in the region of Tours," where in "spring | buildings are now levelled to the ground, love flies at large beneath the open sky, ... in autumn the air is full of memories of those who are no more." When the train reached Chinon on the banks of the Vienne, the first step into the little square beyond the station gates showed that the visitors had chanced to come on the chief market day of the town at the end of Sep. tember.

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Chinon at such a breathless pace that his knights fainted or died of fatigue and wounds on the way. Philip of France now took Tours, and Henry was compelled to sign a humiliating peace at Colombières. On his return to Chinon after that bitter scene his chancellor read aloud to the king the list of rebels. "Sire," he said, may Jesus Christ help me! The first name which is written here is the name of Count John, your son." The old king turned his face to the wall. He had received his death-blow. As he lay unconscious he was heard to murmur: "Shame, shame on a conquered king." When the end drew near, his servants bore him to the castle chapel that he might breathe out his soul before the altar. Thence the dead king, "robed as for coronation, with a crown of gold upon his head, a gold ring upon his finger, sandals upon his feet, and a sceptre in his gloved right hand," was borne to Fontevrault, where Richard came to see his murdered father. The Archbishop of Tours buried him before the high altar in July, 1189.

bore her up through the trials of her stay there amid the jeering courtiers. But at length Joan conquered the king's irresolution and rode out clad in complete armor to accomplish the promised deliverance.

A less pleasing picture of olden days at Chinon is the brilliant reception given there in 1498 to Cæsar Borgia, the infamous son of the infamous Pope Alexander VI. Such a procession as his had probably never streamed into the castle before. "First came eighty mules in gorgeous harness, blazoned with Cæsar Borgia's crest and arms, followed by the finest horses of the prince's stables; then eighteen pages riding," clad in velvet, two of them resplendent in cloth of gold; then came more mules, and, after a flourish of drums and trumpets, Borgia and his suite rode into Chinon. The duke wore a dress of red satin and cloth of gold, beset with jewels. His cap was adorned with great rubies, his boots strewn with precious stones. Louis XII. wanted a divorce, Borgia wanted a dukedom, and both were gratified. Such are some of the scenes which crowd before the mind of a visitor to the greatest of all the châteaux of Touraine. For two centuries it has been slowly mouldering, but ages must pass before the old home of the Plantagenets has crumbled into dust.

Richard had soon to pay the penalty of his misconduct. In 1193 the attacks made on Touraine by his old ally, the French king, were so fierce and systematic that he left England for Tours where he drove out the canons for disloyalty. After his death in 1199 John was acknowledged The road to Fontevrault for a little king by the royal household at Chinon. while after leaving Chinon lies straight to Having scandalized the barons by putting the south, then it turns sharply and winds away his first wife, he married Isabel of through apple-orchards and walnut-trees Angoulême, and spent the following sum- till it reaches the river bank. At Candes, mer at Chinon with her and Berengaria, where St. Martin died, it was a great surthe widow of Richard. The castle was prise to English visitors to catch a first taken by the French after a long and des- glimpse of the sculptured saints and battleperate siege on Midsummer eve, 1205. mented roofs of the church through an A century later Jacques Molay, grand opening of the twisting little village master of the Knights Templars, was ex- street. Begun in the year of Magna amined here by the cardinals before he Charta, and finished towards the end of was led to the stake in Paris. It was in the century, the place is filled with quaint Chinon that Joan of Arc had her first in and grotesque carvings, many of which terview with Charles VII. The English have entirely escaped the hand of the reseemed about to regain their old dominion storer. Fontevrault itself had been turned in France. In 1423, when "wolves were into a vast prison, or reformatory, guarded fighting for the corpses of the dead in the by a regiment. Long files of silent prischurchyard of Paris," churches sacked, oners in dull uniform and round caps, castles burnt down, and lands left untilled, move about where nuns once walked to the States-General met at Chinon to con- and fro; one of the chapels is a storesult with the king about the defence of house for the garrison beer, lines of casks their country. Some years of loss and fill the spaces between the pillars from the trouble followed. In 1428, Tours implored altar to the door. Amid such strange sur. help against the English who were besieg-roundings our great Plantagenets rest in ing Orleans. At last, on Sunday, March a dark little chapel opening out of the right 6, 1429, the Maid of Orleans came to the rescue. The well where she lighted from her horse is still shown at Chinon. Only firm confidence in her patriotic mission

