To Saint-Ouen, Ansbert succeeded in 683; at this time doubtless the mechanical arts were not very far advanced in Rouen, since the new bishop, wishing to erect a rich mausoleum to his predecessor, sent for workmen from different provinces. According to the monk Aigrad, a great famine took place in Rouen and its neighbourhood, during the episcopate of Ansbert, who caused the treasures of the church to be given, for the relief of the poor. Here, the history of Rouen is lost in obscurity; our materials are reduced, we may almost say, to the mere list of bishops, until the time when the north-men shewed themselves in this country. From the year 841, when they appeared for the first time at the mouth of the Seine, until the year 912, the period of the treaty of Saint-Claire-sur-Epte, Rouen, and its environs presented nothing but a scene of carnage, fire, and, slaughter. Strangers devouring the country; the villages deserted; the population massacred; the towns half destroyed, every where discord, hatred, avarice, and rapacity; all excesses united: such is the picture of the country at that period. At last Rollo, is created duke of Normandy; the proud Norwegian, becomes the benefactor of the country, to which he had so long proved a scourge. The population reappears; an active police is established, robberies are put a stop to; no more plunderers exist on the highways, or thieves in the towns. Rouen, rises from amidst its ruins, its monuments are repaired, its size increases, its political influence is becoming immense. The second boundary is due to Rollo, the first duke, and to his son Guillaume Longue-Epée. They confined the waters of the Seine in a narrower bed. Several churches, such as Saint-Martin-de-la-Roquette, Saint-Clement, Saint-Stephen and Saint-Eloi, which had till then been situated on small islands, were united to the main land, the portion which had been gained from the river, received the name of _Terres-Neuves_. The limits of the town remained the same on the north, east and west. Under the first succeeding dukes, the town extended westward, as far as the Old-Market place. The _porte Cauchoise_ was erected about the beginning of the XIth century, that is to say, under Richard II. The fourth boundary was effected under the last dukes. The town extended on the north to the height of the rue Pincedos: on the east, to the rue de la Chèvre. These two streets occupy the ground on which the ditches were situated at that time. A very short time after, Philip-Augustus, who had just taken Rouen, and all Normandy from Jean-Sans-Terre, caused the old castle to be built, which was included within the interior of the town, in the middle of the XIIIth century; the fifth boundary was made in the reign of Saint-Louis. Rouen was then enlarged by the greater portion of the ground which forms the parishes of Saint-Patrice, Saint-Nicaise, Saint-Vivien, and Saint-Maclou. The gates of Martainville, Saint-Hilaire and Bouvreuil were then built.