might have bought them
at a cheap rate."

In 1379, when the English arms, during the minority of the second
Richard, obtained in France an ephemeral superiority, St. Lo was the
only town in the Cotentin, except Carentan, which the French monarch
considered of sufficient strength to justify him in entrusting it with a
garrison.--It was taken by the English, under Henry V. in 1418; and was
again restored to the French, by capitulation, thirty-one years
subsequently.--In the beginning of the following tumultuous reign, St.
Lo and Valognes were appointed as the places of residence for Clarence
and Warwick, and the other leaders of the Lancastrian party; after their
short-lived success, in favor of the deposed Henry, had been followed by
their own utter defeat, and the final discomfiture of their hopes.

During the religious wars of the sixteenth century, St. Lo was once more
so unfortunate as to act a prominent part. Early in the troubles, it
distinguished itself by a decided devotion to the cause of
Protestantism; and, though often obliged, by the current of affairs, to
yield a reluctant submission to the opposite party, it continued
throughout the whole of the struggle, unshaken in its attachment to the
Huguenots. Hence, when finally summoned to surrender to the Catholics,
in 1574, it rather chose to expose itself to all the miseries of a
siege, as well as to the still greater one of being taken by assault;
and the severity of its sufferings is recorded by the historians of the
conquering party, who themselves admit, that "it was sacked with a
horrible carnage."[195] Its Protestant places of worship were not,
however, finally rased, till 1685, the period of the revocation of the
edict of Nantes.

St. Lo was the seat of an abbey of Augustine friars, said to have been
founded in the middle of the twelfth century, and to have been of such
celebrity, that, according to Quercetanus, the bishops of Coutances were
contented for a time to be styled bishops of St. Lo.[196]The principal
church in the place, that of Notre Dame, greatly resembles the cathedral
of Coutances, of which it is even said to be a copy. It was not begun to
be built till the period of English rule in Normandy, during the
fifteenth century. The older, or clock-tower, was erected in 1430: the
opposite tower and western entrance, in 1464. Other parts of it were not
completed till the following century; and the northern spire is a work
of as late a period as