...
On September 5, 1339, John's old belfry was pulled down and Jean Mauser de
Carnot, who asserted he had excavated 11,300 basketfuls of rubbish, was
paid at the rate of twelve deniers the hundred for the work. Evidently
these were good times for the basket makers as well as builders. December
22, 1340, three contractors, Isnard and Raymond Durand and Jacques
Gasquet, received 1,273 florins for the completed new tower, with its
barbicans, battlements and machicoulis, which was on the site and which
retained the appellation of the Tour de la Campane, or Bell Tower. The
embattlemented and machicolated summit, but not the chastelet, of this
mighty tower has recently been restored; its walls are nearly twelve feet
thick....
Benedict's last undertaking was the erection of the Tour de Trouillas,
next the Tour des Latrines, and on April 20, 1341, sixteen rubbish baskets
were bought for the "Saracens that excavated the foundations of the turris
nova." The Tour de Trouillas, tallest and stoutest of the keeps of the
mighty fortress, is 175 feet high as compared with the 150 feet of the
Tour de la Campane, and its walls fifteen feet thick as compared with
twelve feet.
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