postern, with its movable bridge, double machicolations, loop-holes, portcullis, and gates. Even within this, the entrance to the castle was impeded by a sloping and turning passage, furnished with numerous doors, and rising for twenty-three feet before the level of the courtyard was reached. Such defences were almost impregnable, and are a good illustration of the intricacy of the fortifications adopted at that period. At a later time such contrivances were found to be a mistake, as they impeded the movements of the garrison. They proved a weakness rather than a strength by preventing men from being moved rapidly to a critical point at the required time. The leading idea, at this period, was to render every point of the defences independent of the rest. Each tower is, therefore, a separate fort; the castle and barbican are independent of the city walls, and could hold out although the town was in the hands of the enemy; and within the castle there are two independent towers or donjons, which might still form a refuge for the garrison for some time after the castle was taken. The lofty square tower (_see_ Fig. 110), which was crowned with a _bretêche_, was carried up to a sufficient height to dominate the town and the whole surrounding country. This structure and some of the adjoining walls date from the twelfth century. The other buildings on the north side of the castle are of the time of St Louis. The inner enceinte of the castle with its towers and gates built by Philippe le Hardi (the latter part of the thirteenth century) are splendid examples of the military works of the period. The walls of the towers surrounding the town are built with solid masonry in regular courses, with the face left rough. The lower part of the curtains is pierced with the long loops, sometimes 11 or 12 feet in length, then in use, and the top was fortified with hoardings or projecting wooden galleries, from the floor of which the defenders could drop stones and other missiles on the assailants, so as to keep them off from the base and prevent mining. All the walls and towers were furnished with these hoardings. The square holes in which the beams were inserted for carrying the galleries are still visible both in the outer and inner walls (Figs. 110-113).