A Childhood in Brittany Eighty Years Ago By ANNE DOUGLAS SEDGWICK

Author of "A Fountain Sealed," etc.

This little sheaf of childish memories has been put together from many talks, in her own tongue, with an old French friend. The names of her relatives have, by her wish, been changed to other names, taken from their Breton properties, or slightly altered while preserving the character of the Breton original.

CHAPTER I

QUIMPER AND BONNE MAMAN

WAS born at Quimper in Brit­ be parted from it, gave this child, to re­ tany on the first of August, place it, a handsome doll. It had legs 1833, at four o'clock in stuffed with sawdust and a clumsily the morning, and I have painted cardboard head, and on this head been told that I looked it wore a bourrelet. The bourrelet was about me resolutely and a balloon-shaped cap made of plaited fixed a steady gaze on the people in the wicker, and was worn by young children room, so that the doctor said, "She is not to protect their heads when they fell. We, blind, at all events." too, wore them in our infancy, and I re­ The first thing I remember is a hideous member that I was very proud when wear­ doll to which I was passionately attached. ing mine and that I thought it a very It belonged to the child of one of the ser­ pretty head-dress. vants, and my mother, since I would not I could not have been more than three 293

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED 294 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE years old when I was brought down held before my father on his saddle as we to the grand salon to be shown to a friend rode through woods. He wore an easy of my father's, an Englishman, on his way Byronic collar and always went bare­ ^ to England from India, headed. He spent most of his time on and a pink silk dress I horseback, visiting his farms or hunting. then wore, and my in­ My father was of a wealthy bourgeois tense satisfaction in it, is family of Landerneau, and it must have my next memory. It had been his happy character and love of sport a stiff little bodice and rather than his wealth—he was master of skirt, and there were pink hounds and always kept the pack — that rosettes over my ears. But made him popular in Quimper, for the I could not have been a pretty child, for gulf between the bourgeois and the nob­ my golden hair, which grew abundantly lesse was almost impassable. Yet not only in later years, was then very scanty, and was he popular, but he had married my my mouth was large. I was stood upon mother, who was of an ancient Breton a mahogany table, of which I still see the family, the Rosvals. One of the Rosvals vast and polished spaces beneath me, and fought in the Combats des Trente against Mr. John Dobray, when I was introduced the English, and the dying and thirsty to him by my proud father, said, "So this Beaurnanoir to whom it was said on that is Sophie." historic day, "Bois ton sang, Beauman- Mr. Dobray wore knee-breeches, silk oir," was a cousin of theirs. stockings, and a high stock. I see my My mother was a beautiful woman father, too, very tall, robust, and fair, with black hair and eyes of an intense with the pleasantest face. But my fath­ dark blue. She was unaware of her own er's figure fills all my childhood. I was loveliness, and was much amused one day his pet and darling. When I cried and when her little boy, after gazing intently was naughty, my mother would say: at her, said, "Matnan, you are very beau­ "Take your daughter. She tires me and tiful." She repeated this remark, laugh­ is insufferable." Then my father would ing, to my father, on which he take me in his arms and walk up and said, "Yes, my dear, you are." down with me while he sang me to sleep My mother was extremely with old Breton songs. One of these ran: proud, and not at all flattered that she should be plain Mme. Jesus peguen brasve, Kerouguet, although she was de­ Plegar douras nene; voted to my father and it was the Jesus peguen brasvc, happiest menage. I remember one day see­ Ad ondar garan te! ing her bring to my father looking, for all her feigned brightness, a little conscious, This, as far as I remember, means, "May some new visiting-cards she had had Jesus be happy, and may His grace make printed, with the name of Kerouguet re­ us all happy." duced to a simple initial, and followed by At other times my father played strange, several of the noble ancestral names of her melancholy old Breton tunes to me on a own family. violin, which he held upright on his knee, "What's this?" said my father, laughing. using the bow across it as though it were "We needed some new cards," said my a cello. He was, though untaught, ex­ mother, "and I dislike so much the name ceedingly musical, and played by ear on of Kerouguet." the clavecin anything he had heard. It But my father, laughing more than must have been from him that I inherited ever, said: my love of music, and I do not remember "Kerouguet you married and Kerouguet the time that I was not singing. you must remain," and the new cards had I see myself, also, at the earliest age, to be relinquished.

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"WE PLATjaj IN THE GABDEN"

My mother, with her black hair and fond of them. Fruit-tress grew against blue eyes, had a charming nose of the sort the walls, and beyond the groves and called "un nez Roxalane." It began very flower beds and winding gravel paths was straight and fine, but had a flattened little an orchard, with apricot-, pear-, and plateau on the tip which we called "la apple-trees, and the clear little river promenade de maman." My memory of Odel, with its washing-stones, where the her then is of a very active, gay, authori­ laundry-maids beat the household linen in tative young woman, going to balls, pay­ the cold, running water. ing and receiving visits, and riding out It was pleasant to hear the clap-clap-clap with my father, wearing the sweeping on a hot summer day. Is it known that habit of those days and an immense beaver the pretty pied water-wagtail is called la hat and plume. lavandiere from its love of water and its Quimper is an old town, and the hotels manner of beating up and down its tail of the noblesse, all situated in the same as our washerwomen wield their wooden quarter and on a steep street, were of beaters ? ' blackened, crumbling stone. From portes- Beyond the river, were the woods where cocheres .one entered the courtyards, and I often rode with my father, and beyond the gardens behind stretched far into the the woods distant ranges of mountains. I country. looked out at all this from my nursery- In the courtyard of our hotel was windows, with their frame of climbing- a stone staircase, with elaborate carv­ roses and heliotrope. Near my window ings, like those of the Breton churches, was a great lime-tree of the variety known leading to the upper stories; but for use as American. The vanilla-like scent of there were inner staircases. My mother's its flowers was almost overpowering, and boudoir, the petit salon, the grand salon, all this fragrance gave my mother a head­ the salle-a-manger, and the billiard-room ache, and she had to have her room moved were on the ground floor and gave out away from the garden to another part of upon the garden. the house. How clearly I see this room The high walls that ran along the of my mother's, with its high, canopied street and surrounded the garden were four-poster bed and the pale-gray paper concealed by plantations of trees, so that on the walls covered with yellow fleurs- one seemed to look out into the country. de-lis ! Flower-beds were under the salon-win­ The wall-paper in my father's room dows, and there were long borders of wild was one of the prettiest I have ever seen, strawberries that had been transplanted black, all bespangled with bright butter­ from the woods, as my mother was very flies. Of the grand salon I remember 295

