All this we had found a year ago. Nothing was altered--it seemed as yesterday. But now we were changing our direction, and going east instead of westward. Last year Irun and St. Sebastian; now Gerona and Barcelona the bright and pleasant, for ever associated with Majorca the beautiful and beloved.
Carcassonne--In feudal times--Simon de Montfort--Canal du Midi--L'Âge d'or et le Grand Monarque--A modern Golden Fleece--One of earth's fair scenes--Choice of evils--M. le Chef yields--Narbonne--A woman of parts--The course of true love runs smooth--_Diner de contrat_--Honey _versus_ the _lune de miel_--Madame's philosophy--_L'Allée des Soupirs_--An unfinished cathedral--At the gloaming hour--Mystery and devotion--The Hôtel de Ville--A domestic drama--High festival and champagne--The next morning--H. C. repentant--Madame at her post--Ambrosial breakfast--"Il faut payer pour ses plaisirs"--Dramatic exit--Perpignan--Home of the kings of Majorca--Elne--"Adieu, ma chère France!"--Over the frontier--Gerona--Crowded platform--What H. C. thought--Unpoetical incident--From the sublime to the ridiculous.
The hours went on and the sun declined, and we looked upon the wonderful old city of Carcassonne.
Rising out of the plain the great limestone rock was crowned by this fortress of the Middle Ages, its walls and round towers clearly outlined against the blue sky. These enclose a dead world given up to the poor and struggling. Its steep, narrow streets have no longer the faintest echo of military glories. The inner walls date back to the Visigothic kings; the foundations of some of the towers are Roman, but nothing of the outer walls seems later than the twelfth century. Here in 1210 the army of crusaders under Simon de Montfort laid siege, the cruel Abbot of Citeaux most determined of the enemy. The massacre at Béziers had just taken place, de Montfort foremost in eagerness to shed blood. Some had escaped to this little City of Refuge, amongst them the brave Vicomte de Béziers: one of those men of whom the world has seen not a few, saving lives at the cost of their own. The little fortress unable to hold out was taken, and again the massacre was terrible, Béziers himself dying in prison after great suffering.