g the
shield-borne arms of dead and gone seigneurs. Seek where you will,
among the wizard-houses of old Prague, the witch-dens of ancient
Edinburgh, the bat-haunted castles of Drachenfels or Rheinstein, you
will come at nothing built of man more informed with the soul of the
Middle Ages, more drenched with their peculiar savour of mystery, than
these stark keeps whose crests and _girouettes_ rise above encircling
woods or frown upon mirroring rivers over the length and breadth of
the Breton land.

_La Roche-Jagu_

One of the most typical of the chateaux of Brittany is that of La
Roche-Jagu, at one time the guardian of the mouth of the river Trieux.
It is built on the top of a hill which overhangs the Trieux, and from
one of its battlemented galleries a splendid view of the windings of
the river can be obtained. The wall on this side of the fortress is so
thick as to allow of a chapel being hewn out of its solidity. A most
distinctive architectural note is struck by the fourteen wonderful
chimney-shafts of cut stone ornamented with iron spikes.

_Tonquedec_

Some miles farther down the river, but on its opposite side, is the
imposing castle of Tonquedec, perhaps the finest remnant of the
medieval military architecture of Brittany. It has always remained in
the family of the Viscounts of Coetman, who ranked among the foremost
of the Breton nobility, though one of them espoused the cause of the
Constable Clisson against Duke John IV, and had the anguish of seeing
his ancestral fortress razed to the ground. Under Henry IV, however,
the castle was restored, only to be again demolished by order of
Cardinal Richelieu, who strongly and forcibly disapproved of such
powerful fortalices.

It had an outer enclosure, and had to be entered by a drawbridge, and
it was strengthened in every way conceivable to the military art of
the times. It was surrounded by dwellings for the convenience of the
seigneur's retainers, a fine _salle d'armes_ still remaining. To the
keep, four stories high, a flying bridge led, in order to facilitate
the withdrawal of the garrison in case of siege. Behind walls ten feet
thick, so long as food and ammunition lasted, the inmates could hold
the enemy in scorn.

_Clisson_

The chateau of Clisson, once the property of the great Constable
Oliver de Clisson, whom the Viscount of Coetman and the Bretons of
Penthievre had championed, is now only a grand old ruin, a touching
monument of the archit