_ a short
street leads up to one of the most important thoroughfares, the Rue Jeanne
d'Arc. It is perfectly straight and contains nothing in it that is not
perfectly modern, but at the highest point you may see a marble tablet
affixed to a wall. It bears a representation in the form of a gilded
outline of the castle towers as they stood in the time of the Maid of
Orleans, and a short distance behind this wall, but approached from another
street, there still remains the keep of Rouen's historic castle. The
circular tower contains the room which you may see to-day where Joan was
brought before her judges and the instruments of torture by which the
saintly maiden was to be frightened into giving careless answers to the
questions with which she was plied by her clever judges. This stone vaulted
room, although restored, is of thrilling interest to those who have studied
the history of Joan of Arc, for, as we are told by Mr Theodore Cook in his
"Story of Rouen," these are the only walls which are known to have echoed
with her voice.

Those who have made a careful study of the ancient houses in the older
streets of Rouen have been successful in tracing other buildings associated
with the period of Joan of Arc's trial. The Rue St Romain, that narrow and
not very salubrious thoroughfare that runs between the Rue de la Republique
and the west front of the cathedral, has still some of the old canons'
lodgings where some of the men who judged Joan of Arc actually lived. Among
them, was Canon Guillaume le Desert who outlived all his fellow judges.
There is still to be seen the house where lived the architect who designed
the palace for Henry V. near Mal s'y Frotte. Mr Cook mentions that he has
discovered a record which states that the iron cage in which Joan of Arc
was chained by her hands, feet and neck was seen by a workman in this very
house.

In the quaint and narrow streets that are still existing near the Rue St
Romain, many strange-looking houses have survived to the present day. They
stand on the site of the earliest nucleus of the present city, and it is in
this neighbourhood that one gets most in touch with the Rouen that has so
nearly vanished.

In this interesting portion of the city you come across the marvellously
rich Grosse Horloge already mentioned. A casual glance would give one the
impression that the structure was no older than the seventeenth century,
but the actual date of its building is 1529, and the clock