight, a sugar mouse and a tiny pipe made of +red sugar such as I knew _maman_ would never allow us to eat when we +went to the confectioner's. But here, in the presence of Mlle. +Suzette, and the gift a gift from her, I felt that I was safe, and I +devoured mouse and pipe at once, quite aware of _maman's_ amused and +rallying glance from across the table. "I saw you," she said to me +afterward. "Little ne'er-do-well, you know that I could not forbid it +when Mademoiselle Suzette was there!" + +The only flower that grew in the Demoiselles de Coatnamprun's garden +was heliotrope, for that had been "_maman's_" favorite flower. They +were poor gardeners, and the little _bonne_ who came in by the day to +do the housework could give them no help in the garden. So it was +Tante Rose, trotting on her high heels, a little garden fork on her +shoulder, who appeared to do battle with the moss and dandelions and +to restore a little order. She always gave to this service the air of +a delightful game, and indeed, in her constant care of the poor old +ladies, had the prettiest skill imaginable in making her gifts weigh +nothing. + +"My dears," she would say, leaning forward to look at their black +robes, "aren't these dresses getting rather shabby? Hasn't the time +come for new ones?" + +"They are shabby," Isménie would answer sadly, "but _que voulez-vous, +chère Madame_, our means, as you know, are so narrow. It costs so much +to buy a dress. We could hardly afford new ones now." + +"But, on the contrary, it doesn't cost so much," Tante Rose would say. +"I know some excellent woolen material, the very thing for your +dresses, and only five francs for the length. You can well afford +that, can't you? So I'll buy it for you and bring it to-morrow." + +And so she would, the innocent sisters imagining five francs the price +of material for which Tante Rose paid at least thirty. Since the +sisters were very proud, for all their gentleness, and could consent +to accept nothing in the nature of a charity, and since indeed they +could hardly have lived at all on what they had, Tante Rose had woven +a far-reaching conspiracy about them. Her tradespeople had orders to +sell their meat and vegetables to the Demoiselles de Coatnamprun at +about a fifth of their value. Packets of coffee and sugar arrived at +their door, and milk and cream every morning, and when they asked the +messenger what the price might be, he would say: "_Ces dames régleront +le compte avec Monsieur le Curé_," and since they did not like to +refuse gifts from the curé, the innocent plot was never discovered. Of +course fruits from Tante Rose's garden and cakes from her kitchen were +things that could be accepted. She would bring them herself, and have +a slice of _galette_ or a fig from the big basketful with them. They +were rather greedy, poor darlings, and since any money they could save +went to the poor, they could never buy such dainties for themselves. +One extravagance, however, they had: when they came out to pay a +visit, a piece of knitting was always drawn from the reticule, and +when one asked what it was one was told in a whisper: "Silk +stockings--a Christmas present for Suzette," or Isménie, as the case +might be. Beautifully knitted, fine, openwork stockings they were. + +Another contrivance for their comfort was invented by Tante Rose. They +were great cowards, afraid of the dark and in deadly fear of the +possible robbers that might enter their house at night. Tante Rose +arranged that when they went to bed a lighted, shaded lamp should be +placed in their window, the shade turned toward their room, the light +toward the street, so that any robbers passing by would be deceived +into thinking the house still on foot and forego their schemes for +breaking in. + +Their hearts were tender toward all forms of life. I can see one of +them rising from her work to rescue a fly that had fallen into trouble +and, holding it delicately by the wings, lift the _persiennes_ to let +it fly away. One day in their garden I cried out in disgust at the +sight of a great earthworm writhing across a border. + +"Oh, the horrid worm! Quick! A trowel, Mademoiselle, to cut it in +two." + +But Mademoiselle Suzette came to look with grieved eyes. + +"And why kill the poor creature, Sophie? It does us no harm," she +said, and helped the worm to disappear in the soft earth. + +The Demoiselles de Coatnamprun died one winter of some pulmonary +affection and within a day of one another. They died with the +simplicity and sincerity that had marked all their lives, and toward +the end they were heard to murmur continually, while they smiled as if +in sleep, "_Maman--Papa_." + +Isménie died first; but since it was seen that Suzette had only a few +hours to live, the body was kept lying on the bed near hers, and she +did not know that her beloved sister had been taken from her. They +were buried together on the same day. + + * * * * * + + [Illustration: "In the days of the Terror ... it had been used ... as + a prison"] + +There was another and very different old lady in Landerneau of whom I +was very fond and whom, since she took a great fancy to me, I saw +often. Her daughter was a friend of _maman's_ and made a _mésalliance_ +that caused the doors of Landerneau to close upon her. _Maman_, +however, remained devoted to her, and continued to see as much of her +as ever, and her mother, my old friend, was entirely indifferent to +the doors, closed or open, of Landerneau. She wore a brightly colored +Turkish silk handkerchief tied turban-wise about her head, and soft +gray-leather riding boots,--men's boots,--so that she was known in her +quarter as _Chat-botté_. In her own house she wore men's +dress-breeches, short jacket, and high boots. Her feet were remarkably +small, and the wave of hair on her forehead was as black as jet. She +was very downright and ready of speech, and used to talk to me as +though I were a person of her own age. "Do you see, Sophie," she would +say, "my poor daughter is a great goose. She struggles to be received, +and gets only buffets for her pains. Why give oneself so much trouble +for nothing?" + +The disconsolate daughter and the son-in-law made their home with her +in a great old house standing on the banks of the river. He was a +wholesale wine merchant, and barrels and casks of wine stood about the +entrance. My old friend lived almost entirely in her own room on the +first floor, the strangest room. It was at once spotlessly clean and +completely untidy. The bed had no posts or canopy and was shaped like +a cradle. Bottles of salad-oil stood on the mantel-shelf, and a bunch +of carrots might be lying on the table among bundles of newspapers. +From the windows one had beautiful views up and down the river and +could see the stone bridge that had old houses built upon it. Across +the river were her gardens, and she used often to row me over to them +and to show me the immense old cherry-tree, planted by her +grandfather, that grew far down the river against the walls of an old +tower. This tower had its story, and I could not sleep at night for +thinking of it. In her girlhood mad people were shut up there. There +was only a dungeon-room, and the water often rose in it so that the +forsaken creatures stood up to their knees in water. Food was thrown +to them through the iron bars of the windows, but it was quite +insufficient, and she gave me terrible descriptions of the faces she +used to see looking out, ravenous and imploring. She remembered that +the bones protruded from the knuckles of one old man as he clutched +the bars. She used to pile loaves of bread in her little boat, row +across to the tower, and fix the loaves on the end of an oar so that +she could pass them up to the window, and she would then see the mad +people snatching the bread apart and devouring it. And when the +cherries on the great tree were ripe she used to climb up into the +branches and bend them against the window so that they might gather +the fruit themselves from among the leaves, and she herself would +gather all she could reach and throw them in. They had not even straw +to sleep on. When one of them died, the body was taken out, and this +was all the care they had. Such were the horrors in a town where +people across the river quietly ate and slept, and the church-bells +rang all day. