FOIX
Department of Ariège--Watershed--The counts of Foix--Raymond
Roger--The Albigenses--Abuses in the Church--Manicheism--
Council of Albi--Innocent III--Murder of Peter of Castelnau--
Raymond VI of Toulouse--Crusade proclaimed--Simon de Montfort--
Subtlety of the Pope--Massacre at Béziers--And at Cascassonne--
Battle of Muret--Council of the Lateran--A second Crusade--
Simon de Montfort killed--Count Roger Bernard--Béarn annexed--
The town of Foix--The Castle--S. Volusinian--Nailmakers--
Hermitage--Grotto de l’Herme--Mas d’Azil--The River Ariège--
Tarascon--Richelieu--Ste. Quiterie--Iron mines--Sabarthès--
Vicdessos--Iron industry--Cavern of Lombrive--Slaughter
and smothering of heretics--Les Cabannes--Lordat--Talc--
Ax-les-Thermes--Self-created nobles--Hôtel Dieu--Andorra--The
Republic--The capital--Urgel--The Count of Spain--His death.
The county of Foix, now constituting the major portion of the
department of Ariège, is and always was in Languedoc. The Couserans
was, however, ever regarded as forming a part of Gascony. The ridge
between the Volp and the Salat separates two hydrographic basins
and two provinces. Geographically the department of Ariège belongs
nevertheless to the basin of the Garonne; all its streams, with the
exception of a few at the extreme east, flow into that great artery,
and finally discharge into the Atlantic. Linguistically only the
Couserans is Gascon; yet Foix from an early date was united to Béarn
and Bigorre.
Of the earliest history of the counts of Foix we know very little.
Roger Bernard, who died in 1188, was an excellent prince. His son,
Raymond Roger, lived in difficult times, and was involved in the
troubles arising out of the attempt of Pope Innocent III to stamp out
the heresy of the Albigenses.
To understand the spread of this heresy and the Crusade which
devastated these fair lands in the South, a few words must be said.
There can be little doubt that Christianity had not struck deep roots
in Languedoc. The clergy had acquired but a smattering of Latin, and a
meagre knowledge of doctrine in the monastic schools. They entered on
their cures not much raised above their parishioners in culture, and
in morals not infrequently sank below their level. Enforced clerical
celibacy was evaded, but this evasion left a scar on the conscience.
Bishoprics and abbacies were the provision of cadets of noble houses,
whether religiously or morally qualified was of no account.
In what is now the department of Ariège, no bigger than an ordinarily
sized English county, there were three episcopal sees--S. Lizier,
Pamiers, and Mirepoix--and many abbeys.
A persecution of the Manichees in the Byzantine Empire sent a stream
of refugees into Lombardy, Provence, and Languedoc, and these heretics
speedily acquired a strong hold on the popular imagination. The Church
had done so little to awaken the spiritual life in the souls of men,
that instinctively, but blindly, they turned to welcome such as
promised something better.
The Cathari, i.e. Puritans, as they called themselves, offered a
very simple creed and easy conditions of salvation. The fundamental
principle of this religion was a Dualism of Good and Evil principles,
equally matched; the Evil Principle, the author of the visible
Creation; the Good Principle, the author of the invisible, the
Spiritual world. The opposition of matter and spirit formed the
basis of their moral system. All that pertained to the body, all
its functions, its needs, its passions, were of the Evil One; all
the aspirations of the soul emanated from the Good Principle.
To the people of Provence and Languedoc and Gascony the Cathari
seemed to be inoffensive, self-denying enthusiasts. These had their
high-priests--the “Perfect” or “Very Elect”--and it was the function of
these men to “console” the believers; but the sacrament of Consolation
was never administered till it was supposed that a believer was on
his death-bed, for this reason, that after it had been administered
the recipient might not touch food under pain of committing the
unpardonable sin. If there should appear signs of convalescence after
the performance of the rite, the person consoled was bled to death, or
given pounded glass to swallow.
This new Manichæism offered to the people of the South just what they
wanted. They had set before them a class of enthusiasts, the Very
Elect, who led austere lives; but they themselves were not required
to adopt a life of abstinence, even of self-restraint, for at death
free justification was offered them by a simple formula. Moreover, the
theological system of the Cathari was simplicity itself.
