FONTENELLE.

To see no fire upon the hearth,

To hear no sound of joy or mirth :
From floor to floor, from room to room,
All wrapt in misery and gloom;
The seats, the bowers-deserted all,
And green weeds springing in the hall.
The world all bright, and gay, and fair,
But death and desolation there!
While at the gate the poor attend

And bitter tears of anguish shed,
"Alas! our mistress and our friend!
The mother of the poor is dead!"

O welan sivoaz, 'nn eur dremen:
-Chétu maro mamm ar baourien !

185

thus beautifully rendered into French by M. de Villemarqué.

66

Quiconque viendrait à Koadelan aurait le cœur navré, aurait le cœur navré de douleur, à voir le foyer sans feu;

"A voir les orties croître sur le seuil de la porte et au rez de chaussée, dans la maison et dans la salle, et le méchant monde faire le beau !

"Et les pauvres gens pleurer en passant, pleurer avec angoisse, helas! en passant: voilà qu'elle est morte la mère des pauvres !"

CHAPTER XII.

Dinan. - Duclos. - Old Houses. -Towers. - Pall-Mail.Town Clock.-Bells.-Ballad of the Baron de Jauioz.The Bucheron. Mysterious aid.-Enchanted Wood.-Disappointment. The Fiend.-Discovery.

HARLES

DUCLOS PINOT, the mayor of Dinan, to whom the promenades called "des Grands et Petits Fossés " owe their admirable arrangement, is honoured in his memory

by a bust, which is placed in a conspicuous part of them, but with more zeal than taste. The first impression experienced in looking at the ugly pillar surmounted by an ugly head, which occupies the platform of a razed tower, is unmitigated vexation; but when you become aware of the services rendered to his native town by this distinguished man, you are content to wish a little more elegance had directed his grateful concitoyens when they erected this monument in the front of the glorious antique walls which look down upon it. They show his house in a

OLD HOUSES.

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neighbouring street, and have made an opening, probably an improvement, that the elevated bust may form a point de vue: all openings in French towns deserve to be commended, as the more fresh air introduced amongst the close and confined streets the better: there are very many of these remaining in Dinan, picturesque in the extreme, and formed expressly for the pencil of Prout, but dark, dirty, and inodorous to such an extent as to be almost impassable.

When we visited the first of these antique towns of France, our impression was to deplore the modern improvements, but we soon found reason to rejoice in such salutary proceedings, and to hail with delight the sight of scaffolds and destruction!

A very few years ago the Place du Champ adjoining the Place Du Guesclin, which is now a well-paved open square, surrounded with good houses, was a horrible marsh, which every Thursday was trodden by immense droves of pigs, who indulged to their heart's content in the mud and filth, of which the place was full; the other part of the Champ was occupied by cattle, and as from week to week it remained as left by them, some idea may be formed of the horror of such a state of things! At length the inhabitants seemed to awake from the lethargy of ages,

188

TOUR DE BREST.

which is now the case all over France, as if a geni had suddenly appeared and touched the natives of a slumbering country with his wand, and all this accumulation of disorder and slovenliness was cleared away; a host of black old houses knocked down, and the present airy, extensive and ornamental space procured. Here and there still peep out from amongst the new buildings an antique front and peaked roof, but all is cleanly white-washed and repaired, and adds to the adornment of the square.

The former prison of the town was in the towers of the Porte de Brest, than which a more damp, dirty, loathsome-looking corner can hardly be conceived, yet here the wretched culprits were confined; many of the lower rooms must have always been in a flooded condition, and all sorts of bad air was for ever breathing round the blackened walls. At this moment, an enormous dirty pool, probably the remains of the moat, bathes the foot of one of these hideous towers. It is to be expected that attention will be paid to this part of the town, and the nuisance removed. It appears that shortly after the prisoners had been taken to the Tour St. Louis, where the prison now is, a great part of the northern tower of Brest fell, and it was then proposed that both should be destroyed to pre

TOUR ST. JULIEN.

189

vent further accidents: however, it was found easier to talk of doing so, than accomplishing a feat which English and French armies had in vain attempted for ages; and, instead of persevering in the design, the proud old fortress was patched up and made safe; a circumstance, with all one's attachment to antiquity, scarcely to be rejoiced at, as the inhabitants have lost an accession of fresh air and light by the preservation of a defence which they have somewhat less need of now than when Edward and Clisson were thundering at their gates. The antique effect is also totally destroyed, by two extinguisher-shaped roofs which modern taste has added. Another of the gates, La Porte St. Malo, is a heavy pile of building, with fortifications partly modern, and little less dirty than its brother of Brest.

There are several fine public establishments in Dinan one of the most conspicuous is the Seminaire, formerly the Communauté des Cordéliers, founded in 1240 by Henri d'Avaugour, in the church of which formerly were seen the tombs of the founder, and those of several Dukes of Brittany. A manufactory of sail-cloth now exists, conducted by means of steam, where was once the community of the Ursulines de St. Charles.