These ramparts were made in the thirteenth and fourteenth and strengthened in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
The first portion is called le Rempart des Otages in memory of the executions of 1418, during the fight between the Burgundians, who occupied Senlis, and the Armagnacs, who besieged it.
The town, reduced to famine, was to surrender on April 18 if no help arrived, and six hostages were handed over as guarantee: two abbots, two nobles, and two commoners. Help was signalled on the day of the 18th; but the Armagnacs, before leaving, decapitated four hostages at the foot of the ramparts on which the tourist is standing. In return, the besieged flung down from the walls the heads of twenty prisoners captured during a sally.
Six centuries have elapsed, but it will be seen that, towards hostages, the Germans still retain the mental attitude of the Middle Ages.
A picture by Mélingue (reproduced above), which hangs in the town-hall, commemorates the execution of the hostages of Senlis in 1418.
The next rampart is called the Montauban, after the square tower which was added to it in 1588. It was in the dry moat below that the Archers' Company held their practice. The head of the company, the "King of the Crossbow," was exempted by Henri III. from paying taxes, and ever since that remote period archery has always been held in honour at Senlis. At certain fêtes as many as 4,000 archers were assembled, part of them belonging to the town, the others coming from the surrounding country.
From the rampart, the view of old Senlis, spread out at the foot of the cathedral, is particularly picturesque.
SOLDIERS' GRAVES IN THE CEMETERY