The whole of the South was infected. A council, held at Albi in
1176, condemned the heresy, and thenceforth the heretics were called
Albigenses.
The princes, notably the counts of Toulouse and of Foix, did not
interfere. The Albigenses were inoffensive people. If they held odd
opinions, that was their own affair, with which their feudal lords were
not concerned to meddle.
But the Court of Rome thought otherwise. The flow of contributions
into its treasury from the rich South dwindled to nothing. What to the
Pope was even more serious was that his authority was openly flouted.
Pope Innocent--is there not bitter satire in the name--in 1203 sent a
legate into the southern provinces, Peter of Castelnau by name. This
man visited Toulouse, but his efforts there to confute the heresy
failed completely. Hopeless of success and mortified in his vanity
Peter appealed to Pope Innocent to adopt drastic measures, and Innocent
bade him require Raymond, Count of Toulouse, to suppress Albigensianism
throughout his dominions by fire and sword. He was ordered, on pain
of excommunication, to become the inquisitor and executioner of his
subjects. At the same time he deposed Raymond, Bishop of Toulouse,
an amiable, liberal-minded man, and put in his place the firebrand
Foulques, who had been a troubadour, and notorious for his licentious
verses.
Raymond VI of Toulouse promptly refused to do what was required of him,
whereupon Innocent, in 1207, pronounced his excommunication.
Possibly the Count may have let slip some expression of disgust at the
conduct of the papal legate, and a wish to be well rid of him, as did
Henry II with reference to Becket. The result was the same; a knight
killed Peter of Castelnau in 1208 as he was crossing the Rhone. This
filled up the measure of Innocent’s wrath. He hurled the most dreadful
imprecations against the Count, and loudly summoned all Christendom
to a war of extermination against the Albigenses. “Anathema to the
Count of Toulouse! Remission of all sins to such as arm against these
pestilential Provincials. Go forward, soldiers of Christ! May the
heretics perish out of the land, and let colonies of Christians be
established in their room!”
Dukes and bishops, counts and viscounts, flew to the standard of the
Cross, eager to glut themselves on the spoil of the South, so rich
with merchandise, and at the same time to gain eternal salvation by
violation and murder. Three armies invaded the South under the supreme
command of a needy northern knight, Simon de Montfort.
The Pope was as subtle as he was remorseless. In order to weaken the
opposition in the South he had entered into negociation with Raymond
of Toulouse, and had deluded him into expectations of pardon, till the
Crusaders were on him. They began with Béziers, although the viscount
was known to be a Catholic. The city was taken and the inhabitants
massacred. The Abbot of Citeaux, the legate, wrote regretfully to
Innocent that he could only answer for having cut the throats of twenty
thousand.
Then the papal host marched to Cascassonne, where they hung fifty
prisoners, and burned four hundred Albigenses alive.
Raymond was now offered pardon if he would dismiss his soldiers, level
his castles and the walls of his towns, give the Inquisition a free
hand in his domains, and make every householder pay a tax of four
deniers to the papal treasury. The Count indignantly refused, and the
legate again sounded the attack. Raymond was defeated at Castelnaudary,
and compelled to fly to Aragon. The conquerors seized on his territory,
which the needy knights of the north parcelled out among themselves;
and they diverted themselves in hunting out the heretics and burning
them.
Urged on by his kinsman, the Count of Toulouse, Peter II, King of
Aragon, passed the Pyrenees with an army, and was at once joined by the
Count of Foix and many other nobles. A battle was fought at Muret in
1213, in which the King was killed, the army routed, and the nobles of
Languedoc dispersed. This sealed the fate of the country. The Council
of the Lateran, held two years later, ratified the deposition of
Raymond, who, along with the counts of Foix and Cominges, had appeared
before the Council, with bitter complaints in their mouths of the way
in which their subjects had been slaughtered wholesale and the country
laid waste. At once up sprang Foulques, Bishop of Toulouse. “Foix,”
said he, “swarms with heretics. The sister of the Count intercepted and
cut to pieces six thousand Germans, Crusaders, on their way to join the
legate.”
