isgrace, and his being subsequently consigned to the fortress of
Pignarol, his grandson, the Marquis de Belle Isle, exchanged it with Louis
XV. for the Comte of Gisors, erected into a duchy in 1742. Fouquet built a
palace and completed the citadel, for which he employed Vauban. He also
projected fortifications to enclose the town, which are now in course of
completion by the Emperor, after Vauban's plans. Several guns had just
been landed, the day before we visited the citadel, to see which an order
is requisite. Near the citadel is the "Maison centrale des detenus," now
only containing a few old men, too feeble for hard labour. We were too
tired to walk to look at the celebrated cistern of Vauban, which holds, we
were told, above thirty thousand imperial gallons of water. Fouquet's
palace was, it is said, destroyed to complete the line of fortifications.
A house was pointed out to us as having formed part of the original
building. Some years since, a stone was picked up in the harbour bearing
his ambitious device--a squirrel, with the motto, _Quo non ascendum?_ "To
where shall I not rise?" The greater number of the population of Belle
Isle are employed in the fisheries; of these the sardine and the tunny are
the chief. There are large establishments for curing sardines, which are
very abundant, and lobsters, taken in the rocks of Belle Isle and the
little islands of Houat and Haedic, are sent to London and Paris. The boats
go as far as Spain, to the coast of Catalonia, for the tunny fishery,
which extends from August to the beginning of October. These fish are
taken by lines hung along the sides of the vessel, with a bell attached to
each to give notice of a bite. The most esteemed part of the tunny is the
underneath, or "panse." The next morning we sailed back to Auray. The
nearest point to Belle Isle is Quiberon, only ten miles from Le Palais.
From Auray by rail to Quimper, where we took the diligence to Pont l'Abbe,
an old town formerly of some importance, in the midst of a fertile, rich
country. The costume worn at Pont l'Abbe and along the Bay of Audierne is
very singular. The cap, or "bigouden," is composed of two pieces: first, a
kind of skull-cap, or serre-tete, fitting tight to the head over the ears,
then a little round bit, resembling, the young people said, a "pork-pie"
hat, made of starched linen, pinched into a three-cornered peak, the
middle peak embroidered and tied on by a piece of tape fastening under th