Finistère

“ It was not merely that Gaston de Trélan’s military situation was hopeless—almost ludicrously so—alone with a few score men not merely against Brune, but, since the submission of the other leaders, against La Barolière and Chabot as well; it was that if he refused the terms he was condemning Finistère to the fate that had been Vendée’s years ago under Turreau’s colonnes infernales. If he had any heart in him, any humanity, he must drink this bitter cup. The chance of dying had not been granted him; to kill himself was tantamount to refusing. ”

“ And in France a coarse yellow and brown sea-weed, which is found in Finistere, is carefully dried and piled up for winter use. A false log, resembling wood, but made of some composition which does not consume, is often used in that country. It absorbs and throws out the heat, and adds to the looks of the hearth and to the comfort of the room. ”

“ Sweetheart went with her, while I stopped an instant to chat with Stuart.
"That is Madame Ylven," he said. "She is the most stunning peasant woman in Finistére, and you will want for nothing." Then, after a moment, "Good heavens! Jack, what a beauty your wife——" He stopped short, but added, "What a delicious little beauty Sweetheart has grown to be!"
A white-coiffed maid came to the door, and said, "Will monsieur have the goodness to come? Madame wishes him to see the rooms." ”

“ Nor were Roland and Artamène, in the background, innocent of craning their necks to see likewise.
“Ten bags—two thousand five hundred pistoles in each,” murmured the Comte reflectively. “How much is that, I wonder, in modern money? And there are jewels too, apparently.”
The Marquis de Kersaint’s lips were compressed, his face an enigma. “It certainly appears to be worth taking risks for,” he said at last. “Money is what we most need in the world now for Finistère. We can get the men; the last few months have shown me that clearly, but of what use are unarmed men?” ”

“ Coming to Paris in 1790, he associated himself with Bernardin de St Pierre. After being twice imprisoned during the Terror he retired to Brittany, where he devoted himself to literature till 1814. In 1818 he returned to Paris as deputy for Finistère, and sat in the Chamber till 1824, becoming one of the recognized liberal leaders. ”

“ Again, Finn lives to be an old man, but the immortal was in him, and either he has been born again in several re-incarnations (for the Irish held from time to time the doctrine of the transmigration of souls) , or he sleeps, like Barbarossa, in a secret cavern, with all his men around him, and beside him the mighty horn of the Fianna, which, when the day of fate and freedom comes, will awaken with three loud blasts the heroes and send them forth to victory. Old as she is, Ireland does not grow old, for she has never reached her maturity. Her full existence is before her, not behind her. ”

“ Fionne, or Finnius, was the grandsire of Mile-sius; and it is not only a name to be met with through every period of our history, but there are few old families even at this day in Ireland, who have not the appellative of Finnius in some one or other of its branches; and a large tract of the province of Leinster is called Fingal ”

“ On the western side of Yorkshire the land heaves up to the Pennine Chain—the "backbone of England," as it is often called. It is not a chain of sharply-defined peaks; it is rather a great mass of rolling moorland whose tablelands, the "fells," are divided from each other by deep valleys, long and narrow—the famous "dales." At the foot of each dale flows a swift river, which, twisting and turning round sharp angles of rock, leaping from ledge to ledge in sheets of foam, or gliding in deep quiet stretches below an overhanging wood, affords most striking and picturesque scenery. ”

“ A long-stemmed key on the ring fitted the keyhole, but before Finnerty could shoot the bolt the native whispered: "Not yet, sahib." He produced two candles and a box of matches. "Remember, sahib, that no man owns the light of a fire; here is an eye that makes no betraying light." And he placed in Finnerty's fingers a slim male-bamboo rod.
At a twist from Finnerty's hand a heavy bolt in the lock glided back with noiseless ease; a pull caused the stone-faced door to swing forward in the same frictionless quiet, and beyond was a gloom as deep as that of the cave. ”

