Page:Costello - A pilgrimage to Auvergne from Picardy to Velay - A 30154 1.pdf/29

Rh the feet of the captive. A hollow in the thickness of the wall contained the bed or the straw on which Charles lay. Whether Louis was accommodated with a couch more costly, tradition does not say; but no tapestry or ornament could conceal the fact that walls of twelve feet thick hemmed in a suite of chambers even with the moat of the castle, that the thick black river yawned like a gulf in most convenient vicinity for murder, that no light was admitted but through slits barred with iron, and nothing but circling ramparts was to be seen beyond, though now a part of the country can be distinguished through the opening. In the court, just beside the entrance to this tower, is a large grating to an arched door, which opens on a subterranean way formerly leading under the bed of the Somme to the vaults of a neighbouring castle, designated “Nul me Frotte,” from whence Charles le Teméraire came secretly and silently, and surprised king Louis while in the chapel, where he was fruitlessly invoking one of his favourite Virgins. It is said, that when he heard the clank of steel steps near, he inquired if his guards had brought his enemy prisoner, and was struck with terror on learning that Charles came as a conqueror to dictate terms to himself.

The site only of this chapel is now seen ; there