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1. Preface: Invalidating Axioms
a. Conventions Used in This Book
b. Using Code Examples
c. O’Reilly Online Learning
d. How to Contact Us
e. Acknowledgments

i. Acknowledgments from Mark Richards

ii. Acknowledgments from Neal Ford
2. 1. Introduction
a. Defining Software Architecture
b. Expectations of an Architect
i. Make Architecture Decisions
ii. Continually Analyze the Architecture
iii. Keep Current with Latest Trends
iv. Ensure Compliance with Decisions
v. Diverse Exposure and Experience
vi. Have Business Domain Knowledge
vii. Possess Interpersonal Skills
viii. Understand and Navigate Politics

c. Intersection of Architecture and…

i. Engineering Practices
 ii. Operations/DevOps
iii. Process
iv. Data
d. Laws of Software Architecture
3. I. Foundations
4. 2. Architectural Thinking
a. Architecture Versus Design
b. Technical Breadth
c. Analyzing Trade-Offs
d. Understanding Business Drivers
e. Balancing Architecture and Hands-On Coding
5. 3. Modularity

a. Definition
b. Measuring Modularity

i. Cohesion
ii. Coupling
iii. Abstractness, Instability, and Distance
from the Main Sequence
iv. Distance from the Main Sequence
v. Connascence
vi. Unifying Coupling and Connascence
Metrics

c. From Modules to Components

6. 4. Architecture Characteristics Defined

a. Architectural Characteristics (Partially) Listed

i. Operational Architecture
Characteristics
ii. Structural Architecture Characteristics
iii. Cross-Cutting Architecture
Characteristics

b. Trade-Offs and Least Worst Architecture

7. 5. Identifying Architectural Characteristics

a. Extracting Architecture Characteristics from

Domain Concerns
b. Extracting Architecture Characteristics from
Requirements
c. Case Study: Silicon Sandwiches

i. Explicit Characteristics
ii. Implicit Characteristics

8. 6. Measuring and Governing Architecture

Characteristics

a. Measuring Architecture Characteristics

i. Operational Measures
ii. Structural Measures
iii. Process Measures

b. Governance and Fitness Functions

i. Governing Architecture Characteristics

 ii. Fitness Functions
9. 7. Scope of Architecture Characteristics

a. Coupling and Connascence

b. Architectural Quanta and Granularity
i. Case Study: Going, Going, Gone

10. 8. Component-Based Thinking

a. Component Scope
b. Architect Role

i. Architecture Partitioning
ii. Case Study: Silicon Sandwiches:
Partitioning
c. Developer Role
d. Component Identification Flow

i. Identifying Initial Components

ii. Assign Requirements to Components
iii. Analyze Roles and Responsibilities
iv. Analyze Architecture Characteristics
v. Restructure Components

e. Component Granularity
f. Component Design
i. Discovering Components

g. Case Study: Going, Going, Gone: Discovering

Components
 h. Architecture Quantum Redux: Choosing
Between Monolithic Versus Distributed
Architectures
11. II. Architecture Styles
12. 9. Foundations

a. Fundamental Patterns
i. Big Ball of Mud
ii. Unitary Architecture
iii. Client/Server
b. Monolithic Versus Distributed Architectures
i. Fallacy #1: The Network Is Reliable
ii. Fallacy #2: Latency Is Zero
iii. Fallacy #3: Bandwidth Is Infinite
iv. Fallacy #4: The Network Is Secure
v. Fallacy #5: The Topology Never
Changes
vi. Fallacy #6: There Is Only One
Administrator
vii. Fallacy #7: Transport Cost Is Zero
viii. Fallacy #8: The Network Is
Homogeneous
ix. Other Distributed Considerations

13. 10. Layered Architecture Style

a. Topology
 b. Layers of Isolation
c. Adding Layers
d. Other Considerations
e. Why Use This Architecture Style
f. Architecture Characteristics Ratings
14. 11. Pipeline Architecture Style

a. Topology
i. Pipes
ii. Filters

b. Example
c. Architecture Characteristics Ratings
15. 12. Microkernel Architecture Style

a. Topology
i. Core System
ii. Plug-In Components

b. Registry
c. Contracts
d. Examples and Use Cases
e. Architecture Characteristics Ratings
16. 13. Service-Based Architecture Style

a. Topology
b. Topology Variants
 c. Service Design and Granularity
d. Database Partitioning
e. Example Architecture
f. Architecture Characteristics Ratings
g. When to Use This Architecture Style
17. 14. Event-Driven Architecture Style

a. Topology
b. Broker Topology
c. Mediator Topology
d. Asynchronous Capabilities
e. Error Handling
f. Preventing Data Loss
g. Broadcast Capabilities
h. Request-Reply
i. Choosing Between Request-Based and Event-
Based
j. Hybrid Event-Driven Architectures
k. Architecture Characteristics Ratings

18. 15. Space-Based Architecture Style

a. General Topology

i. Processing Unit
ii. Virtualized Middleware
iii. Data Pumps
 iv. Data Writers
v. Data Readers
b. Data Collisions
c. Cloud Versus On-Premises Implementations
d. Replicated Versus Distributed Caching
e. Near-Cache Considerations
f. Implementation Examples
i. Concert Ticketing System
ii. Online Auction System
g. Architecture Characteristics Ratings
19. 16. Orchestration-Driven Service-Oriented Architecture

a. History and Philosophy

b. Topology
c. Taxonomy

i. Business Services
ii. Enterprise Services
iii. Application Services
iv. Infrastructure Services
v. Orchestration Engine
vi. Message Flow

d. Reuse…and Coupling
e. Architecture Characteristics Ratings
20. 17. Microservices Architecture

a. History
b. Topology
c. Distributed
d. Bounded Context
i. Granularity
ii. Data Isolation
e. API Layer
f. Operational Reuse
g. Frontends
h. Communication

i. Choreography and Orchestration

ii. Transactions and Sagas

i. Architecture Characteristics Ratings

j. Additional References

21. 18. Choosing the Appropriate Architecture Style

a. Shifting “Fashion” in Architecture
b. Decision Criteria
c. Monolith Case Study: Silicon Sandwiches
i. Modular Monolith
ii. Microkernel

d. Distributed Case Study: Going, Going, Gone

22. III. Techniques and Soft Skills
23. 19. Architecture Decisions

a. Architecture Decision Anti-Patterns

i. Covering Your Assets Anti-Pattern

ii. Groundhog Day Anti-Pattern
iii. Email-Driven Architecture Anti-
Pattern

b. Architecturally Significant
c. Architecture Decision Records

i. Basic Structure
ii. Storing ADRs
iii. ADRs as Documentation
iv. Using ADRs for Standards
v. Example

24. 20. Analyzing Architecture Risk

a. Risk Matrix
b. Risk Assessments
c. Risk Storming

i. Identification
ii. Consensus
d. Agile Story Risk Analysis
e. Risk Storming Examples
 i. Availability
ii. Elasticity
iii. Security
25. 21. Diagramming and Presenting Architecture

a. Diagramming

i. Tools
ii. Diagramming Standards: UML, C4,
and ArchiMate
iii. Diagram Guidelines

b. Presenting

i. Manipulating Time
ii. Incremental Builds
iii. Infodecks Versus Presentations
iv. Slides Are Half of the Story
v. Invisibility

26. 22. Making Teams Effective

a. Team Boundaries
b. Architect Personalities

i. Control Freak
ii. Armchair Architect
iii. Effective Architect

c. How Much Control?

d. Team Warning Signs
 e. Leveraging Checklists

i. Developer Code Completion Checklist

ii. Unit and Functional Testing Checklist
iii. Software Release Checklist

f. Providing Guidance
g. Summary
27. 23. Negotiation and Leadership Skills

a. Negotiation and Facilitation

i. Negotiating with Business Stakeholders

ii. Negotiating with Other Architects
iii. Negotiating with Developers
b. The Software Architect as a Leader

i. The 4 C’s of Architecture

ii. Be Pragmatic, Yet Visionary
iii. Leading Teams by Example

c. Integrating with the Development Team

d. Summary

28. 24. Developing a Career Path

a. The 20-Minute Rule
b. Developing a Personal Radar
i. The ThoughtWorks Technology Radar
ii. Open Source Visualization Bits
 c. Using Social Media
d. Parting Words of Advice
29. A. Self-Assessment Questions

a. Chapter 1: Introduction
b. Chapter 2: Architectural Thinking
c. Chapter 3: Modularity
d. Chapter 4: Architecture Characteristics Defined
e. Chapter 5: Identifying Architecture
Characteristics
f. Chapter 6: Measuring and Governing
Architecture Characteristics
g. Chapter 7: Scope of Architecture
Characteristics
h. Chapter 8: Component-Based Thinking
i. Chapter 9: Architecture Styles
j. Chapter 10: Layered Architecture Style
k. Chapter 11: Pipeline Architecture
l. Chapter 12: Microkernel Architecture
m. Chapter 13: Service-Based Architecture
n. Chapter 14: Event-Driven Architecture Style
o. Chapter 15: Space-Based Architecture
p. Chapter 16: Orchestration-Driven Service-
Oriented Architecture
q. Chapter 17: Microservices Architecture
 r. Chapter 18: Choosing the Appropriate
Architecture Style
s. Chapter 19: Architecture Decisions
t. Chapter 20: Analyzing Architecture Risk
u. Chapter 21: Diagramming and Presenting
Architecture
v. Chapter 22: Making Teams Effective
w. Chapter 23: Negotiation and Leadership Skills
x. Chapter 24: Developing a Career Path
30. Index
Praise for Fundamentals of Software Architecture