transept. The statue of Henry II. shows him dressed as he was borne out for burial from Chinon. His wife, Eleanor of Guienne, who died here in May, 1204,

holds a book in her hands. Richard I. | the most important fortress of Anjou. rests by the side of his parents. The Great cliffs of stone form the keep. three statues are of colossal size, hewn out Traces of four stories are still visible, of tufa rock, and painted. A smaller with stairs cut in the thick walls. The statue, carved in wood, represents Isabel, place could hold a garrison of twelve hunthe wife of John - the most beautiful and dred men. most wicked woman of the day. The abbey The prisons at Loches have witnessed owed its foundation to Robert d'Arbrissel, some terrible scenes. The woman who a famous preacher of the end of the elev- acted as guide bore a small and sputtering enth century. Pope Urban II. directed lamp, and led the visitors down a narrow, him to preach in favor of the Crusades, twisting staircase, barred with great doors and crowds of people left all to follow the at every turn. Mr. Cook found it a veritanew apostle. He had started for Jerusa- ble descent into the infernal regions. lem with this strange retinue but was com- Sforza, Duke of Milan, was immured in a pelled to halt at Fontevrault, and found a cell one hundred steps below ground. Its community which, under the care of its window gathers what little light can pierce first abbess, had four houses for learned its way through a slit made in fourteen ladies, penitent women, lepers, and monks. | feet of rock. Here for nine years Sforza There were soon four thousand inmates. languished, decorating with inscriptions The place was always dear to the Planta- the walls of his gloomy cell, where "death genets. The ladies of their house found assailed him, but he could not die." One shelter here when some dark disaster is thankful that he was moved higher up blotted the sun out of their firmament, and the tower, and allowed some exercise behere the great soldiers of their race slept fore his death. Further along the dark well after the roar of battle. passage, and yet deeper under ground, is the Prison of the Bishops. The two ec clesiastics who were entombed there had made a pitiful representation of an altar and a cross, and each in turn had climbed up the wall to the window in order to catch a glimpse of the daylight. Richelieu kept François de Rochechouart at Loches for two years without any positive proof of conspiracy against him, but nothing would induce this brave man to divulge his secret. He was ordered for execution, and not reprieved till the last moment in order to shake his resolution, but he still maintained heroic silence.

Twenty-five miles south of Tours lies the great garrison château of Loches. One of the chief features of the flat landscape by which you approach the place is the vast square mass of masonry, the keep of Montbazon, intended as a guard and sentinel for Loches. Every inch of land is cultivated by the industrious French peasants. Suddenly the hill fortress of Loches rises above the plain. "The houses, thrown together along steep and twisted streets, cluster beneath the walls that guard the castle, and the eye rises from the Toure de St. Antoine in the little 'place' beneath towards the donjon keep and the pinnacles of the Collegiate Church." A sharp ascent leads up to the first line of walls. The church is the chief architectural feature of the place. Viollet le Duc says: "In France, exactly on the border line which separates buildings with cupolas from those with none, there is a strange and unique monument in which the influences of Oriental art are blended with the methods of construction adopted in the north at the beginning of the twelfth century. This is the Collegiate Church of Loches; a monument unique in the world, perfect in its kind, and of a savage beauty." It was begun in 1180, and is all broken into points and angles. A fine Romanesque porch leads into the quiet building, which has two white, funnel-like domes opening upward to the roof. Agnes Sorrel's tomb lies in a little chapel in the Tour d'Agnès. The oldest part of the castle shows that it was

