peasants within their ken. As for Flécher, it was
never more illustrious than it is now, yet it is
connected with the history of these old ruins
as much as the other.

"The peasants of Brittany are very
ambitious that their sons should enter the church;
it removes them from evil habits and hard
labour, it gives them education and a certain
superiority which every mother wishes her
child to attain: moreover, in their opinion, it
secures them heaven, and provides prayers
for their kindred, and if fhe priest should
happen to turn out a saint, the whole family
is made immortal in fame.

"Marie Flécher, a widow with an only son,
lived at Pontaven, and, every time her pretty
little boy Ivan came home from the hills
after tending the flocks of the farmer who
employed him, she sighed to think that so
promising a child should have no better
occupation. As he grew older, her regret
increased, until at last she became quite
unhappy, and imparted to her son her desire
that he should go to school at Quimper and
study to be a priest, instead of wasting his
time in keeping sheep, and dancing and
flirting with the young girls of the village.
'This is not a life for you,' she said. 'I have
had a dream, in which the Blessed Virgin
directed me to dedicate you to her service:
she hates idleness and ignorance, and you
must go to the good father at Quimper, who
will give you an education for nothing. You
will first become a clerc, then, a priest, have a
salary, be able to keep your poor mother
when she can work no longer, and pray for
the soul of your father.'

"'But,' said Ivan, laughing and caressing
her, for he was very gay, 'I don't want to be
either a priest or a monk; I have lost my
heart to the prettiest girl in the parish.'

"Marie started and looked disturbed:
'This will not do, Ivan,' she said; 'you are
too poor for that. You must leave your
sheep and the young girls, and come with me
to Quimper to learn to be something more
than a clown, and to gain heaven by
becoming a priest. You shall study, and shall
be a clerc.

"The most beautiful girls in that part of
the country were the daughters of the lord
of the Castle of Rustéfan, whose name was
Naour, and whose lady was the godmother
of Ivan Flécher: no one could look at anyone
else when these young ladies came down on
their white ponies to the Pardon of Pontaven,
clattering along the stony street, and dressed
in green silk with gold chains round their
necks. They were all handsome; but the
youngest, Géneviève, was far beyond the
others, and everybody at Pontaven said she
was in love with the handsomest young man
of the village, and he was Ivan Flécher,
who was now a clerc, studying for the priesthood.

"It was at the Pardon of Pontaven that.
Géneviève and Ivan met, only for a moment,
after his absence at the school of Quimper.
'Ivan,' said the young girl to him, 'I have
had four lovers who were clercs, and each of
them has become a priest: the last of them
is named Ivan Flécher, and he intends to
break my heart.'

"The young lady rode on, and Ivan did
not dare to reply, for it had been arranged,
without his consent being asked, that he was
to take holy orders. On the day when he
was to go through the ceremony of being
received into the church, he passed the village
castle and there was the beautiful Géneviève
sitting at the gate embroidering a chalice cloth
in gold thread. She looked up as he passed,
and said, 'Ivan Flecher, if you will be
advised by me, you will not receive orders,
because of all that you have said to me in
former days.'

"'I cannot withdraw now,' replied he,
turning as pale as death, 'for I should be
called perjured.'

'"You have then forgotten,' said
Géneviève, ' all that has been said between us two;
you have lost the ring I gave you the last
time we danced together?'

"'No,' replied he trembling; 'but God
has taken it from me.'

"'Ivan Flécher!' cried the young girl in
accents of despair, 'hear me! Return! All
I possess is yours. I will follow you to any
fate. I will become a peasant like you, and
work like you. If you will not listen to me,
all that remains is to bring me the sacrament,
for my life is ended.'

"'Alas! alas!' sobbed Ivan, 'I have no
power to follow you; I am in the fetters of
Heaven; I am held by the hand of Heaven,
and must become a priest!'

"It was not likely that the father of the
beautiful Géneviève should favour their loves.
He was therefore extremely glad when he
found that the handsome young clerc had
taken orders, and received him in the most
friendly manner when he came to the castle
to beg that he would assist at his first mass.
The favour was immediately granted with a
promise that his godmother, the lady Naour,
should be the first to put an offering into the
plate.

"But on the day when Ivan was to say his
first mass, there was a sad confusion in the
church; he began it well enough, but faltered
in the middle of it, and burst into a violent
flood of tears, so that his book was as if
water had flowed over it. A sudden cry
was heard in the church, and a girl, with her
hair dishevelled, and with frantic gestures,
rushed up the aisle in sight of every one,
and throwing herself on her knees at the feet
of the young priest, cried out:—

"'In the name of Heaven, stop! You have
killed me!'

"When they lifted her from the pavement,
where Ivan Flécher had fallen in a fit, the
beautiful Géneviève was dead.

"Ivan, who had sacrificed his love to the