Account of a Tour in Normandy, Volume 2Turner, Dawson
History
Account of a Tour in Normandy, Volume 2
Turner, Dawson
Architecture -- France -- Normandy; Normandy (France) -- Antiquities; Normandy (France) -- Description and travel
keep; and a suite of apartments, also named after that great captain,
was erected in the castle.--The resistance made by the English garrison
of Falaise in 1450, at the time when we were finally expelled from the
duchy, was far from equal to that which the French, had previously
shewn. Vigour was indeed displayed in repeated sallies, but six days
sufficed to put the French general in possession of the place.
Disheartened troops, cooped up in a fortress without hope of succour,
offer but faint opposition; and Falaise was then the last place which
held out in Normandy, excepting, only Domfront and Cherbourg, both which
were taken almost immediately afterwards.--Falaise, from this time
forwards, suffered no more from foreign enemies: the future miseries of
the town were inflicted by the hands of its own countrymen. In common
with many other places in France, it was doomed to learn from hard
experience, that "alta sedent civilis vulnera dextræ."--Instigated by
the Count de Brissac, governor of the town, and one of the most able
generals of the league, the inhabitants were immoveable in their
determination to resist the introduction of tenets which they regarded
as a fatal variance from the Catholic faith. The troops of Henry IIIrd,
in alliance with those of his more illustrious successor, were vainly
brought against Falaise in 1589, by the Duc de Montpensier; a party of
enthusiastic peasants, called _Gautiers_, from the name of a neighboring
village, where their association originated, harassed the assailants
unremittingly, and rendered such effectual assistance to the garrison,
that the siege was obliged to be raised.--But it was only raised to be
renewed at the conclusion of the same year, by Henry of Bourbon, in
person, whom the tragical end of his late ally had placed upon the
throne of France. Brissac had now a different enemy to deal with: he
answered the king's summons to surrender, by pleading his oath taken
upon the holy sacrament to the contrary; and he added that, if it should
ultimately prove necessary for him to enter into any negotiation, he
would at least delay it for six months to come. "Then, by heavens!"
replied Henry, "I will change his months into days, and grant him
absolution;" and; so saying, he commenced a furious cannonade, which
soon caused a breach, and, in seven days, he carried the town by
assault. Brissac, who, on the capture of the fortress, had retired into
the keep, found himself shortly afterwards obliged to capitulate; and I
am sorry to add, that the terms which he proposed and obtained, were not
of a nature to be honorable to his character. The security of his own
life and of that of seven of his party, was the principal stipulation in
the articles. The rest of the garrison were abandoned to the mercy of
the conqueror, who contented himself with hanging seven of them in
memorial of the seven days of the siege; but, if we may believe the
French historians, always zealous for the honor of their monarchs, and
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