Annals of a Fortress Part 11

The postern, H, was also the subject of lengthened consideration on both sides. This postern was necessary to secure the provisioning of the castle without enc.u.mbering the main entrance. Placed near the angle tower, U, which the enemy could not attack because of the steep escarpment of the plateau, the postern was well protected by that tower; moreover it was to be surmounted by a quadrangular work with double portcullis and double doors; lastly, a _braie_,[20] X, defended its approach. It was agreed, moreover, that the great central habitable part of the castle, erected on the remains of the square Roman towers, should be crenelated, and should command the curtain, and consequently the two entrances. Wells existed or were sunk at _p_.

Every part having been thus carefully determined, the works were vigorously prosecuted. The baron was always at hand, and persisted in seeing everything for himself. The north front of the bailey, and the chapel, E, were first begun. This exterior work did not greatly alter the appearance of things; but the donjon was next commenced. And when this tower, whose diameter was ninety feet, had reached an elevation of thirty, its aspect had become formidable. The townspeople viewed from a distance this huge ma.s.s rising on the point of the plateau, and began to wonder what their lord was intending to do with such an enormous tower.

The abbot was somewhat disquieted; but he was so handsomely entertained at the castle that he gave no sign of dissatisfaction, especially as the great chapel of the bailey promised to be very beautiful.

Fortunately for Anseric, the Duke of Burgundy had at that time some rather important matters in hand--a misunderstanding with the King of France. Philip Augustus gave him considerable uneasiness, and at such a time he did not wish to alienate his n.o.bility. More than two years thus pa.s.sed without anything of serious consequence occurring to the lord of the castle. By that time the building was very nearly finished. We give a bird's-eye view of it (Fig. 37), taken from the north-east angle.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 37.--BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE CASTLE OF LA ROCHE-PONT.]

Nothing was talked of throughout the province but the beauty and strength of the new castle of Roche-Pont, and there were men of family in the neighbourhood, envious of the wealth and connections of Anseric, who did their best to represent him to the duke as an ambitious person, impatient of the feudal ties which bound him to his suzerain. It was even insinuated that the Sieur de la Roche-Pont, on the strength of his descent, aimed at nothing less than supplanting the duke; and that he had already begun to intrigue for that object with the king of France and with Pierre de Courtenai, who had married Agnes, sister of the last Count of Nevers and aunt of Eleanor; that his tenants were crushed under the burden of forced labours; and that the duke ought not to allow one of his va.s.sals to oppress the poor people thus, in order to erect a castle surpa.s.sed in strength by none in Burgundy.

As only too frequently happens, malevolence was thus suggesting to Anseric the course he should pursue to fulfil his ambitious designs.

The Duke of Burgundy (Hugh III.) was anything but a protector of ecclesiastical property. The abbot of Saint Julien knew this; so that, although he was troubled in mind by the defensive preparations of the lord of Roche-Pont, and augured no good to the abbey from the vicinity of so strong a castle, he did not dare to manifest his fears, or endeavour to communicate them to the ducal court; for he was perhaps more afraid of the duke's intervention than of the power of his immediate neighbour.

At length Hugh was moved, and lent an ear to all that was reported concerning the character and intentions of his va.s.sal. An opportunity soon offered of revealing his real intentions. While Anseric had enemies and enviers at the ducal court, he had also some friends; and they did not fail to inform him of the sinister impressions produced in the duke's mind respecting him, and which he took no trouble to conceal. He had been heard to say that he would soon go and try whether the fortress of La Roche-Pont was as strong as was a.s.serted. Prudence was not the duke's forte, any more than reticence. He had sent a body of his men-at-arms to examine matters closely. Now, the duke's men-at-arms had acquired the habits of their master; they were great robbers and plunderers. Whether they acquitted themselves of their mission I cannot say; but certain it is that they plundered some hamlets and set fire to several granges belonging to the abbey of Saint Julien.

The monks were greatly disquieted, and did not fail to complain to the lord of Roche-Pont.

The fief of Roche-Pont lay under the obligation to send every year to the Duke of Burgundy, as its feudal dues, six war horses caparisoned. It was the custom of the lord of Roche-Pont on this occasion to present himself at the ducal court after Easter. The current year was 1185.

Anseric did not appear at court, and did not send the six horses. Hugh demanded them; Anseric replied that the duke's men, plunderers and brigands as they were, had themselves taken off the horses that were destined for him; and that it was their place to give them up to their master; that as for himself and the abbot of Saint Julien, they claimed compensation for damages, and demanded that the plunderers should be hanged on the public gallows. Moreover, that he, Anseric, was aware that the Duke of Burgundy lent an ear to the malevolent insinuations of the enemies of Roche-Pont, and he would choose his own time for giving them the lie.

