Viollet le Duc and the public spirit of the late Emperor. Pass in
under the gateway and give yourself up to legends. There grins down
on you the broad image of the mythic Dame Carcas, who defended the
town single-handed against Charlemagne, till this tower fell down by
miracle, and let in the Christian host. But do not believe that she
gave to the place its name of Carcassone; for the first syllable of
the word is hint enough that it was, long ere her days, a Celtic
caer, or hill-fortress. Pause at the inner gate; you need not
exactly believe that when the English Crusader, Simon de Montfort,
burst it open, and behold, the town within was empty and desolate, he
cried: 'Did I not tell you that those heretics were devils; and
behold, being devils, they have vanished into air.' You must
believe, I fear, that of the great multitude who had been crowded,
starving, and fever-stricken within, he found four hundred poor
wretches who had lingered behind, and burnt them all alive. You need
not believe that that is the mouth of the underground passage which
runs all the way from the distant hills, through which the Vicomte de
Beziers, after telling Simon de Montfort and the Abbot of Citeaux
that he would sooner be flayed alive than betray the poor folk who
had taken refuge with him, got them all safe away, men, women, and
children.
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