The record-union., 1894-12-08

youths and babes, whose names I have
forgotten, and of Marthe, his wrinkled
and white-eye-lashed wife.
The Cagots are believed to have de-
scended from the Aryan GOths. Wher-
ever they live away from the Pyrenees,
IN France and Spain, these marked and
summed people are variously called CAL
lberts, Caqulns, CacOas and Cahets. For
thousand years they were superstiti-
ously avoided by all other inhabitants
near them.
They were despised, prosecuted, mall
treated, regarded socially and legally as
outcasts, and the superstition of the
darker times attributed to them all
| manner Of fOulness. They were believed
10 oe witches, nuvierOs, or raiSers of the
/ storms and tempestS, the Spanish peas
| antry called them. Every possible dark
| deed was within their power. They eX-
hailed noXious odors, They bred pesti-
| lences and epidemics. They were COM
! panions Of cats, bats and owls, and could
see in the night like them.
! They were completely and absolutely
ostracized, and compelled to live alone,
or in quarters by themselves; and in
towns and cities wherever they made
their appearance, they were obliged to
wear a scarlet cloth that all others might
avoid them. Down until the seventeenth
century it was not considered a crine to
Kill Cagot if he offended. So Pierre
HIS own story? An hundred years be-
fore his great-great-grand was
stoned to death III the little hamlet OF
Melra, on the sunny RivadeO River,
which leaps laughingly from the Sierra
de Banadeiro nights into Blscay Bay.
Donning the garb and assuming the ways
OF the gitani or gypSies, the wife and
children escaped into France and finally
settled in Brittany.
They changed their name and vocation;
| they became fishers at Concarneau. 9th
ers of the Spanish Cagots came. Inter-
| marriage resulted. Some of the progeny
| died and some emigrated. Among their
| descendants was Pierre ElOquet, who
toiled at the seines until the sardines
| brought him competence. With its in
| crease came that indefinable longing
which grows within the heart to know
| the land whence one Sprang, and, be-
sides, the only human he had ever hated
had vowed TO possess himself Of his
sprightly daughter Celeste.
Enriqueta had been the name of Pierre
Floquet's mother. 1t was also the name
of the wife Of the poor CagOT stoned to
death beside the banks of the RiVadeo,
and Meira was the village from which
his ancestors had fed.
So Pierre FIoquet was evidently cheat
ing Gaspar Naldes Of the pretty Celeste
while realizing the dream Of his lie in
returning TO Spain in his own ship, rich
enough TO be made alcalde Of AIeIra; to
build a great monument in memory of
his murdered ancestor; TO make his blood
and kin respected and feared, if never
beloved; and somehow l felt a no mean
thrill OF pride in the beaming pride of
my fisher friend, despised Cagot though
he was.
Our geiette was snug craft of one hun
dred and twenty tons burthen, and we
had scarcely got well out of sight OF the
gaping fishermen Of Concarneau, whom
our cunning Captain, after stripping
himself nearly naked, unwOund from his
body some yellow and scarlet stuff which
proved to be the flag Of Spain.
When this was run up and reverently
saluted on bended knees with the sign of
the cross by all on board, and our craft had
been again and again committed TO the
protecting care of the Virgin, everything
in the power OF Pierre and his family had
now been done to give US favoring gales
ana safe voyage to the Spanish port of
Gijon.
For two days and nights we closely
skirted the French coast; by night, now
! and then catching glimpses OF warning
lights flashing, or fixed, where danger
hidden lay; 10y day, contemplating an
unbroken line of plume-ike surf, sur
mounted by gray dunes of tempest-shift-
ing sand, here and there jaggedly capped
at the horizon edge by dark silhouttes OF
stunted spruce and tir.
Not an inviting shore is the southern
half OF this Blscayan coast, and after the
first interest OF the novel voyage had
worn away | found myself turning to my
strange companion for human relief from
the oppressive deSolation OF endless wa
ters to the west and the dim, monotonous
and repellant coast scenes on the eastern
horizon.
Pierre F1oquet, who cared naught for
sea or land, and who now only serenely
awaited the sight OF the peaks of the Span
ish Sierras, seemed glad and thankful
that L thus sought their companionShip,
for l could tell nim much OF Spain. His
gratitude for this knew no bounds.
Come" be would say to his wife and
children as he took his place the wheel,
1--WE will hear still more from our stranger
friend of brave CaSLlle!'
Then the huge sons who were not busy
would come; Martina, his wife, bent and
silent but with pitiful smile of acquies-
cence in her bronZed anu wrinkled face,
would silently take her place; Clothilde
OF large and mournful face, and Celeste,
with the Latin languor and fire strangely
blended in her dainty oval countenance,
would come: and the bouncing. bounding
children, curly of head and with laugh
ter or wonder ever i'll their strange, wild
eyes, would rush and cIatter over the
deck toward us, and as we sat on the
edge of the little cabin roof, or lay in all
manner OF picturesque groupings beside
and around the giant at the helm, would
tell them again and again OF Spain's
castles and shrines, its villas and vine-
yards, its mountains and valleys, it's
chozss and chestnut groves, until the
stars flaming above US were 10 brighter
than the light of joyous expectancy in
their eager eyes.
Only one OF Pierre Floquets family
seemed not TO enter into this elation
OF innocent anticipation. This was Ce-
leste.
Many times, when my eyes sought the
sisters as they lay or crouched near US
encircled in each others arms, | saw that
Ceieste'S eyes were closed or partly
closed, or still set with strange fixed
ness TAR out upon the watery waste
about us.
At these times 1 could not remove my
gaze from her fascinating face. | halted
ana stumbled in my tales, for I thought
Oh GaspGr Naloes and knew. or thought L
knew, that no sound of my voice pene-
| trated her consciousness, which seemed
10 nave nown to the fisher LETT behind.
/ Gould she have known, / wondered, of
some dread and terrible deed that had
peen done before Pierre Floquet was
/ ready 10 set sail? Was her heart mourn
/ ing IN vlrginai widowhood because of the
slience OF one necessary to make COM
4 pleLe this wondrouS smile of content
mens ana peace upon her giant fathers
| face?
These and countless other harrassing