Neal and Mark aren’t just outstanding software architects;

they are also exceptional teachers. With Fundamentals of
Software Architecture, they have managed to condense the
sprawling topic of architecture into a concise work that
reflects their decades of experience. Whether you’re new to
the role or you’ve been a practicing architect for many years,
this book will help you be better at your job. I only wish
they’d written this earlier in my career.
—Nathaniel Schutta, Architect as a Service,
ntschutta.io

Mark and Neal set out to achieve a formidable goal—to

elucidate the many, layered fundamentals required to excel
in software architecture—and they completed their quest.
The software architecture field continuously evolves, and the
role requires a daunting breadth and depth of knowledge
and skills. This book will serve as a guide for many as they
navigate their journey to software architecture mastery.
—Rebecca J. Parsons, CTO, ThoughtWorks
Mark and Neal truly capture real world advice for
technologists to drive architecture excellence. They achieve
this by identifying common architecture characteristics and
the trade-offs that are necessary to drive success.
—Cassie Shum, Technical Director,
ThoughtWorks
Fundamentals of Software
Architecture
An Engineering Approach

Mark Richards and Neal Ford

Fundamentals of Software Architecture

by Mark Richards and Neal Ford

Copyright © 2020 Mark Richards, Neal Ford. All rights

reserved.

Printed in the United States of America.

Published by O’Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway

North, Sebastopol, CA 95472.

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Indexer: Ellen Troutman-Zaig

 Interior Designer: David Futato

Cover Designer: Karen Montgomery

Illustrator: Rebecca Demarest

February 2020: First Edition

Revision History for the First Edition

2020-01-27: First Release

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for release details.

The O’Reilly logo is a registered trademark of O’Reilly Media,

Inc. Fundamentals of Software Architecture, the cover image,
and related trade dress are trademarks of O’Reilly Media, Inc.

The views expressed in this work are those of the authors, and
do not represent the publisher’s views. While the publisher and
the authors have used good faith efforts to ensure that the
information and instructions contained in this work are
accurate, the publisher and the authors disclaim all
responsibility for errors or omissions, including without
limitation responsibility for damages resulting from the use of
or reliance on this work. Use of the information and
instructions contained in this work is at your own risk. If any
code samples or other technology this work contains or
describes is subject to open source licenses or the intellectual
property rights of others, it is your responsibility to ensure that
your use thereof complies with such licenses and/or rights.

978-1-492-04345-4

[LSI]
Preface: Invalidating
Axioms
Axiom

A statement or proposition which is regarded as being

established, accepted, or self-evidently true.

Mathematicians create theories based on axioms, assumptions

for things indisputably true. Software architects also build
theories atop axioms, but the software world is, well, softer
than mathematics: fundamental things continue to change at a
rapid pace, including the axioms we base our theories upon.

The software development ecosystem exists in a constant state

of dynamic equilibrium: while it exists in a balanced state at
any given point in time, it exhibits dynamic behavior over the
long term. A great modern example of the nature of this
ecosystem follows the ascension of containerization and the
attendant changes: tools like Kubernetes didn’t exist a decade
ago, yet now entire software conferences exist to service its
users. The software ecosystem changes chaotically: one small
change causes another small change; when repeated hundreds
of times, it generates a new ecosystem.
Architects have an important responsibility to question
assumptions and axioms left over from previous eras. Many of
the books about software architecture were written in an era
that only barely resembles the current world. In fact, the
authors believe that we must question fundamental axioms on
a regular basis, in light of improved engineering practices,
operational ecosystems, software development processes—
everything that makes up the messy, dynamic equilibrium
where architects and developers work each day.

Careful observers of software architecture over time witnessed

an evolution of capabilities. Starting with the engineering
practices of Extreme Programming, continuing with Continuous
Delivery, the DevOps revolution, microservices,
containerization, and now cloud-based resources, all of these
innovations led to new capabilities and trade-offs. As
capabilities changed, so did architects’ perspectives on the
industry. For many years, the tongue-in-cheek definition of
software architecture was “the stuff that’s hard to change
later.” Later, the microservices architecture style appeared,
where change is a first-class design consideration.

Each new era requires new practices, tools, measurements,

patterns, and a host of other changes. This book looks at
software architecture in modern light, taking into account all
the innovations from the last decade, along with some new
metrics and measures suited to today’s new structures and
perspectives.
The subtitle of our book is “An Engineering Approach.”
Developers have long wished to change software development
from a craft, where skilled artisans can create one-off works,
to an engineering discipline, which implies repeatability, rigor,
and effective analysis. While software engineering still lags
behind other types of engineering disciplines by many orders
of magnitude (to be fair, software is a very young discipline
compared to most other types of engineering), architects have
made huge improvements, which we’ll discuss. In particular,
modern Agile engineering practices have allowed great strides
in the types of systems that architects design.

We also address the critically important issue of trade-off

analysis. As a software developer, it’s easy to become
enamored with a particular technology or approach. But
architects must always soberly assess the good, bad, and ugly
of every choice, and virtually nothing in the real world offers
convenient binary choices—everything is a trade-off. Given this
pragmatic perspective, we strive to eliminate value judgments
about technology and instead focus on analyzing trade-offs to
equip our readers with an analytic eye toward technology
choices.

This book won’t make someone a software architecture

overnight—it’s a nuanced field with many facets. We want to
provide existing and burgeoning architects a good modern
overview of software architecture and its many aspects, from
structure to soft skills. While this book covers well-known
patterns, we take a new approach, leaning on lessons learned,
tools, engineering practices, and other input. We take many
existing axioms in software architecture and rethink them in
light of the current ecosystem, and design architectures, taking
the modern landscape into account.

Conventions Used in This Book

The following typographical conventions are used in this book:

Italic

Indicates new terms, URLs, email addresses, filenames, and

file extensions.

Constant width

Used for program listings, as well as within paragraphs to

refer to program elements such as variable or function
names, databases, data types, environment variables,
statements, and keywords.

Constant width bold

Shows commands or other text that should be typed

literally by the user.

Constant width italic

Shows text that should be replaced with user-supplied

values or by values determined by context.
 TIP
This element signifies a tip or suggestion.

Using Code Examples

Supplemental material (code examples, exercises, etc.) is
available for download at
http://fundamentalsofsoftwarearchitecture.com.

If you have a technical question or a problem using the code

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This book is here to help you get your job done. In general, if
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We appreciate, but generally do not require, attribution. An

attribution usually includes the title, author, publisher, and
ISBN. For example: “Fundamentals of Software Architecture by
Mark Richards and Neal Ford (O’Reilly). Copyright 2020 Mark
Richards, Neal Ford, 978-1-492-04345-4.”

If you feel your use of code examples falls outside fair use or
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Acknowledgments
Mark and Neal would like to thank all the people who attended
our classes, workshops, conference sessions, user group
meetings, as well as all the other people who listened to
versions of this material and provided invaluable feedback. We
would also like to thank the publishing team at O’Reilly, who
made this as painless an experience as writing a book can be.
We would also like to thank No Stuff Just Fluff director Jay
Zimmerman for creating a conference series that allows good
technical content to grow and spread, and all the other
speakers whose feedback and tear-soaked shoulders we
appreciate. We would also like to thank a few random oases of
sanity-preserving and idea-sparking groups that have names
like Pasty Geeks and the Hacker B&B.

Acknowledgments from Mark Richards

In addition to the preceding acknowledgments, I would like to
thank my lovely wife, Rebecca. Taking everything else on at
home and sacrificing the opportunity to work on your own
book allowed me to do additional consulting gigs and speak at
more conferences and training classes, giving me the
opportunity to practice and hone the material for this book.
You are the best.

