SOUTERRAINS
oxen are suddenly engulfed, and he finds that they have broken through the roof of one of these hiding-places. A gentleman is building his château, when in sinking his foundations he finds the rock like a petrified sponge—but not like a sponge in this, that the galleries are artificial. A paysan lets himself down his well to clean it out, as the water is foul. He finds that in the side of the shaft is the opening of a passage; he enters, follows it, and finds a labyrinth of galleries.
As an instance of the abundance of the souterrains in France, I will take the department of Vienne and give in a note below a list of the communes where they are known to be, from De Longuemar, Géographie du dep. de la Vienne, Poitiers, 1882, and also from several editions of Joanne's Geography.[1]
Victor Hugo, in his Quatrevingt Treise, speaking of the war in La Vendée, says: "It is difficult to picture to oneself what these Breton forests really were. They were towns. Nothing could be more secret, more silent, and more savage. There were wells round and small, masked by coverings of stones or by branches. The interiors at first vertical, then carried horizontally, spread out underground like tunnels, and ended in dark chambers." These excavations, he states, had been there from time immemorial. He continues: "One of the wildest glades of the wood at Misdon, perforated by galleries and cells, out of which came and went a mysterious society, was called 'The Great City.' The gloomy Breton forests were servants and accomplices of
- ↑ Natural grottoes that may have served as refuges are not included. Availles, Bellefonds, Béthines, Béruges, Bonnes, Bussières, Château Garnier, Champniers, Curzay, Civeaux, Gouex, Ingrandes, S. Julien Lars Jazneuil, Leugny-sur-Creuse, Loudun, Lautiers, Lusignan, Marnay, Mairé-le-Gautier, S. Martin-Lars, S. Martin-la-Rivière, Maslou Montmorillon Mazerolles, Mondion, Maulay, Montreuil-Bonnin, Naintré, Prinçai Romagne, S. Remy-sur-Creuse, Saulgé, Nouvaille, Persac, S. Savin, Sossais Thuré, Usson, Varennes, Le Vigean, Vénièrs, Vellèches, Verrières, Venneuil-sur-Biard. Several of these are under churches, others under castles. At some of these places are three or more distinct souterrains.
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