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED 296 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE most clearly the high marble mantelpiece, Brittany of those days had a pretty cus­ upheld by hounds sitting on their tom of always using the thou when ad­ haunches. On this mantelpiece was a dressing their masters or the Deity, thus huge boule clock, two tall candelabra of inverting the usual association of this Venetian glass, and two figures in vieux mode of address; for to each other they Saxe of a marquis and a marquise that said yoUj and on their lips this was the filled us with delight. On each side of familiar word, and the thou implied re­ the fireplace were two Louis XV court spect. Our servants were of the peasant chairs—chairs, that is, with class, but service altered and only one arm, to admit of the r^\ civilized them very much, display of the great hoop- and while no peasant spoke skirts of the period. I re­ anything but Breton, they member, too, our special de­ talked in an oddly accented light in the foot-stools, which French. I remember a pretty were of mahogany, shaped example of this in a dear old rather like gondolas and man who served my little cushioned in velvet; for cousin Guenole du Jacquelot we could sit inside them du Bois-Laurel. Guenole and and make them rock up and -. I, because of some naughti­ down. ness, were deprived of straw­ The houses of the noblesse swarmed berries one day at our supper, and the fond with servants; many of them were mar­ old man, grieving over the discomfiture of ried, and their children, and even their his little master, said, or, rather, chanted, grandchildren, lived on with our family half in condolence, and half in playful con­ in patriarchal fashion. Men and maids solation : "Oh, le pauvre Guenole, que tu all wore the costumes of their respective es desole!" accenting the o in a very droll Breton cantons, exceedingly beautiful fashion. some of them, stiff with heavy embroider­ The servants were all under the orders ies, the strange caps of the women fluted of a very stately autocratic person, the and ruffled, adorned with lace, rising high steward or majordomo. It was he who above their heads and falling in long lap­ directed the service from behind his mas­ pets upon their shoulders, or perched on ter's chair at the head of the table and he their heads like butterflies. These caps who prescribed the correct costjume for were decorated with large gold pins and the servants. His wife had charge of dangling golden pendants, and these and Jeannie and of me; it was she who, when the materials for the costumes were two little sisters and a brother had been handed down in the peasants' families added to the family, took us down to our from generation to generation. My young breakfast and supervised the meal. We nurse Jeannie—there was an old nurse had it in a little tower-room on the ground called Gertrude—wore a skirt of bright- floor, milk soup or gruel and the delicious blue woolen stuff and a black-cloth bodice bread and butter of Brittany. opening in a square over a net fichu We lunched and dined at ten and five thickly embroidered with paillettes of •—such were the hours of those days— every color. Hers was the small flat cap with our parents in the dining-room, and of Quimper, with the odd foolscap excres­ it was here that one of the most magnifi­ cence, rather like the horn of a rhinoceros, cent figures of my childhood appears; for curving forward over the forehead. Need­ my devoted father brought me back from less to say, the servants did not do their Paris one day a splendid mechanical pony, daily work in this fine array; while that life-sized and with a real pony-skin, the went on they were enveloped from head apparatus by which he was moved simu­ to foot in large aprons. lating an exhilarating canter. Upon this The servants and the peasants in the steed, after dessert, we children mounted

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"MY FATHER AND 6KANDMA" one by one, and we resorted to many dresses with closely fitting boned bodices. ruses in order to get the first ride of the My sister Eliane was delicate and wore day. This dear pony accompanied all my flannel next her skin; but my only under­ childhood. He lost his hair as the result clothing consisted of cambric chemise, of an unhappy experiment we tried upon petticoats, and drawers, these last reach­ him, scrubbing him with hot water and ing to my ankles and terminating in frills soap, one day when we were unobserved. that fell over the foot in its little san­ He had a melancholy look after that, but daled shoe. When I came back from a was none the less active and none the less wonderful ,stay, later on, of four or five loved. When I saw his dismembered years in England, a visit that revolution­ body lying in the garret of a grand-niece ized my ideas of life, I wore the easy not many years ago I felt a contraction dress of English children, and had bare of the heart. How he brought bacic my arms, much to my mother's dismay. An­ youth, and since that how many genera­ other change that England wrought in tions had ridden him! me was that I was filled with discomfort We played at being horses, too, driving when I saw the peasants kneeling before each other in the garden, where we spent us at Loch-ar-Brugg, our country home; most of our days when at Quimper. for in those days, although the Revolu­ Strange to say, even while we were thus tion had passed over France, it was still occupied, we always wore veils tightly the custom for peasants to kneel before tied over our bonnets and faces to preserve their masters, and my mother felt it right our skins from the sun. We all wore, and proper that they should do so. I even in earliest childhood, stiff little begged her not to allow it, but she in- 297

