ried out. In us he beheld the representatives of the passengers of the "Sea Mew," and in our persons must his vows to his friend Chancellor be accomplished. And so, breakfast once over, a carriage was ordered, and we were driven off along the coast towards Cape La Hague. "I am going to show you," began our director, "the earliest stronghold of your race in Normandy - the first settlement, probably, of the barbarous Scandinavians on the shores of civilized Neustria." of this beast is evidence of the scarcity of that particular article of diet. Another monster, called Bigorne, eats up husbands who are under the dominion of their wives, and his circumstances seem to be more comfortable. Our fair friend is delighted to find that the same monsters were known in England, as witness Chaucer, who warns ladies to avoid the example of patient Griselda, "Lest Chichevache you swowle in her entraile," and Lydgate, who, as Professor Morley shows us, devotes a whole poem to the two mythic beasts. As we started, the weather was rather threatening, great banks of clouds drifting up from the sea, with occasional driv By this time we have reached Beauing showers; but in spite of the weather, mont Hague on the western side of the when we reached the little bay called the peninsula, with a lonely château in a Anse St. Anne- where there is a little wood, close by which our director points fishing village under the protection of the out with triumph a raised embankment big fort that crowns the point-in spite of of greensward, which he assures us is the the weather, I say, the whole of the male Hague Dyke, an entrenchment that cuts population of the village was on the move. off the whole neck of land ending in Cape Their fishing-boats were anchored a little La Hague; a work that some ascribe to way out at sea- -short bluff craft bobbing the first Norman settlers in the land, who up and down on the swell like so many here may have formed a stronghold and fishing-floats; and each man as he left his place of retreat, whence they might sally hut to start with the tide for the fishing-out to plunder and devastate at will. banks carried on his back a sort of coracle, rudely constructed, and of the frailest materials - an egg box in one case-a little wooden scoop, in fact, which the fisherman dexterously set afloat and scrambled into, and then paddled out to his boat. A primitive race these fishermen, among whom still linger many of the superstitions that once were universal in the district. There is le moine de Saire, for instance, the evil genius of these parts and the terror of seamen. In the roadstead of Cherbourg he calls out, "Sauvez la vie!" and draws the seamen who come to his help into the waves. Upon the rocks, he cries, "Par ici! par la!" in order to mislead them; and these are evil pranks in which he indulges to this day. But he no longer sits upon the bridge of Saire to play at cards with the belated traveller and to throw the player into the water as the penalty for losing the game. People had long been too wide-awake for him, and when the railway was made he abandoned the bridge in disgust. Madame la directrice is well versed in all this folk-lore, and she can tell us of the goblins that haunt the coasts hereabouts, which the country people call buards, or hurleurs; and of Chincheface or, more correctly, Chichevache, a fantastic beast who devours good wives. Her lamentable thinness for Chichevache, is evidently, being interpreted, "miserable cow"-anyhow, the lamentable thinness Eight villages are cut off from the rest of the department by this entrenchment, villages which contain a population more purely Scandinavian perhaps than any other part of France a people tall and strong, with fair-haired women of full and bountiful forms, a people whose mouths have hardly adapted themselves in all these centuries to the tripping language of the French, so that in the neighborhood the district is sometimes known as the Pays de Chenna, from the peculiar way in which the French cela is pronounced. It is a little England, indeed, beyond the silver streak, and Tom Courtney feels a wild desire to embrace some of these tall, good-looking girls, and exclaim: "We are brethren and sisters!" But it is hardly likely that the claim to relationship will be welcomed and acknowledged, for, sooth 'to say, the English are not over-popular in Normandy — especially unpopular, too, among the seafaring population, a little envious of our flag that, as far as commerce goes, has almost driven theirs from the seas. And so we take leave of La Hague. Hague, as our director points out, in the sense of an enclosed space - rapidly running over the words belonging to the same root-"haie," "hedge," ha-ha," and even “hay”—and we drive off, accompanied by a sharp rattling shower of rain and an equally heavy shower of philologic lore from our director, Tom remark ing that all this learning acted upon him | certain questionable bill transactions, up in the same way as a sermon, and gave him a wonderful appetite for dinner. When we reached the town we found despatches waiting for us, which gave us a fresh object in life. First of all was a letter from Hilda brought by a servant in a wonderful shiny hat, driving a dog-cart, with a fine fast-trotting mare. And this proved to be from Hilda for Tom, with a short account of her adventures. They had found the château of the Count de St. Pol, only to learn that the old squire's friend was dead, and that his son ruled in his stead -a young man, handsome, brilliant, and very rich. He had welcomed them with all the effusion of his race; but as he kept up only a bachelor establishment, Hilda and her father had taken up their quarters at the hotel at Valognes "a dear old place, which you must come and see, Tom." Another despatch too by telegraph this one came from the "Sea-Mew," dated Ryde. She had run across to pick up her owner, who was going to join her there, and back to the coast of France port of rendez vous, St. Vaast. We sent for the railway Indicateur. Last train to Valognes at a quarter past six. Dinner must be postponed till we reach that place. Tom grumbled, and muttered something about never travelling with people who were running after girls. on which his creditors had threatened criminal proceedings, and Chancellor had undertaken to negotiate matters, hoping to avert any exposure, and to ship off Master Redmond to some obscure colony say as governor or commander-in-chief. Now, undoubtedly, John Chancellor was very much in love, and it would be a bit. ter disappointment to him to find that Hilda was not on board to meet him. And why should she have inflicted this disappointment on one who was doing his best to serve her? Tom and I talked the matter over as we waited for the time of departure, winding round and round the subject without coming to any conclusion. But while we sat in the shade in the courtyard of the hotel, smoking and talking over our woes, the director being busy with a note-book and his programme, and his wife having gone to array herself for a walk, a young and bright-looking girl approached, and in pretty broken English requested our advice and aid. She was Justine, the femme de chambre of the English mademoiselle, and her mistress had left her here with her boxes, promising to send for her when the destination of the party was settled; but she had heard nothing, and was so dull and desolate in this place that existence was no longer endurable. If we would help her to find her mistress, we should earn her prayers for our welfare and her everlasting gratitude. The same question presented itself both to Tom and myself on reading these de- "If I could travel with a femme de spatches. Had the recall of the "Sea-chambre, how gladly would I !" exclaimed Mew" to pick up its owner anything to do Tom. "But as that would not be thought with Hilda's hasty departure from the correct, I don't see what can be done. yacht with her father? Was it possible But don't cry, my child," seeing that the that she shrank from the assiduous atten- girl's eyes were fast filling with tears. tions of her betrothed, wished to put off You may rely upon us to see you all their meeting as long as possible? Per haps it was rather a high-handed proceeding which a girl of spirit might resent, this ordering back the whole party to meet its host - a thing not chivalrous at all, but rather savoring of the self-importance of an arrogant man. However that might be, Tom reminded me that hitherto Hilda had not shown any repugnance to Mr. Chancellor, and that having made up her mind to accept him she must have been prepared for a certain high-handedness which was part of his character. And, again, Chancellor's visit to France was in pursuance of a scheme of direct advantage for the Chudleigh family. For the son of the house, Redmond, the ex-guardsman and roué, was now, Tom informed me, lying hidden in some French town, mixed up in right." And here it occurred to us that A Saint Malo sont arrivés, Sur le bord de la rivière. And I presently beheld Tom pleasantly sandwiched between Justine and her mistress, while the director held me by the arm as he discoursed upon the origin of the name of Cherbourg, whether Cæsarburgh, as some pretend, a derivation the director was inclined to scout, or more probably after some Saxon chieftain Cyric or Cedric. "A nice little girl that," quoth Tom, | able in their present quarters. "Not at rising and throwing away the end of his all, my friends," rejoined the director; cigar ; "I mean to have a talk to her, and "no trifling considerations of comfort find out what's the matter with Hilda." shall interfere with my devotion to the Tom must have found an opportunity for friends of my excellent Chancelleur. Till carrying out his purpose, for presently he we are on board that ship with the extraor reappeared, and seated himself beside me. dinary name, I will not lose sight of you, "A clever little thing, too, that girl," he my friends, for a moment. You, my began; "she put me up to the situation brave Courtnez, conduct my wife to the in a moment. Her mistress, she said omnibus, and we others will follow on was quite satisfied and happy at least, foot." if not quite happy, anyhow quite content, till last night when the post came in with two dépêches for mademoiselle, one, no doubt, from her fiancé, which she read quite calmly, half smiling to herself, and the secondah, the second-which she opened quite indifferently. It was only from the vieille châtelaine at the château of monsieur, her papa. Yes, the second," went on Tom, imitating the little femme de chambre's gestures, and waving of hands, "the second produced a most lamentable effect on mademoiselle. She turned pale, was about to faint, and then gave way to an indescribable agitation, wringing her hands, and even weeping, in a way a navrer le cœur. "Now, what's navrer le cœur?" asked Tom, interrupting his narrative. "I want to get up all those little phrases; they are so useful in travelling. Navrer le cœur, what does it mean, now?" "Perhaps you'll know before you are much older," I replied gloomily, for, indeed, the little story I had just heard had made me feel something of a heart-break. The "vieille châtelaine" could be no other than Mrs. Murch, and the news that had so much affected Hilda conld hardly be other than an account of my visit to Combe Chudleigh, and of what I had said and done. But that Hilda felt that I had come too late, and that we were hopelessly and irrevocably parted, was only too plain from the manner in which she had received the news. Not a gleam of joy or of hope, but only the grief and sorrow with which she took leave forever of