The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-12-09

SUBJECT u DAA6eAAee &c IA NA-N +&e~N-A N@--A-
tries.
When IT had ceased almost as suddenly
as It had begun, the Vagabond Traveller.
who had shown various prophetic intima-
tons Of "reminiscences, was easily betrayed
into recital Of the following curious tale
of romance and adventure.
Some years since, while wandering
among the lowly Brittany, I came upon
the fisher folk about Carnac, Quimperle
and Concarneau.
This brought me among the sardine
fishers Of the region. There are hosts of
them at Concarnefu. Thirteen hundred
boats are in use. More than thirteen hun
dred families live by these harvests of the
sea; and among these folk, when 1 came,
found an unwonted excitement; an ex-
element easier for a stranger to notice
than to understand.
One man, Pierre Floquet. formerly of
Tregunc. had been most fortunate for
years. 1t was said among his fellows that
he had somehow made league with the
FAIRIES at the old Druid stones Of Carnac,
at midnight Of Christmas eve, long ago;
since which time no ill-luck had befallen
him.
There was a legend, too. found, which
told that he was Of another race. a race
of strange. outlawed souls debarred from
mingling with other humankind, because
of some old, long-ago physical curse OF
faint that had been put upon his ances-
tors.
At all events, every haul of Pierre Flo
- aat.. ~ .,-1~-r
his fellows dragged along in need-whipped
poverty, Pierre got rich, at least. rich for
a sardine fisher of Concarneau. The
more / heard of the brawny fellow, the
more curious l was to know him.
This was given added zest because OF the
wild tales told among the simple folk of
the wondrous voyage he was about to
make with his family in his own new
goelette or schooner, which he had pur-
chased for the astounding sum of twenty
thousand francs.
The voyage was to be to Spain. I was
going to Spain for a lazy tramp across
that land to the Mediterranean. Why
should l not become the companion OF
Pierre Floquet?
There were also wonder and excitement
among these fisher folk of Concarneau
over the recent sudden disappearance of
one Of their number, Casper Valdes.
He was Spanish Biscayan fisherman
of Asturias; a young man who had APP
peared years before at Concarneau as
mysteriously as he now had gone There
were hints that he had been a brigand of
Spain, too handy with his knife and ira
duce; until the guardia civil had at last
pressed him to flight from his native
land.
He had been the only fisherman of Con-
carneau, other than Pierre Floquet. who
had prospered. There had been at first
an intense and unaccountable rivalry at
sea, with the seins, between the two men;
then bitter hatred on sea and land, and
at last, worse than ALL Casper Valdes had
become enamored of one of the daughters
of Pierre Floquet.
Perhaps Gaspar Valdes had been muir
dered. Perhaps Pierre Floquet could tell
by whose hand. These things were darkly
limited now that Pierre Floquet was
about to depart But as he was a man of
little speech and giant frame these sur
misses were only made in subdued whis-
pers at Concarneau.
! found the devil-leagued family of
Floquet living in a hut under the walls
of Concarneau proper or Vile Close
winch at high tide, is quite surrounded by
the sea- and is so near the water, out Of
which their hvlihood had come that
twice each day the incoming sea stole to
the very threshold of the cabin and bah
pied Tor an hour or two with Pierre's
N.
II went away with the dirt and litter of
the place, saving them all much labor.
why did stranger whish to know
the dispised and ostracised Pierre Flo
Quet? That is what he bluntly asked me.
Because, / said, l knew the sardine fish
ers Of other lands, and wished to learn if
their sea craft was like that of their
brethren in Brittany
AS Pierre Floquet believed this after 1
had twice helped him with the seines
over the rough waters of the Bale de la
Forest from which Du Guesclin once so
savagely cannonaded the English garri
son holding the old fort for John de Mont
fort, and as said nothing of my hopes to
join him on his voyage to Spain, we soon
found liking for each other
This, in the condolences which came.
revealed the secret motives of the voyage
the shadows which had set grimly be-
tween the man and his fellows, and finally
gave me the snug berth of passenger and
friend on the Enriqueta del Meira the
Spanish named little craft, which sailed
out under Concarneau's grim walls, with
all or Pierre Floquets earthly possessions
chiefly converted into checks on the Bank
OF Spain, Atocha 10, Madrid, for golden
onzas; while a thousand Breton fisher
men and their wives gazed after us in
open-mouthed wonderment and relief
1t was strange, wild story which came
little by little from Pierre Floquets Inns:
story that a Hugo or a Sue would have
woven into romance of the weirdest fas-
cination.
Among the Pyrenees and the Aouitanian
mountain and valley countries on either
side, especially in Spanish Galicia, Ma
Varre, Heuesca, Lerida and Corona. in the
French Hautes Pyrenees, Gasconv.
Guienne, Poitou, and sparsely in Brittany.
lived and live strange race of men called
Cagots.
The name is derived from CAMS Gothi-
Gus or Gothic dog. For long time these
people were confounded with the Cretins
those goitered, rickety and leprous dwarfs
OF northern Spain and Southern France.
But the Cagots are another folk entirely
They have large, bony, muscular forms
well-shaped skulls, almost Grecian noses.
me- blonde hair, blue eyes and fair. pinlxv
compilations, with large but expressive
mouths and regular, perfect teeth.
These were the striking characteristics
OF Pierre Floquet's form and face. as well
as OF his three huge sons, Hugo, Lorin and
Tomas, his two beautiful daughters. Cloth
ilde and Celeste, his half dozen youths and
babes, whose names have forgotten. and
OF Marthe, his wrinkled and white-eye-
dashed wife.
The Cagots are believed to have de-
scended from the Aryan Goths. Wherever