erflow of the water at
high tide. This basin had a secret gate, of which the King alone
possessed the key, and which he opened and closed at the necessary
times.

Gradlon, as is so often the case with pious men, had a wayward child,
the princess Dahut, who on one occasion while her father was sleeping
gave a secret banquet to her lover, in which the pair, excited with
wine, committed folly after folly, until at last it occurred to the
frivolous girl to open the sluice-gate. Stealing noiselessly into her
sleeping father's chamber she detached from his girdle the key he
guarded so jealously and opened the gate. The water immediately rushed
in and submerged the entire city.

But, as usual, there is more than one version of this interesting
legend. The city of Ys, says another account, was a place rich in
commerce and the arts, but so given over to luxury as to arouse the
ire of St Gwennole, who, in the manner of Jeremiah, foretold its ruin.
It was situated where now a piece of water, the Etang de Laval, washes
the desolate shores of the Bay of Trepasses--though another version of
the tale has it that it stood in the vast basin which now forms the
Bay of Douarnenez. A strong dike protected it from the ocean, the
sluices only admitting sufficient water for the needs of the town.
Gradlon constantly bore round his neck a silver key which opened at
the same time the vast sluices and the city gates. He lived in great
state in a palace of marble, cedar, and gold, and his only grief was
the conduct of his daughter Dahut, who, it is said, "had made a crown
of her vices and taken for her pages the seven capital sins." But
retribution was at hand, and the wicked city met with sudden
destruction, for one night Dahut stole the silver key for the purpose
of opening the city gates to admit her lover, and in the darkness by
mistake opened the sluices. King Gradlon was awakened by St Gwennole,
who commanded him to flee, as the torrent was reaching the palace. He
mounted his horse, and, taking his worthless daughter behind him, set
off at a gallop, the incoming flood seething and boiling at his
steed's fetlocks. The torrent was about to overtake and submerge him
when a voice from behind called out: "Throw the demon thou carriest
into the sea, if thou dost not desire to perish." Dahut at that moment
fell from the horse's back into the water, and the torrent immediately
stopped its course. Gradlon reached Quimper safe and sound, but
nothin