Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1901-08-01

Gavarnie. At Blols We saw the fine
chateau. 1t is in the court form, and
there is a beautiful spiral staircase OF
carved stone, which leads up to the
top of the castle. We saw the room
where Marie Antoinette escaped, when
she was imprisoned there by her SON;
the bed room, library and little chap
Ell of Catherine de Medici. In the H.
brary were secret closets recently dis
covered, in which she used to keep
poison. The place is shown where the
Duke of Guise was assassinated, and
the prison where the Dukes brother
was killed the following day. It was
a round dungeon, and in the floor was
round hole opening into q lower
dungeon, into which prisoners were
let down. There they were allowed to
starve. It was delightful castle. in
spite of these grewsome parts. It has
been restored in the old style, the walls
painted in the old tapestry patterns.
Some of the stone carved fire places
were beautiful. The emblems of the
old kings were on them in beautiful
colors; the knotted rope and ermine
were emblems of Ann of Brittany, the
salamander of Francis I, Bloise is on
the Loire river, and the view from the
fine old bridge is beautiful. The
cathedral is interesting. That after
noon We went to another castle twelve
miles from Blois. We drove out and
enjoyed the ride immensely. The
fields in this part of France do not
often have fences, and the houses are
usually in clusters. There are i'm
mense stretches of grain, but is in
narrow strips, relic of feudal times,
Professor says, when each retainer was
answerable to his lord for SO many fur
rows of grain. In the fields we saw
men cutting with long, straight handled
scythes, the ripe grain or grass. and
often women at work loading the two
wheeled carts. We drove out to Cham
bord, where there is another castle, in
late renaissance style. The castle was
less interesting, because the style was
not so quaint, and the rooms were not
restored. We left Blois after fine
dinner, and reached Tours between
nine and ten, where we spent the
night, snd looked at the fine cathedral
before leaving on an excursion by train
to visit out third chateau, the best of
all in some ways, Loches. 1t is q cas-
tie which has not been restored at all,
and dates back to the eleventh CEN
tury. It has Notifications, a huge wall
that will stand for ages. It is up high.
and is not simply one building, but nu-
merous buildings. We climbed way
up on top of one of the towers, by
means Of. winding stair, and obtain
ed a fine view of the surrounding
country.
We saw terrible dungeons where va
rious bishops were imprisoned for
years. One of them had only one tiny
window a foot and one-half high, by
four or five inches wide. 1t was up so
high in the wall that you couldn't look
out. There were holes worn in the
fat surface of the wall and sill, made
by their trying to climb up and see out
of the window. Another dungeon was
behind this one, in which no ray OF
light entered. The guide told us OF
one prisoner who lived there six years.
and then died. We saw another dark
dungeon room, in which a Cardinal
lived twelve years in cage, suspend
ed from the ceiling. The woman who
showed US about said that he came out
broken in health! There was q bit of
justice in the affair, because the Cardi-
nal was the one who invented the cage.
There was secret stairway leading up
to the room by which the King came
up to visit his prisoner on occasion.
There was small basin cut in the
stone. in which holy water was put.
for the King had to cross himself be-
fore coming into the Cardinals pres
ence. Up in the castle inclosure was q
fine little chapel, and rows OF linden
trees, one horse chestnut tree. the
largest eyer saw. 1t spread out for
hundred feet, think. Tradition has
it that King Francis /. planted it.
July 1st.
We had lovely trip up to Gavarnie,
and now it is Monday, and we are GO
ing back to other things, though not
away from mountains, for tonight We
spend in Carcassonne. We started out
ahead of the others Sunday morning to
go to the falls, and took the wrong
road which went up on 3 hill. When
we saw the people crossing q bridge a
mile below US, we started down cross
lots, nearly falling over ourselves on
the steep hIllsides. The walk is an
hour and half to. the falls, according
to Baedecker, but we were more, four
hours each way, The walk was hard
ar than the Mer de Glaca one. think,