[1] Built in 1515, its name is misleading, for it was made by Cardinal d'Amboise not to hold a cross but to carry a fountain which happened to be placed near the stone cross erected by Archbishop Gauthier in commemoration of the profitable exchanges made when Richard Coeur de Lion built his ChÂteau Gaillard in 1197 on land belonging to the Cathedral. When the Cross disappeared the Fountain took its name.

[2] Gregory of Tours, H.F., iv. 28. "Post cuius obitum Deus virtutem magnam ostendit. Lichinus enim ille, qui fune suspensus coram sepulchrum eius ardebat, nullo tangente, disrupto fune, in pavimentum conruit, et fugientem ante eam duriciam pavimenti, tanquam in aliquod molle aelimentum discendit, atque medius est suffusus nec omnino contritus."

[3] Gregory of Tours, Ib. 51. "Tunc duo pueri cum cultris validis, quos vulgo scramasaxos vocant, infectis veneno, maleficati a Fredegundae Regina, cum aliam causam suggerere simularent, utraque ei latera feriunt."

[4] But "Ipse vero, simulans ad matrem suam ire velle," says Gregory (H.F. V. 2), "Rothomago petiit et ibi Brunechildae reginae conjungitur...."

[5] "In manu gothica," he says, with a phrase that was to produce a very pretty quarrel later on.

[6] This jovial monarch is mentioned in a legal decree of 1392. He retires into obscurity during the English Occupation, and is restored, curiously enough, by the sombre Louis XI. in 1461, and freed from all taxes and subsidies. At the entry of Charles VIII. in 1485 (see Chap. X.) he makes a very appropriate appearance. In 1543 FranÇois Premier mentions a "Reine d'YvetÔt." In 1610 Martin du Bellay, Sieur de Langey and Lieutenant General of Normandy, was hailed as "Mon petit roi d'YvetÔt" by Henri Quatre at the coronation of Marie de MÉdicis. In 1783 the last "documentary" evidence occurs in the inscription on two boundary-stones: "Franchise de la PrincipautÉ d'YvetÔt."

[7] Evidently "feretrum," cf. "La fiertre de Saint Thomas," Froissart, xii. 9.

[8] He is carved on a faÇade in the MusÉe des AntiquitÉs, for instance, and painted in a window of the Church of St. Godard, to take only two examples of his constant occurrence in the civil and religious life of the people.

[9] Not only did it eat men, women, and children, say the old chronicles, but "ne pardonnait mÊme pas aux vaisseaux et navires!"

[10] He certainly pulled down the Amphitheatre, and destroyed the Temple of Venus, and the loss of both of these was likely to be well remembered for some time by the inhabitants. It is suggested that the Temple of Adonis fell at the bidding of the same bold reformer to make way for the first church of St. Paul beneath the heights of St. Catherine.

[11] Chron. de St. Denis, iii. 99.—"Franco ... regarda l'État de la citÉ et les murs qui Étaient dÉchus et abattus," etc., or in Wace's verses:

"Li Archeveske Frankes À JumiÈges ala
A Rou et À sa gent par latinier parla....
... Donc vint Rou À Roem, amont Saine naja,
De joste Saint Morin sa navie atacha."

[12] "As herteiches montent et al mur quernelÉ." (Wace, R. de R., 4057.)

[13] Students of that invaluable vision of antiquity "Les Contes Drolatiques" will remember that it was also before Duke Richard that Tryballot, the lusty old ruffian known as "Vieulx Par-chemins," was brought up for judgment, and that the statue commemorating His Grace's sympathetic verdict remained in Rouen till the modesty of the English invaders removed it.

[14] L'iglise de l'Arceveskie
De mensam plus riche fie
Fist abatre e fere graineur
A la Mere Nostre Seignur
Plus lunge la fist È plus lÉe
Plus haute È miex empaventÉe
R. de R., 5851.

[15] The Champ du Pardon attained a grisly notoriety in the fourteenth century from the presence of the "fourches Patibulaires" or public place of execution upon the "Mont de la Justice" in one corner of the field.

