, and still retaining every mark of the workman's
chisel.

"The keep cannot be ascended without difficulty. We ventured to scale
it; and we were fully repaid for our labor by the prospect which we
gained. The Seine, full of green willowy islands, flows beneath the rock
in large lazy windings: the peninsula below is flat, fertile, and well
wooded: on the opposite shores, the fantastic chalky cliffs rise boldly,
crowned with dark forests."

NOTES:

[185] Vol. II. p. 113.

[186] So says Monstrelet; and he has generally been followed; but,
according to Masseville, (_Histoire de Normandie_, IV. p. 84) the Norman
Chronicle limits the duration of the siege to only seven months.

PLATE LXXXII.

CHURCH OF MONTIVILLIERS.

[Illustration: Plate 82. ABBEY CHURCH OF MONTIVILLIERS.
_West End._]

Montivilliers is a town of about four thousand inhabitants, situated in
a beautiful valley upon a small stream, called the _Lezarde_, near the
western extremity of the Pays de Caux, within the distance of six
leagues from Fecamp, and two from Havre de Grace. Its fortifications,
now in ruins, were erected near the close of the fourteenth century,
till which time it was altogether defenceless; but the state of France,
just recovered from one English invasion and threatened with another,
turned the thoughts of the government towards the securing of all
vulnerable points on the northern frontier; and the trade of the place,
though at present trifling, was at that period far otherwise. The cloths
of Montivilliers were then considered to rival those of Flanders; and
the preservation of the manufacture was regarded of so much consequence,
that sundry regulations respecting it are to be found in the royal
ordinances. The two circular towers of one of the gates now standing,
afford a good specimen of the military architecture of the time.

Montivilliers is called in Latin, _Monasterium villare_; and in old
French, _Monstier Vieil_: the present name of the town is obviously a
corruption of these; and the same fact also denotes that the place
derived its importance, if not its existence, from the monastery. Among
the Norman historians, the foundation of Montivilliers is referred to
the seventh century; during the latter half of which, St. Philibert,
abbot of Jumieges, built a convent here for a community of nuns. The
monastery was richly endowed; but no records are left of its history
previously to the incursions of the Normans,