Brittany Its Byways | Page 8

Granville was vigorously defended, contrary winds
retarded the arrival of the English fleet, and the retreat from the coast,
where it might have been supported by the English, was the ruin of the
Royalist army. Of the 80,000 who crossed the Loire sixty days before,
only 8000 remained to make their last heroic resistance at Savenay,
which ended the great Vendean war. A few months after, the hero of
this noble army, the chivalrous Henri de la Rochejacquelin, fell from

the bullet of a soldier whose life he had spared(1):--
"Lorsqu'en des jours trop malheureux Pâlissait l'astre de la France;
Quand les coeurs les plus valeureux Semblaient perdre toute espérance,
L'antique honneur, la sainte foi, Brillèrent dans cette contrée; Mourir
pour son Dieu, pour son roi, Fut le serment de la Vendée."
The costume of the Granville women is singular. They wear long black
cloaks or mantles, edged with a frill of the same material, and on their
heads a kind of bandeau or under-cap, turned up at the ears,
surmounted by a white handkerchief, folded square and placed
horizontally upon the head, like the plinth of a Grecian capital.
We drove to St. Pair, a small watering-place about two miles from
Granville, nicely situated in a little sandy bay. In the middle of the
church is the monumental tomb of St. Pair and another saint (St. Gault);
their effigies, with mitre and crozier, side by side.
Next day we had a beautiful drive to Avranches. A winding road leads
up to the town, which is situated on an elevated plateau, commanding a
view of Brittany on one side and of Normandy on the other--a broad
expanse of land and sea, the former extending over the valley of the
Sée, with its network of small streams interlacing each other; Mont St.
Michel appears in the distance. The finest view is from the Botanic
gardens. The cathedral of Avranches fell at the end of the last century,
but a model of it is preserved in the museum. One stone remains,
carefully surrounded by massive chains, with an inscription recording
that it was the spot where Henry II. received absolution for the murder
of Thomas à Becket:--"Sur cette pierre, içi à la porte de la cathédrale
d'Avranches, après le meurtre de Thomas Becket, Archévêque de
Cantorbéry, Henri II., roi d'Angleterre, duc de Normandie, reçut à
genoux, des légats du pape, l'absolution apostolique, le dimanche xxii
Mai, 1172." The cemetery is at the foot of the hill; the tombs are of
granite, with the letters in relief: among them we read many
well-known English names.
At Pontorson we could find no remains of the castle of Du Guesclin,

which was nearly surprised by the English under a captain named
Felton, during the absence of Du Guesclin, with the connivance of the
"chambrières" of the Lady Typhaine, his wife. Already their
scaling-ladders were against the wall, when Juliana, Du Guesclin's
sister, agitated by a troublous dream, awoke suddenly, seized a sword,
rushed to the window, and upset three English who were coming up the
ladder, and they were killed by the fall. The enemy retired. Next
morning Du Guesclin, on his return to Pontorson, met Felton and his
party, attacked them, and took them prisoners. When Typhaine saw
Felton, she tauntingly exclaimed, "Comment, brave Felton, vous voilà
encore! C'est trop pour un homme de coeur comme vous d'être battu,
dans une intervalle de douze heures, une fois par la soeur, une autre par
le frère." Du Guesclin caused the faithless "chambrières" to be sewed
up in sacks and flung into the river.
John IV. Duke of Brittany conferred upon Du Guesclin the government
of Pontorson, of which territory he was personally lord, by right of his
mother. It was here he often resided, and here he celebrated being made
Constable of France by King Charles V., and fraternised with Olivier
de Clisson, agreeing to afford each other mutual help--"contre tous
ceux qui peuvent vivre et mourir." The granite church was founded by
Duke Robert, father of the Conqueror.
Pontorson is the most convenient place for visiting Mont St. Michel.
Our drive thither was by the banks of the river Couësnon, along a sandy
road, bordered on each side by hedges of tamarisks, which leads to the
"Grève," or sands, which have to be crossed to reach the Mount, a
distance of rather more than a mile. We met numbers of bare-legged
half-clad women and children, bringing in the produce of their fishing,
shrimps and cockles tied up in nets, and peasants with carts carrying in
sea sand for dressing the land. The appearance of Mont St. Michel is
very imposing, a cone of granite encircled by the sea. Above rises the
fortress, surmounted by the church, a height of 400 feet from the top to
the