In the middle of the choir, and just before the high altar, the body of the Conqueror was entombed with great pomp; and a monument erected to his memory of the most elaborate and costly description.  Nothing now remains but a flat black marble slab, with a short inscription, of quite a recent date.

In the present state of the abbey,[109] and even in that of Ducarel’s time, there is, and was, a great dearth of sepulchral monuments.  Indeed I know not whether you need be detained another minute within the interior; except it be, to add your share of admiration to that which has been long and justly bestowed on the huge organ[110] at the west end of the nave, which is considered to be the finest in all France.  But Normandy abounds in church decorations of this kind.  Leaving therefore this venerable pile, endeared to the British antiquary by a thousand pleasing associations of ideas, we strike off into an adjoining court yard, and observe the ruins of a pretty extensive pile of building, which is called by Ducarel the Palace of the Conqueror.  But in this supposed palace, in its present state, most assuredly William I. never resided:  for it is clearly not older than the thirteenth century:  if so ancient.  Ducarel saw a great deal more than is now to be seen; for, in fact, as I attempted to gain entrance into what appeared to be the principal room, I was stopped by an old woman, who assured me “qu’il n’y avoit rien que du chauffage.”  It was true enough:  the whole of the untenanted interior contained nothing but wood fuel.  Returning to the principal street, and making a slight digression to the right, you descend somewhat abruptly by the side of a church in ruins, called St. Etienne le Vieil.  In Ducarel’s time this church is described as entire.  On the exterior of one of the remaining buttresses is a whole length figure, about four English feet in height (as far as I could guess by the eye) of a man on horseback—­mutilated—­trampling upon another man at its feet.

It is no doubt a curious and uncommon ornament.  But, would you believe it? this figure also, in the opinion of Bourgueville,[111] was intended for William the the Conqueror—­representing his triumphant entry into Caen!  As an object of art, even in its present mutilated state, it is highly interesting; and I rejoice that Mr. Cotman is likely to preserve the little that remains from the hazard of destruction by the fidelity of his own copy of it.[112] It is quite clear that, close to the figure, you discover traces of style which are unequivocally of the time of Francis I. The interior of what remains of this consecrated edifice is converted “horresco referens” into a receptacle for ... carriages for hire.  Not far from this spot stood formerly a magnificent CROSS—­demolished during the memorable visit of the Calvinists.[113] In the way to the abbey of the Trinity, quite at the opposite or eastern extremity of the town, you necessarily pass along the Rue