[16] "Justae fuit staturae, immensae corpulentiae; facie fera, fronte capillis nuda, roboris ingentis in lacertis, magnae dignitatis sedens et stans, quanquam obesitas ventris nimium protensa."—Will. Malms: lib: iii.

[17] With the Bayeux Tapestry cf. Wace's description. R. de R., 11588, &c.:

"Une lanterne fist li Dus
Metre en sa nef el mast de sus
... Une wire-wire dorÉe
Ont de coivre en somet levÉe...."

[18] This was the prince who, according to Orderic Vital (Hist. Eccl. vii.) introduced the long turned-up boots called "pigaces" which were one sign of effeminacy among the dandies of the Red King's Court, where men wore long hair, shaved off in front, wide sleeves, and the narrow and flowing robes which were a very characteristic change from the short tunic of the Conqueror's men, which permitted them to run or ride, or fight in freedom.

[19] "Qant jo, dist-il, releverai
Dedeiz sa terre À messe irai
Riche offrende li porterai
Mille chandeles li ofrerai."
Robert Wace, ib.

[20] According to Wace, Odo had been taken in the Isle of Wight and imprisoned in the "Tower of Rouen" for four years. See "Roman de Rou," v. 14,298.

[21] The complete list has been printed from the archives of Rouen by M. Ch. de Beaurepaire.

[22] "Cum essem in periculo corporis mei in regio carcere apud Rothomagum detentus," he says.

[23] Outside France the Bishop of Geneva is a famous example of this ecclesiastical right of pardon; and even limiting ourselves to French Territory, apart from OrlÉans, we shall find instances at Laon, at VendÔme on the FÊte of St. Lazare, at the Petit ChÂtelet of Paris on Palm Sunday, and at Embrun. But in none of these cases is there either proof or record of so continuous and persistent an exercise of the privilege as is found at Rouen.

[24] With this phrase in 1210 compare the words recorded in MS. 69 in the Rouen Library, where the privilege is spoken of as "accordÉ À la Sainte vierge Marie et au bienheureux Saint Romain," in 1299.

[25] M. Paul Meyer, head of the École des Chartes, has, I hear, just discovered a mediÆval poem about this interesting person, called the "Histoire de Guillaume le MarÉchal." It was in the British Museum, and his edition will be of great interest to British history.

[26] In the matter of this word "Gothic," I am of the opinion of RÉnan, who writes: "En Allemagne jusqu'au quatorziÈme siÈcle ce style s'appela 'opus Francigenum,' et c'est lÀ le nom qu'il aurait dÛ garder." If it is too much to expect of future writers that they will give up the phrase, let them at least follow the advice of Mr Moore and limit "Gothic" to the French pointed school of the Ile de France. Our own architecture has already received quite enough additional labels to prevent confusion.

[27] In 1897 two men were still alive who saw it burn, and all the gargoyles vomiting molten lead; they were M. NoËl the Librarian, and le pÈre Pepin, janitor of the Town Belfry.

[28] In venturing to suggest a few such expeditions in my appendix, I have found it convenient to assume that even if my reader were not a guest in the HÔtel du Nord, he would invariably come to the archway of the Grosse Horloge to meditate on the programme for the day.

[29] Their affection was not always grammatical, as may be seen from the old title "Rue du Gros Horloge" on the corner of the street to-day.

[30] There is a charming picture by Bonington, who was particularly attracted by Rouen, of "Le Gros Horloge," showing this house still in its old place in the famous street.

[31] This quaint courtyard is disappointing after you have read De La QuÉriÈre's warm eulogies, and I have only found two occasions on which it became notable in the history of the town. In 1461 the Conte de Charolais lodged here with Regnault de Villeneuve, Avocat du Roi, whose house was known then as the "Lion d'Or"; and when the White Rose triumphed in England, Margaret of Anjou found a refuge here by the orders of Louis XI.

