CHAPTER VIII
While Joseph and Madame Bridau were journeying from Orleans to
Issoudun, the Knights of Idleness perpetrated one of their best
tricks. An old Spaniard, a former prisoner of war, who after the peace
had remained in the neighborhood, where he did a small business in
grain, came early one morning to market, leaving his empty cart at the
foot of the tower of Issoudun. Maxence, who arrived at a rendezvous of
the Knights, appointed on that occasion at the foot of the tower, was
soon assailed with the whispered question, "What are we to do
to-night?"
"Here's Pere Fario's cart," he answered. "I nearly cracked my shins
over it. Let us get it up on the embankment of the tower in the first
place, and we'll make up our minds afterwards."
When Richard Coeur-de-Lion built the tower of Issoudun he raised it,
as we have said, on the ruins of the basilica, which itself stood
above the Roman temple and the Celtic Dun. These ruins, each of which
represents a period of several centuries, form a mound big with the
monuments of three distinct ages. The tower is, therefore, the apex of
a cone, from which the descent is equally steep on all sides, and
which is only approached by a series of steps. To give in a few words
an idea of the height of this tower, we may compare it to the obelisk
of Luxor on its pedestal. The pedestal of the tower of Issoudun, which
hid within its breast such archaeological treasures, was eighty feet
high on the side towards the town.
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