The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-07-09
IN BLUEBEARD'S COUNTRY.
STRANGE CRIMES STILL COMMITTED.
IN BRITAIN.

Descendants of an Ancient Breton. Fam
ily-The Tragedy of n Man Who Could
Get No Bread CR1lousness shown.
A reader OF French newspapers may observe
that the crimes Of the peasant classes in Franco
are generally conceived with incredible crudity
and executed with callousness Tho stupidity
OF the farm murderer who destroys his mas
ter's family for the sake OF tho few gold pieces
whose possession must inevitably betrny him;
the awkward bungling OF the country poisoner
with the herbs which he gathers in broad day
light; the heedlessness of the assassin OF
priests whose knife is uncleansed of blood as
he hurrles from one lonely presbytery to an
other,are characteristics repeated over and over
again in the criminal records OF French
provinces. Apparently the staRnant life of the
hirrow and the ditch. with its hopeless lack of
future. renders tho peasant as incapable of
looking beyond the moments satisfaction as
the cattle in his fields. But common as Is this
brutal thoughtessness OF the rural criminal
throughout France. it Is especially noticeable
In Brittany. in whose rcmoter hamlets an in
difference to human suffering seems a survival
from the medieval period
The Druid haunted country Of the Cet,
where fervent Catholicism il strangely tine
tured with grossest paEanism. and the old
heather gods after fifteen centuries still
SnOuluoT tne InTlSllun Saints al every Cross
road, has given birth in all periods to unusual
phases OF character. Into Brittany's honora-
bic array of patriots and martyrs monstrous
criminals intrude. and one Of these. the in
famous Giles de Retz. is execrated in every
nursery to-day as Bluebeard although
his castle OF Champtoc6 has long since
crumbled upon the green slope of tho
Loire. But there are others whose ac-
cursed memory ancient ballad and black
letter chronicle keep alive-from the myth
ically vlllainous stepmother of Tristan
OF Lyonesse with her poisoned cup. and Dahut.
the daughter OF King Grallon. whom the nc
cusing sea overwhelmed in her city Of Is. the
Breton Sodom. and many another fierce crea-
ture OF legend. down to Guy do Fontenelle.
who. in his Chateau de Beaumanoir. near
Dinan used the blood of madens to warm his
age-chlled limbs. and that horrible Sire de
Giac. who at his execution by order OF the
Duke Of Richmond. begged that his right hand
might be cut Off before he was killed. because
he had given 1t to the devil. and through 1t the
devil might carry him Off bodily-it is such
stories as these that the Breton ballads repeat
stories OF weird torture and strange sin. and.
as the folk songs Of people portray its his
tory. there is deep Significance in the almost
unbroken gloom Of Celtic minstresy.
II. rs Ibsen asserts in Ghosts" all sorts OF
dead ideas and lifelcss old beliefs walk in u.s."
then perhaps the primitive nature of the Ar
morican. keenly imaginative and impressiona-
BILE. is haunted by the exhalations of that an
cient debatable land in which he dwels. The
armies OF the Roman. the Frank and the Gaul.
OF England and OF the League and OF the Revo-
luton have laid waste its fields. Back OF his
tory loom the creators Of those most mysteri-
Gus OF all monuments. the great dolmcns and
menhirs which are scattered all through
moi
sense OF awe. and it Is easy to believe
the stories OF strange rites still practiccd be-
side their hoary shoulders In many lonely
parish. In every Breton district the sinister
names Of river and heath and cliff perretuato
old horrors and fancies Of fcar-LanletY the
Land OF Fear" Koatscorn. the Wood OF
Bones Daouaas. the Place of Two MUIR
ders." But the newspapers Of to-day record
tragedies Of solitary hamlets as primtively
passionate rs those OF the times of Tristan
and Lancelot. and no more vivid commentary
upon the elementary constitution OF the
Breton peasant can be found than in the re-
ports OF some recent trials in Lower Brittany.
Tho town OF st. Brieuc, whose dull streets
retain an air OF mOnasticsm which one fanclos
impaired by its founder. the early British
monk. stands on the border OF La Bretagne
bretOnHante. as Froissart calls it. where only
Breton is spoken. Beyond it lies a wild moor
land country whore the peasant who ut his
wedding puts on the embroidered waistroat
worn for generations by ancestral BRIDE
grooms with it naturally assumes all the
hereditary beliefs and customs. LIE changes
little with the centuries in those dusky farm
Stcads. sunkcn in mre and reached only 10y
dcep-ruttcd lanes Just wide enough for the
passag" OF Il coffin 1t is in this district that Il
chapel dedicated to Our Lady Of Hate exists
from Celtic times and the singular statue Of
Venus at Quinipily not far off il still worshipped
on foggy nights when the priest is away.
In the commune PloufraGan, about three
miles from St Brieuc. there stands. half hidden
by its shrouding trees, an ancient MANOR once
belonging to the SeiGncurs do Querangal drs
Essarts. Of the true Breton type. with round
turrets at its four corners and a surrounding
wall whose loopholes we're once supplemented
by a moat long since dry. the old SeignpTiel.
half manor. half grange. is sunken to-day into
derrepitude. The slime Of filthy barnyard
oozes about its deserted gateway over which
the carved cscutcheon OF the Querangas is
still piteously visible. ard the stones Of the
winding stair have fallen asunder so that the
houses occupants are limited to n single living
room, entered only through the cow stable
Most of the ancient keeps which stud this
country are haunted in the green melancholy
OF their decay 10y the crimes Of long dead chate-
lains. but the gloom OF tho manor house Of
Querangal has deepened in recent days
1t was the last descendants of this old Breton
family. the latest occupants OF the manor. who
wore tried for murder at st. Bricuc. Through
the printed pages OF the report one secs tho
isolated village Of st. Herve. the dismal old
house among its trees. the dim peasant rooms
and their beds. with carven doors and huge
oakcn wardrobeS: one perceives the bcstial
dirt and misery Of the crowded farms and the
coarse GorginG and drunkenness OF holidays,
and hears the screaming and laughter which
ut niGhtfall gave the house Of Qucrnngal
bad name in the countryside. To
be sure the crime OF the lover OF Aimee
QueranGcl, aged 20 years, was merely that one
so familiar in France. the murder of an IN
convenient husband. The widow Of the muir
dcrcd man sat beside her lover in the dock n
pretty woman with plump, rosy face beneath
her Naring cap. tempting enough to ruined
gcntiMou,me with nothing TO do but lounge in
the hedgerOwS with Il gun, Each irantralIy
accused the other. Peasant witnesses re- rcatcd
the terrified predictions Of the victim. II hard
drinking fnrmpr Of Hprvp. NJ. Wit, il