The fiendish butchery just described was the last great tragedy Amboise witnessed, but it received one or two notable prisoners as time went on, more particularly Fouquet, the fraudulent superintendent of finances whom Louis XIV pursued to the bitter end; and Lauzun le Beau, the handsome courtier who flew too high “with vaulting ambition, but fell” into the depths of a dungeon. A detailed account of both these cases will be found in another chapter.
In quite recent years Amboise was occupied by a very different prisoner, the intrepid Arab leader Abd-el-Kader, who after his capture by the Duc d’Aumale in 1847, in the last Algerian war, was interred in the heart of France in full view of the so-called “Arab camp” where his Saracen ancestors had gone so near to enslaving Christian Europe.
Angers, once called Black Angers, from the prevailing hue of its dark slate buildings, was the capital of Anjou and the seat of its dukes, so nearly allied with the English Plantagenet dynasty. When Henry II of England held his court there, Angers was reputed second only to London in brilliancy and importance. The French king, Louis XI, after the expulsion of the English, joined the dukedom of Anjou to the Kingdom of France. The venerable castle, a most striking object with its alternate bands of white stone let in between black rough slate, is still considered from its massive proportions and perfect preservation the finest feudal castle in France. The part overlooking the river, which was the palace of the counts, is now in ruins, but the high tower called Du Moulin or Du Diable, and the south tower called La Tour Dixsept, which contains the old dungeons of the State prisons, is still standing. The miserable fate of their sad occupants may still be noted, and the rings to which they were chained still remain embedded in the rocky walls and the stone floors.
The Isle St. Marguerite
One of two rocky, pine-clad islets near the shore at Cannes, and has an ancient history. Francis I began his captivity here after the Battle of Pavia. Marshal Bazaine was also imprisoned here. It was at one time the prison where the mysterious “Man with the Iron Mask” was confined.
Three famous prisons in their way were Pignerol, Exiles and the island fortress of St. Marguerite. Pignerol was a fortified frontier town of Piedmont, which was for some time French property, half bought and half stolen from Italy. It stands on the lower slopes of the southern Alps, twenty miles from Turin, fifty from Nice and ninety east of Grenoble. It was a stronghold of the princes of Savoy, capable of effective defence, with a small red-roofed tower and many tall campaniles gathering round an inner citadel, raised on a commanding height. This central keep is a mass of rambling buildings with solid buttressed walls, essentially a place of arms. Pignerol has three principal gateways. One served for the road coming from the westward and was called the gate of France; another from the eastward, was that of Turin; and the third was a “safety” or “secret” gate, avoiding the town and giving upon the citadel. This last gate was opened rarely and only to admit a prisoner brought privately by special escort. It was a French garrison town inhabited largely by Italians. There was a French governor in supreme command, also a king’s lieutenant who was commandant of the citadel, and the head gaoler, who held the prison proper; and these three officials constituted a sovereign council of war.
Exiles was an unimportant stronghold, a fort shaped like a five pointed star, surrounding a small château with two tall towers which served as prisons. St. Marguerite is one of the Iles de Lerins, a couple of rocky pine clad islets facing the now prosperous southern resort of Cannes and only fifteen hundred yards from the shore. The two islands called respectively St. Honorat and St. Marguerite have each an ancient history. The first was named after a holy man who early in the fifth century established a monastery of great renown, while upon the neighboring island he struck a well which yielded a miraculous flow of sweet water. Francis I of France began his captivity here after his crushing defeat at the battle of Pavia. The royal fort at the eastern end of St. Marguerite was for some time the abode of the so-called “Man with the Iron Mask,” and many scenes of the apocryphal stories of that exploded mystery are laid here.
The island fortress became to some extent famous in our own day by being chosen as the place of confinement for Marshal Bazaine, after his conviction by court martial for the alleged treacherous surrender of Metz to the Germans. As we know, he did not remain long a prisoner, his escape having been compassed by an American friend.