278

GENEVIÈVE DE RUSTEFAN.

'Tis my

first mass this morn, I say;
Will any come to grace the day?"

"Oh yes, young priest, and thou shalt see
The first who offers shall be me:

The plate shall twenty crowns receive,
Ten more thy god-mother shall give,
In honour of our pious priest

Who follows thus the Lord's behest."

PART V.

I stray'd by Penn-al-Lenn that day*
For I the mass was fain to hear,

I saw the people in dismay,

Come trooping fast with looks of fear;
"Aged mother, wilt thou say
If the mass is done to-day?"

"He begun it, fair and well,
But it is not ended yet,

For his tears so fast they fell

That his books of prayer were wet.

"No: in vain to read he strove,

Vainly tried to end the hymn,
For his heart was torn with love,

And his eyes with tears were dim.
"He would check their rising flood,
He would yet the words repeat,
At the altar where he stood

Geneviève is at his feet!
And she cried, in piercing tone,

For the love of God-forbear!

Iann! every hope is gone,

And I perish in despair!

* The bard is supposed to be speaking in his own person.

GENEVIÈVE DE RUSTEFAN.

Iann! thou hast caused my death,
Take, oh! take my dying breath!'"

Iann Flécher since that time

Is the rector of the town:
I who made this mournful rhyme
Oft have wander'd up and down,
By the church and by the vale
Where I heard the fatal tale,

And have seen the young priest grieve
O'er the grave of Geneviève :

279

CHAPTER XVII.

Montfort la Canne.-The Duck and her Ducklings.-Rennes. -Dogs.-Enfer and Paradis.- Monk Lover.-The Cise

leur.

'Tis not antiquity, nor author

That makes Truth truth, although Time's daughter.

WALLER.

OT far from Dinan, on the road to Rennes, is Evran, once a place of importance, and remarkable, in an historical point of view, as having for

merly witnessed the treaty for

the division of Bretagne between Charles de Blois and the Comte de Montford, in 1360; and interesting, from being the scene of the capture of Du Guesclin by the English, in 1352. But for these recollections one would pass through Evran without notice, as it has nothing to recommend it; all its antiquities are swept away, and the country round is flat, and suited to a battle, it presents, consequently, no picturesque

MONTFORT LA CANNE.

281

features. At some little distance, are the remains of the castle of the Beaumanoirs, where the celebrated hero of the combat of thirty resided.

Another castle excites interest in this neighbourhood, not so much from the remarkable ruins which are, however, fine, but from a singular legend which attaches to it, and which has something so extraordinary in its nature that it is worthy of attention, as another proof of the extent of superstitious belief in this part of the world.

It is currently believed throughout this district, that at a certain period the town of Montfortsur-Meu has a miraculous visitation, and that the favoured spot is the church of St. Nicholas. It is not, however, the saint himself who comes from time to time to observe how his votaries are going on, for as there is scarcely a town in France where a church is not dedicated to him, the trouble would probably be too great. Neither is it any of the saints in the calendar who think proper to revisit this nether world, and shake the dispositions of the inhabitants" with thoughts beyond the reaches of their souls." It would be easy to lose oneself in conjecture amidst such a wide maze as the credulity of the Bretons leads to.

On the painted windows of the church of St.

282

LEGEND OF THE DUCK

Nicholas, on the banners of the same, and on most of the ornaments, carved at the foot of St. Nicholas's statue on the grand altar, indeed wherever the representation can be placed, is to be observed the forms of a duck and her train of ducklings. From time immemorial these characters have held a conspicuous figure in the annals of Montfort, and tradition recounts their history in these terms.

It happened once that a lord of the castle of Montfort became enamoured of a beautiful young girl, one of the peasants on his estate. As his professions, his offers, and his threats, had no effect upon her, he had recourse to the usual method with feudal tyrants in those Bluebeard days; and having carried her off, shut her up in solitary confinement in his castle till she became more amenable to order. The young peasant, however, not at all pleased with so violent a demonstration of affection, applied herself diligently to her prayers, and addressing her supplications particularly to St. Nicholas, who, it seems, amongst his numerous avocations, devotes his attention to the care of distressed damsels, she made him a solemn promise that if by his means she could escape from the tower in which she was confined, she would go every year to his