OLD CHATEAUX. 45 In this the famous creator of the gardens of Versailles. château there is a portrait of Madame de Sévigné. There are also the old châteaux of Chassay, near St. Luce station, and La Gâcherie, on the right bank of the Erdre, fifteenth century; there is also the château of Goulaine. La Gâcherie was the scene of the fêtes given by Réné de Rohan to his sister-in-law, Marguerite de Valois, Queen of Navarre, and sister of François I. This château has a grand old fireplace. A pleasant excursion on the Erdre is by the little steamer to Nort, near which is the château of Lucinière; and last, but most interesting, the Château de Buron, about ten miles out of Nantes. The oldest portion of this château was built by the Duc de Rohan in 1385, and the rest is sixteenth century. The son of Madame de Sévigné sold it in 1700 to the Hersart family, who caused it to be restored by Ceineray. The room occupied by Madame de Sévigné is panelled in carved oak of the Louis Quatorze period. The railway to St. Nazaire is bordered along the quay by magnolias and horse-chestnuts; but after this is past it is not interesting, except that just before reaching Donges we have on the right La Grande Brière, a most extraordinary kind of dry swamp, from which large quantities of bog oak are dug. It is said that all the trees discovered here lie one way, their roots to the south-west and their tops north-east. We looked out at Donges with interest, for it was here that Madame de Lescure, afterwards Madame de la Rochejaquelein, wandered about in disguise when she and her mother and child had to shelter themselves among the peasants after the final defeat of the Royalist army. It was getting dusk when we reached St. Nazaire, so we did not see the dolmen just outside the town. We heard that the inns were full, and we were anxious to secure a carriage for our expedition to Le Croisic next morning. Pornic, the scene of "Fifine at the Fair," &c., is the favourite bathing-place of the Nantais; but it is in La Vendée, not in Brittany. THE PENINSULA OF LE CROISIC. La Guérande. CHAPTER II. Le Bourg de Batz. Le Croisic. WE started early for Le Croisic, having arranged to go first to La Guérande to breakfast. It was a singularly bright morning, and our little horse went along briskly. We asked our driver to stop at Escoublac, as we had heard the strange legend belonging to it, and he pulled up at the wretched little cabaret. It is a dreary-looking village, about two miles from the sea, surrounded by flat meadows and backed by a range of sand-hills. It once stood much nearer the sea, but the old village of Escoublac has been completely swallowed by the sand. Even now clouds of sand blow over the present village from the sandy dunes which lie between it and the sea. The story of its disappearance is told as an established fact. Once upon a time a venerable old man with a long white beard, and a young, pleasant-faced woman, came begging to Escoublac. They were in rags, and they seemed poorer than the poorest peasant that had ever been seen in the country. They asked for food and a night's lodging; but so hardhearted and niggardly were these inhabitants of Escoublac that no one gave the old man and the woman so much as a draught of cold water. Now, as is well known through the length and breadth of the land, hospitality is considered in Brittany as a sacred duty, and the beggar is regarded as one of God's afflicted, and is given the warmest corner by the fire, and often the most savoury morsel in the pot. At last, when the venerable old man and the pleasantfaced woman had reached the end of the village, and had found every door closed against them, they stood still. The woman clasped her hands in supplication, and seemed to weep; but the old man turned away with an indignant gesture, pulled three hairs from his beard, and blew them towards the sea; then he and the woman flew towards the clouds, and were soon out of sight. Almost at once there blew such a gale from the west as had never been felt at Escoublac. It rained thick clouds of sand, which spread over the doomed village, and by next morning there remained no trace of it or its inhabitants but the cock on the summit of the church spire, which being so much higher than the houses had not been swallowed up; and this spire remained for some years above ground. It has always been believed that God the Father and the Blessed Mary, having heard of the want of charity among the inhabitants of Escoublac, came down to punish them in person. The old château of Escoublac is called Lesnerac; it is now all modern, except a tower and some of the windows. A tall blind beggar stood by the little cabaret where we halted. He said a long prayer for us, and wished us pleasure and success in our travels. We put some sous in his greasy old cap, and he then began a much longer prayer, which we did not hear the end of, as we went to look at the little church. After leaving Escoublac we began to see saltmarshes spread over the country, and soon in the distance appeared the grey walls of La Guérande. We passed one or two châteaux, and drove into the Faubourg St. Michel, a long straggling street with houses on both sides. At the end of this we saw before us a very picturesque old gateway flanked by two machicolated towers with pointed caps, and overgrown in places with ivy and creeping plants. This is the Porte St. Michel, and over the low-browed circular-headed entrance are carved the arms of Guérande, and right and left of the gateway are fortifications and boulevards, shaded with elms and poplartrees. We drove straight to the quaint inn in the middle of this E |