Over Strand and Field: A Record of Travel through Brittany

heat, and was drinking with a mason, a fact which does not prevent him from being the descendant of one of the first families of Europe; an aristocrat of the o

he street. The head-stones are crowded together and invade and submerge one another, as if the corpses were uncomfortable in their graves and had lif

ranged, breast-high, a series of little black boxes, six inches square, surmounted by a cross and cut out in the shape of a heart in front, so that one can see the skulls inside. Above the heart-shaped opening are the following words in painted letters: "This is the head of -- --, deceased on such and such a day, in such and such a year." These heads belonged to persons of a certai

culous to many; but those black cases rotting even as the bones blanch and crumble to dust; those skulls, with noses eaten away and foreheads streaked by the slimy trails of snails, and hollow, staring eyes; those thigh-bones piled up as in the great charnel-houses mentioned in the Bible; those piec

-Isle; but they were waiting for it. Transient sailors with bare arms and

s the post due

ly at ten o'clock,"

even," put

," said M.

on

lf-pas

sn't reach here u

t very r

in a while some one would get up, go to the door, look out, come back, and start up again. Oh! he will not come to-day.-He must have stopped on the way.-Let's go home.-No, let's wait for him.-If, however

nes, the tinkling of bells, the cracking of a whip and a man

ack, stretched its neck, opened its mouth, disclosed

y a large oil-cloth hat lined with felt; a sort of gray coutil coat was drawn up to his hips and bagged around his stomach, while his trousers stopped at the knees and disclosed his bare legs reddened by the rubbing of the stirrup-straps, and his blue hose, which hung over his shoes. The harness was held together with strings, the rider's clothes had been mended with threads of different colours; all sorts of patches and all

there was nothing but a confused mass of people and luggage, oars that caused us to stumble, sails that dropped on our heads, men falling over each other and not knowing where to go; the

heavy boat hardly moved over the almost motionless sea, which s

troke, and when they dipped them into the water and brought them up again, drops of crystal clung to their paddles. Reclining on the straw, or sitting on the benches, with their legs dangling and their chins in their hands, or leaning agains

tood a cabin-boy looking into the stay-sail and whistling for wind, while the skipper remained aft and managed the tiller. Still no wind arose. Orders were given to haul in the sails; slowly an

our and we had great difficulty in landing. Our boat grated on the pebbles, and in

empty port, the Palay appeared to us a useless little town overcome with mil

n their backs like those worn by the nuns, so that when worn by little girls they cover half of their bodies. Their gowns are made without the wide stripe of velvet applied on each shoulder and rounding away under the arms. Nor d

el that we do not admire, a lighthouse that did not appeal to us in the least, and a rampart built by Vauban, of whom we were already heartily

th sea-weed and decorated with shells, and water dripped from the top), that we resolved to spend a day in Bel

ere we pleased; so, without a guide or information of any sort (this is the best way), we set out to walk, having

it, we struck out into the country and let our eyes roam over the horizon of the sea, the deep blue line of which touched the sky; then we walked back to the edge of the rocks, which had

and there. If we threw a stone, it appeared suspended in the air for a time, would then strike the sides of the cliff, rebound from the one to the other, break into a

has grown less abrupt, and one is able to climb down to the bottom. We attempted to do so by sliding down like

and sprays, and with one long, sweeping libration, gathered their green waters together and retreated. When one wave left the sand, its currents immediately joined, and sought lower levels. The sea-weed moved its slimy branches; the

and overturned on one another. We tried to hold on with our hands and feet, but we slid on their slippery asperities. The cliff was so very high that it quite frighte

cutting the luminous, fluid atmosphere with its sharp, outstretched wings that seemed to enjoy being ab

Once in a while, when the rocks ended, we walked on square stones that were as flat as marble slabs and s

stream on its bed of cresses. Then the rocks would reappear closer than before and more numerous. On one side was t

e us, and the rocks, infinitely multiplying their dark green forms, succeeded one another

y perceived an undulating series of rough steps

ak thistles with one's stick, to pull leaves from the bushes and wheat from the fields, to go where one's fancy dictates, whistling, singing, talking, dre

spirits, like the bear in its cage, turn around and around, and stagger against the walls of their prison, why not, at least,

e yards framed by clusters of trees, appeared on the side of a hill; not

in them, but they do not live there. One is led to believe tha

-cold milk in earthen cups. The silence all around was peculia

soil. Presently the two hills parted; their barren sides were covered with short, stubby grass and here and there were big yellow patches of moss. At the foot of one hill a stream wends its way through the drooping boughs of the stunted shrubs that grow on its edges, and loses itself

ither ended abruptly, enclosed by another hill, or else stretched out over new plains. We did not lose courage, however, and continued to advan

teps. We let ourselves drop to the ground and as we were exhausted, we soon fell asleep. An hour later the cold woke us up, and we started homeward without any fear of losing our way this time. We were on the c

d caprices. There was one all of silver veined with deep red; in another, tufts of flowers resembling periwinkles had grown on glazings of reddish granite, and drops of water fell from the ceiling on the fine sand with never-ceasing regularity. In the background of another grotto, beneath a long semi-circle, a bed of polished white gravel, wh

e foam of the tumbling waves. In the other part of the horizon, the sky streaked with orange stripes looked as if it had been swept by a gale. Its ligh

emptation seemed to push us forward. The breeze played in the cracks of the rocks and wrinkled the surface of the pools; the sea-weed, cleaving to the sides of the cliff, shook in the wind, and from the part of the sky where the

ched the grasses with our fingers. We breathed the salt air of the ocean, and noted and assimilated every color, every sunbeam, every sound, the design of the seaweed, the softness of the sand, the hardness of the rocks that echoed under our footsteps, the height of the cliffs, the fringe of the waves, the accidents of the coast, and the voice of the horizon; and the breeze that passed over our faces like intangible kisses,

with which to worship; spreading ourselves out in nature, with a joyful and delirious abandon, we regretted that our eyes could not penetrate to the innermost parts of the rocks, to the bottom of the sea, to the end of the heavens, in order to see how the stones grow, how the breakers are made, how the stars are lighted; we regretted that our ears could not catch the rumour of the fermentation of

thing above the allotted quantity tires or intoxicates him; it becomes the idiocy of the drunkard or the ra