stone, is in most places standing, though in ruins.  The original facing only remains in those parts which are too elevated to admit of its being removed with ease.—­Beneath the castle, the cliff is excavated into a series of subterraneous caverns, not intended for mere passages or vaults, as at Arques and in most other places, but forming spacious crypts, supported by pillars roughly hewn out of the living rock, and still retaining every mark of the workman’s chisel.

It will afford some satisfaction to the antiquary to find, that the present appearance of the castle corresponds in every important particular with the description given by Willelmus Brito, who beheld it within a few years after its erection, and in all its pride.  Every feature which he enumerates yet exists, unaltered and unobliterated:—­

    “Huic natura loco satis insuperabile per se
     Munimeu dederat, tamen insuperabiliorem
     Arte quidem multa Richardus fecerat illum. 
     Duplicibus muris extrema clausit, et altas
     Circuitum docuit per totum surgere turres,
     A se distantes spatiis altrinsecus aequis;
     Eruderans utrumque latus, ne scandere quisquam
     Ad muros possit, vel ab ima repere valle. 
     Hinc ex transverso medium per planitiei
     Erigitur murus, multoque labore cavari
     Cogitur ipse silex, fossaque patere profunda,
     Faucibus et latis aperiri vallis ad instar;
     Sic ut quam subito fiat munitio duplex
     Quae fuit una modo muro geminata sequestro. 
     Ut si forte pati partem contingeret istam
     Altera municipes, queat, et se tuta tueri. 
     Inde rotundavit rupem, quae celsior omni
     Planitie summum se tollit in aera sursum;
     Et muris sepsit, extremas desuper oras
     Castigansque jugi scrupulosa cacumina, totum
     Complanat medium, multaeque capacia turbae
     Plurima cum domibus habitacula fabricat intus. 
     Umboni parcens soli, quo condidit arcem. 
     Hic situs iste decor, munitio talis honorem
     Gaillardae rupis per totum praedicat orbem.”

The keep cannot be ascended without difficulty.  We ventured to scale it; and we were fully repaid for our labor by the prospect which we gained.  The Seine, full of green willowy islands, flows beneath the rock in large lazy windings:  the peninsula below is flat, fertile, and well wooded:  on the opposite shores, the fantastic chalky cliffs rise boldly, crowned with dark forests.

I have already once had occasion to allude to the memorable strife occasioned by the erection of Chateau Gaillard, which its royal founder is reported to have so named by way of mockery.  In possession of this fortress, it seemed that he might laugh to scorn the attacks of his feudal liege lord.—­The date of the commencement of the building is supposed to have been about the year 1196, immediately subsequent to the treaty of Louviers, by which, Richard ceded