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determined (in 1630) to entirely destroy such a fortress." Cardinal Richelieu thoroughly accomplished his work. The Castle precincts contain nought but the great square Tower which is shorn of its crenelated parapet, and remains as an empty shell. Great stone walls, enclosing vineyards, cut the ground up into a sort of maze of lanes, and on the steep side is a plantation of elms enclosing a bandstand and a bicycle

course.

Loudun seems to have been well known in the time of Julius Cæsar, and is supposed to have been named after him "Juliodunum." Its history began in the religious wars, and through the 16th and 17th centuries it was alternately the centre of the power and influence of the Huguenots and the scene of bitter persecution and retaliation.

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When the kingdom of Peace is preached by the sword, and Truth at the dagger's point, neither party comes out innocent. Yet it appears that there cannot have been many instances of personal cruelty on the part of the Huguenots, or the Archives would not have failed to make much of the matter. The only instances recorded are the murder of six monks-" cordeliers' and that of a priest by a man named "Richard." This man tied the priest to his horse's tail, and dragging him across the town, threw him into a dirty ditch near the postern "du Pasquin," "where," naively concludes the chronicler, "we imagine he perished." The Huguenots also burnt down the fine church of Sainte Croix on the market place (1568) a romanesque building with nave and transepts. But modern catholics are not much in advance of them, for they have rebuilt their church and turned it into the city Market, and leave it in the dirtiest condition. Haberdashery of a mean sort, and vegetables and melons, strew the pavement on the very spot where day by day the Feast of Remembrance was celebrated.

In the same year of trouble 1568, the Huguenots put fire to the Carmelite Convent as is recorded on an inscription cut in the first pillar in the nave of the Église des Carmes, erroneously called S. Pierre du Martray.

LE . XX. IOVR. de . NOVEBRE. 2
MILLE. V SOIXANTE HVICT

FVT. CE COVET MIS. EN. CEDRES
PAR LES HVGVENOTZ dESTRVICTS.

On the same day they burnt the chapel of the “Dreux” in the Cemetery opposite the church.

This was not to be wondered at, although one deplores the loss of fine buildings. For the life of the Huguenots was, during two centuries, one of continual, harassing, petty and great persecutions.

Though, at times, the dominant power was in their hands, and the Castle in their possession, yet they never knew from month to month what piece of injustice might deprive them of liberty or life.

To the eternal praise of its Governor, Loudun escaped the horrors of the Night of St. Bartholomew. The Governor's name is buried in oblivion, but his brave refusal to execute the king's orders should be recorded in golden letters in French history. It is also possible that the Huguenots had the upper hand in Loudun about that time.

Their periods of peace were of short duration, the usual story is one of daily persecution.

At first they had no house of worship, nor were they even permitted to assemble in any particular spot. They crept out at night through the narrow, windowless lanes and alleys to the curious caves, which honeycomb the chalk cliffs beneath the castle walls on the western side of the town. Much of the city is built over these caves, which form catacombs under the houses, and are now used by the inhabitants as cellars. They are all of natural formation, and must have afforded shelter many a time to fugitives in the hour of peril. Two, beneath the Cemetery field, are accessible to passers-by and are roomy and fairly high. They are scarcely six feet below the soil which, in that part is composed of a confused mass of bones and portions of skulls with teeth still gleaming in the jaws.

The caves under the Castle rock are the strangest: they form quite a little row of dwellings, and the peasants have put doors to the entrances, and pierced windows and chimneys.

Only from the year 1523 did the Huguenots dare show themselves in public. In 1562 they were at last allowed public exercise of their religion, but only without the walls. The little village of Beaussay or Beauçay was assigned to them as their meeting place.

This would practically have debarred them from Divine worship had the Huguenots not been more eager church-goers than the men of the present day. Beaussay is more than three and a half miles distant from Loudun, on the road to

UNIV. OF CALIFORN

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Thouars, a long dusty white track winding interminably over the country. There are trees all along it now, but they give very little shade, and probably there were none in 1562. The road passes the little village of La Bâti on the left, where the noble family of Sanglier, Seigneurs de Boisrogue, had their little property in the midst of chestnut groves. Further on is the Château de Beaussay, on the right, lying back from the road at the end of a long avenue of very tall poplars. The house is defended by a moat filled with water, and is reached by a bridge. It is a charming spot, hidden amongst thick trees, and could have been easily defended from attack.

The author of "Documents sur l'histoire de Loudun" in the "Journal de l'arrondissement de Loudun," 1844, 1 Nov., No. cxxiv, describes a building he saw at Beaussay which he felt sure was the old Temple. It had been turned into a wine-press, and the vault broken through to permit of the grapes being poured into the vats from above. He describes it as built with hewn stones "de moyen appareil" and vaulted with a round ceiling. It stood east and west, with a western entrance. There is no sign of this building at the Château, or on the adjoining farm. It may have been amongst the few scattered houses of the actual village, which lies about threequarters of a mile beyond the Château.

It it asserted by the Protestants-and they should know better than Roman Catholic historians- that their first Temple in Loudun was built in 1565. Arnault Poirier, the author above cited, cannot find anything to prove their assertion.

The Temple which stood in the Rue de Villecourt was built in 1576, and demolished the following year. It was evidently rebuilt, for we find the Huguenots assembling in a house on the same spot in 1677.

The Rue Villecourt is a little road, grass grown, leading steeply down between high stone garden walls and little cottages, from the Rue de la Croix Bruneau to the Rue Porte Saint Nicolas.

The Rue de la Croix Bruneau runs below the north side of the Castle and continues as far as the Porte du Martray. Exactly in front of the Rue Villecourt, a steep ramp planted with trees leads up to the Castle plateau, close to the "Tour Carrée."

In Arnault Poirier's time (1844) there was a garden occupy. ing the corner of the Rue Villecourt where it joins the Rue de la Croix Bruneau. It belonged to a Madame Bazille, and in the garden wall there was a walled-up arched entrance with

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