Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-09-24

1909 and 1247 I left or with the Tren.
| cavels turning Albigenses. Well. the
Pope stirred up a crusade against them.
and I'm 100. after a siege of three months.
Simon de Montsort and 60.O00 men took
the walls by assault. In 1244. after an
other such struggle of fire. blood and
battering. the Trencavel forces won their
| city back: but the Albigenses had been
weakened. the heir was young and Louis
TX of France was rich and ambitious
| In 1241 Carcassonne became leaceably
united to the crown of France, and st.
| Louis. whose piety did not prevent him
! from charging his boundaries. built the
exterior walls that were never to be
| taken.
| During 500 years thereafter Carcass
some was the southern bulwark OF
France, and its importance decayed only
after the conquest OF Roussillon left IL no
| longer frontier.
| Pious as he was-he loaned the EN-
| peror Baudouin Of Byzantium the eauiVa-
| lent of 81 ,Ooo.10 on the piece OF the trus
cross that still exists i'm Paris-St Louis
never. ceased to seek for the treasure of
| Solomon's temple in Carcassonne, bat he
never found it.
before these last days OF perfected sub
| way machines and exact surveying-hs
would have been obliged TO undertake an
] impossible task of digging. He would
| have risked undermining the foundations
of every interior tower. cellar. we'll and
cistern OF a town already ancient in his
day. whose subsoi Is mostly rock, &C.
ment and tramped debris. Even then he
might easily have missed the entrance to
the right subterranean passage, filled by
accident or design.
| The inhabitants OF CarcaSSonne have
always hoped to stumble on the treasure
by chance or lucky digging They are
now in a fever Of uneasiness lest the for
eign syndicate they whisper about may
really get at II.
Is the French government likely to pep
NIT a search from its restored monu-
ments? The influence Of q great inter
national banking family, backed by
| world motive like that Of the Zionfsts,
might secure IL.
vast subterranean passages, all terminal
ing in cave-ins. One he judges to nave
been q secret exit from the city, and none
are in that section of CarcassOnne which
tradition describes to the treasure CHAM
Der.
This section is the part bounded by the
rue eros Mayreville. Tower No. Il.
Tower No. % and the rue Viollet-le-Duc.
The Oldest tale is that the great well
| (Gd. Puitson the Plan) gives entrance to
the most vast underground galleries.
] kind of maze leading to the chamber.
Another makes the entrance to be con-
nected with Tower No y. immemorialiy
called the Tower Of the Treasure.
AS all this surface is built up with an
! cient houses any systematic search of it
must be made with the consent Of the
property owners.
Ny old friend Of the sunny garden Is
worried. When a family has immemori-
ally hoped to find such a treasure 1t is q
wrench to sell out its chances-and a
greater one to lose them for nothing.
Nearly every family up there claims to
| have been there immemorially.
mo syndicate shall seek under our
ground without our consent" says my old
| friend. 1.-The rumor is that they are buy
| ing or leasing properties. Also that they
have discovered indications in a very
ancient parchment
who are 'they'?' asked.
He named the greatest name in Euro
pean finance.
| STERLING HELLO.