(Angelo Buonarroti). See ANGELO.

(Angelo da Caravaggio). See ANGELO, and CARAVAGGIO.

Mount MICHAEL, one of the most celebrated slate-prisons of France, lies about 20 miles from Granville. It is a rock situated in the middle of the bay of Avranches; and is only accessible at low water. Nature has completely fortified one side, by its craggy and almost perpendicular descent, which renders it impracticable to mount it by any address or courage, however consummate. The other parts are surrounded by walls fenced with semicircular towers after the Gothic manner; but sufficiently strong, together with the advantages of its situation, to render it impregnable to any attack. At the foot of the mountain begins a street or town, which winds round its base to a considerable height. Above are chambers where slate-prisoners are kept, and where there are other buildings intended for residence. On the summit is erected the abbey itself, occupying a prodigious space of ground, and of a strength and solidity equal to its enormous size; since it has for many centuries withstood all the injuries of the weather, to which it is so much exposed. In an apartment, called the Sale de Chavaliers, the knights of St Michael used to meet in solemn convocation on important occasions. They were the defenders and guardians of this mountain and abbey, as those of the temple, and of St John of Jerusalem, were of the holy sepulchre. The hall in which they met is very spacious, but rude and barbarous. At one end is a painting of the archangel, the patron of their order; and in this hall Lewis XI. first instituted and invested with the insignia of knighthood the chevaliers of the cross of St Michael. There is a miserable dark apartment, or rather dungeon, in which many eminent persons were formerly confined. In the middle of it is a cage, composed of prodigious bars of wood; and the wicket which gives entrance into it is 10 or 12 inches in thickness. The inside of it comprises about 12 or 14 feet square, and it is nearly 20 in height. Towards the latter end of the last century, a certain newswriter in Holland, who had presumed to print some very severe and sarcastic reflections on Madame de Main- Michael Maintenon, was confined in this place. Some months after his publication, he was induced, by a person sent expressly for that purpose, to make a tour into French Flanders. The moment he had quitted the Dutch territories, he was put under arrest; and immediately, by his majesty's express command, conducted to Mount Michael, where he was shut up in this cage. Here he lived upwards of 23 years; and here he at length expired. During the long nights of winter, no candle or fire was allowed him. He was not permitted to have any book. He saw no human face, except the gaoler; who came once every day to present him, through a hole in the wicket, with his little portion of bread and wine. No instrument was given him with which he could destroy himself: but he found means at length to draw out a nail from the wood, with which he engraved, or cut on the bars of his cage, certain fleurs de lis and armorial bearings, which formed his only employment and recreation. They are very curiously performed, considering the rudeness of his tool.

The subterraneous chambers in this mountain are said to be so numerous, that the jailors themselves do not know them. There are certain dungeons called oubliettes, into which they were accustomed anciently to let down malefactors guilty of very heinous crimes: they provided them with a loaf of bread and a bottle of wine, and then they were totally forgotten, and left to perish by hunger in the dark vaults of the rock. This punishment, however, has not been inflicted by any king in the last or present century.

Here also is a remarkable chamber, in one corner of which is a kind of window; between this and the wall of the building is a very deep space, of near 100 feet perpendicular, at the bottom of which is another window opening to the sea. It is called the Hole of Montgomery; and the history of it is as follows: In the year 1559, Henry II. king of France was unfortunately killed at a tournament by the count de Montgomery. He was a Huguenot; and having escaped the massacre of Paris, made head against the royal forces in Normandy, supported by queen Elizabeth with arms and money. Being driven from his fortresses in these parts, he retired to a rock called the Tombelaine. This is another similar to Mount Michael; only three quarters of a league from it, and of nearly equal dimensions. At that time there was a castle upon it, which hath since been demolished, and of which scarce any vestiges now remain. From this fortress, accessible only at low-water, he continually made excursions, and annoyed the enemy, who never dared to attack him. He coined money, laid all the adjacent country under contribution, and rendered himself universally dreaded. Furious, however, to surprise Mount Michael, he found means to engage one of the monks resident in the abbey; who promised to give him the signal for his enterprise by displaying a handkerchief. The monk having made the signal, betrayed him, and armed all his associates, who waited Montgomery's arrival. The chieftain came, attended by 50 chosen soldiers, all desperate, and capable of any attempt. They crossed the sand; and having placed their scaling-ladders, mounted one by one. As they came to the top, they were dispatched, each in turn, without noise. Montgomery, who followed last, discovered the peril, and escaped with only two of his men, with whom he regained the Tombelaine. They preserve with great care the ladders and grappling irons used on this occasion. The count was at last besieged and taken prisoner, by the marshal de Matignon, in 1574, at Domfront in Normandy; and Catharine de Medicis, who hated him for having been, though innocently, the cause of her husband's death, caused him to be immediately executed.

The church of Mount Michael is a great curiosity. It stands on nine pillars of most enormous dimensions, built on the solid rock. Each of them appear to be about 25 feet in circumference: besides these, there are two others much inferior in size, on which the centre of the church rests, and over which is the tower. The following is the legendary account of the origin of this church: In the reign of Childebert II. there was a bishop of Avranches named St Aubert. To this holy man the archangel Michael was pleased to appear one night, and ordered him to go to this rock to build a church. St Aubert treated this as a dream; upon which the angel appeared a second time; and being still disobeyed, he returned a third time; when, by way of imprinting his command upon the saint's memory, he made a hole in his skull, by touching it with his thumb. The skull is still preserved in the treasury of the church. It is inclosed in a little shrine of gold, and a crystal, which opens over the orifice, admits the gratification of curiosity by the minutest examination of it. The hole is of a size and shape proportionate to the thumb said to have produced it; but it is impossible to determine whether it has been really made by a knife, or any other way. It is not to be supposed that the saint would forget such a sensible mark of the angel's displeasure; he therefore immediately repaired to the rock, and constructed a small church, as he had been commanded. Here, however, true history supplies the place of fable; and informs us, that it was in 966 when Richard the second duke of Normandy began to build the abbey. It was completed about the year 1070, under William the Conqueror, though many other additions were made by succeeding abbots.

In the treasury of the church are innumerable other relics; among which some few have a real and intrinsic value. There is a fine head of Charles VI. of France, cut in a crystal, and the representation of a cockle-shell in gold, weighing many pounds, given by Richard II. duke of Normandy when he founded the abbey. There is an arm said to belong to St Richard king of England; but who this saint was, must be very difficult to determine.