The Chouans, as the peasants were called who rose against their tyrants, were commanded in Morbihan by Cadoudal. In July, 1795, an English fleet disembarked several regiments of French emigrés. Hoche came upon them, and exterminated all in cold blood, to the number of 952. Nantes and S. Brieuc were taken by the peasants, but the firm hand of Bonaparte now held the reins, and put down all opposition. Cadoudal was guillotined.
At the present day, Brittany is still the stronghold of Catholicism in France. As to the rights of legitimists, Orleanists or Bonapartists, the peasants concern themselves little, but to touch their religion is to touch them to the quick. The Republican Government does all in its power to destroy the cohesion of the Breton people, and its attachment to the Faith of its Fathers. The masters have been forbidden to employ the Breton language in the schools, and in 1901 an order was addressed by Waldeck Rousseau to all the Bishops and Clergy of Lower Brittany forbidding them to preach in the language understood by the people, on pain of withdrawal of their stipends: an order that has been very properly disregarded.
Meanwhile national or rather provincial feeling is deepening and intensifying. Opposition only makes the Breton the more stubborn. The Breton has not much ambition. All he asks is to be left alone to work out his own destiny, strong in his religious convictions, "Français—oui, mais Breton avant tout."
IV. Antiquities
The prehistoric remains that abound in Brittany consist of Dolmens, i.e. a certain number of stones set on end rudely forming a chamber, and covered with one or more capstones.
The Allée Couverte is a dolmen on a large scale. Both served as family or tribal ossuaries.
The Menhir is a single standing stone; the alignment is a number of these uprights often in parallel lines, extending some distance.
The cromlech according to the signification accorded to it in France is a circle of standing stones.
The lech is the lineal descendant of the menhir. It is a stone often bearing an inscription, or a rude cross, set up by the British or Irish settlers. The lech is sometimes round.