, une autre par le frere." Du Guesclin caused the faithless
"chambrieres" to be sewed up in sacks and flung into the river.

John IV. Duke of Brittany conferred upon Du Guesclin the government of
Pontorson, of which territory he was personally lord, by right of his
mother. It was here he often resided, and here he celebrated being made
Constable of France by King Charles V., and fraternised with Olivier de
Clisson, agreeing to afford each other mutual help--"contre tous ceux qui
peuvent vivre et mourir." The granite church was founded by Duke Robert,
father of the Conqueror.

Pontorson is the most convenient place for visiting Mont St. Michel. Our
drive thither was by the banks of the river Couesnon, along a sandy road,
bordered on each side by hedges of tamarisks, which leads to the "Greve,"
or sands, which have to be crossed to reach the Mount, a distance of
rather more than a mile. We met numbers of bare-legged half-clad women and
children, bringing in the produce of their fishing, shrimps and cockles
tied up in nets, and peasants with carts carrying in sea sand for dressing
the land. The appearance of Mont St. Michel is very imposing, a cone of
granite encircled by the sea. Above rises the fortress, surmounted by the
church, a height of 400 feet from the top to the water. Below, at the foot
of the Mount, picturesquely situated on an insulated rock, is the little
chapel of St. Aubert, Bishop of Avranches, the founder of St. Michel. The
Mount has been the residence of many of our English princes. Matilda,
queen of the Conqueror, visited St. Michel. It was here her son Henry I.,
then only Count of the Cotentin, was blockaded by his brothers William and
Robert, and obliged to surrender. Here Henry II. held his court, and, when
Henry V. overran Normandy, St. Michel was the only fortress that held out
against him, under its gallant defender Louis d'Estouteville of
Bricquebec. Two cannons, now at the entrance of the castle, are said to
have been taken from the English at the siege. Normandy was always the
scene of the quarrels between the English Norman princes, of the disputes
between the sons of the Conqueror, between Stephen of Blois and Henry of
Anjou, and again of those between Henry II. and his sons, and of Richard
and his brother John, to the latter of whom the Normans were attached.

Seven French kings have made pilgrimages to St. Michel; and here Louis XI.
instituted the order of knighthood, called in honour of t