lying about that, where it is possible to plough, the peasant heaps them up
in his field, or makes walls that are little wanted. Having reached the top
of a knoll, I saw beneath me many old tiled roofs whose lines ran at all
angles, and above these rose the massive walls of a half-fortified church,
and various towers or fragments of towers. I was looking at Martel.

According to legend and local history, Charles Martel, after defeating the
Saracens near this spot, caused a church to be built on a piece of fertile
land a few miles from the battlefield, and dedicated it to St. Maur. A town
grew around church and monastery, and was named Martel in honour of the
founder. In the early days of the Crusades, when princes and barons
rivalled one another in virtuous zeal, a Viscount of Turenne decreed that
inhabitants of Martel who were convicted of sinning against the marriage
tie should be dragged naked through the town. The charter that contains
this enactment treats of villeinage also, and orders that whoever has a man
for sale within the limits of the viscounty shall fix the price, and shall
not change it afterwards.

The marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry Plantagenet brought the
English to Martel in the twelfth century; but it does not appear that they
obtained or cared to keep anything like a permanent grip on the place until
the fourteenth century. Inasmuch, however, as Henry Short-Mantle, the
rebellious son of Henry II., met with no resistance at Martel when he came
thither, after pillaging the sanctuary of Roc-Amadour in 1183, it may be
concluded that English influence was already established there. In the
market place is a house a portion of which was once included in a building
that has now nearly disappeared, but which is known to every inhabitant as
the 'palace of Henry II.' On the first floor, communicating with a spiral
staircase, is a room paved with small pebbles. On one side is a broad
chimney-place, just such as we see now all through Guyenne, even in the