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Old as the granite of Brittany, the Guaisnics are neither Frenchmen
nor Gauls,--they are Bretons; or, to be more exact, they are Celts.
Formerly, they must have been Druids, gathering mistletoe in the sacred
forests and sacrificing men upon their dolmens. Useless to say what they
were! To-day this race, equal to the Rohans without having deigned to
make themselves princes, a race which was powerful before the ancestors
of Hugues Capet were ever heard of, this family, pure of all alloy,
possesses two thousand francs a year, its mansion in Guerande, and the
little castle of Guaisnic. All the lands belonging to the barony of
Guaisnic, the first in Brittany, are pledged to farmers, and bring
in sixty thousand francs a year, in spite of ignorant culture. The du
Gaisnics remain the owners of these lands although they receive none of
the revenues, for the reason that for the last two hundred years they
have been unable to pay off the money advanced upon them. They are in
the position of the crown of France towards its _engagistes_ (tenants
of crown-lands) before the year 1789. Where and when could the barons
obtain the million their farmers have advanced to them? Before 1789 the
tenure of the fiefs subject to the castle of Guaisnic was still worth
fifty thousand francs a year; but a vote of the National Assembly
suppressed the seigneurs' dues levied on inheritance.

In such a situation this family--of absolutely no account in France, and
which would be a subject of laughter in Paris, were it known there--is
to Guerande the whole of Brittany. In Guerande the Baron du Guaisnic
is one of the great barons of France, a man above whom there is but
one man,--the King of France, once elected ruler. To-day the name of du
Guaisnic, full of Breton significances (the roots of which will be found
explained in "The Chouans") has been subjected to the same alteration
which disfigures that of du Guaisqlain. The tax-gatherer now writes the
name, as do the rest of the world, du Guenic.

At the end of a silent, damp, and gloomy lane may be seen the arch of
a door, or rather gate, high enough and wide enough to admit a man
on horseback,--a circumstance which proves of itself that when this
building was erected carriages did not exist. The arch, supported by two
jambs, is of granite. The gate, of oak, rugged as the bark of the tree
itself, is studded with enormous nails placed in geometric figures.
The arch is semicircular. On it are carved t