[32] Though little could be done during the English occupation, it must have been enlarged in 1440, for we find in the archives of that century that reference is made at various times to (1) "la salle du conseil du manoir de la ville," (2) "galleries du manoir," (3) "une salle de parmi oÙ Étaient les livres de ladite ville," (4) "une cellier," (5) "une chapelle particuliÈre," (6) "un jardin carrÉ," (7) "une cour carrÉe devant la grande salle," and (8) "un puits."

[33] See Mr Gilbert Parker's novel, "The Battle of the Strong," in which Jersey is carefully described, on p. 189, "A Norman dead a thousand years cries Haro! Haro! if you tread upon his grave," and p. 360.

[34] It had always been a bitter grievance that St. Ouen held a monopoly of the public mills for their bakers, and the grotesque procession of the "oison bridÉ," in which two monks carried a goose by a rope every year to the Town Mill in the Rue Coquerel, had not sufficed to win their pardon from the lower classes.

[35] The Town Accounts are filled with such cheerful business entries as the following: "Avec Mons. Jehan Delammarre qui fu clerc de la ville, À l'Escu de France auprÈs la Madeleine le darrenier jour de septembre, 28."

"Pour boire au matin avec les advocas chiez Jehan le Bucher, 4s. 6d."

"Pour boire avec le lieutenant du Maire," and so forth. The fifteen taverns mentioned in the accounts of the jovial town clerk from 1377 to 1381 are all to be found going very strong in the sixteenth century. M. de Beaurepaire has preserved their fascinating names:—L'Asne Roye, Les Petits souliers, Le Fleur de Lys prÈs St. Maclou, Le Cygne devant St. Martin, Le Singe prÈs de la Madeleine, and many more.

[36] No. 41 Rue des Bons Enfants is a capital example of the Fifteenth Century Timbered inn. To the right of the inner yard a gallery juts out on crooked pillars, the "avant-soliers" so common in mediÆval streets, and shown in Lelieur's drawings. Queer gables rise into the air at odd corners, and if you are sufficiently hardened to mediÆval atmospheres you may discover other stables than the big shed at the entrance, and you will understand the reason for the Notice "On ne rÉpond pas des accidents qui peuvent arriver aux chevaux." Through a dark narrow slit the phantom of a cobwebbed stable-boy will lead you into the blackened aged stables, and the spire of the abandoned church of St. Croix des Pelletiers rises above them. Lunch here upon omelettes and sound wine; but sleep were possibly unwise, though "Room Number Ten" is almost too fascinating an apartment to resist.

[37] Her exact words were carefully recorded by the horrified confrÈrie: "Ha! faux traÎtre, meurdrier, tu as pris le fait sus toy, pour dÉlivrer autruy; tu t'en repentiras. Je pri À dieu et À Monseigneur Saint Romain que tu faches encore le fait de quoy tu saies trainnÉ et pendu."

[38] The "Cronica" begins as follows:—"Este libro ha nombre el Victorial, É fabla en Él de los quatros Principes que fueron mayores en el mundo...." It was published in Madrid in 1880, 236 pp. 4to, and was translated from the original Spanish by MM. Circourt and Puymaigre. (Paris, Victor PalmÉ, 1867, 590 pp. 8vo).

[39] M. de Bellengues lived in Michel Leconte's house, called the Manoir de la Fontaine, which was disputed by the parishes of St. LÔ and St. Herbland. In it was a little chapel very fashionable for private weddings, and a mysterious apartment which could be hired for honeymoons. The Manor was bought in 1429, for the convenience of monks visiting Rouen, by the Abbaye du Bec, from which the street took its name.

[40] For the whole of this chapter see Map B.

[41] During the same changes, Pierre Poolin was given the office of Procureur-GÉnÉral of Rouen, and Jean Segneult exercised the functions of the Mayoralty, though without the actual name.

[42] The prophetic word "Jamais" was in the device upon the tapestry above him.

[43] Eighteen million francs would represent the relative value of this sum nowadays. It was not fully paid eleven years later.

[44] No one has ever explained this to my satisfaction. But visitors to Heidelberg will remember the connection of a fox's brush with the Court Fool Perkeo, and various other legends of Renard which give the symbol, I fear, anything but a courteous significance for a foe beaten but not disgraced.

