hapel on the north side is undoubtedly the most attractive
feature of the church. Evron too opens the way to St. Susanne, the one
castle which the Conqueror himself could never take, and where the
shattered shell of the unconquered donjon, with its foundations raised
on a vitrified fort of primitive times, rises on a rocky height, with
the stream of the Arne winding in a narrow dell beneath it. Somewhat
nearer to the capital, Sille-le-Guillaume, a spot famous in the war of
the _commune_, has a castle and church which should not be passed by,
though it is only the under-story of the church which keeps any portions
which can belong to the days when Sille was besieged by the armed
citizens of the Cenomannian commonwealth. North of Le Mans, on the upper
source of the Sarthe, Beaumont-le-Vicomte keeps the shell of its castle,
a castle which long withstood the Conqueror, rising in a lovely position
over the river Beaumont, too, has seen warfare in later days, and he
who looks down from the castle which withstood the Conqueror may hear
the tale of the stout fighting which went on by the banks of the Sarthe,
when Maine was invaded by the armies of a later William. The church too
with some genuine Romanesque portions, is more curious for a kind of
rude _Renaissance_ which really reproduces a simple kind of Romanesque.
In short, there is hardly a spot in the historic land of Maine which has
not its attractions for those who can stoop to scenery which, though
always pleasing, is never sublime, to buildings of which perhaps one
only in the whole province reaches the first rank, and to a history
which, though in itself it is mainly local, has not been without its
influence on the destines both of England and of France.

[Illustration: Sainte-Susanne, Keep]

INDEX

A

Abbaye Blanche, near Mortain, 109, 110

Almeneches, 139 _et seq._;
its church, 150, 151;
site of the castle, 152

Ambrieres, fortress of, 57, 229;
architectural significance of its church, 230

Amiens, 8, 9, 23, 24, 47

Architecture in Normandy, its points of likeness with that of England,
23, 27, 28, 31, 46;
Romanesque, at Bayeux, 28, 29;
at Exmes, 147; at Le Mans, 206, 207, 209;
transitional period well marked in Fecamp Abbey, 48

Argentan, 125-138

Arletta [Herleva], mother of William the Conqueror, 10

Arnulf of Montgomery, 141, 142

Arques, fortress of Count William at, 59, 60;
battle of, 60

Avranches, historical associat