was the favourite residence of Louis XI, and many were the
strange and plotting scenes enacted here during the period it was
dignified by the presence of his mysterious court. He is said to have
been excessively superstitious, crafty, vindictive and cruel, and the
vigilance and surveillance he caused to be exercised in the vicinity of
his palace, by his not over scrupulous agents, continually filled the
surrounding neighbourhood with awe and apprehension.

A vast enclosed chase, termed in latin of the middle ages, _Plexitium_,
encircled the external enclosures surrounding the open esplanade which
sloped up to the castle walls, rendering the precincts of the Royal
domain as sombre and portentous in aspect, as were the dark and
multiplied battlements which frowned above the monarchs of the
surrounding forests.

The cruel and treacherous cardinal La Balue was a great favourite at
this court, and for a considerable period basked in the smiles of
royalty at Plessis-les-Tours, but Louis having strong grounds for
suspecting that he had been mainly instrumental in betraying him to the
duke of Burgundy,--his feuds with whom were highest about 1460--he
ultimately caused him to be immured in one of the iron cages, we have
referred to in our notice of Loches. In this horrid den, the invention
of which some ascribe to Balue himself, he was confined eleven years,
principally it is said at Plessis-les-Tours, nor did Louis permit him to
be liberated till his last illness.

Such are a few of the historical facts associated with the crumbling
memento which as yet remain of this favourite and beautiful demesne of a
great and powerful monarch. All its proud bulwarks have long since
fallen beneath the ruthless hand of time, and its noble and extensive
forests been laid prostrate by the active axe of the cultivator, while
the march of rural improvement which has entirely renewed the face of
the plain, will ere long have swept every ancient vestige away leaving
the antiquary to search for the locality of Plessis-les-Tours, alone in
the page of History.

But what reasonable and enlightened mind will regret even such a
consummation, for, as moral improvement advances towards the climax of
perfection, we every day see the face of nature rejoicing in its
progress, and her children enjoying the fruits of their industry in the
fullness of freedom and of unrestricted liberty.

The clustering vine and the golden waving corn, now deck the place o