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED 298 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE sisted upon the ceremony to her dying day, her favorite daughter, and I, as the eldest and only when I came as mistress to Loch- child of this favorite, was specially cher­ ar-Brugg with my children and grand­ ished. Both of bonne maman s parents children was it discontinued. had been guillotined in the Revolution. I Another early memory is the long row do not think her husband was of much of family portraits in the salle-a-manger. comfort to her. He came to Quimper I think I must have looked up at these only for short stays. He was directeur from my father's shoulder as he walked des Fonts et chaussees for the district, up and down with me, singing to me but also a deputy in Paris, and these polit­ while my mother went on with her inter­ ical duties, according to him, gave him no rupted dessert, for the awe that some of leisure for family life. He was at least them inspired in me seems to stretch back ten years younger than bonne maman, to babyhood. Some were so dark and se­ very gay and witty, I'homme due monde vere that it was natural they should i"'^^ in all the acceptations of the term, frighten a baby; but it was a pastel, 'TJ;) full of deference to bonne maman, in flat, pale tones, of an old lady with 'x^i > whom he treated like a queen, with high powdered hair, whose steady, JL^' ' respectful salutes and gallant kiss- forbidding gaze followed me up and . ; ' « •' ings of the hand. He seemed very down the room that frightened me * "'' fond of his home at Quimper when most. This was an elder sister of my grand­ he was in it, but he seldom graced it with mother's, a March'-Inder, who, dressed as his presence. a man, had fought with her husband and When I went up to see bonne maman daughter in the war of the Chouans against in the morning, she would give me her the republic. Her husband was killed, and thumb to kiss, an odd formality, since she her daughter, taken prisoner by a French was full of demonstrations of affection officer, had hanged herself, so the family toward me. I did not find the salute alto­ story ran, to escape insult. Another por­ gether agreeable, since bonne maman took trait of a great-grandmother enchanted snuff constantly, and her delicate thumb me then, as it has done ever since, a and forefinger were strongly impregnated charming young woman seated, with her with the smell of tobacco. Taking me on hands folded before her, her golden hair her knees, she would then very gravely unpowdered, her dress of citron-colored ask to see my little finger, and, when I satin brocaded with bunches of pale, held it up, she would scrutinize it care­ bright flowers. And there was a portrait fully, and from its appearance tell me of my grandmother in youth, with black whether I had been good or naughty. Be­ hair and eyes as black as jet. I thought side her chair bonne maman had always her very ugly, and could never associate a little table, the round polished top sur­ her with my dearly loved bonne maman. rounded by a low brass railing. On this I must delay no longer in introducing were ranged a number of toilet imple­ this most important member of the fam­ ments, her glasses, scent-bottle, work-bag, ily, my mother's mother, with whom we and various knickknacks. A very unique lived, for the old Quimper hotel was her implement, I imagine, was a little stick of dower-house. polished wood, with a tuft of cotton wool Poor bonne maman! I see her still, in tied by a ribbon at one end. This she her deep arm-chair, always dressed in a used, when her maid had powdered her long gown of puce-colored satin, a white hair or face, to dust off the superfluous lace mantilla, caught up with a small powder, and I can see her now, her little bunch of artificial buttercups, on her mirror in one hand, the ribboned stick in white hair. She wore white-thread lace the other, turning her head from side to mittens that reached to her elbows, and side and softly brushing the tuft over her her thin, white hands were covered with brow and chin. The table was always old - fashioned rings. My mother was carried down with her'to the petit salon,

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED A CHILDHOOD IN BRITTANY EIGHTY YEARS AGO 299 where, her morning toilet over, she was borne in her chair by means of the handles that projected before and behind it. Bonne maman had an old carriage, an old horse, and an old coachman. None of these was ever used, since she never went out except on Easter day, when she was car­ ried in a sedan-chair to hear mass at the cathe­ dral near by. The se­ dan-chair was gray- green, with bunches of flowers painted on it, and upholstered with copper-colored satin. It was carried by four bearers in full Breton costume. They wore jackets of a bright light blue, beautifully em­ broidered along the f'i"K, edges with disks of red, gold, and black; red "YVES AND GHISLAINE" sashes, tied round their waists, hung to the my mother, who was.occupied in looking knees; their full kneebreeches were white, about her and in making humorous com­ their shoes black, and their stockings of ments on the odd clothes and attitudes white wool. Like all the peasants of that of her fellow-worshipers. On all other time, they wore their hair long, hanging days the cure brought the communion to over their shoulders, and their large, round my grandmother in her room. I remem­ Breton hats were of black felt tied with a ber the first of these communions that I thick chenille cord of red, blue, and black, witnessed. I was sitting on bonne maman s which was held to the brim at one side by bed when the cure entered, accompanied a golden fleur-de-lis, and that had a scapu­ by his acolytes in red and white, and I was lar dangling from the end. Within the highly interested when I recognized in one chair sat my grandmother, dressed, as al­ of these important personages the cook's ways, in puce color; but this gala costume little boy. The cure was going to lift me was of brocade, flowers of a paler shade from the bed, but bonne maman said: woven upon a dark ground, and the lace "No; let her stay. When you are gone mantilla of every-day wear was replaced I will explain to her the meaning of what by a sort of white tulle head-dress, gath­ she sees." This she attempted to do, but ered high upon her head and falling over not, I imagine, with much success. Old her breast and shoulders. I remember her Gertrude, Jeannie's chief in the nursery, demeanor in church on these great occa­ had of course already told me of le petit sions, her gentle authority and receuille- Jesus, and I had learned to repeat, "Seig­ mentj and the glance of grave reproach for neur, je vous donne ccEur." But bonne