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +BON PAPA + + +My most vivid recollections of Grandfather de Rosval place him at +Landerneau, where he would stop with us on his way to Quimper during +his tours of inspection. His arrivals in the sleepy little town were +great affairs and caused immense excitement: post-chaise, postilion, +whips cracking, horns blowing, and a retinue of Parisian servants. We +children never had more than a glimpse of him at first, for he +withdrew at once to his own rooms to rest and go through his papers. +When he made his entry into the salon,--the salon of the slippery +parquet and the nodding mandarins,--all the household was ranged on +each side, as if for the arrival of a sovereign, and we had all to +drop deep curtseys before him. + + [Illustration: Grandfather de Rosval] + +He was a rather imposing figure, with splendid clothes, the coat +thickly embroidered along the edge with golden oak-leaves, and a +fine, handsome head; but he was enormously, even ridiculously, stout. +With an often terrifying and even repellent severity he mingled the +most engaging playfulness, and our childish feelings toward him were +strangely compounded of dislike and admiration. + +When he arrived in the salon a lackey came behind him, carrying a +large linen bag filled with a sweetmeat bought at Seugnot's, the great +Parisian confectioner. I always associate these sweetmeats with _bon +papa_. They were called _croquignoles_, were small, hard, yet of the +consistency of soft chalk when one bit into them, and glazed with +pink, white, or yellow. After the salutations, _bon papa_ would take +up his position before the mantelpiece and beckon the servant to give +him the bag of _croquignoles_. We children, quivering with excitement, +each of us already provided with a small basket, stood ready, and as +_bon papa_, with a noble gesture, scattered the handfuls of +_croquignoles_ far and wide, we flung ourselves upon them, scrambling, +falling, and filling our baskets, with much laughter and many +recriminations. Then, besides the little case for _maman_, also from +Seugnot's, filled with tablets of a delicious _sucre-de-pomme_ in +every flavor, were more dignified presents, bracelets and rings for +her and for our _Tante de Laisieu_ and boxes of beautiful toys for us. +The only cloud cast over these occasions was that after having +distributed all his bounties, _bon papa_ sat down, drew a roll of +manuscript from his pocket, and composed himself to read in a sonorous +voice poems of his own composition. Their theme, invariably, was the +delight of reëntering one's family and country, and they were very +pompous and very long, sometimes moving _bon papa_ almost to tears. +The comic scene of family prayers that followed was pure relief, for +even we children felt it comic to see _bon papa_ praying. + +"And are they good children?" he would ask. "Have they said their +prayers?" + + [Illustration: "The château was one of the oldest in Finisterre"] + +"Not yet, _mon père_," _maman_ would answer. "They always say their +prayers at bedtime." But _bon papa_ was not to be so deterred from yet +another ceremony. + +"Good, good!" he would reply. "We will all say the evening prayers +together, then." + +And when we had all obediently knelt down around the room, _bon papa_ +recited the prayers in the same complacent, sonorous voice, making +magnificent signs of the cross the while. On one of these occasions we +were almost convulsed by poor little Ernest, whom _bon papa_ had taken +in his arms, and who was so much alarmed by the great gestures going +on over his head that he broke at last into a prolonged wail and had +to be carried hastily away. + +One of _bon papa's_ poetic works I can still remember, of a very +different and more endearing character. I was taken ill one morning +while we were living with him in Paris and had been given to console +me by a cousin of ours staying with us, the Duchesse de M----, a +delicious little purse in white, knitted silk, embroidered with pale +blue forget-me-nots. I told _maman_ that I wished very much to show +this purse to _bon papa_, and that he should be informed of my +illness. So I wrote him a note, and it was taken, with the purse, to +his room. Presently the little parcel, much heavier, was brought back +to me, and on opening my purse, I found inside it a centime, a liard, +a sou--every coin, in fact, up to and including a golden twenty-franc +piece. And this is the poem that was sent with the purse: + + "Vous voulez jeune Princesse + Que je me rends près de vous? + Que je baise de votre altesse + Les pieds, les mains, et les genoux? + Dans un instant je vais me rendre + A vos désirs et à vos voeux, + Mais vous me permettrez de prendre + Deux baisers sur vos beaux yeux bleus." + +Such a grandfather, it must be admitted, had advantages as well as +charms, yet our memory of him was always clouded by the one or two +acts of cruel severity we had witnessed and of which I could not trust +myself to speak. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +LE MARQUIS DE PLOEUC + + +In the Château de Ker-Guélegaan, near Quimper, lived an old friend of +my family's, the Marquis de Ploeuc. The château was one of the oldest +in Finisterre, an immense weather-beaten pile with a moat, a +drawbridge, a great crenellated tower, and a turret that, springing +from the first story, seemed, with its high-pointed roof, to be +suspended in the air. Tall, dark trees rose in ordered majesty about +the château, and before it a wide band of lawn, called a _tapis vert_, +ran to the lodge-gates that opened on the highroad. From the upper +windows one saw the blue Brittany sea. Along the whole length of the +front façade ran a stone terrace with seven wide steps; the windows of +the _salle d'honneur_ opened upon this, and the windows of the _petit +salon_ and the dining- and billiard-room. The furniture in the _salle +d'honneur_ was of Louis XV white lacquer, court chairs, and +_tabourets de cour_. There were tall mirrors all along the walls, and +in the corners hung four great crystal chandeliers. The curtains and +portières were of a heavy, white silk that had become gray with time; +they were scattered with bouquets of faded flowers, and caught up and +looped together with knots of ribbon that had once been rose-colored. +This glacial and majestic room was seldom used; it was in the _petit +salon_, leading from it, that guests usually sat. Here the chairs were +carved along their tops with garlands of roses and ribbons so delicate +that we children were specially forbidden to touch them. The walls +were hung with tapestries, at which I used often to gaze with delight. +One saw life-sized ladies and gentlemen dancing in stately rounds or +laughing under trees and among flowers and butterflies. The great +dining-room was paneled with dark wood carved into frames around the +portraits of ancestors that were ranged along it. The coffers and the +sideboards, where the silver stood, were of the same carved wood. I +remember once going down to peep at the kitchen in the basement, and +the dark immensity, streaming, as it were, with cooks, servants, +kitchen-boys, and maids, so bewildered and almost frightened me that I +never ventured there again. + +The old marquis was a widower, and his married daughters, the Marquise +de L---- and Mme. d'A----, usually lived with him and his unmarried +daughter Rosine, who became a nun. He was a splendid old gentleman, +tall, with a noble carriage and severe, yet radiant, countenance. In +the daytime he dressed always in gray coat and knee-breeches, with +gray-and-black striped stockings and buckled shoes. At night his +thick, white hair was gathered into a _catogan_,--a little square +black-silk bag, that is to say,--tied with a bow, and he wore a +black-silk suit. On festal occasions, Christmas, Easter, or his +fête-day, he became a magnificent figure in brocaded coat and +white-satin waistcoat and knee-breeches; he had diamond shoe- and +knee-buckles, diamond buttons on his waistcoat, and golden +_aiguillettes_ looped across his breast and shoulder. + +The diamond buckles he left to me, to be given to me on my first +communion, and in his lifetime he had made for me a beautiful missal +bound in white parchment and closed with a diamond and emerald clasp; +inside were old illuminations. + +In his youth M. de Ploeuc had been an officer of the Chouans, and he +was, of course, a passionate royalist. He always wore the Croix de St. +Louis, a fleur-de-lis, with the little cross attached by blue ribbon. +I asked him once if it was the same sort of decoration as my +Grandfather de Rosval's, which, I said, was larger and was tied with +red, and I remember the kindly and ironic smile of my old friend as he +answered, "Oh, no; that is only the Légion d'honneur." + + [Illustration: "He was a splendid old gentleman"] + +Brittany had many marquises, some of them also old and distinguished; +but he was the _doyen_ of them all, and was always called simply _le_ +marquis. Any disputes or difficulties among the local _noblesse_ were +always brought to him for his decision, and on such occasions, if the +discussions became heated, he would say, "_Palsan bleu, mes seigneurs, +il me semble que vous vous oubliez ici_," using the dignified oath +already becoming obsolete. His French was the old French of the court. +He never, for instance, said, "_Je vous remercie_," but, "_Je vous +rends gráce_." + +Guests at Ker-Guélegaan arrived with their own horses and carriages to +stay a month or more, and open house was kept. Breakfast was at six +for those who did not take communion at the mass that was celebrated +every morning in the chapel adjoining the château; these breakfasted +on returning. It was permissible for ladies, at this early hour, to +appear very informally in _peignoirs_ and _bigoudics_. _Bigoudics_ are +curl-papers or ribbons. The marquis almost always took communion, but +he usually appeared at the six o'clock breakfast. After mass, once his +correspondence dealt with, he played billiards with Rosine, the +beautiful girl who became a nun in the order of the Carmelites, an +order so strict that those who entered it died, to all intents and +purposes, since their relatives never saw them again, and at that time +were not even informed of their death. I see Rosine very clearly, +bending over the billiard-table under her father's fond gaze, and I +can also see her kneeling to pray in a corner of the _petit salon_. It +was with such simplicity that any suspicion of affectation or parade +was out of the question. In the midst of a conversation she would +gently ask to be excused and would go there apart and pray, sometimes +for an hour. The ladies quietly gossiping over their embroidery-frames +took it quite as a matter of course that Rosine should be praying near +them. + + [Illustration: "Guests at Ker-Guélegaan arrived with their own horses + and carriages"] + +_Déjeuner_ was at ten, and it was then that one saw how strongly +feudal customs still survived at Ker-Guélegaan. The marquis sat at the +head of the table, and behind his chair stood his old servant Yvon, +dressed in Breton mourning-costume in memory of his defunct