You may walk round the enceinte of Aigues-Mortes, both outside and in; but
you may not, as at Carcassonne, make a portion of this circuit on the
chemin de ronde, the little projecting footway attached to the inner face
of the battlements. This footway, wide enough only for a single
pedestrian, is in the best order, and near each of the gates a flight of
steps leads up to it; but a locked gate, at the top of the steps, makes
access impossible, or at least unlawful. Aigues-Mortes, however, has its
citadel, an immense tower, larger than any of the others, a little
detached, and standing at the northwest angle of the town. I called upon
the casernier--the custodian of the walls--and in his absence I was
conducted through this big Tour de Constance by his wife, a very mild,
meek woman, yellow with the traces of fever and ague--a scourge which, as
might be expected in a town whose name denotes "dead waters," enters
freely at the nine gates.
The Tour de Constance is of extraordinary girth and solidity, divided into
three superposed circular chambers, with very fine vaults, which are
lighted by embrasures of prodigious depth, converging to windows little
larger than loop-holes.
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