“Soldiers of the Cross!” retorted the Count of Foix fearlessly. “They
were mere robbers, committing every possible outrage in the country.”
Then the Baron de Vilamour rose, and in a cold voice gave a detailed
account of the horrors, the rapes, the murders, the ravages committed
by the Soldiers of the Cross, those sent forth by the Holy See with
assurance of gaining Heaven thereby. As he spoke Innocent’s head sank
on his breast, and he heaved a sigh; some sense of shame stole into
his heart. He went to meet his account in 1216, and was succeeded by
Honorius III.
Toulouse, the whole South, writhed under the despotism of Simon
de Montfort, and called back its exiled count. A new Crusade was
preached. Remission of sins was offered to all who would glean what
the first locust swarm had left, and massacre such as had been spared.
Excommunication was again launched against the Count of Toulouse and
the Count of Foix. In an attack on Toulouse Simon de Montfort was
killed, and the command was taken by Prince Louis of France. Before
this vast army the cities of Languedoc opened their gates. Count
Raymond and he of Foix bowed to the storm. Louis died of exhaustion
on his return, after having secured the submission of almost the whole
land.
Count Roger Bernard of Foix was excommunicated in 1228, and was forced
to subscribe to the most degrading terms. The truce lasted eight
years. In 1237 he was summoned to appear and answer for his orthodoxy
before the papal Inquisitors quartered in his own domains, and holding
their court in his own castle. Because he refused he was again
excommunicated. He was compelled to submit in 1240, and died in the
ensuing year.
The horrors of the extirpation of heresy continued till 1244, when the
last of the strongholds of the Albigenses was taken, and two hundred of
them were burnt alive without a trial.
After that all trace of them gradually disappears.
Bernard Roger III (1265) married Margaret de Moncada, second daughter
of Gaston de Béarn, and as she was heiress, he annexed her territories,
and thenceforth the history of Foix is merged in that of Béarn.
Foix, in local patois _Fouch_, is situated at the junction of the Arget
with the Ariège, and where, most conveniently for military purposes, a
rock shoots up, abrupt and bold, inviting the mediæval noble to plant
his castle on the summit. The castle never was a palace like that of
Pau; it never was anything but a stronghold. When the counts became
lords of Béarn they abandoned their ancient nest, which if secure was
inconvenient, and betook themselves to their own creations at Mazères,
Orthez, and Pau. The town occupies a triangle where the two rivers
already mentioned unite. It is a dull place, its sole feature being
the castle, like a very plain man with a very prominent nose. That
it should be capital of the department is due to association, not to
size, for Pamiers, where was a cathedral, exceeds it in population.
It has a theatre, in which but rarely a performance is given; a public
library, open for a few hours one day in the week, into which an
occasional reader saunters; baths, better known externally than within;
an abattoir, where oxen past work are slaughtered, for consumption
by those of the inhabitants who have digestions that could dissolve
leather; a promenade which lacks promenaders; a vast prefecture, in
which the prefect is dying daily of ennui. The Hotel des Gouverneurs
has become Palais de Justice--“un édifice banal, malgré ce nom
grandiloquent.”
The rock of Foix is 178 feet above the river, and is surmounted by
three noble towers that served successively as keeps. In the donjons
the Inquisition had their court, their trials, and sentences, and the
Count had to resign his castle to them in pledge of submission to the
judgment of the Holy See. The loftiest of the towers is cylindrical,
and is attributed to Gaston Phœbus, but apparently it dates from the
fifteenth century. Between the noble towers appear the mean buildings
of a prison, in which those who are confined yawn their time away.
Below the rock, near the river, at the apex of the triangle, is the
church of S. Volusinian, of the fourteenth century, and, like most of
the great churches in this portion of the south of France, consists of
a nave without aisles. The choir is surrounded by radiating chapels.
Volusinian was Bishop of Tours, a native of Auvergne. When Alaric, King
of the Goths, invaded Gaul he carried Volusinian away with him south,
and as he proved to be uncompromising in his adherence to the Creed
of Nicæa, had him executed at Foix. His festival is on 11 February,
and he suffered in 491. Foix has no manufactures, no trade--hardly
an expectant _commis voyageur_ visits it; but I am in error. It has
perpetrated a joke, a miserable pun--Foix produces _patés de foie gras_.
