THE OUBLIETTES.

75

feelings when he hears of atrocities of the same nature perpetrated in enlightened times and by a sovereign vaunted and held up as a nation's pride and admiration.

The contemptible Louis XV, brutal as he was vicious, imprisoned the last victim in this iron den, a wretched rhymer who had dared to print verses against that infamous woman, Madame de Pompadour. More fortunate than Dubourg, this man, named Desroches, was restored to liberty by the compassionate Louis XVI, who found no friendly hand to break his own fetters or save him from a cruel death!*

There were to be found also in this mysterious retreat several of those abysses of horror called oubliettes or vade in pace, which, however, have long since been filled up, or they would probably have been found useful in our times, which we must reluctantly call the period of the great French Revolution, when St. Michel served as a prison for three hundred priests, whose age and infirmities prevented their being transported! The last prisoner who found the mitigated punishment of imprisonment in these walls for attempted assassination, and who arrived here during our stay at Avranches, was the misguided

* See Notice Historique du Mont St. Michel, par M. Boudent Godelinière d'Avranches.

76

LA JEUNE FRANCE.

Barbés, whom French sentimentality attempted to exalt into a hero, chiefly perhaps on account of the devoted attachment of his sister, who condemned herself to reside on that barren rock in order to be near him. That she should say with the poet,

"I know not, I ask not, if guilt's in that heart,

I but know that I love thee, whatever thou art!"

may be natural enough; but that any excuse should be attempted by persons of any party, at this period of the world, for meditated murder, appears too monstrous to be credited. Yet the race of enthusiasts in mad romance is numerous amongst la jeune France, and every school-boy lets his beard grow like an Algerine as he once guided his hair into a Roman form, and imagined himself not the less a Brutus,

66 Ay, or a Catiline,

A noble Roman, though story wrong his fame."

L

CHAPTER V.

Sic et Non.-Abelard.-Lay of the Nightingale.-Sea-bathing in France.-Peasants.-Village Dandy.-The Shepherdess. St. Aubert.-Val Hubert.-Cimetière.-Bonnes Sœurs.

AREFULLY preserved in the public library of Avranches, among the most interesting and curious of that collection, is a work which, to the learned, is of

great importance and value.

It is no other than the celebrated and long-missing SIC ET NON of Abelard. This work, which made so great a sensation in his own time, and caused the author to be suspected of heresy, and considerably added to the persecutions which he experienced, is named by Guillaume de St. Thierry, when he denounced to St. Bernard, the great opponent of Abelard, the theology of that enlightened and daring philosopher, who saw too clearly for his age, and whose opinions were followed by Luther. The "Sic et Non" was pri

vately circulated among the numerous followers of Abelard, but appeared afterwards to have been suppressed and lost. Nevertheless it was still in existence. For a series of years, not being discovered in any of the libraries where it was expected to have been preserved, the search was given up in despair. On occasion of the devastation of the library of the monastery of St. Michel many of the volumes had been conveyed to Avranches. A work by M. de St. Victor, a man of great attainment, as well as a most accomplished and elegant poet, and who is one of the many who render the society of Avranches so agreeable, gave a catalogue of the MSS., and, this being examined, the fact became established that the long-lost treasure was in their possession.

There are to be seen in this valuable collection several MSS. finely preserved with illuminated letters of great beauty, one of St. Augustin, another the cartulary of the abbey of Mont St. Michel, and one a poetical work transcribed by Frère Nicolas de Launey, prior of Mont Dol, with the date of 1400. It is a collection of poems on sacred subjects, miracles, &c: the author was the Prior Eustache, of the order of St. Bruno, in 1330. The following, called Le Chant du Roussigneul, appeared to me to possess

THE LAY OF THE NIGHTINGALE.

79

so much merit that a translation, as close as possible, may not be unacceptable to the reader.

THE LAY OF THE NIGHTINGALE.

"Sweet nightingale! who com'st with gentle weather
To tell us Winter's reign is over now,

Bringing soft airs and happy hearts together,
Come at my call-my messenger be thou!

Go-where I have no power thy wing to follow,
To my best friend, and cheer him with thy lay;
All man's vain thoughts, ambitions false and hollow,
All the world's care charm with thy song away.

Salute my friend in tender moving numbers,
And speak of friendship in thy softest tone;
Say that my true affection never slumbers,
In every place my thoughts are his alone.

And thou, dear friend, receive this bird of greeting,
And let the symbol to thy heart be dear,
The Spirit, ever blest, shall hail this meeting,
And holy harmony instruct thine ear.

'Tis said this bird, when life's last knell is ringing,

Alights on some high bough, where thorns are rife, There tunes his throat, there pours his soul in singing, And in faint murmurs bids adieu to life.

His farewell song begins at early morning,
To praise his Maker all his skill he tries,
His hymn, with added grace, each hour adorning,
Nor pausing in his heavenly melodies.