1024-1035 riage, he visited Rome, rather as a pleasure traveller than a Pilgrim, leaving his wife Hawisa under Duke Richard's fraternal protection. Merrily did Geoffrey make his journey, and in such guise as beseemed his quality; hawk on fist and sword by side. But a mean misadventure shortened his days. On his returning route, safe and sound, his unhooded bird flew at ignoble game, at a hen belonging to the good wife who kept the hostelry where the Duke-pilgrim we can scarcely call him,-had been lodging. The angry Crone flung a potsherd at his head which fractured his skull. Thus did the doughty warrior die at the hands of a crabbed old woman. 1008 Death of 1008 Alain III., or Duke of Brittany. Alain, Geoffrey's son, commenced his reign or V., Count under the guardianship of his energetic mother Hawisa, and her tutelage and guidance enabled the young man to vindicate his authority. Well did he need sound counsel, for now ensued a perilous period. The revolutionary example of the Norman peasantry became contagious. In Normandy, the discontent may have been embittered by the effects of the Scandinavian occupation or conquest. But the Breizad cultivators the Armori- were oppressed by Lords of their own blood; try. and the fire continued smouldering for nearly 1010 Revolt of can peasan twenty years, until, at last, the conflagration blazed out with direful fury. The accounts of the Breton insurrection remind us of the German Baurenkrieg.-If the ferocity exhibited by the revolters may be construed as affording any 1024-1035 measure of the hardships they avenged, galling indeed must have been the yoke they endeavoured to cast off. § 29. The Nobles were appalled. Not so brave Hawisa. Obeying her advice, the Boy leapt into his saddle. Forth he rode, leading on his Nobles, and the insurgents were completely subdued. Time wore away; Duke Alain grew up from boyhood to manhood, when dissensions arose between him and another Alain. - Alain Caignard, Count of Rennes. Many Alains recur in Armorican history. The Breton onomasticon was singularly scanty, a circumstance adding to the confusion of their perplexed annals. Their examination becomes a puzzling task; and, whilst endeavouring to harmonize these records, I may have nodded now and then. nard, Count of Rennes. Duke Alain's courtship of Alain Caignard's grudges were not without Alain Caigjustification, inasmuch as, during his nonage, a considerable portion of his inheritance had been usurped by Duke Geoffrey. The gallants were congenial spirits. Duke Alain had wooed Bertha, daughter of Eudes le-Champenois, the son of the of Comes Ditissimus, who succeeded to the noble territories of Champagne and Brie. fused. This denial was a personal affront, as well as a cross in love.-Was there ever a rejection of a matrimonial offer which did not partake more or less of this double character ? Eudes re Champenois. 1024-1035 Alain was a fine young man, fully the equal of the Champenois, whether in power or in station; but, however courteous the terms in which the French nay-say was conveyed, he could discern a sneer. Indeed the Celts were unwillingly admitted by their fellow Christians into the civilized commonwealth. An equivalent antipathy was entertained by the Teutonic races; equally the crime and curse of both populations. Spurcitia Britonum—was the popular dictum throughout the Langue d'oil, one of those national floutings which contribute so detrimentally to the exaltation of national vanity, and the perpetuation of envy, malice, and all uncharitableness; and yet, nothing like so poisonous as the correlative,-national selfpraise; each individual gulping the flattery for which he credits himself on his private account, through the agency of the Community whereunto he appertains. How many of the faults, the defects, the sins, which stain the English character, have been fostered by the self-laudations of "John Bull."-You and I, and every one of us, appropriating to myself or ourselves the whole tribute of our own self-bestowed encomiums. 30. In early times, abduction, nay all the natural consequences of abduction, must, rude as the process may appear, be regarded as a phase of Chivalry. This feeling is not wholly extinct, even in our age. Assuredly a plea put in by the ALAIN AND ALAIN CAIGNARD. 171 Traverser in the dock, that, when carrying off 1024-1035 the coy object of his affections, he has merely followed the brilliant example afforded by Amadis of Gaul, would scarcely be received by the Judge of Assize in County Tipperary: although, on the other hand, the Jury might be much inclined to overrule his Lordship's ruling, that the offence is a grievous misdemeanour, approaching to a felony. of Alain Caignard, Duke Alain obtains the Such was the state of feeling in Armorica By the help when Alain Caignard, anxious to serve his LiegeLord, and probably not sorry to spite the French, Lady. made a forcible seizure of the Damsel, and conducted his prize triumphantly to Rennes, where she was espoused to young Duke Alain, "more Britannico." This expression is somewhat ambiguous. We cannot doubt, however, but that the young couple duly received the benediction of the altar. Duke Alain restores to Alain Caig island of All the Nobles were convened; rich gifts and guerdons copiously bestowed by Alain's own hand. Gauds or garments however could not satisfy Alain Caignard, the disappointed Count of Cornouaille; he claimed his inheritance. Alain promised the restoration of the usurped territory, nard the all the Nobles assenting and applauding this act, Belle Isle. certainly of grace, and possibly of justice. The chief parcel consisted of well known Belle Isle, also called Guedel, a Celtic name, which became obsolete at an early period. Belle Isle, lying just over against Quiberon, is the largest amongst 1024-1035 the islands appertaining to the Continent of France. The English reader will recollect the locality as figuring, though not very gloriously, in our naval annals. Jealousies between Normandy Hawisa's son and the Norman Duke were and Brittany, mutually jealous; the former assumed a proud position, the like of which was scarcely paralleled by the traditions floating concerning his semimythic ancestors. Alain acquired the name of Ruivriz, signifying, as we collect from master Wace's interpretation, the Roi Bret, the Breton King. Thanks to the fervid fancy of the Celtic littérateurs, a morbid enthusiasm has infested the romantic French writers of the modern picturesque school, teaching them to gild and illuminate their historical delineations in the style of a mediæval missal; and in consequence of this affection or affectation, the traditions of Brittany have acquired an Ossianic character, compelling distrust where the enquirer would gladly yield credence. But the ascription of regal state to the earlier Breton Dynasts was probably not entirely groundless, and Duke Alain chafed against the Norman superiority. Le Duc Robert tint bien sa terre, Ki a sa Cort ne veult venir |