Were there but coal-mines near at hand Foix would revive, for the whole
county is full of iron ore. Foix bleeds iron from its veins, but the
ferruginous springs run away into the river. The stars in their courses
fight against Foix; the valley of the Arget was full of nailmakers at
one time--in 1835 there were forty-seven forges. Now their fires are
put out: machine-made nails have killed the hand-made nails. Those made
in the Barguillère, the valley of the Arget, were for horseshoes, and
the makers dubbed themselves _chevaliers_. The extinction of the little
forges has led to depopulation; between 1891 and 1901 there was a loss
of 27,092 inhabitants in that district.
To the north of the town rises a steep hill, on the summit of which
is the hermitage of S. Sauveur, but the last hermit has departed
this life; his occupation also is gone, and he has no successor. The
Administration has put an end to the hermits.
In the neighbourhood of Foix is the Grotto de l’Herme, that has yielded
notable finds of prehistoric man. But the main curiosity is the Mas
d’Azil, where the river Arize has bored its way through the limestone
barrier of the Planturel. This long chain opposed a passage northwards
to the river descending from the mountains to the south. The Arize
discovered a fault in the barrier and pierced it, forming a noble
arch 250 feet high. Beside it is an artificial gallery bored for the
passage of the road. The length of the tunnel is 1250 feet. The road
follows the right bank of the Arize, separated from it by a wall of
rock. The river descends into the gallery, the average width of which
is ninety-five feet, breaking over masses of rock that have fallen from
the roof. Above the left bank, under the huge vault, rises a natural
column, called the Monk. Farther on in the gallery, a pillar thirty
feet in diameter sustaining the roof. There are lateral galleries, at a
higher elevation, that have yielded evidence of human occupation. The
guano produced by the innumerable bats that inhabit the cave actually
forms an article of commerce.
The opening to the north, through which the river effects its escape,
is less striking in appearance than that where it makes its plunge
underground.
The road from Foix to Ax leads up the river that gives its name to the
department, and penetrates deep into the recesses of the mountains.
The first town reached is Tarascon, prettily situated at the junction
of the Vicdessos with the Ariège, about a conical hill surmounted by a
round tower, which is all that remains of a castle that was blown up by
order of Richelieu. The great cardinal thought that the best means of
maiming the independence of the nobles, petty barons, and seigneurs,
was to destroy their nests. It was he, not the Revolutionists, who
made the worst havoc among the stately châteaux of France. He went
so far even as to insist on the pepper-castor roofed round towers
at the angles of every small squire’s mansion being lowered a story
to the level of the eaves of the main roof. Tarascon on Ariège is a
busier place than sleepy Tarascon on Rhone, that was drawn out of its
obscurity by the mythical Tastarin. It is the great centre of activity
to the country, “a land whose stones are iron.” Formerly it was more
prosperous than it is to-day. But the population remains stationary,
which in the midst of a universal shrinkage may be reckoned as good.
The town is divided into two parts. Old Tarascon clusters about the
decayed castle. New Tarascon forms the faubourg Sainte Quitterie,
where there is a ferruginous spring bearing the name of the saint,
and supposed miraculously to cure insanity. The wonder in this part of
the mountains is to find any springs that do not run red. Quiteria,
who has given virtue to this spring, is a person of problematical
existence. Once upon a time--the Bollandists even know not when--there
lived a King Katillas and his wife Calsia, who inhabited doubtlessly
a Château en Espagne. Queen Calsia gave birth to nine daughters at
once, and being afraid what the King would say, gave them to the nurse
with orders to drown them like puppies. But the nurse took them to her
home, and reared all in the Christian faith. In time of persecution the
nine damsels dispersed, but were caught and offered the alternative
of marriage or death. They accepted the latter. One of them, named
Wilgefortis, when pestered by a princely suitor, prayed, and lo! out
sprouted a thick beard and moustache. She was crucified. Quiteria’s
head was struck off with a sword. But unwilling to be less of an oddity
than her sister, after death she developed into three entire bodies.
