Château Montvieux—February 1194
Château Montvieux—February 1194The old fortress was shrouded in fog when Bayard arrived at its gates. If anything, the cloak of mist and fine rain made it look even more formidable and ancient than he recalled.
Montvieux had stood since the dawn of time, or at least for as long as anyone could remember. Its stone walls had been smoothed by expert craftsmen and polished by years of rain, stained by the blood of would-be conquerors. They seemed to be one with the earth of the holding, soil that had been tilled in the name of the lords of Montvieux for centuries.
For the lords of Montvieux had been in this place longer than even the château itself. ’Twas said that their line was older than the lineage of the kings of France, or even of the kings before these