[45] The Englishmen recorded that some of their prisoners were put in the "Ostel de la Cloche dont avoit la garde Jehan Lemorgue." By this changed name is meant the humbled HÔtel de Ville, where prisons had been managed in the lower storeys early in the fifteenth century.

[46] After the Duke of Bedford had given the CÉlestins their Monastery, Charles VII. further assisted them by taking off all taxes on their wine. In recognition of this a monk used to dance and sing in front of the Monastic barrels as they were rolled past the Governor's house. Occasionally the combination of good claret and freedom from taxation overcame the monk's discretion, and the old proverb "VoilÀ un plaisant CÉlestin" preserves the memory of some such amiably festive ecclesiastic. The "Oison bridÉ" of the monks of St. Ouen was another instance of the way in which feudal privileges were commemorated by queer ceremonials which long outlived the society that gave them birth.

[47] In 1431 another prisoner, Souplis Lemire, of YvetÔt, was pardoned for exactly the same crime. By a lie he induced Jehanne CorviÈre to mount behind his horse, rode with her into a country lane, where in the words of the manuscript, "il la fÉry et frapa de plusieurs orbes coups, plus de l'espace de quatre heures, et lui fist la char toute noire et meudrie en plusieurs parties de son corps, et tant fist que il oult violemment et oultre le grÉ d'elle sa compaignie par grant force et À plusieurs clameurs de haro." In this case it was evidently the influence of the offender's family which procured him the Fierte, and his victim raised the "clameur de haro" during the ceremony itself. For this she was obliged to apologise to the canons, but Lemire's conduct throughout had been so disgraceful that, though the Fierte had absolved him definitely of all criminal penalty, after eight years of discussion he was condemned in the civil courts to pay damages of 250 livres tournois to Jehanne. In 1540 the same principle was upheld, and it generally seems to have been the custom that any prisoner chosen should give surety for the payment of his civil penalties before he was released by the Fierte from his criminal sentence.

[48] This Ellis was particularly lucky, for the first prisoner chosen had been Denisot le Charretier, who was claimed as an ecclesiastic by the Archbishop, Louis of Luxembourg, who was also Chancellor of France for the English King. They tried to secure his deliverance, but the Chancellor was too strong for them, and the dispute was settled by the intervention of Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, who came in person to the Chapterhouse and persuaded the canons to renounce their right and choose another prisoner.

[49] These queerly distorted names are not the only ones that recall the English occupation. A still more vivid memory of it may be found in their old bowling green, which is still the "Boulingrin" of the Boulevard St. Hilaire (see Map B), a word with which Brachet compares "flibustier," "poulie," and others. The "redingote" for our riding-coat is at once a more familiar and more modern instance.

[50] There is a quaint suggestion of repentance for all this in the cathedral of to-day. If you enter by the Portail des Libraires and stand beside the north-east pillar of the great lantern, at your feet is the tombstone of one of these unjust judges, Denis Gastinel, and beneath it is the great CalorifÈre that warms the building, a suggestively gruesome foretaste of the punishment which the modern canons evidently think his conduct towards Jeanne d'Arc deserves.

[51] The actual death-sentence, pronounced on the 29th of May by the forty-two judges in full council ran as follows:—

"Mandons ... que vous citiez ladite Jeanne À comparaitre en personne devant nous demain, heure de huit heures du matin, au lieu dit Le Vieux MarchÉ, pour se voir par nous dÉclarÉe relapse, excommuniÉe, hÉrÉtique, avec l'intimation À lui faire en pareil cas—DonnÉ en la Chapelle du Manoir archiÉpiscopal de Rouen, le mardi 29 mai, l'an du Seigneur 1431, aprÈs la fÊte de la TrinitÉ de notre Seigneur."

Yet there is not a single mark or inscription to record the fact of which this lonely and neglected chapel was the scene.

