Saint-Malo

“ With such strenuous practice it was certainly no wonder, as Madeline had pointed out, that Betty’s progress was rapid.
Saint Malo is a tiny, sleepy town, shut in by a great wall. Its narrow, crooked streets are lined with tall stone houses, there is a lovely old church towering over everything, and on all sides, when the tide is high, is the sea. At low tide there are great stretches of ugly yellow sand flats, where it is not safe to walk because of treacherous quicksands, and over which the incoming sea rushes “faster than a horse can gallop,” so the natives tell you proudly. ”

“ After the Mass, the funeral procession took its way between the ramparts and the sea towards the isle of the Grand-Bé. Two long rows of surpliced priests wound along the beach. The flags of the national guards who had come from the different towns of Brittany waved in the wind; the helmets gleamed in the sun. The cannon thundered at intervals. An innumerable crowd covered the ramparts of Saint-Malo, which rise so formidably above the perpendicular rocks and the sea. All the reefs, all the rocks bore human figures ”

“ Around Saint-Malo are a number of little barren islands that have not a tree nor a blade of grass, but only some old crumbling walls, great pieces of which are hurled into the sea by each succeeding storm.
On the other side of the bay, opposite the city and connected with dry land by a long pier, which separates the port from the ocean, is Saint-Servan, a large, empty, almost deserted locality, which lies peacefully in a marshy meadow. At the entrance to Saint-Servan rise the four towers of the Château de Solidor, which are connected by curtains and are perfectly black from top to bottom. ”

“ Saint-Malo suffered greatly in the wars waged between the Kings of France and England. The Earl of Richmond, later Henry VII. of England, in whom ended the Wars of the Roses, was taken to Saint-Malo. He was handed over by the Duke of Brittany to the ambassadors of Richard, who carried him to London to be put to death. He escaped from his guards, and took refuge in the cathedral, asylum quod in eâ urbe est inviolatissimum: the right of sanctuary dated back to the Druids, the first priests of Aaron's isle. ”

“ The general sack of the religious houses has since called up to my mind the spoliation of the abbey which was to me an omen.
The Camp at Saint-Malo.
I found the Marquis de Causans at Saint-Malo, and went through the streets of the camp under his escort. The tents, the stacked arms, the picketed horses made a fine spectacle in conjunction with the sea, the ships, the walls, and the distant steeples of the town. I saw gallop past me at full speed, in an hussar's uniform and mounted on a Barbary horse, one of those men who marked the end of a world, the Duc de Lauzun [103] . ”

“ But when morning comes, they are led back to a place in the city where they shed all their ferocity which, at night, is so great." [6]
Barring the disappearance of this four-legged police which at one time devoured M. du Mollet, the existence of which is confirmed by a contemporaneous text, the exterior of things has changed but little, no doubt, and even the civilized people living in Saint-Malo admit that it is very much behind the times. ”

“ Both ships arrived safe at St. Malo almost at the same time, although the "Sauveur" had departed twelve days later. You may imagine their joy in recalling to memory the dangers from which they had escaped. Father Enemond Massé and the whole company greatly praised the kindness and welcome they received in the city of Saint Malo, from my Lord the Bishop, from the Governor, the Magistrates, Merchants, and all the citizens in general.
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CHAPITRE XXX. [i.e., xxviii.] [259] LE VOYAGE DE LA VIRGINIE; & LE RETOUR EN LA NOUUELLE FRANCE. DIEV soit beny. ”

“ God in His wisdom granted to the prayer of humbleness and innocence the preservation of a life for which a vain renown was lying in wait.
This vow of the Breton peasant woman is no longer in the spirit of the age: yet nothing can be more touching than the intervention of a Divine Mother coming between Heaven and the child and sharing the terrestrial mother's solicitude.
After three years I was brought back to Saint-Malo. Already seven years had elapsed since my father had recovered the domain of Combourg. He wished to gain possession of the estates where his ancestors had lived and died ”

