THE APPROACH TO CARCASSONNE--ITS PICTURESQUENESS, ITS RESTORATION
AND HISTORY
The ride from Narbonne via Béziers proves most enjoyable. As we leave
the town, the air becomes cooler, and from the summit of a hill the
Pyrenees range into view, a long line of glittering snow marching in
stately procession across the southern horizon.
The air is full of the buoyant freshness of the hills, and one's
thoughts turn to pine forests and rushing waters. Over the superb
highway where in ancient days stately processions passed to and fro
from Spain, our machine glides on with a sweeping, flying motion, until
I find myself leaning over and looking for the wings which should
project from the centre of each wheel,--winged wheels, surely.
What intense satisfaction such a journey brings, how different from
that of the most luxuriant train, where, no matter how comfortable our
bodies may be made, our eyes are constantly irritated by being shut off
from some desired view of mountain, town, or castle, by a deep cut or
long line of freight cars. One has a proscenium box always when in an
automobile, and is enabled to ring down or up the curtain at will. So
to-day with not eyes enough to see the beauties of this fair land, we
glide onward to the beating of the wings when suddenly on a hill before
us sharply silhouetted rise the towers of Carcassonne. The old poem is
at fault this time--I have "seen Carcassonne" even though I approach no
nearer and surely the prospect is enchanting.
[Illustration: THE FORTIFICATIONS AT THE OLD TOWN OF CARCASSONNE
From a photograph]
But is that Carcassonne, or any town built by man's hands? I have seen
many a mirage in distant deserts like unto this before me. Through the
fantastic dancings of the afternoon's waves of light, the old city
looms up as though cut out of black cardboard. Sharply and clearly
against the tawny background stands forth every tower and pinnacle,
cathedral spire and parapet. Behind it, rise the yellow hills, the
green mountains, and the eternal snows, while to the north, east,
and west, stretch the undulating valleys of France, clothed now in a
blanket of spring blossoms, and over all arches the deep, fathomless,
southern sky.
Occupying the top of a hill in the middle fore-ground, yonder dream
city of the dark ages needs but the flaunting banners of its ancient
lords and the call of trumpets to make the picture perfect. But it is
ghostly and silent as we roll by, taking no note of the passage of this
strange machine, which, in the Middle Ages, would have produced great
commotion amongst its defenders and peopled the walls and towers with
thousands to see us pass. To-day no living thing gives evidence of
life, not even a dog barks, and as we glide onward and leave it, I
wonder again--"Was that Carcassonne, or indeed its mirage? Shall we
find it ahead of us; are there two such places in this world of the
twentieth century?"
Crossing a fine bridge, we pass through the streets of a comparatively
modern town, and draw up at the excellent Hôtel Bernard. It does not
take long to wash the dust off and I am shortly en route in a carriage
to investigate the old _Cité_. How ridiculously slowly these horses
move, how the trap jolts! It is hot and dusty and there is no singing
of the wind as we do _not_ rush along.
I would advise those who would retain their romantic impressions of
Carcassonne to content themselves with the vision which greets their
eyes in the approach and passing. Then the _Cité_ will dawn and vanish
clothed in all the romance of its centuries, but when you really
approach its walls and, crossing its drawbridge, enter its portals, all
the romance vanishes in a flash. I suppose, as an example of a walled
and fortified town, it was well to restore Carcassonne, but from a
picturesque and romantic point, such restorations are always a failure.
Carcassonne in ruins and covered with trailing vines would yet speak
and relate its story, holding you enthralled for hours as you clambered
over ruined towers and churches and the abodes of those so long dead.
There are the foundations laid by the Romans, with the superstructures
of the Visigoths and the battlements of later periods. In yonder
citadel there are dungeons under dungeons, and a prison of the
Inquisition. That cathedral was founded in the fifth century, rebuilt
in the eleventh and twelfth, and restored in 1853. In fact to-day you
will find a perfectly restored city, (and still the work goes on), its
angles are all sharp, as though cut out of cardboard. You may not enter
its citadel used as barracks, but you will in the tour of its walls
mount perfectly new stairs, unlock new doors, and find sound floors
beneath your feet. Not a shadow of romance or interest attaches to any
of this, nor can you re-people in your imagination the place with the
life of long ago. As a most perfect example of a walled town it is
worthy of inspection, but Viollet-le-Duc has done so much for it and
written so much about it, that it would be useless to enter here into
detailed description. Loches which we will visit later, is to me of far
greater interest and it cannot be said that that is merely a castle and
this a whole city, for within those walls is an entire town, and there
the ghosts are ever present to one's thoughts.