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED 300 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE maman was grieved to find that I did not hers, his pipe between his teeth,—yes, his yet know "Our Father." pipe—for bonne maman not only permit­ "Sophie does not know her Pater," she ted, but even commanded, him to smoke said to my mother. "She must learn it." in her presence, so much did she value "Oh, she is too young to learn it," said every moment of the time he could be my mother. But bonne maman was not at with her. So they smiled at each other all satisfied with this evasion and saw that while they talked,—the snowy, powdered the prayer was taught to me. She was old head and the fair young one enveloped very devout, and confessed twice a week; in the mist of smoke,—understanding each but more than this, she was the best of other perfectly; and although their opin­ women. I never heard her speak ill of any ions were diametrically opposed, politics one or saw her angry at any time, nor did was their favorite theme. They must I ever see her give way to mirth, though have taught me their respective battle- I remember a species of silent laughter cries, for I well remember that, riding that at times shook her thin body. my father's knee and listening, while he Bonne maman was devoted to my varied the gait from trot to gallop, I knew father, even just when to cry more devoted out, "Vive le than to her own Roi!" in order sons, of whom to please bonne she had had maman, and eight. They had "Vive la Re- been so severely publique!" to brought up by make papa her, but especial­ laugh. When ly, I feel sure, disputes oc­ by my grand­ curred in bonne father, that maman's room, through exag­ they were be­ gerated respect tween my fath­ and absurd cere­ er and mother, mony they al­ if that can be most trembled called a dispute during the short where one is so audiences grant­ gay and so im­ ed to them by perturbable. It their parents. was maman who My father brought all the trembled before "GHISLAINE TAUGHT ME Mlf lETIEBS" heat and vehem­ nobody. He was ence to these always cheerful, good-tempered, and kind. differences, and, strange to say, bonne ma­ During our life at Quimper he was not man always took my father's side against much at home, as he had a horror of re­ her beloved daughter. My mother's quick ceptions and visits,—all the bother, as he temper, I may add, displayed itself toward said, of social life,—and the time not me pretty frequently in slaps and whip­ spent in hunting was fully occupied in pings, no doubt well deserved, for I was a seeing after his farms, his crops, and his naughty, wilful child; whereas in all my peasants. Therefore, when he came back life I never received a punishment from for a three-or-four-days' stay with us, it my father. I remember his distress on one was a delight to young and old. I see him of these occasions and how he said, "It is now, sitting in a low chair beside bonne unworthy to beat some one who cannot re­ maman s deep bergere, his head close to taliate." To which my mother, flushed and

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED A CHILDHOOD IN BRITTANY EIGHTY YEARS AGO 301 indignant, replied, "It would indeed need I must often have tired her. I was a only that." She was a charming and lov­ noisy, active child, and sometimes when able woman, but I loved my father best. I sat on her knee and prattled incessantly Bonne maman was very musical, and in in my shrill, childish voice, she would pass the petit salon, when she was installed her hand over her forehead and say: "Not there for the day, I heard music con­ so loud, darling; not so loud. You pierce stantly, performed by two young pro­ my ear-drums; and you know that le bon teges of the house. One of these was Dieu has said that one must never speak Mile. Ghislaine du Guesclin, the young­ without first turning one's tongue seven est descendant of our great Breton hero. times round in one's mouth." At this I It was a very poor, ver_> haughty family, would gaze wide-eyed at bonne maman and extremely proud of its origin. Ghis­ and try involuntarily to turn my tongue laine's father, the Marquis du Guesclin seven times, an exercise at which I have (for with a foolish conceit he had sepa­ never been successful. I may add in par­ rated the particle from the name) had enthesis that I have often regretted it. died, leaving his daughter penniless and Another amusing adage I heard at the recommending her to my grandfather, same time from Gertrude. If a child who placed her as dame de compagnie made a face, it was told to take care lest beside my mother and bonne maman. the wind should turn, and the face remain Ghislaine was an excellent musician, and like that forever. I was much troubled their relation was of the happiest. The ^'-— ^ by this idea on one occasion when other protege was called Yves le Grand, f /! i's I maman and Ghislaine had been and was the son of bonne maman's coif­ '!\i/(f to a fancy dress ball. Ghislaine feur. His story was curious. As a boy of ''• told me next day about the fourteen or fifteen he had come three dances and dresses. Maman had danced times a week to wash the windows and a minuet dressed in a Pompadour costume, doors, and while he worked he sang all and she'herself had gone as a deviless, sorts of Breton songs and strange airs with a scarlet-and-black dress and little that, as was learned later, were his own golden horns in her black hair. I felt this improvisations. Bonne maman, noticing to have been a very dangerous proceeding, his talent, had him taken to Paris by her for if le bon Dieu had noticed Ghislaine's husband, and he was educated in the con­ travesty, he might have made the wind servatory, where, after ten years of ad­ turn, and she would then have remained mirable study, he took the second prize. a deviless and been forced to live in hell He returned to Quimper, and earned a for all eternity. iandsome livelihood by giving pianoforte A pretty custom at that time and in lessons while remaining in a sense our pri­ that place was that the young matrons vate musician, for he was much attached who went to such balls and dinner-parties to us all and accompanied us on all our were expected to bring little silk bags in travels. Ghislaine sang in a ravishing which they carried home to their children fashion, and Yves accompanied her on the the left-over sweetmeats of the dessert; clavecin that stood in the petit salon, min­ so that we children enjoyed these enter­ gling the grave accents of his baritone tainments as much as Ghislaine and ma­ with her clear soprano. When I first man. heard them I was almost stupefied by the Ghislaine taught me my letters from a experience, cuddling down into bonne colored alphabet in the petit salon, show­ maman's arms, my head sunk between her ing an angelic patience despite my yawns cheek and shoulder, but listening with and whimperings. My memories of the such absorption and with such evident ap­ alphabet are drolly intermingled with preciation that bonne m^aman loved me various objects in the petit salon that from more than ever for the community of taste the earliest age charmed my attention. thus revealed between us. One of these was an immense tortoise-