“ This saint is in the church of England calendar and almanacs. He is the “St. Malo, or Maclou,” of Alban Butler; according to whom he was born in England, and sent to Ireland for his education, where he was offered a bishopric but declined it. Going to Brittany he became disciple to a recluse named Aron, near Aleth, of which city he was the first bishop, and died November 15, 565. St. Malo derives its name from him. The ground whereon he stands in the church of England calendar is unknown. ”

“ The monks come to an island whereon they find the barrow of some giant of old time. St. Malo, seized with pity for the lost soul of the heathen, opens the mound and raises the dead to life. Then follows a strange conversation between the giant and the saint. He was slain, he says, by his kinsmen, and ever since has been tormented in the other world. In that nether pit they know (he says) of the Holy Trinity: but that knowledge is rather harm than gain to them, because they did not choose to know it when alive on earth. ”

“ But the religious character of the first settlement soon passed away. St Malo became famous as the headquarters of the corsairs of the northern coast. These had succeeded the Vikings of an earlier day, and they showed a hardihood and a reckless daring equal to that of their predecessors. Later on, in more settled times, the place fell into the hands of the fishermen and traders of northern France. When hardy sailors pushed out into the Atlantic ocean to reach the distant shores of America, St Malo became a natural port and place of outfit for the passage of the western sea. ”

“ After the long night-passage it is delightful to steam into the harbour of St. Malo. If the sea has been rough and unkindly, you at once pass from Purgatory to Paradise, with a relief those will understand who have experienced it. ”

“ Tomb of Chateaubriand, and View of St. Malo. St. Malo stands on a small granite island at the mouth of the Rance, connected, by a causeway called "Le Sillon," with the mainland. The space it occupies is so small, that castle, churches, streets, [pg 040] and towers are all crowded together, and the whole is nearly surrounded by a sea wall, which makes the town appear as if rising straight out of the ocean. Towards the sea, the bay is encircled with groups of craggy islets, many surmounted by forts, bristling up as the tide recedes, in every direction. ”

“ Curiously enough an accidental discovery of recent years seems to confirm in some degree the genuineness of the St Malo portrait. There stood until the autumn of 1908, in the French-Canadian fishing village of Cap-des-Rosiers, near the mouth of the St Lawrence, a house of very ancient date. Precisely how old it was no one could say, but it was said to be the oldest existing habitation of the settlement. Ravaged by perhaps two centuries of wind and weather, the old house afforded but little shelter against the boisterous gales and the bitter cold of the rude climate of the Gulf. ”

“ We are located in the best center of the country although there is no other advantage in this island than that it is well settled, and consequently we can maintain ourselves until your Majesty have us informed of what is best for your royal service and that we should support ourselves. We are stationed here at the gateway of great kingdoms and Maluco is very near, where our holy faith will be exalted and your royal patrimony increased, for there is a natural fitness for it. ”

“ The party settled on the island of Emenenic included their captain, Merveille, and young Pontgrave. Biard in his narrative terms them “the Malouins”—or people of St. Malo. “We were still,” he says, “one league and a half from the island when the twilight ended and night came on. The stars had already begun to appear when suddenly towards the northward a part of the heavens became blood red; and this light spreading little by little in vivid streaks and flashes, moved directly 21 over the settlement of the Malouins and there stopped. ”

“ We tarried awhile, and pleased ourselves with meditating on the nature of man, whose hopes, whether in the civilized or savage state, are so soon disappointed.
Departing from Molo, a beautiful prospect still accompanies the traveller, even after his quitting the sea; the last glimpse of it was a lovely bay, of which we took a sketch. We now came upon a good fruit country, with hedges of aloes. We noticed an aqueduct which ran from the mountains over some nameless and orderless masses of ruins. ”