At this haughty answer Hugh's anger was roused, and he swore that he would take no rest till the castle of Roche-Pont was razed to the ground, should it cost him a fourth of his dukedom.

Baron Guy had observed the storm increasing not without a secret joy; but though he liked fighting, and cherished an unbounded ambition, he was a prudent man, and one who--like all who had long sojourned in the East--knew how to intrigue and to secure the favour of circ.u.mstances.

Most of those old knights of Syria joined the character of the diplomatist to that of soldier, in consequence of their relations with the court of Constantinople and the Saracens.

After Anseric's reply, there was no alternative but to prepare for war, and war _a outrance_. But, however strong the place might be, Baron Guy knew well that every besieged fortress must, in the end, fall into the besieger's hands, if it is not relieved. Anseric had no army to bring into the open field against the duke's; he could a.s.semble two hundred and fifty men-at-arms--which would imply a total of about twelve hundred fighting men, as each man-at-arms was accompanied by three or four fighting men. Adding to this body the men in the town who owed service to the lord, a garrison of fifteen to eighteen hundred men might be reckoned upon.

Baron Guy had therefore a long conference with Eleanor and Anseric the evening after the answer had been sent to the duke; when it was resolved that the Lady de la Roche-Pont, with a sufficient retinue, should repair to the court of the king of France, promising him liege-homage for the lordship of Roche-Pont; and asking help from him against the Duke of Burgundy, who was devastating the lands of his va.s.sal, and plundering the estates of the abbey of Saint Julien without cause or reason. Baron Guy had some motives for believing that these overtures would be favourably received; but he refrained from saying all he knew about the matter. He advised his niece to take the abbot in her train, if possible, or, at any rate, some of the fraternity, authorised by him.

Dame Eleanor undertook the commission without making the least objection, and, with apparent calmness, though her heart was ready to burst under her slender corset.

She employed the night with her women in making preparations for her journey, and early in the morning sent for the abbot. The abbot, who foresaw but too clearly--whatever might happen--the devastation of the abbey domains, gave vent to repeated sighs, protested, and denounced the barbarity of the times, but came to no resolution. "Sir abbot," said Eleanor to him, at length, "with or without you or your monks I am going to set out this morning; would you rather plead your cause yourself, or have it pleaded by a woman?" "Ah! most gracious lady," replied the abbot, "can I quit my flock when the wolf is preparing to devour it?"

"Well, then, give me three of your monks." "Yes, you are right--it must be--it must be." "Let them be here on horseback in an hour." "Yes, n.o.ble lady, they shall be here, under the protection of G.o.d and the Holy Virgin!" "But, before all things, sir abbot, not a word about this journey, and do not let the brotherhood know where I am taking them."

"Yes, certainly; the fraternity are to understand that they are sent to some dependency or some neighbouring abbey." "Very good, but make haste!" Dame Eleanor, weeping, embraced her children, her husband and uncle; but, drying her tears as she mounted her palfrey, she presented herself to her small retinue with a calm countenance. "Fair niece," said Baron Guy to her, just as she was waiting on the horse-block, "the duke will certainly do his utmost to be here as quickly as he can. He might possibly arrive before your return. If it should be so, proceed with caution, conceal yourself and your train at the vavasor's,--Pierre Landry's--two leagues hence, in the valley; he will be informed of your intention, look out for your return, and give me news of you. Then we shall see what can be done."

The Lady de la Roche-Pont's train consisted of a dozen trusty men, retainers of the castle, commanded by a veteran knight of prudence and experience, with two women and the three monks. The party was supposed by the servants at the castle, to be making a visit to the Lady de Courtenai, Eleanor's aunt.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 17: Outer court.]

[Footnote 18: "The pleasance" was a garden, planted with fruit trees and groves, which served for a place of promenade, and for divers outdoor pastimes.]

[Footnote 19: In this figure the black tint indicates the Roman substructions preserved and surmounted by new works; the yellow the Roman buildings entirely razed; the red the defences added by the lord of La Roche-Pont; and the grey the domestic buildings rebuilt or repaired.]

[Footnote 20: An outer wall of no great height.]

CHAPTER X.

_THE FOURTH SIEGE._

The Duke of Burgundy was making all speed to reduce his va.s.sal. In the s.p.a.ce of a fortnight he had gathered six or seven thousand men, and was beginning his march. Anseric and Baron Guy had not failed to make the most of this respite. They provisioned the castle for three months at least. They fabricated four large trebuchets and half-a-dozen catapults.