[52] With all that happened before Jeanne came to Rouen I have no concern here, and I must take it for granted that you know at least the outlines. But to confirm the sentence to which this note refers, I may add that they still point out to you at Chinon the well where she alighted off her horse, and the house of the "bonne femme" who sheltered her. Of the Tour du Coudray in the Castle of Chinon, as of the great hall on the first floor where she met the King, little save ruined stones remain. And it is not often that even so much as that is left of other places in which she is known to have stayed, such as the chamber in the Castle of Crotoy, the tower at Beaurevoir, the gate-tower of CompiÈgne, or any of the cells in which she was confined within the Castle of Rouen itself.

[53] See Map C.

[54] Most of the dwelling-houses were of wood, which explains why so few are left.

[55] The "ProcÈs de RÉhabilitation" reveals, on the testimony of Manchon the clerk, that her reply as recorded in the "ProcÈs de condemnation" was not correctly set down with reference to her change of attire. She resumed her male dress, though it meant her death-sentence, because, as both Massieu and Ladvenu swore, several gross attempts had been made upon her honour since the scene in the Cemetery of St. Ouen; and Pierre Cauchon cannot have been unaware that this would certainly occur.

[56] As a matter of recorded fact no sentence was then pronounced on her save by the impatient soldiers. The Bailli of Rouen, Messire Raoul le Bouteiller, only said the words I have given above, as his lieutenant swore in the second ProcÈs, and this is why the sentence is not recorded in the minutes of the Baillage.

[57] Perhaps it was in honour of these legendary loaves that the acrostic of SAC BLÉ was composed from the six dioceses dependent on the archbishopric of Rouen; SÉez, AlenÇon, Coutances, Bayeux, Lisieux, Evreux.

[58] M. de Beaurepaire has collected a few other names connected with the building. It was first dedicated when Arthur Fillon was the vicar, who was a friend of Cardinal d'Amboise and afterwards Bishop of Senlis. After the disappearance of Pierre Robin, the first architect mentioned, another stranger called Oudin de Mantes is given control, with lodgings provided for him in the Rue du Bac. In 1446 Simon Lenoir of Rouen (who took Berneval's place under the English) worked at this church.

[59] The name is said to have arisen from the fact that it was chiefly built by the fines paid by those of the faithful who ate butter during Lent.

[60] For the beginning of these confrÈries, see chapter v. p. 85.

[61] In the words of the manuscript the man "estoit couchÉ avec une femme mariÉe, autre que la sienne."

[62] Mr Gosse records in his "Modern English Literature" that it was a citizen of Rouen (Andrew Miller by name) who introduced printing into Scotland in 1507.

[63] This clearance was effected in August 1897, and Miss James took advantage of it to make her drawing from a point of view which has been invisible for centuries and may soon be lost again.

[64] This has been admirably described in Mrs Mark Pattison's volumes on the "Renaissance of Art in France," though the authoress refuses to admit that Michelet's view of Pilon's motive is correct. But in Vol. I. compare pp. 236 and 21.

[65] Called Le Roux d'Esneval in a genealogy of 1689, and perhaps relations of Louis de BrÉzÉ's first wife, whom he married before Diane de Poitiers. See the end of Chapter X.

[66] There were, of course, men to do the same kind office for Henry VIII. In the Hampton Court Gallery, see No. 342, and the notes in Mr Ernest Law's catalogue.

[67] It would be interesting to know whether anything can be traced of them now. It is rather extraordinary to consider the number of artistic objects which were carried off from Rouen in exactly this way. Apart from the windows of St. Herbland, which I mentioned at the beginning of Chapter VII., a window from Saint Nicolas le Paincteur called the "Visitation" has been recognised by a canon of Rouen in York Minster; windows from Saint Jean sur Renelle were brought to London, and exhibited, with others, about 1810, by Mr Stevenson of Norwich; and other paintings on glass from the monastery of the Chartreux du Petit QuÉvilly also reached our shores. All of which would seem to indicate that we saw the value of good work earlier in this century than the French did. But they have had their revenge since then; and in the carving of the Maison Bourgtheroulde we have neglected to preserve one of the best memorials of England that exists in France.

