Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1877-10-02

Church or ~. Jean du OOfRt-Cu-
rtous ola Legend-The Interior Of
the Church = The Church Treas.
ures.
Special Correspondence Philadelphia Evening
Bulletin.
Cores DU NORD, BRITTAYY, France
September IL, 1877. !
Our driver made mistake and
took us first to the little church of
Plonegat, which is not far from st.
Jean. Plonegat is the village near
which lived the gay Marquis de
Locmaria. Guerand, his country
seat or chateau, was in the environs.
Madame de Sevlgne mentions him
in one of her letters to her daugh.
ter. That lively and interesting
writer met him at the Etats de
Vitre, in 1871, when he was in the
very spring time of his brilliant
life. She was most enthusiastic
over his dancing.
81 wish you could have seen the
air of Monsieur de Locmaria,"
writes isqueen of correspondents,
"and the way he took off and re.
placed his hat. What lightness !
What perfection! On my word he
could defy all the courtiers to equal
him. He has 10000 livres income,
il RESEMBLE a tout ce au'il va de
plus ioli, and he would have been
very glad to have married you, ma
chere."
The Marquis de Locmaria was a
son Of the Marshal du Pare, and
was himself lieutenant general; in
1908 he distinguished himself at
the battle of Spires. But when
Madame de Sevigne lost her clever
head over his graceful dancing and
beauty, he was like those gay, reck-
less courtiers whose naughty doings
are chronicled in "E0eil de
Beuff," Saint Simon's memoirs.
etc., those witty, graceful, elegant,
unprincipled noblemen who made
up the brilliant court Of Louis XIV
and Louis XIV, and whose wicked
Sodom and Gomorrah lives led to
the Deluge Of Blood of 1889. The
traditions of this Breton land say
that he was the terror of the peas
ant husbands; and droll story
tells us that when he sailed forth
from his Chateau de Guerand to
take an airing of a morning his
mother herself ran quickly to the
tower and rang the great castle
bell, to give the alarm to the. peas
ant husbands of the wolf being
abroad in the flock. Whocan won-
der at the excuses of the Revoln-
tion of $50, when we read and hear
of such reports of the vicious, cor
rupt lives Of the young nobility2
But the gay Marquis de Locma
ria had something in him besides
this youthful gallantry. He be-
came a great general and totally
reformed his life as he grew old.
He grew very religious, and built
a hospital at Plonegat which was
destroyed in the Revolution of 'S9
his chateau was also DESTROYED
then; but he had gone to his long
unwaking sleep many a long year
before; he died in 1909, childless
old man, and left his fortune to
charities. To this day he is re-
membered by the peasants of Plone-
gat, who imagine they see at night
a light in the ruins of the hospital
chapel the marquis built; they say
it is the spirit OF the marquis who
is praying there to God to pardon
the sins Of his youth.
At last we reached the Church
of st. Jean du Doigt Such
pretty, pleasant place as is the
country around! Green fields bor-
dered with elms, and the delicious
hedges Of white thorn and wild
vines!
There is a curious old legend |
about the relic that is preserved in
this church.. The relic is the index
finger of John the Baptist. 1t used
TO be at another church, or little
chapel, some distance from st. Jean.
Once on a time a crusading Breton
soldier was returning from the Holy
Land after many danuarous on.