is
window belonged: another pillar has an elegant capital, composed of
interlaced bands.--Connected with the dungeon by a stone staircase is a
small apartment, very much dilapidated, but still retaining a portion of
its original facing of Caen stone. It was from the window of this
apartment, as the story commonly goes, that Duke Robert first saw the
beautiful Arlette, drawing water from the streamlet below, and was
enamoured of her charms, and took her to his bed.--According to another
version of the tale, the earliest interview between the prince and his
fair mistress, took place as Robert was returning from the chace, with
his mind full of anger against the inhabitants of Falaise, for having
presumed to kill the deer which he had commanded should be preserved for
his royal pastime. In this offence the curriers of the town had borne
the principal share, and they were therefore principally marked out for
punishment. But, fortunately for them, Arlette, the daughter of one
Verpray, the most culpable of the number, met the offended Duke while
riding through the street, and with her beauty so fascinated him, that
she not only obtained the pardon of her father and his associates, but
became his mistress, and continued so as long as he lived. From her, if
we may give credence to the old chroniclers, is derived our English
word, _harlot_. The fruit of their union was William the Conqueror,
whose illegitimate birth, and the low extraction of his mother, served
on more than one occasion as a pretext for conspiracies against his
throne, and were frequently the subject of personal mortification to
himself.--The walls in this part of the castle are from eight to nine
feet thick. A portion of them has been hollowed out, so as to form a
couple of small rooms. The old door-way of the keep is at the angle; the
returns are reeded, ending in a square impost; the arch above is
destroyed.--Talbot's tower, thus called from having been built by that
general, in 1430 and the two subsequent years, is connected with the
keep by means of a long passage with lancet windows, that widen greatly
inwards. It is more than one hundred feet high, and is a beautiful piece
of masonry, as perfect, apparently, as on the day when it was erected,
and as firm as the rock on which it stands. This tower is ascended by a
staircase concealed within the substance of the walls, whose thickness
is full fifteen feet towards the base, and does not decrease more than
thr