gh it,
which you will be tempted to do at much too fast a pace on learning
that the Rue du Panneret at its north-east angle leads directly to the
Maison Bourgtheroulde in the Place de la Pucelle. Another
characteristic little square is the Place St. Vivien which cuts the
Rue Eau de Robec in two portions. If you are lucky enough to be there
on a twenty-ninth of August you will see the famous Fete St. Vivien in
full blast, with booths and merry-go-rounds, and travelling theatres,
even a "Theatre Garric a 8 heures, Nouveau Spectacle!" But do not go
on into the further recesses of the Eau de Robec without looking at
the church, and give your keenest glances to the fine square tower
with its octagonal spire that is classed among the Monuments
Historiques. Of the ancient Abbaye de St. Amand there is perhaps less
left than of any of the ecclesiastical buildings in this chapter. Its
origin has been described already (see p. 71), and the gable with its
buttressed wall that you can see best in the Rue St. Amand from the
Place des Carmes are almost the only stones remaining of an
institution that once took a very prominent part in the ecclesiastical
ceremonies of Rouen.

For when an Archbishop died, the Abbess of St. Amand took from his
dead finger, as the funeral procession passed her gates, the ring that
she had placed upon it at his installation. On the 19th of July 1493,
that ring still shone upon the hand of Robert de Croixmare, whose
corpse had just been brought into the Cathedral choir, arrayed in
state, with mitre on head, and crosier in hand, with all his robes of
office on him. That night the bier rested in the Abbey of St. Ouen,
and as it passed the Abbey of St. Amand on its way back to burial, the
Abbess must have wondered, as she claimed her ring, on whom she would
bestow it next. The canons of the Cathedral were even more hasty in
their eagerness to settle the important question, and the body of
their late superior had been scarcely laid in state within their choir
before they were deliberating in the Chapterhouse about his probable
successor. As a mere matter of form--and we know how tenacious were
these canons of their rights and usages--they had sent word to the
King that the election of the next Archbishop was proceeding; and
their dismayed astonishment may be imagined when a message came from
Charles VIII. that he "neither admitted nor denied their privilege to
re-elect."

The King was not long in enlightenin