of many of the old families.  Here it is, such as you may see it still at Guerande:  Gules, a hand proper gonfaloned ermine, with a sword argent in pale, and the terrible motto, fac.  Is not that a grand and noble thing?  The circlet of a baronial coronet surmounts this simple escutcheon, the vertical lines of which, used in carving to represent gules, are clear as ever.  The artist has given I know not what proud, chivalrous turn to the hand.  With what vigor it holds the sword which served but recently the present family!

If you go to Guerande after reading this history you cannot fail to quiver when you see that blazon.  Yes, the most confirmed republican would be moved by the fidelity, the nobleness, the grandeur hidden in the depths of that dark lane.  The du Guaisnics did well yesterday, and they are ready to do well to-morrow.  To do is the motto of chivalry.  “You did well in the battle” was the praise of the Connetable par excellence, the great du Guesclin who drove the English for a time from France.  The depth of this carving, which has been protected from the weather by the projecting edges of the arch, is in keeping with the moral depth of the motto in the soul of this family.  To those who know the Guaisnics this fact is touching.

The gate when open gives a vista into a somewhat vast court-yard, on the right of which are the stables, on the left the kitchen and offices.  The house is build of freestone from cellar to garret.  The facade on the court-yard has a portico with a double range of steps, the wall of which is covered with vestiges of carvings now effaced by time, but in which the eye of an antiquary can still make out in the centre of the principal mass the Hand bearing the sword.  The granite steps are now disjointed, grasses have forced their way with little flowers and mosses through the fissures between the stones which centuries have displaced without however lessening their solidity.  The door of the house must have had a charming character.  As far as the relics of the old designs allow us to judge, it was done by an artist of the great Venetian school of the thirteenth century.  Here is a mixture, still visible, of the Byzantine and the Saracenic.  It is crowned with a circular pediment, now wreathed with vegetation,—­a bouquet, rose, brown, yellow, or blue, according to the season.  The door, of oak, nail-studded, gives entrance to a noble hall, at the end of which is another door, opening upon another portico which leads to the garden.

This hall is marvellously well preserved.  The panelled wainscot, about three feet high, is of chestnut.  A magnificent Spanish leather with figures in relief, the gilding now peeled off or reddened, covers the walls.  The ceiling is of wooden boards artistically joined and painted and gilded.  The gold is scarcely noticeable; it is in the same condition as that of the Cordova leather, but a few red flowers and the green foliage can be distinguished.  Perhaps a