en la croix" was represented on the fourth by the
victory of Constantine over Maxentius, with several "tirements de
courtines" or changes of scene. The fifth, styled "Nouvelle Eau
Celique," showed the blessings of the new reign after the sufferings
of the old one by a fountain which watered the Tree of the People, so
that leaves by a marvellous device appeared to flourish naturally
upon it, while wine was poured out from beneath for every passer-by to
drink, and five fair damsels sang harmoniously. That evening all the
shepherds and shepherdesses and other characters in these moving
"histories" came down and played a "mystery" before the King. But
perhaps the thing that pleased the young Charles most of all, was that
gay procession of young gentlemen of Rouen which caracoled before him
on horseback, under the leadership of no less a personage than his
majesty the King of Yvetot, the captain of the City Bridge. (See
footnote on page 36.)

In the next days he promised to confirm the charters of the town,
assured the canons in the exercise of the Privilege St. Romain, and
asked that the procession of the prisoner might pass by his chateau,
which was the more appropriate as the man released had been condemned
to death for killing a groom attached to one of the royal suite, who
had given wanton and continued provocation. Not till the seventeenth
of May were the requests both of the ecclesiastical and the civic
authorities fully granted at St. Ouen; the spokesman for each had been
Maitre Michel Petit, the "chantre" of the Chapterhouse, and by that
one fact, if by no other, King Charles must have been properly
impressed with the importance of the Church in Rouen.

Before he left the city, he could have seen the exquisite little
shrine of St. Maclou in all the fresh untainted delicacy of its first
achievement. "The eldest daughter of the Archbishop of Rouen," this
marvellous church was the result of one perfect and harmonious plan,
and inasmuch as the design of its originator has been faithfully
completed, it is far more of an architectural unity than its larger
rivals, the Cathedral or St. Ouen. Of these three either one would
make the reputation of an English town alone, and the jewelled
chiselling and admirable proportions of the smallest of them make a
fitting complement to the heavy splendour of the Cathedral on the one
hand, and to the dizzy altitudes of the Abbey on the other.

The first Maclou, as may be imagined, w