WILD SPORT IN BRITTANY. 181 



wynn," a ballad of the sixth century, which he immediately trans- 

 lated into French, indulging freely in the liberties of the para- 

 phrase, was a treat never to be forgotten. 



The next morning, at break of day, M. de Kergoorlas's drag 

 appeared at the appointed hour (seven o'clock) at the door of the 

 Lion d'Or ; and, although a groom with firm hand stood at the 

 head of each horse, neither the Vampire in front, though still 

 iron-muzzled, nor the off-side wheeler, hampered as he was with a 

 double trace-rope, showed as yet any symptoms of the vice for 

 which they had acquired so bad a character. After picking up 

 M. de la Villemarque and M. Coste at the residence of the latter, 

 we trotted along at a brisk rate through Pontaven and Quimperle 

 on to Henn-bont that being the Celtic word for old bridge 

 the granite-laid roads throughout the distance being in tip-top 

 order, and such as Macadam himself would have been delighted 

 to see. Verily, the government roads throughout France, super- 

 intended by officers, curtly called, from their office, " ponts et 

 chaussees," and attended to by a staff of cantonniers, each one 

 of whom is responsible for the good condition of so many kilo- 

 metres, are admirably managed even in the remotest departments 

 of that country. At Henn-bont the team was taken out and 

 stabled for the rest of the day ; the return journey to Gourin, via 

 Plouay and Le Faouet (the last word meaning, in the Celtic lan- 

 guage, " the land of beeches "), being a long and heavy tug for 

 the poor beasts, and against the collar nearly the whole way. 



We had just settled into our voitures provided by the Hotel du 

 Commerce for the purpose of reaching Auray without loss of time, 

 when M. de la Villemarque, by whose side I sat, pointed to a 

 creek at the mouth of the river Blavet. "There," said he, 

 " landed that gallant knight, Sir Walter de Manny, in the reign of 

 Edward III., when he relieved Jeanne, the heroic Countess de 

 Montfort, shut up in Henn-bont by the armies of Philippe de 

 Valois and Charles de Blois. The countess, who, in the form of 



