France. In spite of the historical assumption which makes the
emperor Probus the Noah of the Gauls, Caesar speaks of the excellent
wine of Champ-Fort ("de Campo Forti") still one of the best vintages of
Issoudun. Rigord writes of this city in language which leaves no
doubt as to its great population and its immense commerce. But these
testimonies both assign a much lesser age to the city than its ancient
antiquity demands. In fact, the excavations lately undertaken by a
learned archaeologist of the place, Monsieur Armand Peremet, have
brought to light, under the celebrated tower of Issoudun, a basilica
of the fifth century, probably the only one in France. This church
preserves, in its very materials, the sign-manual of an anterior
civilization; for its stones came from a Roman temple which stood on the
same site.

Issoudun, therefore, according to the researches of this antiquary, like
other cities of France whose ancient or modern autonym ends in "Dun"
("dunum") bears in its very name the certificate of an autochthonous
existence. The word "Dun," the appanage of all dignity consecrated by
Druidical worship, proves a religious and military settlement of the
Celts. Beneath the Dun of the Gauls must have lain the Roman temple
to Isis. From that comes, according to Chaumon, the name of the
city, Issous-Dun,--"Is" being the abbreviation of "Isis." Richard
Coeur-de-lion undoubtedly built the famous tower (in which he coined
money) above the basilica of the fifth century,--the third monument
of the third religion of this ancient town. He used the church as a
necessary foundation, or stay, for the raising of the rampart; and he
preserved it by covering it with feudal fortifications as with a
mantle. Issoudun was at that time the seat of the ephemeral power of the
Routiers and the Cottereaux, adventurers and free-lancers, whom Henry
II. sent against his son Richard, at the time of his rebellion as Comte
de Poitou.

The history of Aquitaine, which was not written by the Benedictines,
will probably never be written, because there are no longer
Benedictines: thus we are not able to light up these archaeological
tenebrae in the history of our manners and customs on every occasion of
their appearance. There is another testimony to the ancient importance
of Issoudun in the conversion into a canal of the Tournemine, a little
stream raised several feet above the level of the Theols which surrounds
the town. This is undoubtedly the