[101] _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, I. p. 139.--The mention of this sculpture affords an opportunity of pointing out what appears a singular error on the part of the late M. Millin, in his _Voyage dans les Départemens du Midi de la France_. He has figured, in the atlas to that work, _plate twelve_, a bas-relief of the eleventh century, representing the assassination of Count Dalmace, by the hands of his son-in-law, Robert I. Duke of Burgundy; and, in the lower compartment, containing a banquet, he explains one of the figures (I. p. 190) to be the Earl falling from the table; whereas, a comparison with the sculpture at Rouen will scarcely leave a doubt, that it was designed for a dancing-girl, introduced for the amusement of the company. [102] _Pommeraye, Histoire de l'Eglise Cathédrale de Rouen_, p. 33. [103] _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, I. p. 144. [104] _Bibliographical, Antiquarian, and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany_, I. p. 50. [105] _Pommeraye, Histoire des Archevêques de Rouen_, p. 22. PLATE LIII. CRYPT IN THE CHURCH OF ST. GERVAIS, AT ROUEN. It has been inferred, and with much apparent probability, from the silence of Julius Cæsar, that the proud capital of Normandy had either no existence in the time of that general, or was at most only a place of small importance. There have not, however, been wanting, among the historians of Rouen, some, who, jealous, as usual, for the honor of their city, ascribe to it an antiquity beyond the deluge, and trust to the latter half of its classical name, for bearing them out in the assertion, that its foundations were laid by Magus, the son and successor of Samothes, first king of Gaul. Others, more moderate, have contented themselves with the belief, that, although Cæsar does not make mention of Rothomagus, there is still no reason to question its existence before the Christian æra, or to doubt that it was then the chief town of the Velocasses, as Lillebonne was of the neighboring tribe of the Caletes, the inhabitants of the present _Pays de Caux_. It is at least known with certainty, that, in the division of Gaul, which took place not very long afterwards, into seventeen provinces, Rouen became the metropolis of the _Lugdunensis Secunda_; and that, from that time forwards, it continued gradually to rise in consequence, till the establishment of Neustria into an independent sovereignty stamped it with the title of the capital of a nation.