mistress; +that is to say, in blue, black, and yellow. The other servants wore +the livery of the house. Half-way down the table the white cloth +ended, and the lower half had a matting covering. Here sat all the +farmers of Ker-Guélegaan and their families, taking their midday meal +with their master, while M. de Ploeuc and his guests and family sat +above. We children were usually placed at a little side-table. The +meal aways began by M. de Ploeuc rising and blessing the company with +two outstretched fingers, like a bishop, and he then recited a +benediction. He was always served first, another survival of +patriarchal custom, forced upon him, rather, for I remember his +protesting against it and wishing my mother, who sat next him, to be +served before him; but she would not hear of it. During the repasts a +violinist and a _biniou_-player, dressed in his Breton costume, played +to us. + +After luncheon the ladies drove or rode or walked as the fancy took +them, or, assembled in the _petit salon_, talked over their work. On +hot days the blinds would be drawn down before the open windows, but +in the angle of each window was fixed a long slip of mirror, so that +from every corner one could see if visitors, welcome or unwelcome, +were driving up to the _perron_. _Goûter_, at three, consisted of +bread, fruit, and milk, and dinner was at five. After that the ladies +and gentlemen assembled in the _petit salon_ and talked, told +ghost-stories and legends, or played games till the very early +bedtime of the place and period. + +This was the _train de vie_ at Ker-Guélegaan; but my memories of the +place center almost entirely around the figure of my old friend. I was +his constant companion. When he rode out after luncheon to visit his +farms, I would sit before him on his old horse Pluton. He never let +Pluton gallop for fear of tiring him. "Do you see, _ma petite_," he +would say, "Pluton is a comrade who has never failed me. He has earned +a peaceful old age." We passed, in the wood behind the château, a +monument of a Templar that frightened and interested me. He lay with +his hands crossed over his sword, his feet stayed against a couchant +hound, and I could not understand why he wore a knitted coat. My old +friend burst out laughing when I questioned him, and said that I was +as ignorant as a little carp, and that it was high time I went to the +Sacré Coeur. He told me that the knitted coat was a coat of mail, +and tried to instil a little history into my mind, telling me of the +crusades and St. Louis; but I am afraid that my mind soon wandered +away to Pluton's gently pricked ears and to the wonders of the woods +that surrounded us. We had walks together, too, and went one day to +the sea-shore, where there was a famous grotto often visited by +strangers. When we arrived at the black arch among the rocks and I +heard it was called the Devil's Grot, I was terrified, clinging to M. +de Ploeuc's hand and refusing to enter. + + [Illustration: "_Maman_ wrote secretly to _bon papa_ in Paris"] + +"But why not, Sophie? Why not?" he questioned me. "I am here to take +care of you, and there is no danger at all. See, Yann is lighting the +torches to show us the way." + +"But the devil--the devil will get me," I whispered; "Jeannie told me +so." + +Jeannie, indeed, was in the habit of punishing or frightening me by +tales of the devil and his fork and tail and flames, and of how he +would come and carry off disobedient little girls; so it was not to be +wondered at that I feared to enter his grot. I imagined that he +himself lurked there and would certainly carry me off, for I was well +aware that I was often very disobedient. M. de Ploeuc sat down on a +rock, took me on his knee, and said: + +"It is very wrong of Jeannie to fill your head with such nonsense, my +little one. Nothing like her devil exists in the whole world, and you +must pay no attention to her stories." + +He told me that the cavern was filled with beautiful stalactites, like +great clusters of diamonds, and was so gentle and merry and reasonable +that the devil was exorcised from my imagination forever, and I +consented to enter the grotto. + +Yann and the guide, a young farmer of Ker-Guélegaan, led us in with +their lighted torches, and I suddenly saw before me, strangely +illuminated, a somber, yet gorgeous, fairy-land. Diamonds indeed! +Pillars of diamonds rose from the rocky floor to the roof, and +pendants hung in long clusters, glittering in inconceivable vistas of +splendor. I was so dazzled and amazed that I gave the vaguest +attention to M. de Ploeuc's explanation of the way in which the +stalactites were formed among the rocks. Indeed, that night I could +not sleep, still seeing diamond columns and pillars, and my dear +old friend was full of self-reproach next day when he heard that +during the night the Devil's Grot had given me a fever. + + [Illustration: "As a country gentleman he had lived and as a country + gentleman he intended to go on living"] + +Sometimes the Marquis de L---- accompanied us on our expeditions, and +sometimes I was even left in his charge for an afternoon. I disliked +this very much, for he had no amusing stories to tell me and walked +very fast, and when my pace flagged, he would pause to look at me +reproachfully, tapping his foot on the ground, and crying out, as +though I were one of his horses, "Get up! Get up!" + +M. de Ploeuc often took me, after lunch, into his little study and +played the flute to me. I liked being in the study, but it rather +frightened me to see my old friend remove his teeth before beginning +to play. Their absence sadly altered his beautiful and stately +countenance, and gave, besides, an odd, whistling timbre to his music. +Still, I listened attentively, looking away now and then from his +rapt, concentrated countenance to the _tapis vert_ outside, where the +cows were cropping the short grass, or glancing around rather +shrinkingly at the headless bust of Marie Antoinette that stood on the +mantelpiece. The head lay beside the bust, and there was, even to my +childish imagination, a terrible beauty in the proud shoulders thus +devastated. This was one of two such busts that had been decapitated +by the Revolutionists. The other belonged, I think, later on, to the +Empress Eugénie. When the marquis had finished his thin, melancholy +airs, it was my turn to perform, and that I liked much better. I saw +that he loved to hear the old Breton songs sung in my sweet, piping +little voice, and it was especially pleasant, our music over, to be +rewarded by being given chocolate pastils from a little enamel box +that stood on the writing-desk. While I softly crunched the pastils M. +de Ploeuc told me about the countries where the plant from which the +chocolate came grew. It was not at all common in Brittany at that +time, and the pastils much less sweet than our modern bon bons. M. de +Ploeuc also carried for his own delectation small violet and +peppermint lozenges in a little gold box that he drew from his +waistcoat-pocket, and these gave the pleasantest fragrance to his +kiss. I often sat on with him in the study, looking at the pictures in +the books he gave me while he read or wrote. He wore on the third +finger of his right hand an odd black ring that had a tiny +magnifying-glass fixed upon it, and while he read his hand moved +gently across the page. + +I owe a great deal to this dear old friend. He took the deepest +interest in my deportment, and _maman_ was specially delighted that he +should extirpate from my speech provincial words and intonations. He +entirely broke me of the bad habits of shrugging my shoulders and +biting my nails. + +"Only wicked men and women bite their nails," he told me, and pointed +out to me as a terrible warning the beautiful and coquettish Mme. de +G----, one of his guests, who had bitten her nails to the quick and +quite ruined the appearance of her hands. + +"And is she so wicked?" I asked. At which he laughed a little, and +said that she must become so if she continued to bite her nails. He +made me practise coming into and going out of a room until he was +satisfied with my ease and grace. + +"Do you see, _ma petite Sophie_," he said, "a woman, when she walks +well, is a goddess. Walk always as if on clouds, lightly and loftily. +Or imagine that you are skimming over fields of wheat, and that not an +ear must bend beneath your tread." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +LOCH-AR-BRUGG + + +And now I must tell of Loch-ar-Brugg, the center of my long life and +the spot dearest to me upon earth. It was situated amidst the +beautiful, wild, heathery country that stretched inland from +Landerneau. I first saw it one day when I drove over from Landerneau +with my father, and my chief recollection of this earliest visit is +the deep shade under the high arch of the beech avenue and the +aromatic smell of black currants in an upper room where we were taken +to see the liqueur in process of being made. I was given some to drink +in a tiny glass, and I never smell or taste _cassis_ that the scent, +color, warmth, and sweetness of that long-distant day does not flash +upon me. The liqueur was being made by the farmer's wife; for part of +the house, which, as I have said, papa at that time used only as a +hunting-lodge, was inhabited by a Belgian farmer and his family. They +were all seated at their midday meal when we arrived, and another +thing I remember is that the eldest daughter, a singularly beautiful +young creature, with sea-green eyes and golden hair, was so much +confused at seeing us that she put a spoonful of the custard she was +eating against her cheek instead of into her mouth, greatly to my +delight and to papa's. + +"Monsieur must excuse her," said the mother; "she is very timid." On +which my father replied with some compliment which made all the family +smile. I see them all smiling and happy, yet it must have been soon +after that a tragedy befell them. News was brought to my father that +the farmer had hanged himself. The poor man's rent was badly in +arrears, but when he had last spoken to my father about it, the +latter, as was always his wont in such circumstances, told him not to +torment himself and that he could pay when he liked. _Maman_ always +suspected that my father's agent had threatened the poor fellow and +that he had done away with himself in an access of despondency. +Papa, overcome with grief, hastened to Loch-ar-Brugg and remained +there for a week with the mourning family. He gave them money to +return to Belgium, and the beautiful young daughter became, we heard, +a very skilful lace-maker. + + [Illustration: On the road to Loch-ar-Brugg] + +I was too young for this lugubrious event to cast a shadow on my dear +Loch-ar-Brugg, but for many years _maman_ disliked the place. We still +lived at Quimper or Landerneau, using Loch-ar-Brugg as a mere country +resort; but by degrees the ugly walls, nine feet high, that shut in +the house from the gardens and shut out the view were pulled down, +lawns were thrown into one another, great clumps of blue hydrangeas +were planted all down the avenue, on each side, between each +beech-tree, and the house, if not beautiful, was made comfortable and +convenient. It was when we were really established at Loch-ar-Brugg +that _maman_ began to take the finances of the household into her +capable hands. She reproached my father with his lack of ambition, and +asked him frequently why he did not find an occupation, to which he +always replied, "_Ma chère_, I have precisely the occupations I care +for." _Maman_ wrote secretly to _bon papa_ in Paris and begged him to +find a post for her husband there, and an excellent one was found at +the treasury. But when the letter came, and _maman_, full of joy, +displayed it to him, papa cheerfully, but firmly, refused to consider +for a moment any such change in his way of life. As a country +gentleman he had lived and as a country gentleman he intended to go on +living, and so indeed he continued to the end of his long life. I +don't imagine that he made any difficulties as to _maman_ taking over +the financial management. He was quite incapable of saying no to a +farmer who asked to have his rent run on unpaid, and realized, no +doubt, that his methods would soon bring his family to ruin. So it was +_maman_ who received and paid out all the money. I see her now, +sitting at the end of the long table in the kitchen, between two tall +tallow candles, the peasants kneeling on the floor about her while she +assessed their indebtedness and received their payments. She was never +unkind, but always strict, and I was more than once the sympathetic +witness of an incident that would greatly have incensed her. My +father, meeting a disconsolate peasant going to an interview with _la +Maîtresse_, would surreptitiously slide the needful sum into his hand! +What would _maman_ have said had she known that the money so brightly +and briskly paid to her had just come out of her husband's pocket! + + [Illustration: "My father, meeting a disconsolate peasant, ... would + surreptitiously slide the needful sum into his hand"] + +I was always a great deal with papa at Loch-ar-Brugg. At first I used +to walk with him,--when he did not take me on his horse,--trotting +along beside him, my hand in his. Later on, when Tante Rose had given +me a dear little pony, I rode with him, and he had secretly made for +me, knowing that _maman_ would not approve, a very astonishing +riding-costume. It had long, tightly fitting trousers, a short little +jacket, like an Eton jacket, with a red-velvet collar,--red was my +father's racing color,--and on my long golden curls a high silk hat. +_Maman_ burst out laughing when she saw me thus attired and was too +much amused to be displeased. She herself rode a great deal at this +time, but it was to hunting- and shooting-parties, from which she +would return with her "bag" hanging from a sort of little pole fixed +to her saddle; and I remember that one day she brought a strange beast +that none of us ever saw in Brittany again, a species of armadillo +(_tatou_) that her horse had trodden upon and killed. + +It was at Loch-ar-Brugg, on one of those early walks with papa, that +my first vivid recollection of a landscape seen as a beautiful picture +comes to me. We had entered a deep lane where gnarled old trees +interlaced their fingers overhead and looked, with their twisted +trunks, like crouching men or beasts; and as we advanced, it became so +dark and mysterious that I was very much frightened and hung to papa's +hand, begging to be taken out. He pointed then before us, and far, far +away I saw a tiny spot of light. "Don't be frightened, Sophie," he +said; "we are going toward the sunlight." So I kept my eyes fixed on +the widening spot, holding papa's hand very tightly in the haunted +darkness; and when we suddenly emerged, we were on the brink of a +great gorge, and beyond were mountains, and below us lay a tranquil, +silver lake. I have never forgotten the strange, visionary +impression, as of a beauty evoked from the darkness. Papa told me the +story of the lake; it was called "le lac des Korrigans." The Korrigans +are Breton fairies--fairies, I think, more melancholy than those of +other lands, and with something sinister and _macabre_ in their +supernatural activities. They danced upon the turf, it is true, in +fairy-rings, but also, at night, they would unwind the linen from the +dead in the churchyards and wash it in this lake. I felt the same fear +and wonder on hearing this story that all my descendants have shown +when they, in their turn, have come to hear it, and my little +granddaughter, in passing near the lake with me, has often said, +shrinking against me, "Je ne veux pas voir les blanchisseuses, +Grand'mère." + + [Illustration: Le Lac des Korrigans] + +Unlike the marquis, who filled my mind, or tried to fill it, with the +facts of nature and history, papa, on our walks, told me all these old +legends, not as if he believed them, it is true, but as if they were +stories quite as important in their way as the crusades; and perhaps +he was right. + +Sometimes, when we were walking or riding, we met convicts who had +escaped from the great prison at Brest. I was strictly forbidden ever +to go outside the gates alone; but once, at evening, I slipped out and +ran along the road to meet papa, who, I knew, was coming from +Landerneau on foot. He was very much perturbed when he saw me emerge +before him in the dusk, and drew me sharply to his side, and I then +noticed that two men were following him. Presently they joined us and +asked papa, very roughly, for the time. + +"It is nine, I think," said my father, eyeing them very attentively. + +"You think? Haven't you a watch, then?" said one of them. + +I suppose they imagined that the rifle papa carried over his shoulder +was unloaded; but unslinging it in the twinkling of an eye, he said +sternly: + +"Walk ahead. If you turn or stop, I shoot." They obeyed at once, and +as they went along we heard a queer clink come from their ankles. + +"Escaped convicts," said papa in a low voice. "Poor devils! And you +see, Sophie, how dangerous it is for little girls to wander on the +roads at night." + + [Illustration: "Papa took out his hunting-flask and made him drink"] + +On another occasion we found a wretched, exhausted man lying by the +roadside, and papa stopped and asked him what was the matter. He must +have felt the kindness of the face and voice, for he said: + +"I am an escaped convict, monsieur. For God's sake! don't betray me. I +am dying of hunger." Papa took out his hunting-flask and made him +drink, and then, when we saw that the brandy had given him strength, +he put some money into his hand and said: + +"It is against the law that I should help you, but I give you an hour +before I raise the alarm. Go in that direction, and God be with you!" + +The church-bells were rung everywhere, answering one another from +village to village when a convict was known to be at large; but on +this occasion I know that my father did not fulfil his duty, the poor +creature's piteous face had too much touched him. Once, too, when we +children were walking with Jeannie along the highroad we caught sight +of a beggar-woman sleeping in the ditch. In peering over cautiously to +have a good look at her, we saw huge men's boots protruding from her +petticoats, and, at the other end, a black beard, and we then made off +as fast as our legs would carry us, realizing that the beggar-woman +was a convict in disguise. At an inn not far from Loch-ar-Brugg there +was a woman of bad character who sold these disguises to the escaped +convicts. + +Papa and my little brother and sister (Maraquita was not then born) +were not my only companions at Loch-ar-Brugg. The property of Ker-Azel +adjoined ours, and I saw all my Laisieu cousins continually, dear, +gentle France, domineering Jules, and the rest. There were nine of +them. It was Jules who told us one day that he had been thinking over +the future of France (the country, not his brother), and had come to +the conclusion that we should all soon suffer from a terrible famine. +Famines had come before this, said Jules, so why not again? It was +only wise to be prepared for them; and what he suggested was that we +should all accustom ourselves to eat grass and clover, as the cattle +did. If it nourished cows, it would nourish us. All that was needed +was a little good-will in order that we should become accustomed to +the new diet. Jules was