[CHAPTER XX]
THE ROAD TO ANGERS—CATHEDRAL AND TOMB OF KING RENÉ—CASTLE OF BLACK ANGERS—CRADLE OF THE PLANTAGENETS—HISTORY—TO CHATEAUBRIANT IN A STORM—A FRENCH INN—RENNES AND THE TRIAL OF DREYFUS—THE ROADS IN BRITTANY—ARRIVAL AT ST. MALO—THE RIDE TO MONT ST. MICHEL—INN OF THE POULARD ÂINÉ—THE CATHEDRAL AND CASTLE—THEIR HISTORY.
The country becomes more barren and unpleasing as we enter Anjou, and Angers is an uninteresting busy town. It holds some quaint old houses, and King René sleeps in its cathedral, being probably the only king of France—prior to 1793—who lies where he was interred. The furies of the Revolution did not discover his tomb, therefore it was not molested. I would rather sleep in fair Provence; but if he had been buried there, his ashes would long since have been scattered to the winds of heaven.
As the traveller approaches the Castle of Angers over the long bridge, it presents a most impressive, majestic appearance. Its seventeen great round towers and lofty walls seventy feet high fairly oppress the beholder. In its prime this fortress was called the key of France, and bears a key upon its shield. It commanded the outlet of the rivers of Brittany when rivers were the open highways. The château dates only from the days of Philip Augustus, but it looks ancient enough to have sheltered Cæsar. It was the birthplace of the Foulques of Anjou, the ancestors of the Plantagenets, and the place still resounds with tales of their times.
There was Foulques the black-hearted, also his son. One hears of a Geoffrey made by his father—the Black Falcon—to crawl for miles with a saddle on his back, of this same Geoffrey having led his wife, dressed in her most gorgeous robes, to the stake where he burned her swiftly and well for infidelity. He was all powerful. There was Foulques the Fifth, King of Jerusalem and his son Geoffrey Plantagenet, who married the Empress Matilda and so the countship of Anjou passed to England through their son Henry II., only to be returned to France in the next century.
We read of Bertrade of Monfort so enchanting two husbands that they sat at the same table with her here.
Roland's name is woven into the warp and woof of its history,—Charlemagne's also, though the present château is not of that date; still it is claimed that the "Tower of the Devil" is part of the early Celtic castle. It is certain that Robert the Strong, founder of the Capet family, lived here.
It came finally to King René, who with his court of love and minstrels surely felt strangely out of place within yonder gloomy walls; at least fate would appear to have thought so, for it passed Anjou on to Louis XI., a more fitting custodian for this sullen fortress of this "Black City."