Acknowledgments from Neal Ford

Neal would like to thank his extended family, ThoughtWorks as
a collective, and Rebecca Parsons and Martin Fowler as
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
 “I have read in some book that the most beautiful part of
every country is where the mountains sink down into the
plains, and of this assertion the situation of Tarbes offers an
excellent illustration. If I had never gone further into the
Pyrenees than Tarbes I might have said that nothing can
exceed the beauty of its neighbourhood. The charming plain
that environs it—yet not altogether a plain—stretches to the
foot of the mountains, rich in every production of the
southern latitude, beautifully diversified with wood, and
watered by the meanderings of the Adour and of several
lesser streams. The celebrated Valley of Bagnères opens to
the left, that of Lourdes to the right; while in the south,
apparently at but a few leagues distant, the Pic du Midi
towers above the range of mountains that extend to the right
and to the left, as far as the eye can reach.
“After the long continuation of carriage-travelling from
Avignon to Tarbes—oh, how I enjoyed this morning! It was a
glorious morning, and the magnificent range of the Pyrenees,
rising sharply from the plain, was bathed in sunbeams, which
gilded the eminences, reposed on the slopes, and gleamed in
among the valleys. If this book should chance to be read by
anyone who knows the scenery of Scotland, let him recollect
the road from Stirling along the foot of the Ochill Hills, and he
will have a better conception of the country through which I
am now conveying him, than could be conveyed by a
thousand minute descriptions. It is true his imagination must
assist me; he must imagine the Ochills seven to eight
thousand feet high in place of two thousand; he must
substitute Indian corn of the most luxuriant growth, for oats
and barley; and, in place of whin-blossoms covering the
knolls, he must fancy them clothed with vine; he must add
the charm of a southern sky, and the balminess of a southern
clime.”
 Tarbes is a huge, straddling city, a great village giving itself the
airs of a capital. On entering it from the station the town has an
unattractive aspect. An avenue has been driven from the Gave to the
Place Maubourguet, which is the centre of the town; but it has few
houses along it, and none of consequence, and these throughout
Tarbes have the appearance of villas in a suburb, surrounded with
gardens. Some effort has been made to retrieve the ugliness of the
town by the erection of fountains and statues, and by planting
handsome promenades. But it is a lifeless place, only acquiring
animation on the occasion of its fairs. The river strays in its vast bed,
broken into several streams by rubble banks. It has been drawn off
above the town by numerous channels of irrigation, so that when it
reaches Tarbes it is out of proportion to its bed, as might be an
infant in the vast fourposter of Ware.
But the Jardin Massey is the pride of Tarbes; it is a park
extending over thirty acres—space is no object in Tarbes—and is
really interesting. It was the gift to his native town by the man
whose name it bears. Massey left Tarbes as a journeyman gardener,
and visited Holland, where he obtained a situation as director of the
gardens of the king. Louis Philippe summoned him to France, and
made him manager of the gardens of Versailles. As he had amassed
a good deal of money, he resolved on spending it for the adornment
of his native town. He bought the land where now is the park, dug a
lake, formed water-courses, planted rare trees, laid out flower-beds
and lawns, and built a museum of natural history commanded by a
lofty tower. In fifty years the trees have grown to a considerable
size; and later benefactors have enriched the gardens with statues,
busts, and the museum with sculptures and paintings. In the park
has been erected the beautiful cloister of the fifteenth century
removed from S. Sever-de-Rustan, a monastery wrecked by the
Calvinists, under Lizier, who massacred all the inhabitants of the
town, with the exception of seven persons. The monks would have
been also put to death but that Queen Jeanne had already
suppressed the abbey, and they had been dispersed. Next to the
Jardin Massey the Haras should be inspected.
 In ancient days the horses of the county of Bigorre, the
viscounty of Béarn, and of Lower Navarre were highly esteemed; the
race was called Navarrine, and it owed its merits to the fact that it
was a cross between the Arab and the native Pyrenean stock. The
Saracens had crossed the mountains, overflowed Aquitaine, and
threatened Northern France, they were met at Poitiers and routed by
Charles Martel in 731. Three hundred thousand Saracens, say the
old chroniclers, with their usual exaggeration, fell on the field; the
rest fled, the main body to Narbonne, others to such passes as they
knew that led to Saragossa. A battle was fought near Tarbes, in
which the flying remnant was utterly routed and exterminated. A
great number of their stallions and mares remained in the hands of
the victors, and it was from this capture that sprang the so much
coveted and esteemed race of the Navarrine horse.
By degrees the quality declined and degenerated, reverting to
the type of the Basque horse. This was due partly to lack of
importation of fresh Arab blood, and partly to the mountaineers
neglecting the breeding of horses for that of mules, specially
serviceable to them among the mountain passes where were tracks,
but no roads. The evil became so great that the Estates of Bigorre
voted two thousand livres annually for the maintenance of stallions.
During the Revolution, when there was great demand for mounts for
the cavalry, the scarcity of good horses attracted the attention of the
Council of Five Hundred. Napoleon took the matter in hand with his
characteristic energy. In 1806 he founded the Haras at Tarbes, and
the introduction of English blood was the basis of the transformation
attempted. Later, during the campaigns in Algeria, the finest stallions
taken from the Arabs were sent to Tarbes; and the result has been
the production of a horse admirably adapted to the use of light
cavalry, that goes now by the name of the Tarbes horse. Mm.
Simonoff and Mörder, of the Russian haras, thus speak of it:—

“The three bloods of which the Tarbes horse derives—the

Arab, the English, and the old Navarrin—are so near to each
other, being all of Oriental origin, that the fusion took place
 easily and quickly; and although as yet the Tarbes horses are
not of perfect homogeneity, it is quite possible to speak of
them as forming a race which by its qualities, is rather full
blood; than half blood.”

The stallions are in the Haras at Tarbes, but the mares are
dispersed within a radius of twenty kilometres around Tarbes; and
the rearing of colts is the industry, and makes the fortune of the
department, at all events of the plain and fertile valleys. Within the
district where they are reared there is not a village, not a farm, that
has not its mares for breeding. Even curés supplement their scanty
incomes by keeping them, and rearing from them. One, the Abbé
Turon, sold to the State his stallion Mousquetaire for 20,000 francs.
This roused a great outcry among the Radicals, who denounced the
Government for having bought from a priest. Tarbes is the old
capital of Bigorre, and here resided the Count. I have already
mentioned Centule I of Béarn, assassinated in 1088, who put away
his wife with the approval of Pope Gregory VII, so as to marry the
heiress of Bigorre. By this union Bigorre and Béarn were not united,
for his son Gaston by the repudiated Gisela became Viscount of
Béarn, and his son Bernard III inherited Bigorre. This Bernard left
issue, a daughter only, named Beatrice, who married Peter, Viscount
de Marsan, by whom she had Centule III, and he also left an
heiress, Stephanie, married to Bertrand, Count of Cominges, by
whom she had one child, a daughter Petronilla.
The story of the annexation of Bigorre to Foix and Béarn is
complicated through the matrimonial vagaries of this same
Petronilla. And this was further complicated by the action of a pious
ancestor, Count Bernard II, who in a fit of maudlin devotion placed
his territory and family under the protection of the black doll, Notre
Dame du Puy, promising in return for this protection that the county
should annually pay tribute to the church of Le Puy. Certainly Our
Lady of Puy treated Bigorre scurvily in return, allowing the
inheritance to slip through heiresses, five in all, and, moreover, to
involve it in a lawsuit that lasted a hundred and thirty-nine years.
 Petronilla married Gaston, Viscount of Béarn, and when he died
without issue, in 1215, took as number two Nûnez de Cerdagne, but
tired of him speedily, got the marriage annulled, on the convenient
plea of consanguinity, and married in 1216 Guy, son of Simon de
Montfort. This was sharp work—three husbands in a twelvemonth.
By Guy she had two daughters, Alix and Perette. In 1228 she took a
fourth husband, Aimart de Rançon, and on his death, in the same
year, she espoused her fifth, Boso de Mastas, to whom she bore a
daughter, Martha. By her will Petronilla constituted Esquirat, eldest
son of her daughter Alix, heir to her estates and titles; but in default
of male issue the succession was to go to Jordan, the second son of
Alix. Should he fail to have a son, then the second substitution was
in favour of Martha, her daughter by Boso, who was married to
Gaston VII of Béarn. Esquirat did have a son, also named Esquirat,
but this second Esquirat died childless, and bequeathed the county
of Bigorre to his sister Lore, as his uncle Jordan had died without
issue. Now Petronilla and her third husband Guy de Montfort had left
a second daughter, Perette, married to Raoul de Teisson, and had by
him a son William de Teisson, who conceived that he had a right to
the inheritance. Martha, wife of Gaston de Béarn, had a daughter
Constance, and she also put in a claim. In fact, these were the
claimants: Lore, Viscountess de Turenne; Constance, Viscountess de
Béarn; William de Teisson; and Mahut, daughter of Alix and Raoul de
Courtenay. But that was not all. The younger Esquirat had made
over his inheritance to Simon de Montfort by a first will, and then,
offended at the grasping nature of Simon, had revoked his will and
constituted Lore his heiress. But Simon refused to recognize the
legality of this second will, sold the viscounty to Thibalt II, King of
Navarre, whose son Henry gave his claim to it to Jeanne, his
daughter, married to Philip the Fair, King of France, and he was but
too ready to acquire this rich district of Gascony on any plea, bad or
good. The church of Le Puy also put in a claim, so did the King of
England as overlord. Consequently there were from eight to nine
claimants.
 By decree of Parliament, in 1290, the rights of the church of Le
Puy to the charge on the viscounty were confirmed.
Constance, Viscountess of Béarn, occupied Bigorre with her
troops, and assumed the title of Countess of Bigorre. Jeanne of
France, however, expelled her, adopted the title, and Philip the Fair
asserted his right to the territory, and was prepared to maintain it by
force of arms. Philip had already bought off the rights of the church
of Le Puy. Bigorre remained under the crown of France till Charles
VIII in 1425 granted it to John, Count of Foix, in return for his
services against the English, and in consideration of his descent from
Petronilla.
From 1425 to 1566 the county of Bigorre was wisely
administered by the viscounts of Béarn, who had become titular
Kings of Navarre.
Tarbes was fortified in the tenth century by Raymond I. It
suffered destruction at the hands of the English in 1350 and 1406.
But its greatest disasters took place during the Wars of Religion.
Jeanne d’Albret was resolved on forcing the Reform on the
Bigorriens, but they ejected the Huguenot pastors as fast as they
were sent to them, and appealed to the King of France, who sent
troops in 1569 to their aid. Jeanne enlisted the services of
Montgomery. He swept through the country, ravaging it with fire and
sword. He sent his lieutenant, Montamat, to take Tarbes, and
Montamat appeared under its walls on 20 January, 1570. The
besieged, finding it impossible to hold out, evacuated the city during
the night. When the Huguenots entered they found no one in the
place, and they pillaged the houses and set them on fire.
When he was gone the inhabitants returned and began to
restore their wrecked and gutted houses and to repair the walls.
Montamat reappeared, bringing cannons with him. François de
Bennasse, commandant of the garrison at Lourdes, had hastened to
the defence of the capital at the head of 800 men. Montamat
attempted an assault, and was repulsed. But a traitor in the town
opened the gates to the Calvinists, and the captain entered.
Bennasse, all his soldiers, and many of the citizens were put to the
sword. The number massacred was so great that it took eight days
to bury them.

