Four Years in France: or, Narrative of an English Family's Residence there during that Period; Preceded by some Account of the Conversion of the Author to the Catholic FaithBeste, Henry Digby
Religion
Four Years in France: or, Narrative of an English Family's Residence there during that Period; Preceded by some Account of the Conversion of the Author to the Catholic Faith
Beste, Henry Digby
France -- Description and travel
We viewed the town and the port, and saw nothing particularly
remarkable, but the great number of parrots hung at doors and windows,
and crying out--"damn" and "damn your eyes." Their voyage from the
tropics had been performed under English auspices. Havre is a great
depôt of colonial produce; and this bird may probably be in great demand
in a nation, so loquacious as we, in our vulgar prejudices, suppose the
French to be. The commerce of the place assumed at this time a great
degree of activity in objects of more importance than parrots, however
accomplished. But the day was a day of rest.
The next morning I went to the Bureau de Police for my passport: the
Commissaire, for reasons or from feelings best known to himself, desired
me to call again in two hours. I have seen many instances of the hatred
of the French towards the English, which the imperial government had
excited to the utmost degree of intensity, and which did not begin to
subside till the removal of the army of observation. M. le Commissaire,
I suspect, indulged in a little ebullition of this unamiable sentiment:
in vain I represented that my passport had been in his office the whole
of the preceding day, during which I had called there three times: this
seemed to increase his triumph; and he coolly, though very civilly,
repeated his request that I would call again in two hours.
He procured for us a very pleasant walk on the hills, which command a
view of the town, the mouth of the Seine, and the channel. The trees, in
this land of cyder, were in full blossom; the rye was in ear; all seemed
to be a month earlier than in the northern region we had left a week
before, when we quitted our home. We entered the church; the parish is
called St. Vic: I was surprised to see the exact resemblance of this
church to those edifices, the remains of former times, which, in our
villages, are opened once a week for divine worship: the altar and
images excepted, it was the same sort of interior: there was indeed the
holy water pot, but of that the trace at least is to be found in almost
all our old churches: but the images; ay, there was St. Denis, with his
head, not under his arm, but held between his hands. On this I shall
only remark, that he who, on account of the legend of St. Denis,
believes the catholic religion to be false, may deceive himself in a
matter of the greatest moment; whereas he who believes the legend to be
true, may be deceived, but in a matter of no moment at all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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