Timber in sufficient quant.i.ty had been cut in the forest for making h.o.a.rdings, palisades, and wooden defences. Thirty stone-cutters were constantly at work making projectiles of sixty and a hundred pounds weight for the mangonels. Each workman could produce ten in a day, and at the end of a fortnight they had ama.s.sed a store of four thousand five hundred. In the town, cross-bows and quarrels were being made; for the townsmen who had to render service were bound to come armed, equipped, and provided with missiles in sufficient quant.i.ty. There were archers also, for whom arrows of ashwood, bows of yew, and cords of long-fibred hemp were being made.

Although the lord of Roche-Pont could not, as stated above, a.s.semble more than eighteen hundred men, and therefore could not contemplate defending the whole plateau--that is to say, the castle and the abbey--Baron Guy, who had reasons for it, urged him not to allow the enemy to occupy the monastery without defending it, even were it feebly. "You ought to defend the monastery," he would say to his nephew, "whenever the interests of the suzerain are involved; and since henceforth you are going to do homage for your fief to the king of France, he is your suzerain; his interests, therefore, are involved, and it is your duty to defend the abbey."

To this specious reasoning Anseric could find nothing to answer. The northern wall of the abbey was therefore put in a state of defence; they connected its north-east angle with the _debris_ of the Roman wall still existing on the edge of the plateau by a strong palisade and ditch, and barricaded the western brow above the town, between the abbey and the bailey of the castle.

The abbot had made a show of opposing these works, a.s.serting with reason that the abbey was not at war with the Duke of Burgundy, and did not refuse its customary homage. But Baron Guy, as an old crusader, was a casuist of the first order, and, relying on the letter of the charter, maintained that the lord of Roche-Pont was fighting for the cause of his suzerain, and that consequently he must be faithful to the stipulations respecting the abbey. These debates did not stop the workmen; and although the abbot had sent for his va.s.sals with a view to guard the monastery, they were in no hurry to obey his summons, believing that they were not in a condition to resist Anseric's va.s.sals, and preferring to await the result of what was being done before taking any side.

The baron also had a trench dug from the south-east angle of the abbey wall to the eastern ridge of the plateau; then he had the trench covered with timbers and f.a.ggots, and the turf replaced above it, so as to leave no external sign of its existence. Outside the barbican of the castle and the ditch was raised a strong palisade which protected its circ.u.mference, leaving between it and the wall a s.p.a.ce of twenty paces, and which gave lists thirty paces wide in front of the counterscarp of the ditch.

The twenty-second day after Anseric's answer (the 5th of May), the duke's troops appeared on the plateau before the abbey. The first comers spread themselves in the town, and were beginning to plunder it, when the duke interposed, and, contrary to his wont, gave orders that the inhabitants and their property should be respected. Listening to wise counsels for once, he was intending to separate the interests of Anseric's va.s.sals from those of their lord, to isolate the latter, and thus subdue him more easily. So that very evening he issued a proclamation by sound of trumpet through the whole town, to the effect that he was attacking the lord of Roche-Pont only, who had been declared a felon for having broken his fealty to the Duke of Burgundy; that the inhabitants of the town and of the valley would be respected as long as they did not take part with the lord of Roche-Pont; that from this day forwards they were free of all dues and services towards the said lord; but that those who should be convicted of taking part with him should be hanged as traitors to their lawful lord, the Duke of Burgundy. A herald presented himself before the walls of the abbey, and in a loud voice uttered the same proclamation.[21] But the baron had foreseen this contingency, and all the townsmen who had come in arms at Anseric's summons were shut up in the castle. He had appointed for the defence of the abbey, only men on whom he could rely--men who were directly dependent on Anseric, and attached to his fortunes--with some of those adventurers whose services were enlisted in any wars that might arise, and who, having no ties of family or country, used to fight for those who paid them best.

These defenders of the abbey were scarcely more than one hundred resolute men. They received the herald's proclamation with derisive shouts, answering that they knew no other lord but the king of France; and that if it came to hanging, they could play at that game quite as well as the duke's people. During the night two mangonels were mounted opposite the north wall of the monastery, and had soon dismantled the defences; but Anseric's men had retrenched themselves in the building behind that wall; and when the Burgundians advanced with ladders to scale the wall, they received them with a shower of darts, which killed some of the a.s.sailants.

Nevertheless, the besiegers mounted the wall and descended into the long narrow court enclosed by the building. There they were exposed to the stones and _debris_ of timber which the defenders threw at them out of the windows. The east court was barricaded, and Anseric, with about twenty men, was guarding the barricades. He defended it bravely for a good hour, and the Burgundians, fighting in a narrow s.p.a.ce, sustained some losses. They succeeded, however, in breaking open a door of the building, and rushed into the cloister. There they were still exposed to the darts and stones hurled at them by some of the defenders posted on the north side of the church.

