What curiosity, and even agony of mind, mingled with the tumults of indignation, the shouts of revenge, and the exclamations of pity!  But life now goes on just the same as if nothing of the kind had happened here.  The past is forgotten.  This hapless Joan of Arc is one of the many, who, having been tortured as heretics, have been afterwards reverenced as martyrs.  Her statue was, not very long after her execution, almost adored upon that very spot where her body had been consigned with execrations to the flames.  The square, in which this statue stands, contains probably one of the very oldest houses in Rouen—­and as interesting as it is ancient.  It is invisible from without:  but you open a wooden gate, and quickly find yourself within a small quadrangle, having three of its sides covered with basso-rilievo figures in plaster.  That side which faces you is evidently older than the left:  indeed I have no hesitation in assigning it to the end of the XVth century.  The clustered ornaments of human figures and cattle, with which the whole of the exterior is covered, reminds us precisely of those numerous little wood-cut figures, chiefly pastoral, which we see in the borders of printed missals of the same period.  The taste which prevails in them is half French and half Flemish.  Not so is the character of the plaster figures which cover the left side on entering.  These, my friend, are no less than the representation of the procession of Henry VIII. and Francis I. to the famous CHAMP DE DRAP D’OR:  of which Montfaucon[63] has published engravings.  Having carefully examined this very curious relic, of the beginning of the sixteenth century, I have no hesitation in pronouncing the copy of Montfaucon (or rather of the artist employed by him) to be most egregiously faithless.  I visited it again and again, considering it to be worth all the “huge clocks” in Rouen put together.  I hardly know how to take you from this interesting spot—­from this exhibition of beautiful old art—­especially too when I consider that Francis himself once occupied the mansion, and held a Council here, with both English and French; that his bugles once sounded from beneath the gate way, and that his goblets once sparkled upon the chestnut tables of the great hall.  I do hope and trust that the Royal Academy of Rouen, will not suffer this architectural relic to perish, without leaving behind a substantial and faithful representation of it.[64]

While upon the subject of ancient edifices, let me return; and, crossing the Rue de la Grosse Horloge, contrive to place you in the centre of the square which is formed by the PALAIS DE JUSTICE.  The inhabitants consider this building as the principal lion in their city.  It has indeed claims to notice and admiration, but will not bear the severe scrutiny of a critic in Gothic architecture.  It was partly erected by Louis XII. at the entreaty of the provincial States, through the interest of the