The Forest of Vazon | Page 2

long buried under the sand. Some of the trees and boughs
were at first mistaken for wreckage, but the fishermen soon discovered
their error and loaded their carts with the treasure locally known as
"gorban." Subsequent researches have shown that acorns and hazel-nuts,
teeth of horses and hogs, also pottery and instruments of the same
character as those found in the cromlechs, exist among the Vazon peat
deposits. There is therefore abundant evidence that the legends relating
to the former inhabitants of the forest are based on traditions resting on
an historical foundation.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
--TRADITION

CHAPTER II.
--SUPERSTITION

CHAPTER III.
--DEVOTION

CHAPTER IV.
--REVELATION

CHAPTER V.
--AFFLICTION

CHAPTER VI.
--CONSOLATION

CHAPTER VII.
--ANNIHILATION

CHAPTER I.
TRADITION.
"What can he tell that treads thy shore? No legend of thine olden time,
No theme on which the mind might soar High as thine own in days of
yore."
The Giaour.--BYRON
In the beginning of the eighth century Guernsey was a favoured spot.
Around, over the Continent and the British Isles, had swept successive
conquests with their grim train of sufferings for the conquered; but
these storm-clouds had not burst over the island. The shocks which
preceded the fall of the Roman Empire had not been felt, nor had the
throes which inaugurated the birth of Frankish rule in Gaul and Saxon

supremacy in Britain, disturbed the prevailing tranquillity. Occasional
descents of pirates, Northmen from Scandinavian homes or Southmen
from the Iberian peninsula, had hitherto had a beneficial effect by
keeping alive the martial spirit and the vigilance necessary for
self-defence. In the third century three Roman ships had been driven on
shore and lost; the legionaries who escaped had established themselves
in the island, having indeed for the moment no alternative. When their
commander succeeded in communicating with Gaul he suggested a
permanent occupation, being secretly influenced by tales of mineral
wealth to which he had lent an ear. Disillusioned and recalled, he was
followed by a sybarite, whose palate was tickled by banquets of fish of
which he wrote in raptures to his friends at Capri and Brindisi. This
excellent man, dying of apoplexy in his bath, was replaced by a rough
soldier, who lost no time in procuring the evacuation of a post where he
saw with a glance that troops were uselessly locked up. From this time
nothing had been heard of the Romans; their occupation had lasted
forty years, and in another forty the only physical traces of it remaining
were a camp at Jerbourg, the nearly obliterated tessellated pavement
and fragments of wall belonging to the sybarite's villa, which occupied
the site in the King's Mills Valley where the Moulin de Haut now
stands, the pond in the Grand Mare in which the voluptuary had reared
the carp over which, dressed with sauces the secret of which died with
him, he dwelt lovingly when stretched on his triclinium, and the basins
at Port Grat in which he stored his treasured mullet and succulent
oysters. The islanders were of one mind in speeding the parting guests,
but the generation which saw them go were better men than their
fathers who had trembled at the landing of the iron-thewed demi-gods.
Compelled to work as slaves, they had learnt much from their masters;
a knowledge of agriculture and of the cultivation of the grape, the
substitution of good weapons and implements of husbandry for those of
their Celtic ancestors, improved dwellings, and some insight into
military discipline,--these were substantial benefits which raised them
in some respects above their Continental and British neighbours,
among whom patriotism had, on the disappearance of the civilization of
the Romans, revived the more congenial barbarism. Arrivals among
them of Christian monks, scanty at first, more frequent since the
landing of S. Augustine in Britain, had also had a certain effect. The

progress of conversion was, however, slow; the people were bigoted,
and the good fathers were compelled, as in Brittany, to content
themselves with a few genuine converts, wisely endeavouring rather to
leaven the mass by grafting Christian truths on the old superstitions
than to court certain defeat, possible expulsion or massacre, by striving
to overthrow at once all the symbols of heathenism.
The island was larger in extent than it is at present, as, in addition to the
Vale district, the islet of Lihou, Vazon Bay, and the rock group known
as the Hanois formed part of it. It is with the events that altered this
configuration that the following legend deals.

CHAPTER II.
SUPERSTITION.
"Awestruck, the much-admiring crowd Before the virgin vision bowed,
Gaz'd with an ever-new delight, And caught fresh virtues at the sight."
EDWARD MOORÉ'S Fables.
On the 24th of June, in the year 708, merry crowds were thronging to
Vazon Forest. It