This however was a Breton work, and there is no mention of a mound. Two centuries later the mound was in general use, and another quotation, taken also from M. de Caumont, from the life of John, a canonised prelate of the church of Terouane, by Archdeacon Colmier, gives an account of the fortress of Merchen, near Dixmude, in which the material employed and the mode of construction are clearly set forth. The original, taken from the “Acta Sanctorum,” is appended to this paper, and is in truth a description of a moated mound, with its fence and turrets of timber, its central dwelling, and the bridge across the ditch rising to the top of the mound. The description is illustrated by the representation of the taking of Dinan, in the Bayeux tapestry. There is seen the conical mound surmounted by a timber building, which two men with torches are attempting to set on fire, while others are ascending by a steep bridge which spans the moat, and rises to a gateway on the crest of the mound. Many of these mounds under the name of motes (motæ) retained their timber defences to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and that too on the Shropshire and Welsh border, crowded with castles of masonry. Ducange defines mota as “Collis, seu tumulus, cui inædificatum est castellum. Olim castella numquam nisi in eminentissimis locis extruebantur. In Flandria vero, humili ac planissima regione, congestis undequaque terrarum molibus, fieri solebant motæ, quibus arces imponerentur”; and adds that mota is the same work known in Dauphigny as “poypia,” and in Auvergne as “mote seigneuriale.” From Lambertus Ardensis he quotes: “Motam altissimam, sive dunjonem eminentem in munitionis signum firmavit, et in aggerem coacervavit.” And Orderic tells that, in 1098, Pain de Mont-Doubleau delivered up to William Rufus, “Fortissimam, quam apud Balaonem possidebat, motam, per quam totum oppidum adversariis subactum paruit.” And in 1119, Fulk of Anjou, with 500 knights laid siege, “ad motam Galterii,” which the king had fortified. Also near Ponte-Corvo was “Motam magnam, quam faciebat facere Dominus Canis cum mulfossis et tajatis ad claudendum Paduanos,” like the great mound at Rochester, just outside the city wall. In the Roman de Rou:— “Hubert de Rie est à sa porte Entre le mostier et sa mote.” “Mostier” being the church. Also in “La Bataille des Sept Arts”:— “Qui fu fier cum chastel sur mote.” Also the _Consuetudines Trecensis_ speak of “Le principal chastel ou maison-fort, mote, ou place de maison seigneuriale”: and in _Colletus_, “Il y a des masures qui ont des droits très considérables; nous avons des simple poypes [ce sont des terres élevées et fossoyées] qui ont les plus beaux droits.” The _History of Dauphigny_ has, in 1290, “Item castrum seu Poypiam de Montlyopart; item castrum seu fortalicium de Pusigniano.” Ducange is copious on this subject.