all the sweet promise of earlier days. But if I could only see her-speak | to her in my own name, urge my own rights of first and only love. I became in a moment feverishly anxious to depart. To a man anxious to get away, it was rather vexing, that as Tom and I were settling our bills we should be seized upon by the director. "Are we to travel on to-night then, my friends?" And then I suggested that as we were going to a small town of limited resources, his wife and he would be much more comfort But soon we were speeding, at the deliberate speed of a French express train, along a pleasant English-looking valley, with a stream showing here and there a gleam of light, and snug villas perched among the trees; through a woodland country, the trees all aglow with the rays of the declining sun, with little fields between, shining in vivid green; the storm all cleared away, and the day finishing in peace and splendor; then among roses which cluster about every cottage, hang about the station walls, and clamber around the wheels of old deserted luggage-trucks a land of roses and rich meadows, with green hedges and happy, comfortable-looking cows standing to be milked, and milked into vases of polished brass of quite noble classic form: a country of village spires and thatched roofs, with a pretty bit of river here and there shining from under a bridge. It is the river Douve -a less brawling stream than our English Dove, but with a charm of its own, in its rich and pleasant valley. And yonder on the hill our director points out a spire among the trees, which should be a place of pilgrimage for the Scots. It is Brix, the original home of the Bruces before they knew either Northumbria or Scotland. And then we are left at Va lognes, while the train speeds on into the green, smiling country. The inevitable little omnibus waiting at the station is already nearly filled with commis-voyageurs, and there is only room for Justine and the boxes, which are packed outside, so we walk down into the quiet town where the shadows are creeping up the walls while the the tall roofs of the big château are still in full sunshine. A pleasant social life they must have led, "But, mademoiselle, you have succeeded admirably," cried an enthusiastic voice from the group. "You have ex these provincial seigneurs before the high with hay. A girl is driving some Revolution, shut out from most of the turkeys into a dilapidated stable, and cares of the world behind these big florid cocks and hens are marching to roost in gateways within the shaded courtyards, a long procession. But by the doorway, and the gardens full of sunshine. The in a little nook shaded with shrubs and gardens are still there, with their pear- creepers, there is a group of which I rectrees loaded with fruit trained in formal ognize the principal members the old neatness over the espaliers, with the apple- squire, regarding the scene with dignified trees and plum-trees, that may have been complaisance, while at a table sits Hilda, grafted by the dainty hands of dukes and sketching the old gateway, the tower, with marquises of the ancien régime, and the its conical roof just touched by golden courtyards are still there and the florid sunlight, the shadows that hang about the gateways, these last with a narrow door- mullioned windows. The grey, time-worn way, perhaps, cut out of the great ex-front of the church behind is still bathed panse, and a little grating whence some in light; there is a solemn kind of pathos white-coifed sister may look out upon the about this last little bit still left of the old world outside, as quiet almost as the castle of Valognes. cloistered world within. These big houses of the old noblesse are nearly all convents now, or seminaries, or retreats. Except that in one or two of them, per-pressed the very sentiment of the scene, haps, some honest bourgeois lives, like a and in such a charming manner that I mouse in the corner of a granary, in a shall treasure this sketch as one of my room or two cut off from the grand salon, most precious possessions." with the legs of a fat carved cupid on one side of the partition, and his torso on the other; while the carved mantelpiece holds the dish for tobacco and the modest pipe of the propriétaire. He will replace the purchase money in a few years with the produce of the grand garden, that seems continually soaked in sunshine all through the long summer days. But of the courtly old families who lived here through so many centuries in their homely state, what trace is there now? Who knows or cares whether our friend De St. Pol, for instance, is the offshoot of some almost royal line, or the son of some speculator or contractor, who the other day might have carried a pedlar's basket? In a wide, grass-covered place we come to a halt- the place surrounded by formal rows of well-clipped limes, with seats under the trees, but not a soul to be seen, and the silence only broken by the ring. ing of the big solemn bells of the church, whose graceful dome and quaint spire crown the housetops, and the tinkling of little bells of convents from anywhere among the trees. Hereabouts was the keep of the old citadel, that stood out against kings of England and kings of France in turn, with hardly a stone left upon another now to tell the tale, but where the turf gives back a solemn echo from the cells and dungeons below. Our director leads the way across the grassy place, and enters the porte-cochère of a rambling old hotel. A couple of oldfashioned diligences block the view of the entrance, and sundry wagons piled The speaker was a young, handsome fellow, small and slight, but well-built, who hung over Hilda as she worked with quite unnecessary solicitude. "But he is charming, that young man," said madame la directrice to her husband sotto voce. "Do you happen to know' him, mon ami?” "Know him?