[205] Or mâchecoulis. Coulis = a groove. The first part of the word is probably derived from mâcher = to break or crush, and implies the purpose effected by missiles sent through those openings.
[206] Drawing in Enlart, ii. 504. Here there are two rectangular towers, with rounded angle-turrets, connected by a lofty intermediate building.
[207] The same cause undoubtedly led, at an earlier date, to the covering of Syrian churches with roofs of stone.
[208] Château-Gaillard was on the French side of the Seine, in territory purchased by Richard I. from the archbishop of Rouen.
[209] E. Lefèvre-Pontalis, Le Château de Coucy, pp. 48, 49, shows that the donjon forms part of the latest work undertaken by Enguerrand III., lord of Coucy, the founder of the present castle, who died in 1242: it was evidently completed about 1240.
[210] The town walls appear to be rather earlier than the castle (ibid., 34).
[211] On the third floor, these niches are divided into two stages and connected by an upper gallery which pierces the abutments of the vault, and surrounds the whole apartment. The method of vaulting this gallery behind the abutments, so as to give additional resistance to the masonry of the tower, is described by Lefèvre-Pontalis, op. cit. 94: see plan ibid., p. 93.
[212] In the angle-towers at Coucy, however, the stairs take the form of vices, and do not curve with the wall, although ceasing at each floor.
[213] The gabled coping of the parapet formed the central support for the sloping roof of the outer gallery and of the corresponding coursière on the inner side.
[214] It stands on a promontory between two creeks at the head of the inlet known as the Pembroke river.