in somewhat untoward fashion, for it reduced the
population of the town by 20,000 souls (of whom many carried their
trade to England or the Low Countries), and commerce almost
disappeared. "Men live," cried St. Simon, "on the grass of the field
in Normandy."

Yet the exhaustless vitality of the town was not easily tapped. In
1723 Voltaire found nothing to complain of, and in the Rue aux Juifs
the first edition of his "Henriade" was printed by Robert Viret. In
1731 he came back, and in the Rue du Bec, or the Rue Ganterie, had
many pleasant conversations with M. de Bourgtheroulde, M. de
Fresquienne, and others, but he left his little sting behind him as
usual, and it remains so true that I must reproduce it here, on the
theme--"Vous n'avez point de mai en Normandie."

"Vos climats ont produit d'assez rares merveilles
C'est le pays des grands talents
Des Fontenelle des Corneilles
Mais ce ne fut jamais l'asile du printemps."

[Illustration: HOUSE IN RUE PETIT SALUT. (RUE AMPERE 13.)]

As the eighteenth century progressed, commercial prosperity returned
with extraordinary rapidity, and the town shows every sign of making
an intelligent use of its opportunities. A mission is sent to Smyrna
and Adrianople to learn the textile methods of the East; dyers in the
Rue Eau de Robec are busier than ever; the Quartier Cauchoise is set
apart for industrial work, for silk and wools and linens; there is a
great storehouse for grain, a huge "Halle des Toiles"; a Bourse for
business men. In 1723 a new "Romaine," or Custom-House, was built,
which involved the destruction of the Porte Haranguerie and the Porte
de la Viconte, and upon its triangular pediment was placed Coustou's
beautiful carving of "Commerce," of which I reproduce a drawing in
these pages. After the Revolution the "Tribunal des Douanes" was held
in the Maison Bourgtheroulde, until in 1838 the present "Douane" was
built by Isabelle, and Coustou's relief was set beneath its rotunda
inside. The various fortunes of the Custom-House of Rouen have been
described by M. Georges Dubosc, another of those patriotic antiquarian
writers, in whom Rouen is richer than any provincial town I know. His
large volume on the architecture of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries gives so complete and accurate a list that I am fortunately
relieved from any discussion of a period with which I must confess an
uninstructed want of sympathy. But I owe it to his insight tha