burnt, and the trees cut down. "The churches, the monasteries, and
secular buildings were reduced to ashes. Vineyards and fields were
ravaged, and the inhabitants put to the edge of the sword. Only a few
strong places escaped the fury of the soldiers.... The city of Cahors
fell into the power of the conqueror and was reduced to the same
pitiable condition into which it had been brought by the Saracens. The
inhabitants of Quercy who survived owed this to the subterranean
retreats which they had made and to the caverns in the rocks that had
served them as refuges during the incursion of the infidels. The
principal caves are situated on the Banks of the Lot at Cami, Luzech,
Vers, Bouzier, S. Cirq, La Toulsanie, Larnagol, Calvignac, S. Jean de
Laur, Cajarc and Laroque-Toirac, to above Capdenac; on the banks of the
Cele, at Roquefort, Espagnac, Brengues, S. Sulpice, Marcillac, Liauzun,
Sauliac, Cabrerets; on the banks of the Dordogne at Belcastel, La Cave,
Le Bon Sairon, Mayronne, Blansaguet, Montvalent, Gluges, Saint Denis,
&c., and between the rivers, Autoire, Gramat, S. Cirq d'Alzou,
Rocamadour, S. Martin de Vers, Crass Guillot, to Vers among the high
cliffs athwart which runs the Roman aqueduct, which in certain places,
behind its high walls, could shelter a great number of the inhabitants.
These caverns are still called Gouffios, Gouffieros, or Waiffers, from
the name of Duke Waifre. [Footnote: Lacoste's derivation is absurd;
Gouffieros comes from Gouffre, a chasm.] They were closed by a wall, of
which there are remains at Canis, at Brengues, and at S. Jean de Laur,
on the rock that commands the abyss of Lantoui. This last cavern is the
most remarkable of all, as it is at but a little distance from the
castle of Cenevieres, which was one of the principal strongholds of the
Duke of Aquitaine in Quercy." [Footnote: Lacoste, _Histoire de
Quercy_, Cahors, 1883, i. pp. 267-8.]

The wretched country had to suffer next from the expedition of the