A trade is fatal. In France, in old times, there was no
exception to this rule, except in the case of glass manufacturers.
Emptying bottles being then one of the glories of gentlemen, making them
was probably, for that reason, not considered dishonourable. In the
Channel archipelago, as in Great Britain, he who would remain noble must
contrive to be rich. A working man cannot possibly be a gentleman. If he
has ever been one, he is so no longer. Yonder sailor, perhaps, descends
from the Knights Bannerets, but is nothing but a sailor. Thirty years
ago, a real Gorges, who would have had rights over the Seigniory of
Gorges, confiscated by Philip Augustus, gathered seaweed, naked-footed,
in the sea. A Carteret is a waggoner in Sark. There are at Jersey a
draper, and at Guernsey a shoemaker, named Gruchy, who claim to be
Grouchys, and cousins of the Marshal of Waterloo. The old registers of
the Bishopric of Coutances make mention of a Seigniory of Tangroville,
evidently from Tancarville on the lower Seine, which is identical with
Montmorency. In the fifteenth century, Johan de Heroudeville, archer and
_etoffe_ of the Sire de Tangroville, bore behind him "_son corset et ses
autres harnois_." In May, 1371, at Pontorson, at the review of Bertrand
du Guesclin, Monsieur de Tangroville rendered his homage as Knight
Bachelor. In the Norman islands, if a noble falls into poverty, he is
soon eliminated from the order. A mere change of pronunciation is
enough. Tangroville becomes Tangrouille: and the thing is done.
This had been the fate of the helmsman of the Durande.
At the Bordage of St. Peter's Port, there is a dealer in old iron named
Ingrouille, who is probably an Ingroville. Under Lewis le Gros the
Ingrovilles possessed three parishes in the district of Valognes. A
certain Abbe Trigan has written an Ecclesiastical History of Normandy.
This chronicler Trigan was the cure of the Seigniory of Digoville. The
Sire of Digoville, if he had sunk to a lower grade, would have been
called Digouille.
Tangrouille, this probable Tancarville, and possible Montmorency, had an
ancient noble quality, but a grave failing for a steersman; he got drunk
occasionally.
Sieur Clubin had obstinately determined to retain him. He answered for
his conduct to Mess Lethierry.
Tangrouille the helmsman never left the vessel; he slept aboard.
On the eve of their departure, when Sieur Clubin came at a late hour to
inspect the vessel, the steersman wa
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