The Submerged City of is

The tradition of a submerged town is common among the Celts. In Wales the supposed site is in Cardigan Bay; in Ireland in Lough Neagh. But in the vast basin which now forms the bay of Douarnenez, on the coast of Brittany, France, is a strip of water called the Etang de Laoual, beneath which have been found huge stones and other records of the foundations of a mighty city, the city of Is, which was so unrivalled in its day, the fifth century, for luxury and magnificence, that Paris, or Par-Is, is said to take its name from its supposed equality with this ancient city, drowned by the mad folly of a wanton woman. The city of Is, or Ker-Is, appears to have been given up to vice and most inordinate luxury. It was built on level ground beside the sea, and protected from its fury by a dyke with a pair of water-gates, of which King Gradlon kept the key. More than once St. Guenole had solemnly warned the King against the luxury and riot of Is, and especially against the profligate life of Gradlon's only daughter, the Princess Dahut. But King Gradlon loved his child so dotingly that, although he deplored her vices, he had no power to restrain her. She dwelt in a high tower, and as soon as she was tired of her lovers they were flung into a well at its foot. At length one night a favored lover asked her for the key of the sluice-gates, and to please him Dahut stole softly into her father's chamber and took the silver key from the neck of the sleeping King. It is supposed that the lover opened the sluicegates by mistake, or that Dahut opened them in mere idleness of folly. Suddenly, in the dead of night, Gradlon heard a voice bidding him arise and flee, for the waters were overspreading the city. He listened, and, hearing the rush of the flood, mounted his horse and prepared to escape; but he heard also the voice of his beloved daughter calling on him to save her, and he paused to take her up behind him. Away they fled, the angry roar of the waters in rapid pursuit. Already the flood was gaining on them; the horse was knee-deep in the waves when the cry sounded in Gradlon's ears, "Cast away the demon from behind thee, Gradlon." Dahut's hold relaxed, and she sank in the roaring water. As she sank the waves retreated, and since that time the tide has never come further inland than the estuary in the village of Poul David, or Poul Dahut, where she disappeared. It is said that Dahut still haunts the scene of her crimes, and that at night the trip-trip of King Gradlon's horse's hoofs is still heard beneath the hillside.