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One night of the springtide they were feasting about a fire and telling tales of the chase, and the soft moths came out of the dark and flaunted their colours in the firelight, and went out grey into the dark again; and the night wind was cool upon the warriors' necks, and the camp-fire was warm in their faces, and a silence had settled among them after some song, and Arleon all at once rose suddenly up, remembering Carcassonne.
Such, literally speaking, is this delightful little city, which needs to be seen to tell its full story. It is extraordinarily pictorial, and if it is a very small sister of Carcassonne, it has at least the essential features of the family.
This done, Eustace could not help standing for a few moments to look forth upon the glorious expanse of country beneath him the rich fields and fair vineyards spreading far away to the west and north, with towns and villages here and there rising among them; while far away to the east, among higher hills, lay the French town of Carcassonne, a white mass, just discernible by the light of the setting sun; and the south was bounded by the peaks of the Pyrenees, amongst which lay all Eustace's brightest recollections of novelty, adventure, and hopes of glory.
He quitted it to lay siege to Carcassonne, which had been made by the Romans into the stronghold of Septimania. There his course of conquest was destined to end.
The dispossessed Viscount, Raymond Roger, having been put in prison by his conqueror in a tower of Carcassonne itself, died there at the end of three months, of disease according to some, and a violent death according to others; but the latter appears to be a groundless suspicion, for it was not to cowardly and secret crimes that Simon de Montfort was inclined.
In a letter from a friend whom I have never seen, one of those that read my books, this line was quoted "But he, he never came to Carcassonne." I do not know the origin of the line, but I made this tale about it. When Camorak reigned at Arn, and the world was fairer, he gave a festival to all the weald to commemorate the splendour of his youth.
These four walled-in towns or citadels, perfect as when they represented mediaeval defence, are Carcassonne, Provins in the Brie, Semur in upper Burgundy, and the Breton Guerande, scene of Balzac's Beatrix.
"Here's the history of Ravenouillet," continued Bixiou, when the three friends reached the boulevard. "In 1831 Massol, the councillor of state who is dealing with your case, was a lawyer-journalist who at that time never thought of being more than Keeper of the Seals, and deigned to have King Louis-Philippe on his throne. Forgive his ambition, he's from Carcassonne.
All this struck me as a great deal of history for so modest a figure a poor little figure that could only just unclose its palm for a small silver coin. He was not the only acquaintance I made at Carcassonne.
I've been bitten twice by them, both times foully, while I was asleep. But poor Martin had worse luck. After being sick in bed for three weeks, the first day he sat up he sat down on one. Sometimes I think they are the wisest who never go to Carcassonne. Later on we returned to Malu, picked up seven recruits, hove up anchor, and started to beat out the treacherous entrance.
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