light in narratives of this kind, or who
desire to obtain full information relative to the attacks and defence,
combined with a lively picture of the strength of the fortress, must be
referred to Brito, the poetical chronicler of the exploits of
Philip-Augustus. The whole of the seventh book of the _Philippiad_ of
that author, containing no fewer than eight hundred and forty-one lines,
are devoted to this single subject; so eventful was the history of the
siege, and so great the importance attached to the capture of the place.
The fall of Chateau Gaillard was almost immediately followed by the
total subversion of the power of the Norman Dukes; but, as to the
fortress itself, though its situation was no longer such as to give it
importance, Brito expressly states, that Philip bestowed great pains
upon the restoring of its damaged works, and upon augmenting its
strength by the addition of new ones:--

"Rex ita Gaillardo per praelia multa potitus,
Cuncta reaedificat vel ab ipso diruta, vel quae
Improbus appositis destruxerat ignibus hostis,
In triplo melius et fortius intus et extra,
Antea quam fuerint muros et caetera firmans."

Fortunately for France, the subsequent state of the kingdom rendered
precautions of this description unnecessary; Chateau Gaillard appears no
more in history as a formidable fortress, except upon the occasion of
the occupation of the Gallic throne by Henry V. and of the expulsion of
his successor. In the former case, the castle did not surrender to the
English army, till after a vigorous resistance of sixteen months;[186]
and even then its garrison, though composed of only one hundred and
twenty men, would not have yielded, had not the ropes of their
water-buckets been worn out and destroyed: in the latter instance, it
was one of the last of the strong holds of Normandy that held out for
the successors of its ancient dukes; and the siege of six weeks,
sustained by a dispirited army, was scarcely less honorable to its
defenders, than the far longer resistance opposed on former occasions.

Even after the final re-union of the duchy, Chateau Gaillard was neither
purposely destroyed, nor suffered to fall through neglect into decay,
like the greater number of the Norman fortresses. During the religious
wars, it still continued to be a military post, as well as a royal
palace; and it was honored with the residence of Henry IV. whose father,
Anthony of Bourbon, died here in 1562. I