Avec leur œil vitreux et leur museau béant,
Tous enfants monstrueux du grand monstre Océan.
Aussitôt le pressier les sèche, les empile,
Et quand leur grasse chair a degorgé son huile,
De Nantes à Morlaix cherchant les acheteurs,
On voit bondir sur mer les hardis caboteurs."”
Les Bretons—Brizeux.
29. Concarneau, with Sardine Boats.
Thus the Breton poet describes Concarneau, a little fortified town, which has been called the St. Malo of Cornouaille, and is celebrated for its sardine fishery. The road lay through a wooded country, with steep hills and valleys, intersected by streams: [pg 143] on the right a view of the Bay of La Forêt, where extensive oyster-culture is going on. After a tedious journey with miserable horses, we reached Concarneau at nine, a distance of little more than thirteen miles, having set off a few minutes after four. Concarneau proper is on a rocky island, surrounded by fortifications, with eight or nine towers and thick walls, and communicating with the mainland by means of a drawbridge. This is called the "Ville Close." It consists of only one street. When Duke John IV. embarked from here for England, he left [pg 144] Sir Robert Knollys governor of the duchy. The constable Du Guesclin, after the surrender of Hennebont and Quimperlé, took Concarneau by storm and slew all the English garrison, except the captain, who received quarter.