road, the Abbey
church on the left. The large demesne of Saint Sauveur-le-Vicomte passed
by marriage into the Harcourt family, and belonged, in the time of Edward
III., to Geoffrey d'Harcourt, whose fortress was one of the most
formidable in Normandy. Banished from France, he went over to England and
persuaded Edward III. to make a descent upon Normandy instead of Gascony,
assuring him he would find rich towns and fair castles without any means
of defence, and that his people would gain wealth enough to suffice them
for twenty years to come. The King landed at La Hogue, or Saint
Vaast-la-Hogue, as it is now called, where he knighted the Prince of Wales
and made Warwick and Harcourt marshals of his army. They advanced in three
divisions--the King and the Prince in the centre, the two marshals on the
right and left--ravaging all before them, and not stopping in their
victorious course till the great victory at Crecy. Harcourt subsequently
met a traitor's fate. A force was sent against him, his army was routed,
and, preferring death to being taken, he fought most valiantly until he
was struck to the ground by French lances, when some men-at-arms
dispatched him with their swords. He had sold the reversion of his castle
to King Edward III., to whom it was confirmed by the treaty of Bretigny.
Edward bestowed the barony upon that pride of English chivalry, Sir John
Chandos, in recompense for his great services in the wars. The square
donjon and inner gate were built by Chandos. The castle is well preserved,
and is now used as a hospice for orphans and aged women. The rooms are
kept beautifully clean, and on a tablet in one of the corridors is written
up "Dortoirs restaures par la munificence de M. le Comte Georges
d'Harcourt en memoire de ses illustres ayeux, anciens Seigneurs de ce
chateau, en 1838."

The Benedictine convent also belonged to the Harcourts until the revolt of
Geoffrey. It is now the property of the Soeurs de la Misericorde, who have
rebuilt the fine Abbey church according to its former model. Originally
built in the eleventh century, it was partly burnt in the fourteenth, and
reconstructed in the fifteenth. The columns and arches of the nave are of
the first period; the form of the church is a Latin cross, having an apse
ornamented with a double row of lancet windows, richly sculptured. The
sculptures are all executed by an untaught workman of the place, who died
before he had completed the pulpit. To collect t