One became the perquisite of the Portuguese, another of the Spaniards,
and the Gascons got hold of the third, and buried it at Aire. I have
little doubt that, when a man reputed insane was brought to Quiteria’s
well and made to drink eight tumblers full of the red water, he
remonstrated, and vowed that he was well; whereupon his relations cried
out, “A miracle! He has spoken sensibly. Thanks be to Quiteria.”
To Tarascon comes the iron ore from the mines in the Vicdessos valley
in carts and tumbrils, and is there smelted. There are here also
quarries of gypsum for the manufacture of plaster of Paris.
To the south of the town is the church of Notre Dame de Sabart,
so-called from Sabarthès, the name of the little region formed by
the Valley of Vicdessos and of the Ariège as far as Les Cabannes. The
church is Romanesque, and there are remains of an abbey founded for
an order of military knights, founded, it is said, by Charlemagne,
as a protection of the population and the valuable iron-mines.
This is a resort of pilgrims on 8 May and 15 September, when fairs
are held at Tarascon, and business, pleasure, and devotion can be
harmoniously combined. The Valley of Vicdessos is, and has been from
time immemorial, the great seat of iron-mining in the Pyrenees. The ore
is nearly pure, and lies in veins and pockets in the limestone of the
mountains of Rance, and the deposits form bands alternating with the
calcareous rock through a height of over 1800 feet.
The working of the mines is the privilege of the inhabitants of Sem,
Goulier, and Olbier, and natives of Vicdessos and other villages about
can only be admitted to this privilege by marrying a girl of one of the
three named. Otherwise they can be employed only as wagoners drawing
the ore to Tarascon.
The earliest mention of these mines is in a charter of the Count of
Foix in 1293. For centuries the counts found the utmost difficulty
in levying a toll on the iron carried out of the valley; the miners
exercised their ingenuity in evading it, and overriding all the
restrictions hampering their industry. Unhappily, for many hundred
years the mining was not carried on by companies, but by individuals
who grubbed where they would and carried on the works in the most
wasteful manner. Now the veins of ore are giving out; but the men who
have exclusive rights to the mines refuse obstinately and ignorantly
to admit of new methods in the extraction of the ore, and disapprove
of co-operation. The ancient medieval corporations have survived at
Sem, with their traditional rites and formulas. The law on mines of
1893 has somewhat modified some of the restrictions and extended the
rights of mining. But the men are stolidly opposed to improvement;
they retain the prejudices of their fathers. They have cut down the
trees, and the mountain torrents now devastate their little fields and
carry away the roads. The State has vainly endeavoured to replant,
and by so doing diminish the range of the ravages caused by goats and
sheep. The output of the mines dwindles and the impoverishment of the
villagers increases. From Usat may be visited the cavern of Lombrive,
only an hour’s walk from the baths of Usat. The last stronghold of
the unfortunate Albigenses was the Castle of Montségur, in the valley
of the Lasset, that flows into the Hers. Buried among the mountains,
hidden from most eyes, in an apparently inaccessible position, they
hoped to be forgotten and to remain in security. But they were scented
and tracked by the bloodhounds of the Papacy, and the army of the
Crusaders, reluctantly led by Raymond VII of Toulouse, constrained by
Innocent VI, who carried on the remorseless policy of Innocent III,
and as the sole means of obtaining forgiveness for himself, surrounded
it in 1244. The castle stands on and amidst tremendous precipices, and
is commanded by the Pic S. Barthélemy. The Albigensian chiefs held
out for long, and repulsed several assaults. Then, seeing that their
provisions were failing, and that they could not much longer maintain
their position, they dispatched four of their number to carry away
their treasures to some place of security. These four men crossed the
mountain spurs, and hid the treasure in one of the many caverns that
open in the cliffs above Usat, but where has not yet been discovered.
On 14 March Montségur was taken, and over two hundred heretics found
in it were thrown alive into a huge bonfire that had been erected,
and burnt alive to satisfy the implacable vengeance of the Papacy.
