s a
fortress, in the important light which might reasonably have been
expected, considering its reputed strength and its great extent.
Monstrelet,[86] speaking of it in his own time, says, "it is the
strongest in all Normandy, fortified with high and great bulwarks of a
very hard stone, situated upon a rock, and containing in extent as much
as the whole town of Corbeil." De Bourgueville[87] enters, as might be
expected, more at large into the subject. His description is full and
interesting.[88]

A short time previously to the revolution, when Caen was visited by
Ducarel,[89] the greater part of the castle was much out of order,
having been altogether neglected; but the dungeon had then lately
undergone a thorough repair, and was used as a place of confinement for
state prisoners, and for such others, as by _lettres de cachet_,
obtained at the joint request of their family, were deprived of their
liberty, in order to prevent their incurring the disgrace, after having
been exposed to the misfortune, of poverty.

On the subject of its present condition, we learn from Mr. Turner,[90]
that, "degraded as it is in its character by modern innovation, it is
more deserving of notice as an historical, than as an architectural,
relic; but that it still claims to be reckoned as a place of defence,
though it retains but few of its original features. The spacious, lofty
circular towers, which flanked its ramparts, known by the names of the
black, the white, the red, and the grey horse, have been brought down to
the level of the platform. The dungeon-tower is destroyed; and all the
grandeur of the Norman castle is lost, though the width of its ditches,
and the thickness of its walls, still testify its ancient
strength."--The same author proceeds to state, that "there are reasons
for supposing that Caen, when first founded, only occupied the site of
the present castle; and that, when it became advisable to convert the
old town into a fortress, the inhabitants migrated into the valley
below."--He adds, upon the authority of De Bourgueville, that "six
thousand infantry could be drawn up in battle array, within the outer
ballium; and that so great was the number of houses and of inhabitants,
inclosed within the area, that it was thought expedient to build in it a
parochial church, dedicated to St. George, besides two chapels."

One of these chapels has been supposed to be the subject of the present
plate; but the high authority of the