* * * * *

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 70:  The following were among the articles of the decree:—­“No individual to leave his arrondissement without a passport.—­No person to receive a stranger in his house, or suffer one to quit it, without apprising the police.—­The inhabitants to carry their arms of all kinds to the Hotel de Ville.—­No plays to be performed, except first approved by the officers of the police.—­The manager of the theatre to give notice every Friday to the mayor, of the pieces intended to be acted the following week.—­The actors to read nothing, and say nothing, which is not in the play.—­The performance to begin precisely at six, and close at ten.—­Only a certain interval to be allowed between the different pieces, or between the acts of each.—­Every person to be uncovered, except the soldiers on duty.—­No weapons of any kind, nor even sticks or umbrellas, to be taken into the theatre.”]

LETTER XXIV.

HISTORIANS OF CAEN—­TOWERS AND FORTIFICATIONS—­CHATEAU DE LA GENDARMERIE—­CASTLE—­CHURCHES OF ST. STEPHEN, ST. NICHOLAS, ST. PETER, ST. JOHN, AND ST. MICHEL DE VAUCELLES.

(Caen, August, 1818.)

France does not abound in topographical writers; but the history and antiquities of Caen have been illustrated with singular ability, by men to whom the town gave birth, and who have treated their subject with equal research and fidelity—­these are Charles de Bourgueville, commonly called the Seigneur de Bras, and the learned Huet, Bishop of Avranches.

De Bourgueville was a magistrate of Caen, where he resided during almost the whole of the sixteenth century.  The religious wars were then raging; and he relates, in a most entertaining and artless manner, the history of the events of which he was an eye-witness.  His work, as is justly observed by Huet, is a treasure, that has preserved the recollection of a great variety of the most curious details, which would otherwise have been neglected and forgotten.  Every page of it is stamped with the character of the author—­frankness, simplicity, and uprightness.  It abounds in sound morality, sage maxims, and proofs of excellent principles in religion and politics; and, if the writer occasionally carries his naivete to excess, it is to be recollected that the book was published when he was in his eighty-fifth year, a period of life when indulgence may reasonably be claimed.  He died four years subsequently, in 1593.—­In Huet’s work, the materials are selected with more skill, and are digested with more talent.  The author brought to his task a mind well stored with the learning requisite for the purpose, and employed it with judgment.  But he has confined himself, almost wholly, to the description of the town; and the consequence is, that while the bishop’s is the work most commonly referred to, the magistrate’s is that which is most generally read.  The dedication of the former to the town of Caen, does honor to the feelings of the writer:  the portrait of the latter, prefixed to his volume, and encircled with his quaint motto, "L’heur de grace use l’oubli," itself an anagram upon his name, bespeaks and insures the good will of the reader.