Although the Edwardian castle in Wales has many points of interest, and provides a highly-developed scheme of defence, yet its devices are simple when compared with the highest achievements of French fortification. The elaborate care bestowed upon the outer defences of Caerphilly, and the variety of ingenuity manifested at Beaumaris, are exceptions to this general statement; while the general plan of Carnarvon is as imposing as that of any castle in Europe. But such carefully contrived approaches as the barbican of Conway and the long ascent from the water-gate at Harlech take a second place when compared with such a work as the outer approach to the castle of Carcassonne, as restored with approximate faithfulness in the drawings of Viollet-le-Duc (283). The castle stood within the inner wall of the town, occupying a rectangular site on the south-west side of this masterpiece of concentric planning. The entrance from the town was guarded by a semicircular barbican; but the approach which called for the most watchful defence was that from the foot of the hill, on the edge of which the city stands. Where the hill meets the plain, therefore, below the castle, a great barbican was constructed, within the outer palisade and ditch of which was a great round tower, not unlike the great tower on the mount at Windsor, surrounded by a wet ditch. The centre of this _châtelet_ was open to the sky: the walls were pierced with two rows of loops below the rampart. This tower guarded the entrance to a walled and carefully protected ascent, which, after making a right-angled turn, led upwards in a straight passage,[296] commanded by the rampart of the outer curtain of the town. Where it met the curtain, it turned to the right, along the foot of the wall, and so reached a gateway into the outer ward or “lists” of the town. But here the passage, passing through a covered vestibule, turned back on its own course, and entered an inner barbican, with two upper stages. Not until this was passed, were the lists entered, and the chief gateway of the castle, in the inner curtain, reached. As we trace this passage, we recall the ascent at Harlech and the traps set for an enemy at Beaumaris; but their combination here is on a scale undreamed of in those fortresses, minutely calculated though their planning was.