We are thankful to close the pages which contain these gruesome stories. The next journey may be to Langeais. That village has "one good main street, from which numberless little alleys open out, lined by tiny cottages, and ending in a strip of green or garden ground." Two vast round towers rise at the end of this street. This is the fortress-château of Langeais, the finest existing example of a French castle built about the middle of the fifteenth century. Lady Dilke points out in her "Renaissance of Art in France " that the problem before the architect was how to blend the necessities of defence with the already increasing demands of domestic life. As a fortress it is cer tainly not up to date. Elaborate precautions against scaling-ladders have been taken, but gunpowder is quite forgotten. "One gate only affords access to the interior court, and that gate is flanked by massive towers, and protected by a port

compact and perfect mansion for Charles, the brother of the cardinal. The fourth side of the original quadrangle was demolished in 1739. A splendid terrace was thus formed, looking out on the Loire, with the main buildings of the castle as background. Cardinal d'Amboise introduced good order, economy, and reform into the French government, repressed brigandage, reformed justice, and became the most influential man of his time. He has often been compared to Wolsey. But he was more happy in his fortunes, for he died immensely wealthy, with all his honors thick upon him. His old red cardi nal's hat is still seen hanging above his carved chair on the altar steps of his chapel at Chaumont. Catherine de Medicis was for a while mistress of the château, where her bed, with its curtains and the old worn prie-dieu, is now shown to visitors. The Duc de Broglie, who preserves it with loving care, is the present lord of this fine old castle.

cullis. The interior court is almost wholly confined by the buildings around it, the high walls which defend it on the outside are cut up at well-guarded angles by massive towers, and protected by a portcullis. The whole length is crowned by heavy machicolated battlements, so that the aspect of the exterior is severe; but the façade which looks upon the court within is not wanting in elegance. Four small towers, each of which contains a spiral staircase, break the monotony of the front, and give access to the different stories." Each story is a repetition of the simple arrangement of rooms adopted on the ground floor. The first château of Langeais, occupied by the Black Prince during the campaign on the Loire, has perished. The present building was erected in 1464, under the direction of Jean Briçonnet, first mayor of Tours. Its present owner, M. Siefried, is turning it "into one harmonious picture of oak carvings, tapestry, and warm-tiled floors." The porch is as lovely as the château. A quaint feature of the Chenonceaux is associated with the place is the guard's chemin de ronde, a name of Diane de Poitiers, to whom it little passage beneath the roof formed by was given by Henry II. The first view the machicolations. It extends all round of the château is very impressive. A long the château, "lighted by innumerable little range of buildings stand on the right, to windows, which give an ever changing the left is Diane's wide terraced garden, view of the valley of the Loire from the "surrounded by its high walk, which leads forest of Chinon, west and south, to the to the raised courtyard immediately in cathedral towers of Tours, far off among front of the main building, a large and the mist towards the east." In the Great very handsome open space rising upon Hall, Anne of Brittany, the vivacious, im-high walls from the lower level, with a perious, yet true-hearted and devout little fine detached tower at the right corner, Breton duchess, was married to Charles the oldest part of the château, the last VIII., and here she spent her brief widow-relic of its earliest owners." The vine hood until her second marriage with Louis XII.

Chaumont is on the left bank of the Loire, twenty-five miles above Tours. From the magnificent bridge which here spans the river, one of the finest views is obtained of the sweeping current. The forest of Blois shows above the housetops. The towers of Chaumont rise upon the wooded hill, whilst the little village nestles by the river. When the Black Falcon drove the Lord of Saumur out of his castle by his famous night attack, the Count of Blois gave Chaumont to his dependant. This castle was burnt down in one of the perpetual wars with Henry Plantagenet. In the second castle Becket met his royal master for the last time. Here Georges, Cardinal d'Amboise, the great minister of France, was born in 1460. The cardinal's father incurred the displeasure of Louis XI., who rased his château to the ground; but a few years later, Philibert l'Orme built the present

lands slope softly to the river, and the trees round the water's bank form "an exquisite natural setting for one of the most beautiful dwellings ever fashioned by the heart of man." It was built for Thomas Bohier, the great financier. The foundations were laid in 1515, the year when Francis I. came to the throne. A confused medley of spires, minarets, and cupolas greet the eye as you approach from the eastern side. "Every turret, every pinnacle, is crowned with some fantastic ornament," angles jut forth from the pierced and carved work surrounding them. "The surprises, the accidents of the interior multiply with incessant mystery. The numberless halls, chambers, cabinets, present the most striking sign of diversity both as to size and character." Its ruling idea is that of a secular convent, bringing together "halls of state, private apartments, secluded cabinets, and hidden cells" under one roof. The individual life thus finds rcom for development, even

