ARRIVAL AT CAEN--WILLIAM THE NORMAN AND CHARLOTTE CORDAY--CHURCH
OF ST. ÉTIENNE--PEOPLE AND RAILROADS OF NORMANDY--ROUEN AND ITS
CHURCHES--THE MAID OF ORLEANS, HISTORY OR LEGEND?--CASTLE OF
PHILIPPE LE BEL--DEPARTURE FROM ROUEN
There are two names connected with the history of Caen which obliterate
the memory of all others: one of a king and warrior, the other of a
woman who gave her life for her country,--William of Normandy, and
Charlotte Corday. How far apart their lives lay, how widely different
their history! While the story of the man is full of interest and
glory, my thoughts rest longest on that of the girl, and I seem to see
her stepping from the door of the old house in the Rue St. Jean and
flitting away, down the long highway towards Paris and the guillotine;
her figure clothed in quiet gray stuff, a white kerchief crossed on
her bosom, and fastened by a bow of black ribbon, while a mass of wavy
black hair is crowned by a white cap bearing a black bow, and great
dark eyes light up a pallid face,--eyes glowing with that intense love
of country much more common to women than to men. That is to my mind
Charlotte Corday and in a simple house of the bourgeoise in this quiet
street she passed most of the years of her life. Its façade is changed
but the interior remains and one can picture the simple provincial
household with its scant furniture, its necessary economies, the old
aunt confiding to the family friend her "fear for Charlotte," the
meeting with her young patriots, and the last quiet closing of the door
of her home with no farewells to any one--the flitting away down this
long bright highway where we are speeding joyously to-day. Follow her
and you will go to the garden of the Palais Royal where she bought the
knife; go with her to the chamber of Marat where she slaughtered his
vileness; see her in the hands of the furies of the Revolution; watch
her as she mounts the scaffold. Surely if ever murder was forgiven by
God, that girl went spotless into His presence,--pure as the Maid of
Orleans.
[Illustration: CHARLOTTE CORDAY
After the painting by Raffet]
But Charlotte did not walk to Paris. She travelled in the diligence,
and seems to have had a very good time of it. She is a case in point
showing that vanity in women, especially in French women, is strong
even in the face of death by violence. We find her smiling upon the
artist who sketched her during the trial and turning her face towards
him, while, as the executioner waited, she gave a sitting for her
portrait in the Conciergerie. In this portrait which still exists she
is clothed in the red robe in which she met her death, as she called
it, "the toilette of death arranged by somewhat rude hands, but it
leads to immortality."
It rained in torrents as she moved out to her doom, and then the
sun shone forth. "Its departing rays fell upon her head, and her
complexion heightened by the red of the chemise, seemed of an unearthly
brilliance. Robespierre, Danton, and Camille Desmoulins watched her on
her way, a celestial vengeance appeased and transfigured."
How different the story of the other name which makes Caen famous! Pomp
and glitter, the call to arms and a throne! While the girl's grave is
unknown her death was attended by a nation, though the King sleeps in
the choir of the majestic Church of Saint Étienne and his descendants
rule in his stead, his death was neglected and he was buried by
charity. But which name stands first in the great court of God?
As the traveller enters Caen the first object which greets his eye
is the Church of St. Étienne, the Church of the Abbey of Men, which
was founded by the Conqueror in 1036, the same year his Queen Matilda
founded the Church of the Abbey of Women,--La Trinité, which one sees
over yonder, both as an expiation of the sin they had committed in
marrying within the forbidden degree of consanguinity. While singularly
majestic, St. Étienne is simple to severity, but what do architects
think about its façade and the odd-looking spires? To me they appear
as though brought by some giant on a dark night and set upon the
wrong church, after which it was not worth while to take them down.
Certainly to one who is not an architect, they seem oddly placed on
that façade.
