Indeed, the history of Epernay is most intimately connected with that of its wine, which figures throughout its records as a constant attraction to friends and foes. After the final expulsion of the English, the town gradually recovered its prosperity, and became an appanage of the Dukes of Orleans. At the commencement of the sixteenth century we find Francis I.--to whom it had reverted on the death of Louise of Savoy--presenting it to Claude, Duke of Guise, and the eschevins resolving in 1544 that their new seigneur should be offered 'twenty poinçons of the best wine that can be found in the cellars of the district, and that after the vintage twenty more of the new crop shall be sent to him.'[432] A levy of one hundred poinçons had already been demanded of them for the camp formed by the King at Rethel two years before; and the various strongholds of the province had been freely supplied with wine exacted from Epernay by the Duke de Longueville, lieutenant-governor of the Champagne. [Illustration: THE EMPEROR CHARLES V. (From a portrait of the time).] [Illustration] On the advance of Charles V. in 1544, the Dauphin, afterwards Henri II., following the example successfully set by Anne de Montmorency in Provence, pitilessly sacked the entire district of the Marne, in order that the enemy might find nothing to live on, and stored the product, which included an enormous quantity of wine, in Epernay. The Emperor advanced, meeting with but little opposition, and having taken up his quarters in the Abbey of Avenay, amused himself with building the vendangeoir known as Charles-Fontaine on the adjacent slope, as a testimony of his intention to make, if possible, a permanent sojourn in a province, the vinous products of which he so highly esteemed.[433] But whilst the illustrious patron of Titian and his 'swarthy grave commanders' were snugly tippling the choicest vintages contained in the abbey cellars, and his followers camped outside Epernay were waiting for the hour when they should revel at pleasure on the wine stored in the town, their hopes vanished literally in smoke. For Francis, fearing the town would be unable to hold out, had sent word to Captain Sery to burn it, and destroy the accumulated store of provisions, in order to prevent them falling into the hands of the enemy. This was accordingly done on the 3d September, and amongst the property consumed were the immense pressoirs of the Abbey of St. Martin. In this conflagration the church of Epernay was no doubt also destroyed, as the handsome Renaissance doorway--the sole ancient portion of the existing edifice--was evidently erected in the latter half of the sixteenth century. The misfortunes of the town did not cease with this calamity, for a great pestilence seems to have marked the return of the inhabitants to their ruined dwellings at the epoch of the following vintage.[434] Five years later, six arpents of the 'terre de siege'