The Dragon of the Old Tower
The Old Tower is reminiscent of the ancient Roman tower, located at the corner of the north and west sides of the city,
In the 14th century, there was a tower in the rue du Canon which had a cannon at its top.
He only had to announce the curfew or the arrival of an enemy to be useful,
But one day a monstrous beast took over this tower, it was a dragon.
It was said that he devoured children and threatened the inhabitants of Bordeaux with the plague,
Or even cholera if they didn't bring him a stoic young man every Sunday,
Or a young girl of 15 to 20 years old, as well as a basket of vegetables and aromatic herbs,
The people of Bordeaux ran for several months to save their city, offering their children to the beast.
But one Sunday, Nicolette, very pretty and very intelligent, entered the Tower of the Dragon,
This ploughman's daughter manages to talk to the beast and temporarily save her life,
She promised him the best wine and the best food in Bordeaux, in her alcove,
Thanks to the effects of wine, her charm and her intelligence, she pierced the secret of the dragon.
He was afraid of nothing except one thing, which he didn't care about, because too far from Bordeaux to reach him,
The crozier of Saint-Martial, the pastoral stick endowed with miraculous powers, of which he had nothing to fear,
Pope Saint-Pierre had given it to Martial before sending him to convert Aquitaine,
But this one had been resting for years in the Cathedral of Limoges, very far away.
Twelve jurats from Bordeaux left for Limoges to negotiate the loan of the famous baton of Saint Martial,
Six were held hostage to guarantee the loan, the stick finally arrived in Bordeaux as a ceremony,
As soon as the stick touched the tower, the frightened beast with a thunderous noise jumped into the Garonne,
It was engulfed in a rain of flame, the beautiful Nicolette came out of the tower safe, champion.
She was immediately asked in marriage by a rich and handsome lord of the region,
But the people of Bordeaux having learned of the other magic powers of La Crosse in religion,
In particular its ability to bring rain, decided to keep the relic in the St-Seurin basilica,
As for the hostages, they were buried up to their necks and massacred on a square in Limoges as scoundrels.
At that time Bordeaux was in the hands of the English, it was the capital of Aquitaine, of the Anglo-Saxons,
At the top of the Tower, in addition to the sentry and the cannon, floated the standard with two leopards, an Anglo-Norman effigy,
The people had given the leopards which adorned this flag the name of beast, then of dragon,
It is therefore this banner which, terrorizing the inhabitants of the Middle Ages, inspired this legend
Guy PUJOL known as l’ARIÉ….JOIE