[Illustration: THE ABBEY OF MEU AT CAEN
By permission of Messrs. Neurdein]
The interior however, the nave that is, satisfies by its dignified
simplicity and was a fitting resting-place for a king like the Norman.
I say "was" because the tomb under the black marble slab before the
high altar is empty. The King formerly slept beneath the great central
tower, but both Huguenots and Revolutionists desecrated his grave and
his bones have never rested in that tomb or choir.
Caen possesses many fine churches, especially that of Saint Pierre,
also the "Trinité" or "Abbaye aux Dames" founded by the Queen of the
Conqueror; but while that church is fine, its crypt is unique.
[Illustration: LA TRINITÉ, ABBEY OF WOMEN, AT CAEN
By permission of Messrs. Neurdein]
Our way through Normandy is as though driving through a beautiful park.
The long highways stretch off into the smiling country like great
white ribbons turning and twisting on a bed of delicate green satin
and the brooks bubble and sing along happy in the ever increasing life
of spring. Tall poplars clothed in the pale green which seems peculiar
to France in this season, march away in stately procession, while the
quaint thatched cottages are all a-blossom with the flowers of peach
and pear trees trained over their faces, and through which the windows
twinkle out at you like the eyes of a maiden from under the frills of
a white sunbonnet. There are many Evangelines abroad in this smiling
country, still wearing their Norman caps and kirtles of homespun.
Ancient dames sit by the open doors thankful that they may bask in
the sunshine of another year, and that they will not as yet add another
cross to the many on the hillside yonder. One with whom a black-robed
priest is talking is evidently so old that she must say farewell to all
this brightness before very long. We pass many curious groups. Here
comes one on a make-shift of a wagon, evidently of home construction.
It is hauled by three poor dogs, one on each side and one underneath
it. A stolid-looking girl pushes behind, and in it sits enthroned a
beast of a man, evidently a cripple in his legs, but with bestiality
written on every feature; such a man as Quilp must have been. A
wretched baby completes the party, but such groups of misery are the
exception, most of the people of Normandy look happy.
Our route lies through Lisieux, a prosperous little city, earnestly
engaged in its own affairs, and having no time to waste on a passing
show like ourselves. But we note as we glide by that Lisieux possesses
a church and many bits of curious architecture that would interest, but
to-day is one of those days when it is good to be alive, when there
is great joy in motion, so we sail onward almost like the flight of a
great flamingo, onward and onward, until from the top of a hill the
Seine comes into view, winding through its fair valley on the way to
the sea; and, off in the other direction, with her spires glittering
in the sunlight, sits Rouen, the pride of all this region which would
appear to have placed the town in its centre, and arranged its hills
like a vast amphitheatre all around it, that the looker-on might the
better observe the pageant of history as it swept through the ancient
city. As we move onward and into her streets we discover that the Rouen
of to-day, while evidently a "member of one of our oldest families"
is not a dead town. The Seine sweeping through her midst bears on its
waters ships from all over the world as well as the quaint barges and
puffing little steamers which come down from Paris. The old walls have
vanished, giving place to wide boulevards, which encircle the ancient
town and are in turn surrounded by far-spreading suburbs. Light and
life is everywhere and the cafés over-flow far into the streets with
their little tables and merry throngs. Evidently the fortune of the
ancient city was great, for its heir of to-day is certainly in affluent
circumstances,--so that there is nothing of the sadness which envelops
so many of the ancient towns of the Republic, and yet few, if any, of
them preserve intact so much that belongs to the Middle Ages.
Leave the wide, gay boulevard by the river and enter any of the
adjoining streets and you slip at once backward for hundreds of
years,--large sections stand unchanged by the flight of time,--ancient
mansions gaze down upon you still bearing their coats of arms in
stone,--still showing the high peaked roofs and heavy carving of a
distant age.
