A FRENCH LIGHTHOUSE. 179 



off the coast of Brittany. He says, after some very beautiful remarks on the contemplation 

 of nature, and its alleviation of the worst heart-sorrows : " Twilight often surprised me 

 in the midst of my reveries, and often, too, the shades of night fell around me while I lay 

 stretched beneath the star-bespangled deep azure canopy of heaven. I could then see 

 another star shining in the far distance, which had been lighted by the hand of man. 

 From the position I had chosen I could recognise the beacon-towers of Hehaux, of which 

 the seamen of the islands had spoken to me with the liveliest expressions of enthusiasm, 

 and which I had frequently watched by day as it stood out like a black line drawn along 

 the whitish background of the sky. I would not leave Brehat without visiting it. A 

 few slight services had secured me the good-will of the officers of customs, who willingly 

 consented to take me to Hehaux. Accordingly, one splendid day in October we left the 

 harbour of La Corderie in a pinnace, manned by six sturdy seamen. The weather was 

 splendid; not a cloud obscured the sky, which was reflected on the mirror-like surface of 

 the ocean, whose depths it seemed to double. Impelled by the combined action of a light 

 wind, which swelled out two small square sails, and of the rapid current imparted to- the 

 waters of Kerpont by the force of the tide, our pinnace shot across the waves as a sledge 

 glides over the snow. Sometimes, indeed, we passed through a whirling eddy, which 

 shook every part of our frail craft, and betrayed the vicinity of some submarine rock; but 

 we soon regained the unruffled sea, and without having taken cognisance of the rapid rate 

 at which we were moving, we saw Brehat sink below the distant horizon behind us, whilst 

 rock after rock and islet after islet seemed at every moment to emerge from the waves 

 towards which we were advancing. . . . The nearer we drew to Hehaux the taller 

 seemed the beacon-tower, which stood forth from the tower, with its lofty granite column 

 and glass lantern, protected by that magical rod which is able to attract and safely conduct 

 to earth the destructive force of the thunderbolt. We landed, and at once began our 

 inspection of this colossal block, which has been upreared by the hand of man on the 

 Epees ele Treguier, which, once the dread of the seaman, have become his protecting 

 guides through the storms and darkness of night. 



" The Hehaux Lighthouse would be regarded as a most remarkable monument even 

 in our principal towns, but standing, as it does, alone in the midst of the ocean, it acquires 

 by its very isolation a character of severe grandeur, which impresses the mind most power- 

 fully. Figure to yourself a wall of granite, where the current and the storm do not even 

 permit the hardiest ferns to take root, with here and there a twisted and deeply wave- 

 worn mass projecting beyond the rest of the rocky ledge. It is here that the architect 

 has laid the foundation of the tower. The base, which is of a conical form, is surmounted 

 by a circular gallery. The lower portion curves gracefully outwards, spreading over the 

 ground like the root of some colossal marine plant springing up from the foundation 

 stones, which kave been inserted far within the rock. On this -base, which measures 

 about twenty yards across, rises a column twenty-six feet in diameter, surmounted by a 

 second gallery, whose supports and stone balustrades call to mind the portcullis and battle- 

 ments of some feudal donjon. From the summit to the base this part of the edifice is 

 composed of large blocks of whitish granite, arranged in regular strata, and carefully dove- 

 tailed into one another. As far as a third of the height of the building 1 the rows of stones 