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED 302 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE shell mounted without looking up, I replied obediently, on a tripod, "Nimes" (the capital of Gard) and an and another avalanche of books descended upon me, a vast Chinese poor maman and her tray coming down umbrella of with a dreadful clatter. Maman was pale yellow not hurt, but very much afraid that I r-^ satin, with silk was. \ and crystal When she found us both, except for a fringes, that, few bruises, safe and sound, she went off suspended into a peal of laughter, and I followed from the ceil­ suit, much relieved; for I had imagined ing in front of for one moment that I had made a mis­ the long win- take in my answer, and I found the pun­ V' •»«.» f<.>Av. dows that ishment too severe. gave on the "You are sure I have not hurt you, garden, was filled with flowers. This had darling?" said maman, kissing me; and I been an ingenious contrivance of my fath­ replied with truth: er's, and bonne maman found it as be­ "No, Maman; but I should have pre­ witching as I did, never failing to say to vis­ ferred the gifle." On that day, instead itors, after the first greetings had passed: of fifty centimes, I received a franc for "Do you see my Chinese umbrella ?" When consolation. I had learned seven letters bonne maman It was not until my brother's tutor gave me four red dragees de bapteme,— came to us, when I was eight or nine years the sugar-almonds that are scattered at old, that I ever had any teacher but christenings,—and promised me as many Ghislaine. more for each new attainment. Thus sus­ Poor Ghislaine! Hers was a rather sad tained, I was able to master the alphabet story. She had great beauty, thick, black and to pass by slow degrees to ^sop's hair, white skin, her small prominent nose Fables, with pictures and a yellow cover. full of distinction, but one strange pecu­ It was later on that Ghislaine began to liarity: there were no nails on her long, coach me in all the departements of France pointed fingers. This, while not ugly, and their capitals. Maman lent a hand startled one in noticing her hands. As I in this and instituted a method that was have said, she had been left penniless, and singularly successful. I still laugh in re­ it was difficult in France, then as now, to membering how at any time of the day, find a husband for a jeune fille sans dot. before guests, at meals, or while we were Ghislaine only begged that he should be at play, she might suddenly call out to a gentleman. But after bonne maman's us, "Gers!" for instance, to which one death, when we had gone to live in Paris, must instantly reply "Auch." Or else Ghislaine was left behind with my aunt's it was "Gironde!" and the reply, "Bor­ family, and they finally arranged a mar­ deaux" must follow without hesitation. If riage for her with a notary. My mother I replied correctly, I was given fifty cen­ was much distressed by this prosaic match. times; if incorrectly, I received a slap. I She had for a time cherished the romantic used to dream of the departements and project of a marriage between Ghislaine their capitals at night. One rainy day I and Yves, who, besides being an artist, was playing in the petit salon, lying at was the best of men, sincere, devoted, and full length on the floor and making a delicate. castle of blocks, when maman, coming For a descendant of Duguesclin the suddenly out of the library, a great tray coiffeur's son would, however, have been of books in her arms, cried out to me as as inappropriate as was the notary. The she came, walking very quickly, "Gare!" latter, too, was an excellent man, and ["Take care!"] Without moving and Ghislaine was not unhappy with l^im.

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED A CHILDHOOD IN BRITTANY EIGHTY YEARS AGO 303 CHAPTER II father took me in his arms and carried me gently in to see my little sister, and bent ELIANE with me over the small pink cradle so that yiN important event in my child life I might give her a kiss, I felt instead a J~\ was the birth of my sister Eliane. I violent wish to bite her. One day I was remember coming in from the garden one authorized to rock Eliane while my father day with a little basket full of cock­ and mother talked together. I was much chafers that I had found, and running to pleased by this mark of confidence, and I show them to maman. She was lying in slipped into the cradle, unnoticed, my hor­ her large bed, with its four carved bed­ rible doll Josephine, all untidy and dis­ posts and high canopy, and smiling faint­ heveled, not to say dirty, so that she, too, ly, she said: "Oh, no, my little girl; take might have a rocking. She lay cheek to them away. They will creep and fly over cheek with Eliane, already a young lady everything." I was, however, so much ten days old, and the contact of this cold, disappointed at this clammy cheek woke reception of my gift my little sister, who that maman; bend­ began to cry so ing from her pil­ loudly that, in order lows, selected a spe­ to quiet her, I rocked cially beautiful with might and green cockchafer and main, and unless said that that one, papa had rushed to at all events, she the rescue it is prob­ would keep. When \ able that Eliane and next morning I was Josephine would told that I had a lit­ have been tossed out tle sister, old Ger­ upon the floor. Jean­ trude, in answer to nie was at once sum­ my eager, astonished moned to take me questions, informed [••'^ away in disgrace, me that it was the cockchafer who, fed on and in bonne maman s room I was con­ milk, had become very large during the soled by two dragees, one white, I remem­ night and had given birth to a baby cock­ ber, and one pink. chafer, which it had presented to my "You love your little sister, don't you, mother. This story of the cockchafer be­ my darling?" asked bonne maman, to came a family jest, and later on, after my whom Jeannie related the affair of the mother had had four children, I remem­ rocking. bered that when cockchafers were referred "No," I replied, the pink dragee in my to she would laugh and say: "No! no! mouth. No more cockchafers for me, if you please I "Why not, dear?" I have had enough of their gifts." "She is horrid," I said. And as bonne The story, which was repeated to me on maman, much distressed, continued to the occasion of each subsequent birth, question and expostulate, I burst, despite made a rather painful impression upon the dragees, into a torrent of tears and me. I did not like the idea of the baby cried: "She is bad! She is ugly! She cockchafer. Nor did I like my little sister cries!" Eliane into whom the cockchafer had Eliane's christening was a grand affair. grown. Maman remained in bed for a Her godmother was bonne maman, and long time and paid no more attention to her godfather my uncle de Salabery, who me, and I was deeply jealous. I was no brought her a casket in which was a cup longer allowed to go in and out of her and saucer in enamel and also an enamel room as had been my wont, and when my egg-cup and tiny, round egg-spoon, and

