“Truth will survive when merry jokes are past;
    For rising merit must buoy up at last.”

As usual, the buildings dedicated to religion are far more numerous and valuable than the relics of military architecture.  Of these, the first which salutes the stranger who enters by the great high road, is the Hotel Dieu, which is almost intact and unaltered.  The basement story contains large and deep pointed arches, ornamented with the chevron moulding, disposed in a very peculiar manner.—­From the style of the building, there is every reason to believe that it is of the beginning of the thirteenth century, at which time William, Count of Magneville, appropriated to charitable purposes the ground now occupied by this hospital, and caused his donation to be confirmed by a bull from Pope Innocent IIIrd, dated in April, 1210.

The abbeys, the glories of Caen, will require more leisure:  at present let us pass on to the parochial churches.  Of these, the most ancient foundation is St. Etienne le Vieil; and tradition relates that this church was dedicated by St. Renobert, bishop of Bayeux, in the year 350.—­But, though the present edifice may stand upon the site of an ancient one, there would be little risk in affirming, that not one stone of it was laid upon another till after the year 1400.  The building is spacious, and its tower is not devoid of beauty.  The architecture is a medley of debased gothic and corrupted Roman; but the large pointed windows, decorated by fanciful mouldings and scroll-work, have an air of richness, though the component parts are so inharmonious.

Attached to the wall of the choir of this church is still to be seen an equestrian statue[73], part of the celebrated group supposed to represent William the Conqueror making his triumphal entry into Caen.  A headless horse, mounted by a headless rider, and a figure, which has lost all shape and form, beneath the feet of the steed, are all that now remain; but De Bourgueville, who knew the group when perfect, says, that there likewise belonged to it a man and woman upon their knees, as if seeking some explanation for the death of their child, or rather, perhaps, in the act of imploring mercy.—­I have already pointed out the resemblance between these statues and the bas-relief, of which I have sent you a sketch from St. Georges.  One of the most learned antiquaries of the present time has found a prototype for the supposed figure of the Duke, among the sculptures of the Trajan column.  But this, with all due deference, is far from a decisive proof that the statue in question was not intended for William.  Similar adaptations of the antique model, “mutato nomine,” frequently occur among the works of the artists of the middle ages; and there is at least a possibility that, had the face been left us, we might have traced some attempt at a portrait of the Norman Duke.  Upon the date of the sculpture, or the style of the workmanship, I dare not venture an opinion.  There are antiquaries,