A Pilgrimage to Auvergne/Vol 1/Chapter 10

Leaving Provins, our route towards Troyes lay through a country less desolate than that on the side by which we had come; but still there was little to admire in the wide green marshes, where herds of cattle were feeding. We passed through several thick woods, and entered the department of Aube in Lower Champagne called, without reserve, la Champagne Pouilleuse.

The picture given by Dr. Patin of the rural habitations of this part of France is but little agreeable, but unfortunately too true, and would apply to many other extensive districts in other parts.

"The huts are generally about six or seven feet high, built on a damp soil without flooring; ​the extent of their single room, including the oven, is not more than eighteen feet by fifteen. Here four or six, and sometimes ten, persons live and sleep; here they cook, here their clothes are thrown down, and here their salt meat is suspended. Their beds are boxes of planks, with a narrow opening by which they enter by means of a wooden bench; for they are placed so high up that otherwise there would be no means of reaching them. These huts are built of wood and plastered with mortar inside and out: they are roofed with thatch, which, projecting very far, entirely excludes both light and air. Many of them have no windows, and only an opening above the door to let in a little daylight. The stable is close by, joining the general room; the court before the house is filled with heaps of filth—an entire dunghill, receiving the water from the stable, the dirt from the house, and the rain which falls in abundance."

In some parts, however, of the department the villages present a striking contrast to this disgusting description. Nogent sur Seine, where we rested, is a clean agreeable little town, with charming promenades by the canal and river, and a pretty country round it. The Ile des Ecluses is a picturesque object between the two bridges, ​and the falls occasioned by the mills have an animated effect.

The church has been very grand, and still preserves traces of its greatness. It was begun under Charles VI. and finished under Henry II. The tower is very high and graceful, surmounted by a colossal figure of St. Lawrence surrounded by an open gallery of remarkable lightness and beauty. All this part of the country is the scene of the frightful struggles between the French and English, which went on for so many years in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and which are so vividly described by Froissart. Nogent suffered much at this period, and was burnt and pillaged without mercy. In 1814 the horrors of war overtook it again; and after a furious struggle, in which several thousand men were killed, and a hundred and forty houses destroyed, General Bourmont was wounded and his people driven back the enemy then got possession of the town, when, enraged to find little worth their trouble, they set fire to most of the principal buildings.

The irregularity of the streets is therefore easily accounted for, and the only surprise is how the fine church escaped at all such frequent and recent attacks. The punning names of several hotels amused us; that at which we stayed was ​called la Cigne de la Croix, and the sign represented a swan holding a cross in its beak; another was called la Croix blanche Olives.

The whole town was in commotion for the procession of the Fête Dieu; but not an indication of piety was given by any individual that we saw at their doors laughing. The priests and little dressed-up children crowned with roses had it all to themselves as they paddled through the wet streets. We heard one sensible mother lamenting the encouragement given to the children's vanity, whose sole thought was of their white frocks, their garlands, and their long curls.

We were entertained at dinner, where the mutton was remarkably good,—a rare and singular fact, as, except here and at Provins, it is peculiarly tasteless and poor,—by a dish being brought us of soft cheese, for which Nogent is justly famed.

This then, doubtless, is the identical soft cheese which was thrown in the face of the chivalrous but too devoted lover of Queen Blanche of Castile by her young and impertinent son Robert d'Artois. This cheese, famous for so many ages, was the cause of the Count of Champagne quitting his imperious lady, and perhaps seeking a bride whose kindness should make him ​forget all the insults and humiliation he had suffered for the sake of her whom he apostrophises in vain.