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED 304 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE this I thought very silly, since Eliane, like great ring of amethyst and diamond, be­ the cockchafer, ate only milk. The casket fore my lips. "Kiss Monseigneur's hand," was of pale-blue velvet, and had Eliane's papa whispered, and, again much puzzled, name written upon it in golden letters. I obeyed, for maman and bonne maman She was carried to the cathedral by her gave their hands to be kissed by men and nurse, who wore a gray silk dress woven never kissed theirs. When the bishop put _^,r'

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THE CHATEAU DK KEE-AZEL NEAB BY, WHERE WE W]5EE TO STAT" with silver fleurs-de-lis, a special silk, the salt in Eliane's mouth she made the with its silver threads, made in Brittany. most hideous grimace. Heavens! how The bodice opened on a net guimpe thick­ ugly she was! Maman took her into her ly embroidered with white beads. The arms to calm her. I was near bonne apron was of gray satin scattered over maman who had been borne in her sedan- with a design, worked in beads, that chair into the cathedral, and I whispered looked like tiny fish. Her coif was the to her: "You say that she is pretty tall medieval hennin of Plougastel, a bonne maman. Only look at her now! flood of lace falling from its summit. Does n't she look like an angry little Eliane, majestically carried on her white- monkey!" But bonne maman reminded me lace cushion, wore a long robe of lace and in a low voice that unless I was very good, lawn, and again I found this very silly, I was not to come to the christening since if by chance she wished to walk, breakfast, and, hastily, I began to turn she would certainly stumble in it! The my tongue in my mouth. cure was replaced by the bishop of the I remember that on this day bonne cathedral, who walked with a tall golden maman had left her puce-color and looked stick, twisted at the top into a pretty de­ like an old fairy as she sat, covered with sign. Papa, who was near me, explained all her jewels, in the sedan-chair, dressed to me that this was called a crozier in orange-colored velvet. {crosse), which puzzled me, as crosse is When we came out of the cathedral the also the name for the drumstick of a square was full of people, and all the chicken. I also learned that what I called children of Quimper were there. My the bishop's hat was a miter. When he father, leading me by the hand, was fol­ passed before us every one knelt down ex­ lowed by a servant who carried a basket cept me, for I wished to gaze with all my of dragees. He took out a bagful and eyes at the magnificent apparition. The told me that I was to throw them to the bishop leaned toward me, smiling, and children, and this I did with great gusto. made a little cross on my forehead with What a superb bombardment it was! his thumb, and then he put his hand, The children rolled upon the ground, which was very white and adorned with a laughed, and howled, while maman, and

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED A CHILDHOOD IN BRITTANY EIGHTY YEARS AGO 305 bonne maman from the window of her papa looked very small before it. I ran chair, scattered handfuls of centimes, to him crying: sous, and liards, an old coin of the period "Don't go, papa! Don't go! You will that no longer exists. Never in my life be drowned!" have I seen happier children. They ac­ "There is no danger of that, my pet," companied us to our door and stayed for said my father. "See how smooth and a long time outside in the street, singing blue the water is. Don't you want to Breton canticles and crying, "Vive Made­ come with me?" moiselle Liane!" I felt at once that I did, and in the It must have been at about this time twinkling of an eye Gertrude had un­ that I first saw the sea and had my first dressed me, my father had me in his arms, sea-bath. Papa said one day that he and before I could say "Ouf!" I was would take me to the beach of Loctudiy, plunged from head to foot in the Atlantic near Quimper, with old Gertrude. It is Ocean. It was my second baptism, and I a vast sandy beach, with scattered rocks still feel an agreeble shudder when I re­ that, to my childish eyes, stood like giants member it. My father held me under the around us. Gertrude took off my shoes arms to teach me to swim, and I vigorous­ and stockings, and we picked up the shells ly agitated my little legs and arms. Then that lay along the beach in the sunlight I was given back to Gertrude, who dried like a gigantic rainbow. What a delight me and, taking me by the hand, made me

I v^25

"A FEAST WAS SPREAD AT A LITTLE DISTANCE FOB THE PEASANTS. AND WIKB FLOWED ALL DAY"

it was! Some were white, some yellow, run up and down on the hot sand until some pink, and some of a lovely rosy I was quite warm. mauve. I could not pick them up fast When I came home, full of pride in my enough or carry those I already had. My exploits, I told bonne maman that during little pail overflowed, and the painful my swim I had met a whale which had problem that confronts all children en­ looked at me. gaged in this delicious pursuit would soon "And were you afraid of it?" asked have oppressed me if my thoughts had not bonne maman. been turned in another direction by the "Oh, no," I replied. "They do not sight of papa making his way toward the eat children. I patted it." sea in bathing-dress. The sea was im­ Perhaps my tendency to tell tall stories mense and mysterious, and my beloved dates from this time.