[68] In November 1774 the Society of Antiquaries published a large engraving of this picture (which is still procurable) by James Basine, after a drawing by E. Edwards from the original then in the Royal Apartments of Windsor Castle. In this you may see the Fountains of Bacchus and Cupid running wine, in front of the English Pavilion, which is full of windows. The Salamander of Francis floats in the air above. In 1781 the same engraver copied the companion picture of the embarkation of Henry VIII. from Dover in the "Great Harry," after a drawing by S.H. Grimm.

[69] Regnier had come to Rouen to be treated by Lesonneur, a famous local specialist; but he unfortunately celebrated his recovery with a little too much Vin d'Espagne, and died in the Rue de la Prison in 1613.

[70] The native name for this staple of trade was "ibirapitanga," and with it they shipped across monkeys and parroquets for the ladies of the French Court. That there was a considerable rivalry with Portugal in these matters may be gathered from the remark in Marino Cavalli (Venetian Ambassador to the Court of France) that a Portuguese vessel was burnt off Brazil in 1546. But the first document on Brazil ever published in France was the account of the savages exhibited before Henri II. in 1550. It is probably written by Maurice SÈve and Claude de Tillemont and was published in 1551. Before that year it will be remembered that the only works about America known were the book of Fernandez in Spanish, Ramusio's account in Italian, and the letters of Cortes in German. After it, Thevet's "France Antarticque" appeared in 1558, and Nicolas BarrÉ's letters in 1557. So that the book of the entry of Henri II. has the importance of filling a gap in "American Literature."

[71] In that year was carved for No. 17 Rue Malpalu the "enseigne" of the Brazilian savages, which has only disappeared in the last few years. It is difficult to say that any ecclesiastical carvings are meant for Indians, for I have seen figures with plumes and tattooing and tomahawks in a French church of the thirteenth century which were merely meant for peculiarly gruesome devils; but the feathered dresses and bow and arrows of the figures in the Church of St. Jacques at Dieppe are of an age that may very well agree with this appearance of Brazilians as public characters in France.

In 1565 Godefroy's "CÉrÉmonial de France" records that they were again shown to Charles IX. at Troyes, and Montaigne's questions to them in 1563 will be remembered. They replied that what astonished them most was (Essais I. xxx.) to see so many strong men armed and bearded (meaning the Swiss guard probably) obeying a puny little person like the King. They were also fairly puzzled at seeing men gorged with plenty and living in ostentation on one side of the road, and starveling ruffians begging their bread in the gutter on the other without attempting to take the rich men by the throat, or even burn their houses. On which the essayist's comment is "Tout cela ne va pas trop mal; mais quoy! ils ne portent point de hault de chausses," a truly Rabelaisian reason for their want of intellect!

[72] Its title-page is too good to be lost, and runs as follows, without the charming spacing and lettering of the original:—

"Cest La Deduction du sumptueux ordre plaisantz spectacles et magnificques theatres dressÉs et exhibes par les citoiens de Rouen ville Metropolitaine du pays de Normandie, A la sacree MaiestÉ du Treschristian Roy de France Henry secod leur souverain seigneur, Et a Tresillustre dame, maDame Katharine de Medicis, La Royne son espouse, lors de leur triumphant joyeux et nouvel advenement en icelle ville, Qui fut es iours d'Octobre, Mil cinq cens cinquante, Et pour plus expresse intelligence de ce tant excellent triumphe, Les figures et pourtraictz des principaulx aornements d'iceluy y sont apposez chascun en son lieu comme l'on pourra veoir par le discours de l'histoire.... Avec priuilege du Roy. On les vend a rouen chez Robert le Hoy Robert et Jehan dictz du Gord tenantz leur Boutique Au portail des Libraires. 1551."

[73] The portrait of him reproduced in this chapter was etched on steel in 1644, from a drawing by Michel Lasne of Caen.

[74] The fine chapel of the LycÉe Corneille, with its faÇade upon the Rue Bourg l'AbbÉ, is well worth visiting.