nge reflection of the arches soaring
upwards in the nave.

It was in the Abbey of St. Ouen that on a May Day of 1485, Charles
VIII. held a great assembly to deliberate over the concessions to the
town after his famous entry into Rouen. To welcome him, poets,
machinists, actors, tableaux vivants, marionettes, songs, comedies,
and "mysteries," were gathered together regardless of expense. The
Dukes of Orleans and Bourbon had arrived before him, and on the
twelfth of April they were presented by the Chapterhouse with six
gallons of wine of two sorts, and with loaves of the famous bread,[57]
in return for which each gave a golden crown to the Cathedral
Offertory. Two days afterwards arrived the King himself from Pont de
l'Arche with a large and brilliant suite, including the second Louis
de la Tremouille, who fought on every battlefield from St. Aubin du
Cormier to Pavia, Philippe de Commines the historian, the "Comte de
Richemont," soon to be King of England, and many others.

[Footnote 57: Perhaps it was in honour of these legendary loaves that
the acrostic of SAC BLE was composed from the six dioceses dependent
on the archbishopric of Rouen; Seez, Alencon, Coutances, Bayeux,
Lisieux, Evreux.]

On his way from the Faubourg St. Sever to his lodgings in the Chateau
de Bouvreuil, five stages greeted his progress with loyal allegories.
Each bore its title written above in letters of gold or blue or rose
upon tin plates. The first was labelled "Repos Pacificque," and
represented by means of seven personages an acrostic on the royal name
of Charles. The second was "Ordre Politique," and was of a most
amazing ingenuity, for no less than forty-four persons were shown on
three stages one above the other which all turned round slowly on one
piece of timber. On the lowest appeared John the Evangelist with a
little angel by his side pointing him upwards to the splendours of the
Apocalypse; in the middle twenty-four aged harpers sat and harped,
with "lutes and rebecqs" in their hands; at the top shone the "Agnus
Dei," the lamb of Rouen from the civic arms, amidst a cloud of
evangelists and rainbows. On the third stage, labelled "Uncion des
Rois," was figured, with divers changes of scene, the coronation and
anointing of David, all arranged by Master David Pinel in token of the
joy of Rouen that Charles VIII. had been anointed with the holy oil at
Reims which had given strength to Charles VII. to turn out the hated
English. "Espoir