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED 306 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE CHAPTER HI my mother's was a fat, untidy, shiftless woman who had once been a beauty, but THE FETE AT KER-ELIANE whose abundant fair hair was now faded, T was shortly after Eliane's christen­ and who went about her house and gar­ I ing, and to celebrate my mother's re­ dens in the mornings en camisole. When covery, that my father gave a great enter­ dressed for the day her appearance was tainment at Ker-Eliane, near Loch - ar - hardly more decorous, for she wore no Brugg. stays, and fastened the slender bodices of Loch-ar-Brugg, which means Place of her old dresses across her portly person in Heather, was an old manor and prop­ a very haphazard fashion, so that intervals erty that my father had bought and at of white underclothing showed between that time used as a hunting-lodge, and the straining hooks. She was a singular Ker-Eliane was a wild, beautiful piece of contrast to my mother, always so freshly country adjoining it, a pleasure resort, perfect in every detail of her toilet. The called after my mother's name. chateau was partly old and partly new To reach Loch-ar-Brugg we all went and very ugly, though the park that sloped by the traveling carriage to my father's down to it was fine. Near the chateau native town of Landerneau. stood a very old and beau­ I dreaded these journeys, tifully carved font that since inside the carriage I -It,-^;,,,,^! must have belonged to a always became sick; but on church long since destroyed. this occasion I sat outside Later on, in the days of her near an old servant of my descendants, it was kept grandmother's called Soi­ filled with growing flowers sick, the diminutive of and was a beautiful object, Frangois, and was very but my aunt merely used happy, since in the open air it as a sort of waste-paper I did not suffer at all. basket for any scraps she Soisick was an old Breton picked up In the park. We from Brest. He wore the children used to conceal costume of that part of the ourselves in it in our games country, a tightly fitting, of hide-and-seek. I enjoyed long, black jacket opening myself among my many over a waistcoat adorned •'-\. cousins, for I was at this BONNE MAMAN with white-bone buttons, time so young and so full knee-breeches of coarse , white linen naughty that they tended to give way to me in everything. One of them, how­ girded over the waistcoat with a red woolen sash, with white woolen stockings, ever, a singularly selfless and devout and black shoes. One still sees very old boy called France, was fond of me Bretons wearing this costume, but nowa­ for myself, and though I never paid days the peasants prefer the vulgar, com­ much attention to him, victim rather than monplace dress of modern work-people. playmate as he usually was in the games of the others, I was always aware of his My father was waiting for us on the gentle, protecting presence, and happy quay of Landerneau. What joy I felt when his peaceful gaze rested upon me. when I saw him! When he climbed up After long years of separation and in our beside me and Soisick my happiness was great old age we discovered, France and I, complete. that we had always been dear friends, and Loch-ar-Brugg at that time was not in the few years that remained to us before suitably arranged for our habitation, and his recent death we saw each other con­ we drove on to the Chateau de Ker-Azel stantly. But I must return to the fete. near by, where we were to stay with my My mother and my aunt were absorbed tante de Laisieu. This elder sister of

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED liegj.yH.iaiil^^fj^F^^a^-iij^'j^A la ii^ l^lJh'Mf .j^.t^^,^

A CHILDHOOD IN BRITTANY EIGHTY YEARS AGO 307 in preparations. It was a general hurly- It was among the lower meadows, in burly, every one running north, south, a charming, smiling spot planted with east, and west—to Landerneau, chestnuts, poplars, and copper beeches, that to Morlaix, to Brest, to every the table for the thirty huntsmen was place, in short, that could boast laid in the shade of a little avenue. Al­ j> - f some special delicacy. And at ready the crepe - makers from Quimper, ^•^^'"' last the great day came, and we renowned through all the country, were children were up with the lark. There laying their fires upon the ground under was first to be a luncheon for the hunts­ the trees, and I must pause here to de­ men, friends of papa's, and the ladies scribe this Breton dish. A carefully com­ were to follow in carriages and to pounded batter, flavored either with van­ enter Ker - Eliane from the highroad. illa or malaga, was ladled upon a large But we preferred the shorter way, by flat pan and spread thinly out to its the deep paths overgrown with haw­ edge with a wooden implement rather like thorn and blackberry. The boys rushed a paper-cutter. By means of this knife the along on the tops of the talus, the sort crepes, when browned on one side, were of steep bank that in Brittany takes turned to the other with a marvelous dex­ the place of hedges, and even with terity, then lifted from the pan and folded Jeannie to restrain me I was nearly as at once into a square, like a pocket-hand­ torn and tattered as they when we arrived kerchief, for, if allowed to cool, they at Ker-Elaine. What a fairy-land it was! cracked. They were as fine as paper— Rocks and streams, heathery hills, and six would have made the thickness of an woods full of bracken. An old ruin, ordinary pancake, and were served very strange and melancholy, with only a few hot with melted butter and fresh cream, crumbling walls and a portion of ivy- of which a crystal jar stood before each clothed tower left standing, rose among guest, and was replenished by the servants trees on a little hill near the entrance, as it was emptied. and farther on, surrounded by woods of The crepes were eaten at the end of the beech or pine, were three lakes, lying in a luncheon as a sweet, and among the other chain one after the other. Water-lilies dishes that I remember was the cold sal­ grew upon them, and at their brinks a mon,—invariable on such occasions, sal­ pinkish-purple flower the name of which mon abounding in our Breton rivers,— I never knew^. The third lake was so with a highly spiced local sauce, filet de somber and mysterious that my father had boeuf en aspic, York ham, fowls, Russian called it the Styx. An ancient laurel-tree salad, and the usual cakes and fruits. The —in Brittany the laurels become immense huntsmen seated at this feast did not wear trees—had been uprooted in a thunder­ the pink coats and top-hats of more formal storm and had fallen across the Styx, occasions, but dark jackets and knee- making a natural rustic bridge. We breeches and the small, round Breton cap children were forbidden to cross on it, but with upturned brim that admitted of a on this day I remember my adventurous pipe being tucked into it at one side. And cousin Jules rushing to and fro from one so they carried their pipes, as the peasants bank to the other in defiance of authority. did, and the legitimists among them had a At the foot of the hill, below the ruin, a golden fleur-de-lis fixed in front. The clear, delicious stream sprang forth from ladies of the party, in summer dresses and a stony cleft and wound through a valley wide - brimmed hats, arrived when the and out into the lower meadows, and at more substantial part of the repast was the entrance to the valley, among heather over, and their carriages filled the high­ and enormous mossy rocks rose a cross of road outside the precincts of Ker-Eliane. gray stone without Christ or ornaments. A feast was spread at a little distance for The peasants madepilgrimages to iton Good the peasants, and wine flowed all day. Friday, but I never learned its history. After the feasting two famous biniou-

