MONASTERY O F ST. HOXORAT. 231 



a strong quadrangular tower on the shore facing" Africa, 

 and keeping watch over the sea. This tower was large 

 enough to accommodate all the monks; the^' could hide 

 the monastery treasures in it and also defend themselves 

 effectively from their old enemies the pirates and Saracens. 

 Thus it came to pass that the monaster^• not onh' con- 

 tinued to exist, but also enjo\'ed great prosperity' and 

 produced many an abbot of spiritual eminence. In the 

 sixteenth centur\' it possessed one of tlie richest sanc- 

 tuaries and a famous librar^-. But in the seventeenth 

 century, during the pontificate of (jregor\' X\', it began 

 to fall into deca\'; and when it was secularised in the 

 year I7S<S it numbered but four monks. The treasures 

 of the monastery were divided between the churches of 

 the neighbouring parishes. Many valuable objects dis- 

 appeared during the French Revolution, amongst them 

 a silver reliquary containing the remains of St. Ilonoratus 

 which had been deposited in Cannes. This artistically 

 worked reliquary dated from the time of Francis I, who 

 after the battle of Pavia passed the night of June 21'' 1525 

 as a prisoner in the monaster^'. In the ^-ear 17''1 the 

 monastery was sold hv auction and strang-eh' enou«-h 

 afterwards came into the possession of an actress, whose 

 father, Alziary de Roquefort, had purchased it. She her- 

 self, under the name of Sainval, had achieved brilliant 

 triumphs at the Comedie Francaise and retired hither out of 

 pique against her rival the equally celebrated Vestris, and 

 lived tor a time in one of the monks' cells in the strong tower. 

 The island of Ste. Marguerite was called b^' the 

 Romans, "Lero". Strabo relates that a temple once adorned 



