[119] Bourgueville describes the havoc which took place within this abbey
    at the memorable visit of the Calvinists in 1562.  From plundering the
    church of St. Stephen (as before described p. 172,) they proceeded to
    commit similar ravages here:—­“sans auoir respect ni reuerence a la
    Dame Abbesse, ni a la religion et douceur feminine des Dames
    Religieuses.”—­“plusieurs des officiers de la maison s’y trouucrent,
    vsans de gracieuses persuasions, pour penser flechir le coeur de ces
    plus que brutaux;” p. 174.

[120] Unless it be what he calls “the FORT OF THE HOLY TRINITY of Caen; in
    which was constantly kept a garrison, commanded by a captain, whose
    annual pay was 100 single crowns.  This was demolished by Charles, king
    of Navarre, in the year 1360, during the war which he carried on
    against Charles the Dauphin, afterwards Charles V., &c.”
    Anglo-Norman Antiquities, p. 67.  This castle, or the building once
    flanked by the walls above described, was twice taken by the English;
    once in 1346, when they made an immense booty, and loaded their ships
    with the gold and silver vessels found therein; and the second time in
    1417, when they established themselves as masters of the place for 33
    years. Annuaire du Calvados; 1803-4; p. 63.

LETTER XIII.

LITERARY SOCIETY.  ABBE DE LA RUE.  MESSRS.  PIERRE-AIME LAIR AND LAMOUROUX. 
MEDAL OF MALHERBE.  BOOKSELLERS.  MEMOIR OF THE LATE M. MOYSANT, PUBLIC
LIBRARIAN.  COURTS OF JUSTICE.

From the dead let me conduct you to the living.  In other words, prepare to receive some account of Society,—­and of things appertaining to the formation of the intellectual character.  Caen can boast of a public Literary Society, and of the publication of its memoirs.[121] But these “memoirs” consist at present of only six volumes, and are in our own country extremely rare.

[Illustration:  ABBE DE LA RUE AEtat.  LXXIV.]

Among the men whose moral character and literary reputation throw a sort of lustre upon Caen, there is no one perhaps that stands upon quite so lofty an eminence as the ABBE DE LA RUE; at this time occupied in publishing a History of Caen.[122] As an archaeologist, he has no superior among his countrymen; while his essays upon the Bayeux Tapestry and the Anglo-Norman Poets, published in our Archaeologia, prove that there are few, even among ourselves, who could have treated those interesting subjects with more dexterity or better success.  The Abbe is, in short, the great archaeological oracle of Normandy.  He was pleased to pay me a Visit at Lagouelle’s.  He is fast advancing towards his seventieth year.  His figure is rather stout, and above the mean height:  his complexion is healthful, his eye brilliant, and