ormerly belonged to
the convent; but when the parish church was demolished, the Abbey ceded
this chapel to the town, reserving the privilege of a separate seat for
the Abbess, who, on the Sunday after St. John's day, had her crosier
carried before her in state by one of her vassals at high mass and
vespers.

From Hennebont we went by rail to Auray, and established ourselves for
some time in the Pavillon d'en Haut, a most comfortable hotel. Auray is
situated on the slope of a hill, the streets narrow and steep.

Our first drive was to Ste. Anne d'Auray, one of the most famous places of
pilgrimage in Brittany, on account of its miraculous well and church. It
has been called the Mecca of Brittany. Here, according to the legend in
the seventeenth century, Ste. Anne appeared to a countryman, and directed
him to dig in a certain field, where he would find her image, and to build
a chapel there. Guided by a miraculous light, Nicolazic discovered the
statue, and erected a chapel on the site.

[Illustration: 33. Scala Sancta. Ste. Anne d'Auray.]

The spring where Ste. Anne first appeared is now enclosed in a large basin
of cut stone. Near it is the church, in course of reconstruction. It
stands in a court surrounded by covered galleries for the shelter of the
pilgrims. Two flights of steps, called the Scala Sancta (after that of St.
John Lateran), lead to a platform over the three entrance gates, upon
which is an altar surmounted by a cupola, where mass can be heard by
20,000 persons. The steps are ascended by the pilgrims barefooted, as they
do at Rome. The fete of Ste. Anne is celebrated on the 26th of July, when
pilgrims arrive from all parts of Brittany to visit the miraculous statue,
to ascend the holy staircase, and to drink or wash in the sacred fountain.
It was a fete day when we visited Ste. Anne. There was a large assemblage
of people, and booths were erected round the court, where were sold
rosaries and the wire brooches, with scarlet and blue tufts of worsted,
called _epinglettes_, worn by the Bretons in their hats as a token of
their having made a pilgrimage. We saw exhibited the photograph of a young
lady, said to have lately recovered from paralysis after bathing in the
holy well. So world-wide is the fame of Ste. Anne d'Auray that a traveller
mentions having seen at her shrine an embroidered altar-cloth of Irish
damask, with "Irlande: Reconnaissance a Sainte Anne, 1850," woven into the
pattern. The convent, wi