ntendant des devises et Inscriptions des edifices royaux," wrote
from Paris that the authorities of Rouen were to decorate their new
fountain with the loves of Alpheus and Arethusa, because, said he,
"the Seine (which is Alpheus) comes from Burgundy and Champagne to
your fountain in Rouen (which is Arethusa), to bear their mingled
waters to the sea, by which is typified your fidelity to the King to
whom the monument is to be dedicated." So the name of "Ludovicus XV."
duly appears with that of "Franciscus Fredericus Montmorencius"; and
mention is made of the allegory of Arethusa and Alpheus as aforesaid:
"Quorum fluctus amor dat esse perennes." The first sketch was made by
the King's painter, and being much approved of by the worthy Mayor
Coquerel, was executed in stone by Jean Pierre de France, "architect,
sculpteur et entrepreneur," for the sum of 5700 livres, as agreed upon
in August 1733. In 1794 the whole was considerably mutilated; but in
1846 M. Cheruel put all in order as you see it to this day, and
completed the strange harmonious mixture of buildings dating from the
Middle Ages to the eighteenth century.

As I have already noted, the first "Hotel Commune de la Ville" was set
near the Porte Massacre, close by the Town Belfry, with the vanished
church of Notre Dame de la Ronde as its first municipal chapel. It
probably stood just where the Hotel du Nord is now, when Henry
Plantagenet granted the citizens of Rouen their earliest charter of
municipal independence. The second "Town-hall" was that fief of the
Count of Leicester on the opposite side of the street, which Philip
Augustus gave to the burgesses in 1220 at an annual rental of forty
livres, and it remained in a state of primitive simplicity for more
than two centuries.[32]

[Footnote 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 ou etaient les livres de ladite
ville," (4) "une cellier," (5) "une chapelle particuliere," (6) "un
jardin carre," (7) "une cour carree devant la grande salle," and (8)
"un puits."]

In 1525 Jacques Lelieur, tracing the course of the spring Gaalor shows
three large buildings on the old fief of Leicester, bigger than
anything near them, with a Rez de chaussee, two stories above, and a
third in