The recollection of its opposite old uses; an impregnable fortress, a
luxurious palace, a horrible prison, a place of torture, the court of the
Inquisition; at one and the same time, a house of feasting, fighting,
religion, and blood, gives to every stone in its huge form a fearful
interest, and imparts new meaning to its incongruities. I could think of
little, however, then, or long afterward, but the sun in the dungeons.
The palace coming down to be the lounging-place of noisy soldiers, and
being forced to echo their rough talk and common oaths, and to have their
garments fluttering from its dirty windows, was some reduction of its
state, and something to rejoice at; but the day in its cells, and the sky
for the roof of its chambers of cruelty--that was its desolation and
defeat! If I had seen it in a blaze from ditch to rampart, I should have
felt that not that light, nor all the light in all the fire that burns,
could waste it, like the sunbeams in its secret council-chamber and its
prisons.
The Building of the Great Palace
By Thomas Oakey
[Footnote: From "The Story of Avignon.
Pages:
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176