ot take his merited place in the page of
history, owing probably to the partiality of French historians, who were
always jealous of the glory of Brittany. Except Du Guesclin, no other
constable has rendered greater service to France.

A prisoner at Agincourt, where he commanded the van, he fought with the
Maid of Orleans,(19) at Beaugeney, took Talbot captive at Patai,
reconquered almost the whole of Normandy, entered Paris in 1436, and
finally expelled the English by the crushing victory of Formigny, having
staked his honour to drive them out of the kingdom. Seven years after, he
succeeded to the ducal crown; but such was the confidence of Charles VII.
in his loyalty, that he retained the supreme command of the French army
with his new dignity. He reigned only fourteen months. Richmont always
caused two swords to be carried before him when he appeared in presence of
the King; a naked sword, as Duke of Brittany, and the other sheathed and
the point turned downwards, as Constable of France. The title of Earl of
Richmond, styled by the French Comte de Richmont, dates from the
Conqueror. Alan Rufus, son of the Earl of Brittany, accompanied Duke
William to England, and commanded the rear of the army at the battle of
Hastings. For these services, he was rewarded with the hand of the
Conqueror's daughter, and all that northern part of Yorkshire, now called
Richmondshire, where he built, on the river Swale, the town and castle of
Richmond. The title passed through Alice, daughter of Constance of
Brittany, to Pierre de Dreux, and descended through him to all the Dukes
of his house, until John IV., having gone over to the King of France, was
deprived of the earldom by Act of Parliament, in the reign of King Richard
II.; but Henry IV. again conferred the title upon his stepson Arthur,
afterwards the celebrated Constable and Duke of Brittany.

We returned to breakfast at Sarzeau; then on to the Abbey of St. Gildas de
Rhuys, founded on this inaccessible coast by St. Gildas, an English saint,
the schoolfellow and friend of St. Samson of Dol and St. Pol de Leon, and
which counted among its monks our Saxon St. Dunstan, who, carried by
pirates from his native isle, settled on the desolate shores of Brittany,
and became, under the name of St. Goustan, the patron of mariners.

St. Gildas built his abbey on the edge of a high rocky promontory, the
site of an ancient Roman encampment, called Grand Mont, facing the shore,
where the sea ha