the houses are built one story
projecting over the other, so that the top stories of the opposite houses
nearly touch each other and exclude the light. The fronts, gable-shaped,
have their enormous beams richly carved, and supported by brackets and
statues of St. Yves or other favourite saints; some are overlaid with
lozenge-shaped slates, and finished at the point with a leaden "epi," or
ornamental terminal. All have a kind of hall, panelled and sculptured to
the roof, the staircases richly sculptured and supported by a pillar
carved from top to bottom with statues of saints or grotesque figures
superposed one over the other. Among the statuettes in the house, No. 19,
are the figures of St. Roch and his dog; St. Christopher carrying the
infant Jesus, St. Michael, and various others. On another staircase, in
better preservation, but not so richly carved (at the Veuve Perron's, No.
14, Grande Rue), are female saints,--the Virgin, St. Catherine, and St.
Barbara.

Morlaix gave a grand reception to the Queen-Duchess Anne, when on her
pilgrimage through Brittany in 1505. The town presented her with a little
ship of gold, bearing the arms of the city, and enriched with precious
stones, and a tame ermine with a diamond collar round its neck. Anne
received the ermine, and caressed the little animal, who returned her
endearments, and, at length, suddenly concealed itself in her bosom, which
unexpected proceeding startled the Queen, when the Seigneur du Rohan, who
was by her side, exclaimed, "What do you fear, madam; is not the ermine
your cognisance?" No less enthusiastic was the reception given by the
citizens of Morlaix forty years later (1548) to Mary Stuart, then only
five years old, on her landing in France. She was lodged in the convent of
the Jacobins, and assisted at the Te Deum in the church of Notre
Dame-du-Mur. When passing through one of the gates on her way back, the
drawbridge, overloaded with spectators, gave way, and several persons were
thrown into the water. Mary's Scottish attendants cried out "Treason!" but
the Seigneur de Rohan, who was on horseback by the side of the royal
litter, indignantly exclaimed, "Jamais Breton ne fit trahison." The
loyalty and good faith of the Bretons is proverbial. "En tout chemin,
loyaute," is a Breton motto,(8) and it is one of the virtues attributed to
them by a Breton writer, who assigns to them four virtues and three vices.
Their virtues consist in a love of their country and