-yes," exclaimed the director. "This is one of the best of my friends the young M. de St. Pol." VACCINATION. From The Mail. EXTRACT FROM SPEECH OF RT. HON. SIR LYON IN BRITISH HOUSE OF COMMONS, JUNE 19, 1883. SIR L. PLAYFAIR said: The charge made against vaccination was twofold in the first place, that it communicated disease, and in the second that it did not give any protection as against small-pox. With regard to the first of these objections, the question was carefully examined by a committee of the House in 1871, the member for Leicester being himself a zealous member of it. Before this committee one of the military surgeons stated that 153,316 soldiers had been re-vaccinated, and, although syphilis was a common disease among soldiers, not one case had happened where that disease had been thus communicated. They knew that since 1853 seventeen millions of chil dren had been vaccinated in this country, | various diseases to which the human body and it was very doubtful whether there is liable." (Hear, hear.) It was against were three or four specific cases where this disease that we sought protection. this disease had ever been produced. Vaccination was not introduced until the (Cheers.) Therefore, though it was pos- beginning of the present century. In 1807, sible, it was extremely rare. As to the the House of Lords called upon the Royal much more common forms of diseases College of Physicians to report on the known as skin diseases, he did not deny subject, and they stated that small-pox, that, as the result of the irritation pro- after vaccination, was less violent than it duced, either by teething or by vaccina- would have otherwise been, and that in tion, skin diseases might occur; but they most cases it was of a remarkably mild were very often post hoc altogether. One character. That was a precise stateof the policemen of the House came to ment of the knowledge that we had now, him last week, and supposing him to be, as post-vaccinal cases of small-pox were not a doctor of laws, but a doctor of medi- extremely mild in comparison with the cine, said, “I wish to consult you, sir, former disease. As he had just said, vacvery much upon a very serious eruption cination was introduced at the beginning which is all over my body, and produced of this century. Soon an enthusiasm was by revaccination." He replied, "I am got up for it, and charitable associations interested in that, let me see it." The throughout the country spread it gratuieruption was certainly decided, and the tously. Vaccination began to spread rappoliceman stated that he had had it about idly, and after these voluntary agencies a month. On being then asked when he had been at work for about forty years, was revaccinated, the officer replied, the average rate of morality, which was "Seven years ago." (Laughter.) It was three thousand per million in the last cena case of post hoc, and, therefore, it was tury, fell to six hundred per million. By supposed to be propter hoc. But were the year 1840 it was only one-fifth of what they to dispense with a remedy which it was in the last century. Then the State was efficacious over the whole commu- began to interfere for the first time, and nity because a few very rare cases might determined, in accordance with the exOccur, any more than they were to pro- perience of other countries, to give grahibit the use of anesthetics because a tuitous vaccination. That continued from patient occasionally died under them, or 1841 to 1854, and at the end of that period prohibit drinking water because people the average morality had come down to sometimes got typhoid from using pol- three hundred and five per million. (Hear, luted water? (Hear.) After hearing the hear.) Next, in 1853, the State passed an evidence, the committee in 1871, of which obligatory act, but no good machinery was the member for Leicester was a member, provided for carrying out its objects. declared "there need be no apprehension Still compulsion was the law of the land, that vaccination is injurious to health, or and by the end of 1871, the average morcommunicates disease." The member for tality had fallen from three hundred and Leicester moved the omission of these five per million to two hundred and twentywords and proposed the insertion of the three per million. (Hear, hear.) following as an amendment: "That some there came our present period from 1871, few cases of disease have been communi- when a new act was passed obliging cated by vaccination, but the danger is so Boards of Guardians to appoint vaccinainfinitesimal, that, subject to the condition officers. In this period of true comtions above mentioned, the committee do not hesitate to express their conviction of the safe character of the operation." (Cheers.) Then The average pulsion, from 1871 to 1883, the average mortality had been only one hundred and fifty-six per million. (Loud cheers.) That was in England. Scotland and Ireland Then it was said that vaccination had did not get compulsory vaccination laws not been protective. Against what dis- till 1863, and they did not come into operease did we seek protection? Some hon-ation till the following year. orable members seemed to think that, mortality was much higher there than in because it was a small disease now, it was England fifty per cent. in some cases. not necessary to have protective laws. From 1864 to 1874, which period included He would, however, read Sir Thomas a very important epidemic, the rate of Watson's description of this disease: mortality in Scotland fell from three hun"Small-pox is the most hideous, loath- dred and five per million to two hundred some, disfiguring, and probably except and fourteen per million; and from 1875 hydrophobia-the most fatal also of the to 1882 the average was only six per mil VOL. XLIII, 2224 LIVING AGE. |