— 403 — 



mugs; then some prime old Bordeaux was passed 

 round ; a cup of divine Mocha coffee came next ; 

 sweatmeats, and a petit verve d' eau-de-vie pale et 

 vieille (that is a tea spoonful of old cognac in dainty 

 Sevres glasses) closed the feast. The pousse-caf 6, which 

 had to be swallowed en trinquant a la mode de la 

 Novmandie (that is, glasses had to meet :) all this for 

 a Norman Cure receiving from the State but 900 francs 

 per annum, seemed to us marvels of hospitality, savoir- 

 faire and taste. The Abbe was not only hospitable, but 

 a travelled, scholarly gentleman ; he detailed to us the 

 annals of Pitres, whose history he had written. After 

 exhausting his enquiries about Canada, its customs ; 

 whether the English oppressed the French ? its popu- 

 lation, commerce, literature, &c, it was our turn to put 

 questions about our host's own Normandy ; what traces, 

 if any, still existed of the Norman invasion in the 9th 

 century ? What was the history of the little parish 

 church, which we were told, dated back more than one 

 thousand years ? Why the neighbouring mountain was 

 called the " Hill of the Two Lovers ? " Our host replied r 

 " For more than twenty years I have had charge of 

 this parish. With a view of restoring the crumbling 

 walls of our historic chapel, I have devoted my spare 

 evenings to compiling the history of Pitres, though the 

 fund is still small, proceeding from the sale of the 

 work. You will, no doubt, be startled on learning that, 

 a thousand years ago, the King of France had a royal 

 castle in this unpretending hamlet. Pitres, at its dawn 

 was a Eoman military post, a royal residence under 

 our Merovingian dynasty, the site of a palace, and a. 

 fortress for the Princes of the second race. The lapse 

 of years would doubtless have converted Pitres into an 

 important city, but an unforeseen event altered its 

 destinies : the inroads of the Northmen in the ninth cen- 

 tury destroyed its commerce, and in consequence of the 

 forts and structures built to stop these barbarians, at 

 Pont de I'Arche, the life and activity of Pitres,, centered 



