e republicans to the same purpose. It is
dreadful to think of the horrors that have been practised within its
walls, in our own time.

[Illustration: TOUR des PELERINS.]

From the top of this tower the prospect is very extensive, and, during
the year 1793, when the republican army quartered themselves in it, a
sentinel was placed there to give notice in case of the approach of an
enemy. The historian of that period, speaking of the entrance to this
tower, observes, in reference to the cruelties committed there in the
Vendean war:

"Il existait au milieu de la derniere cour un tres beau puits, taille
dans le roc et extremement profond: il est actuellement comble, et
ma plume se refuse a tracer les scenes horribles qui ensanglanterent
ce lieu en 1793 et en 1795, tristes et epouvantables effets des
guerres civiles!"

This passage alludes, I imagine, to the circumstance related in
page 90. Within its walls are various inscriptions, many of them in
characters so difficult to decypher, that they remain unknown. The
following has been rendered into more modern French by Cerutti.

J'ai gravi, mesure ces ruines sublimes;
Mon coeur s'en est emu! De nos vaillants aieux
Tout y representait les tournois magnanimes,
Ils semblaient reparoitre et combattre a mes yeux;
J'entendois sous leurs coups retentir les abimes;
Juge de leurs combats, idole de leur coeur,
Du haut des tours, la dame admiroit le vainqueur.
Casques et boucliers, cuirasses gigantesques,
Cris d'armes, mot d'amour, devises de l'honneur,
Carlets pour l'infidele ou pour le suborneur,
Tout garde sur ces murs vraiment chevaleresques.
La memoire d'un siecle ou l'epee, ou la foi,
Ou la galanterie etaient la seule loi.

Louis IX. and Blanche of Castille, his queen, retired to Clisson, at
the time the English, under Henry III. penetrated into Poitou, and
were received by Olivier de Clisson, who then garrisoned it.

In the war of the League, which convulsed the kingdom of France,
Clisson remained faithful to Henry III. and during the early part
of the reign of his successor Henry IV. The Protestants were there
protected, and established themselves in the fauxbourg. From the
period at which Henry IV. signed the edict at Nantes, 15th April,
1598, until the war of La Vendee, this celebrated fortress is no where
mentioned by any of the French historians: it became neglected when
the feudal system declined, and the republican army completed its