amid all the claims and pleasures of a and the extraordinary effect of lofty macommon society. Francis I. became mas- sonry, produced by building on the sumter of the château after Bohier's death. mit of an elevation and carrying the stone After Francis's time it passed to Diane de courses upwards from the lower ground, Poitiers. This lady had come to court is here seen at its best." The white after she had lost her husband, the sen- houses of the little town cluster round the eschal of Normandy. Francis I. com- castle "like crumbs that have fallen from mended his dull son to the handsome a well-laden table." After passing the widow, who soon won complete power archway a winding ascent leads into garover the dauphin. "Her strength, her dens lifted high above the world below, magnificent health, the cold reserve and and shut in by towers and terraces. The energy of her character appealed to him lovely little Chapel of St. Hubert "looks as much as the firm line of her features, very tiny in one corner of the vast courtthe proud curve of her lips, the narrow yard, but the charming effect of its light forehead which marked the decision of buttresses, rising from below and clinging her nature rather than the loftiness of her to the great outer walls of rock and brickideas." Nothing disturbed this woman's work until they end in finely chiselled serenity or checked her insatiable avarice pinnacles that blossom from the angles of and ambition. Her two daughters married the roof, is completed by a richness and into the powerful families of Lamarck and care in the workmanship of the interior Guise. The mistress reconciled her very rarely surpassed by any monument lover to the presence of Catherine de of its time; the inner surface of its walls Medicis, the wife whom he disdained. is a marvel of beautiful stone carving fine She even nursed Catherine and her chil- as lace, and shows up the more as it is dren. When Henry II. died she was almost the only work of its kind to be seen turned out of Chenonceaux, which Cathe- at Amboise.” Amboise can boast of great rine wished to have for herself. She built antiquity. There was a Roman camp the long gallery there, and gave a splendid here, and King Arthur is said at one time fête to the young king and queen - Fran- to have been lord of the castle. In the cis II. and Marie Stuart. As their majes- ninth century it belonged to the Counts of ties entered the main drive of the castle Anjou. Six hundred years later, when it knots of women stood at the foot of every became a royal residence, the townsmen tree "in their holiday attire, wearing great greeted Louis XI. with a mystery play broad-brimmed rustic hats, and waving such as that age loved, and distributed many-colored ribands, while their hus- wine to all comers at the civic expense. bands and brothers, with flags flying and At Amboise Louis instituted the order of drums beating, made a brave show upon St. Michael, which was to rival the Golden the little hill at the entrance to the park." Fleece. Here also the king, feeling that Before the great court stood a grand tri- death was near, invested his son, Charles umphal arch, resting on four pillars, round VIII., with royal authority. When Charles which ivy was twined. As the king en- lost his little son at the age of three he tered the castle a shower of fireworks tried to forget his sorrow in building the went off, and thirty cannons roared forth Chapel of St. Hubert and the two great a welcome. Pallas stepped forward, and towers, which have winding planes of rained down a shower of flowers and brickwork instead of stairs. Up these leaves inscribed with sonnets to the king strange ascents Charles V. once rode with and queen. Those were bright days in Francis I. amid snch a blaze of flambeaux the life of Mary Queen of Scots. Che-"that a man might see as clearly as at nonceaux, in the days of Madame Dupin, at the end of last century, became a resort of all the literati. Voltaire, Bolingbroke, Rousseau, were constant visitors here. It is now in the hands of the Crédit Foncier, who charge a franc for admission. The place seems to have been built for domestic pleasure, and leaves an impression of beauty and happiness on the mind of every visitor.

Amboise is said to gain more from the river than the other châteaux of Touraine. Its magnificent round tower "completely commands the approaches of the bridge,

midday." Passing through a little doorway at Amboise Charles VIII. struck his head violently against the low stone arch, and died in a few hours. His two boys, whose monument is still seen at Tours Cathedral, died before him, so that the throne passed to the house of Orléans. The Comte de Paris, the present owner of the château, has restored it with great care, but this work has been cut short by his exile.

Francis I. spent many happy days of his boyhood here. Louise de Savoie's journal is full of the son whom she almost worshipped. She notes that in January,