building; and one of the towers, which is represented in the sketch
of the gateway of the Château de Clisson, is still called La Tour des
Pélerins.

This tower, which has been used as a dungeon, is the most perfect of
any remaining. In it are subterranean galleries, anciently used as a
prison, and appropriated by the republicans to the same purpose. It is
dreadful to think of the horrors that have been practised within its
walls, in our own time.

[Illustration: TOUR des PÉLERINS.]

From the top of this tower the prospect is very extensive, and, during
the year 1793, when the republican army quartered themselves in it, a
sentinel was placed there to give notice in case of the approach of an
enemy. The historian of that period, speaking of the entrance to this
tower, observes, in reference to the cruelties committed there in the
Vendean war:

"Il existait au milieu de la dernière cour un très beau puits, taillé
dans le roc et extrêmement profond: il est actuellement comblé, et
ma plume se refuse à tracer les scènes horribles qui ensanglantèrent
ce lieu en 1793 et en 1795, tristes et épouvantables effets des
guerres civiles!"

This passage alludes, I imagine, to the circumstance related in
page 90. Within its walls are various inscriptions, many of them in
characters so difficult to decypher, that they remain unknown. The
following has been rendered into more modern French by Cerutti.