After that the horde of Crusaders went to Tarascon to search the
valleys for more on whom to glut their rage. All the Albigenses of
the country round had fled to the caves; they were hunted out and
massacred. Nevertheless, all had not been exterminated. In 1325, when
John XXII was reigning in Avignon, a fresh pursuit of the heretics was
instituted. It was reported that the Albigenses employed the cave of
Lombrive as their cathedral. The armies of the Papacy assembled anew
and filled the valley. From five to six hundred of the unfortunate
heretics--men, women, and children--took refuge in the cavern that
runs deep into the heart of the mountain. It has been explored for a
distance of three miles. To save themselves the trouble and risk of
pursuing the Albigenses in darkness through the winding recesses of
the cave, the entrance was walled up, and the miserable wretches were
all left to perish there of starvation in abysmal night. Their bones
still lie scattered about the pit. The treasures of the Albigenses,
supposed to have been hidden there, have never been recovered; but
the true treasure, for which they fought and for which they died, the
emancipation of the human soul from the fetters of slavery in which it
had been bound by Rome, has been won by nearly all Europe.
Les Cabannes lies in a beautiful basin formed by the junction of the
Aston with the Ariège. From hence the lateral valley branches off
that formed the seigneuries of the Lordadais. In it is planted one of
the mightiest fortresses of the counts of Foix, perched on a rock,
and commanding a most picturesque site. It was blown up in 1632, by
order of Louis XIII, but still retains portions of four concentric
oval-enclosing walls, and a square keep. From the castle can be
viewed the entire mass of the Tabe; its culminating point, the Pic S.
Barthélemy, shoots up superbly to the height of 7060 feet. At Vernaux
is a Romanesque church. This place has given its name to the talc that
is found in quarries near by, situated at a great elevation, some 6600
feet above the sea, and where the workmen can be employed only from
1 May to 15 November. The bed of talc is about 120 feet thick, and
extends for a length of 1500 feet, and is sent down to the station of
Luzenac by a wire rope.
Ax-les-Thermes is planted at the junction of the Oriège and the Ariège.
About it rise many bold crags; on the summit of one is Castel Maü,
supposed to have been a Moorish fortress. Another supports a huge
statue of the Virgin. The whole valley has been studded with castles,
of which now only the ruins remain. In troubled times, when warfare
was incessant between the counts of Foix and the counts of Urgel, or
between them and the Crusaders, every country gentleman was obliged
to pitch his house on the top of a rock, and give it the character
of a stronghold. Some of these are so small that they could not have
accommodated more than a little garrison; and the seigneurs must have
lived cramped and uneasy in them. Probably they had their houses in
the valley, and only retreated to these castles when the clash of arms
sounded. It is a pity that some of these picturesque ruins should
not be restored. On the Dordogne, the Lot, and the Vezère, some rich
wine merchant of Bordeaux buys up a castle, and makes it habitable
in the midst of a park. When in residence there M. Blom of Bordeaux
blossoms out into le Comte de Montréal, and M. Dois into le Marquis
de Beausejour. In England we have to pay heavy fees when we acquire
a title; it is not so in France. There a man dubs himself baron, or
count, or marquis. As to the armorial bearings that they assume--“Ma
foi!” exclaimed a painter, looking at the heraldic shield over one of
these châteaux, “what imaginations these _nouveaux riches_ possess!”
Ax (Aquæ) was probably a Roman thermal station. The place was
frequented in the Middle Ages, when the Hôtel Dieu was founded (in
1260) for the reception of patients. Even before that, in 1200, a
bath for lepers was constructed here. The Hôtel Dieu owes its origin
to King Louis IX, who had it constructed for the use of Crusaders who
had contracted leprosy in Palestine and Egypt. But it was not till the
beginning of the eighteenth century that Ax was much frequented. Now
it receives about ten thousand visitors in the year, seeking healing
in its water. The springs are so numerous, and so thickly strewn, that
the town seems as though erected over the rose of a fountain of thermal
waters.
From Ax Andorra may be reached by the Port de Saldeu. Andorra is the
sole remaining independent republic in the Pyrenees. It has a legendary
origin. In 805 Louis “le Débonnaire” was on his way to besiege Urgel,
and the Andorrans took up arms and materially aided him. In recognition
of their services Louis conferred on them a charter that accorded to
them the rights of self-government. Later, when Emperor, he conceded to
the Bishop of Urgel half the tithe of the six parishes in the valley,
as well as half his right of suzerainty over the diminutive republic.
