. Castles and chateaux of old Burgundy and the border provinces. The entrance portal is particularly to be re-marked for its elegance. It is flanked on eitherside by a Corinthian column and is surmountedby a pair of angel heads in bronze. Drawing closer and closer to the frontier, theface of everything growing more and more war-like the while, one comes to Montbeliard, prac-tically a militant outpost of modern France,though actually its importance in this respectis overshadowed by neighbouring Belfort. AtBelfort Bartholdis famous lion — a betterstone lion by the way than Thorwaldsens atLuzerne
. Castles and chateaux of old Burgundy and the border provinces. The entrance portal is particularly to be re-marked for its elegance. It is flanked on eitherside by a Corinthian column and is surmountedby a pair of angel heads in bronze. Drawing closer and closer to the frontier, theface of everything growing more and more war-like the while, one comes to Montbeliard, prac-tically a militant outpost of modern France,though actually its importance in this respectis overshadowed by neighbouring Belfort. AtBelfort Bartholdis famous lion — a betterstone lion by the way than Thorwaldsens atLuzerne — crouches in his carven cradle inthe hillside ready to spring at the first rumoursof war. If France is ever invaded again it will The Franche Comte 195 not be by way of the gateway wMch is defendedby Belfort and Montbeliard, that is certain! Montbeliard is a little fragment of Germanythat has become French. Rudely groupedaround the walls of the old chateau of the Wur-temburgs, the town remains to-day an anomalyin France, more so than the greater Strass-. bourg and Metz are to Germany, because theyhave become thoroughly Germanized since laguerre and the annexation, which are thehalf whispered words in which the natives stilldiscuss the late unpleasantness. How did this little German stronghold be-come French? One may learn the story from** Le Marechal de Luxembourg et Le PrincedOrange, by Pierre de Segur, better even 196 Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy than he may from the history books. The taleis too long to retell here but it is undeniablythrilling and good reading. The town, the cha-teau and the local duke were, it seems, all cap-tured at one fell swoop. There was no defence,so it was not a very glorious victory, but it cameto pass as a heroic episode and a Wurtemburgcastle thus came to be a French chateau. The Chateau de Montbeliard has all themarks of a heavy German castle. It has littleindeed of the suggestion of the French mannerof building in these parts or e
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