his exile, in Montpelier, Moulins, and Evreux,
and at last he moved nearer to England and wrote pathetically asking
to be recalled. Seven years, his letter says, was the term of God's
displeasure, yet for more than seven had he borne the displeasure of
the King. A longer life no man could grant him, he asked only that
death might not come to him in a foreign land, but in England near his
children. His prayer was not granted, and in 1674 the archives of the
Hotel de Ville in Rouen record that the King of France had allowed
"Monsieur le Comte de Clarendon, Chancelier de l'Angleterre" to live
where he pleased within the kingdom by consent of His Majesty of Great
Britain. The house now leased by Monsieur le Comte (goes on this sad
little record) used to have a small lake in the garden, and Monsieur
desired that water might again be directed into it. The request was
granted that same month at a meeting held in the Town Hall.

The first mention of a building on this spot is in the Town Records of
October 1448, when it is called "Hostel des Presses de la Rue de la
Miette," a name for the street which seems to show that this
"Damiette" is at any rate not of eastern origin. The word "Presses" is
connected with the story of Rouen trade by the fact that it
commemorates the presses set up for pressing and finishing cloth by
one of that family of Dufour who did so much towards the decoration of
their parish church of St. Maclou. The house that is standing now was
built (though without its later seventeenth-century ornaments) by
Guillaume le Fieu, who had been treasurer of the Stables of Catherine
de Medicis, or "Receveur de l'Ecurie de la Reine" in 1558, and the
Archives of the Department now possess, by the gift of later occupants
of the house, a very interesting manuscript of his accounts for a year
in this capacity. By the untiring diligence of M. Ch. de Beaurepaire
these have been analysed, and his paper describing them, though too
detailed to be reproduced here, is of the highest importance for any
writer attempting to describe the habits of a queen whose abilities as
a horsewoman were so highly praised by Brantome. Guillaume le Fieu had
evidently considerable financial abilities, for we find him promoted,
later on, to be "Receveur General de la Generalite de Rouen," and
finally "Maitre Ordinaire de la Chambre des Comptes de Normandie," so
that he is also connected with the two beautiful buildings, so
different in style and dat