"ElizabethGaskell-AnAccursedRace" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gaskell Elizabeth C)

not inclined to enforce too severe a punishment. Accordingly, the
decree of the parliament of Toulouse condemned only the leading
Cagots concerned in this affray to be put to death, and that
henceforward and for ever no Cagot was to be permitted to enter the
town of Lourdes by any gate but that called Capdet-pourtet: they
were only to be allowed to walk under the rain-gutters, and neither
to sit, eat, nor drink in the town. If they failed in observing any
of these rules, the parliament decreed, in the spirit of Shylock,
that the disobedient Cagots should have two strips of flesh, weighing
never more than two ounces a-piece, cut out from each side of their
spines.

In the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries it was
considered no more a crime to kill a Cagot than to destroy obnoxious
vermin. A "nest of Cagots," as the old accounts phrase it, had
assembled in a deserted castle of Mauvezin, about the year sixteen
hundred; and, certainly, they made themselves not very agreeable
neighbours, as they seemed to enjoy their reputation of magicians;
and, by some acoustic secrets which were known to them, all sorts of
moanings and groanings were heard in the neighbouring forests, very
much to the alarm of the good people of the pure race; who could not
cut off a withered branch for firewood, but some unearthly sound
seemed to fill the air, nor drink water which was not poisoned,
because the Cagots would persist in filling their pitchers at the
same running stream. Added to these grievances, the various
pilferings perpetually going on in the neighbourhood made the
inhabitants of the adjacent towns and hamlets believe that they had a
very sufficient cause for wishing to murder all the Cagots in the
Chateau de Mauvezin. But it was surrounded by a moat, and only
accessible by a drawbridge; besides which, the Cagots were fierce and
vigilant. Some one, however, proposed to get into their confidence;
and for this purpose he pretended to fall ill close to their path, so
that on returning to their stronghold they perceived him, and took
him in, restored him to health, and made a friend of him. One day,
when they were all playing at ninepins in the woods, their
treacherous friend left the party on pretence of being thirsty, and
went back into the castle, drawing up the bridge after he had passed
over it, and so cutting off their means of escape into safety. Them,
going up to the highest part of the castle, he blew a horn, and the
pure race, who were lying in wait on the watch for some such signal,
fell upon the Cagots at their games, and slew them all. For this
murder I find no punishment decreed in the parliament of Toulouse, or
elsewhere.

As any intermarriage with the pure race was strictly forbidden, and
as there were books kept in every commune in which the names and
habitations of the reputed Cagots were written, these unfortunate
people had no hope of ever becoming blended with the rest of the
population. Did a Cagot marriage take place, the couple were
serenaded with satirical songs. They also had minstrels, and many of