Actually Andorra formed a lordship in the county of Urgel, and it was
the counts of that place who granted rights over it to the bishops of
the see of Urgel. Later on the seigneural rights passed to the counts
of Foix. Counts and bishops wrangled over their respective claims,
till in 1278 the feud was settled by a convention that accorded to the
republic the privileges that it still enjoys--local autonomy under the
double suzerainty of the bishops of Urgel and the counts of Foix, to
whom has succeeded the French Government. The Andorrans pay a tribute
to France annually of 950 francs, and to the Bishop of Urgel 450 francs.
This duodecimo republic has an area of 175 square miles, and a
population of six thousand. It is governed by a council of twenty-four,
elected by the householders, and two provosts--one nominated by the
French Government, the other by the Bishop of Urgel, exercising in
common judicial powers. These provosts are theoretically the captains
of the Andorran militia, which is composed of all the heads of houses.
Of the twenty-four councillors, elected every four years, one half are
renewable every two years. The republic consists of three valleys,
surrounded by mountains on every side save where in the south the
River Embaline issues and flows down to Urgel. The land is fertile for
the altitude at which the basin lies, but its principal products are
timber and iron, and its chief industry is smuggling. Some years ago a
proposal was made to the little republic to convert it into a monster
gambling hell. This was after the closing of the house at Homburg; but
although the sum offered was tempting, the Andorrans had the good sense
to refuse the offer, which accordingly was then made to the Prince of
Monaco, and by him seized.
The capital is a dirty, ill-built village; the principal buildings in
it are a Romanesque church and the palace, a fortified structure of
the fifteenth century, which serves as the seat of government, school,
Palais de Justice, and prison. On the ground-floor are stables for the
horses of the councillors.
In the council hall is a great oak chest containing the archives, and
fastened by six locks, the key to each being retained by each of the
six parishes. The town or village has a dismal look, the houses being
constructed of slate and schist rock.
The original capital was at S. Julien de Loria, where a cross marks the
site.
On the heights are the remains of an old Moorish castle, called Carol,
a name derived from Charles the Great, who is supposed to have expelled
the infidel. The name of Andorra is supposed to be taken from the
Arabic _aldarra_, “a place thick with trees.” Mr. Ford says:--
“The hills around the rich alluvial basin of Andorra abound in
pine forests, which afford fuel; nothing can be prettier than
the distant views of the villages, embosomed in woods; at Mont
Melous are three lakes enclosed by lofty and fantastic walls of
rock.”
A rough road leads from Andorra to Seo de Urgel, a distance of sixteen
miles. This is a quaint old Spanish town with an interesting cathedral
of the eleventh century, and a cloister of considerable beauty. The
town is commanded by the citadel on the height Las Horcas, “The
Gallows,” where the Bishop of Urgel, who was a sovereign prince, hung
miscreants.
Urgel was the headquarters of a Carlist insurrection in 1827. This
was put down by an adventurer of French origin; none knew his real
name, and what had been his position in life, before he turned up and
offered his services to Ferdinand VII and dubbed himself the Count of
Spain. He served the King well, was absolutely without scruples, and
remorselessly cruel. He was made by Ferdinand Governor of Catalonia.
But, on the death of his patron in 1833, he passed over to Don Carlos,
and fought under him for the very cause which a few years previously he
had put down. But his former cruelties were not forgotten. He made his
headquarters at Urgel. The Junta of the Carlists was summoned to meet
at Aira on 26 October, 1839, and the Count went to attend it. He was
received with expressions of pleasure and devotion by his aide-de-camp,
Mariano Orteu, who engaged him in conversation, whilst the _curé_,
Ferres, levelled a pistol at him, fired, and wounded him.
The Count fell, and pleaded for a drink of water. This was refused. He
was then mounted on a mule, his feet bound together under the belly,
and he was conducted from place to place, exposed to the insults and
derision of the people, till 1 November, when he found himself at
Ceselles; there, with cruel irony his former friend Orteu informed the
unfortunate man that he was to be speedily “sent to his own place.”
Then he deliberately shot him, and the rest of the company fell on him
and hacked him to pieces with their long knives.