It is an unprogressive, sleepy old place, with streets mostly unpaved, whose five thousand odd souls, known roundabout as Les Caritates, live apparently in the past. [Illustration: _Pouilly-sur-Loire_] Below, a stone's throw from the windows of your inn, lies the Loire, its broad, blue bosom scarcely ruffled, except where it slowly eddies around the piers of the two-century-old _dos d'ane_ bridge; a lovely old structure, built, it is recorded, by the regiment known as the "Royal Marine" in the early years of the eighteenth century. The town is terraced upon the very edge of the river, with views up and down which are unusually lovely for even these parts. Below, almost within sight, is Nevers, while above are the heights of Sancerre, still visible in the glowing western twilight. Beyond the bridge rises a giant column of blackened stone, festooned by four ranges of arcades, the sole remaining relic of the ancient church standing alone before the present structure which now serves the purposes of the church in La Charité. The walls which surrounded the ancient town have disappeared or have been built into house walls, but the effect is still of a self-contained old burg. In the fourteenth century, during the Hundred Years' War, the town was frequently besieged. In 1429 Jeanne d'Arc, coming from her success at St. Pierre-le-Moutier, here met with practically a defeat, as she was able to sustain the siege for only but a month, when she withdrew. La Charité played an important part in the religious wars of the sixteenth century, and Protestants and Catholics became its occupants in turn. Virtually La Charité-sur-Loire became a Protestant stronghold in spite of its Catholic foundation. In 1577 it bade defiance to the royal arms of the Duc d'Alençon, as is recounted by the following lines: "Ou allez-vous, hélas! furieux insensés Cherchant de Charité la proie et la ruine, Qui sans l'ombre de Foy abbatre la pensez! * * * * * Le canon ne peut rien contre la Charité, Plus tot vous détruira la peste et la famine, Car jamais sans Foy n'aurez la Charité." In spite of this defiance it capitulated, and, on the 15th of May, at the château of Plessis-les-Tours on the Loire, Henri III. celebrated the victory of his brother by a fête "_ultra-galante_," where, in place of the usual pages, there were employed "_des dames vestues en habits d'hommes...._" Surely a fantastic and immodest manner of celebrating a victory against religious opponents; but, like many of the customs of the time, the fête was simply a fanatical debauch. [Illustration: _Porte du Croux, Nevers_] At Nevers one meets the Canal du Nivernais, which recalls Daudet's "La Belle Nivernaise" to all readers of fiction, who may accept it without question as a true and correct guide to the region, its manners, and customs.