“ There an angel appeared to them, and told them that they could go no farther, but could return to their own abode, carrying from the island some of those fruits and precious stones which were reserved to be distributed among the saints when all the world should be brought to the true faith. In order to hasten that time, it appears that St. Malo, the youngest of the sea-faring monks, had wished, in his zeal, to baptize some one, and had therefore dug up a heathen giant who had been, for some reason, buried on the blessed isle. ”

“ St. Malo is one of the most picturesque places in France, and one of the most ancient. It is fortified, and its gray, moss-grown walls and battlements, when seen from the entrance of the harbor, carry one back to old feudal times.
Frederick, having passed his trunks through the custom-house, made his way to the best hotel in the place—a grim-looking stone building, with mullioned windows, rusty iron balconies, and peaked roof, which looked more like one of Dore's pictures than any modern hostelry. ”

“ This island is the chief of all the islands of Maluco, and the king hereof is king of 70 islands besides. The king with his people are Moors in religion, observing certain new moons, with fastings; during which fasts they neither eat nor drink in the day, but in the night. ”

“ Maule, the next province to the south, is bounded on the east by the Andes, on the south-east by Chillan, on the south-west by Itata, and on the west by the Pacific. It is about 176 miles from east to west, and about 120 from north to south where broadest; and is watered by the Lantue, Rio Claro, Pangue, Lircai, Huenchullami, Maule, Putagan, Achiguema, Longavi, Loncamilla, Purapel, and other inferior rivers. It abounds in grain, wine, fruits, gold, salt, cattle, and fish; which last are found in great quantities both in the sea and rivers. ”

“ Therefore if the king our lord take Maluco for his own (for people say that his Majesty has a right to it) , the ships sent out will be able to carry out two commissions in one voyage, taking on a cargo of cloves and of cinnamon, for Maluco lies in the course, and is a very good port, where they must of necessity touch. I have called attention to what I have seen in this island. Finally, I shall now speak of all the others which are on terms of peace, at least as far as concerns those where the Spaniards have been. The second is the island of Negros, which is absolutely peaceful. ”

“ As to the second, we assert that the Malucos fall many degrees within their Majesties' demarcation. In verification of this assertion it is to be noted, that, since the sphere has a circumference of three hundred and sixty degrees, this number should, of necessity, correspond to the distance, demonstrated by the deputies of the King of Portugal, to be comprised between the meridian of the island of La Sal and the Malucos, plus our assertion of the distance westward to the same Malucos. ”

“ A warm, balmy breeze that had passed over the orange trees of Sorrento and Amalfi felt deliciously refreshing to the inhabitants of the capital, who had succumbed to torpor in the enervating softness of the day. The whole town was waking from a long siesta, breathing freely after a sleepy interval; the Molo was covered with a crowd of eager people dressed out in the brightest colours; the many cries of a festival, joyous songs, love ditties sounded from all quarters of the vast amphitheatre, which is one of the chief marvels of creation ”

“ Mola is in itself an insignificant place, but it derives interest, if not grandeur from its beautiful site; it consists of one street, formed by the Via Appia on the side, at the foot of a range of broken picturesque hills and mountains, covered with corn, vines, and olive-trees, and topped with rocks, churches, and towers. ”

“ Much has come to pass at Malmaison. New rocks and fountains, blocks of carven marble, fluted pillars uprearing antique temples, vases and urns in unexpected places, bridges of stone, bridges of wood, arbours and statues, and a flood of flowers everywhere, new flowers, rare flowers, parterre after parterre of flowers. Indeed, the roses bloom at Malmaison. It is youth, youth untrammeled and advancing, trundling a country ahead of it as though it were a hoop. ”

“ Maule is traversed from north to south by the coast range and its surfaces are much broken. The Buchupureo river flows westward across the province. The climate is mild and healthy. Agriculture and stock-raising are the principal occupations, and hides, cattle, wheat and timber are exported. Transport facilities are afforded by the Maule and the Itata, which are navigable, and by a branch of the government railway from Cauquenes to Parral, an important town of southern Linares. ”