“This took place,” says a contemporary writer, “about the

feast of Easter, in the year 1570. After that the city of Tarbes
remained without inhabitants, and the grass grew in the
streets as in a field, a piteous sight to behold. And three
whole years elapsed without there being a garrison in it; but
indeed the town was incapable of defence on account of the
ruins made by the cannon.”

Peace was concluded at S. Germain-en-Laye on 15 May, 1570,

and it was hoped that tranquillity would ensue. But this was not to
be. Passions had been wrought to frenzy, and the thirst for revenge
was consuming. The death of Jeanne d’Albret in 1579 did not allay
the troubles. In 1592 the town became the prey of the Leaguers of
Cominges, and from it they issued to devastate the surrounding
country, till expelled in 1594. Almost the whole population of
Cominges had embraced the cause of the League. “There was never
before seen such disorder, such pillage, from the beginning of these
wars. Captains, soldiers, valets, and volunteers were so laden with
furniture that they were carrying off that they complained it was a
trouble to them to be encumbered with so much spoil. Moreover, in
despair, the peasants of Bigorre abandoned the cultivation of the
land, and many migrated into Spain.”
In 1594 the people themselves rose, and, assisted by Caumont
de la Force, delivered themselves from both Leaguers and
Protestants, and peace was celebrated at Tarbes.
On 12 March, 1814, a combat took place between the English
and Portuguese under Wellington, and the French under Soult. After
the defeat of Orthez Soult had withdrawn his dispirited soldiers along
both banks of the Adour, steadily pursued by Wellington.
 “A light division,” says Allison, “and hussars were on the
right bank of the Adour; but when they approached the town,
a simultaneous movement was made by Hill with the right
wing, and Clinton on the left, to envelope and cut off Harispe
and Villatte’s divisions, which formed the French rearguard in
occupation of it.
“The combat began at twelve o’clock by a violent fire
from Hill’s artillery on the right, which was immediately re-
echoed in still louder tones by Clinton on the left; while Alton,
with the light division, assailed the centre. The French fought
stoutly, and, mistaking the British rifle battalions, from their
dark uniforms, to be Portuguese, let them come up to the
very muzzles of their guns. But the rifles were hardy veterans,
inured to victory; and at length Harispe’s men, unable to
stand their deadly point-blank fire, broke and fled. If Clinton’s
men on the left had been up at this moment, the French
would have been totally destroyed; for Hill had, at the same
moment, driven back Villate on the right, and the plain
beyond Tarbes was covered with a confused mass of
fugitives, closely followed by the shouting of victorious British.
But Clinton’s troops, notwithstanding the utmost efforts, had
not been able to get up; the numerous ditches and hedges
which intersected the plain rendered all pursuit impossible;
and thus the French, though utterly broken, succeeded with
very little loss in reaching a ridge, three miles distant, when
Clauzel, who, with four divisions, was drawn up to receive
them, immediately opened fire from all his batteries upon the
allies.”

During the night Soult retired in two columns, and such was the
rapidity of his retreat that he reached Toulouse in four days.
A native of Tarbes, of whom the town has no occasion to boast,
was Bertrand Barrère, born 10 September, 1755. He was educated
for the Bar at Toulouse, and became a scrivener at Toul. As his
father owned a pretty estate at Vieuzac, in the Valley of Argelez, he
called himself Barrère de Vieuzac, flattering himself that by this
feudal addition to his name he might pass for a gentleman. He was
sent as deputy for Bigorre to the States-General. Being totally devoid
of principle, when the result of a parliamentary struggle could not be
foreseen he took the precaution of having in his pocket two
speeches, written in opposed senses, so that he could always jump
in the direction taken by the cat. Barrère had affected the moderate
principles of the Girondists, till he saw that the extremists were the
strongest, and then he threw in his lot with the Mountain, and voted
for the execution of the King. Then seeing that the current ran
strong against the Girondists, he took the foremost place in
procuring the condemnation to the scaffold of those with whom he
had previously acted in concert. He it was who was set up in the
convention to call for the blood of the Queen. On the day on which
Marie Antoinette was dragged to execution Barrère regaled
Robespierre and other Jacobins at a tavern.

“In the intervals between the Beaume and the

Champagne, between the ragout of thrushes and the
partridges with truffles, he fervently preached his new
political creed. ‘The vessel of the Revolution,’ he said, ‘can
float into port only on waves of blood. We must begin with
the members of the National Assembly and of the Legislative
Assembly. That rubbish must be swept away.’”

The Reign of Terror began. The Jacobins had prevailed all along
the line. The Convention was reduced to silence. The sovereignty
had passed to the Committee of Public Safety. Six persons held the
chief power in the small cabinet which domineered over France:
Robespierre, Saint Just, Couthon, Collot, Billaud, and Barrère who
had hastily divested himself of his territorial appendix of De Vieuzac.
Of the horrors of those days it is unnecessary to speak. As guilty as
Robespierre or Couthon was the bland, timorous, unscrupulous
Barrère. He it was who proposed the burning of the towns and
villages of the Vendéeans, the total destruction of Lyons, the
violation of the royal graves at S. Denys, the deportation of all such
as could not bring irrecusable proof of patriotism since 1792. He
became the declared adversary of Danton when he found it safe to
take that part, and proposed his arrest on the 9th Thermidor. He
contributed powerfully to the fall of Robespierre; but he had made
so many enemies, was so little trusted, that instead of rising higher
by the fall of Robespierre, he found himself unable to maintain his
balance. He was denounced before the revolutionary tribunal, along
with Collot d’Herbois and Billaud-Varennes, and was sentenced to be
deported to the pestilential swamps of Cayenne, but obtained the
change of his destination to the Isle of Oléron. After having
sacrificed his old allies, the Hébertistes, the Dantonistes, and the
Robespierristes, he himself had fallen. When moved later from
Oléron to Saintes, he succeeded in escaping from prison. The coup
d’état of the eighteenth Brumaire restored him to liberty. We need
not follow in detail his further adventures. When Louis XVIII gained
the throne of his ancestors by the aid of foreign bayonets, Barrère
fled to Brussels. The revolution of July put an end to his exile, and
he returned to the south of France, and settled at Argelez, where he
died 14 January, 1841.
His memoirs in four volumes were published under the
editorship of Hippolyte Carnot and David d’Angers, in 1843. They are
replete with disingenuousness in the representation of the part he
played, as also of falsehoods, that can be proved to be such by
reference to the contemporary files of the Moniteur.
Macaulay, at the opening of his long and brilliant essay on
Barrère, says:—

“Our opinion is this: that Barrère approached nearer than

any person mentioned in history or fiction, whether man or
devil, to the idea of consummate and universal depravity. In
him the qualities which are the proper objects of hatred, and
the qualities which are the proper objects of contempt,
preserve an exquisite and absolute harmony. In almost every
particular sort of wickedness he has had rivals. His sensuality
was immoderate; but this was a failing common to him with
 many great and amiable men. There have been many men as
cowardly as he, some as cruel, a few as mean, a few as
impudent. There may also have been as great liars, though
we never met with them or read of them. But when we put
everything together—sensuality, paltroonery, baseness,
effrontery, mendacity, barbarity—the result is something
which in a novel we would condemn as a caricature, and to
which, we venture to say, no parallel can be found in history.”

At the close of the article Macaulay says in reference to

Hippolyte Carnot, who states that Barrère was at no time a sceptic,
that he was the author of a pious treatise, entitled, Of Christianity
and its Influence, as also of a book of meditations on the Psalms:—

“This makes the character complete. Whatsoever things

are false, whatsoever things are dishonest, whatsoever things
are unjust, whatsoever things are impure, whatsoever things
are hateful, whatsoever things are of evil report; if there be
any vice, and if there be any infamy, all these things, we
knew, were blended in Barrère. But one thing was still
wanting, and that M. Hippolyte Carnot has supplied. When to
such an assemblage of qualities a high profession of piety is
added, the effect is overpowering.
“We have no pleasure in seeing human nature thus
degraded. We turn with disgust from the filthy and spiteful
Yahoos of the fiction; and the filthiest and most spiteful Yahoo
of the fiction was a noble creature when compared with the
Barrère of history. But what is no pleasure M. Carnot has
made a duty. It is no light thing that a man in high and
honourable public trust should come forward to demand
approbation for a life black with every sort of wickedness, and
unredeemed by a single virtue. This M. Hippolyte Carnot has
done. By attempting to enshrine this Jacobin carrion, he has
forced us to gibbet it; and we may venture to say that, from
 the eminence of infamy on which we have placed it, he will
not easily take it down.”

Strange irony of fate. In Barrère’s native town, his victim,

Danton, only less detestable than himself, is glorified with a
monument, a statue in bronze. After Danton, perhaps Tarbes will
erect one to Barrère.
 CHAPTER XIII
BAGNÈRES
Visitors and residents—Pic du Midi—Ramond—Springs—
Captain Lizier—Observatory—Vaussenat and Nansouty—Death
of the former—Val de Campan—Château d’Asté—The
Grammont family—La belle Corisande—Philibert de Grammont
—His memoirs—Larrey—Marbles—The Lac bleu—Slate
quarries—The Cagots—Caput Mortuum—Lepers—
Recuperative power of Nature—Efforts of the Church to break
down the barrier—Crestiaas.

B
agnères de Bigorre is a town, but it is country as well; it has
the amusements and dissipations provided by a place of
public resort, but it has also lovely and quiet resting-places
in mountain solitudes.

It swarms during the season with water-drinkers, bathers,

loungers, ladies who wear elegant toilettes, and bucks turned out by
the best Parisian tailors. But it also contains marble works, linen
factories, and women who are skilful at the knitting of the so-called
Barèges shawls. The wool is from Spain, the finest Merino, and this
enables them to make the shawls delicate as lace.
To the south lie the mountains rising steeply, and commanded by
the Pic du Midi. For long a rivalry existed between the Bigorriens and
they of Roussillon as to whether the Pic du Midi or the Canigou was
the loftiest mountain of the Pyrenean chain; indeed, some claimed
for each that it was the highest peak in Europe. In both cases the
mistake was due to the position of each mountain starting boldly out
of the plain.
It was due to Ramond that the Pic du Midi was forced to lower
its pretensions. In 1787 this secretary of the Cardinal de Rohan
ascended the mountain, and on reaching the summit, and seeing
before him to the south the perpetual snows of the gleaming
glaciers above the Cirque of Gavarnie, he realized what had not
before been suspected, that the Pic du Midi was but a mountain of
the second order. Then the inspiration took him to explore the whole
range. He was engaged for fifteen years on the task, and he was the
first to reveal to French people what the Pyrenees really were. Till he
had explored them they knew nothing about the chains save what
they saw from the plains, and from the passes leading into Spain, for
at that time no roads had been engineered up the gorges. The
visitor went no farther than to Laruns in the Val d’Ossau, and
Pierrefite in that of Argelez, unless he committed himself to a guide,
and mounted a mule, and was led over wild heights along mere
tracks.
The explorations of Ramond and his successors have been
recorded with humour by H. Béraldi in his book, Cent ans aux
Pyrenees:—

“He accomplished,” says Ardouin-Dumazet, “that which

ought to have been done for the Alps; they also were
undiscovered, scientifically, till the year 1787. For, be it
observed, Ramond received his inspiration on the top of the
Pic du Midi, in the same year in which Saussure reached the
summit of Mont Blanc, along with Jacques Balmat.”

The mountains rising steeply to the south of Bagnères render

the place cool in summer, when some of the sun is cut off; but it is a
dreary residence in the winter, for the same reason.
 There are springs of various temperatures and mineral
components, ferruginous, sulphurous, etc., advertised as good for
nearly every complaint under the sun. It was the Roman Aquæ
Convenarum, and visitors may now bathe in the marble basins in
which Gallo-Roman ladies and gentlemen dipped. Bagnères was
always a town, and in the Hôtel de Ville are preserved archives
containing much relative to the history of the place; among these is
a charter of Esquirat, Count of Bigorre, confirming the customs and
liberties of Bagnères, dated 1251.
The history of the town is one of untroubled serenity till the
times of the Wars of Religion. Captain Lizier, the Huguenot, on
occupying Tarbes, imposed a heavy subsidy on the neighbouring
towns, Bagnères included. But Bagnères demurred to raising the
contribution demanded. Lizier marched to it, got hold of the
governor, Beaudéan, and shot him. The people of Bagnères resolved
on revenge. They drew the terrible captain into an ambuscade and
killed him to the shout of “Remember Beaudéan!”
On the summit of the Pic du Midi is an observatory, erected by
the energy of two men: Vaussenat and General Nansouty. Vaussenat
was a native of Grenoble, born of a labouring family in 1837. He was
admitted into the school of arts, and traded at Aix, and on leaving it
was engaged in search for metals in Savoy. But summoned to the
Pyrenees to manage some mines there, he married a niece of a
general at Bagnères, and settled there. He saw, what indeed others
had seen before him, that the Pic was admirably suited for a
meteorological observatory, but he could not induce the Government
to take any steps towards its construction. However, he managed to
communicate his enthusiasm to General Nansouty, and between
them the foundations were laid and the work was begun. The
general took up his abode in the cabin of Sencours, just below the
terminal cone, where he passed winter and summer registering his
observations, whilst Vaussenat travelled through France, lecturing,
exhorting, wringing money for the work out of learned societies and
from generous individuals. Nansouty underwent great hardships. On
one occasion, in December, 1874, a furious tempest burst over the
refuge of Sencours, and twelve feet of snow was heaped on the
roof, one of the windows was blown in, and the door gave way. It
was absolutely necessary to quit the place. Nansouty, aided by his
two companions, took seventeen hours struggling through the snow
to reach the bottom, a distance that can easily be mounted in two
hours and a half.
The observatory was completed in 1882, and was made over by
these two energetic men to the State, whereupon Vaussenat was
appointed director of the observatory. He lived till 1891, when he fell
ill in it. He was being conveyed down the mountain, when one of the
bearers slipped, and Vaussenat was flung down a steep descent of
ice. He was taken up and carried to Bagnères, where he succumbed
eight days after.
Bagnères is at the mouth of the Val de Campan. In it are the ivy-
mantled ruins of the Castle of Asté. They are inconsiderable, and in
themselves hardly deserve a visit. But they are of some historic
interest, as this Château d’Asté was the second cradle of the dukes
of Grammont. The barons d’Asté, early in the sixteenth century,
became viscounts, and Menard d’Aure, Viscount Asté, had the good
luck to marry the heiress of Grammont. Thenceforth his descendants
assumed the title of counts of Grammont and viscounts of Asté.
Their principal residence now became Grammont, in Labourde,
on the Bidouze; but for hunting the wolf and the bear, and in the
heat of summer they came to Asté. Here it was that the amorous
Henri Quatre was wont to visit la belle Corisande, wife of Philibert de
Grammont, who died at the age of twenty-eight, in 1580. Diana, or
la belle Corisande, was the only daughter of Paul, Viscount Louvigny.
By her husband she had Anthony, Count of Grammont, and Guiche,
also of Louvigny, Seigneur of Bidache, Viscount Asté, Viceroy of
Navarre, Governor and Perpetual Hereditary Mayor of Bayonne. One
of his sons, Philibert, married Elizabeth, daughter of George, Earl of
Hamilton. Her picture is in the National Portrait Gallery, and one
wonders, looking at it, how she could have been called “la belle
Hamilton” in the French Court.
 Philibert and Elizabeth had a daughter, Claude Charlotte, who
married Henry Howard, Earl of Stafford. It was of Philibert, born in
1621, and who died in 1707, that the entertaining memoirs were
written by Anthony Hamilton. It has been well said:—

“The history of Grammont may be considered as unique:

there is nothing like it in any language. In drollery, knowledge
of the world, various satire, general utility, united with great
vivacity of composition, Gil Blas is unrivalled; but as a merely
agreeable book, the Memoirs of Grammont perhaps deserve
that character more than any which was ever written; it is
pleasantry throughout, and pleasantry of the best sort;
unforced, graceful, and engaging. Some French critic has
justly observed that if any book were to be selected as
affording the truest specimen of perfect French gaiety, the
Memoirs of Grammont would be selected in preference to all
others.”

In the church of Asté is a white marble statue of the Virgin that

is an object of great veneration; also a painting attributed to Philippe
de Champagne. The village of Beaudéan was the native place of the
surgeon Larrey, born in 1766, who behaved with great self-devotion
in the battle of Eylau and the retreat from Moscow. Napoleon I said
that he was the most honest man he had ever known, and the most
disinterested. He created him a baron, and bequeathed to him
100,000 francs. Larrey died in 1847. The house in which he was born
is a humble cottage; he bequeathed it to the parish that it might be
turned into a school.
Campan, that gives its name to the somewhat overpraised valley,
is chiefly known for the marbles it produces. The peristyle of the
Grand Trianon, the new and vulgar opera-house at Paris, have
employed this splendid marble. Even Berlin has had recourse to its
quarries for twenty-two columns of the royal palace.
There are several mountain tarns more or less accessible from
Bagnères. That most easily reached—but taking six hours—is the Lac
Bleu, a beautiful sheet of water of the most intense sapphire-blue,
girded about by rocks of a golden yellow. It covers 98 acres, and is
360 feet deep. The spirit of utility has mounted to this height, and
bridled the outflow, and uses it for economic purposes. A tunnel 900
feet long has been bored through the rocks on the north side of the
lake, to draw off the water as needed in times when the Adour has
dwindled to a thread, and cannot feed the channels of irrigation
needed in the plain.
Other tarns are the Lac de Peyrelade, lying in a cirque under the
Pic du Midi, also the Lac d’Isaby.
Many delightful valleys open out into the Val de Campan, The
longest of these is that through which flows the Oussonet, that
reaches the Adour some way below Bagnères; but a good road takes
directly from Bagnères to the lateral valley of Labassere, famous for
its slate quarries. The excavations are in the flanks of the mountain,
and are numerous. The products are brought down by a funicular
contrivance worked by electricity, taking the place of the zigzag road
by which oxen formerly conveyed the slates below. The men who
split the slates wear heavy sabots scooped out of billets of beech
that have not been shaped externally, so as better to resist, should
the sharp, cutting flakes fall on the feet. The men’s legs are bound
about thickly with rags to protect them from the same danger, as the
slate cuts like a razor. The slate-splitters form the aristocracy of the
trade, and although their labour is less considerable than that of the
quarrymen, they receive double the pay of these latter. For a slate-
cutter has to learn the art before he is aged fourteen, whilst the
muscles are most flexible. At the age of twenty he has to undergo
military service, and when he returns to his shed and tools, at the
age of twenty-four, finds it very difficult to recover the skill he
possessed before he donned uniform.
One of the most interesting and perplexing themes connected
with the Pyrenees is the origin of the Cagots, a “race maudit,” that
was found throughout the chain, but not there solely. It existed as
well in Brittany.
 In a considerable number of churches may be seen the Cagots’
door, through which alone they might pass into a portion of the
church reserved for them, and cut off from the rest, and where
alone they might assist at divine worship. In some of the towns are
streets called Rues des Cagots, in which these outcasts herded. At
one time they were not suffered to inhabit the villages, but were
relegated to isolated hamlets, and they had separate burial grounds.
They might not associate with the more privileged natives, and inter-
marriages with them were strictly interdicted. They were required to
wear a distinctive badge—a goose’s foot in red cloth attached to one
shoulder. The expression “Cagot” is still used as a term of
opprobrium. But when one asks to be shown a Cagot, after some
hesitation, a cretin or a poor creature afflicted with a goître is
pointed out.
But the original Cagot was not such.
Jean Darnal, a solicitor in the Parliament of Bordeaux, thus
describes the Cagots, whom he calls Gahets, in his Chronique
Bourdeloise, 1555.

“The magistrates gave orders that the Gahets should

reside outside the town on the side of S. Julien, in a little
faubourg apart, that they should not leave it without wearing
conspicuously a bit of red cloth. These are a sort of lepers,
with the disease in an undeveloped condition, with whom it is
ill to associate. They are carpenters by trade, and capital
workmen, and gain their livelihood by this trade in the town
and in the country.”

One notion concerning them was that they descended from the
carpenter who had made the cross of Christ; and most of them,
though by no means all, actually were carpenters. Florimond de
Rémond, councillor of the Parliament of Bordeaux, wrote concerning
them in 1613:—
 “We see in Guyenne this race, commonly designated
Cangots or Capots, one which although Christian and
Catholic, holds no communication with others, and may enter
into no alliance with other Christians; even to live in their
towns is not allowed. They are not suffered to approach the
Holy Table along with other Christians, and have a place set
apart for them in the churches. The people are convinced that
they are diseased, that their breath and sweat is malodorous,
and that they are to some extent lepers. This is why that in
many places, as at Bordeaux, they are constrained to wear a
scrap of red cloth on one shoulder.”

Florimond goes on to say that he believes them to be descended

from the Arian Goths, and that Cagot is derived from Canis Gots, or
Dogs of Goths.
Popularly they were held to have certain distinguishing
characteristics—ears furred like those of bears and destitute of the
lower lobe. That they had stinking breath, and white granular spots
under the skin in parts of the body, indicating undeveloped leprosy.
In parish registers they were always designated in entries of
baptisms and marriages and burials as Cagots or Capots.
F. Michel, in 1847, published a work upon them. He went
through the Pyrenees, and recorded how many families of Cagots
remained, and where they resided.
The theory of their origin as propounded by him was that they
were descended from the Spanish Christians who were driven over
the Pyrenees by the Moors, and whom the natives received with
scant hospitality, and continued to look upon as intruders. One
reason for the adoption of this wild theory was that in ancient
documents they are frequently called Crestiaas. Undoubtedly
refugees from Spain did settle in parts of the Pyrenees, but there
exists no evidence to show that they were looked down upon.
Moreover, Cagots were found also in Brittany, and Michel’s theory
does not fit in with this fact.
 Now the word cagot is comparatively modern. A Cagot in old
documents is called Capot or Crestiaa. Capot comes from caput
mortuum, a legal expression used of one who is outside the pale of
the law; the word is still employed in Germany for what is broken
and of no further use. Es ist caput.
The original Cagots were probably lepers, gradually recruited
from the native population. A religious service was said over a man
on whom were discovered the marks of the disease. It was a form of
funeral. Earth was cast upon him, and he was declared to be legally
and socially dead.
Precisely the same regulations were applied to the Cagots that
were made for lepers. They were forbidden to spit in the roads, and
to walk in them barefooted. If constrained to handle anything that
had to be used by those who were sound, they must wear gloves.
They might not marry out of their caste or company. They were
relegated to live and be buried apart from all others.
When we consider this identity of regulation, as also that the
Cagots are spoken of by all old writers as quasi-lepers, as that in
popular belief they were held to have on them marks of
undeveloped leprosy; when, further, we see that their old
designation comes from caput mortuum, I think it is hard not to
arrive at the conclusion that the Cagots were the descendants of
sequestrated communities of lepers. But such is the recuperative
power of Nature, in the healthy surroundings of the mountains, in its
pure air and in wholesome diet, that the descendants of the lepers
in course of time shook off the disease and became sound and
robust men and women.
The Church in the eighteenth century made an effort to break
down the wall of separation, the occasion for the existence of which
had ceased.
We hear of an archdeacon when visiting one church had his
indignation roused by seeing the Cagots huddled together in a side
chapel apart from the rest of the congregation. Taking the Blessed
Sacrament in his hands, he marched out of the church through the
Cagots’ chapel and door, and signed to the congregation to follow
him. After a moment’s hesitation they obeyed, and from that day the
prejudice against these outcasts failed in that parish. In the Middle
Ages no Cagot could become consul, mayor, juror, or be admitted to
Holy Orders. But De Romagne, Bishop of Tarbes, who died in 1768,
ordained to the priesthood several members of this proscribed race.
It was due to the French Revolution, that beat down all barriers,
that the distinction between Cagots and other men was wholly
obliterated. In the Val de Campan, between four and five miles from
Campan itself, is a hamlet, situated high up on the mountain side,
that is occupied by six families, all by descent Cagots. The place
where they live is called “Le Quartier des Cagots.” Doctor Abadie,
about 1840, wrote concerning them:—

“I know the heads of these families. They are carpenters.

Half a century ago these families intermarried among
themselves, and were not suffered to contract unions outside
their narrow circle. Now they are mingled with and are melted
into the mass of the population. In physiognomy they have
nothing peculiar. One remarks only that the individuals of the
families Pescadère, Latoure, Lacôme, and Daléas have a
white skin and grey eyes; but this is perhaps due to a
lymphatic constitution, the result of living in a cold and damp
locality.”

M. Dufresne, who filled an important, though subsidiary, post in

the administration of finances under Necker, and whose bust, under
the First Consul, was placed in the hall of the Treasury, in recognition
of the public services he had rendered, was by birth and ancestry a
Cagot; so we see that careers were open to these members of an
outcast and despised race even before the Revolution. What that
great upheaval did for them was to destroy the popular prejudice
entertained against them.
 The derivation of the word cagot has been given; that of
crestiaas is not so simple. The name is never spelt with an h in early
documents, as if it were derived from Christians. It probably comes
from these unfortunates having been originally compelled to wear a
bit of red cloth on the cap as a cock’s comb, or crest, and that later
this more conspicuous mark of infamy was modified into one placed
upon the shoulder. Still, however, the expression “the crested” was
applied to them.
It is in vain to look for a genuine Cagot at the present time, and
in the words of an old ballad sung by the people—
“Encouere qué Cagots siam
Nous noun dam;
Tous qu’em hilhs deü pay, Adam.”

That may be rendered—

“Then let them say just what they will, and call us Cagots vile,
We all the sons of Adam are, on all God deigns to smile.”
 CHAPTER XIV
THE VAL D’AURE
Mauvezin—Escaldieu—Lannemezan—The Neste—The lakes
utilized—Lortet—Fortified caves—Marble quarries—Sarracolin
—Canal—Val d’Arros—The rival lords—Arreau—Bordères—The
Armagnacs—John IV and his sister—His ingratitude and death
—Extinction of the race—Lac de Caillaouas—Cadéac—The
deadly sins—Tramesaïgues—Lac d’Orredon—Republic.