Carcassonne dates from the days of the Romans, but its higher and
greater wall was erected by Theodoric, King of the Visigoths, upon
the site of the Roman structure. With the advent of the Moors (713),
silence descends upon its history, and does not raise the curtain for
four centuries. Of this occupation there are no traces; which is most
unusual--not a horseshoe arch or a bit of Arabic in all the town, yet
it is said to derive its name from a Saracen Queen named Carcas.
The next we learn of it is in the year 1209 when it is besieged in the
name of the Pope by Simon de Montfort.
The result of the Albigensian "heresy"--this revolt against the
symbolism and mysteries of the Church of Rome--fell heavily upon all
this section but most terribly upon Carcassonne when Simon de Montfort
with a French army attacked this French fortress.
Baptism, the Mass, the Adoration of the Cross, and the sale of
indulgences were absolutely rejected--with what effect one can
imagine;--all this some centuries before Luther. The danger of this to
the Pope and his Church promptly moved the powers of Rome to action.
Béziers, through which we passed this morning, was the first point of
attack, when forty thousand were slain. No quarter was given--orthodox
and infidel, in all one thousand were put to death--"God will know his
own," shouted the Abbé of Cîteaux; "slay them all."
Into its great Church of St. Nazaire crowded both men and women, and
the priest tolled the bells until all were dead. The news of this
horror caused every town to open its gates save Carcassonne, which
for fourteen days was the scene of continual slaughter before it fell
through want of water and famine. It is stated that three hundred
thousand from all over Europe assembled here, drawn by the promises of
pardon and indulgences.
How peaceful the scene to-day! How green the grass, and how blue the
heavens!
It was Louis IX, who made the "Key of the South" impregnable, clearing
away the surrounding town and establishing it across the river where
it now is. He had the outer line of the fortifications constructed
around the _Cité_, forming a sure refuge in all the wars with Spain.
Carcassonne was never again taken by storm and when the Black Prince
devastated the lower town, the _Cité_ did not open its gates. It is
stated that it required one thousand four hundred men to defend these
walls and to this must be added some two thousand workmen, servants,
etc.--To-day a few cannon would soon blow these towns into dust.
The custodian rolls all of this off to you as he pilots you around the
inner wall, up and down ladders and staircases, and into all sorts of
impossible places, which would be of interest if they were not all so
new; but the theatrical effect is beautiful, and so theatrical that
one is surprised to find this tower of stone, not canvas, and yonder
battlement entirely safe to lean upon. From the ramparts, the traveller
will observe that between the outer and inner walls the space was
once occupied by the hovels of the poor, but they are all gone now,
and also that, around the outer circle where the moat once was, the
grass mounts to the wall itself, so that one may encircle the _Cité_
and find nothing to distract one's attention from the old town save
the wonderfully beautiful panorama of the distant mountains or far
stretching valleys, all violet and pale rose in the light of the fading
day. In his inspection of the _Cité_ one finds nothing of interest
save the church, as the houses are those of the middle classes. The
church holds some interesting monuments. There is no semblance of
palace or "hôtel de ville," and the château seems but an empty shell.
I am not allowed to enter it, which I do not greatly regret, and so
turning again I pass one of the portals,--and emerge from the walls of
the _Cité_, the outer circle of which is some sixteen hundred and the
inner twelve hundred yards in circumference, so that the space enclosed
is not so great as that at Loches, I think. Carcassonne has but two
portals, each over double draws and many portcullises. Its towers are
all named and, as I have stated, they have not forgotten to call one
the Tower of the Inquisition, with, I doubt not, much truth, but its
walls are new, its door and floors both new, and when one enters into
comparisons--which at all times are odious--with Loches, Nuremberg, or
Salzburg, one quietly turns from Carcassonne, gets into the carriage
and drives away, wishing again that one had been contented with that
first fantastic panorama spread against that tawny sky.