and Royalists.]

[Illustration: CAVE REFUGE AT SOULIER DE CHASTEAU, CARREZE. This refuge
is accessible by a secret way opening on to the plateau above. Below
are indications of buildings having been constructed against, and in
part into the rock.]

Later still, in the Reign of Terror, the grottoes may have harboured
priests and nobles hiding for their lives. But now they shelter none
but the peaceful dreamer, who sits there at eventide looking out over
the yellow waters of the Gironde, ever agitated by the tide, at the
setting sun that sends shafts of fire into these recesses--and sets him
wishing that the light would reveal the details of tragic stories
connected with these caves.

In the department of Ariege are a vast number of natural caverns, many
of which have served as places of retreat for the Albigenses. Between
Tarascon and Cabannes are some that were defended by crenellated walls,
and are supposed to date from the Wars of Religion, but probably go
back beyond the time of the English occupation. It is also said that
the Huguenots met in them for their assemblies. In the country they go
by the name of _gleizetos_, or _petites eglises_. They are found on
the left bank of the Ariege. In the fourth century the Priscillianist
heretics expelled from Spain settled in the mountains on the north slope
of the Pyrenees, and propagated their doctrines throughout the country
and among the population more than half pagan, and this explains the
spread of Albigensian Manichaeism later. In 407 the Vandals, Suevi and
Alani, during three years in succession swept the country, committing
frightful ravages, as they passed on their way into Spain; and no doubt
can be entertained that at this time the numerous grottoes were used by