"Un
nombre prodigieux de Seigneurs Anglais, Normands, Angevins, Manceaux,
Tourangeaux, et Bretons, prirent la Croix; Le Pape, Innocent III.
envoya en Bretagne, en 1197, Helvain, Moine de St. Denis, pour y
precher une croisade. Une grande quantite de Bretons se laisserent
conduire en Syrie par ce Moine; et, en 1218, plusieurs Seigneurs
Bretons suivirent leur exemple, entre autres, Herve de Leon, Morvau,
Vicomte du Fou, et le Sire de Clisson".
From the construction of the towers and bastions, it is supposed that
at his return from the Holy Land, he had copied the Syrian style of
building; and one of the towers, which is represented in the sketch
of the gateway of the Chateau de Clisson, is still called La Tour des
Pelerins.
This tower, which has been used as a dungeon, is the most perfect of
any remaining. In it are subterranean galleries, anciently used as a
prison, and appropriated by the 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.
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