Moving on, you will pass the exquisite Church of St. Maclou and at
last pause with a feeling of satisfaction before the majestic façade
of the great cathedral. This temple holds perfect beauty in its plan,
is a poem in stone, which satisfies the mind and the eye ever more
and more. When the traveller passes into the shadowy interior he is
forced to pause in deepest admiration. The majestic pillars of its
nave stretch away hundreds of feet before him until merged in one of
the most beautiful choirs in Europe; centuries old all of it, and
never having been restored it possesses that mellow beauty which only
the passage of the years can bestow, and the artist lingers long in
its shadows drinking in the charm around him, with scarcely a desire
to enter into an examination of details,--nor shall I attempt such
descriptions here.
[Illustration: MONUMENT OF CARDINAL D'AMBOISE, IN ROUEN CATHEDRAL
By permission of Messrs. Neurdein]
As you move on into the choir, you will pass over some small
lozenge-shaped pieces of marble, marking the spot where rested once
the lion heart of Richard, and the body of his brother Henry. Here
they found the former in a greenish taffeta bag inclosed in a case
of lead,--it is now in the Museum. The gorgeous monument of George,
Cardinal of Amboise and Louis de Brézé will hold the attention in one
of the chapels,--both stately affairs. Brézé was the husband of Diane
de Poitiers, who is here represented clothed in deep mourning and
shedding many tears. An inscription upon the tomb states that she was
faithful in life and will be with him in death. Doubtless Francis I. or
Henry II. helped her erect the monument and compose the epitaph. As for
her sepulchre, it was built in her Château of Anet and there she was
buried. As for her faithfulness to her husband, those two kings, father
and son, can testify better than we can. One wonders why the furies
of the Revolution did not pull that tomb to bits,--for even in our
day, a complacent husband is not a pleasant object. As one wanders out
into the quiet streets of the old town, one wonders much as to whether
things in those days were after all very different from things in our
own time. Certainly those husbands did not think it worth while to kill
themselves.
[Illustration: THE TOMB OF LOUIS DE BRÉZÉ IN THE CATHEDRAL OF ROUEN
From a photograph]
In the Church of St. Ouen, Rouen possesses another cathedral, beautiful
in every line, but part is new and much restored, and, while the
architect will be charmed with it, the artist and historian will find
much greater pleasure in the Cathedral. So I wander in and out of it,
and off into the winding streets of the old town, where a tide of life
flows on making them cheery, cheerful places where even the ancient
houses, with their weight of years, smile downward upon the passing
throng like the "old, old, old, old lady at the boy just half-past
three." The great clock in its ancient gate-house tower has something
to say to me as I pass it by, as it has had something to say to kings
and princes, to black-cowled monks and purple-robed bishops, to the
Maid in her forbidden armour, to the child Queen of Scots when she
slept in this ancient city,--perhaps to Charlotte Corday. "Time hath
wings; how, O mortal, hast thou spent thine?"
[Illustration: THE GREAT CLOCK OF ROUEN
By permission of Messrs. Neurdein]
Hearing its bell, you are reminded of that fragment in the Museum, once
a part of the great bell of George of Amboise, which was melted by
the Terrorists into sou pieces, bearing the inscription "Monument of
Vanity, destroyed for utility, in the second year of the equality."
Passing onward the traveller comes to the Church of St. Gervais--the
oldest in Rouen and in the priory of which William the Conqueror died.
The royal dead in France were generally treated with scant respect on
their final journeys. Francis II. and Louis XV. were carted in old
wagons by night to St. Denis, and even this English king owes his
burial to a stranger. After the siege of Nantes, wounded to death, he
retired to this priory of St. Gervais to die. Deserted by his sons and
plundered by his servants when scarcely dead, his body lay naked and
uncared for until in pity and charity, a neighbouring knight assumed
the obligation of his funeral and escorted his body to the Church of
St. Étienne in Caen.
St. Gervais has suffered restoration, so let us move onward to where
the Maid of Orleans is supposed to have ended her life at the stake.
Which story are we to believe as to this maiden,--that given by history
and with which every schoolboy is familiar, or that related by M.