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED 308 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE players took up their places on the high What a day it was! Landerneau talked of talus that separated Ker - Eliane from it for years, and I have never forgotten Loch-ar-Brugg and played the farandol, it. We children had our luncheon sitting the jabadao, and other country-dances for on the grass near the big table, and after­ the peasants to dance to. The 'biniou is ward there were endless games among rather like a small bagpipe and produces the heather and bracken. My little sis­ a wild, shrill sound. The players wore ter Eliane appeared, carried in her pink a special costume: their caps and their basket, and seemed to look about her with stockings were bright red; their jackets great approval. and waistcoats bright blue, beautifully Later on in the day, when the dancing embroidered; their full white breeches of had begun, we went to look on at that, coarse linen. Like all the peasants at that and I wanted very much to dance, too; time, they wore their hair long, falling but nobody asked me, for I was too little. over the shoulders. It was a charming I must by that time have begun to get sight to see the peasants dancing, all in very tired and troublesome, for I remem­ their local costumes. The women's skirts ber that maman promised me a little were of black or red stuff, with three wheelbarrow if I would be good and al­ bands of velvet, their bodices of embroi­ lowed Jeannie to take me back to Ker- dered velvet, and they all wore a gold or Azel. I was already sleepy, as I had silver Breton cross, hung on a black velvet drunk a quantity of champagne, with ribbon, round their necks, and a Saint which the servants had replenished my Esprit embroidered in gold on the front little liqueur-glass, and I allowed myself of their bodices. Among the coifs I re­ at last to be carried away by Jeannie, and member several beautiful tall hennins. fell asleep in her arms.

(To be continued)

, mSiff'"r^W' "K-^^ .cr4 ^•^'''•ki

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED East Africa By JAN CHRISTIAAN SMUTS

Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces in East Africa

N the strenuous days of the Boer need scarcely say that a military comman­ War I learned to know my South der has often very special opportunities of Africa from the Indian to the At­ learning geography. He has to study the lantic Ocean as one learns a country country with the eyes not of the scientist only under the searching test of war. I or the traveler or the hunter, but of the came to know the unfrequented paths, the soldier responsible for the lives and the trackless parts of the bush, the wastes movements and supplies of large masses where people do not often go. I believe of men. It is one thing to follow the track it is generally admitted that I covered of the elephant or to stalk the lion or ante­ more country than any other commander lope or to collect butterflies or other gor­ in the field on either side—and my move­ geous things; it is quite a different and, ment was not always in the direction of from the point of view of learning geog­ the enemy! raphy, certainly a far more enlightening, When the present war broke out, I task to lead a large army over those virgin proceeded once more on my extensive trav­ solitudes, where your problem involves the els, and I became something of an expert careful study not only of topographical in the waterless, sandy wastes of the south­ features, but of all the numerous natural ern half of German Southwest Africa. conditions which affect your progress. To As for the Kalahari Desert, over which provide for the needs of a small safari may the movement of men and transport was be a light or delightful task; but the diffi­ supposed to be quite impossible, we did culties and requirements of a large force, not rest until we had sunk bore-holes for moving forward against an alert, ubiqui­ water for hundreds of miles, and until we tous foe, compel you to probe into every­ had moved a large force of thousands of thing: the nature of the country, with its mounted men across an area in which it mountains and rivers, forests and deserts, was thought no human being could ever for scores of miles around; its animal and move. One of the reasons of our success human diseases; its capacity for supplies in that campaign was that, moving and transport; its climate and soil and through the Kalahari Desert, we struck rainfall. And one of your first discover­ the enemy country at its very heart. The ies is that the books of the travelers are travels of Livingstone, of Selous, who was mostly wrong. What to them was per­ a comrade of mine in this war, and of haps a paradise of plant or animal life is other illustrious men in those vast solitudes to you, moving with your vast impedi­ of southern Africa were as joy-rides to menta, a veritable purgatory. You soon what we had to undergo in conducting a come to agree with Scripture that all men big campaign against the enemy, and still are liars, and from this rule you do not more against nature. even except the missionaries who write with their heads in the clouds; nor do you When that campaign was over, and I except the writers of intelligence books thought my traveling days were past, the compiled in Whitehall from the hunting- call came to East Africa, and 1916 was tales of the travelers or the fairy-tales of spent in traveling over the vast tropical the missionaries, and marked "very secret." expanses of that fascinating country. I 309

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