ert-Mace, either by
his own hand or by his servants, several "common people," who were so
ill-advised as to get in the way were killed, and at Dun-le-Roy he
was compelled to fight his way out, using the edge of his rapier right
and left, "with considerable loss of life among the peasants." They
had been the centre (and their swords were never idle) of similar
riots, near Bourges, in the streets of Falaise, at Lisieux, and
elsewhere. More high-born foes were treated in just as summary a
fashion. With his brother Jehan, Francois attacked his enemy St.
Germain (a Cotentin magistrate) on the bridge at Lyons, wounded him
four times, and left him dead. His shoemaker was late in delivering
some boots, so Francois visited him, sword-in-hand, carried off two
other pairs, and "has not yet been known to pay for them." Other
necessities he had not scrupled to provide himself with in a similar
way. Oxen and sheep from a farmer called Lemoyne, chickens from a
priory near Bayeux, more sheep from the Sieur de Grosparmy, horses
from another farmer, flour from a third. A husband who objected to
giving up his wife at St. Lo was promptly wounded, so severely that he
could only watch her helplessly as she was carried off.

Such are a few of the crimes, of which Monsieur de Fontenay confessed
the astonishing number of forty-two. After his acquittal of them all,
by virtue of the Fierte, the canons were for some six months kept hard
at work dealing out similar deliverances to the crowd of his
accomplices who kept on appearing from every side, and clamouring for
the mercy of the Chapterhouse. Though I can conceive no worse
precedent for the future of the Fierte, I need make no further comment
upon the fact of de Fontenay's deliverance, except that he was so well
aware of the detestation he had inspired in many of his victims that
he was afraid to make any public appearance in the streets of Rouen
for fear of assassination.

[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO THE AITRE ST. MACLOU]

Remembering this man's career, turn out of the Place des Ponts de
Robec, down the Rue Damiette, southwards, and I will show you the
spot in Rouen that has made me tell you something of his history as a
type of the young gallant of the sixteenth century. As you pass the
"Rue du Rosier" (on your left at No. 54), the "Impasse des Hauts
Mariages" appears a little further on. Any budding romance the name
may suggest will not survive a walk of a few yards up its narrow and
nois