The Bishop’s Palace, on the south side of the cathedral, can only be seen from the Boulevard Chambaudouin, where its fortified exterior is washed by one of the canals of the Iton. It is an interesting building of the fifteenth century, and in 1603 was, for a time, the residence of Henri IV., whose famous victory at Ivry, a few miles south of Evreux, is described at the end of this chapter. At the end of the Rue Joséphine is the Church of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Taurin. The life-story of that otherwise obscure worthy of the Church is told in the windows of the choir, and one of them shows his successful attack on the devil, who had entered the temple of Diana in Evreux. The sacristan will show the casket containing relics of the saint (small gratuity) to those who ask permission. It is worth while to do so, as this silver-gilt reliquary is one of the most sumptuous examples in existence of goldsmiths’ work of the thirteenth century. The choir, the tower, and part of the nave of St. Taurin belong to the fifteenth century, and the other portions are Romanesque work of the eleventh century. Evreux suffered the most terrible buffets in the unsettled period when Normandy was the battle-ground of England and France. Henry I. burnt the town and John sold it to Philippe Auguste, regaining it treacherously after the release of Richard I. Philippe, however, having captured it, massacred a large proportion of the miserable townsfolk. It is generally believed that the Devereux family obtained their name from this Norman town. The road to Chartres goes southwards from Evreux over the hedgeless plain of St. André in a perfectly straight line. The hamlet of Thomer, with its little church with a spiky spire on the left, is passed through, and here and there another village is seen across the fields; but otherwise, for some eighteen miles the great plain stretches away to a flat horizon, with so few features that one marvels how a peasant can find his way to the particular field he was working in on the previous day. There are no hedges, no roadside cottages, and scarcely a tree to serve as a guide to any particular square of the great patchwork of green and brown! NONANCOURT On reaching this old town one goes over a level-crossing, and, turning to the left, goes through the street, getting a passing glimpse of the market-house standing on wooden posts. Henry I. chose this place to build a castle for the defence of Normandy, and in it an agreement was signed between Richard I. and Philippe Auguste, by which those two kingly warriors promised not to molest one another’s dominions while absent on the Crusades. Here also they arranged their respective shares in the Third Crusade. On leaving Nonancourt the River Avre is [Illustration: ROUEN CATHEDRAL FROM THE SOUTH. The Tour de Beurre is on the left, and the Portail de la Calende appears at the end of the street beneath the great central tower. (_Page 32._)]