“At last,” cried he, “I can get away from the church and go to sea. At last my freedom has come!”
And it was not many hours before little Rénee was scudding away from the school of Divinity, like a clipper-ship under a full spread of canvas, before a rousing sou’west breeze.
For at least two hundred years before the birth of bad, little Rénee, the Trouin family had been well known and prosperous in the Breton seaport of St. Malo. For many years a Trouin had been consul at Malaga, Spain; and other members of the house had held excellent positions with the King, so little Rénee had no reason to be ashamed of his forebears, in spite of the fact that his people were of the “bourgeoisie:” ship-owners, traders, smugglers, privateers, and merchants. And, as they were of the “bourgeoisie,” they were somewhat looked down upon by the proud and haughty aristocrats who fawned about the weak and dissipated King.
Little Rénee was the son of Luc Trouin and Marguerite Boscher but he was called Du Guay-Trouin, in later years, and the reason for this is plain. For—in accordance with the custom of the time—he was sent to be nursed by a foster mother who resided in the little village of Le Gué. So he was called Trouin du Gué; which shortly became Du Guay-Trouin.
“I’ve come home, mother,” shouted little Rénee, when he had plodded his weary way which lay between his temporary prison and the house of his parents. “I’ve come home, mother, and I’m going to sea!”
But his mother did not take any too kindly to this bold and valiant idea.
“You must study law,” said she, with great firmness. And—in spite of the fact that little Rénee begged and pleaded—he was forced to give up his idea of seafaring life for the dry drudgery and routine of a clerk at law. He was now about sixteen years of age.
“The law is dry and my spirits are high,” youthful Rénee is said to have carolled as he spent his first few hours at a lecture, “and whatever may be I’m going to sea.”
At any rate, he soon got into trouble and engaged in three duels in his sixteenth year, in one of which his assailant gave him a serious wound. This was too much for even his stern mother to bear, so, summoning a family council, she gave forth the following opinion:
“Rénee has failed as a student of Divinity. Rénee has failed as a student of law. Rénee has entirely too high spirits. Rénee shall, therefore, be placed in one of the family ships and sent to sea.”