No doubt it was this celebrated incident of the cheese that caused him to listen to the proposals made for uniting him to the beautiful Yolande, daughter of the Duke of Brittany, and made him appoint a day for the ceremony, when, accompanied by all her illustrious relatives, the fair bride-elect repaired to the Abbey de Val Secret. Long they waited, but the bridegroom came not; he was occupied reading a letter which had just reached him; and all was forgotten, even the insult of the cheese of Nogent, as he read what he considered a proof of her returning affection in the jealous commands she sent him. The letter ran thus:—

"Sire Thiébault de Champaigne, j'ai entendu que vous avez convenancé et promis prendre à femme la fille au Comte Perron de Bretaigne. Partant vous mande que, si ne voulez perdre ​quan que vous avez au royaume de France, que vous ne le faites. Si cher que vous avez tout tant que amez au dit royaume, ne le faites pas. La raison pourquoi vous savez bien."

On the road from Nogent is the village of Saint Aubin, on the little river Ardusson, where formerly stood the celebrated Abbey of Paraclete. Destroyed almost entirely during the revolution, it was bought by the comedian Morevel. Its ruins afterwards became the property of General Pajol, who on the ancient foundations constructed a modern edifice. From the midst of the rubbish the General rescued the coffin in which during eight centuries the remains of the unfortunate lovers had reposed. The sarcophagus which held it was found too heavy to be transported to Paris with the coffin, it was therefore restored and replaced in the vault, the entrance of which was closed; and, to mark the place, a votive column was erected over the spot. A manufactory was established there in 1822, which is now discontinued, to the great loss of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood; and it is the chimneys and roofs that attract the eye in passing, and direct the attention to the place which those celebrated and interesting characters have invested with such melancholy recollections. ​Persecuted for his doctrines, which were those afterwards promulgated by Luther, Abelard,—a man superior to his age for the variety of his learning and his profound thinking,—retired to the domains of the Count of Champagne, where, by permission of Hatton, bishop of Troyes, he built, in 1123, in the neighbourhood of Nogent, a little chapel, formed of osiers and the branches of trees, which he dedicated to the Trinity, and called Paraclete. His reason for this was that his opinions respecting the Trinity had been condemned at the instance of St. Bernard. Followed into this retreat by numerous pupils, whom his fame attracted, the old persecutions were renewed against him; Abelard was obliged to abandon it, and left it to two of his friends, retiring himself to his native Brittany. In 1129, Eloïse, pursued by the same vengeance which had sought the ruin of Abelard, was driven from the convent of Argenteuil, of which she was abbess.^[1] Moved by her misfortunes, Abelard abandoned to her and her fugitive community his solitude of Paraclete, where she sought refuge. Pope Innocent, in 1131, confirmed the establishment of this monastery, of which Eloïse was the first superior. ​Its oratory soon became enriched by valuable gifts, and before long Paraclete became the chief place of the order, and had several monasteries dependant on it.

On the death of her lover in 1142, which occurred at the Priory of St. Marcel de Châlons sur Saône, his body was by his own desire sent to the Abbess of Paraclete, by whom it was buried there. Twenty years afterwards Eloïse died in this convent, and was buried in the same tomb; a magnificent mausoleum was erected to their memory. Tradition says that when the coffin of Abelard was opened, he opened his arms to receive his beloved.

When, in 1792, the abbey of Paraclete was sold, the notables of Nogent went in procession ​to carry away the remains of the lovers, which were placed in the church of St. Laurence. M. Senoir, conservateur of the Musée des Monuments Français, having obtained from the ministry permission to transport them to Paris, went to the church of Nogent with the magistrates of the town. The opening of the tomb took place in the presence of the sous-préfet of the department. The two bodies had been separated in the same tomb only by a leaden division. The original monument, erected over it at Paraclete, had been broken at Nogent in 1794, as well as the three figures representing the Trinity. One similar was made, and long formed the ornament of the Musée des Petits Augustins; it is now to be seen at Père la Chaise.

This tomb had been so placed that part of it was in the church, and part in the choir of the nuns, in order that they might go and pray on the grave of their founder without leaving their cloister. The first epitaph which was placed there was in honour of Eloïse alone. It is thus recorded by Courtalon: