Connected with the dungeon by a stone staircase is a small apartment, very much dilapidated, but still retaining a portion of its original facing of Caen stone.  It was from the window of this apartment, as the story commonly goes, that Duke Robert first saw the beautiful Arlette, drawing water from the streamlet below, and was enamoured of her charms, and took her to his bed.—­According to another version of the tale, the earliest interview between the prince and his fair mistress, took place as Robert was returning from the chace, with his mind full of anger against the inhabitants of Falaise, for having presumed to kill the deer which he had commanded should be preserved for his royal pastime.  In this offence the curriers of the town had borne the principal share, and they were therefore principally marked out for punishment.  But, fortunately for them, Arlette, the daughter of one Verpray, the most culpable of the number, met the offended Duke while riding through the street, and with her beauty so fascinated him, that she not only obtained the pardon of her father and his associates, but became his mistress, and continued so as long as he lived.  From her, if we may give credence to the old chroniclers, is derived our English word, harlot.  The fruit of their union was William the Conqueror, whose illegitimate birth, and the low extraction of his mother, served on more than one occasion as a pretext for conspiracies against his throne, and were frequently the subject of personal mortification to himself.—­The walls in this part of the castle are from eight to nine feet thick.  A portion of them has been hollowed out, so as to form a couple of small rooms.  The old door-way of the keep is at the angle; the returns are reeded, ending in a square impost; the arch above is destroyed.

Talbot’s tower, thus called for having been built by that general, in 1430 and the two subsequent years, is connected with the keep by means, of a long passage with lancet windows, that widen greatly inwards.  It is more than one hundred feet high, and is a beautiful piece of masonry, as perfect, apparently, as on the day when it was erected, and as firm as the rock on which it stands.  This tower is ascended by a staircase concealed within the substance of the walls, whose thickness is full fifteen feet towards the base, and does not decrease more than three feet near the summit.  Another aperture in them serves for a well, which thus communicates with every apartment in the tower.  Most of the arches in this tower have circular heads:  the windows are square.—­The walls and towers which encircle the keep are of much later date; the principal gate-way is pointed.  Immediately on entering, is seen the very ancient chapel, dedicated to St. Priscus or, as he is called in French, St. Prix.  The east end with three circular-headed windows retains its original lines:  the masonry is firm and good.  Fantastic corbels surround the summit of the lateral walls.  Within, a semi-circular