Legend of the devil stones of Royseux. -Marchin

From the book "Le Hoyoux et ses confins Montueux" by Paul Erève - published by Foncoux in 1949.

A long time ago, so long ago that history has no memory of it, the lord of Royseux was harassed or persecuted by the devil who tormented him to steal his soul.
One day the temptation was greater than ever. All the deer had disappeared from the estate of the lord, a great lover of hunting, and in the guise of a sarcastic old man the devil appeared to him again and offered him a double or quits deal: "If you want, I can bring the deer back to your forests… I can even make your hunt the richest in the land… Accept the contract and sign it with a drop of your blood ”. But the squire refused this new proposal.

In various ways, renewing his overtures, the devil returned to the charge until one day, impatient with the lord's refusals, he said to him: "You will repent!

Worried and to thwart the devil's plans , the squire went to a holy hermit in the forests of Saint-Roch , near Ferrières. After exorcizing the devil, the hermit gave him a quince stick and immediately sent him on a pilgrimage to the miraculous chapel of Borgharen, near Maastricht. Two days later, when the chaplain returned , he saw a terrifying sight. The river flooded the entire valley and the highest tower of the castle was also about to disappear into the waves.

It was Satan's revenge . With the help of a legion of demons, he had built a huge dam downstream from Royseux . In just a few hours the dam was built and the lord's family was on the verge of drowning. Then the pilgrim heard a voice in his heart, like an inspiration from heaven: "Dip your stick in the water!".

Then, while Satan was already cackling, convinced that his horrible plan was about to be accomplished, there was a terrible crash that has never been heard since. The pressure of the water had broken the dam. He was knocked away and even thrown upward as if by the effect of an explosion. And the unleashed water, leaping and gushing, scattered huge blocks of very hard rock throughout the valley and even scattered them over the slopes and to the banks of the tributaries. The Lord of Royseux was saved and the Spirit of Evil defeated again.

The legend of Royseux is also that of the poudingue stone or "Pire di diale", the large blocks of which lie at the bottom of the river from Moulin de Barse to Marchin . These almost geometrically shaped monoliths, known as "boulders", are found on the vegetated sides of the valley and on the banks of two tributaries, the Lilot and the Ry de Wappe.

These are undoubtedly the remains of a volcanic disaster from geological times, unless they were deposited by the melting of a glacier . Where do they come from, since they often bear no resemblance to the surrounding rocks? In the past they were much more numerous than today; in some places they stood together in small colonies like megaliths . They were mined and used as rubble to build blast furnaces or, more simply, to build houses in the area.

Willem Vandenameele