of
France to bear her cargoes through the Norman cliffs into the English
Channel.

If Paris, Rouen, and Le Havre were but one town, whose central highway
was this great river of the north, it would be at the vital spot, the
very market-cross, that Rouen has sprung up and flourished through the
centuries, at that dividing line where ships must stay that sail in
from the sea, and cargo boats set out that ply the upper stream with
commerce for the inland folk; and this geographical position has
affected every generation of the city's growth and strength.

Rouen that is now "_cheflieu du departement de la Seine-Inferieure_,"
was once the Norman stronghold which commanded all the basin of the
river from the incoming of the stream of Eure. The Seine and its
tributaries have cut vast plateaux some four hundred feet in height,
through chalk and debris piled above the Jurassic bedrock that crops
out here and there, as it does at Bray. On the right bank of the
river, at the summit of a huge curve, the city lies between the valley
of Darnetal, that is watered by Robec and his mate Aubette, and the
valley of Bapaume. Upon this northern side the town is guarded from
east to west by the hills of St. Hilaire, Mont Fortin, Mont aux
Malades and Mont Riboudet, and from these the houses grow downwards to
the water's edge. Upon the plateau above perch the villages of
Mont-Saint-Aignan and of Bois-Guillaume. But between the valley of
Darnetal and the Seine, is yet another natural buttress, the
promontory on whose summit is Mont Ste. Catherine and the hamlet
Bonsecours. From this magnificent height you may take the best view of
the natural setting of the town. The western horizon is closed by the
plateau of Canteleu and the forest of Roumare. To the south, within
that strong bent elbow of the stream, the bridges bind to Rouen her
faubourg of St. Sever with its communes of Sotteville and of Petit
Quevilly; and the forest of Rouvray spreads its shadow to the meeting
of the sky.

[Illustration: MAP A]

The first Rothomagus, like the Rouen of to-day, was neither a hill
city, for then it would have stood upon the Mont Ste. Catherine, nor
an island city like ancient Paris, for the Ile St. Croix was too
small. It was essentially a river city; and you may see at once the
extraordinary natural strength of its position on the outside of the
river's curve (see Map A), instead of on the inside which may have
seemed more probable at first but would