Page:Costello - A pilgrimage to Auvergne from Picardy to Velay - A 30154 1.pdf/27

Rh bishops. Nothing is seen but violence against the poor and weak, and outrages and robberies of the goods of the clergy. No sooner is a bishop dead, than the most powerful cast themselves instantly upon the possessions of his church, as though they had belonged to him exclusively, which, even in that case, wuld be contrary to all law or right.”

In vain were anathemas launched against the spoilers of the church ; not a single baron would give up any part of his ill-gotten property, and le droit du plus fort was alone acknowledged.

Centuries since have passed, and time has effaced the memory of these doings ; the power of a romancer can, however, revive them, and no one who enters the town of Peronne fails to think first of Louis XI, and secondly of that unfortunate Charles the Simple, whose fate recurred to the wily monarch when he found himself caught in the toils, and trod the floor of the same dungeon where the ill-fated king lingered out his melancholy existence. Walter Scott is as well known at Peronne as at Tours, and his fine romance is cited by the guides in the same manner, when the castle is shown. We lost no time in paying it a visit, and regretted to see how little remained of the once extensive fortress. It is, however, undergoing repair, and some of the