The Sun.
London, England, 1858-08-21 00:00:00

. _
and greatest of the champions of Chivalry, the fellow-
soldier of our Black Prince in the war of Spain
which ended in the death of Peter the Cruel. It
was even here that the same great warrior, Du

Guesclin, wooed and won his first lady-love ; and
here it was, even on the very spot where a throne of
state was erected for Napoleon 111., that the Breton
champion struck down in a single combat, a l'oulrance,
a wicked and perfidious knight, yelepet " Thomas of
Canterbury." Dinan is no less remarkable for the
beauty of its position, the picturesque scenery that
surrounds it, the Rhine-like features of its river
Hance, the charms of its ancient ramparts and well-

planted fosses, and the number of its antiquities, than
it is for a construction of modern times—a viaduct
of nine arches, which spans a deep valley and con-
nects two steep hills together, a work of the present
day, that in its grandeur of design equals any memo-

rial of Roman skill and perseverance.
Dinan is a very charming place to live in; but, in
a political point of view, it is a place of not the
slightest importance, and when the Emperor marked
it down in his itinerary as a town to be visited, the
favour must have been designed as a compliment to
its historical associations, and a tribute of respect to
the memory of one of the most distinguished warriors
of France. Dinan is so very small a town that it
may be said to have but one good street—that which
runs from its Porte de Brest to the Porte Saint Louis
—the Place du Guesclin forming the only► wide
space in that single street. As to the other streets,
they are narrow lanes, rendered still more confined
by the ancient houses of which they are composed,
and those in the true antique form are so constructed
that the secoad story advances much further into
the street than the basement story, which is erected
on pillars, so as to afford the passengers a covered
way, and protection from the weather. Knowing
the impossibility of this little town affording room
for any considerable multitude within its walls, I
was curious to learn what arrangements could pos-

sibly be made by the local authorities to afford a
the same time a passage for the Imperial cortege, and
give to the population the opportunity of exhibiting,
by their numbers, their devotion to the Imperial
dynasty.
The difficulty has been solved in a manner cre-
ditable to the ingenuity of the Prefect and Maire
of Dinan. By an order which they published
some days previously, all the interior of the little
city was reserved for its citizens and the communal
delegations, and the whole of the Place du Guesclin
was arranged as if it were a reception-hall, where,
upon a throne, erected in the open air, and covered
over with a canopy of crimson velvet and gold, it
was intended that the Emperor and Empress should
seat themselves, and there receive deputations from
the clergy, and then see pass before them, as in re-
view, all those who had travelled from a distance,
and acted as the representatives of the various loca-
lities to which they were attached. Had not the
inclemency of the weather—a down-pouring shower
of rain, which overwhelmed Dinan at the time the
Emperor stayed within its walls—interfered with the
arrangements, this little city would have afforded
something like a revival of the Breton assemblies in
by-gone times, when its kings, Salomon, and Hoel,
and Conan, and Alain, sat in the open air, with their
councillors of state around them, and the people
witnesses to the manner in which they administered
justice, and devised enactments for the benefit of the
commonwealth.
This pretty picture, and, as I believe, uninten-
tional revival of a representation of the condition of
Brittany when its native kings had freed their coun-
try from Roman dominion, and were successfully
defending it against Frankish aggressors, was com-
pletely marred by a chance shower of rain.
This, and all the other arrangements made for the
reception of the Emperor, reflects the very highest
credit upon the authorities at Dinan.
The Porte du Brest was the gate throngh which
the Emperor was to pass into Dinan. This is a very
ancient gateway, flanked with two towers, and all in
a state of perfect preservation ; upon this occasion
its ivy-covered and wild-flower-decked walls were
made to assume quite a holiday appearance. On the
topmost point of the venerable fortification which de-
fended the gateway was erected a golden eagle with
outstretched wings, and beneath this eagle was a bust
of the Emperor, whilst a motto, which ran across
the entire of the battlements, was inscribed in large
golden letters, " Honneur et Patrie," and beneath
were arranged in various forms the flashing standards
sf the Empire, and the portals of the gate were
wreathed with laurel. Upon passing this gate, the
spectator found himself in presence of the Maisie,
newly decorated for the occasion, and as far as the eye
could reach it was dazzled with tri-colored flags, which
fluttered from the balcony of every house. Beyond
the street in which was the Maisie was to be seen the
wide space of the Place du Guesclin—which is divided
into two parts, one completely open, the other an
enclosed terrace about three feet higher than the rest
of the square, covered with umbrageous trees. In
the lower part of the square were constructed two
pyramids about thirteen feet in height, and composed
from top to bottom of the richest plants of the
sweetest odour and the most brilliant colours. Be-
yond these was the canopy of gold and crimson, and
beneath it two thrones for their Majesties. Here ad-
dresses were to be presented to them, and here were
collected the young ladies who were to offer a
bouquet of flowers and an album to the Empress ;
and here, too, were the little children of various
schools arrayed in white, and their hair decked with
wreaths of roses, who were to represent the reli-
gious institutions of those female communities who
devote themselves to the instruction of the young ;
and here, too, were the clergy of Dinan and its
neighbourhood under the leadership of M. Brageuil,
the rector of St. Sauveurs, a gentleman greatly re-
spected, and who has been at all times, and under
the most adverse circumstances, a decided adherent
of the Napoleon dynasty—for he is old enough to
recollect the time when, in the prison of Dinan (a
magnificent piece of ancient fortification, once the
favourite residence of the Duchess-Queen Anne of
Brittany) there were no less than seventy-six clergy-
men incarcerated for refusing to subscribe to " the
Civil Constitution of the Clergy," devised by the
regicide republicans, and every one of these clergy-
men afterwards either banished or decapitated.
In front of the clergy, and all along the right hand
side of the town, as it is entered from the Ports du
Brest, were the communal delegations, with banners
denoting the different localities they represented, and
as there are no soldiers in so small a town, the line
for the procession was maintained by the civil fore.:
—the pompiers, and a few gees dames. Outside of
the Place du Guesclin, and fronting a passage leading
to the lower prison of Dinan, was a decoration of a
novel character—the first of the kind that presented
itself to the view of the Emperor, and therefore
entitled to something more than a passing notice.
This novel decoration consisted of an obelisk, on
one side of which were the eagle and tai-colors of
France, and on the other the crown, and royal
standard of England. Beneath were united, as with
a link of gold, two shields, the one representing the
imperial arms of France, with the words "Vive
l'Empereur !" the other, the royal arms of England,
with the words " God save the Queen !" In front
was a richly-decorated tablet, on which appeared, at
the top, the names, " Napoleon, Victoria," and at the
bottom, "Eugenie, Albert," with these words in the
centre, " Pace et concordia." On both sides of this
was placed a parterre of the finest flowers that the
gardens or hot-houses of this part of France can pro-
duce, and behind the parterre were arranged seats,
exclusively occupied by English residents of Dinan
and its neighbourhood.
Ti:ere are, I believe, in Dinan and its neighbour-
hood more than two hundred families of British sub-
jects, English, Irish, and Scotch, and this decoration
or testimonial has been, I am aware, the cause of
some discussion, if not dissension, amongst the Eng-
lish. One party, the majority, by whom it has been
erected, considering it proper to imitate the example
of their Sovereign, who, in visiting Cherbourg, tes-
tified her friendship for the Emperor, and showed her