Page:Early Reminiscences.djvu/158

118 The acquaintance of the Walsh family with the Bonds was due to the residence for some years at Nantes of Captain Thomas Bond, brother of Admiral Francis Godolphin Bond. He had two very beautiful daughters. Mary, the eldest, took the veil and retired to a Carmelite Convent, of which she became Superior. She had a great gift as artist, and painted her own portrait for the cloister. But it was so lovely that the Director ordered her to alter and somewhat disfigure it, lest she should be puffed up with self-conceit at her own beauty. The second daughter, Louise, married a M. Ratouis.

Sérant, in the parish of S. Georges-sur-Loire, belonged in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries to the family of Brie, and was bought in 1596 by Hercules de Rohan, Duc de Montbazon, and later, in 1636, was purchased by Guillaume Bautru. In 1749 it was purchased by James Walsh, and was created into a county in his favour in 1755. Eventually it has passed by descent to the Due de la Trémoille. The castle stands in the midst of a noble park, and is for the most part a structure of the Renaissance period. In the interior the walls are hung with superb tapestries. Above one of the fire-places is a painting representing the Young Pretender, giving instructions to Anthony Walsh. The gardens contain many hundred orange and lemon trees in tubs, and the vines produce an excellent wine. A former proprietor sent his gardener to England, to learn his art at Arundel, Chatsworth and Blenheim. He returned amazed at the stateliness of our English noble houses.

"Mon Dieu!" he exclaimed to an English visitor. "Vos nobles sont des veritables rois!"

In 1832 the Duchess de Berri disembarked secretly in Provence, and, claiming the title and authority of Regent, reached the west, and issued proclamations in the name of her son, Henri V. But she met with small success. Neither the Vendéans nor the Bretons were enthusiastic Legitimists, and the Chouans who fought for her were a mere rabble of adventurers and brigands. Troops in great force were sent into the disturbed west; and the Duchess, after having been sheltered for a while in a chateau belonging to some devoted Royalists, was forced to leave, as the quest for her was too keen. She departed, dressed as a milk-maid, carrying a pail and trolling a Breton ballad. Then she made her