Norwich bulletin., 1922-07-29
Famous Literary Mysteries
"rhe Prisoner of ChiIIon."

Situated in one of the most picturesque spots on Lake Geneva, Switzerland, is the Castle of Chiffon. Had it not been for Lord Byron immortalizing the place in his long and exquisite poem, "The Prisoner of Chiffon" the spot would re- ceive hardly more than passing notice by the traveller, for the lake contains many other beauty spots along it's ber- ders. But the poets inspiration has made this place familiaC to the world.
 But what about Byron's fprisoner ?" The historic prisoner of this castle was Francois Bonnivard. When Byron wrote his poem he had in view either an imag- mary captive or else the true history of the real Bonnivard was unknown to him. Or did he take the poetic license of adding to the story to bring more color into it, even if he had to garble the facts?
 Byron places in the mouth of his hero the lines:
 We were seven-who now are one
 Six in youth and one in age"
 Bonnivard, the real prisoner. had no brothers, and none of his name died iy the castle, although the poet makes him one of six brothers who, with their fa- ther, had laid down their lives upon the altar of freedom. Byron took Bonnivard as his prisoner" but he must have got ten his life with other prisoners con- fused, for the time-worn castle boasts a thousand years of story and romance. In fact more than one thousand years ago Louis le Debonnaire was imprisoned in this castle as traitor to his king, and here also, five centueies later, hundreds of Hebrews were tortured and then buried alive on the infamous suspicion of poisoning the wells of Europe oE 4f.- around it's walls the most familiar is that of Bonnivard, the Swiss patriot, who lan- guished there for six years in It's dark dungeon, until he was released by the efforts of his enthusiastic countrymen | During these gloomy years of captivity | his jailers heard from him no cry and no complaint, save when some tempest l swept the lake. Then, when the wine moaned as if in sympathy around tht 1 towers, they could distinguish sobs anC cries, proving that when apparent, alone with God the captive sought tt ! give his burdened soul relief
 | When finally his liberators burst int his cell they found him pale and shadow like, still chained to the column arounc which he had walked so many years / hundred voices cried to him at once "Bonnivard, you are freer The prisone slowly rose. and the first question h asked was, And Geneva?" "Free, also ' | was the answer
 It was in this same Castle of Chillol that Rousseau has fixed the catastroph of his ''Heloise" in the rescue of one o her children by Julie from the water, tn shock of which and the illness produce by the immersion causing her death.
 It was the Duke of Savoy who can tured and sent Bonnivard a prisoner t
 dae Castle of Chiffon. The full facts re garding his life were easily obtainabl
 by Lord Byron, and hSw he came to CT
 in regard to the family history of hi
 prisoner" he never explained. Ther
 was no need for him to have found
 necessary to do so. for there was S
 much that was picturesque and eventf, in the life of Bonnivard that the tru
 facts would have been all that any pot