Lesigne, who terms the former "a beautiful legend?" He points out
that it is incredible that people should seriously believe that the
English were driven out by a peasant girl even though inspired and he
shows that just then the power of the French was strengthened, while
that of the English was weakened by dissensions at home; that Jeanne
was taken up by the war party,--not to lead its armies but to instill
religious fervour and courage into the hearts of its soldiers, that
she was not even aware of the first action between the contending
armies but was in fact in bed at the time; that Orleans fell because
the English had been abandoned by their allies of Burgundy, and he
gives credit for that to "the astute policy of Charles VII.," which,
by the way, is the first move denoting any brains on the part of that
monarch of which we have ever been made aware; that Jeanne's triumph
came during the rejoicings at Orleans, and when Charles was crowned at
Rheims. Taken by the Burgundians, she was transferred to the English,
whose king, as a Christian monarch, was under obligations to hand
her over to stand trial before the proper ecclesiastical court, but
that court had no power to inflict punishment, death, or torture. The
judgment of a secular court was necessary. On threat of being consigned
to that court, Jeanne signed a recantation, which was accepted,
provided she promised henceforth to wear woman's dress. Condemned to
life imprisonment, she passed again into the hands of the English as
a prisoner of war who represented a large ransom. Left to herself she
soon assumed male attire and was again handed over to the Church for
trial. Again recanting, she was recommended by that court to the mercy
of the secular powers, the English, who had never pronounced judgment
upon her. The legend of her burning was due to a desire to make her
fulfil the whole prophecy of the ancient Merlin, who was supposed to
have said that the islanders would put her to death, but she seems
to have subsequently married Robert des Armoises, and we possess a
document drawn up in the names of Robert des Armoises, Chevalier,
Seigneur of Trichiemont and "Jehanne du Lys la Pucelle de France," wife
of said Trichiemont. The identity of Jehanne du Lys and Jeanne d'Arc
is proven by several documents, among these a part of the chronicle of
Saint Thibault de Metz, describing her meeting with her brothers and
mentioning her marriage. This is the substance of M. Lesigne's book,
proving that every story has two sides. However, the world in general
and the Church in particular accept the story as history gives it.
She is now a regularly canonised saint of the Church of Rome and I
should not like to suggest to many healthy schoolboys at home that
she was not burned to death. If that did occur, it was not where
this meaningless and absurd monument stands to-day, but on the site
of the Théâtre Français. The scene of her imprisonment, trial, and
condemnation was the ancient Castle of Philip Augustus in 1204, of
which nothing now remains unless, as is claimed, the donjon tower shown
to-day as the prison of Jeanne d'Arc be part thereof. It certainly was
not her prison as that was torn down in 1809,--a year, by the way,
which seems to have been more fatal to many of these old buildings than
the period of the Revolution.
[Illustration: THE TOWER OF JEANNE D'ARC AT ROUEN
From an old print]
This Castle of Philip was immense in size, possessed of many towers,
and would be of intense interest to-day, as the illustration shows. It
is said to have stood intact until 1809.
Few of the old houses which crowd these streets and point their
aristocratic gables towards the sky stood here in 1400, though many of
the less pretentious did do so. The great churches were here, and in
whatever direction you may stroll in Rouen, you will arrange to pass
through one at least of these beautiful shrines, carrying away with you
into after life the memory of something which you would not forget.
[Illustration: A HOUSE OF THE 15TH CENTURY AT ROUEN
From a photograph]
We leave the city on a glorious morning. As we glide away down her
wide boulevard stretching by the river, the world is all astir about
its business, and this Rouen is all of to-day, but as we speed off up
the encircling hillside, the modern town drops down toward earth as it
were, while the majestic cathedral and her sister churches lift their
dark walls and spires higher and higher, towards the sky.
[Illustration: THE CATHEDRAL AT ROUEN
By permission of Messrs. Neurdein]