ne of William's
victories at Mayenne. Here the town slopes down to the river of its own
name on both sides, and the castle, instead of crowning either height,
rises immediately above the stream. Eight years does much in the way of
building up as well as of pulling down; and we may note that since we
made an almost casual reference to Mayenne in 1868,[69] the eastern
part of the great church, a building remarkable rather for a strange and
picturesque outline than for any strict architectural beauty, has had
its choir rebuilt on a vast scale after the type of a great minster. No
place after the capital has a greater share in the history of the
county.[70] It was the lordship of that Geoffrey of Mayenne who played
so prominent a part in all the wars of William's day, a part which, both
in its good and its bad side, well illustrates the position of the
feudal noble. A faithful vassal to his lord, a patriotic defender of his
country against an external invader, he could stoop to play the part of
a perjured traitor when nobles had been forced to plight oaths against
their will to be faithful to a civic _commune_. To the student of the
twelfth century Mayenne is full of memories; to the student of earlier
times its chief attraction will be that it is the most natural point of
the journey to Jublains.

Further down the stream which gives its name alike to the town of
Mayenne and the modern department, we come to the one place on
Cenomannian ground which, as having become in modern times a seat of
both civil and ecclesiastical rule, can alone pretend to any rivalry
with the ancient capital. Laval, the _chef-lieu_ of the department of
Mayenne and the see of the newly founded bishopric, plays no great part
in the early history of the district; but though still much smaller than
Le Mans, it has fairly grown to the rank of a local capital as
distinguished from a mere country town. It is one of the towns which
have grown up on a hill and around a fortress,[71] yet it is not a hill
city like Le Mans. The old town of Laval, as distinguished from the
later suburb on the other side of the river, does not stand on the hill,
but climbs up its side. While the _Grande Rue_ of Le Mans runs along the
ridge, the _Grande Rue_ of Laval finds its way up the slope. The castle,
as at Mayenne, rises above the river, and still keeps a huge round
donjon, patched somewhat, but still keeping several of its coupled
Romanesque windows. On the height, hard