The last scene by which this tale of Rouen was connected with the history of France was when Captain Valdory held the town against Henri IV. And in leaving for a moment more domestic details of the city's story, I can suggest the transition no better than by telling you of another literary claim which Rouen archaeologists will not permit a visitor to forget, the authorship of the famous "Satyre Menippee," which did as much as any political pamphlet could ever do to reveal to the people the true character of the Ligue, and to restore their affection to that King Henri whom for so long they had refused within their gates. This immortal piece of sarcasm and good sense was written after the Etats de la Ligue of January 1593. De Thou said, "le premier auteur de l'ecrit est, croit-on, un pretre du pays de Normandie, homme de bien...." And the edition of 1677 gives his name as "Monsieur LeRoy, chanoine de Rouen, qui avoit este aumosnier du Cardinal de Bourbon." In the portions before each harangue, he mentions the tapestry in Rouen Cathedral, the Revolte de la Harelle, the Foire St. Romain, and other details, with an accuracy and affection which betray the citizen. He went blind in 1620, and died in penury in 1627. The troubles of the League had barely died away before the agitation of the Fronde began, and after the Fronde princes had been arrested in January 1650, the Duchesse de Longueville tried to continue the role of her husband, though his party had fairly been laughed out of Rouen. Her own attempts were thwarted by Mazarin, who brought the little Louis XIV., then only twelve years old, to Rouen for fifteen days in February 1650. The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes repaid this hospitality in somewhat untoward fashion, for it reduced the population of the town by 20,000 souls (of whom many carried their trade to England or the Low Countries), and commerce almost disappeared. "Men live," cried St. Simon, "on the grass of the field in Normandy." Yet the exhaustless vitality of the town was not easily tapped. In 1723 Voltaire found nothing to complain of, and in the Rue aux Juifs the first edition of his "Henriade" was printed by Robert Viret. In 1731 he came back, and in the Rue du Bec, or the Rue Ganterie, had many pleasant conversations with M. de Bourgtheroulde, M. de Fresquienne, and others, but he left his little sting behind him as usual, and it remains so true that I must reproduce it here, on the theme--"Vous n'avez point de mai en Normandie." "Vos climats ont produit d'assez rares merveilles C'est le pays des grands talents Des Fontenelle des Corneilles Mais ce ne fut jamais l'asile du printemps." [Illustration: HOUSE IN RUE PETIT SALUT. (RUE AMPERE 13.)]