sincerely convinced of the truth of what he +said; but he was a tyrannous boy, and threatened us with beatings if +we breathed a word of his plan to our parents. We were to feign at +meals that we were not hungry, and to say that we had eaten before +coming to the table. I well remember the first time that we poor +little creatures knelt down on all fours in a secluded meadow and +began to bite and munch the grass. We complained at once that we did +not like it at all, and Jules, as a concession to our weakness, said +that we might begin with clover, since it was sweeter. For some time +we submitted to the ordeal, getting thinner and thinner and paler, +growing accustomed, it is true, to our tasteless diet and never daring +to confess our predicament; we were really afraid of the famine as +well as of Jules. At last our parents, seriously alarmed, consulted +the good old doctor, as nothing could be got from us but stout +denials of hunger. He took me home with him, for I was his special +pet, and talked gravely and gently to me, reminding me that I was now +eight years old and of the age of reason, going to confession and +capable of sin. It was a sin to tell lies, and if I would tell him the +truth, he would never betray my confidence. Thus adjured, I began to +cry, and confessed that we had all been eating nothing but grass and +clover. The doctor petted and consoled me, told me that it was all +folly on the part of Jules, and that he would set it right without any +one knowing that I had told him. He kept his promise to me. It was as +if by chance he found us all in our meadow next day, on all fours, +munching away. Jules sprang up, sulky and obstinate. + +"Yes; we are eating grass and clover," he said, "and we are quite +accustomed to it now and like it very much, and we shall be better off +than the rest of you when the famine comes." + +The doctor burst out laughing, and his laughter broke the spell Jules +had cast upon us. He told us that not only was there no probability +of a famine, no possibility even, France being a country rich in food, +but that even were there to be a famine, we should certainly all be +dead before it came if we went on eating as the cattle did, since we +were not accommodated with the same digestive apparatus as they. He +described to us this apparatus and our own, and at last even Jules, +who was as thin and as weary as the rest of us, was convinced, and +glad to be convinced. It was not till many years afterward that we +told our parents the story. + +One day we children were all in a deep lane--perhaps the same that had +frightened me years before--when, at a turning, the most inconceivable +monster towered above us in the gloom. We recognized it in a moment as +a camel (a camel in Brittany!), and with it came a band of Gipsies, +with dark skins, flashing teeth, bright handkerchiefs, and ear-rings. +Our alarm was not diminished when we saw that they led, as well as the +camel, two thin performing bears. But as we emerged into the light +with the chattering, fawning crowd, alarm gave way to joyous +excitement. The camel and the bears were under perfect control, and +the Gipsies were not going to hurt us. They asked if they might make +the bears dance for us, and we ran to show them the way to +Loch-ar-Brugg. _Maman_, in her broad garden hat, was walking in the +beech-avenue, and came at once to forbid the Gipsies to enter, as they +were preparing to do; but as we supplicated that we should be allowed +to see the bears dance, she consented to allow the performance to take +place in the highroad before the _grille_. We sat about on the grass; +the camel towered against the sky, gaunt, tawny, and melancholy; and +the bears, armed with wooden staffs, went through their clumsy, +reluctant tricks. _Maman_, from within the _grille_, surveyed the +entertainment with great disfavor, and it lost its charm for us when +we heard her say: "How wretchedly thin and miserable the poor +creatures look! They must be dying of hunger." We then became very +sorry for the bears, too, and glad to have them left in peace, and +while we distributed sous to the Gipsies, _maman_ went to the house +and returned with a basket of broken bread and meat, which she gave to +the famished beasts. How they snatched and devoured it, and how +plainly I see _maman_ standing there, the deep green vault of the +avenue behind her, the clumps of blue hydrangeas, her light dress, her +wide-brimmed garden hat, and her severe, solicitous blue eyes as she +held out the bread to the hungry bears! + + [Illustration: "A woman of bad character, who sold these disguises to + escaped convicts"] + +A great character at Loch-ar-Brugg was the curé. It was he who had +baptized me, for I was baptized not at Quimper, but in the little +church of St. Eloi that stood at the foot of the Loch-ar-Brugg woods +and had been in the Kerouguet family for generations. During my +earliest years there he was our chaplain, inhabiting one of the +_pavillons_ in the garden with his old servant; later on he was given +the living of Plougastel, some miles away, and my father had to +persuade him to accept it, for he was very averse to leaving +Loch-ar-Brugg and our family. Still, even at Plougastel we saw him +constantly; he drove over nearly every day in his little pony-trap, +and officiated every Sunday at the seven o'clock mass at St. Eloi. +What a dear, honest fellow he was, and what startling sermons I have +heard him preach! Once he informed his congregation that they would +all be damned like Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Fénélon! This threat, +pronounced in Breton, was especially impressive, and how he came by +the two ill-assorted names I cannot imagine, for he was nearly as +ignorant of books as his flock. He was devoted to my father body and +soul, being the son of one of his farmers. They were great comrades. +Whenever my father had had a good day's shooting he would go to the +_pavillon_ and cry: "Come to dinner! There are woodcocks." And the +curé never failed to come. I see him now, with his rustic, rugged +face, weather-tanned, gay, and austere. One of my first memories is of +the small, square neck ornament (_rabat_) that the clergy wear,--a +_bavette_ we children called them,--stitched round with white beads. I +longed for these beads, and when he took me on his knee I always fixed +my eyes upon them. Unattainable indeed they seemed, but one day, +noticing the intentness of my gaze, he questioned me, and I was able +to express my longing. "But you shall have the beads!" he cried, +touched and delighted. "I have two _rabats_, and one is old and past +wearing. Nothing is simpler than to cut off the beads for you, my +little Sophie." + +His performance was even better than his promise, for he brought me a +bagful of the beads, collected from among his curé friends, and for +days I was blissfully occupied in making chains, rings, and necklaces. +Some of these ornaments survived for many years. + +The curé was not at all happy in the presence of fine people. "_Je me +sauve!_" he would exclaim if such appeared, and he would make off to +the garden, where he was altogether at home, true son of the soil that +he was. Here he would gird up his _soutane_ over his homespun +knee-breeches, open his coarse peasant's shirt on his bare chest, and +prune and dig and plant; and when he took a task in hand it went +quickly. One of my delights was when he put me into the wheelbarrow +and trundled me off to Ker-Eliane to dig up ferns for _maman's_ +garden. + +He, too, told me many legends. The one of St. Eloi especially +interested me. St. Eloi was the son of a blacksmith and helped his +father at the forge in the tiny hamlet called after him. One day as +they were working, a little child came riding up, mounted on a horse +so gigantic that four men could not have held him. "Will you shoe my +horse, good friends?" said the child,--who of course was _l'Enfant +Jésus_,--very politely. "His shoe is loose, and his hoof will be +hurt." The father blacksmith looked with astonishment and indignation +at the horse, and said that he could not think of shoeing an animal of +such a size; but the son, St. Eloi, said at once that he would do his +best. So _l'Enfant Jésus_ slid down, and took a seat on the _talus_ in +front of the smithy, and St. Eloi at once neatly unscrewed the four +legs of the horse and laid them down beside the enormous body. At this +point in the story I always cried out: + +"But, _Monsieur le Curé_, did it not hurt the poor horse to have its +legs unscrewed?" + +And the curé, smiling calmly, would reply: + +"Not in the least. You see, this was a miracle, my little Sophie." + +So St. Eloi was able to deal with the great hoofs separately, and when +all was neatly done, the legs were screwed on again; and the child +remounted, and said to St. Eloi's father before he rode away: + +"You are a little soured with age, my friend. Your son here is very +wise. Listen to him and take his advice in everything, for it will be +good." + +It was no doubt on account of this legend that all the horses through +all the country far and near were brought to the church of St. Eloi +once a year to be blessed by the curé. This ceremony was called _le +Baptême des Chevaux_. The horses, from plow-horses to carriage-horses +and hunters, were brought and ranged round the church in groups of +fours and sixes. At the widely opened western door the curé stood, +holding the _goupillon_, or holy-water sprinkler, and the horses were +slowly led round the church, row after row, seven times, and each time +that they passed before him the curé sprinkled them with holy water. +After this initial blessing the curé took up his stand within beside +the christening-font, and the horses were led into the