Another tradition which tells of the fate of an unhappy maiden is enshrined in the ballad of The Baron of Jauioz. Louis, Baron of Jauioz, in Languedoc, was a French warrior of considerable renown who flourished in the fourteenth century, and who took part in many of the principal events of that stirring epoch, fighting against the English in France and Flanders under the Duke of Berry, his overlord. Some years later he embarked for the Holy Land, but, if we may believe Breton tradition, he returned, and while passing through the duchy fell in love with and actually bought for a sum of money a young Breton girl, whom he carried away with him to France. The unfortunate maiden, so far from being attracted by the more splendid environment of his castle, languished and died.
“I hear the note of the death-bird,” the ballad begins sadly; “is it true, my mother, that I am sold to the Baron of Jauioz?”
“Ask your father, little Tina, ask your father,” is the callous reply, and the question is then put to her father, who requests the unfortunate damsel to ask her brother, a harsh rustic who does not scruple to tell her the brutal truth, and adds that she must depart immediately. The girl asks what dress she must wear, her red gown, or her gown of white delaine.
“It matters little, my daughter,” says the heartless mother. “Your lover waits at the door mounted on a great black horse. Go to him on the instant.”
As she leaves her native village the clocks are striking, and she weeps bitterly.
“Adieu, Saint Anne!” she says. “Adieu, bells of my native land!”
Passing the Lake of Anguish she sees a band of the dead, white and shadowy, crossing the watery expanse in their little boats. As she passes them she can hear their teeth chatter. At the Valley of Blood she espies other unfortunates. Their hearts are sunken in them and all memory has left them.
After this terrible ride the Baron and Tina reach the castle of Jauioz. The old man seats himself near the fire. He is black and ill-favoured as a carrion crow. His beard and his hair are white, and his eyes are like firebrands.
“Come hither to me, my child,” says he, “come with me from chamber to chamber that I may show you my treasures.”