Prev | Current Page 116 | Next

Flaubert, Gustave, 1821-1880

"Over Strand and Field"

Our hearts beat indignantly in our
breasts, and if we had taken another meal in Saint-Pol, I am sure that
something would have happened.


CHAPTER X.
SAINT-MALO.

Saint-Malo, which is built right on the ocean and is enclosed by
ramparts, looks like a crown of stones, the gems of which are the
machicolations. The breakers dash against its walls, and when the tide
is low they gently unfurl on the sand. Little rocks covered with
sea-weed dot the beach and look like black spots on its light surface.
The larger ones, which are upright and smooth, support the
fortifications, thus making them appear higher than they really are.
Above this straight line of walls, broken here and there by a tower or
the pointed ogive of a door, rise the roofs of the houses with their
open garret-windows, their gyrating weather-cocks, and their red
chimneys from which issue spirals of bluish smoke that vanishes in the
air.
Around Saint-Malo are a number of little barren islands that have not a
tree nor a blade of grass, but only some old crumbling walls, great
pieces of which are hurled into the sea by each succeeding storm.
On the other side of the bay, opposite the city and connected with dry
land by a long pier, which separates the port from the ocean, is
Saint-Servan, a large, empty, almost deserted locality, which lies
peacefully in a marshy meadow.


Pages:
104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128