church,--I so +well remember the dull thud and trampling of their feet upon the +earthen floor,--and the curé, with holy water from the font, made the +sign of the cross upon each large, innocent forehead. Finally the tail +of each horse was carefully cut off, and all the tails hung up in the +church together, to be sold for the benefit of the church at the end +of the year, before _le Baptême des Chevaux_ took place again. This +touching ceremony still survives, but the horses are only led round +the church and blessed, not brought inside. + + [Illustration: "A great character at Loch-ar-Brugg was the curé"] + +The Church of St. Eloi was very ancient, and adorned with strange old +statues of clumsily carved stone painted in garish colors. One was of +a Christ waiting for the cross, His hands tied before Him. It was a +hideous figure, the feet and hands huge and distorted, the eyes +staring like those of a doll; yet it had an impressive look of +suffering. There were no benches in the church except for our family, +near the choir. The peasants, the men on one side, the women on the +other, knelt on the bare earth during the office. They had used, +always, when they entered the church, to pass round before _les +maîtres_, bowing before them; but even my mother objected to this, and +the curé was told to give out from the pulpit that _les maîtres_ were +no longer to be bowed to in church, where there was only one master. +_Maman_, however, did not at all like it that my father should insist +on us children kneeling with the peasants, and it was the one subject +on which I remember a difference of opinion between my grandfather +Rosval and papa. But the latter was firm, and Ernest on the side of +the men, Eliane and I on the side of the women, we knelt through mass. +This was no hardship to us, for the kind peasants spread their skirts +for our little knees and regaled us all through the service with +_crêpes_. + + [Illustration: "All the Breton women smoked"] + +_Crêpes_ seem to be present in nearly all my Breton memories. The +peasants made them for us when we went to visit them in their +cottages, and it would have hurt their feelings deeply had we refused +them. We children delighted in these visits not only on account of the +_crêpes_, but on account of the picturesque interest of these peasant +interiors. The one living-room had an earthen floor and a huge +chimney-place of stone, often quaintly carved, and so large that +chairs could be set within it about the blazing logs. The room was +paneled, as it were, with beds that looked, when their sliding wooden +doors were closed, like tall wardrobes ranged along the walls. They +were usually of dark old wood and often beautifully carved. A narrow +space between the tops of these beds and the ceiling allowed some air +(but what air!) to reach the sleepers, and, within, the straw was +piled high, and the mattress and feather bed were laid upon it. It was +quite customary for father, mother, and three or four children to +sleep in one bed, several generations often occupying a room, as well +as the servants, who were of the same class as their masters. The beds +were climbed into by means of a carved chest that stood beside them. +These were called _huches_, and contained the heirloom costumes, a +store of bread, and the Sunday shoes! Potatoes were kept under the +bed. In the window stood the table where the family and servants all +ate together, and above it hung, suspended by a pulley and string +from the ceiling, a curious contrivance for holding spoons. It was a +sort of wooden disk, and the spoons were held in notches cut round the +edge; it was lowered when needed, and each person took a spoon. A +great earthenware bowl of creamy milk stood in the center of the +table, and with each mouthful of porridge, or _fare_, the spoons were +dipped, in community, into the milk. _Fare_ was a sort of thick +porridge made of maize, allowed to cool in a large round cake, and cut +in slices when cold. It was one of the peasants' staple dishes, and +another was the porridge made of oatmeal, rye, or buckwheat, served +hot, with a lump of butter. For breakfast they all drank _café au +lait_, strong coffee boiled with the milk; fortunately milk and butter +were plentiful. Of the hygienic habits of the peasants at this time +the less said the better; a very minor detail was that the long hair +of the men and the closely coiffed tresses of the women swarmed with +vermin, and after every visit we paid, our heads were always carefully +examined. One peasant, I remember, a good fellow, Paul Simur by name, +of whom my father was specially fond, was so dirty and unwashed that a +sort of mask of dirt had formed upon his features. One day, at a +hunting-party, papa called to Paul to come and sit beside him, and the +other huntsmen, with singular bad taste, began to make fun of poor +Paul, who sat much abashed, with hanging head. Papa affectionately +laid an arm about his neck and defended him, until his friends finally +cried out that they wagered he would not kiss him. At this, although +he confessed afterward to the most intense repugnance, he at once +kissed Paul heartily. Poor Paul was quite overcome. He came to my +father afterward with tears in his eyes and said, standing before him +and gazing at him: + +"_Oh, mon maître, que je t'aime!_" + +"And why don't you ever wash your face, Paul?" papa asked him then, +and Paul explained that he had never been taught to wash and was +afraid it would seriously hurt him to begin. Papa undertook to teach +him. He got soap and soda and hot water and lathered Paul, gently and +firmly, until at last his very agreeable features were disinterred. +Paul was perfectly delighted, and his face shone with cleanliness ever +after. + + [Illustration: "One sometimes saw such an old woman sitting on a + _talus_"] + +A special friend of mine among the peasants was dear old Keransiflan, +the lodge-keeper. I was fond of joining him while he tended the road +in front of the lodge-gates and sitting on his wheelbarrow with him to +talk to him while he ate his midday meal. This consisted of a huge +slice of black bread thickly spread with butter, and it seemed to me +that no bread and butter had ever looked so good. + +One day he must have seen how much I longed for it, for he said, +holding out the slice, "_Demoiselle, en veux-tu_?" I did not need to +be asked twice, and can still see the great semicircle that I bit into +the slice, and I was happily munching when _maman_ appeared at the +lodge-gates. She was very much displeased, and mainly that I should be +devouring poor Keransiflan's luncheon, and she rated me so soundly +that the kind old man interceded for me, saying, "_Notre maîtresse, +c'est moi qui lui l'ai donné_." I think that _maman_ must have seen +that it gave him great pleasure to share his bread with me; at all +events, Keransiflan and I, sitting on our wheelbarrow, were allowed to +go on eating in peace. + +But the peasants were a hard, harsh race and pitiless in their +dealings toward one another. Their treatment of their old people was +terrible. If an old mother, past work, had no money, she was +ruthlessly turned out to beg. One sometimes saw such an old woman +sitting on a _talus_, her pitiful bundle of rags beside her, helpless +and stupefied. I remember a story that was told me by one of my +servants about such an old woman that she had known. She had four +hundred francs, and was cared for in the family of one son until it +was spent, when she was turned out. Another son more kindly took her +in; but his wife was a hard woman, and though she finally consented to +accept the useless old mother into the household, she grudged every +sou spent upon her. Thus, though the only two joys remaining her in +life were snuff and coffee, only two sous a week was allowed her for +tobacco, and as for coffee, she was given never a drop. When she was +dying she told the servant from whom I had the story that what made +her suffer most had been to sit by in the morning and smell the +delicious odor of the coffee as the others drank it. This has always +seemed to me a heart-piercing story. All the Breton women smoked, by +the way, and pipes, and in a curious fashion; for the bowl was turned +downward, though why, I do not know. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE PARDON AT FOLGOAT + + +I was taken while I was a child at Loch-ar-Brugg to the famous _Pardon +de Folgoat_, to which people came from all Brittany. In Folgoat was +the summer residence of Anne de Bretagne, and in the vast hall of the +château she had held her audiences. The château is now the presbytery, +and is opposite the church, of which there is a legend. A poor child, +Yann Salacin, who was devoid of reason, spent hours every day before +the altar of the Virgin, which he decorated with the wild flowers that +he gathered in the fields, and wandered in the forest, swinging on the +branches of the trees, always singing Ave Maria, the only words he was +ever heard to pronounce. He begged for food from door to door and +slept in the barns. The peasants became impatient with him and began +to whisper that he was possessed of an evil spirit, and at last they +drove him out of the village. The curé, who was a good man, missed him +in the church, sought vainly for him, and at last heard what had +happened. He was filled with indignation, and told the peasants that +they had committed a crime. Then he set out to look for poor Yann, and +found him at last in a distant forest, dead with hunger. He brought +the body back to Folgoat and buried it near the church, and one day he +saw that a tall white lily had grown up from the grave; when he opened +the grave he found that the lily sprang from the lips of the little +innocent, and on the petals of the flower one could read in letters of +gold Ave Maria. This legend is believed in all Brittany, and a +stained-glass window in the church tells the story. + +Behind the church is the Well of Love, so called because not a day +passes that lovers do not come to test their fate by trying to float +pins upon the surface of the water. If the pins float, all promises +well, and they go away happy. Astute ones slightly grease the pins, +and thus aid destiny. + +But to return to the _pardon_. I remember that on this occasion an +old cook in the family had permission to start two or three days +before the _pardon_, so that she might go all the way on her knees, +and during those days one met many such devout pilgrims making their +way on their knees along the dusty roads. Some of them came from far +distances. We children were called before dawn on the August morning, +and it was a sleepy, half-bewildered dressing by candle-light. As a +closed carriage made me sick, I was put into the coupé with papa and +_maman_. Eliane, Ernest, their nurses, and all the other servants, +followed in a sort of omnibus, and behind them came all the horses, +trotting gaily along the road to share in the blessings of this great +day of the Assumption of the Virgin. The horses of Brittany, it will +be conceded, are a specially favored race. Although I was in the coupé +and had all the freshness of the early air to invigorate me, I +remember of the journey from Loch-ar-Brugg to Folgoat only that I was +deplorably sick, and the greatest inconvenience to my parents. +Fortunately, I was restored the moment I set my feet upon the +ground. + + [Illustration: "Je me sauve," he would exclaim] + +We were to be entertained for the day at Folgoat by the curé, and to +lunch with him and with the bishops at the presbytery; but we were +already ravenously hungry, so, although papa and _maman_ must continue +to fast until after taking communion at the early service, we children +had a splendid picnic breakfast in the presbytery garden, and a +jellied breast of lamb is my first recollection of the day at Folgoat! +Then we went out to see the great festival. Seventy-five years or more +have passed since that day, and it still lives in my mind with a +beauty more than splendid, a divine beauty. In the vast plain, under +the vast, blue sky, six bishops, glittering with gold and precious +stones, celebrated mass simultaneously at six great altars among +thousands of worshipers. It was a sea of color under the August sun, +and the white _coiffes_ of the women were like flocks of snowy doves. +There was an early mass, and the high mass at eleven. When this was +over, we assembled at the presbytery to lunch with the bishops. The +table was laid in Anne de Bretagne's council-chamber, its stone walls +covered with archaic figures, and it must have been a picturesque +sight to see the bishops sitting in all their splendor against that +ancient background; but what I most remember are the stories they told +of Louis XI and his misdeeds, which seemed to me more interesting and +more cruel than the Arabian Nights and Ali Baba and his forty thieves. +In the church itself was shown a superbly carved bench where, it was +said, while praying, he ordered with a nod the death of a Breton noble +who had refused to do him homage. When we went into the church after +lunch to see this bench, I sat down on it, and my long golden curls +were caught in the claws of the interlaced monsters on the back, and I +hurt myself so much in wrenching myself free that I hated still more +fiercely the wicked king who condemned men to death while he prayed. O +the horrid monster! + +Then at three came the great procession. First went the six bishops, +mitered and carrying their croziers; then followed the children of the +_noblesse_, we among them, all in white, with white wreaths on our +heads; then all the vast multitude, twenty or thirty abreast, singing +canticles, a stupendous sight and sound, all marching round the +plain, from altar to altar, under the burning sun. I remember little +after that. The Marquis de Ploeuc was there, his hair tied in the +_catogan_, and wearing his black silk suit: I think he must have +lunched with us at the curé's. It was arranged that he and his two +eldest daughters were to drive back to Loch-ar-Brugg with _maman_ and +spend some days with us, and so, though I must have been very tired, I +was to ride back beside papa on my pony, which had been duly blessed. +It was already night when we started, and what a wonderful ride it +was! I remember no fatigue. I still wore my white dress, and _maman_ +swathed my head and shoulders in a white lace shawl, and all the way +back to Loch-ar-Brugg papa told me stories of hunts, of fairies, of +saints, and of escaped convicts. Every group of trees, every rock, +every turning in the road, had its legend or its adventure. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +BONNE MAMAN'S DEATH + + +We were at Quimper when _bonne maman_ died. She had been failing for +some time, and her character, until then so gentle, had altered. Mere +trifles disquieted her, and she became fretful, alarmed, and even +impatient. She seemed so little in her big bed, and, when I wanted to +climb up beside her, after my wont, she signed to Jeannie to take me +away and said that it tired her too much to see children and that the +air of a sick-room was not good for them. "Tell my daughter--tell her. +They must not come!" she repeated several times in a strange, shrill +voice. I slid down from the bed, I remember, abashed and disconcerted, +and while I longed to see my dear _bonne maman_ as I had known her, I +was afraid of this changed _bonne maman_; and it hurt me more for her +than for myself that she should be so changed. + +But one day when _maman_ was in the room, she caught sight of me +hanging about furtively in the passage, and called out gently to me to +go away, that _bonne maman_ was tired and was going to sleep. Then a +poor little voice, no longer shrill, very trembling, came from the +bed, saying: "Let her come, Eliane. It will not hurt me. I want to see +her for a moment." + +I approached the bed, walking on tiptoe; the curtains were drawn to +shade _bonne maman_ from the sunlight, and I softly came and stood +within them. O my poor _bonne maman_! I could hardly recognize her. +She seemed old--old and shrunken, and her eyes no longer smiled. She +looked at me so fixedly that I was frightened, and she said to +_maman_: + +"Lift her up on the bed. I want to kiss her." She took my hand then, +and looked at my little finger as she always used to do, and said: "I +see that you have been very good with your mother, but that you don't +obey your nurse. You must always be obedient. You understand me, +don't you, Sophie? Do you say your prayers?" + +"Yes, _bonne maman_," I answered. + +"Have you said them this morning?" + +"No, _bonne maman_." + +"Say them now." + +I made the sign of the cross and said the following prayer, which I +repeated morning and evening every day, and with slightly altered +nomenclature, my children and grandchildren have repeated, as I did, +until the age of reason: "_Mon Dieu_, bless me and bless and preserve +_grand-père_, _bonne maman_, _maman_, _papa_, my sisters, my brother, +Tiny" [this was my little dog], "Ghislaine, France, Kerandraon, all my +family, and make me very good. Amen." When I had finished, _bonne +maman_ drew me gently to her, pressed me in her arms, and kissed me on +my eyes. + + [Illustration: Paul] + +After this, for how many days I do not remember, everything became +very still in the house. The servants whispered when they had to +speak, and the older people, when they met us, told us gently to go +into the garden and to be very quiet. We did not see _maman_ or +_papa_ at all. My _tante_ de Laisieu was with us, and dear France. +_Bon papa_ arrived from Paris. One morning was very sunny and +beautiful, and as I played with Eliane in the garden I forgot the +oppression that weighed upon us and began to sing to her a Breton song +which Jeannie had taught me. These were the words: + + Le Roy vient demain au château, + "Ecoute moi bien, ma Fleurette, + Tu regarderas bien son aigrette!" + + "Je regarderai," dit Fleurette, + "Pour bien reconnaître le Roy! + Mes yeux ne verront que toi, + Et mon coeur n'aimera que toi." + +While I sang I looked up at _bonne maman's_ window, for I knew how +fond she was of hearing me. The window was shut, and this was unusual; +so I sang the louder, that she should hear me, of _Fleurette_ and _le +Roy_. Then France and one of the servants came running out of the +house, and I saw that both had been crying, and France put his arm +about me while the servant said, "Mademoiselle must not sing." And +France whispered: "You will wake _bonne maman_. Go into the orchard, +dear Sophie. There you will not be heard." In the evening papa came +for us in the nursery, and I saw that he, too, had been crying. I had +never before seen tears in his dear eyes. He took us up to _maman's_ +room. All the blinds were drawn down, but I could see her lying on her +bed, in her white woolen _peignoir_, her arms crossed behind her head, +her black jet rosary lying along the sheet beside her. We kissed her, +one after the other, and I saw the great tears rolling down her +cheeks. + +"_Maman_--is _bonne maman_ very ill?" I whispered. I felt that +something terrible had happened to us all. + +"My little girl," said _maman_, "your poor _bonne maman_ does not +suffer any more. She is very happy now with the angels and _le bon +Dieu_," but _maman_ was sobbing as she spoke. + + [Illustration: We children had a splendid picnic breakfast] + +I knew death only as it had come to one of my little birds that lived +in the round cage hung in the nursery-window, and I was very much +frightened when papa said: "I am going to take Sophie to your +mother's room, Eliane. She is old enough to understand." But I went +with him obediently, holding his hand. Outside _bonne maman's_ door he +paused and stooped to kiss me and said: "I know how much you loved +your _bonne maman_, Sophie, and I want you to say good-by to her, for +you will never see her again. She loved you so much, my little +darling, and you shall be the last one to kiss her." The room was all +black, and in the middle stood the bed. Beside it, on a table, a +little _chapelle_ had been made with a great silver cross and +candelabra with lighted tapers. A bunch of fresh box stood in a goblet +of holy water. _Bonne maman_ lay with her arms stretched out before +her, the hands clasped on her black wooden crucifix with a silver +Christ that had always hung upon her wall. Her hair was not dressed, +but drawn up from her forehead and covered with a mantilla of white +silk Spanish lace, which fell down over her shoulders on each side. I +stood beside her holding papa's hand. Her profile was sharply cut +against the blackness, and I had never before seen how beautiful it +was. Her eyes were closed, and she smiled tranquilly. I felt no longer +any fear; but when papa lifted me in his arms so that I might kiss +_bonne maman_ and my lips touched her forehead, a great shock went +through me. How cold her forehead was! O my poor _bonne maman_! Even +now, after all the lusters that have passed over me, I feel the cold +of that last kiss. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE JOURNEY FROM BRITTANY + + +It was not long after _bonne maman's_ death that we left Brittany and +went to Paris to live with _bon papa_. I remember every detail of this +my first long journey. The day began with a very early breakfast, +which we all had together in the dining-room and at which we had the +great treat of drinking chocolate. Then came the complicated business +of stowing us all away in our capacious traveling-carriage. It was +divided into three compartments. First came what was called the +_coupé_, with windows at the sides and a large window in front from +which we looked out past the coachman's red-stockinged legs and along +the horses' backs to where the postilion jounced merrily against the +sky in a red Breton costume like the coachman's, his long hair tied +behind with black ribbon, a red jockey's cap on his head, and black +shoulder-knots with jet _aiguillettes_. After the _coupé_, and +communicating with it by a tiny passage, though it had doors of its +own, was another compartment for maids, nurses, and children, and +behind that another and larger division for all the other servants. On +the top were seats beside the coachman, and papa spent most of the day +up there smoking. The luggage, carried on the top, was covered by a +great leather covering, buckled down all over it, called a _bache_. +The horses were post-horses, renewed at every post. It was decided +that I was to go in the _coupé_ with _maman_, papa, and little +Maraquita, as I should get more fresh air there. I wore, I remember, a +red cashmere dress made out of a dress of _maman's_. The material had +been brought from India and was bordered with a design of palm-leaves. +Indeed, this red cashmere must have provided me with a succession of +dresses, for I remember that when I made my _entrée_ at the _Sacré +Coeur_ years afterwards, the bishop, visiting the convent, stopped, +smiling, at my bench, and said, "Why, this is a little Republican, is +it not?" Eliane and I both wore _capulets_ on our heads. These were +squares of white cloth that fell to the shoulders and that folded back +from the forehead and fastened under the chin with bands of black +velvet, a Spanish head-dress. Our cloaks were the full cloaks, +gathered finely around the neck and shoulders, that _maman_ had made +for us, copied from the peasants' cloaks, of foulard for summer and +wool for winter. Little Maraquita, who spent most of the three days' +journey on _maman's_ knees, wore, as always until she was seven or +eight, white and pale blue, the Virgin's colors, as she had been +_vouée au bleu et au blanc_ after a terrible accident that had +befallen her in infancy. She had fallen into the fire at Landerneau, +and her head and forehead had been badly burned, and _maman_ had thus +dedicated her to the Virgin with prayers that she might not be +disfigured--prayers that were more than answered, for Maraquita became +exquisitely beautiful. Papa, I may add here, had many friends and +connections in Spain; hence my little sister's name, and hence our +_capulets_. + +Eliane and Ernest traveled in the second compartment with their +nurses, Eliane carrying Tiny and her huge doll, and Ernest, +unfortunately for our peace of mind, a drum of mine that I had given +him and upon which he beat the drumsticks hour after hour. _Maman_, in +the _coupé_, cried out at intervals that it was intolerable to hear +such an incessant noise and that the child must really, now, be made +to stop; but papa always mildly soothed her, saying: "Let him play. It +keeps him distracted; he would probably be crying otherwise." So +Ernest continued to roll his drum. In the _coupé_ I was fully occupied +in playing at horses. Real leather reins had been fixed at each side +of the front window, passing under it so that, looking out over the +horses' haunches, I had the delightful illusion, as I wielded the +reins, of really driving them. I do not remember that I was sick at +all on the first day. The country was mountainous, and at every steep +hill we all got out and walked down, and this also, probably helped to +preserve me. One feature of the Brittany landscape of those days +stands out clearly in my memory, the tall, sinister-looking +telegraph-poles that stood, each one just visible to the last, on the +heights of the country. When I say telegraph it must not be imagined +that they were our modern electric installations, although so they +were called. These were of a very primitive and very ingenious +construction. At the top of each pole, by means of the projecting arm +that gave it the look of a gallows, immense wooden letters were hung +out, one after the other; these letters were worked by means of wires +that passed down the poles into the little hut at its foot. Each wire +at the bottom had a label with its corresponding letter, and the +operator in the hut, by pulling the wire, pulled the letter into its +place at the top of the pole, and was thus able laboriously to spell +out the message he had to convey and to make it visible to the +operator at the next post, who passed it on to the next. These clumsy +telegrams could be sent, as far as I remember, only at certain hours +of the day, and I think that it must have been during a wayside halt +on this journey that I visited a hut with papa and had the system +explained to me and saw a message being sent, for I remember the +clatter and shaking as the big letters overhead were pulled into +place. I do not know whether this method of communication was used all +over France, but one or two of the old poles still survive in +Brittany. + + [Illustration: The postilion sounded his horn] + +Our first stop that day was at Quimperlé. The postilion, as we +approached a town or village, sounded his horn, and what excitement it +caused in these quiet little places when we came driving up, and how +all the people crowded round us! + +The inn at Quimperlé was called the Hôtel du Trèfle Noir, and though +very primitive, the thatch showing through the rafters in the roof of +the immense kitchen-dining-room, it was scrupulously clean. We all sat +down together at the long table, servants, coachman, postilion, and +all, and the _déjeuner_ served to us by the good landlady was fit to +put before a king. I remember _maman_ laughing and asking her why she +served the salmon and, afterward, a heaping golden mound of fried +potatoes, on a great plank, and the landlady saying that she had no +dishes large enough. There was a turkey, too, stuffed with chestnuts +and of course _crêpes_ and cream. Next door to us, in a smaller room, +a band of commercial travelers were also lunching, and as we finished +each course it was carried in to those cheerful young fellows, whose +hurrahs of joy added zest to our own appetites. That night we slept at +Rennes, where I remember only that I was very tired and that a horrid +man who came to make a fire in our bedrooms spat upon the floor, to +our disgust and indignation. I remember, too, a very pleasant crisp +cake, or roll, that _maman_ gave me to eat before I went to bed. + +It was on the third day that we drove at last into Paris, a fairy-land +to my gazing, stupefied eyes. What struck me most were the fountains +of the Place de la Concorde, the bronze mermaids holding the spouting +fish, and the little sunken gardens, four of them, that at that time +surrounded the obelisk. _Bon papa_ lived in the rue St. Dominique, St. +Germain, and as we drove up to the door I remember that it was under +blossoming acacia-trees and that the postilion blew a great blast +upon his horn to announce our arrival. The house, which was, indeed, a +very pleasing specimen of Louis XV architecture, looked palatial to my +childish eyes. _Bon papa_ was standing, very portly, on the terrace to +welcome us, and we ran into a park behind the house, with an avenue of +horse-chestnuts and a high fountain. But Brittany was left far behind, +and many, many years were to pass before I again saw my Loch-ar-Brugg. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Childhood in Brittany Eighty Years +Ago, by Anne Douglas Sedgwick + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40699 *** |