ectural splendours of former days. By
moonlight it makes a scene not easily forgotten, gaunt and still
and ruggedly imposing, the silent reminder of events and people
tales of whom will not readily die, the treasurer of secrets it
will probably never yield. Its antithesis is the castle of Nantes,
with the stamp of the Renaissance upon its delicately sculptured
balconies and window-frames. It is now an arsenal, a fact which
robs it of some of the romantic interest of Clisson, or, indeed, of
ruins in general, yet within its walls are the prison chambers in
which Gilles de Laval, the ambitious Finance Minister Fouquet, the
Cardinal de Retz, and the Duchess of Berry once languished. For many
years it served as one of the political prisons of France, though
it is also associated with brighter and happier times; for here, on
pleasure bent, lingered many of the Kings of France from Louis XI
onward, and here in 1675 Madame de Sevigne sojourned, a circumstance
which casts about it a literary as well as a romantic glamour. The
great well in the courtyard, with its ornamental railing of wrought
iron, is quite equal to the famous well of Quentin Matsys at Antwerp.

_Josselin_

The castle of Josselin, also associated with the history of the great
Constable Clisson and his allies, as well as with the notorious League
whose followers wrought such intolerable misery in Brittany, is built
on a rocky foundation near the river Oust. With its imposing front and
conically roofed towers it is one of the best examples of a
twelfth-century fortress-chateau. Very different in tone is the
architecture of the interior court, being that of the period when the
lighter traceries and more imaginative lines of the Renaissance were
in favour. The window-openings of the two first stories are beautiful
enough to rival those of Chambord and equal those of Blois. Above the
windows an open gallery runs, and in the space between each the device
of the Rohans is carved, with their motto, _A Plus_, this celebrated
family having built this part of the chateau. About the year 1400
Clisson added a keep, walls, and parapets, but in 1629, when the
fortress was no longer a stronghold of the League, these were
permitted to fall into ruin. Through the courtesy of the family now in
residence this wonderfully preserved castle may be visited, a
circumstance for which the tourist in Brittany should indeed be
grateful. Interest within these massy walls clings around th