B
efore the train reaches the dreary moorland of Lannemezan,
on its way from Tarbes to Toulouse, a glimpse is obtained of
a picturesque village grouped about a castle on a pointed
rock. This is Mauvezin, the Bad Neighbour, par excellence. It
witnessed many exploits during the English occupation of Guyenne.
It was besieged in 1374 by the Duke of Anjou, at the head of 8000
men. The strength of the fortress was such that it would have been
impregnable had it not lacked a well within the walls. The besiegers
cut off communication with the water-supply, and as not a drop of
rain fell during the six weeks of the siege, the garrison was
constrained to come to terms. The Duke of Anjou allowed them to
depart, saying: “Get you gone about your business, each one of you,
to your several native lands, without entering any fort that holds out
against me; for if you do, I engage to get hold of you, and deliver
you up to Jocelin (the headsman), who will shave you clean without
a razor.”
 Upon the tower, which bears the arms of Béarn, may be seen
the device, “J’ay belle dame.” It was a fancy of the boy Gaston, son
of Gaston Phœbus, when he was affianced to Beatrix d’Armagnac, to
whom Mauvezin was given as a dower by her father, Count John II.
But Gaston was murdered by his father, as already told, before the
marriage was consummated, and Beatrix was afterwards married to
a viscount of Milan.
Near Mauvezin are the remains of the once famous Abbey of
Escaldieu. The church was destroyed by the Huguenots, and rebuilt
in the seventeenth century. It is devoid of interest, and is now
converted into a coach-house. Only the chapter-house remains of
the original abbey, a structure of the fourteenth century, the vaulting
sustained by marble pillars.
The great mass of Lannemezan, lying across the threshold of the
Val d’Aure, diverts the Neste from flowing north, and turns it to the
east, just as the heap of the lande of Pontacq acts at the mouth of
the Lavedan, but there deflects the Gave to the west. It falls into the
Garonne at the confines of the department, which also for the same
reason takes an easterly course for some way, then struggles to the
north-east, and only after passing Toulouse turns to take its direction
so as to empty itself into the Atlantic. The Neste is a river of very
great importance. It rises in two main branches under crests clothed
in eternal snows, discharging glaciers into a series of upland lakes.
These natural reservoirs have been artificially raised, and their
waters conducted into a canal that is carried high above the bed of
the river, so as to convey its fertilizing streams over the plateau of
Lannemezan. The lake of Caillaouas, under the Pic de Batchinale,
and the glacier cirque of the Gours Blancs has been captured at the
head of Neste de Luron, and the lakes of Aumar, Aubert, Caplong,
and Orredon, that feed the other Neste of Aure have also been
utilized for the same purpose, at an enormous expense and by
remarkably daring works of engineering. This has had a subsidiary
advantage, that the superb scenery at the sources of these streams
is now accessible by good roads, whereas formerly it could be
reached only by difficult and dangerous mule-paths.
 At La Barthe the Neste debouches from the mountains through a
deep valley, the canal passing above it on the left bank; and
although the river has been thus tapped, it still continues to bring
down a considerable amount of water, the overflow from its
reservoirs far away in the laps of the high mountain ridge.
The Val d’Aure constituted a viscounty, and of the viscounts
there were several branches: one that of the Viscounts of Larbouste,
another that of the viscounts of Asté, one of whom, as already
mentioned, married the heiress of Grammont. The whole of Aure
was under the overlordship of the counts of Armagnac.
La Barthe, commanded by a castle of the end of the eleventh
century, will not long detain a visitor. But a short way above it is the
village of Lortet, where are caverns in the face of the limestone cliff
that have been occupied and fortified, it is thought, originally by the
Saracens and the Visigoths; but the structures that remain, notably
the tower, were the work of the Templars, to whom were confided
the defence of most of the passes of the Pyrenees. At Hèches is a
picturesque, ivy-clad tower occupying the summit by a rock. Here
are quarries of marble, rose-coloured, grey, and white, spotted with
black; as also of black marble veined with white. But the principal
marble quarries are farther up, at Sarrancolin on the left bank,
others are on the right. Those on the former are famous. The finest
are red, veined with grey, or flesh tint with yellow veins; other
marbles are green, blue, violet. Versailles was adorned with columns
of Sarrancolin. Thence comes the marble now employed in the
Louvre for most of the pedestals.
The church of Sarrancolin was originally strongly fortified, and
served as the key to the valley; it is early of the twelfth century, with
Romanesque windows. There are no aisles, it is a cross church. The
choir grating is of the fifteenth century. In the church is the shrine of
a Spanish bishop, S. Ebbo, and is the sole specimen in the district of
Limoges work, and is of the thirteenth century. To the north of the
church is the chapter-house in ruins. Fragments of the town walls
remain, as does a gateway and tower of the fifteenth century. The
houses are all built of the marble of which the hill is formed on
which the place stands, and they are crowded about the church, in
the constrained area within the old walls. The place recommends
itself to the painter and to the archæologist.
The canal takes its waters from the Neste above the little town,
and the river accordingly has in the upper portion of the valley a
freer and fuller flow.
But before we have mounted so far up the Neste, a diversion
may well be made to the valley of the Arros, which rises in the
mountains between the Val de Campan and that of Aure. We might
have supposed that it would speedily throw itself into the Adour or
the Neste. But not so. It holds on its independent course far away to
the north, and does not condescend to unite with the Adour till it
enters the department of Gers.
In this narrow valley, high up in the mountains, stand near each
other the two castles of Lomné and Espêche, concerning which the
following legend is told. I will give it in the words of Mr. Inglis:—

“The lords of these two castles were enemies, and

constantly disputed with one another the possession of the
valley that lay between their castles; but along with the
enmity each was enamoured of the wife of the other, though
the ladies themselves loved their own lords, and gave no
encouragement to the enemies of their husbands. At this time
the Crusades were published, and both of the nobles resolved
to forget private animosities for a time, and join the standard
of the cross. It so happened, however, that after travelling
during several days the devil entered into their hearts, and
they both reasoned after this manner: ‘My enemy has gone to
the Holy Wars, and has left both his lands and his wife. What
hinders me from returning and making the most of his
absence?’ And so both the Lord of Espêche and the Lord of
Lomné returned and took the road not to their own castle,
but to the castles of each other.
 “But it so happened that on the very night upon which
these nobles left their own castles their ladies had a vision.
Each was warned in a dream of the intention of her husband
to return and go to the castle of his enemy. Accordingly the
ladies left their own castles to cross the valley, and met each
other by the way; and having communicated the mutual
vision, resolved upon a method of avoiding the danger. They
determined to change castles, and that very day they put
their resolution into effect.
“Meanwhile their lords arrived under cover of the night,
each at the castle of his enemy, and were greatly surprised to
find that no wonder was expressed at their return, for the
ladies had forewarned their household of what was to be
expected; but still greater was their surprise when, upon
being ushered into the castle hall, each beheld his own
spouse. The explanation that followed wrought a miraculous
change. Touched with the affection of their wives, they
abjured their mutual enmity, swore unutterable fidelity to
their own wives, and set out in company together for the Holy
Land.”

Arreau stands at the junction of the two rivers called Neste, and
also where the Lastie enters the stream. It has a cheerful
appearance. The church of Notre Dame is of the fifteenth century,
castellated, with additions a century later, built on the foundations of
a church of the twelfth century, of which a good doorway remains.
The chapel of S. Exuperius is of the eleventh century, and has a
Romanesque portal. It stands above the Neste of Aure. The mairie is
over the wooden market-hall. The entrance to the valley of the
Neste de Luron is through a ravine with precipitous sides. Presently
it opens out and reveals the little bourg of Bordères, commanded by
the ruined castle of the Armagnacs. For now we are in Armagnac
territory, and with this castle is connected the story of the last of
that evil and ill-omened race. Michelet says of them:—
 “Frenchmen and princes as they were become, their
diabolical nature broke out on every occasion. One of them
married his brother’s wife, so as to be able to retain the
dower, another married his own sister, by means of a false
dispensation. Bernard VII, Count of Armagnac, who was
almost king, and ended so ill, had begun by despoiling his
kinsman, the Viscount of Frézenzaguet, flinging him into a
cistern, along with his sons, his eyes plucked out. This same
Bernard, pretending to be a servant of the Duke of Orléans,
made war against the English, but only worked for his own
ends, for when the Duke came into Guyenne he made no
attempt to assist him. But no sooner was that prince dead
than he posed as his avenger, brought up all the South to
ravage the North, made the young Duke of Orléans marry his
daughter, and gave her as dower his bands of robbers, and
the malediction of France.
“What made these Armagnacs specially execrable was
their impious levity allied to their innate ferocity.”