A body of Burgundians began to attack the south-east barricade, outside the enclosure, to take the abbey in the rear. It was there that the baron was posted, with about fifty men. The combat was severe and sanguinary, and before withdrawing, seeing that the defenders were gradually abandoning the abbey, he had the f.a.ggots in the trench behind set on fire.

Already Anseric and his men were on the road to the _chateau_, and were sheltered by the defences of the barbican. Guy rejoined them, pursued by a large body of Burgundians. But a thick smoke soon began to issue from the trench, and the a.s.sailants who were coming up, seeing the ground undermined beneath them, dared not advance. On this Guy and Anseric fell upon those who had ventured within bowshot of the barbican, and killed a good number of them. Excited by the struggle, and exasperated by the resistance they met with, the duke's men entered the various buildings of the abbey, killing the wounded, and plundering. Fire, kindled by the defenders or the Burgundians, soon reached the cloister and the roof of the church.

The poor monks, a.s.sembled in the choir during the struggle, were soon forced to quit this retreat; for burning brands were falling on the pavement through the holes in the vaulted ceiling. It was already night, and many were ma.s.sacred by the drunken soldiery. Most of them had cowered down trembling in a vaulted chamber on the ground floor. It was there that the duke found them when he entered the burning abbey. The abbot threw himself on his knees; but the irritated duke repulsed him harshly, saying: "Sir abbot, it ill becomes ecclesiastics to fight against their lord; and if I do not have you and your monks hanged, you may thank your habit. Begone, and tell your brethren of your _forfeitures_!" Vainly did the abbot protest his innocence, and a.s.severate that if the abbey had been defended, it was against his will; and the duke, whose anger seemed to gather warmth at every word the father spoke, ended by ordering his men to drive out all the monks.

The unhappy fraternity, perishing of hunger, betook themselves to the town, where some kindly-disposed persons took them in; but the duke would not allow this, and proclaimed next day that every inhabitant who should give shelter to a monk should be hanged. Collecting some provisions, therefore, they started for Cluny on foot.

The duke had given orders to extinguish the flames, for he was intending to reside in the abbey during the siege of the castle; but there remained no part of it fit for habitation except the abbot's dwelling, situated north of the church.[22]

Retired within the castle, after having lost a fourth of their men who had been engaged in the struggle, Anseric and the baron were making their final arrangements. The troops who had re-entered with them were in high spirits, for they had inflicted sensible losses on the enemy; and thought of nothing but defending themselves to the uttermost. Guy was delighted, and his sombre visage was lighted up with an air of gaiety.

"We are getting on bravely," said he to his nephew, when they were alone, "bravely, I say: now that the abbey is burned we are sure to be aided by the king of France; we have made a capital commencement." "But these poor monks; what has become of them? Ah! my worthy uncle, it would have been better to leave them alone; we should now have some thirty brave fellows more here, and should not have to reproach ourselves with having caused the convent to be burned and the monks ma.s.sacred, perhaps." "Stay, stay, my good nephew; monks always get out of their difficulties, and they are sure to be able to restore their abbey.

Besides, it is the duke's men who have burned it! Besides, was it not our duty to defend it? Say no more about it. Jean Otte will get out to-night by the donjon postern. He is a rough sort of fellow, but a cunning blade; in five days he will be with our gentle Eleanor, and tell how that the n.o.ble duke has sacked the abbey, and burned all the monkery! It's capital! capital!"

On either side about a dozen prisoners had been taken. The next morning, May 7th, the people of the castle saw three of these unhappy men hanging up, by the duke's orders, on the trees of the pleasance. Immediately three Burgundian prisoners were hanged on the battlements of the barbican.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 38.]

None of the bridges had been destroyed by the besieged. They were occupied by the duke's men, and defended each by a good _breteche_ (Fig.

38), to hinder any communication from one bank to the other. The south wall of the abbey was strengthened by palisades joining the two ridges west and east of the plateau. A guard was posted in the two mills belonging to the monastery,[23] and a wooden tower built by the side of the rivulet, below the south-east part of the castle.

These first measures adopted, the duke had a ditch dug, with a mound crossing the pleasance of the castle within bowshot, and connecting the two ridges. This intrenchment of contravallation was strengthened by two wooden towers, one at each end, with an outlet near each of them, and one in the middle (Fig. 39). The castle was thus completely invested (May 15th).

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 39.]