“ As the propinquity removes, they become less considered, till at last they degenerate to be of the common people, unless some accidental acquisition of wealth supports them above their station. As this hath been an ancient custom, most of the farmers and cottars are of the name and clan of the proprietor.’ This exactly describes the Irish Finé in its restricted sense, where the immediate kin of the Ceannfiné or chief consists of seventeen persons, forming the Duthach Finé, from whence they pass by degrees into the Duthaign Daine or commonalty of the Finé or sept. ”

“ Charles James Finlayson was born on the 27th August 1790, in the parish of Larbert, and county of Stirling. Owing to the death of his father during his childhood, and the poverty of the family, he was never at school. While a cow-herd to a farmer, he taught himself letters in the fields. With a fine ear for music and an excellent voice, he took delight in singing such scraps of old ballads as he had learned from the cottage matrons. ”

“ Fintan son of Niall Niamglonnach arrived. The illustrious good druid Cathbad met him and bade him welcome.
"Welcome thy coming, O beautiful, illustrious youth; thou mighty warrior of the great province of Ulster, against whom neither plunderers nor spoilers nor pirates can contend; thou border-man of the province of Ulster."
"That is the welcome of a man that asks a boon," said Fintan. ”

“ It seemed ridiculous that any one so rich and attractive and young should care to pass long periods of time at a wild spot near Finisterre, in an old château perched upon the rocks, completely alone but for an elderly female companion. ”

“ No other man in any age or country seems to have so fastened himself in the memories of the people of his own race and lineage. It may be safely said that neither Julius Caesar nor Charlemagne have impressed themselves on popular imagination so much as Finn and those associated with him have. Those who have not studied the Celtic folk-lore of Ireland and Scotland can form but an incomplete idea of the overwhelming immensity of the folk-lore about Finn and his cycle that exists even yet. ”

“ The Connacht peasant has no difficulty in following Finn into the cave of Slieve Cullinn, where the witch turned him into a withered old man, for the village where he lives has traditions of the same kind; the love affairs of Finn, of Dermot and Grania, and of many others, are quite in harmony with a hundred stories, and with the temper, of Irish lovers. A closer, a simpler humanity than that of the other cycles pervades the Fenian cycle, a greater chivalry, a greater courtesy, and a greater tenderness. ”

“ How far the more admirable traits of Highland character may be attributed to the assimilating influence of the idea of Fingal we cannot decide. That our character as a people has been largely influenced for good by the power of his example we have no doubt. The bards, an order of the old Druidic hierarchy, became the priests of the Fingalian hero-worship. Songs, elegies, and poetic legends formed their service of praise. To induce their countrymen to reverence and imitate so great and glorious a Gael as Fingal was the object of many of their bardic homilies. ”

“ The secret brotherhood of the Fenians, organized for the overthrow of the English rule in Ireland, derived its name from Fiona Mac Cumhal, better known as Fingal, after whom Fingal’s Cave is designated. The correct interpretation of the Gaelic word Fenian is “a hunter.” Another secret society of quite recent origin is that of the Irish Invincibles, established, as was publicly stated by Carey the Informer, for the “making of history by killing tyrants.” Their title is due to the boast that they defy extermination. The Ribbonmen take their name from the distinctive badge which they wear. ”

“ Finmark (29) , a province of Norway, lying in the extreme N., with a rocky and indented coast and a barren and mountainous interior; fishing is the main industry of the inhabitants, who are chiefly Lapps.
Finns, the native inhabitants of Finland, and originally of the districts in Sweden and Norway as well, are of the Mongolian type, and were settled in Europe before the arrival of the Slavic and Teutonic races. ”

“ Finglen, in Loarn, battle at, i. 284284. Fingaill. See Galls. Finguine, leader of the Picts of Manann, slain, i. 270270. Finguine, son of Drostan, slain, i. 288288. Finlaic (Finleikr) , mormaer of Moray and Ross, defeated by Sigurd, i. 375375; afterwards restored, 389389; slain, 397397. Finnian, influence of, ii. 5151. Finntuir, son of Thorfinn, i. 409409. Fintan Munnu, an Irish saint, iii. 92. Firbolg, the, i. 138138, 173173 seq., 226226; iii. 92, 105. Fishing-villages established in the Highlands and Islands, iii. 376. Flaithbertach, king of Ireland, is assisted by the fleet of Dalriada, i. ”

