IMP [CÆS] FL VAL CONSTAN TINO PF AUG [DIVIMAX IMIANI AUG] NEPOTI DIVI CON STANT AUG [PII FILIO] [Illustration: FIG. 167. CAPITALS AND BASES, CASTLE OF ST HONORAT.] [Illustration: FIG. 167^{_a._} CAPITALS AND BASE, CASTLE OF ST HONORAT.] Another interesting point connected with these pillars is the form and decoration of their capitals and bases (Figs. 167 and 167^_a_). At first sight they look very rude and primitive, but on careful examination they are seen to possess certain characteristics which belong to a comparatively late period, thus raising a suspicion as to their antiquity, which the evidently late vaulting of the cloister tends to confirm. One is therefore somewhat puzzled how to regard them, and what date to assign to them. But a comparison of the caps and bases of St Honorat with those of the cloister of Thoronet at once removes all difficulty. Original and quaint as both are, they are evidently (with the exception of some which are later, and will be afterwards referred to) the product of the same style and period. The Abbé Allier informs us that in 1295 the Abbot Gancelme de Mayreris did much work in the interior of the tower, and in 1315 a general chapter granted certain fines in order to raise funds for its completion. To this period probably belongs the first construction of the cloister. But in 1400 the monastery was attacked by Genoese pirates, commanded by one Salageri, who took the castle by assault, imprisoned the monks, and pillaged the monastery. These Corsairs kept possession of the castle for about a year, and were only got rid of by a general muster of the nobility of Provence, with their retainers. The invaders probably greatly destroyed the building; for we learn that after 1400 the cloisters, “L’Escalier tournant,” and other works were commenced, and carried on by one Gastolius de Grasse, who died in 1422. These facts indicate two periods of considerable operations at the castle, one in the beginning of the fourteenth and the other of the fifteenth century. Some of the caps (such as A, D, and E), which so strikingly resemble those of the cloisters of Thoronet, probably belong to the first of these periods; while others (like B) have been executed in imitation of them, but contain details which are undoubtedly of the period of the later work. The capital (B) and most of the bases are clearly of the fifteenth century; the style of the ogee and other mouldings, and the foliage of the griffes or claws at the angles and on the cap B, being of a late character. The form of the vaulting (Fig. 168), with its thin groins all dying away to one sharp point at the springing, and without caps or corbels to rest on, also corresponds with that date. The cloister arches are pointed, but have no mouldings. It was in 1394, shortly before the second of the above periods, that the body of St Honorat was [Illustration: FIG. 168. LOWER CLOISTER IN CASTLE, ST HONORAT.]