CHATEAU DE COURCY. 



IN that part of Picardy, situated between Saint Quentin and 

 Soissons, about four leagues from the latter city, in the middle of a 

 magnificent valley, and upon a mountain of no very great elevation, 

 but which commands a prospect at once varied and picturesque, the 

 traveller beholds a small town, entirely surrounded by walls, flanked 

 by strong towers, the aspect of which insensibly leads back the mind 

 to the middle ages. The approaches to this town are steep and 

 rugged. Four dark and ponderous gates, between enormous towers, 

 pierced with loop-holes, impart to it a formidable appearance; some- 

 what softened, however, by the romantic charm of the ivy that fes- 

 toons the exterior walls. On the south side, upon the same moun- 

 tain, there are seen four towers, of prodigious thickness, connected 

 by high ramparts, forming an irregular square; from the centre of 

 which arises another tower, beautiful from its strength and the ele- 

 gance of its proportions, which commands the town and an immense 

 extent of country. Within these walls, there formerly existed a 

 chateau, the name of which has been rendered famous by the illus- 

 trious race to which it belonged. 



Built by Enguerrand de Courcy the Great, one of the most emi- 

 nent French Barons of the twelfth century, this chateau was, for 300 

 years, the cradle of the Raouls and the Enguerrands de Courcy. The 

 last of the race, Euguerrand the 7th, united, in his own person, all the 

 glory of his ancestors an archduke of Austria, earl of Bedford, in Eng- 

 land, count of Soissons, and connected with the highest offices at the 

 court of France ; held up as a model of bravery and loyalty, courted 

 by all the Kings of Europe, and particularly by Edward the Third of 

 England, who gave him his daughter in marriage. Endowed with a 

 thousand rare and brilliant qualities handsome in person, cultivated 

 in mind this Sire de Courcy died of the wounds he received in the 

 crusade against Bajazet, on the disastrous day of Nicopolis. It is 

 worthy of remark, that, in the first crusade, led by Godefroy de 

 Bouillon, a Sire de Courcy greatly distinguished himself; and that, 

 in every subsequent one, a hero of this name died upon the field of 

 honour; in short, that the last of the de Courcys sealed, with his 

 blood, the last of these pious wars. There were no more crusades, 

 or Sires de Courcy, after the battle of Nicopolis. 



Now a-days, the gates of this noble castle are no longer guarded 

 by numerous men at arms. The formidable outworks that defended 

 its approaches, the ponderous draw-bridge that fell at the sound of the 

 stranger's horn, claiming hospitality all are now in ruins, or have dis- 

 appeared. In the place of the gallant knights, and their martial train, 

 who made the lofty hall resound with the echo of their armed heels, 

 the traveller sees but a few inhabitants, in a state of the most abject 

 wretchedness : at those gothic windows, from which, so many times, 

 the beauteous Chatelaine threw, with her white hand, to her lover, 

 setting out for the burning plains of Syria, the bracelet, the " gage 

 d' amour" if you now perceive a human creature, it will be some 

 hideous old beggar-woman, who has dug for herself an asylum 



M.M. No. 89. 3 Q 