The Armagnac territory extended as a strip from the Garonne to

the Pyrenees. It was a fertile and well-peopled land; its principal
towns were Auche, Mirande, Vic, and Lectoure.
The Armagnac family derived from a Garcias Sanchez, Duke of
Gascony in the early part of the tenth century. He was nicknamed
the Hunchback, and he seems to have bequeathed a moral distortion
to his descendants.
John IV, Count of Armagnac, was especially associated with the
castle at Bordères; and his story must now be told.
This headstrong man fell in love with his own sister, Isabella, and
failing in his application to Rome for a dispensation to allow him to
marry her, he forged one, and presented it to the chaplain of the
castle, and demanded that he should unite them. When the priest
demurred, Count John threatened to throw him headlong from the
window into the river unless he obeyed. When others remonstrated,
he drew his dagger on them. The cowed chaplain submitted to
celebrate the incestuous nuptials.
The Pope now excommunicated the Count, and King Charles VII
vainly endeavoured to recall him to a better mind; but Armagnac
resisted kind instances, and defied force. Soon after he associated
himself with the insurrection of the Dauphin. The Duke of Clermont
was sent against him. His guilty passion had enfeebled the mind of
John, and in place of resisting the invasion, he abandoned his
dominions, and fled with Isabella to the protection of his relative, the
King of Aragon. He was summoned by the Parliament, and having
been rash enough to appear, was arrested and imprisoned. Soon
after he managed to escape. The sentence of perpetual banishment
was passed upon him, and his dominions were forfeited. The Valley
of Aure was, however, exempted so far that it was granted as a
dowry to his sister.
Then, as his last place of refuge, he retired to the Castle of
Bordères, in the depths of the mountains. The once powerful and
haughty Count of Armagnac was reduced to the deepest destitution,
shunned by all, shrunk from even by his own subjects in the valley
of the Neste, as though he were a leper or a Cagot. At last, impelled
by his necessities rather than moved by remorse, he begged his way
to Rome to obtain absolution for himself and for his sister. This was
granted, but on hard conditions for himself, and that Isabella should
retire into a convent at Barcelona.
At this time Louis XI ascended the throne of France, and by him
the Count of Armagnac was restored to his former rank and
possessions. He now married Jeanne, daughter of the Count of Foix,
and the past was forgotten, or at least forgiven.
But this restless man, incapable of feeling gratitude for favours,
allied himself with the enemies of the King, Charles the Bold, the
Duke of Guyenne, and the King of England.
Louis XI took occasion of the first moment of tranquillity allowed
him by the ambitious projects of the Duke of Burgundy, to chastise
John of Armagnac. In 1473 he confided the task to the Cardinal of
Albi, who besieged him in Lectoure. The town, which was strongly
fortified, defended itself bravely. Proposals of surrender were made
to the Count, but whilst negotiations were in progress, one of the
gates was forced, and John’s son, of the same name as his father,
was killed fighting in the streets. John IV of Armagnac was stabbed
in the presence of his wife, who was pregnant at the time. By order
of Louis XI, who had no desire to see the line of Armagnac
continued, she was thrown into prison and poisoned.
The title and claim to the county now devolved on Charles,
another son of John IV; but Louis XI had him cast into prison, and
retained there till he died of chagrin. There existed at the time
another branch of the family, that had likewise received favours from
King Louis, and had repaid them with treachery. Jacques d’Armagnac
had been given by Louis XI vast estates in Meaux, Châlons, Langres,
and Sens. The king had married Jacques to Louise of Anjou, and had
created him Duke of Nemours. But Jacques was false to his
benefactor, and joined in the League of Public Good against him. At
the Treaty of Conflans he returned to his allegiance, swore fidelity on
the relics in the Sainte Chapelle, and had the governorship of Paris
conferred upon him. The very next year, 1469, he went over to the
enemies of the King, and sided with his cousin, John IV, entering
with him into negotiations with the English. But alarmed at the fate
that befell John, he solicited pardon, and took an oath of fidelity, the
most solemn and binding that could be devised.
Two years later, when Louis XI was in embarrassment, the Duke
refused the King the succour he demanded, and prepared to lay his
hands on Languedoc. No sooner was Louis delivered from his
anxieties than he besieged and took Nemours, in his Castle of Carlat,
and confined him in an iron cage in the Bastille. His wife, feeling
confident that he would experience no mercy at the hands of the
justly incensed King, died during her confinement at Carlat.
Jacques d’Armagnac’s hair turned white within a few days. He
was not mistaken about the gravity of his position. Louis was
alarmed at these incessant conspiracies, and indignant at the
ingratitude of the Duke, whom no oaths could bind. In vain did
Nemours implore permission to speak with the King face to face;
Louis refused to see him, and gave orders that he should be
tortured. One day, hearing that the prisoner had been treated with
some consideration, he wrote sharply to the gaoler, “Give him Hell
(the extremity of torture); let him suffer Hell in his own chamber.
Take care not to let him out of the cage except to be tortured.”
Jacques d’Armagnac was executed on 10 July, 1477. The assertion
often made, that by the order of the King his children were placed
under the scaffold so that their father’s blood might fall over them, is
asserted by no contemporary writers. His sons died without issue,
and so ended this wicked family.

Bernard VII
d. 1418
|
+-------------------+-------------+
| |
John IV Bernard, Count of
d. 1473 Pardiac
| d. after 1462
+---+-----+ |
| | |
John Charles Jacques d’Armagnac
d. 1473 d. 1497 created Duc de Nemours
d. 1477
|
+----+-----+
| |
 John Louis
d. 1500 d. 1503

For some way above Bordères the Neste of Luron traverses a

gloomy ravine; but then all at once it opens out and we come on a
basin well cultivated, fringed with woods, and studded with twelve
villages, about their church spires. The road ascends steeply past
slate quarries that send down their avalanches of grey refuse over
the base of the hill surmounted by the donjon of Gélos. It is still a
long way on to the Lac de Caillaouas, that lies at the height of 3500
feet, and covers 120 acres; its blue waters are fed by some small
tarns higher up under the glaciers of the Gourgs Blancs. This is one
of the scenes of most savage grandeur in the Pyrenees. The lake is
of great depth, and swarms with trout. A tunnel has been driven
fifty-five feet below the surface through the rock that retains the
lake, and through this the water can be drawn off to supply the
deficiencies in the Neste and the canal that leads from it in time of
drought. The work was completed in 1848.
The other Neste, that of Aure, is of even more economic
importance. It rises under the Pic de Campbieil, 9550 feet; but
receives a large influx of water from the Neste de Couplan that is
supplied from a whole series of lakes, the largest of which is
Orredon.
Above Arreau is Cadéac, one of the most ancient sites in the
valley. Hither came the representatives of the various communes of
the valley of the Neste to discuss their affairs, and decide their
policy; for here, as in Lavedan, the people enjoyed great liberties, of
which the Armagnacs did not care to deprive them. Cadéac occupies
a hill surmounted by a feudal tower of the twelfth century. The
church has an early north doorway, and sculptures let into the walls.
The road passes up the valley under the porch of a chapel, Notre
Dame de Penetaillade, that has a curious fresco representing the
death of the Virgin on the façade. Vielle Aure is a village lying on
both sides of the river, with a church of the twelfth century, and is
an excellent centre for excursions. The road then crosses the river
and reaches Bourespe, with a church of the fifteenth century, but a
much earlier tower. In the porch are curious paintings of the date
1592, with representations of the deadly sins as ladies (why as
ladies, and not as men?), in the costume of the period, mounted on
strange beasts, and carrying behind them demons with hideous
faces on their stomachs and breasts. Pride is riding on a lion, Avarice
on a wolf, Gluttony on a pig, Luxury on a goat, Anger on a horse,
and Idleness on an ass.
Surely Gluttony, Avarice, Anger are traits of man’s intemperate
passions rather than of woman’s humours. Vitium is neuter, it will
serve for either or none. But it is the old story of the sculptor and
the lion. He showed the King of the Beasts a group finely carved that
represented a man slaying a lion. “Ah,” said the royal beast, “if a lion
had been the sculptor, the figures in the group would have been in
reversed positions.”
It was men, not women, who wrought these representations of
the cardinal vices.
Tramesaïgues (between the waters) occupies a rock, the road
passes below it.
The cluster of lakes in the Néouville basin of mountains have
been taken in hand as well as the Lac de Caillaouas. The
undertaking was difficult, as work was possible there for only three
months in the summer; all the rest of the year the basin in which
they lie is buried in snow, and some of the tarns remain hard frozen.
The largest of the lakes is Orredon, lying 5600 feet above the sea; it
is the lowest of all, and receives the waters of the Lac d’Aubert and
the Lac Aumar, lying in one valley, separated by a gravelly ridge of
glacial rubbish; the Lac de Cap-de-Long reposes in another. The
works were begun in 1901 and terminated in 1905.
The Four Valleys—Magonac, Neste, Aure, and La Baronne—
formed another of those confederate republics of which there
existed so many in the Pyrenees. Of these Magonac, with its chief
town Castelnau, lay to the north of Lannemezan, and was not
properly a valley at all.
 After the extinction of the Armagnacs, the overlordship passed
to the kings of France, and each and all from Louis XII to Louis XVI
had to recognize and allow their very extended privileges. From the
year 1300 no seigneur could withdraw an inhabitant of the Four
Valleys from the jurisdiction of their own judges; every citizen could
own land, marry, create an industry, or carry on any trade without
authorization. The right to bear arms belonged to every one; and up
to the eve of the Revolution the Four Valleys were exempt from all
war-tax and from the obligation to have troops quartered on them.
La Fayette had no occasion to have gone to America to have
seen what republican self-government was. It existed at his doors.
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