Puyôo is a pleasant village, with steep roofs covered with brown tiles, and rows of ornamental overhanging courses under the eaves, chiefly formed with curved tiles. The name of the place, according to Mr. Baring-Gould, comes from the patois word for the great mound with a hollowed-out top, which was a stockaded fort of the Franks.
The hamlet of Baigts has a railway-station, a ruined castle of the twelfth century, sulphurous baths, and a grand view of the Pyrenees.
ORTHEZ
is the ancient capital of Béarn, and although it has been robbed of much of its architectural charm, it still retains its conspicuously attractive fortified bridge over the Gave, which is illustrated here. The river flows rapidly along a deep rocky channel, with huge masses of stone standing immovably in the midst of the surging waters. The bridge was built in the fourteenth century, and in the centre rises a machicolated gateway. Although restored in 1873, the window remains through which the Huguenots, under Montgomery, forced priests and friars to leap into the river.
There are only a few old houses left in the town, and these are chiefly in the Rue Bourg-Vieux. The church is a fifteenth-century building with a modern spire, but the Tour Moncade is the machicolated keep of the castle built in 1242 by Gaston VII. It was this fortress which was visited by Froissart in 1388, when Gaston VII., surnamed Phœbus on account of his beauty, Count of Béarn and Foix, held his brilliant Court there.
Froissart says so much of his host’s perfection in everything that a false impression of the man might be gained if some rather ugly facts were not known concerning him. In a moment of passion he stabbed Pierre de Béarn, Governor of Lourdes, who was either his brother or cousin, because he refused to give up the castle of Lourdes, and he also murdered his own son Gaston. The wife of Gaston Phœbus was living at Pamplona, after having become estranged from her husband, and while her son was visiting her, Charles the Bad of Navarre gave him a little bag of arsenic, which he declared was a love-potion which would restore his father’s love for his mother if the powder were sprinkled on the Count’s food. The youth wore the bag of arsenic under his clothes, and eventually returned to Orthez; but his half-brother, having seen the bag, warned his father, who waited until his son was serving him at dinner, and then, suddenly seizing hold of his vest, obtained possession of the bag. The powder was sprinkled on some food and given to a dog, who succumbed to the poison soon afterwards. Young Gaston was placed in confinement, and, fearing to be poisoned, refused all food. His father therefore went to the dungeon and stabbed his son with a knife, saying, ‘Ha, traitor! why dost thou not eat?’
Orthez at one time had a Calvinist University, and the building still remains, although it is no longer a University. The Protestantism of the town has been consistent from the time of Jeanne d’Albret down to the present day, for there are more Protestants in Orthez than in any other town in Béarn. Montgomery, who had caused the death of Henri II. while tilting with him in the lists, began his career as leader of the Huguenots by raising an army and capturing Orthez, which had been filled with troops by Charles IX., in order to coerce the people into Roman Catholicism, three years before the massacre of St. Bartholomew. When the Huguenot army took Orthez, Montgomery’s initial success was marred by the savage treatment of the friars already mentioned. When the unfortunate clergy endeavoured to save themselves by swimming to the banks, they were shot.
In 1814, in the last phase of the Peninsular War, when Wellington was driving Soult before him, Napoleon’s marshal decided to give battle at Orthez, placing his army of 30,000 men in a well-chosen position on the hills to the north of the town. Wellington attacked with 50,000 men, and after a desperate fight, in which 10,000 were killed, the French retreated along the road to Pau, at
THE FORTIFIED BRIDGE AT ORTHEZ.