are all arched over in semicircle."

[Illustration: Cluseau de Fauroux.]

Lacoste, speaking of the Saracen invasion and devastation of Quercy,
says that "in Lower Quercy, where caverns are not common as they are in
Upper Quercy, the inhabitants dug _souterrains_ with a labour that
only love of life could prompt. Three of vast extent have been
discovered at Fontanes, Mondoumerc, and Olmie. That of Mondoumerc is
cut in the tufa, and is about 20 feet deep. It consists of an infinity
of cells, or small chambers, united by a corridor. But the vastest and
most remarkable for its extent and the labour devoted on it, is that of
Olmie. The chambers are scooped out of a very hard sandstone. In some
of them are little wells or reservoirs that were filled with water as a
precaution against thirst, if refugees were obliged to remain long in
this asylum. The passages, with their turns, constitute a veritable
labyrinth whence it would be hard to find one's way out without the
assistance of a guide."

The entrance to these hiding-places was either under a ledger stone in
a church, or through a cellar, or half-way down a well, or in a
thicket.

It must be remembered that it was the duty of every feudal seigneur to
provide for the safety of his vassels, and the security of their goods.
Consequently a great number of such _souterrains_ are under
castles or in the grounds of a feudal lord. The rock on which his
towers stood was often drilled through and through with galleries,
chambers, and store places, for this purpose. On the alarm being given
of the approach of an army marching through the land, of a raid by a