“ When great trouble threatens Ireland, or one of her heroes is near death, there are three huge waves which, at three different points, rise, roaring, out of the ocean, and roll, flooding every creek and bay and cave and river round the whole coast with tidings of sorrow and doom. Later on, in the Fenian tales, the sea is not so prominent. Finn and his clan are more concerned with the land. Their work, their hunting and adventures carry them over the mountains and plains, through the forests, and by the lakes and rivers. ”

“ Loch Finne—less, as the whim of the fancy might have it, a loch than a noble river—runs south in a placid band; the Cowal hills rise high on the left, bare but of heather and gall; in front is the heart of Argile, green with the forest of Creag Dubh, where the stag bays in the gloaming. For miles behind the town and castle lies a plain, flat and rich, growing the most lush crops. The town itself, that one could almost throw a stone down on, looks like a child’s toy. ”

“ The name of the Fians, belonging to Ireland as well as to the Scottish Highlands, and fitly represented in the dark doings of Fenians, may point to Finland, where small Laplanders still exist in flesh and blood. The “good people,” who long haunted Highland and Lowland glens,—but it seems they cannot abide the scratching of steel pens or the squeaking of slate pencils,—were apt to be tiny, of retiring habits, and in the way of disappearing underground. ”

“ Taken for all in all, he was not alone the bravest, but the ablest, of Irish princes and warriors since the days of King Brian, and it was a sad day for Ireland when the word went through Leinster and rang around the island that King Art was dead. Many a dark generation passed away before such another chief, or any one worthy to be mentioned as a rival of his fame, arose in that unfortunate land. ”

“ The reply was: “They mean to pass there and flank our left!” St. Ruth observed them for a moment, laughed incredulously, having still “that fatal confidence in the strength of his left flank,” and exclaimed in his impetuous fashion: “Pardieu! but they are brave! What a pity they should be so exposed!” A few minutes previously, exhilarated by the splendid prowess of the Irish infantry, in the centre and at Urachree, he threw his plumed hat in the air and shouted: “Well done, my children! The day is ours! Now we will beat them back even to the gates of Dublin!” ”

“ If a man enters the Fianna Eireann, and after entering fails in either of these things, then the Fians cast him out, and disgrace rests on him whereever he goes."
"We pledge you our word," said they, "that in neither of these things shall we ever fail. Nor are we without knowledge, for certain gifts are ours that may be of use to you some time or other."
"What are they?" asked Fionn.
"I will watch over and guard the Fianna of Ireland, both night and day," said one.
"That is a good thing for one man to be able to do," remarked Fionn ”

“ In Ireland, it was different. The people there refused, as a great majority, to conform to the new order of things. They obeyed the Pope, as their spiritual chief, and went to mass and received the sacraments as usual. In Ulster, particularly, the people, headed by John O’Neill, Prince of Tyrone, surnamed “The Proud,” resisted all English encroachments, civil and religious. A bloody war resulted. The English generals and some of the Anglo-Irish lords were commissioned by Elizabeth to 120force the new religion down the throats of the Irish people at the point of the sword. ”

“ At the conclusion of the Fians' visit the king gave them presents of gold and silver cups, inset with precious stones, and much gold and silver too; but to Fionn he gave a stately black horse, with bridle and head-piece of golden chain-work, from which hung little musical golden bells.
"There is no horse in Ireland so swift as Black Flame," said the king, stroking the proudly arched neck; "indeed in the whole world, except the wave-stepping steed of Manannan, there is none to surpass him, for he is descended from the horses of the Sidhe. ”

“ Of the Second Order of Saints, the men who shone like the moon in the firmament of our early Irish Church, Finnian has been always recognized as the teacher and the chief. He has been compared to the rose tree to which the bees [Pg 204] from every quarter gather in order to extract the honey. His seminary at Clonard has been described by others as a wonderful treasure-house, where illustrious men from all parts of Ireland assembled together in order to enrich themselves with the wealth of ecclesiastical discipline and Scriptural knowledge. ”